My Review of Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Beauty and the Beast is yet another historically significant film for Disney, being the first animated feature film to get a Best Picture nomination (something really special, seeing as the Best Animated Feature category did not exist and all animated films could get nominated for were music), and it was essentially what cemented the Disney Renaissance, perfecting what had been established by The Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid had established the Disney formula of belligerent sexual tension, consistently great musical numbers (in the age of Menken, which still exists to this day), and memorable characters. Plus, there's just a sweetness to this movie that is near impossible to resist. Watching Beauty and the Beast for the first time in so many years also brought back a wave of nostalgia for me, as my school did this musical in my grade nine year. I would be lying if I said I didn't adore this movie, but I do have a few problems with it. However, the positives far outweigh the negatives in this timeless classic, and we'll talk about them now. Like I have said in my reviews of the other Disney movies, most everyone has heard this story one way or another so a spoiler warning would be pointless.

Beauty and the Beast starts with a stained-glass prologue about a vain and cruel young prince, who encounters an old woman who offers him a rose in exchange for shelter from the cold. He scoffs at her and she reveals herself to be a beautiful enchantress. The prince tries to apologize, now that he's aware that she's hot, but the witch instead turns him into a hideous beast and says that he will stay that way if he does not learn to love and be loved in return by his twenty-first birthday. The enchanted rose serves as a timer of sorts, as when the last petal falls, it will signify that he will be a beast forever. The witch also places a curse on all inhabitants of the castle, turning them into house objects like a candelabra or a clock. The beast lives in exile, horrified by his appearance, and has fallen into a deep depression.

This brings us to one of the best introductory musical numbers in all of Disney-dom, where we meet an intelligent young woman named Belle. We learn that she is looked upon as 'weird' by the townspeople, because even though she's good-looking, she's smart and she likes to read (seen as unusual because she's female and the town seems to abhor reading, which leads to a question I have that I will mention later). She is also being chased after by the brutish town hero Gaston, who wants to claim her for his wife. Belle lives with her father Maurice, an eccentric adventure who heads off for an inventing fair and gets lost in the woods, which is where the two stories intertwine.

We are introduced then to Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, and Chip, the main sentient houseware characters and easily the most fun in the movie. They delight at having a guest in the castle, but the Beast is not so happy about it, and he imprisons Maurice in the tower. After rejecting Gaston's proposal, Belle realizes something's up after her father's horse comes back without her father and she rides to the castle. In an encounter with the Beast, she agrees to take her father's place and stay in the castle forever. The housewares are delighted to have a guest in the castle, and when Belle comes down to get some food (priorly refusing to eat dinner with the Beast), they lavish her with a full extravagant meal (and one of the most recognizable songs of the last twenty years).

The game-changer in the relationship between Belle and the Beast happens when Belle wanders into the west wing of the castle (the one place the Beast told her not to go), and discovers the enchanted rose. The beast frightens her into running away and she promptly gets chased by wolves. The Beast chases off the wolves, and Belle finally stands up to the Beast about his temper issues. What follows is the gradual softening of the beast, and the realization that there may be "something there that wasn't there before" (to quote a song from the movie). This leads to an interesting parallel between the Beast and Gaston (we'll talk about that later though). The romantic climax of the movie is the ballroom scene (the signature scene of the movie, and one of the best staged scenes in the company's entire animated oeuvre). After the ballroom scene, Belle uses the magic mirror to see her father, and she finds out that he is sick. The beast willingly lets her go, and he sinks into a deep depression knowing that he will remain a beast forever and not have his one true love.

Meanwhile, Gaston has been formulating a plan, simply because he won't take no for an answer. He plans to get Belle's father thrown in the nuthouse for his yammering about the beast, and only offers to clear it up if Belle marries him. When Belle corroberates her father's stories, Gaston denounces her as crazy and when shown the grim image of the Beast, Gaston gathers the townspeople, who seem to hang on his every word, to lay siege to the castle and kill the Beast. The objects successfully fight off the villagers, but the Beast is far too depressed to fight Gaston. However, when he sees that Belle has come back, and she tells him to fight, the Beast gains enough strength to fight Gaston, but does not kill him. However, this gives Gaston an opportunity to stab the beast before falling to his demise.

The Beast is on the brink of death and Belle finally admits her love for him (whereas he had admitted it after she left). The Beast is resurrected by the Power of Love, and he is also turned back into his normal human self. Cue the objects turning into their human selves and Belle and the Prince living happily ever after. I enjoy the love story in this movie, and this is coming from someone who doesn't really like romance-based movies (spare for a few). Some think that this has a bad message, in that a guy may start out an asshole but it's your love that changes him, and if he doesn't change, then you're not working hard enough. I disagree, because the Beast only starts to come around when Belle stands up to him and Belle only starts coming around when the Beast calms his temper and doesn't act like an asshole to her.

The calming of the Beast leads to an interesting parallel between him and Gaston. The Beast starts out angry and violent, whereas Gaston starts out as a jerk. However, as the Beast grows nicer and more loving, Gaston grows more and more crazy, culminating in the fight between him and the Beast where he plummets to his death. This is what I think makes Gaston one of the more interesting Disney villains, the fact that he's not inherently evil, and he doesn't have supernatural powers or legions of minions. He has one minion, a beaten-down little schmoe named LeFou, but he just starts out as a jackass who is used to getting what he wants, and he goes crazy when he can't get it. Therefore, in my opinion, Gaston is one of the best Disney villains.

Moving on to the romantic leads, we have Belle and the Beast (another Disney Prince without a name). Belle is a decent enough character, and one of the better characters Disney had produced in that time. She was intelligent, but looked upon as an outcast because she loved reading and she didn't think her father was crazy. The one thing that really annoys me about her character though is her typical "I Want" Disney Princess motivation. By that, I mean Belle expresses that she wants something, but that want is annoyingly vague and never really accomplished. Her song just says that she wants "more", but the perameters of more are never defined. It's not really a big deal, the vagueness of Belle's desires just kind of bugs me.

Next, we have The Beast, easily the most nuanced character in the movie. We see three shades of him: the angry and violent side that was the result of his grotesque appearance and his priorly 'beastly' personality before that whole incident with the witch, the kinder and softer beast that is the result of Belle standing up to him, and the depressed beast that lies at the bottom of angry beast and becomes more visible when Belle leaves. All three shades are portrayed excellently and the Beast is one of the most well-rounded characters that Disney has ever produced. The last characters that I want to talk about are the Objects, easily the most fun characters. The interplay between Lumiere and Cogsworth is fantastic, and they themselves are excellent and hilarious characters on their own. Never mind that only Lumiere has a French accent, they're all just awesome characters. I have one question about Mrs Potts though. Why would she let anyone drink out of Chip. I mean, he is a teacup, but he's still her kid. But all in all, this film has some of the most memorable characters of all time, and some of my personal favourites as well.

The film also has some of the best songs that Disney has ever written, and some of the most recognizable songs of the last two decades. There's nary anyone who hasn't heard the song "Be Our Guest" and even the titular "Beauty and the Beast" (especially considering that one has been redone so many times by so many different pop artists that it's impossible not to come across in some form). Both of those songs are impeccably staged, and easily the most lavishly staged out of all the songs, but they aren't my favourites of the bunch. My favourite is the opening number, titled "Belle". I like how it is staged, I like the multi-layered approach to the song, I just love everything about it. The mob song is my second favourite of the bunch, also an excellently staged affair. Needless to say, the songs are fantastic and deserve to be listened to and remembered for years to come.

Another thing this movie has going in its favour is the lush animation. This has some of the best scenery in any Disney movie, and it shows in the lush castles, beautiful landscapes, and excellent character design. You can tell that Disney was starting to experiment with CGI with this movie, especially in the ballroom scene (with an obvious CG chandelier) but it's mostly hand-drawn, and the details of the castle are just amazing. I know I have lavished undying praise on this movie without giving it a perfect score, so I figure I should explain myself. There are several holes in the story that don't entirely detract, but are certainly noticeable. First of all, the terms of the curse affecting all living things in the castle must have applied to every flea, rat, and dust mite on the premises due to all the talking housewares. I guess this because no way would a spoiled brat like the Prince let all of those people live in his castle. Secondly, why would a town that abhors reading have a reasonably successful bookstore. Belle's patronage can't be enough, I mean, where would she get the money to pay for the books, she doesn't have a job. Those plot holes really aren't that big, but they are noticeable and detract from the movie a little.

All in all, there is one word to describe Beauty and the Beast, and that word is timeless. This is an absolutely timeless movie, and it should be shown to all future generations. Anybody who has not seen this movie should see it now and anyone who hasn't in a long while should see it again. Minor flaws aside, this is an excellent movie and deserves its place as the cementer of the Disney Renaissance and one of the best Disney films of all time. I didn't remember loving this movie as much as I do, as it had been years since I had last viewed it. Lush visuals, excellent characters (including a complex villain), a compelling romance, and an all-around sweetness that doesn't take away from the film like it could. Other than what I have said, there really isn't much more to say, so I guess we'll end the review on this awkward ending.

P.S. I'm really enjoying this Disney marathon, kind of contradicting to the horror theme that this month has. To keep the balance between old and new age Disney, I have to watch one more film in the renaissance before I can watch any more of the old ones.




9.5/10

My Review of Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Out of the three films featuring Disney Princesses that came out in the Old Age of Disney, I think Sleeping Beauty is the best one, or at least my personal choice out of the three. Compared to Snow White and Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty has a better-developed story, the romance between the prince and the princess is better developed, and the film also has arguably the most terrifying villainess in not just animation, but in all of film. The strength does not lie with the hero or heroine, but it's not as bad as in Snow White and Cinderella. Sleeping Beauty is still not the best work that Disney has to offer, but it is a great piece of animation nonetheless and it is much more timeless than its predecessors.

This is another movie based on a classic Grimm's fairytale, so chances are everyone has heard of the story of Sleeping Beauty in one way or another and we needn't talk about it as if we don't know what it's about. The film starts out with hoards of peasants flocking to the castle to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a princess. The townsfolk come bearing gifts for the Royal Family and there is joy to be had by all. Three fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather) come to visit the child as well, and bestow upon her three gifts. The gifts of beauty and song are bestowed upon her when the party is interrupted by an evil witch by the name of Maleficent, who is pissed that she didn't get invited to the party, and treats the snub like an act of war.

Instead of bestowing a gift upon the princess, she bestows a curse. The curse states that Aurora will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die on her sixteenth birthday. But the third gift still hasn't been given. Merriweather lightens the curse by having her fall into a deep sleep instead of die when she pricks her finger. As a precaution, the king has all the spinning wheels rounded up and burned. The fairies also have a plan to raise Aurora in the woods as their own without magic so Maleficent cannot track them. They would return Aurora to the kingdom once the sun set on her sixteenth birthday and they could be sure that the curse could not be fulfilled.

The sixteen years pass by and we see that Aurora has blossomed into a lovely young woman living in exile with the fairies under the name Briar Rose. Preparations for Aurora's birthday are underway, and the fairies try to bake her a cake and make her a dress without magic, to comedic failure. To get her out of the house, they send Aurora to pick berries. This is where she meets the fully grown Prince Phillip, the prince whom she is unawaredly betrothed to. Neither knows that they are arranged to be married and they hit it off right away, dancing in the woods together before Aurora runs away when he asks her name. She tells the fairies, and they tell her that she cannot see him (because they do not know that he is Phillip).

Maleficent had retreated into her headquarters in the dark mountain, and her wild boars of evil (at least that's what they look like) had been searching for Aurora for years. However, they had been searching for an infant all that time, not a girl of sixteen as Aurora had become. Frustrated, Maleficent sends out her crow to find Aurora, and the crow is ultimately successful, as Maleficent is waiting for Aurora at the castle when she is brought back to meet her parents. Despite the best efforts of the fairies, Aurora does prick her finger on the spinning wheel and she falls into a deep sleep. This event turns Phillip into a more important character as he is brought in by the fairies to perform the necessary heroics, because the deep sleep can be undone by true love's kiss. The whole of the castle has been put to sleep as well so Aurora's parents won't find out that the curse has been fulfilled, and Phillip falls into the trap of Maleficent.

Once Phillip is kidnapped, Maleficent's plan is revealed, and this is what truly cements her status as a wicked villainess. Maleficent does not plan to kill Phillip, she just plans to keep him until he's old, then let him go and rescue Aurora who has stayed young and pretty over the many years. Turning Phillip into a dirty old man, if that's not evil then I clearly do not know what is. The fairies do free Phillip and he performs the necessary heroics priorly mentioned, including battling Maleficent, who has transformed herself into a vicious fire-breathing dragon in one of the most epic scenes ever put to animation. He does get to the castle and performs the necessary kissing, and he and Aurora live happily ever after.

Aurora's characterization is not nearly as weak as Snow White, but that doesn't mean that she is a fully realized character. She's basically only in the movie to stand there and look pretty without anything to do. But she and Phillip (we'll get to him later) are basically chess pieces for the fairies and Maleficent to move around to their liking. The fathers of Aurora and Phillip serve as comic relief of sorts, and they are effective and amusing in their roles, but that's all that can really be said about them. The fairies are interesting side characters, and they are the more active protagonists. They have more bearing on the plot then the prince or the princess, and it's their idea to hide Aurora from Maleficent in the woods. One of the things I like about the fairies is their interplay with one another, especially Flora and Merriweather bickering about whether the dress should be pink or blue. These are some of the most fun characters Disney has created, and certainly the chessmasters of the whole affair.

Moving on to the hero, Prince Phillip was a boon for Disney Princes. He may look exactly the same as the other two princes before him, but he is progressive in the simple fact that he has a name. The romance between him and Aurora is built up better as well, and them falling in love the moment they meet is partially averted in the fact that they were arranged to be married, so they would end up together whether or not they liked eachother. Phillip is also more active in the story than the other two princes. The one in Snow White shows up at the beginning and the end to perform whatever romantics necessary, and the prince in Cinderella is so uninvolved that he doesn't even go to find the person who fit the shoe. Phillip, on the other hand, is much more of a hero than the heroine, and we genuinely want to see him win. He's also a decent singer, but I only like Bill Shirley's singing voice when it's coming out of Jeremy Brett's mouth (in My Fair Lady).

Now that we're done talking about the good characters, let us get to the villainess, easily the most remembered thing about the movie. Maleficent is a truly excellent villain, and probably the most terrifying villainess of all time. She is a combination of the two most popular types of villains nowadays, being cold and calculating but also packing one hell of a whallop, especially when she transforms into a dragon in the climax. She treats a harmless snub like an act of war, and carries it out just as such. I mentioned her plans with Phillip, and those are truly evil, but brutally murdering an innocent teenaged girl just for being snubbed an invite to a baby shower is also incredibly evil. Her character design is impeccable, with the black/purple/green colour scheme and her long flowing robes. Some may say that she is the best of all the Disney villains. I disagree with that statement, although I will be so bold as to say that she is the greatest villainess ever put to celluloid (no matter animation or live-action).

The artwork is also fantastic. In fact, the artwork in this is some of the best that Disney has ever created in any of their movies, especially their old ones. I loved the surrealistic touches and the animated set pieces in this one, as well as the character design. The consistent dream-like atmosphere works in the film's favour, and the colour scheme is splendid and decadent. The orchestration is also fabulous, but much like Snow White, the songs in Sleeping Beauty are very bland and forgettable. The songs got better in the Renaissance, it seems the music people at Disney were more focused on orchestration than songwriting. The main song "Once Upon A Dream" is forgettable and the rest are so few that they don't leave an impression at all.

All in all, Sleeping Beauty is a classic, and it has aged much better than its princessy predecessors. There are other older Disney movies that are better (like 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan) but this goes down as a worthy entry into the Disney Animated canon. The film has fine animation, great orchestration, fun side characters, and an unforgettable villainess. I would recommend this movie to anyone who hasn't seen it. I've been watching too many girly movies though, so I need a less feminine Disney movie to continue my marathon. I think I'll go to my favourite hand-drawn animated movie of all time, which you will find out sometime soon. Out of all the Old World Disney movies, Sleeping Beauty is my third favourite, next to Peter Pan and 101 Dalmatians. The whole of the film is on youtube, so I would encourage anyone who hasn't seen it (whether not at all or in a while) to give it another look.

9.4/10

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937)



When reviewing a film like Snow White, one can't help but factor in historical significance, because on all counts, this is an important movie. I disagree with the AFI in calling it the best animated movie of all time, because it is certainly not. I don't think one can call it the best because it is the first. They haven't worked the kinks out yet, and while it is a fantastic movie, it is flawed, and I shall point out those flaws in this review. Still, I like this movie much more than I like Cinderella, and it is perhaps the pinnacle of old-world Disney. It doesn't hold the status of timeless classic like other Disney works because it hasn't exactly aged well, but when put in historical context, Snow White has many things in its favour. It has excellent artwork, fun side characters, a memorable villain, and excellent orchestration.

Most everyone has heard this story in some way or another, so we needn't talk about the movie as if we don't know what it is. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is a Disney-fied version of the classic Grimm's fairy tale. The titular character is a beautiful young princess who is envied by her stepmother, the Evil Queen, for her beauty. The Queen is told by her magic mirror that Snow White has usurped her as the fairest in the land and as revenge, the Queen sends her huntsman out into the woods to kill Snow White and bring back her heart in a box that she had custom-made for the occasion. The huntsman cannot do it, so he tells Snow White to run off into the woods and never come back and he fools the Queen with the heart of a pig.

Snow White herself is a kind, caring, but extremely simple girl, and she means no harm by being prettier than the Queen, so her being marked for death because of her beauty alone makes the Queen all the more villainous. She hides in the woods like the huntsman says and with the help of her animal friends, she comes across the house of seven little "children" who appear to have no mother because their house is a mess. Snow White breaks and enters into the house and decides to clean it up. We then see who the house belongs to: seven mining dwarves who all have names that describe their personalities (all except Doc). There's Bashful, Sleepy, Grumpy, Dopey, Sneezy, Happy, and Doc, and they are easily the most entertaining characters in the film.

The Dwarves find Snow White and they allow her to stay because she offers to cook and clean for them, essentially what a mother would do in that time. But meanwhile, the Queen has figured out the huntsman's ruse and she decides that if you want to get the job done, you have to do it yourself. She formulates a potion to turn herself into an old peddler and creates a poisoned apple with which she will kill Snow White. The effects of the poisoned apple can be reversed with true love's kiss, so the Queen plans to bury Snow White deep in the ground so that will never happen. Her plan is put into action when the dwarves go to work, and being the idiot that she is (and someone that clearly was not taught stranger danger), Snow White lets the Queen into the house and is coerced into taking a bite of the poisoned apple and thus, appears dead.

Snow White is kept in a glass coffin that the dwarves fashioned for her, and eventually, her prince does come and they ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after. Perhaps I should explain. There is a prince in this movie (who doesn't have a name, so I will henceforth call him Joe). Joe appears at the beginning of this movie, and he makes his way into the castle to see the fair maiden with the "lovely" singing voice (which I will talk about later). He is in the movie so little that you could basically do the movie without him, and he has no personality, so he is basically indistinguishable from the princes in Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty (although the latter had a bit more personality than the former). He's a decent looker and a decent singer, but that seems to be the only thing that matters. Joe just shows up at the beginning and the end to perform his princely duties, and he leaves so little of an impression that he could be written out of the movie entirely.

There is another flaw in character with this movie, and that is the titular character, Snow White. When put in historical context, her characterization makes perfect sense, as this was how women acted back in the 1930's. However, her characterization is the main reason why this film didn't age well. Snow White is a blithering idiot and if not for the prince swooping in to rescue, her idiocy would have gotten her killed. Any sensible person would call foul if a creepy old lady offered them an abnormally large, abnormally red apple, but Snow White lets her in, possibly because she sees the old woman as helpless. She is also supposed to be lovely and a great singer, but she is really only average-looking and I find her voice (both speaking and singing) shrill and unpleasant.

The dwarves are the most entertaining characters in the movie by far, and they make for some fun slapstick (not unlike the mice in Cinderella). My favourite dwarves are Dopey and Grumpy, but the rest are fun as well. They seem to fold like houses of cards when Snow White enters their lives, and only Grumpy seems to resist, but he cracks eventually. What I don't understand is why Doc is named Doc as opposed to Stuttery, because stuttering is his defining personality trait. They also sing the only memorable song from the movie, and one of my favourite Disney songs ever. But we aren't talking about the songs yet, we're still talking about the characters. The other memorable character this movie produces is the Evil Queen. She may not have a name, but she is one of the most memorable villains that Disney has produced, as well as one of the most vain characters ever put on film. Her simple motivation is to kill a young girl because she's prettier and she will stop at nothing to do it, including making herself temporarily ugly. There are better villains in the canon now, but she is fantastic nonetheless as the first one (the one that started it all if you will).

The other thing that this movie has going for it is its excellent artwork. For the 1930's, and the first animated film ever made, this film features some excellently lavish animation and great colourization. The design of the human and animal characters is excellent as well, and the film on a whole is splendid and lavish. There really isn't too much more to say about that without repeating myself though, so we'll move on. The songs in this movie, apart from Hi Ho!, are very bland and forgettable. There's the bland love song, the bland "I Want" song, and a few other forgettable tunes. But I don't place too much of the blame on the filmmakers, because this was their first movie and they were working out the kinks. Needless to say, the songs got better, as did the animation, but for the first animated movie ever made, they were both decent.

It isn't the strongest work in the Disney animated canon, and it hasn't aged particularly well, but Snow White is an animated classic, and possibly the most historically important (alongside The Little Mermaid which kicked off the Disney Renaissance). The animation is excellent, and despite a weak heroine and bland hero, it has entertaining side characters and a menacing villain. It has flaws, but the film has a sort of inherent likability that is near-impossible to resist. Even naysayers of this movie have to acknowledge that without this movie, there wouldn't be the string of Disney classics that we know today. The AFI was foolish in naming this the greatest animated film of all time, because the first of a new medium like animation has not had the kinks worked out of it yet. There are a ton of better animated movies that came out after this one that deserve the top spot, but Snow White definitely deserves to be on the list, just not at the top. I would recommend that those who haven't seen it do so immediately, as the whole of the film is available on youtube (since it's so old it's practically in the public domain). This review marks my return to Disney, so expect more reviews of their movies soon.


7.6/10

Peter Pan (1953) Review

Peter Pan (1953)



There are two sections of the Disney Classic Collection. The first section is the really old ones, that pretty much ended with 101 Dalmatians in the 1960's, and the new classics, AKA the Disney Renaissance, from The Little Mermaid to Tarzan, and this includes the dawn of Pixar. There have been some good ones in between the two Classic phases, but out of all the films Disney has done, Peter Pan often tends to get lost in the shuffle. Not that it's completely ignored, it produced some memorable characters and it was able to introduce children to the classic J.M. Barrie story, but compared to 2nd age Disney movies like The Lion King and 1st age movies like Snow White, Peter Pan is somewhere in the middle. If you have seen at least one adaptation of this story (and believe me, there's tons of them), then there may be some spoilers, but I'm not too worried.

The tale of Peter Pan is as old as the ages, so we don't need to talk about this movie as if we don't know what it is. However, for those who haven't seen this in a while or haven't heard of this story (which I highly doubt) we will have a basic recap of the plot. Peter Pan is about three English children who are visited by a boy named..well..Peter Pan, who is looking for his shadow. It is revealed that Peter stops by the nursery window often to hear Wendy tell stories about him to her brothers (John and Michael). Wendy wakes up and she sees Peter looking for his shadow, and her, for lack of a better word, advances on Peter send Tinkerbell into a fit of jealousy.

John and Michael wake up and Peter takes Wendy and the boys to Never Never Land. What is Never Never Land, you say? It's a magical island where you never grow up. It has mermaids, Natives, the Lost Boys, and of course, a band of pirates, lead by the villainous Captain Hook. Captain Hook is one of the rare examples of a villain that is visibly terrified of the hero, as Peter Pan cut off Hook's hand and fed it to a hungry crocodile, which is now jonesing for the rest of him. Hook's motivation is plain and simple: he wants to get Peter and punish him for what he did. Too bad Hook's too clumsy and too terrified of the crocodile that's now stalking him to do this properly.

The Natives are upset because Tiger Lily, the chief's daughter has been kidnapped by Hook. Peter goes to rescue Tiger Lily and is made co-chief of the tribe. Hook and the Pirates also kidnap Tinkerbell, who had been banished by Peter for trying to kill Wendy, and they force her to show them where Peter and the Lost Boys have been hiding out. This leads to the final fight between Peter and Hook, which ends with a hungry crocodile getting what he wants. The story is a timeless classic of course, and even though the original J.M. Barrie tale gets diluted and disney-fied, it is still very well-told. I'm sure everybody has heard of this story in some way or another, and if you haven't, you are definitely missing out.

The dialogue is okay, but it is not the most important part of the movie. The message of the story is that Neverland is a nice place to visit, but it's good to go home and no matter how hard you try, you do have to grow up eventually. Something else that can be taken from this movie, especially out of the character of Wendy, is that Wendy is like a crazed schoolgirl who has a crush on Peter Pan, who is entirely disinterested because, never wanting to grow up, he probably thinks girls still have cooties. She gets jealous over Tiger Lily, like Tinkerbell gets jealous over her. I suppose the interactions between Wendy, Tink, and Peter could speak for what jealousy does to people. It lets you try and bump off Wendy by convincing the lost boys that she is a bird to be shot at, and it makes you lead pirates to Peter's secret hideout.

The characters are extremely memorable, Tinkerbell growing even more famous through the recently-minted Disney Fairies product line, to go alongside the Disney Princess stuff. Peter Pan is an iconic character and one of Disney's most memorable, and so is Tinkerbell for that matter. Wendy, John, and Michael are pretty one-note, Peter, Tink, and Hook being the most fun characters in this movie. Wendy is even a bit of a killjoy, but I'm guessing that's the point of her character, she's the mature one, but she's probably the least fun. If I were to guess what these kids would do in their later lives, I would guess that Wendy would marry and pop out a few kids (since she was already so motherly with the lost boys), John would become a high ranking officer in the army (judging in how he lead the lost boys in the tracking of the Natives) and Michael....well, I just don't know about Michael.

The villain, Captain Hook, is one of the few funny Disney villains, and he is definitely one of the funniest villains, just in the awesome slapstick he gets to do with the crocodile. This movie has a lot of awesome slapstick, and that almost makes up for the extremely forgettable songs (which are the only thing preventing me from giving this film a perfect score). Like I said earlier in the review, Captain Hook is one of the rare villains that is visibly terrified of the hero and his motivations would be quite menacing if he weren't such a coward. Smee is a funny sidekick, and the rest of the pirates are quite amusing. The only other characters I have issues with are the Natives, who are more than a little bit racist.

Like most Disney movies, this film has songs. However, the songs in the stage show are much better, and the songs in this movie are not nearly as good. The song during the flying scene is okay, but the rest of the songs are extremely forgettable and one is even downright racist (What Makes the Red Man Red). Not to mention, they are incredibly few and far between. Maybe that's why Peter Pan gets lost in the shuffle so often, because its songs aren't quite as memorable as the songs in, say, The Lion King or Aladdin. That was pretty much the only major problem I had with this movie and the only thing preventing me from calling this a perfect movie.

Re-watching Toy Story put me in a nostalgic mood and it made me want to watch Disney classics, and Peter Pan was definitely a good way to continue that, being a classic from my childhood. Nostalgic value played a huge part in this review, because I remember loving this movie as a child. All in all, Peter Pan is another Disney classic which is occasionally overlooked. It tells a classic story extremely well, the quality of the animation is fantastic, the voice acting is pretty good, the characters are memorable, the villain is fun, the only thing bad about it was the songs. If you haven't seen this movie then you are missing out on an animation classic, so see it soon



The Lion King Review

The Lion King (1994)



Regrettably, I did not see this in 3D. However, I understand that this is going for another week, so I might still have a chance. Regarding the 3D rerelease (and the rumoured 3D rerelease of Beauty and the Beast), I am entirely cool with it, and I would love to see sort of a Disney Classics rerelease collection in whatever dimension, especially a rerelease of Aladdin. Whatever dimension or whatever size screen I watch it on doesn't matter though, because The Lion King is a perfect movie and an animated classic. There is not a single thing wrong with it in my opinion, and even though it is not my personal favourite of the Disney Renaissance (my personal favourite being the film that came out two years prior to this one, which I hope to re-review soon), I think it represents the Disney Animation Studios at their highest point of glory.

Before I get into the meat of the story, I would like to talk about the introduction. The introduction to this movie is one of the best introductions in any movie, not just in the world of animation. In the first five minutes, there is not a word of dialogue, but it is emotionally powerful and visually sweeping. The moment where the baboon holds up newborn Simba and all the animals bow to him is one of the most iconic images in all of Disney lore, as well as one of the most iconic images of all time. If you haven't seen the movie, shame on you. But seriously, if you haven't seen the movie, there might be some spoilers, but I'm sure most of you have, so moving on.

The baby being revealed is Simba, the son of Mufasa, and Simba is essentially being handed the kingdom (after Mufasa's death of course, but handed the kingdom nonetheless). The first part of the film shows Simba as a cub, and he is introduced as a cocky arrogant little boy, who thinks being brave involves searching for trouble. He deliberately disobeys his father, going into the elephant graveyard where he meets the hyenas (who will come into play later) at the behest of the film's villain, Simba's uncle Scar. Mufasa steps in just in time, which gives Scar a brilliant idea to gain the power he so desires, any slight possibility being taken from him when Simba was born.

You see, even though Mufasa says that everything the light touches is their kingdom, and that Simba will have the kingdom one day, there is always a saboteur. The saboteur in this case is Scar, who covets the kingdom and figures the only way that he can be king is if he kills Simba and Mufasa. This brings me to one of the things that The Lion King has done differently than the other Disney Renaissance pictures is that it actually had the balls to kill off a main character and have him stay dead. Even if you haven't seen The Lion King, you probably know about the big death at the hands of a storm of wildebeests. I knew when it was coming, but I didn't remember how I reacted to it, because I haven't seen this film since I was a kid. I didn't shed a single tear, but I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and when it actually happened, it was an emotionally wrenching moment.

Another thing that this film did differently from its predecessors was that it had the villain be successful (albeit temporarily). Scar killed Mufasa and he successfully convinced Simba to exile himself by placing the guilt on his young nephew. He also gets to inherit the throne, but we'll talk about Scar's character later, let's get back to the story. Simba exiles himself and he encounters everyone's favourite prairie dog/warthog duo. That's right, I'm talking about Timon and Pumba, two of the most awesome comic relief characters that Disney has ever created. Over the course of the song "Hakuna Matata", we see Simba age from a small cub to a fully grown lion, and a dead ringer for his daddy.

Nala stops by and so leads to the romantic climax of the film. It would appear I have forgotten to mention the romantic interest prior to now, so I will elaborate a bit further. Nala and Simba are childhood friends who are betrothed to marry. They meet in their adult years and this leads to the aforementioned romantic climax. There is not a word of dialogue spoken, aside from "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" being sang in the background. A tiff between lovers regarding why Simba will not return to Pride Rock results in yet another extremely powerful moment between Simba and the spirit of his father, as well as the baboon that held him up at the beginning.

The film's climax shows the desolate wasteland that Pride Rock has become under Scar's rule, which was previously only contained to the elephant graveyard. He has given the hyenas rule of the land, resulting in famine and thirst amongst the people. However, Scar is entirely oblivious to this. Simba finally goes to confront his uncle and confront his past, letting go of the guilt that has plagued him about his father's murder when Scar casually confesses to the whole act. Scar is dethroned and Simba takes his own rightful place on the throne, the film ending with the reveal of Simba's own cub. This brings us to the thematic importance of the song "Circle of Life". The film starts and ends with the reveal of a child, and it ends with Simba becoming king, and the similar design between adult Simba and Mufasa makes the song all the more relevant.

The character of Scar is one of the most sinister villains in all of Disney-dom, and he is voiced brilliantly by Jeremy Irons in full slime-mode. What is interesting about Scar is that he is incredibly menacing when he is exercising his plan to obtain power, yet he is so stunningly inept once he gets it. This is one of my favourite Disney villains, if not my favourite. I could not picture any other actor voicing Scar but Jeremy Irons. He never really scared me as a child, nor did the hyenas, but I can see how they could scare the shit out of some kids. The hyenas make perfect stooges for Scar, and one of my favourite parts of the film was during the song "Be Prepared" when the hyenas are marching like the Third Reich. Needless to say, a great villain voiced to perfection by a great actor.

The story, so I've been told, is basically Hamlet with talking animals. I have not read Hamlet, and I don't really know the story, so I can't say that it was Hamlet, but it is definitely a great story. It is creative, it's funny, and at times, it is emotionally wrenching. In fact, few animated films get as emotionally wrenching as The Lion King. There is comedy, mostly with the hyenas and the Timon/Pumba duo. Out of the two comic relief groups, I enjoyed the latter more, mostly because of the excellent voicework and writing of Nathan Lane as Timon. The dialogue is interesting and well-written, and it gets done what it needs to get done, although the songs are much better than the dialogue for reasons that I shall explain later.

The characters are interesting and memorable. I've already talked about the villain and the comic relief, so let's talk about the hero. Simba is the plucky hero, and he is a very interesting character and an all-around good protagonist. We want to see him defeat Scar and assume his rightful place as king of the Pridelands. We also see what guilt he felt due to the fact that Scar made him think that his father, whom he idolised, died by Simba's carelessness. He's voiced decently by Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Matthew Broderick. Nothing great, but nothing terrible in terms of voice performances. Nala is a decent character as well, a strong female character that's not just the love interest. She was decently voiced as well.

Let's get on to the last character I want to discuss, and that character is Mufasa. Mufasa has the second best voice actor of the whole movie, as he is voiced by James Earl Jones (who apparently likes playing iconic fathers). He is firsted only by Jeremy Irons in my opinion, but he is still extremely awesome. Mufasa is a great character and an excellent father figure. He's absolutely badass but caring towards his young son, and it was Scar tricking him into thinking that Simba was in danger that was his eventual downfall. I respect what they did with Mufasa and I think Simba's conversation with his spirit is one of the most powerful moments ever put onto film.

Moving on, this time to the visuals. I think this is better than Mulan, but I tend to lump them in the same category, because they are Disney's two best movies of the Disney Renaissance in terms of sweeping visuals. The Lion King has the best animation out of all the Renaissance films in my opinion, and that's saying a lot, because the animation quality of Disney films in the Renaissance was fantastic. The hand-drawn landscapes of Africa are absolutely gorgeous, and the animation of the animals are absolutely brilliant. The magnificent quality of the animation allows for a lot of the priorly mentioned powerful moments I had mentioned. The herd of wildebeests is charging across the desert, the burning of Pride Rock, and the contrast between the warm colour scheme of the Pridelands and the desolate wasteland that the Pridelands become are all animated gorgeously, as is the rest of the film.

The movie also contains some of the most memorable songs of the last twenty years, and I have one simple explanation as to why. Four words (or five, if you could hyphenated words as two): co-written by Elton John. Elton John was at the height of his popularity in the 1990's, and he cowrote such famous songs like "Circle of Life", "Hakuna Matata", and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" with Tim Rice. My personal favourite of the songs is "Be Prepared", which is Scar's villain song and one of my favourite Disney villain songs next to Hellfire from Hunchback of Notre Dame. Can You Feel the Love Tonight won the Oscar for Best Original song. Hanz Zimmer's score is absolutely excellent, and it suited the majestic nature of the film perfectly. Needless to say, this has one of the greatest musical scores of all time and some of the best songs of the Classic Disney Canon.

Cynics may say that the rerelease of The Lion King is Disney exploiting nostalgia to make money, but they could promptly be shut up by the simple fact that it's The Lion King. I would have loved to see this in theatres as it came out before I was born, but seeing it again after all of these years was excellent, no matter the size of the screen or the number of dimensions. If you haven't seen this movie, you have truly missed out on something great and I encourage you to see this as soon as possible. Although this is not my favourite Disney, this film represents the animation company at its prime of excellence and it remains their most successful film to date. This is a perfect movie, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, and everybody should see it. Male, female, young, old, it doesn't matter. I think I'll explore Disney a bit longer, this film has made me want to. If there's a 3D rerelease of any other Disney Renaissance classics, I will be glad to see them in theatres, 3D gimmick aside.



Cars 2- Review

Cars 2 (2011)

I happened to come across this film while in a hotel, so we shall be taking a brief foray into Pixar before we return to classic Disney. After watching Cars 2 and seeing the critical response for it, I have only one question: what did critics hate so much about this? If I were to pick a theory, I would say that since Pixar has set the standard so high upon itself, any mild low comes as a crushing one and the movie is hated for it. One could compare it to a merciless verbal lashing of an A+ student for bringing home a B on a test. Another possible reason is that when mining for material from their previous works to make sequels out of, Cars wasn't exactly an obvious choice, or a first choice for the audiences of Pixar. Many people (myself included) would love to see a sequel to The Incredibles instead. My final theory is that if this film was made by a different animation company, or made in live action as the long-awaited third Bond movie with Daniel Craig, it would be better received. But enough with my theories, on with the review.

POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING

Unlike the first film's fish-out-of-water premise, Cars 2 takes place on a much grander scale, when Lightning McQueen is invited to compete in the World Grand Prix, which would consist of three races in Tokyo, Italy, and England. McQueen accepts and takes his best friend Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) along for the ride. Prior to seeing Mater and McQueen, the audience sees a spy car named Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) listen in on a nefarious plot that is slowly revealed throughout the course of the movie. When Mater and McQueen are at a party in Tokyo, Mater embarrasses himself and there is the misunderstanding between friends that leads them to separate temporarily.

During a chance encounter in the bathroom, Mater ends up with the tracking device of an American spy (Bruce Campbell) who is captured by the film's villains, a German car (Thomas Kretschmann) and two mooks, a Gremlin (Joe Mantegna) and a Pacer (Peter Jacobson). This leads Mater to be mistaken for an American spy and tracked down by McMissile and another spy named Holly Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer), who Mater mistakes for a car asking him out on a date. Mater is targeted by the villains and we learn about their nefarious plot.

Before I reveal that plot I may have to do some explaining. You see, Miles Axlerod (Eddie Izzard), the creator of the Grand Prix and a reformed oil tycoon has created an alternative fuel called Alinoll and it is the required fuel for all racers in the Prix. The villains have created a camera that is an electromagnetic pulse creator, and when mixed with the fuel, the electromagnetic pulse causes cars to explode. The resulting mayhem would discredit Axlerod and make alternative fuel look bad, increasing the car world's dependency on common gasoline. The mooks are cars commonly known as "lemons", like Gremlins and Pacers, and it's up to Mater, Holly, and McMissile to stop them before McQueen's last race in England, where they intend to use the camera to kill him.

This is Pixar's first spin at a spy movie, and I priorly said that this easily could have been adapted into the next Bond movie and it would have probably gotten good reviews. I must say that they did the Bond thing better in The Incredibles, but this movie has a decent storyline. I don't know how this could have been considered "rusty" because it is surprisingly smart for a movie about sentient cars (as well as boats and planes in this one). The premise for the first one was rather basic, but this one is more complex, and on a grander scale than its predecessor (obviously taking place in several countries). The dialogue was okay, but some of the jokes were kind of kiddish, this film probably being the one that adult Pixar fans without children would be least likely to go to. There are also some parodies of modern human things in the car world and I liked that, like the separate bathrooms and everything in Tokyo being anime-fied. I also liked the fact that they had sentient boats and planes as well as the cars.

There are two real things that this film has going for it. The first thing is the quality of the animation. The visuals of this movie are fantastic. One of the strengths of the first Cars was the amazing scenery, and this is doubled in Cars 2, showing gorgeous animated scenery of three different countries. My favourite scenery was in the ultramodern Tokyo, but the animation of England and Italy (as well as small parts of France) was gorgeous as well. The France animation wasn't Ratatouille good, but it was still great. Obviously, I saw this in my hotel room, so there was no 3D, but I can actually imagine this kind of working, although there were a few gimmicky moments obviously created for the 3D presentation. Needless to say, this film has great animation, and it's definitely up to the Pixar quality.

The other strength the film has going for it is its all-star voice cast, easily the most star-studded Pixar has gotten (I mean, this is almost Dreamworks star-studded). Owen Wilson and Larry the Cable Guy reprise their roles from the first one, but the latter is featured much more often. I didn't mind it, but this is what ruined the movie for some. I am generally annoyed by his type of aggressively lowbrow humour but anything that can make his voice tolerable (not exactly pleasant, but tolerable) is a plus in my book. Plus, Mater isn't a bad character, he's decently good-natured (albeit slightly annoying) and we genuinely want to see him win. Wilson, on the other hand, is featured much less and is pretty much only there for the racing scenes and the climax. Both are decent in their roles, nothing great but nothing terrible.

The rest of the voice cast is fantastic, especially Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer as the main spy cars. There is an awesomely badass cameo from Bruce Campbell as an American spy car, but there was no doubt of the Bruce Campbell cameo being awesome. Why? Because what the formidably-chinned man does best is being awesome. Thomas Kretschmann did a good job as the German car, and Eddie Izzard was great as Miles Axlerod as well. I could list the rest of the voice actors but it would take too long and they all were pretty good for what they were supposed to do. The film did right in taking full advantage of its awesome voice cast and the only slight weak link is Larry the Cable Guy, but were you really expecting top-notch from him?

I really don't see what was so bad about Cars 2, but I do understand the reasons for why people would dislike it, in reference to my theories at the beginning of this review. However, for those with an open mind, Cars 2 is a wholely enjoyable watching experience. It has gorgeous scenery, a solid story, a great voice cast, and it was a generally fun movie. There are some things I like more in this film than the first one, and some things I like better in the first one. However, for being in the same series, they are two entirely different films in terms of style and tone, and honestly shouldn't be compared because they have a few common characters. I don't know if the film was successful enough to warrant a Cars 3, but I could see one happening. Could it work? Only time will tell.....