Watching all the Disney films from the very beginning

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

So pleased you liked Dinosaur 😀. It was released the week our daughter was born and we took our older boys to watch it. They were not impressed as they were 10 and 12 so felt ‘too mature’ for such things 😥 . Luckily by the time the video was released our DD was a toddler, and she loved it 😂 She still enjoys it now, and we chatted about how wonderful it was after we rode Dinosaur at AK twice this holiday as she enjoys the ride as much as the film 😀.

I love how Disney films remind of times in the parks, and when we are in the parks it reminds us how much we love the films.

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And reminds us of brilliant times in our lives too! I think I must have been similar age to your boys when the movie came out, which is maybe why I didn't have such good memories of it either. Definitely one I'll watch again though

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Day 52: The Emperor's New Groove (2000)



Our fourth movie of 2000! Disney were busy this year

This one split us! While Bex and I can sometimes disagree about individual bits of the films, we usually agree overall, so this is highly unusual. Basically I really enjoyed it and was giggling throughout, but Bex felt it had no heart and was put off by Kuzco being such a pig.

Now it’s certainly true that the plot to this film is paper-thin - there is really nothing to it. Basically man is selfish; gets turned into llama; continues to be selfish; is a bit more selfish; is selfish and then finally becomes basically OK human being. It’s very simple, but that’s OK. It’s purely a comedy, meant to make you laugh but not really to deliver any kind of message (apart from maybe ‘don’t be a d-bag’ - thanks, Disney, I’ll take that one to heart ). It’s joke after joke after joke and there’s pretty much something for everybody. If you didn’t really laugh at the first joke, don’t worry there’ll be another one along in about 30 seconds. Some of the jokes in fact are delivered completely without context (e.g. the trampoline that catches Yzma the cat) but for me that just added to their brilliance. I was constantly being surprised and delighted. This is probably the film I’ve laughed out loud at the most of all the ones we’ve watched so far.

My favourite bit was the bit in the diner with Kronk taking orders and all the farcical opening and closing of doors by Yzma and Cuzco. This is not the type of comedy you usually see in a Disney and I thought it was fantastic. Also Kronk’s angel and devil are hilarious. Admittedly not the most original comedic idea, but it really worked so what the heck!

Basically, Yzma and Kronk would make this film by themselves. They are unbelievably funny and have loads of quotable lines. This is a mixed blessing as I shall have to go and buy some Yzma t-shirts now I’ve rediscovered this movie. Are you happy, Disney? You get more of my money!

Pacha and his family are also delightful and hilarious. Pacha is the heart of the film and probably would come off as pathetic if played by anybody other than John Goodman. But luckily he just seems sweet and dryly funny. The weak point is probably Kuzco (though even he has some good moments) because he is just so awful, almost until the very end. This is one of the main reasons Bex doesn’t warm to the movie that much. I kind of agree that, since it’s Kuzco’s story, we should be able to root for him a bit more, but as I said earlier it doesn't really matter (to me).

The animation is almost unnecessarily good. For a paper-thin comedy it’s a surprise to see such high-quality animation with such a cool and stylish look. I love the contrasting colours, especially the choice of shocking pink and purple for Yzma; an unusual choice for a villain but somehow perfect. It’s interesting though that they decided to set the movie in South America and really lean into that when it came to the visuals, but then not address it even a little bit in the story. The story could have happened anywhere - just swap out a llama for a similarly amusing local animal. This is very unlike the approach they took in some of the movies leading up to this, e.g. Pocahontas, Mulan and Hercules, and is probably a symptom of the fact that they were trying to make an entirely different film at first and had to do a 180 in the middle of making it.

The music is nothing special. The bits that Tom Jones sings he of course sings brilliantly , and they are mildly amusing, but the rest of the music is highly forgettable.

I really love a movie that can make me laugh out loud and so I naturally loved this movie. Bex tends to need a bit more heart and soul, so she found she couldn’t really warm to it. We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one - but I’d be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on it!

[Gill H]

I so wish Yzma had her song. You don’t get Eartha Kitt and not have her sing! But the plot changed too much for that.

Disney are currently selling character-themed face masks - they really should do an Yzma one.

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Originally Posted by Gill H

I so wish Yzma had her song. You don’t get Eartha Kitt and not have her sing! But the plot changed too much for that.

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You're right, that is kind of a travesty! She gives an amazing performance anyway though.

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Day 53: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)



So this one was...weird

Watching it was a first for both of us and it is another one (perhaps even more so than Dinosaur) which tends to get forgotten! For those that haven’t seen the film, it’s unsurprisingly about the search for Atlantis, but there is some pretty weird stuff that goes alongside this.

Milo a would-be explorer/academic/linguist/archaeologist (as usual in pop culture, academics can do everything! I always tease Bex about being a rubbish academic because she doesn't know everything about everything ) joins a gang who are determined to find the lost city. Spoiler: we later find out the rest of gang are in it for monetary purposes.

There is some OK world building here. The bugs/creatures they see on the way to Atlantis, the steampunk/Jules Verne tech, and the look of the city itself are really cool. However, the real issue is that there is just too much going on. There are lots of good ideas, but also too much plot, so you are bombarded without having time to take it all in.

This starts with the opening sequence, where so much action is packed into about two minutes that we initially weren’t sure if Atlantis was being attacked by aliens or what was going on. ‘Maybe they’re going with alien invasion as the reason for Atlantis disappearing into the sea,’ we thought, ‘interesting twist.’ Later developments seemed to suggest this was not the case, though what actually did happen I am still somewhat fuzzy about.

The movie continued in this mystifying vein, never really bothering to explain anything, and finally culminating in the inexplicable appearance of some ‘iron giant’-looking chaps to protect the city at then end. This looked pretty spectacular, but again was completely unexplained! This is not to mention the whole bit where a crystal consumes the main heroine and her mum, which apparently provided the life-force of the city!? It was never clear whether the crystal was conscious or what the heck was going on. You definitely don’t need explanations for everything in movies (see my thoughts on the live action Beauty and the Beast for more on this ), but this felt like too many ideas. Children would find it difficult to follow I think. I certainly did!

Because of the complicated plot, you don't get enough time to get to know the characters, who, when the film pauses for half a second, turn out to be really worth getting to know. The gang Milo goes in search of Atlantis with are an interesting, diverse group and I wanted more time with them. Dr Joshua Sweet and Audrey Ramirez in particular are great characters. The Atlanteans, on the other hand, are less developed and only the heroine Kida gets a bit of a personality. I do like the fact that Michael J Fox is in this movie. He deserved a better film though! More Michael J Fox in Disney movies, please!

Ultimately, if you want an animation about the search for a lost city you are better sticking with The Road to Eldorado. I love that movie.

I’m glad we watched it, but won’t return in a hurry!

P.S. I’m sure we can all agree it was completely necessary for Kida to be wearing her bikini throughout the whole movie, even sections where she was climbing and hiking. Everyone knows a bikini and a sarong is by far the most practical outfit for pretty much any situation.

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Day 54: Monsters, Inc (2001)

Hello lovelies - Happy Christmas and Happy New Year and everything. We’ve definitely fallen behind a bit with the reviewing, for which I apologise. I’ve got a few to catch up with, so I will try and get them out quickly - they may not be as detailed as other ones have been, I’m afraid.

So...Monsters, Inc. What a lovely film this is. It’s a great mix of heart and humour and works for people of all ages. I remember watching it on a pirate copy at a friend’s house when I was about 14. At the time I thought I was too old for cartoons (thank goodness I got over that! ) and so was surprised by how good it was.

The music is really nice - it really embodies the spirit of the film and is equally good for the comedic and the tense bits of the film. Mike and Sully’s duet over the credits is a delight.

Mike and Sully are of course what makes this film such a success. They’re a great duo, managing to balance each other out really nicely. Mike stops Sully from being too sentimental and Sully stops Mike from coming across as an ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. It’s also great to see a male friendship portrayed so positively in a movie. They are really good friends and not afraid to call each other out; they also communicate very well, even after their fight. One of my favourite bits is Mike trying to explain how Sully hurt his feelings while Sully is being beaten up by the invisible Randall.

Boo is also very cute. It’s really a fantastic achievement for Pixar that they’ve created such a dynamic character who doesn’t really speak. Her dialogue is actually all the better for not really being dialogue and the way she doesn’t ever stay where she’s been put is adorable.

The movie is also a great example of one of the things Pixar does extremely well - creating a world that is completely new and original and then filling it with characters and tropes that you do recognise. The animators clearly had huge amounts of fun creating all those different kinds of monsters and then a city that would accommodate them all, going as wacky as they could with the designs, and then gave them names like James and Henry, with real world issues like climbing the ladder at work, and dealing with a toddler. It’s just delightful is what I’m trying to say!

I’m sure there’s lots more to say about Monsters, Inc. but I am back to work and super busy (plus I have to write two more of these), so I’m going to leave it there. Basically, this is a really great one!

Coming up...Return to Never Land.

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Day 55: Return to Never Land (2002)

Hello again, chaps. Again, this will be a quick one because I’m racing through them!

This was new one for both me and Bex. We’re not really as ‘up’ on our second-tier-Disney-sequels-that-for-some-reason-got-a-theatrical-release as we perhaps should be. Tee hee.

Return to Never Land follows the time honoured tradition of making the main character the offspring of one of the main characters from the original movie - in this case Wendy’s daughter Jane. Jane is possibly the saving grace of this film because, despite the fact that the film is indifferently written, plotted, animated and even performed, you do end up feeling for her a bit. I suspect this isn’t really because she’s a well drawn character, however, and more just because everyone in the film is really mean to her. She commits the cardinal sin of being quite a grown up and independent kid, which leads to her mum and brother, and later the lost boys and Peter Pan, all being horrible to her and trying to make her act more like a child. But it is the Blitz and her mum is terrible at parenting, so you can’t blame the kid for trying to be the adult.

The rest of the characters leave little to no impression. They are mostly just a bit annoying. Wendy is a very slapdash parent for someone who was being called ‘mother’ when she was about 12, Peter is...well...the way he was in the first movie, and the lost boys are just OK. Captain Hook is pretty good, but not as good as he was in the first film. Also, which is very strange, they filmed all of Wendy's dialogue with the wonderful Kathryn Beaumont and then decided to scrap it and use another actor. Why oh why, Disney?

I believe there are a handful of songs in this film, but I can’t remember anything about them. I think they might be ‘modern’ songs, rather than ones that fit in with the time period of the film. This is fine and can often work quite nicely, but only if the songs are actually any good, which they were not.

Basically, as an adult, I would suggest giving this one a miss if you haven’t seen it, though kids would probably think it was fine. It’s not the worst Disney sequel but it’s certainly not the best either.

P.S. What are people’s thoughts on the worst Disney sequels? Mulan II? Pocahontas II?

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Day 56: Treasure Planet (2002)

And finally (for now)...

We watched this one out of order - I can’t remember why we didn’t fancy watching Lilo and Stitch at that particular moment, but I’m looking forward to watching it now. Treasure Planet was new to Bex, but I watched it years ago when I was at university. I remember it being very good and it wasn’t until later that I learned of its reputation as one of Disney’s biggest box office bombs. This is still a mystery to me however, because Treasure Planet is good. Really good. Here’s why…

It’s innovative
The mixture of traditional animation and new computer animation techniques is possibly the best I’ve seen in any movie. They took the cool 3D environments effect that they created for the tree-swinging sequences in Tarzan and applied it to about half the movie - no wonder it was so expensive! They also tend to use traditional animation (which looks old-school) for the people and the costumes and then use futuristic-looking computer animation for the tech, which adds to the steampunk look of the movie. It’s very cool.

It’s beautiful
The aforementioned steampunky look of the film is very well realised. We were literally saying ‘Wow’ a lot of the time as we watched the film, and were constantly impressed at how much care and attention seemed to have gone into every frame.

The story is good
I’ve never read Treasure Island, so I don’t know how closely this movie sticks to the source material, but I suspect it’s not too far off. Anyway, it’s exciting and creative, but gives a lot of time to character development - my favourite kind of plot. It also takes place in a very well-realised fantasy world, but is not overly complicated as some fantasy/sci fi can be (*cough* Atlantis *cough*). The characters don’t waste time explaining things that don’t need explaining, but let the visuals do the work, meaning that you happily accept things like the characters being able to breathe in space, space whales, and everyone wearing Victorian clothes without question.

The characters are mostly excellent
Of course I’m particularly talking about Jim and Silver here. Both are very well developed and likeable and are also performed very well. The time and care that’s given to the development of Jim’s character is really excellent. It’s nice that he’s allowed to be more than just the traditional punky hero, who starts off angry at the world and grows through adversity. He has some properly emotional moments and you really feel for him.

Silver too is a brilliant character. They get the balance right between him being bad and good. I’m glad they didn’t feel the need to dilute his badness, by introducing a bigger, badder villain than him, to make him seem tame by comparison, so we’d forgive him for his crimes. This would have been the easy way out. As it is he remains the big bad until the end and is never completely redeemed, but the relationship between him and Jim is the driving force behind a lot of his decisions and, since that’s so well-drawn, the fact that he gets quite a happy ending is very satisfying.

The reason I say ‘mostly excellent’ is that the film’s only downside (that I can see) is the character of B.E.N. the mad robot. This character was clearly popped in at the last minute to provide some humour, but he unfortunately isn't funny. He’s one of those characters who capers about bumping into things when the other characters are trying to be stealthy, and you just want to tell the other characters to leave him behind. He’s a bit Jar Jarish basically.

So yeah, Treasure Planet is a seriously good film; why it failed is a mystery to me. If you haven’t seen it, I would urge you to give it a try.

Next up it’s Lilo and Stitch - maybe we'll watch it this evening!

See you soon. X

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Day 57: Lilo and Stitch (2002)

Lilo and Stitch is a sweet and heartwarming 2002 movie about two sisters, young adult Nani and little sister Lilo, and their attempts to build a family after the death of their parents. The relationship between the two sisters, both of whom are strong-willed, grief-stricken and fiercely loyal and loving toward one another, is beautifully rendered and developed in the film, and has you both laughing and crying throughout. The film is also set on a Hawaiian island and has some wry and humorous commentary on the island’s tourism and the way that tourists engage, and fail to engage, with the native culture.

And there’s also this alien, but the less said about that the better.

I joke, obviously, but Lilo and Stitch is a weird one. I really do like this movie; it affects me emotionally in the way the really good Disneys do, but I can’t help being frustrated by it. If the movie had just been called Lilo, or had been called Lilo and Nani, I’d probably love it, but as far as I’m concerned Stitch doesn’t belong and doesn’t earn his place.

Although the innovative and cool design of the film attempts to bring the alien-world and the human world together, and does so to a certain extent, it never really bridges the gap. This is perhaps most noticeable with the (very long) opening sequence. People walking into the cinema for the first time must have wondered whether they’d gone into the correct theatre. Expecting a film set in Hawaii they’re instead plunged into a weird alien world with spaceships and illegal genetic experiments, and the credits don’t roll until 10 minutes or so into the film. This opening really jars with the rest of the film, and the continued presence of the two aliens, Jookiba and Pleakley, unfortunately continues to jar.

The main problem with the movie that I can see, however, is Stitch himself. I think they got the balance between annoying and cute wrong for this character, and if this had been different I might have been more willing to accept the weird juxtaposition of action-packed alien adventure and bittersweet examination of a family in crisis. But Stitch is just mean. I genuinely don’t find him or his destructive ways funny. If he had been a bit less destructive, and a bit more willing to accept Lilo’s love, or if there had been more of a sense that the family needed someone like him in it, I think the movie would have been stronger. It would have helped to ground the story in the little family of Lilo, Nani and Stitch a bit more. As it is I find myself wishing Stitch would get lost and stop messing things up for the two sisters, who have already been through enough.

As I said though, this all doesn’t make me dislike the film. I love Lilo and Nani - they are both such charismatic characters. I think Lilo would have been funny enough as a character by herself; there was no need to add in the madcap Stitch. I also love the design of the film, particularly the characters, who look different from characters in any other Disney movie, and the soundtrack which mixes musical styles really well.

This is all (even more than most of my reviews I think) very much a personal opinion however. I watched Lilo and Stitch for the first time as an adult and I have no idea how a child would react to Stitch. His prevalence in the parks and the mountains of Stitch-related merch (plus the sequels and the TV show) suggest...pretty well. But the movie seems like a movie of two parts to me - one part is for kids and the other part is for adults, and they haven’t managed to marry the two together as smoothly as with other Disney films. I’m just left, at the end of the film, wishing I’d spent more time with Lilo and Nani and less time chasing Stitch and rolling my eyes at his antics.

*Shrug*, what can you do?

See you tomorrow, friendos!

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Day 58: The Jungle Book 2 (2003)

The Jungle Book 2 is certainly unimaginatively named, and the plot is hardly Inside Out in terms of creativity but that’s kind of where the bad points end. This was another example (along with Dinosaur, Treasure Planet etc.) where we were pleasantly surprised. It may be that our expectations were extremely low and that’s why we came away with such a favourable impression, but overall I’d say this is definitely worth a watch.

Most people, I imagine, would be surprised to find that this got a theatrical release, but once you've seen the movie it’s less of a surprise. The animation is of a decent quality, certainly as good as the original, with some pretty backgrounds and nice use of CGI when it comes to things like animating the river. The characters look very similar to how they did in the Jungle Book, with maybe a bit of improvement in how human characters appear.

And there are a lot more human characters in this film. Mowgli has a whole family and friends in the man-village, including the little girl he meets at the end of the original film. You might remember that we found Mowgli’s going to the man-village at the end of The Jungle Book a little unconvincing after his insistence throughout the film that he wasn’t going, and the little girl (who is called Shanti) who lures him in a little...um...problematic. You will be pleased to hear therefore that these issues are explored very sweetly and effectively by The Jungle Book 2.

The issue of ‘Shanti’s big brown eyes’ is dealt with via a good-natured joke, and though it’s clear Mowgli has a crush on her, it doesn't seem quite so age-inappropriate, especially since they are now friends and their relationship develops throughout the movie. Plus, Shanti is awesome.

Mowgli’s continued love for the jungle is the main theme of the film, which seems a wise choice considering the somewhat abrupt ending of The Jungle Book. The plot obviously involves his going back to the jungle and having some shenanigans, before having to make a (more informed) choice about whether to go back to the man-village. It’s obviously a thinly-veiled excuse for Disney to trot out well known characters and rehash a lot of the plot points from the original film, but they do it with a lot of charm, and manage to shape the events into more of a proper story than in the Jungle Book, while exploring a central conflict for the main character.

The characters are mostly the same as they were in the original film and have the same charm; Baloo especially, as he is now voiced by John Goodman, who of course does great work. The guy who voices Shere Khan (who is Frollo in Hunchback) is also a great replacement for the original. In terms of new characters the best addition is probably a new member of the vultures group, who is a fan of puns and voiced (who knows why) by Phil Collins.

The new songs are by no means terrible. They sound in-keeping with the music from the original film and are reasonably catchy, but of course don’t come near to capturing the brilliance of the Sherman bros.

When compared with the straight-to-video sequels that we grew up with (the Aladdin sequels, Lion King 2 etc.) this is definitely a step up. I would recommend it to people, with the obvious caveat that it is a sequel and so not to expect the earth. It’s definitely 10 times better than Return to Never Land anyway!

It's Piglet's Big Movie next and my hopes are not high - wish us luck!