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I know the few reading this would be a slightly happier if I had better news for them than: school takes up a lot of time, did you know? I see now why my original deadline (p.s. screw deadlines) was the day before school started. So uh, yeah. We're seeing a rapid decline in review writes, and I only have a few more to go.
Again, I am happy with what I did. Despite not doing what I want with this blog, I did the minimum necessary for myself to be satisfied/entertained. It's allllll about entertainment.
Title: Pocahontas
Release Date: June 23rd, 1995
Voice Cast: Irene Bedard, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers, Russell Means, Linda Hunt
Recap: In the Native American Powhatan tribe lives Pocahontas, a free-spirited young woman who is alive with the spirit of nature. She has but three friends: a hummingbird, a raccoon, and another girl back in her village. Her father wants her to marry Kocoum, a strong, "serious" man. However, a dream she has been having tells her that her path leads otherwise. Enter John Smith, a settler from England who arrives on a boat captained by a gold-hungry aristocrat. John and Pocahontas have a chance of meeting and share a true connection, but there is one problem: the feud between the violent feud between the settlers and the Powhatans.
Review: A friend of mine told me yesterday that my reviews are more interesting when I dislike the film I'm reviewing. I don't know to what extent that is true-- I suppose, I told her, that I think more creatively when I'm disappointed. I can tell you this right now: any thinking I do while writing this is certainly more creative than Pocahontas.
This, quite bluntly, is a script I could write. This is an 8th grade history project to me, no joke. In a few moments, I even stopped and played a game in which I guessed what the characters would say next. Almost every time, I was generally spot on (meaning all but verbatim). I'm going to be frank: this is the worst dialogue I've ever seen from any movie with a budget like this. It's the reason why the first half of the movie flat-out sucked.
I could rant about a variety of elements in this movie. I'll avoid the trite few: historical inaccuracies (big laugh here), recycled concepts (the movie is a mashup of old Disney tricks, really), or voice acting (just awful, Mel Gibson). You see? I hardly had to comment on any of those and you already get the picture. It was the tiniest amount of intensity starting at midpoint that made this movie slightly enjoyable.
I'll tell you what saved it from a Crocodile "Tick Tock" though. You probably have already guessed it, though. It's the one thing I haven't mentioned in this review that I include almost every time. Only two people deserve full credit for their parts in this movie: Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz-- music, if you hadn't guessed. "Colors of the Wind" is close to epic, and "If I Never Knew You" is borderline balladic. The rest I could keep or leave. That is to say, if I had to give a rating for just the music, I'd probably give it an Under the Sea.
And no, I don't blame The Lion King for setting the bar too high. Pocahontas is frankly just incompetent as entertainment. That's this film crew's fault, and they should take the blame. Maybe next time (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Disney will pick up the slack.
Bare Necessities (as bare as you can get...)
Believe me, I know the delays are ridiculous. However, this time I have a good reason. I started school on Wednesday, and since then I've obviously been busy with homework and general organization. I just finished watching Pocahontas, but I have other things to tend to right now. There is no reason you shouldn't see a review tomorrow. (Technically, there's no good reason this project shouldn't have been finished by the original deadline, but...)
So look for that tomorrow if you wish.
Title: The Lion King
Release Date: June 24th, 1994
Voice Cast: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Moira Kelly, Rowan Atkinson, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella
Recap: A lion cub, Simba, is born to the king of Pride Rock, Mufasa. Mufasa teaches Simba the values of life and what it's like to be king, as Simba will one day hold the throne when Mufasa passes. Unfortunately, Mufasa's brother, Scar, has other plans for them both. With the help of hyenas, he kills Mufasa and convinces Simba to run away from home. Now, Scar is king, and everything is chaos. Meanwhile, Simba has escaped to the care of Timon and Pumbaa, a carefree meerkat and warthog, respectively. One day, Simba's childhood friend Nala finds him and pleads for him to come back home and assume the throne. Simba refuses, as he cannot find it in is heart to recover from the loss of his father. However, a mystical mandrill, Rafiki, helps him speak to his father: "Remember who you are", Mufasa says, and Simba gains the pride.
Review: For the technical record, The Lion King is the first EVER in the Disney Classics to contain an original story, not one based completely off of another work (ignoring certain allegations of plagiarism...). I, personally, would just love to know why it took them nearly 60 years to do it. Sure, I've said in previous interviews that one of the best things that Disney knows how to do is to take classic stories and make them its own. I certainly don't believe that the mind of Walt Disney was incapable of working from nothing. We know what an "imagineer" he was. But wow. 60 years before an original story. And from that we get The Lion King.
This film... just wow. This film captivates from the very beginning, from the very first (and probably most or second most iconic) scene. What I love most about this film, which is introduced here, is the magical connection between the soundtrack and the setting. Brilliant elements like this are hard to achieve, and in fact I've only seen it done once before now, in The Jungle Book. This case puts that one to shame. The rich blend of traditional African music with the warm-colored, earth tone landscape is absolutely sublime.
What's unique about the music is how it takes that traditional music to a whole new level, adding perfect element
s of pop to create a masterful setlist. No doubt, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" is the absolute best-- the shining star of this film. So beautiful, the chorus makes me shudder, similar to "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. But again, it's those background beats that makes this score take the cake. "Circle of Life" is nearly as epic, and two fabulous upbeat counterparts exist for those who feel like dancing "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" and "Hakuna Matata."
While The Lion King was doing all this, it was also making history as the most philosophical animated feature ever. I applaud an especially deep moment: after getting in trouble, Simba is walking behind his frustrated yet silent father. Simba steps into Mufasa's pawprint and looks down. Without saying anything, he notices the enormous difference in size. 80% of ALL films cannot produce a moment on the same intellectual level as this, symbolizing the entire theme of the movie in a single, resonant moment.
I could go on and on praising this movie. But to be fair to Aladdin, I'll keep it at that. I neither like ranting forever nor raving forever. I'll just leave this rating here...
A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes
Title: Aladdin
Release Date: November 11th, 1992
Voice Cast: Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Jonathan Freeman, Linda Larkin, Gilbert Gottfried
Recap: Set in the Middle East, a young thief named Aladdin has dreams of living the rich life in the royal palace. In contrast, Princess Jasmine wishes to escape the palace life along so that she may choose her own husband (much to the frustration of her father, the sultan). When Jasmine does flee the palace, she meets Aladdin, and the two share a spark. However, their time is interrupted when guards are sent to capture Aladdin by the sultan's traitorous advisor, Jafar. Jafar uses Aladdin to fetch a magic lamp, but as he is leading the boy to die, Aladdin's monkey Abu manages to steal the lamp. Inside the lamp is the Genie, who promises to grant Aladdin any three wishes (with some exceptions). Aladdin uses these wishes to get closer to Jasmine, but Jafar still aims to stop him.
Review: If any one of my reviews would sharply polarize my opinions with most viewers, it'd be this one. Not beating around the bush: I don't care for Aladdin that much. But I'll tell you why, and I hope in some ways I can make points that you'll understand.
Then again, I only have one main point. Aladdin tries too hard. It tries too hard in almost every aspect. The result of trying too hard, if you didn't know, is cliché. For example, it tries too hard to be funny. Don't get me wrong, Robin Williams is a comic genius, and he was just fine in this movie. But every other joke fell flat in my opinion. I only laughed once throughout the whole movie.
The drama and romance is bland, too. This is in part due to a lackluter set-up to the plot, which is everything to a Disney movie. And again to the clichés: "Some day, Abu, things are gonna change", "It's mine! It's all mine!", etc. I've got nothing else to say but... come on.
So Renaissance animation and sound effects, couldn't save this one. Sorry.
Bare Necessities
Title: Beauty and the Beast
Release Date: November 22nd, 1991
Voice Cast: Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Angela Lansbury, Jerry Orbach
Recap: In a small French village lives Belle, who is regarded as the most beautiful woman around. She is being sought by Gaston, a buff, conceited hunter to whom physical beauty is everything. When Belle's father goes for a ride through a dangerous forest, he ends up in the enchanted castle of an enormous beast, actually a cursed prince. The beast takes Belle's father as a prisoner, and soon she comes to rescue him. In exchange for her father's freedom, she offers to remain in the castle forever. Belle is taken in warmly by the animate everyday objects in the castle, who are also cursed humans. The objects also try to help the Beast and Belle fall in love so that the curse can be broken. Slowly but surely, a love builds, but Gaston still seeks to marry Belle and won't let the Beast stand in his way.
Review: Like many Disney movies, Beauty and the Beast had been previously attempted by Disney Studios long ago (30s and 50s, to be precise). The problems came with the story which proved to be a challenge for the writers. So the idea was scrapped, scrapped, and semi-scrapped once again in the late 80s. I count these "failures" lucky, because I imagine that this film could not have been so enormously grand if made before 1989. The blend of traditional animation and CGI is a very crucial component of making this film as large as it needs 
to be, and there was never a more ripe time for Beauty and the Beast to premiere.
I must admit, even I was terrified the Beast. I don't know who to thank for that. Voice acting, perhaps? That's Robby Benson, chosen by the filmmakers because they "could hear the prince beneath the fur." I 100% agree with that, because he is superb on both fronts of the Beast: explosive and nurturing. Or should I thank the sound effects team? Those growls are certainly computer-assisted, and the engineers deserve a lot of credit for it. Maybe the animators, who designed the Beast and animated him so well to stress the importance of inner beauty.
I know what you want. You want me to talk about the songs. Well, there are a lot of em. The Little Mermaid had about four (not including reprises), but this installment has about six big ones accompanied by a fabulous instrumental score by Alan Menken. But there's a difference between the two films that needs to be acknowledged when analyzing the music. Beauty and the Beast is set up like a Broadway musical, narrational songs performed very frequently and by almost everyone in the film. So while I tip my hat to The Little Mermaid for beautiful classic songs like "Part of Your World" and "Kiss the Girl", I give props to Beauty and the Beast for the presentation of their score, because as I said in the intro, everything is enormously grand. There is one song, however, that I would notch up there with the ballad "Part of Your World". You know, the title track? Done so delightfully by Angela Lansbury during the film's most iconic scene? I think you know the one I mean.
There you have it, the review for the only full-length film nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. If it wasn't for Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, I think it would have definitely won.
A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes
The concept of having a deadline is stressing me out. Being stressed out -> putting me out of the mood to watch a movie. No movies, no reviews. It's yikes. I don't know if I'll meet my deadline, but I don't mind. I'm just glad I'm doing this.
Not to sound selfish, but I did this blog for myself, not for others. I wanted to do something during the summer, and I did it. I'm proud of it, regardless of the constant delays this month.
That's all I have to say.
You'll get Beauty and the Beast. Soon.
