Top Ten Disney Heroines

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Ariel, Aurora, Beauty and the Beast, Belle, Calhoun, Disney, Esmeralda, Hercules, Jane, Megara, Mulan, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, Tarzan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Little Mermaid, Tinker Bell, Vanellope von Schweets, Walt Dinsey Animation Studios, Wreck-it Ralph

I’ve done the heroes and the villains, now it’s time for Disney’s leading ladies to have their chance to shine. The following are, in my opinion, the ten best female Disney characters in terms of personality, spirit, heroism and entertainment value with bonus points if they’re cute. To qualify they must appear in any of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 52 feature films; no Pixar, Disney Toon Studios or other outsourced animation bodies will be considered. Without further ado, these are the ten women who most typify what great Disney heroines are all about.

Film Review – Wreck-It Ralph (PG)

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adventure, animation, Calhoun, comedy, Disney, fantasy, Fix-It Felix Jr, Hero's Duty, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, John C Reilly, Mortal Kombat, Rich Moore, Sarah Silverman, Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter, Sugar Rush, Vanellope von Schweets, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Wreck-it Ralph

My two favourite things together at last.

Film Review: Frankenweenie (12A)

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animation, Catherine O'Hara, Charlie Tahan, comedy, Disney, Frankenweenie, horror, Martin Landau, Martin Short, Stop Motion, Tim Burton, Winona Rider

This has been a golden year for stop-motion. First we had Aardman’s excellent The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! and more recently Laika’s fantastic ParaNorman. Now it’s time for act three and the latest effort from a cinema legend. Frankenweenie began life as a live-action short film Tim Burton made in his twenties whilst working as an animator for Disney. The story was too macabre for the company and his efforts lost him his job. One iconic career later and how things have changed as Burton and Disney reteam to remake his original story in stop-motion.

Film Review: Brave (PG)

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adventure, animation, Billy Connolly, Brave, Disney, Emma Thompson, fantasy, John Ratzenburger, Julie Walters, Kelly McDonald, Merida, pixar, Robbie Coltrane

The studio that has dominated CG animation for over fifteen years offers up their biggest challenge to Disney’s supremacy yet.

Top Ten Disney Heroes

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Aladdin, Basil, Beauty and the Beast, Captain Phoebus, Disney, Flynn Ryder, Peter Pan, Prince Naveen, Prince Philip, Quasimodo, Robin Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Tangled, The Beast, The Great Mouse Detective, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Princess and the Frog

We’ve already covered the best of the worst in the Top Ten Disney Villains, now it’s time to honour the most chivalrous. For the purposes of this list we will only be looking at male heroes, I’ll do a Top Ten Disney Heroines post another time. The following ten characters are the most memorable and most heroic of Disney’s many leading men.

Film Review: Robin Hood (U)

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adventure, animation, Brian Bedford, Disney, Friar Tuck, Legend, Little John, Maid Marian, Monica Evans, Peter Ustinov, Prince John, Robin Hood, Sheriff of Nottingham, Sir Hiss

As I start building up my collection of Disney DVDs to a state more befitting of a self-confessed animation nut the reviews for Mouse House features are coming thick and fast. I’ve made no secret in the past of my opinion that the studio’s so-called ‘wilderness years’ following Walt’s death are unfairly named. The period yielded more than a few gems the best of which is this delightful retelling of the classic English legend which played on constant repeat in my VCR growing up. In fact it may well be the single film above all others I’ve seen the most number of times. I could probably quote the entire script.

It’s a very familiar tale. King Richard the Lionheart is off crusading with his tyrannical brother John ruling in absentis putting the squeeze on the poor inhabitants of Nottingham by hiking taxes. The hero of the downtrodden is Robin who ‘borrows a bit from those who can afford it’ to feed the poor when he isn’t lost in reveries about a ‘high-born lady of quality’ called Marian. The USP here is that all the classic characters are presented as anthropomorphic animals, a move that gives the characters just as much personality as the bouncy script and top-drawer voice cast.

The delegation of species to characters gets it spot on practically every time, Little John is a bear, Friar Tuck a badger, the Sheriff of Nottingham a wolf and if you can’t guess what animal the Lionheart and his brother are translated to Lord help you. Best call is Robin as a fox, an animal that totally fits the hero role and if scavenging urban types are anything to go by works well as an outlaw too, and who can argue that Maid Marian is a foxy lady?

They’re all memorable characters too, Robin himself one of Disney’s best heroes, a dashing, flawed and happy-go-lucky fox of the people given life by Brian Bedford’s spirited vocal performance. He’s funnier than the average protagonist too. Phil Harris brings the right kind of resourceful confidence to Little John while Monica Evans delivers a likeable Maid Marian who can more than hold her own in a pie fight. The supporting characters also hit the spot, such as the hilarious Clucky and the pompous Sir Hiss, the list is almost endless. Prince John scores the lion’s share (sorry) of laughs courtesy of a quite wonderful Peter Ustinov who becomes the first Oscar-winning actor to voice a villainous Disney lion (see also Jeremy Irons as Scar) and walks away with the film in the process.

There’s a nice balance between comedy and adventure. a light-hearted and easy-going first half gives way to a much bleaker and desperate second culminating in one of the great Disney climaxes. The jailbreak final act deftly handles comedy and peril, adventure and action, with mounting tension and scene after scene of brilliance; Nutsy and his studious dedication to getting the time wrong, Robin’s determination to pinch every last bag of gold from under Prince John’s nose and of course our hero’s desperate and undyingly exciting escape from the castle, one of the best moments in any Disney film.

Sometimes the plot dawdles particularly in the first half but there’s always some great character comedy to keep things amusing. Some have commented that the Americanisation of this quintessentially English story is worthy of criticism. A fair observation, the archery tournament free-for-all manages to turn into a game of American Football but the spirit of fun in which it’s all done is what gives the film its vibrancy.

Most of the songs are also gold, the opening credits melody Whistle Stop inspiring football chants some decades on, if you don’t like Phony King of England you’re probably not very nice to know and Not in Nottingham is heart-breaking. Love gets some stick for being a bit mushy but I still like it. Most of the incidental music also hits the spot, guiding both comedy and excitement.

Disney’s Robin Hood represents everything that makes animation special, a fusion of joy, fantasy and colour with all the touching moments the medium is so good at producing. It gets overshadowed by more famous moments in the studio’s back catalogue but that can’t change the fact that this is one of its brightest creations.

Verdict

Endlessly rewatchable, possessed of a unique and unconquerable spirit of pure fun without forgetting the important parts of the legend and the aura of heroism surrounding the famous character. Pure, unadulterated bliss.

Film Review: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (U)

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Adriana Caselotti, Bashful, Disney, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Snow White, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney

What better way to follow up my review of The Little Mermaid, the film that brought about the Animation Renaissance than with an account of one of the few films that can be considered more important, the animated feature that started it all?

In the 1930s and before the idea of extending a cartoon, those quirky little oddities for kids made from moving pictures, into a feature length film was foolish, an idea marred by a fundamental flaw. Surely the audience for that kind of entertainment, children, wouldn’t have a long enough attention span to sit through a continuous story in excess of an hour. It was this thinking that led to one of America’s foremost animation studio’s ambitious project being labelled ‘Disney’s Folly’.

It’s not quite accurate to refer to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as the first of its kind. A good half dozen animated features had been produced in Argentina, China, Egypt and Germany since as early as 1917. The great original was Argentina’s El Apóstol which used cutout animation to tell a satirical story. Disney’s feature debut is the first full-length American film and the first in Technicolor. When the film finally debuted it was an unqualified success, gave birth to the tradition of American movie animation, inspired eight theatrical reissues and launched the long and glorious history of Walt Disney Studios.

But it so nearly wasn’t so. The lengthy development was fraught with inevitable problems and opposition from key parties. At one point the whole project rested on the decision of a single man, a banker who had the power to sign over the investment money the studio needed to complete the film. Disney screened portions of what they had already done for him, detailing their plans for the much needed cash. It wasn’t looking good during the screening which the impassive fellow watched in unmoved silence but when it came to his verdict he is quoted as saying ‘you’re going to make a pile of money’ and with that the rest of the history of animation happened.

But how does this three-quarters-of-a-century old film stand up today? Watching in a cynical modern world in which Shrek has lampooned this kind of saccharine storytelling the film still holds up remarkably well, in some areas at least. In others it is very much of its time, its sugar-sweet heroine is hardly a feminist icon, created to be the damsel in distress as needed, a picture of absolute innocence and naiveté to the extent that she is almost comical, especially in the way she conforms to all the most antiquated gender stereotypes. Snow cleans, cooks, sews and sings and her prettiness is openly displayed as her chief redeeming feature. That said it is possible to misread her character as backward. There’s a purity and an honesty in her character that cannot be called outdated and it’s not like the film was created with any kind of gender politics in mind.

Much like The Little Mermaid a modern appreciation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs depends on ones tolerance for cuteness. There are so many gentle forest animals with big eyes and bigger grins performing household chores in the happiest of ways it’s a bit silly. The leisurely pace and simple plot hide nothing approaching depth or greater purpose. The reason the film still works so well and endures as a family classic is because the things it excels at the most are timeless.

The laughs are all charmingly played particularly whenever the dwarfs are in frame. Doc, Bashful et al are the beating heart of the film which doesn’t really get going until they turn up, each character designed, scripted and voiced so perfectly you could guess most of their names without having to be told, the variety and simple appeal in each diminutive man never gets old. Then there are the songs which, though mostly candy-cane sweet, are undeniably catchy and have been influential on popular culture. You’ll have to go a long way to find someone who doesn’t know the first line of Hi-Ho and Whistle While You Work is so iconic that even people who have never seen the film could probably hum it note for note. Most of all the film is a wonderful example of all the things that make animation the unique pleasure it is. Half of the colours on show hadn’t been invented before and the detail in the motion still outshines some present-day films. It’s hard to find a film happier to belong to the medium it does.

It doesn’t end there either because there is some real darkness to balance out the cutesiness. Who can forget the wicked Queen’s remarkable transformation scene? And the drawn-out tension in the third act as she tempts Snow with the poisoned apple has lost none of its potency. The simple fairytale will never date, the story is so well known that I haven’t even bothered to describe it, you already know. Not everyone will be convinced the film stands up in the cold light of more sophisticated achievements but the heritage of the film cannot be denied. If you love animation you owe that to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Verdict

The mixture of fairytale tropes, luscious animation and memorable musical numbers maintain this ancestor of films like Tangled as a family favourite. Elements have dated but for fans and most importantly kids it remains top-drawer.

Film Review: The Little Mermaid (U)

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adventure, Alan Menken, animation, Ariel, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Disney, Disney Renaissance, fantasy, Flounder, Jodi Benson, John Musker, Pat Carroll, Prince Eric, Romance, Ron Clements, Samuel E Wright, Sebastian, The Little Mermaid, Ursula

It might be a little too girly or sugar-sweet for some but that doesn’t change the fact that Disney’s 1989 adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid is one of the most important animated films ever made. For twenty years following Walt Disney’s death the studio and the wider animated film medium had been enduring a period of creative stagnation, an era known as the Wilderness Years. Classic films were few and far between and, surrounded by less than inspired titles marred by lazy writing and underworked animation. While I firmly believe that Disney’s output in this period is actually rather underrated there’s no question that the early nineties saw a creative resurgence in the industry that has continued ever since. Disney produced hit after hit and in 1995 new kid on the block Pixar arrived announcing itself with the fantastic Toy Story. Disney started to lose the plot with the new millennium but Pixar was there to maintain the animation industry’s longest period of continued excellence, something the mouse house is getting back to doing themselves with their recent revival through films like Tangled. The years of success are commonly called the Disney Renaissance but it’s actually been a Renaissance for the entire animation industry, one that looks set never to end. All this can be traced back to The Little Mermaid, the picture that kick-started the revival.

The film is a fantasy romance, pure and simple. Sixteen-year-old mermaid Ariel has an angelic singing voice but she’s usually to busy exploring her fascination with the things that sink below the waves from the human world to remember to attend concerts. On an illicit trip to the surface she saves the life of dashing Prince Eric from a storm and promptly falls in love, etching her wondrous voice into his heart in the process. With her father forbidding her to return to the world above she pays a rebellious visit to the tentacled sea witch Ursula who agrees to turn her human for a price – her precious voice.

The film’s success are down to three key fronts, Disney’s smart return to the hits of their Golden Age by delving into romantic fairytale, an increase in the production values visible in the colourful animation and the best repertoire of songs the studio had produced in decades. The story evokes the fundamental appeal of escapism, the fantastical undersea setting, the young protagonist pining for something more, the fish-out-water comedy, literally. The tone is cheerful in extremis but the necessary tension and darkness is there provided par excellence by Ursula, one of the most deliciously fabulous baddies in Disney history.

As the light story unfolds every scene is given lift by the wonderful array of colours on show. The studio’s recent previous output like Oliver & Company and The Rescuers looks bland by comparison. The visual direction and exciting set pieces combine to give the film an epic feel that had been largely missing from the company’s films for some time. This was the way it continued in other fairytale films that followed including Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Alan Menken’s delightful music found an enthusiasm and sense of fun that was both fresh and mainstream, each crucial song from Part of Your World to Poor Unfortunate Souls memorable in its own right.

It’s also got some cracking characters. Ariel just about transcends the blandness that sometimes holds back protagonists with her wide-eyed exuberance and rebellious streak while Prince Eric is handsome and gallant but has enough personality to distinguish himself from previous Disney Princes. The aforementioned villain gets full marks as does rasta-crab Sebastian who goes down as one of the most entertaining comedy sidekicks around.

There’s no denying that the film is more for girls than boys but it’s not like there’s nothing for we of the less fair sex to enjoy, namely the cute redhead in the lead and while the cutesiness is enough to put many off I’ve lost count of the number of times my buddy Ryan and I have spontaneously broken into renditions of Under the Sea. Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin probably have the edge over the earlier picture but The Little Mermaid is still among the best Disney films and the question we connoisseurs of animation must ask is where would the industry be now without it?

Verdict

The film that started the animation Renaissance remains superb value as a fairy story, a romance and an adventure. Iconic songs, great character comedy and pretty pictures combine with timeless results.

Film Review: Beauty and the Beast

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animation, Beast, Beauty and the Beast, Belle, Disney

I promised in my Arrietty review that this would be coming, sorry it’s taken me so long but reviewing a film I’ve acquired on DVD is my lowest priority as I like to review games, books and new cinema releases soon after playing, reading or watching them while they’re still fresh in my mind. It’s less of a pain to rewatch DVDs if I need a refresher so such reviews get shunted to the back of the queue more often than not. Now without further inexplicable apologies here’s why Beauty and the Beast is my absolute favourite Disney animation, a prestigious distinction.

With The Little Mermaid Disney rekindled its animation fires after two decades of only moderate success giving rise to an era that would come to be known as the Disney Renaissance. Though the previous twenty years of output had yielded some terrific films (Robin Hood, The Great Mouse Detective) alongside the less well-realised entries (The Black Cauldron, Oliver and Company), The Little Mermaid felt like a return to Old Disney with its fairytale setting, princess protagonist and infectious songs empowered with new spirit in its animation quality, colour grading and overall sense of wonder. Disney had rediscovered its best form and the future looked very promising.

The immediate follow-up to The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under didn’t really build on its predecessors foundations. It was perfectly good film, well-animated with a decent story and great vocal performances but underperformed at the box office and lacked that special something. With the following feature the company returned to fairytale and a story that Walt had tried and failed to bring to the big screen decades earlier.

Something quite extraordinary happened at the New York Film Festival in 1991. Disney screened an unfinished work-in-progress version of their new picture with unfinished scenes and some very skeletal animation. Remarkably the groundwork of what they had created was good enough to warrant a standing ovation from a thrilled audience. The company were clearly on to something and anticipation for the finished product quickly became the greatest Disney had seen in a long time. Upon the unveiling of the completed movie the reviews declared it as the most satisfying animated film in years.

So what makes it so special? Built on the strong foundations of a well-known story Disney’s interpretation of the plot got everything right. The concept of the Beast’s curse and his need to break it before the final petal of a wilting rose falls gave the narrative some tension for one thing but the critical point was the characters. The protagonist, Belle is as beautiful as her name suggests but it is her intelligence, thirst for adventure and love of reading that makes her stand out from other Disney leading ladies like Cinderella and Snow White. The Beast’s character comes out in his superb design that can seem threatening, pathetic and regal in turns. He’s an initially terrifying character who, by the end, has completely earned your pity through a combination of fine writing and Robby Benson’s nuanced vocal performance. The villain is, for once, not the ultimate embodiment of evil but merely an arrogant and hugely entertaining buffoon nonetheless capable of real cruelty. The animation department had the most fun with the supporting comic characters this time around giving exuberant life to a cast of servants transfigured into various household objects including candlesticks, teapots and clocks, an inspired, infinitely charming idea that came from an unexpected source.

Executive producer Howard Ashman, whose idea it was for the Beast’s curse to extend to his staff, returned with partner Alan Menken after their excellent work on The Little Mermaid and the two combined to write the best musical numbers the studio had ever attached to its musicals. The romantic number that shares the film’s title, sweetly warbled by Angela Lansbury is about as enchanting a love song as this famous romance could have hoped for but it isn’t just the headliner that hits the spot. The opening number is a bouncy and charming piece that introduces the Belle, her dissatisfaction with the provincial setting and its people’s fascination with Belle as well as Gaston and his infatuation with Belle. Both entertaining and informative it’s the Swiss Army Knife of Disney songs. Then there’s Gaston’s own hilarious piece which helps develop his character and raise more than a few chuckles. The show-stopping Be My Guest let the animators cut loose with their character creations and the vigorous mob song ramped up the tension towards the close. Also worth mentioning is the elegant Human Again which was cut from the theatrical release but can be seen in the extended DVD edition. Arguably the most important song however is the most unassuming. Something There has the tough job of convincing us of the central romance after we’ve spent half the film watching the Beast snarling and Belle cowering from him, a task it meets with real aplomb. Without it the story could have fallen down. Menken’s contribution and even more so Ashman’s cannot be overestimated. Beauty and the Beast wouldn’t be half the film it is without their input, a poignant fact given that Ashman was dying of AIDS during its making and tried to direct vocal performances of his songs whilst himself unable to speak. He passed away months before the picture saw release.

As you would expect it’s a gorgeous looking film with wonderfully flowing animations. The design of the settings, especially the Beast’s gargantuan gothic castle really drive home the sense of wonder that runs through the whole film right from the opening scene-setting prologue. The writers, animators and voice actors found the perfect balance of comedy, expression and tension resulting in a film that deserves all of the plaudits heaped on it. This was the high point of the not just the Disney Renaissance but the studio’s entire back catalogue that retains its irresistible charm twenty years on.

Verdict

The strength of the characters, musical numbers and the plot combine to weave a film at once hilarious and beautifully animated while packing some real emotional heft. It may not be Disney’s best adventure, that title goes to its next film, Aladdin, but it is the mouse house’s best romance, its best musical and its best film.

Top Ten Disney Villains

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animation, Captain Hook, Cruella de Vil, Disney, Frollo, Gothel, Hades, Maleficent, Prince John, queen, Ratigan, top ten, Ursula, villains

To honour the release of Disney’s fiftieth animated feature Tangled here’s my list of the ten best baddies in the studio’s history. Disney aren’t short of a villain or two and it was a tough list to compile, I had to leave some great nasties out of it. I was also sorely tempted to include ‘Man’, the unseen threat in Bambi but decided ultimately to stick with tangible characters. From ten to one here they are.

10. Professor Ratigan (The Great Mouse Detective)

How could a Disney villain voiced by Vincent Price not make this list? The Professor Moriarty to Basil’s Sherlock Holmes is Disney’s and mousedom’s Napoleon of Crime, a nefarious schemer and rat, sorry, mouse of ambition. He feeds his own underlings to cats and has the downright tenacious cheek to commit treason by usurping the queen. His traps are bold and brutal but the real reason he sticks in the mind is because of Price’s delightful drawling charicterisation.

9. Hades (Hercules)

Sporting some awesome flame-effect hair and wit dry enough to cause a drought in a rainforest the God of the Underworld is one of the mouse house’s more amusing villains. Voiced by James Woods Hades steals the film effortlessly but there’s more to him than a warped sense of humour as his temper has to be one of the most explosive in all cinema. And think of it this way, he’s a god, if every villain on this list got together for a scrap he’d win hands down.

8. Ursula (The Little Mermaid)

I’m not too sure what it is that makes Ursula so awesome. Maybe its the character design, after all you’re not likely to foget the sight of an obese octopus witch in a hurry. Maybe it’s her style of villainy, tricking Ariel out of her voice is pretty original and rather nasty. Whatever it is most people are agreed that she leaves a big impression.

7. Cruella de Vil (101 Dalmatians)

A villain so popular that her whole image and personality have entered popular psyche. As motivations go the rampant desire to look simply fabulous darling in a fur coat might not seem all that heinous but when it’s at the mortal expense of a ton of cute monochrome puppies you know you’ve got a seriously twisted individual on your hands. She’s also one of the few Disney villains whose character comments on society morally, highlighting the shameful obsession with materialism and image.

6. Gothel (Tangled)

The latest arrival at Disney’s party of nasties is among their subtlest, maybe not in terms of motivation, Mother Gothel is desperate to remain young eternally but it’s her methods that set her out. Emotional blackmail, passive-aggressive behaviour and a nastily controlling nature mark her as one of Disney’s most believable and therefore most monstrous creations.

5. The Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)

Sometimes all a villain needs to be is scary. The unnamed queen in the studio’s first feature-length picture is frightening enough normally but it’s her transformation into an old hag that sticks in people’s memories and imaginations. The scene remains one of the most striking in animation of the era and the whole persona of the character maintains a timeless menace.

4. Prince John (Robin Hood)

This cowardly thumb-sucking lion sits firmly in the camp of funny villains. Voiced brilliantly by Peter Ustinov this would-be king is as hilarious to watch as he is blackhearted both able to imprison the population of an entire town and cry for mummy when he doesn’t get his way he may not be the most threatening villain but he’s definitely one of the most memorable.

3. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)

In many ways there’s nothing obviously special about Maleficent. Fulfilling a similar role to Snow White’s queen she is a simple duchess of darkness driven by jealousy and spite but several things make her stand out. First there’s her timelssly menacing character design and then the fact that she turns into a freakin’ dragon for undoubtedly the best climactic battle sequence in the Disney canon.

2. Captain Hook (Peter Pan)

And the award for funniest Disney baddie goes to the dastardly pirate Captain Hook. One of children’s literature’s most well-known wrong-uns is brought to vivid life in Disney’s excellent adaptation of J M Barrie’s classic tale in which he desperately schemes to wipe out Peter Pan. His nastiness is brilliantly offset by hysterical slapstick. Try to watch as he cowers from the crocodile, gets pounded by a canon or scoots off over the water like a skimming pebble and not laugh.

1. Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

This may have been a tricky list to compile but there was nothing difficult about choosing who to place at the top. Frollo is without doubt the most evil and hateable Disney villain, his inhumanity, self-righteousness and cruelty to Quasimodo are enough to make you loathe him but when he starts sleazing onto Esmerelda you realise you’ve got something you never thought you’d see in a Disney animation – a sex pest. His song Hellfire is unquestionably the studio’s darkest musical number and his heinous, obsessive hatred of the gypsies marks him as the most vivid example of a very real type of villain, the kind driven by blind prejudice.

Film Review: Tangled

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animation, Disney, Flynn, Gothel, Maximus, Pascal, Rapunzel, Tangled

These are exciting times in the principality. This weekend last I travelled up to Lancaster to stay with my good friend AntBuoy for a few days where the two of us and our other excellent chum Astarico furthered our plans for moving to London together which, all going well, will happen towards the end of March. Whilst there, apart from seeing AntBuoy’s most excellent play Incarnation, he and I happily trundled off to the well-presented Vue cinema in Lancaster to watch Disney’s fiftieth animated feature, Tangled.

When I was a young prince I wasn’t interested in watching films like The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast because those were girls’ films. I was a stupid kid and those are now two of my favourite Disney pics but it looks like Disney have cottoned on to pre-teen boys’ casual sexism with their latest fairytale based on Rapunzel by renaming it the gender-neutral Tangled. It worked, the audience in the Vue screening had boys as well as girls and with Metro claiming the film is ‘for little girls only’ while the kind of movie review sources you should pay attention to (Empire and Total Film) laud it with praise it’s good to see Disney’s latest seeing the success it deserves.

It really looks like Disney are refinding their form. Since the Millenium their animations have lacked creative focus and the kind of inspired sense of magic the studio is loved for and a little bit of me died when the Mouse House declared it was abndoning traditional cel-animation to focus on CG. God bless John Lasseter. Since his appointment as Disney Animation head honcho the studio has been turning things around, returning to both cel and fairytale with last year’s The Princess and the Frog which saw quiet success. That’s why I was confident that this, their first CG fairytale, and the first such in 3D would be a success and I was right.

After a handful of half-decent 3D trailers the best of which was for Disney’s next project, a revival of Winnie the Pooh, and a couple of adverts for 3D TV which, I have to say really improves watching football judging by the clip shown, the show started and it was a breeze throughout. This is one of those fairytales everyone is familiar with but few know intricately so I can’t be sure how close the story is to the original fairytale although I don’t think Rapunzel was a princess until Disney came along. Anyway, late in her pregnancy the queen of a well-groomed, idyllic kingdom falls deathly ill prompting a desperate search for a legendary flower that could save her. Said flower is under the monopoly of an old crone who uses it to stay young and doesn’t take kindly to its removal. The queen is saved but the flower wilts bequeathing its healing properties to the newborn girl and more specifically her blonde hair. Old hag, name of Mother Gothel takes the liberty of breaking into the princess’ bedroom and cuting off a lock of her hair but upon seeing it lose its light and turn brown she realises she needs not just the hair but the girl attached to it and so kidnaps her in a scene that made a sprog along the row cry. Gothel imprisons the infant Rapunzel in a tower in a hidden valley in the middle of a forest and raises her as her own daughter, never cutting her hair which, when Rapunzel sings, will revitalise her youth.

It’s a new direction for Disney villains and the relationship between Rapunzel and Gothel is one of the most interesting Disney have ever weaved recalling Quasimodo and Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. There’s plenty of reason to hate Gothel with her passive-aggressive treatment of Rapunzel forming an emotional prison much harder for the feisty blonde Rapunzel to escape than the tower but although all her motivations are selfish it’s impossible not to get a real sense that she genuinely loves Rapunzel on some level. It’s an original and intriguing setup and drives the whole film well. The character of Rapunzel repeats the young-girl-dreaming-of-greater-freedom story of Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast and really offers very little more in terms of depth but she’s very easy to like and sympathise with given her situation and the fun that’s had with her neverending stream of golden hair is irresistible. So far, so girly.

Things get good for the boys when rugged, cocksure thief Flynn Rider comes on screen with a neat, parkour introduction and some colourful and breathless chase sequences to get their teeth into. Flynn is exactly the sort of arrogant hero everyone loves, completely confident but rubber-faced enough to be funny and likeable while maintaining slightly more depth than most of Disney’s leading men. His brand of cynical wisdom (‘I don’t do backstory’) lends the film with the kind of wit grown-ups will appreciate. Then there are the inevitable comedy animals, both of which succeed, on the one hand Rapunzel’s chameleon buddy Pascal amuses with his silent expressions and on the other snow-white super-stallion Maximus takes the concept behind the Terminator and makes it hilarious.

So Rapunzel and Flynn strike a deal and the two depart the tower in search of the meaning behind the floating lights that have enthralled the former on her every birthday and the film never drops below a high level of entertainment value featuring great action, the best of which involves a breaking dam and some aquaplaning, great laughs such as the hilarious extremes of Rapunzel’s reaction to her new-found freedom and moments of unadulterated joy, namely Rapunzel spreading the joy upon her arrival at the kingdom’s capital in a spellbinding sequence of dancing and lantern-lighting that takes its place as the film’s brightest highlight. The songs are decent but not quite as successful as those of The Princess and the Frog with the opening number concerning Rapunzel’s daily routine falling flat. They pick up from there but none of them, as AntBuoy shrewdly observed on our way out of the cinema, were catchy enough to hum.

The most consistent joy however is the vibrant, colourful visuals which are outstanding throughout evoking the very best kind of lighthearted escapism with its varied pallette and beautiful lighting. Rapunzel’s glowing hair is lovely to behold and all the characters look fantastic at every moment. The 3D was pretty good in general. This being only the second film I’ve seen through those hilarious glasses I don’t consider myself an expert on the subject but the effect of it gave the environments plenty of immersive depth with the moments of objects jumping out of the screen sensibly restrained. It was occasionally blurry but not cripplingly so.

The film rattles on at a nice pace, slowing up only once or twice for some exposition and the like and the ending when it rolls up is surprising and satisfying. The only thing Tangled really lacks is something extra special to raise it to the next level. As it is Disney have effortlessly crafted an engaging tale that is bursting with likeability and a solid, focused and entertaining drive that taps into the wonderful spirit of joyous escapism.

Verdict

Disney round out their half-century with a thoroughly entertaining piece of fantasy high-jinks that strikes the right balance of appeal for boys and girls alike with plenty of wry jokes to amuse adults. With any luck we could be on the verge of another Renaaissance.

Film Review: Toy Story 3

Tags

animation, Buzz Lightyear, Disney, pixar, Toy Story 3, woody

I think reviewing movies is going to be a tricky thing for me. Games and books take quite a long time to read and play through which gives me plenty of time between reviews. Movies are generally over in a couple of hours which means I could watch  two or three in a day if I were so inclined. The trouble is that usually when I watch a film I want to review it but I don’t have time to review every film I see. It’s especially troublesome over Christmas when there are usually lots of films worth watching on TV. I’ve seen loads this year I’d like to review but I think I’ll have to post a roundup of said pictures with star ratings and maybe a comment just so I can do something.

Some films however demand to be reviewed properly, and this closing chapter in one of the great movie trilogies, which I received for Christmas on DVD is one of them. There was a heck of a lot riding on Toy Story 3, a lot of pressure for it to live up to the enormous quality of the first two films. The first Toy Story was one of those films that comes along maybe once a decade, if not even less frequently than that, a wholly fresh and beguiling escape into imagination. It’s no accident that it won the hearts of the vast majority of people who saw it and was instantly hailed as a modern masterpiece. A combination of faactors made it so. The very concept of toys that come to life is the most obvious. Every child who has ever pretended their toys are alive can instantly relate to the wonder of the idea. That was the sprogs won over. Then there was the depth and knowingness that came with the premise. The characters weren’t merely a collection of colourful playmates but believable adults with real insecurities (Woody’s jealousy of superior new colleague, Buzz). Add to that a number of funny asides and the grown-ups were hooked too. Better still the characters were fabulous, all voiced brilliantly and instantly memorable. Oh and the fact that it was the first ever fully CG animated feature ever helped a bit too.

Too often great movies give birth to mediocre sequels, especially in the direct-to-video world of animation. That nearly happened with Toy Story but thanks to a lot of important people seeing sense it didn’t. Toy Story 2 was greenlit to be made as a top-budget theatrical follow-up but that was only half the battle. The triumph of Toy Story 2 lay in three chief parts. First there was the plot, which saw Woody taken by toy collector Al and prepped for shipment to a Japanese museum. Cue plenty of rescue high-jinks, memorable new characters and nicely realised settings to put them in. By repeating the scenario of having toys leave the comfort of their owner’s bedroom and explore the outside world we were treated to a thrilling sense of adventure. Secondly there was the pacing which was much quicker than the first film, which was necessarily preoccupied with painting the vivid picture of the toy’s world and needed to be slower to do so. The quick action made room for tons of gags and ably kept the laughs flowing. Finally and crucially we gained some maturity. Toy Story was a grown-up film but the sequel really upped the ante by facing head-on certain thoughts that are normally kept well clear of kids flicks. The major theme of Toy Story 2 lies in the threat of obsoletion. Woody’s fears about Andy growing out of his toys run through the whole film. It’s the kind of focus that can affect anyone who remembers loving the toys they once played with and has the ability to miss those simpler times. It’s even more powerful for the youngsters who are still in that zone. What really hammers it home is the absolutely heart-breaking sequence, set to melancholy song depicting Jessie’s long lost relationship with past owner Emily.

So we had two films that maintained huge appeal for young and old, not merely by being good but by being original and going above and beyond the call of duty emotionally. How could the geniuses at Pixar repeat the trick again?

I went to see Toy Story 3 with a lot of good friends. I was visiting Lancaster where I went to uni at the time and by the time we walked into the cinema the few days I spent there had already been one of the highlights of my year. I was desperate for the film to be a match for its predecessors and I was confident it would be after reading reviews in Empire and Total Film. But you never know. Thankfully the film turned out to be everything I wanted it to be and a little bit more and, quite possibly, the best in the trilogy.

Toy Story 3 takes place about ten years after Toy Story 2. Andy has grown up and is on the verge of leaving for college. Many of the toys he once cherished have passed out of his possession leaving only the core collection of characters we’ve loved for years, Woody, Buzz, Slinky, Rexx, Hamm, Jessie, Bullseye and Mr and Mrs Potato Head. Very quickly that theme of obsoletion comes back into the forefront of the story but not before a thrilling opening fantasy sequence that sees a younger Andy enacting one of his classic good-guys-versus-bad-guys routines. It’s an opening that puts the Buzz Lighyear video game effort from last time to shame and joyously celebrates the power of imagination.

Fast-forward a few years and Woody and the gang are reduced to working elaborate plans with mobile phones to draw Andy’s attention and get some play time. Toy Story 2 presented the theme of Toy’s no longer being wanted as a far-in-the-future threat but 3 brings it right into the present. The toys face three possible fates, being stored in the attic, thrown out with the trash or donated to the local daycare centre. One quickfire series of events later and it’s off to the daycare centre.

The daycare centre is Sunnyside, a bright, colourful place packed with toys, a place of joy and happiness that happens to be in the grip of a fascist regime. It’s a tremendous place to set the majority of the film. I’ve often thought recently that a good setting is the key to quality adventure storytelling and Toy Story 3 absolutely nails it. What we have in this place is basically a prison-break movie and the film’s most entertaining scene is a vibrantly-handled escape sequence.

It’s all about balance. The plot moves at the right pace to remian engaging without ever getting too bogged-down by sentimentality or silly jokes. The gags are well-judged, ranging from character humour to more of the same delightful observational humour about toys. All of the classic charcters get plenty of screen time to do their thing but there are plenty of new characters. Sensibly, though, none of them dominate the film, indeed only a couple really come to the fore, strawberry-smelling bear Lotso and Barbie’s long-time boyfriend Ken, voiced by Michael Keaton and undoubtedly the best newcomer, holding down a lot of the best laughs.

Woody is still the hero and his story takes him elsewhere as he rather touchingly refuses to give up on Andy. The structure provides us with two story strands that mirror the second movie, one one side there is Woody and on the other the rest of the toys. We never stay for too long with one side of the story and things move quickly. And what about Buzz? Pixar, knowing what the fans want were well aware that the space ranger needed more to do then be just another character and they haven’t disappointed as his journey through the film has a couple of neat twists loaded with comedy.

By the time we reach the final act we’re all absolutely addicted again, the characters, the jokes, the better-than-ever visuals, the tear-jerking story all transport us for the third time into the realms of pure pleasure. You forget yourself when watching this film. Escapsim simply doesn’t get better than this.

Just when you think you’ve seen enough to confirm Toy Story 3 as the worthy concluding part to the trilogy it needed to be and you’re enjoying the thrilling final act the film hits you with a moment of pure beauty and raw emotion that most people won’t be prepared for. Even watching the film for a second time on DVD I felt myself welling up and I never ever cry at movies, that’s how powerful it was. It’s not just what happens but the way it’s done, the way it’s drawn out that makes it stand out. For me it was hands-down the best moment of the trilogy.

And even then it’s not over. The film ties up the plot of the trilogy beautifully with an extended final sequence that ties up all the loose ends and prolongs that something in your eye right to the end. It’s entirely, perfectly satisfying. Some fans will long for a fourth movie but the way 3 is wrapped up means it shouldn’t happen. It would be messy to continue and when we’ve signed off with such a gloriously entertaining, mesmerising and powerful third carrying on just isn’t necessary.

Verdict

As closing chapters to trilogies go this has to rank up there with the very best of them. Everything we need is here, laughs, colour, action, characters, and heart and it’s never been better. This towering achievement in escapist entertainment is lined with a tremendous sense of affection for the characters and everything their story stands for. It’s sad to finally see the end of this wonderful story about toys but the tears are accompanied by beaming smiles.

Film Review: The Great Mouse Detective

Tags

adventure, animation, Basil, Disney, Ratigan, Sherlock Holmes, The Great Mouse Detective, Vincent Price

Finally after five book reviews it’s time for a movie review and we begin in the world of animation, an area of film-making particularly special to me. As we’ve established I am very much a connoisuer of adventure storytelling and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that most of the best adventure movies are animations. My three favourite studios are Disney, Ghibli and Pixar, the latter is without any question the best and most consistently brilliant film studio in the world. For this review however I’m sticking with the best known film studio in the world, one that undeservingly reaps a lot of the credit for Pixar’s films by handling their release but has been responsible for a few corkers of iis own. I am of course talking about Disney.

People talk about Disney’s ‘Golden Age’, which ended with The Jungle Book and the ‘Disney Renaissance’ beginning with The Little Mermaid, claiming that the 22 years in between were a low point for the company but I don’t really hold with that. There were classics released in this period, they just don’t get the attention they deserve. Foremost among them is The Great Mouse Detective, released in 1986.

The Great Mouse Detective (sometimes called Basil the Great Mouse Detective) is based on a series of books by Eve Titus called Basil of Baker Street, in turn inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s innumerable stories about Sherlock Holmes. Set in London in 1897 the film presents us with a colourful adaptation of Sherlock Holmes’ world (minus the opium and cocaine) casting the principal characters as mice. Though the characters are mostly anthropomorphic mice Disney have not quite gone down the same road as their excellent adaptation of the Robin Hood legend (another great film from the studio’s supposed dark years). London is still inhabited by humans, among them Sherlock Holmes who we only see in silhouette, his voice provided courtesy of a recording from The Red-Headed League of Basil Rathbone (whose name inspired the naming of Holmes’ mouse equivalent) some years after the actor’s death. The world of Basil, the titular detective is hidden under floorboards and in secret places and Basil lives in a cosy little apartment underneath 211B Baker Street. There’s that tiny-people-living-in-a-big-human-world theme I love so much. It’s a great premise and paves the way for some terrific setting-based adventure.

So what’s the story? It begins with little Olivia Flaversham’s toymaker father’s abduction at hands, or rather wings of one Fidget, gravelly-voiced, peg-legged bat henchman to Professor Ratigan, equivalent to Holmes’ Professor Moriarty, voiced gleefully by Vincent Price no less. Little Olivia (bright-eyed and adorable thanks in chief to her cute Scottish brogue) seeks out Basil of Baker Street with the help of Major Dr David Q Dawson (our plump, very likeable Dr Watson in mosue form). Though Basil appears at first uninterested in the case, preoccupied as he is by his attempts to track down the aformentioned Ratigan, upon hearing about the bat’s involvement his sleuthing brain is stimulated and so begins a thoroughly enjoyable case.

Among The Great Mouse Detective’s triumphs are the way in which some of the more well-known sensibilities of the famous Holmes have been repackaged and shrunk down for kids. Basil is egotistical about his intellect, hell-bent on catching Ratigan and his persona borders at times on arrogance but he is all enthusiasm and breathless, heroic likeability. Most importantly Holmes’ extraordinary ability to deduce very accurately incredible details from the meagrest of clues is cartoonishly intact in a number of scenes, as is the character’s mastery of disguise. Basil is a worthy representation on one of fiction’s most famous characters and has been perfectly presented in colourful, child-friendly fashion and is the kind of hero pretty much everybody will love. Almost stealing the show is the dastardly Professor Ratigan, a quite excellent Napoleon of Crime figure. The rivalry between the two characters drives the whole show and gives real sparkle to the memorable scene where they finally meet near the film’s conclusion in which our hero faces a pretty sticky fate.

The film is pacy too, with scenes taking in seedy bars, Buckingham Palace and most memorable a dark toy shop at night. The plot is tight and satisfying, driven by Basil’s clever deductions, never staying in one place too long or getting bogged down by unnecessary gags or side-plots. There are faults, it’s too short and the songs could be better and I’m not really a fan of the Loony Tunes-style wacky cartoonishness in some places (piano keys wiggling around in a whip-crack wave), but these are minor quibbles at worst and are overwhelmed by the strength of the plot, it’s characters and settings and thew whole sense of fun.

Verdict

The words ‘forgotten classic’ have never been more appropriate. Considering the inspiration and, more relevantly the quality on show here it’s amazing The Great Mouse Detective didn’t enjoy greater success as it should stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Disney greats. Be sure to check it out if you have any interest in animation because this is one overlooked film that deserves attention.