I listened to the Dumbo song and I can somewhat hear the similarities between it and I've Got a Dream. However, if you hadn't mentioned it, I don't think I would have noticed the resemblance. To be honest, I never paid much attention to that Dumbo song anyway.
Fair enough. I haven't seen
Dumbo in ages, despite that it was the very first Disney film I ever saw and loved. In my childhood I tended to prefer Walt's films, actually. They spoke to me more back then and I found them more appealing due to their innocence and endearing nature. Until I saw
The Lion King at it's release at the age of ten and it converted me to like the Renaissance films more. None of the other Renaissance films truly appealed to me as much as
The Lion King did.
My favorite Revival film used to be Frozen but the past few years have mellowed my feelings on it. It has a lot of faults which detract from my love for the film, which is a pity because it has a lot going for it.
Really? Were you a fan a long time? And what did you like about it?
I'm not fond of how they villainize finding true love in a day (literally with Hans), but then turn around and establish Kristoff and Anna as loving each other, despite the fact that they've known each other as long as Anna knew Hans, if not less.
Well said! I've never thought about that one before, but you've absolutely right. But it's always irked me that they added an (contrived) love triangle for Anna, due to my aforementioned rants about Elsa and Anna's conflict being enough of a plot for the movie.
As such, I'd say that my favorite is either Wreck-It Ralph or Zootopia. Tangled I despise, Moana is generic, and Big Hero 6 I liked, but I realized that I don't care that much for it since I've barely watched it since it came out.
Wreck-It Ralph is my favorite too, due to how it was Disney trying to do something new and it felt fresh, engaging and clever. I had a ingenious, savvy plot and likable characters. I didn't thought of it as being Pixar-esque, but rather DreamWorks-like (post-2008, when DreamWorks had more clever movies). I thought
Zootopia was just meh.
Big Hero 6 eventually grew on me and it has it's moments, but it never felt invigorating at the same way
Ralph did.
Tangled and
Moana has their moments and while they're respectable additions, they felt overall meh to me. But at least
Moana didn't struggle with the uneven tone that
Tangled had. And don't get me started on
Frozen, which is just meh.
Btw, since we've already discussed the cons of
Tangled, one moment in the film that was especialy cringe-worthy is Rapunzel's realization of her identity. It just was so contrived and off putting to have the sun marks glow just to make them overtly. It felt like an insult to the audiences intelligence, because it could've been made without having making them glow. And how the camera swoops down in circles was also too much and the flashback moments were awfully blurry, even for a flashback moment. And what's with Rapunzel reviving the same moment of staring at herself with the crown in an empty, black space?
I hated that scene.
I find it unrealistic that Anna wouldn't hold any resentment towards Elsa throughout the film. The only team she displays that is when Elsa refuses to bless Anna and Hans' marriage, but I would have liked to see more of an emotional reaction from Anna later on. Like in the deleted song, "Life's Too Short," where the sisters are fighting. That was much more realistic than "For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)." I know Anna is an optimistic and cheerful person, but all the problems in their sisterly relationship feel sidelined.
Agreed. But Anna's characterization is meant to be the devoted believer to a person and Anna isn't the only archetype who's that. Though of course I agree about Anna's lack of resentment is unrealistic.
I think most people felt that Elsa's role in the film was way too limited, and time devoted to Kristoff and the trolls could have been centered on Elsa. Especially time fleshing her out and her relationship with Anna..
I know, but I know many people who think that Elsa's limited screentime is just fine and that she shouldn't been more developed. And yes, it's true. Speaking of Kristoff, he was also one of the cons of the film. He's a quite little developed character and basically another archetype of a loner who doesn't like people and not having a reason for justifying it. Besides, since
Frozen had a love quadrangle, I've read a comment that Kristoff should've ended with Elsa, due to them both being lovers who had their affection for ice
And I agree, because they've would've made a better pairing. Besides, by having a love quadrangle, why wasting on someone who's evil?
Speaking of which, what are your thoughts about giving Elsa a girlfriend?
I was just reading The Art of the Hunchback of Notre Dame book and it said many of the things you just said, about how progresive it was for a Disney film to have an unattractive main character who doesn't get the girl but is still lovable because of the beauty of his soul. This plus the realistic setting which really shows the grittiness of living in Paris during the Medieval period. I've heard some people on this forum complain about Hunchback's ending with the little girl. Personally, I was never offended by it, except I really hated the little girl's design. Something about it felt very off, which is ironic because Hunchback's art book has some concept art and storyboards for the ending scene and I quite like her design in that...
Lately I've found her design to be more off-putting, but her design is still not the worst of the worst. Btw, I've always liked the ending, that a little, unknown girl actually makes the first movie to bring Quasi to acceptance. I thought it was cute. Even though I saw Disney's
Hunchback before being aware of it being an story that I've payed attention to before (I've had of course seen nods to the story in pop culture prior to seeing Disney's version, but I never payed attention to those before seeing Disney's version)
I hadn't heard of any controversy with Hunchback in Europe. In fact, I remember it was better received there than in the U.S.
You know what? I happen to be a Norwegian with Latino roots, so I saw
Hunchback in Latin-America the summer of 1996 prior to it being released in Norway.
Hunchback created a lot of controversy in Norway, since some local distributors complained that it was too controversial and dark for kids.
Hunchback didn't do well in Norway, but I've heard absolutely none of the controversy in Chile (which was the country I saw it) and it did pretty well there. But I've heard that it was a bigger hit in Europe otherwise. The directors even talks about the European success in their Audio Commentary (despite that I have a Norwegian Movie Magazine back on it's release where the directors were confronted with the controversial content)
Hercules is the film I remember that didn't do so well there, especially Greece where it was essentially banned..
Oh, I know all about it! I remember the Norwegian press actually confirming it on it's release. But
Hercules didn't do domestically either, unfortunately, though it did pretty well overseas general.
Do you like
Hercules, btw?
The princesses are definitely more than just kindness and good manners, but unfortunately that's what they are typecast as now.
There's nothing wrong that a (Disney) Princess is labeled for her kindness and such, but unfortunately it's a stock trait that stereotypes the Princesses in a negative way. In fact, Disney characters are usually labeled for being archetypes, but Disney Princesses are certainly just labeled for those traits.
I wish Enchanted had been inducted into the DP franchise just so it would get more promotion and merchandise. As for why Giselle is such a Disney Princess without being a princess, I suppose the answer is that she's like Cinderella in that respect. Cinderella is also a commoner but she's described in the opening song as having the air of a queen, or being a queen. Basically she has all the dreamy princess qualities and this is why she gets to marry a prince and become a princess. Giselle is a similar case and if it hadn't been for Narissa's intervention, she'd have married a prince and then officially become a princess. But I suppose the point is that even though she didn't have the title, she carried herself like a fairy tale princess. Even if Cinderella wouldn't marry the prince, or was divorced for some reason, she'd still carry those same qualities. That's my take on it though.
True, but the difference is that Giselle never becomes actually married to a Prince, unlike Cinderella, Belle and Tiana (which is defintively true in the latters case, due to her position).
I never really saw BATB as having plotholes. The winter thing never once occurred to me and I always assumed that the castle was so deeply forested away that the villagers were never really aware of it.
To be honest, that was a weird contrivance. Since the animated film occurred in the fall that merged into winter, it was contrived to have the spell casting winter over the forest and the castle. Guess they were inspired by
Frozen too much
Which is funny, since the 2017 update of Charles Salomon's
The Art and Making of BATB has the creators saying of how to differentiate their live action remake from
Frozen (it's true).
I'm fine with the memory part of the spell though, but I didn't care for how it was revealed that Mrs. Potts' husband and Cogsworth's wife actually lived in the village.
In fact, I thought it was a contrived choice to have Jean being Mrs. Pott's husband and therefore making him sympathetic and redeemable.
Wasted opportunity to use the Broadway songs and bring back Human Again.
Agreed. I've read that the original idea was to adapt the Broadway show as a musical. As for
Human Again, I was lukewarm to it initially, but I've grown to love it afterwards.
I haven't seen Return to Neverland in a long time, but I remember being fond of it as a kid. I'm sure my opinion would change now though. I was never too fond of Jane anyway since I preferred Wendy. I also didn't care for the octopus and the lack of the mermaids.
Yeah, I didn't care for Jane either, due to her being too prissy (yet's, I know it was the intention of her character, but still). My biggest grief was the lack of the Native Americans, since I never liked the mermaids. And I hated the octupus (which was the worst part of the film, those scenes of the octupus looking through his victims makes me cringe everytime).
Otherwise, I felt sorry for Wendy for all the abuse she went through in NeverLand. But despite this, it was probably a part of having her grow and evolve as a character, due to learning that growing up is about having decency and that NeverLand is not a particularly friendly places.
Tell me how you feel about the live-action Peter Pan. I've heard lots of people say that this is the film Disney should have made.
Well, if it's a good remake that honors the original, I wouldn't mind it. And probably one that deepens the characters.
Thanks for posting the early American production of Hunchback.
To quote the Great Maui; You're welcome. One thing that I dislike about this version, is how the speed of the opening chants of
The Bells of Notre Dame is slowed down. I thought it definitively didn't suit the song, since it worked better with a normal speed.
I always wanted to watch the German version but I could never find an English version of it and I guess this is the closest to that. I'll be sure to watch it now!
Oh, there's a German version with English subtitles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP8cM6QRkA4&t=1660s. For your service
Is the version of Top of the World in this production like the German one that you praised?
Yup. Actually. It's a pity that it was never truly transferred to the LaJolla version.
Why do you feel Arden wasn't suitable for the role of Quasi? Personally, I found him likable, as much as Tom Hulce was in the animated film. Perhaps he didn't have enough charisma in the role for you.
Exactly.
One thing that I did like from the LaJolla version was
The Tavern Song Yet I've noticed that the official soundtrack has different versions from the actual stageplay, which is certainly true in
The Tavern Song.
I'm hoping that since Disney is starting to release some of their catalogue titles in 4K UHD, that maybe they'll start to release new bonus features and port over all the old ones. After all, the first Disney DVDs and later Blu-Rays were packed with extras.
One thing that I've noticed is how Disney has a tendency of being late with home media trends, as with DVD and Blu Ray. Disney used some time before releasing all their films in DVD and Blu Ray. Perhaps it's due to the Disney Vault?
I do remember that Aladdin made its Disney Channel premiere right after Robin Williams died. Which could have influenced its American Blu-Ray release.
Most likely. It's not strange that DC showed
Aladdin in honor to Williams' death. I never bothered to check out the European Blu-Ray release, due to it's lack of new bonus features.