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Sorry for the late response.
I will never forgive you

Kidding

I can be as late as well, so I'll quote The Corrs; You're Forgiven, Not Forgotten

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It must have been nice growing up seeing all the information out there for upcoming Disney films. I do remember Movie Surfers for the early 2000s films (and I think they were around for the late 90s films as well) but something like that doesn't exist anymore either.
Yeah. My knowlegde about Movie Surfers were through YouTube, due to me being non-American. But it's a pity that Movie Surfers isn't as relevant anymore. It was at least good and entertaining. Too bad that the Movie Surfers episode about
Simba's Pride haven't been released.
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I actually like the comedy that Pocahontas has, especially with Wiggins and Nakoma. I love Meeko, Flit, and Percy as well who tend to be the most criticized.
To be honest, I think the comedy between the animals works. It does stick a little out, but at least the animals are genuinely funny, despite how criticized they are. At least their comedy is not different than from the usual Disney route, since it's a semi-slapstick mode that Disney has done before with their other films. I was lucky enough to see
Pocahontas twice theatrically and the audiences laughed out loud with the comedy. Which is more than I could say about
The Lion King, where the audience barely chuckled by the jokes.
To be honest, I love Meeko, because he's fun and endearing. At least his conflict with Percy served an actual purpose, whereas Flit was just useless and served as a third wheel (I know that his purpose was to be a reflection of our heroines serious side, but honestly, he did nothing to progress the plot). To be honest, I'm lesser fond of Percy and Flit, due to them both being unlikable in their own way. I wasn't particularly fan of Nakoma, due to me finding her prissy and unlikable, but Wiggins works. And just to be said, I didn't hate Nakoma for what she did.
Btw, I noticed that Disney made a huge deal about the non-speaking ability of the animals of
Pocahontas, when in reality it wasn't fair. Since
Pocahontas was far from the first film to do so, but both critics and marketing made it look like it was the first Disney film where the animals didn't talked.
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Hunchback was slightly less successful imo. Clopin, Phoebus, and Djali were fine (even Esmeralda in her escape scene), but the gargoyles were ugh. Actually I liked Laverne and Victor was generally tolerable but it was Hugo who felt so out of place.
Agreed. In my childhood I actually enjoyed the Gargoyles due to their wacky and loony personalities, which means that they did what they were supposed to; Entertaining the children. However, my teenage and adult years have made me realize how jarring and out of place they are. But personally I felt the soldiers were even more jarring and annoying during their comedic phases (especially with their Goofy yells).
I agree that Djali was fine. He served the same purpose as the usual Disney sidekick, but at least his inclusion made sense, due to him being from the novel (of course the Gargoyles also were, but they weren't alive in the novel

). I remember looking forward to see
Hunchback because of Djali, hahaha! Since I found him adorable by the trailers and such. Phoebus and Clopin were fine, though, despite that the former was more comedic than the latter.
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I watched so much of The Legend of Tarzan that it was jarring for me to go back to the real Tarzan film and remember that Terk and Tantor can't understand Jane and vice-versa.
True, but it makes more sense to have the animals and humans communicating in a series than in a movie.
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I prefer Sven over Maximus and although they're similar, I really can't stand Maximus. He's so overrated but not nearly as much as Pascal is.
Oh, I agree about Maximus! I like his desing, but he's overall very overrated. But I disagree about Pascal, because I adore him. What's funny is that Pascal even sounds like a dinosaur

I thought it was somewhat odd to have a Chameleon in a European fairy tale, but at least Pascal works. I know the creators didn't wanted a sidekick for Rapunzel, but they made one.
Btw, do you remember that when
Tangled came out, there were some talks about the look of the film being more painterly and not just obvious CGI?
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BATB was one that he also abandoned because he couldn't figure out what to do after Belle came to the castle.
True. I know that Walt was considering making
The Little Mermaid as a part of a Hans Christian Andersen biography, but according to The Legacy Collection CD, there were plans to do a full-length version of
Mermaid as well. But I haven't found any proofs for those.
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Yes, I've seen many people compare BATB and Tangled, mainly because of their ending scenes.
Yes, but I've even noticed that people compare them because of being similar in tone. At least the ending is comparable to of
BATB, but it may be a shallow reading (though truth to be fair, people compare
Tangled and
Mermaid due to them both having a boat scene). I know we've talked about many people comparing
Frozen to
BATB, but at least people due to that because of their endings.
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I've always wanted to see Wagner's Ring Cycle adapted, at least the tale of the Valkyrie Brunnhilde and her love story with Siegfried, the epic hero. Tam Lin would have nearly gotten us Scottish mythology if that had been adapted.
OK. Why not?
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I didn't realize Disney was looking at Norse or Scottish myths before they decided on Hercules. Do you have more information on that?
Well, there were some Norwegians articles about that, which I couldn't find. And when
Hercules was released, a Norwegian movie show actually interviewed the directors about it.
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Not just Meg, but Herc and Phil as well. Although I don't blame Philoctetes being shortened to Phil lol. I suppose Aladdin was guilty of this as well since Genie called Aladdin "Al" but at least you can see the Genie doing that since he's a timeless being of sorts.
Nice catch. At least it would've made less sense in
Hercules than it was in
Aladdin, but at least
Hercules was deliberately made to be Americanized, so it works.
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I'm not sure if The Prince of Egypt would be any better if it wasn't a musical. People seem to love the songs in the film and it's being adapted to Broadway now as well. I certainly think there's room for an animated Biblical film without songs, but I think it worked well for The Prince of Egypt.
To be honest, I like most of the songs in
The Prince of Egypt (especially
All I Ever Wanted,
Look Through Heavens Eyes and
The Plagues, the latter that could've heard like it came from
Hunchback), but at the time I still thought that perhaps
The Prince of Egypt could've benefited more from not being a musical. But for all the risks
Egypt took, at least
Hunchback took more risks, in my opinion (I know many people compares those movies due to their religious tones)
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I've never seen Antz but I did love the first two Shrek films for quite some time, even more than Disney for the brief time that I felt I was too old for Disney lol. Didn't last long though.
Hahahaha, for me neither! I had a period when I was thirteen where I felt I was too old for Disney and even when I was twenty I felt I had grown from it. But those periods didn't last long, cause I got reaccquanited with my love from Disney when I turned twenty-one. Even in my teenage years I loved Disney and was determined to never grow up from it
You should see
Antz. It's really good.
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Pocahontas was supposed to be the American version of Romeo and Juliet so the unhappy ending was inevitable, but I'm glad they didn't kill John Smith off. It's more bittersweet if he's still alive but thousands of miles away.
True, but it's still daring that Disney dared to pull it off, by releasing such a film that was in the height of their success. I know this was something that worried the crew (according to David Koenig's
Mouse Under Glass, which is certainly a must-read for every Disney fan, especially those who loves
Hunchback). I know many Disney fans consider the ending to
The Fox and the Hound to be sad, yet I never thought of it that way. Just bitttersweet. Besides, despite how
Pocahontas gets criticized for it's Disneyfication, they still followed the unhappy ending route. Wonder if Disney would ever make a film with an unhappy ending again.
And due to
Pocahontas being a
Romeo and Juliet-premise; People act like Disney themselves were the ones who invented the
Romeo and Juliet-premise of the story, when in fact it's not.
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I didn't even think about how Anastasia and Hercules both have a similar ending in that respect. Funny how both came out the same year as well (the year of my birth actually).
Really? I turned thirteen that year, haha! So you can guess how old I am now

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I'd love to see Anya as part of the Disney Princess franchise for as much as I love to bash the franchise, there's no doubt that it keeps the core characters beloved across the globe.
True, but even that would've made the naysayers whine. Perhaps Disney could've buy the rights to
The Swan Princess and intergrate Odette into the franchise too

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There were some similarities between the 90s heroines as well, but they still had enough solid differences and generally their character designs were unique enough.
True. Though I've used to think that Esmeralda somewhat resembled Jasmine and later on I've thought that even Mulan resembled Jasmine. Though it may be shallow readings of mine.
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I'm neutral on Tiana because there are things I like about her and things I don't. Mainly I love Anika Noni Rose, so most of my love for Tiana comes from her voice acting. I think Tiana's design is a bit generic though, especially her hair which is very boring. Disney Princesses usually have unique hair and out of all the princesses, Tiana probably has the most bland hairstyle. She's too much of a workaholic for my taste, not that I like the Naveen end of the spectrum either. I do like her dreams even though I think that making her want to be a chef alienated little girls who usually prefer princesses with vaguer dreams, not least because Tiana's goal also aged her. She reminds me more of Nani actually, a great Disney character but not one that necessarily works as a princess. I didn't care much for how her father was her driving force, which is why, like we discussed earlier, I wish they had put more emphasis on her mother or deleted little sister. I think the sister element would have been great (like Lilo & Stitch) and also beaten Frozen to the punch lol.
Why did Tiana's goal also aged her?
I'm neutral to Tiana, but I think she's a fairly decent and passable character. I think Anika Noni Rose's voice complemented her. I did like her design, though, but just like you, I didn't liked her hairstyle. Her hair wasn't long enough (I like girls with long hair) and it was never untied. Otherwise, I liked that she was a workaholic, yet her arc (to enjoy life) was fairly traditional. What I didn't like about her, is how she treated Naveen when she first met him and that when she agrees to kiss him, it's for selfish reasons. I also found that her overall arc is somewhat muddled; She gets her cake and gets to eat it, too; Her arc is about learning about needs versus wants, whereas in the end, she gets it both ways. Yet one thing that I like about Tiana is that she's not a carbon copy of Rapunzel, Anna and Honey Lemon.
Speaking of which, have you noticed that the only Princesses of color to the Revival era were made by John Musker and Ron Clements?
Funny that you say that Tiana reminds you of Nani, since she does resemble Nani. However, I felt that in some concept arts that she even looks like Audrey Ramirez from
Atlantis (if you remember her). I feel terrible to say this, but I thought Nani, in reality, just served as the mold as Lilo's worried nanny and really had little to no personality to distinguish her as being something more (at least Tiana had some sass, spunk and a personality, despite not being as memorable). However, I agree that their sisterly dynamic is far more superior to the sisters of
Frozen, despite being more apart in age. If we're going to scrutnize it more, at least they both movies have a older, more subdued and serious sister and a quirkier and bubblier sister.
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I liked Jane because of her quirks and because she was Disney's first comical heroine. Meg had snarky comments but Jane was the first one who you could laugh at, not just with. It's rare for the leading lady to ever be a comic in her film, especially with Disney leading ladies. I also like that she's interested in both the arts and sciences and I think she would have been a great role model as a Disney Princess.
Fair enough, but I thought that Mulan was also a comical heroine. At least because she gets herself in funny situation. Despite how Tiana can be funny as well, as a frog.
I know that Jane used to be a part of the Princess franchise, but lately she was excluded. At least one good thing about the nineties heroines is that the late nineties actually made all the heroines commoners. Even Esmeralda was a part of the franchise, after later on being excluded.
Btw, don't you find it notable that Rapunzel, who wasn't a Princess in the original tale, is an actual Princess in the Disney version, whereas Tiana, who was a Princess in the original tales, isn't at first (and yes, I know the latter is due to the impossibility of Tiana being a Princess, but I find those changes to be a little amusing, to be honest).
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Usually I don't see critics of Fa Zhou but recently I've seen a poster complain about him a lot so perhaps the hate is out there. I never realized that the creative team struggled with coming up with a reason for him not to follow Mulan. I never doubted the reason he gave in the film since it seemed logical enough, so I didn't realize it took them so long to come up with that.
Well, I used to dislike Fa Zhou of that reason, but I guess it's due to Chinese cultural norms. You should watch the Audio Commentary for
Mulan.
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To be fair, Kerchak does come around to Tarzan after he kills Sabor. He's ready to accept him right then and there but then the gunshot happens and that leads Tarzan to go explore where he meets the humans. The next time Tarzan and Kerchak interact with each other, it's when Kerchak sees the humans at camp so that pretty much destroys the pretty substantial progress made between the two. Finally, at the end, he's able to accept Tarzan as a human though, which he didn't when he fought Sabor. There, he was able to accept Tarzan as a legitimate heir because he was basically more gorilla than the other gorillas and proven to not be a very good human. So the real acceptance for who Tarzan is (both the biological human side and the familial gorilla side) only comes at the end.
Fair enough, but Kerchak's acceptance of Tarzan when he kills Sabor wasn't as overt as it is at the very end. Which is, like you said, is the true acceptance of Tarzan and Kerchak. I know it was a deliberate choice of the creative team, since they talk about it in the Audio Commentary.
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I don't usually have issues with CGI elements in hand-drawn films, and most of the main examples I only noticed because other people referred to them. The Anastasia music box never bothered me. The only thing in Anastasia I did notice was the horse statue that Rasputin brings to life at the end, because the hair is still traditionally animated so that stands out
Funny how you mention the Pegasus statue, since that's one that is obviously CGI (another cue from
Hercules 
)). In
Anastasia the CGI stands out a lot.
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but otherwise it was really just the Hydra scene in Hercules that caught me off guard.
Yeah, the Hydra scene is the most overt scene where the CGI stands out, but I've never liked how visually dark and generic-looking the scene overall is. However, the rest of the CGI blends fine, even the clouds in Mount Olympus.
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Tarzan and Treasure Planet are both visual spectacles imo with their merging of CGI and hand drawn animation. Such a shame we couldn't get any other movie like that after
I think
Tarzan is a prime example of CGI that perfectly blends with the hand drawn, despite how obvious the CGI elements in
Tarzan are. Whereas
Treasure Planet has a couple of moments where both mediums don't blend well (especially with the whales). But it was definitively notable in DreamWorks hand drawn movies, especially the later ones. And yeah, it's a shame that we couldn't get more movies like that.
If we're actually going to mention a couple of movies where the CGI almost looks like hand drawn, it must be
Pocahontas and
The Emperor's New Groove. With the exeception of Grandmother Willow, both movies has the CGI elements blending it so well that you wouldn't even question if they were CGI (I was surprised when I found that certain props in
Pocahontas were CGI).
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Disney usually doesn't consider their books canon so I'm not surprised that Kopa isn't canon. The issues with the continuities of Kiara and Kovu make less sense. Either they should dismiss the sequel altogether for The Lion Guard, or they should make sure both fit together in perfect conjunction.
Fair enough, but what about the other theories for the cub's original name? Besides, I've heard that people claiming that
Simba's Pride wasn't canon, due to it changing the gender of Simba's cub, which didn't made
The Lion King's ending full circle. I know that Kiara's name was even changed. Remember the making off-featurette of
Aladdin & The King of Thieves that I mentioned? It was announced then that her name would be Shani and that Zira's name would be Bianca. So I was surprised that the final movie didn't have those names, yet after doing some research, they were supposed to be named those names.
However, if there's one thing that I genuinely appreciate about
Simba's Pride, is that it shows that Simba is still haunted by the trauma from Scar. It certainly made it more realistic.
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Lol, fair enough. Would you suggest that the prince be turned back into the Beast as well or just the servants into objects?
Sure, why not? It would've been at least a legit reason for having them going to their former selves again.
Btw, did you like
The Princess and the Frog?