More EPKing The Princess & The Frog
Disney released this today. It’s not the 6 minutes of footage found on the Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs DVD release, which is the opening of the film, establishing the core qualities of the family The Princess comes from.
And yes, it does feel as though – as we go into this too conscious of the issues around the film – that Disney is managing the racial issues a bit. But that is a part of their job. And if you look at it without the built-in concerns about race, this is yet another piece that simply looks like the pitch for a classic Disney film.
It looks astounding, but I will stand by my longlasting assertion that this type of film will live or die by its music. The songs from Little Mermaid, Lion King, Aladdin, and Beauty & the Beast are amazingly indelible memories. All the subsequent Disney animated films that came after were mediocre or worse from a music perspective, and no one talks about them or barely remembers them anymore. I hope like the dickens that music was at the foremost of the directors’ minds when they were making this.
I like it.
The score and the songs from Hunchback are pretty great (at least the opening number, God Help the Outcasts and the supremely awesome Hellfire). And I rather like the Phil Collins songs as well as the score to Tarzan. Other than that, most of the rest have had forgettable songs save for one or two worthies per film (I Won’t Say from Hercules for example).
The songs from Mulan are super strong. Reflection (the Xtina version) is pretty much a pop classic from the mid-90s.
This made the movie look a lot stronger than the original trailer. Hopefully it will be a comeback for them in non-Pixar animation after losing money/barely breaking even on “Bolt,” “G-Force,” the domestic release of “Ponyo,” and probably the Toy Story 3D re-release movie (tracking weakly), and “A Christmas Carol.”
“All the subsequent Disney animated films that came after were mediocre or worse from a music perspective, and no one talks about them or barely remembers them anymore.”
Mulan and Tarzan were both fantastic(and if i remember correctly, Tarzan was behind only Episode 1 and The Sixth Sense as the highest grossing film of it’s year). Mulan had arguably the last truly great Jerry Goldsmith score, and Tarzan, with it’s deep canvas animated backgrounds, was a breathrough in the medium. It was really only with half-assed early ’00′s efforts like Treasure Planet and Atlantis that the rot set in. Disney’s late ’90′s efforts i rank way above more recent CGI flicks like Chicken Little (poor) and Bolt (okay). Hopefully Lasseter’s supervision will lift the division into another golden age.
Let me just pipe in and say that I consider Lilo & Stitch one of the best recent (well, recent-ish) pieces of Disney animation. The watercolor backgrounds were beautiful, and the Lilo story about a modern broken family really gets me every time I watch it.
It’s a shame they milked the Stitch parts for all they were worth, pretty much destroying the property.
I don’t think the recent stretch by Disney is any worse than similar dry spells the company went through in the 70′s and 80′s in animation (1942-1950 and 1981-1989 are probably the worst periods in its history). But after the golden age of Mermaid, Beast, Aladdin and Lion King it just seems worse. The stretch of films after that, Pocahomtas, Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan and New Groove were all respectable musically and otherwise…just not classics.
But man they went off the rails after that. 5 of its 6 films after that straight up BLOW (Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, Home on the Range, Chicken Little…Lilo being the exception) and even though “Meet the Robinsons” and “Bolt” aren’t terrible, they didn’t make money and Disney wisely decided it would never match Pixar.
Their real crime all these years though, is trashing their best films with unforgivable direct to video dogshit.
Two sequels to “Aladdin”, two to “Beauty and the Beast”, two for “Lion King”, two for “Cinderella,” two for “Mermaid” and one each for: Pocohontas, Mulan, Tarzan, Lilo and Stitch, 101 Dalmatians (the animated one), The Fox and the Hound, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lady and the Tramp, and unforgivably “Bambi.”
Apparently everything’s fair game except Snow White and Pinocchio. They’ve spent the last decade trying to drive a stake into people’s childhoods.
“1942-1950 and 1981-1989 are probably the worst periods in its history.”
There’ll be no dissing of The Great Mouse Detective round these parts – that one was just the business. Agree about the those abominable DTV sequels though. Apparently, this heinous practice was only halted for economic reasons rather than it being an utter desecration of the legacy of the studio and it’s genius artists. Ah well, whatever it takes.
I actually liked Atlantis and Treasure Planet. They weren’t great, but were inventive with excellent character design (Treasure Planet especially).
I don’t really care about the DTV crap because, frankly, you have to completely go out of your way to watch it, and I never bothered. That said, Bambi 2 was supposedly pretty good, and even got a theatrical release in Europe, if I recall correctly.
Another cheer for The Great Mouse Detective. Vincent Price was wonderful and the climactic Big Ben fight scene was rather brutal for a Disney cartoon back in those days.
Emperor’s New Groove is the odd exception during the ‘down period’. That may still be the funniest thing that Disney has ever done. Still above posters are right. In the end, there are a couple misses (Treasure Planet for example) but even the ‘lesser’ animated films (Mulan, Tarzan, Hunchback) are pretty terrific, shaming both the non-Pixar stuff that followed (Meet The Robinsons excepted) and much of the rival studios’ output. Give me Hunchback and the late Tony Jay’s sorrowful villainy over Monsters Vs. Aliens any day.
What I liked was 1981 to 1991 WHEN NO FUCKING SELF-RESPECTED MALE OF ANY AGE ABOVE 8 WOULD HAVE WATCHED AAAAAAAAAAAAAAANY OF THIS SHIT.
Those being my formative years, I continue to be BAFFLED that ANY man of ANY AGE would have seen Beauty and the Beat or Aladdin or Ratatouille or AAAAAANY OF THAT SHIT at ANY POINT EEEEEEEEEVER.
Even if you HAVE KIDS, that is NO EXCUSE.
Send the BALL AND CHAIN out to take the kids to that shit while you hit the strip club.
Like, you guys are actually WILLINGLY sitting in theaters while some DISNEY CARTOON is playing before your eyes?
WHAT ARE YOU, MEN OR MICE?
Mendelson, GROW THE FUCK UP. Christ, Koteas, you’re 54 years old.
Go back to your Stefanie Meyer chick-lit.
Here here to Basil, The Great Mouse Detective. Loved that movie as a kid. And The Emperor’s New Groove? I forgot about that one, but that is some funny stuff right there.