The Princess and the Frog

DISCLAIMER: This blog is not for profit. I do not claim ownership of this material - all images and footage used are property of their respective companies unless stated otherwise.

I’ve always said that Princess and the Frog just came out at the wrong time – if it had been released in 2018, it would have been a much bigger hit. Not only were people (unfortunately) less interested in diverse media ten years ago than they would be now, but it came out at a time when Disney animation was in desperate need of a shake-up. As beautiful as the film was, it didn’t offer anything new to audiences whose attention needed to be really captured with something completely different.

Princess and the Frog is a renaissance classic in every way, a musical with hand-drawn animation and really fun bad guy who isn’t a surprise villain, (I know that might be shocking to read now, but it’s true). The first thing I always enjoy about this film is how beautiful the animation is – every frame looks stunning and it breaks my heart a little that this was the last hand-drawn film that Disney made. It of course has the first African American princess in Tiana, who makes for a very likable lead. Prince Naveen is a lot of fun and I also really enjoy the way that both of the leads are flawed characters at the beginning of the film, who help each other to grow into happier and healthier people. In addition, the plot is an interesting twist on a classic fairy-tale, but it still manages to feel like an old-school straight adaptation of an existing story.

I also find a lot of the music fun, although for the most part it’s not as good as the best music of the Renaissance, unfortunately.

But overall, Princess and the Frog is a fantastic film and I’m so happy that it’s finally starting to get the love that it deserves. 

Ratings

Good guys: Tiana and Naveen are both really great characters who have really interesting development together, so the good guys get 8/10

Bad guys: Dr Faclier is a really fun villain, so the bad guys get 7/10

Animation: Visually one of Disney’s best films, the animation gets 10/10

Music: It has some really good songs and some more forgettable ones, so overall the music gets 7/10

Plot: An interesting twist on Disney’s usual fairy-tale formula, the plot gets 6/10

Overall score: 38/50

Next review: Tangled

Bolt

DISCLAIMER: This blog is not for profit. I do not claim ownership of this material - all images and footage used are property of their respective companies unless stated otherwise.

                                                              

It’s safe to say that by 2008 Disney animation had been on a losing streak for a while, but when Bolt came out, they came back with a film that was both hilarious and packed a surprising emotional punch.

As this film is tragically underrated, many of you might not know the plot. It’s essentially about a dog named Bolt who stars on a television show and is convinced it’s all real, who then escapes into the real world and hilarity ensues. Many of the animal films in the canon so far have fallen into the trap of being overly fluffy, but here the storyline has some real emotional stakes, helped in part by the fantastic vocal performances of John Travolta, Susie Essman, Miley Cyrus and Mark Wolton.

The way that the film is able to balance its funny moments with it’s truly heart-warming and emotional moments is very admirable and its witty script also helps a lot.

In comparison to Disney’s last efforts, the animation has improved significantly and the usual pop songs have now been replaced with both a really great score and one rather sweet song that actually suits the atmosphere of the film.

Disney once again tried something different with Bolt – but this time, it finally paid off.

Ratings

Good guys: All of the main characters are very likable and compelling, meaning the good guys get 7/10

Bad guys: Not applicable

Animation: There is some really nice animation here, so it gets 6/10

Music: There is a really nice score here, so the music gets 6/10

Plot: A witty story which is also surprisingly emotional, the plot gets 8/10

Overall score: 32/50

Next review: The Princess and The Frog

Meet the Robinsons

DISCLAIMER: This blog is not for profit. I do not claim ownership of this material - all images and footage used are property of their respective companies unless stated otherwise. 

Although Meet the Robinsons does suffer the pitfalls of its predecessors, it has a very sweet story with the best of intentions at its core.

Meet the Robinsons is about an orphan (and brilliant inventor) named Lewis who is whisked away and in a time machine and is taken into the future by a mysterious stranger named Wilbur Robinson.   

When I say it suffers the pitfalls of its predecessors, you’ll probably know what I mean by now. Whilst the animation is definitely an improvement on Chicken Little, it’s not exactly up to Disney’s previous standards, as they were still figuring out the whole CGI thing. Additionally, much like Home on the Range, the film is really too zany for its own good much of the time – a lot of the humour is so all over the place that the whole thing just ends up feeling chaotic.

Luckily, it does actually have a really good storyline, with very likable characters, all of whom have well developed relationships. There is also a very effective twist in the middle, which strengthens this asset even more – unfortunately, much of the time-travel aspects of the plot don’t really make much sense, which means that it falls a little flat in the climax, but it works well overall.

The villain, named Bowler Hat Guy, also has a great character design and a good old-fashioned, purely evil villain is something Disney had been missing for a long time at this point.

Whilst Meet the Robinsons certainly isn’t Disney’s best film, I would say it’s definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it already!

Overall score

Good guys: Most of the main characters are pretty likable, so the good guys get a solid 6/10

Bad guys: The Bowler Hat Guy makes for an entertaining villain, so he also gets 6/10

Animation: Although it’s not as bad as Chicken Little, it’s still not great, so the animation gets 4/10

Music: There are a few catchy pop tunes used, but much of the soundtrack is actually quite forgettable 5/10

Plot: Whilst some of the time-travel aspects of the storyline don’t make much sense, it has a very sweet plot overall, so the story gets 6/10

Overall score: 27/50

Next review: Bolt

Chicken Little

DISCLAIMER: This blog is not for profit. I do not claim ownership of this material - all images and footage used are property of their respective companies unless stated otherwise. 

                                                                    

Whilst it’s not as terrible as Home on the Range, Chicken Little goes in such a bizarre direction and has such dire animation that it still ranks amongst the worst films so far.  

In fact, the basic idea behind the film, that Chicken Little was right and that the sky really was falling, actually shows some promise, as it’s a unique and interesting take on a classic children’s story. If this film had been made in any other decade, it could’ve turned out a lot better. Unfortunately, it was made in the 2000s when Walt Disney Animation Studios were desperately trying to keep up with shiny new modern studios Dreamworks and Pixar. As previously seen in their other films to increasing extents, this meant that classic timeless stories with beautiful animation were out and desperate attempts to be hip and ‘down with the kids’ were in. Due to the failure of Home on the Range, Disney also decided to scrap hand drawn animation. Because that’s why Home on the Range flopped apparently. As a result, Chicken Little was Disney’s first foray into CGI and… let’s just say it doesn’t look great. In fact, other than a few nice backgrounds and some creative scenery choices, much of the film is quite frankly ugly to look at. Their desperate need to be trendy also means that unfortunately instead of the sweeping scores of the Renaissance, we now get largely forgettable pop songs as our soundtrack.

In addition to this, when developing the premise of this film, they decided that the reason for the sky falling should be…aliens?!? As I said, this is such a bizarre direction for the plot to take that it’s hard to take it seriously after that point. Even before that, the plot about Chicken Little’s relationship with his father is marred by the fact that they somehow managed to make Chicken Little’s Dad one of the worst parents in Disney history, possibly in animation in general. The fact that Chicken Little needs to be proven right in his claims to earn his Dad’s support also sends a pretty dodgy message overall.

But outside of all this, it does have some redeeming qualities, as Chicken Little himself makes for an adorable protagonist and there are some genuinely funny moments. Other than that, there’s not much great about Chicken Little. 

Overall score

Good guys: Although Chicken Little is really cute, apart from his sidekick fish out of water none of the other good guys are particularly likable or memorable, meaning the good guys get 5/10 overall

Bad guys: The aliens also aren’t particularly memorable, so they get 4/10

Animation: Aside from some nice backgrounds, this is some of Disney’s worst animation, meaning it gets 2/10

Music: Most of the music is pretty bland, but none of it’s awful so the music balances out to 5/10

Plot: It initially shows promise, but goes in a completely bizarre direction, meaning that the plot gets 4/10

Overall score: 20/50

Next review: Meet the Robinsons