Frozen

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.

                                                        

Whichever way you go reviewing this movie, it’s always going to be controversial – this is honestly one of the most divisive films in the canon. Personally, I feel like the Frozen-hate on the internet has gotten massively out of hand. Even before it blew up into a monster that even I got a bit sick of, I always thought that it was a stellar film, with a brilliant soundtrack, a heart warming story and some stunning animation.

You all know (and either love or hate) the story of sisters Anna and Elsa and Elsa’s ice powers, so I don’t really feel like I need to explain the plot. It’s a really sweet story, which also cleverly subverts a lot of Disney tropes, especially ‘true love’ and our typical perception of Disney heroes and villains. Anna and Elsa are both great protagonists, with Anna being a fun central character and Elsa’s struggle being the best part of the film (in fact, and rather unfortunately, I find Elsa’s story to be far more compelling than Anna’s, which is a bit of a flaw in the narrative considering we spend far more time with Anna.)

But my favourite thing about this film is its soundtrack. It’s as dramatic, fun and emotive as any great musical needs to be. And yes, I still think Let It Go is a great song, in spite of how overplayed it has become. One final note is that much of the animation is incredible, particularly in my personal favourite segment of the film, the scene where Anna visits Elsa’s ice palace.

Overall, Frozen is a really enjoyable film, with some great music and animation, which is well worth a watch if you’re the only person on the planet who hasn’t seen it yet.

Ratings

Good guys: Anna and Elsa both make very likable protagonists, so the good guys get 7/10

Bad Guys: The villain is surprisingly effective considering their short amount of screen-time, so the bad guy gets 7/10

Animation: Some really great animation gets 8/10

Music: A stellar soundtrack gets 9/10

Plot: A heart warming and clever story gets 8/10

Overall: 39/50

Next review: Big Hero 6

Wreck it Ralph

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.

                                                  

Wreck it Ralph was another step in a different direction for Disney, with it’s video-game focused plot and generally more ‘Pixar’ style, but this time it paid off massively. This is an incredibly sweet and heart-warming film, with great animation and a very original storyline.

Within the world of arcade games, the arbitrary villain of an 80s style game, the eponymous Wreck it Ralph, is sick of being the bad guy, so he decides to travel to various games to change everybody’s perception of who he is. Along the way, he meets a little girl named Vanellope Von Schweetz, from a racing game called Sugar Rush (think Mario-Kart meets Candyland) and their friendship is probably the strongest part of the film.

One of it’s only weak spots is that Vanellope is kind of annoying at first, but this fades away as you learn more about her character and as her aforementioned friendship with Ralph grows. The plot is one of the most original in the canon and the way in which various characters and tropes from the gaming world are woven in the storyline is very clever. In particular, I love the way that the worldbuilding is so detailed and yet is done so subtly that it never feels like they’re shoving exposition in your face.

And speaking of things being woven into the plot, this film has one of my favourite scores from any Disney film, as the way in which it adds to the theme and atmosphere of the entire movie is fantastic.

There is some nice animation on display here too and I especially love the way that all of the background characters in Fix it Felix Jnr. move as if they are in 8-bit, it’s very nicely done.

Overall, Wreck it Ralph is a clever and charming film which is definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it.

Ratings

Good guys: Ralph and Vanellope are both fun main characters on their own and have great chemistry together, so the good guys get 7/10

Bad Guys: King Candy is a fun villain, so he gets 6/10

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

Music: A fantastic score gets 9/10

Plot: A very clever and original storyline gets 9/10

Overall: 37/50

Next review: Frozen 

Winnie the Pooh

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.

                                                 

The second Winnie the Pooh film is just as sweet as its predecessor, has better songs and is funnier, even if it doesn’t quite tug at the same heartstrings as the first film.

Like the first theatrical Winnie the Pooh film, the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, it’s comprised of a series of stories, rather than having an overarching plot, but less high-stakes plotlines will always suit the franchise in all of its forms.

The animation is fun and creative, whilst the stories are some of the most entertaining in the franchise, which is helped by a surprisingly witty script. As I mentioned, the music is also great and considering it was written by future Frozen writers Robert Lopez and Kristen Andersen-Lopez, it’s not very surprising in hindsight.

As I said in my review of the previous Winnie the Pooh film, the characters and their storylines are just so innocent that it’s impossible to hate. It’s a massive shame that Disney’s marketing department were daft enough to put this up against the final Harry Potter movie, because it’s a fun and entertaining movie, which definitely didn’t deserve its abysmal box office numbers. And then to make it worse they once again blamed hand-drawn animation, but that’s another story…

Ratings

Good guys: Some of the most beloved characters of all time are at their best here, so the characters get 9/10

Bad guys: It doesn’t really have a bad guy, so this category gets a neutral score of 5/10

Animation: There is some fun animation on display here, so the animation gets 7/10

Music: Some really great songs here, so the music gets 7/10

Plot: All of the storylines are really fun, so the plot gets 7/10

Overall score: 35/50

Next review: Wreck it Ralph

Tangled

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.

                                                   

After the Princess and the Frog, it was clear that returning fully to the old Renaissance formula wasn’t going to bring Disney Animation back. They needed a shake up – and boy did Tangled provide one. This film was the perfect balance of old and new, adding a more modern and often comedic style to it’s music and animation whilst still retaining what made those 90s movies great.

The step up in animation between this and Disney’s last attempts at CGI are incredible. This is a beautiful film, with the lantern sequence being a particular highlight. The way in which the original (and to be honest slightly nonsensical) story of Rapunzel is updated and added to is brilliant and adds a new sense of originality.

The characters are also all wonderful. Rapunzel’s curiosity and endless optimism make her one of the best Princesses in the canon and the villainous Mother Gothel manages to be incredibly entertaining and pure evil at the same time. Flynn Ryder is also charming and his character development is one of the film’s greatest assets.

All of the songs are really fun individually, although the soundtrack as a whole suffers slightly from not really having much of a uniform style.

Overall, Tangled is up there with Disney’s best films.

Ratings

Good guys:  Rapunzel and Flynn are two of the most dynamic protagonists in the canon, so the characters get 9/10

Bad guys: Mother Gothel is one of the all-time great Disney villains, so she gets 10/10

Animation: Incredibly beautiful, the animation gets 10/10

Music: Although it could have benefited from a more uniform sound, the music is really great, so it gets 8/10

Plot: A clever twist on a classic fairy-tale, the plot gets 10/10

Overall score: 47/50

Next review: Winnie the Pooh