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 

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