Ripping off one film is it's own thing. Ripping off two films at once is also unique. But it takes an extra special brand of arrogance to rip off three products at the same time. Thus was the case with 2014's Maleficent. A film based on Disney's most infamous villain was virtually a guaranteed success when it was first announced. But people really got behind this film as the trailers came out and it seemed once again, Disney was onto something with this film.
But the cracks in the perfection began to show very early on in the film and what was supposed to be a landmark in film making followed in the footsteps of Alice in Wonderland, utilizing cliches and ripping off other film's and stories narratives to create an utter mess of a film. And yet, despite the mess of a film it is, could this film be even slightly better than the previous dumpster dive Disney took? Well, let's find out...
Plot: Maleficent is a free-spirited fairy in a magical realm, beloved by all for her kindhearted nature and pureness of heart. She even befriends a peasant boy from a nearby kingdom named Stefan and the two share a romance. After a long time apart, however, Maleficent grows and becomes the guardian of her realm, fighting to protect her realm from the evil king. Stefan and Maleficent reunite and spend the night together, only to have Stefan cut off her wings and present them as a gift to the king in hopes of marrying his daughter and becoming the king.
A vengeance based Maleficent changes into a cold and merciless fairy who darkens the once peaceful dominion. Upon learning of the birth of Stefan's daughter, she arrives at the kingdom and curses the baby to fall into a deep slumber on her sixteenth birthday. Tracking the infant to her hidden location in the woods, Maleficent reluctantly becomes a guardian for the child, realizing that she could perhaps be the key to maintaining a peace with the humans and the fairies and even begins to question whether or not Princess Aurora deserved to suffer for her father's treacherous ways.
What's Bad?: The film is a combination of three previously written stories: Sleeping Beauty, the Broadway show Wicked, and (whilst trying my hardest not to spoil part of the film) Frozen. Noticing the similarities can definitely be distracting to the film, not to mention making you despise the film even more with each viewing. Combining the three is not the problem, though. What is the problem, however, is when it becomes abundantly clear that the filmmakers aren't trying anything new or special with the material. And let's face it, little if nothing at all, is new or fresh about this movie. We all know virtually every step Maleficent is going to take on her own journey and we all know that it's going to spin the story to make it so previously viewed upon as "good guys" aren't so good. Believe me, the day I first saw this film was when I saw the stage show called "Twisted" a parody of wicked that focuses on the plot of Aladdin, told from Jafar's prospective. It did a much better version of the whole Wicked story line. Not to mention the fact that the elements ripped from Frozen makes this film almost insufferable to watch as little of what was on screen in Frozen exists in this film.
I should also think it is obvious that I absolutely detest the character of Princess Aurora in the original film. She was arguably the most useless female lead in a Disney film, period. Not much changes here, unfortunately, though Elle Fanning does do her best to provide some sort of character to this walking and talking Barbie doll. This frustrates me, because you could have done something to make the bond they were trying to add to her and Maleficent so much stronger had you just given her the smallest of characters. But they try so hard to keep her with the original "superior" character, that it ruins any suspension of disbelief as we find out just how she overcomes the curse placed on her.
What's Good?: As I said in a previous post, some of these reboots do provide some solid performances. And Angelina Jolie's performance as Maleficent really is a stand out performance. Certainly nothing compared to Eleanor Audley's original role, but she really wasn't meant to evoke the same kind of terror, Maleficent is more of a tragic figure than some devilish hellspawn bent on revenge on being snubbed for a party invitation. And while she doesn't have many intimidating moments, she does capture what the film was gunning for, so I can't exactly say her performance was weak.
The effects in the film are up to par with other fantasy films of the time, especially The Hobbit trilogy. No serious standout good moments, but no seriously standout awful moments either. Just a crop of well woven special effects and CGI that doesn't seem hammy or dull.
Overall: While not the complete dumpster fire Alice in Wonderland was, this film certainly lags behind the original in terms of it's villain and it's artistry, though it updated things moderately well and told a cohesive and slightly less cliched of a story than Tim Burton's little mess was. It does the job it was meant to do quite well and most importantly, while borrowing heavily from other sources, does seem to be more of it's own story and doesn't whole-heartedly rip off from other films. Trust me, we'll get to THAT film next time.
Final Grade: D or 68
Monday, February 27, 2017
Friday, February 24, 2017
Film Review #120: Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Everything has a beginning, though I doubt this was the intention of both Disney and Tim Burton when this film started production. I think they expected their 2010 rendition of Lewis Carroll's famous nonsensical stories as the next big fantasy franchise, a la The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. What they got instead was something far worse: the beginning of a new dark era of filmmaking which frowns on originality and instead praises and props up those who would rather remake and "re-envision" better movies and stories for the big screens. And, oh boy, was Alice in Wonderland a huge step in the wrong directions for both paths. Disney is still lacking that big fantasy franchise (Star Wars is clearly sci-fi) and has now moved onto remaking more live action versions of animated films (which most staunch Disney fans hoped would fail).
Ordinarily, a crossover between Lewis Carroll and Tim Burton would seem to be like a match made in heaven. After all, Burton is the genius behind some of the most surreal and outrageous films of all time, including Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Edward Scissorhands. Much like how certain people seem tailor made to play certain roles (Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams, Christopher Lee as Saruman), Burton seemed almost completely born specifically to make an Alice in Wonderland movie. And yet, it seemed that every single step he and his team took while making the film was a misstep. From completely missing out on the source material, to effortlessly shoveling in tired cliches, to turning Wonderland into a George Lucas CGI wet dream, this film was literally throwing fifty or so ideas into a melting pot and hoping that just one would stick. And, not a single one fit properly.
Plot: A fully grown Alice finds herself as an oddball in a highly snobbish 19th century British society. She wants to break free from cultural norms and become the eccentric thinker her father thought she could be. But dreams from her childhood start to come back to her as she follows a white rabbit in a waistcoat with a watch down a rabbit hole and into the mystical realm from her dreams. All of the people in "Underland" seem to remember her and believe her to be the final piece they needed to help save their land from the evil Red Queen and her Jabberwocky. Despite her insistence that this is just a dream, Alice plays along far longer than anyone would have thought, even becoming somewhat personally involved when the Mad Hatter sacrifices himself to allow Alice to escape the Queen's guards.
Determined to rescue her "friend", defy the so called "prophecy" and prove to herself and the rest of the world around her that this is just a dream world she created, Alice sets out on a journey of self-discovery and intense fantasy esque battles, culminating in meeting the famed Jabberwocky on the battlefield.
What's Wrong: And therein lies the ultimate flaw in this film: the complete and utter disregard for the source material. The entire point of Alice in Wonderland is the chaos Alice encounters along her journey, while comprehending that there is a reason rules and order are needed in a society. The characters range from loud and bombastic, to quiet and scheming, but the one thing they all have in common is that they are delightfully insane and bear no qualms about it. This film's universe depicts everyone in Wonderland (oh I'm sorry "UNDERLAND") as politically involved good guys who hate the evil Red Queen and hope to put the White Queen, her sister, back on the throne. What is the point of having this story take place in Wonderland, when the plot can be ripped from almost any Fantasy Series that was out at the time?
But the flaws don't end there. There is also the needless and tired usage of cliches in the flowing narrative. By 2010, the whole "Chosen One" narrative had been so overused and worn out that even the Fairly Odd Parents took a shot at it in one of their spoof movies. Everywhere, from Anakin Skywalker to Harry Potter was using both "Chosen One" and "Prophecy" narratives to move their stories along instead of coming out with something unique and original. Of all the stories that could possibly be built on this, why oh why would someone choose Alice in Wonderland, a world that does not require order or balance for it to work?
Not to mention the fact that the acting in this movie is flat out mediocre at best. No one is allowed to be themselves in these roles, as two staples in Burton films (Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp) fall into shallow second rate imitations of themselves in their roles as the Red Queen and the Mad Hatter. Adding to it the blandness of Anne Hathaway, the sheer randomness of Crispin Glover's appearance as a Captain of the Guard, and the passable cameos of Christoper Lee and Alan Rickman, the entire cast would definitely bring the cast of the Prequels up for a challenge in blandness and uninterested line reads.
What's Good?: As with most of the poor Tim Burton movies, the cinematography and the set design is incredible. If there is one thing Burton almost never shorts us out of, it's his brilliant set design, hence why I've always thought he'd be a better set designer than a director. If this was one of the few things Burton could do right with this source material, I'm happy he chose this.
Overall: To put it bluntly, the film is an utter mess. The positives surrounding the set design and cinematography cannot possibly outweigh the weaknesses in story, adaptation, acting, or characters. Yet, this is only one part of the coming storm of remakes and "reimaginings". And if this is any inclination of how weak the coming films would be, we have a LONG way to go...
Final Grade: F
Ordinarily, a crossover between Lewis Carroll and Tim Burton would seem to be like a match made in heaven. After all, Burton is the genius behind some of the most surreal and outrageous films of all time, including Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Edward Scissorhands. Much like how certain people seem tailor made to play certain roles (Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams, Christopher Lee as Saruman), Burton seemed almost completely born specifically to make an Alice in Wonderland movie. And yet, it seemed that every single step he and his team took while making the film was a misstep. From completely missing out on the source material, to effortlessly shoveling in tired cliches, to turning Wonderland into a George Lucas CGI wet dream, this film was literally throwing fifty or so ideas into a melting pot and hoping that just one would stick. And, not a single one fit properly.
Plot: A fully grown Alice finds herself as an oddball in a highly snobbish 19th century British society. She wants to break free from cultural norms and become the eccentric thinker her father thought she could be. But dreams from her childhood start to come back to her as she follows a white rabbit in a waistcoat with a watch down a rabbit hole and into the mystical realm from her dreams. All of the people in "Underland" seem to remember her and believe her to be the final piece they needed to help save their land from the evil Red Queen and her Jabberwocky. Despite her insistence that this is just a dream, Alice plays along far longer than anyone would have thought, even becoming somewhat personally involved when the Mad Hatter sacrifices himself to allow Alice to escape the Queen's guards.
Determined to rescue her "friend", defy the so called "prophecy" and prove to herself and the rest of the world around her that this is just a dream world she created, Alice sets out on a journey of self-discovery and intense fantasy esque battles, culminating in meeting the famed Jabberwocky on the battlefield.
What's Wrong: And therein lies the ultimate flaw in this film: the complete and utter disregard for the source material. The entire point of Alice in Wonderland is the chaos Alice encounters along her journey, while comprehending that there is a reason rules and order are needed in a society. The characters range from loud and bombastic, to quiet and scheming, but the one thing they all have in common is that they are delightfully insane and bear no qualms about it. This film's universe depicts everyone in Wonderland (oh I'm sorry "UNDERLAND") as politically involved good guys who hate the evil Red Queen and hope to put the White Queen, her sister, back on the throne. What is the point of having this story take place in Wonderland, when the plot can be ripped from almost any Fantasy Series that was out at the time?
But the flaws don't end there. There is also the needless and tired usage of cliches in the flowing narrative. By 2010, the whole "Chosen One" narrative had been so overused and worn out that even the Fairly Odd Parents took a shot at it in one of their spoof movies. Everywhere, from Anakin Skywalker to Harry Potter was using both "Chosen One" and "Prophecy" narratives to move their stories along instead of coming out with something unique and original. Of all the stories that could possibly be built on this, why oh why would someone choose Alice in Wonderland, a world that does not require order or balance for it to work?
Not to mention the fact that the acting in this movie is flat out mediocre at best. No one is allowed to be themselves in these roles, as two staples in Burton films (Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp) fall into shallow second rate imitations of themselves in their roles as the Red Queen and the Mad Hatter. Adding to it the blandness of Anne Hathaway, the sheer randomness of Crispin Glover's appearance as a Captain of the Guard, and the passable cameos of Christoper Lee and Alan Rickman, the entire cast would definitely bring the cast of the Prequels up for a challenge in blandness and uninterested line reads.
What's Good?: As with most of the poor Tim Burton movies, the cinematography and the set design is incredible. If there is one thing Burton almost never shorts us out of, it's his brilliant set design, hence why I've always thought he'd be a better set designer than a director. If this was one of the few things Burton could do right with this source material, I'm happy he chose this.
Overall: To put it bluntly, the film is an utter mess. The positives surrounding the set design and cinematography cannot possibly outweigh the weaknesses in story, adaptation, acting, or characters. Yet, this is only one part of the coming storm of remakes and "reimaginings". And if this is any inclination of how weak the coming films would be, we have a LONG way to go...
Final Grade: F
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Why is Nothing New in Hollywood pt. 2 (The Remake)
Let's face it, now that Hollywood is almost irreparably bankrupt of ideas and creativity, almost anything is viable to be remade, even animated movies barely twenty five years old. I'm not alone in my utter disdain for these "re-tellings" or "re-imaginings" of films that puts capable writers out of work and instead decides to rehash stories, plots, songs, characters, and almost anything just to cash in on the current popularity of nostalgia. I'm not sure at the moment if this or the unnecessary sequel is worse, because I am reserving my judgement prior to the coming release of Beauty and the Beast this Spring, when I will give each of Disney's retellings the thorough thrashing they deserve, culminating in the reviews of one of the year's most anticipated films.
But before I go into this rant, I should talk about my personal opinions on remakes in general. Obviously, a creator has a right to alter or tweak their creations in any way they desire. Therefore, I will never deny Disney's right to make this film nor any of their other planned "re-imaginings" (though I will get into a few of their choices later on). And I personally can get on board with a remake of a classic film, provided your new version can accomplish two things: update the technology or art of movie making, or fix issues in the original film so that the new product is vastly superior to the original. And not all remakes are mediocre. Some people don't know that Cecil B. Demille actually made two versions of The Ten Commandments and that the one made in the 1950's with Charlton Heston was actually the remake of his 1920's silent movie version. The 1950's version of the film added color and sound to the religious epic and is a superior version in almost every way. Seeing as how it was difficult to get character out of just silent film projections, the remake added a ton of depth and character to the tale, especially in terms of the relationships between characters.
And I must stress the fact that just because two different studios make movies based off of the same property, it does not mean that the more modern film is a remake. For example, The Lord of the Rings trilogy is not a remake of the animated film made in the 1970's. Also, included in this could be re-tellings of Charlotte's Web, the origin stories of both Superman and Batman, or any of the hundreds of movie versions of Cinderella. But if the same studio has a hand in the remake of one of these films, it does count.
For my first point, updating the technology or art of movie making, the cases for all of the resurgent remakes is a significant mixed bag. Not all of my examples are going to be exact point for point remakes, but you can still see my point in the makings of these films. For instance, 2015's Jurassic World hoped to capitalize on the immense popularity of the Jurassic Park franchise with making a film with what appeared to be great effects in comparison to the original. And in that way, with a few exceptions, the film succeeded. However, the film suffered from a grotesque rehashing of the original film's plot (to be fair, that's what most JP films do anyway), which is almost as unavoidable as my next example, The Force Awakens. I'm not sure if it's because CGI in more recent films has become superior or not, but the effects and craftsmanship behind The Force Awakens was vastly superior to the effects used in the Prequel Trilogy, yet still cannot hold a candle to the handcrafted effects and camera shots of A New Hope. And yet, it's entirely impossible to ignore the incredible similarities to the film's plot with that of Episode IV (a droid joining forces with a desert planet roaming scavenger, while containing valuable information a villainous army seeks, while waging a war for control over the galaxy with a weapon with enough firepower to destroy a planet).
This point can continue with even earlier remakes of films back in the 1990's. The first remake of The Jungle Book that Disney worked on in 1994 was not a direct rehash of the original, but it's own take on the story of Mowgli. The animals did not speak and the plot was more of a mixture if Tarzan and Indiana Jones than a journey back to the Man Village. Shere Khan wasn't even the villain and was just a Tiger that everyone in the jungle respected. Khan even spares Mowgli and his love interest in the climax when he does battle with the hunter Buldeo. The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story is another example of this, though far more similar in structure to the 1967 film than the 1994 one. It focused on Mowgli finding his place in the world while learning about the beauty and danger of being man in the jungle.
Not just The Jungle Book, though. In 1996, Disney remade 101 Dalmatians for a more modern audience and the results were on par with the original. But instead of retreading the original plot, it instead updated the character motivations and occupations, removed the necessity for the animals to talk and even got a stellar performance out of Glen Close as Cruella De Vil. It was different enough to be taken seriously as it's own film. Comparing these 1990's remakes to the blitzkrieg of coming reboots may seem unfair, but it needs to be done if we are to identify the most pressing issue with regards to this type of film. While both 2010's Alice in Wonderland and 2014's Maleficent can definitely be seen as their own films with minimal ties to their animated counterparts, the same cannot be said for 2015's Cinderella, 2016's The Jungle Book, or this year's Beauty and the Beast. All three of these films have constant callbacks to the original while offering little to nothing in return of anything new or substantial outside of the rare decent performance from an actor. Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast especially have this constant need to remind us of things that were vastly superior in the animated films. For example, the scene in the original 1950 film in which Anastasia and Drizella rip apart Cinderella's ball gown because it was made of spare sashes and bows, was one of the most gut wrenching scenes for any kid to watch and still unsettles me when I see it nowadays. Compare that to the new film, in which the dress is torn slightly by the stepsisters, but the filmmakers expect us to hold the same emotions after the action. It'd be like comparing a Goofy cartoon where he fell off a cliff to when Mufasa fell to his death at Scar's hands.
And this is where the second point comes in. If you cannot make a film superior to the original, what is the point of remaking it in the first place? If your entire motivation is money, then you shame what Hollywood is supposed to be about. If you literally have no idea how much damage you can do with one of these remakes, you should get out of film making ASAP. If you cannot fix issues such as Princess Aurora's virtually non-existent personality, the somewhat anti-feminist mentality of the original Cinderella, or cannot even reintroduce the chaotic nonsense of Wonderland properly, what is the point of making a film like this again? Or, for more of a future series of questions, what is the point of remaking a film like The Lion King if you are going to start bringing back members of the original cast to be in it like James Earl Jones? Why retell the story of Aladdin's quest to find the magic lamp, if you just wanted to use old tracks Robin Williams recorded in 1991 for your Genie (THANK THE LORD Williams will prohibits Disney from using his likeness in any new products until 25 years after his death). Or, the question that has bugged me for the last few weeks, why remake critically acclaimed films that are virtually a part of world culture, when you have films that get significantly less notoriety but have deep resourceful fanbases or lore to expand upon. Remember, aside from Star Wars and Fantastic Beasts (the former of which Disney owns), there are no other Fantasy Genre films coming out. It's all either remakes, cinematic universes, or horror movies. And when Disney still holds the rights to The Chronicles of Prydain, why not take another crack at working on something like The Black Cauldron?
But to think that studios are interested in trying anything untested is a detriment to your ability to critically think. Every single film studio is more interested in short term profits and less in what will help out longterm. And unless Hollywood get's the collective shit together, this problem will continue until the bubble of remakes and sequels bursts forever and a string of disasters strikes.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
From Poisoned Apples to Annoying Oranges: An Essay on the Birth and Death of Animation Part VII (1992-1999)
Mountain Town
The trend started by the Simpsons would continue into the 1990's. Not only could animation be looked at as applicable to mass audiences, but some shows even went strictly for adults. Shows like "Beavis and Butthead" and "King of the Hill" tried to appeal more to adults than to children and had great success with it. But by far the biggest hit with the young adult and adult demographic was one of Comedy Central's launch titles, "South Park". On the surface, it looks like a show that would last one or two seasons due to poor animation styles, hard to comprehend dialogue, and vulgar humor. However, the show's crass attitude and complete disregard for anything and everything has made it a powerhouse in the adult animated world. It was little like the Simpsons, as continuity, pop culture, and even race and gender lines were crossed on almost a daily occurrence in this little Mountain Town, mostly being observed by Stan (the Straight Man), Kyle (the Righteous Man), Kenny (The Dead Man), and Cartman, who may very well be one of the most cleverly written characters in television history.
The show would not hesitate to cover anything from alien anal probes, to PETA's cult-like attacks on our society, to even trashing whichever pop cultural icon they chose (their best in my opinion being Barbara Streisand, Tom Cruise, George Lucas, Russell Crowe, Mel Gibson, and Saddam Hussein). And unlike other television shows, which often rooted themselves in one particular demographic or political view, "South Park" has proven time and time again to have literally no restriction on the stories and current events they want to take their shots at and do NOT allow themselves to be restricted by the blurry lines of today's world. And even to this day, the show continues it's crusade against everything dumb and wrong with America and hopefully, so long as it remains good, it will not go away anytime soon.
The Cheap Route
I've always been of the opinion that a sequel should only be made if there is more of a story to tell. Even if a film is monumentally successful that the big business moguls at the film company believe could be milked for more money, a weak and worthless sequel should not be made just to capitalize on a film's success. But if there was even a fraction of money to be made on one of their products, you could bet that Disney was going to milk that product until the cow was completely dry. Around the time The Lion King was being finished, several more animation divisions in Australia, South Korea, and Japan were hard at work on making sequels to some of the studio's most successful products. Seeing as how it was the most successful animated film in history in 1994, it would have been shocking had Aladdin not been picked to be the first film to get this treatment. While not an awful film in terms of it's sheer existence, The Return of Jafar is the ultimate example of a sequel that, in all rights, would NEVER have existed if I was in charge of Disney in the 1990's. Not only was the film a flimsy seemingly television pilot that changed almost nothing about the cast aside from Iago and Jafar, but it set a DANGEROUS trend that the studio is still trying to clean up the mess from.
The Return of Jafar was just the first step in a horrendous trend that would have Disney making cheap and flimsy sequels made exclusively for home video that would drain parents pockets and occupy time for the kids who watched them (trust me, I grew up in this era). Few Disney films were left unscathed by this new direction, as virtually the entirety of the Disney Renaissance and quite a few of the films made in Walt Disney's era were given these lazily cobbled together films that, in general, the public loathes. I've already gone into detail about how piss poor these films are, but considering this is supposed to catalog the entirety of animation, I figured I would talk about them again. In my opinion, the worst is Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, and the LEAST AWFUL of them is Aladdin and the King of Thieves. But considering there were 14+ years of these films, there were A LOT of deserving candidates.
The Darkest Dawn
If you divided the Disney Renaissance into categories (and unfortunately give the shaft to The Rescuers Down Under), then there would be three categories:
The Fairy Tale Musical Trilogy
The Ambitious Trilogy
The Lesser Trilogy
While it can be argued that the films in The Fairy Tale Musical Trilogy did break new ground in terms of art and style, it was The Ambitious Trilogy where Disney Animation truly broke new grounds in terms of technical achievements, voice acting achievements, artistry, and most importantly, in terms of story telling. Whether you like them or not, The Lion King and Pocahontas both covered these grounds by telling darker, more serious stories. But if you look at it in terms of stories and themes you thought Disney would NEVER cover, I have to tip my hat to The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The film is a true example of how much Disney could do with a more adult story, even with all of the self imposed restrictions (no, there isn't any rape scenes and the majority of the cast still survives). Even without these scenes, the film took itself very seriously, with very intense dark moments including an opening scene that involves Frollo murdering an innocent woman on the steps of Notre Dame and attempting to drown her baby. The film also covers much deeper thematic statements, from prejudice and sexual lust, to societal acceptance and genocide.
In terms of animation, much like Pocahontas and The Lion King, the film does put a great deal of effort into it's most ambitious scenes, from the Festival of Fools to the dramatic "Sanctuary" finale. However, it is far more evident in this film that the studio was becoming more and more reliant on CGI and other computer tools, where the art styles of the two previous films could overpower the overly "generated" scenes. Hunchback would unfortunately start the trend of effects and special scenes being more obviously computed, as future films like Hercules and Fantasia 2000 would all have scenes that stick out like a sore thumb in comparison to the other moments in the film.
To add further insult onto this injury, the film was not much of a success at the box office when released in the summer of 1996, only grossing about it's production budget at the domestic box office and only retaining about $300 million at the worldwide market. Despite being praised upon initial release and garnering an immense following in recent years, the film still gets the personal shaft from Disney and is constantly ignored by it's shareholders. This is unfortunate, as many other mediocre films get more attention from the studio in retrospect.
One Last Gasp...
After a string of failures at the box office and among critics, there came a point in the career of Don Bluth where he unfortunately came to realize that his idea well was running dry and that he would need to adapt to what was popular if he was to survive as an animator. With his studio already shut down due to unprecedented bombs with A Troll in Central Park and Rock-A-Doodle, he gathered up the traditional Disney Renaissance formula and flung out Anastasia to theaters in the Fall of 1997. The story of the last surviving Romanov Princess has become a respected and well appreciated film of the 1990's and was a staple of many childhoods at the time. And in many cases, the respect it gains is not exactly poorly placed. The film does have a charm to it and while it does have many things in common with Disney films being released at the time (an evil sorcerer adviser, Broadway styled music, spunky and flirtatious leads, cute cuddly animal sidekicks, etc.), those things are mostly in there because of the studio's need to copy Disney at everything. Like with The Lion King, the heart of the story is not the relationship between the male and female leads, but the relationship between Anya and her grandmother, the former Empress of Russia. You feel a genuine amount of joy when the two are finally reunited and it does keep the overall focus on this relationship.
In terms of animation, the film is a marvel, taking advantage of Disney's over-reliance on CGI to produce many beautifully hand-drawn animated scenes and even giving more recent Disney films a run for it's money with a beautiful musical score. The line work in the film is very reminiscent of older films like Cinderella while also having the jaded uniqueness of Bluth's other works. But the film lags in it's constant necessity to repeat the tired cliches of the Disney Renaissance, which slows down one's enjoyment of a film many hoped would be something different. And it showed when the film was released in theaters in November 1997, earning less per weekly capita than a 17 day re-issue of The Little Mermaid, while also failing to outgross the far more mediocre Hercules before losing almost all revenue to Titanic. Despite this, the film was Bluth's first and only success of the 1990's, as his studio would suffer another bomb in the late 90's with Titan A.E. before Bluth retired to teach animation and even begin work on a Dragon's Lair movie which is currently in development.
SKG: The Ten Commandments
Having departed from The Walt Disney Company following a feud with Michael Eisner, Jeffery Katzenberg returned with a vengeance a few years later with the establishment of his own production company, DreamWorks SKG. The SKG is an acronym for the names of the studios first heads/shareholders: Steven Spielberg, Katzenberg, and David Geffen. Within their first few years of existence, the studio would make many films that would have striking similarities to Disney and Pixar films being made at the time. Their first animated film, for example, was a more mature version of an upcoming Pixar film called A Bug's Life, named Antz. But while breaking down their upcoming films list, Katzenberg and Spielberg decided to retell the epic biblical fable of The Exodus from Egypt. However, both agreed that they could not simply replicate Cecil B. Demille's epic masterpiece and instead made the film more relatable in contrast. The story of The Prince of Egypt takes far less from the 1956 epic and instead focuses on the relationships between characters, most notably between Moses and his biological siblings, but especially his relationship with his adopted brother Ramses. Instead of outright making Ramses a generic villain who would gladly challenge Moses for right to control the Hebrew's, the Ramses in this film is played off more as a Tragic Character, who was under the thumb of a domineering father for so long, that he retained his hatred and lust for power while still desperately trying to cling to a relationship with Moses, whom must now face him as an enemy.
With a powerful score from Hans Zimmer, well written songs by Steven Schwartz, stunning direction from Brenda Chapman, breathtakingly beautiful animation on DreamWork's behalf, and an all star cast including Ralph Fiennes, Val Kilmer, Sandra Bullock, and Patrick Stewart, the film was a critical and commercial darling in the Fall of 1998 and won the Academy Award for Best Song "When You Believe", proving that Disney did not have a monopoly on film animation anymore. Despite this success, the film is not often talked about in the same vein as the bigger animated giants, mostly because of how swiftly DreamWorks would shift gears into more of a comedic animation department. Which is a shame, considering when DreamWorks does make a serious animated film, it can be really good...
Falling Stars
To say that Disney had a monopoly on the motion picture animation department would be a bit of an understatement for the bulk of the 1990's. Don Bluth had begun a slide and while there would always be an animated film to be released once in a while (such as FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Swan Princess, and Quest for Camelot), none of the films made a decent profit and Disney's film of the year swallowed over them. However, as the 1990's moved forward, Disney was beginning to show signs of fatigue and wear, with declining profits and critical praise becoming more mixed. For example, The Lion King garnered nearly $800 million in it's first release, but both Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame only made approximately half of what it's predecessor made. The true decline really began with Hercules in 1997, which despite being marketed well, was a mess in terms of development and articulation and grossed under $290 million dollars worldwide and only got fair reviews. The film certainly looks beautiful, but lacked many things that made the renaissance so good, including likable leads, good well rounded plots, and great music.
I am in the minority on this next point, but of all the films made during this time, I personally think Mulan is the worst of them. Like Hercules, the film was a hollow shell of earlier films. Despite having a strong lead character and an above average art style that truly delved into Chinese Artistry, it suffered from an incredibly weak villain, a highly mediocre Eddie Murphy performance, and a very weak musical score from some of the industries finest. Though the film was more successful than both Hercules and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, it has since been relegated to the lesser bin of Disney Films.
Compared to it's predecessors, Tarzan had many more positive things about it that made it resemble the films of the past. However, like Mulan, the film seemed more interested in selling toys and merchandise, borrowing elements from previous films (a villain obsessed with wealth, a celebrity writing the songs, celebrity comic relief, and a self-discovery story). In essence, these ideas could have been more interesting if they were taken into different directions, but the film went for more predictability than to be unique, hence why I placed it in the lesser category. With that said, the film is brilliantly animated once again. I'd even go as far as to say that of the three lesser films in the late 90's, it had comparable animation to the films made earlier in the era.
However we may feel about Tarzan, it cannot be denied that it represented the end of Disney's dominant era of success. With a tired string of formulas that had made their films and fluctuating profits over the last few years, the studio was in desperate need for a new string of unique ideas. And while these ideas would certainly break ranks for the studio moving into the 21st century, the critical and commercial success of these films would be put into dire straights, that would result in one of the most infamous decisions a studio head ever made...
Absorbent and Yellow
Nickelodeon would continue to create many animated shows throughout the 1990's. While some would not last long, others would become network staples for nearly ten years. While shows like the Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy, Doug, and Hey Arnold! would keep the original Nick Toons name alive until their subsequent cancellations, one show in particular has completely dominated the children's animation landscape since the 1990's drew to a close. Created in the same nonsensical style as some of their previous shows, Spongebob Squarepants is a show that follows the adventures of a plucky and childish sea sponge, his dimwitted best friend named Patrick, a grouchy neighbor named Squidward, and an assortment of both sea and land life that would culminate in it becoming the network's most popular show.
I must preface this with the fact of my full and complete knowledge of the show's steep decline (which I will get into in a later page). However, throughout Spongebob's initial three seasons, you would be hardpressed to find more than one or two episodes a season that would be considered lukewarm. In fact, some of the show's most famous episodes, such as "Dying for Pie", "Chocolate with Nuts", and "Something Smells" have been deemed some of the best episodes of any cartoon series, period. These episodes fueled the successful empire that Spongebob represents and brought the studio great success in merchandising, television viewership, and two very successful film releases with a third coming to theaters soon.
The Bubble Bursts
Despite it's immense popularity overseas, anime would take a long time to become mainstream in North America. And when it did become mainstream, it was heavily censored by the corporations (the few that were still terrified of soccer moms that write angry letters about commercials poisoning youth). For instance, when it was distributed in North America for the first time, Dragon Ball Z was dubbed and edited considerably by a company called Saban, which included ridiculous edits, ranging from quick cutting to avoid watching someone die, pretending those that did die just disappeared to another dimension, or downright making things up in the narrative to better suit what they wanted. These changes were also egregious in DIC's dub of Sailor Moon, which removed blood from battle scenes, turned the Sailor scouts dying into them "getting captured", and turned the villain's dark hellish kingdom into something called, "The Negaverse". Despite these changes, anime was finally beginning to gather an audience in North America, but which one would bust the door open for countless others to come and enrich us with the strengths and weaknesses of the Japanese culture?
Enter Pokemon. Based off of the immensely popular video game and trading card game with the same name, the story follows protagonist Ash Ketchum as he goes off on his journey to become the best Pokemon trainer in the world, alongside his trusted friend, Pikachu. Along the way, he encounters tough life lessons, battles sinister villains, and constantly proves himself time and time again with every challenge he and Pikachu undergo. The show has undergone numerous story and artistic changes over time, taking Ash to new regions (most based off of the recently released games, such as Johto, Hoenn, and Kalos), bringing along new friends like the aquatic tomboy named Misty, the lovestruck breeder named Brock, the equally ambitious Dragon Tamer Iris, and his childhood friend Serena. Ash's journey has gone almost as long as the length of the franchise, as Nintendo has yet to change him out as the anime's central protagonist (despite some fans asking for a new protagonist). As with most immensely popular anime of the late 1990's and early 2000's. the main characters had either non existent personalities or largely negative ones that made their characters feel worse than normal protagonists were perceived. Despite this, the show was incredibly popular and would begin the new age of anime in America, for better or for worse.
The following era of animation would see a much bigger spike when it came to television animation in comparison to feature animation. While there would be a few very successful franchises and films launched in the early 2000's, success was mostly seen on television, with Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and even Disney at the forefront of art and entertainment. Such shows that started in this era would include a secret agent cheerleader, a group of kids battling waves of evil adults, an anime/comic book hybrid that brought out the best in everyone, and arguably the greatest animated show of all time that was, in it's entirety, a completely original idea...
The trend started by the Simpsons would continue into the 1990's. Not only could animation be looked at as applicable to mass audiences, but some shows even went strictly for adults. Shows like "Beavis and Butthead" and "King of the Hill" tried to appeal more to adults than to children and had great success with it. But by far the biggest hit with the young adult and adult demographic was one of Comedy Central's launch titles, "South Park". On the surface, it looks like a show that would last one or two seasons due to poor animation styles, hard to comprehend dialogue, and vulgar humor. However, the show's crass attitude and complete disregard for anything and everything has made it a powerhouse in the adult animated world. It was little like the Simpsons, as continuity, pop culture, and even race and gender lines were crossed on almost a daily occurrence in this little Mountain Town, mostly being observed by Stan (the Straight Man), Kyle (the Righteous Man), Kenny (The Dead Man), and Cartman, who may very well be one of the most cleverly written characters in television history.
The show would not hesitate to cover anything from alien anal probes, to PETA's cult-like attacks on our society, to even trashing whichever pop cultural icon they chose (their best in my opinion being Barbara Streisand, Tom Cruise, George Lucas, Russell Crowe, Mel Gibson, and Saddam Hussein). And unlike other television shows, which often rooted themselves in one particular demographic or political view, "South Park" has proven time and time again to have literally no restriction on the stories and current events they want to take their shots at and do NOT allow themselves to be restricted by the blurry lines of today's world. And even to this day, the show continues it's crusade against everything dumb and wrong with America and hopefully, so long as it remains good, it will not go away anytime soon.
The Cheap Route
I've always been of the opinion that a sequel should only be made if there is more of a story to tell. Even if a film is monumentally successful that the big business moguls at the film company believe could be milked for more money, a weak and worthless sequel should not be made just to capitalize on a film's success. But if there was even a fraction of money to be made on one of their products, you could bet that Disney was going to milk that product until the cow was completely dry. Around the time The Lion King was being finished, several more animation divisions in Australia, South Korea, and Japan were hard at work on making sequels to some of the studio's most successful products. Seeing as how it was the most successful animated film in history in 1994, it would have been shocking had Aladdin not been picked to be the first film to get this treatment. While not an awful film in terms of it's sheer existence, The Return of Jafar is the ultimate example of a sequel that, in all rights, would NEVER have existed if I was in charge of Disney in the 1990's. Not only was the film a flimsy seemingly television pilot that changed almost nothing about the cast aside from Iago and Jafar, but it set a DANGEROUS trend that the studio is still trying to clean up the mess from.
The Return of Jafar was just the first step in a horrendous trend that would have Disney making cheap and flimsy sequels made exclusively for home video that would drain parents pockets and occupy time for the kids who watched them (trust me, I grew up in this era). Few Disney films were left unscathed by this new direction, as virtually the entirety of the Disney Renaissance and quite a few of the films made in Walt Disney's era were given these lazily cobbled together films that, in general, the public loathes. I've already gone into detail about how piss poor these films are, but considering this is supposed to catalog the entirety of animation, I figured I would talk about them again. In my opinion, the worst is Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, and the LEAST AWFUL of them is Aladdin and the King of Thieves. But considering there were 14+ years of these films, there were A LOT of deserving candidates.
The Darkest Dawn
If you divided the Disney Renaissance into categories (and unfortunately give the shaft to The Rescuers Down Under), then there would be three categories:
The Fairy Tale Musical Trilogy
The Ambitious Trilogy
The Lesser Trilogy
While it can be argued that the films in The Fairy Tale Musical Trilogy did break new ground in terms of art and style, it was The Ambitious Trilogy where Disney Animation truly broke new grounds in terms of technical achievements, voice acting achievements, artistry, and most importantly, in terms of story telling. Whether you like them or not, The Lion King and Pocahontas both covered these grounds by telling darker, more serious stories. But if you look at it in terms of stories and themes you thought Disney would NEVER cover, I have to tip my hat to The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The film is a true example of how much Disney could do with a more adult story, even with all of the self imposed restrictions (no, there isn't any rape scenes and the majority of the cast still survives). Even without these scenes, the film took itself very seriously, with very intense dark moments including an opening scene that involves Frollo murdering an innocent woman on the steps of Notre Dame and attempting to drown her baby. The film also covers much deeper thematic statements, from prejudice and sexual lust, to societal acceptance and genocide.
In terms of animation, much like Pocahontas and The Lion King, the film does put a great deal of effort into it's most ambitious scenes, from the Festival of Fools to the dramatic "Sanctuary" finale. However, it is far more evident in this film that the studio was becoming more and more reliant on CGI and other computer tools, where the art styles of the two previous films could overpower the overly "generated" scenes. Hunchback would unfortunately start the trend of effects and special scenes being more obviously computed, as future films like Hercules and Fantasia 2000 would all have scenes that stick out like a sore thumb in comparison to the other moments in the film.
To add further insult onto this injury, the film was not much of a success at the box office when released in the summer of 1996, only grossing about it's production budget at the domestic box office and only retaining about $300 million at the worldwide market. Despite being praised upon initial release and garnering an immense following in recent years, the film still gets the personal shaft from Disney and is constantly ignored by it's shareholders. This is unfortunate, as many other mediocre films get more attention from the studio in retrospect.
One Last Gasp...
After a string of failures at the box office and among critics, there came a point in the career of Don Bluth where he unfortunately came to realize that his idea well was running dry and that he would need to adapt to what was popular if he was to survive as an animator. With his studio already shut down due to unprecedented bombs with A Troll in Central Park and Rock-A-Doodle, he gathered up the traditional Disney Renaissance formula and flung out Anastasia to theaters in the Fall of 1997. The story of the last surviving Romanov Princess has become a respected and well appreciated film of the 1990's and was a staple of many childhoods at the time. And in many cases, the respect it gains is not exactly poorly placed. The film does have a charm to it and while it does have many things in common with Disney films being released at the time (an evil sorcerer adviser, Broadway styled music, spunky and flirtatious leads, cute cuddly animal sidekicks, etc.), those things are mostly in there because of the studio's need to copy Disney at everything. Like with The Lion King, the heart of the story is not the relationship between the male and female leads, but the relationship between Anya and her grandmother, the former Empress of Russia. You feel a genuine amount of joy when the two are finally reunited and it does keep the overall focus on this relationship.
In terms of animation, the film is a marvel, taking advantage of Disney's over-reliance on CGI to produce many beautifully hand-drawn animated scenes and even giving more recent Disney films a run for it's money with a beautiful musical score. The line work in the film is very reminiscent of older films like Cinderella while also having the jaded uniqueness of Bluth's other works. But the film lags in it's constant necessity to repeat the tired cliches of the Disney Renaissance, which slows down one's enjoyment of a film many hoped would be something different. And it showed when the film was released in theaters in November 1997, earning less per weekly capita than a 17 day re-issue of The Little Mermaid, while also failing to outgross the far more mediocre Hercules before losing almost all revenue to Titanic. Despite this, the film was Bluth's first and only success of the 1990's, as his studio would suffer another bomb in the late 90's with Titan A.E. before Bluth retired to teach animation and even begin work on a Dragon's Lair movie which is currently in development.
SKG: The Ten Commandments
Having departed from The Walt Disney Company following a feud with Michael Eisner, Jeffery Katzenberg returned with a vengeance a few years later with the establishment of his own production company, DreamWorks SKG. The SKG is an acronym for the names of the studios first heads/shareholders: Steven Spielberg, Katzenberg, and David Geffen. Within their first few years of existence, the studio would make many films that would have striking similarities to Disney and Pixar films being made at the time. Their first animated film, for example, was a more mature version of an upcoming Pixar film called A Bug's Life, named Antz. But while breaking down their upcoming films list, Katzenberg and Spielberg decided to retell the epic biblical fable of The Exodus from Egypt. However, both agreed that they could not simply replicate Cecil B. Demille's epic masterpiece and instead made the film more relatable in contrast. The story of The Prince of Egypt takes far less from the 1956 epic and instead focuses on the relationships between characters, most notably between Moses and his biological siblings, but especially his relationship with his adopted brother Ramses. Instead of outright making Ramses a generic villain who would gladly challenge Moses for right to control the Hebrew's, the Ramses in this film is played off more as a Tragic Character, who was under the thumb of a domineering father for so long, that he retained his hatred and lust for power while still desperately trying to cling to a relationship with Moses, whom must now face him as an enemy.
With a powerful score from Hans Zimmer, well written songs by Steven Schwartz, stunning direction from Brenda Chapman, breathtakingly beautiful animation on DreamWork's behalf, and an all star cast including Ralph Fiennes, Val Kilmer, Sandra Bullock, and Patrick Stewart, the film was a critical and commercial darling in the Fall of 1998 and won the Academy Award for Best Song "When You Believe", proving that Disney did not have a monopoly on film animation anymore. Despite this success, the film is not often talked about in the same vein as the bigger animated giants, mostly because of how swiftly DreamWorks would shift gears into more of a comedic animation department. Which is a shame, considering when DreamWorks does make a serious animated film, it can be really good...
Falling Stars
To say that Disney had a monopoly on the motion picture animation department would be a bit of an understatement for the bulk of the 1990's. Don Bluth had begun a slide and while there would always be an animated film to be released once in a while (such as FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Swan Princess, and Quest for Camelot), none of the films made a decent profit and Disney's film of the year swallowed over them. However, as the 1990's moved forward, Disney was beginning to show signs of fatigue and wear, with declining profits and critical praise becoming more mixed. For example, The Lion King garnered nearly $800 million in it's first release, but both Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame only made approximately half of what it's predecessor made. The true decline really began with Hercules in 1997, which despite being marketed well, was a mess in terms of development and articulation and grossed under $290 million dollars worldwide and only got fair reviews. The film certainly looks beautiful, but lacked many things that made the renaissance so good, including likable leads, good well rounded plots, and great music.
I am in the minority on this next point, but of all the films made during this time, I personally think Mulan is the worst of them. Like Hercules, the film was a hollow shell of earlier films. Despite having a strong lead character and an above average art style that truly delved into Chinese Artistry, it suffered from an incredibly weak villain, a highly mediocre Eddie Murphy performance, and a very weak musical score from some of the industries finest. Though the film was more successful than both Hercules and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, it has since been relegated to the lesser bin of Disney Films.
Compared to it's predecessors, Tarzan had many more positive things about it that made it resemble the films of the past. However, like Mulan, the film seemed more interested in selling toys and merchandise, borrowing elements from previous films (a villain obsessed with wealth, a celebrity writing the songs, celebrity comic relief, and a self-discovery story). In essence, these ideas could have been more interesting if they were taken into different directions, but the film went for more predictability than to be unique, hence why I placed it in the lesser category. With that said, the film is brilliantly animated once again. I'd even go as far as to say that of the three lesser films in the late 90's, it had comparable animation to the films made earlier in the era.
However we may feel about Tarzan, it cannot be denied that it represented the end of Disney's dominant era of success. With a tired string of formulas that had made their films and fluctuating profits over the last few years, the studio was in desperate need for a new string of unique ideas. And while these ideas would certainly break ranks for the studio moving into the 21st century, the critical and commercial success of these films would be put into dire straights, that would result in one of the most infamous decisions a studio head ever made...
Absorbent and Yellow
Nickelodeon would continue to create many animated shows throughout the 1990's. While some would not last long, others would become network staples for nearly ten years. While shows like the Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy, Doug, and Hey Arnold! would keep the original Nick Toons name alive until their subsequent cancellations, one show in particular has completely dominated the children's animation landscape since the 1990's drew to a close. Created in the same nonsensical style as some of their previous shows, Spongebob Squarepants is a show that follows the adventures of a plucky and childish sea sponge, his dimwitted best friend named Patrick, a grouchy neighbor named Squidward, and an assortment of both sea and land life that would culminate in it becoming the network's most popular show.
I must preface this with the fact of my full and complete knowledge of the show's steep decline (which I will get into in a later page). However, throughout Spongebob's initial three seasons, you would be hardpressed to find more than one or two episodes a season that would be considered lukewarm. In fact, some of the show's most famous episodes, such as "Dying for Pie", "Chocolate with Nuts", and "Something Smells" have been deemed some of the best episodes of any cartoon series, period. These episodes fueled the successful empire that Spongebob represents and brought the studio great success in merchandising, television viewership, and two very successful film releases with a third coming to theaters soon.
The Bubble Bursts
Despite it's immense popularity overseas, anime would take a long time to become mainstream in North America. And when it did become mainstream, it was heavily censored by the corporations (the few that were still terrified of soccer moms that write angry letters about commercials poisoning youth). For instance, when it was distributed in North America for the first time, Dragon Ball Z was dubbed and edited considerably by a company called Saban, which included ridiculous edits, ranging from quick cutting to avoid watching someone die, pretending those that did die just disappeared to another dimension, or downright making things up in the narrative to better suit what they wanted. These changes were also egregious in DIC's dub of Sailor Moon, which removed blood from battle scenes, turned the Sailor scouts dying into them "getting captured", and turned the villain's dark hellish kingdom into something called, "The Negaverse". Despite these changes, anime was finally beginning to gather an audience in North America, but which one would bust the door open for countless others to come and enrich us with the strengths and weaknesses of the Japanese culture?
Enter Pokemon. Based off of the immensely popular video game and trading card game with the same name, the story follows protagonist Ash Ketchum as he goes off on his journey to become the best Pokemon trainer in the world, alongside his trusted friend, Pikachu. Along the way, he encounters tough life lessons, battles sinister villains, and constantly proves himself time and time again with every challenge he and Pikachu undergo. The show has undergone numerous story and artistic changes over time, taking Ash to new regions (most based off of the recently released games, such as Johto, Hoenn, and Kalos), bringing along new friends like the aquatic tomboy named Misty, the lovestruck breeder named Brock, the equally ambitious Dragon Tamer Iris, and his childhood friend Serena. Ash's journey has gone almost as long as the length of the franchise, as Nintendo has yet to change him out as the anime's central protagonist (despite some fans asking for a new protagonist). As with most immensely popular anime of the late 1990's and early 2000's. the main characters had either non existent personalities or largely negative ones that made their characters feel worse than normal protagonists were perceived. Despite this, the show was incredibly popular and would begin the new age of anime in America, for better or for worse.
The following era of animation would see a much bigger spike when it came to television animation in comparison to feature animation. While there would be a few very successful franchises and films launched in the early 2000's, success was mostly seen on television, with Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and even Disney at the forefront of art and entertainment. Such shows that started in this era would include a secret agent cheerleader, a group of kids battling waves of evil adults, an anime/comic book hybrid that brought out the best in everyone, and arguably the greatest animated show of all time that was, in it's entirety, a completely original idea...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)