Topic: Critter's Animated Film/Anime Marathon

[Critter]

Alice in Wonderland (Special Edition)



Year: 1951

Director(s): Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson

Run Time: 75 minutes

Plot: Alice stumbles into the world of Wonderland. Will she get home? Not if the Queen of Hearts has her way.

Cast:
Kathryn Beaumont - Alice
Ed Wynn - Mad Hatter
Richard Haydn - Caterpillar
Sterling Holloway - Cheshire Cat
Jerry Colonna - March Hare
Verna Felton - Queen of Hearts
J. Pat O'Malley - Tweedledee / Tweedledum / The Walrus / The Carpenter
Bill Thompson - White Rabbit / Dodo


DVD Extras:
•   Original Mickey Mouse Animated Short: Thru The Mirror
•   “Alice Daydreams In The Park”
•   “Operation Wonderland” Featurette
•   Early Art Concepts, Galleries, Storyboards


My Thoughts
Out of all the classic Disney’s this has always been one of my favourites. While I don’t know if any film adaption can ever really live up to Lewis Carroll’s original work this one surely does the novel justice for me. In this film I think the surrealism has been captured perfectly and some scenes such as the Mad Tea Party are close to being some of my favourite animated scenes of all time. I think the strangeness is nicely balanced with an element of humour here and the voice acting and character design are fantastic, such as the Cheshire cat who nicely resembles Tenniel’s original illustrations for the novel. While Alice may not be as much of a musical as many other Disney films I find the songs rather enjoyable and ones that have stayed with me since I was a child. Out of all the Alice adaption’s I have seen this is my favourite, I guess we will have to wait and see if Burton’s upcoming version can impress me as much as this classic Disney flick. The extras on this DVD were also quite good and I enjoyed looking through the concept art and storyboards of the film.

My Rating

[Critter]

Pocahontas (Musical Masterpiece Edition)



Year: 1995

Director(s): Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg

Run Time: 81 minutes

Plot: The daughter of a Native American tribe chief and English soldier share a romance when English colonists invade 17th century Virginia.

Cast:
Irene Bedard - Pocahontas (voice)
Judy Kuhn - Pocahontas (singing voice)
Mel Gibson - John Smith
David Ogden Stiers - Governor Ratcliffe / Wiggins
John Kassir - Meeko
Russell Means - Powhatan
Christian Bale - Thomas
Linda Hunt - Grandmother Willow



DVD Extras:
•   Lyric Book
•   Music Modes
•   Downloadable Song


My Thoughts
Unfortunately with this DVD I accidently got the “Musical Edition”, the same I did with Aladdin which is annoying because it has no special features aside from lame music things. Oh well, that aside the film is still there in all its glory and what a glorious film it is! Pocahontas is another of my favourite Disney’s and always has been. Everything in this film is stunning, the story, the backgrounds and the moving and memorable songs that appear throughout the film. One of the things I like the most is Pocahontas herself, she is such a strong character and I think a great role model for children, one of my favourite Disney characters for sure.

My Rating

[Critter]

9



Year: 2009

Director(s): Shane Acker

Run Time: 79  minutes

Plot: A post-apocalyptic nightmare in which all of humanity is threatened.

Cast:
Christopher Plummer - 1
Martin Landau - 2
John C. Reilly - 5
Crispin Glover - 6
Jennifer Connelly - 7
Fred Tatasciore - 8
Elijah Wood - 9
Alan Oppenheimer - The Scientist

 DVD Extras:
•   Saw at Cinema


My Thoughts
I saw this film today hardly knowing anything about it apart from the fact that it has Tim Burton’s name attached and it was based on a short film. I found 9 quite enjoyable but also underwhelming in many ways. The visual side of the film was outstanding, I found it quite refreshing to see a dark and somewhat gritty computer animated film come from America instead of the constant flow of films with their bright colours and cute characters (even though I do like these most of the time). The detail in the landscape created and the design of both the leading characters and the evil, junk yard type monsters was inspired, it actually made me want to get out a sketch pad and start drawing the minute I got home.  

Another high point for me was the excellent voice acting and the high standard of sound effects throughout the film. The sound effects especially made the fight scenes genuinely exciting for the most part and even allowed for a few unexpected jumps. While I found this film visually outstanding what let it down for me was the plot, which felt almost rushed as the film progressed and didn’t seem to be going anywhere. There were no subplots through this film, just one straight story which I found to be quite repetitive. Although I found the plot somewhat diminished I feel this film is a great step for Western mainstream animation. It’s proof, perhaps somewhat guided by the success of WALL·E that animation does not have to be all about comedy set within clean cut colourful words of cute characters.

My Rating

[Critter]

Coraline



Year: 2009

Director(s): Henry Selick

Run Time: 96  minutes

Plot: An adventurous girl finds another world that is a strangely idealized version of her frustrating home, but it has sinister secrets.

Cast:
Dakota Fanning – Coraline Jones
Teri Hatcher – Mel Jones/ Other Mother/ Beldam
Jennifer Saunders – Miss April Spink
Dawn French – Miss Miriam Forcible
Keith David – The Cat
Robert Bailey Jr – Wybie Lovett
Ian McShane  - Mr Bobinsky

 DVD Extras:
•   Deleted Scenes
•   The Making of Coraline
•   Feature Commentry
•   Voicing the Characters
•   Creepy Coraline


My Thoughts
This is my first blu-ray DVD and one that is also watchable in 3D. I have never seen 3D at the cinema, let alone in my own home and I found this to be quite a fun feature. The only problem is that while watching it in 3D the colour of the film becomes quite distorted and everything has a sort of yellow/green tinge to it which could get annoying. It was worth it though to have certain objects literally jumping out of the screen at you. The 2D blu-ray version, while maybe not as thrilling as the 3D is still stunning in its own right as the true colour of the film is magnificent in many scenes.

I have seen this film before but when I watched it the first time it was of poor quality at a friend’s house (think a downloaded movie streaming through a TV. I enjoyed it then but I enjoy it so much more when seeing it to its full potential. As a fan of Henry Selick’s work ever since I saw The Nightmare Before Christmas I was looking forward to this film quite a bit. I love the stop-motion animation technique and am glad to see it is making somewhat of a comeback, what with The Fantastic Mr Fox soon to be released.  

Aside from the visual beauty of this film I find the story to be compelling, especially after the dark turn in the second half. I’m also glad that Selick didn’t appear to hold back on the frightening elements of the film considering that it was marketed at children in it’s release. Coraline herself is a fantastic character for young girls especially, she is strong, brave and doesn’t take crap from anybody, yet she is also human and shown to make many mistakes. I think characters like these are important for young children who are watching these films.

Aside from Coraline herself the other characters in this film are rich and diverse in creativity. Whether it be the strange and wise talking cat, the spider like Russian performer who lives upstairs, or the two obese women obsessed with dogs who live downstairs. I enjoyed every character in the film immensely and can see myself watching this film time and time again, in both 2d and 3d.

My Rating
 

[Achim]

God review of this wonderful film.

I watched the 2D version only and thought the colors were great. I then kept hearing about the color-loss in the 3DF version and will therefore probably never watch it. Except maybe for a few minutes just to see what it's like.

[Critter]

Thanks Achim. I actually saw Avatar in 3D today and the 3D was immaculate. I got to keep the glasses from that too which were quite different to the ones that came with Coraline. I thought I would be smart and use the ones I got with Avatar for Coraline but when I tried it just made it blurry...

[Achim]

Thanks Achim. I actually saw Avatar in 3D today and the 3D was immaculate. I got to keep the glasses from that too which were quite different to the ones that came with Coraline. I thought I would be smart and use the ones I got with Avatar for Coraline but when I tried it just made it blurry...

Coraline's 3D on Blu-ray is different because current TV and players cannot handle the 3D presented in cinemas these days; that will change next year. It is presented with old-style 3D using different colors for each eye, just not red and green as usual. In the cinemas Coraline used the same technique as Avatar.

Avatar will be released on Blu-ray in "2D" first, I assume because too few people will have the new technology at the time. A later release will then add the 3D; once a sufficient amount of households have the needed equipment.

[Critter]

Thanks for this info Achim, I figured it might be something to do with a different 3D set up to those used for our TV's at home. After seeing Avatar and knowing 3D's real potential I can't wait for 3D in the household. I can only imagine how expensive it will be though for that type of technology upgrade.... might have to wait a long time. I only this year got my first flat-screen TV.

[Achim]

TV would have to a new one, but I understand the PS3 can be upgraded through firmware.

[snowcat]

Of course that TV would cost alot for its first few years to... and probably wouldn't be worth it for a long time.

[Critter]

I felt that was the same way with Plasma, LCD screens. I only just got my first ones and since I waited so long they have fixed most of the problems they had to begin with, such as the burning of logos etc onto the screens that sometimes occured.

[snowcat]

Yeah, its the same with pretty much everything, it starts expensive and gradually falls in price.

[Critter]

The Emperor’s New Groove



Year: 2000

Director(s): Mark Dindal

Run Time: 75  minutes

Plot: Emperor Kuzco is turned into a llama by his ex-administrator Yzma, and must now regain his throne with the help of Pacha, the gentle llama herder.

Cast:
David Spade – Emperor Kuzco
John Goodman – Pacha
Eartha Kitt – Yzma
Patrick Warburton – Kronk
Wendie Malick – Chicha

 DVD Extras:
•   Deleted Scenes
•   Music Video
•   Dance Sequence
•   Game
•   Featurette
•   Theatrical Trailer
•   Audio Commentary
•   Sting Music Video


My Thoughts
I have always enjoyed this film a lot and feel it carries a different style, both visually and story-wise to many previous Disney films. I think that the story however is somewhat weak for the most part, as well as quite predictable as the film progresses but what makes this film so lovable is the comedy. There is a fast pace throughout much of this film and some of the most exciting scenes are pulled together with excellent comic timing which often left me, and the friend I was watching it with laughing out loud for a long time. There are many random things that happen in these faster scenes, and while they don’t always make logical sense, or sense to the main storyline, they are hilarious. This is the type of animated film that many of my friends sill quote from when they are younger as it has so many great one-liners as well as visual jokes. The highlight for me, as always has been the character of ‘Kronk’ portrayed by Patrick Warburton who steals almost every scene he is in and usually has all the funniest lines.

My Rating
 

[Critter]

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children: Complete



Anime Type: Movie

Year: 2005 (original release) 2009 (blu-ray ‘complete’ version)

Director: Tetsuya Nomura

Plot: An ex-mercenary is forced out of isolation when three mysterious men kidnap and brainwash the city's children afflicted with the Geostigma disease.

My Thoughts:

I first watched this film a long time ago on a small TV in bad quality and had a hard time understanding the plot. This new blu-ray version clears up a lot of things… and not just the amazing picture quality, but the story as well. Apparently when this film was first released in its shorter version, a lot of content had been taken out, making the story harder to follow than it should be. This lead a lot of people to start complaining that unless you have played the video game series of which the film is based, then there is no way you could understand what is going on. I have personally never played any Final Fantasy game that I can remember, but being an anime fan I can of course recognize many of the famous characters from the series. That being said, I found this extended version of the film fairly easy to follow, with the exception of not always knowing who some of the more minor characters are and what their back story is. It is clear that a lot of the back stories of these characters are indeed told in the video games but the fact that I didn’t know them didn’t seem to be a vital point to the plot.

Overall I found this film very enjoyable. I think the English dubbing was not as good as it could have been but I found the small, white subtitles hard to read for this one so for the most part I just kept the English on. The animation is of course, outstanding and has only been enhanced further with this blu-ray transition. Both the characters and the environments were flawless throughout the entire film, enough to leave one speechless at the beauty created within these computers. Advent Children has managed to do what WALL•E also achieved, and that is to make dust and grim beautiful. Both films involve lengthy scenes set in broken down worlds, worlds that are collapsed and dying, yet within these scenes the artists have still managed to bring a beauty into the film which I admire.

I believe the visuals and action-packed fight scenes defiantly over ride the story of the film, but that is almost to be expected of a film based on a video game series. Obviously playing the games would have enhanced the experience of watching this film but even though I haven’t I still enjoyed it.

My Rating

[Critter]

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs



Year: 1937

Director(s): David Hand

Run Time: 80 minutes

Plot: Snow White, pursued by a jealous queen, hides with the Dwarfs; the queen feeds her a poison apple, but Prince Charming awakens her with a kiss.

Cast:
Roy Atwell – Doc
Adriana Caselotti – Snow White
Eddie Collins – Dopey
Pinto Colvig – Sleepy/Grumpy
Billy Gilbert – Sneezy
Otis Harlan – Happy
Lucille La Verne – Queen/Witch
Scotty Mattraw – Bashful


DVD Extras:
•   “The Princess and the Frog” Sneak Peek
•   Snow White Returns
•   Deleted Scenes
•   The One That Started It All
•   “Someday My Prince Will Come” By Tiffany Thornton
•   Audio Commentary With Walt Disney
•   Dopey’s Wild Mine Ride Game
•   Animation Voice Talent
•   Disney Through The Decades
•   “Heigh Ho” Sing- Along
•   “Heigh Ho” Karaoke

My Thoughts
Here is the film that started it all, the film that was undoubtedly not only a milestone in animation but in cinema in general. This is a film that influenced such movies as the Wizard of Oz, which in turn influenced other titles such as Star Wars and so on and so forth. I have even heard and read that Citizen Kane was inspired by Snow White in some ways but I am yet to discover how. While watching Snow White I have nothing but the highest of admiration towards it, the story itself, classic though it is, is defiantly not one I would call a favourite of mine, in fact there are not many of the ‘princess’ Disney films that I love. In that case then, why is it that I am always so drawn to this film, and why I have watched it over and over in my teenage years, indeed many more times than I ever did as a child. For me it is the history, and the story behind the story that I find the most fascinating and the most inspiring.

Originally called ‘Disney’s Folly’ by critics at the time, hardly any dared to believe that such a thing as a full length feature cartoon could be successful. Disney had been told time and time again that cartoons were good for five or six minutes but anything longer than that an audiences would tire of it, and also their eyes would hurt from watching such bright colours. Disney however would have none of this and was determined to make the film, despite the odds being well and truly stacked against him which is what I find so inspiring. At the time money was being poured into the Disney animated shorts, but being short films hardly anything was coming back. Disney knew that to further animation in the world of cinema full-length films were needed, and he was indeed correct.

There was no doubt that if Snow White was unsuccessful at the cinemas, then the Walt Disney Animation Company would close down. Four years, hundreds of people and thousands of dollars were poured into this film in somewhat of a gamble. No one even believed that the film would do as well as it did, and in fact a lot people were rooting against it. If this film had not set the course for the world of full-length animated feature then where would we be today, would there be a PIXAR, a DreamWorks or would there even be Disneylands? The film itself is visually stunning, as always with Disney films and the animation is flawless which is brought to life even further with the use of the multi-plane camera that Disney himself pioneered. For anyone who got this DVD I highly recommend checking out the special features. The extras on the film are amazing and I enjoyed watching the history not only of Snow White, but of the Disney company itself. One thing that I found most outstanding of the features was the audio commentary of the film with Walt Disney himself, it was something that was put together over three decades and was amazing to listen to.

My Rating