This might seem a weird topic for here, but...
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 12:27 am
What are y'all's favorite and least-favorite Disney cartoons? I know it seems strange as hell to ask that of a bunch of Malibu-chugging, trash talking SOBs and cartoon characters, but I figure most of us have probably seen most of them. (I'm missing a few: Fantasia 2000, Aladdin, The Great Mouse Detective, and pretty much everything after Treasure Planet that wasn't Pixar, since it all looked ball-suckalicious... though the upcoming Bolt looks rather good from what I've seen).
Oh, and don't count any sequels (aside from The Rescuers Down Under, Fantasia 2000, and Toy Story 2), as they were all done by the incredibly shitty TV division to go straight to DVD and are of sickeningly bad quality.
Best, hands-down, is The Lion King (like I just said in another thread). This is just a great movie, period. I hate to use the word, since it sounds like an exaggeration, but the movie really is Shakespearean. The story is light years beyond any other movie of this type: epic, emotionally powerful, simultaneously tragic and laugh-out-loud funny. And despite all its dark and serious moments, there are SIX comic relief characters, all of whom work on a different level and actually add to the film (and it's a rarity for Disney to get one or two of them to really "work"). Think of it this way: James Earl Jones is at his best when playing a father who comes back from the dead through supernatural means to visit his son or when playing an African king. Here, he does both at once.
Second, toss-up. Lilo & Stich if you're only counting non-Pixar, traditional animation. (For now, why not?) Like The Lion King, it seems like they tried to make a great movie, and it just happened to be animated. Here, it's more of a family-friendly comedy. It's impossible to not like a movie about an outcast girl teaching a genetically-engineered alien superweapon (which she thinks is an unruly dog) to behave by having him modeling his behavior on Elvis Presley.
Others I dig are The Emperor's New Groove (insanely funny flick, though not as full of heart as L&S), Atlantis (criminally underrated "animated Indiana Jones" flick with designs by Mike "Hellboy" Mignola), Lady & The Tramp, Pocahontas (which was a lot stronger than I'd anticipated), and, of course, Snow White.
Factor in non-traditional movies, and The Nightmare Before Christmas is a virtual tie with L&S for second, and Dinosaur isn't too far behind (the story is a bit weaker, but, damn, that's such beautiful work that I can forgive a few minor rough patches in the story).
Anything from Pixar is golden, and I would like to again encourage mabs to actually watch one of them and not lump them in with Shrek. Best would be The Incredibles, because a superhero comedy by the guy who directed The Iron Giant could've beaten the others even if it was only the teaser trailer and a shot or two of Frozone.
Worst, well, I've not seen most of the recent output, and it looks horrible. Tarzan was disappointing (Rosie O'Donnell failed where Nathan Lane succeeded in The Lion King, and she was, unfortunately, in the whole damned movie), and Treasure Planet moreso (following Atlantis, I had high hopes for that, but it seemed like it just wasn't exactly finished--worst retelling of Treasure Island I've ever seen).
I'd have to say The Black Cauldron is the hands-down loser, though. It came near the lowest point in a long lull in quality, and pales next to some of the other animated features of the time (look at Bluth's The Secret of NIMH, for instance). Like NIMH, it was an adaptation of a classic young-adult novel. However, where NIMH makes changes that are mostly relatively minor, and the major ones work in condensing it into a 90-minute cartoon, Black Cauldron is quite possibly the worst adaptation of any book I've seen. And I'm counting the abysmally bad My Side of the Mountain from the 1970s, where the fucktard didn't seem to have read it. No, Disney succeeds (or fails) in taking an epic on par with LOTR or Narnia and turning it into a weak, farcical piece of shit. And, possibly worst of all, the fucking story is almost entirely based on The Book of Three (Book 1 in the series), not The Black Cauldron (Book 2). WTF?
Oh, and don't count any sequels (aside from The Rescuers Down Under, Fantasia 2000, and Toy Story 2), as they were all done by the incredibly shitty TV division to go straight to DVD and are of sickeningly bad quality.
Best, hands-down, is The Lion King (like I just said in another thread). This is just a great movie, period. I hate to use the word, since it sounds like an exaggeration, but the movie really is Shakespearean. The story is light years beyond any other movie of this type: epic, emotionally powerful, simultaneously tragic and laugh-out-loud funny. And despite all its dark and serious moments, there are SIX comic relief characters, all of whom work on a different level and actually add to the film (and it's a rarity for Disney to get one or two of them to really "work"). Think of it this way: James Earl Jones is at his best when playing a father who comes back from the dead through supernatural means to visit his son or when playing an African king. Here, he does both at once.
Second, toss-up. Lilo & Stich if you're only counting non-Pixar, traditional animation. (For now, why not?) Like The Lion King, it seems like they tried to make a great movie, and it just happened to be animated. Here, it's more of a family-friendly comedy. It's impossible to not like a movie about an outcast girl teaching a genetically-engineered alien superweapon (which she thinks is an unruly dog) to behave by having him modeling his behavior on Elvis Presley.
Others I dig are The Emperor's New Groove (insanely funny flick, though not as full of heart as L&S), Atlantis (criminally underrated "animated Indiana Jones" flick with designs by Mike "Hellboy" Mignola), Lady & The Tramp, Pocahontas (which was a lot stronger than I'd anticipated), and, of course, Snow White.
Factor in non-traditional movies, and The Nightmare Before Christmas is a virtual tie with L&S for second, and Dinosaur isn't too far behind (the story is a bit weaker, but, damn, that's such beautiful work that I can forgive a few minor rough patches in the story).
Anything from Pixar is golden, and I would like to again encourage mabs to actually watch one of them and not lump them in with Shrek. Best would be The Incredibles, because a superhero comedy by the guy who directed The Iron Giant could've beaten the others even if it was only the teaser trailer and a shot or two of Frozone.
Worst, well, I've not seen most of the recent output, and it looks horrible. Tarzan was disappointing (Rosie O'Donnell failed where Nathan Lane succeeded in The Lion King, and she was, unfortunately, in the whole damned movie), and Treasure Planet moreso (following Atlantis, I had high hopes for that, but it seemed like it just wasn't exactly finished--worst retelling of Treasure Island I've ever seen).
I'd have to say The Black Cauldron is the hands-down loser, though. It came near the lowest point in a long lull in quality, and pales next to some of the other animated features of the time (look at Bluth's The Secret of NIMH, for instance). Like NIMH, it was an adaptation of a classic young-adult novel. However, where NIMH makes changes that are mostly relatively minor, and the major ones work in condensing it into a 90-minute cartoon, Black Cauldron is quite possibly the worst adaptation of any book I've seen. And I'm counting the abysmally bad My Side of the Mountain from the 1970s, where the fucktard didn't seem to have read it. No, Disney succeeds (or fails) in taking an epic on par with LOTR or Narnia and turning it into a weak, farcical piece of shit. And, possibly worst of all, the fucking story is almost entirely based on The Book of Three (Book 1 in the series), not The Black Cauldron (Book 2). WTF?