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RDT Reviews Toy Story 1, 2, 3 and 4

Released: November 19, 1995
First Seen: In Theatres Around Release Day
Last Watch: Disney+

Toy Story has a strong argument as Pixar’s greatest film ever. It may not even be a stretch to call it the greatest animated film of all time. Toy Story’s…story is incredible, including excellent and memorable major and minor characters all over the place and a containing many different themes. Toy Story changed the animated movie industry in two ways. One, while partnered with Disney here, later issues between the companies led to a split. Pixar showed in the early 2000s that they were the premiere film animation studio and absolutely contributed to Disney Animation Studio’s slump in the same timeframe. Secondly, before Toy Story computer animation in animated films was more of an easter egg. You’d see it in short scenes (for example, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, a traditionally animated film contained a computer animated Gotham City), or maybe in animated shorts. Once Toy Story and Pixar showed up to the big dance, all of that slowly, then rapidly changed.

Toy Story is a very simple concept to understand. Toys are living beings that assume a lifeless stance when around humans. The toys have a connection to their owner that resembles a traditional love story. That’s pretty much the premise of the entire Toy Story franchise, and it’s such a simple, yet strong idea that it’s carried four films. Woody is an old cowboy doll who, via being owner Andy’s favorite toy, is the leader of all of Andy’s toys. He manages staff meetings with the toys, has friendly relations with all of them and maintains an overall control of the room. He’s also extremely protective of Andy and views his (and all toys’) role as one to bring happiness to their owner. When it comes to a birthday party, all the other toys are concerned about their spots as a new toy could always replace someone. This comes to a head as Andy gets a brand new popular toy, a Buzz Lightyear, comes in and threatens Woody’s spot as Andy’s favorite toy. In an interesting twist, Buzz doesn’t know he’s a toy and believes he’s the actual Buzz Lightyear, a space ranger. Woody accidentally knocks Buzz out the window when trying to knock him behind a shelf. When Andy takes Woody out to Pizza Planet, Buzz finds him and they end up as lost toys. In the middle of nowhere, can Woody get back to Andy’s room? Can he manage to convince Buzz to return with him? Well, it’s been 26 years so I’ll go the spoiler route. The answer is yes. The journey is nothing short of incredible though.

Before we get to the themes of the movie I want to quickly go through the characters. The entirety of Andy’s room is just an amazing cast of characters with perfect voice acting. We have Woody’s trusty friend Slinky (Jim Varney), the brash Mr. Potato Head (perfectly voiced by Don Rickles), the nervous and easily frightened Rex (Wallace Shawn), Bo Peep (Annie Potts) and a piggy bank named Hamm (John Ratzenberger) to play with, and after one film it feels Toy Story wouldn’t be Toy Story without any of these characters (we’ll get there). Even the minor non-talking toys are memorable (the Green Army Men, the Aliens, R.C. Rocky, Mr. Spell, an Etch A Sketch). We didn’t even get to the “villain” of the story in Sid Phillips, a neighbor of Andy’s who likes to destroy toys. I don’t consider him a main antagonist, but more of something Woody and Buzz have to overcome. I also have to bring up how perfectly Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are for the voices of Woody and Buzz respectively. How so many characters are represented so well in just an 81 minute runtime is unbelievable.

                            Woody and Buzz battle it out under a beautiful cgi night sky

Let’s talk about some of the themes. First of which is the presentation of teamwork. We see it in multiple scenes in the movie. Woody’s communication with the Green Army Men for Andy’s birthday. The toys trying rescue Buzz after Woody knocks him out of the window. Woody and Buzz coming together to escape Sid’s room (Woody: “Buzz, I can’t do this without you”). The actual plan to escape Sid’s house (which involves an entire collection of Sid-deformed toys, and each of them has a role. Woody’s leadership skills really are shown here). And lastly, the Woody/Buzz/R.C. finish. This combined with a strong presence of community in the film, really allows every character to shine. We also have themes of love and jealously, and how important it is to adapt and grow up. Woody is really jealous of Buzz and it takes him a while to understand that if he’s true to what he believes in, al that matters is Andy’s happiness. Lastly, we have two separate journeys of characters trying figuring out who they are. In Woody’s case, he’s been the top toy for so long, suddenly he has to learn to share or even give up that spot, which in turn only makes him a stronger leader. Buzz outright has to learn that he isn’t a space ranger, but a toy, and how important that role actually is. It’s incredible how well those two searches for identity intertwine in Toy Story. Toy Story would have likely been a hit just for it’ being the first fully cgi film, but the actual story and writing is what makes this one of the all time great films.

I didn’t really discuss the writing itself but the movie is very cleverly written. Even jokes that you’d roll your eyes at in almost any other situation somehow get a laugh here, proving the point that sometimes it’s not what the joke is, but how it’s presented. Randy Newman’s “You Got a Friend In Me” worked so well that it’s pretty much the theme of the entire franchise and new songs were never needed. Lastly, it’s worth noting that the cowboy-space ranger rivalry was also a clever idea. Parents around 35-40 years old lived through that transition in media. That’s a nice hook.

Best Scene: The finish once Buzz lights the rocket through he and Woody landing in Andy’s mom’s car. It is an absolutely perfect sequence with an incredible callback from earlier.

Worst Scene: I have to be honest here, this movie doesn’t have a bad scene in it. Every frame just hits.

Personal Story: I still don’t understand how the video game for this movie is so difficult (I don’t really have a personal story I remember, but I know I always loved this movie.)

Final Thoughts: I have said that Frozen was the greatest Disney Animated Studios film ever, but I specified it that way because Toy Story is better.

Grade: S

Released: November 24, 1999
First Seen: In Theatres Around Release Day
Last Watch: Disney+

Before we even begin looking at Toy Story 2, I highly recommend researching the production history (problems) that Toy Story 2 had, as well as the issues between Pixar and Disney regarding the film. The fact that Toy Story 2 made its deadline with such high quality is nothing short of incredible. Originally, Toy Story 2 was to be a straight to video release (Disney had produced some of these, to lets say generously, mixed results at this point). But in 1997 upon seeing how the film was coming along, Disney and Pixar agreed it was good enough for a theatrical release. This led to a contract dispute between the two companies that went on until Disney outright bought Pixar in 2006. While all this was going, the Pixar team worked dangerously unhealthy hours to get the film done, and issues such as 90% of the film being deleted (and luckily recovered) plagued production. Again, incredible the film turned out the way it did.

I’m not going to go over all the returns characters that I listed in the Toy Story review. Almost all of them return and are just as great as the first film. We do have some new characters who are also a lot of fun. Jessie (Joan Cusack) is an excellent addition and Stinky Pete the Prospector (Kelsey Grammar) gives us a fun toy villain we didn’t have in in the original. Bullseye is also a toy horse with really fun expressions. Our human villain is Al (Wayne Knight) owner of Al’s Toy Barn. Just watching the character in the film and knowing Knight you’ll see why that’s a perfect voice casting. Also, Jodi Benson (Ariel from The Little Mermaid) voices a Barbie doll, although that’s a more significant casting later.

                                                                         Subtle brag here, Pixar…

What’s brilliant about Toy Story 2 is that it recycles a lot of the themes from the original, but either extends them or does them on a grander scale. Here’s the synopsis. Just as Andy was to take Woody to their annual cowboy camp trip, Andy accidentally tears Woody’s arm while playing with him, causing Woody to be shelved. Woody finds another broken toy there named Wheezy. When Andy’s mom looks for things to sell at a garage sale, she takes Wheezy. Woody goes for the rescue, but he’s found by Al, who seems really excited about finding Woody. Al steals him, and in Al’s apartment we find out what the big deal about Woody: he’s a collector’s item as his character was the star of an old show called Woody’s round-up. There he meets Jessie, Bullseye and Stinky Pete, and completes the collection. They’re on their way to a museum in Japan for the rest of their lives, and because of their past histories, it’s something Jessie (abandoned by a previous owner) and Stinky Pete (never really a popular toy, especially after space toys were introduced) are excited about. They eventually do convince Woody that Andy will outgrow him and Woody chooses to stay with the “Round-Up Gang”. Meanwhile, Andy’s toys are out to rescue Woody and bring him home. Their side of the adventure involves causing a pileup on the highway, finding Al’s Toy Barn (with it’s own hilarious results) and eventually finding Woody in Al’s apartment. Will Woody return to Andy or head to the museum?

A lot of reviewers have said that Toy Story 2 is the rare sequel that surpasses the original. And while this is a great film, I wholeheartedly disagree. Despite an excellent set-up, I find the story falls apart with some rushed decisions Woody, Buzz and Jessie make. Jessie first. Her story is presented as one of the saddest in the franchise. She had an owner, Emily. But Emily grew up and forgot about Jessie, and left her in a box for donations. She’s been in storage ever since, waiting for Woody. She’s feels strongly about Woody’s connections to Andy, something pushed upon throughout the entire film. But when Woody tells Jessie that Andy will play with all of them, she does a complete 180 and gets excited about the idea (Woody even mentions Andy having a baby sister, Molly, but no idea why that would change anything). It somewhat cheapens Jessie’s story with Emily. Let’s talk about Woody. We know about Woody’s devotion to Andy and even his close relationship with all the toys in Andy’s room (something, as we will get to, that really makes Toy Story 4), but here after some prodding he’s all ready to abandon all of that for Woody’s Round-up and the museum. I understand that we’re dealing with a version of a love story and that sometimes people do silly things when it comes to love, but I don’t buy that Woody’s character would ever do this. I also completely disagree with Buzz leaving Woody with the Round-Up Gang, telling the rest of the toys that “he’s not coming with us”. After everything they went through in Toy Story Buzz giving up on Woody is a big thumbs down from me.

                                        Woody almost gave up Andy and his friends for this…

But enough negativity. The rest of the film is still so amazing that these plot issues just turn an exceptional once-in-a-lifetime film into merely a great one, and that’s high praise. Here are some other aspects of the film to think about. The film is much bigger visually than the original. Seeing all the Buzz Lightyear toys in Al’s Toy Barn is a visual treat. The finish of the film on a tarmac with an airplane involved dwarfs the finale for Toy Story. The opening of the film, Rex playing a Buzz Lightyear video game, looks amazing fun and leads to a very fun C (B?) plot in the film (this also leads to a funny homage). Don’t get me wrong, I may not love the conclusion of some plot threads in Toy Story 2, but still is still a tremendous film.

Best Scene: I have to pick two here. The first of course is the famous scene where Woody is fixed and re-painted. It just has a certain beauty to it. The second is Jessie’s story with Sarah McLachlan’s “When She Loved Me” playing.

Worst Scene: The entire plot unravels when Buzz is ready to abandon Woody in Al’s apartment, Woody changes his mind again, then with very little prodding changes Jessie’s entire arc.

Personal Story: I actually didn’t care for this movie when I first saw it, although for different reasons (I felt it was all over the place and it just didn’t stick with me like the original did). It wasn’t until 2009 when I watched it again and appreciated some of the wackiness of it. If the production wasn’t such a disaster I would have bet the Pixar team had a blast creating the film.

Final Thoughts: An excellent film that is bigger, more emotional and perhaps even more fun that the original…but with a weaker overall story that didn’t even show much originality either.

Grade: A-

Released: June 18, 2010
First Seen: In Theatres on Release Day
Last Watch: Disney+

If you felt Toy Story 2 left an optimistic future for our favorite toys think again. In a refreshing and clever twist, the story of Toy Story 3 has moved forward in time about 10 years and Andy’s headed to college. Remember all those discussions about how kids outgrow their toys in Toy Story 2? Looks like that viewpoint was right. Kudos to Pixar and Disney going this route with Toy Story 3. This allowed viewers (like myself) that grew up with the first two films to relate to the film. It worked well too, Toy Story 3 made $1 billion (back when that really meant something) and peaked at #3 in all-time box office receipts.

Pixar and Disney were definitely targeting younger adults with Toy Story 3. There are truthfully not a lot of fun sequences for really young children here outside of the opening and I guess Bonnie’s playtime. It wouldn’t even surprise me if young kids were scared watching this film. Before we get into the story and why this is, let’s look at the continuity of the Toy Story franchise and how Toy Story 3 adds to it. The opening scene, one of the best opening scenes I think in theatrical film history, is an action remake of Andy playing with his toys in Toy Story (with some edits thrown in for the additional characters). As for the characters, almost all of them are here, but some are inexplicably missing (we will get to that in Toy Story 4), most importantly Bo Peep and R.C. are nowhere to be seen (although referenced). In fact, there’s only a small crew of toys left and when Andy is around, they just sit in the toybox. All the voice actors are back (even John Morris as Andy!) with the exception of Jim Varney as Slinky. Varney passed away in 2000, and Blake Clark replaces him (not only were him and Varney close friends, Clark does such a good job many do not realize it’s a different voice actor). There are new toys with another kid Bonnie, and while they are fun they aren’t really essential to the main story other than letting Woody know what’s going on (there’s another reason they are there which we’ll get to). Andy’s mom tells Andy to do something with the toys, and while he attempts to put them in the attic, they accidentally end up in the trash. They escape and get themselves donated to Sunnyside Daycare.

                                                                   Hell hath no fury like a toy scorned…

We saw in Toy Story 2 how Jessie felt about being abandoned by Emily and we now go one step further. Lotso (New Beatty) is a stuffed bear that’s accidentally left behind. Only this time we see Lotso make its way back to its owner…only to find that its owner has a new Lotso! This darkens Lotso heart, and he eventually makes his way to Sunnyside and ends up running the place like a prison camp. This isn’t an exaggeration either, there are several scenes that were inspired by the movies Cool Hand Luke and Shawshank Redemption. (I remember watching in the theater thinking that Lotso’s speech about Sunnyside to the imprisoned toys reminded me a lot like Warden Norton’s). Anyway the toys make their way to Sunnyside and at first think they’ve hit the jackpot…until they get utterly destroyed being played with by pre-schoolers. Woody escapes on his own (we’ll get to this) and ends up in the possession of another child, Bonnie. After some nostalgic playtime Bonnie’s toys explain to Woody that Sunnyside isn’t the nice place it may have seemed. Woody makes his way back to help his friends escape and get back to Andy’s attic, until Woody thinks of a better idea.

The structure of the story is quite sound, even if it’s much more straightforward than the previous two films. There’s no real secondary plot here (unless you want to count Mrs. Potato Head’s eye) or even twists or turns. We’re just trying to get Andy’s toys back to safety to be there for Andy one last time. That’s perfectly fine and works well (while not necessarily as complicated or as deep, I find this story stronger than Toy Story 2’s because everyone’s motivations make sense). There are no cliff hangers or decisions that could change the course of the franchise (like let’s say, what if Buzz never learned he was a toy in Toy Story 1 or what if Woody did go to the museum in Toy Story 2). The adventure itself is what makes the film. There’s an early hole that bothers me which I will get to, but otherwise the attention to detail Pixar puts into Sunnyside is nothing short of incredible. Sunnyside works like an actual prison, with search lights and cameras and patrols everywhere. There’s even toy politics (for example, Barbie and Ken’s (Michael Keaton)’s relationship and how Barbie gets to be on the safer side of Sunnyside. We end up for the third straight film having something happen with Buzz that returns him to Space Ranger form, and for the third straight time it works again. So the toys have to overcome that (and the result pays off hilariously) as well. The actual plan to escape Sunnyside is similar to the plan to escape Sid in Toy Story 1, but on a grander scale. Every character gets a chance to shine. Sunnyside isn’t without its horrors though, with Big Baby and the Monkey watching every move (the Monkey specifically might give some nightmare fuel). No doubt, Sunnyside is the toy version of Alcatraz. Worse yet, the one way to escape is through the garbage disposal. That doesn’t quite go well either, leading to one of the most emotionally gripping scenes maybe in all of cinema.

                                                                                   so long…partner…

Of course, we all know it works out (the how is definitely worth a laugh too). So let’s talk about the ending. You’ve probably read or even felt yourself that Toy Story 3 has the perfect ending to the franchise and at the time I agreed and still kind of do, although Toy Story 4’s ending worked for me. Andy ends up giving Bonnie all of his toys and there’s one last play through with them. (Even though it may be somewhat lame for a 17-18 year old Andy to feel the way he does in this scene, quite frankly who cares. It’s hard not to tear up at this scene to this day). But right there we all should have known what Bonnie is and what her toys represent to the franchise: a sequel. This was never going to be the ending. We should also address the other issues too. The entire escape sequence from Sunnyside is fun and all, but somewhat cheapened by Woody managing to escape on his own earlier (this is addressed, but still doesn’t work). But they had to get Woody out to meet with Bonnie’s toys so I guess that had to happen. I actually would have liked to have seen more from the post Lotso Sunnyside run by Barbie and Ken in Toy Story 4. I thought those toys were way more interesting.

Best Scene: Sure the ending is perfect, but my goodness the opening scene is a whole different level of perfection. We also have to mention the garbage disposal scene of course, even though that was always going one way.

Worst Scene: Like Toy Story, I don’t feel this film really has a bad scene.

Personal Story: This is easily my favorite Toy Story film. I was the perfect target for Pixar and Disney here.

Final Thoughts: A more straightforward story, but one I’m definitely along with the entire time. I personally loved the darker atmosphere and the revelation of the truth that being a toy will more likely than not have a sad ending. Toy Story 3 may have been the perfect “ending”, but all it did was really extend the toys lifespan just a little longer. Bonnie must grow up sometime too, right?

Grade: A+

Released: June 21, 2019
First Seen: In Theatres close to Release Day
Last Watch: Disney+

If you felt Toy Story 3’s ending was perfect and that this movie shouldn’t exist, you aren’t alone. In an era where Disney is clearly busting out live action remakes of their Disney classics in what feel like complete money grabs, there was a real concern that’s what Toy Story 4 is. And amazingly, it’s not. While overall I do feel Toy Story 4 is the weakest film of the four, it’s still in the same ballpark. It may even have the highest highs in the entire franchise. It just has the lowest lows that the other films don’t have. But brilliantly, we thought we saw the only possible conclusion there was with Andy giving Woody and the toys to Bonnie in Toy Story 3, but it turns out there was one more card to play and Pixar and Disney played it perfectly.

I didn’t really discuss Bonnie’s toys in Toy Story 3 but I’ll do so now since they are a bigger part of the picture this time around. There’s the leader of Bonnie’s room, Dolly (Bonnie Hunt), Trixie (Kristen Schaal), Mr. Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton) and Buttercup (Jeff Garlin). Unfortunately, these characters are mostly regulated to the C-plot (which is pretty bad) and after cameos in Toy Story 3 and this showing here, I don’t really care about any of these toys. Mr. Pricklepants has his moments (being in character is important to him, a fun gimmick) and Dolly’s status as leader of Bonnie’s toys does create an interesting dynamic for Woody. But after that, nothing about them makes me excited about them being in a Toy Story 5.

So what was that trump card Pixar and Disney still had to play? Well the first three films focused on Woody doing everything he could to make Andy happy. It’s why Toy Story 3’s ending felt perfect. But what about Woody? Is his story really over just because Andy went to college? And thus, the Bo Peep card was played. Woody and Bo had shown affection for one another all the way back in Toy Story and we didn’t get an answer to why she isn’t in Toy Story 3. The opening to Toy Story 4 (perhaps the most stunningly amazingly animated scene I’ve ever seen in anything ever) answers that question and now see what Woody sacrificed. With a little retconning (Bo being Molly’s toy now), Bo ends up being given away shortly after the events o Toy Story 2. Woody, fresh off a rescue of R.C. (also missing from Toy Story 3, although that’s not explained here), looks to save Bo as well. Only Bo accepts her fate, realizing that Molly is growing up. But then Bo makes an offer that Woody almost accepts…to come with her (“you know, kids lose their toys everyday…”). But Andy’s voice pulls Woody back to Andy one more time. It’s worth noting I felt this one scene was much stronger than the entire enticement of Woody in Toy Story 2.

                                                                      Woody’s toughest decision…

We move on to present day, and Woody isn’t a favorite of Bonnie’s; often being left in the closet during playtime. But we see Woody’s growth here. He understand that making Bonnie happy is all that matters and if that means being left in the closet so be it. Woody understands his role as making sure the group that came with Andy is ready for playtime. He further decides that a toy needs to go to Kindergarten with Bonnie, and Woody saves the day there too. The one catch is that Bonnie creates a “toy” out of trash named Forky (Tony Hale). When it comes to Forky, I’ve never been so mixed about a character in anything ever. On the surface, I find the character to be a mix of funny and annoying. But I appreciate how clever the character actually is. In Toy Story Buzz thought he was an actual space ranger and not a toy. Well, the same thing is true for Forky, as he comes to life and thinks he’s actually what he is…trash. Bonnie loves Forky though, so despite Forky trying to throw himself out for a quarter of the movie Woody does everything he can to make sure Forky is around for Bonnie. The whole entire question of what makes a toy does have to be asked for sure, but it’s never answered (like why isn’t the Super Nintendo in the earlier films or even the board games alive…but Forky is?)

Anyway, due to Forky jumping out the window, Woody goes out to save him and Forky seemingly understands his role. But when almost back to Bonnie’s RV, Woody spots Bo Peep’s lamp in an antique store. There’s another whole side plot with one of the toys in the antique store, Gabby Gabby. For whatever reason Disney-Pixar decided to try another creepy setting in Toy Story 4 (especially with the “Slappy dolls”). But it kind of doesn’t really hit that level other than a couple of scenes and other toys saying Gabby’s whacked out. It turns out Gabby isn’t that bad, she just wants to impress a kid who visits the store, but her voice box is damaged. It just so happens that Woody’s voice box is the one that works for Gabby. Even though a majority of the story actually takes place here, the conclusion isn’t that important so I’ll roll with it now. Woody gives up his voice box for Forky, but Gabby gets rejected by the kid. Woody ends up taking Gabby along, and then Gabby gets to comfort another kid. It shows Woody being Woody one more time, and it does perhaps justify his decision to join Bo later, but it’s definitely feels like a random conclusion.

Woody has a child take him out of the antique story into the carnival across the street, and that’s where the epic reunion with Bo Peep takes place. But Bo is a very different toy than we last saw her. You see she’s a lost toy, but unlike everything we’ve been told throughout the Toy Story franchise, it turns out being a lost toy could be a lot of fun! This is a fantastic way to build the world of Toy Story. I find it to be quite similar to a child of a conservative family who really never got out during their teenage years. Suddenly, they’re older and not realizing everything the world has to offer them. Bo Peep was that toy too, until she discovered the world around her. The creativity of how Bo gets around the carnival is also great. Whether it’s using a rolling frisbee to move around or riding around in a skunk car, once again we see the amazing attention to detail that Disney-Pixar has time and time again perfected. Bo knows the ins and outs of the antique store (and we get to meet Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves), another toy going through his own version of the abandoned toy arc, only this time with the twist that he was abandoned because he was a disappointment).

                                                        Yes we Canada!

So Buzz goes out the window too to find Woody and Forky. For some reason, there’s a stupid subplot of Buzz listening to his inner voice (which are his voice commands) and reacting off that. I’m not sure who thought that was a good idea. Buzz ends up finding Ducky and Bunny (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) along the way which is a big plus, as they’re pretty hilarious (winner-winner-chicken dinner…plush rush!). They all come together and with some fun teamwork scenes (something else the Toy Story franchise always pulls off) we get to the aforementioned conclusion earlier. Unfortunately with so much going on, we don’t spend a lot of time with the rest of Andy’s toys. In some cases it’s understandable (for example, Don Rickles, Mr. Potato Head’s voice actor, passed away a couple of years prior and all his voice clips are older clips). The c plot here is the lowest point in the series, with Andy and Bobbie’s toys trying to buy time by hitting the brake pedal randomly on the RV and acting as a GPS to cause Bonnie’s dad to drive the wrong way (and cause the cops to stop him too). What a waste really.

                                                        Perhaps the ending Woody and Bo deserved

But who cares because the ending is where the money is. If you thought Andy’s good bye was emotional, I hope you’re ready for Woody’s. It comes to time for the toys to go with Bonnie, forcing him to once again say good-bye to Bo Peep. But Buzz lets him know that Bonnie will be okay without Woody, and Woody makes the decision to go with Bo Peep and become a lost toy. This leads to Woody saying good-bye to all of his friends, and in a way it hits harder than the ending of Toy Story 3 actually did. You always know Andy was going to grow up. But did you really expect Woody to say good-bye (again, this is what frustrates me about Toy Story 2). In a moment that’s kind of wasted though is Woody giving his sheriff’s badge to Jessie. It’s not that Jessie isn’t deserving, I just wish she had a stronger arc in Toy Story 4. The very last lines by Tim Allen and Tom Hanks really is a perfect way to end the series (He (Woody)’s not lost, not anymore. To Infinity…and Beyond). The fact that Disney-Pixar took a movie that frankly no one wanted and turned it into another emotionally gripping epic is an amazing feat.

Best Scene: The opening and the ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q59l-_QEo-4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxhNXy0JPnY

Worst Scene: The entirety of Bonnie’s dad driving the RV near the end. Just screamed “we don’t know what to do with these characters”.

Personal Story: Sure, it’s my least favorite of the four films and I didn’t even see it a second time in theaters. But I can’t help but tear up at the ending.

Final Thoughts: As I wrote earlier, Toy Story 4 has ridiculously high highs and really low lows. I know Toy Story 5 will come, and I just hope it’s more with Woody and Bo’s crew. That’s definitely the more interesting group. Bo Peep showed us a whole new world, if we’re going to expand it, let’s expand it. Let’s not try to make Jessie Woody 2.0.

Grade: A+

Disney, Movies, RDT Reviews

RDT Reviews Frozen (2013) and Frozen II (2019)

Somewhere after the Disney Renaissance of the 90s Disney lost a step. At first it wasn’t necessarily a quality issue. The Emperor’s New Groove, despite bombing at the box office is pretty well regarded. Lilo & Stitch brought it back a little (did similar box office as Hercules, but still way short of the films at the tail end of the Reniassance). Things began to slide down with Treasure Planet both from a quality standpoint and box office standpoint. Then Brother Bear (outright critical flop) and Home on the Range (what the heck happened?!) were released and Disney became a complete non-factor from a feature film animation standpoint. What were the causes? Briefly, as I want to get to the review, you have your options between the rise of computer animation (which Pixar and Dreamworks were doing quite well with), the Disney films not being as good or the Disney’s failure to create new fans during the Reniassance (I’m definitely one that lapsed into my teenage years). Disney would buy Pixar, but would keep Pixar and Disney animation studios separate.

Disney went ahead with a few computer animated films, all forgettable (not necessarily bad though). One more classically animated film came after that (The Princess and the Frog, a bit underrated but still disappointing at the box office). Things turned around in 2010 as animated films  suddenly became big box office. Toy Story 3 hit the  $1 Billion mark (back when that mattered) and then Disney’s own Tangled got close to $600K. The combination of computer animation and a return to the princess fairy tale got Disney Animation back on track. And that leads us to Frozen.

Released: November 19, 2013
First Seen: Theaters, Around Release

Last Watch: Disney+

I was very curious to see how Disney’s adaptation of the Snow Queen was going to work. After the success of Tangled it’s not a surprise that Disney went this direction though. The epic fairy tale was the key to not only getting a whole new generation of young fans, but getting some parents who fell in love with Disney 20 years prior back. A big key, which definitely helped Tangled, would be that the movie had to be good. Did Frozen accomplish that? Yes, yes it did.

Frozen is a beautiful, charming, fantastic film. Everything works so well that the one hour-forty minute run time will just breeze right by. Like fun and even epic songs? Frozen’s soundtrack may be the greatest is Disney’s library. Likable characters? Great and even breathtaking visuals? Check. How about a really fun story that has several nice twists but at the same time doesn’t change or hurt the classic Disney storytelling formula? That may be the highest bar to clear, and Disney manages to clear it with more than enough space in-between.

Wanna built a snowman…

Let’s look at the story. As children, two sisters, Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell) are princesses of Arendelle. Elsa was born with magical ice powers, with the ability freeze anything, while Anna has no such powers. They play as children but Elsa accidentally hits Anna with an ice blast, to which Anna has to be cured. Anna is cured, but at the cost of her memory of Elsa’s powers. This turns into a traumatic event for Elsa, as she hides her powers from Anna as they grow up. Everything comes to a head as their parents die in a shipwreck, and Elsa is set to be coronated as queen. What an excellent set-up! In the first five minutes Elsa and Anna’s motivations for their actions throughout the film are completely explained. It helps that part of this was done though an amazing song, “Do You Want To Build A Snowman”, which is fun, epic and then even tear jerking. I was invested immediately.

Before we continue let’s discuss our two main protagonists. Kristen Bell is excellent, voicing a character with a wide arrange of emotions. Anna is quirky, sad, fun, determined, energetic character and Bell hits all of those emotions perfectly. Idina Menzel works well as Elsa too, obviously especially when we get to the singing  part. I believe every single emotion these characters portray. Yes, it helps that the computer animation is perfect, but the voice acting really makes it for me. The relationship between these two characters pushes this film to another level.

One of the most beautiful sequences in cinema history…

Continuing on, during the coronation celebration Anna meets Prince Hans (“the one”) and tells Elsa they are going to be married. Elsa doesn’t approve though, and loses control of her previously hidden powers. This causes her to run off, unwittingly leaving Arendelle in a deep winter. Anna loves her sister though and runs off to find her. On the way she meets ice seller Kristoff (and his reindeer Sven) who helps her on her way. They also run into Olaf, a sentient snowman that Elsa created as she set off the nuclear winter. They all get to Elsa’s ice palace (gorgeous), but Elsa’s afraid she’ll hurt Anna again (and then accidentally does). This time the damage is more serious than when they were children, with only an act of true love being able to save her. I’ll look to avoid getting deep into spoilers, but this twist here works really well and cements Anna as one of the all-time great Disney characters for me.

Jonathan Groff as Kristoff is pretty fun too, especially his relationship with Sven. Josh Gad is great as Olaf. Usually the comedic sidekick is a huge hit or miss, and while there are a couple of annoying spots overall Gad gets the job done.

It needs to be stressed that the visuals are incredible. I know Pixar is the king of computer animation and all, but Disney Animation made a massive statement here. Of course the music is incredible as well. Every song hits, and I’m of the opinion that “Let It Go” is the greatest Disney song period. I never thought I could relate to an ice queen running away from her kingdom, but “Let It Go” sure did that. No surprise that it won an Oscar. Of course, the song was covered by everyone on Youtube for years.

Best Scene: The “Let It Go” sequence. I really can’t pick anything else even though there’s a lot of great stuff here.

Worst Scene: Literally the only scene that didn’t sit right with me in the film is right before Elsa accidentally reveals her powers during the afterparty of the coronation. When arguing with Anna, she yells out that Anna should leave, which misses the mark on everything else their relationship is portrayed as in the film. I literally have no other complain.

Personal Story: I was a little disappointed that I didn’t see Tangled on the big screen. Since I like “the Snow Queen” and Disney had started winning me back with Wreck-It-Ralph, I decided to give Frozen a chance. I think i saw the film seven or eight times in theater. It was the first time outside of the superhero genre that I really felt I watched a masterpiece. That and I was singing “Let It Go” for months afterwards.

Final Thoughts: I consider this the greatest film Disney animations has ever released. Really, the main competition here is Beauty and the Beast. And while yes, that’s great as well, I really enjoy the characters (and songs) much more in Frozen. I don’t plan to give this grade out often, but Frozen deserves it.

Grade: S

Released: November 22, 2019
First Seen: Theaters, Around Release

Last Watch: Disney+

Before we delve into this I will give Disney some credit. They very easily could have just done a princess love story with Anna or Elsa and slapped Frozen II on it. Not only did they not do that, but they’ve begun to expand the mythology of world the Frozen franchise takes place in. I definitely would have never expected that beforehand.  I didn’t see a trailer ahead of time and was surprised in a good way at the direction Frozen II goes. It’s almost fair to call this an action film.

I have a theory about why this came about. I’m guessing Disney projected that Frozen mainly catered to 8-9 year old girls. Six years later they’re projecting that those same girls are likely reading books like Percy Jackson or The Summoner series. And this is Disney’s attempt at going that direction (I think Pixar did the same with Brave, but I can’t completely say as I haven’t seen Brave). Once again, I’m pleasantly surprised.

We return to pre-Frozen Arendelle and through a bedtime story from Anna and Elsa’s parents there is a mist that closes off the woods from everyone. We also sneakily learn a more about Elsa and Anna’s mother than seems contradictory but I do think works in the film overall. We cut to present day Arendelle and there’s a spirit calling Elsa to those woods. Anna and Elsa have promised one another that they would tackle everything together, so they go off with Kristoff, Sven and Olaf to uncover the mystery. We end up with four stories. Elsa’s, Anna’s, Kristoff’s and the people who are trapped in the mist. Let’s do this backwards.

Kristoff’s just a one-joke character unfortunately…

Kristoff’s story sucks. He wants to propose to Anna but keeps screwing it up.  They clearly had nothing for this character and decided to make him a one joke deal, only that joke is done four or five times. It’s not done well, with one exception (there’s an unexpected song that’s funny). The character outright disappears half-way through. This idea could probably be done well if it received some focus.

Anna’s story isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s forced. Disney really wants to put these two on the same pedestal and the way they decided to do this was to have the sisters agree to do everything together, even if it’s dangerous. Sure, she doesn’t have powers, but Anna does remind us often how much she went through in Frozen and it usually works as a justification to keep her along. We do get to a point where it’s clearly too dangerous for her to continue the journey with Elsa though. While that scene is botched (we’ll get there), Elsa does have to send a message to Anna in order for her to save the day. Again, it’s forced…but I ended up liking Anna more by the end of the film (she’s one of, if not my favorite Disney protagonist). It’s just that…

This is Elsa’s show, no matter how hard Disney tried to include anyone else. Her uncovering why she was born with powers does directly tie into the trapped people in the mist. And quite frankly, this movie would be a lot better if they just focused on that (it’s very similar to Toy Story 4 in this regard). When Elsa’s on screen doing her thing the movie is pretty awesome. There are two incredible music sequences for Indina Menzel this time around. Sure, neither reach “Let it Go” status, but “Into the Unknown” and “Show Yourself” do belong with Disney’s best songs.

Elsa is simply awesome in Frozen II….

Unfortunately  Elsa’s story overshadows any story development for the trapped people in the mist. There’s no real consequences when Elsa and Anna resolve the issue either (which would have been interesting). There’s an important discussion about respecting indigenous people and their culture that’s absolutely missing in this film. Everything pretty much gets situated with an “oh, that’s the solution to the problem, yay, everyone’s saved and happy”. Big swing and a miss by Disney there.

Two more pieces: There’s no real villain here this time at all, and frankly the way Elsa is being built up it’s time to bring one in. The mythology is there now. Give us an awesome villain from Frozen III. Also, Olaf has his moments (his re-enactment of Frozen is gold), but he’s much more annoying this time around. He’s really around for three reasons: give kids a laugh, for an emotional scene with Anna (which misses quite frankly), and to remind us over and over that water has memory.

Show Yourself is another amazing song with amazing visuals…

Best Scene: The “Show Yourself” musical sequence. It’s beautiful and it’s powerful.

Worst Scene: When it’s clear Anna can’t go with Elsa anymore because it’s too dangerous, Elsa creates an ice boat then kicks Anna and Olaf away into what turns out to be danger. It’s really eye opening and after Anna tells Olaf it’s okay to be angry about it the situation is never brought up again. It actually took away from “Show Yourself” (which takes place shortly afterwards) for me the first time I watched it.

Personal Story: Despite liking the film, I didn’t bother seeing it again after I saw it the first time in theaters. Overall I couldn’t help but be disappointed that it couldn’t recapture the magic the first film had. Still made me really like Anna’s character though, at least at the end of the film.

Final Thoughts: If I didn’t like these characters so much the grade would be a lot lower. Frozen II misses a lot of opportunities to really be an impactful film. That being said, if the point was to make Elsa a bigger star and to create a whole new mythology for the Frozen franchise, then Frozen II did it’s job. I can even forgive the inconsistencies for the parents from Frozen to Frozen II as I doubt when Frozen was made Disney knew this was the direction the franchise would go in. Now give us a real villain all five of our characters can go up against.

Grade: B+

Disney, MCU, Movies, RDT Reviews

RDT Reviews Iron Man (2008)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe completely changed the game when it comes to big box office comic book films. Catching DC Comics are the right time as it was committed to the Dark Knight Trilogy. Despite The Dark Knight being the arguable greatest comic book film of all time, Marvel took the opportunity to begin a shared universe between the characters it still had the movie rights too. DC wouldn’t be able to begin theirs five years later, and DC was forced to play catch-up. (Yes, Iron Man did come out about two months before The Dark Knight, but the point stands.)

Grading super hero films comes at a bit of a different curve. Super hero films get a bit of a break because at times things happen (or should happen) in the film that happen because of a specific comic book storyline. Certain characters sometimes don’t need an introduction for the same reason. If you aren’t a fan of comic book films, you probably would disagree with all of these grades. With that being said, comic book films also invite comparison to themselves. Lastly, films within a shared universe can have their grade affected by how they treat storylines established by other films in the universe.

Released: May 2, 2008
First Seen: DVD, After I saw Avengers (Late 2012)
Last Watch: Disney+

It’s amazing that the very beginning discussions of the Marvel Cinematic Universe began as far back as 2000 (talks of this film go back even further, to 1990). Ted McCanlies, a writer for the film when it was being produced for New Line in 2000, looked to add Nick Fury in a cameo role in the film to lead to a film of his (McCanlies) own. Just really cool to see those seeds planted so early on. Also interesting in early pre-production is that New Line was on the clock to getting the an Iron Man film out in order to not lose the film rights (which had bounced from Universal to 20th Century Fox to New Line), but New Line couldn’t get it done and as 2005 Marvel retained full rights. There are so many what-ifs with that entire scenario that someone needs to do a youtube documentary or something.

I had actually reviewed this in 2015 on my old site after I re-watched the film last night. Funny enough, I don’t have much to add to what I wrote then and I feel pretty much the same way. So for anyone who remembers my original Iron Man review, I apologize for the lack of originality here.

iron man mcu
What a bad ass look…

The first twenty (really fourty) minutes of Iron Man is absolutely fantastic. We quickly learn who Tony Stark is, how he is viewed by others (he absolutely intimidates other soldiers by his mere presence), and once he’s captured, why he decides to become Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is so strikingly perfect that you’d think Stark was created just so Downey could play him. Another what-if to throw in the MCU bag: what if Robert Downey Jr. didn’t get his life together and didn’t get a chance to play Tony Stark? Would the MCU have been able to reach the heights that it did? By the time Tony escapes his captives, we completely understand why he takes the path he does to become Iron Man. It’s worth noting that the MCU would have very strong minor supporting characters throughout it’s history, and Shaun Toub’s Ho Yinsen is a great start to that legacy. The first half of the film is one of the all-time best origin stories for a superhero film.

On the other side of the coin, midway through the film it’s revealed that Jeff Bridges’ Obadiah Stane is the real mastermind behind Tony Stark getting kidnapped in the opening. While I think Bridges does a good job as Stane, I don’t love how the character is written. He’s not horrible or anything, but he goes from business man to cartoon villain pretty quickly once it’s revealed. I’d even go as far to say he’s rather cringeworthy in the final battle with some horrible one liners. With that being said I still think he’s pretty good overall. Just written somewhat poorly.

Before Stane turned into an absolute cartoon…

Iron Man does a great job with it’s supporting cast too. While this is the only appearance of Terrence Howard’s Col. James Rhodes, I find him to be fine. Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts is almost as perfectly cast as Stark is with Downey. The chemistry they have from pretty much the first instance they are on-screen together is perfect. Other minor characters such as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Caulson are fun (Caulson is actually involved in the film much more than I remembered).

Some extra notes about Iron Man before I wrap up.  Because Disney hadn’t owned the Marvel movie rights yet, you’ll notice Iron Man is darker than later MCU installments (well, for a while). I wonder if they were doing that based off the success of Batman Begins and the upcoming Dark Knight. Obviously the MCU switched directions and that worked better. I want to bring up Obadiah Stane again, because while I do think considering everything he’s a good villain, I’m still disappointed with the overall direction of the character. I also of course need to point out end credits sequence teasing the Avengers. Talk about something to get hyped over.

It all started here…

Best Scene: There are a lot of choices here, but I’ll go with Iron Man going back to the place of his capture and gaining a little revenge. It’s the first time we see the Iron Man we now all know and love in action and it’s pretty awesome.

Worst Scene: Once Obadiah is outed as the bad guy, he makes it a point to visit Tony and explain the whole plan to him with that stupid paralyzer weapon (never seen again in the MCU). It’s unnecessary and quite cliché.

Personal Story: It was odd seeing this after The Avengers and never on the big screen. Boy was I missing out.

Final Thoughts: Pretty great start to Iron Man and the MCU as a whole.

Grade: A

Disney, Movies, RDT Reviews

RDT Reviews The Lion King (1994) and The Lion King (2019)

Disney’s live-action remakes have led to mixed reviews at best. Looking to cash in on nostalgia, Disney decided to release perhaps their greatest films in a live action setting. If the goal is to makemoney, it’s working as most of the live-action remakes have crossed the $1 Billion mark. Does it mean they’ve all been great films? Well, we’ll get to that…

Released: June 15, 1994
First Seen: In Theaters (Summer of 1994)
Last Watch: Disney+

This is the big one. Disney had done an incredible (and profitable) job rehabilitating it’s brand in the five years prior. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin all garnered critical acclaim and made big money. Those three films are so good that they re-invented the animated film genre. Would Lion King be a worthy follow-up? Well, sorry to spoil the review, but yes, yes it would.

The Lion King would smash the box office. It probably feels obvious that having a film full of cute animal characters in animated form would be easy money so there’s no surprise here. What really helps The Lion King though is just how memorable the main characters are. Twenty-six years later we still remember James Earl Jones’ voice as Mufasa. We remember Scar singing “Be Prepared”. We remember Simba and Nala as young children and when they reunited under “Can You Feel The Love Tonight”. Even the supporting characters are pretty strong and entertaining. Rafiki, Timon, Pumba, Zazu and the Hyenas are all remembered to this day.

Also, in terms of animation this is arguably the greatest looking film of all time, considering when it was released. Now I may be somewhat biased as the Disney+ version isn’t the very original version we saw 26 years ago, but I’ve seen enough videos on that to stand by that statement. It’s strikingly beautiful. Something else that the visuals really hit is that The Lion King is big. The opening scene while “Circle Of Life” plays shows the vast African horizon is one of the most iconic openings in cinema history. Early on you see Scar’s foot come down on a mouse and it’s huge. And don’t get me started on the stampede, which really needs to be seen in theatres to be truly appreciated.

While The Lion King isn’t based on a classic fairy tale as past Disney animated films are, it still tells a familiar story (especially to Shakespeare’s Hamlet). I find it interesting that Disney didn’t stick to a formulaic Disney princess line after Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. It went right ahead and tried different things with Aladdin and Lion King. The combination of cute animals + movie not jut for girls + deep story clearly works. So despite that it feels like Hamlet, The Lion King actually feels fresh and original.

Earlier I wrote that the film looked big, but it also sounds big. The songs with the accompanying visuals are loud, colorful and big. “Circle of Life”, “Can’t Wait to Be King”, “Be Prepared” and “Hakuna Matata” are all in your face songs and classics to this day. The only emotional song is “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (well, and the Stampede Instrumental) but that’s great too. The Stampede Instrumental is the hidden gem of the music though. Hans Zimmer truly is a musical genius.

stampede lion king
Needs to be seen on the big screen to really feel how big this movie is…

The voice acting is actually hit or miss for me. James Earl Jones is obviously iconic as Mufasa, and I’m a fan of Jeremy Irons as Scar. I think Jonathan Taylor Thomas does really well as young Simba in the film’s most emotional moments. I also like Whoopi Goldberg as Shenzi. Otherwise, I don’t really think much of the voice acting. I actually don’t care at all for Nathan Lane as Timon, or Ernie Sabella as Pumbaa…but that may be because I don’t care for the characters either. Matthew Broderick as Adult Simba also feels forgettable other than one scene. The reasons for this are two fold. The first one we will get to in a moment, and the second is he has to basically live up to Jones as Mufasa and quite frankly that’s some big shoes to fill.

I believe you can split The Lion King into two parts (and frankly am almost surprised Disney didn’t try to milk us with two films with the remakes). The first part is the opening through Mufasa’s death. To me this half of the film to me is up there with the greatest work ever put up on the big screen. It’s fun, it’s emotional, it has great characters. The bond between Simba and Mufasa is perfectly crafted. The music is awesome. It’s especially hard to not be emotionally invested at the very end of this half. It’s a complete masterpiece.

One of the most emotional scenes ever put to film…

Then The Lion King really takes a dip in quality. I know that may not be a popular opinion, but we leave this emotional and gripping story to watch Simba pal it up with Timon and Pumbaa while Scar takes control of Pride Rock. While I understood why Simba ran (Scar made it seem like the whole thing was Simba’s fault), as I got older I never really connected with Simba here. As he gets older it never hit him that he deserted his mother, his friends and I find that to be complicated but also a bit horrible. Not sure, Simba clearly doesn’t think Scar is a horrible person and thinks Pride Rock is still fine, but I can’t really draw the emotional connection between Simba and his mother and Simba and Nala. I get that the Hakuna Matata part of the film is for kids and such, probably to get them to stop crying after seeing Mufasa dead on the big screen (which was jarring to me as a kid). I truthfully don’t recall how I felt back then. Scar is no better. Scar goes from a clever, conniving and sarcastic villain to an absolute whiner. Whether it’s asking Zazu to sing tor complaining about the lioness’ ineffectiveness at hunting, the Scar of the first half is clearly gone for whatever this is. The only part that really gets me back into things in the second half of course is the Mufasa in the clouds scene and the very ending is solid (although, Simba’s family seems to just let Scar walk Simba off a cliff, which is a direct slap in the face of the message of confronting your past).

No one had Simba’s back here…

The Disney Renaissance peaked here. Lion King made all the money and if Youtube existed back then “Hakuna Matata” would have been as popular as “Let It Go”. This was obviously the big success for Disney in the 90s. I actually find it curious that they went back to human-like characters to tell future stories.

Best Scene: Gotta go with two:  The entire “Be Prepared” sequence is so ridiculously over the top it’s incredible and the Stampede is one of the greatest scenes in cinema history.

Worst Scene: Hearing Scar whine and complain once he was in charge is such a let down. Making Zazu sing songs? What the heck happened?

Personal Story: I don’t really have one. Hearing “The Morning Report” through in a future special edition almost made me sick though.

Final Thoughts: This is half an S film and half a B. I actually find it to be the weakest of the big four, although I give different credit to The Little Mermaid.

Grade: A-

Released: July 19, 2019
First Seen: In Theaters, Near Opening Night
Last Watch: Disney+

When reviewing Aladdin we went over Disney’s motivations for making these live-action remakes. I’ve generally found the remakes to be somewhat better than public perception. That changed with The Lion King.

There were two common critiques with 2019’s Lion King. The first is that it is a shot by shot remake. I don’t really understand this. While I think it takes much less chances and makes much less changes than the other Disney remakes had, there are still many moments different here than the original. Unfortunately, most of these changes are pretty bad. While I could compile a list, I’ll point out the three worst examples. For one, “Be Prepared” is absolutely butchered (while I still enjoy the scene for different reasons, not having the song and the original scene with it is still a massive downgrade). I find it odd that this decision was made as there are still other songs that remained in the film (also, clearly Chiwetel Ejiofor can sing, as evidenced by what was left of “Be Prepared”). Second, Rafiki in the original tells Simba that “the past can hurt, you can either run from it, or, learn from it”. It’s an iconic line that precedes the scene where Mufasa appears in the clouds. For some reason that’s removed which is quite mind-boggling to me. Third, there whole entire visual representation of the circle of life ends up being a 3 minute expedition of Simba’s fur going through various situations, one of which being rolled into a ball of dung. Language warning here: but I said outloud in the theatre “what the fuck am I watching?” (definitely felt bad because children were in the theater, although I got a laugh and no complaints from other crowd members).

I didn’t even get to the second critique, which was that the film seemed lifeless. And well, yes. Yes it does and it’s distracting. It also ruins any appreciation for the voice acting (which, despite an all-time stellar cast somehow ends up as completely forgettable, even James Earl Jones can’t save it). It also ruins some of the more heart-wrenching moment of the film. In another clearly audible moment I laughed pretty hard at Simba yelling “NOOOOO!” when his father died. It’s done ridiculously bad and it’s truly an embarrassing feat that Disney even put that on the big screen. This critique also puts forth another question. Why did Disney decided to do this film as photo-realistic? Yes, it’s called the live-action Lion King and even I referred to it as that, but other than some shots this film is completely animated. The insistence to have this film be “realistic” when it’s animated is a bizarre choice artistically to say the least. I mean where are the colors? Pride Rock looks lifeless on it’s best shots. Again, this is animated, so what the heck happened? Africa is one of the most beautiful places in the world!

All the color is gone…

I don’t really have much else to say about the characters or the vioce acting that I haven’t already (again, the look of the film totally distracts from it). Scar is more intimidating but also bland and boring. I actually like Timon and Pumbaa a little bit more. I got some laughs this time from Billy Eichner’s Timon, especially with the “Be Our Guest” bit.  Beyonce and Donald Glover amazingly are both forgettable, and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” doesn’t hold up to the original. John Oliver as Zazu unfortunately is more annoying than funny (which really disappointed me as an Oliver fan). The great James Earl Jones can’t save his scenes either for the previously mentioned visual issues. I do like Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar as Scar does come off as more vicious,  but I don’t like him nearly enough to really make a difference.

Look, I know a wrote a lot more about Aladdin, but there I felt like that needed more of a defense. Quite frankly, the 2019 version of The Lion King sucks. I get that it hit a lot of people on that nostalgic level, trust me, I’ve been there. But my feeling when I left the theater was that I was offended Disney even released the film. The original Lion King was an animated masterpiece, full of striking colors and amazing character designs. And the story ranged on good to amazingly great. This was just an insulting money grab. Unfortunately, because it worked we’re getting a sequel. I didn’t feel this way about Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast or The Jungle Book. I thought all of those were goodish or at least brought something to the table (yes, that’s my defense of Alice). This didn’t do any of that and it’s a shame.

Why is this even in the film?!

I didn’t want to end this on a completely negative note, so I will praise two things about the film. One, Hans Zimmer somehow came up with a stronger Stampede instrumental, which insane considering the original is one of the greatest pieces of music to ever hit the big screen (and well now this is). Find it on Youtube and watch it. I also have come to appreciate the version of “Be Prepared” in this film. No, it doesn’t hold a candle to the original and apparently it was added last minute. But it’s still a strong scene. Lastly, Disney has been looking to give women characters stronger roles overall. You see it especially in the remakes, and while I am all for it it’s admittedly hard to make it work with the original story (the issues with Jasmine becoming Sultan in Aladdin, for example). Here Nala is given a little more screen time as she takes initiative into escaping the Scar led Pride Rock to find help. I find that to be a positive change for sure and at least adds some character for her. Sarabi and Shenzi also have a bit of a feud which isn’t expanded upon, but again at least it’s something different and not detrimental to the film or the vision of the original.

Best Scene: Actually going to go with the “Be Prepared” scene. One of the only times I felt anything regarding emotion in this film (yes, that even includes Mufasa’s death, Simba’s scream ruined that).

Worst Scene: The three minute scene of Simba’s fur getting to Rafiki. Some of it is fine for visual reasons, but I didn’t need to see giraffe dung rolled by a beetle to get my nostalgia going. I don’t understand at all why that’s in the film.

Personal Story: Not much to say here. The original Lion King wasn’t one of my favorite films and I’m still offended by this. What should that tell you.

Final Thoughts: $1.6 Billion. Money talks. This is Disney now. It’s not the worst film I’ve ever seen or anything so there’s that, but I wish Lion King fans were more frustrated and frankly not sucked in by nostalgia here. We’d get better results. But I can’t blame Disney. This will certainly pay for other projects and that’s how it goes.

Grade: D

Disney, Movies, RDT Reviews

RDT Reviews Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937)

 

Released: December 21, 1937
First Seen: I really couldn’t tell you, but it was on VHS in the 90s.

Last Watch: Disney+

This probably won’t be a long review, I didn’t think ahead of time how difficult reviewing something from 1937 would be until I started thinking about this.

First thing worth mentioning: I actually enjoyed watching this! I wasn’t expecting much, just a prototype of the Disney formula we’re still getting to this day (and that Disney’s made billions off of). And while yes, that’s exactly what it is, there’s much more personality in the characters than I expected. Especially in the titular character Snow White herself. She’s cheerful and pretty much emotes for everything. One hilarious moment is that when one of the dwarves, Grumpy, looks to not take a liking to her she outright mocks him for it. I did not expect this film to make me laugh but here we are.

The story here isn’t particularly deep, but I don’t know what films had deep stories in 1937. The Queen is told by a magic mirror that Snow White is the fairest one of all, so she (the Queen) formulates a plan to have Snow White killed. She sends her Huntsman to do it, but he cannot and instead warns Snow White about the Queen’s plan. Snow White meets some woodland creatures that lead her to the Dwarves cottage where she decides to just make herself at home.  The Dwarves do welcome her presence though (well, except for Grumpy at first) and we actually spend some time with them having fun and dancing. That scene is actually quite nice to see, you don’t often see characters get closer to one another like this in a Disney film anymore.

She talks to animals and it always impresses…

The Queen finds out where Snow White is, transforms into an old hag and creates a poison apple. She goes to a cottage and gets Snow White to eat the apple, which kills her. The Queen ends up getting struck by lightning though, ending her story. The Prince comes to kiss Snow White to wake her up, which breaks the spell of the apple and they live happily ever after.

Obviously not much of a story but it serves as a template for many if not all of the Disney princess fairy tales over the next century. But, in contrast my expectations were succeeded. It does have some outdated ideas (especially the kiss at the end waking up Snow White and Snow White’s “I’m so alone” mantra) but I keep feeling like I need to go back to “it’s 1937”. It’s also a shame the Queen is nameless, because she becomes a fun villain when she transforms into the old hag and makes the poison apple. I also feel like I haven’t really wrote about the Dwarves, but they’re all fun supporting characters (and see you see characters like Dopey all the time to this day as well).

Basic, but fun villain.

The fact that this film is still an enjoyable watch 81 years later is very impressive. Sure the animation has been updated but everything still works overall.

Best Scene: The Queen’s transformation to the old hag is just fun.

Worst Scene: I cringed at the idea of Snow White just entering the Dwarves’ home and touching their belongings.

Final Thoughts: She’s the original princess. Even if it’s for pure historical reasons, this has to get a good grade. Maybe it could get an S on those merits alone but I can’t go that far.

Grade: A

Movies, RDT Reviews

RDT Reviews Space Jam (1996)

Released: November 15, 1996
First Seen: In Theaters (Near Release Date)

Last Watch: Amazon Prime Video

Similar to the Mortal Kombat film, we need to figure out what Space Jam is looking to accomplish.  What we have here is a kids’ film with the Looney Tunes and Michael Jordan. Some decent comedy and a simple story would make Space Jam a success. For the most part that’s what we get, although it’s far from perfect.

The good news for Space Jam is that it doesn’t try to do anything crazy. Our story is simple. Mr. Swackhammer (one of those characters that had to be created for Danny Devito) needs new attractions for Moron Mountain and learns of the Looney Tunes. He sends his alien minions to capture the Looney Tunes to be that attraction. The Tunes come up with a way to the defend themselves. Since the aliens are diminutive in stature, the Tunes challenge them to a basketball game. The aliens steal the powers of several NBA stars and become huge monsters (The Monstars), and the Tunes answer by kidnapping Michael Jordan. It isn’t a complicated story and the film delivers this.

A genius plan…

Your mileage will vary with the humor in this film. The Looney Tunes do seem toned down overall but that makes sense. Most jokes are as kid friendly as possible and while the slapstick is there, you can’t go overboard here. Some of the jokes are absolute misses (Porky Pig claiming he wet himself, for example) but overall, I do find the Looney Tunes either funny or just non-offensive. You’re either going to find Daffy Duck funny or insufferable. I found him funny. Bugs is funny at some moments too.  As a bonus, the NBA players who lose their talent also provide some good humor. Charles Barkley specifically looked to be taking Space Jam much more seriously than anyone else.

The main issue of the film mostly revolves around Michael Jordan. I don’t think Jordan’s necessarily to blame, but knowing the man now and comparing him to the character he is in Space Jam is a bit nauseating. On the film side, Jordan does poke fun at it in the film at times (upon being asked if everyone was mad at him striking out in a minor league baseball game, Jordan replies with “it’s worse, everyone was really nice about it”). We get shown that Jordan has a perfect family and everyone in the world loves him and he’s level headed and a leader in all situations and blah blah blah. It just makes for a boring character who’s there to save the day at the end. The closest thing to a conflict Jordan has in the film is at the very end, when he decides to return to basketball to see if he still “has it”. There’s also the side issue of anything involving Michael Jordan, which is that it turns into a commercial.  Stan, Jordan’s publicist in the film (and played by Wayne Knight, which is something else where your mileage will vary) actually has the following line in the film: “C’mon, Michael! It’s game time! Get your Hanes on, lace up your Nikes, grab your Wheaties and your Gatorade, and we’ll pick up a Big Mac on the way to the ballpark.”

Some other odds and ends before we cover the big game at the end. Bill Murray has a weird and completely unnecessary side story where he thinks he can be a NBA player. Larry Bird is pretty funny as well and we get a little of that legendary trash talk. Lola Bunny was added as a new character, but was an oddly sexualized female bunny. But she did become a female basketball icon for a while so I guess that worked? I don’t recall how the film looked back when it came out, but watching it on Amazon Prime Video HD I must say the film animation looks fantastic. The soundtrack is incredible as well. Sure, some songs are hard to listen to now because of who sang them (looking at you R. Kelly). The Space Jam theme though is right up there with the Mortal Kombat theme for best movie music of the 90s though.

Can Michael pull this one out?

As for the big game, it’s fine for what it is. Just some whacky fun with a comeback story attached (and a joke about steroids?). The gags during the Looney Tunes’ comeback are fun enough. Just harmless fun for the most part. MJ of course hits the winning basketball (after upping the stakes…which is hilarious knowing MJ) and everyone lives happily ever after.

Best Scene: The intro with the Space Jam theme is fantastic.

Worst Scene: Porky Pig saying he wet himself is eye-rolling at best.

Final Thoughts: Space Jam is a simple and fun 90 minutes. It’s not perfect, but it doesn’t try to be either. And the MJ-Looney Tunes combo made big money so it’s all good.

Grade: B-

Gaming, Movies, RDT Reviews

RDT Reviews Mortal Kombat (1995) and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

Coming off the heels of atrocious The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the video game movie business was already in trouble. The Mortal Kombat series had already seen controversy in the video game industry due to it’s ridiculous level of violence (which would spawn the Entertainment Software Rating Board). So how the heck was a Mortal Kombat movie going to work? Well, we ultimately got two of them.

Released: August 18, 1995
First Seen: In Theaters (Near Release Date)

Last Watch: Netflix

Right away we need to set some boundaries and make an exception. In order for video game films to work the film itself doesn’t necessarily need to be great as a film. It can have story issues, weakish plots, etc. as long as it caters enough to the audience of the gaming series. This is what The Super Mario Bros. Movie failed to do. Mario attempted to give us an in-depth story (which failed on it’s own merits) and then strayed way too far away from what made the Super Mario Bros. gaming franchise fun.

For Mortal Kombat in 1995, I think of three things: a fighting game, ridiculous gore and violence and a diverse cast of characters that actually have interesting backstories.  The first question mark is the ridiculous gore and violence. There was just no way that was going to make it into this movie with it being rated R. And if you listen to some reviewers on Youtube now, that’s where a lot of their disappointment lies. Hey I get it, but a rated R video game movie in 1995 just wasn’t going to make any money. The storyline we’ll get to later the review, but it’s fine for what it is. Lastly, we get more than enough fighting scenes that perhaps the film can almost be judged for that alone (and it’s what tips the movie into a positive direction).

An iconic logo.

Mortal Kombat’s story is simple and it works for the film. Three of Earth’s warriors must stop the evil Shang Tsung and his warriors from winning a 10th straight Mortal Kombat tournament. If they fail to do so, Tsung and Outworld take over the Earth. The three warriors, Liu Kang, Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage all have their own issue to face (Kang’s out for revenge as Tsung killed his older brother, Blade is a police officer looking for a criminal, Kano, who killed a former partner of hers, and Cage is a movie star that everyone thinks is a fake, so he’s out to prove he’s the real deal) and Raiden, the Elder Thunder God, helps them face these issues. That’s all you need to know to get to the conclusion of this story. It’s simplicity will never win an Oscar, but it’s a story that’s easy to follow and you know where the endgame is.

What Mortal Kombat does well is that it makes it’s characters feel like big deals. Right from the get-go we see what Shang Tsung is all about. We get introductions to Kang, Blade and Cage. In a nice surprise Liu Kang isn’t a one dimensional “destiny” character, he in fact doesn’t believe in all this stuff and just wants a shot at Tsung. Raiden proves to be larger than life as Shang Tsung even seems to fear him. Even secondary characters (and fan favorites) Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kitana, and Goro all get introductions that make them feel special. By the time the movie gets going you are ready to see what the fate of all these characters are and how they do in battle.

While it’s not award winning acting or anything I also don’t mind the portrayals of all the primary characters. I find Robin Shou pretty funny at times (especially early on) as Liu Kang, Bridgette Wilson pretty much is Sonya Blade and Linden Ashby plays an annoying Johnny Cage (which is just fine).  Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa went for an over the top performance for Shang Tsung and it’s arguably the 2nd best thing in this film. Tagawa is so good that he’d been asked to reprise the role for Tsung for TV and games in the future (including Mortal Kombat 11, which came out in 2019). Trevor Goodard’s Kano was also so memorable that the character adopted an Australian accent for the games later on. Your milage probably varies with Christopher Lambert’s Raiden. I’m a fan of the raspy voice with some sarcasm thrown in. The only miss really is Talisa Soto’s Kitana, which is as wooden as it gets.

shang tsung
Shang Tsung was played perfectly by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.

The fight scenes are the make or break for Mortal Kombat.  Sub-Zero looks awesome in a preliminary fight where he just freezes a guy and he explodes. Liu Kang wins a fight against an unnamed opponent, and Sonya takes out Kano (which oddly takes place rather early in the film). The first great fight takes place as Johnny Cage faces off with Scorpion, which ends with a fantastic Easter Egg. But then it once again slows down to a crawl to which we are just waiting for the fights with Goro and Shang Tsung himself. Kang vs. Kitana is a waste of time and Kang vs. Sub-Zero is disappointing. Shang Tsung’s had enough though, and Goro starts wasting people left and right (including Art Lean, a random character thrown in who I’m guessing was just here to take a “meaningful” loss to Goro). For 1995 the effects used for Goro are actually pretty cool. Johnny Cage challenges Goro and the fight itself is entertaining but admittedly disappointing. It’s mostly played for a joke, yet it’s memorable (I can still recite Cage’s line about his sunglasses). It’s cool to see Goro outsmarted like that, but also disappointing as this was supposed to be the sub-boss to Shang Tsung. If we went straight to Tsung here I probably would be disappointed overall.

Scorpion tries to “TOASTY” Johnny Cage.

Here’s where effort and a love for the franchise come into play to tilt Mortal Kombat into the positive. Throughout the film a cgi lizard that Tsung calls “Reptile” pretty much antagonizes Liu Kang anytime he gets close to Kitana. What a good way to pay tribute to Reptile, the secret character from the first game and a wonderful Easter Egg. But it doesn’t stop there. As Liu Kang and Johnny Cage chase Tsung (who had captured Sonya) into Outworld…Reptile makes one last appearance, only this time he comes out as the full character and it’s absolutely awesome to this day. The fight between Liu Kang and Reptile more than makes up for the Goro gaffe (it also led to a couple of broken ribs for Shou). It’s also the one of the only things I remember seeing as a kid in the movie theater itself. Keith Cooke, the actor who plays Reptile, also has a unique moving style that made Reptile feel special. When the film needed a big moment before the end, it delivered. Kang vs. Tsung is a fine finish as well. We do get a teaser for a sequel at the very end, but no doubt that Mortal Kombat finished strong.

One last thing to mention. I don’t know if overall the film had good cgi for 1995, but it doesn’t look terrible. The soundtrack of course is one of the greatest movie soundtracks of all-time. Just listen to Liu Kang vs. Reptile’s battle theme (an instrumental of Traci Lords’ “Control”). Amazing.

Best Scene: Well obviously it’s the entirety of Liu Kang vs. Reptile. Not even close really. If you never watch the movie just watch this!

Worst Scene: Shang Tsung capturing Sonya Blade is a bit lazy to get to the end.

Final Thoughts: While some contenders have come out in recent years, I’m still perfectly fine with calling this the greatest video game movie adaptation ever. It wouldn’t be my pick anymore, but I wouldn’t argue against it. If you aren’t a big fan of the games or were into Mortal Kombat for the gore then you probably don’t care for this. Otherwise, it’s a lot of fun and you can tell everyone involved cared about the film.

Grade: B

Released: November 21, 1997
First Seen: In Theaters (Near Release Date)
Last Watch: Amazon Prime Video

What has to be considered about the success of the first film is how close it was to being an absolute disaster. Mortal Kombat took care care of it’s characters and as a result got away with some stuff that would be considered bad. Annihilation doesn’t do the same and it suffers as a result.

First thing to note is that a lot of the main characters had been recast. We have new actors/actresses for Sonya, Raiden and Johnny Cage. With Cage is hardly matters, he’s gone in the first five minutes. But with Sonya Blade and Raiden it’s too distracting, especially since James Remar and Sandra Hess are nothing like Christopher Lambert and Bridgette Wilson. Blade’s character specifically seems to be a bland good character now as opposed to the bad ass she was in the first film.  Speaking of changes any personalty Liu Kang showed in the ’95 film is wiped away here for just another bland character.

Remember how everyone in Mortal Kombat was treated as a big deal? That’s not the case here. Now we have characters just thrown at us to either fight or to just exist (poor Rain) just because they existed in the video game universe. The ones that are treated as a big deal: Jade, Sindel, Jax, Shinnok and Shao Kahn each have their own issues as compelling characters. I actually don’t mind Lynn “Red” Williams’ Jax, he’s easily the most entertaining of the good characters even if he’s making jokes about how ridiculous the world is. His “lesson” is just dumb. Jade ends up just being a throw-away.

One of the lamest set of generals ever

Let’s quickly just get to one of the two biggest offenses in this film. The first is the whole Shao Kahn-Sindel-Shinnok (and Raiden) arc. I wrote about how Mortal Kombat had a simple story, which is why it worked out so well. Here we have to justify why Kahn (Tsung’s emperor from the first film that was mentioned) was able to break the rules and invade Earth even though his forces lost the 10th Mortal Kombat. Well, the legend is that Queen Sindel (Kitana’s mother) is the key to keeping the portal open. So if they reunite Sindel and Kitana, perhaps the portal will close. That alone would perfectly be fine and simple. But no, it turns out the legend is a lie. So we waste 75% of the film on the Sindel/Kitana reuniting plan and then it’s suddenly revealed that Raiden and Shao Kahn are brothers and their father, Shinnok, is an Elder God. This twist was horrible for two reasons. One, that’s not how it worked in the games so this didn’t appease fans. Two, it comes up completely out of nowhere. Worst yet, viewers KNOW that Sindel/Kitana isn’t the key, because Shinnok tells Kahn early in the film that he broke the rules to keep the portals open. Horrendous all around.

There’s nothing to save the film either. Kahn’s actor, Brian Thompson, went the over-the-top route but absolutely pales in comparison to Shang Tsung in the ’95 film. Worst yet, Shinnok existing neuters the character anyway. There’s exactly one memorable fight scene in Scorpion vs. Sub-Zero (with Keith Cooke as Sub-Zero this time so that makes him 2 for 2). Storyline wise that’s a bit of a mess too. Special effects also range from alright to laughable. There’s a moment where Raiden pops out of the sky with no theatrics whatsoever and I can’t help but laugh. Speaking of laughing, just try to take the animality part of Shao Kahn vs. Liu Kang seriously, just try.

How could anyone take this seriously

Some of the fights overall are okay to even good, but they don’t have the same effect they did in ’95. Kahn vs. Raiden is short but cool. Scorpion and Sub-Zero is fun, but both characters are nobodies in this film. Sub-Zero’s story is especially butchered as he’s the younger  brother of Sub-Zero (which is good), but Noob Saibot shows up later as a throw-away (who is supposed to be the original Sub-Zero). It’s stuff like that which alienates fans. Cyrax and random warriors vs. Jax and Sonya is also fun (and Sonya gets a good Easter Egg in at the end with a fatality). But after that I don’t care about any of it. Liu Kang vs. Baraka is whatever (speaking of lazy, watch Rain and Baraka’s death scenes and tell me if you see something similar). Raiden fights three Reptiles for some reason. Sheeva dies when a cage falls on her. Sonya faces off with Mileena (the biggest waste of the film, as this is Kitana’s half-sister) in a mud fight which is completely insulting (and even from a movie perspective, she doesn’t have a mark of mud on her a scene later). As for the final battles Jax vs. Motaro is alright, I don’t care about Sonya vs. Ermac/Saibot, Kitana vs. Sindel is boring and we already laughed at Kahn vs. Kang.

This film sucks and everyone knew it. There was supposed to be a third film with Quan Chi and it got scrapped because of this mess. When you have a delicate franchise and don’t take delicate care of the characters, this is what happens.

But the music is pretty good! Make sure to listen to Panik Control! (Raiden vs. Three Reptiles theme).

Best Scene: Has to be Scorpion vs. Sub-Zero. It’s not better than Scorpion vs. Cage or Reptile vs. Kang from ’95 but we don’t have a lot to work with.

Worst Scene: Raiden revealing that Shao Kahn is his brother. Horrible.

Last Thoughts: There’s potential with a Mortal Kombat story for sure. But not everyone is going to like these characters. And if you alienate the fanbase, you know, the people who do like these characters, then you’re left with nothing. The music and some decent fights save this from F but it was close.

Grade: D

Disney, Movies, RDT Reviews

RDT Reviews Aladdin (1992) and Aladdin (2019)

Disney’s live-action remakes have led to mixed reviews at best. Looking to cash in on nostalgia, Disney decided to release perhaps their greatest films in a live action setting. If the goal is to make money, it’s working as most of the live-action remakes have crossed the $1 Billion mark. Does it mean they’ve all been great films? Well, we’ll get to that…

Disney+ doesn’t have every live-action remake available yet, so we’ll do these as they come out.

Released: November 25, 1992
First Seen: In Theaters (Probably in 1992-1993)
Last Watch: Disney+

Before we delve into Aladdin, we need to reflect on where Disney was as a company a bit to understand the film’s significance. Disney had struggled through the 1980s. The Little Mermaid, released in 1989, made big money though, and the Disney Revolution began. The early 90s specifically had a “big 4” film slate that set the standard for every animation studio to this day. Aladdin is the 3rd of those films, proving itself by becoming the first animated film to cross $500 Million at the box office (a massive deal in 1992). Incredible animation, a strong story with memorable characters and songs proved to be an unstoppable combination for Disney. And it works here big time.

Aladdin wasn’t without controversy though. Famously, Robin Williams clashed with Disney over the promotional use of his character, The Genie. The film itself received numerous complaints of racism (best example, Arabian Nights having going through a lyric change). While we all likely remember Aladdin fondly, these issues are a part of the Aladdin story. You can mind much more information just searching both of these topics on Youtube.

The film itself is excellent. Biggest plus of course is Robin Williams voicing the Genie. Williams just goes absolutely bonkers here and it’s memorable and incredible. Seeing this film as a child I didn’t understand most if not all the references, but I thought they were funny. As an adult I understand most of them, and again they are funny. It’s that multi-dimensional humor given by one of the arguable greatest of all-times that makes the Genie perhaps Disney’s greatest character (an argument for another day). He almost overshadows the rest of a really good film, he’s that great.

Anyone who knows my Disney tastes know that Jafar is my favorite Disney villain. From the first moment he’s on-screen Jafar is presented as a dark, serious stoic man with a dangerous goal (“a dark man with a dark purpose”). But slowly throughout the film we start seeing some cracks in Jafar’s sanity. And boy, when obtains his goal we see how crazy and maniacal he really is (the entire reprise to “Prince Ali” is one of my favorite Disney songs in itself). He’s such a dishonest character and I love every moment he’s on screen, especially after he goes over the top.  Jonathan Freeman’s voice is perfect for Jafar as well. As a bonus, Gilbert Gottfried somehow works as Iago an annoying parrot that acts as Jafar’s sidekick. I never necessarily found slapstick violence too funny, but somehow I find it hilarious when it happens to Iago. One more great thing about Jafar is that he doesn’t do any of the hard work at all for anything. Gazeem finds the other half of the Golden Scarab Beetle. Jafar doesn’t even entertain the idea of going into the Cave of Wonders himself at any point in time, sending someone else to do it. Hilariously, even when Jafar is searching for the diamond in the rough it’s Iago doing the literal busywork. Jafar has no redeemable qualities and it’s fantastic.

Jafar sets the tone right away…

Scott Weinger’s Aladdin and Linda Larkin’s Jasmine are pretty good too, although definitely not as interesting as Genie or Jafar. While Aladdin gets a lot of story development overall about what a good person he is despite his situation and how being a prince and the lamp almost changes that, Jasmine’s development doesn’t go much past having a choice in who she marries (something that the live-action remake attempted to fix, to mixed results). Heck, we get many instances of Aladdin outsmarting everyone he comes across (including the Genie at one point). Jasmine doesn’t really get those moments, other than one excellent line (“when I am queen I will have the power to get rid of you [Jafar]”). Overall though they are both memorable and entertaining despite any limitations. And there’s definitely a chemistry that reveals itself during the early stages of the film and the “A Whole New World Sequence”.

Before I delve into what works and what doesn’t, I want to point out that the supporting characters are full of personality. The Sultan is played for laughs, but at the same time has his moments where he shows Jafar who’s boss. Abu, Aladdin’s monkey/elephant sidekick is basically the walking version of today’s “mood” meme.  Magic Carpet is beautifully designed and full of personality despite not saying a word. One day just watch the film and keep your eyes on Carpet. All the little movements are fantastic.

I decided to go through the main and supporting characters first because the plot of Aladdin isn’t particularly interesting, but the way it’s told through these characters is what makes it work.  The Sultan is trying to marry off Jasmine, but no princes chosen are even close to what Jasmine is hoping for. Jafar is The Sultan’s right-hand man, but he’s trying to obtain power for himself (first by finding the Genie, then later trying to manipulate the Sultan to allow him to marry Jasmine himself). Aladdin is the good natured but lowly street rat, but a lucky meeting with Jasmine (who ran away from the Palace) and the fact that Jafar found that he could get Genie’s lamp have thrust him into the mix of the story. Aladdin ends up with the lamp, but loses sight of himself which almost allows Jafar to accomplish all his goals. On the way Aladdin becomes great friends with the Genie and he and Jasmine fall in love. All very basic. But told in an incredible way.

I wouldn’t be a Disney movie without addressing the music. Luckily the music for the most part is amazing. “Arabian Nights” is an epic piece of music that starts the adventure. “One Jump Ahead” and “Prince Ali” are both a lot of fun. The two main event music pieces are “Friend Like Me” and “A Whole New World”. Robin Williams just goes all out for “Friend Like Me” and as I wrote earlier, it’s amazing. “A Whole New World” of course was one of THE iconic Disney themes until this very day. The animation and imagery for “A Whole New World” is still one of the best things Disney have ever created. As a bonus, while he doesn’t have his own song, Jafar’s rendition of “Prince Ali” is one of my favorite villain themes. Again, a lot of that is Jafar basking in all his glory.

THE Disney love song, arguably still today…

One last thing I noticed from Aladdin is the use of items or imagery that lasted long from an iconic standpoint. The Palace itself, absolutely stunning. Genie’s Lamp of course falls into this category. As does Jafar’s snakstaff. Lastly, Jafar’s snake transformation proved to be an awesome representation of who Jafar is. It’s perfect.

Best Scene: I have to cheat and pick three. First, Aladdin’s attempted escape from the Cave of Wonders is visually striking, and Jafar betraying Aladdin is great as well. Second, the entire “A Whole New World Sequence”. Third: As I mentioned before, Jafar’s “Prince Ali” reprise. Just so so good.

Worst Scene: We make a whole big point about Aladdin outsmarting the Genie early on, but then the Genie has to make an exception for Aladdin’s 2nd wish (to save his life). Eh?

Personal Story: This is probably my third favorite Disney film (4th if we count Pixar). I hasn’t seen it in a while, but i was somewhat surprised how well it still holds up.

Final Thoughts: What can I say? There’s are a few reasons Disney made all that money in the 90s and this was one of the big ones. I can’t give it the full monty because the story itself again is merely okay and I do think Disney (and Pixar) has done better before and after.

Grade: A

Released: May 24, 2019
First Seen: In Theaters, Near Opening Night
Last Watch: Disney+

We should quickly discuss the live-action remakes before we get into this. The first notable one is the Alice in Wonderland remake, released in 2010 (the Dalmations remakes were a lot earlier and I don’t think fall into what Disney is doing now. While visually stunning, the film suffered some serious story problems. The film also made tons of money, especially for 2010. Ever since, Disney has been churning out these live-action remakes and at this point the general feeling are that they range from good to okay, but that they are nostalgic money grabs from Disney. Does Aladdin fall into that trap? I would say no, but with an asterisk.

2019 Aladdin keeps the same story and structure from the 92 version, but it does insert some original ideas that work and some that don’t. The issue is they all could have worked and probably should have. This is an issue I’ll revisit at the end of the review.

Let’s talk about the characters. I do feel that for the most part, this is a well acted film, but some characters get overshadowed by others. i’m going to name Naomi Scott’s Jasmine first, because the story really becomes her’s as opposed to Mena Massoud’s Aladdin. Disney has looked to empower female characters as of late and I’mall for it. The major difference for Jasmine is that instead of just looking for love to marry, she’s looking to become the Sultan, with the love plot on the side but still here. She’s tired of being silenced by her father, by Jafar, or by anyone. Scott does a great job. It is Jasmine’s film and Scott owns it. I am also a fan of the new song “Speechless” (although we’ll get to the reprise). So far so good.

Will Smith is given the impossible task of following up Robin William’s Genie. Smith smartly changes it up from William’s routine, instead putting together a Hitch and Fresh Prince combination. It works really well! I found Smith to be excellent here. The only issue with the Genie is that he’s not always as visually impressive as his animated counterpart. Once again, we’ll get to that.

A tall task, but Will Smith pulls it off…

As I mentioned in the 92 review, Jafar is my favorite Disney villain. I have such a mixed feeling about Marwan Kenzari’s performance. For the most part it’s monotone and even boring, a far cry from the maniacal 92 version.  The general consensus is that Kenzari was miscast, but I’m going to counter that. I feel he was given really bad direction because at times I see that 92 version in there. But yes, Jafar was very disappointing here and that’s a massive black flag here.

So notice I left Massoud’s Aladdin for last and well that’s because it felt like that’s what the writers did too. He has his moments, but he’s always overshadowed by anyone who’s sharing a scene with him, especially the Genie. And while perhaps it’s understandable that he’s overshadowed by Smith (I mean, the Genie overshadowed Aladdin in ’92 as well), he even gets overshadowed by Kenzari’s Jafar which really shouldn’t happen.

Side characters are a mixed bag as well. Carpet is still a lot of fun, but Abu pales in comparison to the 92 version. Iago (or Parrot, I don’t think he’s named here) is a darker, more sinister take on the character, and I really missed that slapstick and comedy that Gottfied’s version provided. The Sultan is also more serious and overall I think a plus, but I also missed the comedy provided by the 92 version as well.  There’s a new character as well, Jasmine’s handmaiden named Dalia who’s a lot of fun and serves as a supporting opposite of the Genie.

We get a lot of changes with this. I’m going to go almost scene by scene now and hit on what’s different, what works and what doesn’t work.

Will Smith singing “Arabian Nights” is perhaps one of the most shockingly great moments I ever experienced in a movie theater…but the very ending presents the first concern. The Cave of Wonders is rather disappointing visually and Jafar responds to the failed attempt to enter with a mere headshake and deep breath. Far cry from the mood that was set in ’92’s opening. The film then presents some strange decisions pacing wise. We still get the bread stealing and subsequent giving of bread to the hungry children (well, it’s dates now but whatever), but the whole thing is rushed. This scene really told us who Aladdin was and what a nice person he was in ’92. Here it’s just here. Why is rushed? Because oddly we have Jasmine already roaming the streets of Agrabah, way earlier than expected. This felt like a video game that I glitched and then sequence broke. The “trust me” line is rushed too. We then get “One Jump Ahead” which is really oddly edited. The song sounds fine, although the editing is an absolute miss. For some reason Aladdin and Jasmine are moving in slow motion and then the next they are walking at what looks like 1.5x speed. So far after the greatness of Smith’s “Arabian Nights”, I wasn’t feeling this at all. We get a scene of Jafar (who looks awesome for a moment) also expressing his disappointment at the recruited “diamonds in the rough”. I guess it’s a fine introduction for Jafar, but still nothing special. We do get our first important plot point though that does work in this film, as Jafar explains his backstory as a prisoner. He specifically gets angry at being called second powerful or second in command. At this point, the film starts to tread back upward.

Aladdin showing Jasmine his home is next. Right here we miss how visually iconic the palace looked in ’92, but the scene is still fine. Jasmine pretending that she’s her handmaiden also seems fine, although it doesn’t really go anywhere. But even when Aladdin and Jasmine are relating to one another about how trapped they feel…it’s missing a certain magic. We then get the stuck up prince scene (Billy Magussen’s Prince Anders gets more screentime and a few laughs, but also feels like he should be in a different film). Abu steals an important piece of jewelry from Jasmine though, to which Jasmine expresses her disappointment. The timeline compared to the original is still weird, as Aladdin would have been captured at this point, but it doesn’t happen.

Impressive…just not the same…

The film steps up though as we see Jafar and the Sultan discussing military alliances with the princes who are looking for Jasmine’s hand at marriage. This is an interesting twist that does give Jasmine a much stronger story than the original. I also like “Speechless” quite a bit here, Naomi Scott sings it really well. My only hang up is that Jasmine tells us she could be Sultan, but we never really see why. I would have loved to see her military reason or her presenting an idea that didn’t relate to her mother. But still this is a stronger arc than the original.

We get another strange change from the original as Iago tells Jafar that there’s a thief in the palace and perhaps he’s the diamond in the rough. As opposed to be captured in the original, Aladdin decided to meet “Dalia” in the palace. Jafar also doesn’t use the ring to determine Aladdin is a diamond in the rough. This is a huge miss for two reasons. One, Iago caught Aladdin instantly, so I mean how good could he be? Second, after his meeting with Jasmine and Dalia, Aladdin gets caught instantly. This was a tough sell. I appreciate the idea to form a stronger connection between Jasmine and Aladdin, but it didn’t feel strong enough to me to change all of this. The scene itself (where Dalia pretends to be Jasmine) is also cringworthy.

Aladdin is captured, to which he meets Jafar. A positive change: Jafar explaining to Aladdin that they are both similar, that he too was a thief at one time and he even proves it. This pays off much later in a wonderful way. But unfortunately the film disappoints in one of it’s first big set pieces. Inside the Cave of Wonders is a massive disappointment and it’s quite boring. Big let down for what was one of the coolest and most visually striking parts of the original film.

But here comes Will Smith to pick things up! “A Friend Like Me” delivers big time and I even prefer it to the original, which I don’t think is true for any other song in any remake (except one, but that’s for another time and for a different reason). We pretty much go hand in hand with the original now though “Prince Ali”, although that turns out to be a slight let down (but not bad). We are introduced to the idea of “genie magic” for why no one will recognize Aladdin. I get that was a bit of a plothole in the original, but this was a lame reason. I would say overall I was enjoying myself though.

We then get some horrid sequence with Aladdin sounding like an absolute idiot in front of Jasmine and some joke about yams. Also a statement about Aladdin buying Jasmine. Absolutely went too far trying to show that Aladdin “isn’t himself” as a prince. We do get an awesome dance sequence that’s new and the Genie also has an eye for Dalia, which may be unnecessary but it’s fun so I’m all for it. Genie is really pushing the whole Aladdin should be himself piece and it’s fine. Smith gets some hilarious lines in (Aladdin: “See, the Sultan does like me.” Genie: “Oh good, maybe you can be his wife.”)

Our next big moment is “A Whole New World” and unfortunately it’s also a letdown. It’s one of those occasions where the visuals don’t remotely match the original (not even close in this case). There are also some really small moments where the audience can figure out Jasmine is learning who Prince Ali really is (see the usage of an apple in the original). This is where I knew we weren’t getting to that level the original got to unfortunately.

Jafar’s not an idiot so he figures things out (with help from Iago). We get the same stupid 2nd wish by Aladdin to save his life. We follow the original again for a while, although Jafar does end up in prison this time. Other than his snakestaff, I’m not feeling the whole powerful sorcerer vibe from Jafar at this point (he disappeared in the original to escape). Aladdin and the Genie’s argument about Aladdin changing his mind about freeing the Genie doesn’t hit either and this all feel rushed again. But we do get that wonderful payoff from earlier. Jafar escapes from jail with help from Iago…and then steals the lamp from Aladdin. Very well set-up and payoff. And then perhaps the biggest tease and the justification for my opinion that it was bad direction and not Kenzari’s acting that was the issue comes up. As soon as Jafar rubs that lamp a maniacal laugh comes out and at that point, I was ready for the final act.

An the final act…is merely ok. The issue is most of the scenes at this point is a standoff. It’s just Jafar threatening and saying stuff to the Sultan, Jasmine, Aladdin etc. We get a second version of “Speechless” which feels completely out of place this time (it’s not like they are telling her she can’t do anything…the big bad is being a villain and cheating his way to the top). We don’t get Jafar’s “Prince Ali” reprise which is just plain disappointment from me. Jafar never goes mad with power and as a result the film never gets to that next level. Jafar’s “Most Powerful Sorcerer” phase also completely misses (the most disappointingly delivered line is “if you won’t bow before a sultan, then you will cower before a sorcerer”). Instead of turning into a massive snake, he makes Iago a dragon to chase Jasmine and Aladdin. This doesn’t nearly have the same effect. Also, another huge plothole comes up. Jasmine is about to marry Jafar to protect her father and she steals the lamp. Why she didn’t…I don’t know…rub the lamp is a complete mystery to me. Anyway Jafar falls for the same trick in the original which is built up better here to be fair. Jasmine also is crowned Sultan, which is a fine ending to that arc. Still, there was a lot of potential for greatness here and most of it missed. What a shame.

Absolute miss here…

Best Scene: It’s the entire “Friend Like Me” sequence. Shows Disney can make the live action musical scenes just as strong and powerful as the animated originals.

Worst Scene: I know some people liked it, but the entire jams joke had me shaking my head the entire time.

Personal Story: I had seen the Rotten Tomatoes score in the 50s so I wasn’t expecting much. But “Arabian Nights” led to the quickest 180 perhaps I ever had in cinema. Really didn’t see that coming from Will Smith.

Final Thoughts: Too many misses for greatness, but I liked some of the changes. This is still an enjoyable time. Changes to Jasmine’s arc are a plus, but changes to Jafar are a let down. Everything else your mileage probably varies. One more thing to think about that I mentioned earlier though. Disney had a huge 2019 with this being released two months before Lion King. I can’t help but think that if Aladdin, again one of the big four of the Disney Renaissance , had more time and focus given to it that we may have gotten some of that greatness. But I still find that despite some flaws this is a good and enjoyable film. And Disney made some money so I guess that’s all that really matters.

Grade: B

Disney, Movies, RDT Reviews

RDT Reviews Star Wars – The Sequel Trilogy

With Rise of Skywalker hitting its theatrical release, the time has come to how well the Sequel Trilogy (Star Wars: Episodes VII, VIII and IX) interweave with the Star Wars canon. For this, we’ll review each episode as it’s own standalone film, and then grade the trilogy as a whole. Also, SPOILERS clearly ahead.

Released: December 18, 2015
First Seen: December 2015, in Theaters
Last Watch: Disney+

Perhaps no Star Wars film (or film in general) had the pressure to satisfy audiences as well as perform at the box office as much as Episode VII: The Force Awakens (TFA). TFA gave us trailers featuring classic characters such as Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker all the while showing us a cool and bad-ass looking new member of the darkside (Kylo Ren) as well as new characters Finn and Rey. There’s a lot to unpack here . Did TFA stick the landing? For the most part, yes.

Everyone was ready for Kylo Ren to continue the legacy of the darkside…

TFA does not waste time getting into things. The opening crawl is clear what we’re in for (Luke Skywalker had vanished, and the First Order is looking to take over). It’s a race for the Resistance to find Luke (or specifically, a piece of a map that leads to Luke) before the First Order does. Say what you want about MaGuffin-style storytelling, but it’s effective here as every character has a different reaction to Skywalker (or the existence of Skywalker). Poe Dameron, the Resistance pilot tasked with recovering the map treats it as the most important thing in the galaxy. Rey is shocked at the idea that Skywalker exists, thinking he may have just been a myth, and so on and so forth (not trying to spoil the entire film here!). Interestingly enough, this is probably my favorite “version” of Luke Skywalker in all of Star Wars: the legend that’s disappeared to do who knows what. It’s a great question (that isn’t answered here) that really leads us into Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.

TFA also spends a good amount of time developing our characters, although there are questions that we hope to get answered later in the trilogy. While TFA shares a lot with Episode IV: A New Hope, I appreciate the differences between Rey and Hope’s Luke Skywalker. Viewers are quick to realize Rey’s our main hero here (although there are some red herrings with Finn), but it doesn’t look like Rey wants any part of it (Hope’s Luke couldn’t wait to get involved).  It’s a nice change of pace. Watching TFA again and knowing how the trilogy ends, I’m excited to see Rey accept her powers and who she is as opposed to someone looking to gain or earn power. But we get some of that too with Kylo Ren and his arc. One of the criticisms of TFA is that it’s too similar to A New Hope. Structurally that’s true, but the characters themselves are different and it works very well.

I like all of the main performances, and Harrison Ford once again steals the show as Han Solo (and doesn’t distract from the main story). We can easily see how the character of Han Solo has evolved. It’s clear that not only the wars of the Original Trilogy have softened him a bit, but the aftermath did as well. Same goes for Carrie Fisher’s General Leia. I also find Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac and John Boyega to be really good in their roles as well. I do find that the writing puts too much emphasis on the comedy aspect of Boyega’s Finn, but it’s not bad or anything.

han solo
Han Solo (and Chewie) were both amazing once again…

Another criticism of TFA was that there were no memorable music pieces. Those who said that must have watched a version without sound because themes for the Resistance, Rey and Kylo Ren are all excellent and I absolutely love “The Jedi Steps”. Absolutely crazy critique.

The only negatives I really have for TFA is the lightsaber scene near the end. Finn somewhat holds his own in a duel with Kylo Ren and Rey outright beats him. A strange decision that affected how I viewed Ren (which is a shame, because he’s amazing and probably the best character in this whole trilogy). I would have preferred we didn’t do that here, even if Disney wanted good to win Round 1.

Best Scene: It’s tough because Han Solo has plenty of amazing scenes here (as I wrote, he steals the show). I’ll go with his reaction to hearing about the map to Skywalker, and him telling Finn and Rey that “it’s [the legend of the Jedi and the darkside] true, all of it”. You can tell right there that Han’s been changed by the entire experience.

Worst Scene: There’s this out of place scene right after Han meets Rey and Finn involving monsters called rathars. It’s so out of place it’s almost laughable.

Other Thoughts: BB-8 had an excellent debut as the droid to “replace” R2-D2, but it’s not there yet. Knowing how Snoke ends definitely lowers his impact here, but there was definitely intrigue at the time. The ending scene with Rey and Luke Skywalker, barring the weird helicopter cam, is one of my favorites in all of Star Wars. The opening scene is my 2nd favorite in Star Wars as well (behind Revenge of the Sith).

Personal Story: One regret I have is that coming into the film, I was so focused on theory and analyzing that I didn’t it back and enjoy the film, and actually didn’t love it on first watch. But every time I came back to it I liked it more and more and would  say it’s my 3rd or 4th favorite film in the franchise.

Final Thoughts: More importantly than anything else, this movie is a lot of fun. It’s a thrill ride with very few slow parts and a lot to take in. It also provided a lot of set-up for Episode VIII and Episode IX. It also made Disney look like geniuses at the box office, becoming the third film ever to reach the $2 Billion mark (it’s 4th all-time now).

Grade: A-

Released: December 15, 2017
First Seen: December 2017, in Theaters
Last Watch: Disney+

With incredible trailers and incredible reviews, hype was higher than ever for Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (TLJ). Unfortunately, the risks TLJ takes split the Star Wars fanbase and that fact is as important to this trilogy as the film itself.

Unlike every previous installment of the series, TLJ kicks off right after TFA. TLJ has three stories woven together, and a few things become readily apparent that Rian Johnson is not playing this one safe. First of which is the introduction of Poe Dameron’s character arc. Despite being a fine leader in TFA suddenly he’s the hothead who doesn’t listen to his commanding officers. Poe’s actions in the entire film directly cause the ending sequence and he really gets let off free in regards to this. Had the Resistance lost at the end, you can directly blame Poe for sending Finn and a new character named Rose (we’ll get there) on their side quest to infiltrate Snoke’s ship. Poe’s conflict with Vice Admiral Holdo is written quite poorly (even if it actually does make sense, despite many feeling it didn’t). Holdo had a plan to escape The First Order, doesn’t tell Poe (which i am okay with, she outranks him afterall) and Poe helps Finn and Rose on their journey as well well causes a mutiny against Holdo. Really messy all around.

Speaking of Finn and Rose, Finn ends up with a similar character arc as TFA and it almost kinda works. The issue is how we get there. So once again Finn wants to run, but Rose, who’s sister died in an earlier battle, is tasked with stopping all deserters. Somehow they end up with a plan to stop the First Order from tracking their ship and tell Poe (not Holdo) about it. Poe helps them do it, sending them to find a master codebreaker to break into Snoke’s ship to turn off the tracker. Where Finn and Rose end up though is Canto Bight, and suddenly we’re talking about social justice topics in regards to cruelty to animals and how rich people become rich. While these are fine stories to tell and there definitely could have been a place in the trilogy to tell it, it’s completely distracting here and this side of the story goes off the rails. It’s a shame because the payoff is actually pretty cool (The Codebreaker betrays Finn and Rose, leading to a Captain Phasma vs. Finn showdown) and the acting is good all around. The Codebreaker’s betrayal leads to the First Order knowing Holdo’s plan, and if it weren’t for her amazing maneuver of shooting the ship at lightspeed through Snoke’s ship (absolutely amazing, if not questionable storyline wise) this battle would be over.

It’s also worth noting that this entire side of TLJ wasn’t about a high speed space chase or anything. The First Order was simply waiting for the Resistance to fun out of fuel. I have no idea how that passed the writing table. These are some of the worst ideas in all of Star Wars.

The Holdo maneuver is awesome, controversial as it is

And yet, the other side of TLJ is absolutely amazing. Rey has found Luke Skywalker to either bring him back to face Kylo Ren or to train Rey herself. But Luke’s shut himself off from the Force due to the fact he played a major part in Ben Solo’s turn into Kylo Ren. Mark Hamill is amazing here, showing disgust, annoyance and fear at all different points. Of course, this decision (to have Luke as a bitter old hermit) led to the backlash against TLJ as many felt (including Hamill himself at one point) that Luke wouldn’t become a bitter character. And I must say those people (including Hamill) are wrong. Making Luke the returning hero  to save the day without conflict is a boring route that takes away from the character this trilogy is building (Rey). It’s not Luke Skywalker’s story, it’s Rey’s. Pretty much all of Rey, Kylo Ren and Luke’s scenes are incredible, and the throne scene once Ren kills Snoke (Snoke was pretty fun here too) may be the best scene Star Wars has to offer period. At the time I absolutely bought that Kylo Ren was going to turn to the light and was shocked that he didn’t. Despite it apparently being weakly choreographed (I would have never noticed if I hadn’t seen it in slow motion) Snoke’s guards vs. Ren and Rey is one of my favorite battles in the entire series. Best of all, up onto that point Rey has risen above what Luke Skywalker had become and what Kylo Ren had refused to do. It’s absolutely refreshing to have a character not being forced to do anything because of a prophecy or a destiny. It feels that Rey is making her own choices without influence and it’s really fantastic to see.

I also need to include that after seeing this film for the first time i was all-in on Kylo Ren and arguedat the time he could have ended up as the greatest Star Wars character ever. The entire “let the past end” combined with him doing everything to accomplish just that (killing Snoke, trying to destroy Luke Skywalker) is absolutely perfect. Also, for all the issues people have with this film being “retconned” by Rise of Skywalker, Kylo Ren always showed signs of wanting to return to the light, specifically when he doesn’t pull the trigger to kill General Leia. Kylo Ren at this point is proving to be a complex character who wants the past to die, but can’t quite let it go either.

There’s another whole finale after the three stories connect on Crait. Action wise it’s not quite TFA but it’s still okay. Two things happen that I do think hurt the film and the trilogy overall. The first is on a smaller scale. Finn is about to sacrifice himself for the Resistance, and Rose stops him with one of the worst quotes in the entire series; “We’re going to win this war not by fighting what we hate, but by saving what we love.” Not only have two characters sacrificed themselves for the Resistance (Rose’s sister and Holdo) in this film, in one of those cases (Holdo’s) the war probably ends without it. I feel bad for the backlash Kelly Marie Tran received for her performance as Rose (it was a good performance, just a bad character) but lines like that did not do her any favors. Anyway Finn’s arc could have been completed right at that moment.

The second issue with the finale is a conflicting one for me because the scene itself is awesome. So Luke Skywalker does return to face off with Kylo Ren. And while there’s some force trickery involved both Hamill and Adam Driver are excellent here and you really feel the scope of this big showdown. The issue here is that it steals Rey’s moment. Kylo Ren is in the spotlight (and killed Snoke to get there) as it should be, but Rey is off trying to help the Resistance escape by moving a bunch of rocks? Kylo doesn’t get a decisive victory over Luke either here. Awesome scene to see, but Rey needed to be involved in a bigger way here. This is also why Rey’s victory over Kylo Ren was a bizarre choice in TFA, because Kylo Ren still hasn’t beaten Rey and I’m wondering what the challenge to Rey is at this point.

Right showdown…wrong time

Best Scene: The moment Ren kills Snoke through Rey realizing Ren hasn’t quite turned to the light just yet.

Worst Scene: Unfortunately there are a lot of choices here (mostly on Canto Bight), but I’ll pick Rose’s saving of Finn.

Other Thoughts: BB-8 was still fun but a bit forgettable this time around…Carrie Fisher was great as well even if I didn’t write about her in this review…a lot of new Force powers are introduced here and I have no issue with any of them. The Force should evolve afterall. The comedy here missed more than hit, Finn coming out with water spraying all over the place was eye rolling, for example.

Personal Story: I absolutely loved this film the first time i saw it, but I chalk that up to a case of really getting into the good which forgives the bad. Admittedly this film isn’t as fun and even a bit of a tough rewatch. I can forgive all the Poe and Canto Bight stuff though, because they are supporting characters. But I can’t really get past Luke stealing Rey’s moment at the end. That hurt the film more than anything else.

Final Thoughts: I don’t find this to be the all-time great film that critics were saying, but those complaining that this shouldn’t be part of the Star Wars canon are also wrong. This film added dimensions to Luke Skywalker as well as pushed the two most important characters, Rey and Kylo Ren, to new heights. After analyzing this, I only need two things from Rise of Skywalker (which I got), some explanation for Rey being as powerful as she is, and Kylo Ren turning to the light (or becoming the big bad). If the secondary characters weren’t messed with so much here this would be the all-time great critics said it was…but alas the Luke-Kylo-Rey stuff just has to carry (and it does).

Grade: B

Released: December 20, 2019
First Seen: December 2019, in Theaters
Last Watch: In Theaters

I honestly didn’t know what to expect coming into Rise of Skywalker (ROS). While I enjoyed both TFA and TLJ, even as a fan ROS seemed to get lost somewhere. I’m not sure if it was due to Disney fatigue, or if the rabid Star Wars fandom (at this point purely against TLJ to the point that Rotten Tomatoes audience score was allegedly review bombed) had finally got to me. Maybe it was because, since we had last seen Star Wars on the big screen, Marvel busted out Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: End Game and there just wasn’t any emotional energy left to give a big name franchise. J.J. Abrams had an answer to all of this: “I’m just going to give you everything you all wanted”. And somehow…it mostly works and it’s amazing.

First thing to point out is that ROS does not waste time. The first teaser trailer told us Emperor Palpatine is back and our opening crawl tells us as much. A common complaint was that Palpatine coming back via opening crawl (or Fortnite event apparently) was stupid and I can’t say I agree. I don’t think we needed another 15 minutes watching Palpatine use Sith powers to turn into a Sith ghost. For anyone who paid attention to Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine’s resurrection is perfectly explained. And right away, you know where the film is going and the brilliance of Palpatine’s return. I’ve already written about the issue that Rey is currently overpowered with seemingly no equal, and we don’t know why the Resistance just won’t unleash her on the First Order. Well, when you have a character like that with one episode or story left to tell, you bring back the only character who can face her and deal with her. In this case, it’s the Emperor. Suddenly Rey’s the underdog again.

Who else could face Rey…

Interestingly enough though, there’s a twist involved that’s apparent from scene one. If this was just paint by the numbers, Kylo Ren would blindly follow the Emperor and perhaps turn at the end. But Kylo Ren is having none of Emperor bs and honestly, I thought there was a chance he was just going to off him right away and become the big bad. I would have been all for it too had Ren actually won a big fight in this trilogy. Palpatine plays his overpowered fleet card and gets Kylo on his side. Why is this different than the predictable scenario I laid out at the start of the paragraph? Because all film Kylo doesn’t seem to care about Palpatine and even talks about killing him when trying to convince Rey to join him. And that’s what really makes Kylo Ren an incredible character. He’s not the Emperor’s lackey or sidekick. He thinks of himself as an equal (or even stronger) than Palpatine and his attitude all film is “I’ll kill Palpatine if and when I want.” And even Palpatine in his dead state can’t read Ren (“The Jedi apprentice still lives, perhaps you have betrayed me”). Ren wants to crush everyone and rule the galaxy with Rey. Fantastic all around and a good follow-up to what TLJ did with him.

Speaking of Rey, while some pieces of her story is inconsistent, I think they work for the most part. All trilogy she’s been trying to find her place in the story. Thinking her parents were no one, she just seemed like a powerful character involved in this war with a connection to Ren. At the start she respects Leia as her master as she has the choice to do so. She’s not someone bound by “destiny”. She’s legitimately a good person who wants to do the right thing with the power of love and such. And how do you create conflict with a character like this? You take what she’s accepted in her life and tell her no, your destiny is you will take the throne of the Sith! She’s told that becoming Empress Palpatine is her place in the story. It’s a tremendous way to create a conflict with a character that did seem too strong and didn’t seem to have much of a story. Best of yet, because of Kylo Ren there’s a plausible scenario of Rey actually taking the throne and facing off with a converted-to-the-light Ben Solo (not that this was likely, mind you). The idea that Rey chooses to remain with the light, bringing light and hope along the way to those she encounters is a great one. Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and now Ben Solo (and by extension, the entire Resistance) are drawn back into the “right” side of the fight by Rey’s spirit and that’s a hero I believe in.

Be honest, there’s a part of you that wanted this…

The biggest issue for the film is that a lot of stories are crammed in. I like Finn a lot here, but the idea of him finding other rogue stormtroopers is something I wish was explored in TLJ as it had a lot of potential. Finn being force sensitive though is a nice touch and is something else that I wish there was time to explore (anyone having force sensitivity is a good carryover from TLJ though). We get a lot of history for Poe Dameron and while it’s fun, again it’s rushed a bit as J.J. clearly was trying to make up for not having a middle film to work with. Bonus points for Poe performing some crazy flying tech (even if the tech itself is bs). He is the best pilot in the galaxy afterall. Unfortunately Rose was put on the backburner, and even BB-8 didn’t seem as important as before. Maz Kanata is absolutely wasted. But at the same time, other characters old and new got their moments. I liked Jennah, General Pryde and Zorii, appreciated Chewie and Lando, and loved Hux’s story arc conclusion. The use of posthumous Carrie Fisher, while awkward in some spots, does work for the most part. If I had to take this all as a whole I would consider it a net positive, but I can see where viewers wouldn’t feel any of this.

Ultimately, this film shines in its final act. The moment Rey battles Kylo Ren and beyond is absolutely amazing. Emperor Palpatine goes full secret final boss mode and pulls out all the craziness, all while taunting Rey every step of the way. I assume some viewers found this to be over the top, but if there’s ever a time to pull out all the stops it’s in the last moments of the last film. Rey calling upon all the Jedi of the past to take out Palpatine and all of the Sith a perfect ending to the saga. Rey using Luke and Leia’s lightsabers to take out Palpatine once and for all is a nice show of respect for the OT. Ben Solo shines here as well, but never takes away from Rey’s moment. By the end of the film, there is no question that Rey earned the name Skywalker.

The final battle in the sky with the Resistance against the Last Order is breathtaking. While Lando bringing in reinforcements falls short of Endgame’s emotional climax, I also don’t think that’s a fair comparison (it’s just similar enough that it’s worth mentioning). The idea of attacking a Star Destroyer by actually taking the fight on the actual destroyer itself was incredible though, and Finn for the third time in three films stands up and makes the hero move. I’m glad to see that this time he pulled it off.

Best Scene: I hate to cop out but I’m going to here and pick two. The opening scene with Kylo Ren meeting the Emperor was incredible for Adam Driver’s performance alone. Look at Kylo Ren in TFA and TLJ and look at him here. There’s a sense of seriousness and it’s mind blowing. I was sold on the film instantly. Otherwise, Rey force teleporting the lightsaber to Ben Solo to take out the Knights of Ren, combined with Rey taking out all Palpatine’s guards is amazing.

Worst Scene: Our heroes end up in a sand pit (it’s literally one sand pit, how lucky) that ends up as a plot of convenience. While what happens down there is fine, we don’t even see how they get out.

Personal Story: I wrote a bit of a personal story at the start here. I don’t know if I’m getting more sentimental as I get older, but I felt this movie. As someone who doesn’t care about my family name, it’s inspiring to me to see Rey’s character choose and earn who she wants to be. I really had no expectations here, and I was blown away by just how good this film is.

Final Thoughts: There’s a video on Youtube of a young girl going to Disney World and getting amazingly excited when she meets Rey. Millions of young girls will grow up being who they want to be as opposed to who they are told they had to be, drawing inspiration from Rey Skywalker. Rey’s journey doesn’t dampen the stories of Luke and Anakin of the past, but instead adds a thrilling final chapter to an incredible fantasy world. Rise of Skywalker had the impossible task of closing out a 42 year, 9 (11?) film saga, and somehow pulled it off. No film in the Skywalker Saga drew from the mythology of the prequels, the charm of the OT character all while telling a new story like Rise of Skywalker does. Maybe it’s not the best Star Wars film (although, if you argue for it I definitely am not standing in your way), but it’s certainly the greatest.

And if this is what too much fan service is then please give me more fan service.

Grade: A+

Trilogy Thoughts: We’ll never see something like the Skywalker Saga again. It’s a shame that behind the scenes there was a lot of confusion about the direction the directors wanted to go. This only got worse when J.J. Abrams re-took the helm, as of course he wanted to close out the stories he started in TFA. Rian Johnson’s TLJ is always going to be the odd one out in this trilogy. For sure, some characters suffered here.

But the main characters shine and that’s what important. And despite a section of the Star Wars fandom feeling that TLJ shouldn’t be canon because of Luke Skywalker’s portrayal and that’s really unfortunate, because Skywalker’s payoff is arguably the most heroic of any Star Wars film. All of the OT characters presented have a satisfying end and help push the story along and are done with respect. It’s okay to take chances as long as the conclusion makes sense! Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, Yoda  and every voice that spoke to Rey  and Ben provided the support that’s needed when establishing new characters. As Yoda says in TLJ: “We are who they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.” To some people the OT will be Star Wars. But to a generation today, the ST is Star Wars.

I can’t give the trilogy an amazingly great score because of the continuity issues presented by the directorial issues. But this trilogy had everything and I hope in 10-15 years it’s remembered fondly. I think it’s my favorite too.

Trilogy Score: B+