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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

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