Author Topic: Corndog's Less Prestigous and Less Classy Disney Marathon  (Read 34637 times)

Corndog

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Re: Corndog's Less Prestigous and Less Classy Disney Marathon
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2009, 09:43:36 PM »
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (Clyde Geronomi, Hamilton Luske & Woldgang Reitherman, 1961) -

I remember this one fondly from my childhood, something that hasn't happened much yet in the marathon. It's brilliance stands the test of time. The whole situation is wonderful. The way that Pongo sets the two up in the beginning, the way that they call their owners their pets, and the way the evil character, a great creation, is named Cruella Deville. It's a caper, prison break film with all of the excitement of a conventional human one. The puppies are extremely cute, as are their dog accomplices. I especially enjoy the Captain, the Sargent, and the Colonel, they are awesome. It tells a tale of need and of want, of love and of hate, and of fulfillment and of emptiness. It's fairly simple and the the animation isn't really overwhelming, though it is up to par. I'll be the first to admit that there is nostalgia involved here, but I also think it is a great Disney flick.

Rating: 3.5/4
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Corndog

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Re: Corndog's Less Prestigous and Less Classy Disney Marathon
« Reply #11 on: November 01, 2009, 09:40:38 PM »
Bambi (David Hand, 1942) -

This was shockingly short. Most of the Disney films, especially earlier ones were quite short, but this barely made it past an hour and it surprised me. The animation in it was breathtakingly beautiful though. For 1942, it was ahead of it's time and must have been a wonder to see in the theater. There were some good characters here too. Bambi and especially Thumper were great to watch. All of the animals were actually. Disney really knows how to do animals and make them cute, interesting, and unforgettable. On the other hand, there were some things I did not really care for in the film. Nothing really that happened, but rather what did not happen. As I said the runtime is a little over one hour and as a result there is not much plot development, not a whole lot happens. We see Bambi born, live his life, face a tragedy, and then come full circle. They try to throw in the fact that he is a prince, but it does not work because it is not necessary. This is an example of a film being too simple in a bad way. It was fun to watch because of the characters and the visuals, but I was left wanting.

Rating: **1/2
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Corndog

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Re: Corndog's Less Prestigous and Less Classy Disney Marathon
« Reply #12 on: November 01, 2009, 09:50:29 PM »
Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronomi, 1959) -

This was a joy to watch. It is my roommates favorite Disney, so he was singing the songs and quoting the quotes. And the songs were good. Given, it was basically the same song throughout the film, but the score was good too. That is something that I have noticed in this marathon: the music is always very good. Disney consistently comes up with great original songs and scores for their fairytale films.It really adds to the magic of it. And speaking of magic, I really liked the fairies here too. They were quite good, though made a few dumb decision near the end, but good nonetheless. Once again, Disney creates some great animal characters as well. The owl especially was great. The scene where they steal the prince's cape and hat and dance with Aurora is my favorite of the film. Really great stuff. As for Maleficent, she is great at being evil, that's all I can say. I felt sorry for the crow though because all she called him was her "pet", she didn't even give him a name. The fight scene between her and Prince Philip at the end was another great scene that comes to mind. The animation did not stun me ever, except maybe the dark stuff, that was cool. But the story was so strong, as were the characters, that the film was still laid out quite beautifully.

Rating: ***1/2
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

saltine

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Re: Corndog's Less Prestigous and Less Classy Disney Marathon
« Reply #13 on: November 01, 2009, 09:55:42 PM »
there is not much plot development We see Bambi born, live his life, face a tragedy, and then come full circle.
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Corndog

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Re: Corndog's Less Prestigous and Less Classy Disney Marathon
« Reply #14 on: November 01, 2009, 10:07:57 PM »
there is not much plot development We see Bambi born, live his life, face a tragedy, and then come full circle.

well that came out wrong. the live his life was short and dull and then the end (full circle) came quite quickly as well. There wasn't much substance to the plot I thought.
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pixote

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Re: Corndog's Less Prestigous and Less Classy Disney Marathon
« Reply #15 on: November 02, 2009, 03:05:28 AM »
*cries*

pixote
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flieger

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Re: Corndog's Less Prestigous and Less Classy Disney Marathon
« Reply #16 on: November 02, 2009, 03:45:59 AM »
Not much substance to the plot? The gorgeous, impressionistic imagery of life in the forest does so much more legwork that it becomes a brilliantly primal piece of cinema. pixote is correct.   :'(

Corndog

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Re: Corndog's Less Prestigous and Less Classy Disney Marathon
« Reply #17 on: November 08, 2009, 08:54:36 PM »
Make Mine Music (Cormack, Geronomi, Kinney, Luske & Meador, 1946) -

This was much like Fantasia but with contemporary music instead of classical. I think as a result I enjoyed the shorts much more. I really enjoyed the "Jazz Interlude", the one with the hats who are in love, and the ending operatic whale. Those were all magnificent. The others were pretty good too. As far as how it all holds together as one feature, I don't know. I kind of feel like this was the place where Disney was experimenting with what was and wasn't possible with animation. Certainly he found that some of it worked, and taken apart the tales were fantastic (Disney did win most of his Oscars with shorts). But taken as a whole, it wasn't as great as it might have been if it were one story musical, but that's just, like, my opinion, man. I certainly enjoyed myself though.

Rating: **1/2
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Corndog

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Re: Corndog's Less Prestigous and Less Classy Disney Marathon
« Reply #18 on: November 08, 2009, 09:01:22 PM »
The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967) -

My friends were going crazy wanting to watch this for a few weeks now. After Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros didn't work, we decided to finally watch this one. I'm glad we did, but at the same time, they kind of raised my expectations of it past where they should have been probably. There were some really great characters in this, like Mowgli, Baloo, the elephants, and the vultures. They were a lot of fun to spend time with and of course the entire "Bare Necessities" scene was great. The animation was pretty neat too, being set in a jungle and all. Good Disney, but not my favorite

Rating: ***
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

ferris

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Re: Corndog's Less Prestigous and Less Classy Disney Marathon
« Reply #19 on: November 14, 2009, 06:09:41 PM »
Corndog, missed this marathon until now (not sure why??)

I read through all of them and I tend to agree with a bunch.  Are you going to so some awards at the end of the marathon? (best character, best film, best animation, etc)

Good to see the 4/4 on Peter Pan and Snow White.

The thing about Beauty and the Beast - it was quite a thing when that movie came out.  There must have been 20 years since Disney had put out a real decent serious animated film.  This movie reinvigorated the entire genre.  I dare say that Pixar would not been here where it is now without this movie.  So there is a bit of history there, but you're right - in hindsight it doesn't seem to hold the same weight that it had at the time.
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