March 2013
1 post
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Disneython #52: Wreck-it Ralph (2012)
Well, I thought I should write a review of Disney’s latest animated film, Wreck-it Ralph, so that I can say that I have reviewed all the official animated Disney films for the Disneython. I finished the Disneython before this film was released, but I feel I would be leaving it out, so I’ll write this review, put it in my ranking, and then feel better about myself. And so, because I...
February 2013
1 post
2 tags
Ehehehhh, so Apologies
Yeahhhh, I started the Pixarthon, got to A Bug’s Life and just gave up; that film made me wanna give up the Disneython as well. And it’s not like I have a big problem/don’t like the film, I just don’t wanna review it :P
So apologies for the delay, I might continue the Pixarthon in the summer, when I have a bit more time. I’m currently working on a story in my free...
December 2012
2 posts
5 tags
Pixarthon #1 - 3: The Toy Story Trilogy (1995 -...
Obviously I was going to start the Pixarthon with Toy Story, the first Pixar film and also the very first full-length CGI-animated film, but I thought it would be much easier to write about all three Toy Story films together in one post, as they’re all pretty similar and it is a film trilogy; I think I might talk about the two Cars films together too, but that’ll be later on.
Um, this...
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I am Doing the Pixarthon!
I had been thinking about this for a while, but I’ve decided I’m going to do a Pixarthon; like the Disneython, only reviewing the 13 Pixar films (and possibly the shorts in one post). I had been contemplating doing this for a while back and forth during the Disneython, and at first, I was going to review the Pixar films in the Disneython, but I left them alone because I felt that the...
November 2012
3 posts
5 tags
My Favourite Disney Films
So I’ve just finished the Disneython, and after every review, I’ve put every film in a ranking list, from most liked to least liked. The entire list is not numbered, I can’t physically do that, so it’s kind of separated into 4 different categories for me, and they are: ‘All-Time Favourites’, ‘Love/Like’, ‘Eh, It’s Alright’, and...
6 tags
The Last Disneython Reviews - Part 2
The Aristocats (1970)
As a kid, I really loved the Aristocats; I think I wore the VHS out quite a bit. My favourite part was the two geese waddling to that music; apparently I used to re-enact that, and my mum found it adorable. However, it’s not one that I’ve seen recently, I probably haven’t seen it since I was about ten, so I was gonna have a bit of nostalgia for this. And as an adult…well,...
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The Last Disneython Reviews - Part 1
Yeah, it’s still taking me forever to watch these last few movies, but I’m getting there, okay. I have seen 4 of them though, so I thought I’d post them here to get them out the way. I said they would be ‘brief’, but this is me we’re talking about; they’re about half the length of my normal reviews. No background research or plot summary, just my opinions...
October 2012
1 post
1 tag
Soooo as you can telllllll...
I haven’t been doing the Disneython. My bad. So I just wanted to tell you how the Disneython is going to end.
I’ll watch the rest of the films I have to see, I’ll put my brief thoughts and opinions on them in one post and THEN I’ll be done with the Disneython. Because it’s just gone on for too long, and I can’t write these reviews. So I’m still gonna...
September 2012
10 posts
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Disneython #43: Hercules (1997)
(I told you it’d be up very soon!)
It was the late 80’s, Disney were just about to unexpectedly create a Renaissance with four successful feature films (and one other film that is never remembered by anyone and is a sequel to The Rescuers), but before the world could truly consider the studio being back on form, they needed to get themselves out of the Dark Ages, and the failure of The Black...
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Disneython #42: Saludos Amigos (1942)
Quick recap on the package films again: package films were a collection of short subjects strung together to make one feature-length film made during and after WWII, when animated films with a feature-length story were becoming too expensive to make, and the studio were not financially stable after making ambitious films like Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi. With this package film, Disney and a team...
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Disneython Update
Sooooooooooo last week I said I would do a separate blog post about the Disneython reviews and going back to college and everything like that.
Yes, I am back at college, and it’s terrible, and I would much rather review the remaining 10 animated Disney films. Buuuuuut I found out that I have 3 pieces of written work to be finished by the start of October, with 3 monologues to learn and 3...
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Disneython #41: Sleeping Beauty (1959)
It seems ironic that I would be reviewing Sleeping Beauty right after I reviewed The Black Cauldron, as I mentioned in that review that I felt The Black Cauldron reminded me quite a bit of Sleeping Beauty, and there are plenty of similarities: they’re both fantasy stories, both spent a long time in production, both very pretty unique styles in the art direction, both very ambitious, both presented...
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Disneython #40: The Black Cauldron (1985)
In the 1980’s, things at Disney’s animated studios were not going too well: it was a battle between the old staff, who had worked with Walt Disney himself and knew what he would have wanted, and the new staff, who wanted to get away from the ‘traditional’ type of Disney films that had been released in the 60’s and 70’s. This new team wanted to make darker, more adult animated films, and they did...
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Disneython #39: Brother Bear (2003)
…Um, well, there’s not much to say about Brother Bear’s background. It was first developed in 1994, and was intended to be very similar to The Lion King, in that it had a very dramatic storyline with elements of the Shakespeare play King Lear. …And the working title was ‘Bears’. Wow, Disney, you couldn’t think of anything better? It was the third and final film made solely at Disney’s Feature...
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Disneython #38: Winnie the Pooh (2011)
Winnie the Pooh is Disney’s most recent animated film (at the time of this post), and it’s a rare thing indeed. It’s a traditionally animated film that has no real big names voicing the characters, it’s just over an hour long and it’s a sequel to one of Disney’s package films from the 1970’s. This is the second film from Disney’s ‘new-and-improved’ animation studio, that is to say new-and-improved...
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Disneython #37: 101 Dalmatians (1961)
It was the start of the 60’s, and the start of a new sort of style for Disney – the three films released in the 60’s are still part of the Silver Age, but there was a new look and process to the animated Disney films. 101 Dalmatians introduced the Xerox process, replicating the animators’ sketches directly onto cells, making it cheaper and wasting less time inking; the ‘sketchy’ look would be used...
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Disneython #36: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Considered to be one of Disney’s darkest, ballsiest films, Hunchback was made around the same time Pocahontas was being made, so Disney were still wanting to make their films epic dramas, after The Lion King made a ton of money. Perhaps Victor Hugo’s novel was too much of an epic drama for a Disney adaptation, as many people questioned how and why Disney would want to use this story for their next...
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Disneython #35: Dumbo (1941)
Dumbo is a very simple film. Because Pinocchio and Fantasia lost money on their release, Disney just needed to make a small low-budget film to get some money back. Unlike the first three ambitious animated films the studio made, the animators and artists had to cut down on the lavish backgrounds and detailed realistic character animation. Around the same time, the studio were also working on...
August 2012
8 posts
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Disneython #34: The Jungle Book (1967)
The Jungle Book is known as Walt Disney’s last film – or at least the last Disney film that Walt himself worked on – and he didn’t even get to see the final product, which is a shame because he really did put a lot of himself into the production. As I’ve said before, during the 1950’s and 60’s, Disney was losing interest in his animated films and was more concerned with the Disneyland theme park,...
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Disneython #33: Chicken Little (2005)
…I’m not going to use this review to have a rant. I’m not going to spend too much time on this review; this movie doesn’t deserve it. This movie does not deserve to be called a Disney film. I knew this was 21st Century Disney, and times were hard at the studio when it was being made, but this film just doesn’t deserve to be classed as one of the Animated Disney Classics.
You could say that Chicken...
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Disneython #32: Aladdin (1992)
Around the same time that The Little Mermaid was being made, lyricist Howard Ashman pitched the idea to make a musical version of the Arab folk tale of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, so the studio went ahead with it. They started production on it, and were doing alright with it, until the April of 1991 when Jeffrey Katzenberg took a look at what they had of the movie so far, and didn’t like it at...
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Disneython #31: Make Mine Music (1946)
Make Mine Music is one of the last package films I’ll be reviewing, so now we’re at the fourth package film, you should all know the history on Disney’s package film era. This was the first package film released after WWII had ended, but the studio was still down in the dumps at this time, not having enough to money to make a feature-length film with a feature-length story, so they created a...
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Disneython #30: The Little Mermaid (1989)
…I have a feeling that this review will be a bit like my review for The Lion King. That’s not really one of my best reviews because I couldn’t find anything to talk about with that film because everything was so good, and it’s just had so much praise, and it’s just one of those Disney films that I’ve loved for a really long time and my opinion hasn’t changed since I was a kid. But I shall try my...
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Disneython #29: Peter Pan (1953)
Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland have a lot in common. They were both considered to be the second film Walt Disney wanted to make after Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. They’re both based on a piece of classic literature. They both eventually went into production in the early 1950’s. Kathryn Beaumont voices the lead female in both films (both her characters’ facial features looking extremely...
3 tags
The Disneython is BACK. ON.
I can now tell you all that I have finished writing my story, so I am back to watching the remaining Disney movies left in the Disneython. So stay on the lookout for my next review of Peter Pan. :D
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SERIOUS Appy-polly-loggies
BIG SORRY for not posting any Disneython reviews lately. I do have a reason for it: I’m currently writing a story, and trying to get it finished before the summer, so that’s the only thing on my mind at the moment. And, to be fair, I only started the Disneython as a summer project because I didn’t have a story to pre-occupy me…but now I do and so I’m putting that...
July 2012
30 posts
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Disneython #28: The Three Caballeros (1945)
It’s another package film, which means it’s probably not going to be a very long review. It’s probably impossibly to talk about this film without mentioning the package film made before it, Saludos Amigos. Just to recap package films, as I haven’t reviewed on in a while, package films were a collection of short subjects strung together to make one feature-length film made during and after WWII,...
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Disneython #27: The Many Adventures of Winnie the...
I’ll start by saying that I’ve never been big on Winnie the Pooh. He and his friends were not a very big part of my childhood consumed by Disney; didn’t watch the films (expect for The Tigger Movie, which I remember loving), didn’t watch the TV show, didn’t have the toys, didn’t have any of the numerous merchandise. I just wasn’t into him. Anyway.
Winnie the Pooh was never created by Disney;...
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Disneython #26: Fantasia 2000 (1999)
(NOTE: It’s another extremely long review, so if you really don’t care, then skip this one.)
So it’s another one of my all-time favourite Disney movies, though a little lower on the list than Fantasia. Of course this film’s not better than the original, but for me, I still love it to pieces – of course I’m gonna love a sequel to Fantasia, did you see my review for that?
The...
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Disneython #25: Lilo and Stitch (2002)
So we’re back to another film made at the beginning of the 21st Century, when Disney was trying to go in different directions – I hope this is the last one for a while, I think I’ve talked about nearly all of the films in this period already, and we’ve just reached the half-way point…random number generator is not being random. But at least I’m revisiting my childhood with these films, because...
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Disneython #24: Cinderella (1950)
So after having reviewed three pretty recent Disney films, now we have a true classic, Cinderella: the film that saved Walt Disney Studios. No, seriously. After the war, the studio has lost a lot of money and a lot of staff, so couldn’t make any more feature-length films. However, Walt Disney wanted to go ahead and make a feature-length version of the fairytale of Cinderella; he figured the...
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Disneython #23: Dinosaur (2000)
So this is Disney’s first CGI animated film in the canon…and it’s not even fully CGI-animated; Dinosaur combines live-action backgrounds with CGI dinosaur characters. So just from that statement, you can tell this is Disney taking a different direction, the direction away from the Renaissance era: no musical numbers, no fairytales, no princes and princesses, and this time no traditional...
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Disneython #22: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Atlantis. Well, it’s a different Disney film, to be sure. This is one of the animated films made at the time when Disney wanted to go in a different direction with their films, previously proven with Fantasia 2000, Dinosaur and The Emperor’s New Groove. Instead of the musical fairytale, directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale (directors of Beauty and the Beast) instead made a sci-fi adventure...
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Disneython #21: Tangled (2010)
Tangled started life as Rapunzel Unbraided, being directed by legendary animator Glen Keane and story artist Dean Wellins. However, both opted out of directing and gave the job to Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, who had worked on Disney’s last CGI animated film, Bolt, however Glen Keane was still very closely attached as executive producer. With it being the studio’s 50th animated feature, Keane...
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Disneython #20: Bambi (1942)
In 1937, Walt Disney was first given the idea to adapt Felix Salten’s novel Bambi into an animated film, to be his second animated feature after Snow White. However, the film was not completed until 1942, mainly because Walt wanted the animal characters to look as realistic as possible, and the animators working at the studio were not used to drawing realistically; after all, this was the...
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Disneython #19: The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
The Rescuers Down Under is sort of the odd member of the Renaissance family. Yes, it is part of the Disney Renaissance, from 1989 to 1999, it was actually the second Renaissance film released. But nobody seems to remember it, or even know about it, and I think it’s because it didn’t make as much money as the studio wanted it to on its opening weekend (which is a bit unfair, seems as the film...
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Disneython #18: Fantasia (1940)
(NOTE: This is an extremely long review, so if you really don’t care about Fantasia, then skip this one.)
So we’ve now broken into the Favourites. We’ve now gotten to one of my all-time favourite Disney movies. I think I count about six or seven of the Disney films in this list that are my absolute favourite animated films, and so now Fantasia is the first one I’ll be talking about. Whether...
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Disneython #17: Alice in Wonderland (1951)
The story of Alice in Wonderland has permeated the history of the Disney studio even before the studio was created. Walt Disney’s first foray into film-making was the Alice Comedies, which were short films made from 1924 to 1926, involving a live-action girl interacting with animated characters. Once the Disney studio was founded, Disney was considering making Alice in Wonderland his first...
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Disneython #16: Mulan (1998)
Well, there isn’t really anything specific to say about the background of this film. It’s part of the Disney Renaissance, released in 1998, based on a legendary Chinese figure, nothing really that controversial (that I know of…), made money at the box office, was met with generally positive reviews, and it’s still liked now by a lot of people. I don’t really know if people think it’s...
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Disneython #15: The Fox and the Hound (1981)
The 1980’s. It was a new decade, a bunch of new talent at the Disney studio, and a new direction in which they wanted to take. Obviously production on the film started earlier though, in 1977, right after The Rescuers was released. This film was sort of the ‘passing of the torch’ from the old animation department to the new, with Walt Disney’s remaining ‘Nine Old Men’ doing the initial...
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Disneython #14: Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Lady and the Tramp was released in 1955. In this same year, Walt Disney opened the Disneyland theme park. So it’s surprising that he was still involved quite a bit with this film, despite his interest in animated films waning. This was the first animated film released in Cinemascope, it was Disney’s first real romance, and it was also Disney’s most successful film since Snow White. And it is,...
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Disneython #13: The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)
With the turn of the new century, Disney proved to take a turn into new territory. After realising the end of the 90’s Renaissance era, and that the usual formula was getting old, Disney started looking in new directions for their next feature films; the three films released after Tarzan certainly proved this: Fantasia 2000, Dinosaur and The Emperor’s New Groove. Emperor is the closest to being...
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Disneython #12: The Rescuers (1977)
In the middle of the Dark Age of Disney animation, The Rescuers gave the studio a bit of hope when it modestly became the most successful animated film from the studio since Walt’s last film, The Jungle Book in 1967, and also modestly broke the record for highest-grossing animated film on its opening weekend. It also got some modestly positive reviews for the studio’s return to the heartfelt...
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Disneython #11: Meet the Robinsons (2007)
So after the kerfuffle of Pixar being bought by Disney, John Lasseter became Chief Creative Director at the Walt Disney Animation Studios, and everything was starting to look a lot better for Disney. Meet the Robinsons was the first film released under John Lasseter’s supervision, and there really is a sign that good things were to come for the studio in the future (o-ho, no pun intended). Much...
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Disneython #10: The Lion King (1994)
So the Disney Renaissance era was in full swing by 1994, and with three critically-acclaimed films already under its belt, everyone was anticipating what would be the next film to follow in the Renaissance. Well, there were actually two in production at the same time: one was Pocahontas (which I have already talked about), and the other was The Lion King. Long story short, no one at the studio...
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Disneython #9: Melody Time (1948)
Melody Time is one of the package films released by Walt Disney when they were nearly suffering bankruptcy. Rather than just two half-hour shorts in one film, like Ichabod and Mr. Toad, it consists of seven shorter segments; it was one of two package films that uses the same formula as Fantasia: create an animated short, and set it to music, only instead of classical music, Melody Time uses...
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Disneython #8: Pocahontas (1995)
So after the enormous success of the first three animated films of the new Disney Renaissance era of the nineties, Disney were determined to make an animated drama, in the hopes that it would garner a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, much like Beauty and the Beast. In fact, during the production of Pocahontas and The Lion King, Jeffrey Katzenberg kept persuading the animators to work on...
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Disneython #7: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr....
Is it a good sign for a movie if you want it to be longer than it already is? Because I want this movie to be SO much longer.
…This review’s gonna be a bit different. This movie, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is one (and the last) of the ‘package films’ the Disney studios made between 1943 to 1949. After the poor financial intake from Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi, and with the Second...
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Disneython #6: Treasure Planet (2002)
So at the beginning of the 21st Century, Disney’s Animation Studio was not off to a good start, both financially and critically, with the studio trying to get away from the ‘musical fairy tale’ formula of the Renaissance era, which they certainly succeeded in: the next four traditionally animated films would be Fantasia 2000, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Lilo and Stitch and Treasure Planet. Out...
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Disneython #5: Robin Hood (1973)
As we all know (or maybe some people don’t know), Walt Disney died in December of 1966. Before his death, he worked on a lot of the story of The Jungle Book (released after his death), and gave the go-ahead for The Aristocats to be made. Robin Hood was the first Disney film that Walt Disney had no part of – is it noticeable? Well, in terms of animation, oh yes, but we’ll get to that. Is it...
