Animated Films You Probably Never Saw (DW, Dis. seqs, obsc.)

[Pick]

Actually, I might mention some more Bluth films, but probably not All Dogs Go to Heaven or Secret of NIMH. (Actually, Troll in Central Park is his, but I try not to think about that movie very often.) I don't know. It might actually be fitting to touch on more of the Disney ones which are rarely viewed, such as The Three Caballeros. Ugh, but their package movies were not my thing. Anyway.

I have time to write more of these now that my project presentation is done, but I'm a bit tired so give me a bit :p.

[Rawtooth]

Unfortunately I can't find it, but Flight of Dragons had a pretty kick-ass exchange between the hero and the villian at the end.

[Guardsman Bass]

Actually, I might mention some more Bluth films, but probably not All Dogs Go to Heaven or Secret of NIMH. (Actually, Troll in Central Park is his, but I try not to think about that movie very often.) I don't know. It might actually be fitting to touch on more of the Disney ones which are rarely viewed, such as The Three Caballeros. Ugh, but their package movies were not my thing. Anyway.

I have time to write more of these now that my project presentation is done, but I'm a bit tired so give me a bit :p.

Did you see any of the other less successful Bluth films, like Thumbelina (which I caught on the Disney Channel when I was pretty young) or Fern Gully? I remember the former being pretty "Meh" at the time, but the latter had some interesting parts (plus, I loved the tree-cutting machine they were using).

[Pick]

Yup, I own both of them. However, Ferngully wasn't Bluth's. Hell, let me just do a Bluth film Bluthathon.

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The Secret of NIMH

The Secret of NIMH is based (loosely) off of the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, a Newbery Award winning children's book. In fact, that book remains one of my favorites (at least, of its kind). The movie, however, does not. But it's not bad. Let me explain.

The animation quality in this film is highly impressive, so I have no complaints there (in fact, it rates higher in that department than some of the Disney films in the black-sketchy-line phase, such as Robin Hood). However, I think the color use in this film--as in many of Bluth's films--is goddamn awful. The style is bog standard, but I don't really expect much else.

At its core, the story is a bad adaptation. They take a book about self-sufficiency in the face of cultural adversity and make it a movie about magic rats. It's generally inoffensive, but it doesn't much "grip". Nicodemus, a fascinating character in the books, is reduced to Ye Old Wise Person with Long Mustache (or should that be "mousetache"? Ho ho. No, he is a rat.) They don't really touch effectively on the schism between the rats, which was due to quite reasonable considerations. All in all, it's a decent film, but it has shortcomings that keep in, in my mind, well within the "average" category.

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An American Tale

Everyone has seen this movie, so why I'm reviewing it, much less summarizing it, I don't know. A mouse and his family come to America to avoid oppression in their native Russia (the pogroms). The mouse kid gets lost and keeps running into American things, then is reunited with his family. They overcome oppression that exists in America (in this movie, people who take advantage of others are represented as cats*) by creating a "monster" out of junk. At some point, there's the song, "Somewhere Out There", which is a great song, except right here, sung by these kids.

*Except for the cat that breaks this pattern, and other cats which might also break this pattern. Wait for me to review Fievel Goes West.

Okay. I'll admit it. This movie is really very good. Now, it's not my favorite animated feature (by a long shot), but I will confess that it's quality through and through. The animation is smooth, the color palette is much better, and the pacing is kept sensible. It also is an interesting piece for introducing kids to some of the realities of early American immigration. It can be surprisingly dark, which is good, since you can't do something about this time period without at least a little of that to smudge your rose-tinted glasses.

If you haven't seen it yet (who are you out there?) then do.
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The Land Before Time

Okay damn guys, this is getting pretty silly. We've all seen this movie. It's Bluth's best, and I daresay trumps most of Disney's animated canon. This film is fantastic and deserves all the love it gets, if not all the sequels. I vaguely wonder what it would have been like if they'd stuck to the plan for the dinosaurs not to talk, but frankly, I think this version works so well, I wouldn't change it. There's a death scene in here that I think is almost as good as Mufasa's, and that's saying something. Bla bla, great animation (some of which gets mimicked to annoying effect in Titan A.E. but we shall return to this later.) I'd also love to see the sequences that were cut in full form, but... I'm not holding out. Watch this movie.

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All Dogs go to Heaven

A-ha! Finally! It's so much more rewarding to talk about these. I dislike this movie, greatly, vastly, dearly, truly. The color palette makes me want to retch and I disliked the entire cast. There's the "dog who is bad dog criminal" who dies near the beginning. He goes into the afterlife, and is told that "all dogs go to heaven" (hey, that's like the title!) because they're all good and selfless intrinsically. Death is represented by a clock running down, and he realizes if he rewinds it, then he lives again. He does this, despite being told not to do so by an angelic dog of some description. Bam! He lives and meets up with his chum, Retarded Hat Dog. They get into adventures with an orphan with the unique gift of being able to talk to animals, basically teaching her to be a criminal in order to aid their efforts. They tell her that they're trying to get her money so she can be adopted (this is true. Only rich kids are lucky enough to be able to buy parents*.)

*This girl is stupid as hell.

Over time, there's the standard "girl finds out and cries" thing, the redemption scene, she finds a couple who will love her, etc. Also there is a big, homosexual alligator (since we're in New Orleans. By the way, sounds like a character like this is going to show up in Princess and the Frog. Stay tuned!) Eventually, the main dog has to choose between winding his clock (to keep him alive) and saving the girl. He saves the girl, she gets a home, he dies again, and this time, he's satisfied, having earned his place in Heaven. Or something.

Frankly, I find the narrative disjointed and badly paced. I do like how it was willing to incorporate darker elements, but I don't exactly like how they were handled. I found this film hokey and forgettable. The animation is inferior to some of his earlier works. I actually found my biggest barrier to enjoying this film was the characterization, which didn't encourage me to sympathize with anyone. It's a decent film in its own right, but I'd put it below NIMH.

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Rock-A-Doodle

I have not seen this movie in a long time, and furthermore, I haven't been too keen to rewatch it. I recall it being overly bright (a complaint I have often; I enjoy more subdued and integrated color choices) and having an extremely traditional style. It's about a bird, and the bird is Elvis. No, shut up. He is. And he must sing to make the sun rise, only he doesn't actually have to sing to make the sun rise (it does without him), except he does (since it won't without him, uh, later in the film.) I've not been able to get a DVD of this, so again, I haven't much to say in its regard. The bird sings and gyrates. Maybe if you're into that, this is the movie for you.

It's my understanding that it was edited in some unfortunate ways for unfortunate reasons, but having not seen the movie recently, I'm not in much of a position to talk about the impacts these decisions may have made. I have to admit, though, I found the Grand Duke's design (the main antagonist) to be very uninspired, and perhaps that's one reason this one is much lower on my scale. A good antagonist (or should I say, a well-crafted antagonist?) is a major boon to any movie simplistic enough to include someone with a big "I'm Evil!" sticker on his chest.

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Thumbelina

I see this movie for $5, like... everywhere. Anyway, it's a trippy trip ride through the small world we so often ignore, the.... Ugh, you know what, this movie isn't very good either. The most terrifying thing in this film is a bimbo frog's titties (although they are indeed quite frightening.) Thumbelina runs around being stupid and making poor choices, and then failing to answer for them. She almost marries a mole, which strikes me as pretty gross, but I get the feeling that it's supposed to. "Marry the Mole" is a fitting song, though, with a memorable tune. Also, "I Will Be Your Wings" is a surprisingly decent song considering the budget of the film (songs are often the first thing dropped, quality-wise.) Oh, also, there is a princess of corn. I thought this was important to mention. Also, a weird, rapist-y clown frog and a beetle who is an asshole. Animation has taken a nose dive here since Land Before Time, but I believe that was largely budget-related. The lady who voices Thumbelina also voiced Ariel in The Little Mermaid and it is quite obvious. This movie is weird and not particularly well-made, but it's not embarrassing. That dubious honor awaits us.

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A Troll in Central Park

I said I wouldn't talk about this movie, but here I am, talking about this movie. Goddamn it. There was a phrase I heard once, and I don't remember where, but I will use it now. This movie sucks shit out of Hagrid's ass. (There's a mental image for you.) There's a troll... and he's in Central Park. But he's a good troll with a green thumb (lit.) who makes things grow. Also, he sings. He's been outcast to New York City by the other trolls, who are evil and have thumbs that turn things into stone. Mr. Greenthumb is the wack-ass in this family. This movie is just... bad. It's just a bad, bad thing that shouldn't be. It's sad, since Bluth obviously has talent, but this was just a mess and a half. Total flop, quality-wise and financially.

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The Pebble and the Penguin

Ugh, penguin movies. (Okay, that's not fair--Happy Feet and Surf's Up are both great, and this was made a decade off from either) These are the penguins who give pebbles to other penguins as gifts. How cute. These are also the penguins who go on crazy adventures with puffins and get locked in tiny cages within the holds of ships. Tim Curry voices a penguin with huge pecs. Now, let's be fair on this one. Really, this film was fucked over by the higher-ups, who twiddled their dicks in the mix and really screwed this film up. Sadly, I don't like most anything of it, so I don't know how much their edits would really have changed the thing. However, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, and say that this film is simply an unfortunate thing, unlike Troll in Central Park. This film, perhaps, had potential, but "creative differences" and suchlike doomed it to being pretty mediocre. If you like penguins with pectoral mussels, then I might recommend it to you. Otherwise, I'm afraid I can't lend the suggestion. Haven't seen this one in a while either, to be honest.

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Anastasia

Here's a film that definitely everyone saw. Can you believe Christopher Lloyd voiced Rasputin? Crazy. This film has absolutely nothing to do with history, but actually, I (and my friends) really enjoy it. The animation is superb, the songs are quite passable, and the pacing is done well. Someone on this staff (and give him/her a medal please) corrected the issue of Bluth films' terrible coloring, because here, all the colors are rich and selected perfectly. Yep, don't know what else to say. This is a neat film with some failing, but not low-budget or bad enough to warrant much discussion. Definitely his best since Land Before Time.

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Bartok the Magnificent

The first sequel Bluth himself ever worked on. Hah, can you believe I've seen this? Yeah, it's about the little white bat from Anastasia, and here he's the good guy. He has a magic act, defeats a bear, and impresses Ivan Romanov himself (when Romanov was a kid so whatever, kids are always impressed by bear conquest.) This makes Ivan and Lucilla (antagonist) bitch about... commoners, I suppose. Really, they should be arguing about bats, but this seems to be lost somewhere along the way. Oh, and the bear is Bartok's friend (hah! Gotcha!) He goes to save Ivan from Baba Yaga, but Baba Yaga is like, "Syke! I never took him!" because it was actually Lucilla keeping him locked up, oooh nooo. Then Lucilla turns into a dragon (I will not explain this here) and gets defeated and yyaaaaayyy Ivan is safe. Or something. Damn, if you thought Anastasia took liberties...!

This movie is really run-of-the-mill sequel stuff. Whatever.

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Titan A. E.

I'll talk about this film later, as the review may be long.

[Guardsman Bass]

Yup, I own both of them. However, Ferngully wasn't Bluth's. Hell, let me just do a Bluth film Bluthathon.

*Looks again*. Ah, hell. Why did I think it was his?

An American Tale

Everyone has seen this movie, so why I'm reviewing it, much less summarizing it, I don't know. A mouse and his family come to America to avoid oppression in their native Russia (the pogroms). The mouse kid gets lost and keeps running into American things, then is reunited with his family. They overcome oppression that exists in America (in this movie, people who take advantage of others are represented as cats*) by creating a "monster" out of junk. At some point, there's the song, "Somewhere Out There", which is a great song, except right here, sung by these kids.

*Except for the cat that breaks this pattern, and other cats which might also break this pattern. Wait for me to review Fievel Goes West.

Okay. I'll admit it. This movie is really very good. Now, it's not my favorite animated feature (by a long shot), but I will confess that it's quality through and through. The animation is smooth, the color palette is much better, and the pacing is kept sensible. It also is an interesting piece for introducing kids to some of the realities of early American immigration. It can be surprisingly dark, which is good, since you can't do something about this time period without at least a little of that to smudge your rose-tinted glasses.

If you haven't seen it yet (who are you out there?) then do.

It was interesting to re-watch when older. I remember it came on a couple of times on the HBO Family Channel when I lived up at the university, and having nothing else better to do, I re-watched it. You definitely notice some elements you didn't before, like the "Cossack Cats" doing pogroms, etc.

The Land Before Time

Okay damn guys, this is getting pretty silly. We've all seen this movie. It's Bluth's best, and I daresay trumps most of Disney's animated canon. This film is fantastic and deserves all the love it gets, if not all the sequels. I vaguely wonder what it would have been like if they'd stuck to the plan for the dinosaurs not to talk, but frankly, I think this version works so well, I wouldn't change it. There's a death scene in here that I think is almost as good as Mufasa's, and that's saying something. Bla bla, great animation (some of which gets mimicked to annoying effect in Titan A.E. but we shall return to this later.) I'd also love to see the sequences that were cut in full form, but... I'm not holding out. Watch this movie.

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This was probably my favorite movie when I was pretty little. Same for my brother - I remember he had a plush Littlefoot stuffed animal that he slept with.

All Dogs go to Heaven

A-ha! Finally! It's so much more rewarding to talk about these. I dislike this movie, greatly, vastly, dearly, truly. The color palette makes me want to retch and I disliked the entire cast. There's the "dog who is bad dog criminal" who dies near the beginning. He goes into the afterlife, and is told that "all dogs go to heaven" (hey, that's like the title!) because they're all good and selfless intrinsically. Death is represented by a clock running down, and he realizes if he rewinds it, then he lives again. He does this, despite being told not to do so by an angelic dog of some description. Bam! He lives and meets up with his chum, Retarded Hat Dog. They get into adventures with an orphan with the unique gift of being able to talk to animals, basically teaching her to be a criminal in order to aid their efforts. They tell her that they're trying to get her money so she can be adopted (this is true. Only rich kids are lucky enough to be able to buy parents*.)

You mean you don't like Burt Reynolds the dog? I loved his character, and yeah, he comes back. He's supposed to be selfish, a bit of a jerkass, and short-sighted - he was a criminal with the dog that killed him the first time.

*This girl is stupid as hell.

Well, yeah. She's, what, seven or eight years old? She's naive and good-natured, and Charlie (bastard that he is) takes advantage of her to raise money. She probably would believe it, too - the movie's apparently set in 1939 New Orleans, not exactly a nice place.

Over time, there's the standard "girl finds out and cries" thing, the redemption scene, she finds a couple who will love her, etc. Also there is a big, homosexual alligator (since we're in New Orleans. By the way, sounds like a character like this is going to show up in Princess and the Frog. Stay tuned!) Eventually, the main dog has to choose between winding his clock (to keep him alive) and saving the girl. He saves the girl, she gets a home, he dies again, and this time, he's satisfied, having earned his place in Heaven. Or something.

It's pretty formulaic, but I enjoyed it basically because I liked the characters.

Frankly, I find the narrative disjointed and badly paced. I do like how it was willing to incorporate darker elements, but I don't exactly like how they were handled. I found this film hokey and forgettable. The animation is inferior to some of his earlier works. I actually found my biggest barrier to enjoying this film was the characterization, which didn't encourage me to sympathize with anyone. It's a decent film in its own right, but I'd put it below NIMH.

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I thought the "Hell" scene was fairly freaky, though.

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Thumbelina

I see this movie for $5, like... everywhere. Anyway, it's a trippy trip ride through the small world we so often ignore, the.... Ugh, you know what, this movie isn't very good either.

Nah, it really wasn't. It did kind of draw you in a bit, though; I remember that when I saw when I was much younger, I thought it was kind of dumb - but I wanted to see the ending.

The most terrifying thing in this film is a bimbo frog's titties (although they are indeed quite frightening.) Thumbelina runs around being stupid and making poor choices, and then failing to answer for them.

True, but isn't she born pretty much full-grown (and wearing the dress she wears through most of the movie)? She'd probably never left the vicinity of the house before Prince Bad Haircut showed up.

She almost marries a mole, which strikes me as pretty gross, but I get the feeling that it's supposed to. "Marry the Mole" is a fitting song, though, with a memorable tune. Also, "I Will Be Your Wings" is a surprisingly decent song considering the budget of the film (songs are often the first thing dropped, quality-wise.) Oh, also, there is a princess of corn. I thought this was important to mention. Also, a weird, rapist-y clown frog and a beetle who is an asshole. Animation has taken a nose dive here since Land Before Time, but I believe that was largely budget-related. The lady who voices Thumbelina also voiced Ariel in The Little Mermaid and it is quite obvious. This movie is weird and not particularly well-made, but it's not embarrassing. That dubious honor awaits us.

It's a kind of odd story, although the original material was slightly odd too (in that one, Thumbelina basically wanders around after being kidnapped, gets abandoned by a spider, picked up by a fieldmouse who tries to marry her to the mole, then gets on a bird and runs into a fairy prince, who marries her).

Of course, there's always her male counterpart, Tom Thumb (which made for a weird musical film with a stuck-in-your-head main theme that I still remember even though I probably last saw the film more than ten years ago. Just take a gander at it.)
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Anastasia

Here's a film that definitely everyone saw. Can you believe Christopher Lloyd voiced Rasputin? Crazy. This film has absolutely nothing to do with history, but actually, I (and my friends) really enjoy it. The animation is superb, the songs are quite passable, and the pacing is done well. Someone on this staff (and give him/her a medal please) corrected the issue of Bluth films' terrible coloring, because here, all the colors are rich and selected perfectly. Yep, don't know what else to say. This is a neat film with some failing, but not low-budget or bad enough to warrant much discussion. Definitely his best since Land Before Time.

Weirdly enough, that's one of the few major Bluth films that I haven't seen. Probably because it came out in 1997, and since I saw essentially all my movies with my dad, we were seeing films like "The Lost World" instead. Plus, I just wasn't regularly watching Disney and other Disney-ish stuff anymore.

I guess I'll probably give it a watch at some point.

Titan A. E.

I'll talk about this film later, as the review may be long.

It wasn't bad, although I thought it was kind of hokey at the time for mankind to basically be reduced to tiny remnants just by the destruction of Earth (I figured they'd have, you know, colonies or something). I liked the chick, though - and I actually surprised by a certain character being somewhat deceptive (there's no spoiler warning, so I won't say anything more).

[Pick]

Actually, Titan AE is a tough one for me to talk about since I really, really don't like it. It's not hate, like I feel for some movies, it's just an intense "bluuurgh" feeling, like cafeteria food. This takes a bit of time to explain properly, so I'm going to hold off, but it ranks near the top of my disappointments, since I didn't see it until perhaps a year ago, and I'd heard great things by then.

It's just a weird one for me to classify, also because I feel so bad about what it (like Sinbad and Treasure Planet) meant for a semi-major studio (basically, the film that made company folks decide animation was a bad direction.)

[The Yosemite Bear]

Here's one for you Pick, I saw an adaptation of Journey to the West, with FRANKIE AVALON voice acting as Sun Wukong?

don't know if I call that sacralige or funny.

Edit I used to have a stuffed plush Bunny at my register when I was a bartender/pizza cashier named "Fiver" which may answer how many of those I've seen.

[white_rabbit]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-qDN22rFuo

Flight of Dragons final fight, science versus magic.

Unfortunately I can't find it, but Flight of Dragons had a pretty kick-ass exchange between the hero and the villian at the end.

[hongi]

The Land Before Time

The song over the credits...gawd. Probably my favourite end-credits song of all time.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Having seen both Fritz the Cat, and Heavy Traffic, I will confirm Pick's observation of his previous work. You don't need to see them. The first was bad enough that Crumb killed the character after Baski made the movie. The second is just another 1970s Blaxploitation movie that just happens to be animated. Both have rather sucky back grounds typical of Baski's work, and you get the added fun of Rascism.

[Pick]

I strongly disagree with the assertion that Bakshi's work was an exploitation film or racist; it was billed that way by groups that hadn't seen it and it was marketed contrary to its meaning. Since its release, and with wider viewing and context, it's been better understood. I simply didn't like the sound of it, and whether or not the caricatures are used to satirize things like Fantasia's infamous "Sunflower", they aren't something I enjoy seeing.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

What is Fantasia's "infamous sunflower" about? I only remember the dancing flowers appearing during the Nutcracker Suite, and I thought they were supposed to be Russians. What was so offensive?

[Styphon]

What, no Rover Dangerfield?

[Pick]

Unless you went to the theaters when Fantasia was released, you never saw Sunflower. She was subsequently edited out. She's a nappy-headed black centaur with big lips who attends the needs of the pretty, white centaur ladies.

[Crossroads Inc.]

I'm not sure why but the very first time I saw "FernGully" I got an instant hard on the loincloth warring "Pips"

[Pick]

Well, he's a mostly-naked, red-maned, dude elf who rocks out. That's an understandable reaction.

[Pick]

Okay, guys. Disney talk got me a-thinkin', and here's the Disney sequels set. This one's a little tougher since I haven't seen them all. But I've probably seen too many. Talk on Disney sequel-age will be a motif here.

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Let's start with The Rescuers Down Under. Damn right, it's a Disney sequel! What, didn't you see The Rescuers? Anyway, The Rescuers Down Under is definitely the best of the Disney sequels, which is understandable, since it was designed for theaters. (Some other Disney sequels have been in theaters, but just not in the United States. More on that later.) It's an older one (1990) and one of my favorite Disney movies ever, and it deserves all the love that it basically never got. It's superbly animated, very cool, and it has a great soundtrack. It's an action-packed adventure with snakes and fun in the outback and the villain is great. Okay, I don't really need to talk about this one, I just wanted to establish it for the sake of context.
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OKAY. Now onto the sequels that actually make this list potentially interesting.

Return of Jafar, 1994.

Return of Jafar is the movie that made Iago a good character and thus set him up as the best character in Disney's Aladdin TV show. Or at least, that's the dominant facet of it for me. If you didn't watch the TV show, fuck you, it was great. Also, this film has Abis Mal getting hold of the black lamp that holds Jafar the genie and asking for retarded wishes and basically being a douchebag. Jafar is trying to make Abis Mal wish him free and bla bla. Iago kills Jafar at the last minute and saves the day, which shows that he's a great parrot.

This film is so totally average it almost blows my mind. The animation is... all right. The story is... all right. If you're not looking for a lot, by god, that's exactly what you're going to get. I do think it's an acceptable continuation of Aladdin, and can't say much more about it. I did think Jafar represented an effective villain in this, which is good, since otherwise it would suck like a dead fish. Oh, what's that "sucking like a dead fish" thing I was saying? Yes, yes, that's right...

Soon after, it was followed by Aladdin and the King of Thieves, which does, in fact, suck. The animation plummeted, the story is worse, and hokey hokey hokey. At least Aladdin and Jasmine get married, which is good, since otherwise Jasmine is the odd one out among the Disney princesses (like that's a bad thing.) Then again, I'm not sure how much worse this one actually is than Return of Jafar. I get a little nostalgic about the former (since it led into the TV series), but not the latter, so there's some crazy brain-bias in there. Oh, yes, bear in mind I first saw these when they were new. Amazing, huh? Yeah, I loved this group of films when I was younger. Among the Disney sequels, I'd say they're worse than some and better than some.

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Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas

Yeah, the one with Tim Curry as an organ. The animation is bad and the songs are bad, but all in all, the movie could have been worse... I suppose. To me, it ranks slightly below the Aladdin sequels, which is too bad, since Beauty and the Beast is, in fact, my favorite Disney film (followed by Lilo & Stitch). They introduced a couple new characters, but who gives a shit? Oh, also, the Beast's name is "Adam", which is a shitty name, so I don't acknowledge it. Except right there, in my last sentence. Okay, plot... it's Christmastime and the beast doesn't want to celebrate it, since apparently Christmas was the night of his transformation (whatever). Belle is like, "naw, bitch! We gonna party!" and thus goes about trying to prepare for a celebration to lift his spirits and whatnot. Meanwhile, the organ (Forte) tries to convince the Beast to not fall in love, since the organ actually likes being an organ (instead of a composer) and doesn't want to be human again. At the end, uh, the beast is like "Woah, this guy's an asshole" and the organ dies. I guess. Do we ever know what happens to things that get broken in the castle? If you're a cup and you shatter, did you die? Did you die horribly? When everyone changes back, are you a smattering of broken-up corpse? Why did Chip only lose a tooth instead of a representative fraction of his person, such as a corner of his skull? Uh, yeah. It's a film about Christmas and it doesn't work well even at that time of the year, so let's go on to the next movie.

Belle's Magical World

This one is apparently the remnants of a TV show they tried to do, which explains the horrible animation, if not excuses it. It's the Disney "film" that'll give you the most crazy-eye, I promise. Oh, what's "crazy eye"? Well, it's one of my guilty pleasures in animation (and comics, for that matter.) "Crazy eye" is when a character's eyes don't like up properly, so no matter how serious the scene, it ends up irredeemably comical. There's nothing like the Beast roaring while being all <_>. Yeah, I used an anime-style emoticon to represent that. It doesn't work well with the other type. ... Where the hell was I? Oh, right. This is a bad news bear film. Just don't watch it. It's a shoddily cut-and-pasted sequence of failed TV project. I honestly think this film is largely responsible for the early hostile reaction to Disney sequels. And if that's true, it's warranted (not that the ones before this were that damn great either, except Rescuers Down Under, but I discuss that separately.) I own this on DVD, since I got it on eBay along with the original film on DVD. I'm not sure it's even worth the space in my DVD folder. Certainly not if I'd kept the box. Eesh.

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Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World

I haven't seen this since elementary school, so all I know is that I didn't like it then. I'll update this if I ever watch it for a second time.

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Lion King II: Simba's Pride

... Tee-hee. Here's a confession for you. I really like this movie. I think Zira is just as cool as scar, and I like almost all the music. Ohhh, Vitani is also cool. It's Romeo and Juliet, with lions, which isn't that much worse than The Lion King being Hamlet with lions, plus substantially ripping off Kimba the White Lion. The lions are animated surprisingly well, we get some good visuals in a termite mound for the villain (not as good as Scar's goose-stepping hyenas, but alas and alack.) In this movie, Simba's daughter (why are these lions only having one cub at a time?) is a spunky little shit and she runs around and ends up finding the lions in exile, aka, those who supported Scar during his uprising (where were these lions in the original movie, you ask?) These lions tend to be more darkly colored, which means they're eeevil. Anyway, Simba's daughter, Kiara, meets Kovu (Zira's son) at the edge of the exile's territory. Zira and Simba find out and they're like sooo pissed. They part ways. Then, Zira realizes that she can someday use Kovu as a weapon if she's smart. And she is. she gets Kovu integrated into Simba's pack by making him go forth and proclaim he has no right to be in exile, as he wasn't even born at the time. And Simba is all "mmm but you look kind of evil" and so he's a jerk, but eventually everything smooths over. Kiara and Kovu fall in love, shit hits some fannage, Kovu's plot is revealed post-him-giving-it-up, angst, angst. Then, at the end, the lions in exile can come back, following a lion war and Zira failing to rally her lionesses once Simba admits that he was probably a dickface. And he was a dickface. Uh, Timon and Pumbaa are also there.

It's got a consistent style with the first movie and the production value is good. Originally, Zira was going to commit suicide at the end, which would have been AWESOME, but Disney execs censored it. Dammit. I like Zira and Vitani both, though, and Vitani gets a good ending. Ebert and Roeper both gave this movie a thumbs-up, if that means anything to you.

---
An Extremely Goofy Movie

Never saw it.
---

Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea

What if The Little Mermaid happened backwards, AND sucked really hard? Then this is the movie you get! Oh, except her daughter has black hair. Anyway. At the end, they return to the sea! Thus proving that you shouldn't run off from your goddamn family and get married at 16, as Ariel did. What a fucktard. Not that her daughter is any better. Then again, the point of the movie is that Ariel can't raise a child worth a damn. Or maybe that isn't the point, but that's how I read it. Definitely a member of the Disney sequels of massive suckitude. The villain is Ursula's sister, who is like Ursula, except dumber and thin. And more poorly animated.

---

Lady and the Tramp II, Cinderella II, Hunchback of Notre Dame II, and 101 Dalmatians II I have not seen.

---

Lion King 1 1/2

This one's a weirdie, since it's basically a clip show shown MST3000 style, with Timon and Pumbaa including commentary. Except there are genuinely new sections, and they're well-handled when they show up. It's... odd. I don't really think it's bad, but it's not that good. It hits me as being kind of a TV-special type thing, not worthy of a release as a movie, but not bad in its own right. Basically, it traces Timon and Pumbaa's background and their involvement in other movie events. It's pretty funny, in its way, so they didn't completely scrimp on the story-writing. The new bits generally focus on Timon's past with the meerkats, including his mother. Yadda yadda. Animation is quite good in some portions, surprisingly so.

---

Mulan II

Dear fucking god this movie is a trainwreck. Basically, the chums from the first Mulan marry a bunch of twittering princesses. And all that "women are cool" stuff from the first Mulan? That shit is dead and gone, my friend. This is about chasing butterflies and talking about men. Tee-hee. Also, Mushu, who is tolerable in Mulan, is the world's most cosmic jerk in this film. Also, the ending is terrible. Ugh. See, this is the type of film I was trying to avoid during my years of turning a blind eye to Disney sequels altogether.

---
Tarzan II. Haven't seen it.

---
Lilo & Stitch II: Stitch has a Glitch

This one's actually pretty all right. It has a *~*magical*~*-ish ending, but that's a minor complaint. For the most part, they stayed true to the heart of the original film, which is a mercy. If they totally fucked up the sequels to L&S AND B&tB I'd have a goddamn apoplectic fit. Nope, this one had a budget and someone clearly cared about how it progressed, even if it doesn't recapture the glory of its predecessor. The continuity of this film is very unclear, however, since other videos were made that directly contradict it. Stitch does things, and Lilo does things, and Stitch almost dies, but he doesn't die, and we're all very happy for him. I was glad to see more of the characters, which was the main thing, although unfortunately, Gantu doesn't show up. Man, though, are those side-character aliens gay or what. See, I try not to be one of "those" girls, but... but man.

---
Kronk's New Groove. Haven't seen it! Heard it sucked, but I'll defer my judgment.

---
Bambi II

This is the best of the Disney animated sequels. It has Patrick Stewart, too, which is a contributing factor. Anyway, this is about Bambi growing up, with goddamn Patrick Stewart as the father how cool is that. This film was actually released in some theaters, but again, not in the United States. It's a shame, though, since it deserved to be. The animation is downright excellent and the story is really very good. I think it stands above members of the Disney canon, and not just the shitty ones (like The Black Cauldron blugh.) They were very faithful to the style, the animation is superb, and the voicing is convincing. Actually, I like this more than Bambi proper, and not just because the original Bambi is boring (YEAH I SAID IT.) This one focuses a lot on parenting and how single fathers are perfectly capable of rearing young. Ronno shows up as a youth. Yeah, you should see this movie. I liked it a lot, although with animated films, I'm not super difficult to impress. It's a good movie to have going on in the background when you're working.

---

Brother Bear II is another I've not seen, perhaps since I DIDN'T EVEN LIKE THE FIRST ONE EH. I missed Fox and the Hound II, too. ("missed")

---

Cinderella III: A Twist in Time

Did you know what? I rented this movie for A DOLLAR when there was nothing else I wanted to see. ... And I liked it. I really liked it. This movie is pretty awesome, especially taking its budget into account. This film retcons the original Cinderella from the scene where Anastasia is having her foot tried out with the slipper, onward. It's a good retcon, too. Cinderella is a badass when she's on screen, which isn't all the time, since the movie is actually mostly about Anastasia, her redheaded sister. Essentially, the evil godmother gets her hands on the wand from the fairy godmother, uses it to time travel, and rigs the whole deal. Ergo, Cinderella has to win with magic against her, not acting in her favor. She manages to do this by way of a little cleverness and a surprising amount of kickassedness. There's a twist on the pumpkin carriage near the end which quite impressed me. Pretty neat. Also, the prince is actually a character you can sympathize with. He has a personality! Isn't that amazing? It's got a cloying angle with the "true love" stuff, but that was the core of the first movie, so I forgive it. I like this film a lot and I like how it changed the continuity. Astonishing!

---
The Little Mermaid III: Ariels' Beginning

I like it more than #II, as if that's saying anything. Ariel runs around singing stuff and Triton's a dick, and we meet Ariel's sisters a bit more. There's a manatee in this movie who is super cute, I'll admit. The music is lame, which is funny, since the entire story is about music. Ariel and Sebastian are pretty tolerable, though, and they form the spine of the story. The animation definitely took a step up, though. This and Cinderella III both look exceptionally good, and certainly better than some feature-length animated films which have graced theaters.

---

Return to Neverland

Here's another oddity, in that this movie is quite tolerable. The beginning seems a little Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe ripoffy, but oh well. Wendy's daughter is a hardass who runs around WWII England being cool. She is going to be sent off to the countryside, however. Anyway, she runs into Peter Pan and ends up going to Neverland. She almost kills Tinkerbell (if only!) and runs into Hook, who presents her with an offer to return home, which is her greatest desire. See, she's not looking for escapism, it kind of found her. There's too much "yyaaaayyy faith" crap in this film, but it's Disney and that shit's to be expected. Oh! But let's talk about the interesting part--the new beast!

The crocodile is over with, and doesn't appear in this film. What does? Why, an octopus that rapes. Okay, we don't know he rapes, but if you don't think "hentai" within thirty seconds of seeing this octopus, you are a sheltered fool. He spends basically his entire onscreen time ripping the clothes off of Captain Hook. I need to grab some screenshots of this, come to think of it.

---

And there you go. Next up, I'll probably do the Dreamworks ones, and then move back into the really obscure crap.

[The Grim Squeaker]

I'm not sure why but the very first time I saw "FernGully" I got an instant hard on the loincloth warring "Pips"

No Idea. It happened to me when The Chaos daemon (I mean Noxus/Tim Curry) opened his ozzing mouth and started singing about putting up "Shiny shopping malls" .

Return of Jafar is the movie that made Iago a good character and thus set him up as the best character in Disney's Aladdin TV show. Or at least, that's the dominant facet of it for me. If you didn't watch the TV show, fuck you, it was great.

Yes it was. I vaguely remember even the Little Mermaid tv show as being decent...

[Icehawk]

What, no Rover Dangerfield?

Damn, beat me to it, I cant remember much from that movie now since I only saw it once many years ago though. I'd like to see it again though.

Heres a bunch of other good ones I havent seen mentioned in the thread yet:

The Plague Dogs It's from the creators of Watership Down and so has a very similar art/animation style and quality. It's an intreaging, yet very dark, violent, and tragic movie.

Felidae A German made film sorta like Disney's Aristocats (in the sense it's a well animated movie with cats that can talk and reason like humans), but instead with a very dark and serious storyline, lots of gory violence, foul language, and even sex.

The Nutcracker Prince I only remember seeing this once as a kid, but it was pretty good. The art and animation was pretty well done IIRC, but I'd have to see it again to be able to judge it properly.

I'm not sure why but the very first time I saw "FernGully" I got an instant hard on the loincloth warring "Pips"

LOL, Ferngully was awsome, I was much more interested in the giant tree cutting machine when I first saw it though, and "Batty" was cool (another great voiceover by Robin Williams) . Although I was also entering puberty when I first saw it and I do recall getting a woody during the "romantic" sequence between Zak and Crysta. She was real sexy with wet hair

Bambi II

This is the best of the Disney animated sequels. It has Patrick Stewart, too, which is a contributing factor. Anyway, this is about Bambi growing up, with goddamn Patrick Stewart as the father how cool is that. This film was actually released in some theaters, but again, not in the United States. It's a shame, though, since it deserved to be. The animation is downright excellent and the story is really very good. I think it stands above members of the Disney canon, and not just the shitty ones (like The Black Cauldron blugh.) They were very faithful to the style, the animation is superb, and the voicing is convincing. Actually, I like this more than Bambi proper, and not just because the original Bambi is boring (YEAH I SAID IT.) This one focuses a lot on parenting and how single fathers are perfectly capable of rearing young. Ronno shows up as a youth. Yeah, you should see this movie. I liked it a lot, although with animated films, I'm not super difficult to impress. It's a good movie to have going on in the background when you're working.

I've only seen two Disney sequels, Bambi 2 and Lion King 2: Simba's Pride. I don't regret seeing either and both of them were certainly better than what I was expecting given what I had heard about Disney sequels. Bambi 2 was very suprising in that I found myself thinking a number of times, "Shit.... this is actually just about as good as the original, this probably would have done well at the theatres if promoted right....". It's certainly worth a watch if you have good memories of the original Bambi I'd say.

[CaptHawkeye]

I think as a result of Disney's wild success with hand drawn animation in the 90s, created a calling for other studios to perform their usual routine of ripping off the most successful style. Their was a huge resurgence in animation movies during the 90s but frankly most of them were shit or pretty so/so. A lot of this was pretty much just a result of studio cash ins.

Any animated movies that was NOT a shameless rip off of the typical Disney formula was usually met with opposition from the studio. Warner Brothers barely did any advertising for the Iron Giant because it seemed "too serious" to them. And their meaningless demographic charts told them if it wasn't just like a Disney movie it would get slaughtered at the theatre.

Titan AE and The Iron Giant are among some of the best movies i've ever seen. They were written by people with actual talent, who wanted to make good movies with something to say. Not just cash in on someone else's success. But welcome to the modern media industry.

Hilariously CGI is starting to have the same problems that hand animation had. IE: Shameless ripoff and dime a dozen kitbash movies.

[Pick]

Icehawk: Your additions are completely deserved. However, to my horror, I've never bothered to get them yet. Which is weird, since I keep thinking, The Plague Dogs and Felidae. Buy these movies. Buy these movies. And I keep not buying it, since I'm apparently braincrazy or something.

Also, yep everyone, Ferngully was great. A little too common for this list (if you look at my first post, you'll see the type of films I was getting at) but great. I'm still a major fan. I think this is one of those few kid's movies that uses "jock itch" and "horny" as part of its vocabulary. Abber blabber, a great film. I loved it since I was a kid, back when it was owned by a friend of mine named Benjamin. Damn, that's been a long time.

Hawkeye: The Iron Giant is one of the best animated films EVER MADE and its under-promotion was a fucking cardinal sin. It has great animation, rewatchability, plot, voice acting, everything. I especially like how the Cold War issue was handled, which was super fucking great. After Beauty and the Beast and Lilo & Stitch, it's probably my favorite animated film. (And BATB gets a lot of credit there just by virtue of being a childhood staple.) As for Titan AE, eh, I'm not really a fan--mostly because of the egregious plot problems and poor color selection--but it's not bad in its own right and deserved much more success if only because it took animation in a more serious direction. Speaking of, I've always been saddened that Bill Peet's version of The Jungle Book isn't the one they made. Apparently, it was originally storyboarded to be dark and accurate to the book. Then Disney and Peet had a huge falling out and Peet left the studio, and Walt assigned the project to people who hadn't read the book, and he told them not to (true). I like The Jungle Book, but it would have been a great chance to move animation more into the mainstream.

As for CGI... grr. I appreciate it, and think it's a totally worthy medium, but I'm still pretty fucking sore about how it killed traditional animation, at least for a good seven years. 2D and 3D animation both have their strengths and neither should have one-upped the other.

[Themightytom]

Alright I have finished watching the Animals Of farthing Wood, and I am surprised brian jacques didn'tt get sued for ripping off nearly EVERYTHING in his redwall series. Especially Bully and his horde vs Cluny and his hoard.

[Pick]

I'm surprised Jacques didn't sued for ripping off racism .

Really though, I got tired of that book telling you whether someone was good or bad by species alone.

---

Balto

Balto is a movie about the dog, sort of. I mean, not really. The dog, Balto, is famous for helping get supplies to Nome to prevent people from dying, but that's about the whole of it. He was a really damn good lead dog. Ta-daa. In the film, he's a half-wolf half-sled dog outcast who is friends with a goose and two small polar bears. He wants to help get supplies back to Nome to save a little girl who is coincidentally the owner of a really hot lady dog whom he fancies. However, a different dog, Steele, is the legit leader of the team, hates Balto, and wants that pretty dog to be his. So there's the antagonist/protagonist thing for you. Eventually, Balto (with the aid of the spirit of the wolves, sort of. It's a hallucination) overcomes adversity, gets the diphtheria medicine to Nome, gets accepted by everyone, and gets the girl. It's a very standard kind of movie, plus dogs. I dislike that they used a historical figure for the movie (and the explanation for the northern lights is offensively stupid), but all in all it was made with care and it's a good children's movie. The characters are handled relatively well, and the adventure has its ups and downs, the animation is quite good, etc. I rather wish I'd seen this in theaters, actually. It spawned some horrific sequels, which I've yet to see in any greater detail than snippets. The animation in those sequels is painful, so I've never had much of a reason to waste the hours on them.

---

Now some Dreamworks!

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The Prince of Egypt

This movie was handled very well, but I don't like it. Heck, I don't even like it as much as King of Dreams. I found the religious aspect way too overpowering in this film, and it felt like blatant pandering to the Christian demographic. Now, I must admit, that might have been a good business move for them. Disney movies are usually popular (or were) with that crowd, and this was a good way to urge them in Dreamworks' direction instead for animated entertainment. It has some well-handled dark parts, gets pretty intense, lots of conflict, all that good stuff. Its budget was fairly meager compared to Disney's films, but it made a lot of money and remains, apparently, a staple among Christian movie collections now. The animation here is exceptional, but I strongly disagree with those who say it bests Disney's, or at least, Disney's contemporary works. Treasure Planet and Lilo & Stitch are probably the best animated films ever made, from a technical standpoint, and I stand by that until something new emerges. This movie relied on a lot of simple shots and angles, which is easier, and does the job, but doesn't compare from the animation angle. I mean, not that it needed those things, but you get my point. Anyway, it's Old Testament, and God's a shithead, but at least you can sort of see where Moses and the Pharoh are both coming from. Solid movie despite its historical inaccuracies, etc.

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The Road to El Dorado

This movie had exceptional production and looks great. Also, they did a respectful job making the natives look native, without whitening them up or making the presentation appear caricatured in a racist manner. The plot was scripted carefully and the visuals are highly impressive. It's a fun movie with a spirited, upbeat nature. The main female character is intelligent, fun, and drawn in a more realistic manner than the Disney-type princesses. Shockingly, it's very good all around. Perhaps just as shockingly, I don't enjoy it that much. I won't dispute that it's an excellent picture, but some part of it was very difficult for me to identify with. Anyway, it's about two Spanish guys sneaking aboard Cortez' ship to seek out gold in the New World. They get there and, with a map, do indeed find El Dorado. They're treated as gods due to them fitting the native prophesy. There is an adorable armadillo. They come to like the native people and have reservations about exploiting them. They are helped by a thief girl who is fun and has massive hips. They find themselves in a power struggle between the high priest and the chieftain. This movie has a lot of conflicts in it, which was something I highly appreciate. There are conflicts between the two men, conflicts between them and the native culture, conflicts within the native culture, conflicts involving Cortez (who is aptly displayed as an asshat), and conflict between them and a giant stone jaguar. Yes, it's handled quite well, I think. Good movie. You can pick it up for $5 or less now, as with most (if not all) of Dreamworks' animated canon. Fully recommended.

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Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

Damn does this movie ever have some good horse animation. The backgrounds took a beating, budget-wise, but I think that's pretty much Dreamworks' modus operandi (it does save a lot of money, since backgrounds take so much artist time). The story is not very gripping, but it's fun and quite watchable. It's about a mustang in the west, and his view on a lot of the changes that came with the west becoming more "civilized". He gets captured by the US army, who try to break him. He encounters a Native American who is captured, who helps him escape. The Native guy is a nice person, naturally. He takes Spirit (as that's the horse's name) back to his camp and tries to tame him in a kinder way than the army asshats. Spirit, of course, was captured because he got all gaga for the Lakota guy's lady horse. The Lakota guy eventually lets Spirit free, realizing that he doesn't want to be a part of the village's operation. Eventually, Spirit fucks up a train. And then he rocks out. Near the end, he does encounter the main antagonist, the Colonel from the Army camp, again, but the Colonel lets him go out of respect, since to be fair, Spirit is a pretty badass horse. You've definitely got to suspend your disbelief for this film, and again, I'll note that I wish animated films steered clearer of historical events. However, I do like that the horses don't talk. It's narrated by Spirit, but he can't speak, and neither can Rain (the mare). There's a lot of visual communication, and the animation remains highly impressive. It's a solid style, if not super distinct. The story gets a B- from me, but the animation gets an A-, if we don't include the backgrounds. Another nice thing is that this film has almost no cutesy things. There are no sidekicks or that sort of thing. It's a very straightforward presentation. Recommended. Oh, and James Baxter worked on this! I can't forget that. He's the guy who animated Quasimodo, and he is really damn good. People are all like, "Oh, Glen Keane, you're so amazing, whuh whuh whuh" and I'm like, yeah, fair enough, but Baxter deserves love too. Baxter also animated Belle in Beauty and the Beast, as well as Moses in King of Egypt. Ah, yes, and he directed the opening to Kung Fu Panda, since his studio did the 2D stuff.

---

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

As long as you bear in mind that this movie has almost no relation to Sinbad, then... enjoy! This is definitely one of Dreamworks' weakest, maybe the weakest of all, but I enjoyed it. It is for older audiences than most animated features. There was a lot of 3D used, which isn't my favorite, but it's acceptable here. They used 3D models for some long shots where it wasn't obvious that the characters weren't traditionally animated. This should anger me, most people think, but it doesn't. If you need to be paying close attention to even notice, then who cares? Animation is about telling a story in a versatile medium. If there are times when an animator's illustration isn't required and you can save money, a substitute figure is okay. Disney also did this for crowd sequences in Hunchback of Notre Dame and almost nobody even noticed. However, the backgrounds definitely could have used less of it, since sometimes it's very noticeable that the backgrounds were done in 3D, and it doesn't look good. Furthermore, the Roc definitely should have been traditionally animated. It looks disjointed in the feature proper. However, Eris, the goddess of discord (uh, she's a Greek goddess, whaaaat) is animated superbly. Couldn't ask for better. Her effects are fantastic. Yeah, did I mention that despite being Sinbad, almost everything is Greek? I have no idea why they did this. Anyway, kind of weak, but fun and watchable. I blame a lot of its failure on Jeffery Katzenberg. This was a film, like The Iron Giant, that I think execs wanted to fail. It was a time to be bailing on animation, and they needed a reason, so they made one. It's a real shame.

---

Joseph: King of Dreams

I'm... not sure why this was a direct-to-video release, honestly, since it's got the style and substance to have been theater-bound. I liked it more than Prince of Egypt, too. The songs are of limited quality, but that's not majorly important. It's animated splendidly, looks beautiful, and presents a lot of sides to the issues at hand. It, like Road to El Dorado (but decidedly unlike Sinbad) has many conflicts working at different levels throughout the feature. The Egyptians aren't antagonists, which is nice. It's more about successful integration, kindness, and forgiveness than anything. Which is weird, because you'd think for that kind of thing, you wouldn't use an Old Testament adaptation. He has his "coat of many colors", despite this being a mistranslation. You can understand why his brothers wanted to be rid of him. Oh, though wolves are portrayed negatively, of course. And this makes me sad, since wolves are rad.

[Guardsman Bass]

Also, this film has Abis Mal getting hold of the black lamp that holds Jafar the genie and asking for retarded wishes and basically being a douchebag. Jafar is trying to make Abis Mal wish him free and bla bla.

The guy was a douchebag, but I still liked him because he actually managed to seriously piss off Jafar, who was otherwise in a constant I'm-Lord-High-Everything mode.
Spoiler

Remember when, after getting all that gold, he stops in the middle of the wish to free Jafar, to say, "Waaaiiit . . how do I know that these things won't disappear when I set you free? That's why I liked him. He's a crass little bugger, but not entirely stupid.

Dear fucking god this movie is a trainwreck. Basically, the chums from the first Mulan marry a bunch of twittering princesses.

That's too bad. The original Mulan was pretty solid most of the time - the darker parts of the film were excellently done (and one particular scene, where the mood abruptly goes from "Joyous silly happiness" to "Oh my God, we may be fucked", is well done), and the film's characters were likeable.

I was much more interested in the giant tree cutting machine when I first saw it though,

"The Leveler" - I loved that machine. It was a bloody mobile saw mill, taking trees straight from fresh cut logs to stacked wooden boards.

Balto

Balto is a movie about the dog, sort of. I mean, not really. The dog, Balto, is famous for helping get supplies to Nome to prevent people from dying, but that's about the whole of it. He was a really damn good lead dog. Ta-daa. In the film, he's a half-wolf half-sled dog outcast who is friends with a goose and two small polar bears. He wants to help get supplies back to Nome to save a little girl who is coincidentally the owner of a really hot lady dog whom he fancies. However, a different dog, Steele, is the legit leader of the team, hates Balto, and wants that pretty dog to be his. So there's the antagonist/protagonist thing for you. Eventually, Balto (with the aid of the spirit of the wolves, sort of. It's a hallucination) overcomes adversity, gets the diphtheria medicine to Nome, gets accepted by everyone, and gets the girl. It's a very standard kind of movie, plus dogs. I dislike that they used a historical figure for the movie (and the explanation for the northern lights is offensively stupid), but all in all it was made with care and it's a good children's movie. The characters are handled relatively well, and the adventure has its ups and downs, the animation is quite good, etc. I rather wish I'd seen this in theaters, actually. It spawned some horrific sequels, which I've yet to see in any greater detail than snippets. The animation in those sequels is painful, so I've never had much of a reason to waste the hours on them.

It's formulaic, but it's another one where, like with All Dogs Go to Heaven, I liked it because it pulled me in and I liked the main character. Plus, Balto basically takes a level in badass after he runs into the big wolf.

The Prince of Egypt

This movie was handled very well, but I don't like it. Heck, I don't even like it as much as King of Dreams. I found the religious aspect way too overpowering in this film, and it felt like blatant pandering to the Christian demographic. Now, I must admit, that might have been a good business move for them. Disney movies are usually popular (or were) with that crowd, and this was a good way to urge them in Dreamworks' direction instead for animated entertainment. It has some well-handled dark parts, gets pretty intense, lots of conflict, all that good stuff. Its budget was fairly meager compared to Disney's films, but it made a lot of money and remains, apparently, a staple among Christian movie collections now. The animation here is exceptional, but I strongly disagree with those who say it bests Disney's, or at least, Disney's contemporary works. Treasure Planet and Lilo & Stitch are probably the best animated films ever made, from a technical standpoint, and I stand by that until something new emerges. This movie relied on a lot of simple shots and angles, which is easier, and does the job, but doesn't compare from the animation angle. I mean, not that it needed those things, but you get my point. Anyway, it's Old Testament, and God's a shithead, but at least you can sort of see where Moses and the Pharoh are both coming from. Solid movie despite its historical inaccuracies, etc.

Well, it's a heavily religious-themed story, so of course the "religious aspect" is going to be enormous. I still think it was very good, and the music is outstanding ("Deliver Us", "When You Believe", "The Plagues" were all top-notch). In particular, the movie does a good job with the relationship between Moses and Ramses - you get the impression that it really does pain Moses immensely to see God's wrath poured out upon the Egyptians and upon the Pharaoh, a man who was his brother.

[speaker-to-trolls]

The Prince of Egypt? The Road to El Dorado? Pick, I think you're straying from the theme of obscurity a bit

Well, it's a heavily religious-themed story, so of course the "religious aspect" is going to be enormous. I still think it was very good, and the music is outstanding ("Deliver Us", "When You Believe", "The Plagues" were all top-notch). In particular, the movie does a good job with the relationship between Moses and Ramses - you get the impression that it really does pain Moses immensely to see God's wrath poured out upon the Egyptians and upon the Pharaoh, a man who was his brother.

I particularly liked the plagues song simply for showing the differences between Moses and God, one a sympathetic human character pained by all the horror happening around him even if he believes it's necessary, and the other an inhuman force that's just going to keep escalating its attacks until it gets what it wants. Maybe I'm being an obnoxious atheist by reading this into it, but I've rewatched the plagues song (because it rocks, 'I send the swarm, I send the horde/Thus saith the Lord!') and it almost seems like you have Moses saying "please listen; I still love Egypt, I don't want it to suffer, I want peace, I want reconciliation, I care about your people, Ramses, but He doesn't"
And of course Ramses answer? 'Never mind how high the cost may grow, this will still be so, I will never let your people go!'
There's a character conflict between Moses and Ramses, but also a conflict within Moses between Gods plan and his duty to the Hebrews on one hand and the love he still has for Egypt and Ramses on the other.

Songs are also excellent, even though I've seen at least three girls at karaoke do better versions of When You Believe than the one at the end of the film