is one of a handful of direct-to-home-video Disney animated features that had a respectable run in theaters. It's also the last feature film with original songs by
.
And find songs they are. My favorite is "Round My Family Tree," which is chock full of clever lines (and visual in-jokes, including a reference to the
). The end credits introduced "Your Heart Will Lead You Home," which has now become an easy listening standard, co-written and sung by
.
It's also the first time the Sherman song, "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers," is sung to completion onscreen. In the earlier films and TV shows,
(the current Tigger) sings the entire song. Historically,
was the first actor to sing the whole song, but on Disneyland records instead of films.
makes a nice companion to all the original Walt Disney featurettes, or the compilation film,
. The storyline is simple in the
style and meanders on purpose -- the world of Pooh and friends is simple, direct and free of extraneous spectacle.
is that its success, arguably thanks to the Shermans, did not result in their being involved with the follow-up,
. Instead,
handled the music without the brothers, which is fine, but somehow not the same.
is most notable for how great it looks in Blu-ray. It contains the same features as the 10th anniversary DVD (though some features are now exclusive to the Blu-Ray). For collectors, please note that the new edition does not include two episodes from
TV series.
Among the new bonus features is a collection of very short vignettes called "The Mini Adventures of Winnie the Pooh," basically edited scenes from the "Pooh" shorts and
.
, who also added his unique narration to the recent Winnie the Pooh feature. The voices of
(Disney's original Pooh voice) and Paul Winchell are replaced here by Jim Cummings, so it's interesting to consider the similarities and occasional differences between the performances.
GETTING RESCUED NOT ONCE, BUT TWICE
Blog, Movies
Posted on Aug 17 2012 by Greg
A substantial number of Disney animated feature debut on Blu-ray this Tuesday. One release, perhaps more than any other, stands as a crossroads between "old school" and "next generation" Disney animation:
The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under.
When
The Rescuers premiered in 1977, it was very well received but the public and the press, though things behind the scenes were getting tumultuous.
Based on Margery Sharp's book,
The Rescuers follow two mice who rescue humans on behalf of their Rescue Aid Society (a group that co-exists behind the walls of the United Nations building).
Eva Gabor voices the lovely Bianca and
Bob Newhart plays Bernard.
There's wonderful casting all the way around, harkening back to an era when Disney did enlist celebrities for the lead characters (who promoted the film on
The Merv Griffin Show) and allow character actors and voice actors to round out the casts. Disney was still the name above the title and the studio had neither the budget nor the inclination to cast the multi-million-dollar variety of superstar often heard today in theatrical animation.
Times were simpler then, perhaps, and so is the film, which follows a very linear storyline as the mice board an albatross (voiced by longtime radio star
Jim Jordan of
Fibber McGee and Molly) and head for the bayou to rescue a little girl from Madame Medusa (the flamboyant
Geraldine Page in her second Disney film) and her flunky Snoops (a caricature of Disney historian
John Culhane voiced by Disney comedy veteran
Joe Flynn in his only animated Disney role).
Not a musical, the film does have atmospheric songs performed offscreen by
Shelby Flint, who hit the pop charts with "Angel on My Shoulder" and had become a very busy vocalist for TV shows, commercials and animation (
Snoopy Come Home, Rankin/Bass'
Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, NBC's
The Borrowers). An Oscar nomination for Best Song went to "Someone's Waiting for You." (Robie Lester fans take note: she is the singing voice of Bianca.)
But at the Disney studio, animators were becoming divided about artistic direction and
Don Bluth was not pleased with what he saw as shortcuts on
The Rescuers. Within a few years of this film, he would lead an artist walk out that impacted the next feature,
The Fox and the Hound, the last feature to combine the talents of new and veteran animators.
You can also see this blend in
The Rescuers -- masterful work by artists who worked with Walt and those that they mentored. Of course, the animation of Medusa is astounding, its roughness and energy captured in the sketchy, "scritchy" look of the xerox cel process. This a look didn't always suit the films in which it was used, but it works well here.
The Disney studio had never produced a sequel to any of its animated features before
The Rescuers Down Under, but much had changed by 1990, including a new management team and transformations in corporate philosophies. But unlike some of the direct-to-video features that would emerge, this film boasts superior production values that actually exceed that of its predecessor.
Some of that sheen is due to rapid advances in computer technology, making specific settings, effects and animated objects more accessible. The CAPS system was perhaps the biggest develop to debut in
The Rescuers Down Under. This eliminated the need for inked and painted animation cels -- the artwork went directly into the system for outline and color. Because of this, there is no breakdown in image quality (which could happen with layer upon layer of cels).
Eva Gabor and
Bob Newhart are back as Bernard and Bianca, this time flown by a different albatross.
Jim Jordan had passed away, so
John Candy's voice added not only contemporary celebrity, but also a broader comedy potential and therefore appears in much more of the film as comic relief.
The biggest difference is that the villain is, this time around, not played at all for laughs, but completely evil and disturbingly unbalanced, brilliantly voiced by
George C. Scott.
There are no songs at all in this sequel, though "Rescue Aid Society" is part of the underscore.
Bruce Brougton's score is excellent -- and the recurring theme heard in his music is also used for the dancing fountain at the
Epcot theme park.
"PLANET" CERTAINLY IS A TRAY-ZURE, ESPECIALLY IN BLU-RAY
Blog, Movies
Posted on Jul 16 2012 by Greg
Hopefully someday, when they make a sequel to the excellent documentary to
Waking Sleeping Beauty (
Waking Pocahontas maybe?), we'll see how Treasure Planet figured into the behind-the-scenes nachinations of the post-Katzenberg Disney animation division. One can't help but wonder whether Treasure Planet fell victim to some of these politics, or, as perhsps it was with John Carter, the public just didn't want a scifi/space version of Treasure Island.
The film itself is jaw-droppingly impressive. Few films from any studio have blended cel animation with CG as perfectly, created such vivid, vulnerable characters and such breathtaking, detailed panoramas.
Seeing it on the new Blu-ray is almost like seeing it for the first time, unless perhaps you saw it in IMAX. Every line and every miniscule object or person in the distance can be seen in razor sharp clarity.
Maybe the visual scope and tech detail overwhelms the characters and the narrative, as some suggested was the case with Sleeping Beauty. However, there's some superb acting here, including the now-A lister Joseph-Gordon Levitt as Jim Hawkins, Brian Murray as Silver, Martin Short as BEN, Emma Thompson as Captain Amelia and the always dependable David Hyde-Pierce as Doppler (a character that suggests those Duckburg "dog people" from vintage Disney comics).
The generous bonus features, pretty much the same ones from the earlier DVD release, are very copious. Instead of an audio commentary, there is a vast "Visual Commentary" that starts and stops the film with supplemental information, stretching the experience out well over two hours. A feast for animation fans.
My son loved this movie when he was seven and he loves it today. It was an attempt to grab the non-Princess audience for Disney features, and while it would never attract the "Hot Tub Time Machine" older males, it's great stuff for younger kids.
Be sure to show your kids Walt Disney's original Treasure Island to compare and contrast the storyline. The relationship between Silver and Hawkins is more from Walt and less from Stevenson. And hey, reading the classic book is nice, too!
COULD THREE COWS SAVE THE FARM...AND CEL ANIMATION?
Blog, Movies
Posted on Jul 13 2012 by Greg
When
Home on the Range was first released, for some reason the fate of 2-D or "traditional" animation was resting on it, as Disney was still in a tempestuous internal swirl and did not yet own, nor at the time have hope to stay attached to, the formidable Pixar -- who to this day, have had an unbroken string of films with strong, and usually gigantically successful openings.
It seems odd now to pin such hopes on such an unpretentious film, one that revels in its non-CG-ness and harkens back to the sunny Disney vistas of
Pecos Bill,
Paul Bunyan and the lesser-known
Saga of Windwagon Smith.
The performance of
Home on the Range at the box office is less a refection of its quality than simply that there wasn't much of an audience for cartoon westerns starring cows in 2004. When you strip away its history and look at the film on its own (and many will today when they watch
the new Blu-ray/DVD), you have a highly entertaining romp with fun characters, a loose story, some magnificent artwork and top animation.
Most of all, there some really fine songs, especially "Little Patch of Heaven" and the haunting "Will the Sun Ever Shine Again" (the latter been inspired in part, according to composer
Alan Menken, by the despair following 911).
While the leading cast received much attention, one of the nicest things about
Home on the Range is that it also employed such talented actors as SCTV's
Joe Flaherty as Jeb, the goat, and, in particular,
Carole Cook as Pearl. Cook was a close friend and protegé of
Lucille Ball and played Bessie in the beloved film,
The Incredible Mr. Limpet.
Watching and listening to the generous bonus features, it is evident that a great deal of skill and creativity goes into a film like this, so it cannot be dismissed as mere fluff, though it certainly does not leave you with the same glow as
Beauty and the Beast. Nor it is intended to do so.
The most comical thing in retrospect turns out to be that a lighthearted animated movie about cows could be held up as the deciding factor in the future of cel animation. Of course, it didn't happen that way, and there have been other traditional features since, including last year's well-received and exquisite
Winnie the Pooh.
<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Next >>
BACK TO BLOG HOME
0 Comments...
