


All my thoughts, ideas, comments, criticism, and etc. about Disney
Which is why I was surprised with Cinderella III, a Twist in Time. I stumbled upon it by accident while babysitting. The Disney Channel was on and was doing a movie marathon of Disney sequels with Peter Pan 2 (another blog, I assure you) and Cinderella. Cinderella III came on and the little girl wanted to watch it. So I took a breath and prepared myself for the horror that would ensue.
The second movie was terrible and I wasn't even able to sit through the whole thing. I had to turn it off. The third one was surprising because it wasn't terrible. It wasn't even decent. It was good. I am always hesitant of sequels of movies when it's been longer than 30 years. I believe if you didn't get an idea within the decade of the movie being released, then there is no reason for a sequel. Apparently some people don't believe this.
Cinderella III begins with the one year anniversary of Prince Charming and Cinderella. The stepmother, Lady Tremaine, and sisters, Anastasia and Drizella, have been forced to do chores. Anastasia stumbles upon the celebration of the couple with the Fairy Godmother, right as they are discussing how they first met at the ball. Anastasia overhears this and through the carelessness of the Fairy Godmother, comes into possession of the wand and turns the Fairy Godmother into stone. Lady Tremaine uses the wand to go back in time to the point when the Grand Duke comes with the glass slipper. Using magic, Lady Tremaine makes the glass slipper fit on Anastasia's giant foot and they are swept away to the castle, leaving Cinderella at the house. Using her wits and the help of her mice friends, she ends up in the castle but magic steps in again and wipes the memory of Prince Charming, despite Cinderella's pleading.
Spoiler: Through the power of love, Prince Charming falls in love with Cinderella all over again and Drizella and Lady Tremaine get what they deserve.
The interesting thing about this was Anastasia. She was not a bad character. She was well developed and wasn't the stereotypical evil stepsister we are familiar with in the first movie. I felt for her throughout the whole movie. I wanted her to get the prince and to tell Cinderella to go take a hike. She wasn't a gorgeous character like Cinderella (that requires eye color) but she wasn't ugly either. I'm sure a lot of girls could relate to Anastasia, wanting someone to like them for who they are.
The animation of this was amazing. The artists actually used previous models and had live actors in the studio to draw believable characters. And the music wasn't bad. Of course we had singing mice but what kind of Cinderella movie would this be without singing mice?
There was so much more personality in this! The Prince had a personality, Cinderella had a personality. Anastasia had a personality. It was fantastic. The Prince was lovestruck and wild-eyed, Cinderella was quick-witted and tenacious, Anastasia had good intentions but clumsy. And it wasn't about the mice. I hate those mice. I will continue to hate those mice. Their voices, their stupid shirts. But I digress.
The sidekicks didn't take over the picture. Yes, there were the funny antics but the main point was getting Cinderella and Prince Charming back together. I found more enjoyment wondering what Lady Tremaine would do to stop them. Then I grew excited to see how Cinderella would solve it. It kept me engaged and I didn't get bored. The two most important things about a movie. This movie moved Lady Tremaine up on my evil villain list three levels.
Did I mention this was actually funny? Yeah, I laughed. It was good. I'm not lying. I'm as shocked as you are. With Disney movies, they can be charming, but if they are trying to strike humor, sometimes they try too hard. Not in this case. The one liners just make me giggle.
Anastasia: This is the answer to all of our problems (holds up wand)
Lady Tremaine: A stick?
Drizella: Oo, let's beat her with it
If you are looking for magic in this one like in the first movie, you are out of luck. There is so much wand flinging, than when something magical and wonderful does happen, it's just lack lustered. It has the scene, like in the first movie, with Cinderella transforming from rags into her dress at the end of the film but it wasn't as magical and powerful as it was in the first movie. Maybe because it lacked the chorus but I just didn't care about the magic of the dress like I was suppose to. It had all the actions, like her hands rising up and the white swirls but I felt nothing. It honestly made me sad.*
Another unfortunate problem is the true love deal. Yes, I understand that it is Cinderella but I was beaten over the head with it. True love, true love. Everyone has a true love. You'll know it when you touch her hand, blah, blah, blah. It's tiresome. I wish they weren't so forceful with that idea because then when Prince Charming actually went back to Cinderella, it would make it so much more meaningful because we weren't killed with the phrase of true love earlier.
If you saw Cinderella II, I'm sorry. This makes up for it, I swear. It almost makes you forget that the terrible tape was ever created. So go watch it on youtube, go buy it. It's worth it for a Disney sequels. Of course, I don't expect you to replace the first one with this but this is good for being a third installment of Cinderella. I'm putting it on my Christmas list....or maybe just sticking to the Internet.
*That scene when Cinderella goes from rags to her ball gown in the first movie was Walt Disney's favorite scene of the whole movie
I had the pleasure of seeing Disney's latest animated feature, Bolt in 3-D, completely free. With the economy today and being a college student, free stuff is good. Also, if it was bad, I wouldn't feel like I wasted my money. (This happens more often that I wish).
Bolt is the latest Disney animated feature about a Hollywood star named Bolt (John Travolta). He believes that the television show in which he plays a superdog with super speed, super strength, and super bark, is real. Penny (Miley Cyrus), his costar, wishes to treat him like a regular dog but the director and her agent refuse. To try to boost ratings, Penny is “kidnapped”, but Bolt takes it too far and escapes to try to rescue his person. Through an unseen event, he ends up in New York City where he meets up with a cat named Mittens and a hamster named Rhino and all three of them travel across the land to return back to Hollywood and to Bolt's owner.
The good news is I didn't walk out of the theater. The bad news is I had to suspend so much disbelief. In some Disney movies, you have to shut off your brain. This is one of them. And it was hard. It could be because I'm so much older than the aimed audience, but it bothered me how much I had to ignore. Not the dog crossing the land to return back to his owner, but the fact that the director and agent both tried to suppress Bolt into this fantasy to make his acting skills better. It was difficult for me. And of course, the whole fact that a dog, a cat, and a hamster got along but that is a bit easier to believe.
Another problem with this movie was the pacing. We can guess that at some important moment, Bolt realizes that he has no super powers, he feels depress and helpless, something happens that forces him to be a hero, despite not having powers, then ends happily. This is the expected. At least, this is what I expected. What I got was not this. Bolt goes from having super powers to realizing that he doesn't. There is no transition. He instantly accepts it. If I thought I had super powers all my life then suddenly not have them anymore, I would be a little more upset than just “oh, I have no powers, I still have to go save my friend though”. It emotionally didn't make sense. Although there was the big, “just because you have no powers doesn't mean you're helpless” speech, it went unheard by Bolt who had his own mental epiphany without telling anyone.
The 3-D aspect was interesting though. I say interesting because throughout the whole movie, I kept waiting for the overuse of the effect with things flying at me constantly but in all honestly, it wasn't abused. I barely remembered the 3-D aspect. It anything, it just enhanced the experience. All movies will probably use 3-D in the future and I hope they follow Bolt's example of not overusing it.
It was on the predicable side. I feel like this is an overdone idea. Someone plays a hero on television, believes that it is true, is forced into situations where it isn't true, has a big epiphany, and uses his own abilities to be a hero. This was Bolt completely with a little side story about Penny. But what was interesting was the fact that the moral of the story (which sometimes Disney bangs you over the head with) was hidden. Bolt was the hero at the end, but they weren't like “oh yay! You used your inner strength.” It was very subtle. And that made me walk out of the theater smiling.
This was funny too. I did laugh. It was humorous. It wasn't top notice humor. There were times when I laughed because I was suppose to laugh and not because I thought it was funny. This is one of those films that would be best to wait to rent. It's not terrible. It's not Cinderella II (different blog). But it's not a classic. I would rent it, test it out first or go to a dollar theater and see it. I was glad that I didn't have to spend ten dollars watching that film, no matter how cool those 3-D glasses were.
For Christmas, I had the pleasure of receiving Sleeping Beauty on DVD. I always loved this movie. It is such a visual piece. The artists for this movie took about six years, making it the longest animated movie that Disney ever made. When watching it, is obvious why it took so longs. Not only is it beautiful visually but the music was based off one of the greatest ballet composers, Tchaikovsky. Look up the Sleeping Beauty ballet on Youtube and you can see that the music between the two are inseparable at times. The reason the movie took so long to create was the art. Walt Disney wanted a “moving tapestry” so medieval art was used as inspiration for the movie. This is obvious in the beginning scene of the movie with everyone celebrating Aurora's birth in the street with bright colors and sharp shapes.
Going deeper into the story, it is beautiful but a big hole is missing. If I asked you what is Aurora like, could you tell me? You could tell me about her physical features, the gifts that the fairies gave her, but you couldn't tell me what she was like. The closest you could get would be describing a teenager in love. But that is so generic. Despite having a whole song sung just about her, the movie does not focus on Aurora herself but is geared towards the fairies. In other words, the sidekicks.
Yes, the three fairies. I'm sure you can tell me what they are like, all three of them. The three Disney princesses we are familiar with before Walt Disney's death, Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora, all had sidekicks that took up much of the film with silly antics, despite the princess's name in the title!
I have to give props to Sleeping Beauty though on plot. The plot moved! It separated from Snow White's dwarf antics of washing hands and Cinderella's mice trying to get food. There was not really any superfluous scenes, yes there was the whole seen preparing for Aurora's birthday with the color fight, but that was an important plot point since that was how Maleficent found Aurora in the first place. So it all was relevant oppose to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.*
Sidekicks seemed to suck the life of princesses. Which is why I disliked Cinderella. The mice overtook her rolein the movie. The only time I saw her in her true form was in Cinderella III but that is a different blog. It was the same genetic personality for Cinderella, Snow White, and Aurora: modest, polite, gentle, everything a princess should be. A perfect example of this same personality is Enchanted which gave me a good laugh because I saw the three original princesses in Giselle. So it seemed that all princesses were doomed to the two dimensional frame.
Then in 1989, we see a change and her name was Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Now the princess movie was actually about the princess. Not only that, but the control was put into the princess. Before, the princess lived then because of certain circumstances, they are put into danger and then rescued, all of it being out of their control. With Snow White, she was forced to run away and was protected by seven dwarfs. Aurora, she fell asleep and had to wait for someone else to save her. For the first time ever in a Disney movie, the princess took control. Ariel was the one that signed Ursula deal, she was the one that went off to search for her prince, she was the one that took affirmed action.
After that, came a wave of tough, determined, beautiful women with personality that would not fade away. Perhaps it was because the feminism movement in the 60's. And the sidekicks aren't the focus anymore. It is actually about the princess. Not to say that there weren't sidekicks. Jasmine had Rajah but he was only on screen for about ten minutes total. We got to know the princess, got to see them angry, and got to see them fight for their man. We even saw women that fought for no man or at least it wasn't the main focus, like Kida from Atlantis (she was a princess) and Mulan (not a princess).
Maybe I had to wait until Disney decides to vomit out a Sleeping Beauty sequel before seeing some personality in Aurora or decide to actually watch the movie shorts made for younger children. The art and the music is stunning in Sleeping Beauty, but if you want to see Aurora, look somewhere else because all you get is the generic princess.
*Random fact: On the original poster for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, “dwarves” was spelled “dwarfs” because the word, “dwarves” actually derives more from J.R. Tolkin's idea of dwarves. Both spellings are acceptable.