The film that officially signaled Disney's animation renaissance (following The Little Mermaid) and the only animated feature to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination, Beauty and the Beast remains the yardstick by which all other animated films should be measured. It relates the story of Belle, a bookworm with a dotty inventor for a father; when he inadvertently offends the ...
The misconception about this animated film from Disney was that it was a movie for kids--something Victor Hugo never had in mind. In fact, despite a cute brace of singing gargoyles who are Quasimodo's (Tom Hulce) best friends, this version of Hugo's classic tale is really adult entertainment, with a strong set of songs by Alan Menken. The story remains mostly the same (though tricked out with a ...
Disney's direct-to-video sequel to their 1995 hit places Pocahontas in harm's way in London, where she is almost tossed into jail and has some other mishaps. She's not alone, however: a cute raccoon named Meeko does a nice job as the obligatory funny animal. The songs are about as memorable as those in the first film, but the art and animation maintain far higher standards than most animated ...
Obviously the Disney suits gave more than two figs about the legacy from the first Beast film, as they reassembled the former cast and spent some cash on production and tune-smithing for this straight-to-video effort. The events unfold between the time in the first film where Belle bartered herself to the Beast and her later return to the village to save her father. So the Beast's heart ...
Warm, funny, and imaginative, Lilo & Stitch is the best animated feature the Walt Disney Studios have produced in years. On the planet Turo, mad scientist Jumba Jookiba (voice by David Ogden Stiers) has created a miniature monster programmed for destruction. When the monster escapes to Earth, it's adopted as a pet and named "Stitch" by Lilo (Daveigh Chase), a lonely little Hawaiian girl. ...
The Disney Studio was built on innovation in animation, so it seems ironic that Atlantis is both a bold departure and highly derivative, borrowing heavily from anime, video games, and graphic novels. Instead of songs and fuzzy little animals, the artists offer an action-adventure set in 1914: nerdy linguist Milo Thatch (Michael J. Fox) believes he's found the location of the legendary Lost ...
Lane Myer (John Cusack) is stuck in a personal hell. A compulsive, adolescent Everyman growing up in Suburbia, USA, not only does he fail to make the prestigious high school ski team (again), but his beloved sweetheart, Beth, also leaves him for Roy, the team's popular, arrogant captain. If this isn't bad enough, he's stuck with a mother who frighteningly experiments--rather than cooks--with food, ...
The history of the atomic bomb--its conception, creation, and deployment--gets an impressively complex yet propulsive treatment in this compelling docudrama. Day One balances human drama, scientific history, and political machinations with uncommon skill and considerable smarts. From the moment that General Groves (Brian Dennehy, Presumed Innocent) is appointed to drive the Manhattan ...