disney | The Hunchblog of Notre Dame

05Mar 2014

Descendants, new Disney Channel movie

by jess

Disney’s Descendants

Disney is going to release an original Disney Channel movie in 2015 called Descendants. Now an original Disney Channel should indicate that one should either stop reading or turned their brain off, I did neither and regretted it.

Descendants is about the children of the Disney characters going to a prep-school. Ben, the son of Belle and Beast who is set to take the throne, gives redemption to the villain’s children. These the villains children include Jafar, Cruella and Maleficent’s kids. This is the point where my brain collapse in on its self. Jafar, Cruella and Maleficent occupy the same time space. Jafar is from psudo-medieval Arabia, Cruella from 1960s London and Maleficent is from Renaissance Europe. I wrote a Fan-fiction when I was 9 with characters from different point in history and places and I deemed it too stupid but they made a movie on it.

Then there are the kid’s names. Maleficent’s daughter is Mal, Jafar’s kid is Jay, Cruella’s son is Carlos and The Evil Queen’s is, are you ready, it’s pretty stupid, it is Evvie. Why not just go their and Evilette or something.

This project has stupid written all over it.

20Feb 2014

101 Dalmatians II; Patch’s London Adventure Review; Why canâ€™t they talk to the other animals like in the first film?

by jess

101 Dalmatians II; Patch’s London Adventure

101 Dalmatians II; Patch’s London Adventure is by all counts a dumb movie but it has its moments of being entertaining, which surprised me. What brought it down was the general mean-spiritedness.

Patch and Thunderbolt

The plot goes, that in midst of moving to the farm, Patch is feeling less than unique. On moving day, Patch gets left behind and decides to see his idol, TV actor dog, Thunderbolt who is holding auditions. Thunderbolt is told by his sidekick, Lightning, that they mean to kill him off in the show, which is a lie.

Thunderbolt decides to perform good deeds in real life so he can keep his job. He enlists Patch’s help because Patch knows all the episodes. Then Cruella DeVille enters the picture and get captivated by an artist who paints spots. She commissions him to paint her a painting but isn’t happy so she decides to kidnap the Dalmatians again. Patch and Thunderbolt then have to save the day and Patch learns he is special.

Patch

Going into this movie, I thought it would be akin to Scamp’s adventure but it wasn’t. Patch learns a lesson that is different from the original movie. His lesson and growth is understandable, he’s puppy and has 98 siblings.

Puppies Driving

Speaking of the 98 other Puppies, they are just plain mean little things. The reason why is to get the audience on Patch’s side, if he is the underdog then we care about him. But they made the other puppies too mean. Jasper and Horace were mean too throwing Nanny down a well, that is sick.

Lars and his art

Then we have Cruella and the art subplot. I will say as someone who minored in art history, I loved this subplot. I thought it was hilarious. However, it’s a little more than stupid. Thy whole thing was a set-up for the puppies to hid against a canvas.

Cruella DeVille

Also I didn’t really like the two antagonist angle. First we have insane Cruella, who seems shoehorned in here. And then we have Lighting, Thunderbolt’s sidekick, who wants to be the star of the show. I will forgive it, as it does come together at the end but Cruella was shoehorned in.

Horace and Jasper grabbing Rolly

Stylistically, this movie is very different than the original but at least it not a rehash or copy of the first. However, they shamelessly reuse things from the first movie. They reuse the Twilight bark, the car chase and Pongo counting, the TV obsession, Cruella etc.

These things maybe be shameless but one thing they rehashed is wrong. Patch mentions that the spot in front of the TV is his spot but it was actually Lucky’s spot in the original.

Patch

Which makes me ask the question, why Patch as the star puppy when Lucky was focused on much more in the original? Think about it, Lucky was the first puppy we saw in the original, he is more obsessed with TV and he had more lines than Patch. Patch had his moments but they were fewer. Of course, all his moments involved Thunderbolt so maybe that was it.

Patch

101 Dalmatians II; Patch’s London Adventure isn’t all bad, it’s dumb and has some icky meanness but it’s fine as far as these sequels go. I dare say it was adequate. And It had PUPPIES!!!!!!!!

19Feb 2014

Frozen Review (Spoilers)

by jess

Back in August 2013, I did a post mainly centered on Frozen and its lack of style when compared to the 2-D drawn movies. Frozen hit theaters Thanksgiving 2013 to a lot of praise. But is that praise deserving or are people just blinded by the snow?

The answer, is yes, it is deserving of praise. Frozen despite its first trailer, which was bad, is a very an entertaining and engaging movie.

Let’s just get the style and the look of the movie out of the way. Yes, it looks like Tangled, hell Rapunzel and Flynn had cameos and Anna and Elsa look like Rapunzel. While it is annoying that the 3-D Disney movies have little variation in the female looks and not the men, I can justify this. Perhaps their royal families married and they are cousins or something, I would buy that. But please Disney try some new female looks the same face with freckles are getting old. Maybe go different place in this 3-D world, like Spain that would be fun.

The characters, are all great especially Elsa. Elsa is no doubt the most complex character Disney has come with. I read that she started at the antagonist but the song “Let it go” forced them to rework her character and gave us the sister angle. She is so complex that she great to watch. The other characters are all good. I was surprised by Olaf. After that trailer I wanted to hate him but the voice actor, Josh Gad, made him work in a charming way. I adored Sven. Anna is a bit annoying at time but she didn’t bother me.

Anna and Olaf Frozen picture image — Anna, Olaf and Kristoff

If you read my other Frozen post you would get the impression that I’m down on 3-D Disney movies in favor of 2-D animation ones. That is a little true, Tangled was not enhanced by being in 3-D it could have been in 2-D easy by not Frozen. The snow and the ice looked beautiful in the 3-D rendering and that was the point. There should be some reason for the medium. It seemed like Tangled was the experiment and Frozen was the pay-off.

Elsa and Anna frozen picture image — Elsa and Anna

I like how Disney is playing with their own tropes, Elsa telling Anna she can’t marry some she just met, Hans being the bad guy (he’s a bit like Gaston in that way) and true love being between sisters. It’s really refreshing and playful. Fun question, because Hans is the villain, does that make the romance song, Love is an open door, the villain song? Talk about playing with your tropes!

Trolls Frozen picture image — The Trolls

The movie is not without it’s problems, Hans was weak and dumb about political maneuvers, but the reveal was great, the deus ex machina ship at the end, the flow of the plot is clunky in places, it has a little bit of pan-scandinavian confusion and I found the troll weak. The clunky parts are forgivable and Disney has never been one for 100% cultural authenticity so that is forgivable too. The design of the Trolls were boring and franky they don’t look look like they belong to this movie. They could have more fun with the designs. The only good thing about them was Olaf’s reaction. It would have been amazing if they had been inspired by the Moomins but then again I love the Moomins, so bias. The trolls are small issue it just wish there was more too them then moss cover rocks.

All in all Frozen was a great Disney movie. It had all the facets that make a Disney movie, memorable songs, characters and animation, and Let it Go had all these things. All the things Disney has been lacking recently . Could Frozen mark the next Golden Age? Only the next few movie will tell and hopefully they will be just as good as Frozen.

06Feb 2014

Cinderella II: Dreams Come True Review; Stewed Prunes are better than this

by jess

Cinderella II: Dreams Come True

Cinderella II: Dreams Come True is composed of three stories in the Cinderella universe that take place after the 1950 Cinderella Disney movie. In this capacity, this thing acts like a sequel. The three story structure in this is beyond lame. First, it’s hard to gauge if the stories being told did happen or if they are retellings or made-up. It sort of seems to be a combination.

Fairy Godmother and Mice

The set-up for the stories is that the mice are being told the story of the first movie by the Fairy Godmother. It seems weird that that story should be retold to the mice as they were the heroes in the first place. They lived it. It’s a flimsily set-up. However, Gus and Jaq miss the story, so the Fairy God Mother says they should make a book for Cinderella with new stories. The stories they tell for the movie are the ones they put in the book.

Cinderella and the Grand Duke

The stories are standard dull fair. Each story is about dreams and being yourself. You know, very trite cliche stuff that Disney loves. It seems like each story wasn’t interesting enough to make its own movie or even subplot in a movie. So each scenario is given a part.

Cinderella

The first one is deals with Cinderella’s first day of being a Princess. She has to plan a banquet and it has to be done in a very traditional manner. Cinderella is a free-spirit now apparently and she doesn’t want to follow boring traditions, so she spices up the affair and revolutionizes party planning at the palace. You Go Girl!

Human Jaq

The second story, which is the worst, is Jaq the mouse becoming human. Spoiler, it doesn’t work out very well for him and he learns that being a mouse is cool.

Anastasia and Baker-dude

The third is wicked step-sister number 2, Anastasia, finds love with a lowly baker with Cinderella and pals’ help. Wicked Step-Mother is very much against this match. But she’s mean, so who cares.

Cinderella

The stories may stink like poo but how were the characters? Let’s just look at the main characters of the stories Cinderella, Jaq and Anastasia.

Cinderella, oh Cinderelly, Cinderelly. I think Cinderella gets a bad reputation for not having a personality, I would disagree. She doesn’t have a strong personality but in the original she had a bit of mischievous streak and she’s a bit catty. You can see these traits in her teasing the birds who are waking her up and her remark on the musical lesson.

She’s kind but she a little more subtly well rounded than just being sweet and kind. Cinderella in the sequel doesn’t have though facets she’s nice but that is kind of it. She has a free spirit and like doing her own thing but she is not as interesting as she could have been.

Jaq Cinderella II: Dreams Come True picture image

Jaq

Jaq was the leader of the mice. Him wanting to be human to help Cinderella doesn’t really fit his character at all. But his core personality which is minimal is still pretty much there.

Anastasia and Cinderella,

Then there is Anastasia. Anastasia is now a reformed former baddie looking for love. Anastasia didn’t have much of a personality other than being unpleasant and wicked. Here she is just awkward.

I don’t mind her being a nice yet misunderstood. It just seems like a bit of stretch for her to abuse someone and then be friends with them in like a few days. Although in this, it’s more a reflection on Cinderella than Anastasia.

Cinderella and the Mice

There is really not a lot to say on this one. The characters are off and the stories are just not interesting or fun. I hate the three part story within a story structure. I hate it as a TV episode and I hate it here. I hate Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, they only dream that came true was when it ended.

05Feb 2014

U.S Debut for Hunchback Stage Show

by jess

Quaismodo Bells of Notre dame reprise Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Most of you already know this, but the debut of the stage version of the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame has a location. It will debut at La Jolla Playhouse. It will be part of the 2014-2015 season in October. La Jolla Playhouse is a not-for-profit professional theatre-in-residence located on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. It is unclear if Disney has plans to bring the show to Broadway after its run at La Jolla Playhouse but the Aladdin ran in Toronto before it went to Broadway, so it hopefully will happen for Hunchback too. It’s very exciting news!

Source – http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/BREAKING-DISNEYS-HUNCHBACK-OF-NOTRE-DAME-to-Have-US-Premiere-at-La-Jolla-Playhouse-20140124

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-hunchback-of-notre-dame-musical-20140123,0,181081.story#axzz2roLqX2rp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Jolla_Playhouse

30Jan 2014

Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure Review; Lady is a hands-off Mom

by jess

Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure

Stylistically, Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure is not in the same universe as the original Lady and the Tramp. For one thing, the original was from a dog’s perceptive, which it makes it very jarring to see Jim-dear and Darling’s face but given that massive flaw is the movie bad? Hell yeah, it’s bad!

Scamp and Jim-dear

Plot? Scamp, a.k.a mini-Tramp doesn’t like rules and runs away to the junkyard where there are no rules. The Junkyard dogs are a gang dogs that are led by Buster, who is a former chum of Tramp’s and bitter and then there is Angel, the love interest. But before he can join the gang, Scamp has to complete some tests. Angel tries to convince Scamp to go home to his love ones as she wants a home but Scamp doesn’t listen and gets thrown in the pound but is saved by Angel and Tramp. Scamp learns that family and home are awesome and Angel is made a member of the family.

Scamp and Tramp

There is the same thing that The Little Mermaid 2 had, the parents lies about their past i.e the first movie and then the child does the same thing that parents did in the first movie. Scamp’s Adventure does feel different as the focus of Lady and the Tramp was both of them and Tramp wasn’t as annoying as Scamp is, which bring me to my next talking point.

Scamp

Scamp is annoying. I couldn’t stand this character. Anytime he’s on screen, I cringed and considering he’s the main character that was a lot. Scott Wolf, who did Scamp’s speaking voice, can not make a decent dog sound for anything. Scamp’s main motivation is that he hates rules and he has a bit of ego for no reason. I hate characters that have zero humility and lack any charm. I will say this, his only saving grace and the only thing that got me through the movie was that he’s a puppy. Puppies are awesome!

Angel and Scamp

The film also has much goofier, dare I say cartoony tone unlike the original. The original had drama, a believable romance and charm. The cartoon nature makes the fight at the end feel really forced and contrived.

Angel and Scamp in the almost Bella Notte scene

Then there is the forced romance between Scamp and Angel, they’re puppies. I don’t buy the romance for a second in fact it creeped me out. They even repeated the Bella Notte scene, though made it silly which was need because they are puppies.

For all intended purposes they’re children. They shouldn’t be singing this song . Why couldn’t they just remain friends, it’s not like the romance really went anywhere, so why did you shoehorn it in the movie?

Scamp

Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamps Adventure just fails as follow up to Lady and the Tramp with crappy new characters, poor style, goofy tone and a creepy romance. Good thing this movie is about puppies or it would have been really unbearable.

23Jan 2014

The Little Mermaid II; Return to the Sea Review; Even the Characters know it’s a Copy

by jess

The Little Mermaid II; Return to the Sea

The Little Mermaid is a sequel to the 1989 movie The Little Mermaid, wait that’s not right, The Little Mermaid II; Return to the Sea is a copy of the 1989 movie The Little Mermaid, wait, I mean it’s a sequel. That’s it, it’s a sequel. It’s not a copy because it has a penguin and walrus in it and not because it’s the same plot as the first one.

Melody with her locket

The plot is pretty much the first movie just with Ariel’s daughter, Melody, but instead of being a shore-o-phile, little Melody is sea-o-phile. Pretty much this love stems from their parents forbidding them from having any contact with said place.

In the Little Mermaid, it made sense, in Return to Sea, Ursula’s crazy Sister (I hate you so much movie), threatens the baby Melody and vanishes, so Ariel builds a wall to keep Melody out of the sea and then lies to her kid about her origins. This is stupid. Melody, who is a little awkward around her peers and feeling betrayed by her parents runs off after finding a keepsake with her name on her it, a gift from Triton.

This where Ursula’s crazy sister, Morgana, comes in and lies to her, turns her into a mermaid and tricks her into get Triton’s Trident. Fight then ensues, Morgana gets turned into a popsicle and yay big dumb wall goes bye bye and everyone is happy.

Ariel and Melody

Let’s talk about the characters, Ariel is now Triton. Melody is Ariel and Morgana is Ursula. The other characters are sort of there too. Eric is there too, I mean he never had a personality other than being nice so he is the same. It’s very annoying that any time a Disney character has a child they are either the copy of their parents except that they gravitates towards the opposite or they are a lame plot device.

Morgana and Melody

A little bit more on Morgana. Cut the crap movie, this is Ursula 2.0 and by the film’s own admission, it’s a downgrade. For fuck sake she has the same voice actress. Anyway, Not-Ursula, I mean, Morgana’s mom liked Ursula better because Ursula was better at magic. Her inferiority complex is so bad that when she has all the powers of the sea, she makes people bow to her, not turn them in kelp. Yeah, this villain is dumb. Though to be fair Triton had all the power of sea and he couldn’t find her or kill her when he has clear shot at her at the beginning. I bet if they could have figure out how bring Ursula back from the dead this movie would have it but that would have required at creative thought so crazy sister, who isn’t that crazy.

Ariel and Melody

Then there is Melody who differs a little bit from Ariel, in that she feels like she doesn’t fit in as an ordinary girl, so she too has a bit of inferiority complex compare to Ariel whom Melody deems as perfect.

First off, Melody is princess she is not ordinary. She should be more concerned that people are pretending to like her. I guess people from where these people live, the 12 year olds are more honest. I don’t even know.

Melody with Tip and Dash

Speaking of which, where the fuck is this located? I mean these characters go back and forth to Arctic conditions but where the bulk of the characters live seems temperate.

But what REALLY hurts my head are the animals seen in the Arctic, we have Narwhals, Penguins, a Sea Turtle, a Walrus, a Baleen Whale and a Hammerhead shark. Narwhals live in the Arctic, Penguins live Antarctica, Sea Turtles inhabit everywhere but the Arctic, Walruses dwell in the Northern Hemisphere, Baleen Whales migrate so pass and Hammerhead sharks like off every coasts every but not in the cold water of the poles.

FUCK YOU MOVIE. Especially since you have the gall to team up a Walrus and Penguin as Melody side-kicks, Tip and Dash, not sure which one is which and I don’t care. They are annoying to boot. The lack of attention to animals habitat reeks of laziness.

Melody doing the Part of your World flip

Then to make this movie sooooooooo much worse, this movies uses lots of visual and lines from the original movie. Here are three;

– The shot of Melody shooting to the surface after searching for shells is exactly the same as the shot of Ariel’s resurfacing after she was transformed into a human by Ursula.
– When Ariel discovers Melody’s visit to the sea, she says “You deliberately disobeyed me,” the same line King Triton delivers to Ariel when he discovers her visited to the surface.
– Melody does a back flip through the water while singing “For a Moment”, which is the exact same movement Ariel did while singing “Part of that World”.

Melody

These references make Little Mermaid II: Return to The Sea feel so lazy and with plot being so rehashed that characters even know it, it just makes a million times worse. Was there any effort put in to this? I mean I think one has to work hard to be this lazy. So maybe?

16Jan 2014

An Extremely Goofy Movie Review; Why didn’t that Beret Girl get name?

by jess

An Extremely Goofy Movie

An Extremely Goofy Movie is a sequel to the 1995 A Goofy Movie. Both movies deal with a father trying to be apart of his son’s life and the son yearning for independence. But where the Goofy Movie was bright, colorful and somewhat endearing, An Extremely Goofy Movie was shit.

Max and Goofy

The plot is Back to School just with Goof Troop, that’s it. Even if you haven’t seen Back to School, the plot of this movie feels old and done. It differs a bit with extreme sports like skate boarding and there is a sub-plot of Goofy liking 70’s stuff. But the heart of the plot is a rehashing of the first movie where Goofy wants to be involved with Max’s life and Max’s wants his own life. And it gets old within the movie.

Sylvia and Goofy

The animation is all over the place, from really choppy to smooth rotoscoping. During the disco dance scene the animation is really fluid, so much so that it looks rotoscoped. Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over footage. The mixture of the fluid rotoscoping and the choppy animation looks terrible. It wouldn’t be so bad if both extremes were not in the same scene.

Pete, Max, and Pauly Shore errm Bob

So if the plot is cliched and ripped off and the animation is inconsistent but how are the characters? Goofy is fine except that he comes off annoying in his attempts to hang out with Max. Max is pretty unlikable and him having same voice as Kovu threw me off, I watch pretty much right after I watched LionKing 2. Max doesn’t really have an interesting personality or things that makes him special.

Pete was more interesting with his limited scene time. That Pauly Shore character was beyong annoying. The other characters hardly register as characters.

Goofy and Bradley Uppercrust the Third

Personally, I didn’t enjoy An Extremely Goofy Movie. I found it heartless and annoying. I had really hard time finishing it. I have very little to say on this one. I don’t think it’s the worst of the sequels but it’s far from being any good. It was just extremely meh.

19Dec 2013

Beauty and the Beast; The Enchanted Christmas; Featuring Scrooge Grinch Beast

by jess

Beauty and the Beast; The Enchanted Christmas

In the crappy world of direct-to-video Disney videos, Beauty and the Beast is the one title where a sequel is out-right rejected because to have a sequel work people need to accept the Beast’s human form which they do not, so much the moral about Beauty being found within.

But Disney is never one to say no when it comes to making a quick buck and so the midquel was born. What the fuck is a Midquel you ask? A Midquel is a stupid story that happens during the first story. It really doesn’t work with Beauty and Beast but it works better than a sequel because at least the Beast is a beast so we have Beauty and the Beast; The Enchanted Christmas. Just in time for Christmas.

Human forms of Mrs.Potts, Chip, Lumiere and Cogsworth, Beauty and the Beast; The Enchanted Christmas picture image

Human forms of Mrs.Potts, Chip, Sultan the dog ottoman, Lumiere and Cogsworth

This admonition errr story starts one year later on Christmas. Everyone is remembering what happen but somehow Chip doesn’t remember, even though Chip was major character so the Enchanted Christmas is told as a flash-back to people who should remember it.

Belle decorates the Mock Christmas tree

So the story proper, starts the day after the Beast saves Belle from the wolves which is Christmas eve but before Beast gives her the library. Which would make the day she entered the Castle December 23rd. Belle decides to celebrate Christmas but the Beast forbids because he got transformed on Christmas appartently. But Belle doesn’t really care that much, so she is going to have Christmas anyway because it’s awesome.

There is also a evil organ who likes the curse because now the Beast appreciates his emo music so he tries to get rid of Belle and when that fails he tries to kill everyone. That is pretty much the plot.

Forte, the Evil Emo Organ

The movie’s new characters are really jarring and boring, which an impressive combination. We have the evil organ, Forte, played by Tim Curry, who is evil and emo. He also have some kind of magic musical power that is never explained but it can bring down the house, literally.

Angelique, an angel played by Bernadette Peters who does nothing, there was no point to her character. Fife, Forte’s piccolo minion, who tells Beast about the source of Forte’s magic because Forte is a jerk and didn’t give poor little Fife a solo, you know he’s the reformed former baddie. And finally a jewish Axe which is painful to watch. I don’t get the thought process on that one at all.

These characters are forgettable. You would think Tim Curry as evil emo organ who be interesting but alas no. The CG work on him looks like it belongs in a different movie.

Belle and the Beast Ice Skating

This movie is fanfic-y and it pretty much shits all over the first one. Belle’s personality is completely destroyed. She basically wants to make the Beast happy and she is kind of doormat in a lot of ways. All her feistiness, charm and individualism are gone. It’s like he saved her the wolves and now she wants to make him happy? What happen to the nice slow progression of understanding and kindness? Why did you mess that up Disney? They also ruined the famous dance scene because they show Belle and the Beast in their formal dubs before the library scene. It’s just so wrong.

Msr.Potts, Cogsworth, Lumiere, and Angelique, Beauty and the Beast; The Enchanted Christmas picture iamge

Msr.Potts, Cogsworth, Lumiere, Fife and Angelique,

Then we have the cliche as fuck Christmas story. How many Christmas stories are about someone who hates Christmas trying to stop it and then get shown how awesome the holiday is? Pretty much all of them. Beast is our Scrooge, our Grinch who tries to fight the spirit of Christmas who in this case is Belle. And along with her friends and a Jewish Axe, show Beast the error of his ways before the evil emo organ can use his satanic musical powers to kill them all.

It’s been done to death. I think Disney just wanted to have a Christmas movie and Beauty and the Beast already had snow in it.

Chip in a wreath

Besides blatantly ruining the first one, Beauty and the Beast; The Enchanted Christmas is badly paced, the dialogue is train-wreck and over-all just unpleasant to watch. I was happy to see that this video was 63 minutes in length and yet it was still 30 minutes too long.

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Tag Archives: Disney

Descendants, new Disney Channel movie

101 Dalmatians II; Patch’s London Adventure Review; Why canâ€™t they talk to the other animals like in the first film?

Frozen Review (Spoilers)

Cinderella II: Dreams Come True Review; Stewed Prunes are better than this

U.S Debut for Hunchback Stage Show

Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure Review; Lady is a hands-off Mom

The Little Mermaid II; Return to the Sea Review; Even the Characters know it’s a Copy

An Extremely Goofy Movie Review; Why didn’t that Beret Girl get name?

Beauty and the Beast; The Enchanted Christmas; Featuring Scrooge Grinch Beast

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