Disney parodying Disney

Shadow Hog · Post by **Shadow Hog** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 9:48 pm

Bump. It's out now. I've heard it's good. Anyone care to confirm this? I intend to see it when I get a chance, given the positive buzz surrounding this one.

Radrappy · Post by **Radrappy** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 3:09 pm

I went to go see it on opening night. Don't be fooled by all the extremely positive buzz as itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s by no means an exceptional movie. There are entertaining sequences and some funny moments but the humor is rather crude and predictable. Amy Adams is receiving all sorts of praise for her performance but it was exactly what you'd expect really. Also, in the last 15 minutes the movie basically falls apart leaving me entirely confused about what the filmmakers are even trying to say. It was a pretty cool concept that really just played it safe and has resulted in a pretty decent family comedy (naturally geared at little girls though) I suppose. Yup.

In other words, if you saw this movie you'd essentially be treating yourself to a two hour version of the trailer.

Cuckooguy · Post by **Cuckooguy** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 10:12 pm

How's the soundtrack? Is Alan Menken still a good composer? Sometimes Disney has made a movie that would've been weak if it wasn't a musical. Of the 90s movies, Aladdin and Lion King might've been doable without musicals, but The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast would've sucked if they weren't musicals unless there were some major tweaks to the story.

What made me not want to check out the movie was the crude and predictable humor that they thought to emphasize in the trailer. It was like

LOL the rat fell in the toilet while cleaning and the bird splatted on the window LOL this comedy is gold

But I might be tempted to see the musical sequences on youtube if they ever get put up.

Post by **Popcorn** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 11:08 pm

Cuckooguy wrote: What made me not want to check out the movie was the crude and predictable humor that they thought to emphasize in the trailer. It was like

LOL the rat fell in the toilet while cleaning and the bird splatted on the window LOL this comedy is gold

Are you crazy! No-one stabs my bus!! I'm an angry black woman! Wooarrrhhghh!

Cuckooguy · Post by **Cuckooguy** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 11:47 pm

So I decided to spoil myself and search youtube to see how the songs stack up.

They're alright, though sometimes your impressions of certain songs are much better when you understand how they work within the context of the story so I might really like some of them under the right circumstances. Happy Working Song is cute and I quite liked That's How You Know. The only version of Ever Ever After I can find is the pop version so I don't think I can properly judge that. So Close is also a nice melancholic tune. I don't really like True Love's Kiss because it feels too obvious that the lyrics are supposed to be parody.

Thanks to this, I decided to check out some other musicals. I think everyone else should suffer with me to this Sleeping Beauty song:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DpFSz8vZb4">I Walked With You Once Upon a Nightmare</a>

Radrappy · Post by **Radrappy** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 2:24 am

The soundtrack is not very memorable. Nothing on the level of the disney movies you mentioned anyway.

Cuckooguy · Post by **Cuckooguy** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 2:34 am

Yes, that's definitely true, and I did some research and I found out he did Hercules and Home on the Range, two movies where the soundtrack weren't memorable at all. I guess his last great soundtrack was The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Shadow Hog · Post by **Shadow Hog** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 10:40 am

Ironically, I can't remember much of Hunchback's soundtrack.

DackAttac · Post by **DackAttac** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:48 pm

I don't remember any of it either, but I at least remember enjoying it way back when I saw the flick.

Protodude · Post by **Protodude** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 3:01 pm

Hunchback had some Fuck awesome music, some of the best in a Disney movie if I remember right, but a lot of people also regard it as one of the weakest 90's Disney movies because of the story. I haven't seen it since it came out on VHS so I don't remember, but I've been meaning to watch it again one of these days.

Black Rook · Post by **Black Rook** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 5:14 pm

If nothing else, I think Hunchback was the first one where the patented Disney formula felt like a formula, and not like a natural part of the story. In the movies before this, the obligatory "talking whatever" sidekick(s) felt more natural. In Hunchback, the gargoyles were shoehorned in, like they thought the movie would fail if a single part of the formula was ignored.

Post by **G.Silver** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 5:23 pm

I think Atlantis would have really benefited from being a musical. It seemed like all the right occasions were there, a scientific lecture, the tour of the Nautilus (and its speedy destruction), a despair-filled tunnel, and finally the arrival at Atlantis. If they'd taken all the parts they had and put it against a slightly tongue-in-cheek musical background I think they'd have really had something.

Black Rook · Post by **Black Rook** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 5:51 pm

I thoughts one of the things Atlantis was praised for was its lack of musical numbers.

I haven't seen it myself, so I can't really judge.

Edit: Wow. My typing skills are very off today.

Shadow Hog · Post by **Shadow Hog** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:36 pm

Eh. I quite enjoyed Atlantis myself, so I didn't really mind.

I don't think I ever felt that Disney jumped the shark until Emperor's New Groove myself. However, I had based that on the trailer alone, and when I actually saw the movie, I was left with a considerably better impression of the movie (ie: I thought the movie'd bomb based on the teaser trailer, and wound up enjoying the final product regardless). Still, I dunno how much Brother Bear or Home on the Range did for me (at least Brother Bear's plot was pretty unique, what with the twist where the kid bear the central character was dealing with the whole time was the son of the mother bear he'd killed to begin with and how the "villain" at least had noble intentions)... I also remember liking Treasure Planet a bit, even if apparently that was the biggest bomb in Disney history.