The Jungle Book (1967) - Carol's favorite Disney animated movie. For some reason, I expected not to like it, but I did. It's beautiful, the music is great, and the voice cast is really incredible, anchored by Sebastian Cabot's panther, Bagheera. This is the first of three consecutive movies for Phil Harris who voices the bear Baloo. There's not much of a plot here, simply a series of encounters with various animals who want to eat Mowgli, as Bagheera tries to get the kid to the man-village. This was the last animated film that Walt Disney personally worked on.
The Aristocats (1970) - We owned this on tape, and the kids watched the hell out of it, souring me on it for years. Watching it now, the film is slightly better than I expected, but I still find it kind of depressing. The general look of the movie is dark and the plot is just a variation on 101 Dalmations. And I really dislike Phil Harris' cocky cat hero, Thomas O'Malley, who sings one of the most annoying Disney songs ever. I found it fascinating that this is the first of several Disney movies from this period with the voice talents of 1960s American rural sitcom actors, Pat "Mr. Haney" Buttram, and George "Goober" Lindsey.
Robin Hood (1973) - A fun take on the Robin Hood legend, but with animals. I enjoyed this. Phil Harris is Little John here, who is basically Baloo. To its credit, the story takes some weird twists, when I expected it to be a carbon copy of Errol Flynn's The Adventures of Robin Hood. The end is rather abrupt, without a suitable final conflict, but all in all a lesser known Disney film that works really well.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) - Another of my kids' favorites, this film was pieced together from three Winnie the Pooh shorts that showed in theatres in the 60s and 70s. The individual stories are fun (and sad) and the characters endearing, with some of the most iconic vocal performances in Disney film history, including Sterling Holloway as Pooh, John Fiedler as Piglet, Paul Winfield as Tigger, and Sebastian Cabot as the Narrator. All in all, a whimsical, melancholy delight.
The Rescuers (1977) - I knew going in that this has a pretty big following and I can see why. Two actors wildly popular with kids, Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor, star as two mice, Bernard and Miss Bianca, who belong to a mice United Nations that provides assistance to children and animals in danger. In this case, they set out to rescue Penny, a little girl kidnapped in New York City and taken to the Bayou to help the villains find a large diamond. Like almost every Disney animated movie of this period, the tone is very melancholy, but the mice are charming, Penny is smart and empowered, and the villains are well done. And Miss Bianca is a wonderful character, kind and thoughtful. The only Disney animated movie to spawn a theatrical sequel until Fantasia 2000.
3 comments:
I didn't realize that Winnie the Pooh was pieced together from shorts. Is there any original footage?
I don't think there are actually any cuts in the shorts. They were completely integrated into the movie. This is from IMDB:
This is actually made up of three classic Winnie the Pooh shorts: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974), all edited together with animated wrap-arounds with Pooh and Piglet between each feature.
My sister and I were walking through the park, looking for birds and squirrels to photograph, when we found this gingerbread house sitting on a picnic table. No one else was around, and even the birds and squirrels didn’t seem interested in it.
--------------------------------
Kaspersky Contact Nederland
Post a Comment