Bingeing Disney Animation 11

  

 

And now, back to the good stuff.

The Princess and the Frog (2009) - Disney's first hand-drawn animated film in five years, PATF is really good, but didn't perform well enough to justify a return to the laborious hand-drawn process. Featuring the first black Disney princess, the story is the usual "humans turn into animals" fare, but it's touching and fun. I especially liked that Tiana's childhood companion and potential romantic rival, Charlotte, turns out not to be a competitor, but a true friend. The villain is first rate, the chilling voodoo practitioner, Dr. Facilier, voiced by the great Keith David. I had never seen this before and really enjoyed it.

Tangled (2010) - The story of Rapunzel and her super-long, magical hair, is elevated by some great character work, lots of humor, and a well-realized fantasy setting. The villain, Mother Gothel, is as human as Frollo in Hunchback and just as evil. Also of note, the music is really good. Some folk quibble about which film marked the start of the Disney Revival, I would say it started with Meet the Robinsons, but it's clear that by the time of Tangled, the Revival was well underway.

Winnie the Pooh (2011) - As we approach the end of the list, this is the last film I hadn't seen before we started this binge. I'm a fan of the 1977 Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and I give the Disney animators a great amount of credit for replicating the style of that film here, complete with a real-life opening, set in Christopher Robin's room, as well as John Cleese doing a pretty fantastic Sebastian Cabot impression. (I'm sure it wasn't actually an impression, but their accents are so similar that for several seconds, until I realized who it was, I wondered if Cabot was still alive.)  Unfortunately, the story itself is forgettable, not coming close to the melancholy warmth of the original 1977 film.

Wreck-It Ralph (2012) - WIR is fantastic, nearly without fault, and the best Disney animated film since the Renaissance. The story of an old-school video game character who's sick of being a villain, it's endlessly inventive, the characters are complex and affecting, and it has a huge heart. I've seen WIR a bunch of times and it's always wonderful. Plus, like Monsters, Inc., the very last shot and line of the film are perfect. The end nearly makes me cry every single time I see it.

Frozen (2013) - You may have heard of this one? Disney's biggest animated hit in years in case there was any doubt that Disney was the most successful animated studio on the planet. I enjoy this film but it's not a huge hit for me. The music is excellent and well-performed and the icy visuals are spectacular. At its heart, it's a superhero origin story with two Disney princesses. And boy, do kids love it.