Bambi was no.5 of the Disney Animated Calssics. Again, this was another one that I had not seen before and to be honest, I didn't even know the premise of it. People kept telling me in the run up to it, that it is one of the saddest of the Disney films. I've seen Toy Story 3 so I was ready for anything.
As with Dumbo, this was presented in stunning quality on the Disney BluRay label. Based on what everyone was saying, I went into this expecting better than I got out of it. It was alright. I think my problem with it, is that The Lion King has borrowed some similarities from it and that is the one I grew up with so this felt a little bit of an imposter. Ironic, considering Bambi was over 50 years earlier.
With number 5 over, I am taking a break from the 'classics' we all know and love to view the ones I have never heard of. Nos 6-11 could be tough.
Disney Classic no.4 was Dumbo, the timeless tale of social acceptance. When I started this, Dumbo was always set to be a special one. The reason being it is the first high definition viewing on the list. A lot of the list is currently sitting on my Sky HD box, taped from Disney Cinemagic, but this one is Blu Ray presented in the oriignal 4:3 aspect ration.
At only 63 minutes, this was an easy one to put on, and I'm glad I didn't put it off any longer. In the previous post, I said that Pinocchio was the first of what I consider to be the proper Disney films. It is nothing in comparison to Dumbo. This truly does warrant the term 'classic'. Visually, it may not be as strong as Pinocchio but the story more than makes up for this. It really is a tale which could only be told through the medium of animation.
Watching this has really set me up for getting through this list.
1940 saw the release of two feature length Disney movies. The first was Pinocchio as mentioned in the previous post, with the second being Fantasia. Fantasia is a strange one. It is not your nomral Disney feature. It is showcase of the animator's talents to visualise orchestral music with the movie being divided into 8 segments.
I remember watching this when I was young and really not liking it. Looking at it now with a more mature mind, you can see how it was a departure from what they acheived with the first two movies. It focusses on dark themes to bring the music to life. As expected, the visuals have dated. I believe they would have been out of this world back in 1940 but looking at it nowadays, it was a bit of a drag to watch and the two hour runtime didn't help matters.
Next up on the Disney releases was 1940's Pinocchio. As with most of the films on the list, I know the premise but haven't seen the Disney version the full way through. And this is no different. I vaguely remeber seeing bits of this in the early 90's when the VHS was released around the time of the first Lion King release.
For me, this is the first proper Disney movie. It brings to life and gives a voice to characters that wouldn't exist in the real world which is the key Disney element. I think that was what my issue was with Snow White. All voiced characters were of this world. Fair enough, there was the mirror but that could have been in her mind.
The story of Pinocchio works well in the Disney format and it let them set their stall to show what can be acheived when you use an old story as the canvas.
Project Disney officially kicked off last night. First on the list was Walt Disney's first feature length picture from 1937 - Snow White And The Seven Dwarves. Having never seen this one, I was quite looking forward to it. It was the film that started it all. All the other classics on the list came about due to the success of Snow White.
What happened with this, is something I feel will happen with a lot of the movies. I know the story but just haven't seen the movie. The film was not that bad. It wasn't the best Disney movie I have ever seen but I wasn't expecting it to be. It was from 1937 and a feature length animation had not been done before. The visuals were quite raw but I am looking at this as someone who grew up with the well established Disney movies of the 80's and early 90's and into the Pixar era. I did feel the storyline was a bit rushed. There was obviously a bond between Snow White and The Dwarves but it wasn't really showcased. Of the 80 minute running time, there was minimal interaction of the key 8 figures on screen together.
Overall, this achieved what I aim to achieve with this project, to watch the Disney movies I previously wouldn't care for and see the developement of animation over the past 77 years.
This month sees the theatrical release of Tangled, Disney's take on the Rapunzel Fairytale. With this release, there has been quite a big deal being made about the fact that this is the 50th full length animated feature from the House of Mouse.
So, after a discussion in work today with Darren (who incidentally has a new blog) we decided that this was a challenge I could not let pass. I am going to watch all the films in release order (below) and blog about each one. It's not a time challenge, it is just a wee project to further increase my animation addiction.
1.) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) 2.) Pinocchio (1940) 3.) Fantasia (1940) 4.) Dumbo (1941) 5.) Bambi (1942) 6.) Saludos Amigos (1942) 7.) The Three Caballeros (1944) 8.) Make Mine Music (1946) 9.) Fun and Fancy Free (1947) 10.) Melody Time (1948) 11.) The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) 12.) Cinderella (1950) 13.) Alice in Wonderland (1951) 14.) Peter Pan (1953) 15.) Lady and the Tramp (1955) 16.) Sleeping Beauty (1959) 17.) One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) 18.) The Sword in the Stone (1963) 19.) The Jungle Book (1967) 20.) The Aristocats (1970) 21.) Robin Hood (1973) 22.) The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) 23.) The Rescuers (1977) 24.) The Fox and the Hound (1981) 25.) The Black Cauldron (1985) 26.) The Great Mouse Detective (1986) 27.) Oliver & Company (1988) 28.) The Little Mermaid (1989) 29.) The Rescuers Down Under (1990) 30.) Beauty and the Beast (1991) 31.) Aladdin (1992) 32.) The Lion King (1994) 33.) Pocahontas (1995) 34.) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) 35.) Hercules (1997) 36.) Mulan (1998) 37.) Tarzan (1999) 38.) Fantasia 2000 (1999) 39.) Dinosaur (2000) 40.) The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) 41.) Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) 42.) Lilo & Stitch (2002) 43.) Treasure Planet (2002) 44.) Brother Bear (2003) 45.) Home on the Range (2004) 46.) Chicken Little (2005) 47.) Meet the Robinsons (2007) 48.) Bolt (2008) 49.) The Princess and the Frog (2009) 50.) Tangled (2010)
I suspect nos 6 - 11 could pose a major stumbling block quite early on.
I consider myself to be an above average movie watcher. By this, I mean I have varied tastes and will look for a high variety of movies instead of just the top 5 Box Office films they throw in the public's direction. A double bill of movies could easily see a festival winner followed up by a foreign crime drama. The problem with this though, is when you try and push a good movie onto others who fall into the 'Box Office' category it often falls onto deaf ears. With this in mind, I try and not use the blog as a vehicle for recommendations for that exact reason.
However, that is to change with this post. Last night, I watched a movie which I cannot recommend enough.
Mary And Max is a claymation movie brought to us by Australian Adam Elliot. Do not think of this as your normal Wallace and Gromit adventure. It may be made in clay, but it is definitely not one for the kids. The two main characters of the movie as you could guess from the title are Mary and Max. Mary is a young girl from a Melbourne suburb who is a bit of a loner with parents who do not really care. On the other side of the world, we have Max who lives in a New York apartment who eats for comfort. The two characters become penpals and what follows is an unlikely tale of friendship between two lonely souls spanning many years.
It may not sound like much but give it a go. You will be completely amazed by the 80 minute emotional rollercoaster that is presented before you.
