Animation DVD Reviews: Brother Bear. Balto. Anastasia

I'm going to make these reviews a little shorter than usual because I think it might do my head in if I have to review 3 more animated films in depth! Please note, while these are DVD reviews I am only reviewing the films themselves, not the extras.
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BROTHER BEAR (2003)
PLOT:

Boy in rush to be a man. Boy doesn't respect animals. Boy becomes bear. Boy learns to respect animals and realises that showing love doesn't make you a pansy.

REVIEW:

Oh dear... I think the opening song sums up most of what is wrong with this recent Disney effort. We sweep over mountain tops, eagles soar, animals seem to live in harmony and, um, haven't I seen this somewhere before, done better I might add; yes, a sense of déjà vu hangs strongly over Brother Bear as the opening seemingly imitates The Lion King's opening, yet somehow it evokes little emotion. I'm not a huge fan of "The Circle of Life" it's very cheesy, but I have to admit that it works well and creates a very powerful opening for The Lion King. Yet here in Brother Bear we have a song that grates on the nerves more than anything, and visuals that regardless of the obvious effort put into them are just "there". I found most of Brother Bear like this: It's just all too familiar to be effective and outside of the relationship between the two main bears there is little to connect with emotionally.

The "comic-relief" moose are funny in places, but don't feel as organic to the story as other comic characters have managed to be in other Disney films - such as Abu in Aladdin, or Pumbaa and Timon in The Lion King. However, the fighting rams are quite inspired and made me laugh.

The story is simply too predictable to be enjoyable. I know these films are essentially made for kids but somehow most other Disney efforts don't feel this generic. It's like a recipe has been used: Take one moral lesson (love is good), take a few funny animals, set up a couple of basic obstacles and add a large portion of cheesy music and mix - result: An uninspired, by-the-numbers film called Brother Bear.

The bottom line is that I have little desire to watch Brother Bear again, where as I'd happily chuck in The Lion King, Tarzan, Aladdin or even Treasure Planet anytime.

DVD:

Apparently on the 2-Disc special edition, when Kenai becomes a bear the aspect ratio goes wider. Not so on this single disc release I viewed, it stayed at what appeared to be 1.85:1 from start to finish, however I did notice a slightly higher level of detail once he became a bear. The compression left a lot to be desired. It was soft (particularly the pre-bear section) and the colours - while vivid - graduated together poorly, creating clearly visible vertical grading all up the screen, and this was viewed on a 23' LCD screen! I imagine the defects would become even more noticeable on something larger.

IMAGE: 6/10

The sound - while DTS - didn't impress me much either. It was clear and rich but never felt particularly immersive, with the rear channels not being utilised enough. Not a total let-down but certainly not as impressive as I'd hoped for.

SOUND: 7/10

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

More than any animated Disney film before it, Brother Bear feels like something made by people who like money - either that, or people with little desire for originality. The morals are heavy handed, the songs are mainly annoying and it's too predictable to be truly enjoyable. I don't need my animated films to be loaded with pop-culture references (like Shrek) and I really appreciate that Brother Bear didn't go down that route, but ultimately the parts that worked were outweighed by the parts that didn't.

OVERALL: 5/10
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BALTO (1995)
PLOT:

Half dog, half wolf Balto can't seem to find his place in life. But when the remote town's children become sick, their last hope lies in a sled full of medicine supplies. However, the lead dog's arrogance leaves them lost in the woods and it's up to Balto to find the lost medicine and return it in time to save the children.


REVIEW:

Well here's one I missed completely! In my search for hidden gems I came across this for under $15 and thought I'd give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised, while it's not amazing, it is unique enough to standout a little from the pack.

Firstly this is not a Disney film and is not quite up to their standards of animation (it is an Amblimation, which Spielberg ran before he merged it with Dreamworks). It looks more like a Don Bluth (An American Tail) animation. I found the style to be a mixed bag. The backgrounds were nice, but some of the characters looked a little too sketched for my taste. There was none of that nice shading to give the characters depth, leaving them looking rather flat. Also the character design differed greatly; the humans looked fairly normal - as did the dogs and wolves - yet the "comic side-kicks" were so bizarre that I didn't know what they were until they referred to themselves as Polar Bears (strangely the other bear - a large grizzly - was easily the coolest character design by far, yet seemed like it was from another world in comparison to the odd looking Polar Bears).

The story was predictable but I didn't find that detracted from the excitement generated by some very well staged action sequences (the confrontation with the angry grizzly being the highlight).

DVD:

Unlike some versions of Balto, my copy was an Anamorphicly enhanced 1.77:1 image, unfortunately being a box-office flop Balto hasn't been given the special edition treatment, so the image has not been digitally remastered. Film grain is very apparent, yet I would happily take grain over the poor colour grading mentioned above in my review of Brother Bear. I would love to see Balto cleaned up (though that may never happen). Besides grain, the image is fairly sharp and I noticed no glaring compression issues. So considering its age and lack of digital restoration I'm pretty happy with the image.

IMAGE: 7/10

To my surprise Balto comes with a very decent DD5.1 soundtrack. I found it immersive, clear and rich. No real complaints here. Though of course I'd love to hear it in DTS.

SOUND: 8/10

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

Considering that Balto is based on a true story makes it all the more interesting and emotionally involving (though clearly huge liberties have been taken in regards to historical accuracy). The animation may not be up to Disney standards, but it still looks really good, and outside of the bizarre Polar Bear characters, it all comes together nicely. The morals aren't jammed down your throat (which is always a relief when it comes to "kids" films) and we aren't bombarded by a song every 5 minutes (unlike Anastasia which I will review next). Balto had its heart in the right place and I'd happily watch it again sometime in the future.

OVERALL: 7/10

NOTE: The opening and closing scenes are live-action (non-animated!) and are totally superfluous. In the future I would skip them completely.

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ANASTASIA (1997)
OFFICIAL PLOT:

"...When the shadow of revolution falls across Russia, the royal family's youngest daughter barely escape with her life. Years later, Anastasia and a band of heroic companions must battle the evil Rasputin, his sidekick Bartok the bat and a host of ghostly minions in a headlong race to reach Paris, reclaim her rightful destiny and solve the greatest mystery of the 20th century."

REVIEW:

Allow me to get straight to the point: I didn't enjoy Anastastia. I feel that when you are doing a musical (animation or not) it is vital that you strike the right balance between musical numbers and the plot/character scenes. Anastasia does not find this balance. It is particularly evident in the first half hour or so, as I was bombarded by song after song after song, with barely any plot advancement in between. As a result I found it very difficult to become involved or care much about the characters. And frankly I thought all the songs were uninspired, monotonous and constantly outlived their welcome. If there had been just a few less songs and each one had been a little shorter, I believe I would have quite a different opinion of Anastasia.

It's worth pointing out that this is easily the most attractive Don Bluth animation ever. The production values are clearly high and it looks pretty close in quality to the best that Disney has to offer. I wouldn't say that the production and character design is overly inventive or original, but it certainly is pretty.

DVD:

The image was very impressive. Sharp, clear and rich and no compression artifacts to be found anywhere. No problems here.

IMAGE: 10/10

The sound was of a high quality, but for the most part I had it turned down low because I found the songs so unbearable (and this is coming from someone who knows all the words to the songs in Aladdin). I turned up the sound for the exciting train crash sequence (probably the best scene in the entire film) and found it to be of fairly high quality. No real complaints here either.

SOUND: 8/10

CLOSING THOUGHTS.

Anastasia looks and sounds great... Unfortunately there are just way too many musical numbers for this chap to find it enjoyable. Less songs and more character scenes (or action scenes for that matter) would go a long way in making Anastasia a more well rounded film. Put simply: I found Anastasia very, very difficult to sit through (though I guess a late-twenties-male isn't exactly the target audience).

OVERALL: 3/10

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Agree? Disagree? Whatever the case I'd love to hear your comments and/or recommendations.
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Check out my other animated film reviews:

The Emperor's New Groove

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Atlantis: The Lost Empire/Treasure Planet

Tarzan

The Prince of Egypt

The Road to El Dorado

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Animation Review: The Emperor's New Groove

Plot Synopsis:

"In this animated comedy from the folks at Disney, the vain and cocky Emperor Kuzco is a very busy man. Besides maintaining his "groove", and firing his suspicious administrator, Yzma; he's also planning to build a new waterpark just for himself for his birthday. However, this means destroying one of the villages in his kingdom. Meanwhile, Yzma is hatching a plan to get revenge and usurp the throne. But, in a botched assassination courtesy of Yzma's right-hand man, Kronk, Kuzco is magically transformed into a llama. Now, Kuzco finds himself the property of Pacha, a lowly llama herder whose home is ground zero for the water park. Upon discovering the llama's true self, Pacha offers to help resolve the Emperor's problem and regain his throne, only if he promises to move his water park."

Ray's Review:

The Emperor's New Groove has an interesting history which I think is worth taking into account when watching the film.

I'll let this excerpt from IMDB explain:

"This film was originally planned to have been a dramatic, sweeping Disney musical named "Kingdom of the Sun", to be directed by The Lion King (1994) director Roger Allers and Mark Dindal, director of Turner's Cats Don't Dance (1997), with six original songs written by Sting, that was essentially an Incan re-telling of Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper." David Spade was the voice of the young emperor Manco, Owen Wilson was Pacha, a young peasant with a striking resemblance to the emperor, and Eartha Kitt was Yzma, the aged royal sorceress. The film involved Manco and Pacha switching places, except that Yzma finds out, turns Manco into a (non-speaking) llama, and makes Pacha do her bidding. Pacha also eventually was to fall in love with Nina (voice of Carla Gugino), the emperor's betrothed. The resulting film tested very poorly, and the production was suspended, even though the film was 50% complete. Allers and Yzma supervising animator Andreas Deja both left the project and moved to Orlando, Florida to work on Lilo & Stitch (2002). During the production hiatus, Dindal, producer Randy Fullmer, story man Chris Williams, and screenwriter David Reynolds completely overhauled the film, eventually throwing out Wilson, the "Prince and the Pauper" angle, the completed footage, and all but one of Sting's songs. The story was rebuilt from the ground up, retaining Spade's and Kitt's characters and creating a new, wackier film that centered around Spade's (talking) llama, Yzma, and two new characters: Pacha, now a middle aged man played by John Goodman and Patrick Warburton's character Kronk."

Taking the troubled production into account it's a miracle how great Groove really is, it's easily the most irreverent and insane Disney film I've ever seen, and certainly the most I have ever laughed aloud at an animated film (outside of Southpark: The Movie). If you appreciate David Spade's sarcastic sense of humour you are in for a treat, if not, then there still might be enough other elements to make it enjoyable, though I think a lot of people out there have commented on his character being too cruel... Personally I think he's hilarious and it's all about the 'character arc' anyway; the story requires him to be an egocentric so that his transformation by the end is believable.

Compared to other Disney films this certainly is the first one to draw comparisons, not to other Disney films, but more to Wyle Coyote and Road Runner. It's simply packed with slapstick humour and physical gags, all of which are very funny. I really appreciated this approach and found it to be a breath of fresh air after all the recent grand (and sometimes pompous) Disney films that came before it. This is certainly not in the vein of Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King, this is totally going for laughs, with the smallest possible amount of their usual operatic grandeur.


The characters are all fantastic and even my little 3-year old nephew had their confusingly similar names memorised on first viewing. Kuzco is a never ending barrage of hilarious sarcasm. The idiotic Kronk is a delight (and now has his very own sequel which I hope is good), the scenes where he wrestles with his inner angel and demon are particularly funny. Yzma makes a suitable Nemesis, classic in the vein of other evil Disney woman, yet tons more fun. And John Goodman's Pacha plays the usually tedious role of the "morally sound do-gooder" in an admirably charming manner.

My only peeve with Groove would be the few moments where you sense that they are probably using scenes from the abandoned earlier version of the film ("Kingdom of the Sun") and trying to spice them up with a few inserts or humorous voice overs. I can't say for certain that this is the case, but it certainly feels that way in certain scenes, distracting slightly from the usually consistent tone.

Presentation wise, the DVD looked rich and sharp, with no noticeable compression issues (unlike Brother Bear which I will review later). Groove is packed full of fast motion but never suffers because of it (however I am watching it on a 23' LCD, so on a huge projector compression may become noticeable).

In regards to the sound I found nothing to complain about, it was not quite up to the level of quality set by The Lion king (which would be impossible anyway because that comes in DTS and Groove is only DD5.1 on my Region 4 copy) but it's a nice mix and the dialogue is crystal clear at all times - which in a non-stop talking film like this is essential.

DVD Presentation/Sound: 8/10 (Would give it perfect marks if it had DTS)

Film: 9/10

Closing Notes:

Groove is a different kind of Disney film. It has more of an emphasis on slapstick humour and I personally found it a nice change of pace to the usual Disney style. It's packed full of jokes that will fly over kids heads and make an adult chuckle, yet there is plenty of Road Runner type physical gags to keep the kids laughing too. The animation - while not quite as grand as some other Disney films - is exquisite, but most importantly the characters work and I always enjoy spending the 78mins with them... the time flies by when you are having this much of a good time. As Kuzco says "Bring it on".

Check out my other animated film reviews:

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Atlantis: The Lost Empire/Treasure Planet

Tarzan

The Prince of Egypt

The Road to El Dorado

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Mission Impossible III - Ray's Review

Allow me to get straight to the juicy part:

M:i:III gets a solid 9/10

It is easily better than the first two installments. Part I had some elements of team-work (and it had that really cool bit with the water crashing through the window and Cruise doing his awesome running - man can this guy run cool or what?), but the ending has always confused the hell outta me, I simply had no idea who did what to who by the end (and I didn't care much either), all I knew was that the very guy who gave them their missions was the bad guy (how stupid is that? It totally goes against the TV series and is one "bold move" I could do without).

Part II looked fantastic thanks to Woo, but it wasn't a good Mission Impossible film, in fact the teamwork element seemed to be a mere afterthought. The plot was secondary to the cool action scenes (which on repeat viewing I was surprised to find there aren't anywhere near enough of) and the film just felt hollow. I have a few friends who hate this film vehemently and I can understand why, but my love for Woo meant I still enjoyed it.

Part III finally gets the combination of elements right. The teamwork is brilliant, the copious action scenes are tense, well staged and exhilarating. Ethan Hunt's home life is brought into focus and he even has a bit of a "character arc" this time around. Cruise tackles the stunts and emotional scenes with an equal amount of skill and enthusiasm, and there is no denying his strong screen presence. The antagonist (played brilliantly by Philip Seymour Hoffman) is truly intimidating and ups the ante in a huge way. With a lesser actor in the role the whole film would have been diminished; it's the first decent bad guy in years and should hopefully remind people that they don't have to be tedious over-actors who lament about crap and prance around doing a whole lot of nothing.

I'm not going to go into the plot, suffice to say it is interesting and it moves like a rocket (I kept trying to find a moment to go to the toilet, but the film just never let up and I had to hold on to the end - but the agony was worth it). Most importantly the plot isn't too predictable and has a few surprises up its sleeve, which is more than you can say for most films these days. The supporting actors - while not having much in the way of character development - are all solid and play their parts with aplomb.

On the small downside, the director certainly handles everything well - particularly the story and characters - but I still think the film could have looked a little more polished and I got sick of all the dolly shots with blurry foreground elements flying past... it reminded me of what they do on TV shows to try and make things seem more chaotic and lived in, by the end I felt like pushing some of the crap out of the way so I could see what was going on behind it! Also the last scene was totally superfluous and pretty big on the cheese, but hey, after all the cool shit that came before it, it didn't bother me much.

Anyway, that's one small problem in a huge success of a film. Mission Impossible III is everything you want from a large scale Blockbuster film and will be a hard act to follow for the remaining big films this year.

9/10