The Lion King

As the lights went dark in the theater last weekend, I watched my son’s face in anticipation. I’ll always remember how I felt at the start of The Lion King. The singing call and the sun rising startled and shook me inside. I remember being amazed, mystified and engrossed in the film, especially in that stunning beginning. I think The Lion King pushed me from a kid who liked movies to a young film fan. I was eight then, my son is only three now. As the opening number slammed shut with the title in red on the screen, my son asked in his movie-theater whisper, “Can I hold the drink?” I sighed with nostalgic tears in my eyes and handed over the drink. I hope one day he finds a movie the defines his childhood like The Lion King defined mine.

The Lion King is more grand than your average animated film. The story isn’t a fairy tale, but a story of power, family and destiny set within the animal kingdom on the African savanna. Simba (voiced by 90s teen star Jonathan Taylor Thomas and 80s teen star Matthew Broderick) is a young prince excited about his future as king. His wise father, Mufasa (voiced by the even more iconic James Earl Jones), tries to teach Simba what it means to be king while his uncle, Scar (voiced by Jeremy Irons), plots to worm his way onto the throne. After Scar murders Mufasa, in one of the most devastating scenes known to Disney, he convinces young Simba the death was his fault. Afraid, Simba leaves the Pride Lands and Scar rules with his band of hyenas. After years of Hakuna Matata, Simba learns that his kingdom is in ruins and he must face his uncle to reclaim it and fulfill his destiny. The story is basically Hamlet with animals, but most American 90s kids didn’t realize it.

Everyone loves the music from The Lion King.  Many kids grow up knowing all the songs by heart. And rightfully so, even the bouncy I Just Can’t Wait to be King has aged wonderfully. Three of the songs, Circle of Life, Can You Feel the Love Tonight and Hakuna Matata were Oscar nominated, with Can You Feel  the Love Tonight winning.

The score is also Oscar winning and perfectly reflects the movie. It’s heavy, yet whimsical, can be very serious and solemn and rooted in its African themes. I can easily listen to The Lion King’s score for hours. It’s such a beautiful soundtrack to envelop an equally visually beautiful film. The styles compliment each other perfectly and it feels like a beautiful celebration of life.

I personally believe The Lion King defines the height of the Disney Renaissance. Never before had Disney animation been so crisp, flawless and intense. And the level of storytelling was raised to a level that could fulfill the hearts and souls of all. I feel very lucky to have been at the perfect age to see this film in its original release and to grow up on its ideas of owning your past, fulfilling your destiny and stepping up to take charge of your own life. Now, sharing this film with my child is an amazing treat, and give the circle of life greater meaning. 

“You see? He lives in you.”

Zootopia

Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) is a young, optimistic rabbit who dreamed her whole life of being a police officer.  She’s the daughter of a carrot farmer from her little country town and plans to move to Zootopia, where anyone can be anything.  But there are big obstacles for this little bunny, from a childhood bully, grueling physical police academy tests better suited for lions or bears, and her dismissive boss who doesn’t seem to care for a rabbit on his force.  When she tries to make a difference, promising a distraught wife that she will find her missing husband, Hopps’ boss gives her an ultimatum to find him within two days or she is fired.  

This leads Hopps to seek help from a local hustler she met on duty, Nick (voiced by Jason Bateman), a fox.  Foxes are seen as a very untrustworthy predator.  With Hopps’ childhood bully being a fox, her parents warning her against foxes so much so that they give her pepper spray like fox repellant, we understand the tension between the two right away.  But a friendship forms between them as they work to crack the case of the missing otter and discover a conspiracy that could destroy Zootopia.

Disney films have tackled social issues before, but never so head on as Zootopia.  The tension between predators and prey, foxes and rabbits plays along our society’s problems with racism and sexism.  Gazelle’s line, “It is irresponsible to label all predators as savages,” is a heated one where we can easily replace predator with any minority and savage with any unsavory stereotype.  Yet the film is still kid friendly enough that adults don’t need to worry about their children witnessing any racist acts or slurs that could get them in trouble at school.  It’s easy for children and adults to understand who the victims are here, regardless of their own upbringing.  

The writing about social issues is smart, the mystery plot that unfolds is brilliant.  This is one of the more elaborate stories I’ve seen from Disney and I really enjoyed it.  I think it can best describe it as an animated buddy cop noir with a touch of Chinatown for inspiration.  And adults will enjoy the Godfather and Breaking Bad references.  

While I expect to see Zootopia nominated for best animated feature come Oscar season, I doubt it will take the prize.  Visually, the film does nothing new.  Sure, it’s a lot of fun to see how all these different animals live together, the sloth scene is great slow motion fun and Tommy Chong as a yak running a “naturalist club” is hilarious.  But if Zootopia does take the Oscar, it will be for it’s superb writing, which it may find a second nomination for.  

“I mean I am just a dumb bunny, but we are good at multiplying.”

Finding Dory

For the past thirteen years Dory (voiced by the wonderful Ellen DeGeneres) has been the world favorite forgetful fish.  Between speaking whale, befriending sharks and forgetting the whole thing, she stole the show in Finding Nemo.  And let’s face it, Marlin wouldn’t have gotten far without her.  It makes perfect sense for the magic makers at Pixar to tell her story.  

In Finding Dory, we see flashbacks and fragments of Dory’s childhood (and Baby Dory so stinkin’ cute!).  Dory starts to remember bits about herself, including her parents.  With Nemo (voiced by Hayden Rolence)  and Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks), she sets off across the ocean to find them in California.  They are led to an aquarium, The Marine Life Institute, and find their way inside.  Dory gets some help from a runaway octopus named Hank (voiced by Ed O’Neill) who has some great camouflage tricks while Marlin and Nemo meet Becky… I love Becky too much to spoil.  Dory also meets old friends, finds her old home, faces heartbreaking revelations and shows off her amazing strengths.  By the end everyone will be asking, “What would Dory do?”

One of my favorite scenes was when Dory and Hank are in the Touch Pool.  Those are those shallow, kid height aquariums full of starfish and sea sponges that kids put their grubby hands in to touch the fish.  They looked cute and harmless when I let my kid check it out at the aquarium.  In Finding Dory, it’s a bottom dweller’s nightmare.  My kid jumped a mile on my lap when the first hand dove into the water.  He gripped my arm during this scene and I just felt bad for all the creatures trying to hide.  Maybe next time we’ll skip the touch pool.

What I think Finding Nemo does best is remind us that Dory  is not just our favorite forgetful fish but an amazing, resilient, resourceful and daring leading fish.  Her important memories are not forgotten, just buried deep inside her and are awakened one by one.  Many flashbacks show that Dory’s parents taught her the best they could with her memory loss issue and parents, especially with challenging children, should take note to their resilience as well.  Never count anyone out, it’s amazing what even the most challenged beings can do.

I suspect Finding Dory will be the front-runner for best animated feature, as Pixar films usually are.  Visually, it is superb taking us from familiar oceans to the inner workings of the aquarium.  And Hank’s camouflage antics are a huge hit.  The story springboards off of Finding Nemo, but with it’s zanier antics and quick pace builds it’s own unique tone.  However, like Nemo, it still has it’s heart in the right place with the parent-child dynamic flipped around as Dory searches for her parents.  It will make you cry just a bit and laugh a whole lot.  I think I laughed the most at the use of Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World during some perfect slow motion.  

“My friend, Sigourney, once said: rescue, rehabilitate, release!”

Tarzan

Many of Disney’s films feature anthropomorphic animals.  In most we are either completely in an animal world (The Lion King) or a in human’s world with animals who band together (101 Dalmatians, The Aristocats).  While The Jungle Book comes close, 1999’s Tarzan beautifully bridges the human and animal world in a way Disney never had before.  The opening scene and song, appropriately named Two Worlds, shows this connection perfectly as a grieving mother finds an orphaned baby.  

Tarzan (voiced by Tony Goldwyn) is raised by Kala (Glenn Close) among the other gorillas.  As a child, Tarzan is frustrated by his differences from his playmates and is often counted out.  The way his mother accepts him and encourages him is moving and encourages Tarzan to be the best ape he can be.  He grows into one of the strongest males in the family and just when Tarzan has defeated the jaguar that has been stalking the gorillas his entire life, a new predator comes to the jungle.  

Enter Jane (Minnie Driver), her dorky dad (Nigel Hawthorne) and Clayton (Brian Blessed).  They have traveled to Africa to study the gorillas, but run into Tarzan instead.  Jane and her father are fascinated by him and teach Tarzan to speak English, hoping that he will take them to the gorillas.  While Tarzan is blown away by the new world Jane is showing him, he is oblivious to the danger Clayton poses.  

One of my favorite aspects of this film is the soundtrack.  Who doesn’t enjoy a little Phil Collins?  All the songs are written and performed by him, and they all rock.  Unlike most Disney films, these songs are not sung by the characters, which I like.  I can’t imagine Tarzan breaking into song, it’s just too out of character.  Trashin’ the Camp is the only song that gets the characters actively singing, but it keeps to the gorillas’ character in a very fun way.  This soundtrack includes one of my all time favorite Disney movie songs, You’ll Be In My Heart.  It’s the ultimate parent/child song and it makes my heart swell when my kid dances to it with me.  

If I were to make a list of movies for mothers to share with their sons, Tarzan would be near the top.  It would also be one of the first to show them, even with elements of death and guns, very young children shouldn’t be too disturbed with their moms nearby.  Since before my son could walk he loved watching the gorillas (he used to call them ah-ahs!).  Now, at age 2, he enjoys making elephant noises with Tantar and drumming with the songs.  Best of all, he knows who Tarzan’s mommy is, even though they don’t look the same.  

Besides the lovely mother-son relationship, Tarzan shows a great message about being a man.  Son of Man is another great song here that helps drive the point home.  In the end, we hope boys are inspired to be a man like Tarzan rather than Clayton.  The moment where Tarzan breaks the gun, rather than firing it, is a powerful gesture.  Staying with his family as their new leader is an even better one.  

“What kind of primitive beasts are responsible for this mess?”

Sleeping Beauty

In 1959, after nearly ten years in production and Disneyland’s castle named in its honor, Disney’s Sleeping Beauty was finally released.  It was the first film animated in 70mm and a true feat of artistic achievement.  To this day, many consider it to be the visual high point of animation in the golden era.  

The story is a beautiful retelling of the fairy tale, where the infant Princess Aurora is cursed by an evil fairy, Maleficent (voiced by the amazing Eleanor Audley).  Maleficent’s spell says that Aurora will prick her finger on the needle of a spinning wheel and die.  Thankfully, the last good fairy, Merryweather, still has her gift to bestow on the baby and lessens the spell, so that Aurora will not die, but only sleep until she is awakened by true love’s kiss.  Aurora is then raised in the forest by the three good fairies, (away from spinning wheels) until her sixteenth birthday, when the spell will be broken.  But Maleficent is always looking for her and Aurora’s chance encounter with a prince complicates what should be her joyous sixteenth birthday.

Styled after European medieval paintings, the characters have a surprisingly modern feel as they pop off the intricate, sprawling backgrounds designed by Eyvind Earle.  In fact, Earle was not only in charge of background design, but color styling and the overall look of the film.  I know the Academy has rarely nominated animated films, but how Sleeping Beauty was not considered for cinematography or art direction is beyond me.

However, the film was nominated for best scoring of a musical picture.  In addition to the well known songs like Once Upon a Dream, Sleeping Beauty makes great use of instrumental pieces, some of them from Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty.  One of my favorites is the piece used as Maleficent lures Aurora way to a spinning wheel, Puss in Boot and the White Cat.  It starts slow, then speeds up, perfectly creating suspense but is still light enough for a children’s movie.  

What I think makes Sleeping Beauty such a likable film is the amount of comedy in it.  Even from 1959, these gags have not gone stale over time.  Kids will love Flora and Merryweather magically arguing over whether Aurora’s dress should be pink or blue.  The scene showing how inept the fairies are when it comes to housework is hilarious.  I love the look on Fauna’s face after she folds in the eggs.  

One scene that always gets me laughing is when the kings get drunk while pregaming Aurora’s arrival and get into a fight.  In between choruses of Skumps, they, and the tipsy lute player, guzzle down wine and discuss their children’s future together.  Eventually, King Hubert brandishes a fish at King Stefan and attacks until it goes limp, but they just laugh it off.  Who knows what kind of wacky kingdoms these guys are running.  

There is also a good amount of action for a children’s movie.  Maleficent does not disappoint and the climactic battle between her and Prince Philip (with a little help) is exciting to watch every time.  From his daring escape, slicing through the enchanted thorns, up to slaying Maleficent as a dragon still keeps me engaged.  And the dragon is my son’s favorite part of the movie, although he thinks she just falls at the end.  “Uh oh, dragon trip!”

I know Sleeping Beauty has some problems.  Aurora is a very simplified girl who doesn’t get so say much, even when being the title character.  However, looking past the story and character faults, the film is visual masterpiece.  Personally, I’d love to see it released in IMAX, there are so many ornate details to soak up, you can find something new every time.  

“You poor, simple fools.  Thinking you could defeat me.  Me!  The mistress of all evil!  Well, here’s your precious princess!”

The Good Dinosaur

In The Good Dinosaur, the minds at Pixar have imagined a world where the meteor that killed the dinosaurs has missed Earth.  The result, a few million years later, are more evolved dinosaurs.  They farm the land, are ranchers, or sometimes just scavengers.  And the humans that have come along the evolutionary line are seen as wild animals.  

Arlo and his family live on a little farm by the river under Clawtooth Mountain.  There, they live a happy life and grow corn through the summer to feed them through the winter.  His father is a stern, archetypal farmer; his mother, nurturing.  Though he came from a large egg, Arlo is the runt.  His sister is the brains, his brother the brawn and both have earned their right to make their mark on the family silo.  

To earn Arlo his mark, his father gives him a special job.  A critter (wild human boy) has been getting into their corn supply.  Arlo is to catch and kill it.  When Arlo fails, his father tries to help him finish the job, but tragedy strikes.  With Arlo feeling guilty and his family struggling, his anger at the critter gets the better of him.  He falls into the river, is knocked unconscious and wakes very far from home.  With only the critter, who he names Spot as his companion, they set out on a long, epic journey against nature finding both friends and enemies.  

What really struck me about this movie is how realistic the animation is.  In the opening scenes, the water flowing down the river had me fooled.  The wild landscapes the team at Pixar has created looked more like filmed live action than animated from scratch.  It really is a brilliant achievement and a high point in modern animation.  

Arlo and the other characters stand out from the backgrounds because they do not look so realistic, and that is a good thing.  After all, these are imagined forms of dinosaurs with an extra few million years of evolution on them.  I enjoy Arlo’s knobby knees, the wrangling t-rexes who gallop like horses, and the triceratops with many horns for his companions.  

What I love most about The Good Dinosaur is that it is a simple story of a farm boy lost from home.  He worries about his family, and the scene where he explains the idea of family to Spot is one of the film’s most poignant moments.  Arlo’s biggest obstacles are not the scavenging pterodactyls, but nature and all its wild fury.  After the river takes his father, Arlo, and the audience, has a better understanding and fear of nature’s power.  In the end, Arlo realizes he is powerless against it, but he must brave it to move on.

While my son loves this movie, especially Spot, some moments in The Good Dinosaur might be scary for young children.  And have fun explaining what happened to Poppa.  But with a big adventure, a fresh look at familiar dinosaurs, a special emphasis on family and fun characters, I highly recommend this movie be shared with kids.  My favorite thing about The Good Dinosaur is that it has taught my son the word family.

“You are me, and more.”

Hercules

When my mom took us kids to see Hercules in the summer of ‘97, I had already picked up a few mythology books and was well versed in the story of Hercules. I let out a few early eye rolls, especially at Hera being portrayed as Herc’s loving mother, but it didn’t take the film long to win me over, despite the butchering of the original myth. I still love the film’s character design in a visual style reminiscent of ancient Greek pottery, fleshed out and come to life.  And though my preteen self was probably reluctant to admit it, the music and those groovy Muses had me hooked.

The Disney crew did the best they could to work with myth and keep it family friendly.  Here, Hercules is the beloved son of Zeus and Hera. When Hades hears a prophecy that Hercules will ruin his plans to overthrow Zeus and take over Olympus, he sends his minions to kill the baby Hercules. Instead they only turn him mortal and Herc is adopted by a kind older couple.

The film flashes forward to awkward early teens Hercules where he feels so out of place due to his unusual strength.  He learns he is the son of Zeus, who tells his long lost son that his godhood can be restored if he proves himself a true hero. But even after years of training under Phil, Danny Devito in satyr form, Hercules finds that being a true hero is not easy.  Especially while sassy Meg distracts Herc and Hades is constantly trying to kill him.

Personally, I enjoy how Disney handled Hercules as a character. The myths paint him as the most masculine macho man who ever lived, and he is not always a nice guy. Here, he is a sweet, awkward young man born with extra muscles just trying to make his way to Olympus. I’ve heard some criticize that Hercules is the opposite side of the coin to Disney’s Princess problem, but I disagree. Hercules is supposed to be all about manly strength, and Disney brings him down to a boy’s level in an endearing and pleasantly heroic way. Even when he is famous enough to have sandals named after him, he still has a heart of gold.

Unlike my favorite character, Hades. James Woods voices this baddie with so much charisma, wisecracks and snappy one-liners.  Artistically, I think the Disney animators did a great job and had a lot of fun with this ruler of the underworld.  At the top, blue flickering flames provide his hair and down at the bottom, his toga drags swirling black smoke around him, providing a perfectly evil atmosphere.  Best of all, his hotheadedness provides some great gags that never get old.  

Hercules is a modern gem in the vast array of Disney’s animated films.  It gracefully combines a unique style of animation with fun retelling of an ancient myth, rather than the usual fairy tales.  Best of all, there is a good lesson about working towards a big goal and what makes a true hero.  Disney makes fun parallels between Hercules and modern day athletes and the way we idolize them.  No one becomes a true hero by scoring points in a game, or even caging up a few man-eating birds in a montage.  Hercules learns he won’t become a true hero until he puts someone else’s needs before his own glory.

“Uh, guys… Olympus would be that way.”