Supermallet

To each his own. It is a good film, just not AS good of a film.

Draven

Agreed. It was nice to have a new set of characters to enjoy too, especially since the other "princess" movies have been pretty played out over the years.

mraw

All of the characters were quite loveable, and "Dig a Little Deeper" was the best number from a Disney movie ever IMO.

Raul3

Wasn't expecting the movie to be this good.

Disney hasn't made a movie like this in a long long time. Was really surprised for the "scary" parts, I mean, I don't remember things that scary in any Disney movie in the 80's or 90's.

My wife loved Ray and for her the movie is about him and... and she choked in that one part.

mraw

And Charlotte

Michael Corvin

Hook, line and sinker. Classic Disney is back. I'm with Time magazine. Movie of the year. This is going to sound odd, but the first 20 minutes of Up were better than all of Princess, but as a whole Princess is a far better film from beginning to end.

I walked away with nary an issue with the film. I expected the movie to feel like Tiana was created merely for marketing to draw in the you black girls into the Princess world but it didn't come across that way at all. She was amazing, up there with Ariel, Belle and Jasmine. The writers nailed it.

Maybe I was reading more into it than I should but I felt Dr. Facilier's song/animation sequence was very reminiscent of Be Our Guest. Lou's number had a strong Bare Necessities vibe and another gave off a I Just Can't Wait to be King feel. The songs were varied and it was great that every character got in on the action and wasn't dominated by one singer. That's something that has been lacking in Disney films since Pocahontas. They became too reliant on one artist (Elton John, Phil Collins, Elvis, etc.) and lost that musical magic.

The voice casting was also superb. It was nice not being dominated by a recognizable cast. Naveen sounded like a low-rent Antonio Banderas though. On the flipside, Keith David (other than Goodman) was the only other one I recognized and he played Falcier perfectly. He was restrained yet still felt over-the-top. He was also the coolest villain we've seen since Jafar. Also, for whatever reason, when we meet Lou for the first time I had it in my mind that he was going to sound like Dom DeLuise. Impossible, I know, but he just had that kind of vibe that if he was still around, he would be the one doing Lou.

Side note, I hadn't seen the Toy Story 3 trailer yet and damn Randy Newman nearly had me in tears during the trailer.

I think time and repeat viewings have softened your view of those films. Next to Cruella DeVil, Ursula is probably Disney's scariest villain. Jafar gets pretty twisted at the end of Aladdin as well. Also, Clayton in Tarzan gets hanged & Scar devoured alive by hyenas. There was some dark shit in the 90's.

I know you've seen the film but still felt the need to point out that Ariel, Cinderella and Belle(and probably others I'm forgetting) weren't princesses either until the closing minutes. It's a fairy tale, these girls marry into it.

toddly6666

As a huge fan of 2D hand drawn animation over pixar 3D animation, im surprised I didnt get into thos film at all. I thought Hercules was even better than this one. It was just okay.

The best animated films of the year are The Secret of Kells and Ponyo by far.

mraw

Ariel was always a princess. Her father is King Triton. She happened to marry a prince, though. Ariel, Aurora and Jasmine are the only ones that come to mind that were princesses from birth. Tiana, Cinderella, Belle and Snow White all married into a dynasty.

As for Mama Odie and 'Dig a Little Deeper':

Michael Corvin

King Triton Duh.

MBoyd

We saw this last night. Liked it pretty well. Love the jazzy music. Louis is by far my favorite character. Let's get a spin off with him and Baloo! There seemed to be a lot of visual references to past Disney characters. Those were fun to catch. And . . .

tylergfoster

http://incontention.com/?p=19040 You can listen to a pretty good song from the movie in full over at In Contention.

In the meantime, I posted my review here: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/41146...-the-frog-the/ Liked it but didn't love it.

cungar

Took my 4 year old daughter and she nearly fell asleep. I didn't hear any kids laughing. Afraid this one just doesn't have the Disney magic.

fumanstan

I enjoyed it, and I rank it higher then a lot of the "classic" animated films that I've been underwhelmed with (Sleeping Beauty, Snow White) but not nearly as good as the 90's pinnacle films like Lion King and Aladdin for me. I thought it dragged a bit in the middle which really brought it down a bit for me but the lead up to the ending was one of the most heartwarming moments I've seen in awhile which brought it right back up for me. I enjoyed the characters quite a bit, but I didn't think the music was quite there which also brought my enjoyment down a bit (and I do like jazz).

I was definitely thinking throughout the movie how the character designs of crocodiles and snakes were classic Disney.

As for the end,

Up was still better for me this year, as far as animated films go though.

Draven

I saw it with my 3 year old daughter and 5 year old son and they couldn't take their eyes off the screen. Still talking about it weeks later.

And the kids in the audience with us seemed to enjoy it as well.

Michael Corvin

Yeah, my two were literally on the edges of their seats the entire time. The theater was 3/4 full and it got a round of applause when the credits started rolling.

I think they worked well enough in the context of the film but none really stand out on their own.

Thrush

Keith David's voice work is pretty much always superb.

Giles

I loved the animation style and music but the story ... uh, it was kind of meh some of the physical humor early on was a tad too forced IMO. Good, but (as others have pointed out) not great

... and who would have thunk it, that another movie, animated out of clay, would be a far more emotional movie and make me weep at it's sentimental ending - this film though was sort of on automated pilot

Supermallet

Coraline or Fantastic Mr. Fox?

Giles

neither ... 'Mary and Max'

Thrush

Never heard of it. Is it on DVD?

Moleman1138

I absolutely loved it. It's definitely in my top 5 of the year at moment. This has been a great year for animation: this, Up, Ponyo, Monster vs. Aliens (I liked it), Coraline, Cloudy-Meatballs. Of course crap churns out too: 9, Ice Age 3, Christmas Carol,

Giles

on dvd, no not yet - I gather it will get a limited theatrical release - and for the record, this film is NOT geared to children - it's a PG-13 at least, well, no, come to think of it - it's definately an 'R' cause well ... you just have to see it

toddly6666

Mary and Max is currently available on PAL dvd

Giles

I was assuming Thrush was referring to a Region 1 NTSC release

tylergfoster

I believe Mary and Max can be seen On Demand for $4.