Fantasia

It's a bit difficult to review Fantasia in comparison to other Disney movies, because it's so different.  I like that it's unique, and really special in its own way.  I was actually surprised at how long the movie went - it was over two hours.  I figured that a movie like that would be shorter.  They do have an intermission in the middle, which Jason and I took advantage of so we could take a nap.  Overall I will say that I liked experiencing Fantasia, and I think it's a beautiful work, but it's not something that I could sit down and watch again and again.

As much as I don't want to sound ignorant, I'm not really a huge fan of just listening to classical music.  So having the animations helped me really appreciate the music more.  My favorites were the Sorcerer's Apprentice (a classic) and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, which was given a storyline involving Greek mythology.  The animators did an excellent job, as did the musicians.  The ending of the movie, with Ave Maria, is particularly touching and beautiful.

I will say that the opening number, which took an abstract approach, was not one of my favorites.  The Rite of Spring also didn't do too much for me, with all of the flowers dancing around.  A sequel was released to this film called Fantasia 2000, which we also plan on watching.

The Music
Obviously the music in this one is the absolute main focus of the movie.  It was different from the other Disney movies because it's all classical music.  Like I said, very beautiful, but not something that I would personally listen to over and over again.

The Villain
Since we have a series of mini-stories, there is no real villain here.  Maybe mini-villains in some of the individual stories, but nothing particularly memorable.

The WDW Connection
Fantasia appears quite a bit in the parks, though the majority of references are to the Sorcerer's Apprentice.  The main symbol of Disney's Hollywood Studios is Mickey's sorcerer's hat, and you're greeted by it when you enter the park.  Also, the show there, Fantasmic! begins with Mickey and references to the Sorcerer's Apprentice.  Mickey's Philharmagic at the Magic Kingdom also begins with a bit of a Fantasia feel, including playing the Fantasia soundtrack in the queue.  Finally, Disney has a mini golf course called Fantasia Gardens that is themed like the movie, and plays the music while you golf.

Becky's rating:  6 out of 10
Jason's rating:  6.5 out of 10

Cinderella

When you think classic Disney, chances are you think of Cinderella.  She is the ultimate Princess, and overall it's a great film.  This is probably where Jason and I have the biggest disagreement.  For the most part we've agreed on the Disney movies that we've watched - but this is one that I rated substantially higher than he did.

We'll start with Jason's issues with the film, which is mainly that "nothing happens."  As he says, it's just a bunch of mice running around for the majority of the movie... which is somewhat true.  The actual events really concerning Cinderella and the ball and all of that take place relatively quickly, and if you cut out all of the fuss with the mice and the cat and the dog and whatnot, the movie would probably only be about half an hour.  But they're cute little mice!  And they wear clothes!

I just like it because it makes me happy.  There is some action and some suspense (will she get locked up in her room after the ball or will the mice be able to free her?).  But ultimately it's all about the cheesy romance, and good overcoming evil.  People now may complain that Cinderella is a softie, and a bad role model for females because she always does what she is told.  But I'm not sure I completely agree.  I like the fact that kindness and good heartedness is rewarded, rather than rebelliousness (though that has its own place too).  Plus, you do have to remember that the film is a product of the times, and however advanced we might be now, that was over 60 years ago.

The Music
There are some great songs in this one.  You have the extremely beautiful "So This is Love" (which, by the way, Jason and I are probably doing to use during our wedding ceremony as our unity candle song).  Then there's the fun and memorable "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo".  "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" is also a great one.  The others are a bit less memorable, but they are cutesy and fit in well with the movie.

The Villain
Cinderella's step mother is detestable because she treats her like a servant and locks her up in her room when she might actually have some good fortune come her way.  But as bad as she is, you can't help but compare her to poor Snow White's step mother, who was quite a bit more evil and nasty.  I mean, she tried to kill Snow White, so that's a bit more villainous.  An interesting thing is that we don't really get a very clear view of why Cinderella's step mother is so mean to her, other than jealousy that she's pretty and nice.

The WDW Connection
Of course Cinderella is all over Walt Disney World.  The most well known icon of the Magic Kingdom is Cinderella's Castle, which also houses a restaurant called Cinderella's Royal Table.  Prince Charming also has his own carousel in the Magic Kingdom.  Both of them are all over the parks, especially Cinderella, to meet and get autographs.  If you eat at the restaurant in Magic Kingdom you will get to meet Cinderella.  If you want to meet the whole gang, including Lady Tremaine and the stepsisters, go to dinner at 1900 Park Fare, at the Grand Floridian resort.

Becky's rating:  8.5 out of 10
Jason's rating:  6 out of 10

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is a cute, sweet movie that is a Disney classic.  While it was enjoyable to watch I do feel that it is probably one of those movies that is more enjoyable for kids than for adults.  While many of the other Disney movies can easily appeal to both, Alice in Wonderland is very much grounded in the silliness that is most appealing to kids.  Of course, those of us adults that are still very childlike can appreciate it :)

One of the neat things about this movie is that almost all of the voices are recognizable from other Disney films.  Having watched a bunch so far, Jason and I were constantly identifying them throughout the movie.  For instance, Alice is the same voice as Wendy from Peter Pan, the Queen of Hearts is the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella and one of the fairies in Sleeping Beauty, the Cheshire Cat is Kaa in The Jungle Book and Winnie the Pooh, the White Rabbit is Smee from Peter Pan, etc.  There are actually a bunch more, it's pretty cool.

Alice goes through a series of nonsensical adventures which are cute and captivating, but eventually just get frustrating to her.  Sometimes you want to yell at Alice about what the heck she is thinking, but ultimately she learns her lesson... not everything should be complete nonsense, and sometimes we actually want some amount of logic and for things to make sense.

The Music
There are a lot of songs in this movie, but most of them are almost "mini" songs.  They are super short or else just not that interesting.  But with so many mini songs that are so well known, I'm quite surprised that nothing from Alice in Wonderland appears on my set of Disney's Greatest Hits CDs.  You have "The Unbirthday Song," "I'm Late," which are the most memorable, but you also have Alice singing "In a World of My Own," "The Walrus and the Carpenter," and the flowers singing "All in a Golden Afternoon."  Lots of different songs throughout the whole movie - basically every time Alice goes somewhere else or meets someone else, they sing a song.

The Villain
For the majority of the movie Alice does not have a particular villain, just certain obstacles that get in her way.  The biggest villain of all could be seen as the Queen of Hearts, a tyrant who enjoys chopping people's heads off.  She's certainly a frightening figure, and if she was there throughout the movie she could be pretty high up on the villain list.  But she doesn't even get mentioned until the last half hour of the movie.

The Disney World Connection
The infamous "Mad Tea Party" tea cup ride in Fantasyland is themed after the mad tea party in Alice in Wonderland.  There are also plenty of characters walking around, including Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and others.  They also pop up in a number of the parades and shows.

Becky's rating:  7 out of 10
Jason's rating:  6.5 out of 10

The Little Mermaid

This movie is the one that really started the Disney renaissance of the 1990's, and for good reason.  Ariel is a fun princess, the music is fantastic, and the story is exciting.  The Little Mermaid was never my personal favorite, but it is really good.

Ariel is extremely likable.  She has more depth than a lot of the earlier princesses, with her rebellious tendencies and desire for something more.  She's also a bit foolish - I mean, what sort of deal is it to not only give your voice away, but agree that you will become some creepy little green thing in the ground if you can't get a guy to call in love with you in three days?  And a guy you've never even really met before?  But she's so cute, and charming, and innocent in her own way.

I do think that this movie is one of the ones that deviates the most from the original fairy tale.  The basic premise is the same, but most of the story is way different when Han Christen Andersen wrote it.  For one, the Sea Witch doesn't take Ariel's voice, but the "punishment" is that every time she dances it feels like she is dancing on swords.  And if the Prince marries anyone else, Ariel will die.  He does indeed marry another woman, but Ariel is given one last chance.  She can stab the Prince and become a mermaid again.  However, she cannot bring herself to do it and ends up instead throwing herself into the ocean and dissolving into sea foam.  Then supposedly she is able to become a "daughter of the air" and eventually go to heaven. Not exactly the happy ending of the Disney movie.

The romance in Disney's version is a little sudden.  But if you buy the whole "love at first sight" argument then it works.  Personally, I prefer to see the romance develop, like in Beauty and the Beast, but if you can accept it then you have a beautiful love story about two people that would do anything for each other.

The Music
The songs in this one are really fantastic, thanks to Alan Menken.  You just have a lot of really excellent tunes that are catchy, fun, and beautiful:  "Under the Sea" (my personal favorite), "Part of Your World," and "Kiss the Girl."  Even the villain's song "Poor Unfortunate Souls" is pretty good.  And then there's "Les Poisson."  There is a bit of an inside joke about this one because of something called the poisson distribution in statistics, and my brother showed me this clip from The Little Mermaid after he learned it.  I honestly did not remember anything like that scene at all in the movie, but sure enough, it's there!  The song isn't too memorable though.

The Villain
Ursula is icky and evil.  One of the creepiest things about her is her "garden" of souls, which are deformed little green things.  It seems sicker to keep them around in that form instead of just killing them.  She's also after revenge, though we're not exactly sure why.  She's cruel, but she's also tricky.  She tries to act nice to Ariel, but then she is completely deceitful behind her back.  At least she got what was coming to her - a ship through the stomach.

The Disney World Connection
The Little Mermaid is pretty popular in WDW.  Hollywood Studios has a live show/musical version.  A large attraction called The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Adventures is supposed to open within the next few years in the Magic Kingdom.  It will be a dark ride taking you through the story.  Ariel and Prince Eric are available for meet and greets around the park.  There also used to be a meet and greet section called Ariel's Grotto, but it was closed sometime last year.

Becky's rating:  9 out of 10
Jason's rating:  8.5 out of 10

101 Dalmatians

I thought I had a pretty good memory of 101 Dalmatians, but there were a few surprises.  Cruella DeVil is as deliciously evil as ever, and the song featuring her name is truly excellent.  However, I was surprised that there weren't really any other songs in the film - because of that one memorable song, I guess I just assumed that there were more.  And I may be a cat person rather than a dog person, but those little dalmatian puppies are so cute!  I love that so many of them have their own personalities.  Lucky is adorable:  "my nose is froze.  My toes are froze" - favorite line from the movie :)

But for all of the good points of the film, it's just not all that memorable.  It's cute, and it's fun, but it doesn't have the power of some of the other films and doesn't really teach a lesson or grapple with any important questions.  Not that every Disney movie has to do that, but I've found that many of the ones I like have more interesting challenges - and still have happy endings.  But 101 Dalmatians does what it does quite well, so that's a good thing.  I do think it would have benefited greatly from a few more songs, though.

The Music
This film has one really memorable, fantastic song, "Cruella DeVil."  I think that probably everyone knows this song.  However, there really aren't any other songs in the movie.  There's a small piece of some little cutesy song at the end called "Dalmatian Plantation," but other than that the characters don't shame.  It's surprising since Roger is a songwriter, and Disney has music in so many of their movies.  So the movie gets points for one fantastic song, but lacks anything else.

The Villain
Cruella DeVil is so evil, because she's not only greedy and cruel, but she's cruel to harmless, adorable animals who haven't done anything wrong.  Plus, the idea of hiring someone to sneak into her supposed "friend's" house and steal their dogs is just appalling.  She's also got such a personality and look to her.  While every human in the movie is fairly realistic looking, Cruella is pretty grotesque.  And that signature fur coat.  Pretty high up there on the list of villains due to her horrid actions and her memorable appearance and personality.  And it's a shame she doesn't really get what she deserves - no death for this villain, unfortunately.

The Disney World Connection
The only trace of 101 Dalmatians that I can find in WDW is at one of the hotels, the All-Star Movies Resort.  Each section of that hotel is themed with a different Disney movie, and one section has a Dalmatians theme.  Other than that, there are no rides/attractions/restaurants that I know of which have any connection to this movie.

Becky's rating:  8 out of 10
Jason's rating:  7 out of 10

Pinocchio

Disney's second outing into full length animation was not, in my opinion, a huge success.  Apparently the critics disagree with me but the folks of the 1940's agree.  The film was produced in 1940 and by 1947 had only made back about half of its production cost (tidbit courtesy of the wikipedia page).  Here's the thing:  I felt like Pinocchio was by far my least favorite of all of the movies we've watched so far.  I mean, I was a bit harsh on Sleeping Beauty, but I ultimately enjoyed the film.  Pinocchio, I just have no desire to ever watch again.

Let's start off with the positives: the animation is quite good for its time.  It's got some good, memorable songs.  Jiminy Cricket's character is fun, and there are some funny moments.  Jason and I noticed that there are a lot of "butt" jokes.  Seriously - if you don't believe me,watch it again and look for them.  They're especially in the beginning.  Someone's always getting kicked in the butt or something.  And Jiminy Cricket himself was a lot funnier than I remembered.  I never thought of him as being so obsessed with the females, but he ogles every woman he comes across - even the ones made of wood!

However, funny bits aside, I was really not that thrilled with the movie.  First of all, I feel like Geppetto is completely crackers and should never be entrusted with the life of a child, even if it is one made of wood.  He's crazy to begin with for wanting his puppet to turn into a real boy, and then when it does he just lets it skip off to school all alone, on its second day of "life."  And Jiminy Cricket, while I love him, is an awful conscience and being a cricket, he isn't much of a guardian.

The other thing I didn't really like about it was that nothing felt believable or like it made sense.  Okay, I understand it's fantasy, and not everything is real life.  I love fantasy... but I prefer for it to be rooted in some sort of reality.  Even within a fantastical world, things need to happen for a reason.  The bit with Stromboli is fine, it makes sense, but after that everything goes crazy.  At Pleasure Island, for instance, what exactly is making the boys turn into donkeys?  I mean, apparently it's some sort of curse, but what exactly triggers it?  Why do Pinocchio and Lampwick stay human so much longer than the other boys?  And this part makes me sad because even though Pinocchio escapes, all of those other boys are left to their fate as donkeys.

Finally, the whale.  Forget about the fact that Jiminy Cricket can breath underwater.  Never mind the fact that Monstro apparently never digests his food and it all just sits in his stomach for days and days.  No, the part that gets me is How does Pinocchio die??  This is never explained in the least bit, and keep in mind that he is not a real boy.  If he's not a real boy, I would think that the only way to "kill" him would be to chop him up into firewood or something.  It makes no sense.  Feel free to try and explain it to me if you'd like.

Figaro the cat is my favorite.

The Music
The one thing that this movie does have going for it is some good music.  You've got a lot of memorable tunes, including "I've Got No Strings" and "Give a Little Whistle."  And of course, there is the beautiful "When You Wish Upon a Star."  The songs work well with the movie and many of them have become Disney classics.

The Villain
No "main" villain in this one.  You have a few bad guys, including Stromboli, Honest John, and of course Monstro.  But none of them are around long enough to really make any sort of impression.  The main conflict isn't the villains themselves, but Pinocchio's inexperience with life and how he deals with them.  Granted, some of those people listed are pretty horrible, but they're just not that interesting or even vitally important to the plot.

The Disney World Connection
Like many of the other movies, Pinocchio has several characters walking around.  He's also got his own quick service restaurant called Pinocchio's Village Haus, where you can get pizza and other fast food like items.

My rating:  5 out of 10
Jason's rating:  6 out of 10

Robin Hood

I feel like Robin Hood is kind of like The Sword in the Stone - it's not really as well known or remembered as many other Disney films.  It's a shame, because it's a really cute one.  The plot is fun, but somehow it just doesn't capture the magic of some of the other Disney films.  I would suspect it's because it's not so much a musical as many of the others.  Like Sword in the Stone, it has a few songs, but they aren't very catchy or memorable, and they're mostly background, not featured.

Still, it's got lots of Disney charm, and it's funny too.  The "poor people" of Nottingham are endearing, but for the most part the bad guys are just silly.  The group of little kids is super cute.  The romance is an interesting one here between Robin Hood and Maid Marian, because they apparently have some sort of history that happened before the movie takes place.  We never really find out the details.  Also - who exactly is Maid Marian?  Someone important in the court, but a daughter of someone important?  And why is she the only fox around?  And what kind of children will Little John and Lady Kluck have?

This movie also has a bit of a "false ending."  Everyone dances around, happy that they escaped Prince John and Robin Hood got his lady, and it seems like the movie's over - but it's not!  Prince John wants revenge, and now he's worse than ever.  The real ending is still very dramatic and shows a much crueler side to Prince John and Sir Hiss - not only do they want to get Robin Hood, they punish everyone in the town by making them pay ridiculously high taxes.  They will even kill Friar Tuck, a man of the church, to try and get Robin Hood.  The high point of the movie has a castle on fire, suspense, all that good stuff.  And apparently the special edition DVD has an alternate ending that they were considering for the film, though I haven't seen it I heard that it's even more dramatic.

The Music
As I said earlier, the music in this one doesn't do too much.  We have the rooster, a minstrel who provides a song or two, but other than that it's really background music.  None of the characters sing except for the rooster.  Apparently the song "Love" was nominated for an Academy Award, but it wasn't too memorable to me.

The Villain
Prince John is a bit of a pathetic villain - always sucking his thumb!  He's still capable of cruelty though.  All he seems to care about is money and he will do anything to get it.  That includes locking up poor, innocent people, and even killing them.  He's a villain that shows that you don't have to be big and powerful to cause mayhem, even the slimy weak ones can do it.  His sidekick, Sir Hiss, is pretty hilarious.  While he's also rather evil in the same vein as Prince John, like many villain sidekicks he gets mistreated by his master and comes off as comical.  He's actually quite a bit smarter than Prince John, but always gets into situations where he looks like the dumb one.

The Disney World Connection
Not too much going on with Robin Hood in Disney World.  You can see some of the characters around the parks, including Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and the Sheriff of Nottingham.

My rating:  7.5 out of 10
Jason's rating:  7.5 out of 10