Skummy's Disney Adventure

[Colly]

I've not seen it, but are you saying they portray the labours within a training montage, with soundtrack? I need to watch this.

[Sousa]

It's not nearly as good as you're hoping it is.

The montage, that is. I think the movie's okay, I like it better than Skummy did, but that particular part of the flick is pretty terrible.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I didn't know that about James Woods, or that he was in this. Or that David Zucker is also bananas for Republicans.

[Sousa]

this

Holy motherjumping shitballs.

[stokeriño]

Since we've only one film left on your initial list (Hunchback), I'm going to pitch for the next one after that to be Emperor's New Groove. If you haven't seen it, that is.

Although in a way subjecting you to something like Treasure Planet might be more amusing.

[Skummy]

For now, Emperor's New Groove isn't an option. It's not available to me.

After Hunchback, it's Peter Pan, then Beauty & The Beast.

[Josh]

Yeah, I'm very curious about your reactions to pretty much anything pre-1990.

[Benjamin]

Oh man, I can't wait to read Skummy's review on Pete Pan.

[Sousa]

Jesus, Peter Pan. I can't even.

Emperor's New Groove is pretty good. I'd probably like it better if it weren't for my stone-faced contempt for David Spade.

[Mongrel]

Yzma (Eartha Kitt) was pretty fantastic as the villain from what I remember. It has been years since I've seen the film, but I have it on DVD in German (imaginatively titled "A Kingdom for a Llama").

[Sousa]

Hunchback was so bad you gave up wasn't it.

[Hobo]

To go waaay back to Hercules.

There are two great things about it:

1) James Woods

2) 'I Won't Say I'm In Love' is the best song.

[Sousa]

I didn't really like that song. I didn't really like any of the songs in Hercules. I certainly like it better than Skummy did but the music certainly isn't why.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I remember getting Hercules Happy Meal toys from a McDonald's in Wal-Mart. I was like.. 11? maybe? But I got a Happy Meal because I wanted the toy. I still sometimes contemplate getting a Happy Meal because I want the toy.

[Benjamin]

You were only 11 when Hercules came out? Man, your beard really makes you look a ton older.

[Skummy]

Disney Movie #4: The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

Year of release: 1997
Had Skummy seen it before?: No.

This is probably going to be a little shorter than the others, because I've left it a long time, so my memory's pretty hazy of exactly what I thought of certain aspects of this movie.

First things first, I really, really liked the artwork in this. Maybe it was coming off the back of Hercules, but everything looked very, very pretty, and captured the setting beautifully. The only drawback is that I was never quite convinced by the way Quasimodo was drawn; I get the impression that they wanted to make him more grotesque, but couldn't make him scary, as he still needed to be a sympathetic character, and a character that they couldn't afford to make too ugly, as he would be on screen for most of the film.

The movie can seem a little uneven in places; rather than going for well-paced comic relief, sometimes it seems that comedic moments are crowbarred in almost anywhere, to try and distract you from how genuinely sinister most of this film is. The comedy is token Disney stuff, which doesn't do much for me, as you've probably guessed, though I did like the Gargoyles being called Victor and Hugo. It's simple, and it's obvious, but they didn't hammer it home, and it's a nice touch.

Character-wise, Quasimodo was your stock Disney "I don't belong in this world!" figure, albeit a more convincing one than most I've had to sit through so far. Doesn't change the fact that, with that apparently being Disney's chief stock-in-trade, they quite often fall back on the same old clichés, and his character never really grows beyond that archetype. Similarly, Captain Phoebus is a typical Disney wisecracking "hunk" hero, while Esmerelda is a pretty good take on the kind of "action princess" Disney turned to from around the late '90s; a female character who's role is to speak out for the downtrodden in vague platitudes, rather than just to be admired from afar. Though, naturally, she's also the most beautiful woman in the city, because it's still Disney.

But if we're talking characters, I really want to talk about Frollo, because wow, Frollo. Maybe my favourite Disney villain so far, in his way. It's Tony Jay's finest work - and that's including his album of spoken word renditions of Broadway hits. While he's nothing like the source material - as I should really have come to expect by now - he's a much richer, more nuanced villain that most Disney fare; he might be sadistic and heartless, but he's also sometimes pitiful and tragic. Unlike most Disney bad guys, he's not just evil for evil's sake, or for vague material gain, but because he's a conflicted human being, with a rigid belief structure. Yes, he's vindictive, genocidal, sadistic and arrogant but for once you don't just feel like he's that way because the story requires him to be, he's not just a caricature.

I thought I'd hate the music in this one, too, as it's Alan bastard Mencken again. I was pleasantly surprised, though, "The Bells of Notre Dame" is one hell of an opener! Using the sound of bells, and the choral backing, Latin chanting, all the rest of it, just makes it stand apart from so much other Disney stuff. It's melodramatic as all hell, but wonderfully so.

And Hellfire. Wow, Hellfire...

This is as good a Disney song, and as good a villain's song, as I have ever heard. It doesn't dumb anything down to a childish level, it's genuinely extraordinarily intense, and musically it's so beautifully constructed, the way it incorporates actual prayers of confession is perfectly done. So much of what it deals with - lust, sin, corruption, religion - seems so anathema to the themes Disney usually deal with that it just stands out so much. I genuinely, really, really love it.

Even if I had hated the rest of the film, I would rate it highly just for Frollo, and particularly just for that song.


So, yeah, that's Skummy vaguely enjoying one of these, and leaving it long enough that I can't remember much of it to get angry about if I did dislike bits. So that probably wasn't as entertaining as the rest. Maybe next time, yeah?


Current Ranking:
1. Mulan
2. The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
3. Aladdin
4. Hercules


Next up...Peter Pan.


...and after that, The Beauty & The Beast, and The Jungle Book...