Disney Countdown

Today we return to CGI films, beginning with Pixar's A Bug's Life. The Movie: A Bug's Life is the 2nd movie from Pixar.  Notably, the movie was caught in the feud between Disney and Dreamworks, as Jeffery Katenzberg, who had still been at Disney while A Bug's Life was still in production, pushed the movie Antz as the first CGI film from Dreamworks.  Dreamworks even pushed the release date of Antz to before that of A Bug's Life, but A Bug's Life ended up crushing Antz at the box-office.  The movie received positive reviews from critics and audiences. A Bug's Life is an original story inspired by the Aesop fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper.  A colony of ants led by the Queen and her daughter, Princess Atta, are preparing an offering of food for the grasshoppers.  Flik, an inventive but awkward ant, tries to help by creating a device to harvest grain faster, but he inadvertently knocks the entire offering of food off their island.  The grasshoppers...

Technically this isn't a Disney movie, at least not yet, but since it is represented at the theme parks, let's look at Avatar. The Movie: Avatar is a science fiction movie written and directed by James Cameron.  Cameron chose the film as his follow-up to the 1997 movie Titanic, but at the time Cameron did not have the technology he needed to make Avatar.  By 2006, advancements in computer technology allowed him to proceed with the production.  Avatar was notably filmed in 3-D and helped to spark a revival in 3-D movies.  Avatar was critically acclaimed, especially for its pioneering effects.  It won the Golden Globe for Best Director and Best Picture, and it was nominated for nine Oscars, winning three (Art Direction, Cinematography, Sound Mixing).  Avatar is still the highest-grossing film of all time globally, and it held the domestic record until it was passed by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The story of Avatar takes place in the year 2154....

And now we look at one last film from the Disney Renaissance, Pocahontas. The Movie: Pocahontas is the 33rd movie in the Disney Animated Canon and the 6th movie of the Disney Renaissance.  The film was in development at the same time as The Lion King and was seen by many at the studio to be the more prestigious product, with then studio head Jeffery Katenzberg envisioning a movie that could even do what Beauty and the Beast couldn't, win the Oscar for Best Picture.  However the resulting movie was one that met with mixed reviews and much criticism from historians and many Native American groups.  Although the film did fairly well at the box-office, Disney considered it a disappointment coming off the heels of The Lion King. Pocahontas is very loosely based on the historical figure, deriving more from the legend as later told by John Smith.  In Disney's version, Pocahontas is a young woman (rather than the 10-12 year-old she was in real life at the time) who ...

Let's return once again to the Disney Renaissance with Tarzan. The Movie: Tarzan is 37th movie in the Disney Animated Canon and the final movie of the Disney Renaissance.  The movie was well-received and Disney's biggest hit since The Lion King.  Tarzan's popularity led to a spin-off TV series, a direct-to-DVD midquel, and a short-lived Broadway musical.  While still a 2D animated film, Tarzan notably used an innovative new computer system called Deep Canvas to create complex 3D backgrounds. Tarzan is based on the novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  The story begins with a shipwreck stranding the baby Tarzan and his parents in the jungles of Africa.  When his parents are killed by the leopard Sabor, Tarzan is rescued by the gorilla Kala, who raises him as her son.  As he grows up with his friends Terk (a fellow gorilla) and Tantor (an elephant), Tarzan struggles to gain the approval Kerchak, the leader of the gorillas.  Tarzan's...

And now for the "live-action" version of The Jungle Book. The Movie: Following the success of Cinderella, Disney's next live-action remake was the 2016 version of The Jungle Book.  In reality, most of the movie was done in realistic CGI, with Neel Sethi's Mowgli being the primary live-action element.  The Jungle Book received positive reviews and was one of the highest grossing films of 2016.  Among its accolades was the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. This version draws primarily from the 1967 animated version, as director Jon Favreau wanted to retain much of the charm of that movie while grounding it in more realistic visuals.  Some elements of the Kipling's book are added to this film, such as the Law of the Jungle, the Peace Rock, and the Water Truce.  The wolves also get a larger role in this movie like they do in the book.  This film opens with Mowgli already a boy and not a toddler, though his story is told through narration and later a flash...

Today we get yet another animated and live-action double header, starting off with 1967's The Jungle Book. The Movie: The Jungle Book is the 19th movie in the Disney Animated Canon.  It was also the last film produced by Walt Disney himself, as he died in December 1966.  During production, both the original writer of the film and the original songwriter left because Disney himself stepped in and demanded changes, as he felt the original treatment, while more faithful to the source material, was too dark for a Disney film.  Disney went so far as to instruct the new writers to not read the source material.  The resulting movie was a financial success for the studio, being hugely popular both in North America and in Europe.  In Germany, The Jungle Book has the most tickets sold of any movie ever and is still the third highest grossing film of all time in that country, behind only Avatar and Titanic. The Jungle Book is very loosely based on the stories by R...

Our final dinosaur movie of the weekend is the movie appropriately titled Dinosaur. The Movie: Dinosaur is the 39th movie in the Disney Animated Canon, though notably it is left of the list in Europe in favor of The Wild, a film not made by, though produced and distributed by, Disney.  (The Wild is the first and only film from C.O.R.E., a now defunct CGI special effects company.)  Dinosaur had originally been in development before The Little Mermaid, but the success of that movie placed Dinosaur on the back burner.  The film was originally intended to use stop motion, but after Disney had some success with 3-D CGI animation during the development of Fantasia 2000, they decided to go that route.  The movie ended up combining CGI characters and effects with filmed backgrounds of actually scenery, mostly shot in South America.  Dinosaur was the most expensive movie of the year 2000 and also the fifth most profitable.  It received generally favorable if ...

We continue Pixar week with one of Pixar's most critically acclaimed films, Up. The Movie: Up is Pixar's 10th movie, and the third and final of its prestigious experimental films that were planned as potential post-Disney projects had the two companies parted ways.  It was the second animated film ever nominated for the Oscar for best picture, albeit part of an expanded field of nominees.  It did win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. Up tells the story of Carl Fredrickson, an elderly widower who, along with his wife Ellie, always dreamed of traveling to Paradise Falls in South America.  Determined to fulfill their dream, Carl lifts his entire house using balloons to travel.  However, he inadvertently brings along Russell, a young Wilderness Explorer who was just trying to earn his badge for assisting the elderly. Ok, first off, the opening of this movie may just be the sadness opening to an animated film ever, if not any film.  In fact, the montage...

Since there's an "Ocean" movie opening today, I thought it would be a good day for a Disney-Pixar double-header that actually takes place in the ocean, starting with Finding Nemo. The Movie: Finding Nemo is the 5th movie from from Pixar.  It was wildly popular upon release, and became at the time the highest-grossing animated film of all time.  (It currently ranks 9th.)  It was also the first Pixar film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Film, though it should be noted it was just the third year that award was given. Finding Nemo tells the story of a clownfish named Marlin, whose son Nemo is the only survivor of a barracuda attack that claimed his wife and other unhatched children.  Nemo is taken by a SCUBA-diving dentist, and Marlin tracks him across the ocean with the help of Dory, a blue tang with short term memory loss. I will admit, I don't put Finding Nemo in the category of my personal favorite Pixar films, but there's no denying it's a good ...

On an evening in which I got home from a rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, we turn to a Disney movie that is loosely inspired (among other sources) by another Shakespeare play, Hamlet.  That movie would be one of Disney's crown jewels, The Lion King. The Movie: The Lion King is the 32nd film in the Disney Animated Canon and the last of the big four films of the Disney Renaissance.  (Technically it is the fifth film of the Renaissance era because The Rescuers Down Under came out between The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.)  It is the highest grossing traditional animated film of all time and consistently listed as one of Disney's best movies. The Lion King tells the story of the Simba, the young lion cub of Mufasa, the king of Pride Rock.  Young Simba just can't wait to grow up and become king himself, but between his nefarious uncle Scar and a pack of hyenas, danger looms on the horizon.  Along the way, Simba interacts with Nala, his childhood sw...