Disney's The Emperor's New Groove

Last but definitely not least of the 2000 movies is The Emperor's New Groove. This is my third favorite Disney movie behind Hercules and Aladdin, mostly because of the humor. It's not very dramatic or serious, but it makes up for it in being probably the funniest Disney movie ever. I'm dead serious. This movie never gets old for me. It's fun for the kids and it has enough adult humor that parents won't mind watching it. If the title sounds vaguely familiar it's because it's a reference to the Hans Christian Anderson tale, The Emperor's New Clothes. That being said, there is no similarities between the two so I won't go into that story at all. This movie went through probably the most drastic change in Disney history, going from a serious epic named Empire of the Sun, to a straight up comedy called The Emperor's New Groove. Let's see what happened.

Production on the movie started around 1994 with the purpose of making another Lion King type epic. The plan was to have a movie based around Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, where an greedy and selfish Inca Emperor who finds a peasant that looks just like him. He decides to switch places with the man on a lark. The evil witch Yzma decides that she is going to summon a dark spirit to capture the sun so she can stay young forever, and in the process finds out about the switch between the Emperor and the peasant. She turns the real Emperor into a llama and threatens to reveal the truth of the switch unless the peasant does whatever she says. The Emperor-llama learns humility in his new form and even falls in love with a lady llama-herder. Together, the girl and the llama set out to undue the witches plan. The movie was to be called Empire of the Sun, but was later changed to Empire in the Sun. You can see where this is going. With production under way, Roger Allers becomes the director while Randy Fullmer acts as the producer. Unfortunately, production faltered when they tried to make the plot a little more original and not so much like The Prince and the Pauper. Disney had just released a Mickey Mouse short on the subject a few years earlier in fact. Test screenings did not go well and upper management was not happy with the films lack of direction. So, Disney decided to hire Mark Dindal, director of Cats Don't Dance. Here's where things get really interesting.

With Dindal now on as another director, the film was basically split in two; Dindal doing a more comedic version, and Allers creating a more dramatic version. Things were not going well and the Disney execs still saw the film as uneven. They hesitated to intervene at first because of Allers' success with The Lion King, which also suffered some production speed bumps. By 1998 however, it was painfully obvious that the film would not be complete in time for a Summer 2000 release. A Disney exec stormed into producer Fullmer's office and informed him that they were very close to shutting down the whole production. When Fullmer went to Allers about the problem, Allers asked for another six month extension. Fullmer declined and Allers left. Eisner came in and told Fullmer that he had two weeks to salvage the film or else. Stopping production for six months, Fullmer and Dindal completely overhauled the story. What came out of that was the story we have today with the new name of The Emperor's New Gro ove. It turned into a buddy movie, with Yzma becoming a mad scientist sort of villain and the Emperor losing a love interest in the movie. Eisner was a little hesitant about the movie because he saw similarities between it and Hercules, a movie that was well received but didn't do phenomenal at the box office. The crew assured him that this had a much smaller supporting cast so people would be much more invested in the characters. The overhaul had one last drawback however, as it made animator Andreas Deja quit the production and start working on Lilo and Stitch. Why is that so bad? Well, on top of being in charge of the animation of Yzma, Deja also was in charge of the parts of the film that included the songs done by singer Sting. Sting had already recorded the songs and everything, but with Deja gone, his parts in the film were eliminated. Sting had done all that work for nothing. And he was pissed. There's even a documentary about Sting's efforts in the film called The Sweatbox. Good luck finding a copy, as Disney owns the rights and likely won't let it out for quite a while. Sting's songs can still be found on the official soundtrack however if you're curious. One of his songs "My Funny Friend and Me" was even nominated for an Academy Award. If you liked the ending, you can thank Sting for that. The original ending had Kuzco building his resort on a neighboring hill, which Sting thought was dumb since it showed that Kuzco hadn't learned his lesson. Thus, at the end, Kuzco has his own little hut instead.

The setting of the film is based off the Peruvian Inca Empire. Along with the architecture, roads, intricate waterworks, sun worship, and llamas as domesticated beasts, Kuzco's name is similar to Cusco, the Peruvian city considered the capital of the Inca Empire, and Pacha's name is drawn from Pachacuti, considered the most important ruler of the Inca Empire, and a historical figure. That being said, there are plenty of incongruities and anachronisms throughout the film, some for comedic effect and some just because they didn't care about being too historically accurate. And, while the crew did take a trip down to Peru for inspiration, the setting is not specifically based off of any particular area of Peru. What makes this movie even more unusual is the fact that it has almost no musical numbers, save for the beginning and end song and Kronk's impromptu theme music.

Part of what makes this movie so great is the voice actors. I don't think this film would have worked had it not been for David Spade and John Goodman. Spade is absolutely perfect for the selfish and conceited Kuzco, while Goodman shines as the foil to Kuzco's bombastic personality. It's funny too because Spade has been in a bunch of different movies where he plays the shrimpy whiny character next to the portly comic relief (Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, Lost and Found), and this film is no different. I can't picture anyone doing the voice of Yzma other than Eartha Kitt. It just fits her perfectly. And of course Patrick Warburton, who usually plays the dumb oaf is one of the funniest characters as Kronk. Funny story: Disney made Warburton sign the rights away for Kronk's "theme song," something that was ad-libbed by Warburton. Wendie Malick plays Pacha's wife, Chicha, who you may recall from Just Shoot Me!, a show in which she shared the screen with David Spade. And last we have Tom Jones as the Theme Song Guy. The film's team originally wanted Sting to do the opening theme song, but they considered him too old. So they got Tom Jones who is eleven years older than Sting. Good job!

The film opened on December 15th 2000 to mostly glowing reviews. Critics found that the pace and humor overshadowed any minor flaws the movie had. However, Eisner was right that it would turn out like Hercules. The movie only grossed a measly $90 million domestically and another $80 million worldwide. This was well below the standards of the 90's Disney films. In fact, the only films in the rest of the decade would sustain losses for Disney except for Lilo and Stitch and Brother Bear. Yikes.

I really can't say enough about why this movie is so great. It's got a good story, a solid funny cast, plenty of sight gags, adult humor, and references everywhere. I can't even tell you what part is my favorite because there are too many to choose from. Most of them involve Krunk, though. Please watch this movie again if you haven't in awhile. You'll be glad you did. And you may have to watch it more than once, just so you don't miss anything. This is probably the most cartoony film you'll see from Disney, as you have all the typical Looney Tunes type antics happening. From delayed falls, to purposeful incongruities, to lack of death, to tons of slapstick, this movie is the closest thing you'll get to a Saturday morning cartoon.

Disney's Dinosaur

I'm sorry, but I would consider this to be the first mediocre movie since the Renaissance era of Disney animation. I have only seen this movie twice and didn't find it that enjoyable to be honest. I'd rather watch Land Before Time any day. Not the million sequels, just the first one. Dinosaur is the second of three movies to come out in 2000, an odd year for Disney. For the most part they've kept their movies a year or two apart, so the fact that three movies found their way onto the screen in one year is astounding. While the plot is mediocre and seems like a ripoff of a certain movie I mentioned earlier, it's still beautifully animated. This was Disney's first completely CGI movie and in terms of animation I think it looks pretty good. Not as good as movies today, mind you, but still pretty good for the time.

This may be a short post since there isn't a lot about this movie and it's not based off of anything. I'll tell you what I can though. Dinosaur was originally going to be a non-speaking film, precisely for the fact that it was too much like Land Before Time. Micheal Eisner would have none of that however and insisted the film have dialogue so it would be more "commercially viable." You can't really blame him. No one wants to watch a bunch of silent dinosaurs trudging through a wasteland for an hour and a half. Direction of the movie changed hands from the Oliver and Company director, George Scribner, to Ralph Zondag. Though Scribner left to be part of Disney Imagineering, most of his story is still intact. The film itself had CGI animation superimposed on real life backgrounds, namely those from Canaima National Park in Venezuela, and Angel Falls. Several ideas were thrown out during production, namely that the voices would not come from moving lips, but instead be voice-overs like in Homeward Bound. They were going to have a shot of the meteor going through space, but that sort of shot was in Armageddon so they got rid of it. Armageddon wasn't the only movie to ruin Dinosaur's fun, as The Lost World depicted the tyrannosaurus as having more a motherly side to it, so having a tyrannosaurus as the main villain was tossed out the window in favor of a Carnoaurus. BORING! Last change was the raptors, who the animators wanted to have feathers around their neck so it would look more like Indians attacking a stagecoach in the scene where the raptors go after the herd. The feathers proved too hard to animate so they were taken out.

Dinosaur was not a cheap film to make. In fact, it was the most expensive movie released in 2000 with a total price tag of $130 million. Disney really needed this to go well. Their gamble paid off, as the film ended up making almost $350 million worldwide. Not only that, but it was not hated by everyone either. Critics gave it generally good reviews, though some critics like Roger Ebert thought they shouldn't have had the dinosaurs talk, as it took away from the realistic effort Disney had put forth. Generally though, the movie was seen as a visual treat and though it seemed like a rehash of Land Before Time, it could stand on its own legs. I haven't seen this movie in a while so maybe I'll give it another chance. I'm sure some of you out there have some fond memories of this movie. And it's not even close to the worst movie of the decade. I'll get to that soon.

Disney's Fantasia 2000

Fantasia 2000 is the second sequel film in the Disney canon, Rescuers Down Under being the first, and Winnie the Pooh the third. I honestly don't count The Three Caballeros as a sequel to Saludos Amigos! A lot of people I've talked to about this film really didn't like it, which is confusing to me. I've always liked this movie. When comparing it to Fantasia, this newer one seems a lot less boring. Sure I can appreciate the older one better now than I did as a child, but the whole dinosaur segment still makes me want to snooze. The first question that always comes up when you hear about a sequel is: "Why bother?" Rescuers Down Under did poorly compared to the other 90's films, so why put another sequel out there? Plus, one from what is considered one of the best Disney films of all time, if not the most innovative. Well, as the film itself says, it was Walt Disney's dream. Disney wanted to come out with a new Fantasia film every couple years, adding new songs and animation so the audience would see a different film each time. Unfortunately, Fantasia didn't make much, wasn't shown in Europe because of the war, and wasn't a hit with critics. Walt Disney's aspirations were seen as economically unsound, and who can blame the company. That wasn't the end of Fantasia however.

Walt's nephew Roy E. Disney decided it was about time for another Fantasia, albeit after Walt had passed away in 1966. Roy decided to pitch the idea to Micheal Eisner and the project was thrown around a little. A project for the sequel titled Musicana was to come out in the late 70's and focus on the world's cultures through musical compositions, but it was shelved in the early 80's. There is a special feature on the Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 Blu-ray/DVD that gives the history of Musicana and shows how much they had animated before the project was shelved. Finally, the idea resurfaced in 1990, and went into production, not under the name Musicana, but Fantasia Continued. In 1991, composer James Levine attended a meeting with Roy Disney, Thomas Schumacher, and Peter Gelb, who asked Levine to conduct several musical pieces of their choosing for the movie. Pieces like Pines of Rome (the whale segment) were there from the beginning, but others like Rhapsody in Blue and Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major-1. Allegro were added very late in the mix. The film was even going to include more pieces from the original, like Dance of the Hours and The Nutcracker Suite, but were pulled because Disney wanted to shorten the run time, or they wanted something completely new, aka Rhapsody in Blue. The only original segment that made it was The Sorcerer's Apprentice. The original release was for the mid-90's but production ran long and it was delayed until 1999. The name of the movie was thus changed to Fantasia 1999. Yuck. Luckily, the movie was again delayed until 2000, making it a very busy movie year for Disney, as Dinosaur and Emperor's New Groove would come out the same year. So, Fantasia 1999 thankfully became Fantasia 2000, which is still not the best name but beats the hell out of anything with 1999 in the title.

Something that the studio wanted to keep from the first film was the introductions to the pieces, though in this case they wanted more than one person to do them. This way, it would "cleanse the emotional palate" of the audience and allow for some background on the piece. Such stars and musicians that introduce the pieces are: Steve Martin, Bette Midler, Quincy Jones, violinist Itzhak Perlman, Penn & Teller, James Earl Jones, composer James Levine (with Mickey Mouse and Leopold Stokowski, Stokowski's voice being from the original film), and finally, Angela Lansbury. Let's take a look at the segments:

First off we have Symphony No. 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Director Pixote Hunt decided on the concept for Symphony No. 5 with a conflict between the "good" multi-colored shapes and the "evil" dark shapes and how it resolves itself. Staff members visited zoos looking at butterflies and bats to get a sense in how each behaved. This is a very short piece, but for me it is very effective. The whole parent and child dynamic always gets me on an emotional level and I can remember being struck by the whole sequence when I first saw this in the IMAX. As always though, good triumphs over evil and though it appears the darkness has overtaken the father/mother, they appear at the very end of the piece. Still gets me.

The second piece is probably my least favorite but still is incredibly beautiful. Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi, though it seems like it would have an animated sequence about...well...Rome, doesn't. The animators went in a different direction and thought more along the lines of whales. Besides Rhapsody in Blue, I believe it is the longest section and for me has always been boring. Don't get me wrong, whales are cool and all but the whole whales flying around because of a supernova is a little odd. This segment, along with The Steadfast Tin Soldier are the lone completely CGI segments, which incidentally were finished before Pixar's landmark CGI film Toy Story even came out.

The next segment is my favorite: Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. I don't know if it's because it's sort of a historical piece, or if it's because of the various stories going on, or the unique animation, but I really like this piece. It helps that I also like the song. Though it is a long piece, it doesn't bore you, as it tells the story of four different people: a construction worker longing to be a drummer, a begrudging husband who has to follow his high maintenance wife around, a down on his luck man who is just looking for employment, and a little girl who just wants to spend time with her parents, not her nanny. In the end, the construction worker chooses to become a drummer in a band, the husband decides to go out and have some fun, the unemployed man takes over the constructions worker's job, and the little girl is reunited with her parent's after she is almost hit by a ton of cars. I love the feel of the whole piece; the 30's setting, the Al Hirschfeld style animation, and the surprise cameo by Gershwin himself playing piano.

Piano Concerto No. 2 follows and tells the story of The Steadfast Tin Soldier. Disney knew they wanted to tell the story of the steadfast tin soldier, but didn't find a song for it until late in the game. This is another really good piece, as it's story is easy to follow and the music accents it perfectly. The story details the love between a tin soldier who is missing one leg, and a toy ballerina. Their relationship is cut short by a jealous jack-in-the-box who wants the ballerina for himself. The tin soldier is knocked out a window and though he goes down into the sewer and is eaten by a fish, he inexplicably ends up right back at his master's house. He battles the jack-in-the-box and successfully throws him into a fire. The soldier and ballerina live happily ever after! Well, that's the Disney version at least. In Hans Christian Anderson's version, the jack-in-the-box is a goblin instead, and in the end, the soldier and the ballerina are accidentally knocked into a fireplace by their boy owner. The tin soldier burns into the shape of a heart. Very sad and kind of disturbing. I'm so glad Disney sanitizes some stories.

The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens is another very short piece. This segment details what would happen if you gave a yo-yo to a flock of flamingos. The idea for the segment came from legendary story artist Joe Grant, who loved the Fantasia segment Dance of the Hours. He wanted to have a bunch of ostriches with a yo-yo, but it was eventually changed to flamingos. I remember that they had a lot of merchandise at The Henry Ford where we went to see this when it first came out, but the only thing I thought was cool was the yo-yo with the flamingo on it. Hey, come on...yo-yo's were cool back then and I was fourteen. It's funny because I think I still have it around here somewhere.

I'm skipping The Sorcerers Apprentice since that's an old piece. The next new piece is Pomp and Circumstance by Edward Elgar. I, like most people, associate this song with graduations, so I was a little put off by it at first, but it's grown on me. This segment details the Biblical story of Noah and the flood. Donald and Daisy star as helpers of Noah and Donald gets into some hijinks. When the flood comes however, Daisy is convinced Donald didn't make the ship and counts him lost. Of course Donald is alright, he's just under Murphy's Law 24/7. They eventually land and Donald and Daisy are reunited. What else would have happened? Good piece if you can disassociate the music with graduations. And Donald makes everything awesome so you can't help but like this segment.

Last but not least is the Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky. This is one of those segments that has grown on me, but its still not one of my favorites. Disney wanted to have a piece that was the same thing as the Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria segment that closed the first Fantasia, so they went with a story that details the theme of life-death-rebirth deities. The segment was also meant to be a stylized interpretation of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The segment involves a spring sprite and her companion, the elk, who both accidentally wake up the Firebird, a fiery spirit of destruction in a nearby volcano. This segment has breathtaking visuals and full of action, a little more so than the others. Still, it's not as good as some of the others in my book.

The film received a positive critical reception, though most critics noted that there were some faults in the movie. Most pointed out that though it was good, it wasn't the original. That sentiment usually comes up when dealing with a sequel. The film was screened at 75 IMAX theaters throughout the world from January 1st to the end of April. It was later released at regular theaters on June 16th and in the end made a little over $90 million, just $10 million more than what they spent on the movie. So, was it all worth it? I think so, but maybe if I was a Disney executive I would think differently. It may not be as much of a landmark film as the original Fantasia, but I definitely think it's a bit more entertaining. I was a little surprised when I realized this was part of the Disney canon, but it is! I think the fact that it came out in the same year as two other animated films threw me off. Also, check out the video for Destino. Bette Midler actually talks about this piece that almost made it into the film, being the one with Salvador Dali's touch. Destino is an odd little piece that doesn't seem to fit into the mold with the others, but it's still very intriguing and beautiful, so check it out!

Disney's Tarzan

What is the first thing you do when you hear the name Tarzan? You pound your chest and let out a jungle cry. It just comes naturally and makes you feel exhilarated. Tarzan is one of the most well-known characters in literature, with a following of over thirty-five different language speaking countries.

This 20th century hero first leaped into pages in 1912 in a publication called All-Story Magazine and then transformed into a book two years later titled Tarzan of the Apes, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He also wrote John Carter of Mars, a Mars adventurer -which Disney has recently made into a live action movie. Wow, Burroughs really gets around with his writing. Tarzan was a major hit with it's readers that Burroughs continued to write Tarzan adventures good into the 1940's! Tarzan has seen many adaptations including over eighty live- action movies, comics ,television series, and one other animated film other than the Disney's version that came out the same year but went straight to video ( which no one seems to know about except imdb).

You may have a hard time pin-pointing where you've heard the voices in Tarzan before except for one, Rosie O'Donnell as Tarzan's ape friend Terk. The cast though is full of famous actors like Tony Goldwyn as Tarzan, Minnie Driver as Jane, Brian Blessed as Clayton ( he also provides Tarzan's jungle cry),and Glenn Close as Kala-Tarzan's ape mom. Alex Linz plays young Tarzan, you may know him from taking over Macaulay Culkin role in Home Alone 3. Tantor should make you throw your fist in the air and curse Newman (Seinfeld), aka Wayne Knight.

Disney hired famous musician Phil Collins to tackle the task of creating the film's soundtrack. Even if you are not a huge Phil Collins fan the music is still wonderful even though they are not as memorable as other Disney songs. " Son of Man" was a great montage of Tarzan growing up. Actually, this film seem to use montages for almost every song. Clearly, Collins was motivated by all the rhythmic possibilities he could have for the film, especially for the song "Trashin' the Camp". His specialty is in playing drums, so for this song he went all out STOMP by banging on trashcans and whatever else he could find. It's funny, Phil Collins actually said this was the most difficult song for him to write even though it only dealt with three cords. What is really incredible about the music is that since Tarzan was such a well-known character, Disney wanted to share this film with every country using their own languages. So Phil Collins took on the challenge of learning to sing all his songs in those different languages. I don't know if he s ang all thirty-five but there is footage of him singing in Spanish, French, German, and Italian. I can't imagine how long that took him to learn not only the lyrics in another language but how to properly pronounce all those words. I would of said forget it, go hire Ricky Martin to do the Spanish. Well, Collins pulled everything off and won a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Song: "You'll Be in My Heart" and a Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture.

Tarzan made a record of being the most expensive animated film ever made at the time with a budget of $130million until 2002's Treasure Planet with $140 million. The cost of production was so high because of using a technique called Deep Canvas. This technique created the 3D painted jungle backgrounds that Tarzan surfed through. A fun fact was that Tarzan's movement was based off of the skateboarding moves of Tony Hawk. Tarzan was dubbed the last bona-fide hit before the Disn ey slump of the early 2000s grossing $171,091,819 domestically and $448,191,819 worldwide, out-grossing both Hercules and Mulan. And it was the first Disney animated feature to open at number 1 since 1995's Pocahontas.

Of course Disney changed a few things from the original story. The first thing Disney changed was the use of gorillas instead of Apes.They were the first and only adaptation to do this, not sure why. Other characters where painted as being friends of Tarzan, but within the book where his enemies. Terk was Tarzan's arch nemesis. And Clayton is actually Tarzan's cousin. Now, ready to be thrown for a loop? Disney pulled your heart stings with the death of a baby gorilla by the evil Sabor who also then killed Tarzan's father ( his mother had died earlier). But in Tarzan of the Apes it was Kerchack, the lead er of the Mangani, the great apes, Tarzan's future adopted father. That's an awkward conversation for later, "Oh yeah, by the way, I killed your dad." Tarzan does meet the marooned Jane Porter and her father. But instead of never leaving the jungles of Africa ( until Tarzan 2) Tarzan follows Jane back to Maryland not England,where he learns to be a "civilized" man and marries Jane and has a baby boy named Jack. Tarzan becomes homesick for the jungle and convinces Jane to go back with him to live in the jungle and raise their son, who then takes on the name of Korak ( "Killer"). And they all go o n to have many adventures.

Tarzan ended a golden age of Disney movies, though we had no idea at the time. How could we? We thought the good times would last forever. Then came Dinosaur, Atlantis, Home on the Range, and Chicken Little. What happened? Is this some kind of sick joke? We can all be thankful that for at least a little while (mostly our childhood) we had quality movies almost every year from Disney. Truth be told, Craig and I stopped paying much attention after Lilo and Stitch. Luckily, Disney see ms to have found its way back with recent movies like Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and Winnie the Pooh. Hopefully by the time we have kids, they'll have great Disney movies to see in theaters!

One last thing: The ending of this movie is probably one of the most graphic. Sure, there's no bloody death for Clayton, but he still technically hangs himself and then you can see the shadow of his dead body against a tree. There is no doubt how Clayton's life ended. No ambiguous falling death that so many other Disney characters have suffered. No, Clayton literally caused himself to be strangled to death and/or get his neck broken. Probably the grisliest death Disney has ever shown us. So, if you haven't seen this movie in a while, go ahead and give it another try. I guarantee you will be entertained.

Disney's Mulan

We are now getting dangerously close to the end of the Disney Renaissance era. Disney was not exactly happy about Hercules doing less than Herculean in the theaters and were not looking forward to repeating such a outcome. Disney, at this point, looked back at their highest grossing movies for the last couple years and for the most part, they all had the same thing in common: a female lead. Luckily for them, they had just the film. Back in the early 90's, fate dropped two separate projects onto Disney's lap. Disney had been trying to develop a straight to video short called "China Doll" about a opressed and miserable Chinese girl who is whisked away by a British Prince Charming to happiness in the West. Sounds....interesting? Then Disney consultant and children's book author Robert D. San Souci suggested making a movie of the Chinese poem, "The Song of Fa Mu Lan" so Disney decided to combine the projects.

Production began in 1994 with animators being sent over to China for three weeks to take pictures and soak up the local culture. You know, research stuff. It was during that time that they shifted Mulan's character into a more appealing and selfless person and decided to make the principal animation look more like Chinese paintings and watercolor art. OK, so at one point they didn't want Mulan to be appealing and selfless? What if I wanted to see that version of Mulan? Mulan goes around doing what she wants and acts like a complete jerk to everyone. How is that not entertaining? Mushu also had to be changed, though it wasn't in attitude. No, they had to make him travel sized for Mulan's convenience. The filmmakers thought it would be silly if Mulan had a giant dragon palling around with her like in the original story, so they made him fun size. Poor Mushu.

Mulan is a pretty good film. Not exactly my favorite, but I wouldn't mind watching it every once in a while. It's got memorable songs like "A Girl Worth Fighting For," "I'll Make a Man Out of You," and "Reflections." Wait a minute...that's all the songs that are in the movie! Not counting "True To Your Heart," which was performed by 98 degrees and played after the movie. Does anyone still remember that band? I do. Why? I DON'T KNOW! I remember weird things! The movie has a good amount of humor, mostly thanks to Mushu, but still knows when to get serious. In fact, this is the first Disney movie to have warfare in it. The movie also deals with the issue of women's place in society and how they aren't just meant to stay home and take care of the men. I always found the whole Mulan/Li Shang relationship to be a little weird. You know why. Mulan also has a pretty solid villain in Shan Yu. He's ruthless, evil, powerful, and has wicked eyebrows. What more could you want in a villain?

There are a few familiar faces for the voice cast, most notably Eddie Murphy as Mushu. Murphy is great in this role, as he was in basically every role up until the 2000's. Sure, he may be better known as the voice of Donkey from Shrek, but Mushu deserves some love too! B.D. Wong provides Li Shang's voice, Wong is well known for his role as Dr. Huang on Law and Order: SVU. Li Shang's singing voice? None other Donny Osmond. Miguel Ferrer voices Shan Yu, and trust me when I say that you've seen the guy before. Then we have two well knowns, George Takei as First Ancestor and Pat Morita as the Emperor. Insert Karate Kid reference here. The rest of the voice crew is mostly Asian people I've never heard of. Oh, and that guy from Independence Day.

The story of Mulan mostly comes from The Ballad of Mulan, the story about a girl who takes her aged father's place in the army by posing as a man. Fa Mulan, or Hua Mulan in Chinese, is a legendary figure that lived during the Northern Wei Dynasty. She takes her father's place in the army and serves for a total of twelve years without anyone finding out she is a woman. During that time she does not ask for any reward, though she has earned great merit in the army. She vouches to go back home and live out the rest of her days. It isn't until her old war buddies come to visit her that they find out that she is a woman. There isn't a lot to the story because it was just a short poem. The legend is pretty popular in China, even as much as the Butterfly Lovers. It was also the first poem in China to support the notion of gender equality.

Mulan premiered in 1998 to glowing reviews and not a bad grossing. Critics loved the unique animation and the story, though some described the songs as being forgettable and a drag on the plot. Mulan ended up grossing more than Hercules and Hunchback of Notre Dame, making $120 million domestically and $304 million outside North America. Not too shabby! Disney had hoped that this movie would help sooth the wounds that they had inflicted China with when they released Kundun, a film about the Dalai Lama which didn't portray the Chinese as very nice people. After that, Disney knew that getting China to show Mulan in their theaters would be a long shot. China only allows ten western made films to be screened in China, so Disney definitely wanted to get in there. It took a year, and it was released only in a limited amount of theaters and after the Chinese New Year so local films could dominate the most lucrative time of the year. Fun fact: Jackie Chan voiced Li Shang for the Chinese release.

So if you are hankering for a movie with a strong female lead, a hilarious dragon, a menacing villain, and a whole mountainside of Huns, then look no further! Mulan is a great Disney film and it's ranked up there with the other Renaissance films. It's because of this film that I researched female soldiers who pretended to be men in the battlefield. Its happened way more times than you think.

Disney's Hercules

If you know me, then you know that I love history. Not ancient history though, with one exception: Greek Mythology. I have always found Greek Mythology fascinating. So I suppose you could chalk up my love of Hercules to that fact. I don't think it's just that though. Hercules is an incredibly funny movie, definitely the most since Aladdin. Its got tons of pop culture references and jokes that only someone who knows Greek Mythology would get. In other words, it's well researched and clever. My old Hercules CD is probably the most scratched up CD I own thanks to how much I listened to it as a kid. I just really liked the songs from this film and I still do. For me this film gives a perfect blend of humor and drama. It's not overly dramatic, but you still feel tension at the end of the film and feel that the relationship between Hercules and Megara is real. There's deception, anger, love, baby-stealing, fight scenes, and like I have mentioned, a lot of humor. I just don't see how anyone couldn't love this movie! The movie also contains my favorite Disney hero, Hercules. To me, Hercules is a symbol of the ultimate good, someone incorruptible....like Batman! I've always seen a little bit of myself in the character too, however cheesy that may sound. We're both naive, awkward, and generally really nice guys. I unfortunately don't have the super human strength, but hey, we can't have everything. Hercules focuses on the age old question: What does it mean to be a true hero? What does it entail and how can someone achieve such a title?

Production started on Hercules as early as 1994 and lasted through 1997. I'm guessing that the studio wanted to tackle something a little different. Disney in the past has generally gone with stories based on books or fairy tales, but hadn't delved into any specific mythology, unless you count the "Pastoral" segment of Fantasia. So, this was a little bit of a change for Disney. Disney realized early on that when people thought of Greek Mythology, they generally thought of academic books and a bunch of other boring stuff that wouldn't interest most people. So, they gave the story their own spin, made it a little more contemporary and made the characters more Americanized and relateable. No cartoon about gods philandering about or being extremely devious (unless we're talking about Hades). Instead Disney watered down Greek Mythology to make it acceptable for children, because if you've read Greek Mythology, then you know some of the stories are pretty messed up. Another thing that makes this movie different from any other Disney film is the animation style. To get a unique style for the movie, Disney hired Gerald Scarfe to be their animation adviser. Scarfe is best known for his artwork in Pink Flyod's The Wall. With his direction and further inspiration from Greek artwork and architecture, the movie has a distinct look that sets it apart from all the others.

In terms of character designs and mannerisms, some artists had a little bit of trouble. Andreas Deja, who was the primary animator for Scar, Gaston, and Jafar decided that he would this time tackle a protagonist instead of a antagonist. He found the task hard but got a lot of help from watching Tate Donovan (the voice of adult Hercules) act out his lines. Meg's design and mannerisms were based off a 40's screwball comedienne and now that I've learned that, I can really see it in the character. Hades character was meant to be a very menacing, slow talking villain, but once James Wood auditioned, they decided to change the character to a easy to anger, fast talking Hollywood agent/used car salesman sort of villain. I'm glad they made the change, because Hades is one of my favorite villains because of his demeanor. And finally, the character of Phil was based off of Grumpy from Snow White and Bacchus from Fantasia.

Half the fun of this movie is the voice cast. Notable voices include some that I already mentioned like Tate Donovan (Love Potion No. 9) as the voice of the adult Hercules and James Woods (Casino) as god of the underworld, Hades. Woods incidentally pulled a Robin Williams and ended up ad-libbing almost all of his lines. Woods must of really liked the role, because he has basically promised Disney that whenever they need him to reprise his role as Hades, he'll do it. And he has, voicing him in the animated series and in the Kingdom Hearts video games. Other voice talents included Danny DeVito (Big Fish, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as Philoctetes, Susan Egan (Spirited Away) as Megara, Rip Torn (Men In Black) as Zeus, Bobcat Goldthwait (Police Academy 2,3,4) as Pain, Matt Frewer (50/50) as Panic, Wayne Knight (Seinfeld, Jurassic Park) as Demetrius, Hal Holbrook (All The President's Men) as Amphitryon, Paul Shaffer (Late Show with David Letterman) as Hermes, and the late, great, Charlston Heston (Planet of the Apes, Ben-Hur) as the narrator. This is probably the only chance you'll get to hear Heston say: "You go girls." I'm not sure though, he may have also said it in The Ten Commandments. Needless to say, the movie as an all-star cast, from old stars like Holbrook and Heston, to newer ones like Donovan and DeVito (not new anymore). Everyone is perfect for the roles, too. It would literally blow my mind if they had someone else voice Hades in something Hercules related. I'm also glad they got Tate Donovan to do the voice of Hercules in the animated series.

In Greek Mythology, Hercules, or Heracles, or Herakles, is the son of Zeus and a mortal named Alcmene. That is the reason he is a demi-god, not because he was poisoned by Hades. Zeus however was married to Hera at the time, and you can imagine that Hera was pretty pissed. Hera was also pretty mad when she found out that Zeus had been using Hera to breast feed Hercules while she was asleep. The breast feeding allowed Hercules to become partially immortal and gave him super human strength. Hera decided to hold a grudge against Hercules for the rest of his partially immortal life and eventually sent him into a blind frenzy that caused him to murder his wife and kids. After he became sane again he sought the Oracle of Delphi to make atonement for what he had done. The Oracle told Hercules that he must serve Eurystheus, king of Mycenae. Eurystheus in turn gave him the tasks known as the Labors of Hercules. There were twelve in all, and if you watch or listen closely during the movie, Hercules completes five of the tasks while two more are mentioned by Phil when Hercules is posing. The tasks he completes in the film are: Kill the Nemean Lion, destroy the Lernaean Hydra, trap the Erymanthian Boar, butcher the Stymphalian Birds, and capture Cerberus. The two Phil mentions are cleaning the Augean Stables and retreiving the Gold Girdle from "some Amazons."

Interestingly enough, the battle between Hercules and the centaur, Nessus, in the movie is almost the same story as how he saved his second wife, Deianeira. Nessus offers to ferry them across a river, though one at a time. Nessus uses this ploy to kidnap Deianeira. When Hercules sees what's going on, he shoots Nessus with an arrow poisoned with Hydra blood. Before Nessus dies, he tells Deianeira to take some of his blood, for it was a very powerful medicine. He claimed that if Hercules ever became unfaithful, that his blood would make him fall in love with her again. She believes her would be kidnapper for some reason and takes some of his blood. Years later, Deianeira started to get the inkling that Hercules had fallen in love with another, so she covered his robe with Nessus' blood and sent a servant to give the robe to Hercules. The servant spilled some of the blood on the floor and when the sun rays hit the blood, it started to burn. Deianeira knew something was up so she sent someone to stop the first servant. It was too late however, as Hercules had already put on the robe. The blood, still poisoned by the Hydra's blood made the robe burn into Hercules flesh. He threw himself into water to quell the burning but it only made it worse. He ripped the robe off himself and took most of his internal organs with it. Furious, he threw the first servant into the sea. He then told his good friend Philoctetes to build him a pyre on the mountain of Oata. He was then burned to death on the pyre and made into a god by Zeus. Deianeira committed suicide after she found out what she had done. Great ending, right? Sanitation was definitely needed. I don't think it would have been wise of Disney to show Hercules ripping his own organs out.

Disney attempted to have Hercules premiere at Pynx Hill in Greece, but the government forbid it. In fact Greece basically considered the whole thing an insult due to the fact that it wasn't even close to the real myth. My opinion: who the hell cares? Did they really expect Disney to do a faithful adaption of Hercules' life? The story is super violent and inappropriate for children! Yes, they Americanized the hell out of it, but why did the Greek government have to be such sticks in the mud? Hercules got its wide release on June 27th, 1997. The movie did not do that well in comparison to the other Disney movies released during the Renaissance. In fact, it did the worst of all save for The Rescuers Down Under. I literally have no idea how that is possible. How could people not want to see this movie?! It's hip, it's got a good mixture of R&B/Soul music with a classical soundtrack, it's funny, and it's got the battle with the hydra! That freaked me out as a kid but it was still freaking cool! Disney blamed it on competition, which I guess could have been it. Face/Off, Men in Black, Contact, and George of the Jungle all came out around the same time and could have stolen a few people. But here is the question of the day: Does having competition cause your movie not to get seen? If I want to see a movie, I see it, no matter how many other movies are out. And besides George of the Jungle, it's the only children's movie that was out at the time. I don't know, maybe people decided to just spend their money on Men in Black. Hercules only grossed $99 million domestically, while earning $252 million in all, so it did much better overseas. Critical reviews were positive to mixed. Siskel and Ebert gave it one thumb up, Ebert liking it and Siskel not. It has an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Things you may have missed/interesting tid-bits:

• When Hercules hits his head on the mast of the Argo, Phil tells him to watch it. Jason, captain of the Argo, was killed when the mast struck his head.
• Hermes delivers flowers to Hera, a nod to FTD Florists whose registered trademark is a picture of Hermes.
  
• The Spice Girls were considered for the parts of the muses.
  
• The first film since Oliver and Company where the villain doesn't sing.
  
• "Air Herc" is a parody of Nike/Air Jordans. Nike was the Greek goddess who personified triumph.
  
• Phil's line, "I'm walking here!" after he almost gets hit by a chariot is a direct reference to the movie Midnight Cowboy.
• During "Zero to Hero," when Hercules flies on top of Pegasus in front of star constellations, one is of Marilyn Monroe doing her famous scene from The Seven Year Itch.
• Thebes is meant to be a Greek version of New York City, even so far as calling it "The Big Olive."
• During Meg's song, "I Won't Say I'm in Love," the muses sing while appearing as marble busts. The way they are arranged, they match the singing marble busts from The Haunted Mansion at Disney World/Land.
• Ricky Martin does the voice of Hercules in the Spanish version.
• Pain and Panic are named for two of the four henchmen of Ares, Phobos and Deimos. The names roughly translate into Pain and Panic. Phobos and Deimos are also the two moons of Mars, Mars being the Roman name for Ares.
  
• When Pain and Panic are pretending to be the kids trapped beneath the rock, one shouts, "Someone call IX-I-I, otherwise known as 9-1-1 in Roman Numerals.
  
• Paul Shaffer, who is best known as the keyboard playing band leader on Late Night with David Letterman, voices Hermes, who at the end of the film is seen playing the keyboard.
• And finally, Scar from The Lion King makes an appearance as the lion's skin that Hercules is wearing when he is posing for a painting.
  

I can't say enough on why I love this movie. From the epic battle with the hydra, to the emotional ending, to the complicated relationships, this movie has everything. This movie shows us what it means to be a true hero, and that is to be willing to risk/give up your life in order to save someone you care about. In other words, it takes sacrifice. While many might consider themselves hero's, they might not be, just for the simple fact that they put themselves before others. Please watch this movie again if you haven't in a while. You won't be disappointed.

Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Hunchback is perhaps the most serious and adult cartoon film Disney has ever come out with. While not terrifying to younger kids like The Black Cauldron may have been, Hunchback delves into very mature matters that go over kid's heads. While being extremely watered down to make it a G movie, the film still deals with lust, infanticide, sin, profanity, religious hypocrisy, the concept of Hell, prejudice, and social injustice, as well as the acceptance that Quasimodo longs for. As a child I understood the main concept of the movie; don't judge a book by its cover and to not be prejudice. Almost everything else didn't really hit me. But I knew, even then, that this was a far darker film than any I had seen, at least in the Disney realm. Now, Bluth films, that's another story. The Secret of NIMH freaked me the hell out when I was young. How is this film dark? Well, for starters, the beginning has Frollo about to drop a baby down a well. Frollo has that whole song about his messed up love for Esmeralda. Then you have Clopin who seems all nice until they go underground and then he gets all sinister. I still don't like Clopin to this day. The guard burn down those people's house, Esmeralda is almost burned at the stake, and the whole Court of Miracles is guarded by a bunch of people in skeleton costumes. Not exactly kid stuff. Now, that doesn't make the film bad. I do like it a lot. More now then I did when I was young. It definitely has one of the best openings of any Disney film. Also, have you ever noticed that evil characters also have evil horses? Just saying.

So how did Disney get the bright idea to adapt a depressing book into a children's movie? Well, development executive David Stain had apparently been reading the Classics Illustrated comic book edition of the story and decided to pitch it to the Disney higher ups. Disney liked the idea and wanted Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise to direct. They were looking at a few other projects but they didn't seem to be working so they decided to drop what they were doing and join up. This was the second time Trousdale and Wise directed a Disney film, the first being Beauty and the Beast. Both had read the story and knew they had to do something to make the story more child friendly. So, they added three talking gargoyles, make Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Phoebus kinder than they are in the novel, and making Frollo a judge instead of an archdeacon. I'm guessing they didn't want an evil religious character. To get some inspiration, animators and many others in the crew traveled to Paris to get some detailed looks at Notre Dame itself and make the film as accurate as possible. A small note about the animation. Remember the song Topsy Turvy? If you look at the crowd during it, and in fact at any other time there is a large crowd, you'll notice that there aren't that many different looking people. Disney basically created a group and had their computers regenerate them a bunch of different times to make it look like Paris is packed. I remember seeing a thing about it on the Disney Channel a long time ago, but can't find the clip now.

Some of the voice actors were picked because they had already worked with Trousdale and Wise on Beauty and the Beast, namely Tony Jay and David Odgen Stiers who voice Judge Claude Frollo and the Archdeacon, respectively, and who had voiced Monsieur D'arque and Cogsworth, respectively, in Beauty and the Beast. Others were picked because they had a unique voice, namely Demi Moore, who voiced Esmeralda. The producers wanted a non-traditional voice for Esmeralda and apparently Moore had the right kind of unusual voice! The voice of Clopin was found when the directors saw Paul Kandel playing a role in a stage version of Tommy. Quasimodo was voiced by Tom Hulce who is best known for portraying Mozart in Amadeus. Kevin Kline voiced Captain Phoebus, Kline best known for...well he's in a lot of weird movies, but I'm sure you've seen Wild Wild West. No? Good for you! If you were more fortunate you saw him in Dave or A Fish Called Wanda. The most recognizable of the gargoyles is probably Jason Alexander, who was in this little show that you probably haven't heard of called Seinfeld. The music was again tackled by Alan Menken. I really like the music for this film. The whole thing reminds me more of a Broadway musical than any other Disney movie. From "The Bells of Notre Dame," to "God Save the Outcasts," to "Topsy Turvy," this movie has Broadway written all over it.

Victor Hugo's novel, in which the film is based off of, has been widely portrayed in different mediums, whether in movies, television, plays, or comic books. So it's safe to say that it's a fairly popular story. But unless you've read the book or seen one of the other movies that is more faithful to the book, then you don't know what really happens. The story begins at the feast of fools, where Quasimodo is crowned King of Fools. The gypsy Esmeralda shows up and Quasimodo, along with Captain Phoebus, and Archdeacon of Notre Dame Claude Frollo. Frollo, like in the movie, is torn between his obsession with Esmeralda and his dedication to wiping Paris clean of sin. He orders Quasimodo to capture Esmeralda, but Quasimodo is quickly captured by Phoebus and his guards who save Esmeralda. Quasimodo is sentenced to be flogged and put out in the middle of the square for humiliation. Bounded, Quasimodo is dying of thirst, and Esmeralda takes pity on him and gives him water, thus saving him. He is now completely smitten.

Esmeralda is later charged with the attempted murder of Captain Phoebus, though it was actually Frollo who tried to kill him, seeing that he was about to score with Esmeralda. She is sentenced to death by hanging and is only saved from the noose when Quasimodo swings down and spirits her away to Notre Dame, invoking the law of sanctuary. Clopin, a street performer, and a bunch of Paris' criminals attempt to save Esmeralda by storming Notre Dame. Frollo convinces the King to help him get Esmeralda out of Notre Dame, basically breaking the law. Quasimodo is confused and drives Clopin and the riff-raff away, thinking they are there to hurt Esmeralda. He then decides to help the King's men find her, thinking they are there to help. Frollo "rescues" Esmeralda but is unsuccessful in winning her heart, so he does what any reasonable person would do: he has her hanged. Frollo laughs as Esmeralda is hung which sends Quasimodo into a fury. Quasimodo pushes Frollo off of the high reaches of Notre Dame in anger, then goes to the vault where they threw Esmeralda's corpse. He lays down with it until he starves to death. When people open the vault later and find the skeletons, Quasimodo's bones turn to dust upon trying to remove them. Happy ending right? Almost everybody dies! Hooray! An interesting note is that the book's true protagonist was Esmeralda, not Quasimodo. If you think about it, this movie is one of the only ones, besides maybe Pocahantas, where the guy doesn't get the gal. Depressing! At least they both don't die though. I always didn't like the ending of this movie though. I though Quasimodo deserved a little more hapiness! Oh well. At least Frollo died at the hands of what I can only assume was God's will. Coincidence that the gargoyles head just happend to fall off when he was on it? I think not.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame was released on June 21st, 1996 with the premiere coming two days before, screening at the New Orleans Superdome. The film went on to gross just a little over $100 million domestically, making it not one of the better money making Disney films of the Renaissance era. It did however do pretty well overseas, as one can imagine. Most critics gave the movie mixed reviews, claiming that it was too adult for kids and thus not appropriate for them. Others, mostly ones that were diehard fans of the novel, claimed that the film was too watered down and that the characters fell back on cliches. In other words, Disney couldn't win. While it may not be the very best of the Renaissance era, it still is one of the most breathtaking. The songs alone are worth seeing the movie for. So, if you haven't seen this one in awhile, dust it off and give it a watch.