Disney's Lilo and Stitch

My sister likes to compare me to Stitch from this movie. Or at least my younger self. I was pretty out of control, and you didn't want to give me large amounts of caffeine. When my parents let me have a cappuccino for the first time I ran around the house so much they forced me to get on the treadmill until I calmed down. But I was nothing compared to everyone's favorite little blue alien. I definitely didn't eat as much, and no one let me have a laser blaster. Though Lilo has her name in the title too, most people remember good old Stitch. Disney had made several big budget movies in the 90's that luckily made their money back and then some. That wasn't the case so much for the early 2000's. Their last four movies didn't really do that well compared to their 90's entries, so Disney decided to take things down a few notches. They wanted to make a more economically-made movie like they had done before with Dumbo, which was Disney's cheap response to big budget projects Bambi and Fantasia. Chris Sanders, who was the head storyboard artist at the time, was asked to pitch some ideas. It just so happens that Sanders had the perfect idea. He had created the character of Stitch for a children's book in 1985, but was unable to gain any support for it. He then decided that one day he'd turn it into a movie, about an out of control alien that runs amok in rural Kansas. Kansas being chosen because it would limit the amount of havoc Stitch could inflict on the infrastructure since the state is kind of desolate and out of the way. When it was brought up by Sanders for consideration, Disney decided to change the location to the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i, somewhere still isolated, but a more interesting setting. This movie would, of course, be the first Disney movie set in Hawaii. It's also one of the few that are set in the present time.

Like in any animated film based off a real life place, the crew went to the island of Kaua'i to get some ideas for the landscape animation and culture that would be an integral part of bringing the story alive. Something that really hit the crew as they were getting tours of the island was their tour guide's explanation of the word 'ohana. The guide detailed how it doesn't just mean family in the sense of your immediate family members, but extended members and friends. "No matter where we went, our tour guide seemed to know somebody. He was really the one who explained to us the Hawaiian concept of 'ohana, a sense of family that extends far beyond immediate relatives. That idea so influenced the story that it became the foundational theme, the thing that causes Stitch to evolve despite what he was created to do, which was destroy," explains writer Dean DeBlois. The Disney animators faced the daunting task of meshing the film's plot, which showed the impoverished and dysfunctional life that many Hawaiians lived during the then-recent economic downturn, with the island's serene beauty. To help authenticity further, Disney received help from the voices of Nani and David, who both either lived in Hawaii, or had grown up there, to get the proper colloquial dialect and slang for the Hawaiians in the film.

The background animation for Lilo and Stitch is something that we haven't seen in a long time. Instead of using the typical gouache technique for backgrounds, the animators instead went with watercolors, something they hadn't done since the early years of Disney animated films. Chris Sanders preferred the look of watercolor though, as it would give the movie a much brighter look and allow it to follow the art direction of Dumbo. On top of that, the characters weren't designed to look like the usual Disney house style, but were modeled directly off of Chris Sanders' drawings. This is one of the many things I enjoy about Disney; their ability to change up their animation a little bit and not get too stuck into one single one. This is more apparent in the more recent films, as the older ones just seemed to be evolving into more sophisticated animation. This film looks completely different from Atlantis, and Atlantis looks different than Pocahontas or Hercules. Each film, for the most part, has its own animation style and that's what keeps people coming back. I love Bluth films, but they all look the same for the most part. I think that is part of the reason his movies petered out in the early 90's. That, and he couldn't replicate the success he had story-wise in the 80's. But that's a story for another day. Disney has taken risks, and some haven't worked out, and some have. Luckily, Lilo and Stitch was one of the gambles that paid off for Disney.

Several things were changed about Lilo and Stitch before it made it to theaters. Stitch was originally supposed to be part of an intergalactic gang, and Jumba was one of his former cronies that was sent after Stitch by the Intergalactic Council to capture him. Test audiences apparently didn't like the feel of that plot so Disney changed the relationship between the two to being creator (Jumba) and created (Stitch). Another big change was near the end of the movie when Stitch flies a 747 into downtown Honolulu to save Lilo. After 9/11 though, they felt this would be a might disrespectful so they changed the plane to a spaceship. I really don't think we'll see a movie with any sort of plane or air born apparatus flying into anything for a long time.

Lilo and Stitch was released on June 21st, 2002 to rave reviews, one of only a few in the 2000's to be critically lauded, the others being The Emperor's New Groove, The Princess and the Frog, Treasure Planet, and Bolt. Praises were given to the story, Stitch, and of course the beautiful animation. Peter M. Nichols even stated that through the character of Nani and her struggles the film appeals to older children much more than some of the other Disney movies that attempted to do the same thing, namely The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Treasure Planet. The film proved to be a success in the box office too, ending up with a worldwide gross of over $273 million. Given that the film was made with an $80 million budget, $40 million less than Atlantis, it's easy to see that this film made Disney quite a profit. The film proved to be popular enough to spawn two direct-to-video sequels and a television series. Lilo and Stitch is one of my favorites of the decade, but not my most favorite. That was Emperor's New Groove. My other favorite is coming up in the next post.

Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire

This one took a while to get to just for the fact that I hadn't watched said movie in over ten years. Going into this post I was basically going to low ball this movie like I've done with Dinosaur, but decided to watch it again to get some perspective. I wanted to see if it was as blah as I remember. What perspective did I gain from this recent viewing? Still blah. I didn't see this one in theaters in 2001 when it came out, probably because I was about to be in high school, and it's not cool to like Disney movies in high school. What helped was the fact that most of the movies that came out during my high school tenure were pretty bad, save for Lilo and Stitch, another movie which I've only seen once, and therefore need to watch again in order to accurately describe it. Don't get me wrong, Atlantis isn't a terrible movie, it's just a mediocre one. It pales in comparison to the Disney films from the 90's. Sadly, Disney put a ton of work into this movie, so to know that it didn't pan out is sort of depressing.

Let's go back to a simpler time: 1996. Producer Don Hahn and Directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise were sitting at a restaurant with Writer Tab Murphy after finishing The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was agreed that the four of them should stick together and work on another film, one with an Adventureland setting. The idea came to them for a movie about the lost city of Atlantis, an idea inspired by Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth. In their treatment of the Atlantis story, they also decided to incorporate the clairvoyant readings of Edgar Cayce, a psychic who claimed to be able to shed light on subjects such as healing and Atlantis. They incorporated some of his ideas-notably that of the mother-crystal, which provides power, healing, and longevity to the Atlanteans-into the story. To add to the realism, the crew went through countless museums to scope out early 20th century technology, and even went as far as to visit the Carlsbad Caverns to get landscape ideas for the underground animation. The filmmakers knew of the usual depiction of Atlantis as a crumbling Greek city, and wanted to create something uniqu e instead. What the movie ends up with is a combination of Mayan, Southeast Asian, Indian, and Tibetan inspired architecture. Atlantis was also to be different from other Disney films, as it would be a straight action film with no songs whatsoever. The crew even wore shirts that said "ATLANTIS-Fewer Songs, more explosions."

The filmmakers knew that besides redesigning what people thought of when they picture Atlantis, they had to create a distinct language for the Atlanteans. Marc Okrand, a linguist who created the Klingon language for Star Trek, was hired to create a unique Atlanean language. Guided by the directors' initial concept of a mother language, Okrand employed an Indo-European word stock with its own grammatical structure. John Emerson designed the written portion of the language, writing out a bunch of random shapes and along with the directors, picking out which ones best fit the Atlantean race. The A in Atlantean was meant to serve as a treasure map to the heart of Atlantis, as evidenced in the film.

The screenplay went through a ton o f rewrites. Joss Whedon, who you may know from several shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and a little movie called The Avengers, was the first writer to contribute to the film, but unfortunately left early in the production. The original treatment was over 120 pages, 30 pages over the average number for Disney screenplays. To shorten it up, characters were erased and the story shifted to be more about Milo, the hero of the story. There was even meant to be trials in the caverns to keep outsiders away, but they had to be scrapped because they felt it slowed the movie way down. Milo was going to be a descendant of Blackbeard the Pirate, AKA Edward Teach-a connection that would have made Milo realize his natural gift as an explorer-but that was dropped. Moliere was supposed to be a professor-like character, but was inst ead turned into a crazy, mole-like man with extending eyeballs and weird headgear. The beginning of the film was going to have a Viking party using the Shepard's Journal to find Atlantis, only to be annihilated by the Leviathan.

To this day, Atlantis: The Lost Empire has a cult following, probably one of the few Disney animated films to have one, and it's all because of one thing: the animation. Well that's weird, you may be saying to yourself. Why would the animation give this movie a cult following? Well, the animation, besides being breathtaking, is based off of the work of Mike Mignola. Mignola, for those who are not familiar with him, is the comic book artist who gave us Hellboy. Mignola has a very distinct look to his drawings and Disney apparently liked it so much that they wanted to use it for their film. Mignola was hired on as one of the four production designers. The movie may be a traditionally animated film, but it had the most use of CGI than any other Disney movie at that time (Dinosaur was all CGI so that doesn't count). This movie has quite a few things going against it, but animation is not one of them. It is a really good looking movie, especially the landscapes and architecture.

If the characters are memorable at all, it is because of their voice actors. Milo may be annoying, but he is brought to life by the great Michael J. Fox. Fox had the choice between doing this movie or Titan A.E. and chose Atlantis due to his son's request to do so. Cree Summer is Kida, the Princess of Atlantis. Summer has been in a bunch of stuff, but is most recognizable, at least to me, as the voice of Susie Carmichael on Rugrats, and Elmyra on Tiny Toons. James Garner voices Commander Rourke, the leader of the mission to find Atlantis and the movie's antagonist. Garner is most known for his title roles in Maverick and The Rockford Files. Sadly, this film marked the last animated film for Jim Varney, who played Cookie. Varney is legend, so you better know who he is. Last is Leonard Nimoy as the King of Atlantis. Nimoy was in some space show in the 60's that I can't remember at the moment. I'm sure you've never heard of it anyway.

Atlantis had its premiere at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on June 3rd, 2001. The movie went on to gross over $186 million in all in its initial run, $86 million of that coming from domestic returns. With the production costing upwards of $120 million, the film was considered a dissapointment. Sure they made a little profit, but Disney is used to making ungodly amounts of money on expensive productions. Because of the mediocre return, a sequel and TV show spin-0ff were cancelled outright. Many blame Shrek for Atlantis' money woes. It turns out people want to see CGI films, and good ones at that. Shrek was just a better movie and a better one at attracting people. I know I saw Shrek in theaters. The reviews for the movie were also not good news for Disney. They had been so used to knocking it out of the park, that when Atlantis got really mixed reviews, it was kind of a shock.

Most critics noted the lack of character develo pment and uneven plot as the worst offenses. On the flip side, most loved the animation and the last battle scene. Now, I don't usually agree with critics, but they did peg this movie correctly. The plot is kind of disjointed and you really don't g et to know the characters very well. Sure you know them, but you don't really care about them. I didn't care about Milo. I thought he was annoying. Sorry. That being said, the animation is superb and unique, and the last battle is pretty epic. I mean, the villain turns into crystal and then shatters into pieces when he stands up into a running propeller.

A few things I found interesting abo ut this film, though. I like how they based the Atlanteans off the Egyptians in the sense that they had forgotten about their own culture. When Napoleon marched into Egypt, he noticed that the Egyptians had all these relics, but had no idea of their past or their time as a great civilization. The same thing is mirrored in Atlantis. They can't even read their own language. This film is not only different because of the lack of songs, but because of its violence. Warning to all you wanting to show your kids this movie someday. Wait till they are older. A ton of people die in this movie. Sure you don't see most of them die, but it's all very assumed. It's an action adventure story so what do you expect? The themes of the movie are good ones though, if not a little forced. The villain of the movie is Commander Rourke, a man who will stop at nothing for riches, even if it means letting a whole civilization die, or even the men in his expedition. Rourke= Extreme Capitalist Greed. The film also drips with anti-imperialism, as we all see the consequences of trying to take something that belongs to another people by invading them. I would compare it to the old world explorers traveling to the new world in search of gold. They didn't care about who they hurt, they just wanted to fill their pockets. Granted, the whole expedition is in it for the money except Milo.

They all turn their back on him, though they all come back to support him in the end, save for Rourke. And our hatred is basically only for him, as even the people that stay with him are without faces. They wear gas masks ala WWI soldiers and serve as the expendable stormtroopers. Not only does it make them look more sinister, but it makes it less tragic when they get blown up in the end.

Atlantis has some redeeming qualities as I've pointed out, and some interesting themes, but it's too laden with odd plot points and forgettable characters to be anything more than a mediocre Disney film.

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.