I’ve seen both sequels. The first sequel had Dan Castalanetta (ie, Homer Simpson) doing the voice of the Genie, and it was rather meh. The second sequel had Robin Williams back, and it was better than meh… reasonably enjoyable, although (of course) not as good as the original. Although I don’t think direct-to-video sequels should really be held to the same standards…
I agree with your over-all sentiment, but not with the examples you’ve picked to prove it. I haven’t seen any of the Disney films between The Lion King (vastly overrated, IMO) and The Emperor’s New Groove (vastly underrated, IMO), but I’ve made a point to catch all the Dreamworks releases since Road to El Dorado, and their 2D animation blows their 3D crap out of the water. El Dorado was forgettable, but Sinbad was quite good, and Prince of Egypt was superb. Shrek, on the other hand, while amusing, is not going to age well at all. Nobody is going to remember it in ten years, any more than they’d remember Scary Movie or any other film that is based around send ups of the most transient elements of current pop culture. And Ice Age straight up sucked. I haven’t seen Shrek II yet, nor Polar Express, although I’ll probably get around to the latter soon enough. Based off of the first one, I’m not sure it’s worth my time to bother with Shrek II. Maybe once it shows up on network TV.
I’ve also been meaning to see Lilo & Stitch for the longest time. Again, traditional 2D animation that received overwhelmingly positive critical reviews.
Yeah, but I feel that there were scenes, the opening hunting one for example, that just went too far and ruined it. They threw up a big red flag which said DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE and totally took you out of the semi-mythical world of the movie and plopped you right back into the real one.
It’s something that the Pixar and the better Disney films never do.
The whole deer scene actually plays an important role, later in the movie.
Hit submit too soon.
The deer scene teaches Giant about death. Later, when he and Hogarth go crashing down the hill, he pokes Hogarth in the same way that he poked the deer, with the same (to his eye) result. I don’t think it was gratuitous or preachy at all, I think it was good storytelling.
That’s precisely the attitude that led to those schlocky Disney direct-to-video sequels.
Kudos to John Lasseter at Pixar for dodging the bullet, when they were asked to do a cheap direct-to-video Toy Story 2: “We don’t want to be known as a studio that did great stuff and bad stuff – all of our stuff should be great.”
You won’t be disappointed – it’s as good as folks say, though I thought the “family” message got reiterated one or two times too many (four is definitely overdoing it, guys). I’m still waiting for the director’s commentary before I get it on DVD, tho.
OK, there seem to be enough spoilers in this thread for me to add one more: in Ted Hughes’ original book The Iron Man, which was a staple when I was in primary school {loved the neat reversal of him as "Sylvia Plath’s husband, by the way: he was actually Poet Laureate}, the iron man DOES come back to life at the end. So there.
For further trivia, Pete Townsend of The Who wrote a radio musical based on the book.
Except I don’t think that Alladin and the King of Thieves WAS all that shlocky. I found it to be a perfectly satisfying and fun experience, as long as I had my expectations set somewhat lower than if it had been a theatrical release.
I think there’s a place for DTV sequels. Certainly, I’d much rather have them release a movie like that as DTV than release it on the big screen and then we’d see it and feel ripped off because it wasn’t as good as the original.
Just a big sorry about the unboxed spoiler I posted above.
Ah, but if they invested the time and effort for big-screen animation, they’d also have to invest the time and effort to deliver a good script to go with the effort.
Then again, this is the same company that gave us Home on the Range… :dubious:
heh
Apologies, Middlecase.
I think I was the one who dubbed Ted Hughes as merely being Sylvia Plath’s husband, I did know Hughes was Poet Laureate, I should have been more thorough and given him his due.
I knew the story as a child, and do remember that the original Iron Man did come back to life.
I don’t think the coming-back-together ending really cheapens the story; I think it adds another layer while still leaving a bit to the imagination.
Didn’t know about the Pete Townshend musical, that’s pretty cool.
He must have bought some of the rights when he did the musical because he’s listed as Executive Producer on the film.
This drove me crazy for a while. I remember the video for the song ‘A Friend is a Friend’ from his Iron Man album was a stop-motion, animated thing with a kid and a big robot. When the film came out I wondered if they were the same story.
[QUOTE=Caprese]
heh
Apologies, Middlecase.
I think I was the one who dubbed Ted Hughes as merely being Sylvia Plath’s husband, I did know Hughes was Poet Laureate, I should have been more thorough and given him his due./QUOTE]
No problemo. I did genuinely think it was apt and funny.