Shock!
We are full of surprises.
Shock!
We are full of surprises.
Indeed we are. Here's another surprise.
7.
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Matt ranked it at 13. Shauna ranked it at 10.
OVERALL SCORE: 11.5
Matt: So this movie is 63 years old. Think about that. Back then people didn't have electricity, lived off the land and everyone was called Frank. Out of nowhere a man, we'll call him Dis Knee, had an idea. To take the cave paintings that everyone enjoyed so much and to put them in order very fast. It was called a motion picture. It was a huge success and then there was Dis Knee Land.
The end.
Alice in Wonderland is actually a messed up movie. Nothing makes sense, everything is bonkers and things are often mad. That's why it's amazing. It's off the wall nonsense from start to finish jumping from Random plot to random plot is very enjoyable. One minute you're drinking a million cups of tea, the next you are running away from a deck of cards run by a crazed queen. Nothing makes sense.
It's quirky, random and enjoyable. Very few movies manage to replicate this which is why it's a unique entry to this top 10.
Shauna: In an entry that surprised everyone, I’m sure, we have Alice in Wonderland. Closest agreement in ranking we’ve had so far, which is interesting. Curiouser and curiouser.
I didn’t have much exposure to Alice in Wonderland as a child – this movie or the original tale. Luckily for me, I chose to read the book not too long before I watched this with Matt, which gave me a whole new insight into how good this movie actually is as an adaptation.
As a little bit of background, Alice in Wonderland as a novel is essentially a bunch of individual set pieces that are unrelated to each other, and are generally just utter and complete nonsense from cover to cover. That is pretty much all there is to it. They are wonderful little nonsense set pieces, but nonsense nonetheless. Going back to the 1951 animated feature, they portrayed this entire concept rather well. Moving from piece to piece was about as seamless as it was in the original novel, which is to say you turned a page and suddenly you were somewhere new, which I didn’t have a problem with at all.
The colourful world of Wonderland is fun and weird and wacky, and the individual set pieces they chose to animate were wacky and weird and fun, just like it should be. Characters appeared for their bit and then left and Alice continued on acting like nothing had happened, other than being in a kind of crazy place. Alice adjusted to all the stuff rather well, actually, considering her situation. Ever the straight man, that Alice Liddell.
Anyway, I just really enjoyed it. I really like Wonderland and how they portrayed it. Thinking about it, I don’t really know how they could get it all that wrong!
…oh… Look at you, Disney Alice in Wonderland (2010)… How did you get everything so horribly dreadfully dreadfully horribly wrong?
I love that movie!
LITTLE OYSTERS
Originally Posted by Fynn
Another one I haven't seen. I loved the books so much that I was always scared this film would ruin them for me in some way. Maybe it's worth giving it a shot though.
It's soooo good
It's 90 minutes long. If you don't like it, you can just never watch it again and go back to the original novels pretending that it never happened.
That's what everyone who watched the 2010 Alice movie did.
Damn right about that.
I liked the Walrus and the Carpenter bit but for the longest time I thought there was such a thing as Ceiling Wax
Kefka's coming, look intimidating!
Have a nice day!!
This is my favourite classic Disney movie. Yes, I used the British unnecessary U in honour of Miss Alice.
FUN FACT: Aldous Huxley (Mr. Adequate's grandfather) wrote the original screenplay for this movie, but Walt Disney rejected it.
I really wish they'd revisit the idea of making that version.
I can't really watch Alice in Wonderland anymore.
Depressing story alert!!!!!
This was the favourite movie/book/THING of a dear friend of mine. She loved Alice in Wonderland and all of it's themes and just everything about it, sadly we lost her to cancer in 2012 and now listening to some of the music from that movie makes me very sad. It seems to take on a whole different meaning to me now.
I especially find this song poignant now;
But yes, it's a wonderful movie. Was one of my favs as a kid.
Also, I haven't seen Bolt. I should.
Been a few days, but we have been, uh, busy with social lives.
HERE YOU GO.
6.
Mulan (1998)
Matt ranked it at 14. Shauna ranked it at 8.
OVERALL SCORE: 11
Matt: Mulan is one of these entries that are high up on both of our lists. I have a strong preference for current Disney movies rather than the older entries if we ignore that awful period that was the early 2000s. Mulan is one of the pieces in Renaissance Disney that made the cut for me, which is why it is nestled here at #6.
Mulan being the story of a woman being pretending to be man really speaks to me.... Nah, just kidding, I can't relate to someone in that position. What Mulan does well though is to take the traditional female Disney character searching for love or to searching for something more (See Ariel, Jasmine etc.) and tells them to stop letting the men do all the fighting. Most female characters in Disney movies prior normally sit around picking flowers and singing about love. With few exceptions the female characters are normally the main focus on the movie until a big set piece at the end where the men take over and have a bit of a rumble. Mulan takes this differently by saying “Let’s give her a sword and have her sort things out”.
The movie starts off with Mulan prancing around the stables feeding the animals and then getting nagged at as she need to dress up like a ghost woman otherwise no man will want her. After some hijinks she is kicked out of marriage school and her dad is asked to fight some muscly dude because a weaselly dude asked him to. Mulan steals all her dad's stuff and runs away from home. After an 80 minute long training montage she fights the muscly dude and Mulan is named winner of China. The end.
Mulan overall ranks pretty high for me as it has a darker tone than most movies. Mulan is the story of the woman living in a man's world, but everyone ends up sharing the same experiences. Take heading to the destroyed village. The war affects everyone, but men are traditionally the only ones sent to fight. Previous Disney movies have villains with conquest as their goal but Shan Yu's methods are much more severe. Jafar is power hungry and wants to run Agrabah, but he uses internal corruption and his power to get there. Straight out murder and raiding towns gives much more of an impact.
Mulan is filled with great moments for me though. I made fun of the training montage earlier, but it's really a fun scene. The scene on the mountain side with the fireworks is also edge of your seat stuff. The only real thing limiting it is comic relief. I keep talking about comic relief in my reviews as it makes or breaks a movie for me. Mushu is not a good example. Other than the fact the Movie would be boring without anyone to talk, Mushu offers pretty much nothing of value to this movie and seems really out of place in this movie.
Mulan is a great movie start to finish but is faulted by a poor sidekick.
Shauna:As much as I loved watching Disney flicks as a kid, I never watched anything that was released past 1995. Classic Disney was what my parents knew, and they passed what they knew on to me. The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast made the cut too, for some reason. Most likely because they were released when my sister and I were younger. So when it came to 1998 and Mulan hit the silver screen, it didn’t even make the smallest blip on my radar. I don’t remember it being released. I don’t remember seeing adverts for it on the telly. It was a nothing for me.
My first exposure to Mulan was quite a while later, around 4-6 years after its initial release. I’m sure if you do the math there, you’ll work out what could have possibly prompted my venture into the world of Disney at that age. I was a little bit wary of Mulan, if I’m honest – I was coming off my pre-teen “Disney is for super babbies” thing, and this was the first “new” one I watched, so I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it.
And to say I loved it would be a little bit of an understatement. I really love The Little Mermaid, but that is peppered with nostalgia. My enjoyment of Mulan was not, a genuinely good movie that was funny and emotional, and honestly, it spurred me on to watch all the rest of the Disney movies I missed. If I could be wrong about this one, what other excellent pieces of work did I pass by and wave off? But enough about Shauna’s own personal Disney Renaissance, let’s talk a bit more about Mulan.
I remember being impressed by the art style of Mulan. How it looked kind of traditional Chinese painting-ish. As I said before, I found it funny where it was due to be funny. I found it emotional when it was due to be emotional – god damn did I tear up something chronic when they passed through the mountain village and found that it had been destroyed and the army had failed. Why did I get so emotional at that point? I don’t know, I was a hormonal teenager. Judge me as you will. I found out that I knew what a concubine was, despite having no prior exposure to that word (that I can recall).
The characters are all likeable and entertaining – even Eddie Murphy as Mushu didn’t overstay his welcome. Mulan learning to be who she wants to be is an excellent message for anyone. Mushu was a bit of a dick, but he learned his lesson which is alright in the end. Shang and the rest of the new recruits are wonderfully entertaining. Shan-Yu is an intimidating villain, and it’s pretty impressive that he can survive an avalanche. All in all, it has a fantastic cast.
As always we touch on the music in this entry, which is also excellent. Pop “I’ll Make a Man Outta You” on at any party and everyone will be singing along, even if it is Donny Osmond. Although this is definitely the crowning jewel of the movie, I don’t say no to a little bit of “Reflection”, or “Honour to Us All”. Even if the Granny does have a magical voice change when she sings.
In terms of the plot, it is nice to see a woman take centre stage in a role that had her doing more than just falling in love. She fought her own battles, and stood her own ground, and showed that she was just as capable of doing the things she was told by society she wasn’t allowed to do. Which again, is a good message to send. That’s basically the entire plot in a nutshell, and I have little to complain about here.
As my reintroduction to the Disney Animated Classics, I probably couldn’t have chosen better than Mulan. It had everything I loved about all those old movies, and it added a whole new layer of what they could do. It made me excited for what I had missed, and for what could possibly be tacked next. Overall, definitely a movie worthy of being in my Top 10 personal favourites.
The thing that's so beautiful about Mulan isn't the gender nonconformity. If you zone in on that you're totally missing the actual point of the story, which is that she loved her father so much that she was willing to die for him so that he could be safe.
Seriously powerful stuff.
Very very true, and I am a teensy bit ashamed that I missed out on that point. x}
I mean, it's definitely also about breaking gender barriers. I think it's probably the first Disney movie with a female lead that wasn't about princess romance (which aren't bad, by the way). I think that's part of why it's so beloved.
But the real driving point of the story is familial love, but it's really subtle. I don't blame you for missing it, because it's not nearly as much in your face as SHE DA MAN!!!!!
Still, the transformation scene brings tears to my eyes EVERY TIME. When she sets down her comb and picks up her father's orders...just...tears. And when she's walking towards her ancestors to the beat of the music...CHILLS.
I think I should also mention that Mulan is hands down my favorite Disney movie of all time. The summer I was eight, I literally watched it and rewound it, then watched it again. I probably watched the movie six or eight times a day. I used to know every single line ever. Yeah.
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