DISNEY!!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION! Ugh!

When u wish upon a star....

Those immortal words (actually from Pinocchio, 1940) are immediately associated with Disney. Disney? Disney.

Disney the man. Disney the TV series. Disney the live-action films (ugh!). Disneyland, Disneyworld, and the other Disney themeparks. But perhaps most famous of all, Disney the cartoon. In the near 70 years (or has it past 70 years already?) of entertaining people, the legacy of the House of Mouse is in its animated feature films. Sure, there are the themeparks, the rides, the books and the cartoon shorts. And there's the merchandising, strong arm licensing practices and cut-throat business tactics. All these are Disney too.

But nothing quite exemplifies the Disney way like the full-length animated features do. The combination of artforms: animation, music, songs, storytelling and most recently computer generated imagery have defined what an animated movie is to us in this decade.

I admit, I too fell under the Disney spell with The Little Mermaid, and though it has been a difficult struggle to get rid of the funny feelings of awe, happiness, hope, sadness and regret that is packaged in a modern Disney movie, I believe I am on the road to recovery. Of course watching films like Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame makes the purging of Disney from my system a little easier, what with it's mundane storylines and forgettable songs. And writing a page like this is rather therapeutic too.

Okay! Enough of this mindless numbing mumbling (sounds like a tongue-twister)! Let's get to the action!!

HOLY TRILOGY, BATMAN!

Just as Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Back to the Future have their trilogies, so too does Disney's modern era films... in a way. I believe Michael Eisner and Jefferey Katzenberg's greatest achievement to the Disney studio would be the three big ones: The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.

While The Little Mermaid may not be a big blockbuster smash like the other two (though it did well on video), it certainly paved the way for the two monster hits after that (Beast and Aladdin) and set the tone for the "modern" Disney yarn. What's considered modern?

• Songs (a song to start, three more in the first half of the film, and a rousing chorus ending)
• a strong female lead
• a male lead that's callow/shy/brash/basically boyish and immature; grows up at film's end
• supporting characters that are cute and look good as stuffed toys
• an evil character who has an English accent (not always true, but it's preferable)

This trilogy is what sparked off reel after reel of success for Walt Disney Pictures. After Aladdin, Pocahontas (1993) a modest hit but still big; The Lion King (1994) a huge hit, Disney's highest grossing animated feature; The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1995), a moderate success; Hercules (1997) and Mulan (1998), big hits and movies that helped pushed the technical achievemnet envelope even further.

ANIMATION

After watching Disney's The Little Mermaid, I had a sudden dream. I was 15, young, idealistic (and overweight) and decided my future... I would become a Disney animator! So I worked hard and struggled like the worm that I was. Of course nothing happened and now I'm in Engineering. But I did learn a few things over the patch that I wanted to be an animator. It wasn't much of course, or I would be in animation now.

Animation is the art of bringing life to drawings. Still images can evoke wonder, but moving animated images can create magic! Well, in the right hands of course (anyone who has seen Usop Sontorian or the 70s Marvel Comics cartoons Thor, Incredible Hilk ....}

UNDER CONSTRUCTION! Ugh!

Return to the Jay's Lounge!