Two lionesses watch over the pride in African Cats. (Disneynature, 2011)

If Disney has learned anything over the years, it’s that lions are kings at the box office. So the House of Mouse has gone back to Africa this year to bring us a new documentary about the king of the beasts. But from a different point of view. Don’t expect to see any singing warthogs or meerkats. This is a true story of life on the Savannah.

A few years ago, The Walt Disney Company established a new film label called Disneynature — with a mission to distribute nature documentaries like the old “True-Life Adventures” back in the 1950s. In a stroke of marketing genius, they tied the film releases to coincide with Earth Day. The first, appropriately titled Earth, came out in 2009. The next year, they released Oceans. These films looked at our planet in a new way, and they examined our influence on our environment.

It has become a tradition with my family to celebrate Earth Day each year with an outing to the theater to see the latest Disneynature release. This year, we continued with African Cats, a film that examines the lives of the lions and cheetahs of the Kenyan wilderness.

Read the full review at MovieSmackdown.com »

Already a science fiction fan and lover of video games (yes, I played Asteroids when it first came to my local pizza parlor), seeing TRON introduced me to another side of computers. The story, filled with floating bits and I/O towers, seems almost archaic today. But it’s still a pretty good story. Having watched it again this week, I decided it is more than a guilty pleasure. It’s a fun movie, even if the visuals are dated by today’s standards.

Enter TRON: Legacy. Just as 30 years has improved our computer-generated graphics, it also changed the landscape of the world Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) created in the original film.

According the back story told in the first few minutes of the film, Flynn was at the height of his success when he disappeared fifteen years ago. His son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund), is now in charge of his father’s company. Though Sam prefers to be a silent owner, protesting the board’s corporate greed.

When Sam goes to his father’s old office to find the source of a mysterious phone call, he is swept away to the fabled “grid” his father often spoke of in his bedtime stories. No longer a place for free information, the grid has become a closed system under the fascist regime of Clu (also played by Bridges). Clu was programmed by Flynn to create a perfect system. Under his totalitarian rule and his warped idea of perfection, the grid has become a model of order where any program considered imperfect is either “repurposed” or sent to the games.

This is where Sam finds himself when he arrives in the grid, without any identity disk. He is quickly ushered through preparation, where his only training is advice to “survive.” He then finds himself competing in a disc battle, followed closely by a race to the death on light cycles.

A recognizer floats over the grid in TRON: Legacy. ©2010 Disney Pictures.

After a timely rescue by Quorra (Olivia Wilde), Sam’s reunited with his father. The homecoming is filled with tension, however, as the elder Flynn disagrees with Sam about the best way to free the system and keep Clu from gaining access to our world.

As someone who has been down on 3D films after last year’s stunning Avatar, I didn’t really think I wanted to see this film in 3D. But seeing TRON: Legacy in IMAX 3D was like going through the looking glass. Like watching Dorothy go from black and white to color in The Wizard of Oz, the transformation from Sam’s 2D world to the 3D world of the grid is amazing. Coupled with the stunning update in computer-generated graphics, the TRON universe has never been more beautiful or surreal.

The film also boasts a soundtrack with a score by Daft Punk. I am partial to Wendy Carlos’ 1982 score that featured the digital synthesizers, and miss that original sound. I understand that may be more fueled by nostalgia than an appreciation of good music, but a nod to Carlos’ inventive score would have been nice.

While the special effects of TRON: Legacy beat the heck out of the original, the story is more simplistic. In 1982, the original film seemed to speak a different language. Maybe it’s a byproduct of the Information Age, but the grid now seems more like a video game than another world. Sure, it’s still filled with “programs” who inhabit it the way people inhabit our world, but little is made of the computer-ness of that universe.

For all its nods to the original — and there are quite a few — TRON: Legacy ultimately feels more like a new version of The Matrix, with a philosophical undertone that pushes audiences to examine their reality in a digital age.

Even so, it’s a fun film to watch and a worth successor to the original.

Rated for sequences of sci-fi action violence and brief mild language
127 minutes
FilmGuru’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

For the Walt Disney Pictures’ 50th animated feature film, the company has departed from tradition in a number of ways.

Tangled is a retelling of the Rapunzel story (which, many people are only vaguely familiar with). To make the film appeal to more contemporary audiences, everything was tossed out except Rapunzel, her hair, and the tower.

In this Rapunzel story, as much time and attention are given to the male lead as our princess. The story begins with a thief named Flynn Rider (voiced by Zachary Levi from television’s Chuck) narrating the back story of a the missing princess who was stolen from her crib by an old woman who wanted the girl’s hair for its magical properties.

The girl is Rapunzel (Mandy Moore), who grows up in a secluded tower where her “mother” (Donna Murphy) tells her she must remain. Mother Gothel fills Rapunzel with stories of the evils of the outside, and forbids her from talking about leaving.

When Flynn stumbles across the tower while running from palace guards, he ends up reluctantly helping the girl escape from her imprisonment.

As far as story goes, Tangled has a lot to offer. It’s a fun romp and manages to tug on the old heart strings as well. Mother Gothel is far from the most terrifying villain Disney has dreamt up, but she’s realistic and twisted. And, of course, the story offers some anthropomorphized animals to add to the fun.

Flynn (Zachary Levi) and Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) from Disney's 50th animated feature film, Tangled.

The problem is that Tangled doesn’t feel like a Disney film.

Like Chicken Little, Bolt, and Meet the Robinsons, Tangled is done with computer generated (CG) animation. Yes, it’s beautiful, but it has the same look and feel of every other CG animated film on the market today. It could be another Shrek movie or How to Train Your Dragon. There is nothing here that says to me “This is Disney.”  It is a far cry from the beautifully hand-drawn work of last year’s The Princess and the Frog.

Like the other Disney princess films, Tangled is also a musical. But here, as with the CG animation, Disney seems to have lost its art. The five songs by veteran composer Alan Menken lack any memorable quality. Again, blame the direction from Disney. Director Byron Howard wanted Menken to depart from the heavy Broadway musical-type scoring. As a result, the music doesn’t sound like the classic Disney films.

As recently reported in the Los Angeles Times, Tangled will be the company’s last animated film based on fairy tale — a tradition that began with its first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. (See “Disney Animation is closing the book on fairy tales.”)

Why would the House of Mouse shoot itself in the proverbial foot and kill off its princess franchise? For part of the answer, check out The Princess and the Frog. Last year’s film returned to the classic hand-drawn style of animation. It, too, retold a classic fairy tale, this one updated to 1920s New Orleans. The film included two Oscar-nominated songs by Randy Newman (and won for “Almost There”). And the film was nominated for Best Animated Film. Yet The Princess and the Frog did not resonate with audiences.

The film, which cost $105 million to make was not considered a commercial success. As of March 2010, The Princess and the Frog had grossed only $104 million domestically. Disney learned that, though the film appealed to little girls, films with the word “princess” in the title just don’t attract little boys. In Hollywood, where accounting rules rather than artistic merit, this meant that Disney had to change up its tried and true formula.

Good-bye Rapunzel. Hello, Tangled.

With as much screen time given to our adventurous anti-hero Flynn as the princess and her story, Tangled is the future of Disney storytelling. It appears that the studio has learned nothing from the era of Michael Eisner. He, too, thought he could forge a new direction for the company. He thought he knew better than Walt Disney. He failed to listen to the fans and focused too much on the bottom line.

As diversified as the Walt Disney Corporation is, one would hope they could see the value in letting artistic merit come before money. But maybe artistic integrity, like princesses and hand-drawn animation, is something that belongs to another era.

Captain EO Tribute poster.

Captain EO, the classic musical spectacular that thrilled Disneyland park guests from 1986-1997, is now open at Disneyland. The attraction’s return to Tomorrowland provides new audiences the opportunity to experience the original 3D production for the very first time, as well as a nostalgic look back for longtime fans wanting to see “The King of Pop” in a rare performance created for the big-screen.

Twenty-three years ago, at the height of his phenomenal entertainment career, Michael Jackson joined forces with Disney, producer George Lucas and director Francis Ford Coppola to create a groundbreaking 17-minute 3D film experience starring Jackson as Captain EO performing two original songs, and featuring Academy Award®-winning actress Anjelica Huston, and a cast of merry, mythical space characters with dual personalities who undergo magical transformations to become Jackson’s electronic band in conquering the forces of darkness.

The colorful Disney-created characters include: Hooter, the little green elephant-like creature who sneezes wild musical notes through his flute-like trunk; Fuzzball, the orange-haired space monkey with butterfly wings; the Geex, a golden-haired, two-faced personality with two left feet, one right foot and two shaggy heads named Idy and Ody; Major Domo, whose mirrored silver costume becomes a complete set of drums, and Minor Domo with his sparkling purple torso that turns into an electronic synthesizer played by Hooter.

For all its technology, Captain EO is first and foremost a musical spectacular and a thrilling space-fantasy adventure. The realism of the 3D process will once again make it seem that Jackson dances right out of the screen into the theater. While it’s not possible to replicate some of the special effects elements from the original presentation, it will boast a new 70mm print of the film and sound better than ever thanks to acoustical enhancements made to the theater since the film last played there. The total effect is one of motion, color and high energy filled with Jackson’s musical brilliance and various illusions to create an exciting and realistic journey in space for the audience.

During the journey, Captain EO and his merry crew discover a colorless planet where they are confronted by the Supreme Leader (Huston) and her forces of darkness. Using the power of music, dance and light to fill the planet and the theater with all the shades of the rainbow, the EO crew turns the black and white land into a magical world of color and happiness.

Captain EO makes use of more famous-name talents than any other film of its length ever produced. The production called on Hollywood’s finest choreographers, set designers, costume creators and special effects artists – all of them excited by the challenge of shooting this kind of imaginative film in three dimensions.

Captain EO is presented multiple times daily at Disneyland.

The FilmGuru will be visiting Disneyland in early April. Look for a review of this classic 3D film at that time.

Tiana considers whether to kiss Prince Naveen in The Princess and the Frog. (Disney Pictures, 2009)

Over the years, I’ve heard many naysayers declare that fairy tales – such as those made popular in Disney films – are poor role models for young girls. They say that impressionable girls expect to have their problems solved for them by Prince Charming, and such girls are often disappointed. But in the new Disney film, it turns out that it’s the prince who needs to be rescued.

In The Princess and the Frog, audiences meet Tiana, a woman who believes in hard work and making her own dreams come true. Not only is she the first African-American princess, she’s the first fairy tale princess who lives in a real city in a real time.

Set in 1920s New Orleans, the story follows Tiana (voiced by Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose), a young woman who has learned the value of hard work from her father. When her dreams of opening her own restaurant turn sour, she wishes on the evening star for a little help and gets a frog in return.

The frog is a visiting prince named Naveen (Bruno Campos) who has been tricked by the local voodoo “shadow man,” Dr. Facilier (Keith David). His transformation has given Dr. Facilier the opportunity to replace the prince with a fake in an attempt to gain Naveen’s fortune.

A misguided kiss to restore Naveen transforms Tiana into a frog as well. Soon, the two frogs are lost in the Louisiana bayou, searching for a way to become human once again. Along the way they make new friends, including a trumpet-playing alligator named Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley) and a Cajun firefly named Ray (Jim Cummings).

Some of the encounters along the way (like the frog hunters) seem thrown in for laughs rather than story. Others moments seem rushed, as if the story was edited down too much. I would love to have spent more time with the evil Dr. Facilier or the enchanting Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis). Each of these characters deserved more time on screen.

The Princess and the Frog looks and feels like a classic Disney animated feature. Why? Because it’s hand-drawn. That’s right, no computers. Hand-drawn animation helps makes this film a work of art.

Though I am often moved by the films of Disney’s Pixar team, there is a quality to hand-drawn animation that sets it apart. It may not be three-dimensional or as realistic as other animated features claim to be. But art isn’t always about realism. Sometimes it’s about adopting a certain style.

Case in point is Tiana’s dream sequence, “Almost There.” As she sings to her mother, Eudora (Oprah Winfrey), about her vision for the restaurant her father always wanted, the artwork in the film changes to reflect the art deco style of the picture she carries with her. While the art in this particular sequence didn’t appeal to me, I appreciated what the artists were doing. They used a different style of art to communicate story setting and give a nod to the art of the time.

The music, too, is another return to a traditional Disney animated feature. Having tolerated a drought of music-driven stories from Disney, I was relieved to discover that The Princess and the Frog would be a musical. To the filmmakers’ credit, they entrusted the jazz-influenced songs and score to none other than Academy Award winner Randy Newman.

Even after a single viewing, I found myself humming numbers like “Almost There,” “Friends on the Other Side,” and “Dig a Little Deeper.” These songs are on par with some of the best Disney has offered. I imagine that after repeated listening, the soundtrack will become one of my favorites.

So, how does it stack up as a Disney princess film? As a guy, it’s difficult for me to compare The Princess and the Frog to the others princesses. With the exception of Beauty and the Beast – which is at the top of my list for all Disney animation – the princess movies rarely resonate with me on an emotional level. They are beautiful, yes. And each is a work of art in its own romantic way. But I prefer the comedy of the Jungle Book or the adventure of Aladdin.

Even so, I do recognize the love and respect that went into this film. It has a good message about working hard to make your dreams come true. But, as my wife pointed out, The Princess and the Frog doesn’t deliver that heart-swelling ending when it becomes clear that true love does conquer all.

Even though the message of the film may be more practical than passionate, I believe The Princess and the Frog is wonderfully romantic film. And Tiana has earned her place alongside the other classic Disney princesses.

The Princess and the Frog is a well-written and moving tale about making dreams come true. But it falls just short of being an “instant classic.”

Presented by Walt Disney Pictures, The Princess and the Frog is the 49th animated feature film from Disney, a tradition established nearly 75 years ago with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The film is rated G by the MPAA.