I finally watched this week-end both Frozen and Saving Mr Banks, and i enjoyed both a lot. Let's talk about Frozen first: the animation is of course superb, not to mention the stunning snow and ice effects, and it's undeniably a new Disney Princess tale classic which deserves the huge success it has at the box office. Good script, may be a bit too many songs, but that was fine. My only problem, but that's only me, was that i'm probably too old now to really be moved by a princess tale but i'm sure it's not the case of most of the Disney fans.
Saving Mr Banks was at the height of my expectations and, first, it's a delight of actors as everyone is excellent with a special mention to Emma Thompson playing P.L Travers. Tom Hanks is also excellent and definitely not disappointing in the way he plays Walt Disney, you'll love him! The story is not totally accurate with what really happened but i presume they couldn't did it another way. My only concern is about the flash back sequences, in the Australian childhood of P.L Travers. The children, mother and father - play by Colin Farell ( excellent too ) are fine and these sequences are important for the story but there is quite a lot of flash back - almost each five minutes - and the problem is that i found the director less inspired on these. It's perfectly directed, don't get me wrong, but i found that there is something that doesn't work perfectly in these sequences, may be they are not enough "interesting" on a "mise en scène" point of view.
Anyway, Saving Mr Banks is a delightful movie and even if the sequence at Disneyland is a bit short i strongly recommend you to see it when you can, or when it'll be released in your country if not released yet.
I really disliked Frozen, incoherent story, terrible songs, copied concept from Wicked, etc. If you're not moved by a Disney movie, I guess it's nit a good movie. I just watched Tangled the other day again and enjoyed it as much as the first time.
ReplyDeleteIf one more person mentions Wicked in connection with Frozen, I´m going to unleash my army of flying monkeys...
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ReplyDeleteI thought Frozen was a wonderful story and agree that it is the best animated movie since the Renaissance, it is just a pity that the next animated movies all don't fit into this new Renaissance, I mean Big Hero 6 is neither a musical, nor is it based on a classic work.
And Alain is Saving Mr. Banks already out in France? I still have to wait two months until it is released in Germany. :(
Not yet released in France, it should be at the end of this month, i think.
ReplyDeleteHow can there be TOO many songs in a Disney animated movie?! ;)
ReplyDeleteI love Frozen, saw it yesterday for the 6th time in cinema's (I'm enjoying it while it lasts), it's the first Disney computer animated movie that I really care about, I simply LOVE it!
Saving Mr. Banks is a nice movie, but just a movie to watch 1 time. As much as I care for Mary Poppins, Mrs. Travers is the same all trough the movie, after half an hour it gets a little bit "boring". It's nice for what it is, but that's all it is. And I too thought that the Disneyland sequence was too short ;)
Well, there can be "too many" songs when some of the songs are not interesting enough, for instance. If you take Beauty and the Beast there are not too many songs in the movie because all of them are not only good, but excellent and memorable. I think - but it's only my opinion - that it's not the case in Frozen. But may be it's a question of music style that don't move me...
ReplyDeleteHi Alain,
ReplyDeleteI think you are right about the songs in Frozen. They have been made by the team that made Avenue Q and the Finding Nemo show in DAK. Both are nice, but not very memorable.
When e.g. Alan Menken makes songs, they are memorable, the songs in Frozen are very nice, but maybe a little bit too simple.
Still I love them being in the movie, but I understand what you mean.