Boy Disney is really making the project a chore. Today we have three films, from 3 different eras, and all of them are pretty bad. So Let's go Chronologically.
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad - I'd always been curious to see The Wind in the Willows featuring Mr. Toad. I'd heard all about Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and was under the impression that this was some sort of hidden Disney gem. Nope. For anyone who thinks children's stories only recently devolved into loud noises, action and no plot, I give you this piece of spastic storytelling. Mr. Toad is a lunatic and the whole thing is a sloppy nonsensical mess. The fight against the weasels is looney toons style slapstick without the fun. The legend of Sleepy Hallow fares better. It's always nice to hear Bing Crosby Narrate anything. But mostly this is a story about two unlikeable men fighting over a pretty rich girl with no character at all. It's more charming than Mr. Toad, but ultimately it's pretty forgettable.
3/10
The Black Cauldron - Every time someone complains about a story being Disneyfied, this is what they are talking about. Disney movies are no stranger to some pretty mature themes and they do go to some dark places. This one doesn't. Even with a Villain getting the Raiders of the Lost Ark death, it has no impact because there is zero character development. I think this could be the worst of all the main Disney movies because it smacks of being directed by an executive rather than an artist. The Source material is a complex world reminiscent of Tolkien, with flourishes of Welsh fables, and the movie is handled with all the care and skill of a bad episode of the Care Bears. In the movie, The Gandalf character is reduced to a silly old grandfather, and one one the major characters is eliminated. Imagine Lord of the Rings without Aragorn, or Star Wars without Han Solo. Would you want to watch anything with just Frodo or Luke showcasing their immaturity and incompetence to the world? No you wouldn't. Now imagine they've taken out Han Solo and leave you Jar Jar Binks. The Characters initiate a 'who's most useless?' contest and somehow defeat the Villain. And guess what, If your heroes are really, really lame, it makes the villain look worse, because he's look like Skeletor with antlers who can't stop a moron, a ditzy blonde, an eccentric octogenarian, and Fluffy Jar Jar from walking right into his fortress and messing everything up. There is nothing positive I can say about this turd sandwich.
-1/10
A Bug's Life - Ahhh, sweet relief, a Pixar film! They never make bad movies, right? WRONG! I didn't like it when it came out, and I like it even less now. It's by far my least favorite Pixar film because, with all the action sequences, the movie is boring. It starts with a really unlikeable protagonist. I'm shocked that the colony didn't just rise up and slay him. If your main character is a comically dangerous inventor, either his inventions need to be a) fun or b) not invite genocide. When our clumsy/overeager hero causes the disaster that sets the plot in motion, usually it's something more fun than knocking over the bribe you spent all summer gathering to prevent mass murder at the hands or a gang of murderous grasshoppers. There's a massive disconnect of tone. Kevin Spacey's hopper is in The Magnificent Seven, and Flik is in Three Amigos. Because of this, I found it very hard to root for Flik and his gang of crazy circus bugs. Don't get me wrong, the circus bugs are the best part of the film, but I don't want to waste time with screw-ups when there is an very real and terrifying threat. Flik's treated as an nuisance when he's demonstrated time and again that he's a threat to the survival of the colony. In that light, he's not a misunderstood outcast, he's a dangerous lunatic. Maybe I could go along with it if the underlying tone of the movie wasn't so grim, but when you're villain is eaten alive screaming for his life, it's not easy to be upbeat. That said, the worst effort of Pixar is still better than 90% of animated family films.
6/10
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