(Yes,
this is a re-do. I deleted the first one because it was rushed I
realized I did not put enough thought into some of my choices, and my
title was a foolish choice. Hope this list is better.)
The
theme today is to tribute MovieFan12 and his year on the site. Who am I
to buck an obvious trend? However, I wanted to do something different. I
present to you my Top 5 Things I Hated In Disney Movies.
There
are several movies which had scenes or concepts which I just didn’t
like. Others may like it, that is fine, but I just always had a problems
with it and at times it nearly ruined an otherwise great production.
#5. The falling in love crap in “Bambi”
There’s
nothing like spending an hour establishing characters just to crap all
over them. This is a movie about a deer growing up and becoming an
adult. Ok, we meet these cute lovable characters and then the mother
gets killed which even I admit was upsetting. The movie is going along
fine, until the now adult characters are warned that spring means
falling in love. Of course they don't believe, and then one by one they
find someone and start making googly eyes at them. Are we supposed to
care if these characters fall in love with someone they just met and
have no history with? To this day I never understood why they shoehorned
that love crap in there, were they trying to make it longer? I just
hate this movie after they grow up because the characters stop being
cute and lovable and are just bland and boring. There is a reason Timon
and Pumbaa are around Simba after he grows up, maybe Disney learned
their lesson from this bore fest. Thank goodness Bambi II corrected some
of this, in fact that was very good sequel and urge you to find a copy
if you never saw it because it makes the end of the original movie make
sense! We understand why Bambi likes the girl (he’s already met her!)
and we understand why we get that otherwise pointless fight scene in the
original. Bambi II was definitely worth watching unlike the other
foolish “sequels”, and speaking of poorly planned sequels....
#4. Direct to DVD Sequels like Cinderella II & III
Nothing
like damaging a classic movie years after it came out. During the late
90's Disney was fascinated with the idea of direct to video sequels.
Most of them were ok, Lion King was good. Lady and the Tramp wasn't bad.
Most were lousy, and some were never even made! I saw previews of the
Dumbo sequel in the special edition video release years ago, but it
never got past the storyboard phase. Thank heavens the Dumbo sequel was
killed, it looked stupid. For all of the sequels they made though, these
were the worst (although Fox and the Hound 2 was terrible!). In
II they took what was a timeless movie and they made it into a Saturday
morning cartoon. We get three separate stories, none of them
interesting and none of them having to do with anything. One was a story
about Cinderella adjusting to her new lifestyle (yawn), then a story
about one of the stepsisters trying to find a man (yawn), and one scene
where the fairy godmother is reading to the mice from the first movie.
This seem moronic to anyone else? This was just boring. As for III, it
would have been ok if they hadn’t retcon’d the entire ending to the
first one, which is inexcusable. As I said above, Bambi 2 was one of the
few exceptions I think that this sequel helped the original believe it
or not.
#3. Inaccurate history in Pocahontas.
I
know that this is Disney and there is no reason to expect an accurate
historical account of the settlement of Virginia, but it’s kind of hard
to swallow everything here. I really don’t think Pocahontas had animals
who could speak, and the geography in some of the songs doesn’t even
come close to what Virginia looks like. They gloss over the horrible way
Pocahontas and her tribe was treated, obviously they wanted to make the
film more family friendly but if you’re going to base a movie on real
events you have to stick a little closely to the source material. The
same problem happened in Hunchback, the comedy relief just feels wrong
and out of place.
#2. These are kids films?
There
are so many scary moments in the early days of Disney, it’s a wonder
they ever got made. Everyone remembers the scene in Snow White where she
is racing through the black forest. Then we get Pinocchio which has
some real terrifying images. Some Disney movies are almost depressing.
Get through Dumbo without crying, dare you. And I always wondered, why
does every Disney movie have to have a death fake out? We have a
character who we believe has died, and they let us think it for a few
second until we find out it was a fake out. It happened in Snow White,
Pinocchio, Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame,
and that’s not even all of them. Of course the worst is when the death
is real, who has ever forgotten when Bambi’s mother died, or Mufasa in
The Lion King? I guess that's what makes these movies memorabile, even
if they are a bit traumatic. Speaking of traumatic......
#1. Pink Elephants on Parade from Dumbo.
I
know people will think I am crazy, but this bothered me for
years. While I think the scene in Pinocchio where the boy turns into a
donkey was scary as hell, but this scene from Dumbo is on this list for
one simple reason. The scene in Pinocchio is part of the story, this is
just filler. Talk about being creeped out, the clown scene in
Poltergeist didn’t bother me as much. We see Dumbo and his mouse friend
drink too much (accidentally) and pass out. What we get is a bizarre
sequence of pink elephants dancing around with this crazy song which
sets up residence in your head and never gets out. Pointless,
disturbing, and just awful. The only good thing is right after this
scene we meet the crows, and they were always my favorite part of Dumbo.
I can understand, and even appreciate, how this scene is liked but I
just didn’t.
And
finally, I have been talking about pieces of movie but what is the one
animated Disney movie I truly can’t stand to watch? The award goes to
The Three Caballeros. Sorry, but putting Donald Duck in it didn’t make
this confusing mess anymore tolerable. I know people will disagree with
me, but that’s ok. I can take it.
Well,
that’s my list of things Disney should never have done in their
animated films. Maybe another time I will talk about their live action
stuff. What happens in “The Three Lives of Thomasina” could fill a whole
article. All in all I do like Disney, the way they entertain children
while keeping adults interested is amazing. I especially loved the 90’s
renaissance, from Little Mermaid to Lion King. They were all great,
great movies. I also loved Lilo & Stitch, it was great!
Congratulations Moviefan12!
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