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Beauty and the Beast
As the 30th Disney film (an FYI: I’m skipping The Rescuers Down Under sequel to The Rescuers), Walt Disney attempted to make Beauty and the Beast into a movie both in the 1930s and the 1950s, but he was unsuccessful due to the project being too complicated. Then, after the success of The Little Mermaid, Disney decided that they would revive the Beauty and the Beast project. Originally, Disney decided that the movie wasn’t going to made into a musical but it would have a Broadway theme (as in lots of quality music), similar to The Little Mermaid. When the film was released, it was a box office success and…
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Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth Once again, we are at the end of five movie reviews, so it’s time to do a review of a book that I really enjoyed. The book I’ve chosen this time is Divergent, which was published back in 2011 and was a great success when it was released. The author was just in college when it was published, and two more books followed (it is thus a trilogy), which were both successes as well; also, a movie was released back in 2014, but the movie wasn’t received well by critics. I very much enjoyed this book when I read it, and I enjoyed the 2nd book as…
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The Little Mermaid
With the 28th Disney film The Little Mermaid, we have officially said “see you later” to the Bronze Age and are now saying “hello” to the Disney Renaissance! This movie was originally planned as one of Walt Disney’s first films but the project was delayed for many reasons and then shelved for many decades. In the mid-1980’s, finally, animator Ron Clements became interested in adapting The Little Mermaid but the CCO (Chief Creative Officer) at that time, Jeffery Katzenberg (who would become Disney’s rival years later when he founded Dreamworks Animation), wasn’t so sure as he thought the idea had too many similarities to a proposed sequel to the movie…
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Oliver & Company
As the 27th Disney film, the idea for Oliver & Company was thought of after a story artist suggested that Disney do a version of Oliver Twist with dogs. During a meeting where people from Disney discussed potential ideas for movies (like The Little Mermaid and Treasure Planet), it was decided that Oliver & Company was going to be much darker but thankfully they edited out most of the dark parts. When Oliver & Company was released, it was a box office success, even outgrossing Don Bluth’s The Land Before Time, but it received mixed reviews from critics. They praised the animation and music but thought the plot was too…
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The Great Mouse Detective
As the 26th Disney film, The Great Mouse Detective is definitely not quite as well known as other Disney films. There were ideas to make a Sherlock Holmes movie with animals in it for quite some time but the project was put in limbo because of too many similarities to The Rescuers. However, when The Black Cauldron was in production, The Great Mouse Detective was also put in production as a backup project since people were unsure of The Black Cauldron having success. Then, when The Great Mouse Detective was released, it did much better than The Black Cauldron, gaining positive reviews from critics and doing really well box office…
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The Black Cauldron
As the 25th animated Disney film, The Black Cauldron is definitely the least known film of Disney’s Bronze Age. It was also the first Disney movie to use CGI animation (or computer- generated imagery) and the first ever Disney movie to be rated PG. When the film was released (after a complicated production process), it was not received well by critics as they thought the movie’s tone was too dark and the script was bad; and though the animation voice acting and score received praise, the film also did poorly financially, grossing 21 million but costing 44 million to make. And to add insult to injury, it was outgrossed by…
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The Fox and the Hound
As the 24th Disney film, The Fox and the Hound is not as well known by some Disney fans; it takes place in the rural southern United States and is based on a book that was written by an American author. This movie came out in 1981 and went through a long production due to several people who were working on it resigning from Disney (including Don Bluth who created Don Bluth productions which ended up becoming Disney’s rival); the famous film director Tim Burton also worked on the film. When the film was released, it did very well financially but got mixed reviews from critics. While they praised the…
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Redwall
Author: Brian Jacques Since I’m now at the end of five more movie reviews, it’s time for a review of a book that’s very special to me. The book I’ve chosen is Redwall, which was published in the 1980’s and was a great success; and 21 more books were later published (I only have the first 2 books at this point). These books were adapted into a TV show for PBS Kids that aired in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s; and it was just announced today that Netflix has plans to turn Redwall into a movie/TV show for its streaming service. While I look forward to watching both of these adaptions,…
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The Rescuers
As the 23rd Disney film, The Rescuers is definitely not quite as known as other Disney movies. Before Walt Disney’s death, he had plans to make the book into a movie but it was shelved due to his dislike of the project’s political overtones. When the film was finally released in 1977, it received positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, even outgrossing Star Wars in France. Two classic “old school” actors voice the movie’s main protagonists; the female lead is voiced by Eva Gabor and the male lead by Bob Newhart. While I really enjoyed this movie, I didn’t like the book it was based on…
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The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
As the 22nd Disney film, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is definitely the most well-known movie of Disney’s Bronze Age. This movie, the first ever Winnie the Pooh film, was originally split into three shorts but, in the 1970’s, Disney chose to put all three of the shorts together into a full-length animated film. Sadly, I can’t find a lot of information about the production of the movie but I do know that, while the movie didn’t seem to do to great financially, it did receive critical acclaim from film critics, earning one of the very few 100% film ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. While I own a copy…