Many of them are not good! Many of the not-good films have not been celebrated for nostalgic purposes!) I can think of few films that better exemplify the Xerographic Era from Disney Animation as being flat-out lazy. (I saw, as I’m sure most people my age did, a lot of movies in the early 1990s.
#MOUSTERPIECE CINEMA EPISODE 1 MOVIE#
I always see comments like “It was just the movie I saw when I was a kid,” which works as long as you see very few movies as a kid. This is a windbaggy way of me to say that I just do not get what it is with people and Robin Hood. I’m talking about honesty related to a film’s longevity. Not just honesty regarding whether or not you like something, or why you like something, or whether something achieves its goals. One of the many important tenets of criticism is honesty. (We can praise some of the animation as much as we want–and we should–but the stories have to support the visuals as much as the opposite is true.) It’s a cute couple of stories, but pretty unremarkable, just a leg or two up on the aforementioned duo. (The “slap” song in the latter is a real groaner once you reach the age where you realize exactly what’s going on.) This film, more than the others, is almost all padding, with the interludes focused on Jiminy Cricket and Edgar Bergen. The “Jack and the Beanstalk” segment is fun enough, and far more so than the “Bongo” scene. More of the same here, much like Make Mine Music and Melody Time. I can see why someone might mount a defense of this film, but it’s just not one that comes together for me. The darkness of the film isn’t an issue because it’s rare–Bambi’s mom didn’t head off to a farm to run around with other animals and play–but because it’s handled with little care.
But the time-jump midway through the story, and the growth or lack thereof that we’re meant to detect from the core duo’s relationship, just doesn’t work when you consider how short this movie is, and how grim it becomes. The animation here is, I think, a fair bit better–especially in the climax–than that of the Xerographic Era. I remember when I covered this movie on the podcast, someone emailed me a very detailed and reasoned argument about why I’m wrong to not love it (and why, specifically, I am wrong to be so nonplussed by it). Today, here’s my picks for 44-34 in the Disney animation canon. Yesterday, I began this whole ranking thing with my picks for 55-45 in the Disney animated canon.
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