Roger Ebert: ***½ (3 and a half Stars)

The wonder is that it took Disney so long to get to the gods of Greek mythology. ``Hercules'' jumps into the ancient legends feet-first, cheerfully tossing out what won't fit and combining what's left into a new look and a lighthearted style.

Starting with a Day-Glo Olympian city in the clouds, and using characters based on the drawing style of the British illustrator Gerald Scarfe, this new animated feature has something old (mythology), something new (a Pegasus equipped with helicopter blades), something borrowed (a gospel singing group) and something...

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

Walt Disney Character Description of Djali from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996)

Esmeralda's pet goat possesses human intelligence and a fierce loyalty to his owner. When she is persecuted by the two guards in the early street sequence, it is Djali - before Phoebus intervenes - who initially almost sees them off, butting them with determined ferocity, even though he is a very small goat. He helps in other ways, most notably by assisting her in her oft-used disguise as a cowled male figure - he...

7th article of my Disney Slow Motion Gifs is the classic Cinderella from 1950.

Hello fellow Disney Fans.

As you all know, I love Disney Animation. I love to watch the movies, hear the songs and look at the characters. But one thing I really love is watching the animation in slow motion. It gives a great insight to how much work the animators puts into their work. It's facinating to me to watch a scene or a sequence in slow motion, as then I get more details the next time I see the movies.
Cinderella was not a movie I really watched much as a kid. But when the 2-Disc Platinum Edition
Special Edition...

With the stunning success of "The Lion King" this weekend, Disney might re-release other classics in 3D, its distribution chief told TheWrap Sunday.

"It's probably one of the first things we're going to be having a conversation about next week," studio distribution chief Dave Hollis said. "When you look at our library, there are some very special gems as it were, and for those that transcend time -- and a lot of them do ... to bring them through 3D is a great opportunity."

He stressed that there are no plans yet. But, he said, "The Lion King" success "gives a lot of hope to the possibilities...

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

Walt Disney Character Description of Anastasia Tremaine and Drizella Tremaine from "Cinderella" (1950)

Anastasia Tremaine and Drizella Tremaine are the epitome of spoilt chrildren - the worst type of spoilt chrildren, in fact: those who stay that way right through into adulthood. Their voices are raucous and grating; their singing is dire; their faces are milk-curdling; their dancing is a little short of terrifying... but all of these things might be forgiven them, and they might succeed in finding...

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

Walt Disney Character Description of Baloo from "The Jungle Book" (1967)

It had been originally planned that Baloo should have no more than a cameo role, but the animators (Ollie Johnston was largely responsible for him) found Phill Harris's vocalization fascinating to work with and so in due course Baloo became one of the movie's major stars. Indeed, in terms of popularity and screen presence, he is the main star of The Jungle Book, eclipsing even Bagheera, whose role is much more fundamental to...

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

Walt Disney Character Description of Maleficent from "Sleeping Beauty" (1959)

Of all the characters in Sleeping Beauty, the one that everyone remembers, even decades later, is the wicked fairy Maleficent. She is one of the finest creations ever to come out of the Disney studio - and the brilliant transformation of her into the Dragon to fight Phillip merely adds to the strength of the characterization. Even her name - a wonderful combination of "malice" and "malevolent" - testifies to her pure evil....

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

Although she is the central character of the movie, the part of Princess Aurora/Briar Rose is in fact a very small one - smaller, for example, than that of Prince Phillip (in marked contrast with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs whose Prince hardly made an appearance, but whose heroine occupied a fair deal of screen-time). In fact, her functions in the movie are three: (a) to be cursed; (b) to meet and fall in love with Phillip; and (c) to prick her finger and fall into a death-like sleep. Over (a)...

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

Bambi is not a tightly plotted movie in the way that Dumbo, for example, is: it depends much more for its effect on the superb animation and the exquisitely executed backdrop of the forest. As with the story, most of the characterization is not profound - one does not find oneself rooting for Bambi in the same way that one does for, say, Dumbo (again) or Snow White. The only really strong characterizations are those of Friend Owl and Thumper. But this lack of depth in the characterization is not...

Since "Parks and Recreation" wrapped, I've worked on a list of Disney characters that I believe closely match our most cherished Pawnee citizens in terms of personality and (sometimes) looks.

Anna -- Leslie Knope: A bubbly go-getter whose optimism is infectious. Oh, and they both happen to love consuming large amounts of sugar+would do anything for those they love (including their ungrateful public).

John Silver -- Ronald Ulysses Swanson: This self-sufficient, intimidating gentleman is a man of self-dictated principles which are usually at odds with his surroundings. Although he doesn't believe...

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

It is a recurring theme of this book that Disney's glamorous princes tend on the whole to be cyphers, and Eric (voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes, then the US national teenage spokesperson for the enviromental organization Greenpeace) is no exeption. The habit of using purely symbolic characters in the princely role is not normally a particularly noticeable one in the other features; it is only later that we realize that, whereas we have the feeling we've met the other principal characters, the...

Disney’s Most-Requested Animated Treasure
Finally Comes Out Of The Vault -- October 3, 2006!

Walt Disney Home Entertainment Proudly Announces
The Long-Awaited Two-Disc Special Edition DVD Debut of
The Little Mermaid

Huge Company-Wide Initiative Highlighted by
Disney Consumer Products Partnership To Take Retail UNDER THE SEA
With Over 2,000 New Licensed Merchandise Products

BURBANK, Calif., February 6, 2006 – On October 3, 2006 Walt Disney Home Entertainment proudly opens the vault to debut a spectacular new two-disc Special Edition of the most-requested Disney DVD title ever, the Academy Award®...

Roger Ebert: **** (4 Stars)

Walt Disney's "The Little Mermaid" is a jolly and inventive animated fantasy - a movie that's so creative and so much fun it deserves comparison with the best Disney work of the past.

It's based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale about a mermaid who falls in love with a prince, but the Disney animators have added a gallery of new supporting characters, including an octopus named Ursula who is their most satisfying villainess since the witch in "Snow White."

Watching "The Little Mermaid," I began to feel that the magic of animation had been restored to us. After the...

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

Character Description of Simba from "The Lion King" (1994)

The story of Simba is the story of the movie: Born to kingship, he is tricked into abandoning it and then deliberately turns his back on it until persuaded by others to assume his responsibilities. Stripped down like that, the story seems a very simple one, but that is not the real story. The real story is of the transformation of Simba's character through several pronouncedly different stages.
As a baby and then a cub he is what Bill Cotter...

Note: I posted this article on the Disney Princess page and the Disney page and later decided that I would post it and later articles in the series here as well.
Hey, guys! Happy beginning of Autumn! Anyway, a few weeks ago, I decided that I would maybe think about rewatching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for the first time in nearly five years. After thinking about it a little more thought, I decided, why not ALL the Disney movies? Okay, not all of them because with online school, play practice, reading, baking, and cooking, I probably don't have time for that. But for those of you who are...

Hey, guys! I’m finally back with another review of a classic Disney movie! This week, I’m watching Disney’s second animated feature, Pinocchio, for the first time!
What were my Feelings about the Movie before Seeing it?: As I have mentioned in my intro, I have never seen the entirety of Pinocchio before writing this review. However, I am aware that this film is one of the two animated Disney movies that has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and, this year, is turning eighty, which is another crazy thing to think about during this already unpredictable year. Now that I have watched this classic,...

Hello again, my fellow Disney Fans :)

This article is similar to the one I did a while back with The Little Mermaid, but this one will be about The Lion King. Now, The Lion King, for me, is also one of my Top Favorite Disney Classics. I think it has really gorgeous animation, both character animation and also the backgrounds/locations. The way the animators brought all these animals to life is just astonishing!
Like I wrote in the piece for Mermaid, I think it's funny to watch certain scenes in slow motion. That way you get more of out the animation. You can see where the animators have animated...

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

Walt Disney Character Description of Quasimodo from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996)

In a way, why Esmeralda should choose Phoebus as her lover rather than Quasimodo is something of a mystery. One is left with a slight puzzlement at the end of the movie, as if suddenly discovering that the romantic heroine whose adventures one has followed entranced throughout a long novel actually has a lousy taste in men. There is also a feeling of confused morality, since the primary theme of the movie - as...

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

With the exeption of Ariel - and possibly not even with that exception - the star of the whole show is Sebastian, or (to be fittingly pedantic) Horatio Thelonious Ignacious Crustaceous Sebastian, the little crab who is Triton's Court Composer and then Ariel's reluctantly conscripted Jiminy Cricket. The animation of Sebastian is a delight, and that surrounding him during the performace of his two brilliant songs - the calypso/reggae "Under the Sea" and the smoothly crooned "Kiss the Girl" - is devastatingly...