I Can Go the Distance!

Hello my darlings! It's time to wrap of Disney of the 90's. A time that could be considered the Renaissance of Disney animation, a golden age, or if you're me and brimming with eloquent phrasology: a mind blowingly amazing and wonderful time that will never be paralleled by anyone no matter how hard they try.

So, let's get to it!

Hercules
Let me begin by saying this movie, like Pocahontas, is great if you ignore the IMMENSE amount of inaccuracies to the plot. (My mythology teacher in high school said she'd give anyone extra credit if they could list all the inaccuracies in the movie. I think her list had over 200 inaccuracies that she had personally documented.) So, with that being said, let's pretend this is a story with fantasy elements that use names that just happen to be the same as Greek/Roman mythological characters and talk about what makes this movie great:

There seems to be a continuous theme throughout 90's Disney of paying homage to the culture from which a movie is derived by incorporating the art style of that culture into the animation of the movie somehow. Aladdin's characters were all drawn using calligraphic lines, The Lion King implements bright colors and patterns, Pocahontas is very geometric and simplified. Hercules is when this theme really seems to hit its zenith. I'm thinking if the ancient Greeks had decided to invent animation (and I'm sure the thought crossed their mind considering their track record when it comes to inventions) it would probably look like Disney's Hercules. For example: much of the narration for this story (that is the Muse's musical numbers) takes place on Greek pottery, which was a favored way of story telling in ancient Greece. Another excellent example of this is the character design of this movie. It's just phenomenal. Take Meg for example, she is basically an Ionic style column with a head and arms. Hercules looks like an exaggerated version of Michelangelo's David: the very icon of heroism. As for the gods of Olympus....I just adore their design! The artists of this film went to such great lengths to embody the attributes of these gods in the way they look and the color schemes used for them. Take Hades for instance: how much deader can you look without actually being dead? I mean when he's in the underworld he doesn't look out of place at all. And speaking of the underworld I LOVE the background art of this movie. The underworld is fantastic. I think it is so clever that the river Styx is comprised of the souls of the dead. Also Mt Olympus, I love that they made the dwelling place of the gods to be this huge column that juts unnaturally out of the ground. It looks like a place where mythological what-have-yous would dwell.  



Ok, a few other things I love about this movie: I love that the Muse's tell this story Southern Gospel style. Since the story of Hercules is a myth and mythology is basically an ancient form of worship it makes sense that the story would be sung by a gospel choir. I also love the homage to the Karate Kid during the musical sequence "One Last Hope."



Finally, there's one HUGE continuity error in a scene of this movie. I'll give ten points to the first person who can correctly tell me where it is (if I've already pointed it out to you you are disqualified from the competition).

Mulan
I'm surprised to find I don't have as much to say about this movie as I thought I would. I mean, we all know it's awesome. And awesome is probably not strong enough of a word to describe how great it is. But there are a couple of things that are worth pointing out.

Remember above when I was talking about cultural homages? Yeah, this movie basically looks like an animated Chinese watercolor. It's fantastic.



The juxtaposition between the song "A Girl Worth Fighting For" and the discovery of the destroyed village is amazing. The jovial nature of the song works so well to heighten the horror of the demolished village. And the color scheme does the same thing; there's so much calming blue and white and then BAM! stark, saturated red. They can't show much blood in a cartoon but they sure can imply it with the color of the sky.

Ok, here's my one beef: the relationship between Mulan and Captain Shang is SO bothersome. I'm sorry, if I were a dude and I found out that one of my soldiers was a woman my first thought would not be "I'm going to get to know this chick because she's HOT!" My first thought would probably be more along the lines of "Am I gay?" In any case, it brings up a point that generally annoys me: if there is ever a lead female in a Disney movie there is always a romantic plot thrown in there somewhere (and please don't bring up Brave, that is a Pixar movie NOT a Disney movie). Mulan doesn't need any romance in her story. It's a good story as is. The love plot is an unnecessary embellishment.

Tarzan
I'm going to admit something that I have deceived a lot of people about for a long time; I don't like Phil Collins and by default I don't like the music in this movie. Although I do really like Justin Timberlake and the version of this movie that I watched always skips during the song N'snyc sings :(. I'm sorry if that upsets anyone out there but now felt like a good time to get that out in the open. I feel so much better.

Anyways, Tarzan feels like the end of an era to me. It came out in 1999. For perhaps the first time ever Disney had some competition in the world of animation. Dreamworks was really starting to step out and Pixar was becoming prominent. This movie feels like Disney's attempt to remain relevant in main stream culture. This is one reason why I'm not a fan of the music. It makes it feel like Disney is suddenly embarrassed by the musicals they've produced for the last decade and just can't make them any more so they have to get some famous musician to do the music for them.

Oh, and the relationship between Tarzan and Jane bothers me even more than the one between Mulan and Shang. I mean, does it bother anyone else that Jane is attracted to a feral man?! When I took my sociology class WAY back in my freshman year of collage we had to learn about feral children and they were SERIOUSLY messed up. It makes me wonder about the state of Jane's mental health that she's into Tarzan. Yeah, it's another plot that could do without the romance.

The integration of CGI and traditional hand drawn animation in this movie is near flawless though. Check this out:

Notre Dame de Paris

Here we are kids, Disney animated feature number 34: The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Or as I like to refer to it: my most favorite Disney movie of all time forever and ever Lord hallelujah. Amen.



I love this movie. I'm only slightly exaggerating when I say I watch this movie about once a week. Seriously though. I. Love. This. Movie. I get slightly annoyed when someone tells me they don't like this movie due to its dark motifs. "This is Disney!" They say, "How could Disney make something so dark?" I think the problem these people have is not with the actual story (because the story and morals behind the story are actually quite beautiful) but with the medium used to tell the story. Once again there is this mistaken notion that animation is strictly for children and that if anyone tries to aim it at adults it's an abomination. Just think about it....if someone had decided to do a live action version of Disney's Hunchback (not Victor Hugo's mind you, there is a substantial difference between the two) what would your reaction be? Would you consider it to be dark and violent? It has no more violence and wickedness in it than say Les Miserables; to compare another Victor Hugo story-made-movie. And that movie is phenomenal. In any case, put your prejudices aside and enjoy the movie for the sake of the story not the medium.

That being said, let's chat about this movie...

Everything about this movie reeks of intelligent design. I want to kiss the man who wrote the music for this film. Have you ever really paid attention to the lyrics of any of the songs in this movie? Take the first song "The Bells of Notre Dame" that describe the toll of the bells as the soul of the city. Which so perfectly introduces the first symbol of the movie: the cathedral. Notre Dame not only represents the eyes of God in this movie but it also represents the city of Paris itself and the pulse of the people dwelling there. On top of that it is completely interconnected with the character of Quasimodo. Quasimodo is a solitary character, as an audience we need to know what he's thinking and if he doesn't have anyone to tell them to we have no way of knowing them. The cathedral acts as an outlet for Quasimodo's inner dialogue. Just watch any scene with those gargoyles (whose obnoxious personalities I only tolerate because they lend a very helpful hand to some major character development). Any time those gargoyles are talking it sounds like a conversation Quasi is having with himself. The gargoyles always express his inner desires, they are the encouraging voice that pushes him along. And since he's the only one capable of seeing them it further shows that they are a projection of his mind.

Another fantastic display in intelligent lyricism comes from the songs sung by Quasimodo and Frollo. I have a Disney radio station on Pandora that I listen to a lot while I'm at work and I've come to notice that if Frollo sings a song it's immediately followed by Quasimodo singing a song and vice versa. That's because any songs they sing are actually considered one song. It makes for an excellent juxtaposition of the goodness of one character with the wickedness of the other, for example: "Heaven's Light/Hellfire." (As a side note: the song "Hellfire" becomes so much more fascinating when you understand the Latin that is used throughout the song.)

This brings up another bit of symbolism incorporated throughout the movie: light. Any character that is good is associated with natural or "heavenly" light. The sun, moon, and the friendly light of a candle come to mind when thinking of characters like Phoebus, Esmerelda, and Quasimodo. Frollo is associated with harsh light such as a fire in a fireplace, torchlight, a bonfire, or the burning of Paris. There's also the molten fire that Quasimodo pours out of Notre Dame which I consider to be symbolic of the wrath of God pouring out upon those that would desecrate His church.

One instance of symbolic lighting I want to focus on is during Esmerelda's song "God Help the Outcasts." Esmerelda walks through a corridor of candles, in front of a gold painted fresco, and into the light of Notre Dame's gigantic rose window during her prayer for the less fortunate. On the other hand, the others in the cathedral who are pleading for selfish favors from God are shown as shadows on the wall, perhaps indicating how shallow their desires are, especially in comparison with Esmerelda's sincere plea for those who cannot help themselves.

A small thing that I find to be interesting is the colors used in the outfits for Esmerelda, Phoebus, and Frollo. Phoebus is always wearing shining gold or white.... the symbolism for that should be pretty obvious so I won't dwell on it. Esmerelda on the other hand is a little more subtle. If you haven't noticed her standard outfit is purple and back in Medieval times purple was a color associated with royalty and was also used in conjunction with God's royal family, aka Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. When she isn't wearing purple she's wearing white. And the one time she isn't wearing either one of these is when she does her dance during the Feast of Fools. In that sequence she's wearing purple and red; I don't know if anyone else out there noticed this but Frollo's robe is lined in purple and red. This visual token subconsciously ties Follo's actions with Esmerelda and since those colors are forever present on Frollo it shows the audience that he cannot hide from his secret lusts.

I can't help but be astounded at the possibly immense amount of research that must have been done for this movie. There are an insane amount of sculptures decorating the exterior of Notre Dame and it feels like each one of them makes an appearance in this movie.

It's not a secret that I'm a huge fan of Victor Hugo, who wrote Hunchback of Notre Dame (or Norte Dame de Paris if you want to be technical about it), but did you know that this novel had a direct influence over the cathedral being restored from the ruined state it had been in following the French Revolution? There are quite a few historical tidbits throughout the book that are fascinating. Unfortunately this post is about the Disney movie, not the book so I'll just say that everyone should pick up a copy and read it.

Finally, I would like to remind everyone of the morals to this story:

Be kind to those around you, no matter their social standing or their physical appearance.
and
What makes a monster and what makes a man?

Everything I Need to Know About Early America I Learned from Pocahontas

So I watched Pocahontas this week and I've come to the conclusion that if you ignore the blatant historical/cultural inaccuracies throughout this movie it actually makes for a plot full of substance with a very positive message behind it. I mean it's teaching about the power of love and the courage to stand up for what you believe in no matter what opposition you may be faced with. It also teaches that we shouldn't solve all our problems and differences with violence but that there is always a peaceful path if we are willing to take it. What a great message to get across to your audience.

It's a shame all of those stereotypes about Native Americans and early settlers get in the way.

Anyhow, this movie is full of mind blowingly awesome artistic nuggets. So let's talk about those for a minute...

These Disney artists do some fabulous things to show off the grandeur of the New World. They have so many shots of the landscape that are drawn from either a worm's eye or bird's eye view both of which make the trees look so magnificent and by comparison make the people look so insignificant. And when there is a scene drawn from straight on the people are so small that they become hardly noticeable. It serves so well to bring the audience's attention to how great and untamed the land is.







Something else I find so interesting is how stylized everything is. Just look at the angles and dimensions of the above images. I don't know about you, but I've never seen patterns like that on trees in actual nature before. The stylization actually brings to mind the artwork of Sleeping Beauty. Which I think is interesting because it feels like both of these movies are trying to accomplish the same thing with their art style: they want the story being told to feel like they came from a time far in the past. And if you think about it, that illuminated manuscript feel of Sleeping Beauty would have still been very prominent in the early 1600's when Pocahontas is supposed to take place. (Am I making sense here? It's late and I should probably be in bed so hopefully this sounds like more than the ramblings of a crazy person.) As an example of the point I'm attempting to get across look at the image below from Sleeping Beauty and compare it with the above image. Do you see the similarities?



The line work in this movie is also pretty astounding. Everything's so angular and geometric. Sort of like they're trying to mimic the artwork of Native Americans. The same idea was implemented in Aladdin. In that movie they were trying to mimic the art styles of the Middle East and since calligraphy is such a big deal over there all the characters' line work was done with a subtle calligraphic flare. In Pocahontas there are so many angles it's crazy! Even down to the lines in character's hair.

Oh, and talk about fantastic contrast and silhouetting!



I LOVE the sequence for the song "Savages." I especially love the use of colors to get a point across. It's interesting that for the English settlers they are colored as orange on blue and the Natives are colored as blue on orange. The fact that they use the same set of colors for both sets of people shows that these people are the same, they have the same misconceptions about each other and the same rash thinking in order to solve their problems. I also love how the colors become more and more intense as the song progresses until it reaches its climax and suddenly everything shifts to such calmer tones. In fact, I think this sequence shows perfect examples of everything I've mentioned in this post so I insist that ya'll watch it and admire it for how epic it is.

And finally, here are the things I learned about Native Americans and early settlers from watching this movie:

• Natives can hear spirits in the wind that tell them what to do and also give them the ability to speak and understand English.
• Natives also know what the colors of the wind are and how to paint with them.
• Natives are relatives of the rainstorm and the river
• The early settlers came to the New World seeking gold and NOTHING else.
• Jamestown was a successful settlement that didn't mysteriously vanish.
• Thanksgiving happened exactly how they taught me in elementary school.
• A four month journey on a disease and rat infested boat is a man's only chance of survival after being shot in the abdomen. (I laugh out loud at that part every time I watch it.)

P.S. Did you know Christian Bale does a voice on this movie?!?!? I seriously flipped out when I discovered this and told everyone I know. No one else was as impressed with it as I am. And that's lame. You should all think it's amazing.