Episodes
Saturday Sep 15, 2018
Treasure Planet & Brother Bear
Saturday Sep 15, 2018
Saturday Sep 15, 2018
[School of Movies 2018]
Treasure Planet: Maybe Disney's biggest mistake since The Black Cauldron. Actually, that comparison isn't a bad one at all. Both were epic-but-short adventures with the focus on a young boy that many audiences struggled to love, both were adaptations of difficult books, both were departures from the studio's accustomed style, both had awkward comedy moments that didn't quite land, both were insanely expensive and both were expected to bear rich dividends at the box office, tanked instead and forced the house of mouse to re-evaluate, leading ultimately to a golden age of parity between creators and money men, garnering massive financial and critical success.
But to achieve that they had to fail big time first. And as failure's go Treasure Planet is a frequently beautiful one. It has its annoying characters and manifestly poor decisions on show, but there are bits that genuinely make us well up with emotion, a wonderful James Newton Howard score and the same deep canvas animation technique as Tarzan. It's an oddity and a bittersweet one at that.
Brother Bear: This is the definition of a mixed Disney bag. On the one hand you have truly gorgeous animation, a promising premise, the chance to proclaim that you've learned from past mistakes as they partain to the portrayal of native peoples, the feel of The Lion King, a talented voice cast, an Oscar-winning singer and Tina goddamned Turner!
On the other you have a confused series of events, a tone that veers between how merciless nature is and a cloyingly sweet Saturday morning cartoon from 1984, a plot structure that appears to have gaps, an uneven sense of humour unlikely to make many people laugh, and worst of all, a panicking executive team ready to pull the plug on traditional animation if you screw up, and ready to chase Shark Tale into the sewer of quality.
Guess what happened...
Guest
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Friday Aug 31, 2018
Lilo & Stitch
Friday Aug 31, 2018
Friday Aug 31, 2018
[School of Movies 2018]
While there are still some good Disney films left before they hit their modern fourth renaissance this one is special. Either the swansong of the 90s era or the strongest example of how the studio COULD have been amazing during this muddled 2000s period, had they married creativity with heart and focus more often rather than wildly attempting six different things at once in an attempt to stay relevant.
Creator Chris Sanders (who cut his teeth on the best of the 90s fare working on Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and Mulan) was bound for big things. How to Train Your Dragon was in the distance, and it's very easy to draw a line between that series and this, with its focus on drawing alarming, dangerous creatures into families that don't realise they need these new members. He also directed The Croods, which is probably the best movie about neolithic people, despite being a family comedy.
Lilo & Stitch, the tale of how a creature of mass destruction finds a place in a little, broken family on a peaceful, beautiful island with no cities to destroy is a rightful favourite of many. We attempt to do it justice here.
Next week: Treasure Planet.
Guest
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Friday Aug 24, 2018
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Friday Aug 24, 2018
Friday Aug 24, 2018
[School of Movies 2018]
This project began life when its creators mused over why nobody made Indiana Jones style adventures any more and Disney certainly hadn't attempted an animated film along those lines.
And when you look at the chemistry at play here; a script begun by Joss Whedon (The Avengers), directed by Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise (Beauty and the Beast) starring Michael J. Fox (Back to the Future), art design by Mike Mignola (Hellboy) score by James Newton Howard (Batman Begins) with a support cast of amazing old, now all sadly-departed actors (Leonard Nimoy, James Garner, John Mahoney, David Ogden Stiers and Jim Varney) it's hard to see how it could have been anything other than a roaring success.
Atlantis made okay box office, not quite doubling its budget, and it set a dangerous trap by somehow conveying to general audiences that Disney's boys-own adventures were going to be mediocre movies to stay away from, which then hit them HARD with Treasure Planet the next year.
But it's got some really good stuff in there, even if it is a bit of an uneven mess with missed opportunities left and right.
Next week: Lilo & Stitch.
Guest
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Friday Aug 17, 2018
The Emperor's New Groove
Friday Aug 17, 2018
Friday Aug 17, 2018
[School of Movies 2018]
The Disney shows return. And this time we are entering their dark age. A period of creative freedom and box office flops, when the house of mouse was going through a serious identity crisis.
Thanks to Pixar and the evolution of 3D graphics animation had changed in a big way over the previous few years and the world was about to be flooded in barnyard adventures as studios began popping up doing cheap and cheerful, yet cynical animal comedies, and growing more successful than Disney who kept veering about, reactively changing direction, unsure of what it wanted to be.
An epic Prince and the Pauper drama set in Mesoamerica was halted part-way through production and The Emperor's New Groove was what it became.
Unlike any other Disney this film is a madcap comedy steeped in absurd, mid-20th century cartoon illogic, arch absurdism and fourth-wall-shattering canny narration.
The people who love it REALLY love it, because for them it succeeds triumphantly.
Guest
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Friday Aug 17, 2018
Fantasia 2000 + Dinosaur
Friday Aug 17, 2018
Friday Aug 17, 2018
[School of Movies 2018]
Fantasia 2000: Probably not many people's favourite Disney movie unless there's some deeply personal story attached what this is represents an attempt to resurect Walt's idea for an ever-changing roster of musical sequences with Disney animation. If you figure it would have changed and evolved over the years, had the original proved successful, and gone with the original model of adding new sequences in place of old, some might say that 59 years later it would resemble this movie. Then again, some wouldn't. We also debate what a third movie in this style could be like, and what it would take to finally start drawing in the crowds. Daniel Floyd once again joins us for a talk about this contentious battle between artists and money men.
Dinosaur: [Found at the 1h 24m mark]. Disney's attempt to enter the 3D animation markert involved computer animated model dinosaurs set against real world environments. It could have been spectacular and transportive... if they hadn't simply swallowed and regurgitated Don Bluth's Land Before Time without any of the heart or special moments.
Guest
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Friday Jan 26, 2018
Mulan
Friday Jan 26, 2018
Friday Jan 26, 2018
[School of Movies 2018]
Dan Floyd joins us once again as the Disney Project continues.
The house of Mouse picked themselves up from the financial low for the 90s that was Hercules, and came back punching with this Chinese legend of a girl who steals her father's armour to take his place in the army.
Still to this day one of the most beautiful and moving of their animated classics, Mulan had its detractors, and all of them had solid reasons to admonish story decisions. However, it is also beloved and inspirational, and the kind of movie that could be made today (with a few tweaks).
Jerry Goldsmith's soaring yet delicate score was fortunately in plentiful supply for this one.
Guests
Daniel Floyd of Extra Histories
Friday Jan 19, 2018
Hercules
Friday Jan 19, 2018
Friday Jan 19, 2018
[School of Movies 2018]
Now we reach the point where Disney seemed off their game, at least in comparison with the lightning strikes of Mermaid, Beauty, Aladdin and Lion King. The fact that I really like Hercules is neither here nor their, this was a snarky yet earnest take on Greek mythology framed around an action sports movie for boys.
It had one of the most real-feeling and grown up of Disney heroine's so far, James Woods before he revealed himself to be a complete dick, Danny DeVito on top form as a washed up boxing coach and a quick-witted, slightly-too-energetic pace which a lot of people might consider off-putting.
It was also an ideal, basic model for the superhero movies that were around the corner, and in fact it's a better Superman story than any of Kal-El's movies that have followed so far, though Thor and then Wonder Woman far exceed its reach.
Since Alan Menken's lovely, lively score only spans a few minutes I have used other, tonally appropriate music for this one. Next week, Mulan.
Guests
Daniel Floyd of Extra Histories
Friday Jan 12, 2018
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Friday Jan 12, 2018
Friday Jan 12, 2018
[School of Movies 2018]
The year was 1996, just a few months ago Pixar had changed the face of cinema by introducing a whole new medium of 3D animated film, with Toy Story.
Disney followed up their lukewarm reception of Pocahontas with another middling-in-appreciation Broadway musical. The art is beautiful, the scale epic, the songs memorable.
The subject matter is a serious social commentary written by a man who fiercely disapproved of injustice, framed as a tragic, gothic romance, but in the all-singing, all-dancing Disney style, the jokes are witty banter mixed with fart noises made by a pig-like gargoyle (who may not have even been real) played by Jason Alexander from Seinfeld. The main villain is a judge, because executives weren't happy with him being a Catholic Priest, yet rogue animators deliberately confounded their demands and depicted him upon his knees, praying for forgiveness from Mary for the darkness inside him which he knew would imminently lead to murder, in one of the most spectacular song sequences in ANY movie. In short, it had a tone problem.
And with the help of Dan Floyd and Nama Chibitty, we dig into how this was pulled together and what the end result was. It's one hell of a ride.
We have covered all the Disney animated classics canon so far from Snow White up to The Lion King and they can be found of the "School of Movies Archive" which is a separate feed on iTunes or wherever else you find podcasts. Here's all the Disney ones.
Guests
Daniel Floyd of Extra Histories
Nama Chibitty
Friday Jan 05, 2018
Pocahontas
Friday Jan 05, 2018
Friday Jan 05, 2018
[School of Movies 2018]
The Disney shows return, Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits joins us once again to continue our trek through the past of the animation giant.
And we are in the middle of the 90s renaissance, their third period of creatively blossoming (Pre-War/Post-War/90s) and the first after the box office high point of The Lion King presented a bar almost impossible to reach. Even if it hadn't been culturally troubling, deliberately historically naive and melodramatic when the audiences wanted fun, Pocahontas was going to stumble.
It became the benchmark of what happens when Disney decide they have a hit on their hands before release (everybody thought this was going to be their Cinderella and Lion King was just going to be a muck-about with animals). And yet for its faults, which we will go into, it remains a beautiful, sweeping, bittersweet Hollywood romance of the kind it's very tough to pull off successfully, even today, *especially* today.
The music by Alan Menken is once again amazing, the voice acting is top notch, the animation might make you gasp, and it's probably the most Broadway musical-feeling of all the Disney canon, for better or worse.
We have covered all the Disney animated classics canon so far from Snow White up to The Lion King and they can be found of the "School of Movies Archive" which is a separate feed on iTunes or wherever else you find podcasts. Here's all the Disney ones.
Guests
Daniel Floyd of Extra Histories
Nama Chibitty
Friday Feb 10, 2017
The Lion King
Friday Feb 10, 2017
Friday Feb 10, 2017
[School of Movies 2017]
This episode will be the deepest single Disney show we will ever do. It weighs in at just under four hours long, so I'd recommend absorbing it in two sessions, unless you have a long drive or a flight. But if you love the film you'll feel like you've died and gone to never-ending Lion Heaven!
Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits joins us again to examine this magnificent beast of a film. Disney had taken a year off after Aladdin to develop their next two theatrical, animated projects, a sweeping Broadway musical melodrama, sure to go down in history as one of their greatest achievements (Pocahontas... it didn't) and a fun little movie about lions (which became known as one of their greatest achievements).
More than anything else, this movie made Bambi redundant for me. I never much gelled with the little dear, and while the death of his mother did have a shocking impact its repercussions were felt for all of 90 seconds. Lion King spends the rest of the movie either overtly avoiding confronting grief or stepping up to face it. The courageous subject matter, the beautiful animation, the majestic James Earl Jones, the amazing music and brilliant songs put this one at the highest peak for me.
This super special episode also includes the debut of the SteamHeart trailer.
Guests:
Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits