I've been to both parks. I just found the idea of basing a movie on a ride somewhat strange. Sure, books, plays, TV shows, even earlier, better movies, but rides? I agree with matt_arnold that Walt was a genius. Unfortunately, I find most latter-day non-Pixar Disney output unbearably cloying!
Throughout the existence of the medium, most of the output of the animation industry in general has been self-imitating. The first style to have any success is immediately aped by an entire country, and the studio that pioneered it immediately stops pioneering.
First it was Disney himself. Then in the nineties there was a renaissance at Disney Feature Animation, which immediately resulted in self-imitation of the nineties theme of an outcast man and the woman who accepts him, followed by their merchandisable animal sidekick and a comedian voice-over.
I think the cloyingness is partly due to studio pressure to create a film that's marketable as toy and clothing merchandise. Only in America is it, since Japan animation's self-imitation is sometimes unbearably cloying but more often tends to deal with mature themes. It was depressing to watch Howl's Moving Castle, in which Studio Ghibli unimaginately rehashes every popular element from their great features.
I expected nothing good from Pirates of the Caribbean, due solely to the awfulness of the film based on the Country Bear Jamboree attraction, and due to the mediocrity of the Haunted Mansion film, and especially due to Modern Disney's reputation for raping its own heritage. When I saw the first PotC, I left the theater in a state of surprised bliss. The glorious music, the script, the acting, everything was in place for a movie of rare quality. The nostalgia of my childhood in Walt Disney World was the icing on the cake.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
(no subject)
First it was Disney himself. Then in the nineties there was a renaissance at Disney Feature Animation, which immediately resulted in self-imitation of the nineties theme of an outcast man and the woman who accepts him, followed by their merchandisable animal sidekick and a comedian voice-over.
I think the cloyingness is partly due to studio pressure to create a film that's marketable as toy and clothing merchandise. Only in America is it, since Japan animation's self-imitation is sometimes unbearably cloying but more often tends to deal with mature themes. It was depressing to watch Howl's Moving Castle, in which Studio Ghibli unimaginately rehashes every popular element from their great features.
I expected nothing good from Pirates of the Caribbean, due solely to the awfulness of the film based on the Country Bear Jamboree attraction, and due to the mediocrity of the Haunted Mansion film, and especially due to Modern Disney's reputation for raping its own heritage. When I saw the first PotC, I left the theater in a state of surprised bliss. The glorious music, the script, the acting, everything was in place for a movie of rare quality. The nostalgia of my childhood in Walt Disney World was the icing on the cake.
(no subject)