G-Force (2009)

basics...
From the sublime Inside Men to the ridiculous G-Force... A Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer production that sees Zach Galifianakis (wow, spelled that right on my first guess!) as an FBI bod in charge of a crack squad of talking guinea pigs, who are out to prove their worth by investigating Bill Nighy's tech-mogul's plot to take over the world. Or something.

brilliant...
G-Force has a good set up and delivers a lot of wham-bam special effects, chase sequences and flashy CGI that would no doubt keep kids entertained for hours. There are also quite a few references to more adult films that are enjoyable and helped to keep my attention away from the films flaws. I particularly liked the line 'Yippee-ki-ay coffee maker!', a Die Hard reference that none of the film's target audience should know.

but...

The sad thing about G-Force is that it never really lives up to the fun-sounding premise that guinea pig spies might suggest. There's not enough fun to be had with the fact that these are guinea pigs! The film takes itself a tad too seriously - Galifianakis is basically a straight man to some ok-CGI lumps of fluff with impressive voices (Nic Cage, Sam Rockwell, Jon Favreau, Penélope Cruz, Steve Buscemi and Tracy Morgan) but a weak script, by something called 'The Wibberleys'. That credit explained a lot... The plot - the mole is actually a mole in the ranks and plans to wipe out humanity through killer kitchen utensils - is silly and there are plot holes and contrivances galore. It seems churlish to say that about what is clearly a kids movie, but there should be so much more to this thing that special effects, shouldn't there? I don't think it's a big ask for a tighter script and less clunking scenes like the one in which Galifianakis suddenly decides to tell the little spies he got them from a pet shop

briefly...
G-Force left me annoyed at the squandered potential that a film featuring spy-fi rodents and this cast might imply.

The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos (2009)

basics...
A documentary from the recently created Disneynature brand, the film focuses on the lives of the unusual lesser flamingos of the Lake Natron in Tanzania.

brilliant...
Part documentary, part nature-porn, with a life-span narrative to hang it all on, Crimson Wing started out slow with lots of pretty shots of landscapes and soon became an enveloping, pleasurable experience, combining the silky tones of Mariella Frostrup's poetic narration with stunning photography and genuinely interesting creatures. These flamingos fly back to Natron every year to breed - what's weird is that Natron is incredibly salty and not much survives here, yet the flamingos build nests from the salt and bring up their chicks on it. This leads to some of the chicks' downfall as they wander about in the water, get coated in salty crud which then hardens on dry land, weighing them down like concrete ugg boots and leaving them prey to various carnivores. There's less information here than in an Attenborough documentary and the pace is more relaxed, with a quirky soundtrack that makes Crimson Wing stand out as more than just a documentary about pink birds. The images of running flamingos was rivettingly hypnotic and awe-inspiring.

but...
There's an argument to be made that the flowery script is too airy fairy at times, and that more importance is given to the lives of the flamingos than is appropriate. And sometimes the images are not just nature-porn wonderous but computer wallpaper placeholders. I find it a bit odd that this is being released by Disney as there's nothing particularly Disnified about it, it's a UK/US/French co-production with the Disney name slapped on the DVD box. Although honestly, would I have picked this up if it hadn't?

briefly...
An uplifting, beautiful story of a surprisingly fascinating creature and its equally intriguing habitat.

The Lion King 3D (1994/2011)

basics...
Not long after seeing the re-released version of Jurassic Park I got to see another of my top ten favourite movies at the cinema, and this time in spiffy 3D. 

brilliant...
There is simply no better Disney Classic animation to beat The Lion King. Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Lilo & Stitch all come pretty close, but The Lion King has it all. Perfectly cast with recognisable names that aren't there just because they are names (Matthew Broderick, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeremy Irons), humour that lasts, a Hamlet-referencing story of redemption, pain and duty, with romance, comedy sidekicks and a cracking set of songs from the mighty pen of Elton John and Tim Rice... The animation is breath-taking, the 3-dimensional rendering a cherry on top of a gorgeous whole. Hans Zimmer's score is one of the biggest stand-outs in a movie bulging with top moments, and the piece that plays during the stampede and Mufasa's death (...To Die For on the CD soundtrack) is hands down the most powerful few minutes of music in any film ever. Never mind Bambi's mother's (off-screen) death - Mufasa's murder at the hands of Scar and the following shots of his dead body are harrowing and pack a real emotional punch.

briefly...
I've seen The Lion King many times before yet I still laughed at the jokes, tapped my foot to the songs and got caught up in the emotional drama. A film this good deserves to be seen on a big screen, with a music system that can properly handle the truly epic score. A masterpiece.

The Journey of Natty Gann (1985)

Disney's name drew me to The Journey of Natty Gann when it was shown one afternoon on TV, and although it was made in 1985, the film has a real timeless quality that means it could sit quite comfortably alongside older Disney movies like The Incredible Journey (1963). The plot is encapsulated perfectly in the title - young Natty Gann makes her way across America with the aid of a wolf to find her father, who has gone to find work in Washington state during the depression of 1935. 

For a Disney movie with a plucky young heroine and her animal companion, I thought it was quite a dark tale. Depression-era Chicago looks grimey and unemployment is rife, while Natty is slapped, shoved in an orphanage and even falls prey to a potential rapsit. At her father's logging work one of his co-workers is seen falling from a tree to his death, while Sol Gann is apparently blown up at the film's climax. Of course, Natty has life easier than most and manages to avoid many pitfalls and is reunited with her father at the end, mainly because of her wolf friend's assistance (in another darker moment, she meets the wolf when it is being used in a dog fight). 

Meredith Salenger is a solid lead as Natty, and Ray Wise emotes well as her troubled father, who thinks Natty may be dead and knows nothing of her journey. The movie was promoted in the review as starring a young John Cusack, and he is in it, for maybe 30 mins in total, more than halfway through, as Harry a bum who happens to be travelling on many of the same railroads as Natty. 

I enjoyed The Journey of Natty Gann as a part of the Disney canon, and as a gentle yet 'realistic' portrayal of the era, well as realistic as a tame wolf allows. I liked that it didn't shy away from the seedier parts of life, and Natty was a good companion in a journey-with-an-animal movie much as the Iron Will or White Fang Disney movies of the same decade.

Walt Disney: The Biography (Neal Gabler, 2006)

Hands down the best non-fiction work I've ever read - and quite possibly the best book period - Neal Gabler's officially sanctioned biography of Walt Disney is a peerless volume. Gabler had access to the Walt Disney archives and has clearly talked to hundreds of people and read masses of letters, previous biographies and interviews, and the result is an account of Disney's life that is unlikely to be equalled. 

It's taken me several months to read this book - not because it's hard going or over long (600-odd pages). I've got the first edition hardback version so it's a weighty tome and not designed for taking on trains or reading comfortably sat up in bed so I've had to lie down and savour it. Everytime I opened it up I got lost in the tales of Mickey Mouse, Snow White, Disneyland and everything else. Sometimes devouring in short bursts was the only way to keep up with all that Disney packed into his relatively short life. 

So many advances in filmmaking and beyond were done first or done best by Walt - colour shorts, feature-length animation, Fantasia, movie studios getting into TV, the Disneyland theme park, animatronics, storyboards... the list of his accomplishments is almost unending and continue to have an impact across the world. Gabler doesn't shy away from Walt's follies or faults - this isn't just a big back-slap for the animation genius. Walt is shown as a physically unhealthy, chain-smoking, peevish figure often. Gabler faces accusations of Walt's anti-semitism and racism head on and provides evidence he was guilty of neither any more than people were in the 30s, 40s, 50s. There's not a great deal about Walt's relationship with Lillian, his wife, but then that is because the movies, theme park and all were his focus for much of the time. 

The picture that Gabler paints of Disney is far from the utopian ideal that many think his company now pedals. The biography is a tale of perseverance, of success and failure and of one man's drive to always being doing something new, something different, something he enjoyed. From the early days of animation, through the second world war when the Disney Studio was commissioned by the government to produce propaganda, through to experiments in TV and the success of the theme parks, Walt Disney's life was never boring, and this biography brought everything vividly to life. A masterpiece.

Tangled 3D (2010)

The 50^th Walt Disney Animated feature since Snow White started it all in 1937, Tangled is a simply wonderful addition to the canon. It looks exquisite – the CGI animation is faultless, and the 3D breathtaking in some scenes. Rapunzel’s hair is so detailed, and the human characters more expressive than any other I’ve seen, including in motion-capture movies like Beowulf.

A princess tale that is also a buddy story between Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, it pleases on all fronts – memorable songs, hilarious sidekick characters (Maximus, the horse who moves like a dog, and Pascal, Rapunzel’s pet chameleon, of all things) who steal every scene, a genuinely heartfelt romance, snappy dialogue and a truly sinister villain.

I couldn’t pick a fault with the whole production, it was just superb. I hope that the next 50 are this good. And I don’t hold much truck with Disney apparently announcing there will be no more princess-centred movies, just because The Princess and the Frog didn’t do so well – they also said that Home on the Range would be the final 2D animation and look how that panned out. Tangled proves that there is life in the Disney princess yet!

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

1937 Theatrical Release

Disney's first full-length animated feature, Snow White needs little introduction. As we watched this on Blu-Ray recently I was amazed by how much of the movie - songs, names, the look, whole scenes - has become part of popular culture, and indeed cliché in Disney or fairytale imaginings. I was also quite shocked by how much this movie stands up to anything that has been produced in the 73 years since it was first released. It's still funny, moving, sad, exciting and beautiful, and in Blu-Ray it looks exquisite. 

One particularly good trick on this and a couple of other Disney Blu-Rays is the use of something called 'DisneyView' which fills in the black strips on either side of the movie (for the early movies were not created in widescreen) with new art in keeping with the style of the film, which changes from scene to scene. It could be potentially distracting, but it fills a widescreen and complements the movie.

I intend to view all of Disney's Classics on DVD and Blu-Ray over the coming weeks and months, in order, and along with the often copious special features. Snow White's recent Blu-Ray is packed with featurettes and

2001 Collector's Edition DVD

galleries detailing not only the fascinating production of the film, but also revealing the history of Disney's Hyperion Studios, where the feature was made, along with Silly Symphonies and Mickey Mouse shorts. At the moment I'm reading an enthralling Walt Disney biography by Neal Gabler, and reading about the immense amount of work that Disney and his hundreds of employees put into Snow White complemented by the hours of informative talking heads and archive footage on the Blu-Ray combines to provide a first rate account that could hardly be bettered.

As well as the Blu-Ray features, we also watched those features from the original DVD release a decade or so ago (I think it was one of the first Disney releases of an old classic) that did not appear on the new release. It's a shame that not all features can make it to the new editions, and it means I have to keep the old

2009 Diamond Edition Blu-ray/DVD

copies hanging around, so I now have two copies of Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio... but it's worth it to see the additional Disneyland extracts, other deleted scenes and galleries of publicity. The Blu-Ray has an updated version of the DVD's Disney Through the Decades documentary, a 40 minute overview of Disney from the Alice cartoons to their acquisition of Pixar told by the likes of Angela Lansbury and Robby Benson, and split up by trailers of each re-release of Snow White. It's a fascinating look at how the Disney name and brand has grown and now reaches books, theatre, sports, TV, theme parks, and a few movies too.

I can't wait to view more Disney Classics, some of which I haven't revisited since I was a child, and a handful I've never even seen, and if all of the extra features are as good as they are for Snow White, it's going to be a fascinating experience.

Disney Comics: 75 Years of Innovation (Various, 1930-2004)

As The Gremlins didn’t take more than an hour or so to get through, I next picked up another Disney fictional ‘quickie’ in the form of the anniversary compendium of stories from 75 Years of Disney Comics. Again, there was an interesting introduction covering the history and popularity of Disney comics around the world, before a varied selection of reprinted stories from 1934 to 2003 from the US, South America and Europe.

It was fascinating to see how detailed the artwork was and continues to be, and how the stories are not just enjoyable for children. The language and situations had me chuckling to myself on several occasions, and the simple plots were fun and engrossing. It was particularly interesting to see a strip starring The Gremlins, who apparently had a life beyond Dahl’s book, despite them having no basis in a finished feature film. Other characters included Jose Carioca, from The Three Caballeros, and Uncle Scrooge McDuck – both characters who have thrived in the comics after only brief roles on screen.

Stories involving Mickey Mouse, Horace Horsecollar, Donald and his nephews, Pluto, and Brer Rabbit were all enjoyable and well drawn. The differences in style through the years or between countries were mostly subtle, and it was good to see how times have changed, and how some things have stayed the same. What’s really positive is that the language of Disney and by extension Disney comics is timeless and universal.

The Gremlins: The Lost Walt Disney Production (Flight Lieutenant Roald Dahl, 1943)

After Summer Magic I had a hankering for a bit more Disney magic, so I plucked a book off the shelf called The Gremlins, which is a fictional tale by Roald Dahl, which was originally to have been an animated movie made with Disney during World War II. The movie never came to fruition, so the book was published instead, and it’s an interesting curio.

A meeting between Walt Disney and Roald Dahl would seem to be quite a historic one, but this was before Dahl had published anything, and he was credited as Flight Lieutenant on the book’s cover. It’s as odd as Dahl writing a James Bond movie – he did get around a bit it seems! It’s a long time since I read anything by Dahl, back when I was a child I remember enjoying The Twits and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Gremlins is an entertaining, brief read – more interesting is the introduction by Leonard Maltin detailing the history of the book and failed movie. I’m glad I have this book and have read it as part of my collection of Disney DVDs and books, as it is part of the interesting way Disney participated in the war effort. The characters in the Gremlins are cute and probably would have translated well into film, but the war themes may have been a bit difficult to handle successfully.

Summer Magic (1963)

I had a few days off work through holiday this week, rather than last week’s illness, and I again caught up on a few movies that were on the DVD recorder. A light, airy, cheery Disney musical, Summer Magic filled a couple of hours nicely. It didn’t stretch my mind or my patience, and it never hits the heights of Mary Poppins, but it’s a nicely put together family musical, if occasionally a little sugary sweet.

The Carey family, mother, daughter and two sons – the only one of whom I recognised was Disney stalwart Hayley Mills – find themselves penniless after the father dies and a series of bad investments, so they move to a yellow house in the Maine countryside. The house is owned by a man who is away in China on business, and local shopkeeper Osh Popham (Burl Ives) lets them Careys have the house for a peppercorn rent, and helps them spruce up the place. That’s pretty much it as far as plot goes, although we find that saintly Popham has not actually been writing to the house’s owner, who inevitably turns up unexpectedly at the end of the movie.

The film is an excuse for some good old-fashioned fun and games with the Carey children taking centre stage. There’s a big Dulux-dog, a cousin who comes to stay, a romance with a local teacher, and a few other none-too-exciting incidents, with a number of fun musical interludes along the way. The songs are good, but not instantly memorable, although I did like The Ugly Bug Ball, which I’ve heard before on a Disney compilation CD… It was interesting to see how it fit in to the film, in that it didn’t really. It was a bit incongruous, but the best, most entertaining song, so it’s ok. After 2 hours, Hayley Mills’ smiley face can be a bit trying, but the look and feel of the whole movie put me in the Disney frame of mind, which is always a good thing.

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

A few days after seeing the delightful Ponyo we made a trip to the cinema to see another 2D animation - this time it was Disney's return to form with The Princess and the Frog, which managed to feel like a classic, old-fashioned Disney yarn while at the same time feeling fresh and exciting. 

I enjoyed everything about this movie - the plot kept me guessing, the characters were interesting and involving, the look of the animation was beautiful, the songs were incredibly catchy and toe-tapping, the comedy was genuinely funny, and the sum of these parts was a magical return to form for Disney animation. Less modern and, unlike Treasure Planet or Lilo & Stitch with their aliens and technology (although great films both), Princess and the Frog instead kept things traditional. The inter-war, New Orleans setting and the choice of a black lead character (and villain, 'fairy godmother', etc), along with the rich colour-schemes and superb Southern voice cast made the movie appear vibrant and different. At the same time there were Disney 'staples' like a fat, comedy villainous side-kick, a talking animal who wants to be human, and a happy ending, as well as an unexpectedly emotional death for a main character (see Bambi and The Lion King). 

There has been much publicity about this being Disney's first black 'princess' (although Mulan and Pocahontas were non-white heroines) and it does add an interesting dynamic, particularly when you consider the setting and era in which the movie is set. Without getting preachy about it, and without glossing over history, there are subtle nods to the fact that Tiana lives in a black 'ghetto' of New Orleans, while her mother makes dresses for the rich white man and his spoilt daughter in their massive mansion. This (subtle) social commentary is unusual for a Disney animation, but it's not jarring and just adds an extra dimension for the viewing adult. 

The Princess and the Frog is a marked improvement of the last couple of Disney 2D animations, the boring Brother Bear and misfiring Home on the Range, and it lived up to the brief glimpses of 2D seen in Enchanted, so I'm hopeful now that John Lassester will steer the Walt Disney Animation Studios onwards and upwards, and that a new (golden?) era of 2D animation is about to dawn. 

Hocus Pocus (1993)

As it was Halloween at the weekend we decided to watch a scary film… Hocus Pocus! Ok so it’s funny rather than scary, but it was a bit of nostalgia as we both fondly remembered this Disney movie from our youth.

I’ve said that it’s not scary, but watching the movie again as a 25-year old, it’s a little disturbing to note how adult some of the beginning is! In the first introduction to Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker, the trio of wacky, comedic, Sanderson sister witches, we see them kill a child, condemn another to eternity as a cat, before seeing them hang. Infanticide and capital punishment – what a way to start a family film! And then later, when Omri Katz’s Max unwittingly lights a candle to bring the witches back to life, there’s much comedic mileage garnered from the fact that he’s a virgin. I’m not sure how old the character is supposed to be (US school years confuse me), but I gather from imdb that Katz was around 16 or 17 at the time, so is it so odd that the character hasn’t yet popped his cherry?

Talking of Katz, since I now know he was over 16 I can safely say he’s quite cute in Hocus Pocus! Aside from Eerie Indiana (another fondly remembered show from my youth) it seems he’s done little else of note, which is a shame because he was a great young actor. 11 year-old Thora Birch threatens to steal a lot of the movie as Max’s precocious sister, but it would be difficult to upstage Bette Midler in such a camp role!

Midler is an absolute hoot here, and apparently she admitted last year that Hocus Pocus was the favourite of all of her movies. She seems to relish playing the ugly villainous, and makes the part her own. Kathy Najimy has little to do as one of her sisters, and Sarah Jessica Parker has only slightly more to do as the hornier, younger sibling (I’ve always been shocked to learn that this beautiful actress was SJP, and it still amazes me now!). Why is Bette Midler’s witch the only one with any powers to speak of?

While the plot may not win any prizes for originality, Hocus Pocus has enough laughs and fun to get by on the strengths of the performances alone – not just from Midler and the witches, but from the talented young stars too. A Halloween treat for everyone.

It’s interesting to note that director Kenny Ortega would not direct another (TV) movie until 13 years later, and that was High School Musical! What a small world.

Up (2009)

Pixar's first 9 movies have been absolutely fantastic pieces of art, and I'm glad to say that Up, their 10th, does nothing to spoil this run. 
I found it interesting that when we went to see Up in 3-D on Wednesday the cinema was full of young twenty-somethings like myself. I was expecting kids! Maybe since Toy Story came out while I and my fellow cinema goers that evening were at a formative age (I was 11 in 1995) and we've all grown up with Pixar. Or maybe everyone was there to witness a wonderful spectacle, because that's what Up provided, in spades.

Now I'm a bit skeptical about 3-D movies, I've only seen a couple, Beowulf and Monsters vs Aliens. The former was improved by the addition of the 3-D element, and the latter was complemented nicely. I've also seen Bolt and Coraline, which were released in 3-D, in standard 2-D versions only, and I think that because Bolt was a weaker movie, it would have been improved by 3-D, whereas Coraline would probably work either way. Basically I think that a movie needs to justify being in 3-D, especially when it costs so much more to see one! If a movie is improved by 3-D then it clearly wasn't a very good one in the first place. 

Up neither benefited nor suffered from being in 3-D, but it certainly made for an even more rewarding experience than a standard 2-D version probably would. 3-D added depth to the backgrounds/scenery, but not to the story and the characters - that depth was already present and correct. 

After The Incredibles, Ratatouille and WALL-E, which all deviated in many ways from their buddy-movie predecessors, Up presents a further step beyond what is normal or usual for an animated movie. In the first 5 or 10 minutes a montage sequence shows the elderly protagonist as he grows from childhood to old age with the girl who becomes his wife and companion, and the animation and music tell a story that negates the need for dialogue - in this sequence we learn that Carl's wife is unable to have a child, and shortly after we see Ellie fall as an old lady, before a brief scene at her funeral... Emotional scenes for an animated movie! Move over Bambi's mother, these scenes go straight for your tear-ducts, although not in any way that feels manipulative. It all feels real. I don't cry at movies, but I felt tears welling up no less than 3 times during the course of Up. 

I think adults will get more out of Up than kids would, although there's probably enough to keep them busy. Hang on - are animations supposed to engross the kids and have just enough to keep adults busy?? I love how Pixar doesn't water down their tales for kids. After the initial heartbreak in the opening scenes, Up moves on to become a hilarious adventure story, with Carl and his new found Wilderness Explorer sidekick, Russell, floating Carl's house down to South America so that our elderly hero can have the life he always planned to have with his wife. 

Along the way Carl and Russell an exotic bird named Kevin, a whole pack of 'talking' dogs and Up's dastardly villain. There's so much imagination and emotion going on, I was conscious of the big goofy grin I had on my face throughout. The animation, of course, is flawless, and absolutely breathtaking, particularly in some of the 3-D sequences as the house floats above the South American landscapes. 

The character of Russell is a bundle of joy. What could have been a very irritating character turns out to be lovable, as his boundless enthusiasm tranlates to the audience (well , me anyway). One of the most impressive aspects of Up's story is the way it doesn't condescend to explain what's going on in Carl or Russell's head through exposition or forced heart to hearts between the characters - so much is conveyed through their emotions and images, in the same way that WALL-E before it accomplished so much through minimal dialogue. 

I could go on and on about all of the many things that I loved about Up (and the short that preceded it, Partly Cloudy), but I won't. I would just encourage anyone and everyone to see it, and challenge them not to be sweet Up in the emotional adventure.

High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)

Oh I do love a High School Musical! And not just because they star the delicious Zac Efron, as seen here in a leaked scene from the third movie that didn't make the final cut.

I saw the first HSM on TV a couple of Christmases ago and enjoyed it a lot, and then I got the second one on DVD and loved it even more! The soundtrack albums were swiftly purchased, and though I've only seen each movie once, I've heard the songs many, many times. Sharpay, Ryan and Troy are my favourites, as they get all the best songs, 'Get Ya Head In The Game', 'Fabulous' and 'Bet On It' are fantastic to (sing and) dance to. 

I enjoy the innocence of the movies, the very Disneyfication that turns some people away automatically. It's odd, I sometimes think I'm a cynical person, yet I love this kind of thing, and there's not a whiff of guilty pleasure about it - these movies and their soundtracks are just pleasures to me.

Despite enjoying the first two made-for-TV HSM movies, I didn't go to see number 3, Senior Year, at the cinema, and only got round to watching it a couple of weeks ago. I think I was a bit unsure as to how it would translate and whether the big screen would reveal how silly the other movies were. How wrong I was.

HSM3 is a step up from the others on several levels, mainly acting, dance set pieces and the sheer glossy scale of the production. Troy's still the perfect all American boy we all want to be (with), and Gabriella is still the bland love interest with nothing very exciting to say (I'm not jealous of her or anything, give me some credit) and Sharpay is the most glamorous, Mean-Girls-lite scene stealer of the movie. If the songs aren't as instantly memorable as in HSM2 then the choreography more than made up for it. 

Some may find the whole story a bit obvious and twee, but I genuinely felt they did something that while not wholly original, made sense and felt more grown up than before. I know it's silly that Troy and Gabriella manage to be together for a couple of years without the whisper of sex, and there's no alcohol or smoking going on, but what's wrong with a little wholesomeness every now and then? It's a great antidote to the normal cynical portrayals of teenages (see Skins, series 3 review coming soon!) and allows a little escapism in an often scary real world. Having mentioned the lack of sex, however, I swear Zac Efron's gazes at Vanessa Hudgens were mentally undressing her, they were crammed with lust. Maybe that's wishful thinking on my part?

No matter what people say about Zac Efron, I think the guy can act. And sing. And dance. (Not just here, but in Hairspray too, another of my favourites). While I find Vanessa Hudgens and Corbin Bleu a bit underwhelming (the latter was underused in HSM3, and really, across the whole series), I hope that Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel go on to outlive their HSM roles as they're fantastic comic actors and they really light up every scene they're in. One of the stand out scenes is their duet about world domination, 'I Want It All', and one of the disappointments of the movie is that neither gets another song to themselves. Boo! There are too many Troy and Gabriella duets in this one, although Zac Efron gets a great song called 'Scream' to work out his vocal chords.

So the highlights of HSM3 are: Zac Efron, Sharpay and Ryan, amazing dance sequences, and a more satisfying plot. The downsides: Not enough songs for Ryan and Sharpay, the underwritten newcomers, and the lack of a shower scene for Mr Efron.

Camp Rock (2008)

So I'm a fan of High School Musical right? What of it? So I thought I'd record Camp Rock when it was on BBC1 ages ago and give that a spin. How bad could it be? HSM and the sequel (at this point I'd not seen the third, but I have now... more about that here) are both easy watching, Zac Efron is particularly easy on the eye, and I love a good musical at the best of times. Corny, yes, and very, VERY Disneyfied, but hey, what's wrong with people having a great time and a song and a dance? 

Camp Rock is so bad it makes High School Musical look like an Oscar-worthy musical in the same vein as Chicago. How bad is Camp Rock? Let me count the ways: 
1) The lead actress, Demi Lovato, playing Mitchie, was so achingly smiley and sweet I wanted one of the other characters to punch her. I'm not a violent person. But there's only so much sweetness I can take. Gabriella in HSM treads a fine line between wholesome and irritating, but Mitchie is so far past the line, it's a dot to her. And for a musical where the lead actress is supposed to be hiding a stunning voice I'm afraid Lovato's wasn't up to much.
2) The direction was poor, making what should have been an exciting musical (isn't being exciting a musical's raison d'être??) into a flat and boring thing to endure.
3) The story was dull and predictable - yes you can call HSM predictable too, but this was all  kinds of crap. 
4) All of the songs sounded pretty much the same. I can't remember any of them, although I do remember thinking that the Jonas' sang the best ones.

5) The Jonas Brothers were the best things in it.

 

Here are the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato, notice how she's still bloody smiling? From left to right, after having seen Camp Rock, I can confidentally name the brothers: curly-haired Jonas, lead singer Joe Jonas, and the other Jonas. Joe I can recognise as he's the second lead in the movie - the others are reduced to bit parts. That wouldn't be so bad, but their characters get the best, funniest lines, and they have more chemistry than the rest of the cast put together. I began to yearn for their characters to keep coming back! Joe Jonas was quite good though, in spite of the sullen teenager stereotype he was lumbered with.

Why is the Jonas Brothers being the best things in Camp Rock a bad thing? Well the only other thing I know about them is that they wear rings confirming their chasteness and virginity. That makes me shudder on many levels, and so I didn't want them to be so good!

I will *not* be buying the Camp Rock soundtrack, or watching the inevitable sequel(s). But I will be reflecting on how much better High School Musical is!