Film Review: Moana (2016)

Halfway through Moana, the demigod Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson) derisively calls the eponymous character (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho) "princess". She says that she isn't a princess, she's the daughter of a chief, and while Maui isn't swayed by the distinction, it's an important one to Moana - it's the latest example of man trying to define who she is, and in doing so underestimating her - but also for the film around her. "Princess" comes laden with certain expectations about responsibilities, behaviours, and decorum, just as the notion of a "Disney Princess" is associated with a certain kind of storytelling.

Film Review: Into The Woods (2014)

Into The Woods, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's great stage musical in which a host of fairytale figures - Red Riding Hood and her wolf, Cinderella, Rapunzel, their respective princes - all meet in the titular forest, after which their stories collide and their Happily Ever Afters go askew, is not the easiest play to bring to the screen. Like most Sondheim shows, it's heavy on rapidly delivered lyrics full of dazzling wordplay ("Son we've no time to sit and dither/while her withers wither with her"), which means that movement is understandably limited, and therefore not massively cinematic. And much of the charm of the original show lies in the limitations of realising a fantastical world onstage. Presenting an actual forest populated by magical things, rather than allowing audiences to imagine them with a canny bit of stagecraft, makes it all look a little more ordinary, while also making some of the more traditional visual choices - such as the way that Johnny Depp's Wolf looks like someone with whiskers glued on to his face - look weird and out of place.

Shot/Reverse Shot: Episode 50 - Top Ten Musical Moments in Non-Musical Films

In what may be our most weirdly specific Top Ten yet, this episode finds Joe Gastineau and myself talking about musical moments in films which are not themselves musicals. Yeah, it's odd, but go with us on this one; it's a fun and interesting one.

As always, you can stream the podcast using the link below, or preferably (from our point of view) you can subscribe using iTunes. If you choose the later, please rate it and leave a review because it helps us to get more listeners, and also gives us something to obsess over. Speaking of which, you can also Like us on Facebook, assuming that you do.

Film Review: Les Miserables (2012)

Based on his previous films - 2009's The Damned United and 2010's The King's Speech - it's unlikely that many people thought of Tom Hooper as the natural choice to direct the film adaptation of Les Miserables. After all, his first two films consisted largely - in the case of The King's Speech, almost solely - of people talking in small, cramped rooms, and neither is comparable in scale to the task of bringing one of the most popular stage musicals in history to the screen. They also raise the spectre of every dramatist who has tried their hand at imitating the rhythms and style of musicals without actually understanding what can make them so spellbinding. (See Joel Schumacher's execrable adaptation of Phantom of the Opera for a textbook example of one such debacle.)

Film Review: Pitch Perfect (2012)

Starting college is not an easy time for anyone, but it's particularly hard when you don't want to be there in the first place. Such is this case for Beca (Anna Kendrick), a freshman who finds herself attending Barden College pretty much against her will. Beca is a budding DJ and producer who wants to go to L.A. to try to break into the music industry, but her father, who is a professor at Barden, insists that she has to get an education first. The two come to an agreement, albeit one that is both so slight as to be unimportant yet to convoluted to ignore. If Beca really makes a go of it and tries to have the true college experience, if she joins clubs, makes friends and actually tries to enjoy herself, but winds up deciding that it isn't for her, then she can drop out and go to L.A. The only problem is that she actually needs to make that effort in the first place.

Film Review: Rock Of Ages (2012)

"I sense that Xenu is near..."

Adapted from the hit show, Adam Shankman's Rock Of Ages sets itself out as a rowdy, debauched entry into that venerable cinematic tradition, the jukebox musical. Based largely at the the Bourbon Room, a dingy rock club which, despite apparently being the home of rock and roll within the universe of the film, is always on the verge of financial collapse. Over the course of a few days in 1987, the film follows the stories of people whose lives revolve in some way around the club; the girl fresh off the bus from Oklahoma (Julianne Hough) who dreams of making it as a singer; the bartender/aspiring rock star (Diego Boneta) who falls in love with her; the owner (Alec Baldwin) and his second-in-command (Russell Brand) who are trying to keep the club alive; and the puritanical busybody (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who wants to shut it down.

The Princess and the Frog

Louis: You sure this is the right blind voodoo lady who lives in the boat in the tree in the bayou?
Ray: Pretty sure.


I grew up during the American Animation Renaissance of the 1980's and 90's and I clearly remember the sheer joy and excitement I felt every time a new Disney animated film was released. Trips to the cinema to see films like Beauty and the Beast - the first film I ever saw in a cinema -, Aladdin and the Lion King were almost holy experiences for me growing up. That same childish sense of wonder came over me as I sat down to watch Disney's return to hand-drawn animation, The Princess and the Frog.

I mention all of this so that you will know just how strongly I feel about these films. Please keep my love of Disney in mind when reading this review, not because it blinds me to the flaws of the film, but because I hold the films to which The Princess and the Frog aspires in very high regard and I went in with very high expectations. Despite those expectations, I came away feeling giddy and joyous. It's almost too good to be true. Like a fairytale, in fact.

Enough dewy-eyed reminiscing, to the plot.

The princess of the title is not a princess at all, but a poor working class black woman named Tiana. (Voiced by Aniki Noni Rose.) Tiana is a poor waitress in New Orleans during the Jazz Age, and has worked all her life to fulfill her late father's dream of opening a restaurant. Her dream seems on the brink of falling apart when she learns that she has been outbid, and she's in need of a miracle.

Whilst wishing on a star, of course, Tiana spies a frog. Asking the frog if he wants a kiss, he replies "Kissing would be nice". No, this is no mere frog, this is Prince Naveen (Voiced by Bruno Campos.), a philandering young fellow who has been turned into a frog by a local voodoo man (Voiced with gusto by Keith David.) who plans to use the stolen form of Naveen to make himself very wealthy. Tiana and Naveen strike a deal: Tiana will kiss Naveen, in doing so turning him back, and Naveen will give Tiana the money she needs to buy her restaurant. Things don't go according to plan, though, since the kiss turns Tiana into a frog as well, and the two find themselves lost in the bayou as they try to break the curse, aided by a firefly who is in love with the moon (Yes, really.) and an alligator who just wants to play trumpet in a jazz band.

The worst thing that could be said The Princess and the Frog is that it doesn't stretch the animated musical beyond what has been done before. Watching it is like watching a potted history of Disney animation: Evil wizard. Check. Bickering male/female leads who start out hating each other then fall in love. Check. The guarantee of a song and dance number every few minutes. Check . To denounce it for that is to miss the point - it's a big, glorious celebration of an artform that Disney excelled at in the past and, on the basis of The Princess and the Frog, still excel at.

The script, written by co-directors Ron Clements and John Musker, is incredibly funny. There's plenty of delightful sight gags, witty spins on traditional Disney tropes, a sincerity to it that, like the best of Disney, pulls at the heartstrings without tearing them out and enough moments of darkness to scare kids. The relationship between Tiana and Naveen has just the right level of prickliness to add friction to their scenes, but not so much that their eventual romance feels forced, and the sentimentality is never allowed to trample the gags or the songs.

Having said that The Princess and The Frog doesn't reinvent the animated musical, it does slip a few little surprises in: The music, rather than being inspired by pop or classical music, is largely gospel and jazz-derived, giving it a different feel to previous Disney outings. Randy Newman's score and original songs create a rich aural texture to match the beautiful hand-drawn animation.

Time will tell whether or not this will usher in Disney's third golden age or go down as John Lasseter's folly, but let's forget history for a moment and appreciate how magical it is to see a film like this being made. Anyone who grew up with Disney will fall in love with The Princess and The Frog. I know I did.