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The Second Animation Renaissance: The Good, The Best, and The Rest

The Little Mermaid is usually credited with kick-starting Disney’s first animation renaissance, but this often-discussed period started 3 years prior with The Great Mouse Detective. Similarly, Disney’s second animation renaissance has been credited to Frozen and Tangled when it started years earlier. While it is convenient to think that all Disney needed was Idina Menzel …

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‘Fantasia 2000,’ and Why It Should Be Considered Part of the Disney Renaissance

“I think we’re all glad that they changed the name to Fantasia,” states Steve Martin dryly during his introduction of Fantasia 2000 regarding the film’s predecessor, which was originally called The Concert Feature. (Fantasia may be a slightly cooler-sounding title, but it’s not much more inviting to the average audience member than The Concert Feature.) …

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‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire,’ Or When Disney Stops Caring About the Child Audience

Atlantis: The Lost Empire Written by Tab Murphy Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise US, 2001 One of the biggest complaints of animated films in North America is that they are undoubtedly targeted solely at children. While Disney and Pixar may occasionally slip adult jokes in to their films, the films are still marketed …

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‘Frozen’ a pleasant enough experience despite standing in the shadows of Disney animated classics

Walt Disney Animation Studios has become, in its relative old age, both charmingly and cripplingly self-conscious. Each new entry seems to quiver in the shadow of the greats, the vaunted classics that have become untouchable for many.

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Grimm, Ep. 3.04, “One Night Stand” a fun twist on The Little Mermaid

While Grimm is rooted in fairy tales, this week’s episode is the first to seemingly take direct inspiration from a modern classic, The Little Mermaid. Usually the show takes a particular myth or folk tale as a jumping off point before going in a new direction, but “One Night Stand” is a break from this, providing direct parallels to several of the beloved film’s key elements. Elly, our main Nyad protagonist, loves Jake from afar and saves him from drowning, pulling him onto the land and resuscitating him. She stares lovingly at him as he blearily opens his eyes, not sure what he’s seeing, and then jumps back into the water once he’s awake. Jake then spends much of the episode trying to understand what happened to him and find this woman who, being deaf, cannot speak to him. The antagonists as well as many of the specifics may differ, but there are too many similarities for this to be intended as anything other than Grimm does The Little Mermaid, a format Once Upon a Time has built much of its show around.

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Extended Thoughts on ‘Monsters, Inc.’

Monsters, Inc. Directed by Pete Docter Written by Andrew Stanton and Daniel Gerson Starring Billy Crystal, John Goodman, James Coburn, Steve Buscemi Here’s a question that has nagged at me for the last few years: what, really, is the difference between a film made by Pixar Animation Studios and a film made by DreamWorks Animation? …

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Disney And Disney•Pixar Favourites Poised To Return To Theatres In 3D

  For more than 85 years, The Walt Disney Studios has been the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) was built. Today, the Studio brings quality movies, music and stage plays to consumers throughout the world. Feature films are released under four banners: Walt Disney Pictures, which includes Walt Disney Animation Studios …

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The Five Best Disney Films

In spite of having grown up as a part of the Disney “VHS Generation”, one of the first groups of children to have the privilege and opportunity to enjoy nearly every Disney classic in the comfort of my home on demand, I don’t have much nostalgia for my childhood favourites. They still have a special …

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