The Princess and the Frog Review!

Yeah, I decided to do this now so I can make it quicker for me to do my video review!
The Princess and the Frog

Rating: *****
The Princess and the Frog is a 1920's version of the fairytale the Frog Prince with a fun New Orleans twist! It's about Tiana, a determined young waitress who wants to open her own restaurant after her father died in World War I. She comes across Prince Naveen, who was transformed into a frog by Dr. Facilier a voodoo witch doctor, voiced by Keith David, at a costume ball of her friend's who Naveen wants to marry instead of working hard and getting a job since his parents cut him off his riches. Thinking she's a princess, Naveen convinces her to kiss him in exhange for money for her restaurant. Deciding to take the easy way out Tiana kisses him, only to be turned into a frog since she wasn't a princess. The two come across some fun characters including Louis,  a trumpet playing alligator, Ray a Cajun firefly and Mama Odie, a 200 year old blind witch.
This film brought the comeback of 2D animation after years of Pixar's and Dreamworks 3D animation taking over and it doesn't disappoint at all. The only thing I don't understand is why didn't they decide to do an African American princess until now? To me, Tiana is the most realistic princess I've seen: she works hard, she knows fairy tales don't exist and have to work to get what you want! She even has TWO jobs simultaneously, that's commitment! Anika Noni Rose's voice definitely shows off in this film, especially during her solo Almost There and the Down in New Orleans finale! I already mentioned how underused Anika was in my Dreamgirls review because of how much I love her acting skills and her incredible voice. They even got  Oprah Winfrey, one of the most influential women in the world to voice Tiana's mum and she definitely is wise to her daughter, as most mothers are in Disney films! Bruno Campos' performance as the cocky and self absorbed prince Naveen is also done well, but I love Michael-Leon Wooley as Louis, Keith David as the villainous Dr Facilier and Jenifer Lewis as the hilarious Mama Odie. My personal highlight though, would have to be Jennifer Cody as Charlotte because every time she appeared on screen, I would laugh my head off!
The animation is amazing and is almost like the animation used during the Disney Renaissance and I love the design of New Orleans from the French Quarters to the bayou. The music by Randy Newman definitely reflects on the Jazz Age and were very fun to watch, especially the gospel influence for Dig A Little Deeper, but Alan Menken will always be my favourite Disney composer! The only downside I have is the rating, which is U here, and I think some elements including the voodoo theme are too scary for kids and should be up to PG. Still, it's a great film and I don't have any flaws with the actual film iteslf and everyone will love it, whether you're a kid or a fan of traditional animated films!

Prince of Egypt review!

OK, after the first 2 reviews of bad animated films, I decided to review a good musical film!
Prince of Egypt

Rating: ****
It's the story of Exodus from the Bible about Moses, voiced by Val Kilmer, a Hebrew man raised by the Egyptian royal family after being saved by his real mother from being killed by the Pharoh's men who were told to kill all male Hebrew newborns to avoid conflict. After Moses kills a guard by accident (although in the Bible it was on purpose!) and finds out the truth by his birth brother Aron and his sister Miriam, he runs away in exile and marries Tzipporah, voiced by Michelle Pfeiffer and finds out his destiny from God to save the Hebrews from his adoptive brother Ramases, voiced by Ralph Fiennes.
The animation is amazing in this and is actually accurate with the designs of the characters from the symmetrical Egyptian look to the natural Hebrew look, with my highlight in the animation being the scene of the Ten Plagues. The voice acting is also good with it's all star cast, especially Ralph Fiennes and I find it interesting that it focuses on the relationship between Ramases and Moses as brothers who are forced to be enemies because of their destinies, as much as they want to be where they were before. The supporting characters are actually nice to watch including Tzipporah's father Jethro, voiced by Danny Glover and is like a father figure towards Moses. The Pharoh's advisors voiced by Martin Short and Steve Martin are actually funny together, but also quite dark to watch at the same time, especially during Playing With The Big Boys Now.
I LOVE the songs in this film which actually help further the story, especially Deliver Us, Heaven's Light and of course, the Oscar winning When You Believe, well the Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston version anyway. Considering the songs were composed by the guy who wrote the songs for Enchanted and Wicked, I'm not surprised they're excellent!
The only downside I have is the number of inaccuracies to the original Exodus text which were noticeable to me, like it was the Pharaoh's daughter who adopted Moses, not his wife, the one I mentioned above about Moses killing the guard and that Aron never doubted Moses and it was him who turned the water into blood with the staff, not Moses. I find it ironic as Dreamworks talked with biblical scholars to make it accurate Still, they'll fly over kid's heads who haven't read the original story and I guess it's to make it more kid friendly and the overall plot is still the same.
So overall, it's a great film, with it's stunning animation, memorable songs and great cast, it won't disappoint you. While it has inaccuracies to the Bible, the main story is still intact about one of the most well known parables and this film definitely has a charm to it.
My release date for the Enchanted Christmas will hopefully be December 25th or January 1st as I have a TON of college work at the moment! My next review will be The Princess and the Frog, which I also like!

Quest For Camelot Review!

OK, this film was out around the time the Disney Renaissance was fully in swing. This would also be a time when other film companies would attempt to copy the Disney formula with their princesses/heroines, great musical numbers, great animation and epic magical spells. Quest For Camelot has none of this.
Quest For Camelot

Rating: **
It's about Kayley, a blatant rip-off of Belle, who's the daughter of one of the knights of King Arthur's Round Table voiced by Jessalyn Gilsig (Terri from Glee) who wants to become a knight, despite the obvious anti-feminist laws! Excalibur is stolen by Ruber, voiced by Gary Oldman, possibly the weirdest and most boring animated villain I've ever seen, like Spider Smith from Lost In Space, which happened to have been released in the same year as this movie! Yeah, Kayley meets Garrett voiced by Cary Elwes, with a very different singing voice, a blind hermit who 'stands alone' (yes, that's one of the songs in the film which has no use or purpose in the movie like all the other songs in this film!) Oh yeah, there's one thing I won't understand, there's no point of Garrett being blind and at times I even forgot he was blind!
Kayley and Garrett meet an incredibly annoying two headed dragon voiced by Eric Idle and Don Rickles who have no purpose but to annoy the hell out of us so they can be a 'comic relief ' Yeah they even sing a song like Elvis and a load of pop culture references, obviously ripping off Aladdin, which actually pulled it off and none of it has anything to do with the King Arthur legend! Yeah, I call that scene a Big-Lipped-Alligator Moment which has no explanation just like everything else in this piece of shit!
Yeah, also I personally think they were mostly focusing on the soundtrack for this film even though it was still crappy since they got a load of singers like Andrea Corr, Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion! I'm not kidding! And before you ask, that song The Prayer which nearly everyone has sang came from this film and is so out of place, it's unbelievable! Nobody would ever believe such a great song would originate from such a lame film, and that's an understatement!
I'm not gonna go on to reveal everything because it's as cliché as it gets, except the blind guy's still blind at the end of the film! Wow! I didn't think Camelot would have a load of douche-bags, just give the guy his eyes! So overall, it's awful, the characters are bland and annoying rip-offs, the animation's bad, the songs are like the composers crapped on it and called it 'music' except for the Prayer. And in the words of the Nostalgia Critic 'JUST EXPLAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIN!'
My next animated musical this month will be The Prince of Egypt, which I actually like and I'll definitely be doing a video review of Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas!

Lez Miz Costume featurette!

Les Miz featurettes!

This actually made me cry!

Wow! Really impressed!

Finally we get to hear Sacha and Helena! It's incredible how much detail's put into this!