Planes

In 2013, DisneyToon produced a spin-off of Pixar’s Cars franchise, titled Planes. Starring Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, Priyanka Chopra, Brad Garrett, Cedric the Entertainer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Roger Craig Smith, John Cleese, Carlos Alazraqui, Val Kilmer, and Anthony Edwards, it grossed $219.8 million.

A cropduster working in a cornfield, Dusty Crophopper (Cook) practices aerobatic maneuvers in his spare time and dreams of becoming racer. Trained by a reclusive navy war plane named Skipper Riley (Keach) he trains to fly in the Wings Across the Globe race.

Planes is unique in that it’s in the same world as Cars, but is at the same time distinct and not a rehash of the film it spins off of. Dusty has to overcome his shortcomings of not being built to race in a very short time span. And not only does he do it, but eventually wins the respect of most of the racers he is flying with. It showcase’s Dusty’s character in how he goes about doing it: saving another racer and coming in last, having surprising determination and just being an all-around nice guy.

And the variedness of the race is also pretty interesting. Each leg is a different obstacle, such as high flying over the Himalayas, relying on GPS over the Pacific and maneuvering through the cold on the way to Iceland.

But while it’s a fun movie with a pretty good plot, it’s obvious that it was originally meant to be straight to video, but was given a few extra bucks to make it have a theatrical release. The writing is on par with many of the better direct to video sequels Disney put out and should have gone through a couple rewrites before it really went into production.

It’s underwhelming, but didn’t have to be.

#83 

Frozen

Disney’s most recent animated feature, Frozen was released in November of 2013. Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, the film starred Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, and Santino Fontana. Grossing $1.3 billion at the box office, it wound up getting a theatrical sing a long release and a Broadway musical. Nominated for 80 awards, it won 56, including the Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, The Alliance of Women Film Journalists for Best Animated Female, The Annie Awards for Best Animated Feature, Directing in an Animated Feature Production, Music in an Animated Feature Production, Production Design in an Animated Feature Production, and Voice Actin in an Animated Feature Production, The Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film, and the Denver Film Critics Society for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song.

Elsa (Menzel) and Anna (Bell) are the royal sisters of the kingdom of Arendelle, but when Elsa is crowned queen, her secret is revealed to the world and unleashes an endless winter upon the kingdom. Fleeing to the mountains, it’s up to Anna to find her.

Until this point, Frozen had been in development hell since Walt was alive. And once it was released, it was eaten alive by fans, many of whom saw it more than 20 times and compared it to The Lion King. But it must be asked. Did it deserve all the hype? Was it as good as everyone was screaming?

NO.

Make no mistake, Frozen is good. But it certainly isn’t the best Disney film ever made. In fact, an entire character could have been cut from the final product and nothing would have been different whatsoever. Olaf was completely unnecessary and was only around to spout one liners and act funny. His rescue of Anna and line of “some people are worth melting for” could have been given by somebody else and nothing would have changed.

Disney also decided to deconstruct and mock their conventional tropes, like Love at First Sight, the desire aspect of many of the songs and True Love. And while that’s not a bad thing, it was analyzed to infinity. But Enchanted did most of those first and no one really cared then. The only new deconstruction was True Love, which ended up being reconstructed as the unconditional love between sisters. And including that was good as the bond between siblings is something that’s rare in any sort of media.

But Frozen really isn’t bad. Elsa and Anna both have great character arcs. The former going from hating herself because she’s different to embracing her powers, which ends up giving her control over them. And the latter learns to be more discerning when it comes to first impressions. And with Elsa, it really wasn’t her fault to begin with as her parents completely misunderstood what the trolls meant at the beginning.

It’s a good film, but is nowhere near perfect. Did it deserve to win Best Animated Picture? Maybe. Maybe not. That would require a viewing of the only film nominated that had any chance of being equal. But a review of The Wind Rises shall be left for another day.

#25

Monsters University

Dan Scanlon directed Pixar’s prequel to Monsters, Inc., which was released in 2013. Starring everyone from the first film, plus Helen Mirren and Nathan Fillion, Monsters University grossed $743.6 million at the box office. And had music by Mastodon and Mötley Crüe. While it was nominated for numerous Annie awards, it only won two for storyboarding and editorial. It also wasn’t nominated for any Academy Awards and lost its bids for the Kids’ Choice Awards and Saturn Awards.

Enrolling in Monsters University in the Scarer Program, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) forms a rivalry with James Sullivan (John Goodman). Eventually, their rivalry get kicked out of the program and conspire to get back in by joining the fraternity Oozma Kappa and enter the Scare Games.

Monsters University is certainly interesting. It has many standard tropes that are in most prequels, but it still has the charm its predecessor had. Mike and Sully, as stated above, don’t start out as friends and the rivalry is nothing short of bitter. And Randall, who is Mike’s roommate, starts out as a guy who just wants to get in with the popular crowd. But all this really foreshadows who they become. Randall ends up the weasel who will do anything to make it to the top and the duo become the well-oiled machine that becomes one of the most popular Scare Teams.

And that development is really highlighted in the film showing that being knowledgeable and having the skills to back that up are two completely different things. Mike has mastered every technical detail, but makes kids laugh. And Sulley has the ability, but he just uses that to coast by. But that furthers to show that the two need each other as Mike uses his knowledge to coach Sulley to become one of the best.

This is also seen in the other members of Oozma Kappa. They’re complete losers mainly because none of them have utilized their talents. And Mike helps them all to see that, which brings them to shoot to the top in the Scare Games. And, even after Mike and Sulley get kicked out, they get into the Scare Program and use everything they acquired during the games to excel.

It may not be as good as Monsters Inc., but it’s close.

#17