The Proud Family Movie

In 2005, the Disney Channel decided to air an original movie to serve as the series finale for the series The Proud Family. Starring Kyla Pratt, Tommy Davidson, Paula Jai Parker, Jo Marie Payton, Tara Strong, Orlando Brown, Soleil Moon Frye, Alisa Reyes Omarion, LisaRaye McCoy, and Arsenio Hall, The Proud Family Movie was given a DVD release four months later with an extended ending.

Penny (Pratt) and her family (Davidson, Parker, Payton) are lured on an all-expenses paid vacation where a mad scientist (Arsenio Hall) captures them and refuses to let them go because Oscar (Davidson) won’t reveal the location of his secret Proud Snacks formula. So the scientist clones them from his peanut minions in order to find it.

This film is insufferable to get through to the point that there’s no positive aspects to it. Every character is extremely annoying, there’s an inane and completely pointless subplot and is about 45 minutes too long.

There aren’t any characters in this film that make it worth sitting through. Penny and her friends are essentially caricatures of mid-2000s teenage girls in the way that a bitter old lady would see them. Oscar is the overprotective dad, as seen in many other shows, but those other shows will eventually shut that father up and let him listen. Here, he’s just so overblown that it just trails off into babbling moron with no good qualities. Trudy, the mom, might seem like she’s an ok character, but she’s essentially useless and Suga Mama is… a creepy, perpetually angry and horny old lady (You know… for kids).

There’s also a subplot consisting of Penny trying to be a backup dancer for this 50 Cent knockoff called 15 Cent. Problem is that it’s just pointless and doesn’t really go anywhere. It might have connections to the main plot, including a tie in at the end, but it could have been eliminated and have the first part mentioned at the beginning and then show up at the end. That would not only have made the movie shorter, but better.

Slipping into first person for a second, I’d like to say that this film is so bad, that it made me want to avoid the show that it was a finale for. Even if I somehow watch every film and television show ever made (which will never happen), I would still actively avoid it.

#107

The Rescuers

In 1977, Eva Gabor would star in another Disney movie alongside Bob Newhart. Based on the Margery Sharp books, The Rescuers and Miss Bianca, the film known as The Rescuers would be the highest grossing animated film of all time until Don Bluth released An American Tail in the 1980s. It was the last time Milt Kahl and Frank and Ollie would work on a film together. This film was also the first Disney movie to warrant a sequel, with The Rescuers Down Under. Not The Jungle Book as I had previously stated.

The flamboyant Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page) is trying to get her hands on the world’s largest diamond, which is hidden in a dank and gloomy swamp. However, she needs someone who will fit in a tiny hole so she kidnaps an orphan girl named Penny (Michelle Stacy).

Penny sends out a message in a bottle asking for help. The message is found by the all-mouse Rescue Aid Society, who send out Agent Bianca (Gabor) and the janitor, Bernard (Newhart).

Along the way, they are assisted by an albatross named Orville (Jim Jordan), a dragonfly named Evinrude (James MacDonald) and the denizens of the swamp (Jeanette Nolan, Pat Buttram, George Lindsey, Larry Clemmons, Dub Taylor, and John Fiedler).

Once again, the villain is the most memorable part of the film. Medusa is very reminiscent of Cruella De Vil, trying to put on a façade of glamour and refinement, thinking she has a sense of subtlety, but loves to go overkill and has a tendency to go berserk when she isn’t getting her way. She’s also got a shotgun in this film. A shotgun with which she uses to try and kill Bernard and Bianca. The pet alligators are a nice touch to. Medusa’s henchman, Snoops, is also fairly interesting. Like with Merlin, there’s a sense that he’s obfuscating incompetence and can actually be fairly useful when he wants to. This is seen at the end where he manages to escape and laughs at Medusa’s misfortune. You can tell he also really doesn’t like Medusa and is just partnering with her for a cut in the profits, as he really doesn’t want to let Penny drown in pursuit of the gem.

And then there’s Penny. She suffers from The Aristicats’ problem in that she’s there to be cute and innocent for the sake of it. However, the helpless, endearing and naïve traits that Disney was going for just become incredibly annoying. On the other hand, Stacy does good voice work and makes it sound like Penny’s always three seconds from having a nervous breakdown. Considering her situation, she probably is, but she needs more characterization than “I’m here, save me.”

As for the mice, Bernard and Bianca are good foils for each other. She’s strong willed and doesn't care about what troubles they may befall, he’s superstitious and constantly wondering about what could go wrong. The alligators turning on Medusa at the end is also ironic, considering their names are Brutus and Nero.

As for everything else, the music is decent and the animation is pretty good. The story is your average kidnapping and salvation plot, but even if Penny suffers from a lack of characterization, everyone else carries it along quite well.

Final Call: A good film with mostly great characters. #11.