THE LAND BEFORE TIME (Dir: Don Bluth, 1988).

THE LAND BEFORE TIME (Dir: Don Bluth, 1988).

In 1979 director Don Bluth famously led an animators walk out at the Disney Studios to form his own company Don Bluth Productions. Their first feature length venture The Secret of NIMH (Bluth, 1982) while critically well received was a commercial disappointment and it wasn’t until after Bluth released the groundbreaking coin operated video game Dragon’s Lair that Hollywood once again came calling.

The Land Before Time was to be Bluth’s third feature and his second, following An American Tale (1986), for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, co-produced by Lucasfilm. This surprisingly downbeat dinosaur adventure is something of a prehistoric Bambi meets The Incredible Journey as longneck Littlefoot, after the death of his mother and separation from his grandparents, teams up with a band of similarly lost young dinos to find their families in the fabled Great Valley.

Just as An American Tail was pitted against Disney’s Great Mouse Detective on original release, The Land Before Time found itself competing against Disney’s Oliver and Company in late ‘88. Unlike the previous meeting, Disney’s movie was box office champ on this occasion. However, I would argue that, on this occasion, Bluth’s movie is superior. Unlike the numerous made for video sequels, the original Land Before Time features some beautiful animation, and while its plot is quite basic and occasionally saccharine, it is sophisticated enough to engage adults as well as children.

At little over an hour The Land Before Time is short and sweet. Stick around for the end titles for Diana Ross’ lovely ballad ‘If We Hold On Together’.

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WRECK IT RALPH (Dir: Rich Moore, 2012).

Walt Disney Animation Studios first decade of the 21st Century was one of change and uncertainty. The practice of releasing cheaply made straight-to-video sequels to their most successful features was undoubtedly damaging to the Disney brand. The costly failure of ambitious efforts Atlantis: The Lost Empire (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise, 2001) and Treasure Planet (Ron Clements & Jon Musker, 2002) and a shift in public taste toward computer generated features saw Disney lose its position of industry leader to newer animation studios Pixar and DreamWorks.

Yet with the release of box office hits Bolt (Chris Williams & Byron Howard, 2008) and Tangled (Nathan Greno & Byron Howard) it appeared that Disney had finally regained their footing in the field of feature animation. Disney’s new-found winning streak continued in 2012 with Wreck It Ralph.

Ideally suited to CGI animation, Wreck it Ralph takes place entirely with the video games of Litwak’s Family Fun Center & Arcade. Titular Ralph is the bad guy from 1980s era 8-bit game Fix-It-Felix Jr. In a plot that somewhat recalls The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1993), Ralph (John C Reilly), tired of his bad guy status travels from his own game to hyper-realistic shoot-‘em-up Hero’s Duty to candy cart racing game Sugar Rush in his attempt to earn a medal and prove himself the good guy. En route he befriends glitchy outcast racer Vanellope Von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) whom he aides in her quest to become a champion racer.

The video game worlds are beautifully realised in director Rich Moore ‘s visually stunning movie. Every aspect of Wreck It Ralph is top notch from Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee’s screenplay to Henry Jackman’s score to the superlative voice work of Riley and Silverman. Whether you are gamer or not there is much to enjoy in this genuinely inventive, surprisingly moving modern classic that I believe is one the best movies released by Disney in the post-Walt era, better even than the mighty Frozen (Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee, 2013). A sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet, was released in 2018, my thoughts on which you can read soon...

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BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS (Dir: Robert Stevenson, 1971).

It was inevitable that, sooner or later, I would post a review of Walt Disney Productions’ Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I have watched this movie more times than any other, losing count when I hit three figures. I wouldn’t say it is the best film I have ever seen but I would say it has given me more pleasure over the years than any other.

Often compared unfavourably and, I feel, unfairly with Disney’s 1964 blockbuster Mary Poppins, it reunited most of the creative team and star David Tomlinson from the earlier film. It also shares with it a lengthy ‘Jolly Holiday’-esq animated sequence and a basic premise about a magical governess. Yet the plot, taken from yet having little in common with Mary Norton’s book, about an amateur witch’s attempts to repel a Nazi invasion in wartime Britain with the help of three cockney waifs is markedly different from Poppins and Tomlinson’s performance as a loveable charlatan magician is completely different from the repressed banker and estranged father he portrayed in Poppins.

To be honest, it isn’t as good a film as Mary Poppins. It has a messy, episodic narrative which zealous editing - there are at least five different official versions of the film - was not entirely successful at tidying up. The international and US re-release version, at roughly 100 minutes, has the most satisfying narrative but cuts virtually all of Richard and Robert Sherman’s excellent songs; those that do remain are butchered, the lavish Portobello Road suffering most noticeably. An attempt in 1996 to restore the film to its original, and sadly lost, premier length brings the runtime to 139 minutes but suffers from poor dubbing on scenes where the audio could not be found. In spite of narrative issues the standard, roughly two hour release print is the default and best version of Bedknobs...

Director Robert Stevenson is almost successful at recreating the ole Poppins magic; Ward Kimball’s inventive animated excursion to the Island of Naboombu is the undoubted highlight of Disney Animation’s 1970s output; the effects work, including some incredible puppetry of bodiless suits of armour in the epic climax, hold up well against modern CGI techniques and the performance from stars Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson and company are exemplary. The Sherman Brother’s songs, including The Age of Not Believing, Beautiful Briny and the spectacular Portobello Road are among their best, perhaps a shade down from their work on Poppins, but there is no shame in coming second place to arguably the greatest musical score ever written for the cinema!

I reiterate, Bedknobs and Broomsticks is not as great a piece of filmmaking as Mary Poppins, but as a child I enjoyed it more. I certainly watched it more often. While perhaps it doesn’t quite add up to the sum of its parts, I think it is highly entertaining, is rightly regarded a classic and should probably be regarded a masterpiece, albeit a flawed masterpiece.

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Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Dir: Robert Stevenson, 1971).  It was inevitable that, sooner or later, I would post a review of Walt Dis

RUBY GENTRY (Dir: King Vidor, 1952).

A ripe slice of Southern Gothic with Jennifer Jones as gun toting, skinny jeans wearing, swamp wildcat Ruby; using her womanly wiles to ensnare local stud Charlton Heston and marrying wealthy, lonely chump Karl Malden.

Jones is literally wild in the part of Ruby and is undoubtedly the movie’s greatest asset. Heston is less effective in a role perhaps slightly underwritten and which does not particularly play to his strengths as an actor. Malden, by contrast, is fantastic in this sort of thing (see ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘Baby Doll’) and demonstrates why he was one of Hollywood’s most in-demand character actors.

Admittedly, there is, probably, an unpleasant, deeply misogynistic subtext about powerful women in this movie as Ruby, with her new found wealth, wreaks revenge on the townsfolk who hold her in distain and upon the man she thought was in love with her. A better writer than I would go into this in greater depth (and if anyone wishes to, please do so in the comments below - polite, serious discussion is welcome and encouraged!)

In spite of this, I must confess, I love a 50s melodrama, where what was once torrid and sexy has become overblown and camp. Ruby Gentry is hopelessly dated, but that is not to suggest that it isn’t also wholly entertaining if you are in the right mood!

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Movie number 19: The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956). Henry Fonda stars as ‘Manny’ Balestrero, a Stork Club musician wrongly arrested for robbery. Unusually for Hitchcock, The Wrong Man is a true story and befitting the subject he shoots in a stark documentary style on the real life locations on which the story takes place. The director cameo, gallows humour and exotic locales which characterise much his 1950’s oeuvre is absent in what is Hitchcock’s most serious work. Fonda is excellent in the role of Manny, conveying fear and bemusement with complete conviction. Vera Miles is equally convincing as his wife whose descent into mental illness is, thankfully, handled with sensitivity and taste. Support comes in the form of underrated British Star Anthony Quayle. Lacking the glossy flamboyance of much of the director’s mid/late 50s movies, The Wrong Man is none the worse for it. This was a first time view for me and I would certainly regard it as among Hitchcock’s finest work. #thewrongman #alfredhitchcock #henryfonda #veramiles #anthonyquayle #filmnoir #hollywood #classichollywood #vintagehollywood #goldenagehollywood #jinglebonesmoviereviews #jinglebonesmovietime #jinglebonesnewyearsresolution #everymovieiwatch2019

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