Snow White
19 October 2006 08:12![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mimi_sardiniaI watched Snow White - oi the animation is old! I also watched one of the extra features - one about the making of the movie, so I know that for however old it looks to me now it was a vast improvement on the style of cartooning that preceeded it.
See, for all that Snow White looks rather over-cute to me, she looks and moves a hell of a lot better than the example of previous cartooning that she was compared to.
Which brings me to observe another thing, it seems when the first of what I refer to as the "new generation" cartoon movies - the movies that started with The Little Mermaid. It strikes me that with TLM, Disney reverted to a bit more "cartoony" style - Ariel is far more caricaturish than most of the classic Disney Princesses.
That's not to say they've stayed caricarturish, some characters have been so realistic that it's almost surprising. At risk of bringing up a movie I have seen at least a couple of negative opinions of, the character of Pocahontas, I saw a picture of her voice actor and dammit, the cartoon is exactly like her!
Not like that is a one-off thing, it seems - at least with all the post-TLM cartoons Disney seems to draw all their characters more or less resembling the voice actor. One thing that the making-of thing for Snow White confirmed, the animation is done after all the sound is done. I figured it had to have been, because some of the actors I have been familiar with (Robin Williams, Eddie Murphey - for example), their characters have had actions and expressions that are exactly the same as ones I've seen of that actor.
But anyway, at least one thing, Cinderella's voice at least doesn't quite sound as odd as either Snow White's, or Alice's (and don't even begin about how strange Alice sounds in KH!).
Actually, now that I think about it, Cinderella sounds damn like Alice - that however doesn't surprised me, I already know the bitchy old matriarch elephant in Dumbo has exactly the same voice as the Queen of Hearts.
But anyway, Snow White's voice is very cutesy - ridiculously so. Alice, in comparision, sounds too adult - she sounds like an adult voice actor trying hard to sound like a child but it really shows in her singing, she really doesn't have a child's voice.
And KH1! Alice's voice in that sounds so fake! Could they have at least tried to get a voice that sounded less like someone putting on an imitation of the original Alice? Alice In Wonderland is such a favourite of mine that I own a copy on tape! KH!Alice is just jarring!
Anyway, what was suposed to be a couple of simple observations has turned into a great long - and slighhtly ranty - discussion of new vs old Disney.
See, for all that Snow White looks rather over-cute to me, she looks and moves a hell of a lot better than the example of previous cartooning that she was compared to.
Which brings me to observe another thing, it seems when the first of what I refer to as the "new generation" cartoon movies - the movies that started with The Little Mermaid. It strikes me that with TLM, Disney reverted to a bit more "cartoony" style - Ariel is far more caricaturish than most of the classic Disney Princesses.
That's not to say they've stayed caricarturish, some characters have been so realistic that it's almost surprising. At risk of bringing up a movie I have seen at least a couple of negative opinions of, the character of Pocahontas, I saw a picture of her voice actor and dammit, the cartoon is exactly like her!
Not like that is a one-off thing, it seems - at least with all the post-TLM cartoons Disney seems to draw all their characters more or less resembling the voice actor. One thing that the making-of thing for Snow White confirmed, the animation is done after all the sound is done. I figured it had to have been, because some of the actors I have been familiar with (Robin Williams, Eddie Murphey - for example), their characters have had actions and expressions that are exactly the same as ones I've seen of that actor.
But anyway, at least one thing, Cinderella's voice at least doesn't quite sound as odd as either Snow White's, or Alice's (and don't even begin about how strange Alice sounds in KH!).
Actually, now that I think about it, Cinderella sounds damn like Alice - that however doesn't surprised me, I already know the bitchy old matriarch elephant in Dumbo has exactly the same voice as the Queen of Hearts.
But anyway, Snow White's voice is very cutesy - ridiculously so. Alice, in comparision, sounds too adult - she sounds like an adult voice actor trying hard to sound like a child but it really shows in her singing, she really doesn't have a child's voice.
And KH1! Alice's voice in that sounds so fake! Could they have at least tried to get a voice that sounded less like someone putting on an imitation of the original Alice? Alice In Wonderland is such a favourite of mine that I own a copy on tape! KH!Alice is just jarring!
Anyway, what was suposed to be a couple of simple observations has turned into a great long - and slighhtly ranty - discussion of new vs old Disney.
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no subject
2006-10-20 01:21 (UTC)While I love you...
Take a look at this. (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0064607/)
Though yes, I do have to agree with you that they animate the characters to look like the voices. Esmerelda looks almost startlingly like Demi Moore, and Phoebus bears more than a passing resemblance to Kevin Kline (I love Phoebus). Hades looks a lot like James Woods, and Hercules is a cartooned and muscle-enhanced Tate Donovan. And even Young Simba looks a little like Jonathan Taylor Thomas XD I love when that happens. You can also see it in computer animation, like Shrek.
And I do agree, most of the "classic" Disney movies seem to have a more... artistic, for lack of a better word, feel. Their proportions are not at ALL correct - if I remember right, Ariel's actually better proportioned than Aurora - but the drawing style is more elegant and "high art." I like both styles, myself; what's good for one isn't necessarily good for another. (Can you picture Hercules in "classical style"? o.o)
no subject
2006-10-20 01:36 (UTC)Ironically, Aurora is my favourite princess of the lot - even over the newer generation of princesses (Kairi notwithstanding - but she's not purely Disney, having probably most - if not all - of her design created by Square).
(And Herc, in "classic" style? Can we say blaaaaaaaaaaaaaand anyone? Actually, the oldschool Disney princes were pretty bland anyway - Phillip had a bit of life in him but the two from Snow White and Cinderella were like cookie-cutter Prince Charmings. For all that he seems a tad dorky now, at least they gave Eric a bit more life in TLM.)
no subject
2006-10-20 01:59 (UTC)I was always partial to Cinderella - of the "old" princesses, she exhibited the most in the way of an individual personality. Sleeping Beauty is an absolutely beautiful movie, but Aurora gets cursed, grows up, sings, falls in love, goes home, goes to sleep, and gets kissed. But now, ironically, I can't watch Cinderella without a dislike for her because of Ever After and Drew Barrymore's character. So now I don't like Disney Cinderella >.> Belle and Jasmine are my favorite princesses overall, though, of any era.
(Bland and wrong. Hercules is even more stylistic than Emperor's New Groove, and that's hard to do. It's so extreme in just about everything - story alteration and anachronisms jumping out at me immediately - that the old-style animation would suck the life out of it. Same reason they went for the "gospel revival" type of music instead of the traditional Disney feel. And Philip has a place in my heart - but remember, the two in the other movies really only did show up towards the end. The first main male character I can remember in a Disney movie is Peter Pan, followed by Mowgli about a decade and a half later. Most Disney movies in the old days had females as the main characters; after TLM, it's been a pretty even split, maybe leaning more towards the male. Don't know what that says, just some observations.)
no subject
2006-10-20 02:11 (UTC)True, as far as personality goes, Cinderella got the best deal of the Big Three, but her pushoverness is probably an effect of the era the movie was made in - plus the fact that as cool as the Ever After version is, I doubt a girl of the sort of era Cinderella is set in would be that proactive. Belle and Jasmine are pretty damn cool, for personality I do like them better than any of the others, even Aurora (who really, I like because of her looks, no her personality).
One of the big things that grated about Hercules was not the drawing style, or the music - it was that they cut the number of muses. There's suposed to be nine of them! Not five!