Since 2002
A very unusual spinoff. Is this canon? It functions well enough stand-alone; but things start to get very weird in my head when I put it beside Anastasia. Anastasia did have some magic in it; but it still feels significantly more grounded in reality than BtM.
Maybe this entire film takes place in Bartok’s imagination. He could have dreamed the whole thing up during the 10 year time gap in the first movie.
This doesn’t feel effed up enough to be a Don Bluth movie; but then again, I’m used to the 80s stuff that made kids crap themselves.
Another Christopher Lloyd villain role is always nice.
It feels like this movie was trying to be like all the weird-ass fantasy-adventures from the 80s. The tone is about right; but it either needed more budget to pull off better computer effects, or it should have relied more on practical effects.
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
It may be time to establish a special rating scale for Ghibli films based on just how Ghibli they are.
It’s not a very fleshed out rating system yet; but on a scale from 1 to Totoro, I would rate this Totoro – (Totoro / 10) * 2.
That may not be entirely accurate; I am not certain at this point that the Totoro system is a base-10 system.
That was a surprise. From the cover I was just expecting a Little Red Riding Hood movie; but it was much more than that.
I think this is the least screen time I’ve seen from Johnny Depp in a single movie so far.
I don’t know how or why they decided the BatB remake needed to be more literal and this one didn’t.
I’m not sure if it’s just because of the live-action, or because of the years that have passed; but the domestic abuse really hits a lot harder in this than in the original.
They really owe a lot to the Muppets for the “we’ve got to put on this show to save the theater!” plot.
I have to wonder what it’s like to experience this one fresh. It felt weird whenever one of the new songs started playing. I wonder if anyone who saw this before they saw the original would be able to tell which songs were new and which were old?
I think they should have tried a bit harder; there were several places where the auto-tune was far too noticeable.
Maybe the subtlety got lost in translation during the dub to English; but it really doesn’t seem like the beast gives Belle very much of a reason to love him at all. The entire movie is her going, “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! OK I love you now.” the end. If he actually was gradually winning her over, I missed it.
Except for not being like Grim Fandango at all; it was exactly like Grim Fandango.