Movie Review: Ever After Vs. Disney's Cinderella

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I love Ever After!  It is my all time favourite version of Cinderella, so when I saw that Disney had put out a new live version of the film, I was pretty excited.  I didn’t think it would compare, but I have to admit that this new version looked pretty darn good.  So, I watched it.

One of the things that I love about Ever After is the costumes.  The time period is based in the Renaissance, so the costumes are Medieval based.  I really love the ball costume for Cinderella.  The ball gown from Cinderella, since it is by Disney, is very similar to the ball gown from the cartoon version, but they did such a great job on it!  The other costumes from the movies are also similar to Regency or Victorian.

The stories are fairly similar since they are both using the same source material.  I felt Cinderella handled the death of the mother particularly well, even going to far as to show a before and after shot of the family.  However, I finally figured out why I prefer Ever After.  The endings are so different that I just had to go with Ever After as it has the stronger ending.  Also, there is is this strange feeling that Cinderella is trying very hard to be like Ever After, but just doesn’t quite make it.  Although I prefer Ever After, Cinderella is still very good and I highly suggest that you watch it!

Into The Woods: A Movie Review

Sorry for the lack of posts.  I was just so busy getting ready for my trip to the West Coast that I just completely forgot about it.  Then, I was actually travelling and was completely exhausted from jet lag.  Once I recovered from the jet lag, I realized that I had writer's block and was struggling to come up with an idea.  So, here is my review of Into the Woods, a children's movie.

I recently watched Into The Woods.  I really enjoyed it!  I don’t normally review movies, but seeing as how this movie was based on the Grimm fairy tales, I thought it would be fun!  Into the Woods is a fairy tale musical and I am a sucker for musicals.

If you don’t know anything about the movie, Into the Woods starts with the town baker and his wife wishing for a baby.  A witch appears and tells them that they must fetch her some items before she will lift the curse from his house, for when the baker’s mother was pregnant, his father stole over the wall to steal a particular herb and the witch placed a curse on the family.

So each fairy tale character heads into the woods to accomplish their goals and this is the first song which is absolutely amazing!  So the intertwining stories are that of the baker and his wife, red riding hood, rapunzel, jack (and the beanstalk) and cinderella.  The plot is great since once you assume that everyone has their happily ever afters, the movie is over, but there’s still more to come.

The music was really well written and performed.  There were a number of reprisals, but my favourite song was still the opening number and Johnny Depp’s song as the wolf (yes, it is a little pedophilic, but that’s the point).  The song “Agony” was also hilarious due to the fact that two princes know how ridiculous they are and just go for it.  As for the storylines, I was really surprised by the fact that the stories followed the original tales very closely.  If you aren’t sure what I am talking about, I would suggest that you read some of the Grimm or Perrault tales.

If you like fairy tales and musicals, then you will likely enjoy this movie.  I hope you like it as much as I did.  Interestingly enough, one of my favourite reviewers, The Blockbuster Buster, also did a review, but for once, we really disagree on this particular movie, particularly the “Agony” song.

Movie Review 1: The Adventures of Tintin and The Muppets

Hi everyone!  Sorry it's been awhile since my last post but suddenly life just got a little too busy.  So here's my first set of movie reviews.
The Adventures of Tintin
I thought this movie was pretty good.  If you have read the graphic novels, then you will see the differences between the two formats for sure.  However, I thought that the changes were rather good.  The Uncanny Valley effect was minimal and seemed limited to some of the more realistic looking people.  The more cartoony the character was, the less the effect.  I highly suggest watching this whether or not you've read the graphic novels.

The Muppets
This movie was absolutely hilarious!  This movie was not above poking fun at itself and I rather enjoyed the conventions that were used and satirized (especially the bit where they say "We'll travel by map!).  This movie is definitely a true family film.