Month: January 2014

AMA for my FAQ! ASAP!

So, I’m thinking of doing a FAQ page for the blog and I need suggestions. I’ve already got the obvious ones (What’s this blog about? When do you update? What’s with the wiseass map of Europe?) but if there’s any questions you’d like answered leave ’em in the comments.

Mouse out.

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a good one. 2013 was a pretty big year for Unshaved Mouse. I entered the final stretch of finishing my mission to review all the Disney canon classics, picked up a load of new readers and started a feud with the largest newspaper in my home country. Which I lost. But hey, I can’t say it wasn’t fun. 2014 is shaping up to be pretty fantastic though, and that is all thanks to you guys. There are now 25 days left on my Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for my play Joanna, and the response has already been phenomenal, much better than I expected. As a result, the schedule for next year is now filling up with all kinds of movies for me to review, some of them are classics, some of them are stinkers, but all of them are films that I’m really excited about getting my teeth into. So if there’s an animated movie you want me to review, click on this link, donate €1o and leave me a message here to say which movie you want me to review. Thanks guys. And now if you’ll excuse me…

"One shall stand, one shall fall..."

“One shall stand, one shall fall…”

"Why throw your life away needlessly, Prime?"

“Why throw your life away so recklessly, Prime?”

"That is a question you should ask...um, are you seeing this little mouse too?"

“That is a question you should ask…um, are you seeing this little mouse too?”

...

...

...

"Can we help you?"

“Can we help you?”

"Oh hi. Unshaved Mouse. I've been asked to review your movie so I'm going to need you to come with me."

“Oh hi. Unshaved Mouse. I’ve been asked to review your movie so I’m going to need you to come with me.”

"We're actually a little busy here."

“We’re actually a little busy here.”

"Sorry. Let me rephrase that."

“Sorry. Let me rephrase that.”

"AAAAARRGGH!"

“AAAAARRGGH!”

"JESUS!"

“JESUS!”

"GET IN THE FUCKIN' VAN WHITEY!"

“GET IN THE FUCKIN’ VAN WHITEY!”

"Okay! Okay man! Just be cool!"

“Okay! Okay man! Just be cool!”

"GET IN THERE WITH THE OTHERS!"

“GET IN THERE WITH THE OTHERS!”

"Others? Who...?"

“Others? Who…?”

"Help me..."

Help me…”

Disney Reviews with the Unshaved Mouse #43: Treasure Planet

(DISCLAIMER: This blog is not for profit. All images and footage used below are property of their respective companies unless stated otherwise. I do not claim ownership of this material. New to the blog? Start at the start with Snow White.)

***

Occasionally, before beginning a review, I will don a simple disguise and mingle with the common folk of the Disney fandom. “Tell me good sirrah,” I might enquire of some good-hearted peasant in a small, provincial internet forum “What do the people think of Lilo and Stitch?”.
“Why sir, it is rightly lauded as a most wondrous film and much beloved.”
“And the Unshaved Mouse? I have heard that he is a reviewer of passable skill?”
“Passable skill? By thunder sir, he is a very God amongst the reviewing class, and most sorely do I wish he were here, that I might shake his hand.”
“Mayhap he is closer than you think, good pleb” I would say with a benevolent smile. I would then toss him a Bitcoin to see the light of thanks in his eyes, and be on my way.
My point is, I try to take the pulse of where we as a fandom are on a particular film and what I found with Treasure Planet made me a little worried. A cursory glance at the internet shows that this thing has a healthier fanbase than many other movies in the canon. Lots of fanart and fanfiction, plenty of people willing to fly the “Lost Classic” banner, some of the most soul scarring motherfucking Jim/Silver porn you have ever seen in your life that I can now never unsee for as long as I live…
But on the flip side…
Facebook
Yeah, so there is a lot of hate for this thing out there. Robert Louis Stevenson purists, animation nerds who blame it for the death of traditional Disney animation, people who just flat out hate it as a movie, Somalis who were suckered into a life of piracy by the unrealistic portrayal in the movie…
These men were promised robots.

These young men were promised robots.

This movie has made more enemies than Boba Fett. And this puts me in a tough position because when it comes to Treasure Planet I fall into the controversial camp of: ”Meh. ‘Sfine.”
Treasure Planet was actually originally pitched by Ron Clements and Jon Musker all the way back in 1985 but it was passed over in favour of Little Mermaid which…yeah, probably the right call. I was surprised to learn that this was a Clements and Musker film because it feels a lot more like something by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, particularly AtlantisClements and Musker were actually happy for the delay because by the time they got a chance to make it the technology had caught up with their vision for the film. And I’ve got to say this up front; this film is gorgeous. In fact, almost all the Lost Era movies are. The quality of the movies may have gone down after the renaissance, sure, but if anything the animation just kept getting better and better. Let’s take a look.