Rumour has it that the Magic Kingdom is ready to ditch the old-fashioned, cartoon-style movie in favour of its slicker, hipper digital little brother.
Where Snow White, Dumbo and Bambi still have the power to enchant the anklebiters, the likes of Finding Nemo and Toy Story have sophisticated little minds.
Only The Lion King really captured the imagination in recent years while the travesty that was Jungle Book II is a bad dream it's difficult to erase.
This has all the old Disney virtues - solid storytelling, an engaging cast of characters and ravishingly beautiful scenery that's up with the best on offer.
However, it suffers a surfeit of cod spirtualism and bombastically bland musical interludes, courtesy of Phil Collins, that disrupt a compelling narrative flow.
Indian hunter Kenai (Phoenix) is transformed into a bear after he kills the grizzly that did for his adored brother Sitka (DB Sweeney), who died saving Kenai's life.
Cast out into the wilderness, Kenai - Winnie the Pooh with attitude - hooks up with bear cub Koda (Suarez) on his journey to the "mountain where the light touches the Earth".
It is there where Kenai will find his fate...but to get there he has to make a perilous journey through the forest and across a lava plain.
As long as it takes the opening credits to run, Kenai and his brothers manage to dodge a collapsing glacier, avoid a trampling by mammoths and escape a frisky school of whales.
In the old days, that would have normally been enough to last the length of a whole feature - but today's MTV generation of viewers have the attention span of Finding Nemo's Dory.
Add to that the irony and schoolboy humour brought in to keep pace with young audiences and you're lucky things turn out as appealingly as they do.
The main characters - Kenai and Koba - follow the well-worn path of initial adversaries but there is real warmth in the growning friendship.
It will be shame to see the old animation despatched to the dustbin of history but this will do very nicely until Nemo goes astray again.
Tim Evans
|
