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As has become the norm for kids' movies these days, this one is pretty paint-by-numbers in its message, that message being tolerance, inclusion, trusting our sworn enemies to eventually see the light and do the right thing, getting along with everyone, and saving the world/planet by basically committing suicide (although everyone comes back to life, in this universe -- if "Bambi" was made today, his mom would have only been wounded by the hunters). None of this has much to do with the real world of course, but why not send the kids out of the theater with a lot of emotional baggage and a hopelessly-optimistic worldview? You know, as opposed to just giving them a fun ride that they don't need to think too much about. I guess "Tom and Jerry" can take care of that.
The all-inclusiveness of today's movies has resulted in them losing all of their identity. This movie takes place in a far-off, mythical "land" that has no particular location, but wherever it is, there is at least one of every race included in the population. Of course there's nothing wrong with that if you're watching a movie that's set in a modern-day city, but it does seem a little distracting when you're watching an "In the land of" movie.
With all of that pushed to the side, this is a darned entertaining movie. Lots of humor abounds, especially from the titular dragon -- which looks almost nothing like you would expect any movie dragon to look -- and a couple of the side characters. Sadly, Disney has decided to go full-on with the fart jokes in this movie, which they've usually kind of been above, but you gotta give the kids what they want, I guess. None of the characters really seem to stand out; this is more like an ensemble piece than a story about one person. But the action is tremendous and imaginative, and the animation is top notch as expected, and there's never a dull moment. The story is predictable -- you are never in doubt about the ending, but are you ever these days?
I was not overly impressed with the sound mix, surprisingly -- there wasn't a lot of use of the surrounds, or it least it didn't seem like there was.
Even though Raya is being positioned as the latest in Disney's ever-growing lineup of "princesses," she's about as far from being a princess as you can get. Amazingly, there is no hint of a happily-ever-after romance between any of the characters in this movie. There aren't even any particularly prince- or princess-looking characters -- all the males, in particular, look positively goofy. Besides, everybody is too busy saving the world to think about romance I guess. That's too complicated nowadays anyway... these days everyone is holding their breath waiting for a same-sex princess couple. At least, rumors keep swirling about that, but sorry folks, it's not happening in this movie! Maybe Disney hasn't decided to grab that particular headline just yet.
Bottom line, this is a fun movie to watch but it goes down like tap water -- it's tasty at the time, but not exactly memorable. 2.5 out of five stars for me.
The opening short called "Us Again" is nicely animated and has a lot of great dance moves in it... it's basically a "live your life, don't just sit there and let it pass you by" music-video fable. The most impressive part of it for me was the animation of the water (rain, puddles, ocean, etc.) I remember hearing quite a few times that water was the hardest thing to animate, but now they've even got their second-stringers nailing it. It would be fun to see in 3-D.
The all-inclusiveness of today's movies has resulted in them losing all of their identity. This movie takes place in a far-off, mythical "land" that has no particular location, but wherever it is, there is at least one of every race included in the population. Of course there's nothing wrong with that if you're watching a movie that's set in a modern-day city, but it does seem a little distracting when you're watching an "In the land of" movie.
With all of that pushed to the side, this is a darned entertaining movie. Lots of humor abounds, especially from the titular dragon -- which looks almost nothing like you would expect any movie dragon to look -- and a couple of the side characters. Sadly, Disney has decided to go full-on with the fart jokes in this movie, which they've usually kind of been above, but you gotta give the kids what they want, I guess. None of the characters really seem to stand out; this is more like an ensemble piece than a story about one person. But the action is tremendous and imaginative, and the animation is top notch as expected, and there's never a dull moment. The story is predictable -- you are never in doubt about the ending, but are you ever these days?
I was not overly impressed with the sound mix, surprisingly -- there wasn't a lot of use of the surrounds, or it least it didn't seem like there was.
Even though Raya is being positioned as the latest in Disney's ever-growing lineup of "princesses," she's about as far from being a princess as you can get. Amazingly, there is no hint of a happily-ever-after romance between any of the characters in this movie. There aren't even any particularly prince- or princess-looking characters -- all the males, in particular, look positively goofy. Besides, everybody is too busy saving the world to think about romance I guess. That's too complicated nowadays anyway... these days everyone is holding their breath waiting for a same-sex princess couple. At least, rumors keep swirling about that, but sorry folks, it's not happening in this movie! Maybe Disney hasn't decided to grab that particular headline just yet.
Bottom line, this is a fun movie to watch but it goes down like tap water -- it's tasty at the time, but not exactly memorable. 2.5 out of five stars for me.
The opening short called "Us Again" is nicely animated and has a lot of great dance moves in it... it's basically a "live your life, don't just sit there and let it pass you by" music-video fable. The most impressive part of it for me was the animation of the water (rain, puddles, ocean, etc.) I remember hearing quite a few times that water was the hardest thing to animate, but now they've even got their second-stringers nailing it. It would be fun to see in 3-D.
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