Did the purple dragon slay Enchanted?

A villain is as important as the hero in a film.

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Can one scene ruin an otherwise brilliant movie? I didn’t used to think so – it would have to be one hell of a god awful scene of Ed Woodian proportions.

But I fear that the otherwise wonderful Enchanted has one of those scenes.

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The majority of Enchanted is fantastic. I remember being dragged to the cinema to watch it with Mrs Bear expecting nothing short of a ‘chick-flick’. To be honest, I only agreed to go along so not to ruin my chances of coitus (word to Sheldon Cooper).

Although I love Disney movies, before Enchanted I wasn’t interested in the ‘Princess’ films. It was over the course of watching Enchanted that I totally changed my stance. Enchanted is laugh-out-loud funny, heart-warming and surprisingly intelligent. Importantly, the film doesn’t take itself too seriously and it it’s “cartoons turn to life” concept isn’t ran to the ground.

The music in Enchanted are some of the best Disney has to offer; they are annoyingly catchy (just try to forget the ‘Happy Working Song’ once you’ve heard it) and they put stupid smiles on your face (the old people dancing to ‘How does she know’ gets me every time).

This is also the film where I utterly fell in love with Amy Adams – she is absolutely wonderful in this film. I simply can’t see any other actor doing what Adams did with Giselle. It may look easy playing an absent minded typical Disney princess, but the growth she had to show throughout the movie is bloody impressive.

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Enchanted is great because it immerses you into its world. You believe that Amy Adams is the same cartoon princess that appeared at the start of the film, you believe that she has fallen in love with Robert instead of Prince Edward. All of the special effects work very well and the set pieces (the songs) lift this film from being just good to great.

But then Queen Narissa turns up and ruins it all. The problem with the Susan Sarandon’s villain in this film is that she doesn’t pass the Jafar test. She brings no fear factor, no sense of revolution or dread at all to Enchanted. She’s a very 2D character that feels out of place in this film and this is made obvious in the ball room scene.

The ball room scene is the only time when the special-effects look terrible. Not forgivable terrible, but WTF terrible. For some reason, Enchanted loses its (sorry) magic and it’s frustrating to watch. Did the film-makers just get lazy? What happened?

I mean, look at the purple dragon? Listen to the dialogue during that scene?

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Enchanted could have been another Disney classic. It was so close, but for some reason it fell over at the last hurdle. They just didn’t put enough thought into the villain and the ‘boss fight’ at the end of the film. It’s a real shame.

                                                        

                                                @Chocoteddyfilms

Perfect Aladdin

Aladdin would be my favourite film if it wasn’t for the little known Godfather movies. What I love most about The Godfather, The Godfather part 2 and Aladdin is that every time I watch them, it feels like the first time.
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Aladdin is one of the first English speaking films I saw and the very first one to leave me open jawed - I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was the first film I started to rewind, re-watching scenes in amazement (I still do this... yes, I maybe sad).

Also, Aladdin was one of the very first movies that I actually felt happy watching. It is a pleasure to watch this film: the laughs are still there after so many years and they haven’t quietened one bit; the ‘wows’ still surface and they haven’t been dimmed (the Genie reveal scene gets me every time); and there are genuine fearful moments throughout the film that haven’t stopped being scary ("A snake I'm I?").

I use the word love a lot, but I absolutely love this film with all my heart. I’ve owned it god knows how many times and to this day I am waiting for Disney to bring it out on Blu Ray so I can buy it again.

I am convinced that this film is magic. The film-makers did something during the production of this movie that will never be replicated. The problem is, I can never pin-point what that magical element is.

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The theme of being truthful to yourself is probably the biggest reason why Aladdin still hits home with me. For far too long in my childhood and teenage years I was so busy trying to be what I thought my friends wanted me to be or what I thought would get me rich and famous. I didn’t realise that those versions of Choco almost often got into trouble, didn’t achieve much and, importantly, didn’t feel right. It took me a long time to take the message of this film to heart, but I got there in the end and I'm a much better person for it.

(Note to bullies: Hi Tec trainers are not a reason to beat up on a kid that barely speaks English.)


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Putting the emotional gravitas of the film aside, Aladdin is a bloody imaginative and fun film to watch. Magic carpets, all-singing and dancing blue genies and pet tigers? To a little African boy trying to make sense of his new and strange world, that is a lot of things to take in. This film was the first ever to transport me to a world utterly different to my own, and believe me I was looking for escapism.

The thing is, now that I am a grown up and I have an English accent and love football, fish and chips and all that – I still find this film and all it has to offer extremely fun to watch. This film still wows me and still transports me to Agraba. This film has lost nothing of what made it special to me when I was younger – nothing.

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And then there is Jafar. My favourite villain of all time. I judge every bad guy by the standards of this great and evil character. Not many make the threshold.

It seems like the older I get, the more terrifying I find Jafar, simply because I see him less as a characture and find real life examples of him – especially in the work place. Here is a man that is utterly focused on obtaining power, by any means necessary. He would fit right in working at a multinational company or a bank in today’s world.


For the younger me it was his numerous transformations within the film that scared me – be it the old man propositioning Aladdin in the prison, the obedient servant to the Sultan or the snake scene at the end. I found him terrifying. That damn snake scene gave me so many reoccurring nightmares throughout my life, it’s unbelievable.


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This is one of those films that I can’t wait to watch with my daughter. I’m worried that I may ruin it for her, or I may be disappointed with her only being interested in the love story. But I am eager to share with her something that got me through my childhood. Something that made me happy and fall deeper in love with cinema.


To me, Aladdin, along with the first two Godfather films are perfect.

   @chocoteddyfilms


Oh... and Jasmin was my first cartoon crush.

Chocolate's Top Five Disney Songs

“It is time” – Rafiki

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I can't think of a better way to end the second season of this blog than by paying tribute to the company that has influenced my love of film most. Disney.

Disney practically ruled over my childhood with a gloved fist. They made (and still are making) films which will stay with me until the day I die. 

I have wonderful memories watching Disney films with my whole family (immediate and extended), friends, girlfriends and in school – Disney and their films have been everywhere in my life.

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One thing that makes Disney standout against any other film studio is its unconditional love of music and musicals. The songs that accompany their films are songs I take to heart. They became more than just songs to me - they became (cliché alert) anthems.

To kick off Disney week I’m going to be ranking my top 5 Disney songs – something that sounds easy but proved to be hard as hell. There are a lot of classic songs that didn’t make the list: Can You Feel the Love Tonight, When you Wish Upon a Star, Kiss the Girl, Circle of Life, You got a friend in me, The Bear Necessities.

When you leave steller songs such as the above out, you begin to understand what you are dealing with. Disney's catalogue is amazing

So, anyway, here they are. My top 5 Disney songs.

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5 – Almost There (Princess and the Frog)

I’ve already written about how much I love The Princess and the Frog. It’s an absolutely wonderful film with a soundtrack to rival any of the Disney classics. Every single one of them. The crown jewel of all of the songs is Anika Noni Rose’s Almost There.

Maybe this song has resonated with me more ever since I became a father to my own (milk) chocolate princess, but the messages of working hard and, most importantly, listening to your daddy are messages I can get behind.

Despite the semi-serious and inspirational content of the song, Almost There is a fun song to sing very loudly. That is probably the biggest complement I can give to a young Disney song.

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4 – A Whole New World (Aladdin)

This is one of the very first English speaking songs I remember and probably one of the first songs I learned the words to (don’t judge me) – so it has a very special place in my heart. It is a great stand along song, but where it truly shines is when you put it into the context of the film. 

This song, more than anything else in Aladdin, sells the world of the film. It's also a film that drives home how much Aladdin and Jasmine need each other to escape the realities of their current lives.

Also, A Whole New World has been the soundtrack to many interesting moments in my life (wink).

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3 – Hakuna Matata (The Lion King)

I don’t judge many people based on their tastes, but if you don't love this next song I personally think you're dead inside. Absolutely soulless.

This is my ‘f**k you world’ song. When I’m down in the dumps, I don’t listen to heavy metal or gangster rap, I listen to Timone and Pumba.

And another thing, I'm I the only one that's obsessively in love with the little jazz riffing from the singers at the end of this song? 

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2 – One Jump/ One Jump Reprise (Aladdin)

It’s hard to summarise how much this song means to me. More to the point, it’s hard to summarise what this song meant to a 7 year old Choco, who had a very African accent, wore the wrong trainers (Hi-Tec) and felt useless, as well as out of place in England. I used the term anthem deliberately earlier and that is exactly the right way to describe this song – it was and still is my personal anthem.  

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1 – So this is love (Cinderella)

This song is buried on the third CD and track 9 of ‘Now that’s what I call Disney’. It is criminally underrated and I consider it to be one of the greatest love songs of all time, never mind being the greatest Disney song.

What I love about it is its outrageous simplicity – it’s just less than 1 minute and 30 seconds long. But in that short space of time Mike Douglas and Ilene Wood perform a hauntingly beautiful duet which gets at describing that incomprehensible feeling of love.

They are perfectly describing the way I felt the very first time I saw soon-to-be Mrs Bear. They are describing the way I felt the first time I laid eye on my little cub. They are describing my feelings for Arsenal Football Club. This song is describing how I felt when I first saw Halle Berry in Swordfish.

It’s a gem of a song that has stayed with me from the first moment I heard it.

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So, as you can see my list is very personal. Every song has a reason for being there. I’m not big headed enough to think that this is the definitive list. The great thing about Disney films and their song is that they are so widely loved that everyone seems to have their own personal reasons to why they prefer a certain movie and tune.

Another Disney Classic: Princess and The Frog

I wouldn't be the first person to say that the past 10 years or so has been indifferent for Disney. They went from a company that made classic movies to a company that bought companies that made classic movies. I’m as big of a fan of Pixar as the next bloke, but Pixar doesn't hold the same place in my heart that Disney does. This is the same company that made Aladdin, The Lion King and Bambi – three of my favourite films of all time. I mean, we’re talking about my childhood here.

They've recently made Enchanted (another one of my favourites), Bolt and Tangled, three very good films which show that Disney, as a studio, still know what they are doing; but one film showed that Disney still have that one killer ingredient left in them – magic.

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The Princess and the Frog is a film that has grown on me with every sitting. At first glance it feels like a re-thread of previous Disney classics – the back to basics drawn animation, the music and the Princess – but repeated screenings reveals the film for what it truly is, another Disney Classic.

The animation feels as familiar as my mother’s cooking. It’s delicious and nobody can replicate it, no matter how hard they try.

Every character feels rounded and complex, even the bad guy. The Shadow Man had to live up to a long tradition of scary as hell villains and he, as well as his friends, don’t disappoint. I think he’s up there with the Evil Queen, Scar and Ursula. Frightening.

But it’s Tiana that warms my heart. I’ve recently had a little baby girl and if she grows up to have anything close to Tiana’s attitude, I’ll be delighted. I’ve never rooted for a Disney princess more and her independence and determination is the reason why I think she'll go on to be an icon.

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The music in this film is incredible. The soundtrack is as good as any Disney film. Every song is strong and wonderful – every single one. I’ve already started singing 'Almost There' to my frightened and confused little girl, but I absolutely love the message of that song.
Also, a quick word on the song 'My Belle Evangeline': the first time I heard that song, I had goosebumps. It’s just beautiful.   

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I don’t know if the film made enough money to warrant Disney to consider these types of movies worth it. But based on the product itself, they should be extremely proud to have it in their portfolio.

I can't wait to sit down and watch this film with my own little princess.



                                                             @chocoteddyfilms