Year In, Year Out

Year In, Year Out
(continued from page 1)

The Silver Screen
Seen any good movies lately? The best of 1999 came down to four films as far as I'm concerned. Tarzan was a winner, a sumptuous treat spread across the lush marvel of Eric Daniel's Deep Canvas and aided by the best storyline Diz has generated since Aladdin. The baboon chase scene alone was worth the price of admission. Handled less deftly, this could have been another Pocahontas but it is no exaggeration to say that we were given Disney's (and Glen Keane's) best this year. Even Burroughs purists were pleased. Coming out of left field (or Colorado at any rate) was the year's most prurient upstart, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. This was a film I was almost sure would fail. Matt Stone and Trey Parker had shown little aptitude for the big screen to date (Orgazmo and BASEketball), and the primitive animation used for the show seemed better suited to television than to theaters, where the characters ran the risk of resembling Macy's Thanksgiving Day balloons. Worse, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut screened during a time that the series was losing its audience on Comedy Central. Surprise: Stone and Parker pulled off a neater trick than anything Winona Ryder could do with ping-pong balls. The combination of witty script, killer satire, and faux-Broadway/Disney musical send-ups made this film a classic must-see.

What do you mean direct-to video?
© Disney and Pixar.

It defies belief that Toy Story 2 was originally slated as a direct-to-video release but it is perfectly believable that this film is superior to the first. With great acting performances backed by Pixar's vastly improved CGI arsenal, Toy Story 2 is the greatest encore in animation history -- and one great action-adventure flick! Finally, The Iron Giant. What more can be said about Brad Bird's touching, mature fantasy? Beautifully done from script to score, this animated morality play (no coincidence that the protagonist is named Hogarth) is every young boy's wistful dream. Its poor box office (less than $25 million) is meaningless; The Iron Giant is a nostalgic gift -- and a future inspiration -- to animation fans of all ages. Then at the other end of the scale there's The King and I. It's sad to watch so talented a professional as Richard Rich go further south with each successive production, but as Tex Avery knew, if you can do it in live-action don't bother making a cartoon.

Hogarth is ready to battle other big 1999 toon pictures for best of the year nods. © Warner Bros. No other uses are permitted without the prior written consent of owner. Use of the material in violation of the foregoing may result in civil and/or criminal penalties.

Ahead in '00: Any film that can beat $142 million at the turnstiles gets into the magic Top Ten. And they're off! Fantasia 2000 (January) will make it easily. Unlike its predecessor, this will not be an initial flop. (Prediction: $225 million). Disney's next horse in the race is Dinosaurs (May), and it had better make a bundle; for what this picture is reportedly costing, Diz could have built a time machine and retrieved real dinosaurs (Prediction: $214 million). In a surprise move, Fox takes third with Titan A.E. (Summer). Despite reports that the film has been plagued with infighting and that the CGI effects have been scaled back, this one could be a winner (Prediction: $50 million). DreamWorks doesn't have the property it needs to compete this year. The Road to El Dorado will play well, look good, and probably get kind reviews. It will also be on video shortly after its release (Prediction: $42 million). DreamWorks may do well with Chicken Run (June)...but as long as they were teamed up with Aardman, they should have twisted Nick Park's arm for a Wallace and Gromit feature. They will also be competing with Disney's prehistoric opus, and when dinosaurs are pitted against chickens the outcome is somewhat predictable (Prediction: $28 million). Foundation Imaging is going 100% 3D CGI with Vortex (Fall). This tale of a race to save mankind from aliens might be a good first effort (Prediction: $25 million).