Warning: May contain spoilers. You've been warned.
Nothing like good, old-fashioned stereotyping.
Disney, Disney, Disney. This was a step in the wrong opposite direction. I don't want to say wrong because I don't want it to sound like I dislike the movie. It's just weird to think that this movie came out just before the masterpiece, The Little Mermaid, and the beginning of the Disney Renaissance.
I also think it was a step backwards with the animation. I found it to be very sketchy and "rustic." It's very similar to the animation style from The Rescuers and The Aristocats which came out ten years before this. You'd think the animation would have improved.
The story was decent and workable. I've never read the novel by Charles Dickens or seen the films/plays, so I'm judging it as this movie portrayed it.
The characters in this movie are pretty terrifying for a Disney movie... the human characters and the two dobermans that is. Fagin could definitely be misconstrued as a child molester. He was talking to Jenny (interestingly enough she looks exactly like Penny in the Rescuers) on some dock in the middle of the night. It was uncomfortable to watch. Not to mention the fact that they were in New York City, but we'll get to the city later.
Sykes was a rather eerie villain. He also looked very similar to Clayton in Tarzan. Anyways, he didn't get a lot of screen time which was disappointing, but he's still awfully scary. The two dogs were very intense too.
Now the city. I dunno... while watching this movie, I associated the older animation style while the crazy, dirty city of New York. The "artistic" shots of the city made it seem old and gross. I just didn't care for it. If they had gone along with the evolution of the animation style to that of The Little Mermaid, I feel that the movie would have been at least 5 times better. Seeing the World Trade Center towers in a sketched style of animation was just disappointing. It seemed unfinished.
The music was disappointing also. The music seemed random and pushed in some way. Once again, had they gone all out like they did for The Little Mermaid, it would've been better. The songs weren't even that catchy. The movie could've even done without the songs.
I also feel that the movie was wayyy to short at 79 minutes. If it were longer, the characters could've been more developed, there could've been more songs and they could've been better.
This review has been mostly about the negative parts of the movie. Don't get me wrong, this was a nice movie to watch. I'm glad I finally saw it. I enjoyed it. But this is one Disney classic that can and should be remade. Consider it as Disney's first animated remake.
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