Frozen II

Frozen II

dir: Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck

Voice cast: Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff, Sterling K.

Brown & Ciaran Hinds

        When the first Frozen came out, it became a worldwide phenomenon from which many

    parents haven't overcome. The song "Let it Go" became a hit and unfortunate earworm

    which became ingrained in peoples ears. Unfortunately, this sequel doesn't live up to 

    its predecessor. 

          Taking place a few years after the last one, we get a little backstory on Elsa and Anna's

    parents and the area surrounding their kingdom of Arendelle. One night Elsa hears a call

    coming from the woods and sets out on an adventure with her friends to locate it.

          Frozen II's plot felt recycled and tiresome and fails to live up to the hype that the 

    first one set. Most of the songs featured are just forgettable and add nothing to the

    overall story. It's not a bad movie per se, just one not worth plunking down your 

    hard earned cash to go out and see. 

              Grade: C+

Beauty & the Beast (2017)

     

Beauty & the Beast
Dir: Bill Condon
Cast: Emma Watson, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Kevin Kline, Dan Stevens,
Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellan, Emma Thompson

      It has become a yearly tradition for Disney to release a live action adaptation of their

animated classics that started with Cinderella. This is one is based on the 1991 Oscar 

winning film of the same name.

    Emma Watson portrays Belle, a bookish young woman who encounters a lonely beast

(Dan Stevens) while looking for her father (Kline). The cursed beast must find true love

before the last rose petal falls or he remains a beast forever. Living in the dark castle,

he hides from the townspeople never to show his face. Keeping him company are

sentient objects that sing and dance.

   The narcissist villain Gaston (Luke Evans) comes to town looking to marry Belle.

Frozen's Josh Gad plays his sidekick LeFou who constantly praises him. The 

controversy surrounding his character has been blown out of proportion and 

shouldn't have been an issue to begin with.

    The movie was quite enjoyable with its memorable songs. The costumes and

settings were top notch as well as the CGI. There are a few scenes that may be

intense for the little ones but older ones should be able to handle it.

    The Beauty and the Beast is a proper remake and should be regarded as one.

It's a perfect date movie and a tale as old as time. 

    Grade: A (9.5/10)

Zootopia

                                             
                                                                     Zootopia

Dir: Byron Howard & Rich Moore

       Voice Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, JK Simmons

       In the 80 years that Walt Disney has been making animated films, this is by far
   one of their best to date. Zootopia tells the tale of a girl bunny named Judy Hops 
  (Goodwin). Her dream is work as a cop and make her parents proud. To compensate
  for her small size, she works hard to graduate to the top of her class. 

      Judy travels to Zootopia,a huge city where animals freely talk and live among 
  each other. When she gets there, she is assigned to be meter maid but comes upon 
  a missing otter case. In order to prove herself worthy, she teams with a fast talking
  con artist fox, Nick (Bateman). Together they must work together or Judy is forced
  to resign.

      Usually I don't like CGI cartoons but I liked this one almost as much as Wreck It
 Ralph. The Godfather scene might go over small children's heads but adults will
 enjoy it. The sloth working at the DMV and the fat cheetah were comic reliefs.
 This movie is part buddy cop and part mystery. Some scenes may be too intense
 for the little ones. The theme sung by Shakira should have you humming it for days.

Grade: A (9/10)