I’ve already covered each major Walt Disney film individually as part of my Uncle Walt-a-thon project (except The Jungle Book, but he died during the production of that one and Netflix doesn’t have it, so I’m skipping it), but it occurs to me that I haven’t yet shared any thoughts of the project as a whole. So, here are some general impressions and a highlight reel.
Overall, there weren’t any surprises.
<- Uncle Walt-a-thon: Peter Pan
Maybe I should’ve saved that “still better than Cinderella” line for _Lady and the Tramp _instead of using it with Peter Pan. After all, Peter Pan is a different kind of story; it’s an adventure story, whereas Cinderella and Lady are “watch the characters not do much of anything except [in Lady’s case] eat spaghetti and chase a rat” stories.
Now, I’ll willingly grant that perhaps I’m not being entirely fair; perhaps it is largely my fault for being bored because there’s not enough action.
<– Uncle Walt-a-thon: Alice in Wonderland
Short version: it’s better than Cinderella.
Peter Pan is, simply, far more entertaining. The variety of settings goes a long way by itself, but there’s also a good deal of action, humour, and of course music. Even the plot is, by Disney’s standards, fairly complex, with multiple points of conflict, e.g. Wendy’s opposition to her father’s wish that she grow up, Capt. Hook’s desire for revenge against Peter, Tinkerbell’s jealousy of Wendy, and a couple others.
<– Uncle Walt-a-thon: Cinderella
After the insipid Cinderella, a part of me dreaded what lay in store for the rest of this series; would the rest of the classic Disney films fare as poorly as this? Luckily, these fears turned out to be premature, because Alice in Wonderland is a contender for the best film yet.
The contrast between _Alice _and Cinderella illustrates Disney’s strengths. No Disney film has a complex plot, so a work like Cinderella which relies entirely on storytelling, though children may enjoy it just fine (which I realise is the primary goal), will almost always bore an adult audience.
<– Uncle Walt-a-thon: Bambi
So far, I’ve rather enjoyed this project of watching every Disney film. I appreciated Snow White, Pinocchio, and Dumbo a little more than I used to, loved (parts of) Fantasia, and even Three Caballeros has some good moments.
Cinderella, though, is the first film so far that I would say is merely a children’s film.
None of these films have had a deep plot by any stretch, but they’d at least have some interesting animation or good musical numbers to keep adults entertained.