Disney

Turning Red

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  • Title: Turning Red
  • IMDb: link

Disney’s Turning Red is basically an animated remake of 1985’s Teen Wolf recasting the main character as a 13 year-old girl who begins turning into a giant Red Panda whenever she gets too excited. Like Michael J. Fox‘s Scott Howard, the cause for the transformation is a mix of puberty and a family curse which Mei (Rosalie Chiang) only learns about after being freaked out by the horror of the unexplained change. And, as in Teen Wolf, Mei is told by her family to control and hide the Panda within but instead uses it to increase her popularity at school.

Turning Red is slow to get started, relying on cookie-cutter Asian stereotypes of the dutiful daughter breaking out of the mold. Thankfully, once the Red Panda shows up, things get a bit more interesting. However, if we are going to ding movies aimed at kids for dick and fart jokes, it’s hard not to do the same here for the numerous cheap jokes the film gets away with around mensuration. 

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Encanto

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  • Title: Encanto
  • IMDb: link

Encanto introduces us to the magical Family Madrigal, living together in a magical house in a small town in a hidden valley from the dangers of the outside world. When reaching the appropriate age, each child of the family is gifted with a special power. That is, each member of the family except our main character Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz). 

More notable for its cultural perspective and its eclectic characters than its plot, Encanto struggles a bit early finding its rhythm before picking up momentum, both in story and in the strength of the songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda, as Mirabel attempts to save the family from a threat no one else sees. It’s a solid film, whose final act outshines the rest of the movie and (in typical Disney fashion) offers a nice moral for kids who are obviously the target audience for the film.

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Luca, the Little Merboy

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  • Title: Luca
  • IMDb: link

Luca movie reviewSet on the Italian Rivera, in an era before cellphones and the Internet, Luca is a fish out of water story. Literally. Living his life under the sea, the curious Luca (Jacob Tremblay) is drawn to the world on the surface despite his parents’ (Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) warnings about the monsters lurking above. With the ability to assume human form when stepping onto land, Luca can’t help be curious about the humans whose bizarre garbage makes it way to the bottom of the sea. Meeting another teen sea monster who has been passing for human pushes Luca to exploring the surface further and leaving his life under the sea behind him for the seaside community of Portorosso.

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Black Beauty

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  • Title: Black Beauty (2020)
  • IMDb: link

Black Beauty movie reviewAnna Sewell‘s Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse has been adapted a dozen or so times over the past one-hundred years to both television and film. Disney+’s new version centers mostly on the relationship between the wild mustang (voiced by Kate Winslet) and an orphaned teenager named Jo (Mackenzie Foy) who bond at her uncle’s (Iain Glen) horse sanctuary following the death of Jo’s parents.

Recasting Beauty as a mare rather than stallion allows for writer/director Ashley Avis to reframe the story, in part, as female empowerment (with a bit of class struggle thrown in for good measure). It also, not so subtly, highlights the comparisons between Jo and Beauty who create a lasting bond that continues long after they are separated. The script highlights the themes of animal cruelty from the book as the script touches on Beauty’s later owners, a ranger (Hakeem Kae-Kazim), a farmer (Jacques Wuister), a carriage driver (Greg Parves), and finally an unscrupulous carriage business owner (Deon Lotz) who treat Beauty with varying levels of care before the horse comes back into possession of Jo at the end of the film.

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Mulan

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  • Title: Mulan
  • IMDb: link

Mulan movie reviewWith 1998’s Mulan, Disney animated the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan about a young woman who dresses as a man to take her father’s place in the conscripted army. Making several changes to the source material, but staying true to the basic idea of the legend, we’re introduced to Mulan (Ming-Na Wen) who struggles with fitting in as the perfect daughter but finds a way to serve her family by sneaking off, stealing her aging father’s (Soon-Tek Oh) armor and sword, and assuming the role of a dutiful son to take his place in the upcoming war to fight off the invading Huns.

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