I am currently scouring numerous kids' movies I've seen and determining whether they're good or bad for children, much less YOU.
This one... it's going to take a little more thinking before I decide. I borrowed this movie from a library because I am a Don Bluth fan and I have been hearing about the negative reception and obscurity it's got. Like many children of the 1990's, I grew up with awesome animated movies for children, such as The Lion King, The Land Before Time, Aladdin etc.
So we have a friendly troll named Stanley who lives in a land where trolls are mean and scary (think The BFG), and it is ruled by none other than a no-nonsense evil queen who believes bad is good and good is bad (Geesh, that sounds hard to say).
So the message in this movie is "If you believe in yourself and dream well enough, things will magically happen." which I really am struggling to look at without upsetting fans of this movie. At first, it sounds real, but if you think critically at it, you'll realize "No, that doesn't make sense!" As the Nostalgia Critic explained, "dreams don't happen by just dreaming, you make it happen!", which is actually true. Although that's probably the context Don Bluth was aiming for, it just sounds different than what was probably intended. I agree that only certain "dreams" can come true if you work hard to make it happen, but that strongly depends on what it is, like you can't just dream to become Sailor Moon, work hard for it and TA-DAH, wish granted.
But I give this a 7 rating because I don't find it as bad as many make it out to be, I realize many people on the internet saw it as kids and liked it since then. In fact, the animation is good, the voice acting is not bad, I did mention in one of my other reviews that one of my favourite actors is/was Dom DeLuise, and of course Cloris Leachman as the evil queen Gnorga, whose name I recognize from Castle in the Sky.
But the story seems a little rushed, some moments are drawn out and the story was just a little bit too simple for me, but it's aimed at kids so I'm not irked over that. However, I feel these faults and all the negative reception must have been blamed one thing: Warner Bros.
Considering the studio was totally pessimistic about marketing this movie, even deliberately limiting the movie's release and advertising, I'm sure they were plotting to make this film as bad as humanly possible, even rushing Don Bluth to finish the movie for fall of 1994.
If that's true, then I feel sorry for anyone who likes Don Bluth and are annoyed by this film. It's not Toy Story, but I still like it.
So, if you want to show it to your kids, then I think it would be a good idea to talk with them afterwards and explain to them the true meaning of "believing in dreams".
This one... it's going to take a little more thinking before I decide. I borrowed this movie from a library because I am a Don Bluth fan and I have been hearing about the negative reception and obscurity it's got. Like many children of the 1990's, I grew up with awesome animated movies for children, such as The Lion King, The Land Before Time, Aladdin etc.
So we have a friendly troll named Stanley who lives in a land where trolls are mean and scary (think The BFG), and it is ruled by none other than a no-nonsense evil queen who believes bad is good and good is bad (Geesh, that sounds hard to say).
So the message in this movie is "If you believe in yourself and dream well enough, things will magically happen." which I really am struggling to look at without upsetting fans of this movie. At first, it sounds real, but if you think critically at it, you'll realize "No, that doesn't make sense!" As the Nostalgia Critic explained, "dreams don't happen by just dreaming, you make it happen!", which is actually true. Although that's probably the context Don Bluth was aiming for, it just sounds different than what was probably intended. I agree that only certain "dreams" can come true if you work hard to make it happen, but that strongly depends on what it is, like you can't just dream to become Sailor Moon, work hard for it and TA-DAH, wish granted.
But I give this a 7 rating because I don't find it as bad as many make it out to be, I realize many people on the internet saw it as kids and liked it since then. In fact, the animation is good, the voice acting is not bad, I did mention in one of my other reviews that one of my favourite actors is/was Dom DeLuise, and of course Cloris Leachman as the evil queen Gnorga, whose name I recognize from Castle in the Sky.
But the story seems a little rushed, some moments are drawn out and the story was just a little bit too simple for me, but it's aimed at kids so I'm not irked over that. However, I feel these faults and all the negative reception must have been blamed one thing: Warner Bros.
Considering the studio was totally pessimistic about marketing this movie, even deliberately limiting the movie's release and advertising, I'm sure they were plotting to make this film as bad as humanly possible, even rushing Don Bluth to finish the movie for fall of 1994.
If that's true, then I feel sorry for anyone who likes Don Bluth and are annoyed by this film. It's not Toy Story, but I still like it.
So, if you want to show it to your kids, then I think it would be a good idea to talk with them afterwards and explain to them the true meaning of "believing in dreams".