Jim On Film
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Similarly, in the world of live-action films, reviewers never say, "Minority Report isn’t as good as The Sound of Music." If that was the point of comparison, how many films would rate as worthy of $8? Such a comparison is nonsense. While it may be true, it would never be said. Even films by the same writer, producer, director, or starring the same actors rarely get comparisons on a regular basis. It is doubtful that anyone ever said that Apollo 13 was better than That Thing You Do or that Miss Congeniality wasn’t as good as While You Were Sleeping. However, in the world of animation, it is not uncommon to make comparisons between films based solely on the medium, even to the point of crossing boundaries between comedies and musicals, dramas and adventures, and so on.
Disney, of course, has created much of this atmosphere themselves, desperately grabbing at any thread that connects their films back to The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. Besides demonstrating that Disney brass may not be artistically strong enough to identify quality without industry approval, it sets awkward expectations for each new film. If someone expects to see an animated musical with talking clocks and spiritual transformations, they will not be happy leaving the theater after Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
These comparison tactics are important to tackle for several other key reasons. First of all, it’s critical cannibalism, pitting film against film in an already meat-eat-meat industry. To say that Treasure Planet is the best Disney animated film since Aladdin is an instant put-down to all the other Disney animated films released after 1995. It is entirely possible for Atlantis: The Lost Empire to not be as good as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (which it isn’t) but to be very enjoyable in its own right (which it is). That is okay! But to make such a statement is generally interpreted by people as a put down to the other films, pitting each film against another.
In addition, these types of statements can work against a film. For example, if a reviewer says that "Lilo and Stitch isn’t as great as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King but is still a fun frolic through animation wonderland," the reader interprets this as "Oh, it’s not very good." This means that they don’t see the movie. If a newspaper reviewer has this impact, the word-of-mouth reviewer will cause more damage. Independent of your thoughts of each film, Lilo and Stitch deserves to fail or succeed on its own without having to live up to what many feel are two of Disney’s greatest accomplishments. Again, Minority Report may not be as good as The Sound of Music, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth seeing.
Each animated film--whether is Disney or not, computer-generated or not--deserves to be evaluated solely on its own merits. For the sake of those whose life went into the creation and for the sake of the art form, critics need to see the flaw in their habits. Despite the industry-identified success of Lilo and Stitch, animation is still at a crossroads. Ineffective comparisons do not fully explain the artistic merits (or flaws) of a film and only serve to drive away audiences in an over-saturated market.
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-- Jim Miles
Jim On Film is published every other Thursday.
The opinions expressed by our guest columnists, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future of Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted October 17, 2002
Copyright Jim Miles. Licensed to LaughingPlace.com.