The Toon Talk Top 10 of 2005
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The thrilling yarns of yesteryear for this Mexican-American outlaw-turned-lawyer (a very charismatic, very young Robert Loggia) and American revolutionary solider-turned-rebel (a pre-Frank Drebin Leslie Nielsen) found new life - and new fans - with this fine (if incomplete) collection.
Turn back the clock to a simpler time when television sets were black and white and this, the first Mickey Mouse Club serial, was the most popular kids show on the air. This, the complete first season, goes down easy like a glass of ice cold lemonade on a warm summer’s day … “Yip-ee-ay, yip-ee-eye, yip-ee-oh�?!
And now for my annual “girl power/chick flick�? entry: As we are reunited with our favorite “love bug�?, Lindsay Lohan grows up a little more while Matt Dillon (in his other stellar performance this year) steals the show as a wickedly slick hot-shot racecar driver who ends up in a whole other kind of “crash�?.
Forget chickens and robots and zombies and zoo animals: easily the best animated film of the year is this humble yet hysterical riff on Hollywood horror classics and the British class system staring those endearingly daffy lumps of clay, Wallace and Gromit, the original “master and commander�?.
Special Thanks…
… To all the artists and filmmakers who have contributed to Disney films and DVDs this year, with special mentions to:
Tony Anselmo, X. Atencio, Brad Bird, Harry Carey Jr., Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Considine, Matt Dillon, Eyvind Earle, Ralph Fiennes, Josh Flitter, Martin Freeman, Paul Frees, Lennie “Well I’ll Be A Blue-Nosed Gopher�? Geer, Brendan Gleeson, Sterling “Master Narrator�? Holloway, Bill Justice, Georgie Henley, Nikita Hopkins, Eartha Kitt, Robert Loggia, Leonard Maltin (of course), James McAvoy, William Moseley, J. Pat “Cow Poker�? O’Malley, Nick Park, Bill Paxton, Miranda Richardson, Peter Sallis, the Sherman Brothers, Kyle Stanger, David Stollery, Steven Strait, Tilda Swinton and Patrick Warburton.
Coming Soon … in 2006*:
In theaters:
The latest Disney based-on-fact sports drama finds Josh Lucas leading the first all-black basketball team to the national championship in Glory Road (January 13).
Visit the red planet in the new IMAX documentary Roving Mars (January 27).
Curious George jumps out of the storybooks and onto the big screen in this traditionally animated adventure (Universal, February 10).
Paul Walker and Jason Biggs co-star in the Arctic adventure, also based on a true story, Eight Below (February 17).
Tim Allen is back and he’s shaggy … The Shaggy Dog that is, in this remake of the 1959 Disney classic (March 10).
Manfred, Sid, Diego and the Scrat (can’t forget the Scrat) return for Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (20th Century Fox, March 31).
What do the animals at the New York City Zoo do when all the visitors leave for the day? No, it’s not Madagascar 2 (yet), but Disney’s own The Wild (April 14).
In the tradition of Bring It On comes Stick It!, a high school comedy about gymnastics (April).
John Lasseter takes the wheel of Cars, the latest (and possibly last) Disney/Pixar collaboration (June 9).
Captain Jack is back, along with Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, in the eagerly awaited Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (July 7).
More motion capture animation from The Polar Express’ Robert Zemeckis with Monster House (Columbia, July 21).
An all-star voice cast, lots of cheeky pop culture references and sophomoric gags … it must be DreamWorks Animation’s latest, Over the Hedge (summer).
When the farmer’s away … Nickelodeon’s Barnyard stars Kevin James voicing a cow (Paramount, October 6).
Tim Allen is back yet again … in The Santa Clause 3, co-starring Martin Short as his Yuletide rival Jack Frost (November 3).
Apparently done with all that marching, the penguins are all dancing in Happy Feet (Warner, November).
More real-life sports drama with Invincible, the story of an ordinary man (played by Mark Wahlberg) ending up on the roster of the Philadelphia Eagles (fall).
Meet the Robinsons, Disney’s next computer animated comedy, next December.
On DVD:
Live action favorites from Disney (Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, The Devil and Max Devlin, Benji: The Hunted and My Dog, the Thief, January 17; the original The Shaggy Dog, The Shaggy D.A., March 7; Remember the Titans, March 14, The Greatest Game Ever Played, April 11, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, April), Touchstone (Dead Poets Society, Good Morning, Vietnam, January 10; Flightplan, January 24; Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, March 14), Hollywood Pictures (Crimson Tide, March 14) and Miramax (Proof, February 24) are in abundance next year.
“See Bambi grow�? … 64 years (!) after the original; Bambi II arrives February 7. Other nature-themed animated sequels, Brother Bear II (August 29) and The Fox and the Hound 2 (Fall) are due, and the new Leroy & Stitch will debut sometime in April as well.
More TV-on-DVD sets are coming, including The Golden Girls (Season 4), Grey’s Anatomy (Season 1) (both February 14), Goof Troop and Quack Pack (February 21) and the Little House on the Prairie mini-series (March 28), plus more Home Improvement, Boy Meets World and The Muppet Show and new editions of the Wonderful World of Disney musicals Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella and Annie (all TBA).
Two more Platinum Editions will debut with the classics Lady and the Tramp (February 28) and The Little Mermaid (October 3). Other animated titles on the horizon include the next wave of Studio Ghibli titles, including Howl’s Moving Castle, Whisper of the Heart and the long-delayed new edition of My Neighbor Totoro (March 7); plus Chicken Little (March 21) and a special edition of Pooh’s Grand Adventure (April 11), timed to celebrate the anniversary of Winnie the Pooh. And maybe we’ll finally get the oft-delayed two-disc Lilo & Stitch special edition sometime in 2006 as well.
Wave six of the Walt Disney Treasures should arrive in December; the long-awaited True Life Adventures set should be ready by then, along with possible further volumes of Pluto, Donald and the Silly Symphonies, as well as a collection of educational shorts.
*All release dates subject to change.
So “toon�? in to Toon Talk in 2006!
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-- Kirby C. Holt
-- Logo by William C Searcy, Magic Bear Graphics
Kirby is a lifelong Disney fan and film buff. He is also an avid list maker and chronic ellipsis user ...
Took Talk: Disney Film & Video Reviews by Kirby C. Holt is posted whenever there's something new to review.
The opinions expressed by our Kirby C. Holt, 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 plans of the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted January 6, 2006