Toon Talk Mailbag
Page 5 of 7

(c) Disney

Pearl Harbor, posted May 28, 2001
This one was supposed to be the big blockbuster of the summer; but it was no "Titanic" (there, I said it!) 
Due on video December 4th.
Click to read review

"I think this is a great movie!  I went to see it the first day it was in theaters. I think that it had good special effects and great actors. But why did it only get a C+?" -- Kory

Weighing the pros and cons of the movie, I graded the film a C+.  In my opinion it was an average movie with a great
action sequence at the center of it, but a little to much padding before and after the Pearl Harbor attack.

"While this movie had numerous flaws I think it did one heck of a job explaining why we were surprised at Pearl Harbor, what the attack was like, why the attack caused us to get into WWII, and why we needed to make the raid on Tokyo.  I could have done without the goofy love story too, even if it wasn't as grating as Titanic's love story." -- Lee "Mousebear" Suggs

While I respect a filmmaker's vision for their films and avoid suggesting how a film "could have been better if they had done this ... " in my reviews, I think that Pearl Harbor would have benefited if they had borrowed a page from the so-called "disaster films" of yore:  several different stories going on, with an "all-star" cast, all building up to the big moment and depicting how they survive it.  For instance, except for Cuba Gooding Jr's character (who we really didn't even know that well either), we didn't know anybody that was on the ships that were bombed ... in fact, all the characters we knew were all on "dry land" at the time of the attack.  I think it if it had been an ensemble cast, it would have been a more intriguing film.  But they stuck to the one storyline, one that wasn't even all that interesting, or original for that matter.  That was the movie they wanted to make and that's the movie we got.

(c) Disney

Atlantis: The Lost Empire, posted June 18, 2001:
The latest feature animation failed to rake them in at the box office,
but it was still a B+ adventure for Disney fans.
Click to read review

"I think this was a good, but not great film.  It will be a lot of fun to watch when each viewing doesn't cost $6.00.  There were a lot of nice details, but as you said the story was kind of muddled.  I think it would have been a much better film if they had eliminated the camp scenes and a least two of the characters." -- Lee "Mousebear" Suggs

No information yet, but hopefully the Atlantis DVD will have some cool extras to add to the repeat factor.

"It was reported in the Star Wars Insider magazine that the voice talents of Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) would be used in Atlantis.  I didn't see his name in the credits.  Was he, or wasn't he?" -- Ed

According to the press information, Mark Hamill was not in the cast for this movie.