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 can’t believe
i’m watching this in chinese! this is the first time I’m watching a disney
cartoon in chinese (yup, i watched bambi in english when i was
two. hence the
nickname 尿片 for “new
prince”.) the voices
of the moose, rutt and tuke, performed by 張達明and 鄭中基are not
bad. funny, but some
of the jokes must be translated/adapted to chinese version, which
makes it really hard to fit in. it is, of course, not as good as the english
version, i presume.
but overall, the whole movie is not as good as I’ve
expected.
the
movie is not quite enjoyable for people who have little knowledge
of native americans, (luckily i do have some) as it evolves
around the idea of the existence of spirits for each and every
living thing on earth.
without that perspective in mind, viewers will probably
just compare the movie to disney’s previous “masterpiece”, the
lion king. true, it
is the “circle of life” all over again, but this time it
incorporates some mystical qualities (of the Inuit) in. the life cycle idea is
not so sharp compared to the relationship between human and
wildlife, or in another aspect, one between men in general.
to me,
however, the main theme that touches me the most is the concept
of seeing things through another’s point of view. we are often too
self-centered to realize how others around us are seeing things,
thinking that our way is always the only right way. we (me, at least) tend to
have our way of thinking, and want everyone to act accordingly,
getting upset if they don’t. (come to think of it, it’s my obsessive
compulsiveness who’s the culprit.) never gave that any thought until i’ve
experienced it recently and the impact of not doing it. i never fully
master putting myself in others’ shoes, but i promised myself to
keep that in mind and try learning it as i live my life.
back to the movie. it does seem like
disney is running out of good ideas. the scenery is a mixture of pochahontas let’s
get and lion king, while the clown characters, rutt & tuke,
are similar to simone & pumba from lion king, lumiere &
clock (in french?) from beauty and the beast. just too similar. “the characters are cute,
but not cute enough.” (Steve
Rhodes, STEVE RHODES'
INTERNET REVIEWS) describes it perfectly. (mind you, i still collected the brother bear
mcdonalds’ happy meal toys, just because I’m a collection
addict. i’m still
missing rutt and kenai.)
the scenes are magnificent and all, but it just doesn’t
give the impact once given by lion king. (remember lion king’s
opening scene? the
“stomp” together with the appearance of the film title…i
mean…wow…) now i’m a
person who adores wildlife (animals in general; bears in
particular, that’s why I’m nicknamed “bear bear 表姐” by my cousins;
more towards undisturbed wildlife than domestic pets), and
I’m always biased towards disney (it’s one of my dreams to
collect all of disney’s cartoon dvds), but even this
disney-loving-wildlife-maniac thinks that the characters are not
special enough for you to like their personalities.
just like the
characters presented, the movie has too much ideas the writers
wanna put in (5 scriptwriters in total, no wonder). circle of life, legend
& fate, friendship & love, you name it. however, it’s a
traditional handdrawn animation, so its 90-minutes length can’t
accommodate that many great ideas. the themes are not explored thoroughly enough
(not to mention its repetitive from previous works) and it gives
me a 到喉唔到肺 feeling.
the soundtrack is quite good
though. (phil
collins kept his steady quality.) but i could only enjoy the music because the
songs sung in chinese (by 許志安, and especially the opening song by 陳潔靈) give me the chills. maybe i’ll just buy the soundtrack.
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