Additional Dialogue: Brian Nissen
Starring the voices of: Miranda Richardson, Ian Richardson, Martin Vidnovic, Darrell Hammond, Allen D. Hong, Armi Arabe
Running Time: 87 minutes
Studio: Warner Bros.
MPAA Rating: G
An English schoolteacher arrives in 19th century Siam to teach the King's children, and ends up teaching the King as well, in this animated version of Rogers and Hammerstein's Broadway musical (and movie), The King and I. The stage and movie versions made a star of Yul Brynner -- though terribly dated, the original is still fun to watch, and gave us such classic songs as "Getting to Know You" and "Shall We Dance." This Fox animated version retains much of the original score, and story, while rendering the rest of the material "safe" for children. ("Love has nothing to do with tradition," the King tells the crown prince, who has fallen in love with a servant girl. Apparently, it also has nothing to do with faithful adaptations.)
For the kids, we now have cutesy animals (a monkey, a black panther, and two elephants), sorcery, a daring balloon rescue, an evil prime minister, a bumbling insultingly-stereotypical assistant, and no mention of the king's wives. For the adults, well, there's a faithful recreation of the score. Two other positive points: the excision of the ponderous, heavy-handed Uncle Tom's Cabin material (the costumes show up during the "Getting to Know You" sequence), and the animators' reinterpretation of the grand "presentation of the children" scene.
RATING: *1/2
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Director: Antonia Bird Screenplay: Ted Griffin Starring: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, John Spencer, Stephen Spinella, Neal McDonough, David Arquette Running Time: 100 minutes Studio: Twentieth Century Fox MPAA Rating: R |
Donner Party redux. You are who you eat at Fort Spencer in the mid-nineteenth century Sierra Nevadas. Ravenous, a dark comedy directed by Antonia Bird (Priest, Mad Love), mixes Quentin Tarantino gallows humor with Dances With Wolves scenery, set to a Raising Arizona/Fargo soundtrack.
Blood flows as freely as the sense of inevitability that Bird has crammed into the fort. The dregs of the American military inhabit this godforsaken way-station for explorers and pioneers. The skeleton crew, soldiers that are all a bit daft, include a gung-ho type (Neal McDonough), a requisite drunk (Stephen Spinella), an addle-pated holy man (Jeremy Davies), an over-medicated loon (David Arquette), a cowardly hero (new arrival Guy Pearce), and the resigned-to-his-fate commanding officer (Jeffrey Jones). Into their midst stumbles Colquhoun (Robert Carlyle), the sole survivor of a Donner Party-like ordeal. Several deaths, buckets of blood, and an Indian legend later, two major characters are locked into a literally superhuman battle to the death.
