If nothing tops the opening stretch of "Up", it's still an exceptional film. The final shot is as good as anything Studio Ghibli's come up with, at least.

Well, Audra McDonald is voicing the wardrobe. Kevin Kline's also a passable singer (he gets one of the new songs).

With regard to the Best Picture Oscar nomination, it's fascinating to look back at how that was received at the time. The film made several American magazines/critics' Top 10 lists for 1991, including both Siskel and Ebert's, and the work-in-progress cut got a standing ovation at that year's New York Film Festival;…

I never did see "Frozen" back to front, though I've seen significant chunks of it. Part of it is because the plot's really focused on the wrong characters — if it were Elsa's story and point of view throughout, it could have been truly remarkable. (Kind of like how some "Doctor Who" fans felt too much of Series 8…

Also "Inside Out".

No, it's a full musical. It even has some all-new songs. But trailers for musicals rarely tip their hands to that anymore, because the genre has so much baggage attached to it. "Moulin Rouge", "Sweeney Todd", "Into the Woods", etc. all downplayed that they were musicals, and so it is with this one.

This was the first movie that well and truly made me cry, and for the right reasons. When I first saw it in a theatre, right around the point where the servants were transformed back into humans, and I felt tears trickle down my cheeks…(sigh)

Jenna Coleman (she was Clara on "Doctor Who", and is now toplining ITV's hit series "Victoria") definitely has a Disney Princess vibe going for her looks-wise. She could have made a fine Belle, come to think of it, and having not heard Emma Watson sing I can't say one's singing voice is superior to the other's…

Interestingly, the prologue was supposed to be a fully animated sequence. Time/budget crunches got in the way; there was a lot of overtime, strained relationships, etc. put on the animators for this one. (The last shot of Belle and the Prince dancing at the end is effectively reskinned "Sleeping Beauty" animation.)…

That was pretty much the filmmakers' explanation, so yep.

Also, it is a SINCERE film. There are almost no anachronisms/pop culture jokes, no fourth-wall plays, no postmodern meta humor, no moment of high drama immediately softened by a wisecracking sidekick for the kids. It's one of the last great melodramas in the best sense of that term; it works with heightened emotions…

Yeah, especially when one considers "Fantasia 2000", a lovely if not blockbuster film, actually premiered in December 1999, though it didn't go into wide IMAX release until Jan. 1.

"Human Again" is an Ashman lyric; the song was discarded in favor of "Something There" because the filmmakers felt it ate up too much screen time and messed with the movie's timeline (it started in mid-winter and ended in spring, raising the question of where Maurice, Gaston, et.al. are all those months, whereas the…

Yeah. Out of context it's okay, but in context it almost completely derails the film.

Yeah, regardless of what you think of the Prince as opposed to the Beast — I actually find him quite attractive in part because he IS odd compared to the traditional Disney prince (his shoulders, eyes/brows, etc. are actually much like the Beast's were) — the transformation and the denouement is truly magnificent. …

Not in the trailer, but she's voiced by Audra McDonald.

Fascinating. I identified with Belle long before I learned I was autistic, and that's another angle to examine things from.

Also Pirates of the Caribbean 5, but I don't think anyone cares about that at this point…

Yeah, I was really expecting something more menacing and inhuman with the face. I wonder if the choice of actor kind of limits this? I know it would have been a snowball's chance in summer that Disney would have considered someone like Peter Capaldi for this role, but that is a face that can radiate menace, longing,…

In this version, Maurice at least builds music boxes. (No idea how he gets to the castle.)