Malin
The great Disney movies have memorable songs, interesting characters, engaging sidekicks, strong villains, crisp dialogue, and beautiful art, and by that standard, Tangled is a pretty great Disney movie.

Rikoshi
While not quite “Pixar Good,” Tangled is still a very charming and entertaining animated film, with some very fun characters and good performances, though the songs unfortunately fall a bit flat by Disney standards.

Jakebe
Great movie, if only because it makes you want to call your mother and thank her for not being a completely insane, manipulative asshole.

Tube
Despite the 3D format, this sweet and sincere story is the first Disney movie in well over a decade to really feel like one of the timeless classics I remember from my childhood: tight storytelling, a great villain, and songs that won’t leave my head days later.

Lovejoy
It’s got all the charm and humor you’d expect from a major Disney animated feature, plus it’s got a horse that acts like a dog, so hey, there’s that too.

Lovejoy
I’m really starting to like Jay Baruchel. He’s quickly becoming the new Michael Cera, and I think we can all agree that we need some more adorable geeks to dilute the overpowering force of George-Michael Bluth. And it’s Baruchel’s awkward charm that makes films like The Sorcerer’s Apprentice more enjoyable.

The film is a by the books adventure film that doesn’t break new ground on any front. Of course it’s also a mid-Summer, PG-rated Disney film starring Nicolas Cage, so expecting it to progress cinema is silly. It’s certainly more style than substance, but it’s fun, romantic, and exciting.

I’m not saying the film is great, because it isn’t, but as a casual Summer flick it’s pretty good. Baruchel as the Apprentice to Cage’s Sorcerer is funny and endearing. Alfred Molina is creepy. There are a ton of fun special effect sequences and fight scenes (even a dragon transformation for you weirdos).

I think for most people it could stand to be a rental, or a cable movie, but for something to watch while decompressing and escaping the Summer heat, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice isn’t bad.

Corvi
I’ll go on the record and say that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a better film than Predators, but honestly not by much. And that’s the whole problem. This should be a much better film that isn’t just a predictable string of pretty special effects and one-liners.

There is way too much shit going on in the movie. Too many villains, too many fight scenes, too many unnecessary scenes. The homage to the original Fantasia piece is jammed in there awkwardly, and it grinds the story to a halt.

Maybe montages are considered passe in this day and age, but there’s a time to use them, and trying to convince an audience that Jay Baruchel is learning enough magic to defeat and evil 1000-year-old sorcerer is that time.

If the film had been trimmed down (take out the witch girl and the car chase) there would have been more time to develop the romance so that it wouldn’t come off so lame. By the way, this is the second film this year where Baruchel has scored a girl that is way out of his league.

If you’re like me and find it hard to regress your mind to that of a child so you can enjoy Summer Disney films, then you’ll likely be bored by The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

I’m going to make this quick because, honestly, the more you talk about a movie the more you just ruin the experience for other people. So let’s cut to the chase: The Princess and the Frog is straight up old school Disney, both good and bad.

The thing that is different about Princess, the setting, is what actually makes the film shine. Late ‘20s New Orleans lends itself to great visuals and music, and the voodoo motifs give the film a darker vibe than most Disney fare.

But aside from some cajun spice, this is a pretty standard Disney film. You’ve got all the elements there: a strong willed female lead, a hate-turns-to-love romance, comedic sidekicks, a stylized villain, and a healthy dose of magic. Oh, and a predictable plot with plenty of messages about hard work, and being happy with who you really are, and needing a man in your life to have fulfillment.

And really, even having a talking animal character that sparks the interests (and libidos) of the furry fandom is part of the classic Disney formula, intentional or not.

Technically the film is solid. The animation’s great (Facilier’s shadow is one of my favorite characters), and the songs are catchy jazz inspired tunes. The pacing gets a little uneven sometimes, like when you get three songs in rapid succession, followed by over half an hour of no singing. The story stays strong though, save for a moment that gets ruined by the lack of subtlety, and feels tacked on.

The Princess and the Frog isn’t likely going to be one of those Disney films that is cherished in 50 years. But I for one am thrilled Disney still has the goods, and can only hope for a resurgence of classic 2D charm in the future.

It was 20 minutes into the film when the ghost of Jacob Marley’s jaw unhinges and he moans through his unnaturally gaping maw while his tongue flops out like a victim from The Grudge that I realized Zemeckis knows exactly how creepy this shit is, and he wants to scare the Christmas spirit into your kid.

For the most part this version of a Christmas Carol follows the book very closely. Much of the dialogue is lifted directly from the novel, and Zemeckis adds a lot of visually stunning, and sometimes terrifying imagery. The Ghosts become the real stars of the film, and while that kind of detracts from the point of Dickens’ fable, it wasn’t a diversion I minded. Honestly, there have been a million damn adaptations of this tired old book, and most of them miss the point anyway. I’d rather the criticisms of the Church, and the allusions to prisons, whorehouses, and insane asylums get the spotlight than the simpering tale of Tiny Tim.

There are a few rollercoaster spectacle shots, mostly to take advantage of the 3D, and yes, a lot of them are stupid (especially the one with the Ghost of Christmas Future). But hey, I paid extra to see it in 3D, and a few too many flying through the city scenes are better than Beowulf’s near constant hurling of objects at the camera. Some of the character still come off as lifeless, and even with the stylization the kids look like Margaret Keane paintings come to life, but for the most part it doesn’t feel like they cast zombies.

This is the scariest version of A Christmas Carol I’ve ever seen, and Lovejoy of Christmas Past would have flipped his shit if he saw this. What it lacks in soul it makes up for in spectacle, which is good because there’s a ton of spectacle, and almost no soul. It’s not the best version, not even close, but it’s at least a different one, and it was entertaining.