Inside Out (2015)

After a dip in quality – “Monsters University” was only cute – Pixar returns with their very best effort yet: An instant classic that resets the bar in how stories can be told to and of children, and for adults. “Inside Out” – directed by Pete Docter, who made “Up” – is joyous, funny, and heart-crushing. The death of a beloved character: I wept. (Michael Giacchino’s score pushed me.) Plot: We follow the emotions -– joy, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger -- inside the mind of a pre-teen girl as she moves from Minnesota to San Francisco -- all the hope, wonder, turmoil, and disappointment. I had a major move at 12. “Inside” hit me. Docter and his writers dare focus on the theme that Walt Disney hid in his own films: Heartbreak is as central to our childhood as happiness. They are intertwined. We bounce from inside our girl’s head to the outside world, and then into the brains of side characters: Parents, a teacher, a dog! – and Docter dazzles us again. It’s Pixar gold: The animation and voice talent (Amy Poehler!) is superb. But this gem has a vibrant life that takes hold of our heads, and our hearts. And shatters. A+

Penguins of Madagascar, Big Hero Six, Earth to Echo, and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (all 2014)

“Penguins of Madagascar”  … I saw it to take my niece and nephew out. Ehh. Have you seen the “Madagascar” films from DreamWorks? The zoo animals who ditched the Bronx for Africa? Pretty funny, the first one. Since then? Yawn. Snooze. Get me out. This fourth entry and add-on to a TV series focuses on sidekick comic-relief characters of wise-ass penguins who muck about in the Marx Brothers vein. New Yorker humor abounds. This is their origin tale. Cause we need that. The Penguins join a MI6 type group led by wolf Benedict Cumberbatch to take down power-mad octopus John Malkovich and we get jokes that play on actor names: “Nicholas, Cage them!” and “Helen, hunt them down!,” and oh my God, an hour in I pled for it to end, and it would not, and my nephew and niece loved it and I Give Up! C- 

Meanwhile, Disney, with no small help from Pixar, has CGI animated film “Big Hero Six,” based on a new-to-me Marvel comic for youngsters that pings “Scooby Doo” with boots, capes and robots. Our lead hero is Hero (Ryan Potter), a teen living with his aunt and older brother in a futuristic mashup of San Francisco and Tokyo. Hero is a budding roboticist with a punk-rebel streak who graduated high school at 13 and takes on college at 14 after a minor scrape with the law for amusing back-alley robot fights, only to suffer a devastating personal loss. Brother dies in a fire. Ouch. With the help of a cute puffy robot nurse named Baymax –- who looks like Shmoo on steroids and full of air and built by the dead older sibling -– Hero investigates the fire and finds himself a super villain right out of a four-color comic book. The simple story aims young with some edgy humor (there’s a stoner kid who’s far more a stoner than ever was Shaggy) but its charms are strong and its “Stargate” references worthy of fan-fiction tribute. B

Speaking of childish films, “Earth to Echo” is a fast-paced, found-footage jumpy cam version of “E.T.” meets “Goonies” as a group of school kid pals find a robotic alien near their housing development. The one their being forced out of. (That was the kick-off of “Goonies,” recall?) Using iPhones and video cameras to record their every moment to save Echo -– he’s metallic, bur cute, chirping, and a bit void of personality -– the kids run up against Big Brother villains, find a female pal along the way, and in a funny moment, find the cool older brother asleep in a bathtub as a party. They take his car. Harmless and sweet, I think my young self would have grooved to the film’s adventure. Even if the stomach and brain of my current body fell camera seasick. One of the boys, Reese Hartwig, eerily reminds me of a school friend. B

Another flick I took the niece and nephew to is “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” the third and apparently final entry in the comedy-adventure series with Ben Stiller –- he once long ago of grungy grown-up films -– as a guard at the New York Museum of Natural History. You know the drill, right? Sun goes down, the exhibits come alive, Easter Island head, dinosaur, Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), and cowboy (Owen Wilson) included, all mucking about, making “education” fun. And action packed. Here, the magical stone that powers our heroes is dying, and Stiller must zip away to London’s history museum to save the day. Why? Um, up ticket sales in Europe? It’s only mildly funny, despite a great M.C. Escher gag that plays like a classic 1980s A-Ha video and a cameo from a winking X-Man. Dan Stevens (“Downtown Abbey”) impresses as Lancelot. Williams? My heart breaks again. RIP. B-

Maleficent (2014)

Without Angelina Jolie, would there have been any reason to make, much less watch, “Maleficent,” the new, live-action take on the “Sleeping Beauty” evil lady turned dragon? Likely not. The star of “Tomb Raider” lords over this movie with absolute ease, dressed in black leather and horns, and makeup that makes her already sharp cheek bones seem as if razors. We’re quickly told the fairy tale story we all know is bunk, up is down, down is up, and Maleficent is the wronged and wounded fairy that is our hero, and villain, justified in her anger. She begins a graceful child with wings and love of nature who befriends a young human boy who will years later –- and after a grievous deed -– become a crazed Macbeth-type king (Sharlto Copley) with … well, honesty not much of a motive. Yeah, there’s the curse the baby Aurora thing, but it’s iffy up ’til then. Despite lots of busy useless narration. Script issue? I digress. Is anyone here for the script? Does it matter the climactic “true love’s kiss” is easily known and blasé? No. This is all for Jolie. Period. She’s breathing fire, and happily laughing evil. (Psst, Aurora is a side dish here.) B

Peter Pan (1953) and Robin Hood (1973)

I just re-watched two Disney takes on classic stories: “Robin Hood,” from 1973, with foxes, lions, chickens, and badgers in the lead roles, and “Peter Pan,” the classic take that … well, defines everything I knew about Peter Pan growing up, and even now.

Fact: This “Robin Hood” is one of the first films I ever saw, and it’s still a bit of a gem, perfectly pitched to the preschool set with cute, fun lyrics from a narrator rooster and wonderful sight gags. Dig the way the animators let us see Robin Hood dress in ridiculously easy disguises, and yet still fools the villainous Prince John. It puts young viewers in the know, and I love that. Ditto the animation, even though much of it is reused from “Jungle Book,” et al in a cheap-o move. (That I notice means points off.) Pen and ink rocks, and the bits with Prince John sucking his thumb would never work in CGI. B+

“Pan,” now, is so brilliant, so -– it *is* Peter Pan to me, and it’s wonderfully geared to both the awe of children and whimsy of adults. Honestly, this film is 60 years old and it feels eternal even if the costumes suggest we’re talking pre-1900. Everything in this movie is my point of reference for every character, and I cannot hold it against Disney. Why did I never pick up on the singing gay pirate bit before? That’s a treat, that I can pick up on new stuff on a 12^th viewing. I love that Tinker Ball is quite an ass here, not heroic, and Hook is just awesome, especially with Smee. That Peter Pan is both hero and a brat, and Disney never pushes or preaches, he lets it play out, and lets kids in the audience realize, you need your parents. Yes, the whole Red Skin thing smacks a dumb move, a holdover from the classic book. But every image here -– flying over London, the alligator –- is a marvel, it gooses a 40-year-old’s dreams. A

Muppets Most Wanted (2014)

“Muppet Most Wanted” opens after 2011’s “The Muppets” ends as our beloved heroes bask in new found fame until they realize the still-present camera means one thing: Sequel. The Muppets have always played with the fourth wall and the jokes come fast. The opening song declares sequels as inferior and –- in an inspired bit -– surmises aloud that parent company Disney only green lit this because it’s still holding for “Toy Story 4.” The plot, though, is inferior, clever bits aside. Ricky Gervais plays an oily talent manager who fools the gang into a European tour that is a ruse to rob museums, masterminded by his frog boss, a Kermit look-alike with only a facial mole to set him apart. And a twerpy Russian accent. And no talent. Meanwhile, Kermit is sent to a Siberian prison run by Tina Fey, and housed by the likes of Ray Liotta and Danny Trejo, expert villains. There are many cameos. None must see. Director James Bobin goes for the spirit and madcap anything goes jokes of the older films, but the “Shawshank” and “Silence of the Lambs” winks ring awkward. That said, few entertainments balm one’s soul as well as the sight of Beeker. B

Frozen (2013)

Disney’s “Frozen” -– adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen’s book “The Snow Queen” -– is a solid piece of Disney Princess entertainment with catchy music. It might not stand aside instant-classic “Beauty and the Beast,” but it’s nice to see a throwback to that early 1990s era. Plot: A princess (Kristen Bell) vows to save the older sister (Idinia Menzel) she was once so close to as children after the latter unintentionally puts their perfect kingdom into a literal deep freeze. See, the sister/queen can create X-Men-style ice and snow with her hands, but has little control of the power. The townspeople seek vengeance, but our princess pleads forgiveness. Toss in a macho man, his BFF reindeer, and a singing snowman, and we have an adventure. Not all the pieces fit -- I love that little snowman (voiced by Jonathan Groff) with his ode to summer song, but he whiffs of tacked-on comedy relief. Ditto rock trolls. I dug, though, our female leads and the genre-tweaking dig at instant love and charming princes. The computer animation is flawless, naturally. But watching this old-school story, I longed for the nuance of hand-drawn animation. Flawless often can be … cold. B+

Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

The story of Walt Disney’s struggle to make the 1964 classic “Mary Poppins” has often been told during the past 50 years. Author P.L. Travers fought Disney on every word during production and loathed the movie (the latter is outright squashed). This cleaned-up squabble is the basis for “Saving Mr. Banks” which shows how Travers (real name Helen Goff, played by Emma Thompson) was won over by Disney’s (Tom Hanks) charm, and explores why the children’s book author was so harsh -- mainly her haunting Outback youth. This is a Disney film, though, and from the opening logos, it works to make the audience smile and cry, damn the facts. It succeed, mostly. But “Banks” is grossly off point. Walt himself woos Travers with his own uneasy childhood tale, but it’s for naught. Yes, Walt had it hard, many do, but Travers’ parents were non-functioning adults riddled by alcoholism and mental illness that reached the act of suicide. (Worst offense: Mistaking dad’s drunken fatherly doting and kindness for actual doting and kindness.) No talk from a nice old guy or spoonful of sugar can remedy that. Still, the happy tunes and sunny spirit are difficult to resist. Disney magic, that. B-

Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Monsters University (2013)

Animation wise, Pixar was knocking out instant classic year after year in the early 2000s, and “Monsters Inc.” stood tall among many gems. The fantastic story: All those shadowy monsters we saw in our closets and under our beds as children are real, and they live in monster city powered by the screams of bed-frightened youth. The kicker: The monsters fear children. Kids are considered toxic, and woe the hairy freak who gets a toddler’s sock stuck to his back. 

The top “scarer” is James “Sully” Sullivan, a massive blue-and-purple horned guy with the voice of John Goodman and a sidekick/manager/BFF named Mike Wazowski that looks like a giant eyeball with legs and arms, and the voice of Billy Crystal. (Just dig the names: Right out of any Philly neighborhood from my childhood.) All is well for these guys until Mike lets in a babbling toddler who mistakes our scary man for a big kitty. Mayhem ensues, with smart genre spoofing and asides as Ray Harryhausen’s name becomes that of the top spot to eat in town and medusa is, umm, a hot lady at work. For Mike no less. 

Every moment – especially John Ratzenburger as an Abominable Snowman with self-esteem issues – is magic, and the film empowers children to not cry but laugh at the dark. How unfathomably cool is that? Besides “Incredibles,” Pixar has no better action scene than a long fight between our heroes against a lizard-like color shifter snidely voiced by Steve Buscemi among thousands of racing, shifting closet doors, each leading to the “real” world. 

 “Inc.” pops and crackles with glee, with Randy Newman’s jazz score tying the knot on the present. The last scene kills.

The sequel, “Monsters University,” is a prequel as we jump back in time to see James and Mike meet during their freshman year of college. Are they pals? No. Rivals. The gist of the story: Our heroes are at college to major in scaring children to land jobs at the power company Monsters Inc. James is a natural, coasting in on his family name, while Mike has mud in his eye, not the slightest bit scary. 

The duo find themselves on academic skids after destroying a prize possession of the dean (Helen Mirren, turning on the intimidation to full blast as a dragon-like scorpion). Along the way Mike and James join the Omega Kappa (O.K.!) fraternity, a bottom drawer of geeks who live with one of their own mothers. Will Mike and James and the team succeed against all odds? Yes! They will. (Debate: Is cheating OK? Well…) 

Pixar is coasting here, railing on “Revenge of the Nerds” jokes and our own love for the first film. Oh, there are laughs -- I dug the old lady librarian from Mordor – but the jazz pop of “Inc.” is sophomoric.

Inc.:  A University:  B+

Spring Breakers (2013)

Harmony Korine’s purposefully delirious drama/horror/satire “Spring Breakers” is shocking, but not for any onscreen debauchery, but how bright and shiny, and dull it is, and how much it strives to be “Girls Gone Wild” meets “Natural Born Killers.” Circa 1994. The story: Four college girls (led by Disney princesses Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez, plus Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine) head to Florida and plunge into binge drinking, drugs, sex acts, and scooter racing without helmets. When they land in jail, a redneck drug dealer (James Franco) “saves” and woos the group with guns, piano skills, and love of “Scarface.” After Gomez as a Christian named “Faith” (fancy that, eh?) bolts for home, the other three turn pink-masked gangbanger. Really. Korine spills ironic observations about youth obsessions with sex, gun culture, and celebrity, and our affinity to get bored, no matter where or what we are. But he’s working from a sketchy 30-page culture thesis triple spaced to 90, with scenes and sounds (guns!) repeated without end. Boiled down: Korine’s only real trick is getting two Mickey Mouse stars to go Mickey and Mallory for faux shock value. To break taboos? Or filmgoers’ patience? Franco, btw, is madly genius. C+

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Walt Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph” takes a nod and a rip from Pixar gem “Toy Story” and takes us inside the world of arcade games, where characters see the slide of a quarter as a call to work, and party when no one is looking. Oh, flattery. Story: Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the human wrecking ball villain of the 1980s game “Fix It Felix Jr.,” but he longs to be the hero. Ralph commits a no-no and crosses wires for his chance at glory, first to a shoot-’em-up alien game, then over to a racing game called “Sugar Rush.” Much mayhem ensues as Ralph wrecks. He can’t help himself. Now, this is not Pixar. It’s run-of-the-mill Disney. So, the score already is lower. The wit and heart, too. But this is flat-out great fun. The “Felix” game is so exactly rendered Atari retro-style, the characters blink when they move, I thought it was a real title from 30 years ago. It’s not. That and the ridiculously hilarious side characters (Alan Tudyk as a kooky king) make me game to play again. The myriad shrill corporate promos … not so much. B+

The Lion King (1994)

As Disney’s Pixar continues to dazzle eyeballs with animated CGI fare such as “Incredibles” and “Toy Story” sequels, it’s easy to forget the unbeatable magic of hand-drawn animation, and “The Lion King” is absolutely one of the best of now extinct ink-and-paint glories. This is a jaw-dropping beautiful epic with a capital “E” movie with music catchable, happy, and chilling, and characters straight from Shakespeare. You know plot: Young African lion cub Simba is the apple of his father/king’s eye until the latter is killed, leaving Simba on the run, under the impression that he did in his daddy. It is, of course, the uncle, to blame. In other words, “Hamlet.” The voice cast is perfect, from James Earl Jones as the king/father, and full “Reversal of Fortune” evil Jeremy Irons as Uncle Scar, to Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Matthew Broderick as young and adult Simba. But it’s visuals I love -– the exact strokes made by men and women, not computers, of a cub sinking in the grass in fear of dad’s wrath or the same cub trying to awaken his dead father. Breathtaking. Amazing. Art. The 18-year-old “King” has aged like royal wine. Classic. A+

Brave (2012)

In Pixar’s “Brave,” red-haired and wild Merida is a Scottish lass who must make that terrible choice that seemingly every other Disney Princess has ever faced: Marrying for duty, not for love. She is no wallflower longing for Prince Charming, though, but a huntress who climbs tall mountains that lord over her Highlands home. When iron-willed mother (Emma Thompson) pushes our heroine to choose a suitor, she bolts. “Brave” is, wonderfully, the first Pixar film to focus on a female lead, but it’s also, sadly and oddly, the first of its films to bear a heavy, unmistakable thumbprint from new parent company Disney. From the princess angle to the heavy lessons, the DNA here is as old as “Snow White.” The plot fully kicks off when runaway Merida encounters a witch who promises to “change” her mother with a spell. What trouble magic brings I will not say, but its resolution is so simple and straight forward, I kept waiting for another shoe, any shoe, to drop. More Hesitant than “Brave.” In true Pixar fashion, the animation stuns, and the voice cast (Kelly Mcdonald plays Merida) is flawlessly chosen for talent, not name. B

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)

Warner Bros. made “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” for 3D big screens in 2012, but watching the pop-art colors, goofy-grin special effects, and family-on-an-adventure story, I thought of the Disney movies from 30 years back, fantasies that put children center stage. “Journey” is proudly rah-rah family fun, hokey with “I love you, dad” montages that rocket past cringingly cloy, but it is miles better than the first “Journey” film, “Center of the Earth.” That piffle drowned in bad CGI, but here we get tiny elephants, giant bees, raging waters, and falling rocks that ring more true. (Sort of.) Speaking of Rocks, Dwayne Johnson replaces Brandon Fraser as the adult who joins our teen hero (Josh Hutcherson) on an adventure that again focuses on Verne and a missing relative (Michael Caine as one cool grandpa). Hutcherson is too old to be short-bus style yelling “Grandpa!,” but Johnson has a ball singing and playing a ukulele. Adults won’t mind when the cast breaks the fourth wall and smirk. B-

Dumbo (1941)

Before the words “Walt Disney” became synonymous with Corporate Giant, it was the name of an artist still unsurpassed in imagination and legend. Disney’s 1940s animated films still dazzle above and beyond anything produced now, and 71-year-old “Dumbo” is among his best works. It’s the story of a baby elephant with large ears, and his harsh circus life where mother is abused and imprisoned for protecting her young one. Dumbo, even this is a cruel nickname, must perform in clown makeup, and is placed atop a burning scaffold and forced to jump into a small pool of goop. Pure humiliation. This is classic dark Disney, a film about a broken child, mixed with much hope and magic. The plot borrows from “Pinocchio” with another tinier, smarter pal in Timothy B. Mouse, but it’s a clever twist, and a funny joke, too. The animation, story, and music are pure joy, even if the gang of crows almost flies into Jim Crow stereotyping. Note the use of watercolors, and the dazzling, still daring and freakishly scary Pink Elephant scene. A

Gnomeo & Juliet (2011)

“Gnomeo & Juliet” is exactly what you think it is: A child’s eye version of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet,” minus the suicide, blood, lust and sex. Although there’s a helluva lot of jokes about cock – hat – sizes, and references to brave boy gnomes having huge balls. But will children get that? Likely not. They won’t care, either. Nor will they care that the movie’s concept steals from “Toy Story,” the gnomes come to life when left alone by people, and turn back into objects when they appear, and its humor stolen from the Dreamworks line of film parodies and famous voices for entertainment. There are some witty bits: Dig the moving truck, or the Taming of the Glue. The opening is a silly wink-wink nod to narrators of old. Nine writers took part. Up to 10 or more if you count Shakespeare and actorly improvisation. With that many people, you can have a soccer club. But a good film? No. C+

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

I watched “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” twice in one week to truly understand how much of an empty-headed, empty-hearted letdown it is, a dull gray shadow of its first outing, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” one of the most fun Big Hollywood Tent Pole Movies of 2003 and the past decade.

That was a deserved Hollywood blockbuster: The thrill of seeing undead men walking on the ocean floor in moonlight to take a ship, Geoffrey Rush’s gleefully nasty villain who, I swear, I wanted to win because he was so … rotten good, Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, a swashbuckling conman hero with eye-liner who took part in the action yet remained aloof, a comedic Puck-like character from Shakespeare. With an undying thirst for rum, rum, rum. And rum. It was as if Depp said, “You want me to headline a Hollywood summer film? Alright, stand back.” The cast and characters (including Orlando Bloom and then-unknown Keira Knightley as the hero and damsel in distress) seemingly had no idea how to contemplate the actor Depp or the character Jack, and in once hilarious scene Bloom all but breaks the fourth wall to make sport of Sparrow/Depp.

“Black Pearl” was and remains a fun blast. No one knew it would work. It did. Massively. (Rush was robbed of a Best Supporting Actor nomination, fact.) The film remains endlessly rewatchable, just to pick out the shifts and squirms in Depp and his pirate self. The inevitable sequels disappointed, they had nowhere to go but down, but they limped along nicely enough. This? This fourth sequel? Third sequel? Shit, does it matter? No. I have thus far avoided talking about it have you not noticed? It hurts my cinematic brain.

Depp is back, and the center stage as Jack Sparrow, the first mistake in this Rob Marshall-directed (he made “Chicago” and “Nine”) crapper that has no spark, no center, or soul, or logic. (Gore Verbinski helmed the first three.) Even hair-brained Hollywood logic, by which I mean the “Don’t think, enjoy” mantra is gone. Depp looks deeply sullen and uninterested from the start as he badly impersonates a London judge then – must I explain? – gets mixed in with a former flame (Penelope Cruz) and the nastiest pirate of all, Blackbeard (Ian McShane). It is McShane who gives some pulse to this mess, which leaves Bloom and Knightley behind for another couple two boring to speak about, and I say that knowing the dude plays a Christian missionary and the lady plays a genuine mermaid. How that can be boring, I’ll never know, but the writers behind this film make it so.

The whole darn lot is after the Fountain of Youth, and the climatic fight over it – involving pirates, Brits, the Spanish navy, those mermaids and zombies, yes, zombies – plays like an AARP promo. Arthritic, with bad-lighting, and lots of mugging. I mean sorry-ass smiles, not robbery, unless one counts the price of a movie ticket or DVD. The filmmakers whip up so many switcheroos that the endless double crosses become redundant echoes of “Gotch’ya!” In one ugly spot, Sparrow pulls a mutiny prank that gets an innocent man executed (by flamethrower!) at the hands of Blackbeard. Sparrow just shrugs it off. The scene is all kinds of wrong, bad for Jack and the series.

No scene is more boring and overlong than an early sword fight between Depp and Cruz, shot in pitch dark and from angles so unpleasant and haphazard, even a child would know we are watching stunt doubles piss about in a second-unit action scene. The once-rousing “Pirates” music by Klaus Badelt, Depp’s comedic timing, and the way he once slipped in and out of the action like an armed drunken court jester, is all off, as is the supernatural kitsch. We get zombie pirates, massive ships (the Black Pearl!) shrunken and captured in rum bottles, and voodoo magic. None of it is explained, and all of it reeks like half-assed script ideas abandoned whilst cameras rolled.

Rush returns (again!) as Barbossa, but that joyously evil glimmer he showed in “Black Pearl” is gone. Rush is here for the paycheck and the vacation in Central America, same as Depp. Having seen Depp slump through “Rum Diary,” I’m not too shocked, but Rush is usually above that. The first film played like a wild card gag, while “Stranger” lacks strangeness and magic, it is a lifeless bore, so dark (and in useless 3-D) I thought the big-screen TV we recently purchased was off kilter.

A fifth (!) “Pirates” is in the works, but I hope it’s a chest never opened. Beyond McShane and employing hundreds of CGI geeks and model makers, this third sequel (that hurts typing that again) has no reason to exist other than to have made hordes of money. (Which it sadly did.) Jump the shark? Jump off the plank. Captain Jack should quit the sea, and retire. To the ocean floor. Black Pearl: A On Stranger Tides: C-

Bambi (1942)

How many of us really remember “Bambi”? Sweet animals. Bright and sunny forest. Young deer finding his legs. Thumper and that restless foot. So lovable. Memory is fickle. Walt Disney’s classic tale a dark coming of age story that is cute, yes, but also visceral, and quite intense at the climax. The story: Bambi is born and grows up among friendly rabbits, birds and skunks in a forest. He matures. Winter hits hard. Man comes. A gunshot. Mother is no more. Then later the fire, set by man. There is no tongue-in-cheek satire here, yes, some laughs, but mostly hard truths. Its theme: Growing up is hell, but you eventually will find happiness. The details are exceedingly rich, from every hand-drawn character to creeks and leaves. No perfected CGI film will exceed even the beautiful errand lines created by men and women. Check out that fight scene. Or Thumper thumping. “Bambi” rightfully holds its place as one of the greatest animated films out there. And, yeah, Bambi’s momma’s death put a lump in my throat. Maybe. A+

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Walt Disney Studios broke ground with “The Princess and the Frog” – a fantasy tale focused on an African-American girl with the big Disney Dreams™ and the handsome guy to go with them. It felt about damn time, after how many decades. Seven? Eight? Alas, this hand-drawn animated tale never took off in theaters. Racism? No. It’s the film's plot and tone. Our not-a-princess princess (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) wants to open a restaurant of her own, and running after her dream, gets mixed up with a young prince who’s now literally a frog (that’s Bruno Campos) and a local New Orleans con man/master of dark arts (Keith David.) I’m not quite sure any child dreams of opening a restaurant, so there’s that, and some of the animation involving “The Shadow Man” is quite spooky – skulls and wicked ghost shadows, etc. Not for the babes. All that said, this is one great-looking flick with some clever side characters and surprises along the way. It’s not Disney’s best, but even off-center Disney can be wonderful entertainment. B+

Sky High (2005)

Kurt Russell is one of film’s most under-used comics. In “Sky High,” he plays an uptight superhero living in suburban America – husband, father and real estate agent. His wife (Kelly Preston) also is a super hero, but the kid (Michael Angarano)? Late bloomer. The film focuses on the son as he starts 9th grade, goes girl crazy and tries to get his Superman on. This is pure Disney, but also a sly satire on every 1980s teen flick ever made and all those serious comic book movies. Russell is just a hoot, wearing his costume around the house, generally acting like a serious fool. The plot is silly, but great kid fun, and Linda Carter – TV’s “Wonder Woman” – passes gags around with Steve Carell, Bruce Campbell and Dave Foley. The comic book panel cinematography works here like a charm, an abysmal effort in most other capes and makeup efforts. B+

Tangled (2010)

“Tangled” -- Disney’s take on “Rapunzel” -- is a return to the classic cartoon princess musicals that died 20 years ago, beaten into a grave by now-classic satires such as “The Princess Bride.” I mean, we have the gooey music, including the scene where the female runs into a field, throws her arms in the air and hits a note higher than Keith Richards ever knew. Mandy Moore voices Rapunzel, the lost princess, and Zachary Levi is the good-hearted thief. Beauty-obsessed nasty-witch-slash-matriarch-figure in disguise? Check. But, damn it, I'm not complaining. It worked when my mother was a child, when I was a child, and … It. Still. Works. The humor is knowingly smart, but not mean or cynical. The comedy -- a mime thug, an old man, a stubborn horse -- is pure Disney joy. CGI animation misses the inspirational quirkiness of its hand-drawn predecessors, but the visuals of “Tangled” are happy wonderful. All throw-backs should be as entertaining. B+