Broadway. Be Afraid. Be Very Very Afraid

Rating: 10/10 (5 December 2013)

I never claimed to be an expert in musical theatre but I have seen my fair share of film musicals (including most of the MGM productions from the 40s, and most of the recent Disney work) and a good number of Broadway shows. There is something here that is new and ground-breaking. Here the characters don't merely "break into song" -- which is the way most film musicals traditionally work -- but rather they are, for large stretches of the production, already in song and instead "break into voice." I am sorry if I am not being clear but, as I said, there is something new here. It reminds me very much of the Broadway productions of the 60s, there is a certain joy, a certain primal desire .. to sing the story (especially at the beginning of the film, less perhaps toward the end). And the animation is the best I have seen. I recall reading some scholarly discussion explaining that Japanese were far ahead of everyone else in animation (manga) because they knew, from the getgo, that facial expressions were the key, everything else was secondary. One suspects that the Disney people have been quietly spending millions on perfecting the facial expressions because these are literally the best I have seen. (Although the work in the TV series LAST AIRBENDER was extraordinary in this regard, given the much smaller budget). The story is magical. The script is wonderful. Kristen Bell, who has been bouncing around in some very strange films lately (my review of Lifeguard, which was not flattering, discussed this) seems to have found her inner Voice Actress and she could I think spend the rest of her career just doing voice, if she wanted. Nice to see of Joss Whedon's favourite actors, Alan Tudyk, also finding his inner animation actor. This is no ordinary Disney release. This is destined to be a classic.