Hollywood finally gets it right

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2001)

Watched this marvellous film again on video the other night, a year after seeing it on circuit, and it really is as good as I remember it being. Genuine wit, superb comic timing and a cracking pace make this one of the best films around, animated or not.
As with children's literature, children's films are not taken seriously by institutions who hand out major awards, so Eddie Murphy will probably not get a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the donkey (or "Dunkeh" to use his own accent). This is a great pity as his performance is a comic masterclass, bordering on genius. The smart-ass (literally!) jibes and whines of typical Disney comic sidekicks are dispensed with in favour of a genuinely funny, sympathetic and supremely likeable character, up there with any character projected by the big method stars of today.

The producers could have gone overboard with their post-modern ironic nods to the fairy-tale genre, in the manner of Mel Brooks spoofs (although the camp dancing Robin Hood and his men seemed an almost direct copy of the rapping outlaws in "Men in Tights.") However all ironic touches were handled with a subtlety and sophistication very rare in Hollywood films of today: the henchman Thelonius smashing the hand-mirror to get the magic mirror to talk was sublime, as was the screaming match between the evil duke and the gingerbread man on the torture table.
If there was one flaw to the film it was the slightly uncomfortable message arrived at through the transformation of the princess into an ogre, implying that you can be happy despite your appearance. The fact that the ogress looked like any plump 16-year-old girl (apart from the green skin!) won't help a generation obsessed with being thin and blonde.
I'll leave raving about the animation and the soundtrack to those more qualified, but needless to say they were brilliant.
All in all, the best animated film ever, and possibly the best children's film as well.