They dropped the ball

Rating: 5/10 (26 June 2015)

This movie for the most part provided solid first class entertainment, it wasn't particularly funny - except for the Horse, that was inspired - but it was lighthearted and fresh.
But then it tries its hand at being manipulative and obscene, in a pathetic attempt to relate to the bratty, spoiled, over-privileged teenagers out there. I am not in that target group, and if I were as sure as hell I hope I would see through this.
One might make a case about concepts like love, and family and parenting being too complicated for the average viewer, let alone as portrayed in a children's movie. But no. Maleficent had the same base story more or less, and it was consistent.
All the lightheartedness in the world will not save your movie if your world is tailored to make sense only to a group who has the slightest - and tenuous at that - grip with reality. If you endeavor to make your resolution be an absolute defeat for the villain, make sure said villain is not an essential part of your world.
For example let's say your plot is about a mother and her disobedient child who gets in trouble all the time, and your intended resolution is to kill it. Well.. You may think you have your bases covered when you reveal that the child was not after all biologically related to the mother, and when you provide her with her "real" child, long lost, which is sweet and obedient, as a counterpoint, but guess what, show that movie to a mother and she will rip your eyes out, if only to stop you from creating another abomination and inflicting it upon the world.