A childhood favourite and my first time in a movie theatre

Rating: 10/10 (16 June 2012)

Ever since my Mom took me along with my older brother, his friend and the friend's mom when he turned 6, I have held this movie very dear to me. I was 3 years old, about a few months before my 4th birthday, at the time and while I continue to wonder how I sat through the movie without having to be removed from the theatre, I have since managed to sit through outings at the movies.
I admire the artwork, especially the blend of traditional animation and CGI, the music, the story and the voice acting. The decision to cast British actors to play Porter, Jane and Clayton is very well-suited, particularly Nigel Hawthorne who was also in The Black Cauldron, another childhood favourite.
According to my mom, when we saw this in the theatre, I loved watching the end credits to the point where we had to wait until they were through so we could go home. Now I adore the songs performed by Phil Collins in this movie.
Now we have the soundtrack CD, bought sometime after we saw it and when this movie came out on VHS in 2000, my mom and I went out and got it. Unfortunately, I stopped watching it after several viewings at home because it was too scary. When I was little, if a movie ever scared me, I decided the easiest thing to do was avoid it for as long as I possibly could. But when I was reaching adolescence, I went back and re-watched this movie and now it is once again one of my favourites.
On the other hand, I would not recommend this for anyone under 5-7. There is some violence, a lot of fights, Kerchak tends to go into rages which may frighten kids, the opening scene and of course any scene with Sabor the leopard. Seriously. I urge you, if you're a parent, babysitter, grandparent or elder relative, to watch this movie before you let any children watch it and if so, watch it with them.
All in all, this movie deserves 10 out of 10 for all the right reasons. ... If I could, though, I'd rate this 100/100.