the king and i , a warner brothers animated , musical feature , recycles the classic story of a woman who challenges the heart of a king , with obvious results .
when anna ( miranda richardson ) , a british schoolteacher , travels to saim to educate the king 's ( martin vidnovic ) children , she learns that the king is treating his people unfairly , and must say something to the greedy ruler .
meanwhile , the king 's prime minister ( ian richardson ) , the stereotypical villain , plots to overthrow the king , taking the throne .
the last , and most predictable , main subplot deals with the king 's son ( allen d. hong ) , and his love for a servant , tuptim ( armi arabe ) , and how he conflicts with his feelings , and the ancient laws of saim . not even the lone strong character of anna can save the unbelievably horrible waste of talent , as the king and i 's problems could fill the blank pages of a journal .
i will only note the major difficulties , for it would take pages to elaborate on every detail .
the screenplay , written by arthur rankin , peter bakalian , jacqeline feather , and david seidler , which is based upon the play written by richard rodgers and oscar hammerstein , has some of the worst dialogue written in a film within recent memory ,
as every time the obnoxious king would shout , " etc , etc , etc , " i would cringe .
literally .
speaking of cringing-
i did quite a bit of this during the rather short film , which is a classic display of terrible filmmaking .
besides the repetitive dialogue from the king , on the whole , the songs seem out of place , and unlike the lyrics , are unmagical .
the sole song which is used cleverly is " getting to know you , " which is used as anna shows the children the great outdoors , which they have never been exposed to .
unlike disney animated features , the king and i 's songs do n't add to the film , and are as uneffective as could be .
take the following scenario as an example , as the sheer horror of the king
and i 's music is at its worst .
you 're being hunted by a dragon !
what do you do ! ?
sing a happy song !
martin vidnovic voices the king without effort or emotion-
you hear the saying two negatives do n't make a positive ? believe it !
with the terrible dialogue that the king has , along with his awful voice track , the king is completely unbelievable , only shows mild signs of any personality , and the only thing that changes in the king is that he says " etc . , etc . , etc . , " more and more as the film progresses .
no personality at the beginning of the movie , none at the end .
and where does this character 's personality change ?
hey , i thought anna was supposed to change him !
is n't that the whole plot ?
the prime minister 's hideous sidekick ( darrell hammond ) brings his share of cringes as well
- oh no !
another one of his teeth fell out !
hardy - har - har !
he is supposed to bring laughs for the kidlets , but even at age five i would have cringed while watching him .
by the way this review is going , you may think the reasoning for my hate for this film is due to not liking animated films- hence
why i hate this movie , because the king and i is a disgrace to animation .
animated films , such as 1994 's the lion king and 1998 's the prince of egypt , are among my favorite movies of all time .
the animation team does design their share of well animated settings , so this makes it easier to take my mind off of the annoying king , until i realize that day and night switch back in fourth within seconds .
i have not read the play , or seen the oscar winning , 1956 film adaption , but from what i can tell , the screenplay for the 1999 version completely butchers the play , for the king
and i is never magical , nor interesting .
if it was n't for miranda richardson , who voices anna with feeling , the king and i could earn the title , " worst movie of the decade .
" instead , the king and i will just go down as among the year 's worst .
the bottom line- avoid this movie at all costs .
not even young children , the target audience in this film , will enjoy it . not the slightest bit .
Output: N