TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
PROBLEM: when i first heard that disney 's next animated feature was going to be tarzan , i was almost horrified .
i was worried that disney was going to make another hercules ( sorry , jerk - ules ) .
that effort was too overloaded with comedy ( and the hero was too boastful and pompous to be considered a sympathetic hero ) , and , after viewing it to this day , i find it a disgrace for disney animation .
when i saw the trailers , i was thinking " hmm . . .
this is n't bad at all .
this just might have potential .
"
when i bought the soundtrack , i was really quite surprised at how different it sounded from most disney features .
i have never really heard of phil collins , nor have i heard of mark mancina , so i was wondering , how would these two make this disney flick spin ?
i was pleasantly surprised : the music is top - notch .
phil collins ' songs are terrific , percussion - heavy pieces of work that seem to break the formula for typical disney songs .
the score from mark mancina was also neat
; it reminded me a bit of the lion king , but it was more original .
so , the soundtrack was n't bad at all , considering it was by two people i am not familiar with .
this film could be good . . .
but will it be ?
when i finally went to see it ( on opening day , as i tend to do with most disney animated features ) , my question was answered , in a complete turnabout of expectations for me : disney 's tarzan is surprisingly decent .
the story starts out with tarzan 's parents surviving a shipwreck and finding a home on an island where apes live in peace .
however , one day , a vicious leopard , sabor , attacks and kills tarzan 's parents , leaving him ( at this time , a baby ) alone - until kala of the apes rescues him .
kala wants to raise the child as her own ( she lost hers previously to sabor ) , but her mate , kerchak is not too sure .
"
it 's not our kind , " he says .
he agrees , though , to let her take care of little tarzan , but " that does n't make him my son .
" tarzan grows up , vowing to be " the best ape ever " , but no matter how hard he tries or what he does ( at the guidance of his hilarious ape friend , terk ) , he just ca n't convince kerchak that he is one of the apes , even when he defeats sabor in a battle .
one day , a new animal shows up : humans .
this is where jane comes into the picture .
she is on an expedition with her father ( professor porter ) , and a despicable hunter ( clayton ) searching for gorillas .
tarzan rescues her when she is chased by baboons , and soon they get to know each other .
even though tarzan falls in love with jane , this causes things to go wrong .
clayton tricks tarzan into taking him , jane , and porter to see the apes , who are convinced that he has betrayed them .
worse , clayton has plotted to send the gorillas to london for money .
will tarzan find out which family he belongs to and save the apes ?
i 'm not gon na tell you , sorry .
you 're gon na have to see for yourself .
and see it you should ; the animation is , as always ,
top notch , particularly when tarzan goes soaring through the trees
( read that , skateboarding ) .
the deep canvas computer generated effect adds an authentic feeling to the jungle which tarzan lives in .
in fact , it seems similar to the computer imagery / cel animation combination in rival disney animted films , such as fox 's anastasia and dreamworks ' prince of egypt .
could it be that disney was actually taking ideas from their rivals ?
the casting is fairly good .
tony goldwyn is emotionally believeable as tarzan ( and to my relief , the animators have succeeded in not making him another hercules .
nicely done ) , and glenn close is wonderful as kala ( she has a beautiful singing voice , too , by the way ) .
lance henrikson as kerchak somewhat reminds me of robby benson 's beast voice , which makes him all the more ferocious and gripping .
minnie driver had me a little worried at first as the voice of jane .
i thought she had the most annoying voice in the whole film ( when i first saw the trailers ) , but when i saw the film , i did n't have a problem with her .
i take back my insult on driver .
it 's nice to hear nigel hawthorne do another voice for a disney animated feature
( he was fflewdurr flamm in disney 's most underrated classic , the black cauldron ) ; he is funny and delightful as professor porter .
on the villiany side of the voices , brian blessed ( the guy who did boss nass in star wars : episode i - the phantom menace ) brings a pompous , and later on vicious , voice to the sinister clayton .
he might not be the strongest character in the film
( he 's just a plain bad guy , nothing else ) , but blessed 's vocal work contributes greatly .
but if there is any voice that i think steals the whole show , it should be rosie o'donnell , who is hilariously funny as terk .
she also has a fiesty attitude
( " i 'm gon na kill ya !
"
she says , more than once ) .
i almost sung along with her during one of the film 's best moments , where the apes make a mess of the human 's camp , via song , er , scatting " shoo - be - doo , da - be - dah " .
i can see why she wanted to have a rock song for the film
, she 's a good singer .
not that she was the only funny character in the film , though .
wayne knight ( who played stan in space jam ) gives a whimsically funny style to tantor , an elephant who is especially worried about stepping into " un - sanitary " water .
( thankfully , there is no real sound of flatuence -
that would have killed the picture ) .
the songs , as i said before , are decent , mostly sung by collins .
this sets a new standard for disney animated films because for the first time , the characters do not sing .
i tolerate musical numbers from characters a lot more than some other guys would , but i found this to be a nice change of pace .
the story does have elements of comedy in it , but they also load it with strong dramatic touches , which makes this film far better than the unbelieveably uninspired hercules .
if there is anything disappointing about tarzan , it might be the omission of the ' n sync version of " trashing the camp " from the film .
i heard it on the soundtrack , and wondered where it was going to be .
i was upset that it was n't , because i had thought of taking a few friends of mine who like ' n sync to see tarzan .
oh , well . . .
overall , i was enthralled with tarzan .
i would n't hold it high the way i do with mulan or the hunchback of notre dame ( my all - time favorite disney classics ) , but this film deserves a high place among disney 's greatest achievements .
i give a nod to disney for following up their spectacular
*
*
*
* * masterpiece , mulan , with this great animated adaption of egar rice burrough 's tarzan .

SOLUTION: P

PROBLEM: i think maybe it 's time for the batman series to be put to rest .
not only has the first two films ' unsettling insight into what it would really take for someone to make himself into a " superhero " been abandoned , but this one throws any lingering realism out the window and goes for all - out camp with few traces of the self - mocking restraint of the relatively light - hearted third installment .
let me give you an example : in the first scene of the movie , batman ( george clooney ) and robin ( chris o'donnell ) are summoned to a museum that has been literally turned to ice by mr .
freeze ( arnold schwarzenegger ) in an attempt to steal a diamond .
mr .
freeze 's thugs are armed with none other than hockey sticks , but this is no problem for our heroes : automatic skates shoot out of their shoes , at which point robin manages to get hold of a hockey stick , grabs the diamond , and stick - handles it through the museum .
i might have expected this from an airplane - style farce , but i do n't think that 's what this movie is supposed to be . after all , the previous three batman movies were actually fairly realistic by the standards of the superhero / action genre and kept the corny death - defying stunts to a minimum , while playing the obligatory cheesiness with at least some amount of irony .
not any more ; the list goes on and on in this one .
robin holds onto the outside of a flying rocket ship 30 , 000 feet high in the atmosphere , climbing in the door to save batman .
mr . freeze and poison ivy ( uma thurman ) leap from a skyscraper and survive by landing in a small pond .
a world dominating mad scientist lives in a fortress that seems to have been stolen from the old he - man cartoons .
my very favorite example is the scene in which batgirl ( alicia silverstone ) gets in a race with motorcycle thugs , during which they come up with the clever notion of dousing the road with gasoline and setting it on fire to distract her .
not bad , but would n't the police ( or maybe batman ? )
notice if the road was on fire ?
i knew gotham city was this crazy anarchic place ,
but . . . . it also seems that the creators of the batman movies are obeying some unwritten rule that there have to be more main characters and plot lines in each successive installment .
as if three protagonists and two villains were n't enough , batman and robin
further weighs itself down with an underdeveloped side story of the failing health of bruce wayne 's butler alfred ( michael gough ) , which might have seemed poignant if it was n't surrounded by so much silliness , as well as several scenes with elle macpherson as bruce 's girlfriend which serve no purpose other than to remind us that she is in the movie .
all this might be semi - excusable if the story were interesting and entertaining , but it is n't . in fact ,
it 's kind of boring
.
mr . freeze and poison ivy pale in comparison as villains to past baddies such as jack nicholson 's joker and danny devito 's penguin .
their evil plot is as predictable ( schwarzenegger actually pronounces the words , " today gotham city , tomorrow the world ! " ) as it is lame - brained
( did n't it ever occur to poison ivy that freezing the entire world would kill her precious plants too ? ) .
and robin 's constant challenging of batman
mostly just makes him look bull - headed and stupid and makes us wonder why batman ever would have taken him on as a partner in the first place .
strip away the stars , the fancy set design , and the status as a " batman movie , " and all you have here is another barely passable summer action flick .

SOLUTION: N

PROBLEM: " stuart little " is one of the best family films to come out this year .
it 's a cute , funny and very good - natured film that has nothing for parents to squirm over except a few mild cusswords .
though i read the book a long time ago and i really do not remember what it was about , i do know that this film does not disappoint .
finally a movie gets released that is as good as the trailer makes it to be , with a few surprising twists ,
some very funny moments , and a few sentimental moments all mixed in to one great little movie .
stuart little is a mouse .
he has finally gotten a new home after being put up for adoption , he now lives with the littles .
a nice little ( no pun intended ) family that lives in their apartment next to central park in new york city .
they have a little boy george ( played by the adorable jonathan
lipnicki ) and now they have a new son .
at first stuart takes a while
but he finally adjusts to being part of the family and even getting along with the pet cat .
george does n't take too well to having a mouse for a brother at first , but
once the two play together they instantly bond .
stuart however is missing something , and he wants to know who his real parents are .
the littles try and find his parents and one day they show up on the doorstep wanting stuart back .
hesitating the littles know what 's best for stuart
and so does snowball the pet cat
, he and his friends try to get stuart but in the end we find out the truth about stuart 's past ending up to a sentimental and very heart - warming ending .
one thing i noticed about the film instantly was the fantastic special effects .
just like in " star wars :
episode 1 - -the phantom menace " stuart little and his family are all computer generated and they look fantastically real .
from the detail of their fur , to the detail of the way the walk ; the special effects team put a lot of time and effort on this $ 90 million dollar film and it shows .
another movie that this has in common with is " babe " with it 's talking animals and people understanding them .
it has a family friendly atmosphere and is never really scary or suspenseful enough to even scare the youngest of kids .
michael
j .
fox does the voice of stuart himself and just like in the " homeward bound " movies
does a fantastic job and brings more out of stuart than anyone else could .
he to me
fits the character perfectly and ends up making stuart even more lovable .
another gem of the film is nathan lane as snowball .
when he was timon in 1994 's " the lion king
" i would have sworn he was a comedian , and now in " stuart little " he brings the most out of snowball and makes him one of those characters we love to dislike .
for the human actors geena davis who never gives a bad performance does not disappoint here as well .
she fits nicely in her character and there is a good chemistry between her and hugh laurie who plays mr .
little .
both make us believe they are happily in love and married and jonathan lipnicki as their song is even more adorable than he was in 1996 's " jerry maguire " .
even though stuart little is completely cgi ,
the human characters and stuart have a nice chemistry together and even makes us believe they really do care for each other .
" stuart little " is ideal family entertainment for this holiday season and will not disappoint youngsters or adults for that matter .
we get entertainment , laughs , cries and more fun at the movies this season than probably any other movie .
its nice to see a pg rated movie out at christmas that everyone can see .
even though it has a $ 90 million dollar budget i 'm sure it will make over that or just below it respectively .
for all you parents out there trying to find a good family movie , i have yet to see bicentennial man as i write this
but as far as i know " stuart little " and " toy story 2 "
are by far the best family films this year .
a winner . ?

SOLUTION:
P