2 Reviews: The September Issue & The Princess & the Frog
October 4th 2010 03:41
The September Issue (Cutler, 2009)
Written October 3, 2010
I don’t pretend to know a lot about fashion. But I’m nonetheless intrigued by the world and those who inhabit it. The Documentary The September Issue focuses on the production of the 2007 September issue of Vogue magazine, which was the largest in its history thus far. The camera follows to main individuals mainly: Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and Creative Director Grace Coddington. Both women started at the U.S. Vogue the same year, yet Anna has become the fashion industries most respected and feared inhabitant. For most of the documentary, we’re only given brief glimpse of Anna’s in work-mode. She’s cool and calculating, and full of determination. Grace is softer, but just as stubborn. The two clash professionally but definitely respect one of other’s work ethic. With Grace, we learn more about her personality and she’s often romanticized against the backdrops of cities such as Rome and Paris. It isn’t until the 3rd act that the viewer gets a sense of what might be beneath Anna’s icy gaze. The scene is when she mentions the awe-inspiring professions of her siblings. Anna then states, “I think they’re … amused by what I do. They’re amused.” And when she pauses, the hurt is evident.
A good documentary makes the viewer more interested in the subjects than fictional film characters. In that one moment, The September Issue achieves that, but the rest doesn’t dwell too much on the people behind the fashion and instead the fashion itself. While the subject is definitely interesting, The September Issue isn’t going to knock your socks off. And you may scratch your head when it abruptly ends without showing Anna deciding on the ultimate cover. But what it will do is expose you to a world you may never get a chance to visit elsewhere. Even if you don’t have one iota of interest in the fashion industry, the film is worth a view. What a viewer should ultimately take away from the film is there’s millions of jobs in this world; jobs that on the surface, to the outsider, may not seem important or serious. But to the people who do them, who live them, they are. To the outsider, the dilemia of not having a large enough variety of dresses for a photo-shoot may seem shallow. But when you’re the editor of a magazine, dealing with real-life deadlines, it’s the most serious issue in the world.
The Princess and the Frog (2009, Clements & Musker)
Written October 3, 2010
The opening of The Princess and the Frog is the best thing about the film: the slow pan, camera pushing in through a window, to two little girls sitting on the floor, playing dress-up. The visuals are beautiful because the viewer understands this is the first time we’ve seen a 2-D Disney animation film in quiet some time. Unfortunately, the novelty of this wears off almost immediately due to disengaging characters and unappealing original songs. For a Disney animated feature to succeed, the two staples are memorable songs and interesting characters; it’s a shame The Princess and the Frog couldn’t at least go one for two. Instead of doing a straight-up retelling of The Frog Prince, Disney inverts the fable. The film takes place in New Orleans in the 1920’s, when a young prince named Naveen is turned into a frog and seeks out a princess to break the spell. Instead, he finds a lowly waitress named Tania who dreams of opening her own restaurant. Upon kissing him, she too becomes a frog.
The vibrant colors lack distinct charm. The drawing and animation of Tania’s friend, a rich southern belle, looks almost like a caricature -- or something out of the Tinkerbell reboot. The story is terribly flimsy and the villain, a voodoo practicing Witchdoctor, is mundane. There are a few beautiful sequences during the musical numbers, such as the shots of the reflecting river and background forest during ‘When We’re Human’. Ultimately, though, what results from the overlong 97 minutes is a story that lacks charm and unforgettable characters. Tania sustains the most interest but the rest (especially the supporting cast) function more often than not as caricatures and are rather offensive at times.
Perhaps what The Princess and the Frog lacks most is an ability to appeal to adults as well as children. The film feels more like a Dreamworks feature rather than classic Disney animation. This is surprising given the directors helmed The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. Yet the above photograph is the prettier than the entire film. Further, while it’s refreshing to see a Prince given a larger role (even if he is a frog for the majority) in the central storyline, Naveen is annoying and dull. It’s also puzzling for him to be from the fictional country of Maldonia, when such painstaking effort was taken to set the film in the bustling and lively New Orleans. Overall, you aren’t missing much by skipping this one. However, one can only hope this isn’t the rebirth and simultaneous death of Disney’s return to traditional animation. With the right tale and team, there’s no reason audiences can’t be greeted to another Beauty and the Beast.
Author’s Note: A promising future endeavor is a full-length Winnie the Pooh, in the vein of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, with the same animation style. It will feature five previously unadapted stories from the A.A. Milne books. Release is slated for July 2011.
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