Without a doubt, the music of "The King & I" is as it was publicized...a classic. However, the musical sequences are about all the film can flaunt. The colors are brilliant and vibrant and the animation pushing the music along is, for the most part, quite creative. With the usage of dream sequences during "I Have Dreamed..." and colorful streamers in "Getting To Know You", the animation takes a turn for a simplistic, yet entertaining presentation. The advertised pieces are catchy, (although not as memorable as they used to be back in 1956 with Yul Brynner), but the glamorous "Shall We Dance" seems all too familiar to the Oscar-winning classic.
Without the music, the film is a drab, poorly-written, mangled remake. The characters provide no motive for several of their actions, especially the villain who produces a menacing sea serpent which vanishes as Anna, the heroine, "Whistle[s] A Happy Tune". The most devaluating element of the film, however, must be the villain's sidekick, an ignorant, tooth-losing sycophant. He barely made the children within the theater chuckle, but rather made the audience embarrassed to have participated in such a catastrophe. As in most animated features, the studios feel that there MUST be the addition of computer generated images to enhance the movie or to prove that they are as technologically advanced as the rest of the industry. CGI hardly adds to this movie, in fact, it stands out like a sore thumb. The ships and moving marble statues, all created by computers, are quite distracting and detract from the film's remaining dignity.
Overall, the film deserves a RATING OF 5 based on its attempt at animating the classic musical sequences, no matter how poor the rest of the film developed. It does, however, surpass the pathetic attempts of the recent DreamWork's "The Prince of Egypt" and 20th Century Fox's "Anastasia".
Without the music, the film is a drab, poorly-written, mangled remake. The characters provide no motive for several of their actions, especially the villain who produces a menacing sea serpent which vanishes as Anna, the heroine, "Whistle[s] A Happy Tune". The most devaluating element of the film, however, must be the villain's sidekick, an ignorant, tooth-losing sycophant. He barely made the children within the theater chuckle, but rather made the audience embarrassed to have participated in such a catastrophe. As in most animated features, the studios feel that there MUST be the addition of computer generated images to enhance the movie or to prove that they are as technologically advanced as the rest of the industry. CGI hardly adds to this movie, in fact, it stands out like a sore thumb. The ships and moving marble statues, all created by computers, are quite distracting and detract from the film's remaining dignity.
Overall, the film deserves a RATING OF 5 based on its attempt at animating the classic musical sequences, no matter how poor the rest of the film developed. It does, however, surpass the pathetic attempts of the recent DreamWork's "The Prince of Egypt" and 20th Century Fox's "Anastasia".