Underrated Movies

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Might as well try to balance out the negativity in other thread.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch, the rare Hollywood sequel that sweeps the floor with the movie that preceded it. I'd say it's Joe Dante's masterpiece and the plot is, in fact, very strong especially for such a Looney Tunes-inspired film.

UHF, one of the funniest movies of the 1980's hands down, made me a Weird Al fan. It's a bit dated but it's thankfully beginning to find an audience.

The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Say what you will, I don't think this movie deserved to be grilled as much as it is. My local FOX station aired it like a month ago and I was cracking up the whole time I was watching it. It's not a perfect movie but it's still a heck of a lot better than some live-action/animation films.

The Princess and the Frog, a film that was a complete victim of bad timing. It's really a shame because it's such a sweet movie. And much better music than I anticipated, I was still somewhat bitter about Lasseter getting rid of Alan Menken and getting Randy Newman to do the score but when I finally saw the movie, that all went away.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, one of my all-time favorite Disney movies. Yes, it is darker and more serious than other Disney fare and yes, the tone is very uneven but this film really does deserve more recognition. It's themes and message ring as true as the ones of any of the best Disney's films. How this barely made $100 million I'll never understand.

Cats Don't Dance. It's one of my very favorite animated movies and WB basically dumped this excellent film in theaters with no fanfare. Which is a crying shame because I can't rave about this film enough.

 

[D'Snowth]

The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Say what you will, I don't think this movie deserved to be grilled as much as it is. My local FOX station aired it like a month ago and I was cracking up the whole time I was watching it. It's not a perfect movie but it's still a heck of a lot better than some live-action/animation films.

This is actually on my list of Top 10 Movies I Like That Everyone Else Hates.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, one of my all-time favorite Disney movies. Yes, it is darker and more serious than other Disney fare and yes, the tone is very uneven but this film really does deserve more recognition. It's themes and message ring as true as the ones of any of the best Disney's films. How this barely made $100 million I'll never understand.[/quote]While I quite like this movie myself, I wouldn't necessarily say it's under-rated... I think it just gets panned a bit, because of a lot of the psuedo-religious undertones and such.

As for myself, there's at least three movies I have to point out...

13 Going On 30, The Day After Tomorrow and Radio. All three of these were really great movies, in my opinion, but I guess they didn't sit well with critics... all three of them seem to only be played on FX anymore at any given random moment, and 13 Going on 30 and Radio are always in those "these movies suck, so let's toss them into the $5-$9 DVD discount bin" at Walmart. 13 Going on 30 may be a quirky chick-flick and The Day After Tomorrow probably annoys Republicans because of it's messages about Global Warming and such, but really, Radio deserves more credibility, the performances are great, the direct was superb, the script was heart-warming and touching... and it was all based on a true story.

 

[Drtooth]

Gremlins 2: The New Batch, the rare Hollywood sequel that sweeps the floor with the movie that preceded it. I'd say it's Joe Dante's masterpiece and the plot is, in fact, very strong especially for such a Looney Tunes-inspired film.

I only really saw it once... didn't that basically make fun of the first one? I really enjoyed it.

The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Say what you will, I don't think this movie deserved to be grilled as much as it is. My local FOX station aired it like a month ago and I was cracking up the whole time I was watching it. It's not a perfect movie but it's still a heck of a lot better than some live-action/animation films.

Other than the fact the Mary Sue character of Karen Sympathy dragged the film down, this one did its research. We even had the Pottsylvanian national anthem which was used only once in one episode. The casting was dead on, we had a Jay Ward devotee do all the male cartoon voices and June Foray reprising her own roles. It really didn't deserve half the snotting it got, I agree... especially since Dudley Do-Right was by far a worse movie with bad concepts throughout. The new Fractured Fairy Tale was great, though.

As far as underrated movies go...

Emperor's New Groove. Disney treated this movie like absolute crap while prodding out it's primped and pressed 102 Dalmatians suckfest. I've heard all the "Oh, it was supposed to be Kingdom of the Sun and the emperor loved his country." I'm sorry, but that sounds dreadfully dry and would probably turn out to be a ripoff of another Japanese movie/series that Disney somehow didn't know about. Instead, we get an Emperor who deserves to be turned into a Llama, and we'd almost root for the one who did it to him, if she wouldn't be an even worse and even eviler ruler. I also give a nod to the sequel, Kronk's New Groove... I liked that one, but I really wish Yzma was more present in the movie than that.

Powerpuff Girls the Movie: That REALLY didn't deserve the grilling it got. The problem with our animation culture is that when a TV cartoon becomes a movie people don't know what to think, and critics don't even watch the shows, and the ones that do prefer half hour intervals. Straight from a 10th anniversary DVD making of documentary, the movie was delightfully dark and like a REAL super hero movie because the nature of the merchandising branded it as a girl's show. It was a joy to watch it on the big screen. I wish CN wasn't chicken hearted and released the KND movie in theaters like they originally planned to.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

I only really saw it once... didn't that basically make fun of the first one? I really enjoyed it.

That was pretty much the sequel in a nutshell. Parodying all the tropes of the first film.

It really didn't deserve half the snotting it got, I agree... especially since Dudley Do-Right was by far a worse movie with bad concepts throughout. The new Fractured Fairy Tale was great, though.

I never saw Dudley Do-Right when it came out. A little bit of me still wants to see it just so I can say I have, but the things I've heard about it...

Emperor's New Groove. Disney treated this movie like absolute crap while prodding out it's primped and pressed 102 Dalmatians suckfest. I've heard all the "Oh, it was supposed to be Kingdom of the Sun and the emperor loved his country." I'm sorry, but that sounds dreadfully dry and would probably turn out to be a ripoff of another Japanese movie/series that Disney somehow didn't know about. Instead, we get an Emperor who deserves to be turned into a Llama, and we'd almost root for the one who did it to him, if she wouldn't be an even worse and even eviler ruler. I also give a nod to the sequel, Kronk's New Groove... I liked that one, but I really wish Yzma was more present in the movie than that.

I'll second that notion about The Emperor's New Groove. It was one of the only Disney movies of my childhood I missed seeing theatrically because of the lackluster ad campaign. When I finally saw it on DVD, I loved every second of it. What a great, great film. Not as great as Mark Dindal's other film Cats Don't Dance but it comes pretty close.

His third film, Chicken Little, though... I'll be honest: I love the first half-hour where the title character tries to redeem himself in his father's eyes but when the film starts to drift into sci-fi territory it just loses that likability factor.

 

[Drtooth]

I never saw Dudley Do-Right when it came out. A little bit of me still wants to see it just so I can say I have, but the things I've heard about it...

It's one of those movie's that fine to watch once, but never again after it, because you'll never get through it a second time. There's a story that the only reason why it was made was because someone said that the narrator of George of the Jungle sounded like the one for Dudley Do-Right (bushleague. Paul Frees was the narrator for GOTJ and half of DD, William Conrad doing the rest of DD's run). The only person in the cast that even got the movie was the guy who played Snidely, Alfred Molina (sp)

I'll second that notion about The Emperor's New Groove. It was one of the only Disney movies of my childhood I missed seeing theatrically because of the lackluster ad campaign. When I finally saw it on DVD, I loved every second of it. What a great, great film. Not as great as Mark Dindal's other film Cats Don't Dance but it comes pretty close.

Well, the story is that there was all this internal drama with the project... as I said it was supposed to be this other film, and they basically gave it a "We spent money on it, it's finished, let's just release it and sweep it under the rug" treatment... no merchandise (a oh well at least it's something bean bag set a year later), and it even aired on TV not even a year after its release. And YET they sequel it and gave it a TV series and they STILL don't want to acknowledge it. Though Kuzco did appear in House of Mouse a couple times...

As for other underrated Disney movies...

Recess: School's Out and Teacher's Pet. Both were absolutely amazing and great wrap ups to the tv shows. But as they're TV based movies, they were sort of swept under the rug. I especially find Teacher's Pet completely under appreciated, since the animation works beautifully with Baseman's style of art. Plus we had a show with Nathan Lane, Jerry Stiller and David Ogden Steirs as regular cast members (Nathan left the show later unfortunately, but was back for the film)... and the film rounded it out with Kelsey Grammer and Paul Reubens... sharp casting and sharp writing.

 

[D'Snowth]

Recess: School's Out and Teacher's Pet. Both were absolutely amazing and great wrap ups to the tv shows. But as they're TV based movies, they were sort of swept under the rug.

Actually, both were theatrical movies... I remember seeing Recess: School's Out when it came out during a special matinee... probably the cheapest movie I ever went to, lol.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Well, the story is that there was all this internal drama with the project... as I said it was supposed to be this other film, and they basically gave it a "We spent money on it, it's finished, let's just release it and sweep it under the rug" treatment... no merchandise (a oh well at least it's something bean bag set a year later), and it even aired on TV not even a year after its release. And YET they sequel it and gave it a TV series and they STILL don't want to acknowledge it. Though Kuzco did appear in House of Mouse a couple times...

Trust me, I know all about the Kingdom of the Sun debacle. In all honestly, I think it would have been a fine film had they finished it but I'll still say The Emperor's New Groove is probably the better film.

I especially find Teacher's Pet completely under appreciated, since the animation works beautifully with Baseman's style of art. Plus we had a show with Nathan Lane, Jerry Stiller and David Ogden Steirs as regular cast members (Nathan left the show later unfortunately, but was back for the film)... and the film rounded it out with Kelsey Grammer and Paul Reubens... sharp casting and sharp writing.

Yeah, Teacher's Pet is a realy good movie. I missed it because I was on a camping trip the weekend it came out and by the second week finding good showtimes was impossible. But the music and animation in that movie is fantastic... $6 million was not enough money for that movie to make.

 

[SSLFan]

A Bug's Life.

 

[D'Snowth]

A Bug's Life.

Ehh... I think that was Pixar's OTHER not-so-great movie... I think mainly because the more edgy and "advanced" Antz from DreamWorks came out pretty much at the same time.

 

[Frogpuppeteer]

The Movie Hero its an indie film for those who love movies and dream of acting and a wonderful peice of art...as i watched it i almost felt a henson touch to it