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queeny479
Reviews
Kaitou Saint Tail (1995)
Cute Series
Saint Tail is a pleasant, light hearted series about a teenage girl, Meimi, who (between having a magician father and an ex/thief mother) disguises herself as Saint Tail to do good deeds, usually returning something that was wrongfully stolen to its rightful owner. She does this with the help of her best friend Seira, a nun in training.
Along the way, she manages to pick up the attention of Asuka Jr, a detectives son who is determined to catch her, originally for justice, then to just prove he can, and then for even more complicated reasons. Meimi finds herself developing a crush on Asuka, which complicates things, as she has to hide her secret identity.
Not an incredibly plausible premise, and perhaps not very original. But it is well executed, with entertaining characters and nice artwork. In order to stretch the plotline from the book series that it's based on, the animators decided to come up with more random things for her to steal, and more foolish mistakes for Asuka and the classmates to make. This can get rather repetitive, but the episodes that are directly pulled from the books are very well done, and the relationship between Meimi and Asuka is sweet and touching, as well as confusing and at times down right comical.
If you are into the kind of "magical girl" anime style, don't pass it up. If you're not a fan of that, it's probably not for you. I give it a 7.5 out of 10.
Joseph: King of Dreams (2000)
A pleasant watch...
This is Dreamworks' 2nd attempt at an animated movie based on a Biblical story (note the word "based"...plenty of artistic liberty is taken). Though it can't hold a candle to "Prince of Egypt", it is a fair attempt and a pleasant movie to watch.
The animation doesn't seem to be top notch (or at least as well as Dreamworks demonstrated in PoE), but it was easy to get used to. The songs were not particularly memorable (ie: I couldn't tell you more than a line of lyrics used), but I can't really complain because the music was very nice and the singing was good. Not enough to blow me away, but a pleasant background to the story.
Perhaps what I liked best were the characters themselves. After experiencing Andrew Lloyd Webber's take on the Joseph story, I was eager to see how someone would take it seriously. I found that the movie made Joseph to be a rounded character. I mean, he had character flaws! Good for him! The brother's sudden change (well, I guess there were 20 years...) wasn't bothersome, and I thought Potiphar was particularly well done. Asenath was a nice addition as well.
Overall, a nice way to get kids to enjoy the story. A good execution of the story, which did make me care about the characters. Okay animation and music. 7.5 out of 10.
The Prince of Egypt (1998)
Wonderful
I think I ought to start this review out by saying that I am not religious. This movie didn't offend me at all. If you want a perfectly accurate Biblical story, don't look at this. I think this movie put more of an emphasis on certain aspects that can be involved in religion (mostly how holding on to your beliefs is rewarding), but less of actual theology. Which worked perfectly for me.
The animation is wonderful. At times I forget that we aren't watching real people. The music is lovely..."When You Believe" nearly brought me to tears. The movie never made fun of itself, and the result is that every scene seemed to have power and a purpose. I loved the characters themselves, but their relationships were especially interesting (mostly the kind of love/hate thing going on with Moses and Rameses). I'm sure the wonderful voice casting is mostly responsible for this.
This is the most emotion-provoking animated film I've ever seen. I can't describe the sense of peace, joy, and awe it gave me. And if you really are in it for the religious aspect, hey, it's a great way to make the kids was to find the story in the Bible. But mostly it should be appreciated as a wonderful film and story. 9/10
Les Misérables (1998)
Different, but still wonderful
Though I haven't read the book quite yet (I'm getting to it!), I am a large fan of the musical, so I have a pretty good idea of what the story is "supposed" to be like. And I will say it: this movie makes a ton of errors. Eponine and her family not being in the story enough, Valjean hitting Cosette, Fantine and Valjean in love, Marius leading the rebellion AND sneaking off to visit Cosette. But when watching this movie, take a chance and forget that this movie is based on the book. A strange suggestion, but if you do it, it will be worthwhile.
Though the story has many differences from the book/musical/other adaptions, it is still a very good story. The costumes and sets were good. And the performances were brilliant. Liam Neeson may not have been the Valjean we're all used to, but he did a wonderful job and created a very complex character who I really think you can't help but feeling sorry for/liking. I have never seen Geoffery Rush in anything else, and my first impression of him is that he is an AMAZING actor. He was a very good choice for Javert. Uma Thurman was...gosh, she was so incredible. Claire Danes did very well, and she made me like the character Cosette (I really didn't in the musical...when I saw it, I was rooting for Eponine), and even though the Marius wasn't really the one in the musical (um...a cross between Marius and Enjorlas?), I was really impressed with Hans Matheson's performance.
It's a different take on Victor Hugo's novel, but it is still an awesome film. You should give it a try before you pass your judgement on it. 8/10 stars.
Wuthering Heights (1992)
Very Good Adaption
I'm a big fan of Emily Bronte's novel, and have recently been trying to get my hands on movie adaptions (So far, I've only gotten the 1939 black and white version and this one). I thought that this movie was actually quite loyal to the book, including using direct quotes sometimes. The performances were excellent, especially Fiennes as Heathcliff.
There are some things I didn't like. The scenes with Lockwood were a little awkward because A) the only time you ever saw him was his first visit to Wuthering Heights and B)You never did see him again after Heathcliff died, which kind of seperates him from the storyline. Also, I thought that Binoche did a very good job, but I often found myself thinking that her Cathy was just too nice. Scenes showing that Cathy wasn't absolutely perfect would have been a good addition. But I must commend her on playing both the mother and the daughter so well. You'd think it would be awkward, but it fit quite well, and she managed to make both characters unique.
To compare it to the 1939 version, I have to start with saying that I loved both. I thought this one was truer to the book (which is kind of a give in, seeing as the 1939 only did the first half of the novel), but I guess this version was missing something, because I was practically sobbing after watching the 1939, and this one I just got a little blurry eyed in a few scenes.
All in all, this is a very good movie and is pretty much faithful to the book. If you are a fan of Wuthering Heights, you should at least give it a try. I give it an 8 and a half out of 10.