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Aladdin (A Walt Disney Classic)
: essential video:Disney's 1992 animated feature is a triumph of wit and skill. The high-tech artwork and graphics look great, the characters are strong, the familiar story is nicely augmented with an interesting villain (Jafar, voiced by Jonathan Freeman), and there's an incredible hook atop the whole thing: Robin Williams's frantically hilarious vocal performance as Aladdin's genie. Even if one isn't particularly moved by the love story between the title character (Scott Weinger) and his girlfriend Jasmine (Linda Larkin), ...
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Monsters, Inc.
: : :The folks at Pixar can do no wrong with Monsters, Inc., the studio's fourth feature film, which stretches the computer animation format in terms of both technical complexity and emotional impact. The giant, blue-furred James P. 'Sulley' Sullivan (wonderfully voiced by John Goodman) is a scare-monster extraordinaire in the hidden world of Monstropolis, where the scaring of kids is an imperative in order to keep the entire city running. Beyond the competition to be the best at ...
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Beauty and the Beast (Disney Special Edition)
: essential video:The film that officially signaled Disney's animation renaissance (following The Little Mermaid) and the only animated feature to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination, Beauty and the Beast remains the yardstick by which all other animated films should be measured. It relates the story of Belle, a bookworm with a dotty inventor for a father; when he inadvertently offends the Beast (a prince whose heart is too hard to love anyone besides himself), Belle boldly takes her ...
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Toy Story
: Essential DVD:There is greatness in film that can be discussed, dissected, and talked about late into the night. Then there is genius that is right in front of our faces--we smile at the spell it puts us into and are refreshed, and nary a word needs to be spoken. This kind of entertainment is what they used to call 'movie magic,' and there is loads of it in this irresistible computer animation feature. Just a picture of these ...
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Tarzan
: :After viewing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote to Walt Disney about adapting his novel of an ape-man into a feature animated cartoon. Sixtysome years later, the tale is finally told with brilliant design work that looks unlike any previous animated film. The story is a natural for Disney since the themes of misunderstood central figures have been at the heart of its recent hits. Disney's Tarzan doesn't wander far from the familiar story of ...
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Ducktales The Movie: Treasure Of The Lost Lamp (Disney Movietoons Presents)
: :Another of Disney's efforts to create a quickie animated feature film out of one of its daily TV shows, this one plays like a low-rent reworking of Aladdin. Still, with Scrooge McDuck (voiced by Alan Young) and nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, there's fun to be had. And that includes the genie (voiced by comic Rip Taylor) and the villains voiced by Christopher Lloyd and Richard Libertini. The plot centers on Scrooge's search for lost treasure; the kids come ...
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The Prince of Egypt
: :Nearly every biblical film is ambitious, creating pictures to go with some of the most famous and sacred stories in the Western world. DreamWorks' first animated film was the vision of executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg after his ugly split from Disney, where he had been acknowledged as a key architect in that studio's rebirth (The Little Mermaid, etc.). His first film for the company he helped create was a huge, challenging project without a single toy or merchandising tie-in, ...
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Balto (Clam)
: :Buried like a bone in a snowdrift, Balto never achieved the theatrical success it should have, but it's worth digging up. The film is structured on the true tale of a lead sled dog, Balto, that brought a diphtheria antitoxin to the small town of Nome, Alaska. The film balances comedy, villany, and drama very well and the voice work is above average. Safe family viewing, as even the villain's comeuppance manages a civilized resolution. The only problem is ...
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The Iron Giant
: essential video:This gentle reworking of Ted Hughes's 1968 novella was the unseen gem of 1999. Hogarth, a young boy who lives in the Maine woods during the cold war, befriends a giant robot. As with E.T., the iron giant is a misunderstood outsider who becomes a child's best friend, and Hogarth does his best to hide the massive figure from his mom (voiced by Jennifer Aniston) and the local scrap-yard beatnik (Harry Connick Jr.). Soon the suspicions of ...
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Scooby Doo: Original Mysteries (Clam)
: :'Well, gang, it looks like we're up to our armor plates in another mystery.' Oddly enough, this line comes from the very first episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, the part-mystery, part-haunted house animated series that premiered in 1969. The first five episodes are featured on Scooby-Doo's Original Mysteries, in which Freddy, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and of course the practical-joking Great Dane Scooby-Doo drive around the country in their lime-green van 'The Mystery Machine' investigating haunted castles, ghost towns, ...
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