Reviews
Santa vs. the Snowman (1997)
Absolutely the best Christmas special!
I loved this! The animation was excellent, there were take-offs galore, and the creator's twisted sense of humor is a delight to behold. I won't spoil the surprises, though. The voice actors did very well (atypical for American animation), and the sound effects were well done, too.
I haven't seen it since it was on TV.
The Faculty (1998)
A fun and well-executed parody. 1950's meets 1980's.
I expected a fun, cheesy flick along the lines of Scream, but this was definitely better. The tributes to old sci-fi were welcome and well-placed; some were even subtle. Definitely better script-writing this time around. (My inclination is to say that those who disagree probably didn't get all the inside jokes.)
Robert Patrick's performance was fantastic, as were those of most of the main characters. Elijah Wood was good as usual, though I'd like to see him play someone besides That Guy.
The only thing that annoyed me was the theme of female sexuality as being one's downfall... but I can't really complain, since it's straight out of the Cold War era movies it's drawing from. I didn't find it homophobic at all.
Overall, yes, it's the Breakfast Club meets the Body Snatchers. But they've done a great job of it.
The Prince of Egypt (1998)
Good animation, story needed work
Overall, I was a little disappointed. While some of the animation was far above standard, they skimped on 'little details' like the inbetweening, which was terrible. The CGI and standard animation were fairly well melded in most places, but it definitely could have been better. Similarly, the characters were well realized (apart from the visual design) and the voice acting was great, but the plot wasn't half as tight as it could have been, and it ended gracelessly.
For the most part, I thought the vocal music was unpleasantly typical, though the orchestral pieces were excellent; I do make an exception for anything that was sung in Hebrew, which they should have done lots more of, and the very first song.
I object to the Egyptian priests; the character design was terrible, the voices didn't fit their look at all, and their musical number was awful. I also think that portraying them as charlatans was the WRONG way to go; the Biblical story is much more powerful if you take the view that actual gods are contending with one another. I suppose they didn't want to confuse the children or get boycotted by those Christians who are overly sensitive. It bugged me, though.
Antz (1998)
A few redeeming factors, but not many
Hated it.
That said, it had its good points. Christopher Walken was really great. The animation was splendidly realistic, even if they did choose a very creepy head shape for the worker ants. And, well, that's about all I liked about it.
In my opinion, animation should be used when you're doing something that can't be done as well any other way. The feeling and plot of this movie could have been portrayed better with human characters. See A Bug's Life for an example of how to animate whimsy; see Prince of Egypt for how to animate brightness and wonder; especially see Kiki's Delivery Service for how to animate sheer charm. This had nothing that couldn't have been done better another way; it's animation for the sake of showing people how powerful your 3D rendering computer is.
And Woody Allen? For goodness sake.