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So as you know, I stopped writing lengthy reviews on this site this year, keeping the blog as more of a film diary of sorts.  Lo and behold,...

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Movie Review - Walt & El Grupo (2009)

Directed by Theodore Thomas

Everyone knows that I'm an unabashed Disney fan. I don't hide it. That being said, it may make me a little harsher on my favorite company than the normal filmgoer. Although this documentary wasn't released by the Disney company itself, it certainly assisted the filmmaker (the son of a former animator for the Disney company) in that it provided him pictures, documents, and animation for the film.

Nevertheless, this was an incredibly boring documentary that didn't work in the slightest as a full-length feature. Maybe if the filmmaker went the documentary short route, it could've worked, but as it stands now, it's a dud on arrival.

The film starts out rather promisingly. We learn that Walt's animators went on strike in the early 1940s and Walt was a wreck with the news. In the midst of the strike, the US government approaches Walt and asks him to travel to South America, learn about the culture, make some films for the government showcasing some Latin American countries, and, hopefully provide a little goodwill to push these countries to side with us instead of with Germany in WWII. When the movie focuses on Walt in South America, it falls apart.

Literally half of the movie is simply shots of documents, black-and-white pictures, or drawings. While the drawings were neat for this Disneyana fan to see, I don't need to see multiple shots of typewriters typing things. It was just horribly directed/assembled. There wasn't enough here for a two-hour movie.

Just boring beyond belief.

The RyMickey Rating: D-

2 comments:

  1. Good ole Roger doesn't even talk about the movie in that review. If I were rating the movie simply on my fascination with Walt Disney, I'd give it 3 outta 4 stars, too.

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