Disney

If you can stand the stress, The Bear is still possibly the best thing on TV

6 July 2024 9:00 am

The Bear has been called ‘the most stressful thing on TV’ and I think that’s probably a fair description. It’s…

Nowhere near as miserable as I remember it: The Beatles – Let It Be reviewed

18 May 2024 9:00 am

Beatles lore has long held that the film Let It Be was a depressing portrait of the band falling apart.…

Why did C.J. Sansom approve this moronic Disney+ Shardlake adaptation?

11 May 2024 9:00 am

What would C.J. Sansom have made of the Disney+ version of his novel series about 16th-century crookback lawyer Matthew Shardlake?…

Why intellectuals love Disney

21 October 2023 9:00 am

This month marks the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney’s company. The first cartoons it was founded to produce – the…

Prince Charming is cancelled

19 August 2023 9:00 am

The only strikes I really enjoy are actors’ strikes. Teachers’ strikes leave me cold. Train strikes get me into a…

Wikipedia does more justice to this fascinating story than this film: Chevalier reviewed

10 June 2023 9:00 am

Chevalier is a biopic of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, whom you’ve probably never heard of, as I hadn’t. He…

An enjoyable new Ageing Dad drama: Disney+'s The Old Man reviewed

15 October 2022 9:00 am

We men all think we’ve still got it, even when we’re well past 50 and young women look straight through…

What’s the matter with Disney?

23 July 2022 5:07 pm

If there’s one thing that gives a bad name to gender stereotyping it’s the Disney princess: a combination of hideous…

How Disney fell foul of Florida’s governor

30 April 2022 9:00 am

How Disney fell foul of Florida’s governor

Disney's rococo roots

23 April 2022 9:00 am

A clever, original exhibition at the Wallace Collection has Laura Freeman twirling her way through the West End

The dark story behind Bambi, the book Hitler banned

22 January 2022 9:00 am

The extent of Walt Disney’s grasp of the natural world remains unclear. After the Austrian author Felix Salten sold the…

It'll please small kids, but they're never to be trusted: Raya and the Last Dragon reviewed

6 March 2021 9:00 am

Raya and the Last Dragon has everything you might want nowadays from a major Disney film — feisty kick-ass heroine,…

These rediscovered drawings by Hokusai are extraordinary

13 February 2021 9:00 am

These rediscovered drawings by Hokusai point to him as the father of photography and modern animation, says Laura Gascoigne

disneyfication

The Disneyfication of the moral universe

27 October 2020 8:29 am

‘I’m sitting here struggling for words and my friend nailed it: “She was our Princess Leia.”’ With those words, Dr…

Half the fun of the animation – and much longer: Mulan reviewed

5 September 2020 9:00 am

Mulan is Disney’s latest live-action remake, coming in at 120 minutes, compared with the 1998 animation, which ran to 80.…

Tim Rice at the cricket stump surrounded by Disney characters, by Michael Heath

Tim Rice: I left Lord’s during that cricket final… to see The Lion King

27 July 2019 9:00 am

As I left Lord’s at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon to go to The Lion King European premiere I…

Animal magnetism: you’ll want to reach into the screen, pluck Simba out and take him on to your lap for a cuddle

Completely and utterly and entirely blown away: the Lion King reviewed

20 July 2019 9:00 am

The Lion King is Disney’s photorealistic CGI remake of the beloved, hand-drawn 1994 original that, for many children, offered a…

donald trump orlando

Trumpworld Orlando, where dreams come true

20 June 2019 3:36 am

Why did Donald Trump choose Orlando, near Disney World, for his campaign kickoff Tuesday night? Because he appears to be…

Bring me my arrow of desire: the original Italian film poster for Pasolini’s 1974 Il Fiore delle Mille e Una Notte

How film fell for caliphs and slave girls

11 May 2019 9:00 am

Most of Hollywood’s Arabian Nights fantasies are, of course, unadulterated tosh. The Middle East, wrote the American film critic William…

When I see an elephant fly: a scene from Tim Burton’s Dumbo

Clumsy, long and lacking circus thrills: Tim Burton’s Dumbo reviewed

30 March 2019 9:00 am

Dumbo is an elephant we can’t forget. More than 70 years since Disney’s 1941 film, the big-eared baby is still…

Scabrous and sarcastic: singer-songwriter Randy Newman

His dark materials

5 August 2017 9:00 am

Randy Newman is already struggling to keep up with himself. His dazzling new album, Dark Matter, was written before the…

Scabrous and sarcastic: singer-songwriter Randy Newman

His dark materials

3 August 2017 1:00 pm

Randy Newman is already struggling to keep up with himself. His dazzling new album, Dark Matter, was written before the…

You won’t care it’s been done before, because it’s never been done like this: Jungle Book reviewed

16 April 2016 9:00 am

This Jungle Book is Disney’s remake of its animated classic of 1967, as beloved by all generations thereafter. Warner Bros…

Lily James's Cinderella is more of a doormat than my actual doormat

28 March 2015 9:00 am

Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella is a Disney film based on a Disney film, so is double Disney, if you like. It…

Are old fairy stories too scary for kids?

13 December 2014 9:00 am

Moving house, stacking books in boxes, I came across a clutch of fairy books, Andrew Lang’s folk tales from around…