Disney
Survival here is about logistics: Disneyland Paris reviewed
Alcoholics know that hell is denial, and there is plenty at Disneyland Paris in winter. This is a pleasure land…
A treasure chest of myths: The Poisoned King, by Katherine Rundell, reviewed
In the archipelago of Glimouria live many fantastic creatures: nereids, mermaids, riddle-posing sphinxes, and endangered dragons in need of rescue by an Outsider
A great comedy about a terrible sport
I’m trying to think of things I’m less interested in than American football. The plant-based food section? Taking up my…
Alien: Earth is wantonly disrespectful to the canon
I once spent a delightful weekend in Madrid with the co-producer of Alien. His name was David Giler (now dead,…
The Simpsons may be genius – but it’s also evil
Marge Simpson is dead. But does anyone care? I’ve written loads of pieces over the years about the genius of…
Who wants a ‘girl boss’ Snow White?
Disney’s new Snow White is a live-action remake of the beloved 1937 classic that was cinema’s first full-length animated feature…
What Donald Trump told me about Keir Starmer
Two months into President Donald Trump’s second term, the habitual liberal hysteria about his rollercoaster presidential style is reaching shrieking…
The curse of Disney’s Snow White
One of the early decisions David Zaslav made after becoming the CEO of Warner Bros Discovery in 2022 was to…
I’m warming to Meghan Markle – only joking
You know that urge when you’ve got friends coming for the weekend and you just have to spend the previous…
A hit – but please don’t pretend it’s feminist: Disney+’s Rivals reviewed
For most of my adult life, clever, well-read, feminist women have told me how much they love Jilly Cooper. It…
If you can stand the stress, The Bear is still possibly the best thing on TV
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
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 ok this moronic Disney+ Shardlake adaptation?
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
This month marks the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney’s company. The first cartoons it was founded to produce – the…
Poor Prince Charming is on the scrap heap
The only strikes I really enjoy are actors’ strikes. Teachers’ strikes leave me cold. Train strikes get me into a…
False notes
Chevalier is a biopic of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, whom you’ve probably never heard of, as I hadn’t. He…
Senior moment
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?
If there’s one thing that gives a bad name to gender stereotyping it’s the Disney princess: a combination of hideous…
Taking the Mickey
How Disney fell foul of Florida’s governor
Thrills, frills and folderols
A clever, original exhibition at the Wallace Collection has Laura Freeman twirling her way through the West End
Into the woods
The extent of Walt Disney’s grasp of the natural world remains unclear. After the Austrian author Felix Salten sold the…
The kids are not alright
Raya and the Last Dragon has everything you might want nowadays from a major Disney film — feisty kick-ass heroine,…
Lost and found
These rediscovered drawings by Hokusai point to him as the father of photography and modern animation, says Laura Gascoigne
The Disneyfication of the moral universe
‘I’m sitting here struggling for words and my friend nailed it: “She was our Princess Leia.”’ With those words, Dr…
Hundrum
Mulan is Disney’s latest live-action remake, coming in at 120 minutes, compared with the 1998 animation, which ran to 80.…
