Walt Disney, part I: Disney's folly

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS

Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?

1937

Directed by David Hand, et al

Written by America (based on Europe)

With Adriana Caselotti (Snow White), Harry Stockwell (the charming Prince), Roy Atwell (Doc), Pinto Colvig (Sleepy and Grumpy), Otis Harlan (Happy), Scotty Mattraw (Bashful), Billy Gilbert (Sneezy), Eddie Collins (Dopey), Moroni Olsen (The Magic Mirror), Stuart Buchanan (The Hunstman), and Lucille La Verne (The Evil Queen)

Spoiler alert: love's first kiss

Teenage caveman

ALPHA

It bears some aspects of a shaggy dog story, but Alpha's prehistoric panorama is worth meandering in.

2018

Directed by Albert Hughes

Written by Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt and Albert Hughes

With Kodi Smit-McPhee (Keda), Johannes Hakur Johannesson (Tau), and Chuck (Alpha)

Spoiler alert: mild

...He doesn't even know how to fold a map

THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER

Better than you could possibly have expected from a sequel to The Rescuers, Down Under was and remains the most unsung—ha ha—masterpiece of the Disney Renaissance, and one of the most uniquely great films the studio ever made.

1990

Directed by Hendel Butoy and Michael Gabriel

Written by Jim Cox, Karey Kirkpatrick, Byron Simpson, and Joe Ranft

With Eva Gabor (Bianca), Bob Newhart (Bernard), Tristan Rogers (Jake), John Candy (Wilbur), Adam Ryen (Cody), Frank Welker (Marahute and Joanna), and George C. Scott (McLeach)

Spoiler alert: high

Who will rescue me?

THE RESCUERS

It's kind of weird to look back and see this as a reversal of Disney's fortunes during some of their darker days, even a modest one, but I suppose it kept the lights on.  Still, I wish I could say something nicer about The Rescuers than that.

1977

Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, John Lousbery, and Art Stevens

Written by... good Lord, that's a lot of people credited to a 77 minute film (based on the book by Margery Sharp)

With Eva Gabor (Bianca), Bob Newhart (Bernard), Michelle Stacy (Penny), Jim Jordan (Orville), Joe Flynn (Snoops), and Geraldine Page (Medusa)

Spoiler alert: moderate

I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords

PHASE IV

A steady, meticulous dive into all-out evolutionary struggle, Saul Bass's Phase IV is in the running for best "evil bug" movie of all time, which sounds like a low bar, and is, but I do truly mean it in the most complimentary way I could.

1974

Directed by Saul Bass

Written by Mayo Simon

With Michael Murphy (James Lesko), Lynne Frederick (Kendra Eldridge), and Nigel Davenport (Dr. Ernest Hubbs)

Spoiler alert: moderate

All power to all the people

BLACKKKLANSMAN

BlacKkKlansman may be responsible for the most feelings I've had in a theater this year, yet none of them conflicted.  Thank you, Spike Lee.

2018

Directed by Spike Lee

Written by Kevin Wilmott, Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, and Spike Lee (based on Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth)

With John David Washington (Det. Ron Stallworth), Adam Driver (Det. Flip Zimmerman), Laura Harrier (Patrice Dumas), Ken Garito (Sgt. Trapp), Michael Buscemi (Jimmy Creek), Corey Hawkins (Kwame "Stokely Carmichael" Ture), Harry Belafonte (Jerome Turner), Alec Baldwin (Dr. Kennebrew Beauregard), Jasper Paakkonen (Felix Kendrickson), Ryan Eggold (Walter Breachway), Paul Walter Hauser (Ivanhoe), and Topher Grace (Grand Wizard David Duke)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Cardboard Science: Stay off the moors!

THE MAN FROM PLANET X

To a historian, the word "important" means something different, but even by that standard, this movie, that influenced practically nobody, and is remembered now only by the likes of Joe Dante and me, still isn't anywhere close.  Not even when the calendar says it ought to be.

1951

Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

Written by Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen

Robert Clarke (John Lawrence), Margaret Field (Enid Eliot), Raymond Bond (Prof. Eliot), William Schallert (Dr. Mears), and an unknown subject (the Man From Planet X)

Spoiler alert: high

Chapter VIII: In which Christopher Robin liberates a concentration camp

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN

Say, doesn't "a grown man reunites with his imaginary friends" sound at least as much like a horror movie as it does a cute comedy?  Why, yes.  Yes, it does.

2018

Directed by Marc Forster

Written by Alex Ross Perry and Allison Schroeder

With Ewan McGregor (Christopher Robin), Jim Cummings (Pooh and Tigger), Nick Mohammed (Piglet), Brad Garrett (Eeyore), Peter Capaldi (Rabbit), Sophie Okenedo (Kanga), Sara Sheen (Roo), Toby Jones (Owl), Haley Atwell (Evelyn Robin), and Bronte Carmichael (Madeline Robin)

Spoiler alert: moderate