Ooh...lots I want to comment on.
Aerostar: I think that the real genius of the
Pirates franchise, the thing that's made it so beloved and ubiquitous, is just how wide its appeal is; as far as I'm concerned, there are hundreds of better films than
Pirates, but I honestly struggle to think of many with its all-encompassing reach. Just think about it; you've got fantastical adventure and knockabout comedy for the kids, special effects and lavish action for the teenagers, and an simple old-fashioned throwback appeal for older viewers. For the guys there's Keira Knightley kicking butt, for girls, there's Orlando and Johnny, and for older viewers there's old hands like Geoffrey Rush and Bill Nighy. It's unpretentious and innocent enough to delight escapists, but tongue-in-cheek and self-aware enough to please more cynical viewers too. Most of all, it's shamelessly entertaining, clearly trying so hard to give you a good time that even though the films are flawed (and they are certainly flawed films), it's very difficult not to like them on some level anyway, leading to the "sliced bread" syndrome that you referred to. Having said that, I do believe that this mostly applies to the first film; the second and (from the looks of it) third movies don't manage that balancing act quite so well, going a lot further down the "Fantasy/Special Effects Epic" path, and in doing so narrowing their appeal a little, hence the decreased appreciation from critics and older viewers...
I would also be quite curious to hear Silvestri's score...he's a decent composer, and one I would have thought would be quite suited to a lighthearted pirate romp. As it was, he was dropped with only weeks left before release, which is why they turned to Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures group, which is about the closest you're going to get to a factory production line for music scores. I mean, the
Pirates score has gotten pretty famous now, but I think that's largely due to its exposure; it's stirring enough (and nowhere near as bad as its harshest critics would have you believe), but compositionally it could have come from any one of a hundred action blockbusters like
The Rock, without a great deal sounding that piratey about it. That the relative lightweight Klaus Badelt led the project (with Zimmer acting as "Overproducer") kind of seems to confirm that it wasn't a score that received that much TLC...the score on the second obviously had a little more care taken over it, with big bossman Zimmer taking the reins, but it still didn't do anything that interesting, possibly because a slightly bland musical identity had already been enshrined by the first film. I'll be interested to see how the third one fares...
koosie: Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh, do NOT get me started on the "UK version" debacle that hovers like a plague over every animated film that crosses the Atlantic.
I know that the likes of
Shrek 2 and
Shark Tale aren't taking themselves that seriously, but for goodness sakes, I would like to maintain
some level of immersion in the movie's world and atmosphere, and I absolutely cannot do that when Fiona Philips, Kate Thorton or Jonathan Ross turns up for a jarring and utterly obtrusive cameo in the middle of an American movie. The Kate Thornton cameo was the most ludicrous; the character was modelled on Joan Rivers, had Joan Rivers' personality, and was actually CALLED "Joan Rivers" in the credits. How can you overdub her with Kate Bloody Thornton!? (EDIT: Ah, jekylljuice beat me to it.
)
The most heartbreaking occrurence of this horrible trend was in Pixar's
Cars, however. Yes, Harv the agent was a small role, but damn it, Pixar are an supposed to be an artistic studio, who cast voices to fit characters as opposed to doing it for cheap celebrity appeal. Jeremy Piven is a well-known actor, but he was still just an actor playing a part; sticking somebody as ostentatious as Jeremy Clarkson in there instead is a massive betrayal of that ethos, and a big sellout on Pixar's part.
Don't ever do that again, guys.
Also:
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a magnificent movie. Everyone rightly remembers it for its groundbreaking and still-astonishing special effects, and for fans of animation it's gold dust, naturally; I love Daffy and Donald Duck's piano duel, love the interplay between Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse (Disney and WB stipulated in their agreement that neither should get more screentime than the other, which is why they're always seen together), and I find Betty Boop's little cameo actually quite poignant. What a lot of people forget, however, is that it's also a fantastically atmospheric film noir homage, an evocative recreation of seedy old Hollywood, and an involving mystery story with a genuinely terrifying villain in Judge Doom; I honestly can't believe that's the same lovable old Christopher Lloyd from
Back to the Future, because he's just so sinister here, with his transformartion into a psychopathic toon, and particularly the hideous sequence where he 'dips" the poor little squeaky shoe, proving really quite upsetting to me as a kid.
It's still a wonderful film, though, a must-see for any cartoon fan...