Word: disneyized
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...Black Hole's budget was a comparatively modest $19 million, but it is still the most expensive film that the Walt Disney studios has made. So far, after ten days, the movie has made a promising but by no means spectacular $16.5 million. Disney is disappointed that the film is not doing more matinee business; grownups, who tend to go to evening shows, outnumber kids at the box office...
...Wars, once said. "They either work or they don't." He meant that even if some elements fall below standard, that may not affect our overall feeling for a picture if something about it grabs hold of our consciousness. Lucas comes to mind because so much of the Disney studio's The Black Hole-an overpowering score, squads of menacing heavies and, especially, two adorable robots-are straight Star Wars steals, and because, despite all this sincere flattery and a script and performances that are merely adequate, the fool thing works...
...least drivel-free in a way the pompous Star Trek is not, and interest is sustained by Peter Ellenshaw's marvelous effects and designs, particularly of Schell's ship; in its amusing mixture of the plush and the technological, it recalls Captain Nemo's submarine in Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. But it is when the visitors have to start fighting their way out of Schell's clutches that the picture begins to take...
...staged action and mechanical and photographic effects as spectacular as anyone has achieved. It simply blows one away. The trip into the black hole that follows owes too much to 2001, but there are some amusing visual references to Fantasia, which partly compensate. It is good to see the Disney craftsmen doing what they do best on such a grand and risky scale. If one has time for only one space opera this season, this is the one to choose. - Richard Schickel
...spirit of Tenniel also hovers over Frogs and the Ballet (Gambit; $9.95). Ever since Disney presented a group of pirouetting alligators in Fantasia, reptiles have been as comfortable onstage as they are in the swamp. The Muppets are further evidence, bolstered by Donald Elliott's informative guidebook and Clinton Arrowood's corps d'amphibians.' In fact, the text is a straightforward introduction to the dance. But somehow, when the steps are illustrated by frogs in tutus and tights, an air of lunacy pervades the proceedings and the young reader is suddenly an attendant at the wedding...