"Hercules," "Tarzan," and "The Lion King" (Thing 2)

We watched 3 Disney musicals: "The Lion King," "Hercules," and "Tarzan." Personally, I don't think "Tarzan" is really a musical, but the music is really good.

"The Lion King" kind of reminds me of Hamlet; the uncle kills his brother, who is the king, and steals the throne. The son runs away and all of the other lions think he is dead. He meets two friends, Timon and Pumbaa. And together they go about life.

"Hercules" is about Zeus' son. Hades wants to steal the throne. The three Fates tell Hades that as long as Hercules lives, Hades cannot steal the throne. So he has his henchmen kill Hercules. They fail and instead just turn him human. He then has to live on earth, not knowing that he was once a god.

"Tarzan" is about a boy who lost his parents to a tiger, and has to live in the jungle. He is being raised by a bunch of gorillas. He soon meets humans like himself. They are trying to find gorillas for research. Tarzan can only speak monkey, and can't communicate with the newcomers.

I would give "The Lion King"

because the music was good, it was funny, and most of the characters were likable. I would have given it 5 stars, but I only do that with movies that are really good.

I would give "Hercules"

because the characters were good and it was funny. I didn't give it any more stars, because I didn't really like the music.

I would give "Tarzan"

because it was funny, the music was  REALLY good, and I enjoyed the interactions between Tarzan and the other humans.

"Hercules," "Tarzan," and "The Lion King" (Thing 1)

We watched "Hercules," "Tarzan," and "The Lion King." It gave us the chance to review and compare three different musical Disney movies.

All of the movies had certain things in common: Musical numbers; some sort of conniving villain; quirky side characters; humor; some tragic event that heavily influences the protagonist in his actions; and a timeline that follows the main character from him as a baby, to a young child, and then as an adult.

But though each movie had all of these things, some of them had better versions of it than others. My favorite parts of "Hercules" were the characters. They all had their funny moments, villain included, and personalities that felt more unique rather than a copy of other Disney characters. My favorite character was Hades, just because he was an antagonist that cracked me up, like Lucifer from "Supernatural."

The best part of "Tarzan" was the overall story. It wasn't your usual "quest for something" plot, but a more interesting approach to bridging two different worlds. I liked the different relationships between all of the characters as well as being pleasantly surprised about what would happen next. I've seen all of these movies before, but it's been so long since I've seen them, I didn't remember everything about them. However, with the other two, it was fairly easy to predict what the next plot twist would be. I didn't feel like that with "Tarzan."

And then I loved the music in "The Lion King" best. It was catchy, fun, but avoided most of the normal cheese that you can expect in a Disney movie. My favorite songs were "Hakuna Matata" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight."

For movies that are pretty short (some of them not even hitting the hour and a half mark), they do a good job of carrying out an interesting story. I recommend all of them.

"The Music Man" (Thing 1)

We watched "The Music Man." It's about a con man named Harold Hill who pretends to be a band leader in order to cheat a small Iowa town out of their money. What he doesn't realize is that a woman named Marian could make it hard to leave.

This movie was full of life and lightheartedness. The scenes always had bright colors and music you could dance to, and a very simple plot. All of that I liked. It was one of the cornier musicals I'd seen, though a few parts did make me giggle. But the main characters just did not strike me as a good fit for each other. They had absolutely no chemistry.

All in all, I'd give this

 . It's a fun movie for the family, but be warned, the songs will stay stuck in your head for a long time!

The Music Man (Thing 2)

We watched "The Music Man." It's about a traveling salesman who visits a town in Iowa. He tricks them into having him help them start a band for the kids. He makes lots of money. Little do they know, he doesn't play any instruments.

I would give this movie



  because it was funny and had pretty good music. I didn't give it any more stars because the video
quality was bad and it wasn't the best writing.