Who's in It: The voices of Angela Bassett, Laurie Metcalf, Tom Selleck, Daniel Hansen, Jordan Fry, Stephen J. Anderson
The Basics:An orphan in search of a home thinks he's found one in a future world that resembles what might happen if Oz and Tomorrowland oozed all over each other like a melting Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. What he also finds is a complicated time-travel issue, one whose solution will decide not only his own fate but the fates of the people (and frogs and robot and octopus) he meets along the way.
What's the Deal? Not counting the weirdly cool Teacher's Pet and the Pixar movies — which technically haven't been Disney films as we know them (I know, try telling that to kids) — I'm going to assert here that since the revival of Disney's reputation as a reliable animation studio with The Little Mermaid, there hasn't been a really great film from them since Lilo & Stitch tried to resurrect the beauty of the old-school watercolor style. And the glut of other studios making equally inferior product hasn't made anyone but money-counters happy. And now that I'm finished complaining about the past, you should know that this is the best animated Disney movie in years.
Why It's So Good:
1. Now, I like Wanda Sykes and Julia Roberts just fine, but I was getting really fed up with being force-fed those actors as whatever animal they were voicing in movie after movie. Here, the characters are allowed to come to you without the baggage of a famous name attached. Check the cast list above. Only three famous people. And you barely notice it's them when you're listening.
2. More attention paid to characters you can actually feel something for — and there's a significant emotional payoff to this one that doesn't feel forced or cheap at all — than to throwing soon-to-be-dated, unfunny, pop-culture joke after joke at the wall.
3. It's rated G. I like that. I like that I can recommend this to my sister-in-law to take my four-year-old niece to without the poor woman worrying that she's going to have to deal with endless fart jokes and fifth-grader-level sexual innuendo.
4. Most importantly, it achieves what Disney used to make seem effortless: a sense of wonder and joy. Unless the latest Miyazaki movie hits American screens this year, I'm guessing right now that there won't be one better than this.
Relax, Sensitive Viewers: The new digital 3-D process (one I was dreading, because lately all the 3-D movies have given me literal headaches) won't wreck your eyes or head one bit. And the glasses look cool.