My Movie Review on Bartok the Magnificent · 1:30am Oct 30th, 2021
Yo, what's up, Kemosabes?
This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, for the 8th installment of this year's "Spook Spectacular", I'm gonna give you guys my take of "Bartok the Magnificent".
Here's the rundown of this spin-off:
Bartok is an albino bat who often performs shows in Moscow about him saving Russia from monsters, his only companion being a grizzly bear named Zozin (who often performs as a wild animal that tries to eat Bartok). However, when the prince of Moscow, Tsar Ivan Romanov, is kidnapped by a witch named Baba Yaga, Bartok is called upon by Moscow's townspeople and Ivan's assistant, Ludmilla, to find the prince in order to bring him back.
Will Bartok exceed the people's hopes? Or will he come back to town empty-handed?
Whether I intended on reviewing this movie to begin with is something I can't remember. But, while I'm aware of its overall mixed to negative reception, "Bartok: The Magnificent" ultimately became one of those movies where I thought to myself "What the heck? Why not give the movie a try anyway and see what I personally think of it?". So, I did just that.
How I saw the movie was thanks to it being included as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray Disc of "Anastasia", so finding a way to watch it wasn't a problem.
So, what do I think of this direct-to-video feature?
Yay, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, I didn't think the movie was great per say. But, it wasn't as terrible as I expected either. The experience watching the film was a lot like the time I saw "Mulan II", now that I think about it.
For instance, the direction by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, and the screenplay by Jay Lacopio, were sort of a mixed bag among others.
On the negative side of it all, the biggest nitpick I've noted is that there's no clarity on if this movie took place before "Anastasia" or after it, mainly because the events of the latter were never mentioned or acknowledged. It's also hard to see how this movie is canonical to "Anastasia" or aligns with it, although I can see "Bartok the Magnificent" as being part of a different universe entirely. Other than that, the comedic aspect of the film was charming but it didn't get me rolling on the ground with laughter either.
Despite this, the story turned out to be surprisingly engaging. Even though a story about a misfit-underdog trying to overcome the odds isn't something new, I could tell that the filmmakers were having fun working on this movie. The plot was easy to follow, and it contained surprisingly heartwarming moments and meaningful morals to live by. For a movie that's only 67 minutes long, it turned out to be nicely-paced and well-developed too.
The animation was another element that I gained mixed opinions towards.
Call me crazy, but the elements that were computer-animated seemed cheaply done even for direct-to-video standards. Compared to the computer-generated elements of "Anastasia", the CG elements in this movie had a look that made the obviousness of them being done by computers apparent. With how small of a budget they must've had, it seemed like the animators were too restrained by it to make good use of it. The one computer-animated element that I did have fun with was The Skull, mainly because their work on the character had a liveliness that helped him be entertaining.
The hand-drawn animated elements were nicely done, that's for sure. Each of them were animated in a way that showed how much care and hard work was put into them, and the character animation was fabulous enough to be considered a highlight. But, I will admit that I felt openly critical towards Ludmilla's slow transformation into a dragon as she was singing "The Real Ludmilla", because her designs during that moment were hideous to look at.
Speaking of Ludmilla...she's another reason for why this movie fell short at times.
As a whole, the character was a generic villainess who makes herself too predictable for her own good. She intended on framing Baba Yaga by making it seem like Ivan was kidnapped by the witch, yet she doesn't conceal the fact that she's hiding something based on her behavior. Heck, she doesn't hide her hatred and annoyance towards Ivan either. If the filmmakers really were trying to make a twist-villain out of Ludmilla, then they should've had her act more like a good guy before revealing her true colors. And not act unnecessarily charismatic, of course. With all this said, I think Ludmilla's the first villain that I consider to be openly two-dimensional, mainly due to a lack of change in personality and little solid motivations behind why she wanted to takeover Moscow. The performance of Catherine O'Hara didn't make the character any better either. O'Hara's a wonderful performer and voice artist, but the problem is that all she did was add onto how predictable and unnecessarily charismatic her character was being.
On the bright side, the rest of the vocal performances and characters proved to be a delightful treat.
In my opinion, the characters that developed the most throughout the movie were Bartok and Baba Yaga, because their growth were noticeably powerful beyond other things. Hank Azaria was brilliant in his reprisal of Bartok, and Andrea Martin was an instant showstopper with her performance as Baba Yaga. The scene-stealers of this feature were definitely Kelsey Grammer as Zozi, Tim Curry as The Skull, and Jennifer Tilly as Piloff; the three aforementioned characters were also incredibly engaging.
On the subject of the songs and music...there's not exactly much to say about them other than that they were good but not great. In spite of the film having the same songwriting team that "Anastasia" had, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (who's also the composer of this film), the musical numbers didn't have the emotional and cinematic spark that made its predecessor special. The lyrics the songs had were definitely well-done, but they didn't help the songs be ones that I'd repeatedly listen to either.
In the end, "Bartok the Magnificent" turned out to be a new 50/50 experience for me. It's not one of the best movies helmed by Don Bluth, but it's not one of the worst either.
So, I rate "Bartok the Magnificent" 3 out of 5 stars.
Thanks for the review, friend. But whenever I get the chance to see this I'll make my own assumptions on it.
Don Bluth was the guy behind the Land Before Time movie series. I never heard of this movie before.
Love that movie