Meh, I still think you take me too seriously. Not everybody likes everything, I don't think that's closed minded. But hey if open-minded is enthusiastically and indiscriminately slurping up every bit of slop Hollywood churns out with nary a critical word then by all means call me closed minded, I don't mind.

Not really talking about 2013 as a whole anyway, just this one mediocre film that took ages to come to fruition, had zero excitement or anticipation before it was revealed, and then flooded the company with money for some unfathomable reason, and suddenly they're falling all over themselves to chase the money with a sequel to what should be an over and done story (nothing surprising there). But doing anything with an actual classic property like Popeye takes an eternity and has only an even chance of ending up being well executed.

I also expected it to be terrible until I actually watched it, but ended up really enjoying it. I came at it completely blind, so didn't even realise it was a full-on musical (as opposed to an ordinary film with a couple of songs uncomfortably shoehorned in) until it was in full flow, and was very pleasantly surprised on numerous occasions. The snowman you mention does indeed feel like a "we'd-better-put-him-in-for-the-kids" sort of character, but on the whole, the visuals are great and there are so many more un-clichéd elements to the film that outweigh that rather minor issue. It's absolutely not a straightforward princess-falls-in-love story.

Just my opinion, of course.

Well, your posts always leave me cold. In this case, literally.

I hope that the live-action Dumbo is buried, just like the proposed DTV sequel was cancelled. Dumbo is one of the heights of Disney animation; why would Disney want to defecate on one of their greatest achievements just to make it "up-to-date"?

Great animation is timeless.

I totally agree with you, Toadette.

Disney, do us all a favor and stop allowing marketers and executives come up with ideas for films. Leave that to the artists.