What Disney thought they were doing with this is quite beyond me.
On the one hand it seems they wanted to make some kind of grandiose Gothic epic with Barry's wonderfully gloomy score, the beautiful cathedral like 'Cygnus', the macabre fate of her crew and a scene at the end reminiscent of Dante's inferno.
On the other hand it seems they wanted to make some kind of silly Star Wars rip-off for kids with rubbish robots.
No sane person would attempt to marry these concepts so I can only presume Uncle Walt's minions went temporarily round the bend and the results are predictably bizarre.
First the good.
The effects and cinematography are fantastic, the moment the Cygnus lights up is stunning and overall the film looks extremely impressive.
The horrible fate of the Cygnus crew and Anthony Perkins being eviscerated by Maximilian are surprisingly gruesome for a Disney picture.
Miximilian Schell chews up the scenery with splendid zeal.
Now the Bad.
Anything involving Vincent, Bob or the exceedingly useless robotic Storm trooper rip-offs. It's all embarrassingly awful.
However awful as said rubbish robots are they have more character than the wooden humans, besides Schell.
Very silly things happen which aren't explained (such as people surviving unprotected in a vacuum).
Tediously resorting to Judeo-Christian imagery when they apparently couldn't think of how to end the film.
So overall it's a very, very odd mix with much to like and much to cringe at. Had they stuck with the Gothic elements it could have been great but sadly this was Disney and they ruined it.
Oh yes and look out for the scene early on where Vincent does a remarkable impersonation of Eric Cartman.
On the one hand it seems they wanted to make some kind of grandiose Gothic epic with Barry's wonderfully gloomy score, the beautiful cathedral like 'Cygnus', the macabre fate of her crew and a scene at the end reminiscent of Dante's inferno.
On the other hand it seems they wanted to make some kind of silly Star Wars rip-off for kids with rubbish robots.
No sane person would attempt to marry these concepts so I can only presume Uncle Walt's minions went temporarily round the bend and the results are predictably bizarre.
First the good.
The effects and cinematography are fantastic, the moment the Cygnus lights up is stunning and overall the film looks extremely impressive.
The horrible fate of the Cygnus crew and Anthony Perkins being eviscerated by Maximilian are surprisingly gruesome for a Disney picture.
Miximilian Schell chews up the scenery with splendid zeal.
Now the Bad.
Anything involving Vincent, Bob or the exceedingly useless robotic Storm trooper rip-offs. It's all embarrassingly awful.
However awful as said rubbish robots are they have more character than the wooden humans, besides Schell.
Very silly things happen which aren't explained (such as people surviving unprotected in a vacuum).
Tediously resorting to Judeo-Christian imagery when they apparently couldn't think of how to end the film.
So overall it's a very, very odd mix with much to like and much to cringe at. Had they stuck with the Gothic elements it could have been great but sadly this was Disney and they ruined it.
Oh yes and look out for the scene early on where Vincent does a remarkable impersonation of Eric Cartman.