#151
Posted: 1/11/08 at 8:03am
Negative and accurate from the Washington Post:
"The cramming in of so many new songs seems to have impeded Wright's efforts to create characters of any depth, or to resolve the plot mechanics in a manner that makes much sense. (Then again, it's questionable how much narrative logic the target, post-toddler audience requires.) Uncannily, Palmer and especially Boggess resemble their cartoon predecessors, and they're not asked for much more than that in the way of characterization.
Fine Broadway singer-actors such as Scott and Lewis have been marooned in impossible roles. Although both play characters at the top of the sea-world food chain, neither one can escape the impression of being ensnared in some kind of a trap.
A stagnant sensation extends to the conception of entire numbers. For the second act's "Kiss the Girl," Zambello seeks to conjure Taymor's "Circle of Life" by posing actors as various kinds of marine life, with some, in "Lion King"-style, wearing the essence of the animal on their heads. Imitation, in this instance, is the sincerest sign of desperation."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/10/AR2008011003871.html
"The cramming in of so many new songs seems to have impeded Wright's efforts to create characters of any depth, or to resolve the plot mechanics in a manner that makes much sense. (Then again, it's questionable how much narrative logic the target, post-toddler audience requires.) Uncannily, Palmer and especially Boggess resemble their cartoon predecessors, and they're not asked for much more than that in the way of characterization.
Fine Broadway singer-actors such as Scott and Lewis have been marooned in impossible roles. Although both play characters at the top of the sea-world food chain, neither one can escape the impression of being ensnared in some kind of a trap.
A stagnant sensation extends to the conception of entire numbers. For the second act's "Kiss the Girl," Zambello seeks to conjure Taymor's "Circle of Life" by posing actors as various kinds of marine life, with some, in "Lion King"-style, wearing the essence of the animal on their heads. Imitation, in this instance, is the sincerest sign of desperation."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/10/AR2008011003871.html
