# Mighty Joe Young (1998)

### reviewed by
David Wilcock

    Mighty Joe Young

    Starring Charlize Theron and Bill Paxton
    Directed By Ron Underwood
    Running Time: 1 hour 54 minutes

    (Walt Disney Pictures)

Apart from the cute RKO symbol at the start of the film, there's no surprises in this new Disney film. 'Mighty Joe' happens to be a giant ape, who befriends Jill (Theron) who's mother was killed by poachers. Jill meets Gregg (Paxton) who wants to move Joe out of his natural habitat and into a wildlife preserve, where he feels Joe would be safer. Although reluctant, Jill agrees. However, Joe soon attracts interest from a poacher (Rade Serbedzjia) the very same poacher who killed Jill's mother. Will Joe escape their clutches? Will Jill and Gregg fall in love. Well, would we expect anything else from the mouse?

>From the outset, it's obvious that Mighty Joe Young is going to be nothing but an enjoyable kids movie. Although it's incredibly predictable, it's made well enough and is passable entertainment. Although Ron Underwood tries nothing new when directing, the cast and the special effects are nifty enough to make this good. The under-rated Theron, after a good performance in The Devils Advocate (1997) delivers another good acting turn here, making an under developed role into something quite likeable and appealing to kids. Although she tries to be to child like during some parts of the film, her performance certainly isn't a failure. Bill Paxton, or 'Mr. Bland' is as bland as ever, and cursed with the worst hair seen in Hollywood for a very long time. His performance is alright, and he's starry eyed enough to carry the role, but someone a little more exciting would have done. Serbedzjia is the typical Disney bad guy, yet he doesn't overplay the role, which is a shame really, because this movie really needs an outlandish character.

Joe himself is a wonderful piece of technology from Rick Baker. Although the CGI looks a little fake, the model is excellent and features a nice range of actions. It's also a believable model, something missing from movies recently. Although he's a very 2D character, he's a good enough plot device. However, he is loveable enough for the young ones, and he's easy to root for.

Unfortunately, the story telling suffers from Disney's obsession at bland, straight forward scripting. The script, by Ruth Rose, is full of morals, yet isn't quite so patronising as some of Disney's worst efforts. The family theme is played strongly, as there's no doubt that children will learn about friendship and family from this movie. Unfortunately, however, the pacing is all wrong. While the scenes in the jungle are nice, in this Godzilla world the children will be looking for something for a bit more action. Indeed, Disney were going to make this an Godzilla competitor until pulling back the release date. Therefore, we get 1 hour 30 minutes of sloppy morals and only 20 minutes of Joe running amok, which is a bit of a let down. It's a shame, because the action scenes are well done, and the last 20 minutes give the film a buzz lacking from the material beforehand. Although the action kicks in before boredom will take over, it's still too little too late.

As a family movie, Mighty Joe Young will not hit all the targets. Although children under eight will no doubt love the simple to understand story, the parents in tow may get bored with the obviousness of it all, a common problem with Disney movies. Although featuring pretty scenery, a nice soundtrack and excellent effects, the film is lacking that spark that family films like A Bugs Life have. Far from mighty, therefore, but still not a complete disappointment.

    RATING=**1/2 OUT OF *****

    A David Wilcock Review ©1999

    DAVID WILCOCK
    david.wilcock@btinternet.com
    Visit the Wilcock Movie Page!
    http://www.wilcock54.freeserve.co.uk

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews