"It's the script, stupid!" So should the producers of this bomb have been reminded before allowing a single camera to roll.
Basic premise: the audience must empathise with the hero or heroine. We didn't--nothing compelled us to do so. The characters were so poorly developed that empathy was unlikely, at best.
While the cast is superb, their performances are anything but: to a person, each looked embarrassed to participate in this ill-conceived outing. Characterization? Forget it. The director makes no attempt to capture the essence of the cartoon. Where is Dudley's nasal-tenor voice? The inspector's high-tone speech pattern? Nell's ramrod-straight bearing? Snidely's CHIN, for Pete's sake??? (Molina's Snidely is the one almost-OK performance here. Pity that the addition of a moustache isn't enough to transform the moon-faced Molina into the Snidely we hoped to see.)
Skip this one, folks. It won't be hard to do: chances are that its theatrical life will be short indeed.
Basic premise: the audience must empathise with the hero or heroine. We didn't--nothing compelled us to do so. The characters were so poorly developed that empathy was unlikely, at best.
While the cast is superb, their performances are anything but: to a person, each looked embarrassed to participate in this ill-conceived outing. Characterization? Forget it. The director makes no attempt to capture the essence of the cartoon. Where is Dudley's nasal-tenor voice? The inspector's high-tone speech pattern? Nell's ramrod-straight bearing? Snidely's CHIN, for Pete's sake??? (Molina's Snidely is the one almost-OK performance here. Pity that the addition of a moustache isn't enough to transform the moon-faced Molina into the Snidely we hoped to see.)
Skip this one, folks. It won't be hard to do: chances are that its theatrical life will be short indeed.