Tad Stones

The animation is uneven and in general could look a lot better, but this is largely made up for by otherwise great set pieces and designs (the floating isle, the Hand of Midas, the Oracle, the "Open Sesame" entrance to the hideout, etc.) The film can perhaps be faulted for being a little bit too heavy-handed on the "Robin Williams is back!!!" stuff, as Genie probably has as many words of dialogue in this film as the rest of the cast put together, despite an absolute lack of plot relevance -- show more but mostly, it's good fun, so that, too, is easy enough to forgive. The songs and even parts of the score are surprisingly memorable, and the story, while simple, is not a rehash of the earlier two in any way. The choice to end the film with finishing the original film's opening bookend is inspired and powerful, and in general, I find this to be the one 90s/2000s Disney sequel that holds up (unlike, unfortunately, its Return of Jafar predecessor). It's hardly amazing, but solid good fun. show less

Much superior to the other animated Hellboy film, "Blood and Iron" sees Hellboy and Professor Bruttenholm face down Elizabeth of Bathory in two different time periods, as well as her patron: the dread goddess Hecate. Here is the drive, the depth and the character investment in the story that I was missing in "Sword of Storms". It's still not quite capturing the particular feel and mood of the best Hellboy comics, but at times it's getting a lot closer than I expected.

Oddly -- and while I can't be sure, I don't think this is just nostalgia talking -- I find this movie to be quite solid in the Norwegian dub, and rather bad in the English original. Not just because it's missing Robin Williams. Somehow, the story feels flat in English, in a way that it doesn't in the Norwegian. So I've settled on a rating that's half a star higher than I'd normally give the English version alone to reflect that I really loved this one in Norwegian growing up.

Fairly entertaining, not a bad movie. It was different than what Disney usually did but it was a refreshing change.