Wonderful Movie

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I was not very familiar with the original version of "The King and I" or "Anna and the King". But, I have heard about the 1999 animated movie remake and.....I'm starting to see why the movie bombed back in 1999. Really not all that great as a movie. I mean, aside from the casting choice of the late Miranda Richardson as Anna, and the music and the artwork, I didn't think this was a very good remake at all.Overall, this just isn't a good movie, but the songs are okay. Just stick with the original 1946 movie adaptation of the Broadway musical, or just watch the live-action movie, "Anna and the King" that has Jodie Foster and Chow Yung-Fat as the titular characters and go buy the soundtrack, instead.But, don't even bother trying to waste your time and effort in watching this movie. Even if you're trying to introduce your kids or younger relatives to the story of "Anna and the King". It's just not worth the watch.

This movie is certainly too sinister for kids, I remember it scaring me when I was about six years old. It has vines that turn into snakes, a scene with a sea dragon trying to tip a boat and eat the passengers, a verbally abusive king and inaccurate history. One scene in particular features a young man falling in love with a servant girl. The man's father orders the girl to be whipped to death in front of everyone. The King and I definitely isn't a family-friendly animated movie at all.It's too stupid for any adults unfortunate enough to have to watch it. Full of cultural and racial stereotypes, disgustingly cute and unrealistic animals, lame singing and an array of unlikable characters, this is one movie you won't want to sit through with your kids, believe me. Anna is supposed to be a logical, brave schoolteacher from America (or England, Canada? I can't remember), but she ends up coming across as this annoyingly assertive dope. Her son is just a wimpy little dork dressed in weird stretch pants , sailor hat and blazer. The king, who doesn't seem to have a name, has exaggerated and bizarre anger issues. Master Little is a morbidly obsese, Buddha-esque guy with stereotypically slanted eyes and a weird voice. Most of the characters are flat, with no originality or personalities at all; they stick to their story roles but have no outside interests, nothing to make them memorable. Since the producers already tried turning the story into something out of a Disney movie or Scooby-Doo episode, they could at least try to make the characters interesting! My advice? Don't even bother with this, and don't subject your children to it. It's almost as bad as that stupid Ferngully movie and is probably one of the worst animated movies I've seen in some time.

First off I want to say two things about this topic. One, I saw this in the cinemas with my family when I was little and I enjoyed it a lot. And secondly when I'm doing this review, I am not going to compare this film to the 1956 film because i have not seen that version.So after a long time, I decided, why not, let's give the king and I (1999) a try. In the first 20 minutes, I instantly turned off the film, finding it funny as hell but really thinking what the hell at the same time. The next day, I watched the other half which bored me to death. After seeing the whole film being much older now, I think of it in a totally different way. As a kid, I liked it. But now more grown up, I think this film was animated garbage and it was awful. Very rotten as well. It was so messy. And here's why: First, I think the story is far too simple and I wish they could have gone into great detail throughout the film. I also think that most of the characters are unbelievably stupid, annoying, laughable and dull in every scene. There definitely wasn't much going on with these characters that I just couldn't care about them after wards. The King is like an anti-action would be hero who continually blab-bas on repeating some of the same crap: "WHAT, WHAT, WHAT!". Seriously, and even the main villain was cheap. He was just there sneaking and running around trying to scheme his little plan. His objective was stupid as hell. There were a lot of stupid moments as well.Some of these stupid moments consist throughout but I think the most silliest was when this dragon tries to attack this woman, her boy, a monkey and a crew on their boat. The crew and all have no idea what to do until the mother and her boy start whistling. The dragon then disappears into smoke. Really dumb and quite laughable. I know this is a kid's cartoon but come on, there could have been a better way to kill that thing.The sing alongs also don't save it and the music throughout could have been so much more. It was merely the only decent part of the film but because of messed up characters, story, bad moments and plot gaps, the music is poorly contrasted with random scenes and it becomes a shamble which doesn't even get the film to it's full peak. And the thing which really bugged me throughout was the animation and change of scenes.For example in one scene, we see the main villain and this fat guy who is his assist are seen talking near a bridge. At first we see the main villain with his normal clothing. That being a red shirt and some shorts. And then quickly in the next shot, he is seen wearing his suit and then it cuts to another shot where a glass eye piece full off of his head and then another quick shot flies in quickly and we see that he hasn't even put it on. It's just there on him. There are many other poor animation tactics which go on about throughout this film, but I'm not going to go into it.The only two things I thought were done OK is these two moments with the main villain and the king. If you've seen this garbage where the villain is whipped on the bum by the panther at the end of the king and his discussion and the part with the villain telling the king about the so called teacher leading the kids outside the palace. They were the only parts in the entire film I thought that weren't done badly. Although that is my only positive notion for it, doesn't change my mind that I didn't like this film at all.I just don't believe it myself that I watched this in the cinemas when it came out, and I liked it. Now going back to it just recently, I suddenly think it's one of the worst films I have seen in quite some time. The other thing which was weird throughout was that I found this film hilariously dumb and stupid. I mean I just made fun of this film after the first ten minutes. And then the middle sunk lower and then the ending was predictable and went absolutely nowhere. I mean throughout nothing exciting happened either. It was just a very boring film.It's pure animated garbage which should be avoided.1.5/10

"The King and I" was one of the films we had in VCD that I grew up with. I decided to watch this movie again since I had nothing else to do and I felt like taking a trip back down memory lane. Before watching this movie, I went on IMDb and did a quick search on it. When I saw the 3.3 rating, I was really surprised! That may be my biased self talking, but really! I was surprised since this was one of my favorite films when I was younger. But after rewatching it, I don't think this movie was THAT bad! Cut it some slack!Most people are complaining on how they killed the original movie with this remake. I think this movie was targeted for children. Those who haven't seen the original version. In my opinion, I think this film stands well on its own, with its great songs. I found myself singing along with a few of the songs ('I Whistle A Happy Tune', 'Getting to Know You' and 'Shall We Dance') which I remember from my younger days.Some of the characters may have been unnecessary like Master Little, the elephant and the monkey, but its their antics that keep the young ones entertained. This film certainly isn't the best one out there, but the songs are really great! The animation isn't that bad, either! I can't believe this movie got a 3.3 rating. Really.Viewed on: April 14, 2011