| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
The animation itself is just OK. And the reworked script, despite some funny one-liners, is pretty much there just to pull the story along to its inevitable conclusion. [19 March 1999, Friday, p. A]
|
| 63 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
It's doubtful that today's children would have any patience for the stagy 1956 version, so the current animated offering, despite its flaws, at least opens a door to the music.
|
| 50 |
Christian Science Monitor
Animated version of the Rogers & Hammerstein musical.
|
| 50 |
USA Today
No abomination but forgettably mediocre. [19 March 1999, Life, p. 13E]
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Still, it's almost impossible to entirely wreck this great chestnut of Broadway and film. Thanks mostly to the terrific songs, the new version has transporting moments. [20 March 1999, Daily Notebook, p.B1]
|
| 50 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Seemed kind of stuffy.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Reader
It's hard to be diverted by a tale whose emblematic romances and terminal cuteness serve an agenda that seems particularly dated today.
|
| 40 |
Austin Chronicle
Shabby, nondescript hack job.
|
| 40 |
Dallas Observer
M. V. Moorhead
For adults, the film does, at least, offer up most of the lovely, schmaltzy Rodgers and Hammerstein score. Even here, though, the pleasure comes with a wearying price tag.
|
| 40 |
LA Weekly
Nicole Campos
The tale has been tidied, buffed, waxed and polished into a harmless but relatively boring adventure.
|
| 40 |
The New York Times
Anita Gates
The animation is done in rich, jewel-like colors, but it seems strangely flat. The overall film does, too, although the glorious Rodgers and Hammerstein music makes up for a lot.
|
| 38 |
ReelViews
Unappealing for children and adults alike, The King and I will likely bring families together in their mutual boredom.
|
| 30 |
Los Angeles Times
A dismal pastiche of threadbare plot devices and not-so-comic interludes.
|
| 30 |
Variety
Broadway musical purists will shudder in horror, but parents will be whistling a happy tune that there's at least one acceptable pic out there for their kids.
|
| 25 |
San Francisco Examiner
Stephen Witty
Lacks genuine magic.
|
| 20 |
Washington Post
Even the Richard Rich-directed animation -- except for some nice but gratuitous computer-generated walking statues and dramatic ocean waves -- is not appreciably better than Saturday morning cartoons.
|
| 20 |
TV Guide
Garish, animated junk.
|
| 20 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
It's hard to imagine a more ill-advised choice of source material.
|
| 0 |
Washington Post
An animated King and I? Now there's torture, especially in this wretched, lurid, absurd concoction which seems to have been conceived to annoy adults and bore children.
|
| 0 |
Entertainment Weekly
It's a puzzlement how so many pros could have so wrecked one of the most beloved, hummably familiar movie musicals in the Rodgers and Hammerstein repertoire.
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