The King and I

USA 1999

Reviewed by Leslie Felperin

Synopsis

Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.

The mid-nineteenth century. Widowed Englishwoman Anna arrives in Siam with her son Louis to take up her post as schoolteacher to the King of Siam's children. While the King's aide the Kralahome schemes to overthrow the King, Anna defies custom by taking the royal children out to see the city beyond the palace walls, which provokes a quarrel with the King. The Crown Prince falls in love with servant girl Tuptim, but the laws forbid his marrying a commoner. The Kralahome manipulates Anna into thinking the King is a tyrant so she'll help him to persuade the British to overthrow the King and crown him instead. However, despite their verbal sparring, Anna and the King develop an affection for one another and he learns to be less autocratic.

At an official banquet for the British ambassador, the King makes a good show of being 'civilised', but his cover is blown when he learns of the Crown Prince and Tuptim's romance and threatens to execute Tuptim. He relents but later the Prince and Tuptim run off to elope. They fall into a river after the Kralahome uses magic to sabotage the bridge they're crossing. The King saves them in his hot-air balloon, despite the Kralahome's attempts to kill him with fireworks aimed at the balloon. The Kralahome is caught and punished. The King rewards Anna with a house of her own.

Review

Ever since Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), feature-length animated films have tended to use the musical as their generic template. The connection between the two forms was cemented recently when Disney bought the New Amsterdam Theatre on New York's 42nd Street, sent in its 'imagineers' to restore it and now shows there a musical version of its successful cartoon The Lion King, thus rehabilitating and sanitising what was once a thoroughly seedy neighbourhood. It recently followed this success with a stage show of Beauty and the Beast.

It was inevitable that once the fairytale well started to run dry someone would get around to translating a classic Broadway show into cartoon form, rather than the other way around. Presumably Disney is disinclined to dip into this source since it would have to share the profits with other copyright holders. So here comes Richard Rich, one-time Disney director and perpetrator of the shoddy and unlikable Swan Princess films, doing a service to an entire industry by providing a template for how notto adapt a classic musical into cartoon form: don't dilute the haunting sense of mortality the original contained by keeping a major character alive at the end just because you're afraid of upsetting the kiddies (the King doesn't die here; thank god they didn't take on Carousel); don't add pointless and deeply unfunny slapstick; and most importantly, don't trick out the film with irritating 'cute' animals just to ape Disney's successes.

True to Rich's earlier form, his version of The King and I is ugly and bereft of faintly memorable characters, some mean feat considering the original stage version is a gift, with a colourful setting and characters to match. For those fond of this version or the fine 1956 movie with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr, this animated rendition will be nothing short of sacrilegious, like seeing a majestic oak brutally pruned and trussed up with plastic swings and a tawdry playhouse. The animation itself is so poorly directed and disjointed one could almost guess which sections were executed by which international team of collaborators. The only interesting sequence depicts CGI stone statues coming to life, creeping stealthily up on the King like the topiary animals in the novel of The Shining. Look very closely and their faces almost resemble the wrathful features of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, bent on revenge.

Credits

Producers
James G. Robinson
Arthur Rankin
Peter Bakalian
Screenplay
Peter Bakalian
David Seidler
Jacqueline Feather
Conceived/Adapted for Animation by
Arthur Rankin
Based on the musical by
Richard Rodgers
Oscar Hammerstein II
Editors
James F. Koford
Paul Murphy
Joseph Campana
Music
Richard Rodgers
Lyrics
Oscar Hammerstein II
©Morgan Creek Productions, Inc
Production Companies
James G. Robinson presents a Morgan Creek production in association with Rankin/Bass Productions and Nest Entertainment
Executive Producer
Robert Mandell
Co-producers
Terry L. Noss
Thomas J. Tobin
Scene Planning
Geoffrey Schroeder
Robert J. Richards II
Production Controller
Edna Wilkerson-Fuentes
Senior Production Co-ordinators
Jim Haas
David A. Reiss
Production Managers
Animation:
Brett Hayden
Digital:
Paul Cowell
Post-production
Morgan Creek:
Alejandro Mendoza
Casting
Johnson-Liff Associates
Geoffrey Johnson
Vincent Liff
Additional Dialogue
Brian Nissen
Colour Styling Supervisor
Jeanette Nouribekian
Model Painter
Karen Noss-Crudge
Character Design
Bronwen Barry
Elena Kravets
Michael Coppieters
Supervising Animators
Patrick Gleeson
Colm Duggan
Character Animators
Steven E. Gordon
Athanassios Vakalis
Chrystal S. Klabunde
John Celestri
Chris Derochie
Craig R. Maras
Steven Burke
Michael Coppieters
Elena Kravets
Mark Bykov
Jesse M. Cosio
James A. Davis
Tom Decker
Jeff Etter
Mark Fisher
Heidi Guedel
Leon Joosen
Juliana Korsborn
Larry Leker
Lim Boohwan
Lim Kyunghee
Lee McCaulla
Ken McDonald
Sean P. Mullen
Cynthia Overman
Greg Ramsey
Todd Shaffer
Shin Kyung
Song Kamoon
Susan M. Zytka
Joe D. Suggs
Todd Waterman
Larry Whitaker Jr
Frank Gabriel

Kez Wilson
Deborah Abbott
Dan Abraham
Conrad Winterlich
Siddhartha B. Ahearne
Alan T. Pickett
Gabriel Valles
Manuel Carrasco
Celine Kiernan
Noel Kiernan
Jacques Muller
Sam Flemming
Warren Liang
Marcelo F. De Moura
Nilo Santillan
John D. Williamson
Robert K. Shedlowich
Bradley M. Forbush
G. Sem
Richard Baneham
Additional Animation
Giant Productions Inc
Canuck Creations
Partners in Production
Monigotes Animación
Stardust Pictures
CGI Animation Supervisor
Brian McSweeney
CGI Artistic Supervisor
Brian Sebern
CGI Production Management
P.M. Anohana
T. Anohana
CGI Animation
Rich Animation Studios
CGI Production Co-ordinator:
Christina Da Silva
CGI Technical Supervisor:
Aimee Campbell
CGI Animators:
Robert Bardy
Eduardo Silva
Additional CGI Production
Elektra Shock Inc
CGI Animation
Pentafour Software
Technical Director:
Usha Ganesarajah
Production Executive:
Sriram Sundar Rajan
CGI Animators:
P. Delle Kumar
J. Pramod Dhaval
P. Ajay Kumar
T.K. Ajish
K. Arun
Anuradha Jayaram
Kumar Chandrasekaran
R. Pio Vaiz
A. Prasanth Kumar
Sreenivas Reddy
Srinivas Kannan
Sukumar Subramanian
Vidya Sampath
Vijay Kumar
Ziauddin
CGI Production Co-ordinators:
Patro Navin Kumar
S. Parasuraman
CGI Production Supervisors:
Subheesh Raamanathan
Srikanth Pottekula
CGI Senior Modellers:
Rubeesh
Ajith
Sukumar Srinivas
Effects
Design/Supervisor:
Brian McSweeney
Co-ordinator:
Rebecca Groombridge
Animators:
Actarus Aksas
John Dillon
Noel Kiernan
Kevin M. O'Neal
Bob Simmons
Ricardo Echevarria
Jeff Howard
Juan Son Montuno
Brett Hisey
John Huey
Lee Crowe
Nate Pacheco
Paul Lewis
Randy Weeks
Harry Moreau
Ryan Woodward
Eusebio Torres
Young Kyu Rhim
Conor Thunder
Digital Compositing
Rich Animation Studios
Digital Compositing
Supervisor:
Timothy Yoo
Digital Compositors:
Robert J. Richards II
Geoffrey Schroeder
Sung Song
Reymundo T. Reynoso
Jayson W. Tom
Youngjune Cho
Digital Compositing
Hanho Heung-up Co. Ltd
Compositors:
Hwang Eun Young
Hee Yun
Digital Compositing
Pentafour Software
Digital Compositing Supervisor:
K. Suresh
Digital Compositors:
Ratheesh Kumar t.r.
Gerard Sudhakar a.
Digital Compositing
Colorland
Digital Compositors:
Xue Fei
Chai Yi-Tao
Animation Checker
Patricia Blackburn
Clean-up Animation
Hanho Heung-up Co. Ltd
Overseas Supervisors:
Denis Deegan
Mark Sonntag
Raymond Iacovacci
Phillipe Angeles
Senior Production Director:
Choi Young Chul
Production Manager:
Chae Young Ki
Production Co-ordinator:
Kim Jung Gon
Digital Colour Manager:
Helena Collins-Liuag
Layout
Designs:
Mike Hodgson
Floro Dery
Andrew Gentle
Senior Artist:
Dennis Richards
Artists:
Mike Hodgson
Andrew Gentle
Robert Orona
Floro Dery
Background
Design/Supervisor:
Donald Towns
Co-ordinator:
Courtney Dane
Artists:
Colene Riffo
Junn Roca
Annette Alholm
Jeff Richards
Eric Reese
Brian Sebern
J. Riche
Kim Spink
Marilyn Montgomery
Shahen Jordan
Fiona Stokes Gilbert
Eugene Fedorov
Digital Ink & Paint
Rich Animation Studios
Colorland
Storyboard Artists
Steven E. Gordon
Floro Dery
Larry Scholl
Larry Leker
Dale L. Baer
Gerald Forton
Robert Souza
Titles
Pacific Title/Mirage
Music Performed by
Philharmonia Orchestra
Orchestrations
William Ashford
John Bell
Louis Forestieri
Benoit Grey
Ron Hess
Larry Kenton
Susan Sommer
Ken Thorne
Steve Zuckerman
Music Arranger/ Conductor/Orchestrations
William Kidd
Score Music Co-ordinator
Audrey Deroche
Executive Music Producer
Mark Berger
Music Editor
Douglas Lackey
Mixing Engineer
John Richards
Orchestral Recording
Mike Ross
Vocal/Synth Recording
Michael Hutchinson

Vocal Recording
Gary Grey
Recording Co-ordinator
Paul Talkington
Songs
Lyrics:
Oscar Hammerstein II
Music:
Richard Rodgers
Arranger:
William Kidd
"I Whistle a Happy Tune" performed by Christiane Noll, Adam Wylie, Charles Clark, Earl Grizzell, Jeff Gunn, David Joyce, Larry Kenton; "Hello Young Lovers", "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?" performed by Christiane Noll; "The March of the Siamese Children" by Richard Rodgers; "Getting to Know You" performed by Christiane Noll, Emma Stevenson-Blythe, Benjamin Fox, Andrew Harper, Beau Bruder, Cailiegh Harper, Tamara Rusque; "A Puzzlement" performed by Martin Vidnovic; "I Have Dreamed" performed by David Burnham, Tracy Venner Warren; "Shall We Dance?" performed by Christiane Noll, Martin Vidnovic, chorus
Choreography
Lee Martino
Lisa Clyde
Recordist
Charlie Ajar Jr
Re-recording Mixers
Michael Casper
Dan Leahy
Rick Hart
ADR
Recordist:
Greg Lowe
Mixer:
Alan Holly
Foley
Artists:
Paul Holzborn
Dominique Decaudain
Mixer:
Albert Romero
Voice Cast
Miranda Richardson
Anna Leonowens
Christiane Noll
Anna Leonowens (singing)
Martin Vidnovic
the King of Siam
Ian Richardson
the Kralahome
Darrell Hammond
Master Little
Allen D. Hong
Prince Chululongkorn
David Burnham
Prince Chululongkorn (singing)
Armi Arabe
Tuptim
Tracy Venner Warren
Tuptim (singing)
Adam Wylie
Louis Leonowens
Sean Smith
Sir Edward Ramsay
J.A. Fujii
FirstWife
Ken Baker
Captain Orton
Ed Trotta
Sir Edward's captain
Anthony Mozdy
Burmese emissary
Alexandra Lai
Princess Ying
Katherine Lai
Princess Naomi
Mark Hunt
steward
B.K. Tochi
soldier
reference - live action
Lisa Clyde
Jim Peace
Jenifer Susan Foote
Tom Hildebrand
Alison Hooper
Christi Case Kline
Julie Letsche
Ramona A. Marshall
Audrey Messick
Dayna Leigh Patterson
Teri Shae Perez
Sally Wong
dancers

Certificate
U
Distributor
Warner Bros Distributors (UK)

7,973 feet
88 minutes 36 seconds
Dolby stereo/SDDS/DTS
In Colour
Anamorphic
Last Updated: 20 Dec 2011