To those who don't know, I sort of have a liking for Richard Rich. The Fox and the Hound was an underrated film back at 1981. The story, while dark in the second of the film, is still intact and very original with tear-jerking moments, likable characters, an excellent voice cast, and one of the greatest climaxes ever to put in Disney history. The Black Cauldron was underrated as well, but suffered from it's bare resemblance to the first two books and it's lack of character development and The Swan Princess was also underrated as well as my childhood favorite, but suffered from it's mediocre story and the one of the main characters named Derek was bland and shallow. Then, his career went downhill with box office bombs including The King and I remake and The Trumpet of the Swan. With this... well, let's say I remembered watching this on the Cartoon Network Movie Marathon when I was a 10 year old and I have to say I kind of enjoyed, but as a young adult, however, this film seems to have some flaws.
I haven't seen the play it was based on, but I actually found the story in this film to be pretty decent. Despite it's weak ending, it has a nice concept about a scarecrow who comes to life due to a magical feather and has motivational lessons including listen to your heart and do the right thing. It was a tale of hope, faith, and sacrifice and it has some very touching moments.
The characters aren't that bad. The Scarecrow/Feathertop (a love child of Aladdin and Peter Pan), although bland, is tolerable and manages to save Polly from the evil Grisham (we'll get to him in a moment). Polly is also tolerable as a damsel in distress. In fact, her singing voice really amazed me. Bebe, on the other hand, is my least favorite character, but wasn't as bad as I thought she would be. She only appeared in the beginning of the film, but then disappears. That doesn't mean I can't tolerate her. The sidekicks like Max and the broomstick are OK, but nothing special. The weakest character is Cheswick whose running gag about his belly becomes tiresome and unfunny, but the worst character in the movie this far is Grisham who is an example of being the most annoying non-Disney villain in the history of animation cinema.
The dialogue has some humorous and touching moments where Scarecrow/Feathertop sacrifices his life to save Polly from danger on the destruction of a bridge. The prologue told by Bebe was great and Scarecrow's slang is good, but Grisham's was plainly pathetic. Polly's dialogue was also good as well while the sidekicks' are OK.
The animation is pretty much a mixed bag. It has some beautiful backgrounds, and fluidity character animations. I found the dance sequences to be nicely choreographed, but it's editing seemed too choppy at times especially the ending and the way Max was drawn seemed too poorly due to his washed out colors.
The music is mediocre. "When She Looks At Me", "Come On, Everybody", and "In Your Arms" were good, but the first song in the beginning was overlong and had uninspiring lyrics and the rest of the music seemed out of place.
The strongest aspect is the voice acting. Scarecrow and Polly were tolerable and Corey Feldman's voice for Max really suited him well, but Ray Porter gives out some of his terrible dialogue and no doubt overreacts so painfully which is the reason why Grisham was the most annoying character to begin with.
In short, The Scarecrow isn't a great film, but in terms of animated features, this is good for kids young and old. With a decent story, decent protagonists and excellent voice acting, it's certainly not that bad, but would've been better with a better villain and better music.
