Bartok le magnifique

I liked Anastasia. It wasn't the best animated movie ever, but it was nice. And Bartok was my favourite character, so.... .... I was all the more disappointed with this movie. The idea of giving him his own story to star in is great. But please, please, give the movie a story! This one mixes an old Russian fairy tale about a witch (in the original she lives in a house with 4 chicken legs, so the house can walk around, I believe) with a PC-game-alike plot:

1) Go on quest. Get item 2) return from quest. bring item to whoever requested it. 3) get sent on another quest to get another item.... 4) repeat until you feel sick

First quest: find the kidnapped prince. Then the witch sends him on 3 or 4 quests of her own before being willing to help him. Etc. etc.

Add in some poor songs, some really really obvious morals, and you've got one of the worst direct-to-video sequels ever devised for a major animated feature. Only Lion King 2 comes off worse, from those that I've seen so far...

As an earlier commentator noted, "Bartok the Magnificent" is a prequel to "Anastasia". I guess animated bats live for a REALLY long time. But if you are going to quibble about dates then just what will you say about the existence of talking bears, musical witches and a huge animated riddle asking skull—just go with it. For all the sequential fuzziness, I find this film a real joy.

The voice talents of Kelsey Grammar as the Russian Dancing (and classical theater loving) bear Zozi is wonderful as are also Tim Curry's, as the Huge Talking Skul and Jennifer Tilly's role as Piloff. I have no idea what Piloff is, She looks life a living fur boa some women might wear around their necks. Whatever she is, Tilly's voice makes her seems gentle and funny (and a little ditsy but in an attractive kind of way) while also being impervious to whatever Bartok does to get her off the bolder (and a strange looking bolder it is too—looks more like a construction girder) as demanded by Baba Yaga. Indestructible gentle femininity is a good thing. Of course Bartok (voiced by Hank Azaria) is himself a hoot. Also Kelsey Grammar's voice in song is as full of life and warm as is his speaking voice. I love to listen to him even when he's the bad guy as in "Toy Story 2" as Stinky Pete. This film is one of the straight to video ones which should have been given a shot as a theatrical run. Both the video and the DVD comes with the songs separate with sing along lyrics--nice touch.

Admittedly, in parts the animation quality leaves a lot to be desired. It, like quite a few aspects of the film, feels quite rushed, especially in contrast to the scenes which are quite polished.

But that would be my only criticism. Sure, it's a touch cheeseball and tacky, full of cliché, but deliberately and well-timedly so. It works with the context of the scenes.

The characters are utterly adorable and the talent behind them really shines through.

I absolutely would rate this far higher than the movie it is a spin-off of, and a littlemore time spent polishing this little gem could have made it great.

I just finished watching Bartok and I must say I was thoroughly impressed. This movie had all the ingredients for a superb animated feature that so many cartoons these days lack.

The cast was excellent and the whole story was downright hilarious. Hank Azaria as Bartok is a wonderful, loveable and a funny little character people can't help but love. I myself chuckled everytime he opened his mouth. Kelsey Grammer also turns in a great voice performance as Zozi the big bear. The voiceovers are something else to comment on. Very seldom these days do I see cartoons taking time to match up the words of the character with the proper lip movement, but Bartok the Magnificent pulled it off wonderfully.

I can't say enough about this fantastic movie that hasn't gotten enough recognition. I recommend it to people of all ages. There is enough content and humour throughout to entertain adults and the fluent and colourful animation will be awe-inspiring to kids, no matter what their interests are.

I liked Anastasia, but it suffered from one particular thing, the "Bluthiness" or what you'd call it. It tried to juggle the darker stuff with the 90's Disney aesthetic, and it worked out fine, but with this spin-off movie about the little fast-talking bat we get an all-out Bluth movie with some bizarre characters and more spookiness and that's its biggest strength.

If you like Bartok, this movie is for you, but even if you don't you'll get a handful of enjoyable side characters voiced by well-known actors like Kelsey Grammar, Tim Curry and Jennifer Tilly.

It was an enjoyable watch even if the production value was noticably lower, because of its smaller budget and the story was kind of predictable. Not a must watch, but harmless kiddie fare with an unmistakable Bluthanian aesthetic.