But Monday's installment picks up and ends with the swiftly told, appealing tale of three princes sent to search for the most wondrous object on earth.
This work of Mozart's childhood, fleetly conducted here by Elisabeth Fuchs, is a slight yet appealing tale about a shepherdess, Bastienne, who is falsely persuaded that her beloved Bastien has left her.
But unlike such short-lived, mid-century knockoffs as "The Playboy Club" or "Pan Am, Good Girls Revoltlt" manages to tell a broadly appealing tale about social change without dumbing it down.
Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama rated it 4 out of 5, calling it a "crowd-pleasing and hugely mass appealing tale of android revolution with a thrilling plot, rich and imaginative screenplay, super action, astounding effects and most importantly, Rajinikanth, who is the soul of the film.
Based on Willa Cather's appealing tale of a prairie girl who becomes an opera star, "The Song of the Lark" chugs along like the Little Engine That Couldn't.
All these machinations produce a couple of different results: They make an appealing tale about love and death in late 19th-century America, and they flatter the sturdy, homely general by comparison.
Directed by Zoya Akhtar In Hindi and English, with English subtitles 2 hours 36 minutes; not rated It might seem as if Bollywood couldn't possibly satirize itself -- the genre is already so over-the-top -- but Zoya Akhtar manages the trick deftly in "Luck by Chance," an appealing tale of two would-be actors looking for movie stardom.
Commenting on Thompson's screenplay, film critic Claudia Puig wrote that its "well-worn storybook features are woven effectively into an appealing tale of youthful empowerment".
(Scott) 'BOLT' (PG, 1 36) Frisky and appealing, this animated tale of a dog's identity crisis leans a little too heavily on familiar kid-movie elements (the annoying sidekick, the cross-country journey of self-discovery, etc)., but it has enough visual wit and satirical mischief to make it reasonable family fun.
(Jeannette Catsoulis) 'BOLT' (PG, 1 36) Frisky and appealing, this animated tale of a dog's identity crisis leans a little too heavily on familiar kid-movie elements (the annoying sidekick, the cross-country journey of self-discovery, etc)., but it has enough visual wit and satirical mischief to make it reasonable family fun.
