Review of Sita Sings the Blues (2008) by Mark A — 01 Feb 2014

I'm not nearly as familiar with Indian mythology (even less so than the narrators of this film, who provide an interesting commentary on the formation of cultural myths and legends), but I'm pretty sure the central message of this movie is "women are idiots, and nothing without a man" (that fact, combined with its story being stolen from an old epic poem, makes one wonder how Disney never hijacked that train). Sita, as a product of Treta Yugan Indian society, can be forgiven her morbid devotion to her husband, Rama, but her modern parallel Nina, who hails from the considerably more progressive Twenty-First Century San Francisco, is an icon of anti-feminist behaviour (then again, maybe we need to read between the lines: her *San*Fransiscan* husband seems to have no interest in her as a *woman*...).

However, misogyny aside, Sita has three awesome points that make it worth watching: hypnotically eclectic animation, sublime music, and an epic battle between a monkey army and a demon army. I have to believe that if they'd titled this film "Monkey Army vs. Demon Army", it would outgross "Gone With the Wind".