the king and i , a warner brothers animated , musical feature , recycles the classic story of a woman who challenges the heart of a king , with obvious results . 
when anna ( miranda richardson ) , a british schoolteacher , travels to saim to educate the king's ( martin vidnovic ) children , she learns that the king is treating his people unfairly , and must say something to the greedy ruler . 
meanwhile , the king's prime minister ( ian richardson ) , the stereotypical villain , plots to overthrow the king , taking the throne . 
the last , and most predictable , main subplot deals with the king's son ( allen d . hong ) , and his love for a servant , tuptim ( armi arabe ) , and how he conflicts with his feelings , and the ancient laws of saim . 
not even the lone strong character of anna can save the unbelievably horrible waste of talent , as the king and i's problems could fill the blank pages of a journal . 
i will only note the major difficulties , for it would take pages to elaborate on every detail . 
the screenplay , written by arthur rankin , peter bakalian , jacqeline feather , and david seidler , which is based upon the play written by richard rodgers and oscar hammerstein , has some of the worst dialogue written in a film within recent memory , as every time the obnoxious king would shout , " etc , etc , etc , " i would cringe . 
literally . 
speaking of cringing- i did quite a bit of this during the rather short film , which is a classic display of terrible filmmaking . 
besides the repetitive dialogue from the king , on the whole , the songs seem out of place , and unlike the lyrics , are unmagical . 
the sole song which is used cleverly is " getting to know you , " which is used as anna shows the children the great outdoors , which they have never been exposed to . 
unlike disney animated features , the king and i's songs don't add to the film , and are as uneffective as could be . 
take the following scenario as an example , as the sheer horror of the king and i's music is at its worst . 
you're being hunted by a dragon ! 
what do you do ! ? 
sing a happy song ! 
martin vidnovic voices the king without effort or emotion- you hear the saying two negatives don't make a positive ? 
believe it ! 
with the terrible dialogue that the king has , along with his awful voice track , the king is completely unbelievable , only shows mild signs of any personality , and the only thing that changes in the king is that he says " etc . , etc . , etc . , " more and more as the film progresses . 
no personality at the beginning of the movie , none at the end . 
and where does this character's personality change ? 
hey , i thought anna was supposed to change him ! 
isn't that the whole plot ? 
the prime minister's hideous sidekick ( darrell hammond ) brings his share of cringes as well - oh no ! 
another one of his teeth fell out ! 
hardy-har-har ! 
he is supposed to bring laughs for the kidlets , but even at age five i would have cringed while watching him . 
by the way this review is going , you may think the reasoning for my hate for this film is due to not liking animated films- hence why i hate this movie , because the king and i is a disgrace to animation . 
animated films , such as 1994's the lion king and 1998's the prince of egypt , are among my favorite movies of all time . 
the animation team does design their share of well animated settings , so this makes it easier to take my mind off of the annoying king , until i realize that day and night switch back in fourth within seconds . 
i have not read the play , or seen the oscar winning , 1956 film adaption , but from what i can tell , the screenplay for the 1999 version completely butchers the play , for the king and i is never magical , nor interesting . 
if it wasn't for miranda richardson , who voices anna with feeling , the king and i could earn the title , " worst movie of the decade . " 
instead , the king and i will just go down as among the year's worst . 
the bottom line- avoid this movie at all costs . 
not even young children , the target audience in this film , will enjoy it . 
not the slightest bit .