Howard
Disney+ | Release Date (Streaming): August 7, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
CNNBrian LowryAug 7, 2020
Howard serves as a fitting celebration of that life and career. It's a chance for those who knew him to pause and fondly look back, in a way that merely adds to an appreciation of the parade that he helped start. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comNell MinowAug 7, 2020
Most of all, this film is a tribute to the imagination and dedication that goes into the innumerable tiny decisions that make the difference between the beautifully drawn but listless "Black Cauldron," and the timeless, heartwarming appeal of the Ashman-era films. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 4, 2020
Howard does a fine, loving job tracing who he was as a gay Jewish boy growing up in Baltimore; as an aspiring playwright and theatrical impresario, schooled at Boston University, Goddard College in Vermont, the summer theater program at Tufts University, and a graduate student at Indiana University; and as a hungry young New York City transplant, eager to make his mark. Read full review
80
PolygonPetrana RadulovicAug 18, 2020
Howard explores the life of the lyricist and the magic he brought to some of the most famous Disney melodies. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisAug 6, 2020
By the end of Howard, it’s the songs we’ll never hear that may haunt us most. Read full review
80
SlashfilmHoai-Tran BuiAug 6, 2020
Howard feels like an in-memoriam tribute from a friend: made with a rosy sense of nostalgia, and perhaps a few too many photo montages, but with love. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 4, 2020
Blunt honesty and rare introspection sets Howard apart from the usual cut-and-paste trips down memory lane. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 4, 2020
There’s something exciting about a film that immerses you in the life of a creative artist, and so it proves with this documentary about Howard Ashman. Read full review
80
VarietyDaniel D'AddarioAug 4, 2020
At 94 minutes, Howard is not and does not try to be a plumbing search through the generation of talent lost to HIV and AIDS; what it is trying to do, appealingly narrowly, is illuminate one life and the work done therein. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubCaroline SiedeAug 3, 2020
Even for those outside of the Disney musical demographic, Howard is a moving portrait of an artist taken too soon during an era tragically marked by those kind of losses. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 7, 2020
Mostly it will just make you hungry to revisit Ashman’s work. That’s perhaps not the intended result of this fond tribute/merely serviceable survey of a too-short career – but it’s not necessarily a bad one. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 8, 2020
Howard is an affectionate but unremarkable biography of Ashman that uses archived clips and new interviews to present an overview of the man’s life with a special attention on his later years. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonAug 6, 2020
The Ashman story itself is the stuff of a Broadway musical. It just needed some music—what’s here is doled out in penurious and unsatisfying morsels. Read full review
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