This wasn't what I originally planned on reviewing tonight, but that fell through...so I thought I'd try something different. Tonight, we're doing short reviews of two Emmy-winning animated Halloween TV specials with musical overtones. Should these favorites of the small screen be a part of your Halloween rituals, or should they be stranded on a deserted island with pirate ghosts and paraphernalia wagons? Let's go trick-or-treating and find out...
Garfield's Halloween Adventure
CBS/DHX Media, 1985
Voices of Thom Huge, Lorenzo Music, Gregg Berger, and C. Lindsay Workman
Directed by Phil Roman
Music and Lyrics by Ed Bogas and Desiree Goyette
The Story: Garfield and Odie dress as pirates and head out to do a little trick-or-treat plundering, hoping to get lots of free candy. Their night takes a turn for the spooky when they're stranded on a deserted island that turns out to be the home of an old man with a terrifying tale. Pirates once buried their treasure on the island...and every year on Halloween night, they come back to claim it. Garfield and Odie have to dodge the ghosts and find a way to get home.
The Song and Dance: Despite them having been an annual thing when I was a kid and my being a big fan of Garfield and Friends, I wouldn't really get to see any of the holiday specials until much later in the 90's. Unlike a lot of Halloween specials intended for kids, it's got some genuine horror. Those ghost pirates really are frightening, especially when they find Odie and Garfield hiding in the cupboard. The sketchy animation style really works with these skeletal wraiths.
Favorite Number: I mildly prefer Garfield's "What Will I Be?" as we get a montage of him trying on costumes with Odie, but his pirate shanty and "Scaredy Cat" are catchy, too.
What I Don't Like: Uh...why are the ghosts attacking Garfield and Odie? Because they're there? While the ghosts do add a lot of spooky vibes to the second half, unless Garfield and Odie did something to them or their treasure, it's more likely that they'd just leave them alone.
The Big Finale: As much as I like the Christmas special, the ghost pirates and the unusual story give this one a bit of an edge. If you're a fan of Garfield or want to find something fun for elementary school-age kids on Halloween night, you'll want to check this one out.
Home Media: My DVD with all three Garfield holiday specials has been out of print for years, but this was just put out as a solo DVD release this past August and it's on Amazon Prime as a free download.
DVD
Amazon Prime
Halloween Is Grinch Night
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, 1977
Voices of Hans Conried, Henry Gibson, Gary Shapiro, and Hal Smith
Directed by Gerald Baldwin
Music and Lyrics by Joe Raposo
The Story: The citizens of Whoville know to avoid being outside during a sour-sweet wind. It always stirs up the local animal population, creating enough noise to bring out the Grinch with his "paraphernalia" wagon. If the Grinch gets down Mount Crumpet, he'll use that wagon to spook the entire town. When little Eukeriah Who gets lost in the mountains, he takes it on himself to make sure that the Grinch never makes it to Whoville.
The Song and Dance: "Weird" doesn't begin to describe this one. In fact, it's hard to describe. It's pretty simple until Eukeriah gets into that wagon...and then all hell literally breaks loose. I'd love to know what kind of drugs were floating around De Patie-Freleng in the late 70's to produce this type of psychedelic madness. It's like we entered Marilyn Manson's fever dreams. The wild and surreal animation is incredible, and I suspect it's probably one of the reasons this one won an Emmy.
Favorite Number: In addition to the infamous "Grinch Is Gonna Get 'Cha" in the Wagon, I like the opening number "I Wouldn't Go Out On a Night Like This" that describes what the people of Whoville do before and after the sour-sweet wind arrives. The haunting chorus song "He Is Wandering In the Wind" that plays when Eukeriah gets lost is quite lovely.
What I Don't Like: What is this supposed to be? It has nothing in common with the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Is it a sequel? A prequel? An alternate universe? It also lacks the first special's expressive Chuck Jones animation and its touching script.
The Big Finale: Despite the Emmy win, this one is more bizarre than great. It's worth seeing once, if only for the sequence with the Paraphernalia Wagon.
Home Media: Was just released this past weekend as a triple-bill with How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Grinch Grinches the Cat In the Hat on DVD, Blu-Ray, and Amazon Prime.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Ultimate Edition DVD
How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Ultimate Edition Blu-Ray
How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Ultimate Edition Amazon Prime
Oh, and I hope all of you have a safe, spooky, and very musical Halloween!
Reviews of musical films, from 1930s black and white to widescreen 21st century extravaganzas.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Animation Celebration Saturday - The Nightmare Before Christmas
Disney, 1993
Voices of Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, Ken Page, and William Hickey
Directed by Henry Sellick
Music and Lyrics by Danny Elfman
This is probably Disney's most popular contribution to the horror genre. Disney was so concerned with the bizarre results, they released it under their adult Touchstone banner. It was a sleeper hit in October 1993, but frequent showings on cable and re-releases in theaters during October have made it a cult favorite. Does it deserve the attention, or should it be sent to Oogie Boogie's dungeon? Let's head to Halloween Town to find out...
The Story: Jack Pumpkinhead (Sarandon) is the leader of Halloween Town, where the bizarre residents work to scare people out of their wits and make Halloween fun. Jack, however, has been doing this for hundreds of years, and he's bored. The night after Halloween, he goes out wandering and discovers odd-shaped doors that lead to other holidays. He enters Christmas Town, a world of peace on Earth, carols everywhere, Santa, gifts, and snow. The skeleton falls in love with Christmas and thinks this is the perfect thing to relieve his ennui. His patched-together rag doll friend Sally (O'Hara) thinks this is a bad idea. Jack and the citizens of Halloween Town don't know the first thing about Christmas. Jack is too excited with his new idea to pay attention to her worries...until they discover that she was right. The "toys" they give the children scare instead of delight them, and Santa (Ed Ivory) falls into the clutches of the most evil citizen of Halloween Town, Oogie Boogie (Page). Now Jack has to fix his mistake, before Oogie Boogie ends Santa and Sally's holidays for good.
The Animation: Wow. Sellick and his crew did some of the most amazing work of any stop-motion film here. The style, all flourishes, stripes, and curly-cues, is unique and beautifully bizarre. The detail is just incredible. Everything here, from the snow in Christmas Town to the bugs crawling around Oogie Boogie to the stitches on Sally, has been painstakingly crafted and molded. It all moves in perfect time with the music, quite a feat given some of the uptempo numbers here.
The Song and Dance: Between the unique design and the unusual story, no wonder this has picked up a huge following over the years. I like how most of the residents of Halloween Town really aren't bad...er, creatures. They enjoy scaring people, not hurting them. Jack's story is interesting and unusual, as is Sally's odd little side plot with her trying to get out from under the gloved fingers of her mad scientist father (Hickey). Oogie Boogie is one of Disney's funnier and more scary villains, and I really wish we saw more of him.
Favorite Number: While the opening chorus routine "This Is Halloween" that introduces the residents of Halloween Town and what they do and Jack's "What's This?" are probably the best-known songs, the entire score is a delight. This is actually a horror operetta, with more music than speech. Elfman is Jack's singing voice, and I don't think anyone has done "What's This?" or "Poor Jack" better.
What I Don't Like: I'd love to see more of characters like the dog Zero, the mischievous kids Lock, Stock, and Barrel, and Oogie Boogie. The villain isn't introduced until nearly half-way through an 80 minute film. We don't really see much of anyone else in Christmas Town besides Santa, either, and only the Easter Bunny from any of the other holiday lands.
The Big Finale: By far the best of Disney's non-canon animated films. I really regret having put off seeing this for so long. It might be a little too spooky for the youngest kids, but for everyone else, I can't recommend it enough.
Home Media: Out of print on DVD, but it was just re-released on Blu-Ray last month, and it's on Amazon Prime.
DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime
Voices of Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, Ken Page, and William Hickey
Directed by Henry Sellick
Music and Lyrics by Danny Elfman
This is probably Disney's most popular contribution to the horror genre. Disney was so concerned with the bizarre results, they released it under their adult Touchstone banner. It was a sleeper hit in October 1993, but frequent showings on cable and re-releases in theaters during October have made it a cult favorite. Does it deserve the attention, or should it be sent to Oogie Boogie's dungeon? Let's head to Halloween Town to find out...
The Story: Jack Pumpkinhead (Sarandon) is the leader of Halloween Town, where the bizarre residents work to scare people out of their wits and make Halloween fun. Jack, however, has been doing this for hundreds of years, and he's bored. The night after Halloween, he goes out wandering and discovers odd-shaped doors that lead to other holidays. He enters Christmas Town, a world of peace on Earth, carols everywhere, Santa, gifts, and snow. The skeleton falls in love with Christmas and thinks this is the perfect thing to relieve his ennui. His patched-together rag doll friend Sally (O'Hara) thinks this is a bad idea. Jack and the citizens of Halloween Town don't know the first thing about Christmas. Jack is too excited with his new idea to pay attention to her worries...until they discover that she was right. The "toys" they give the children scare instead of delight them, and Santa (Ed Ivory) falls into the clutches of the most evil citizen of Halloween Town, Oogie Boogie (Page). Now Jack has to fix his mistake, before Oogie Boogie ends Santa and Sally's holidays for good.
The Animation: Wow. Sellick and his crew did some of the most amazing work of any stop-motion film here. The style, all flourishes, stripes, and curly-cues, is unique and beautifully bizarre. The detail is just incredible. Everything here, from the snow in Christmas Town to the bugs crawling around Oogie Boogie to the stitches on Sally, has been painstakingly crafted and molded. It all moves in perfect time with the music, quite a feat given some of the uptempo numbers here.
The Song and Dance: Between the unique design and the unusual story, no wonder this has picked up a huge following over the years. I like how most of the residents of Halloween Town really aren't bad...er, creatures. They enjoy scaring people, not hurting them. Jack's story is interesting and unusual, as is Sally's odd little side plot with her trying to get out from under the gloved fingers of her mad scientist father (Hickey). Oogie Boogie is one of Disney's funnier and more scary villains, and I really wish we saw more of him.
Favorite Number: While the opening chorus routine "This Is Halloween" that introduces the residents of Halloween Town and what they do and Jack's "What's This?" are probably the best-known songs, the entire score is a delight. This is actually a horror operetta, with more music than speech. Elfman is Jack's singing voice, and I don't think anyone has done "What's This?" or "Poor Jack" better.
What I Don't Like: I'd love to see more of characters like the dog Zero, the mischievous kids Lock, Stock, and Barrel, and Oogie Boogie. The villain isn't introduced until nearly half-way through an 80 minute film. We don't really see much of anyone else in Christmas Town besides Santa, either, and only the Easter Bunny from any of the other holiday lands.
The Big Finale: By far the best of Disney's non-canon animated films. I really regret having put off seeing this for so long. It might be a little too spooky for the youngest kids, but for everyone else, I can't recommend it enough.
Home Media: Out of print on DVD, but it was just re-released on Blu-Ray last month, and it's on Amazon Prime.
DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Cult Flops - Mad Monster Party?
Embassy Pictures, 1967
Voices of Boris Karloff, Phyllis Diller, Allan Swift, and Gale Garnett
Directed by Jules Bass
Music and Lyrics by Maury Laws and Jules Bass
Rankin-Bass is well-known for beloved holiday specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Year Without a Santa Claus. They also made feature films between TV work, most of which aren't as familiar. Take this stop-motion monster musical from 1967, the first of two we're going to examine this weekend. It's the last of three stop-motion movies Rankin-Bass made in the 60's. The Universal horror movies had just started to turn up on late-night TV by this point and were wildly popular, as were horror-themed sitcoms like The Addams Family and The Munsters and camp-fests like Horror of Party Beach. Is this as much fun as those other projects, or should "It" toss it to the crocodiles? Let's take a barge over to the Isle of Evil and find out...
The Story: Baron Boris Von Frankenstein (Karloff) has just created a formula for destroying all matter. He sends invitations to all the most famous monsters of the land, announcing his new invention and his imminent retirement. He intends to leave all his creations to his nephew, nerdy pharmacist Felix Flanken (Swift, who voices the other male characters as well). Felix has no idea what his uncle does for a living and goes to the Isle of Evil expecting a seaside vacation and a convention party. The monsters are none-too-happy about him being there, especially Francesca (Garnett), the Baron's comely assistant. She initially bands together with Dracula to eliminate Felix, but ends up falling for him instead. Meanwhile, the monster's mate (Diller) wants the formula for herself and her husband and will do anything to keep Felix or Francesca from getting it.
The Animation: The detail here is several steps above their TV work, especially on the Isle of Evil. There's always something neat to look at in every frame. From Chef Machiavelli's kitchen with it's unusual dishes to Francesca and Felix's outing in the swamp, you can spend a viewing alone taking it all in. The monsters themselves have really neat designs, especially Quasimodo, Jeckyl and Hyde, and the werewolf. I love how the choreography is done; the dances look pretty real here.
The Song and Dance: Just as campy as Party Beach and Incredibly Strange Creatures, but with a better script and more of a budget than either of them. If you love monster puns, they have them by the bucketful here, along with enough sight gags to shake a mummy bone at. Some funny lines, too, especially from sassy Francesca, uber-nebbish Felix, and Yetch, the Baron's Peter Lorre-esque zombie assistant. This was one of Boris Karloff's last roles, and he's a lot of fun as the tired scientist who wants to pass on the family tradition.
Favorite Number: Francesca's "It's Our Time to Shine" with Dracula is my favorite here; their little dance routine is actually quite good. Diller gets to show off with "You're Different," as the monster's lady describes her very odd mate. Francesca has a nice ballad later on the island as well, "There Never Was a Love Like Mine." The opening credits song by Ethel Ennis sets up the campy-spooky atmosphere.
What I Don't Like: When Phyllis Diller is the least-strange thing on-screen, you know a movie is bizarre. Most of the story doesn't make a lot of sense, including the plot twist at the end with what Francesca really turns out to be. Other than Dracula, the Frakenstein monster, and the Werewolf, most of the other monsters don't have that much to do, especially when the plot switches to focus on Francesca and Felix in the second half. The entire scene with Chef Machiavelli was literally added to pad out the plot and adds nothing to the rest of the film.
The Big Finale: This flopped in 1967, eventually ending up on double-bills at children's matinees. Ironically, while kids would probably enjoy the puns and the monsters, I think it might actually work better with young teens on up. If you can sell them on an animated film and they're already big horror fans, they might pick up on the slightly more adult jokes and references to famous creature features.
Home Media: This is another one where the cult following has assured that it can easily be found on most formats, often for under ten dollars.
DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime
Voices of Boris Karloff, Phyllis Diller, Allan Swift, and Gale Garnett
Directed by Jules Bass
Music and Lyrics by Maury Laws and Jules Bass
Rankin-Bass is well-known for beloved holiday specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Year Without a Santa Claus. They also made feature films between TV work, most of which aren't as familiar. Take this stop-motion monster musical from 1967, the first of two we're going to examine this weekend. It's the last of three stop-motion movies Rankin-Bass made in the 60's. The Universal horror movies had just started to turn up on late-night TV by this point and were wildly popular, as were horror-themed sitcoms like The Addams Family and The Munsters and camp-fests like Horror of Party Beach. Is this as much fun as those other projects, or should "It" toss it to the crocodiles? Let's take a barge over to the Isle of Evil and find out...
The Story: Baron Boris Von Frankenstein (Karloff) has just created a formula for destroying all matter. He sends invitations to all the most famous monsters of the land, announcing his new invention and his imminent retirement. He intends to leave all his creations to his nephew, nerdy pharmacist Felix Flanken (Swift, who voices the other male characters as well). Felix has no idea what his uncle does for a living and goes to the Isle of Evil expecting a seaside vacation and a convention party. The monsters are none-too-happy about him being there, especially Francesca (Garnett), the Baron's comely assistant. She initially bands together with Dracula to eliminate Felix, but ends up falling for him instead. Meanwhile, the monster's mate (Diller) wants the formula for herself and her husband and will do anything to keep Felix or Francesca from getting it.
The Animation: The detail here is several steps above their TV work, especially on the Isle of Evil. There's always something neat to look at in every frame. From Chef Machiavelli's kitchen with it's unusual dishes to Francesca and Felix's outing in the swamp, you can spend a viewing alone taking it all in. The monsters themselves have really neat designs, especially Quasimodo, Jeckyl and Hyde, and the werewolf. I love how the choreography is done; the dances look pretty real here.
The Song and Dance: Just as campy as Party Beach and Incredibly Strange Creatures, but with a better script and more of a budget than either of them. If you love monster puns, they have them by the bucketful here, along with enough sight gags to shake a mummy bone at. Some funny lines, too, especially from sassy Francesca, uber-nebbish Felix, and Yetch, the Baron's Peter Lorre-esque zombie assistant. This was one of Boris Karloff's last roles, and he's a lot of fun as the tired scientist who wants to pass on the family tradition.
Favorite Number: Francesca's "It's Our Time to Shine" with Dracula is my favorite here; their little dance routine is actually quite good. Diller gets to show off with "You're Different," as the monster's lady describes her very odd mate. Francesca has a nice ballad later on the island as well, "There Never Was a Love Like Mine." The opening credits song by Ethel Ennis sets up the campy-spooky atmosphere.
What I Don't Like: When Phyllis Diller is the least-strange thing on-screen, you know a movie is bizarre. Most of the story doesn't make a lot of sense, including the plot twist at the end with what Francesca really turns out to be. Other than Dracula, the Frakenstein monster, and the Werewolf, most of the other monsters don't have that much to do, especially when the plot switches to focus on Francesca and Felix in the second half. The entire scene with Chef Machiavelli was literally added to pad out the plot and adds nothing to the rest of the film.
The Big Finale: This flopped in 1967, eventually ending up on double-bills at children's matinees. Ironically, while kids would probably enjoy the puns and the monsters, I think it might actually work better with young teens on up. If you can sell them on an animated film and they're already big horror fans, they might pick up on the slightly more adult jokes and references to famous creature features.
Home Media: This is another one where the cult following has assured that it can easily be found on most formats, often for under ten dollars.
DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Musical Nightmares Double Feature - The Incredibly Strange Creatures... and Horror of Party Beach
We're going to dig very deep into the vaults - with a little help from the wisecracking robots and their human pal at Mystery Science Theater 3000 - for tonight's entries. These two horror semi-musicals are examples of the typical "B movie" fare of the 60's, the kind of thing the real-life teen audiences would have watched while making out in their car at the drive-in. Are these small-scale scare fests worth their weight in pop culture jokes, or should they be tossed into the endless reaches of space? Let's find out....
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
Fairway-International Pictures, 1964
Starring Ray Dennis Steckler (Cash Flagg), Sharon Walsh, Atlas King, Brett O'Hara
Directed by Ray Dennis Steckler
Music by Andre Brummer and Libby Quinn
The Story: California teens Jerry (Steckler), Angela (Walsh), and Harold (King) take off for the local amusement park for the day, despite the disapproval of Angela's mother. After enjoying most of the day, Angela insists on checking out the fortune teller Madame Estrella (Brett O'Hara). She tells the girl that someone close to her will die near water. Jerry waves this off, but Angela is disturbed. She's understandably even less happy when he insists on going to the girlie show and stomps off in a huff. He stays for the show and catches the eye of Estrella's sister Carmelita (Erina Enyo), who lures him back to the fortune teller. Estrella hypnotizes him into murdering a dancer (Carolyn Brandt) who had discovered her secret - Estrella is poisoning and disfiguring customers who have discovered her zombie "pets" in the back room of her booth. Jerry can't seem to shake the conditioning, leading to even more death...and some seriously strange musical numbers
The Song and Dance: Well...you can't say the title's a cheat. This is one seriously strange movie. O'Hara's my favorite thing here. Even with the bad accent, she's clearly having a great time slathering on the cheese spread as the fortune teller who's got more on her mind than telling kids they're going to have long lives. Walsh isn't bad for someone who was yanked from the chorus line and dumped in front of the camera. The film has an odd but unique style, especially the swirling colors of the fair contrasting with the more natural tones in the suburban street and on the beach.
Favorite Number: "Shook Out of Shape" is the best of a bad lot. The number has mildly decent choreography and attractive showgirl costumes. Nothing else is even remotely memorable. The Leslie Gore-esque blues solos towards the end are especially bland. The duets between the two dancers who are later killed are terrible, but that does tie into the plot - she's been drinking, and it's effecting her performance. (Not to mention, these are all supposed to be low-level carnival acts. You can almost kind of forgive the bad routines.)
What I Don't Like: This is about as low-budget as low-budget can get. Steckler was so low on money, that was his family's station wagon he was driving in some scenes. The decent cinematography can only do so much to redeem a bizarre story, bad writing, and weird or dull performances from everyone else. Steckler acts like he was hypnotized before he was hypnotized. While the costumes are passable, the hair and make-up is mid-60's insane. Every single woman has hair that defies gravity in ways they wouldn't even manage in the height of the 80's perm craze.
Despite it being billed as a horror film and a musical, we don't see any numbers until nearly a half-hour in, and we don't see the zombies until the last 10 minutes...and when we do, they're just people in Halloween masks you could get off the rack at Party Fair.
The Big Finale: If you love B movie schlock, you can't get much cheesier than this. It's so bad-it's-one-of-a-kind. For true bad-movie aficionados and lovers of Steckler's other soft-core work.
Home Media: Along with the MST3K episode, this is available in a 41st anniversary edition DVD on Amazon.
DVD
Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD
Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazon Prime
Horror of Party Beach
20th Century Fox, 1964
Starring John Scott, Alice Lyon, Eulabelle Moore, and Allan Laurel
Directed by Del Tenney
Music by Edward Earle Marsh and others
The Story: We head across the country to Connecticut for our next fright-fest. A group of teenagers are dancin' and groovin' on the title beach when one girl who went out for a swim (Marilyn Clarke) is found dead, murdered by terrifying fish creatures who walk like men and drink blood. Her boyfriend Hank (Scott), who just defended her honor from a motorcycle gang, is distraught. Elaine (Lyon) is worried about him. She has a huge crush on him, but hasn't been able to say so with Tina in the picture.
Meanwhile, the monsters have gone on a rampage, killing everyone from drunks to stranded women to girls at a slumber party. Elaine's dad Dr. Gavin (Laurel) is at a loss on how to destroy them, even after they manage to find the arm of one creature. His maid Eulabelle (Moore) inadvertantly discovers the answer when she drops salt on the arm, and it dissolves. These are creatures of the sea, who were turned into mutants when radioactive waste was thrown into the water. Salt will get rid of them. Elaine is determined to find them herself, but she may not be able to deal with these creeps from beneath the deep when her leg is caught in a rock...
The Song and Dance: Part of a series of "Beach Party" movies made to fill double-bills at drive-in movies in the early and mid-60's. Oddly, unlike those movies or Incredibly Strange Creatures, this one was filmed in black and white. Between the ridiculously clean-cut "teens" and the shadowy cinematography, I thought this was from the mid-late 50's until I looked the movie up on Wikipedia. While the editing isn't as shaky or wild as in Creatures, it's still really good, with some nice shots of the monsters in the shadows and at the beach. I especially like Marsh's haunting background score.
Favorite Number: Unlike Creatures, this one doesn't stint on the music, putting most of it's songs right in the beginning. However, the music doesn't really bring much more to the table than it did in the previous movie. The songs - and the performances of them by the Del-Airs - sound all alike. The choreography is mostly a matter of filming women's rear ends wriggling in skimpy bikinis.
What I Don't Like: The teens in Creatures may not have been the best actors in the universe, but at least they somewhat looked their ages. All of the so-called "teens" here appear to be middle-aged. As the robots in MST3K joked, Elaine looks at least 40. And what was with the motorcycle gang who suddenly showed up at the beach in the opening? They came. One fought with Hank over Tina. Then, they left and were never heard from or spoken of again. Moore's character is a dated example of the kind of black stereotype that many movies of this time period were just starting to challenge.
The worst part is the monsters themselves. I've seen kids at Halloween who had better mutant costumes. They were supposedly created at a sculpting studio in Stamford, but they look more like they were pulled off the rack at Wal Mart. Their lumbering around looks more like men in fish costumes with dysentria than anything scary. The build-up to them is more frightening than the actual thing.
The Big Finale: Scarier than Creatures and better-made, but not as unique...or, frankly, as much fun. If you want some actual scares with your B-schlock, you'll want to give this one a look once.
Home Media: Along with the MST3K episode, this one has made it to Blu-Ray, along with a 2-pack that includes the movie it was originally doubled-billed with in theaters, The Curse of the Living Corpse.
DVD
Blu-Ray
2-Pack with The Curse of the Living Corpse DVD
Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazon Prime
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
Fairway-International Pictures, 1964
Starring Ray Dennis Steckler (Cash Flagg), Sharon Walsh, Atlas King, Brett O'Hara
Directed by Ray Dennis Steckler
Music by Andre Brummer and Libby Quinn
The Story: California teens Jerry (Steckler), Angela (Walsh), and Harold (King) take off for the local amusement park for the day, despite the disapproval of Angela's mother. After enjoying most of the day, Angela insists on checking out the fortune teller Madame Estrella (Brett O'Hara). She tells the girl that someone close to her will die near water. Jerry waves this off, but Angela is disturbed. She's understandably even less happy when he insists on going to the girlie show and stomps off in a huff. He stays for the show and catches the eye of Estrella's sister Carmelita (Erina Enyo), who lures him back to the fortune teller. Estrella hypnotizes him into murdering a dancer (Carolyn Brandt) who had discovered her secret - Estrella is poisoning and disfiguring customers who have discovered her zombie "pets" in the back room of her booth. Jerry can't seem to shake the conditioning, leading to even more death...and some seriously strange musical numbers
The Song and Dance: Well...you can't say the title's a cheat. This is one seriously strange movie. O'Hara's my favorite thing here. Even with the bad accent, she's clearly having a great time slathering on the cheese spread as the fortune teller who's got more on her mind than telling kids they're going to have long lives. Walsh isn't bad for someone who was yanked from the chorus line and dumped in front of the camera. The film has an odd but unique style, especially the swirling colors of the fair contrasting with the more natural tones in the suburban street and on the beach.
Favorite Number: "Shook Out of Shape" is the best of a bad lot. The number has mildly decent choreography and attractive showgirl costumes. Nothing else is even remotely memorable. The Leslie Gore-esque blues solos towards the end are especially bland. The duets between the two dancers who are later killed are terrible, but that does tie into the plot - she's been drinking, and it's effecting her performance. (Not to mention, these are all supposed to be low-level carnival acts. You can almost kind of forgive the bad routines.)
What I Don't Like: This is about as low-budget as low-budget can get. Steckler was so low on money, that was his family's station wagon he was driving in some scenes. The decent cinematography can only do so much to redeem a bizarre story, bad writing, and weird or dull performances from everyone else. Steckler acts like he was hypnotized before he was hypnotized. While the costumes are passable, the hair and make-up is mid-60's insane. Every single woman has hair that defies gravity in ways they wouldn't even manage in the height of the 80's perm craze.
Despite it being billed as a horror film and a musical, we don't see any numbers until nearly a half-hour in, and we don't see the zombies until the last 10 minutes...and when we do, they're just people in Halloween masks you could get off the rack at Party Fair.
The Big Finale: If you love B movie schlock, you can't get much cheesier than this. It's so bad-it's-one-of-a-kind. For true bad-movie aficionados and lovers of Steckler's other soft-core work.
Home Media: Along with the MST3K episode, this is available in a 41st anniversary edition DVD on Amazon.
DVD
Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD
Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazon Prime
Horror of Party Beach
20th Century Fox, 1964
Starring John Scott, Alice Lyon, Eulabelle Moore, and Allan Laurel
Directed by Del Tenney
Music by Edward Earle Marsh and others
The Story: We head across the country to Connecticut for our next fright-fest. A group of teenagers are dancin' and groovin' on the title beach when one girl who went out for a swim (Marilyn Clarke) is found dead, murdered by terrifying fish creatures who walk like men and drink blood. Her boyfriend Hank (Scott), who just defended her honor from a motorcycle gang, is distraught. Elaine (Lyon) is worried about him. She has a huge crush on him, but hasn't been able to say so with Tina in the picture.
Meanwhile, the monsters have gone on a rampage, killing everyone from drunks to stranded women to girls at a slumber party. Elaine's dad Dr. Gavin (Laurel) is at a loss on how to destroy them, even after they manage to find the arm of one creature. His maid Eulabelle (Moore) inadvertantly discovers the answer when she drops salt on the arm, and it dissolves. These are creatures of the sea, who were turned into mutants when radioactive waste was thrown into the water. Salt will get rid of them. Elaine is determined to find them herself, but she may not be able to deal with these creeps from beneath the deep when her leg is caught in a rock...
The Song and Dance: Part of a series of "Beach Party" movies made to fill double-bills at drive-in movies in the early and mid-60's. Oddly, unlike those movies or Incredibly Strange Creatures, this one was filmed in black and white. Between the ridiculously clean-cut "teens" and the shadowy cinematography, I thought this was from the mid-late 50's until I looked the movie up on Wikipedia. While the editing isn't as shaky or wild as in Creatures, it's still really good, with some nice shots of the monsters in the shadows and at the beach. I especially like Marsh's haunting background score.
Favorite Number: Unlike Creatures, this one doesn't stint on the music, putting most of it's songs right in the beginning. However, the music doesn't really bring much more to the table than it did in the previous movie. The songs - and the performances of them by the Del-Airs - sound all alike. The choreography is mostly a matter of filming women's rear ends wriggling in skimpy bikinis.
What I Don't Like: The teens in Creatures may not have been the best actors in the universe, but at least they somewhat looked their ages. All of the so-called "teens" here appear to be middle-aged. As the robots in MST3K joked, Elaine looks at least 40. And what was with the motorcycle gang who suddenly showed up at the beach in the opening? They came. One fought with Hank over Tina. Then, they left and were never heard from or spoken of again. Moore's character is a dated example of the kind of black stereotype that many movies of this time period were just starting to challenge.
The worst part is the monsters themselves. I've seen kids at Halloween who had better mutant costumes. They were supposedly created at a sculpting studio in Stamford, but they look more like they were pulled off the rack at Wal Mart. Their lumbering around looks more like men in fish costumes with dysentria than anything scary. The build-up to them is more frightening than the actual thing.
The Big Finale: Scarier than Creatures and better-made, but not as unique...or, frankly, as much fun. If you want some actual scares with your B-schlock, you'll want to give this one a look once.
Home Media: Along with the MST3K episode, this one has made it to Blu-Ray, along with a 2-pack that includes the movie it was originally doubled-billed with in theaters, The Curse of the Living Corpse.
DVD
Blu-Ray
2-Pack with The Curse of the Living Corpse DVD
Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazon Prime
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Animation Celebration Saturday - The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Disney, 1949
Voices of Bing Crosby, Basil Rathbone, Eric Blore, and J. Pat O'Malley
Directed by Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, and James Algar
Music by Gene De Paul; Lyrics by Don Raye
This is the last of the six "package" films Disney made in the 1940's when they were short on funds. This one came about less because of a lack of money, and more because the stories were too thin to stretch into full-length movies. Is this anthology of two adaptations of literary classics worth the effort, or should they be chased off a bridge by the Headless Horseman? Let's go the library and see...
The Story: The "Mr. Toad" segment is based after the beloved kids' novel The Wind and the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and is narrated by Basil Rathbone. Mr. Toad (Blore) is forever obsessed with one form of transportation or another. His friends Rat (Claude Allister), Mole (Colin Campbell), and MacBadger (Campbell Grant) are becoming more and more concerned about him and his finances. If he keeps going through his money like water, he may have to sell his estate Toad Hall. Ratty and Mole try to steer him away from his newest interest, gypsy carts. He does drop it...but only after he sees a car for the first time and falls in love. Toad seriously regrets this passion when he's accused of stealing a car and winds up in jail. With the help of his horse Cyril (O'Malley), he escapes to the others. They discover that Toad traded the deed to Toad Hall to a group of weasels who now live there. It's up to the four to retrieve the deed and clear Toad's name.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving, is a spookier tale. Bing Crosby takes us back to Colonial America, where Ichabod Crane is the new school teacher. He's also has an eye for the ladies, including the lovely Katrina Van Tassel. Her father is a wealthy farmer, and she herself is quite a catch. Local favorite Brom Bones is also smitten with Katrina, and he does everything he can to make sure Ichabod doesn't win her favor. Brom finally gets his goat at Van Tassel's big town Halloween party. Ichabod is very superstitious, and Sleepy Hollow is full of ghost stories. Brom's tale of the Headless Horseman who lives on the covered bridge does frighten him, but he laughs it off...until he and his own horse have a late-night encounter with none other than the terrifying, pumpkin-headed Horseman of legend!
The Animation: It's not the best Disney's ever done, but it's far from the worst, either. Really par for the course for their 40's work. The finale of the "Ichbod" segment in particular is beautifully done. The build-up and suspense here is aptly conveyed by shadowy blues and blacks and a soft soundtrack. The Horseman himself is awesome when he arrives, especially when he and his black and red horse make that incredible leap into the air, with his head flaming against the dark background.
The Song and Dance: My favorite part of "Mr. Toad" is the relationship between the animals. Ratty, Mole, MacBadger, and even Cyril are true friends, watching over Toad, helping him out, encouraging him when he's down after escaping jail, and even testifying at his trial. I'm glad Toad learns to appreciate them, even if he can't quite give up his manias in the end.
As much fun as the animals and their caper are in "Mr. Toad," the real winner is "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." This is possibly the most accurate adaptation of literature Disney has ever done. Katrina is a silly flirt, Brom a bully, and Ichabod a gold-digger out for Katrina's money, which is a perfect reflection of the original story. The final ten minutes are among the most terrifying sequences in any Disney animated film, ever. Bing Crosby's perfect as the narrator. His crooning of several songs, including a jazzy number about the Headless Horseman for Brom at the party, adds to the fun.
Favorite Number: While "Mr. Toad" does have a good song in "Merrily On Our Way," Toad's traveling number as he and Cyril are bumping across England in the gypsy cart, most of the best numbers are in "Legend." Brom Bones' "The Headless Horseman," as he relates the tale of the infamous pumpkin-headed rider, is by far the catchiest and most memorable number in the film. "Ichabod Crane," the opening number from "Legend," is also good.
Trivia: The Wind and the Willows had been earmarked for a feature-length film since the release of Snow White in 1938, but the war brought development to a halt. Work began on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1946, after the war ended and Disney decided to return to feature-length animation. Beset by strikes and money woes, Disney never did figure out how to extend the thin stories to feature length and finally opted to release them together.
What I Don't Like: The "thrown-together" thing becomes painfully obvious when you realize how little the two stories have in common, besides being adaptations of classic literature. Even the narrators are entirely different. Critics tend to be rougher on the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" segment to this day, possibly due to some slightly out of place slapstick with Brom picking on Ichabod during the middle part. I personally wish more of the original Wind In the Willows could have been used; the animals are rather out-of-character, too. (In the book, Ratty's the laid-back one.)
The Big Finale: My personal favorite of the Disney "package" films of the 40's along with The Three Cabelleros. While I prefer Ichabod a little bit over Mr. Toad, both are worth a look for fans of Disney animation or the classic "golden age" animation of the 30's and 40's.
Home Media: Thankfully, this is not one of the Disney movies that gets tossed into the "Vault" from time to time. It's easily found on most formats, both as separate shorts and a feature-length movie.
Disney Animation Collection Volume 5: The Wind and the Willows DVD
DVD
Blu-Ray
Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Crane/Fun and Fancy Free 2-Pack Blu-Ray/DVD
Amazon Prime
Voices of Bing Crosby, Basil Rathbone, Eric Blore, and J. Pat O'Malley
Directed by Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, and James Algar
Music by Gene De Paul; Lyrics by Don Raye
This is the last of the six "package" films Disney made in the 1940's when they were short on funds. This one came about less because of a lack of money, and more because the stories were too thin to stretch into full-length movies. Is this anthology of two adaptations of literary classics worth the effort, or should they be chased off a bridge by the Headless Horseman? Let's go the library and see...
The Story: The "Mr. Toad" segment is based after the beloved kids' novel The Wind and the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and is narrated by Basil Rathbone. Mr. Toad (Blore) is forever obsessed with one form of transportation or another. His friends Rat (Claude Allister), Mole (Colin Campbell), and MacBadger (Campbell Grant) are becoming more and more concerned about him and his finances. If he keeps going through his money like water, he may have to sell his estate Toad Hall. Ratty and Mole try to steer him away from his newest interest, gypsy carts. He does drop it...but only after he sees a car for the first time and falls in love. Toad seriously regrets this passion when he's accused of stealing a car and winds up in jail. With the help of his horse Cyril (O'Malley), he escapes to the others. They discover that Toad traded the deed to Toad Hall to a group of weasels who now live there. It's up to the four to retrieve the deed and clear Toad's name.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving, is a spookier tale. Bing Crosby takes us back to Colonial America, where Ichabod Crane is the new school teacher. He's also has an eye for the ladies, including the lovely Katrina Van Tassel. Her father is a wealthy farmer, and she herself is quite a catch. Local favorite Brom Bones is also smitten with Katrina, and he does everything he can to make sure Ichabod doesn't win her favor. Brom finally gets his goat at Van Tassel's big town Halloween party. Ichabod is very superstitious, and Sleepy Hollow is full of ghost stories. Brom's tale of the Headless Horseman who lives on the covered bridge does frighten him, but he laughs it off...until he and his own horse have a late-night encounter with none other than the terrifying, pumpkin-headed Horseman of legend!
The Animation: It's not the best Disney's ever done, but it's far from the worst, either. Really par for the course for their 40's work. The finale of the "Ichbod" segment in particular is beautifully done. The build-up and suspense here is aptly conveyed by shadowy blues and blacks and a soft soundtrack. The Horseman himself is awesome when he arrives, especially when he and his black and red horse make that incredible leap into the air, with his head flaming against the dark background.
The Song and Dance: My favorite part of "Mr. Toad" is the relationship between the animals. Ratty, Mole, MacBadger, and even Cyril are true friends, watching over Toad, helping him out, encouraging him when he's down after escaping jail, and even testifying at his trial. I'm glad Toad learns to appreciate them, even if he can't quite give up his manias in the end.
As much fun as the animals and their caper are in "Mr. Toad," the real winner is "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." This is possibly the most accurate adaptation of literature Disney has ever done. Katrina is a silly flirt, Brom a bully, and Ichabod a gold-digger out for Katrina's money, which is a perfect reflection of the original story. The final ten minutes are among the most terrifying sequences in any Disney animated film, ever. Bing Crosby's perfect as the narrator. His crooning of several songs, including a jazzy number about the Headless Horseman for Brom at the party, adds to the fun.
Favorite Number: While "Mr. Toad" does have a good song in "Merrily On Our Way," Toad's traveling number as he and Cyril are bumping across England in the gypsy cart, most of the best numbers are in "Legend." Brom Bones' "The Headless Horseman," as he relates the tale of the infamous pumpkin-headed rider, is by far the catchiest and most memorable number in the film. "Ichabod Crane," the opening number from "Legend," is also good.
Trivia: The Wind and the Willows had been earmarked for a feature-length film since the release of Snow White in 1938, but the war brought development to a halt. Work began on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1946, after the war ended and Disney decided to return to feature-length animation. Beset by strikes and money woes, Disney never did figure out how to extend the thin stories to feature length and finally opted to release them together.
What I Don't Like: The "thrown-together" thing becomes painfully obvious when you realize how little the two stories have in common, besides being adaptations of classic literature. Even the narrators are entirely different. Critics tend to be rougher on the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" segment to this day, possibly due to some slightly out of place slapstick with Brom picking on Ichabod during the middle part. I personally wish more of the original Wind In the Willows could have been used; the animals are rather out-of-character, too. (In the book, Ratty's the laid-back one.)
The Big Finale: My personal favorite of the Disney "package" films of the 40's along with The Three Cabelleros. While I prefer Ichabod a little bit over Mr. Toad, both are worth a look for fans of Disney animation or the classic "golden age" animation of the 30's and 40's.
Home Media: Thankfully, this is not one of the Disney movies that gets tossed into the "Vault" from time to time. It's easily found on most formats, both as separate shorts and a feature-length movie.
Disney Animation Collection Volume 5: The Wind and the Willows DVD
DVD
Blu-Ray
Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Crane/Fun and Fancy Free 2-Pack Blu-Ray/DVD
Amazon Prime
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Cult Flops - The Phantom of the Opera
Warner Bros, 2004
Starring Gerald Butler, Emily Rossum, Patrick Wilson, and Minnie Driver
Directed by Joel Schumaker
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; Lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe
From today through the day before Halloween, we're going to be celebrating the spookiest time of year with some truly terrifying horror musicals. Some you may not have heard of; others are classics, or at least cult favorites. Take this one from the early 2000's. This adaptation of the beloved still-running (at press time) Broadway operetta was a major flop on first release. It's become more popular over the years with romantics, fans of Schumaker's other movies, and young women who enjoy the spectacle and crush on the unfortunate title character. Let's dive deep below the stage of the Paris Opera to see if this dark tale is worthy of it's stage predecessor...or if it deserves to have a ten-ton chandelier dropped on it.
The Story: After a brief prologue at an auction in 1919, we travel back to 1870 at the Paris Opera. The resident diva Carlotta (Driver) refuses to go on before a performance of a major show. The infamous "ghost" who supposedly resides in the catacombs below the building has been tormenting her. The new managers Firmin (Ciaran Hinds) and Andre (Simon Callow) put on her understudy, sweet and naive Christine Daae (Rossum) on the suggestion of ballet director Madame Giry (Miranda Richardson).
Christine insists that she has an "Angel of Music" who has been teaching her. The opera's new patron and her former childhood friend Raoul (Wilson) thinks she's making it all up, but it turns out to be no mere fancy. She's being coached by the infamous Phantom (Butler) himself, who is obsessed with her. He wants her to sing the lead in the next opera, but she doesn't have the experience. The managers go with Carlotta...until the Phantom sabotages her performance and Christine finishes. Trouble is, Christine is also in love with Raoul. The Phantom is wildly jealous. It only gets worse when the duo announce their engagement during a New Year's masquerade ball, and later when Raoul defeats the Phantom in a duel near Christine's father's grave.
The Phantom wants his Don Juan opera performed, with Christine as the star. The managers and Raoul go through with it in the hopes of trapping him. But the Phantom still has one more ace up his sleeve. He is determined that the curtain will rise on his magnum opus...and the chandelier will fall on those who scorned him and his music.
The Song and Dance: Say what you will about Schumaker and his work, but this is a director who knows how to handle spectacle. While some of the CGI is obvious today, most of it sparkles with color and vibrancy. The Oscar-nominated art direction and cinematography shows off the Paris Opera and the cemetery where the Phantom and Raoul have their encounter in all their plush glory.
It's the ladies who really carry the day here. Driver was dubbed for some numbers, but she's otherwise perfect as the hilarious diva Carlotta. Rossum is appropriately sweet and winsome as Christine, and has an angelic voice to match. Richardson does well as the quiet and mysterious Madame Giry, who knows a lot more than she's telling about the Phantom and why he haunts the Opera House.
Favorite Number: The big ensemble songs "Masquerade" and "Prima Donna" were as colorful and swirling as one could wish, with some nice choreography in the latter. I also liked the delicate "Think of Me" early-on, as Raoul realizes how much Christine has grown. Driver actually gets to sing the new credits song "Learn to Be Lonely," which was also nominated for an Oscar.
Trivia: The movie had been in production since the late 80's, and apparently, Andrew Lloyd Webber had always wanted Schumaker to direct. Original stars Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman were set to reprise their roles as Christine and the Phantom, at least until Brightman's divorce from Webber put everything on hold. Other women considered for Christine included Anne Hathaway and Katie Holmes; other Phantoms auditioned included Hugh Jackman.
What I Don't Like: Butler's the biggest problem. While his macho action-star prowess does come in handy in some of the more swashbuckling sequences like the duel, he's waaaaayyyy out of his league with the music and the heavier dramatics. No amount of lessons could change the fact that he simply can't sing. He's flat-out painful in duets with the far-better Rossum and in numbers where he's called on to be all dark and tragic, like "The Music of the Night." Wilson is a decent singer, but despite having Broadway experience, he's flat and dull as Raoul and has no chemistry whatsoever with Rossum. It makes you wonder what she sees in either man.
The spectacle mostly does still work today...but some of the early 2000's CGI is very obvious, especially in dimly-lit scenes like the cemetery duel. The makeup work on Butler could have been a lot better, too. He doesn't look scary. He looks a little red and wrinkled, too pretty-boy to strike terror into the hearts of the entire cast of an opera house.
The Big Finale: It's not great, but it's definitely better than I thought it would be from the critical response. If you're a fan of the stage show, Schumaker's other movies, or Driver and can live with miscasting of the title character, it's worth checking out once.
Home Media: As one of the newer movies I've reviewed, this one is pretty easily found in most formats. The one to watch out for is the two-disc special edition DVD, which includes two documentaries on the movie and stage show and a cut song for the Phantom, "No One Would Listen."
2-Disc Collector's DVD
Collector's Edition Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime
Starring Gerald Butler, Emily Rossum, Patrick Wilson, and Minnie Driver
Directed by Joel Schumaker
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; Lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe
From today through the day before Halloween, we're going to be celebrating the spookiest time of year with some truly terrifying horror musicals. Some you may not have heard of; others are classics, or at least cult favorites. Take this one from the early 2000's. This adaptation of the beloved still-running (at press time) Broadway operetta was a major flop on first release. It's become more popular over the years with romantics, fans of Schumaker's other movies, and young women who enjoy the spectacle and crush on the unfortunate title character. Let's dive deep below the stage of the Paris Opera to see if this dark tale is worthy of it's stage predecessor...or if it deserves to have a ten-ton chandelier dropped on it.
The Story: After a brief prologue at an auction in 1919, we travel back to 1870 at the Paris Opera. The resident diva Carlotta (Driver) refuses to go on before a performance of a major show. The infamous "ghost" who supposedly resides in the catacombs below the building has been tormenting her. The new managers Firmin (Ciaran Hinds) and Andre (Simon Callow) put on her understudy, sweet and naive Christine Daae (Rossum) on the suggestion of ballet director Madame Giry (Miranda Richardson).
Christine insists that she has an "Angel of Music" who has been teaching her. The opera's new patron and her former childhood friend Raoul (Wilson) thinks she's making it all up, but it turns out to be no mere fancy. She's being coached by the infamous Phantom (Butler) himself, who is obsessed with her. He wants her to sing the lead in the next opera, but she doesn't have the experience. The managers go with Carlotta...until the Phantom sabotages her performance and Christine finishes. Trouble is, Christine is also in love with Raoul. The Phantom is wildly jealous. It only gets worse when the duo announce their engagement during a New Year's masquerade ball, and later when Raoul defeats the Phantom in a duel near Christine's father's grave.
The Phantom wants his Don Juan opera performed, with Christine as the star. The managers and Raoul go through with it in the hopes of trapping him. But the Phantom still has one more ace up his sleeve. He is determined that the curtain will rise on his magnum opus...and the chandelier will fall on those who scorned him and his music.
The Song and Dance: Say what you will about Schumaker and his work, but this is a director who knows how to handle spectacle. While some of the CGI is obvious today, most of it sparkles with color and vibrancy. The Oscar-nominated art direction and cinematography shows off the Paris Opera and the cemetery where the Phantom and Raoul have their encounter in all their plush glory.
It's the ladies who really carry the day here. Driver was dubbed for some numbers, but she's otherwise perfect as the hilarious diva Carlotta. Rossum is appropriately sweet and winsome as Christine, and has an angelic voice to match. Richardson does well as the quiet and mysterious Madame Giry, who knows a lot more than she's telling about the Phantom and why he haunts the Opera House.
Favorite Number: The big ensemble songs "Masquerade" and "Prima Donna" were as colorful and swirling as one could wish, with some nice choreography in the latter. I also liked the delicate "Think of Me" early-on, as Raoul realizes how much Christine has grown. Driver actually gets to sing the new credits song "Learn to Be Lonely," which was also nominated for an Oscar.
Trivia: The movie had been in production since the late 80's, and apparently, Andrew Lloyd Webber had always wanted Schumaker to direct. Original stars Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman were set to reprise their roles as Christine and the Phantom, at least until Brightman's divorce from Webber put everything on hold. Other women considered for Christine included Anne Hathaway and Katie Holmes; other Phantoms auditioned included Hugh Jackman.
What I Don't Like: Butler's the biggest problem. While his macho action-star prowess does come in handy in some of the more swashbuckling sequences like the duel, he's waaaaayyyy out of his league with the music and the heavier dramatics. No amount of lessons could change the fact that he simply can't sing. He's flat-out painful in duets with the far-better Rossum and in numbers where he's called on to be all dark and tragic, like "The Music of the Night." Wilson is a decent singer, but despite having Broadway experience, he's flat and dull as Raoul and has no chemistry whatsoever with Rossum. It makes you wonder what she sees in either man.
The spectacle mostly does still work today...but some of the early 2000's CGI is very obvious, especially in dimly-lit scenes like the cemetery duel. The makeup work on Butler could have been a lot better, too. He doesn't look scary. He looks a little red and wrinkled, too pretty-boy to strike terror into the hearts of the entire cast of an opera house.
The Big Finale: It's not great, but it's definitely better than I thought it would be from the critical response. If you're a fan of the stage show, Schumaker's other movies, or Driver and can live with miscasting of the title character, it's worth checking out once.
Home Media: As one of the newer movies I've reviewed, this one is pretty easily found in most formats. The one to watch out for is the two-disc special edition DVD, which includes two documentaries on the movie and stage show and a cut song for the Phantom, "No One Would Listen."
2-Disc Collector's DVD
Collector's Edition Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
The Kissing Bandit
MGM, 1949
Starring Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, J. Carrol Naish, and Mildred Natwick
Directed by Laslo Benedek
Music by Nacio Herb Brown; Lyrics by Earl Brent and Edward Heyman
If you've never heard of this Frank Sinatra vehicle, you're in good company. The only place I'd ever seen it before I found the DVD for rent at a local library was the "Dance of Fury" showing up in That's Entertainment III. Evidently, it was obscure even when it was new. According to Wikipedia, it was a massive flop in January 1949 and would become one of the least-successful musicals of MGM's 40's and 50's golden age. Does this tale of a shy young bandito deserve to ride off into the sunset, or should it be trampled under the feet of those fiery flamenco dancers? Let's find out...
The Story: We're in California in the 1850's. Ricardo (Sinatra) is called back from Boston by his late father's former partner Chico (Naish) to take over as the Kissing Bandit, a legendary thief who steals from the ladies, then kisses them before taking off. Ricardo is tall, skinny, shy, can't ride a horse, and is awkward around girls. He's never kissed a girl in his life! He'd rather return to Boston, but he's more-or-less forced into it. On his first raid, he falls head-over-heels for feisty Teresa (Grayson), the beautiful daughter of the Governor Don Jose (Mikhail Rasumny). His sister Isabella (Natwick) is her guardian and confidante. He wants to tell her how he feels, but not only does she think he's the Bandit, he's just too shy.
Meanwhile, he and Chico discover that a rude man who visits their inn (Carleton G. Young) and his fat general (Billy Gilbert) are tax collectors who intend to bilk the government out of the money. They pass themselves off as the nobleman and his general to get their hands on the gold themselves. While it works with Don Jose and Isabella, Teresa knows better. Ricardo can't bring himself to hurt her, no matter what Chico wants, even it means playing the Bandit for real and stopping the nobleman from doing any real harm.
The Song and Dance: The character actors and stunning Technicolor costumes and sets carry the day. Southern California of the 1850's is a rainbow of lime greens, flame oranges, and sunset golds, with everyone costumed in the most elaborate finery this side of the Cisco Kid. We even get some actual outdoor scenery in the beginning, during the raid. Naish and Natwick are particularly fun as Ricardo's sidekick and the one who keeps him from running off and Teresa's strong-willed aunt.
Favorite Number: As mentioned above, the movie is best known for "The Dance of Fury," performed at the fiesta towards the end of the film. Ricardo Montalban finds himself dealing with two of MGM's best dancers, Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller, who definitely don't want to share him! It's a blaze of color and fancy footwork that stands out in the dull surroundings. Broadway dancer Sono Osato also gets a nifty solo with a whip about half-way through. Sinatra's "Siesta" is actually kind of funny, and is much better than the attempts at ballads earlier.
What I Don't Like: Sinatra and Grayson were pretty much forced into this movie. Neither thought they were suited for it, and it wound up being among their least-favorite of their films. I'm afraid they were right. While Grayson isn't bad as the lovely senorita, Sinatra is totally at sea as the timid young scholar who would rather be studying in Boston than stealing from pretty women. The two have no chemistry; their romance is stiff and dull. Like Bing Crosby, Sinatra just wasn't made for period films.
The two amazing dances make up somewhat for the music being bland. Neither Sinatra nor Grayson's big ballads register, and the differences in their instruments mean there's no duets.
The Big Finale: Unless you're a really huge fan of Sinatra, Grayson, or MGM musicals of the 40's and 50's, I'd look up "The Dance of Fury" online or in That's Entertainment III and skip the rest.
Home Media: While it is easy to find solo on DVD and on Amazon Prime, your best bet may be to pick this up with a collection of other lesser-known Sinatra vehicles from the 40's, Frank Sinatra: The Early Years.
DVD
Amazon Prime
Frank Sinatra: The Early Years DVD set
Starring Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, J. Carrol Naish, and Mildred Natwick
Directed by Laslo Benedek
Music by Nacio Herb Brown; Lyrics by Earl Brent and Edward Heyman
If you've never heard of this Frank Sinatra vehicle, you're in good company. The only place I'd ever seen it before I found the DVD for rent at a local library was the "Dance of Fury" showing up in That's Entertainment III. Evidently, it was obscure even when it was new. According to Wikipedia, it was a massive flop in January 1949 and would become one of the least-successful musicals of MGM's 40's and 50's golden age. Does this tale of a shy young bandito deserve to ride off into the sunset, or should it be trampled under the feet of those fiery flamenco dancers? Let's find out...
The Story: We're in California in the 1850's. Ricardo (Sinatra) is called back from Boston by his late father's former partner Chico (Naish) to take over as the Kissing Bandit, a legendary thief who steals from the ladies, then kisses them before taking off. Ricardo is tall, skinny, shy, can't ride a horse, and is awkward around girls. He's never kissed a girl in his life! He'd rather return to Boston, but he's more-or-less forced into it. On his first raid, he falls head-over-heels for feisty Teresa (Grayson), the beautiful daughter of the Governor Don Jose (Mikhail Rasumny). His sister Isabella (Natwick) is her guardian and confidante. He wants to tell her how he feels, but not only does she think he's the Bandit, he's just too shy.
Meanwhile, he and Chico discover that a rude man who visits their inn (Carleton G. Young) and his fat general (Billy Gilbert) are tax collectors who intend to bilk the government out of the money. They pass themselves off as the nobleman and his general to get their hands on the gold themselves. While it works with Don Jose and Isabella, Teresa knows better. Ricardo can't bring himself to hurt her, no matter what Chico wants, even it means playing the Bandit for real and stopping the nobleman from doing any real harm.
The Song and Dance: The character actors and stunning Technicolor costumes and sets carry the day. Southern California of the 1850's is a rainbow of lime greens, flame oranges, and sunset golds, with everyone costumed in the most elaborate finery this side of the Cisco Kid. We even get some actual outdoor scenery in the beginning, during the raid. Naish and Natwick are particularly fun as Ricardo's sidekick and the one who keeps him from running off and Teresa's strong-willed aunt.
Favorite Number: As mentioned above, the movie is best known for "The Dance of Fury," performed at the fiesta towards the end of the film. Ricardo Montalban finds himself dealing with two of MGM's best dancers, Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller, who definitely don't want to share him! It's a blaze of color and fancy footwork that stands out in the dull surroundings. Broadway dancer Sono Osato also gets a nifty solo with a whip about half-way through. Sinatra's "Siesta" is actually kind of funny, and is much better than the attempts at ballads earlier.
What I Don't Like: Sinatra and Grayson were pretty much forced into this movie. Neither thought they were suited for it, and it wound up being among their least-favorite of their films. I'm afraid they were right. While Grayson isn't bad as the lovely senorita, Sinatra is totally at sea as the timid young scholar who would rather be studying in Boston than stealing from pretty women. The two have no chemistry; their romance is stiff and dull. Like Bing Crosby, Sinatra just wasn't made for period films.
The two amazing dances make up somewhat for the music being bland. Neither Sinatra nor Grayson's big ballads register, and the differences in their instruments mean there's no duets.
The Big Finale: Unless you're a really huge fan of Sinatra, Grayson, or MGM musicals of the 40's and 50's, I'd look up "The Dance of Fury" online or in That's Entertainment III and skip the rest.
Home Media: While it is easy to find solo on DVD and on Amazon Prime, your best bet may be to pick this up with a collection of other lesser-known Sinatra vehicles from the 40's, Frank Sinatra: The Early Years.
DVD
Amazon Prime
Frank Sinatra: The Early Years DVD set
Saturday, October 13, 2018
Animation Celebration Double Feature - The Little Mermaid and The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
We head under the waves to take a look at one of Disney's most beloved films, the one that kicked off it's 90's Renaissance. We're also going to take a look at it's sequel, part of the infamous series of direct-to-home-media follow-ups to many of it's classic animated films that Disney churned out in from the mid-90's to the mid-2000's. How does the original film hold up "under the sea," and does its follow-up deserve the notoriety? Let's take a look and see...
The Little Mermaid
Disney, 1989
Voices of Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Buddy Hackett, and Christopher Daniel Barnes
Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker
Music by Alan Menken; Lyrics by Howard Ashman
The Story: Ariel (Benson) is a teenage mermaid, the daughter of the sea king Triton (Kenneth Mars). She's been forbidden to go above the surface for fear she'll be seen by humans, but she's obsessed with the world above and collects everything about it she can. One night, during a story, she rescues the handsome Prince Eric (Barnes) and falls head over fins for him. After her father discovers her treasures and destroys them, she turns to the sea witch Ursula (Carroll) to make her dreams come true. Ursula does turn her into a human, but takes her voice as payment. With the help of her father's crab composer Sebastian (Samuel Wright), the fish Flounder (Jason Marin), and the goofy seagull Scuttle (Hackett), Ariel has three days to make Eric fall in love with her in return and kiss her, or she'll end up a slave to the witch.
The Animation: The impressive animation, especially in the under the sea sequences, have always been a big part of the draw here. You really do feel like you're under the sea; everything just glows with colors so brilliant, they make the rainbow in the finale look pale. The sequences on land aren't as colorful, but are just as well-done. The details, both under and over the sea, are amazing. The musical numbers have so much going on in them, you can spend a viewing just checking out all the craziness.
The Song and Dance: While Benson's appropriately winsome as the naive title character, the real winners here are the character actors. Mars brings a great deal of authority to his role of the stubborn king who just wants to protect his daughter. Carroll is pitch-perfect as Ursula, the voluptuous, scheming octopus who is one of Disney's best villains. Wright and Hackett have a lot of fun as Ariel's two of Ariel's best friends in the sea and on land respectively.
I've always liked how the father-daughter situation is handled here. As a kid (I was 10 when this came out), I sided with Ariel. Now that I'm older, I can understand Triton's point of view. It doesn't make what he did to her collection right, but I can see why he did it. Disney doesn't often go into father-daughter relationships, making this aspect of the movie actually rather unique in animation.
Favorite Number: "Under the Sea" doesn't really have much to do with the story, but it's so infectious, and the sequence is so well-done, I can totally see why it won an Oscar. "Part of Your World," Ariel's solo as she tries to explain her feelings about the world above to Flounder, is one of the best (and most iconic) "I Want" songs in musical history.
My personal favorite has always been "Kiss the Girl." Not only is the song the best in the film, but it's performed beautifully by Wright and the chorus and has some of the film's best effects, with the bird dancing around them and the glittering water gliding under the boat.
Trivia: Like Cinderella, this was a return to form for Disney after two decades of movies that ranged from fun-but-underrated to so-so. It was such a smash, the merchandising and video releases alone supplied Disney with the money to make most of its animated films for the rest of the 90's.
"Part of Your World" was almost removed due to negative early test screenings, but the directors pushed to keep it as the movie neared completion. It worked with later audiences, and it stayed.
This was the last Disney film to be made with traditional hand-painted cells, and even this movie has some CGI effects (mostly in the climatic finale with Ursula and the ships). From The Rescuers Down Under onwards, all Disney animated movies would be colored and filmed digitally.
"Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl" were both nominated for Oscars; "Under the Sea" won. The movie also won for Original Score.
What I Don't Like: While she was praised for her independence and quick mind in 1989, Ariel doesn't always come off as the brightest starfish in the sea today, especially compared to later, more mature Disney ladies like Belle and Tiana. Prince Eric also has a tad bit more character than most of the Disney leading men who came before him, but is mostly pretty bland.
Like most Disney animated fairy tale retellings, this really doesn't have that much in common with the original Hans Christian Anderson Little Mermaid, especially the ending. I always found the happy ending to be a bit of a cop-out. While Ursula's flat-out villainy is hilarious, I did always like that the sea witch in the original story was ambiguous. She does what's asked of her because she's asked to do it, not because of any animosity.
The Big Finale: It's not one of my all-time favorite Disney movies, but it's still beloved among many animation lovers and mermaid-crazy girls for it's lush animation, memorable characters, and classic soundtrack. Give it a shot and make it "Part of Your World," too.
Home Media: Alas, this is another Disney movie that's currently on moratorium and is expensive on DVD and Blu-Ray. Once again, your best bet would likely be to look for it used on eBay or elsewhere.
DVD
Blu-Ray
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
Disney, 2000
Voices of Jodi Benson, Tara Cherendoff (Strong), Pat Carroll, and Buddy Hackett
Directed by Jim Kammerud and Brian Smith
Music by Michael and Patty Silversher and others
The Story: Melody (Cherendoff) is Ariel and Eric's daughter. At her christening, she's given a locket by her grandfather Triton to remind her that a part of her will always belong to the sea. Unfortunately, she also becomes the target of the scheming Morgana (Carroll), who wants to avenge her sister Ursula and take over Triton's kingdom. Hoping to protect her daughter, Ariel builds a wall to cut her off from the sea. It works no better than trying to keep Ariel from the surface did. Melody frequently swims under it, befriending Sebastian (Wright) and Scuttle (Hackett). Having found the locket, Melody wants to know more about it, but Ariel is afraid to answer her questions.
After a disastrous party, Melody takes off in a boat to learn more about her heritage. Morgana's underling Undertow (Clancy Brown) brings the girl to his mistress. Morgana does make Melody's legs into a tail, but says she'll only stay that way if she steals the trident from Triton (claiming he stole it from her). As she searches for the trident, Melody befriends Tip (Max Casella) and Dash (Stephan Furst), a penguin and a walrus respectively who are looking to be more heroic in the eyes of their families.
The Animation: A disappointing comedown from the original. This was animated by the Disney Television Animation studios (like most of the other direct-to-home-media movies of this time), and it shows. The animation is colorful, but lacks the detail and fluidity of the original. The underwater effects look flat and dull, and the scenes around the ice flows pretty much look all the same.
The Song and Dance: What I like here is the relationship between daughter and mother. Ariel is the only Disney princess to date who has been shown as a mother, even in the direct-to-home-media sequels. She's not as harsh as her father was, and you can understand why she's being so protective...but smothering is still smothering. When she says in the finale that she realizes she made some bad decisions regarding raising Melody and regrets it, you really feel that hurt. Melody, for her part, isn't even a rebellious teenager. She's just a confused kid who feels like she belongs in one place but is being kept in another.
Favorite Number: None, really. Other than the opening "Down to the Sea" with the cast celebrating Ariel and Eric's arrival, none of the new songs were even remotely memorable. Tip and Dash's big number with Melody was probably supposed to be a comic ditty on the lines of "Hakuna Matata," but comes off more annoying than anything. Which brings us to...
What I Don't Like: Too bad all that mother-daughter bonding is wasted on a rehash of the first movie. Couldn't they have come up with at least a slightly more original plot and a better villain? Morgana is basically just a thinner version of Ursula who wants attention, and the whole thing with her trying to get Undertow back to his regular size (he's supposed to be a shark, but Triton shrunk him) is basically filler. Tip and Dash are annoying, obnoxious, and contribute next-to-nothing to the plot. They're probably just there to be the hip, funny side characters. A lot of the dialogue sounds a bit too hip and modern for a fairy tale (probably showing some of the influence of Shrek from earlier in 2000). Eric's even less in this than he was in the original movie.
The Big Finale: I do know some kids who grew up with this on video in the early 2000's who have a soft spot for it. For anyone else, it's completely avoidable unless you're a massive Little Mermaid fan.
Home Media: Same deal. This is also out of print; once again, you're better off checking used DVD stores and other venues. Your best bet is to look for this one as a 2-pack with the prequel Ariel's Beginning.
2-Movie Collection (with Ariel's Beginning) DVD
2-Movie Collection (with Ariel's Beginning) Blu-Ray
The Little Mermaid
Disney, 1989
Voices of Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Buddy Hackett, and Christopher Daniel Barnes
Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker
Music by Alan Menken; Lyrics by Howard Ashman
The Story: Ariel (Benson) is a teenage mermaid, the daughter of the sea king Triton (Kenneth Mars). She's been forbidden to go above the surface for fear she'll be seen by humans, but she's obsessed with the world above and collects everything about it she can. One night, during a story, she rescues the handsome Prince Eric (Barnes) and falls head over fins for him. After her father discovers her treasures and destroys them, she turns to the sea witch Ursula (Carroll) to make her dreams come true. Ursula does turn her into a human, but takes her voice as payment. With the help of her father's crab composer Sebastian (Samuel Wright), the fish Flounder (Jason Marin), and the goofy seagull Scuttle (Hackett), Ariel has three days to make Eric fall in love with her in return and kiss her, or she'll end up a slave to the witch.
The Animation: The impressive animation, especially in the under the sea sequences, have always been a big part of the draw here. You really do feel like you're under the sea; everything just glows with colors so brilliant, they make the rainbow in the finale look pale. The sequences on land aren't as colorful, but are just as well-done. The details, both under and over the sea, are amazing. The musical numbers have so much going on in them, you can spend a viewing just checking out all the craziness.
The Song and Dance: While Benson's appropriately winsome as the naive title character, the real winners here are the character actors. Mars brings a great deal of authority to his role of the stubborn king who just wants to protect his daughter. Carroll is pitch-perfect as Ursula, the voluptuous, scheming octopus who is one of Disney's best villains. Wright and Hackett have a lot of fun as Ariel's two of Ariel's best friends in the sea and on land respectively.
I've always liked how the father-daughter situation is handled here. As a kid (I was 10 when this came out), I sided with Ariel. Now that I'm older, I can understand Triton's point of view. It doesn't make what he did to her collection right, but I can see why he did it. Disney doesn't often go into father-daughter relationships, making this aspect of the movie actually rather unique in animation.
Favorite Number: "Under the Sea" doesn't really have much to do with the story, but it's so infectious, and the sequence is so well-done, I can totally see why it won an Oscar. "Part of Your World," Ariel's solo as she tries to explain her feelings about the world above to Flounder, is one of the best (and most iconic) "I Want" songs in musical history.
My personal favorite has always been "Kiss the Girl." Not only is the song the best in the film, but it's performed beautifully by Wright and the chorus and has some of the film's best effects, with the bird dancing around them and the glittering water gliding under the boat.
Trivia: Like Cinderella, this was a return to form for Disney after two decades of movies that ranged from fun-but-underrated to so-so. It was such a smash, the merchandising and video releases alone supplied Disney with the money to make most of its animated films for the rest of the 90's.
"Part of Your World" was almost removed due to negative early test screenings, but the directors pushed to keep it as the movie neared completion. It worked with later audiences, and it stayed.
This was the last Disney film to be made with traditional hand-painted cells, and even this movie has some CGI effects (mostly in the climatic finale with Ursula and the ships). From The Rescuers Down Under onwards, all Disney animated movies would be colored and filmed digitally.
"Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl" were both nominated for Oscars; "Under the Sea" won. The movie also won for Original Score.
What I Don't Like: While she was praised for her independence and quick mind in 1989, Ariel doesn't always come off as the brightest starfish in the sea today, especially compared to later, more mature Disney ladies like Belle and Tiana. Prince Eric also has a tad bit more character than most of the Disney leading men who came before him, but is mostly pretty bland.
Like most Disney animated fairy tale retellings, this really doesn't have that much in common with the original Hans Christian Anderson Little Mermaid, especially the ending. I always found the happy ending to be a bit of a cop-out. While Ursula's flat-out villainy is hilarious, I did always like that the sea witch in the original story was ambiguous. She does what's asked of her because she's asked to do it, not because of any animosity.
The Big Finale: It's not one of my all-time favorite Disney movies, but it's still beloved among many animation lovers and mermaid-crazy girls for it's lush animation, memorable characters, and classic soundtrack. Give it a shot and make it "Part of Your World," too.
Home Media: Alas, this is another Disney movie that's currently on moratorium and is expensive on DVD and Blu-Ray. Once again, your best bet would likely be to look for it used on eBay or elsewhere.
DVD
Blu-Ray
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
Disney, 2000
Voices of Jodi Benson, Tara Cherendoff (Strong), Pat Carroll, and Buddy Hackett
Directed by Jim Kammerud and Brian Smith
Music by Michael and Patty Silversher and others
The Story: Melody (Cherendoff) is Ariel and Eric's daughter. At her christening, she's given a locket by her grandfather Triton to remind her that a part of her will always belong to the sea. Unfortunately, she also becomes the target of the scheming Morgana (Carroll), who wants to avenge her sister Ursula and take over Triton's kingdom. Hoping to protect her daughter, Ariel builds a wall to cut her off from the sea. It works no better than trying to keep Ariel from the surface did. Melody frequently swims under it, befriending Sebastian (Wright) and Scuttle (Hackett). Having found the locket, Melody wants to know more about it, but Ariel is afraid to answer her questions.
After a disastrous party, Melody takes off in a boat to learn more about her heritage. Morgana's underling Undertow (Clancy Brown) brings the girl to his mistress. Morgana does make Melody's legs into a tail, but says she'll only stay that way if she steals the trident from Triton (claiming he stole it from her). As she searches for the trident, Melody befriends Tip (Max Casella) and Dash (Stephan Furst), a penguin and a walrus respectively who are looking to be more heroic in the eyes of their families.
The Animation: A disappointing comedown from the original. This was animated by the Disney Television Animation studios (like most of the other direct-to-home-media movies of this time), and it shows. The animation is colorful, but lacks the detail and fluidity of the original. The underwater effects look flat and dull, and the scenes around the ice flows pretty much look all the same.
The Song and Dance: What I like here is the relationship between daughter and mother. Ariel is the only Disney princess to date who has been shown as a mother, even in the direct-to-home-media sequels. She's not as harsh as her father was, and you can understand why she's being so protective...but smothering is still smothering. When she says in the finale that she realizes she made some bad decisions regarding raising Melody and regrets it, you really feel that hurt. Melody, for her part, isn't even a rebellious teenager. She's just a confused kid who feels like she belongs in one place but is being kept in another.
Favorite Number: None, really. Other than the opening "Down to the Sea" with the cast celebrating Ariel and Eric's arrival, none of the new songs were even remotely memorable. Tip and Dash's big number with Melody was probably supposed to be a comic ditty on the lines of "Hakuna Matata," but comes off more annoying than anything. Which brings us to...
What I Don't Like: Too bad all that mother-daughter bonding is wasted on a rehash of the first movie. Couldn't they have come up with at least a slightly more original plot and a better villain? Morgana is basically just a thinner version of Ursula who wants attention, and the whole thing with her trying to get Undertow back to his regular size (he's supposed to be a shark, but Triton shrunk him) is basically filler. Tip and Dash are annoying, obnoxious, and contribute next-to-nothing to the plot. They're probably just there to be the hip, funny side characters. A lot of the dialogue sounds a bit too hip and modern for a fairy tale (probably showing some of the influence of Shrek from earlier in 2000). Eric's even less in this than he was in the original movie.
The Big Finale: I do know some kids who grew up with this on video in the early 2000's who have a soft spot for it. For anyone else, it's completely avoidable unless you're a massive Little Mermaid fan.
Home Media: Same deal. This is also out of print; once again, you're better off checking used DVD stores and other venues. Your best bet is to look for this one as a 2-pack with the prequel Ariel's Beginning.
2-Movie Collection (with Ariel's Beginning) DVD
2-Movie Collection (with Ariel's Beginning) Blu-Ray
Thursday, October 11, 2018
Cult Flops - Xanadu
Universal, 1980
Starring Olivia Newton-John, Michael Beck, and Gene Kelly
Directed by Robert Greenwald
Music by The Electric Light Orchestra and others
Disco was the music of the late 1970's. The whole aesthetic - the glitter, the dances, the wide-lapel suits and glittering pantsuits and dresses - permeated the entire era. It was probably inevitable that movies would be written around the craze. Saturday Night Fever turned disco into a sensation, codified by Thank God It's Friday. Unfortunately, by the time Xanadu made it out of its troubled production in August 1980, there was a major backlash against disco and its excesses. Does this movie deserve it's notoriety as one of the worst musicals ever, or does the fanciful tale of a muse and the artist she inspires still manage to make "Magic?"
The Story: Sonny Malone (Beck) has just returned to his job painting life-sized covers of rock albums to display in stores after an unsuccessful stint as a freelance artist. He hates his job, but he's decided it's the only way he'll make money...until he spies a beautiful girl (Newton-John) roller-skating in the park. She kisses him and skates away. He follows her later, meeting her in front of the dilapidated Pan-Pacific Auditorium. She tells him that her name is Kira, but won't say much else. A bit later, he meets former clarinetist Danny McGuire (Kelly) on the beach. McGuire had his own nightclub during the 1940's, but he lost his muse, and he now owns a construction company. Kira encourages the two men to form a partnership and create the nightclub of their dreams. Meanwhile, she and Sonny are getting closer. Kira, however, is not what she seems...and Sonny discovers what real love is when he literally goes to heaven and back to follow her.
The Song and Dance: This movie is one of the most bizarre musicals in existence, but it does have quite a few charms. TV Tropes accurately calls it "the nexus of 70's cheese and 80's cheese." If you want to know what the world was like as the 70's flipped to the 80's, this is a good place to start. The story is really rather sweet, and even touching, especially the side plot with McGuire. I like the nostalgia, the mixing of the 40's big-band, 70's disco, and 80's neon pop, and how each collide with and address the other. I kind of wish they could have done more with the collision of these three different eras. Kelly is wonderful as the former musician hoping to keep another artist from losing his muse and his true love. The widescreen cinematography of the real LA adds authenticity to this odd fantasy.
Favorite Number: McGuire recalls his lost muse in the lovely "Whenever You're Away From Me," a delightful and charming soft-shoe between Kelly and Newton-John that is probably the best thing in the movie. The opening number "I'm Alive," with the muses emerging from a mural, doesn't really explain much about what's going on, but looks nifty nevertheless. The best ensemble number is "Dancin'," as Danny's big-band and Sonny's 80's hard rock mix collide in their imagined club. There's some nice choreography here and some really awesome costumes.
My favorite song is Newton-John's passionate ballad "Suspended In Time," as Kira tries to explain her feelings about Sonny to her otherworldly parents. It's filmed simply, against a background of Tron-style glowing lines, and Newton-John really pours her heart into the number. This is one aspect of the movie that definitely did not deserve a Golden Raspberry. And speaking of...
Trivia: The failure of this movie and another flop disco musical released around the same time, Can't Stop the Music, inspired the Golden Raspberry Awards. They're given to the worst movie and performances of the year.
Unlike the film, the soundtrack album was one of the biggest hits of the year. Newton-John's solo "Magic" went to #1 on the US Pop chart; "Xanadu" and "Suddenly" were also major top 5 hits in the US and elsewhere.
The animated sequence "Don't Walk Away" was Don Bluth's first work on his own after he broke away from Disney.
The Pan-Pacific Auditorium had been LA's major cultural center from it's opening in 1935 until it closed in 1972. According to Wikipedia, by 1980 it was just as much of a dump as Sonny claimed. Despite efforts to remodel it and the exterior appearing in several films (including Xanadu) and music videos, it eventually burned to the ground in a fire in 1989.
A Broadway version of the show debuted in 2007. It was a surprise hit that season, playing the muse/artist plot for the campy goof it is. (It also adds several Electric Light Orchestra songs and one extra Newton-John number.)
What I Don't Like: Beck is totally out of place here. Not only is he not a singer or dancer, but his Sonny Malone is an obnoxious and egotistical jerk who thinks the world owes him something. He's so unlikable, especially in the beginning, you wonder why Kira and her sisters want to help him. He doesn't need the help; he needs a swift kick in the rear. I'd almost rather see her return to Kelly, who at least is a decent guy who treats both of his proteges well.
As charming as the campiness can be, there are times when it's all just too much. The dialogue is often stiff and sometimes just plain dumb. Some of the better songs, including "All Over the World" and the hit ballad "Suddenly," are marred by nonsensical or badly filmed numbers. While Bluth's animation for "Don't Walk Away" is nice (and foreshadows many of the effects and ideas he'd use in later films), it has nothing to do with the story and stops the movie cold. The finale, with Kira and her sisters performing at the opening of the nightclub, goes on for way, way too long.
The Big Finale: I'm going to admit it - this is an unabashed guilty pleasure of mine. I can see why it's picked up a cult following of gay men and teen girls who grew up watching it on cable. The music, style, and some good performances from Newton-John and Kelly override most of the problems with Beck, the weirder numbers, and the silly plot. If you're a fan of Newton-John or Kelly, the soundtrack, or love camp like I do, you'll want to find your muse and take a trip to Xanadu, too.
Home Media: This film's cult following has assured that it's easily available on most formats, usually for under 10 dollars.
DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime
Starring Olivia Newton-John, Michael Beck, and Gene Kelly
Directed by Robert Greenwald
Music by The Electric Light Orchestra and others
Disco was the music of the late 1970's. The whole aesthetic - the glitter, the dances, the wide-lapel suits and glittering pantsuits and dresses - permeated the entire era. It was probably inevitable that movies would be written around the craze. Saturday Night Fever turned disco into a sensation, codified by Thank God It's Friday. Unfortunately, by the time Xanadu made it out of its troubled production in August 1980, there was a major backlash against disco and its excesses. Does this movie deserve it's notoriety as one of the worst musicals ever, or does the fanciful tale of a muse and the artist she inspires still manage to make "Magic?"
The Story: Sonny Malone (Beck) has just returned to his job painting life-sized covers of rock albums to display in stores after an unsuccessful stint as a freelance artist. He hates his job, but he's decided it's the only way he'll make money...until he spies a beautiful girl (Newton-John) roller-skating in the park. She kisses him and skates away. He follows her later, meeting her in front of the dilapidated Pan-Pacific Auditorium. She tells him that her name is Kira, but won't say much else. A bit later, he meets former clarinetist Danny McGuire (Kelly) on the beach. McGuire had his own nightclub during the 1940's, but he lost his muse, and he now owns a construction company. Kira encourages the two men to form a partnership and create the nightclub of their dreams. Meanwhile, she and Sonny are getting closer. Kira, however, is not what she seems...and Sonny discovers what real love is when he literally goes to heaven and back to follow her.
The Song and Dance: This movie is one of the most bizarre musicals in existence, but it does have quite a few charms. TV Tropes accurately calls it "the nexus of 70's cheese and 80's cheese." If you want to know what the world was like as the 70's flipped to the 80's, this is a good place to start. The story is really rather sweet, and even touching, especially the side plot with McGuire. I like the nostalgia, the mixing of the 40's big-band, 70's disco, and 80's neon pop, and how each collide with and address the other. I kind of wish they could have done more with the collision of these three different eras. Kelly is wonderful as the former musician hoping to keep another artist from losing his muse and his true love. The widescreen cinematography of the real LA adds authenticity to this odd fantasy.
Favorite Number: McGuire recalls his lost muse in the lovely "Whenever You're Away From Me," a delightful and charming soft-shoe between Kelly and Newton-John that is probably the best thing in the movie. The opening number "I'm Alive," with the muses emerging from a mural, doesn't really explain much about what's going on, but looks nifty nevertheless. The best ensemble number is "Dancin'," as Danny's big-band and Sonny's 80's hard rock mix collide in their imagined club. There's some nice choreography here and some really awesome costumes.
My favorite song is Newton-John's passionate ballad "Suspended In Time," as Kira tries to explain her feelings about Sonny to her otherworldly parents. It's filmed simply, against a background of Tron-style glowing lines, and Newton-John really pours her heart into the number. This is one aspect of the movie that definitely did not deserve a Golden Raspberry. And speaking of...
Trivia: The failure of this movie and another flop disco musical released around the same time, Can't Stop the Music, inspired the Golden Raspberry Awards. They're given to the worst movie and performances of the year.
Unlike the film, the soundtrack album was one of the biggest hits of the year. Newton-John's solo "Magic" went to #1 on the US Pop chart; "Xanadu" and "Suddenly" were also major top 5 hits in the US and elsewhere.
The animated sequence "Don't Walk Away" was Don Bluth's first work on his own after he broke away from Disney.
The Pan-Pacific Auditorium had been LA's major cultural center from it's opening in 1935 until it closed in 1972. According to Wikipedia, by 1980 it was just as much of a dump as Sonny claimed. Despite efforts to remodel it and the exterior appearing in several films (including Xanadu) and music videos, it eventually burned to the ground in a fire in 1989.
A Broadway version of the show debuted in 2007. It was a surprise hit that season, playing the muse/artist plot for the campy goof it is. (It also adds several Electric Light Orchestra songs and one extra Newton-John number.)
What I Don't Like: Beck is totally out of place here. Not only is he not a singer or dancer, but his Sonny Malone is an obnoxious and egotistical jerk who thinks the world owes him something. He's so unlikable, especially in the beginning, you wonder why Kira and her sisters want to help him. He doesn't need the help; he needs a swift kick in the rear. I'd almost rather see her return to Kelly, who at least is a decent guy who treats both of his proteges well.
As charming as the campiness can be, there are times when it's all just too much. The dialogue is often stiff and sometimes just plain dumb. Some of the better songs, including "All Over the World" and the hit ballad "Suddenly," are marred by nonsensical or badly filmed numbers. While Bluth's animation for "Don't Walk Away" is nice (and foreshadows many of the effects and ideas he'd use in later films), it has nothing to do with the story and stops the movie cold. The finale, with Kira and her sisters performing at the opening of the nightclub, goes on for way, way too long.
The Big Finale: I'm going to admit it - this is an unabashed guilty pleasure of mine. I can see why it's picked up a cult following of gay men and teen girls who grew up watching it on cable. The music, style, and some good performances from Newton-John and Kelly override most of the problems with Beck, the weirder numbers, and the silly plot. If you're a fan of Newton-John or Kelly, the soundtrack, or love camp like I do, you'll want to find your muse and take a trip to Xanadu, too.
Home Media: This film's cult following has assured that it's easily available on most formats, usually for under 10 dollars.
DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Bing Crosby Double Feature I - Here Is My Heart and Mississippi
Bing Crosby was one of the most beloved entertainers of the 20th century. He helped popularize the term "crooning" and pre-recording on radio and television, among other things. He started out in the 30's in two-reelers, but his popularity couldn't be contained to a mere 20 minutes for long. These two short musicals are among his earliest feature vehicles. How does Bing's star charm hold up today?
Here Is My Heart
Paramount, 1934
Starring Bing Crosby, Kitty Carlisle, Alison Skipworth, and Roland Young
Directed by Frank Tuttle
Music by Ralph Rainger and Lewis E. Gensler; Lyrics by Leo Robin
The Story: Wealthy radio crooner J. Paul Jones (Crosby) has always dreamed of presenting two dueling pistols once held by his namesake to the United States Navy. He owns one, but the other pair is in the possession of the Princess Alexandra (Carlisle). It's a family heirloom, and she won't part with it for anything. For all her haughty grandeur, she and her family of former Russian nobles are now poor, and are living in a luxury hotel off goodwill and borrowed money. Jones poses as a waiter to get into their private suite. The truth is, Alexandra is really bored and tired of hanging around with her dull elderly relatives. She wants something different...and this waiter who seems to be interested in her is certainly that. For his part, Jones finds himself falling for her when he realizes that she has a good heart under the icy demeanor and starts to wonder if his deception is a good idea.
The Song and Dance: This low-key romantic comedy with music coasts on the considerable charm of it's two leads. As good as Crosby is as the crooner, I was most impressed with Carlisle as the royal who has a warm heart under her cold outer shell. I also liked Young as the most enterprising of the nobles and William Frawley as a reporter digging for a story. Some of Jones' commentary on the idle rich and how they live (and are condescending to those who aren't in their circles) is actually pretty interesting (and still spot-on).
Favorite Number: The lovely "June In January" was the hit, but "Love Is Just Around the Corner" wins for a very original number where Bing sings a duet with a recording of himself performing the song. I also liked his first duet of "January" on the boat in the opening with Marion Mansfield as his girlfriend Claire.
What I Don't Like: Don't come here looking for big numbers or complicated plots. Jones' playing another waiter to make Alexandra miss him is as complicated as it gets. While the three main songs are quite good, they're played constantly throughout the short running time. I kind of wish there'd been at least one other number, maybe something a tad more uptempo. Carlisle and Crosby have some nice chemistry in their dialogue scenes, but her meticulous instrument doesn't mix well with his crooning, making their duet on "With Every Breath I Take" sound a bit odd.
The Big Finale: Short and sweet, this isn't the most important musical in the world, but it's worth checking out if you're a big fan of the leads or romantic comedy.
Home Media: While it is currently available as part of Universal's made-to-order Vault series on Amazon, your best bet may be to do what I did and buy it as part of a Crosby set with five other films (including Mississippi, below).
Universal Vault DVD
The Bing Crosby Collection DVD Set
Mississippi
Paramount, 1935
Starring Bing Crosby, Joan Bennett, W.C Fields, and Queenie Smith
Directed by A. Edward Sullivan
Music by Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
The Story: Tom Grayson (Crosby) is a northerner who has just become engaged to southern belle Elvira (Gail Patrick) at her father's plantation in the pre-Civil War south. Her younger sister Lucy (Bennett) has a crush on him, but he just thinks of her as a nice kid. The wedding is called off after the pacifistic Grayson refuses to fight a duel with Major Pattison (John Miljan), who is also interested in Elvira. He eventually gets a job on a show boat owned by Commodore Jackson (Fields), who promotes him as "The Singing Killer" after a man is accidentally killed in a brawl. He returns to Elvira to find that she's married...but Lucy is all grown up and still crazy about him. She's not so crazy about that new reputation of his, though...
The Song and Dance: While the sets and costumes aren't bad and Crosby and Smith get to sing some great Rodgers and Hart numbers, it's Fields who really walks off with this one. He supposedly worked well with Crosby, especially in the sequence where he tries to teach the young singer how to be tougher. Probably the most famous sequence from this is Fields' outlandish stories during a poker game on how he survived among a bloodthirsty Native American tribe.
Favorite Number: Rodgers and Hart wrote two songs for Crosby in this film that became major hits. While "Soon" gets the big build up, the one that's more associated with him is the sweet ballad "It's Easy to Remember." Smith also gets to have fun with the other Rodgers and Hart number, "Roll Mississippi."
What I Don't Like: For all the fun Crosby has with Fields mid-way through, he's mostly awkward and out-of-place in a period film. Bennett and Patrick aren't much better. Fields feels like the only actor who actually belongs here. The plot seriously hasn't dated well. Many people would likely agree with Tom's views on honor and violence today and think that the Major is being something of a drama queen, while others would be offended by the way the black characters are treated like furniture.
The Big Finale: Worth seeing at least once for fans of Crosby and/or Fields if you can handle the dated plot.
Home Media: Same deal here. It's also part of the Universal Vault, but you're probably better off getting that set, which is cheaper and easier to find.
Universal Vault DVD
Here Is My Heart
Paramount, 1934
Starring Bing Crosby, Kitty Carlisle, Alison Skipworth, and Roland Young
Directed by Frank Tuttle
Music by Ralph Rainger and Lewis E. Gensler; Lyrics by Leo Robin
The Story: Wealthy radio crooner J. Paul Jones (Crosby) has always dreamed of presenting two dueling pistols once held by his namesake to the United States Navy. He owns one, but the other pair is in the possession of the Princess Alexandra (Carlisle). It's a family heirloom, and she won't part with it for anything. For all her haughty grandeur, she and her family of former Russian nobles are now poor, and are living in a luxury hotel off goodwill and borrowed money. Jones poses as a waiter to get into their private suite. The truth is, Alexandra is really bored and tired of hanging around with her dull elderly relatives. She wants something different...and this waiter who seems to be interested in her is certainly that. For his part, Jones finds himself falling for her when he realizes that she has a good heart under the icy demeanor and starts to wonder if his deception is a good idea.
The Song and Dance: This low-key romantic comedy with music coasts on the considerable charm of it's two leads. As good as Crosby is as the crooner, I was most impressed with Carlisle as the royal who has a warm heart under her cold outer shell. I also liked Young as the most enterprising of the nobles and William Frawley as a reporter digging for a story. Some of Jones' commentary on the idle rich and how they live (and are condescending to those who aren't in their circles) is actually pretty interesting (and still spot-on).
Favorite Number: The lovely "June In January" was the hit, but "Love Is Just Around the Corner" wins for a very original number where Bing sings a duet with a recording of himself performing the song. I also liked his first duet of "January" on the boat in the opening with Marion Mansfield as his girlfriend Claire.
What I Don't Like: Don't come here looking for big numbers or complicated plots. Jones' playing another waiter to make Alexandra miss him is as complicated as it gets. While the three main songs are quite good, they're played constantly throughout the short running time. I kind of wish there'd been at least one other number, maybe something a tad more uptempo. Carlisle and Crosby have some nice chemistry in their dialogue scenes, but her meticulous instrument doesn't mix well with his crooning, making their duet on "With Every Breath I Take" sound a bit odd.
The Big Finale: Short and sweet, this isn't the most important musical in the world, but it's worth checking out if you're a big fan of the leads or romantic comedy.
Home Media: While it is currently available as part of Universal's made-to-order Vault series on Amazon, your best bet may be to do what I did and buy it as part of a Crosby set with five other films (including Mississippi, below).
Universal Vault DVD
The Bing Crosby Collection DVD Set
Mississippi
Paramount, 1935
Starring Bing Crosby, Joan Bennett, W.C Fields, and Queenie Smith
Directed by A. Edward Sullivan
Music by Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
The Story: Tom Grayson (Crosby) is a northerner who has just become engaged to southern belle Elvira (Gail Patrick) at her father's plantation in the pre-Civil War south. Her younger sister Lucy (Bennett) has a crush on him, but he just thinks of her as a nice kid. The wedding is called off after the pacifistic Grayson refuses to fight a duel with Major Pattison (John Miljan), who is also interested in Elvira. He eventually gets a job on a show boat owned by Commodore Jackson (Fields), who promotes him as "The Singing Killer" after a man is accidentally killed in a brawl. He returns to Elvira to find that she's married...but Lucy is all grown up and still crazy about him. She's not so crazy about that new reputation of his, though...
The Song and Dance: While the sets and costumes aren't bad and Crosby and Smith get to sing some great Rodgers and Hart numbers, it's Fields who really walks off with this one. He supposedly worked well with Crosby, especially in the sequence where he tries to teach the young singer how to be tougher. Probably the most famous sequence from this is Fields' outlandish stories during a poker game on how he survived among a bloodthirsty Native American tribe.
Favorite Number: Rodgers and Hart wrote two songs for Crosby in this film that became major hits. While "Soon" gets the big build up, the one that's more associated with him is the sweet ballad "It's Easy to Remember." Smith also gets to have fun with the other Rodgers and Hart number, "Roll Mississippi."
What I Don't Like: For all the fun Crosby has with Fields mid-way through, he's mostly awkward and out-of-place in a period film. Bennett and Patrick aren't much better. Fields feels like the only actor who actually belongs here. The plot seriously hasn't dated well. Many people would likely agree with Tom's views on honor and violence today and think that the Major is being something of a drama queen, while others would be offended by the way the black characters are treated like furniture.
The Big Finale: Worth seeing at least once for fans of Crosby and/or Fields if you can handle the dated plot.
Home Media: Same deal here. It's also part of the Universal Vault, but you're probably better off getting that set, which is cheaper and easier to find.
Universal Vault DVD
Saturday, October 6, 2018
Animation Celebration Saturday - Cats Don't Dance
Warner Bros, 1997
Voices of Scott Bakula, Jasmine Guy, Kathy Najimy, and Ashley Peldon
Directed by Mark Dindel
Music and lyrics by Randy Newman
There was a glut of animated musicals in the mid-late 90's that came out after the wild success of the Disney films earlier in the decade. With the exception of Anastasia, none of them were hits. Cats Don't Dance was a casualty both of that glut and of a merger between its studio Turner Feature Animation and Warners. Does this tale of a talented cat who comes to Hollywood to make good deserve stardom...and a larger audience? Let's find out...
The Story: Danny (Bakula) comes to Hollywood in 1939 with a dream of becoming the next great musical star. There's one small problem. He's a cat...and Tinsel Town in the late 30's doesn't allow animals to do anything besides, well, act like animals. He does manage to get a tiny part in a sugary movie alongside cutesy child star Darla Dimple (Peldon), but when he tries to upstage her, she calls in her massive butler (Dindel) to force him to behave.
The other animals in Hollywood, who are more accustomed to being in the humans' shadow, don't understand why Danny pursues his dream so relentlessly. Sawyer (Guy), currently a secretary for talent agent Farley Wink (Frank Welker), is especially frustrated. Danny encourages the animals, including Sawyer and elephant musician Woolie Mammoth (John Rhyes-Davies), to put on an impromptu dance number in front of the studio. He's hoping that he can get studio head LB Mammoth (George Kennedy) to notice them, but spoiled Darla has no intention of sharing the screen with anyone. After an accident leaves them all banned, Danny's ready to give up, until he remembers why he came to Hollywood in the first place.
The Song and Dance: Most people associate Bakula with Quantam Leap and his other TV work, but he's actually done stage musicals. He's perfect as upbeat, hopeful Danny. The rest of the cast is also a lot of fun. This was the final film role of long-time voice actress Betty Lou Gerson (best known as the voice of Cruella Di Vil from the original animated 101 Dalmations) as Frances the fish; I also like Hal Halbrook as cranky and sarcastic Cranston the goat and Rene Auberjonois as the director harried director.
Darla Dimple is one of the most over-the-top villains in animation history. Peldon brings just the right note of super-sweet menace to this psychotic brat, who will do literally anything to make sure she retains the spotlight. Just check out her running around with insane glee during the "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" number.
The Animation: This was Turner Feature Animation's first (and as it turned out, only) full-length film, and they put out all the stops. Hollywood of 1939 is recreated in all it's Art Deco glory. A montage of Hollywood and Los Angeles landmarks of the time in the rain, set to Sawyer's big ballad "Tell Me Lies," is especially nice. Some of the dance sequences are really nicely done, including "I've Got Rhythm" with the animals going to town in front of the studio - Sawyer and Danny look as good as any live-action dance team from the era.
Favorite Number: "Big and Loud," Darla's advice to Danny on how to attract the studios' attention, is...well, it's just that. It's bright, it's wild, it has some amazing animation, and it really must be seen to be believed. Darla also (inadvertently) contributes to another crazy and colorful number, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now." The song's lyrics become literal truth when every switch and lever Darla yanks at to end the animals' dance routine just ends up further enhancing their performance. "I've Got Rhythm," the big dance number with the animals and Danny and Sawyer challenging each other, is also a lot of fun.
Trivia: Along with being Gerson's last movie, this was also the last film for Gene Kelly, who was a consultant and choreographer before he passed away in 1996. The movie is dedicated to him (and there's a Singin' In the Rain mention in the movie poster spoof montage in the finale).
What I Don't Like: Despite it's late 30's setting and the inclusion of several caricatures of celebrities of the era like Clark Gable, it doesn't really feel that historical. The movie probably could have been set any time up to the early 60's in Hollywood and worked just as well. Other than cheerful Tilly, Rhys-Davies as Woolie, and cute Pudge the Penguin, most of the other animals don't really have much to do. Don Knotts is wasted as TJ, the neurotic turtle who is obsessed with reading morose predictions from fortune cookies.
The Big Finale: This one seems to have picked up a cult following recently of animation enthusiasts, musical lovers, and furry fans who saw it on video in the early 2000's. If you were a fan of Zootopia and other all-animal stories or are into the musicals of the 1930's or the animated musicals of the late 90's, you'll want to give Danny and his friends a second chance at stardom, too.
Home Media: The one you want to look out for is the Warner Archives DVD, which is this movie's first release in it's original widescreen format.
DVD
Voices of Scott Bakula, Jasmine Guy, Kathy Najimy, and Ashley Peldon
Directed by Mark Dindel
Music and lyrics by Randy Newman
There was a glut of animated musicals in the mid-late 90's that came out after the wild success of the Disney films earlier in the decade. With the exception of Anastasia, none of them were hits. Cats Don't Dance was a casualty both of that glut and of a merger between its studio Turner Feature Animation and Warners. Does this tale of a talented cat who comes to Hollywood to make good deserve stardom...and a larger audience? Let's find out...
The Story: Danny (Bakula) comes to Hollywood in 1939 with a dream of becoming the next great musical star. There's one small problem. He's a cat...and Tinsel Town in the late 30's doesn't allow animals to do anything besides, well, act like animals. He does manage to get a tiny part in a sugary movie alongside cutesy child star Darla Dimple (Peldon), but when he tries to upstage her, she calls in her massive butler (Dindel) to force him to behave.
The other animals in Hollywood, who are more accustomed to being in the humans' shadow, don't understand why Danny pursues his dream so relentlessly. Sawyer (Guy), currently a secretary for talent agent Farley Wink (Frank Welker), is especially frustrated. Danny encourages the animals, including Sawyer and elephant musician Woolie Mammoth (John Rhyes-Davies), to put on an impromptu dance number in front of the studio. He's hoping that he can get studio head LB Mammoth (George Kennedy) to notice them, but spoiled Darla has no intention of sharing the screen with anyone. After an accident leaves them all banned, Danny's ready to give up, until he remembers why he came to Hollywood in the first place.
The Song and Dance: Most people associate Bakula with Quantam Leap and his other TV work, but he's actually done stage musicals. He's perfect as upbeat, hopeful Danny. The rest of the cast is also a lot of fun. This was the final film role of long-time voice actress Betty Lou Gerson (best known as the voice of Cruella Di Vil from the original animated 101 Dalmations) as Frances the fish; I also like Hal Halbrook as cranky and sarcastic Cranston the goat and Rene Auberjonois as the director harried director.
Darla Dimple is one of the most over-the-top villains in animation history. Peldon brings just the right note of super-sweet menace to this psychotic brat, who will do literally anything to make sure she retains the spotlight. Just check out her running around with insane glee during the "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" number.
The Animation: This was Turner Feature Animation's first (and as it turned out, only) full-length film, and they put out all the stops. Hollywood of 1939 is recreated in all it's Art Deco glory. A montage of Hollywood and Los Angeles landmarks of the time in the rain, set to Sawyer's big ballad "Tell Me Lies," is especially nice. Some of the dance sequences are really nicely done, including "I've Got Rhythm" with the animals going to town in front of the studio - Sawyer and Danny look as good as any live-action dance team from the era.
Favorite Number: "Big and Loud," Darla's advice to Danny on how to attract the studios' attention, is...well, it's just that. It's bright, it's wild, it has some amazing animation, and it really must be seen to be believed. Darla also (inadvertently) contributes to another crazy and colorful number, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now." The song's lyrics become literal truth when every switch and lever Darla yanks at to end the animals' dance routine just ends up further enhancing their performance. "I've Got Rhythm," the big dance number with the animals and Danny and Sawyer challenging each other, is also a lot of fun.
Trivia: Along with being Gerson's last movie, this was also the last film for Gene Kelly, who was a consultant and choreographer before he passed away in 1996. The movie is dedicated to him (and there's a Singin' In the Rain mention in the movie poster spoof montage in the finale).
What I Don't Like: Despite it's late 30's setting and the inclusion of several caricatures of celebrities of the era like Clark Gable, it doesn't really feel that historical. The movie probably could have been set any time up to the early 60's in Hollywood and worked just as well. Other than cheerful Tilly, Rhys-Davies as Woolie, and cute Pudge the Penguin, most of the other animals don't really have much to do. Don Knotts is wasted as TJ, the neurotic turtle who is obsessed with reading morose predictions from fortune cookies.
The Big Finale: This one seems to have picked up a cult following recently of animation enthusiasts, musical lovers, and furry fans who saw it on video in the early 2000's. If you were a fan of Zootopia and other all-animal stories or are into the musicals of the 1930's or the animated musicals of the late 90's, you'll want to give Danny and his friends a second chance at stardom, too.
Home Media: The one you want to look out for is the Warner Archives DVD, which is this movie's first release in it's original widescreen format.
DVD
Thursday, October 4, 2018
Cult Flops - Nine
Sony/The Weinstein Company, 2009
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotilliard, and Nicole Kidman
Directed by Ken Marshall
Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston
The film adaptation of the 1982 Broadway show was a bomb when it debuted. Critics pounded on it, especially those who saw the original production. Does it deserve the scorn, or should this tale of an Italian man and the women who inspire him be given a second act? Let's find out...
The Story: Guido Contini (Day-Lewis), an Italian director, is in the midst of a serious mid-life crisis. He has no idea what his next movie will be and puts off answering questions when asked about it. In the hope of rediscovering his muse, he looks back on the women in his life. His favorite costume designer Lili (Judi Dench) tells him about how she learned her art from her time at the Folies Bergeres. He remembers his first sexual awakening, when a prostitute (Fergie) danced for him and his friends on the beach before his ashamed mother (Sophia Loren) punished him. His wife Luisa (Cotilliard), once an actress herself, wants to leave him after she catches him with his mistress Carla (Cruz). He has a chat with an editor for Vogue (Kate Hudson) who reminds him why he loves movies. His leading lady Claudia (Nicole Kidman) points out that he's got no script, no movie, and just seems to be lost.
Seeing him use a scene from their private life in his movie is the last straw for Luisa. After she walks out, he destroys the set and drops the film. Two years later, he's given up...but a chat with Lili and seeing an advertisement for a play with Luisa makes him realize what truly inspires him and what he really wants to make movies about.
The Song and Dance: I had no idea Daniel Day-Lewis could sing so well. He's especially good on "Guido's Song," where the director explains his problem and why he can't focus on his work. I also liked Dench as sarcastic Lili and Cotilliard as unhappy Luisa. Cruz was Oscar-nominated as Guido's fiery mistress Carla, as were the dazzling costumes and sets. The cinematography gives us breathtaking views of Italy and the (real-life) Cinecitta film studios.
Favorite Number: "Cinema Italiano," the fashion designer Stephanie's description of movies and why we love them, was written for the film and is a lot of fun, as is Dench's "Bergeres" number. Fergie's "Be Italian" is appropriately earthy and sensual, while Cotillard does an even sexier striptease to another new song (and Oscar nominee), "Take It All."
What I Don't Like: I kind of feel like director Ken Marshall was trying the same thing he did in Chicago - musical numbers in characters heads while they dance over elaborate sets in skimpy costumes. A lot of the songs are chorus numbers, even when the character should probably be in a solo, and they all start to feel the same after a while. The dark lighting on many of the numbers contributes even further to the feeling of deja-vu. It might be sexier if you could see what most of the dancers are doing.
My biggest complaint here is...who really cares what this guy thinks or wants? I found the entire soap opera with Guido and his women to be monumentally boring. We fly from encounter to encounter with little rhyme or reason. Gudio comes off as such a jerk at times, you can understand why all his muses abandon him. Even Day-Lewis can only do so much with the character.
(And while I haven't heard the cast album for the original show, the movie apparently cut a lot of songs, including the title number and a second song for the prostitute.)
The Big Finale: I didn't think it was quite as bad as critics claimed in 2009...but I can also understand why many people had problems with it. It's worth a look once if you're a fan of Marshall or the cast and are willing to overlook the changes from the original show (or haven't heard it, like me).
Home Media: Not available for streaming on Amazon at press time, but the DVD and the Blu-Ray can be found for fairly cheap.
DVD
Blu-Ray
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotilliard, and Nicole Kidman
Directed by Ken Marshall
Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston
The film adaptation of the 1982 Broadway show was a bomb when it debuted. Critics pounded on it, especially those who saw the original production. Does it deserve the scorn, or should this tale of an Italian man and the women who inspire him be given a second act? Let's find out...
The Story: Guido Contini (Day-Lewis), an Italian director, is in the midst of a serious mid-life crisis. He has no idea what his next movie will be and puts off answering questions when asked about it. In the hope of rediscovering his muse, he looks back on the women in his life. His favorite costume designer Lili (Judi Dench) tells him about how she learned her art from her time at the Folies Bergeres. He remembers his first sexual awakening, when a prostitute (Fergie) danced for him and his friends on the beach before his ashamed mother (Sophia Loren) punished him. His wife Luisa (Cotilliard), once an actress herself, wants to leave him after she catches him with his mistress Carla (Cruz). He has a chat with an editor for Vogue (Kate Hudson) who reminds him why he loves movies. His leading lady Claudia (Nicole Kidman) points out that he's got no script, no movie, and just seems to be lost.
Seeing him use a scene from their private life in his movie is the last straw for Luisa. After she walks out, he destroys the set and drops the film. Two years later, he's given up...but a chat with Lili and seeing an advertisement for a play with Luisa makes him realize what truly inspires him and what he really wants to make movies about.
The Song and Dance: I had no idea Daniel Day-Lewis could sing so well. He's especially good on "Guido's Song," where the director explains his problem and why he can't focus on his work. I also liked Dench as sarcastic Lili and Cotilliard as unhappy Luisa. Cruz was Oscar-nominated as Guido's fiery mistress Carla, as were the dazzling costumes and sets. The cinematography gives us breathtaking views of Italy and the (real-life) Cinecitta film studios.
Favorite Number: "Cinema Italiano," the fashion designer Stephanie's description of movies and why we love them, was written for the film and is a lot of fun, as is Dench's "Bergeres" number. Fergie's "Be Italian" is appropriately earthy and sensual, while Cotillard does an even sexier striptease to another new song (and Oscar nominee), "Take It All."
What I Don't Like: I kind of feel like director Ken Marshall was trying the same thing he did in Chicago - musical numbers in characters heads while they dance over elaborate sets in skimpy costumes. A lot of the songs are chorus numbers, even when the character should probably be in a solo, and they all start to feel the same after a while. The dark lighting on many of the numbers contributes even further to the feeling of deja-vu. It might be sexier if you could see what most of the dancers are doing.
My biggest complaint here is...who really cares what this guy thinks or wants? I found the entire soap opera with Guido and his women to be monumentally boring. We fly from encounter to encounter with little rhyme or reason. Gudio comes off as such a jerk at times, you can understand why all his muses abandon him. Even Day-Lewis can only do so much with the character.
(And while I haven't heard the cast album for the original show, the movie apparently cut a lot of songs, including the title number and a second song for the prostitute.)
The Big Finale: I didn't think it was quite as bad as critics claimed in 2009...but I can also understand why many people had problems with it. It's worth a look once if you're a fan of Marshall or the cast and are willing to overlook the changes from the original show (or haven't heard it, like me).
Home Media: Not available for streaming on Amazon at press time, but the DVD and the Blu-Ray can be found for fairly cheap.
DVD
Blu-Ray
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
My Fair Lady
Warner Bros/CBS, 1964
Starring Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, and Wilfred Hyde-White
Directed by George Cukor
Music by Fredrick Loewe, Lyrics by Alan Lerner
We kick off October with another Cinderella story, one of the most famous in musical theater. My Fair Lady was the major stage blockbuster of the 1950's, the equivalent of Hamilton and Wicked now, and the movie was an even bigger hit. Does this epic tale of a bachelor professor and the flower seller he tutors in language still resonate? Let's find out...
The Story: Confirmed bachelor Professor Henry Higgins (Harrison) makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering (Hyde-White) that he can't tutor Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Hepburn) in linguistics. He wants to make her sound so much like a lady, he'll be able to pass her off as one at an Embassy Ball. Eliza turns him down at first, but she's ultimately intrigued and finally agrees to the experiment. Henry puts her through her paces, basically bullying her into learning. She doesn't do well, until one late night where he gives her a little bit of encouragement. They take her to the Ascot races to practice. She makes a social faux pas, but she also makes an impression on handsome young Freddy (Jeremy Brett), who keeps following her. Even after she's a sensation at the ball, Higgins continues to treat Eliza like dirt. She finally walks out, trying to figure out what to do with herself and wondering what world she really belongs in. Henry, for his part, thinks he can live without her, but learns just how accustomed to his face he is when she turns up at his mother's (Gladys Cooper) house and says she wants to strike out on her own.
The Song and Dance: Harrison, Holloway, and Hyde-White all reprise their roles from Broadway. This is pretty much Harrison's signature role, and he tears into it, especially during his talk-singing numbers about how little respect he has for the opposite sex. Cooper is equally wonderful as his strong-willed mother. Holloway has fun as Eliza's dustman father Alfie, who goes to Higgins to try to bribe him and ends up inheriting money from an American speaker. Hepburn is simply luminous as the transformed Eliza in the second half of the film. She really does look like the duchess Higgins is trying to pass her off as. The stately art direction and period-accurate costumes won Oscars; the film itself won Best Picture, and Harrison won Best Actor.
Some people have problems with the ending, but it's actually one of my favorite things about the musical. I like that it's ambiguous. Most people would have more decisively thrown Henry and Eliza together, but this allows the viewers to come to their own conclusions.
Favorite Number: My favorite song from My Fair Lady has always been "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," as Eliza describes the simple life she imagines to her street buddies. Holloway has two of the best songs in the show, the music hall-style ditties "Wit' a Little Bit of Luck" and "Get Me to the Church On Time" (the latter the show's solo large-scale dance number). Harrison's best number is the finale. "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" shows just how much this bachelor has softened to his charge. He, Hyde-White, and Hepburn are a delight in the impromptu dance routine for "The Rain In Spain." Like Hepburn, Brett was dubbed, but he still looks pretty good singing this show's biggest standard, "On the Street Where You Live."
Trivia: Julie Andrews won much applause playing Eliza on Broadway. Jack L. Warner, who was producing the movie, didn't think she was a big enough star for the film. She ended up in Mary Poppins instead...and took home the Best Actress Oscar over Hepburn.
Folks who grew up in the 80's like me may have fond memories of an older Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes in the 1984 British TV series.
What I Don't Like: A lot of this story hasn't dated well. Henry comes off less like a jerk with a heart of gold today, and more like...well, a jerk. His bullying Eliza and treating her like the dirt under his fingernails can be grating, even if Eliza does give him some comeuppance later by running off. Many audiences are more likely to sympathize with Eliza when she's upset after the Embassy Ball than with Henry's egotism and inability to acknowledge her part in the project. Not to mention, Freddy's constantly following her around can look like stalking. Hepburn herself does better as the transformed Eliza in the second half; no amount of dirt, rags, and colorful hats can make this goddess into a guttersnipe.
The movie looks beautiful, but it runs for much too long (almost three hours), and it moves like a block of lead. Other than "The Rain In Spain" and Holloway's two music hall routines, there's very little dancing. Not surprisingly in a movie about the importance of speech and how one speaks, the emphasis is on the dialogue and vocal songs. It's also a bit on the stagy side. They recreated the Broadway show a little too well. Despite it winning for Cinematography, it feels more like a filmed play than an actual movie. There's also the whole deal with Hepburn and Brett being dubbed; it sounds fine, but many people wish they'd gone more natural (or found performers who could sing).
The Big Finale: Tough call on this one. The problematic plot is offset by splendid performances (especially from Harrison, Hepburn, and Holloway), stunning costumes and sets, and some of Lerner and Loewe's best songs. If you can deal with Higgins and Cukor's stagy direction, I'd say this is worth a look.
Home Media: If there's one thing I love about discs and streaming, it's that they allow for the viewing of an extra-long movie like this with no interruption (or need to change tapes, as would have happened in the days of VHS). The movie's popularity makes it easy to find on most formats, often for under 10 dollars.
DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime
Starring Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, and Wilfred Hyde-White
Directed by George Cukor
Music by Fredrick Loewe, Lyrics by Alan Lerner
We kick off October with another Cinderella story, one of the most famous in musical theater. My Fair Lady was the major stage blockbuster of the 1950's, the equivalent of Hamilton and Wicked now, and the movie was an even bigger hit. Does this epic tale of a bachelor professor and the flower seller he tutors in language still resonate? Let's find out...
The Story: Confirmed bachelor Professor Henry Higgins (Harrison) makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering (Hyde-White) that he can't tutor Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Hepburn) in linguistics. He wants to make her sound so much like a lady, he'll be able to pass her off as one at an Embassy Ball. Eliza turns him down at first, but she's ultimately intrigued and finally agrees to the experiment. Henry puts her through her paces, basically bullying her into learning. She doesn't do well, until one late night where he gives her a little bit of encouragement. They take her to the Ascot races to practice. She makes a social faux pas, but she also makes an impression on handsome young Freddy (Jeremy Brett), who keeps following her. Even after she's a sensation at the ball, Higgins continues to treat Eliza like dirt. She finally walks out, trying to figure out what to do with herself and wondering what world she really belongs in. Henry, for his part, thinks he can live without her, but learns just how accustomed to his face he is when she turns up at his mother's (Gladys Cooper) house and says she wants to strike out on her own.
The Song and Dance: Harrison, Holloway, and Hyde-White all reprise their roles from Broadway. This is pretty much Harrison's signature role, and he tears into it, especially during his talk-singing numbers about how little respect he has for the opposite sex. Cooper is equally wonderful as his strong-willed mother. Holloway has fun as Eliza's dustman father Alfie, who goes to Higgins to try to bribe him and ends up inheriting money from an American speaker. Hepburn is simply luminous as the transformed Eliza in the second half of the film. She really does look like the duchess Higgins is trying to pass her off as. The stately art direction and period-accurate costumes won Oscars; the film itself won Best Picture, and Harrison won Best Actor.
Some people have problems with the ending, but it's actually one of my favorite things about the musical. I like that it's ambiguous. Most people would have more decisively thrown Henry and Eliza together, but this allows the viewers to come to their own conclusions.
Favorite Number: My favorite song from My Fair Lady has always been "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," as Eliza describes the simple life she imagines to her street buddies. Holloway has two of the best songs in the show, the music hall-style ditties "Wit' a Little Bit of Luck" and "Get Me to the Church On Time" (the latter the show's solo large-scale dance number). Harrison's best number is the finale. "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" shows just how much this bachelor has softened to his charge. He, Hyde-White, and Hepburn are a delight in the impromptu dance routine for "The Rain In Spain." Like Hepburn, Brett was dubbed, but he still looks pretty good singing this show's biggest standard, "On the Street Where You Live."
Trivia: Julie Andrews won much applause playing Eliza on Broadway. Jack L. Warner, who was producing the movie, didn't think she was a big enough star for the film. She ended up in Mary Poppins instead...and took home the Best Actress Oscar over Hepburn.
Folks who grew up in the 80's like me may have fond memories of an older Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes in the 1984 British TV series.
What I Don't Like: A lot of this story hasn't dated well. Henry comes off less like a jerk with a heart of gold today, and more like...well, a jerk. His bullying Eliza and treating her like the dirt under his fingernails can be grating, even if Eliza does give him some comeuppance later by running off. Many audiences are more likely to sympathize with Eliza when she's upset after the Embassy Ball than with Henry's egotism and inability to acknowledge her part in the project. Not to mention, Freddy's constantly following her around can look like stalking. Hepburn herself does better as the transformed Eliza in the second half; no amount of dirt, rags, and colorful hats can make this goddess into a guttersnipe.
The movie looks beautiful, but it runs for much too long (almost three hours), and it moves like a block of lead. Other than "The Rain In Spain" and Holloway's two music hall routines, there's very little dancing. Not surprisingly in a movie about the importance of speech and how one speaks, the emphasis is on the dialogue and vocal songs. It's also a bit on the stagy side. They recreated the Broadway show a little too well. Despite it winning for Cinematography, it feels more like a filmed play than an actual movie. There's also the whole deal with Hepburn and Brett being dubbed; it sounds fine, but many people wish they'd gone more natural (or found performers who could sing).
The Big Finale: Tough call on this one. The problematic plot is offset by splendid performances (especially from Harrison, Hepburn, and Holloway), stunning costumes and sets, and some of Lerner and Loewe's best songs. If you can deal with Higgins and Cukor's stagy direction, I'd say this is worth a look.
Home Media: If there's one thing I love about discs and streaming, it's that they allow for the viewing of an extra-long movie like this with no interruption (or need to change tapes, as would have happened in the days of VHS). The movie's popularity makes it easy to find on most formats, often for under 10 dollars.
DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime
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