The Unabeefer Beefs

Bond

2012-01-23T12:33:00.000-06:00

Four hot chicks playing classical music to a dance beat. How can you go wrong with that?! Let me answer that for you: You can't.

"Duel" (Live)

I have to say that this whole "electric classical" thing wouldn't really work if they were amateurs, but the four women are professionally trained classical musicians.

I don't really remember how or why I started listening to this band, but I did... and as a classical music fan, I will admit to loving this music. There really is no reason why classical numbers shouldn't be transformed like this, and I only wish there were more bands like Bond.

"Victory"

Most of their songs are re-workings of classical pieces, a lot of which are very familiar to most people. There are also a few oddities that the average listener wouldn't recognize, and then there's a few based on a bit more current music and some classic rock songs.

"Kashmir"

In all, it's not your typical music and kind of sticks out like a sore thumb in my music collection, which is probably why I honed in on them when I got to the "B" selection of my list. It certainly makes for good late-night background music when I'm up fixing computers or whatnot.

"Allegretto"

If you enjoy classical music or stringed instruments or dance-pop by any means, you should definitely check out Bond.

Bond on Wikipedia.

And Also The Trees

2012-01-18T17:44:00.003-06:00

"The senile sea numbers each single
Slim silvered stone."

One day while browsing whatever online music store came before Amazon came around and bought them out, I stumbled upon an album I bought merely because the name of the band was interesting. The name And Also The Trees struck me as one of the greatest things I had ever heard... How could a band be even remotely bad with a name like that? If anything, it was bound to be interesting.

I guess you could say I was "intrigued"... So I bought the one album I saw by them, "Angelfish," and I waited for it to arrive. A few weeks later (this was the mid-90's), my first And Also The Trees disc arrived (arrove?), and I put it into my player only to be struck by this:

"Brother Fear"

Well boy howdy! If that wasn't just the neatest thing... and it only got better with every song. I tend to describe it as "Kids In The Hall music, with Jim Morrison on vocals." Kind of an odd description, but it fits.

So, as I tend to do, I looked up more music by this sort-of "surf-goth" band. I bought a few more albums and scoured the still-forming internet for information on their history. Turns out, they've been around for a long, long time.

A British band formed in 1979, they actually toured with The Cure early on in both of their careers. I don't remember where I read it, but I recall an interview with Robert Smith saying that And Also The Trees was his inspiration for The Cure's change towards writing "darker" music... and anyone who is familiar with the earliest (happy pop music) era of The Cure, this explains a lot.

In fact, the first few And Also The Trees albums (having been produced by some Cure band members), do sound rather similar musically to post-"Boys Don't Cry" Cure. I suppose you could call the "contemporaries" in the Darkwave scene, if you really felt so inclined.

"Midnight Garden"

Most of the earlier work was fairly typical of the 80's gothic sound, filled with airy synth, twangy guitars, rumbling bass, and melancholy vocals...

"Red Valentino"

In the late 90's with the "Angelfish" album and followed by "Silver Soul", the band veered towards a sound sometimes described as "Brittan's view of Americana." Something fresh out of a David Lynch film.

"Rose-Marie's Leaving"

Over the past decade or so, they've released a few more albums, which are always a pain to find. Usually I have to import them through Amazon, but occasionally I can find them in indie record shops... but every so often, I check up to see if there's anything new from them. (Such as a new album coming in March, apparently!)

"The Beautiful Silence"

And Also The Trees is definitely one of my favourite bands, and it still makes me laugh that it was an impulse buy. When you have no clue what you're in for and buy an album based solely on the band name, it's going to be either hit or miss, and this was definitely a massive hit.

And Also The Trees Official Website.

And Also The Trees on Wikipedia.

16 Horsepower

2012-01-09T02:30:00.000-06:00

Alright, here we are with the first post of the year, and instead of starting with the letter A, I decided to do what any psychotic moron would do and start with numbers.

So anyone who knows me well enough knows I have a thing for what's lovingly known as "Southern Gothic Americana"... such as the likes of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Well, it came as a shock to me when a new (at the time) friend of mine told me about a band called 16 Horsepower (written with the number, not spelled out... us fans are rather picky about that) and it was basically "my type of music" through and through.

In fact, to be even more ironic, this new-found band had actually toured with The Bad Seeds, as well as a few other bands I know and love. Upon hearing the music and reading the Wikipedia page for 16 Horsepower, my initial response to the poor girl that told me about them was "Why the hell didn't you tell me about this band before?!" Sure, I didn't care that I had just recently met her. That didn't matter. Someone should have told me about them long before.

"That road I seen the devil stalking
Dealin' only with the dyin'"

16 Horsepower blends together fragments of traditional bluegrass with Gypsy folk music and then smashes it through your ears with a distortion of electric country. That's about the best I can do to describe it... I like to say that it evokes a mental image of dust bowl era America, only a bit more violent and electric.

"Haw"

I am not going to go too into detail on the band's history... Mostly because I don't know a whole lot, and partly because I don't think there's all that much to know. Lead vocalist / songwriter David Eugene Edwards seems to have been the main driving force behind not only the band, but much of the sound as well. Raised by his grandfather, a Nazarene preacher, Edwards' lyrics tended to steer towards a dark and rather menacing form of religious outlook, not too far from what you'd have heard at an early 1900's big tent revival. While some people would say this would make them a "Christian band," 16 Horsepower never made any deal out of it, and I doubt most people even noticed.

"Coal Black Horses"

Musically, the band made an extravagant use of a wide variety of instruments, from electric guitars and keyboards, to banjos, mandolins, and even an old-fashioned squeezebox.

"American Wheeze" (Live)

I truly don't know how to properly categorize this band... especially their earlier work. Some might say "Gypsy rock" but I think that actually is too narrow a definition. As time went on though, folk and gospel music began to take over a bit more. Their last few albums were quite a bit more mellow, but the band still had their uniquely addictive sound and style.

"Wayfaring Stranger"

After four studio albums and a couple compilations, the band officially disbanded, Edwards and a few other members going on to form a very similar band called Woven Hand, who have recently toured with yet another favourite band of mine, Tool.

"The wind blows like the devil when it blows
An' a boy grows up an' like the wind he goes."

16 Horsepower is one of those rare bands... Unlike any other and not really fitting in with what most people would consider "popular." Unknown and under-appreciated, I guess it's truly what you'd call "underground."

"Black Soul Choir"

I really doubt many people will ever even hear of this band, but I find it hard to believe that anyone who does hear them could ever dislike them. They're just too addictive and brilliant to dismiss.

More 16 Horsepower on YouTube.

16 Horsepower on Wikipedia.

Coming In 2012...

2011-12-20T21:01:00.001-06:00

Well, after a long and relatively successful Disn-A-Thon 2011, I have decided what my task will be for the on-coming year. Considering I watched all of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 2010 and every Disney Animated Classic in 2011, I think I should avoid the TV/movie-themed blogue entries for a year or more.

So, what is one of my main interests besides TV/movies? Why, music of course... and boy howdy, do I have a lot of music. As of right now, I have somewhere upwards of 275 different artists in my collection. Good god, that doesn't even count any of the "Various Artists" crap... like the 168 disc jazz collection... Man, I haven't bothered counting in so long.

Anyhow, here's what I will be doing next year: First, there are 52 weeks in a year (stick with me here folks), and there are 26 letters in the alphabet... So this means I can go through the alphabet twice, with a letter per week.

"But what does this mean?" you may ask. Well, I will tell you.

During the first half of 2012, I will be going through my artists alphabetically, selecting one(1) artist per letter, one(1) letter per week, listening to everything I have by the chosen artist (which usually is the entire catalogue), and finally writing my weekly blogue post as a review of the aforementioned artist and their music.

During the second half of 2012, I will be doing essentially the same thing, but with albums instead of artists. An album from my collection starting with A, then the following week a B-named album, and so on...

What this does is it starts my year off with a fairly intensive marathon of blogueing, the second half of the year finishes with posts that can and probably will be a tad more simple. This way, by breaking my marathon into two(2) parts, it won't feel like so much of a chore by the end of the year.

About the first section (the artists) of my 2012 -thon (which will be named soon enough), I will be trying to pick a personal favourite from each letter, and I will be doing my best to stick with lesser-known or merely under-appreciated artists, in hopes that people will be open to expanding their knowledge and tastes in music. That's really the key point to me in the coming year. I would like to introduce some music to people who are interested.

There will be audio clips, probably streamed from YouTube, and my posts will range from detailed chronology to my own personal opinions. Sources may come from my own personal knowledge, Wikipedia, or an artist's band/fan pages. I'll do my best to cite at the bottom of my post, but we'll see how it all works. I'm going to be winging it as I go, which will be nice. It won't be quite as template-based as my last few -thons... and that excites me!

So prepare yourselves for some of my favourite music... I hope people enjoy it. I know I will!

Disn-A-Thon: Winnie The Pooh (2011)

2011-12-13T17:31:00.000-06:00

During an ordinary day in Hundred Acre Wood, Winnie the Pooh sets out to find some honey. Misinterpreting a note from Christopher Robin, Owl convinces Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet,Pooh, Kanga, Roo, and Eeyore that their young friend has been captured by a creature named "Backsoon" and they set out to save him. [imdb]

Alright, here's the last post of my Disn-A-Thon 2011, and I am going to make it a short and simple one.

Despite Disney being well known for their direct-to-video sequels, along with a few theatrical sequels, not many Disney Animated Classics get a sequel that also falls into the classics canon. In fact, up until this year, there was only one: The Rescuers... and then there came Winnie The Pooh.

1977 saw the release of The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh (which I posted on here), and it was followed by one or two theatrical sequels and a whole slew of video sequels. Most, if not all of these were close to the standard set by the original, but I have to say that this year's sequel is right up to par.

I think one of the most amazing parts of this new movie is how close most of the voices sound to the originals... Pooh's voice especially. You would never know that Sterling Holloway wasn't providing the voice. Even the inflections were perfect.

The whole movie made me happy, but I can't say the same for the blu-ray set. There were some nice deleted scenes, a short little segment about the history of Pooh, a couple shorts, and that's about it. I would have liked a commentary or at least something a bit more in depth on what they went through making a sequel like this 35 years after the original.

But oh well, the movie was great and very heartwarming.

And this ends my Disn-A-Thon 2011. I'll probably be posting something in a week or so about next year's project. It's a good one, and I can hardly wait for it!

Winnie The Pooh on Wikipedia.

Purchase Winnie The Pooh from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Tangled (2010)

2011-11-28T15:07:00.001-06:00

After receiving the healing powers from a magical flower, the baby Princess Rapunzel is kidnapped from the palace in the middle of the night by Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel knows that the flower's magical powers are now growing within the golden hair of Rapunzel, and to stay young, she must lock Rapunzel in her hidden tower. Rapunzel is now a teenager and her hair has grown to a length of 70-feet. The beautiful Rapunzel has been in the tower her entire life, and she is curious of the outside world. One day, the bandit Flynn Ryder scales the tower and is taken captive by Rapunzel. Rapunzel strikes a deal with the charming thief to act as her guide to travel to the place where the floating lights come from that she has seen every year on her birthday. Rapunzel is about to have the most exciting and magnificent journey of her life. [imdb]

Alright, this makes two perfectly fantastic movies in a row. Tangled takes the story of Rapunzel and slightly tweaks it to be another of the best Disney animated features yet. What The Princess and The Frog did with traditional animation (ie, perfected it), Tangled did to Disney's computer-generated animation.

I honestly have no problem whatsoever with this movie. It's fun, exciting, and very classic. The first time I saw the film, it reminded me of all the things I like about films like Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. The music is typical top-notch Disney, the animation is superb, and the backgrounds and CG artwork in general is stunning.

The story doesn't disappoint, drawing you in just right through the characters... Basically, it does everything right.

My only disappointment doesn't come in the movie, but in the packaged set. Despite being a blu-ray (and having loads of room for data), there are very few special features on this set. No commentary, which is truly disappointing, but there are a few deleted/alternate scenes. There's a "making of" little thing, which is basically just Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi spouting a bunch already-known bits of trivia, most of which have little to do with the movie itself... It's like a Disney Channel half-hour special geared towards small children. What about us fanatics who want all the actual behind-the-scenes details?!

Anyways, I highly recommend this movie to anyone, young or old, male or female. It's a great movie.

Tangled on Wikipedia.

Purchase Tangled from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: The Princess and The Frog (2009)

2011-11-17T14:40:00.001-06:00

A modern day retelling of the classic story The Frog Prince. The Princess and the Frog finds the lives of arrogant, carefree Prince Naveen and hardworking waitress Tiana crossing paths. Prince Naveen is transformed into a frog by a conniving voodoo magician and Tiana, following suit, upon kissing the amphibian royalty. With the help of a trumpet-playing alligator, a Cajun firefly, and an old blind lady who lives in a boat in a tree, Naveen and Tiana must race to break the spell and fulfill their dreams. [imdb]

I can not state too much just how much I love The Princess and The Frog. I think I can honestly state that it's in my top five(5) Disney films... Definitely my favourite since The Emperor's New Groove and The Little Mermaid. It's just a magnificent and beautiful movie... and the fabulous return to traditional animation.

When John Lasseter took over the creative aspect of the Disney company, one of the first things he did was decide to bring back traditional hand-drawn animation. The next decision he made was to bring back Ron Clements and John Musker to write the new film. This excited a lot of the animation department, who rightly missed their "lost" art, abandoned by their previous department head. Many animators had left or been fired from Disney after the change to CG animation, so Lasseter had as many brought back as possible. Really, it was just a re-structuring back to the way it should have always been...

If you've ever seen this movie, you could probably attest to how stunning it is visually. It's almost hard to grasp that this movie was entirely done by hand, even so much as the hand-painted backgrounds. I can't even think of another hand-drawn movie that looks this clean, even by the classic "Nine Old Men" of Disney past.

So we have classic-style animation, fully traditional artwork, the best-of-the-best in the animation department, and... Randy Newman. Another brilliant move by Lasseter was to bring in Newman to write the score and soundtrack... while making sure other artists sing the songs to make sure no one confuses the film with a Pixar movie, where Newman's voice is best know in this generation. Another full musical, The Princess and The Frog has about as many songs as time could possibly permit, sung mostly by the characters themselves... Another long-lost gem of Disney movies.

I can't speak enough praise of this film. From the moment I heard about it in pre-production, through to even now, it just thrills me. I love the new twist on the old story, the characters are fantastic, and just everything about it is "Classic Disney" and that is exactly what I wanted from them.

Let's hope for more traditionally-made Disney films.

The Princess and The Frog on Wikipedia.

Purchase The Princess and The Frog from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Bolt (2008)

2011-11-08T16:17:00.002-06:00

Bolt, a Swiss White Shepherd, has lived his whole life on the set of his action TV show, where he believes he has superpowers. When separated from the studio by accident, he meets a female alley cat named Mittens and a hamster named Rhino. He's trying to find the way home, to the studio. Along the way, he learns that he doesn't have superpowers and that the show is not real. [imdb]

Bolt is another of those movies that I just didn't expect to like... but it hardly took long before I just fell in love with this film. Aside from being well-written and filled with great characters, it's just truly visually beautiful.

I would encourage anyone to watch the movie through, merely paying strict attention to all the artwork, backgrounds, animation, etc... at least just once. Despite being computer-generated, the layouts and backgrounds all look and feel hand-painted, sometimes like watercolours. Yet still, they were able to give certain textures a very realistic feel, and both the depth of focus and lighting are true to how our vision really works.

Obviously, I found the "Look of Bolt" featurette the most intriguing. It really gives a better appreciation for the art and animation in Bolt. Absolutely stunning.

Of course, everything else about the movie is just fun and wonderful. I really can't say much of anything against this film. Sure, it has Miley Cyrus and John Travolta, but even that can't ruin it.

Bolt on Wikipedia.

Purchase Bolt from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Meet The Robinsons (2007)

2011-11-02T15:36:00.000-05:00

Lewis an orphan wants to see what his mother looked like. So he invents a machine that looks through your brain so you can see your memories. But this weird kid says he's from the future and warns him about a guy in a bowler hat. The bowler hat guy messes with his invention and it fails. He decides that he's a failure and no one wants him. But the kid that warned him about the guy is here on a mission to find the bowler hat guy that wants to destroy Lewis. To prove he's from the future he takes lewis to the future. But the time machine breaks and he's stuck in the future until he fixes it. In the meantime he spends quality time with the family. But the bowler hat guy is about to alter time and it's up to Lewis to save the future. [imdb]

In 2005, the Disney Company went through a series of massive changes internally that I personally feel were for the best. First, Michael Eisner was ousted and replaced with Robert Iger... who then essentially cut practically all of the directors and department heads appointed by Eisner, bringing in some new people and many old, familiar faces who had since been "disassociated" from the company. Without going into a lot of detail, Iger's mission seemed to be taking the company back to the glory of Walt Disney's lifetime, while simultaneously moving it further forward into the future.
A big part of this was, of course, the animation department. A major play in this internal shake-up involved the aforementioned Pixar union, and ultimate resulted in ex-Disney animator (and major Pixar name) John Lasseter becoming the new chief creative officer for the Disney Company... which may very well be the ultimate salvation of Disney animation.

Despite being one of the few "Let's see if we need Pixar" movies, Meet The Robinson is a really fantastic movie, and I am incredibly certain that having Lasseter's input helped it a LOT. According to the commentary and behind-the-scenes stuff, the film had been in production for quite some time, but when Lasseter came in to see it, he was able to point out various story flaws and weaknesses. The film-makers then stripped the movie back down and re-wrote a lot of it (60% according to Wikipedia), and made the changes that I agree were necessary.

I will admit that this one has me hooked. It's got beautiful animation, a fun story, some nice (but slightly expected) twists, and some wonderful, lovable characters. It's funny, fun and exciting... Really, I just love it.

If you haven't seen it, you really should. I would recommend it to anyone. Some of the animation kind of put me off at first, to be honest, but I quickly warmed up to it... and I'm glad I did. So don't let any initial reactions you have deter you from seeing this one. It truly is fantastic.

I almost forgot... The Disney quote at the end of the movie sums up the entire message of the movie, which are the words "Keep moving forward." I always thought they got that from the Disney quote and wrapped the movie around it. As it turns out, they had the movie basically done before the director stumbled onto the quote, noticing that Walt had at one time said those exact three words which appeared throughout his movie. He brought the coincident to the attentions of Lasseter and the other producers, and they decided it should be quoted at the end of the movie. I'm glad they did, because it always brings a warm smile to my face.

Okay, I'm done rambling about this one... Rent it and watch it if you haven't seen it. If you have, watch it again.

Meet The Robinsons on Wikipedia.

Purchase Meet The Robinsons from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Chicken Little (2005)

2011-10-27T14:26:00.000-05:00

After Chicken Little causes widespread panic--when he mistakes a falling acorn for a piece of the sky--the young chicken is determined to restore his reputation. But just as things are starting to go his way, a real piece of the sky lands on his head. Chicken Little and his band of misfit friends, Abby Mallard (aka Ugly Duckling), Runt of the Litter and Fish Out of Water, attempt to save the world without sending the town into a whole new panic. [imdb]

I'm going to have to say that I enjoyed Chicken Little even more this time around than any previous viewing. I actually like that it's not the normal tale of Chicken Little...

Normally, an acorn hits Chicken Little on the head, and (if memory serves me) a hungry wolf convinces him that it was a piece of the sky. The dumb little chicken then goes off and works everyone up into a frenzy, telling everyone the classic line "The sky is falling!" and the wolf directs everyone to his cave, where he traps and then eats them.

The Disney version here takes place a year after the title character gets hit on the head by what actually appears to be a piece of the sky, and after the crazed frenzy, the towns-people then decide it was actually an acorn, causing Chicken Little to become a mockery. Being a year later, he's still a living joke, being made into a major motion picture called "Stupid Little Chicken" or whatever... and he has severe emotional problems, mostly due to feeling he has to earn the approval and trust of his father.

After joining the baseball team and actually becoming a hero, he finally feels a connection with his father, only to be then struck by yet another piece of the sky. An alien "invasion" then unfolds, and all hell breaks loose...

I really like the newer take on the classic story, and it might be one of the few Disney animated films that could really connect with a current audience of the younger generation. Normally, we leave that to Pixar, but I honestly think Disney pulled it off here, pin-pointing what I am sure is a real issue with a lot of young people these days.

Speaking of Pixar, apparently their distribution contract with Disney was about up in 2004 and was hinging on the success of Chicken Little. If Disney could pull off a CG animated film well, they may not have needed Pixar around... or something like that. Either way, the result was Disney buying Pixar and (after a few CG films, the ousting of Eisner, and a full entire restructuring of the animation department... and the whole Disney company really) eventually directing the CG 3-dimensional animation to them.

I look at Chicken Little (and a few of the up-coming movies) as a bit of a test for Disney. They can successfully do 3D computer-generated movies... but I don't think they should. The eventual outcome of fully teaming with Pixar, while re-directing their own animation department back towards traditional styles was the right choice to make... as we'll see in a few weeks.

But I refuse to say that this movie is anything but fun, cute, and enjoyable simply because the animation isn't "classic". It's a great movie that apparently gets better each time you watch it.

Chicken Little on Wikipedia.

Purchase Chicken Little from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Home On The Range (2004)

2011-10-24T18:54:00.001-05:00

Alameda Slim, a wanted cattle rustler, uses an alias to buy up properties all over western Nebraska, and his next target is the Patch of Heaven dairy farm, where the widow owner cares more for her 'family' of yard animals's welfare then for profit, so she just hasn't got the cash to keep in business. The other animals, mainly carefree youngsters, being unable, three cows of very different temperament and manners rise to the desperate occasion and set out to do battle for their dream home, teaming up unnaturally with each-other, the sheriff's megalomaniac horse and any other animal who can possibly help, even a crazy lucky rabbit and an invincible buffalo, hoping to beat the crook to the Patch's auction, or anything it takes... [imdb]

So this is a hard one... Home On The Range is far from incredible, anything but groundbreaking, and isn't memorable in the slightest... but it's fun and enjoyable. A really cute little movie, Home On The Range is about some cows who set out to save their farm. That's about it, plain and simple. But sometimes plain and simple is a good thing.

Originally meant to be a ghost story western with human characters, the movie went through quite a few major changes before finally settling on cows. I actually think their original idea would have been neat to see, but I still like the final product. They made some fun characters and got some great vocal talent...

I really can't put my finger exactly on it why this one seems so bland and flat-lined, as far as the "classic" sense goes... Perhaps it's the lack of detail in the artwork, or the fact that the story isn't anything spectacular, or maybe it's just that it's a bit too simple. Whatever it is, this is probably the least-known of the whole set.

Rosanne pretty much carries the movie, followed very closely by Meg Tilly who voices an air-headed tone-deaf cow very well.

I honestly don't have anything really against the movie, in fact I like it... but I'd be lying if I said it gains anything more than a shrug and a "Yeah, it was cute." from me.

Not really much to it, but I'd still recommend seeing it at least once.

Home On The Range on Wikipedia.
Purchase Home On The Range from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Brother Bear (2003)

2011-10-18T16:31:00.001-05:00

Long ago, as the Earth was emerging from the Ice Age, there were three brothers. After a bear takes the life of the oldest brother, impulsive youngest brother Kenai kills the bear in revenge, only to be transformed into a bear himself. Denahi, the middle brother, comes upon this bear and, thinking it killed Kenai, vows revenge. Now brother hunts brother and Kenai's only hope for survival is to befriend his own worst enemy, a grizzly cub named Koda. Koda main goal is to show Kenai the real meaning of brotherhood. [imdb]

Okay, I really like Brother Bear. It's almost entirely hand-animated in the traditional style, with only a few CG segments... and it's a very fun and friendly film that has a lot of the quality Disney was originally known for in their animated features.

While we've covered typical North American native tales and.or characters, here we are treated to a further North American Inuit tale. A subtle combination of Alaskan and Canadian influence, Brother Bear tells a story of a native American who gets turned into a bear to find the true meaning of love and brotherthood, etc etc etc... The story is a bit predictable really, but that's overshadowed by the beautiful animation and enjoyable characters.

The ultimate highlight of the movie for me was the casting of Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis of SCTV and Strange Brew fame. They play a couple of moose brothers who talk essentially just like Bob & Doug McKenzie. Another related highlight is the incredibly non-informative audio commentary, done by the aforementioned moose characters. The two actors are highly adept at improv, so it hardly ever got boring or old... although I admittedly would like to hear a real commentary track someday.

There's a bunch of special features, namely a 45-minute documentary on the making of the movie, paying a bit too much attention to Phil Collins and his soundtrack and score for the film. The music is good, of course... but it also seemed like half of the featurette was about the music.

Anyways, this was the last 2D, hand-animated film made before they shut down the Orlando studio... in favour of making more computer-animated films, a decision they seem to have properly reversed as of late. I don't know if they've re-opened the Orlando studios, but I know they've begun to leave the 3D CG movies to Pixar while veering the animation department at Disney back towards hand-drawn 2D films.

So yeah, Brother Bear is good and cute. I like it and hope for more like it.

Brother Bear on Wikipedia.
Purchase Brother Bear from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Treasure Planet (2002)

2011-10-13T12:28:00.001-05:00

A futuristic twist on Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Treasure Planet follows restless teen Jim Hawkins on a fantastic journey across the universe as cabin boy aboard a majestic space galleon. Befriended by the ship's charismatic cyborg cook, John Silver, Jim blossoms under his guidance and shows the makings of a fine shipmate as he and the alien crew battle a supernova, a black hole, and a ferocious space storm. But even greater dangers lie ahead when Jim discovers that his trusted friend Silver is actually a scheming pirate with mutiny on his mind. [imdb]

On one hand we have the classic story Treasure Island, on the other hand it's set in space and is called Treasure Planet, and on the other hand it's a fairly accurate re-telling of the story, while on the other hand it's practically a "steam-punk" Disney movie, but on the other hand it's really fun and enjoyable, but on the other hand there's a random Goo Goo Dolls song wedged absurdly into the middle of the movie... yet still on the other hand... Martin Short.

Overall, I'd have to say that I like Treasure Planet. It's fun, it's funny... and aside from the Goo Goo Dolls song, there isn't much wrong with it. Really, if you want to fix your film into a certain date and cause it to not age well, throwing a song by a mid-90's alt-rock band is about the best way to do that. There's NO way this movie doesn't feel dated now, simply because of that song.

But I really can only complain about that. A lot of people complain about the extensive use of 3D computer-generated animation, with the only hand-drawn 2D animation being most (but not all) of the characters, but the only time that really bothered me was in one shot... which looked like a cheap video game cut scene. See if you can find it!

Treasure Planet does use more computer animation than any films before it, and it's obvious... but considering the futuristic spacey-waceyness of the movie, it fits well.

Despite the video-injected commentary, there wasn't a whole lot to learn about the making of the film. It seemed pretty standard aside from the computer combination with hand-drawn etc. etc.... Although I was surprised to find out that the original idea for this movie was pitched at the same session as The Little Mermaid, and by the same person as well. So, they had this on the back-burner, working on story ideas bit by bit, for a long long time.

Anywho, although I personally would have like a more "era"-based official telling of Treasure Island, I am well aware that Disney already did a live-action version years ago... which is one of the reasons for the space-based version now. Also of interesting note is that the old movie was Disney's first all live-action film.

Alright, enough of this fun, on to the next one...

Treasure Planet on Wikipedia.
Purchase Treasure Planet from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Lilo & Stitch (2002)

2011-10-07T16:10:00.003-05:00

In a place far, far away, illegal genetic experiment #626 is detected: Ruthless scientist Dr. Jumba Jookiba has created a strong, intelligent, nearly indestructible and aggressive being with only one known weakness: The high density of his body makes it impossible for the experiment to swim in water. The scientist is sentenced to jail by the Grand Council of the Galactic Federation. The experiment is supposed to be transported to a prison asteroid, yet manages to escape Captain Gantu, who was supposed to deliver him there. With a stolen police cruiser (the red one), the destructive being races towards a little and already doomed planet: Earth. Stranded on Hawaii, experiment #626 can't actually do much harm: water all around, no big cities and two well-equipped representatives of the Galactic Federation already following close behind to catch him again. But Dr. Jookiba and the Earth expert Pleakley never could have guessed that earth girl Lilo adopts the experiment as dog... [imdb]

Okay this post won't be quite as good as the one that for some reason didn't publish like it was supposed to... I'm too pissed off to write something as long or as good as what I already wrote, so I'll just try to sum up a bit. My apologies.

Lilo & Stitch is a fun, entertaining movie that was crafted and made by a relatively small team with an incredibly small budget. What came of this "Here, go make a movie and let us know when it's done" technique is a fantastic little gem of a film. It has aliens, Hawaii, and it's not based on any classic fairy tale or novel, which makes it easily the most unique movie in the "animated classics" line.

The behind-the-scenes special features were in the form of a self-made video journal, shot in studio and on location in Hawaii by the writers and director, with their small crew of animators. It touched on the watercolour backgrounds used in the film, the general creation of the movie including some brainstorming sessions, and the step-by-step production of the whole thing. This was actually kind of neat to see, and far more informative than the many times we simply hear people talk about how these movies are made.

I like the movie and I like the special features. Great fun was had by me, and I can't complain much... except about the damn post getting lost. Still pretty mad about that.

Good movie though.

Lilo & Stitch on Wikipedia.
Purchase Lilo & Stitch from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

2011-09-27T19:32:00.001-05:00

1914: Milo Thatch, grandson of the great Thaddeus Thatch works in the boiler room of a museum. He knows that Atlantis was real, and he can get there if he has the mysterious Shephards journal, which can guide him to Atlantis. But he needs someone to fund a voyage. His employer thinks he's dotty, and refuses to fund any crazy idea. He returns home to his apartment and finds a woman there. She takes him to Preston B. Whitmore, an old friend of his Grandfathers. He gives him the shepherds journal, a submarine and a 5 star crew. They travel through the Atlantic ocean, face a large lobster called the Leviathan, and finally get to Atlantis. But does the Atlantis crew have a lust for discovery, or something else? [imdb]

A lot of people give Atlantis: The Lost Empire a lot of grief. I've heard people complain about the lack of music, animal sidekicks, and just about every other standard Disney animated film convention you can think of... But Atlantis isn't a standard "once upon a time" fantasy movie. It's an adventure movie, through and through.

In every commentary, interview and behind-the-scenes clip you can find, the film makers repeat again and again that this is an "Adventureland" movie... not a "Fantasyland" movie... and those are both integral parts of the Disney experience. In fact, it's almost hard to fathom that they had never made an "adventure" animated movie up until this one.

Drawing inspiration from many of the 60's era Disney live-action movies such as Swiss Family Robinson, Treasure Island, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Atlantis sends our cast of characters on a mission to find (of course) the lost city of Atlantis.

A lot of standards were actually cut from the movie, including pirates, vikings, a few mythical monsters, and the aforementioned animal sidekick... but what we end up with is a rather amazing and well-made film with a lot going for it.

There's a strong vocal cast, including Michael J. Fox, James Garner, and a final performance by the late Jim Varney. The art style was drawn from darker comic books (graphic novels) even going so far as to involve the maker of the Hellboy comics in the general creation of the movie. Yet one of the most impressive features of Atlantis has to be the seemless integration of 3D computer animation with hand-drawn 2D animation.

Many of the backgrounds during action sequences or vast landscapes were rendered digitally, hand-painted to maintain some resemblance to the classic Disney style, and then merged in with the hand-drawn characters, creating a gorgeous style utilizing nearly every department in the studio.

I watched the 2-disc special edition which has a vast amount of behind-the-scenes featurettes and a whole load of art galleries. I can't think of anything really missing... There's a commentary, little documentary, deleted scenes... It's a pretty nice package of information.

Anyways, if you're a hater of this movie, I'd suggest giving it another go. I honestly can't complain about it at all. (Which is rare for me.)

Atlantis: The Lost Empire on Wikipedia.
Purchase Atlantis: The Lost Empire from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)

2011-09-21T22:26:00.001-05:00

In this animated comedy from the folks at Disney, the vain and cocky Emperor Kuzco is a very busy man. Besides maintaining his "groove", and firing his suspicious administrator, Yzma; he's also planning to build a new waterpark just for himself for his birthday. However, this means destroying one of the villages in his kingdom. Meanwhile, Yzma is hatching a plan to get revenge and usurp the throne. But, in a botched assassination courtesy of Yzma's right-hand man, Kronk, Kuzco is magically transformed into a llama. Now, Kuzco finds himself the property of Pacha, a lowly llama herder whose home is ground zero for the water park. Upon discovering the llama's true self, Pacha offers to help resolve the Emperor's problem and regain his throne, only if he promises to move his water park. [imdb]

When the title of The Emperor's New Groove was first announced, my initial reaction was disgust. I had no desire whatsoever to see some bastardized hip-hop version of The Emperor's New Clothes. How could Disney stoop so low in their attempt to ride the coat-tails of modern trends like that?! I would never bother to watch this piece of crap.

Then one day, I was at Blockbuster and caught a single scene of the movie (for those of you who've seen it, it was the scene where Kronk is attempting to dispose of the emperor's body)... I wanted, no I HAD to see this movie. So I rented it, and I watched it... and watched it... and watched it... and bought it and watched it... and so on.

This is definitely one of my favourite and most-quoted Disney films of all time. It was also the start of yet another era in Disney's animated films... This is Disney in the 21st century.

The movie is chock full of pop culture references and jokes, and it is very self-aware. There's no real similarities between the source of the title and the movie, and the complete lack of historical and cultural accuracy is very apparent. In fact, there are times they just seem to be gloating about the modern day references they've thrown in. This is far from a complaint, because it just makes the movie that much more relatable to the current viewing public. It's never done in a distasteful manner, and the insanely fast pace of the dialogue and story help the nit-picky mind wash over every fallacy.

The commentary was enjoyable as well, but I was a tad disappointed by the behind-the-scenes featurette. It was just trying a bit too hard and wasn't very insightful about the real making of the movie. In fact, I discovered more about the history of the project by reading the Wikipedia entry (linked below) than I did the featurette. I won't go into much detail, but I would recommend reading on it if you enjoy the movie. Suffice it to say that I am far more happy with the way it turned out than the original intent.

So if you are at all like I was at first, and have yet to see this movie... Get it. Watch it. Love it.... Squeaken.

The Emperor’s New Groove on Wikipedia.
Purchase The Emperor’s New Groove from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Dinosaur (2000)

2011-09-13T15:35:00.001-05:00

During an attack on a pack of Iguanodon, an egg is separated and ends up with the possession of a group of lemurs. The lemurs care for this egg and the young creature born from it, which they call Aladar. When a meteor shower hits earth, Aladar and his family must leave their homeland. Away from home and as close to danger as they have ever been, they meet up with a huge group of dinosaurs, led by Kron and Bruton. All together they are trying to reach the nesting grounds, but it's not going to be easy. [imdb]

I'd have to say that I was looking forward to watching Dinosaur. Of all 51 films in the Animated Classics line, this was the only movie I had yet to ever see. Apparently it was officially added as an "Animated Classic" back in 2008, a whole eight(8) years after its release... I still am not sure why this decision was made, but I guess it sort of fits.

Dinosaur combines both computer-generated and hand-drawn animation with live action backgrounds and landscapes to create a rather unique style of movie... So I suppose it can qualify as an "animated" film.

Altogether, the movie is quite enjoyable. It doesn't have any songs, ballad or otherwise, sung either by character or off-screen popular artist... So that's a bit different from the rest of the classics line as well. Throwing songs in here would diminish the movie though, so that's not a complaint in any way. Actually, the movie is a bit darker than most as well, and apparently the film makers had to remove a lot of blood and gore to get the rating they wanted.

I don't think this will ever fall in as one of my favourites, but I still like it nonetheless. I am very glad my first viewing was on blu-ray. The visuals look incredible in hi-definition. That's the most redeeming quality of the film: the visuals. They did some magnificent work there, even though the computer animation is a bit dated.

I did find it odd that the special features are spread out over both the blu-ray disc and the DVD, instead of all being on the blu-ray and then duplicated in part to the DVD. No big deal there though. It actually makes having both discs useful.

Well, if you haven't seen Dinosaur yet, maybe you should. It's a pretty good movie and definitely under-appreciated.

Dinosaur on Wikipedia.
Purchase Dinosaur from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Fantasia 2000 (1999)

2011-09-05T19:27:00.001-05:00

In this update of Disney's masterpiece film mixture of animation and music, new interpretations of great works of music are presented. It begins with an abstract battle of light and darkness set to the music of Beethoveen's Fifth Symphony. Then we see the adventures of a Humpback Whale calf and his pod set to "The Pines of Rome." Next is the humourous story of several lives in 1930's New York City, scored with "Rhapsody in Blue." Following is a musical telling of the fairy tale, "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" set to Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2. Then a goofy Flamingo causes havoc in his flock with his yo-yo to the tune of the finale of "Carnival of the Animals." This is followed by the classic sequence from the original film, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" starring Mickey Mouse and followed by "Pomp and Circumstance" starring Donald Duck as a harried assistant to Noah on his Ark... [imdb]

Months ago, I watched the first disc of two(2) on the 4-disc blu-ray set of Fantasia and Fantasia 2000... (my review of which can be found here) ... Now I've watched every single bit of the second disc, containing Fantasia 2000 and a whole slew of various special features. This isn't so much of a sequel to Fantasia, but a continuation. One thing mentioned in virtually every commentary and featurette on both of these discs is that Fantasia was originally meant to be a continuing movie.

Every year, re-release the movie with a few segments dropped and a few new ones added. The initial box-office failure of the movie caused Disney to drop this idea, although over the years, Walt and many of his crew would start work on bits only to either abandon them or place them elsewhere. Some of the "unused" segments made it into films like Melody Time or released as simple short segments alone. Others were vaulted and appear on this set in fully animated or storyboarded forms.

And still others were completed and formed into the feature film Fantasia 2000. Only one segment remained from the original film, of course being The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Personally, I wouldn't have minded one bit if they had left that off as well... but oh well.

I really enjoy this new take on Fantasia, possibly more than the original in some places. One thing that sticks out to me is the seamless integration of computer-generated animation with traditional hand-drawn animation. In fact, it's so seamless that parts I could have sworn were done with computers were in fact done entirely by hand.

There's commentary and a segment about a lost attempt at rehashing Fantasia, called Musicana... but the real stand-out here is Destino, the collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali. A rather long featurette about the history of the short... and its fate in the Disney morgue... and subsequent revival... followed by the newly finished short film itself. It's actually very good, and I almost feel it's hidden by being packaged on disc 2 of the Fantasia set. This is something that needs to be emphasized by itself for what it is.

The next best stand-out feature on this disc is the Disney's Virtual Vault, which is basically every special feature from the previous DVD releases of both Fantasia and Fantasia 2000. Hours upon hours of documentaries and alternate takes and storyboard sequences... In fact, I started writing this blogue entry before they even finished. I hit "Play All" hours ago, and it just now finished. Phew.

Well, if you're a fan of Fanatasia in any form, and you own a blu-ray player with an internet connection (for the Virtual Vault), I'd definitely suggest getting this 4-disc set (2 blu-ray discs and 2 DVD's). This is something I will be holding on to for quite some time.

Fantasia 2000 on Wikipedia.
Purchase Fantasia 2000 from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Tarzan (1999)

2011-09-01T18:25:00.001-05:00

The movie is about the life of Tarzan. Tarzan was a small orphan who was raised by an ape named Kala since he was a child. He believed that this was his family, but on an expedition Jane Porter is rescued by Tarzan. He then finds out that he's human. Now Tarzan must make the decision as to which family he should belong to... [imdb]

Okay, let me start by saying that I've always been one to complain about the use of ballads and artists like Phil Collins as music in the slew of 90's-era Disney films... but after watching Tarzan, I have to admit that it was a pretty nice fit. I will still complain about the lyrics to all the various songs descriptively matching exactly what's happening on the screen, which is kind-of a no-no when it comes to making music for movies. That, and it's rather annoying to anyone who pays attention to the lyrics as well as the action on screen. I don't need musical narration explaining that people (well, a person and an ape) are holding hands. I can see it for myself.

That all being said, Tarzan is actually a rather good movie. I quite enjoyed it this time around and found myself thinking it one of the better in the canon. It comes very close to Jungle Book meets The Lion King, but consciously staying enough away from both of those films to remain unique. The story is good, especially after seeing some of the ideas that were left undone, and the animation is lovely.

I wish I had the 2-disc set that came out at some point along the way, but I only have a single-disc edition that apparently is lacking a few behind-the-scenes featurettes. The commentary track helped make up for that a bit, but I look forward to any future blu-ray release for more special features.

I forced myself to sit through 3 Phil Collins music videos, one with N*Sync... and another music video of some all-girl pop group singing a song from the film "live" although I spent much of the time wondering where the drum sounds were coming from if there was no drummer on stage. Ah well, it's Disney...

Tarzan's another movie I think anyone should give another chance, if they find themselves with bad memories of it... It's oddly simple, but obviously not thrown together.

Tarzan on Wikipedia.
Purchase Tarzan from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Mulan (1998)

2011-08-26T14:03:00.001-05:00

This retelling of the old Chinese folktale is about the story of a young Chinese maiden who learns that her weakened and lame father is to be called up into the army in order to fight the invading Huns. Knowing that he would never survive the rigours of war in his state, she decides to disguise herself and join in his place. Unknown to her, her ancestors are aware of this and to prevent it, they order a tiny disgraced dragon, Mushu to join her in order to force her to abandon her plan. He agrees, but when he meets Mulan, he learns that she cannot be dissuaded and so decides to help her in the perilous times ahead. [imdb]

Alright, I've given Disney a lot of grief over most of the past few films I've watched... but I have to say that I like Mulan. In fact, I think I like it more every time I watch it. Perhaps it's just one of those movies that grows on you, or maybe it has to do with the shit movies that came just before it. Either way, this is a nice movie.

Based on an old Chinese poem and legend, Mulan is a film about a young girl who defends her country and family's honour by going to war disguised as a boy. Obviously, they threw in a moral of something about how one person can make a difference or whatever...

Anyways, the makers of the film went to China (of course) to study a lot of the architecture, landscape, art, heritage, culture, etc. for research. I'd have to say they actually did a very good job conveying that in the art and style of the movie. Even the music fits well with the cultural aspect.

Eddie Murphy kind of plays the "Genie from Aladdin" role in this movie, and he really does a good job at it. A lot of the time, he's a bit too over-the-top for me (ie, annoying), but I think he was the perfect fit for this role. I also enjoyed the little cricket, who was designed by Joe Grant, who had been a character designer as early on as Snow White. It really had a classic Disney feel to it, obviously due to Grant.

While the movie isn't perfect, the audio commentary track was fun simply because the writers would actually make jokes about all the various times the viewer needed to suspend their disbelief. To me, this makes a movie even more enjoyable, simply by knowing the film-makers obviously were aware of any lack of realism.

Whelp, I definitely think Mulan is a few steps up from the last few... If you haven't seen it recently, I'd suggest it.

Mulan on Wikipedia.
Purchase Mulan from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Hercules (1997)

2011-08-16T16:45:00.001-05:00

Hercules, son of the Greek God, Zeus, is turned into a half-god, half-mortal by evil Hades, God of the Underworld, who plans to overthrow Zeus. Hercules is raised on Earth and retains his god-like strength, but when he discovers his immortal heritage Zeus tells him that to return to Mount Olympus he must become a True Hero. Hercules becomes a famous hero with the help of his friend Pegasus and his personal trainer, Phil the satyr. Hercules battles monsters, Hades and the Titans, but it is his self-sacrifice to rescue his love Meg which makes him a True Hero. [imdb]

"What have we here at Disney yet to cover?"
"Greek mythology."
"Alright... sounds good. What sort of music goes well with Greek mythology?"
"How about Southern Gospel?!"
"Do it!"

Yes, I still don't quite get the connection there, and it will always annoy the shit out of me. A very obviously Christian-infuenced style of music as a method of telling the strory of a traditional Greek demi-god. Yeah, that makes sense.

As for artwork and animation, there really is nothing ground-breaking or even breath-taking about this one... which is alright I guess, but there were several times I felt I was watching a Warner Brothers movie, not Disney. There is one bit of solid detail, in the floor of Zeus's temple or whatever... Lots of detail in the little tiles, and it seems very out of place considering there's no other form of close detail in the entire rest of the movie.

Now for the story... While Disney has been well known for changing stories and "dumbing them down," this is really the only one that truly annoys me. They took a good story that really already had a good moral or point to it, and they changed it to an overused coming-of-age story with the moral of "to be a true hero, follow your heart" or some shit like that. Once again, it wouldn't have been quite so bad if they hadn't blatantly drilled their point home on so many occasions throughout the film. I found myself sighing and rubbing my face on more than one occasion, simply because of how tedious their moral felt. You don't need to have every one of the characters state the moral of the story directly and openly every fifteen(15) minutes. It just starts getting dumb.

While I will admit to not being very fond of this movie, I won't say it's not enjoyable. There are some fun parts, and it's not a waste of time. It's just not the best film they've made, by far.

I was hoping the "making of" featurette would shed a bit of light onto some of the purpose behind why this movie even exists, but it really didn't....
There was also a Ricky Martin music video.

Hercules on Wikipedia.
Purchase Hercules from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

2011-08-11T16:11:00.000-05:00

In 15th century Paris, Clopin the puppeteer tells the story of Quasimodo, the misshapen gentle-souled bell ringer of Notre Dame, who was nearly killed as a baby by Claude Frollo, the Minister of Justice. But Frollo was forced by the Archdeacon of Notre Dame to raise Quasimodo as his own. Now a young man, Quasimodo is hidden from the world by Frollo in the belltower of the cathedral. But during the Festival of Fools, Quasimodo, cheered on by his gargoyle friends Victor, Hugo, and Laverne, decides to take part in the festivities, where he meets the lively gypsy girl Esmeralda and the handsome soldier Phoebus. The three of them find themselves ranged against Frollo's cruelty and his attempts to destroy the home of the gypsies, the Court of Miracles. And Quasimodo must desperately defend both Esmeralda and the very cathedral of Notre Dame. [imdb]

I really enjoy The Hunchback of Notre Dame, especially coming off of Pocahontas, of which I wasn't really all that fond. It's actually a relatively serious movie as far as the story goes, eased in by light-hearted humour and fun (typical Disney) characters.

I am going to straight-up quote Wikipedia here for a moment in the description of some of the more "grown-up" elements of the film:

Despite the changes from the original literary source material in order to ensure a G rating, the film does manage to address mature issues such as lust, infanticide, sin, profanity, religious hypocrisy, the concept of Hell, prejudice, and social injustice, as well as acceptance that Quasi yearns for. Songs also contain rather mature lyrical content such as the words "licentious" or "strumpet" which introduce the concept of sexual indulgence, as well as frequent verbal mentions of Hell. Also notably, it is the first animated Disney film to use the word "damnation".

As for the artwork and animation, this is the first of the animated films to truly blend usage of hand-drawn and computer generated animation. Prior films occasionally had some backgrounds or certain scenes that wiggled some CG bits in... but never to the extent that The Hunchback of Notre Dame brought. As the film-makers stated in the commentary, the movie is essentially a "tour de force" of everything the Disney animation department could do at that time.

For the background, the animators went to Paris where they took pictures and even rubbings (used for stone patterns) of the Notre Dame Cathedral, which gave a bit of realism and actuality to the art. It also helped that many of the segments were animated in France by French animators... They knew their subject well.

In all, this is a fine movie... and the DVD release is alright. There weren't many special features... but there was a commentary track and a "making of" featurette hosted by Jason Alexander that tried a bit too hard at being funny.

Anyways, I'm done with this one for now... On to the next movie.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame on Wikipedia.

Purchase The Hunchback of Notre Dame from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Pocahontas (1995)

2011-08-05T23:20:00.000-05:00

Capt. John Smith leads a rag-tag band of English sailors & soldiers to the New World to plunder its riches for England (or, more precisely, for Governor Ratcliffe, who comes along for the ride). Meanwhile, in this "New World," Chief Powhatan has pledged his daughter, Pocahontas, to be married to the village's greatest warrior. Pocahontas, however, has other ideas. She has seen a vision of a spinning arrow, a vision she believes tells her change is coming. Her life does indeed change when the English ship lands near her village. Between Ratcliffe, who believes the "savages" are hiding the gold he expected to be plentiful, and Powhatan, who believes these pale newcomers will destroy their land, Smith and Pocahontas have a difficult time preventing all-out war, and saving their love for each other. [imdb]

Well, Pochaontas isn't all that bad a movie, but I don't think it was their best... Maybe it's just the forced vibrato in all the songs. Call me picky, but forced vibrato just annoys the shit out of me. That aside, I still don't think the movie was all that thrilling or even creative. The story is rather cliche and bland, to be honest... but I have to admit I enjoyed it more this time around than I used to.

It's a beautiful movie as far as animation and art direction goes. I noticed the background artwork is rather reminiscent of Sleeping Beauty, especially in the design of the trees. That much I really liked, and the colours are just lovely.

But I still think the story is pretty bland. Perhaps the whole thing just seems somewhat "cookie-cutter" Disney movie. They got a formula and they stuck with it.

Anyways, the DVD set is alright... Commentary, slightly extended version with an added song, half-hour documentary on the making of the film, a couple games and activities, and some music videos. Actually, come to think of it, even the DVD set is somewhat cookie-cuttered...

Yeah, now I'm just making myself even more disappointed in this thing... On to the next one.

Pocahontas on Wikipedia.

Purchase Pocahontas from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: The Lion King (1994)

2011-07-29T16:42:00.001-05:00

A young lion prince is born in Africa, thus making his uncle Scar the second in line to the throne. Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mufasa and Prince Simba, thus making himself King. The King is killed and Simba is led to believe by Scar that it was his fault, and so flees the kingdom in shame. After years of exile he is persuaded to return home to overthrow the usurper and claim the kingdom as his own thus completing the "Circle of Life". [imdb]

"Bambi in Africa meets Hamlet." It's hard to believe now that no one really wanted to work on this project when it was first introduced, but it's true. While most of the main Disney animators were working on production of Pocahontas, others were working on the "B Film": a little moive about a lion.

Originally meant to be an animated version of their live-action nature films, The Lion King became one of Disney's biggest hits. Once they gained a bit of direction and brought on Elton John and Tim Rice to write the music, the story started to fall right into place. Many of the people working on the film stated that it would either be a giant hit or a giant failure... I'd have to say it was a hit. A massive hit that led to sequels, spin-offs, merchandise, and a Broadway stage show.

There's a wealth of special features on the 2-disc Platinum Edition DVD set, but I have to admit that I am a bit upset this came on my Disn-A-Thon 2011 a few months before the new blu-ray edition will be released. I will watch it again once that arrives, and I look forward to any new special features included. That being said, I really enjoyed the three(3) different ways to go about the immersion of special features. It got a tad confusing at times, mostly just in wondering if I missed anything, but there was a lot to plow through.

There are also a couple different versions of the movie: one with an added song (which I detest) and the original theatrical cut. Have I mentioned that I detest the added song. I was initially planning to state that it was the "low point" of the movie, and then I remembered that it wasn't even in the original version. Thank heavens for that. They couldn't even get the singing voice of Simba to remotely match the speaking voice. I'd have to say that was the worst vocal matching Disney's ever done.

Anyways, there's a commentary track to the original cut, and you all know how much I love commentaries!

Well, I really can't think of anything else to add about this one except that I'd suggest holding off on buying this one until the blu-ray comes out (along with a new DVD edition, I'm sure)... and there's also a huge multi-disc set, which also includes the two(2) sequels (also on both blu-ray and DVD) which I only wish I had the money to spend on.

Next....

The Lion King on Wikipedia.
Purchase The Lion King from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Aladdin (1992)

2011-07-21T01:50:00.001-05:00

Aladdin is a street-urchin who lives in a large and busy town long ago with his faithful monkey friend Abu. When Princess Jasmine gets tired of being forced to remain in the palace that overlooks the city, she sneaks out to the marketplace, where she accidentally meets Aladdin. Under the orders of the evil Jafar (the sultan's advisor), Aladdin is thrown in jail and becomes caught up in Jafar's plot to rule the land with the aid of a mysterious lamp. Legend has it that only a person who is a "diamond in the rough" can retrieve the lamp from the Cave of Wonders. Aladdin might fight that description, but that's not enough to marry the princess, who must (by law) marry a prince. [imdb]

Following very close on the heels of The Beauty and The Beast, Aladdin is a far more lighthearted and "loose" movie that ushered in yet another new style of animated film. Another of Howard Ashman's final works, he and Alan Menkin brought a fun, jaunty sound to the music, with the help of Tim Rice after Ashman had passed.

Where Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid were "princess" films, this technically could be called a "prince" film. The main focus is a scoundrel of a thief who, along with his pet monkey Abu, find the help of a genie to woo the beautiful princess, Jasmine. Of course, there's the evil guy who tries to get in the way, some drama caused by Aladdin's selfishness, a magic carpet ride to a most-popular song, and a lot of fun jokes from the genie, voiced by Robin Williams.

The genie's jokes and impersonations seem a bit out of place, being modern and "now" compared to the setting of the movie. This is the biggest difference between Aladdin and many of the other animated films that came before it. In the commentaries, this was explained (in a very deus ex machina fashion) with the understanding that the genie could transcend time and therefor understood many modern references while the other characters in the movie didn't. The only time this concept was used prior to this (that I can recall) was in Sword In The Stone, when Merlin went "on vacation" to the 20th century. Anyways, this brought about a new feel to the animated films, where characters would make modern references despite the setting of the movie.

There were a lot of special features on the 2-DVD set, not as many as my last review obviously, but still a great deal. There were a few commentary tracks, which gave varying perspectives on the making of the movie. Also included was a pop-up trivia track, which was essentially just another subtitle track filled with lots of random bits of information... I suppose for people who don't like audio commentaries. A nice documentary on the second disc was rather informative, but what I really enjoyed was the talk with the composer, Alan Menkin.

In all, this was a great set, but I can't help but want a nice blu-ray set for this one. I'd love to see this (as well as every other film) in high definition. Still, it's a fantastic film either way.

Aladdin on Wikipedia.
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Disn-A-Thon: Beauty and The Beast (1991)

2011-07-15T14:08:00.001-05:00

Belle is a girl who is dissatisfied with life in a small provincial French town, constantly trying to fend off the misplaced "affections" of conceited Gaston. The Beast is a prince who was placed under a spell because he could not love. A wrong turn taken by Maurice, Belle's father, causes the two to meet. [imdb]

Beauty and The Beast is another story Walt had considered (and tried) to turn into a feature film, only to be dropped and then picked up half a century later by the revived studio. In the late 1980's, the animation department tried working a script together for a non-musical version of the story, and after a few rewrites, a new team was brought on board. This included Alan Menkin and a semi-reluctant Howard Ashman (also working on Aladdin at the time) who would turn it into a Broadway style musical film.

The result is a fantastic and gorgeous animated motion picture, a bit more mature than many of the films that came before it. Returning to the Cinderella and Snow White "princess" style fairy tales, Beauty and The Beast was a bit less "happy-go-lucky" and brought to the screen a female lead that was more proactive than reactive. Instead of letting things simply happen to her, she was strong and secure and took charge of herself and her surroundings. Following on the heels of success brought about by The Little Mermaid, this new style of heroine was becoming a standard for Disney princesses.

This was my first time watching the blu-ray release, and boy am I glad I have a high definition TV. There were more than a few times I found myself muttering "Holy shit..." and rewinding simply to see the scenes again. The transfer and depth is just beautiful. It made me immediately disappointed to find out the next film on my -thon is only on DVD and not blu-ray.

And the amount of special features... Well, for starters, there are a few different versions of the movie to watch. There's an extended version, containing an added song that had been cut from the original film. It's sad to think such a wonderful song had been cut, but in the behind the scenes and commentary, a good explanation was given. I can't complain too much, because it's back in and wonderful.

Then we have the original theatrical version of the film, followed by a picture-in-picture with the original un-completed screening version... There's commentary for the extended, so this made a nice special feature for the theatrical version. Then there's a few games, at least two(2) music videos, and about a gazillion (estimated) various bits and pieces about the background of the film. And to top it all off, they threw in a really long interactive behind-the-scenes feature. As you watch the documentary, pop-ups allow you to click through to watch even MORE features, sometimes moving even another level deeper beyond that... and then at last returning seamlessly back into the original documentary. All of this has a special index, allowing you to see if you've missed anything....

I was in special-feature heaven (or hell for some people). This was easily one of the best sets I've seen during my -thon, and I hope as much care goes into each and every subsequent release.

Beauty and The Beast on Wikipedia.
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Disn-A-Thon: The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

2011-07-08T14:48:00.000-05:00

Cody, a boy from Mugwomp Flats responds to a distress call about a trapped giant Golden Eagle called Marahute. Freeing her, he gains a close friendship with the bird. However, Cody is soon abducted by the murderous poacher, Percival McLeach, who is after that bird which is of a highly endangered species and therefore an extremely profitable quarry. In a panic, a mouse Cody freed from one of McLeach's traps sends a desperate call for help to the Rescue Aid Society in New York City who assigns their top agents, Miss Bianca and Bernard to the task. With transportation provided by the goofy Albatross, Wilbur, the agents arrive in Austrailia and link up with the RAS' local field operative, Jake The Kangaroo Rat. Together, the trio must race against time to find Cody, stop McLeach and save Marahute. [imdb]

Disney is known now for all the many sequels, a few making it into the theater, but most of them incredibly horrible and direct-to-video. The Rescuers Down Under is the first (and only, until this month's Winnie The Pooh movie) to make it into the "Animated Classics" series. It's also, apparently, the first feature film to be "assembled and completed within a digital environment" [Wikipedia], and the second in the classics line to not have a musical number. All that makes this movie quite unique.

Aside from all the uniquenessicity, it's just a cute fun movie. I guess Oliver and Company was originally intended as a sequel to The Rescuers, but in the end, they worked it into this story instead. I think that was a pretty smart move. Another smart move was getting John Candy to voice the albatross. I just love John Candy...

Well, what else really is there to say about this one aside from "cute, fun, entertaining, Bob Newhart and John Candy"?? That is all. Thank you.

The Rescuers Down Under on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: The Little Mermaid (1989)

2011-07-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

Loosely based upon the story by Hans Christian Andersen. Ariel, youngest daughter of King Triton, is dissatisfied with life in the sea. She longs to be with the humans above the surface, and is often caught in arguments with her father over those "barbaric fish-eaters". She goes to meet Ursula, the Sea Witch, to strike a deal, but Ursula has bigger plans for this mermaid and her father. [imdb]

The Little Mermaid enters in the era known as the Disney Renaissance. After a decade of only a few animated films, most of them relative failures, The Little Mermaid is very deservedly given credit for breathing life back into the animation department.

There's a wonderful behind-the-scenes featurette on the set that goes into strong detail about the making of the film. This made me happy, because the past eight(8) or so films I've watched have been very bare as far as information goes. A little bit that I found only in the commentary (yes, there's thankfully a commentary track) is that Walt himself had been planning a version of The Little Mermaid back in the 30's. Coincidentally, many of the story changes his story men had made were also many of the same changes made in the 80's by writers who had no clue there had even been any prior work... Perhaps that had something to do with the film's success.

I list this film as my third favourite of the set, behind Lady and The Tramp and Dumbo... and I've been complaining about the lack of dark-ride attration at Disneyland for years. Turns out they planned one back in the early 90's, but the project never went beyond development. For this, I blame some of Eisner's people, specifically the head of the parks. I don't recall his name, but he's the guy who stated that people only went to Disneyland for the food. Anyways, there's a special feature of a digital animated ride-thru of the attraction, which I think is glorious. Actually, I maintain that for EVERY movie that has a corresponding attraction, they should be doing this...

Thankfully, I think they are planning to re-work and finally complete the Little Mermaid ride soon, for California Adventure. Good enough.

So yeah, the music is always fun on this film, the story is great, and I think there's an energy to the movie that hasn't existed since The Jungle Book. I am sure the energy played a huge role in making this film a success... and I'm glad it did, or we may never have had any of the films to come.

The Little Mermaid on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: Oliver & Company (1988)

2011-06-26T21:19:00.000-05:00

Inspired by Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist". A homeless kitten named Oliver, roams the streets of New York, where he is taken in by a gang of homeless mutts who survive by stealing from others. During one of these criminal acts, Oliver meets a wealthy young girl named Jenny Foxworth. This meeting will forever change his life. [imdb]

Ahh the 80's. If you pick one film to represent a 1980's Disney movie, Oliver & Company would be the one to pick. With a soundtrack by Huey Lewis and Billy Joel (who also voices a major character), this movie keeps with the normal trend of transforming a classic story to a fun, whimsical little animated film.

The movie follows a little orphaned kitten (Oliver) in a modern-day (for the 80's) New York City, where he teams up with a gang of ruffians (dogs) and their master, a scroungey thief named Fagin who owes the film's antagonist a ton of money. Honestly, I think Fagin was the best and most enjoyable character in the movie, which is saying a lot considering they were all great. Anyways, in a heist gone wrong, Oliver ends up separated from his new friends and in the arms of a wealthy little girl. The gang of dogs decide to "rescue" their new friend, leading to kidnapping and danger.

Despite my general issue with many of the films of the late 1980's (and their inherent 80's-ness), I really love this movie more and more with every viewing. For the time, I don't think they could have done this one any better.

Oliver and Company on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

2011-06-16T17:51:00.000-05:00

In Victorian London, England, a little mouse girl's toymaker father is abducted by a peglegged bat. She enlists the aid of Basil of Baker Street, the rodent world's answer to Sherlock Holmes. The case expands as Basil uncovers the crime's link to a plot against the Crown itself. [imdb]

Well we're just past the half-way mark with The Great Mouse Detective. Number twenty-six (out of the current 50) and just after the drastic failure of The Black Cauldron, this movie gave the Disney executives hope that there still might be a market to keep the animation department up and running... This was a good thing, considering coming up soon is The Little Mermaid, a movie which (not to get ahead of myself) considerably revived interest in Disney animated movies.

This film is quite charming and sweet... entertaining and fun... Basically, I really can't find much wrong with it. It's easy to invest yourself into the characters, specifically the little mouse, Olivia. It may help that pretty much everyone in the English-speaking world is familiar with the character of Sherlock Holmes, who the titular character is based on.

I really can't help but imagine that the Disney company caught wind of the up-and-coming Amblin film An American Tail, and decided to make another mouse-based film ASAP... getting it to theaters mere months earlier. There are a few striking similarities between the two, mainly the premise of a little mouse child trying to find his/her father... Maybe it's just me reading into things, but the fact that ex-Disney (slightly disgruntled ex-Disney, I might add) director Don Bluth helmed the Amblin film might have really caused a bit of competition.

Anyways, back to the Disney film... Vincent Price. That's all I really need to say. Well, maybe this is better: Vincent Price sings. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. Really, there's only like three(3) songs in this movie, and one is sung wonderfully by Price who plays the villain.

One bit of interest in the "making of" special feature: certain backgrounds were drawn out in wireframe on computers (remember, this is 1985-6...) which then sketched out onto sheets, where they were then inked and coloured as normal... Early CGI animation. I really wish they did this NOW, because then even the computer generated aspects would still have a very hand-done feel to them. I was really shocked to find out that computers were involved at all, considering how natural it looked.

So yeah, I enjoy this movie and I think it's one of the cutest of the whole set.

The Great Mouse Detective on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: The Black Cauldron (1985)

2011-06-09T18:16:00.000-05:00

Centuries ago, in the land of Prydain, a young man named, Taran is given the task of protecting Hen Wen, a magical oracular pig, who knows the location of the mystical black cauldron. This is not an easy task fot The Evil Horned King will stop at nothing to get the cauldron. [imdb]

Alright, so I haven't purchased the 25th Anniversary edition yet, so I am simply reviewing the old Gold Collection of The Black Cauldron. Apparently the only difference in the complete and utter lack of special features is a deleted scene... and from what I read online, a better framing for the picture. This would be an improvement in itself because the first thing I noticed was the forced letterbox. (ie, a 4:3 image with black bars embedded top and bottom)

Okay so that was annoying but I can live with it.

The movie itself is actually kind of a let-down. It was essentially Disney's first real attempt at diving into dark fantasy, and it shows. Really kind of out of their element. Many critics pointed out that this movie lacked any or all of the charm and wonder and... well... everything that makes a Disney movie a "Disney movie."

I don't think any of the characters were really all that great or exciting, the story was somewhat bland, and it really seemed like they had more to go with but cut it for some various reason. I know some people who like this movie simply because it's "Disney's darkest animated film" but really Aladdin was darker than this.

Perhaps I'm just bitter cuz that damn dog muppet was so freaking irritating.

The Black Cauldron on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: The Fox and The Hound (1981)

2011-05-31T14:37:00.000-05:00

A young fox named Tod is taken in by an old woman after his mother is killed by a hunter. Full of mischief, Young Tod befriends Copper, a hound dog pup. As they grow up, however, their friendship becomes endangered by what they have become; Copper is a hunting dog, and Tod is his prey. [imdb]

I saw that The Fox and The Hound was next on my list, and I thought "Oh, that's a classic." Yeah, it's really kind of a boring movie, rehashing most of Bambi (but a tad backwards) and the characters really aren't that memorable. On top of that, if you're going to get the voice of Tigger to do a character (one of the birds), you should probably make sure he doesn't sound and talk EXACTLY like Tigger. Every "Tigger-ism" was used for that damn bird... It's just not right.

This movie actually is quite bland and boring, the songs slightly irritating, and it just felt "phoned in"... Turns out half of the animators at the time thought the same thing, called it "stale" and left to make a new production company (that brought films like An American Tail, The Land Before Time and All Dogs Go To Heaven) In the end, a whole new slew of animators and character designers came aboard, including some of the people who eventually brought us The Little Mermaid through to the most recent Disney animated films... So it wasn't a complete loss.

I don't think I'd recommend this movie though, and can see why it's the start of the low point in the Animated Classics line. I do hope, however, that the new blu-ray has more special features, and maybe it will shed a bit more light on the making of the film.

The Fox and The Hound on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: The Rescuers (1977)

2011-05-26T15:00:00.000-05:00

When a bottle containing a plea for help from a little girl named Penny makes its way to the Rescue Aid Society, a mouse organization in the basement of the United Nations building dedicated to the rescue and well-being of anyone in need, it is up to the brave mouse Miss Bianca and her chosen partner, the shy janitor Bernard to rescue the girl. Searching for clues at her home at Morningside Orphanage in New York City, the two mice discover that the girl has been kidnapped by the evil pawn shop owner Madame Medusa and her companion Mr. Snoops. On the back of Orville the albatross, Miss Bianca and Bernard travel to the terrifyingly gloomy Devil's Bayou island where they learn the shocking truth: The innocent young girl is being forced down into a dangerous, dark underground pirate's cave where she must find the Devil's Eye, the world's largest diamond and Madame Medusa's greatest obsession... [imdb]

The Rescuers marks the end of a long era in Disney animation. The entire department sort of futtered around for a while after this, until the next big era began with The Little Mermaid. That's not to say everything between these two was crap, but it was all different after The Rescuers.

It's a really sweet story, charming and simple... The focus is more on the dramatic story than the comedy, which is something that had been abandoned for a while in Disney animated films. The art and animation leaves a bit to be desired though. I'll be honest, this is Disney in the 70's, and it shows. The picture is grainy, and I don't think that's from the transfer. The characters are clean and normal, but the backgrounds and general animation is dirty and very dated. I still enjoyed it though and wouldn't consider that as a real distraction... more an observation.

There are practically no special features on the disc, and what little there are have nothing really to do with the movie. There's an animated short, a live-action featurette on birds... Aside from a song, that's about it. I would have liked to have something about the making of the film.

Oh, and on a final note, I think Bob Newhart carried this entire movie. I am not sure it would have been even remotely the same if not for Bob, but that could be my own personal bias. I love Bob.

The Rescuers on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh (1977)

2011-05-18T23:56:00.000-05:00

Pooh, a bear of very little brain, and all his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood sing their way through adventures that encompass honey, bees, bouncing, balloons, Eeyore's birthday, floods, and Pooh sticks. [imdb]

The Winnie the Pooh films have always been some of my favourites. Of all the many films and serieseses based off those films, these have always seemed to stay true to the original feel, style, and charm of the original here.

This movie is pretty much three(3) short films based on some of the Winnie the Pooh stories, and the whole thing is really simple, low-key and just plain happy. Everything stays pretty well true to the story...

Except the gopher. I love the tongue-in-cheek addition of the gopher character. He even makes several not-so-subtle references to the fact that he's "not in the book" which was done to help keep purists happy.

The music has always been a highlight of the Winnie the Pooh series, especially the original songs written by the Sherman Brothers (of whom, by now, you should know I am a fan). One of my two all-time favourite Disney songs (the other being from Bambi) is on this film... "The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down" just makes me happy!

Okay anyways, this is a nice set with some fun special features... Nothing spectacular, but still enjoyable.

I am looking forward to the new Winnie the Pooh movie this summer even more now.

The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: Robin Hood (1973)

2011-05-08T21:57:00.000-05:00

Retelling of the Robin Hood legend with animals for the characters. Robin Hood is an outlaw who starts to form a gang in Sherwood Forest to fight the injustices of the Sheriff of Nottingham, who levies unpayable taxes upon the people. [imdb]

Robin Hood is relative proof that Disney's animation department didn't need a big budget to produce a sweet, charming movie. The animators used a lot of their old character designs and templates for a lot of this film, but it never really comes across as a "cutting corners" thing to me. It's always seemed more of an "all-star cast" style... As if many of our favourite Disney characters (many from The Jungle Book) were acting out a play for us, telling the story of Robin Hood.

Although a lot of the story elements come from the old Errol Flynn movie of the same name, the differences here come mostly in the animals, voices and character personalities. I know a lot of people who consider this to be the best telling of the tale, and it definitely holds its own.

There aren't many special features on the DVD... There IS an alternate ending in storyboard format that explains King Richard's return a bit better than the finished product. Sad that they didn't include the animated version that (according to Wikipedia) exists.

Cute movie. I always liked it a lot.

Robin Hood on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: The AristoCats (1970)

2011-04-29T02:43:00.000-05:00

Retired madame Adelaide Bonfamille enjoys the good life in her Paris villa with even classier cat Duchess and three kittens: pianist Berlioz, painter Toulouse and sanctimonious Marie. When loyal butler Edgar overhears her will leaves everything to the cats until their death, he drugs and kidnaps them. However retired army dogs make his sidecar capsize on the country. Crafty stray cat Thomas O'Malley takes them under his wing back to Paris. Edgar tries to cover his tracks and catch them at return, but more animals turn on him, from the cart horse Frou-Frou to the tame mouse Roquefort and O'Malley's jazz friends. [imdb]

The AristoCats was the first feature animated film released after Walt's death, but it basically feels no different than any other back through 101 Dalmations. In fact, if that movie was for the dog lovers in the world, this one was for the cat lovers. Hell, it's practically the same plot, only with cats and far more subdued.

Honestly, the villain in this is very simple -- a mere butler who just wants his boss' inheritance -- but he really is quite evil if you think about it. He drugs up some baby kittens and drops them off in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night. Cruella De Vil at least kept the damn puppies awake (for a while)... but this butler guy just mixes some drug into the kittens' food and says "To hell with it if it kills 'em!"

Anyways, the opening song was sung beautifully by a retired Maurice Chevalier, who came out of his retirement simply to record this song for the people at Disney. That's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself...

The special features on this "special edition" DVD set are some of the most bare-bones. There's a tiny little feature on the music of the film, there's a little segment about cats throughout history, and then there's a Minnie Mouse short in which she's trying to give a bath to her cat. That's basically it.

I suppose, since they don't have much else to say about the film, I won't be saying much more here either.

The AristoCats on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: The Jungle Book (1967)

2011-04-24T02:13:00.000-05:00

Disney animation inspired by Rudyard Kiplings "Mowgli" story. Mowgli is a boy who has been raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. When the wolves hear that the fierce tiger, Shere Kahn, is nearby, they decide to send Mowgli to a local "man tribe". On his way to the village, Mowgli meets many animal characters in this musical tale. When Shere Kahn learns of Mowgli's presence, he tracks him down. [imdb]

Yet another that earned its title as a "classic", The Jungle Book is just about perfect. Quite odd to say that considering the history behind the scenes.

Disney's head and default story man Bill Peet wrote up a storyboard for an entire movie, very close to the original source material, and Walt didn't like it... In fact, he didn't like it so much that Peet left the studio for good over the argument. Walt passed the story on to one of his other main guys and told everyone strictly to not read the book and laid out what he felt the story should be.

So they set to work, and mid-production, Walt died. That's right... died. But did this keep the movie from being made? Nope. Everyone cowboyed up... cowboy upped? Whatever, everyone pulled their shit together and gave the world Walt's final film, just the way he wanted it.

I really honestly would like to see the Peet version of the film, and maybe someday someone will put it together (aside from the storyboard re-enactment of the story). They threw some of the original songs recorded for the darker toned film, and I actually really enjoyed them a lot. They're obviously not as fun and upbeat as the Sherman Brothers' songs, but they're all still great.

Anyways, there's a lot of great backstory to the film, and it's all there on the DVD set... I could have done without the Jonas Brothers pop-rock rendition of "I Wanna Be Like You" though.

The Jungle Book on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: The Sword In The Stone (1963)

2011-04-14T20:59:00.000-05:00

Arthur (aka Wart) is a young boy who aspires to be a knight's squire. On a hunting trip he falls in on Merlin, a powerful but amnesiac wizard who has plans for Wart beyond mere squiredom. He starts by trying to give Wart an education (whatever that is), believing that once one has an education, one can go anywhere. Needless to say, it doesn't quite work out that way. [imdb]

The Sword In The Stone is another one of the most over-looked of the Animated Classics line. It's quite a simple, short little movie... rather straight-forward but charming.

There aren't many special features on the DVD, not that many people would really care, considering a lot of people seem to forget this movie even exists. There's a couple shorts, namely The Brave Little Tailor, and a bit of the Disneyland television show... But the longest and best of the special features is a little bit about The Sherman Brothers.

Now, anyone who knows my thoughts on Disney music knows that I am a huge fan of the Shermans. To me, they were the musical extension of Walt himself, and if anyone's musical works perfectly screamed "Disney" it would be theirs. The Sword In The Stone was the first of the animated films that featured The Sherman Brothers, and it just happens that their songs are the best part of the film.

Well anyways, I grew up with this movie, so I have seen it way too many times... and I remember even having a few storybooks of it. More than anything, this film just brings back a lot of memories.

Not outstanding, but it's still very good.

The Sword In The Stone on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: One Hundred and One Dalmations (1961)

2011-04-06T19:26:00.000-05:00

Pongo and Perdita have a litter of 15 puppies. Cruella De Vil takes a fancy to the pups, and wants to get hold of them, as well as more pups, to make herself a lovely dalmatian skin coat... Cruella hires some thugs to kidnap the pups and hold them at her mansion. Will Pongo and Perdita find them in time? [imdb]

A huge break in animation style from all of the prior animated films, One Hundred and One Dalmations is another of my favourites. It's a more modern (comparatively) movie than all before it, and it was the first to use the new Xerox technology instead of hand-inked cells. This meant that the animators' drawings were copied directly onto the cell, as opposed to hours of tedious work by other people inking over the lines. A lot less work unfortunately meant fewer workers, but the animators quite appreciated their work actually appearing on screen for the first time.

The movie is cute and placed in a more modern city, with the main human being a jazz-influenced song-writer, an occupation common to the late 50's. One thing I immediately noticed was that the framing was in full screen and not widescreen like the last two(2) movies. It struck me as a bit odd that Disney would revert backwards a bit as far as technology goes, but oh well.

All of the special features were good. There's a documentary on the making of the film, another bit focusing on Cruella De Vil, and a few other little things thrown in here and there. There's a big long slew of alternate takes of the few songs on the movie as well... Which warranted skipping through, considering the same songs over and over again start to annoy a person.

Worth noting, there really aren't many songs sung during this movie... Just mostly jazz music and normal score.

One special feature I really enjoyed were the trivia tracks. There are two pop-up trivia tracks that play along with the movie, one "for the family" (information about dogs and dalmations and so on), and another "for the fans" (lots of information about the behind-the-scenes aspects of the movie). These pop up not in normal subtitles, but in big dalmation spots planted around the screen.

Well, the facts and features are mostly very informative and entertaining, and the movie is one that will always be considered a classic... A start of another new era for the Disney animation studio.

One Hundred and One Dalmations on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: Sleeping Beauty (1959)

2011-03-28T21:18:00.000-05:00

Adaptation of the fairy tale of the same name. Princess Aurora is cursed by the evil witch Maleficent - who declares that before Aurora reaches her 16th birthday she will die by a poisoned spinning-wheel. To try to prevent this, the king places her into hiding, in the care of three goodnatured - but not too bright - fairies. [imdb]

Sleeping Beauty definitely is top of my list in special features... I've owned the DVD set, and it was packed full of extras. This was the first time I watched the blu-ray, and it has even more. On the first disc, there's the movie, the movie with video commentary, simple audio commentary, "fun facts" popups during the movie, and an additional feature that is by-far my favourite extra from any of the Disney releases:

Grand Canyon is about a half-hour of footage (in wonderful depth) of the national park, accompanied by the music of "The Grand Canyon Suite" by Ferde Grofé. This short film accompanied the inital release of Sleeping Beauty and is included here on the DVD and blu-ray sets... Honestly, I could watch this again and again.

Okay, that was disc one(1)... On the second disc, there's a virtual walk-through of Sleeping Beauty's castle at the Disneyland park. As the walk-through goes along, some "imagineers" describe each stop and explain the technical details behind them. After this, there's a bit about the creation and history of the attraction, which explains the various changes over the years... and then we have a nice long documentary about the making of the film itself. I fell asleep during this, but I've seen it many times before. It's quite good.

Then there's a history of the stylist and background designer, Eyvind Earle, in depth on his personal style and how it affected the entire film. As we go on, there's a couple "The Story of Tchaikovsky" bits which are rather entertaining, and some TV bits... Oh yes, then there's a few deleted scenes, excluded songs, and a few games.

I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a bit, but there was a lot to get through. One last special feature was a television special surrounding four(4) of the Disney artists each painting one specific tree, focusing on the diferences in style and form between them all.

Yeah, this is a very rewarding set, and I'll always be really happy with it. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Sleeping Beauty on Wikipedia.

Purchase Sleeping Beauty on Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Lady and The Tramp (1955)

2011-03-24T00:37:00.000-05:00

Lady, a golden cocker spaniel, meets up with a mongrel dog who calls himself the Tramp. He is obviously from the wrong side of town, but happenings at Lady's home make her decide to travel with him for a while. This turns out to be a bad move, as no dog is above the law. [imdb]

Lady and The Tramp is my own personal favourite from the animated classic line. Apparently it didn't get much praise from critics when it was first released, but over the years it's earned itself a well-deserved "name" in Disney history. It really is a lovely little story, and one of the few of the earlier films that wasn't based on a well-known story. In fact, they worked on the story, had a guy author a book based on it, and then made the film.

The movie and all the art and animation involved is far less bold as many of the main features released before it, but sometimes simple and endearing goes a long way. I think that's actually one of the reasons I love it so much, as also goes for Dumbo, which follows as a second favourite of mine.

In watching the special features, I discovered that the one scene most people remember from the movie was almost never made. Apparently Walt didn't quite go for the whole "two dogs eating spaghetti" concept, so the animator took the time to personally create the scene to show. Luckily, it worked just the way he had envisioned it, and Walt was sold.

There's not a whole lot in the 2-disc set... Just the movie, a couple deleted scenes and some Backstage Disney stuff. I will state though that I really enjoyed the music video included on this one. Normally they just have some random teenage star singing a pop rendition of a song from the movie, but here they actually had a kind of lounge version sung by *gasp* an adult! The style worked very well with the song "Bella Notte" and it didn't make me want to vomit one bit.

There are some TV specials, a storyboard version of the film, and most importantly, an hour-long featurette on the making of the movie. That's about it, but I really don't know how much more they could find for this one. Simple movie usually means a small amount of archives to pick from.

Anyways, I'll also be glad when this comes out on blu-ray, but mostly for a newly restored picture and hopefully some new special features... if they can find some.

Lady and The Tramp on Wikipedia.

Purchase Lady and the Tramp from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Peter Pan (1953)

2011-03-17T19:59:00.000-05:00

An adaptation of J. M. Barrie's story about a boy who never grew up. The three children of the Darling family receive a visit from Peter Pan, who takes them to Never Land, where an ongoing war between Peter's gang of rag-tag runaways and the evil Pirate Captain Hook is taking place. [imdb]

Well, here we have a pretty straight-forward telling of Peter Pan. Disney had wanted to do this movie since... well, since his childhood, and it took him a long time before it was realised into film. Originally, he thought it would be the first animated motion picture, but opted instead for Snow White and was to make Peter Pan after that... Well, eventually it happened, and it's a fine film.

Also the most racist thing I've seen from Disney. Many people point to The Song of The South as being racist or full of stereotype, but none of that even remotely stacks up to the song "What Made The Red Man Red" by itself. That aside, it's still a classic. (Let's hope for a DVD release of The Song of The South someday... If they can release this, there's no logical reason they can't release that.)

Even though this movie is really enjoyable, I don't see the need for the amount of times the full feature appears on the DVD set. On the first disc, they have the movie, which you can watch with or without commentary and/or subtitles if you want to read along. Then as an additional feature on the disc one(1), they have a "sing-along" version, allowing you to watch the film with the lyrics of the songs displayed on-screen. (Which are also available in the normal subtitles.) Then to make matters even worse, they have a "bonus feature" on disc two(2) that's called a "read-along" version, which happens to be, yes... the ENTIRE movie, yet again, with subtitles for both the song lyrics and the dialogue. The only difference between this and the normal disc one(1) subtitles is that these have pretty artwork bordering the words. That's it. I can rant for hours on how redundant that "special feature" is, but I won't. I will however state that they need to drop that massively from whatever blu-ray release they hopefully will issue in the future.

The commentary was enjoyable, the little featurettes were enjoyable, the deleted songs were nice, and the games sucked worse than anything I've seen on a Disney DVD. Altogether a good set, but they could do much, much better next time around.

Peter Pan on Wikipedia.

Purchase Peter Pan on Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Alice In Wonderland (1951)

2011-03-10T23:45:00.000-06:00

Disney version of Lewis Carroll's Children's story. Alice becomes bored and her mind starts to wander. She sees a white rabbit who appears to be in a hurry. She chases it into its burrow and then a most bizarre series of adventures begins. [imdb]

I think I am going to start off by saying that I received the new blu-ray set a few weeks back and have been waiting to watch it, considering it was coming up in my Disn-A-Thon. Up until a few days ago, I had only ever watched the DVD releases over the years, and I shall say that despite all the many, many times I have seen this movie, I have never seen it quite so glorious and beautiful as on the new blu-ray. The colours are far more bold and vibrant than they were even on last year's DVD release, the image is more clear... All around, this is just the best I have ever seen it. From the opening titles, it was like I was watching a whole new movie.

Alright, they did this right here... not only is there a commentary track (unlike on Cinderella, but it's a video commentary. They have full animated and live-action video commentary to the entire movie, providing backgrounds on the author, the book and the movie. This is a fantastic insight on the life and works of Lewis Carroll, and I would recommend it to anyone who thinks he was a drugged-up pervert. I've always had to argue with people when they take common misconceptions as fact, and it's nice to have plenty of historical references to prove my point.

Alice In Wonderland has the most songs of all the Disney animated canon, with an additional dozen or so more left over. Plenty of these unused songs appear amidst the wealth of special features on this set, including a special segment on what would later appear in Peter Pan as "The Second Star To The Right."

This is just a really packed set, and I am thrilled to see the entirety of an old holiday television special included. On an earlier DVD release, they had included a short segment of the special, which was removed from the second-to-most-recent DVD set, and I believe the shortened segment was added back on to last year's DVD... Well, the whole entire long-as-hell version is on this set, and it's very enjoyable. I am very glad they finally gave us the whole show. I'd have to say that was my second-favourite part of the set, the first being the commentary.

Well, if you have a blu-ray player and think you shouldn't get this because you already have it on DVD, think again. You need to buy this set, because I can assure you... You have never seen Alice In Wonderland like this.

Alice In Wonderland on Wikipedia.

Purchase Alice In Wonderland on Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Cinderella (1950)

2011-03-06T19:23:00.000-06:00

In a far away, long ago kingdom, Cinderella is living happily with her mother and father until her mother dies. Cinderella's father remarries a cold, cruel woman who has two daughters, Drizella and Anastasia. When the father dies, Cinderella's wicked stepmother turns her into a virtual servant in her own house. Meanwhile, across town in the castle, the King determines that his son the Prince should find a suitable bride and provide him with a required number of grandchildren. So the King invites every eligible maiden in the kingdom to a fancy dress ball, where his son will be able to choose his bride. Cinderella has no suitable party dress for a ball, but her friends the mice, lead by Jaques and Gus, and the birds lend a hand in making her one, a dress the evil stepsisters immediately tear apart on the evening of the ball. At this point, enter the Fairy Godmother, the pumpkin carriage, the royal ball... [imdb]

The first full-length feature since 1942's Bambi, Cinderella came at a time when Disney was about a few million dollars in the hole, and the animation department was holding on for dear life with package films and war propaganda films. The new feature would either make or break the entire department, and it surely did not disappoint.

It was the first real "princess" movie since the first feature, Snow White, but it was also the first in the new era of the Disney "style" adding whimsy and joy to what before had been merely fantasy and wonder. Cinderella was practically a template for many films to come, from Sleeping Beauty through Beauty and The Beast, continuing even to this day.

As before, I worked my way through each and every special feature on the 2-disc DVD set. I was (and still am) very disappointed by the lack of commentary track. Of all the films they've done commentary for, this seems like it would be a given... but no. Perhaps they'll fix this when they finally release a blu-ray set.

There are quite a lot of special features, however, including a nice decently-lengthed documentary on the making of the film and a lot of audio demos for discarded songs. There are a couple discarded storyboarded song segments that, I have to admit, the movie is better for not including them. The Cinderella's Work Song (not to be confused with the mice Work Song) bit is a rather charming idea, but the song drives you crazy after one verse. I'm glad they left that out.

There are also quite a few live-action promotional bits from television, including some from The Mickey Mouse Club and one with Perry Como. In all, I definitely approve with the amount of extras on this one, with the exception of course of the missing commentary track. How could you not have a commentary track for Cinderella?!

Alright, done complaining. Cinderella is a classic, and I am very glad it was as successful as it was... or there might never have been another Disney animated feature film.

Cinderella on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

2011-03-01T15:58:00.000-06:00

Segments: Two stories. The Wind in the Willows: Concise version of Kenneth Grahame's story of the same name. J. Thaddeus Toad, owner of Toad Hall, is prone to fads, such as the newfangled motor car. This desire for the very latest lands him in much trouble with the wrong crowd, and it is up to his friends, Mole, Rat and Badger to save him from himself. - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Retelling of Washington Irving's story set in a tiny New England town. Ichabod Crane, the new schoolmaster, falls for the town beauty, Katrina Van Tassel, and the town Bully Brom Bones decides that he is a little too successful and needs "convincing" that Katrina is not for him. [imdb]

The final package film of the series... This one combines two classic stories into one movie. I'd have to say that this is definitely the strongest of all the package films. No doubt about that.

It starts with The Wind In The Willows which is a personal favourite of mine. I've grown up on the stories of Mr. Toad; everything from the book to the stop-motion television series. Disney's animated version is a fun and adorable telling of the classic tale, including some fun songs and an exciting weasel fight.

After that, we get handed The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in a charming way that for some reason reminds me of their later styling on Beauty and The Beast. Perhaps it's the character of Brom that just reminds me of Gaston, but I can't help but think they looked back at this feature when working on the latter. Disney's take on the story of Ichabod Crane doesn't stray horribly far from the original story, which is kind of odd, if you know enough about their story-warping for most tales.

Anyways, I suppose this movie works quite well in the midst of all the full-length single-story features. Either way, I am quite fond of it.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: Melody Time (1948)

2011-02-23T22:33:00.000-06:00

Segments: "Once Upon a Wintertime," two lovers recued from an icy river by friendly animals; "Bumble Boogie," bee beset by musical instruments and symbols come to life; "Johnny Appleseed," story of the legendary pioneer tree-planter; "Trees," mood piece set to musical treatment of Joyce Kilmer's poem; "Little Toot," story of a heroic little tugboat who saves an ocean liner; "Blame it on the Samba," Donald Duck and Jose Carioca have the blues blown away at a Latin cafe; "Pecos Bill," story of the legendary cowpoke, his trusty mount Widowmaker and his sweetheart Slue Foot Sue. [imdb]

Alright, I'm getting a bit tired of these. I am kind of looking forward to the normal movies again. That being said, Melody Time is fun but a bit forgettable compared to the others.

More music-based segments, with some standard vocalists... etc. The big one here though is the Legend of Johnny Appleseed. The classic story of the American folk legend, this stands on its own as a short film. Personally, I don't think it belongs in this package, but excluding it would just leave Melody Time without any reason to exist.

Little Toot is cute and annoying, Blame It On The Samba brings back Donald Duck, José Carioca and the Aracuan bird, and Pecos Bill rounds the whole thing off into a nice little finale.

One little note about Pecos Bill, apparently some scene involving Bill and a cigarette was cut out... marking one of the few blatant editting jobs in a Disney cartoon.

Alright, on to the last package film, and then I can get on with the movies!

Melody Time on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: Fun and Fancy Free (1947)

2011-02-19T01:05:00.000-06:00

Disney version of fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk", featuring Mickey, Donald and Goofy in the main roles. Also contains another short film, re-released as "Bongo" [imdb]

I'll be short for this one. (Mostly because there's a game I want to play that just finished downloading.)

Fun and Fancy Free was essentially the merging of two(2) feature film concepts into one... It all starts off with our friend Jiminy Cricket singing a little song and segues into Dinah Shore singing and telling the story of Bongo, a little bear from a circus who wanted to live in the wild.

Bongo was actually devised as a follow-up to Dumbo, even going so far as to originally co-star many of the same characters in the same circus. This was all cut when they opted for the shorter "half of a feature film length" story.

The other half is taken up by Edgar Bergen and friends Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd telling the story of Mickey and The Beanstalk. Also originally to be much longer, it's both Mickey and Donald's return to the silver screen. Joined now by Goofy, they tell the story of Jack and The Beanstalk only involving Mickey and pals (of course).

I was never the fondest of Bongo, just because it seemed a bit dumb when I was younger, but it's really a nice little story. I was always more a fan of Mickey and The Beanstalk though, mostly due to the fun giant. I have always loved the voice and personality they gave the antagonist in this.

Anyhow, the DVD contains a short little documentary about the two features and why they were cut short. Not a bad special feature for their old slimmed-down Gold Collection line.

Each feature stands well alone, and they stand even better together in this film.

Fun and Fancy Free on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: Make Mine Music (1946)

2011-02-13T16:51:00.000-06:00

Segments: "A Rustic Ballad," a story of feuding hillbillys; "A Tone Poem," a mood piece set on a blue bayou; "A Jazz Interlude," a bobby-soxer goes jitterbugging with her date at the malt shop; "A Ballad in Blue," dark room, rain and somber landscapes illustrate the loss of a lover; "A Musical Recitation," the story of Casey at the Bat; "Ballade Ballet," ballet dancers perform in silhouette; "A Fairy Tale with Music," Peter and the Wolf; "After You've Gone," four musical instruments chase through a surreal landscape; "A Love Story," about the romance between a fedora and a bonnet; "Opera Pathetique," the story of Willie, the Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met. [imdb]

Make Mine Music is the third of six(6) "package films" made during the war. Although I find them much more scattered and obscure than the rest of the features, I still quite enjoy these collections of shorts. They remind me of how I spent many of my weekends, watching the Disney movies, waiting to see what short followed it.

This one here tends to put me to sleep, probably because of the soft musical aspect to much of it. They pull in many modern (for the time) performers, many who were involved in the U.S.O. shows that were so famous then. Even the few narrated bits have a slight down-tempo, sleepy feel to them. So it's a wonder I even made it to the end of this one without passing out.

The two biggest stand-out parts in this one were obviously "Casey At The Bat" and "Peter And The Wolf." All the other segments are fun and good, but these two tend to be what most people remember from this bunch. I would figure that's because they have a more memorable narrative to them.

Alright, I'm technically just zipping through these package films... No real special features except for a few extra shorts, some of which appeared on some of the blu-rays I've already seen.

And on we go to the next one...

Make Mine Music on Wikipedia.

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Disn-A-Thon: Saludos Amigos (1942) / The Three Caballeros (1944)

2011-02-10T17:49:00.000-06:00

Live-action segments show members of the Disney staff touring South America and recording their impressions in sketches. These segue into four animated sections: "Lake Titicaca" depicts tourist Donald Duck's troubles with a stubborn llama; "Pedro" tells of a little mail plane's adventures flying over the treacherous Andes; "El Gaucho Goofy" transplants an American cowboy into the Argentine pampas; and in "Aquarela do Brasil," Jose Carioca shows Donald the sights and sounds of Rio de Janiero. [imdb]

A large box arrives for Donald on his birthday, three gifts inside. He unwraps one at a time, and each takes him on an adventure. The first is a movie projector with a film about the birds of South American: Donald watches two cartoons, one tells of a penguin who longs to live on a tropical isle and the other about a gaucho boy who hunts the wild ostrich. The second gift is a pop-up book about Brazil. Inside is Zé Carioca, who takes Donald to Brazil's Bahia for a mix of animation and live action: the two cartoon birds sing and dance with natives. The third gift is a piñata, accompanied by Panchito. A ride on a magic serape takes the three amigos singing and dancing across Mexico. ¡Olé! [imdb]

I will be brief about these two... First of all, I decided to review these together based solely on the fact that they are on my DVD as a combo. They technically go well together as they are both "travelogue" style about Latin America, combining both live action segments and animated shorts together in one feature each.

Saludos Amigos surrounds a US government sponsored trip Walt and his animators took to South America, and mixes narrated footage of Walt and crew learning about the culture with four(4) little shorts starring Donald Duck, Goofy, Pedro the Plane, and José Carioca, a new character created specifically for this film.

The Three Caballeros is grounded in the animated world, with Donald Duck opening presents, demonstrated by live action clips. José Carioca makes another appearance, along with another new character, Panchito Pistoles. I'd have to say this one is a bit more weird than the previous film, mostly due to the Aracuan bird, which is something you have to witness to fully understand my point.

I kind of felt The Three Caballeros really devolved into random absurdity during the final musical number, which really left me wondering what I was watching exactly. It was fun and colourful and entertaining... but it was just very bizarre. The song is called Donald's Surreal Reverie, so I guess it was supposed to be weird.

All things said, these bring back a lot of fun memories of watching The Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday night, and they're quite appreciative of the cultures of Latin America. While they are definitely classics, I still think they are an odd choice to be placed in the Disney Animated Classics canon.

Saludos Amigos on Wikipedia.

The Three Caballeros on Wikipedia.

Purchase Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Bambi (1942)

2011-02-05T00:25:00.000-06:00

The animated story of Bambi, a young deer hailed as the 'Prince of the Forest' at his birth. As Bambi grows, he makes friends with the other animals of the forest, learns the skills needed to survive, and even finds love. One day, however, the hunters come, and Bambi must learn to be as brave as his father if he is to lead the other deer to safety. [imdb]

I have to review the Platinum Edition DVD unfortunately, as the Blu-Ray will be released in March. I plan to post some updates once I re-watch the Blu-Ray disc (ignoring duplicate features of course).

That said, on with the movie stuff.

Bambi is quite easily one of the best animated features of all time. The realistic depiction of animals, the emotion, the background artwork, the music... It's entirely fantastic.

From the very moment the film begins, you know exactly what you're watching. The opening theme "Love Is A Song (That Never Ends)" lets you know from the start that this is a Disney movie. It's almost a calming feeling for us fans.

And then comes the big pan... One of the finest uses of the famous multiplane camera [wikipedia] as the scene pans across the forest, past waterfalls and scores of trees. I tend to rewind and watch this scene over and over again, just because it's so amazing. Even when I can tell the art is obviously flat painted on glass, there's still far more depth in this one shot than there is in many live-action films and sometimes in real life.

One of the many special features points out that in earlier movies (the entire four before this one), such as Snow White, the animals (particularly the deer) were never based on as real models as in Bambi. For this movie, the animators and character departments spent a lot of time studying real animals and their anatomy and build. This helped them to find a very real look for their characters, starting with a realistic animal and then building on human characteristics. That's one of the most unique qualities of Bambi, making it stand out far above any of the preceding and following films.

They had already made some of the most outstanding feats in cinematic history, and leave it to Disney to want to continue topping themselves. It's what I love about them, and it shows more in Bambi than any other film.

On a quite personal note, I think I would classify this one as having my favourite score and soundtrack out of the entire Disney film catalogue. That includes live action too. The score is truly inspired and the vocal numbers are gorgeous. I think I probably have a bit of a bias, as the movie also has one of my all-time favourite Disney songs as well. "Little April Showers" is just such a lovely song and so relaxing as well. (My other favourite, non-ironically, is "The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down" from The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh) I suggest everyone should someday watch this movie, paying strict attention to the music at least once.

So yeah, the games were kind of dumb... One was incredibly difficult just because they didn't bother explaining how it worked, so I kept angrily doing it wrong. I don't even know why I bother with the games sometimes. They are either too easy or too annoyingly difficult.

As for other features, there are tons of historical features, including a movie-length pseudo-commentary. It's essentially an audio re-enactment of story meetings, played along with the film occasionally in split-screen or picture-in-picture with pencil tests, animatics, etc.

A complete entertainment and educational experience, and I really can't wait to find out what more they put on the Blu-Ray.

Bambi on Wikipedia.

Purchase Bambi from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Dumbo (1941)

2011-01-30T00:18:00.000-06:00

The stork delivers a baby elephant to Mrs Jumbo, veteran of the circus, but the newborn is ridiculed because of his truly enormous ears and dubbed "Dumbo". Dumbo is relegated to the circus' clown acts; it is up to his only friend, a mouse, to assist Dumbo to achieve his full potential. [imdb]

Well this here is my second favourite of the Disney Animated Classic films. (My first being Lady and The Tramp) I actually have trouble staying awake through this due to how many times I have put this on repeat simply to help lull me to sleep. That may not have been the best idea for such a great film, especially one that’s only 64 minutes long.

Dumbo was made as a nice simple way for the Disney company to make some money back after Fantasia. More effort was put into the story itself than the artwork, and there is very little background detail to this one. Although lacking things like detailed wood grain and other little intricacies that appeared in previous Disney features, it’s still a fantastic movie.

It’s actually well regarded as being on of the most “charming” movies Disney has ever released; very short, sweet and simple. I believe this paved the way for some of the other “simple” films they made, such as Robin Hood.

One stand-out of this movie is the music. Very circus-oriented (for obvious reasons), the music in Dumbo is fun and exciting and keeps you drawn into the story.

And how could I write about this film without mentioning what may very well be the most heart-wrenching scene of all animation. The scene where Dumbo goes to visit his imprisoned mother is well known for making even the strongest grown men cry. I think it at least is on par with anything Pixar has ever done, if not surpasses it. I believe that raw emotion captured in ink and paint stands the test of time.

I will forever love this movie.

Dumbo on Wikipedia.

Purchase Dumbo from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Fantasia (1940)

2011-01-22T03:52:00.000-06:00

Disney animators set pictures to Western classical music as Leopold Stokowski conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" features Mickey Mouse as an aspiring magician who oversteps his limits. "The Rite of Spring" tells the story of evolution, from single-celled animals to the death of the dinosaurs. "Dance of the Hours" is a comic ballet performed by ostriches, hippos, elephants, and alligators. "Night on Bald Mountain" and "Ave Maria" set the forces of darkness and light against each other as a devilish revel is interrupted by the coming of a new day. [imdb]

There isn’t really all that much to say about Fantasia that can’t be summed up as follows:

Fantasia was the most innovative and bold movie ever made.

There, I said it.

For his third full-length animated film, Disney decided to make a segment-based movie complete with full orchestral score and practically no dialogue. Essentially a feature-length version of their Silly Symphonies, Fantasia had no plot and no storyline. The only truly real character was Mickey Mouse, who appeared in only one segment, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

For the musical arrangement, Disney enlisted famed conductor Leopold Stokowski. I’d say this was a smart move, considering the music is what had to carry the movie. Many people, myself included, regard Fantasia as the spark of their interest in classical music. Covering many famous composers such as Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, it’s really just one big showcase of classical music and the young animation department at Disney.

The special features go really in depth on the entire development of this movie. In fact, there’s three separate commentaries for the movie alone. If you’re interested in factoids and little random bits of trivia, I would definitely recommend listening to all three. They really help you understand just how important this movie is to the history of motion pictures.

Fantasia on Wikipedia.

Purchase Fantasia on Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Pinocchio (1940)

2011-01-14T13:47:00.000-06:00

Jiminy Cricket, a vagabond insect, spends a rainy night at the shop of toymaker Geppetto. The Blue Fairy brings a marionette to life after Geppetto wishes on a star for a son, and Jiminy Cricket is appointed the new boy's conscience. He has a devil of a time keeping up as Pinocchio is willingly lured through various forms of temptation, the most frightening of which leads him to Pleasure Island, where he drinks, smokes, and is almost turned into a jackass. [imdb]

Before Snow White had even premiered, Disney was working on his second feature-length animated film... Actually, I believe they were working on three(3) or four(4) of them, but they decided to push Pinocchio out first. I’d say that was a really smart move, considering how endearing this movie is compared to the others such as Bambi and Fantasia.

There really is a great amount of detail in the artwork, specifically on the backgrounds. They didn’t just focus on the characters and story; so much intricacy was put into simply things like texture of wood and cloth. Stated on the commentary track, the animators and artists didn’t go into that much detail because they had to... They did it because they wanted to challenge themselves. This is what made the earliest (and many of the later) Disney animated features wonderful. They pushed it to the limits of their abilities, so they could push even further next time around.

I’ve always been fond of Pinocchio. I grew up watching it over and over, and it’s still just as enjoyable today as it was when I was younger. I watched the blu-ray release, which doesn’t have quite as many special features as Snow White had, but they did fill this quite well.

The commentary is actually the best and most informative feature, with Leonard Maltin and others discussing the story, the artwork and the music.

The music is one of the best parts of the movie. Not only the introductory song “When You Wish Upon A Star” but also the entire score came to define the Walt Disney universe. I proudly own copies of all the audio from Disneyland in various forms, and you wouldn’t believe how much Pinocchio music is in there... Well, maybe you would, but either way, the music from Pinocchio is essentially the Disney theme music.

Once again, I played all the games too... I kind of like these games. The trivia one was a bit hard though, so I gave up. Mostly because I just didn’t want to have to think.

So yeah, Disney’s second animated feature was just as good (if not better than) the first.

Pinocchio on Wikipedia.

Purchase Pinocchio from Amazon.

Disn-A-Thon: Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (1937)

2011-01-06T12:41:00.000-06:00

The first, and by far most memorable full-length animated feature from the Disney Studios, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" may have been superseded technically by many of the films that followed it. But its simple story of a charming little princess saved from the evil deeds of her wicked step-mother, the queen, by a group of seven adorable dwarfs made history when it was first released in December, 1937 and has since become an incomparable screen classic. [imdb]

And here we go, starting another year-long marathon... One(1) movie a week this time; far better than four(4).

We start the Disney Animated Classic canon with Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, and what a great start it is! I am very sure a lot of people would just be quick to brush aside this movie as “just Snow White,” but it really may very well be the most groundbreaking film of all time. If not at the top of that list, it’s at least in the top five(5).

Not only is it the very first full-length animated film, uhm... ever... but Snow White inspired other studios to make fantasy-based films, such as The Wizard of Oz. Basically, if this movie hadn’t been a success... Well, I hate to think of how many very beloved movies would never have been made.

Sure, you think “But it was Disney... of course it was a success,” but through the entire production, it was called “Disney’s folly.” Walt almost gave up several times, due to pressure from his brother, his wife and general lack of money. The production went over-budget by about 700%, and people consistently asked “Who would want to see a full-length cartoon?”

Well, here we are, rather close to a hundred(100) years later, with computer animated movies and probably about a trillion animated films in general... Snow White still stands strong as being a brilliant movie.

Thanks to Disney’s restoration abilities, the picture, colour and sound is all wonderful and breath-taking. I watched the blu-ray release, and even on my normal tube TV it looks incredible. The animation alone even stands up to current animation. It doesn’t look choppy or too fluid... Not bad at all for a first movie.

Amongst the many, many, many special features (it took me an entire three(3)-day weekend to get through them all), they’ve included a good number of animated short films. These range from the first synchronized-sound cartoon of Steamboat Mickey all the way to the first use of the multi-plane camera, The Old Mill. (If any of you have never seen The Old Mill, go here and watch it.) All of these came chronologically before Snow White, and none of them are even remotely as smooth and clear as the movie.

You can tell they really went all-out on this one, knowing that this movie had to be absolutely perfect. The entire future of animation depended on it.

Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs on Wikipedia.

Purchase Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from Amazon.

Coming In 2011

2010-12-22T16:15:00.000-06:00

Well, I finally finished that damn Em-Ess-Tee-Three-Kay-A-Thon. It was plenty of fun, and it was good to go back and re-experience every episode of my favourite show... but now that’s over, and not a day too soon.

I think the whole “watch four(4) episodes a week and find the effort to write about them all” thing a bit tiresome... but I did it!

Now, what to do for the new year... I think Disney movies are in order. In fact, I think I will watch them in order. Not every Disney movie ever made, mind you. I don’t own THAT many Disney films, but I DO own every animated classic. The fiftieth(50th) animated classic (Tangled) is in theaters right now, and it was fantastic. I already have that pre-ordered for whenever it hits blu-ray, so here is my plan:

One(1) movie each week, in order of original release. I will then write a blogue entry about the movie and all the special features, etc. I think that will be a lot easier and less of a chore than four(4) a week.

I haven’t figured out all the details, but I am figuring sometime over the span of each week I will watch the movie and features... Then that weekend, I will write about it. OR... I will watch the movie over the weekend, and write early in the week. OR... I will just kinda wing it and see what happens. Either way, 50 (51 when Winnie The Pooh comes out) movies in one year... Simple.

So, what have I been up to lately aside from my thon? Well, I’m glad you asked.

As for vacations, in late October I went to Chicago to visit my girlfriend, and a few weeks back I went to Seattle to visit Greg and go to a concert. Seattle was rainy and the Roger Waters concert (The Wall Live) was by far the best stage show I have ever seen. Chicago was amazing, and I will be moving there in May. That’s yet another thing coming up in the new year and definitely an exciting one!

As many of you know, I’ve been wanting to move from Chico for a good fifteen(15) years... even more recently over the past five(5) years, since my trip to Japan. Finally, I have a good solid reason to move, far beyond just a strong desire... and I couldn't be more excited!!

I’ve been working on thinning out my belongings, boxing up records and CD’s, and getting things generally ready for an easy move. These next few months I will be saving as much money as I can to throw in with my savings, as well as revising my resume and all the fun stuff that comes with moving.

Aside from that, it’s been pretty much just existing day-to-day... Working, talking to Janelle, watching TV shows and movies on Netflix. The holidays are pretty standard, so those just kind of... are. I finished all of my holiday shopping relatively early, so I am all set there, I believe.

One thing I noticed about my thon this past year is that I never really had the will to write about anything BUT my thon, considering it was a slight pain to even keep up on that. So I am hoping this “one-a-week” thon will provide me with some wherewithal to write about other shows I watch, or other things I buy or find online. Basically, I hope to generally write about random junk, while still keeping a schedule for my Disn-A-Thon.

There, that is what I will call it. Disn-A-Thon 2011.

On that note, I hope to write more often, and if not, please enjoy my Disney reviews. Please feel free to comment on the entries with any memories or personal feelings about the films.

Have a happy holiday everyone!!

Two More Left

2010-12-14T22:47:00.000-06:00

And now, for a poem about the end of my poetry spree. Woo!

TWO MORE LEFT

I only have two more
of these to write before
the end of the year.

I suppose I could
technically stop now
and no one would notice
especially considering
I've finished my
Mystery Science Theater
marathon already.

But whatever,
I don't mind
forcing out
a couple more.

I like waffles.

1013: Danger: Diabolik

2010-12-13T17:42:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1013

Out for all he can take, seduce, or get away with... Danger: Diabolik.

In psychedelic swinging 60s style, the dreaded thief (and killer) Diabolik wreaks havoc on a generic European country for his own financial gain and amusement. He shares an extravagant underground lair (and a giant bed of money) with his curvaceous, superficial girlfriend...who uses her awesome powers of wig-wearing to help Diabolik kill innocent people and steal billions from the government. Nonetheless, Diabolik is the "hero" of the film because he must face off against bumbling cops and revenge-seeking mafiosos.

How to end a show... Well, they sent the SOL back to Earth, riffed a dumb spy movie, and sang a song. With that and a callback to the first movie riffed on the Comedy Channel, I think they just about did it.

I remember watching this one as it aired, and I remember getting a bit teary eyed during the song... Yep, I'm a dork.

I have a friend who likes to think of Rifftrax as being the three characters in their apartment still, watching lots of newer movies as they rent them. I always point out that they reference their "studio" and their actual names a lot, and then he gets mad at me for ruining his world. I'll admit that it is a fun way to imagine it, albeit very flawed in logic and reason.

If I ever decide to do a year-long blogue marathon of an eleven(11) season long TV show again, someone talk me out of it. Smaller marathons. Yeah, that's what I will do. It just got so tiring trying to make sure I kept up on all of these. Mostly due to travels and the like... and apathy.

And one last final note, I am fairly certain Pearl's little advice of "move on" to Mike was directed fairly at the audience, who even to this day still begs for more riffing.

Well, it's been fun!! I've gained better appreciation for cast members I only sorta liked over the years... I've re-discovered many episodes I had only ever bothered to see once or twice, but never fully enjoyed... I've fallen asleep during a few of the episodes I knew far too well to stay awake through... and I'm ready to be done with this project!!

I quit.

Favourite line: "Just airing out the little sizzler."

1012: Squirm

2010-12-09T17:46:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1012

SHORT:
A Case of Spring Fever. By accidentally bad-mouthing springs, a doughy man runs afoul of Coily the Spring Sprite, a hellish little creature with a single tooth, pointed ears and a voice like a cartoon grandpa. Angered by the man's taking springs for granted, the demonic Coily shows the man a dystopian world where springs no longer exist. Whenever the man attempts to use something that once contained springs, Coily lunges out of the device, shrieking "No springs!" before chuckling demonically and disappearing with an odd whistling noise. At the brink of insanity, our lumpy hero pleads with Coily to return him to the world he once took for granted. After a brief moment of consideration, Coily relents and brings him back to his own universe. After his epiphany, the he becomes a spring zealot, preaching about the marvellous wonders of springs and their importance in everyday life, much to the annoyance of his golf buddies. On the drive home, one of his friends makes the same mistake he once made- wishing to never see another spring again- but he is cut short by our spring-spouting preacher before Coily can strike again.

The Night is Crawling with Killers. Squirm.

At the beginning of the film, we learn from one of the characters that earthworms can be called to the surface with electricity, but somehow it turns them into vicious flesh-eaters. Sure enough, a storm that night causes some power lines to break and touch the ground, drawing millions of man-eating worms out of the earth, and into town where they quickly start munching on the locals.

So, everyone is well aware that this short inspired the host segment in season three(3) about the waffle sprite... In my marathon though, I've counted at least a good five(5) references to this short since season one(1). Both host segments and in-theater riffs. It always seems almost planned that they waited until the second-to-last episode of the entire series to riff this one. One of the best though. A good one to go out on.

I love this episode. I really forgot how funny this episode is, until I watched it again. I knew it was funny, but damn. There are just non-stop, consistant, funny little jokes and gags that keep you laughing. The moment you stop laughing from one joke, another pops up that's even more funny. There really is no down time on this episode.

This may be the best one out of season ten(10). I hope they can finally get this one to an official DVD release. From what I've heard, it's one of the less likely, which is sad. Everyone needs to own a copy of this.

Favourite line: "I didn't get any plywood, but I broke my ankle!"

1011: Horrors of Spider Island

2010-12-09T03:45:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1011

Craving the Blood of Beautiful Women! Horrors of Spider Island.

En route to a show in Singapore, a troupe of beautiful dancers are stranded on a deserted island by a plane crash. Their routine of skinny-dipping and devising new skimpy outfits is interrupted when a radioactive spider bites their manager and turns him into a wild-eyed, furry-faced monster with three fangs and a passion for strangling.

Oh how I love this episode!! When we started the Sci Fi seasons, I forgot this was so close to the end. I (for some reason) thought this was all the way up in season eight(8), meaning I have been anticipating this episode from quite a few weeks.

I fell asleep while watching it. It's what I get for starting the movie at 3.45 am.

But no worry. I've seen this one a bazillion times, and I know that I love it. The movie is dumb, and it's the second one in a row where someone gets bitten by an animal and "turns into" the animal. For some reason, it always just turns out like a wurwilf.

The riffing is strong on this, and the host segments are fun, movie-related good times. Everything just ties in to create a wonderful episode... oh yeah, and there's hot chicks too!

Favourite line: "...or your panties or your breasts..."

Purchase MST3k, Vol. 11 from Amazon.

1010: It Lives By Night

2010-12-07T21:40:00.001-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1010

After the sun has set and the night wind has died comes the hour of the bat people! It Lives By Night.

A doctor specializing in bats, and his new wife interrupt their honeymoon to go spelunking in Carlsbad Cavern. There he is bitten by a fruit bat and inexplicably undergoes a transformation into a vampire bat. He ultimately escapes, however, escaping back to the caves. His wife, infected by her husband, kills the local constabulary and goes to join him.

Here's another one that is mostly carried along by the host segments. The riffing is good, as much as the movie is dumb, but the host segments are all funny and classic... and that's what makes this episode worth watching. I especially like the Mary Tyler Moore bit. It's always fun watching Servo and Mike run with one of Crow's ideas, leaving him out of it almost altogether.

I really have no explanation for it, but I used to watch this episode over and over again. The movie isn't THAT enjoyable. I guess I just always loved the "squeak" jokes.

Anyways, only three(3) more episodes, so let's get to it.

Favourite line: "Fill 'er up! Thank you!"

Nitrates

2010-12-06T19:42:00.000-06:00

I am starting this entry with no poem written and no idea what it will be about... I sorta like doing em this way. Now, let's see how this ends up.

NITRATES

Tired and failing
the ship loses power
and tumbles
back to earth.

The crew angry and
scared for their lives,
they spiral
towards their end.

I saw that
on a show once.
Perhaps more than once.

Unless it's in a movie
or an Abrams production,
you can always be sure
that your heroes
will come out alive.

That's apparently not
the case with real life.
In reality,
I'm sure someone
would have pissed themselves...

...and then died.

1009: Hamlet

2010-12-06T17:49:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1009

Hamlet.

Hamlet returns to his remarkably minimalistic palace in Denmark and finds out his father is dead and his uncle Claudius has married his mother Gertrude. His father's ghost appears, and tells Hamlet to avenge him forthwith. Hamlet stages a play to confirm Claudius' guilt and his mother's compliance, but then inadvertently kills his girlfriend Ophelia's father, Polonius. This drives her insane, while her brother Laertes sets out to avenge his father's death. In a climactic swordfight, Claudius tries to poison Hamlet with Laertes' sword and a poisoned cup. Gertrude takes the poison cup out of guilt, while Hamlet realizes Laertes' sword is poisoned...

This movie isn't quite so painful as it is simply boring. Even as a movie verison of a boring play, this one is exceptionally boring. A lot of people insist this one's hard to sit through, but I disagree. It's really easy, as long as you have a deck of cards to play with or someone to talk to.

The segments are kind of amusing, but nothing really to go on about. It's the riffing, and ONLY the riffing, that even remotely holds this one together.

Honestly, I put this one on late at night, hoping to have it put me to sleep... but instead I was awake through it all. Maybe because I hadn't bothered watching it in quite a while, so I really enjoyed the jokes. Anyways, it's not a bad episode... just bland and kind of meh.

Favourite line: "I wonder what her skull is like."

Purchase MST3k, Vol. 4 from Amazon.

1008: Final Justice

2010-12-05T01:41:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1008

A one-man war on crime! Final Justice.

Geronimo is the Sheriff of a little Texas town. One night two brothers from Palermo kills the sheriffs coworker and pal so he chases them. The chase takes him across the border down to Mexico where he kills one of the brothers and takes the other one back to USA to stand trial. The surviving brother vows revenge on the sheriff. But the criminal is handed over to the Italian police and the sheriff is sent over to Europe with the prisoner.

Go ahead on. It's your move.

Ahh, Joe Don Baker. This is another solid episode as they riff the second Baker film of the series. Lots of laughs in this one. I really like this episode actually. I love Goosio and I always find a good laugh in Crow's anger towards Maltese men. The best part though is the singing over the end credits. This is another favourite of mine, and I like to sing this song every so often.

Anyways, just posting this short entry so I can move on to the next one. I fell a tiny bit behind this week, but whatever. Only one week to go until I'm done, and I'm getting kind of antsy.

Favourite line: "No! You have one day!"

Purchase MST3k, Vol. XIV at Amazon.

1007: Track of The Moon Beast

2010-12-01T20:25:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1007

The Rising Moon Creates A Monster. Track of The Moon Beast.

Professor "Johnny Longbow" Salina, a man who really knows his stews, introduces Paul Carlson to the practical-joking Kathy Nolan. Paul and Kathy seem to hit it off rather well but, during a meteor storm, a meteorite fragment strikes Paul, burying itself deep in his skull, which has the unpleasant side-effect of causing Paul to mutate into a giant reptilian monster at night and go on murderous rampages. It turns out that this sort of thing has happened before, when Professor Salina rediscovers ancient Native American paintings detailing a similar event many centuries ago. Kathy, however, still loves Paul, and tries to save him.

Season ten(10) provides a LOT of good memories for me... nine(9) and ten(10) both actually. I think the Sci Fi era aired right when it was really the only positive thing in my life. I am pretty certain MST3k memories are the only really very happy memories I have from those years. So I tend to just enjoy these seasons better, mostly due to that reason in particular.

This one episode is probably the most "stand-out" episode of the three(3) seasons for me. Final Sacrifice, Horrors of Spider Island and Squirm also fall into that bracket. Lots of good memories of getting home from my all-night walk after the closing shift of fast food, grabbing a HUGE bowl of cereal or making some bacon (a full pound of course, with eggs scrambled in the grease), sitting down and watching MST3k with my mother after she woke up and wandered out for some bacon. (She especially enjoyed Squirm, for the record... more on that next week.)

Even aside from all that, I really enjoy this episode. The blossoming, the background info on the band that sang California Lady, the spy camera... but the one thing that's always my favourite sketch from this one is the first host segment. Crow, Gypsy and Servo trying to scare Mike, in the style of the scene from the movie... It's pure brilliance. I love quoting that sketch.

Another favourite bit of mine is the constant listing of ingredients from the stew. I vaguely remember it being even more often, but I guess that's just because I did that for weeks after first watching this episode.

Anyhow, this is a fave of mine. Enjoy it, won't you?

Favourite line: "I'm going to beat the stuffing out of you."

1006: Boggy Creek II: And The Legend Continues

2010-11-30T23:56:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1006

The Legend Too Monstrous To Die...Surfaces Again! Boggy Creek II: And The Legend Continues.

Professor and students camp out to find Bigfoot-type creature.

I quite enjoy this episode too. It's a dumb movie with no real plot, storyline, or hook... really nothing to keep us interested except for tits and riffs. And what more does a guy like me really need in the world?! Tits and riffs... Bacon might help, but I'm kind of satisfied by tits and riffs.

Tits... I just wanted to say it again.

Okay, so the movie is dumb, the riffing is fun (although a bit slow at times), and the host segments are relatively good. They're fun at least, so that sort of equals good. I really have no real complaints about this one... I love Brain Guy's song, I like Servo's whittling bit, and I always enjoy the dumb segment about fuzzy flashbacks.

Probably not the best episode ever, but it deserves its credit.

Favourite line: "Wait, which half?!"

Purchase MST3k, Vol. 5 from Amazon.

I'm Running Out of Ideas

2010-11-29T22:47:00.000-06:00

Alright, we're almost to the end of the year, when I will have finally finished my "one crappy poem every week" mission. Here's a poem about it.

I'M RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS

Oh man,
I really am just
at a complete loss.

Every week,
Monday comes...
I sit and I stare
and wait for the
ideas to come
flooding in.

They never do.

Well, sometimes they do,
but not often enough
or solid enough
to really form
anything worthwhile.

In just a few weeks
this will all be over
and I can find
something else
to torture myself with.

1005: The Blood Waters of Dr. Z

2010-11-29T00:04:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1005

A creature like you've never seen before. The Blood Waters of Dr. Z.

A mad scientist (and apparent former Nazi) unleashes his master plan: to transform himself into a mutated walking catfish, gain revenge on those who have spurned him, and kidnap nubile young women to similarly transform so that he can breed. Or something like that.

Sargassum! The weed of deceit!

I really like this episode. The movie is horrendous, but I love the episode. I just love the whole thing.

All the host segments are really good, even the simple on of them fishing. For some reason, even that one isn't boring or too drawn out. The funniest segment though, and probably the reason I love this episode so much, is the first one. Crow adding voice-over like the movie, startling Mike with a forceful "ATTACK!" always makes me laugh.

Yeah, good episode. Brain Guy nude was a bit disturbing though.

Favourite line: "Did I just hear a fish strangling a guy?"

Purchase MST3k, Vol. XVII from Amazon.

1004: Future War

2010-11-27T02:56:00.001-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1004

It came from the future to hunt humans. Future War.

A race of evil cyborgs kidnap humans from Earth's future to use as slaves, and take dinosaurs from the past to use as trackers. One of their slaves, the Runaway, escapes and makes his way to present-day Los Angeles. There he must fend off the cyborgs and their trackers, the police, and the government, befriended by a prostitute-turned-nun who runs a halfway house.

The description up there (from IMDb of course) actually makes this movie sound far more awesome than it actually is. In reality, this is one of the more inanely stupid movies ever to be riffed.

Because of this movie and episode 1001 (Soultaker), I lovingly refer to this season as "The Season of Z'Dar." Hopefully that will spread and others will also call it that, but I doubt it.

The best part of this entire episode is Droppy the Water Droplet, played (of course) by Crow. It's a classic bit and always a fun one to watch.

All-in-all, it's a decent episode and not one to be ignored.

Favourite line: "There's no butter in my coffee..."

1003: Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders

2010-11-26T01:42:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1003

In a world where magic only exists, anything can happen. Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders.

This is a movie within a TV movie within a made-for-video movie. A boy is watching TV when a power outage forces him to talk to his grandpa for entertainment. His grandpa, a former screenwriter, re-tells an old screenplay about Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders. In it, Merlin sets up an enchanting store in a modern-day strip mall, accompanied by his gleeful wife and gnomes, snakes, dragons, etc. From this framing device, we then see two stories about people's encounters with items from the shop. The first sequence (created for this film but looking like an episode of "Tales From The Darkside") involves a pompous, cranky newspaper critic who begins casting spells using Merlin's spell book. The second story, an edited version of the full length movie, The Devil's Gift, is about an evil monkey doll (you know, the wicked grin and the cymbals?) who kills every time his hands clap. Merlin of the 1990s is disjointedly tied-in with the 1980 movie.

This is one of the clumsiest, most "thrown together" film ever riffed on this show. It's a pretty fun episode, but it actually kind of just fades out of memory most of the time.

This doesn't have anything really to do with the episode, but the reporter in the first part of the movie is listed on IMDb as "John Terrence" ... Anyone who is a LOST fan (such as I am) might remember him as "John Terry" who played Christian Shephard (Jack's dad). Why he went by (what I can only guess is) his full name for about 6 performances in the very middle of his career is beyond me. Perhaps he knew movies like this would be schlock, so he decided to not taint his name. I don't know... but it's definitely him.

I absolutely love the first host segment, in which Crow and Servo review each other. It's very classic and very funny.

That's all I really have to say about this episode. Thank you.

Favourite line: "Otherwise I won't continue to not have your children."

Purchase MST3k, Vol. 5 from Amazon.

1002: Girl In Gold Boots

2010-11-23T19:59:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1002

She Hungered For Fame... The Men In Her Life Offered Love, Danger, Excitement! Girl In Gold Boots.

A young girl, Michele, is persuaded by a disreputable agent-type to leave her job as a waitress and travel to Los Angeles to become a go-go dancer. There, she must compete with the established top star, Joan, and eventually ends up taking her place.

This here is one of my favourites! I don't exactly know WHY, but this episode holds a special place in my heart. I think I just find it really funny... I dunno. It's kind of a dumb movie though.

My favourite memory of this episode is one day, I put the movie on and about five minutes in, I realised I had to head to the post office to pick up a package. So I left the episode playing for my roommate, who was in the room sewing or whatever... I was half-way across town when I realised what a horrible roommate I am! When I returned, her first words were "How could you put this crappy movie on and just leave like that?!?" I had a good laugh about it.

So yeah, the song "I Am Sad" is one of my favourites. I tend to get it stuck in my head quite often actually.

I think everyone needs to watch this episode again, just for the hell of it.

Favourite line: "Thank you! Thank you! I'm the one who jumped, thank you!"

Purchase MST3k, Vol. 4 from Amazon.

Ice and Fleas

2010-11-23T00:40:00.000-06:00

Okay, last week's poem actually went really well. I just rambled streams of words that went through my head and typed them before really thinking about them. Oddly, it almost made sense. I doubt I'll have the same luck this week, (considering I typed "lunch" instead of "luck" just now... perhaps I should eat.) but I'm gonna do it again anyways. It'll be fun.

ICE AND FLEAS

Dried ice,
mangled skin and tired.
Five and dimes
leave children
lying alone on the floor.

If perhaps maybe
it would appear
the same as it always was
then maybe someone
would win this time.

Buttons undone.
Happily he strolls
along the walkway,
never to trip
and fall on his face.

He has good balance.
Better than I have,
that's for sure.

1001: Soultaker

2010-11-23T00:18:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #1001

Trapped in the Twilight Between Life and Death. Soultaker.

Mysterious unseen men in black collect the souls of the recently dead. When four teenagers "die" in a car wreck, one of these beings is sent to retrieve their souls. However, the teens are disembodied and realize their predicament. They flee. The movie revolves around them being picked off one by one, The Man's infatuation with one of the teenagers (who was apparently his lover in a past life), and the efforts of the teens to reunite their souls with their hospitalized bodies.

Cameo by Joel, cameo by TV Frank... How could this episode get any better?? Well, I think great host segments, a fun storyline, and a really dumb movie with fantastic riffing just about does the trick!!

This one's definitely a classic episode, an essential, a fan favourite, etc etc. It also has MY favourite line of the whole series, spoken by Gypsy. "Jump up my tube, white boy!" just has to be about the funniest thing I have ever heard... and I've heard some funny things!!

Without going too horribly into detail (as there's already enough info and facts about this episode online), I will just state that this is probably my sister's favourite episode of all time. She just loves the bit where Crow gets something stuck in his eye and has to leave the theater just as the undressing begins.

Yep, this is definitely a great episode, and one I will never tire of... which... I will never tire... of....... which.... *cough*

Favourite line: "Where does that guy even keep his acorns?"

Purchase MST3k, Vol. XIV from Amazon.

0913: Quest of The Delta Knights

2010-11-20T00:53:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #0913

In an age of swords and sorcery, one young hero holds the key to infinite wisdom - and ultimate power. Quest of The Delta Knights.

This action-comedy takes place on a world where the 15th Century finds Europe still caught in the grip of the Dark Ages. A young boy named Tee is sold into slavery, and bought by the beggar Raydoor, who takes him on as an apprentice. When Raydoor realizes that Tee is the subject of a prophecy, he reveals himself as one of the Delta Knights, a secret order dedicated to helping humanity. Trained by Raydoor, Tee also becomes a Delta Knight and joins forces with a ne'er-do-well painter named Leonardo (from the small town of Vinci), and a tavern girl, Thena. Pursued by Lord Vultare, minion of the wicked Mannerjay, they set out on a quest to find the lost treasures of Archimedes.

We come to the end of season nine(9) with a fun little movie. I am pretty sure the makers of this film just found a renaissance festival and said "Hey, wanna be in our movie?" Then they cast David Warner in a few roles and tada.

A highlight of the episode is that Pearl decides to sit in on the first part of the film, sending Mike down to bond with Bobo and Brain Guy. She actually does a pretty good job at riffing, although I will admit that it had to grow on me a lot. I originally didn't really think her voice meshed well with the riffing concept, but eventually I realised that it's the compression on her microphone. It actually sounds looped in post production, unlike Mike, Kevin, Bill, Joel, Trace or Josh's voices over the years... I now chalk that up to a production issue that really might just be my copy of the episode making her voice sound separated from the layers of the show. Either way, definitely not Mary Jo's fault... She's perfectly fantastic once I ignore the production and mixing! I will say though that she's grown a lot into the riffing in the Cinematic Titanic releases. She probably feels more comfortable now than she did way back then. Either way, she quickly became one of my favourite riffers on the CT team, so it's fun to see her in her first on-screen riffs.

My favourite part of the episode is the opening segment with the loaner Crow. I can not possibly watch that segment without laughing so hard I cry. The jittery Crow and the broken up speech... It's just wonderful and one of my favourite bits ever!

So yeah... On to season ten(10).

Favourite line: "No whorin' while I'm gone."

0912: The Screaming Skull

2010-11-17T23:31:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #0912

Free coffin if you don't DIE OF FRIGHT! The Screaming Skull.

Newlyweds Eric and Jenni Whitlock retire to his desolate mansion, where Eric's first wife Marianne died from a mysterious freak accident. Jenni, who has a history of mental illness, begins to see strange things including a mysterious skull, which may or may not be a product of her imagination. Suspicion falls on Mickey, the estate's mentally challenged gardener, who was seemingly was very attached to his former mistress.

Another one I've seen too many times for sanity...

True story: I walk past the television in my living room, ask my roommates what they are watching. They reply "Some crappy movie. No clue what it is though." I glance at the screen to see only a shot of an empty yard. Immediately, I reply "Oh, The Screaming Skull." I then explain the premise of the entire movie to them and walk back into my room. They didn't believe me until everything I described happened. They're still amazed that I could pinpoint the exact movie by nothing but a shot of lawn.

Anyways, seen this far too many times. I love this episode. The short is funny, and the riffing on the movie is hilarious the whole way through. The best part of the episode though are two segments. The bit where the robots "re-enact" the short is great. It cracks me up every time I hear their voices for the clay lumps. Of course, the tied-for-best segment is Crow scaring Mike as a screaming skull. Absolutely brilliant. I love it!

So yeah, this is a classic for me, and it's one of my faviourites.

Favourite line: "Let's just say she was riddled with bullets."

0911: Devil Fish

2010-11-16T20:02:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #0911

Sink your teeth into pure terror. Devil Fish.

Several boats are torn apart, badly wrecked corpses are washed ashore... something horrible is out in the Caribbean sea. The teeth marks on the bodies don't lead to any known animal, so scientist Dr. Stella Dickens suspects it's a so far unknown life form and strives to catch it alive. She doesn't know yet that ruthless scientists have genetically created this creature as a bioweapon, or that it has been designed to reproduce by asexual means. And that the company she works for created the creature and will stop at nothing to keep their secret.

This is one of those episodes that I have seen far too many times to really want to watch again... Thankfully, the DVD release just happened, so that sort of gave me a reason to re-watch it. My bootleg was good quality, but this one's "official."

Anyways, this really is a fun episode. I just have it practically memorized, so I only half payed attention. I really like the opening bit with Mike's wallet, and the rest of the segments are fun but not the greatest. I've always laughed at how dated this movie is. Even some of the old black and white films didn't feel so out-of-date as this film. It's fun though... The riffing is strong and funny and keeps your attention (unless you've seen it a trillion times over and have a book to read).

In all, I'm glad this one got an official release. Keep 'em coming, I say.

Favourite line: "Yes, here at WOI, we do this kind of thing..."

Purchase MST3k, Vol. XIX from Amazon.

I Like To Make Log Cabins With My Mind

2010-11-16T19:27:00.000-06:00

Okay, I think I am going to try something new for this week's poem. Let's hope it works.

I LIKE TO MAKE LOG CABINS WITH MY MIND

Train tracks make waves
following the paper moon.
Never mind the stationary,
It's only what you asked for.

Knives and llamas
are only similar
because they have an edge.
Nightmares.

You're forever leaving behind
a never-ending trail
of surgical supplies.

Life is what you make of it
and I make mine
with light mayo.
I don't like mustard.
But sometimes it's alright.

What do you think will happen
When the sky
turns a dark shade of black?
Perhaps it will be the end
for all of humanity...

...or maybe it's just God
playing a trick on us all
to make sure
we're paying attention.

0910: The Final Sacrifice

2010-11-15T17:21:00.001-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #0910

On this mission, no sacrifice is too great! The Final Sacrifice.

Ruled by the evil Satoris, an ancient cult of Canadian wrestlers, the Ziox, are bent on world domination. Instrumental to their plan is a map to the ancient Ziox cult idol, recently discovered by a young boy, Troy. When the Ziox invade his home to recover the map, he flees and ends up in the bed of a passing pickup truck, driven by Rowsdower. Rowsdower and Troy become friends, and together search for the lost idol before the Ziox can claim it and take over the world.

Rowsdower...

I'd have to say this is one of the top three(3) to five(5) most classic episodes of the entire series. I usually describe this one to people as being "the episode sci-fi era haters even love."

Why does everyone love this episode?! Well, probably because it's practically perfect! The movie is dumb and dopey, but fun in it's own right... The host segments are enjoyable... The whole thing is filled with running jokes and great riffs... and there's a song!!

The Canada Song is one of the best of the series. I have trouble thinking of a better song from the series... Sure, there are plenty of great ones over the years, and many are close seconds to this one, but The Canada Song in my opinion beats them all.

Anyways, my favourite part of the whole episode is the end credit sequence, where Servo sings and Crow and Mike get far too into character on a sketch they devise. It's one of the most brilliant bits I've ever seen, and that's saying a lot.

Favourite line: "Knew him? He was delicious!"

Purchase MST3k, Vol. XVII from Amazon.

0909: Gorgo

2010-11-11T21:43:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #0909

Like nothing you've ever seen before! Gorgo.

A salvage vessle is nearly sunk off the Irish coast by an undersea earthquake. A few nights later, a walking sea monster tangles with the fishing boats and enters the town. The salvage vessel captures Gorgo and takes it to London for display. Gorgo's mother, who is upset and significantly larger follows his trail to London leaving a wake of destruction in her path.

So, apparently this episode only aired twice (on the same day) and that was it. Lots of rights issues might make this the most rare episode there is... or was... whatever. I didn't really like it anyways.

It's kind of a fun episode, during the riffing. The host segments are alright, and Leonard Maltin is really the best part of the whole thing. But, in all, I really didn't find myself all that into it. The movie is a bland European version of a Godzilla movie, and there's nothing we haven't really seen... except Dorkin of course. Not many movies have a Dorkin, and definitely not a Dorkin like this!!

But aside from Dorkin (as wonderful as Dorkin is) I really don't find myself all that upset that this episode isn't all too available. Not saying it's bad at all, really... just didn't really strike me as much either way. I actually had a hard time finding "favourite lines" on this one. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood to watch this one particular episode. For now, I give this one a "Meh."

Favourite line: "I need drugs!"

0908: The Touch of Satan

2010-11-10T23:53:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #0908

To Love Her Is To Be Cursed! The Touch of Satan.

On his way to California, Jodie decides on a whim to make a brief side trip to a farm, where he meets and falls in love with Melissa, the proverbial farmer's daughter. Or so it seems. In between the overlong dramatic pauses, we learn that Melissa is in fact a 120-year-old witch, and her remarkably spry "great-grandmother," Lucinda, is actually her sister, who has been pitchforking people to death in her spare time. When Lucinda murders a local policeman, things start to get real complicated for Jodie.

This is where the fish lives.

This is another of my favourites... mostly because it has one of my all-time favourite segments (Servo's granny), but it also has my single-most favourite Crow line of the entire series ("...and I'm Cow!!").

Beez McKeever plays an awesome babysitter, and I lover her interactions with everyone... especially Bobo. I quite enjoy when the main segment storylines are driven by someone who isn't normally on the screen, and this one is really funny.

As I've stated, I love it when Crow insists he's "become" or "always has been" something the movie very obviously influenced. This time, he is rather sure he's a witch and proceeds to prove it... until he decides he's actually a frog.

The movie is... droll? The movie is really drawn out and pretty much has a lot of similarities to Manos in style, in my opinion. I like it though, especially in the realm of this show here. Lots of laughs on this one.

Favourite line: "I gotta wake up early and milk the walnuts."

Purchase MST3k, Vol. 5 from Amazon.

0907: Hobgoblins

2010-11-10T01:04:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #0907

Be careful what you wish for... You just might get it! Hobgoblins.

A group of hobgoblins, who allow you to live out your fantasies but kill you in the process, escape from a studio vault, and a security guard and his friends must stop them before dawn.

Oh the classics... This movie is one of the worst that ever appeared anywhere, much-less this TV show. But it's quite watchable thanks to all the riffing, which is incredible by the way. The host segments are all fun too...

The best parts of this episode, though, come during the opening titles of the movie, when Crow and Servo try to make a break for it several times, causing Mike to chase after each of them. Also, when Mike finally builds cut-outs of them all as they dash away, leaving a recording of themselves poorly riffing the film. The cut-outs make their way into the host segment for a wonderful song based on the movie.

One of the worst movies ever, some fun host segments, exciting in-theater bits, and a fun little song. All of this adds up to make quite a wonderful episode. Definitely a classic.

Favourite line: "I wonder if he knows his face looks like that..."

Purchase MST3k, Vol. 8 form Amazon.

Seems Like Old Times

2010-11-08T19:09:00.000-06:00

A quick poem about a movie I grew up with and am watching now.

SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES

Goldie Hawn and
Charles Grodin just
drove off the road
after almost hitting a cow
in the rain.

Earlier, Chevy Chase
was on trial for
bank robbery,
and a pack of barking dogs
came running into
the court room,
the largest dog sitting
on the judge's lap.

They just don't make
movies like this anymore.
What a shame.

0906: The Space Children

2010-11-08T16:26:00.000-06:00

MST3k, Experiment #0906

SHORT:
Century 21 Calling. An informational short featuring two overly-enthusiastic celibate teens who witness the amazing phone of the future! Marvel at the ground-breaking, state-of-the-art features such as call waiting, call conferencing, and touch-tone dialing. Incredible!

Slowly...and with horror the parents realized THEIR CHILDREN WERE THE SLAVES OF 'THE THING' FROM OUTER SPACE! The Space Children.

A glowing brain-like creature arrives on a beach near a rocket test site via a teleportation beam. The alien communicates telepathically with the children of scientists. The kids start doing the alien's bidding as the adults try to find out what's happening to their unruly offspring.

First of all... We finally FINALLY get another short, after almost two(2) seasons of none (the last short was the second episode of season 7). This one is a blast! I missed the shorts. Unfortunately, we won't be seeing very many more, but they are still loads of fun.

Alright, this episode is awesome!! The entire opening of the show, all through to the start of the short, had me giddy and excited... as if I hadn't seen a single episode of the show for years and I was finally thrown a new one. I really don't know why I reacted this way, and to this episode, but I'm sure it has to do with the general "fun" atmosphere that they have on this one. The phone bank, and everyone echoing off in feedback was just a great way to start things off...

If you disregard the sudden "message" at the very, very end of this movie, it's really not all that bad. Well, yeah it's low budget... but it really is a rather eerie and creepy movie. I can't help but think they should do a remake of this one, much in the vein of "The Day The Earth Stood Still." Of all the little old sci-fi movies they've shown on this show, I think this might actually be one of the best. The kids actually did a decent job of acting brainwashed, and the plot just rolls right along without much unneeded padding. Just, get a better ending than "The earth has a second chance...." or maybe build up to it a little so it doesn't just come out of nowhere...

I enjoyed ALL the riffing, every host segment, even the dumb one... Put this one into my list that I want Shout! to release.

Favourite line: "The sand is probably destroying everything in there."

0905: The Deadly Bees

2010-11-05T16:49:00.000-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0905

Hives of horror! - Excited by the smell of fear, they inflict their fatal stings! The Deadly Bees.

Pop singer Vicki Robbins collapses from exhaustion while shooting the 1960's equivalent of a music video, and her physician prescribes a respite on Seagull Island with colleague and bee-keeper, Ralph Hargrove. Vicki finds the Hargroves' bitter marital strife oddly relaxing. But when a mysterious swarm of specially bred attack bees starts killing island residents, Vicki fights for her survival, setting fire to nearly half the structures on the island in her escape.

I've always liked this episode... also, for some reason, to me the English countryside villa or whatever it's supposed to be has ALWAYS come off as a set on a soundstage, at all times. Anyways, this movie is really quite dumb and mundane, but overall it's a decent plot. I absolutely love the riffing on this one... Really, the whole episode kinda sticks out as a tad different than all the others, and it's probably because there aren't many movies with this feel to it. It has a very "droll, middle of the night viewing on BBC" feel... I like it.

We get another great song, "Please Stay" which is really quite cute... but the highlight of the whole episode comes at the intro, with the "Previously on..." segment. I could watch that over and over again.

There's really not too much to say about this episode, but I think it deserves more credit than it probably gets. Watch it!

Favourite line: "My agent is nicotine."

0904: Werewolf

2010-11-03T15:35:00.000-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0904

Rest In...Beast. Werewolf.

A team of archaeologists with unplaceable accents unearth a skeleton at a dig in an Arizona quarry. The Native Americans on the dig instantly recognize it as the remains of a werewolf, so the team leaders immediately take it to their lab and stare at it. Natalie, one of the team members, thinks it's absolutely fascinating, but Yuri siezes on greater ambitions when one of the dig assistants, who injured themself on the remains, becomes infected and turns into a werewolf in full view of hospital personnel. Yuri then conducts an experiment infecting other people in town to see if they turn into werewolves as well. When Paul arrives at the lab to assist in analyzing the remains, Yuri infects him, too. After Paul's transformation (under a week-long full moon), Natalie tries to save him.

Well this is a gem, isn't it?! I'm not going to talk at length about this one, mostly because I should have written this a few days ago... but I will say that it's one of the best-loved episodes out there. (As far as Sci-Fi episode go, it's probably second only to The Final Sacrifice.)

The movie is really bad, and the acting is quite dreadful... VERY mockable... So of course, the riffs are fantastic!!!

Everyone loves the song from segment two(2) "Where, O Werewolf" and the bits of Mike becoming a "werecrow" are truly brilliant in my opinion.

MY favourite part of the entire episode is the end-credit sequence to the movie. I always love when they sing along and throw in popular and obscure songs, and they really go to town on this one.

Yeah... great episode. If ou haven't seen it, you're missing out.

Favourite line: "Hey everyone. Free samples of me."

Purchase MST3k: 20th Anniversary Edition from Amazon.

I Fell Behind

2010-11-03T15:11:00.000-05:00

Here's a little poem to try to catch up with things now that I am back from my trip.

I FELL BEHIND

I've missed a couple
days of blog posts.
Now that I am back
from my vacation,
I need to write a few.

I think I did pretty well,
all things considered.
I am behind one,
maybe two,
episode reviews...
and only one poem.

I need to remember
to write a poem.
It can be about
anything, really.

Done.

0903: The Pumaman

2010-10-31T23:21:00.000-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0903

The Pumaman.

Low-budget superhero flick about a young man given a mystical medallion by a South American shaman, in order to become a puma- empowered champion like his father before him. In trying to locate the young man initially, the shaman has the nasty habit of pushing candidates out windows to test them.

This is an awesome epsiode! The host segments aren't the greatest, but they are very good... which is always a plus. The riffing is fantastic. The movie, however, is a piece of work. I don't know why the makers of this movie even felt it was watchable. The characters' personalities aren't even remotely consistent. The lead guy is all "suave" one moment, and then after he puts on the belt, he's suddenly a whiny little idiot. Well, to be fair, he was an idiot before... but he wasn't whining all the time.

Anyways, the "special effects" are a travesty of mankind... Let's just say this movie is dreadful.

I do like Mary Jo, errrr... as Shelli the nanite hairdresser, errrrrr......

Favourite line: "Oh who am I kidding? I can't build a cat."

0902: The Phantom Planet

2010-10-28T16:39:00.000-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0902

It Begins Where Others End! On the Moon! The Phantom Planet.

The mysterious appearance of an unknown planet brings miniature people, giant monsters, beautiful women and undaunted heroes to the screen. The self-contained planet "Rheton" has the ability to move in and out of galaxies to escape their enemies. Earth sends an astronaut team to investigate, which discovers miniature people. One astronaut survives to help them fight off monsters and Solorite attacks.

You know, readers, every year of my life I grow more and more convinced that the wisest and best is to fix our attention on the good and the beautiful, if we’ll just take the time to look at it.

Oh boy... I always think of a certain time where I was fast-forwarding through a VHS tape I had, to see what was on it, hit play and saw one second of this episode and started cracking up thinking of all the jokes I remembered from it. It's not reeeally the funniest episode around, but it's one of my favourites. I guess this is just one of those episodes that stuck with me.

I geuss, as far as old sci-fi movie plots go, this one really wasn't all that bad. Definitely worth riffing though. I think there was a lot more they could have done with this plot, but they just decided to keep it simple and dumb.

I, of course, love Crow's Solarite costume... I make no secret of the fact that I just love when Crow goes kinda weird and insists he's something or someone he's not. Also, the glass rim segment really felt reminiscent of Joel; I don't know why.

Great episode... One of my favourites. Watch it.

Favourite line: "That was a bad and unbeautiful thing to say, sir."

Purchase MST3k, Vol. 8 from Amazon.

0901: The Projected Man

2010-10-27T14:22:00.000-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0901

He is... The Projected Man.

A scientist experimenting with matter transmission from place to place by means of a laser beam suddenly decides to use himself as a test specimen. But the process goes awry, and one side of his body becomes hideously deformed and instantly lethal to anyone it touches.

The Satellite News review wasn't too fond of this episode. I seriously have NO idea why! I normally don't watch this episode, just because... well, I really don't know. I found it to be insanely funny and full of very fast-paced jokes. From the start of the movie with all of the "elementary school" jokes, all through making fun of how everyone talks... I enjoyed every bit of this episode.

Even the host segments were good. Not the best, I'll admit... There were a couple draggers, but they were still fun and entertaining, especially if you think of it as a "premise setter-upper" with the Castle Forrester bits. The best of course was when Crow killed Mike, causing the bots to resort to dragging him into the theater and trying to prop him up in his seat. Mike did a fantastic job at being lifeless, by the way.

I really would like an official DVD release of this one, which I think is why I haven't seen it so many times. I tend to throw in the store-bought ones most often, especially when showing newbies an episode. Anyways, I really enjoyed this episode.

Favourite line: "You said I'd be gassed."

0822: Overdrawn At The Memory Bank

2010-10-25T15:51:00.001-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0822

They want to control his mind but can't even find his body. Overdrawn At The Memory Bank.

Raul Julia plays Aram Fingal, a very intelligent computer programmer and a very bored man in the employ of Novicorp, a mega-corporation that exists somewhere in the future. When caught watching "Casablanca" at his desk, Fingal is required to undergo rehabilitation therapy called "doppling." Doppled patients find their minds transferred into the bodies of animals for a new outlook on life (and for a number of amusing nature documentary sequences narrated by Julia). However, Fingal's body is misplaced and he is transferred into a computer while the body is located. With the help of Appolonia James, a medical technician played by Linda Griffiths, Fingal manages to reprogram himself into a simulation of Casablanca and eventually gains access to Novicorp's financial computers, bringing the company to its knees. But Fingal's real problem is getting back into his body before his memory patterns are erased.

The end of season eight(8) and another fantastic episode. The one thing on this episode that really didn't do it for me was the bit of the monkey flinging stuff at Mike. Fun, but not all that much to it.

Now that I got my one(1) complaint out of the way, let's talk a bit about this episode. This is a really fun episode, mostly due to the Pledge Pearl segments. I absolutely adore the song "When Loving Lovers Love" and mark that as one of Mary Jo's finest moments. This episode is one I show people if they ever state their dislike of Pearl... 100% conversion so far!!

The movie is effing stupid, but that makes it all the better as the riffs are just solidly hilarious all the way through. It really is a very simple movie, but it tries to pass itself off as complex. I think I'd try to stab myself if I ever was forced to watch this without riffs... but Mike and the bots take it in stride and have as much fun with it as any of the other movies.

A rather good ending to a good season.

Favourite line: "I'm gonna give the hell out of these flowers!"

Purchase MST3k, Vol. 4 from Amazon.

I Am Listening To Leonard Cohen

2010-10-25T15:30:00.000-05:00

A short poem before my trip to Chicago. (for more information about my trip, follow me on Twitter.)

I AM LISTENING TO LEONARD COHEN

I put it on
before I went to bed
last night.

The power apparently surged
because when I awoke
my stereo was off.

But the sad slow music
of the great Leonard Cohen
played on.

Even when no one is listening,
when everyone has gone on
with their lives,
Leonard Cohen's music
still plays.

Years after Leonard Cohen
will sadly pass from life,
his music will continue...

0821: Time Chasers

2010-10-23T15:50:00.000-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0821

The times they are a changing... Time Chasers.

Nick creates a time machine out of an airplane and a Commodore-64, and shows it to his friends by taking them 50 years into the future. Nick sells the technology to Gen-Corp, a high-tech firm run by J.K. Robertson, whose office is in the mezzanine of a shopping mall. Robertson, however, turns out to be Evil, and uses the time machine to plunder the future. With the lives of himself and his friends at stake, Nick needs to use his time machine to travel a week back in time and convince himself not to give the demo to Robertson.

This episode has one of my favourite Gypsy lines, referencing "Dr. Jane Seymour Medicine Quinn" ... The little segments with Mike and Pearl having a couple little chats are quite nice and give a good dimension to the characters and the way they interact.

This episode in its entirety is fantastic and fun!! It's a great flow from the previous episode, which was equally great. Another of my favourites, Time Chasers is a drab little movie about time travel. It's fun and quirky yet still bad enough to riff.

I've always loved the "Eddie" bits on this episode, especially when he thwacks Crow off his chair. I am quite certain I've spit up my beverage more than once from watching that.

Yeah, you should grab this episode and watch it right now!! I like it very much!!!

Favourite line: "Why doesn't the movie just cover him in cat vomit?"

Purchase MST3k, Vol. 5 from Amazon.

0820: Space Mutiny

2010-10-21T20:25:00.000-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0820

There is nowhere to hide from the enemy within! Space Mutiny.

Space Mutiny is a hilariously bad sci-fi epic that's guaranteed to have you in stitches. Combine a wardrobe of spandex and tinfoil; a set boasting AstroTurf and spray-painted floor buffers; and special effects that, well, aren't so special, and you've got one of the most hysterical cheeseball movies to ever come out of the '80s. Grab your friends and have a riot with this underground cult hit!

Yet another classic!!! This is another of my favourite "starter episodes" to show people, because there really isn't a single thing wrong with it. Even the Roman Times bits are at their peak here. Just an all-around fantastic episode!!

I'll start by mentioning my favourite segment. Crow insisting he's a Bellerian and then being not quite so sure about it is hillarious. "Ask me if I'm a Bellerian." I just LOVE this bit!!!

Okay, the riffing... This may be the most spot-on, tight, and quick delivered riffing of the whole series, but maybe I'm just on a "Big McLargehuge" high. Either way, this is some prime riffing material here. They go WAY overboard on nicknames, and even point out a lot of production errors... They just seem to be having a real fun time with this one, and it's no wonder. The movie is perfect for it. I can picture the first time one of them found this, watched it, and started laughing at just how stupid the whole thing is.

Another favourite bit is Mike Down. I can't help but laugh at the simplicity and ineptitude of the joke... in all its variants.

But yeah, another perfect epoisode... Definitely an essential.

Favourite line: "I think it's very nice of you to give that dead woman another chance!"

Purchase MST3k, Vol. 4 from Amazon.

0819: Invasion of The Neptune Men

2010-10-20T18:32:00.000-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0819

Invasion of The Neptune Men.

Slow-moving aliens from the planet Neptune, wearing nosecone-shaped space helmets, attempt to invade Earth in a winged rocketship. But they are thwarted by a mysterious superhero called Space Chief who flies around in a rocket-propelled car.

Well, there are a few episodes that come in "sets" or "pairs" ... sometimes they are obviously meant to be together, like "Fugitive Alien" and "Master Ninja" and other times, they just kind of seem to belong to each other. I think this one and "Prince of Space" are kind of in the middle of that spectrum. Not only do the episodes sort of work well together, what with the appearance of Krankor and all, but the plots of the movies are practically the same.

One difference however... This movie is painfully worse than "Prince of Space" to the extent that Mike walks out of the theater... They even need Krankor to come cheer them up!!

I think you could easily package these two together and get away with it... There's just too much similarity going on there. That, and they're both hillarious. I really enjoy this episode, and honestly I could watch this one over and over again.

One of the best segments, by the way, is the very Abbott and Costello-esque bit about Japanese theater. It's such an obvious joke and they pull it off so well.

Favourite line: "That means lunch won't be til yesterday."

0818: Devil Doll

2010-10-19T19:50:00.000-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0818

Strange! Terrifying! Evil! Devil Doll.

Vorelli is a ventriloquist and hypnotist, with an amazing dummy, Hugo. Vorelli meets and pursues a beautiful heiress; he mesmerizes her, and induces a baffling coma. His buxom mistress fears he'll dump her for the younger woman, and threatens to expose him. Vorelli tricks Hugo into killing Magda while he's safely elsewhere. Marianne's boyfriend Mark investigates. He discovers another killing in Vorelli's past, of a man called Hugo. The girl wakes from her coma, and announces she will marry the hypnotist. When the triumphant Vorelli tells Hugo his plans for Marianne and a new, female dummy, a final confrontation yields surprising results.

There really isn't much to this episode... I'm not so fond of the Roman Times bits on this one. I am mostly fond of after they get captured, but the bits with Pitch are great. I especially enjoy Servo as a toaster strudel for a good quarter of the episode. I think Kevin had fun doing the movie segments as the strudel.

This movie itself is pretty friggin' weird. I had hoped we were done with the hypnosis based movies, but oh well. There really isn't much to it though. Quite a bit of funny riffs however.

Really, there's nothing to scream about with this episode, which is probably why people just overlook it. Glad it's there though, mostly just for the riffs.

Favourite line: "You think he likes ham. Wait until you see me like ham."

0817: The Horror of Party Beach

2010-10-18T20:15:00.000-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0817

Horrifying!!! Teenage slumber party attacked by demons from the dead! The Horror of Party Beach.

While the hot rodders and motorcyclists are having a rock-and-roll beach party, a barrel of radioactive material is unloaded from a passing ship, plunges to the bottom and splits against a jagged rock. A black liquid oozes out and covers a shapeless mass on the ocean floor, which suddenly moves and becomes an encrusted vicious monster. Soon there are several monsters and they must have human blood to survive. Tina is the first victim, and football hero Hank Green and airhead Elaine Gavin enlist the aid of her science-professor father, Dr. Gavin, to solve and capture the killer. Not working fast enough to prevent the attack on twenty teen-agers at a slumber party nor the killing of three girl motorists, Dr. Gavin finds an arm lost by one of the monsters and discovers that only sodium will destroy the monsters whose composition is mostly water. Can they gather enough salt in southern California to put an end to this horror?

This movie is stupid. I think the episode is rather good though... I actually quite like the Roman Times bits, mostly because there's so much from Bridget in them!!

The best part of this episode is, of course, the song. Sodium is one of my favourite things in life, so I have a special fondness for it. Of course, the song really never goes anywhere, but that's what's so great about it!

Anyways, I enjoy this episode and don't watch it enough. I think I will fix that.

Favourite line: "This is goin' straight up my nose."

This Week Is Going To Go On Forever

2010-10-18T18:29:00.001-05:00

Here's a poem about how I feel currently...

THIS WEEK IS GOING TO GO ON FOREVER

It's only Monday,
and I've already
played a game of hangman
where I made the answer
"I want this week to be over."

Next week, I go on vacation.
I will be off work
for almost two weeks...

It's only Monday.

0816: Prince of Space

2010-10-15T22:04:00.000-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0816

Prince of Space.

A Group of space men from the planet Krankor who resemble chickens are led by their leader, Phantom to invade Earth. But a strange superhero named Prince of Space (actually a bootblack in disguise) arrives to defeat the spacemen. Although the weapons of the aliens cannot harm the Prince of Space, the Phantom continues to fight, and many plot twists (including capturing a group of elderly scientists) ensue.

I like it very much!

Every so often, we get an episode that is just instantaneously classic. This is very most definitely a classic... not just because it's on DVD and is "popular"... It just screams "classic!" The host segments are quite possibly the most unique set we've had, very intelligent and well-developed, and the riffs are spot-on perfect.

I really don't know if I could say enough about this one, but I'll try to keep it short. This is one of my all-time favourite episodes, for reasons that are obvious if you've ever seen it. I definitely consider this one of the most accessible episodes, meaning you could show it to ANYONE and chances are, they'd love it. I usually try to show this one to people after they've seen at least one(1) or two(2) normal episodes, just so they can appreciate how unique the segments are.

I love puppet Mike, and I have ALWAYS loved the sylvan glen, but the time lag segment is by far my favourite of the episode... one of my favourites from the entire series actually.

So yeah, if you have not seen this episode, buy it and watch it. Seriously...

Favourite line: "I don't wanna be Prince of Space..."

Purchase MST3k, Vol. 7 from Amazon.

0815: Agent For H.A.R.M.

2010-10-13T20:20:00.001-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0815

Agent For H.A.R.M.

Wimpy secret agent who looks like Dr. Smith from "Lost In Space" helps protect a scientist from a generic Iron Curtain country who has developed a gun that shoots boogers at people from a evil guy who looks like Pee-Wee Herman.

Because of the opening segment, I am now hungry for some EXTREME RICE!! (Which I shall be extremely making after I post this entry.)

Well, over the past 15 episodes, Mike has (sometimes vicariously) destroyed three planets, which I guess is enough for him to be on trial. Those segments are great fun. I love seeing Bobo as a "country lawyer" especially when he corrects Mike and tells him to shut up.

I love me my spy films on this show, and this is one of the dumbest. My favourite riffs have to be any time that they make fun of the mumbley drunk boss... also the constant Bond and Prince references. But mostly the mumbley boss guy. Even before they began to mock him, I was already doing it on my own... Actually it's what I do all day to mock one of my co-workers, so it came naturally to me.

Okay, I'm hungry and ready for some EXTREME rice.

Favourite line: "There goes a man with a sexy niece..."

0814: Riding With Death

2010-10-12T23:21:00.000-05:00

MST3k, Experiment #0814

An unforgettable excursion into adventure. Riding With Death.

The ever-so mellow Agent Sam Casey is in a satellite explosion and the radiation turns him invisible. He gets a watch that keeps him visible, and he can use it to switch from visible to invisible. He is given two assignments - The first is to transport a chemical, Tripolydine, purported to be the most efficient fuel. After the cover is blown on that, and Casey uncovers and stops the Tripolydine fraud, he must then stop terrorist Robert Denby from blowing up race cars.

I think I must have said "What the hell is going on in this movie?!?" at least seven(7) times during this episode. Just when you think the movie is long enough and almost over, they start a whole new plot. Sure, this is because it's two pieced-together episodes of a TV show, but that's no excuse for it!!

This episode is a riot!! The riffing is awesome and the segments are a lot of fun. Servo sings about the 70's and the 50's, Crow becomes "Turkey Volume Guessing Man" and Mike steals his thunder by guessing the volume of the SOL in turkeys... and the movie is oh so dumb, it provides perfect fodder for riffing.

I guess, all-in-all, I really enjoy this one despite the movie being so damn blasted annoyingly drawn out. Good fun.

Favourite line: "I'm gonna transmit the crap out of this."

Enlightenment

2010-10-11T21:32:00.000-05:00

Not what you'd think. Here's a poem about it...

ENLIGHTENMENT

e17...
not 16.5,
but 17.

it's been in the works
for about a decade,
and it's still not done.

but at least it's useable
and doesn't seem to break
randomly.

it's just what I've
been looking for...

I've reached enlightenment.