Category: Movies

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Being a girl Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Sleeping Beauty

Movie: Sleeping Beauty

Release year: 1959

My reaction: Ahh, Sleeping Beauty. One of my all-time faves. I love the music (and the way it underscores so much of the movie), I love that they return multiple times to the “book” framing device, I love that Maleficent’s evil plan is to keep Prince Philip hostage until he’s old (too old for love?), and then to just let him go. I mean, that is devious. And this is all because she didn’t get invited to the party? I love all the repeat of voices we’ve heard before – Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy, Bill Thompson, etc.

Fun Sleeping Beauty facts: The character of Aurora has a total of 18 minutes of screen time. The only Disney main character with fewer lines than Aurora is Dumbo, who doesn’t speak at all. Aurora’s mother doesn’t have a name (just “Stefan’s Queen”) although apparently some of the promo materials called her “Queen Leah.” What the what? Also, according to one site I looked at, there is apparently no record of who was her voice, although Wikipedia lists Verna Felton (who also plays Flora). The joke about “Pink or blue” was actually originally the filmmakers’ argument over whether her dress should be pink or blue.

 

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Lady and the Tramp

Movie: Lady and the Tramp

Release year: 1955

My reaction: This is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies. Obviously a lot of my top 5 are princess movies, because I am a girl who was born in the 1980s. But I have a deep and abiding love for Lady and the Tramp. Like every second of it. I’m not even a dog person. As usual this weekend, we spent some time chasing B around, some time playing with him, and some a little time sitting quietly as a family and watching the movie.

Fun film fact: You know the song Bella Notte, when Lady stays out all night with Tramp? There’s this theory that they sleep together, which in the 1950s was sort of a no-no. (Plus, the movie takes place during the 1890s.) That’s why she’s so upset afterward, because she gave up her honor. And that’s why Jock and Trusty offer to “marry” her – because she’s pregnant and they are trying to help her. I just really like that that’s another layer to the story that I never would have gotten as a kid.

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Peter Pan

Movie: Peter Pan

Release year: 1953

My reaction: This is one of Drew’s favorite Disney movies, so I like it too. It’s a good one. I feel that I’ve seen a lot of Peter Pan stuff lately. I must be thinking of Hook (always on TV), Peter and the Starcatcher (saw it at the end of last year), and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I guess. But I like Peter Pan. And I want to go on the record as saying, I don’t care how many Buzzfeed articles I read about racism in the early Disney movies. I love them anyway.

And I think B is starting to actually watch parts of the movies. Which is fun for all of us.

And the next couple weeks are going to be two of my favorites! Stay tuned!

Fun Peter Pan fact: Did you know JM Barrie (the creator of Peter Pan) was friends with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? And that Barrie invented the name Wendy? I just think that’s cool.

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Alice in Wonderland

Movie: Alice in Wonderland

Release year: 1951

My reaction: So this has honestly never been one of my favorites. It feels like it drags, or something. Like, I remember all the different parts of it, but never really how they fit together. I don’t know if this stems from there being so many versions of Alice, and I’ve seen many of them several times? But this isn’t one I would ever pick to sit down and watch for old times’ sake.

Which is kind of funny, because Drew really likes it. But I just can’t get over how frustrating it is – she can’t get people to communicate effectively with her, she can’t figure out where she’s going, she keeps getting bigger or smaller…you know how it is.

That being said, I enjoyed this viewing and I think that B actually watched parts of it too. I mean, it’s very colorful and wacky and…animated. So it makes sense that it would draw his attention.

Favorite moment (which would never be in a movie made now): The Walrus and the Carpenter. HE EATS ALL THE BABY OYSTERS. (Oops, spoiler, sorry.) It’s worth a watch if you haven’t seen it lately.

And with that…we’re caught up again! (For now.)

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Children Drew Movies Sentiment

Disney Project 2014: Cinderella

Movie: Cinderella

Release year: 1950

My reaction: This is one of those good, solid movies that we have both seen a million times, so we can spend the whole time showing each other our childhood favorite parts and laughing over the inadvertently funny parts.

Fave moment: Do you remember the end where Lucifer (the cat) is keeping the mice from giving Cinderella the key to her door? And Bruno runs up the stairs and chases Lucifer out the window of the tower? And Lucifer falls like 10 stories to his almost certain death? Just saying. That’s pretty gruesome. (If you don’t remember, watch it here.)

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Ichabod and Mr. Toad

Movie: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

Release year: 1949

My reaction: Drew was surprised that I have never seen this before – either of these. I liked them a lot, but then, I like the source material. I now understand the Mr. Toad ride at Disneyland a little bit more (although I definitely thought there was a part of the ride where he went to hell – I guess it was just prison). I was very surprised at the ending of Ichabod. I like that they didn’t hold back, even though this is for kids.

B’s reaction: I think he actually watched some of it this week!

For those of you keeping track, we are still a week behind in movies. But I’m not worried!

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Melody Time

Movie: Melody Time

Release year: 1948

My reaction: I think I’m ready to be done with these movies composed of short pieces. Although, I realized I must have had the first short, “Once Upon a Wintertime,” in some other kind of collection, because I’ve seen it before. I just did some wiki research, and discovered that this movie, and the four before it, were deliberately supposed to be light, simple films to bring in profits, so that Disney could return to full-length animations. And thank God for that.

B’s reaction: I think he is also ready to move out of the 40s. (Almost there!)

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Children Movies

Disney Project 2014: Fun and Fancy Free

Movie: Fun and Fancy Free

Release year: 1947

My reaction: This is composed of two short pieces: Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk. I’ve never seen Bongo, and it was cute, although I don’t know if it needed to be 45 minutes long. I’ve seen Mickey and the Beanstalk about a thousand times, although never with this frame, which was this guy telling the story to a little girl and two ventriloquist puppets. The puppets gave MST3K-style commentary throughout the story, which definitely wasn’t in the copy of the movie that I watched growing up. It was kind of weird. I remember that Mickey and the Beanstalk used to really freak me out as a kid. I went through a stage where I was really afraid of giants, and I think this might’ve been why.

B’s reaction: Oh, he just loved it.

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Make Mine Music

Movie: Make Mine Music

Release year: 1946

My reaction: We’re getting into this tradition of pointing out the familiar names in the credits (which, of course, play before the movie). It’s fun. It’s also fun that it’s been like 7 weeks and we’re still doing this. I don’t know if either of us thought it would last very long.

I actually really liked Make Mine Music, which I’ve never seen before, especially after the last two weeks. This is like Fantasia-light. Like a few little musical stories: “Peter and the Wolf,” “Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet,” “Casey at the Bat.” It was really fun, and not too long.

I liked that the music that wasn’t chosen wasn’t all classical. It was a good mix of musics and animations. I would watch it again.

B’s reaction: Same same. I’d say he enjoyed it.

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: The Three Caballeros

Movie: The Three Caballeros

Release year: 1944

My reaction: is best summed up by this side-by-side comparison:

Halfway through the movie:
Drew: Do you like this?
Me: It’s okay.
Drew: I like this.

Half an hour later, the movie is still going:
Drew: We can stop, if you want.
Me: I’m kind of over it.
Drew: We don’t need over an hour of this.

Sorry, Three Caballeros. There are, as Drew put it, bound to be “some lame weeks” during this project.

B’s reaction: He was having An Evening. So he spent a lot of time walking around crying, or throwing himself on the floor. Alternating between that, and cracking up at some of our antics.

Next weekend, we should go back to watching these in the mornings.