Tag: animation

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: The Jungle Book

Movie: The Jungle Book

Release year: 1967

My thoughts: This movie opens with Bagheera (a panther) discovering a child in the jungle. He says:

Many strange legends are told of these jungles of India, but none so strange as the story of a small boy named Mowgli. It all began when the silence of the jungle was broken by an unfamiliar sound. [Bagheera stops at baby Mowgli’s boat and hears him crying] It was a sound like one never heard before in this part of the jungle. It was a man-cub! Had I known how deeply I was to be involved, I would’ve obeyed my first impulse and walked away.

That is just not the way we’re supposed to think. We’re supposed to look back (on the big move, the great love, the child rearing, the life change) and say, “I’d do it again!” But maybe panthers don’t live by the same social mores than I do.

If you look back on something big that you did, and regret the entire thing, isn’t that ultimately regretting the person that you have become? The alternative is to look back on what you did, and justify any mistakes you made or struggles you went through, because they led to who you are now. And hopefully, you like the person you are now. That’s just some Jungle Book philosophy.

Walt Disney died in December of 1966, the year before this movie came out. I’ve never thought about the Disney filmography in terms of “during Walt” and “after Walt.” The story is that the studio closed for only one day before reopening and getting back to work on The Jungle Book. I guess that could be either sad or hopeful, depending on who you are in this scenario.

This whole post has gotten a little depressing. Which was completely not my intention. So I’ll leave you with this cute picture of a happy milk-face ignoring the (scary) end of the movie.

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Categories
Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: The Sword in the Stone

Movie: The Sword in the Stone

Release year: 1963

Thoughts: Near the end of the opening song, which sets up the world of 6th century England (“A legend is sung of when England was young, and knights were brave and bold…”), Drew was like, “I have no memory of this song.” But I felt like my memories of this movie were all flooding back. When was the last time I watched The Sword in the Stone? A decade ago?

The DVD cover has Arthur pulling out the sword from the stone, which seems like kind of a spoiler, but I guess they can get away with it since the movie came out over 50 years ago.

Drew also pointed out about halfway through that there is basically no conflict in the film. There’s no king…but there’s also no deadline on when there has to be a king. Kay isn’t the nicest big brother, but he’s not all bad. Sir Ector seems pretty nice to Arthur, as 6th century foster fathers go. The pike is scary, as is the eagle, but neither of them is a threat once Arthur is human again. Madame Mim is scary, but then all Merlin does is make her sick and confine her to her bed…for a few weeks. What exactly is the conflict here?

Maybe that’s why the end is kind of weird. I think I recognized that as a kid…suddenly Arthur is the same 11-year-old kid, but wearing a robe and crown (over his regular clothes) and hanging out in a castle? What did he have to do to get to this place? Accidentally pick up a sword? Okay. And then Merlin comes back from 20th century Bermuda, which is funny because he’s talking about motion pictures and commercials, and Arthur and Archimedes are both like, “What’s that?” and then the movie’s over.

Don’t get me wrong – I liked it. It’s just easy to pick these things apart. And I like the Arthur legend – this makes me want to reread The Once and Future King.

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Categories
Children Drew Movies Sentiment

Disney Project 2014: 101 Dalmatians

Movie: 101 Dalmatians

Release year: 1961

My reaction: I have stuck this movie into my own personal Disney mind vault, among the Sword in the Stones and the Dumbos – a movie of which I know entire chunks of dialogue, and have certain favorite pieces of animation – but not one that I ever feel nostalgic for. I’m not going to pull this off the shelf and watch it on a rainy day. (That’s what makes this project so awesome…) Just the opening credits were a total delight. I love this animation. I love that Pongo is the narrator. I love that Anita and Roger, a newly married couple, are delighted by the prospect of 15 additional puppies (but it’s probably time to get those dogs fixed. All of them. Not so lucky now, are you, Lucky?). The music is great, the villains are great. This might be the first instance of Disney putting characters from an earlier movie into the film – Lady and the Tramp and a bunch of their cohorts are seen throughout 101 Dalmatians.

Others’ reactions: I was recently followed by an actual blogger (as opposed to the bots) – just a dad with disney questions. I read a bunch of his posts because yes! some of these are really good questions. In particular, I found myself thinking of his post about 101 Dalmatians while watching the movie. Dalmatian Defamation, indeed! Good luck, Roger and Anita!

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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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Categories
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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Categories
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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