My reaction: The longest Disney movie (Fantasia) is followed by the shortest Disney movie. Dumbo weighs in at 64 minutes. Love it. I haven’t seen this movie in ages, but Drew and I both remember it like it was yesterday. I love the beginning, where the baby animals are all being “delivered.” (Ha! see what I did there?) Dumbo is from early enough in the Disney years that there’s still un-PC stuff (like the faceless roustabouts putting up the big top; or the crows, led by Jim Crow). “Baby Mine” is still a tear-jerker, although honestly at that point in the movie my baby mine was freaking out about something so I missed most of the song.
B’s reaction: Eventually I’m sure I’ll have some comment besides “He didn’t really watch this one.” But for now…he still didn’t really watch this one.
My reaction: So much nudity. A drunk donkey. So many things that wouldn’t be in a movie made today. It’s really a bummer that the need to be politically correct has made it impossible that Disney would ever make another movie like this. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.
I remember seeing this in the theatre – according to the internet it must have been the rerelease in 1990. That is a long movie for a 6-year-old (and her 4-year-old brother) to sit through. I remember the live-action parts being really long…but actually they aren’t.
There are a lot of segments in Fantasia. I’m not crazy about the abstract stuff at the beginning. But other than that, I like pretty much everything. I would say, the Nutcracker Suite stuff is near the top. So is Night on Bald Mountain. And Beethoven’s Pastoral.
Although, rewatching Fantasia with fresh eyes made me realize that it was significant inspiration for what I used to draw when I was a kid. The abstract stuff in particular. But also ponies and fish.
B’s reaction: Dang, this is a long one. Did you know Fantasia is 2-plus hours? And there’s a lot of downtime with the live-action segments.
As per usual, B didn’t watch much of it. But we’ve gotten smart enough to watch them on weekend mornings, rather than trying to do it at night, so at least he’s happy while he’s running around not watching the movies.
Covering up the Fantasia 2000 half of the DVD cover
My reaction: How could I have forgotten that this is, hands down, the scariest Disney movie? Kidnapping (multiple instances); slavery (multiple instances); boys turning into donkeys and being sold to the salt mines; Monstro…this movie would never be made in 2014.
This guy might be the scariest thing I’ve ever seen:
Please note: I deliberately resized this picture so it’d be smaller (less scary), and I didn’t use the screen grab of the really terrible face (“They never come back…as BOYS!”) because I didn’t want myself to have to see that whenever I scroll down. This was practically the only part of the movie where B plopped down in my lap, and I totally covered his eyes for this scene.
Aside from being scary, some other things we found jarring were:
Geppetto is a weird guy. Like, he is so co-dependent on Figaro, and when he goes to find his “son,” he takes his goldfish with him. Strange.
PS. He’s only known that son for about 12 hours.
Pleasure Island all around. Like, they’re all drinking beer and there are giant Indian statues hurling handfuls of cigars out to all the “stupid little boys.”
You could never use the phrase “stupid little boys” like that in a move anymore.
B’s reaction: We watched in the morning this time, instead of the evening, so he was way more playful and active. He paid less attention to this one than to Snow White. Of course, given how scary Pinocchio is, that’s probably best. I’m ready to get into some harmless, fluffy, song-and-dance Disney movies. So, what’s next?…oh. Dumbo? Okay.
Frozen is Disney’s 53rd animated feature. We think this is a (slightly mathematically incorrect) sign that we should spend 2014 watching all the Disney movies, in chronological order, one per week (ish). We actually own most of them, and this will be a good excuse to take the shrink wrap off of some of those that are still in mint condition.
So we started tonight.
Movie: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Release year: 1937 My reaction: One time in college, Drew and I were watching this movie, and in the last like 20 minutes of it, we both fell asleep. It felt like we slept for hours, but when we woke up, it was still the part where the Queen is at the top of the mountain right before she falls off (spoiler alert). I don’t know how that happened. B’s reaction: He spent most of the time wandering around, and only sat down to watch with us a couple times. I’m okay with that. It’ll come in time.
There was A LOT of hype around Disney’s latest film, Frozen. So when Drew and I finally saw it, we were both like, “Oh, okay…I mean, okay.” Some reviewer was running around calling it “The best Disney film since The Lion King,” which…no. And our friends were really talking it up.
But we walked out of the theatre with a lot of questions about a lot of plot holes.
WARNING: There be spoilers ahead.
For instance:
1. Wait, why is Kristoff’s family the trolls? Wasn’t he the son of one of the ice men in the opening number? If he wasn’t someone’s kid, what was he doing there? Where’d he get a sled and a reindeer?
2. I’m not sure I understand why the trolls have to modify Anna’s memory. There’s no other way to fix her? Why do they have to create this big fear in Elsa and her family? (See number 6)
3. At the end. How does Elsa suddenly understand how to thaw everything with love? What the heck does that mean? And how does one project it onto a frozen kingdom?
4. Why do the villagers suddenly accept Elsa and her sorcery, when they were previously so scared of her? But now it’s ok because she made us an ice rink?
5. Okay. So Elsa is a sorceress, Anna takes off after her, and leaves Hans in charge of the kingdom. He rules benevolently, handing out food and blankets to people. And then he mourns Anna when they all believe she is dead. No one in the kingdom knows about his treachery…So why do they all applaud when Anna punches him?
6. Do the trolls have to apologize for ruining so much of Elsa’s life with their fear mongering?
So, like I said, Drew and I both walked out of the theatre a little bit blah. We were both glad that Disney had made this movie, found it enjoyable if not thrilling, happy it’s part of the Disney oeuvre, etc etc.
But then, a crazy thing happened. Over the next 5 days, we must have watched the video of Elsa’s (Idina Menzel’s) coming-of-age song, “Let It Go,” a total of 2000 times. That is only a slight exaggeration. The view count for this video goes up by, like, millions every day. It’s insane.
Here, watch it now:
And now tell me that you’re not like, drooling to see this movie (even if you’ve seen it before). The more I watched that video, the more I was like, “Yeah! I can’t wait to see Frozen again!”
I started spotifying the soundtrack, and making coworkers watch the “Let It Go” video with me.
For our holiday gift exchange at work, someone gave me a CD of the soundtrack. And I wasn’t disappointed.
One night, I just searched out scenes from the movie on YouTube, then watched some behind-the-scenes footage with Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel…then just watched some Kristen Bell videos. (She is adorable, by the way.)
So now, yeah, I’m a fan of Frozen.
But I’d still like to get answers for the questions above.
(Or am I being too picky? Should I just…LET IT GO??)
The other night the three of us were driving back from Lodi and listening to a CD I found in my CD case with no label, no name, and no track list. It could have been anything.
What it ended up being was a pretty good mix of the kind of classics that most people are sure to know: American Pie, Manic Monday, For the Longest Time, Fast Car, Tom’s Diner, etc. A pleasant surprise…a lot of those unlabeled CDs end up being much worse.
Then Part of Your World came on (yes, definitely the best mix ever) and I remembered, as I always do, a Disney trip with my family when I was in…late middle school? Early high school? I was in a big Little Mermaid phase, and I wanted to wait in line to take a picture with Ariel. (I’m already embarrassed about telling this story.)
I was in line, up next, and watching Ariel interact with the little girl ahead of me. She said, “Okay, now smile at the – what do you call it? – photographer!” and I thought that was so sweet. She was made of big arm gestures and smiles and hair flips.
When I got up there though, she was all business in a bad wig. She smiled for the picture but where was all the cutesy stuff? That’s okay, it would have been worse to be patronized. But the photo that came of it – awkward 13-ish-year-old me in a t-shirt and shorts and sandals with socks (oh man, I sat just now and debated including that, but you know, the truth will out) – is all the more embarrassing because of the big gap between the two of us.
Every so often, that photo resurfaces in my “stuff from the past,” and each time I debate throwing it out. Seriously, I don’t know if I need to say this again, but it is a really embarrassing picture. There is no possible reason I could ever want to show it to anyone, or look at it myself. But I just haven’t gotten around to getting rid of it. Maybe someone can tell me why.
There’s this commercial on the radio right now. It begins with a woman’s voice:
“Saying the holidays are ‘a little stressful’ is like saying Kim [Kardashian] and Kris [Humphries] were ‘a match made in heaven.'”
Then crazy radio sound effects, then they tell you how you can win a trip to Disneyland which will alleviate some of your holiday stress and give you a much-needed vacation.
My major problem with this is that the two are not compared correctly. The implication is that saying the holidays are “a little stressful” is an understatement. But saying that Kim and Kris were a match made in heaven is not an understatement…it’s just flat-out wrong. (For anyone who doesn’t know – a) I’m jealous of you for avoiding this knowledge, and b) they were married for 72 days before filing for a divorce.)
I have heard this commercial a bunch of times – they’re pushing this Disney giveaway right now – and it’s getting annoying. One of the writers was asleep on the job. There are other ways to sneak in a Kardashian (or any pop culture) reference, if that’s your main goal.
Also, I’m jealous and want to win a Disney vacation.
Oh yeah – we went to Disneyland this weekend. It was pretty awesome. Erin, Drew and I drove down Friday after work, and got there about 11pm. We stayed with our friend Travis in Santa Monica, and got up at like 5:45 Saturday morning to go to the parks. We were at the parks ALL DAY LONG – back and forth between Disneyland and California Adventure – and went back to Travis’ around 11pm. Then on Sunday we had brunch with some other SoCal friends, and then saw Travis’ show, Dracula at the Long Beach Playhouse. Then we drove back to the Bay Area, getting home shortly after midnight.
I stole some pictures from the album Erin posted on Facebook. Here are four of them.
At first, I thought it was charming......but seriously, I don't think I'm a "character" person.Love this picture! and Tower of Terror!Waiting for World of Color to start
There are more pictures on my camera (which I have to find) and on my phone (which I have to plug in). First world problems!
Also, this is my favorite tweet I’ve ever tweeted:
The Cameraphone Diaries 