#anticipated movies 2019

[neverendingford]

.

[luvjunie]

— sleepover

pairing: e-1610!miles x fem!reader

contains: fluffff! jeff and rio being realistic parents, miles being stubborn per usual

summary: miles’ parents finally agreed to letting the two of you have a sleepover, on one condition. however, miles was never the best at following directions. wc: 1,630

New york. The city that never sleeps.

The faint murmuring of bustling cars and the habitual honking of horns seeped through the tight seal of the shut apartment window; ironic in the way it somehow lulled you. An imperfect melody you welcomed—also the same one deemed a nuisance by those foreign to the chaos that naturally assimilated to comfort the longer you remained in Brooklyn. It usually helped you slip into a slumber with ease—but now— was succeeding in its attempt of doing the exact opposite.

And when you heard Miles expel a weighted, disgruntled sigh; you were led to believe the two of you had more in common with each other apart from the fact that you both lived here.

After weeks and weeks of begging, and endless explanations as to why exactly he needed his girlfriend to sleep over when they wouldn’t even get to utilize the time spent together because they were supposed to be asleep, Miles had finally convinced his mom and dad to let the two of you have a sleepover.

Fun, right?

Yeah, well you thought it’d be. Until his mom insisted the two of you bring your pillows and blankets and fantasies of your life as a matured couple to the living room and sleep out there. Six feet away from each other. You guys were practically social distancing like it was 2019 all over again.

The curt reasoning she offered included something about her not wanting the two of you in his room alone at night; not that she thought her son would actually be dumb enough to do anything along those lines with her in the house. You loved Mama Rio, but even if you didn’t, it wouldn’t matter. This was her house, and that meant you had to follow her rules. The fact that you were even able to come over as much as you did was a blessing in itself, so you took everything else in stride.

Miles let you take the couch of course, and he was currently sprawled out on his back on the floor, a pillow tucked beneath his head as he studied the minuscule cracks in the ceiling as if they truly interested him. Scrolling through his instagram timeline had gotten old fairly quickly, and at 1:00AM in the morning, neither of you were really motivated enough for conversation.

You were more than grateful to spend a night with your boyfriend, but this wasn’t necessarily how you expected it to go. Whenever you guys would hang out during normal hours of the day, you’d always end up in his embrace, curled and cuddled into each other comfortably. Whatever movie or tv-show you’d put on in the background begging for the same attention you’d give each other. After growing used to such a routine, that was really the only way you could fall asleep at his house.

But alas, holding your pillow close to you instead of him would have to suffice, you decided, as you let your eyes close once again.

“Baby?” Miles called out into the darkness, lip chewed in anticipation.

Silence.

He’d said only a word but you knew better than to engage. A conversation would end up with the two of you in trouble in the morning, so you pretended to be asleep.

“I know you’re awake. I counted exactly three seconds between your last two breaths and when you’re asleep it slows down to five.”

You stifled a laugh, ultimately blowing your cover. “Okay, now that’s just creepy.”

“People who are asleep don’t laugh!” he quipped.

A smile snuck onto your lips and you hadn’t the heart to reprimand it, lids peeling back open to stare up at the same ceiling he was.

“Yes, Miles?”

“Can you not fall asleep either, or have I become an insomniac all of a sudden?” The question came with a sigh, long arms spread to their full wingspan as he tried to count how many full rotations the ceiling fan made in a minute. That was how bored he was.

You sighed disappointedly, toying with the frayed tassels on your blanket. A moue on your face. “No, I can’t fall asleep either.”

“I think I know why.” he sung the last word in suggestion, hands absentmindedly drumming against his abdomen.

“Miles,” you warned, letting your head fall to the side so you could stare at the top of his head and address him directly. “Your mom gave very specific instructions, and personally, I would like to return home to mine with my head still on my shoulders.” grumbling your response, you shoved down the urge to invite him up there with you like your mind was telling you to.

He propped himself up on an elbow at that, eyes immediately making contact with yours. Your first mistake was not looking away, because those pretty pools of hazel were already starting to convince you and he hadn’t even opened his mouth yet.

“But how is that fair?” he complained, sounding exasperated. “We take naps together all the time when you’re here, I just wanna cuddle with you.” he sulked, as if you were the one who’d come up with the rule. Never in a million years would you submit the both of you to this kind of torture. You loved falling asleep in his arms.

You rolled your eyes at him, “Well, yeah. But that’s during the day, when she can check on us anytime she wants to. I don’t think your mom wants us that close to each other at night for,” The last part of your sentence faded to a jumbled murmur as your gaze traveled back to the ceiling. “…obvious reasons.”

He impishly raised a brow as if he didn’t know what you were referring to, chin resting in the palm of his hand. With only the faded lights of the city to illuminate the living room, the cheeky smile on his face went unnoticed, though you could hear it in the tone of his voice, loud and clear.

“And what reasons are those?” Miles asked, feigning innocence. His long lashes blinking at you.

Hand smacking to your forehead, you recited a silent prayer, a plea for strength. It was beginning to look like you weren’t going to get yourself out of this. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

His hand gestured to the air, plainly. “Well obviously. But still, we’re not dumb. That’s why I always take you to the roof when we—“

“Miles Gonzalo Morales do not finish that sentence!”

He snorted at the squeak of your voice and you used your pillow to hide your heated face.

“This is not going to help us fall asleep.” your irritated statement was muffled from the fabric of the pillowcase.

He hummed. “Exactly, meaning there’s only one thing left to try.” Slow to catch on, you didn’t realize what he meant until you felt the couch dip from the weight of his knee.

A hand trickled up the exposed skin of your thigh and it stopped when it met your sleep-shorts clad hip, the pillow snatched from your face and tossed onto the floor where he previously resided just a second ago.

“What are you—?”

He hovered over you, one hand pressed into the cushion beside your waist to hold himself up. Your question fell short when he swiftly parted your legs with his other hand and comfortably slotted his body between your thighs. A relieved sigh escaped him, his cheek nuzzling into the soft of your chest when he laid on top of you. His favorite way to cuddle.

“Shhh, trying to sleep.” murmuring a dismissive answer to your query, he let his eyes flutter to a close and snaked his arms around your waist, forearms cradling the curve of your back.

Contrary to the fight you were putting up just a minute ago— your arm curled over the expanse of his shoulders, fingers idly twirling at the baby curls that dusted the nape of his neck, something you always did to help him fall asleep faster. He let out a low, satisfied sound and relaxed into you completely, his hold on you tightening. While a part of you wanted to protest, an even bigger part wanted to remain under him like this. His weight was comforting; made you feel secure in the way a weighted blanket did.

“Your mom is not going to be happy with us.” you reminded him, stretching your other arm down enough to grab your blanket and pull it up over the two of you.

“It’s worth it. I’ll happily take the blame,” he drawled sleepily, snuggling in closer to the kiss that grazed his forehead. “I love you…” The laggard pace to his words let you know he was already dozing off, and you smiled, fatigue finally catching up with you too.

“I love you, Miles.”

— extra scene

Jeff stood in silence, arms folded over his broad chest and lips puckered awkwardly. Rio occupied the space next to him, hands perched on her wide hips, fingers tapping against them and her jaw clenched in disapproval. Her expression was everything but amused at the scene in front of them. He stole a tactful glance at his wife every two seconds, silently trying to gauge how irritated she was without having to ask her.

Sometime during the night you and Miles had switched places, and now his lanky legs were draped over the arm of the small couch and you were on top of him, clung to his body like a wet T-shirt, face barely visible seeing as it was nestled into the crook of his neck. With his mouth hanging slack as he loftily snored, Rio felt her eye almost twitch while she stared down at her stubborn son, who seemed to have magically teleported from his assigned spot on the floor and into yours instead.

“Well, I coulda told’ya that would happen.” Jeff said quietly with a laid-back shrug, to which Rio responded with a back-handed swat to his chest.

“Ow!”

Through her aggravation she still kept her voice low as to not wake the two of you, eyes narrowed at her husband. “I am going to strangle this boy, Jeff. Dios ayudame. ¡Tu hijo nunca escucha! (God help me, your son never listens!)” she griped, gesturing towards Miles’ arm that was loosely circled around your waist. She tramped down the hall, hands tossed up in defeat while she grumbled something incoherent under her breath.

Lips downturned into an offended frown, Jeff coddled his chest with his palm and followed after her, voice kicked up an octave like a nagging child. “Why is he only my son when he does something you don’t like? We made him together!”

- please do not plagiarize, copy, or repost my works to other platforms!

likes, comments, and reblogs are much appreciated 💗

[mrs-stans]

Sebastian Stan Shows His Range in New Films 'The Apprentice' and 'A Different Man'

The 'Pam & Tommy' star appears unrecognizable in two projects that prove he's a master of transformation

JASMIN ROSEMBERG

"I have these very vivid memories,” says 42-year-old actor Sebastian Stan of growing up in Romania during the 1989 revolution.

“One of them being this Dacia car, driving by with screaming people holding the flag. The flag had a hole in the middle, which they had cut out — [erasing] the communist symbol at the time. And then I remember being on my couch with my mom and my grandmother and neighbors, watching Ceausescu be shot.”

What propelled them was the “obsession” Eastern Europeans had with the American Dream. “All I ever heard about was America: the land of the free, the land of opportunity,” says Stan, who at 8, moved with his mother — a pianist, who named him after composer Johann Sebastian Bach — to Vienna before heading to the U.S.

“I remember coming to this country when I was 12 with my mom and seeing the big Twin Towers of New York City and feeling overwhelmed,” Stan says. “And my mom looking at me and saying: “Now you have a chance to become someone.”

Stan takes a seat in an Amiri look with a ring by The Crown Collective.

The memories rushed back to him in 2019, when he was first reading the script for The Apprentice — the biographical film about Donald Trump directed by Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider, The Last of Us) and penned by Gabriel Sherman (who wrote the Roger Ailes biography The Loudest Voice in the Room).

“I was intrigued there was a movie being made about [Trump’s] earlier years,” says Stan of The Apprentice, which details Trump’s rise as a real estate businessman in New York during the ’70s and ’80s after being taken under the wing of ruthless attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) — who dealt in blackmail and had prosecuted the Rosenbergs in the espionage trial that led to their 1953 execution. “I was excited about [Abbasi] as an Iranian-European filmmaker approaching the story.” But after receiving the script, he heard nothing … until 2022.

“Of course, you have hesitation,” says Stan, who takes on the role of the former president and 2024 Republican nominee. “You’re wondering, ‘Why tell the story? What is there to add?’ Or, ‘What can I contribute here? I don’t look like him.’ There were plenty of reservations and my own personal judgements.”

But Stan tried an exercise: “I went back to the script, crossing out the character names and just trying to read it [without] bringing any baggage with me. And I found it to be much more relatable than I had anticipated, in terms of what I felt it was saying about the American Dream. [It was] this point of view of, ‘You’ve got to get there, you’ve got to be perfect, you’ve got to win, you’ve got to get more.’”

Now you have a chance to become someone.

Stan in Christian Dior Irvin Rivera for LA Magazine

“You have to find parts of yourself through which you can understand the people you’re playing,” he says. “For me, [it was] that moment coming to New York and remembering how grateful I was to finally have a chance — and what my mom was telling me. But I also suddenly felt this burden, which I still feel now sometimes, which is, ‘When is it enough?’”

In the film, Trump goes from being the impressionable, wide-eyed son of an impossible-to-please real estate developer to a megalomaniacal wheeler-dealer who speaks in hyperbole, is obsessed with appearance (his own and that of his first wife, Ivana — played by Maria Bakalova — a relationship that escalates into sexual assault) and surpasses his master in heartlessness and corruption.

“We can see how easy it is to make a Faustian deal with the devil in order to win,” Stan says. “‘What is the cost of this American Dream?’ I related [to] seeing a person so determined to get there, no matter what, that he was abandoning who he was in the process.”

Stan’s ascent has been just as remarkable. After acting in school plays in New York’s Rockland County, he studied at Rutgers University before scoring a recurring role on the CW series Gossip Girl. “The next really big shift I felt was [landing] Marvel, in 2010,” says Stan, who played Captain America colleague Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, a role that led to his signing a nine-picture deal with the studio. He’s also worked with a string of award-winning directors and actors in films such as Black Swan, The Martian and Destroyer.

Irvin Rivera for LA Magazine

His first experience portraying a real person was in 2017 biopic I, Tonya as figure skater Tonya Harding’s husband opposite Margot Robbie. For 2022 Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy, he transformed into Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, husband to Lily James’ Pamela Anderson — which earned him Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Emmy nominations. The projects “had one thing in common, which was Craig Gillespie,” Stan says, “an incredible director, who taught me a lot of things about myself I didn’t necessarily know I could do.”

In becoming Trump, Stan wanted to rely on prosthetics as little as possible. “But we were very aware we don’t look very similar,” he says. “And so, about two months before we started shooting, Ali told me that I should start gaining as much weight as I could in my face.”

Stan’s nutritionist advised him to drink beer — but because Trump doesn’t drink, the actor preferred ramen with sodium-packed soy sauce. He adopted the precise way Trump spoke and moved through a process he equates with osmosis: “Subjecting yourself in an obsessive way to watching and listening and reading everything [about Trump] you can find.”

He credits Strong for elevating their work. “We improvised a lot,” Stan says. “And Jeremy was so prepared that I had to do my research to keep up. Like that scene where [Trump and Cohn are] meeting: I would have to know what school [Cohn] went to, and who his last client was, and that he was from the Bronx and had a photographic memory — in case it came up in the improv. Because he knew who was pitching for the Mets in 1976! It was a really immersive experience and we were on our toes together.”

Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump and Stan as Donald Trump in 'The Apprentice'

After premiering at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in May, The Apprentice had a hard time finding a U.S. distributor due to Trump threatening legal retaliation. But after Tom Ortenberg’s Briarcliff Entertainment acquired the film in late August, it hit theaters Oct. 11.

Stan also stars in A Different Man, in which he plays Edward, an aspiring actor with neurofibromatosis — a rare genetic skin condition that produces tumors. Edward undergoes a medical procedure in the hopes his new appearance will win him a woman (Renate Reinsve) and better his life. Like The Apprentice, Stan considers this film — which scored him the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance when it bowed in Berlin — to address self-acceptance.

Stan with Renate Reinsve and Adam Pearson in 'A Different Man'

“It’s this idea, of ‘the grass is greener on the other side’ — and the truth is, you don't know,” says Stan, who lobbied for the role after seeing director Aaron Schimberg’s 2018 Chained for Life. Both that film and A Different Man, released theatrically by A24 in September, star British actor Adam Pearson, who has neurofibromatosis. “I spoke to doctors, I’ve spoken to Adam in-depth about his upbringing,” says Stan, who sat in Mike Marino’s makeup chair for up to two hours to transform into Edward.

“The prosthetics were so realistic that when I started to walk around, nobody recognized me ... and it was scary,” he says. “You see firsthand how we respond to somebody who looks different.”

Irvin Rivera for LA Magazine

Stan next stars in Marvel’s Thunderbolts* with David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Florence Pugh and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, out in May 2025. “It's a funny group of not-perfect antiheroes that are trying to come to terms with their pasts, and I think people will get behind them," he says.

He’ll reunite with Pam & Tommy’s James on horror thriller Let the Evil Go West, about a railroad worker who stumbles into a fortune that comes at a price — “a very different movie than our last experience," he notes. And he’s producing Blue Banks, from Romanian writer-director Andreea Cristina Bortun.

“It’s this really personal film about a single mother’s journey with her son in Romania, which reminded me a lot of my humble beginnings with my mom — and how tough it was after the revolution, as a single parent, to take care of your kid and at the same time, provide,” Stan says.

“A lot of parents had to leave their kids behind to get a job somewhere else — which is what happened with me for a couple years, until I started living with my mom again. I was with my grandparents," he adds. "It explores the implications and the suffering that comes at the hands of a system that has oppressed people for so long. And then they’re left with trying to find their way.”

SEBASTIAN STANLEADING MEN OF 2024 NOVEMBER 2024

[meltthefrozenheart]

Revealing these questions at D23 is a good signal for Frozen 3 & 4

<Coming out of Frozen 2 we still had questions, a lot of questions actually. That's just page one. Now you see why it will take two films to answer them> - Jennifer Lee

Now, we all are speculating about the direction these two new movies will lead us, but I think the most interesting aspect is how much they anticipated these questions to the audience. I won't disect them because a lot of people already did that and it would be too long for me, but still, I think it's important to consider what all this might mean.

When it came down to Frozen 2, they didn't anticipate that much to the audience until it was the D23 Expo of 2019 and for the most part they were left mostly for the interviews that these questions (here a ScreenRant article for example):

Here they decided instead to go with a 3 years anticipation about what the two movies will mostly be about. This means they have already an idea of where they are headed, at least premises wise.

I think the most important aspect here is that the questions put on stage connect back to both Frozen and Frozen 2.

F2 already did that by answering a couple of important questions connected to the first movie:

Why Agnarr and Iduna chose such an extreme course with their daughters? The trauma of what happened 34 years before in the Enchanted Forest

Where were the parents headed to which led to their deaths? They were trying to sail through the Dark Sea to reach Ahtohallan and have answers about Elsa powers

Why Elsa was born with her icy powers? As a gift because Iduna saved Agnarr's life when they were little despite being on opposite sides

In that case those were all things connected to the sisters and their parents, basically focusing mainly on the prologue part of F1.

As we can see, the Frozen 3/4 questions extend beyond Anna & Elsa, allowing other important characters like Kristoff, Sven, Olaf, Marshmallow & the Snowgies and even Hans to appear in this list. Yeah, maybe some will most likely be for fun and quickly answered (the iconic Oaken expression for example), but it doesn't sound much logical to spent two movies just to maybe make fun of some characters, that sounds pretty stupid.

I think it's clear the intention here is basically the same when they were making Frozen 2: trying to give a sense of complition and clearness to the saga as a whole, not simply introducing a new situation with new characters.

Even questions related to the ruins in Ahtohallan, the idea of a previous Fifth Spirit, getting a better understanding of Elsa's evergrowing powers and see the challenges Anna will face as Queen are all elements that most likely will allow to expand the world of Frozen beyond the Arendelle and Northuldra borders.

After all, even the Frozen 3 concept art only give us an initial idea of what we will see but, just like the F1 concept always showed at D23 shows us almost nothing about the the plot (just Anna and Elsa skating), it's not all.

Who knows, maybe we will see the Duke of Weselton again? Or the Trolls are in fact hiding something, but maybe not what people has theorized for years?

[kaythefloppa]

MUFASA: THE LION KING LIVEBLOG/THOUGHTS [SPOILERS]

Today, Mufasa: The Lion King has released worldwide in theaters. Within the hours of being unleashed upon the world as the latest entry in the Lion King franchise and in the Disney movie lineup, the movie has become available online.

As someone who has been anticipating this film since the day it was greenlit in September of 2020, now I can finally watch it to see if it was worth the hype, if it succeeds my expectations, or if it sucks (it does not).

Also, I should preface this by saying that I am not walking in semi-blind. I was not immune to spoilers, some of which I voluntarily exposed myself to, others were stumbled upon without any warning or disclaimer, but this is still my full thoughts on the film as I watch it for the first time in proper.

SPOILERS BELOW.

I think anyone and their grandma can see Pride Rock next to the Disney castle in the opening. It's not really much to say, but in this movie specifically, I smile noticing it.

It was announced that the film would pay tribute to James Earl Jones in the opening. I was not surprised by that, and I definitely shouldn't be surprised hearing his archived recordings in the opening but... goddamn.

LEBO M HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU. Much like in the original and Simba's Pride, he is the first voice you hear in the story and god it fits.

A lot of people have pointed out how unlike the 2019 remake of TLK, this film has a wide array in emotions, expressions, and life, focusing more on actually being an animated story rather than being a nature documentary (eat it John Favereau). This entire opening solidifies that fact and I think this bears repeating as to what one of this film's biggest strengths are.

SIMBA HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU!!!!!!!!

People have made comparisons to Narnia and Jungle Book when it comes to everything the remake got wrong. I'm making those comparisons to praise this movie specifically, I'm getting those vibes.

Nala is out here doing what we all should be doing; Touching grass.

Also Simba and Nala really be out here making long distance work. I love them so f*cking much and I hate hate hate how we're not going to see much of them in the story [for reasons that are perfectly valid, especially if you know how the movie ends which... we'll get to that]

I listened to the soundtrack before watching this film; It slaps so much. It's everything you would want in a theatrical Lion King sequel, so hearing it in the ACTUAL movie, that's astonishing.

Oh look... Timon and Pumbaa are here. Which is nice cause I'm a huge fan of Timon and Pumbaa (I stand by the fact that Lion King 3 is arguably the most god-tier of all Disney sequels) but.... Seth Rogan warthog..

"And that one three-legged zebra." Fuck that's actually pretty dark and I love it.

Kiara exists in this film. I was at first upset that they were retreading earlier ground but... I'm cool with it now. Not exactly what I would've done, but I can nod heads with it.

I get that Timon and Pumbaa overexaggerate things (a later joke in the film would confirm that) but I don't see why Simba is against the idea of them telling her stories. I think any child would be okay with that, even with the circumstances happening. Then again, this could be an indicator of Simba's paranoia and fearing that Kiara could go through the same thing. Jesus, no matter what universe this guy is in he is still traumatized, got-damn.

Oh wait I take it back I fucking love that Kiara is in this film, she is adorable.

Simba really had a glow-up from having a kid.

We all knew that Timon and Pumbaa fighting Scar in the trailers was just them fucking around, so I don't need to comment more on this. I will point out how one of my predictions for the remake was seeing Pumbaa defend Simba from Scar seeing as how warthogs can often square up against lions in real life. So, even in the context of a Timon and Pumbaa joke that makes zero sense, I'm still vindicated.

As someone who had an INTENSE fear of thunder and lightning as a child and.... still has somewhat of an aversion thereof as an adult, I can very much resonate with Kiara's reaction to the storm.

"We sing that song for 6 years straight." I'm going to ignore that line just so that I can continue to headcanon Lion King characters aging by humans (I am coping and seething rn)

RAFIKI HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU.

Rafiki in this film reminds me of my grandfather I cannot stop smiling every time he goes on screen, I want to hug him.

"Ceremonial birthing grounds" Holy SHIT I was not expecting such lore early on. Bravo Berry Jenkins.

John Kani is KILLING this role as Rafiki. I would easily use this as another opportunity to dunk the remake but I'm too distracted by how good this performance is and how it fits the character so well. I'm the furthest thing from a Disney shill, but I would unoequivcally watch a four-season prequel spin-off series about Rafiki if one ever came out, and I have this goddamn movie to blame.

This is gonna be a running theme but Rafiki has some of the best lines in this movie. What the fuck was Jenkins smoking and can I have it? /pos.

They played the This Land theme whilst Kiara talks about how she could never be brave like her granddad and father. The parallels....

Aand here we go, Mufasa backstory time! I mean, you'd have to ignore the three existing backstories that already exist but then again, all of them suck ass," so here we fucking goooooooo.

I really dislike when movies use "moons" as a time indicator because like, what does that mean? Does it literally mean a lunar cycle of nearly 30 days? Months? Years? I'm thinking way too much into this aren't I?

YEAAAH TITLE CARD BABEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYY. WE ARE SO FUCKEN BAACK.

Goddamn I remember that one frame of Mufasa and his parents being released and it was so stupid. It looks even dumber seeing it to motion but damn it it looks so cute in a way!

Aww, look at how much Mufasa loves his parents. I hope these characters survive all the way to the end of the film without any major catastroph-yeah no, I can't even fucking finish it.

Milele is a good enough song with the vocals, but the visuals are really what hammer it home for me. The wide arrays of gold, pinks, purples, and greens, it brings life into this world, showcases the beauty of Africa, and emphasizes the dreamy aspect of the song. Also, you get Keith motherf*cking David singing in a Lion King movie, game respects game.

Also the T(He)y Lives in You reference was very well put together.

Mufasa chasing a butterfly being a reference to Kiara chasing a butterfly in Simba's Pride!!

I already knew Mufasa's father was gonna die in this but seeing him play with Mufasa, goddamn you Disney. Your never-ending patricide may be predictable, but it will never not tug my heart-strings.

I don't know who this giraffe is but I love them already.

Man, we've really come a long way since Simba's blank expression at the stampede, huh? Nature is fucking healing.

DAM(N)

Bisexual lighting in the water spotted.

You can hear Nants Ingonyama when Mufasa is submerged underwater! Deep cut.

Honestly, the hippos just glancing at Mufasa and swimming past him is hilariously dickish and it makes me forgive how they haven't immediately chomped him /j

Here's Taka (UGGGGGHHH ~ Sorry, I had to get that one out, they could've chosen any other name for him)

From day 1, Scar has always been a little shit lmao.

This doesn't mean anything on any scale, but I would've replaced the crocodiles with hippos. Would've been more scary.

Taka getting Mufasa up is directly contrast to how he will eventually kill him. This movie is going to try and yank my heart-strings out of my chest won't it?

"All important nap of kings." Bro's just like me fr.

Oh wait god I take it all back he's not like me fr HE'S NOT LIKE ME FR.

If I had a nickel for every recent piece of Lion King media that depicts cannibalism with the subtlety of a chainsaw to the pelvis, I'd have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot but WHY THE FUCK DO I HAVE 2 FUCKING NICKELS?!?!?! TWO!?!?

"Do you know what Mufasa means? It means King!" Erhm actually, Mufasa has no direct meaning in Swahili. It's a mix between Mfalme (which is the direct Swahili translation for "King" and the last pre-colonial King of Buganda called Mutisa. Obasi's clearly got his lions crossed. *cinemasins ding*

I love how Mufasa is clearly laughing and joking around as this adult lion is actively trying to fucking murder him. Either he is that oblivious to the danger that he is in, or he is actively trolling this asshole. If it's the latter, or even both, I love it.

I have a feeling that Obasi has actually murdered other outsider cubs before, or maybe even succeeded in sabotaging their initiation rituals so he can eat them. I get that the whole "lions killing cubs that aren't their own" is a part of nature but apply human behavior to that and you can see how sick this is. Not to mention, Taka would have probably been in proxy to these and... shit, no wonder he turned out to be a nasty piece of work.

Oh so THIS is the challenge that Scar was mentioning in the remake.

The PTSD flashbacks jumpscared me.

Oh my god the close up of Mufasa... peak fucking fiction.

Omg that one scene in the trailer of Mufasa leaping from the tree is in the movie- aaaand he is going ass over teakettle afterwards lmao.

The little "I Always Wanted a Brother" instrumental playing when Taka helps Mufasa out of the water🥺

"You will keep him with the females" oh that's not.....

The entiredy of "I Always Wanted a Brother" is amazing. The lyrics cleverly delve into Scar and Mufasa's individual personalities and traits that'll magnify in their adulthood, as well as their growing relationship, and the visuals feel alive as ever with the chorus and beat topping it all off. Lin Manuel Miranda cooked here and I am not afraid to admit it. This song is the best in the entire movie and is everything one would look for in a Lion King prequel. No wonder the marketing loved this song so much.

Also, Mufasa: The Lion King proudly continues the tradition of A) musical numbers with background animal choreography and B) transitions to show characters aging. We truly have come full Circle [Of Life]

Ok but this entire song is way funnier when it's essentially these animals saying "Get your ass back home" to these two little shits.

"Some things you chase but you cannot hold." That line is DEFINITELY a double-meaning and applies to both brothers. For Taka, it refers to how he can't keep/gain the power he obtains + the object of his desires as much as he tries and for Mufasa, it means he won't be able to maintain the relationship with his adoptive brother. The failure to practice this philosophy leads to both of their downfalls so what is at first a cute lyric becomes very dark in retrospect and I have to applaud the songwriter if he was intentional with that.

Ok so if Obasi doesn't allow outsiders and since he values blood and all, then I'm assuming these other male lions are related to him. I'm gonna guess that they're his brothers and/or cousins.

The animals singing in a circle around Mufasa and Taka reminds me a lot of high school dance circles, it's very funny (and also sweet that the animals and Taka are singing for Mufasa).

You heard of the boy who cried wolf; Well here's the lion who cried elephant. (Also, 10/10 prank).

"They did it [the prank] again!" I think the saying goes, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." Also I was half-expecting an ACTUAL elephant stampede to knock them down, ;p

"You want to be with the females?" I have no jokes for this, I am legitimately disgusted with how mysoginistic Obasi is and yeah, that's definitely the point, but like, I was NOT expecting that. I guess maybe they needed to emphasize how Taka had such a shitty role model growing up and that a large part of his fall to darkness was not learning how sick and wrong this line of thinking is, and objectively that is good writing when handling such a topic, especially since again, the movie is very much against this and to a lesser degree, it's an origin story I guess I'm just taken by surprise at the sudden mysoginy, and at the end of the day, did we really need this character to be a PodcastBro™ to get the idea that he's not supposed to be someone we root for? Or is it really not that deep and I'm thinking too much into this?

Eshe is such a good mother to Mufasa, helping him home into his senses to hunt, and even offering to help Mufasa find his parents. I think this is a good contrast between Mufasa and Taka when it comes to the nurture part of nature vs. nurture. It's also an interesting mirror to the fan-portrayals of their relationships with their parents as it's usually Taka/Scar being close to his mother and Mufasa being close to his father.

I see a lot of Tarzan similarities here and I think you can notice them well. That being said, Tarzan is also peak fiction that I look fondly towards, and this movie is also looking really good so far, so there is nothing but adoration.

Timon and Pumbaa reacting to Mufasa's line of being a stray with no responsibilities, calling him "one of us" all but confirms that if he was still alive today, they would 100% be friends.

"Hakuna Mufasa" essentially means "There is no Mufasa." I.e. what a good chunk of Simba's childhood was like. Shit, I'm pretty sure Rafiki even knew the fucked up implications of that when he interrupted them.

Timon and Pumbaa I love you but please shut the fuck up right now.

I think everyone has made the Kimba jokes, so I'm just going to say how two white lions would NOT stand out in a sea of tall tannish green grass.

This entire hunting scene is the definition of tension. No dialogue, just music.

Oh, the trailers outright baited us into thinking Eshe was gonna sacrifice herself to save Mufasa. Well played Disney.... well played.

Damn, Taka is horrified as shit.

Go for the juglar Mufasa! The jugular!!

The framing of the scene goes by quick, but I think the implication is that Kiros's son got straight up impaled by one of the branches on the dead tree when Mufasa knocked him down... we're only half an hour into this 2 hour film and we already have a kill count of 3 characters, one of which by the titular.

Ngl, I was hoping/expecting Mufasa to be the aggressor in the fight to try and scare off the lions and this would be how he learns that "being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble." And/or that Eshe potentially sacrificing herself would be what gives him that reality check. But either way, as is, this fight scene did demonstrate bravery as a quality of Mufasa in a good way.

"I owe you a great debt" yeah you also owe him an apology for refusing to take any parental custody over him, for the emotional neglect, for your misogyny-driven alienation of him, and oh yeah, trying to FUCKING CANNIBALIZE HIM.

I mean in fairness to the white lion, what the fuck was he supposed to do? Mufasa LITERALLY impaled Sachu.

Obasi lying to protect Taka reminds me of Rameses offering to lie to absolve Moses of his murder. Also, once again, this scene does very well to point out how Taka's upbringing played a role in his eventual fall from grace without making him an abused woobie stripped of any character.

I was gonna complain about how the Outsiders are a thing in this movie but the fact that they are evidently not Zira's pride and also have an explanation to their existence makes it hard to complain.

Ok so the first act of the film is kinda rushed, I'll admit that. Guess they had to go on the journey pretty quick.

So far, Timon and Pumbaa's commentary has ranged from somewhat funny to cringeworthy. Why exactly are they involved in this plot? Or, if they had to be, why not Sarabi and Zazu who actually partook in this story we're being told. You could get alot of colorful dynamics that would add both extra comedy and emotion to the story. I'm getting this out of the way now because even though there's a later scene that is juxstaposed to this, it still confuses me a bit.

"Yours is the last pride of the valley of kings" woah, that actually means Kiros has killed other prides before. This is straight up the lion equivalent of imperialism.

"Everything the light touches belongs to me," well what about when it's dark out? Ever thought of that, asshole? Obasi could easily lawyer up and kick your ass back to the swamp /j

"There will be one ruler. One, Lion King." He said it, he said the thing!

Not gonna lie, Kiros's villain song, Bye-Bye sounds like it was pulled from Jake and the Never Land Pirates. But then again, that show's soundtrack is fucking awesome, as is this film's soundtrack, as is this song. The vocals and lyrics are deliciously villainous and the beat is haunting. My only gripe is that it's too short, and the movie's version of the song doesn't include the background vocals like the soundtrack version. That and the visuals aren't as stunning as I imagined but, still, it's a good villain song! And for a song titled "Bye-Bye" of all things that is a feat.

Man, I thought I was actually gonna see Kiros kill Obasi and Eshe. I mean it's obvious that he did but, showing it on screen would've really hammered home the idea that he doesn't mess around. But instead we smash cut to the brothers running away. LAME!!!!!!!

"They live in you now" oh that hits so hard.

Aquaphobic Mufasa canon???

"It's not my fault crocodiles are simply attracted to you," tell me why my mind instantly went to a visual of Pua x Mufasa (and why I can somehow buy that???)

"My scent? I've been stalking you two all night." Sarabi how I have missed you.

ZAZU HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU.

Sarabi royalty confirmed.

I once saw a theory that Rafiki (a mandrill) was raised by baboons, which explains why he has no qualms with being called one, and gives a new perspective to his phrase "you're a baboon, and I'm not." To whoever came up with that theory, you are a goddamn prophet.

Again, I think all of this goes by way too fast, I think a few more minutes establishing this troop along with Rafiki's character traits and behaviors and THEN hitting us with the tragic fall-out would've worked a lot better.

"Born with a leg that does not work," that explains the walking stick he has in the movie.

"It was Rafiki who found water in the dry season!" Six New Adventures reference!

Rafiki is fucking hilarious.

''A single stick may smoke, but it will never burn." Once again, Rafiki is the best fucking character in this entire film.

Did... Zazu just break the fourth wall???

"I am not a baboon. I am a mandrill." It took us 30 fucking years for a Lion King movie to address this, god bless.

"No offense, but a monkey is a monkey," Mufasa racist moment /j

Rafiki and Mufasa's discussion at the pool is so good. Once again, it has that natural Lion King narrative DNA in it and it speaks a lot about both characters as part of an origin story. Both characters are very heavy key players in the classic Lion King stroy, so this scene does them a GREAT deal of justice.

"I have a report! It's morning." Ok, funny joke.

"Hallucinating baboon!" Sarabi racist moment /j

This plot really knows how to connect together, via using Eshe's sensory training to help dodge Kiros's team.

We Go Together is an amazing song. It's very good for a road-trip/buddy movie, and, not unlike Hakuna Mtata from the original, is a very good palatte cleanser from the story's more darker elements. The characters have enough time to shien in their own ways and the overlaps of their lyrics is kinda growing on me. I substract points for the stupid-ass love triangle bit they imply and trust me, we will get to that when we get to that.

You know that one scene in kids' shows and movies where it is nothing but unabashed second-hand embarassment and/or cringe. The entire scene where Mufasa gives Taka love advice for Sarabi, and Taka's attempts to kiss-up to her is exactly that. If it's not completely uncomfortable to listen to, it's BO-RING. And I wish it was just a one-off gag that meant fuck-all in the end but I've listened to the soundtrack and got spoilered on a later element in the film that just does not help.

Seeing the elephant herd reminds me of when my sister and I were in Africa and saw an entire herd, moms and their babies pass by. On that same vacation, my grandpa and I also saw an elephant pass the road. Huge disclaimer, never piss them off.

Sarabi rendered an entire colony of bees homeless and more than likely killed a good amount of elephants by getting them stung. That's not very Circle of Life of her.

Mufasa saving Sarabi's life!! That man is her HUSBAND.

Ah yes, the epic tale of Rafiki's stick. The mythos of the stick has finally been revealed. This is the REAL Lion King lore I signed up for. Barry Jenkins you are too good.

On one hand Mufasa lying to make Taka look good is an interesting character study. On the other hand.... that stupid fucking love triangle that this builds up to. I hate it so much, SO MUCH. Replace the payoff with ANYTHING ELSE, and I'd be okay with this. Ugh!

Rafiki, Kiara, Timon, and Pumbaa's hug is great. Rafiki explaining the sad reality of social alienation, relating it to his experiences, followed up by Timon and Pumbaa lightening the mood but adding to that emotion with them being outsiders. I knew it wouldn't be long until I started to love them being in this film. Take your crown you kings, you earned it!

Oh my god Mufasa has hella PTSD here, it's a really good representation of it.

Zazu's a real one here, covering up the tracks.

I. Fucking. Love. Rafiki.

"Mufasa, I gotch'u." I headcanon those were Sarabi's wedding vows. No one can prove me wrong.

I thought Mufasa and Sarabi's romance would be a bit rushed here and to be fair... it almost does??? It's not the whole center of the story, and Sarabi is able to stand out as a character on her own outside of the love story. As for their love story itself, it's very well put together with enough screentime and it feels real. Oh and their love song is also pretty great. We were WELL overdue with a Mufasa/Sarabi love song and this movie did not fail to deliver.

Also, Sarabi figuring out on her own that Mufasa saved her and being able to pick up on all of his genuinely best qualities, that's like really impressive, and it's actually a neat twist on the 'liar revealed' trope.

Okay, now here's my allotted time to talk about one of the things I was dreading seeing in this film and am unfortunate enough to be right seeing. The stupid Mufasa/Scar/Sarabi love-triangle. I hate it. I hate how one of the only major changes the remake had to its story was adding that love triangle to give 'depth' to the characters, when in reality, it diminished the characters by not having more for the story to speak about them, made the tension between them flat by consequence, and the remake never resolves this in a meaningful way. Plus it is BORING as hell. And now the movie is apparently using that same love triangle once again, as a MAJOR plot-point. Not only that, but the fact that Taka immediately snaps and goes villain after seeing his crush go after his brother... what the hell are ya even doing man?

The first act of the film gives us a lot of elements to go off of for his villain arc. Being spoiled by his parents, poor parental influence, being a control freak, maybe we see more signs that Taka blames Mufasa for his parents getting killed, or holds him responsible for it, or heck, even his guilt/inferiority complex that stems from the trauma of running away when his mother was in a life-or-death situation. So many other things that could result in a complex but constructive beginnings of a villain, and yet it's this stupid underbaked love triangle, this one isolated moment that changes the trajectory of his entire character arc and oh my god I hate it, I hate it so much. Nevertheless, Brother Betrayed is a good song.

Seeing Taka throw a tantrum over his crush not liking him back and later falling into the snow is cathartic as hell. I want to see this little turd lose.

So he teams up with the white lions... after they killed both his parents and caused him to be banished from his home... not to mention, they tried to kill him?? Unless he's tricking them somehow so he could get close enough to take them out, this is incredibly stupid. I don't care if this snivelling little shit gets punched in the face, but also as is, this is bad writing.

Taka laying out scars to lead the villains to their location. Now THAT is clever foreshadowing.

Pumbaa your husband is right next to you, why are you pretending not to like love 😭😭😭

That is a cool ass background.

The shots of the Pride Lands matching the visions of Milele. This movie knows how to use its visuals.

Man I remember all the theories saying that the big tree in Milele was the Tree of Life from the Lion Guard, or that somehow Milele was always Mufasa's adopted home. Still, magnificent.

I think all of us could predict Rafiki and Mufasa having a brotherly bond. I like how the theme of this movie involves family in ways other than biological relation. I think the brotherhood theme could've been used with Zazu as well, but this is sooooooo cuuuteee!!!

Wait how do the animals know the Outsiders are hunting Mufasa? Did the Outsiders terrorize Milele before? Did they somehow 'sense' the Outsiders' presence like Eshe taught Mufasa to? I like where this is going but there's no reason for them to have that much frame of reference to our protagonists' plight.

Kiros is truly horrifying.

"There are other lions here," wait, so maybe they're members of Sarabi's pride? Hmmm....

"Sarabi chose you... just like my mother, just like my own father." Uhm,,, what??? Obasi never 'chose' Mufasa for anything over Taka. And Mufasa was assigned to Eshe by Obasi. Sure, the dude may have looked Mufasa in a higher regard after the rescue but that is NOT the equivalent of preference? In fact, the very last thing Obasi said to Taka was to preserve the bloodline by outright lying to everyone. Did I miss something??

Hell yeah fight fight fight.

Is... IS THAT SARAFINA AND A YOUNG NALA IN THE PRIDE LANDS??? HOLY SHIT.

Mufasa uniting the animals together in a war rally... PEAK FICTION. This entire speech is peak levels of badass.

Mufasa said Nants ingonyama bagithi. The opening lines to Circle of Life HOLY FUCK BARRY JENKINS COOKED.

Only a villain like Kiros can make the phrase "Bye-Bye" sound menacing.

Zazu be out here using 0.001% of his full power.

W shoebill character (still sad that there's no caracal yet).

I think Zazu could offer a lot more in the final battle, like say, rallying the birds together and raining hell upon the lionesses, poking them with sticks or dropping rocks. He's gotten a decent enough amount of screentime but this climax should've really brought it home.

BEAT HIS ASS MUFASA. BEAT. HIS. MOTHER. FUCKING. ASS.

Okay, fine, give Taka some brownie points for standing in the way, but he still fucking deserves that scar. Fuck you Taka.

Also, the remake implies that Mufasa gave Scar his scar in the challenge, but it never outright said so, and TLK has always been a loose cannon when it came to... well, canon; So I can buy Kiros giving him the scar. I actualy can't believe that my prediction on Taka taking the bullet for Mufasa actually came true! Mark that off the bingo card!!!

The entire climax/stand-off/showdown has little to no dialogue and BY GOD does it ever work here. Mufasa and Taka looking at each other with clear emnity in their eyes, and then channeling all of their rage into their common foe to tag-team him. So much emotion.

"The earth will shake." LET. HIM. COOK.

And scratch "Pride Rock being formed by and earthquake that crushes the villain" off the bingo card.

Mufasa overcoming his water trauma by remembering Eshe's words to sense the rock that he'll use to crush Kiros into the water.

Ok y'all say it with me: Bye Bye Kiros!

I know this is a big emotional moment that shows the last of Taka's humanity and parallels with his first and last encounter with Mufasa.... but the HESITATION to help him, mixed with the clear anger at the beginning would've been enough to make me banish the dick.

See, Mufasa became king after proving his worth of leadership. There is no "he stole the throne/his brother's girlfriend" BS. You Buzzneed nerd-wannabees can fuck off now.

Oh look, I see some hyenas in the crowd. I wonder what their origin stories will be in this Lion King prequel!

"No more Kings, we are all one," setting aside TLK 2 reference, Mufasa is based for implying a democracy.

Are.... are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!?! AFIA IS ALIVE???!!! MUFASA'S MOM IS ALIVE!?!?! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!!

Ok I'm conflicted. On one end, I don't like the fake-out death trope, especially when it's used at the end of films. On the other hand... Afia's presence really ties the themes and plot of 'Milele' together and it ~ really works. But still, imagine if Mufasa was visited by the spirit of his mother after becoming king, mirroring Mufasa's later divine intervention for his son. That would've worked so much better. Wasted potential af.

Also, if Afia's alive... who was the lion in the stars Mufasa saw during "I Always Wanted a Brother."

Oh... OH. OH GOD. MY HEART. R.I.P. MASEGO.

Whilst I still think keeping Afia dead would've been more effective, leaving Masego dead and keeping her alive adds an element of tragedy into the story, and the "He Lives in You" callback is well-equipped here.

Fuck you Taka you little shit.

I always took issue with the remake's backstory for Scar implying that he got his scar in a fight with Mufasa; Because if Scar already challenged Mufasa once, why does Mufasa trust him enough to depend on him or let his son romp around the place near him, even if he sticks around bc of "brotherhood." Whilst I don't mind that the remake 'retconned' that story (especially since it wasn't confirmed), I still take issue with that here; Again, if Taka had lied to Kiros, or did something to indicate that he wasn't on his side/wasn't truly against Mufasa, or if Taka could lie his way out of consequences, it would work, but as is, this just feels... off.

Also, Scar calling himself scar as a reminder of his embarassment and what he did, despite him continuing to do awful things rendering that admission completely null and void; it sucked when the books did it, it sucks here.

Maybe the real Milele were the friends we made along the way.

Mufasa's coronation is powerful, and blends well with Kiara's ascension. My only problem is the same problem I had with the remake. The roar came TOO EARLY. In the original's King of Pride Rock, Simba's ascension was concurrent with the swelling of the music, reaching its peak when he reached Pride Rock's peak, and then when Simba roared, that's when the music delved into Busa, which meshed into the reprise of Circle of Life. The remake fucks that up badly, and Mufasa, whilst still better in terms of that detail in pacing, still manages to miss that mark. So close... and yet so far...

Kiara can now Skype call her grandfather. The Circle is now truly complete.

"Kiara, this is your new brother." I... was kinda hoping the film would end with Simba and Nala adopting a new cub and said cub would bond with Kiara the way that Mufasa and Taka used to, and that said cub would be a girl but........ fine, fine. Also, I am 99% sure that cub is Kion. With how Disney recently uploaded The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar onto their YouTube channel in honor of Mufasa, and with how next year is The Lion Guard's 10th anniversary, meaning they'd HAVE to make another large acknowledgement of it, I am more than definitely subscribing to the fact that it is Kion. And... yeah I'm pretty cool with it (if it's Kopa, I will go into hibernation).

Kiara telling her brother the story is a neat way to wrap up this story in a bow.

CONCLUSION:

PROS:

The animals actually emote and express in this movie. Not only that, but the backgrounds and impressive technology are allowed to go all out in strength. We have come a long way. I hope to god the animators get their rents due, especially in an era where animation and animators are constantly getting the middle finger by companies and corporations.

This movie takes a lot of good ideas and executes them brilliantly. Mufasa being an orphan, Sarabi and Zazu being a team, Taka/Scar being descended from a bloodline, the white lions, EVERYTHING about Rafiki. It truly feels original. Regardless as to whether or not it's canon, it's an interesting exploration of the world we know and love, done by people who really understand the movie.

The songs are amazing. Lin Manuel Miranda did his absolute best for them and they manage to serve the plot and characters pretty well. LMM is a pretty hit or miss guy when it comes to music. Sometimes he can flop and we get shit like Scuttlebutt, but other times he hits the bull's eye and we get stuff like Moana, Encanto, and Mufasa. He was on his A-game tonight.

The voice acting had actual direction unlike the remake. The actors had a lot of fun behind the scenes and it's very easy to tell, even without the interviews. And the singing *cheff's kiss.*

CONS:

This movie tries very hard in a lot of directions, but there are some areas where it doesn't really try hard enough. I feel like a few things were a bit underdeveloped. For example, Rafiki's exile. Just, stretch that scene out 3-4 more minutes to establish Rafiki as a character, his traits, the nature of his baboon tribe, and THEN banish him. Or Taka's relationship with Obasi, maybe do a bit more to commentate on the toxic values that Taka grew up with and how they stuck with him, maybe that is one of the things that hints to him not being worthy of the throne, compared to Mufasa's more progressive influence and proaction. Anything besides that stupid fucking love triangle. And maybe some more Sarabi/Zazu backstory, we get to truly see the closeness between them, maybe Sarabi saves Zazu, and vice versa during the climax. What they do with them is fine, but, there was room for more.

Timon and Pumbaa had some good scenes here but also some duds. At the end of the day, they provide some interesting commentary and jokes to lighten the mood but... I think their humor could've been improved upon, especially with how Pumbaa acts too much like Timon and that kinda breaks the whole idea of them being polar opposites. If Disney ever does make a live-action remake of The Lion King 3 (and you bet your ass they will)... they really gotta change how they're utilizing these two.

I know I went on about how this movie's strengths are regardless of canon, especially with how it contradicts both the original and the remake, but there were some parts where I couldn't fully suspend my disbelief, even if you shut canon out of the window. Like, the lionesses we see in the climax helping Sarabi. Is Sarafina amongst them? If not, who? If the cub isn't Nala, who is it? If the cub is Nala, why does she look like she's Simba's age, yet she looks no older than Simba when he's a grown cub? Even if you age them naturally like IRL animals, those numbers still don't add up. And the hyenas. They appear at the end during Mufasa's coronation and bow. Okay... what did they do to get banished or become enemies? I know the story couldn't have shown too much focus over them but why have them there only to gloss over it if it didn't mean much of anything? Not only that, but the hyenas fucking bow down to Mufasa. I'm sorry- BOW??? IN WHAT UNIVERSE???? IN WHAT FUCKING UNIVERSE???? What kind of KFP 4 Lord Shen bullshit is going on here? My suspension of disbelief can only go so far before it is utterly decimated😭😭

The pacing can be a bit better. Some things overall do go on too fast (which results in my first point as to how things can be undercooked, it's a sympton of the issue) or in the case of other scenes like Taka trying to rizz up Sarabi... go on for way too long. It doesn't horrifically bog down the film and there are many, many, many scenes where the pacing is to this movie's advantage, but it could do better in some areas.

Sarabi and Zazu were nowhere to be found in the present day. Unless you count one of those lionesses walking her and her son back home, but still.... HATRED. Is Sarabi not allowed to live past the TLK 1 story???? Is this Disney's subtle way of killing her off, what the FU-

Final Thoughts:

This movie was always destined to be better than The Lion King 2019, but only because of the low bar. A good concept can go along way as long as there is a good execution (there was a lot of potential for the remake, but the management of it lead to an utter waste of a film).

For years I prayed for this film not to suck - with each and every update that this film had, I would manifest that it wouldn't be shit, bare mininum - bc it's a film that SHOULDN'T suck with how good of a concept they had in their hands and how EVERYTHING for this film relied on the execution, especially coming off the heels of an awful film that, like I said, lowerred the bar below the Marianas Trench.

And, despite some of my earlier gripes, nitpicks, and critiques, - I was right.

THIS MOVIE DID NOT SUCK.

Does it have flaws? Yes. Is it perfect? No. Is it as good as the original? Definitely no. But it... it truly is something to behold, and a masterpiece nonetheless that, if anything, will not fail to entertain. With really good writing, nice songs, relatable and interesting characters, a very engaging story, and is [mostly] serviceable as an origin story for some of these characters, canon or otherwise. I am most likely gonna get a lot of people to disagree with me but that's what I stand by. Overall, worth the four year long wait (4 years, fucking really..?). At worst, it's decent, and at best, it's amazing.

FINAL RANKING: 8/10

The movie's opening weekend has only just begun, and reviews and meandering in very opposite directions, but if and when this movie does perform well, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the last time we see these characters again.

[londonfoginacup]

The Busker | Chelsea Frew / @chelsea-frew Harry/Louis | 7k

A snowstorm has trapped artist Louis at home on his birthday--Christmas Eve--and on Christmas. Louis anticipates a lonely holiday. A mysterious stranger appears on Christmas morning, however, and Louis doesn't have to spend the day alone. But where did the man come from? Why does he seem familiar? It's a Christmas mystery.

This fic feels like reading a Hallmark movie! It's full of Christmas magic and has that sort of wistfulness that makes you think of simpler holiday times. In a good way! The perfect fic to read while you're laying in bed, to ease the scaries of having to get up and continue with your day.

☕️ Pairing Suggestion: Pair this fic with some orange hot chocolate to keep your hands warm, and peanut butter fudge!

For more Christmas fic recs: 2023; 2022; 2021; 2020; 2019; 2018; 2017

[tavolgisvist]

…on April 13, 1965, they recorded “Help!”—the title song for their next movie. John sang lead on this song, of which he was the primary composer. It apparently began life as a slow mournful cry for help, but it ended up as kind of an almost jolly cry for help and certainly a big hit cry for help. But it was Paul who introduced this song to me. He played it for me before the Beatles recorded it, and I learned it just for fun because I thought it was a brilliant and unique song. I sat next to him while he played it, so I was able to figure out the chords— though it is not so easy learning from a left-handed guitarist! A little while after that before the record wa released, Gordon and I were on tour in the United States on the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars with the Shirelles, the Drifters, and a whole bunch of other American acts. And I couldn’t resist shamelessly showing off to this busload of stars and saying, “Look, let me play you a bit of this. This is going to be the Beatles’ next single!” I am not sure they believed me. I confess it was kind of cheesy of me, but as I said, I couldn’t resist. I played as much of “Help!” as I could remember just to show off that I’d heard it ahead of time. And then when the record came out and it was all over the radio, they said, “Oh, it was true. He really had learned one verse of the next Beatles single.” That was a big deal because everything the Beatles did was so magical. Not a story I am entirely proud of (pathetic, really), but it does at least accurately recall the intense and almost desperate anticipation with which the world waited for any new music from the best band in the land.

(The Beatles from A to Zed by Peter Asher, 2019)

[frozen10fanzine]

Frozen Through the Years

Yearly Spotlight: 2019

Written by @toriofthetrees

After six long years, 2019 saw the release of the long-anticipated sequel, Frozen II.

The lead-up up to the release was intense to say the least.

The first teaser trailer premiered in February, opening with Elsa on a black-sand beach stripped down to her bare essentials, barefoot, ready to take on a raging sea. She attempted twice to cross the torrential waters before the trailer turned to Anna’s shock of hundreds of diamond-shaped glass covered in strange symbols, taking over Arendelle. Following closely behind were several moments of Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff, and Anna taking on dangerous challenges, and a show of strange, foreign magic. All of this was centered around this new, mysterious setting known only at the time as an autumnal forest.

It gave just enough of a preview to hook millions.

The trailer was viewed and downloaded several million times on Twitter and YouTube within a short amount of time. In the fandom, a storm of news, posts, speculation, and discussions broke out over several platforms, too chaotic to keep track of. The months that followed the teaser were absolutely brimming with excitement! Across cinemas, television, and the internet—both in the US and internationally—came many trailers, sneak peaks, and posters about the upcoming movie. Alongside this came leaks as well, all of it sparking speculation in the fandom over what the plot of the movie could be.

Countless books about Frozen II came onto the market before the film was even released, notably without the end of the film printed within their pages. This lead to fans in many locations to protest the shops selling these books, wanting their money back.

Most of these protests lead to no results.

Success for Disney Studios, specifically. contributed to the exposure for Frozen II. ~In March, Disney invested billions of US dollars in company acquisitions across the film and TV industry, creating the most powerful media company in the world in the USA. ~This was the year of the 6th Disney D23 Expo, the biggest Disney fan event of the year! It was held on August 23–25 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, showcasing news and pictures around all the new Disney parks, resorts—and movies! Including Frozen II! ~On November 12, 2019, Disney launched its streaming platform Disney+ in several countries ~2019 ultimately proved to be Disney's most successful cinema year to date, regardless of which new film was released!

All of this led up to the release of Frozen II on November 20, 2019 in most countries (unfortunately some countries had to wait until the beginning of January).

This new installment to Elsa and Anna’s story saw the sisters and their found family making a long trek away from Arendelle… in order to save it. Mysterious magics send them up north to the Enchanted Forest, that is covered in an impenetrable mist. Yet, it parts for them. The deeper they go into the forest, the more they discover about themselves, their family, the spirits, Arendelle… so that only one thing can be said for certain: Nothing will ever be the same again.

This film was polarizing.

In the cultural zeitgeist, it was a massive success like its predecessor, exceeding Frozen as the highest grossing animated film of all time. It received mostly positive reviews and it would go on to be nominated for multiple awards, including an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. The Disney merchandising machinery was running at full speed and earned the company many more millions within a short amount of time. The limited edition dolls were sold out on the same day as release! However, it notably did not have the same cultural reach that its predecessor had. “Into the Unknown,” to many, was not comparable to “Let it Go.” And the film was nominated aplenty, but never actually received any awards.

However, it was within the fandom that this polarization was seen the clearest.

Frozen II made good on its promise that nothing would ever be the same for these characters. The sisters, though still as close as ever, no longer lived under the same roof by the end of the film. Elsa abdicated her crown for her duties as the Fifth Spirit and Guardian of the Enchanted Forest, while Anna took over as Queen of Arendelle. This separation, whilst to some was a step-up for the sisters, others saw as a step back. This debate rages in the fandom to this day, and many, many fans on Tumblr, Reddit, and other social media prefer Frozen to its sequel.

The fandom did gain some new content, including the addition of multiple ships. There were two that were rather popular. The first was Agduna (Agnarr/Iduna), which came about because of the major focus Frozen II had on them, the sisters’ parents. The second was Elsamaren (Elsa/Honeymaren), which came about because Honeymaren had a minor, but important interaction with Elsa in the film that sent her on the right path to Ahtohallan.

Just as Frozen II’s main theme—change—impacted the sisters, so to it did the fandom. The polarizing effect of the film lead to quite passionate arguments over its content. However, the fandom did not get any smaller or lose any passion. People continued to create, debate, discuss, and post about Frozen and Frozen II. In interviews, the cast and crew said that Frozen II was made to grow up with the audience who were there when the first film was released in theaters. With that in mind, the fandom no longer looked like it did when Frozen first came out.

Things change.

But we can still all agree on one thing: We love Frozen 💕

Stay Tuned For More

👆🏻 Click above if you want to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Frozen. The due date is April 12, 2024.

We look forward to seeing your memories ❄️

[princess-of-songs]

*Originally posted on Reddit*

A fun backstory on how I was introduced to

Mike Faist.

Back in 2019-2020, I was living. My favorite actress Zendaya and my favorite actor Josh O’Connor were killing it in Euphoria and The Crown. 2021, I was looking for a new tv show. A lot of people were hyping up Panic, so I decided to check it out. Many were hyping up Heather and Ray but I couldn’t look away from Dodge. He caught my attention right away. I was so invested in the character and his storyline. I was taking screenshots like I was at a concert. So imagine my luck when I find out my favorite actress and actor are working with my favorite director and this fantastic actor I just found out about were working on a movie together?!

I remember when the casting was first announced and everyone was saying the roles should be reversed between Josh and Mike. Even then, I thought it was silly. I couldn’t imagine then and I can’t imagine now anyone else playing Art, Tashi, and Patrick. They were born to play their characters. Admittedly, I initially didn’t like Art at all in the original screenplay that Justin submitted to The Black List. At first, I didn’t get why Tashi loved him or even married him. He felt second fiddle to Patrick there at the time. But I knew Mike was a good actor, so I pushed that apprehension aside.

Mike made Art feel alive and vibrant to me. I fully got why Tashi loved and married him. He felt like an equal to Patrick. He didn’t feel second fiddle to me anymore. Art is powerful but he’s often underestimated because he’s so passive. Whenever he makes his power moves in the film, you feel that shock to the system that Tashi and Patrick have. I never anticipated I’d be giggling and blushing at Art saying “aren’t you everybody’s type,” but it was truly a perfect surprise. I loved his charisma. I loved his chemistry with Z and Josh. It was sweet, passionate, yearning, and heartbreaking. I think he did a great job in capturing who Art is. It can be said for the all the characters- Art in the wrong hands, could’ve gone so south so quickly. But in Mike’s hands, Art became such a beautiful, fascinating character that’s fun to discuss and dissect. I’m excited to see what he does next.

May we all collectively pray and manifest that the three of them go to the Golden Globes today but I doubt it lol.

[whileiamdying]

Great Books Don’t Make Great Films, but “Nickel Boys” Is a Glorious Exception

RaMell Ross’s first dramatic feature, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel, gives the bearing of witness an arresting cinematic form.

By Richard Brody December 6, 2024

It’s harder to adapt a great book than an average one. Literary greatness often inhibits directors, who end up paying prudent homage to the source rather than engaging in the bold revisions that successful adaptations require. And even uninhibited directors may lack the stylistic originality of their literary heroes. It’s all the more remarkable, then, that the director RaMell Ross, in his first dramatic feature, “Nickel Boys”—adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning 2019 novel, “The Nickel Boys”—avoids both obstacles with a rare blend of daring and ingenuity. Few films have ever rendered a major work of fiction so innovatively yet so faithfully. In a year of audaciously accomplished movies, “Nickel Boys” stands out as different in kind. Ross, who co-wrote the script with Joslyn Barnes, achieves an advance in narrative form, one that singularly befits the movie’s subject—not just dramatically but historically and morally, too.

The movie’s title refers to Black youths (teens and younger) who are inmates of the Nickel Academy, a segregated and abusive “reform school” in rural northern Florida—particularly to two teen-agers, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), who become friends while incarcerated there, in the mid-nineteen-sixties. (The institution in Whitehead’s novel is inspired by the notorious Dozier School for Boys, but his characters are fictional.) Elwood, who is sixteen years old when he enters the facility, is being raised by his grandmother Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), who works on the cleaning staff of a hotel. He’s a star student, literary and politically passionate, in a segregated school. One of his teachers, Mr. Hill (Jimmie Fails), is a civil-rights activist, and he plays a Martin Luther King, Jr., speech on a record for his students. Elwood gets his picture in a local newspaper for participating in a civil-rights demonstration, but he’s only holding a sign; he longs to join in civil disobedience, but Hattie seems skeptical about the idea. Hitchhiking to a nearby college for advanced classes, he gets a ride from a flashily dressed, fast-talking Black man (Taraja Ramsess) whose car, unbeknownst to Elwood, is stolen. When the police pull the driver over, the innocent Elwood, too, is punished, resulting in his internment in Nickel.

From the start, Ross throws down a stylistic gauntlet: up until Elwood’s imprisonment, the action is seen entirely from his point of view—literally so, as if the camera were in the place occupied by his head, pivoting and tilting to show his shifting gaze, while his voice is heard offscreen. This device was famously used by Robert Montgomery in his 1947 adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s “The Lady in the Lake,” but it was no more than a gimmick. In Ross’s hands, the device becomes something overwhelmingly expressive: the images, rather than merely recording Elwood’s emotions, register the cause of those emotions and allow the viewer to partake in his inner world.

The results can be puckish, as when Elwood’s reflection appears in the chrome side of the iron that Hattie is sliding across an ironing board. But Ross’s technique is exquisitely responsive to the story’s depth and range of experience. The viewer shares Elwood’s naïve bewilderment when the driver of the stolen car, hearing a police siren, tells him not to turn around; similarly, one feels the anguished anticipation when Elwood awaits transport to Nickel. At this point, an extraordinary scene tears a hole in time, bringing the history of Black American life rushing in to overtake Elwood’s own: Hattie, with an air of unusual formality and seething indignation, recalls in excruciating detail her father’s death in police custody and her husband’s death at the hands of white assailants. But she expects better for Elwood.

Once the police have deposited Elwood in Nickel’s run-down barracks for Black inmates, Ross extends the dramatic force of his method while expanding its intellectual scope. At breakfast, Elwood meets Turner, who’s from Houston and much more streetwise. The impact of this moment is heralded in a coup de cinéma that is a vast amplification of the story: a repetition of the breakfast-table encounter, seen, the second time around, from Turner’s point of view. Once the pair become friends, both of their perspectives share the film, to mighty effect.

Elwood’s wrongful detention is only the first of the Job-like litany of injustices heaped upon him. In Nickel, sucker-punched and knocked out by a bigger kid, Elwood receives the same standard and brutal punishment as his assailant. Nickel’s sadistic supervisor, Mr. Spencer (Hamish Linklater), who is white, administers beatings with a strap in the so-called white house, far from the barracks. An industrial fan is used to drown out the victims’ screams, but it doesn’t quite do so, and Elwood, with his view of the horrors obstructed, hears them in terror while awaiting his turn.

Hospitalized as a result of the beating, Elwood gets a surprise visit from Turner, who’s also a patient (having skillfully feigned illness). Turner warns him that there are still worse punishments menacing the Nickel inmates, ranging from the sweat box—a brutally hot crawl space under a tar roof—to actual murder. (Such deaths were covered up by burial in unmarked graves and an official lie that the child ran away without a trace.) Elwood, inspired by the civil-rights movement and knowing that his grandmother has hired a lawyer, is confident that justice will prevail. He even keeps a notebook in which he records unpaid labor and which he thinks will help get Nickel shut down. Turner has no such confidence, insisting that no one gets out of Nickel alive except by getting himself out. The two teens’ visual perspectives, alternating through the hospital scene, embody their diametrically opposed views of American society, of their prospects, and of the destinies that await them.

Through Elwood’s and Turner’s eyes, in scenes that unfold in long and complex takes, the movie offers a formidable fullness of incident, intimately physical detail, and finely nuanced observations. The corruption of Nickel’s administrators and the legitimized absurdities of their cruel regime come to light as they’re experienced by the two teens, as do Hattie’s struggles to stay connected with Elwood and to seek legal relief. Lyrical snatches of daily life—passing moments of grace on a job outside Nickel’s grounds or during free moments in a rec room—are haunted by traces of past brutality and flickers of menace. Ross stages the action with a choreographic virtuosity that’s all the more astonishing given that this is his first dramatic film. (His previous feature, from 2018, is the documentary “Hale County This Morning, This Evening.”) His teeming visual imagination is matched by the agile physicality of Jomo Fray’s cinematography. As a first dramatic feature, “Nickel Boys” is in the exalted company of such films as Terrence Malick’s “Badlands” and Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust.” Like them, it comprehensively creates a new way of capturing immediate experience cinematically, a new aesthetic for dramatizing history and memory.

Early on, the action is set in historical perspective by means of flash-forwards. Eventually, there are revelations about the atrocities at Nickel; the grounds are excavated, and human remains discovered. One of the friends (played as an adult by Daveed Diggs) gets wind of these investigations, having in the intervening years made his way to New York, found employment as a mover, and started his own business. In this later time frame, Ross continues to rely on point-of-view images, but with a piercing difference. The camera now floats just behind the character’s head, depicting work and home, love stories and painful reunions, fleeting observations and a reckoning with the past, as if from two points of view simultaneously—one visual and one spectral, bringing absence to life along with presence.

The onscreen incarnation of Elwood’s and Turner’s perceptions isn’t only intellectual or theoretical. The moral essence of Ross’s technique is to give cinematic form to the bearing of witness. Where Whitehead’s novel describes his characters’ physical torments in the third person, with psychological discernment and declarative precision, Ross’s movie fuses observation and sensation with its audiovisual style. It suggests a form of testimony beyond language, outside the reach of law and outside the historical record. It is a revelation of inner experience that starts with the body and all too often remains sealed off there and lost to time—except to the extent that the piece of art can conjure it into existence.

The movie’s twin aspects of witness and of point of view have a significance that extends beyond the drama and into cinematic history. There were no Black directors in Hollywood until the late sixties, and no Hollywood films that conveyed then what “Nickel Boys” shows in retrospect: the monstrous abuses of the Jim Crow era and its vestiges. In bringing the historical reckonings of Whitehead’s novel to the screen, Ross hints at an entire history of cinema that doesn’t exist—a bearing of witness that didn’t happen and the lives that were lost in that invisible silence. ♦

Published in the print edition of the December 16, 2024, issue, with the headline “Each Other’s Back.”

Directed by: RaMell Ross Screenplay by RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes Based onThe Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead Produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine, Joslyn Barnes Starring: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor Cinematography: Jomo Fray Edited by Nicholas Monsour Music by Alex Somers and Scott Alario Production: Orion Pictures, Plan B Entertainment, Louverture Films, Anonymous Content Distributed by Amazon MGM Studios Release Dates: August 30, 2024 (Telluride) December 13, 2024 (United States) Running time140 minutes Country: United States Language: English

[paralleljulieverse]

Dame Julie Goes to Nashville: The Story Behind Love Me Tender

In a career marked by unexpected turns, Julie Andrews' decision in 1978 to travel to Nashville and record a country album surely stands as one of her most surprising ventures. Her quintessentially British star image, coupled with her refined, classically trained singing style, would seem as far removed as imaginable from the twangy, down-to-earth aesthetic of American country and western music.

When the resulting album, Love Me Tender, finally reached the market in 1983—after more than four years of delays—astonishment was a common reaction. “Nanny Poppins sings Nashville,” declared one incredulous headline, adding: “Could it be? Yes, it is. Julie Andrews detouring from her squeaky-clean singing career, an English rose among the rhinestone cowgirls of Nashville, Tennessee” (Davis, 1983, p. 15).

Ultimately, Love Me Tender failed to make much of an impression and, outside of diehard fans, it has been largely forgotten. Even Julie herself seems to overlook it—the album doesn’t receive a single mention in her recent memoirs (Andrews, 2019). This neglect is unfortunate, as Love Me Tender represents a fascinating, if anomalous, chapter in Julie Andrews' storied career. It also offers a compelling glimpse into a period of professional challenge and reinvention as she sought to recalibrate her image in a rapidly changing world. 

It Was Time: Country’s Rise and Julie’s Retreat

Viewed in historical context, the idea of a Julie Andrews country album may not be as outlandish as it initially appears. The 1970s was a time of profound transformation for country music and Julie Andrews alike. The rise of ‘countrypolitan’—a polished, pop-oriented style of country music—blurred boundaries between traditional country and mainstream genres, bringing Nashville’s sound to a wider audience (Stimeling, 2015). Crossover artists like Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, and Willie Nelson achieved mainstream chart success, while pop and rock performers such as The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, and Olivia Newton-John incorporated country influences into their work (Hill, 2015).

Films and TV shows also reflected this crossover. Movies like Nashville (1975), Urban Cowboy (1980), and Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), along with shows like The Dukes of Hazzard (1979–1985), helped popularise country music and culture among mainstream audiences (Stimeling, 2015). As the Chicago Tribune noted in 1978, country music had “broken out of the hayseed demographics that used to separate [it] from the urban world and ascended to giddier climes and sales figures” (Hurst, 1978, p. 24). This shift made country music an increasingly cosmopolitan space—one where even an ‘English rose’ like Julie Andrews could plausibly find a foothold.

Meanwhile, the 1970s marked a period of equal change and upheaval for Julie. Professionally, it was not a particularly successful decade. It began with the commercial failure of Darling Lili (1970), followed by the cancellation of two highly anticipated big screen musicals, Say It with Music and She Loves Me. Turning to television, she launched The Julie Andrews Hour in 1972. Though critically acclaimed and the recipient of several major awards, the variety series struggled in the ratings and was cancelled after just one season (Andrews, 2019).

The consensus seemed to be that Julie’s wholesome image and traditional musical style had become culturally passé. “In this the age of ‘hip’ lyrics and braless singers, Miss Andrews' apple-pie songs and antiseptic appearance seem oddly out of step with the times,” observed one commentator (Ferguson, 1972, p. 26). Julie herself reluctantly agreed: “I think I’m a little dated,” she admitted in a 1970 interview. “I’m clearly not where Easy Rider is at, and I think it would be very difficult for me to arrive there” (Siskel, 1970, p. E5).

What followed was a period of professional ‘lean years,’ punctuated by the occasional TV special and a minor film, The Tamarind Seed (1974). By the mid-1970s, Julie had largely faded from the public radar. One journalist facetiously asked, “Whatever happened to Julie Andrews?” (Goodman, 1976, p. 11-A), while another remarked, “Not since Luise Rainer…has any motion picture star risen so fast or fallen so far as Julie Andrews” (Higham, 1977, p. C-1).

For her part, Julie appeared content to step away from the limelight and focus on her family. She and her husband, Blake Edwards, had recently adopted two children and were working to blend their new family. Relocating to Switzerland, Julie embraced her private role as wife and mother (Andrews, 2019).

“I travel as Mrs. Edwards these days,” she remarked in 1975. “My career? I’m afraid that’s up in the air at the moment and will remain so till Blake makes his plans… If it suits his schedule for me to work, then I might do a little something” (Scott, 1975, p. D-12). By 1978, she extolled the virtues of semi-retirement: “I’m only devoting about 20 percent of my time to my career and 80 percent to my family” (Scott, 1978, p. 8C).

The few projects Julie took on during this period were, unsurprisingly, closely tied to Blake. He produced and directed nearly all her film and TV work. He was also the one who persuaded Julie to accept a one-week residency at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace in 1976. “It wasn’t my idea at all,” she admitted. “Caesars Palace made me a tremendous offer [and] Blake talked me into going ahead” (Higham, 1977, p. C-1).

Love Is A Place Where Two People Fall: Blake’s Push and Butler’s Pull

Blake was also the driving force behind Love Me Tender. A native Oklahoman with a deep affection for the music of the American heartland, he believed the simple melodies and heartfelt lyrics of country music would suit Julie’s voice. As she explained in a British television interview:

“Blake…thought that country music might sit very well on my voice, which is not an easy voice [with which] to sing popular or modern music…It doesn’t adapt to it that easily, and he felt that country music would be good” (Freeman, 1983).

Reluctant at first, Julie considered country music “pretty hokey,” but upon closer listening, she discovered its appeal. “I found that the songs are really terribly pretty,” she said, noting parallels to the English folk music she had loved and sung as a child (Thomas, 1982, p. 1).

Flush with the renewed success of the Pink Panther franchise, Blake even financed the recording sessions under the aegis of his own production company (Beck, 1978, p. 16). Given its private funding and tentative nature, the recording plans were largely kept under wraps.

There were a few passing mentions in the press. A syndicated column in May 1978 noted that Julie was back Stateside with Blake “and their gaggle of children,” adding that she “will cut an album of songs while she’s here” (Eder, 1978, p. 5B). Another report from early 1978 observed:

“Andrews also is working up an album. ‘I love recording. It is like swimming, quiet and personal,’ she said. But because the recording industry has become so complex, she is doing this one through Trellis Enterprises, a company she and her husband formed about a year ago” (Burton Terry, 1978, p. A10).

Contracted to helm the new album was Larry Butler, Nashville’s most celebrated record producer of the time (Cunniff, 1980; Wood, 2012). A multitalented industry veteran, Butler began as a session pianist, vocalist, and songwriter before graduating to producing albums for some of Nashville’s biggest stars, including Johnny Cash, Dottie West, and Kenny Rogers. Widely regarded as a key architect of the crossover “countrypolitan” wave of the 70s, Butler became the only country producer ever to win a Grammy (Leigh, 2012). “Good music is good music,” he averred, “and doesn’t have to be labelled” (Cheever, 1980, p. 12).

Butler’s success drew a diverse range of recording artists to Nashville to work with him, from Don McLean and Sammy Davis Jr. to Kim Carnes, Debby Boone, and Nana Mouskouri (Trever-Burchinger, 2000, p. B3). Confident in his abilities, Butler famously boasted, “With the right song, I can cut a hit record with a janitor” (Hurst, 1978, p. 24).

When I Dream: Warm Reception and Creative Leap

So, it was on 2 June 1978 that Julie Andrews found herself flying to Nashville to enter the recording studio for the first time in nearly five years. Accompanied by her Los Angeles manager, Jerry Nutting, she received a warm welcome from Larry Butler, who greeted her at Nashville Municipal Airport with a bouquet of yellow roses and a stretch limousine (Hance, 1978, p. D10).

That evening, Butler hosted a gala reception at ASCAP headquarters on Music Row to formally welcome Julie to Nashville. Co-hosted by Ed Shea, ASCAP’s regional executive director, the event attracted numerous civic and industry leaders (Browning, 1978, p. 35). Nashville’s mayor, Richard Fulton, declared it "Julie Andrews Day," while Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton made her an honorary citizen, and Sheriff Fate Thompson appointed her an honorary Deputy Sheriff (Carter, 1978, p. 1).

Despite the fanfare, both Julie and Butler were circumspect about their plans. Julie stated that she was “thinking” about recording in Nashville, adding, “We’ll decide over the next few days. That’s really why we’re here – to decide” (Carter, 1978, p. 1). For the first few days, Butler immersed Julie in country music, having her spend hours listening to various records. Together, they compiled a list of potential tracks to try in the studio (Freeman, 1983).

The recording sessions took place at Jack Clement Recording Studios on Belmont Boulevard, which Butler co-owned with his business partner, Al Mifflin. A year later, Butler purchased the studio outright, renaming it Sound Emporium—a name it retains to this day (McNutt, 2000). For the sessions, Butler assembled a stellar lineup of musicians from the famed "Nashville A-Team," including Bob Moore (bass), Hargus “Pig” Robbins (piano), Pete Drake (steel guitar), and Ray Edenton (guitar) (Stimeling, 2020). Overseeing the recordings at the console was Billy Sherrill, one of the most renowned sound engineers in Nashville and a longtime colleague of Butler's.

Butler’s preferred mode was to record in the studio at night which he felt was more conducive to creativity and the free flow of ideas (Butler and Goodenough, 2012, p. 185). “I believe in momentum,” he explained. “When you get an idea, do it!” (Manley, 1981, p. 1B). He also fostered an intentionally collaborative atmosphere in the studio that emphasised trust, teamwork and enjoyment. “I quickly realised that as a producer, the best way…to walk into a studio and come out of there with emotion is to be the opposite of a dictator” (Butler and Goodenough, 2012, p. 185).

Typically, Butler began each session by allowing the musicians and the artist to play around with the material, letting ideas develop organically. After this initial period, he would return to review their progress and refine the arrangement collaboratively. As he described, “The result is a melting pot of emotions from everybody in that room [and] that’s what makes these moments the very best” (Butler and Goodenough, 2012, p. 186).

This organic approach allowed the musicians to move swiftly. A typical night's studio session would run approximately three hours and result in recording up to four songs (Stumbling, 2020, p. 2). Not all of these songs would be used and many would be 'scratch tracks', preliminary versions that would subsequently be re-recorded and/or overlaid with other tracks. However, it exemplifies the efficiency and creative speed that defined the recording process in Nashville.

This rapid, freeform style was a marked contrast to the tightly disciplined approach Julie had experienced on Broadway and in Hollywood, where recordings were meticulously planned and rehearsed. “In Nashville, we were literally making music as we went along,” she recalled. “I had no idea, any night I went into the studio, what I’d end up singing, in what key I’d be singing it…we just made music on the spot” (Hatch, 1983).

Initially hesitant, Julie came to embrace the looser, improvisational Nashville approach. “It was very good for me,” she admitted, “because I’m rather a careful person, and this made me loosen up” (Freeman, 1983). She also discovered a different quality in her voice. In their sessions, Butler encouraged Julie to “drop her voice an octave” and sing with a less classical tone (Barron, 1978, p. S79). She later expressed how singing with this “quiet voice…is very pleasant for me to use because it’s very easy…I don’t have to aim for high notes or a certain kind of purity. It just kind of is” (Freeman, 1983).

Over the course of more than a week, Julie recorded in excess of a dozen tracks, ranging from country classics like Crazy to contemporary crossover hits such as We Don’t Make Love Anymore, and even soft rock staples like You Don’t Bring Me Flowers. Most of these songs had already been recorded by other artists, with some indelibly associated with certain singers. This practice is common in country music, where professional songwriters craft songs that are reinterpreted by various performers, often multiple times (Cusic, 2005). Such a tradition reflects country music’s deep roots in oral storytelling and its communal repertoire, where emotional authenticity takes precedence over originality. Performers bring their unique artistry to familiar songs, transforming them into something distinctly their own (Peterson, 2013).

While Julie was still in the midst of recording, local gossip columnist Bill Hance (1978) reported that industry insiders were predicting big things. “Music Row sources say she is cutting an album so good she played a portion of it over the phone to her husband, film producer Blake Edwards, who was back home in Los Angeles.” Allegedly, Blake was so impressed by what he heard that he flew to Nashville to join Julie (Hance, 1978, p. D5). Hance also noted that her presence in the studio attracted a string of high-profile visitors, including Waylon Jennings, Roy Clark, and Johnny Cash (ibid; Anderson, 1978, p. 23).

Reflecting on this period in his memoirs, Butler described Julie as “one of the sweetest people I have ever met. She was totally unaffected by her success; she had no ego at all” (Butler & Goodenough, 2012, p. 143). One of his favourite anecdotes, frequently recounted in interviews, involved Julie visiting his home one evening. She asked for a sharp knife to trim the wicks of his candles, explaining, “They burn so much better when they are trimmed.” Amused, Butler thought, “I’ve got Mary Poppins trimming my wicks! That was so cool!” (ibid, p. 144). On another occasion, while taking a break during a late-night studio session, Butler proposed something unexpected:

“A friend of mine, nicknamed ‘Skull’ from the show Hee-Haw happened to own a strip club in Nashville’s Printer’s Alley. I said, ‘Julie, have you ever been to a strip club?’ ‘No!’ ‘How’d you like to go?’ With a sparkle in her eye and that delightful British accent came her reply, ‘Let’s do it!’” (Butler & Goodenough, 2012, p. 143-44).

Jimmy Capps, one of the Nashville A-Team session guitarists who worked on the album, has similarly fond memories of Julie:

"She was an international star. But she was a real lady in the studio. She was a class act...During our sessions, Julie hardly spoke at all. She let Larry Butler do all the producing. She didn't want very much input. She let us all play what we wanted, and how we thought was best. And it turned out to be great album" (Capps and England, 2018, p. 130).

You Don’t Bring Me Flowers: Polishing Up and Gathering Dust

Julie completed the main recording sessions by mid-June and returned to Los Angeles, where Blake was busy preparing for the release of The Revenge of the Pink Panther and starting pre-production on 10 (1979), which would mark Julie’s return to the big screen after a five-year absence (Andrews, 2019).

Meanwhile, back in Nashville, Butler began the meticulous process of polishing the recordings. As he described in his memoirs (Butler & Goodenough, 2012), this involved selecting the best takes from the sessions and adding layered tracks to create the signature rich Nashville sound. The legendary Jordanaires and other top Nashville vocalists provided backing vocals, while Bill Justis and Bergen White composed string arrangements performed by the Shelly Kurland Strings and the Nashville String Machine Musicians. With these elements in place, Butler mixed the tracks into their final form, ready for pressing.

Julie and Blake appeared optimistic about the album’s prospects. At the press preview for The Revenge of the Pink Panther, Hollywood columnist Shirley Eder reported that the party’s Western barbecue theme provided a fitting backdrop for Julie to share news of her Nashville venture. Eder wrote, “Mary Poppins singing C&W? Wanna bet she does darn good at it, too?!” (Eder, 1978, p. 15A).

Blake, in particular, was enthusiastic about the project’s potential. Marilyn Beck quoted him predicting significant industry interest: “[T]hree major recording firms are interested in buying it,” he said. “We’re also talking to ABC about using it as the take-off point for a TV special – but Julie says she will only be interested in doing the special if the album is a hit” (Beck, 1978, p. 16). Similarly, Maggie Daly of the Chicago Tribune captured Blake’s excitement: “It’s a new Julie with a whole new musical career in front of her” (Daly, 1978, p. 4-S5).

Despite this optimism, plans for the album ultimately stalled. There were a few murmurs of activity into early 1979. For instance, pre-publicity for 10 included press notes mentioning that “In the weeks just preceding the making of 10, Julie went to Nashville to cut an album which will have a new ‘Julie sound’” (Warner Bros, Inc., 1979, p. 3). After this, however, the project fell silent, and the album would not resurface for another three years.

Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song: Revival and Reinvention

The turn of the decade marked a sharp reversal of fortunes for Julie. Between 1979 and 1982, she starred in four films, culminating in Victor/Victoria (1982), a critical and commercial triumph. The film earned her a Golden Globe Award, an Academy Award nomination, and accolades such as Hasty Pudding’s Woman of the Year and the People’s Choice Award for Favourite Film Actress. As one commentator quipped, “Julie Andrews has arrived. Again!” (McDaniel, 1982, p. 11).

This resurgence rekindled interest in Julie’s shelved country album. By late 1982, reports surfaced of her return to Nashville to collaborate once more with producer Larry Butler. The Tennessean announced: “Nashville producer Larry Butler and songstress Julie Andrews were recording a double album for a British label at the Sound Emporium this week” (Neese, 1982, p. 29). Similarly, Billboard reported: “Julie Andrews is working on her newest LP (a double album)…produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Larry Butler, with Harold Lee engineering” (Morris, 1982; Stein, 1982).

While the new album would draw substantially on tracks recorded in 1978, most reports framed it as a completely fresh venture, omitting mention of the earlier sessions—a likely marketing strategy to present the album as contemporary rather than a dusted-off project. One of the few media reports to acknowledge the earlier sessions appeared in Family Weekly which noted: 

“Julie Andrews…has gone off to Nashville to record with longtime Kenny Rogers producer Larry Butler…. Julie worked with Butler in Nashville in 1978 on similar material and was pleased with the results, but no record label made an offer for the album. Andrews hopes that by adding some new songs a major company may pick up the album” (Ask Them, 1983, p. 2).

Another piece in Country Music magazine quoted Julie’s personal manager, Jerry Nutting, as saying that Julie and Larry Butler “recorded 13 songs in 1978 [and] this year they recorded 12 more songs, and the entire package will be released in a 25-song double album” (Pugh, 1983, p. 17) Among the most notable new additions was a duet with Johnny Cash on Love Me Tender, which became both the album’s title track and, in some markets, a 45rpm single. Local Nashville columnist Red O’Donnell reported:

“Actress Julie Andrews came to Nashville with no advance warning to record a country music album. While in the studio, Johnny Cash dropped into the studio where the recording session was underway and sang a duet with her. ‘I don’t know if it is going to be on the album or not,’ said Cash. ‘Miss Andrews was cutting one of my songs, and I dropped in to thank her for doing it” (O’Donnell, 1982, p. 30).

Promotion for the pending album ramped up in late 1982 and 1983. Syndicated Hollywood correspondent, Bob Thomas, devoted one of his columns to the album:

“Julie Andrews has done it all – British vaudeville, Broadway musical, Hollywood extravaganzas, television series, children’s novels and now a country music album…After a career that has known Everest-like highs as well as a few lows, Julie Andrews at 47 still hunts for new challenges – like the country album…Larry Butler, who has supervised recordings by Kenny Rogers, Tammy Wynette and other country greats, produced the album. It will be released next year” (Thomas, 1982, p. 1)

In November 1982, Julie previewed a song from the album on Bob Hope’s Pink Panther Thanksgiving Gala. Billed as “an all-star spectacular celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Pink Panther films,” the program served as a promotional showcase for Blake Edwards’ projects (Barnes, 1982, p. 2C). Julie’s contributions included a duet with co-star Robert Preston from Victor/Victoria and a performance of Love is a Place Where Two People Fall, the album’s sole original composition, written for her by Larry Butler. Possibly to boost the program’s country appeal, Willie Nelson also appeared as a guest performer.

We Love Each Other: The British Launch

The “British label” that finally secured Julie’s country album was Peach River Records, an independent company established in 1980 by psychedelic folk singer turned music publisher Tim Hollier. Peach River was Hollier’s second venture into record labels, following the short-lived Songwriters Workshop. With distribution support from PLT (formerly PYE), Hollier assembled a small but eclectic roster of artists, including David Knopfler of Dire Straits fame, Papa Rage, and Peter Sarstedt (Larkin, 1998).

Releasing Julie’s album through a small independent label was, as one report noted, “rather unusual for such a well-known artist.” Julie explained: “They’ve given the album the kind of personal attention that I knew it would probably have missed had it been released by a major company” (White, 1983, p. 17). Julie may have been putting an overly positive spin on things, but Hollier certainly invested effort in the album’s UK launch.

The first task was selecting a title. In the early 1980s, duets between artists from disparate genres were popular—think Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes’s Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer or Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias’s To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before. Following this trend, the album was named after Julie’s duet with Johnny Cash, Love Me Tender.

Although early reports suggested a double-disc release, the album ultimately came out as a single LP featuring 14 tracks. The cover photograph, shot by renowned celebrity photographer Greg Gorman, perfectly complemented the album’s tone. It featured Julie in a cream wool jumper, gazing warmly at the camera with her chin resting on her hand, set against a taupe backdrop. The image exuded a mix of softness, warmth, and intimacy, mirroring the album’s vocal style.

Love Me Tender officially launched in the UK on 1 July 1983, under the catalogue number JULIE 1. Julie arrived in London at the end of June for an intensive promotional campaign, kicking off with a press conference at Burke’s Club on 27 June. Over the next week, she made numerous TV and radio appearances, participated in photo shoots, and gave one-on-one interviews at her suite in the Dorchester (Eborall, 1983, pp. 6–7; Seaton, 1983, p. 6). One photo shoot, featuring Julie beside a flower seller’s cart, evoked her My Fair Lady days as Eliza Doolittle, inspiring headlines like “Country L.P. for an English Rose” (Saturday Profile, 1983, p. 6).

The promotional push paid off handsomely. Love Me Tender initially launched with a 5,000-copy pressing, which sold out within a week. A second pressing of 30,000 copies followed—an exceptional figure for the UK market (Pugh, 1983, p. 17). By mid-July, the album was charting in the UK Top 100, where it remained for over five weeks, becoming Julie’s most successful non-film or non-show recording in the UK (Top 100, 1983, p. 20).

Buoyed by the success, Peach River quickly capitalised. In early August, they released a 45rpm single of the Love Me Tender duet. Later that year, they reissued Julie’s 1975 Christmas LP, The Secret of Christmas under the title Julie Andrews’ Christmas Album, with new cover art referencing the Love Me Tender design (New Albums, 1983, p. 25).

Blanket on the Ground: Global Rollout

One challenge of signing Love Me Tender to Peach River Records was the UK label’s lack of an established global distribution network. As a result, international rights were sub-licensed to various labels, leading to a patchwork of releases across different markets. For instance, the album was distributed by Attic in Canada, Dureco Benelux in the Netherlands, Splash Records in Spain, and Prince in South Africa.

In Australia, Love Me Tender was licensed to J&B Records, a mid-price label specialising in middle-of-the-road artists like Harry Secombe, Max Bygraves, Willie Nelson, and Anne Murray. Released in September, the Australian edition featured 16 tracks -- two more than the UK version. One of these, I Still Miss Someone (featuring Johnny Cash’s backing vocals), had been the B-side of the Love Me Tender single in the UK, while the other, We Don’t Make Love Anymore, was previously unreleased. J&B Records’ regional reach into Oceania and Southeast Asia helped the album achieve strong sales in the Australasian market (Guest & Maloney, 1991).

The Japanese release, however, stood out for its exceptional quality. Licensed to the prestigious Nippon Phonogram Company and distributed on the Philips label, the album was pressed by Victor Company in Yokohama and released in January 1984. Like the Australian edition, it included 16 tracks and featured specially commissioned liner notes by Shigeru Kawabata, a prominent music journalist for Tokyo Shimbun and Weekly Gendai. Kawabata wrote with genuine affection for Julie and the album:

“Even with the contemporary approach [of Love Me Tender], Julie avoids simply copying the standards. Her meticulous interpretation transforms these songs into her own. This care is evident in the way she speaks about the album. We are now holding the most refined and beautiful expression of contemporary standards in our hands. Just as Julie graced Broadway musicals with the elegance of serious musicianship, she has now opened another brilliant chapter with this studio recording. Discovering this gem amidst the overwhelming flow of today’s musical output is a quiet joy. I hope to continue treasuring such beautiful musical encounters in the future” (Kawabata, 1983).

At the opposite end of the spectrum was the album’s release in the United States. Despite being the heartland of country music, the American debut of Love Me Tender was disappointingly lacklustre. Licensed to the small Los Angeles-based Bainbridge Records --founded in 1980 by marketing veterans Stan Marshall and Lee Armstrong to service the middle-of-the-road (MOR) music market -- the label secured US rights in late 1982 but delayed the release until 1984 (Sippel, 1980). When it finally launched, minimal marketing and poor decisions -- such as reducing the track list to just 10 songs -- ensured the album barely made an impact. 

The reasons for the poorly handled US release remain unclear. By 1984, the countrypolitan wave had waned, and both critical and popular sentiment had shifted. Reviewing another Larry Butler-produced album, critic Dave Mulholland (1981) decried it as “Larry Butler’s production [of] standard countrypolitan mediocrity. It represents the worst of the Nashville assembly line” (p. 20).

Country audiences were gravitating back to a more classic sound, heralded by the rise of the neotraditionalist movement with a new breed of singers like Randy Travis, George Strait, and Reba McEntire. Mainstream audiences, meanwhile, had tired of the crossover sound, and by 1984, sales of country albums had dropped to their lowest levels in nearly a decade (Haslam, Haslam, & Chon, 1999, p. 259).

A 1983 Country Music magazine article profiling the UK launch of Love Me Tender reflects the growing skepticism toward pop artists crossing into country:

Twenty years ago, who could have foreseen...one of the most enduring staples of the music scene: the country album by the pop star. With few exceptions, however, most pop-star country albums -- generally conceived as last gasps of a faded career for an artist with little or no connection to country music -- make about as much impact as a bug flying into a windshield.  Now comes the latest to try her hand at the country album game, and one of the most ostensibly unlikely: Julie Andrews. "Julie has sold 25 million copies of soundtrack albums," said Jerry Nutting, her personal manager, "but she has never cut a solo album per se… We don't feel this is a 'gimmick' album. Julie is very sincere in doing it, very enthusiastic during the recordings and very hopeful of making a contribution to country music” (Pugh, 1983, p. 17).

While shifting cultural tides in American music by the mid-1980s were less than ideal for Love Me Tender, the complete absence of marketing effort remains puzzling. Extensive searches of newspaper databases reveal no mentions of the US release—no advertising, no press coverage, nothing. This is particularly odd given Bainbridge Records’ marketing background and stated goal to “renovate” the underserved MOR market (Sippel, 1980, p. 15).

Some Days Are Diamonds: Brickbats and Bouquets

Leaving aside the album’s oddly weak US push, Love Me Tender was generally well received in most other markets. It achieved solid sales and garnered decent airplay. While it didn’t attract extensive critical attention, the reviews it did receive were generally respectable. Some critics questioned Julie Andrews’ fit within the country genre, but others celebrated her versatility and praised the album’s polished production and heartfelt interpretations. Below is a selection of excerpts from reviews around the world:

Daily Mirror (UK): “Amazing – Julie Andrews and Johnny Cash singing Elvis Presley! It’s superb and deserves to be a hit” (Eggar, 1983, p. 19).

The Telegraph (UK): "If I had to put together a list of the Top Ten superstars I'd like to see in concert here, Julie's name wouldn't get written down. Until now that is. The courageous experiment of the star to risk her career in Nashville laying down a hoedown and applejack LP Love Me Tender, all the big names do it inevitably -- has been a huge success and broadened interest in her talents" (MacIlwaine, 1983, p. 11).

Gramophone (UK): “Julie Andrews? You would have to believe it if you heard her duetting with Johnny Cash in Love Me Tender, which has been picking up plenty of radio air play. That track gives us the title of Julie's own contribution to the Nashville  legend…The magic formula is here for all to appreciate once again - Larry Butler in charge of production, Billy Sherrill the engineer (who couldn't produce a bad record if he tried), strings by Shelley Kurland, and even the ubiquitous Hargus "Pig" Robins on piano. Yes, this is a fine recording and no mistake. But the voice is wrong. Frankly, Julie Andrews just isn't at home in Nashville: she is too sweet, too pure, too precise, too English. The few lines of Love Me Tender which the croaking Johnny Cash contributes spell out in a few seconds just what is wrong with the rest of the record. And to hear the very proper Julie Andrews (I'm sorry, but I can't help it if the 'image' sticks in my mind) naughtily singing of the potential pleasures of a Blanket on the ground is just too much for a listener of my sensibilities to take (Chislett, 1983, p. 541).

Manchester Evening News (UK): “It must be one of the most surprising double acts ever – Julie Andrews and Johnny Cash. The two have brought out Elvis Presley’s old classic, Love Me Tender, which was recorded at the home of country music, Nashville, with highly respected producer Larry Butler…Peach River Records say the combination may seem ‘extraordinary’ but it works ‘wonderfully’. To me it works for some of the times, but there are awkward moments and Cash sounds as though he’s singing deeper and deeper as age increases” (Jasper, 1983, p. 19).

Belfast News-Letter (UK): “Julie Andrews and Johnny Cash hoped to jump on the current pop duet bandwagon with a sweet ‘n’ sour version of Elvis Presley's Love Me Tender. But talk about square holes and round pegs! The Sound of Music songstress and the gravelly-voiced country star mix about as well as a one-armed man at a juggling party. For Julie is simply too good a singer and Cash too poor a singer for this oil and water combination to work” (McAdam, 1983, p. 8).

The Age (Australia): "Known for her crystalline voice and impeccable diction, Andrews takes a turn into the realm of country-inspired ballads, proving her versatility and emotional depth as a singer…Fans of her earlier work will appreciate how Andrews carries her trademark poise into this genre, while newcomers may find themselves enchanted by her ability to convey intimacy and sincerity. While some might question her foray into country, Andrews makes it her own, reminding listeners that great singing transcends musical styles" (Walker, 1983, p. 18).

Show Music (USA): "A few months back, we were moaning over the fact that Julie Andrews doesn't make it into the recording studios very often. Well, guess what? Peach River Records, Ltd., in England, has gotten the lady back on record in what is one of her best efforts. It was recorded in Nashville, and Miss Andrews takes to country-flavored songs like a duck takes to water. There are lovely versions of Some Days Are Diamonds, When I Dream, Crazy, We Love Each Other, and even a successful duet with Johnny Cash on the album's title-track. Julie sounds just great, and her sensitive readings of these songs make us hope that her next outing will be a collection of some of the best of recent Broadway material" (Preeo, 1983, p. 29).

The Advocate (Canada):  “Julie Andrews shows her country and pop side on Love Me Tender, an impressive album of soft melodies making the most of her beautiful, timeless voice. Produced in Nashville by Larry Butler, Love Me Tender includes the cream of Nashville’s musical community. Johnny Cash joins Andrews on Love Me Tender. They sound great together. When I Dream shows Andrews’ power to reach the heart of the listener, in this love ballad on loneliness. In this, her 23rd album so far, Andrews again adds to the sound of music around the world. You won't need a spoonful of sugar to make this LP enjoyable” (Kennedy, 1984, p. 34).

Fanfare (Canada):  “He’s out of his mind, they’re saying, he’s off the edge, Julie Andrews for God’s sake! You got it! Love Me Tender (Attic LAT-1189) is apparently her 23rd album, and it's as tasty a batch of country-baked tunes as have come down the pike in years. Lots of last-waltz-style material, which she does easy and effortless and entirely on the money. Larry Butler lavished outstanding Nashville production on it, and the 14 tracks (including a duet with Johnny Cash) are delivered in a warm, clear, wide-eyed voice. Julie Andrews says: ‘The songs aren't easy. They're simple, plain, honest, and that's the hardest thing to sing.’ She shouldn't have worried” (Flegler, 1985, p. 27).

‘The Valley That Time Forgot’: Epilogue

In the four decades since its release, Love Me Tender has been criminally overlooked. Unlike many of Julie’s other works, the album has never been issued on CD or made available in digital formats. Without the efforts of devoted fans to preserve and share tracks online, awareness of the album might have vanished entirely. This lack of visibility is regrettable, given the significant creative effort invested by Julie and the many talented collaborators who worked on the album over four years. From Larry Butler’s meticulous production to the contributions of Nashville’s A-Team musicians, Love Me Tender represents a labour of love that deserves to be remembered and appreciated.

This blog post is a modest attempt to redress the historical amnesia surrounding Love Me Tender and restore at least some recognition to this fascinating piece of Julie Andrews' legacy. It may not have achieved the commercial success or enduring acclaim of her other work, but it stands as a poignant reminder of her courage to embrace the unfamiliar and her dedication to creative exploration. In revisiting Love Me Tender, one is reminded of Julie’s ability to bring grace and sincerity to even the most unexpected of projects.

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© 2024, Brett Farmer. All Rights Reserved.

[itsvivace]

— SAD GIRLS CLUB . . THE DISCOGRAPHY !

tw: flashing lights !!!

Sad Girls Club is a fictional sub-unit of the fictional thirteen-member girl group, VIVACE, consisting of five members : EUNMI, NOELLE, ARA, YANA, & HAYEON. VIVACE is split into three active sub-units to promote in, and today, we’ll be exploring their first and most famous unit, Sad Girls Club. Sad Girls Club explores more of VIVACE’s mature side, along with heavily Second Gen inspired music, which has captured the hearts of fans all around the world.

— 2019 - 2021 . . ALL EYES ON ME . .

A few weeks after VIVACE’s debut, I-Teen Media announced that they would be debuting their first sub-unit under the name Sad Girls Club. Due to the popularity of ARA, NOELLE, & HAYEON, their debut was hugely anticipated by even non fans of VIVACE. Sad Girls Club debuted on October 2, 2019, with the self-titled mini album “SAD GIRLS CLUB” consisting of five tracks, “Like This” serving as the title track. SAD GIRLS CLUB debuted with 96K album sales, and Like This immediately charted #1 on every South Korean chart within the first week of release, even getting the girls their first win on their second week of promotions.

Sad Girls Club would return six months later on April 4, 2020, with their first single album, “My Attitude”, consisting of two tracks, “Inside Job” serving as the album’s title track. The album debuted with 139K album sales, with Inside Job debuting at #3 on the chart and moving up to #1 a week after release. Inside Job was the start of their slower and more mature sounding music, which gained them a bunch of fans during this era.

A few months later on August 5, 2020, they released their second mini album, “REVOLUTION”, which consists of six tracks including the title track, “VILLAIN”. REVOLUTION is a more noisy and experimental sound than what they usually did but the album still debuted with 194K album sales and debuted #2 on charts.

As an end-of-the-year release, they dropped their third mini album, “WOMAN”, consisting of five tracks, including the title track “Woman”, on December 14, 2020. Woman trended for its second-gen sound and woman-empowering message, which earned the album 482K album sales and #1 across global charts.

Sad Girls Club would only release two things in the year 2021. On May 23, 2021, they put out their first digital single, “Pretty Savage”, which charted #3 on Melon and #2 globally. They would then come back on July 15, 2021, with their fourth mini album, “Movie Star”, consisting of six tracks, including the title track, “N♡︎DE”. They would comment on the unfair standards and sexualization women go through, especially in the music industry, which earned them Album of The Year in 2021. Movie Star would give them their first million-seller album, debuting with 1.3M album sales and all of the songs on the album hitting the top ten on charts.

— 2022 - 2023 . . I LIVE FOR THE APPLAUSE . .

With the hype from Movie Star starting to die down and having no comeback announcements from Sad Girls Club, fans were beginning to get anxious waiting for a new release. They would release their first full album, “SUPERWOMAN”, on January 28, 2022, consisting of twelve tracks, including the pre-release single, “SUPERLADIES”, and the second title track, “I Am The Best”. SUPERWOMAN is a powerful album about empowering women, self-love, and self-appreciation. SUPERLADIES would gain 85 million views within the first 24 hours and earned them six music show wins. As of August 2024, SUPERLADIES is one of Sad Girls Club’s most viewed music videos, with 953 million views. I Am The Best went viral for its second-gen influence and powerful sound, releasing with 294 million views in the first 24 hours and giving Sad Girls Club eleven music show wins. The music video is currently at 1.2 billion views, their most viewed music video ever. SUPERWOMAN debuted with 7.8M album sales and sold out almost instantly, making it Sad Girls Club’s biggest release.

Sad Girls Club would come back on June 23, 2022, with their fifth mini album, “Club 5”, consisting of five tracks including the title track “Live It Up”. Club 5 shows a slower and more mature side to Sad Girls Club which earned the album 4.8M album sales and Live It Up hitting the top five on the South Korean charts.

They would end the year off with the release of their second single album, “Bad Boy”, consisting of three tracks including the title track of the same name, “Bad Boy”. They would continue their slower and mature sounding songs for this album which made it get 4M album sales and debuted first on the Global Charts.

Sad Girls Club released their sixth mini album, “Breakfast At Tiffany’s”, on February 4, 2023, which consists of six tracks, including the title track, “Lion Heart”. Breakfast At Tiffany’s has a '60s aesthetic and is heavily themed around media created from then. It also talks about the downside of Hollywood and the movie industry as a whole and how it treats its actors, which gave the album 7.6M sales and charted in the top ten.

In a huge suprise to fans, they released their second full album, “The Plastics”, on June 3, 2023, consisting of fifteen tracks, including the pre-release singles “Get In, Loser”, “You Can’t Sit With Us”, and the title track, “Queen B”. The album was completely based off the movie “Mean Girls” made in 2004 and is filled to the brim with references to the movie. The album debuted with over 9 million sales, five music show wins, and a performance at the 2023 Grammy Awards, which they were nominated for.

Sad Girls Club released their third full album, “I’m The Drama” on October 16, 2023, consisting of eleven tracks including the title track, “DRAMA”. This album brought many worries of Sad Girls Club being possibly overworked but nothing was outwardly confirmed other than a few hints some of the members made. The album sold 14 million copies overall and is what fans say was the start of their “Reputation” era.

The latest release from Sad Girls Club is their second digital single, “Hopeless Romantic”, released on November 29, 2023. The song charted third on the charts but fans still say it was overall forgettable and earned the group a suprising amount of hate. As of September 2024, Sad Girls Club have not made a comeback despite the members outwardly stating they would like to have one soon.

[neverceasetoamazeme]

Can I say something about the remake?

I totally understand the sentiments people have that the live action is completely unnecessary and that it may just be another cash grab. I can even empathize with the public opinion that it disrespects the animated movie since it's just a scene-by-scene copy of HTTYD 1. I totally get it and if that's your opinion too then it's okay 🙂 we all have a right to express our thoughts about this movie.

Personally though, I'm just really happy that it's reignited my love and attention for this franchise. ❤️ I first fell in love with it back in high school and I'm a fully grown adult now. I did my IB thesis on the first book and have rewatched the trilogy and shows an ungodly number of times over the past decade.

Sure, I grew up and responsibilities have piled up, putting my obsession for this franchise at a backseat (including the upkeep for this blog, originally hiccupsgreeneyes). However, this movie has given me something to look forward to for the first time again in years since the trilogy ended (2019).

I wouldn't have appreciated it as much if they extended the story even more after THW because it was a good ending to the story. I really thought our anticipation days were over, and all we could do now was just revel in the movies and shows of the past. Not to say that this is a bad thing, though! Give me just the tiniest nudge and I'd watch the whole franchise again in a heartbeat.

All I'm saying is that it's possible to love one thing without having to hate on the other. We can embrace both past and future projects so long as we enjoy them. Having Dean direct it again means that it will be loyal to the source material and that the movie will be in good hands.

Watching the trailer made my cry so much because, while I already know what's going to happen in the movie, I felt that genuine sense of child-like excitement once again for a boy and his dragon who I both hold so deeply in my heart.

Writing this half asleep and relying on auto correct but I just wanted to pour my thoughts and emotions into this post because I care about this show so much, and HTTYD 1 was just so beautiful and iconic that I can't really think of anything awful to say except I can't wait to see it and how they bring my babies back to (real) life.

Comment down below though on your thoughts, I'd love to have a friendly discussion about this! This may be the perfect opportunity for me to reignite some activity into this blog again. 😋

---

PS, I don't want to seem like I'm riding on a high horse here. While yes, I do love the franchise, I did not and will not watch the toddler show.

PPS, On the subject of loving both past and future projects, this SO does not apply to the Snow White remake. They just did my girl dirty.

[lani-illit]

──⠀۪ ⠀⠀★ ۫ MILANI NGUYEN , Milani is the Main Vocalist and Face of new kpop girl group ILL-IT , she joined hybe in 2019 after moving to korea to peruse her dream of being an idol. During her time as a trainee the girl was able to build up a decent fandom of her own due to hybe using the girl to play the role of the character Sooah, within Enhypen’s Music Videos and Concept Trailers. Many fans had been anticipating the girls debut after her great acting and stunning visual showcases in Enhypens ‘DARK BLOOD’ trailer. When she was revealed as a constant on Runext she was instantly labeled a global fan favorite and on the survival show, placing 1st securing her debut spot.

˚₊‧꒰ა BASIC INFORMATION . . . ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

Name: Milani Nguyên

Stage name: Lani

Birthday: February 14th 2003

Place of birth: Brisbane, Australia

Nationality: Australian

Age: 20

Gender: Female

Sexuality: unknown

Currently living: South Korea

Relationship status: unknown

˚₊‧꒰ა PHYSICAL APPERANCE . . . ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

Height: 5’9

Weight: unknown

Hair length: Long ( to lower back )

Natural Hair color: Dark Brown

Current hair color: Jet Black

Natural Eye color: Brown

Current Eye color: Brown

˚₊‧꒰ა SKILLS . . . ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

Dancing: 10/10

Singing: 9/10

Rapping: 6/10

Visual: 10/10

MC: 7/10

Acting: 8/10

Modeling: 10/10

˚₊‧꒰ა LANI’S FAVORITE . . . ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

Food: Spicy Ramen / Chicken & Rice

Book: unknown

Color: Pink & green

Number: 4

Show: Power Puff Girls

Movie: Train To Busan / Clueless

Animal: Bunnies

Group: TWICE

[hannahwatcheshorror]

LA LLORONA (2019)

Not to be confused with The Curse of La Llorona which came out the same year, La Llorona or The Weeping Woman is a Guatemalan horror film. This is a very slow paced political drama that also happens to be a horror movie on the side. I usually enjoy foreign films and the eerie feeling they give off but I mostly just found this to be more sad than scary (as the name would imply it isn’t a happy film, but still). 

⭐⭐

(Trigger Warning Rape Mention, Children Dying, Guerilla Warfare)

A native woman lays out in excruciating detail what the guerillas did to her and her people (to the children and women especially), it was a heartbreaking scene, honestly. It felt very real (because in some places it is real) so it was very sobering. After being found guilty of genocide the grandfather fakes a medical incident but then in the hospital can be seen smoking and getting poured a drink from a flask so clearly it isn’t that serious. You feel no sympathy for his character so you don’t care that he is being haunted or hunted or having all those protesters outside his door.

Nothing creepy starts happening until over 30 minutes in and even then it isn’t haunted behavior. (I guess the weeping at the top of the film was a bit suspicious but it was so quiet I needed to watch the scene again to pick up on it) You basically watch a slow paced political drama for a half hour and then the weird maid comes in and even then she isn’t that weird, just a little spooky. 45 minutes in and the creepiest thing we see is grandpa boner. One hour in and still no big scares, no big villain (other than the grandfather). I am BORED.

This is just a movie about one old man's terrible choices and how they are coming back to bite him in the ass slowly but surely. His wife has a nightmare where she is one of his victims, she just doesn’t know it yet. I feel very little sympathy for his family members except his granddaughter who is clearly innocent in all this, but the maid is protecting her like she couldn’t protect her own children, so I don’t feel like the granddaughter is under any threat.

The wrap up is basically this: asshole grandpa leads his people in Guerilla warfare and genocide and he thinks there will be no consequences. Turns out, the ghost of a woman whose kids he drowned has come back to haunt him and his family but mostly just him. She pranks him a bit before getting his own wife to murder him by letting her see the vision of what he had done to the natives. Very underwhelming, and I was actually anticipating some good creeps but just having a lady with long hair that’s wet standing around isn’t that scary. It was basically a sobering political documentary that I never intended to watch. I suppose with a title like “The Weeping Woman” I should have assumed there would be some sadness but good grief was this a somber ride. Grandpa War-machine deserved death and worse, our movie ends with the ghosts having moved on to the next in the pecking order for their revenge, they won’t be satiated until all the scumbags who murdered their children in cold blood are dead.

[bitter69uk]

Born on this day 90 years ago: sensational Eisenhower era jazz chanteuse, actress and pin-up queen Meg Myles (née Billie Jean Jones, 14 November 1934 – 12 November 2019). For b-movie aficionados, Myles makes an incendiary impression as the leading lady of Satan in High Heels (1962), the apex of early sixties sexploitation cinema NOT made by Russ Meyer. (I screened this tawdry gem at the Lobotomy Room cinema club in July 2024). Even though Satan is black-and-white, you can just tell Myles’ hair is flaming red. (If you squint your eyes, with her curvaceous figure, tight pencil skirts and impressive beehive hairdo, Myles’ silhouette anticipates Joan Holloway in TV’s Mad Men). Inexplicably, despite her tender way with a ballad and scorching charismatic and glamorous performance as the tough as nails anti-heroine Stacey Kane, Myles somehow wasn’t destined for mainstream stardom. (In later years she focused on TV soap operas like The Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow and All My Children). Now belt out Myles’ BDSM musical number “Female of the Species” from Satan in High Heels along with me: “I'm the kind of woman / Not hard to understand / I'm the kind that cracks the whip / And takes the upper hand …” Satan in High Heels seemingly slipped into public domain years ago and is easy to find and watch for free online. This version is great.