#this is not original but i was going through disney films with my partner and hes just so yeah he totally is guys | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tokyogruel · 1 year ago

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good morning my dearests! took a peek at the tags when i woke up and im loving all of your thoughts. lets talk about them!

i am secretly a big fashions enjoyer, so youve piqued my interest quite a bit. lets take a look at everyones favorite little supermodel, muu! @purgemarchlockdown tysm for your tags!!

outfit 1, trial 1.

now im not quite sure why the outfits under the prisoner's uniforms are different from the outfits they committed their murders in, but that's a discussion for a different day

we start off with what appears to be a strapless (or spaghetti strap) simple, tan nightgown or form-fitting dress with a lace applique at the bottom of the skirt. i personally lean more towards this being a nightgown or under-dress. and while milgram has not shyed away from using real-life brands as inspiration for character outfits, i have no way of placing this dress as anything beyond an outfit designed specifically for muu. her shoes are also likely made just for the project, but i can easily find similar pairs for under $30 online, leading into $50

outfit 2, trial 2.

right off the bat you can see that muu's outfit is more complicated and looks more expensive than her t1 outfit! she has earrings, something she didnt have before- and damn do they look pricey. another sleeveless look, with a skirt that displays two patterns- a plaid that is surprisingly similar to her school unifrom's skirt, and peacock feathers on a dark cloth. i could go in-depth on the symbolism for peacock feathers, but this post is already huge. ill leave you with these for now

youll also notice that her shoes are far more expensive looking! they appear to be inlaid with rhinestones. it's important to note that the trial 2 outfits are most likely clothes that the prisoners have ordered through milgram- and there appears to be no set budget for the prisoners to order personal items. so it begs the question... if she wanted to wear rhinestone-inlaid shoes before milgram, and had the funds to do so......... why didnt she have them in the first trial? why were her shoes so... bare?

outfit 3, muu's birthday.

now this is an outfit fit for a princess! but, i suppose theres no evidence that she actually owns this dress, huh? but lets take a look anyway

clearly, her dress is inspired by belle from beauty and the beast. a french tale! how fitting and lovely. but... belle did not start out as a princess, she did not come from a home of great wealth. she was a well-read, intelligent girl who found herself in a great beast's castle to save her father. she is eventually able to find the beast's true heart and fall in love with his gentle nature. they break his curse, and live happily ever after. at least, in the disney film. ive not read the original story, and unfortunately do not have the time to do so today.

whats next...

her shoes. glass slippers. a cinderella reference perhaps? yet another "fairy tale princess" who comes from a background of poverty. a young girl forced to scrub floors by her stepmother, who gained the prefix "cinder" to her preexisting "ella" by the fact that her being forced to clean out the fireplaces while her sisters lazed about , left dark ash on her hair and skin.

there are also a great number of smaller details i could get into, but my lack of time makes this challenging. so i will leave you with a final note: the cake. the galette de rois. or the three kings cake.

notes below taken from wikipedia

my goodness!!

and unfortunately, i am out of time to write this, as i am heading off to a date with my partner. but while im gone, please enjoy some more fashions of muu! man, she loves her strapless dresses!

can we get this slutty little milf to 1million?

Tell me more about the idea that muu is lying and not actually rich please. Ive only ever seen one other person consider that before but they never elaborated + changed their mind post INMF so im really curious. Like what do you think supports it?

im so sorry this took me a few days, work tends to drain me a lot more than id like haha

but i would be more than happy to elaborate!

unfortunately a few of my claims are based off of evidence/supportive pieces that are in a discord server i no longer have access to, so please forgive me

to start off, it was pointed out to me at one point that muu goes to a more expensive private school, though there are grants and scholarships that allow those without the proper funding to attend these schools regardless of their financial status (i.e. haruhi in ouran high school host club). i believe muu is a very intelligent young girl who is capable of earning one of these scholarships easily

muu also has a recurring theme of "foreigner in a place that is new and scary to her" her being a blonde-haired light-eyed half-french, lesbian GNC-girl in a private school filled with dark-haired dark-eyed japanese straight feminine girls. muu is the kind of person who likely feels totally outcast by her peers.

as well, taking a peek at this conversation in after pain:

with a very rough translation (i am not proficient in japanese, but this is the gist of the conversation)

it should be noted that muu's friends "A-" and "Sayu" appear to be talking about muu as if she is not present in the conversation, and their tone is almost mocking. muu retorts by claiming she has plenty more, and that her lipstick (which they are likely making fun of her for it being a cheap brand, though im not sure about this detail) is just an extra she had on hand. she gets defensive, and is likely lying to protect her "rich girl who has everything" image.

i would also like to point out that muu seems to have gotten nothing in return for her lipstick- and was likely lending it to her friend with no expectation. muu acts like she isnt a giving person, but genuinely seems to be thoughtful and generous towards those she cares about. this can also be seen with muu giving haruka "hand-me-down" hair clips. its a small gesture, but haruka wears and appreciates them- they keep his uncut hair out of his eyes, and its a small piece of her that he can wear. its a thoughtful gift

and secondly... doesnt anybody else think that its weird that weve seen NOTHING about her home life? with other prisoners, we see at least two aspects of their lives, if not more. haruka with his house v. the forest. yuno in the car, on the stairs, in the brothel-room, on dates. fuuta in the tunnel, the arcade, on the basketball court. shidou in his house, hospital, greenhouse. mahiru in the forest, her house, several pictures of her on outings in TIHTBILWY. kazui in his house and the bar, on the altar. amane in her house, on the street, though MAGIC primarily takes place in her "inner world". mikoto in his home and train station. kotoko in the warehouse, a bar, on the streets etc.

muu's videos take place entirely in her school. even her inner-world with the bright white walls and floors, where herself and her peers are bugs- its still her mental depiction of school. her home life is totally void in her videos. why? sure, it may not be important to her murder- but maybe, its more important than what we see in after pain and inmf

did you know that most bullies use bullying as a way to cope with lack of control in their lives? that bullies most often face harrassment at home, and that school is their only escape from abuse? those who bully their peers often mirror their own parents' actions towards them. school is likely the only place where muu has any sense of control in her life. yes, its bad that she bullied her peers, but she is a child who has no proper outlet for the pain that she faces

(i also believe that her hourglass imagery lends to a cycle of violence- that muu was likely bullied, became the bully, and lost her status only to get bullied once more)

but im going on a tangent

unfortunately at this point i am running out of steam and good examples to lend to why i believe muu is poor (please, if anyone else has any evidence to back this up, please do add on to this post! i love to hear the community's thoughts!)

but for one last, small point. let's take a look at muu's lunch. a simple bento

this bento is very small (a side note: i am also of the opinion that muu struggles with an ED) and it consists of a few simple ingredients.

a leaf of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, rice, a small amount of sauce, a single hot dog cut in the shape of an octopus, and what appears to be a hunk of protein, like chicken

well, thats not a lot of food. certainly nothing high-quality or expensive. lets take a look at some school lunches in japan. lets search up "学校べんと" "gakkou bento" "school bento" and look at the images

muu's lunch certainly doesnt look all that filling. it most certainly does not look bougie and expensive

edit: i would also like to note that she parallels shidou as a partner prisoner. both feature the concept of lying and upholding a good image of oneself

#creature speaks #i also have to add on more evidence to muu being abused by her family #but later!#for now the cinderella imagery and her birthday cake help there

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forcebewitht · 4 years ago

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Force's Disney Geek Master Theory: Why Twisted Wonderland Is Called Twisted Wonderland

We have all grown to know and love various Disney characters over the years, correct? Yet, I believe a lot of us can argue that not many characters have the same effect on us even as adults today as the Villains do within their respective movies. In the game Disney: Twisted Wonderland as we all know and love, the select boys to Overblot are supposed to have the "souls" of their Villain counterparts, right? But...why is it called "Twisted" Wonderland, then? The truth may lie within something that has been right in front of us all along, my friends: the meaning of a mirror. Ready to buckle in for this one? If so, then here we go!

We have seen all of these guys share character traits, looks, etc with their Disney counterparts, correct? Well, what if I were to tell you that things in terms of the "main" guys that we are supposed to pay attention to aren't exactly what they seem? This could be analyzed in a few different ways, honestly, yet the most prominent way is this: the differences in their personalities- they are reversed. Let us take this bit by bit, shall we?

Ah, yes. The Queen Of Hearts. The ranting, raging, bundle of red, black, and gold we all know and love. (or else heads would roll, I'm sure) One of the things that everybody knows about her is that she's extremely hellbent on the crazy rules that she makes up and is prone to anger honestly very easily. Yeah, you can connect that to Riddle- but think about it for a second. While that rage and the rule thing is still there, it isn't as prominent with him as it was with her, is it? With the Queen of Hearts, her whole "issue" was that she wished to make everybody listen to her and follow her every command- but Riddle was essentially always following the rules of another- not his own. This seemed to make Riddle a little more calm most of the time in terms of how he handled and oversaw things. It wasn't until he actually Overblotted that the "listen to me and only me" thing came out- buuuuuuttttttt I'll get to that part in a bit.

Next: Leona and Scar. While we honestly didn't get to see a lot of what went on behind the scenes in the Outlands in terms of how Scar even met the hyenas to begin with at all, one thing can honestly be said- Scar worked very hard to get where he was. I mean, it's not like you can get an entire pack of rabid, hungry hyenas onto your side in the course of a single day, or maybe even a week (especially as a lion, no less). No, something to that extreme takes careful planning, wording, and stringing along to ensure that nothing goes wrong along the way. The way Scar spoke to Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed made it seem as though he had known them for a looooonngggg time before this- that's where that behind the scenes planning comes in. And then...you have Leona. Leona, from what we can tell in Chapter 2, planned the idea for the "endgame" alright- but he didn't actually act upon any of the plan for himself. Ruggie did. Even in the Lion King, we see that Scar had no problems whatsoever getting his paws dirty a little within his own scheme to take his "rightful place" at the head of Pride Rock- but Leona quite honestly did not a thing once Ruggie was in motion. See where this is starting to head?

Azul and Ursula. Ursula, the Disney baddie queen of my heart Ursula, the Sea Witch. She was known all around the ocean floor for helping out poor little merfolk in secret, wasn't she? Yet, nobody ever really seemed to catch wind of the whole "her turning those who didn't quite fit the bill into polyps" thing, did they? That was one of the things that made her such a honest threat to Ariel herself- because Ursula was cunning. She did things behind the scenes, and sure- we could catch onto it out in the audience (annnddd maybe Sebastian and Flounder as well), but nobody else really seemed to, right? Azul is the complete opposite in this standpoint. He instills direct fear into his "workers" and those even beyond and within his dorm. Like- basically most knew that this dude was bad news to begin with. Azul, mostly, seemed to hide his cunning facade behind a fake yet still seemingly "soft and genuine" smile and act. But all in all, he didn't really attempt to "hide" anything- hell, he even proclaimed his entire plan of what everyone with those things on their heads were gonna do for him in the open! At least when Ursula sang as Vanessa, she was in an almost perfectly enclosed room with nobody else around.

Jamil and Jafar. This comparison here, given what occurs in the movie Aladdin, is honestly one of the biggest possible indicators of this reoccuring theme I shall clarify in a bit. Jafar, while being sneaky, was known for being a more "out there" Disney Villain in terms of his personality alongside that of his partner Iago in the film. He would smile in a sinister way, he would crack jokes out in the open, and let us not forget his crazed yet oddly interesting laughter. Jamil? He's the exact opposite. Given his past and what he has had to dealt with growing up with Kalim, he is much more reserved and barely releases a chuckle or cracks a smile at all. His personality is a lot more repressed than that of Jafar himself throughout the film. Jamil has been so used to having to hold himself back thanks to his parents in favor of Kalim's family, he doesn't seem to know how to "let go" whatsoever. Yet Jafar, while still maintaining that sneaky side of him as well, has no problems whatsoever letting a little hang loose whenever he so chooses to.

Vil and the Evil Queen. This one honestly may be a bit more self explanatory than the others- but the difference between these two is their expressions of themselves. The Evil Queen was the very first animated counted Disney Villain within Disney's history- yet, she barely had any lines throughout the film at all. Her ranges of expression were almost little to none thanks to the era in which the movie was released in- but she always looked like she was pissed, huh? Vil is the exact opposite of her in this sense. He is able to fully express himself through his various facial expressions, theatrical abilities, musical experiences, fashion style, and even how he behaves. Vil is able to do so much more than the Evil Queen did or could do within that time period, that it's almost a little staggering if you fully picture it.

Idia and Hades. Now, now. We haven't honestly seen too much of the flaming blue boy yet in TWST, but one thing is apparent here right off the bat- in terms of his personality? He is the exact opposite of Hades. Idia is much like Jamil but to a more "geek" degree- he's extremely introverted, shy, a bit snippy, yet mainly keeps to himself and his gaming tech. Hades is most often renowned as the Disney Villain with the most personality- and the best humor. Hades has no problem whatsoever being "out there" with his crazy puns, sassy remarks, anger, and even mocking behavior. I mean, please, guys- I haven't been this choked up since I got a hunk of moussaka caught in my throat!

Finally, Malleus and Maleficent. Ooooohoooooooo boy. We have to count out the live action movie Maleficent for this one (sorry horned queen fans). One thing that basically everybody even with their toe in the water in that of Disney movies kind of knows this fact- Maleficent is c r u el. She's got a bizarre set of dark powers and an even blacker heart than that. Hell, we basically had to "soften her up" a little bit in Maleficent thanks to just how seemingly irredeemable her character is in that of Sleeping Beauty. I mean, c'mon now- cursing an infant? And we get no explanation for that in the original? C'mon, now. Anyways, Malleus? As we all can tell by now, this dude is the compleeettteeeeeee opposite. Sure, he has those repressed bits here and there too, but it is evident that this dude has a heart crying out for the MC and it is big, bold, and golden to the core once you look past how he looks. He sent the MC a card for winter break, for crying out loud. Yeah, let me know the next time you see Maleficent do that smh.

Now, I have avoided using a certain word up until this point to see if anybody could catch on to what exactly is happening here. Did you figure it out? Reverse. The boys that either have Overblotted already or intend to Overblot soon stop holding out on us, Chapter 6 have had the exact opposite personalities compared to that of their Villain counterpart- until one prime point in their "character arcs". Their Overblot.

Riddle wished to have all bow before him and obey his rules.

Leona led his entire dorm into ruin and nearly sanded away the entire school in the process.

Azul let himself finally free of his personal shackles entirely and "took what was his".

Jamil finally let himself go and opened up more in his personality, almost seeming to be driven insane in the process.

Vil wanted to become the most beautiful one of all and would kill anyone within the way of that goal without any hesitation whatsoever.

The moment that the boys' Overblotted, that was the exact moment when the "soul" of their Disney Villain counterpart took control. Keeping that idea in mind, that should mean that this will happen in the upcoming chapters and their Overblots:

Idia will show off all of the personality, powers, and intelligence that he has been keeping down within this introverted self of his.

Malleus will become so broken by being left out and alone in the cold for the final time that he will turn into a completely cruel Fae and possibly nearly kill either the MC or the representation of Prince Philip within that Chapter in the process.

(Hello, my dear Readers! Guess who is trying to get back into her bigger pieces of writing? This gal right here~ feel free to drop a comment and tell me what you think of this theory- I'd love to hear your thoughts! 💕)

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d-criss-news · 3 years ago

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Nine Songs: Darren Criss

When Disney, Phantom Planet and Mr Hudson collide: Glee star, Emmy and Golden Globe winner and musician Darren Criss talks Andrew Wright through the pivotal songs in his life and the unexpected ways they found him.

“When we are younger, our gateway drugs to a lot of popular things don’t come from the sexiest of places. It’s up to you how proactive you want to be with your curiosity from there, and how far down the rabbit hole you want to go, if you go down at all.”

Choosing the songs that define you is a tricky business to say the least, especially when the power of song has provided an ongoing soundtrack to your life. “When you’re as avid a music consumer as musical artists are, trying to pin down Nine Songs is difficult,” Darren Criss laughs. So much so, his final choices only really crystallise as our conversation draws to its close. “It’s hard for me not to see the value and joy in literally everything,” he explains. “The curse of the creative person is that your ideas and your interests always move way faster than your body can execute.”

Criss is a creative par excellence. As well as his Emmy and Golden Globe winning performance in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, where he played serial killer Andrew Cunanan, to his upcoming role in Muppets Haunted Mansion Halloween special as The Caretaker, he’s also a prolific musician. Criss enjoyed a decadent musical consumption since childhood, so “this was a bit of an archaeological dig,” he admits. As such, everything from jazz standards, to 808s, punk rock, ‘90s teen pop, and musical numbers are excavated in the course of our extemporaneous journey through the music he loves.

Equally on his mind is how to go about approaching the task of creating his Nine Songs, full stop. “The interesting social experiment is: Are my answers going to be songs that actually shaped my life and were formative to me as an artist? Are they songs that were formative to me as a human being? Or am I picking songs that I think represent who I am to people that do not know me? All three of those things aren’t necessarily the same thing.”

He reaches a conclusion of sorts. “For the purposes of making some kind of decision, I’m gonna lean less into trying to look cool to your very cool readership, and more into the literal, ‘What made me think about music in a different way? And hit me in a very emotional way?’ I think that’s probably the healthiest route.”

Embracing the accessibility that characterises Criss’ picks - or at times the initial touchpoints that led him to them - are something he vacillates over during our chat. “I’ve seen a lot of other people’s Nine Songs and they’re super cool. It’s like Leonard Cohen B-sides and old opera records and stuff. I’m gonna be pretty honest with the pop culture zeitgeist of how I grew up but explain why there is so much value in those moments.” His contemplation continues into the next day, Criss’s publicist passes on his regrets at being tentative to admit how he encountered one of his song choices via the Shrek soundtrack.

A yearning to reinterpret accessibility and the value attached to it drives Criss, however. He tells me that a festival performance that applied the anarchic verve of punk rock to a more refined Great American Songbook number remoulded his perception of music entirely. His love of the fusion of these two genres in particular symbolises the salient musical backdrops of his childhood - the guitar bands he played in with friends, and his musical theatre endeavours that led him to Broadway and multiple Ryan Murphy juggernauts, including his breakthrough playing Blaine Anderson in Glee.

Criss employs these contrasting musical lexicons, and other areas in between, on Masquerade, his new EP. Comprising five stand-alone “character-driven” singles, it sees Criss donning different musical personas. “I’m leaning into people that might know me as an actor,” he explains. “Because if actors can do Shakespeare, romantic comedy, and then do a horror movie and wear a prosthetic nose and a wig, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just do that with music.” The song “walk of shame” draws on jazz-standard chords interlaced with hip-hop production, “i can’t dance” looks to new-wave, and “for a night like this” is the product of Criss’ goal to create the ultimate end-of-the-night crowd-pleaser for a new-year bash, wedding or bar mitzvah. “This is all of the parts of me as a lifelong fan of these genres, trying my hand at servicing the pieces of them that I love.”

“I really love all styles of music and understanding what makes them unique and special and what makes them really pop. There are so many things that really make things sing - for lack of a better verb - and I like acknowledging those things and celebrating those things.”

“So, let’s begin. I have runners up and shit, and I have artists, I don’t just have the songs, so we might have to pick them as we go.”

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“Part of Your World” by Jodi Benson

“When people read this, they’ll go ‘That’s cute, he likes Disney songs’, but it’s more profound than that. Some of the most formative pieces of music to hit me at a very early age would have been any of the songs that were coming from ‘The Disney renaissance.’ The early-mid ‘90s explosion of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and The Beast.

"One of the through lines between the three of those musicals was Howard Ashman, who is one of my all-time heroes. Dramaturg, songwriter - he really was the voice behind what made those songs great. I have always loved Howard’s lyrical sensibility and also Alan Menken, his partner who wrote these songs with him. There was a musical structure to a lot of the songs which I would unconsciously pick up in my own songwriting, not just musically, but the idea that not only did somebody make these songs, but they wrote them for a story.

“There’s a clip of Howard Ashman vocal directing Jodi Benson, who was the original voice of Ariel. It’s a wonderful example of his genius, where not only was he songwriting but he was storytelling in the way he would tell her how to perform it, and you can really see the song coming to life in that clip. That’s when you cross the street from ‘It’s a song’ to ‘This is an experience.’

"There are certain ingredients that are required to elevate music that goes beyond just a nice melody, a beautiful orchestration and a good voice. There are things that are required to really give a performance a characterisation, context and a vulnerability, that he architects in real-time with Jodi Benson. You see that what he’s doing is what makes the record so special, and that’s something that’s always been inspiring to me.”

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“MMMBop” by Hanson

“I think my love of Hanson was because some people didn’t like it, so I was like ‘Fuck you, I like this, how do you feel about it?’ But this is difficult for me, because you know, I’m speaking to The Line of Best Fit and we’re trying to be cool! Although, do you know what’s cool? Being accessible! Writing a pop hit when you are 10 years old. Being in a band with your brothers and you’re all below the age of 15, you have a record contract where you are writing, producing and performing songs that are doing well.

“I was 10 years old when their first album Middle of Nowhere came out, and I remember reading somewhere that there were these kids that had a record. At the time, I was playing guitar and I was writing songs, but in my mind I was a kid, and that was it. I couldn’t be on the radio; you had to be a grown up to do this.

"This was the first time where I realised ‘Holy shit, kids can do stuff!’ It’s the value of seeing yourself in the media - that’s a whole other conversation to talk about - but there’s an immense value in feeling like there’s a piece of you out in the zeitgeist and doing well because it’s encouraging. You go, ‘Holy shit, maybe I can do this as well.'

“When you see children doing things, you’re ‘Wow, this is so cute and fabulous’, but then when you actually look at it you go, ‘This is miles above what most people in this age group are capable of,’ and that’s all I saw, because I was in the same age group and I was so inspired by that. This whole album was really a turning point for me, where I was like, ‘I can do this, I can do music too, because these guys can.'

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“Ooh La La” by Faces

“This song really blew my mind. It became my own theme. It’s that ‘Make your heart sing’, nostalgic moment when you’re a teenager, driving in the car listening to it, playing guitar with your friends and you’re singing “I wish that I knew what I know now / When I was younger.” You’re like, ‘because I’m an adult now, I’m 15-years-old. If I only knew what I know now.’

“I was doing theatre from a young age and I was part of a young conservatory called A.C.T. in San Francisco. By way of somebody who knew somebody, I had an audition for a movie. As a kid not being near New York or Los Angeles it was really exciting, and this audition was for a film called ‘Max Fischer’, which would become the movie Rushmore, which would become one of my favourite movies of all time by the now very distinguished Wes Anderson.

“Separate from my own objective love of Wes Anderson, when this movie came out I was just around the age of getting into my own sort of identity with music, but also movies - indie movies - and trying to assert who I was. So, I see this movie Rushmore and I love it. I love the soundtrack, I love it so much, it’s one of my favourite albums ever. This song is the end sequence, and the way it made me feel - the vocals on it, I could play it on guitar and it was part of a cool movie - it really represented a lot in my life.

“And because of the acting thing, and Rushmore being great - it’s about this kid in high-school who's misunderstood but has his own agenda - everything about it was just so fucking cool to me. To this day, I cite that song as one of my favourite records of all time.”

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“Recently Distressed” by Phantom Planet

“A guy that really formed the way I would sing and write songs is Alex Greenwald, the frontman of Phantom Planet. I went to see Phantom Planet because I loved Rushmore and I found out that Jason Schwartzman [who had been cast as Max Fischer] was also the drummer for a band called Phantom Planet.

"So, when I saw their name on the bill I went, but I didn't know their music. I was barely 14, but their set blew my mind. It was Rock and Roll, but I loved Alex Greenwald’s voice. I loved everything, and I would follow their career from there. I always tell people that my voice is a combination of me trying to be Alex Greenwald, Paul McCartney and Rufus Wainwright, but failing. Alex was incredibly formative for me.

“One of their biggest records was a little while after I first saw them, which was the song for The O.C., "California." That was more of an Elvis Costello thing, and they employed a lot of stuff that sounded to me like The Beatles and a lot of ‘60s mod/pop-rock. But later they would employ things from Fugazi, Radiohead and harder shit, and that eclecticism, again, only accelerated my love for Phantom Planet.

“Recently Distressed” is from their 1998 album Phantom Planet Is Missing. This was a cool rock song that employed these George [Harrison] and Paul [McCartney] background vocals and included all of the things that I loved. It was harder but melodic and employed minor 4th chords and more complicated chords than I was used to. I had grown up with power chords - which are very Gregorian - on a lot of alt. punk rock, like Green Day or Nirvana, and if Kurt Cobain was using power chords then that’s how I was playing guitar. Hearing this music was like ‘Oh, I’m using full chords, not sevenths, minor 4th chords, diminished chords’, shit that I would learn to use more and more.

“When you haven’t experienced much, anything that gives a hint towards possibility, even though it’s probably always been there, you’re like, ‘I like this, I’ve always kind of liked this, but it’s very encouraging to hear somebody else do it and it’s gonna make me reconsider my possibilities.’ That was literally the moment that my power chords turned into full barre chords.”

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“Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” by Rufus Wainwright

“I forgot the other day how I got into Rufus Wainwright, because all of this stuff I was getting into quite young. It’s like when I talk to 11-13 year olds, it’s funny to think that this was when I was really starting to build my musical identity. But then I remembered, and I didn’t want to say because I didn’t want to sound uncool, because he is such a revered artist who exists in a much cooler place than what I’m about to say.

“I loved soundtracks and I would always buy soundtracks for movies that had cool playlists. I had the Shrek soundtrack, and there’s a cover of Leonard Cohen’s seminal “Hallelujah” that Rufus does and he smashes it, and I’m like, ‘Who the fuck is Rufus Wainwright? What a beautiful voice.’ Then I saw that he was going to be at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco one week, so I go and he’s there promoting his new album Poses. I remember I didn’t have enough money to buy the album that day, so I had him sign my sneaker and I saved that shoe.

“The first song on Poses was “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”, which is a very dark and reflective song about his own battles with addiction, but he’s singing it over this really beautiful, whimsical song that has a lot of really great wordplay. I always love when artists, especially lyricists, can encapsulate an idea with not exactly what they’re talking about. The song’s called “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”, it’s not called “Addiction”. Its talking about things that he craved and how that’s representative of other things that he’s gone through. There was a sophistication and elegance to that that I really gravitated towards, that I didn’t possess but wanted to shoot for. So when I saw him, that was a big one for me and he would also continue to influence me later in my life.

“I’ve become friends with Rufus since. I’ve performed with him and we’ve made records together, which is crazy. His songwriting was very complex and punk-rock, but he had this classic cabaret voice, the kind of voice that I don’t have. I was fascinated that there was somebody that could write this really dark material but have such elegance on top of it. He was virtuosic on the piano, which I thought was very cool because musicianship is always the thing that gets me going the most about artists.

“You know what? People say, ‘Don’t meet your heroes.' I completely disagree. Chase the living fuck out of your heroes. I’ve spent a lifetime doing so, it’s made me a better artist, and I’ve sometimes got to meet them and work with them. I’ve worked on music with Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet. I’ve performed with Hanson. I’ve performed those Disney songs with Alan Menken at The Hollywood Bowl.

"This is all because there are people that I love who I have put on my vision board, and the things that they have done are the things that are bringing me to them. So it is nuts, but at the same time you’re like, ‘Well, what else did you think would happen?’ They did stuff that some part of me connected with, so obviously there’s a magnetic pull towards that person.

“Rufus Wainwright is one of my absolute favourite artists of all time and like I said, me trying to sing like him and failing is a big part of my own journey as an artist.”

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“3x5” by John Mayer

“John Mayer’s another guy that came around when I was 15. I heard a song of his on a middle-of-the-night, singer/songwriter college radio show. This is where I used to get music. You would listen to these carefully curated playlists that you wouldn’t be able to hear anywhere else, and the host played “No Such Thing”, a new song by this young kid who had just dropped out of Berklee College of Music - John Mayer.

“I’m listening to this song and I’m like, ‘Not only is this guitar playing really interesting, but the lyrical value and everything that is going on here ticks all the boxes.' It was jazz, but it was pop. And he did something that all these other guys and girls I’ve mentioned did. They made something very unique and very accessible.

“I immediately went out to buy this album, Room For Squares, and I listened to it over and over again. It was an album that was really formative for me. "3x5” is a really beautiful song that employs a lot of chord structures and melodies that blew my fucking mind at the time, and it made me wish that I could write songs like that.

“That album was a huge turning point in the way I played the guitar, because it was the first time in my life where I would look up tabs. Up until this point in my life, if I heard a song I could play it instantly. It was like a party trick, I would get how it worked if I heard it, because most of the songs I would hear on the radio - especially those that involved a guitar - were [centred around] power chords. And now I’m hearing all of these ninth chords and thirteenths, and I’m like, ‘What the fuck is this?’ So I’d have to look up tabs.

“I think any young artist can attest to this - when you try and learn other people’s shit, it’s the best tool for educating yourself. Playing other people’s music really helps you lock in what your own style is. Trying to learn these songs - and sometimes pulling it off and sometimes not - really changed the way that my hands moved around the guitar and considered chords and voicings that I’d never really thought of.

“There’s another tie to musical theatre here, where I remember seeing Audra McDonald, who is a very venerated theatre actor, and she did a cabaret. If you’re familiar with cabaret culture, it’s more about performing the story of the songs – ‘Life is a cabaret’. She did a John Mayer song because she thought it was from a musical theatre show, and I was so tickled by this, because I was like ‘Yeah, if you really think about it, I don’t think he knows this and I don’t think his fan base even thinks about this, but there’s a number of his songs that feel very theatrical in the way that the lyrics play with each other and the way the chords move’.

"When I saw this I thought, ‘That is why I like John Mayer’, because yes, he’s an amazing guitar player, but he’s also a really strong songwriter.”

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“Cabaret” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

“Also, around this time growing up in San Francisco, as a guitar player playing music with your buddies, the number one thing that you play is punk rock. There are different parts of the spectrum of punk rock, there's the NOFX, Swingin’ Utters, like real punk, punk. And then there’s the pop-punk thing that was happening at the same time, which was also equally influential - blink-182 and Green Day.

“Fat Mike was the frontman of NOFX. I loved NOFX, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes were a supergroup of different members from different punk bands, of which Fat Mike was one of the main architects. They would cover songs and turn them into punk rock songs. They have an album of hits from the ‘60s, and they also have an album called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: Are a Drag, and that record is just a tonne of musical theatre covers that are done through punk rock.

“That was completely in line with everything I loved at this time of my life but didn’t really know how to articulate. I loved punk rock but I also really loved musical theatre. Not only the performative element of it, but there was a real musicality to musical theatre that wasn’t as present in some of the other shit that was popular at the time, just harmonically, or where chords would go. There was a sophistication I loved that seemed to not exist in punk rock.

“Then hearing Fat Mike at The Warped Tour going ‘Alright, which one of you Motherfuckers loves Julie Andrews?’ and hearing a mixed bag of reactions, because people were ‘What? I was not expecting that from you, sir?’ And then they start playing “My Favourite Things”, a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein song which is very accessible, but sophisticated nonetheless. And I am just living. I’m like, ‘This has got the attitude and simplicity of punk rock, but the sophistication of a beautiful song.’

“That was the first time in my life where I went, ‘It’s just all music. All these categories and boxes are completely arbitrary.’ So I thought, ‘I can do that.' I was playing power chords in punk bands but I realised that you can take chords and make them into other rhythms and voicings and have the same song. I could take a punk song and make it jazz. I could take a jazz song and make it country. So, quite providentially, I would end up on Glee, where they took popular songs and would sometimes do their own versions.

“By that point, I had been doing this my whole life. The first time this ever became a possibility for me was seeing Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and that way of thinking about music and genre. I’ve put that into Masquerade, and it’s all born from that moment of ‘Oh my God, nothing has to be one thing. It’s just about how you look at it.'

“Cabaret” is from a pretty famous musical that I would’ve probably heard about later in life, but I first heard that song as a punk song and then I went back and heard the original. It doesn’t matter how these things happen, the inspiration happens and then you can go from there. But Me First and The Gimme Gimmes were a huge gateway drug and I play “Cabaret” now every year at my festival. That’s why the festival is called Elsie Fest, because it covers the song.”

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“Modern Nature” by Sondre Lerche

“One of the great joys of being a younger brother is that you get to inherit the music of your elders. My brother and I were both really proactive consumers of music, so we would share stuff with each other all the time. But then he would come home from college, which is like coming home from a music festival essentially, right? He was in a new time zone with new people, so he’d bring home these mix CDs that he’d made from people that he’d heard about, and he brings home this guy named Sondre Lerche.

“Hearing this guy blew my mind, because he also was using jazz chords and drawing on musical theatre. Musical theatre’s a massive category, so I can’t just say that musical theatre sounds like one thing, but when I say this, I’m referring to The American Songbook, the jazz standard songbook. “Modern Nature” was a duet that I would go on to play many times with one of my oldest musical collaborators, Charlene Kaye. When we got to college and we both found out that we loved this guy.

“There was a much more whimsical way to how he wrote these songs. And what’s crazy is that loving this guy meant that we also loved Rufus Wainwright, that we also loved these other artists. But Sondre was the first time I considered that I loved that type of music, but I didn’t know that you could be a singer/songwriter and put out music that sounded like it.

“I don’t know if ‘twee’ is the right word to use, but with “Modern Nature” there was a playfulness about it, and again, a musicality that I really gravitated towards. There is a through line - there was a sophistication that was accessible, and me trying to learn those songs did make me rethink the way that I was writing music. The structures were weird and different and I liked that.

“To this day, I find myself writing songs that I think might be difficult for people to ingest, because they’re a little too left of centre, and I realise that I’m trying to write like Sondre Lerche, or I’m unconsciously just copying him.”

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“Everything Happens to Me” by Mr Hudson & The Library

“I was in an H&M in Stockholm when I was 21, and I heard this really cool groove and the lyric was “Why must I always play the clown?” It was sung with a really thick British accent, had an 808 feel on it, and lyrically it had an attitude. Who would say something that sounds so like you’re in a Gilbert & Sullivan musical, but it feels hard? It was cool.

“I went home and looked this up and it was off the record A Tale of Two Cities by Mr Hudson and the Library, which would really, really fuck me up. I bought the album immediately because I loved this song. I had to order it on the internet because I couldn’t find it. It was doing well in England and he was on the festival circuit in the early-mid 2000s, but the first song on the album was a musical theatre cover with 808s.

“It was a pared-down, sort of a hip-hop version of “On The Street Where You Live” from My Fair Lady, and I’m like ‘No fucking way, this guy gets where my head is.’ I’d thought about punk rock musical theatre, but I never thought about 808s and 909s scoring these beautiful songs. I go down the track list and he has “Everything Happens to Me”, which is another very famous standard, and he had this really cool, what we would now call chill-hop, ‘study beats’ version of this song. I was like, ‘This is it. This guy gets that good music is good music and you can reinterpret it to offer it as a new song.’

“I would later become great friends with Mr Hudson. I got to meet him years later when I was with Columbia Records, and they said to me ‘Who do you want to meet?’ He was at the top of my list. I went to London and we’ve been friends ever since and have created all kinds of music together.

“He told me a story where Tyler the Creator went up to him once at Coachella and said, ‘Oh man, “Everything Happens To Me”, that’s like my song.’ We both wondered if Tyler the Creator knew that it was a Chet Baker cover. And we were thinking how cool it is that you can offer these songs to a new audience through a different lens. Tyler’s a smart guy, he’s very cultured, and I’m sure he did know. But it’s more the idea that if someone experienced this song and didn’t know that it was a cover, and this is like the first time they ever get to experience it.

“Mr Hudson would go on to do his own thing with Kanye and was on 808s & Heartbreak and has had his own career. I think “Supernova” was a hit in the UK, it didn’t really cross over here to The States, but before that moment for him, that Mr Hudson and The Library album changed my life. People use that phrase willy-nilly, but this literally was a turning point in my life. It all had to do with the same thing that happened with these other songs, where I saw someone do what I always wanted to do but didn’t really know how to pull off. Where he had this fusing of old songs delivered through a contemporary lens, but also laced it with his own original material that also employed the things that made that old songwriting interesting.

“It’s like changing the font of a great essay but finding the font and figuring out that that font is its own art form. He really displayed that marvellously on this.”

The Masquerade EP is out now

#darren criss #the line of best fit #press #sept 2021

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kpopimaginings · 4 years ago

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Bambi Reaction - Baekhyun

A/N: So the original request said about reader joining Baekhyun’s Bambi Stream, but it ended up being an ‘s/o reacts’ thing. I hope you still enjoy. (If you haven’t seen the video for Bambi yet, some of this might not make sense, so maybe go to YouTube, then come back)

"So, my partner hasn't seen the music video for Bambi yet, and we thought it would be a fun idea to film a reaction video and share this moment with all of you," Baekhyun introduced.

You waved to the fans through the camera. "I'm sure I'll be very biased and just compliment Baek the whole time, but I'm excited to see it!"

Baekhyun grinned at you, in the cheeky way you loved so much before hitting play on the video.

"Oh, moody mafia Baekhyun!" you exclaimed of the opening, and your boyfriend laughed.

"You like?"

"It's very different from the Baekhyun I experience- wait... nonono, train!" you said, suddenly distracted by the video again.

As the title appeared on screen you hit pause.

"Why would you do that?! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"It's ok, there's still 4 minutes left, so you know I'm ok."

"Maybe it starts at the end?" you theorised.

"Maybe if you push play, you'll find out!"

You scowled at him for not giving up any information before pressing play.

"Suit-wearing and dancing... two of my favourite types of Baek combined!" you grinned at him, before looking back at the screen.

"Cute lyrics," you commented.

"Thanks," your boyfriend smiled, "It's about my side chick."

"Yah!" you whined, playfully hitting him.

"You know you're my one and only," he added, sincerely, giving you a quick kiss on the cheek.

Turning your attention back to the screen, you were unaware of Baekhyun gaze, staying settled on you. The viewers however, could see Baekhyun watching you with heart eyes as you focused on his video, admiring his talent.

"It's so cool, you've got all these cute Disney references in the lyrics, but then the video is all dark and moody. Good contrast," you complimented.

"I think the song has a moody feel under the lyrics anyway," Baekhyun added.

"Hmm," you hummed in agreement. "The instrumentals and melody definitely give it that vibe."

You let out a sigh as you analysed the visuals before you. "I can't tell if this is really good choreography, or if I just love the way your body moves."

"Both?" he suggested.

"Yeah, that's a possibility," you laughed. "Although, I am a bit mad that you've made a song so hard to sing along to! How do you hit these notes?"

"Stop boosting my ego," he laughed blushing slightly.

"Only when you stop being gorgeous and talented!" you told him, cupping his face in your hands. "Anyway, you always stay humble," you reminded him.

"Wait, you have to see the ending," he said, removing your hands from his face and pointing at the screen.

"Not if it ends with you being hit by a train, I don't," you told him.

He just kept pointing at the screen making you watch until his name appeared at the end.

"On top of a train is still dangerous, but it's better than under it."

"Yup," he grinned. "What did you think then?"

"Yes," you responded with a big nod. "Good concept, good song, very attractive man, what more could I need?"

NAVIGATION | EXO MASTERLIST | SUPERM MASTERLIST

#baekhyun #baek #byun baekhyun #baekhyun imagine #baekhyun imagines #baekhyun fluff #baekhyun fic #baekhyun fanfic #exo #exo scenarios #baekhyun scenario #baekhyun x reader #baekhyun x you #exo imagine #exo imagines #exo-l #exo scenario #exo fanfic #exo fluff

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mostlymovieswithmax · 3 years ago

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Movies I watched in July

Once again I’m doing my monthly round-up of movies I’ve watched. This was a good month for the cinema getting back on track and seeing new releases including the new M. Night movie, Old and James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. Pretty sure Marvel put out a new movie also. I’m hoping that this list can help in guiding a decision about what to watch (or what to avoid) and introduce people to movies they may otherwise not have heard of or bothered to see. These short reviews are my own subjective opinions on each individual movie and maybe a more informal approach to movie criticism can help include others who are just passing through. Here is every film I watched from the 1st to the 31st of July.

Bridesmaids (2011) - 4/10

Off to a good start. I won’t say Bridesmaids is a terrible movie but I don’t think I’m exactly the target audience. As far as I know, this is a beloved comedy but I just can’t get on board with all the boring, juvenile humour; with Maya Rudolph shitting in the street, with Rose Byrne and Kristen Wiig trying to one-up each other at a toast that went on forever, with Melissa McCarthy shitting in a sink… the conflict is so done to death and makes the movie feel unspecial. I do understand the appeal of the film, especially for women in that before this movie the likelihood of seeing something like this, where women play up the more crass and gross side of comedy, was probably few and far between. But the story is very tired and while I did appreciate some moments, namely a couple of decent jokes and some of the more intimate scenes, for the most part it felt like they wanted to corner a more quiet type of line delivery in a way that was supposed to be understated but very funny so as to not rely on over the top body language or musical cues, and it ended up being super dull.

Spectre (2015) - 7/10

As far as I can tell, a lot of people don’t like this instalment of the James Bond franchise… but I really enjoyed it! I’ve really taken a shine to these Daniel Craig-era Bond movies and while I can’t say any of them are the most amazing thing, I have a lot of fun with them. The biggest problem I have with Spectre is the villain being utterly pointless and uninteresting in basically every way. The idea of every villain Bond has fought before being tied to this one organisation controlled by this one guy is ridiculous, and what makes it worse is that the villain is barely in it! There’s so much that doesn’t come together in this but as it goes, I still had a really good time. Daniel Craig holds the whole thing together; he is excellent as 007 and the main reason I’m up for each of these movies is because of him. Sam Mendes directs again after the previous instalment and for what it’s worth I do think he does a good job with some of the action set pieces and the locations. I’m so ready for No Time To Die.

Shazam (2019) - 7/10

Shazam is a genuinely fun superhero movie that doesn’t take itself seriously at all. I was having a great time throughout and while it could conform to some of the same tropes we’re used to with these kinds of movies, it still remained playful and used the character of Shazam to his fullest potential in a way that showed an understanding of just how silly the idea of a kid who can turn into an adult and shoot lightning out of his hands is.

High School Musical (2006) - 6/10

So as you may or may not know, I co-host a podcast: The Sunday Movie Marathon. It’s a film podcast and every week I get together with my other co-hosts and watch movies. For episode 38, we watched the High School Musical trilogy. This first movie blew me away. I was really surprised with just how much fun I had, and if you want to hear more of my thoughts on the film, please listen to episode 38 of the podcast.

High School Musical 2 (2007) - 4/10

We then jumped into the second and while it’s certainly not as good as its predecessor, there are still some brilliant songs that manage to top the last movie. Again, more of what I have to say can be heard on episode 38 of the podcast.

High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) - 3/10

Senior Year was pretty hard to get through. I don’t remember it being as bad as it was, but then I didn’t really remember it anyway. It did however have one redeeming quality, which you can discover on episode 38 of the podcast.

The Piano Teacher (2001) - 9/10

What the fuuuckkkk. The Piano Teacher is horrendously affecting and I was so upset when it ended, maybe not because it’s not what I wanted but because it’s just so fucking dour and unrelenting. This is the second Haneke movie I’ve seen (after the original Funny Games) and I’m so impressed with how well executed it is. Following a woman who teaches piano, we get a glimpse into the life she lives, how sheltered she is from living with her mother at an age where you’d reasonably expect a person to be living alone or with a partner or friends (even going so far as to be sleeping in the same bed as her), and how repressed she is sexually. It’s clear she’s never experienced any kind of sexual interaction or romantic love with another person, so she goes out of her way to take control and make that happen. The upsetting nature of it comes from just what she does in pursuit of it or as a result of her repression, and what is done to her. It is by no means a movie to recommend to your parents but The Piano Teacher offers so much in terms of the ideas it presents (and I’ll admit there seems to be a lot more going on than I think I picked up on a first go round) about women in modern society, and about the portrayal of sex and expectations of people when it comes to how that is represented in a person’s character depending on their gender. I really enjoyed this movie but it is not for the faint of heart.

Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure (2011) - 1/10

My podcast co-hosts decided it’d be a right laugh to add Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure to this episode and that might have been a fun idea for them because they got to watch it together, but I was just watching it alone. Just a 24-year-old man watching Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure alone and having a miserable time, I might add. But for a short and sweet ramble on what we all thought, please listen to episode 38 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast.

Dr. No (1962) - 6/10

A lot of very iffy parts of this movie. A lot of discomfort arising from how black people are portrayed that really didn’t sit right with me. As far as a Bond movie goes, this first instalment in the series is one I’ve seen before and it’s not wholly engaging but it plants the seeds for the rest, with Sean Connery breathing life into the role and making an otherwise lacklustre plot bearable.

Black Widow (2021) - 6/10

I think probably the best part about Black Widow is the experience I had while watching it. It was great being back in the cinema with a couple of friends in a packed theatre. The energy was high and I’m sure for a lot of people, this is the first time they’d been to the cinema since Endgame. For what it’s worth, I did have a lot of fun with Black Widow and I’ve explained more of what I thought about the movie in episode 39 of the podcast.

The Climb (2020) - 10/10

The Climb was added to Now TV recently and I already knew I loved it, having seen it in an empty cinema theatre last year, which I had an absolute blast with. The Climb details the years of a rocky friendship told over scenes filmed as one-shots. Not only is the presentation something to gawk at, but the performances by the two leads playing these friends with a terrifically dysfunctional dynamic is truly captivating. They’re both trying to figure out their own lives and where one can come across as being rather selfish, the opposite is true in his counterpart, whom everyone loves. This is a truly funny and heartwarming movie with a lot to say about how we choose to live our lives and who we choose to be with. It’s a shame the distributors of The Climb didn’t do a very good job because if not for it being available on Now TV, it would be near impossible to watch without forking out more money than is necessary to purchase a film.

From Russia With Love (1963) - 5/10

The second Bond movie. I thought perhaps I’d change my mind on it with another watch, having seen it for the first time maybe a year ago. But no, it’s still largely boring and it treats women like absolute garbage. From Russia With Love is one of those movies I forget as I watch it, and I was trying very hard (in the middle of the day!) not to fall asleep.

The Good, The Bart, and The Loki (2021) - 1/10

I don't usually talk about the short films I watch but for this I'll make an exception. As we all should know, Disney owns The Simpsons now, through their acquisition of Fox, so, coupled with another of their properties, that being Marvel, they decided to make a six-minute animated film wherein Marvel’s Loki is stranded in Springfield. This felt as though it was a minute long due to the horrendously jarring pacing; it is a movie that feels adamant that it needs to exist, while trying as hard as it can to be over as soon as possible. It serves only to stare the audience directly in the face and say “look, characters from The Simpsons are dressed as Avengers”, shit out three credit scenes, then end before you’ve even processed the atrocity you just bore witness to.

Russian Ark (2002) - 8/10

For this next episode of the podcast, we watched a few Russian movies, starting with Russian Ark, a film shot completely in one take as the camera moves about a luxurious museum in a first-person perspective as this main character watches what is happening around him, seeing people moving about the place but unable to interact with them, guided only by another man who seems to be just slightly out of his own perception of reality. This is a tremendous feat in filmmaking and more can be heard about what I have to say in episode 39 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast.

Ivan’s Childhood (1962) - 7/10

For my own pick of Russian movies to discuss on the podcast, I chose the debut feature from one of my favourite directors, Andrei Tarkovsky. It’s amazing that while this is not his best film by far, Ivan’s Childhood is still such a stellar debut, jumping around in its timeline as it details a child’s experience in the second world war. Again, I do go into more depth in episode 39 of the podcast, so be sure to check that out.

Outlaw (2019) - 1/10

The third movie chosen for this marathon is apparently the fourth Russian LGBTQ+ movie ever made. I’m unsure of the ultimate goal of this movie but what seems to be clear is that it hates the LGBTQ+ community. This is perhaps the worst film we’ve discussed on the podcast to date, so listen to episode 39 to understand exactly why it’s such trash.

Almost Famous (2000) - 7/10

I too love heavy music and also studied journalism so it stands to reason that a movie about a teenager who makes his way onto a band tour, following them through America and interviewing them as they hang out and play shows is going to be a premise that resonates with me. This certainly did. I enjoyed Almost Famous a lot; this kid is living the dream and I was so along for the ride, seeing a lot of myself in what was being portrayed. That said, the story itself is at times a bit by the numbers and I really would’ve been more on board if the visual component was more interesting. For what it is, technically it’s fine enough but nothing in that department ever jumped out at me.

Minari (2021) - 8/10

It’s crazy that this didn’t get a theatrical run where I live in the UK. It feels as though I complain about film distribution all the time but I really don’t understand the process by which a movie gets no cinematic release and yet, months later will pop up on the front shelf of hmv, taking pride of place. But of course I got the blu-ray straight away. Minari has a lot to say about the immigrant experience, specifically in America as a family comes over from Korea and tries to start a business and make something of themselves. You get to see a lot of what you might not think twice about when you think about immigration: the hardship of coming from a place where you know everyone to somewhere rural and sparsely populated, having to make friends with locals and integrate within the community; the strain it can put on a family and on a marriage where this idea is presented about the importance of making it on your own in order to live and not just survive, while also taking into account why you’re doing it in the first place and the value you place on being part of a family that you decided to make because that was more important than money, than economy, than proving you were good enough to make it in a place that gave you very little advantage from the offset. This concept of the promised land, of the American dream is a construct. There are times when it’s not pretty, when you have no running water, or you’re in debt, or a family member is dying and it just feels like you’ve been dealt as bad a hand as you can get. But it is better to know you’re not facing all that alone.

Roma (2018) - 10/10

This was my recommendation for the podcast episode on Alfonso Cuarón movies. Roma is as beautiful as it is heart-wrenching and I would recommend listening to episode 40 of the podcast to find out more about my thoughts.

An American Werewolf In London (1981) - 8/10

In all fairness, London is enough to make anyone a little crazy at the best of times. An American Werewolf in London showcases some fantastically grotesque effects, akin to something like Carpenter’s The Thing, in showing the dead brought back to life and a horrifically gory transformation scene. Although the film is from the perspective of an American protagonist, directed also by an American, the depiction of British culture and climate is something I’ve not seen many films pull off quite so well, and I was pleasantly surprised at the more comedic tone the film has overall, which is something that works more in its favour than straight horror would.

The Party’s Just Beginning (2018) - 6/10

Karen Gillan’s directorial debut is… pretty good! There are a lot of ideas I like in this movie: a woman living life and through convenient circumstances, is confronted with death in many ways. Gillan obviously knows her homeland as well as she can, imbuing the whole thing with an intensely Scottish vibe (though maybe not in the same vein as something like Trainspotting) that makes it a bit more unique than a more run of the mill movie of this ilk, backed up in no small part by her own main performance. The plot itself is no great diversion from the kind of story I’m used to with these smaller movies and for something that’s trying to include messaging about transgender issues and suicide, it probably could have been handled better or done in a different way.

Solaris (1972) - 9/10

Another Tarkovsky joint, one I thought I’d revisit to see if there was indeed more to get out of it a second time. Well, it’s no surprise that yes, there was certainly more to get out of it. Solaris is a crazy trip of a movie and I would liken it to Kubrick’s 2001 in terms of how grand the scale of it feels. Yet this is a film that comes across as deeply personal, choosing to focus on a specific character as he goes to a space station to help those on board who are experiencing some kind of emotional crises, only to feel the effects of the planet, Solaris invading his own mind as it has the crew. To many, I can see this lengthy Russian sci-fi being a tad slow but my personal experience is one of deep engagement. Solaris pulls its viewer in a lot of different directions and it is always doing something unexpected in terms of where its narrative goes. There’s a lot to think about with the movie and thankfully it’s no chore to watch again.

Y Tu Mamá También (2001) - 9/10

Another recommendation for the podcast episode on Alfonso Cuarón movies. This is a very relaxed experience, following three young people as they go on a road trip, visit different places and have sex. Listen to episode 40 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast for more of my thoughts.

Children of Men (2006) - 10/10

My favourite Cuarón movie, one that never stops being tense as its characters are constantly moving towards the end goal. Set in a future where humans are infertile, the oldest living person is 18, and London is the last city in the world that’s still keeping it together, somewhat. This is masterclass filmmaking. Listen to episode 40 of the podcast for more insights.

Minority Report (2002) - 5/10

I’m really not the biggest fan of Spielberg… Minority Report is an interesting movie in terms of its concept of stopping crimes before they happen by way of prediction, but I just didn’t connect with the heart of it. The colouring is way too overexposed in a way that’s supposed to be eliciting a futuristic vibe but instead feels so early-2000’s in the worst way. My biggest problem with Minority Report is just how long it is, clocking in at two hours and twenty-five minutes which allows for a lot of meandering, all while never quite developing characters enough for you to care about.

Caché (2005) - 9/10

Oh god! Another Michael Haneke movie! Here we see a couple periodically sent video tapes featuring hours of footage of the outside of their house. The anxiety ratchets up and the mystery gets deeper with every minute. There’s always at least one moment in any of his films that have so far made me realise just how out of my depth I am. Caché is no exception, and I won’t spoil anything here because I think it’s better just to watch the movie and see for yourself. He is a director that wants the audience to know something and that something is never what is explicitly shown at face value; it is pressed into the fabric of the film - plainly evident, yet hidden. Caché is so stupidly clever in displaying its themes and messaging - making reference to the Siene Massacre of 1961 as well as a deeper study of colonialism - and there’s no way to change a single detail of it without risking the Jenga tower crumbling to the ground. It all works in tandem. It is passion and fury and haunting.

Coco (2017) - 7/10

Pixar had a string of around seven forgettable movies before this point so thankfully Coco emerged to show the company still had something good in them. Coco deals a lot with themes of death and legacy, remembering those who are gone in order to preserve them and while its plotting is quite basic and there are certainly moments that either drag or cannot escape the same Pixar formula, most of what the movie has to offer is a lot of fun, with creative, colourful animation and emotional beats that resonate the way they’re supposed to.

Incredibles 2 (2018) - 5/10

Oh, they almost had it! There's a lot here that could have been explored in far more interesting ways. Setting Incredibles 2 directly after the events of the first movie was not a good idea. If it had taken place five or ten years after, the characters could have been in different places in life and it would feel as though they'd actually changed and developed. But instead of trying to be a film that actually cares about its characters and the journeys they go on, a lot of the film is wrestling with the idea that Bob isn't supportive of his wife and Jack-Jack has to fight a raccoon… They have to shoehorn in a villain that in no way compares to the genius of the original. The ending of the original introduces another antagonist that gets wrapped up within this film's first ten minutes, except they don't catch him and he's never mentioned again. It's a real shame because the animation is fantastic and the acting is superb and there are great ideas sprinkled throughout. It just doesn't come together.

Toy Story 4 (2019) - 6/10

I was rather reluctant to watch Toy Story 4 because from the get-go I’m not really here for sequels being made just for the sake of it. Everyone loves Toy Story and making another one is a sure fire way to make money. This is the first time I’ve seen Toy Story 4 and for what it’s worth, I did enjoy it. The animation is immaculate and that alone feels like a huge flex from Pixar who tend to step up the game when it comes to animation in film, despite not having the best track record for films generally at this point. While it was nice to see these characters again, I found a lot of them to be side-lined (namely Buzz) in favour of a story that focuses mainly or entirely on Woody, who I just don’t like as much as in the previous movies. Generally the movie is good and decent enough but there’s no real antagonist and the plot is quite loose… it doesn’t feel as though it needed to be made from a story point of view.

Onward (2020) - 6/10

And with that I have seen every Pixar movie. And Onward is a fine one to go out on. While I don’t think it compares to the likes of earlier Pixar it’s still pretty fun. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for a medieval setting filled with bright colours and magic! Speaking of which, the animation was super and the medieval quest element is something that hooked me with the film. Again, plot-wise it does feel very familiar and I don’t know, maybe I’m past the point now of expecting Pixar to mix it up where their formula for story-telling is concerned but the movie is quite predictable. Nonetheless, while I’m not rushing back to see Onward I would hardly turn it off or refuse if someone wanted to watch it.

Old (2021) - 3/10

Oh boy! New M. Night movie dropped and my word, was it fun! For more of my thoughts on this… masterpiece (?) of a movie, please direct your attention to episode 41 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast.

T2 Trainspotting (2017) - 5/10

Trainspotting is perhaps one of my favourite movies and I had never bothered with the sequel, 20 years on, because the ending of that first movie is so conclusive. T2 felt more an excuse for these guys to get together again and in that, I probably would have preferred a couple of pictures on Twitter of the main cast and director, Danny Boyle having dinner or something. This is a fine movie - very arty in its presentation but meandering and dull in its story that doesn’t offer much in the way of proof that it had to exist.

Taste of Cherry (1997) - 9/10

What makes life worth living? This is a central question and theme of Taste of Cherry, and one that leaves such interpretation not only up to its central character but to the viewer as well. This film got me thinking about times in my life when I truly have had no answer to hard questions. Because it’s hard to convince people of things they are so adamantly against and harder still to rationalise what you believe if you’re not even entirely sure why you believe it in the first place. We are all of us alive and in recognising that, does that make it precious? And if indeed living is not a happy thing, why then should we fight so hard to preserve it? I felt upset as I watched this movie because I’ve been asked these kinds of questions before and it makes me feel stupid when I’m unable to answer. But the only real answer I can give is, everything. And if you can’t see the point then you’re not looking hard enough. Taste of Cherry is beautiful in its exploration of these topics and in its overall presentation, offering some of the best visuals in any movie I’ve seen - fitting for a feature with so much to say about the beauty of life - and an ending that as much pulls the rug out from under you as it does pull you out of the dark and make you realise just how lonely you’ve felt.

Bones (2001) - 2/10

Snoop Dogg is Jimmy Bones! This film is super funny but I’m not sure it’s trying to be and I really didn’t love it overall. But I do talk more in depth about it in episode 41 of the podcast.

The Duchess (2008) - 5/10

Another recommendation for the podcast. The Duchess was pretty much exactly what I thought it was going to be and there’s a lot to like about it but generally it’s a bit sparse. For more chat on the movie, listen to episode 41 of the podcast.

The Man With One Red Shoe (1985) - 1/10

This was another one for the podcast and man, was it awful. We had to watch it at 1.5x speed towards the end because it just wasn’t getting finished otherwise. To find out more, make sure to listen to episode 41 of the podcast.

The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) - 7/10

Pull the lever, Kronk! Haha! Slays me. I do quite miss this era of Disney, where the animation was hand-drawn and the stories were actually compelling and funny. The Emperor’s New Groove is vibrant, it’s got great characters and memorable moments that will forever be ingrained in the memory of culture. All in all, it’s just a solid flick that doesn’t waste time, developing the standard fall from glory type of arc but smoothly and in an entertaining way.

The Suicide Squad (2021) - 8/10

Oh, bloody hell! They actually made a good one! The Suicide Squad is not only better than the ‘Suicide Squad’ of 2016 in every way, it’s a genuinely great film! This time, James Gunn (director of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies) is at the helm and it seems clear that Warner Bros. basically let him do what he wanted with the movie, as it doesn’t seem to bog itself down with the restrictions of a more family-friendly rating. The result of this is a far cleaner, colourful film with a clearer vision that takes from early Vietnam movies and uses that style to craft a superhero/villain movie that differentiates itself among the copious amount of existing films of the genre. The Suicide Squad wastes very little time, introducing fun, crazy characters we’ve not seen on the big screen before and isn’t worried about killing a whole bunch of them, with standouts being Elba’s Bloodsport, Melchior’s Ratcatcher 2, Stallone’s King Shark (expertly rendered with fantastic visual effects), and Robbie’s returning interpretation of Harley Quinn. A lot of Gunn’s trademark sense of humour is laced throughout and more often than not, it hits. The audience at the cinema were truly loving this movie and I’ll admit, I was right there with them. This mix of the gritty, gory and absurd is not something that should work as well as it does but the basic premise of the film is already so silly (and boy, do they know it) that it just works! Certainly one of the best DC movies since The Dark Knight and one I’d be more than happy to watch again. This is what the modern comic book movie should be: just balls to the wall fun!

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popculturebuffet · 3 years ago

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Prep and Landing Retrospective: Original Special and Operation: Secret Santa (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Ho ho ho all you happy people! Christmas continues on this blog and while I wait to do christmas with my dad, i’ts time for another stocking full of good cheer. This time it’s another commission from friend of the blog kev and for a short and sweet look at a short and sweet franchise: Prep and Landing

Prep and Landing has a clever premise I utterly adore: it follows the titular group, a special ops group of elves whose job it is to prep things so santa can land safetly and without being seen. They have ornaments made of knockout dust, grappling candy canes and a little gingerbread man that tells them what creatures are stirring, and set up a special landing strip so santa knows which house to hit. It’s a wonderful twist on Santa and this premise rightfully got expanded on in a total of four works: a half hour special setting things up, a 7 minute special clearly made to fill in the gaps when Charlie Brown Christmas or something else that went over half an hour was aired, an 8 page comic story about them prepping earth’s mightiest mansion for earth’s mightieist christmas, and finally one final short. At the time of this writing there seem to be no plans to bring the franchise back, which is weird given both Disney+ is ravenous desire for content and love of bringing back old animated properties instead of expanding current ones or you know.. giving shows spinoffs HINT HINT, and the fact this is a solid premise. It could easily be rebooted or revived as a full film or a series to release around novemeber and december.

SO i’ll be taking a two part look at the franchise: one of the shorter works paired with one of the specials. So come under the missle-cut with me as we unwrap these shorts and see if they stuck the landing the first time around or ran into some turbulence.

Prep and Landing: The original special follows Wayne, an elf who outlines the job in a beautiful opening sequence... before it’s shown he’s been doing this for hundreds of years and has burnt out. Going through the motions, even if the motions change slightly as society changes, hundreds and hundreds of times, going through partner, after partner, after parnter and watching them either move on to better jobs or get their own partners.. it’d get tiring. You have to realize Wayne isn’t someone like thor, dealing with senses shattering threats like mangogs, frost giants and sibling rivalry. He’s just a guy doing his job, has done for centuries and simply wants to move on. I’d also just like to mention Wayne is played by David Foley, canadian wunderkind from the sitcom news radio. He’s not a PERFECT fit for a jaded washout honestly, i’d of gone with brad garret or sometone a bit more grumbly, but he still does his best and I still like seeing him pop up.

So naturally the next christmas he parades around, celebrates having head of nice list intellegence in the bag and totally won’t find out he didn’t get the job oh wait no never mind he didn’t and he’s bummed the fuck out.

Yeah this is easily the thing that holds the special back. This old chesnut. Part of it is that i’ve seen this so many fucking times. Now seeing something a LOT dosen’t really bother me. Enemies to lovers, a grumpy person coupled with an energetic one, a hero learning the life of adventureing isn’t as easy as it looks or sound and having to come to terms with that and what they really want, ski trips, evil clones, parallels between the hero and villian, journeys into a characters mind.. i’ve seen all these a lot, some more than others. But I likes em. But some tropes just wear on you after seeing them oh so many times. Will They Or Won’t They can eat my entire ass at this point. And so can this trope: it CAN work, but it’s been used so many fucking times, in sitcoms, animation and i’m sure even all the way back to the glory days of radio, that you NEED to tweak it or it just annoys me. Soul for instance used a similar plot: our hero wants this big job playing jazz, and has built it up as his reason for living.

The other reason we’ll get to as Wayne grumpily heads out with his new partner, overenthuastic rookie Lanny to do the job. He proptly decides fuck it, leaves all the work to Lanny and sits on his ass and eats cookies, as would I if I got passed over for a promotion with no explination. Lanny minorly screws up, cutting up part of a tree, but mostly does okay and it’s Wayne who ends up caught by Timmy, the young boy living at the house. Lanny covers for him quickly.. but we then get to the part that really sinks the special slightly: the way Wayne’s burnout is treated. While him doing nothing and goofing off is objectively not great, and some of the jokes during this part are funny like him using a santa cookie as an outlet for his anger at the big man himself, taunting him by not turning on christmas specials for long and then biting his head off, the problem is Lanny and Magee kinda overblow his actions. He slacked off once in hundreds of years and got caught. He’s a bit of a dick sure, and he needs to learn a lesson.. but being mad because he dosen’t ENJOY the job after doing it hundreds of years is just as douchey. Lanny I give a pass to, he dosen’t realize how burnt out Wayne is and still gets why the jobs important (getting presents to deserving kids and making their christmas for them), but Magee (santa’s mission control woman and wayne’s superior) knows wayne. Apparently she dated him breifly according to suplimentals. Their old friends.. and she acts like he’s bein gthe biggest fucker in the world.. when she TOLD HIM HE DIDN’T GET THE JOB TO HIS FACE. Lanny dosen’t have any context for why Wayne’s acting this way, I get him being outraged and I get her being pissed, he is slacking off. But she shoudl damn well know WHY he’s being an ass and actually talk to him instead of essentially shouting SNAP OUT OF IT ASSHOLE. I mean he should snap out of it asshole but his problems run deepr.

Wayne does snap out of it though when he realizes that due to not being done already and a heavy snowstorm, they may have to cancel and realizing why he did this job in the first place, Wayne rallies, convincing Santa to turn around (something he does because of course he does he’s santa. He’s the purest soul around next to jesus and superman), and getting help from a giddy Lanny, happy his hero is actually everything he thought he was. They can’t get the landing strips out, but Wayne improvises, using some decorations Lanny spotted earlier, an excellent chekovs gun, and the skis they have on their boots, because of course, to make an impromptu lander. Santa gets there in time, christmas is saved, and our hero learned a lesson.

Santa himself.. is throughly likeable. While he SHOULD have told Wayne about getting passed over unlike the others, he takes Wayne’s breakdown in stride, pointing out everyone dips into being naughy once in a while, even offering him the promotion which he of course turns down to work with lanny. But still it shows that while Santa REALLY needs to learn how to email his employees, he’s a good hearted man: he didn’t gave wayne the promotion right away not to be a dick, but because he wanted to remind him why he did his orignial job, as well as train a worthy successor.

But still understandable. It’s also REALLY hard to get mad at santa honestly. I wanted to but unless the version of him is REALLY a huge dick, it’s hard to get mad at the guy. Again he’s as nice as superman, jesus and superjesus, an alternate superman whose also jesus.

Final Thoughts on P and L: This special is not bad but a I pointed out it has issues: the plot of a jaded elf learning his job matters isn’t bad, the execution is just spoiled eggnog. Tastes bad, gives you indjestiion, and ruins something great. The rest of the short is fine with clever bits of world buildnig, from fun holiday puns to things I didn’t really get to mention in the review proper: the reindeer who are pumped up loveable bros wearing skin masks that look like lucha masks and are a delight, and the coal elves, elves whose job is to deliver coal to naughty kids. The world here is REALLY expertly built and clever, down to the door to santa’s office having a smaller door built in for the elves since he towers over them, it just needed a better plot to go with it. Still it’s not a terrible one, and it’s enjoyable enough.. I just feel there are far better holiday specials that deal with this sort of christmas burnout way better.. one of whom we’ll see in a few weeks.

And honestly i’m only one christmas in and i’ve already covered way worse, wether it was the post apocalyptic sitcom Whoops!, or the star vs christmas episode where Tom got yelled at and called a bad boyfriend for respecting what his girlfriend actually wanted while Marco got treated heroically for being a selfish dick trying to impress his best friends girlfriend. And that’s not even GETTING into things i’ll probably cover at some point like that time Hank Hill was booed for not wanting a woman to die in his house, the time EVERYONE in Jenny Wakeman’s life except her stalker assumed the worst of her or this monstrosity

Not the best but FAR from the worst

Operation: Secret Santa

Now THIS is more like it. Since this one’s easy enough to wedge inbetween other holiday content, being only about 7 minutes, i’ve saw this one pop up far more often before I cut the cord. And it’s really the franchise given i’ts proper due: it’s a simple short plot but a great one.

This time around the boys are giving a top secret mission by the big woman herslef, Mrs. Claus, played by betty fucking white everybody!

The woman’s career should speak for itself.. but it also shoudln’t have to: vetran of both the Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls, Betty hasn’t ever stopped working much like her friend and former coworker the late great ed asner. She did have a big career revivial around this time, getting yet another sitcom in Hot in Cleavland and a big roll in the Proposal, that she got to host SNL. Bout damn time.

So she’s naturally a good fit as Mrs. Claus who wants the boys to steal a box from Santa’s office. Wayne of course takes this in stride, clearly knowing Santa’s marriage is stable and thus whatever she’s asking, it’s legit. So this time around it’s Lanny whose the liablity as his sheer terror of santa exiling them over this makes him freeze up. The rest of it is simply a fun caper as our heroes have to manuver around santa during the ten minute nap he takes (as he’s so busy the rest of the time around the holidays, he never leaves the office), around three, and even visit his personal workshop/man cave. No really Mrs. Claus flat out admits it’s the stuff she simply dosen’t want in her house (she left them recordings to walk them through it), as well as where he works on his pet projects like mechanical reindeer or robot santa.. though that one... didn’t turn out so well.

Our heroes naturally pull it off and the final stretch of it is extra aweosme as wayne uses a snowflake ninja star to hit santa’s old fashioned clock’s minute hand, turning it back JUST long enough for them to book it.

What was in the box was even MORE heartwarming: as it turns out it was a tiny wheel.. and Mrs. Claus has, after what had to be decades of work, managed to find the rest: a small wooden duck that was the first thing santa ever built.

As you can tell Operatin; Secret Santa is a step up: with the premise now etched in stone, they can simply have fun with it while not trying to slap a fairly cliche plot on top. The result is an ultra fun ultra short romp that I need to start rewatching now I can every season now Disney+ exists.

So that’ sit for the first part. I’ll have part 2 in a couple of weeks, as next week , after a vegetable based interlude, we’ll be doing some DUCKS. So look forward to that and happy holidays.

If you enjoyed this review consider joining my patreon HERE> it helps keep this blog as my job and allows me to do more stuff. 5 bucks a month nets you your own GUARANTEED review of whatever half hour thing you want a month.

#christmas #santa #prep and landing #disney #lanny #wayne #dave foely #betty white #holiday

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the-hunchback-of-notre-dame · 4 years ago

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Screenwriter Tab Murphy Talks “Hunchback,” “Atlantis” and “Brother Bear” During Walt Disney Family Museum Happily Ever After Hours

by Tony Betti | Source (x)

Over the weekend I had the fortunate opportunity to attend the Walt Disney Family Museum’s Happily Ever After Hours Virtual Program featuring screenwriter Tab Murphy.

Tab Murphy has a wide embodiment of work for the screen, but this program primarily focused on his work for what is now known as Walt Disney Animation Studios. He contributed to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Brother Bear.

Right off the bat, Tab said that his first foray into animation was a bit jarring. He wrote the script, and then partnered with Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz who, as he put it, had the script posted on walls all around a room and would then go up to certain sections and draw big Xs through the words and say “this is where we think a song should be.” As they worked together though, Tab said he realized how right they were to do that, and the end result is simply amazing.

Anybody familiar with the original story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame may recall that there are a ton of characters present in the original novel aside from the namesake Hunchback, Quasimodo. He said that was where one of the hardest parts of writing the movie adaptation lied, especially for a Disney animated film, noting that there was a certain “checklist” of sorts for a Disney film that the characters had to hit. So they developed the film around the characters that would best fill the roles of the principal lead (Quasimodo), the Hero (Phoebus), and the Princess (Esmeralda), along with the obvious villain, Claude Frollo. He said that the story was exceptionally dark for a Disney film, but he found the heart in it when you would take away everyone else leaving Quasimodo to do his own thing with the birds or the gargoyles, and the world got bright and colorful. This sentiment is actually echoed in the production design of the film, whenever Frollo is present, the colors are grays and dark shadows, and muted and boring hues, but whenever Quasi is involved in his own thing there are far more colors and brightness.

He also elaborated on his love for writing the character of Esmeralda, saying he felt that she was Disney’s original activist, and she was most definitely not a damsel in distress, standing up for the issues, with Tab citing the line (though he flubbed it a little) “You mistreat this poor boy the same way you mistreat my people. You speak of justice, yet you are cruel to those most in need of your help!”

When asked about the development of Quasimodo, Tab pointed out that more classic adaptations of the story, such as an earlier incarnation from Universal in their horror movie craze, took the character and turned him into a literal monster, some sort of terrifying creature. “This is a human being,” Tab said, adding that his version would not scare you but draw out empathy. But he still had to be realistic. He couldn’t be the hero either, that wouldn’t be true to the source material, but he echoed thoughts and ideas shared by animator James Baxter in a recent program from the museum, that he needed to be gentle and warm to reinforce that this was a human and not a monster.

Interestingly, Tab said that he had not watched the film in its entirety since the world premiere back in 1996 up until about two weeks before the program, forgetting how beautiful the final product turned out. He said he cried his eyes out and believes that story holds up because of that emotion, something that everyone can relate to at some point in their lives, that they’re different and feeling alienated and an outsider who overcomes that. “Everyone who worked on that movie, everyone was on their A-game.”

After Hunchback, Tab was assigned to tackle Tarzan, though he openly admitted he wasn’t as involved in that one as much as people think he was. Shortly after he began, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise (directors of Hunchback) asked him to join their team for a radical new movie that would buck the trends of Disney Animation, Atlantis: The Lost Empire. According to Tab, the pair pitched him the idea while comparing it to Disneyland, saying “You know how you go in to [the park] and go right into Fantasyland, through the castle, see the princesses and fairy tales. Well, we’re going to take a hard left straight to Adventureland.”

Tab was excited, this was going to be something so out of the ordinary and he would be a part of it. He noted that he was especially excited because of the subpods that would shoot out of the Ulysses. At another point in the session, Tab mentioned that he was never worried about budget when writing for Disney animation, noting that the animators were so good they would figure out how to get what he wrote onto the screen successfully, with the Subpods off the main submarine as they battled the Leviathan an excellent example of that. He also elaborated on what he referred to as “movie moments,” those special quotes that you know, when writing them, people will always remember and associate with the movie, with Atlantis having one of his favorites, when Helga is firing the flare gun at Roarke’s balloon and uses his own words, “Nothing personal.”

As many know, the film was not an immediate box office success. It didn’t do poorly, it just didn’t reach the numbers that Disney likes to see. Because of that, Tab thought he had written Disney’s first flop. The film came out in 2001, and he said it wasn’t until last year when he was stuck at home that someone had exposed him to the following that Atlantis: The Lost Empire has acquired over the years. He even started getting letters and messages from fans, some saying that the film had inspired them to be linguists or archeologists as those who were younger when they saw it are now adults exploring their career path.

Tab has an almost Jeff Bridges-like quality to him, almost channeling the Dude from The Big Lebowski, and elaborated on the sentiment of career paths, commenting that when he was in school, he was studying forestry and biology. In one of his best pieces of wisdom from the session, he said that “Part of knowing what you want is knowing what’s not meant for you.” It was his love of movies that continued to grow prompting him to get into the industry as a screenwriter. However, that background in forestry and wildlife would come in handy on his next assignment, Brother Bear.

Tab said goodbye to the kids, and jetted off to Florida for a short-term residence at the Yacht Club resort where he would go to the Animation studio that was part of the Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios) where Brother Bear was in production. Most of the original story, he said, was created from campfire stories that he and director Aaron Blaise would share. Together they wrote the original story which was mostly similar and had Kenai being transformed and subsequently mentored by an older bear named Grizz, voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan. He packed up and left and only after that did they change one prominent piece of the writing. Grizz would now be dropped for a younger bear, Koda, and that one “movie moment” as Tab says, where Kenai has to say the “he did something bad.”

Tab said the story of what happened on Brother Bear is truly the story of animation. It’s living and breathing. Things get dropped, added, changed, tweaked. He felt like a starting pitcher in a baseball game, there to set you up for success and then be moved or changed out to make sure the game is won, but also only one part of the greater team as a whole. When asked about how he would draw out emotion in his writing he said he would only put the words down, and it was the rest of that same team that would succeed in making you feel something, adding that he might have words that touch you emotionally in scene, but the rest of the team knew how to enhance those words and make it something truly special.

#tab murphy #the hunchback of notre dame #atlantis #atlantis the lost empire #brother bear #disney #quasimodo #esmeralda #frollo

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ithinkwehitametaphor · 4 years ago

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(Disclaimer: This a rather free, not a word by word translation of the original interview. I’m not a professional translator so please bear with me. I know there are other (very good!) versions around but I was half-way through with mine already and it was such fun to make so I am going to post it anyways. ;))

GQ Germany Interview with Pedro Pascal (Sept. 10, 2020)

It’s almost uncanny how the empty streets of Los Angeles stretch out in the bright sunlight. While a “new normality” is emerging in Europe, even those who are not counted among the neurotics still cut their own hair here in L.A. Many haven’t seen their friends for the last six months. The pandemic is out of control. The reactions to it are as well. To invite somebody to have a “distance drink” in your garden can have the same disturbing effect as suggesting a partner swap.

The more surprising it was that Pedro Pascal accepted immediately. The drink, not the partner swap. He is one of the big ascending stars of the year – and if corona hadn’t forced the film industry into furlough, there wouldn’t have been time for this drink. After Game of Thrones, the show in which his skull was crushed so suddenly, followed the leading role as DEA agent on the hunt for Pablo Escobar in Narcos in 2015, and now the big step into Hollywood. On October 1st the Chilean born actor can be seen in Wonder Woman 1984. In addition, season two of the Star Wars show The Mandalorian with him the lead – although under a helmet - will air on Disney+. We would like to meet this man who still worked as a waiter in New York only a few years ago, whose parents are political refugees who first fled to Denmark and then settled down in Texas, their son one day going to theater group in High School.

Then he cancelled! While we were preparing house and garden for a drink with Pedro and organized a fashion photo shoot, which isn’t easy in L.A. with the current security restrictions, his management called with unfortunate news. Pedro had – no not corona – but emergency surgery due to a split tooth and is now in bed with a swollen face, which makes an interview and photo shoot impossible. The sun is shining on empty streets. And on our empty garden.

A few days later he arrives at our door, no longer puffed up, sutures still in his mouth, not chauffeured by a Limo service but coming in his own car with the make-up artist who he picked up at home. He helps her with carrying her work utensils inside and lets us know: “I have time today!” What a star! It seems as if it isn’t us who want to ask him how he made it on Hollywood’s A-list but as if he wanted to ask us instead. Pedro Pascal! What kind of star is he anyways?

Pedro Pascal: Sorry that I messed up your plans. The surgery was an absolute emergency.

GQ: Really? We were wondering if the swelling wasn’t the result of a secret visit to a plastic surgeon. They are rumored to be swamped with requests due to the lockdown in Hollywood.

Pedo Pascal: I have to disappoint you there. A few days prior to our appointment I sped to the hospital with a fractured tooth and in the worst pain of my life – the one where they treat the really bad corona cases. I couldn’t get in touch with a dentist. Right before I entered the parking garage a specialist called back, eventually. I’m sparing you the details of the surgery, scary. In any case, the pain was hell despite the ten injections. The doctor said I am not an unusual case because people tend to stress grind their teeth at night.

GQ: What is your biggest fear at the moment?

Pedro Pascal: The way the government handles the pandemic scares me even more than the virus itself. This lack of intelligent crisis management is a moral disgrace. The country’s leadership crisis turns us all into orphans - destitute and left to our own devices.

GQ: How did you spend the last months?

Pedro Pascal: With frozen pizza in a tracksuit in Venice Beach. I live in a rear building situated in a family’s garden. Actually, there are more than enough good take out restaurants close by but for some reason I am into salami pizza from the supermarket.

GQ: That doesn’t really sound like movie star life style. How does it feel to be slowed down from top speed to zero?

Pedro Pascal: If you have a look at what else is going on in the world, you should keep a check on your own sensibilities. But I would be lying if I pretended to not be disappointed in this situation. The entire team put their heart’s blood and really a lot of work into the production of Wonder Woman 1984. We had so much fun on set. I wish we were be able to travel around the world with this feeling of vitality and introduce the movie.

GQ: You come from a politically involved, socialist family that fled Chile because of persecution by the Pinochet regime. What do you remember from back then?

Pedro Pascal: My sister and I were born in Chile but was only nine months old when we first found refuge in Denmark. From there we moved San Antonio, Texas, pretty quickly where my father worked as a doctor at the university hospital.

GQ: Texas is not really known as a socialist utopia. How did you settle in there?

Pedro Pascal: San Antonio is not a Cowboy-City but diverse, with large Asian, Black and Latino communities. I remember it as a romantic place, culturally open-minded. The culture shock came only later when we moved to Orange County, California. Suddenly the atmosphere was white, preppy and conservative.

GQ: How were you received in California?

Pedro Pascal: I’m still ashamed when I think about how my class mates simply called me Peter and I didn’t correct them. I am Pedro. Even if I didn’t grow up in Chile, the country and the language are a part of me. I was pretty unhappy in that environment. But at least I could go to another school near Long Beach where I felt more comfortable. The school theater there helped me find my way.

GQ: Did you ever have the opportunity to visit your family’s home country as a kid?

Pedro Pascal: Yes, when my parents made it on a list of exiled people that were allowed to come back without repercussions. First, there was a big family meeting. Then my sister and I were parked at relatives for a few months while my parents went back to Texas. They probably needed a break from us. They had us when they were pretty young, had an active social live, and my mother took her PhD as a psychologist.

GQ: Was your mother one of those typical young psychologists who wanted to apply their theoretical knowledge at home?

Pedro Pascal: You mean if I was her human guinea pig? Yes, absolutely. I remember strange tests and sittings that were disguised as games where somebody watched how I reacted to different toys. Even though I couldn’t have been older than six years, I was aware of this dynamic. I liked it best to be asked about my dreams. That was always a wonderful opportunity to make up fantastic stories.

GQ: Was that your first performance?

Pedro Pascal: No doubt about it! My strong imagination worried my mother because I rather lived in a fantasy world than in reality. I loathed school. I was labeled a “problematic child.” At some point the topics got more interesting and my grades improved. So many children are diagnosed with learning disorders without taking into account that classes can be outright deterring. Why is it acceptable that you should be terribly bored at school when there are inspiring ways of imparting knowledge?

GQ: Considering everything that is happening in the world this summer: Do you believe that we will finally demand social change vigorously enough this time around?

Pedro Pascal: Hopefully. The first time I went out in public with other people after lockdown was in order to go to a Black Lives Matter protest. The energy was peaceful and hopeful until police intervened and provoked serious riots. At least we cannot run away from these problems anymore as we used to do and it’s harder to distract ourselves. It seems as if the pressure of the pandemic has led to a new clarity: This is not how we want to go on.

GQ: The trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 revives the optimism of the 80s. That almost makes one nostalgic.

Pedro Pascal: That’s definitely the case. You really will be happy for two full hours. Director Patty Jenkins succeeded in making a movie filled with positive messages. We filmed in Washington, D.C., then in London and Spain – which currently sounds as if I were talking about bygone times.

GQ: Do you miss traveling?

Pedro Pascal: It’s just now becoming apparent what a privilege it is to be able to pack your bags and just go anywhere. With an American passport you could always travel freely. And that’s why it is practically inconceivable in what a confined space life is actually taking place right now. During the last few years I often withdrew in between shootings because I was on the road a lot and overstimulated. Friends already complained that I had become homey. We all took our social exchanges for granted and are just now realizing how much we as pack animals depend on human connection and closeness. During the last few weeks I have often reflected wistfully on all the party and dinner invitations I didn’t take up in the past.

GQ: In L.A. people spend more time in private spaces or in nature than in other big cities that are more oriented towards public life. Could this city - after New York - be your perfect retreat?

Pedro Pascal: My friends are my real home. I have always led a nomad’s life and have never really taken root anywhere. Until recently my physical home was more a place between arrival and departure and therefore nothing that I wanted to complicate by accumulating objects. On the contrary: Even without ever having read Marie Kondo’s book, I have freed myself from some baggage over the last years and lived rather minimalistically.

GQ: Isn’t there anything you collect or that you wouldn’t want to miss?

Pedro Pascal: Books! I still have books that I’ve read as a teenager or at university. Recently, I found a box full of old theater manuscripts and other materials from my college days in New York. And I have a hard time giving up art, lamps or old photos. Furniture and clothes, on the other hand, are not a problem. They can go.

GQ: Do you remember any roles that were defined a lot by the costumes?

Pedro Pascal: Yes, what comes to mind immediately is Game of Thrones. It was the first time I really understood what it means to be supported by a Look as an actor. I owe this experience to costume designer Michele Clapton. She designed these very female robes and brocade coats that then looked male when put on and that made me feel sexy. And of course Lindy Hemming’s power suits and Jan Sewell’s blond haircut designed for evil tycoon Maxwell Lord in Wonder Woman 1984 were very important. As far as the style goes, I really didn’t see myself in this role because the colors and cuts of the 80s don’t really suit my body. I’m more of a 70s type.

GQ: Do you take inspiration from these clothes for your own wardrobe?

Pedro Pascal: Nowadays, in my free time, a cool look goes overboard in favor of being comfortable. Now and then I mourn the times when I expressed myself through a certain style. Hard to imagine that I went to raves as a teenager in the 90s like a real club kid with crazy outfits: overalls, parachute pants, soccer jerseys and a top hat, like in the children’s book, The Cat with the Hat by Dr. Seuss. Later, in New York, I was part of a group of people for whoww it was very important to have a certain style. That I’m walking around in sweatpants now is really a no go!

GQ: Actors who star in comic adaptations usually turn into body builders and eat ten steamed chicken breasts a day. You don’t?

Pedro Pascal: My body wouldn’t play along with that. I find it difficult enough already to stay in normal shape. In your mid-forties you have to be much more disciplined. Until the tooth incident I worked with a personal trainer in the garden a few times a week to get my lockdown body under control.

GQ: Is there, apart from this personal trainer, a steady relationship in your life?

Pedro Pascal: I’m not ready yet. Maybe one day but until then I’ll have mercy. I haven’t even any absurd corona dating stories for you.

GQ: What would annoy you the most if you had yourself as a roommate?

Pedro Pascal: I can be really bossy. I have to scrape together all my humanity to not push through my movie choice every evening. When I want something, I won’t beat around the bush or be passive aggressive about it but address it head on. In addition, I am prone to have tunnel vision. When I feel bad, I cannot imagine that it will ever get better. I find it hard to put emotions into perspective and to leave problems behind. Method-Acting would really not be for me. That’s why I try to only work projects that feel good and where people support and strengthen each other.

GQ: Earlier, when trying on the clothes, you talked about a lack of self-esteem. How does that go together with a career like yours?

Pedro Pascal: Isn’t it interesting how these character traits and states of being are connected? Self-worth comes from inside but is also influenced by what society values because we often make critical gazes from the outside our own. I lived in New York City for 20 years, studied there and afterwards made a living as a waiter until I was in my mid 30s because I couldn’t keep myself afloat with the theater and movie roles. Again and again it almost worked out. The disappointment to miss a perfect role or opportunity by a hair’s breadth can wear you down. When is it time to give up and what would be plan B? These questions are not only important for many actors but for many others as well who fight to survive in their jobs – no matter how much potential they have or how close they are to the top. We currently realize how our narrow definition of success destroys society. At the same time we come to see that ethnic background and color of skin still decide how likely it is to be able to lead a good, dignified life.

QM: What are positive aspects of a relatively late success as leading man?

Pedro Pascal: I have the feeling that I can shape my own life without being under pressure to accept projects or to develop a certain identity on social media. That is surely also the case because I am a man. Women have to distance themselves – regardless of age – much more from each other.

QM: Life is always risk management – currently even more than usual. What would you be ready to lose to gain something else?

Pedro Pascal: Generally speaking, you always risk achieving nothing if you don’t gamble a bit. That is true for friendship, love, work, creativity. For everything that really means something to me, I have to be ready to take a risk.

#pedro pascal #interview #my translation #my edits

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world-of-puppets · 4 years ago

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Puppetry Lost Media

In honour of reaching 50 followers last week (now 55 followers, as of writing this) I decided to cover two subjects of great interest to me: puppetry (of course) and lost media.

Everybody online loves a good old bit of lost media. Whether it be being a part of the many searches for the media in question, or watching documentaries about them on sites like YouTube. I’ve been mildly addicted to the latter kind of content for a while. From what I’ve seen, though, there aren’t many videos or articles out there specifically covering lost puppetry. So, in no particular order, here are a couple of pieces of lost puppetry I found while scrolling through the lost media wiki.

銀河少年隊 - Ginga shounen-tai AKA Galaxy Boy Troop (1963 - 1965)

Osamu Tezuka is one of the most pioneering figures in Japanese art and animation. Starting as a manga artist in the 1940s inspired by the animated works of American studios such as Walt Disney and the Fliecer Brothers, he adapted and simplified many of the stylistic techniques of both artists to create his own signature style of big shiny eyes, physics defying hair and limited animation. A style that would go on to heavily influence the world of anime and manga as a whole.

But animation and graphic art were not the only mediums Tezuka would dabble in. Ginga Shounen-Tai, or Galaxy Boy Troop in english, was a television series that aired on the public broadcast channel NHK from April 7th, 1963 to April 1st, 1965. Running for 2 seasons with a total of 92 episodes.

The series was a mixture of marionette characters that utilised the Supermarionation marionette technique, popularised by Jerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds, and limited traditional animation. The story revolves around a child genius named Roy who leads a rag-tag group of heros around the galaxy in a rocket ship in order to revive the earth’s sun and later protect it from alien invaders.

Out of the 92 episodes that aired, only episode 67 still exists in its entirety with French subtitles, and the full episode can be found on YouTube with English subtitles uploaded by user Rare TezukaVids. According to user F-Man on the Tezuka in English forums, footage of episode 28 exists but with no audio, and episode 87’s animated segments exist without the marionette segments. F-Man also claims the reason for Galaxy Boy Troop’s disappearance is due to Tezuka not being proud of the series and having all episodes of it destroyed.

Personally, I think it’s a shame that pretty much all of this series is gone. From what I’ve seen in episode 67, it looks really charming. Tezuka’s signature character design style was adapted suprisingly well to marionettes, and the puppetry itself isn’t that bad either. I love the little face mechanisms like the blinking eyes, flapping mouths and others. It gives the puppets a lot of personality and charm. Like, just look at this old mans eyebrow mechanism and tell me you wouldn’t want to watch 92 episodes of this show;

Tinseltown (2007)

Tinseltown was a 15 minute sitcom pilot created by the Jim Henson company under thier Henson Alternative banner. The pilot was commissioned by the Logo Network and aired as part of the Alien Boot Camp programming block in 2007.

The pilot (and likely the series, had it been picked up by the logo network) features a cast of both puppets and live actors as characters. The premise revolves around Samson Kight, an anthropomorphic bull preformed by Brian Henson and drew Massey, and his partner Bobby Vegan, an anthropomorphic pig prefomed by Bill Barretta and Michelan Sisti, as they attempt to balance thier lives working in Hollywood with life as parents to thier sullen 12-year-old foster son, Foster, played by Paul Butcher. Other human characters included Mia Sara as Samson’s ex-wife Lena and Francesco Quinn as the family’s manservant Arturo.

The Tinseltown pilot used to be available on the Logo Network’s YouTube channel, but was later removed for unknown reason. Since then, the pilot has not been made available online. However the characters Samson and Bobby have made appearances in other Henson related works, such as the improv stage show Stuffed and Unstrung, where they played the role as the shows producers, and in a 2011 video on the Jim Henson Company YouTube channel celebrating Jim Hensons 75th birthday.

I find Tinseltown pretty interesting as I feel like it should be more noateable or known, considering that this is (as far as my knowledge goes) the first Jim Henson Company project featureing openly lgbtq characters as its leads, and would have been the first Henson show to do so had it been picked up. As someone who’s interested in lgbtq+ representation in creative media such as animation, I realised that there’s not many examples of canon lgbt characters in puppetry. The only ones aside from Samson and Bobby I could think off the top of my head would be Deet’s Dads from The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and Rod from Avenue Q. Though, obviously, there could be more I’m not currently aware of. I don’t think the Tinseltown pilot was a masterpiece or anything. After all, there’s probably a couple of good reasons Logo didn’t pick it up for a full series. But I think it be cool if either Henson co. or Logo made this available online again, if just so we could appericate it as an interesting little footnote in the history of lgbtq rep in puppetry.

With that said, considering the pilot’s obscurity and the fact that it’s main couple haven’t been used in any Henson Related projects in almost ten years, as well as the possibility that there may be legalities preventing the Henson company from releasing it such as Logo still owning the rights, it’s unlikely we’ll see the Tinseltown pilot anytime soon.

Sonic Live in Sydney (1997 - 2000)

Sonic the Hedgehog is a fictional character no stranger to multiple interpretations of him and his universe across a diverse range of media. From the more light-hearted and comedic stylings of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Cartoon Networks Sonic Boom cartoon series, to more serious faire such as the Sonic SatAM cartoon and the Sonic Adventure videogame duology. One of the more obscure and stranger adaptations of the character came in the form of Sonic Live in Sydney, a one an a half hour live show hosted at the former Sega World Sydney amusement park in Darling Harbor, Sydney, Australia. Originally beginning as a live show with actors in meet-and-greet style costumes, the show eventually was replaced with a puppet show during its last two years.

The shows plot was set in an alternate timeline whos continuity was a mix of the SatAM cartoon and Sonic the Hedgehog 3, where Doctor Robotnik’s Death Egg crash lands in Sydney, Australia instead of Angel Island and attempts to take over before being foiled by sonic and friends. According to Phillip Einfeld of Phillip Einfeld Puppetoons, the company that made the puppets, Sega felt the costumed actor version of the show wasn’t dynamic enough, and wished to replace it with a version featuring live puppets with animatronics. Both versions of the shows plot are identical.

While Sonic Live in Sydney’s soundtrack is available on YouTube, and some photos of the show are available on the Lost Media Wiki, no footage of either the costumed actors version or the puppet show version have resurfaced. The show was closed down in 1999, possibly due to cost, shortly before the Sega World park as a whole in 2000. So unless there is someone out there who viseted the show between 1998 or 1999 who recorded the show via a handheld camera, footage of both incarnations of the show are likely forever lost to time.

On a personal note, I don’t have much to say on this one other than how gloriously peek gaudy 90s Sonic the set/puppet design is. I have no doubt finding footage of these puppets in action would truly be a silly delight to behold...

Legend of Mary (year unknown)

This one is a little different from the other entries on this list as while the film itself in its entiraty is available on YouTube for anyone to view, the information surrounding Legend of Mary, specifically its year of release, remains a mystery as of writing this.

I have mentioned the film before on this blog so I’ll keep it brief here: in summary, Legend of Mary is a short film retelling of the Nativity featuring the Rod puppets of Austrian puppeteer Richard Teschner. the video was uploaded to YouTube by user canada 150 archive. I looked up the people credited in the film and was able to find most of them, but didn’t find Legend of Mary listed in thier credits, and was unable to find the film on sites like IMDB, tMDB or Letterboxd. I reached out to Canada 150 archive asking if they had any info regarding the Legend of Mary’s release date, and after a coupe of months, they replied saying they didn’t know.

And that’s as far as I got on my search for answers, if anyone of you guys has any information regarding Legend of Mary, then it be of huge help in finding the release date.

Sam and friends (1955 - 1961)

Sam and friends was the very first puppetry television series created by Jim Henson alongside his colabarator and future wife Jane Nebel. filmed in Washington, D.C. and airing twice daily on WRC-TV and the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C. from May 9, 1955, to December 15, Sam and Friends would mark the first apperence of Kermit (though not yet as a frog) and paved the way for Henson’s iconic and revered legacy in the realm of puppetry on film and television.

With the impact this show had in mind, it may come as a shock to some that almost half of Sam and Friends, specifically, 42 of the 86 episodes, are considered lost. With 16 existing, 8 documented, 9 known from memory, plus 8 existing Esskay commercials and 1 memory-known Esskay commercial. Some taped episodes have been shown at venues such as the museum of the moving image while others have been erased. It’s unknown if copies of these erased episodes still exist.

This post would become far to long if I were too list every episode missing from Sam and Freinds, but if your curious, the lost media wiki article has a comprehensive list of all lost episodes.

Annnd that about it for this post. This type of content is pretty different from the stuff I usually post. So I’m egar to see what you guys think about it. If you enjoyed this article, want to see more like it or have ideas for what puppetry-related topics I should cover in the future. And again, thank you all so much for helping me reach 55 followers. Your support really does mean a lot to me, and I hope you enjoyed this as a follower milestone gift.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this dip into lost puppetry, and have a happy holiday season!

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adamwatchesmovies · 3 years ago

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Aladdin (1992)

One of the best things about the Disney Renaissance is that everyone can make a strong case for why their favorite is "the best". Though I usually lean towards Beauty and the Beast or The Little Mermaid, Aladdin is a strong contender. This is a delightfully witty, fast-paced, and clever adventure with plenty of laughs and thrills. Each viewing offers something new.

Set in the sultanate of Agrabah, a street rat named Aladdin (voiced by Scott Weinger) and his pet monkey Abu (Frank Welker) dream of a better life. Meanwhile, the Sultan’s daughter, Princess Jasmine (voiced by Linda Larkin) laments her upcoming forced marriage and the Grand Vizier Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) dreams of usurping the throne using a fabled magical lamp. When Aladdin comes into possession of the lamp and the powerful genie inside (voiced by Robin Williams), Aladdin’s dreams of winning the princess' heart are just a wish away.

The film takes aspects of classic stories like Aladdin and the Magic Lamp and One Thousand and One Nights, as well as films such as The Thief of Baghdad and The Thief and the Cobbler, but blends them into something new. Thief of Bagdad has a villain named Jaffar, a heroic thief named Abu, a comedic Genie, a toy-loving sultan. Thief and the Cobbler is also animated, the villain has a bird for a pet, and there are certain uncanny similarities between its villainous Zigzag and the Genie. But this picture is no ripoff. It proudly stands on its own merit thanks to the humor, the elegant character dynamics, and the songs.

Anyone who’s seen this picture knows how funny it is. Robin Williams as the Genie of the lamp could not have been better cast if you had magical means to create a perfect voice actor. The mannerisms of this fast-talking pop-culture spewing near-omnipotent are memorable, iconic, and hilarious even if you don’t catch everything he says. The Genie is always making the people around him shrug their shoulders in confusion as he references events, people, and objects from all corners of the world and history. He’s a magical creature that’s slightly off his rocker so it fits and feels original - something most of the pictures that have tried to emulate this comedic style fail to do. This brings me to the film's one weakness: the fact that these gags date the film. You can’t tell me what decade Bambi is set in. Stories like Sleeping Beauty have that fairytale feel that makes them endure. In a hundred years, you'll need a booklet that explains Jack Nicholson or Arsenio Hall for audiences to get these jokes.

Instead of going through the different themes or discussing the different ways everyone dreams of freedom and has to deal with various forms of entrapment, let’s talk about the way the characters relate. This is a film about intelligent people. There’s a big climactic action sequence here and there, but mostly, Aladdin, Jasmine, Jafar, and the others get what they want by outwitting the people around them. They feel genuine because they have dreams and ambitions, they think on their feet, and are always striving for something more. They’re not standing still while the plot revolves around them.

A great example is the relationship between Jafar... and his talking parrot, Iago (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried). They have common interests, laugh together, and feel like real, malicious, partners. It’s little touches like this that make this a film with great re-watch value. You can always find something new in the quiet moments where Aladdin looks outside his window or the way Princess Jasmine proves she's got a good head on her shoulders.

I don’t know what I can say about the soundtrack that isn’t told with the two Academy Awards it won (Best Original Score and Best Original Song) except that my favorite piece is the reprise of Prince Ali in which we hear Jonathan Freeman gleefully make fun of Aladdin and belch out a cackle so evil it echoes deep in your bones. Can't beat that maniacal glee.

Aladdin might be a tad familiar in some aspects and the pop culture references date it, but it offers so much fun you won’t mind. It’s gorgeous, with a great soundtrack, surprisingly deep characters, and delivers something for everyone. It’s got action, adventure, comedy, romance, and more. (On Blu-ray, August 27, 2016)

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imaginesmai · 5 years ago

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Tom Holland - Our fairytale

Is this another disney-Tom fic? Yes it it. I’m masking my inactivity with another piece of fluff in Disney World. If you like this one, make sure to check Lost kid and True love kiss.

Plot: that story where two characters of a movie fall in love, or in this case two actors portraying those characters fall in love, even if they don’t belong to the same fairy tale

Tom is prince Eric and you’re Belle, and he’s just a jealous bean.

“Mommy, mommy! It’s prince Eric!”

A little red haired girl, that was probably wearing a wig not that well put, pulled her mother’s hand behind her and gripped harder the drawings’ book she has been carrying around all day. Her objective had been clear since she had woken up that morning; to meet all the characters that appeared in her drawings and make them sign the pictures. She had too a purple princess dress with small seashells and a small purse that was all decoration.

Tom kneeled down just as the girl reached him. Her eyes looked as if they could burst out of their pockets, jumping up and down in the spot of excitement. The mother, a middle age woman that looked done with the whole park, gave Tom a side glance to check he was no depredator and took her phone with her free hand.

“Hi!” she screeched, loud even above all the noise of the park that day. “I’m Marleen!”

“Oh, what a beautiful name!” Tom said in a high-pitched voice. “And what a beautiful girl!”

“Thanks” she giggled and twisted her body around the mother’s hand. “This is not my real hair, my mommy bought it for me”

“Well, it’s really pretty” Tom smiled warmly. “Are you enjoying your day in the park?”

The question led to a monologue from the little girl about all the characters she had met so far, and a thoughtful look through her drawings. Her smile was easily contagious, and Tom didn’t mind staying 20 long minutes under the sun, crutched in front of that cute girl. He commented every drawing and even made up some stories about the characters in them. The mother kept herself to the phone, not listening to the conversation, and Tom felt himself traveling to a different world.

Every time a kid asked for him, he left the rest of his life aside and became Eric, the prince of the little mermaid that had a charming smile and lived with Ariel in a big palace. Tom had been working as that character for almost five months, and he never got tired. There were too many good things that came with it; the smiles, the excitement and the fantasy he got to live meanwhile.

He was in the middle of a story about Ursula when Marleen seemed to see something behind him, and before he got time to turn around, she had already recovered and emitted another loud screech.

“Belle!!”

Tom was suddenly pushed aside when Marleen rushed past him and attached herself to another person’s legs. He didn’t have to look up to know it was you who had stolen the attention of the girl, but he wasn’t at all afraid. Once more, the mother looked poorly interested in the situation, and went back to her previous business after checked who was her daughter talking to.

Again, Marleen presented herself and explained who she was dressed as. You looked as interested as Tom in the story, though Tom ignored it in favour of staring at you. You were wearing a beautiful pale yellow dress that fell down your legs, barely touching the ground. There was a flashy necklace on your chest and a pearly ring on your finger. You weren’t the princess that used more make-up, yet Tom thought the soft red lipstick and the barely there Rimmel was perfect.

“Can you sign my drawing too?” Marleen asked, already opening her book. She shoved it in front of you and turned to look at Tom. “My friends are going to be so envious! I’m gonna tell them I met Belle and prince Eric!”

“If you are quick, you can meet Cinderella in the main square” you said as you scribbled on the page. “I heard she has brought some special friends with her”

“Mommy did you hear that?!?”

Tom barely noticed her arms circling around his legs before she took off running again, her mother screaming behind her. He chuckled as the pair disappeared in the sea of the people. It was only mid-day, and if they were thinking about staying until close-up time, he doubted the mother would be able to keep up.

A soft hand made its way to his, sneaking as if it was a secret. And in part, it was; because prince Eric was supposed to be with Ariel, and you had strict orders about sticking to the characters until the end of the day. You rubbed your face against his blue jacket, half wishing you would be alone at the moment.

Finally, Tom intertwined your hands together and gave yours a small squeeze. Your break was close, and if you were lucky you could still find some spot in the shadow to hide from the torturous sun.

“I was watching you way before she noticed me, you know” you mumbled, pressing yourself even closer to him. “You’re so good with them, and you look so cute”

“I’m not cute, I’m carrying a sword and I’m a prince” Tom chuckled, not moving from his spot. “You’re amazing, too. And beautiful – god, I swear they might want to remake the film and change the ending, because I can’t take my eyes off you with that dress”

“Aren’t you a gentleman, my prince. Do you say that to every princess here?”

“Only you. And Cinderella, of course”

You smacked his arm playfully, and in return, you were met with his lips on you. If someone saw you, you would probably have a lot of problems with your boss. He was very, very strict on the no-dating policy, or at least not kissing in the park.

Instead of pushed him away, you put your other hand across his chest and started playing with the black buttons of the vest he was wearing. Both of you were sweaty and spending time of your break, that was already short. Yet Tom didn’t push you away either, just angled his head so that the kiss wasn’t that awkward. He resisted the urge to stretch himself on the tip toes because you were taller than him, wearing just a small heel.

You pulled back when oxygen became short, and Tom just leaned again to peck your lips, swallowing your giggled.

“What’s got you so clingy?” you managed to say between quick kisses. “Someone’s gonna see us”

“And they won’t care, they’ve have seen us before” Tom pressed his lips against you once more.

“No, really” you pushed him a little bit. “Everything good?”

“Yeah, everything good. Just missed you, darling”

“Since this morning?” you raised an eyebrow when you got the idea why Tom was that clingy. “Or since you learned that I have a show today?”

Tom scoffed for an answer and you knew you were right. You both had talked about it – that you had to kiss other people for the job, and even act romantic about them. While in a normal day you didn’t have to do much with your partner, every week a Disney movie would get a show in the main castle of the park, and that week was Beauty and the Beast. Dancing, singing, wearing costumes – and following the original story, that said that Belle and Beast kissed at the end of the show.

He wasn’t really angry, he never was. And neither was you when he had to swoop Ariel off her feet and kiss her while fireworks ran behind them. But you had your days where it was hard, and Tom had a hard time saying he was jealous of a man who wore the Beast costume.

“You can always fight him with that sword of yours” you smiled at the blush on his cheeks. “But it might turn out bad, since it’s made of plastic”

“Shut up” Tom croaked out, confidence gone. “I have every right to be jealous, you’re kissing him almost every day! And – he get to slow dance with you, and kiss you, and –“

“And you’re the one who goes back home with me when the show is over” you interrupted him before he got carried away. “We can slow dance in the living room, and we kiss all the time even if we can get in trouble for it. You don’t have to be jealous”

Tom didn’t say anything else, just looked away. He knew you were right, that he didn’t have any right to be jealous and that he was pushing it by kissing you in the park. But at the same time, his brain was having a hard time walking past the need of hugging you close and flipping it off in the distance to the guy who played the Beast.

“If you want to, after the show we can go out for dinner. Tomorrow is our free day” you wrapped yourself around Tom, noses touching again.

“As long as I get to pick you up from the dressing room”

“As long as you don’t glare too much at Michael and don’t flip him off again” you half joked, thinking about how in your last show Tom had been giving your partner the puppy, angry eyes the whole time.

“Then we’re getting pizza and we’re watching a movie” Tom finished, kissing you once more, quick, time. “And I’m choosing everything”

“You’re lucky I love you”

If Marleen, the little girl that had been talking to Tom, saw Belle and prince Eric kissing and holding hands, she didn’t say anything. She just watched with an excited smile how them both leaned for a kiss once more, truly believing that she was a princess and would find his own prince.

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