jwa1107 wrote:back then there was nothing better IMHO than watching zebra vs. ostrich in Swiss Family Robinson
and Francis egging on the fighting Fritz and Ernst
this is working out real good, SFR is totally on DVD. i put it on my netflix queue. along with "gus."
not sure i'm gonna go as far as adding "hot lead and cold feet" though; i remember when i threw in "no deposit no return" i was totally tickled to see don knotts again.
I prefer the older live-action films from Walt's era. The Vault Disney DVDs are excellent. The original Parent Trap is a classic and probably my favorite. Recently, we watched the original Parent Trap one night and the remake the next. I think everything about the original is perfect. The remake, however, falls short. The acting is good, especially Lindsay Lohan before it all went to her head. But I couldn't get over the cheesey music that was constantly playing and the cheesey allusions to the original.
Also enjoy 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson, Treasure Island, Davey Crocket, Swamp Fox, Elfego Baca, Follow Me, Boys!, and of course, Mary Poppins!
One of these days I'm gonna pick up Darby O'Gill and the Little People. I've never seen it, but it sounds good. I'd probably enjoy most of the Walt-era films that I've never seen.
i got a big kick outta the parent trap. my favorite scene's gotta be hayley mills' split-screen jam session. although the commentary track is funny -- they have mills and the director and they pretty much have forgotten everything! hard to blame them; it WAS forty-five years ago, after all.
hayley mills apparently still does stagework from time to time.
anyway, i'm fond of the disney-era stuff too but since i was a little kid in the 70s that's really what i'm partial to.
(did anybody happen to read the new yorker article about mary poppins a few weeks ago? that should incite some controversy... )
Bill W wrote:Yes! Best part of the movie! I love watching for the part where she waves her arm and her hand disappears with the split screen!
man, got me wanting to see it again now. although i still got more yucks outta "that darn cat." i loaded a buncha hayley mills movies on my queue, like the one where she's a nun.
Bill W wrote:I didn't read it, what did it say?
there was all this intrigue with the author of the mary poppins children's novels because the movie adaptation was apparently a lot more cheerful than the novels were and the author and walt disney argued about it interminably.
Yes. I'd completely recommend the "Mary Poppins" novels because they are so different from the movie. Mary is much more peppery and authorative in the book (and the Banks family features more children). The books approach some heavy themes too.
She apparently had a real hard childhood, the author, and never settled down and had kids or anything. in the books the family supposedly had a much tougher life than they had in the movie, although both were set in this brief time when families who weren't rich could afford domestic help...
holy cow! it's right on the net. i didn't think it would be.
i'd love to see somebody do something similar with alexander key and the witch mountain books/movies. i read escape to witch mountain and the movie's surprisingly loyal to it, but in the book the eddie albert character is this grizzled vietnam vet and in the movie they don't mention any of that stuff. the book is also much more cynical.
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