Miscellaneous Film/TV Discussion

[Redadoodles]

For the fans of Titanic..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBUWdjtzp84

[blackcauldron85]

Lol I like the extra flourishes in there. Jack didn't have to die. . Love that movie.

[Disney's Divinity]

I watched the new Wonder Woman, and I'm surprised it seems to have received so much negativity. I thought it was a good movie except a few things at the end. I thought Kristen Wiig's story was fine until she became a leopard woman--that was kind of dumb. I thought it would be kind of impossible for that character to renounce her wish at the end because if the plot is that you get your wish, but you lose what you have already that you most treasure and Wiig's character's greatest treasure that she lost was her goodness, then wouldn't she have lost her ability to be good at the end? Besides that, my only criticism is how long the ending dragged on. I didn't think the story itself was cheesy until the confrontation went on and on and on. Overall, I liked the movie. I thought it was clever how they managed to bring the love interest from the first film back, and even echoed moments like Gal Gadot's character in an outfit montage with the roles reversed this time around.

Captain Marvel is airing tonight; so I'll be seeing that for the first time, too. Last weekend there was a marathon of the new Star Wars films. I watched most of Solo and a little of the next one, since I remembered reading that Carrie Fisher came back as Leia before she died. I'm not a Star Wars fan, so I have no idea about them. I thought it was okay? I saw most of the early films once or twice when I was growing up, and I once watched two of the prequels when I was in college. Maybe I might try to watch them all full-through for once.

I've been trying to watch a few of the old Dreamworks films I haven't seen. I've seen the third HTTYD (which I loved--it was much better than 2), Home (about what I expected...which wasn't much), and now Trolls. Trolls was just terrible, even worse than Home. It was obvious with both Home and Trolls how they attempted to mimic the buddy roadtrip structure of Disney and PIXAR's films (the Lasster model, as I call it). Come to think of it, The Boss Baby had that same structure, but that film did it in a much more organic way, that's for sure. Anyway, I assume this is the end for HTTYD... I just wouldn't be interested in a new film with younger characters in place of Hiccup. I've seen a few Dreamworks-esque knock-offs, too, like Angry Birds (which was...cute, actually) and The Emoji Movie. It's just funny when you watch a lot of these bad animated films close together, how often you see them repeat jokes or setups. I'll try to keep my eye out to see if Mr. Peabody & Sherman or Abominable might air sometime. I've never seen Turbo either.

[blackcauldron85]

Trolls was just terrible, even worse than Home. It was obvious with both Home and Trolls how they attempted to mimic the buddy roadtrip structure of Disney and PIXAR's films (the Lasster model, as I call it). Come to think of it, The Boss Baby had that same structure, but that film did it in a much more organic way, that's for sure. Anyway, I assume this is the end for HTTYD... I just wouldn't be interested in a new film with younger characters in place of Hiccup. I've seen a few Dreamworks-esque knock-offs, too, like Angry Birds (which was...cute, actually) and The Emoji Movie. It's just funny when you watch a lot of these bad animated films close together, how often you see them repeat jokes or setups. I'll try to keep my eye out to see if Mr. Peabody & Sherman or Abominable might air sometime. I've never seen Turbo either.

Aww, Trolls is my favorite CG DreamWorks film! I like the TV show as well. I think it's super cute and it's pink and has pop music and all the things I like. But I know that that stuff is not for everyone! And I really enjoy Turbo as well; I haven't watched it in a few years, but it's always been one of my favorite DreamWorks films.

[Disney Duster]

I recently saw Apocalypse Now. Wow. It was a very good film. So savage. So haunting. Really good performance by Marlon Brando. Really good. I give the film a 10/10

I also saw Hello Dolly! last night, and you know what? It was a delight! I don't get at all why people say it is so bad. Yes, Barbara Streisand was too young for the main role, but she acted the hell out of the thing, and she kept me thoroughly entertained whenever she was on screen. The worst part is probably that love song, "It Only Takes a Moment". But the costumes, the sets, oh the sets! The choreography! Oh, it was amazing! I give the film a 9/10. The only thing that mars it is Barbara Streisand's age and Walter Matthau's acting could be a bit better.

[Disney's Divinity]

^ I love that version of Hello, Dolly! It was actually my intro to the property, no disrespect to Carol Channing. It's definitely one of my favorite live-action films--Streisand's voice is so beautiful there, imo. I read that a lot of people didn't like how much younger Streisand was to the male actor (when both characters are old in the musical). But, tbh, I didn't even register that when I first watched it... I thought they both seemed middle-aged? I already knew that actor from Grumpy Old Men.

Aww, Trolls is my favorite CG DreamWorks film! I like the TV show as well. I think it's super cute and it's pink and has pop music and all the things I like. But I know that that stuff is not for everyone! And I really enjoy Turbo as well; I haven't watched it in a few years, but it's always been one of my favorite DreamWorks films.

I only saw someone replied to me just now. There are actually parts of it that I think are cute. I liked the scene where Poppy is traveling via musical sequence, and I laughed when the ogres were all singing that Gorillaz song. Most of the parts with the girl ogre made me laugh, too.

[UmbrellaFish]

I recently rewatched Hello, Dolly!, too. Probably for the first time since Wall-E came out in 2008. I agree with both of you that it is very entertaining. It might be the best of the late 60’s musical flops. The main problem for all of those movies at that time was that the movie musical was... passé at that point, especially something as frothy and earnest as Hello, Dolly!

I do think Streisand is way too young for the role, but c’est la vie. She does sing the hell out of the score.

I watched Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams for the first time last night. I bought it from eBay. I knew it wasn’t going to be good, but I wanted it to fill a gap in my collection. I thought the Jasmine segment was stronger than the Aurora segment. Aurora’s part was really bad.

This morning I watched The Princess and the Frog, Pocahontas and Tarzan. TPATF is middle tier Disney for me— I like the characters but I don’t like the buddy trip plot. I’ve sorta come to the conclusion, however, that I’m never going to love any “new” Disney movies the way I did the ones I grew up— principally the Renaissance films.

Speaking of— Pocahontas, my problematic fave. I will always love this movie, the music, the art direction and character designs. It has many flaws, but I overlook them because the movie was so instrumental in my growing up.

I cannot remember the last time I rewatched Tarzan. I’ve probably had the Blu-ray for 10 years now, but I’m not sure I ever actually played it until today! On some level, I think I’ve avoided the movie because Tarzan’s relationship with Kerchak is quite relatable and painful to me. Well, anyway, the movie is very good! The language barrier is handled so much better here than it is in Pocahontas. And Tarzan is such an interesting, childlike character despite his uber masculine design. And he doesn’t really speak all that much, does he? Jane was interesting, too. She was less sexualized than pretty much every other female romantic lead in the Renaissance. Also, her father might be my favorite Disney dad. I could have done without Terk and the elephant, though. Oh and the ending was a mess, but otherwise a very good movie.

[Disney Duster]

I'm glad you like Hello, Dolly! as much as I do, Divinity and Brelly! Did it never, ever cross your mind that Barbara Streisand was too young to be her character when you watched ths film, Divinity? I'm curious to know, if no one knew what age she's "supposed to be", would people think she was perfect for the role. Horace's age seemed right in line with here's, I thought, too. Brelly, I agree that Streisand sang the hell out of her songs, and Divinity, I agree she really did sing beautifully. Brelly, thanks for explaining why the film is considered bad. It just came when musicals weren't big.

[blackcauldron85]

I thought the Jasmine segment was stronger than the Aurora segment. Aurora’s part was really bad.

Are you denying that "Keys to the Kingdom" is a bop?! "Peacock Princess" > "Keys to the Kingdom," but my goodness, KttK gets stuck in my head more than most songs.

[UmbrellaFish]

I thought the Jasmine segment was stronger than the Aurora segment. Aurora’s part was really bad.

Are you denying that "Keys to the Kingdom" is a bop?! "Peacock Princess" > "Keys to the Kingdom," but my goodness, KttK gets stuck in my head more than most songs.

Haha I will say I was pulled out for a bit to hear something besides Mary Costa’s operatic voice come out of Aurora’s mouth!

[Redadoodles]

You should check out this tribute I made to that awful version of Aurora https://youtu.be/1CU78Kp70uo

[Disney Duster]

"Good God! Shame on you!"

[Disney Duster]

I recently saw To Catch a Thief, Somewhere in Time, re-watched A Simple Wish, and saw The Red Shoes. I should have seen the ending of The Red Shoes coming, what with how they say the original fairy tale goes. It was pretty good. I predicted who the thief would be in To Catch a Thief, but I liked it and loved the costumes. A Simple Wish is a bad movie but I love it. It's about Fairy Godmothers, how could I not? Haha. But I am glad I watched it again as and adult so I could get the plot better, and I thought it was pretty funny when Murray made fun of Claudia. My favorite of these movies though was definitely Somewhere in Time! I was curious about it because it was my grandmother's favorite movie, and Escapay said he loves it. It is such an epic romance, and I was not prepared for the tragedy in the end with the penny, but I'm glad the very end was bittersweet. It was a very lovely movie. Screw what the Rotten Tomatoes score is! It's really good!

[Disney's Divinity]

^I had a fondness for A Simple Wish because I've rarely got the chance to see it over the years, and yet I kind of dislike a lot of it at the same time. I always liked the villain of the film. For me, Martin Short is just hard to take. He seems like a nice person and he is funny sometimes in small doses, but he kind of has that same quality that Robin Williams and especially Jim Carrey had/have in that it's almost like they're seeking approval instead of being themselves and just waaay overdo things.

I randomly watched a little of Rugrats the other day. A lot of Disney's stuff, I've bought and re-watched into adulthood, but I didn't do that for most of those Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon shows. I remember enjoying the show when I was a child and thinking it was clever. Anyway, then I read about the reboot elsewhere. I might would watch it if it trickled down to the Nickelodeon channel in a few years' time since it sounds like they're getting most of the voice and writing talent involved with the original show back. I say all that to say, that I was then looking up characters from the show on Wikipedia for some reason which reminded me of the Rugrats in Paris movie. And it's funny because I remember how disappointed I've always been in Sarandon as Narissa in Enchanted, but she was actually a good animated villain in that Rugrats movie!

[Disney Duster]

I like the villain, Claudia, in A Simple Wish, too, but for someone trying to be "the Queen of Darkness" as she self-described, she should have done more, like had a spell overtaking the city or something. I think you hit the nail on the head about Martin Short and those other comedians.

I'd say early seasons of Rugrats were genius.

[Disney's Divinity]

Saw Spirit for the first time in years and years. I forgot how beautiful the movie is. When I first started, I was already expecting the worst because of the horrid 3D canyon and eagle, but the hand-drawn animation in that film is incredible.

[UmbrellaFish]

Did anyone love Madeline as a child? When I was growing up we had the animated TV series and the live action movie with Frances McDormand which I haven’t seen in years. I also had a CD ROM game that was about Madeline going around the world— it introduced me to different cultures at a young age.

Thinking about picking up some Madeline media (books, DVDs) to go down memory lane. I always loved the character and the setting, but she was also a quite sad figure because she was an orphan IIRC. I was googling the character and I found this artist who appears to have worked on either a canned Madeline TV show/movie or new book illustrations https://vivienwu.com/madeline

[blackcauldron85]

I'm a Madeline fan, too. Very cute vis dez pics! I wonder too what project that'd be for.

[Disney's Divinity]

I saw Hitchcock's Rope today, finally. I think they were having a Hitchcock day altogether on the channel, but this is the only one I've been waiting to see. It was worth seeing once at least, the performances were all strong. My favorite of the actors was the woman who tells Phillip his hands will make him famous one day when she's reading his palms. She felt very real.

Another film I've been waiting to show up on TV at some point is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I've never seen it, and I would like to. I saw A Streetcar Named Desire recently for the first time, too, and that film was totally different than I expected. I knew next to nothing about the movie other than the title, I didn't even realize Vivien Leigh was in it (which convinced me to watch it the full way through). I thought it would be sort of a tragic romance going by the title rather than the horrible story it was.

[blackcauldron85]

The trailer for Sing 2 is out!! Looks good!

https://youtu.be/n_BfvWUNLhM