JM, would you
please cut it out with the juvenile vitriol? This topic may not be worthy of serious conversation, but it certainly doesn't warrant such spiteful comments, either.
I read your entire paper a couple days ago, Skullfarmer. It certainly is well-written, and anyone can see it's borne of an
intense passion. On a much,
much milder scale, I feel the same way about many of your points as applied to the
Lion King cheapquels, especially such points as lack of consideration for the story's continuity, or even the lack of effort from the crew on a whole to make a good, worthwhile follow-up, a la
Toy Story 2. I also agree, in a way, about the worthiness of cheapquels to be disliked so much; of
course a individual can decide to not watch these video baby-sitters, or acknowledge them, but there's also the concern for Joe Public Jr. The sheer banality and unimaginative qualities of these cheapquels makes me wonder about the unseen long-term effects that may occur to the kids who watch them. Will they equate "Disney" with this tripe? Will their judgement of true quality be warped? Will their imagination and creative potential be stunted, because it was never tested and stretched in the first place? Who knows. It just makes me wonder sometimes.
On the flip side, though, I'd have to admit that your love and interest in
Beauty and the Beast has crossed the line into the obsessive, in my opinion. I simply can't
imagine a person watching a specific film multiple hundreds of times without getting bored of it, or going insane. There's affection for a film, and then there's distilled
obsession. Not to give you flak or throw petty insults your way, but if you really have watched
Beauty and the Beast ~800 times, I would come right out and say that that's simply unhealthy. Not that there's anything truly wrong with you, but I must say that there is more to life than said film.
Too much of a good thing, as they say.
I addition, you lost a
load of credibility in my eyes when you persistently slagged on
Enchanted Christmas for its continuity problems, yet dismiss Maurice's indefinite time lost in the forest, a clear mistake on the filmmakers' part, as the film "being a fairy tale," and that fairy tales "don't always make perfect sense." That's just hypocritical of you, in my opinion. Is it not asking too much of you to admit that your beloved is less-than-perfect? I love
The Lion King, though I have enough of a sense of humor to take it with its warts, like the mystery of Nala's paternity - an admitted directorial oversight. On a side note - that you refuse to see the TLK Broadway show because of "the human element" is just shallow and much too literal of you. That you are unable to look beyond "the human element" implies much about your character, methinks.
Anyway... sorry to have kind of "attacked" you in that last paragraph. But that's just how I feel about this situation. I understand your motives in your righteous hatred of the BatB cheapquels, but it does no one else much good - and only does harm to yourself - when you expend so much energy into such - dare I say it - a petty cause. Though I absolutely loathe the vast majority of Disney cheapquels and spin-offs, it does no good to keep stoking the fires about it. To others, it's just a broken record after a while. You've just got to know your limits, and learn when to call it a day!
Skullfarmer, Thank you so much for your paper on The Enchanted Christmas! You have proven that there is such a thing of having way too much free-time. I applaud you for trying to prove that for us as I have always hardly been able to manage having a little free time. Yay for Skullfarmer! We should put him in the Guiness Book of World Records! 
