Monday, December 27, 2010

"A Christmas Carol" Parody #3: The Flintstones

A Flintstones Christmas Carol isn’t a direct parody of the classic story, but the story is told.  The Flintstones characters partake in the Bedrock community theater’s production of the story, and during the performance Fred (who is the star, Ebenezer Scrooge) learns his lesson about being selfish, egocentric, and stingy in real life.  It’s a pretty simple premise and a pretty simple movie.  Had the whole Bedrock gang in it being their usual enjoyable selves and getting to act the roles you would expect (Barney is Bob Crachit, Bamm-Bamm is Tiny Tim, Wilma ended up being the Ghost of Christmas Past, Belle, and a charity worker).  It’s pretty much an extended The Flintstones episode, except the animation looks much better since the movie was created in the 90’s instead of the 60’s.  Actually, they did a very good job at fitting in a lot of the story into a seventy minute movie; far better than some.  I consider this a must have movie for any family or Flintstones fan!

For more info on this movie, click on the link:

Disney's Babes in Toyland

Babes in Toyland was Disney’s first live-action musical movie, almost acting like a pre-courser to Mary Poppins.  Unlike Mary Poppins, Babes was a box office failure, and it’s understandable.  For Disney, it was a slightly poor production with a lot of camp but little “magic”.  At the same time, it’s colorful and entertaining; plenty of energy throughout the whole movie.  The songs aren’t so bad, except the ones shared between Mary & Jack (Annette Funicello & Tommy Sands) are rather boring.  When I think about it, Annette’s acting was also a little weak.  But then again her character Mary was pretty lame.  She was all “boo-hoo” and “oh no”, fussy-wussy.  She did have amazing dresses, nice tight bodices and big fluffy skirts in vivid pastels.  My favorite characters were the villains: Mr. Barnaby and his two henchmen, Gonzorgo and Roderigo.  All three are hilarious; Barnaby perfectly oily and slick and Gozorgo and Roderigo are entirely amiable.  Ed Wynn as The Toymaker is quite a delight!  His eccentric way of speaking and infectious laughter is always most entertaining.  Forever he’ll be the Mad Hatter!  The actual battle of the toy soldiers against Barnaby was rather lame, almost a joke.  You watch and think “Barnaby is literally laughing at them in their attempts.  He’s totally gonna kick their ass!” And Mary, though being a giant at the time, was completely useless in helping Jack and the soldiers in any way!  Stupid girl.  The movie ends with me feeling really displeased as well; there’s too many loose ends.  Doesn’t make clear of what happened to Barnaby after the battle.  Did the Toymakers factory get fixed, and how about all the destroyed Christmas toys?  Why was Jack and Mary’s wedding going to be a warm and sunny day, and then at the end it was a winter wonderland?  Did they randomly decide to wait months later to do it?  The children never found the lost sheep.  It being there only source of income, what then?  I’m very displeased.  Unless you don’t realize all these things until the movie is over, so up to then it’s easier to enjoy.

For info on this movie, click on the following link:

Sunday, December 26, 2010

"Hark, the Peanuts Children Sing..."

There isn’t a Christmas for me without there being Charlie Brown.  Even though nowadays tv stations don’t do a showing of A Charlie Brown Christmas more than once (if at all), it was guaranteed to be on plenty of times a decade or so ago.  Once again that may lead to the fact of Schulz’s heavy Christian influence in his cartoons.  A Charlie Brown Christmas is special for this reason.  Besides that it’s the whole endearing gang celebrating the most popular holiday of the year, it goes far enough to make the point that Christmas exists because of religion and that the birth of Jesus Christ is the “meaning of Christmas”, as Linus points out in his speech, a speech that is entirely the highlight of the special.  Even during the 60’s, such a strong deliberate Christian message was controversial and made CBS executives worry, but Schulz stood firm on the matter and said “If we don’t do it, who will?”  And clearly it didn’t stop the cartoon’s popularity.  To try to completely separate Christianity from what is fundamentally a Christian holiday is absurd, and despite how commercial Christmas becomes, religious aspects can’t be vanquished and tv shows and movies shouldn’t back down to display it.
To backtrack, A Charlie Brown Christmas is also special in that it was the first cartoon special based off of the comic strip, which then led to the multitude of specials created over the following three decades.  Also, it was the first cartoon of its time to have the children characters actually voiced by children, hence why the character’s speeches are so static.  But it gives it a more genuine juvenile feel, and since then it had become a trademark for the Peanuts corporation.  Besides that signature pathetic little Christmas tree, a highlight for me is the credits at the end when the whole gang sings “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” in their high, slightly off pitched voices.  So sing on Peanuts, sing on!
Another special included on the disc is Its Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown.  Created nearly thirty years after A Charlie Brown Christmas, its not nearly as good or well-known as, but it still holds the Peanuts charm.  There isn’t a direct plotline, just multiple excerpts of the gang doing their own preparations for the holiday.  It does lead-up to the school’s holiday pageant, which was a little random, leadless, and Peppermint Patty makes a complete ass out of herself.  Marcie was on the ball though.  To me, this cartoon seemed more like an episode of the Peanuts’ show “Charlie Brown and Snoopy” than an actual special.
Merry Christmas Peanuts!

For more info on these specials, click on the links below:
A Charlie Brown Christmas: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059026/
Its Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104534/

Saturday, December 25, 2010

"A Christmas Carol" Parody #2: Bill Murray

Scrooged didn’t leave a great impression on me.  Today was the first and most likely last time watching it.  The plot is pretty typical, just an updated “modern” version of A Christmas Carol taking place in NYC during the 80’s and Scrooge being replaced by a mean career-oriented tv executive.  The twist in the story was creative enough I guess, except there wasn’t a flow to the story.  The scenes were changing left and right and didn’t connect well.  Also in the end I didn’t love any of the characters.  None of them were really likeable.  And I found the humor so over the top that it didn’t translate to funniness but to irritation or confusion.  I’m also picky about Bill Murray; he’s a big hit or miss for me.  Let’s just say I could live with not seeing this movie ever again.

For more info on this movie, click on the link below:

A Christmas Story: the movie

Now A Christmas Story is a holiday classic for sure!  I make sure to watch it every Christmas.  After all, TBS does a “24 Hours of A Christmas Story” every year, which is greatly appreciated, and not so surprising in its popularity with many of the most memorable moments in holiday movie history, such as the frozen tongue to the flagpole, the “Oh fudge” mishap, the sexy leg lamp, and the pink bunny pajamas.  That, in through the "older" Ralphie's narrative, the movie really captures the feelings and views of an child during Christmas.  Even not being able to connect to the movie’s time period directly, I still find humor in the characters’ environment though of course I expect people who were around during 40’s and 50’s to have a nostalgic connection.  I realize how foolish I was when I was younger because I always had wondered why the quality of the film was far better than most other older movies until I realized that though the film took place in the 40’s, it was not filmed then.  What a simpleton.  Or we can consider it adorably clueless.
A Christmas Story is a holiday hall-of-famer and I can’t wait for another year to go by so to see it again.

For more info on this movie, click on the link below:

The Nutcracker Prince (it's a cartoon, not the ballet)

The Nutcracker Prince was Warner Bros. take on the famous E.T.A. Hoffmann story “Nutcracker and the King of Mice”, and they actually were the closest to the original story out of any form of production I’ve seen.  Though they opted to name our heroine after the more popular name used for the ballet version (Clara) instead of Marie, they did however include the story of the Hard Nut, Drosselmeier’s relationship with his nephew, the fact there was an older sister Louise, and that they traveled to Toyland instead of a Kingdom of Sweets.  This story really displays the drama behind the character’s motives and personalities than what is shown in the ballet. 
The cartoon doesn’t display the best animation, but it does capture the charm and magic of the story magnificently, and I really enjoy the contrast of the regular animation to that of the goofier and more peculiar animation during Drosselmeier’s story of the Nutcracker.  The voice acting is pretty decent, too!  Kiefer Sutherland left a warm and charming persona of the Nutcracker and Megan Follows gave a fantastic rendition of a maturing but excitable Clara.  Phyllis Diller’s cameo as the Mouse Queen is pretty amazing; that’s a voice that demands attention and respect (and slightly irritating).  Honestly, I found most of the parts involving the Mouse Queen and her son the Mouse King rather frightening. 
I became familiar with this cartoon long before I became a ballet dancer, and because excerpts from “The Nutcracker” ballet were used in the movie that may have affected how I react to different parts of the score now.  Mostly is the music to the pas de deux of the Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier which is dramatic enough on its own, but in the movie it was used as Clara’s dance with her beloved Nutcracker in Toyland, which then led into her realizing she wanted to experience adulthood causing all the toys and her Nutcracker to disappear and leaving her to confront the Mouse King for the final (and frightening) time by herself, and then finished in her waking from her sleep and running to Drosselmeier to complete despair only to find his Nephew, who’s also her love Nutcracker, in his store as well.  That was a lot of drama and feelings to go on at once with that music and it may have scarred me emotionally for life, because now when I hear that music in the ballet I still get a sense of dread, depression, but eventually of contentment.
Anyways, good cartoon movie; all kids should watch; make it a tradition.

For more info on this movie, click on the link below:

Friday, December 24, 2010

I'm dreaming of a "White Christmas"...

I hadn’t seen White Christmas before until last year, so to me I can’t say it’s a tradition or holiday related.  Technically it has nothing to do about Christmas; the last scene just takes place on Christmas.  Putting that aside, it is a wonderful feel-good movie.  Not the biggest fan of Bing Crosby, but he plays himself pretty well.  And for me in the long run I don’t associate the movie with its songs but more with its dance sequences.  It may be because I’m a dancer myself, but I do consider the dancing far more impressive to dance than the songs were to sing, with the exception of Rosemary Clooney’s song “Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me”.  It’s so moody and alluring, and she looks fantastic in her black dress.  Vera-Ellen’s dancing is marvelous and her body is sick.  Well actually it was; she was battling anorexia.  That explains the protrusion of rib.  But the duet dance number between her and Danny Kaye is the highlight of the movie for me.  That, and you have to love the “Sisters” number; it’s extremely catchy.  Overall, it’s a wonderful movie but I just feel the title should be changed; “White Christmas” is misleading.  Either there should be more Christmas (too late for a redo on this classic movie), or the title should be changed to “War and Business” or “Sisters and Misters” or whatever.  But what would I know?

For more info on this movie, click on the link below: