Miscellaneous Movie Musings

Snowflake · 04-09-2007, 08:05 AM

Interesting weekend for movies, I was invited over to the Mousepod's to watch Song of the South and saw a few good minutes of The Thief and the Cobbler for good measure.

Now, I was a SotS virgin, never having seen it, except for the bits that showed up on The Wonderful World of Disney while I was growing up. So, with all the talk on various board (and a thread I contributed to LoT) about the film coming or not coming out on DVD, a date was planned for a screening.

Now, the mousepods have a humongous television, so seeing the detail would be no problem. We had some previews before starting the feature, a short from the current Disney Channel offering The House of Mouse which was amazing to me. Nothing like I've ever seen in a Disney cartoon, potty humor! Violence, as violent as a Warner's cartoon. Jesse showed it to me, in view of his recent episode of the mousepod discussing Make Mine Music and the subsequent release without the Martins & Coys short. Boy, let's talk a world of difference! PC? There was nothing PC in that, it would have been enough to rile West Virginians, the implication of hicks with outhouses and home stilled liquor!

Anyway, Jesse also showed me some incredible hand drawn animation from the lost masterpiece The Thief and the Cobbler. I loved what I saw of the restoration and am anxious to sit and enjoy the whole thing.

So, on to Song of the South. As Alex (I think) had mentioned, it's not a great film. I'd never seen it, but from what I had heard, I could not imagine that any of the portayals of the former slaves and share croppers would be any more offensive than GWTW. SotS is not a great film, not in the pantheon of Disney classics. As Jesse explained, it was the first real live action film produced by Disney (feature I am assuming, since Reluctant Dragon precedes it). In any case, I found it to be very static and choppy in the live action. Not a particularly great script, not particularly good performances (even with a good cast of regulars like Lucille Watson, Hattie McDaniell and Ruth Warrick) Bobby Driscoll was annoying, but James Baskett was a star in the S-T-A-R category. The screen lit up when he was present. The animation was good, the characters were great and I enjoyed the stories. We were watching what I thought would have been a 3rd generation print, so it was a little dark and Gregg Toland's camerawork was hard to detect.

I'm glad to have finally seen it, and am now on the fence about Disney releasing it. There is a lot more I'd rather see in advance of this, but if they do it, I hope they do a full restoration with a good featurette about the film.

Snowflake · 04-09-2007, 08:49 AM

Okay, so Netflix brought this to me to continue with the catching up on films I'd missed in 2006.

Well, I think I could easily have missed this entirely. Meh and grim and the plotlines and interconnecting was pretty obvious after the first 20 minutes. I was surprised my roomie did not get it, but I squirmed on the couch for nearly the entire film.

I need to watch something really good in the next few days.

Alex · 04-09-2007, 09:19 AM

Watched two movies over the weekend on DVD that I remember being critical darlings in my mid-teens but were a bit too adult (read: boring) for me at that point in time.

The Grifters. Other than the first The Addams Family movie I've never cared for Anjelica Huston. Still true. Didn't help that the whole movie is bland neo-noir wankery of the worst sort.

Reversal of Fortune. Took a bit for me to buy into Ron Silver as Alan Dershowitz but eventually I did. Jeremy Irons seemed a little too stilted but for all I know Claus von Bulow really was like that. The Claus von Bulow cas is before my time but it is one of those names that seeped into my childhood consciousness without me knowing the context. I remember hearing a Denis Leary CD in college and he made some joke about comas and von Bulow and suddenly realizing that I had no idea what the connection was.

So it was an interesting movie in that regard, to learn the details of an incident that captivated the nation but was then quickly forgotten by the same nation. But it wasn't such a great movie; the legal philosophical questions were telegraphed and then acted out. I liked one bit of dialog though for its precognition of another case Dershowitz would be involved with just a couple years after the movie. One theory being pursued is that because Sunny von Bulow's kids believe Claus tried to kill her they manufactured evidence. A person on Dershowitz's team says "they may have framed a guilty man." That is a sentence that was heard a lot during the OJ trial talking about possible police misconduct.

Anyway, if these two movies are examples of the best of the late '80s then it really was a crappy time for movies.

04-09-2007, 08:05 AM	#1
Snowflake lost in the fog Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 7,831	Song of the South Interesting weekend for movies, I was invited over to the Mousepod's to watch Song of the South and saw a few good minutes of The Thief and the Cobbler for good measure. Now, I was a SotS virgin, never having seen it, except for the bits that showed up on The Wonderful World of Disney while I was growing up. So, with all the talk on various board (and a thread I contributed to LoT) about the film coming or not coming out on DVD, a date was planned for a screening. Now, the mousepods have a humongous television, so seeing the detail would be no problem. We had some previews before starting the feature, a short from the current Disney Channel offering The House of Mouse which was amazing to me. Nothing like I've ever seen in a Disney cartoon, potty humor! Violence, as violent as a Warner's cartoon. Jesse showed it to me, in view of his recent episode of the mousepod discussing Make Mine Music and the subsequent release without the Martins & Coys short. Boy, let's talk a world of difference! PC? There was nothing PC in that, it would have been enough to rile West Virginians, the implication of hicks with outhouses and home stilled liquor! Anyway, Jesse also showed me some incredible hand drawn animation from the lost masterpiece The Thief and the Cobbler. I loved what I saw of the restoration and am anxious to sit and enjoy the whole thing. So, on to Song of the South. As Alex (I think) had mentioned, it's not a great film. I'd never seen it, but from what I had heard, I could not imagine that any of the portayals of the former slaves and share croppers would be any more offensive than GWTW. SotS is not a great film, not in the pantheon of Disney classics. As Jesse explained, it was the first real live action film produced by Disney (feature I am assuming, since Reluctant Dragon precedes it). In any case, I found it to be very static and choppy in the live action. Not a particularly great script, not particularly good performances (even with a good cast of regulars like Lucille Watson, Hattie McDaniell and Ruth Warrick) Bobby Driscoll was annoying, but James Baskett was a star in the S-T-A-R category. The screen lit up when he was present. The animation was good, the characters were great and I enjoyed the stories. We were watching what I thought would have been a 3rd generation print, so it was a little dark and Gregg Toland's camerawork was hard to detect. I'm glad to have finally seen it, and am now on the fence about Disney releasing it. There is a lot more I'd rather see in advance of this, but if they do it, I hope they do a full restoration with a good featurette about the film.
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04-09-2007, 08:49 AM	#2
Snowflake lost in the fog Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 7,831	Babel Okay, so Netflix brought this to me to continue with the catching up on films I'd missed in 2006. Well, I think I could easily have missed this entirely. Meh and grim and the plotlines and interconnecting was pretty obvious after the first 20 minutes. I was surprised my roomie did not get it, but I squirmed on the couch for nearly the entire film. I need to watch something really good in the next few days.
	Submit to Quotes

04-09-2007, 09:19 AM	#3
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	Watched two movies over the weekend on DVD that I remember being critical darlings in my mid-teens but were a bit too adult (read: boring) for me at that point in time. The Grifters. Other than the first The Addams Family movie I've never cared for Anjelica Huston. Still true. Didn't help that the whole movie is bland neo-noir wankery of the worst sort. Reversal of Fortune. Took a bit for me to buy into Ron Silver as Alan Dershowitz but eventually I did. Jeremy Irons seemed a little too stilted but for all I know Claus von Bulow really was like that. The Claus von Bulow cas is before my time but it is one of those names that seeped into my childhood consciousness without me knowing the context. I remember hearing a Denis Leary CD in college and he made some joke about comas and von Bulow and suddenly realizing that I had no idea what the connection was. So it was an interesting movie in that regard, to learn the details of an incident that captivated the nation but was then quickly forgotten by the same nation. But it wasn't such a great movie; the legal philosophical questions were telegraphed and then acted out. I liked one bit of dialog though for its precognition of another case Dershowitz would be involved with just a couple years after the movie. One theory being pursued is that because Sunny von Bulow's kids believe Claus tried to kill her they manufactured evidence. A person on Dershowitz's team says "they may have framed a guilty man." That is a sentence that was heard a lot during the OJ trial talking about possible police misconduct. Anyway, if these two movies are examples of the best of the late '80s then it really was a crappy time for movies.
	Submit to Quotes