Miscellaneous Movie Musings the Sequel

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by flippyshark

I'm glad I read enough here that I went into Alice with adjusted expectations. I had a pretty good time while watching it, but now, just a couple of hours later, I can only remember things about it that I didn't like.

It really did feel more like a Narnia story with a Lewis Carroll visual overlay. (And could the Dormouse character have been any more of a distaff Reepicheep?)

How did anyone think that the Mad Hatter's little dance was a good idea? (Especially unfortunate for its musical accompaniment. Yuck.)

I'm giving it a pass here, because they made the Red Queen's giant head part of the story, but I do not want to see any more digitally inflated head characters at the movies ever again. (Same goes for digitally embiggened eyes.)

But, I didn't hate it.

I'm pretty square with Flippyshark. Having read the comments online, I just went in to the theater and put on the 3D glasses and said okay let's watch it. I enjoyed myself and really felt Helena Bonham Carter walked away with the film. The Mad Hatter dance was truly awful and should have been jettisoned.

I came away feeling like I enjoyed it, but I really did feel they made this Narnia in Wonderland and I was half expecting Alice to be crowned in the end.

I do not feel I wasted my time, I had fun and enjoyed the film. The hand pulled ramen afterward was splendid.

[Prudence]

Forget the Mad Hatter's dance - what about the creepy romance angle?

Never mind the Lion or Tin Man, she'll miss the Scarecrow most of all.

[flippyshark]

Originally Posted by Prudence

Forget the Mad Hatter's dance - what about the creepy romance angle?

Never mind the Lion or Tin Man, she'll miss the Scarecrow most of all.

I guess I didn't perceive that as a romance at all - more of a "you remind me of my father" bond.

[MouseWife]

ha ha I thought you meant romance between the Queen and the tall skinny Crispen Glover.

[MouseWife]

Originally Posted by wendybeth

I love Milo and Otis. Yes, it is fraught with peril, and the poor things look pretty disheveled for most of the film, but it's the ultimate animal buddy flick. Tori and I used to watch it all the time when she was little.

Not Afraid and wendybeth;

Oh yes, a lot of peril!! And, having been a while, I didn't remember until your brought it up. I guess I only saw the animal buddy element of it. Also, I've never had a pug. Poor Thurston! To see a pug be put through the ringer!

Now I'm wondering how much of it I actually watched. I am remembering a shack in a very pretty wooded area? Aye carumba. Slip goes the tranny in my brain........

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by flippyshark

I guess I didn't perceive that as a romance at all - more of a "you remind me of my father" bond.

Daddy issues in a Burton film? You don't say!

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Prudence

Forget the Mad Hatter's dance - what about the creepy romance angle?

Never mind the Lion or Tin Man, she'll miss the Scarecrow most of all.

I did not get that at all, more Peter Pan-like to me.

[Alex]

A lot of people did see it. I've seen several reviews that commented on the ickiness in the seeming undercurrent of potential romance between Alice and the Mad Hatter.

I was mildly positive on the movie. Plenty of good stuff and nearly as much awful stuff.

[Prudence]

I don't see a daddy-figure being worried about Alice being the "proper" size.

[Ghoulish Delight]

We had a really great day yesterday and between laundry, dishes, feedings, vacuuming, yard work, cleaning bunny cages, and playtime, we somehow managed to watch two movies.

Polyester. That's the first John Waters movie I've actually seen. I've long guessed I'd like his movies, just never got around to watching any. It's amazing just how familiar that suburban world is to me. I mean, my family and childhood were not even remotely as dysfunctional as all that, but the suburban trappings it's set in are straight out of my childhood (my parents HAD that couch!). Plus it helped to think of the characters as embodiments of the worst-possible-caricatures of each other that they all imagine. So the bimbo daughter and delinquent son were depictions of what an over-protective mother imagines happens when they're out of sight. And a ludicrously nosy mom who can literally sniff secrets out is how an angsty teen imagines their mom when they've been caught. I think he nailed that.

The second movie was Metoroporisu (Metropolis), the anime version, loosely based on the german silent film of the same name. Loooooosely. Based on in the same way the series Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water is "based" on 20,000 leagues in that it has an eccentric guy named Nemo with a submarine, this is "based" on Metropolis in that there are underground workers and a girl who doesn't realize she's a robot.

But that's not to take away from it. I actually rather like the Japanese tendency to pick the bare essentials from an old story like that and splice it into the usual nuclear-arms-race context that you can't blame Japan for obsessing over. I didn't care for the character animation design in Metropolis so much, and it's not the most well constructed film ever, but the setting is gorgeous and the story is fairly compelling. It was worth it just for the scene where the robots come to put out the factory fire.