By David Ross. The Pixar-Disney partnership, about which I was initially skeptical, now seems all to the good. Pixar remains exuberantly creative, while Disney has absorbed some of the lessons of Pixar, the most basic of which is that kids have better instincts as well as worse instincts, and that there is plenty of money to be made by appealing to the former. My recent discussion of kids movies made no mention of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog (2009) because I had not yet seen it, but my little family had a rollicking time with it last night. I would call it Disney’s best film since The Fox and the Hound (1981), the last film to exhibit something, if only a shadow, of the old charm and simplicity. Coming on the heels of Bolt (2008) – Disney’s most successful Pixar rip-off attempt – The Princess and the Frog seems to signal that Disney has finally found the light at the end of its long tunnel of malaise, incompetence, condescension, and small-mindedness, otherwise known as the Eisner era.
The Princess and the Frog offers plenty to like. Instead of rounding up celebs to phone in the usual tired voice work (v. Mel Gibson in Pocahontas and Demi Moore in The Hunchback), Disney put together a low-profile but vibrant cast led by Anika Noni Rose as Tiana and Jenifer Lewis as Mama Odie. The acting is focused and energetic throughout, giving the entire film an air of personality and emotional engagement that recalls the films of Disney’s golden age (Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter, etc.). Meanwhile, Randy Newman’s soundtrack, a pastiche of New Orleans jazz and zydeco, lends the film what all recent Disney films have lacked: bounce. While it is not going to convince anyone to throw away their old Clifton Chenier records, the soundtrack is a lark, and a welcome reprieve from the pop-Broadway syrup that dominated Disney’s dark age. Continue reading DVD Review: The Princess and the Frog: The End of the Disney Dark Age?
By Jason Apuzzo. The Fourth of July weekend continues, at least here at LFM – the Fourth of July being, after all, far too important a holiday to celebrate merely over a single day …
America the beautiful.
Today LFM favorite Jessica Simpson (above) and Gisele Bundchen (right) are showing us their patriotic spirit. I trust everyone’s patriotic zeal is suitably roused.
[Btw, do they have flag bikinis in Saudi Arabia?]
Ms. Bundchen has done a little better in her selection of all American quarterbacks (3-time champ Tom Brady, as opposed to Ms. Simpson’s perennially underperforming Tony Romo), but long-time Libertas readers know that every broken heart in Jessica Simpson’s life is just another pretext for a comeback as her colorful and uniquely American saga unfolds!
An early draft of Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" is in Steven Spielberg's collection.
By Jason Apuzzo. I thought it would be appropriate on this day, the Fourth of July, to mention a new exhibit that just opened of Norman Rockwell’s paintings being put on in Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, entitled “Telling Stories.” The exhibition features 57 major Rockwell works held by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who are among the most significant collectors of Rockwell’s work. The exhibit explores Rockwell’s connections to the movies, and also his thematic legacy by way of Lucas and Spielberg’s films. You can read Ted Johnson’s nice article on this exhibit in Variety.
Something that we talk about a great deal here at Libertas is the portrayal of America and what is perhaps its defining attribute – the freedom of its citizens – in film and popular media. Occasionally this is something that is expressed in film in a literal way, in terms of a film’s overt political agenda. More often, however, it’s something that is communicated in a general feeling one gets about whether a filmmaker harbors affectionate feelings toward America and its people.
I happen to think this basic sort of affection or warmth toward America and its people is something that radiates from Lucas and Spielberg’s work when they’re at their best. One thinks here in particular of Lucas’ American Graffiti, with its Capra-esque portrayal of small town California – or of Luke Skywalker, the paradigmatic American farm boy-hero from the original Star Wars. And has there ever been a more stirring invocation of small-town American entrepreneurialism and innovation than Lucas’ film, Tucker: The Man and His Dream? I doubt it. The film, which Lucas made with his friend and fellow innovator Francis Coppola, is a personal favorite of mine.
In Spielberg’s case, almost his entire career has been an exercise in portraying the American Everyman (for which Spielberg endured an enormous amount of criticism early in his career) – from Duel through to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Saving Private Ryan and beyond. Even in their most recent collaboration, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you feel this same sort of affection for America and Americana … particularly in Crystal Skull‘s fun, romanticized approach toward the 1950s, rock-and-roll, Marlon Brando-style motorcycle culture, and Cold War anti-communism. Continue reading George Lucas & Steven Spielberg Present New Norman Rockwell Exhibit
Wonder Woman Lynda Carter, wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July.
By Jason Apuzzo. • Given the recent dust-up over the new-look Wonder Woman, we thought we’d let Lynda Carter lead things off by wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July. Lynda certainly has a way of raising everone’s spirits. I know that just looking at the picture above has put me in a kind of patriotic fervor.
The glorious Lynda Carter.
We’ve put the entire Wonder Woman TV series in the LFM Store below for your perusal and patriotic edification. I remember liking the show back in the day, but my sense is that’s its appeal must only be greater now. May I be frank? I’d rather spend hours watching Lynda Carter than Jack Bauer. But’s that’s just me.
In any case, the show lasted for 3 seasons – all of which are gathered together in this tidy little collection.
• Turner Classic Movies has a nice run today of patriotic films. My personal recommendations: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the highly underrated The Devil’s Disciple (has Laurence Olivier ever been better?) and Yankee Doodle Dandy. I can’t actually watch James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy because I get too emotional. God bless Michael Curtiz – he’s probably the greatest director ever, and nobody even knows it. All these movies are available in the LFM Store below.
• Humphrey Bogart is coming to Blu-ray in a big way this October. Visit the HeatVision blog at The Hollywood Reporter to read about the new Humphrey Bogart: The Essential Collection that will be coming to Blu-ray. As the picture below illustrates, this collection is basically going to have all the best stuff Bogey did for Warner Brothers. Plus, I believe that Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Maltese Falcon will be released separately on Blu-ray. You can pre-order Treasure and Maltese in the LFM Store below.
Bogart on Blu-ray.
• New York’s Film Forum is presenting a 32-film Anthony Mann retrospective from 25 June – July 15. Mann was easily one of our greatest directors, and a personal favorite of mine. You can read more about that film series here. I’ve put a few Anthony Mann classics in the LFM Store below.
• Eminent film writer David Bordwell has an interesting piece up on his site now about John Ford’s work as a silent film director … and somewhat related to this, Turner Classic Movies will be doing a mini-festival on July 10th of films shot at Monument Valley, which will (obviously) include Ford’s Stagecoach, The Searchers, My Darling Clementine, Sergeant Rutledge, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. I actually think Cheyenne Autumn is the best looking film Ford ever shot in Monument Valley, although the film is a bit tedious and left wing. We’ve got a few Ford-Monument Valley films in the LFM Store below.
Raquel Welch as Hannie Caulder.
• Producer Elliot Kastner has died. Kastner produced, among other films, one of my absolute all time favorites: Where Eagles Dare. You can read the article about his life and career in Variety. He will be missed. Pick up Where Eagles Dare in the LFM Store below.
• Carol Reed’s Night Train to Munich is finally getting a decent DVD release (Criterion, of course), and Turner Classic Movies has a review of it. In other news, the Arnold Schwarzenegger-John McTiernan classic Predator is coming to Blu-ray, as is a restored version of Visconti’s The Leopard – which recently had a screening at the LA Film Festival. All these films are available in the LFM Store.
• The magnificent Greenbriar Picture Shows classic movie blog has a wonderful 2-part look at the career of Orson Welles, see here and here. I really love what they do at that site. For the heck of it, I’ve put one of my favorite Welles books in the LFM Store: Peter Conrad’s Orson Welles: The Stories of His Life.
• Praise be to the heavens … Raquel Welch’s Hannie Caulder is finally coming to DVD! You can read a new DVD review of the film at Turner Classic Movies. This film is a major cult classic and it’s a crime that it hasn’t been available except on cheap VHS copies for years. The film stars Raquel, along with Christopher Lee and Ernest Borgnine. You can pre-order it in the LFM Store below.
• IMAX is expanding into Russia. It’s amazing how IMAX has become a viable distribution option, especially given that nobody shoots in that format anymore. I once was on a balloon ride in Africa with some guys shooting in IMAX and the camera package alone nearly sank the balloon.
Is it live, or is it Memorex: which ones are fake?
• … unlike Oliver Stone. And so Maria Conchita Alonso, who seemed to appear in every film made during the 1980s, will be leading a protest outside a screening of Oliver Stone’s South of the Border tonight in Santa Monica. I have mixed feelings about things like protests and boycotts, because they basically just deliver free publicity to the people you’re protesting – and does anybody really care about Stone anymore? So I imagine he’s thrilled by this. But it doesn’t change the fact that what he’s doing in this documentary glorifying Hugo Chavez is repulsive and dishonest.
By Jason Apuzzo. Afshan Azad, the British actress best known for her role as Padma Patil in the “Harry Potter” films, has accused her Islamic father and brother of trying to kill her. Azad is claiming she was attacked because her father and brother apparently didn’t like her boyfriend, whom she refused to stop seeing. She claims she was left beaten and bruised. According to CNN the family is Muslim, and of Bengali descent.
Her father Abdul Azad, 54, and brother Ashraf Azad, 28, have been arrested and charged with threatening to kill her. Ashraf Azad is also accused of assaulting his sister causing her actual bodily harm.
As part of their bail conditions, the two men are required to abide by a curfew, and not travel to London or contact an unnamed man. You can read more about this on the Fox News website.
This is incredibly disgusting behavior, and there should be an immediate condemnation from the Hollywood filmmaking community. As of right now, though, I’m not seeing this story mentioned anywhere in the trades. Why do I think I know why?
LFM readers have probably noticed that we spend a lot of time here covering what might be termed ‘women’s issues,’ or otherwise spotlighting women in film and the media. One of the reasons we do this is because the battle lines in our current War on Terror are different from where they were, for example, during the Cold War. The War on Terror is as much a war over the freedoms of women as anything else, and these freedoms need to be asserted over and over again. These freedoms include, but are obviously not limited to, the right of women to make choices about their romantic and sexual lives.
We will continue to follow this story as it unfolds. By the way: we’d love to hear from all you readers right now who thought Sex and the City 2 was ‘unfair’ in its portrayal of women in Islamic society. In the comments section of her review of Sex and the City 2, Govindini debated several readers (one a Muslim female, another a Western feminist) on this point … and we’d love to hear back from these gals now about how tolerant and open Islamic society is toward women and their ambitions.
