Like many of us right now, I am trapped inside my
home all day, every day with my wife and two daughters – 8 and 6 – and will be
for the foreseeable future. The first decision we made was to finally bite the
bullet and subscribe to Disney+ - and ever since the girls have been having a
great time watching TV shows like Phineas & Ferb, and a bunch of movies.
I’m watching some with them (although, to be honest, sometimes when they start
to watch, it’s a good excuse to slip away and do something else. So what
follows are some quick thoughts on what we have watched – in lieu of major
reviews, because I’ll never be able to keep up (all told, I’m up to 24 movies
at this point since March 13).
The first one the girls picked, for reasons no one
seemed clear on was, Wreck-It
Ralph (2012) – which remains as
charming and funny as it ever was. John C. Reilly’s vocal performance as the
nice guy villain, tired of being ignored is still the perfect combination of
funny and melancholy – and yet Sarah Silverman still steals the film as the Glitch-y
Princess/racecar driver, in what really is one of the best vocal performances
of last decade. It reminded me of why I really liked this back in the day, even
if the sequel didn’t quite live up to it (though it did have a much more
complex lesson).
My youngest really wanted to see the live action
Lady and the Tramp – she more than occasionally pretends to be a dog, but
fortunately I was able to talk her into watching the original Lady and the Tramp (1955) first. Yes, it is certainly more than a little
unfortunate that the film engages in what could generously be called cultural
stereotypes, but is more aptly called racism with not just the Siamese cats
(that song is catchy though) – but also the chihuahua in the pound, among
others. Yet, it’s still a winning movie – a charmer, funny and sweet. The film,
like many of the Disney movies of this time, knew it didn’t really need a
villain – at least not one that was personified in a single person – and gets
in and out in just 76 minutes. There is a reason this is still watched 65 years
later. I cannot imagine anyone watching the live action remake Lady and the Tramp (2019) at any point in the future. This was one of their
big selling points when it debuted – another live action remake of an animated
classic, this one exclusive to Disney+. And yet, from the start it’s clear that
they didn’t put as much time or money into it as they did with The Lion King,
Dumbo, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast or Jungle Book. That’s not entirely a bad
thing – the film basically ends up a bland nothing rather than an active
annoyance like most of those films – although why it felt the need to, once
again, make the film 45 minutes longer than the original (no excuse of wanting
to give theatrical audiences their money’s worth) I have no idea. The best news
about the film is that it was written by Andrew Bujalski (Support the Girls,
Computer Chess, etc.) – and no, you cannot tell, but it’s good news because it
hopefully means he got a good paycheque to keep making his films.
Because I was tired of CGI animal movies, I showed
the girls a movie from my childhood with real animal actors - Homeward Bound: The Incredible
Journey (1993), featuring the
vocal talents of Michael J. Fox, Sally Field and Don Ameche, as a trio of animals
– two dogs and a cat – who make their way across the wilderness to be reunited
with their human family. I probably wouldn’t have admitted it as a kid -I was
11 when it came out – but I really liked it then, and I enjoyed it now. Yes,
it’s manipulative in the extreme, trying to get tears from you – but it gets
them just the same – and I didn’t feel bad about that. Not only that, but the
girls liked it as well. Nostalgia can be toxic – but here, at least, it helped.
And finally, we’ve started to show the older one the
Star Wars movies – we’re going in the order they were released, so we made it
through the original trilogy and then The Phantom Menace this week. Of Star Wars (1977) what else needs to be said – that film just works
amazingly well every time you see it, even if I still wish I could see the
original cut, not the special editions (the Jabba scene is easily the worst in
the film) – but as derivative and cliched as the film was even at the time it
came out, every architype, every cliché just works – and
it’s so much fun. The
Empire Strikes Back (1980) is
still probably my favorite film of the entire series – but I will admit that every
time I watch it, I do remember that it’s at least a little bloated – you simply
forget all the exposition and bloat, because you remember the highlights – from
Yoda, to the “reveal”, etc. – and you don’t remember the rest. This is still
the perfect way to make a middle chapter of a planned trilogy – go dark, don’t
try and resolve anything. Return
of the Jedi (1983) was my
favorite as a kid, and then became my least favorite as an adult – probably for
the same reasons (Ewoks). Seeing it again though, I have to say that they really
did stick the landing here – it wrapped up the loose threads in an action-packed
film that was a lot of fun. Yes, having Hayden Christenson show up at the end
is lame, but whatever – the film works. As a trilogy, it is even better than
its individual parts. It is sometimes worth remembering just why this series
became so beloved in the first place. And finally, there is Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom
Menace (1999). Oof, this one was
tough. I’ve always been if not a defender of the prequels, at least not a hater
– of the opinion that the fans of the original trilogy, who were kids when they
saw it, hated the prequels too much – mainly because they’re adults when they
first encounter this one, so it lacks the nostalgia factor of the original, but
remains, in essence, a kids a movie like they always were. In part, I still
think that. But this one isn’t very good at all. There are moments that are
fine, scenes that work, some good special effects, etc. But in short, while it’s
not as bad as the most adamant haters say it is, it isn’t very good either.
I’ve watched the prequel trilogy just one time each – in theaters (maybe twice
for this one) – so it had been 20 years since I saw it. It doesn’t hold up. I
was very surprised that I ended up like Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) more than Phantom Menace. It’s still among the
weakest of the film – the Anakin/Padme scenes are rough – perhaps the worst in
any movie in the entire, full of dialogue that no actor could make work, and
Christenson and Portman really don’t make it work. But while the film drags a
little down the stretch, it really does move well for most of the runtime –
everything with Ewan McGregor works really well, and there is some terrific
action. No, it’s not a great film – but I had always thought this was the weakest
of all the major films – Phantom Menace now takes that spot for me.
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