Watch Every Disney Movie Ever Made: Dumbo
Mood
Nostalgic
Apparently Dumbo was one of my favorite movies growing up because I had no problem remembering a lot of the key scenes and Dumbo's many costume changes throughout the movie. I must have had a book, or a coloring book or something because I really remembered a lot of the details really well.
Some of the written words were not so familiar. I did not remember Dumbo's ears being insured for a million dollars but I thought it was pretty funny that they were.
I also, again, thought the amount of smoking in the movie was pretty crazy. Everyone from the circus master, to the clowns, to the birds smoked, and drank. I had completely forgotten about Dumbo and Timothy getting falling down drunk. And, then having a really bad trip on top of it!
Don't drink kids, otherwise you will have the mother of all bad trips, about pink elephants! I also thought it was funny how there was a mega-tron type elephant part way through the trip. Good stuff.
But for all the smoking and alcohol, there was still a stork to introduce the concept of how the circus animals got their babies. Not that I didn't love the storks. I used to remember seeing all the baby animals arrive being my favorite part.
I still love the movie Dumbo and I really think they should come out with a dress up Dumbo doll of some sort, with all of his cute costume changes. He was just so adorable!
Posted by Bitsy at 01:47 PM | Comments (1)
Watch Every Disney Movie Ever Made: Fantasia
Mood
Impressed
Next up on the Disney roster was Fantasia a movie that I never actually sat all the way through before when I was younger. I know I've seen The Sorcerer's Apprentice, but everything else was completely new to me.
The music wasn't, obviously and it was nice to hear a lot of the pieces I remember dancing too when I took ballet, but everything else I can tell I just didn't have the attention span for, and it's just as well.
Even as an adult I had to watch the thing in two sittings! Ironically enough I stopped right at the intermission even though I wasn't expecting one and then continued from there.
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
The first piece was a bit like a modern day music video, and I thought that was kind of interesting how they said it was the first of it's kind. Apparently they also were the first of it's kind to control which side of the theater sound came through for this piece. Then it moved into being a bit like a visualizations plugin for a media player. New concepts for the time and it's interesting to see Disney pioneering in this field.
Nutcracker Suite
I thought it was amusing when the announcer said this was a really old ballet that isn't preformed any more. It is nowadays in theaters all across the country every Christmas! I was a little surprised to see the (undefined) nudity in the fairies, but I guess because there was no definition it was considered okay.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
The most famous part of Fantasia: The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It was the only part that I ever paid attention to as a child and I remember hand writing out the book I owned that told the story of The Sorcerer's Apprentice when I was younger. I never before had realized how many words were in that book. My hand was killing me by the end.
I did think it was a little shocking how Mickey went about destroying the broom. Pretty graphic for a Disney movie.
The Rite of Spring
This was an interesting look at how science used to think the earth was formed, the dinosaurs came about and how they subsequently became extinct. Again a little violent and graphic, but not too bad. A lot of the animation of how they did the dinosaurs were done in ways that have since been dis-proven. For example, the brachiosaurus could not have held his head as low as he did throughout the short, he probably would have fainted or given himself a stroke.
I also loved that parts of it looked like it was straight out of Spore (or perhaps the other way around, eh?) that was a lot of fun to see.
Intermission/Meet the Soundtrack
An amusing bit, interesting to see the soundtrack perform. A bit like an equalizer, only far more creative!
The Pastoral Symphony
I could see a lot of the inspiration for the movie Hercules in this short. And, again with the nudity. Pretty defined breasts this time, but they got on some clothes eventually. Obviously the style of the hats they wore were things popular in the '40's and not today! I did notice that the african zebra centaurs were considered servants or attendants in one part and was surprised that made it past any sort of review board.
The unicorns were freaking adorable why did I not watch this part when I was little? I loved unicorns!
Dance of the Hours
A ballet piece that I recognized from dance class, this piece was very entertaining to watch. I loved how all the creatures that portrayed ballerinas were animals you would not think in the least graceful enough to play the part (ostriches, hippos, elephants, alligators). It almost seemed for a moment that I was watching a Warner Brothers cartoon though and not a Disney one.
Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria
Pretty scary stuff here. Not to mention full on upper body frontal female nudity, complete with erect nipples. Yikes. I could see some of the inspiration for the evil genie Jafar from Aladdin in this one as well. I definitely got the religious ending to it as well, no matter that Disney toned it down some. It was just as well. You need some deliverance after that nightmare!
I can't wait to watch Fantasia 2000. Supposedly it has parts that couldn't make it into Fantasia that Disney storyboarded out but never finished. Definitely looking forward to it.
Posted by Bitsy at 02:06 AM | Comments (0)
Should Have Done It
Mood
Thoughtful
Well, I ended up following along all of the excitement of the read-a-thon. And, I'm really wishing I had the nerve and preparation to participate. It looked like a LOT of fun.
I'm definitely going to prepare and partcipate in april when they have it again. It will be a good chance to get caught up on Full Metal Alchemist and Evangelion and maybe I'll finally have the last book from the Dark is Rising series and can sit down and read those as well. I don't think I'd do well with a long book, unless it was a Georgette Heyer.
I did end up finding a huge network of fellow book blogs and lots of other reading challenges to participate in. It's always nice to find new things to get involved with. Especially when it comes to books!
Posted by Bitsy at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)
Watch Every Disney Movie Ever Made: Pinocchio
Mood
Amused
The movie Pinocchio is considered to be one of the best animated films of all time. Later it was considered second best after Snow White and the Seven Dwarves but at the time that it was made reviewers liked it much better. I can definitely see why. Pinocchio pulled you in, addressed the viewer directly, and really had lots of elements that got you involved in the story and caring about the outcome. Not that I didn't care about Snow White, it just seemed like, from a modern day point of view, that she could have taken care of herself a lot more than she did.
Anyway, we're here to talk about a puppet not a princess.
First off I thought it was amusing that the opening scenes contained clocks that were at first whimsical and then annoying, though later they were used for celebration, and nearly all of them contained foreshadowing of the plot to come. I didn't realize this until later, but after I did the clocks became a little creepy for me when before they were cute.
This movie had a lot of creepy elements actually, I remember when I was younger and thought that the scenes that took place at Pleasure Island were foreboding and scary, especially when the true reason for taking the boys there was revealed. It was even more so as an adult when, with my larger attention span, I realized that Pinocchio left and the other boys didn't, and he never even went to tell their mothers what had happened to them. But, since it was all symbolism anyway I suppose that's the way it had to be.
The symbolism of course being that if you skivved off school and played hooky and didn't get an education or learn a trade that you would become a jack ass (literally) and be forced to do manual labor the rest of your life.
Speaking of jack asses, I was surprised at the number of times jack ass was said throughout Pinocchio, and they weren't always strictly speaking talking about the donkey's, though I suppose a lenient review board could interpret it as such. Honestly with all the fighting, smoking, alcohol, hints at rowdy boys and slutty women and swearing I think for sure a modern day review would have given the movie a PG rating if not PG-13. And, it wouldn't be a classic, some religious group would have probably boycotted it regardless of the good message (think Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).
I did think it was a little confusing to have the smoking be in a bad light but then to have Geppetto be a smoker himself. And, smoking in bed too! Generally considered nowadays to be a very Not Smart thing.
And, on a final note, I was surprised at how, well, horny Jiminy Cricket was. My husband watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarves with me and he was constantly making insuations about the dwarves, but no insuations were necessary with Jiminy, he said right out what he was thinking half the time. It was pretty funny.
Posted by Bitsy at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)
Progress Report: 101 in 1001
Mood
Accomplished
Wow, it's been a while since I blogged about this and I knocked quite a few things off my list in the time I was gone.
Though not nearly enough, obviously.
Some of my goals did not end up panning out and so need to be replaced with new goals as well.
1) Install time management software and input clients and details into it. Use it.
Complete!
This one was completed but the software doesn't work in a way that I would like it to. I might have to go shopping for something else. In the mean time everything is organized and in one place at least.
2) Create my business website and get business cards printed.
Complete!
8) Transfer over and upgrade graphica.
Complete!
But, I'm looking to re-redesign.
9) Transfer over and upgrade fabula.
Complete!
But, I'm looking to re-redesign.
14) Design Googlies portal.
Complete!
I'm surprised I didn't blog this before actually, I finished this a while ago.
15) Finish upgrading RAM.
16) Upgrade graphics adapter.
For both of these, it's just not worth it anymore, I need a whole new computer at this point to be honest. This one has had a good run but it's coming up on its fifth birthday and that's like having a ten year old car in internet years. Just isn't quite the thing anymore, you know?
18) Catalog, index and organize book collection.
Complete!
Though, as always, this is an ongoing thing with me because I just went to a brown bag sale and bought three brown bags full of books. So I'm out of shelf space, again, and they all need entered into my system as well. But, it was done before that, so it counts!
22) Build, paint and arrange shelving for the Dining Room.
Complete!
71) Strip, refinish and reupholster dining room chairs.
I just struck this off the list because most of our dining chairs and really old and brittle and broke. In fact I forgot myself and the chair I was sitting in and dared to actually lean against the back of my chair and snapped it pretty badly. This goal is being replaced with buy NEW dining room chairs.
23) Sew cushions (and get pillows) for the Dining Room.
This isn't happening since we are probably going to be moving soon and the bench this was for is a built in bench.
24) Alter, buy and hang curtains.
Complete!
As of last April!
26) Register to vote in Illinois.
Complete!
In time to vote Obama.
27) Learn to cook five meals from start to finish more or less from memory and have them turn out consistently.
I can do two, though I'm not sure if one of them counts, spaghetti (and meatsauce and garlic bread) and mac and cheese (with sliced hotdog). The later I'm thinking doesn't really count, though I know I'm impressed!
53) Finish unpacking from the move.
Complete!
Only took three months. :P
66) Clean out my inbox.
Complete!
Only because Thunderbird crashed spectacularly and I lost several thousand emails with it. My fault.
Any goals that I said would happen every week or month did not end up happening so I need new ones.
I did come up with two new ones, one watch every Disney movie ever made and two partcipate in a 24-hour read-a-thon this coming Saturday. I can probably come up with some work related ones, and if we move again which it's looking like we might then I will definitely be breaking that up into achievable goals again.
Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good about it all. Ready to get started on some new ones. Maybe get a few more small easy goals in. We'll see.
Posted by Bitsy at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)
Watch Every Disney Movie Ever Made: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Mood
Suprised
It was very interesting watching an old classic as an adult. Apparently there were a lot of things I didn't pick up on or didn't remember from when I used to watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs all the time when I was younger.
We're going to put aside the mysoginistic and sexist themes and story line because it was a 1930's movie and a story from way way before that. So it's granted to them.
First off, the poor poor turtle! A small side character that kept wanting to partcipate and follow around Snow White with all the other woodland creatures but just never made it in time. I had forgotten all about him.
Secondly, Snow White's vibrato really started getting to me right away. That style of singing just isn't popular anymore. That being said she had a much more beautiful voice than some of the nasally voiced princesses of my youth.
I also thought it was very interesting that Dopey seemed to exibit a lot of the signs and symptoms nowadays associated with autism. Who would have thought that? He doesn't talk, is considered slow, has problems communicating and judging and interpreting social norms correctly, etc. Not for lack of trying, either. And, the way the other dwarves treated him in that light was pretty horrible.
I was pretty surprised at the rascist jab at asians part way through, wasn't looking for that.
The dwarves used the term "Jimminy Cricket!" on more than one occasion. I thought that was a term that rose out of the movie Pinnochio but apparently it's older than that because that movie didn't come out until 1940.
Finally, true love's first kiss was pretty anti climatic. Especially when compared to how it was in Shrek when it broke the spell, but perhaps it was more realistic as far as kisses go in the end anyway.
I was going to launch into an argument about how true love's first kiss can't happen if the prince never knew her in life to love her in death (you can't truly love someone you don't know) but I guess that isn't true since he did meet her once. Whether or not that is true love is anyone's guess, though obviously it counts as far as Disney's concerned otherwise there would be no happily ever after.
Posted by Bitsy at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)
Oh. My. God.
Mood
Relieved
Well, it's been so long since I have used this blog it took me three tries to log in. First try, I thought this was using wordpress. That's how long I've been using it for two of my other blogs. Two, I tried an old old old version of Movable Type that I kept installed when I used the winamp update script on my blog eons ago (nearly a decade) to show what I listened to recently. Then, finally, I remembered where my back end was (that I needed both hands to find apparently, hah!) and got logged in. Whew!
I thought I would come back to this blog a bit. I always get a little discouraged when stuff isn't easy to update and this blog hasn't been easy for a long long time. I need to totally rethink how I am doing this if I want to keep up with it. And, I don't think I'm ready to let it all go just yet.
So, this Saturday I am unofficially participating in a 24-hour read-a-thon. Because if there is one thing that has stayed the same though my decade plus of web presence and blogging it is my love of reading. During that 24 hours, which I probably won't stay up for because most days I can't even stay up for 12, my goals are going to be the following:
1.) Review my huge, no I need to get caplocksy, HUGE backlog of books that need reviewing. Srsly. It's huge.
2.) Work on my book blog, get in a new design that thinks outside of the box and really is just a book review site. No more sticking into a blog mold, because that doesn't really work. Chatty place is here, book review place there, it should work as a dynamic site better than it does a blog.
3.) Read. A lot. Not commiting to books, but I have plenty lying around and will just try and read to my fancy as much as possible.
4.) Participate in mini-challenges, even if it's unofficially. They sound like a lot of fun.
The reason I haven't signed up officially is because a) I'm planning on reviewing books I've already read with my time, which is kind of weird but needs to be done and this is impetus enough I think, 2) I'm going to be working on my blog mainly throughout the day and that doesn't really count as far as reading goes, and I3) I'm chicken.
Hopefully I will be able to save Fabula. If I can save Fabula I can save the world, or at least the rest of my blogs.
Posted by Bitsy at 08:13 PM | Comments (0)