Review: Walt Disney's "Aladdin" a True Classic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 190 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


Walt Disney’s Aladdin (1992) – animated
Running time: 90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minute)
MPAA – G
PRODUCER/DIRECTORS: Ron Clements and John Musker
WRITERS: Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio and Ron Clements & John Musker; from a story by Ed Gombert, Burny Mattinson, Roger Allers, Daan Jippes, Kevin Harkey, Sue Nichols, Francis Glebas, Darrell Rooney, Larry Leker, James Fujii, Kirk Hanson, Kevin Lima, Rebecca Rees, David S. Smith, Chris Sanders, Brian Pimental, and Patrick A. Ventura
EDITOR: H. Lee Peterson
Academy Award winner

ANIMATION/FANTASY/COMEDY and FAMILY/MUSICAL/ROMANCE

Starring: (voices) Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Lavin, Jonathan Freeman, Gilbert Gottfried, Douglas Seale, Frank Welker, Bruce Adler, Brad Kane, Lea Solanga, and Jim Cummings

Resourceful “street rat,” Aladdin (Scott Weinger) makes his living on the streets of Agrabah as a thief, ably assisted by his constant companion, a spunky monkey named Abu (Frank Welker). One day his eyes catch the sight of a beautiful young woman, whom he later rescues from an overzealous fruit vendor. Aladdin learns that she is Jasmine (Linda Lavin), the daughter of the Sultan of Agrabah (Douglas Seale), and she is walking the streets of Agrabah in disguise just to experience life outside the Sultan’s palace. Aladdin falls in love with Jasmine, but believes that he must be a prince to win her heart.

Later, Aladdin goes on a mission for another resident of the palace in disguise, Grand Vizier Jafar (Jonathan Freeman), the Sultan’s advisor. It is then that Aladdin comes into possession of a magical lamp. When Aladdin rubs the lamp, out springs the show-stealing Genie (Robin Williams). Genie takes a liking to his new master and uses his magical powers to help Aladdin get closer to Jasmine by disguising him the wealthy Prince Ali Ababwa. However, Aladdin must learn to be himself if he’s going to earn the love of the independent-minded Jasmine, and he’ll need all his smarts to stop the diabolical Jafar and his scheming parrot, Iago (Gilbert Gottfried), from overthrowing the Sultan to become rulers of Agrabah.

In 1989, Walt Disney Feature Animation began a second golden age of Disney feature-length animated films with The Little Mermaid. Almost with each successive film, the box office take grew – Beauty and the Beast in 1991 and Aladdin in 1992 (while the underrated The Rescuers Down Under floundered in 1990), peaking in 1994 with The Lion King, which at the time set a record for box office gross by an animated flick. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin are quasi musicals, a sort of “lite” version of a Broadway musical. Of the trio, the most comic is Aladdin.

In some ways, however, Aladdin is old school. The filmmakers and the Disney story department created lively characters with strong personalities and provided each one with sketch comic scenes that helped to endear him or her to the audience. The character animation is superb, and the characters move with fluidity and grace. The animators also provided visual quirks and clever visual gags that further defined each character – the best, of course, being Robin Williams’ Genie. While the other characters are certainly good (Jafar and Iago and Aladdin’s Magic Carpet stand out to me), Williams steals scenes without coming across as a scene hog, and his non-stop antics and transformations make Aladdin such a special movie. Genie was and remains the character that best fits Williams’ manic comic personality, and it’s not William’s effort alone. Genie is a creation of both William’s work as a voice actor and the drawing skills of large group of animators.

When a movie has Williams’ comical madness and Alan Menken’s evocative score and the songs Menken co-wrote with lyricists Tim Rice and Howard Ashman (a frequent partner of Menken’s who died over a year before Aladdin premiered), it has the potential to be a great film. Add in a cast of wonderful and charming characters, a simple, straight forward romance filled with magic and magical creatures, and two deliciously bad, bad guys, and you have a Disney classic.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1993 Academy Awards: 2 wins: “Best Music, Original Score” (Alan Menken) and “Best Music, Original Song” (Alan Menken-music and Tim Rice-lyrics for the song "A Whole New World"); 3 nominations: “Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (Mark A. Mangini) “Best Music, Original Song” (Alan Menken-music and Howard Ashman-lyrics for the song "Friend Like Me"), and “Best Sound” Terry Porter, Mel Metcalfe, David J. Hudson, and Doc Kane)

1994 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “BAFTA Film Award Best Score” (Alan Menken) and “Best Special Effects” (Don Paul and Steve Goldberg)

1993 Golden Globes:  3 wins “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Alan Menken), “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Alan Menken-music and Tim Rice-lyrics for the song "A Whole New World"), and “Special Award” (Robin Williams for his vocal work); and 3 nomination: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical,” “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Alan Menken-music and Howard Ashman-lyrics for the song “Friend Like Me”), and “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Alan Menken-music and Howard Ashman-lyrics for the song "Prince Ali")

Saturday, September 02, 2006

The "House Party" Anniversary Bash (A Negromancer New Bits and Bites Extra)

I'd forgotten that this year is the 20th anniversary of the film, House Party.  This article from AOL's Black Voices "BV on Movies" blog reminded me.  There was an anniversary party at the Tribeca All Access kickoff event, part of the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

Released in 1990 by New Line Cinema, House Party starred the rap duo Kid 'N Play having a (what else) house party when Kid's dad (played by the much-missed comic, Robin Harris) is away.  The film also starred Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell, among others.  There would be two theatrical sequels and one straight-to-video movie.

Buy House Party Collection: 4 Film Favorites

Review: "Akira" Will Still Rock Your World

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 123 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Akira (1988) – Animated
(dubbed in English for its U.S. release)
Running time: 124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)
MPAA – R for graphic violence and brief nudity
DIRECTOR: Katsuhiro Otomo
WRITER: Katsuhiro Otomo and Izo Hashimoto (from the manga by Katsuhiro Otomo)
PRODUCERS: Haruyo Kanesaku, Shunzo Kato, Yutaka Maseba, Ryohei Suzuki, and Hiroe Tsukamoto
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Katsuji Misawa (director of photography)
EDITOR: Takeshi Seyama

ANIMATION/SCI-FI/ACTION with elements of a thriller

Starring: (voices) Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mai Koyama, Tessho Genda, and Hiroshi Otake. (English dub) Johnny Yong Bosch, Joshua Seth, Wendee Lee, and Sandy Fox

Not only does the anime (a Japanese term for animated films) Akira have a cult following, many people who have seen it hold the film in high regard and as a watershed event not only in the history of anime and full-length animated features, but also in the history of filmmaking in general; it indeed has achieved legendary status.

Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo from his manga (Japanese term for comics) of the same title, Akira is the story of the evils secret military projects and science gone mad can bring upon mankind. Tetsuo, the runty teenager with a chip on his shoulder, was, as a child, a test subject in a covert military scientific project to create psionic beings. Psions are humans with supernatural mental powers like telekinesis (the ability to affect matter with the mind) and telepathy (the ability to communicate with others through thoughts rather than speech). As a teen, Tetsuo’s powers awaken, and he becomes a psionic psychopathic, killing and destroying almost anything in his path. It’s up to his fellow biker Kaneda and a girl named Kei to stop him. They are joined in their mission by another group of psionics, a group who fear that Tetsuo will destroy Neo-Tokyo just as another psionic creature, the legendary Akira, destroyed the original Tokyo.

Although the plot drags, the script has gaping holes, incidents happen with no explanations, and the end gets weird, Akira is nevertheless a groundbreaking and fantastic film. For everything it lacks in story structure, it more than makes up for with the visual hurricane that Otomo puts on the screen. He takes full advantage of the visual possibilities of both comic books and animation to pull off a film that is stuffed with visual feats. Comic books allow artists and cartoonists to draw things that would be nearly impossible for filmmakers to reproduce in film because of budget constraints, lack of technology, or both. If an animated film has the budget, its animators certainly have the skill to replicate the limitless possibilities of comics in the animated moving picture.

Otomo and his staff of animators and filmmakers created 2,212 shots using a total of 160,000 single pictures, about three times the number usual for animated features. What this does is not only create a film that duplicates the realism of live-action films, but actually surpasses what a live action film can do on a reasonable budget. With its scenes of bike chases, street battles, urban destruction in the form of exploding and collapsing structures, large crowd scenes, gun battles, and sci-fi action, Akira acts like a “real” movie. It’s stunning to watch this. They actually drew a movie in which the action and events carry the same weight and have the same impact as live action.

Akira, however, remains true to being an animated film. The filmmakers used 327 different colors and created 50 just for this film, so Akira has the kind of lush landscape of wonderful colors that we expect in animated films. The problems of story structure can be ignored. What is important is the film’s warning – just because we can achieve something scientifically does not mean that we should not consider science’s impact on both individuals and on the larger society. When a film visually achieves so much and has a wonderful message, I can overlook the little things.

8 of 10
A

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53rd Grammy Awards Set for Sunday, February 13 2011

53rd Annual GRAMMY® Awards Live from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011, and Will Air on CBS

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The 53rd Annual GRAMMY® Awards will take place in Los Angeles at STAPLES Center on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011, and will air live on the CBS Television Network from 8 – 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT). As a result of last year's earlier show and Awards process dates, this year the eligibility dates for the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards are Sept. 1, 2009, through Sept. 30, 2010. (This year will mark a 13-month eligibility period.) The date for the GRAMMY nominations announcement — which showcases GRAMMY Award finalists, the year's best and brightest in music as voted on by The Recording Academy®'s membership of music professionals — will be announced shortly.

"The 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards was a dynamic, memorable evening, and it delivered our highest ratings since 2004 and the biggest year-over-year increase in more than 20 years," said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. "We have every intention of keeping that momentum going with our 53rd show, and once again we are thrilled to be bringing the excellence and excitement of our GRAMMY Week events and charitable initiatives to the city of Los Angeles. We also look forward to working on another outstanding GRAMMY telecast with our partners and good friends at CBS and STAPLES Center."

"The 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards will once again be event television with exciting and memorable performances that will entertain and engage our audience," said Jack Sussman, executive vice president, specials, music and live events, CBS. "We look forward to working with our partners at The Recording Academy to make Music's Biggest Night® an event that can't be missed."

GRAMMY Week — a weeklong series of cultural events culminating in Music's Biggest Night — will again feature celebrations of music, fashion, arts education and philanthropy, including the Salute To series, GRAMMY Style Studio, GRAMMY Career DaySM, Clive Davis and The Recording Academy's Pre-GRAMMY Gala, the annual MusiCares® Person of the Year tribute, the GRAMMY Foundation's Music Preservation Project, the Entertainment Law Initiative luncheon, a Producers & Engineers Wing event, and GRAMMY Museum programs, among others.

Established in 1957, The Recording Academy is an organization of musicians, producers, engineers and recording professionals that is dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. Internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards — the preeminent peer-recognized award for musical excellence and the most credible brand in music — The Recording Academy is responsible for groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment, advocacy, education and human services programs. The Academy continues to focus on its mission of recognizing musical excellence, advocating for the well-being of music makers and ensuring music remains an indelible part of our culture. For more information about The Academy, please visit www.grammy.com. For breaking news and exclusive content, join the organization's social networks on Facebook (www.facebook.com/thegrammys), MySpace (www.myspace.com/thegrammys), Twitter (www.twitter.com/thegrammys), and YouTube (www.youtube.com/thegrammys).

"Shutter Island" on DVD in June 2010

FROM ACADEMY AWARD®-WINNING* DIRECTOR MARTIN SCORSESE COMES A SUSPENSEFUL THRILLER STARRING ACCLAIMED ACTOR LEONARDO DICAPRIO

SHUTTER ISLAND

Intense and Spine-Chilling Tour de Force Debuts on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD June 8, 2010

World-renowned director Martin Scorsese delivers “a stunning masterpiece that requires and demands multiple viewings” (Ain’t It Cool News) with the critically-acclaimed suspense thriller

SHUTTER ISLAND, debuting on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD June 8, 2010 from Paramount Home Entertainment. Starring three-time Academy Award® nominee Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed), the film features an outstanding ensemble cast including Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac), Oscar® winner Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi),

Max von Sydow (Minority Report), Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) and Emily Mortimer (Match Point). Based on the best-selling novel by celebrated writer Dennis Lehane, SHUTTER ISLAND was written for the screen by Laeta Kalogridis and tells the story of two U.S. marshals investigating the mysterious disappearance of an inmate from a hospital for the criminally insane. But as their investigation proceeds, they uncover an intricate web of deception where nothing may be as it seems. Filled with nail-biting suspense and unexpected plot twists, SHUTTER ISLAND is a must-see thriller that will keep you guessing to the very end.

The SHUTTER ISLAND Blu-ray includes making-of featurettes entitled “Behind the Shutters” and “Into the Lighthouse”. Music from the motion picture is available now from Rhino Records at all physical and digital retail outlets. The haunting double disc set was produced by music legend and frequent Scorsese collaborator Robbie Robertson and features a stunning array of modern classical music.


SHUTTER ISLAND DVD & Blu-ray
The SHUTTER ISLAND DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 5.1 Surround and Spanish 5.1 Surround and English, French and Spanish subtitles. The Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and Brazilian Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese subtitles. The Blu-ray includes the following special features:

o Behind the Shutters—Follows the film from its inception as an acclaimed novel through the production process and to the big screen. Includes interviews with cast and crew.

o Into the Lighthouse—Discusses the historical landscape of psychiatric therapies during the 1950s through interviews with cast and crew.

About Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE) is part of Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment. PPC is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. PHE is responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution of home entertainment products on behalf of various parties including: Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Paramount Famous Productions, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, CBS and PBS and for providing home entertainment fulfillment services for DreamWorks Animation Home Entertainment.

Shutter Island - the Negromancer review.

Review: "Spider-Man 3" is Too Crowded

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 76 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Running time: 140 minutes (2 hours, 20 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence
DIRECTOR: Sam Raimi
WRITERS: Sam Raimi & Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent; from a screen story by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi (based upon the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko)
PRODUCERS: Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Grant Curtis
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bill Pope
EDITOR: Bob Muraski
BAFTA Award nominee

SCI-FI/FANTASY/ACTION/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, James Cromwell, Theresa Russell, Dylan Baker, Bill Nunn, Bruce Campbell, Elizabeth Banks, Cliff Robertson, Ted Raimi, Perla Haney-Jardine, Elya Baskin, and Mageina Tovah

Sam Raimi returns to direct Spider-Man 3, and this time he has the hero and film juggling a gaggle of new characters, which ultimately weighs down this film and denies the best villain of this installment, Venom, the substantial screen time that would have made SpM3 as good as Spider-Man 2.

Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) has finally struck a balance between his life as the costumed superhero, Spider-Man, and his civilian life, which includes his girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) or M.J., but there are so many troubles brewing on his horizon. First, Harry Osborn (James Franco), the son of Spider-Man’s most dangerous enemy, the villainous Green Goblin, strikes at him using some of his father’s technology. Next, Peter learns that Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) was the man who really killed Peter’s beloved Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson). A freak scientific accident fuses Marko’s DNA with sand, and he becomes the shape-shifting Sandman. If that weren’t enough, Peter, a photographer for the Daily Bugle meets his new rival, Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), a sneaky twerp willing to do just about anything to impress the Bugle’s editor-in-chief, J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons), in order to get the fulltime photographer position Peter wants.

Peter and M.J. (who knows that Peter is also Spider-Man) are also at odds because M.J. feels that whenever she needs a shoulder to cry on, Pete is too busy talking about being Spider-Man and how popular the hero has become with the general public. Their relationship crumbles when M.J. sees Spider-Man/Peter Parker kissing Eddie Brock’s girlfriend, Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard). Meanwhile, Peter has encountered an alien substance, a symbiotic creature, which merges with Spider-Man and his traditional red and blue costume and turns it black. The union also changes Peter’s personality, and it is the new, more aggressive and selfish Peter who publicly humiliates Brock. Unbeknownst to Pete, Brock will play a major part in bringing forth Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis, Venom. As Peter Parker tries to repair the rifts between he and his closet friends and also rediscover his compassion, Sandman and Venom form an unholy union to have their revenge against the wall-crawling hero.

Spider-Man 3 is a special effects extravaganza, featuring dizzying chase scenes in which characters are whirling, twirling, spinning, soaring, plunging, etc. between the buildings and structures of New York City. Above the street and below, Spider-Man and his adversaries defy gravity and avoid destruction even when gravity or the force of their own punches and kicks send them spiraling toward an extra hard landing. Computer rendered characters including CGI version of Spider-Man, Sandman, Venom, “Goblin, Jr. Harry Osborn, and the civilians they endanger (including M.J. and Gwen) account for the bulk of the complex action scenes, which couldn’t be pulled off with such dazzling, dizzying flair using real actors.

In the end, however, Spider-Man 3 is like the original 2002 Spider-Man movie – a lot of sound and fury dropped in between poignant character drama. The core of this movie is the message of compassion, forgiveness, and heroism. Early in the film, things are going so well for Peter – he’s going to propose to M.J. and the public adores Spider-Man – that when an obstacle presents itself or a little rain falls in his life, he’s turns to anger, pride, envy, and vengeance. In fact, most of the characters are looking for retribution or dealing with bitterness and personal defeat.

Try as Raimi, his co-writers, and cast might, the film has no soul, however. It’s simply a loud, superhero action fantasy built on CGI. There are too many characters and subplots to allow the drama and message to fully bloom into hearty flowers. Spider-Man 3 has the thrills and chills of superhero and villains colliding, but it is exceedingly dark and gloomy, which doesn’t allow the heroism to come through until the end. Of course, if this is really just popcorn entertainment, who cares if the human drama is just window dressing?

5 of 10
B-

Friday, May 11, 2007

NOTE:
2008 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Special Visual Effects” (Scott Stokdyk, Peter Nofz, John Frazier, and Spencer Cook)

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Review: Frank Miller's "The Spirit" Has Spirit

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Spirit (2008)
Running time: 103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of stylized violence and action, some sexual content and brief nudity
DIRECTOR: Frank Miller
WRITER: Frank Miller (based upon the comic book created by Will Eisner)
PRODUCERS: Deborah Del Prete, Gigi Pritzker, and Michael E. Uslan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bill Pope (director of photography)
EDITOR: Gregory Nussbaum
COMPOSER: David Newman

SUPERHERO/ACTION/CRIME/FANTASY

Starring: Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Dan Lauria, Sarah Paulson, Scarlett Johansson, Jaime King, Stana Katic, Paz Vega, and Louis Lombardi

The Spirit is a comic book character created by the late Will Eisner. From June 2, 1940 until October 5, 1952, The Spirit appeared in a 16-page comic book that was inserted into newspapers the way the comics section, the coupon pages, and Parade magazine, etc. still are. Some readers called it “The Spirit Section.” In late 2008, Eisner’s hero finally made it to movie theatres in The Spirit, a film written and directed by a comic book creator turned movie director, Frank Miller. Among Miller’s creations is the graphic novel, 300, which became a worldwide hit movie in 2007.

The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) is the guardian of Central City, but before he was a masked man, The Spirit was a cop named Denny Colt (Macht). Seemingly murdered in the line of duty, Denny escaped death and continued to fight crime, working outside the law as The Spirit. He fights crime from the shadows, and his war takes him to the city’s rundown warehouses, to deep in the damp catacombs beneath the city, or to the windswept waterfront, among other unsavory places. No place is too high, too low, or too dangerous for this masked crusader.

His most fearsome adversary is The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), a loud and flamboyant kingpin of crime with a penchant for mass murder. The Octopus plots to destroy Central City and to conquer the world, but first he needs to augment his powers with the legendary Blood of Heracles. On its way to Central City, the vase containing the blood falls into the hands of an old acquaintance of The Octopus, Sand Saref (Eva Mendes), who also has a past with The Spirit. Now, The Spirit must face both The Octopus, who is determined to finally kill him, and Saref, the woman who once broke his heart and who may now break him.

Visually, The Spirit is dazzling, even brilliant at time. The shimmering colors, the extravagant costumes, and the lavish sets, as well as the shifting environments and complicated landscape that is the vibrant Central City. The characters are generally good, especially The Spirit and Dan Lauria’s Commissioner Dolan; Eva Mendes’ bombshell Sand Saref stands out among all the movie’s female characters. Sam Jackson’s Octopus is somewhere between edgy-meets-whacky and too over the top.

The Spirit was generally panned by critics and fans and was a box office failure. I think this film is too visually adventurous, and it is certainly experimental and daring in blending the cool static graphics of comic books and the basic compositional visual style of Film-Noir with cutting edge cinematography and computer enhancement and effects.

The film’s problem is that there is a disconnect between Frank Miller’s storytelling, in particularly the screenplay, and how the actors perform that story. On the technical end of the film, Miller seems to have gotten what he wanted. Directing the narrative and the actors’ performances and writing are the problems. The plot is okay and is quite straight-forward. The execution of the plot as a narrative is the problem. The story is awkward and has too many weird and/or unnecessary digressions. Quite a bit of dialogue is either too mannered or too stylized and when the actors perform the dialogue it sounds awkward and staged.

Still, The Spirit is too gorgeous to be considered a bomb or a failure. Its lustrous colors seem natural, almost organic compared to the look of Sin City and 300, two movies adapted from Frank Miller comic books. Focusing on what is good about The Spirit suggests that Miller has a future as a movie director, because this movie is just too visually alluring and too imaginative to be lumped in with truly bad movies.

5 of 10
B-

Monday, April 19, 2010

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