Thursday, May 21, 2009

Splash!
Today marks the 20th anniversary of what SOME people consider to be Disney's greatest movie. Whether you agree or not, there's no denying it's an animated classic which many of us grew up watching.
From what i've read, in the 80's, Disney had hit a bit of a slump when it came to animated movies. They become very "old skool" and people weren't flocking to see Disney animated features as much as they used to in previous decades. 'The Little Mermaid' changed all of that!!!!!......Disney gave itself a make over and "caught up with the times" and TLM became a huge hit, it was modern, appealed to kids and adults and had more contemporary music numbers!. It was the rebirth of Disney in 1989 and by the time 1992 came along with Beauty and the Beast, Disney was on an unstoppable roll with Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Lion King and more that followed!!!!

It holds a lot of memories for me, i think it was one of the first movies i ever saw?, i can remember it as far as my memory takes me! I'll also never forget the day when my friend pointed out that the Priest during the Eric/Ursula wedding ceremony has a boner! haha.......well, it looked like he did, it was actually his knee.

They just released Pinocchio on Blu Ray a few months ago, Beauty and the Beast is next in line for the HD treatment. Let's hope TLM gets a HD release soon as well!

FLAP ON ARIEL!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

New Moon, new hope?The official poster for the second film in the Twilight Saga has leaked online! [click the pic to see the full image].......i like it, it captures the SOAP OPERA storyline of the second story and the BLOSSOMING threeway romance between the main characters nicely. Will the next film in the series FIX the errors of the first film though? let's take a look shall we.....

It's no news that i'm a BIG Twilight fan, the books are kick ass and i fucking LOVED reading them. The Twilight movie however for me was a BIG disappointment! there was so much wrong with it that i don't even know where to begin [again]. Don't get me wrong, these aren't the complaints of a loon fan who couldn't ever be satisfied, in fact, a lot of what was great about the book WAS in the film. It followed the book closely and the characters were as they should be [most of the time]. My main problem lay with a few cast choices and some of the script. There was NO WAY they were going to capture the deep love of Edward and Bella in the movie, i knew that from day 1. On paper, it's a beautiful read, but on screen it falls fairly flat and it comes across much more wishy washy than it actually is. I was willing to let that slide if the rest of the movie delivered.....but as i said, it didn't, so what are the pro's and con's of the NEXT film?

The Cast: We have some really great new additions to the New Moon cast with Michael Sheen and Dakota Fanning coming on board as vampires. Also, werewolf Jacob [forgot the name of the actor who plays him] gets his time in the spotlight as well. He was the best actor in the first movie, his role was small, but he looked right for the part and that little brief moment he had with Bella on the beach and Bella and Edward at the end of the film was a good teaser of what he could bring to the dynamic of the relationship in later films. He's perfectly cast.
As for the remaining cast, Katherine Stewart [Bella] will forever SHIT me as Bella, her line delivery in the first movie was ATROCIOUS and i doubt she'll get much better in this one, especially with her character in the book becoming even more of a whiner. Rob Pattinson [Edward] is BEAUTIFUL, but was a little STIFF in the first film. In the scenes where he was more relaxed [Bella and Edward in his bedroom, and when they first kiss] he was great, but when it came to him speaking of his love for Bella, i didn't believe a word of it. He's a capable actor so hopefully he grows into his role a little more this time around.

The Story: The first film was always going to be a tricky one to pull off, most of the story in the movie revolves around Bella and Edward falling in love, other than that.....the rest was fairly straight forward. With New Moon, we get a MUCH more fleshed out story, there's more action, more characters and a GREAT ending. New Moon was MADE to be a movie!

The Direction: Catherine [forgot her last name], Director of the first film did an ok job. She gave the movie good atmosphere and directed well enough. However she wasn't right for New Moon, and thankfully the studio have a new person, it's some guy, can't remember his name......anyway........with Full Moon taking on a bit more of a masculine vibe with the introduction of the werewolves, it was a smart choice to bring in a MAN for the job. And with book 3 building up to an all out WAR between vampires and werewolves, they've hired another new Director for that one too......another MALE one. We need some BALLS in this series!

The Budget: I didn't mind the effects in the first film, but they were working on a tight budget and some people thought it was obvious. Thankfully the budget gets a big increase this time around........and they'll NEED it with werewolves changes coming into play! Also, judging from what i can see in the new poster, they seemed to have changed the colour pallet for the movie which i'm REALLY happy with. The blues and grays of the first film were perfect, but with more of an Earthy feel to the second book, the browns and greens used in the poster will provide a nice change of atmosphere for New Moon.

I have a feeling we have a MUCH stronger chance of getting something decent this time around. Hopefully the new roles even out the SHITTY acting from a few of the older cast members. And with a new Director, we may have a cooler vision for the next chapter in the series. So far all is looking good, and as a Twilight fan, i want it to CONTINUE being good. The books deserve more than second rate slosh like the first movie..........fingers crossed ;)