Weekend catch-up

Since what I normally watch on weekends is currently repeats of what I've already seen, my YouTube list had recommendations on one channel, and something caught my eye: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

I thought I'd look in for a few minutes. And realised, I didn't remember over 80 percent of the film! Turns out there wasn't that much to remember. But the richness of the artwork, painted frame for frame made it worth watching. I think I'd last seen it when I was fifteen.

The comment boards beneath the segments were eye-opening. I got a kick out of someone saying they'd seen it when they were six and now were so glad to watch again at 14 years old. What could I say? I liked seeing it when I was eight and was still sort of interested at age 61? I must say, Disney indocrination has spanned literally many generations.

Another disturbing trend concerns how many people are fascinated with what they call 'the princess films'. So unhealthy, 'waiting for prince charming', so unrealistic, so damaging in the long run. I later caught 'The Little Mermaid' for the first time, and that has to be the worst messaging of the lot. Only with the patriarchal blessing can Arielle unite with her (dull) prince... and assumingly propagate. (All the princes are dull, btw.)

The more comments I read, the more I wondered how many women's lives these films ruined. Engendering expectations which will never be fulfilled. I can understand why some people think they are pure poison, and I really don't think they are suitable viewing for children. Unless parents take them aside and give them a bit of a reality check.

As an adult, if you overlook the brain-washing, the films are clever, and yes, entertaining, and creative. And the old stuff is beautiful as far as the art work goes. But they really aren't for children.

My second choice was the 1940 'Pinocchio', which I didn't particularly like as a child, having read the unexpurgated version beforehand. (Yes Preciousess, even back in the Fifties, the libraries only had sanitised versions of Grimm's Fairy Tales, I only learned how brutal they really were when I was a young adult.) I'd never seen it since, and found I remembered some of it, but a lot had been forgotten as well. The film focuses on three episodes of what was a long and harrowing but funny journey in the novel. And Jiminy Cricket was bosh. In the novel, the cricket was sort of a conscience in the first episodes, but Pinocchio crushes it to death. Yeah, dark stuff. The film had more than it's share of creepy stuff, seen from an adult perspective. Stromboli as gypsy is a confirmation that all gypsies cheat and steal, and won't stop at violence. Not very pc. More on that below. More disconcerting was the Pleasure Island sequence, which has some disturbing sub-text revealing a thinly veiled pedophile component. It made me uncomfortable. On the surface, the message was 'go to school, be good, and you will be rewarded. Or not, and become a jackass.' Which is fine and good, but it made misbehaving look like too much fun, and everything kept being forgiven, so where's the sense in it all, I wondered.

Later I picked out some things I had never gotten around to seeing, later films. Beginning with the so-called Disney Renaissance. I had never seen 'The Lion King'. I just knew all the raves, and how it was sort of a new classic. Am sorry to report that it left me FULLY cold, and would never want to see the stage version. The only thing that didn't bore me about it was Scar, and that was only due to the voice... and that character was so gay and so bad.... well, it made me smile. So what was the lesson regarding him? Gays are fratricidal murderers who usurp power and ruin the kingdom. Great lesson there, n'est-ce pas? No, I can't say I really liked anything about it, which will be anathema to fans who think it was the best invention since chocolate ice cream.

I've already seen Beauty and the Beast on dvd, and on stage, so I really didn't care to go there. Nice music scoring, but again, the prince is dumb, and Belle is sort of insipid. So I picked 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', and could have seen it in Berlin, where it had its' world premiere, but after the former, I just wasn't tempted to be subjected to a three-hour evening of treacle.

The film was obviously way more geared to it being produced as a musical afterward, and it shows. The score is opulent, the lyrics more geared to an adult audience, and it was moving at times. In this one, the gypsies steal to live, but are 'noble', because they are fighting tyranny.

I don't know if this was an attempt to counter the evil depiction of gypsies in Pinochhio, but I expect it was the case, and it fails in the end, actually. And has a precedent. Little people in England were up in arms about the depiction of a duplicitous midget manicurist in David Copperfield and felt defamed. And the Jewish population were livid when it came to Fagin in Oliver Twist, 'that avaricious old Jew'... In his last novel many years later, he tried to assuage that anger with two characters in 'Our Mutual Friend'. In the form of a tiny doll-maker with a drunken father who regards him as her child, and worse yet, Riah, a teacher soooo good, and sooo above reproach, well both became caricatures, not rounded out figures. Failed miserably, although the main characters were pure genious. So in the case of 'Hunchback', it was also too much of a good thing.

But Hunchback really is the best of the so-called 'Renaisance movies'. The only one I'd want to see again just for the music alone. And the incredible sexual tension among the main four characters. It is really NOT for children. And sort of over the edge for what Disney usually finds appropriate, although they always managed to slip in a wink or two to the parents accompanying their brood to see their product.

The only two films I'd recommend for kids is 101 Dalmations, the animated version... and from the 'forgotten era', 1973's 'Robin Hood. Disney should re-release that this year for sure... because the messaging so fits today's realities. A lot of commentors were of the same opinion. And interestingly, one commentor maintains that Robin Hood is the only Disney film with no character representation in their theme parks. Hmmmm. If it is true, that says a lot. Of course it's all 'tax the poor', but it's very funny. And as one commentator said, 'We need a Friar Tuck... before he got arrested.' Sir Peter Ustinov as the infantile King John, and Terry Thomas' delightful Sir Hiss (he's a snake) make for fun villains, because they are basically dumb, and Miss Cluck doing a medieval football touch-down is one of the funniest numbers in anything the studio made. Oh those rhinos! (I was working at the time, and the kids just loved it.) I loved the comment from a 15 year old who had never seen it before, was crazy about it, and added, 'you can't beat Old Disney films.' Gawwd, the shock. Roger Miller's music really fit that film as well.

And oh yes, 'Lady and the Tramp' is still lovely, although the up-town-and-wrong-side-of-the-tracks theme still grates a lot. But at least it isn't a princess movie. And Tramp is smart and fun.

For stoners, I would add 'The Little Mermaid' to the obvious Fantasia and Alice in Wonderland as must-see. (No, didn't go back there, have seen them too often.) When I was working, the evening shows of the latter two were packed with young adults so high you could get off on just breathing. And they were crazy for them. The Little Mermaid is optically so nuts, I was sort of out of it stone cold sober. Or maybe od-ing on the visuals. But yeah, the message was shit.

Let's see, favourite characters? Yes, I have them. The mice and the evil cat Lucifer in Cinderella, and the film was more about them than anything else. Malifecent in Sleeping Beauty, which was the only thing that saved that otherwise boring film. As one person put it, 'Boy, she's pretty out there just because she wasn't invited to a party....' And, of course, Cruella de Ville. If they're going to be bad, they should be really bad. And that criminal justice guy in Hunchback.... ooooo, talk about twisted and sexually fucked up. Best villain evah.

Aladin and Tarzan rightly belong in the 'forgotten' category, by the way. That genie in the former cost me my last nerve. So does Pocahontas. I made it through two of seven segments, and was throwing up a little in my mouf. So I stopped.

One last thing, now that I've bored you out of your tits. Gerhard Brunner was right. I loved his radio show. He'd analyse music, and musicals, bring you up to date on what was new in New York and London, and was very savvy. One evening he discussed the Disney strategy in scoring their films. It was his contention that they purposely used music styles that were a generation older than what was current, and for the older ones, that seems to really hold up. The thinking was, if the adults have to take the kiddies to see their product, the music should be what they related to. And I believe they held to that recipe for decades, after my lengthy sojourn into that world of Disney animation.

The oldest are the best, I guess. Twisted, weird, but they rarely topped themselves after.

So after two days of getting rectangular eyes, and a catch-up of lots I hadn't seen.. I will just go to bed and hope that the new cavities in my brain heal up after so much treacle.