ENTERTAINMENT ESSENTIALS - Pet Sounds
It seems strange to have an Entertainment Essentials inspired by an Adam Sandler movie, but this one does owe a small debt to 50 First Dates. After all, if an album can survive one of its best moments being caterwauled by both Sandler and Drew Barrymore, then it really must be something special. And make no mistake, Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys IS truly special in a way that no other album I can think of is.
Sure, it's an obvious choice for this kind of praise, as one of those records that always gets in Top 100 lists compiled by Baby Boomers at magazines like Rolling Stone and Uncut, and it is one of those 'Sacred Cows' that hip young critics love to sneer at, but none of that matters. Pet Sounds has more heart, more beauty, more melodies and more balls than any other album in history.
Firstly, a bit of background. The Beach Boys were the biggest band in America by 1966, with only those English ragamuffins The Beatles bigger than them. Their success was built on their image as Californian surfer-dudes responsible for some of the best pop music ever written. However, resident genius Brian Wilson was dissatisfied with the limitations of being 'that surf band', not least because only his brother Dennis actually surfed outside of promotional photographs.
Having suffered a nervous breakdown on tour, he returned home while his band-mates continued to perform live without him, leaving Wilson alone to work on a whole new direction. Along with lyricist Tony Asher, he came up with some heart-breakingly wonderful songs and using a bunch of legendary studio musicians (mostly Phil Spector veterans) he went about recording the album without his band, whose only real contribution was the vocals (apart from some meddling from infernal 'front-man' Mike Love).
From the yearning Wouldn't It Be Nice (the song from 50 First Dates) to the sighing Caroline No, Pet Sounds was literally jam-packed with great pop ballads that had the power in their lyrics alone to touch anyone with a soul. The vocals were as amazing as all the other Beach Boys records, with Wilson and his brother Carl on particularly fine form (with the latter coming of age on the jaw-dropping God Only Knows). However, it's the music and the production that keep you coming back to it.
No other album would stand up to the kind of analysis and deconstruction that you can give Pet Sounds by listening to the Sessions box-set or the 5.1 Surround Sound version available on DVD (which is literally mind-blowing). None of the technological advances of the last 40 years have come close to outdoing what Wilson achieved with his personal brand of obsessive genius and while he burnt out trying to go one better with Smile a couple of years later, Pet Sounds would surely have still been his masterpiece anyway.
Certainly none of the deserved accolades that followed the belated release of the newly-recorded Smile a few years ago managed to overshadow what Wilson had achieved at his peak. It's a genuine tragedy that the Beach Boys weren't able to build on this and perhaps go on to become more important as artists than the Beatles, but with Pet Sounds they had at least recorded something that will surely be treasured as a musical milestone forever. Like Paul McCartney once said: "I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard that album."
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
TOP TEN TEAR-JERKERS
The Editor
1. The Closing Montage Of Six Feet Under
As a TV show that dealt with death and heartbreak on a weekly basis, there was only ever one way for Six Feet Under to bow out. A closing montage set to Sia's breathtaking Breathe Me intersperses clips of Claire Fisher driving to a new life with flash-forwards showing the characters we've all grown to love growing up, getting married, getting old and dying. That might sound depressing, but like the whole show that proceeded it, the ending was beautifully-judged and absolutely heartbreaking.
2. Johnny Cash's Hurt Video
A music video of an old man whose creative peak was almost 50 years earlier isn't the kind of thing that normally gets much attention, but Johnny Cash was never one to be told what to do. His cover of the Nine Inch Nails song had already massively surpassed the original, but the decision to film the video in his house, surrounded by the fading memories of his life was inspired. The clincher is when Cash's wife June appears on the stairs behind him, not long before both passed away. Almost fittingly, the house recently burned down before Bee Gee Barry Gibb could move in...
3. Grandad's Funeral In Only Fools And Horses
What made Only Fools And Horses one of the greatest sitcoms of all time was the way John Sullivan managed to work in the kind of pathos and emotion that you wouldn't find in most other sitcoms. He could make you laugh very easily, but he could also make you cry and the best example of this was Grandad's Funeral in Series Four. Filmed just days after the real funeral of actor Lennard Pearce, the raw emotions of David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst are clearly very real, but Sullivan's writing is also excellent, using the very sad situation to cut right to the heart of Del Boy, making him so much more than just the flash market trader cliche.
4. The End Of Blackadder Goes Forth
Another sitcom! Unlike Only Fools... Blackadder was never big on pathos, but that only made it more remarkable that Ben Elton and Richard Curtis chose to end on such a sombre note. The whole last episode was full of grim humour as the men in the WWI trenches prepared to make The Big Push. The cruel way that the characters are given a last minute sniff of a reprieve before being sent to their deaths in a moving finale is very British and very well done. You wouldn't get that in Friends.
5. Hotel Rwanda
Tears of rage and shame as much as grief, Hotel Rwanda is a brutal and moving film throughout, but the most affecting scene is when the staff and local 'residents' of the besieged hotel see UN troops seemingly coming to their rescue, only to discover that the soldiers are only there to help get the foreign journalists, photographers and guests to safety, leaving the Rwandans completely at the mercy of the machete-wielding killers. The guilt of those being saved and those doing the saving as well as the sheer desperation of those being forsaken make this scene almost unbearable.
6. Stand By Me
As if a film named after Ben E. King's beautiful song wasn't enough, Stephen King's nostalgic tale of childhood has plenty of moments to make you tear up, not least the more touching scenes between the friends. However, it's River Phoenix's performance as the doomed Chris Chambers that really stands out, not least when he breaks down and reveals just how much he wants to escape the destiny that his no-good family seem to have for him. With the knowledge of the fate of the awaited that talented young actor, it's all the more upsetting.
7. Midnight Cowboy
One of the best films of all time, Midnight Cowboy has two great performances from John Voight and Dustin Hoffman, a legendary soundtrack, plenty of atmosphere and bucketfuls of pathos. It's also got a really tragic ending that, like so many already in this list, is all about false hope and cruel reality. With Ratso Rizzo finally getting the trip of a lifetime to Florida, no-one could possibly not cry at the tragic moment when Joe Buck tells him that they're there and realises that Ratso isn't there at all.
8. Norma's Death In The Royle Family
The final special of The Royle Family started off as a fairly normal episode, with plenty of trademark humour from Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash, but halfway through, the jokes just stop as the tears start to flow for the dying Norma. The performances are all fantastic, the script is spot-on and there's not a dry eye in the house. Literally.
9. A.I.
Not one of Steven Spielberg's more lauded films, A.I. confused and irritated movie-goers and critics alike, and there's no doubt it has its flaws, mostly coming from the strange mish-mash of Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick. One of the more criticised aspects is the slightly surreal ending with the robots/aliens and the return of little Haley Joel Osment's long-dead mum. It was accused of being a hopelessly schmaltzy ending, but anyone with a mum can relate to the emotions involved and when you get past the cynicism, it's really very sad.
10. Dumbo
Another 'mum' moment, the scene where Dumbo's mother is unfairly chained up and locked away by the circus staff and struggles to comfort her son is a real choker. The death of Bambi's mum is the more famous moment, but the wrench of seeing mother and child so cruelly separated is arguably more affecting, particularly when they managed to connect and Dumbo is rocked to sleep by his mother's trunk.
The Writer
1. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
People often accuse Steven Spielberg of manipulation and over-sentimentality, with E.T frequently cited as a prime example. But what those critics fail to notice is that the film is more than cheap theatrics; it's a melancholic tale of a boy growing up and having to face up to the fact that life isn't always perfect. The 'Come...Stay' scene is simply magnificent, but it's the moment when Spielberg cuts from Elliot and E.T to Dee Wallace Stone as Elliot's mother which really gets me, as she kneels powerlessly watching her son endure the terrible pain of losing a friend. Perfect.
2. Radiohead’s Street Spirit
The greatest album closer ever written, Street Sprit is Radiohead at their bittersweet best. Yeah, that’s right, I said bittersweet. The ‘depressing’ aspect of Britain’s Best Band is well documented, but fails to grasp their more optimistic side which is heard in Thom Yorke’s closing cry of ‘immerse your soul in love’. Not miserable, but tearjerking in its idealistic beauty.
3. The Apartment
Tears can be jerked from happy occasions rather than just sad ones, as the final scenes of Billy Wilder’s masterpiece The Apartment prove. The film finds Jack Lemmon’s business drone Bud Baxter renting out his apartment to his superiors so they can enjoy affairs without their wives knowing. Sadly one of the flings is with the apple of Baxter’s eye, Shirley McClaine’s Fran. All hope seems lost for Buddy boy until Fran hears that he’s stood up to his bosses and refused them access to the flat. As she runs down the road to his apartment, Adolph Deutsch’s music swells and the boy finally gets the girl. If only real life were as good.
4. Will Eisner’s Sewers
Found in his short story anthology New York: The Big City, this one-page, four-panel strip is graphic novel maestro Will Eisner at his very best. We focus on a New York sewer grate as the rain washes away traffic notices, adverts, lottery tickets and, tragically, a letter from a bride-to-be to her ex-boyfriend explaining she will be married in a week. A masterfully told short about the insignificance of human relationships in modern cities, this proves why Eisner is so well-loved in the comic book industry.
5. The Death of Bill Hicks
Sure, Bill Hicks' style was confrontational, but what made his stand up - and untimely death at the age of 32 - so affecting is that he was ultimately a humanitarian who was simply aghast that people couldn’t just, you know, get along with each other. Read the ‘Love All The People’ collection for some stinging observations on George Bush Snr, Iraq Part 1 and the corruption of capitalism and then shed a tear as you realise that the idiots in power didn’t actually listen.
6. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
No, no, it’s not in here for its emotional content (don’t be so silly), but for the crushing realisation that George Lucas didn’t have a clue what he was doing with the prequels all along. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment that it dawns on you. Is it the part when you notice that General Grievous serves no real purpose at all? Or the bit where Lucas circles his camera around Anakin and the newly unveiled Emperor in a last gasp bit to be dramatic. Or maybe it’s the moment when we’re told (by a computer generated robot no less) that Padme has ‘lost the will to live’, despite the fact she’s just given birth (to twins!!!) and believes ‘there’s still some good in Anakin’. Probably a bit of all three to be honest.
7. Requiem for a Dream
Good god this is a depressing film. A (very) cautionary tale about the perils of drug-taking, Darren Aronofsky’s sophomore effort is so gut-wrenching because our protagonists are not druggie bastards, but normal people sucked into a downward spiral by the pursuit of their dreams. Particularly haunting is Ellen Burstyn, whose pitch-perfect performance as a woman who gets hooked on diet pills so she can fit into her best dress for a TV appearance was overlooked by the Academy in favour of Julia Roberts’ turn in Erin flippin’ Brockovich. Now THAT’S depressing.
8. The final Calvin and Hobbes strip
Tearjerking more for its poignancy than out-and-out sadness, the final strip of Bill Watterson’s wryly witty comic Calvin and Hobbes is the perfect way for the bratty boy and his beloved stuffed tiger to bow out. The mischievous pair stand in a snow-covered meadow with their trusty sledge in tow. ‘It’s a magical world, Hobbes ol’ buddy,” says Calvin as the duo ride into immortal childhood, “let’s go exploring.”
9.Post season 4 Happy Days
It’s always tragic when a great TV show comes to an end, but it’s even worse when a formerly great one plods along for endless seasons long after its sell by date. Case in point: Happy Days. In the first few seasons, the show was untouchable: crisp writing, memorable characters and rose-tinted nostalgia all blended to make the perfect sitcom. The warning sign came at the end of season four when The Fonz was inexplicably baptised, and it continued its irrevocable slide from then on in: jumping the shark, writing out Richie and eventually burning down the original Arnold’s. The show in its final few seasons was more cheap, tacky and soulless than a Gwen Stefani song.
10. Writing Top Ten tearjerkers lists
Great, now I’m depressed!
The Editor
1. The Closing Montage Of Six Feet Under
As a TV show that dealt with death and heartbreak on a weekly basis, there was only ever one way for Six Feet Under to bow out. A closing montage set to Sia's breathtaking Breathe Me intersperses clips of Claire Fisher driving to a new life with flash-forwards showing the characters we've all grown to love growing up, getting married, getting old and dying. That might sound depressing, but like the whole show that proceeded it, the ending was beautifully-judged and absolutely heartbreaking.
2. Johnny Cash's Hurt Video
A music video of an old man whose creative peak was almost 50 years earlier isn't the kind of thing that normally gets much attention, but Johnny Cash was never one to be told what to do. His cover of the Nine Inch Nails song had already massively surpassed the original, but the decision to film the video in his house, surrounded by the fading memories of his life was inspired. The clincher is when Cash's wife June appears on the stairs behind him, not long before both passed away. Almost fittingly, the house recently burned down before Bee Gee Barry Gibb could move in...
3. Grandad's Funeral In Only Fools And Horses
What made Only Fools And Horses one of the greatest sitcoms of all time was the way John Sullivan managed to work in the kind of pathos and emotion that you wouldn't find in most other sitcoms. He could make you laugh very easily, but he could also make you cry and the best example of this was Grandad's Funeral in Series Four. Filmed just days after the real funeral of actor Lennard Pearce, the raw emotions of David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst are clearly very real, but Sullivan's writing is also excellent, using the very sad situation to cut right to the heart of Del Boy, making him so much more than just the flash market trader cliche.
4. The End Of Blackadder Goes Forth
Another sitcom! Unlike Only Fools... Blackadder was never big on pathos, but that only made it more remarkable that Ben Elton and Richard Curtis chose to end on such a sombre note. The whole last episode was full of grim humour as the men in the WWI trenches prepared to make The Big Push. The cruel way that the characters are given a last minute sniff of a reprieve before being sent to their deaths in a moving finale is very British and very well done. You wouldn't get that in Friends.
5. Hotel Rwanda
Tears of rage and shame as much as grief, Hotel Rwanda is a brutal and moving film throughout, but the most affecting scene is when the staff and local 'residents' of the besieged hotel see UN troops seemingly coming to their rescue, only to discover that the soldiers are only there to help get the foreign journalists, photographers and guests to safety, leaving the Rwandans completely at the mercy of the machete-wielding killers. The guilt of those being saved and those doing the saving as well as the sheer desperation of those being forsaken make this scene almost unbearable.
6. Stand By Me
As if a film named after Ben E. King's beautiful song wasn't enough, Stephen King's nostalgic tale of childhood has plenty of moments to make you tear up, not least the more touching scenes between the friends. However, it's River Phoenix's performance as the doomed Chris Chambers that really stands out, not least when he breaks down and reveals just how much he wants to escape the destiny that his no-good family seem to have for him. With the knowledge of the fate of the awaited that talented young actor, it's all the more upsetting.
7. Midnight Cowboy
One of the best films of all time, Midnight Cowboy has two great performances from John Voight and Dustin Hoffman, a legendary soundtrack, plenty of atmosphere and bucketfuls of pathos. It's also got a really tragic ending that, like so many already in this list, is all about false hope and cruel reality. With Ratso Rizzo finally getting the trip of a lifetime to Florida, no-one could possibly not cry at the tragic moment when Joe Buck tells him that they're there and realises that Ratso isn't there at all.
8. Norma's Death In The Royle Family
The final special of The Royle Family started off as a fairly normal episode, with plenty of trademark humour from Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash, but halfway through, the jokes just stop as the tears start to flow for the dying Norma. The performances are all fantastic, the script is spot-on and there's not a dry eye in the house. Literally.
9. A.I.
Not one of Steven Spielberg's more lauded films, A.I. confused and irritated movie-goers and critics alike, and there's no doubt it has its flaws, mostly coming from the strange mish-mash of Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick. One of the more criticised aspects is the slightly surreal ending with the robots/aliens and the return of little Haley Joel Osment's long-dead mum. It was accused of being a hopelessly schmaltzy ending, but anyone with a mum can relate to the emotions involved and when you get past the cynicism, it's really very sad.
10. Dumbo
Another 'mum' moment, the scene where Dumbo's mother is unfairly chained up and locked away by the circus staff and struggles to comfort her son is a real choker. The death of Bambi's mum is the more famous moment, but the wrench of seeing mother and child so cruelly separated is arguably more affecting, particularly when they managed to connect and Dumbo is rocked to sleep by his mother's trunk.
The Writer
1. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
People often accuse Steven Spielberg of manipulation and over-sentimentality, with E.T frequently cited as a prime example. But what those critics fail to notice is that the film is more than cheap theatrics; it's a melancholic tale of a boy growing up and having to face up to the fact that life isn't always perfect. The 'Come...Stay' scene is simply magnificent, but it's the moment when Spielberg cuts from Elliot and E.T to Dee Wallace Stone as Elliot's mother which really gets me, as she kneels powerlessly watching her son endure the terrible pain of losing a friend. Perfect.
2. Radiohead’s Street Spirit
The greatest album closer ever written, Street Sprit is Radiohead at their bittersweet best. Yeah, that’s right, I said bittersweet. The ‘depressing’ aspect of Britain’s Best Band is well documented, but fails to grasp their more optimistic side which is heard in Thom Yorke’s closing cry of ‘immerse your soul in love’. Not miserable, but tearjerking in its idealistic beauty.
3. The Apartment
Tears can be jerked from happy occasions rather than just sad ones, as the final scenes of Billy Wilder’s masterpiece The Apartment prove. The film finds Jack Lemmon’s business drone Bud Baxter renting out his apartment to his superiors so they can enjoy affairs without their wives knowing. Sadly one of the flings is with the apple of Baxter’s eye, Shirley McClaine’s Fran. All hope seems lost for Buddy boy until Fran hears that he’s stood up to his bosses and refused them access to the flat. As she runs down the road to his apartment, Adolph Deutsch’s music swells and the boy finally gets the girl. If only real life were as good.
4. Will Eisner’s Sewers
Found in his short story anthology New York: The Big City, this one-page, four-panel strip is graphic novel maestro Will Eisner at his very best. We focus on a New York sewer grate as the rain washes away traffic notices, adverts, lottery tickets and, tragically, a letter from a bride-to-be to her ex-boyfriend explaining she will be married in a week. A masterfully told short about the insignificance of human relationships in modern cities, this proves why Eisner is so well-loved in the comic book industry.
5. The Death of Bill Hicks
Sure, Bill Hicks' style was confrontational, but what made his stand up - and untimely death at the age of 32 - so affecting is that he was ultimately a humanitarian who was simply aghast that people couldn’t just, you know, get along with each other. Read the ‘Love All The People’ collection for some stinging observations on George Bush Snr, Iraq Part 1 and the corruption of capitalism and then shed a tear as you realise that the idiots in power didn’t actually listen.
6. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
No, no, it’s not in here for its emotional content (don’t be so silly), but for the crushing realisation that George Lucas didn’t have a clue what he was doing with the prequels all along. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment that it dawns on you. Is it the part when you notice that General Grievous serves no real purpose at all? Or the bit where Lucas circles his camera around Anakin and the newly unveiled Emperor in a last gasp bit to be dramatic. Or maybe it’s the moment when we’re told (by a computer generated robot no less) that Padme has ‘lost the will to live’, despite the fact she’s just given birth (to twins!!!) and believes ‘there’s still some good in Anakin’. Probably a bit of all three to be honest.
7. Requiem for a Dream
Good god this is a depressing film. A (very) cautionary tale about the perils of drug-taking, Darren Aronofsky’s sophomore effort is so gut-wrenching because our protagonists are not druggie bastards, but normal people sucked into a downward spiral by the pursuit of their dreams. Particularly haunting is Ellen Burstyn, whose pitch-perfect performance as a woman who gets hooked on diet pills so she can fit into her best dress for a TV appearance was overlooked by the Academy in favour of Julia Roberts’ turn in Erin flippin’ Brockovich. Now THAT’S depressing.
8. The final Calvin and Hobbes strip
Tearjerking more for its poignancy than out-and-out sadness, the final strip of Bill Watterson’s wryly witty comic Calvin and Hobbes is the perfect way for the bratty boy and his beloved stuffed tiger to bow out. The mischievous pair stand in a snow-covered meadow with their trusty sledge in tow. ‘It’s a magical world, Hobbes ol’ buddy,” says Calvin as the duo ride into immortal childhood, “let’s go exploring.”
9.Post season 4 Happy Days
It’s always tragic when a great TV show comes to an end, but it’s even worse when a formerly great one plods along for endless seasons long after its sell by date. Case in point: Happy Days. In the first few seasons, the show was untouchable: crisp writing, memorable characters and rose-tinted nostalgia all blended to make the perfect sitcom. The warning sign came at the end of season four when The Fonz was inexplicably baptised, and it continued its irrevocable slide from then on in: jumping the shark, writing out Richie and eventually burning down the original Arnold’s. The show in its final few seasons was more cheap, tacky and soulless than a Gwen Stefani song.
10. Writing Top Ten tearjerkers lists
Great, now I’m depressed!
Sunday, April 15, 2007
WATCHING, LISTENING TO, READING...
The Editor
WATCHING: The slushy, but undeniably moving TV movie Tuesdays With Morrie (based on Mitch Albom's book), based on a true story of how he spent time with an inspirational former tutor of his, who was dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease and wanted to teach him one final lesson - about life. As cheesy as that sounds, and despite the fact that it's 'presented' by Oprah, it really is a cut above any other TV movie and certainly gives the audience plenty to ponder about how they live their own lives and what's really important to them. The emotional stakes are raised even higher with the knowledge that Jack Lemmon, who gives a typically great performance as Morrie, was starring in his last film, dying two years later.
LISTENING TO: Most recently, Jean-Michel Jarre's great new album Tea and Teo (i can't be bothered putting in the accents, sorry), Amy Winehouse's cover of Valerie for Mark Ronson's Version album, plus the UK reissues of Tina Dico's first two albums. Oh, and Blondie's wonderful self-titled debut.
READING: Drama City by George P. Pelecanos. While he'll probably never top his D.C. Quartet of novels for their amazing characterisation and cultural backdrops, Pelecanos is still one of the finest American crime novellists, and has a style of writing that is so easy to read and even easier to get hooked into. I've only read about five pages so far, but the story's taking shape very nicely, even if it does seems to bear a striking resemblance to Elmore Leonard's Out Of Sight...
The Writer
WATCHING: The final, brilliant episode of Life on Mars. A superbly written piece of drama which managed to address all the pressing questions without stifling the characters (Lost writers, take note). A first act red herring worked a treat, while the ending was surprisingly (and pleasingly) ambiguous - as well as being fairly bittersweet. Ultimately, it's been the best thing on TV this year, along with the return of Doctor Who and the latest Louis Theroux documentary.
LISTENING TO: The radio. Haven't listened to any new music aside from the dross Radio 1 pumps out for a few weeks now, so I‘ve really got nothing to report. The only purchase I’d consider making at the moment is Underworld and John Murphy's score for Danny Boyle's Sunshine - or it would be if it had a release date. Come on, sort it out!
READING: I'm continuing to plough through A Man on The Moon (what? It's a big book and I'm a slow reader!) Still good stuff, brilliantly written and researched by Andrew Chaikin. Science is fun, kids. Check it out.
The Editor
WATCHING: The slushy, but undeniably moving TV movie Tuesdays With Morrie (based on Mitch Albom's book), based on a true story of how he spent time with an inspirational former tutor of his, who was dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease and wanted to teach him one final lesson - about life. As cheesy as that sounds, and despite the fact that it's 'presented' by Oprah, it really is a cut above any other TV movie and certainly gives the audience plenty to ponder about how they live their own lives and what's really important to them. The emotional stakes are raised even higher with the knowledge that Jack Lemmon, who gives a typically great performance as Morrie, was starring in his last film, dying two years later.
LISTENING TO: Most recently, Jean-Michel Jarre's great new album Tea and Teo (i can't be bothered putting in the accents, sorry), Amy Winehouse's cover of Valerie for Mark Ronson's Version album, plus the UK reissues of Tina Dico's first two albums. Oh, and Blondie's wonderful self-titled debut.
READING: Drama City by George P. Pelecanos. While he'll probably never top his D.C. Quartet of novels for their amazing characterisation and cultural backdrops, Pelecanos is still one of the finest American crime novellists, and has a style of writing that is so easy to read and even easier to get hooked into. I've only read about five pages so far, but the story's taking shape very nicely, even if it does seems to bear a striking resemblance to Elmore Leonard's Out Of Sight...
The Writer
WATCHING: The final, brilliant episode of Life on Mars. A superbly written piece of drama which managed to address all the pressing questions without stifling the characters (Lost writers, take note). A first act red herring worked a treat, while the ending was surprisingly (and pleasingly) ambiguous - as well as being fairly bittersweet. Ultimately, it's been the best thing on TV this year, along with the return of Doctor Who and the latest Louis Theroux documentary.
LISTENING TO: The radio. Haven't listened to any new music aside from the dross Radio 1 pumps out for a few weeks now, so I‘ve really got nothing to report. The only purchase I’d consider making at the moment is Underworld and John Murphy's score for Danny Boyle's Sunshine - or it would be if it had a release date. Come on, sort it out!
READING: I'm continuing to plough through A Man on The Moon (what? It's a big book and I'm a slow reader!) Still good stuff, brilliantly written and researched by Andrew Chaikin. Science is fun, kids. Check it out.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT…Mary Harron
As South Park’s toe-tapping ditty ‘Blame Canada’ proves, America’s northern neighbours are all-too-often given the raw end of the deal. Mocked by their flashier counterparts and mostly ignored by other nations, their effect on Western culture is actually fairly immense. They may be considered Americans now, but actors like Dan Ackroyd, Keanu Reeves and William Shatner were all born north of the border along with influential directors like James Cameron and David Cronenberg, who have both contributed to American culture, while at the same time commenting on it.
This week’s There’s Something About… also falls into that category. Mary Harron may not be particularly well known and has only made three films across her relatively short career, but she is a bold, brave and intelligent director, whose movies have all taken a fascinating and relevant peek into the troubled and turbulent times of late 20th Century America.
Her debut came in 1996 in the shape of I Shot Andy Warhol. A stylish biopic of militant feminist, SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) Manifesto writer and Andy Warhol assailant Valerie Solanis, the film neatly compares two of the most significant cultural movements of the late twentieth century and the two figures who embodied them.
On the one hand, we have Solanis (played with gritty charm by Lili Taylor), the deeply intelligent radical who attempted anything to put her message of female superiority across. On the other, there’s Warhol (a captivating Jarrad Harris), the gifted but somewhat callous artist, who often seems as superficial as the bitchy hangers-on who surround his infamous Factory workshop.
With his ‘famous for five minutes’ prediction and soup can paintings, Warhol, of course, was the one who ultimately found long-lasting success, but Harron’s film attempts to redress the balance. Far from being the crackpot mentalist her later actions and subsequent incarceration would suggest, Harron shows Solanis was a pioneer of the feminist movement, one who, with a little more planning and support, could have been as well known as Emmeline Pankhurst or Germaine Greer.
By finding the humanity behind such a controversial and misunderstood figure, you’d expect Harron to be pigeonholed as a feminist filmmaker. However, with her second effort she defied stereotypes and took on Bret Easton Ellis’ supposedly misogynistic novel American Psycho, in which businessman Patrick Bateman goes on a murderous rampage through 1980s New York. (NB: for the purposes of this article, we’re accepting that the murders actually happened. Like the book, the film keeps the truth ambiguous.)
Together with co-writer Guinevere Turner, Harron toned down much of the extreme violence of the novel, meaning that some of Ellis’ finer moral points about the media’s reporting of serial killers are lost. What remains though is a cutting and sharply funny satire of yuppie America which is only now starting to gain the kind of respect it deserved upon release in 2000.
An emasculated little boy, desperately seeking power and void of any personality of his own, Bateman is portrayed as the ultimate 80s man, lost in a sea of faceless drones and reduced to murderous rampages in a bid etch out some kind of identity for himself.
Sadly for poor old Paddy, it doesn’t work. He may be the one killing and maiming innocents, but society is just as degenerate and refuses to believe or even acknowledge the killings. When he confesses to his lawyer, it’s laughed off as a joke and when he claims to be into ‘murders and executions’, his words are misunderstood and heard as ‘mergers and acquisitions’.
Most disturbing is the brilliantly captured moment when he returns to the scene of one of his crimes. Rather than finding a carved-up body and blood-spattered walls, he is presented with a freshly decorated, clean apartment complete an estate agent who ushers him out hurriedly so she can make the sale. It’s blackly comic brilliance, loaded with menace, and the fact that it works so well is mostly down to lead Christian Bale, whose casting Harron had to fight tooth and nail for.
While the studio wanted a Leonardo Di Caprio who was still hot off the success of Romeo and Juliet and Titanic, Harron demanded Bale, even quitting the project when it looked like the studio would win out. Thankfully, she got her way and the decision to cast the then relatively unknown actor works a treat as his turn is a masterpiece of macabre pantomime in which he keeps the character undeniably unhinged, but frighteningly real.
Six years later, Harron followed up this stroke of genius with another bold move: hiring Gretchen Mol to play the eponymous heroine of The Notorious Bettie Page. Telling the story of the 50s pin-up girl/bondage queen/latter day kitsch icon during her modelling year only, the film is a nostalgic trip through a long-dead America which posits Page not as an exploited victim or even feminist pioneer (as many have claimed), but a somewhat naïve innocent, who grasps and is comfortable with the idea of nudity, but perhaps doesn’t understand how the pictures that were taken of her would be used.
Mol, who fell off the radar somewhat after Vanity Fair hailed her as the next big thing in 1998, brings suitable mystery to the character, grounding the occasionally too-lightweight script in a necessary sense of realism and nailing Bettie‘s cute facial expressions and girl next door charm. Wonderful support is found in the shape of the returning Harris and Taylor, but what ultimately makes the film fly is Harron and her sublime use of colour.
For Bettie’s time in the sexually-repressed New York during her bondage shoots, Harron uses dusty black and white. Realistic but claustrophobic, it is contrasted sharply with the explosion of glorious Technicolor which is used to denote the freedom Page felt on the beaches of Miami during her lighter pin-up sessions for photographer Bunny Yeager. It’s such a simple, almost obvious, idea, but it tells you so much more about Page visually than could be put across through words.
Sadly, the film was overlooked upon release last August, thanks mainly to Harron’s refusal to provide pat answers to Page’s mysterious life (she is currently a recluse). But the model is used here mostly as a cipher to investigate wider issues of sexuality, repression and civil liberties and with Janet Jackson’s nip-slip a few years ago still influencing what can and cannot be shown on US TV, such subtext ensures that the film, like all of Harron's work, is a revealing and all-too-relevant window into today’s America.
As South Park’s toe-tapping ditty ‘Blame Canada’ proves, America’s northern neighbours are all-too-often given the raw end of the deal. Mocked by their flashier counterparts and mostly ignored by other nations, their effect on Western culture is actually fairly immense. They may be considered Americans now, but actors like Dan Ackroyd, Keanu Reeves and William Shatner were all born north of the border along with influential directors like James Cameron and David Cronenberg, who have both contributed to American culture, while at the same time commenting on it.
This week’s There’s Something About… also falls into that category. Mary Harron may not be particularly well known and has only made three films across her relatively short career, but she is a bold, brave and intelligent director, whose movies have all taken a fascinating and relevant peek into the troubled and turbulent times of late 20th Century America.
Her debut came in 1996 in the shape of I Shot Andy Warhol. A stylish biopic of militant feminist, SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) Manifesto writer and Andy Warhol assailant Valerie Solanis, the film neatly compares two of the most significant cultural movements of the late twentieth century and the two figures who embodied them.
On the one hand, we have Solanis (played with gritty charm by Lili Taylor), the deeply intelligent radical who attempted anything to put her message of female superiority across. On the other, there’s Warhol (a captivating Jarrad Harris), the gifted but somewhat callous artist, who often seems as superficial as the bitchy hangers-on who surround his infamous Factory workshop.
With his ‘famous for five minutes’ prediction and soup can paintings, Warhol, of course, was the one who ultimately found long-lasting success, but Harron’s film attempts to redress the balance. Far from being the crackpot mentalist her later actions and subsequent incarceration would suggest, Harron shows Solanis was a pioneer of the feminist movement, one who, with a little more planning and support, could have been as well known as Emmeline Pankhurst or Germaine Greer.
By finding the humanity behind such a controversial and misunderstood figure, you’d expect Harron to be pigeonholed as a feminist filmmaker. However, with her second effort she defied stereotypes and took on Bret Easton Ellis’ supposedly misogynistic novel American Psycho, in which businessman Patrick Bateman goes on a murderous rampage through 1980s New York. (NB: for the purposes of this article, we’re accepting that the murders actually happened. Like the book, the film keeps the truth ambiguous.)
Together with co-writer Guinevere Turner, Harron toned down much of the extreme violence of the novel, meaning that some of Ellis’ finer moral points about the media’s reporting of serial killers are lost. What remains though is a cutting and sharply funny satire of yuppie America which is only now starting to gain the kind of respect it deserved upon release in 2000.
An emasculated little boy, desperately seeking power and void of any personality of his own, Bateman is portrayed as the ultimate 80s man, lost in a sea of faceless drones and reduced to murderous rampages in a bid etch out some kind of identity for himself.
Sadly for poor old Paddy, it doesn’t work. He may be the one killing and maiming innocents, but society is just as degenerate and refuses to believe or even acknowledge the killings. When he confesses to his lawyer, it’s laughed off as a joke and when he claims to be into ‘murders and executions’, his words are misunderstood and heard as ‘mergers and acquisitions’.
Most disturbing is the brilliantly captured moment when he returns to the scene of one of his crimes. Rather than finding a carved-up body and blood-spattered walls, he is presented with a freshly decorated, clean apartment complete an estate agent who ushers him out hurriedly so she can make the sale. It’s blackly comic brilliance, loaded with menace, and the fact that it works so well is mostly down to lead Christian Bale, whose casting Harron had to fight tooth and nail for.
While the studio wanted a Leonardo Di Caprio who was still hot off the success of Romeo and Juliet and Titanic, Harron demanded Bale, even quitting the project when it looked like the studio would win out. Thankfully, she got her way and the decision to cast the then relatively unknown actor works a treat as his turn is a masterpiece of macabre pantomime in which he keeps the character undeniably unhinged, but frighteningly real.
Six years later, Harron followed up this stroke of genius with another bold move: hiring Gretchen Mol to play the eponymous heroine of The Notorious Bettie Page. Telling the story of the 50s pin-up girl/bondage queen/latter day kitsch icon during her modelling year only, the film is a nostalgic trip through a long-dead America which posits Page not as an exploited victim or even feminist pioneer (as many have claimed), but a somewhat naïve innocent, who grasps and is comfortable with the idea of nudity, but perhaps doesn’t understand how the pictures that were taken of her would be used.
Mol, who fell off the radar somewhat after Vanity Fair hailed her as the next big thing in 1998, brings suitable mystery to the character, grounding the occasionally too-lightweight script in a necessary sense of realism and nailing Bettie‘s cute facial expressions and girl next door charm. Wonderful support is found in the shape of the returning Harris and Taylor, but what ultimately makes the film fly is Harron and her sublime use of colour.
For Bettie’s time in the sexually-repressed New York during her bondage shoots, Harron uses dusty black and white. Realistic but claustrophobic, it is contrasted sharply with the explosion of glorious Technicolor which is used to denote the freedom Page felt on the beaches of Miami during her lighter pin-up sessions for photographer Bunny Yeager. It’s such a simple, almost obvious, idea, but it tells you so much more about Page visually than could be put across through words.
Sadly, the film was overlooked upon release last August, thanks mainly to Harron’s refusal to provide pat answers to Page’s mysterious life (she is currently a recluse). But the model is used here mostly as a cipher to investigate wider issues of sexuality, repression and civil liberties and with Janet Jackson’s nip-slip a few years ago still influencing what can and cannot be shown on US TV, such subtext ensures that the film, like all of Harron's work, is a revealing and all-too-relevant window into today’s America.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
TOP TEN ANIMATED FILMS...
THE WRITER'S LIST
1. Bambi
It may be infamous for its haunting death scene, but Bambi is at the top of this list mostly for its animation. Long before CGI sauntered in and gave everything a somewhat unnatural sheen, director David Hand and his team of animators created a stunning, hand-drawn, look at cutesy animals that hasn‘t been bettered since. The opening, in which the camera pans across a beautifully hand-painted forest, is a gorgeous example of Disney at its very best.
2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Yes, it may only be part-animated, but Robert Zemeckis’ zany trip through Toon Town is a triumph of technical achievement, which is also steeped in cartoon history. Betty Boo has a melancholic appearance in a club, while Bugs Bunny is seen parachuting with Mickey Mouse in one of the film’s most memorable sequences. The corking, film noir-informed plot, only adds to its brilliance.
3. Toy Story
Pixar are the company that really began the current boom in computer generated animation and, despite some fine efforts from other studios, they are the only ones to repeatedly produce brilliance. Picking the best of the bunch then is difficult, but while the likes of Monster‘s Inc, Cars and The Incredibles are all superb, it‘s this first effort (and, to a slightly lesser extent, its sequel) that still shines the brightest. John Lasseter’s ‘toys come to life’ tale is simple but brilliant and touches upon the big themes of friendship and mortality in a way most modern animations can only dream about.
4. The Iron Giant
One of the last great hurrahs of traditional animation, Brad Bird’s adaptation of Ted Hughes’ short story retains all the original’s subtext, but infuses it with a modern sensibility so it still applies to today’s youth. The fact that it’s pretty much all hand drawn (with only a few computer-powered embellishments here and there) simply adds to its poignancy and shows 2-D animation still has a place in our CG-drenched world.
5. The Nightmare Before Christmas
Even to this day, the baffled TV networks seem confused as to when it’s best to schedule NBX: Halloween or Christmas. Of course, the festive period is always a good time to watch this tale of Jack Skellington’s commandeering of December 25th, but Tim Burton’s magical story and some stunning animation from stop-motion master Henry Selick mean that it’s universal enough to be enjoyed at any time of the year.
6. Grave of the Fireflies
This heartbreaking tale of two children trying to survive in wartime Japan is certainly not for sensitive kids. Dark, complex and incredibly upsetting at times, it does away with the magical escapism often associated with Studio Ghibli films, in favour downbeat realism and an ending which is by far the most tragic the animated medium has ever produced.
7. Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers
It may only be a short, but The Wrong Trousers is brimming with wit and ideas. From villainous penguin Feathers McGraw disguising himself as a chicken via the cunning use of a rubber glove, to the thrilling train set chase which brings our disunited heroes back together, Nick Park’s film boasts an imagination and sense of love missing from the cookie-cutter world of modern animation.
8. Kiki’s Delivery Service
Many would opt for Spirited Away from Hayao Miyazaki’s impressive oeuvre, but I’m going for this intimate tale of a young witch. The Japanese maestro can do epics such as Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle like no-one else, but the smaller, more low key stories are when he really shines and this one is the pick of the bunch, with our young heroine coming of age in a sweet, simple story that also stars a talking cat. What more do you need?
9. Finding Nemo
Pixar’s fifth effort marks the point at which CG animation really matured. Along with human skin, water had always been the most difficult thing to reproduce with pixels, but directors Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich make it look easy with some lush deep sea visuals in this tale of a fishy father looking for his lost son. Throw in some great set-pieces, vegetarian sharks and, in Ellen DeGeneres’ forgetful Dory, one of the best characters Pixar have ever created and you have a real classic.
10. South Park: The Movie
As someone who was never really into the TV series, I was pleasantly surprised by the South Park movie. Sharply satirical, it also has some surprisingly toe-tapping musical numbers, including the barnstorming Blame Canada. Trey Parker and Matt Stone came nowhere near matching it with their funny but rather hollow Team America: World Police.
THE EDITOR'S LIST
1. Spirited Away
The film that introduced me (as it did for many others I assume) to the world of Studio Ghibli, Spirited Away is still the one I keep coming back to despite the amazing other works of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. With an amazing story, delightful score and some sumptuous visuals (most memorably the train seemingly gliding across the water) Spirited Away is the most complete of all the Ghibli films.
2. Transformers: The Movie
A real nostalgia choice here, but I seriously cannot imagine too many other kids' cartoon movies having the sheer drama, excitement and emotional impact of Transformers. With the biggest battle imaginable at the start, plus the shock death of Optimus Prime, plus the voice talents of people like Orson Welles (seriously), Leonard Nimoy, Scatman Crothers and Eric Idle, it's got everything. It's got The Touch...
3. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs
The original Disney movie and still the classic by which all others are judged, and really by which all animated films are judged. It's very old-fashioned and of its time, but the songs are great, the story is timeless and the animation is excellent. Considering it was known as "Disney's Folly" while in production, it's pretty obvious who had the last laugh.
4. Fantasia
Ground-breaking in so many ways, Fantasia not only eschewed a traditional storyline, but it also introduced stereophonic sound and to this day is probably the first real classical music that children are exposed to. It has had its critics, not least Pauline Kael and some classical purists, but there's just nothing like it out there and you really can't imagine modern day Disney (or any other major studio) doing anything this adventurous can you?
5. South Park: The Movie
South Park was funny before the movie came out, but it was still a fairly basic comedy that relied on offensive humour without really making a point of it. The Movie however, was a instant triumph, using its license to swear like never before, making for a hilarious film that also had a strong anti-censorship message. Buoyed by its success, Trey Parker and Matt Stone went on to really thrive with the vastly-improved TV series, even if its popularity over here was hit by some bizarre scheduling...
6. Pinocchio
Classic early Disney, Pinocchio is one of the darkest of their films, but also one of the most magical and enduring. When You Wish Upon A Star is the all-time best Disney song, perfectly summing up the innocent appeal of it, even now that its such a cynical gigantic behemoth of a company. The mixture of light and dark is perfectly judged and it's almost impossible not to enjoy.
7. Laputa Castle In The Sky
Not as famous as some of the other Miyazaki movies, Laputa is nevertheless one of the best. It starts off as a fairly routine adventure story with action and chase scenes, but like most Ghibli films there is an ecological and pacifist message behind it all that becomes clear as it reaches its climax. The visuals are stunning and Joe Hisaishi's score is typically lovely.
8. Belleville Rendezvous
It came out at a time when Spirited Away had revitalised animation at the cinemas, and Belleville did a lot better because of it. Some of the anti-American jibes are a bit much, but Sylvain Chomet's fairly surreal tale is still very entertaining and at times affecting even though the overall tone is fairly satirical and bizarre. Endlessly creative and entertaining, it's a modern classic.
9. Dumbo
The most emotional of all the Disney films. Bambi might have the death of his mother, but when Dumbo is separated from his mum at the circus, it takes a heart of stone not be upset by it. A tale of the plucky underdog and hopeless outsider, this flying elephant is the most appealing of all of Disney's heroes. With the legendary 'drunk' scene counting amongst the most surreal of all of the House of Mouse's musical numbers, Dumbo really does fly.
10. The Flight Of The Dragons
Another personal choice, this Rankin and Bass movie from the early 80s was never particularly acclaimed or particularly famous, but is one that seems to have touched those who have managed to see it, as it has an impressive 7.7/10 rating on IMDB. The late John Ritter stars as a writer who goes back in time to an era when dragons fly and the worlds of science and magic are coming into conflict. It's never been on DVD, so you'll struggle to find it, but it's well worth searching for the VHS...
THE WRITER'S LIST
1. Bambi
It may be infamous for its haunting death scene, but Bambi is at the top of this list mostly for its animation. Long before CGI sauntered in and gave everything a somewhat unnatural sheen, director David Hand and his team of animators created a stunning, hand-drawn, look at cutesy animals that hasn‘t been bettered since. The opening, in which the camera pans across a beautifully hand-painted forest, is a gorgeous example of Disney at its very best.
2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Yes, it may only be part-animated, but Robert Zemeckis’ zany trip through Toon Town is a triumph of technical achievement, which is also steeped in cartoon history. Betty Boo has a melancholic appearance in a club, while Bugs Bunny is seen parachuting with Mickey Mouse in one of the film’s most memorable sequences. The corking, film noir-informed plot, only adds to its brilliance.
3. Toy Story
Pixar are the company that really began the current boom in computer generated animation and, despite some fine efforts from other studios, they are the only ones to repeatedly produce brilliance. Picking the best of the bunch then is difficult, but while the likes of Monster‘s Inc, Cars and The Incredibles are all superb, it‘s this first effort (and, to a slightly lesser extent, its sequel) that still shines the brightest. John Lasseter’s ‘toys come to life’ tale is simple but brilliant and touches upon the big themes of friendship and mortality in a way most modern animations can only dream about.
4. The Iron Giant
One of the last great hurrahs of traditional animation, Brad Bird’s adaptation of Ted Hughes’ short story retains all the original’s subtext, but infuses it with a modern sensibility so it still applies to today’s youth. The fact that it’s pretty much all hand drawn (with only a few computer-powered embellishments here and there) simply adds to its poignancy and shows 2-D animation still has a place in our CG-drenched world.
5. The Nightmare Before Christmas
Even to this day, the baffled TV networks seem confused as to when it’s best to schedule NBX: Halloween or Christmas. Of course, the festive period is always a good time to watch this tale of Jack Skellington’s commandeering of December 25th, but Tim Burton’s magical story and some stunning animation from stop-motion master Henry Selick mean that it’s universal enough to be enjoyed at any time of the year.
6. Grave of the Fireflies
This heartbreaking tale of two children trying to survive in wartime Japan is certainly not for sensitive kids. Dark, complex and incredibly upsetting at times, it does away with the magical escapism often associated with Studio Ghibli films, in favour downbeat realism and an ending which is by far the most tragic the animated medium has ever produced.
7. Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers
It may only be a short, but The Wrong Trousers is brimming with wit and ideas. From villainous penguin Feathers McGraw disguising himself as a chicken via the cunning use of a rubber glove, to the thrilling train set chase which brings our disunited heroes back together, Nick Park’s film boasts an imagination and sense of love missing from the cookie-cutter world of modern animation.
8. Kiki’s Delivery Service
Many would opt for Spirited Away from Hayao Miyazaki’s impressive oeuvre, but I’m going for this intimate tale of a young witch. The Japanese maestro can do epics such as Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle like no-one else, but the smaller, more low key stories are when he really shines and this one is the pick of the bunch, with our young heroine coming of age in a sweet, simple story that also stars a talking cat. What more do you need?
9. Finding Nemo
Pixar’s fifth effort marks the point at which CG animation really matured. Along with human skin, water had always been the most difficult thing to reproduce with pixels, but directors Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich make it look easy with some lush deep sea visuals in this tale of a fishy father looking for his lost son. Throw in some great set-pieces, vegetarian sharks and, in Ellen DeGeneres’ forgetful Dory, one of the best characters Pixar have ever created and you have a real classic.
10. South Park: The Movie
As someone who was never really into the TV series, I was pleasantly surprised by the South Park movie. Sharply satirical, it also has some surprisingly toe-tapping musical numbers, including the barnstorming Blame Canada. Trey Parker and Matt Stone came nowhere near matching it with their funny but rather hollow Team America: World Police.
THE EDITOR'S LIST
1. Spirited Away
The film that introduced me (as it did for many others I assume) to the world of Studio Ghibli, Spirited Away is still the one I keep coming back to despite the amazing other works of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. With an amazing story, delightful score and some sumptuous visuals (most memorably the train seemingly gliding across the water) Spirited Away is the most complete of all the Ghibli films.
2. Transformers: The Movie
A real nostalgia choice here, but I seriously cannot imagine too many other kids' cartoon movies having the sheer drama, excitement and emotional impact of Transformers. With the biggest battle imaginable at the start, plus the shock death of Optimus Prime, plus the voice talents of people like Orson Welles (seriously), Leonard Nimoy, Scatman Crothers and Eric Idle, it's got everything. It's got The Touch...
3. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs
The original Disney movie and still the classic by which all others are judged, and really by which all animated films are judged. It's very old-fashioned and of its time, but the songs are great, the story is timeless and the animation is excellent. Considering it was known as "Disney's Folly" while in production, it's pretty obvious who had the last laugh.
4. Fantasia
Ground-breaking in so many ways, Fantasia not only eschewed a traditional storyline, but it also introduced stereophonic sound and to this day is probably the first real classical music that children are exposed to. It has had its critics, not least Pauline Kael and some classical purists, but there's just nothing like it out there and you really can't imagine modern day Disney (or any other major studio) doing anything this adventurous can you?
5. South Park: The Movie
South Park was funny before the movie came out, but it was still a fairly basic comedy that relied on offensive humour without really making a point of it. The Movie however, was a instant triumph, using its license to swear like never before, making for a hilarious film that also had a strong anti-censorship message. Buoyed by its success, Trey Parker and Matt Stone went on to really thrive with the vastly-improved TV series, even if its popularity over here was hit by some bizarre scheduling...
6. Pinocchio
Classic early Disney, Pinocchio is one of the darkest of their films, but also one of the most magical and enduring. When You Wish Upon A Star is the all-time best Disney song, perfectly summing up the innocent appeal of it, even now that its such a cynical gigantic behemoth of a company. The mixture of light and dark is perfectly judged and it's almost impossible not to enjoy.
7. Laputa Castle In The Sky
Not as famous as some of the other Miyazaki movies, Laputa is nevertheless one of the best. It starts off as a fairly routine adventure story with action and chase scenes, but like most Ghibli films there is an ecological and pacifist message behind it all that becomes clear as it reaches its climax. The visuals are stunning and Joe Hisaishi's score is typically lovely.
8. Belleville Rendezvous
It came out at a time when Spirited Away had revitalised animation at the cinemas, and Belleville did a lot better because of it. Some of the anti-American jibes are a bit much, but Sylvain Chomet's fairly surreal tale is still very entertaining and at times affecting even though the overall tone is fairly satirical and bizarre. Endlessly creative and entertaining, it's a modern classic.
9. Dumbo
The most emotional of all the Disney films. Bambi might have the death of his mother, but when Dumbo is separated from his mum at the circus, it takes a heart of stone not be upset by it. A tale of the plucky underdog and hopeless outsider, this flying elephant is the most appealing of all of Disney's heroes. With the legendary 'drunk' scene counting amongst the most surreal of all of the House of Mouse's musical numbers, Dumbo really does fly.
10. The Flight Of The Dragons
Another personal choice, this Rankin and Bass movie from the early 80s was never particularly acclaimed or particularly famous, but is one that seems to have touched those who have managed to see it, as it has an impressive 7.7/10 rating on IMDB. The late John Ritter stars as a writer who goes back in time to an era when dragons fly and the worlds of science and magic are coming into conflict. It's never been on DVD, so you'll struggle to find it, but it's well worth searching for the VHS...
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