Fantasia

Posted on December 6, 2010 at 7:00 am

A+
Lowest Recommended Age: All Ages
MPAA Rating: G
Profanity: None
Alcohol/ Drugs: None
Violence/ Scariness: Some scary images
Diversity Issues: None (15-second segment removed from the original film in the 1960's for racist imagery)
Date Released to Theaters: 1940
Date Released to DVD: December 7, 2010
Amazon.com ASIN: B0040QTNSK
Fantasia-2000-Blu-ray.jpg

Disney’s glorious “Fantasia” and its sequel, “Fantasia 2000” are out for a limited time in a spectacular 4-DVD blu-ray package.

Considered a failure on its original release, “Fantasia’s” eight-part combination of images and music is now indisputably a classic. Musicologist Deems Taylor explains that there are three kinds of music: music that paints a picture, music that tells a story, and “absolute music,” or music for music’s sake, and then shows us all three. Highlights include Mickey Mouse as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, whose plan to save himself from a little work by enchanting a broom to carry the buckets of water gets out of control, the Nutcracker Suite’s forest moving from fall into winter (with the adorable mushroom doing the Chinese Dance), Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, with characters from Greek mythology celebrating at a festival and seeking shelter from a storm, and the Dance of the Hours, with ostrich and hippo ballerinas dancing with gallant (if overburdened) crocodiles.

It concludes with the scary Night on Bald Mountain followed by the dawn’s Ave Maria. The movie is perfect for blu-ray — it’s as though we can finally see the colors the way the artists could only dream of. The flying Pegasus family soars through the sky, the thistles kick like Cossacks to the Russian dance, the dinosaurs lumber to the Rite of Spring. This is one of the greatest movies in cinematic history, groundbreaking and timeless.

destino_dalidisney.jpg

And there’s more. Disney planned another musical segment designed by famous surrealist artist Salvador Dali, who came out to the Disney studio for eight months to work on it. But it was canceled due to financial setbacks at the company at the time, and Disney always regretted that it was not completed. It has become a legend, much speculated about and sought after. This splendid set includes Destino, with Roy Disney at long last completing Dali’s original vision, 58 years after he began it.

Roy Disney also supervised “Fantasia 2000,” the sequel, which includes a charming Al Hirschfeld-inspired Manhattan saga set to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and a wildly funny flamingo/yo-yo mix-up (more like a pile-up) to the music of Saint-Seans.

Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 is a genuine family treasure, guaranteed to inspire and entertain all ages. Grab it while you can.

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Animation Classic DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week Fantasy For the Whole Family For Your Netflix Queue Movie Mom’s Top Picks for Families Music Musical Series/Sequel

Washington Area Film Critic Nominations

Posted on December 4, 2010 at 11:53 pm

The Washington Area Film Critics are proud to announce the nominees for our 2010 awards. Stay tuned — the winners will be announced Monday morning on the Punch Drunk Critics podcast.
Best Film:
Black Swan
Inception
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
Best Director:
Daren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
Danny Boyle (127 Hours)
Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Christopher Nolan (Inception)
Best Actor:
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
Robert Duvall (Get Low)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)
Best Actress:
Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
Anne Hathaway (Love & Other Drugs)
Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Best Supporting Actor:
Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Andrew Garfield (The Social Network)
John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone)
Sam Rockwell (Conviction)
Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech)
Best Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech)
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)
Best Acting Ensemble:
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The Social Network
The Town
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy (127 Hours)
Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)
Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3)
Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)
Debra Granik and Anne Rossellini (Winter’s Bone)
Best Original Screenplay:
Mike Leigh (Another Year)
Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin (Black Swan)
Christopher Nolan (Inception)
Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right)
David Seidler (The King’s Speech)
Best Animated Feature:
Despicable Me
How to Train Your Dragon
Megamind
Tangled
Toy Story 3
Best Documentary:
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Inside Job
Restrepo
The Tillman Story
Waiting for ‘Superman’
Best Foreign Language Film:
Biutiful
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I Am Love
Mother
White Material
Best Art Direction:
Alice in Wonderland
Black Swan
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Inception
True Grit
Best Cinematography:
Black Swan
Inception
127 Hours
The Social Network
True Grit
Best Score:
Black Swan
Inception
127 Hours
The Social Network
True Grit

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Awards
Twelve Great Christmas Movies That Don’t Feature Clarence the Angel, Bing Crosby, Tiny Tim, or a Leg Lamp

Twelve Great Christmas Movies That Don’t Feature Clarence the Angel, Bing Crosby, Tiny Tim, or a Leg Lamp

Posted on December 3, 2010 at 3:59 pm

Reprising from 2007:

I love It’s a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, and A Christmas Story as much as anyone. I love the bittersweet struggles of George Bailey and never get tired of seeing him try to resist falling in love with Mary when they’re on that phone call to Sam “Hee Haw!” Wainwright. I love the way Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as Wallace and Davis preserve the old general’s pride when they help him keep the resort going. And I love the way that Ralphie and his family find that Christmas is not about neatly wrapped gifts and perfectly harmonized carols or even a turkey dinner. That last scene, when they all laugh, knowing that this will be one of their best Christmas memories ever, is one of my favorite moments in any film I’ve ever seen. I’ve already written about how much I love every version of A Christmas Carol.

So, let’s assume you’ve seen all those already this year and are looking for something else. Here’s a list with one for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas. And I’d love to hear about your favorites, too.


(From #6, Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Plus Halloween & Easter Celebrations)

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For Your Netflix Queue Holidays Lists Movie Mom’s Top Picks for Families Rediscovered Classic Spiritual films

Jewish Film Festival 2010 — Washington DC

Posted on December 1, 2010 at 10:33 pm

This year’s Washington Jewish Film Festival has an outstanding schedule, once again celebrating the “incredible diversity of Jewish life, culture and history through innovative film and invigorating programs.” I am always inspired by the scope and quality of the films in this festival, a combination of documentaries, feature films from Israel, the US, Argentina, Germany, the UK, and more, and re-discoveries, including the only appearance on film by legendary Yiddish theater star Boris Thomashefsky in a comedy with a “My Favorite Wife”-style plot called Bar Mitzvah and the rarely shown film noir Force of Evil, starring John Garfield from blacklisted director/screenwriter Abraham Polonsky. The festival will also have the premiere of The Debt, with Helen Mirren and “Avatar’s” Sam Worthington as Mossad agents who tracked down a Nazi war criminal.

This year, I am also especially looking forward to a new documentary about writer/activist (and my college professor) Grace Paley, Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, The Infidel, a satire about a Muslim who learns he was born Jewish, and Coffee — Between Reality and Imagination, a collection of short films by of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers to create a program of short films inspired by the common theme of the universal beverage.

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Festivals Spiritual films
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