Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Posted on October 5, 2009 at 8:00 am

A-

Lowest Recommended Age:	All Ages
MPAA Rating:	G
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Some scary scenes, scary witch
Diversity Issues:	Passive female heroine dreams of being rescued by prince
Date Released to Theaters:	1937
Date Released to DVD:	February 2, 2016
Amazon.com ASIN:	B01711CIF0

Disney’s new Signature Collection release of its first animated feature film on Blu-Ray is gorgeously restored and filled with behind-the-scene extras and a wonderful opportunity to catch up with the one that is still “the fairest of them all.”

Snow White (voice of Adriana Caselotti) is a sweet girl whose step-mother, the Queen (voice of Lucille LaVerne), is vain and cruel. Snow White dreams of a prince to love, and meets the Prince of her dreams when she is fetching water for the castle. Meanwhile, each night, the Queen looks into a magic mirror and asks who is the fairest one of all. The mirror tells her that it is she, and she is satisfied. But one night, the mirror tells her that Snow White has become more fair, and the Queen, consumed with jealousy, tells her huntsman to take Snow White to the forest and kill her.

The tender-hearted huntsman cannot kill her and instead tells her to run away. Racing through the forest terrified, she collapses in tears. But she makes friends with the animals, who live in the woods and they lead her to a small cottage. Once inside, she cleans up the mess, singing “Whistle While You Work.” She thought, when she saw the small beds, that children lived in the house, but it turns out that it is the home of seven dwarfs, who work each day digging jewels from a mine.

When they come home, they are surprised to find her stretched out across their beds, sound asleep. But they soon make friends and are delighted to have her stay and take care of them.

Eventually, the Queen discovers that Snow White is still alive. The Queen makes a poisoned apple and turns herself into an old hag so she can deliver it to her. Snow White at first follows the dwarfs’ advice not to speak to strangers, but finally takes a bite of the apple and collapses. The Queen runs away and falls into a steep ravine.

The dwarfs are heartbroken and create a beautiful crystal bier for her to lie on. The prince discovers her there and gives her a kiss, which awakens her, whereupon he carries her off to live happily ever after.

Children used to today’s Disney stories may be surprised by a more passive heroine and by a score more classical than pop. But in addition to its historical value as the first animated feature, it is still a delight, with memorable songs and characters. It is hard to remember that before Disney the dwarfs in the Snow White story had no names and no individual characters. Sneezy, Sleepy, Grumpy, Dopey, Doc, Happy, and Bashful are all vivid characters, and their dance number with Snow White is a highlight.

This movie provides a good opportunity to discuss jealousy, and how to handle it. And, of course, it raises issues about women and beauty, about women’s role in the home, and about finding happiness only through dreams of “Someday My Prince Will Come.” Blended families are often sensitive about the traditional fairy tale villain being the “wicked stepmother,” and some children will need reassurance.

Extras in this edition include Disney’s own comments about the film and a feature about the influence of this groundbreaking animated feature, plus never-before-released storyboards of a deleted scene where the prince meets Snow White.

Talk to kids about how characters like Snow White might be different if they were created today, and make sure that they see a range of alternative role models. Note: The movie is very scary when Snow White is running through the forest (though reassuring when the animals turn out to be friendly) and when she bites the apple; the Queen is especially scary when she turns into the old hag. By today’s standards, Dopey might well be considered an insensitive stereotype of a developmentally disabled person.

Families who see this movie should discuss these questions: Why is the Queen jealous of Snow White? Why is being beautiful so important to her? Why did Snow White stay at the castle? Why did the huntsman disobey the Queen’s orders? Why did the dwarfs love Snow White so much?

Families who enjoy this movie should watch some of the other versions of the Snow White story, including the Faerie Tale Theatre production with Elizabeth McGovern.

Two ‘Toy Stories” in Three Dimensions!

Posted on October 2, 2009 at 8:00 am

In anticipation of the release of Toy Story 3 in 3D, Disney is issuing the first two as a 3D double feature. The original Toy Story was the first computer-animated feature film but what make it successful was its heartwarming story about rival toys, Woody the cowboy (voice of Tom Hanks) and astronaut Buzz Lightyear (voice of Tim Allen). The sequel, Toy Story 2 is even better, with a rescue story that is wise as well as funny and some touching insights about love and loss. Whether they are already family favorites or your children are just old enough to enjoy them for the first time, this double feature is worth a trip to the theater.

Three Movies Examine Our Struggle to Understand God

Posted on September 29, 2009 at 2:59 pm

Three new and very different movies have one thing in common — they all ask their characters and their audiences to think about the nature of God and faith. This week we have a perky romantic comedy with Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner called “The Invention of Lying.” As the title suggests, it is about a world in which everyone tells the literal, concrete truth all the time. And then one man figures out that he can lie, and that since no one else is aware that lies even exist, he can pretty much get away with everything. Since no one lies, everyone is completely gullible. So much is clear from the trailers. But Entertainment Weekly reports that there is a more controversial element to the film and that one of the “lies” the Gervais character comes up with is the idea of God.
Gervais, who also co-wrote and directed the film, has responded to concerns from bloggers.

1. No one has seen the film.

2. Even if the film suggests there is no God, it is a fictional world. One of my favourite films is ‘It’s a wonderful life’ and at no time am I offended by the suggestion in this wonderful work of fiction that there is a God.

3. If the film was not set in a fictional world and suggested there is no God then that’s fine too, as it is anyone’s right not to believe in God.

4. By suggesting there is no God you are not singling out Christianity.

5. Not believing in God cannot be blasphemous. Blasphemy is acknowledging a God to insult or offend etc.

6. Even if it was blasphemous, which it isn’t, then that’s OK too due to a little god I like called “freedom of speech.” That said, I am not trying to offend anyone. That would be a waste of such a privilege.

7. I am an atheist, but this is not atheist propaganda. When creating an imaginary world you have to make certain decisions. We decided also that there would be no surrealist art, no racism, no flattery, no fiction, no metaphor, and no supernatural. However, we decided that apart from that one “lying gene”, humans evolved with everything else as we have it today. Joy, hope, ambition, ruthlessness, greed, lust, anger, jealousy, sadness, and grief. It’s just a film. If any of the themes in it offend you or bore you, or just don’t make sense to you, you should put everything right when you make a film.

I really hope everyone enjoys the film and keeps an open mind. I believe in peace on Earth, and good will to all men. I do as I would be done by, and believe that forgiveness is one of the greatest virtues. I just don’t believe I will be rewarded for it in heaven. That’s all.

I have a different take, which I will discuss in my upcoming review.
Perhaps an even more unexpected place for a discussion of God and faith than a comedy is in Michael Moore’s latest documentary, “Capitalism: A Love Story.” Moore is well-known for his attacks on the Bush administration (“Farenheit 911”), insurance companies (“Sicko”), and our treatment of guns and violence (“Bowling for Columbine”). In this new film, he takes on the financial crisis. His argument turns out to be based not as much in economics as in his own Catholic faith. He even interviews the priest who performed his wedding ceremony to help make his point that the current system is not just bad policy; it is not WWJD. The media often creates the impression that faith-based politics are right-wing and it is provocative and refreshing to see a different point of view.
And then there is a movie that is going to be difficult to put in any category, because it is the new film from the Coen brothers, who are masters of genre — both evoking and transcending them. According to the New York Times, their new film “A Serious Man” “is both a Job-like parable of Jewish angst in a 1960s Midwestern suburb and a bleakly antic meditation on divine intent, the certainty of uncertainty and the mysteries of Jefferson Airplane lyrics.
The film’s central character is a scientist who seeks the advice of three rabbis to help him find meaning and purpose. That makes this film unusual in two respects — the portrayal of Jewish theology and the portrayal of clergy as a place to go for guidance.
And I am glad to see movies providing some guidance as well, by engaging us in very different ways about issues so profound and pervasive that it is only through a variety of approaches we can begin to understand what we believe.

The Wizard of Oz

Posted on September 29, 2009 at 8:00 am

The 70th anniversary of this all-time classic is being celebrated with a beautiful new DVD release, a great chance for the family to sit down and watch what is probably the all-time greatest family film again.
Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) lives in Kansas with her aunt and uncle and her dog, Toto. Mean Miss Gulch (Margaret Hamilton) swears she will have Toto taken away. Auntie Em and Uncle Henry support Dorothy, but they are too distracted by the coming tornado to pay much attention to her. Dorothy dreams of a place “over the rainbow” where everything is beautiful, “troubles melt like lemon drops” and “the dreams that you dream really do come true.” She starts to run away to protect Toto, but is sent back home by the kindly Professor Marvel (Frank Morgan), a traveling fortune-teller.

When the tornado arrives, Dorothy is outside the shelter. She goes to her room, where she is hit on the head by a piece of wood torn loose by the wind. The whole house rises, and is carried away by the tornado.

The house lands with a crash, and when she opens the door, she finds she has landed in the colorful world of Oz (the movie, black and white until this point, becomes technicolor). Her house has landed on the Wicked Witch of the East, killing her, and the tiny Munchkins celebrate Dorothy as a great heroine. Their friend Glinda the good witch (Billie Burke) arrives and gives her the Wicked Witch’s magic ruby slippers, just as the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) arrives to take them. The Wicked Witch of the East was her sister. Furious, she swears revenge. Dorothy wants to go home and is told to seek out the Wizard of Oz, who lives in the Emerald City, for help.

On the way to the Emerald City, she meets a talking Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) who wants a brain, a Tin Woodsman (Jack Haley) who longs for a heart, and a cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) who wants courage. They all join her, to seek the help of the Wizard. At the Emerald City, the Wizard at first refuses to see them, then finally tells them they must earn their wishes by bringing him the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West. They are captured by the Witch’s flying monkeys, and just as she is about to kill them, Dorothy douses her with water, trying to protect the Scarecrow from fire, and the witch melts.

They return to the Emerald City only to find that the Wizard cannot help them. He is a fraud, just “the man behind the curtain” whose terrifying displays of smoke and light hid a “humbug” who had no magical powers at all. But he is able to show the Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman, and Lion that they really did have what they were seeking all the time, and he promises to take Dorothy back to Kansas in his hot air balloon.

Toto jumps out of the balloon’s basket. Dorothy runs after him and misses the balloon launch. But, just as Dorothy despairs of ever going home, Glinda arrives and shows Dorothy that she had the means of getting home all the time. Back in Kansas, Dorothy wakes up to find her aunt and uncle, the farmhands, and Professor Marvel (who strongly resemble the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Lion, and Wizard), and tells them that “there’s no place like home.”

This movie is an ideal family film, superb in every aspect, with outstanding art direction, music, and performances. It is still as fresh and engrossing as it was in 1939, and improves with every viewing. If you ever have a chance to see it in on a big screen, in a theater with a good sound system, you will enjoy it even more.

It is hard to imagine what it would have been like with the original intended cast, including Shirley Temple as Dorothy and Buddy Ebsen as the Tin Woodsman. But 20th Century Fox would not loan its top star, and Ebsen was hospitalized when he inhaled the aluminum dust in the Tin Woodsman’s make-up. Judy Garland is a perfect Dorothy — vulnerable, sensitive, completely believable. On the brink of leaving childhood, her dreams of a place “over the rainbow” are in part a yearning to escape the concerns of adulthood.

There is something especially satisfying about the way that the main characters find what they need within themselves. Talk with children about the way that the Scarecrow demonstrates his intelligence, the Tin Woodman demonstrates his heart, and the Lion demonstrates his courage. Even the humbug Wizard finds that he had the means to go home all the time. Dorothy, who in the first part of the movie runs away from home to try to solve her problems, spends the rest of the movie trying to get back. Even if the story is just a dream (in the book, it is a real adventure), this makes a great deal of emotional sense, a way of working through her inner conflicts.

It is also worth talking about the scene in which Dorothy and her friends disregard the Wizard’s plea to “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” and discover that he is really just an ordinary man. This can be a touchstone or metaphor for many kinds of challenges children face. It can help them recognize that the overpowering figures in their lives (parents, teachers, adults, sports figures) are just imperfect human beings. And it can also help them recognize attempts, by themselves as well as others, to distract people in hopes of hiding our imperfection and vulnerability.

NOTE: There are a number of different scenes in this movie that may be scary for children. Many adults still remember the flying monkeys or Dorothy looking into the crystal ball and seeing her aunt turn into the witch. Parents should talk to children about the story before seeing the movie, and watch with them to gauge their reactions.

Monsters vs. Aliens

Posted on September 28, 2009 at 8:00 am

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	4th - 6th Grades
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language
Profanity:	Some crude schoolyard language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Action and cartoon violence, characters in peril, tension, lots of explosions, guns, apparent death of character
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	March 27, 2009
Date Released to DVD:	September 29, 2009
Amazon.com ASIN:	B001GCUO7A

An expert blend of silly fun, action that is mostly more exciting than scary, a few clever barbs, and some wow-worthy visuals make “Monsters vs. Aliens” the best family film in months.

“You’re glowing,” says the groom to his bride as they are about to be married.” And she is, but not in a good way. Exposed to a meteor just before the ceremony, Susan (voice of Reese Witherspoon) has a greenish glow. And then she starts to grow. Before she can say, “I do,” Susan is suddenly 50 feet tall. And before she can say, “How did I get to be 50 feet tall,” she is whisked away to a secret government compound for monsters where she quickly becomes a sort of house mother for a motley crew of assorted mutants, turning into a sort of cross between Alice in Wonderland in her giant mode, Snow White with the dwarfs, and Mary Ann with Gilligan, the Professor, and the gang.

Susan’s fellow monsters amusingly cover the full range of of B-movie monster origins. We have “The Fly”-style one mad scientist who became the victim of his own experiment with insects and turned into Dr. Cockroach, Phd (voice of “House’s” Hugh Laurie), one “Creature from the Black Lagoon”-style Missing Link thawed out of an arctic ice floe centuries after all others from his species had become extinct (voice of “Arrested Development’s” Will Arnett), and a giant bug (a la “Them” or “Mothra”). And then there is my favorite, Bicarbonate Ostylezene Benzoate, known as BOB (voice of Seth Rogan), a brainless but genial one-eyed gelatinous ooze along the lines of “The Blob.” These monsters are isolated as a matter of national security until an even bigger threat comes along. If you’ve heard the title, you know that it is aliens — or rather, one alien named Gallaxhar (voice of Rainn Wilson of “The Office”). He plans to take over earth. The monsters are the only hope of saving it.

It was filmed in digital 3D, in part an homage to the cheesy sci-fi films of the 50’s. It begins with the usual 3D trick as a bored technician plays paddleball and the ball on the elastic band seems to stop just short of our noses. But after that, the effects are more subtle and immersive. The animators have literally gone to unprecedented lengths — it almost feels as though we can touch objects that go back the length of a football field. The scenes are brilliantly designed to make the most of the 3D technology and the action scenes, particularly one on the Golden Gate Bridge, are as immediate and involving as any big summer explosion-fest. The story is fast-paced and funny, with many knowing references to classic sci-fi and a solid story of friendship and self-realization. The voices are all excellent, especially Stephen Colbert as the dim-witted President, Witherspoon’s Susan, who remains very real and human even after she becomes what the government christens Ginormica, and Laurie’s cockroach, who has the manners of a butler and the laugh of a mad scientist. And Wilson hits just the right note of petulance to keep the alien from being too menacing.

But the graphic character design is uneven. As with most animated films, the humans are often stiff and artificial. The big bug, the cockroach, and the Link are not particularly engaging. BOB, however, is simply sensational. Rogan’s husky voice and unabashed cheery laugh is a perfect match for the animated marvel of a big blue gooey thing that is endlessly pliant and effortlessly resilient. More than any other part of the movie, this charmingly silly little character shows what this technology is capable of, when the script has a great character to put on screen. In the battle between monsters and aliens, it is this little blue monster who saves the day.