you can't go out you are out of your mind

[arisha]

I watched my Treasure Planet DVD today and maybe this is a ridiculous thing to be sad about, but it bothers me that that movie did so badly at the box office and is so otherwise unloved. I mean, it's no great Disney classic (and B.E.N. is the only Disney character that I would be forced to strangle if I met him in real life), but it's far from terrible and I find Jim to be a really likeable character. So yeah. Sad face. :(

Or maybe the movie really is unlikeable and I am just blinded by the awesomeness that is John and Ron and Ted and Terry. Zomg, even with the box office mess that was this movie, I would love to have their careers. Any one of them. :X

the_wykydtron and I have talked briefly about this before, and I think we agreed, that the moment that really sells the movie is the "I'm Still Here" montage (wow, you really can find everything on YouTube!). The song itself is nothing special; it's the sort of radio-friendly angst you'd expect from the lead singer of the band that brought us "Iris." But ...

As people like to point out whenever I mention I like Disney movies (as if they are telling me something I never noticed before?), there's a whole whack of Disney protagonists who are missing parents. Most of the missing parents are dead and never mentioned (Simba's parents being an exception, Cassim being a retconned exception, and Quasimodo's mother being an exception although it still bothers me that she's apparently of a completely different race than he is???), and in the Treasure Island novel I believe Jim's father is dead, too. So I find it really interesting that in making Treasure Planet, they decided that Jim's father isn't dead, he just left them. And even though no explanation is ever given for why he left, I dunno, in a way I find this really stands out in the Disney canon as a realistic absence. If Jim's father was dead, it would be just your regular Disney backstory, it would be almost an expected part of the regular Disney fantasy. And no one would pay it any mind. But because Jim's father left it's like, oh wow. It makes the story a bit less Disney fantasy and a bit more real. I was going to write that it makes it more emotional, too, but no duh, if Jasmine's mother is never mentioned (watch me ignoring the fact that she is), it's not like we're going to cry about the fact that she's dead. ^^;

Maybe I shouldn't be so impressed by this, because the whole story is driven by Jim's father leaving him, and so they had to have him leave instead of die. But, still, man, I dunno. I am impressed by it. It's just one little break from the regular Disney formula but I think they did it so well and just that they did it at all is really interesting to me. And so my favourite part of the "I'm Still Here" montage (I wish it wasn't three a.m., then maybe someone would be here to stop me from watching this over and over again XD; ) is from when Silver's longboat drops away from the ship through the flashback to when he returns and calls for Jim to join him. Those thirty seconds make the movie for me, and they're what make me believe Jim's attachment to Silver. And that flashback is so dark, isn't it? That he immediately knows his father is leaving and that you see his mother crying, I dunno, those details somehow make this flashback seem to me a lot darker even than Simba's story, where he believes he killed his father. More than any of the fancy pants special effects in Treasure Planet, it's that one flashback that I am just so impressed by, wow. <3

Anyway, speaking of sad parts of Disney movies, here is something that now makes me say "awww" -- when I was in elementary school, not only did I always fastforward the part in Lion King where Mufasa dies, but I fastforwarded the "I Will Go Sailing No More" part of Toy Story. Way to be DEPRESSING, Disney!! Holy cow!

And speaking of Toy Story, I just now started a bookmarks folder for scholarly Disney articles and here is the first one I bookmarked: "Walt Disney's Toy Story as Postmodern Don Quixote." Awesome!! I look forward to reading it when it is not four in the morning. XD

Pretend there is a glorious segue here. Then allow me to present to you two clips from the scariest animated movie I have ever seen in my entire life: "Like a Movie" and "Worthless," both of them awesome awesome songs from The Brave Little Toaster. <3333

HOLY CRAP SOMEONE DID A KINGDOM HEARTS 2 VIDEO TO "LIKE A MOVIE"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA @ Sora's "it's much worse than I feared" XD!!

Ahaha, I don't even remember what I was going to say. Even though Brave Little Toaster scared me all to pieces when I was little (these two clips aren't the half of it -- there is a nightmare sequence that involves not only a house on fire, but also VERY SCARY CLOWNS!!!), I somehow grew up thinking of it fondly. I mean, it's definitely not the prettiest animation you'll ever see (my favourite is how the opening shot of the house looks like it was filmed by someone who forgot their tripod), but I find it really clever and surprisingly dark for a kid's movie. And in my opinion, the music is awesome. Even the background music is awesome. The piece that plays when Blanky is lost in the forest reminds me of the end of Escaflowne's "Chain" (and vice versa), and I would think that's a high compliment, since Escaflowne is usually acknowledged to have crazy amazing music. But oh man, the songs. I am really bad at writing positive reviews because I turn into such a gushing fangirl, ahahaha. But besides the music being really good (I love how each verse of "Worthless" gets a slightly different riff in the background), I absolutely think the lyrics are the best thing ever. It's like they're so simple but so secretly clever, and they get across the exact point that they're trying to make. "Worthless" is the best thing ever. Ahaha, did I tell you that the part I liked best in Cars was the part where I thought they were making a reference to "Worthless"? And then I realized that they weren't. _-_;

Man, I like these lyrics so much I am so totally willing to ignore their faulty grammar. "I once ran the Indy 500 / I must confess, I'm impressed that I did it / I wonder how close that I came / Now I get a sinking sensation / I was the top of the line, out of sight, out of mind / So much for fortune and fame." And that last line, "You're worthless." Man, with movies like this and Toy Story littering my childhood, it's small wonder I've grown up to be someone who has to consider for a month before she gets rid of even the tiniest belonging. x_x;;;

(Why does Wikipedia say that "Worthless" is a cover?? I am listening to this "Highwayman" song and sure, I can see "Worthless" being inspired by it, but a cover? They sound to me like completely different songs. What the heck!!)

And to finish off this entry about how much of a Disney animation fangirl I am, a witty quip. Last week I went to see Casino Royale with athena_crikey, and it was fine entertainment for a couple of hours, but it certainly didn't turn me into a James Bond fan. Afterwards, my mother asked how I liked it, and I said, "I don't think it was my kind of movie." She replied, "It wasn't animated?"

OH HA HA HA

XD XD XD XD XD XD XD <3