Posts

Showing posts from December 4, 2011

1950s Hymnalogues

Image
I've never heard of a hymnalogue before, but apparently back in the stupid ages, these were sing-a-long video recordings with words superimposed over them. I had an opportunity to subject myself to a pair of these, one for "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and the other for "O Come All Ye Faithful." To call these uninspired feels like an understatement. These are black holes in which inspiration is sucked then never seen again. They're vapid, boring, and pointless videos. Hey, geniuses in the 50's: you know what the advantage is of video? That it allows things to MOVE. So, next time, why not recording something that isn't standing still. Just a thought. The audio recordings weren't bad, but neither were they impressive. Just generic, uninteresting versions of the songs. Don't believe me? Have a look for yourself. I can't find a video of Bethlehem, but here's O Come All Ye Faithful, for your viewing "enjoyment."

Bad Santa (2003)

Image
I've never seen this movie before this year, despite the parallels in tone with this blog. Going in, I was aware the movie was based on the theory that having Billy Bob Thornton drinking and swearing while wearing a Santa suit would somehow equal comedy gold. That they somehow managed to prove this theory is kind of amazing. This thing is very well made and does a good job knowing precisely how far it can go without actually crossing the wrong line. The movie wants to create the illusion it has no limits or sense of decency, but that's not the case. The lead character never really does anyone any actual harm (well, at least not where we have to see the consequences), which prevents the audience from having to confront any dark truths, save the requisite criticism of consumerism. I'm no fan of gross-out humor (in fact, it repulses me), but nothing in here bothered me. I remember seeing the trailers and thinking this would be a dark comedy, but it isn't; not really.

144 Days of Christmas

Image
I've been listening to a lot of Christmas music recently, and reflecting on the difficulty of The Twelve Days of Christmas . It's a long song, and while it can be fun to sing counting songs like this one, it can be dreadfully boring to listen to them. Hence why most successful recorded versions of 12 Days include jokes, asides, or other little tricks to keep your interest. I'm going to provide a bunch of decent versions of the song below, let's see if I can get to Twelve. 1: The Muppets and John Denver Here you can see some classic tricks: different voices on each verse, some humorous asides, including Fozzie forgetting his lyrics. They actually redid this version almost moment for moment with Jimmy Fallon a few years ago, but the internet does not seem to want to provide me with the video of that. 2: Straight No Chaser This a cappella group does a really fun medley mashing up 12 Days with a ton of other holiday and non-holiday tunes. The hu

Christmas Comes but Once a Year (1936)

Image
I know I've seen this eight minute short from Fleischer Studios before. It's relatively simple in concept: a bunch of orphans' Christmas is ruined until Grampy (one of Fleischer's reoccurring characters) breaks into their kitchen, transforms a bunch of stuff into toys, then disguises himself as Santa Claus to hand out the gifts. It's a simple concept, but the execution was ahead of its time. Like Grampy, Fleischer Studios invented some tricks of their own. Half a century before computer effects, they were developing innovative methods to create the illusion of 3D environments, as evidenced in the opening shot. Like most old cartoons, if you're not interested in animation and its history, you won't find much to like here. If, however, you appreciate the art form, this is a great piece.

The Stingiest Man in Town (1978)

Image
I remembered this one from my childhood and wanted to track it down. It might be my favorite Christmas Carol I've seen yet this year, but it's a very odd one. This is actually an animated remake of a live action musical version (also a TV special) from 1956. It's full of songs and music; there's actually very little dialogue. I really like the music, although bear in mind the style has a lot in common with old-fashioned movie musicals. Some of the songs are wonderfully surreal. Near the start, Erin asked me to confirm that we'd just heard a bunch of alley cats singing about how Scrooge was so stingy that Satan was going to complain about him in Hell. Yes, yes we had. They manage to fit digressions about both Santa Claus and Jesus into an hour-long Christmas Carol, so there are a few common scenes missing from this adaptation. Nothing about young Scrooge at school, and if you blink you'll miss the Ghost of Christmas Future. I like the voice acting most

Old Spice MANta Claus

Image
We're not the only ones in the holiday spirit. This week, The Man Your Man Could Smell Like (spokesperson/actor/action hero Isaiah Mustafa) is giving away 7 billion holiday gifts on Youtube. Click here:  http://www.youtube.com/oldspice#p/p for the full playlists with each day's announcements. Here's a sampling: Russia, Switzerland, Billings Montana, women named Lorraine and Matt Lauer also already have their gifts. Do you? You're Welcome.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1948)

Image
Note the year of release - this isn't the famous Rankin/Bass stop-motion special, but rather a short directed by Max Fleischer. It's only about 8 minutes long, and it's an earlier adaptation of the song. I've known for a while that there were multiple versions of Rudolph out there, but somehow I missed that this was directed by Fleischer. If you're not a big fan of animation, he's the guy responsible for the Popeye cartoons, as well as the extremely influential Superman animated shorts. His take on Rudolph is, if nothing else, extremely bizarre. The story starts with Rudolph shunned for his nose by his peers, as you'd expect. What I didn't expect was the level of anthropomorphism used. These Reindeer walk upright, live in houses, and speak. The coach's whistle in the Rankin/Bass special seems realistic in comparison. In fact, Santa's the only human in the short. He comes across Rudolph when he's dropping off gifts in his town then enl

Lord and Taylor Windows 2011

Image
This year the Lord and Taylor windows were based on a collection of solicited children's drawings... or something. So the first window is a girl drawing, and then there's just a selection of somewhat generic holiday scenes.  All the displays are surrounded by drawings done by little kids. It's a cute collection of slightly animatronic dolls, but nothing too exciting. Enjoy.

There are Snow Pets in my Pocket

Image
Ah, Big Lots. When something just isn't good enough for Conway or National Wholesale Liquidators, it just might wind up there. Lindsay and I wound up at a Big Lots a few months ago, and we came across this for five bucks. That's right: just five bucks. Needless to say, we had to own it. You can see the love in their eyes as they stare through you. I mean, sure, their flocked fur is a bit mangy, and they look as though they might be carrying a disease, but this family of deer aren't short on love. The antlers are incredibly flimsy: you can press them until the tips are touching with almost no pressure, then watch them snap back. That right there is play value. In addition to the delightful family of reindeer, you also get a bonus pet. If you believe the back of the packaging, this guy's name is Grady, the Snow Grouse. If you instead believe your eyes, it's some sort of insect which wants to burrow into your flesh and lay eggs. Christmas eggs.

Home Alone (1990)

Image
To my surprise, this movie is not actually terrible, just sort of boring. It's decently shot, and it has good music, but the characters are uninteresting and the plot is thin and slow. From the beginning, the whole set-up is heavy-handed; the level of anger and actual evilness from the family members is so over the top that it's hard to get behind the later desire for reconciliation. They are all jerks, and the kid is kind of better off without them. There are some truly random tone shifts; it feels as though most plot elements were added piecemeal, and moved around somewhat at random. It doesn't help that the continuous schtick prevents the characters from gaining any real emotional momentum. Macaulay Culkin mugs through the whole thing, seeming determined to prove he can't act. And then of course, there's the house of death. You remember the house of death, it's probbaly the only thing most people remember about this movie at all. It's the part whe

Santa and the Fairy Snow Queen (1951)

Image
What the HELL was that? Okay, so Lindsay and I recently ordered a collection on Amazon titled Holiday Family Classics , containing more Christmas specials and movies than you can shake the severed arm of a snowman at. One of the first was titled,"Santa and the Fairy Snow Queen", and I was curious. I mean, I like Santa Claus. I like fairies. Putting them together should be a no-brainer. I don't know where to start. This live-action special is introduced by a brownie - not an elf, interestingly enough - named "Snoopy" (no relation - had this been narrated by a dog, it would have been far, far better). Apparently, Snoopy's no longer tasked with making toys, but is rather the brownie charged with sneaking into children's rooms late at night to talk to their toys and get information on whether kids have treated them well. I feel it's significant that Snoopy is one of the most annoying characters to ever grace the screen. She has a high-pitched lau

The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause (2002)

Image
In the middle of The Santa Clause 2, there's a fifteen minute stretch where the movie is kind of good. It's during a more grounded portion of the movie, where Allen's lost the fat suit and is trying to woo his son's principal, that you start feeling optimistic. Allen uses his diminishing magic to perform a series of minor miracles, mostly to salvage an office Christmas party. For these brief moments, the movie hits its stride, drops most of the slapstick, and hints at developing into something worthwhile. Unfortunately, this is the only portion of the movie that doesn't completely suck. The rest of the film is utter crap, an appropriate sequel to part one . The issue is a common one with holiday fare: the film actively tries to mimic cartoons without bothering to learn what makes a good cartoon work. Sticking in zany sound effects and using cheap effects isn't enough to make a movie fun. Incorporating artifacts from animation into live action can be succes

Rainbow Brite Christmas (LP 1985)

Image
Remember Rainbow Brite? Sure you do, it was a short-lived but much remembered 80's cartoon for girls. But did you know that Rainbow Brite released two records of music? And that one of them is a Christmas album? That you might not have known. In the 80s  there wasn't a lot of concern for voice actor fidelity in children's media, so only a few of the voices on the disc are actually the voice actors from the series. That doesn't prevent this from being an exercise in blended nostalgia and a sort of bemused horror. Song List: A Gift of Love Jingle Bells The Twelve Days of Christmas Silent Night Joy to the World Christmas in the Pits The First Noel Deck the Halls Christmas Medley: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, O Christmas Tree We Wish You a Merry Christmas About the Songs: First off, let me tell you how surreal I find the song choices. Between Silent Night , Joy to the World , The First Noel , God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Jack Frost (1979)

Image
Jack Frost is one of the later Rankin-Bass stop-motion specials, and as such represents a trade off. The animation is far more refined than most of the more famous specials: the movement is far more fluid and natural than Rudolph, Year Without a Santa Claus, or Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, for example. However, the special is missing any of the charm that made those work, which is probably why this hasn't endured in the same way. I think a lot of the blame goes to the concept of the narrator, a groundhog named Pardon-Me-Pete, who drains the energy from the special every second he's on screen. Say what you will about the best Rankin-Bass specials, but there's a sort of fairy-tale mythology they seem to inhabit. Pete just doesn't belong in that world, and he kills any chance this might have had to gain some gravitas. And it does try: the story used in Jack Frost is actually structured as a sort of tragedy, with the main character having to sacrifice his chanc

Radio City Supplemental: Photos

Image
Even though the stated policy wasn't "no photos", but rather "No Flash Photography", and plenty of people even ignored that, I only took a small handful of pictures at The Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Just enough to give you a taste. In the lobby, when we came in, we were greeted by this: It has to be at least 15 feet tall, it spins, and all of the little crystals are snowflakes.  Here's the stage from our seats in the mezzanine: And here I'm looking sideways across the mezzanine itself: I took a few shots of one of the numbers I loved most: Christmas in NYC The Rockettes rode the bus in choreographed fashion and eventually changed their costumes for the finale of the sequence. The Multiple Santa number was cute, but very odd: and the Living Nativity was damn impressive. I mean, look: Cool, right? Lots of people and bright costumes coordinated together, and there are live camels. I mean, not as cool a

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular (a second opinion)

Image
Right now, Lindsay's sitting beside me on the train back to Queens, typing her love letter to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. I can appreciate that reaction. But mine was perhaps more... complicated. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular was, I think, the best and the worst thing I've ever seen. It was madness. It may be the last surviving vestige of vaudeville; this is a show which has lasted since the 1930's. But make no mistake: it paid a horrible price for survival. It sold its soul to Christmas. The show is a blur of dancers in skimpy outfits being pimped by a fat man in red while multi-colored lights and projections of the New York City skyline whirl by. And then the 3D glasses come out. A mother and her daughter learn the true meaning of Christmas by hunting digital Christmas fairies and blasting them with holiday cheer. The Rockettes dress as reindeer, Christmas presents, and - worst of all - tourists in a series of dances masquerading as family enter

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular

Image
OMG! THAT WAS AWESOME! I mean, it was awesomely weird, and awesomely impressive, as well as awesomely awesome. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular may be the most purely Christmas thing I've seen ever . It was entirely made up of shiny shiny sparkly things, spectacle, and ridiculousness. I loved it, in case you didn't notice. From the first number, in which the lovely Rockettes danced impressively in some disturbingly sexy reindeer costumes... and then their antlers LIT UP , I knew I was going to like this. There were low points, of course; the 3d movie of Santa's sleigh was pretty corny, the all-teddy bear Nutcracker had moments, but went on too long, and there was one awkwardly heartfelt song that was just boring given what had come before it. However, since nearly every odd or out-of place moment was clearly a vamp so that the Rockettes could change their costume, I can't judge too harshly. Besides which, the Rockettes got to star in a 'video game&

The 12 Dogs of Christmas (2005)

Image
This movie makes me think of Equilibrium. No, stay with me here - I'm going somewhere with this. In Equilibrium, the government is more or less run by Nazis who have outlawed emotion. As such, the point of the movie is that emotions are good and Nazis are bad. Surprisingly, I've never seen another situation arise where this moral has been especially enlightening. The 12 Dogs of Christmas takes place during the depression in a town where dogs have been outlawed. The moral of the story is that dogs can be good and sadistic dogcatchers who use captured animals in dogfights are bad. Once again, while I don't disagree with this assertion, neither do I feel particularly enlightened. This is - unfortunately - a full length movie. I'm not entirely certain whether this was made-for-TV or released direct-to-video. Usually, I just get trivial details like that from Wikipedia, but this movie doesn't actually have a Wikipedia page. Having just watched the movie, this

Book Review: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

Image
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King E. T. A. Hoffman, 1816 Translation by Joachim Neugroschel Crossposted at The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf So, after watching several different versions of the Nutcracker Ballet for Mainlining Christmas, I wanted to go back and read the original story. That proved to be harder than it sounds, but I finally got access to a Penguin classics edition at the library. (This volume also included the slightly sanitized retelling of the tale by Dumas that the ballet is technically based on, but I'm only looking at the original.) As a work this story seems to consciously evade categorization. The story is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek fairy tale, a surrealist fantasy, with a story within a story that seems to want to mock the conventions of fairy tales but is still a fairly classic example. I found it intriguing throughout, but a bit exhausting to read. The basics of the story are the basics of the ballet: Marie becomes obsessed with the Nutcracker tha

Parks and Recreation: Christmas Scandal (2009)

Image
I think this is the second episode of Parks and Recreation I've seen, but I can't actually remember the first, so it's possible I'm imagining it and this is actually the first. Either way, this is a really bizarre show. I can't decide whether or not I enjoyed watching it. The show felt very character-driven, so I expect it's better the more you see it.  Not that I have much interest in testing that theory, mind you. The plot focused on an imagined sex scandal involving the main character and a local politician. Most of the humor revolved around the absurdity of a small town trying to pretend it's a big city, and it worked most of the time. This one was more set at Christmas than it was Christmas-themed. For what it's worth, the backgrounds contained plenty of decorations, and a few of the B-plots were holiday related. Still, if you're looking for something to fill you with Christmas cheer, you'd best look elsewhere.

Bewitched Season 4: Humbug Not to be Spoken Here (1967)

Image
I went in expecting the worst and was pleasantly surprised. Actually, this was kind of engrossing. I haven't seen a full episode of Bewitched since... well, since I was far too young to remember it. Among other aspects, I was kind of surprised by the show's portrayal of Samantha's magic, which she secretly uses against her husband's wishes. For some reason, I'd assumed this would be portrayed as a negative (i.e.: the man knows best), but in reality, he was kind of a bumbling - though well intentioned - fool, while her powers were effective. Anyone know off hand whether her powers were intended as a metaphor for the squandered potential of women in the era? There was a genuinely touching interaction between her and her magical daughter at the end regarding their shared secret that hinted at some larger themes. Or maybe I'm reading too much into a light sitcom. Regardless, the plot was sort of a Scrooge template, with Samantha standing in for any ghosts, and

John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together (1979)

Image
I suppose even the Muppets can have an less-than-stellar special. This is far from terrible, but not actually all that good either. Really, the big problem is there aren't enough Muppets. Whenever the Muppets are on screen, the energy picks up, the jokes are actually funny, and the acting improves. When the camera is focused on John Denver and legions of bland back-up dancers, it's dull as dirt. Now I generally like John Denver, or at least don't dislike him. But here he's incapable of acting like a human being, and he looks sort of like a robot. Plus he keeps adding boring religious stuff in between scenes of Muppets being sweet. Also this isn't particularly well directed or well shot. Or even well structured: this special flirts with the idea of having a plot, but ultimately abandons it for ill-thought out musical numbers. It's not all bad: Rowlf and Kermit both get in pretty songs, the opening Twelve Days of Christmas is classic, and Miss Piggy