Recently Viewed Movies Episode 2: The Vampire Bites Back

[Tooker]

I love the "spacing" on it:

[CluelessWonder]

Frozen -  I thought I would like it more than I did.  I know kids across America are singing Let  It Go, but I wasn't enthralled with the music.   It just isn't as good as The Little Mermaid or the other Disney movies I grew up on.  Maybe I'm just older and not into singing animated movies. 

[Dice]

Frozen -  I thought I would like it more than I did.  I know kids across America are singing Let  It Go, but I wasn't enthralled with the music.   It just isn't as good as The Little Mermaid or the other Disney movies I grew up on.  Maybe I'm just older and not into singing animated movies. 

I've only really dug about one Disney song per title.  'Let it Go' was mine for Frozen, and the rest were just really...whatever (well, the one with younger Anna was really cute/sweet too).

I definitely don't think it helps that there is a "Frozen-craze" going around, and I legitimately wonder if viewing it before it hit would have made for less sour opinions (people who got Last of Us later seem to be going through a bit of the same thing right now too, for example).  I think it's more that people are just happy that Disney is "back" after what was a pretty nasty dry spell (which serves the interests of a new generation of kids and the twenty-somethings who grew up on it and are about child-ready age themselves).  So yaaay. Fun times for all.  It also doesn't help that we are in this "wonderful" Internet Age where memes explode nation-wide almost overnight to turn songs like "Let it Go" into about 1,000 different cover songs, or Frozen itself into a million different gifs, funny images, or fan art.

Nostalgia reaallly clouds my memories for Little Mermaid.  I love the hell out of it.  I shouldn't.  Eric is a bit of a dud, Ariel doesn't really 'learn' anything, and basically the entire supporting cast served as better moral beacons against the rambunctious Ariel.  But fuck it!  It's a fun film to watch.  (speaking of what I mentioned earlier, I actually don't really don't care for "Part of Your World", I thought "Kiss the Girl" was a million times cooler and more entertaining, musically-speaking).

I *do* love Frozen, but certainly the waves of support, fans, and awards have definitely exaggerate the acclaim (I've been a firm believer in trying not to build *anything* up in my head and just take it on as it is... I initially had no interest in Last of Us, and I adore it now).

[CluelessWonder]

I bought Little Mermaid on Blu-Ray and recently watched it with my bf's niece and I can honestly say I still love it.  "Part of Your World" is my personal favorite with "Kiss the Girl" close behind.  "Under the Sea" is my bf's favorite.  So it had three songs I still sing 25 years later...holy crap that was a long time ago.  I had to google the release date.  Damn I feel old.  Who knows.  Maybe 25 years later adults will be singing "Let It Go. "

Anyways I see The Little Mermaid as being a story about being born in the wrong body and finding the freedom to be who you were truly meant to be.  Of course that is my adult take on it.  I don't think the kid thought about it.

[Esper_Crusader]

Monty Python: Quest for the Holy Grail. STILL the funniest fucking movie ever made!  At least IMO...
I can almost recite the movie start to finish.

[Dice]

I bought Little Mermaid on Blu-Ray and recently watched it with my bf's niece and I can honestly say I still love it.  "Part of Your World" is my personal favorite with "Kiss the Girl" close behind.  "Under the Sea" is my bf's favorite.  So it had three songs I still sing 25 years later...holy crap that was a long time ago.  I had to google the release date.  Damn I feel old.  Who knows.  Maybe 25 years later adults will be singing "Let It Go. "

Anyways I see The Little Mermaid as being a story about being born in the wrong body and finding the freedom to be who you were truly meant to be.  Of course that is my adult take on it.  I don't think the kid thought about it.

I'm sort of torn.  Your interpretation is about 1,000x better than the one I saw of a girl constantly finding ways to get the slip past her father (maybe that has something to do with me being the occasional prick to my dad).

Monty Python: Quest for the Holy Grail. STILL the funniest fucking movie ever made!  At least IMO...
I can almost recite the movie start to finish.

I think the fact the Monty Python's humour is enduring that's truly amazing.  I nearly flipped my lid when Dragon's Crown had a killer rabbit boss and laughed (and died in-game) for about a minute because I was too distracted by it.

[Blace]

Little bit of irony here. I bought the Little Mermaid on blu-ray for my fiance when it came out and we watched it and it did not live up to my childhood memories of it. I was actually kind of disappointed. I had not seen it in probably 15 years. She actually didn't like it as much as she remembered either. I don't know what that says about us haha. I actually thought Frozen was better, although certainly overhyped like you guys have mentioned.

[Dincrest]

Have any of you read the original Little Mermaid story by Hans Christian Andersen?  I think as adults disillusioned by Little Mermaid, you'd appreciate it more now.  In the original Little Mermaid story ENDING SPOILER

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the mermaid does NOT get the guy.  The prince marries a human, and the mermaid commits suicide cum noble sacrifice.  

[Klutz64]

I do enjoy little trivia bits like that. Apparently in the original Cinderella, the titular character ends up with her evil stepmother after killing her real mother. Not sure the details there, but I do remember reading that somewhere.

[Dice]

I'm also sure the deviations and allusions to scripture stuff is appreciated by contemporary audiences as well.

Ah well.  Hans Christian Anderson was a cute play on words for the main 3 frozen characters anyways (that aren't Elsa).  You go Disney, keep up your clever little jokes!

[Esper_Crusader]

Watching my all-time favorite, Forrest Gump, on AMC with story notes. I am content.

[Ranadiel]

Have any of you read the original Little Mermaid story by Hans Christian Andersen?  I think as adults disillusioned by Little Mermaid, you'd appreciate it more now.  In the original Little Mermaid story ENDING SPOILER

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the mermaid does NOT get the guy.  The prince marries a human, and the mermaid commits suicide cum noble sacrifice.  

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What is supposed to be a noble sacrifice about that? She just kills herself.

I do enjoy little trivia bits like that. Apparently in the original Cinderella, the titular character ends up with her evil stepmother after killing her real mother. Not sure the details there, but I do remember reading that somewhere.

Meh, Snow White tops that. The evil queen is killed at the end by “she is made to dance wearing a pair of red-hot iron shoes until she falls over dead." And look up how Sleeping Beauty is originally awoken sometime if you want some serious WTF moments.

As for Cinderella, I am unfamiliar with that portion of the original, but in double checking my memory on other fairy tale endings, saw that tidbit but it was apparently her first step mother she killed because she wanted her father to marry the housekeeper and thus her problems began.

[Dincrest]

Have any of you read the original Little Mermaid story by Hans Christian Andersen?  I think as adults disillusioned by Little Mermaid, you'd appreciate it more now.  In the original Little Mermaid story ENDING SPOILER

Code: [Select]

the mermaid does NOT get the guy.  The prince marries a human, and the mermaid commits suicide cum noble sacrifice.  

Code: [Select]

What is supposed to be a noble sacrifice about that? She just kills herself.

It just felt deeper than that because

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she becomes a sun spirit or something rather than just become mere sea foam.  Or is my memory fallible, as always?  I should read this again.

[Ranadiel]

Have any of you read the original Little Mermaid story by Hans Christian Andersen?  I think as adults disillusioned by Little Mermaid, you'd appreciate it more now.  In the original Little Mermaid story ENDING SPOILER

Code: [Select]

the mermaid does NOT get the guy.  The prince marries a human, and the mermaid commits suicide cum noble sacrifice.  

Code: [Select]

What is supposed to be a noble sacrifice about that? She just kills herself.

It just felt deeper than that because

Code: [Select]

she becomes a sun spirit or something rather than just become mere sea foam.  Or is my memory fallible, as always?  I should read this again.

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Just looked it up on Wikipedia, and the original ending is she just dies and ceases to be (because she has no soul). In the revised ending, she instead enters a form of purgatory where she can go to heaven in three hundred years, but gets time off for emotionally blackmailing children into being good. Also apparently she killed herself after having decided not to kill the prince and his bride in their bed. Oh and reviewing the story, I was reminded of the lovely tidbit that apparently the little mermaid felt the pain of stepping on a knife whenever she took a step as a result of the potion she took to gain legs. Children's stories were so different all those centuries ago.

[Dincrest]

From what I understand, a lot of those old tales were never children's stories at all, back in their origins.  They were just general folklore.  Somehow those "fairy tales" got watered down into becoming children's stories over time.  Examples in this tangent include The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White.

Anyway, my drummer encouraged us (in the band) to actually watch Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  I thought "there is no way in hell I'll watch this flick.  It looks and sounds so f'n stupid!"  But knowing that my drummer would probably pester me till I saw it (he himself had the same "man this is gonna be stupid" kneejerk), I watched it.  It was actually an enjoyable flick.  I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either and just went along for the ride.  The premise is hokey, but the film heartily commits to it.  The action scenes are good and the history parts of this "alternative history" were mostly in-tact (though some liberties were obviously taken.)  The part I remember most was how the slavery advocates did not want Lincoln to free the slaves, because

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the slavers were vampires and were keeping slaves as food so that they could feed secretly and the community wouldn't know they're vampires.  So if the slaves were free, then the vampires would not be kept in check.  Which got me to thinking about stuff like the Donner Party and the darker aspects of American history that we're NOT taught.