herbiehancock

No 319 - The Lion King Directors - Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff Man! I LOVE The Lion King! I was even willing to sit through the longest most OTT DVD menu with an annoying CGI Zazu to watch the film. So long that I can't find a YouTube video of the menu in its entirety.... but you can have a bit of the pre -film ordeal I sat through. That's dedication. So, the special edition DVD has been spruced up a little bit so we get a much sharper, crisper looking film, and that is OK with me, it just makes it a joy to watch. From the opening African chanting to the final Circle of Life.... this film makes me happy. So lets talk about the highlights, and of course the guilty admission that I do really like some Elton John songs - specially when blended in with the African tribal singing . Firstly this film has a star studded cast... and somehow, I had never realised that Matthew Broderick plays Simba ! Gosh. But look at all these others: What's great about this cast is that the...

I saw this on http://artofakira.com/ I've not had any animation shit on here before, but it's film related. And I have seen about 3 Disney movies in my life so anything showing it in not so bright a light is more interesting than anything else to me. This is very well edited showing the recycled scenes. There's another little clip posted about this going on in Disney animated films, but not as creative as the first. Looks like some sort of TV documentary or something

No 322 - Disney's Aladdin Directors - Ron Clements and John Musker Lets be honest. There is one thing which pumps Aladdin into awesomeness. The Genie.Now Robin Williams seems to be pretty hit and miss with his films. He has done some wonderful stuff - I love his performance in the Birdcage for example and I think his performance in One Hour Photo is horrific, yet amazing - but a lot of it seems to be over- sentimental . Or in more modern times just not funny . Yet, in the olden days, he was a bonkers, anarchic, fastly improvising comedian. It seems odd to think that a Disney cartoon is the vehicle to bring back the madcap comedy of Robin Williams. He brings so many elements to the film that it goes from being a pretty standard Disney film into something so much more. Recently, cartoons and Kid's films have become more self referential and postmodern. It is something that Disney have also started to do. It is there in the Mystery Science Theatre style Lion King 3 , the amazin...

No 400 - The Incredibles Director - Brad Bird Pixar is a brave and very interesting stable. I mean look at it... it definitely has a strong concept, after all despite the obvious differences Monsters Inc, Toy Story, Nemo , Ratatouille, Cars are all buddy films. About a mediocre person who finds someone to pull them up to greatness . You've then got The Incredibles which is a domestic drama superhero film in which a member of a family is trying to pull the rest of them to greatness after they've struggled to get down to mediocre. It is a surprisingly dark film - it is tight, well script and wickedly funny at times. Not only does this stand up against Pixar's phenomenal back catalogue, it stands up against Superhero films. I'd probably but this up there in the top 5 superhero films, and it is a cartoon.... featuring entirely made up characters who don't have a legion of comic book fans. It is easy to view this as ' Watchmen for kids' - both stories tack...

No 179 - Toy Story 2 Director - John Lassiter Times are changing when it comes to children. Where Toy Story begins with a cardboard town and a toy western, Toy Story 2 begins in the vivid landscapes of space. A fully functioning, Jetpack flying, laser blasting, forcefield toting Buzz Lightyear adventuring their way to defeat the evil emperor Zurg . Only to be blasted to smithereens. Game Over. Welcome to the world of computer games. The geek in me is impressed that this is all played on a SNES (excellent graphics). This film is impressive because it continues the themes of Toy Story, but inverts the story. So, where Toy Story was about fear of rejection and Buzz realising he is less than he initially thought, Toy Story 2 continues the fear of rejection but is about Woody realising he is more than he initially thought. A collectors item. The film also continues ideas that were only slightly hinted at in the first film. Here Al's Toy Barn moves from being a fleeting advert for Bu...

No 99 - Toy Story Director - John Lasseter 100 FILMS!!! 100 BLOGS!!! Yes indeedy ... this is my 100 th film. It as taken a pitifully long time to get this far. I almost feel ashamed. But I'm trucking along at a much better pace now. We're gathering up steam and we'll hit 200 before you know it! I promise ya. My Sunday ended up being delightfully Pixar -tinted. Starting with this, their first feature film, followed by Up - which has a delightfully poignant introductory sequence followed by 90 minutes of Looney Tunes style insanity and finally a really interesting South Bank documentary on Pixar . Naturally - I'll be following it up today with Toy Story 2. Makes sense. It makes me feel disgustingly old to think that Toy Story came out 14 years ago. 14 YEARS ago. That is just strange. I remember going to see it at the cinema and the excitement of seeing the Disney logo appear in glorious CGI . My how things have changed now.... All it takes is the Disney castle to ...

No 339 - Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi ) Director - Hayao Miyazaki I love Studio Ghibli . I love Miyazaki . He, and his studio, have rekindled a love and excitement about cartoons. It is almost the same thrill I got as a child watching Disney. Like most Westerners of my generation (though by no means all), I came to discover Ghibli through the release of Spirited Away. It is by no means my favourite, but they're in the list so I can talk about them later. It is, however, my first Ghibli film and so it should be the first one I watch. I've watched this film several times before in both English and Japanese. For while I have really strong views on dubbing, they don't cross over to animation and I frequently watch the dubbed cartoon (after all lip synch is less of an obvious issue). I have decided to watch the dubbed version this time for 2 reasons: When I first saw it at the cinema it was the American dub, therefore this is the version that I believe would...

I mentioned yesterday that I visited an Antiques Market over the weekend. I took pictures of a few of the things I saw there that I found to be amusing or whimsical. We were there for a very short time and saw only a small portion of what was on display. I would like to go back there sometime when I can spend more time looking at the wares. Here is a glimpse of a few things that I saw. This Oriental fellow standing amongst some fake flowers and some dishes made me smile. As a kid, I had a Mickey Mouse marionette puppet that I loved to play with, so I liked seeing these marionette puppets hanging from a pegboard. One of the things I love about this type of marketplace is the randomness and silliness of what you will find and how things are arranged on the shelf. For example, I loved seeing this frog wearing a slinky red evening gown. First of all, the incongruity of it amused me. It is not often that you see a frog in an evening gown---especially a RED one! This frog seems qu...