Linkie the Pooh
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 1:40PM Antagony & Ecstacy as part of his Blockbuster History series, goes the way of British Children's Literature (thanks Harry Potter) to discuss that great adaptation of Peter Pan in 2003. He has a fair point about Jeremy Sumpter's career since and I am alarmed to note that I didn't even realize it was the same actor when he had that one season key role on Friday Night Lights.
Scanners considers the Netflix pricing dilemma and the problem of aspect ratios. This makes me crazy too. Most television screens are wider now. Why does pan & scan still exist?
The Daily What shares my favorite new photo of a movie theater. I'll share it again.
I bring this up because at last night's Captain America: The First Avengers screening there was no air conditioning in a huge warehouse size movie theater here in Manhattan and it was, shall we say, sticky and smelly. If the reviews are terrible, blame the broken AC.
In Contention Captain America may find itself with a Best Original Song nomination. I'd be pleased. It sure was a fun ditty from Alan Menken and added to the film's period detail well.
Twitch Ubiquitous Oscar winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black gets another high profile gig with yet another Oscar winning director for Under the Banner of Heaven. I think it's official: DLB has the best agent in Hollywood. How many screenwriters have kept their moment in the sun despite being behind the scenes going for this long?
Salon Matt Zoller Seitz talks to his 9th grader daughter about his generation's defining franchise (Star Wars) and hers (Harry Potter). It's an interesting discussion though the conclusion worries me (visual superiority should never be considered "small consolation" in A MOVIE) and yet again reveals what damage George Lucas did to his intergalactic baby by screwing it up so badly in the Aughts.
Super Punch omg. This 80s movie tee. I want. I want it hard. Someone buy it for me.
BoingBoing speaking of buying me things... like donations (see righthand sidebar) well, actually this has nothing to do with anything but what a fun concept. When this online store sells something, their Wario doll freaks out, with eyes lighting up and steam coming out his ears. Now I'm picturing all the actress dolls I should have and what they should do if i ever make any money...
Finally, MaryAnn at the long-running Flick Filosopher reminds us of a deeply entrenched problem in our popular culture this this simple graphic...
... and it's accompanying article. It'd be an easier argument to ignore if we didn't see it so often. Think of Pixar only now getting a female lead after 25 years in the animation biz.
I haven't seen the new Winnie the Pooh yet but I loved the character and his whole world as a child. Will I still? Have any of you seen it?
Reader Comments (17)
That picture is of the Uptown Theater in Minneapolis. Guy running the marquee has a great sense of humor. Another recent favorite, "Jane Eyre: Based on a book, I think."
Pooh Bear's lack of female representation is counterbalanced with its abundance of gay representation. The old queen, Rabbit -- the soft spoken pink, Piglet, -- the bouncing top, Tigger, the bi-curious himself, Winnie -- the self-hating homo, Eeyore -- one wonders what's to become of Christopher Robin?
I agree with what you say about Dustin Lance Black. Too bad the Oscar-winning director is Ron Howard, who went from "high-mediocre-mainstream-serious" to "The Dilemma." (Maybe Howard thinks he can make amends for the "gay" kerfuffle by hiring the leading "gay screenwriter.") As for Black, he's a prime example of how no publicity is bad publicity. When I look at him, "Milk" and "moving Oscar speech" are #3 and #4 on my list of things that I think of: home bareback porn and Mormon propaganda tool come in at #1 and #2, I'm afraid.
"Pooh Bear's lack of female representation is counterbalanced with its abundance of gay representation."
No, no it does not. (And 3rtfu11, I am aware that you might be joking about this.) When I first read Mary-Ann's article and saw the photo here, my initial reaction was "Tell me something I don't know, and haven't known since I was a little girl." Or at least since a teenager - when I was a little girl there was still Wonder Woman and Cat Woman on the TV, after all. But as girl I became aware of the preponderance of male characters very early on. Especially in the 1980's, which was a testosterone-fueled decade.
Going back to your comment and referring back to Mary-Ann's point in the essay - when I was growing up there were few or none "gay" characters, although a few perhaps coded as "gay" that I wasn't aware of. Mary-Ann's essay has to do with films for children specifically, and sexual orientation isn't a relevant issue as children do not have an awareness. As a girl growing up myself there was "male" and "female"; and even today there are children too young yet to be hip to orientation issues and they can only process characters as "male" or "female". Even today, I find that in "grown-up" films, "gay" is meant to stand in for "female" as well. I loved Angels in America (HBO production), but had to wonder, where are the lesbian characters? Lesbians have been affected too by AIDS - if not so much by the illness directly, then by caring for their gay "brothers", by being on the front lines of activism, as well as behind the scenes doing the gruntwork. "Gay Male" does not necessarily mean that my issues are addressed or that I as a (lesbian) woman feel included.
I saw Winnie the Pooh this weekend because I have a similar deep-rooted love for the books and characters. It's definitely geared toward younger children (like Miyazaki's Ponyo) but it's short and very sweet.
Janice, sister, I wrote my reply before reading her article based on the picture and my memories of the cartoon.
I understand there's a seriousness to all of this but I feel like since these things are enbeded into our culture I can't work myself up into anger about it -- sometimes things come along to cause that kind of reaction in me Places in the Heart is a very racist film -- but I'm a day late and a dollar short getting people to further explore that two time Oscar winner, I'm sure the Robert Benton felt he made a Liberal film, but the causal nature of the piece bothers me to no end -- especially how beautifully photograph the picture is.
Many, many people still don't like to see black bars on their screen, no matter how narrow the bars might be on a widescreen set. Widescreen TVs just mean that most folks expect everything to fit a 1.78:1 frame now, instead of the old 1.33:1. The worst, though, for me, is what Emerson describes, the non-widescreen image horizontally stretched to fill the widescreen frame, and the funhouse effect that results. I can't believe that people actually watch programs like that and don't think it looks completely wrong - or if they do think so, don't do anything about it!!!
The example he gave about "Let Me In" is a poor one since that film was a Super 35 production which means the 16:9 version doesn't look wrong unless you've seen the film theatrically.
That picture is so hilarious!
I remember a few years ago when i went to a showing of The Parent Trap (the LiLo version) and the a/c wasn't working and they used fans to cool the theater down. After the movie finished, i thought it was horrible and way too long. A few years later, i watched it again on TV and found out it was not nearly as bad as i thought it was. The same thing happened when i saw Entrapment on a airplane and then on DVD. I think you just have to be comfortable when watching any movie or you're automatically going to hate it.
Re: actress dolls, I think you need a Kate Winslet doll. If you pull her string, she whistles at her dad!
Bryan? i think a piece of my brain fell out. what are you referencing? i know i should know!
Derreck -- agreed. like it's so hot right now i think i would hate ANYTHING. rachel maddow is talking at me and she is annoying me and I love her!
Roark -- i just can't. what is wrong with people?
"Winnie the Pooh" is kind of poor example of what she's describing. All the characters are based on A. A. Milne's son's stuffed animal collection; that's why they're all male.
Nathaniel: Bryan's referring to Winslet's Oscar speech, where she asks her dad to "whistle or something" so she can know where they are in the Kodak.
OK.....LOVE the t-shirt design. Maybe I am in my own heat induced mind block (20+ days of 100+ degrees here in TX!!) but I can't name all the movies. HELP!!!
"Janice, sister, I wrote my reply before reading her article based on the picture and my memories of the cartoon."
@ 3rtfu11: Fair enough brother, fair enough.
I forgot to even mention that I loved the Disney Pooh cartoons as a girl (granted, I was 2-5 yrs old when I watched them). I think it was the voices, and the gentleness that I gravitated toward. Of course at the time I wasn't aware of gender issues, so I don't mean to dismiss the series (or AA Milne).
Yep Nathaniel, Colin's right. Remember, in Kate's acceptance speech? That's the moment I always think of when I think about her win.