Pluto's Heart Throb

It’s hard to believe, but with Pluto’s Heart Throb, we have officially entered the 1950s on the blog, moving into the years where things get a little nuts for the Disney company.  Sadly, it seems to show as watching Pluto’s Heart Throb feels like a rehash of previous Pluto adventures, not something new.  It’s something that has become a bit of a pattern with Disney in the late 1940s and now the 1950s.

Pluto’s Heart Throb is merely a new way to get into the story of Pluto fighting with Butch the Bulldog over Dinah the Dachshund.  While there had not been a short prior to this where the two competed, the bottom line is it’s a combination of shorts where Pluto and Butch have fought over other things, throwing Dinah in the mix as the object of contention.  The way this happens is frankly just bizarre.

A little cupid/demon looking thing manages to grab Pluto’s ears as well as Dinah’s, and pushes the two of them to fall in love.  It’s not really clear why this happens, what powers the little creature has or what it’s purpose is other than kicking off the action.  Regardless of this, when the deal is done, and the two are smitten for some odd reason Dinah introduces Pluto to Butch, and makes some sort of overture for the two to get along.  It’s not really clear why she does this, nor why it happens in the story of the short.

The rest of the short plays out with Butch and Pluto fighting with each other.  There’s no real way to say it other than that.  Pluto tries to sabotage Butch and give Dinah a bone, Butch beats up Pluto and throws him against a tree.  There’s no real rhythm to the short, no flow of the story and no way that someone would become invested in what is happening here.  It just feels like a collection of gags that someone threw together to put these characters in a short together.

I hate to be negative about a Disney short, because I tend to love watching them, hence this blog.  But Pluto’s Heart Throb shows a distinct lack of focus on storytelling.  The little cupid/demon creature doesn’t show up again after the start of the short.  Why was he there?  And why did Dinah want Butch and Pluto to get along?  There are no answers coming, so it makes it difficult to enjoy the short and follow what’s going on.  Hopefully, the new ideas will start showing up as we progress into 1950.

Toy Tinkers

It seems like Disney made a tradition of having Donald and Chip and Dale mix it up around the holidays.  In 1948, the chipmunks tried to steal Donald’s breakfast in Three For Breakfast.  In 1947, they made their first appearance while trying to disrupt Donald’s sleep in a log cabin.  And now, in 1949, we get the most overt holiday short of all in Toy Tinkers, as Donald faces off with his arch nemeses over the Christmas bounty.

Of the three, Toy Tinkers is probably my least favorite, since it really doesn’t introduce any new dynamic to the back and forth between Donald Duck and Chip and Dale.  That does not mean, though, that this is a bad short.  All the Chip and Dale shorts are fun if not groundbreaking.  This is not the series where Disney applied animators to creating a new art form, but that is not the point.

The gags in this short are definitely a nice touch, providing the chipmunks with more props to play with as opposed to their standard nuts or trees.  I was particularly amused with a sequence where Dale dons a hat and cane while playing with the toys, bowing to dolls, getting caught in a crossfire between two hat wearing mechanical gents and generally wreaking havoc.  That is just a warm up, though, to the main event between Donald and the boys.

It becomes all out war between the two during the last couple minutes of the short, with both taking refuge behind a stack of presents and firing away at each other.  That’s right, it’s trench warfare in Donald’s living room.  That is as cool as it sounds, and probably the highlight of the Chip and Dale vs Donald wars.  The issue is that outside of that sequence and the hat gag, the rest of the gags are pretty standard compared to previous shorts.

Lots of nuts being pursued by Chip and Dale leads to lots of Donald trying to steal them back.  That’s nothing new.  We’ve seen it in most of the other shorts these characters have been in, and it doesn’t add anything to the story in this one.  If you trot this one out at Christmas time each year and watch it as a stand alone piece, it’s pretty fun and a worthwhile addition to the festivities.  If you view it as part of the Chip and Dale oeuvre, though, it’s another edition that does basically the same thing.  Regardless, it’s worth checking out and enjoying.

Review of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Briana Alessio

So…I’m not going to mince words on this one.  This film is painful.  The cast is pretty cool, but the plot is empty and this is basically just filled with corny jokes and confusion throughout.  Zooey Deschanel always warms my heart, but even she could not save this film for me.  Martin Freeman was great in the brilliant comedy Love Actually.  Even John Malkovich appears in this…in quite a disturbing role.  Mos Def and Sam Rockwell had their funny moments, but it still was not enough to bring any joy to this.

Hitchhiker’s Guide is directed by Garth Jennings, who has not had much experience in the entertainment world.  I’m sure he is a great guy and he tried to make this likable, but failure took over instead. 

The humorous beginning of the dolphins singing “So Long and Thanks for all the Fish” made me think this would have a Monty Python sort of flair, but sadly, it did not.  However, the music on the menu screen of the DVD was cool.  It reminded me of Space Mountain’s Star Tunnel.  The actual guide to the galaxy was neat, and also gave me a bittersweet Disney moment.  It was like a mix of the interactive video on Spaceship Earth infused with Journey Into Imagination with Figment.  The newer version, that is, not the original Dreamfinder that we all miss so much.

The Vogels looked like a horrible mix of Boss Nass from Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace and a rhinoceros.  The robotic spider legs on John Malkovich were completely disturbing and cause me to wonder if they will haunt my dreams tonight.  I understand that this film was meant to be silly, but they went over the top with the silliness factor.  It borders on near absurdity.  There was no true objective or motive on the part of any of the characters besides Arthur and Trillian being in love.

Sadly, I did not have a favorite scene in this film.  I did enjoy the depressing comments from the spaceship’s butler robot, Marvin, voiced by the fantastic Alan Rickman.  He starred in Love Actually alongside Freeman.  Rickman also appeared in many other films including the Harry Potter series and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

As I’ve said in the past, when there is a film I do not enjoy, I do have to give it some credit for what they attempted, as well as for the time which all gave up in order to make this.  I seriously hope the novels made more sense than this film.  Please save yourself the time by never watching it.  You would be far better off watching and enjoying Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

My rating: 1/5 stars.

He’s got a TOWEL!

Disney Film Project Podcast - Episode 66 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

This week the DFPP team and their friend Matt Hochberg grab their towels and head into space only to find that no matter how improbable a result the answer will always be 42 in the 2005 Sci-Fi comedy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Listen, download, etc. 

Show notes:

• IMDb
• Wikipedia
• Soundtrack (Journey of the Sorcerer)
• Novel
• Douglas Adams (his official home page)
• All Encompassing (and another)
• Quotes
• Hitchhiker Wiki
• Play the old Infocom Game (pretend you own it)
• Matt Hochberg
• StudiosCentral.com (Twitter)
• WDW Today (Twitter)

Enjoy the show!

Tweetwatch Tonight! - Iron Man 2 - 8:30p ET

The Avengers countdown continues tonight, as we get the first Marvel sequel - Iron Man 2.  This one really starts laying some groundwork for the Avengers (coming May 4, 2012) with the introduction of the Black Widow and some great work by Robert Downey, Jr as Tony Stark.  Grab your copy and join us.

If you've never joined Tweetwatches before, it's super easy to do. Here's the plan:

1. Get the DVD or Bluray so you can watch with us. Netflix, Redbox, whatever you need to do.
2. Tonight at a little before 8:30, head over to our Friendfeed room.
4. At 8:30p ET, I'll tweet out the signal to push play, and we'll watch the movie together, while I fill you in on some of the little known facts about each film.

And while you're getting ready for the Tweetwatch, you need to make sure that you are planning for our very first Disney Film Project meet!  That's right, all four of us will be at Walt Disney World on Saturday, May 19, and you can join us to go see Avengers at Downtown Disney.  Check out all the details here on Plancast and book your trip now.  It's the first weekend of Star Wars Weekends as well, so you don't want to miss this!

Review of That Darn Cat! by Briana Alessio

Hayley Mills and Dean Jones star in this film, based on the book Undercover Cat by The Gordons.  I absolutely love Mills in almost everything she is in, but this film does not do a whole lot for me.  My main issue with it was the length.  This approximately two hour film could easily have been an hour and a half.  Some of the scenes dragged out for an extended period of time and in my personal opinion, should have been shortened.

That Darn Cat! is directed by Robert Stevenson, who also directed a handful of fantastic Disney films such as Mary Poppins, The Love Bug (another Dean Jones connection here), Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Darby O’Gill and the Little People.  That being said, it was not as if Stevenson had no idea of what he was doing.  And I’m not saying the film was bad either.  It just seemed to leave a lot to be desired.

A few of the main actors in the film seemed irritating to me.  Perhaps this was done on purpose so as to not be taken seriously.  For instance, Canoe (Tom Lowell), Ingrid (Dorothy Provine), Gregory (Roddy McDowall), Mrs. MacDougall (Elsa Lanchester), and Iggy (Frank Gorshin) all seemed annoying throughout the duration of the film.  On the other hand, Patti (Hayley Mills), Zeke (Dean Jones), Dan (Neville Brand), and Mr. MacDougall (William Demarest) were all fantastic.  I remember Demarest the most from a wonderful episode of The Twilight Zone.  And for those of you who do not realize this, Elsa Lanchester portrayed The Monster’s Bride in the 1935 classic The Bride of Frankenstein.

Credit must be given to the wonderful Sherman Brothers, who wrote the theme song, which is the same title as the film.  It appears as though Bobby Darin sung the version in the film and Bobby Troup sung the version on the soundtrack.  (Note: If anyone knows differently, please post a comment so I may be informed.  Thank you.)  This tune captured the film very well.  It was not serious or hysterical.  It was cute with a slight comedic edge which almost seemed to channel a bit of The Pink Panther theme.

A couple of quick facts thanks to the wonderful website which is IMDb…this is Dean Jones’ first Walt Disney film.  He starred in Disney films throughout the 1960s and 1970s including Blackbeard’s Ghost and The Love Bug, among many.  Another interesting fact is that this was Hayley Mills’ final Disney film; the re-make of this film, made in 1997, was Christina Ricci’s final Disney film as well.

My favorite scene in the film is the catastrophic events which take place at the drive-in theatre.  First of all, I have an unhealthy obsession with things of the past.  Although these theatres still exist, they are extremely unappreciated and rarely attended to anymore.  Therefore, to see individuals of the 60s enjoying their weekend at one is heartwarming to me.  The scene which takes place is purely laugh out loud fun, especially the raucous which unravels once Darn Cat (DC for short) is swatting at a moth which is silhouetted on the screen during the surfer film.  After much spilling of food and drinks, as well as bouncing on vehicles, it is film magic.

My favorite character in the film was the jewelry store owner, played by Ed Wynn.  Unfortunately, his screen time in this is very short but wonderful.  He is best known for voicing the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland and starring as the lovable Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins.

A few friends asked me what I thought of this film and my answer was simply “Cute.”  It is not as if I will never watch it again.  That Darn Cat! is the type of film that I would not mind having on in the background while I go about my day.  It is not a horrible film.  It is pure 1960s cheesiness.  If you love Hayley Mills and scheming felines, I would say it is worth seeing at some point.

My Rating: 2/5 stars

You know, that fellow has the most attractive way of putting his foot in his mouth. 

Disney Film Project Podcast - Episode 65 - That Darn Cat!

This week the DFPP team and their friend Matthew Tice attempt to help the FBI track down some bank robbers only to discover that involving a cat can crack a case in more ways than one in the 1965 comedy That Darn Cat!

Listen, download, etc. 

Show notes:

• IMDb
• Wikipedia
• Official Site
• Undercover Cat
• New York Times Review - December 3, 1965
• Big Promotional Campaign
• Movie Script
• Matthew Tice (Twitter)

Enjoy the show!