Post Oscar Thoughts

Natalie: Senor Bale, please get me away from that crazy chick next to me!

This is kinda late, but oh well.


Being the dork I am, I wrote these down during the telecast. Sure, I could have Tweeted my thoughts, except it takes me forever to text on my phone and I don't have a laptop/my Mac is in my bedroom and my TV is in not.

I liked the opening montage with Anne Hathaway and James Franco in scenes from the nominated movies (well, most of them, anyway...I noticed a few were missing). The cameos from Alec Baldwin (forgot he had hosted the Oscars) and Morgan Freeman were funny. 

Liked Anne introducing her mom and her mom saying, "Stand up straight, honey!" and Anne says, "Really, Mom? In front of a billion people?" Likewise, liked James introducing his grandma and her saying, "I just saw Marky Mark!" Hahaha. Mark Wahlberg is never going to live that name down. Although, did you notice James referred to him as "Academy-nominee Mark Wahlberg?" Now I know he has been nominated before for The Departed, so I wonder if he was referring to that? Or did Franco make a mistake and think he was nominated that night...?

I thought Anne was really charming and engaging, but James seemed a little, uh, stoned distant at times.

Okay, I know he's a "living legend" and blah, blah, blah, but I did not care for Kirk (Kurt?) Douglas presenting Best Supporting Actress. Please, no more old senile people presenting awards. Remember Elizabeth Taylor at the Golden Globes that one year? I did not think it was cute or funny when Douglas kept taking forever to read the winner's name and thought it was rude to the nominees. Just get on with it, you old geezer! Sorry, but it kinda annoyed me that he got to go on and on while people who actually WON awards were cut off by the stupid music.

Anyone notice that they read the Best S. Actress's name out of alphabetical order? It went Amy Adams, Helena Bonham Carter, Jackie Weaver, Melissa Leo, Hailee Steinfeld. Uh...I'm pretty sure "W" comes last in that lineup.

Okay, while I didn't like Grandpa Douglas taking forever, I do admit I laughed when Justin Timberlake was about to open the envelope and said, "You know..." like Douglas did.

LOL at James Franco saying "Congratulations nerds" after Marisa Tomei talked about giving out awards at the Technical Oscars. (Zzzzzz!)

Worst speech of the night goes to Colleen Atwood for winning Best Costume Design for Alice in Wonderland. I know she's won before (more than once, I believe) and she was reading in a MONOTONE voice from an index card!? WTF?! Get off the stage, you moron! 

Best speech of the night goes to the kid with the afro who won for Best Short Feature (or whatever it was). Man, that guy was hilarious! From his "I shoulda gotten a haircut!" to "I'll thank everyone later on those other cameras!" to "Thanks to my mom who was a caterer on the set!" LMAO! Loved that kid! Now that was a damn entertaining speech and he was cracking everyone up. Notice how the music didn't even play? Well, maybe he said everything in the time allotted. 

LOL at Kevin Spacey: "Good evening, I'm George Clooney."

Batman has an Oscar! LOL at Christian Bale saying, "Don't worry, I won't say the f-word. (Ala Melissa Leo) I've done that enough in my life!" Who knew Bale had a sense of humor.

The autotuned musicals was really funny, though I think they should have just stuck to it being all Harry Potter because that was the funniest. I hope Rupet and Emma saw that!

What was the point of Anne Hathaway introducing Hilary Swank to only introduce Katheryn Bigelow? Uh...., why not just have Anne introduce Katheryn? Duh.

I was shocked when Tom Hooper won because I really thought it was going to be David Fincher! In fact, I thought (and assumed) that FIncher had won the DGA, so that's why I thought he was going to win the Oscar. I guess I should have double checked who won the DGA because then I wouldn't be as shocked! Also, I wonder if Hooper is the youngest director to ever win an Oscar? I think he's 37...has anyone younger ever won?

I thought it was neat how when they presented Best Picture they showed clips from the ten nominated movies while the Colin Firth's speech from The King's Speech was playing (although it did seem a little biased).

After Hooper won Best Director, I knew The King's Speech would win Best Picture, though when Best Editing went toThe Social Network, I thought it might win BP, because usually the movie that wins Best Editing wins Best Picture.


Best Dressed:

Reese Witherspoon: real-live Barbie!

Mark Ruffalo's wife has no fashion sense.

Worst dressed:

To the people who have been putting this
on best-dressed lists, are you blind!?

Oscar shindig

Time for my Oscar predictions and commentary!

Best Picture:

I have seen all ten of the films nominated for Best Picture; this is the first time in history I've seen all ten of the Best Picture nominees! For the most part, I think this year's crop of films are better than last year's. (Though I only did see six of the nominated movies last year). Here's how I would rank the films:

1. Black Swan - While this was the darkest film of the bunch, I placed it at #1 (and honestly, you could say the first three films are tied for #1) because this is the movie from the bunch that I'm going to remember the most down the line. From start to finish, I was intrigued with the story and Natalie Portman gives her best performance yet, not to mention it's beautifully artistic. You can read my review here.

2. Toy Story 3 - Two of my favorite movies of 2010 were animated: this one and How to Train Your Dragon. Out of the nominated films, Toy Story 3 was the only one that made me cry. While the film retains its cuteness and silly jokes, it gets pretty dark for a children's film. The ending is bittersweet, but satisfying. You can read my review here.

3. True Grit - I'm usually not a big fan of Westerns, but I really liked this one. All the actors were great and the language sounded authentic, the cinematography and costumes were great, and there was plenty of action and comedy mixed in with the drama to keep me entertained. I would also like to take the opportunity to say that I had predicted the film to get nominated as well as Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld. Okay, maybe not a big stretch.... you can read my review here.

4. The Social Network - Solid movie from a great director and great screenwriter. You don't need to have/use/like Facebook to enjoy the movie. You can read my review here.

5. The King's Speech - I wasn't familiar with this based on a true story film, but it made for a good film with great performances from Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. I didn't really get why Helena Bonham Carter was nominated because she really doesn't do anything, but it was kind of a nice reprieve to see her in something other than a Harry Potter or Tim Burton film. This movie is very Oscar-baity, however, and was only made to win Oscars (which it will). It amused me greatly that I was probably the youngest person in the theaters by a good 30 years. 

6. 127 Hours - I listened to the audio book (and you can read my review of that here at my book blog) so I was familiar with the story of how Aaron Ralston's arm became pinned between a rock wall and a boulder and he had to cut it off to set himself free. I didn't care much for Boyle's stylized directing (it was a good story without all that flash), but James Franco spends the movie pretty much in one spot and he sells it quite well. (The "Gollum" scene (you know what I'm talking about if you've seen it) is especially good). The actual amputation scene wasn't that bad. Obviously, I did cringe (and I think I cringed more when he broke his arm), but I didn't even cover my eyes. Of course it helped to repeat the words fake prosthetic arm over and over in my mind, which is what I did! 

7. The Fighter - Really great performances (Christian Bale was my favorite) and I liked the boxing matches (especially the last one) and the mother and sisters were amusing, but other than that, I could take it or leave it. 

8. Winter's Bone - I was hoping I would love this movie as much as Frozen River, but I couldn't get into it. It wasn't a bad movie, just one I couldn't get invested in.

9. The Kids Are All Right - After reading all the heaps of praise this film was receiving, I was really excited to see it, thinking it was going to be the most amazing movie ever, but I just found this movie to be, well, all right. After watching the film, all I could think was, "That was it?" I think my expectation were way too high.

10. Inception - Again, I think my expectation were way too high because I was really excited to see this movie because the trailer looked so freaking cool. Okay, I think Christopher Nolan is a great director - Memento and The Dark Knight are brilliant movies, but my God I was so bored with this movie! Yes, the visual effects are amazing (and it should win all those technical Oscars), but the movie nearly put me to sleep! It felt sooooo long. It's not a good sign when you keep looking at your phone to see what time it is throughout the movie :-/

So that's how I would rank the Best Picture nominees. We know that Inception, Kids, Winter's Bone, 127 Hours, and Toy Story 3 have no chance of winning because they didn't score a Best Director nomination. As much as I would love for Black Swan or True Grit to win, let's face it, the race is between The Social Network and The King's Speech (and I will be fine with either winning).  TSN won the GG, but TKS won the SAG for best cast and the Bafta (but that's a no brainer since it's a British film). I imagine the older Academy members will go for TKS while the young ones will vote for TSN. I myself am sort of rooting for TSN between the two because it's more of a fresh movie while TKS seems like the type of movie you would see winning an Oscar from the '90s. However, I think TKS will prevail and win.

Best Director:

Darren Aronofsky, "Black Swan"
David O. Russell, "The Fighter"
Tom Hooper, "The King's Speech"
David Fincher, "The Social Network"
Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, "True Grit"

I have a feeling this will be a year where Best Picture and Best Director don't match. The King's Speech will win Best Picture, but David Fincher will win Best Director. He's already won all the other major awards and I've always liked the way he directs his films (which have always been great for the most part), so it will be a well-deserved win.

Best Actor:

Javier Bardem, "Biutiful"

Jeff Bridges, "True Grit"

Jesse Eisenberg, "The Social Network"

Colin Firth, "The King's Speech"

James Franco, "127 Hours"

I have seen all of these performances except for Bardem's. We all know Firth is winning this. Not only has he won all the precursor awards, but Bardem and Bridges already have Oscars and this is the first nomination for the still young Eisenburg and Franco. Colin Firth is one of my favorite actors and I am pleased he will be getting awarded for a fine performance.

Best Actress:

Annette Bening, "The Kids Are All Right"

Nicole Kidman, "Rabbit Hole"

Jennifer Lawrence, "Winter's Bone"

Natalie Portman, "Black Swan"

Michelle Williams, "Blue Valentine"

I've only seen Bening's, Lawrence's, and Portman's performances. I am really mystified as to why EW thinks that Annette Bening still has a fighting chance to win the Oscar. Um, no, she doesn't. True she won the GG for Best Comedic performance (which doesn't count anyway), but how is Natalie Portman NOT going to win the Oscar after winning the real GG, the SAG, and the Bafta? I know people are saying that Bening is due, but I really didn't see what the big deal was about her performance in Kids. I thought she was great in American Beauty (but thought Hilary Swank was better in Boys Don't Cry), but with this film...eh, I don't see it. At least with Portman, it's one of her best performances (her best, IMO) she's ever done. Also, she will be the second person born in the '80s (more specifically the early '80s) to win an Oscar (at least in the acting category...I don't keep track of the ages of the people who win Oscars in the other categories!) The first was Anna Paquin. Oh, and how annoyed do you bet Katie Holmes is that (the younger) Michelle Williams now has two Oscar nominations and Katie has zero? Hahaha.

Best Supporting Actor:

Christian Bale, "The Fighter"

John Hawkes, "Winter's Bone"

Jeremy Renner, "The Town"

Mark Ruffalo, "The Kids Are All Right"

Geoffrey Rush, "The King's Speech"

I have seen all of these performances except for Renner's. I thought Bale and Rush did the best job. Bale won the GG and SAG while Rush won the Bafta (even though Bale is British and Rush is Australian, but I guess British movies trump American ones at the Baftas!) While it's possible Rush could upset (and it has been awhile since he won his Oscar for Shine in 1997), I think this one will go to first-time nominee Christian Bale. I was really impressed with him in The Fighter; there were times when I couldn't believe it was Christian Bale because it didn't look like him at all. 

Best Supporting Actress:

Amy Adams, "The Fighter"

Helena Bonham Carter, "The King's Speech"

Melissa Leo, "The Fighter"

Hailee Steinfeld, "True Grit"

Jacki Weaver, "Animal Kingdom"

If there are any surprises in the major categories (which is highly doubtful because the Oscars are so annoyingly predictable and when there are surprises, they piss me off, like when Crash won Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain in 2006), I hope it's in this category. While it's true Melissa Leo is the frontrunner after winning the GG and SAG, her chances may have dwindled after those frivolous consideration ads where she's dressed in furs and they have nothing to do with her film. Plus there's always the chance she could split votes with Amy Adams. I'm hoping this happens because I'm rooting for Hailee Steinfeld. Not just because she had my favorite performance (although I have yet to see Weaver's), but I really, really want to see a kid win an Oscar. The last time a kid won an Oscar was Anna Paquin (the first person born in the '80s to win an Oscar!) way back in 1994. I didn't start watching the Oscars until '98, so I missed that telecast. I suppose it would have been more exciting to see a kid win an Oscar when I was a kid, but whatever. (Natalie Portman is my age, so it will be cool to see someone my age win). And even though Steinfeld was clearly the lead in True Grit (duh), maybe being placed in the supporting category helps her chances because she wouldn't be able to compete against Portman. Win or lose (and most likely Leo will win), I hope this leads to good roles for Steinfeld - perhaps as Katniss Everdeen? (Sorry, another shameless plug!) Hey, we know what she looks like with a braid at least! 

Best Animated Film:

Toy Story 3

How To Train Your Dragon

The Illusionist

Of course Toy Story 3 will win this; it would be kind of silly for it to be nominated as one of the Best Pictures of the year and not win Best Animated Film. I kind of wish that it and How to Train Your Dragon had come out different years because I really loved them both! Like I mentioned earlier, they will be both going on my top ten movies of 2010 list. 

Be Our Guest

Beauty and the Beast
Directors: Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise
Voice Talent: Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Angela Lansbury, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers
Released: November 22, 1991

Oscar nominations:
Best Picture (lost to Silence of the Lambs)
Best Sound (lost to Terminator 2)
Best Song - "Beauty and the Beast" (won)
Best Song - "Belle"
Best Song - "Be Our Guest"
Best Score - Alan Menken (won)

What is it about this beloved Disney film that can still entice audience members of all ages even after nearly twenty years (!!!) of its release? Is it the timeless story of a beautiful girl who befriends a hideous beast? Is it the gorgeous animation? Is it the catchy songs? Is it the fact the Belle is possibly the first Disney princess whose goal in life isn't to marry a prince, but instead actually has a mind of her own? Is it because it's the first animated movie ever to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture? For me, it's all of these reasons.

The Disney version of Beauty and the Beast is the only one I'm familiar with. I know it's a timeless story and there have been a few variations of it, but all of my knowledge comes from what Disney told me. I'm sure there are no talking clocks or candelabras or teapots in the other tellings of the story!  I remember seeing this movie in the theaters, but I don't remember crying during it which is what I did when I recently watched it. I cried about, oh, six different times. I cried when Belle and the Beast fought and she ran away, I cried when they were dancing, I cried when the Beast released Belle, I cried when Gaston tried to kill the Beast, I cried when Belle returned, I cried at the ending. I was just a mass of tears. Thank God I watched this alone. This movie really tugs at the heartstrings.

Even twenty years later, the animation really holds up. It is quite possibly, one of the most beautifully animated movies ever made. The scene that still gives me chills is when Belle and the Beast are dancing in the grand ballroom (and that has to be one of the most spectacular architectural structures I've ever seen, animation be damned!) Obviously that had to be computer animated to get the sweeping and 360 camera effects, but it works to the film's advantage as it makes for an epic scene.

The Academy obviously loved the songs in this film since they nominated three of them for Best Song. Out of all the songs in the movie, they're my favorites. "Gaston" is a clever and funny song, but I don't care for it as much as the others and "Something There" is a nice little ditty (and the only one where the Beast gets to sing), but it kind of reminds me of a Christmas song with the bell sounds. Even though "Beauty and the Beast" is the title song and was made into a pop single, I would say that "Be Our Guest" is probably the movie's best known song. (Yes? No?) In fact, for some reason, I had thought it was the winner of Best Song that year. "Be Our Guest" is a very infectious song and can get stuck in your head for days after listening to it. ("Try the gray stuff, it's delicious! Don't believe me? Ask the dishes!")  Plus Lumiere (the candelabra) sings it and he's my favorite character. "Belle" is a great theatrical song that starts the movie and introduces us to our main character and becomes a grand production by the end. It's a five minute song with both singing and dialogue and I know it verbatim. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this was the first time a Disney film released one of its songs as a single on the radio, being the title song sung by Celine Dion and Peabo Brysan. (In fact, Celine Dion was virtually an unknown singer (in the States, at least) when she recorded this song, that's how long ago it was!) One of the special features on the Blu-ray is a music video of Jordin Sparks singing the song and it is bland and generic. I don't blame it on Jordin, she sounds fine singing it (though, let's be honest, she's no Celine Dion), I blame it on whoever produced it. It's just so white bread bland and Poppy McAutotuned. It doesn't have the grand sweeping sound that the Celine/Peabo version has. Listen to the two versions back to back and you will see that the Jordin one fails in comparison. This is an irritating thing Disney does with a lot of their songs: they make updated versions with pop stars. Listening to Jessica Simpson sing "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid made my ears bleed. It's like Cogsworth says, "If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it!" (I'm depending on all of you to have seen the movie to get that). Alright, I'm done with that little tangent.

Belle has always been one of my favorite Disney princesses because she's not vain and waiting for her Prince Charming to rescue her. In fact, she even refuses Gaston's offer of marriage even though he was (relatively) good-looking and would probably offer her a stable life. Any other Disney princess probably would have taken his offer, but not the strong-willed and independent-minded Belle. I never understood why Gaston just didn't go after one of those three blonde girls who were always swooning over him after Belle rejected him so many times. I know he says that he wants to marry Belle because she's the most beautiful girl in town, but those blondes certainly weren't ugly. Also, it's nice that you get to see the relationship between Belle and the Beast evolve as usually the Disney Princess sees her Prince Charming and it's Love at First Sight! :::gag::: I know there are a lot of haters out there who say that the Beast should have remained a beast and that it's what's on the inside that counts, not the outside. I do get what they're saying, but c'mon. First of all, it's a Disney movie, so he has to turn into the handsome prince. Second of all, the point of the spell was that it would only be broken if he found someone to love him and if he did, he would be able to return to his human self. Third of all, um...bestiality anybody?

Beauty and the Beast made history when it was the first animated movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. True, Up and Toy Story 3 have since been two more animated movies to be nominated in that category, however they were one out of ten movies that were nominated while Beauty was one out of five. If the Academy still had five slots, there's no way those movies would have made it in. Also, there was no category for Best Animated Film back then (and who knows if it still would have secured a slot for Best Picture if there had been), so the fact that it made it in is pretty amazing.

Hot Crustacean Band

The Little Mermaid
Directors: Ron Clements and John Musker
Voice Talent: Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Samuel E. Wright, Buddy Hackett, Rene Auberjonois
Released: November 17, 1989

Oscar nominations:
Best Original Score (Won)
Best Song - "Under the Sea" (Won)
Best Song - "Kiss the Girl" (See above)

After watching Waking Sleeping Beauty, I decided to return to my childhood and watch some of my favorite animated Disney movies again. I'm starting with The Little Mermaid because it's one of the first movies I remember seeing in the theaters, and, of course, one of the first Disney movies I remember seeing.

I remember reading the Hans Christian Anderson version around the time I was in middle school and being horrified by it because it was definitely not the Disney version. It was a lot more twisted and sadistic. For instance, the sea witch cuts off the mermaid's tongue and the mermaid dies in the end. Yeah, if Disney had made it like that, I think a lot of children would have been scarred for life!

However, this is a much more happier story (duh, it is Disney, after all). We meet Ariel, a feisty sixteen-year-old mermaid who longs to be "part of that [human] world". She has a secret cave where she keeps all her treasurers from the human world, which she's found from shipwrecks. She has to keep it a secret because her father, King Triton, does not want their world interacting with the human world and forbids Ariel from going to the surface (although they kinda have to because mermaids are  half-human, thus they are mammals and need to BREATHE!) and tells Ariel, "You will do what I tell you as long as you're living under my ocean!" which I thought was a great line.

After Ariel's been misbehaving, Triton asks Sebastian (the crab and my favorite character) to look after her and make sure she doesn't get into any mischief. But, really, what can a little crustacean do? Nothing. Ariel goes to the surface where she notices a ship and immediately falls in love with Prince Eric and decides she wants to spend the rest of her life with him even though she's never spent any time with him and is only "in love" with him because she thinks he's hot, pretty much. There's a huge storm and Ariel ends up saving Eric and bringing him to the shore and sings to his unconscious body. He wakes up and wants to find the girl who saved him and marry her.

So Ariel asks Ursula the Sea Witch to give her legs and Ursula tells her she will as long as Ariel gives her her voice in return. Ariel has three days to get the Prince to fall in love with her: if she does she will remain human forever, if not, Ariel will become one of Ursula's little sea creatures and become a prisoner forever. So, like a total dolt, Ariel agrees and signs the contract.

I have to say, for someone who has never walked in her entire life, Ariel sure got used to having legs pretty fast! Sure she was a little skittish at first, but, by golly, she soon learned how to be steady and walk on her feet!

One of the funniest scenes of the movie is when Ariel is eating dinner with Eric and his father and sees a fork on the table and starts combing her hair with it. In an earlier scene in the movie, Scuttles (the seagull) tells Ariel that it's used for human hair. That scene always makes me laugh. I mean, she's combing her hair with a fork at the dinner table! Speaking of Ariel's hair, the animators were going to make her a blonde because there was an unwritten rule that all mermaids are blonde, but decided to make her have red hair because it would compliment nicely with her green tail and it looked better "under water". Plus she matches Sebastian!

This movie has a great soundtrack, as is evident by its Oscar wins for Best Song and Best Score. I mentioned this before in my Waking Sleeping Beauty review, but it bears repeating because it's so outrageous: Part of That World almost didn't make it into the movie! That's one of the most important songs in the movie! It's the song where Ariel wants to be human and asks burning (haha) questions such as, "What's a fire, and why does it, what's the word? Buuuuurn!"

And of course, everyone knows Under the Sea, the song that everyone connects to this movie. It has a great island/calypso beat and sounds like it should be playing nonstop at an island resort theme park or something. I also feel like I should be sipping on a pina colada when I listen to it. I love this song; it always makes me smile. My favorite line is "What do they got? A lot of sand! We've got a hot crustacean band!"

Kiss the Girl is also another great song - that Sebastian sure can sing! I like how the little sea animals are creating the music in the background. The songs in this movie are very catchy and hold up well. Despite a few flaws, the whole movie holds up quite well itself. But then again, this film was a big part of my childhood, so it's hard not to like it.

Front and Center

Center Stage
Director: Nicholas Hynter
Cast: Amanda Schull, Zoe Saldana, Susan May Pratt, Peter Gallager, Donna Murphy
Released: May 12, 2000

Center Stage isn't the greatest film and the acting is pretty awful, but yet I've seen it numerous times and own the DVD. This is a little perplexing because I'm not a dancer, have never danced in my life, and couldn't dance to save my life.  So why do I love this movie so much? Because it's the best dance movie ever made, that's why! I mean, the whole dance sequence at the end with the motorcycle and the two main leads dancing to Michael Jackson's The Way You Make Me Feel was just pure genius.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The movie starts with our main character, Jodie (Schull who presumably got the part because she's a dancer) getting into the American Ballet Academy and trying to vie for a spot in one of the prestigious companies and there are only a few spots open for that.

Her roommates are Eva (Saldana) and Maureen (Pratt). Eva has an Attitude with a capital A. She's black, so she's tough and from the hood, yo. While she's a good dancer, her dance instructors do not like her rebellious ways. Maureen is a huge bitch, but you can't blame her because while she's a good dancer (well, of course they're all good dancers or else they would never have gotten accepted to ABA!), her heart isn't in it. See, the only reason why she's dancing is because it's her mother's dream for her to dance. Maureen's mother is a bigger bitch than Maureen: when her daughter confided in her that she was throwing up her meals, her mother replies, "Well, it's good to watch your weight!" Hmmm...somehow I don't think that's very good parenting. Maureen's mother is not pleased when she finds out that her daughter is secretly seeing a boy and -GASP- going out and eating pizza.

Jodie falls for Cooper, who is a professional dancer and a total douche bag. After an intimate night together, she thinks they will be together forever, but when she discovers that Cooper is blowing her off and flirting with other girls, she is so heartbroken. Well, duh. The guy is a total douche (albiet a great dancer). However, she forgives him (and ends up with the only straight male dancer from her class) and ends up dancing for his Company because she prefers his style of dancing to the more traditional ways of the older teachers.

The acting is horrible, but the film has some great dance sequence: the one at the end and the one where Jodie enrolls in a dance class and they dance to Mandy Moore's Candy and the Red Hot Chilli Pepper's Higher Ground. I love the music in this movie so much that I even own the soundtrack.

Even though I'm not a dancer, the movie gives a pretty good indication that the life of a ballet dancer is not a fun one: long hours of rehearsal, watching what you eat, puking up what you eat, not being able to have a life. Geeze, no wonder Natalie Portman went so crazy in Black Swan!

Drawing Lines

Waking Sleeping Beauty
Director: Don Hahn
Released: March 26, 2010

This is a fascinating documentary about being an animator at Disney that spans from 1984 to 1994. It starts right around the time Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg joined the team as CEO and studio head of Disney. With the dismal box office of The Black Cauldron (which is a movie I think is VERY underrated) and their competition blowing them out of the water, they knew it was time to turn things around.

They hired more animators and Roy Disney promised an animated feature to be released every year. This started in 1988 with the release of Oliver and Company, which made more than its competition at the time, The Land Before Time. (I loved that movie! Remember the little triceratops named Cera? Haha!)

To help with The Little Mermaid, a film that had been denied to make before because Disney had recently released Splash (in 1984 - quick sidenote: there was a clip of a news anchor saying that Splash had made six million dollars at the box office its first weekend and that implied it was a hit. Wow. If a movie only made six million dollars in a weekend today, it would be a huge bomb!) Maybe it was lucky they waited a few years to make The Little Mermaid because they got the music team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman to write and compose the memorable songs from that movie. I learned that Katzenberg wanted to take out "Part of Your World" because it didn't get a good reaction at a screening. That may not be the most popular song in the movie, but it's certainly an important one - it tells the audience what Ariel's hopes and dreams are, and plus I love that song!

So of course The Little Mermaid is a huge success and wins the Oscar for Best Song ("Under the Sea"). The next year, is not so with the release of their next animated film: The Rescuers Down Under. It barely gets any advertising and they move on with their next film, which is their most critically acclaimed and the first animated movie to be nominated for an Oscar: Beauty and the Beast. They showed an unfinished version (just pencil drawings, nothing had been colored in yet) at the New York film festival and received a standing ovation. They're on a roll and their next movie is Aladdin which was also a big hit.

The funniest part of the movie for me was when they were next working on The Lion King and Pocahontas (to be released in '94 and '95, respectively) and Katzenberg wanted them to concentrate more on Pocahontas because he thought it would be the bigger hit because people would love the "Romeo and Juliet" type love story and didn't think African animals would translate to the screen as easily. Hmm, I'm beginning to think this guy should never bet on anything! Because we certainly know how that turned out! Let's see: Pocahontas: made 141 million domestically. Certainly not bad at all. But compare that to The Lion King which made about 300 million domestically.

I highly recommend this documentary.

And I said, What about...

Breakfast at Tiffany's
Director: Blake Edwards
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Buddy Ebsen, Patricia Neal, Mickey Rooney
Released: October 5, 1961

Oscar nominations:
Best Actress - Audrey Hepburn (lost to Sophia Loren for Two Women)
Best Adapted Screenplay - George Axelrod (lost to Abby Mann for Judgement at Nuremberg)
Best Art Direction, Color (lost to West Side Story)
Best Original Song - Moon River (won)
Best Score - Henry Mancini (won)

When I think of Breakfast at Tiffany's, two words spring to my mind: iconic and overrated. Everyone knows the character of Holly Golightly and her fashionable wardrobe (most notably her little black dress, tiara, and her cigarette holder). Besides maybe Star Wars, I can't think of any other movie that's often mentioned in other movies and TV shows. Whether you've seen it or not, you are familiar with this film. Everyone has heard of Audrey Hepburn and Holly Golightly is her best known role. Hollywood has touted Natalie Portman/ Keira Knightley / Carey Mulligan and who knows who else as "the next Audrey Hepburn", but why do we need to have another Audrey? Isn't she one in a million? She has a certain charm she eludes as Holly that I don't think any actress working today could copy.

I enjoyed the film, but I didn't salivate over it. It's such a classic that I thought it was high time I see it already...nearly fifty years after its release! (Although I did have an excuse for the first thirty years as I wasn't born yet / would have been too young). Even though Audrey is very charming and fashionable, there were times when I wanted to yell, "Shut up, already!" She reminded me of somebody you've just met for the first time and they feel like they need to tell you their whole life story.

I've composed a list of my favorite things about the movie in no particular order:

That orange wool coat!

1. The fashion. How did this movie not even get nominated for a Best Costume Oscar?!?!?! It's preposterous! Every time Holly was shown wearing a new outfit, I kept thinking "Ooh, I want that!" That pink dress! That orange wool coat! That trench coat! Those hats! I was envious of her sleepwear; even her ear plugs and sleeping mask were fashionable. Hell, this movie even made me want to start up smoking so I could wave around a cigarette holder. (I jest.)

2. Moon River. Beautiful song and if that indeed was Audrey singing, she has a beautiful voice. It deserved its Oscar.

3. Holly's cat, Cat. Cat bears a striking resemble to my cat, Milo, so guess I'm a little biased. They're both male, both tabbies, and both have similar coloring. Perhaps he's an ancestor of Milo!

4. Without the Truman Capote novel the film was based on, we would have never gotten the film and without the film we would have never gotten to hear one of the best one-hit wonders from the '90s that first graced our radios in 1995. That's right, I'm talking about the single by Deep Blue Something aptly called "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Best. Song. Ever. (Taken after the name of a film title).

Besides the movie being vastly overrated, really the only thing I didn't like about it was the cringe worthy performance of Mickey Rooney as Holly's Japanese landlord. Oh, and when Holly complained she was turning into a "fat pig". You're a freaking waif!

Breakfast at Tiffany's: overrated or a classic?