TheWorkingDead
Posts 237
|
12/16/2007 3:46 AM
posted awhile ago
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...
... is Halloween. Everyone knows that. But coming in a close second(or maybe third, Thanksgiving has more pies) is Christmas. No offense to anyone in this group who isn't catholic/christian/baptist or what-have-you. To me Christmas is more traditional than religious, and even if you don't participate in any of the practices and traditions, that goodwill, multicolored, brightly lit houses and festive attitude are infectious. So what are your favorites from childhood, where you would spend this cold winter month huddled in a blanket in front of a warm, roaring television set? Owing to the group's name, we'll limit this to family/children's movies, which unfortunately leaves out Scrooged, Black Christmas, and possibly a Christmas Story. For me, I think it'd have to be The Year Without a Santa Claus. The Rankin/Bass specials all have their charm, and they could probably just be put up there as one great big 'favorite', but YWASC has long been my favorite. And I'll tell you why in two words: Heat Miser. And it's all because of that song. Sure, Cold Miser sang just about the exact same thing, changing only a few words, but he was a little too whiny for me. Plus I think the arrangement of the song fits better with Heat Miser's color scheme. Which is probably the weirdest thing I could say about this feature, but it always seemed to fit Heat Miser better than Cold Miser. But I digress...
|
|
|
pippin06
Posts 446
|
12/17/2007 12:46 PM
posted awhile ago
Re:The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...
Definitely in this order: A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And I still watch all of them today. I own the Charlie Brown one. I think Christmas is about comfort, and watching those films is like comfort-food because of the reminder of the huddled blankets and good stuff like that. Simpler times. And the message of Charlie Brown can't be denied: what the meaning of Christmas is, because it's too commercial nowadays.
|
|
|
indieabby88
Posts 270
|
12/17/2007 4:55 PM
posted awhile ago
Re:Re:The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...
Charlie Brown Christmas is an undeniable classic. My dad always gets a little sniffly when Linus gets up and starts reciting the Christmas story. He's a softie (eye roll). My grandpa has a Grinch that we bought him a few years ago. He brings it out every year and makes us watch the video.
|
|
|
Risselada
Posts 1367
|
12/18/2007 2:34 PM
posted awhile ago
Re:Re:The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...
Right now I'm actually understudying for a theatre show of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. So far I've played Yukon Cornelius, Charlie in the Box, and Hermey. The Annoyance theatre actually does these Christmas shows every year. And they have done both A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the past as well.
|
|
|
indieabby88
Posts 270
|
1/9/2008 12:02 AM
posted awhile ago
Re:The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...
Okay, I know it's post-Christmas, so I'm a bit late with this one, but I was in Hastings the other day and saw something that reminded me: "Hook," for some reason, is a movie I used to really enjoy watching around Christmas as a kid. Fantasy movies in general are always good fun around the holidays. I realize that "Hook" is not an amazing movie, but if you love something during your childhood, your enjoyment of it is kind of hard to shake.
|
|
|
pippin06
Posts 446
|
1/9/2008 9:51 AM
posted awhile ago
Re:Re:The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...
I think Hook is pretty amazing. Why must artistic sensibilities always trump entertainment value? There might be flaws, but as you said, it's an enjoyable film. Sometimes, I think being enjoyable can be pretty amazing in and of itself. Many children's movies are enjoyable to adults, and that's amazing too. I don't know. I always feel very defensive and protective about Hook. It's one of my many faves.
|
|
|
indieabby88
Posts 270
|
1/9/2008 10:51 AM
posted awhile ago
Re:Re:Re:The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...
Me too! Thank goodness it's not just me.
|
|
|
Risselada
Posts 1367
|
1/10/2008 12:42 PM
posted awhile ago
Re:Re:Re:The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...
 pippin06:I think Hook is pretty amazing. Why must artistic sensibilities always trump entertainment value? There might be flaws, but as you said, it's an enjoyable film. Sometimes, I think being enjoyable can be pretty amazing in and of itself. Many children's movies are enjoyable to adults, and that's amazing too. I don't know. I always feel very defensive and protective about Hook. It's one of my many faves.
I don't think many people really put down a movie if they think it's enjoyable, but for me personally, some kind of artistic quality is entertaining to me. So they aren't necessarily separate things.
|
|
|
pippin06
Posts 446
|
1/10/2008 11:06 PM
posted awhile ago
Re:Re:Re:Re:The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...
Oh, you're absolutely right. They're not always separate. I mean, I like looking for that artistic quality too and appreciating it, especially in those movies "meant" to be artistic. But sometimes pictures get made purely for the ride; Spielberg does that a lot, actually. And sometimes, people feel they have to justify liking a movie because it doesn't live up to some kind of golden artistic standard. I think there are movies that are intentionally and wholly for the entertainment side that get castigated because that's why they were made. It's actually something I've been wrestling with a lot now that I've been expanding my own film-watching pursuits. Everyone's a critic, and everyone likes what they like, but I think my comment came from the fact that I've been reading a lot of reviews (not just here) that put down films for certain reasons, completely losing sight of why they might have been made, and then indieabby qualified liking Hook, which is a fun movie to watch (and was made for that purpose in mind), and it all prompted me to make a generalization, kind of in frustration, because what is art in a film is really in the eye of the beholder anyway. Plus, I just really like Hook. :-) So yeah.
|
|
|
Risselada
Posts 1367
|
1/11/2008 1:40 PM
posted awhile ago
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...
Sure I know what you are saying definitely. I think in a way entertainment is an artform itself. So that's why I say if it's entertaining to me, there's some kind of art there. Also I think you are saying some people might criticize a movie for not having anything profound to say and just being kind of fluff. I actually prefer a movie that relies on the more this kind of entertainment when it's clear the fimmakers knew that's what kind of movie it was, rather than a movie that really is just a bunch of fluff but they tried to force in some kind of fake "meaning". Unfortunately it's usually the latter that happens.
|
|
|