Paiiin
Shoveled snow for four hours. The pain didn't come until about two hours after lunch when I was like, "Why are my arms hurting so much? OHHHH THE SHOVELING." Pain makes me fatigued, so now I'm sleepy. That's the downside of coming home. The upside is eating chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips - cooked by my sister - and watching a bunch of movies.
Yesterday, I watched Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The random urge to rewatch this movie that I've only seen once (maybe twice) came over me recently, so I dug up the video and watched it with my dad and sister. If there's one thing I realize, it's that a lot of the movie went completely over my 10-year-old head.
For example, I missed all the religious references (I mean, I had no idea what an archdeacon was, or that Notre Dame was a cathedral). And I TOTALLY missed the whole point of the Hellfire song, which was showing that Frollo was lusting after Esmerelda. When I was a kid, I thought he just wanted to kill her or something. Needless to say, the part in the cathedral when he sniffs her hair and says he was imagining a noose around her neck, and Esmerelda says, "I know what you were thinking." ... er... yeah, went over my head.
The Hellfire song was the best song, by the way. Most of the songs in the movie are not really that memorable in terms of tune and lyrics, with the exception of Hellfire. Plus, the song is hilarious. Frollo is interrupted in the middle by a soldier (at which point, my sister had to quip, "Do you mind? I'm in the middle of a very personal song."). After the song finishes, he collapses flat on his face on the floor. Then the next morning:
[Frollo emerges from his carriage rubbing his forehead wearily.]
Phoebus: Good morning, sir. Are you... feeling all right?
Frollo: I had a little... trouble with the fireplace.
o_ô;; My favorite part of the movie is this, though:
Frollo: A?
Quasi: Abomination.
Frollo: B?
Quasi: Blasphemy.
Frollo: C?
Quasi: C... Contrition!
Frollo: D?
Quasi: Damnation.
Frollo: E?
Quasi: Eternal damnation.
Frollo: Very good. F?
Quasi: Festival.
Frollo: Excuse me?
Quasi: F-Forgiveness.
I thought that was clever. But what kind of alphabet is this anyway...? Is Quasimodo given a set of words to memorize, or does he have to think of them on the spot?
Anyway, other things I noticed upon watching it a second time:
I noticed that the movie is very busy. During the scenes of Paris, there are a huge number of people walking around and moving, plus effects like confetti. It's definitely not lazy animation.
Second, I am still disturbed and scared by the scene where Quasimodo is tied up and humiliated in the town square.
Third, the final conflict is quite a bit like The Lion King in that the "bad guy", who has told the young good guy all his life some lie regarding his parent's death, decides to reveal the truth ("I killed your father."), arousing the shock and anger of the good guy.
---
EDIT (3/27/07): Oh yeah, I've been vaguely thinking about something and it just made sense to me now -- when I was young, I always assumed that the comic-relief sidekick gargoyles, the type of minor character that appears in practically every Disney movie, were real. But now that I think about it (and many people must have also come to this conclusion), maybe they're actually just a part of Quasimodo's mind.
One thing supporting this interpretation is that the gargoyles essentially only have one function -- encouraging Quasimodo to do something that he has some reservations about. In the three times the gargoyles give a talk to Quasimodo, they don't stray from this purpose, so it's possible that the gargoyles are in actuality the segment of Quasimodo's mind that represents freedom and acting on what he really wants.
In addition, the gargoyles are never alive in the presence of others (with the exception of Djali, who sees Hugo come alive), not even Esmerelda, whom Quasimodo trusts, suggesting they are more private or abstract than normal Disney sidekick characters.
---
Last, The Hunchback of Notre Dame... should TOTALLY be featured as a world in Kingdom Hearts III, just for the awesome locations. You've got the streets of Paris, Notre Dame (seriously, the KH staff could go CRAZY with the cathedral), the windmill (which looks quite a lot like the windmill in the old Frankenstein movie), and the gypsy hideout under the graveyard.
Seriously, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is now the top item on my list of Disney movies that should TOTALLY be featured as a world in Kingdom Hearts III.
So far, the list looks like this:
Speaking of Kingdom Hearts, I watched Tron today for the first time. It was pretty good. Throughout the movie I was basically like, "Oh! That's in the Kingdom Hearts! Hey, the music reminded me vaguely of Kingdom Hearts just now!" I thought it was funny how they made the computers have a religion ("Do you believe in the Users?") where the keepers of the I/O towers are the "priests" since they link computers with users.
I also liked how, although Flynn was the main character, he wasn't the hero who always saved the day. Each person had their own role to play. Gah, that rhymed.
Yesterday, I watched Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The random urge to rewatch this movie that I've only seen once (maybe twice) came over me recently, so I dug up the video and watched it with my dad and sister. If there's one thing I realize, it's that a lot of the movie went completely over my 10-year-old head.
For example, I missed all the religious references (I mean, I had no idea what an archdeacon was, or that Notre Dame was a cathedral). And I TOTALLY missed the whole point of the Hellfire song, which was showing that Frollo was lusting after Esmerelda. When I was a kid, I thought he just wanted to kill her or something. Needless to say, the part in the cathedral when he sniffs her hair and says he was imagining a noose around her neck, and Esmerelda says, "I know what you were thinking." ... er... yeah, went over my head.
The Hellfire song was the best song, by the way. Most of the songs in the movie are not really that memorable in terms of tune and lyrics, with the exception of Hellfire. Plus, the song is hilarious. Frollo is interrupted in the middle by a soldier (at which point, my sister had to quip, "Do you mind? I'm in the middle of a very personal song."). After the song finishes, he collapses flat on his face on the floor. Then the next morning:
[Frollo emerges from his carriage rubbing his forehead wearily.]
Phoebus: Good morning, sir. Are you... feeling all right?
Frollo: I had a little... trouble with the fireplace.
o_ô;; My favorite part of the movie is this, though:
Frollo: A?
Quasi: Abomination.
Frollo: B?
Quasi: Blasphemy.
Frollo: C?
Quasi: C... Contrition!
Frollo: D?
Quasi: Damnation.
Frollo: E?
Quasi: Eternal damnation.
Frollo: Very good. F?
Quasi: Festival.
Frollo: Excuse me?
Quasi: F-Forgiveness.
I thought that was clever. But what kind of alphabet is this anyway...? Is Quasimodo given a set of words to memorize, or does he have to think of them on the spot?
Anyway, other things I noticed upon watching it a second time:
I noticed that the movie is very busy. During the scenes of Paris, there are a huge number of people walking around and moving, plus effects like confetti. It's definitely not lazy animation.
Second, I am still disturbed and scared by the scene where Quasimodo is tied up and humiliated in the town square.
Third, the final conflict is quite a bit like The Lion King in that the "bad guy", who has told the young good guy all his life some lie regarding his parent's death, decides to reveal the truth ("I killed your father."), arousing the shock and anger of the good guy.
---
EDIT (3/27/07): Oh yeah, I've been vaguely thinking about something and it just made sense to me now -- when I was young, I always assumed that the comic-relief sidekick gargoyles, the type of minor character that appears in practically every Disney movie, were real. But now that I think about it (and many people must have also come to this conclusion), maybe they're actually just a part of Quasimodo's mind.
One thing supporting this interpretation is that the gargoyles essentially only have one function -- encouraging Quasimodo to do something that he has some reservations about. In the three times the gargoyles give a talk to Quasimodo, they don't stray from this purpose, so it's possible that the gargoyles are in actuality the segment of Quasimodo's mind that represents freedom and acting on what he really wants.
In addition, the gargoyles are never alive in the presence of others (with the exception of Djali, who sees Hugo come alive), not even Esmerelda, whom Quasimodo trusts, suggesting they are more private or abstract than normal Disney sidekick characters.
---
Last, The Hunchback of Notre Dame... should TOTALLY be featured as a world in Kingdom Hearts III, just for the awesome locations. You've got the streets of Paris, Notre Dame (seriously, the KH staff could go CRAZY with the cathedral), the windmill (which looks quite a lot like the windmill in the old Frankenstein movie), and the gypsy hideout under the graveyard.
Seriously, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is now the top item on my list of Disney movies that should TOTALLY be featured as a world in Kingdom Hearts III.
So far, the list looks like this:
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame: For the above reason about the location. But I guess that the cast of this movie is very unique as well.
- Robin Hood: Caravan raids, archery competitions, prison breaks... This movie has it all. Plus, it has an interesting cast of anthropomorphic animals and lots of room for a Kingdom Hearts storyline. None of the characters by themselves are distinctive enough to show up as summons or single characters, but together, they're part of a pretty interesting world.
- Snow White: I really just want to see the dwarves KH-enized. Plus, this has potential in terms of storyline and enemies. The Snow White story is kind of boring, but it does have a great villainess, the Queen, who reminds me a lot of Maleficent, but unlike Maleficent, has not appeared in Kingdom Hearts. You'd have to tweak the storyline in order for it to be more interesting, but I think this could work.
- Pocahontas: I'm not sure how you'd fit the storyline or Heartless/other enemies into a Pocahontas world, but I really think Pocahontas deserves a world. It has great locations, interesting characters (like... Ratcliffe! XD) and a female character who could be a guest party member. There aren't a lot of those, so you have to take what you have. The problem is that Pocahontas is not a good vs. evil story but a story about trying to stop two groups of people from fighting. So... it doesn't really make for a good Kingdom Hearts plot. But still... I'm actually surprised that none of the Pocahontas characters have appeared in the KH games yet. EDIT (3/27/07): Just wanted to add that a Pocahontas story could work. Maybe the Heartless/Nobodies/[insert new enemy here] are disrupting the Jamestown colony and the Indian tribe and causing them to distrust each other... or something like that?
- The Jungle Book: Sora would fit right into The Jungle Book! The world would basically be the Tarzan world in KH1. Just replace Tarzan with Mowgli, the gorillas with Baloo, the elephant with Baguera (sp?), and the leopard with Shere Khan and voila!
Speaking of Kingdom Hearts, I watched Tron today for the first time. It was pretty good. Throughout the movie I was basically like, "Oh! That's in the Kingdom Hearts! Hey, the music reminded me vaguely of Kingdom Hearts just now!" I thought it was funny how they made the computers have a religion ("Do you believe in the Users?") where the keepers of the I/O towers are the "priests" since they link computers with users.
I also liked how, although Flynn was the main character, he wasn't the hero who always saved the day. Each person had their own role to play. Gah, that rhymed.