Small fandoms and mundane epicness
yuletide nominations are up, yay! I had eight possible fandoms written down, so I scrapped two of them (Juno and Hellboy) and nominated the following six:
Carnivale
Diana Wynne Jones - Magids series
Kirsten Miller - Kiki Strike series
The Magic Flute aka Die Zauberflöte
Nochnoi Dozor aka Night Watch series (movie)
Selma Lagerlöf - Löwensköld series
I may end up wishing for something else entirely, of course, though I think I'll make a wish for Charlotte Löwensköld just to see if anyone would be brave enough to take me up on it. :-) That was the only one apart from The Magic Flute that I had to write in. I considered specifying 1975 movie for The Magic Flute, but then I figured, why limit my options like that? The dialogue is almost identical regardless of version, so if they write one version I can just imagine another...
***
Newest fandom love in my nominated bunch is Nochnoi Dozor, which I saw with D. the other week. Its reviews have been very mixed, but I fell hard for the mix of mundane and epic, with the forces of Light and Darkness having a talk in a rundown apartment, and the unlike hero being so very unlikely. IMO, even when Hollywood tries to do mundane it usually fails, because everything is perfectly lit, set, and made up. This movie really made me feel like gods and monsters were just around the corner. It reminded me of that scene in The Kindly Ones where Lyta is hallucinating the streetlights into cyclops and cats into goddesses.
Plus, those subtitles! *Fangirls the subtitles* For those of you who haven't seen the film, the subtitles are animated and give a very cool, comic-book-y kind of feel to the film. I haven't seen the sequel yet since I've only been able to find it dubbed, and while dubbing is always evil, dubbing as an alternative to subtitles like these is a crime. (Does anyone know where I can find a subtitled version?)
***
With this craving for mundane epics, I proceeded to see Neverwhere, which was also entirely lovely. I think I'm a bit in love with the Marquis de Carabas. But then, I suppose that's a common ailment for viewers of Neverwhere. (I'm also tickled by the name, since I played Puss in Boots when I was 13.) Of course, there was a lot of eyecandy in this stuff - I liked Laura Fraser a lot better than in Casanova, and Hunter was gorgeous too.
There were complaints on imdb that Richard was a bumbling idiot, but this strikes me as a meaningless quarrel, since bumbling idiots are a time-honoured tradition of both fantasy (see abovementioned unlikely hero, as well as Taran, Luke Skywalker, and Harry Potter) and Britain (see, for instance, Coupling, or any Hugh Grant movie ever). Richard struck me as entirely suitable for the part.
I have more understanding for the complaints about the budget, but after 40-something old-school Doctor Who eps I have been brainwashed to find shoestring budgets charming. :-) Anyway, with a fantasy world as raggedy as London Below, it doesn't matter much.
***
In other movie news, I spent the other night watching Mickey Mouse Monopoly on YouTube. The most fascinating part wasn't the documentary itself, but that the comments kept complaining that the doc was "reading too much into the films." For me, Disney has never been an epitome of innocence and childhood pleasures. On the contrary, my experiences have been ambivalent, bordering on a guilty pleasure.
I watched the Christmas specials religiously every year and own several of the movies, but the Donald Duck comics were frowned upon in my home and Swedish television opted out of buying Disney cartoons when I was a kid because they were expensive and trashy. (And when the cartoons started showing, though I watched, I did realize that they were indeed trashy.)
The first Disney movie I saw was The Rescuers Down Under, at a time when I was old enough to know that sequels were Not Good. The second one I saw was The Little Mermaid, where I became hysterical in the cinema since I assumed that it would end the way the fairy tale does (which makes everything else in the movie a hell of a lot scarier). I was baffled at some commenters defending Disney with "well, they're basing their movies on fairy tales," because once you've let the mermaid marry the prince, fidelity to the source is just not a viable excuse anymore.
Disney, like McDonalds, are pleasures with a bad reputation, happy-making cotton candy that's bad for your teeth. Disneyfication is an insult. As an adult, I often feel the need to apologize for my love of Disney movies - and as a result, the documentary felt like it was pounding down open doors. But judging from the comments, apparently not.
***
And, on a final note, I've rekindled my love for Moonlighting and am purring with every episode. I mean, how can you not love a show with this kind of dialogue? The only thing I have against this show is that it's making me like Bruce Willis which is simply against nature.
Carnivale
Diana Wynne Jones - Magids series
Kirsten Miller - Kiki Strike series
The Magic Flute aka Die Zauberflöte
Nochnoi Dozor aka Night Watch series (movie)
Selma Lagerlöf - Löwensköld series
I may end up wishing for something else entirely, of course, though I think I'll make a wish for Charlotte Löwensköld just to see if anyone would be brave enough to take me up on it. :-) That was the only one apart from The Magic Flute that I had to write in. I considered specifying 1975 movie for The Magic Flute, but then I figured, why limit my options like that? The dialogue is almost identical regardless of version, so if they write one version I can just imagine another...
***
Newest fandom love in my nominated bunch is Nochnoi Dozor, which I saw with D. the other week. Its reviews have been very mixed, but I fell hard for the mix of mundane and epic, with the forces of Light and Darkness having a talk in a rundown apartment, and the unlike hero being so very unlikely. IMO, even when Hollywood tries to do mundane it usually fails, because everything is perfectly lit, set, and made up. This movie really made me feel like gods and monsters were just around the corner. It reminded me of that scene in The Kindly Ones where Lyta is hallucinating the streetlights into cyclops and cats into goddesses.
Plus, those subtitles! *Fangirls the subtitles* For those of you who haven't seen the film, the subtitles are animated and give a very cool, comic-book-y kind of feel to the film. I haven't seen the sequel yet since I've only been able to find it dubbed, and while dubbing is always evil, dubbing as an alternative to subtitles like these is a crime. (Does anyone know where I can find a subtitled version?)
***
With this craving for mundane epics, I proceeded to see Neverwhere, which was also entirely lovely. I think I'm a bit in love with the Marquis de Carabas. But then, I suppose that's a common ailment for viewers of Neverwhere. (I'm also tickled by the name, since I played Puss in Boots when I was 13.) Of course, there was a lot of eyecandy in this stuff - I liked Laura Fraser a lot better than in Casanova, and Hunter was gorgeous too.
There were complaints on imdb that Richard was a bumbling idiot, but this strikes me as a meaningless quarrel, since bumbling idiots are a time-honoured tradition of both fantasy (see abovementioned unlikely hero, as well as Taran, Luke Skywalker, and Harry Potter) and Britain (see, for instance, Coupling, or any Hugh Grant movie ever). Richard struck me as entirely suitable for the part.
I have more understanding for the complaints about the budget, but after 40-something old-school Doctor Who eps I have been brainwashed to find shoestring budgets charming. :-) Anyway, with a fantasy world as raggedy as London Below, it doesn't matter much.
***
In other movie news, I spent the other night watching Mickey Mouse Monopoly on YouTube. The most fascinating part wasn't the documentary itself, but that the comments kept complaining that the doc was "reading too much into the films." For me, Disney has never been an epitome of innocence and childhood pleasures. On the contrary, my experiences have been ambivalent, bordering on a guilty pleasure.
I watched the Christmas specials religiously every year and own several of the movies, but the Donald Duck comics were frowned upon in my home and Swedish television opted out of buying Disney cartoons when I was a kid because they were expensive and trashy. (And when the cartoons started showing, though I watched, I did realize that they were indeed trashy.)
The first Disney movie I saw was The Rescuers Down Under, at a time when I was old enough to know that sequels were Not Good. The second one I saw was The Little Mermaid, where I became hysterical in the cinema since I assumed that it would end the way the fairy tale does (which makes everything else in the movie a hell of a lot scarier). I was baffled at some commenters defending Disney with "well, they're basing their movies on fairy tales," because once you've let the mermaid marry the prince, fidelity to the source is just not a viable excuse anymore.
Disney, like McDonalds, are pleasures with a bad reputation, happy-making cotton candy that's bad for your teeth. Disneyfication is an insult. As an adult, I often feel the need to apologize for my love of Disney movies - and as a result, the documentary felt like it was pounding down open doors. But judging from the comments, apparently not.
***
And, on a final note, I've rekindled my love for Moonlighting and am purring with every episode. I mean, how can you not love a show with this kind of dialogue? The only thing I have against this show is that it's making me like Bruce Willis which is simply against nature.