lee_eisenberg

One could make the argument that Disney was just starting to figure out what they wanted to do when they released "El terrible toreador", so we can forgive its banal plot. Even so, it comes out pretty bland, and has kind of a creepy ending (did they really intend this for children)?

Probably the most grating thing is the fact that the setting looks like a cross between Spain and Mexico, essentially implying that the countries are the same thing. Having been to both countries, I can affirm that they are not. As for bullfighting, the cartoon that offered the most enjoyable portrayal was Chuck Jones's "Bully for Bugs", wherein a certain wisecracking rabbit has to become a matador. Incidentally, this cartoon's musical director Carl Stalling later moved to Warner Bros. And did the music for the Looney Tunes cartoons.

Having entered the public domain this year, the cartoon is available on Wikipedia.

I had heard about Jeffrey Blitz's "Spellbound" when it got released, but only now got around to seeing it. In addition to focusing on the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee, the documentary shows the lives of the various participants, coming as they did from different social strata. One girl had no help from anyone and was lucky to have the skills to enter, while another boy saw had a tutor come in to drill him on words for several hours each day; sounds stressful.

The scenes where the youngsters spelled out the words kept me on the edge of my seat, just waiting to hear if they going to spell a word right or wrong. Indeed, there were some words that I had never heard of; I guess that this doc is a way to increase one's vocab.

All in all, it's an impressive story. The only drawback is that a lot of the sound recording is ambient sound, so you'll have to turn the volume up. Otherwise, it's some great stuff.