dwpollar

1st watched 1/9/2025 - (Dir-Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske & Jack Kinney) *version watched was missing Pecos Bill with cigarette/tornado scenes* Well done group of shorts showing the inventiveness of the Disney animators once again. This set, for the most part, focuses on the music of the time with jazz, some classical remixes, country and even Mexican. A few longer stories like "Johnny Appleseed", "Little Toot", and "Pecos Bill" finish the set. Unfortunately, the headlined "Pecos Bill" segement with Roy Rogers is the least satisfying and ends the movie on a low note. The other shorts shine through, especially "Once Upon a Wonderland", "Blame it on the Samba" , the Johnny Appleseed story, and "Little Toot." This is a somewhat forgotten feature that should be a normal part of their canon. It's obvious that the part live-action "Blame it on the Samba" , where a live piano player is super-imposed with animation was a test for further efforts like "Mary Poppins" and "Song of the South" and showed that it was a success. Bravo to Disney - Disney and animation fans alike should cherish this effort and have it in their collection.

1st watched 9/28/2024: Engaging question/answer documentary with some of the makers of the classic movie "Forrest Gump". Introduced by Elizabeth Daley of the University of Southern California and hosted by her with Robert Zemeckis, Eric Roth, Gary Sinise, and Tom Hanks sixteen years after the movie came out. Hanks is always entertaining, and the detail provided by the writer Roth, director Zemeckis, costar Sinise and himself brought lovers of movies entranced in the information. Done at the campus in front of audience of the students, supposedly in the same field, allowing them some questions. Well done piece for anyone interested in the business of movie-making as I am.

1st watched 4/20/2024 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Paul Tibbett, Mike Mitchell & Virginie Mery) Fair 2nd entry in the Spongebob movie franchise that just isn't enough like the TV show to be enjoyed completely.

And just a little too much bloated action-fare for me. It starts with Antonio Banderas(playing a pirate) retrieving a book from skeletons that allows him to alter the storyline for Spongebob and Bikini Bottom. Some cute animated birds become the listener's to the tale. We than head down to Bikini Bottom with Plankton playing hardball in trying to get the formula for the coveted Krabby Patty. In a weird twist, Plankton and Spongebob team up to get the formula after it mysteriously disappears. The journey takes them from time traveler to land and ends there. I watched the movie originally in French with English subtitles because the first place in theaters it played was in Belgium, but knowing it loses it's luster - I watched again with the English-language original voice actors but it didn't help much. No matter what --- there is too much action and twisted plots, and not enough Spongebob humor in this over-the-top second movie attempt.