My perception of Cinderella in this presentation is that she is strong willed and holding the moral high ground, rather than being weak and passive as alleged by some pundits, and it is gratifying to see so many fellow reviewers with similar opinions. Some naysayers say she should have run away, but in that era what could she have done other than be a prostitute? She would not have had the benefit of strong advocates for women's rights such as we have now. If she had tried to defy her tormentors she would have been outnumbered 3 to 1 and they could have forcibly evicted her or physically beaten her. She held the moral high ground by always being courteous to her tormentors rather than stooping to their level, and she got needed respite by dreaming about better things to come and holding out hope for it to happen.
Reviews
6 Reviews
Mary Poppins
(1964)
Chuckles, smiles and tears
15 August 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I was blown away by this picture in my youth, and have retained my high regard for it to this day. I wish to tell how my reaction has evolved over the decades.
Some reviewers have said the song and dance features were too long, and perhaps that is a reasonable criticism. However, I think "Step in Time" provides valuable comic relief in the midst of the poignant scenes around it. When I saw it at age 17 shortly after its premiere, I was not very responsive to those scenes. Now at age 75, and having recently been through four years as my mother's full time end of life caregiver, I am highly sensitized. I started getting a bit weepy when Mary Poppins remarked that sometimes someone we love, through no fault of his own, cannot see past the tip of his nose; and went on to sing "Feed the Birds" to the children. I see her as having sized up Mr. Banks as a good man who was bound up in a stuffy company manners straitjacket, perhaps as a result of his upbringing. My guess is that he was raised exactly as he was attempting to raise his children. Bert's talk with the frightened children after the panic at the bank brought more tears, as did his gentle words of wisdom when Mr. Banks was in despair after the phone call from the bank. When the children apologized to their father and returned the tuppence, and he plaintively thanked them before his grim journey to the bank, I just lost it. Without "Step in Time" in the midst of all of this it might have been unbearably intense. I found myself having sympathy for him when it would have been easy to hate him in a lesser piece of storytelling. I give Walt Disney and his team a thumbs up for strong writing.
Some reviewers have said the song and dance features were too long, and perhaps that is a reasonable criticism. However, I think "Step in Time" provides valuable comic relief in the midst of the poignant scenes around it. When I saw it at age 17 shortly after its premiere, I was not very responsive to those scenes. Now at age 75, and having recently been through four years as my mother's full time end of life caregiver, I am highly sensitized. I started getting a bit weepy when Mary Poppins remarked that sometimes someone we love, through no fault of his own, cannot see past the tip of his nose; and went on to sing "Feed the Birds" to the children. I see her as having sized up Mr. Banks as a good man who was bound up in a stuffy company manners straitjacket, perhaps as a result of his upbringing. My guess is that he was raised exactly as he was attempting to raise his children. Bert's talk with the frightened children after the panic at the bank brought more tears, as did his gentle words of wisdom when Mr. Banks was in despair after the phone call from the bank. When the children apologized to their father and returned the tuppence, and he plaintively thanked them before his grim journey to the bank, I just lost it. Without "Step in Time" in the midst of all of this it might have been unbearably intense. I found myself having sympathy for him when it would have been easy to hate him in a lesser piece of storytelling. I give Walt Disney and his team a thumbs up for strong writing.
Pollyanna
(1960)
A wholesome, compelling movie for viewers of all ages.
27 December 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I will try to keep this relatively brief, as many others have written at length as well as I could, if not better. Some have said the picture was too long, but it held my attention throughout, moving me to lots of chuckles and in the last few minutes plenty of tears.
I have no quarrel with the abrupt and emotionally jarring mood change of the last few minutes. Life-threatening accidents such as this one happen abruptly, and once again, Walt Disney did not sugarcoat everything. Aunt Polly was the lone holdout while everyone else was having a jolly good time at the bazaar, and it took this ghastly event to force her to come around. While she was told that no one was blaming her, I would say she realistically blamed herself for having driven Pollyanna to sneaking out and back by dangerous means.
If I choose to be a stickler for medical realism, I would not expect Dr. Chilton to carry Pollyanna in his arms or have her sitting up aboard the train upon its departure. With a paralyzing spinal injury I would expect her to be carried on a stretcher and to have a hospital bed aboard the train, with Aunt Polly paying the railroad for whatever was needed. However, I am fine with suspending disbelief here. This is about the outpouring of love from the people that got Pollyanna out of her initial despondency and restored her to good spirits, and it played beautifully. While the ending left unanswered the question of whether or not she would recover, we the viewers can be swept up into optimism as the crowd cheers her on as the train departs.
I have no quarrel with the abrupt and emotionally jarring mood change of the last few minutes. Life-threatening accidents such as this one happen abruptly, and once again, Walt Disney did not sugarcoat everything. Aunt Polly was the lone holdout while everyone else was having a jolly good time at the bazaar, and it took this ghastly event to force her to come around. While she was told that no one was blaming her, I would say she realistically blamed herself for having driven Pollyanna to sneaking out and back by dangerous means.
If I choose to be a stickler for medical realism, I would not expect Dr. Chilton to carry Pollyanna in his arms or have her sitting up aboard the train upon its departure. With a paralyzing spinal injury I would expect her to be carried on a stretcher and to have a hospital bed aboard the train, with Aunt Polly paying the railroad for whatever was needed. However, I am fine with suspending disbelief here. This is about the outpouring of love from the people that got Pollyanna out of her initial despondency and restored her to good spirits, and it played beautifully. While the ending left unanswered the question of whether or not she would recover, we the viewers can be swept up into optimism as the crowd cheers her on as the train departs.
The Three Lives of Thomasina
(1963)
Touching story about people dealing with grief in various ways.
15 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Thomasina was a cat, but the story is primarily about the people around her, and her influence on their lives. They include Andrew MacDhui and his 6-year-old daughter Mary, on whom Thomasina had moved in as a stray seeking a home, and Lori MacGregor, a reclusive young woman who lived alone in a glen in the hills overlooking the little town of Inveranoch in the Highlands of Scotland.
Andrew was a veterinary surgeon who was bringing modern veterinary care to the animals of Inveranoch and vicinity. He was emotionally traumatized by the untimely death of his wife, and he reacted by withdrawing into a shell from which he was unable to empathize with people's love for their pets. He was unable to empathize with Mary's heartbreak when he had Thomasina put down when she was seriously injured and appeared to have tetanus. Thomasina had been Mary's primary love interest after her mother's death, and Mary's sense that her father had let her down after promising that he would take care of the cat was too much for her. She reacted by rationalizing that he was dead, and she ignored his attempts to talk to her.
As it happened, Thomasina survived but suffered amnesia after her near-death experience. Andrew had made his promise to Mary and dealt with the cat in haste while being preoccupied with emergency surgery on a blind man's guide dog, and his assistant apparently did not use enough chloroform to get the job done. Mary and her young friends thought she was dead and interred her in a cairn up in the glen. Lori appeared and discovered that she was still alive and took her home, where she had numerous sick and injured animals in her care. Lori had been hit hard emotionally by seeing her parents die in a shipwreck, but unlike Andrew she had not been hardened. She had deep faith in God and a rare, almost magical loving way with troubled animals, such that even wild ones trusted her rather than fearing her, which helped in their healing. She was alone in the sense of being separated from her fellow citizens, yet she seemed not to be alone.
Circumstances brought Andrew and Lori face to face, and they discovered that each had something that the other needed but lacked. Andrew had the surgical skill that Lori saw as an answer to her prayers for help when she had a severely injured animal that could not recover on its own. Lori's simple faith and compassion started penetrating his previously impregnable psychological shell.
The story came to a climax when Mary became gravely ill with pneumonia and started losing the will to stay alive. In desperation Andrew persuaded Lori to come and see her. By now Lori's influence had led him to understand how much he had hurt Mary, and he sought to have her compassionate way help him and Mary alike. In the meantime, Thomasina regained her memory, came home, and inspired Mary to start recovering and trusting her father again. Thomasina was portrayed as living two of her allotted nine lives and starting a third life. The story ended happily with Andrew and Lori getting married.
The movie has some faults as can be seen in the Goofs section, but they are minor lapses as far as I am concerned. This story touched me recently as it never did when I was in high school at the time of its premiere. The main characters experienced grief and its aftereffects, of which I have had plenty since being a full-time caregiver for my elderly mother for four years until her death a few years ago. I have heard from whom I consider reliable sources that you do not "get over it" but rather learn to live with it and gain the ability to avoid being dominated by it. The characters eventually did so in a heartwarming manner, with excellent presentation by the actors and actresses who portrayed them. I give Paul Gallico, author of the original novel, and Walt Disney a thumbs-up.
Andrew was a veterinary surgeon who was bringing modern veterinary care to the animals of Inveranoch and vicinity. He was emotionally traumatized by the untimely death of his wife, and he reacted by withdrawing into a shell from which he was unable to empathize with people's love for their pets. He was unable to empathize with Mary's heartbreak when he had Thomasina put down when she was seriously injured and appeared to have tetanus. Thomasina had been Mary's primary love interest after her mother's death, and Mary's sense that her father had let her down after promising that he would take care of the cat was too much for her. She reacted by rationalizing that he was dead, and she ignored his attempts to talk to her.
As it happened, Thomasina survived but suffered amnesia after her near-death experience. Andrew had made his promise to Mary and dealt with the cat in haste while being preoccupied with emergency surgery on a blind man's guide dog, and his assistant apparently did not use enough chloroform to get the job done. Mary and her young friends thought she was dead and interred her in a cairn up in the glen. Lori appeared and discovered that she was still alive and took her home, where she had numerous sick and injured animals in her care. Lori had been hit hard emotionally by seeing her parents die in a shipwreck, but unlike Andrew she had not been hardened. She had deep faith in God and a rare, almost magical loving way with troubled animals, such that even wild ones trusted her rather than fearing her, which helped in their healing. She was alone in the sense of being separated from her fellow citizens, yet she seemed not to be alone.
Circumstances brought Andrew and Lori face to face, and they discovered that each had something that the other needed but lacked. Andrew had the surgical skill that Lori saw as an answer to her prayers for help when she had a severely injured animal that could not recover on its own. Lori's simple faith and compassion started penetrating his previously impregnable psychological shell.
The story came to a climax when Mary became gravely ill with pneumonia and started losing the will to stay alive. In desperation Andrew persuaded Lori to come and see her. By now Lori's influence had led him to understand how much he had hurt Mary, and he sought to have her compassionate way help him and Mary alike. In the meantime, Thomasina regained her memory, came home, and inspired Mary to start recovering and trusting her father again. Thomasina was portrayed as living two of her allotted nine lives and starting a third life. The story ended happily with Andrew and Lori getting married.
The movie has some faults as can be seen in the Goofs section, but they are minor lapses as far as I am concerned. This story touched me recently as it never did when I was in high school at the time of its premiere. The main characters experienced grief and its aftereffects, of which I have had plenty since being a full-time caregiver for my elderly mother for four years until her death a few years ago. I have heard from whom I consider reliable sources that you do not "get over it" but rather learn to live with it and gain the ability to avoid being dominated by it. The characters eventually did so in a heartwarming manner, with excellent presentation by the actors and actresses who portrayed them. I give Paul Gallico, author of the original novel, and Walt Disney a thumbs-up.
Fantasia
(1940)
Disney Masterpiece, for People of All Ages
6 March 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I first saw this movie as an impressionable 8-year-old child. I had been exposed to classical music from infancy, so I could appreciate what was being done, with guidance from my music-loving parents. In adulthood as a professional musician my fascination and respect for this pioneering work continued to grow. The crowning glory in my personal experience came a few years ago when I decided to treat my mother to an evening at the movies. She was past 90 and in failing health, and I chose this one because it is a series of short features which can stand on their own, and it would be easy to stop if it was getting to be too much for her. As it turned out she sat entranced for the whole two hours, and at the end she started crying and thanked me profusely for giving her a chance to see and hear it while she was still alive to do so. At a time when she knew she would not live much longer it was heartwarming to see her respond as passionately as did the hippies and college students who finally made it a commercial success starting in the 1960s. Now that she is no longer with us, watching it and remembering that night bring tears to my eyes in tender moments in "Nutcracker", "Pastoral Symphony" and "Ave Maria".
To me the musical and visual diversity from one episode to the next are marvelous and the technical detail blows my mind. Many details have been discussed at length in these pages, so I will limit myself to mentioning one that particularly sticks in my memory. It is an audio-visual gag that is a whimsical juxtaposition of the dainty and the grotesque. In "Dance of the Hours" a dainty pizzicato (plucked) note from a violin is sounded as an elephant plops hard onto the ground when the bubble on which it had been floating burst. That is always good for a chuckle.
I can watch the movie repeatedly and keep on discovering artistic touches I had not noticed before. In my opinion Walt Disney and his talented crew of artists did themselves proud on this one.
To me the musical and visual diversity from one episode to the next are marvelous and the technical detail blows my mind. Many details have been discussed at length in these pages, so I will limit myself to mentioning one that particularly sticks in my memory. It is an audio-visual gag that is a whimsical juxtaposition of the dainty and the grotesque. In "Dance of the Hours" a dainty pizzicato (plucked) note from a violin is sounded as an elephant plops hard onto the ground when the bubble on which it had been floating burst. That is always good for a chuckle.
I can watch the movie repeatedly and keep on discovering artistic touches I had not noticed before. In my opinion Walt Disney and his talented crew of artists did themselves proud on this one.
Oklahoma!
(1955)
Great Show, Perhaps a Bit Too Long
15 February 2021
The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Oklahoma!" is a masterpiece of American theater, and this cinema production is superb for the most part. It is perhaps too long, but I realize this is subjective. Agnes de Mille's dance productions are great and I would not delete any of them, but I think they could have been shortened a bit without any loss of effectiveness. This would have left room for Ali Hakim's "It's a Scandal, it's an Outrage!" and Jud's "Lonely Room". The former was a great highlight in the high school stage performance in which I participated back in 1966, in which a Dutch foreign exchange student gave a marvelous portrayal of the Persian peddler. I really miss it here. One thing that bugged me a bit in the movie was the sound of Gertie's laugh. I have heard that a convincing laugh is one of the harder things for an actor to do on cue. The girl in our school production sounded natural, while Barbara Lawrence in the movie sounded forced, sometimes more like the whinny of a horse.
What really surprised me was comparing the two film versions as transferred to DVD in my 50th anniversary edition. I expected the Todd-AO to be sharper than the CinemaScope, but what I saw on my giant TV set was just the opposite.
These faults notwithstanding, I would put this one solidly in the superior range.
What really surprised me was comparing the two film versions as transferred to DVD in my 50th anniversary edition. I expected the Todd-AO to be sharper than the CinemaScope, but what I saw on my giant TV set was just the opposite.
These faults notwithstanding, I would put this one solidly in the superior range.
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