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Eric - 2008-07-07 04:02:02
Thomas Newman is quite easily my favorite composer-American Beauty, Little Children, Nemo, Series of Unfortunate Events, Road to Perdition-all really terrific scores. I didn't even know he did Wall-E until the credits, and I should have realized after liking the music so much.
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Tom G. - 2008-07-07 06:08:55
I worship Randy Newman, but uniformly hate his movie songs
I think "Strange Things", "I Will Go Sailing No More" from Toy Story and "When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2 can co-exist with his album work pretty well. They are some of my favorite songs of his. But yes, most of the rest is not up to his par.
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Paula - 2008-07-07 12:58:49
Ya know, I've never seen Toy Story. I think I need to 'flix it.
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Sharon - 2008-07-07 15:39:14
Wall-e. I didn't like it. I couldn't get past the whole post-apocolytic-dystopia-fun-for-the- whole-family dissonance. Come on, man! If you're involved in a multi-million-dollar PIXAR/Disney production, where do you get off stickin' it to the corporations and fat suburban Americans? I saw it with 6 kids, 4 said it was so-so and not as good as "Kung-Fu Panda"(boys) or "Enchanted" (girls) and the two littlest boys, my four-year-old nephew (named Wally!) and his buddy loved it for the gizmos.
Under the Spell of Tom Warnick.The Friday gig sounds Fantastic Hope I can make it.
Randy Newman. You are so right about his cinema work not being as good as his other work. (useless trivia: I think his uncle was a famous composer of screen music in the 1940s?) Two songs of his worth revisiting in the wake of Katrina - Louisiana 1927 (check out piquant details like Calvin Coolidge and Plaquemine Parish)and the one about his mom going back to New Orleans-Dixie Flyer- not a wasted word, "dress as black as a crow in a coal mine"...
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Chris - 2008-07-07 16:41:05
Paula. Toy story is a wonderful film. Toy story 2 is a rare follow up that is equal to the original.
One of the many outstanding features of Wall-e is the use of a roach as the "cute" sidekick. No fast food tie ins there. Just one more way Pixar keeps subverting the paint by number family entertainment genre.
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Paula - 2008-07-07 16:51:47
If you're involved in a multi-million-dollar PIXAR/Disney production, where do you get off stickin' it to the corporations and fat suburban Americans?
A valid criticism of Disney, but I can't hold that against the film itself, cuz at least it was attempting to be a cry of dissent against that tendency...
I was obsessed with RN's album Good Old Boys when I was in the 6th & 7th grade. I may write in depth about this someday, so I won't go into detail. But Randy Newman is a huge influence on me.
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grigorss - 2008-07-07 17:46:47
I don't want to get into the whole anti-corporate message/corporate pawn debate here, but I do want to say that my favorite part of the movie is its opening half-hour or so, where not a word of dialogue is spoken, but a whole lot is communicated -- that was pure cinema, folks.
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Paula - 2008-07-07 17:54:23
my favorite part of the movie is its opening half-hour or so
Agreed.
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Sharon - 2008-07-07 18:21:55
Paula, Here's a line from Dixie Flyer I was trying to retrieve from my memory bank..."a great green Hudson driven by a gentile we knew..."
Grigorss- I agree the first half-hour is thought-provoking and interesting. Wall-e's dwelling place was pretty visually amazing. Although, for dystopian creatures and gizmos I would recommend the ur-wall-e cinema creations of the Brothers Quay. And I have nothing against dystopia. One of my favorite films as a kid was "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" (not the Day the EArth Stood Still)I was a weird kid. I guess in Wall-e I didn't like the mix of cuteness and bleakness. Or perhaps my irritation had more to do with my nephew's spilling his popcorn all over the place and losing his premiere day promotional tie-in "Wall-e" watch, which I had to try to find in the dark!
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Tom G. - 2008-07-07 19:12:20
Or perhaps my irritation had more to do with my nephew's spilling his popcorn all over the place and losing his premiere day promotional tie-in "Wall-e" watch, which I had to try to find in the dark!
Was anyone able to set those darn things??? It has two "buttons" which were not aligned properly with the underlying mechanism and impossible to press without cutting the entire thing open. Argh.
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Sharon - 2008-07-07 19:19:49
Argh,indeed!
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Sharon - 2008-07-07 22:53:58
Paula- It's none of my business, but why oh Why are you going to cut your long shiny Carino hair?!
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Paula - 2008-07-08 03:19:36
Oh, I wouldn't cut it short! Just a trim. But thanks for the support. :)
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MacGregor - 2008-07-08 11:35:11
Toy Story is a pretty deep movie on a lot of levels... very profound themes buried in what was marketed as a children's film. I read an academic paper recently that was based on it (wish I still had a copy) and was truly moved and had to go out and rent it again. It covered the immigrant experience, alienation, racism and such, all in a way that would have been much more difficult to do in any meaningful way were it not an animated feature.
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Chris - 2008-07-08 14:31:37
Over the course of bringing up three children I must have seen Toy Story close to 50 times. Its about as perfect movie as there is. Also has a great chase scene at the end!
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