Weekend Viewing

[Derf]

This past weekend I was able to watch several movies. I even made it to the theater, a rarity for me.

Wizards. I saw this one in the theater and had fond memories of it, but hadn't seen it since. I finally bought a copy and watched it. It is an enjoyable movie still, but much more disjointed than I remembered. There's a lot that makes little sense from a narrative standpoint. People on this board have commented on the mixture of animation styles. I guess it works in this movie, but much of it does look very cheap (which is fine since it was done for budgetary reasons anyway). Ralph Bakshi comes across as a very self-absorbed, conceited twit in the interview in the extras, comparing his work to Disney, calling Disney cartoons lies and his work art with heart. There are some nice things in this movie, but the "heart" is questionable. I found out watching this that Mark Hamill voiced one of the parts just before doing Star Wars and that George Lucas and Bakshi did a little wrangling behind the scenes over the names (Wizards was originally titled Wizard Wars and Lucas didn't want two fantasy movies with "Wars" in the title coming out so close together, so Bakshi agreed to shorten his movie title to Wizards).

Hellboy. Yes, I'm just getting around to seeing this. I'd never heard of the comic book, but it looked interesting enough that I wanted to see it, eventually. Casting Ron Perlman as Hellboy was a great choice, and I'm glad Guillermo del Toro stuck to his guns in this decision. The script wasn't bad, though I expected more in the way of wisecracks. In the end, I was glad I watched this flick, but it wasn't as good as the previews made it look.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I really enjoyed this movie. My wife still hasn't decided about it. I saw Wilder's Willy Wonka in the theater (I even got a Golden Ticket as a special theater giveaway, which I, sadly, long ago lost). I love Wilder's version, but I also enjoyed Depp's portrayal. Casting Deep Roy as the Oompa-Loompas was a great idea; his performances were a highlight of the movie. Wonka's backstory with his father (Christopher Lee) adds some depth and makes Wonka's character much more believable than it would be otherwise. Aside from Charlie, the look of the kids reminds me strongly of the original; my wife didn't notice it, but it struck me as each new child was introduced that he or she looked very similar to the corresponding child in Willy Wonka. I guess that doesn't really add to or take away from the movie; it's just something that struck me. Danny Elfman's score is, of course, wonderful, and it was nice that he used some of Roald Dahl's lyrics for the Oompa-Loompa songs.

[daveblackeye15]

I've only so far seen Wizards and that is a good one. Some parts are a little corny but I enjoy it. I've that Bakashi made this as a practice to the animated Lord of the Rings...who'd have thought that the "proto-type" would be over five times more entertainig than that lame ass movie.

[Yaddo 42]

The first time I tried to watch "Wizards" after years of seeking it out, I fell asleep.  When I saw it fully later, I was underwhelmed. I had more fun picking out what films Bakshi was using to fill out the backgrounds in some of the scenes. I was willing to forgive the limits in the animation, and the look as products of their time and the budget. But the characters themselves never interested me.

Maybe I should check out CATCF. I think I was the only kid who hated the earlier movie when I was little and saw it on TV. The bratty kids were too annoying for me to put up, and Charlie just seemed too good to be true to me even then. I knew it was a fantasy, and played very broadly, but I couldn't warm up to it and never understood why other kids liked it so back then. Having seen it now that I'm older, I understand why they do like it, but it still doesn't appeal to me. Sadly, I've yet to read any of Dahl's kids books, so it wasn't based on any comparison to the source book. But what I've read of the new movie sounds kind of interesting to me.