Family Movie Night: The Hobbit

Title: The Hobbit
Director: Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Original Release: 1977
Choice: Mine
My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Image via Lord of the Rings Fanatics Site

We've been in Hobbit-prep mode for over a year at our house.  The first installment of Peter Jackson's three-part live action interpretation opens on December 14th.  In anticipation, I've been reading Tolkien to my daughter since last summer.  Here are my write-ups so far:

Bedtime Stories: The Hobbit
Bedtime Stories: The Fellowship of the Ring

My own Tolkien adventures began with the made-for-TV animated film of 1977.  In fact, I think it may have been one of my very first video rentals.  The production team of Rankin/Bass are best-known for their Christmas specials, most notably Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman.  The animation work for The Hobbit was done by Topcraft, a precursor to Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli. 

An unofficial trailer:



Watching the film again all these years later, what's most interesting to me is the pace.  By Tolkien standards, this one really whips along.  Despite the short length (only 77 minutes), Rankin and Bass were able to squeeze in a fair amount of the book.  As such, there isn't much dawdling allowed.  Most gratifying is the fact that so much of Tolkien's original language was preserved, including Thorin's farewell speech to Bilbo - my own favorite passage.

Multi-generational considerations:

• This is definitely a film for kids.  The pacing is less satisfying for an adult who knows the full story.  That said, considering the time and resources available, this film is admirable work.
• The music is definitely hokey.  I remember thinking "The Greatest Adventure" was a great song when I was a kid.  Now it just seems silly.
• I'm glad that my daughter was exposed to the book before the movie.  She was disappointed that things were left out.  I'm very proud of our Tolkien snob in-training.
• Our excitement for the Jackson film has only been hightened.

*****

My Rating System:

5 = The best of the best.  These are the films by which I judge other films.
4 = High quality films which I feel could hold up well in repeated viewings.
3 = The vast majority of films.  They're fine.  Once was enough.
2 = I wasn't even sure I wanted to finish it.  It's not a 1 because I'm not prepared to say it's a terrible film - just not my cup of tea.
1 = A terrible film.  An insult to the art form.

I'm with the Band: Alabama

Band: Million Dollar Band
University: The University of Alabama
Founded: 1912
Current Director: Dr. Kenneth Ozzello
Fight Song: "Yea Alabama"
Today's Home Game: Texas A&M, 2:30 p.m.

This year mark's the Million Dollar Band's 100th anniversary.  The following promotional video is very nicely done, especially fun for all of the old footage:



It's my blog so I get to indulge my inner geek, right?  The following videos are of the same song but filmed from two different sections of the band.  Green Day's "Basket Case":

Double Barrel #6

Title: Double Barrel
Issue: #6
Release: November 2012
Writers: Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon
Artists: Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon

Image via Double Barrel

In the Cannons' latest, Hector and Elliott have a dramatic encounter with Geryon (he's the guy with the big purple head on this month's cover) in Zander's Heck.  In Kevin's Crater XV, Pravda's memory has returned.  She now remembers Army from her childhood.  For anyone with curiosity about the technical aspects of comics, Kevin's use of word balloons is really interesting.  Extras this month are Kevin's Penny from the Front, Zander's Here Me Is! and How To: This final section, in which the creators provide insights into their process, has become my favorite part of Double Barrel.  In this installment, Zander offers reflections on his experiences as a freelance layout artist.

In other exciting Cannon-related news, Kevin is the cover artist for this week's Village Voice.

Double Barrel can be purchased wherever eBooks and web comics are sold.  I got mine at ComiXology.  I hope you'll join me in supporting this engaging work.

My Football Fantasy: Lavonte David

College League: won, 74.20-66.54 (6-3 overall, 4th place out of 12 teams)
Vermont League: won, 113.40-88.52 (3-6, 9th out of 12)
My Player of the Week: Lavonte David (Linebacker, Buccaneers) with 14 solo tackles and 2 assisted tackles

 

Photo via Tampa Bay Times

For the second week in a row, my star was a rookie linebacker.  David is a native Floridian but went to college at Fort Scott Community College (Kansas), then Nebraska.  He set the Huskers' single-season record for tackles in his senior year.

Family Movie Night: Mary Poppins

Title: Mary Poppins
Director: Robert Stevenson
Original Release: 1964
Choice: Our Girl's
My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Image via Wikipedia

Mary Poppins is, of course, a film classic.  It's become an important story for our family as well.  The audiobook of the original P.L. Travers novel, charmingly narrated by Sophie Thompson, has been a favorite on road trips.  Also, Our Girl's dance studio used the story as its central theme for a recital a few years back.  Our Girl was one of the dancing penguin waiters.  She knows the movie well enough to know when "her part" is coming up.



Mary Poppins is also an essential chapter in one of the great career-launch stories.  Julie Andrews was already a Broadway legend by the time she made her film debut as Mary.  However, the only reason she was available was that she'd been passed over for the role of Eliza Doolittle in the film version of My Fair Lady, the very part which had carried her to stardom on stage.  The producers at Warner Bros. felt she wouldn't be a big enough draw.  They cast Audrey Hepburn instead with Marni Nixon dubbing the songs.  While both films were enormously successful, Andrews surely had the last laugh.  She won the Oscar for Best Actress and Poppins was Disney's biggest box office hit to that point.  The following year, she starred as Maria in The Sound of Music, cementing her place as ruling queen of the Hollywood musical pantheon.

Multi-generational considerations

• Our Girl claims to like the film version better but I prefer the book and I'm pretty sure My Wife does, too.  If anything, the book has enhanced my appreciation for the movie.

*****

My Rating System:

5 = The best of the best.  These are the films by which I judge other films.
4 = High quality films which I feel could hold up well in repeated viewings.
3 = The vast majority of films.  They're fine.  Once was enough.
2 = I wasn't even sure I wanted to finish it.  It's not a 1 because I'm not prepared to say it's a terrible film - just not my cup of tea.
1 = A terrible film.  An insult to the art form.

Look! I've Been Tagged!

Photo via Hawaii Kawaii Blog

My blogger pal, Suze, has tagged me in a game.  She explains the concept thusly:

For this tag, participants are charged with reproducing a scrap of a manuscript in which the word, 'look,' first appears and then passing the baton onto five other bloggers. I'd like to tag

L. Diane Wolfe
Michael Offutt
L.G. Smith
Charles the Reader
Heather Murphy

Participate only if you want to, make it as lengthy or brief as you like.  I look forward to your offerings. 

The thing is, I don't exactly have loads of manuscripts sitting around unfinished.  For the most part, blogging suits my writing style just fine - simple ideas in short spurts.  That said, I would like to publish one book before I ride off into the sunset.  As such, I am taking Suze's tag as a kick in the pants to get to work.  Perhaps this is the beginning, the middle or maybe a false start.  Time will tell.  For now, I plug my nose and jump in...

“How do I look?” she asks, self-assessing in the mirror.

“That’s a completely unfair question, you realize,” I respond, reclining on her bed.

“I know, every man’s nightmare dilemma – no possible answer that won’t get you in heaps of trouble.  Don’t worry.  I won’t ask if I look fat.”  We both laugh.  “I’m serious.  What do you think of them?”

“Think of what?”

“These blue hair clips.  I picked them up in Harajuku this afternoon.  I thought they looked cool.”  Cool.  It’s a word I barely understand. 

“Why do you care what I think?”

“You’re the one who’s going to be seen with me.  You’re a man.  You have opinions.  You must have some sense of style.”  We both know perfectly well that I don’t.

“You’re just going to ignore what I say and do what you want.”

She grins at that.  “Possibly.  I still want to know what you think.  Come on, we need to get going.”

What do I think?  I take in the whole presentation.  Soccer sneakers even though she doesn’t play.  Jeans that are non-descript to my eyes but probably exactly the right fit, cut, color, whatever.  The sort of soccer-style jersey I used to get as a hand-me-down in the 1970s but is somehow the height of fashion for teenage girls in Tokyo 20 years later.  Or maybe in London?  Both?  Neither?  She’s all woman underneath. But the outward projection is tending in a different direction.  She’s pursuing an ideal that even she seems to know she’ll never attain.  The hair clips, a translucent, junky plastic, are only part of the problem.  But that’s not what I say.

“You look like you’re about eight years old.”

“Okay,” she says.  In one swift motion, the clips come off, set on the dresser and already forgotten.  Was I too honest?  Is she hurt?  Offended?  Apparently not.  As soon as she got the answer she needed, it was as if the entire conversation had never happened. 

“Let’s go.”

I'm with the Band: Auburn

Band: Auburn University Marching Band
University: Auburn University
Founded: 1897
Director: Dr. Corey Spurlin
Fight Songs: "War Eagle" and "Glory to Ole Auburn"
Today's Home Game: New Mexico State at 11:30 a.m.

Photo via Auburn

Pre-game, outside the stadium:



2010 SEC Championship Pre-Game: