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Domesticity
Dec. 29th, 2005 06:26 amLast night I went to the grocery store, did two loads of laundry (and put it all away afterward -- with my daughter's help), made taco salad for dinner (minus the tortilla chips for me), and watched Kronk's New Groove with my daughter. It was a very pleasant and satisfying evening.
The movie was a disappointment. I liked The Emperor's New Groove very much, but this was heavy-handed and had a needlessly twisted chronology. The best part was the bonus feature on making the movie, hosted by Patrick Warburton, who does Kronk's voice, with the film's two directors. I found it far more funny and interesting than the movie itself. An additional bonus was watching Eartha Kitt voicing Yzma and seeing how well the animators captured certain elements of her face in the character. I hadn't realized it was her doing the part, and she has a rollicking good time with it.
I watched Finding Forrester a week or so ago, and was disappointed. Yes, Sean Connery is almost always worth watching -- but I felt let down by the screenwriter, who set up a story about exceptional writers and then didn't actually show anything about them writing together! We see marks in Jamal's notebooks, and him and Forrester typing on opposite sides of the table, but nothing at all of their nitty-gritty engagement in their craft. We don't see them actually working to improve Jamal's writing, no arguments about word choice or whether or not a scene is essential, or pacing or anything. Jamal's writing apparently improves dramatically, but the way the film progresses, it's evidently entirely by osmosis, a result of him simply being around Forrester. I don't buy that.
Maybe the filmmakers thought the audience wouldn't relate to the work of writing as easily as to Jamal's work on the basketball court. Maybe the screenwriter was too intimidated at the thought of trying to create work worthy of a Pulitzer Prize winner and a prodigy that he didn't dare actually try to show us what it was like to have two such talented people working together and offer words worthy of them.
The movie was a disappointment. I liked The Emperor's New Groove very much, but this was heavy-handed and had a needlessly twisted chronology. The best part was the bonus feature on making the movie, hosted by Patrick Warburton, who does Kronk's voice, with the film's two directors. I found it far more funny and interesting than the movie itself. An additional bonus was watching Eartha Kitt voicing Yzma and seeing how well the animators captured certain elements of her face in the character. I hadn't realized it was her doing the part, and she has a rollicking good time with it.
I watched Finding Forrester a week or so ago, and was disappointed. Yes, Sean Connery is almost always worth watching -- but I felt let down by the screenwriter, who set up a story about exceptional writers and then didn't actually show anything about them writing together! We see marks in Jamal's notebooks, and him and Forrester typing on opposite sides of the table, but nothing at all of their nitty-gritty engagement in their craft. We don't see them actually working to improve Jamal's writing, no arguments about word choice or whether or not a scene is essential, or pacing or anything. Jamal's writing apparently improves dramatically, but the way the film progresses, it's evidently entirely by osmosis, a result of him simply being around Forrester. I don't buy that.
Maybe the filmmakers thought the audience wouldn't relate to the work of writing as easily as to Jamal's work on the basketball court. Maybe the screenwriter was too intimidated at the thought of trying to create work worthy of a Pulitzer Prize winner and a prodigy that he didn't dare actually try to show us what it was like to have two such talented people working together and offer words worthy of them.
