Wednesday 11 August 2010

The Mammoth Movie Meme: Days 13-18



Day 13 - Favourite animated movie

Beauty and the Beast (1991). Quoth Elaine Showalter. “She wants adventure and he wants commitment; he holds a mirror and she hugs a book. Beauty and the Beast was the first feminist Disney film, a liberated love story for the ’90s [that also] gave the musical a new lease of life … But I bet there are nights when Beauty looks at her prince and misses the Beast who got away.”


Day 14 - Favourite film in black and white

It’s almost impossible to choose. But one which never, ever loses its appeal to me (and also because Hitchcock really needs to cameo on this list about now)  is The Lady Vanishes (1938). 


Day 15 - Best musical

Frank Oz's Little Shop of Horrors (1986). From Rick Moranis’s delightful nebbish to Steve Martin's unforgettable appearances, and of course the great, witty, sometimes touching songs, there are few musicals that give me more pleasure than Little Shop of Horrors. And I for one am happy that they don't get eaten at the end.


Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure movie

Tom Holland's Child's Play (1988), which terrified me as a kid and still does, quite a bit. Or  David Seltzer's irresistible Shining Through (1992), in  which Melanie Griffith’s intrepid, movie-schooled secretary Linda infiltrates Nazi Germany. Mein Gott!


Day 17 - Favourite series of related movies

These days, I'm not sure that I have one. But a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, it would have been the Star Wars films.


Day 18 - Favourite title sequence

I've blogged briefly about the wondrous opening sequence to Jackie Brown (1997) before and would put it in a tie with Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (1999).    


4 comments:

  1. good list alex......I am still re working my list to stand along side yours!

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  2. Good! Quite a challenge, this one, but great fun.

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  3. I love Beauty and the Beast. Love the story and the music, the meanings and all the magic. I have meant to comment on this dozens of times but my attention was called elsewhere. I do read though I don't always comment because it's out of my ... realm of what I know. Sad, then, I'm raving about a Disney movie. Oh, the shame. :)

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  4. Thanks for reading Meaghan, and I always really appreciate your comments. There is nothing remotely sad about raving about a Disney movie!

    How do you think the older animated movies compare to the recent Pixar films? For me, the earlier animated films tend to be that bit more soulful. I recently watched RATATOUILLE: fun enough, but it lacks the heart and depth of something like BATB. UP is definitely my favourite of the recent crop.

    Or maybe I'm just getting old. :/

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