The Scooby-Doo Show: There's a Demon Shark in the Foggy Dark (1976)

 

An excellent episode. 

In this episode, the gang goes out to enjoy a day of waterskiing. However, when an ancient demon shark appears, the gang has another mystery on their hands. 

There is so much to love about this episode. First off, the design of the demon shark is excellent. This design is the perfect level of creepy for a Scooby villain. He is creepy in a way that gives this episode a delightfully spooky feel, while never being too scary to take away from the lighthearted fun. It is too often in these episodes when a demon animal just looks like a regular animal. This makes me appreciate that this shark looks creepier than your typical cartoon shark. Also helping give this episode a delightfully spooky feel is the use of fog. The fog helps give the episode the same feel as an old Universal monster movie. The backgrounds here are also wonderfully detailed and atmospheric, especially during the climbing scenes. This episode also does a great job mixing comedy and mystery. Quite a bit of the episode cuts back and forth between Fred, Daphne and Velma asking questions to solve the mystery and slapstick gags involving Shaggy and Scooby. Both of these types of scenes work very well. The slapstick is often funny, and the mystery elements are very well handled. While you can probably figure out who did it, the way he did it and the clues that lead up to this reveal are great. 

 This is a real Scooby classic. 

Silent Film of the Month: The Haunted House (1908)

 

Run Time: 6 minutes. Studio: Pathé Frères. Director: Segundo de Chomón.

It is October once again and that means it is time to watch spooky themed films. One of my favorite types of spooky films is the haunted house flick. This sub-genre has been around since cinema was young. This month we take a look at one of the earliest haunted house flicks, a 1908 French classic, The Haunted House. 

Being only six minutes, the storyline here is very basic. Three friends are taking a trip together and decide to rest at an abandoned house, not knowing that the house is haunted. 

Like much cinema from this time period the narrative simplicity and brief running time are a part of this film's charm. Sometimes it is simply fun to watch something that is simple and directly to the point. And if you want to watch a haunted house movie, this film provides exactly that. This film puts our characters in that haunted house right away and soon after creepy stuff is already happening. Despite being a haunted house film, the main point here is not to scare you. Instead, it is to delight you with a flux of pure imagination. Much of the haunting comes from stop motion animation and camera tricks. There is a real playfulness to how these are executed that I find irresistible. It feels like everyone involved was having a great time making this and that feeling translates to the audience. 

Despite its age many of the visuals hold up quite well. The opening outdoor scene as well as our first view of the house (from the outside) are simply lovely to look at and quite atmospheric. While the special effect can seem simplistic compared to those of today, they still get the job done and are fun to watch. The demon (if that is what he is supposed to be) looks fantastic and I simply love his costume. The final scene offers wonderful horror movie visuals that are as fun and creative as anything modern horror filmmakers could come up with. 

If you want to watch this delightful film, you can do so below.

Movie Review: Primetime

 

Michael's Movie Grade: C

A well-acted and stylistic but ultimately empty thriller. 

This film follows journalist Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) as he tracks down a high-profile pedophile for Dateline NBC's To Catch a Predator.

The most impressive part of this movie (and the main reason to watch) is the cast. The entire cast is fantastic here. Robert Pattinson is the lead credit here and he is great as always. In recent years he has truly proved himself to be a great acting talent. This can be seen to its fullest extent here. He is simply magnetic in this main role. He at once seems powerful and a force of nature as well as deeply human and venerable. Neither of these seem in contrast with each other and this is mostly because of Pattinson's performance. Skyler Gisondo comes close to matching Pattinson. He is truly wonderful as the decoy that is meant to lure in the pedophiles. He perfectly captures the vulnerability of the character, the need to prove himself and the desire to be somebody. Through all this he is simply incredibly compelling to watch. This film is also quite visually striking. The use of lighting and colors perfectly capture the look of early 2000's reality TV. It looks like something that was shot on a portable camera on the spot, which subtly makes the film feel more authentic.

The problem with this movie, however, is that it doesn't really have a point to it. For a film that takes us into such dark and uncomfortable subject matter, it doesn't really have anything to say. The filmmakers touch on certain themes but never delve deeply enough into any of them to say anything beyond surface level. As I left this movie, I was shocked that something that touched on such dark and serious subject matter gave me no real strong emotional reaction. Rather than feel disturbed, angry or emotionally drained, I just simply thought about how well acted and shot it was. 

There is a lot to appreciate about this movie, but it simply is lacking any real substance. 

Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #298

Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again, it is time for some classic cartoons. 

Today's cartoon selection begins with the Terry Toons short, All About Dogs (1942). This is very much a spot gag cartoon in the vein of the travelogue films Tex Avery made for Warner Brothers.

Now for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Yosemite Sam in A Miner Problem (2011). This is one of a series of surprisingly good Looney Tunes webtoons that came out in the early 2010's.

Now we come to a short starring the first star of the Looney Tunes cartoons, Bosko. This movie, Bosko's Holiday (1931), was the first to feature Bosko's name in the title and all the following (with the exception of The Tree's Knee's (1931)), all the Looney Tunes starring Bosko would follow suit. Watching this movie, you will probably feel that it more closely resembles an early Disney cartoon than a later Looney Tune and that was true of all the Warner Brothers cartoons of this era. In his landmark book Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon, film historian Leonard Maltin quotes animator Jack Zander, "We were doing something and Hugh Harman [who co-directed the early Warner Brothers cartoons with Rudolf Ising] said 'You remember that scene in the Disney picture where Mickey Mouse did do-and-so?' I said 'You want me to do almost the same thing?' and he said 'No I want you to do exactly the same thing.'" 

Next comes the silent cartoon, Aladdin's Vamp (1927). According to Michael Barrier's landmark book, Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age, Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising made this cartoon when the Disney studio closed for vacation in September 1926 (in an office they rented for two weeks). Also working on this film were Disney animators Rollin "Ham" Hamilton and Ub Iwerks. Harman and Ising were unsuccessful in finding a distributor for this film and it never got a full theatrical release. This is the second and last cartoon made for an Arabian Nights series of cartoons that never got off the ground. 

Now it is time for a commercial break.

Now comes an all-time classic, The Dover Boys at Pimento University (1942). This is one of Chuck Jones' most daring (and arguably one of his best) films. The stylized design and animation were unlike most anything being done at this time and look forward to what UPA would become known for in the 1950's. Many have cited Chuck Jones as a very strong influence on UPA and with a cartoon like this who could argue? It is worth noting that the credited animator on this film is Robert Cannon, who would become an important director for UPA (he directed Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950) there). Much of this film's charm came from background artist, Gene Fleury and layout artist John McGrew. These were two very experimental artists, and Chuck gave them plenty of room to experiment. They are a huge part of why Chuck's cartoons for this era really stand out. If you are a fan of Disney's Goofy cartoons, you will probably recognize the narrator, John McLeisch (who narrated most of the Goofy "how to..." shorts). The film's writer Ted Pierce does the voice of Tom. However, the scene stealer of the voice actors is Mel Blanc as he seems to be having a blast voicing the villainous Dan Backslide (coward, bully, cad and thief). Visually Dan Backslide is a caricature of Warner's animator, Ken Harris. This film appropriately appears in Jerry Beck's book, The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes. 

Next up comes a masterpiece of a Silly Symphony, The Flying Mouse (1934). This cartoon perfectly shows how advanced the filmmaking from the Disney staff was by this time. While these cartoons are not stylized in the way later UPA cartoons were, the filmmaker how to use bits of stylization to help tell the story. For instance watch how the color of certain scenes changes to fit the mood. These colors are obviously not used for realism but rather to get us involved in the emotion of the story. Here in 1934, they accomplished a feat similar to the ones UPA was praised for in the 1950's but since the filmmaking does not call attention to itself here, it has easily gone unnoticed by many. However this subtlety shows just how sophisticated these cartoons are. It did not hurt that an excellent group of animators worked on this movie. Mickey Mouse specialist, Fred Moore, animated this more realistic mouse in the scenes in which he interacts with the fairy and looks at his reflection in the pond. Ben Sharpsteen (later the supervising director for such features as Pinocchio (1940) and Bambi (1942)) animates the dramatic scene of the mouse escaping from the cave. Ham Luske (the first animator Walt Disney cast for the feature length Snow White) animates the mouse being spanked, seeing the butterfly and the scene with the bats. In 1939-40, there were plans to release shot for shot remakes of earlier Disney shorts including this one, but most of them were abandoned.

Now for the Mickey Mouse cartoon, Wild Waves (1929). Much of this film borrows from Walt Disney's earlier silent Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, All Wet (1927). However, there is a musical number here, that would have of course been impossible in a silent cartoon. This short was before Walt Disney was cemented as the voice for Mickey Mouse and he has another voice here (two in fact as his singing voice and speaking voice are different). Composer Carl Stalling claimed to have done Mickey's voice here. Disney historians J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein believe that if that was true, he probably provided the speaking voice. 

Now to close with a song. 

Thank you for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry. 

Resources Used

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History by J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman

The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes edited by Jerry Beck

Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin

Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age by Michael Barrier.

  

 

Movie Review: The Stunt Driver

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

A strong character study. 

This film tells the true story of Ken Carter, a stunt driver (don't call him a daredevil), who plans to jump the St. Lawrence River in a rocket car.

As this film started, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. The main character seemed like a jerk and someone I would not care to spend time within real life. However, as the movie went on, I saw that he was more complex than was first apparent. I began to see what I originally didn't like about this character was actually partly a front (put on for himself as much as others), due to his insecurities and fear. When I started to see this, I saw a lot of myself in this guy. Then I forgave his flaws because he now came off as a flawed but deeply human character. All of this was perfectly captured Jay Baruchel's performance. Critics are calling this his career best performance, and I can't argue with that. He is truly wonderful here. He perfectly captures the outward confidence as well as the inner insecurity. Despite his massive flaws, we find ourselves very much rooting for this guy. Because of this, though the tone is light for most of the film, when the movie wants to pull on our heartstrings it is very successful in doing so. 

The visual filmmaking here is also excellent. The movie blends this new acted footage with real footage from a documentary seamlessly. Though this is more of a character study than an action film, the stunt scenes are quite exciting. 

  This movie does try to mix in some quirky comedy into the drama. Unfortunately, this is rarely that successful. Most of this comedy simply falls flat. I also felt that the movie sometimes seemed to go on a little long and repeat itself. These however are small flaws for what is a very strong movie. 

An excellent film. 

Movie Review: Daniel and the Fiery Furnace

 

Michael's Movie Grade: C+

A decent biblical drama. 

The book of Daniel has always been one of my favorite biblical books and for a simple reason. It tells great stories. This film takes one of the best stories from that book. It works as well as it does because it sticks very close to the story. There are of course a few scenes added to make this feature length. However, none of these scenes take anything away from nor do they change the story. What we go to the movies for is a good story and that is what is provided here. 

Despite the good story, the visual filmmaking leaves a lot to be desired here. The movie can't seem to still for a second. The camera is either constantly moving, or the film is cutting between characters. These are important tools in cinematic storytelling. However here is there is no rhyme or reason for any of this. Instead of enhancing the story, it distracts from it. The CGI (and I except AI at some points) is truly terrible and takes you out of the film immediately. The acting doesn't always help the film either as many of these actors seem to be acting as if they were on stage instead of in a movie. 

With this movie, a good story almost saves some weak filmmaking.  

Movie Review: Resident Evil

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A-

A superior horror movie. 

Rather than following the characters of the popular video game franchise, this movie places an original character into the world of the video games. Our main character is a medical courier who is hired to deliver a package to Racoon city. However, what seems to be a routine deliver soon turns into something more serious as he comes face to face with killer infected creatures.

This new main character is such a huge reason why this film works so well. He is not some brave or highly skilled hero. In fact, his attempts to use a gun to defend himself hardly ever end well. He is instead just an average guy and for much of the film, he is simply reacting how an average guy would to such creepy circumstances. Through this we get experience the horror as if we were there ourselves. This is perfect for this type of video game movie as it allows us to have a similar experience to playing the game, while still having its own cinematic identity. Helping is that this is simply a great character as well and not just an audience surrogate. He is flawed, often saying or doing the wrong thing (as is especially shown in a side story about his girlfriend being pregnant). However, he often has what he feels are good intentions. Like us he is just a bit of a screwup. All this is captured perfectly by Austin Abrams' wonderful lead performance. He brings a lot of humanity to this character that automatically endears him to us.

The scares here are completely genuine. While much of the horror is extremely gory, the film does not simply equate being gory with being scary. Instead, it uses the gore as a tool. The filmmakers are not lazy but instead very creative in how they use the gore. The result is some truly unsettling imagery that will stay in your mind long after the credits roll. The designs of the various creatures that once were humans is very well done. They look grotesque and disturbing in the best way possible. The scares also work here because some of them are so unexpected. It is rare to see a horror movie truly takes you by surprise these days, but this film does. 

Probably the biggest surprise of this movie however is just how funny it is. There is a lot of humor throughout and most of it is downright hilarious. Some of the humor could have come directly from a slapstick comedy. It is also some of the best executed slapstick in recent mainstream cinema. More humor comes from our main character's dialogue with himself. Much of this is hilarious because it is both well written and perfectly reflects what would be going through any of our heads during all these creepy goings on. 

Despite the amount of humor here, the movie itself never turns into a joke. It also never gets in the way of the scares. The filmmakers know just when to be funny and when to be scary, balancing out the two extremely well. 

This is an extremely pleasant surprise.