Compared to VHS, DVDs aren't absolutely perfect. They lack durability, you can't fast forward through the ads before the movie, and movies are often released and re released with minor documentaries and special features just to fill the studio's pockets.
It seems like every other movie gets released in many different "editions" promising juicy unrated footage, alternate scenes, and director cuts. A lot of these have only minor additions (sometimes mere seconds) that push the movie from a PG-13 to a R rating or from a R to the mythical "unrated" territory. Other movies add in a ton of unnecessary scenes that were cut for a reason: the director's cut really lacks pace.
However, there are some movies that substantially improve with the addition or substitution of key scenes. So I'm going to list some of my favorite director's cuts... These are not my favorite movies, but just the ones that I think were most improved in some way or another.
7. Blade Runner, 1982, directed by Ridley Scott
I don't even know where to begin here... After negative test screenings, the ending was completely reshot (with footage from the Shining of all movies inserted in as the film ran overbudget), a tacked-on studio happy ending and ridiculously obvious (and rushed) voice over narration from Harrison Ford added because several audience members were confused by key plot points. The director's cut movie was released in 1992 after the original rough cut garnered strong reactions. There's also an "ultimate directors cut" that Ridley Scott had complete control over that was released in 2007, however, I have yet to see this cut.
6. Legend, 1985, directed by Ridley Scott
Another example of the the list of Scott movies that the studio interfered with. The initial cut of Legend was a two hour epic but after numerous test screenings, the film was reduced to 89 minutes. Jerry Goldsmith, legendary composer of such films as Patton, First Blood, and the original Omen, spent six months working on the score and dance sequence. When the film was re-edited, the 80s group Tangerine Dream created a new score. The lush, idyllic fantasy world that would have greatly benefited from an orchestral score instead had a goofy techno pop sound. Imagine Lord of the Rings with the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack and you get an idea of what I mean...
5. The Abyss, 1989, directed by James Cameron
James Cameron if nothing else is a wonderful director of tightly paced action movies. Terminator 2, Aliens, Titanic, True Lies, and now Avatar have all contained some amazing special effects sequence. The forgotten movie amongst Cameron's masterpieces is the underrated gem, the Abyss. The director's cut runs at two hours, fifty minutes, which may seem a bit excessive, but the problem in this case isn't in the length, but in the material cut. One of the main plot threads (the reason why there are aliens in the Marianas Trench) is completely removed. With this gone, the theatrical ending seems like a watery ET knockoff
4. High Tension, 2005, directed by Alexandre Aja and The Descent, 2006, directed by Neil Marshall
I'm lumping these two together because they were both cut to a "R" rating in their American release and beyond losing some gore, both also lost major story issues. The ending of the Descent is completely ruined and the story of High Tension makes no sense whatsoever with the cut scenes. I understand the need to reduce the gore to get the rating for a theatrical release, but cutting story makes no sense at all ratingswise.
3, Daredevil, 2003, directed by Mark Steve Johnson
The theatrical cut of this superhero movie is decent although pretty corny, but the director's cut reintroduces subplots dealing with Matt Murdock working as a lawyer, dealing with religion, and also reduces the importance of Elektra (Jennifer Garner is pretty terrible, but doesn't have much to work with). Also, some of the violence and gritty feel is a lot more pronounced (especially during the various Bullseye fights towards the end). The R rated Daredevil to me is on par with Blade right at the top of the middle tier of Marvel movies. Here's my Marvel movie rating system by the way...
Top Tier - X-Men 2, Spiderman 2, First half of Spiderman 1, Iron Man, Blade 2
Tier 2 (some minor flaws, but otherwise really good)- X-Men, Iron Man 2, Blade, Ed Norton's Hulk, Daredevil Directors Cut, X-Men Origins Wolverine
Tier 3 (big flaws or miscasting, but have some promise)- The 2nd half of Spiderman, Eric Bana's Hulk, X-Men the Last Stand, Spiderman 3, Daredevil Theatrical, Fantastic Four
Tier 4 (pretty terrible but at least one bright spot)- Elektra, Blade Trinity, Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer, Punisher War Zone
Tier 5 (Ghost Rider bad)- Ghost Rider , Ghost Rider Director's Cut, Dolph Lundgren's Punisher, 1994 Fantastic Four, Thomas Jane's Punisher
2. Donnie Darko, directed by Richard Kelly
This dense, hallucinatory tale about growing up alienated in 1988 suburbia tanked in its original theatrical release but found a passionate following on video and DVD. It was re released in 2004, with twenty minutes of restored footage, most of it involving the surprisingly good performance from English teacher Drew Barrymore. Kelly also took full advantage of the chance to touch up his ode to misanthropic angst, beefing up the special effects and adding songs to the eighties soundtrack. Overall, the director's cut dramatically improves on the original: it's both more vivid and more comprehensible, and, at just under 2 hours, 15 minutes, doesn't seem too long, just deeper and more richly textured.
1. Alien directed by James Cameron and Alien 3 directed by David Fincher
James Cameron always seems to make his movies too long. Almost every film of his has a director's cut. Some don't feature enough new things (Terminator 2 didn't really need to be any longer) and some feature arguably way too much (the length of The Abyss) but the one that works best for me is the Aliens director's cut, found in the Alien Quadrilogy. Cameron describes it best in his intro as "the ride he intended you to take". Every detail that's added back in works great, adding depth and nuance to certain things taken for granted, like the Ripley/Newt relationship. It also includes the awesome remote sentry guns sequence (I have no idea why they cut this part, as its amazingly cool and tense). Definitely the best of the Cameron bunch. My problem is that it isn't even the most improved directors cut on the Alien Quadrilogy (yes, its a dumb title for a box set).
Alien3 has gotten a lot of hate from hardcore Alien fans, mostly because of a troubled production (the script was written as the movie was filmed) and controversial changes (a complete re-edit) made after the movie was done filming. Today David Fincher is one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood, having directed many of my favorite movies including Se7en, The Game, and Fight Club. As his first movie, Alien3 attained semi cult status resulting from various rumors about the degree of studio intervention, lost scenes and a completely different workprint version which actually should have rebuilt Fincher's original vision.
I really didn't want to put this as my top movie, because there is no mysterious and lost Director's Cut of Alien³. An actual DC would have required Fincher to edit the movie with full artistic control. When the Quadrilogy set was put together, Fincher was still so angry at the producers that he completely refused to take part in any sort of re-edit.
The Quadrilogy set does have a completely restored and revised version of the original workprint which was created in 1991 (before the extensive studio re-editing happened). This version has a runtime of an additional 30 minutes, new sequences, and some previously unreleased optical/digital effects which were essential to integrate the new material into the movie.For me, the Alien3 workprint improves the movie to the point where its definitely a solid 8/10 (Alien and Aliens are both 10/10s for me) where as the theatrical version is only about a 5/10. I would love to see David Fincher get a chance with full creative control to make his own Alien movie in the future, but for now, the workprint is all we have.
That's all I have to say about that...
Patrick
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
some random type musings...
Alrightey,
The Collector... a horror movie that not many people saw in theaters (it had a fairly limited release and came out smack in the middle of summer 2009, right inbetween Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe). I watched it last night... it might be the most singular improbable, unbelievable movie plotwise I've seen.
Now I'm not counting fantasy/science fiction, but movies set in the "real world"... And yes, to think 55 year old Bruce Willis could have survived all the stunts of Live Free or Die Hard with nary a broken bone would be fairly improbable, but the actual plot of Live Free or Die Hard about cyber terrorism seemed somewhat plausible. I'm getting off topic though...
Basically the Collector involves a fairly clever thief named Arkin who masquerades as a handyman so he can get intel on the houses he steals from. (To me, this would be an easy pattern for police to pick up on... but not the police in this universe.) Arkin breaks into a house to steal a giant ruby from a jewelry broker only the very same house also has been taken over by the titular Collector. The hour and twenty five minute run time consists of Arkin trying to escape the Collector and get away with the jewel in order to fulfill a midnight deadline imposed by some loan sharks that Arkin's wife is indebted to.
(Those plot points by the way are all in the preview, so if anyone wants to watch the movie unspoiled, I'll only discuss the setup and things that are in the preview.)
The improbability of the movie comes from the timeline... Arkin gets off work, goes to meet his wife, then meets his job contact, then goes back to the house. His wife even complains that he's really late meeting her (so at the earliest, he's there at roughly 8-9 PM). The family he's burglarizing is supposed to be vacationing, but their very mature teenage daughter (this actress has to be at the very least 21) throws a vague fit... Anyhow, if you assume where he meets his wife is around an hour or so away from the family's house (remember, from 9 PM, he has to get to the house, steal the ruby, get back, and pay off the loansharks before midnight), that means he leaves the family's house between 6-7 PM.
So between 6-7 and 8-9 PM, the Collector comes to the house, incapacitates the husband and wife, boards up the windows, and proceeds to set up a simply massive array of booby traps all around the house. Some of these traps involve fairly complex 'mousetrap' style tripwires and pulleys, basically, its completely ludicrous to think that one guy can do what he does in the span of AT MOST three hours. There is no possible way for the Collector to know Arkin is coming back THAT NIGHT for the jewel. Assuming Arkin isn't there, the Collector wastes a ton of time for no good reason (Now, I realize that the daughter isn't home, so maybe the traps might be for her, but the killer is fairly adept with sharp objects... I don't think she'd be much of a problem).
A lot of reviewers compared this concept to the Saw franchise, and with a lot of color correction, a masked killer and booby trapped rooms, I can see some parallels. The difference is that Jigsaw from the Saw movies sets up all his traps well in advance of ever using them. Jigsaw also doesn't wear a Mexican style luchadore mask
like the one at left painted black and actually chase people around like Jason Vorhees (the Collector's signature weapon is throwing knives, which is sort of cool but less practical then a machete). So for being such an expert criminal, the Collector has the most impractical logic bending method of committing his crimes as anyone I've ever seen in a movie (he's also a total idiot, as is Arkin).
The one thing about this movie I like is the actor playing Arkin, Josh Stewart (who resembles Sean Penn and Edward Norton a little), puts on a pretty good performance as the criminal hero Arkin. The guy behind the Collector mask is suitably creepy and is pretty intimidating despite being a fairly average to small sized guy (even more reason to wonder how he can set up his death traps). The directing overall accomplishes what it needs to, without the goofy rapid fire sped up Saw cutting (I like a lot of the overhead shots in the house). But for the amazingly silly, absolutely ridiculous script and concept... I can't say I recommend this as any sort of a good movie...
Collector gets... 3/10...
and that's all I have to say about that
The Collector... a horror movie that not many people saw in theaters (it had a fairly limited release and came out smack in the middle of summer 2009, right inbetween Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe). I watched it last night... it might be the most singular improbable, unbelievable movie plotwise I've seen.
Now I'm not counting fantasy/science fiction, but movies set in the "real world"... And yes, to think 55 year old Bruce Willis could have survived all the stunts of Live Free or Die Hard with nary a broken bone would be fairly improbable, but the actual plot of Live Free or Die Hard about cyber terrorism seemed somewhat plausible. I'm getting off topic though...
Basically the Collector involves a fairly clever thief named Arkin who masquerades as a handyman so he can get intel on the houses he steals from. (To me, this would be an easy pattern for police to pick up on... but not the police in this universe.) Arkin breaks into a house to steal a giant ruby from a jewelry broker only the very same house also has been taken over by the titular Collector. The hour and twenty five minute run time consists of Arkin trying to escape the Collector and get away with the jewel in order to fulfill a midnight deadline imposed by some loan sharks that Arkin's wife is indebted to.
(Those plot points by the way are all in the preview, so if anyone wants to watch the movie unspoiled, I'll only discuss the setup and things that are in the preview.)
The improbability of the movie comes from the timeline... Arkin gets off work, goes to meet his wife, then meets his job contact, then goes back to the house. His wife even complains that he's really late meeting her (so at the earliest, he's there at roughly 8-9 PM). The family he's burglarizing is supposed to be vacationing, but their very mature teenage daughter (this actress has to be at the very least 21) throws a vague fit... Anyhow, if you assume where he meets his wife is around an hour or so away from the family's house (remember, from 9 PM, he has to get to the house, steal the ruby, get back, and pay off the loansharks before midnight), that means he leaves the family's house between 6-7 PM.
So between 6-7 and 8-9 PM, the Collector comes to the house, incapacitates the husband and wife, boards up the windows, and proceeds to set up a simply massive array of booby traps all around the house. Some of these traps involve fairly complex 'mousetrap' style tripwires and pulleys, basically, its completely ludicrous to think that one guy can do what he does in the span of AT MOST three hours. There is no possible way for the Collector to know Arkin is coming back THAT NIGHT for the jewel. Assuming Arkin isn't there, the Collector wastes a ton of time for no good reason (Now, I realize that the daughter isn't home, so maybe the traps might be for her, but the killer is fairly adept with sharp objects... I don't think she'd be much of a problem).
A lot of reviewers compared this concept to the Saw franchise, and with a lot of color correction, a masked killer and booby trapped rooms, I can see some parallels. The difference is that Jigsaw from the Saw movies sets up all his traps well in advance of ever using them. Jigsaw also doesn't wear a Mexican style luchadore mask
like the one at left painted black and actually chase people around like Jason Vorhees (the Collector's signature weapon is throwing knives, which is sort of cool but less practical then a machete). So for being such an expert criminal, the Collector has the most impractical logic bending method of committing his crimes as anyone I've ever seen in a movie (he's also a total idiot, as is Arkin).The one thing about this movie I like is the actor playing Arkin, Josh Stewart (who resembles Sean Penn and Edward Norton a little), puts on a pretty good performance as the criminal hero Arkin. The guy behind the Collector mask is suitably creepy and is pretty intimidating despite being a fairly average to small sized guy (even more reason to wonder how he can set up his death traps). The directing overall accomplishes what it needs to, without the goofy rapid fire sped up Saw cutting (I like a lot of the overhead shots in the house). But for the amazingly silly, absolutely ridiculous script and concept... I can't say I recommend this as any sort of a good movie...
Collector gets... 3/10...
and that's all I have to say about that
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Odds 'N Ends
Good morning all,
I realized I've given out a lot of positive reviews so far on this blog, but I've seen three recent movies that managed to generate some negative thoughts... so let's dive in...
First and probably the best of the 3 is Ang Lee's latest period piece, Taking Woodstock. I respect Ang Lee as a director, his constant theme of tradition versus progress permeates most of his movies, and his films are very well shot. I don't really enjoy most Ang Lee movies though, a lot of them suffer from pacing issues and I really think they could use a little more time in the editing room. Taking Woodstock follows along with this... the main plot is about a boy trying to reconcile with his parents and to help his struggling community. Some of the direction, especially the long tracking shot as Martin's character, Elliot Tiber, gets a motorcyle ride down the road of hippies to the festival, seems inspired. Other parts of the direction, like the constant close ups of Tiber's head or some weird split screens, don't work as well.
My major gripe with Taking Woodstock was the complete lack of focus on the music of the festival. It's pretty much a 2 hour tease of protests, people setting up, and hippie antics, leading to a pretty bad sequence where Elliot goes for a psychadelic trip. I know the music of the Woodstock festival has been well documented, but I think having no performances at all makes the movie kind of a cheat. Another thing the movie cheats on a bit is the sexual preferences of the main character... Considering this is the same director who created Brokeback Mountain, the fact that no one seems to care, especially in 1969, seems completely untrue to the conservative nature of the town.
The acting was top notch, although the supporting characters were fairly underdeveloped. Demetri Martin, in his starring debut, made an awkward, well meaning, and straight faced protagonist (going from stand up comedy to a dramatic lead doesn't always go so smoothly). Eugene Levy gave a surprisingly low key and smug performance as Max Yagur, the dairy farmer that owned the festival grounds (good to see Levy in something besides a straight to DVD American Pie sequel). Dan Fogler gives a fairly one note comic relief performance, while Emile Hirsch plays a troubled Vietnam veteran adequately. Imelda Staunton (the bitchy administrator from Harry Potter part 5) plays Tiber's mother as a complete terror. In fact, her character seems much too serious and tough for the goofy supporting characters around her.
The final piece of acting and my personal favorite is Liev Schreiber as the transvestite head of security. I feel like many actors would have taken this character wayyy over the top, but Schreiber plays it completely straight and serious. If Schreiber's character had been more focal and developed, I think he'd be worthy of supporting actor awards consideration, but its a fairly minor part.
So overall, I give Taking Woodstock a minor recommendation... If you like Ang Lee or Demetri Martin, its worth watching once... A perfectly average 5 out of 10
That's all I have to say about that.
I realized I've given out a lot of positive reviews so far on this blog, but I've seen three recent movies that managed to generate some negative thoughts... so let's dive in...
First and probably the best of the 3 is Ang Lee's latest period piece, Taking Woodstock. I respect Ang Lee as a director, his constant theme of tradition versus progress permeates most of his movies, and his films are very well shot. I don't really enjoy most Ang Lee movies though, a lot of them suffer from pacing issues and I really think they could use a little more time in the editing room. Taking Woodstock follows along with this... the main plot is about a boy trying to reconcile with his parents and to help his struggling community. Some of the direction, especially the long tracking shot as Martin's character, Elliot Tiber, gets a motorcyle ride down the road of hippies to the festival, seems inspired. Other parts of the direction, like the constant close ups of Tiber's head or some weird split screens, don't work as well.
My major gripe with Taking Woodstock was the complete lack of focus on the music of the festival. It's pretty much a 2 hour tease of protests, people setting up, and hippie antics, leading to a pretty bad sequence where Elliot goes for a psychadelic trip. I know the music of the Woodstock festival has been well documented, but I think having no performances at all makes the movie kind of a cheat. Another thing the movie cheats on a bit is the sexual preferences of the main character... Considering this is the same director who created Brokeback Mountain, the fact that no one seems to care, especially in 1969, seems completely untrue to the conservative nature of the town.
The acting was top notch, although the supporting characters were fairly underdeveloped. Demetri Martin, in his starring debut, made an awkward, well meaning, and straight faced protagonist (going from stand up comedy to a dramatic lead doesn't always go so smoothly). Eugene Levy gave a surprisingly low key and smug performance as Max Yagur, the dairy farmer that owned the festival grounds (good to see Levy in something besides a straight to DVD American Pie sequel). Dan Fogler gives a fairly one note comic relief performance, while Emile Hirsch plays a troubled Vietnam veteran adequately. Imelda Staunton (the bitchy administrator from Harry Potter part 5) plays Tiber's mother as a complete terror. In fact, her character seems much too serious and tough for the goofy supporting characters around her.
The final piece of acting and my personal favorite is Liev Schreiber as the transvestite head of security. I feel like many actors would have taken this character wayyy over the top, but Schreiber plays it completely straight and serious. If Schreiber's character had been more focal and developed, I think he'd be worthy of supporting actor awards consideration, but its a fairly minor part.
So overall, I give Taking Woodstock a minor recommendation... If you like Ang Lee or Demetri Martin, its worth watching once... A perfectly average 5 out of 10
That's all I have to say about that.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Top Ten Underrated Villains
Hello associates,
I've wanted to do a villains list from the minute I started this blog, but my main problem was "its been done before." Every Halloween, Spike or SciFi or Bravo have a top villains countdown and I always have seen the same usual suspects on top... Darth Vader, Hannibal Lecter, the Wicked Witch, Norman Bates, Hans Gruber, Freddy Kruger, the shark from Jaws, etc. I could write up that same list, because honestly, those are the iconic villains that a lot of people know and love. So I decided instead to come up with ten villains that have slipped through the cracks for whatever reason in the popular mind. It's a group of performances that are in fairly major movies, but whenever I see "best of" lists, they never show up. So without further ado...
Honorable Mention - Vincent Cassel in Brotherhood of the Wolf, The Nothing in Neverending Story, Stephen Dorff in Blade, Ben Stiller in Heavyweights, and the 2 main antagonists from Battle Royale
10. Ed Harris as General Francis Hummel, The Rock
Ed Harris' portrayal of Hummel shows what a talented actor can do with a stock villain role. I think he's underrated because a lot of people remember the Rock for the explosions, the Sean Connery one liners, and another mopey Nick Cage embarassment. Besides Harris, you also get Tony Todd (Candyman!), David Morse, and John C. McGinley (Dr. Cox!) as the members of his Marine squad.
Hummel holds the city of San Francisco hostage with a stockpile of biological weapons, yet when push comes to shove, Hummel does not try to take lives. Almost any stock villain would fail because the heroes defuse the bomb or stop him, but Hummel fails because of his moral values and beliefs. His actions don't seem weak or pathetic, but more like what a realistic career military man would do.
As an audience, you run the full range of emotions with him... you sense he's just trying to do his job and I love his reaction when the mariners led my personal favorite Michael Biehn try to invade Alcatraz. During the fierce gunfight that ensues, there's a fairly quite shot of Harris' face. His facial expression relays so much emotino compared to the typically hammy acting military villains from action movies. For being so three dimensional and realistic, Harris as General Hummel takes the place to start the list.
9. Tim Roth as Archibald Cunningham, Rob Roy
I had a hard time putting this performance on the list, as Roth did receive an Academy Award Best Supporting Actor nomination (losing to Kevin Spacey in Usual Suspects who in my opinion should have been up for Best Actor...). However, in the years since 1996, it seems like Rob Roy has been somewhat forgotten. Also, Cunningham disappears for decent chunks of the movie and is the henchman to John Hurt's aristocratic character.
Top Dollar is interesting because he's first and foremost a businessman and only hates the Crow because he's losing money. Dollar's fallen on hard times and is trying to get his organization back its former glory. He's smart, organized, and vile, sleeping with his sister and encouraging drug deals. For most of the movie, he uses his various henchmen (including Candyman himself, Tony Todd) yet fares quite well himself in the climatic battle against the superhuman vigilante (wounding the titular bird does tip the scales in his favor). For combining scuzz with smooth, Wincott makes the list as this nasty capitalist.
7. Colin Farrell as Bullseye, Daredevil
After a meteoric rise to stardom, Colin Farrell's career tumbled after a series of mediocre starring performances (Alexander anyone?). Bullseye is a completely psychopathic hitman with the mutant power of superhuman reflexes giving him perfect accuracy with handheld weaponry. Given that over a dozen Marvel movies have been released in the last 10 years or so, to me, Daredevil tends to get lost in the mix (the non-chemistry/acting of the Affleck-Garner love story helped that out, as well as a last second studio decision to change the rating from R to PG-13).
Farrell as Bullseye just seems to have a lot of fun and genuinely enjoys what he does, while still being menacing and a threat. This balance of humor and intensity is what makes Bullseye memorable and elevates him over some of his more serious contemporaries (Yes, Ian McKellan's portrayal of Magento has more depth and substance, but that character isn't exactly underrated). Bonus points can be given to the producers/director for having Bullseye use Farrell's natural Irish accent.
6. John Hurt (voice) as the Horned King, The Black Cauldron
Somehow, someway he's a Disney villain... yikes! During my animated characters countdown, I revealed my love for the Black Cauldron, part of which stems from this amazingly evil villain, the Horned King. Many of the iconic Disney villains that tend to make these lists are at least a bit comedic (Captain Hook, Cruella DeVil, Ursula) in one way or another. The Horned King has no funny side... He's a red robed, red eyed, skeletal, antler wearing despot with plans of world conquest. That's right, his scheme involves taking over the world, which runs contrary to the normal Disney motivation of messing with a princess or cute animal, maybe even taking over the African savannah or a European castle.
His method for doing so is even creepier... find a magical cauldron with arcane power, fill it with the bodies of warriors his armies have killed, and then ressurect them as an unstoppable army of the undead. The Horned King also commands a living army of thuggish warrior as well as vicious pteradactyl type creatures called Gwythaints, all of whom are dominated by fear and intimidation. The Horned King scores so low for two reasons, 1.) he doesn't really do a lot himself besides be a creepy menace and 2.) he makes the classic James Bond villain mistake of imprisoning instead of killing the heroes which makes him a not quite as effective in my opinion.
(I appreciate theatrically trained British character actor types quite a bit - this may be an ongoing theme for this list). The Horned King's voice is provided by the distinguished and distinctive Brit John Hurt. Hurt tends to play more emotionally anguished and complex protagonists or is often used as a narrator. However, he shows his range by playing an ugly, menacing villain (actually a more subtle performance than his villainous dictator in V for Vendetta). Horned King deserves his spot for being a big part of why the Black Cauldron was the first PG rated animated Disney movie.
5. Christopher Plummer as General Chang, Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country
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My level of enjoyment of Star Trek is a fairly mixed bag. I have fond memories of the original series and the Next Generation as a kid, and I do enjoy several of the movies, but I did not follow any of the later series (so I think that makes me a casual Trekkie). Whenever I bring up Star Trek villains, three tend to come up... the most overused - the Klingons, the most visually striking/menacing - the Borg, and the hammiest - Ricardo Montalban as Khan. Since rarely are specific Klingons mentioned, Christopher Plummer's portrayal of Chang deserves recognition as not only the best Klingon villain, but a great villain in his own right (I just think personally a lot of people dismiss Star Trek VI as the one where the cast looks really, really old (the actors were in their late 50s to early 70s at the time of filming) or the one with the clumsy Cold War analogies (fairly true). I think the filmmakers realized this and had the story be sort of a Star Trek meets Tom Clancy/CSI which was more cereberal and less physical for the most part.).
The Klingons on Star Trek are a brutish warrior race that live by honor, but unlike the stereotypical brash and stupid villains (Christopher Lloyd's Klingon character from Star Trek 3) Chang is a scheming, intelligent planner. Instead of trying to blow up the Earth with a superweapon, Chang uses political trickery to assassinate political leaders, mentally toying around with the primary cast leading to the imprisonment of Kirk and McCoy. This realistic motivation combined with the class and elegance the classically trained Plummer (Unfortunate that despite Plummer's acting skills, he's never been even nominated for an Oscar, he has won 2 Emmy and 2 Tony awards) brings to the part makes him a great villain. I also like the visual look of the character, at Plummer's request, they didn't coat him with prosthetics, letting the character have more complex emotions (props go to the intimidating eyepath held on by three screws... now that's tough). I think the Shakespeare quoting, cool, yet devious Chang deserves his spot on the list.
4. Thomas Ian Griffith as Terry Silver, Karate Kid part III
The first Karate Kid movie has two memorable villains in the evil Cobra Kai disciple Billy Zabka as Johnny Lawrence and his mentor, John Kreese, played by Martin Kove, but to me, they don't hold up after watching the master of evil, Terry Silver, in part 3.
After the original villains are humiliated by Danielsan and Mr. Miyagi (and after a sequel that doesn't expand on this particular story much at all), Kreese contacts his Vietnam war vet friend, Terry Silver, to help him get revenge. The character of Terry Silver is incredibly rich, dresses extremely well, happens to also be a black belt karate sensei, and he makes his living by illegally dumping toxic waste...
Thomas Ian Griffith plays the smarmy asshole of a character perfectly (He might have the best evil smirk in movie history through the early parts of the movie). I personally love that he schemes and negotiates both in a sauna and while taking a bubblebath. He sets up a bunch of run ins with Daniel to gain his trust, telling him Kreese has died, and training him in his own form of karate. Silver makes it a point to train Daniel the wrong way, telling him to use his anger and turning him against Mr. Miyagi. I definitely acknowledge that the idea that a billionaire would devote his personal time and resources to defeat and humiliate a local teenage karate champion is extremely ridiculous (Karate Kid 3 does not = realism). Griffith has so much fun with the part, not taking things too seriously, as his character in real life probably wouldn't. Overcoming such impossible odds is why Karate Kid 3 works as a movie at all, as by the end you really want Daniel-san to take this maniac down once and for all.
3. Elijah Wood as Kevin, Sin City
Now we get to the serious evil... This is probably the second best example of "casting against type" on this list. Kevin in the comics is more of a middle aged typical 'molester' and seemed menacing, but not quite as interesting at first. Then, you learn that Kevin is a cannibal who feeds the leftovers to his mostly feral pet wolf and keeps the heads on his wall... over the top and ridiculous, yes, but so is the rest of the Sin City universe. I love the movie adaptation, and I think this performance tends to get lost in the mix (if I had written this right after Sin City came out, I don't Wood would be as underrated).
Robert Rodriguez's decision to cast the innocent hobbit (only Rings joke in this section, I promise!) as the vicious killer made things all the creepier. At first, I thought it was gross miscasting, but changing the character's age and tweaking the look was a huge improvement. In the role, Elijah Wood has no lines of dialogue, yet manages to convey emotion extremely well through body language and his expressive eyes.
Part of what made Kevin so menacing is how much trouble he gives Marv (Mickey Rourke). Marv's combination of size and strength coupled with his fighting abilities makes him seemingly superhuman, yet the much smaller Kevin gives him more physical trouble than anyone else in the movie. The reasons he shows up this low o my countdown are his lack of screen time and relative unimportance to the overall plot (I think of him like Boba Fett from the first Star Wars trilogy). Yet he more then earns his spot with his distinctive look (love the glasses and preppy sweater), his spectacular comeuppance, and that the character made Elijah Wood frightening.
2. Frank Langella as Skeletor, Masters of the Universe
Masters of the Universe is a fatally flawed movie, yet this performance gets lost in the general sillyness of seeing He-Man fight evil in the suburbs of New Jersey. Frank Langella is a criminally underused and underrated actor, often appearing as stock villains in awful movies such as Cutthroat Island, Junior, and the Whoopi Goldberg opus, Eddie. When given a script that has the chance to flex his sizable acting chops, he can put together a performance like his portrayal of Richard Nixon in Frost vs. Nixon or his take of Dracula in the late 70s.
Skeletor in the cartoon He-Man was a fairly goofy yet visually dynamic villain with typical plans for world conquest and incompetent henchmen. The movie Skeletor comes across as an intelligent, persuasive schemer who retains the craze for power his predecessor had. The makeup on Langella is pretty good for the time period and budget and the costume/ram's head staff look genuine.
For such a crummy movie, Langella puts forth a ton of effort to make Skeletor a somewhat layered, menacing, and all around bad guy. I really love the monologue he delivers at the end when Skeletor gets the power of the universe. It's an amazingly moving and intense and I actually am rooting for Skeletor a bit as he finally is able to match He-Man physically. So for taking a buffoonish villain out of a badly animated show and making him a believable foe, Skeletor takes his spot on the list.
1. Ted Levine as Jame Gumb/Buffalo Bill, Silence of the Lambs
This performance is why I came up with this list, because lost behind the iconic, Academy Award winning Anthony Hopkins was this amazing characterization of a serial killer. Ted Levine is a talented character actor who usually plays cops, military types, or similar authority figures (Heat, Hills Have Eyes remake, and the boss on Monk are the three other roles that popped to mind). It wasn't until well after I saw the movie that I connected Gumb with any other part that Levine has played (trying to illustrate how unrecognizable he is).
For starters, the character is written as a somewhat feminine transvestite. On paper, there's definitely potential for Gumb to be silly or funny and not as scary. Ted Levine reportedly spent some time with transvestites in bars in order to not make the character a complete caricature. He also purposefully avoided villain roles in the years after the Silence of the Lambs was released to avoid being typecast. His dedication and hard work pays off as Gumb comes across as psychotic and disturbing in a somewhat realistic sort of way. In my opinion, the entire "lotion-dog-pit" sequence would be one of the best 'serial killer' scenes in any movie.
Finally, a good chunk of why Silence of the Lambs works so well is that the character of Jame Gumb is so threatening and out there. The search to catch him becomes so intense that the advice of Hannibal Lector becomes crucial. Strangely, while reading about this character, I found out the author Thomas Harris based the main plot of Silence of the Lambs on a true story, but not the story of noted serial killer Ed Gein (who definitely influenced the character of Hannibal Lector). I found it personally incredible, but a Seattle detective actually sought out the advice of Ted Bundy to try and catch the Green River Killer.
So there's my list... Check the movies if you haven't seen any yet...
I've wanted to do a villains list from the minute I started this blog, but my main problem was "its been done before." Every Halloween, Spike or SciFi or Bravo have a top villains countdown and I always have seen the same usual suspects on top... Darth Vader, Hannibal Lecter, the Wicked Witch, Norman Bates, Hans Gruber, Freddy Kruger, the shark from Jaws, etc. I could write up that same list, because honestly, those are the iconic villains that a lot of people know and love. So I decided instead to come up with ten villains that have slipped through the cracks for whatever reason in the popular mind. It's a group of performances that are in fairly major movies, but whenever I see "best of" lists, they never show up. So without further ado...
Honorable Mention - Vincent Cassel in Brotherhood of the Wolf, The Nothing in Neverending Story, Stephen Dorff in Blade, Ben Stiller in Heavyweights, and the 2 main antagonists from Battle Royale
10. Ed Harris as General Francis Hummel, The Rock
Ed Harris' portrayal of Hummel shows what a talented actor can do with a stock villain role. I think he's underrated because a lot of people remember the Rock for the explosions, the Sean Connery one liners, and another mopey Nick Cage embarassment. Besides Harris, you also get Tony Todd (Candyman!), David Morse, and John C. McGinley (Dr. Cox!) as the members of his Marine squad.Hummel holds the city of San Francisco hostage with a stockpile of biological weapons, yet when push comes to shove, Hummel does not try to take lives. Almost any stock villain would fail because the heroes defuse the bomb or stop him, but Hummel fails because of his moral values and beliefs. His actions don't seem weak or pathetic, but more like what a realistic career military man would do.
As an audience, you run the full range of emotions with him... you sense he's just trying to do his job and I love his reaction when the mariners led my personal favorite Michael Biehn try to invade Alcatraz. During the fierce gunfight that ensues, there's a fairly quite shot of Harris' face. His facial expression relays so much emotino compared to the typically hammy acting military villains from action movies. For being so three dimensional and realistic, Harris as General Hummel takes the place to start the list.
9. Tim Roth as Archibald Cunningham, Rob Roy
I had a hard time putting this performance on the list, as Roth did receive an Academy Award Best Supporting Actor nomination (losing to Kevin Spacey in Usual Suspects who in my opinion should have been up for Best Actor...). However, in the years since 1996, it seems like Rob Roy has been somewhat forgotten. Also, Cunningham disappears for decent chunks of the movie and is the henchman to John Hurt's aristocratic character.If you haven't seen it, the skilled yet effeminate Cunningham has the job of tracking down the rebel highlander Rob Roy. Despite his 'fancy' and 'dandy' exterior, he proves himself to be a ruthless and formidable foe. By the time this raping, stealing, murdering, wig-wearing aristocratic psychopath finally crosses swords with Liam Neeson's Roy, you've never wanted to see a movie villain die more. Fortunately, the amazing ending doesn't disappoint. After simply annihilating Liam Neeson for what seems like ten minutes... well, check it out... (sorry about the Polish subtitles, but there isn't much dialogue and this is the tightest edit of the fight I could find) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27M5KWI_q50&feature=PlayList&p=8BD409B68B76405D&index=0&playnext=1. So for a cool, nasty, and girly display of evil, Roth makes it on the list.
8. Michael Wincott as Top Dollar, The Crow
Top Dollar is interesting because he's first and foremost a businessman and only hates the Crow because he's losing money. Dollar's fallen on hard times and is trying to get his organization back its former glory. He's smart, organized, and vile, sleeping with his sister and encouraging drug deals. For most of the movie, he uses his various henchmen (including Candyman himself, Tony Todd) yet fares quite well himself in the climatic battle against the superhuman vigilante (wounding the titular bird does tip the scales in his favor). For combining scuzz with smooth, Wincott makes the list as this nasty capitalist.
7. Colin Farrell as Bullseye, Daredevil
After a meteoric rise to stardom, Colin Farrell's career tumbled after a series of mediocre starring performances (Alexander anyone?). Bullseye is a completely psychopathic hitman with the mutant power of superhuman reflexes giving him perfect accuracy with handheld weaponry. Given that over a dozen Marvel movies have been released in the last 10 years or so, to me, Daredevil tends to get lost in the mix (the non-chemistry/acting of the Affleck-Garner love story helped that out, as well as a last second studio decision to change the rating from R to PG-13).Farrell as Bullseye just seems to have a lot of fun and genuinely enjoys what he does, while still being menacing and a threat. This balance of humor and intensity is what makes Bullseye memorable and elevates him over some of his more serious contemporaries (Yes, Ian McKellan's portrayal of Magento has more depth and substance, but that character isn't exactly underrated). Bonus points can be given to the producers/director for having Bullseye use Farrell's natural Irish accent.
6. John Hurt (voice) as the Horned King, The Black Cauldron
Somehow, someway he's a Disney villain... yikes! During my animated characters countdown, I revealed my love for the Black Cauldron, part of which stems from this amazingly evil villain, the Horned King. Many of the iconic Disney villains that tend to make these lists are at least a bit comedic (Captain Hook, Cruella DeVil, Ursula) in one way or another. The Horned King has no funny side... He's a red robed, red eyed, skeletal, antler wearing despot with plans of world conquest. That's right, his scheme involves taking over the world, which runs contrary to the normal Disney motivation of messing with a princess or cute animal, maybe even taking over the African savannah or a European castle.His method for doing so is even creepier... find a magical cauldron with arcane power, fill it with the bodies of warriors his armies have killed, and then ressurect them as an unstoppable army of the undead. The Horned King also commands a living army of thuggish warrior as well as vicious pteradactyl type creatures called Gwythaints, all of whom are dominated by fear and intimidation. The Horned King scores so low for two reasons, 1.) he doesn't really do a lot himself besides be a creepy menace and 2.) he makes the classic James Bond villain mistake of imprisoning instead of killing the heroes which makes him a not quite as effective in my opinion.
(I appreciate theatrically trained British character actor types quite a bit - this may be an ongoing theme for this list). The Horned King's voice is provided by the distinguished and distinctive Brit John Hurt. Hurt tends to play more emotionally anguished and complex protagonists or is often used as a narrator. However, he shows his range by playing an ugly, menacing villain (actually a more subtle performance than his villainous dictator in V for Vendetta). Horned King deserves his spot for being a big part of why the Black Cauldron was the first PG rated animated Disney movie.
5. Christopher Plummer as General Chang, Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country
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My level of enjoyment of Star Trek is a fairly mixed bag. I have fond memories of the original series and the Next Generation as a kid, and I do enjoy several of the movies, but I did not follow any of the later series (so I think that makes me a casual Trekkie). Whenever I bring up Star Trek villains, three tend to come up... the most overused - the Klingons, the most visually striking/menacing - the Borg, and the hammiest - Ricardo Montalban as Khan. Since rarely are specific Klingons mentioned, Christopher Plummer's portrayal of Chang deserves recognition as not only the best Klingon villain, but a great villain in his own right (I just think personally a lot of people dismiss Star Trek VI as the one where the cast looks really, really old (the actors were in their late 50s to early 70s at the time of filming) or the one with the clumsy Cold War analogies (fairly true). I think the filmmakers realized this and had the story be sort of a Star Trek meets Tom Clancy/CSI which was more cereberal and less physical for the most part.).The Klingons on Star Trek are a brutish warrior race that live by honor, but unlike the stereotypical brash and stupid villains (Christopher Lloyd's Klingon character from Star Trek 3) Chang is a scheming, intelligent planner. Instead of trying to blow up the Earth with a superweapon, Chang uses political trickery to assassinate political leaders, mentally toying around with the primary cast leading to the imprisonment of Kirk and McCoy. This realistic motivation combined with the class and elegance the classically trained Plummer (Unfortunate that despite Plummer's acting skills, he's never been even nominated for an Oscar, he has won 2 Emmy and 2 Tony awards) brings to the part makes him a great villain. I also like the visual look of the character, at Plummer's request, they didn't coat him with prosthetics, letting the character have more complex emotions (props go to the intimidating eyepath held on by three screws... now that's tough). I think the Shakespeare quoting, cool, yet devious Chang deserves his spot on the list.
4. Thomas Ian Griffith as Terry Silver, Karate Kid part III
The first Karate Kid movie has two memorable villains in the evil Cobra Kai disciple Billy Zabka as Johnny Lawrence and his mentor, John Kreese, played by Martin Kove, but to me, they don't hold up after watching the master of evil, Terry Silver, in part 3.After the original villains are humiliated by Danielsan and Mr. Miyagi (and after a sequel that doesn't expand on this particular story much at all), Kreese contacts his Vietnam war vet friend, Terry Silver, to help him get revenge. The character of Terry Silver is incredibly rich, dresses extremely well, happens to also be a black belt karate sensei, and he makes his living by illegally dumping toxic waste...
Thomas Ian Griffith plays the smarmy asshole of a character perfectly (He might have the best evil smirk in movie history through the early parts of the movie). I personally love that he schemes and negotiates both in a sauna and while taking a bubblebath. He sets up a bunch of run ins with Daniel to gain his trust, telling him Kreese has died, and training him in his own form of karate. Silver makes it a point to train Daniel the wrong way, telling him to use his anger and turning him against Mr. Miyagi. I definitely acknowledge that the idea that a billionaire would devote his personal time and resources to defeat and humiliate a local teenage karate champion is extremely ridiculous (Karate Kid 3 does not = realism). Griffith has so much fun with the part, not taking things too seriously, as his character in real life probably wouldn't. Overcoming such impossible odds is why Karate Kid 3 works as a movie at all, as by the end you really want Daniel-san to take this maniac down once and for all.
3. Elijah Wood as Kevin, Sin City
Now we get to the serious evil... This is probably the second best example of "casting against type" on this list. Kevin in the comics is more of a middle aged typical 'molester' and seemed menacing, but not quite as interesting at first. Then, you learn that Kevin is a cannibal who feeds the leftovers to his mostly feral pet wolf and keeps the heads on his wall... over the top and ridiculous, yes, but so is the rest of the Sin City universe. I love the movie adaptation, and I think this performance tends to get lost in the mix (if I had written this right after Sin City came out, I don't Wood would be as underrated).Robert Rodriguez's decision to cast the innocent hobbit (only Rings joke in this section, I promise!) as the vicious killer made things all the creepier. At first, I thought it was gross miscasting, but changing the character's age and tweaking the look was a huge improvement. In the role, Elijah Wood has no lines of dialogue, yet manages to convey emotion extremely well through body language and his expressive eyes.
Part of what made Kevin so menacing is how much trouble he gives Marv (Mickey Rourke). Marv's combination of size and strength coupled with his fighting abilities makes him seemingly superhuman, yet the much smaller Kevin gives him more physical trouble than anyone else in the movie. The reasons he shows up this low o my countdown are his lack of screen time and relative unimportance to the overall plot (I think of him like Boba Fett from the first Star Wars trilogy). Yet he more then earns his spot with his distinctive look (love the glasses and preppy sweater), his spectacular comeuppance, and that the character made Elijah Wood frightening.
2. Frank Langella as Skeletor, Masters of the Universe
Masters of the Universe is a fatally flawed movie, yet this performance gets lost in the general sillyness of seeing He-Man fight evil in the suburbs of New Jersey. Frank Langella is a criminally underused and underrated actor, often appearing as stock villains in awful movies such as Cutthroat Island, Junior, and the Whoopi Goldberg opus, Eddie. When given a script that has the chance to flex his sizable acting chops, he can put together a performance like his portrayal of Richard Nixon in Frost vs. Nixon or his take of Dracula in the late 70s.Skeletor in the cartoon He-Man was a fairly goofy yet visually dynamic villain with typical plans for world conquest and incompetent henchmen. The movie Skeletor comes across as an intelligent, persuasive schemer who retains the craze for power his predecessor had. The makeup on Langella is pretty good for the time period and budget and the costume/ram's head staff look genuine.
For such a crummy movie, Langella puts forth a ton of effort to make Skeletor a somewhat layered, menacing, and all around bad guy. I really love the monologue he delivers at the end when Skeletor gets the power of the universe. It's an amazingly moving and intense and I actually am rooting for Skeletor a bit as he finally is able to match He-Man physically. So for taking a buffoonish villain out of a badly animated show and making him a believable foe, Skeletor takes his spot on the list.
1. Ted Levine as Jame Gumb/Buffalo Bill, Silence of the Lambs
This performance is why I came up with this list, because lost behind the iconic, Academy Award winning Anthony Hopkins was this amazing characterization of a serial killer. Ted Levine is a talented character actor who usually plays cops, military types, or similar authority figures (Heat, Hills Have Eyes remake, and the boss on Monk are the three other roles that popped to mind). It wasn't until well after I saw the movie that I connected Gumb with any other part that Levine has played (trying to illustrate how unrecognizable he is).For starters, the character is written as a somewhat feminine transvestite. On paper, there's definitely potential for Gumb to be silly or funny and not as scary. Ted Levine reportedly spent some time with transvestites in bars in order to not make the character a complete caricature. He also purposefully avoided villain roles in the years after the Silence of the Lambs was released to avoid being typecast. His dedication and hard work pays off as Gumb comes across as psychotic and disturbing in a somewhat realistic sort of way. In my opinion, the entire "lotion-dog-pit" sequence would be one of the best 'serial killer' scenes in any movie.
Finally, a good chunk of why Silence of the Lambs works so well is that the character of Jame Gumb is so threatening and out there. The search to catch him becomes so intense that the advice of Hannibal Lector becomes crucial. Strangely, while reading about this character, I found out the author Thomas Harris based the main plot of Silence of the Lambs on a true story, but not the story of noted serial killer Ed Gein (who definitely influenced the character of Hannibal Lector). I found it personally incredible, but a Seattle detective actually sought out the advice of Ted Bundy to try and catch the Green River Killer.
So there's my list... Check the movies if you haven't seen any yet...
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Pandorum and Surrogates
September... The month where the kids go back to school, Bumbershoot happens, baseball rosters get really big, and Jason Statham releases another crappy action movie. In general, September and January are the two 'dump months' of the calendar year... when studios release movies that they have little faith in ( or that will only appeal to a limited audience (Stomp the Yard or Tyler Perry's latest endeavor).
Surrogates and Pandorum were both released the last weekend of September 2009. Surrogates was the higher budgeted movie at 80 M, grossing a combined 60.5 M worldwide and domestic. It also featured a bigger 'name' cast, headlined by Bruce Willis and a trailer featured Mr. Willis fighting robots. Pandorum cost 40 M, but failed to crack 15 M worldwide. Pandorum's previews gave it a Resident Evilish vibe, it was produced by Paul W.S. Anderson (the man behind the Mortal Kombat movie, the Death Race remake, and all 3 live action Res Evil films), and starred the poor man's Harrison Ford, Dennis Quaid.
Based on those descriptions... Surrogates obviously comes out on top, having at least a chance to make back some money on bluray/dvd sales and rentals, but both were financial failures. I'm not to going into a lot of detail reviewing these, because both were fairly derivative... but some quick bullet pointish thoughts.
Surrogates... The central concept is that in the near future, 98% of people live their lives through robotic 'surrogates' that can get into dangerous situations while keeping their owners harmfree and far away. In and itself, its not bad idea for a movie, and personally, I hope that some day war could fought in that sort of way... just robots fighting and keeping humans safer.
The acting for the most part is decent enough. Willis goes through the motions, using his combination of cynicism, inventiveness, and vulnerablility to play the same character he's played many times before. Supporting cast... Rastafarian Ving Rhames was entertaning (its a different sort of character than his usual 'tough guy'), James Cromwell (the farmer from Babe) played another grumpy authority figure, and Radha Mitchell, while fairly attractive, really needs more fleshed out parts in movies. I'd like to figure out if its the writing or her talent why she's so bland and forgettable, but not really bad.
Plotwise, Surrogates was decent (how the Matrix started meets I, Robot describes it well) and the ending actually makes a lot of sense, its just the setup that makes the whole film crumble. Offhand, there are enough problems with the concepts of surrogate robots that it just killed the movie for me. I watched this yesterday... and I've come up with 5 reasons to prove how stupid it is (no real spoilers here, if you watch the first few minutes of the movie, these issues should be obvious).
1. Why isn't everyone obese? I mean, you'd still have to eat and drink, but controlling a surrogate means you pretty much are immobile in a chair the whole day.
2. Wouldn't this kill off the massive restaurant industry? I mean, the surrogates themselves don't have to eat anything and that's 98% of the population moving around in this movie. I mean, they could bring back carryout, but I can't see a bunch of people sending their robots to get Jack in the Box tacos...
3. How cheap are these super advanced surrogates? Everyone seems to have them, and they are super advanced (I think there's a 10 year timeline or so in the intro from when they get invented to mass produced). Think about personal computers, I mean it took at least 10 years just to have something like the Apple 2GS, Amiga, or Commodore 64 from the room sized computers of the 70s... I can't believe that they would be that affordable for 'everyone' to have them...
4. The surrogates seem to be as strong and agile as the script calls for. At some points, they are really strong, can jump almost like Spiderman, take a fair amount of damage... This isn't a spoiler, its in every preview! Yet, in some scenes, they get taken out in just stupid ways. I realize that average people are 'behind the wheel' but if I had one of these things, I'd be jumping and climbing around everywhere. I mean, it would be expensive and maybe a little silly to have everyone bounding around like kangaroos, but even from an efficiency standpoint, it doesn't make sense. Its not like the robots get tired! (they could lose battery power maybe, but there seems to be recharging stations everywhere!)
5. This last one REALLY ground my gears. The surrogate robots use cell phones to communicate and talk to each other like humans! Think about this, these superadvanced robots controlled by wireless signal from great distances still use cell phones? Think about the Matrix, the Agents just sort of thought to each other through their earpieces. When Trinity needed piloting skill in the first Matrix, they just uploaded it into her brain, and she was a human! I mean, I realize the movie needs dialogue or else it would be really boring if robots just gave each other all knowing looks back and forth. For a non robot equivalent, instead of bluetooths, people starting using those old rotary phones..
Enough ranting about the stupidity of Surrogates and onto Pandorum...
I can't really say much about the plot without completely ruining it.
So instead, I'll discuss the setup a bit though, its about two crewman on a spaceship played by Ben Foster (Angel from Xmen3 or the crazy sharpshooter from 3:10 to Yuma) and Dennis Quaid trying to fix their damaged ship. See, they are trying to get from Earth to some distant planet without a Star Trek/Wars warp drive. This would take a really, really long time, so there are many different 'shifts' of crewmen who work for a few years, then go back to a deep cryogenic sleep. This seems like the way you'd handle a manned interstellar mission...
Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to our solar system... is 4.5 light years away. Meaning if we sent a spaceship at 1/10th light speed (which is currently technologically possible, but would be ridiculously expensive), it would get there in 45 or so years. It would then take another 45 years to get back to earth. Given the limitations of human life expectancy and the difficulties of raising children in space to man a return mission, this would seem insurmountable. However, what if you had 6 shifts of people operating the same ship? Each would only be awake for roughly 15 years, and if you could cryogenically freeze them so that they couldn't age in the meantime (well, that in and itself is sort of silly), it would help with the aging problem.
Problem is, making a movie about a long trip like that would be tedious at best, so, we get some bland monsters that are a blend of the Ghosts of Mars and Gollum. These chase our heroes around dimly lit corridors, feast on a diet of extras and supporting characters, and disappear when the script needs to get in some exposition. Yep, the middle section is a lot like the crappier parts of the first 3 Alien movies, especially the 'running through the tunnels' part from Alien3. However, the ending pulls everything back together and had a twist I didn't really anticipate at all.
So if you want a September sci movie with an interesting concept, bland action, and a cool ending, skip Surrogates and check out Pandorum.
That's all I have to say about that.
Surrogates and Pandorum were both released the last weekend of September 2009. Surrogates was the higher budgeted movie at 80 M, grossing a combined 60.5 M worldwide and domestic. It also featured a bigger 'name' cast, headlined by Bruce Willis and a trailer featured Mr. Willis fighting robots. Pandorum cost 40 M, but failed to crack 15 M worldwide. Pandorum's previews gave it a Resident Evilish vibe, it was produced by Paul W.S. Anderson (the man behind the Mortal Kombat movie, the Death Race remake, and all 3 live action Res Evil films), and starred the poor man's Harrison Ford, Dennis Quaid.
Based on those descriptions... Surrogates obviously comes out on top, having at least a chance to make back some money on bluray/dvd sales and rentals, but both were financial failures. I'm not to going into a lot of detail reviewing these, because both were fairly derivative... but some quick bullet pointish thoughts.
Surrogates... The central concept is that in the near future, 98% of people live their lives through robotic 'surrogates' that can get into dangerous situations while keeping their owners harmfree and far away. In and itself, its not bad idea for a movie, and personally, I hope that some day war could fought in that sort of way... just robots fighting and keeping humans safer.
The acting for the most part is decent enough. Willis goes through the motions, using his combination of cynicism, inventiveness, and vulnerablility to play the same character he's played many times before. Supporting cast... Rastafarian Ving Rhames was entertaning (its a different sort of character than his usual 'tough guy'), James Cromwell (the farmer from Babe) played another grumpy authority figure, and Radha Mitchell, while fairly attractive, really needs more fleshed out parts in movies. I'd like to figure out if its the writing or her talent why she's so bland and forgettable, but not really bad.
Plotwise, Surrogates was decent (how the Matrix started meets I, Robot describes it well) and the ending actually makes a lot of sense, its just the setup that makes the whole film crumble. Offhand, there are enough problems with the concepts of surrogate robots that it just killed the movie for me. I watched this yesterday... and I've come up with 5 reasons to prove how stupid it is (no real spoilers here, if you watch the first few minutes of the movie, these issues should be obvious).
1. Why isn't everyone obese? I mean, you'd still have to eat and drink, but controlling a surrogate means you pretty much are immobile in a chair the whole day.
2. Wouldn't this kill off the massive restaurant industry? I mean, the surrogates themselves don't have to eat anything and that's 98% of the population moving around in this movie. I mean, they could bring back carryout, but I can't see a bunch of people sending their robots to get Jack in the Box tacos...
3. How cheap are these super advanced surrogates? Everyone seems to have them, and they are super advanced (I think there's a 10 year timeline or so in the intro from when they get invented to mass produced). Think about personal computers, I mean it took at least 10 years just to have something like the Apple 2GS, Amiga, or Commodore 64 from the room sized computers of the 70s... I can't believe that they would be that affordable for 'everyone' to have them...
4. The surrogates seem to be as strong and agile as the script calls for. At some points, they are really strong, can jump almost like Spiderman, take a fair amount of damage... This isn't a spoiler, its in every preview! Yet, in some scenes, they get taken out in just stupid ways. I realize that average people are 'behind the wheel' but if I had one of these things, I'd be jumping and climbing around everywhere. I mean, it would be expensive and maybe a little silly to have everyone bounding around like kangaroos, but even from an efficiency standpoint, it doesn't make sense. Its not like the robots get tired! (they could lose battery power maybe, but there seems to be recharging stations everywhere!)
5. This last one REALLY ground my gears. The surrogate robots use cell phones to communicate and talk to each other like humans! Think about this, these superadvanced robots controlled by wireless signal from great distances still use cell phones? Think about the Matrix, the Agents just sort of thought to each other through their earpieces. When Trinity needed piloting skill in the first Matrix, they just uploaded it into her brain, and she was a human! I mean, I realize the movie needs dialogue or else it would be really boring if robots just gave each other all knowing looks back and forth. For a non robot equivalent, instead of bluetooths, people starting using those old rotary phones..
Enough ranting about the stupidity of Surrogates and onto Pandorum...
I can't really say much about the plot without completely ruining it.
So instead, I'll discuss the setup a bit though, its about two crewman on a spaceship played by Ben Foster (Angel from Xmen3 or the crazy sharpshooter from 3:10 to Yuma) and Dennis Quaid trying to fix their damaged ship. See, they are trying to get from Earth to some distant planet without a Star Trek/Wars warp drive. This would take a really, really long time, so there are many different 'shifts' of crewmen who work for a few years, then go back to a deep cryogenic sleep. This seems like the way you'd handle a manned interstellar mission...
Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to our solar system... is 4.5 light years away. Meaning if we sent a spaceship at 1/10th light speed (which is currently technologically possible, but would be ridiculously expensive), it would get there in 45 or so years. It would then take another 45 years to get back to earth. Given the limitations of human life expectancy and the difficulties of raising children in space to man a return mission, this would seem insurmountable. However, what if you had 6 shifts of people operating the same ship? Each would only be awake for roughly 15 years, and if you could cryogenically freeze them so that they couldn't age in the meantime (well, that in and itself is sort of silly), it would help with the aging problem.
Problem is, making a movie about a long trip like that would be tedious at best, so, we get some bland monsters that are a blend of the Ghosts of Mars and Gollum. These chase our heroes around dimly lit corridors, feast on a diet of extras and supporting characters, and disappear when the script needs to get in some exposition. Yep, the middle section is a lot like the crappier parts of the first 3 Alien movies, especially the 'running through the tunnels' part from Alien3. However, the ending pulls everything back together and had a twist I didn't really anticipate at all.
So if you want a September sci movie with an interesting concept, bland action, and a cool ending, skip Surrogates and check out Pandorum.
That's all I have to say about that.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Bottom 7 movies of 2009
I watch a lot of movies. That statement shouldn't be a big surprise to anyone. I feel like I should do a 'year in review' so I'll give my top and bottom 7.
I'm only considering cinematic releases, so all straight to DVD movies aren't up for consideration (number 1 would be utterly dreadful S. Darko) So I'll start at the bottom 7, the worst of 2009 (I haven't seen Old Dogs or Alvin and the Chipmunks 2, so they are omitted)...
Dishonorable mentions (the next 7 in no particular order); Transformers; Revenge of the Fallen, The Uninvited, Haunting of Molly Hartley, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Paul Blart Mall Cop, Fighting, and Babylon A.D.
7. Year One
Jack Black = funny, Michael Cera = funny, Harold Ramis = funny, Black+Cera+Ramis = amazingly unfunny. For starters, the idea of cavemen wandering through biblical times does have some comic potential (I was hoping for something like Mel Brook's History of the World). Ramis assembled a who's who of comedians for the supporting cast, including Hank Azaria, David Cross, Paul Rudd, Christopher 'McLovin' Mintz-Plasse, Kyle "Tenacious D" Gass, and Bill Hader. The problem is, Black and Cera lazily play their normal 'types' (Black constantly mugs, wiggles his eyebrows and dances around, Cera talks really quietly and is awkward around women, etc.) while most of the supporting cast get very little screen time and have little impact on the story. The worst offender of the supporting cast is the terrifically unfunny and overly hairy Oliver Platt as a high priest (and I even sort of liked Platt in Lake Placid, so that should give an example of how awful he is here).
Its like Ramis assembled his cast and forgot to give them anything remotely funny to do. The humor involves too many pratfalls, tired homophobic routines (yep, some things about the Romans would seem fairly gay by today's standards), and dumb scatological jokes (a poop joke that was better in the 3rd American Pie). A lot of money got put into the costumes and sets (the movie had a budget of 60 M, fairly high for a straight comedy) but none was put into the story or script. This movie makes the list over the other contenders because the three or four good jokes are all in the preview (only Bill Hader's sadly brief appearance would be the sole exception), making the following hour and forty minutes an extremely boring, unfunny affair.
6. Dragonball Evolution
This movie was poorly edited and written, had a delayed theatrical release, and then dumped to theaters in April 2009. Given the difficult to adapt source material and that the budget was slashed from 100 M in preproduction down to 30 M for production, I feel a little bad for this movie from the start. It seems like 20th Century Fox has been steadily accumulating the rights to a number of properties with a strong built in 'core' audience (The Seeker, Eragon, Hitman, Garfield, Fantastic Four, etc.). Then, the resulting movie adaptations get as little effort into budget and script as possible. The ensuing cheap cinematic abortions then are dumped to theaters hoping to lure in the enthusiastic fan base and thus cash in on the 'name' value (and so far have mostly tanked).
For casting, despite being set in Japan, Canadian Justin Chatwin is miscast as the lead Son Goku as is Emmy Rossum as the blue haired inventor Bulma. Amidst a sea of awfulness in the supporting cast, Chow Yun-Fat hammily enjoys himself as Master Roshi while an underwritten James Marsters evils it up as Lord Piccolo. Vegita, the most interesting and popular character from the anime, doesn't even appear at all. I think a good 30 M Dragonball movie starring a Canadian was doomed from the very start, so this is low on my "bad" list.
5. Knowing
Most of Knowing wasn't 'that' bad, having an interesting concept and being helmed by Alex Proyas, (who joins David Goyer in the "creative people I love that made a horrible 2009 movie" list) the director of Dark City and the first Crow. Nick Cage is only moderately irritating, there are a couple cool action sequences, and the cinematography is decent. However, with about a half hour to go, the movie goes from alright to a big bag of sloppy goose shit. Where do I begin?
If there was a giant solar flare, the levels of UV radiation would greatly increase thereby increasing the frequency and rate of cancer. The characters talk about UV radiation a couple different times... Yet, the climax (given away in the previews) features a giant ID4 style fireball engulfing most of the world. Apparently, people dying of radiation < stuff exploding! To paraphrase what happens in the end of the movie... what if at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, after Indy found the Grail and reconciled with his father, got crushed by the falling debris in the temple? Wouldn't that suck? Yep, it would, and so did this movie, featuring one the worst endings of any major movie that I've seen.
4. Street Fighter, Legend of Chun Li
There have been a lot of terrible video game movies, so I tend to give most of them a little more latitude given their weak subject matter. What's wrong with this sequel? For a game with literally dozens of characters, we only get 7 in this movie - Chun Li, M. Bison, Charlie, Vega, Balrog, Gen, and Rose. What's wrong with this list? For starters, the first Street Fighter movie focused on Guile, so his omission is fine, but to me, the sequel had to be about the HaDouken twins, Ken and Ryu (the 2 most popular characters). Not only are they not part of the plot, they aren't even in the movie at all (except for a name drop towards the end). This would be the equivalent of having X-Men 2 be all about Storm and leaving Wolverine completely out.
Next, some awful casting decisions... Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog is about the only thing that works... In the opening montage, Chun Li grows up from being obviously of Asian descent to the Canadian Kristen Kreuk (who does a decent job with the martial arts and puts forth a decent acting effort). Neal McDonough seems more like a standard mob boss than the evil dictator M. Bison (He's no Raul Julia and he's the completely wrong physical type). The guy playing the martial arts legend Gen is far too young (the same actor played Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat!). For the fearsome clawed killer Vega, we get the hispanic guy from the Black Eyed Peas... ugh. The real reason this movie features on the list is the absolutely all time awful performance from Chris Klein as Charlie Nash. Klein's characterization features the worst acting (being hammy yet bland all at once) from a 'name' actor that I've ever seen in a major motion picture. Since he's only a supporting character, that saves this flick from the worst of the year.
3. All About Steve
Oscar award winning Sandra Bullock has been irritating and annoying before, but her performance of a shrill, stalkerish, obsessive crossword puzzle writer takes the cake for her worst career performance (I was wishing for her burping FBI agent from Miss Congeniality about twenty minutes in). Also starring the amazingly bland Bradley Cooper, this movie has three terminal flaws.
strike 1 bad acting
strike 2 bad plot
strike 3 bad writing.
The only thing that saves movie from being the worst of the year is the costarring tandem of Thomas Haden Church and Ken Jeong as an arrogant news anchor and a suffering camera tech. These two are trying to bring the funny into a painfully unfunny script, they have all the best lines (some of which have to be improvised) and make their part of the movie tolerable. Unfortunately, the movie is focused on a creepy Bullock-Cooper "romance" which makes the final project abysmal. I'll put it this way, when Bullock falls down a gaping hole (the only good physical joke and ruined in the preview) I was hoping for her death or at least serious bone breaking injury. Instead, I got another half hour of movie... ughhhh.
2. The Unborn
Out of the 2 Un movies released in early 2009 along with the Uninivited, this movie is everything that's wrong with most American horror. Using a combination of really cheap boo scares along with cheap rip offs of prominent horror movies like the Exorcist, the Grudge, and others does not scary make. The really sad thing about this one isn't the cool looking trailer, the waste of talent of David Goyer (who wrote Dark Knight, Blade, and Dark City), or a slumming Gary Oldman. The sad thing is that the movie is only PG-13, depriving it of the gore or nudity it would need to be at least entertaining (like the My Bloody Valentine remake).
1. Bride Wars
This might be one of the least funny comedies I've ever seen. It makes chick flicks look bad by being an offensive farce involving two lifelong friends who sabotage and destroy each others lives (using methods that might have been funny in Saved by the Bell) because their weddings get accidentally booked on the same day. Given the current 'bridezilla,' over competitive weddings of today, I truly believe that a script with good comic potential exists. Furthermore, you get a completely cheap "happy ending" because one of the male characters makes a script based decision to question the stupidity of the movie's plot. Anne Hathaway should have known better, Kate Hudson's agent needs a career change (Fool's Gold looked like an Oscar contender compared to this). Just amazingly unfunny, cliched, and completely devoid of any entertainment value whatsoever.
I'm only considering cinematic releases, so all straight to DVD movies aren't up for consideration (number 1 would be utterly dreadful S. Darko) So I'll start at the bottom 7, the worst of 2009 (I haven't seen Old Dogs or Alvin and the Chipmunks 2, so they are omitted)...
Dishonorable mentions (the next 7 in no particular order); Transformers; Revenge of the Fallen, The Uninvited, Haunting of Molly Hartley, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Paul Blart Mall Cop, Fighting, and Babylon A.D.
7. Year One
Jack Black = funny, Michael Cera = funny, Harold Ramis = funny, Black+Cera+Ramis = amazingly unfunny. For starters, the idea of cavemen wandering through biblical times does have some comic potential (I was hoping for something like Mel Brook's History of the World). Ramis assembled a who's who of comedians for the supporting cast, including Hank Azaria, David Cross, Paul Rudd, Christopher 'McLovin' Mintz-Plasse, Kyle "Tenacious D" Gass, and Bill Hader. The problem is, Black and Cera lazily play their normal 'types' (Black constantly mugs, wiggles his eyebrows and dances around, Cera talks really quietly and is awkward around women, etc.) while most of the supporting cast get very little screen time and have little impact on the story. The worst offender of the supporting cast is the terrifically unfunny and overly hairy Oliver Platt as a high priest (and I even sort of liked Platt in Lake Placid, so that should give an example of how awful he is here).
Its like Ramis assembled his cast and forgot to give them anything remotely funny to do. The humor involves too many pratfalls, tired homophobic routines (yep, some things about the Romans would seem fairly gay by today's standards), and dumb scatological jokes (a poop joke that was better in the 3rd American Pie). A lot of money got put into the costumes and sets (the movie had a budget of 60 M, fairly high for a straight comedy) but none was put into the story or script. This movie makes the list over the other contenders because the three or four good jokes are all in the preview (only Bill Hader's sadly brief appearance would be the sole exception), making the following hour and forty minutes an extremely boring, unfunny affair.
6. Dragonball Evolution
This movie was poorly edited and written, had a delayed theatrical release, and then dumped to theaters in April 2009. Given the difficult to adapt source material and that the budget was slashed from 100 M in preproduction down to 30 M for production, I feel a little bad for this movie from the start. It seems like 20th Century Fox has been steadily accumulating the rights to a number of properties with a strong built in 'core' audience (The Seeker, Eragon, Hitman, Garfield, Fantastic Four, etc.). Then, the resulting movie adaptations get as little effort into budget and script as possible. The ensuing cheap cinematic abortions then are dumped to theaters hoping to lure in the enthusiastic fan base and thus cash in on the 'name' value (and so far have mostly tanked).
For casting, despite being set in Japan, Canadian Justin Chatwin is miscast as the lead Son Goku as is Emmy Rossum as the blue haired inventor Bulma. Amidst a sea of awfulness in the supporting cast, Chow Yun-Fat hammily enjoys himself as Master Roshi while an underwritten James Marsters evils it up as Lord Piccolo. Vegita, the most interesting and popular character from the anime, doesn't even appear at all. I think a good 30 M Dragonball movie starring a Canadian was doomed from the very start, so this is low on my "bad" list.
5. Knowing
Most of Knowing wasn't 'that' bad, having an interesting concept and being helmed by Alex Proyas, (who joins David Goyer in the "creative people I love that made a horrible 2009 movie" list) the director of Dark City and the first Crow. Nick Cage is only moderately irritating, there are a couple cool action sequences, and the cinematography is decent. However, with about a half hour to go, the movie goes from alright to a big bag of sloppy goose shit. Where do I begin?
If there was a giant solar flare, the levels of UV radiation would greatly increase thereby increasing the frequency and rate of cancer. The characters talk about UV radiation a couple different times... Yet, the climax (given away in the previews) features a giant ID4 style fireball engulfing most of the world. Apparently, people dying of radiation < stuff exploding! To paraphrase what happens in the end of the movie... what if at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, after Indy found the Grail and reconciled with his father, got crushed by the falling debris in the temple? Wouldn't that suck? Yep, it would, and so did this movie, featuring one the worst endings of any major movie that I've seen.
4. Street Fighter, Legend of Chun Li
There have been a lot of terrible video game movies, so I tend to give most of them a little more latitude given their weak subject matter. What's wrong with this sequel? For a game with literally dozens of characters, we only get 7 in this movie - Chun Li, M. Bison, Charlie, Vega, Balrog, Gen, and Rose. What's wrong with this list? For starters, the first Street Fighter movie focused on Guile, so his omission is fine, but to me, the sequel had to be about the HaDouken twins, Ken and Ryu (the 2 most popular characters). Not only are they not part of the plot, they aren't even in the movie at all (except for a name drop towards the end). This would be the equivalent of having X-Men 2 be all about Storm and leaving Wolverine completely out.
Next, some awful casting decisions... Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog is about the only thing that works... In the opening montage, Chun Li grows up from being obviously of Asian descent to the Canadian Kristen Kreuk (who does a decent job with the martial arts and puts forth a decent acting effort). Neal McDonough seems more like a standard mob boss than the evil dictator M. Bison (He's no Raul Julia and he's the completely wrong physical type). The guy playing the martial arts legend Gen is far too young (the same actor played Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat!). For the fearsome clawed killer Vega, we get the hispanic guy from the Black Eyed Peas... ugh. The real reason this movie features on the list is the absolutely all time awful performance from Chris Klein as Charlie Nash. Klein's characterization features the worst acting (being hammy yet bland all at once) from a 'name' actor that I've ever seen in a major motion picture. Since he's only a supporting character, that saves this flick from the worst of the year.
3. All About Steve
Oscar award winning Sandra Bullock has been irritating and annoying before, but her performance of a shrill, stalkerish, obsessive crossword puzzle writer takes the cake for her worst career performance (I was wishing for her burping FBI agent from Miss Congeniality about twenty minutes in). Also starring the amazingly bland Bradley Cooper, this movie has three terminal flaws.
strike 1 bad acting
strike 2 bad plot
strike 3 bad writing.
The only thing that saves movie from being the worst of the year is the costarring tandem of Thomas Haden Church and Ken Jeong as an arrogant news anchor and a suffering camera tech. These two are trying to bring the funny into a painfully unfunny script, they have all the best lines (some of which have to be improvised) and make their part of the movie tolerable. Unfortunately, the movie is focused on a creepy Bullock-Cooper "romance" which makes the final project abysmal. I'll put it this way, when Bullock falls down a gaping hole (the only good physical joke and ruined in the preview) I was hoping for her death or at least serious bone breaking injury. Instead, I got another half hour of movie... ughhhh.
2. The Unborn
Out of the 2 Un movies released in early 2009 along with the Uninivited, this movie is everything that's wrong with most American horror. Using a combination of really cheap boo scares along with cheap rip offs of prominent horror movies like the Exorcist, the Grudge, and others does not scary make. The really sad thing about this one isn't the cool looking trailer, the waste of talent of David Goyer (who wrote Dark Knight, Blade, and Dark City), or a slumming Gary Oldman. The sad thing is that the movie is only PG-13, depriving it of the gore or nudity it would need to be at least entertaining (like the My Bloody Valentine remake).
1. Bride Wars
This might be one of the least funny comedies I've ever seen. It makes chick flicks look bad by being an offensive farce involving two lifelong friends who sabotage and destroy each others lives (using methods that might have been funny in Saved by the Bell) because their weddings get accidentally booked on the same day. Given the current 'bridezilla,' over competitive weddings of today, I truly believe that a script with good comic potential exists. Furthermore, you get a completely cheap "happy ending" because one of the male characters makes a script based decision to question the stupidity of the movie's plot. Anne Hathaway should have known better, Kate Hudson's agent needs a career change (Fool's Gold looked like an Oscar contender compared to this). Just amazingly unfunny, cliched, and completely devoid of any entertainment value whatsoever.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
My Favorite Twelve Supporting Kids Cartoon Characters
Salutations,
So I have a half dozen or so 'best of' lists that are half finished and I'm going to be proactive and finish them. The first and easiest because its the closest to being done is my supporting cartoon characters list. I have the distinction of being able to watch six hours of cartoons (anything PG rated or less) at work every day so I've been looking at a LOT of kids movies (because Disney sequels > Olson Twins movies) lately and that's where I came up with this particular group. To preface this, its kids characters only, so no Brian from Family Guy or Ralph Wiggum from the Simpsons. Also, its supporting characters, so no primary heroes (mostly boring) or villains (saving for another list) are going to appear here. So without further ado...
12. The Aracuan Bird (Disney, no credited voice actor th
at I can find)
Well, I know this particular character probably isn't on anyone's list, but let me explain a bit. Most old time cartoon shorts had a hero and villain and thus almost none of them technically worked for this list (I didn't want to use super obvious characters like Goofy or Daffy). The Aracuan Bird appeared in three Donald Duck cartoons: a segment of the movie The Three Caballeros(1945), the short The Clown of the Jungle (1947) and a segment of the movie Melody Time called Blame it on the Samba (1948) (you can look up some if not all three on YouTube). The bird melds the more plot driven, safer Disney cartoons with the kinetic energy of the Warner Brothers. Given the generic, fairly tame adversaries that Donald Duck normally dealt with (ants, a dopey bee, Pluto, etc.), this combination of Woody Woodpecker and the Looney Tunes Dodo hopped up on RedBull really made an impression on me as a kid, despite his sparse appearances. So representing the bright nonsense of classic cartoon, the Aracuan Bird makes the list.
Fun Fact - there is an actual Araucuan bird (note the slightly different spelling) native to South
America.
11. The Huntsman (Freakazoid, voiced by Jeff Bennett)
Okay, this is the last really obscure character, I promise. If you weren't aware, I really love Freakazoid!... If you don't know what it is at all, it followed Animaniacs and spoofed superheroes the way Animaniacs spoofs classic Warner/Disney cartoons. Like Animaniacs, the show had multiple segments and shorts without a real main plot line. One of the supporting characters, The Huntsman, is a combination of Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, and Robin Hood. He's strong, magical, tough, and has an amazing theme song that to this day I still can recite pretty well. Unfortunately, he doesn't usually have much to do... watch this (its only about 3 minutes) to get a good idea of why he's hilariously awesome... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPbIiLrNGZo
Fun Fact - Jeff Bennett also voiced Dexter's Dad on Dexter's Laboratory...
10. Hammy (Over the Hedge, Steve Carrell)
Over the Hedge isn't even one of my 20 favorite animated movies, but the surprisingly manic vocal performance by the normally even mannered Steve Carrell combined with a really fluid animation puts him on my list. I suprised myself with just how fun and crazy this character is when I watched the movie again. I thought long and hard about including Chip or Dale or both, but in the end they weren't as interesting. I went with what would happen if Chip or Dale freebased some cocaine... you'd get Hammy. If you haven't seen Over the Hedge, its a fun throwback type of movie and Hammy's role in the very end of the climax is what put got him in the list.
Fun Fact - Hammy suggests calling the titular hedge "Steve" saying that "Steve is a nice name"
9. Snake Eyes (G.I. Joe, no credited voice actor)
This one was tricky for me... I wanted a character from the 80s action cartoons I watched a lot in my very young years. Optimus Prime seemed like a main character and the best part of He-Man and Thundercats were the villains. That left G.I. Joe and by far my favorite Joe was the silent ninja Snake Eyes. If I remember right (and its been probably 15 years since I've seen any of the G.I. Joe episodes) Snake Eyes was severely burned and suffered damaged vocal cords in a helicopter explosion. Although you'd think a guy armed with only a sword and a few grenades would be at a disadvantage in a firefight, you would underestimate the poor aim of the Cobra troops. Quiet, badass, action star with nary a line, Snake Eyes deserves his spot on this list
Fun Fact - Not a fact at all, but I was always really cheesed that besides hardly being in it, Snake Eyes got his butt whooped twice in the G.I. Joe movie... I know they were pushing the newer characters to sell more toys, but don't make the cool old characters look like total wimps. At least he had a better fate than most of the original Transformers in their 80s movie....
8. Gurgi (The Black Cauldro
n ,John Byner)
I really love Lloyd Alexander's series of Prydain novels quite a bit. For those who are unaware, its a series of five books, the second of which is the Black Cauldron, which are based on Welsh mythology. The rights to the series are owned by Disney, who only produced the 1985 classic, the Black Cauldron, which at the time was the only Disney animated feature to receive a PG rating... Gurgi is to the Prydain books as Sam is to Lord of the Rings, only if Sam was a mix between a dog and a monkey. Gurgi is full of mischief, but is arguably the most heroic character in the movie. His two traits are his use of rhyming couplets (the most famous was "crunchings and munchings") and his odd voice, spoken all in the 3rd person, provided by impressionist John Byner (who's most famous for the ant and aardvark characters from the Pink Panther cartoon). To try and describe the voice... think maybe a more intelligible Donald Duck who's a heavy smoker. To sum it up, in terms of balancing loyalty, humor, and an unforgettable voice, Gurgi gets the spot at #8.
Fun Fact - Gurgi is the only character from Black Cauldron to have his own attraction at a Disney theme park, Gurgi's Munchies and Crunchies at Magic Kingdom DisneyWorld. It was open from 1986-1993 and then changed into Lumiere's Kitchen (it's currently called the Village Fry Shoppe).
7. Puss in Boots (Shrek 2, Antonio Banderas)
I don't enjoy the Shrek character or franchise that much but somehow someway this little guy makes it on the list. He's why I own Shrek 2 and not the original... The movie character combines the fairytale with Antonio Banderas playing Zorro with a lot of 'cat' still intact. The cute cat faces, the constant distractions, the funny payoff of the "Cops" sequence... Exactly what a supporting character should do. The character is popular enough that Dreamworks has a spinoff in production based more on the actual fairytale. I'm looking forward to that a lot more than the actual fourth Shrek movie that's coming out this year.
Fun Fact - Antonio Banderas also does the voice in the Spanish language version of the movie.
6. Tiger (An American Tail, Dom DeLuise)
First off, R.I.P. Dom DeLuise who died earlier this year. I think the movie buff would remember DeLuise as Burt Reynolds' co star in both Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit as well as his small parts in Mel Brooks films. I personally became aware of DeLuise through a variety of animated characters, primarily in Don Bluth films. An American Tail is the first movie I can remember seeing in theaters when I was 4 years old, so chalk up personal bias as to why Tiger is so high on this list. I was discussing Tiger with a friend at work who dismissed the character as being a knockoff of the Cowardly Lion from Wizard of Oz. I disagree and I think that the combination of panic, embarassment, agitation, and warmth DeLuise brought to the role gave it a more depth than the Lion (I think the physical comparison is more apt). Even though An American Tail will always be remembered for the song Somewhere Out There, I think Tiger's musical number "A Duo" deserves a mention (as well as the trippy visuals).
Fun Fact - Dom DeLuise voiced the character of Tiger seventeen times, in both theatrical movies, both straight to DVD sequels, and in all 13 awful episodes of Fievel's American Tails. The only character he voiced more was Itchy, the Daschund from All Dogs Go To Heaven (21 times).
5. Kronk (Emperor's New Groove, Patrick Warburton)
Maybe a surprise being this high, but I think Emperor's New Groove is the best post Lion King Disney movie. The film had a troubled history, losing an Owen Wilson voiced slacker type (good thing) and a soundtrack full of Sting songs (bad thing) for Kronk (great thing) and a Tom Jones song (pretty cool thing). It's always tough for G rated animated movies to reach both the kids without boring/excluding the adults. Most of the time, the more adult humor is pop culture/movie references. This movie has a fair share of those, but most of the humor is from the ever deadpan Patrick Warburton as Kronk, the dim witted yet well meaning henchman. Warburton tends to play two sorts of characters - tough (Joe from Family Guy or the Hoodwinked Wolf) or dumb (The live action Tick or Puddy from Seinfeld). He's been typecast for sure, but he plays the monotonous dimwit so gleefully well that he completely steals the movie despite being a villain's sidekick. Special props go to the use of the "angel and demon on the shoulders" gag that Disney brought back from their old Pluto cartoons.
Fun Fact - Showing that Disney realized he was the best part of the first movie, the character of Kronk starred in the straight to DVD sequel, Kronk's New Groove.
4. Genie (Aladdin, Robin Williams)
Robin Williams' comic stylings have led to a fairly hit or miss film career. To me, his two greatest comedic performances are in Good Morning Vietnam and Aladdin, where his manic improvs make sense in the context of the story. Everyone has their favorite, but out of all the modern Disney film sidekicks, the Genie combines personality with humor and visual flair while still being crucial to the plot (which is why he's here and some of his contemporaries aren't on this list).
Unlike most animated movies, Williams improved almost all of his dialogue. He had the script outline with suggested topics and came up with the various transformations (an estimated 52 character changes). Visually, the animators were inspired the stylings of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld to make the genie much more 'cartoony' than most of the human cast. The fluid animation combined with Williams' improvs that don't detract from the story are what put the Genie on the list. Plus, he has 2 songs, one of was Oscar nomiated (Friend Like Me) and might be my favorite Disney song. Finally, the Genie inspired the coolest level of the Sega Genesis Aladdin game (the 2nd best Disney video game after the NES Ducktales).
Fun Fact - After a contract dispute, Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson), took over for Robin Williams for Return of Jafar and the Aladdin animated series.
3. The Brain (Animaniacs, Maurice LaMarche)
Now this may seem like a cheat, but I'm using the Brain's appearances from Animaniacs as opposed to his own show. I make this distinction because I think Pinky and the Brain work best as shorts and not as well as full half hour cartoons. The Brain's personality seems to be part Napolean Bonparte and part Vincent Price, and the voice is based on Orson Welles. His appearance is actually based on Tom Minton, a producer and writer of Animaniacs. I find the Pinky and the Brain cartoons a good balance of classic Warners slapstick with a lot of really clever pop culture references (I especially love Brainy the Poo and Bubba Bo Bob Brain). Finally, the Brain started the great catch phrase "Are you pondering what I'm pondering..."
Fun Fact - Maurice LaMarche also imitated Orson Welles in Ed Wood, dubbing over Vince D'Onofrio's cameo.
2. Launchpad McQuack (Terry McGovern, Ducktales)
The best of the best as far as supporting characters go, Launchpad was far and away the greatest original character in Ducktales and then joined Darkwing Duck after Ducktales was cancelled. He served as the bodyguard and pilot for Scrooge and was the focus of several early episodes. His cleft beak/chin, the aviator goggles and bomber jacket gave him a distinctive visual look, being one of the largest characters in Ducktales. I also have to mention his ability to crash any sort of transportation with little to no injury to Launchpad or his passengers. Launchpad had a lot of courage and integrity and beyond his pilot skills, served as the voice of reason and honesty compared to the more obssessive Scrooge. My favorite Launchpad episode has to be Double o Duck in which he becomes James Bondish spy (an episode that has little to do with Scrooge or the nephews at all). As the series of Ducktales went on, Launchpad was used less and was replaced by both Bubba Duck and Gizmoduck, he also did not play a big role in the Ducktales movie. In Darkwing Duck, Launchpad was the pilot and sidekick to Drake Mallard and was the only character besides Gizmoduck to appear in both series. His personality changed a bit as he became dumber, more passive, and less a man of action (probably to contrast more with Darkwing himself). Anyhow, after watching the Ducktales episodes as an adult, I really think Launchpad is the best TV kids supporting character.
Fun Fact - Launchpad was considered for a starring role in his own show, a show that eventually became TaleSpin.
1. Baloo the Bear (Phil Harris, Jungle Book)
When I thought this list up, this was my easy top choice... as a supporting character, you can't beat Baloo. He advances the story of Jungle Book, representing the easy going jungle life that Mowgli has to give up to become a man. He also provides comic relief without being irritating or distracting and has a character arc of his own. By the end of the story, the lazy 'jungle bum' battles Shere Khan to help out his friend. Baloo also has one of the greatest songs in the Disney catalogue, "The Bare Necessities," as well as contributing to "I Wanna Be Like You." His brash, laid back and boisterous voice provided by radio personality Phil Harris complemented his large size and hipster attitude. I also personally respect that the Disney animators used the sloth bear as a model for Baloo's diet and physical features. He eats fruits, plants, and insects and his large claws and stocky body also resemble the sloth bear. Baloo was so popular that Phil Harris reprised the character (I realize the look of both characters is different, but in voice and personality... it's Baloo) in 2 different movies; Little John in Robin Hood and Thomas O'Malley in the Aristocats. Furthermore, Baloo became the star of TaleSpin, voiced mostly by Ed Gilbert (Harris' voice had aged too much although he did record some dialogue). After Harris passed on in 1995, Baloo was voiced by John Goodman in the Jungle Book 2 (a rare Disney sequel that wasn't completely awful).
Fun Fact - Phil Harris' last animated role was that of Patou in Rock a Doodle in 1991. Harris was 86 years old when he recorded the dialogue.
So there's my countdown... It took some time to put together... Hopefully it wasn't too boring or tedious to read through... And its all opinion (its called "My favorite" for a reason) and completely subjective. More lists and such to come...
That's all I have to say about that.
So I have a half dozen or so 'best of' lists that are half finished and I'm going to be proactive and finish them. The first and easiest because its the closest to being done is my supporting cartoon characters list. I have the distinction of being able to watch six hours of cartoons (anything PG rated or less) at work every day so I've been looking at a LOT of kids movies (because Disney sequels > Olson Twins movies) lately and that's where I came up with this particular group. To preface this, its kids characters only, so no Brian from Family Guy or Ralph Wiggum from the Simpsons. Also, its supporting characters, so no primary heroes (mostly boring) or villains (saving for another list) are going to appear here. So without further ado...
12. The Aracuan Bird (Disney, no credited voice actor th
at I can find)Well, I know this particular character probably isn't on anyone's list, but let me explain a bit. Most old time cartoon shorts had a hero and villain and thus almost none of them technically worked for this list (I didn't want to use super obvious characters like Goofy or Daffy). The Aracuan Bird appeared in three Donald Duck cartoons: a segment of the movie The Three Caballeros(1945), the short The Clown of the Jungle (1947) and a segment of the movie Melody Time called Blame it on the Samba (1948) (you can look up some if not all three on YouTube). The bird melds the more plot driven, safer Disney cartoons with the kinetic energy of the Warner Brothers. Given the generic, fairly tame adversaries that Donald Duck normally dealt with (ants, a dopey bee, Pluto, etc.), this combination of Woody Woodpecker and the Looney Tunes Dodo hopped up on RedBull really made an impression on me as a kid, despite his sparse appearances. So representing the bright nonsense of classic cartoon, the Aracuan Bird makes the list.
Fun Fact - there is an actual Araucuan bird (note the slightly different spelling) native to South
America.
11. The Huntsman (Freakazoid, voiced by Jeff Bennett)
Okay, this is the last really obscure character, I promise. If you weren't aware, I really love Freakazoid!... If you don't know what it is at all, it followed Animaniacs and spoofed superheroes the way Animaniacs spoofs classic Warner/Disney cartoons. Like Animaniacs, the show had multiple segments and shorts without a real main plot line. One of the supporting characters, The Huntsman, is a combination of Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, and Robin Hood. He's strong, magical, tough, and has an amazing theme song that to this day I still can recite pretty well. Unfortunately, he doesn't usually have much to do... watch this (its only about 3 minutes) to get a good idea of why he's hilariously awesome... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPbIiLrNGZoFun Fact - Jeff Bennett also voiced Dexter's Dad on Dexter's Laboratory...
10. Hammy (Over the Hedge, Steve Carrell)
Over the Hedge isn't even one of my 20 favorite animated movies, but the surprisingly manic vocal performance by the normally even mannered Steve Carrell combined with a really fluid animation puts him on my list. I suprised myself with just how fun and crazy this character is when I watched the movie again. I thought long and hard about including Chip or Dale or both, but in the end they weren't as interesting. I went with what would happen if Chip or Dale freebased some cocaine... you'd get Hammy. If you haven't seen Over the Hedge, its a fun throwback type of movie and Hammy's role in the very end of the climax is what put got him in the list.Fun Fact - Hammy suggests calling the titular hedge "Steve" saying that "Steve is a nice name"
9. Snake Eyes (G.I. Joe, no credited voice actor)
This one was tricky for me... I wanted a character from the 80s action cartoons I watched a lot in my very young years. Optimus Prime seemed like a main character and the best part of He-Man and Thundercats were the villains. That left G.I. Joe and by far my favorite Joe was the silent ninja Snake Eyes. If I remember right (and its been probably 15 years since I've seen any of the G.I. Joe episodes) Snake Eyes was severely burned and suffered damaged vocal cords in a helicopter explosion. Although you'd think a guy armed with only a sword and a few grenades would be at a disadvantage in a firefight, you would underestimate the poor aim of the Cobra troops. Quiet, badass, action star with nary a line, Snake Eyes deserves his spot on this listFun Fact - Not a fact at all, but I was always really cheesed that besides hardly being in it, Snake Eyes got his butt whooped twice in the G.I. Joe movie... I know they were pushing the newer characters to sell more toys, but don't make the cool old characters look like total wimps. At least he had a better fate than most of the original Transformers in their 80s movie....
8. Gurgi (The Black Cauldro
n ,John Byner)I really love Lloyd Alexander's series of Prydain novels quite a bit. For those who are unaware, its a series of five books, the second of which is the Black Cauldron, which are based on Welsh mythology. The rights to the series are owned by Disney, who only produced the 1985 classic, the Black Cauldron, which at the time was the only Disney animated feature to receive a PG rating... Gurgi is to the Prydain books as Sam is to Lord of the Rings, only if Sam was a mix between a dog and a monkey. Gurgi is full of mischief, but is arguably the most heroic character in the movie. His two traits are his use of rhyming couplets (the most famous was "crunchings and munchings") and his odd voice, spoken all in the 3rd person, provided by impressionist John Byner (who's most famous for the ant and aardvark characters from the Pink Panther cartoon). To try and describe the voice... think maybe a more intelligible Donald Duck who's a heavy smoker. To sum it up, in terms of balancing loyalty, humor, and an unforgettable voice, Gurgi gets the spot at #8.
Fun Fact - Gurgi is the only character from Black Cauldron to have his own attraction at a Disney theme park, Gurgi's Munchies and Crunchies at Magic Kingdom DisneyWorld. It was open from 1986-1993 and then changed into Lumiere's Kitchen (it's currently called the Village Fry Shoppe).
7. Puss in Boots (Shrek 2, Antonio Banderas)
I don't enjoy the Shrek character or franchise that much but somehow someway this little guy makes it on the list. He's why I own Shrek 2 and not the original... The movie character combines the fairytale with Antonio Banderas playing Zorro with a lot of 'cat' still intact. The cute cat faces, the constant distractions, the funny payoff of the "Cops" sequence... Exactly what a supporting character should do. The character is popular enough that Dreamworks has a spinoff in production based more on the actual fairytale. I'm looking forward to that a lot more than the actual fourth Shrek movie that's coming out this year.Fun Fact - Antonio Banderas also does the voice in the Spanish language version of the movie.
6. Tiger (An American Tail, Dom DeLuise)
First off, R.I.P. Dom DeLuise who died earlier this year. I think the movie buff would remember DeLuise as Burt Reynolds' co star in both Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit as well as his small parts in Mel Brooks films. I personally became aware of DeLuise through a variety of animated characters, primarily in Don Bluth films. An American Tail is the first movie I can remember seeing in theaters when I was 4 years old, so chalk up personal bias as to why Tiger is so high on this list. I was discussing Tiger with a friend at work who dismissed the character as being a knockoff of the Cowardly Lion from Wizard of Oz. I disagree and I think that the combination of panic, embarassment, agitation, and warmth DeLuise brought to the role gave it a more depth than the Lion (I think the physical comparison is more apt). Even though An American Tail will always be remembered for the song Somewhere Out There, I think Tiger's musical number "A Duo" deserves a mention (as well as the trippy visuals).Fun Fact - Dom DeLuise voiced the character of Tiger seventeen times, in both theatrical movies, both straight to DVD sequels, and in all 13 awful episodes of Fievel's American Tails. The only character he voiced more was Itchy, the Daschund from All Dogs Go To Heaven (21 times).
5. Kronk (Emperor's New Groove, Patrick Warburton)
Maybe a surprise being this high, but I think Emperor's New Groove is the best post Lion King Disney movie. The film had a troubled history, losing an Owen Wilson voiced slacker type (good thing) and a soundtrack full of Sting songs (bad thing) for Kronk (great thing) and a Tom Jones song (pretty cool thing). It's always tough for G rated animated movies to reach both the kids without boring/excluding the adults. Most of the time, the more adult humor is pop culture/movie references. This movie has a fair share of those, but most of the humor is from the ever deadpan Patrick Warburton as Kronk, the dim witted yet well meaning henchman. Warburton tends to play two sorts of characters - tough (Joe from Family Guy or the Hoodwinked Wolf) or dumb (The live action Tick or Puddy from Seinfeld). He's been typecast for sure, but he plays the monotonous dimwit so gleefully well that he completely steals the movie despite being a villain's sidekick. Special props go to the use of the "angel and demon on the shoulders" gag that Disney brought back from their old Pluto cartoons.Fun Fact - Showing that Disney realized he was the best part of the first movie, the character of Kronk starred in the straight to DVD sequel, Kronk's New Groove.
4. Genie (Aladdin, Robin Williams)
Robin Williams' comic stylings have led to a fairly hit or miss film career. To me, his two greatest comedic performances are in Good Morning Vietnam and Aladdin, where his manic improvs make sense in the context of the story. Everyone has their favorite, but out of all the modern Disney film sidekicks, the Genie combines personality with humor and visual flair while still being crucial to the plot (which is why he's here and some of his contemporaries aren't on this list).Unlike most animated movies, Williams improved almost all of his dialogue. He had the script outline with suggested topics and came up with the various transformations (an estimated 52 character changes). Visually, the animators were inspired the stylings of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld to make the genie much more 'cartoony' than most of the human cast. The fluid animation combined with Williams' improvs that don't detract from the story are what put the Genie on the list. Plus, he has 2 songs, one of was Oscar nomiated (Friend Like Me) and might be my favorite Disney song. Finally, the Genie inspired the coolest level of the Sega Genesis Aladdin game (the 2nd best Disney video game after the NES Ducktales).
Fun Fact - After a contract dispute, Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson), took over for Robin Williams for Return of Jafar and the Aladdin animated series.
3. The Brain (Animaniacs, Maurice LaMarche)
Now this may seem like a cheat, but I'm using the Brain's appearances from Animaniacs as opposed to his own show. I make this distinction because I think Pinky and the Brain work best as shorts and not as well as full half hour cartoons. The Brain's personality seems to be part Napolean Bonparte and part Vincent Price, and the voice is based on Orson Welles. His appearance is actually based on Tom Minton, a producer and writer of Animaniacs. I find the Pinky and the Brain cartoons a good balance of classic Warners slapstick with a lot of really clever pop culture references (I especially love Brainy the Poo and Bubba Bo Bob Brain). Finally, the Brain started the great catch phrase "Are you pondering what I'm pondering..."Fun Fact - Maurice LaMarche also imitated Orson Welles in Ed Wood, dubbing over Vince D'Onofrio's cameo.
2. Launchpad McQuack (Terry McGovern, Ducktales)
The best of the best as far as supporting characters go, Launchpad was far and away the greatest original character in Ducktales and then joined Darkwing Duck after Ducktales was cancelled. He served as the bodyguard and pilot for Scrooge and was the focus of several early episodes. His cleft beak/chin, the aviator goggles and bomber jacket gave him a distinctive visual look, being one of the largest characters in Ducktales. I also have to mention his ability to crash any sort of transportation with little to no injury to Launchpad or his passengers. Launchpad had a lot of courage and integrity and beyond his pilot skills, served as the voice of reason and honesty compared to the more obssessive Scrooge. My favorite Launchpad episode has to be Double o Duck in which he becomes James Bondish spy (an episode that has little to do with Scrooge or the nephews at all). As the series of Ducktales went on, Launchpad was used less and was replaced by both Bubba Duck and Gizmoduck, he also did not play a big role in the Ducktales movie. In Darkwing Duck, Launchpad was the pilot and sidekick to Drake Mallard and was the only character besides Gizmoduck to appear in both series. His personality changed a bit as he became dumber, more passive, and less a man of action (probably to contrast more with Darkwing himself). Anyhow, after watching the Ducktales episodes as an adult, I really think Launchpad is the best TV kids supporting character.Fun Fact - Launchpad was considered for a starring role in his own show, a show that eventually became TaleSpin.
1. Baloo the Bear (Phil Harris, Jungle Book)
When I thought this list up, this was my easy top choice... as a supporting character, you can't beat Baloo. He advances the story of Jungle Book, representing the easy going jungle life that Mowgli has to give up to become a man. He also provides comic relief without being irritating or distracting and has a character arc of his own. By the end of the story, the lazy 'jungle bum' battles Shere Khan to help out his friend. Baloo also has one of the greatest songs in the Disney catalogue, "The Bare Necessities," as well as contributing to "I Wanna Be Like You." His brash, laid back and boisterous voice provided by radio personality Phil Harris complemented his large size and hipster attitude. I also personally respect that the Disney animators used the sloth bear as a model for Baloo's diet and physical features. He eats fruits, plants, and insects and his large claws and stocky body also resemble the sloth bear. Baloo was so popular that Phil Harris reprised the character (I realize the look of both characters is different, but in voice and personality... it's Baloo) in 2 different movies; Little John in Robin Hood and Thomas O'Malley in the Aristocats. Furthermore, Baloo became the star of TaleSpin, voiced mostly by Ed Gilbert (Harris' voice had aged too much although he did record some dialogue). After Harris passed on in 1995, Baloo was voiced by John Goodman in the Jungle Book 2 (a rare Disney sequel that wasn't completely awful).Fun Fact - Phil Harris' last animated role was that of Patou in Rock a Doodle in 1991. Harris was 86 years old when he recorded the dialogue.
So there's my countdown... It took some time to put together... Hopefully it wasn't too boring or tedious to read through... And its all opinion (its called "My favorite" for a reason) and completely subjective. More lists and such to come...
That's all I have to say about that.
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