Ha ha.... Cliff baby!

The first film of February is......

The little elephant who could.

Dumbo was released The Walt Disney studios in 1941, at little over an hour long it is one of the shortest Disney films.

It tells the story of a little elephant born into the circus life, who is nick named Dumbo thanks to his huge ears. When his mother is locked up for protecting her baby from the evil human children (moral of the story? I think so!), Dumbo is befriended by a mouse called Timothy. After a sad and short reunion with his mother, Timothy accidentally directs Dumbo to drink from a water barrel spiked with alcohol, (enter the pink elephants on parade - which always have and always will really freak me out) Dumbo and Timothy find themselves in a tree - how did they get there? Timothy's only conclusion is that Dumbo must have used his ears as wings and flew up into the tree, to help with Dumbos confidence Timothy (with the help of some jazzy crows) gives Dumbo a magical feather. In the circus Dumbo had been cast in the clowns performance and has to jump from a burning building - the perfect time to show off his new talent, but half way down Dumbo looses his magic feather, thankfully Timothy is there to help Dumbo realise that he had it in him all along and didn't need the feather at all, at which point Dumbo pulls out of the dive and sores over the audience! Whoo hoo, go Dumbo!

Dumbo builds a huge fan base, manages to make the circus loads of money and even gets his mother a private and swanky carriage on the circus train, amazing work for such a small elephant.

As for the scores....

Mum

• Rewatchability 4
• Sing-a-long 4
• Story/Plot 5
• Overall 5

Me

• Rewatchability 5
• Sing-a-long 5
• Story/Plot 4
• Overall 5

Total - 37 :(

Last Monday of January 2011.....

plays hots to Dumbo!

Forget about your worries and your strife...

Better late than never, I have been a little busy this week so it is nearly Monday again (Yey!) before I have managed to sit down and update my blog.

This week was all about 'The Jungle Book', the 19th Disney animated feature released in 1967. This was the last of the Disney films to be produced by Walt Disney as he died on 15th December 1966 towards the end of the production. First of all lets get one thing straight, I am a HUGE Disney fan, so my reviews of any Disney film that fits into the musical category will be a little biased.

This film is based on the stories of Mowgli in 'The Jungle Book' written by Rudyard Kipling and has a number of songs that I would challenge anyone not to know even a couple of lines of. Mowgli is found as a baby by a black panther called Bagheera who takes him to a local wolf pack, who raise Mowgli. The next time we see Mowgli he is 10 years old, Shere Khan (the tiger) has returned to the jungle bearing a grudge against anything human. Knowing this the wolf pack decide that the only way Mowgli can remain safe is to return to the Man village. Bagheera steps up to undertake the task as they all know if will be difficult to persuade Mowgli that this is the best thing for him, and so, the adventure begins...

There are many loveable characters in The Jungle Book, most of all for me is Baloo the incredibly laid back bear who Mowgli and Bagheera quickly run into after leaving the wolf pack. Throw in a bunch of monkeys under the rule of King Louie the Orangutan, a heard of military elephants, the hypnotising snake Kaa, a band of vultures (the inspiration for which were The Beetles) and of course Shere Khan the tiger and the Jungle Book is complete. After all of that, what is the one thing that makes Mowgli leave the jungle, a girl. Typical.

Mum

• Rewatchability 5


• Sing-a-long 5


• Story/Plot 7


• Overall 6

Me

• Rewatchability 6


• Sing-a-long 7


• Story/Plot 6


• Overall 6

So a total of 48 out of 80.

Ps. I totally rocked as Shere Khan for Halloween :) Judith had an amazing Disney Villan party!

Next Week....

Next weeks film has been pulled from the tin, so, here starts out journey into the Magical World of Disney! Whoo hoo!

Dreamgirls

Dreamgirls is based on the Broadway Musical of the same name, which itself was said to be loosely based on the growth of Motown records and The Supremes. It tells the story of three young girls from Detroit who dream of being stars and one man who will recognise a good opportunity when he sees one.

The film starts with the three girls, Effie, Deena and Lorrell entering a talent show as The Deamettes, where it is quickly obvious that they have a lot of talent and along with the music writing and choreography skills of Effie's brother C.C make the perfect target for Curtis. Curtis seems to be snooping around backstage ready to pounce on any talent he thinks he can help to stardom - and in turn make himself rich.

Through a lot of manipulation, scheming and illegal affairs Curtis delivers everything he promised to the girls. Even though he starts a relationship with plus size Effie, it doesn't take long for him realise he can not sell what she has to offer, and soon alienates her from the rest of the group, eventually forcing her to settle for backup and have her replaced as the main singer by Deena. Curtis also convinces the group that The Dreamettes is a childish name and that they should move forward in the industry with the name The Dreams. After a small amount of success, Effie is forced out of the group completely and replaced.

We then cut to a number of years later, Effie is collecting social, back living in Detroit raising her eight year old daughter Magic by herself. The Dreams have become huge stars and are now known as Deena and the Dreams, Curtis' record company, Rainbow records, is a massive success and now based in LA. Despite marring Curtis - the man of her dreams - Deena is not happy, she wants to grow as an artist branching out into acting and start a family, something Curtis is dead set against.

Curtis is still as manipulative as ever, but his disguise of this seems to be wearing thin. After an argument C.C, still writing for Curtis quits and returns home to Detroit. Here he meets back up with his sister promising to write her a hit record to release. Effie does record the song and manages to get distribution to local radio stations, at this point, word of the song reaches Curtis who is insistent that Effie must be stopped. As the song was written by C.C, Curtis believes it is owned by Rainbow records. The song gets re-recorded by Deena and the dreams in a vamped up disco version and quickly overshadows Effie's slower passionate version.

Deena does a little snooping in Curtis' office and finds the copy of Effie's version of the song, after an emotional phone call realising that Curtis has gone too far she helps provide the evidence of Curtis' early days in the business which C.C and Effie use to blackmail Curtis.

Effie finally gets her chance at stardom, Deena leaves Curtis and the Dreams decide to call it a day, the final part of the film showing a farewell concert by The Dreams - all four of them.

Now - the music is amazing, most of the songs are as a performance to an audience, which would not make it a musical by the rules of Musical Mondays - but, thankfully there are a few belters performed just for the sake of being able to sing their hearts out, so, it is a Musical!

All in all, I love this film, the cast are amazing. Beyonce as Deena and Jennifer Hudson as Effie are just awe inspiring - man can they sing! I wouldn't change any of the cast at all, although Mum is really not a fan of Jamie Foxx (Curtis) I think he works in the part.

After seeing this film at the cinema I did purchase the soundtrack, and it actually take quite a lot for me to buy music, so I think that speaks for itself. Despite the fact that I am possibly the most atrocious singer in the world, I do like a good song to warble to at the top of your lungs every now and then, both Effie's song 'And I am telling you I'm not going' and Deena's 'Listen' provide just that!

Mum and I have seen this film a good number of times now and it still managed to make mum cry.

The scores are...

Mum

• Rewatchability 6
• Sing-a-long 5
• Story/Plot 7
• Overall 7

Me

• Rewatchability 8
• Sing-a-long 8
• Story/Plot 8
• Overall 8

Which gives a grand total of 57.

Over excited....

Eeek, having written up my review of Mamma Mia, I got all excited and pulled out next weeks movie, and it is......

Can't wait - I think I may have found a reason to love Mondays!

Mamma Mia

Everyone has the lyrics of at least one ABBA song tattooed on their brain, for those of us who will happily admit to this fact, this film was always going to be a winner.

It is the story of a young girl who is unaware of who her father is, and after reading her mums diary of the year she became pregnant, invites three strangers to her wedding, expecting to know immediately who her father is when she meets him. Set on a beautiful Greek island, with a good number of ABBA songs thrown in the mix, this film lifts your spirits and leaves you yearning for a Summer holiday.

There is some amazing casting in this film, (Julie Walters and Christine Baranski as the mums two best friends are brilliant!) and some not so amazing casting (all three fathers), but the cast as a whole make it work.

There are, without question, some really cringe worthy moments in this film (the worst being the ripping off of Pierce Brosnans shirt at the end of the film!), but together they sort of make this film what it is, which is a highly enjoyable and great sing-a-long musical movie.

The scores....
Mum

• Rewatchability 7
• Sing-a-long 9
• Overall entertainment 9
• Story/Plot 8

Me

• Rewatchability 8
• Sing-a-long 9
• Overall entertainment 9
• Story/Plot 7

This gives Mamma Mia a grand total of 66 out of 80.

It seems the bar has been set pretty high. I'm not sure that we could have picked a better starting film!

Week one - Mamma Mia

So, the first name out of the tin was that of Mamma Mia.

I love this film - so I can say that we will definitely be off to a good start. My mum and I went to see this on the stage shortly before the film came out, so knew exactly what to expect with the film, and although I still believe that the stage version is far better, the film is definitely a favourite in my collection.

Lets see how it scores......

The Rules

The rules of the game are quite simple, and of course, are likely to be bent when ever I want, but for now they are this;

• A Musical is any film in which one or more characters sing at a random time to get a point across. Performances on stage do not count.
• Animation is allowed.

All the titles of the films we currently own that fit into this category, have been placed into a tin, and one title will be pulled each week.

All films will be given a score out of ten for the following categories;

1. Immediate re-watchability
2. Sing-a-longability
3. Enjoyable Storyline
4. Overall Entertainment

The films will then be complied into a list based on their final score, which will be out of eighty. (40 for myself and 40 for Mum)