Though hand-drawn animation may not be as common in movies as it once was before the days of Pixar, it is still a process that anyone can appreciate. And Disney’s The Little Mermaid reminds us about how the medium, along with a wonderful story, can work together in tandem to deliver a very entertaining effort.
As one of the films that helped launch the Disney Renaissance, 1989’s The Little Mermaid still has a story that resonates with its young audience today about a free-spirited young mermaid who wants to break free from her father, King Trident. Though he wants the best for her, she finds herself wanting more than being under the sea as she falls in love with Prince Eric, a dashing young human mariner.
In an attempt to be the one with she loves, Ariel signs a contract with Ursula, an evil sea witch, and in exchange for her voice, she is able to walk amongst the surface dwellers and has only 72 hours to get Eric to kiss her so she will regain her voice and make the change permanent. Check out the full review of the newly released 4k Ultra HD edition here below.
M*A*S*H, the 1970 satirical black comedy, which dipped a poison pen in so many sacred cows that had been pretty much off limits and taboo in cinema before it, celebrated its 45th anniversary on January 25th, 2015.
Set during the Korean War of the 1950s, M*A*S*H had right on its sleeve an allegorical backdrop to so many current events of the late 1960s such as Vietnam, life in general during that tumultuous time, and anti-establishment sentiments, feelings, and bents. Done sometimes with an almost cinema verite documentary style, one of the end results of the unique approach taken by the directorial maverick film legend Robert Altman, M*A*S*H was the kind of film that had been unseen before in Hollywood. Running with an almost ragtag, loose visual style, it’s almost voyeuristic in the ways we see the comedy in the film and the film in general, and there are plenty of laughs: ranging from slapstick to witty to punny to sublime and ridiculous, there’s all styles and temperatures, from cool to downright raunchy in some respects. Eyebrows must have certainly been raised when the old guard audience of old guard Hollywood first laid their peepers on the film at certain sequences without question. But all the while, it’s the kind of film that is sort of winking at everyone and everything, 100 percent conscious of what it is; there’s a reverberating feeling that hits the tinderbox every time and creates incendiary types of experiences for the viewer when they watch it.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
