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Ok, I know I said I was going to review Producers first, but I do not have the DVD in my possession at the moment. A friend is going to let me borrow his copy and I am still planning on reviewing it, but for now I am doing my first review on Little Shop of Horrors. I am currently working on the video and it should be up hopefully by the end of the week.

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By several requests, I have decided on my first musical film review. I will review Mel Brooks' The Producers. The review should be up within the next 2 weeks. To see the video, check out my youtube account. www.youtube.com/Modyman. Keep sending in other musicals you would like me to review and I will eventually get to them. Thank you again, and I look forward to all your feed back when I release my first review.

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OK, I know that there's at least more than one of these already on the blogs, but as some will say there's no official sign up sheet, and even though I hate repetition in TGWTG.com's blogs I still feel like posting this as I feel mine offers a more opinion based list and less an excuse for discussion, and is more for parody than to be taken seriously.

When it comes to big blockbuster Batman movies, we couldn't give a damn about the caped crusader. Generally we assume it will be the same actor as the last movie or it's announced around the same time as the film, and in the end they always play the same character: A cocky millionaire whose voice suddenly and inexplicably becomes deepened when he dons a bat suit. As well as you can play that role, it honestly doesn't matter, because the show is always stolen by the polar opposite: The villains.

Think about it. In every Batman film, the film always revolves around the villain, one in particular. The original Tim Burton Batman? The Joker, played by Jack Nicholson. Batman Forever? The Riddler, played by Jim Carey. Batman and Robin? Mr. Freeze, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger (unfortunately). The Dark Knight? The Joker again, this time played by the late Heath Ledger. The exceptions would be Batman Returns, where the villain hold is more spread out, and Batman Begins, where it actually revolves around Batman, who'da thunk it?

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OK, most important thing to get out of the way before I start the ranting. Alien Vs Predator is actually one of two franchises based on the concept of pitting 20^th Century Fox's most famous intergalactic killing machines against each other. The other, is called Aliens Vs Predator. Now it may strike you as odd, but that ‘s' at the end of Aliens that is apparent and missing in each franchise is a huge symbol of commercial greed, fan disappointment and a long running and loved series tarnished.

Let me give you the basic difference between the series. Aliens vs. Predator was a series of comic books, novels and games that was believed to have originated from a prop in Predator 2, an alien skull that hung on the Predator's trophy case. The series began as a comic series simply titled: ‘Aliens Vs Predator'. The story involved a farming colony on the isolated planet of Ryushi, a planet which unfortunately is a traditional hunting ground for the alien race known as the Yaujta, the Predators, to hunt Xenomorphs, or aliens. The comic book series was popular, and from it spawned a novel adaptation, a wide range of action figures, seven sequel comics, and new cross-over comics, some of which pitted the Aliens, Predators or both against popular superheroes like Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Judge Dread, others against other franchises such as The Terminator.

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I started a response to The Other Guy's blog entry, but it was getting too long. I'll just put my thoughts on it in here.

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Yeah, the first true Disney classic. Understandable

2. Pinocchio - This isn't surprising, either.

3. Bambi - Hell yeah. I'm still in awe of some of the work in this movie given when it was made and the process. I was truly pissed when they started fucking with this work of art in DVD releases. Leave it the fuck alone, I'll stick with the VHS version. It doesn't need to be revamped and digitally altered.

4. The Lion King - This is the main reason I started writing a response. I like the Lion King, but it's just so easy to make fun of it. It's supposed to be Disney's first completely original film, but it's so far from original.

"We'll take Kimba in his exact form and call him Simba. Wait, don't make him white! We'll make it more realistic. Then we'll take Bambi's main plot points and throw it in there, but change everything to a jungle setting instead of a forest. Let's go down the list: Open with the birth of the prince of the fore... jungle? Check. Parent that spent the most time with him is murdered? Check. Fast forward to early adulthood and he's reunited with childhood flame? Check. Struggle with a big fire and a fight scene at the end? Check. Repeat the circle with the main character acting as the king and the love interest having his children to finish movie off? Check. Throw in some Hamlet and we'll call it done."

I know that The Lion King is very different from Kimba: The White Lion, but some similarities are just too big to ignore.

5. Fantasia - This was mind-blowing. I saw this as a kid and thought it was extremely cool, but a little boring. In response to The Other Guy, it wasn't Disney's only attempt at more mature art film. There's a short film called Destino that I think any fan of Fantasia should check out. It was supposed to be a collaboration between Walt and Dali, but it wasn't finished until recent years. Still, the animators did a good job and some of the scenes are breath-taking.

6. Toy Story - It's ground-breaking, so I get it.

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So the AFI has finally hit rock bottom and done a Top 10 list of ... uhhh... Top 10 Lists. For nostalgia's sake, the animated section jumps out to me. So here's a few thoughts on their picks...

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves -- this is the least surprising of them all. It's inclusion on the list is a given, and its place at #1 is understandable (in that I understand the AFI's reasoning for it, even if I wouldn't put it in the first slot). The animated film genre, as a whole, owes everything to this movie. It was the first of its kind, won a special Oscar (the only one Walt would get for an animated movie), and pretty much set the standard for every Disney movie since. Love it or hate it, this is the Eve to the animated movie.

2. Pinnochio -- I generally don't understand this decision. I discussed it with That Guy and he noted that he at least liked it because it got away with a lot of weird shit that you just can't get away with nowadays (kids smoking cigars and drinking, white slavery, kidnapping, children turning into donkeys, child-death). I also accept the fact that it's become a cultural Disney icon (who can think of Disney without that damn cricket belting out When You Wish Upon a Star?), and set up the Disney philosophy: dream hard enough and your dreams will come true (which we all know is COUGH COUGH bullshit! COUGH). But does that make it the best or simply the most well known?

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Edit: Wow, am I an idiot. XD Thanks to x33 for the info, and man, I can't believe I copy and pasted TWICE. Yeah, bear with me as I learn all this. :P

 Last night, the American Film Institute had their annual list celebrating some aspect of movies. You know the routine; top movies, top romances, top stars, top thrillers, top quotes. Last night, they had something different; selecting the top ten movies across ten different genres (frankly, I think they're running out of ideas). These were animation (although the great Brad Bird, and I agree with him, says animation is an ART FORM and not a GENRE), fantasy, sci-fi, sports, western, gangster, mystery, romantic comedies, courtroom drama, and epic. This is bit of a breakdown on each catagory, and what was right and wrong. Please feel free to diss me all you want for anything you disagree with, as I'm gonna be doing a bit of dissing all my own. :P Seriously, keep the comments nice and to the point.

ANIMATION: For starters, completely dominated by Disney, but considering they've held the monopoly for the last 70 years it's kind of hard to blame the AFI here, and as it's purely American, anything from Japan or Europe is out of the question. But what about a nod to some of the independent, subversive animators out there? Ralph Bakshi, Don Bluth, Bill Plymton, Richard Williams? And why not Nightmare Before Christmas (Disney, still, but so very much unlike anything Disney has ever done)? Why not Iron Giant? Or heck, if you want to use an old, old movie, why not the Fleischer Studios Gulliver Travels? Aside from Shrek, a safe bunch of kid friendly choices. Hell, they studiously avoided the one truly most groundbreaking animated film of all time - South Park.

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