Director: Roland Emmerich
Composer: David Arnold (damn his manipulative score!)
Notable Cast:
Captain Steven Hiller- Will Smith
President Whitmore- Bill Pullman
Jasmine- Vivica A. Fox
David- Jeff Goldblum
David's father- Judd Hirsch
Jimmy- Harry Connick, Jr.
Russell Casse- Randy Quaid
Defense Secretary- James Rebhorn (died in 2014)
President's daughter- Mae Whitman
Marty- Harvey Fierstein
Notable Awards and Nominations:
OSCAR- Best Visual Effects
nomination- OSCAR- Best Sound
Grammy- Best Instrumental Composition written for TV/Movie- David Arnold
Write-up:
Opening Remarks
It's hard to believe this movie turns 20 next year... makes me feel old :P
I remember when it first came out and what a huge blockbuster it was. I saw it on DVD a couple times, but don't think I really appreciated it until I got older and was able to understand more of the dialogue. Back then, the only thing I really got out of it was the epic presidential speech, the special effects and Will Smith being hilarious.
Oh those days when Will Smith was awesome...
I never thought this was the best movie in the world, but I wasn't aware it was considering "bad" in a lot of circles :P It's not super believable and thrives on special effects more than the things that really matter to a movie- a strong storyline and characters able to support it.
Unlike "Jaws," I don't mind so much seeing this year after year... but I do mind watching it when we have company over and they spend a good chunk of the movie talking about how this president is so much better than ours... that Obama never would have taken the offensive against the aliens, wouldn't have gotten directly involved with the final assault because he has no military experience, etc, etc.
I get that he isn't well liked among my family and their friends, but I don't need the political commentary every goddam time we watch this movie.
Although in truth, I only had to endure that commentary once or twice in the years we'd watched the movie.
I have my grievances with the Defense Secretary character, but beyond that, I just want to enjoy the movie- not relate it to real life and how our country has gone to hell over the past several years.
On that particular note, it's absolutely ridiculous how politically correct we've gotten lately so we don't offend every American.
Plot, Characters and Additional Commentary
Basic set-up: aliens are coming to Earth to annihilate the human race.
We have multiple storylines unfolding at once and like any good soap opera, all these characters come together in one way or another and contribute to the destruction of the aliens or helping out their fellow man.
The movie actually starts on July 2nd (54 minutes) and takes place between it, July 3rd (48 minutes) and July 4th (40 minutes).
Within the first day, Washington D.C., L.A. and New York are decimated.
Will Smith plays a pilot with aspirations to become an astronaut, but for whatever reason, NASA keeps rejecting him (can't imagine why... maybe he's too much of a maverick for their tastes?). He's on vacation, but upon this alien invasion, he gets called into work, leaving behind his stripper girlfriend (who he has yet to commit to) and her 5? year old son.
Not many people would find Jasmine's demeanor believable, but I commend her for it. In a later scene, she comes forward about her profession and says "it's good money... and my baby's worth it." There's such a stigma surrounding strippers and adult entertainers, so I personally find it refreshing that she owns up to it for these reasons.
[But maybe that's just me being biased because I'm currently writing about some characters who adult entertain for varying reasons].
Like I said before, these were the good old days when Will Smith was cool. I never watched "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and I got rid of his album after finding out I only liked 2 songs on it (the rest of was rap... excuse me for not knowing that in advance! We didn't have Internet back then).
But between "Independence Day" and "Men In Black," he was a huge star and one of the funniest actors on the planet... then he got serious with a bunch of dramatic films, dropped a few bombs (the latest being "After Earth," which nearly ruined his son, Jaden's, career... unfortunately not enough to ensure they stopped making "Karate Kid" movies... I still haven't gotten over the fact they did that remake, which out of love for the original, I am refusing to see EVER).
And the latest word is that Will Smith won't even be in the supposed sequel they've been planning for this movie... in that case, it's going to suck big time...
I enjoy a lot about Jeff Goldblum's performance in this movie, but that isn't enough to keep me engaged in this movie. Will Smith is responsible for so many laughs (many are real Laugh Out Loud moments) that keeps us going through the tragedy of it... and just might have made it bearable for a lot of people who find fault in the believability, the excessive special effects and the overbearing score.
Speaking of that score, it is freaking manipulative. When people die or we see destruction everywhere, it is so loud and overbearing that you are coerced into feeling depressed or devastated or (in the case of one death) cry your eyes out.
The Defense Secretary is played by the late James Rebhorn... not one of his finer moments. He annoyed me a bit in "My Cousin Vinny" because he was the expert witness that almost got the defendants thrown in jail for something they didn't do, but when Marisa Tomei's character gave her testimony, he conceded to her points and agreed he might have made a mistake.
He has no silver lining in this movie... except for admitting that Area 51 really exists. If not for that, the aliens would've won. Otherwise, though, he's practically gutless, insisting on taking the easy way out rather than reassuring that the American public is taken care of. He also happened to be the one person against trying out David (Jeff Goldblum)'s idea that gave us the ultimate victory.
Maybe it's because the only Jeff Goldblum movies I've seen were this one and the Jurassic Park movies... but I'm in the minority of the movie-viewing public. I really do like him a lot. Sure, his character is a little lame about his whole "I want to save the Earth" thing and he gets drunk when the military launches an unsuccessful nuclear strike (if I were to get that drunk during an alien invasion, it'd be over more important things... not that I'm belittling nuclear attacks... they still scare the crap out of me)
I seriously do enjoy him in these movies... not so much the Jurassic Park sequel where everything kinda suffers... but in these other two. And nobody could have played this particular character better than him.
The president Bill Pullman plays isn't exactly in the best part of his presidency when this crisis happens. The flurry of negative press is delivered by his press secretary at such a rushed pace that I cannot remember any of it.
But it's times like these that really define a presidency- how you react under pressure amidst circumstances such as this.
Randy Quaid plays a drunken inept crop duster who once, get this, got abducted and probed by aliens. Most people would look at that biography and laugh their asses off because it falls in line too perfectly with this movie... but it's great that he gets to get involved and winds up playing a heroic role in our overall victory.
It comes a little too late, but his stepkids get to remember him as a hero and less for his lack of parenting skills.
I do find it a little ridiculous that his daughter's one bit of characterization is that she doesn't want to die a virgin and keeps making eyes at the young guys she comes across.
Lisa Jakub had much more going for her in "Mrs. Doubtfire."
He doesn't have much screentime, but Harvey Fierstein (also from "Mrs. Doubtfire") is there as well. Again, one of my favorite voices EVER among actors :P
Watching the movie this time around was the first time I really watched him in this movie, rather than just listening to him... I then recollected how he had a boyfriend/partner in "Mrs. Doubtfire" and looked him up. For whatever reason, it took me this long to kinda realize that he's gay :shrug: that would explain all the hand movements and the whine in his voice when he was stressing about calling his mom about the invasion.
...yeah, my gay-dar has never been the sharpest, but so what? And apparently, according to some IMDB messageboards, he really is a nice guy in real life. Not that I ever had any doubts about that.
As far as aliens go, they may not look like much when they're in suspended animation... but in action, they're pretty terrifying. Also infuriating when it comes to the impenetrable shields on their ships. If the aliens in our own world are that much more advanced than us... we're pretty much screwed.
Even more so now that Will Smith won't be in the sequel. He was the only pilot skilled enough to outmaneuver an alien and the only person brave enough to talk smack to their faces.
The entire time he's out on the salt flats either confronting the alien or dragging its ass across the desert... best part of the entire movie :P
"And what the hell is that smell?!" [totally improvised- more to the salt flats than the alien itself- then he proceeds to kick its ass even more]
Final Comment
Gotta love the parody of this in the 2nd Austin Powers movie when they demonstrate the power of the "laser" on the White House.
"That was just footage from the movie 'Independence Day' but the real laser would be a lot like that... yeah."
But it terrifies the president [this is back in 1969] so much he gives in and pays the ransom... but almost blows up the moon:
The President: Jiminy Jumpin' Jesus, I can't believe we're gonna pay that madman. I got nukes out the ying-yang. Just let me launch one, for God's sake.
Commander Gilmour: Sir. Are you suggesting that we blow up the moon?
The President: Would you miss it?
[looks around the table]
The President: Would you miss it?
Code-name: Mushu
Directors: Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook
Type: animation, historical, dramedy, nostalgia
Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Cast:
Fa Mulan- Ming-Na Wen
Mulan (singing voice)- Lea Salonga
Mushu- Eddie Murphy
Fa Zhou- Soon Tek-Oh
Fa Li- Freda Foh Shen
Grandma- June Foray
Grandma (singing voice)- Marni Nixon (of "Sound of Music" & "My Fair Lady" fame!!)
Matchmaker- Miriam Margolyes
Shan Yu- Miguel Ferrer
Chi Fu- James Hong
Li Shang- BD Wong
Shang (singing voice)- Donny Osmond
Ling- Gedde Watanbe
Chen Po- Jerry S. Tondo
Yao- Harvey Fierstein
The Emperor- Pat Morita
Notable Nominations:
OSCAR- Best Original Score (Jerry Goldsmith)
Golden Globe- Best Original Score
Golden Globe- Best Original Song ("Reflection" by Matthew Wilder & David Zippel)
Grammy- Best Song For a Movie Picture ("Be True to Your Heart" by Wilder & Zippel)
Write-up:
Trip Down Memory Lane
Around the time this movie came out, I'd say it's one of the last instances where I can say something is "nostalgic" for me. Anything that comes after 1998 won't fit that description.
Some people refer to it as part of the end of the Disney "Renaissance" era. After "Mulan" and "Tarzan," probably the last two animated non-Pixar theatrical releases Disney heavily promoted to the nth degree... more than a decade later, we got "Tangled" and "Frozen" where it's safe to say once again that Disney is back on track.
If I remember right, I saw this in theater with my mom, sister and Teresa, my best friend at the time... I saw a couple of movies with her between 1998-2002, including "Godzilla," "Pokémon the movie 2000" and "Drive me Crazy"...
The battle scene in the mountains was super impressive on the big screen.
Nowadays, young girls are still singing "Let it go" into their hairbrushes. "Reflection" was that song for me... except I never did the hairbrush thing... I sing in the shower. Or at least I used to :-P heck, if I sing anymore, it's to the radio in the car.
But yeah, that was one of my favorite songs at that particular time. Around the same time (likely after I saw this movie), I bought my first CD and it was Christina Aguilera's. I enjoyed maybe half of the songs on it and I still have it to this day. I stopped being a fan of her music when she decided to move past the "prepackaged Britney Spears-esque" pop in favor of artistic freedom. I don't know why... maybe because I find her runs and holding the big notes annoying. I do love her as a judge on "The Voice"... so long as she doesn't make it all about her or try to turn her female contestants into a new version of herself.
The reason I go into that tangent is because this movie was credited with launching her career. Supposedly after she recorded "Reflection," she got signed to her first record deal.
The Story
This was another instance of Disney dabbling in historical renderings, but handled a little better than "Pocahontas"... more than a little better...
The story, for those who don't know, is that Mulan is a woman that disguises herself as a man to take her father's place in the Chinese Imperial Army.
But unlike in the film, which made it a dramatic plot point, her true identity wasn't discovered until years after she left the army and her comrades came looking for her.
In the movie, they expanded upon the plot to add more motivation for Mulan's actions. Prior to the Huns invading China, she fails to impress the matchmaker, which is deemed the only way a woman can bring honor to her family. She takes her ailing veteran father's place, believing this can only result in his death, but also to find another to redeem herself.
Then there's the storyline of the dragon, former Fa family guardian, Mushu. The ancestors are up in arms when Mulan runs away and he's asked to awaken "the great stone dragon," the most powerful of the guardians... something he fails miserably at, so he decides to take it upon himself to make Mulan a war hero to get back in the ancestor's good graces.
So many shenanigans go down at the training camp, which is being led by the General Li's son, Shang. Mulan (disguised as the young man "Ping") is one of several undisciplined rag-tags, but soon enough, she gains their friendship.
Then of course, she starts to fall in love with her commanding officer, which could (and does) makes things potentially awkward down the road.
The Highlights
As far as Disney animation goes, "Mulan" probably has the funniest script I know. With "Aladdin," The Genie has nearly all of the best lines thanks to the improvisational nature of Robin Williams. But with "Mulan," we have more personalities than just Eddie Murphy as Mushu... although there's no denying he's the biggest source of comic relief. Both on his own and with the cricket as if they were a comedy duo.
Colorful cast of characters, particularly the three men Mulan befriends in the army. They're idiots... well, two of three are definitely idiots, but they gain the discipline in the training needed to do great things further down the road.
Ling is the biggest of the idiots, a bit of a klutz.
Chen-Po is the biggest of the guys, probably has the biggest heart too, and although he's peace-loving, he comes through in a pinch when it matter.
Yao is the hot-headed one :-P easily my favorite of the three on Harvey Fierstein's voice alone... it makes everything he says sound hilarious and you can't not mimic him.
It also has a great story about finding yourself, gaining self-worth and making a difference in the name of those you care about. Mulan's been wrongly tagged as one of the "Disney Princesses," but of all the female Disney characters, she's the strongest and probably one of the better role models. Instead of waiting for her prince, she goes out to make her own path to finding her destiny. It just so happens she finds love along the way... not in a prince, but in a Chinese Army captain.
Speaking of Shang, he's one of the best looking male characters Disney has alongside Aladdin. Probably the biggest difference between the two is how they hold themselves. Shang, being the General's son, wants to prove himself as an authority figure and does a damn good job of it. And it has nothing to do with the fact he looks hot with no shirt... okay, that has something to do with it :-P
It also says a lot of his character that even when Mulan is revealed to be a woman, he doesn't carry out the decided "punishment" because he wanted to repay his debt to her for saving his life.
Other great characters also include:
Chi Fu, the emperor's head adviser who's dutied with overseeing the training camp... he's so uptight and such a brown noser, making it all the more funny when fun is made at his expense by the other troops.
Mulan's grandma, who wins our hearts earlier on with some wise-cracking moments, but some sentimental ones as well. And in the last five minutes, she probably has one of the best lines in the entire movie regarding Shang.
Shan-Yu makes a pretty good villain, looking all menacing with his size and a Falcon as his animal side-kick that accentuate his terrifying image.
Last but not least, you can't leave out the Emperor. Yeah, it might be a little politically incorrect that he was played by Japanese actor Pat Morita, but he brings a sense of class to this role as well as some heart.
Soundtrack
Probably one of the better Disney soundtracks. All of the songs had their place in the story. They have range from being dramatic to upbeat to just plain funny. "Reflection" is one of the best written character themes Disney has.
I still kinda prefer Lea Salonga's version because it's the actual movie version and she's great in everything she does for Disney (she did Jasmine in "Aladdin" as well). This is also a reminder of how much it irks me that the movie version and the end credits version of a song have different lyrics... seriously, why do they do this? They at least learned this lesson with "Let it go," but that doesn't excuse picking Demi Levato to sing it when it's clearly Idina Menzel's shining moment.
The same can be said about "Be True to Your Heart," which is a Stevie Wonder/98° collaboration in the credits... when Disney Mania remade it with Raven-Symone, they changed the lyrics almost completely... what is the point of us memorizing song lyrics if you're not going to be consistent?
Of course I can't go into this without bringing up Donny Osmond who does Shang's singing voice. Aside from Eddie Murphy and Pat Morita, that's the biggest star power this movie has. Also kinda adds to the charm of the character because Donny Osmond was as big as it got back in day. Just as many girls had posters of him as they did David Cassidy... luckily, Donny maintained his good looks :-P
Sequels and Other Renderings
Sadly, this was one of many successful Disney movies that got a sequel... something they often don't do a good job of.
"Mulan 2" features Mulan and Shang, who are engaged, protecting three princesses who've been matched with husbands. They end up falling in love with Ling, Yao and Chen-Po. Overall, the storyline is decent... except for what they did with Mushu. It's bad enough Eddie Murphy didn't stick around to do his voice...
well, actually, according to the trivia, Eddie Murphy had to pull out cuz his contract to the "Shrek 2" wouldn't let him... but that's beside the point. His storyline is that because Mulan is going to marry into another family and she's the last of the Fa family, there's no need for him anymore. So he tries to break up her engagement for his own selfish reasons.
In the "Kingdom Hearts" franchise, Mushu was a summoning gem in the first game.
In the sequel, "Land of Dragons" was the first world and its storyline was based on this movie. Mulan's enrolling into the army and our protagonists, Sora, Donald and Goofy enlist to help her fit in. The gameplay is a little difficult at first because the success of the first few tasks is based on keeping morale up by picking up orbs from defeated enemies... in addition to not dying. But it's a good start into the game. Probably the only difference is how Mulan's revealed to be a woman... because Mushu mistakenly blabs it out loud after the adventure in the mountains when he was used to light a cannon that caused an avalanche.
Then for the second trip into the world, Sora and the others find her as she's tracking a mysterious figure who's on his way to the place. Sora suspects its his long lost friend, Riku, who he'd been spending this game trying to track down. And instead of Shan-Yu, the boss fight is against a dragon Heartless.
Eddie Murphy never reprised Mushu, which is a shame. But I definitely give a lot of credit to Ming-Na Wen for portraying Mulan's voice at every opportunity. I love how she's now playing a bad-ass fighter in "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
It's also great that BD Wong followed through with Shang, even into "Kingdom Hearts II"... it's just too bad his animated rendering wasn't as good looking :-P
Mulan was also featured in one of my favorite TV series, "Once Upon a Time." I understand Ming-Na Wen not reprising it this time because we're going for the version of herself that we had in the film. She's portrayed instead by Jamie Chung, who I affectionately know as Amber from "Sucker Punch".
She's first introduced as a warrior who fought alongside Prince Phillip... as in betrothed to Princess Aurora "Sleeping Beauty" Prince Philip. Mother-Daughter team Snow White and Emma Swan find themselves in a far-off corner of the Enchanted Forest untouched by Regina's curse when they accidentally fall down a wormhole meant to remove an evil spirit set out to destroy Regina.
Things got kinda interesting with her, though. She's duty-bound to protect Phillip and Aurora, but there'd been hinted moments where she'd had feelings for both of them beyond friendship. Her storyline recently ended where she was getting up the courage to tell Aurora about her feelings for her, only to change her mind when she gets the news they're expecting.
So she decides to join Robin Hood and his troupe of Merry Men. I'm sure we'll see more of her, but I definitely felt taken aback by that poetic license they took with her. Too bad, she'd become one of my favorite characters in the series.
Code-name: male nanny
Director: Chris Columbus
Type: cross-dressing dramedy
Cast:
Daniel Hillard- Robin Williams
Miranda Hillard - Sally Field
Lydia Hillard- Lisa Jakub
Chris Hillard- Matthew Lawrence
Natalie "Nattie" Hillard- Mara Wilson
Stu- Pierce Brosnan
Frank, Daniel's brother-Harvey Fierstein
Jack, Frank's boyfriend- Scott Capurro
Mrs. Sellner- Anne Haney
Mr. Lundy- Robert Prosky
Notable Awards:
OSCAR- Best Makeup
Golden Globe- Best Actor (Comedy/Musical)- Robin Williams
Golden Globe- Best Picture (Comedy/Musical)
Write-up:
I can't place the first time I saw this, but it had to have been around the same time "Matlida" was one of my new favorite movies. They had Mara Wilson in common. She's one of those young actresses that had me wondering "whatever happened to her." As it turns out, she took a much needed break from acting when she reached college age. And from time to time, she'd cameo on an episode of Nostalgia Critic.
As a late-blooming "Boy Meets World" fan (in other words, I started watching the series on Family Channel reruns), I later made the connection that the middle child played Shawn's half-brother Jack on the series. He's also one of the famed Lawrence brothers (funny enough, the middle child there as well).
Not wanting to leave her out of the conversation, the actress who played eldest of the children, Lisa Jakub, had this as her biggest film role... has done very little since and what she has done was on the small screen or indie track.
The opening sequence has you believe this movie was written specifically FOR Robin Williams. Who else can play an actor who is fired because he ad-libs on a dubbing gig? Now those 16 hours of vocal footage for "Aladdin" make sense :-P
In all seriousness, he's doing the voice of an opera-singing canary and ad-libs when the pussy-cat shoves a cigarette in his mouth... saying that he doesn't want kids to be desensitized to the dangers of smoking. Oh well, everything has their time and place and clearly, a PSA has no place in a dubbing gig where you're adding voice to finished animation.
With walking papers in hand, Daniel Hillard picks his kids up from school and throws his son, Chris, an impromptu 10th birthday party. Between noise complaints from the neighbors and the nosy neighbor (ok, she had her reasons but I always thought she was a buzz-kill for doing so) who calls his wife, Miranda Hillard (Sally Field) comes up anything but a happy camper.
The ensuing argument during the clean-up tells us this isn't the first time the two of them have butted heads and Miranda files for divorce. Because of his latest termination and lack of residence (yeah, they gave him, what, a couple days?), full custody of the kids was awarded to Miranda. The judge reiterates that this will be temporary and if Daniel gets things sorted out, they can make changes.
Now that I'm a bit older, I can kinda understand both sides of the situation, why Miranda has the attitude she has about her ex-husband. But the way the script is written, you really want to take his side on matters because he has a good heart and she's way too uptight about how she handles things.
I still get kinda frustrated in the earlier scenes where she arrives early at Daniel's apartment to pick up the kids from the one time a week they get to spend with him... as if this takes place BEFORE his grand "transformation" that the judge practically equates to insanity.
This line sums it up after he tells them to not go rushing out when Miranda arrives: "You're my goddam kids too!"
This is also when Daniel learns Miranda is hiring a housekeeper. Why she didn't think of him right away, I don't know... she doesn't want to worry about them throwing more wild parties, I guess. He uses this opportunity to change the phone number on the advertisement she's about to submit to the newspaper, leaving him free to "audition" with zero competition.
After doing a string of horrible (bordering on creepy) auditions, he assays with the voice of an elderly Scottish woman and passes with flying colors.
Now he just needs the perfect disguise, which is where his brother (Harvey Fierstein, who has one of my personal favorite voices in the business... even funnier because the first time I heard him was in "Mulan") and his lover come in.
Always a great montage, only now I recognize the references to Barbara Streisand and Shirley McClain. To top it all off:
Daniel (whom we see from behind): Well, are we close?
Frank: Any closer and you'd be mom.
Naturally, the kids are hesitant to accept their new nanny, Mrs. Doubtfire, at first, the eldest in particular. And it takes a little while for Daniel to get his sea-legs too when it comes to the "light cooking" involved in the job description and making due with the extra layers of clothing, prosthetics, etc.
One scene that always cracks me up is when Daniel has to pull off both roles for Mrs. Sellner, the social worker given the duty of checking on him regularly to see that he's fulfilling the requirements needed for, potentially, shared custody further down the road. He arrives home (as Mrs. Doubtfire), changes back for a few moments and goes back to Mrs. Doubtfire after saying how she makes a good cup of tea :-P even more hilarious because Daniel loses the prosthetic mask to a street sweeper, so he's forced to improvise... turning the icing on cake that happens to be in the refrigerator into a facial mask.
Lucky for him, Frank has an extra prosthetic on hand.
"Be careful for this one. She's an old woman."
Little by little, Mrs. Doubtfire wins over the household, including Lydia when she sees how much happier Miranda is when she's there. Miranda finds a new boyfriend in Stu (Pierce Brosnan) and as Mrs. Doubtfire, Daniel never misses an opportunity to make him seem less than he is out of jealousy. Not that Stu is by any means a dastardly foe, he is seen as "the enemy" by our protagonist.
It's also funny how the playlist fits the main theme of our story.
"Walk like a man" and "Dude looks like a lady" stand out in particular. Whenever I hear that Aerosmith track, I can't help but think of Mrs. Doubtfire dancing around with that vacuum cleaner. Such an iconic movie moment.
Throughout the movie, Daniel also advances from a shipping clerk position to something more creative. One of the heavies at the TV station, Mr. Lundy sees Daniel goofing around with the dinosaurs on the set of one of his shows and asks him about other ideas that could help with the sagging ratings.
Obviously he figured out that he needed to get rid of the real dinosaur: the guy hosting the show.
I assume most people have seen this movie, but now's a good point to stop giving things away. I always thought of this as a kid's movie, between Robin Williams, Mara Wilson and Chris Columbus, who has directed a lot of movies featuring kids. Yet it's PG13 and a few cuss words (more than I remembered growing up, lol) did make their way into it and I'm not counting the "goddam kids" line either.
What I've always liked about it was that we have a likeable protagonist and we have an unexpectedly pleasant resolution to everything. Interestingly, the ending was the original ending. Chris Columbus played around with other alternatives and decided he had it right the first time. It's a different way to approach the "divorced family with kids" archetype for a number of reasons and they push it enough to make a good conflict, but making it overly dramatic.
From an academic point of view, it's also a great story because the number of changes Daniel makes to remedy things, getting back into his kids' lives, it only not makes him a better person but everyone else is happier as a result.
[Program Notes]
I'll have a couple more entries going up this week.
Next will be a theatrical review of "Frozen," about which my initial take is: "I enjoyed Tangled as a new take on a classic fairytale. Frozen was 10x better." Really enjoyed it a lot.
And after that will be another entry about "Christmas Essentials," including Christmas specials and movies I can't go the season without.
