@moviefan
by Moviefan
Who You Gonna Call: Villains Profile: Samhain
October 15, 2024 in Blogs
Before we return to the world of live action Ghostbusters villains, we are taking a short stop to look at a formidable foe from the cartoon. Samhain, the spirit of Halloween who imo could be considered the best recurring antagonist The Real Ghostbusters had. It’s kinda funny, I said I didn’t like the reboot using Gozer again and I stand by that but with Samhain, I’m more than okay with him being used more than once. I think this comes down to again, Samhain is the spirit and embodiment of Halloween, there is a lot you can do with that. Also, Samhain is based on actual legend.
“Samhain is observed from sunset on October 31st to sunset on November 1st. It is the celebration that is the origin of Halloween. Samhain was first observed by Celtic Pagans. Samhain marked the Celtic New Year, the end of summer, and the end of the harvest season”.
by Moviefan
Halloween with Nancy Drew: The Blue Lady of Coffin Hall
October 14, 2024 in Blogs
Ghost hunting is a something that has become quite the niche genre unto itself. And I don’t mean like Ghostbusters as those are just comedies but rather ghost hunting like what you’d find on The Travel Channel. It’s really not about travel anymore. There is another reason I’m excited to look at this book, it’s a library being haunted. Libraries are very important to me as most of you know. So reading a book where Nance solves a mystery in an old supposedly haunted library was so up my alley.
by Moviefan
Halloween with Nancy Drew: The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle
October 11, 2024 in Blogs
Another little Nancy book perfect for the fall season. This one actually takes place before the book I looked at previously. Again, these books are cute and simple. Nothing too big here. As you can see this book is about pumpkins.
Confession, I hate decorating pumpkins. I find it gross, especially the seeds inside. I prefer using a plastic pumpkin. This is what I have, not mine pictured but this is preferable.
It’s part of my autism and it’s something I’ve always felt. Having said that, I understand how others enjoy decorating pumpkins and this is what this story is about, a pumpkin painting contest that gets ruined
by Moviefan
A Look at Disney: Villains Profile: Ursula (Remake)
October 10, 2024 in A Look at Disney, Blogs
I have avoided looking at remake villains on my blog for some time mostly because I thought I’d have nothing interesting to say. The only other remake villains I’ve looked at are The Duke and Lady Tremaine from the 2015 Cinderella. The villain movie villains don’t count. To say the remakes are hit-or-miss would be a massive understatement. However, I did enjoy last year’s Little Mermaid remake. It respected the original while adding elements that TLM fans knew about that were cut from the animated film.
Oh and fyi, if you have an issue with Halle as Ariel, there’s the door. I’ll admit I was a little disappointed when I learned Melissa McCarthy would be playing Ursula as I was hoping the role would go to a drag queen. Turns out it did, as McCarthy did drag in her past.
Now, I don’t think it makes much sense to use the typical categories for this entry as McCarthy’s Ursula hues so close to Carrol’s. I don’t think it is bad and clearly nothing will ever top the original. One of the more interesting aspects of McCarthy as Ursula is that usually Ursula in live action has been played by Black women but here with McCarthy as Ursula and Halle as Ariel, it highlights a power dynamic of white women holding power over people of color. Yes, Ariel is a princess and Ursula was exiled from the royal family but in terms of the deal, Ursula is the one holding the power.
Admittedly, I do think they do go a bit overboard with adding the detail of her adding an element where Ariel forgets she needs to kiss Eric. As much as I like this movie, this is overkill. This is one area where I think sticking closer to the original movie would’ve been fine.
Now, I mentioned that they added in other elements that were cut from the original movie. One of the biggest being Triton and Ursula were siblings in the early script. This is a major point of contention for Ursula in the remake as she believes it’s her birthright to to rule over the seven seas.
This is a change I’m okay with as again it’s something longtime TLM fans are familiar with and adding it back in feels like a nice touch.
What about her version of Poor Unfortunate Souls? Well, it’s a good cover and I’ve noticed some new lyrics that caught me off guard when I first heard it. After a time, it washes over. But it’s noticeable the first time you hear it.
Again, it’s a fine cover but it’s hard not to compare it to the original. I will say, it’s a bit unfortunate that Flotsam and Jetsam don’t do much in the remake.
As for her defeat, I’m okay with it. People often complained that Ariel didn’t seem proactive in the takedown in the animated movie, I don’t know that I agree but Ariel driving the sunken ship she was exploring at the beginning is a cool idea and I like how Eric is so willing to go underwater to help Ariel fight the sea witch is a nice touch.
In all, I think Melissa McCarthy is a fine Ursula. Again, it’s hard to take the original Ursula out of your mind but I think she played the role wonderfully.
Join me next time as I close out my look at witches with
Agatha Harkness
by Moviefan
A Look at Disney: Villains Profile: Mombi
October 9, 2024 in A Look at Disney, Blogs
While there have been many adaptions of Baum’s world of Oz, they often go back to the MGM movie yet there are so many more books in this series that rarely get adapted. The 1985 movie, Return to Oz is one of the rare examples of an adaption going beyond the first book and adapting other characters such as who I am looking at, Princess Mombi. The Wicked Witch of the West is iconic but she is not the only villain Baum created.
Speaking of the Judy Garland movie, this 1985 movie kind of serves as a spiritual sequel to that classic but has a rather different tone. The classic movie is light and fun with a few scary moments whereas I’d describe this movie as more of a dark fantasy with moments of levity. In fact, I think you could describe the depiction of Oz in this movie as almost dystopian. This is first seen when Dorthy comes across a ruined Yellow Brick Road. I also believe the darker elements are meant to serve as a message that is not the same as the original movie. This is fine as all types of adaptions of Oz should be welcomed. This wouldn’t be the last time Disney released an Oz movie in theaters, though the later attempt hues even closer to the MGM movie.
by Moviefan
Who You Gonna Call: Villains Profile: Vigo
October 8, 2024 in Blogs
We return to the world of Ghostbusters with the sequel. By the time the sequel had rolled around, the cartoon had been airing and you can feel the influence in this sequel from the hair that Janine is supporting looking more cartoonish and Slimer hanging around more with the Ghostbusters. Honestly, the only thing the sequel didn’t borrow from the cartoon is expanding the Janine and Egon relationship. Instead, the movie paired Janine up with Luis Tully and I prefer this relationship.
Having said that, the villain is not cartoony but the way he is defeated could be described as being cartoonish using mood slime to take him down. Having said that, the villains in the cartoon could be down right terrifying like The Boogeyman.
This is an interesting thing to consider but until Frozen Empire, I wouldn’t have thought of any of the movie villains as terrifying. They were threats yes but scary, no. The only movie ghost I remotely considered scary was The Library Ghost.
by Moviefan
Monstrous Musicals Celebrate Alex Brightman: Phantom of the Theme Park (Dead End: Paranormal Park Musical Episode)
October 7, 2024 in Blogs
We continue our Alex Brightman celebration by looking at a musical episode of a short lived Netflix series he was in and unlike Goosebumps where he played an extremely minor character, here he is in a supporting role that appears in just about every episode and is even a focal for the show’s second season. Dead End: Paranormal Park was adapted from a series of graphic novels known as DeadEndia. I’ve not any of the books but from what I understand, it seems the show was toned down from its source material.
I do see the books at work all the time, so I might check them out. One big thing I love about this show is it’s inclusive nature and how it serves the story, our leads are an autistic girl of color and her hyper fixation will serve as a big song number in this episode and a trans man living at the park as his parents are having a hard time accepting him post transition. Oh and the autistic girl is bi like me.
This honestly might not have been the best episode to choose to review as it the second to last episode of season one and some major plot points are tied up that you’d be confused by if you hadn’t seen the show before but we are in an age of story driven animated series. I’ll do my best to cover them each as I go along but my main focus is on the songs. Much like our previous entry, this one also pulls from Phantom of the Opera. Much more heavily influenced in the music as you can hear a take on iconic riff in some of the songs.
by Moviefan
Halloween with Nancy Drew: The Secret of The Scarecrow
October 4, 2024 in Blogs
Another Halloween, another year of Nancy Drew reviews. Though granted, only one of the books I’m looking at really fits the spooky nature of the Halloween season. I am looking at three books including two from the Clue Crew series featuring Nancy, Bess, and George as eight year old kiddos. So, the mysteries are a bit more simplified but as I said last year when looking at these books for Halloween and the wintry holidays, they are good introductions to Nancy as well as using logic and deduction.
Cover
The cover is cute and does make it seem to be a bit more of a spookier tale than it is. There is a walking scarecrow in the book but that’s truly a subplot to the main mystery. While this is not a Halloween story, it is set close to halloween as Carson Drew mentions to little Nancy, Halloween is only three weeks away.
“Nancy did the math. Halloween was over three weeks away. Not only was it getting dark early—it was getting spooky.”
So, it’s more just a fun autumn story. Still, a cute cover and always enjoy looking at these images of a young Nancy.
by Moviefan
A Look at Disney: Villains Profile: The Sanderson Sisters
October 3, 2024 in A Look at Disney, Blogs
This year for Halloween, I’ve decided to return to the world of live action witches. However, this first entry is a bit of a redo as I looked at The Sanderson Sisters years ago as a crossover and I’ve always wanted to redo considering a sequel was released a few years ago that added some new context to the witches.
by Moviefan
Who You Gonna Call: Villains Profile: Gozer
October 2, 2024 in Blogs
Every Halloween, I like looking at villains usually of the Disney variety. Though, I’ve decided to expand and look at some of the Ghostbusters villains including those from all five movies plus one from the cartoon. This first entry is an interesting case as we are looking at a legacy villain. Insert meme here.
For good or ill, Ghostbusters is now a legacy franchise and in 2021, the long gestating third movie in the mainline series was released featuring the return of Gozer. I am admittedly mixed on this as I don’t think the boys in beige need a recurring antagonist. It’s more exciting IMO to see them expand and use their smarts to go up against new ghosts.
Perhaps, it is just me that feels this way but much as I like Afterlife, I don’t think Gozer’s return was needed. Then again, I kinda get it as some fans needed reassurance/babying after the mess that happened with the 2016 movie. How that movie became a culture war is beyond me.
by Moviefan
Monstrous Musicals Celebrates Alex Brightman: Goosebumps The Musical: Phantom of The Auditorium
October 1, 2024 in Blogs
Alex Brightman is a name that many are probably just getting to know thanks to his wonderful and deliciously evil turn as Adam on Hazbin Hotel.
Broadway fans probably best know him for his take on Beetlejuice which is very fun and not just a Michael Keaton clone.
I feel as though he’s done enough to be celebrated in various musicals including those that are perfect for the spooky time of year. That’s why this October, I want to celebrate him with multiple blogs and while not every musical I’ll be looking at, Brightman will not be the main star but he usually brings something special to the role. Something interesting to note is that all but one of the musicals I’ll be looking at is an adaption.
This first one is an adaption of a Goosebumps book and perhaps the one that makes the most sense to turn into a musical. As Stine wrote a book during the original Goosebumps run that was his take on Phantom of the Opera.
Makes sense as everyone has done their version of Phantom from Lloyd Webber to The Muppets. This technically isn’t the first time this Goosebumps story has been adapted into visual media as it was also adapted for the Fox Kids TV show back in the day.
In the interest of fairness, I did listen to an audiobook of the book this musical is based on. I’ve not watched the episode from the TV show. I feel as though that would unjustly influence my bias one way or the other. I’ve listened to the songs from this musical numerous times as they are quite catchy and I love the cast recording. Having said all that, Brightman is only featured on one song and it is just a cameo but I still believe this is a good enough reason to look at this show. I enjoy Alex Brightman’s work and wanted to celebrate some of his body of work. Everything else else, we will look at in the future will feature him in a more substantial role. My friend Marianne and I were obsessed with this musical for a while. I believe that it understands a key component of Goosebumps, which the Disneyplus show forgot, that Goosebumps is campy. The problem with the show is that it took itself too seriously. Goosebumps is a series that thrives best when it allows itself to be silly. A retelling of Phantom with middle schoolers lends itself to silliness and awkwardness as we will see with my favorite song in the show. I hope that I can convince you to check out the cast recording after sharing my thoughts on the songs. I won’t be going too heavily into the plot but I want to celebrate something I love. I hope that you enjoy it.
by Moviefan
Reflection (An Original Queer Horror Story)
September 22, 2024 in Blogs
This year hasn’t been easy and it’s been a year of self-discovery. I returned to my Rachel character. A character I love writing about as she allows me to express my feelings. Rachel is very much a stand-in for me and you’ll see that as you read this story as like all my Rachel stories, elements of what she goes through are based on things I’ve been through and TW: mention of cutting.
