The Lion Sleeps Tonight

RIP Michael Jackson. A lot of people have already put in their two cents on this so I won't really contribute anything further. I am however a bit sad that I first heard about his passing via a facebook status update...

If I were still at MIT, I think I'd be tempted to do the Thriller dance down the Infinite Corridor, something we'd planned to do, but never got around to doing.

**

Timon: Gee. He looks blue.
Pumbaa: I'd say brownish-gold.
Timon: No, no, no. I mean he's depressed.
Pumbaa: Oh.

I re-watched The Lion King today. I haven't watched that movie in ages, and I've forgotten how fantastic it is. While I love Pixar and what it's doing with its animations (Wall-E, Ratatouille, Up, Monster's Inc, etc), a part of me still really misses the Disney cartoons from the 90s: Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, and Aladdin. This is probably an over generalization, but I miss how it was okay for things to be more *epic* back then. There were a few boy bands and pop stars who dominated the charts instead of artists with catchy songs that disappeared quickly. And cartoons were more...I feel like Pixar movies tend to be more about individuals, and center around how these individuals change the world around them (sometimes this results in huge changes in the actual world) but the movie isn't necessarily about how they're going to change the world, more around their personal growth. Okay, so maybe the old 90s Disney movies were like that too, scratch that.

I think The Lion King epitomizes Disney epicness in a very good way. It's probably, imho, the best Disney movie from that time, and it's a close second favorite (right behind Mulan, which I hold a soft spot for). Animation-wise and musically (catchy songs and Hans Zimmer score =<3), it's so very beautiful like in the beginning when the birds flock over a waterfall to get to Pride Rock and when Simba's alone and calling out for Musafa in the barren cavern. Also, I really love how when Simba's walking up Pride Rock to claim the throne, you see it from his perspective; he quivering and staring at the ground- what a journey it has been. From a story telling perspective, I really like how well they balanced humor and actual, drama. eg. Timon and Pumba's little interludes during "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and Rafeiki fluctuating between guiding mentor and insane monkey when he shows Simba Mufasa again.

Intro and Traffic

So a brief intro. Since I have a lot of free time this summer and will be watching a lot of movies and hopefully reading a lot of books, I'm going to be using this blog to review the stuff that I read/watch. (mostly keeping this to keep a personal record)

Today I watched Traffic from way back in 2000, which was really good. For the most part, I enjoy ensemble movies b/c it's always fun seeing characters and storylines intertwine. It's also good when the individual story lines themselves wouldn't have been as compelling like in Love Actually.

What I really liked about Traffic is the storytelling- the pacing is fabulous and it does a really good job seamlessly weaving all of the different stories together. It's also impressive that the director, Steven Soderbergh did so much of the filming himself. I also like that the movie really assumes the audience's intelligence; it throws a lot of information, a lot of characters, at you at once and is quite subtle and not preachy (like Crash...which was good but definitely overrated). I definitely think I need to rewatch the movie for the Mexico storyline b/c I don't think I quite caught all of it.


Favorite scenes:
-Del Toro "seducing" the assassin in the gay bar. It's a short scene but a really good/amusing/pretty hot one.
-Loved all the interactions b/n Chelade and his DEA partner and Ruiz, the witness they arrested/were protecting. I can't find the quote online but Ruiz and Cehlade's character have this conversation about how everything that the DEA does is really pointless in the long run b/c there will still always be people doing drugs so why should it matter that they catch a few drug runners since none of it matters.
-*spoilers* the bug planting scene
-When the "drug czar" finally finds his daughter