LA LA LAND (Dir: Damien Chazelle, 2016).

LA LA LAND (Dir: Damien Chazelle, 2016).

I am writing this almost a week after watching so apologise in advance for a review which is light on insight and heavy on vague observations (when are they ever anything but?).

This widely acclaimed homage to the golden age of Hollywood musicals was a first watch for me. It’s somewhat simple plot concerns the rollercoaster romantic and professional trials of aspiring actress Emma Stone and struggling jazz pianist Ryan Gosling. While proudly declaring its love of classic Hollywood, this often low-key film feels much closer in spirit to Jacques Demy’s French language classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) than any actual Hollywood musical.

Where La La Land most strongly recalls the Hollywood musical is in it’s lovely saturated colour palette which would befit a 1940’s MGM Technicolor extravaganza and in the staging of musical numbers, A Lovely Night in particular and in its climax, a clever ode to those extended modern ballet numbers popular in 1950’s musicals, most famously An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951). For me it also strongly recalled the finale of The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 1979), but that might just be me!

The score is strong, notably the beautifully melancholic recurring theme City of Dreams. The dancing skills of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone was rightly acclaimed. Neither are singers, but their pleasant vocals recalls the non-singer casting of Jean Simmons and Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls and works fine in context.

For all its vintage Hollywood flourish, La La Land has a slightly melancholy almost anti-Hollywood musical narrative and feels less like a traditional musical than its more pop music oriented contemporary The Greatest Showman (Michael Gracey, 2017). Whether it will be as fondly remembered in 65 years time as the musicals of 65+ years ago to which it pays homage, I am not sure but I did enjoy it. It’s a good movie, nicely performed and beautifully made.

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Movie number 28: Gus (Vincent McEveety, 1976).

By 1976, 10 years after the death of its founder, Walt Disney Productions were struggling for relevance in a changing film industry which had largely moved away from family entertainment to more adult fare. The fantasy comedies which were the company’s mainstay had been a Disney staple since The Shaggy Dog (Charles Barton) had hit big in 1959. However, nearly two decades later, what had once seemed fresh and inventive had become tired and formulaic. Budgets were kept low so the films made a small profit and Gus, with it stock footage and unconvincing back-projection was, indeed, a minor success. Its plot, as high concept as it is ludicrous, involves a Yugoslavian mule with a talent for 100 yard field goals who is hired by failing US football team The Atoms. The human cast is headed by Edward Asner doing his lovably gruff bit as The Atoms manager and he is supported by familiar 70s faces Don Knotts, Tim Conway and Tom Bosley. Considering the material the cast do a decent job and some genuine laughs are to be had from the visual gags involving The Atoms ageing cheerleaders and Gus the mule running amok in a supermarket! The movie Gus feels something of a cousin to Disney’s earlier The World’s Greatest Athlete (Robert Scheerer, 1973) and if you enjoyed that you will probably like this. To be fair, I lapped up this sort of thing as a child and taken for what it is Gus is entertaining, cheap and cheerful formulaic fun!

Movie number 33: Double Switch (David Greenwalt, 1987).

With the creation of The Disney Channel and the return of the Disney anthology series to the ABC network, the 1980s saw a renaissance in Disney made-for-TV movies. Ironically this was at a time when Disney branded cinema releases had all but ground to a halt; 1984 saw no new Disney movies save for Splash (Ron Howard) and Country (Richard Pearce) both distributed under their newly formed ‘adult’ Touchstone Films banner.

Double Switch premiered in two parts on the newly re-titled Disney Sunday Movie series. This contemporary take on Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper stars George Newbern in the dual roles of geeky high school student Matt Bundy and spoiled yet isolated popstar Bartholomew who switch places for some comedy hi-jinks and poignant life lessons. Elizabeth Shue is the only recognisable name in an otherwise no-star cast; the following year would see her breakthrough role in Adventures in Babysitting (Chris Columbus) and two years later she would inherit the part of Jennifer in Back to the Future Part II (Robert Zemeckis, 1989). With its synth rock soundtrack, legwarmer clad dancers and capitalist aesthetics, Double Switch is a movie which could only have been made in the Eighties, the decade of excess. Juxtaposing high school life and rockstar masquerades, Double Switch is kind of John Hughes lite meets Hannah Montana and one gets the feeling that were this made 20 years later we would be shopping for Bartholomew CDs, lunch boxes and backpacks at The Disney Store.

While barely remembered today, this movie isn’t half bad. Sure the music is a little generic and the comedy is somewhat laboured, but Newbern does well in the lead and if, like me, you enjoyed this when you were 12 you will probably get a nostalgic kick out of it now. Disney’s more faithful adaptation of The Prince and the Pauper (Don Chaffey, 1962) and their similarly themed classic The Parent Trap (David Swift, 1961) are both vastly superior movies. Double Switch is nowhere near as essential as those but is entertaining nonsense all the same.

THE LAND BEFORE TIME (Dir: Don Bluth, 1988).

In 1979 director Don Bluth famously led an animators walk out at the Disney Studios to form his own company Don Bluth Productions. Their first feature length venture The Secret of NIMH (Bluth, 1982) while critically well received was a commercial disappointment and it wasn’t until after Bluth released the groundbreaking coin operated video game Dragon’s Lair that Hollywood once again came calling.

The Land Before Time was to be Bluth’s third feature and his second, following An American Tale (1986), for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, co-produced by Lucasfilm. This surprisingly downbeat dinosaur adventure is something of a prehistoric Bambi meets The Incredible Journey as longneck Littlefoot, after the death of his mother and separation from his grandparents, teams up with a band of similarly lost young dinos to find their families in the fabled Great Valley.

Just as An American Tail was pitted against Disney’s Great Mouse Detective on original release, The Land Before Time found itself competing against Disney’s Oliver and Company in late ‘88. Unlike the previous meeting, Disney’s movie was box office champ on this occasion. However, I would argue that, on this occasion, Bluth’s movie is superior. Unlike the numerous made for video sequels, the original Land Before Time features some beautiful animation, and while its plot is quite basic and occasionally saccharine, it is sophisticated enough to engage adults as well as children.

At little over an hour The Land Before Time is short and sweet. Stick around for the end titles for Diana Ross’ lovely ballad ‘If We Hold On Together’.

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Movie number 30: Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates (Norman Foster, 1962). Originally shown in January 1962 in two parts on the television anthology series Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, Hans Brinker was released to cinemas internationally in 1964. An adaptation of the popular children’s novel by Mary Mapes Dodge, the movie stars Rony Zeaner as the titular Hans, a struggling Dutch artist who enters a skating contest in hope of winning the prize money to pay for an operation for his father who is injured while attempting to repair local sea defences.

Despite its TV origins Hans Brinker is, like virtually all Disney releases of its era, a high quality product. While it’s narrative is divided neatly in two halves and the fades for commercial breaks are noticeable I can imagine watching this on original release, probably as the second half of a double bill, unaware of its made for TV status due to its high production values. Shot on location on the Zuider Zee and in Rembrandt’s Amsterdam home and featuring a largely Dutch cast and crew it is markedly different in tone from Disney’s American product. It is a slow moving drama punctuated by the excitement of the storm battled dam rescue, a kidnapping and the inevitable skating contest. Davy Crockett’s Norman Foster directs in a low-key yet professional manner as befits the story.

While I found much to enjoy in this movie I will admit it is probably something of an acquired taste and possibly of interest more to Disney historians than casual viewers. However, if you are in the mood for low-key family drama cum Netherlands travelogue you could do much worse than seek out Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates.

BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS (Dir: Robert Stevenson, 1971).

It was inevitable that, sooner or later, I would post a review of Walt Disney Productions’ Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I have watched this movie more times than any other, losing count when I hit three figures. I wouldn’t say it is the best film I have ever seen but I would say it has given me more pleasure over the years than any other.

Often compared unfavourably and, I feel, unfairly with Disney’s 1964 blockbuster Mary Poppins, it reunited most of the creative team and star David Tomlinson from the earlier film. It also shares with it a lengthy ‘Jolly Holiday’-esq animated sequence and a basic premise about a magical governess. Yet the plot, taken from yet having little in common with Mary Norton’s book, about an amateur witch’s attempts to repel a Nazi invasion in wartime Britain with the help of three cockney waifs is markedly different from Poppins and Tomlinson’s performance as a loveable charlatan magician is completely different from the repressed banker and estranged father he portrayed in Poppins.

To be honest, it isn’t as good a film as Mary Poppins. It has a messy, episodic narrative which zealous editing - there are at least five different official versions of the film - was not entirely successful at tidying up. The international and US re-release version, at roughly 100 minutes, has the most satisfying narrative but cuts virtually all of Richard and Robert Sherman’s excellent songs; those that do remain are butchered, the lavish Portobello Road suffering most noticeably. An attempt in 1996 to restore the film to its original, and sadly lost, premier length brings the runtime to 139 minutes but suffers from poor dubbing on scenes where the audio could not be found. In spite of narrative issues the standard, roughly two hour release print is the default and best version of Bedknobs...

Director Robert Stevenson is almost successful at recreating the ole Poppins magic; Ward Kimball’s inventive animated excursion to the Island of Naboombu is the undoubted highlight of Disney Animation’s 1970s output; the effects work, including some incredible puppetry of bodiless suits of armour in the epic climax, hold up well against modern CGI techniques and the performance from stars Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson and company are exemplary. The Sherman Brother’s songs, including The Age of Not Believing, Beautiful Briny and the spectacular Portobello Road are among their best, perhaps a shade down from their work on Poppins, but there is no shame in coming second place to arguably the greatest musical score ever written for the cinema!

I reiterate, Bedknobs and Broomsticks is not as great a piece of filmmaking as Mary Poppins, but as a child I enjoyed it more. I certainly watched it more often. While perhaps it doesn’t quite add up to the sum of its parts, I think it is highly entertaining, is rightly regarded a classic and should probably be regarded a masterpiece, albeit a flawed masterpiece.

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Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Dir: Robert Stevenson, 1971).  It was inevitable that, sooner or later, I would post a review of Walt Dis