Top Five Romances: Disney Princess Films

I’ve done princesses and princes, now we’re coming back around to look at them together. Even before I started picking out a Top Five, I knew that there’d be a lot of overlap with the princesses and princes I singled out in my earlier posts, but I also knew I was okay with it. Favorite Disney romances, here we go!

 

Aurora & Phillip (Sleeping Beauty)

Phillip was the only classic-era character to make it onto my Top Five princes post, and Aurora’s relationship with him is similarly the only classic-era romance to appear here. Is it love at first sight? Sure. And does Aurora do a very ill-advised thing out of her affection for a guy she just met? Absolutely. But their meet-cute is so utterly charming, with Phillip being taken by Aurora dancing in the forest with her animal friends as she sings about her dreams of love. And it’s sweet that they fall in love with each other not realizing they’ve been betrothed since Aurora’s birth.

 

Belle & the Beast (Beauty and the Beast)

Now’s not the time to get all smug about Stockholm Syndrome, okay? That’s not what’s going on here. This is a clever young woman who recognizes the Beast for who he is – not a monster, but a man – and she treats him as such. When he acts unkind out of selfishness and bitterness, she stands up to him, and when he begins to soften, she sees how he’s changing and responds with grace. Their connection in the original animated film is great, and I really love how their story opens up in the live-action movie, allowing us more scenes of them getting to know one another and bonding.

 

Aladdin & Jasmine (Aladdin)

Love. Before I knew what chemistry was, these two had it in spades when they met in the market. Despite their major differences, they’re immediately simpatico in the ways that matter. The thing that stands between them getting together is Aladdin’s insecurity – even though he loves Jasmine for her brightness and spark and the very first thing he sees her do is be kind to someone, he looks at himself and thinks he can’t be enough when he realizes she’s a princess. But pretending to be someone he’s not nearly ruins their chances, and it’s only when he’s honest with her that they can make it work. As with Beauty and the Beast, I’m including the live-action versions here too, because Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott are just a delight together.

 

Rapunzel & Flynn (Rapunzel)

Ah, the sheltered princess who holds onto dreams despite tough circumstances and the scalawag who has a bigger heart than he’d give himself credit for. These two are a fun duo, bringing all kinds of great slapstick in their early scenes together (the frying pan! You love to see it) before going on an adventure and ultimately falling in love. Neither character was able to squeeze into my earlier Top Fives, despite both being great on their own, but I do really like them as a pair.

 

Anna & Kristoff (Frozen)

I know that the love/hate thing is a trope, and there are plenty of times when this device makes me roll my eyes, but when it’s done well, it’s great. I knew I was a fan of Anna and Kristoff as soon as he finds out she’s engaged to something she just met and starts quizzing her on how much she really knows about this guy. Her naïve optimism blends well with his curmudgeonly cynicism, and it’s a lot of fun to watch them slowly discover how well they fit together.

History Boys in Doctor Who

I don’t know what it is exactly about The History Boys. Back when it made a splash first on the West End and then on Broadway, I was really intrigued by it, but when I saw the eventual movie adaptation starring the original stage cast, it didn’t really blow me away. Maybe it was something that worked better onstage than onscreen (I’ve talked before about the difficulty of adapting stage works for films,) but either way, I didn’t get what all the fuss was about.

However. That cast has stuck with me. I enjoyed pretty much all of them, and ever since 2006, I’ve sat up and taken notice every single time a former History Boy pops up on my screen in a different project (this blog features numerous references to History Boy alum in assorted reviews.) Some have seen their careers take off more than others – for pure visibility, I’d say James Corden is probably leading the pack – but nearly all of them have had their moments for me. And, rather delightfully, more than half of them have made their way to the Whoniverse in some way. Today, I’m doing a rundown of History Boy appearances in new Who and beyond (a few spoilers.)

 

Russell Tovey as Midshipman Alonzo Frame

First up, chronologically, is Russell Tovey (aka Rudge) as Midshipman Frame. His is the smallest Whoniverse appearance – Midshipman Frame features prominently in the Tenth Doctor Christmas special “Voyage of the Damned.” He’s a stalwart young man working aboard the starship Titanic, and when the captain sabotages the ship, Midshipman Frame moves heaven and earth to keep her afloat and save as many of the passengers and crew as possible, all while injured himself. Tovey is really endearing in the role, and he pops up again for a cameo in the final scenes of “The End of Time,” I’m sure launching a host of fanfics after he meets Captain Jack Harkness.

 

James Corden as Craig Owens

Next comes James Corden (aka Timms,) making a big impact in “The Lodger” and “Closing Time” as Craig. Corden was a great choice for this character, a basically-decent everyman who has a whirlwind encounter with the Eleventh Doctor in a non-companion capacity. For everyone who’s ever asked, “What if the Doctor was my roommate?” or, “What if the Doctor was my babysitter?”, these are the episodes for you (the answers, by the way are, “Pretty much exactly what you’d think it’d be like.”) Craig isn’t a companion type, and he can get overwhelmed or annoyed at the wild goings-on that seem to follow the Doctor wherever he goes, but Craig also recognizes how much our world needs the Doctor and provides an important type of support that the Doctor sometimes needs.

 

Samuel Anderson as Danny Pink

Although Samuel Anderson (aka Crowther) has probably had the most screentime on Who so far, for my money, he didn’t exactly strike the jackpot. His Danny Pink often feels more like a plot device than a character, Clara’s love interest who largely reacts to things in whatever way will affect her character the most. There are hints of a good character here – a former soldier still dealing with trauma from his time in the service, a fellow teacher at Coal Hill with Clara – but it never develops into something that feels fully fleshed out. While I’d say Anderson does his best with what he’s given, this character doesn’t really come together for me.

 

Samuel Barnett as Norton Folgate

This one surprised me. The only non-TV and non-Doctor Who entry on this list, I found myself listening to the Torchwood audio drama Ghost Mission and thinking, “Where have I heard that voice before?” I knew I recognized the actor voicing Norton Folgate, a Torchwood operative from days of yore whose “ghost” is sent to the 21^st century to serve as an objective rater for Andy’s field review as a prospective Torchwood candidate. I couldn’t figure it out, but when they read the credits at the end and I heard the name Samuel Barnett (aka Posner,) I shouted, “History Boy!” out loud. Norton is a fun character, and luckily for me, one that I’ll be hearing more of in the future (Ghost Mission is the only audio that I’ve listened to featuring him, but the interwebs tell me he’s a recurring character.) He’s sharp, fab, and dapper, and he and Andy make an entertaining odd couple together – plus, the ending of Ghost Mission suggests he’s part of a larger puzzle at work.

 

Sacha Dhawan as the Master

Obviously, Sacha Dhawan (aka Akhtar) is the big winner here. I was enjoying him enough when he was masquerading as “O,” the disguise persona we were initially introduced to, but the second he was revealed as the new Master, everything got super awesome really quickly. I’ve said before that Dhawan is the first new Who Master who fully works for me. Unhinged up to here, but scarily controlled when he needs to be. And the rage! Rage that seems to unsettle even him – I like the way he gets this hysterical edge to his voice, screaming like a Dalek in the fervor of his fury. Fingers crossed that will get lots more of Dhawan’s Master. (Also, first Master of color, which I’m totally here for.)

News Satire Roundup: May 23rd

Sunday, May 23

·        Recap of the Week – Upcoming Supreme Court case on abortion rights, ridiculous city and state primary candidates

o   John noted just how long the GOP has been working to maneuver the Supreme Court into a place where it could take on Roe v. Wade – “Rolling back abortion rights is basically the reason why we had to listen to this human beer-bong [Brett Kavanagh] scream and cry his way through a job interview.”

o   John was queasy at the “Jason A. Banks of men” crowded around Texas’s governor in the photo of him signing the punishingly-restrictive abortion bill in question – “You don’t usually see that many men in suits lined up to disappoint women outside of a first episode of The Bachelorette.”

o   We looked at a number of horrifying primary candidates in state and local races, such as a candidate for Philadelphia’s DA who had this choice tidbit to say – “I understand Black people just about as well as a Black person. I’m not gonna say equal, but pretty good.”

o   I laughed at John’s reaction to a montage of Andrew Giuliani’s costars from a reality show complaining about how annoying he is – “Andrew Giuliani is a nightmare! Imagine being the worst person on a golf reality show!”

o   As John pointed out, Trump proved that “extreme cartoonishness isn’t a dealbreaker, it’s a selling point,” and he warned that while these candidates are “clowns,” there’s a reason clowns are so horrifying.

·        And Now This – Public comments at San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting

o   Naturally, this was a Pawnee-worthy montage of residents getting up to say whatever nonsense they wanted into a mic, and it was a delight.

o   For whatever reason, a bunch of people sang their remarks – My favorite was the guy who sang, “City Board of Supervisors, some of you are fucking liars!”

·        Main Story – Sponsored content in local news

o   We opened this story with the old way of advertising in local news, with an anchor in the ‘60s awkwardly transistioning from a story about racism to a sponsored ad featuring a guy who was way to excited about ham – This of course led John to hawk his own preference for sexy meat instead, a brand of ground turkey that was “the only turkey that’s 93% lean, 100% fuckable.”

o   The brunt of the story, though, was on ads that are disguised as legitimate segments on both morning and evening news. We started with food-based segments, where anchors offered “fun recipe tips” using products they just so happened to be paid to be mentioning – John said of some sort of mozzarella-filled Dorito, “Now, that product has been discontinued, probably because it looks less like a snack and more like someone deep-fried a fidget spinner.”

o   Much more worrying, though, were the segments that touted expensive medical treatments of dubious-at-best effectiveness, in which cities’ trust local anchors gave uncritically-glowing softball interviews on these treatments and products – “That is a hell of a positive spin: ‘There’s no better time to have prostate cancer! What are you waiting for?’”

o   The show demonstrated the danger of sponsored content by making up their own bogus product and flogging it on no less than three local news shows – The product? The Venus Veil, “the world’s first sexual health blanket” that purports to achieve its utterly-ludicrous blankets by suspiciously using “technology that was pioneered in Germany about 80 years ago.”

o   While the clips we saw of these segments were laughably ridiculous, John hammered home the main point – “The truth is, none of this was nearly difficult enough to get on TV.”

 

The Daily Show is off for a couple of weeks. The other day, I was watching an old clip of the show, and I realized how weird everything looked to me: the studio and the desk, Trevor’s suit and short hair, Trevor and the guest being in the same room as each other. Trevor has been filming from his home for over a year now, and what began as an emergency pivot now feels very natural.

Part of it, of course, is just how I as a human have adjusted to circumstances. Just like I don’t have to remind myself to grab a mask when I leave the house and I’m accustomed to Zoom gatherings, I’m used to Trevor’s afro and hoodies, to no live audience reactions, to occasional remote-interview tech glitches. But honestly, the way the show has acclimated to going remote is more than just making the best of a bad situation.

There are the cosmetic and technical differences, as well as the oblique references to our current situation (like a correspondent standing up in the middle of a Zoom interview to reveal they’re in their underwear,) but what I find really interesting are the ways that the show’s humor has physically adapted to the remote medium. It reminds me a little of how single-camera sitcoms brought their own type of humor. It wasn’t just the lack of the live audience – the filming techniques expanded what kinds of comedy shows could employ.

Those are the kinds of things we see here. I like the use of quick cuts when Trevor does a mini “skit” with himself, along with the occasional bit of intentionally-terrible CGI to give him a prop/glasses/a granny wig/etc. for the sake of his “character.” The graphics are made to look silly and cobbled-together, which add to the overall effect of Trevor going a little stir-crazy in his apartment. I also get a kick out of his close-up asides, and I love him making comments/asking questions to an invisible “someone” just off-camera. Even though some of these are similar to bits Trevor used to do in the studio, the remote setting allows the show to take them further, to highlight them more. In addition to making Trevor sitting alone in his apartment feel a little more dynamic, they’re also just wonderfully funny.

I loved the show in its original incarnation, and when the day arrives that Trevor goes back to the studio, I’m sure I’ll quickly get reacclimated to the old way of doing things. The show might find a way to bring some of its new remote bits back with it, adapted for a different setting, and it will most likely continue testing out new comedic styles and beats. But for now, I have to applaud the show for creating something that feels uniquely its own, something much more than just a pale imitation of what they wish they could be doing in the studio.