Mulan (1998, G)

When I was eleven, Mulan was totally my girl.  Loved her to bits – still do.  Like The Hunchback of Notre Dame, this Disney renaissance film holds up fantastically well in adulthood.  The story rocks, the animation is fabulous, and a few of the musical numbers are just superb.

Mulan is a young woman who can never seem to get it right.  As her parents’ only child, the family looks to her to make a good match and bring honor to them, but she’s not really considered “marriage material” in their village.  She’s too spirited, too outspoken, not ladylike enough.  When the emperor requires a man from every family to join the war against the invading Huns, Mulan takes the place of her ailing father, making off with his armor and intending to pass herself off as male.  With the help of her faithful horse, a lucky cricket, and a little dragon with a big personality (who’s similarly desperate to make good,) Mulan is determined to fit in and prove herself among her rough ‘n’ tumble fellow soldiers, finally bringing honor to her family.

Honestly, this movie just has it all.  Mulan has a gorgeous hero’s journey, fighting for her country, her family, and recognition of her own worth as a person.  Gender expectations are explored, subverted, parodied, and challenged.  The action is exciting, the humor is fun, and the heart is stunning.  Rewatching the film, I had multiple tearjerk moments, either because I was empathizing so hard with Mulan or just because my girl was making me so proud.  (My vote for the most affecting?  During the song “Reflection,” where Mulan kneels before the family shrine as she sings, “Somehow I can’t hide / Who I am, / Though I’ve tried” – ugh, my heart!)  And the animation – I just adore the wordless sequence of Mulan making her decision, taking her father’s armor, cutting her long hair short, and leaving home.  We’re talking goose bumps, so good.  While I think Alan Menken’s Disney scores are generally better, Matthew Wilder and David Zippel’s score is nothing to sneeze at.  Mostly, it’s just short, with only four numbers in the whole film.  “Reflection” is lovely, though, and “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” is both ridiculously catchy and one of my favorite Disney montages ever.

I may love Mulan even more now that I’m a grown-up and a geek.  I almost always knew that the sublime Lea Salonga did her singing voice (Mulan and Jasmine – the woman’s a Disney princess twice over!), but it’s only recently that I learned her speaking voice is provided by none other than Ming-na Wen, a.k.a. May from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (a.k.a. one of the absolute best reasons to watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)  Wen is stellar from word one, and B.D. Wong does a fine job as Shang, the captain Mulan fights alongside and begins to fall for.  The movie also features the voices of Eddie Murphy as Mushu the dragon, James Hong, Pat Morita, and the incomparable George Takei.

Warnings

Battle violence (it’s Disney, but still pretty intense,) some frightening images, a little implied nudity, and some gross-out humor.

Top Five Buster Keaton Stunts: Arbuckle-Keaton Shorts

Although Buster Keaton’s independent shorts are, for my money, more creative, more ambitious, and more tightly put-together than the stuff he did with Fatty Arbuckle, I can’t deny that Buster’s stunt work in these shorts is just off-the-charts incredible.  The Arbuckle-Keaton shorts have more instant-replay moments for me than any other period of Buster’s work.  Here’s to some truly breathtaking slapstick.  (Clips today, because pictures just aren’t enough!)

The Butcher Boy

It’s true that, even though taking a sack of flour to the face is no mean feat (a sack of flour thrown at his face – now that’s dedication!) this moment lacks the style and athleticism of other stunts listed here.  But it was the first, Buster’s maiden stunt on camera, and that makes it special.  Right from the start, one thing was clear:  no one can fall like Buster.

The Bell Boy

This scene is… it’s not even slapstick!  This is straight-up action, Buster being awesome just because he can.  It’s my all-time favorite stunt sequence of his.  The takedown of the burglar, the absolutely flawless execution of stunning, proto-parkour acrobatics, the fact that it’s all done in a continuous shot – amazing.

Back Stage

I love the no-handed cartwheels so much.  Especially in context; here’s Buster being silly onstage, he’s in drag that’s middling at best, he’s playing a pipe or recorder of some kind, and he’s just sort of prancing around.  Then, out of nowhere, a switch flips and he becomes this whirligig of no-handed cartwheels, one after the other, over and over, and when it finally ends in a fall, he switches right back to messing around.  In the midst of the stage hands’ awful little show, it’s a moment of genuine spectacle, and he just moves along from it like it’s no big deal.

Back Stage

Given the way this one is shot, it’s clear that Buster’s quarry is a dummy during the long shot, but it’s still wonderfully cool.  And anyway, whatever else is faked, it’s Buster throughout, doing fantastic things as usual.  I love the way he just swings up to the balcony, clamps onto his target, and lets gravity do the rest.  Plus, in the ensuing scuffle, he breaks out one of my favorite Buster fight moves, where he leaps up to kick someone in the chest with both feet.  Sorry, Thor – Buster did it first!

The Garage

Well, sure, he could’ve just slid straight down the fire pole.  But why would he do that when he can spiral all the way down, curling up so his legs are actually above his head?  After all, what’s the point of being an assistant mechanic/fireman if you can’t have a little fun?  Like others on this list, I love that it’s there just cuz, purely Buster being a boss because that’s how he rolls.

Doctor Who: Series 9, Episode 1 – “The Magician’s Apprentice” (2015)

(Note:  while I’ll avoid major spoilers in terms of plot, I can’t even start discussing this episode without spoiling the return of two characters, so be warned.  Even the most basic description of the story feels really spoilery.) 

It’s strange – even though Who has been increasingly frustrating for me the past few years, I still get so excited and hopeful every time new episodes finally start up.  I suppose it’s because despite everything that aggravates me, the parts I love are wonderful enough to keep me going (at present, the wonderful is chiefly in the form of the Twelfth Doctor.)  The first half of the two-part season premiere is pretty messy, and very little actually happens, but my fannish heart was on pins and needles just the same. 

Here’s what I can tell you.  The Doctor’s presence is cordially requested by one Davros; the creator of the Daleks is dying, and he says he wants to see the Doctor before he goes.  There’s an important intersection in their pasts that needs to be dealt with.  Only hitch?  The Doctor’s nowhere to be found.  No one, in fact, knows where he is.  It takes Clara, Missy (who’s not dead Because Reasons,) and UNIT to figure it out.  Although it seems that the Doctor knows Davros will kill him, he ultimately acquiesces, and Clara and Missy join him despite his protests.

There’s a lot going on here – big villains, big meetings, big reveals – but not much really happening.  (The Doctor himself is absent for a long chunk of the episode.  I found myself saying, “This can’t be the Doctor-lite episode, can it?  No, it can’t be; it’s the premiere,” which is crazy.)  The whole episode has a definite part-one feel to it.  On the plus side, I’m curious to know the answers to my (many) questions.  But on the flipside, it feels… unaccomplished?  Like the story has barely started, even though it’s now half over.  There’s also a scene with the Doctor that feels really out-of-character to me, so much so that I’m wondering if it was all an act.  Is this going to be another “The Wedding of River Song” situation, where it turns out the Doctor knows exactly what’s going on and has the upper hand the whole time, and every emotion/reaction he appears to have is purely for show?  I hope not, because then what’s the point?

But on to the positives.  The episode opens with a super-creepy addition to Moffat’s Hall of Nightmare Fuel, and I love how one of the big end-of-episode reveals is handled.  Missy is used extremely well.  Given Davros’s presence, she’s less of the villain and more of a bizarro companion – an evil one, to be sure, but she contributes to the adventure and displays her cleverness.  Plus, she has a terrific scene with Clara in which she describes her relationship with the Doctor.  Aside from not getting nearly enough of him and the previously-mentioned jarring scene, the Doctor is excellent.  I wouldn’t say he’s in good form – the longer his history with an enemy, the more off his game he tends to be – but it looks like there may be an interesting emotional story to be had, and Capaldi plays it beautifully.  And best of all, the Doctor and Clara.  Oh, the Doctor and Clara.  They still appear to be spending a huge amount of time not traveling together, which continues to bug me, but their relationship is soooo much better here.  They act like friends who both care about each other.  The Doctor is clearly in trouble, and Clara a) realizes that, b) seems to actually get him, and c) is determined to help.  Thank so much goodness!  Don’t get me wrong – I want the show to be wonderful in all respects – but I can put up with a lot of nonsensical plotting if the Doctor and his companion are at least in a good place.

Top Five Casting Decisions: Harry Potter

Despite the youth focus, it’s all grownups here.  No surprise – while many of the young actors bring their characters wonderfully to life, the franchise is so stacked with incredible British talent that the adults crowd the kids out.  After a tough winnowing-down process, here’s my top five.

Alan Rickman as Severus Snape

How much does Rickman rock this role?  Let’s put it this way: he was way too old to play Snape, about 20 years too old, plus his casting necessitated filling the other roles from that generation with actors much older than their characters (from which, of course, great things were born – Gary Oldman’s Sirius, anyone?)  However, I don’t mind the liberties at all, because he just rocks that hard.  Don’t know if I’d ever be able to picture anyone else as Snape.  Too perfect.

Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy

Isaacs is just a treat in this role, and for me, his first appearance in The Chamber of Secrets is one of the highlights of that film.  He’s sleek and sinister, he’s haughty, he’s insidiously cruel, and he’s 100% otherworldly from the word go.  This is a man steeped in the wizarding community, someone from an old family who believes disgusting ideas about blood purity and is majorly intimidating even before he breaks out his wand.  Topnotch performance – love it!

Brendan Gleeson as Mad-Eye Moody

Gleeson is terrific as the shrewd, irascible dark-wizard hunter.  He captures how dangerous and volatile Mad-Eye is while simultaneously showing why he’s one of the good guys.  The Goblet of Fire is his big hurrah, naturally, but even in smaller roles in the later films, he’s always reliable.  I have to say, though – the fact that The Order of the Phoenix doesn’t have my favorite Mad-Eye line (urging Harry not to keep his wand in his back pocket because “better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know!”) is, in my opinion, a serious misstep of the franchise. 

Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort

Oh my goodness, Fiennes kills it in this role.  The graveyard scene in The Goblet of Fire is one of my favorites in the whole series, and it’s largely down to Fiennes’s horrifically menacing performance.  He’s sooooo good – he does creepy-quiet and wild-raging with equal aplomb, striking an excellent balance and, even when he goes big, never going over-the-top.  “Don’t you turn your back on me, Harry Potter!  I want you to look at me when I kill you!  I want to see the light leave your eyes!”  I mean, just… holy crap!

Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge

As Umbridge, Staunton is just everything.  She’s perfect – the sweet little voice, the pleasant smile even as she’s torturing children, the tightly-wound control that she so gradually loses over the course of the film.  She’s like malicious marshmallow fluff, and Staunton perfectly conveys that cognitive dissonance.  Creepy as all get-out and completely twisted.  I love it so much.