The Magic of Mary Poppins

While I have not been able to write much of my favorite subject, one delight is still very clear: Walt Disney made magic happen wherever he was and in everything he did.  I was feeling quite ill this morning and as such, this produced my usual routine of sickness which includes making the couch my new home.  It provides more warmth, better comfort, a short distance to kitchen and restroom, and with out a doubt the best medicine for a speedy recovery: my Disney movie collection.

Today I watched Mary Poppins and I did not at all view it like I had as a kid.  I was inspired by almost every single scene in that movie.  Did no one ever see the underlying life lessons obtained in every single lecture from Mary Poppins? Maybe they have just forgot! I think that if they allowed people to watch Disney’s movies as a requirement for graduation from junior high, high school, college that the world would be a better place, a more moving place, a more humble and deserving place, and more than anything a magical place.

Possibility is endless and I had almost forgotten this if it weren’t for the fact that I felt sick.  I also became so curious as to watch the special bonus DVD.  Did you know that it practically took Disney almost 25 years to create this masterpiece?!? 25 YEARS!! How long and how dedicated have you ever been to any one brilliant piece of work?  How long?! Definitely not 25 years for ONE piece of work… This amazed me more than anything.  I could go on and on about the magic created in such a special piece such as this movie but the fact of the matter is it took years to create something so special and we as a society are always too quick to give up, too quick to quit, too quick to move on, and too quick to pass judgment on something worth while.

I never thought so much about one particular movie like this before, I had almost forgotten how fun it was to watch this movie.  But more than that this movie left a print in my soul.  I will definitely enjoy breaking down the points of this movie to shower out what I felt created a vibration of charm that all people should create in their own lives as this movie clearly points out in its own story.

Until the wind changes…

The Mind of Creation

I cannot get through the nights without thinking of all the awesome movies I get to write about in this project.  As you should know, I have been watching these movies for well over 20 years and it is like a whole new adventure to re-live!  Last night I toss and turned at all the ideas I had for this project.  What I could categorize things as, what tags I would use, how I would break a movie down and then build it back up, etc… this list was endless!  I know that I really want to have a factual representation of the movie area, talking about its history and maybe even finding old posters and pictures for the opening day and whatnot, but I also want to make sure this is organized.  Do you ever feel like you’re making something bigger than yourself?  This is freaking Disney! The animation studio that will forever be traced throughout decades upon decades and forever more will be one of the best animation studios in all of the lands!!

I guess I am just really excited!  Creating things and then having them realized are just the most difficult things to do when your creation starts with an idea – being locked inside your mind and then somehow making it to paper and then after that it becomes something real and tangible and memorable in other people’s minds forever.   How insane is that prospect?  The idea that we can create something from nothing but in a vision within the cortex of our brains and then place this metaphysical item onto physical media is just perplexing.  The overall result becomes just as untouchable as the original concept: it gains momentum and passes through thoughts and influences decisions forever once it’s been created. 

How interesting is it to know that while I have a job in animation that at the time of creating pictures in motion that it was a different world with real hard issues of taking a process of creativity and placing it into a new technology that will allow the production of your idea to prosper, all the while not even calling it animation yet because animation did not exist at the time. The very start of this empire being built on dreams and the imaginations of people who sought to push beyond the boundaries of casual entertainment is just exciting!

Although I have a job that doesn’t allow much creative control in animating, it does put me in the network of very talented people.  A lot of these people also have a fondness of all things Disney and lucky for me today I got to borrow two books: The Art of Walt Disney by Christopher Finch and Encyclopedia of Walt Disney’s Animated Characters by John Grant from one very tallented artist.  Can I just say how flabbergasted I am right now to realize that besides all the Little Golden Books that I have collected recently of the Disney movies I do not own any real art books from the Disney realm at all??!  How BANANAS is that?!  I am not claiming to be Disney’s number one fan, (and it’s not that I wouldn’t like to I just feel like the responsibility should belong to someone who knows all and everything that there is to know about Disney) but I am falling short of my own expectations of what someone should know being that they are going to write a blog about Disney movies.

I suppose doing more research as I go along is best.  Because in actuality if I did posses more books about the Disney empire and had read them, my points and views on the philosophy as I feel that it exists might very well end up skewed by opinions and points of the books I have read, and no one wants a copy-cat nor an unoriginal point of view. On a side note, I have never been able to see the Walt Disney logo with a “D” in it.  I believe it was when I was nine or ten that I finally discovered that the typical “Walt Disney” name under the blue castle logo that they play just before starting a movie was really a “D”.  Up until then I always thought Walt had secretly coded it with a “G”. I never knew why and I never thought beyond it, but then made the discovery years later when I was nine or ten.  Weird thing, huh? Still to this day I struggle with seeing a “D” and not a “G”.

I suppose this entry was to just expose my utter excitement and joy for this project in its entirty.  I feel it is necessary to also share with you that my goal this year is to become a D23 member and to go to the Disney Expo taking bazillions of pictures and going to every single lecture known to man! Oh and my ultimate honeymoon when I get married would be to take the Disney cruise. JOY!! ❤

Until next time, just keep swimming!

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

This sounds like an excellent first movie to start with.  Being that it was the first full-length movie to be made I think it fits this project’s first subject perfectly.  I have to say, that in my entire lifespan I might have seen this movie two times.  This is quite perplexing since I have little to remember by as a kid with this one, and I am not sure why SWATSD wasn’t more prominent in my collection but at that time I wasn’t controlled by anyone but my parental units.  So really, I had no choice!!

Yesterday I got all comfy in my big couch and I turned off the lights like I used to as a kid. (In those days we didn’t believe in such things as caring for eye-sight.) I popped in the regular dvd version (even though I had the blu-ray) and sat through all of the previews like we were forced into back in the day by VHS.  It was lovely. I remember much different previews of course but it was reminiscent none-the-less. And so the feature began!  I really miss how stories opened up with the old-fashioned fully decorated book! Those were so fun to look at! They actually made the story more enjoyable in the way that they make you feel as if Disney was inviting you to its own story time, right there in your living room.

At first it was difficult to not think about things, what they mean, how things look, etc… But then eventually I relaxed and just let the story take me away.  At first impression, I thought maybe I would get bored.  Watching a love story doesn’t seem very fun, at least at first impression.  But the story all but 10 minutes to get interesting, and I mean interesting in the way that the art style didn’t much matter – the Disney magic took over.  I have to say, I had kid feelings boil up to the surface yet again!  I remember Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs being scary and weird.  Scary because the Queen was a creepy person and she had the most hideous of features.  Weird because the Dwarfs were, well, old dudes. Anyway back to the story… I laughed at the obvious humor of Dopey, he was really hilarious and I didn’t remember how sneaky he was before!! And Grumpy is hilarious!  I would love to annoy him if I were in the story somewhere.. it would be a joy!  Doc annoyed me. It’s like, CALM DOWN Doc, it’s just words!!! Although he was a nice guy so no real annoyance after a moment or two.  OMG That cave they were mining was sparkled as all sparkles could be sparkly!!!  Random moment: I remember picking rocks up in our gravel drive way and wanting them to be sparkly, JUST LIKE THE ROCKS IN SNOW WHITE! But alas, my Dad promised me a sparkle machine but that was 20 years ago… *tears* No sparkle machine ever came my way…

Despite my non-recieval of the sparkle machine, the sparkly jewels of the mine were the most remembrance of the movie.  The little glimpses that I remember as a kid, anyway.  I also distinctly remember the “Hi Ho” song as they marched through the forest.  The rest of the movie was completely new to me. I do remember the scary eyes of the Queen when she was all ugly and gross and cackling at things.  She was such a weirdo. You HAD to know she was pure freaking evil!! How did Snow White not know this?  Snow White was too busy cleaning and baking to understand the repercussions of accepting gifts from strangers.  Man I wish I remembered more as a kid because when Snow White was “dying” it did not sound right… It made me feel a little uncomfortable actually. I miss not catching these weird awkward moments.  Anyways, when the Dwarfs scare off the Queen she’s all powerless to stop them and then ends up killing herself really. I actually got sort of sad really.  She died for no reason, well, a selfish reason but she died when clearly if she had been happy with herself none of this madness would have been happening!!

I for one wanted to know how the pig was killed.. because I am a firm believer against animal cruelty and that pig didn’t deserve to be killed just because the huntsman was a pansy.  He should seriously feel bad forever and ever.  Unless of course he did it humanely and then had a bunch of bacon bits. That would be okay then.  BUT ON THE OTHER HAND these were the middle ages!! Clearly there were no such “humane” ways of slaughter!! THE NERVE!! OHHHHHH the agony of thinking about this!!! On the plus side the vultures (whom are always are evil by the way) probably died from eating such a wretched old lady hag.  So that was pretty entertaining to think about.  How evil am I all of a sudden? MUAHAHAHA!

The lasting impression that I felt about this movie was whiplash.  I mean Snow White JUST DIED and then all of a sudden she’s alive and people are all crying and laughing at the same time.  Kinda creepy.  But I get it, they are all joyous that Snow White, such a sweet, innocent person, is no longer dead.  You know, if you were trapped in a glass case breathing in the same air wouldn’t you suffocate and then die anyway?  Just a thought.  The whiplash occurred because it was like, weren’t we all just scared and worried and upset and then BAM! We’re all good now, the cute prince made everything all better.  I for one don’t think kisses heal everything.  I mean, the emotional trauma Snow White has to feel now!! She was like the living dead!!! OoO *idea* That would be an EXCELLENT concept for an art piece… *makes a note*

The best thing about watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is that the magic that Disney has created transcends from this very movie.  Every single movie that has been it’s predecessor has at least ONE element of SWATSD in it!  It actually triggered the need to watch Enchanted REALLY REALLY BADLY.  Kudos to Disney, they seriously make the best of the best and it will forever build imaginative fabrics throughout the weaves of time.  Oh, and I had to google Enchanted for a moment because I got curious about some facts and OMG THEY ARE MAKING AN ENCHANTED 2!!! O.M.G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am stoked. Okay so yes, back to the subject of Snow White.  In my honest opinion I feel like this movie is not going to get its rightfully deserved praise simply because my mind has been tainted by the works of today’s magic.  However, I do feel as though this movie was ahead of its time in the way that it conveyed character and evoked emotional turmoil in the most scary areas of plot points. I can’t wait to break this movie down even more and analyse its philosophy.  Even though I did not remember much of Snow White at all from her own movie, I did remember some basic moments that emotionally left impressions in my brain cave.  This movie was highly riveting and one of the best jump-starts of the classic movie collection we know today. 

I heart this project.

And so it begins…

Isn’t it just exciting when you watch a movie over again and realize you have missed so many details the first time you watched it?  It’s even funnier when you realize how many Disney movies have that same effect.  You catch yourself saying, “Ohhhh I never realized what that meant!”, or, “Did Aladdin just say ‘Take off your clothes’ ?”  The truth is, we grow up. It’s a painful, unforgivable cycle, but we still must all face the consequence of life: you get all growed up.

And somehow throughout the time you sit there and see things through new eyes, different eyes, older all-growed-up eyes. You have no control over it but you know it just happens one day.  You think of something differently.  You think of something that used to mean something else entirely or something just seems new and symbolic of something else.  I have watched Disney movies my entire life.  I don’t remember not watching Disney movies.  I would watch them repeatedly sometimes and then other times when the weather triggered a particular movie. I’m 26 years old now.  So for 26 years I have had a lifestyle that changes from decade to decade, state to state, school to school, milestone to milestone, and season to season.  Out of all the changes that life has to offer there was one always constant: Disney movies.

Lately I watch these movies and they bring the same joy they always have – very entertaining as always.  The nonsense is I remember watching when I was younger and having a different feeling about the movies.  Well now today it’s not that I just have a different feeling and I realize that every movie has more philosophy to it than that of the obvious messages.  I feel this weird drive telling me to just write about it – think it out – be all cryptic about it.  I love Disney movies, why not write about them?  Walt Disney was a fascinating person.  He was ahead of his time in those days and it’s sad he didn’t live to see the journey of the greatest empire of all the world.

Walt Disney said, “I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.” which is why I want to pursue this project.  I know I learned so many things from the movies, both consciously and unconsciously.  There are things children understand better than grownups and things grownups understand deeper than what children understand.  It’s not that we’re understanding different things – it’s that things are differently understood. Haha! I seriously think a line like that could go into Alice in Wonderland.  While I wasn’t being force-fed education, I was learning something.  Something from the minds of people who thought bigger and brighter and pushed farther with their imaginations and spirits than most people do in their entire lifespan. Walt Disney was on to something, something that was bigger than himself.  For me, pursuing something bigger than yourself has got to be the most fulfilling action.  If it were not, would there be so many movies of influence?

I may be all growed up but I will not lose steam in collecting all my movies.  I will not stop watching movies over and over and I HIGHLY doubt I won’t stop tears from falling even though I KNOW Tweed will dump Tod in the forest and look back at his completely dilated eyes!! It gets me every time… Oh and side note, the movie, “The Adventures of Milo and Otis”, was particularly difficult to watch.  In fact I still never have fully watched this movie because they put a kitten in a box and let it float down a river of death.  THE MEWS! Oh and I know it’s not Disney but I just thought of the forest that Tod is dropped in and so you know, thought process is: abandoned animals> forest> Milo and Otis.  So there.

I hope that someone out there will read this and find this entertaining and I hope they learn something, as I am not trying to educate anyone.  But if not then at least I can use this project to re-live my adventures (not that I was ever going to stop) and find yet another way to enjoy something that I already love: Disney Movies.

So far, I have no real formula to this madness other than maybe following a simple outline:

One movie a month.

1. Develop lessons learned
2. Favorite character in the story and why
3. Most identifiable character to me
4. The philosophy points of the movie

I’m not going to restrict myself to this formula only but I am definitely going to include all the pieces so that every movie has a fair and decisive shot at being looked at in a new way.

Oh, and I think I’ll watch the movie first to enjoy its essence and then watch it again and analyse it.  Yes. This is going to be an awfully very big adventure.