The Princess and the Frog // Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996) // District 9
Q: What do these three movies have in common?
A: Human to non-human animal transformations.
OK, Brain Candy doesn't really have that, but people do go comatose. Pretty close. The real answer is that I saw them all this weekend.
The Disney film returns to the company's hand-drawn animation roots. It feels like Jungle Book, touring the swamp and New Orleans. There's a cute alligator playing the trumpet, snakes that act like dogs, and voodoo galore. The music, going from jazz to zydeco to gospel and back, was decent. Dancing too. Say what you want about voodoo religion having a bad stereotype, I don't care. Because the voodoo priest in this film, the bad guy, was really badass. He's a total pimp. His shadow even kicks ass. Of course, the film retreads stereotypes about princesses marrying to make everything OK. But my real gripe is that the hot princess was a frog for most of the film, even though she made a pretty sexy frog.
Brain Candy was the midnight movie, part of the SF Sketchfest, a comedy festival. The crowd was rowdy, and I kind of resent paying $12 for a midnight movie, but at least there was parking. I noticed that the recurring scene where all the gay guys come spilling out of a door, implying there was lots of illicit gay sex going on behind the door, was ripped off by There's Something About Mary (when Ben Stiller stumbles over the naked guy at the rest stop). I like the message, that it's OK to be depressed sometimes.
District 9 was a little disappointing. Sure, plenty of people got liquidated by alien weaponry, and the POV cameras made it feel like a video game, and there were alien prostitutes, but.... wait a second, this movie was awesome! The cliches were jumping off the screen -- using 'live' television coverage as exposition as well as for dramatic tension, and setting up an obvious sequel by telling the protagonist he'd be saved 3 years after the movie ends -- but at least there's no everything-is-back-to-normal ending. The South Africa setting threw me off, as I wasn't sure whether the quarantined aliens represented Apartheid-era blacks or the more contemporary and obvious Palestinian metaphor. For some reason, though, South African whites (Afrikaners) make really good mercenaries. See Blood Diamond and The Constant Gardener. They're just convincing. Something about history, maybe, I dunno.
A: Human to non-human animal transformations.
OK, Brain Candy doesn't really have that, but people do go comatose. Pretty close. The real answer is that I saw them all this weekend.
The Disney film returns to the company's hand-drawn animation roots. It feels like Jungle Book, touring the swamp and New Orleans. There's a cute alligator playing the trumpet, snakes that act like dogs, and voodoo galore. The music, going from jazz to zydeco to gospel and back, was decent. Dancing too. Say what you want about voodoo religion having a bad stereotype, I don't care. Because the voodoo priest in this film, the bad guy, was really badass. He's a total pimp. His shadow even kicks ass. Of course, the film retreads stereotypes about princesses marrying to make everything OK. But my real gripe is that the hot princess was a frog for most of the film, even though she made a pretty sexy frog.
Brain Candy was the midnight movie, part of the SF Sketchfest, a comedy festival. The crowd was rowdy, and I kind of resent paying $12 for a midnight movie, but at least there was parking. I noticed that the recurring scene where all the gay guys come spilling out of a door, implying there was lots of illicit gay sex going on behind the door, was ripped off by There's Something About Mary (when Ben Stiller stumbles over the naked guy at the rest stop). I like the message, that it's OK to be depressed sometimes.
District 9 was a little disappointing. Sure, plenty of people got liquidated by alien weaponry, and the POV cameras made it feel like a video game, and there were alien prostitutes, but.... wait a second, this movie was awesome! The cliches were jumping off the screen -- using 'live' television coverage as exposition as well as for dramatic tension, and setting up an obvious sequel by telling the protagonist he'd be saved 3 years after the movie ends -- but at least there's no everything-is-back-to-normal ending. The South Africa setting threw me off, as I wasn't sure whether the quarantined aliens represented Apartheid-era blacks or the more contemporary and obvious Palestinian metaphor. For some reason, though, South African whites (Afrikaners) make really good mercenaries. See Blood Diamond and The Constant Gardener. They're just convincing. Something about history, maybe, I dunno.
posted by Pete @ 1:01 AM
1 Comments:
At 2:51 PM,
RB said…
KitH Brain Candy is still one of my top movies—maybe top of my cult favorite list—of all time. I especially enjoy watching when morose, melancholy, or blue.
There are just too many lines that one can apply to everyday á là Office Space. Many of those lines are almost throw-aways but here is brief list of favorites in no critical order (much like how this comment is decided uncritical):
Mr. October
I've developed a pill that gives worms to exgirlfriends.
There's a cat on my head.
...though I am a little dizzy.
I'm gonna fall!
RED SOCKS!
But you would agree that Paris is the capital of France...
Double A batteries, land in Montana...?
This urine is great.
Now that I look at the memorable lines, this movie was a hack at best, a best cultish hack of a movie.
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