Aladdin

Date watched- 30th October 2010

Genre; Children’s, Animated, Fairy Tale, Disney
Year; 1992
Running Time; 1 hour 30 minutes
Directed and written by; Ron Clements & John Musker
Actors; Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, Douglas Seale.

Animation 3/5 (but a 5 back in the day before all this “modern” animation)
Keeping my attention 3.5/4
Disney Songs 4/5
Story/Plot 3.5/6
Total 14.5/20

Plot

The Disney Classic, Aladdin. Aladdin, a street urchin, finds himself falling in love with Princess Jasmine, but she can only marry a prince. Aladdin finds himself as a pawn in the evil plot of Jafar (Jasmine’s father’s advisor) which leads Aladdin to a magic lamp, could the Genie inside be his way of becoming a Prince and living happily ever after with Jasmine or will Aladdin be seen for what he really is?

My Personal Views

I love this movie and I don’t care who knows. I watched this movie in bed this week, I’ve been a bit ill, and it was all I needed to help cheer me up.

I originally was bought this movie on VHS (remember those?) by my Dad. He bought it from Tescos when I was with him pretty much when it was first out. I think I might have badgered him a bit too much but because he is a great Dad he bought it for me. I would never have screamed or cried if he didn’t buy it so I guess he just thought it must be worth it to make me happy, one of the few benefits of having a parent away a lot when you’re growing up because they are in the armed forces! I seem to remember that I had watched the VHS so much that even the auto tracking function on the video recorder was having no effect on the ever increasing number of squiggly lines on the recording, oh those were the days. It certainly makes you marvel at the ‘modern’ technology of DVD and Blu-ray.

This movie is full of memorable songs which even days after watching the movie I am still singing along to in my head, and from time to time out loud. “On our magic carpet ride, a whole new world...” sorry excuse me for that!

So from an actor side of things, this is one of my first encounters with Robin Williams, who until not very long ago I only knew from Aladdin, Mrs Doubtfire and a various smattering of other family favourites. It was always a disappointment whenever I watched Return of Jafar as a kid (we got that on VHS from Asda some years after it came out because it was £3 and didn’t have the original box) that Robin Williams wasn’t reprising his voice role as the Genie.

As a child I also had the Aladdin and Princess Jasmine dolls, to be honest I still have them lurking around somewhere and so growing up the experience of Aladdin came from much more than just the VHS.

Confession: for some reason (other than Genie) my favourite character is the Magic Carpet!

Outcome

Already back on the shelf and staying firmly put where it is.

A Knight's Tale

“You have been weighed, you have been measures and you have been found wanting”



Date watched- 24th October 2010

Genre; Comedy, Period, Romantic,Action
Year; 2001
Running Time; 2 hour 12 mins
Director; Brian Helgeland
Written By; Brian Helgeland
Actors; Heath Ledger, Rufus Sewell, Shannyn Sossamon, Paul Bettany, Laura Fraser, Mark Addy, Alan Tudyk, James Purefoy et al.

Acting 3.5/5
Keeping my attention 3.5/4
Visuals/Direction 4.5/5
Story/Plot 4.5/6
Total 16/20

Plot

When a Knight dies at a jousting tournament one of his servants (William Thatcher- Ledger) takes his place to complete the tournament, much to the annoyance of the Knight’s other two servants (Addy and Tudyk). This then gives William an idea, continue to joust as a lord. With the help of his companions which later include Geoffrey Chaucer (Bettany) and a female blacksmith (Fraser), Thacher (now as Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein, of Gelderland) competes around Europe. Will he be able to defeat the evil Count Adhemar(Sewell) and win the heart of Lady Jocelyn (Sossamon), all without being found out for the ‘fake’ he is?

My Personal Views

So this is the first time that I have watched a Heath Ledger movie since his death in January 2008, and I wonder why, most of his movies (that I’ve seen) are great as demonstrated by this one and he was a very talented actor. I think it’s something to do with loss, even if it’s someone that you have never met. For instance it took me at least 6 months after Michael Jackson’s death to listen to one of his songs, and I still haven’t listened to a Boyzone song all the way through since the death of Stephen Gately. Anyway this isn’t telling you anything about this movie.

All in all this movie is great, apart from one thing, and I hate being mean but... Shannyn Sossamon. I know that she was discovered while she was DJ-ing at a party and didn’t have much acting experience at this time but it does sound a little like she could just be reading her lines off the paper they are written on (I’m sure I wouldn’t be any better though), she is very pretty though and I’m sure her acting skills must have improved over the years as (according to IMDB) she is still acting now.

This movie is well constructed and uses modern musical hits well, to the stage where (if you aren’t too picky) you don’t notice the fact that Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ and other classics are played throughout. In fact now whenever I hear David Bowie’s ‘Golden Years’ I can see Ledger and Sossamon dancing around at the ball.

There are a few continuity errors that even I could see (watch out for Chaucer’s miraculously changing sides bloody nose etc) but all in all this movie is a gem amongst period type movies. And it’s not too violent for younger audiences either. This isn’t the most historically accurate movie you will ever see but surely we can all forget about that for an hour and 40 minutes and just enjoy. Surely?

P.S. Will someone please put Rufus Sewell in a big budget movie where he isn’t playing the bad guy? On behalf of women everywhere, thank you.

Outcome

Staying well put in the DVD collection.