Movie Re-Views

Yesterday I drew attention to Mufasa as a great father in the animal kingdom.  Shortly thereafter, I learned of a McSweeney's piece that throws that viewpoint into question.  Here, an antelope wonders why he was invited to the celebration of Simba's birth.  And you know, he's totally right.  Mufasa, the life lessons and self-sacrifice for your son (if that is a spoiler for any reader, shame on you and go watch this movie right now), all that's great, but your leadership skills could use some work.  I get it, he's the prince, these are your subjects, I suppose many royal families through history have had similar ceremonies celebrating the arrival in the world of a new future leader.  But you know what, most of those royal families weren't bringing together a bunch of subjects that ate each other!  This peaceful gathering of animals is not at all standard behavior in the Circle of Life, and that, Mufasa, moves us all.  Your big party here that brings together all the creatures under the sun (rolling high, through the sapphire sky) is screwing with the path unwinding, and it's not cool.  The antelope is right to be anxious, and I'm surprised he can be so eloquent about it, given that there's far too much to take in here.

As long as we're re-evaluating how we view certain classic films, check out this series of behind-the-scenes photos that argues it will do just that.  Hitchcock, too, seems content to upset the natural order of the wild kingdom by giving direction to his own Mufasa in the final photo, which is well worth scrolling past that bug-eyed Harrison Ford, who appears in 25% of the films presented in the list.  Actually, Ford is in my favorite photo from the series, the low-budget Ark of the Covenant.  No wonder it was Lost... It's flat!

And finally, to challenge your view on the smooth sounds of Morgan Freeman, here are some smooth stylings by Morgan Freeman.  Out of sight, indeed.  "When I itches, I scratches, when I'm bored, I read matches."  I would love to see a mash-up where Easy Reader stops by Andy's library in Shawshank... But really, it's no surprise that someone with such an affinity for reading should become a world-class narrator.

Feel free to do nothing all day without feeling bad; you'd just be observing the 1978 debut of Garfield, the widely syndicated comic about a lazy cat, and the only comic I know that's infinitely funnier without its title character.  Or, if you just feel like not speaking all day, that's fine, too.  Do it because Paul Dano did it because of Friedrich Nietzsche... Far out.  (And because Paul turns 28 today... Someone get that man a milkshake! Though he might prefer something "a la modie.")

That one's on the house.