Aladdin Stained

I don't really know why people are so down on Will Smith's genie. He'll be fine.

Actually, what he'll be is Will Smith. Blue skin, which would look like that on anyone, won't change anyone's opinions of him. Personally, I tend to enjoy his antics, and he did a pretty good job of breaking out of my head casting of Jeffrey Dean Morgan for Deadshot. He's not a perfect fit for everything, but at the very least, his roles don't suffer by comparisons to other actors. He'll never fall into anyone's shadow because he's at the level where he doesn't even live under the same sun that creates other people's shadows in the first place. He's like Robin Williams in the fact that he has his own orbit, which is important when you're replacing such a prestigious dude. In light of the fact that the new "Lion King" guys brought back James Earl Jones to record his lines again because they didn't think that a replacement for that iconic voice would be accepted , I'm inclined to think Robin Williams's death was the only thing that prevented his inclusion in the "Aladdin" remake from being discussed. With his absence from the world, getting a star who's ebulliently charming in a unique way that's not comparable to Robin seems like the best call.

I'm probably not going to see "The Lion King" because it replaces the original's heightened cartoonish aesthetic with a level of realism I don't personally care for, but it'll be fine. But I am actually feeling some excitement for "Aladdin".

Bonus Question!

Best blue humanoid?

Nightcrawler.

Cards for Days

I started watching "Yu-Gi-Oh", partially inspired by a friend's passionate remembrance of it. Shortly before that, I finally got around to watching "Fullmetal Alchemist", which surprised me with a very young voice for the character Alphonse. I'd just never thought about that in the years wherein that franchise just existed on my periphery. What surprised me in "Yu-Gi-Oh" was the way in which a Japanese teenager sounded like a stereotypical New York dude in his 30s.

The other thing that surprised me even if it shouldn't have was the focus on the actual gaming. Like . . . I've watched the Pokemon cartoon. I currently do. It's about a kid who engages in Pokemon battles, but those battles don't generally take up the Solgaleo's share of the show. But I'm on the second season of "Yu-Gi-Oh" now, and I'm mildly bemused by the amount of time that an average episode spends on a card game or whatever. And those often stretch across multiple episodes. I thought that there'd be  more about the plot and the ancient mythological stuff by this point? There's a lot, and it's great. But like . . . This is reminiscent of the old "Dragon Ball Z" anime that filled time with egregiously lengthened fight scenes. Maybe more? But whatever. It's a fun show, and it's exquisitely stylish.

Bonus Question!

Yugi hair versus Goku hair!

Personally, I go for Yugi here. Less horizontal deviation and more colour. That's to my taste.

Banging and Bumping

Of the traditional Christmas songs, the one that's always stood out to me is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". This could be due in large part to a holiday episode of some random stop-motion series from the early 90s called "Bump in the Night". Or something. Anyway, the protagonists had to go to Santa's lair for some mission. Maybe Santa was a robot? He was definitely antagonistic, and he had a snowman army that sang that song like an army chant without actually changing it that much. It just worked, and it's been stuck in my head like that since. So yeah. "God Rest" has got to be my number 1 seasonal banger.

Bonus Question!

Merriest gentleman?

Psy.

Princess Power

Are people actually down on the new She-Ra show? That's tricky to fathom. Because everyone seemed quite united in praise for the Netflix Voltron thing, and this is basically that. But not in space! With perhaps a soupcon of "Steven Universe". Which again. Almost universally beloved. Even if it did need a second look from me.

But yeah. I never watched any other incarnation of She-Ra, but this was delightful. Of the secondary characters, my favourites were probably Seahawk, who was basically pirate Han Solo, and Mermista, who was basically the same character her voice actor played on "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" with additional mermaid powers.

I know that the show had a lot to say about friendship, loyalty, honour, and all of that stuf, but I also appreciated Adora's struggle to accept herself when she felt that people only wanted to be around her alter ego. She-Ra's a part of her, but it's not all of her identity, and she had to learn how to feel like enough outside of that. It felt like a good look at that wavery line between role and performer.

And also the whole thing was just really cute.

Bonus Question!

She-Ra versus Mumm-Ra! On "WWE Raw"! Ra! Ra! Raw!

She-Ra's riding high right now, but there's also the fact that she's a total face to Mumm's heel. She's got to take the bout.

Feeling The Beets

I've been watching "Doug" for the last bunch of weeks. I never really watched it in childhood, but it's basically my current  breakfast cartoon. From the start, I was liking the music of the fictional band that plays a side role in the show. I can get quite fixated on fictional music. It really does tend to be pretty good. As I'm writing this, I'm wondering if it's in part because the writers generally only have to make a few songs instead of composing albums at a time? Easier to be consistent in low amounts? And there's also there's also the idea that the songs can  often be distillations of a style instead of examples of it. Devo even said that Weird Al's "Dare to be Stupid" was the best Devo song, and I adored that tune before I'd even heard of Devo. That's not exactly the same thing, but it does do a bit to reinforce my thinking here.

Anyway, the band in "Doug" is The Beets, and they basically seem like what The Beatles would be if they were of the early 90s instead of the 60s. I was vaguely aware of some music videos that had been produced for some of their songs, but I didn't even look for their music on iTunes. I didn't want to be disappointed again by being unable to find the ability to easily add obscure musical ephemera to my library. But something prompted me to search for them on there for the first time yesterday. For their main song at least. And I found it! And others! And now my phone's singing them along to what my mind probably would have sung anyway.

Good stuff.

Also. Does the cast remind anyone else of the Archie gang? Doug's the leading everyman, Skeeter's the eccentric best friend with the weird name like Jughead, and Roger's the annoying Reggie analogue with his dark jacket bully style. He even has a similar name, and he came into a similar level of wealth too.

Mr. Bone and Weatherbee would probably get along fairly well too, though their similarities end with their managerial methods.

Bonus Question!

Best fictional song?

Many good ones! But I've really been listening to a lot of Austin Powers's BBC song in recent months.

Warping Back to Thornberry Time

I've been watching "The Wild Thornberrys" recently, which was one of the classic Nickelodeon shows I didn't see when it was current. It's about this eccentric nature documentarian voiced by Tim Curry and his family, including an adopted feral child and a daughter who can talk to animals. Her pet is a monkey named Darwin, who's an effete English gentleman by nature. I watched 30 episodes before I realised that the rest of the family doesn't know that the girl, Eliza, can talk to animals. On some level, I also thought that Darwin was the one animal everyone understood for some reason. But no. Completely wrong. This whole deal was only revealed to me because of an episode in which Eliza's sister almost discovers her secret. But hey. Things could change. Maybe the movie'll shake things up. I'll find out. But now I'm prepared.

Bonus Question!

What kind of berries does Chaucer like to eat?

Canter!