Bee-Lo and Stitch?

Though I was familiar enough with the franchise in general and the television show in specific, I’d never seen the original “Lilo and Stitch” movie. But it’s one of my girlfriend’s favourites, and we finally watched it together.

Here’s what I’ll say. That scene at the beginning where the alien winds up at the dog pound and gets claimed against the manager’s protestations by the protagonist? In my mind, that’s what inspired the beginning of the first Michael Bay Transformers film. Just with a car alien instead of a dog alien. Stitch and Bumblebee even have somewhat similar habits of intermittent unintelligibility.

Bonus Question!

Best bee?

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.

Flyndral

So. Pretty excited for "Shazam".

Before this, I was aware of Zach Levi's history in the Thor movies with the character of Fandral. I didn't realise that he was also Flynn in the Tangled franchise. Still doing it in the ongoing series and Kingdom Hearts even. Which means that he's played two fantastical characters inspired by Errol Flynn? That speaks well of the dude to my mind. Now I want to see his Shaz even more.

Bonus Question!

"Tangled" versus "Frozen"?

Both are good, but I was more receptive to "Tangled" at the time. Flynn was probably a big part of that. But I think Elsa's become my favourite princess since. We'll see how I feel when the sequel arrives. Also, hey! Disney cartoon  with a theatrical sequel! Yay!

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.