(Click here to download this week’s podcast episode)
Hey conspirers! This week on the podcast, we talk Cinderella, the latest Disney fairy tale movie to grace the big screen. Critics have been pretty kind to the film, but does it stand out amidst the ranks of Red Riding Hood, Jack the Giant Slayer, Snow White and the Huntsman, Alice and Wonderland, last year’s Maleficent…OK, maybe the competition isn’t so stiff.
On TWIL (this week I learned), we share some of our favorite YouTube channels for mocking our favorite movies, as well as the recent news on Popeye. Stick around for the Netflix Recommendation of the Week, as well as new Movie Releases for this coming weekend.
Our Song of the Week is “Our Own House” by Misterwives (yes, they do a song besides “Reflections” and I argue it’s better).
Enjoy the show, and don’t forget to rate and subscribe us on iTunes if you haven’t already! We always appreciate your feedback.
Question of the Week: What is your favorite live-action fairy tale movie?
Cool Things We Mentioned:
The “Honest Trailer” for Cinderella
Courageous review and point-scoring. Even as a kid I’d find fault in John Wayne movies and wondered why producers let them through. They do detract from a good yarn and you feel a little cheated.Disney knows there’s a huge kids’ market out there and little tackers like my grandkids just like the whizzing about, mouse-talk, sinister characters and never-ending circus-like atmosphere. Anything entitled ‘Cinderella’ sells, so producers overlook fundamentals as continuity and story-line. Besides, with Disney everything has to have a happy ending.Simply couldn’t have Cinders balling her eyes out in the setting sun with a bump in her belly as the dastardly prince rides off into the sunset with another notch on his pistol, could we? When they grow up, kids will say, ‘how in the hell did we watch that’? Liked your honest review. Even so, Disney is in good hands and do good stuff. I guess anything faultless, just doesn’t sell.
Well put. If a popcorn movie like Cinderella can pay the bills for riskier films we know Disney has it in themselves to do, I’m not complaining.
Go for it. Online reviewers don’t have to compromise their integrity as promoted network personalities do. I’d like to think that producers might just be quietly influenced by the JN’s of the web.
Funny you mention that. The more popular I get, the more opportunities I receive to visit studios and see exclusive content before other people. And I always feel this weird obligation to automatically like whatever it is I’m sampling. That kind of bias is extremely harmful, but also extremely hard to resist. I don’t blame mainstream journalists for giving in to the temptation once in a while. Even the good ones fall prey.
Well you don’t have to be totally iconoclastic, but as the western movie-going hemisphere nears total PC, entertainment might lose its credibility as producers pitch towards non-offence. Compare some of the old with the new, eg ‘faggot’ in The Boston Strangler, and the C-word in “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’. This is honesty in art, high emotion and punctuates the movies as credible representation of human dramatic reaction. No offence is intended. Just a main character making way in a scary, threatening world.I think your take on Cinderella is most important and all parents should read your crit. If they did I’m sure as me, a discerning grandparent, I wouldn’t bother bringing it home. They should rename that cat “Prissy”, after the ambience of the movie. Hope you don’t have to watch the throat-cut scenes when invited to studios.
This is very exciting; can not wait to see it!
I love your site! Great to see such a creative and fun blog- I can’t help but visit you most days :p
James, llamapost.com
This movie is so great! It’s so refreshing to see a female character be strong and progressive without physically fighting. It’s also nice that Disney gave “Prince Charming” a name and a personality, and they also gave Lady Tremaine a back story and made her much more believable and understandable, yet not justifiable. And don’t even get me STARTED on the ball scene! The dress, the chemistry between Ella and Kit, the music… pure perfection! This movie is a perfect masterpiece with a great message, progressive themes, great acting, great characters, spectacular music, and phenomenal costume designs. And Ella is a great role model for young girls to look up to. I feel so sorry for all the (stupid) people who write this movie off as bad, backwards, regressive or anti-feminist simply because Ella doesn’t fit their definition of a “strong female character.” She is the best kind of “strong female character”: the kind that doesn’t stoop down to her abusers level by hitting them back or insulting them back, but instead turns the other cheek and remains kind and optimistic even when she’s going through hell. That’s REAL strength and courage!
Anyway, yes, this is the best live-action fairytale movie ever made. Kudos to Disney for making a great classic story even greater!