Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (August 22, 2008)

I only want to defend one CGI movie that was omitted from the slaughterhouse of bloodied titles listed and that is Meet The Robinsons.

First, i'll admit outright that there were huge holes in the plot and many of the characters were utter bores. The one exception was the character "Bowler Hat Guy." While the character was labeled a villain and did indeed have his choice moments of badness, he was ultimately redeemed later when his past was revealed and he was left unsure of his future once his plans fell apart. Making him an inept, misunderstood outsider certainly gave the audience reason to sympathize with him.

Bowler also had all the best lines of dialogue and was, hands down, the most engaging character to watch and that must merit some recognition since he had to compete with Laurie Metcalf and Angela Bassett in the movie.

For my money, while Little Mermaid is a stellar 10 star movie, the best animated musical has to be the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The score is simply a masterpiece of music and lyric. Though the film suffers from yet another hammy character voiced by Jason Alexander the part is counterbalanced effectively by Mary Wickes. The out-of-the-blue homage to the Wicked Witch of the West near the finale is genius.

Since the turn of the century most of the animated features, while watchable, have not been oh-my-god-i-loved-that-movie worthy. I think it's the lack of Broadway style songs. Ironically, it seems that despite the success of Chicago, animated features have omitted the (sometimes) best part of their films.

I personally think that after 'finding nemo' most animated movies went downhill. WALL-E was actually pretty cute, but i am sick of the whole 'global warming' message in almost everything these days.

i don't see a movie so i can be politically informed. that part just irked me to no end. they could've left that out.

another thing....i am really sick of seeing these previews for movies like 'little mermaid 2', 'cinderella 3' and whatever! it's ridiculous. it's right up there with the remake thing hollywood seems to love so much. why can't people just let these movies alone without stupid sequels and remakes?

okay, well that was a fun rant. gotta get back to work. :-P

Emmylou is a goddess, and if Brett claims her as an influence I'm going to give his stuff a listen immediately. Victor Hugo was probably rolling in his grave when Disney's HUNCHBACK was released, but that was the last of the Disney films I really enjoyed. The music was amazing! The animation, stunning! I'm still dumbfounded that none of the songs were nominated for an Oscar when just a few years later they gave the award to TARZAN ("You'll be in my Heart") over Aimee Mann's "Save Me" (MAGNOLIA).

I think that there is a lot of truth to the idea that lionizing celebrity couples is a bad idea.   Because even when they're gay celebrity couples they're still celebrity couples!

But the double-standard thing is in full force here.  Mainstream America is kind of jaded about hetero celeb couples.  The love them, they adore them, they worship them...and they're not at all shocked when they have an ugly split seemingly without warning.  It's a spectator sport.

However, when a gay celeb couple splits up it's seen as "proof" that same-sex couples aren't as inherently "committed" as opposite-sex ones.

I still remember all the hype Bob Paris and Rod Jackson made around their "marriage" (I'm using paren's because it really wasn't legal back then), their love and their double-barrelled surname.  They split up not long after their book came out.  Or what about Reichen Chiselled-Cheeks and his "husband", who promoted themselves as a "married couple" on Amazing Race and then "divorced" almost immediately after?  Next stop: Dante's Cove!

So I'm pretty cynical about the whole mass-media marriage thing.

Did someone at Pixar kill a family member of yours? I loved The Incredibles and Ratatouille. I agree that Wall-E was a bit overrated but any of the animated movie you listed is better than 90% of what's out there in comparison to live-action movies. I will say I thought Happy Feet was stupid and Cars I just couldn't finish. But yea, the Little Mermaid was definitely the dawn of a new kind of animated film. (The Broadway show is a garish drag queen trainwreck you really have to see to believe) My all-time favorite is still Sleeping Beauty. Its just a work of art.

Sorry Brent, but while I agree with you that most animated movies have become utter travesties from the classic days brought on by the man Walt Disney and not the company, I have to disagree with a fair portion of your blast burn.

Commence rant.

Lion King wasn't exactly my favourite movie either, but the movie (and the other movies mentioned with it) was not so much about being born unlike the rest of 99.99999% of the population. It was about standing up to one's responsibilities (labelled "destiny" for a grandiose effect) in the face of adversity and challenge. Simba, Harry Potter, and Luke Skywalker ALL had their demons and their challenges, the latter 2 in particular having to overcome the allure of power and hate. And I think that's what makes these movies relate-able. No, you may not be the King of the African plains or the chosen one destined to bring balance to the Force, but you still need 'smarts, grit, and sheer pluck' to overcome obstacles, regardless of your titles, talents, and powers.

The Emperor's New Groove was a very children-oriented movie trying to combat the increasing selfishness of privileged children. Was it a good movie? I don't think so in particular, but it was hilarious at parts and that's probably to keep the attention span of 7-year olds from wandering off.

I thought Ice Age was a great animated movie. You had the distant, solitary mammoth who cared not for the problems or others, a retard sloth for comic relief, and the bad guy deceiving the lot of them. The sloth was for entertainment purposes only, but the mammoth and the tiger were depicted with certain negative attributes and both of them were changed by their experiences and the events of the movie. I'm sure for those out there who relate to those kinds of mentality (adults I mean) that it provoked some thoughts. Why do I act this way? Am I choosing to be alone and what good is it doing me?

I never saw or don't remember A Bug's Life, Atlantis, The Road to El Dorado, Polar Express, Flushed Away, Over the Edge, and Happy Feet... so I can't really say anything in defence of those ones. And they did look really bad hahaha.

Now here's where I was mildly offended. "The Incredibles was a bloated, never-ending mess." I could not disagree more. It was a fantastic animated movie, one of the best of it's kind: it was well written, well animated, held its thematic values, and above all it entertaining, something fun to watch. As for the outsiders bit, the only characters who felt alone were the children -- because they were born in the age AFTER the ban on superheroes. The adults in the movie had already lived their glory days. Granted they may not have felt the same profound loneliness you described because their powers were very positively spun (contrast that to a power like Rogue's from X-Men), but I do believe they really did feel alone, particularly Violet. Furthermore, I'd like to point out that these movies are very mainstream, and not everyone out there will understand what it feels like to be gay and totally isolated like you're the only person who exists. They make these movies with an audience in mind, children and families, and I don't think a movie need necessarily speak out to the gay community to make it worthwhile watching or save it from being a "bloated, never-ending mess". Oh and I never saw Ratatouille, so no comment there.

End rant.

To finish off, I'd also like to shout out a congrats to CANADIAN (w00t) Alexandre Despatie on his silver medal in men's 3m springboard after recovering from a broken foot and bad things happening to him one after another leading up to the Gay-mes. And yes, he is a total hottie.

In other news; It's probably just me, but I haven't watched animated or cartoon movies since I was FORCED to watch the Lion King when I was about 10. There's just something in me that equates Animated Movies with juvenile behavior, and that totally throws me off them. Sort of like drinking from a glass with a straw. That's just childish and the only think I ever use a straw for is a milkshake. But again, I think that's just me.

As far as Skins, I'm LOVING that show, and I've only seen the first two episodes. This group of friends reminds me of a much nicer group of friends compared to what I've seen of my sister's circle, and what I remember of my own from high school. I think it hits dead on with how teenagers interact and treat each other. 

I saw the first episode was on and set the DVR to record it, then realized the second episode debuted following the first and I ended up staying up much, much too late simply glued to the television.  Of course, I think someone could read the phone book in an english/scottish accent and I would be completely enamored. 

Cloris Leachman was amazing, and Norm McDonald showed exactly why he can't get work.  That was some of the most hilarious television I had seen in quite a while.

I'm going to have to watch Swingtown sometime.  It'll probably be online.

And, finally, after my daily reading of Towleroad, Kenneth in the 212, and AfterElton, I have determined I am the only gay man in existence that will be voting for John McCain.  (and here comes the torch and pitchfork bearing mob)

Okay, that's it for me. :) 

Monsters, Inc. was my first Pixar experience and I LOVE it so much!!Finding Nemo is also 1 of my favourite.

WallE will be on next sunday in Aussie(Finally!)and I`m definitely gonna be the first in line!I`m also happy that they gonna donate all the money they will make in this special screening to charity.

I would argue the villain in The Incredibles was trying to destroy diversity by making everyone the same. People are "special" in many ways. This has nothing to do with race. Clearly there are people who ARE better than everyone else. Micheal Phelps is better than everyone else at swimming. Should he wear weights on his legs to make it more fair to the other swimmers? The people at Pixar are very liberal. (Wall-E is practically a love letter to Al Gore). Republicans are well versed at twisting and distorting them to justify their point of view. I would never put any stock into their interpretation of anything.                                                                       

"However, when a gay celeb couple splits up it's seen as "proof" that same-sex couples aren't as inherently "committed" as opposite-sex ones. " By who?

I absolutely loved WALL-E. Not all animated movies need to follow the now cliched template of the plucky outsider. To me, this movie was about redemption. The human beings in the movie were obviously the meant to represent us in a nightmare-scenario future. (One that many of us fear may come to pass). It starts out very bleak, with earth inhabitable to humans, and only our own creations remain. Then, our creations, WALL-E and EVE find hope for humankind, in the form of a plant. They bring that bit of "hope" to the humans, who we first meet and write off immediately. But ultimately, despite centuries of sloth and apathy and greed the human beings (with WALL-E's help) triumph and get one last chance to redeem themselves. And like you said, Brent, Earth is now a hell-hole. There's no easy fixes, no tacked-on happy ending. We're starting all over from scratch again. And maybe this time we'll do it right. This isn't a movie for gays, minorities, or other outsiders.   This one's for every single one of us.  Beautiful movie. Beautiful message.

When I really looked at The Incredibles I could see an elitist slant.  The idea behind the backstory is that the Incredible family are special because they're born special.  They're superhumans.  They're specialness isn't something that they worked for (just like Michael Phelps didn't just dive into a pool and start breaking records) but rather simply a question having the right lineage.

The villain wanted to be hero but Mr Incredible was dismissive because the boy didn't have any innate super powers.  He was just an ordinary kid dreaming above his born station in life.  Having exceeded his limitations through artifice he now spitefully seeks to rob his betters of their specialness.

The moral being: you should only be able to fly if you were born with the ability to fly.

On the gay same-sex couple split issue.  If you follow conservative media (and there's lots of it) they absolutely crow whenever a visible gay couple splits up.  Especially if one of the "gays" subsequently "recants" their homosexuality (Heche, Cipher). 

This is the same as the child molestation phenomenon.  Whenever someone molests a child of their own gender anti-gay folks tend to point and claim it as proof that gays are "predators" and thus a threat to children and society.  But when someone molests a child of the opposite-sex (a far more common occurence) it's not seen as a sign of anything wrong with heterosexuals as a group, just an individual thing.

I did see and loved WALL-E.  I thought that the message was avery positive one (most conservatives hated it), that obsessive consumerism dehumanizes us and eventually leads to bad things.  The idea in the movie was that there are more important things than having the latest trinket or following the latest trend. It was overall very positive.