The Diamondbacks wrapped up a streaky, often exciting, more often exasperating season Wednesday night with a 2-1 loss to the Rockies. Last Friday The Wife, The Kid and I betook ourselves to Chase Field, where we had the pleasure of watching the Snakes defeat the Cubs—which meant that we were over five hundred on our Diamondbacks season: we saw them lose once and win twice. The Kid got to see two of her favorites, Cody Ransom and J.J. Putz, have a good night; a homer for the former, and a successful close for the latter, and The Wife got to see a favorite of hers, John McDonald, make the Cubs pay for an insulting intentional walk ahead of him.
Here’s The Kid, cunningly disguised as Kirk Gibson…
She and I also saw
Hotel Transylvania this past Sunday…
In this animated feature, which set a September box-office record last weekend, Dracula, voiced by Adam Sandler, presides over the title lodging, a palace so buried so deep in the region’s haunted forests that the familiar freaks—Kevin James as Frankenstein, Fran Drescher as his Bride, Steve Buscemi as the Werewolf, David Spade as the Invisible Man, Jon Lovitz as Quasimodo, Chris Parnell as the Fly—can go there and enjoy a nice vacation without worrying about persecution from pitchfork-wielding mobs of humans.
Drac really built the place, however, to keep his cute daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) safely insulated. But Mavis is 118 now, and eager to experience life, and when a human backpacker (Andy Samberg) wanders in, thinking the place is a hostel, he and Mavis connect.
The movie pays subtle tribute to the affectionate parody of iconic monsters popular in the ‘60s—there are hints, in the visual style, of Aurora’s “Monster Rods” models, of the art of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, of the Rankin-Bass feature
Mad Monster Party. But at heart, this sweet film is just the story of a single father trying to deal with a daughter growing up: Scarier than any monster.
Out on DVD this week is Disney’s 1950 version of
Cinderella. I hadn’t seen it in many years, but had an opportunity to this weekend. Not to my taste among the animated Disneys—the Mack David-Al Hoffman-Jerry Livingston songs, including “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” play pretty schmaltzy now—it nonetheless holds up well. Cindy seems to be the archetypical Suzy-Creamcheese Disney Princess, the one Amy Adams was parodying in
Enchanted, assisted by birds and mice as she sings her way through crushing housework. The Wicked Stepmother is an imposing villainess, a low-key version of the Queens in
Snow White and
Sleeping Beauty.
RIP to the wonderful Herbert Lom,
passed on last week at 95. Like many kids of my generation I first encountered him in the title role in Hammer’s 1962 version of
Phantom of the Opera...
…and it’s his version that comes to my mind first when the character is mentioned. But he’s probably best remembered as the increasingly maniacal Chief Inspector Dreyfus in the
Pink Panther films...
His many other credits include, to name only a few,
Spartacus, El Cid, Mysterious Island (as Captain Nemo), Asylum, And Now the Screaming Starts!, Hopscotch and The Dead Zone, as well as two turns as Napoleon Bonaparte, in
The Young Mr. Pitt (1942) and
War and Peace (1956). He also played the very nasty Witchfinder in the notorious German shocker
Hexen bis aufs Blut Gequalt, released in the U.S., with many barf-bags gimmicks, as
Mark of the Devil.
RIP also to R. B. Greaves, famous for “Take a Letter, Maria,”
passed on at 68.
Tim Burton’s
Frankenweenie opens tomorrow, so…
Monster-of-the-Week: …let’s give the nod to a supporting monster in that film, a gigantic, Gamera-esque turtle…
…who runs amok in the streets. What’s the rampaging reptile called? “Shelley.” In addition to being a good pun, the name could also be seen as a reference either to Mary Shelley, or to Shelley Duvall, who starred in Burton’s
original live-action short Frankenweenie. Or both. Not bad, that.
