I'm a slayer, ask me how.

Oh a random whim (because it somehow came up in conversation last night and I don't remember how) I decided to watch Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Yes, it was a problematic adaptation and a strange story for Disney to turn into an animated feature, but I have always loved it. The hand-drawn animation is still gorgeous. But it is the soundtrack that somehow manages to both lift me up and break my heart at the same time.

From the opening song, where Clopin, the head of the gypsies, gives us Quasimodo's backstory, I get goosebumps and my chest tightens. When the choir goes from a quiet moan to almost a screech while Frollo dangles the baby over the well, I can't breath and I get tears in my eyes. The raw EMOTION of that music is just something you never heard before and I don't think we have heard again in a Disney movie.



And then Quasimodo's "wanting" song, a key moment in every Disney movie, Tom Hulce's voice sounds so fragile as Quasi carefully runs around the top of the cathedral, looking down at Paris, dreaming and wishing...



Of course, there is the beautiful centerpiece that is Esmerelda's God Help the Outcasts which is just underrated and it is a crime. First, the animation as she walks through Notre Dame is just stunning. The sequence with the candles and, of course, that final moment in the window's reflection on the ground.

But it is the lyrics. I can't even imagine this movie coming out today, I wonder if people were upset with the religious elements. I mean, it's not attacking religion, but the privileged people that pray for their privilege to increase rather than helping others.



The lyric "I ask for love...I can posses" hits it all home - not just love or to love or be loved, but to turn love into a THING that can be OWNED.

Speaking of lyrics and imagery, I can't NOT mention Hellfire, another song that I doubt would ever appear in a Disney movie today, with Frollo lusting after Esmerelda, claiming she is sent by the devil, vowing to burn her alive. Yeah, wow, Disney makes KIDS movies, right?



And it's downright FREAKY! Her outline dancing in the flames, the way he caresses the scarf, the Judges appearing around him chanting "Mea Culpa" and that final scene as the flames envelope him and swirl back into the fireplace. IT IS BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIFYING.

This really was a Broadway production that just happened to get turned into a Disney movie. Searching for the videos, I found several clips from a production that exists now, but when the movie came out, I remember thinking it was the least expensive way to see a Broadway show. The musical production values, the themes, the mature story hiding underneath the Gargoyle's goofball humor.

A part of me wishes that Disney would see this niche of making Broadway cartoons and return to it. 1997's Hercules had a fun gospel/pop song style. Mulan felt more like a musical but after that we go into the Tarzan era of pop stars hired to write pop music. Again, I like Phil Collins (I have two ears and a heart, don't I?) but "Strangers Like Me" is not "Heaven's Light". I enjoyed the music from Frozen, but compared to this, it feels watered down. (I haven't seen Frozen 2 yet, but I'm doubting there are any moments Hellfire dark in there).

Anyway, that was me rambling about a twenty year old cartoon. If you have Disney+, give it a watch, it's only 90 minutes and it flies by. (Kevin Kline as Phoebus is an extra bonus for me since I've had a soft spot for him because of Pirates of Penzance...but that's another musical story).

This is bad...I want them all now. She is so freakin' cute. I CAN'T EVEN!

I worked today so this was the highlight of the day when she arrived. Little mini gift to myself. And a package came from Amazon with some of Tim's presents in it. FedEx says they have a package out for delivery right now...but as it is almost 10pm I'm guessing it won't be delivered until tomorrow!

It was 25 degrees this morning when I was leaving for work. Had to scrape a thin layer of ice off the car. Winter is coming...but damn, we did not get a full Fall at all. We have 12 days until the official change over Mother Nature! Give us a break!

We got our tree yesterday, it's downstairs right now NEKKID. I think tomorrow I will have some eggnog (with a shot of Southern Comfort) and decorate. Try to get into that holiday mood. Christmas feels both far away and right around the corner! We get Christmas Eve off this year so that means a nice longish weekend (well, I work that Saturday, which will be DEAD I am sure).

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! Had to wake up early on Friday to take the car in for service so I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and not waking up with an alarm clock (just an alarm kitty...)

Internet: Disney is rebooting Ducktales

Me: Huh...ok...why should I care?

Internet:


Me: OMG I CANNOT WAIT TO WATCH THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WTF Disney. W.T.F. Who picked the lithographs out for the Frozen pre-order? Because they are LAAAAAME!

See for yourself!

A movie that is all about TWO SISTERS and is there a decent lithograph of the two of them together? NOOOOOOOOPE.

What were they thinking? IDEK.

Pretty much all of the comments are other collector's complaining about this issue.

So much for that pre-order. And I was really hoping to add a gorgeous picture of Elsa and/or Anna to my collection but I guess I'll save me $10 gift card for the next classic Disney blu-ray release.

I repeat - LAAAAAME!

Just redid my livejournal layout this weekend - check out the cuteness orangerful.

I really was having a hard time choosing a single fandom to go with, but then duncatra posted her new layout and the template made by grrliz was so easy to customize I decided to just go with the easiest thing (Tangled) and worry about doing more advanced graphics later. Maybe I'll try to change my blog look every few months to keep practicing my graphics editing.

This inspired me to start playing with orangerful.com again. I found some free website templates online so I spent a good chunk of tonight messing with the HTML and trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. But I'm already off to a good start! Might even get bear-bones version up and running by tomorrow. I love Kristen Bell, but she's been the "star" of my website for 3 years now. Time to update!

Okay, getting to bed!!!! Got so caught up in coding I didn't realize it was quite so late. :)

I thought this was going to be old-school animated, but I guess they went with CG. Still looks very cute. I'd see it.

Originally posted on orangerful.vox.com

So, Princesses are all the rage right now, and Disney is not missing this opportunity to drag our favorite girls from their movie stories and plug them into nice little straight-to-DVD packages. At the library today I saw "Disney Princesses: Enchanted Tea Party" and it made me wonder - would these women get along together?

Let's look at the invitation list:

Ariel is young. She just feels that way. I think she's probably about 16. Born and raised a princess (and a fish) she's a sweetheart but not the brightest bulb in the world. Very curious though. And she's still figuring out the whole human world. Hang on to your dinglehoppers!

In the prologue to 'Beauty and the Beast', the narrator mentions that be Beast has until his 21st year to have the curse break, so we can assume he's 21, so Belle is most likely 19 or 20. She's a book worm, very intelligent, and not born a princess. I have this image of her being terribly bored with the silliness of a tea party. She'd probably have a book in her lap so she could catch up on her favorite stories while Ariel prattled on about some shiny rock she saw once.

Princess Jasmine is a bit feisty but also on the young side. Again, I'm guessing in the 16-18 range. I think her and Belle would be able to chat amicably. Belle would probably bring up some of the things she's read about Jasmine's part of the world. Jasmine would talk about the time she almost got her hand chopped off for stealing.

Pocahontas comes across as a much older than the rest of them, I'm guessing like 24. She's a princess but not in the magic castle kind of way. She's just the daughter of the chief. She likes to talk to trees. She would bring corn, because she's an adult and knows you can't attend a party without bringing food.

Cinderella, in my mind, is older because the movie is older! But she's probably around the same age as Belle. Her and Belle would probably get along since both of them were not raised as princesses but married to "charmings" so at least they will have something to talk about!

Snow White and Ariel would probably enjoy each other's company. They have odd best friends (crabs, dwarves) Cinderella and her could discuss wicked stepmothers.

Princess Aurora wasn't really raised as a Princess, but she didn't exactly have a normal childhood either, what with 3 faeries acting as surrogate parents. Her and Snow White could chat about their narcolepsy issues.

Mulan was not raised as a Princess either. She's very clever and smart and occasionally likes to dress as a man. She's a bit more physical than the rest of the ladies. Her and Pocahontas might be able to chat because both of them spent a lot of time outside. Though Mulan comes across as a bit younger than Pocahontas (especially since she was able to pull off the boy disguise), probably around 16 like Ariel. Though she is way smarter than Ariel. (Look, I love the little red head, she's very goal oriented, but she was raised by fish).

I'm not sure if any of the anthropomorphic princesses were invited - Nala, Feline, Maid Marian...that would be awkward.