Christmas: Are they shoving it down our throats too early?

[fuzzygobo]

Lol @ Julia Louis-Dreyfus doing Christmas commercials when she's Jewish; then again, Barbra Streisand's got that over-caffinated rendition of "Jingle Bells."

Kathie Me Gifford has a whole Christmas album, and she's threatening to make a sequel.
Even worse, she's "hard at work" on a stage version of "It's A wonderful Life", and she's writing songs for it.

 

[D'Snowth]

Even worse, she's "hard at work" on a stage version of "It's A wonderful Life", and she's writing songs for it.

Spike Lee was supposedly working on a revival of the WW2 play-turned-movie STALAG 17, not sure if that ever came to be or not.

 

[D'Snowth]

Getting back on the subject of HOME ALONE, I have the Family Fun Edition on DVD (I wish they did one for number two and three as well), and there's a lot of mention in the special features, such as the commentary with Chris Columbus and some of the behind-the-scenes featurettes that the movie was meant to feel timeless, even 15 (and now almost 25) years later... but the unfortunate thing is that the movie is pretty much dated now, and all because of one thing: cellphones.

There's a huge discussion about it on TV Tropes, but the truth of the matter is, had cellphones been a common device with people in 1990 as they are today, this movie wouldn't exist.

 

[mr3urious]

Getting back on the subject of HOME ALONE, I have the Family Fun Edition on DVD (I wish they did one for number two and three as well), and there's a lot of mention in the special features, such as the commentary with Chris Columbus and some of the behind-the-scenes featurettes that the movie was meant to feel timeless, even 15 (and now almost 25) years later... but the unfortunate thing is that the movie is pretty much dated now, and all because of one thing: cellphones.

There's a huge discussion about it on TV Tropes, but the truth of the matter is, had cellphones been a common device with people in 1990 as they are today, this movie wouldn't exist.

The 5th movie had cell phones, and they still used the old cliché of the kid's phone going dead at the most inopportune time.

Also, you can never make something truly timeless no matter how hard you try. It's an unfortunate side effect of the creative business.

 

[D'Snowth]

The 5th movie had cell phones

Ugh. I tried giving #5 a chance, if only because it took the approach that #3 did by bringing in a different cast of characters, but gah, the acting was so bad from everybody (the kids and the adults), I had to change the channel after just three minutes.

 

[D'Snowth]

I thought FRED CLAUS looked like a stupid movie to begin with, but danged if that movie didn't steal its entire score from MOUSEHUNT, and I mean its entire score.

 

[Drtooth]

The 5th movie had cell phones, and they still used the old cliché of the kid's phone going dead at the most inopportune time.

Writing around technology is difficult. Cell phones have pretty much rendered something like Rocky Horror Picture Show (itself borrowing and parodying cliches) impossible unless there's no bars or they didn't charge them or something. They had to go to great lengths to even get the iconic shoe phone in the Get Smart film. Spy based media is hurt the hardest. Phones do everything that spy gizmos can, and that ruins parody.

 

[mr3urious]

Writing around technology is difficult. Cell phones have pretty much rendered something like Rocky Horror Picture Show (itself borrowing and parodying cliches) impossible unless there's no bars or they didn't charge them or something. They had to go to great lengths to even get the iconic shoe phone in the Get Smart film. Spy based media is hurt the hardest. Phones do everything that spy gizmos can, and that ruins parody.

I like how the Phineas & Ferb special "Night of the Living Pharmacists" hung a lampshade on the whole "dead cell phone" trope by tempting fate in saying how the electricity, water, and phone lines are still working after the Doofenshmirtz clones attack... only for all of them to immediately shut down.

 

[Drtooth]

You know, I read This Cracked Article and while I'd love to jump on the "he's tearing down popular things to sound like the smartest guy in the room" bandwagon, I can't help but think that he made a couple good points.

But not about Stop motion animation. That stuff is awesome, especially if Aardman or Laikia is involved.

Santa in Rudolph is a complete d-bag. And I have to admit, some of that is tongue in cheek, especially how he gets really annoyed with the elves and their singing. While I get that the whole point of the Rudolph story is that he was supposed to be an outcast, the fact that Santa is as bad or frankly worse than the other reindeer and then comes begging to Rudolph for help when he needs it is kind of a bummer message for a heartwarming Christmas special.

But I really agree with most of what he said about the Charlie Brown special. The entire message of that cartoon is a condemnation of the commercialization of Christmas... yet... when you look at Christmas themed merchandise, Snoopy and Chuck are the first things you'll see. They are so intertwined with Christmas that it does sound like a hypocritical note in retrospect. While a bold message that always needs repeating, the T-shirts, candy boxes, and wrapping paper unfortunately make it like they're talking out of both sides of their mouths.

 

[fuzzygobo]

I just noticed at the end of the Rudolph special, when the credits roll and we see Santa and the reindeer flying off in the sky, even with Rudolph, there are only SEVEN reindeer! Either someone at Rankin/Bass didn't know how to count, or figured kids 50 years ago (or today) wouldn't notice.