Hunchback of Notre Dame Cast Recording

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Hunchback of Notre Dame Cast Recording Album picture image

Hunchback of Notre Dame Cast Recording Album

In 1999 there a German musical version of Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was always the desire of Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz that the production should come to the States. It wasn’t till 2013 when The King’s Academy did a production of it which was a collaboration with Disney. This paved the way for two profession versions to be performed as a pre-Broadway try-out at La Jolla Playhouse in last 2014 and at the Papermill Playhouse in early 2015. Ultimately the show did not go to Broadway and is being played around the Country at smaller Professional venues. However on January 22 there was a Studio Cast Album released. It has gotten some critical acclaim and was the number one for Cast Album sales, as well as 17 in album sales and made Billboard  200 at 47. So it has done well.

 

For the next couple of weeks, because that is how I do things, we’re going to look a few songs at a time. I’ll give my impressions, thoughts etc. And we’ll see if this  really is the critical darling of people’s dream or is just pale comparison to the German version. My guess is that is somewhere in the middle.

In the Company of Wolves Review; Symbolism!

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In the Company of Wolves

In the Company of Wolves

Right away I want to say, In the Company of Wolves is a weird dark movie even by 1980’s movie standards, which is saying a lot. It is a deeply symbolic movie with some really creepy and disturbing images.

It is based on Little Red Riding hood and was also based on a short story by Angela Carter from The Bloody Chamber anthology . The film came out in 1984 admits a lot of other werewolves movies. It was directed by Neil Jordan who was a writer/producer for Ondine

So how is this movie with all it’s weird creepiness?

Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen and Micha Bergese as Huntsman In the Company of Wolves

Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen and Micha Bergese as Huntsman

The plot is very untraditional for most movies. The movie’s approach to the narrative is to have stories with story or what the director called “a Chinese Box Structure.” So it’s starts with an adolescent girl, Rosaleen sleeping is her locked bedroom. In her room there are many, many creepy dolls. She dreams that her sister is killed by wolves in a dark yet beautiful forest. She then stays with her Granny who tells her stories about how men, adulthood and sex are all evil and are products of the devil. Rosaleen doesn’t like these stories. Her Granny give her the the soft red knitted cloak.

Rosaleen also has to deal wit the advances of a boy in her village that clearly wants her but she is not as interested in him. On her way to her Granny’s house, Rosaleen meets a charming huntsman. He makes a bet with her that he can make it to her Granny’s house using his compass while going off the path before she can get there using the the path. If she wins she gets the compass and if she loses she has to give him a kiss. He beats her there and kills her Granny by smashing her head off which turns to be porcelain. When Rosaleen arrives at the house she isn’t deceived by the huntsman being a wolf and she tries to shots him. This causes him to scream in pain. This causes Rosaleen to empathize with the wolves and she comforts him with her own story. In the end Rosaleen turns into a wolf and runs off with the pact.

Rosaleen then wakes up from her dream to find wolves breaking in and she screams in terror.

Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen with the wolf In the Company of Wolves

Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen with the wolf

Generally speaking with movie is weird, much weirder than my attempt at a summery makes it out to be. But to make this movie’s symbolism and theme simple, this movie is about how adulthood and sex are not evil or bad and one must let go of childhood. So often in traditional fairy tales, men and sex are pegged as evil or just dangerous but as Rosaleen’s mother said women can be beast too. In the end Rosaleen can’t return to her childhood or the village because she is something dangerous and has to live in the forest or adulthood.

Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen and Angela Lansbury as Granny In the Company of Wolves

Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen and Angela Lansbury as Granny

The characters in this movies are mute point. They don’t matter that much in terms being deep or complex. Rosaleen is the only one with a character arc as she learns that the dangerous wolves or men have feelings and emotions and becomes an adult. Rosaleen’s granny is interesting as she herself is actually a doll in Rosaleen room. She is innocent yet sinister but all her stories and advice are hollow like her head. The huntsmsn is intriguing too, charming yet devious but he does seems to like Rosaleen more than just as a snack.

Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen in the forest In the Company of Wolves

Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen in the forest

The we have the technicals which give this movie all its weird, creepy and unsettling imagery. Most of the disturbing parts deal with the transformation of men to wolves. One guy literally tears his face off. It’s effective especially given the nightmare/dream concept. There are of crazy visuals, like Rosaleen’s dolls which I thought would give me nightmare. But nothing is bad, everything gives with movie a sense style and it a visual language. It’s a good example of a movie showing and not telling as it communicates its point.

Though it unclear why Rosaleen screamed at the end. Speaking of Rosaleen the acting is okay. It feels like an 80’s style of acting.

Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen with a nest of eggs In the Company of Wolves

Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen with a nest of eggs

The Company of Wolves is a strange movie with lots of powerful symbolism. It’s not your standard coming of age story. I enjoyed it in an academic way. It’s not a movie I wouldn’t re-watch again and again but I would recommend you check it out if you want to watch something weird, very weird.

2016 Award Show Fashions

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Now that 2016 Award Season is over, let’s look at some gowns that are reminiscent of Esmeralda costumes, or something that an Esmeralda could wear. I’m 100% positive these gowns are in no way inspired by Esmeralda, it’s all coincidental.

Reese Witherspoon

Reese Witherspoon wearing Oscar de la Renta at 2016 Oscars Image Source: Getty / Steve Granitz picture

Reese Witherspoon wearing Oscar de la Renta at 2016 Oscars

This gown is an Oscar de la Renta wore by Reese Witherspoon at the 2016 Oscars. This gown has a lot of commonalities to Disney Esmeralda’s costume. First off, the color, it’s a lovely rich shade of purple. The silhouette is very similar to Esmeralda though longer.

The exposed corset details with the vertical boning is similar Esmeralda’s corset  especially with it being on the waist right below the bust.  The volume at the bust also invokes Esmeralda’s peasant blouse.

It being strapless also helps, as Disney Esmeralda had exposed shoulders.

Saoirse Ronon

Saoirse Ronon wearing a custom Calvin Klein at 2016 Oscars Image Source: Getty / Jason Merritt picture

Saoirse Ronon wearing a custom Calvin Klein at 2016 Oscars

This gown is a custom Calvin Klein that Saoirse Ronon wore at the 2016 Oscars. It is very reminiscent of Esmeralda costume in Notre Dame de Paris, in its color, deep v-neck and the abstract spiral pattern. This pattern which is created with sequins would be perfect for Esmeralda’s Notre Dame de Paris costume more than some those floral patterns they get for the costume.

Zendaya

Zendaya wearing Marchesa at 2016 Golden Globes Image Source: Getty / VALERIE MACON picture

Zendaya wearing Marchesa at 2016 Golden Globes

This gown was designed by  Marchesa and Zendaya wore it at the 2016 Golden Globes. I have made it clear I don’t care for Esmeralda wearing red but it is a go to color for her character so I can’t fight it. There is something about this gown that screams Esmeralda. It could be the tiers which is a very dancer type of silhouette which work for Esmeralda.

Zendaya in this gown looks very similar the the design of Esmeralda on the Notre Dame de Paris poster.  She might be a good candidate for Esmeralda actually if they ever did Notre Dame de Paris as movie or in States again or a general musical.

Jada Pinkett Smith 

Jada Pinkett Smith wearing Versace at 2016 Golden Globes VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images picture

Jada Pinkett Smith wearing Versace at 2016 Golden Globes

This gown was design by Versace and Jade Pinkett Smith wore it at the 2016 Golden Globes. This gown seems to be to like a merger of Esmeralda’s two Notre Dame de Paris costumes.  You have the color and slit of her first act costume with the cowl neckline and sleeve detail of her prisoner costume.

Rachel McAdams  & Sophie Tuner

Rachel Mcadams wearing an August Getty Atelier dress at 2016 Oscars Image Source: Getty / Jason Merritt picture

Rachel Mcadams wearing an August Getty Atelier dress at 2016 Oscars

Sophie Turner wearing Wearing custom Galvan at 2016 Oscars Image Source: Getty / Todd Williamson picture

Sophie Turner wearing Wearing custom Galvan at 2016 Oscars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two gowns aren’t ones I would compare to Esmeralda’s Notre Dame de Paris costume, though the colors are on par her fist act costume but I wanted to note the slits on these two gowns, it how the slit on the NDdP costume should work. Not the ugly curved thing they do.

 

Tori Kelly

Tori Kelly wearing Gauri and Nanika at 2016 Grammy Awards picture image

Tori Kelly wearing Gauri and Nanika at 2016 Grammy Awards

Also the Gauri and Nanika gown that Tori Kelly wore at the 2016 Grammy Awards was the perfect Esmeralda color. The gown itself is lovely though it is not really  that reminiscent of Esmeralda.

 

 

The Secret of the Hunchback Conclusion; It’s very Dumb

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Esmeralda with Pierre and masked Quasimodo The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Esmeralda with Pierre and masked Quasimodo

As I have said on the spectrum of Hunchback movies, The Secret of the Hunchback falls toward the bad side. It’s not the worst one but it’s far, far from the best.

What makes it not as bad as the Dingo version, which we’ll get to someday, or the Enchanted Tales version, which I try to forget about, is that this a Hunchback movie with  trite moral but it makes sense with the kid friendly subject matter. It’s also has way better animation than the Dingo version but that isn’t a lot.

The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Quasimodo in Angel form

Don’t get me wrong, The Secret of the Hunchback is dumb, very dumb. It has the stupidest conclusion in a Hunchback movie ever. Quasimodo is a actual angel in disguise with his hunch hiding his wings. That is so stupid that I can’t even process that fully, even now. It’s like something a child wrote thinking they are deep.

 

The Secret of the Hunchback  has stupid songs, bad animation and weird out place humor, which make it different from other cheap knock-off Disney versions but it’s still dumb.

Quasimodo is just being Quasi The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Quasimodo is just being Quasi

Next Version is going more off the cuff as it’s recent. Try and guess… it shouldn’t be hard.

The Promise Review; The Speedy Slave vs Birdman

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The Promise picture image review

The Promise

Do you ever watch a movie and you don’t know what to think? I actually shrugged in confusion after I finished watching The Promise. The Promise is the English title for 2005 epic Chinese called Wú Jí. It was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language film.

I should note that I watched this in  I guess the US version which is different from the original which is such BS but that is it.

Jang Dong-gun as Kunlun & Cecilia Cheung as Qingcheng The Promise picture image review

Jang Dong-gun as Kunlun & Cecilia Cheung as Qingcheng

Ok so the plot, such as it is, goes a little like this. There is a staving girl named Qingchen, who steals from the dead but a boy catching her and wants her to be his slave. She lies that she will but hits him and runs off. She then meets a Goddess who offers her beauty, riches and luxury but she she will never find everlasting love. She accepts this deal. The only way to break this fate is for Time to flow backwards, for Snow to fall in spring and for the dead to come back to life.

Flash-forward. General Guangming defeats a bunch of barbarians with slaves. One speedy slave catches his eye whose name is Kunlun. Kunlun loses his master in the battle so Guangming makes him his slave. Then King is in danger from an evil Duke names Wuhuan. As Guangming and Kunlun race to save the king they are attacked by some dude who wears a black feather cape, who is the Duke’s minion as well as super fast. Guangming gets injured so he has Kunlun puts on his armor to save the king. Guangming tells Kunlun that he will know the king because he will the only one unarmed.

However Kunlun kills the King has the king was armed and he mistake Qingcheng, king’s concubine as the King because she wasn’t armed. However Kunlun jumps off a waterfall and Qingcheng is taken by Wuhuan and put in a golden birdcage.

Kunlun survives and him and Guangming decide to save Qingcheng because apparently Guangming and Kunlun are both is love with her now, I guess. Qingcheng falls in love with Guangming by mistake because she think he was the one that saved her but it was Kunlun. So they live together for awhile despite Qingcheng’s fate of never having a lasting love.

Kunlun then learns from feather cape minion whose name is Snow Wolf, that he is from the Land of Snow. In the Land of Snow everyone can run SUPER fast but that didn’t help when Wuhuan came and killed everyone. Snow Wolf was scared of death so he opted to wear Wuhuan’s cape which keeps him alive.

Then Guangming gets captured by Wuhuan. He puts him on trail for killing the king but Kunlun confessed that he did it with Qingcheng saying that she had a hand it in. She then realizes that Kunlun saved her and not Guangming. Wuhuan sentences them all to death and tells Qingcheng her that  was the boy she tricked and it taught him not to trust anyone. There is a fight which ends with Guangming and Wuhuan killing each other and Kunlun fatally wounded. He puts on Snow Wolf’s cape (who took off in another scene and died) which grants him immortality which breaks Qingcheng’s fate.

I just want to point out that the Netflix summary makes this movie seem way different. It makes it seem that Qingcheng has a more active role with a character arc but nope.

Hiroyuki Sanada as General Guangming The Promise picture image review

Hiroyuki Sanada as General Guangming

This movie must of undergone several rewrites because I think there is an interesting story here with some interesting ideas but at some point it got lost. The plot is the most disjointed thing I have seen it a very long time. In a way it’s the opposite issue I have with some movie, the show don’t tell. This movie is all show to the point where there is no emotion despite emotions being necessary to the story. I don’t care about any of these people and when you  “I don’t care about a movie like this it means the love story is dumb and the fight scenes are tension-less dance numbers.

Nicholas Tse as Duke Wuhuan The Promise picture image review

Nicholas Tse as Duke Wuhuan

All the characters are bland. They have no personalities except Wuhuan who is just generically evil. I don’t understand his motivation for his coup, I found his mistrust of people comically simple. A little girl didn’t want to be his slave and stole the bread he stole from her? What? I get this movie opted for that Fairy Tale simplicity but that is an excuse for weak filmmaking.

Jang Dong-gun as Kunlun & Hiroyuki Sanada as General Guangming The Promise picture image review

Jang Dong-gun as Kunlun &
Hiroyuki Sanada as General Guangming

Speaking of the filmmaking, same of the technical work is great. This movie is all style and negative substance. The cinematography is lovely. The costumes are all very cool. And the fights/action part are mostly appealing. My favorite was the one with the bird screen, too bad there was no tension to give that fight any drama. It’s a very visually pleasing to look at, maybe as a silent movie it would have functioned better.

However the CG effects were not that great, they boarded on silly. That could be because this movie is eleven years old and a lot the effects just didn’t age well. That would be forgivable if that story and character were interesting.

Hiroyuki Sanada as General Guangming & Cecilia Cheung as Qingcheng The Promise picture image review

Hiroyuki Sanada as General Guangming & Cecilia Cheung as Qingcheng

On a technical level The Promise is pretty but the story and characters are so devoid of themselves that there is no emotional resonance.

Also how did the super fast Snow people get capture by Wuhuan in the first place? That seems like it shouldn’t have been possible.

Casting Conventions for Esmeralda

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In light of the way the 2016 Oscars acting award nominations went and with the general whitewashing of roles in mainstream big budget Hollywood movies, Esmeralda is an interesting role to discuss as her book self and her film presence are at weird odds.

Patsy Ruth Miller as Esmeralda Hunchback chaney version 1923 picture image

Patsy Ruth Miller as Esmeralda

In the book Esmeralda is presented as a Romani, and without getting it into too much, the Romani people are Ethnically different from the rest of Europe specifically France.  However Esmeralda’s backstory in the novel is that she was born Agnes to a French woman and raised by the Romani. This backstory is really only presented in two movies (three if you think the Dingo version count), those versions are the 1923 version and the 1999 Parody version albeit that version flips things around whereas she is born Esmeralda to Cubans and raised as Agnes by mean French people.

Lesley-Anne Down as Esmeralda, 1982 Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Lesley-Anne Down as Esmeralda, 1982 Hunchback of Notre Dame

Esmeralda in most movie versions of Hunchback is depicted as a full Romani, though the 1982 version  there was a throw away line that questioned her background but it went no where, so it hardly matters.

Gina Lollobrigida as Esmeralda, 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame, picture image

Gina Lollobrigida as Esmeralda, 1956 Hunchback of Notre Dame

This brings us back to the topic, as Hollywood whitewashes many roles it interesting to note that in Esmeralda’s case they take role of girl who despite having dark hair and eyes  with tanned skin is for all accounts a white girl and instead makes the role one for a very specially ethnic minority and yet casts mostly white women. So far in movie versions only Gina Lollobrigida and Salma Hayek have looked the way the film versions theoretically want to depict the character.

 

Maureen O'Hara as Esmeralda

Maureen O’Hara as Esmeralda

While in my own naive  little world I think casting should go to right person for the right part but it’s not that simple. A lot of roles are specific to someone’s looks and background. Hollywood however does of course forget that or ignores it and has a history of awarding parts that should go to people of minorities to white actors. Like the casting  of Emma Stone in Aloha or Rooney Mara in  Peter Pan or pretty much everyone in The Last Airbender or Scarlet Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi in the upcoming Ghost in the Shell movie, heck Lucy was a Akira knock-off… I digress. The list of whitewashing practices in Hollywood is long.

And as this pertain to the Oscars, actors who fall into minority seldom get nominations and seldom win. Just for example Asian actors which Indian actors fall into, Only two Actors won the Academy Award for Best Actor, Yul Brynner (1956) and Ben Kingsley (1982). Kingsley also  got a nominations in 2003. For Actress only Merle Oberon got a best actress nomination in 1935 and no one else since. For Best Supporting Actor, only Haing S Ngor has won in 1984  and only five others have been nominated, Sessue Hayakawa (1957), Mako (1966), Pat Morita (1984), Ben Kingsley (1991) and Ken Watanabe (2003). Oddly the same goes for Best Supporting Actoress with only one winner and five others nominated. The only Asian winner was Miyoshi Umeki in 1957. The five who were nominated were Meg Tilly (1985), Jennifer Tilly (1994), Shohreh Aghdashloo (2003), Rinko Kikuchi (2006) and Hailee Steinfeld (2010).

Salma Hayek as Esmeralda, 1997 Hunchback of Notre Dame, picture image

Salma Hayek as Esmeralda, 1997 Hunchback of Notre Dame

So how does this apply to Esmeralda? The Hunchback of Notre Dame as I have said before, could be one those movies made specifically to win  awards. The role of Esmeralda could be deepen which has been done in the past like in 1939 version or even the Disney version. It could be made into one those Oscar bait roles with relative ease. If that did happen given the state of Hollywood I would prefer to see an Actress who fits into the Romani look more than being a purist to the book. Either an Indian actress or Hispanic actress could fit nicely, though ideally, a young Romani actress would be ideal.

Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda

Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda

Though given Hollywood’s warped sense of itself they probably would make Esmeralda a Romani, as  is the traditional method to her character and cast a popular blonde actress.

Is there an actress you would like see play Esmeralda?

 

The Secret of the Hunchback; Animation & Character Designs

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Quasimodo is just being Quasi The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Quasimodo is just being Quasi

So here we are again, discussing other low budget cash grab off Disney’s Hunchback that has character designs that are derivative to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast as well Aladdin. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so pathetic.

Frollo and Esmeralda's wedding The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Frollo and Esmeralda’s wedding

Compared to the Enchanted Tales version, the character design in this version is marginally more preferable. At least with this version’s Quasimodo isn’t some sad pretty boy, he looks as Quasimodo should look even if his hunch is angel wings. The other characters look their parts except Frollo who as I have mention before on his character review looks like Gaston and Jafar’s love child. Gotta wonder if they read the book or at least watched the 1939 version, my guess is no to both.

Esmeralda with Pierre and masked Quasimodo The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Esmeralda with Pierre and masked Quasimodo

Also the character design in this version as compared to Enchanted Tales looks more cartoon-y, as in they went for more humorous designs instead of trying to make the characters pretty, and failed. Given the humor and how the Enchanted Tales version is misguided and stupid, the  humorous goofy look is better but on the whole the designs are not good.

Frollo and his goon The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Frollo and his goon

As far as the animation goes, there are Hunchback versions that at worse, so much worse, like hellishly worse and of course on the other end there is Disney movie.  The  Secret of the Hunchback looks more akin to a low-budget saturday morning cartoon. It’s fine giving the amount of money and effort they put in but no one is watching it for its art style.

Quasimodo and Pierre The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Quasimodo and Pierre

There is nothing special about The Secret of the Hunchback’s look and animation. It’s passable but only barley.

Paheli Review; Ghosts are Ticklish

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Paheli picture image

Paheli

Today we have a different fairy tale movie because it’s a Bollywood movie. Fantasy movies are uncommon in Bollywood and more to the point this movie is based on a folk tale. It’s also based on a short story written by Vijayadan Detha which also had another Bollywood movie based on it called Duvidha from 1973.

However the movie we’re going to look at today is called Paheli which means Riddle. It came out in 2005, stars Shah Rukh Khan in a double role and Rani Mukherji. It was also India’s entry for the 79th Academy Awards but since it’s not about Indians having issues with being Indians or some historical events it didn’t get the nomination.

Rani Mukherji as Lachchi and Shah Rukh Khan as the Ghost Paheli picture image

Rani Mukherji as Lachchi and Shah Rukh Khan as the Ghost

The plot goes that a young lady named Lachchi is getting married and she is pretty excited. On her way to her new husband’s home, they stop at a place where it’s said a bunch of ghosts lives erm haunt or really just hang out. One of these ghosts falls in love with Lachchi. And stalks her a little bit.

On their wedding night, Lachchi’s husband, Kishanlal, is more interested is managing accounts, much like he did on the road. He then tells Lachchi that his father is making him leave on a seven year business trip the next day, so it’s better if they do nothing on their wedding night as Lachichi has to stay behind. This devastates her. Kishanlal stops at the same place with ghosts from before, it’s like watering hole rest stop type of place. The ghost who loves Lachchi recognizes Kishanlal and takes on a physical form and learns about Kishanlal’s extended business trip. The ghost then takes on Kishanlal’s likeness and goes to his home so he can be with Lachchi. He does tell her that he is not her husband but a ghost that fell in love with her and he asks her what she wants. This moves her as no one ever asked her what she wanted before so she accepts him and his love.

They spend four blissful years together while Kishanlal pines for home and writes letters that don’t get deliver because the Ghost pissed off the messenger. However he returned home when he hears rumors of Lachchi’s pregnancy. To settle the two  Kishanlals the men decide to go to the King as one Kishanlal is totally cool and the other one is a massive whiner. Before they get to the king they run into a shepherd, who makes them perform tests to prove who is the real husband. The final test is that the Shepherd asks the real lover of Lachchi to enter a water bottle which the Ghost does and is sealed inside. This devastates Lachchi but then it’s revealed that the Ghost possessed Kishanlal before entering the water bottle so they can be together.

Just to note, the book ends with the Ghost staying in the water bottle.

Rani Mukherji as Lachchi and Shah Rukh Khan as the Ghost Paheli picture image

Rani Mukherji as Lachchi and Shah Rukh Khan as the Ghost

On the one hand this movie is very mean to Kishanlal who is just presented as weak-willed man who is just doing what his parents told him and he does harbors affection for his wife and then is all but abandon in his duty. However on that pesky other hand, the preceptive the movie took is about a woman who is posed with a riddle, live a sad life as the duty of marriage forces on her or take the love she is offered. According to Shah Rukh Khan it’s a woman’s liberation movie though small in scope.

This movie really is a riddle because Kishanlal and Lachchi are two side of the coin, Kishanlal does his duty and is punished for it to the extent that he is possessed by a Ghost for the sake of Love while Lachchi takes love in a selfish manner and is reward for it. The way the movie presents it, you’re on Lachchi and the Ghost’s side but it still misguided even with a nobler theme.

 

Shah Rukh Khan as the Ghost Paheli picture image

Shah Rukh Khan as the Ghost

Given as the movie has its core story components at the start and end you would think that this would mean that the Characters would be a least be interesting. Well no.  The Ghost’s characterization is he is a bit of a prankster, nice and charming. That’s not bad but it’s very typical of characters played by Shah Rukh Khan which are ubiquitous. Lachchi doesn’t seem to have much of a personality either. She likes love but that is kind of it.

Rani Mukherji as Lachchi and Shah Rukh Khan as the Ghost Paheli picture image

Rani Mukherji as Lachchi and Shah Rukh Khan as the Ghost

As is standard with Bollywood movies this one has musical numbers. The songs aren’t bad but they are not that interesting either. All the songs are nice but run together in terms of sound. It could be because the movie is a period movie so there isn’t a ton of variations of style they could use effectively. Again the songs and choreography are nice and nothing more.

Rani Mukherji as Lachchi Paheli picture image

Rani Mukherji as Lachchi

Where this movie really shines is the technicals. It’s pretty! Most Bollywood movies are pretty, it’s their style but this one is lavish. The jewelry even gets its own credit. It was done by Tanishq and at the time of this movie’s release they offered a Paheli collection. The costumes are very nice too, nothing is very like distinctive as a stand-out but Lachchi is often seen wearing oranges with blues which is a striking combo.

Rani Mukherji as Lachchi Paheli picture image

Rani Mukherji as Lachchi

Paheli is a beautiful movie on the visual level but the spirit of love is well intentioned but misguided.

Hunchback Arcade 1983

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I recently learned that there was an arcade game of Hunchback from 1983 and  you can play it via archive.org.

Hunchback 1983 Arcade Game picture image

Hunchback 1983 Arcade Game

You can play the game here; https://archive.org/details/arcade_hunchbak

I tried playing, it didn’t go well. It took me a while to find my jump button but  it’s a jump avoid thing with the end goal being saving a blonde Esmeralda who wears red. Hey, she isn’t the only blonde  Esmeralda in the world, oddly enough who wears red, she’s the Esmeralda from the 1999 French Parody version. Though in this game’s case it was supposed to be a Robin Hood game with you saving Maid Marion. It was made by Century Electronics  which was an English company.

Hunchback 1983 Arcade Game picture image

Hunchback 1983 Arcade Game

My high score was 800 which considering that is only clearing the first screen, is  pathetic. I just could not jump and move to grab the rope to swing over the fire pit Happy Playing!

 

The Secret of the Hunchback Song 4: Once a upon a Dream

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Esmeralda and Pierre The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Esmeralda and Pierre

God bless this stupid movie for trying a love song but omg is this shit corny as fuck.

This is Gringoire, erm I mean Pierre and Esmeralda’s love-love song. They use phrases like “once upon a dream,”  ” I gave him my heart,” and other stuff hyper lame sentences.

I’m really surprised there wasn’t a lyrics that said ” You’re my forever girl,”  sure it’s a silly line from Avatar the Last Airbender (love that show) but it would have fit in with the rest of the dumb prose of this song.

Yeah it’s  stupid and the instrument use is dumb but the singer tried so C+.

Still better than the love song from The Thief and the Cobbler but not by much.