It works as a combo. I have no shame in admitting I thought this was going to use the trailer from the film E.T.
The King and I
Sometimes a movie comes along and it makes you just ask yourself why? The 1999 animated movie version of The King & I
Now I don’t know much about the King and I or Thailand’s history but I do know that Thailand was never colonized because of the reforms of modernization undertaken by Mongkut a.k.a Rama IV and Rama V.
I have also seen The Legend of Suriyothai
Anna and the King about to get their dance on
Unlike other movies that just introduce characters and situations this one make the bold decision not to. The king’s advisor dude, The Kralahome wants to be king because all bad guys want to rule for no reason. He spies on Anna on route to Siam with her son and thinks “I can use this lady to dethrone the king.” So what does he do? Sends a dragon with his BS illusion magic that is never explained to I think scare her, not sure what his plan is. Then Anna sings her whistling song and the dragon either finds the whistling or uptempo singing disagreeable and peaces out.
Anna docks and her son gets to keep a monkey whose name is Mushi, or Mochi, or Munchi, I couldn’t understand the kid and who cares (it seems to be Moonchee and I still don’t care). Anywho Kralahome and his overly offensive minion Master Little welcomes Anna and tells her she isn’t going to live in a house like she was promised which get Anna’s panties all in a knot. There is also a lame running gag where Master Little looses his teeth, charming.
Anna speaks to the King who getting a present from Burma, a girl named Tuptim who can read, OMG Shocks! Then Kralahome then decides to try and kill Anna’s son, Louis because the King will get blamed for it. Huh? What? How do you figure that? Kralahome is a massive dum-dum. That plan by Kralahome fails too like the dragon. But whatever his lame plans pads out the running time.
Then we see Tuptim meeting her cute sidekick, a little Elephant named Tusker and then she meets the crown prince, Chulalongkorn and voila they’re in love because they’re attractive, meh they’re teens.
Then Anna meets the nameless kids of the king and that pads out the running time for a little bit. Then Anna starts teaching and takes them outside the palace sings the getting to know you song while Mater Little and the Monkey cause antics, I really can’t remember why, probably another Kralahome master plan of dumbness.
Then Kralahome sends a letter to the Bristish saying that Anna is being treated badly and the King is a barbarian. The letter plan works as the Bristish officer heads to Siam to dethrone him. Yeah that is just dumb.
Kralahome then sends killer statues while the King sing-prays to Buddha but the King’s panther, Rama (everyone has pet/sidekick) defeats them before the King notices by roaring. I don’t get what Kralahome’s plan is.
Then the British come and Anna convinces the King to put on a banquest because the Bristish like dinner parties, but if Downton Abbey 
Master Little learns that the crown Prince gave the royal pendent to Tuptim so Kralahome uses that info to goat the king into being a meanie pants at the banquet because when he learns this he wants to whip Tuptim to death but then decides to send her back to Burma which is also death. The Crown Prince and Tuptim run off. Kralohome decides that this is a good opertunity to kill the king or something but when that plan fails he just decides to use firworks (a la Mulan
The sidekicks
One of the main problem with this anus of movie is that in order to make it friendly for kids they threw in sidekicks everywhere. These sidekicks come at the expense of the characters who are really there so that the production didn’t have to think to hard. The story, characters and songs were already established but the additions of the sidekicks just steamrolls over that.
The getting to know you sequence is a great example, the movie has Anna and the kids singing it but the focuses is on Master Little and that Monkey. After a while I just tuned it out as a coping mechanism.
The King’s kids
So we don’t get interesting or compelling characters in this, hell Disney Sequels have more interesting and compelling characters, at least Madeline in the hunchback sequel got more of a characterization then any character in this movie. The King wants technology and tradition, Anna wants a house, The prince and Tuptim want to get married and Kralahome just wants power. What is it with advisors wanting power?
Speaking of Kralohome, what the fuck? This guy is like Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones
Tuptim
I have already mention Tuptim, who I would assume is the token Princess-like character. Tuptim was given to the king from Burma. She can read but never seems to want to read, that would have made her interesting. Instead she is in love with the Prince and whines about being a servant, never mind she is a stranger in a strange place no instead she has a elephant. See what I mean about the characters having next to no personality.
The King and Rama the panther with stupid CG killer Statues
Seeing as the songs where not original to the movie, I’m not going to talk about them but they are fine on the whole, I guess. To be honest half the songs don’t bother to focus on the singer or the subject matter so if the movie doesn’t care why should I?
The animation on the other hand is a train-wreak. It’s bad in the sense that it’s trying really, really hard to be good which makes it bad. It’s not even bad in that special bad way, it just off-putting. The dialogue is also really off-putting with it’s on and off again broken English.
Kralahome with Master Little
The King and I is just a lame-duck of movie. It has nothing going to for it, I found the coldness in my feet far more entertaining than this puke of movie. One final piece of trivia, this movie made the Roger and Hammerstein estate have a no animated movie stance on any their musicals in the future, Good Job movie commend your lameness.
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Robert Marien as Froll & Matt Laurent as Quasimodo, World Tour Notre Dame de Paris Crocus City
YAY, Korea is putting on a French Cast Production of Notre Dame de Paris in honor of the 10th anniversary of the show in Korea. This marks the like fourth run of the show in Asian country but it’s the fisrt time since 2005 that a production has been in its native.
The show will run at The Grand Theater, Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul from January 15th to February 27th 2015.
So here is the cast and if you have been following the Notre Dame de Paris recent cast ( or just in general) you will see some familiar faces.
Quasimodo – Matt Laurent & Angelo Del Vecchio
Frollo- Robert Marien & Jerome Collet
Esmeralda – Stephanie Bedard & Myriam Brosseau
Gringoire – Richard Charest & John Eyzen
Phoebus – Yvan Pedneault & John Eyzen
Fleur de Lys – Stephanie Schlesser & Myriam Brosseau
Clopin – Roddy Julienne, Gardy Fury & Angelo Del Vecchio
Also according to Matt Laurent’s site the show will also go to
Daeju, South Korea
Daejeon, South Korea
Kwanju, South Korea
Busan, South Korea
Ulsan, South Korea
Taipei, Taiwan
http://mattlaurent.com/calendrier.php
So the La Jolla production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame musical is in full swing and the Papermill playhouse show is on the horizon. The La Jolla veriosn is considered to be the American debut of the German musical Der Glockner von Notre Dame which was based on the Disney movie. But you know it was not the first time the musical was adapted in English.
Esmeralda and Quasimodo singing On Top of the World
In 2013 the musical was performed at King’s Academy in Palm Beach County Florida which is private catholic high school. The musical was done in collaboration with the school and Disney. However it has some differences with the Glockner version that warrant discussing.
As I have already discussed the Disney version and the Glockner version before and I hope to discuss the musical more in future (hint hint) I’m not going to spread too long talking about it and as the performers are high school students (or at least were), I’m going to go easy them in terms of acting and singing.
So for the next five weeks, we will look at this version.
Also please note, the whole thing was on youtube a few weeks ago and I did watch it but now most of it not available but I won’t let that stop me, Gwahahahahahaaa.
Follow thehunchblogLast week I asked what was your favorite part of the novel was. This time I’m going to ask what is your Least favorite part of novel?
Frollo and Quasimodo during Out There Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame
For me I hate Bird’s Eye view of Paris but that chapter is so boring and dull it hardly seems like part of narrative so I will say the begining of the novel, the first few chapter till it follows Gringoire more and stops focusing on Jehan and random people.
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The Prince of Egypt
The Prince of Egypt
Moses and Ramses
Ok the plot, So Ancient Egypt total sucks in you’re a Jewish slave under Seti I. This go shit to crap when Seti decides to killing the Jews babies. One mother decides to send her baby boy adrift in a basket on the Nile and he is delivered to the Queen of Egypt who adopts him and calls him Moses.
Years later Moses has grown into a care-free trouble making type and is best pals with big bro Ramses II. The toy cause some shenanigans and get in trouble with their dad and he says one weak link can ruin a dynasty, these words haunt Ramses. I just want to point out this Egyptian Dynasty isn’t that old, like Seti is the second Pharaoh of the 19th so yeah. Anyway Moses ask Seti to give Ramses a chance to prove himself and later that night at banquet. Ramses is named Prince Regent. The priests also offer him a capture woman from Midian. She is bit to wild for Ramses so he gives her to Moses.
When Moses sees her escaping her sort of helps by distracting the palace guards and follows her. He then runs into two salves, Miriam and Aaron who are his siblings. Miriam knows this because she followed the basket to the Queen. She sings the lullaby their mother sang to baby Moses and the stirs something within him. He confronts his mother and father and learns that Seti ordered infanticide because he fear their numbers. The nest day Moses accidently kills a Slave driver when he was over whipping an old man. Moses runs off despites plesa from Ramses.
Moses then runs into the Midian lady he helped and her people. He because a shepherd and falls in love with and marries the Midian lady who is named Tzipporah. Life is peaceful for Moses but then he runs into a burning brush which is God. God tells Moses that he needs to get the Jews freed from stinky-pants Pharaoh and God give Moses‘ stick special powers do his wonders.
Moses tells Tzipporah who is shocked but decides to go with him. Moses returns to Egypt and though delighted to see his brother who is now the Pharaoh is also now his adversary. Moses tries to convince Ramses to let his people go but Ramses refuses and the Jewish people don’t warm up to Moses either. Moses uses performs God’s wonder only to have the Priest use pallor trick to undermine him. Then the plaque come and Ramses still says no. Moses tries to warn him that something worse is coming but Ramses remains stubborn claiming he will not be the weak one and threaten Moses with infanticide of the Jewish people. Then the Egyptian first borns are taken including Ramses’ son. Ramses gives in and releases them.
The Jewish people are free and they walk and ended at the Red Sea. Ramses then shows up with his army. God sends a fire tornado to stall them (fill that sucker with sharks and think you have the plot to the next Sharknado movie). Moses then splits the Red Sea and the Jewish people get cross while the Egyptian (guess that awesome firenado did last) aren’t so lucky though Ramses lived, though historical dude lived to be like 90. The movie ends with Moses and the ten commandments.
Moses and the burning brush
Former Disney chairmen, Jeffrey Katzenberg had always wanted to make an animated version of The Ten Commandments but Micheal Eisner refused the idea. So when Katzenberg formed Dreamworks pictures with Steven Spielberg and David Geffan they went for it. Unlike some of the other Knock-off Disney movies, this one doesn’t use the sweet, sweet Disney formula, instead it opts to use the basic indigents that make Disney movies great; great stylish animation, sweeping music with great characters.
Moses and Ramses
One of the best parts of this movie is the dynamic between Moses and Ramses. Their relationship is genuine but they also have to honor their adult reasonability that puts them at odd with each other. This makes for some great drama and in a lot of way this story and relationship is more mature than most straight up movie aimed at adults.
The down side is that that the rest of the characters are not that interesting and don’t have much personality to them. Miriam sort of does as she is hopeful but that that much considering Ramses and Moses. The comic relief priest are a little annoying but they don’t get that much screen time so it’s not that bad.
Tzipporah,
Then we have are vague princess-like character Tzipporah. She is the daughter of teh high Priest of Midian and is very similar to Esmeralda is character type. She feisy and mature, heck she is voice Michelle Pfeiffer who was akin to Demi Moore in the 90s. The trouble is Tzipporah don’t do all that much but considering that her personality does come though very well.
A Lovely Shot from The Prince of Egypt
The really stand out in this movie is the animation and the visuals. I will just say that I’m not in love with the square angularness of the characters design but it’s a style and I can appreciate that especially when the other visuals and very cinematic looking shots and angles are truly beautiful. This movie has real scope to it and it one of the best looking animated movies with out a doubt.
I personally love the shot of both Ramses and Set in profile against the statues. I love that right before the passover scene Ramses, his son and Moses are mirroring the image on the wall depicting the death of Jewish babies, with son between the crocodile foreshadowing his death. My favorite image from the film though is the whale in the Red Sea as they cross it, that just makes me want to cry big sappy happy tears . Speaking of the Red Sea scene, I love the atmosphere as the depend down in the sea and the sound of the sea and the darkness is just wonderful.
The music is also great. I really love the background music especially the lullaby leitmotif and the burning brush music. The songs are good, I don’t love them but I don’t hate them. No song was that bad and they moved the story along. Some people question their existent in the film narrative but they didn’t bother me. I think they had more of lead in it would have been better.
Moses with Miriam and Aaron
This this film perfect? No it’s not it has a bog flaw that hold it back, the running lenght. I feel this film could have stood to be longer. Moses learn about his origins with little to no breathing room between him seeing Tzipporah run off, his feeling bad over the Egptian children and his brother pain is cut too short because of the Exodus and When you believe. I think ten minutes would have help with the flow and maybe that would have fleshed out some the minor characters a little bit more.
Moses and the Jewish People leaving Egypt
The Prince of Egypt is a very good movie despite any minor faults it has. It has real beauty and drama and you can just tell that the production team believed in this movie an delivered a great movie in return, see what I did there, because of the songs When you Believe and Deliver us?
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Help The Hunchblog go see the Musical
So in honor of the blog’s 100oth, I have a few little announcements to make.
Announcement #1,
Since I don’t live super very away from New Jersey, I would like to try and go to the Hunchback Musical at the Papermills Playhouse in New Jersey. However since I’m primarily a blogger by trade I don’t have the funds to go on my own so I’m trying to crowd fund it.
If you would like to be a wonderful person and help me and the blog out to go to this musical, here is the link to donate, http://www.gofundme.com/h0h4z4 .
Anything you can give towards this is very much appreciated.
Announcement #2,
November is Nation Novel Writing Month (http://nanowrimo.org) and I’m trying participating. I’m writing a novel based on what I know which is me and blogging and ripping part Disney movies. Basically I’m parodying myself, the blog and online reviewing and I’m having such fun doing it.
I’m hoping publish it at some point. Also speaking of Hunchblog related book I’m planning on writing one using blog posts from the 1939 version and greatly expanding on it in a much more in-depth way.
Announcement #3,
This isn’t quite a formal announcement but I’m considering signing up for Patreon for the blog which offer special content to patrons but I’m a little apprehend about it. It takes a lot for to sign up for things like that. Gofundme took some effort to go for. I
Thank you guys so much for your support and interested in the blog, I really appreciate it. And I hope for another 1000 posts and thehunchblog’s birthday is in another month so that is exciting.
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Frollo
While I have bashed the 1986 version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame
Esmeralda and Gringoire
At best it’s watchable which is more than I can say for the Dingo version or the Enchanted tales version which one can only watch because they are so bad you can’t look away. The 1986 version isn’t so bad it’s good it’s just meh. Which considering the amount of laziness half-ass workmanship that went into this version, meh is high praise.
Next Version- Unknown
Djali
Here is a very simple question for everyone, What is your favorite from the novel of The Hunchback of Notre Dame?
Frollo confesses his feelings to Esmeralda, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Maureen O’Hara, 1939 Hunchback of Notre Dame
My favorite scene from the novel would have to be the jail where Frollo confesses to Esmeralda but I also like a lot the silly Gringoire scenes, like Esmeralda’s and wedding night.
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Quest For Camelot
Quest For Camelot
Ruber and Kayley
The story starts with a young girl named Kayley, oh that name sounds soo Arthurian, is hanging out with her dad who is a knight of the Round of Table. Her dad has to go to Camelot for a knight’s meeting and young Kayley dreams of being a knight. KNIGHT!
During the Knight’s of the Round Table meeting one Knights named Rhubarb, I’m sorry, Ruber, not sure which is more ridiculous, wants more land because he wants more and King Arthur says that Knights get land equal to their needs. So Ruber being the sensible bloke that he is tries to kill the king so he and rule. Kayley’s dad is killed defending Arthur. When they bring the body home, Arthur offer Kayley’s mother, Lady Julianna entry into Camelot when ever she wants. I have to wonder if that a special or something offered to all Knight’s widows?
Ten Years past and Kayley wants more out of life than farm labor. But what this? Something more comes when Ruber comes a-knocking and demands Lady Julianna to use her open invitation to Camelot so Ruber can take over. In addition to this he uses a potion that some witches from the Acme Corp (not really joking here) gave him to meld animals and weapons together. His grand plan is fuse himself with Excalibur but as his Griffian was stealing it he dropped in the Forbidden Forest. Kayley gets away because Ruber’s minions massive dum-dums and just let her go. Kayley then makes her way to the Forbidden Forest to get the sword instead of warning Camelot because she wants to be a knight.
As she flees, Kayley is pursued by two goons and a talking chicken who was fused with ax, who wrotes this? Kayley seems cornered but is saved by a handsome blind hermit, named Garrett. She tells Garrett about the missing sword and he tells her that him and his falcon Aiden with go get it without her but he agrees to let her come after she asks him a second time.
They head to dragon country where they run into a two-headed dragon that makes the gargoyles from Disney’s Hunchback look charming. They also run into Ruber and they escape some more stuff happens and Garrett and Kayley fall in love and they get the sword. As they arrive in Camelot Garret tells Kayley to go as he doesn’t belong in that world because of the blindness, I guess. Kayley then promptly gets kidnapped by Ruber and he fuses Excalibur to his hand. He attacks, Garrett comes back and Ruber is tricked into stabbing Excalibur back in the stone it came from and dies. Garrett and Kayley are knighted and they Riverdance, The End.
Kayley and Garrett
Broken down into its most basic story elements, Quest for Camelot is about two people who society says shouldn’t be Knights wanting to become Knights and a Power hungry evil guy who wants power. Nothing in this movie is new or original, it just feel very much like a Disney knock-off but to fair this movie, it had a lot production issues.
First off, it is very loosely and I mean loosely based on a book by Vera Chapman called The King’s Damosel
Second, the movie was created by executives who had no clue how animated movies worked. So the production on the movie suffered and the resulting movie while has decent production values, like decent animation, songs and voice acting, the story is clumsy and uninspired.
Garrett and Aidan
The characters too run the gambit of alright to dullness to annoying. Really only one character is at all interesting and that would be Garrett, our blind hermit hero. Garrett got a back story where he was a stable boy who got lost his vision in a fire and Kayley’s perfect father trained him to be a Knight. Basically Garrett is the most interesting thing about this movie.
Ruber is just power-hunger and he does enjoy being evil but there something wanting about him. First, Ruber wants power but he also wants chaos. Hey Idiot, if there is chaos in the land that threatens your power pull. His plan in theory was good but the execution was dumb, there was just too many variables. For example Kayley escapes so what did he have to threaten Julianna with? She didn’t have to go along with it and could have sacrificed herself, her husband did. It just was just stupid but do you except from a guy who sends a talking axe-chicken to bring back a hostage.
Speaking of the Axe-Chicken, whose name is Bladebeak, him and the dragons, Devon and Cornwall are annoying, very annoying. There is no real reason for these characters to be in this movie other than making it fun for children. The pop culture references that the dragons make are more annoying than the gargoyles and just jarring. Yes, they all help in some way but that was justified their characters existing. If they hadn’t been in the film we would have lost nothing.
Kayley
Then we have other sort of Princess-like character, Kayley. To Kayley’s credit she has a very clear goal, she wants to be a Knight. The problem is Kayley sucks at it. She gets into trouble and someone else has to save her. Even though she sort saves the day, she got the idea to stand her ground till the last second from Garrett.
But you know that really isn’t the problem with Kayley, she is just bland. I could take a character that thinks they are kick-ass but are not but she isn’t charming or interesting to watch. She also looks a lot like Belle, but F that, they shamelessly reference the Lion King for no reason so a Belle look alike isn’t a really issue here.
Kayley and Garrett
Then we have the romance between Kayley and Garrett, it it so contrived. It just seems like it is in the movie because that is what Disney does. They went from snarky to lovey in like a day. I didn’t believe it nor was I invested in it.
Devon and Cornwall singing if i didn’t have you
Then there is decent part of the movie the animation and like one-two songs. However both areas have issues. The animation for the most part is good but there is something about it that perplexes me though. It’s very fluid, so much so that its jarring in a way and yet it’s spare in compositions.
The songs are weak on the whole. Some are better than other like The Prayer but mostly they are just meh. Ruber’s villain song is a train wreck, it has no flow and zero harmony. The Dragon’s song is an annoying farce of a song that thinks its funny because of pop culture references. I don’t want a Arthurian-esque movie that references Sonny and Cher and Elvis! No me gusta!
The trouble with these songs is that they come out of no where and when their done it like they didn’t happen. They add nothing. Also The Prayer song was misplaced as a heartfelt ballad during a chase scene and considering that is the song of the movie it’s off putting. There was another scene with Julianna later in the film that would have worked better. Also Garret’s singing voice while a decent singer did not work with Cary Elwes‘ voice.
Bladebeak
Despite my nitpicking on Quest For Camelot, I can see why people would like this movie, it’s a fun little adventure flick, it just wasn’t entertaining for me at all, in the slightest. Even the shear volume of celebrities couldn’t win me over and that sad considering I do enjoy some these actors.
Every time they said Excalibur, I thought this from Soul Eater