Offbeat princesses

Within the week, not one, not two, but THREE movie trailers have come out that feature princess protagonists: Snow White and the Huntsman, Mirror Mirror (the kid-friendly version of Snow White, apparently), and now Brave, with Pixar's first female main character.  So far it looks like Kristen Stewart's princess, in SWatH, seems the closest to a "warrior princess" type, but all three heroines are shown wielding a weapon (double-bladed sword, epee or foil, and bow and arrow, respectively).

Out of the three I'm the most excited for Pixar's movie-- and how could I not be? They don't just make films, they craft them.  And I'm pretty sure this is the first time seeing a main character who is a ginger and has massive amounts of enviably voluminous and curly hair.  I don't know if the source material has the character thus coiffed, but it's kinda gutsy that they didn't just go with the typical long and flowy route with this princess.  I can't think of a single Disney princess with curly hair (The Princess and the Frog's Maddie sorta had some texture in her hair but she's a frog for half the movie, so I'm not counting her).  I can only imagine how difficult it was to animate Merida's hair.  Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about this movie for a lot of reasons, but...hair! My goodness! So cool.

Anyway some other recent examples of offbeat princesses:
- Hanna (2011).  Okay, so the titular character is not a real princess, has no royal blood, but this film is very much a fairy tale, complete with mystical powers, a bloodthirsty witch, betrayal...it's like Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz, and even makes overt references to the brothers Grimm.  Hanna has the "skin as white as snow" part down, and maybe even a vengeful mother...

- Tangled (2010?) I haven't seen this, but I know it's a Rapunzel story and that the princess wields a mighty frying pan as her weapon.  Definitely offbeat.

- Black Swan (2010).  Okay, "offbeat" isn't the optimal word to describe Natalie Portman's character; "tortured" would be closer.  One could say that she's sheltered and coddle in the way that a little princess might be, the way that Disney's Princess Jasmine was (minus the pet tiger, bumbling father, lecherous vizier, etc.) 

I'm of two minds about this phenomenon, regarding the three movies from the beginning of this post.  On the one hand, these girls are all white/European and based off western European tales, and they're all, well, princesses.  There are equally interesting and filmable stories about women and girls in non-European folk and fairy tales who are not born of royal blood. But on the other hand, these are all princesses who fight, who aren't just dainty damsels in distress, and they challenge gender expectations as royalty and as young women.  And I'm a sucker for this kind of story, and genuinely look forward to watching all three movies.

Mini trailer review: People who seek retributive justice

Also known as avengers.  Teaser trailer has gotten many people excited, to say the least.

I've been skeptical about this project since it was announced, but having seen this I'm earnestly looking forward to it when it comes out in the summer next year.  Maybe a little tentative about how all these big characters will fit together for a cohesive storyline-- especially for Bruce Banner/the (Incredible) Hulk, for whom I have an inexplicable soft spot.  But, really, if it ends up as a 100-minute version of this GIF I'll be thoroughly entertained.

Stream of consciousness: embarazada

A cognate is a word that sounds the same and has the same meaning in different languages.  Examples: in Spanish the words medicina, dormitorio, chocolate mean medicine, dormitory/room, and chocolate in English, respectively.  But, I think I've mentioned before, there are false cognates, or words that sound or seem the same but don't directly translate.  One case that's brought up often and used to comic effect is the Spanish word embarazada.  You would think that it means "embarassed", right? Wrong: it means 'pregnant'.  Can you imagine the hilarious accidental situations in which a novice Spanish speaker might misuse this false cognate?

But why is it so?  Why does the Spanish word for "pregnant" sound like the English word for "deeply ashamed"?  For generations, eons, woman's purpose in life was to procreate (after having been legally married, of course); it would only make sense that showing signs of pregnancy would be cause for happy emotions and celebrations, and not shame...unless it were an "illigitimate"/"bastard"/"unexpected" birth.  That's the explanation I can think of right now.  Today we see female celebrities dressed very stylishly throughout pregnancy, showing off the progress of their baby bump.  There's even a show called "Pregnant in Heels" that, to my knowledge, features a pregnancy concierge to help an expecting mother look fabulous throughout her term.  But it's only been recently that the pregnant woman was seen as beautiful or remotely sexy.  There's a lot of negativity directed at female bodies in general.

Take the word "hysteria" too.  Another word with the same suffix: hysterectomy, which is the surgical removal of the uterus.  Coincidence? No; I think it was in Victorian times that it was thought that the womb/uterus floated around a woman's body, and that this movement made a woman so disturbed that she was hysterical, experiencing hysteria.  Recently the trailer for a movie of the same name came up, and I have high hopes for it.  Not a serious-face period drama, but that's what makes it enticing, to me: it's a comedy-- a sex comedy at that-- which is set in a traditionally stuffy time period, and it focuses on an...interesting subject matter.

Trailer review: Awake

This is not a typical trailer review in that this is for a TV series rather than a film.  Still, I really wanted to  document my reactions to it because  the trailer got me excited for what it presented :
- a detective procedural drama

- a story about a man living in parallel universes, tackled in a realistic way-- as a psychological, PTSD-type disorder-- rather than taking a science fiction slant. 

- a dark-haired Lucius Malfoy Jason Isaacs as the protagonist

- B.D. Wong playing another shrink in another NBC drama (this guy is too cool for school, did you know he once had a one-man show on Broadway?)

- an exploration of grief, choosing when and how to let go after the loss of a loved one

- another perspective on dreams vs. reality, of how to tell when you're awake and when you're not.  I bet this series was probably already in production before "Inception" came out, so the movie probably didn't have any impact on the creation of "Awake".  I think that in the wake (pun intended) of that film, this TV show could do well by exploring this field even further.  I've never seen Sliding Doors but I imagine that, since that movie deals with parallel universes/alternate realities, this show will draw something from that as well.  I'm most interested in the ways that the two worlds overlap and maybe influence each other, perhaps helping Isaacs character gather information from one side to help solve a case on the other.  (Slightly related digression: Recently I went to go pay for something in cash but realized that I only had one dollar when I thought I had ten ones; that night I dreamt that I looked in my wallet and found a Hamilton staring back at me.)

This series reminds me of another NBC detective procedural, called Life. I really liked it, but it got axed after two seasons.  I'll have to write another post on why I liked it so much.

Trailer Review: The Three Musketeers 3D

This trailer reminds me of the one for the Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey, Jr.
  It doesn't have Guy Ritchie's trademark use of slo-mo but has a good amount of action scenes, fighting femme fatales, a pounding orchestral score and impeccably groomed villains.  And an American actor amidst British ones.  And something about trying to stop the end of the world.

Trailer Review: Never Say Never

Both this movie and "No Strings Attached" were produced by Paramount Pictures, so despite having different target demographics this movie's trailer is huckstered before the screening of the later. That's the only reason why I saw this trailer in the first place, but I really didn't mind sitting through it. I might have laughed out loud more during this trailer than for the entirety of "No Strings Attached", but that's a subject for another time.

There was a collective groan in the theater when it dawned on everyone that this was not just a teen pop star concert movie, but the teen pop star concert movie. In 3D, no less! Really, this is the closest that most fans (Beliebers) will ever get to Justin Beiber.

In all honesty if I were ten years younger I'd probably be superexcitedlikeomgJustinBeiber about this movie. As a young adult I have nothing against the Beibs and feel like this is a perfectly adequate movie trailer. This has a built-in fanbase and is sure to deliver on everything it promises: a behind-the-scenes look at his daily life, retrospective on how he shot to stardom, and most important of all the concert footage that includes close-ups and wide-angle lenses for maximum appreciation of the enormous production value. I'm not saying this is the next "Shine a Light" (documentary by Martin Scorsese on the Rolling Stones on their "A Bigger Bang" tour), but it looks phenomenally entertaining. I can't wait to read what Roger Ebert has to say about this film.

Side note: I'm a bit of a Justin Beiber apologist. I'm not his number one fan and only know a handful of his songs, but I find them pretty good as far as pop songs go. I don't find anything really objectionable about him. Well, maybe the weird obsession with his hair, but it's not his fault it's so swishy.

Trailer Review: Rango

On second thought I'm not sure if the above video counts as a "trailer" because it's more of a mini behind-the-scenes featurette commercial. Still it fulfills the duties of a trailer in introducing the story, characters and talent.

So many thing about this make me happy. I think this'll look more organized if I make a numbered list:

1. The animation. The quality of the animation-- the detail in textures of skin and hair and lighting in particular-- are so exciting and well conceived. The movement of the characters is so believable and comically done in the way that can only be brought to fruition by animation. Studios are much better at deciding what aspect to make as realistic as possible and what should be exaggerated and elaborated to keep the characters buoyant.
2. The staging/blocking of scenes. Wes Anderson kind of did this with "Fantastic Mr. Fox", where he took George Clooney and Friends to a farm and recorded their voices as they acted out the scenes by rolling around on the grass and scurrying across the field. Gore Verbinski's approach here is a lot more choreographed, not so organic, but it still yields the same results and helps the animators determine the movement of the characters in tandem with the camera.
3. The voice talent. The actors who lend their voices to this production have a lot more input on their characters than most animated films today. The actors actually get to interact with each other and give performances that are more...authetic? Reactive? As opposed to recording each person individually and piecing the sound bits together in post-production. But I'm straying from what I originally intended to write. Johnny Depp as our plucky protagonist! Why isn't this man in more animated films? He's such a great character himself, so animated and genial. And I love Bill Nighy's craggy, curmudgeony voice for the rattlesnake character. And Isla Fisher switching her native Aussie accent for a Southerner's one.

Nickelodeon Studios has obviously put a lot of work into this movie. It not only looks great but seems to have a lot of heart; it doesn't have the feel of a selfish money-grabbing endeavor to suck in the kid krowd and toss a few bones to the hapless adult chaperones. Plus it's an original story, not something based on a popular children's book, and that's really refreshing. I'm really excited to see this.

Trailer Review: Hanna

I'm excited.

Even if I found the plot description first I'm sure I'd still be excited to see this movie. It looks like it'll be Saoirse Ronan vs. Cate Blanchett, which is enough to intrigue me, never mind the teenage girl assassin vs. cunning female government agent. Ronan always has such an earnestness that's so watchable and likeable. And Blanchett is so smart, so commanding and convincing in every role, almost always with that secret Cheshire-cat smile, like she knows more than she's letting on.

Most of all it's great that this film exists, that the focus is on two strong female characters who literally and figuratively kick-butt, and there may be a sort of sci-fi element to it. Even though Eric Bana also gets top-line billing and the catalyst to all the action, it seems like most of the action will be between these two women.

Oh, and I guess I have a soft spot for a movie partially set in the tundra, where everything is bleak and cold and reminiscent of Hoth.