the 07/22/2008

VIEW FROM THE SOFA

 

VIEW FROM THE SOFA

Stuart Galbraith IV / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

Looking for something off the beaten path to watch with your kids,maybe something Mom and Dad can enjoy as much as the children? Whynot give these a try?

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (T Hakase no 5,000 bon no Yubi,Columbia/TriStar Import, 2,155 yen) If your kids enjoy the newHorton Hears a Who!, then maybe they'll like this, the firstfeature-length adaptation of a Dr. Seuss story, about an insanepiano teacher (Hans Conried) and his mad ambition to force 500 boysto play his colossal, serpentine piano 24 hours a day. PartSalvador Dali, part Busby Berkeley, this is Cold War Hollywood atits most surreal, a hypnotic children's musical fantasy like noother.

The Iron Giant (Warner Home Video, presently out-of-print) The bestAmerican animated feature of the last 50 years is this heartwarmingtale of a lonely boy and his friendship with a wayward giant robotfrom outer space, built as a weapon but who dreams of becoming ahero, like Superman. What should have been a colossal success onthe scale of E.T. inexplicably flopped at the box office, buthappily it's finding a fiercely loyal following on home video. Thisis a picture with tons of heart as well as clever satire on 1950santicommunist paranoia and the nuclear arms race.

Mon Oncle (Boku no Ojisan, Geneon Entertainment, presentlyout-of-print) From its opening montage of packs of dogs peeing allover Paris, older kids will love this Jacques Tati comedy, theall-time best. Gerard loves his eccentric uncle, Monsieur Hulot(Tati), but his upwardly mobile, pretentious suburban parents areworried about the gangly misfit's influence on their son, promptingDad to offer his brother-in-law a job at his ultra-modern plasticsfactory.

The NeverEnding Story (Warner Home Video, presently out-of-print)Ingenious Michael Ende story about a troubled boy (his mother hasrecently died) losing himself in the wondrous fantasy found in amysterious book, unaware of the part he'll personally play in itsoutcome. Utterly captivating story filmed in West Germany bydirector Wolfgang Petersen has imagination to spare, though you'llwant to avoid the two dreadful sequels that followed its success.

Popeye & Friends (Popeye, Warner Home Video, 3,980 yen) Companiessuch as Disney, Studio Ghibli and Pixar dominate the animationmarket today, but some of the best-ever cartoon shorts wereproduced by Max and Dave Fleischer in the 1920s through the early1940s. Their cartoons were often surreal and downright subversive,drawn in a style that's become something of a lost art. TheFleischers were best-known for their great Betty Boop, Superman,and Popeye cartoons, though later on much less talented animatorswould take over these characters. At long last, Warner Bros. hasbeen meticulously restoring these classics for home video, black &white shorts unsurpassed in their clever, witty animation.

Safety Last (Lloyd no Yojin Muyo, Happinet Pictures, presentlyout-of-print) Kids and new movies are like kids and sweets. If youfeed them a steady diet of violent high-concept blockbusters,that's all they'll ever want to watch. But if as a family you startwatching classic films early on, they're likely to develop alifelong fondness for black-and-white and even silent classics likethis charming Harold Lloyd comedy, best remembered for its iconicimage of poor Harold dangling 20 stories up from the hands of adepartment store building's giant clock. And it's all done withoutthe aid of CGI.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (Sinbad 7-Kaime no Kokai, Sony PicturesEntertainment, 3,990 yen) This Arabian Nights adventure has got itall: an eminently likeable hero in Kerwin Mathews' Sinbad theSailor, a plucky princess (Kathryn Grant), shrunk to doll-size by amad magician (Torin Thatcher), lots of great monsters brought toanimated life by stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen, and an exotic,evocative score by the great Bernard Herrmann. Two more adventures,almost as good, followed: The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Sinbadand the Eye of the Tiger.

Treasure Island (Takarajima, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 1,500yen) A half-century before Johnny Depp was camping it up in Piratesof the Caribbean, Walt Disney personally produced this, thestudio's first all live-action feature film. And it's still one oftheir best, a rousing Technicolor adaptation of the Robert LouisStevenson classic with Robert Newton's Long John Silver still thebest movie pirate ever. Bobby Driscoll stars as young Jim Hawkins,swept up into the search for Captain Flint's buried treasure.

The Witches (Jim Henson no Wicchizu, Warner Home Video Import,1,617 yen) Critics and audiences were pleasantly surprised by thislive action film of Roald Dahl's book about a coven of witchesconverging upon a hotel in Cornwall, southwest England where alittle boy is all that stands in the way of their dastardly schemeto turn all of the children of England into mice! Anjelica Hustonwon rave reviews for her performances as the Grand High Witch, butthe offbeat cast also includes Mai Zetterling, Rowan Atkinson and aheavily disguised Michael Palin. The film was Muppet master JimHenson's last prior to his untimely death a few months after thiswas released.