Saturday, January 27, 2001

Almost Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Sesame Street

I owe the discovery of this fascinating volume to Epinions. I don't quite recall how I happened upon the first review of Sesame Street Unpaved, but I read it and the others with growing excitement, thinking that this was a book I had to purchase for my brother, a Muppet enthusiast. Finding the book proved to be a frustrating endeavor; apparently it has been considered out of print for the past few months. I searched several local bookstores before Barnes and Noble assured me they had it in stock if they could only locate it. Several minutes later, two helpful employees returned with the book in tow, its normal twenty-five dollar price tag reduced to five dollars. I was quite pleased.

Since unwrapping it on Christmas morning, Nathan has browsed through the pages of this book with interest, pointing out things that strike him as novel tidbits of information or asking me if I recall a certain incident chronicled in the book. The book is full of history, explaining how the show came about and pointing out key moments in its development.

Colorful pictures pepper the nearly two hundred pages of this tome, interspersed with "Did you know?" circles, which feature a tweedlebug, and "Secret Fact" blocks, featuring the shady salesman Lefty. Both of these blurbs contain little-known facts about some aspect of the show.

The book is divided into five chapters. The first tells the story of how Sesame Street came to be and includes pictures of some of the Muppets looking very different from their current form.

The second, and longest, chapter features classic moments, divided into sections by character. This is the most comprehensive and coolest part of the book. Each character is given a small biography with likes, best friend, birth, hobbies, quote, philosophy, etc. The bio also includes a small list of stars sharing the Muppet's birthday and points out a similarity for each.

Also included are several quotes by the Muppets and the people who controlled them and lists of what each Muppet has taught us. You can take a Bert/Ernie personality quiz and learn to speak Martian. And you'll get a brief teaser of some of Kermit's greatest News Flashes and Cookie's best Monsterpiece Theater masterpieces. Many portions of scripts as included as well, so you can read an infamous exchange between waiter Grover and Fat Blue, attend the Ladybug picnic, watch Ernie outsmart buddy Bert once again, observe as Snuffy is finally introduced to Big Bird's friends, and relive the heartache as Big Bird realizes that Mr. Hooper is not coming back. This section of the book is very well done and covers hundreds of the shows best moments.

Chapter three deals with the cast of humans. Each has a biography similar in format to those of the muppets. Also included here are other acting roles throughout the years. After the humans, we get to meet some of the less well-known Muppets such as Betty Lou, Forgetful Jones, Sherlock Hemlock, Barkley and the two-headed monster.

Next comes a list of Muppets who have disappeared. Some biographies include the reason for their disappearance. The chapter winds down with an extensive list of celebrity guests. Those captured on photo include Danny Devito, James Earl Jones, Mr. Rogers, Barbara Walters, Siskel and Ebert, Paul Simon and Johnny Cash, just to name a few. We also get treated to a look at some of the celebrity-based Muppets, such as Meryl Sheep, Placido Flamingo, Polly Darton, and Ross Parrot.

Chapter four includes several songs that were popular on Sesame Street, and though other portions of the book slip songs in as well, I found this area to be rather deficient. There were so many great songs on this show, I found that the few provided simply weren't enough. I would have liked to have seen I Don't Want to Live on the Moon, Dancin' Myself to Sleep, Love, Love, Love, Love the Ocean, Doin' the Batty Bat, Somebody Come and Play and ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ, just to name a few. Still, the songs provided were nice, and we got the words to such songs as Bein' Green, One of these Things, People in your Neighborhood, and, of course, Rubber Duckie.

Finally, the last chapter shows a little bit about how the Muppets are made and introduces us to the muppeteers. We also get a map of Sesame Street and a listing of how to say five Muppets' names in ten different languages. The section ends with a few questions from viewers, given answers by "Sez Me".

The book ends on a warm and cheery note with a farewell greeting from Oscar: "Hope you liked it. NOW SCRAM!" I suspect, however, that if you purchase this book, you will find yourself returning to it again and again. It is chock full of fascinating history, with plenty left over for a sequel. You may have to do a little digging to find it, but it will be well worth it.

Saturday, January 20, 2001

The Birth of Internet Romance

I'm still not entirely sure what to think of on-line romances. I certainly don't condone it when the persons involved are married. But the idea of developing friendships with complete strangers over the internet allows for some pretty interesting scenarios. What if you actually knew the person you were conversing with on-line but didn't know it because he never told you his real name? This is the premise of the romantic comedy You've Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

Last semester in cinema class, I learned that this movie was created as a propaganda tool for AOL to get people to warm up to the idea of using e-mail. The writers dashed off a script resembling Sleepless in Seattle and starring the same two actors. They figured that they had a winning combination that audiences would immediately go in for. They were right.

I actually thought that this movie was much less like Sleepless in Seattle than I expected. Yes, it's got Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan starring as two people who seem to have a mysterious attraction to one another. We get the same scenes of them narrowly missing one another again and again, only this time it occurs at the beginning of the film before they actually meet. What makes this movie so different is the fact that Joe Fox (Hanks) and Kathleen Kelly (Ryan) actually know one another.

Fox is the owner of a huge bookstore a la Barnes and Noble which is about to move in down the block from Shop Around the Corner, a small children's bookstore owned by Kelly. The two first meet when Fox decides to take his aunt and brother (both young children) to the story hour at Kelly's bookstore. During this initial encounter, Fox does not reveal his identity to Kelly, and it is not until later that night at a dinner party that she realizes she has been speaking with her competitor. Throughout most of the movie, Joe Fox is a step ahead of Kathleen Kelly when it comes to knowing things about the other person.

Both Joe and Kathleen are in unhappy relationships. Kathleen's beau Frank is a rather dull man who insists upon using a typewriter and is obsessed with politics, while Joe's girlfriend Patricia is just plain obnoxious. It's no real surprise that they're both seeking more fulfilling relationships, and the internet seems a safe place to find a little bit of stimulating conversation. Shopgirl and NY152 (Kelly and Fox) have been e-pals for quite some time, and while the tensions between their real-life counterparts build, they find themselves turning to one another for advice on-line.

At last they decide to meet, but when Joe discovers the true identity of Shopgirl, he is unwilling to go through with the meeting. Instead, he joins Kathleen for dinner uninvited and does not reveal himself as NY152. Kathleen finally gets up the courage to say what she's been wanting to say to him for a long time, but she feels awful afterwards. She shares her guilt with NY152, and Joe is moved to try to befriend her in real life. While Kathleen discusses her changing relationship with Joe with NY152, she listens to Joe's advice concerning her e-pal.

The dynamics of this relationship are fascinating because Kathleen believes she is dealing with two completely different people when, in fact, they are the same man. It says a lot about how we interact with people differently in different situations. The premise of the movie does not seem nearly so absurd now as it would have five years ago, but it's still strange enough to produce a lot of comedic situations. Above all, this is an old-fashioned romance in a new-fangled world, and while it might not steadfastly hold the attention of the action crowd, it's sure to please the romantics. Chick flick? Perhaps. But one of the best that genre has to offer.

Stick with Nick

I'm not even sure if Nickelodeon still runs the animated series Inspector Gadget, but if it does, watch that instead. I grew up on that show, with its clueless hero, his brainiac dog and niece, and his poor chief who always managed to get himself blown up. It was cute, it was funny, it was a good cartoon. But Disney seems to have a recent trend in turning good cartoons into bad movies. Inspector Gadget is the latest example of this phenomenon.

Matthew Broderick stars as John Brown, a police officer wannabe who, after an unsuccessful attempt to catch murderer Dr. Claw (Rupert Everett), has his body destroyed by a car explosion and is provided a new one by the pretty scientist Brenda Bradford (Joley Fischer) whose father was the victim of the murder. The body comes equipped with a myriad of gadgets, and these are what will be used to catch Dr. Claw and bring him to justice.

As usual, Penny has a lot more to do with catching the bad guy than the Inspector does; he bumbles his way through most of the movie, causing physical harm to many and laying waste to a good deal of the town. Brain has little to do with this movie as a cute beagle who spends most of his time tucked under Penny's arm. Taking Brain's place in importance is the Gadgetmobile, a wisecracking car who is most responsible for the apprehension of the bad guys.

A cast of supporting dodos rounds out this movie, from SNL veteran Cheri Oteri as the thoroughly annoying mayor to Andy Dick as Claw's wimpy mad scientist assistant. Instead of the menacing, never-seen presence that Dr. Claw presents in the cartoon, the movie version is goony at best. And his imitation Inspector Gadget, who looks little like Broderick except for the clothes, goes beyond obnoxious as a menace to society. Cartoony action and bad slapstick are the order of the day, but it was done so poorly that I only found myself chuckling a couple times.

This movie had very few redeeming qualities that I could see. Yes, the gadgets were kind of cool, but I'd much rather see them in cartoon form on the clueless inspector I grew to love, excellently voiced by Don Adams. My advice to you: skip this movie and find some old episodes of the animated series instead. It's much funnier and not nearly as disgusting.

Hunt for a Better Movie

Part Home Alone and part Henry's Awful Mistake, Mouse Hunt is the chaotic tale of a pair of estranged brothers united in the effort to sell their recently deceased father's antique mansion. Ernie Smuntz (Nathan Lane) is a chef who has just lost his job because of an unfortunate (and thoroughly disgusting) incident involving the mayor and a dinner which includes a roach as an uninvited ingredient. Obnoxious and manipulative, he only seems concerned with milking the most out of his father's inheritance.

Lars Smuntz (Lee Evans) is a pitiable fellow who shares his father's love of string and is determined to do what his father would want him to. He is the gentler of the pair, initially more reluctant to cause physical harm to the four-legged houseguest who will soon make the brothers' lives miserable. Recently separated from his money-loving and heartless wife, Lars joins Ernie in moving into the creepy old mansion his father left them. It seems to be a dusty old dump until a set of blueprints reveals that it was designed by a world-famous architect. Soon they are busy preparing for the grand unveiling of the house and concern themselves with getting it in perfect condition for the auction.

Their attention is soon diverted, however, when they discover a mouse in their house. For some reason, they decide to focus all of their efforts on disposing of this uninvited houseguest, taking ridiculous measures and destroying the house in the process. Not only is the mouse tiny, he's crafty and manages to beat the brothers at their game every time. Minutes after the first meeting with the mouse, I could see this was going to be a very long movie. I found myself groaning over and over again, wondering how these two could possibly be so stupid. Just leave the mouse alone, already! What the heck is the big deal?

A monster cat and a psychotic exterminator (Christopher Walken) fail to foil the mouse's determination to survive, and each plot turns out more disastrous than the last. The mouse has no great hatred against the brothers; all of the damage he causes them is an unavoidable side effect of his attempts at survival. In the end he wins, and the brothers, after losing their house to their furry nemesis, finally learn to combine their talents to create a business that both of them can enjoy. Who shows them the way? Why, the mouse, of course. And in the end, they're all the best of friends.

The slapstick is overwhelming in this movie; it's just about all there is. And while a couple of pratfalls are good for a laugh, an hour and a half of them gave me a monster headache. It was much too far-fetched to be funny for long, and much too painful. None of the characters was especially likable, with the possible exception of the mouse, but few were despicable. They were just sorta there, and their personalities were inconsistent throughout the film. "Since you are lukewarm I shall spit you out of my mouth..." That's what I suggest you do with this movie.

Thursday, January 18, 2001

Unbreakable Breaks Shymalan's Winning Streak

After that rather ominous title, I should clarify that I did not think Unbreakable was a bad movie. Strange, certainly, but I can deal with that. No, it's just that Shymalan's second blockbuster paled in comparison to the utterly mesmerizing The Sixth Sense. Bruce Willis once again stars, this time as security guard David Dunn, who is a decent guy but certainly not as likable as the soft-hearted psychologist Malcolm Crowe. He, too, suffers from marital problems, but they do not arise from over-dedication to his job, though absence does play into it. In his first scene we watch him slyly slip his wedding ring into his pocket in order to flirt with the foxy lady sitting next to him on the train.

Moments later, the trains crashes, and David walks away unscathed, the only passenger to survive the wreck. This miraculous event catches the eye of Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a comic book fanatic with brittle bone disease. He believes that Dunn may be a super-hero, and he summons the security guard to his store to discuss his theory. Unfortunately, Dunn's impressionable son (Spencer Treat Clark), who worships his father, believes Elijah's theory and becomes determined to prove it.

Meanwhile, Dunn's wife, a nearly unrecognizable Robin Wright Penn (she looks so much...older than she did in Princess Bride and Forrest Gump), is finding it increasingly hard to talk to her husband and becomes very worried when Elijah's super-hero talk starts rubbing off on her son. As in The Sixth Sense, it's the kid that finally gets Bruce's character to see himself as he really is, but I'm afraid that Clark was a little too grating for me. He came off as rather pathetic and whiny, although much of that probably had to do with the dialogue he was given.

The most memorably bad scene in this movie, in my mind, occurs at the kitchen table, when David's son informs him that he has a gun and that he intends to shoot him to prove that he is invincible. What follows is supposed to be tense and suspenseful but comes out rather comical as the parents plead for the weapon. "We don't shoot friends," Mom admonishes, to which he protests, "I'll only shoot him once!"

Still, the movie has a rather intriguing premise, and it's fun to watch Dunn uncover the layers of his past in order to accept his present. The movie almost ends on a feel-good note with father and son sharing their incredible secret, but Shymalan is apparently a big fan of the twist ending. This one is sure to surprise, but while the end of The Sixth Sense left me with a peaceful, fulfilled sort of feeling, this ending was disappointing and unsettling.

As with The Sixth Sense, I think a Horror classification is inappropriate. There's nothing too scary here, and there are only a couple violent scenes. Perhaps if The Sixth Sense had not blown me away like it did, I would not have set the same expectations for this movie. I doubted I would like it as much, especially with the absence of Osment, but I was intrigued to see what Shymalan would come up with next. It was a decent movie, a good movie even, but not a great movie, and while I don't regret seeing it in the theater, I wouldn't spend another $5 to see it again.

Remember the Dream

As the week beginning with Martin Luther King Day draws to a close, it seems an opportune time to turn the spotlight on a recent film which is a reminder of the struggles and triumphs of de-segregation efforts in the not-so-distant past. Remember the Titans, which chronicles the true story of a newly integrated high school football team in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971, is a powerful movie that demonstrates the strength to be found when unity triumphs over the stigmas of diversity.

The bulk of the movie takes place in the form of a flashback to 1971, when the death of a black student precipitated the integration of the city's two high schools. In an effort to accommodate the incoming black athletes, a new coach, Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), was hired to head up the Titans, the high school football team, much to the dismay of current head coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton), in the running for the city's Hall of Fame because of the Titans' excellent track record. The movie begins and ends in a cemetery in 1981, guided by the narration of Yoast's fiery daughter Cheryl, who was nine years old (Hayden Pannetiere) in 1971.

As new head coach, Boone faced many difficulties, the most harrowing of which was the task of convincing the white and black teammates to cooperate. The first team member to bridge the racial gap was Louis Lastik (Ethan Suplee), a gentle giant with a love for Motown music. The other teammates came around more slowly, forced to get to know one another by their relentless coach. Once star player Julius Campbell (Wood Harris) and Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst) learned to work together, the others followed quickly, and by the end of football camp the team was actually acting like one.

The rest of the movie deals with the lack of understanding by the rest of the Alexandrians upon the return of the newly integrated team and the teammates' struggle to remain united in the face of their still racist town. The youths had finally learned to see past their differences, but their parents were not prepared to accept the change. Winning became more important than ever because one game would cost Boone his leadership position. For Yoast, however, a winning season for the Titans under Boone would mean the loss of his nomination to the Hall of Fame.

Because this is a true story, the struggles of its main characters are especially poignant and speak to us as we remember the dream of Martin Luther King. Life does not always provide the happiest of endings, and Remember the Titans is not without its tragedy, but the way in which the team stood together to rise above it ends the movie on a victorious note. This marvelous movie is a powerful reminder of how far we've come and how far we have yet to go before all people are "judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Friday, January 5, 2001

Frosty the Edible Snowman

Once in a while, a new book shows up on the shelf in the bookstore and catches your attention right away. My aunt, who works in a bookstore, happened upon this delightful story and proceeded to purchase a copy of it for each of her brothers and sisters. Stranger in the Woods was especially appropriate for my dad, who loves taking nature photography, but everyone who received a copy was delighted with it.

The book is very simply written, intended to be a tale children of all ages can enjoy. There's a great murmuring in the forest when a stranger suddenly appears. Who could he be? What is he doing here? The words narrate the action, but the fabulous nature photographs speak for themselves. We see the reactions of deer, doves, owls, bluejays, muskrats, squirrels, porcupines, rabbits, chickadees, mice and cardinals as they hear the news and make the cautious trek to investigate the interloper.

Husband-and-wife photography team Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick drew from their own experiences to create this photographic masterpiece, as they have been observing these deer and birds for several years. In this charming story they bring out the wonder of the animals as they receive a very special Christmas guest and the delight of the children who facilitated his arrival.

The fun doesn't end when the book does; the last page includes a recipe for a snowman. What a fun snowy day activity for the whole family, and what a great way to keep an eye out for the neighbors in the wilderness. And if you want some more information on the book and some great additional pictures, check out www.strangerinthewoods.com.

This book, which won the Benjamin Franklin Award from the Publishers Marketing Association, is sure to become a winter classic in the years to come, and I sincerely hope that Sams and Stoick continue to bring us beautiful books like this in the future.