I should make a Christmas version of this someday. Not sure how.
It’s December, which means adding to my Christmas YouTube playlists. Tonight I bring you two versions of A Christmas Carol: Being A Ghost Story Of Christmas. Well, three really since I’m also linking to Project Gutenberg’s post of the book itself free and legal to download. They even have a version for the Kindle, so…more than three? However, only two of them feature the actor Alistair Sim as the reformed miser. (Yeah, people keep forgetting how that story ends.)
A Christmas Carol is an amazing work by Charles Dickens. It doesn’t chastise Ebenezer Scrooge for his wealth but how he acquires it and what is done with it. The ugliness of humanity is present in any financial demographic and Dickens highlights that. Rich or poor, there is good in evil in both, as seen with the Cratchits and Scrooge’s uncle as well as the people shown to Scrooge in the visions, especially from the Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come. Meanwhile, Present tends to throw his own words back at him, since Future can’t talk. Through Past we see how he became the old miser of today and it makes perfect sense. He isn’t put down for what happened to him so much as how he reacted to it, hardening his heart and focusing on his wealth rather than using that wealth to help others. Again, the story doesn’t attack him for what he has but who he is, and believes that he can become a good man, which in the end he does, presumably avoiding Jacob Marley’s fate.
Tonight I bring you two version of Alastair Sim portraying Scrooge and Michael Horden as Jacob Marley, and only because I know someone will be bothered if I only look at the one. Yes, both men took on the two roles in animated and live-action form. Adding to the Christmas special playlist this year is the 1971 animated version, originally airing on ABC, produced by Chuck Jones and directed by Richard Williams. However, it’s master animator Ken Harris whose visual styles make this a stand out take among the many, many interpretations.
If you’re here for Sim and Horden themselves however you were probably expecting the 1951 live-action black and white movie where they physically plays the old and dead respectively misers. Well, I have that too for everyone’s benefit. Or maybe you’re a fan of both, in which case it’s a double special event. Whichever you prefer, enjoy!
Is Representation Becoming A Marketing Gimmick?
I’m going to get controversial, but if you’re part of the so-called “woke crowd” you may want to see this because frankly you’re the ones being played by mainstream media. Conservatives, this is something for us to think about as well, because there’s something here I think is being lost in the political discourse that everybody is sleeping on.
I haven’t seen Strange World and I don’t plan to. This trailer above (if it’s still up when you read this) is the most I know about this movie and frankly it doesn’t look very interesting. Apparently people who can afford to go to the theater agree as the movie has been failing at the box office. As Disney keeps putting out live-action de-makes of the animated films of the “Disney Renaissance” 1990s due to being hurt that Hollywood shoved animation into their own category and wants their famous movies to be Oscar-Worthy with the media snob of the Academy Awards and the ego-driven celebrities who think a movie is only good if their face shows up in it, they seem to have also lost the heart and effort that made those movies so beloved alongside the classics made or supported by Uncle Walt himself.
Where we get controversial is something I realized in the discussion about this movie. I can’t comment to how “woke” the movie is or isn’t, but I saw this tweet…mostly because everyone who discusses this movie brings it up…from Brianna Wu.
Who is Brianna Wu? No, really, I’m asking. Apparently she’s a big deal to somebody and a huge joke to others but I literally have no idea who she is. This tweet has been used as an example of the poor marketing surrounding this movie. This is apparently all the poster thinks is important to the movie. Well, whether I’m conservative or libertarian (my friend says the latter but labels are BS) I can see that we’ve rewritten the word “target audience” to something more like “targeting with our anger”.
Biracial marriage? Hell, I’ve been advocating that for years on this site. I’ve seen advertisements for laundry detergent and Crohn’s medication that did it right: just a couple who happens to be of two different skin colors. Gay characters? Yeah, they’re all over the place now, including shows for kids. In fact now you can’t win an Oscar without at least one. Literally; that’s a rule along with a quota of minority characters…like the ones I grew up with and could fill this with links to articles talking about that if I had time, along with the women heroes I grew up with. Climate change metaphor? Something doesn’t have that nowadays? Disabled dog?
This is Rex. He rescues dinosaurs. He’s a good pup. I come from the 1980s, where heroes in wheelchairs happens a lot. What does the dog in this movie do? The thing is Hollywood and other sectors of the entertainment industry are selling the usual suspects a lot of bull, and in their dash to see representation, and I’m not even against that in general, they don’t realize they’re being used…and if they do know, they’re okay with it. That may make them the biggest suckers. What do I mean when I say Hollywood is using representation as a gimmick rather than actually changing how they’ve approached minorities in the past? Allow me to explain my point of view, then judge…if you have the guts, and the internet has proven neither side does.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on December 1, 2022 in Uncategorized and tagged commentary.
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