Grundhoffe

This cartoon is the model train collector's dream come true and should be included in their collection. The animation is standard Fleischer full animation which is expected, but it is their use of the 3-Dimensional set as the backgrounds set along with the cel animation that make this a unique looking cartoon. Though they had used this method in other films primarily Popeye vs Bluto, the use of the very stylized train layouts and trains and cars is used in a wonderful manner. Play Safe is an amazing eye catching display of the artistry of diorama building, and the vivid color used in the display is dazzling. Worth the price to find and keep a copy! I have always wondered what ever happened to those train set layouts, the customized locomotives and cars, and if there had ever been any merchandising through the Lionel, Gilbert's American Flyer, or Marx Toys that came out of their very artistic efforts.

A truly interesting and well done bit acting and of video-graphy, true. But the fact remains that the Romans were a much more fiery people than this British interpretation would show us. And though the acting was very good, in Roman terms their enactments were as stiff as the emperors statues they portrayed. Day-dreaming a new interpretation that would be interesting, would be to see for example Steve Beschemi portray Caligula, or Susan Lucci as Livia, or Arman Assante as Claudius or even Robert D'Niro as Augustus.

Tarantino was both erroneous and entirely unfair concerning the Sicilian people. Clifford Worley's remarks are as racist as white supremacist Arthur Kemp when he asserts that Sicilians are of a mixed race. Worley is racist remarks use false historical evidence claiming this just for the sake of race baiting that the Moors are responsible for the injection of sub-Saharan African blood into Sicily. First fact is, the Moors were not black. They were Hamito-Semitic peoples, meaning that they began as Semites from the Near East and then absorbed physically similar Hamites, or Berbers, during their conquest of North Africa, prior to entering Europe.

Moors who colonized most of the Iberian peninsula for 800 years are estimated to have left a mere 3.8% genetic imprint on modern Iberians. Hence, those Muslims who held Sicily for a comparatively shorter period of just 250 years and, in their thwarted efforts to take mainland Italy, conquered various Southern Italian cities for periods of less than 100 years, had an even lesser genetic impact on Italian populations.

Secondly the "Norman" King Roger II, the founder of the kingdom of Sicily during the first half of the twelfth century liberated the island from the Islamic yoke. His kingdom was mixed east-west culture and the development of its royal government the most advanced in twelfth-century Europe. After Roger Sicily was the home to a large Jewish population, became Spanish Colony, and held under the Viceroys of Spain from the late 13th century to the early 18th century making the population more of a Judeo/Greco/España blended ethnicity.

Moreover, the unfortunate blacks that were brought enslaved into Europe by imperialists at the start of the Atlantic slave trade were absorbed into their host populations, often by way of royal houses. It was Britain, France, Holland and Germany who were then the dominant colonial powers and slave traders.

Therefore, this leads back to Tarantino's statement which can now only be construed to be there for its shock value only; it is total untrue, and never be taken as fact. Unfortunately there are too many white racists out there who take lines from movies as Gospel truth to support and fuel the fires of their own prejudices. For certain, there will be more battles ahead dispelling the myths concerning Sicilian people.

Bibliography:For further information look up The Races of Europe, Chapter XII, Section 7, Italy, and http://www.geocities.com/racial_myths/italians.html

Before the gentle Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, before the frenzied, loud, noisy muppets of Sesame Street, there was The Friendly Giant. Mr. Homme's show appeared on Chicago's Window to the World WTTW and was broadcast somewhere between The Totem Club, What's New, and the Story Teller starring Val Bentin. The soft music, the little set, the quietness of the show was somehow haunting to watch and a little sad to behold in comparison with the other children shows on the air at that time.

With all of the stories within this story you really have to look at this film several times to get all the messages that are in it. Themes that were so real-to-life's lessons, and filled with teaching values like Stick-to-it-isty, I recommend it as a film that today's kids and parents should view together and re-examine with discussions. It was Disney story telling at his best. I especially enjoyed the Columbus Stick-to-it-isty piece.