^Sarek^

When I watched this version of Taming of the Shrew, I got the definite impression that Kate was taming Petruchio, rather than the other way around. At the end of the movie, Kate gets to beat up Bianca one last time by dressing it up in "obedience" to her husband, who then meekly follows her out the door.

Now I have to look up the original to see if that reading is supported by the original text. :-)

Also, I can't help but wonder if the animators of Disney's Beauty and the Beast might have used parts of this for a visual reference. The opening looked awfully like "Belle"...

This DVD was an absolute delight to watch. George Hearn had almost 20 years to refine this performance, and he used them well. (It's amazing that he wasn't originally cast for this concert.) Patti Lupone may outdo Angela Lansbury, IMHO. The supporting cast all do wonderful jobs, as well. The actor playing Judge Turpin was especially noteworthy.

My 2-year-old is watching it at the moment in the other room -- and it's September.

The lyrics to the songs are complex to the point that I wonder how the actors got through them without switching to their normal voices, but I thought they were quite good, despite that.

The animation is not up to Shrek's standards, but would we want it to be? Photo-realistic animation would just detract from the story. As it is, the animation reminds me enough of the original stop-motion so that this indeed feels like a sequel.

The voice acting is marvelous: Rudolph and Hermey sound like they did in the original, and the other actors drop neatly into place around them.

As commented earlier, this takes the characters forward, instead of just repeating the identical behaviors in a different plot.

So, see it. You may find it a waste of time, but it's very much a mileage-may-vary thing, rather than a this-is-a-waste-of-celluloid thing.

I found it to be much more watchable than "Thomas and the Magic Railroad". One of my main reasons for disliking Barney so much is that I watched an episode where they sang "I'm bringing home my baby bumblebee" -- and the bumblebee won. There was nothing that I found as annoying as that in this movie.

I want the truck with the built-in deep fryer!

I was very annoyed at how much they toned down Evita's personality from the musical (which I could sing end to end at the time the movie came out) -- most of her more cutting remarks were left out. For all I know, the movie might be truer to Eva Peron's life -- but that's not what I went to see.

On the other hand, the music is excellently done, and the cinematography is spectacular. Being able to actually see the locations I had imagined so often was wonderful.