E.T. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Gladiator.
These are all stand-alone movies with no chance for a sequel, right?
Well, as fast as you can say Ariel’s Big Adventure (no offense, Tom), Hollywood will want to cash in. Check out these actual script treatments for some of our favorite movies. Roger Rabbit versus the Nazis?
Check out Michael J. Fox rocking out Saturday:
Joss Whedon has me excited about Much Ado and The Avengers.
Orson Scott Card has me excited about the 2013 release date for Ender’s Game.
Simon Pegg has me excited about A Fantastic Fear of Everything. Here’s a blurb about it:
[Simon Pegg is] a children’s author turned crime novelist, whose research into the lives of Victorian serial killers has turned him into a paranoid wreck and perpetually in fear of being murdered. When a Hollywood exec shows interest in his script, his big break rapidly turns into a big breakdown.
Most people that I’ve run into in the past few days have wanted to talk to me about the Avengers official trailer.
Yes, I have now seen it.
Hulk? Wow, that’s actually pretty cool. I hadn’t been following the movie. I had totally spaced that Lou Ferrigno is going to voice the green monster and that the boyfriend from 13 Going on 30 is Bruce Banner.
Loki as the first villain, though? I trust Joss Whedon. Here’s hoping for some Skrull. I also can already tell Whedon’s positive influence on the dialogue. I also know that he will make sure that Black Widow is a strong enough character to compete with the other heroes.
Also, a correction from an earlier comment. My wife never watched Jem, even though the intro is awesome:
(Well, Jem will never forget her name, that’s for darn sure.)
I had spaced that her absolute favorite show was Square One, which also ranks high on my list.
I never noticed the similarity to the Saturday Night Live opening.
But, faithful readers, the big question is WHY DID MATHMAN ALWAYS LOSE?
Mike, even though this is non-Robotech, you can still weigh in.
I have a faint memory of Mathman not dying and Mathman being very confused.
We finish up our series of Disney History posts with 101 Dalmatians (yes, it’s -an, not -on).
It’s Buena Vista and not RKO. It’s also based on a book
This is the beginning of that rougher look of the 1960s cartoons, and here’s why: Xerox. In order to draw those complex scenes with all those dogs and all those dots, the animators Xeroxed much of the movie. That style and technique stuck until computers started being used. All of the vehicles are live action that have been traced.
On the topic of Xeroxing: Lady, Peg, that bulldog, and Jock all show up in one quick scene. At first I thought that it might be a cool “this story is happening at the same time as 101 Dalmatians“, but then the timelines don’t fit. A headline on a newspaper Roger is reading says “Carlsen speaks”, which is from an accident in 1952. Jim Dear and company are from the early 1900s.
Another interesting collision of worlds: Jasper and the Colonel come face to face at the end. What’s funny is that Pat O’Malley voiced both characters.
The DVD DOES have a Disney channel kid singing the Big Song. What’s funny is that, for a movie about a guy who writes music, there are only two songs in the film. One song is “Dalmatian Plantation” (and I won’t make any snarky comments about how long it took Roger to come up with that rhyme) and the other is “Cruella DeVil“:
Yep. Selena Gomez. Is it bad that I miss the Jonas Brothers?
What was my youngest’s favorite part? When the puppies hid their spots in the dirt.
My oldest’s favorite part? The bark network.
My wife’s? When Roger writes the Cruella song and then plays it sarcastically when she shows up. (That is pretty funny.)
Mine? I thought a story of a writer and a musician living together was rather delightful.
Well, as Netflix DVD Doomsday approaches, I’m glad that we went out swinging. For those that have known me for a long time, the following should catch your attention.
I think I’m actually a fan of Disney.
One factor heavily swaying my opinion is the prospect of taking my daughters to Disneyland. Another huge factor is that one of my old roommates now is one of their animators (woohoo, Tom! Try and work a Red Ox (or, even better, Mike’s EggMan) into the next movie).
I still think it’s shady that Walt Disney put the people organizing a Disney labor strike in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. The watering down of stories also bugs me.
But as I create, I now understand why Disney protects their intellectual property so rigidly. Yes, there’s obvious moneymaking, but there’s also a desire for Walt’s artistic intentions to be preserved.
Today I came across this cartoon tribute from 1966 when Walt died of cancer:
Storybook opening, once again, although this time the movie was distributed by Buena Vista and not RKO. This was one of the first signs of Disney becoming the mega-empire (that and, you know, the land named after Disney). The song at the beginning is not the goofy 1950s crooners; it’s now an actual bard. The first lines are not the first lines of The Once and Future King (“On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales…” That wouldn’t have been a toe-tapper.)
The songs do become the catchier jingle style that the 60s had for Disney. You can thank the Sherman brothers for that. They also worked on Jungle Book, Mary Poppins and Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (“I’m just a little black rain cloud…”) They’re the 1960s version of Alan Menken.
BUT ALAN MENKEN DIDN’T WRITE “IT’S A SMALL WORLD”.
SURRENDER YOUR BRAIN TO THE SHERMAN BROTHERS.
They introduced leitmotifs into Disney movies. Every time Mary Poppins shows up, a strand of instrumental “Spoonful of Sugar” plays. In The Sword in the Stone, you hear traces of the packing song (“Higitus Figitus“) when Merlin’s doing his thing.
I still say Higitus Figitus sounds like “Everybody Wants to be a Cat” (check three minutes into the clip), but maybe that’s the John Williams syndrome. Every time I hear the Indiana Jones tank song, I hear the Separatist droid army song. At least it’s not as cookie cutter as Randy Newman (in this link he’s getting political and yet I can still sing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”).
The DVD did not have a bonus feature of the Big Song. I can’t even name the Big Song, but my wife would like to see Ashley Tisdale try and sing “Mad Madam Mim“.
My oldest’s favorite part? The flirting squirrels.
My youngest’s? When Mim turns into a dragon.
My wife? The wizard battle, which is funny because her second favorite part is the moral that magic won’t solve your problems.
Mine? That Merlin said the books always get packed first. Finally, someone who understands my packing strategy.
I have to comment on the animation style. Even though it’s more Jungle Book/Aristocats (rougher edges than the 1950s), the attention to detail is awesome. Even when Merlin is a fish or a squirrel, it still looks like Merlin. Every little misplaced hair, every ruffle of fur, is very impressive. Robin Hood, why can’t you be more like Sword in the Stone? That’s how you do mythological-Britons-who-may-or-may-not-have-been-real-people-but-history-still-obsesses-over.
Through pretty extensive analysis, I’ve determined that the 1950s were a strong time for the Disney studio as compared to the 1970s. All of the RKO movies we’ve seen have been awesome, even if they all open with a cheezy choir singing.
Peter Pan breaks from the mold by not having an actual book open nor do the singers croon about the name of the main character. This time they’re singing “We Can Fly”, which is pretty fun.
Also in the beginning is a screen thanking the copyright holders, the Great Ormond Street Hospital. How cool is that? Give your copyright, which is worth quite a bit, to an organization that helps children. I want to be able to do that someday.
Let’s take a moment to honor Bill Thompson. He is another voice actor, much like Phil Harris and Ed Wynn, that is very recognizable. If you liked Jock in Lady and the Tramp, the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, Hubert in Sleeping Beauty (Hubert?), or Smee, you’ve enjoyed the work of Bill Thompson.
Droopy Dog is Bill Thompson, too.
Bobby Driscoll is The Pan (in my mind, Hook is still the original). He’s also Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island and, more importantly, Johnny. You know, Johnny, the kid from Song of the South.
I’m still wrapping my brain around the physics of Never Land, which might be a futile endeavor. How is Peter Pan able to hold his own versus a rapier using only a dagger? Does he have enhanced reflexes from being part pixie? Has he trained for a very long time as an immortal? Is he Legolas’s cousin?
Still no Disney channel star singing the big song. Is “We Can Fly” the big song? That song’s on many sing-alongs. You know which song is not as featured? This one:
“Good. This should be most enlightening.”
Yeah, I don’t think “enlightening” and “Why is the Red Man Red?” can be uttered in the same sentence. Actually, I think I just did.
I appreciate that the story’s about Wendy, really. Boy and girl relationships run throughout the story and complicate things. I was talking to my friend, Andrew, today about growing up. He was told that he needed to wear shoes now that he’s out of college. I have the opposite thing going on with my basketball shorts. Maybe it’s because we’re both from the same hippie college, but if changing our fashion is the requirement for growing up, then I pass.
What were my family’s favorite parts of the movie?
My youngest liked how the crocodile’s eyes bounced to the rhythm of the clock. My oldest liked that but also thought it was cool that Mr. Darling recognized the pirate ship from a distant memory of youth (yeah, my daughter’s awesome).
My wife is more a fan of the slapstick. Every time Hook was dancing with the crocodile (“dancing with the crocodile” being a euphemism for “on the verge of being eaten by a mankiller”), she was cracking up.
I’m no better, though. My favorite part was the pirate singing and playing the concertina only to be shot nonchalantly by Captain Hook.
I won’t drag out an analysis of the plot or symbolism. You can Google that.
I will quote this comment from Martin Gardner:
As a check against the tendency to find too much intended symbolism in the Alice books, it is well to remember that when Carroll gave the manuscript of this poem to Tenniel for illustrating he offered the artist a choice of drawing a Carpenter,a Butterfly or a Baronet. Each word fit the rhyme scheme and Carroll had no preference as far as the nonsense was concerned. Tenniel chose the carpenter.
I will give my two wacked-out cents/sense (see? I can wordplay, too!) about the art. My oldest and I appreciated that the English countryside is very detailed, down to the blades of grass, so that Wonderland has a stark contrast of screensaver-ish proportions. (She noticed the details. I don’t think she knows what a screensaver is (flying toasters had lyrics?).)
I classify Disney songs in one of two categories: radio friendly and not. “A Whole New World“? Radio friendly. “The Morning Report“? Not. (Pull up to a stop light blasting that. You’ll see what I mean.)
Alice in Wonderland‘s title song sounds a lot like Cinderella’s, which makes sense since Cinderella is 1950 and Alice in Wonderland is 1951. Have you ever sat through the opening credits of these movies?
“Cinderella/She’s as lovely as a breeze”
or however that song goes.
Alice in Wonderland is the same.
“Alice/in Wonderland”
but what makes it more awkward is that they try and rhyme everything with Wonderland…underland…blunderland.
I have also determined that any song Alice sings is not going to see any airtime outside of the movie. Did you know that she sang? Me neither.
Disney songs also have a tendency to narrate character actions. Guess what the cards are doing during “Painting the Roses Red”. I’ll give you a hint: it isn’t doing their taxes. To be fair, most musicals and even Mozart’s operas narrated actions to death…literally.
Alice also is guilty of major foreshadowing. “If I ever have my own land, it will not make sense. It will be a wonderland.” My favorite line of hers is, “This is the stupidest tea party ever.” I thought that was gutsy for 1951.
Disney first started working on the film in 1933, so you can see it took the studio a while. They said it was tough capturing the episodic style of each section of the books into one coherent movie. I can see that.
There is no Disney channel heart throb singing “Very Merry Unbirthday”, which made me kinda sad, but there was a deleted scene of the Duchess and the Psycho Baby. The artwork matched the first edition of the book, with the insanely disproportioned heads. So scary.
The Cheshire cat in the theatrical release sings part of “Jabberwocky”. That decision cut his original song, “I’m Odd”, out of the picture. BUT THANKS TO THE HEROIC EFFORTS OF THE VAULT DWELLER (is this Disney or Fallout?), the sheet music was discovered. Enjoy it in all its Haunted Mansion-esque glory.
My oldest’s favorite part of the movie? The Mad Tea Party (hold your Bachmann jokes, please) song. My wife loves the visual gags connected to the wordplay, like the actual half a cup of tea.
My youngest? The “cat who smiles in the moon”. I had to ask her to limit her answer. Initially she said she liked Mickey swing dancing with the queen, which is a part of an old cartoon included on the DVD.
My favorite part? When the cards number off and 1-10 and then there’s a random yell of, “Jack!” I also find it funny that the guy who voiced the King of Hearts is named Dink (you know, because the king is bossed around and everything). I also recognized Pat O’Malley (from Jungle Book), James Macdonald (every Disney mouse other than Mickey), and Don Barclay (the Guy Who Gets Kicked Around in Every Movie).
But who could miss Ed Wynn? That guy’s voice is so cool. Only one guy could play Dr. Dussel, Uncle Albert, and the Mad Hatter.
That’s how you do it, Disney!
They followed up Snow White with Pinocchio. They enlisted the talent of Mel Blanc (the voice of the donkeys) and the ukulele-wielding Cliff Edwards (as the singing cricket).
The storybook opening is the same as the others. What’s cool is one of the storybooks is Alice in Wonderland, which wouldn’t come out for another decade. Disney prioritized Three Caballeros. How do you win a war? With singing birds. And guns.
The animation is beautiful. The only parts that date it are the schools of fish and the Blue Fairy’s face. Her very diminished facial features are similar to Snow White’s. One of the really cool parts, though, is that the animators drew the Blue Fairy without the telltale black outline that the other characters have.
Geppetto is so steampunk. His tinkering with gears and THE BLUNDERBUSS HE KEEPS UNDER HIS PILLOW give it away. I also love his clocks that depict various stages of animal death.
My wife’s favorite part? Any time Jiminy Cricket sings. A close second are the clocks.
My oldest’s? The tiny fish that follows Jiminy when he’s underwater. My youngest’s? Cleo the goldfish dancing with Figaro the kitten.
My favorite part? The existential analysis of what it means to be human.
Yeah, you heard me.
Jiminy is not sure about a puppet gaining life. “A lovely thought, but not at all practical.” Yep. Life is not practical. God could have very well existed on his own but created some very impractical works of art. Jiminy describes himself as “the still, small voice that no one listens to” with the purpose of guiding people “along the straight and narrow path”.
Jiminy is definitely not deity, though, unless you count some very Zeus-ish tendencies. Every single chance he gets, he tries to hook up with a girl. If he hadn’t been trying to get with a clock, he might have noticed the boy made of wood sticking his finger in a fire. Can a conscience have a conscience? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
The DVD started out with an anti-smoking ad. Watch the movie. Count how many times Pinocchio, a donkey-boy, a fish, a cricket, or a whale inhale tobacco. Heck, they even have Tobacco Row on Pleasure Island.
Like with all the special editions, the Big Song is sung by a Disney channel puppet.
This time, the Big Song is THE BIG SONG. You know, the one they play every time the Disney logo shows up? The one they’ve played for decades?
They had Meaghan Jette Martin sing it. The autotune fits the whole automaton theme.
Watching this video made me wonder if Robin Hood had a music video. Do I want to wait another Netflix DVD cycle to find out? No.
There’s still time to add a dog name to the discussion. See the other suggestions here.
Tonight, like many nights, I helped my daughter with reviewing her spelling and vocab words. This time, I made her recite them out loud. I told her that I was seeing if she could be a part of the X-Men or not.
That prompted my youngest and I to start singing this song:
Man, if you can spell while we do that, you can spell during class.
That is more this style of coaching:
Watching X-Men has now made me nostalgic for these shows.
We finished our comedies, like The Office and 30 Rock. We’ve watched all of Friday Night Lights (“we” being “my wife watching and me falling asleep on the couch”) and Veronica Mars. We watched Lie to Me and loved it. We were looking for another show and decided to forgo Netflix’s recommendation for dancing cows and instead go with our friends’ recommendations.
Multiple people have recommended psych. We’ve only watched the pilot so far, but already we’ve seen the cool attention to detail that Lie to Me and Veronica Mars boasted. It has the wacky person/straight-laced person, so we have some 30 Rock going on. If psych ever features a key character who plays football in Texas, we’re golden.
This afternoon we finally got around to watching the first Disney animated feature, Snow White.
Just like how Jungle Book looked like it was from the 60′s, this one is definitely the 30′s. Snow White looks like a 30′s Hollywood star and some of the animals looked Betty Boop-ish.
It’s a classic tale of obsession with beauty that leads you to hire a guy to cut out your stepdaughter’s heart and bring back the evidence in a conveniently-decorated box.
There’s an interesting blend of stop animation water in the wishing well (and the obvious storybook opening and closing).
The Big Song is covered on this DVD by Tiffany Thornton. (who?)
My oldest’s favorite part? When Dopey stood on Sneezy’s shoulders and danced with Snow White a la Sleeping Beauty.
An aside: Snow White sleeps more than Sleeping Beauty. She’s discovered in the dwarves’ house sleeping, much like Goldilocks, and then is encased in the glass coffin for her Sleeping Death. (The ornery dad part of me told the girls that when the dwarves killed the queen, that was the end of the movie. Roll credits. They were not happy with that ending. It helped that the movie faded out and defaulted to text to catch up the narrative.)
My youngest’s favorite part? The queen turning into a bad girl, with the spiky hands.
My wife’s? The pipe organ silly song:
Proof that my wife and I are meant for each other? Just like with Jungle Book, she stole my favorite part. You gotta love this song. It bring backs so many memories of walking around Disneyland. Add that to the Hobbit-esque dwarf hoedown, and it’s instant win.
So, I have to pick a new favorite part. I guess I’ll choose when the dwarves return from their Heigh Ho mine to see the lights on. Grumpy warns everyone to approach with caution. Listen to the guy. In a world where apples can kill you and princes feel free to hop over walls to stalk you at your only water source, some caution may be prudent.
I do love that the haunted forest is not really haunted but is really a fear-induced jazz daze montage. I also appreciate (in a “Wow. This is the 30′s and not the 50′s” sense) the vultures sweeping down to snack on the queen. Very grim, like the hunter getting tangled up in the vines at the end of Tarzan. Snow White does actually do more things than Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. I’m definitely more of a Mulan and Rapunzel fan.
Call down an avalanche using a rocket? Yes, please.
Conan O’Brien found this trailer for another beloved character from our childhood now starring in their own action film:
Check out the credits. It’s being made by “Michael Bay…’s College Roommate”.
I’ve read the book and loved it. I also really enjoyed the movie, which makes sense based on how closely it follows the book.
Reading the dialogue versus listening to Jeff Bridges, I had missed something key while reading: every single line out of Rooster Cogburn’s mouth sounded like my Grandpa H.
Growing up, I enjoyed a healthy balance of Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, and Die Hard. One of the deficient areas, though, was Disney movies.
Yes, I saw everything from the 80′s on, but some of the older ones I only saw once or twice and don’t remember that well. I know that I saw the 50th anniversary for Snow White in the theater because I won a coloring contest. All I remember was some dwarves running up a mountain and lightning.
As a family, we’ve decided to use the now annoyingly-priced DVD portion of Netflix to watch all of the Disney movies I don’t remember.
We started off the new bloggh series with The Jungle Book.
This one is representative of the 1960′s Disney movies (101 Dalmations, 1961; Sword in the Stone, 1963; Jungle Book, 1967). You can tell it has the 60′s influence by the shading of the cells and how the character designs have more stray lines. It’s also the 60′s because you have the vulture Fab Four.
It’s funny how distinct some of the voice actors are. You can hear characters from other Disney movies in the voices. Sterling Halloway played Kaa and Winnie the Pooh, as well as the Cheshire Cat and that Bob Newhart-ish mouse from The Aristocats. Phil Harris is Baloo and O’Malley from The Aristocats.
And then you have Clint Howard:
Baby Elephant, Roo
He’s been in 203 films. Most people know him as That Guy.
So, with each venture into Disney history, we’ll give you our family reactions.
My youngest’s favorite part? When the tiger claws the snake.
My oldest’s? When the snake falls and breaks his back.
I asked them separately, so this is proof that kids, in general, are inherently violent.
My wife’s favorite part? King Louie and the monkeys.
I agree with her. That’s my favorite part, too. “I Wanna Be Like You” is just so catchy.
King Louis Prima
Ooo bee doo
With every re-release of Disney movies “out of the vault” (imagine being that security guard. “I am willing to take a bullet for you, Song of the South. There is no way anyone’s taking you out of the vault. Over my zipadee-doo-dah dead body.”), the DVD has a music video of some Disney channel golem performing The Big Song.
And here, to ruin it all, are the Jonas Brothers:
If I had to pick a new favorite since my wife chose mine, I’d choose that stupid look Mowgli gives when The Girl (Check the cast. That’s her name.) goes all weird eyes on him.
To finish, let’s pause for a moment of silence for Ricky the Rhino, the dumb, blind animal that never made it past the storyboard:
“Hyuk. Hyuk. I will have my revenge.”
I had been tempted to hang up the Booyor URL, converting all of my basketball shorts to khaki pants, metaphorically speaking.
But even today I remembered how I’ve used this site as a repository of my Cliff Claven-esque web trivia.
So – to the Utah friends who needed writing links:
Duotrope.com – Use this site to search for places to publish your short stories and poems.
Querytracker.net – Use this site to find agents that match your style of book. When a publisher needs a certain book to fit in their line-up, they’ll go to specific agents to see what they have. Danielle Steele’s agent is not the same as Scott Westerfeld’s.
I was going to draw a completely different picture to test out Adobe Illustrator’s Live Trace on my scan of a hand drawn sketch, but then I found a note in my sketchbook from years ago. Here’s today’s take at it, complete with jagged lines that show I’m still getting the hang of Illustrator. Wabi sabi, right?
“Today’s contestant is an R4 unit tired of dating guys with bad motivators.”
I guess 3PO as a droid dating game host was funnier last decade.
And an official blech to the Neimoidian that’s behind all of the reality programming on television today:
“Unscripted television? Excellent.”
If you’ve been with the bloggh for a while, you’ll know that Blue Like Jazz is one of my favorite books. (That link is crazy because, in 2008, I had heard of this guy named William Law, the Donald Miller of the 1700s, and I finally got around to downloading the Kindle version of A Serious Call to my phone. It’s been a while.)
One of the things I love about Blue Like Jazz is that it’s coherent and yet not. It’s Donald Miller talking about his life, but yet there are so many lessons in it. It’s no wonder that right now he’s hosting the Storyline conference.
I’m curious to see how a book that’s so anti-hypocrisy transitions into a movie, a medium dominated by heroes that blow up lots of things to stop people from blowing up lots of things.
Some school years end with a fist-pumping victory lap around the track. Others end with an, “Ebb this junk; I’m goin’ home.” Since pesticides were being sprayed on the track on Thursday, the normal day of the lap, you can imagine which one I chose yesterday.
Having played the role of Rick in my library, The Cafe Americain, from 9am to noon yesterday, I jetted home to watch The King’s Speech with my wife and then Megamind with my daughters. Neither one need my endorsement. The history buff/teacher part of me loved watching Lionel Logue use elocution for good and not evil. The worn out nerd in me loved watching Megamind use “presentation” for evil and not eviler.
This week I had a conversation with a teacher who has read my book. She asked where I got my ideas for the amped fight scenes. I explained that that’s how I survived all my English courses in school. I can distinctly remember reading Watership Down and picturing the rabbits smoking cigars and having eyepatches while solving their problems with rapiers and not whatever they did in the book. It always led to an interesting class discussion in Mrs. S’s freshmen English class.
On the topic of books, the first book that I’ve read in a long time that really grabbed my attention was Okay for Now. Any fan of YA novels needs to read this now. Okay?
Jeremy is off trying to punch Antoine Leroux in the face. You can track him here or on the map below:
If you haven’t voted in round one or two, make sure to do so. I’ll tally votes on Friday.
It would seem that we here at the bloggh are on the right track. Have you seen io9′s March Madness? We could have saved them the trouble. That I just saw the io9 post today is proof that all nerds will eventually come back to this debate.
But we will settle it – or John Hodgman, Minor TV Star and Judge, will have to make a ruling.
The final round is simple: How well do you trust the captainery of the captains? If you were on a 747 captained by Kirk, Solo, or Mal, who would you want flying the plane?
Put more simply: Who do you trust with your life?
”
Solo would get you there quickly, but you’ll probably take a shortcut through a swarm of black holes or pay an exorbitant price for passage. Kirk will think quickly and creatively. However, most of it will involve cheating of Kobayashi-Maru proportions. If you do stick to the original agreement, Mal will get you to where you need to go. Just don’t cross him or, by his pretty floral bonnet, he will end you.
I will not reveal the results to round one just yet. There are still districts waiting to report and final chads that have not been dangled. I don’t want people’s votes to be swayed for the next round.
Round 2: The Angst!
You will be getting results at the end showing how each captain did in each round, so that should relieve some of your angst. Today’s focus is on the captains. I’ve said before that heroes are defined by their villains. A part of this is shown by the horrible situations the heroes get thrown into. We wouldn’t cheer for any of them if they just sat around talking and drinking Earl Grey tea.
Oh, wait.
I’m going to blame my English teacher roots, but all three – yes, Mike, all three – of the captain situations described here are my favorite examples of these captains.
Some ground rules were implemented in the selection process. All three situations are from the movies/TV show.
The Angst
Kirk:
I don’t think anyone will argue that the end of Star Trek II through the conclusion of Star Trek III is Kirk’s finest even though his happy day is crushed by both genetic super soldier and Klingon boots. Kirk watches his best friend/first officer die semi-slowly/fully-horribly to save the crew of the Enterprise. When they then investigate Genesis, Kirk’s son is killed (worst week ever) and the ship has to self-destruct. For being such a leap-first Starfleet officer, he really does put the needs of the many over his own.
Solo:
Empire Strikes Back into Return of the Jedi. He’s about to be frozen in carbonite (why the heck does Cloud City even have such a precarious chamber? Prejudice versus Ugnaughts?) after being sold out by a supposedly longtime friend. Solo has the awesomeness enough to say, “I know” to Leia in front of many people in scary helmets. In a move that made Joseph Campbell clap like a schoolgirl, Solo is reborn through the pain and wakes up blind. The scoundrel who doesn’t put his faith in anything but a blaster must now rely on his friends.
Mal:
Captain Mal gets into trouble every episode, but I think the one that summarizes it best is “Out of Gas“. Any episode that starts out with a captain bleeding to death is going to be angsty. The captain must survive in order to save his crew and his ship. The three timeline storytelling in this episode is tricky genius and a brilliant way for the crew of Serenity to go out swinging versus cancellation, bringing angst for us all.
So…which captain has the best angst moment? I know I’m probably leaving off some favorite moments (Kirk’s five year mission went how long?), so don’t be shy /sarcastic laughing/ to leave a comment.