I don’t know why it came up, but just recently Mark said, “I’ve never seen your dad laugh as hard as that time we watched City Slickers!”
It’s true. It’s also true that he laughed that hard every time we watched it.
My family has always liked watching movies together. Actually, we still do. My parents have gone to all but one of the movies we’ve taken Annalyn to, my brother went to see Pitch Perfect for the second time so I could see it last fall, and just this past weekend my husband, brother and dad went to see Lincoln during my mom’s tea party.
When I was a kid, we watched all the usual kid movies: Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, something about a car that talked, something about a shaggy dog that talked.
Of course, there were also the musicals: The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Guys & Dolls, The Music Man, On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain, Holiday Inn.
[And then there was the time my brother went through a Danny Kaye phase. I don’t really remember much of that, but I never hear the word “chalice” without remembering that the chalice in the palace has the brew that is true.]
As we got older, my family watched lots of other movies together, enough times that we knew the songs and the jokes and the right time for a bathroom break. Some of our favorites included the Indiana Jones movies (the first and third), the Back to the Future movies (the first and third), the Star Wars movies, the Romancing the Stone movies, Three Men & a Baby, the aforementioned City Slickers, The Secret of My Success and Doc Hollywood. Apparently we had a thing for Michael J. Fox back then.
One of our favorites was elevated to a whole new level when my brother and I were in a school play. Though we’d watched Wizard of Oz lots of times, we fell in love with the story even more when I played Glinda the Good Witch and my brother accompanied the musical during my senior year of high school.
That’s why I was so excited to attend a screening of Oz the Great & Powerful.
I wanted Oz to be a great movie; I really did. It wasn’t.
It had some good parts, though, and seeing it on a giant screen in 3D was certainly an experience! (I even ended up sitting next to a well-known movie critic from one of our local TV stations. That guy was as entertaining as the movie!)
Here’s the lowdown: Oz is colorful and kind of whimsical and occasionally funny. It’s also surprisingly intense for a PG-rated movie and has some fairly adult themes and dialogue for a PG-rated movie.
Then again, maybe I don’t know what a PG-rated movie is supposed to be like. So I’ll say it this way instead: I definitely won’t take Annalyn to see this one. She is, after all, the same girl who informed me a week ago that she only wants to watch the songs from The Lion King, because the movie has scary parts. So realistic flying baboons with crazy teeth lunging at me through the screen? Probably not going to work for her – or, really, any young children.
My favorite part of the movie (which I saw in 3D) was actually the opening credits. They are awesome and made me question my life-long dislike of 3D. (Then the flying through the air and falling down the waterfall happened. And I remembered why I don’t do 3D.)
The actors were hit or miss. Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz were pretty good (and, in case you’re wondering, I’ve decided that I’d like Weisz to play me in the movie of my life. Not because I’m like her. But because I want to be. But I’m not.). Unfortunately, Mila Kunis seemed unbelievable and then way over the top. Although her black leather pants – though completely unlikely to exist in 1905 – were pretty hot.
And then there was James Franco. YOU GUYS. I just don’t know about this guy. I wondered: Was he TRYING to be cheesy? Is this supposed to be campy? Because he wasn’t quite THERE . . . but he didn’t come off as sincere either. Almost but . . . not quite.
{And don’t even ask me how I felt when I discovered, while doing my very serious blog research on Wikipedia, that Robert Downey, Jr. was considered for the part of Oz. Don’t. Even. Ask.}
The story itself was okay. It seemed weird, after seeing Wicked, because the story was completely different. But it wasn’t bad. Well, except for how the Wicked Witch becomes the Wicked Witch. That part seemed a little far-fetched. {But probably only because I’ve seen Wicked.}
But the parallel of a person from Kansas getting sucked through a tornado and landing in Oz, then going on a journey with a ragtag group of companions was nice. And Zach Braff as the monkey was funny – and pulled the best performance out of Franco, honestly.
I did miss the music. I knew it wasn’t a musical, but I guess because I’ve seen Wizard of Oz so many times – enough to have even the background music memorized – I anticipated hearing the Emerald City song when we saw the Emerald City and Follow the Yellow Brick Road when we saw the yellow brick road.
So, in summary, Oz wasn’t my favorite movie and I won’t be taking Annalyn to see it. BUT it was fun and colorful, and I’d definitely take an older kid to see it.
One last thing, though. Do you remember Glinda’s dress in the original movie? Do you? I do, and you want to know why? BECAUSE I HAD TO WEAR IT. Or, you know, something like it. Whereas Michelle Williams got a GORGEOUS, simple, NOT pink and NOT fluffy gown.
That is not fair. Not fair at all.
What were your favorite movies as a child?
So, you are going to put a picture of yourself in a Glinda The Good Witch costume and NOT explain i it to us?!!!
What more explanation do you need? I said I played Glinda. In a play. It’s not like I just wore that on a random Tuesday afternoon…!
Do you still have it? :)
Yes, I put it on every once in a while and . . . NO! Of course not! :) I actually had to give it back after the last performance. And I was HAPPY to!
Also – http://www.givinguponperfect.com/2009/09/are-you-good-witch-or-bad-witch/. Boom. Explanation served.
I remember watching a lot of those movies too! A lot. I guess as much time as I spend online now… (*sigh*) City Slickers was one of our favorites too, along with the Star Wars movies, the 4th Star Trek movie (when they go back in time to Earth in the 80s), Back to the Future (1 & 3, and sometimes 2), Three Men and a Baby, The Wizard (movie about the release of Super Mario Bros 3, lol), The Addams Family, Parenthood, My Blue Heaven, The Secret of My Success, Taking Care of Business, Weekend at Bernie’s, Big, Terminator 2, Mary Poppins, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Spaceballs, Sister Act, Happy Gilmore, The Cutting Edge (some things don’t change — I still watch this one:), Encino Man, Wayne’s World… OK, I guess I could stop. I feel like there are so many more I’m missing. We really did a lot of movie-watching! Ah, memories… :)
My radio station was talking about this movie this morning, saying how it seemed a bit scary, and then they had people call in talking about what movie they remember from their childhood that scared them. I immediately thought of Arachnaphobia. I never did see the entire movie, but I saw most of it to freak me out. SO awful. To this day, I still shake out my bath towel before wrapping it around me — you never know what might be crawling on it! Ugh.
Yeah, it’s intense for little kids. But it also has some adult themes and even some very adult dialogue. Not much, but enough that I was a little annoyed, thinking of kids watching it. However, when I look back at the movies we watched when I was younger, I realize how much of THAT kind of stuff went right over my head then. So, the big thing is the scary factor – and this movie has it.
Also – as you know – I looooove The Cutting Edge. Toe pick!
I thought of a couple others: Look Who’s Talking and Troop Beverly Hills. We watched those quite a bit too. :)
Oh yeah, we loved Look Who’s Talking, too!
I was ambivalent about seeing it and then I read this article and knew it wasn’t for me. http://jezebel.com/5989268/why-oz-the-great-and-powerful-is-a-major-step-back-for-witches-and-women (Ignore the fact that it’s on Jezebel. The original post was on film.com or something like that.)
It’s too bad because I love Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz. They deserve better than playing helpless sidekicks.
Wow, great article! Thank you so much for sharing that, Leigh. It’s true…and also evidence of why I will never be a movie critic for real. I can absolutely agree with and understand all those points, but never would I have articulated them myself.
Love the photo :) What is wrong with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Everyone seems to hate it, but it was the favorite in our house…and Back to the Future II? Why wasn’t it on your list. So sad!
Well, the Temple of Doom has that really gross scene. So we just didn’t watch it. And the third one had Sean Connery, so WIN. :)
Had to smile at the Glinda dress! I was in Wizard of Oz for school, too, but I didn’t even get a Glinda dress. I was the scarecrow, so all I got were dirty overalls and hives from all that hay. :D
I really, really wanted to be the scarecrow! That’s the part I auditioned for. :) Hives don’t sound great, though, so maybe the pink dress wasn’t so bad after all… ;)
Admittedly, I cannot stand James Franco. At all. He’s always uber cheesy and one of my least favorite actors of all time. I’m not convinced he’ll ever grow on me. {Unlike Keanu Reeves and Nicholas Cage who I used to say that about but they’ve both improved ten-fold and are great actors, I think, now.} So the moment I saw he’d be in it, and the previews looked so vastly different from the original and anything related to Wicked, I knew this wouldn’t be a movie for me to see. Thank you for the review, because that just totally confirmed it for me. So sad that it wasn’t better!
You look amazing in your dress!! I have to be honest, I much prefer the big, pink, fluffy dress of the first one. I guess it’s just stuck in my head as “classic” and I have a hard time seeing it updated. I’m like that with a lot of movies, but not all of them. It just depends. Like “The Parent Trap”. The updated one with Lindsay Lohan…?! Oh gosh. Snooze. And yet, I still watch it. The original is just so much classier. Why do we beat our movies to death these days?
I LOVE your heritage of movies together with your family!!
Haha! I don’t know if you saw what I just posted on FB, but I’m watching Date Night on cable right now. I’d totally forgotten that James Franco and Mila Kunis were in this, and it’s strange that I like them SO much better in this than in Oz. Also, I liked James Franco in Freaks and Geeks a lot. But in Oz..well…just…NO.
I don’t know if I can get on board with Keanu and Nicholas Cage. But I know what you mean about actors growing on you, at least. :)
I with Rochelle, James Franco is one of my least favorite actors. He always seems really weird to me. And not it a charming sort of way.
So glad I read this! I still want to see the movie, but you lowered my expectations on it. Which is good because they were REALLY high. And I’m a little sad that you mentioned Robert Downey Jr was considered for the part. I love him, and that would have been awesome. And you just proved to me that TV can create family memories! I am not a huge TV fan, but my husband is, so the kids are. It worries me sometimes. Thank you :)
I think anything kids and parents can enjoy together, have in common can create great family memories. Obviously TV and movies shouldn’t be the only way we spend time together, but I definitely think sharing those activities can be a lot of fun! (And YES. Robert Downey as the Wizard would have been a completely different {better} movie!)