On Happy Endings and Earning Them
November 3, 2017 9:48 AM Subscribe
Lindsay Ellis once again gives a deep dive into movie history and film theory with Disney’s The Hunchback Of Norte Dame (38:00), touching on Victor Hugo’s original work, authorial intent, the history and problems of adaptation, visual mass media, internal Disney power struggles and ...Nazis.
The video is fine.
It's fine.
This is fine.
posted by Groundhog Week at 10:19 AM on November 3, 2017 [8 favorites]
It's fine.
This is fine.
posted by Groundhog Week at 10:19 AM on November 3, 2017 [8 favorites]
He's fine.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 10:29 AM on November 3, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 10:29 AM on November 3, 2017 [5 favorites]
Can't watch now but I've been missing Ellis' insights for a while now.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:05 AM on November 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 11:05 AM on November 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
This was great. I first started watching Ellis's work during her Nostalgia Chick days, inadvertently drifted away around the time she left Channel Awesome, and was delighted to come back recently to find a back catalogue of incredibly well-made and insightful video essays waiting for me.
posted by haruspicina at 11:32 AM on November 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by haruspicina at 11:32 AM on November 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
I can't watch this video now, I'm looking forward to it
I'm just here to say that whatever else this movie did, it gave us "Hellfire," which is probably the single best Disney musical number that will ever be written, and certainly the only one about being torn apart by your illicit desires and begging God to take the burden from you
posted by Countess Elena at 12:00 PM on November 3, 2017 [13 favorites]
I'm just here to say that whatever else this movie did, it gave us "Hellfire," which is probably the single best Disney musical number that will ever be written, and certainly the only one about being torn apart by your illicit desires and begging God to take the burden from you
posted by Countess Elena at 12:00 PM on November 3, 2017 [13 favorites]
She's amazing! How have I never seen her videos before? There goes the rest of my day.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:43 PM on November 3, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:43 PM on November 3, 2017 [5 favorites]
This was a great essay. And it seems like the women-hating #gamergaters haven't found her yet, so the comments section was even readable!
posted by xyzzy at 12:47 PM on November 3, 2017
posted by xyzzy at 12:47 PM on November 3, 2017
Her 7 part (so far) on transformers is like the greatest thing ever on youtube.
posted by bukvich at 12:58 PM on November 3, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by bukvich at 12:58 PM on November 3, 2017 [4 favorites]
I look forward to watching this later. Over the summer, I sat down with my seven year old daughter and had what I called the "Middling-Nineties-Disney-On-Streaming" film festival, which consisted of Tarzan, Hercules and Hunchback of Notre Dame (None of which I had seen). While I found the first two kind of meh, I was delightfully stunned by Hunchback. That opening musical number alone was more than my Carmina Burana loving heart could bear.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 1:06 PM on November 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 1:06 PM on November 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yeah, Hunchback is my favorite of the Disney animated movies I've seen. You just have to focus on that opening and on Hellfire, and kind of ... not engage with the fart jokes the way one tries to ignore Mickey Rooney's character in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
posted by Naberius at 1:21 PM on November 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Naberius at 1:21 PM on November 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
I haven't ever actually watched the Disney Hunchback, nor any of the other versions, and I have never read the novel.
That said, that was fucking great.
posted by brennen at 1:38 PM on November 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
That said, that was fucking great.
posted by brennen at 1:38 PM on November 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
So I just looked at Hellfire on Youtube, and it reminded me so much of Ruggiero Raimondi’s „Va Tosca/Te Deum“ - „Tosca! You make me forget about God!“
posted by Omnomnom at 4:03 PM on November 3, 2017
posted by Omnomnom at 4:03 PM on November 3, 2017
This is one of the rare occasions where I completely disagreed with Lindsay Ellis.
(I can't stand Disney's The Little Mermaid either. SHE DIES AT THE END OR DON'T CALL IT THE LITTLE MERMAID.)
posted by kyrademon at 6:07 PM on November 3, 2017 [3 favorites]
(I can't stand Disney's The Little Mermaid either. SHE DIES AT THE END OR DON'T CALL IT THE LITTLE MERMAID.)
posted by kyrademon at 6:07 PM on November 3, 2017 [3 favorites]
And, incidentally, La Esmerelda is a crappy opera, too. Not all adaptations and reinventions are good adaptations and reinventions, no matter who was involved in it. It's like saying that it would have been a perfectly good idea to make Jar Jar Binks the lead character of The Force Awakens because George Lucas directed The Phantom Menace. Yes, adaptations and reinventions are legitimate artforms. But not all of them are good.
posted by kyrademon at 6:41 PM on November 3, 2017
posted by kyrademon at 6:41 PM on November 3, 2017
« Older "It was exhausting; It's like being in a Hentai... | Artworks with problematic creators Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by dannyboybell at 10:00 AM on November 3, 2017 [5 favorites]