Toon Talk: Of Frogs and Fireflies

Fresh off of its theatrical run and three Academy Award nominations, Disney’s The Princess and the Frog is poised to become the hit it deserves to be with its debut on Disney Blu-ray and DVD this week.

When The Princess and the Frog was released just three months ago, it was met with critical acclaim (including from me) that hailed it as a worthy addition to Disney’s long line of animated classics. However, in the crowded holiday movie marketplace, this Princess never lived up to its full box office potential. But now that it has been released to home video, those families who were too busy with December festivities will have the chance to discover it for themselves ...

Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of the Princess and the Frog Blu-ray at LaughingPlace.com.

Men on Film: If We Picked the Oscars 2009

Borrowing a page from Siskel and Ebert back in the good ol' days, Movie Dearest's very own Men on Film — Chris Carpenter, Neil Cohen and yours truly — are presenting our own version of "If We Picked the Oscars"! These aren't predictions (we'll get to those next week), but what movies, actors, directors, et al that we would vote for if we were members of the Academy.

So without further ado, the envelope please ...

The nominees for Best Picture are: Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, A Serious Man, Up and Up in the Air.
And our winners would be:
CC: While A Serious Man ranked slightly higher on my top 10 list, I would vote for the more moving Precious.
NC: I loved Up in the Air. It's witty and surprisingly moving, and boasts a perfect ensemble.
KH: Can the most entertaining movie of the year be the "best"? If it's Up it can.

The nominees for Best Actor are: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, George Clooney in Up in the Air, Colin Firth in A Single Man, Morgan Freeman in Invictus and Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker.
And our winners would be:
CC: Firth, who manages to be devastated and affecting without debasing himself or losing his character's sense of humor.
KH: I agree. No performance this year was as raw, as real as Firth's tortured, transcendent one.
NC: A perfect trifecta! Firth makes his suicidal pent-up perfect gentleman a hero of restraint and agony. He's period perfect.

The nominees for Best Actress are: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, Helen Mirren in The Last Station, Carey Mulligan in An Education, Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire and Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia.
And our winners would be:
CC: It's tough because I loved all of them, but I would vote for Bullock's very impressive turn.
NC: Sandy was great, but Meryl was sublime, giving a pitch perfect performance that showed us the real woman behind the icon.
KH: Never lapsing into caricature, Streep served up a saucy (and sexy?!) Julia Child.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are: Matt Damon in Invictus, Woody Harrelson in The Messenger, Christopher Plummer in The Last Station, Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones and Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds.
And our winners would be:
CC: Plummer (who I can't believe hasn't been nominated before) would get my vote for his great Leo Tolstoy.
NC: Waltz dances away with this award, creating an indelible villain with a twinkle in his eye as he mowed people down.
KH: Harrelson avoided all the "drill sergeant" clichés, creating a uniquely humorous — and humane — individual.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actress are: Penélope Cruz in Nine, Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air, Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart, Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air and Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.
And our winners would be:
CC: No contest: Mo'Nique.
NC: Yes, she is in a whole other league than the other women. She was like an open wound on screen.
KH: Mo’Nique's final scene turned her "mother from hell" into a mother in hell.

The nominees for Best Director are: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker, James Cameron for Avatar, Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, Jason Reitman for Up in the Air and Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds.
And our winners would be:
CC: Bigelow did a great job, and its way past time to break up the boys' club.
KH: Who else could create the gleefully twisted alternate universe that was Inglourious Basterds but Tarantino?
NC: I'm with you. Tarantino did a brilliant rewrite of history, and staged some of the best suspense scenes of the year.

The nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay are: District 9, An Education, In the Loop, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire and Up in the Air.
And our winners would be:
CC: I liked the funny and foul-mouthed In the Loop a lot, but I would have to vote for Geoffrey Fletcher's Precious.
NC: Up in the Air is like classic golden age comedy, and much adaptation (by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner) was necessary to create it.
KH: Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell's District 9 was inventive, intelligent science fiction.

The nominees for Best Original Screenplay are: The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, The Messenger, A Serious Man and Up.
And our winners would be:
CC: A tough call for me at present between Inglourious Basterds and A Serious Man, both of which are very smart, sophisticated, and unapologetically pro-Jewish!
NC: Basterds is a remake (wasn't it?), but Tarantino's script is hilarious and horrifying.
KH: Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman's The Messenger ... now this is how you make a contemporary war film.

The nominees for Best Cinematography are: Avatar, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds and The White Ribbon.
And our winners would be:
CC: Robert Richardson, probably the best cinematographer working, would get my vote for his stunning work on Inglourious Basterds.
NC: I vote for Richardson too, but The Hurt Locker was amazing as well.
KH: Agree, his work on Basterds was old-fashioned moviemaking at its best.

The nominees for Best Art Direction are: Avatar, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Nine, Sherlock Holmes and The Young Victoria.
And our winners would be:
CC: Avatar is undeniably stunning.
KH: Granted, but parts of Pandora looked like the E.T. ride at Universal Studios; still, there was still plenty to gawk in amazement at.
NC: If I picked it, A Single Man wouldn't have been ignored. Of what's here, Sherlock Holmes was fun and creative.

The nominees for Best Costume Design are: Bright Star, Coco Before Chanel, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Nine and The Young Victoria.
And our winners would be:
CC: I would vote for Catherine Leterrier's work in the fashion-centric Coco Before Chanel.
NC: Again, my vote is for A Single Man's gorgeous 60's duds, but The Young Victoria is the best of the nominees.
KH: Sandy Powell's exquisite color choices and opulent designs served Young Victoria well.

The nominees for Best Original Score are: Avatar, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Hurt Locker, Sherlock Holmes and Up.
And our winners would be:
CC: While I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes' jaunty score, Up is great and composer Michael Giacchino is the man of the hour.
NC: Up with Up!
KH: For Up, Giacchino created a musical theme that was an instant classic.

The nominees for Best Original Song are: "Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog, "Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog, “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36, “Take It All” from Nine and “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart.
And our winners would be:
CC: "Almost There" (although the un-nominated "Dig a Little Deeper" and "When We're Human" from the same film are better, more memorable songs).
NC: The Paris 36 song is terrible and inexplicable, but "Almost There" is classic Oscar song magic.
KH: It's unanimous ... too bad we won't get to see Anika Noni Rose belt it out at the Kodak.

The nominees for Best Film Editing are: Avatar, District 9, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds and Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: We all agree that the high anxiety level of The Hurt Locker is thanks to the taut cutting of Bob Murawski and Chris Innis.

The nominees for Best Visual Effects are: Avatar, District 9 and Star Trek.
And our winners would be:
CC: Avatar cannot be denied in this category.
KH: Yes, Avatar is a game changer; but I prefer the scrappy results (at a fraction of the budget) of District 9's team.
NC: I second District 9's effects that merged with the documentary style.

The nominees for Best Sound Mixing are: Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
And our winners would be:
CC: I'll say Avatar.
NC: Inglourious Basterds for its firepower.
KH: The Hurt Locker proved that silences can be as equally terrifying as explosions.

The nominees for Best Sound Editing are: Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Star Trek and Up.
And our winners would be:
CC: It's always hard for me to tell the difference between this category and the previous one, but I would probably vote for Avatar.
NC: Again, Inglourious Basterds rules the roost.
KH: Avatar's team created a whole new world of sound effects.

The nominees for Best Makeup are: Il Divo, Star Trek and The Young Victoria.
And our winners would be:
CC: Star Trek, if only for making the normally attractive Eric Bana appear nasty and virtually unrecognizable.
NC: Trek was style and substance, rather than just age makeup.
KH: Two words: Spock ears.

The nominees for Best Animated Feature are: Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells and Up.
And our winners would be:
CC: I have a soft spot in my heart for the crafty Coraline, and would have to vote for it.
NC: Mr. Fox was fantastic, but Up is heavenly.
KH: In a banner year for the medium, Pixar still reigns.

The nominees for Best Foreign Language Film are: Ajami from Israel, El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes) from Argentina, The Milk of Sorrow from Peru, Un Prophète (A Prophet) from France and The White Ribbon from Germany.
And our winners would be:
NC: Broken Embraces. Oh wait, it wasn't nominated?  Then I'll go with the haunting and hypnotic The White Ribbon.
CC, KH: Can we vote on this next year when all the movies are out on DVD?

The nominees for Best Documentary Feature are: Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country, The Cove, Food, Inc., The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers and Which Way Home.
And our winners would be:
CC: The Cove and Food, Inc. are both very well made and highly disturbing, but the latter gets my vote for its slightly more immediate impact.
NC: Capitalism: A Love Story is the film that the Republicans need to watch. Too bad it was overlooked.
KH: Like the best of its genre, The Cove offers filmmaking as compelling as its subject matter.

The nominees for Best Documentary Short are: China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province, The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, Music by Prudence and Rabbit à la Berlin.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: This is always the Oscar Pool "Lucky Guess" category, so here goes: The Last Truck, which taps into the country's woes best (we hear).

The nominees for Best Animated Short are: French Roast, Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty, The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte), Logorama and A Matter of Loaf and Death.
And our winners would be:
CC: The audacious (or should that be adacious) Logorama.
NC: Logorama is brand-named brilliance.
KH: The Lady and the Reaper is ... (wait for it) ... to die for.

The nominees for Best Live Action Short are: The Door, Instead of Abracadabra, Kavi, Miracle Fish and The New Tenants.
And our winners would be:
NC, KH:  We bow down to the reverend on this one:
CC: The hauntingly sublime The Door.

Now it's your turn: tell us who and what you would vote for in the comments section below!

Awards Watch: Best Original Song 2009

This post is part of The LAMB Devours the Oscars, a 33-part series dissecting the 82nd Annual Academy Awards hosted by the Large Association of Movie Blogs.

Unlike last year, the Academy's music branch managed to deem five songs (from four films) worthy of nomination for Original Song in the 2009 Oscar race. This in itself is notable considering the rules for this category were once again tinkered with earlier this year, creating new restrictions that could have resulted in at little as two nominees or even (gulp) no nominations at all.

Thankfully, that didn't happen, and the quintet of tunes honored offer a varied selection of styles, not surprising considering their respective films are set in 1920's New Orleans, 1930's Paris, 1960's Italy and the present day American southwest. Three of the songs are from two full-fledged musicals, while the other two are from films set in the "real world", albeit in show biz settings where "bursting into song" isn't all that unusual. All five songs are performed onscreen in whole or in part; no end title power ballads here (sorry Avatar, no room for you here).

And the nominees are (click on the song titles to listen to them on YouTube):

• “Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog (Walt Disney Pictures), Music and Lyric by Randy Newman.
• “Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog (Walt Disney Pictures), Music and Lyric by Randy Newman.
• “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36 (Sony Picture Classics), Music by Reinhardt Wagner, Lyric by Frank Thomas.
• “Take It All” from Nine (The Weinstein Company), Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston.
• “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart (Fox Searchlight Pictures), Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.

An Academy favorite, Randy Newman is the only previous winner amongst this year's nominated songwriters, having finally won the Oscar for “If I Didn't Have You” from Monsters, Inc. a few years back. His two nods this year for The Princess and the Frog brings his career total to a whopping 19 nominations, 11 in this category alone. Rich with the flavors of his hometown of New Orleans, Newman's songs for Disney's return to traditional animation are an integral part of this creative retelling of the fairy tale "The Frog Prince".

First up is “Almost There”, performed by Anika Noni Rose as the film's heroine, Tiana. A classic example of the Disney protagonist's "I want" song, “Almost There” is an up-tempo declaration of independence for Tiana, who yearns to open her own restaurant on her own terms. The song is boosted by the strong vocals of the multi-talented Rose (who won a Tony Award for the Broadway musical Caroline, or Change) and its unique visual presentation, a stylized art deco fantasy as only Disney animation can do.

Newman's other nominated Frog tune is “Down in New Orleans”, which serves as a jazzy introduction to the film's colorful setting and cast of characters. The song is actually heard three times in the film: first, as a brief prologue sung by Anika Noni Rose, then performed over the opening credit sequence by the Grammy-winning jazzman Dr. John, and finally as (you guessed it) the finale, again sung by Rose. I suspect that these two songs will be performed together as a medley on Oscar night, hopefully by original singers Rose (who last sang on the Oscars as part of the Dreamgirls) and John.

By all accounts a surprise nominee, “Loin de Paname” from the French period piece Paris 36 nevertheless follows this category's recent trend of recognizing non-English language songs, such as recent winners “Al Otro Lado del Río” from The Motorcycle Diaries and “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire. In fact, the last French song to be nominated was “Look To Your Path (Vois Sur Ton Chemin)” from The Chorus (Les Choristes), directed by Christophe Barratier, who also directed (you guessed it) Paris 36.

Detailing the trials and tribulations of a ragtag group of theater people "putting on a show" in pre-World War II France, Paris 36 centers on the music hall known as the Chansonia, wherein we hear “Loin de Paname” (translated: “Far from Paris”). The show's ingénue, Douce (played by lovely newcomer Nora Arnezeder) is urged by the opening night crowd to sing a song, and she timidly agrees, eventually winning them over with her natural talent and the rousing refrain of "Paris, Paris". With its lilting melody and simple lyrics, “Loin de Paname” is reminiscent of the period; one could almost image Édith Piaf singing it.

And speaking of Piaf, the actress who won an Academy Award for playing her on film in La Vie en Rose, Marion Cotillard, is the singer (no lip-syncing this time) of the next nominated tune. Written by Maury Yeston, who won a Tony for his score of the original stage version of Nine, “Take It All” replaces the similar number “Be On Your Own” in the film adaptation. Both songs serve the same function in the story: Luisa, the oft ignored and cheated on wife of celebrated film director Guido Contini, has had enough of it and is leaving him.

But whereas the original song is an overwrought ballad, the new tune is a fierce showstopper delivered fearlessly by Cotillard in a stark striptease number that will hopefully be recreated for the Oscar ceremony (where it will probably be paired with “Loin de Paname”). Nine's other all-original tune, the catchy-but-fluffy “Cinema Italiano”, may have received nominations from the Critics Choice, Golden Globe and Satellite Awards, but the Academy favored the more dramatic option.

The song that beat “Cinema Italiano” for all those early awards is also the favored to win the Oscar: “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” composed by T Bone Burnett (who was previously nominated for “Scarlet Tide” from Cold Mountain) and Ryan Bingham (no relation to this Ryan Bingham). If it does prove victorious, it will follow in the footsteps of such other recent low-key "singer/songwriter" winners as “Falling Slowly” from Once and “I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth.

The plaintive “Weary Kind” is heard throughout Crazy Heart, a by-the-numbers drama about a washed-up country singer played by Best Actor front-runner Jeff Bridges. Bridges' character, Bad Blake, writes the song during the course of the story, and Colin Farrell (as Tommy Sweet, Blake's protégé-who-is-now-more-famous-then-he-is) performs it, in part, in a concert at the end of the film. However, the complete version of the song, sung by co-writer Bingham, is heard over the end credits (so much for no end title songs).

While Bingham will most likely perform the song solo on the Oscars, it would be kind of cool if Bridges and even Farrell joined him on stage for a Grammy-esque jam session. We will see on March 7, when the 82nd Annual Academy Awards will be broadcast live on ABC.

Oscars 2009: A Guide to What's on Disc

Haven't seen all of this year's Academy Award nominees? Here's a complete list of all of the Oscar nominated feature films that are currently available on DVD and/or Blu-ray, plus release dates for those that are coming soon.

Now available:
- Bright Star: DVD
- Coraline:  DVD / Blu-ray
- The Cove:  DVD
- District 9:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Food, Inc.:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:  DVD / Blu-ray
- The Hurt Locker:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Il Divo:  DVD / Blu-ray
- In the Loop:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Inglourious Basterds:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Julie & Julia:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Paris 36:  DVD
- Star Trek:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Up:  DVD / Blu-ray

Coming Soon:
- The Blind Side:  DVD / Blu-ray (available March 23)
- Coco Before Chanel:  DVD / Blu-ray (available February 16)
- Fantastic Mr. Fox:  DVD / Blu-ray (available March 23)
- Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire:  DVD / Blu-ray (available March 9)
- The Princess and the Frog:  DVD / Blu-ray (available March 16)
- A Serious Man:  DVD / Blu-ray (available February 9)
- Sherlock Holmes: DVD / Blu-ray (available March 30)

Click on the links above to purchase from Amazon.com.