POP Loves

The oughties – the decade that spanned from the year two thousand to the year two thousand and nine – has been called many things. It’s been called “The Deade from Hell.” It’s been called “The Third Awakening.” It’s been called a period of American history best left forgotten.

But I’m calling it something else entirely. I’m calling it the decade of documentary movies.

You see, I’m a bit of a film buff. From the very first movies filmed by Thomas Edison 120 years ago to whatever the great silent films of Griffith, Murnau and the like, to Citizen Kane to Lawrence of Arabia to modern hits like The Departed and No Country for Old Men… if it’s been on celluloid, I’ve probably seen it. And if I’ve seen it, I very, very likely have an opinion on it.

So it goes for this decade as well. The 1950s may have been the decade of film musicals. The 1990s were the decade of indipendent films, while the 1970s were the era of either high-flung science fiction (Tarkovsky’s “Solaris”, Lucas’s “Star Wars”, Scott’s “Alien”) or gritty realism (Coppola’s “The Godfather” both I and II, Scorsese’s “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver”, and anything from Cassavettes or Peckinpah come to mind). This past decade, however, saw more quality documentary movies made than any other decade, and any other genre.

The biggest, in terms of budget, fanfare and impact, was Michael Moore’s anti-Bush screed “Fahrenheit 9-11.” Moore, whatever you think of his politics, is an immensely gifted filmmaker who is able to construct his stories in a way that delivers the maximum possible effect for time spent.

Other documentary movies of the decade that deserve the highest of high praise are Stacy Peralta’s surfing doc, “Riding Giants,” and a little-known film by director Seth Gordon about two men vying to set the high score in Donkey Kong called “The King of Kong: A fistful of Quarters.”

While those may have set the artistic standard for documentary movies over the past ten years, it’s worth noting that the financial standard was set by Moore. “Fahrenheit 9-11″ made nearly one hundred twenty million dollars at the box office – completely mind-blowing for a documentary and more than fifty percent higher than its nearest competition. In additon to 2004′s Fahrenheit 9-11, he also made “Sicko” in 2007. This documentary movies about the united states health insurance industry made 24.5 million dollars and is the seventeenth highest grossing documentary of all time in its own right.

Disney Movies Takes Us Back to the Magical Time of Hand-Drawn Musicals

Most older adults have tender childhood memories of Walt Disney’s breathtaking but touching cartoon movies of the early years – Snow White, Bambi and Fantasia. Anyone who has visited Disneyland and found the opportunity to visit one of the studios where artists lovingly make hand-drawn animation, cel by painful cel, has often wished for the quality and the dedication of those times in todays world of the perfect 3-D animated movie. Disney movies has famously released its statement recently that it sees things this way too – that they wish to make and release at least one traditional hand-drawn animated feature every year.

This year’s hand-drawn, high-profile feature from Disney movies is ‘The Princess and the Frog’. The movie has opened in the top slot on its opening week too, though for a painstaking project in hand-drawn animation, a $25 million opening is seen to be less than encouraging. The Princess and the Frog has a special protagonist: the first Princess in a Disney movie who is an African-American. Of course, as anyone who has watched a little TV or visited a toy store recently must know, Disney has been pushing the glamour of this idea really hard with merchandise, masks and advertising. But some critics are not buying the whole equality thing Disney is trying. The prince she’s trying to kiss back out of the frog, is not black, they say.

Disney movies of the past used to be musical extravaganzas, like ‘The Little Mermaid’. And ‘The Princess and the Frog’ is a return to that rich musical tradition in Disney. Going hand-drawn in an era of ultra-realistic 3-D animation needs to be done with special sensitivity; and Disney seems to believe that the best mind for such a direction should be a pioneer in 3-D animation such as John Lasseter, one of the founders of Pixar. While the movie seems a little slow, taking off, critical opinion has been unequivocally generous. Perhaps Lasseter was just the right choice after all. Disney movies are not charged just by ticket sales, of course; most of their productions take on an after-life of their own in the collective consciousness, and drive a rousing business in Disney merchandise. If this movie succeeds in capturing the imaginations of children far enough to drive the sales of dolls, stuffed toys, action figures and children’s bedroom accessories, it can certainly be said, then, that Disney has succeeded in reviving the genre.

The last hand-drawn venture from Disney movies was ‘Home on the Range’ five years ago; it’s been noticed ever since that the hand-drawn variety does not catch on as quickly as a movie made on modern methods. But once they catch on they just become immortal. ‘The Princess and the Frog’ is about a waitress in New Orleans whose ambition it is to become a successful restaurant entrepreneur herself. She finds herself in a situation where she gets to kiss a prince turned into frog, to help it return to human form. She does so, but finds that her plans have taken a bad turn, and the spell has turned her into a frog too. If Disney can get past accusations that it is running on stereotypes to pander to its audience, it should have a hit on its hands.