#tom and huck 1995

[benedictusantonius]

Tom and Huck (1995) starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Tom Sawyer and Brad Renfro as Huckleberry Finn

[chuuyanakaahara]

For your street racing au, what cars do each racer have?

there are a couple repeats for various reasons, but lemme grab the list !!!

agency of repairs;

atsushi nakajima; 1991 Nissan 180SX  osamu dazai; 1991 Nissan 180SX doppo kunikida; 1992 Honda Accord SE (F20A), / 1989 Lancia Delta Integrale 16v junichirou tanizaki; 1993 Honda Integra RS (Type R Converted) yukichi fukuzawa; 1973 Nissan Fairlady Z/240Z  ranpo edogawa; 1995 Mazda MX5 NA akiko yosano; 1996 Toyota Chaser Tourer V JZX100

atsushi & dazai have the same car because dazai offered to let atsushi repair his old car to learn the tricks of the trade. dazai has had the same car multiple times, as he has a knack for wrecking them. the one atsushi has is the only one with an intact chassis, which is why he was able to repair it.

the portside;

ryuunosuke akutagawa; 1994 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution II  gin akutagawa; 1986 Toyota MR2 AW11 / Yahama YZF-1000R chuuya nakahara; 1991 Honda NSX NA1 michizou tachihara; 1991 Mazda RX7 FC3S ougai mori; 1974 BMW 2002 Turbo ryurou hirotsu; 1981 Porsche 911 930 Turbo kouyou ozaki; 1995 Lotus Carlton oda sakunosuke; 1986 Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R

when chuuya comes out of retirement, he drives a different car, as a sign of growth from his teenage years. to emphasis it, he also changes his moniker; he changes "arahabaki" to "TAINTED", and he is welcomed back like a legend. gin is the only racer to consistently enter touge races with a motorcycle, and possibly the one most deserving of her reputation.

misc;

lucy montgomery; 1992 Chevrolet Corvette C4 ZR1 edgar allan poe; 1996 Lotus Elise Gen 1 mark twain; 1994 Dodge Viper RT10 / BMW M3 E36 (Euro-spec) francis scott fitzgerald; 1969 Dodge Challenger Daytona saigiku jouno; 1991 Porsche 944 Turbo

jouno is the only one of the misc. category to have formerly raced, but will not return to the scene. this is due to jouno losing his sight during the golden era, so he retired in '92 when it became dangerous for him to drive. before that, he and dazai were rivals. mark twain has two cars because he races both touge and highway - as such, he also has two names; tom sawyer and huck finn.

[tommystummy]

Just remembered that in like.... 6th grade I think? The teacher showed Tom and Huck (1995) starring Johnathan Taylor Thomas and Brad Renfro and there was a music number that involved them skinny dipping and it was like... all I could think about for days afterwards.

That was fucking gay of me but what the fuck was Disney thinking?

[salesbyserenity]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Tom and Huck Walt Disney VHS 1995 Movie PG.

[joywillcome]

Spoilers for a 90s movie 

So, I finished reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with my kids so we decided to watch the movie I was most familiar with, which was the “Tom and Huck” movie from 1995. It holds a bit of nostalgia for me but watching it after all this time, especially after reading the book, which is very clever and funny, it was... weird. For one thing, in the book I love that the boys are horrible menaces to the antagonist (who for the sake of this post I will just call Joe) but Joe...barely knows who they are. His only indication that Tom was trouble for him was at the trial, and he had no way of knowing how Tom knew what he knew and after that had no inclination that Tom and Huck were the cause of all of his other disasters. Tom just...accidentally witnessed him commit a murder. And accidentally found his treasure. And Huck accidentally ruined his attempt at maiming the widow. And Tom accidently caused him to starve to death in a cave. But in this movie Joe sees that someone witnessed his crime, found out who Tom was, and was actively tracking him, threatening him, and plotting revenge and what not. That’s less fun.  

BUT the most hilarious part of this movie is this the characterization of Huck. In the book he’s homeless and a troublemaker, but he’s not unkind and he feels horrible for Muff and is just too frightened of Joe to do anything about it. He even has moments of bravery and empathy. 

The movie was like...no. He needs to be a jerk. but...in an angsty 90s teenage heartthrob kind of way. 

I cannot take this seriously. I’m sorry. 

And then they just...had him accept being adopted by Widow Douglas and being forced to be civilized? And instead Tom was the one upset? What? That change makes no sense with the character that you have set up here. 

10/10 I’ll probably watch again in 10 years 

[sgtsavoytruffle]

All of ‘em was dead, and all of ‘em... was smilin’.

Tom and Huck (1995)

[brightmoonbitterfrost]

Does anyone else have like.. “forgotten” movies or shows they watched when they were kids that it seems like no one else ever knew about bc they were so obscure? Maybe straight to video movies or made for TV movies that you watched when you were young and absolutely loved but no one else had ever seen?

Some of mine:

Wild America

The Secret Garden (1993)

Heidi (1994 miniseries)

The Giant of Thunder Mountain

Tom and Huck

Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain

Escape to Witch Mountain (1995)

Tell me some of yours

[dfilms]

Tom And Huck, 1995

[fiftytwotwentytwo]

A Confederacy of Dunces

Author: John Kennedy Toole

Fiction / Humor

Page Count: 394

How Did I Come Across This Book?:

So for years and years I would always see this book on store shelves or in libraries - it's hard to miss it with its garish and quasi juvenile book cover - and I would always take a quick glance and continue on.

Well, lately I keep hearing rumblings of this story - Will Ferrell was set to play the main lead - The Movie Adaptation is cursed - John Belushi, John Candy, Chris Farley were geared up to take on the role but sadly all passed before anything could come to fruition...

The very last book I read, Silver Screen Fiend, had a small tangent about this book and its folly in film.

So, just last month, for some reason I was finally compelled to pick up and buy the book solely based on blind faith. Due to the recent influx of "word of mouth" I decided to bump the book up my reading list.

Review:

The book has me quasi lost for words.

The book's forward (about the author's sad passing and an abridged story of the book's publication) alone - which I read only just four days ago - has rented space in my mind - for how long - who knows?

The book was fun and enjoyable, but simple and raw?

Did I just say raw? Do I know what I'm talking about? Yeah, no, the book is raw.

It's, in a sense, so simple and raw it is able to sneak up into daily thoughts like a loveable, oafish, dope.

It feels timeless - but - dated. It is unpredictable - but - aimless.

The sheer volume of pages and word count at first glance seems overwhelming, but diving in and actually consuming the written word the story flies - at times catching myself with a well stretched smirk.

Reading this book I also found myself thinking, "Was this the way people were feeling when they read Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn" - I personally haven't read either, but I got a vibe this would be a "modern" Tom Sawyer - to be fair all my assumptions are probably built off my (multiple) childhood viewings of the film Tom & Huck (1995).

I can easily find myself going down a rabbit hole of the cult book and its history.

I definitely believe I will give this book another read through.

Personal Rating: 7/10

Yearly Book Total: 15

Total Page Count: 4,958 pages

[movie-titlecards]

Tom and Huck (1995)

My rating: 5/10

Mostly a pretty close adaptation of the book (for better or worse), whose greatest misstep is what appears to be a misguided attempt at making Huck Finn into some kind of Cool Antihero For The 90s, with the floppy hair and the 'tude and everything. Which, even if that weren't a terrible idea, his name is Huckleberry. It just ain't gonna happen.

Good supporting cast, though, that lady who played the Widow Douglas would've been a great Granny Weatherwax.

[mantlecurve]

Disney+ launch titles

Disney+ launched today with the following titles

Sorted by release year

Title Year Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 Fantasia 1940 Pinocchio 1940 Swiss Family Robinson 1940 Dumbo 1941 The Reluctant Dragon 1941 Bambi 1942 Saludos Amigos 1943 The Three Caballeros 1945 Fun and Fancy Free 1947 Miracle on 34th Street 1947 Melody Time 1948 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad 1949 Cinderella 1950 Treasure Island 1950 Alice in Wonderland 1951 The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men 1952 Peter Pan 1953 The Living Desert 1953 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1954 The Vanishing Prairie 1954 Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier 1955 Lady and the Tramp 1955 The African Lion 1955 Davy Crockett and the River Pirates 1956 Secrets of Life 1956 Old Yeller 1957 Perri 1957 The Sign of Zorro 1958 White Wilderness 1958 Darby O’Gill and the Little People 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth 1959 Jungle Cat 1959 Sleeping Beauty 1959 The Shaggy Dog 1959 Pollyanna 1960 Swiss Family Robinson 1960 101 Dalmatians 1961 Babes in Toyland 1961 Greyfriars Bobby 1961 The Absent-Minded Professor 1961 The Parent Trap 1961 Almost Angels 1962 Sammy, the Way-Out Seal 1962 The Prince and the Pauper 1962 The Incredible Journey 1963 The Sword in the Stone 1963 Emil and the Detectives 1964 Mary Poppins 1964 That Darn Cat! 1965 The Sound of Music 1965 Those Calloways 1965 The Ugly Dachshund 1966 The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin 1967 The Jungle Book 1967 Blackbeard’s Ghost 1968 The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes 1969 The Love Bug 1969 The Aristocats 1970 Bedknobs and Broomsticks 1971 The Barefoot Executive 1971 The Million Dollar Duck 1971 Justin Morgan Had a Horse 1972 Snowball Express 1972 The Biscuit Eater 1972 Robin Hood 1973 Herbie Rides Again 1974 The Bears and I 1974 The Castaway Cowboy 1974 Escape to Witch Mountain 1975 The Apple Dumpling Gang 1975 The Strongest Man in the World 1975 Gus 1976 The Shaggy D.A. 1976 Treasure of Matecumbe 1976 Candleshoe 1977 Freaky Friday 1977 Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo 1977 Pete’s Dragon 1977 Star Wars: A New Hope 1977 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh 1977 The Rescuers 1977 Return From Witch Mountain 1978 The Cat From Outer Space 1978 Spider-Woman 1979 The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again 1979 The Black Hole 1979 The Muppet Movie 1979 Unidentified Flying Oddball 1979 Herbie Goes Bananas 1980 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back 1980 Sultan and the Rock Star 1980 The Ghosts of Buxley Hall 1980 Amy 1981 Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends 1981 Spider-Man – Series 1981 The Fox and the Hound 1981 The Great Muppet Caper 1981 TRON 1982 Star Wars: Return of the Jedi 1983 Adventures of the Gummi Bears 1985 One Magic Christmas 1985 Return to Oz 1985 The Black Cauldron 1985 The Journey of Natty Gann 1985 Casebusters 1986 Flight of the Navigator 1986 Fuzzbucket 1986 Mr. Boogedy 1986 The Christmas Star 1986 The Great Mouse Detective 1986 Benji the Hunted 1987 DuckTales 1987 Three Men and a Baby 1987 Oliver & Company 1988 The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit 1988 Willow 1988 Cheetah 1989 Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers 1989 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids 1989 The Little Mermaid 1989 The Simpsons 1989 Turner & Hooch 1989 Ducktales: The Movie, Treasure of the Lost Lamp 1990 TaleSpin 1990 The Rescuers Down Under 1990 Three Men and a Little Lady 1990 Beauty and the Beast 1991 Darkwing Duck 1991 Shipwrecked 1991 The Rocketeer 1991 White Fang 1991 Aladdin 1992 Goof Troop 1992 Honey, I Blew Up the Kid 1992 Newsies 1992 Sister Act 1992 The Little Mermaid – Series 1992 The Muppet Christmas Carol 1992 X-Men – Series 1992 Bonkers 1993 Boy Meets World 1993 Hocus Pocus 1993 Life With Mikey 1993 Rookie of the Year 1993 Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit 1993 The Adventures of Huck Finn 1993 The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 The Sandlot 1993 The Three Musketeers 1993 Blank Check 1994 Camp Nowhere 1994 Fantastic Four 1994 Gargoyles 1994 Iron Man – Series 1994 Iron Will 1994 Spider-Man – Series 1994 The Lion King 1994 The Return of Jafar 1994 The Santa Clause 1994 Thumbelina 1994 A Goofy Movie 1995 A Kid in King Arthur’s Court 1995 Frank and Ollie 1995 Heavyweights 1995 Operation Dumbo Drop 1995 Pocahontas 1995 Tall Tale 1995 Timon & Pumbaa 1995 Tom and Huck 1995 Toy Story 1995 While You Were Sleeping 1995 101 Dalmatians 1996 Aladdin and the King of Thieves 1996 First Kid 1996 Jack 1996 James and the Giant Peach 1996 Kazaam 1996 Mighty Ducks – Series 1996 Muppet Treasure Island 1996 Quack Pack 1996 The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1996 The Incredible Hulk – Series 1996 Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas 1997 Flubber 1997 Hercules 1997 Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves 1997 Jungle 2 Jungle 1997 Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin 1997 Recess 1997 Smart Guy 1997 That Darn Cat 1997 The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue 1997 A Bug’s Life 1998 Belle’s Magical World 1998 Brink! 1998 Halloweentown 1998 Hercules – Series 1998 I’ll Be Home for Christmas 1998 Meet the Deedles 1998 Mighty Joe Young 1998 Miracle at Midnight 1998 Mulan 1998 Out of the Box 1998 Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World 1998 Richie Rich’s Christmas Wish 1998 Ruby Bridges 1998 Silver Surfer 1998 The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars 1998 The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story 1998 The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride 1998 The Parent Trap 1998 You Lucky Dog 1998 10 Things I Hate About You 1999 Annie 1999 Can of Worms 1999 Don’t Look Under the Bed 1999 Doug’s 1st Movie 1999 Genius 1999 Horse Sense 1999 Inspector Gadget 1999 Johnny Tsunami 1999 Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas 1999 My Favorite Martian 1999 Smart House 1999 So Weird 1999 Spider-Man Unlimited – Series 1999 Star Wars: The Phantom Menace 1999 The Avengers: United They Stand 1999 The Thirteenth Year 1999 Toy Story 2 1999 Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century 1999 102 Dalmatians 2000 Alley Cats Strike 2000 An Extremely Goofy Movie 2000 Dinosaur 2000 Even Stevens 2000 Fantasia 2000 2000 Miracle in Lane 2 2000 Mom’s Got a Date With a Vampire 2000 Phantom of the Megaplex 2000 Quints 2000 Ready to Run 2000 Remember the Titans 2000 Rip Girls 2000 Stepsister From Planet Weird 2000 The Color of Friendship 2000 The Emperor’s New Groove 2000 The Kid 2000 The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea 2000 The Other Me 2000 The Tigger Movie 2000 The Ultimate Christmas Present 2000 Up, Up and Away 2000 Whispers: An Elephant’s Tale 2000 X-Men: Evolution – Series 2000 Atlantis: The Lost Empire 2001 Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge 2001 Hounded 2001 Jumping Ship 2001 Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure 2001 Lizzie McGuire 2001 Monsters, Inc. 2001 Motocrossed 2001 Recess: School’s Out 2001 The Book of Pooh 2001 The Jennie Project 2001 The Luck of the Irish 2001 The Poof Point 2001 The Princess Diaries 2001 Three Days 2001 Zenon: The Zequel 2001 ‘Twas the Night 2001 A Ring of Endless Light 2002 Cadet Kelly 2002 Cinderella II: Dreams Come True 2002 Double Teamed 2002 Get a Clue 2002 Gotta Kick It Up! 2002 Kim Possible 2002 Lilo & Stitch 2002 Return to Never Land 2002 Snow Dogs 2002 Star Wars: Attack of the Clones 2002 Tarzan & Jane 2002 The Country Bears 2002 The Hunchback of Notre Dame II 2002 The Rookie 2002 The Santa Clause 2 2002 The Scream Team 2002 Treasure Planet 2002 Tru Confessions 2002 Tuck Everlasting 2002 Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year 2002 101 Dalmatians II: Patch’s London Adventure 2003 Atlantis: Milo’s Return 2003 Brother Bear 2003 Deep Blue 2003 Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off 2003 Finding Nemo 2003 Freaky Friday 2003 Full-Court Miracle 2003 Inspector Gadget 2 2003 Lilo & Stitch: The Series 2003 Piglet’s Big Movie 2003 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 2003 Recess: All Growed Down 2003 Recess: Taking the 5th Grade 2003 Right on Track 2003 Stitch! The Movie 2003 That’s So Raven 2003 The Cheetah Girls 2003 The Even Stevens Movie 2003 The Haunted Mansion 2003 The Jungle Book 2 2003 The Lizzie McGuire Movie 2003 The Young Black Stallion 2003 You Wish! 2003 America’s Heart and Soul 2004 Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen 2004 Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy 2004 Going to the Mat 2004 Halloweentown High 2004 Home on the Range 2004 Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers 2004 Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas 2004 Miracle 2004 Phil of the Future 2004 Pixel Perfect 2004 Sacred Planet 2004 Stuck in the Suburbs 2004 Teacher’s Pet 2004 The Incredibles 2004 The Lion King 1½ 2004 The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement 2004 Tiger Cruise 2004 Winnie the Pooh: Springtime With Roo 2004 Zenon: Z3 2004 Aliens of the Deep 2005 Buffalo Dreams 2005 Chicken Little 2005 Go Figure 2005 Herbie: Fully Loaded 2005 How Dogs Got Their Shapes 2005 Ice Princess 2005 Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama 2005 Kronk’s New Groove 2005 Life Is Ruff 2005 Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch 2005 Little Einsteins 2005 Millions 2005 Mulan II 2005 Now You See It… 2005 Once Upon a Mattress 2005 Pooh’s Heffalump Movie 2005 Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 2005 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 2005 The Greatest Game Ever Played 2005 The Pacifier 2005 The Proud Family Movie 2005 The Suite Life of Zack & Cody 2005 Twitches 2005 Valiant 2005 Bambi II 2006 Brother Bear 2 2006 Cars 2006 Cow Belles 2006 Eight Below 2006 Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes 2006 Flicka 2006 Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties 2006 Handy Manny 2006 Hannah Montana 2006 High School Musical 2006 Invincible 2006 Leroy & Stitch 2006 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest 2006 Read It and Weep 2006 Return to Halloweentown 2006 Roving Mars 2006 The Cheetah Girls 2 2006 The Emperor’s New School 2006 The Fox and the Hound 2 2006 The Replacements 2006 The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause 2006 The Shaggy Dog 2006 The Wild 2006 Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior 2006 Cinderella III: A Twist in Time 2007 Dan in Real Life 2007 Dog Whisperer With Cesar Millan 2007 High School Musical 2 2007 Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board 2007 Jump In! 2007 Meet the Robinsons 2007 My Friends Tigger & Pooh 2007 National Treasure: Book of Secrets 2007 Phineas and Ferb 2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End 2007 Ratatouille 2007 Snowglobe 2007 The Game Plan 2007 The Secret of the Magic Gourd 2007 Twitches Too 2007 Wizards Of Waverly Place 2007 Bolt 2008 Camp Rock 2008 College Road Trip 2008 Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert 2008 High School Musical 3: Senior Year 2008 Iron Man 2008 Iron Man: Armored Adventures 2008 Minutemen 2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 2008 Stonehenge Decoded: Secrets Revealed 2008 The Cheetah Girls: One World 2008 The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian 2008 The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos 2008 The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning 2008 The Suite Life on Deck 2008 Tinker Bell 2008 WALL•E 2008 Avatar 2009 Bizarre Dinosaurs 2009 Dadnapped 2009 Easter Island Unsolved 2009 Hannah Montana: The Movie 2009 Hatching Pete 2009 JONAS 2009 Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience 2009 Kingdom of the Blue Whale 2009 Princess Protection Program 2009 Skyrunners 2009 The Princess and the Frog 2009 Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure 2009 Trail of the Panda 2009 Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie 2009 Wolverine and the X-Men 2009 Alice in Wonderland 2010 Avalon High 2010 Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam 2010 Den Brother 2010 Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2010 Good Luck Charlie 2010 Great Migrations 2010 Journey to Shark Eden 2010 Secretariat 2010 Shake It Up 2010 Starstruck 2010 Tangled 2010 The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes 2010 Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue 2010 Toy Story 3 2010 Waking Sleeping Beauty 2010 12 Dates of Christmas 2011 African Cats 2011 Brain Games 2011 Cars 2 2011 Geek Charming 2011 Good Luck Charlie, It’s Christmas! 2011 Jake and the Never Land Pirates 2011 Jessie 2011 Kickin’ It 2011 Lemonade Mouth 2011 Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 2011 Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure 2011 TRON Legacy 2011 Teen Spirit 2011 The Incredible Dr. Pol 2011 The Muppets 2011 The Suite Life Movie 2011 Wings of Life 2011 Winnie the Pooh 2011 Brave 2012 Chimpanzee 2012 Crash & Bernstein 2012 Frenemies 2012 Girl vs. Monster 2012 Gravity Falls 2012 Lab Rats 2012 Let It Shine 2012 Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups 2012 Secret of the Wings 2012 Secrets of the King Cobra 2012 TRON: Uprising 2012 The Mistle-Tones 2012 Ultimate Spider-Man 2012 Violetta 2012 Winged Seduction: Birds of Paradise 2012 Wreck-It Ralph 2012 Avengers Assemble 2013 Frozen 2013 Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. 2013 Iron Man 3 2013 Life Below Zero 2013 Monsters University 2013 Saving Mr. Banks 2013 Sharks of Lost Island 2013 Super Buddies 2013 Teen Beach Movie 2013 The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex 2013 Thor: The Dark World 2013 Bears 2014 Big Hero 6 2014 Cloud 9 2014 Dr. K’s Exotic Animal ER 2014 Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet 2014 Girl Meets World 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy 2014 How to Build a Better Boy 2014 LEGO Star Wars: The New Yoda Chronicles 2014 Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe 2014 Miracle Landing on the Hudson 2014 Muppets Most Wanted 2014 Star Wars Rebels 2014 The Evermoor Chronicles 2014 Zapped 2014 Ant-Man 2015 Avengers: Age of Ultron 2015 Bad Hair Day 2015 Best Friends Whenever 2015 Descendants 2015 Guardians of the Galaxy – Series 2015 Inside Out 2015 Invisible Sister 2015 LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales 2015 Monkey Kingdom 2015 PJ Masks 2015 Star Wars: The Force Awakens 2015 Teen Beach Movie 2 2015 The Good Dinosaur 2015 The Lion Guard 2015 The Muppets – Series 2015 Wild Yellowstone 2015 Adventures in Babysitting 2016 Before the Flood 2016 Bizaardvark 2016 Elena of Avalor 2016 Expedition Mars: Spirit & Opportunity 2016 Finding Dory 2016 Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade 2016 LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures 2016 Lab Rats: Elite Force 2016 Milo Murphy’s Law 2016 Moana 2016 Pete’s Dragon 2016 Queen of Katwe 2016 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 2016 Stuck in the Middle 2016 The BFG 2016 The Finest Hours 2016 The Swap 2016 World’s Greatest Dogs 2016 Zootopia 2016 Andi Mack 2017 Atlantis Rising 2017 Big Hero 6: The Series 2017 Born in China 2017 Breaking2 2017 Cars 3 2017 Decorating Disney: Holiday Magic 2017 Descendants 2 2017 Diana: In Her Own Words 2017 Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings 2017 Earth Live 2017 Inhumans 2017 Jane 2017 Kingdom of the Apes: Battle Lines 2017 Man Among Cheetahs 2017 Mickey and the Roadster Racers 2017 Newsies: The Broadway Musical 2017 Origins: The Journey of Humankind 2017 Puppy Dog Pals 2017 Raven’s Home 2017 Sea of Hope: America’s Underwater Treasures 2017 Secrets of Christ’s Tomb: Explorer Special 2017 Spider-Man – Series 2017 Tangled: Before Ever After 2017 Tangled: The Series 2017 Titanic: 20 Years Later With James Cameron 2017 Vampirina 2017 Big City Greens 2018 Bug Juice: My Adventures at Camp 2018 Coop & Cami Ask the World 2018 Drain the Oceans 2018 Freaky Friday 2018 Free Solo 2018 Giants of the Deep Blue 2018 Into the Okavango 2018 LEGO Star Wars: All-Stars 2018 Legend of the Three Caballeros 2018 Life-Size 2 2018 Mars: Inside SpaceX 2018 Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors 2018 Mission to the Sun 2018 Muppet Babies 2018 Paris to Pittsburgh 2018 Planet of the Birds 2018 Rocky Mountain Animal Rescue 2018 Science Fair 2018 Star Wars Resistance 2018 The Flood 2018 Tree Climbing Lions 2018 Under The Sea: A Descendants Short Story 2018 Zombies 2018 Amphibia 2019 Apollo: Missions to the Moon 2019 Avengers: Endgame 2019 Captain Marvel 2019 Dumbo 2019 Encore! 2019 Fast Layne 2019 Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted 2019 High School Musical: The Musical: The Series 2019 Hostile Planet 2019 Into the Grand Canyon 2019 Kim Possible 2019 Kingdom of the White Wolf 2019 Lady and the Tramp 2019 Lost Treasures of the Maya 2019 Marvel’s Hero Project 2019 Noelle 2019 One Day at Disney 2019 Sydney to the Max 2019 The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great 2019 The Mandalorian 2019 The World According to Jeff Goldblum 2019

source

[ruminativerabbi]

Awakenings

For some reason, I’ve always been drawn to Rip Van Winkle-style stories about people who fall asleep for one or many years and then wake up to find themselves in whole new worlds. First of all, there’s Rip himself—a fictional character who first made his appearance in Washington Irving’s collection of stories and essays, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., which came out exactly 200 years ago in 1819. The book has long since been forgotten by most, as unfortunately also has been its author: one of the true giants of American literature in his day, Irving has for some reason not joined the authors he himself encouraged in their careers—writers like Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, or Henry Wadsworth Longfellow—in the pantheon of American authors still read other than by people to whom their books have been assigned in American Literature classes. And he really was one of the greats! I believe that I’ve read all his stories, certainly most of them, and “Rip Van Winkle” is one of my favorites. His other still-famous story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” turned into a whole series of Hollywood movies—most memorably Tim Burton’s 1999 film, Sleepy Hollow—and television shows, is also a terrific piece of writing that deserves to be more widely read in its original format. But I digress: I wanted to write here about Rip van Winkle himself and not the author who dreamed him up.

The story is well known and easily retold. One day while wandering deep in the woods near Sleepy Hollow to escape his wife’s endless nagging, Rip runs into the ghosts of the sailors who in their day manned Henry Hudson’s ship, the Half Moon, and promptly joins them in a game of nine pins and in drinking a lot of liquor, whereupon he falls into a deep sleep. Then, when he awakens twenty years later, he discovers that his son is now a grown man, his wife has died, and that he missed the entire American Revolution while he slumbered away. He makes his peace with being a widower easily enough (the Van Winkles don’t seem to have had too happy a marriage), finds it more challenging to abandon his native allegiance to King George, and finally ends up settling in with his grown daughter as he tries to figure out the new world and his place in it.

There are lots of parallel stories to Irving’s tale. Third-century (C.E.) Greek philosopher Diogenes Laëterius, for example, wrote about a man named Epimenides who fell asleep for fifty-seven years and then had to negotiate an entirely new world when he awakened.  Jewish literature has its own version of both Rip van Winkle and Epimenides in Honi the Circle-Drawer, a wonder-working rabbi of the first century (or thereabouts) who fell asleep for seventy years and awakened to find a man tending to carob trees that Honi himself had witnessed the man’s grandfather planting just (it must have felt like) a day earlier. Other cultures have their own versions, but what makes them appealing—and also slightly terrifying— is the fantasy that this could possibly happen to us readers, that we too could possibly get into bed tonight, turn off the light, drift off into sleep…and then awaken not tomorrow morning but a century from now. Nor is it hard to explain why this is such an arresting theme to so many. We all like to think that the world is so sturdy, so substantial, so there, after all…and then an idea like this takes root and suggests that it’s all a chimera, all a fantasy, all an elaborate illusion played out against an equally illusory dreamscape, that what feels so real is only an elaborate set that the stage crew will take down the moment we breathe our last. And why shouldn’t the theater of life mimic the way things work in real theaters? The show closes, the crew strikes the set, the actors return their costumes, and everybody goes home. And, on Broadway, that is that!  

And now it turns out that it really is so that people fall asleep and awaken decades later. Some readers may have noticed a story in the paper a while back about one Munira Abdulla, a woman from a small town in the United Arab Emirates, who was in a terrible automobile accident in 1991 when she was only thirty-two years old. She fell into a coma, but was kept alive by her family in the hope that she might one day awaken. And she did just that, awakening, apparently on her own, after twenty-seven years. Technically speaking, Ms. Abdulla was in the state technically called “minimal consciousness,” which is less bad than being in a full coma (i.e., in which the patient shows no sign of being awake) or in what’s called a persistent vegetative state (in which the patient appears to be awake but shows no signs of awareness). It is, however, still extraordinarily rare for patients possessed of minimal consciousness simply to awaken.

It’s happened closer to home as well. Terry Wallis, for example, was nineteen when his pickup skidded off a bridge near his hometown in Arkansas, which accident left him in a persistent vegetative state. Doctors told his family that he had no chance of recovery. But then he somehow managed to move up a notch into the same state of minimal consciousness that Munira Abdulla was in. And there he remained for nineteen years, domiciled at a nursing home near his parents’ home. And then one day in 2006 his mother walked into his room, whereupon he looked up and said “Mom” out loud, the first word he had uttered in almost two decades.

Donald Herbert’s is a similar story. A Buffalo fire-fighter, Herbert was injured on the job in 1995 when debris in a burning building fell on him and left him in what doctors called a state of “faint consciousness” for a full decade. And then, in 2005, after a full decade of silence, he opened his eyes one day and asked for his wife.  

These are rare stories, obviously. Most comatose people—including people possessed of faint or minimal consciousness—do not suddenly wake up and start talking. Indeed, in every real sense, these people I’ve been writing about are the rare exceptions to an otherwise sad rule. But the fact that such people exist at all is very meaningful: even if the overwhelming majority of comatose patients do not spontaneously wake up, some apparently do. And in that thought inheres the huge problem for society of how to relate to the somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 Americans who exist in states of partial, faint, or minimal consciousness. Most will never recover. But some few may.

Many readers will remember Penny Marshall’s terrific 1990 movie, Awakenings, starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams, and based on Oliver Sacks’ 1973 book of the same title. (Less well known is that Harold Pinter wrote a short play, A Kind of Alaska, based on Sacks’ book as well, which is often performed as part of a trilogy of the playwright’s one-act plays.) The story of the book and the movie (and presumably the play as well, which I’d like to see one day) is simple enough: a doctor working in 1969 at a public hospital in the Bronx is charged with caring for a ward of catatonic patients who survived the world-wide epidemic of encephalitis (specifically the version called encephalitis lethargica) in the 1920’s. The doctor, very movingly and effectively portrayed by the late Robin Williams, somehow has the idea to try using L-Dopa, a drug used to treat Parkinson’s Disease, on these patients and gets astounding results; the movie is basically about one of those patients, portrayed by Robert De Niro, whose “awakening” is depicted in detail. It doesn’t work in the long run, though; each “awakened” patient, including the one played by De Niro, eventually returns to catatonia no matter how high a dose of L-Dopa any is given. The movie thus ends both hopefully and tragically: the former because these people on whom the world had long-since given up were given a final act in the course of which they sampled, Rip Van Winkle-style, the world a half-century after they fell asleep; and the latter because, in the end, the experiment failed and no one was cured in anything like a long-term or fully meaningful way.

Why do these stories exert such a strong effect on me? It’s not that easy for me to say, but if I had to hazard a guess, I think I’d say that the concept of dying to the world briefly and then coming back to life to see what happened while you were gone is what draws me in. (Fans of Mark Twain will recall Tom Sawyer’s wish to be “dead temporarily.” But even Tom and Huck only manage to be gone from the world long enough to attend their own funeral and enjoy the eulogies they hear praising them, not to vanish for decades and then come back to life.) I’m sure there would be surprises if I were to go to bed tonight and wake up in 2089. Some would be amusing—seeing what model iPhone they’ve gotten up to or what version of Windows, or if anyone even remembers either—and some would be amazing: if the President of the United States in 2089 is sixty years old, then he or she won’t have been born yet.  But mostly it would be chastening, and in the extreme, to see how all the various things that seem so immutable, so permanent, so rooted in reality in our world, have all vanished from the world, as will probably also have all of the houses in which we live today, the banks in which we store our cash, and even the shore lines that mark the boundary between the wine-dark sea and the dry land upon which we live in safety or think we do. Depending on a wide variety of factors, that thought is either depressing or exhilarating. But in either event, it makes it easier not to sweat the small stuff or allow our own anxieties to impact negatively on the pleasures life can offer to the living.

I will bring all these thoughts with me as I prepare for Israel in a few weeks’ time because the Rip Van Winkle and Terry Wallis stories are Jerusalem’s own as well. The vibrant center of Jewish life for more than a millennium when the Temple was destroyed in the first century, the city was suddenly emptied of its Jews by its Roman overlords who renamed it and forbade Jews from living there. And yet…some small remnant always remained in place while the city slept. And then, just when the Jewish Jerusalem’s faint consciousness seemed poised to flicker and die out entirely…just the opposite happened as Jews from all over the world built a new city on the outskirts of the old one and breathed consciousness and life itself into its ancient alleys and byways. As the patient came back to life, she didn’t only re-enter history either—she began to be a player in her own story, stepping off the stage to become her own play’s playwright and director. It felt like a miracle then and it feels like one to me today too.

When I’m in Jerusalem, I myself feel my consciousness expanding and becoming in equal parts rejuvenated, reconstituted, and revivified. I never run out of things to do, to write, to read, to experience. I can’t imagine being bored in Jerusalem, even on a hot day in mid-summer when I could just as easily be on the beach in Tel Aviv. I love the beach! But there is something about the air in Jerusalem, and the light, that is the spiritual version of L-Dopa that Robin Williams gives his patients in Penny Marshall’s movie. Except that it doesn’t wear off with time and, if anything, only gets stronger and more powerful as the weeks I spend in Jerusalem pass one by one until the time comes to come home and begin a new year in this place we have all settled.

[sunnymenagerie]

Except The Whole Hooker Thing

Every day this month I'll be writing about a different woman who has influenced various aspects of my life, encouraged me to keep going when reality seemed bleak, reminded me there is greatness in the world, or just simply made living better.

Perhaps a decade ago we went to a skating rink for some Adult Swim something or other. Gym Class Heroes was performing and well, most of us just hung out away from the skates to lurk around. Glad we did because, in the midst of Travis McCoy, Seth Green and Lance Bass stood a goddess. Rachael Leigh Cook.

She has been working steadily since 1995. Yes, she has most definitely had something with her name attached come out every year since her glorious start when she portrayed mah gurl Mary Anne Spier in the big screen adaptation of The Baby-Sitters Club. In between then and her time as Laney Boggs and Josie in 2001's Josie and the Pussycats she was in Tom and Huck (JTT WHAT <3) and Carpool (a motherfreaking '90s gem). While she's done a lot, A LOT, in the 24 years it those three that made me flip my shit when I met her. Trust, one does not see Laney Boggs skating around a Valley Roller rink and not freak out.

Mary Anne, Laney, and Josie are three characters I have had held close to my heart since childhood, through adolescence and right up into the nitty-gritty of adulthood. Mary Anne was my favorite character in the books next to her bitchy tomboy bestie, Kristy, and then she was an absolute gift in the movie. How does one not fall in love with such a perfect movie portrayal of a beloved book character? Then there is Laney Boggs. OMG. I was a girl in glasses and overalls who had as many friends as she did fingers on one hand. Unlike Laney, I never did get a mini-makeover and turn into the hotness. She's All That joined a lot of cinematic teen movie masterpieces at the tail end of the '90s that are forever placed on my mental pedestal. Last but certainly not least, Josie. Fun fact...in 10th grade, I did a presentation on subliminal messages in the media based solely around my beliefs that Josie and the Pussycats was more investigative journalism with a kickass soundtrack than it was a satirical comedy with a kickass soundtrack.

Rachael Leigh Cook played all of the above with such ease and made each of them stand out on their own in a way that many of her peers could not. Which is why she's a '90s ICON, honey. Mary Anne, Laney, and Josie were each strong-willed in their own ways and that's something I admired then and still do now. Whether it's Mary Anne finally standing up to that bitch Cokie, Laney basically deafening Dean Sampson, or Josie realizing that friendship and her art weren't worth the bullshit - all served up heavy doses of major inspo that I'm forever grateful for and it's all thanks to the one and only Rachael Leigh Cook.

And that, ladies, gents, and non-binary folks is why I was a 20-something almost in tears meeting Rachael Leigh Cook.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Tom and Huck (1995)

Anything good found in Tom and Huck comes from the source material. Mark Twain's writing just barely counterbalances all this film's attempts to bring the classic story to a new generation.

When Tom Sawyer (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and Huckleberry Finn (Brad Renfro) witness a murder, they keep quiet out of fear for their lives. After the local drunk, Muff Potter (Mike McShane), is wrongfully arrested for the crime, it's up to them to clear his innocence.

It's a testament to Mark Twain's writing, that even though this movie is not great, it's still compelling to watch. Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer's adventures capture a universal aspect of youth. That carefree time when you were free to roam and explore a world full of mystery while the bright sun shined overhead. Though set in 1834, there’s something universal about it. You remember someone on your block who was just like the heroes of our story. If you didn’t, you wish you did. It has iconic scenes you could never forget, like when Tom is forced to paint his aunt’s fence and searches for a way to make it easier on himself. This makes Tom and Huck inherently watchable, even quite interesting. Even if you're familiar with the story, you're eager to see what's next.

This brings us to the end of the praises this film deserves. Beyond this, it's a cheap, badly acted quickie which aims to take advantage of young Jonathan Taylor-Thomas' stardom. Tom and Huck doesn't feel like it was made by someone who truly believed in the story, who was compelled to bring it once again to the public's attention. The book's dated language has made it controversial and this has been compounded by the assumption that it's made for children, which it isn't. But you wouldn't know this from watching the film. It’s a property the studio knew you'd be familiar with and nothing else.

The absolute worst thing about this film is the horrendous acting. I understand child stars are harder to find, and even more difficult when the material they're given isn't contemporary but there HAD to be someone better suited than the performers who were selected. The leads fare a bit better than the rest but that's not saying much. Even actors that only have a few lines will make you wince. don’t do a good job and one of the more prominent side characters, Tom’s cousin Courtland Mead is so awful I had to double-check to see if he wasn't some producer’s kid who got the part as a birthday present. Even the adults are lousy. There are two characters who appear drunk and they gave me flashbacks to my days of high school theatre acting. Either these grown men have never been drunk, seen anyone else drunk, heard of what alcohol does to people, or they were deliberately trying to sabotage this film.

If the performances didn't give it away, you can tell this was a quickly made production to cash in on a couple of hot (but evidently not very talented) young names from the look of the thing. It looks like it was made for TV. It can’t be expensive to put together a small village that requires no plumbing, electricity or indoor washrooms can it? Maybe the budget was all spent hiring a half-dozen vocal coaches to teach the crew what a southern drawl sounds like when they kept getting hurt on-set or something. Pick any episodes of a sitcom where someone gets hit on the head and “travels” inside a book. It'll be more convincing than this.

The criticisms it earns are numerous but I must also confess that the poor acting, sets, and overall production never completely turned me away from the film. Against all odds, the story punches through the obstacle. It will never replace any other adaptation (I hope this is as bad as it gets) but if you just happen to own this on VHS, or it’s playing on TV and your kids want to watch it, you can sit through it and leave mildly amused. (Full-screen version on VHS, May 3, 2015)

[mykidself]

Tom and Huck (1995)

Mr. Sawyer, where were you on the 28th of this month at midnight?

[dfilms]

Tom And Huck, 1995