VinC.E.N.T. at the Event Horizon

Lego Advent Calendar Haiku 2020 Day 8

 

A COVID Xmas
Transforms us into couch eggs
Watching Disney Plus

Bah-tuna Meh-kaka

I finally watched The Lion King today, expecting greatness given the film's position on many best-of lists. But the film left me cold. I felt nothing for any of the characters except mild annoyance, the music left me unmoved when it wasn't actively annoying me, and I felt the story was not only generic but told in the laziest possible way. 

I didn't always feel this way about Disney films with singing, dancing, and talking animals: I remember enjoying Lady and the Tramp and Robin Hood back in the 70s. Therefore, I don't think it's my general indifference to animals* that's affecting my enjoyment. And it's not as if there's anything wrong with the animation, the screenplay, the music, the editing, the performances, or any of the other factors so important to film. I recognize the artistry and competence of the creators. 

Sometimes a film clicks for you, sometimes it doesn't, I guess. Hakuna matata, as they say. 

*By "indifference," I mean that I feel no particular affection for animals in general. However, nor do I wish them harm, and I recognize that not only are they vital to our ecosystem, they also deserve respect as living creatures for their own sake.

And yet, for reasons I don't understand, I simply don't feel the emotional bonds that most people form with animals, no matter how cute those animals may be. I feel a lot of guilt about this and I've spent my life trying to change it, but that fundamental bit of humanity just seems to be missing in me.  

Island of Mystery

In the late 1960s, Mom and Dad bought a movie projector in order to screen the home movies they shot on their Super 8 camera. The projector came with Island of Mystery, a short clip from Disney's Swiss Family Robinson (Ken Annakin, 1960). 

Here's what the film reel looked like. The original film featured sound and colour, but this reel is black and white, and because Mom and Dad bought a silent projector, it came with a silent version of the clip. 

And here's the back of the box. 

Long before streaming, long before Blu-Ray, DVDs, and even VHS and Beta, this is how people watched movies at home--a few minutes at a time, in truncated form. 

Far from a collector's item, Island of Mystery currently sells for somewhere between $10-15 USD.