The Resident Bitch Prepares for... the Most Recent MoFo Countdown

Thank you for checking it out! Sorry you didn't like it a bit more. I found it very charming and really enjoyed the color scheme/costumes/props.

Lolwut?

Whoops.

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A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
(Richard Lester, 1966)

This painfully unfunny jumbled mess felt way longer than it was. I wasn't even bothered by the fact that it was a musical - the songs were fairly sparse and instantly forgettable - but damn these characters were annoying and the story was lame. For something that is ostensibly a comedy and even put the word "funny" right in its title it sure failed to even make me crack a smile. I've laughed more times watching Schindler's List than I did this dud.

I knew better than to give a 60s musical a shot and I stupidly went and did it anyway. Oh well, I still hated it less than The Music Man.

No one can accuse you of not trying, honey. I'd have gone nowhere near that and advised you to do the same.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Aladdin
(Ron Clements and John Musker, 1992)

I know this movie is very popular among other fans of Disney, but it has never been one of my favorites. Actually, the last time I watched it I straight up hated it, but that was years ago and I thought I’d give it another chance. Having now seen it again, I still don’t like it. I’ll… uh… grant that the animation looks good, and I do appreciate that Disney finally put out an animated movie where the human characters aren’t white (even if they are voiced by a bunch of white people), but I mostly find this movie annoying. The songs are annoying, I don’t give a crap about the characters, and - as blasphemous as this may be to some people - Robin Williams’s schtick as Genie is really irritating. That they had Gilbert Gottfried also voice a character certainly doesn’t endear this movie to me either.

All that said though, I didn’t quite hate it this time. It’s okay, I guess, but not anywhere near okay enough for me to vote for it.

Earth Girls Are Easy
(Julien Temple, 1988)

I have to say, I had my reservations when this Sci-Fi/Comedy/Musical was suggested to me (and it does have three song and dance numbers, so I'd say it counts as a musical if only barely). But I had some time to kill, was in the mood for something silly, and this was available on Kanopy so I figured I had nothing to lose.

And I liked it. It was very, very aggressively 80s in its fashion, hairdos, music, color palette, and effects, but it was ridiculous and fun. So it fit the bill for what I was looking for, though I did get mildly annoyed by the idiocy of Geena Davis's "Valerie." Having said that though, now that its novelty is gone I doubt this is a movie that I'll revisit and it probably won't make my ballot, but at least I don't regret watching it.

I'd have never put that up for a musical, but I quite like it in a 'it's kinda fun while it's there' way. I feel it does wear out its welcome, but not to the extent that I haven't seen it a few times. Of course, there is a slight nostalgia for me as I saw this in my late teens (seeing it the first time after Jim Carrey became famous was quite odd. A bit like See No Evil, Hear No Evil after Spacey did) so that does help. That and, as you said, it's aggressively 80's.

Earth Girls Are Easy, I watched that a few years ago for the first time and my reaction was the same as Miss Vicky's...I didn't love it, but it's flamboyantly neon 80s, which I dug as it had a time machine feeling. Silly as hell especially the aliens. July Brown's musical number was my favorite.

I remember liking Earth Girls are Easy. I was surprised to see it mentioned as a musical, but then I don't remember much about it.

Joseph: King of Dreams
(Rob Deluca and Robert C. Ramirez, 2000)

I was rummaging through my animation collection looking for non-Disney musicals and stumbled across this - which I'd forgotten even existed at all, let alone existed in my own collection - and decided to give it a shot.

Despite being an atheist who was raised in a secular household, I've long had a soft spot for this classic biblical tale of the golden child of a shit father whose brothers finally reach their breaking point and rid themselves of his entitled ass. And this Dreamworks take on the story is about what you'd expect. The animation style is the same as what we saw in the studio's other films like The Prince of Egypt and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, the songs are not memorable but not irritating either, and the voice cast (including Ben Affleck and Mark Hamill) do a fine job.

And "fine" about sums this movie up in general. It's not bad. It's not great. It's just fine. I'll give it a little extra credit for being of decent quality despite being a direct to video release, though it definitely won't get my vote.

Are you familiar with the Andrew Lloyd-Webber/Tim Rice version of Joseph?

I saw an amateur production of it at the local community college when I was a teenager (school field trip). I think that might've been how I was introduced to the story.

Alice In Wonderland
(Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske, 1951)

It's been a few years since I last watched this movie and I had kind of forgotten how unrelentingly weird it is. It is just packed with things that are both nonsensical and delightfully whimsical, with bright colors, memorable characters, and fun songs (A very merry unbirthday to you!). It was never a favorite as a child, but its craziness has grown on me in my adulthood. I still wouldn't call it a big favorite, but it will no doubt make my ballot.

The part where the dog-broom-thing erases the path Alice was walking and she's lost in the woods is genuinely terrifying to me.

I can see that. In the moment I was too distracted by the weirdness of it to really think about its implications.

I love the theme they wrote for the Queen of Hearts

As a kid it frightened me just because, you know, lost in the dark woods.

But as an adult I continue to find it unsettling. It's like this creature exists for the sole purpose of stranding people in the woods? And if she followed it then she would at least be still following a path, but she freezes up instead and then it's out of sight, and that's also kind of terrible?

All of the other strangeness in the film always just seemed goofy (in a nice way) to me, except for that part.

Have you ever seen the 1985 TV movie of Alice in Wonderland? I mention it partly because the "Jam Tomorrow" song gets totally stuck in my head. It's catchy and demented at the same time.

No, the Tim Burton one is the only other version I've seen.

I couldn't even make it through that clip you posted. I suspect that version wouldn't be for me.

It's an odd little film. I haven't seen it in ages, but "Jam Tomorrow" endures in my brain!