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CHAPLIN AND KEATON DISCOVERIES

Featured Journal Leonard Maltin
17640

While watching the bonus features on the new Criterion Collection release of Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, I had to pinch myself: there is a 1921 newsreel that follows Charlie’s seagoing journey from the U.S. to England called “Charlie” on the Ocean that I don’t remember seeing before. Ever. To be sure my memory wasn’t playing tricks on me, I asked David Shepard, who maintains the Blackhawk Films collection (which is credited as its source) and he confirmed that as far as he knows, this is its public debut. It’s been a great year for silent-film comedy, with the discovery of Laurel and Hardy’s long-lost gem The Battle of the Century, a spectacular new book on L&H by Randy Skretvedt (which I will be reviewing shortly),…

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ELIE WIESEL’S TRIP TO DISNEYLAND

Featured Journal Leonard Maltin
4291

As the world mourns the loss of author, activist, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who died July 2 at the age of 87, a rare piece from his early journalistic career has come to light. Author Menachem Butler has unearthed a cache of 1,000 articles Wiesel wrote when he first came to America in the 1950s and filed dispatches for the Jewish Daily Forward; the venerable newspaper known as the “Forverts” by its largely Yiddish-speaking readers. (This was before he gained international acclaim for his Holocaust memoir Night.) Included in this material is an account of a 1957 cross-country road trip, including a stop at Disneyland, which was then just two years old. How did this eloquent writer and social activist view…

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‘THE LEGEND OF TARZAN’ SWINGS

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
7589

As popcorn movies go, The Legend of Tarzan is pretty good. It certainly has a well-cast leading man: Alexander Skarsgård may not be a typical macho screen personality but he looks great and, though low-key, is both likable and believable as the Lord of the Jungle. The equally attractive Margot Robbie hasn’t much to do but also fares well as an assertive Jane Porter. In this politically correct rehash of the Edgar Rice Burroughs story, there is even an African-American hero, played with brio by Samuel L. Jackson. (This is not at all outlandish, as I first thought: there actually was an African-American named John Lewis Waller who served as U.S. Consul (Ambassador) to Madagascar from 1891 to 1894.) I wish the filmmakers had cast…

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SPIELBERG UNVEILS ‘THE B.F.G.’

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
7987

When you’ve made a movie as great, and enduring, as E.T. the Extra Terrestrial it’s inevitable that any other film you create in the realm of fantasy, especially one involving a child, will be compared to it. So when I say that I liked The B.F.G. but didn’t love it, I don’t mean it as an insult. It may not have the cross-over appeal to adults that made E.T. so special, but The B.F.G. has moments of wonder and enchantment that only Steven Spielberg could realize. Of course, it has a nearly foolproof pedigree. Roald Dahl’s book—not nearly as dark as some of his other twisted tales—has been a favorite of children for decades. And the director called upon his E.T. screenwriter, the late Melissa…

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DISNEY GOES DEEP IN ‘LIFE, ANIMATED’

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
5943

It’s heartbreaking for any parent to learn that their child is ill or has some kind of handicap. I can’t picture how the Suskind family felt when their younger son Owen stopped talking at the age of 3. It’s unthinkable. But it’s just as hard to imagine how he broke through his shell: by making reference to Disney animated cartoons. Life, Animated is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Owen’s father, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind. Owen’s story is told in intimate detail by director Roger Ross Williams, who earned the entire family’s trust. He uses evocative animation by Mac Guff (and written by Emily Hubley) to fill in our hero’s story and try to replicate the imaginative images in his…

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‘ROSEANNE FOR PRESIDENT!’ IS A WINNER

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
5438

Roseanne Barr is one-of-a-kind. Her breakthrough television series about a working-class family has never left the air and remains fresh and relevant after more than twenty years. And like her same-named character, she has never been shy about expressing her opinions. She is one smart cookie. Who better to run for public office? This entertaining, often enlightening documentary chronicles her efforts to stage a presidential campaign in 2012. Amidst the possibility of drowning in red tape, she wards off a barrage of slings and arrows and makes an honest effort to shake up the status quo by entering the world of politics. Although she uses her sharp sense of humor to good effect, this campaign is no joke. Roseanne clearly wants to make a difference.…

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IT’S A SMALL WORLD: WALT DISNEY IN CONNECTICUT

Featured Journal Leonard Maltin
4535

I have come to the conclusion that Walt Disney is an inexhaustible subject. Every time I think I’ve read everything there is to know about the man and his career I’m surprised by a new book, video, or blog post. Just keeping up with the prodigious output of Bob McLain’s Theme Park Press is enough to keep any Disneyphile busy and fill any number of bookshelves, along with the ongoing releases from Disney Editions and Chronicle Books. Even Taschen, the preeminent publisher of lavish, oversized coffee-table volumes, has a giant Disney tome on the way. (Full disclosure: I am a contributor.) Garry Apgar, whose books include The Mickey Mouse Reader (University Press of Mississippi) and Mickey Mouse: Emblem of the American Spirit (Walt Disney Family Museum),…

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