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DISNEY IS BACK—AND SO AM I—ON TCM

Featured Journal Leonard Maltin TV
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I’m happy to announce another evening of Treasures from the Disney Vault on Turner Classic Movies beginning at 8pm EST/5pm PST Tuesday. I recorded my introductions to this selection of cartoons, features and TV episodes at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco and again it provided a perfect backdrop. (I’ll be writing soon about the Museum’s current Pinocchio exhibit, which is a knockout.) As usual, TCM has scheduled a variety of goodies in the latest Disney potpourri. If you’re a baby boomer, like me, you’ll enjoy revisiting Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap. If you’re a Disney aficionado you’ll want to check out Waking Sleeping Beauty, Don Hahn’s fascinating 2009 documentary about the renaissance of animation at the Burbank studio…

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REMEMBERING JANET WALDO

Exclusive Interviews Journal
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When Janet Waldo passed away on June 12, at the age of 96, most of the obituaries spotlighted the fact that she was the voice of Judy Jetson on the long-running Hanna-Barbera animated series The Jetsons. But that was just one facet of the actress’ long and colorful career. I interviewed her for my Movie Crazy newsletter in 2004 and thought it would be worthwhile reprinting that conversation now in tribute to this lovely lady. As an adolescent in Seattle, Washington, Janet dreamed of performing on the Broadway stage. Instead, fate (and the fine hand of Bing Crosby) brought her to Hollywood. For many another attractive teenager this might have led to stardom, or at least starlet-dom, but she never felt comfortable in front of…

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SHEDDING LIGHT ON FILM NOIR

Journal Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews Uncategorized
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The reported death of DVDs and Blu-rays is decidedly premature, especially when it comes to specialized product that film buffs crave. Flicker Alley has released two rare features in conjunction with the Film Noir Foundation and the UCLA Film & Television Archive: Too Late for Tears and Woman on the Run. They both feature behind-the-scenes featurettes and elaborate 24-page booklets. The two movies share one other thing in common: they no longer belong to the studios that first distributed them, and as “orphan films” were in desperate need of restoration. We can thank the Film Noir Foundation for coming to their rescue. Too Late For Tears (1949) has a terrific premise: nice-guy Arthur Kennedy and his wife (Lizabeth Scott) have their lives altered when someone…

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‘FINDING DORY’ IN NEMO’S WAKE

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
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I can’t think of another film that has generated so much good will from audiences who haven’t seen it yet as Finding Dory. That’s a tribute to the enduring legacy of its predecessor, Finding Nemo, and the endearing character of Dory, the fish with short-term memory loss voiced by Ellen DeGeneres. I’m happy to say that Pixar and Nemo’s writer-director Andrew Stanton haven’t let moviegoers down. It isn’t quite on a par with the earlier film but then, few sequels are. Like every Pixar creation, this one relies on several key elements: an immersive visual environment (whether you see it in 3-D or not), a simple story, and colorful characters. The look of the movie is exquisite, an underwater seascape that feels natural and uncommonly…

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THE ‘GENIUS’ OF PUBLISHING COMES TO LIFE

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
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How do you convey what goes through the mind of an artist, or a composer, or an author? Movie history is littered with failed attempts to dramatize the lives and motivations of creative people. But somehow, Genius manages to capture the grandiose dreams of author Thomas Wolfe and the dedication of his fabled editor, Maxwell Perkins. It is an altogether extraordinary achievement. Colin Firth is well cast as Perkins, the man who played midwife to the published works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, among other celebrated (and difficult) authors. In this adaptation of A. Scott Berg’s brilliant biography Maxwell Perkins: Editor of Genius, the lion’s share of attention is given to Wolfe, a larger-than-life Southerner played—in an Oscar-worthy performance—by Jude Law. Wolfe, whose unwieldy…

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ALEC BALDWIN, MOVIE LOVER EXTRAORDINARE

Featured Podcasts
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I’ve enjoyed all the guests who have appeared on my podcast, Maltin on Movies, but Alec Baldwin is in a class by himself: a talented actor and star who is as much a film geek as anyone I’ve ever met. I have interviewed him a number of times over the years but somehow never touched on this facet of his personality; we were too busy promoting one of his new movies. I learned about his love of cinema when he joined TCM and engaged in lively and incisive conversations with Robert Osborne on The Essentials. Since then, I’ve enjoyed listening to his wonderful podcast Here’s the Thing, where he interviews actors, writers, directors, journalists, and authors. This week I turned the tables as Alec agreed…

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A LESS HOSTILE VIEW OF ‘ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS’

Film In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
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Having just seen Disney’s Alice Through the Looking Glass on opening night, with a paying audience at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, I am late in filing my review. I had a mixed reaction to the film, but I am somewhat surprised by the hostility expressed by my fellow critics. I took it as a given that this sequel to the 2010 Disney megahit would have little to do with Lewis Carroll. I also knew that screenwriter Linda Woolverton would call on the same female-empowerment theme that marked the previous Alice, directed by Tim Burton. And I knew that this modern interpretation of Alice would be perfectly personified by Mia Wasikowska, who seems incapable of striking a false note on screen. There are many…

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