Behind These Castle Walls, Part II: Pinocchio (1940)

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Behind These Castle Walls, Part II: Pinocchio (1940)

For the second movie in my Disney series we get to the second animated full-length feature which is Pinocchio, released in 1940. I’d say as a movie it’s not as well known as some of the other Disney movies, while still pretty popular. Just as Snow White it is a well-made movie with great animation and interesting, creative set pieces. The story, based on a novel, was changed significantly and is at least as problematic as Snow White’s, in my opinion. While many themes are similar, some new ones are also introduced. But let’s get to the analytical details of this one, it won't be short.

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Behind These Castle Walls, Part I: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

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Behind These Castle Walls, Part I: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Ever since I read J. Zornado’s revolutionary important book Inventing the Child, in which he examines children’s fiction and its underlying messages, I looked at books and movies in a different way. Among all the brilliant things this book achieves, what spoke to me in a special way was how he dissected Disney movies, specifically The Young Mermaid and The Lion King. Uncovering their themes of parent authority, gender politics and identity manipulation was a big revelation to me. And ever since then I wanted to look at Disney movies, which are so beloved and popular until today, and see if I could figure out which ideas they sell to kids. So, today I’m starting a new series in which I’ll chronologically go through every major animated Disney movie and try to analyze it closely. I’m not the first one to do this, but I hope I have something new to say anyway. I have seen most of them already in the past, but I will watch them again with different eyes now.

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This 40s Movie: Out of the Past (1947)

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This 40s Movie: Out of the Past (1947)

Out of the Past is considered to be a classic film noir, which doesn’t mean that much to me since I’m not a particular fan of this genre. It has been used for so long that it is hard to do anything new with it, but you can’t expect that from a movie from 1947 of course. You can expect the basic tropes of this genre, stereotypes and sometimes a surprise, if you’re lucky. Out of the Past doesn’t have that many surprises, but it’s a nice enough movie anyway. While the plot becomes rather convoluted in the second half, the movie is never really boring, well acted and has some nice directorial touches by Jacques Tourneur. But it’s also nothing special, really, one of those old movies that are fine to watch, but probably not too memorable in the long run.

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The Habit of Standing Up

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The Habit of Standing Up

Resulting from the long “holiday week” and a couple of sick days I came back to school today after about 1,5 weeks to my first class of the day. I put my stuff on the desk, waiting for everyone to get ready to and saw some students getting up and slowly most students were standing after a while. I saw some students tell other students to get up too, so that we could start. I couldn’t help laughing at the sight of the standing class and said: “It’s obvious I’ve been gone for too long, since you all forgot that you don’t have to stand at the beginning of my class.” Even then, after reminding them that this is something they don’t have to do, there was some confusion before everyone got back to their seats, some admitting to a certain stupidity for having forgotten this.

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