just to give you an idea what they look like (not the actual characters)
(note: I barely started season 2 so this is mostly going to be about season 1…mostly)
This is very good anime series, not a great series and personally I could do with out a new song every episode, but it completes the unspoken contract it makes with it’s fangirl audience. It offers up six (and later five more) hot guys to geek out over and fantasize about.
See, this anime is based on a video game where you are Haruka (the girl) and you make key choices that move the story along. You end up choosing which guy you partner up with instead of all the guys forming a singing group. I’m assuming, the game was never released in the US so I’ve never played it.
The series keeps the balance between each guy well, and each guy has his own distinct personality. The question is will Haruka and one of these guys ever fall in love. My guess is no, right off the bat in the first episode the school declares it a rule that composers and idols are not to fall in love and reminding you again a few episodes into the second season when Cecil enters the picture, probably making it a clause in the unspoken contract.
What I think would be awesome is if they had made the exact same series but replace the guys with girls. While I’m all for the fangirl/romance/fantasy material the guys bring, it would be even better if the anime was getting its female viewers to identify themselves, not by which guy they want to date, but which idol they want to emulate. Instead of dreaming of a happily ever after that requires a man girls would instead imagine themselves to be one of these girls that can find fame and happiness on their own.
If you’re hoping that this anime will be like Free! Iwatobi Swim Club and have implied homosexuality you will be sadly mistaken. While each of the guys is sort of paired off by having a history with each other and/or being roommates they never have any extra friendly moments.
While I hate the third movie with a sun intense passion, all three of the movies have their own problems.
Cheetah Girls 1 is one of the great Disney channel original movies of all time because it tells a believable story about characters that you understand/ connect with/ can aspire to be. And no I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the songs or how they are incorporated into the movie. You have to understand, this was during a time when the Disney channel was still airing music videos between shows and movies, so, this made it easy to luck the music numbers out and air them on their own. At the same time, the songs are in a context which permits them to be performed the way they are, breaking the forth wall and such. Plus, they’re good songs.
are they not the zebra girls?
The problem I have is that the drama is pushed to an extreme, that made me uncomfortable, and then has it do a one-eighty. Galleria takes being a bitch so far, implying her music teacher is a dried up has been and telling her friend she looks poor, and no one calls her out for a long time. But then when she backs out of the record deal she’s suddenly a better/ more knowledgable person but still unaware how awful she’s been?
Cheetah Girls 2 is an example of a sequel done right. This film tones down the intensity of the drama, increases the internationality, and gives each of the girls each their own part of the story and their own individuality (although Aqua did lose her southern-ness). It’s spectacular how the film incorporates Spain and the Spanish language into the film, hiring real Spanish actors and actresses with accents and everything. And the songs are even better than the first film and very catchy.
Now the HUGE problem (no joke/pun intended)…Raven Symone’s weight. To clarify, I’m not talking about any problems she might have herself, or any problems viewers might have. I’m talking about the shame the network/ filmmakers’ obviously had with her size. Personally, I wish I was as “fat” as she was in the film (just fat, she WAS NOT pregnant like the rumors say).
This film dresses Raven in baggy clothes and for some reason hats, or completely covered even though it’s hot. She gets parts of her covered by pillows, notebooks, shopping bags, and a big kimono. She gets put in the background, separated from the other 3 girls, or halfway out of the shot.
If the filmmakers decided have her in the film then they should have owned up to it, and flaunted it.
If the second film was a step forward then Cheetah Girls 3 was a leap back. Where the second film embraced another culture this one ignores it. Not only is there barely any Indian spoken but Channel doesn’t speak any Spanish like she has in the first two films.
I don’t know why exactly Raven Symone wasn’t in this film but it was the right choice for her, not the right choice for the film. The songs are weak, the Cheetahs are ditzy all of a sudden; and while the three stories for each girl are nicely balanced, the stories themselves are weak. There are way too many songs, songs which interrupt the story instead of contributing to it.
In regards to what I’m about to say, let me be clear, I am not saying the Cheetah girls are old. However, they are too old to be still playing these parts. The Cheetahs are suppose to be in like their late teens and the actresses look like they’re in their mid twenties.
To this day I love this movie, and I think it’s great for what it is: a children’s TV movie. Most remakes I’m against but this is a simple modernization to appeal to children in the 90’s.
The people in charge must have had fun making this film judging from all the camp. The bright colors, sparkles, and twirling ball gowns. It seems that this filmmakers were trying to cram every girly thing they could think of.
in the first image Cinderella’s eyes are closed
But just because I love a film doesn’t mean it’s perfect. There was one blaring error when Cinderella is on her way to the ball. The film breaks the 180 degree rule. Cinderella scoots to the right side of the carriage after waving goodbye to her fairy godmother, but when she starts singing about how things are possible she’s sitting on the left side, then when singing with her fairy godmother about zanies and fools Cinderella is back on the right side, finally, when fairy godmother magically whooshes herself into the carriage Cinderella is back on the left side.
Also, how is it that Cinderella, the person who is suppose to be the star of the film, is the most boring character in the movie? Everyone else is cooky or quirky or sassy, while she’s this quiet little thing.
I’m surprised that I enjoyed this film because it’s from the same creators of Repo! The Genetic Opera. Both films look good on paper but only The Devil’s Carnival (TDC) turned out well as a film. Both movies are impressive and I have to give props to Terrance Zdunic for co-writing, composing, and acting/singing in both films.
The reason TDC is better is because it’s simpler, and actually, I think it’s even a little too short; so it’s easier to give more concentration to everything. The only other problems were that it also suffered from a scene where an actress had no nipples because the filmmakers covered them up but then shot her boobs, and in the scene where the thief is being punished the filmmakers use the same shots repeatedly.
The Devil’s Carnival centers around 2 Aesop fables and 1 fable often mistaken for an Aesop, that’s right ‘the Scorpion and the Frog’ isn’t by Aesop, but the nice thing is that even if you don’t know the fables you can understand that these three people are being punished based on their sins: stealing, trusting too much, and grieving too much.
The scene leading up to Tamara’s death was an example of a scene too short, it went a little something like this:
as quickly as it took you to read it that’s how quickly the scenes went
And then he sings this song (click it!) and she’s dead.
I found it hard to take Repo! seriously because of the singing/talking and Paris Hilton singing. If you want to see what I mean click this sentence to check out one of the worst songs (WARNING so not ok for kids). TDC isn’t all singing and transitions nicely into the songs.
2 thing I liked was that 1) God is a doll maker and sinners are broken dolls because it gives God some responsibility for some things wrong with the world and 2) the character ‘the Painted Doll’ first came off as being a pretty woman without a voice but she gets a nice long song so she doesn’t stay that way.
Finally, I don’t understand how a sinner being forgiven and thus sent to heaven means the Devil can invade heaven. Anybody get that?
I’ve watched both versions of the Producers, the 1968 version and the 2005 version, and not much is different the later has songs and a longer ending, and two characters roles are changed.
In the 2005 version Ulla, the Swedish secretary, is given a bigger part, a part in Springtime for Hitler and is more of a person. The 1968 Ulla is only in the film as a pretty, but silent, face with a big chest and no brains (at least I think we’re led to assume that). 2005 Ulla wants to be an actress, isn’t afraid to do what she must for a part, is unashamed of her sexuality, and isn’t blind to the fact that the producers are up to something they probably shouldn’t be.
1968 Ulla
And then there’s the question of who plays Hitler? In the original version of the film Hitler is played by a hippy called LSD and he makes hitler funny because he talks like a hippy. In the musical version Hitler is played by a homosexual and is funny because he comes off as wimpy or effeminate.
I can understand the change from a hippy to a gay man, a modern audience isn’t going to understand the humor of a hippy as well, but thinking about all that the switch could imply makes my head spin.
2005 Ulla
Are gays the new hippy? Are gays the new joke and hippies were once the joke? Are both groups flawed in a way that is funny?
Does the fact that the hippy was replaced mean that society has taken a step forward by having making fun of hippies not ok? Does that mean that homosexuals not being funny to joke about is the next step?
Sweet n Sour Reviews 