From the corpses in the backgrounds of The Black Cauldron to Charles Martin Smith's D in Never Cry Wolf, the Disney movies of the 1980s have given us some strange and precious gifts. But perhaps none moreso than this week's film, MIDNIGHT MADNESS. Featuring a cast of dozens of some unknown but some very familiar faces, more hijinks than you can count, and a shrill disco theme song, there is no movie Vicky, Nolan and Jill have watched to date that better embodies the sheer aimlessness of Disney in the 80s as this one. Much to our hosts' collective delight.
Our hosts have been hit with some standard podcasting pitfalls (travel delays, general illness) this week, but rather than leave our dear listeners without your weekly dose of D, we have another Minnie Mouse-isode for your enjoyment. Listen to Jill's story of her first trip to Disneyland, recorded shortly after her return back in January 2018, while Vicky and Nolan recount their own childhood experiences with Disney's theme parks and try not to get too jealous.
You don't need us to tell you that the 1990s were a different time. There's enough "only 90s kids" memes to cover that territory. But what is often left out is how gaga everyone went for this Wonderful World of Disney staging of Rogers and Hammerstein's CINDERELLA. And on paper, our hosts can see why. Whitney Houston! Brandi! Whoopi! Victor Garber! A veritable who's who of titans of song and stage. But in execution? Erm. Well, it is Cinderella, that's for sure. But let's just say turns out when you remove the fun talking animals, it's a lot easier to notice that there's a lot of close-ups of feet in this story - and that's kind of a metaphor for the whole production.
As any regular listener knows, we often find ourselves confused by Disney's choice in movies when doing this ill-advised dive into their filmography. But this week's confusion has a bit of a different tone to it. Because in 1958's THE LIGHT IN THE FOREST, rather than romanticize the rugged individualism and rough-and-tumble attitude of colonial America, they almost seem...critical of it? Don't get us wrong, that by no means excuses them casting people of every background EXCEPT Native Americans as said peoples. And their villainizing of the evil Uncle Wilse is probably a bit too effective. And there is something off-putting about telling a clash of cultures story through the eyes of a white kid trying to reintegrate into white society after being raised by a tribe of First Nations people...but there's some intriguing ideas put forward here. Plus, James MacArthur has a curly blond mohawk.