I don’t want to rewrite this article about the fight over Wizard of Oz trademarks, so you really should visit the link, but here’s a short version:
The book The Wizard of Oz is in public domain, since it was published in 1899. The 1939 movie is not; it’s owned by Warner Bros., along with elements unique to the film, such as the ruby slippers. (And when I was searching Amazon for those, all the various special editions and even more special edition re-release DVDs came up long before the books, for what that’s worth.)
Disney is making a movie called Oz: The Great and Powerful, due out next year, that focuses on how the Wizard (James Franco) became the Wizard, how he got to Oz and whom he met before Dorothy and her friends. The two copyright behemoths are now quietly battling over related trademarks, trying to file them out from under each other.
Warner has also been attacking other companies’ Oz-related trademark filings. Just another example of how trademarks can be used as weapons regardless of whether copyrighted material has become part of the public cultural fabric. It is kind of funny to see the two biggest defenders of continually extending copyright (to protect Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and Superman, natch) taking each other on, though.
Review by Roger Ash
One of Warner Brothers’ supporting cartoon characters finally gets his day on the Looney Tunes Super Stars: Pepé Le Pew DVD. Created by director Chuck Jones, Pepé Le Pew is the popular French love-addled skunk with the voice of Charles Boyer who pursues cats he mistakenly believes are skunks. Pepé was always a favorite of mine growing up, as he was confident with women in ways I could only dream of. And he had the best lines (though they would guarantee you a shot of pepper spray if you used them in real life).
This single disc contains all 15 of Pepé’s starring cartoons plus “Dog Pounded”, a Sylvester and Tweety cartoon that features a Pepé cameo, and “Odor of the Day”, directed by Art Davis. Some people consider “Odor of the Day” a Pepé Le Pew cartoon, but I disagree. While it does star a skunk, he only bears a passing resemblance to Pepé and features none of his characteristics.
As with most animated characters, it took a few cartoons before Pepé Le Pew fully became the character we know today. In his first cartoon, “Odor-able Kitty”, Pepé actually pursues a male cat, and at the end of the cartoon, it’s revealed that he’s only pretending to be French and that he has a wife and kids! From his second cartoon on, he is truly French, and the wife and children are never mentioned again. But “Scent-imental Over You” is still different as it’s the one time Pepé pursues a dog who looks like a skunk.
All the pieces finally come together in his third film, “For Scent-imental Reasons”, which won the Academy Award. This cartoon, which takes place in a perfume shop, features a marvelously animated pantomime scene between the cat, who has locked herself in a display case, and Pepé. The ending also introduces a running gag in his cartoons. After falling in a barrel of water, the cat takes a good look at Pepé and decides he’s not so bad after all. She chases him and he runs. He enjoys the chase, but he enjoys being chased about as much as the cats he pursues do.
Probably my favorite cartoon in the series, as well as a good representation of Pepé Le Pew cartoons overall, is the fourth, “Scent-imental Romeo”. This time out, Pepé is a zoo animal in Paris. The opening is filled with language jokes, either involving his broken English or faux French. These can be as simple as putting “le” in front of a word to make it French — cats say “le meow”, lions go “le roar”, and whistles sound “le tweet” — to elaborate wordplay, such as the sign which reads “No Avance Nourishment Aux Pigeons” (don’t feed the pigeons). The cat in this cartoon paints a stripe down her back so she can enter his enclosure and eat the food that’s intended for him. Little does she know what she’s in for.
When Pepe sees the lady “skunk” in his cage, he prepares for a rendezvous by pulling down shades that make his enclosure look like a living room. Since this is an outside enclosure, where these blinds hang from is anyone’s guess. He attempts to woo her with champagne and song, but she runs off. He follows her into a nearby park to discover where she is “secreting” herself. In the process, he startles a poodle, is whacked on the head with club by the cat, and highly disturbs a man in the tunnel of love. Finally catching up with the cat, Pepé serenades her with a rendition of “Baby Face” and attempts to win her with his ability to tango. This only gets him smacked on the head with a stick again.
As he attempts to pursue her, he is caught by the zookeeper and returned to his cage. Pepé plaintively calls, “sweeting is such part sorrow” as he watches helplessly as the cat runs away. The oddness of the cartoons only increases in later entries with the people becoming much more stylized and the backgrounds by Philip Deguard becoming less realistic and more representational, with bold blocks of color behind simply drawn landscapes.
Some like to write off Pepé Le Pew cartoons as formulaic: a cat gets a stripe painted down her back, Pepé mistakes her for a skunk and pursues her, only to be rebuffed repeatedly. While that recipe is used in most of Pepé’s starring roles, it is what director Jones, writer Michael Maltese, and the animators do with that basic premise that makes these cartoons fun. In much the same way, Tweety and Sylvester, Coyote and Road Runner, and Foghorn Leghorn cartoons (for example) are formulaic, yet the creators mine comedy gold in their films.
Here’s a clip that shows just one of his pursuits:
Pepé travels the world in his cartoons, from the French Alps to the desert, from a movie studio to a luxury ocean liner, from Paris to New Orleans. Along the way, we learn that he can swing through the trees like Tarzan, he can run underwater (being a skunk, he reminds us, he’s learned to hold his breath), he is an expert skier, and his measured, bouncing pace will always keep him near his intended, no matter how fast she may run. This collection of cartoons ably shows that while there is a certain formula to his cartoons, Pepé himself is as well-rounded a character as any in the Warner Brothers stable.
Not that all of the cartoons are of the same quality. The best are penned by frequent Jones collaborator Michael Maltese. The others, including some written by Jones himself, seem more like a series of gags than a fully developed story. Jones directed all but one of Pepé’s starring vehicles, the exception being “Really Scent”, directed by Abe Levitow, an animator who worked with Jones.
The quality of the prints of the cartoons varies quite a bit, with some looking quite nice while others definitely show their age. All of the cartoons are available in standard format with a few (those made after 1953) also presented in widescreen.
Overall, this is my favorite of the Looney Tunes Super Stars discs. Part of that is simply because I’ve always enjoyed Pepé Le Pew. The other reason is that the cartoons on this disc, including 14 new to DVD, present all of his starring roles. This gives both the fan and the casual viewer a great opportunity to see the birth and development of one of Warner Brothers’ cartoon stars. He may not be as big as Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck, but as this DVD reminds us, Pepé Le Pew is a fantastic character and deserves his moment in the spotlight.
(The studio provided a review copy.)
I’m not a huge fan of heist movies — I blush to admit that I still haven’t seen the Ocean’s 11 remake or its sequels — but the cast of this one was so interesting that I had to check it out. Ben Stiller stars as the head concierge of a very fancy apartment building. Judd Hirsch is his boss, and Alan Alda an extremely rich tenant. Matthew Broderick is a bankrupt former broker who refuses to leave because he’s got nothing left.
Alda’s Madoff-like character winds up losing a lot of people’s money, including the employees’ retirement fund, in a particularly timely plot. Those affected decide to steal back their pensions, and Eddie Murphy is the experienced thief they get help from. Gabourey Sidibe is a loud-mouthed housekeeper, while Téa Leoni is the FBI agent in charge of Alda’s house arrest.
Alan Alda and Tea Leoni in Tower Heist
I liked the city setting. This was filmed in New York City, and it shows, with a very authentic rich-guy urban feel. The tone, however, is all over the place, from comedy to action to drama. It also takes a long while to get to the plot — even though we know that a robbery is coming, the plan doesn’t even start until after a half-hour into the hour-and-45-minute film. I might have preferred a flashback setup, where we start with the action and then follow the stars back to see how they came to be part of the heist. I would have also preferred more of a showdown between the evil rich guy and the Robin Hood gang. Much of what they do winds up happening, as it must, with Alda’s character gone. I would have liked to have seen more of his character’s unthinking entitlement, to emphasize the social commentary aspects, which don’t get as much attention as I wanted.
The best part of the movie, I thought, was the camaraderie among the down-on-their-luck guys, as seen in this clip from the bonus features, which also includes some of the best lines:
Their interaction accounts for much of the humor, as Murphy tries to toughen up these previously pampered pals. Murphy’s work is reminiscent of his best-known wiseass roles, while Broderick is surprisingly funny, and so is Sidibe. It’s an enjoyable diversion for a weekend, especially if you have good tolerance for a flatly unbelievable conclusion that makes for great visuals and suspense — including a car chase *through* the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — but ignores the laws of physics and relies on a lot of coincidence.
(My first exposure to Tower Heist was not as a film, but as an experiment. Universal originally intended to try releasing it as video-on-demand only three weeks after it opened in theaters, and only in two Comcast cities. Theater owners, however, refused to show the movie if their release window wasn’t kept to its traditional length, so the experiment was cancelled. The film flopped anyway, making back only its filming budget in the U.S.)
Ben Stiller, Matthew Broderick, Michael Peña, Casey Affleck, and Eddie Murphy in Tower Heist
The carrot to induce those interested to buy are the many special features available on both the DVD edition and Blu-ray. Two “alternate endings” (less than three minutes total) could more accurately be described as postscripts to the action in the film, although it was fun to see the cast again. Nine deleted/alternate scenes (likely removed to keep the rating PG-13) provide additional bits of humor. A gag reel (just over four minutes) shows the usual bloopers and cast cracking up.
The 45-minute featurette, in six parts, is “Plotting Tower Heist” with producer Brian Grazer, director Brett Ratner, and the cast, covering the complicated history of the movie, with its various writers and concept history, as well as the Trump Tower location inspiration, the key sets, and more information on the Steve McQueen car that’s so significant to the plot. There’s also a commentary with Ratner, editor Mark Helfrich, and co-writers Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson.
Alda's character is so rich he has a collectible car in his living room
Blu-ray exclusives include Ratner’s video diary (almost 23 minutes of home movie-style memories); pocketBLU access; and, with a WiFi-connected player, Second Screen (using a laptop or tablet app) that includes storyboards and “The Music of Tower Heist”, information on the soundtrack. These items are also available on the Blu-ray disc through “U-Control”. The combo pack comes with an UltraViolet digital copy of the film (access only available through the end of July). (The studio provided a review copy.)
The newest Young Justice DVD, Season One Volume Three, contains four episodes, continuing from where the previous release left off.
“Bereft” gives me what I’d been waiting for since the start of the series: a significant role for Artemis (Stephanie Lemelin) with the team. Unfortunately, the group is all split up, with no one remembering the last six months, and Superboy’s (Nolan North) kind of Hulk-like here, nothing but rage and power without his memories. I’ve seen amnesia episodes before done better — the one from Angel is a particular favorite — but it’s a good starting point for the disc, since it reintroduces many of the characters to each other and, by extension, the viewer. It’s also good to see Miss Martian (Danica McKellar) take more of a lead role, since her powers are particularly well-suited to the problem.
“Targets” lets Red Arrow (Crispin Freeman) — sensitive about his ex-sidekick status and unwilling to join the team — return in a story featuring Lex Luthor (Mark Rolston) as an envoy attempting to bring peace between two warring Asian countries. Cheshire (Kelly Hu) has been hired to assassinate Luthor to interrupt the summit. Meanwhile, the kids go to school, requiring secret identities for Miss Martian (as Megan Morse) and Superboy (now Connor Kent). That allows for cool cameos from teacher Mr. Carr (who snaps his fingers), kids named Wendy and Marvin, a Bumblebee cheerleader named Karen Beecher, and tough guy Mal Duncan. Here’s a clip showing them all:
This was a good episode to scan through all the fight stuff until more high school hijinks came up. Trivia that interested me: the only creators given “created by” credits at the end of the show were Bob Kane for Batman, Geoff Johns & Tony Daniel for Miss Martian, and Marv Wolfman & George Perez for Cheshire. Those last two also got a credit for Psimon, voiced by Alan Tudyk, in the previous episode.
“Terrors” gets its name from the villains, the Southern-accented Terror Twins. Miss Martian and Superboy are sent undercover, impersonating them in the Belle Reve prison for superpowered villains. The penitentiary is run by Amanda Waller (Sheryl Lee Ralph), and the prison psychiatrist is Hugo Strange (Adrian Pasdar), and there’s a conspiracy among several ice-powered bad guys. (Waller is credited as created by John Ostrander & John Byrne, and Cat Grant is attributed to Marv Wolfman & Jerry Ordway. Oddly, the latter wasn’t listed when she appeared in a previous episode.) This was my favorite of the four shows included here, since the main plot/fight kept my attention the best.
“Homefront” returns to Artemis after two Megan-and-Superboy-focused episodes. She’s attending Gotham Academy with Robin (Jesse McCartney), Bette Kane, and Barbara Gordon, and we get flashbacks to a surprising family connection, but the main plot involves Red Inferno and Red Torpedo (fire and water robots from the 2009 miniseries, “siblings” of Red Tornado) attacking the kids’ cave headquarters. Artemis and Robin, the two non-powered heroes, find themselves working together when the others are incapacitated.
It’s an odd choice to end on, thematically, since it closes with a sort of defeat for the team, with plenty of loose ends left. Those characters return three episodes later, but you’ll need the future DVD that contains that one to find out what happens.
At this point, I think you already know whether you’re interested in Young Justice. The cast is established as emotional teens with powers. The battles are the focus of most episodes, which gives a viewer like me less to hang my interest on, since I want to see more of the character interactions. But as I’ve said before, I’m not the target audience for this — they’re aiming for boys and filling the episodes based on their perceptions of that type of viewer. If you liked the previous volumes, you’ll like this one; if not, there’s nothing significantly different here to change your mind, unless you want to collect all the cartoon appearances of Barbara Gordon.
I was surprised to see this disc contained something other than just the four episodes and a couple of trailers for other projects. There’s also a digital comic listed, but it’s only the first three pages of Young Justice #0 plus an ad for DC’s online comic site, so it feels like an unfulfilling tease. The issue promoted is a free sample, for now, but you have to know how to find it once you transfer to the comiXology site.
If you haven’t purchased the series yet and you’re interested, you may want to wait until April, when a discounted collection of the first three discs will be available at a more reasonable price. (The studio provided a review copy.)
Warner Archive is offering 20% off everything through February 21 for Presidents’ Day. (Does not include pre-orders, does include MGM, Sony, and HBO, does include free shipping.) At checkout, enter code PREZDAY. Expires 2/21/12.
What, is that MGM mention a surprise? WarnerArchive.com now offers the MGM Limited Edition Collection, similar made-on-demand discs from the MGM/Fox library. Over 140 are now available, including
* Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976) — Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman) plays a carhop who wants to be a country singer but winds up committing robbery and murder. A drive-in classic.
* Cold Turkey (1971) — Dick Van Dyke, Bob Newhart, and Tom Poston star in a comedy about one town’s attempt to have everyone quit smoking. Directed by Norman Lear.
* Fitzwilly (1967) — Another from Dick Van Dyke’s short movie career, this time with him as a butler who masterminds a crime ring in order to keep his employer from realizing she’s penniless. Also stars Barbara Feldon (Get Smart).
* Futureworld (1976) — The sequel to Westworld, about a fantasy amusement park staffed by robots. Stars Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner.
That’s just a few; there are lots more MGM available.
The Secret World of Arrietty, the newest Studio Ghibli movie, is out today, and I’m bummed that I’m too sick to go. To whet my appetite for it (and yours), here’s a series of promo clips provided by Disney (the U.S. distributor).
Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) and her parents (Amy Poehler and Will Arnett) discuss the addition of a new member to the “human bean” household, a boy:
The change doesn’t stop Arrietty and her father from going after a sugar cube:
Where Arrietty reveals she’s been seen:
by the new boy (who learns her name and how to pronounce it, in case you were wondering):
Since the boy (David Henrie) knows about them, they have to leave — but first, Arrietty explains what the Borrowers are:
Unfortunately, he’s not the only one who suspects their existence. The housekeeper (Carol Burnett) captures Mom!
And that’s all I have, so you’ll have to see the movie to find out what happens.
