Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) S04E23 "The Host" TV Show Review

With the Trill, in the form of Adira Tal, having a prominent role on Star Trek: Discovery this season I thought it would be appropriate to review the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where the Trill made their first appearance. So let's talk about Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 23 "The Host".

"The Host" is one of those episodes of TNG that I remember watching when I was a kid, but only remember seeing it once or twice, but don't remember much of the plot, aside from Odan being a Trill, being in love with Doctor Crusher, and Riker volunteering to be a temporary host for Odan. I didn't own this episode on VHS and we didn't have it taped off the TV either, so it wasn't an episode I got to watch all that often. 

One of the things that I like about this episode is that it isn't about Odan's efforts to negotiate between two warring factions. It's about Doctor Crusher and her struggle to come to terms with Odan being a joined Trill and the symbiont being in Riker's body, and then being in a female Trill host. It's also about asking the question, "Does our love for someone come from physical desire or from something besides that?" Like any good Star Trek episode, "The Host" never gives us an answer to that question. Instead, it only presents the question to us, the audience, and lets us come up with an answer on our own without nudging us in one direction or another. 

Doctor Crusher is such a relatable character in this episode. As I already mentioned, she struggles to figure out if she can still love Odan even though he hid that part of himself from her. It becomes even more difficult for her when the Odan Symbiont is placed into Riker's body, making him William T. Odan, if we go by the Trill naming convention laid out on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She knows she's not physically attracted to Riker, think of him like a brother (much to Troi's relief I'm sure), but because the symbiont has taken control of Riker's body, he is, in effect, the man that Beverly fell in love with, despite his face and physique belonging to her friend, Will Riker. 

My favourite scene in this episode is the opening one, where Odan and Beverly are making out in the turbolift, the doors open and Data enters the lift and proceeds to talk about the preparations the three of them are making for Odan's mission. A fairly mundane scene, but what I like about it is that Data is not picking up on Beverly's hints that she and Odan were busy and that moment was not a good time for Data to be working with them. As someone who is autistic, I can relate to Data, because, especially when I was in my teens and my twenties, this is something that I have difficulty with. Unless somebody tells me straight out that something is inconvenient, I'm not going to get it from facial cues or body language. Of course Beverly is too nice to just outright tell Data that that moment was not a good time.

By the way, Riker really goes through the ringer in this episode. I mean he has an alien lifeform surgically implanted inside his body, has to function as that being for a day or two, and it all culminates in Riker nearly dying because Humans are unable to be suitable hosts for a Trill symbiont. Actually I'm sort of surprised that Riker did survive having the symbiont in his body just because it's only been eight episodes since Doctor Crusher healed his wounds from being beaten to near death, and operated on in an alien hospital, where he was also beaten to near death by the hospital staff when he tried to escape in Season 4, Episode 15 "First Contact" and only six episodes since he and the rest of the crew were sleep deprived in "Night Terrors". 

Also in the scene where the Odan Symbiont is being placed into Riker is kind of weird. Not because it's disturbing or anything, but I'm pretty sure Doctor Crusher and Nurse Ogawa broke several medical protocols in the scene. Riker is properly prepped for the operation, but Crusher and Ogawa aren't wearing the proper surgical scrubs that we saw in the season 2 episode "Samaritan Snare" when Picard has having his heart operation, and they're in the main Sickbay area, not the surgical unit that we'd later see in the season 5 episode, "Ethics" when Worf is having experimental back surgery. As someone who has had many operations over the years, it didn't make sense to me that Beverly would be so lax in procedure when it comes to prepping for surgery of any kind.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall "The Host" is an amazing episode of the show. It's also one of the more underrated episodes of the series as well. I don't see it on a lot of people's Top 10 Favourite Episodes lists and not a lot of people talk about it online very much either. I don't know if that's because it's overlooked since the Trill are introduced here but are better developed on Deep Space Nine or what. I really like it though. It's thought provoking, relatable, and entertaining. I'm giving Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episode 23, "The Host" 9/10 stars.

Memory Alpha: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Host_(episode) 

Why I like The Hardy Boys Books

 

Hey guys! Yes, I am back once again with yet another Hardy Boys post. Can you tell I'm excited for the new show to start in 15 days? Lol. Today I'm going to be focusing solely on the books and why I like them so much. Because I didn't read a whole lot of The Hardy Boys Casefiles and I haven't read any of the more recent series like The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers I'm mostly going to focus on the original series and the continuation paperback Digest series that ran from 1979 until 2005, with the focus on the earlier books from 1979 to 1988. There are five things that I'll be touching on: the main characters, the supporting characters, the locations, the stories, and the writing in general.

Frank and Joe Hardy are some of the greatest characters that I have ever read in a book. They're likable, fairly smart, and relatable, especially in the original text versions from the '20s to the '50s. Though I didn't really think about when I was a kid, the Hardys are pretty wealthy in the revised text versions of the first 38 books in the series and the remaining 20. At least wealthy enough to afford to travel as often as Frank and Joe do for their cases. Especially in the later books written in the '70s when their cases take them away from Bayport more often than they kept them in Bayport. They're also so positive. Yes they're characters who were created in 1927 and then updated in 1959 and then not really updated in the novels to this day, even though they've gotten an overhaul in the more recent comics from Dynamite and a slight overhaul in the Casefiles series in the late '80s. As a result it honestly made me feel like I was with friends, while I sat in my bedroom, or in the basement, reading these books. Despite the fact that I was reading them in the '90s and they were written in the '20s through the '70s. Which is actually the appeal of the series for me.

The supporting characters are the same to varying degrees. Fenton and Laura Hardy, Frank and Joe's parents, are so supportive of the boys's career as detectives. At least in the revised text from the '50s through to the '70s. In the original text versions from the '20s to the '50s they want Frank and Joe to be lawyers or doctors, but understand that the boys want to follow their father as detectives. Aunt Gertrude is probably my favourite of the boys's relatives. Especially in the original text versions of the late '20s and early '30s when she would be a visitor and wasn't actually living with the Hardys as she has since 1962 in the revised version of The Secret of the Old Mill, the third volume in the series. Even in the more recent series, like Undercover Brothers, Aunt Gertrude lives with the Hardys.

Frank and Joe's friends are pretty great too. Chet Morton and Biff Hooper seem to make the most appearances as they tend to accompany Frank and Joe when their cases take them out of Bayport. Tony Prito also helps them out because he has his own motorboat, though Tony's appearances start dwindling by the time the Hardy boys get their own motorboat, the Sleuth, in the third book. Phil Cohen is only memorable because he was a suspect in the Digest series in the last Hardy Boys book I got, The Serpent's Tooth Mystery. Jerry Gilroy and Perry Robinson sort of just fade into the background and then are gone altogether by Book #58 The Sting of the Scorpion. Same kind of goes for Joe's girlfriend, who also happens to be Chet's sister, Iola Morton. She's there, but even from the very first book of the series, The Tower Treasure, Frank's girlfriend, Callie Shaw has more of an appearance throughout the series. Though by the time Undercover Brothers started, the two girls were written out entirely, aside from a cameo and a mention. While we know that Frank and Joe are 15 and 16 in the original text version and 17 and 18 in the revised text version, we don't really know the age of Chet and the other teens. Which is interesting, but obviously not necessary for us to know as readers.

Chet is probably my favourite of the guys. I don't know why, probably because despite his aversion to danger, he's the most loyal of all of Frank and Joe's friends and always helps them out when they need him. Of course, he also tends to be the source of many of their mysteries because of the trouble he often gets himself into. None of my friends are like Chet, so unlike most fiction where I can pinpoint characters who remind me of a friend of mine, I don't have that with this series. Callie is my favourite of the two girls, mainly because she appears more often than Iola seems to, though the earlier books do have Iola making at least one appearance in every book. 

The Bayport Police Department is kind of in and out as the franchise goes on, with Chief Collig appearing in pretty much every incarnation, including all of the TV show and comic book versions that have come out over the years. Depending on the era, Collig and the Bayport Police Department is either antagonistic towards the Hardys, Fenton included, or friendly towards them. Con Riley, the desk sergeant, is usually friendly with Frank and Joe. There was a detective in the first several novels, named Oscar Smuff, but he was written out of the series by the tenth or eleventh book. 

The city of Bayport and it's surrounding area is probably one of the most real fictional locations for me. Probably because the detail that the authors of the series have put into it is astonishing. Though the early books did tend to contradict each other when it comes to the location of certain places. For example, the boathouse where the Sleuth is kept, is generally located on the Shore Road, which winds across Barmet Bay. However in one of the early books, the boathouse is located down the street from the Hardy home. The Morton farm is pretty much in the same place, as is the Shore Road, Willow River Drive and Downtown Bayport is pretty much the same throughout the franchise. And because of this detail, Bayport felt like a real city to me, as if I could take a drive there myself.

The stories themselves are pretty enjoyable. Some mysteries are better than others, but none of them feel formulaic, even though they do follow a formula. With variations of course. Sometimes the Hardys stumble onto the mystery, other times Fenton gives them their assignment, and sometimes they're hired by someone. But they always find themselves in a mystery by the end of the first chapter of a book. There are also moments of downtime too during a case, especially if the case keeps them in Bayport. There's usually a chapter, mostly in the early books, where the Hardys do something fun with their friends or they're at school or doing something with their family that isn't case related. Which is kind of nice, because it shows that the boys aren't completely obsessed with being detectives and can relax outside of that. Though it becomes less that way in more recent Hardy Boys series. 

I feel that the writing of these books is handled pretty well. Unlike modern books for teens and young adults, there's no unnecessary drama in The Hardy Boys. The drama is created through the situations the Hardys find themselves in rather than through conflict with each other or their friends and family around them. In the revised text editions anyway. In the original text editions, the Hardys were constantly at odds with the police just because their detective skills make the police look bad. But this doesn't create as much drama as it would in the Casefiles series in the late '80s and early '90s. Even with the number of writers on this series, the characters always felt the same. They always felt like the Hardy Boys, their friends, and their family. Which is something comics have never quite been able to pull off with most of the long running characters, except for Archie and the gang from Riverdale. And the writing has stayed consistently good over 58 books despite the change in writers and updates to the characters and other elements that changed between the original text editions and the revised text editions. 

And those are the five reasons why I like The Hardy Boys. Along with Animorphs and Bruno & Boots, The Hardy Boys was my favourite book series when I was a kid. In fact it actually tied with Animorphs for the series I had the most books from. Between the original text editions I had and the revised text editions I had, I was maybe missing nine of the 58 books in the entire original series of The Hardy Boys. I only had four books in the Digest series, and six in the Casefiles series as well, between two compilations. 

That's gonna it for me for tonight folks. I'll be back on Sunday with the next movie review that I have in mind. That's pretty much going to be the new night for me watching movies since The Mandalorian is on Fridays for the next few weeks and The Hardy Boys (2020 TV series) will be starting in two weeks as well. I want to continue with the Disney reviews and the family friendly reviews, so those days are out too when it comes to other movie reviews. I also have shows on on Wednesday and Thursday nights as well. Alright guys, have a good one.

Teddy Ruxpin #17: Grundo Springtime Singtime (1985) Book and Tape Review

Hey guys! Welcome to another review. Today is another family friendly review and I'm going to be taking a look at a book and tape set from my childhood. It's the 17th book and tape set in the The World of Teddy Ruxpin series, Grundo Springtime Singtime. I realize that that's a really random Teddy Ruxpin story to start with, but there's no real order to this series, and I did the VHS tapes in order, so I don't feel like doing that for 38 book and tape sets. Let's get into it.

As you all know by now, I am a huge Teddy Ruxpin fan. I grew up listening to the tapes on my original 1985 Teddy Ruxpin, while looking at the books, I watched the animated series on TV, as well as the episodes that I had on VHS, and I even watched the 1985 live action/animatronic TV movie on VHS. While my relationship with Teddy didn't go beyond the original talking toy and book & tape series, I maintained that relationship throughout my entire life. Mostly. There was a brief period where I didn't have any Teddy Ruxpin stuff except for my two original Teddys, and the Tweeg figure I've had since I was a kid, and no way to watch my VHS tapes. It wasn't until a chance encounter with a fellow fan online that my love of the series returned. He'd digitized all of the original audiotapes into MP3s and e-mailed them to me and that was it. I was back. Then I also joined a fan community, which I'm still part of (sort of) today. When a new complete series DVD set was released in 2012, I bought it and immediately binged the entire series in ten days (a disc per day). So why am I reviewing Grundo Springtime Singtime first instead of The Airship? Because Teddy Ruxpin has great sing along tapes that aren't heavy on story and I loved those as much as I did the story tapes. This was my favourite one of them all.

The story of this tape is that Teddy and Grubby are invited to the annual Grundo Springtime Singtime festival to sing on stage with the Grunges and the Fobs. And they do. "Spring Has Sprung", "Fobs are Gobs of Fun", "Grubby's Roasted Root Stew", "A Happy Sing Along Song" and "I'm an Honorary Grunge" are the songs sung on this tape. I don't really have a favourite among them either because they're all so good. But if you made me choose a favourite it would have to be "A Happy Sing Along Song". As Teddy says in the tape, it's a song that everyone can sing along on. Especially the people who don't share Grubby's taste in food...which is every single person in Grundo, except for the Mudblups. Who aren't even in this story.

While Teddy Ruxpin creator, Ken Forsse, writes a good chunk of the stories, there are 16 of them, including this one, that weren't written by him at all. Generally the writers were Will Ryan (Grubby), Phil Baron (Teddy Ruxpin himself), and Michelle Baron, Phil's wife. Grundo Springtime Singtime was written by Will Ryan. He also wrote the songs for the story as well. 

Speaking of Grubby, who let him have a booth for his root stew? Is it just one of those festivals where everybody in town has a booth there and they don't have to pay to have a booth? Or is it just a situation where they didn't want to hurt Grubby's feelings so they let him have a booth anyway? Is that why the 25 cents and 10 cents are crossed out, and "FREE" is written in big bold letters, in red?

I love the artwork in these books. The pictures for Grundo Springtime Singtime were illustrated by David High, Russell Hicks, Theresa Mazurek, Allyn Conley/Gorniak, and Julie Armstrong. I'm not really sure which illustrator does what, like who's on backgrounds, who draws which characters etc. There's also three styles to the character designs in these books. There's the one you see in the images above, which is the standard design. But then there's the earlier design from The Airship and a few other of the earliest books. There's also a third design which was used for the later books in the series. This last design is much more cartoony than even the first designs from the earliest books. I think the only change in artist between The Airship and Grundo Springtime Singtime is a swapout of two artists for three, though David High and Russell Hicks are the main illustrators throughout the series. At least Russell Hicks is, because by the time the final story in the series Lullabies II came out, David High was no longer listed and Theresa Mazurek had also replaced him as the Art Director for the series.

Overall I really enjoy this Teddy Ruxpin sing along tape. Although the songs are pretty easy to learn, this book came out before they began the practice of including the full text of the story, including the song lyrics, in the book. With this book they were still using the original one sentence, or a song's title, in a box in the corner of the page. So with this story you just gotta listen to it a million times to learn the words to the songs. Not that that was a problem for us Teddy Ruxpin fans when we were kids in the '80s and '90s. It drove our parents insane most likely though...again, not a bad thing.

Alright guys, that's gonna be it for me for today. I've got another Hardy Boys blog post out tomorrow. Why? Because, I can and I have one more Hardy Boys thing to talk about before I review some of the books before the new TV show starts in 16 days. Yes, I am counting down the days until the show starts, don't judge me. Lol. Until tomorrow I will talk to you all later. Bye!

Link: https://teddyruxpin.fandom.com/wiki/Grundo_Springtime_Singtime

*book cover is from the Teddy Ruxpin Wiki, and the artwork pictures were taken my me.

The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special (2020) TV Special Review (minor spoilers)

The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen for Star Wars. And it's exactly the sort of thing that we need right now. It's funny, it's ridiculous and it's easily the coolest thing I've seen in a while. There will be a few minor spoilers in this review, so if you haven't watched the special yet, go do so before reading further. For those of you who have watched it already, let's get into it.

Unlike The Star Wars Holiday Special, which aired on CBS on November 17th, 1978, this Star Wars holiday special wasn't meant to be taken seriously. As I mentioned before, this was made for fun, to pay homage to classic Christmas specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman while doing something fun in the style of previous LEGO Star Wars, and LEGO DC direct-to-DVD releases that have come out over the years. It also puts more content on Disney+.

Basically this story is a tale as old as time, with the main character, in this case Rey, needing to be reminded of the importance of family and goes through some crazy things in order to get to that point. It's something Community did in it's second season, and The O.C. did it in it's fourth season, not to mention Glee did it in it's fourth season as well. So it's really not anything we haven't seen before. It's just has the Star Wars twist to it.

I know I give my favourite franchises grief for intentionally being fan servicy a lot. But, in this case it works. Watching Kylo Ren hanging out with Darth Vader and the Emperor from Return of the Jedi, watching Luke Skywalker from A New Hope interact with Rey and the Luke from Return of the Jedi, the Child, the Mandalorian and IG-11 from season 1 of The Mandalorian on screen with Rey, Luke, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader from different time periods, and watching Greedo get shot by both Han Solo from A New Hope and Han Solo from The Force Awakens was oh so satisfying. As was watching The Empire Strikes Back Vader duel Return of the Jedi Vader when he and Rey drop in on Echo Base during the Battle of Hoth.

My favourite interaction was probably when everyone is in the throne room on the Death Star II and Palpatine thinks he's prevented Vader from throwing him down into the reactor shaft, but Vader does it anyway, because he was just fed up with Palpatine's stupidity. I kind of feel like this sort of thing would've appeared as a sketch in one of the Robot Chicken Star Wars specials, but got cut for whatever reason. In fact that's kind of what this special reminded me of. An unmade Robot Chicken Star Wars special. Mainly because Palpatine's sounds like the person who voiced the character in the Robot Chicken specials.

Speaking of the voice cast, it's kind of sad that the only cast member from the sequel trilogy, Anthony Daniels and Billy Dee Williams aside, to return to reprise their role is Kelly Marie Tran. Rey, Poe, Finn and Kylo are voiced by other people. Though we do get Dee Bradley Baker, Matt Lanter, James Arnold Taylor, and Tom Kane from The Clone Wars back, reprising their roles as Clone Troopers, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Yoda respectively. But, it's still sad that the main cast from the Sequel Trilogy didn't come back. I understand why they didn't, but it would've been cool for at least Oscar Isaac and/or Daisy Ridley to return.

The only problem that I had with this special is that there was a certain point where it felt like we were watching kids playing with their Star Wars LEGO sets rather than an animated TV special and that part felt kind of unnecessary. The scene I'm talking about is the Battle of Geonosis (Attack of the Clones) style battle on Tatooine between Clone Troopers, Anakin Skywalker (Phantom Menace kid version), Mace Windu, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Phantom Menace Padawan version), Obi-Wan Kenobi (Attack of the Clones Jedi Master version), Obi-Wan Kenobi (Revenge of the Sith Mustafar version), Anakin Skywalker (Attack of the Clones Padawan version), the two Han Solos, Stormtroopers, Greedo, Anakin Skywalker (Revenge of the Sith Dark Side version), First Order Firetroopers, Snoke's red Stormtroopers and Darth Maul (minus legs). We got it anyway, but it felt pointless since we don't actually see any of those characters again in this special. I mean it's exactly the kind of scenario I would've come up with when I was a kid, playing with my Star Wars LEGOs, but again, most of that scene could've been trimmed a little bit, or cut entirely, except for the sequence of the two Han Solos shooting Greedo, and it wouldn't've affected the plot very much. 

Final Thoughts, Rating and Recommendation: Overall I thought that The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special was fantastic. It was funny, it was a visual feast, and it was just a fun 47 minutes spent with the Star Wars characters without doing anything too serious or anything pointless. As I said at the beginning of this review, I think this is something that we need more of on TV. Especially now when it's gloomy and cold outside. Not every TV show and movie has to be thought provoking or deep. Sometimes we need to have fun watching TV or a movie. Sometimes we need Batman '66 or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers or The LEGO Batman Movie to entertain us. And sometimes we just need our favourite Star Wars characters teaming up to make us laugh. I definitely recommend you check it out as it's on Disney+ now. I'm giving The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special 8.5/10 stars though it would've been 9/10 if it hadn't been for that sequence that went on too long.

Wookieepedia: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/The_LEGO_Star_Wars_Holiday_Special

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12885438/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

The Black Cauldron (1985) Movie Review

The Black Cauldron is probably the most non-Disney animated Disney movie I have ever seen. It's dark, it's atmospheric and the story is pretty epic. However, it's execution isn't great. Particularly when it comes to the kind of character development that Disney has always been known for. I know it's an odd pick for my first Disney animated movie review for this segment, but that's exactly why I decided to review it today, because it's not just a review of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or any of the other classic Disney movies that one would think of to review in a segment called Disney Reviews. 

This movie came out at a strange time for Disney. 1984 had seen the arrival of new CEO, Michael Eisner, who replaced Ron Miller, who had stepped in following Roy O. Disney's death in the '70s, and studio executive, Jeffrey Katzenberg, who inherited this movie from the previous studio head. Neither Eisner nor Katzenberg knew anything about animation and Katzenberg was not happy about the animation studio in general and this film in particular. The Black Cauldron had been in development at Disney since 1973, which probably freaked Katzenberg out since he and Eisner had come from Paramount, where there were more stricter deadlines when it came to producing movies. And while The Fox and the Hound is considered to be the last movie that Walt's core group of animators, the Nine Old Men, worked on, The Black Cauldron is actually that movie because some members of the Nine Old Men worked on the film at different stages of development. 

The studio was in limbo because on the animation side, the movies produced since Walt's death hadn't done as well financially as the movies Walt had made from 1937 to 1967. And despite Katzenberg's best efforts, the movie bombed at the box office. And it did so because it's a really dark movie and Disney, especially at the time had made movies that everyone could watch. There are dark/scary moments in movies like Snow White, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, but none of those films are so dark that children can't watch them. This is a movie that children probably shouldn't watch if they're under a certain age. Because it is pretty scary at certain points. Which is a shame because the story the movie is based on is actually pretty amazing.

I actually read The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander about ten years ago or so when I borrowed it from the library because I wanted to read as many of the stories that the Disney movies were based on. It's been a while, but I remember the book is much better than the movie. Partly because the main protagonist, Taran, isn't completely useless as he is in the movie. Also the book had more wit and charm to it than the Disney animated adaptation does.

Normally I try to give movies the benefit of the doubt, especially if they're adaptations of a book or comic where not everything can or should be translated to the screen from the page. In this case I'm making an exception because, having read the source material, I know Disney could've done a lot better with this material than they did. So to have a movie that has no substance or point to the main character, while giving the promise of something epic is worse than if it was just a bad movie created without having source material to pull from. Normally Disney is really good at making movie adaptations of books. I mean they've been doing it since 1921 (when it was known as Laugh-O-Gram Studios). But this time around it just didn't work.

My biggest problem with this movie is that Taran is useless. He's supposed to be the hero, but he doesn't actually do anything the whole movie. Princess Eilonwy rescues him from the Horned King's dungeon, he fails to protect Hen Wen, resulting in both of them getting captured, and he doesn't even defeat the Horned King. Gurgi does. In other words, apart from being the main protagonist of the original books, Taran is unnecessary in this movie. He doesn't grow, he doesn't learn, he's stagnate. And that's because Disney made the mistake of focusing on the first two books, when it's really all five books of The Chronicles of Prydain that shapes and molds Taran from what he was in the first book, to what he becomes by the end of the final book. Plus he's so arrogant and whiny that I couldn't stand him the entire movie. Why Disney? Why did you do this?

 The Black Cauldron is pretty strange when it comes to how Disney regards it. Following it's initial failure at the box office in 1985, Disney did it's best to bury the film. Yet, by 1998 they released it on VHS as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. It was one of the last animated Disney movies, that wasn't the package films, to have a home video release. What's odd is that while it was one of the last animated movie to come out on VHS, it was one of the first Disney movies to get a DVD release, when it came out as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection. It got a DVD release before Snow White and Beauty and the Beast did. Then it got another DVD release ten years ago in 2010. I never owned this movie on any home media platform. I've only seen it on Disney+. But unless I was trying to have a complete collection of the VHS releases in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection line, I probably wouldn't pick up The Black Cauldron on DVD or VHS just because it's not that good of a movie.

Overall, this could've been an epic movie. But the characters leave much to be desired and the inability to tell a coherent story severely hampers this movie. I know it has it's fans, though I don't know how much of a fanbase it has or whether the people who like it only like it because it's a fascinating movie given it's troubled production and how badly it did for Disney back in the mid-'80s. Because it is a fascinating movie to look at. Not just because of it's troubled production but because visually it is a gorgeous, albeit outdated, movie. And the score, by Elmer Bernstein, who was responsible for the score for the 1984 film, Ghostbusters, is amazing too. It's just the story and the characters that aren't good. I'm giving The Black Cauldron 4/10 stars.

Links

Disney Wiki: https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/The_Black_Cauldron

The Hardy Boys: A Discussion

 

Hey guys! How's everyone's weekend going? Mine's been pretty good. I just wanted to talk about the Hardy Boys a little bit more than what I got to do in my review of the trailer for the upcoming Hulu/YTV series. There's a lot that I'd like to say about the books and what I'm expecting from the show when it premieres in less than three weeks. I'd like to start with my history with the Hardy Boys.

The first book I ever got in The Hardy Boys series was this two in one hardcover, containing the first two books in the series, The Tower Treasure and The House on the Cliff. They were the 1959 revised text versions of the two books and it was in flipbook format, where one book was on one side, and then if you flipped it over, you'd have the other book on the other side. I got it somewhere around 1995 or 1996 as it was my first encounter with The Hardy Boys series. In fact I remember sitting outside up at the cottage during my uncle's wedding reception and reading the book while the adults socialized and my siblings played with some of the other kids who were there with their families for the wedding.

Not long after, I was up at the cottage again, staying with my grandparents for two weeks and my grandmother gave me two Hardy Boys books, Tic-Tac-Terror (book #74 of Hardy Boys Digests, pictured above) and The Blackwing Puzzle (book #82 of The Hardy Boys Digests, not pictured). These were the later paperback releases that continued the numbering of the original hardcover series from the late '70s and early '80s and apparently they were my uncle's or something like that. 

Then my Nana picked up The Serpent's Tooth Mystery (book #93 in the Hardy Boys Digests) at a garage sale for me, which was the most recent Hardy Boys book I owned. At the same time I got a box of older Hardy Boys books from my mom's cousin. The box contained a mix of the original text versions of the books and the revised text versions, which is how I managed to get most of the original Hardy Boys series when I was a kid. I think I had three shelves full of Hardy Boys books in our basement at the time.

Then in grade 6, circa 1998/1999, I discovered the older teen series, The Hardy Boys Casefiles when I read book #55, Beyond the Law, which deals with corruption in the Bayport Police Force and Chief Collig is the prime suspect so the Hardys have to clear his name. I got this book at the school library and devoured it three times before my class's next library period the following week. Later on, I got this book for my own collection in a compilation with two other books in the Casefiles series. But aside from six books across two compilations, I didn't own any of the Casefiles books, and only read two of them prior to getting the compilations. This was a pretty good series from what I read of it. Both Hardy Boys series continued through the '90s, though I was unaware of the later books in each series as I didn't read any Hardy Boys books that came out after 1991. 

Because I have such a history with The Hardy Boys, and to a lesser extent, Nancy Drew, there are a few things I'm expecting to see in the new series because it's The Hardy Boys. Frank and Joe are there, as are Fenton Hardy and Aunt Gertrude, known as Aunt Trudy in the show. Chet Morton will be there, though the trailer didn't show whether he was carrying cookies in his pockets or not like he did in the books. He's also a lot thinner in the show than he was described as being in the books too. 

Even though Frank and Joe are just meeting everyone for the first time, at least from what it showed in the trailer, I'm hoping that Frank and Callie start dating by the end of the season. No love triangles, no weird pairings like Chet and Callie or Phil Cohen and Callie or anything like that. Just let Frank and Callie come together naturally. That would be cool. However, because this is a modern teen drama being produced in 2020, there are a few things that I am expecting to happen that hopefully won't.

The first is that one of the supporting female characters, probably Biff, who is a girl in this show, but just as likely Callie, will be a Lesbian. On the flipside of that, either Chet or Phil will be gay. Just because it does feed into the whole diversity thing, which, as I mentioned in my trailer reaction post, was severely lacking in the Hardy Boys books even into the '90s. If Callie isn't a Lesbian, then chances are she'll be with Chet or Phil prior to Frank and Joe arriving in Bridgeport (not Bayport). And that will cause tension between Frank and whichever boy Callie is with. Which might be interesting since there's never really been any real tension between the Hardys and their friends except maybe Chet and Joe in the Casefiles series since Chet's sister, Iola, who was Joe's girlfriend, died in the first chapter of the first book, Dead on Target.

The biggest thing I'm starting to notice from having just rewatched the trailer two more times is that The Hardy Boys is going to be more like Stranger Things than it is like The CW shows, Nancy Drew and Riverdale which is fine by me because I don't like Riverdale and I haven't watched Nancy Drew at all, so it's not going to be as sexy or sexualized as Riverdale became at the end of it's first season. Plus The Hardy Boys, especially the Casefiles series, felt more like Stranger Things anyway, except the Hardys and their friends were all older teenagers. 

And of course, just like the town of Riverdale, and probably the place where Nancy and her friends live in Nancy Drew, Bridgeport has it's secrets that Frank, Joe and their friends are going to uncover. That's a huge trope in these more recent teen dramas set in small towns. Mind you it was starting to become a trope back when Smallville and The O.C. were on in the 2000s. So that's something I've come to accept about this kind of show. I'm also hoping there will be great character moments and development, but I'm expecting there to be some, but not as much as there was in the first season of Stranger Things with those characters. 

Like I said, I love The Hardy Boys and I grew up reading the books. Because of that, I am super excited for this show to start airing in less than three weeks. I've also been burned by this kind of show before, so I'm also crossing my fingers that it'll be good. I really feel like it's been way too long since we've had Frank, Joe and their friends and family on TV and that this is the kind of show we need right now. It's dark and atmospheric but it also looks like fun escapism, which is something I need right now.

That's gonna be it for me for tonight. I'll have a lot more to say about The Hardy Boys when I review the books. I'll be back tomorrow with this week's Disney Review, where I'll be reviewing the 1985 animated movie, The Black Cauldron, which I'm about to watch on Disney+. Later.

Dr. No (1962) Movie Review

James Bond is probably one of the best known characters in any entertainment medium. Besides Sherlock Holmes, Batman, Superman, Mickey Mouse, Luke Skywalker and Mr. Spock that is. Dr. No is the first movie produced by Albert R. Broccoli, based on Sir Ian Fleming's James Bond series of spy novels, and in my opinion it is one of the best. I didn't see a James Bond movie until 1998, when the third film starring Pierce Brosnan as Bond, The World Is Not Enough, was out on home video, but I was hooked. Between my dad and I, I think we own every main, original (1962-2002) Bond film on DVD, and I own three of them on VHS.

The thing that I liked the most about Dr. No is that the plot is simple. While later Bond films have super complicated plots, particularly the more recent ones starring Daniel Craig, these early ones are easy to follow and are relatively unpredictable. I've only seen Dr. No twice in my life, the first time was on DVD a few years ago, and the second was on VHS last night. And because I hadn't seen it in several years, I felt like I was watching it for the first time last night. Which is kind of cool. So not really knowing what was coming as the movie went on was neat. Though there were two things I knew weren't going to happen. Bond wasn't going to die, and Dr. No wasn't going to win. I mean it's pretty much a given that Bond wasn't going to die since he's the main protagonist of this franchise, and killing him off in the first movie would've been stupid if they wanted to make a series of movies out of the books. And I knew Dr. No wasn't going to win, because the early Bond films are very black and white, where the hero always wins and the villain always loses. 

One of the things that I found ridiculous about this movie is how many women are wanting to kill Bond. Normally there's only one of them, but in this movie there's two. Mind you the number of women he sleeps with is also higher as well, so I guess it evens out. 

The cast is pretty great. Sean Connery is of course my second favourite Bond aside from Pierce Brosnan. Yeah, Connery was the first actor to play Bond. In the Eon films anyway, as Barry Nelson had played Bond in a one hour special that aired on CBS in 1954. That's why I like Connery in the role so much. He was the first and so every other actor who played Bond in subsequent movies had to follow his performance, while trying to make the role their own. Kind of like how every actor to play Batman in the movies had to follow the previous one while making the role their own. Same with the Doctor on Doctor Who. I also like Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder. However I don't really have an opinion on the actor who plays M or the actress who plays Miss Moneypenny as they're only in the first act of the film and then aren't seen again at all in the movie. Which is a different approach to Judi Dench's performance in the Brosnan and Craig films, where she's heavily involved in the plot of each film. Here though, M is really just there to give Bond his missions, much like how Chief Quimby gives Gadget his assignments in Inspector Gadget, Basil gives Austin his assignments in the Austin Powers films, and the Chief gives Maxwell Smart his assignments in Get Smart. He's also there to be the source of the plot because he gives Bond a lot of information. Moneypenny is just there to be M's secretary.

Dr. No is probably the lamest Bond villain of them all. He really doesn't do much. Mind you he leaves his henchmen to kill Bond and doesn't witness the murder himself, thinking it unnecessary. Which results in Bond not being killed, and is something that is brought up in the Austin Powers films as being the reason why the villains never win in this kind of movie. It's also something the 1966 Batman TV series took as the supervillains would always leave Batman and Robin alone in whatever death trap they're in for the cliffhanger at the end of the first episode of the week. It's probably a trope that goes all the way back to the movie serials of the '30s and '40s. I don't know, maybe I just like Auric Goldfinger in Goldfinger, Blofeld in You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever, Alec Trevelyn in GoldenEye and Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough better. Either way I don't think Dr. No is a very good Bond villain. Though I do appreciate that they gave us a reason for him being a criminal with SPECTRE. Many Bond villains don't have that, so it's cool here.

Overall, I really enjoyed Dr. No. Is it the best Bond movie ever? No. Is it in my top 3? Absolutely. There's humour, intrigue and it's just a fun movie to watch. It's also the first Bond movie ever, so that adds to my enjoyment of this movie. I'm going to give Dr. No 9/10 stars because not all of the Bond elements are in place yet, and I really do feel like some of the later Bond movies are better than this one is. I'd definitely recommend checking this movie out though if you're a James Bond fan and haven't seen it yet.   

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055928/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0