The song of my life

[rowyn]

I'm listening to the soundtrack from the vastly underrated film "Toys". One of the songs is Thomas Dolby's "The Mirror Song". I've always thought of this as a good anthem for MUCKers and others who have invested much of their time online:

"Memories of things that never happened
These are always the hardest to forget.
All the old friends and the loved ones
These are the people you haven't even met."

It's almost as good as Willy Wonka's "Pure Imagination":

"There is no place I know
to compare with pure imagination
Living there you'll be free
if you truly wish to be"

I think postvixen, at least, can appreciate the levels of potential meaning in that last line.

Comments

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

The music may have been good, and the sets may have been impressive, but I saw this movie in the theater, and I was ... disappointed. I wasn't sure just what this movie was trying to be. If it was supposed to be a film for the kids, then it shouldn't have been.

It just struck me as one of those movies that's trying desperately hard to be "big." It's got all this heartstring-yanking music, it's got Robin Williams ... and it's got Robin Williams bedding the girl, and flinging a bra over the head of a robot toy that's spying on them.

There are too many "kiddie" movies that I had the misfortune of seeing roughly around that time, having material thrown in apparently for the purpose making sure they got a PG rating - lest reviewers give it a knee-jerk "G" just because they think it's a kiddie movie - in the hope of getting better box office draws.

[rowyn]

I had no preconception that it needed to be "suitable for children", so it never occured to me to worry that it wasn't. It may have helped me to be viewing it well after it left the theaters, and had been panned by both critics and general audiences. I watched it on the recommendation of friends, but I didn't have inflated expectations for it.

I thought it was beautifully filmed, and I loved the wonderful surreality of it. I found the characters charming and well-portrayed. I considered its worst flaw to be its preachiness, especiall towards the end, but even that didn't bother me that much.

I do agree that it was a film without a neat Hollywood classification: it's not action, it's not comedy, it's not fantasy, it's certainly not a kid's movie. I'm sure the lack of a convenient label for it hurt it ... but I don't think that's a good thing. :/

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

I'm sure context should make a difference. At the time, all the billing suggested that it was something to take the kids to. (And judging from the makeup of the crowd at the theater - parents and their kids - that's apparently what they thought, PG rating notwithstanding. After all, "E.T." was PG, right?)

But even without that, it looked like the basic message was "Make love, not war," or something like that. (Hey, kids! Don't play with toy guns or shoot-'em-up video games! It's just a plot by evil middle-aged generals to train you to become killing machines so you can be recruited into the Army when you get older!)

I haven't seen the movie for years, though, so please don't take this as "Well, the movie STINKS! How dare you find anything worthwhile in it!" I haven't bothered to see it again after its initial release. So I must grant that if you're looking at it as valuable for artistic reasons, my memory of it is a bit too tainted by other concerns to be able to contribute much on that angle.

[rowyn]

Yah. I don't take issue with your points: it's not a good kids' movie, and the "Don't play with toy guns or shoot-'em-up video games" theme was preachy and disagreeable.

But I also saw it as a defense of whimsy, which is surely a sentiment in desperate need of defending, and I found a lot of good and enjoyable things about the film that -- to me -- more than made up for its failings. To each his own. :)

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Many years later, after one exposure, the Christmas theme still pops into my head from time to time.

And, though less enjoyably, "Happy Workers".

===|==============/ Level Head

[rowyn]

You are up early today, my friend. Or late.

"At the Closing of the Year" is one of my favorite pieces of Christmas music, if not my favorite. (There are some beautiful Christmas pieces by the Transiberian Orchestra which might rival it). It inspired one of the planned (but as yet unwritten) chapters in "Hope".

In the film, it is sung against a backdrop of laughing children. On the soundtrack, the laughing children are not included. It loses a little something. But it's still an excellent soundtrack; it's rare that a film gathers together so many different artists whose work I admire.

Re:

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Up early, in fact. I got in about 2.

I will be occupied much of the day, in fact.

Happy Easter!

===|==============/ Level Head

[unfinishedtales.livejournal.com]

And to you. I hope your day is at least as productive as it is occupied.