MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: MR TOAD’S WILD RIDE (1996)

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Monday, May 26, 2008

MR TOAD’S WILD RIDE (1996)

A labor of love from Terry Jones (writer/director/star) who brought most of the Python crew (Eric Idle is superb as Rat) to this remarkably straightforward & effective adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s enchanting book. Alas, Disney couldn’t come up with a marketing plan and it tanked. (The title comes from the famous old "C" ticket ride at Disneyland based on their own memorable animated abridgement which featured Eric Blore bringing just the right Falstaffian joy & vigor to his memorable Toad in a manner beyond Jones’s vocal powers.) Still, even with an unnecessary, tricked up suspense finale, the pleasing look (more live-action WALLACE & GROMIT than Tim Burton grotesque) and classy cast (Pythons + Nicol Williamson, Anthony Sher & Stephen Fry) put this film far ahead of the recent spate of over-produced kid-lit fare. (i.e. those ghastly Dr. Seuss monstrosities)

NOTE: No Family Friendly label on this one since the film, and for that matter the original book, seems to have far more appeal to nostalgic grown-ups than to kids. They find it all a bit twee. But try them on the Disney animated version, THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD/'49, and maybe they'll catch the Grahame bug all on their own.

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Monday, May 26, 2008

MR TOAD’S WILD RIDE (1996)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE