No Huddle Reviews

Just in time for the winter holidays we get a Yogi adventure that takes place in the spring. This is another Warner Archive Collection release that allows us to get our hands on something that would otherwise be impossible to find.  The 1987 full-length cartoon adventure features your favorite “smarter than the average Bear” Yogi and Boo Boo as well as a few guests from the Hanna-Barbera line of characters. You’ll also find Snagglepuss, Wally Gator and Quick-Draw McGraw in this adventure.
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You can’t really pin down the success and endurance of many Disney films to any one thing. But there’s an element that can’t be ignored here. The songwriting Brothers Sherman share considerable credit for the many a film’s appeal. Even if you’ve never seen one of their films, and it’s hard to imagine there is anyone who hasn’t, you do know many of the unforgettable songs from them. Just A Spoonful Of Sugar, Chim-Chin-Cher-ee, Let’s Go Fly A Kite, and, of course, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins alone.
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“Far from a fairytale, Waking Sleeping Beauty is an unprecedented eye-opening look at the conflict, drama and tension that ushered in the second chapter of Disney’s animation legacy, a decade of unparalleled creativity…”

The Disney magic faded for a little while during the 1980’s. There were still animated features, but they weren’t the groundbreaking triumphs of the studio’s golden age. All of that changed as we entered the 1990s. The Little Mermaid is considered the first of the new wave of Disney classics.
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In the 1940’s Walt Disney was asked by President Roosevelt to take a goodwill tour across Latin America as an ambassador of sorts. He declined the invitation, protesting that he wasn’t the handshaking kind and that the cause would be better served using someone else. Not to be deterred, Roosevelt made a counteroffer. What if Walt would go to Latin America with a film contingent and then create some kind of a production out of the tour. A government subsidy was even offered. Walt accepted the invite but turned down the subsidy.
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Written by Diane Tillis

Wings had an interesting story to tell when they completed Band on the Run. Paul and wife Linda McCartney wanted to record a new album at an unusual location. From a list of potential locations, they chose a remote studio in Lagos, Nigeria. Right before the departure date, lead guitarist Henry McCullough and drummer Denny Seiwell quit the band. It was up to Paul, Linda, and fellow member Denny Laine to finish the project.
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Written by Diane Tillis

Grimm Love is a thriller film based upon the true story of a cannibal and his willing meal. Graduate student Katie Armstrong (Keri Russell) is researching into cannibal Oliver Hartwin (Thomas Kretschmann) and his victim Simon Grombeck (Thomas Huber) as a part of her criminal psychology thesis. As she goes deeper into their tortured psyches, Katie begins to lose herself to her obsession to understand why. Grimm Love is a love story from hell. The men were attracted to each other as perfect opposites; Simon wanted to be eaten and Oliver was hungry. Their intense relationship would drive the two men carry out an unimaginable horror.
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Written by Diane Tillis

If you happen to be a loyal fan of B-horror films, like I am, then you are going to want to check out Dark House. For those who have never heard of the ‘B-horror film’ concept, here is a little education!

There are several differences between Hollywood horror films and B-horror films. Hollywood horror films are better known to larger audiences, have nice-sized budgets, and tend to be released around the Halloween season. B-horror films are usually straight to DVD or shown at select independent theaters, such as Grindhouse theaters.
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Written by Diane Tillis

October is my favorite month for several reasons. First, my birthday is only a month away…hint hint. Second, the cooler weather characteristic of fall finally reaches Florida, even if it only lasts a weekend. And finally, it is the month for horror films!! Finding a truly amazing (scream till I am white in the face, can’t sleep for fear of the boogie monster) horror film is something I love to do every October. I will collect some of the historic foreign horror films, throw in a little Hitchcock with a dash of Supernatural episodes, and put on my own horror festival.
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“This is the PAX Space Laboratory. We were working on an experiment in suspended animation…”

The release of Strange New World on the Warner Archive label is another example of just what a great idea this system from Warner Brothers really is. We’re talking about an obscure title here that had zero chance of ever reaching a standard release on any of the available formats. This is where the Archive Collection makes these kinds of cult-favorite shows and films accessible to the fans out there who have long felt forgotten.
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The wonderful thing about the Warner Archive Collection and its burn-on-demand approach to DVDs is that it permits the release of titles that would otherwise be aimed at so narrow a niche as to be nonviable as a commercial release. And this two-disc set is a case in point. Hosted by Robert L. Ripley himself (yes, believe it or not, he was a real person), here are 24 ten-minute shorts from the early 1930s. They’re an entertaining hodgepodge of interesting facts, oddball trivia, quirks and freaks of nature, and travel footage. Among other things, what we have here is the ancestor of the shockumentary, and there are plenty of items that are still pretty eye-opening (such as the horned man).
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Lo these many Christmases ago, I received a wonderful book by Peter Dickinson called The Flight of Dragons. Gorgeously illustrated by Wayne Anderson, the book’s simple yet rigorously pursued conceit is the idea that dragons really existed. Dickinson sets out to show just how this could be, how they flew, how the fire breathing worked, and why there is no fossil record of their existence. In other words, Dickinson takes a hard SF approach to high fantasy, and the result is magical. Now, as part of its Archive Collection, Warner has resurrected a 1982 Rankin-Bass animated adaptation of the book.
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