Gertrude McFuzz by Dr. Seuss

Here is a fascinating story.  Gertrud McFuzz is a bird, who envies the pretty tail feathers of other birds, as she does not have enough feathers.  Consequently, she overdoes on the feather growing pill, and gets so many feathers she can't fly, or even really walk.  Sometimes we need to be content with what we have, and not worry about what we don't have.  Gertrude learned that it is painful to have all those extra feathers pulled.

Picture Book Review: Just Me and My Mom by Mercer Mayer

This is a delightful book about what happens when you take your little critter for a day in the city.  Visiting art museums, natural history museums and the aquarium can be difficult for a little critter  Visiting the clothing boutique is also hard.  However spending the day together can be worth it.

He Touched Me: The Gospel Music of Elvis Music

This link to Youtube only has the end of the program.   However I saw the entire program on PBS and then also on Bing.  It is amazing the love Elvis had for gospel music, and in turn the Lord in general.  This movie documents how he was influenced by this music growing up in Nashville, both gospel and Black gospel were part of his growing up years.
It goes on to talk about how he would insist on making gospel recordings, sang a gospel song on the Ed Sullivan Show, and was a true devotee.  Quite often he would do two shows.  However then he would retire to his room where the musicians in his group, and himself, would entertain until dawn, singing mostly gospel songs.

Book Review: Five Kingdoms (2) Rogue Knight

Brandon Mull has created a fascinated universe, outside the realm of other universes, an in between spot where people go after they die, but it has been shaped for population.  And this kingdom is divided into five kingdoms, each with its own properties.  As such what is magical in one kingdom, is not magical in another.  In this book Cole, our abducted young man from Earth, finds himself in the Kingdom of Ellower.  Here things have run amok, as there are a couple of demons tearing up the country.  There is the Rogue Knight, but an even greater threat is the creature a shape changer has made using a young boy's power.  She has to be confronted, and they recruit an assortment of people to do this, including an earth friend of Cole's.
I really like these books and the characters, and the worlds.

Movie Review: ****^War Horse (2011)

This is a fascinating movie, with fascinating scenes.  A farmer is finally able to purchase a horse, and though over priced it is able to help with plowing the fields.  The farmer's son (Jeremy Irvine) loves the horse, but a war intervenes.  The military takes the horse, and it is purchased by an officer.  In the meantime the son is also at war, in the infantry, at the front during WWI.  When the horse is separated from the calvary (they were ambushed) then it is put to use in different ways.  At one point, a kindly local family adopted the horse, and it was again working on a farm, and a farmer's daughter's pride and joy.  However it is confiscated by the military, and put to use pulling heavy loads.  This horse befriends a horse, and attempts to take the other horse's heavy loads.  In the end, the other horse dies.  There are a few fascinating scenes where the war horse is scared by a tank.  It bolts, heading for the front, where there is row upon row of barbed wire.  Barbed wire and a running horse do not mix.  There is a tragic result.  However two soldiers, one German and the other British go into no-man's land to rescue the horse.  The British soldier wins the right to take the horse back in a game of chance.  However the wounds are too severe to worry about saving the horse.  However, a wounded soldier recognizes the horse's whinnies, and calls the horse.  They are restored.  But the horse still is put up to bid in the end.  The country farmer purchases the horse, to honor his daughter who has died.  However when he discovers the soldiers love he gives the horse to the original soldier.  They are able to return home together.
Too much plot, but the scenes of the horse bolting were eerie and beautiful.  This movie is fascinating just watching the horse in this environment.

Movie Review: **^A Kid in King Arthur's Court

Calvin Fuller (Thomas Ian Nicholas) plays baseball (poorly) for the Knights.  Merlin needs a champion to save the kingdom, and mistakingly pick this ball player.  So this film is about the funny things that happen when  someone from the modern world, with no medieval skills, is thrust back in time.  Calvin falls for the younger princess (Paloma Baeza) while her older sister (Kate Winslet) is to marry the champion of a tournament.  However she already has a love, just not a royal.  This movie has the made-for-TV feel.  In loses itself in the middle, with a rescue scene which is too far fetched.

Movie Review: **The Adventures Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother

Gene Wilder portrays Sigerson Holmes, Sherlock's younger, smarter, but sometimes bumbling brother.  The humor misses sometimes, but actually works other times.  The funniest part is where Sigerson visits a Lord's home, and can't help himself but snitch some food on a table, and then he snitches more, and more, and knocks the dish on the floor.  He is covered with sauce when the Lord finally comes to talk to him.  too much boob grabbing, especially for Sheri.  This is rated PG but this was a bit much, and happens several places in the movie, outside of clothing of course.  Dom Deluise has a part as a bad guy blackmailing Jenny Hill (Madeline Kahn) who is the fiance of the Lord, but also Sigerson's love interest.  Marty Feldman portrays the police sergeant helping Sigerson.
Gene Wilder also wrote this movie based on Conan Doyle's characters.  Wilder also directed.

Movie Review: ****Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

This is a classic Disney with a shipwrecked family and pirates.  It lead to a creation of a tree house at Disneyland.  It featured adult actors as well as child stars.  Father (John Mills) and Mother (Dorothy McGuire) with there three sons, Fritz (James MacArthur), Ernst (Tommy Kirk) and Francis (Kevin Corcoran) make life as best as they can on a deserted island.   They find all they need, and a wide assortment of wild animals from several different continents.  They also rescue a girl from pirates, Roberta (Janet Munro).  This creates jealousy between Fritz and Ernst as they both vie for her attention.  Then there is the issue of

those pesky pirates, so the family prepares for them, but almost find themselves unprepared, as they had let their guard down for a day of recreation.

Movie Review: ***^Muppets Most Wanted (2014)

Muppets Most Wanted:

I found this a delightful movie.  Again we have a frog who is unwilling to commit to Miss Piggy, but then another from; an evil frog, who is able to disguise himself as Kermit, while Kermit takes his place on the most wanted list.  The evil frog is able to travel with the Muppets, while Kermit is in the Gulag, and work in a life of crime as he works his way up to steal the crown jewels.  Kermit thinks he is forgotten, because the rest of the troupe do not realize he is missing, until they decide Kermit is acting strange.  In the end, only Kermit can save the day.

This movie is cute, especially if you like Muppet humor.

Movie review: ***^Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

This movie of Lemony Snicket's Unfortunate Events takes scenes from the first three books.  It also adds a few scenes.  It comes back to the end of the first book for its ending.  Not being true to the story, this movie is true to the characters.  The three Baudelaire children are wonderful.  Jim Carry makes an excellent villain as Count Olaf.  And the relatives are wonderful, Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine and Bill Connolly as Uncle Monty.  The scenes with Uncle Monty are my favorite.  I really enjoyed the most deadly viper.  I still do not like the forced wedding.  Catharine O'Hara plays Justice Strauss.  In the movie the wedding is foiled differently than in the book.  In this case Klaus comes to the rescue rather than a left handed signing.  I have fun with this story.

Movie Review: ***^Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

This is a movie based on a French Comic, which is why I had never heard of the characters.  However the plot is very interesting.  It involves a welcoming station some 400 years into the future.  This center has people form all over the universe.  However it has an area which has been sealed off form review of the administrators.  This film has federal agents, Valerian and his partner (Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne) who must uncover what is going on before everything goes to pot.
This is an incredible special effects show, and has some incredible action.  In the middle they put in a pole dancing scene which really doesn't need to be there.  There are many interesting creatures which always fascinate me.  Overall this film is passable.  I read someplace it is not doing well domestically despite a big budget.  It hopes to make up for this in the foreign market.  The director also directed Fifth Element, Luc Besson.

Picture Book: Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss

This story is included with three others in a Dr. Seuss Book.  This is the story of a turtle who decides he is ruler of all he sees.  The higher he gets the farther he sees, and so uses other turtles as stepping stones, and caring about the inconvenience he is causing for others; until one of the turtles at the bottom burps.  Sometimes if you use others, all you have influence over is the mud.  Dr. Seuss has great insight in this story, and it is well told, drawn and rhymed.

Music Review: Taylor Swift: Speak Now

This is taylor Swifts third album released by Big Machine Records in 2010.  Taylor Swift writes all of her own music.  She has a skill for telling a story and a clear voice.  My favorite song in this album is "Mean."  She talks about someone who uses words to put others now, and all he is is mean.  "Why you gotta be so mean."  This album is 4x platinum, over four million copies sold.  It was number one on U.S. Billboard and country charts.  "Revenge" is for a song the girl that steals your boyfriend.  "I always get the last laugh."  "Haunted" also has a very nice tune.  This explores how you feel when you are left.  The titular song, "Speak Now" is very nice with a good story as she barges in to tell a boy he has picked the wrong bride.
This album is vintage Taylor Swift, and if you like her you will like this.  However it does not include her most popular songs.

Book Review: The Twits by Roald Dahl

The Twits by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Puffin Books, New York, 1980.

The Twits is a terrific character study of two very ugly people.  These people are not only ugly in their appearance, but in their personality, which surely effected their physical looks.  They are especially ean to birds and monkeys.  However, in the end, they are outsmarted by the monkeys and the birds they have abused for many years.

Movie Review: ****^Pollyanna (1960)

This is one of those great positive feeling movies, with Pollyanna (Hayley Mills, who looks for the good, and the preacher (Karl Malden) who is converted to this thinking.  It makes a big difference in the town, as it becomes known as the glad town.
This movies comes from Disney and also features:
Jane Wyman as Aunt Polly
Richard Egan as her love interest Dr. Chilton
Agnes Moorehead as crotchety old Mrs. Snow, who Pollyanna also converts
As well as Mr. Pendergast, played by Adolphe Menjou
And Kevin Corcoran portrays Pollyanna's young friend from the orphanage.
The town is moving to raise money to build a new orphanage.  they feel it is a civic responsibility.  The current orphanage is in Herrington Hall, and Aunt Polly wants to give money to remodel the kitchen.  She has money, and willing to do her civic duty.  However that is the point, Aunt Polly attends to her duty, but doesn't love people.  Pollyanna brings that love into her life.

Once On This Island Jr. Full Version

This is a summer theater project, performed by most likely Middle School students.  It is a Jr version of this musical, and cuts out the song my son sang, "Some girls" when they did the musical in high school.  It does have the fiance sing one line from the song.  I think the parent really stand out in this musical.  They seem to make the whole thing work.
I was into this musical because of the song, We tell the story."  I have been thinking a lot lately about how it is important to tell the story.
Music by Steven Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens.

Picture Book review: Lemony Snicket's A series of Unfortunate Events Behind the Scenes with Count Olaf

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events: Behind the Scenes with Count Olaf, Harper Entertainment, New York, 2004.
This is a pictorial behind the scenes at the making of the movie, from the viewpoint of Count Olaf.  Count Olaf has a very interesting perspective on life, and this book provides a look into that character/  Of course the movie Count Olaf was portrayed by Jim Carrey.  We get costuming pictures, sets and other interesting aspects.

Movie Review: ***^Hope Floats (1998)

This movie excites me as it is a Sandra Bullock movie.  However, in this movie the worst possible thing that could happen does.  Birdee (Bullock) is at a talk show, where her best friend reveals to her that she and Birdee's husband are having an affair, and he now wants to be with her.  Birdee goes home, and confronts her humiliation.  Birdee's mother (Gena Rowlands) is determined to get her daughter up off the floor by reintroducing her to an old friend Justin Matisse (Harry Connick Jr.).  The focus of the film is the change in the family relationship.  One of the most touching aspects is when Birdee explains to her mother what she liked about her husband.
The movie ends with not everything resolved, but with Hope beginning to float after a long winter.  I like Bullock, and Connick is also very good.  A movie like this is built on relationships.  It makes you want to scream to see a family destroyed due to some selfishness.  However, family lives own.

Movie Review: ****The Age of Adaline (2015)

By some fluke, involving drowning and lightening, Adaline (Blake Lively) does not age.  She has a daughter (Ellen Burstyn), and this movie centers around many years later, when her daughter is an old lady, and Adaline is still a young beautiful woman.  Adaline has always been wary of giving herself to anyone, because she knows they will grow old, and she will not, and her secret will come back to haunt her.  However, she finally falls for philanthropist Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman).  In meeting his parents a predicament arises.  She is recognized by Ellis' father (Harrison Ford) and she quickly claims to be her grandmother.  Father buys this, but eventually realizes his son is in love with the same woman he loved some forty years before.  She immediately runs, but then waivers.  How can this ever be put right?
I always enjoy Harrison Ford, and the two lead characters truly sparkle and do a great job.  However Harrison's wife (Kathy Baker), who confronts her husband's past relationship, after 40 years of marriage, is the one who really has to act.

Book Review: Ultimate Survival Guide

Ultimate Survival guide for Kids by Rob Colson, Marshall Editions, Irvine, California, 2014.
Some kind of survival guide should be in every reference collection.  This book is Tony's.  It gives ideas for surviving many emergencies.  These include animal emergencies, natural disasters and human hazards.  It also has a section on basic survival skills.

Movie Review: ****Parent Trap (1961)

My kids grew up with Hayley Mills, and this as one of their favorites.  Hayley Mills plays two roles, as twin sisters, Susan and Sharon; daughters of parents who split when they were young, and each took one of the children.  I say that was a lousy resolution, and they were lucky this had any good ending at all.  Father (Brian Keith) is caught in a new romance, and mother (Maureen O'Hara) is coming to save the day.  The girls have a belief that their parents will some how get back together.  However, when new fiance, father and the girls end up on a back country camping trip together, the way is paved for the girls to sabotage everything.
This movie is fun.  Hayley Mills delves into music.  Of course who knows if she is really playing.  However she was also good; and I must admit, I like to see Maureen O'Hara.  She is one of my favorite.

Movie Review: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

This is one of those classic musical movies.  Gene Wilder stars as Willy Wonka, and from the moment we are introduced to him, and he does the somersault before jumping up; we know this is a special character.  The music is superb.  The candy vendor (Aubrey Woods) sings the most popular song, "Candy Man."  Gene Wilder sings "Pure Imagination" which is beautiful.  And then Charlie (Peter Ostrum) and Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson) sing "I've Got a Golden Ticket."  Then there are the Oompa Loompa songs.
The story goes that Wonka Chocolates advertises a golden ticket, inviting five lucky children to visit his factory.  It is Charlie's dream to see the factory.  He lives close, but he lives in poverty, and money to buy candy is rare.  As people are selected, Charlie's hopes go down.  The other winners are spoiled Veruca, Gum chewing Violet, TV watcher Mike Teevee, and lastly Augustus Gloop who eats everything.  What the contestants don't know is that Willy Wonka is really testing the children.  One by one the children drop out.  Augustus falls in the chocolate river and gets stuck, Violet eats a gum based meal, and turns into a violet, Mike Teevee turns into a miniature size when he transmits himself over TV, and lastly Veruca is a bad egg.  Even Charlie falters.  He and his grandfather drink a fizzy drink which makes them fly.  They discover burping helps them descend when they are close to the vent fan.  Willy Wonka holds this against them, but in the end Charlie's honesty wins the day.
I enjoy this movie, and I enjoy Gene Wilder.  This is the only movie in which appears Peter Ostrum. He was offered more movies, but chose to become a veterinarian instead.
Roald Dahl wrote the book.  He also wrote the first screenplay.  However he dropped out when a subsequent screenplay was written by David Seltzer.  They also added songs against Dahl's wishes.

Movie Review: ***Dunkirk (2017)

This is a big movie, but in the end, trying to tell too many stories made for a jumbled mess.  Their were air force shots, Navy stories and Army stories.  However at times it was night and then day and then night, and it seems the stories didn't go in sequence, and it was confusing.  However, the point that came across is that at Dunkirk there were people helping people in a desperate situation, and in many instances they sacrificed their own lives.  The story starts a week into the surrounding of Dunkirk, and the Allied forces being hemmed in.  The stories are very compelling, that a a French Soldier trying to get out of Dunkirk, a family and their smaller vessel helping rescue soldiers, and a pilot who uses all his fuel shooting down that last plane, before he is captured by the Germans.  That the British were able to rescue so many, proved to be a turning point.  However this movie shows that many did not make it.  It seems ship after ship was being sunk.  The small boats were really the turning point.

Musical Movie Review: ****My Fair Lady (1964)

This is a musical triumph of major degree.  It also has costuming, form the poor to the wealthy which is fantastic.  Rex Harrison stars as Professor Higgins, the linguist who is determined he can teach anyone to speak proper English, and Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, his subject.  Higgins' best friend is Colonel Pickering (Wilfred Hyde-White) and the father of Eliza is Alfred P. Doolittle (Stanley Holloway).  This movie has many catchy numbers including, "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?," "With a Little Bit of Luck," "Just You Wait [Henry Higgins]," "I Could have Danced All Night." "On the Street Where You Live," and "I'm getting Married in the Morning."  There is great fun here, and there is a romance included free of charge.  This musical is a Lerner and Lowe (Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe.

Movie Review: ***^The Truman Show (1998)

This movie has a very interesting theme, which is carried off by Jim Carrey, who portrays Truman, the subject of a reality television program.  Everyone he meets is an actor, and the producers have a hit show with watching truman's interaction with this false world.  They have been watching him since he was born.  But how will he react if he discovers everyone's secret; that his world is not real.
 This movie hits on finding that spirit that makes us human, the desire to live our own lives.

Movie Review: ****How to Steal a Million (1966)

Not that I like stealing shows, but in this case the motivation is different; they are stealing to cover father's habit of forging artwork.  Bonnet (Hugh Griffith) is the forger, Nicole (Audrey Hepburn) is his daughter who wants him to quit the forging business.  However Bonnet is obsessed with fooling people, and creating replicas of the masters.  The art expert, Simon, set to expose everything, is he who falls in love with Nicole (Peter O'Toole).  Finally there is lover of art, Davis Leland (Eli Wallach) who will even become engaged to Nicole, in an effort to convince her father to let him purchase the statue created by his grandfather.
This is really a delightful romantic comedy.  The characters work together and it is a fun show.  I especially like the hiding in a small closet thing.