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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 25, 1996)
The Battalion TUESDAY June 25, 1 996 {a} GGIE Page : cwpi&i- rttaycc cuctll 0 irci*tc/t&&c& By Kristina Buffin The Battalion With the disappointment of Disney’s last two animated films. The Lion King and Pocahontas, Disney redeems itself and its reputation with The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Not since Beauty and the Beast has Disney created a movie with terrific an imation, a good and accurate story, and humor to lighten up a dark tale. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, based on Victor Hugo’s novel, is the sto ry of a misshapen boy, Quasimodo, who lives in the bell tower of Notre Dame. His master, the evil Frollo, has con vinced Quasimodo his gypsy mother abandoned him and if it weren’t for Frollo Quasimodo would have died. Un beknownst to Quasimodo, Frollo’s story is a lie — Frollo only took care of him because the archdeacon told him it was his responsibility. Quasimodo grew up being told he was ugly, and if he were to leave the church he would scare people. But Quasimodo decides to take a chance and travel out side the cathedral to see the Feast of Fools. Here he meets Esmeralda, a gypsy woman, who saves him from being ridiculed in the town square. In return, he hides her from Frollo, who wants to rid the Paris streets of the gypsies. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is not as uplifting and carefree as The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, but it is nevertheless the best movie Disney has made. The movie is dark and con tains inappropriate scenes for chil dren under the age of 10, but it turns a tragic novel into a movie teaching children and adults not to judge peo ple by their appearances. Once again, Disney has recruited some of Hollywood’s biggest stars to lend their voices to the animated characters. Tom Hulce (Amadeus) was the voice of Quasimodo, and Demi Moore did an unexpectedly good job with the voice of Esmeral da even though Heidi Mollen- hauer supplied the singing voice. Although Qua simodo is sup posed to be grotesque, he is not. The animation makes him look lovable— similar to other Disney protagonists. Disney did a wonderful job of changing the end of Hugo’s dark nov el. But unlike Beauty and the Beast, Quasimodo does not turn into a prince at the end and get the girl. This illustrates that all Disney movies do not fit the mold of “Once upon a time . . . and the prince and girl live happily ever after.” Like all other Disney movies, there were characters to break up dark scenes with humor. In this film, they were the gargolyles. Jason Alexander (from Seinfeld) is the voice of Hugo, Charles Kimbrough (from Murphy Brown) is Victor and Mary Wickes, who passed away after the last recording session, provides the voice for Laverne. These charac ters lightened up dramatic scenes and a dark movie. The movie and music, scored by Alan Menken, does not fit the stereo type of a happy, colorful and loving Disney movie, it is nevertheless a film that illustrating one of the most important lessons in life: deformity and appearance should not determine whether a person should be accepted in society. Disney should be commended for branching out and making not only an entertaining but excellent film. Quasimodo is encouraged to attend the Feast of Fools by his Gargoyle friends. Schwarzenegger sticks to action formula in Eraser Same theme different venue for Mystery Science Theater By Jason Brown The Battalion Bullets, blood, betrayal, beau ty and biceps. Yep, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s back with the latest megabudget action film of the summer. Eras er does little to break the action- movie formula, but nonetheless delivers what action filmgoers usually want. In the film, Schwarzenegger stars as Federal Marshal John Kruger, who hides Eraser - - Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Caan and Vanessa Williams y Directed by Charles Bussell witnesses in the Fed eral Wit ness Pro- t e c t i o n Program, effectively “erasing” all traces of their past lives. He’s called on to protect Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams), who uncovers a plot to sell a ship ment of high-tech weapons to unsavory hands while working for a major defense contractor. But the scandal reaches the highest levels of the government, and Kruger is unable to hide Cullen from those in the govern ment who will do anything to keep the corruption concealed. So, Kruger and Cullen must avoid being captured by their en emies while gathering incrimi nating evidence to bring the vil lains to justice. Eraser offers what one would expect from a Schwarzenegger film. Schwarzenegger shows off his physical strength and de- livers cornball lines like, “You have just been erased,” in his trade mark Austrian accent. A 1 - though Williams doesn't act as well as she sings “with all the voices of the mountains,” she performs competently as a smarter-than-average damsel-in distress. (Besides, anyone hoping for great acting shouldn’t go see a Schwarzenegger flick.) Robert Pastorelli does a good job in the role of the Joe-Pesci- Italian-comic-relief, and James Caan plays the hardbody’s men tor well. Eraser has its share of explo sions and shootings, although dramatic, suspenseful stunt scenes are a little lean. The special effects are also de cent. The token high-tech weapon is a “rail gun,” whose sight capabilities put Super man’s X-ray vision to shame. But there’s one scene with alli gators that look like leftovers from Clash of the Titans. The plot moves along briskly and is not difficult to follow — welcome relief for those still con fused by Mission: Impossible. But unlike Mission: Impossi ble, it doesn’t keep you wowed by gadgets and sitting on the edge of your seat through one thrilling scene after another. Perhaps Schwarzenegger’s en gine is running out of steam. Still, the movie is certainly no worse than most action films, and if it grosses $100 million, there won’t be much reason to break up the formula. After all, if it ain’t broke, why erase it? Federal Marshall John Kruger (Arnold Swarzenegger) hides witnesses in the Federal Witness Protection Program. By David Winder The Battalion In the last decade, Hollywood has made it a habit of taking old television shows and putting them up on the silver screen. The movies, good or bad, try to improve on the originals by adding characters, bizarre plot twists or better special effects and writing. But in the case of Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie not much has changed from what spawned it, “Mystery Science Theater”. There are no new characters, no bizarre plot twists. The special effects are still purposely weak, and the writing is still ex cellent. It’s just like watching MST3K on a really large television screen in a room with aisle seating. The plot for the movie and the tele vision show are the same. The evil Dr. F orrester (Beaulieu) wants to rule the world and he plans to do it by showing the planet the worst movies ever made. So he picks Mike Nelson (Nelson) to be the lab rat for the ex periment, and shoots him into space aboard the Satellite of Love. Nelson becomes lonely in space, so he makes some ro bot friends — Tom Servo, Crow and Gypsy — out of the spacecraft’s materi als. Forrester then starts sending cheesy movies to Mike’s ship and monitoring his mind to see how quickly it deterio rates. But Mike has fun with the experiment as he, Tom Servo and Crow yell sarcastic com ments at the screen. For MST3K: The Movie, Mike, Tom Servo ; and Crow talk back to a showing of the 1950s sci-fi adventure film This Planet Earth. The boys have a field day with one of the worst scripts ever to find its way to celluloid. Part of i the fun of any MST3K showing is watching the bad movie. In the case of MST3K: The Movie it never gets to the point of being bad, but disappoint- < ment does set in. Almost all of the gags that fo- | cus on the daily routines of Mike and the robots | fall flat. In the television show the gags move pretty quickly, but in the movie they seem to drag on forever. It’s almost as if someone told the guys to make the movie longer and that’s all they could » think to do. This is disappointing in comparison to the brilliant stuff they have been able to do in the past. Finally, getting to see Tom Servo’s room is a big letdown. ; “MST3K” is funny television but the MST3K: \ The Movie could have been a funnier movie.