The Flashback: The Phantom Tollbooth

The Flashback

  

          On March 8, 2021, Norton Juster had died, he was academic and architect.  He also was the writer of the book "The Phantom Tollbooth"; this blog post was in the planning stages before he died. but we might as well finish it and talk about the film version of the book that was animated by Chuck Jones.  

     

      "The Phantom Tollbooth" is a book written by Norton Juster hat came out in 1961. The book is about a boy named Milo, who wasn't interested in learning, or anything, really.  And the journey he takes to find things interesting.   We are going to be looking at the film adaptation from 1970. (Actually...the movie was completed in 1968 but they delayed it because reasons) It's also another case of the author not liking a movie that was made of his book, this happens.  This movie is MGM and was their last animated studio released before they gave up.(Quitters!) 

     This movie was put together by the legendary Chuck Jones.  After his work on the short film based off another  Juster book "The Dot and the Line" which won an Academy Award for Animated Short.  MGM wanted a "Toolbooth" feature movie. (My Goodness Mollie)  This movie wasn't  a box office hit. (Oh well)  I guess it's time to look at this movie. 

          Wow! The animation is great for 1960's , I mean wow! This city image looks real, not even CGI can do this in modern days what the heck?!  (Uhh)  The humans look like actual people this animation is ....(whispering to the dumb  person writing this) ohhhh this animated movie starts out with live-action, that makes sense.  This movie got Butch Patrick to the main character, Milo, you might know Butch Patrick from "The Munsters" he played Eddie. If you didn't watch "The Munsters" Go watch the munsters! It starts with Milo being moody and walking through a city. (San Francisco)   Also this is when credits ran at the start of the movie so.... we get to see those.(Yay!)

This animation is great! It's so life like!  Copyright MGM 

        I do like the late 1960's aeshteic of the live-action, it's just nice in own way, probably boring to those in 1967 or whatever but it's nice to see in our modern times. 

      Milo gets  a phone call from someone named Ralph and talk about everything is a waste of time. (They become nihilists) Then Milo hears a loud thump and sees a giant present in his room he goes to it and wonders what it is. (Don't try this at home) The box says "For Milo, who has plenty of time"  He follows the instructions and it turns into  a tollbooth. (hey the title)   Then he's given a car and has to figure out a destination on he map.   He choses the Castle in the air. Then he turns into animation. (There we go , movies is animated now)  But first, he has to play around for  a bit. The animation is a "Yes you can tell this is Chuck Jones." animation.  He's going to Dictionopolis but first meets a robot officer who runs off when he mentions the Castle in the air, which has ominous music playing, so that's good. 

Driving alone in my automobile/ Copyright MGM 

more after the jump

The Flashback: DCOM does time travel (Minute Men)

Disney The Flashback 

             I've mostly done Disney Channel Original movies between 1997 and 2005, and that's maybe because they have their own strengths and qualities to them, and have a lot of nostalgia factor to them and it's fun to compare how early Disney Channel Original Movies were compared to later.  This time, I'm jumping to 2008, the very first one of 2008, I remember liking this one, and so why not?

      "Minutemen" first aired on Disney Channel on January 27, 2008. 

     This movie stars Jason Dolley, for a pinpoint of history was on the Disney Channel series "Cory in the House" playing Cory's friend Newt. Later he would appear on another Disney Channel movie and in the longer running series, "Good Luck, Charlie".  So this mid-Disney Channel carrer time for him. He plays a boy named Virgil Fox. This movies starts with him and friend Derek Beaugard and their first day of High School. 

    

    Derek is played by Steven R. McQueen whom you may know from the "Chicago" series  the fire one and thh P.D one. There's also a girl named   Stephanie Jameson who plays the girl. I mean she fits the role of the old Disney Channel sitcom format of three friends where one friend is the opposite gender of the two others and the protag might have a crush on them. She's played by Chelsea Kane  whom you know from the ABC Family series "Baby Daddy". 

Three's Company /Copyright Disney 

        The move sets up that three friends are going to try stuff for high school, Derek with football, Stephanie with cheerleading. (uhh) This movie is called Minute Men and while yes we do have two dudes, the poster has three dudes hmm.  During Football/ Cheerleading try-outs  ( combined apparently) there comes a boy driving a vehicle that seems to have lost control and he seemingly plows through the field causing everyone to scurry. 

zoom zoom / Copyright Disney 

 

          Charlie Tuttle is that boy, he's a younger neighbor of Virgil who is like a super-genius. He's played by Luke Benward whom you might know from "How to Eat Fried Worms". He also had a role in his own Disney Channel movie and his a role on "Good Luck, Charlie". 

         Anyway, Derek decides to throw a football at Charlie to cause him to fall off the vehicle even though Virgil said leave him alone because he was going away. The football players rush Charlie  and Virgil tries to stop them but he gets picked up. The ending shot has Charlie and Virgil in cheer leader uniforms hanging on a statue. 

They had too much time on their hands to do this though/ Copyright Disney 

         The movie skips ahead 3 years.(Either that or I hit fast forward too hard) Virgil and Charlie are friends and it seems that Derek and Stephanie are together.  But wait there's a third boy on the poster and it's not Derek so hmm.. more on that.  

   

      Since the incident mentioned above, Derek and Virgil have drifted apart as friends, and also just for fun, Virgil has a crush on Stephanie. Meanwhile, the movie is setting up our third main, Zeke, they show him riding to school on his motor cycle  and later carving his name in a binder, showing he's kind of an outcast and a little weird. 

No one is going to steal my binder now/ Copyright Disney  

     

     Charlie gets Virgil out  of class to show him his latest work: time travel.   There's also a little romance sub-plot for Charlie where a girl named Jeanette Pachelewski has a crush on Charlie and Charlie kind of ignores it. (what a twist)  

  Now back to Zeke, Zeke Thompson is played by Nicholas Braun, whom if you've seen the HBO series "Succession" or looked up his name and found out like I did ,plays on that show. They need Zeke because he can  do mechanics since he and his dad build monster truck dinos. So, Virgil agreed to help with the time machine if he can do what he wants to do with it first.  With Zeke added in we have our three on poster. 

This living room feels tiny/ copyright Disney 

More after the jump

NewsNation Goes 24 hours on Weekdays From April 24

NewsNation Cable TV News 

            The Nexstar owned cable news channel, NewsNation, is going 24 hours of news programming from April 24.  The network is to add a new 4 hour news block called "NewsNation Now". Also on that date is the launch of the previously announced  "The Hill" named after their sister outlet. 

            This is NewsNation filling in the last gap in their daytime line up which is currently filled with off network reruns of "Blue Bloods" a hold over from the networks' WGN America days.  The channel has been expanding its line up on weekdays since the start of NewsNation in 2020. Recently, the overnight paid programming had been replaced with more reruns of primetime news programming and expanded "NewsNation Live with Marni Hughes" to 3 hours.  

        "NewsNation Now" will air for 4 hours between 1-5pmET,  The 1-3pm ET block will be anchored by a rotating  group of anchors, until one is announced. The 3-5pm ET block will be anchored by Nichole Berlie, who current program "Rush Hour" is ending on the 21st. The rotating block will be anchored by current weekend anchor Natasha Zouves, chief Washington correspondent Blake Burman and correspondents Markie Martin, Keleigh Beeson and Brooke Shafer.  

                Here's the line up from April 24 : 

6-7 AM ET– Early Morning hosted by Mitch Carr

 7-10 AM ET– Morning in America with Adrienne Bankert
10 AM-1 PM ET– NewsNation Live with Marni Hughes
1-3 PM ET – NewsNation Now
3-5 PM ET– NewsNation Now with Nichole Berlie
5-6 PM ET – The Hill
6-7 PM ET– Elizabeth Vargas Reports
7-8 PM ET– On Balance with Leland Vittert
8-9 PM ET– Cuomo hosted by Chris Cuomo
9-10 PM ET– Dan Abrams Live hosted by Dan Abrams
10-11 PM ET– Banfield hosted by Ashleigh Banfield

            The weekend line up stays the same with reruns of "Last Man Standing" ,etc and "NewsNation Prime" from 7-10pm ET. 

Press Release after the Jump 

The Weekenders: Season 2: Episode 13: New Friends/The Awful Weekend

The Weekenders Disney 

Previously, you have boring family members too?  (Here)  

The Season 2 Finale 

Episode 13a: New Friends

          Tino comes home and finds a lady who is not his mom in his house. (That's not your house, Tino! Run)  I love his interaction with this woman and hers sells it well, how she's just quietly sitting there, while Tino first didn't notice her as he goes through her purse [thinking it was his mother's] and then stopping and realizing that the woman wasn't his mother.  Then when she says hello, he's confused because she's a stranger.  It's fun to me, I enjoyed the weirdness. 

         The woman happens to be Tino's Mom's friend Mrs. Adele Fipps , they used to be best of friends until 8th grade when "The Awful Thing" happened (oh no! The launch of ESPN?) Tino is surprised that they are friends they seem so different. That will be part of the plot, it's jarred him and he's now worried about his friendship with his own friends. 

            Tish mentions she knows what Tino means she used to be friends with Francis, who seemed to have changed and yeah. Tino gets the idea to find new best friends that they are more alike before something bad happens. That's right his logic of worrying about his friends breaking up is to break up the friends before they break up over something. (alright then) Lor thinking her new friend up as a horse was interesting. ( I like pointy things) 

         Now, we (assuming you know too) know the moral of the episode, plus there's like two more seasons so it's not going to dynamic change the show, but the fun part is the execution.  The next day, Lor tries to find a friend that will work work for her and even tries her 950 brothers. Tino looks around and finds someone who seems to be a copy of him in design. Who apparently can only say sure.(sure) Tish and Carver seem to be together having a hard time to find a new friend. They go up to some guy Tish thinks is wise. He tells them to find some kids named Ty and Sly who will teach them to be friends that like the same stuff. 

            Enter Tino's mom who is amused by this plan, and she explains the awful thing. ( I was concerned) The friend moved to Ohio (Oh.....Ohio) She says that friends can be different. Tino finds Lor and Tino and Carver are scary now. They agree that it's better to be friends again and yes. (sure)  Tino wants us to tell at them if we see him and friends do something stupid, so I'll try. 

        Fun episode, again it breezes through pretty well, so there's not much of them with other friends, but it is kind of fun. Again, we know that they were going to get back together, but it was fun to see them do something like that. This is also a good episode to be placed here in the finale of season 2, because we've seen their friendship dynamic and how it works, even though they are all different.  We've seen their bonds, agreements, and disagreements. It's also good message and it's presented with some fun humor. I give it 8/10. 

More after the jump

Weekendering: The Weekenders: Season 2: Episode 12: Talent Show/ Relative Boredom

The Weekenders  Disney 

   Previously, you didn't win a $10,000 but that also means you don't have to pay the taxes (here) 

 

Episode 12a: Talent Show 

        I wonder what this episode is about?  Tino is not going to be in a Sunday talent show, but he does seem to want to you know watch it to laugh.... hmm  then Lor has to do the show because a teacher says it'd be good for her. (So is Tish, but this episode isn't about Tish)  Actually. Lor gets in and  Tish doesn't. (oooh, and they seem to judge the talents before the show)  The episode found a way to make sure there's no Tish and Lor competition and apparently wipes out Tish. 

        We get a new moment of "Lor's Dad is of no help" where he  doesn't help by saying she's going to be seen by so many people and how nerves can get to her.  (thank you for that) They go to Tish for help, but Tish is still a mood.  I'm also surprised that her talent was to go for singing instead of something sports related. Carver and Tino work to help her themselves, by having her try different styles  Also, using a public domain song since this was Disney before they started making music for their shows and being cheap.  (For the best, if this show was made later, one of the characters would be the singer) 

        Tish is dealing with jealousy.  William Shakespeare shows up and tells her to help Lor. [I know what I wrote] and she decides to help her friend. It's a really nice scene and I also like how Tish breaks the forth wall saying how long this is going to take and we should skip ahead. (Show is being self-aware again)  

            It's talent show, which seems to be attended by like a dozen people. Tish even admits to Lor she was jealous. I like how Lor actually thought Tish was sick and was concerned if she was doing well. The show does a great job with it's characters, I could say that in every post, because it's true. I love to point it out and will do more soon.  

           Lor got second place and she apparently lost to a guy who tossed hams. (I'd pick that too) 

           A simple episode, but well done. Bringing up what I said about characterization in this series. Every little bit of that shines here too. The start where Carver and Tino at the start share an apple and later Lor trying to join in but the apple is already done. Tino has a bit of hesitation at first but eats the apple after Carver. If this is the first episode of the show you see, you can see their friendship and dynamic right in that scene. There's an episode about their friendship coming up, so I will return to that then. 

            Tish not making it into the show is interesting for her character, because she is the one in the group that likes to perform the most. It's taking her out of her element and having to deal with someone else getting that instead. I like that she doesn't take her jealousy out on Lor directly, only refusing to interact and moping in her room.  She's not directly mad at Lor, but at the situation.  Then her decision to help was great an in character.  This is a fine episode, it's simple, sweet, effective. I give it 7.7/10.

More after the Jump

Weekendering: The Weekenders: Season 2: Episode 11:Baskets for Bucks/Pru

2The Weekenders Disney 

Previously, not a Doug crossover episode (here) 

Episode 11a: Baskets for Bucks 

                Tesla park  has a new ride and the friends would like to go, but don't have money. In a moment of boredom they decide to watch "Scramble Vision"  which is just them watching a TV channel that's scrambled because it's a pay per view channel. (Oh this is the most late 90's early 2000's thing this show has done, and they had an episode with Jennifer Love Hewitt)  Then there's a radio thing they want to listen to, called "Baskets for Bucks" (roll credits)  They have to call into a show and answer a question to get a chance to enter the contest for $10,000.  

            Tish gets the question right, and it's time for Lor to practice. The friends think the odds of Lor getting all three will be hard, but they say they are going to stay positive for Lor. This actually might not be a good idea.  I like how Tino, Tish, and Carver think they can buy cloning, a band, and helicopter or sports car or hovercraft for $2500 even in 2001 money. (ooh  2001 money)  Lor seems to be getting stressed and worrying about if it goes wrong, she might lose her friends. (That or thinking her friends might squish her to death?) 

            Instead of Tino's  mom we get Lor's Dad and he's of no help. (like wow)  It's the big day and Lor is feeling horrible. I like how the episode showed the friends trying to be helpful were being too positive and it made Lor  tense and worried. It's a good showing of being too positive can also hurt. She missed the third shot and she saw her friends weren't there. 

            She realizes her friends were still there for her, and she gets a consolation prize for the new water slide. 

         It's an interesting episode, where the idea of being too positive could affect pressure on someone, even if you unintentionally didn't mean too. The episode doesn't get dark or sappy, but it does a well enough job showing what Lor was feeling and going through with some humor , but not detracting how she was.  I liked it , pretty fun.  I give it 7/10. 

more after the jump

Weekendering: The Weekenders: Season 2: Episode 10: Tish's Hair/I Want to Be Alone!

The Weekenders Disney 

   Previously,  Don't be envious, it could be worse. Read here 

Episode 10a: Tish's Hair 

        This episode's answer is simple one, but let's take a look at the journey to see how well it does it. In this episode Tish gets a new hair style and loves it, the friends don't think it's very cool, but they don't want to hurt her feelings. You can see how this episode might be going.  Tino thinks they should tell her what they think, but that's hard. 

           It's a hard thing to do, because she's so happy about it.  They decide instead to hide Tish from people they know. They go to not IKEA where they think other kids wouldn't be, but there was at least too.  (They almost sent Tish to Venezuela)    Tish wants to have fun, so they go their normal hang  out - the museum and drag Tish out because  two other kids are there. 

        Carver thinks of a way to have it be where they can tell Tish, by not telling her.  They try some creative ways that all fail because plot reasons. I do like how Tino's Mom says there's no clear answer. Which, I like because there are things were there's no clear action of what to do. The friends don't have a clear answer what they want do to. Their conflict is pretty interesting and makes it hard to see how the episode could go. 

            They were about to tell her how they feel and then two kids tell her that her hair is cool and they back off saying something.  Then the show goes to Monday. (I'M scared the show is going to Monday, things are usually done by now, what's going on!)  They start to notice that a bunch of kids have the same hair style and then they see Tish has gone back to her down hair.  

            Back to how I started the post (yeah the 'previously on' thing wasn't that ...oh) I hope I threw you off there by saying the answer is simple. The only simple answer is there is no simple answer. Tish was exploring a new look to see if she liked it and then at the end decides herself  she doesn't and goes back. That works because that's how it happens sometimes. Trying a new look then going "eh no way" and changing herself.  The friends had a valid concern that they were worried about if someone might not like her look and it might hurt her. At the same time, they didn't want to hurt her feelings. The episode does a good job at doing all that. It's not saying the friends were right or wrong, that's good. I like that they didn't think there was a clear answer. You could say that the friends should have supported her new look, and be there for her if anything goes wrong, you could say they should have been honest with her. I do like how there's a moment where Tish thinks Carver's sister is making fun of his shirt and she says she wasn't going to say something, but... that could have been a good clue as to how Tish thinks, but she still told him after someone else , in her mind, said something. 

            Pretty well done episode, that also seemed to be self aware of the show having plots that usually fit neatly and going off the model for a nice ride. I enjoyed this 8/10. 

More after the Jump 

Arthur: Season 25: Episode 1: Binky Wrestles with a Story / All Will be Revealed

Arthur PBS 

       Episode 1: Binky Wrestles with a Story 

              Back to the Arthur and the final season, which I did cover the final episode of the series because that's how I go- out of order.   PBS ran the final season on PBS Kids Channel all in one day in 2022 and that was it. Though, I do think that they had like 3 or 4 seasons produced at once and broke it up, this one has 4 episodes or 8 segments so that's a thing.  Let's go.

Cut 

             The cold opening:  Honestly the episode must have been made when  Batman vs. Superman was out or close enough after it, that's not what the episode is about, I just wanted to point out their Superman and Batman parody characters are doing their own versus movie.  Anyway,  you might think I was bored of this intro and not really, instead they want to you watch the episode anyway so let's get to that. 

        The episode:  Mr. Ratburn announces that the next day is take a student to work day.  Anyway, Binky gets Buster's mom. Remember she works at the newspaper.  On the one hand, I'm happy the never updated the job or changed her work at a website or something.  (she'd be gone in a round of layoffs anyway)  Binky thinks that newspaper job will be fun because he thinks newspaper reporters stop crime.  (do they stop crime, and just choose not to?, this is a joke for one person who takes things seriously)  He founds at the job is mostly talking and not adventure. (he wanted talk radio) It's a low crime rate town so no robberies that much. 

            He does get to go to a press conference with the mayor and finds that boring too.  Binky keeps looking for excitement.  Good thing it's not awkward for Harry and Buster's mother since they don't date anymore. Anyway, Binky talks to Harry about being bored, he says get there's nothing wrong with boredom. (We're bored right now!)   He also tells Binky for his report for class try to make it exciting.  

the pen is mightier than I don't know/ copyright WGBH 

             It's a nice moment to Binky and Bitzy working together. There's also a dream sequence of Binky pretending editing is a wrestling match (that's why the episode is call this)  It cuts to Binky doing his report at school, as if he was presenting it to us after all.  huh? 

        It's alright. ... sorry wait... 

             EEEEE! That was fine. I can't really oh no! It's simple for an episode, it's nice. To me that's how I felt so it's that.   7/10. 

            More after the jump