I was thinking precisely of the stampede scene. And I'm sure we can do it. And I'm sure Jackson can do it. He did it many times in Lord of the Rings. And the Kong scenes in this film were seamless. I think the animators and Jackson just put all their effort into getting Kong perfect.

Greystoke has beaten out Battle for the Planet of the Apes as my new favorite newly watched film this month. I thought it was pretty awesome. Christopher Lambert. Naked children. And it's the last film of Ralph Richardson! Who plays Joseph FIndley in one of my all-time favorite films: The Wrong Box.

I ran out of ape films in my Netflix queue. And my Netflix queue seems to have gone haywire. I am supposed to get two movies at a time. Sometimes I get a 3rd if one shipment gets delayed. But for reasons I cannot comprehend, I have 3 at home and 2 on the way. My queue was not updated enough to refine these films. So they are mostly the leftovers from previous months. I have My Darling Clementine leftover from the western month. It came from Beneath the Sea from our undersea terrors month. I forget what The Hidden is or why it was in my queue. And I think The Fury was just a film I wanted to watch.

I watched the animated Tarzan (I think I will win this month), which was the only Tarzan film I had ever seen prior to watching Greystoke this month. I still really like it. I think I loved it more in my youth. I recall getting much more into the music once than I did on this viewing, but I still think the Phil Collins songs are solid. The story is a good one: they really capture the "torn between two worlds" despite never leaving the jungle. Keeps the mimicry explanation for how he learns language. I liked it.

The animated Tarzan is a great film too, I loved the scene with Tarzan looking at his reflection in the puddle and the speech his mother gave.

And I love your theme for next month, I've considered doing Disney animated films in the past and I'm glad some one else was on the same page.

I watched Robin Hood. Disney greatness has always come in spurts. They seem to have one great film and then follow it up well for a few years every so often. I think Snow White set a high bar they were able to continuously rise to for a few years. Then it lulled. Then got reinvigorated by Cinderella.

I think the '70s are part of one of their longer lulls. It would take Little Mermaid to reinvigorate the line.

As a child, this was probably my film of the era. Compared to what Disney was doing in the '50s, the animation seems somewhat crude.

But the story is a basically good one. The battle against a tyrant. Disney animation would return to similar themes with Hunchback of Notre Dame.

And the music is pretty excellent. Roger Miller narrates, and writes and sings some songs. You've got a Johnny Mercer song. It's hard not to like a movie where Roger Miller plays a whistling rooster.

I rewatched Hunchback of Notre Dame. I have always had a fondness for the film, and found it almost as good as I recall. (I think I was more forgiving of animation flaws in my youth than I am now). The songs still worked, as did the characters and story, and that's the main thing.

It's an odd film, as it's not clear who it's for. Despite its rating and marketing, I don't really consider it for children. Take for example the Heaven's Light/Hellfire sequence. Quasimodo falls in love with Esmeralda, and compares it the glow he has often seen in young lovers as he looked on from above. He thought of her as an angel and that glow as heaven's light. In contrast, Frollo sings about how she is a witch who has cast a spell on him, and comes to the conclusion that she will give into to his lust for her, or he will kill her and see her condemned to hell.

Choose me or your pyre... be mine or you will burn!

It's a smart contrast, a good song, particularly the Frollo part, set agains the background chorus of the Catholic Confiteor in Latin.

I think it's a great scene. But at whom is it aimed. This idea of a man who considers himself pure, but has lustful thoughts, and blames the woman, rather than himself, for the guilt that comes with them... it's not quite the theme of a children's film. In any way shape or form.

And thus I think the film only works for an older audience. Except that, in most every other way, it's clearly a children's film. Other themes simplified (the rebellion against a tyrannical and unjust magistrate), and filled with talking gargoyles for comic relief. So it's not clear that this film would work for adults, except for adults who like children's films.

Basically me. I think the film is for me. I was 15 when it came out. That's just about right. I still like children's films even as a nominal adult. And I don't mind children's films which are not kid-appropriate, as I'm not actually a kid.

A very strange film.