Friday, December 13, 2024

A Big "Felled by Illness" Update

Unfortunately I was not able to post last night like planned... I fell ill on the flight from Kansas back to Florida, but details in the review I'll post tonight. In the meantime, I'll post my reviews of 1953's The Living Desert, 2024's Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey then the 1941 Goofy cartoon The Art of Skiing: 

Featuring Parker the mischievous roadrunner.

Almost a year ago on Disney+ , I viewed 1956's Secrets of Life, a True Life Adventure; either in short or feature form, nature is spotlighted. As I have access to this platform until I fly back home on Thursday & the ever-constant threat of the platform pulling under-performing videos that are not easy to find on the service, this was chosen rather than the others available due to the interest of seeing life survive even in a desert climate. It winning Best Documentary at the 1953 Oscars wasn't as big a factor, although it is trivia I'll still share.

Like w/ Secrets of Life, Winston Hibler served as the narrator, educating the viewer w/ facts along with some funny narration as quality wildlife footage is spotlighted. Randomly, he named the roadrunner “Parker” when most of the other critters weren't given that honor, and stated that they were the practical jokers of this desert area of the United States. There were wacky moments which did entertain me—two scorpions do a mating dance-propogating the species is one of the themes presented-and it's presented as a square dance, complete w/ Hibler doing a square dance call to hee-haw music.

While I do prefer True Life Adventure to the Disneynature documentaries, that doesn't mean the latter is bad or not worthwhile. The Living Desert was delightful and educational at the same time as a number of different species was shown, sometimes in combat w/ each other and this results in such sights as peccaries (a species of wild pig) chasing a bobcat up a cacti and a giant black wasp vs. a tarantula. Yes, plenty of spiders and snakes are seen, so if you're like the woman in that Jim Stafford song...

I've come to realize that nature documentaries are an interest of mine; henceforth, this should be an itch that should be scratched more often.

I still have no idea who killed JonBenet Ramsey. As a teenager in the late 90's, the memories of what a huge news story it was in the United States has not been forgotten. The case has been followed off and on in the 28 years since the 6-year-old daughter of wealthy parents was murdered in their Boulder, Colorado home.

This 3 episode, 3 hours in length Netflix documentary is standard, what people would expect. There was involvement from JonBenet's father John and her half-brother yet the first episode did present why the Boulder police would be suspicious of the family. After all, they typically are and that ransom note will forever be the strangest aspect of the case; it's just bizarre when she was murdered.

That said, the keystone point of this documentary is that the Boulder Police Department botched the investigation and were adamant that the parents were responsible, no matter the evidence. They even leaked false statements to the media concerning this. If you give this a spin, it will become clear why many others on Letterboxd have heaped scorn on Steve Thomas, one of the lead detectives of that police department.

The second episode presents the sins of the police, then the third/final episode the possible alternate suspects. They did note the reasons why her former beauty pageant mom Patsy (she survived cancer) would sign her up for child beauty pageants, but did state that they are kind of weird and unfortunately can attract the worst sort of predators. In recent years, the shocking rumor that JonBenet's 9-year-old brother Burke actually killed her has gained popularity; I did not know the reasons why but the documentary did... how it happened was even more shocking.

Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey may not change your opinion on the question the title asks. However, it did present that her family (who I hope weren't responsible for this tragedy) weren't treated fairly by the police or media. Hopefully w/ the advancements in technology and the rise in using DNA from forensic genetic genealogy-the DNA ID podcast I listen to is solely devoted to this new facet in solving cold cases and this is how The Golden State Killer was finally identified; it uses data from the likes of 23 and Me-can finally solve this mystery.

I made it home (yesterday). The flight from Wichita to the Orlando suburb of Sanford was unlike any other but that’s a story which will have to be shared (tonight). For now, I’ll discuss this 8 minute short that you’d have to search for on Disney+ (as you do most of the old-school cartoons, unfortunately) that I recall seeing way back in my youth.

A haughty narrator (who proclaims that “ski” is pronounced “shee”) delivers staid, serious narration on how to shee; as it’s Goofy presenting the visual representation of the narration, of course it goes comically awry as we see Goofy dress appropriately, do a bunny hill then progress to the slalom and the epic downhill jump.

Between the narration, Goofy’s antics, the animation, sound effects and musical score, it was not a surprise that it was such a hit, the anthropomorphic dog appeared in a number of similar cartoons throughout the years, devoted to such topics as baseball, working out in the gym, and believe it or not, in 2007, “How to Hook Up Your Home Theater.” I can’t say if most of them were as enjoyable as The Art of Skiing but I was glad to give it a revisit.

No comments:

Post a Comment