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Up On The Shelf

Monthly Archives: August 2022

Escape From Vault Disney Part 3: Phantom of the Megaplex!

23 Tuesday Aug 2022

Posted by UpOnTheShelf in 2000's, Disney, Updates

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2000, announcement, Charles Moss, dcom, Detective Cat, Disney, disney channel, disney channel original movie, disney parks, Escape From Vault Disney, Mickey Rooney, movie, movie theater, movies, phantom, Phantom of the Megaplex, podcast, Rae Harrell, Some Jerk With a Camera, tony goldmark, TV movie, tv review

Hey everyone! The newest episode of Escape From Vault Disney is out and I’m on it along with my good friend, avatar artist and Detective Cat creator Charles Moss, and voice actress Rae Harrell! We had a blast looking at the Disney Channel “classic” Phantom of the Megaplex and we hope you enjoy listening to our rambling. Have a listen here, here, here, here, or here. Most of all, stay tuned to the end for a very special announcement!

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Faerie Tale Theatre Reviews: Thumbelina

06 Saturday Aug 2022

Posted by UpOnTheShelf in 1980's, Faerie Tale Theatre, Fantasy, Romance

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animal friends, animals, anthropomorphic, anthropomorphic animal, anthropomorphic animals, antiquarian, arranged marriage, bird, Burgess Meredith, Carrie Fisher, Conchata Ferrell, Don Bluth, Donovan Scott, Faerie Tale Theatre, faerie tale theatre reviews, fairies, fairy, fairy prince, fairy tale, fairy tale adaptation, fairy tale creatures, fairy tale history, fairy tales, fairytale, field mouse, fieldmouse, fish, flower angel, flower child, flower fairy, forest, forest fairy, George Cruikshank, good witch, hans christian andersen, herman, kidnapping, little person, marriage, mole, mother, progress, review, review series, Robert Folk, spinster, swallow, thumbelina, tiny person, toad, tv, tv review, tv series, William Katt, woods

pg29-thumbelina

“I’m always the bride, and never the bridesmaid.”
– Our heroine’s fourth wall-leaning lament

The idea of tiny people going on huge adventures is nothing new in fairy tales. Hans Christian Andersen took most of his inspiration for today’s story from the seventeenth-century English tale of Tom Thumb, but his own flourishes make Thumbelina a slightly original creation. It was published in 1835 as part of the second fairy tale collection Andersen released that year, which included The Princess and the Pea. It received the same criticisms, namely the lack of clear morals, informal chatty nature and passive characters. Discouraged, Andersen returned to novel writing for a full year before trying his hands at fairy tales again.

Now, it’s no secret that Andersen used most of his stories to vent his own insecurities and frustrations. Thumbelina is no exception, though he’s a bit subtler about it this time around. It’s been theorized that Thumbelina’s platonic relationship with the swallow was a “distant tribute” to a confidante named Henriette Wuff, though there’s little evidence to support it. There’s also the beetle who admires Thumbelina’s beauty but changes its tune when he shows her off to his fellow bugs and they deem her “ugly”; an on-the-nose critique of his fickle audience if ever there was one. What’s certain, however, is that while studying in Slagelse, Zealand, Andersen was tutored by a short, stout, balding, contemptuous classics teacher named Simon Meisling who frequently abused his pupil. “You’re a stupid boy who will never make it,” he once berated him in front of the entire class. Meisling is all but confirmed to be the inspiration for the odious Mole, which proves the adage of never pissing off the writer.

Then there’s the story’s lesson, which is…complicated. On the one hand, Thumbelina bouncing around from one miserable suitor of differing species to another until she finds someone exactly like her can come across as “stick to your own kind”, which borders on yikes. On the other, when Thumbelina finally meets her fairy prince, she’s not pressed into marrying him. She chooses to marry him. Thumbelina is really a story about a woman running away from futures she has no say in to charter her own course in life, an empowering message for women in Andersen’s time – and even today, when put in the right hands.

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Seventh Anniversary: Twelve Movie Reviews in One Post!

01 Monday Aug 2022

Posted by UpOnTheShelf in Movie Reviews

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a very potter musical, a very Potter sequel, animated movie review, anniversary, Bill Murray, blog, blog post, blog update, cartoon review, Chico Marx, Christmas review, classic comedy, coco, Comedy, comedy review, computer animation, Disney, disney animation, disney film, disney review, disney star wars, Duck Soup, feature film, film, film review, films, Groucho Marx, Groundhog Day, Harpo Marx, James Gunn, Legally Blonde, Luca, Marx, Marx Brothers, movie, movie review, Movie Reviews, musical review, Night of the Living Dead, Pixar, pixar animation, Pixar review, review, review series, Rifftrax, Rifftrax Live, romantic comedy, Solo, star wars, team starkid, The Mitchells vs The Machines, The Suicide Squad, Up On The Shelf, We're No Angels, youtube video, Zeppo Marx

It’s Up On The Shelf’s seventh anniversary, yaaaaay!

I never imagined the blog would come this far or have the loyal band of readers like you. Thanks for sticking around for so long! I understand some of you are disappointed by the lack of updates or movie reviews (believe me I miss them too, but don’t have the time to get back to them just yet), so to mark the occasion I’m doing something a little bit different.

About ten years ago I got into the habit of documenting what movies I watch each month. It’s a fun way of tracking my taste in film, how many times I revisit favorites and mark new discoveries. To that effect, I put every movie I watched each month over the past year (2021) in a Randomizer, and came out with twelve mini spoiler-free reviews for you to take in. Some of these flicks are On The Shelf so consider them previews for when I eventually review them proper. Let’s get to it!

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