Again, it reminds me of something that's not a great omen — the film version of "The Phantom of the Opera" musical. And it turned out that the filigree was a desperate attempt to hide the fact that they went for a bunch of non-singers for the leads…

My brother made an apt comparison to the Transformers in those Michael Bay movies.

For that matter, "Finding Dory" wasn't nominated either.

I think the "Evita" film was probably the best adaptation of that musical we were likely to get (and I can't see it getting another one any time soon). It's also much better that what happened to "The Phantom of the Opera" eight years later, as far as Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals getting adapted for film go.

Yeah, there was a book about the making of the '82 "Annie" film that noted that HB wanted the rights for an animated tv special. (The rights set a record when Columbia acquired them — the show was that popular.) From there I've long suspected "Heidi's Song", an musical adapted from another story about a waif who…

Wow, what a cool list, and it's great you're looking at the not-so-classic/famous stuff as well. I've seen a chunk of these, mostly as a kid, but far from all.

I've occasionally thought about picking this up myself and I'm not even into sports.

Also, this is a good reminder of how movie musicals — heck, movies in general — don't have to be huge behemoths. It's less than an hour and 45 minutes total but gets more packed into it than the 2 and 1/2 hour productions that have by and large succeeded it to this day (once more stage musicals started getting…

Spent a lot of time with comics this weekend…

Yes, it will kick in more. I read the whole series years ago, and starting with Book 5 ("The Austere Academy") the formula starts breaking down and more recurring characters are introduced, and by the end of Book 7 the central premise gets a major shift. If you're enjoying it so far, you'll like it more as it goes…

Beyond the fact that this defunding wouldn't save all that much dough, there are other issues— the commercial kids' networks are busy shilling merchandise and other goods 24/7 and quality shows can easily get canned just because they don't move toys and /or have tie-ins to giant multimedia franchises, no cable outlets…

I don't watch as much PBS as I should, but my little niece and nephew love the kids' shows it offers. The station in my area also runs a charity that gets books to underprivileged kids. And there really isn't anywhere else on the tube offering fine arts content anymore. Looks like I have another place to donate to…

I feel this way about the Muppets no longer performed by the original Muppeteers.

Yeah, I saw it once (I was 18 at the time) and had a good time but never needed to see it again. I know a lot of people hated it too, and I was really surprised it got a Fathom Events screening, but then I'm the one who went to see the "Labyrinth " 30th anniversary screening…but then again no, that film holds up,…

A lot of people on other boards seem to think so. Most of the threads on this closure quickly degenerate into political sniping on both sides of the aisle.

Also, as the article notes, Ringling didn't have any big "draw" to kids anymore — no tie-ins with popular franchises, for instance. Disney on Ice is the last of the touring ice show franchises in North America in part because it features characters kids know and adore; people come for them more than the skating.

Yeah; in fact I heard about it a day or two before the Ringling news broke.

This is very true. I saw some of the more recent Ringling tours (both 3-ring and 1-ring). While the performers were talented, Cirque shows do a much better job with pacing and having each act build to a sort of payoff. And Ringling tried way, way too hard to make their traditional variety show-style format seem…

The core problem with any attempt to depict Jackson's life is that he was accused of truly heinous acts — and even after his death it's still not clear if he did them or not. Any suggestion that he did will immediately get a production tarred and feathered, but trying to come down on the side of innocence will open…

TVTropes has a term for that, "Big Damn Movie", which also applies to live-action shows. Because of course it's a trope!