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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) dir. Chris Columbus

Once upon a time, there was an Ugly Muggle named Harry. The Muggle family he lived with neglected, bullied and abused him because he was so bad at being a Muggle. But then one day a friendly giant appeared, and revealed to Harry that he was not in fact an Ugly Muggle, but a Magnificent Wizard, far superior to the mere mortals around him. And now he could go to Wizard school to be with his own kind!

Okay, I'm being a bit sarcastic. This was the first in a series of movies based on a then-popular set of children's/young adult books. The infant Harry Potter is dropped off at the home of Vernon and Petunia Dursley, who hate magic but are his only living blood relatives by Professors Albus Dumbledore (Richard Harris) and McGonagall (Maggie Smith) after he's dropped off by half-giant Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane).

A bit over a decade later, Vernon (Richard Griffiths) and Petunia (Fiona Shaw) keep young Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) in a closet under the stairs, and treat him miserably, favoring his spoiled cousin and their biological son Dudley (Harry Melling). They're upset any time something weird happens, especially if they can somehow blame it on Harry. Since the Dursleys have spent a lot of time and effort on convincing Harry he's worthless and not at all special, it's unnerving when he starts getting letters, which Vernon destroys until they pile up uncontrollably and the man takes the family to an isolated island.

This doesn't work. Hagrid tracks them down and informs Harry of his true heritage and that he's been invited to Hogwarts, a school for wizards and witches. He then takes Harry on a whirlwind trip to gather the needed supplies (and a plot coupon) before leaving Harry at a train station for the Hogwarts Express.

On the train, Harry meets the poverty-stricken but friendly Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and bookish but bossy Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), who will soon be his classmates. About this time he also meets Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), a snobbish boy who turns bully when Harry refuses his initial offer of Friendship.

At the school, Harry soon learns about Dumbledore, McGonagall, Quirrel (Ian Hart) the stuttering Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Flitwick (Warwick Davis) the diminutive Charms teacher, Madame Hooch (Zoe Wanamaker) the Flight instructor,,, and the sinister-looking and increasingly hostile to Harry Potions teacher, Severus Snape (Alan Rickman).

It turns out that Harry is good at flying a broom and he becomes the star of the Quidditch sports team for his House. Quite a change from his previous life!

Over the course of the year, Harry and his new friends come to realize that something is going on behind the scenes at Hogwarts, perhaps to do with the return of the evil wizard Voldemort (Richard Bremmer). Near the end of the school year, it's up to them to learn the truth and defeat the baddie. But what if they've guessed wrong?

This is a difficult movie to approach in some ways. As the majority of my readers will know, the author of the Harry Potter series has since joined the sadly long list of authors of beloved children's books that were less than stellar in their personal lives. As I was already an adult when the books started coming out, while I was a fan and enjoyed the community, it wasn't the most important thing in my life. Not like a lot of younger fans for whom the change in personality made it painful to even think about something that had been a huge part of their childhood.

Most of the problematic people I've been a fan of had the decency to become dead before I became a fan, or at least before I found out about their odious personal habits. This one, alas, is still alive and very public about their awful views, and very much still raking in the dough each time someone buys a Harry Potter-related item.

But I know that back in 2001, we weren't aware of that author's darker side except perhaps as odd moments in the books that now look like red flags in hindsight. These were fun books that weren't quite as original as the publicity claimed, but did a lot to restart the young adult book market.

And as for this movie, a lot of other people worked on it who haven't been revealed as particularly horrible, at least by Hollywood standards. It's got a top-notch adult cast, decent child actors in the important roles, wondrous special effects, and some decent directing to try to fit in as many of the plot beats of the book as can be crammed in within two and a half hours. It's a very good-looking movie and also has memorable music.

There's some characterization quibbles I could make, and the Voldemort reveal was going to look silly no matter how good a special effects team you had, but overall it's a fun movie to watch.

Content note: Child abuse, peril to children with some of them needing time in hospital afterwards, an animal corpse, a gruesome death scene. Bullying. Oh, and Nearly Headless Nick (John Cleese in a cameo) shows us why he's called that.

If you already have a copy of this movie and won't be too pained by the associated memories, it is definitely worth a rewatch. Likewise, if you can acquire it legally without the money going to the book author. Otherwise, you might want to consider other magic school stories with less fraught associations. Maybe something by Diane Duane, Tamora Pierce or Ursula K. LeGuin? Heck, maybe The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Become Magicians might suit, despite my reservations about that series.

Pan's Labyrinth (2006) dir. Guillermo del Toro (aka "El Labarinto del Fauno"}

It is 1944, and elsewhere in Europe, the Allied troops recently landed in France on D-Day. But here in a remote mountainous region of Spain, Captain Vidal (Sergi López) and his men are hunting down the remnants of the Republicans who lost the Spanish Civil War. Vidal's wife Carmen (Ariadna Gil) is pregnant with their child, and the captain has ordered that sha and his stepdaughter Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) be brought to the villa that is his base of operations. Ofelia is not pleased to be in the proximity of her stepfather, but is enchanted by the forest, and the nearby pre-Christian stone labyrinth.

Ofelia is a bookish lass, who is fond of fairy tales. And it seems that fairies are fond of her, as one leads her to an underground chamber at the heart of the labyrinth. There Ofelia meets the Faun (Doug Jones), a magical creature that informs Ofelia that she is the reincarnation of the lost Underworld princess Moanna, and can retake her rightful place if she completes three tasks before the full moon.

This sounds like an excellent idea to Ofelia as Francoist Spain is no place she wants to live. But she has to balance this with her concern for her increasingly frail mother, whose pregnancy is life-threatening. Plus Captain Vidal is an ever-present threat, despite the attempts of housekeeper (and secret Republican) Mercedes (Maribel Verdú) to soften their discomfort. And who said the Faun has Ofelia's best interests in mind in the first place?

This dark fantasy film is deliberately ambiguous about just how real the magic is. No adult sees the magical creatures move or special effects. It could all be in Ofelia's imagination. This does, however, leave a couple of holes in the plot where certain events have to be shrugged away.

Doug Jones is excellent as both the Faun and the even scarier Pale Man that Ofelia encounters during one of her tasks.

Despite being "neutral" in World War Two and an ally of the United States during the Cold War against the Communists, the fascist-like Falangist government of Generalissimo Francisco Franco was never a favorite of Americans, who sympathized more with the doomed Republicans. Especially as several American writers had served with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade or other anti-fascist units during the Spanish Civil War. I honestly can't think of a single pro-Franco book or movie I've seen. And indeed, after his death and eventual reforms, most of the movies about the time period from Spain itself seem to have been anti-Franco as well.

And so we have Captain Vidal, who is big on obedience, order and purity. He has no respect for women outside their roles as producers of sons, and servants. He thinks of himself as reasonable and just, but easily gives in to temper and cruelty. Captain Vidal feasts with officials while planning to restrict rations for the villagers to prevent them from giving spare food and supplies to the Resistance. (Compare this to the Pale Man, whose table is loaded with delicious-looking food that he will not eat himself, but if you so much as taste one of his grapes, he will kill you.) While he doesn't frame it in those terms, Falangists tended to be aligned with ultra-conservative Catholicism (and the one priest we see is a collaborator with him) so it's not surprising that he is disgusted by Ofelia's left-handedness and what appears to be a pagan ritual.

Carmen means well by her daughter, but has allowed her loneliness and the dangers of being a lone woman in Franco's Spain push her into a bad marriage. Her own childhood was poverty-stricken, and Carmen has long since abandoned any belief in magic. She thinks Ofelia is a bit too old for fairy tales but doesn't actually stop her daughter from reading them.

Mercedes is in a difficult spot. Her position as head servant in the villa makes her invaluable to the Resistance, but also means she must serve a man she despises and if discovered, her life will be forfeit. She seems to believe that Ofelia believes she saw a faun, but passes on a warning from her own mother that fauns are dangerous. It's heartening when Mercedes is able to get a little of her own back on Captain Vidal towards the end because he really is blinded by his sexism.

Ofelia herself is a pretty standard fairy tale protagonist, an innocent child in a bad situation who must complete tasks to unlock her true status (unless of course it's all in her imagination) and who must learn when obedience or disobedience is the correct action. (Repeatedly in the film, disobedience is the correct moral choice, even though it leads to doom.)

The special effects are practical, rather than digital as was becoming increasingly popular at the time, because at that point, it was less expensive and the budget had to be squeezed somewhere.

Content note: Brutal violence, blood and death, including "animals" and children. Torture. Foul language (in Spanish.) Carmen's pregnancy is killing her. Despite the protagonist being a child, this is not a movie for children or more sensitive viewers.

In the end, because this is set in history, we know that the bad guys win, at least for a long time. Only the traces of hope remain. But this is a beautifully shot film, so if you like your fantasy sad, this is a movie for you.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) dir. William Cottrel

Once upon a time, a princess was born with hair of raven black, lips red as blood, and skin as white as snow. Her mother named her Snow White, but soon died. The king's second wife was a beautiful woman, but as vain as she was fair of face. It was not long before she was a widow. She despised her stepdaughter and treated her as a servant. Snow White took this in good grace, but longed for a loved one to take her away. Things became more tense as the maiden grew into her true beauty.

The queen's magic mirror alerts her that Snow White has now surpassed her in "fairness", so the queen orders her huntsman to take the girl out into the woods, kill her and bring the queen her heart. The huntsman almost does so, but cannot bring himself to commit murder of the innocent maiden. He warns Snow White of the queen's intentions and slaughters a pig for its heart instead. Snow White flees into the deep forest.

Snow White finds a cottage inhabited by seven dwarfs, and negotiates lodging with them. But what will happen when the queen finds out her stepdaughter is still alive?

This film, based on the Grimm Brothers version of the classic fairy tale, was the first full-length animated film produced in the United States. It was a huge gamble for the minor Disney studio which had previously only done short subjects. Many innovative techniques were used, and it did splendidly at the box office, assuring that other animated feature films would be made.

To be sure, there are places that the technical limitations of the time can be seen, particularly in the animation of more realistic humans. (This is one of the reasons Prince Buckethead has such a tiny part despite his importance in the story.)

But given those limitations, the movie still holds up well. We've barely met Snow White when the huntsman is ordered to kill her, and we already want her not to be harmed. (And since we never see the huntsman after he takes the pig's heart back to the queen, there's the nagging doubt that he was killed offscreen. She's clearly murdered at least one person previously.)

The Wicked Queen is scary, both before and after she transforms herself, allowing her jealousy of Snow White to override even her overwhelming vanity. And in a cruel irony, she leaves the world in an old, ugly form, food for vultures, while Snow White's beauty was preserved in even seeming death.

The seven dwarfs are funny and likable, though there are a lot of questions that one could raise about their backstory. They have cleaning implements and soap in their house but don't seem to have used them themselves. Did they have a housekeeper previously? And despite their isolation, they know the kingdom's gossip about the queen. Who do they trade with? Some of the jokes don't land, but there's plenty that do.

Content note: As indicated in the plot synopsis, the Queen tries to have Snow White murdered, and then attempts the job herself. She's even willing to have the princess buried alive! Deaths are tastefully off-screen, but parents or guardians should be with very young viewers the first time they see this movie.

Overall, one of the all-time classic animated films from back when Disney was the feisty underdog. Well worth watching again, and having in your permanent collection if you have children or grandchildren.

Doctor Strange (2007) dir. Patrick Archibald

The world you see is not all there is. Monsters roam the streets of New York, smashing and killing their way to a point called the Sanctum. Opposing them are the disciples of the Ancient One, wizards and sorcerers who conceal their activities from the world with simple spells. There are those, however, who have the gift of seeing magic and the hidden truths of the world. One of them, only beginning to realize it, is Doctor Stephen Strange.

Dr. Strange is one of the world's most gifted neurosurgeons, and he knows it. But since the death of his younger sister, Stephen has grown cold-hearted, only concerned with earning fame and money by treating difficult cases. It's not that he doesn't want to heal people, he just feels that there are doctors who are better suited to handling charity cases and ordinary ills, and he shouldn't be bothered. The glimpses he's seen of things that should not be he shrugs off as daydreams caused by overwork.

Under pressure from the hospital administrator, Stephen finally goes to consult with a colleague working in the coma ward. She's got what looks like an epidemic of kids in comas. Stephen doesn't do pediatrics, but this is interesting based on what's happening in their brains. When he touches one of the children, he shares her nightmare of a burning face, one that all the children had before they went comatose. Shaken, he refuses to help.

Still disturbed by his recent visions, Dr. Strange drives recklessly, and when he sees what appear to be ghostly children in the road, he swerves to miss them and winds up crashing. Stephen lives, but his hands are smashed, and there is subtle nerve damage. He refuses to consider not being a brain surgeon, and rapidly spirals into a cycle of seeking out ever more unlikely cures and draining his funds. At last he is broke and homeless, still unable to properly use his hands. At this point, Stephen is contacted by a man named Wong, who tells him that "healing" is available in Tibet.

After a perilous journey, Dr. Strange arrives at the monastery of the Ancient One to begin rethinking his life, not yet realizing that the "healing" spoken of was not merely his hands. Meanwhile, the disciples of the Ancient One continue to go out to fight the monsters of Dormammu, but fewer of them return each time. Field leader Mordo believes that the Ancient One's too conservative about tactics and that this should be treated with a warrior (himself) in charge. He too has misunderstood the Ancient One's intentions.

This Lionsgate animated movie has strong similarities to the later Marvel live action film about Doctor Strange. When Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created the character in the early 1960s. the initial origin story was a handful of pages that could have easily fitted into a half hour program. So quite a bit of detail created for later stories is added to fill out a more substantial run time. And since Stephen doesn't come into his powers until well into the story, a number of fight scenes involving mostly interchangeable other disciples are added to keep interest up.

It's easy to empathize a bit with Mordo. The Ancient One has known all along that Mordo will turn against him to work for Dormammu the moment he learns he's not going to be the Sorcerer Supreme, so has allowed his disciple to think he's in the running for that position for years while the Ancient One waited for his true successor (Strange) to come along. I'd be ticked too if I had worked my butt off for my entire adult life on a vague promise of promotion only to be discarded for some new guy who just started training a few months ago. On the other hand, Mordo's rotten attitude makes it clear to everyone around him that he's not a good leader, spiritual or otherwise. The far more experienced Wong is much more philosophical about the fact that he's topped out in his sorcerous occupation.

The art is okay, but I'd have liked more homage to Ditko's trippy visuals that made the early Dr. Strange comics so appealing. The voice acting is okay, but uninspired. Stephen's female colleague is especially feeling phoned in. The disposable disciples get a bit more oomph, but little to do with it as the story doesn't bother giving them personalities, just nice visual cues.

And Dr Strange is given an extra power he doesn't have in the comics to make it plausible that he and he alone can stand against the dread Dormammu.

It's an okay movie, but it's easy to see why there wasn't a direct sequel or a rush of interest in the character.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) dir. Peter Jackson

Many years ago, Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) left the Shire on an adventure. Along the way, he found a ring that allowed him to turn invisible. Now it's Bilbo's 111th birthday, and at the height of the festivities, he disappears, leaving everything (including the ring) to his nephew Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood). The wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) has long known that Bilbo's trinket was one of the missing Rings of Power created by the dark lord Sauron (Sala Baker), but now realizes that it is in fact the One Ring that controls all the others. If Sauron regains possession of the One Ring, he will be nigh-unstoppable. In order to prevent this, the ring must be tossed into the magma of Mount Doom, where it was forged.

Gandalf persuades Frodo to take the ring to the nearby human village of Bree, and drafts gardener Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin), who was eavesdropping, to accompany the young hobbit. Gandalf goes off to consult with his colleague Saruman the White (Christopher Lee), only to discover that Saruman has already allied himself with Sauron. Meanwhile, the hobbits increase in number when local rascals Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) are dragged into the quest as they too are targeted by the dark riders after the ring.

In Bree, the hobbits find no Gandalf, but do attract the protection of the ranger known as Strider, properly named Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen). He helps them escape an initial attack by the riders (also known as Nazgul), but a second attack leads to Frodo being gravely injured. When Frodo wakes from his wounds, he finds himself in the elven city of Rivendell. There a council is held to decide what to do with the One Ring. Someone must take it to Mordor, site of Mount Doom, even though that's the seat of Sauron's power. Frodo more or less volunteers, with the other hobbits, Gandalf and Aragorn agreeing to join him on the quest. Moreover, three others also volunteer to help. The elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), the dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) and the human Boromir (Sean Bean), son of the Steward of Gondor. There's some politics going on with that last one, as Aragorn is rightwise king of Gondor, but has always shunned the possibility of taking the throne.

And so is formed the Fellowship of the Ring!

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy is now recognized as one of the great works of fantasy. But it took a while to get there. Doorstoppers were not in fashion in fantasy literature in the mid 1950s, let alone a trilogy of doorstoppers. Tolkien had originally meant it to be all one volume, but given bookbinding limitations of the time, the publisher balked. But by the 1960s it really took off internationally. Good visual adaptations took longer. Special effects just weren't up to the challenge of presenting Middle Earth, and even animation had to consider both budget and time limitations.

But by the late 1990s, special effects had advanced immensely, and the demand for a good adaptation of the trilogy was great enough that a major studio was willing to bankroll it. Principal filming was done in New Zealand, where the landscapes were unfamiliar enough to stand in well for Middle Earth's scenery.

A lot of effort was taken to consider Tolkien's themes and influences, and which parts of the story still had to be changed or clipped to create something that even book fans could admit was a stab in the right direction. Arwen (Liv Tyler) was moved out of the appendix for a couple of scenes with her beloved Aragorn to help with the gender balance of the story, while Tom Bombadil was cut entirely for time (and because he's such an unexplained anomaly.)

This is, honestly, a very good movie, even a great movie. Cinematography and music are blended with a deep story and Tolkien's best dialogue hits, with a truly epic feel. If you can see it in a theater, do.

On the other hand, that very epicness means that it's a long, long movie. Pausing for nature breaks is an advantage of watching the movie at home instead. And the extended cut credits last a full half hour! Ouch.

The ending is a bit of a downer, with two of the Fellowship dead and the rest scattered over the landscape, but since all three parts are out, you don't have to wait forever to see if the One Ring can truly be destroyed.

Highly recommended.

Beauty and the Beast (1991) dir. Gary Trousdale

Once upon a time, there was an enchantress who went to an eleven year old boy's house in disguise. When he refused to let her in because her disguise was ugly, she punished his rudeness by turning him into a beast, and everyone else in his house into "inanimate" objects. But the curse didn't have to b e permanent. If the Beast could find someone he could love and they loved him back by the time an enchanted rose lost its last petal on his twenty-first birthday, the enchantment would be lifted.

Of course, being a monster on the outside made it very unlikely the Beast would ever find love, and as the years passed he sealed himself off from the world and his behavior became more and more beastlike, especially his terrible temper. The outside world forgot that he even existed. For his servants, trapped in the castle with him, all seemed lost.

But a couple of hours away by fast walk, there was a village, and almost ten years later, a wacky inventor, Maurice, and his beautiful daughter Belle had moved there. Belle felt stifled in the provincial village where she was the only literate woman and considered an oddity because of that. But leading citizen Gaston, most handsome and virile fellow in the village, was willing to overlook Belle's brain on account of her beauty, and made attempts to woo her.

Maurice made a wrong turn in the dark and wound up in the Beast's castle, where the Beast kept him prisoner. Belle came and offered herself as hostage in exchange for her aged and ill father. Secretly touched by this filial loyalty, the Beast agreed. And thus began the tale of the Beauty and the Beast.

This was a huge hit for Disney back in the early 1990s, and was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. It is a very good movie with stunning animation for the time, some excellent songs, good performances by the voice actors (I am especially fond of Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts,) and a cool character design for the Beast.

The central relationship relies heavily on our understanding of condensed action; there's only ninety minutes to tell the story, so Beast's learning to control his temper and show his finer qualities, and Belle's realization that there is a person she can love under that monstrous exterior, have to happen in a tiny amount of time. Beast's early unspoken moment where he realizes Belle is sacrificing herself and honors that is key to showing that he's not lost to monsterhood. Kids might want to avoid trying to cure a monster this way at home.

Gaston, conversely, is admired by the public not just because of his good looks, but fulfilling the role of the mighty hunter and strong man that are considered heroic in that time and place. His arrogance and slyness are not considered drawbacks by the villagers, as long as he's a winner. But to modern eyes, he's pretty obviously a villain because of his anti-intellectualism and vindictiveness.

One does have to wonder about events after the movie, when the villagers suddenly have a prince who presumably holds authority over them, and who they were recently trying to kill. How are the other nobles going to react? Not to mention that weirdo Belle is now the princess. And can the other village men step up on the hunting front?

Like many of the Disney animated movies, this is a classic and well worth gathering the family to watch. The littlest ones should not watch alone the first time as there are some scary and sad bits.

Conquest (1983) dir. Lucio Fulci

Ilias (Andrea Occhipinti) has come of a man's age, so it is time for him to leave his peaceful homeland on his walkabout. To aid him on his quest, Ilias is given the bow of his ancestor Kronos, which can shoot arrows of light once the bearer reaches full manhood. Ilias' wanderings bring him to a barbaric wasteland dominated by Ocron (Sabrina Siani), a sorceress who claims to control the rising and setting of the sun. Ocron begins to have dreams of being slain by a person with a bow, and since Ilias happens to be the only person in the wasteland with a bow, draws the obvious conclusion.

Ilias is unaware that Ocron even exists until her beastman minions attack him. He is saved by Mace (Jorge Rivero), who claims to be an enemy of all men (he has a mark on his forehead that allegedly proclaims this, but is never further explained) and only stepped in because he wanted a closer look at Ilias' foreign weapon. Despite Mace's misanthropy, the two men bond, save each other's lives repeatedly, and become friends.

Frustrated by her minions' failure to kill Ilias, Ocron summons the powerful spirit Zora (Conrado San Martin) to aid her in exchange for her fealty. Zora is a much more threatening opponent, and finally the fight must be taken to the sorceress and her allies.

This fantasy adventure movie falls between director Lucio Fulci's giallo thriller period and his gore-soaked horror flicks period. It's an Italian-Spanish-Mexican co-production, and I am going to guess that most of the outdoor scenes were shot in Mexico. It can be hard to tell, thanks to the heavy use of fog and soft focus.

The cinematography does give this film a dreamlike quality, which helps make the lack of explanations for most of what's going on more palatable. On the other hand, during some of the slow scenes at the beginning, it tends to lull the senses, making this a poor movie to watch when tired. The special effects are decent for this time period and budget, but the beastman makeup could have used more work.

Our protagonists are a good pair for an adventure story. Ilias is a decent young fellow, and brave, but kind of naive, which gets him in trouble. Mace is more cynical, but is friendly with animals (they help him out a few times) to the point where he will not kill them. (He sees nothing wrong with eating meat of animals other men have killed, to the point he will kill the other person to get their meat.) Mace initially warns Ilias that he's not a people person, but he's clearly lonely and ready to make a connection.

Ocron wears a golden full-face mask/helmet, a front loin guard, and nothing else. She is fond of snakes, and likes eating brains. Between her twice-daily sun rituals, Ocron mostly lolls around her cave doing drugs with her minions or having prophetic nightmares. Nothing is revealed of her past or overall motivations. As is often the case with precognition, every step Ocron takes to eliminate Ilias as a threat only makes her destruction more certain. Zora is even more enigmatic, though he appears to enjoy making people suffer.

Content note: gore (a woman is torn in half and her brains eaten early on), female nudity, offscreen extramarital sex, body horror, torture. The DVD version I watched was "Not Rated"; I am told most VHS versions have a bit cut and an R rating.

Overall: Certainly not a movie for the whole family. The story is thin, so it's more of an experience than anything else. But when it's clicking, a fascinating watch. I'd recommend it most to movie fans who really care about cinematography and the details of directorial choices.

Excalibur (1981) directed by John Boorman

It is the Dimly-Lit Ages, and nearly indistinguishable armored warriors clash in the night. A man stands apart and calls quietly, yet is heard clearly. It is Merlin, and the warlord to whom he speaks is Uther Pendragon. Merlin is guiding Uther's rise to power over the land, to unify it, and helps the king find the powerful sword Excalibur. With these aids, Uther is at last able to make peace with Cornwall, his strongest rival. But the peace falls apart when Uther decides he wants to have sex with Cornwall's wife Igrayne.

Uther talks Merlin into helping him bed Igrayne, which is accomplished by an elaborate illusion making Uther look like Cornwall, allowing rape by deception. Igrayne's daughter Morgana realizes the trick, but who listens to a four-year-old? Cornwall dies, allowing Uther to marry Igrayne openly, but Merlin takes custody of the resulting baby, Arthur. This time, Merlin is sure he has the true king to bring unity to the land.

This retelling of the Arthurian cycle is a delight for the eyes, rich in symbolism and detail. It leans heavily into the mythical elements of the tale, giving Merlin impressive magical power. (But not without cost--setting up Uther's one night stand makes Merlin take a nine-month nap to recover.)

Much of the story will be familiar to experienced readers and watchers. Arthur is revealed as the rightful king by obtaining Excalibur, overcomes initial resistance, falls in love with and marries Guinevere. He finds the best knights, and forges them into the Fellowship of the Round Table. The greatest of his knights is Lancelot du Lac, who also falls in love with Guinevere, which ends in tragedy.

Arthur's half-sister Morgana steals Merlin's power and uses it to rape King Arthur in the seeming of Guinevere. This, combined with the betrayal of Guinevere and Lancelot, breaks the kingdom, and the knights set out on a quest for the Holy Grail, which alone can heal the wounds. By the time Arthur and the land are healed, Arthur and Morgana's son Mordred has grown to manhood and seeks to usurp his father.

This movie was very influential in how other Arthurian projects approached the material, and did wonders for the careers of several of the actors. (Patrick Stewart! Helen Mirren! Liam Neeson!) The acting is excellent, if often loaded down with Shakespearean bombast, and Nicol Williamson as Merlin gets some top-notch lines, both portentous and sarcastic. Many of the individual scenes are iconic. I especially liked the short scene where it's made clear that Camelot is not just a military stronghold, but a center for science and the arts.

However, the film is covering about sixty years of story, which requires skipping ahead quite a bit, so those not familiar with the Arthurian lore may be confused. (About forty minutes were cut from the three hour version, but that wouldn't have helped much.) Nigel Terry as Arthur is badly miscast for the scenes where he's supposed to be about fourteen years old, but much better as the adult king.

There's a fair bit of nudity (equal opportunity!), some onscreen sex, and considerable gore in places.

Recommended for Arthur fans who prefer less realism and more symbolism and magic.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) dir. Isao Takahata

Mukashi, mukashi, long, long ago in Japan, there lived an old bamboo cutter and his wife who had no children. One day while the bamboo cutter was out in the bamboo grove, he saw one of the bamboo stalks glowing. A new bamboo shoot sprung up from the ground, and when it opened, there was a tiny princess inside. Thus begins "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter", a classic fairy tale of Japanese tradition.

This animated adaptation by Studio Ghibli centers the girl, who will become known as "Kaguya-Hime", the Shining Princess. When the bamboo cutter's wife takes hold of the tiny princess, it transforms into a seemingly normal human infant. (Perhaps symbolic of how fathers may envision a child, but it's the mother who actually has to grow them.) The child is not normal, though, and grows quickly, like a bamboo shoot. The other children in the village nickname her "Takenoko" because of this.

While Takenoko enjoys frolicking with her friends in the countryside, her adoptive father finds a stash of gold in another bamboo shoot, and then a pile of fine robes. He reasons that the Heavens, which blessed him with a daughter in the first place, want him to take his "Hime" to the big city and raise her up to be a upper class lady.

The family moves to the capital, and Hime is given instruction in how to be a proper young woman. While a reluctant student, she proves suspiciously good at playing the koto and speaking properly. She's also blossomed into a great beauty, and is given the name Kaguya-Hime. Although very few people have actually seen her due to social custom, the rumors of her good looks attracts multiple suitors, including high government officials and even the Emperor himself!

Kaguya-Hime tries to discourage suitors by assigning them impossible tasks, for she has no interest in marriage just yet, but this does little to stop their pursuit. Eventually, circumstances come to a crisis, and Kaguya-Hime finally remembers the real reason she came to Earth in the first place, when it's too late to undo what she's done.

The art style is done as a water color palette, like a children's book, and is heavy on the traditional Ghibli lush scenes of nature. There are, however, moments where the animation gives itself over to expressionism to convey great speed or intense action. The music by Joe Hisashi is fitting and of high quality.

There's a looming sense of claustrophobia in many of the scenes, as to ensure Kaguya-Hime's "happiness", society just kinds of assumes she wants to marry well, and men make decisions without consulting her. Parents of younger viewers may want to talk about social expectations and how they've changed.

My favorite character is the short servant, who clearly cares for Kaguya-Hime, even if she isn't always the best help.

Some parents may be a bit reluctant as Japan's more casual attitude towards children seeing nudity applies--we see women breastfeeding, and small kids going bare. More difficult to handle for some kids will be the fact that this tale does not have a conventionally happy ending, but one that is more bittersweet.

Recommended for families whose children are ready for more complexity in their fairy tales.

If I Were You by L. Ron Hubbard

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Before L. Ron Hubbard got involved in...you know, he was a middling-good and prolific pulp author. The Golden Age Stories line is reprinting many of his stories in attractively designed paperbacks. This volume contains two short stories, , a preview of another, a glossary (really needed this time because of heavy circus slang) and a hagiography of Hubbard that does not mention...you know by name, just calling it "serious research." Hee. It's double-spaced in a largish typeface for easy reading.

The title story concerns a little person, "Little" Tom Little, who works as a circus midget, and then discovers a mystical method for bodyswapping with other people. He promptly decides to use this to swap with the tall, imposing ringmaster Hermann Schmidt. But Schmidt has troubles of his own, which could get Tom killed regardless of which body he's in!

There's a nice bit of foreshadowing early in the story, with what seems like random cruelty to Tom, but is actually a hint of what Schmidt's issues are. The lion phobia, on the other hand, was a bit too telegraphed. The payoff to that is a very exciting scene, mitigating the obviousness. There's a nice bit of ambiguity, too, in the motives of the Professor, who leaves Tom his books of magic.

The second story, "The Last Drop" is co-authored by the much better L. Sprague de Camp. A bartender foolishly creates a cocktail with some untested syrup from Borneo; growth and shrinking hijinks ensue. A fun story that at least waves at scientific plausibility as it goes by, in the form of the square-cube law. (The glossary explains it for the benefit of anyone who might have forgotten.)

While it's a handsome package, and the stories are fun, the book is thin on content for the price. I'd recommend looking for used copies at a steep discount, or checking it out from the library.



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