Tag Archives: feature

Interview flashback: Voices of Aladdin, Jasmine recall magic of animated ‘Aladdin,’ Williams

May 19, 2019 Tim Lammers Leave a comment

In celebration of the release of director Guy Ritchie’s live-action version of “Aladdin” this week starring Will Smith, Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott, here’s a look back at 2015 interview I did with the voice stars of 1992 Disney Animation classic for the Diamond Edition of the film on Blu-ray and DVD.

Without question, “Aladdin” voice stars Scott Weinger (Aladdin) and Linda Larkin (Princess Jasmine) are thrilled over how the 1992 classic Disney animated film continues to be discovered and held dear by new generations of viewers.

Still, Weinger told me in a recent phone conversation, some people have been harder to convince than others when it comes to explaining the cultural impact of the movie — a circumstance that fortunately changed at Disney’s D23 fan convention last summer.

“We did an ‘Aladdin’ event that thousands of people showed up for, which was so cool … I also got to take my kid around for rides at Disneyland and he got his first inkling that ‘Dad’s pretty cool,'” Weinger said, laughing. “I was like, ‘I’ve been telling you for the past six years that Dad’s kind of a big deal,’ but he never believed me.”

“Aladdin” makes its Diamond Edition debut as a Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Combo Pack (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) Tuesday. In addition to the film, the new release includes never-before-seen Genie (Robin Williams) outtakes, as wells as featurettes, deleted scenes, deleted songs and more.

While Weinger and Larkin are the speaking voices of Aladdin and Jasmine, the singing voices were provided by Broadway veterans Brad Kane and Lea Salonga. Larkin said in a separate phone conversation that she was amazed how Salonga matched her vocal style when recording the film’s Best Original Song Oscar winner, “A Whole New World.”

“I was actually surprised how smooth the transition was because I speaking going into the song and coming out of the song. It is so seamless that the filmmakers almost had me convinced that I sang it,” Larkin said, laughing. “I was like, ‘How did I do that? It was amazing!’ I’m joking, of course, but it was such an incredible match for my speaking voice. Lea’s such an incredible singer. I feel so lucky to have had her to be a part of that with me.”

Tim Burton Book 2 — Click book cover for info on how to buy!

For those new to the film, Aladdin is an Arabian street urchin who meets and falls in love with Princess Jasmine. Resigned to the fact that their dramatically different backgrounds will forever keep them apart, Aladdin’s fortunes change when he opens a magic lamp that contains a genie (Robin Williams) who will grant him three wishes — that is if the evil sorcerer Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) doesn’t get in their way.

Weinger and Larkin said their good fortunes continued far beyond the film, including opportunities to continue to voice Aladdin and Jasmine in subsequent film, TV and video game projects.

“It’s one of the luckiest things that ever happened to me and I’m so proud of it and fortunate,” Weinger said. “It was a pleasure happening when I was a kid to enjoy the initial success of the film in real-time as it was being introduced to the world, but I would have to say it’s even more fun now, now that it’s entered the pantheon of classic Disney movies.”

While Weinger’s voice is prominent in “Aladdin,” he’s far from taking any sizable credit for the film’s staying power.

“I have no ego about it. I have no illusions that I’m responsible for the success of the movie. That belongs to the magnitude of the people who worked on it, from the animators like Glenn Keane, Mark Henn and Eric Goldberg, and Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, who did the music — and of course, Robin Williams as the genie. For me, I just feel lucky to play a small role in this massive production.”

The Diamond Edition release of “Aladdin” is both joyous and bittersweet for Weinger and Larkin, given the loss of Williams in August 2014. Watching the film now gives it a whole new meaning, they said.

“My wife was saying as much as she enjoys watching it now, it’s hard not to burst into tears thinking he’s no longer with us,” Weinger said. “But at the same time, as sad as it is and as awful for everybody as it was to lose him, it was amazing to see my 6-year-old and his buddies at a screening of the movie last weekend rolling in the aisles. It was amazing to realize that even though he’s gone, he continues to touch people and make them laugh like that. It was incredible to see my kid coming home that day and saying lines from the genie in the movie.”

For Larkin, the actress not only connected with Williams on ‘Aladdin’ and subsequent projects, but also as a member of the theater community.

“We met on the movie and only had one day of recording together — Robin, Scott and I — and it was one of the most special days of my life,” Larkin said, humbly. “He was an incredible to work with, and it was exciting and inspiring. It was everything you’d imagine it would be. I would see Robin every five years. He’d either come up in my life in something we were doing for Disney, or, like in 2011, when he and my husband, Yul, were both doing plays on Broadway around the corner from each other. They were both nominated for Tony Awards, so they were seeing a lot of each other and knew of everything going on in my life because of it.”

It was also the year Larkin was named a Disney Legend, and Williams made sure that she knew how proud of her he was.

“I went to see Robin in his play during a matinee, and I went backstage afterward to see him in-between shows,” Larkin recalled. “He had a lot of time for me and it was really special because he congratulated me on the Legends award, made some jokes about it, of course, gave me a big hug like he always did, and called me ‘Princess.’ It was the last time I ever got to see him, and it’s a really precious memory for me.”

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Film, Movie Reviews

Review: ‘Parabellum’ is bloody fantastic ‘John Wick’ chapter

May 16, 2019 Tim Lammers Leave a comment

“John Wick 3: Parabellum” (R)

Keanu Reeves’ killer franchise has been reignited again – with a blow torch – with “John Wick – Chapter 3: Parabellum,” the third and definitely not last chapter in the ultraviolent tale about a former hitman at odds with the criminal underworld that shaped him. And while the hotly-anticipated follow-up to the 2017 hit comes in a bit long at 2-plus hours, the film like its predecessors is ghoulishly entertaining with all of Reeves’ kill shots and brutal hand-to-hand combat skills and will surely earn enough at the box office to justify a fourth chapter.

AUDIO: Click above to hear Tim’s review of “John Wick 3: Parabellum” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ 92 Morning Show” on KQRS-FM.

Picking up virtually where “John Wick: Chapter 2” left off, “Parabellum” finds Wick roaming the streets of New York with less than a half-hour to go before he’s declared excommunicado. In the dark criminal underworld, that means Wick’s lost all his protection from the covert international assassin’s guild who placed a $14 million bounty on his head for executing a high-ranking member of the High Table on the grounds of The Continental hotel, which is a safe haven for criminals.

“Parabellum,” a Latin word which translated to English means “Prepare for war,” wastes no time in giving fans of the franchise what they want, with hyperkinetic action scenes loaded with inventive hand-to-hand combat, lots of gunplay and truckloads of dead bodies. Not surprisingly, the killing (how this film averted an NC-17 rating is a wonder), will induce endless cringes and bouts of nervous laughter as Wick indiscriminately wipes out every bad guy in his way, and director Chad Stahelski does his best to make sure each death is more gruesomely creative than the last.

Reeves, like before, is charismatic as the stoic assassin still hurting from the loss of his girlfriend to cancer and the puppy she gave him (yep, dogs still play a prominent role in the film series), but as important as he is to the film, he’s not required to do all the heavy-lifting.

Halle Berry is wonderful addition as a badass assassin from Wick’s past, as is Angelica Huston as a crime boss, and Asia Kate Dillion (“Billions”) dominates the screen as the Adjudicator for the High Table, whose job is to lay waste to all people complicit in Wick’s actions. Back for another go-round is the always great Ian McShane as Winston, who owns and operates The Continental, and Laurence Fishburne, who stole the show in “John Wick 2” as the underground criminal leader The Bowery King.

Perhaps the biggest difference between “Parabellum” and the previous “John Wick” chapters is that this new tale seems to take more time to breathe between the mayhem to give us a look into Wick’s past to help shape the story. Easily the film’s biggest downfall is its excessive scenes of violence – not in terms of content: bloody brutality is what “John Wick” is all about – but just in the sheer numbers of times we have to see it. With a 2-hour, 10-minute runtime, “Parabellum” is long in the tooth, and the clipping of some unnecessarily long fight and execution scenes that have little bearing on the plot would have gone a long way.

Lammometer: 8 (out of 10)

AUDIO: Click to hear Tim review “John Wick 3” with Paul Douglas and Jordana Green on “Paul & Jordana” on WCCO-AM.

Film, Movie Reviews

Movie review: ‘Pokémon’ fans will want to ‘go’ see lively ‘Detective Pikachu’’

May 9, 2019 Tim Lammers Leave a comment

“Pokémon: Detective Pikachu” (PG)

You don’t have to catch ‘em all – the previous “Pokémon” movies or video games that is – to enjoy “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu,” an engaging live-action/computer-generated movie hybrid that brings the famed anime characters out of their anime world for the first time. Even though it is designed with fans in mind, the movie scores high points for making it accessible for those relatively new to the Pokémon experience, and the end result is a win-win for die-hard fans and newbies alike.

Justice Smith (“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”) stars as Tim Goodman, a young man estranged from his police detective father for years when he’s called by his father’s superior (Ken Watanabe) with some bad news: the elder Goodman died under mysterious circumstances while conducting an investigation. Traveling to his father’s precinct in Ryme City – an idyllic metropolis where humans and Pokémon creatures exist on equal footing – Tim encounters his father’s detective partner: the bouncy, fun-loving, electrically-charged Pikachu.

This difference with this Pokémon (who can speak, but only say their own names), though is that Tim, unlike other humans, can actually understand what Detective Pikachu is saying. Taking advantage of their unique way of communicating with one another, Tim and Detective Pokémon (voiced by the always entertaining Ryan Reynolds) embark on a mission (along with an intrepid reporter played by “Big Little Lies” actress Kathryn Newton) to unravel the mystery behind the loss of Tim’s father and a devious plan that could bode ill for the residents of Ryme City.

Directed by Rob Letterman (“Goosebumps,” “Monsters vs. Aliens”)“Detective Pikachu” owes a debt of gratitude to the quick-thinking, fast-talking sensibilities of Reynolds, who no doubt interjected his gift for improvised dialogue into the film. The big difference, of course, is that the dialogue of the PG-rated, family-friendly “Detective Pikachu” is that the dialogue is far cleaner from his raucous, R-rated “Deadpool” movies, but that doesn’t make things any less entertaining. Quite simply, Reynolds has the innate ability to bring any of the characters to life, which is especially impressive when it’s a yellow furball that only previously existed in the two-dimensional animated world and could only utter the word “Pikachu!”

In this live-action Pokémon world, Reynolds makes the iconic character feel like a living, breathing creature, which is an incredibly difficult for any actor to do, whether they’re playing a human or otherwise.

Of course, “Pokémon” fans – whether they’re a fan of 1998’s “Pokémon: The First Movie,” the anime series, card game or “Pokémon Go” game — will get the most out of “Detective Pikachu,” even though the film has nothing to do with the insanely popular smart phone app. Newbies who want to take a deep dive in the movie will likely benefit most going into “Detective Pikachu” by seeing the 1998 feature, if not for any other reason to familiarize themselves with the many famed characters associated with the franchise and their back stories. That’s because “Detective Pikachu,” not surprisingly, is loaded with several creatures from the “Pokémon” universe, and the familiarity of which will provide for a much richer experience than for those people who go into the theaters cold. Otherwise, just see the movie for Reynolds – he’s that good.

Lammometer: 7 (out of 10) (Pokémon fans — 9 out of 10)

Film, Movie Reviews

Movie review: ‘Long Shot’ enjoyable romantic comedy that strays off-target

May 2, 2019 Tim Lammers Leave a comment

“Long Shot” (R)

Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen make for appealing candidates, romantic comedy-wise, in “Long Shot,” an oftentimes funny, sometimes heartfelt, sometimes preachy and sometimes gross-out tale set amid the wishy-washy world of United States politics.

Theron plays U.S. Secretary of State Charlotte Field, a rising political star who plans on announcing her candidacy for the 2020 presidential election after a whirlwind, worldwide tour touting her global environmental initiative. Working with image and message consultants to bolster her appeal, Charlotte realizes she could use help interjecting a bit of comedy into her speeches, so he hires on a whim controversial journalist Fred Flarsky (Rogen) with a penchant for flying off the cuff. Even though his behavior, temperament and rage against the government and corporate machines make Fred a risk, Charlotte trusts her instincts because as a teenage girl, she used to babysit Fred as an adolescent.

For as odd a couple as Charlotte and Fred seem, Theron and Rogen have a surprisingly good chemistry, both comedically and romantically in “Long Shot.” The big issue is that while Theron continues to prove to her talents in different genres, Rogen, while funny, seems to play the same role of the stoner bud once again.

For a film about politics, “Long Shot” manages to mostly steer clear of the scumbaggery that pollutes today’s political climate, creating an almost idyllic world where politicians almost act like civil human beings. That’s not to say director Jonathan Levine doesn’t make the GOP a punching bag time and again throughout the film – or at least the party’s cable news supporter, Fox News (thinly veiled here as The Wembley Network). On the flip side, however, “Long Shot” introduces a positive Republican character with Christian values who puts a far-left extremist in his place — who effectively argues that Democrats and Republicans simply need to learn how to compromise to manifest the ideal notion of politicians actually getting work done on behalf of the people that elected them.

With a semi-fresh approach to the way politics are presented (Charlotte is not a complete idealist – she knows the system is deeply flawed if not outright crooked, and full-realizes that she needs to play the game in order to see her vision through), the story on which the foundation of “Long Shot” rests – the romance – is hopelessly predictable. “Long Shot” is an enjoyable film to be sure, it’s just doesn’t rise to anything special in the sea of cookie-cutter plots that have populated the romantic comedy genre for decades.

Levine, Rogan and Theron (who also serve as producers on the film) certainly give it their best to separate itself from other romantic comedies, particularly with the interjection of reckless drug use and graphic sexual humor into the third act, a move that ultimately causes “Long Shot” to lose any shred of believability as the film wraps up.

True, the scenes in the third act are very funny, but for a film that focuses on the serious matter of the long-overdue election of female president, you would have thought the filmmakers would have found a much more dignified way of going about it instead of hinging the endgame on a crude sex gag. As such, “Long Shot” gives the term “dirty politics” a whole new meaning, even if that wasn’t the film’s intention.

Lammometer: 7 (out of 10)

DirectConversations.com

Tag Archives: feature

Interview flashback: Voices of Aladdin, Jasmine recall magic of animated ‘Aladdin,’ Williams

Review: ‘Parabellum’ is bloody fantastic ‘John Wick’ chapter

Movie review: ‘Pokémon’ fans will want to ‘go’ see lively ‘Detective Pikachu’’

Movie review: ‘Long Shot’ enjoyable romantic comedy that strays off-target

Original Interviews, Reviews & More By Tim Lammers