Yesterday, Baby and I watched Disney's, The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band. I hadn't seen it since I was a little kid. Here are my thoughts:
This was actually two movies rolled into one: The first was a romantic musical comedy about a girl and a boy who fall in love, get in a fight, and fall in love again. It was charming, but it felt kind of anachronistic. It's not that no one was making musicals in 1969/70, but they weren't making sentimental, patriotic, western musicals. I think singing and dancing with my family band in a barn is just about the coolest thing ever, but there were moments when even I felt a little embarrassed for the actors. Baby had no complaints though.
The other movie was a political/historical movie about living in Dakota at the time it was being considered for statehood. This plot was fascinating to me in 2008, and I wish they could have shaken off the musical romance stuff and gone into more detail with the story. Did I just say that? Hang on, I need to go watch "The Music Man" to straighten myself out.
Anyway, the whole story hinges on an the presidential race in 1888, when Cleveland received more actual votes than Harrison, but Harrison won the electoral college and the election. In 1888, the country was hugely divided between Republicans and Democrats, and this movie tried to illustrate that tension. I don't know personally, but I've read that the current political situation is the most violently partisan the country has seen since the Civil War. What was supposed to look ridiculous in the movie (interrupting a political rally?!!! defacing a portrait of a presidential candidate?!!!) looked like pretty typical politics to me. In fact, the most unbelievable part of the movie was the ending when everyone becomes friends in spite of their political differences.
My favorite line: "Well how do you like that? The Democrats win an election, fair and square, and the Republicans steal it out from under their noses." If they had put this in a movie today, it would have been an unfunny effort to make the movie Important and Timely. Instead, it was just plain awesome, like an unintended pun.
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4 comments:
Wow. Talk about a voice from the dust. I get The One and Only.. mixed up with The Happiest Millionaire. Do they have the same cast? Which one has the Ugly Bug Ball?
Most of the Disney movies of that era had similar casts. Annette Funicelo had hung up her ears, so Leslie Ann Warren was kept busy.
This one doesn't have Ugly Bug Ball. That was from Summer Magic (the second dumbest name in Disney history). It has the same leads as Happiest Millionaire (which had better songs, I think). Here are the songs you would remember:
Let's Put it Over with Grover
Dakota
'Bout Time
Drummin', Drummin', Drummin'
It's worth Netflixing, just for those little ditties.
Let's put it over with Grover!
Don't rock the boat!
Give him your vote!
Give your vote to the man
Who's a leader of men!
Let's put Grover
Over again!
Yeah, I remember that!
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