{"id":434,"date":"2014-03-29T19:25:47","date_gmt":"2014-03-29T19:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.wordpress.com\/?p=434"},"modified":"2026-03-09T03:38:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T03:38:50","slug":"trains-zombies-and-racist-cartoons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/?p=434","title":{"rendered":"Trains, zombies, and racist cartoons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Resident<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Resident Evil<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(2002)<\/p>\n

I’m old enough to fondly remember\u00a0the original\u00a0Resident Evil<\/a> <\/em>video game, it’s hard to believe it spawned such a successful film series.<\/p>\n

Alice (Mila Jovovich) wakes up in the middle of the apocalypse.\u00a0 Sometimes this dramatic device works, <\/em>but in this film it leads to a great deal of confusion. I’m still not sure who stole the T-virus, why they hid the antivirus, or what the Umbrella Corporation was hoping to accomplish.<\/p>\n

Mila Jovovich is a less classy Angelina Jolie.\u00a0 Oddly, she’s twice married directors of her highest-profile roles.\u00a0 First, she married Luc Besson, the director of The Fifth Element <\/em>(1997) and later married Paul W. S. Anderson, the\u00a0director of this film\u00a0in 2009.<\/p>\n

Michelle Rodriguez plays Rain, whose injury creates most of the tension in the film.\u00a0Between this, Lost<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0and the Fast and the Furious<\/em> franchise, Michelle Rodriguez has become the go to actress for angry, sullen women.<\/p>\n

This movie is so busy paving the way for\u00a0future films, it neglects to finish the story and ends as it began, Alice is abducted and taken to a hospital, waking up alone and abandoned, in the middle of the apocalypse.<\/p>\n

Before his involvement in\u00a0the Resident Evil<\/em> series,\u00a0Anderson directed Mortal Kombat\u00a0<\/em>(1995), Soldier (<\/em>the 1998 spiritual sequel to Blade Runner<\/em>), Aliens vs. Predator <\/em>(2004), and the remake Death Race<\/em> (2008).\u00a0 His films don’t offer much depth, but serve as elaborate excuses to blow stuff up.<\/p>\n

This is a decent entry into the survival horror genre<\/a>, but\u00a0compared to \u00a028 Days Later <\/em>(2002), World War Z<\/em> (2013), and The Walking Dead<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> it’s a little stale.<\/p>\n

\"Bosko<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1929)<\/p>\n

Animator Rudolf Ising\u00a0creates Bosko, who comes to life on\u00a0the page.\u00a0\u00a0 After a few minutes dealing with his antics, Isling forces\u00a0him back into\u00a0the ink.<\/p>\n

The creating come to life is a recurring theme in old cartoons which probably reflects the anxiety of animators watching their cartoons come to life on-screen.<\/p>\n

This was never screened in theaters, but\u00a0instead used as a proof of concept to show\u00a0the character, intended as Warner Bros. answer to Disney’s Mickey Mouse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Sinkin'<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sinkin’ in the Bathtub<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1930)<\/p>\n

The second Bosko short is more chaotic and whimsical than the first.\u00a0 He’s taking a bath and transforms his world into musical instruments, playing streaming water as a harpsichord, hitting bubbles with mallets.\u00a0\u00a0At\u00a0some point, the bathtub and toilet join in the musical merriment.<\/p>\n

\"Congo<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Congo Jazz<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1930)<\/p>\n

The title of this short, and its association of jazz with an\u00a0African river<\/a> tells you a lot about its content.<\/p>\n

Once again, Bosko makes music out of bizarre instruments, including chewing gum and the stripes of a tiger.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Hold<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hold Anything<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1930)<\/p>\n

This parody of the\u00a0lost film<\/a>\u00a0Hold Everything<\/em> (1930), features a floating goat, six miniature versions of Bosko, and a song played on a typewriter.<\/p>\n

The chaotic spirit of the Looney Tunes<\/em><\/a>\u00a0series is present in these early shorts, but you can feel the discomfort with the racial overtones of the character.<\/p>\n

An early, recurring bit is for Bosko to mimic Al Jolson in\u00a0The Jazz Singer<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(1927) with a cry of “Mammy!”\u00a0 By the time the fourth Bosko short aired, his voice changed and the animation de-emphasized his racial identity. When Warner Bros. unsuccessfully tried to reintroduce the character in an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures<\/em><\/a>, he was re-imagined as an anthropomorphic animal.<\/p>\n

Characters like Bosko make us uncomfortable, but they\u00a0can’t be ignored because this represents a significant portion\u00a0of American popular culture at the end of the Jazz Age<\/a>. This is what our grandparents and great grandparents grew up watching and understanding the world in which they lived helps us understand them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Station Agent<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(2003)<\/p>\n

Dwarf Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage) loves trains and\u00a0works in a model train hobby shop.\u00a0 When the shop owner dies, Fin inherits a train depot and moves to the old, abandoned building hoping to live a solitary life.\u00a0 Unfortunately for him, he’s forced to interact with Joe (Bobby Cannavale), who owns local food truck, Olivia (Patricia Clarkson), a struggling artist whose young son’s death\u00a0sent her into a deep depression, Cleo, a young girl who also likes trains, and Emily (Michelle Williams), the local librarian.<\/p>\n

Peter Dinklage is\u00a0fantastic.\u00a0\u00a0You never get the feeling his dwarfism is the reason for his loneliness, but instead see him as a\u00a0natural loner who\u00a0happens to be a dwarf.<\/p>\n

Director Thomas McCarthy’s other major film, The Visitor <\/em>(2007),<\/em> is also focused on the accidental ways important relationships form.<\/p>\n

There’s no plot or resolution in this melancholic celebration of how we discover the strangers who will define us, but the characters are so genuine in their struggle to connect with the world around them, you can’t help but sympathize and see your struggles reflected in theirs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Resident Evil\u00a0(2002) I’m old enough to fondly remember\u00a0the original\u00a0Resident Evil video game, it’s hard to believe it spawned such a successful film series. Alice (Mila Jovovich) wakes up in the middle of the apocalypse.\u00a0 Sometimes this dramatic device works, but in this film it leads to a great deal of confusion. I’m still not… Continue reading Trains, zombies, and racist cartoons<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[73,129,492,538,539,544,613,622,627,666,768,913],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-progress","tag-apocalyptic","tag-bosko","tag-looney-tunes","tag-michelle-rodriguez","tag-michelle-williams","tag-milla-jovovich","tag-patricia-clarkson","tag-paul-w-s-anderson","tag-peter-dinklage","tag-resident-evil","tag-survival-horror","tag-zombies","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14608,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions\/14608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}