... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 35 - 'HERCULES' EDITION)"

My continuing foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. As always, don't hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/complaints in the comments section below. Links to previous entries have also been included below.

Title: Hercules (1997)

The Plot: Through the machinations of Hades, Lord of the Dead, the son of Zeus is adopted on Earth, and must prove himself a hero in order to reclaim his immortality.

The Songs: "The Gospel Truth I / II / III," "Go The Distance," "One Last Hope," "Zero To Hero," "I Won't Say (I'm In Love)," "A Star Is Born," "Go The Distance (End Title)"

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 34 - 'THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME' EDITION)"

My continuing foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. As always, don't hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/complaints in the comments section below. Links to previous entries have also been included below.

Title: The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1996; based on the novel by Victor Hugo)

The Plot: The deformed bell ringer of Notre Dame, orphaned as an infant and adopted by a cruel master, longs to escape the confines of his tower.

The Songs: "The Bells Of Notre Dame," "Out There," "Topsy Turvy," "God Help The Outcasts," "Heaven's Light / Hellfire," "A Guy Like You," "The Court Of Miracles," "Someday"

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 33 - 'POCAHONTAS' EDITION)"

My continuing foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. As always, don't hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/complaints in the comments section below. Links to previous entries have also been included below.

Title: Pocahontas (1995)

The Plot: The daughter of a Native American chieftain encounters English colonists in 16th- century Virginia, and falls in love with a soldier.

The Songs: "The Virginia Company," "Steady As The Beating Drum," "Just Around The Riverbend," "Listen With Your Heart," "Mine, Mine, Mine," "Colors Of The Wind," "Savages," "If I Never Knew You (Love Theme From Pocahontas)," "Colors Of The Wind (End Title)"

... FOR "SANTA SAID WHAT?!!" (OR, "QUIZ TIME, PART 7") - UPDATED: WITH ANSWERS!

Well, it's Christmas time again, folks! And by way of tradition (as well as an excuse for being lazy), I thought I'd offer up another yuletide quiz challenge in the spirit of the season. You know, something to mull over while you're kicking back, enjoying your egg nog, hangin' with the family, waiting for the big guy and his reindeer to make their annual stop-over...

Speaking of the Big Guy... how well do you know your Santa Claus movies? The Jolly One's been around for about as long as anyone can remember, yet rarely, if ever, does he take center stage of his own story. Below are a handful of Santa-centric titles and a snippet of dialogue from each, spoken by ol' Kris Kringle himself (or, conversely, an imposter thereof). Can you match them together, for goodness sake? Don't be a Grinch now...

... FOR "FRANCHISE FACE-OFFS (PART 11 - 'RUSH HOUR' EDITION)"

Brett Ratner is a chameleon. This might explain why the self-promoting, self-aggrandizing director - whose films have amassed a collective $1 billion plus worldwide - has been able to slip into so many franchises without ruffling the feathers of fans. He did it in 2002, with Red Dragon, part three of Dino De Laurentiis' Hannibal Lecter series starring Anthony Hopkins. Then in 2006, he took over the ­X-Men franchise with The Last Stand, the most successful entry in Fox's genre-defining ensemble superhero saga.

(On the non-franchise front, you could view his 2000 holiday hit The Family Man as an unofficial remake of Capra's It's A Wonderful Life, or November's Tower Heist as an attempt to copy the con-artists-as-heroes cool of Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven. The list goes on.)

Whether this qualifies him as an A-list copycat or a B-grade Hollywood hack is up for debate. The fact is, Ratner copies the style of his predecessors so well, you'd be hard-pressed to tell that they were made by a different director, unless you were acutely aware of the behind-the-scenes dramas that plagued their productions.