Feeling constrained by the rigors of the Walt Disney Company, animator Don Bluth led a team of colleagues away from the House of Mouse to form their own production company: Don Bluth Productions. After a string of successful shorts, the team successfully broke into features with THE SECRET OF NIMH, an adaptation of Robert C. O’Brien’s dark children’s fantasy Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – a story once pitched to Disney but denied.
The film follows a widowed field mouse named Mrs. Brisby (changed to not have to deal with Frisbee™), whose youngest son falls ill just before the start of the farmer’s annual plow. Unable to move her son from harm’s way, Mrs. Brisby seeks help from the mysterious Rats of NIMH, a clannish and strife-laden bunch, who possess technology that could save her family.
Starring: Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Peter Kay
Cheese-loving eccentric Wallace and his cunning canine pal, Gromit, investigate a mystery in Nick Park’s animated adventure, in which the lovable inventor and his intrepid pup run a business ridding the town of garden pests. Using only humane methods that turn their home into a halfway house for evicted vermin, the pair stumble upon a mystery involving a voracious vegetarian monster that threatens to ruin the annual veggie-growing contest.
Starring: James Cromwell, Mickey Rooney, Magda Szubanski, Mary Stein
After Babe’s great victory in the shepherding contest, Farmer Arthur Hoggett turns down all offers to make money with his pig’s talents. But when he gets hurt severely in the well, his wife has to take up farming. She does her best but cannot meet the bank’s requirements, which results in the necessity of getting back to Babe. Soon, Esme Hoggett is sitting in a plane headed for “the” city. There, Babe unwillingly causes deep trouble. He has to stay with Mrs. Hoggett in the only hotel in town that accepts pets. Friendly neighbours send officials who catch all animals from the hotel: Cats, dogs, chimpanzees and many others. Babe, who managed to stay free, decides to help his new friends and gets unexpected help – not only by Ferdinand, who flew all the way to the city.
Starring: Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, Bernadette Peters, Kirsten Dunst, Angela Lansbury
Directed by former Disney animation directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, Anastasia is an animated film adaptation of the legend of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. In it, the daughter of the last Russian Tsar, Nicolas II, Anastasia is found by two Russian con men, Dimitri and Vladimir, who seek the reward that her grandmother, the Dowager Empress Marie, promised to the ones who’ll find her. But the evil mystic of the Tsar family, Rasputin, still wants the Romanov family to be destroyed forever.
Starring: Peter Lind Hayes, Mary Healy, Hans Conried, Tommy Rettig
It may not be the best known of children’s musicals but this musical fantasy film but the only feature written by Dr. Seuss is quite extraordinary. Filled with surreal landscapes and tongue-twisting rhymes, you’ll recognize the signature visual and narrative style for which Dr. Seuss is famous. The film features Young Bart Collins, lulled to sleep by the monotony of his piano lessons, dreams of a castle ruled by his piano teacher, the eccentric Dr. Teriwilliker. Dr. T is determined to prove that his “Happy Fingers Method” of teaching piano is the best method in the world. Having banished all other musical instruments to the dungeon, Dr. T lures 500 reluctant little boys to perform in a colossal concert on the grandest grand piano ever built. In his effort to escape, Bart comes in contact with some of the strangest characters imaginable – Siamese twins on roller skates, a human drum and the most memorable villain since the Grinch.
Starring: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmare, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, David Rudman
Broadway bound, the Muppets take Manhattan by storm in this magical musical about breaking into show business! Fresh out of college, Kermit, Fozzie and the entire cast of Kermit’s musical “Manhattan Melodies” head for the Big Apple with plans to turn their small play into a big hit! All they need now is someone to produce their show! But when no one in town will even meet with them, it’s up to Kermit to believe hard enough for all of his friends that the show WILL go on! Family entertainment has never been more fun than this comedy marking Frank Oz’s solo directorial debut.
THE DEUCE returns (yet again) to the Eastern-most movie palace on the block – the New Amsterdam – for Bogdanovich’s hit rom-com WHAT’S UP DOC?
Originally premiering at Radio City Music Hall on March 10, 1972, WHAT’S UP DOC? hit the Deuce for a Spring re-run at the New Amsterdam… where it played with B-picture MAN IN THE WILDERNESS…Join Babs, Ryan, and the Deuce-Jockeys for our screwbally Valentine’s date night!
Plus: Prizes and surprises, and music by Maestro Jeff at the after-party at Lo-Res! Presented by THE DEUCE JOCKEYS: Jeff, Andy, and Joe!
Nitehawk’s LITTLE BOOKWORMS series presents the magical musical fable of THE LITTLE PRINCE.
The Little Prince was written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in 1943.
The beloved classic children’s book, The Little Prince, has seen several film adaptations but none are quite as special as this one from 1974. Starring Richard Kiley as the pilot stranded in the desert with a little prince from another planet, the dance stylings of Bob Fosse as the snake, and the greatness of Gene Wilder as the fox, the magic of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s novella comes to beautiful life. The two discuss the prince’s adventures in planet hopping but it’s his time on Earth, with the pilot, the fox, and the snake that he learns the secrets of the importance of life. A favorite for kids of all ages.
Part of Nitehawk’s ongoing LITTLE BOOKWORMS series that shows classic film adaptations of classic children’s books.
Nitehawk’s LITTLE BOOKWORMS series presents Dick Van Dyke and CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG on 35mm!
Ian Fleming wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1964.
Based on Ian Fleming’s novel, Roald Dahl’s screenplay of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang achieves the anticipated level of mischief and dark humor as we witness the legendary flying car taking Professor Potts, Truly Scrumptious, Jemima and Jeremy off to a faraway world where children are trapped by a vicious child catcher and locked away out of sight. With a great score by the Sherman brothers and hearty performances by Dick Van Dyke et al, it is easy to see why, almost 40 years on, the movie has achieved its status as one of the greatest family films of all time.
Starring: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Margaret Hamilton, Billie Burke
The Wizard of Oz is as close as you can get to pure magic on the cinema screen. On her farm in Kansas, young Dorothy dreams of a more fantastical place over the rainbow and, after hitching a ride on a tornado, winds up in the wonderful world of Oz. Greeted by a town of munchkins and two witches, Dorothy sets out to meet the Wizard who is sure to get her home with an extraordinary new pair of rubber slippers. On her adventurous journey to the Emerald City, she and her fellow friends the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion navigate the traps set by the Wicked Witch of the West who wants those special shoes back! Full of adventure, song, and the meaning of real love, The Wizard of Oz shows us that there is indeed no place like home.
