Video Sunday: I’ll Get You, My Pretty. And Your Little Doll Too.
When watching The Wizard of Oz, my husband has pointed out that there’s a moment when our four friends have left The Wizard and are entering the scary woods. They’re carrying an odd assortment of objects. I think the lion has a butterfly net and The Tin Woodsman has a strange syringe-looking thing for blowing air. The Scarecrow, however, is packing heat. He has a gun. So when the flying monkeys attack in the next scene, you wonder why he isn’t picking them off one by one. The reason is because they cut out The Jitterbug dance sequence (though the witch still alludes to it when she says, "I’ve sent along a little bug to take the fight out of them") and that’s where they lose their "weapons". Still, until I saw this I’d forgotten all about the opening sequence. Heavens I do love the How It Should Have Ended videos. If you haven’t seen their Lord of the Rings or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory or Twilight, do. Thanks to @jlbellwriter for the link.
Greenwillow, y’all are a class act. I’m honored to be publishing with you. Check out this book trailer for My Heart is Like a Zoo. So good.
Thanks to Under the Green Willow for the link.
Speaking of trailers, here’s a glimpse at the Where the Wild Things Are video game. I’m a little baffled by it, myself. Just looks like a slightly tweaked version of Super Mario meets Pitfall. Oh yeah. My frame of reference is definitely 1983-1989.
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Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link.
Recently I did a round-up of Jon Scieszka videos. Fun stuff. But in the course of my travels I saw some vids that didn’t quite fit my thesis (i.e. A history of Scieszkaisms). This one‘s fantastic, but I couldn’t work it in. Now I can. It’s Jon and David Shannon just randomly walking around a Borders grabbing books they like and talking about them. No better place to hear that Kafka was under the distinct impression that his books were laugh riots.
For Christmas I received a Sophie Blackall print from her Missed Connections blog. Ms. Blackall (most recently known in our world for her When You Reach Me cover) illustrates the Missed Connection postings on Craigslist and the like. Mine is library-based. Now a short film has been made about her. Very nicely done too.
I regret not knowing who sent me this, but I rather love this Living Library video. And not just because of the tour around the library (which, frankly, looks similar in design to the Seattle Public Library, no?).
Now talk about your children’s literature! Shakespeare for toddlers, folks.
Toddlers + British accents = gaga Americans. You could conquer our entire country if you simply presented your demands in the form of English tots. I am sure of this. Thanks to Semicolon for the link.
And finally, the off-topic. This may not stick around very long, but I hope that you get a chance to see it. In short: basically this little film (Alma) is what you get when you mix Pixar with The Twilight Zone.
Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.
Thanks to Jules and Drawn for the link!
Filed under: Videos
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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Alma! Holy cow!
Yup. Totally at odds with the music.
Yeah, Alma’s taken care of my nightmares for the next seven years. Brilliant.
(I got my tip about Alma from illustrator Carin Berger…Just givin’ my credit where credit is due…)
I am glad I traumatized myself with ALMA first so that I could make myself feel better with the adorable Shakespeare-quoting toddler.
…No, wait, I totally don’t feel better. THE HORROR. THE HORROR.
Oh! Dolls creeped me out before Alma. Now, it’s worse! Throw in some clowns and I go off the deep end.
Tere H
I believe the Tin Man is carrying a Flit gun (as in “Quick Martha! The Flit!”,) designed to spray insecticide. I’ve always assumed they cut the bee-attack from the book, since the Witch goes on to say “Something sweeeeet — with a sting in it.” Those were the jitterbugs?
Yup. On some editions of Wizard of Oz you can get a deleted scene of them doing the dance. It’s filmed on someone’s personal hand camera, so the quality is lamentable, but the song in its entirety is easy to find. Just the same, it wasn’t a great scene. Best left on the cutting room floor.
As if the Twilight Zone marathon on New Year’s Eve was not enough…I found myself screaming, “Open the door for the bike! Open the door for the bike!” To no avail.
Did anyone notice in the credits that “Trucktown” illustrator David Gordon was one of the character designers? Way to go Dave!
Uh, for “Alma” that is…