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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 2, 1992)
A Arts & Entertainment With a cricket named Jiminy as his official conscience, Pinocchio, a puppet-come-to-life, learns to be brave, truthful and unselfish in Walt Disney’s animated classic, “Pinocchio.” Pinocchio revisits theaters By Stacie Hakel Staff Reporter If you wished upon a star for the return of the Academy Award win ning “Pmocchio,” your wish has come true. This beautifully animated pic ture with its vibrant colors has re turned to theaters to capture view ers’ hearts for years to come. Producing his firs! fthn, the ever popular “Show White and the Seven Dwarfs” which was released in 1937, did not inhibit the busy Walt Disney from releasing “Pmocchio” in 1940. Since then. Disney Studios has practiced it* wizardry at animation with movie* such as, “Bambi,’’“Dumbo,’’“Fan tasia,” and the latest “Beauty anc the Beast.” Introduced on a frst-ever Dolby Stereo track, the film has been enhanced not only in sound, but visually. Taken frame by frame, the film has been restored over a one year period to up-grade the film qual ity. The quaint little village where the story begins is the home of the wood craftsman Geppetto (voice of Chris tian Rub). i Narrated by (he small insect, Jiminy Cricket (voice of Cliff Edwards), Geppetto creates the puppet Pinocchio while talking to his clulzy feline Figaro and loving goldfish Cleo. After put ting the finishing touches on his be ; loved puppet, he retires to bed with a ' wish that Pinocchio (voice of Dick Jones) wiII come to Iifc and be his son. After Geppetto falls asleep, The Blue Fairy (voice of Evelyn Venable) arrives and brings Pinocchio to life as a puppet, who dubs Jiminy Cricket as his conscience. As Geppetto awakes lo the racket, the characters re joice on this wish come true. But Pinocchio cannot become a real boy until he has proved to be brave, truthful and unselfish. The next day Pinocchio is sent off to school, but is challenged with aH sorts of temptations. Jimmy Cricket attempts to stay with Pinocchio and help him through his adventures in hopes chat he wiH j listen to him. From the story of CarloCoModi, , ‘Tmocchio” broke through the ani- j malion barriers. With its extraor dinary detail, imaginative design and carefully picked vocals, the story has become an all-time fa vorite for people of all ages, and a example for future film-makers. The creative, fanciful, sweetly musical production of “Pinocchio ’ is back and will remain alive in the hearts of many, with its positive feedback to always “wish upon a star.” Movie deals with death Sheldonfilm searches for life’s answers By Jill O’Brien Staff Reporter With elements of both pain and humor, Jan Oxenberg’’s “Thank You and Good Night” questions how to deal with death. The film searches for answers to questions brought about by a Jewish grandmother’s impending death. After Mae Joffe is diagnosed with diabetes and cancer, Granddaughter Oxenberg captures interviews and memories of Joffe on film. As Oxenberg narrates incidents and gives background information on the fam ily, Grandmother Joffe comments, sometimes cynically and sometimes humorously. mOVAfewy Oxenberg’s childhood memory of her grandmother is preserved and pre sented by a life-size paperdoll figure of Scowling Jan, “a rotten kid” who makes her own observations about life and death. The appearance of Scowling Jan remembering the times grandma took her to movies or carnivals, serves lo lighten the Oxcnbcrg’s morbid task of documenting the illness and death of a loved one. The film, though painful at times as Oxenberg’s mother and other fam ily mcmbcrscomc lo grips with Joffe’s death, is not without humor. When Oxenberg asks her grand mother if there is anything she (Oxenberg) can do, grandma says, “Yes... get married.” No, no, some thing other than that, Oxenberg says. “Get on a game show,” grandma an swers. Oxenberg’s imagination takes her lo a game show where she is asked questions about grandma’s life. The prizes arc grandma’s possessions, her collection of salt and pepper shakers, her ceramic dogs and of course, grandma’s color television. Following grandma’s death, Oxenberg’s mother suggests every one make up a list of things lo do during the next few days to help them cope with her death. “1 must have heard her wrong — I made up a list of things I didn’t do,” Oxenberg says. Her list, compiled from guilt, in cluded remorse for not helping grandma build a shelf for her salt and pepper shakers. Although the scenes move smoothly, at times the questions Oxenberg asks about life and death seem to drag on. At one point, Oxenberg, so ob sessed with making the film, pesters grandma with questions. One touch ing scene, bordering on annovance, is when Oxenberg asks her frail, dying grandmother, “Tell me, grandma, do you have any words?” “Yes,” grandma says, “I love you.” As if that isn’t enough, Oxenberg persists, “Do you have any other words for prosperity? Any messages you want to give out?” Poor grandma strains to be heard as she whispers, “Yes, I love you so much.” However, as the viewer begins to wonder if grandma Joffe a redly a victim of Oxenberg’s documentary, grandma’s spunkiness is momentarily revived when she tells Oxenberg, That s about all lor tonight, and to my public, I wish to say, thank you and good night” Following “Thank You and Good Night” “Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment," an academy award winning short by Debra Chasnoff was presented, documenting GE’s role in building nuclear weapons. In 19 at the Hanford, Wash, nuclear piant, GE conducted secret experiments, releasing radiation into the air and water. ■ This 30-minute film opens with a “tour” of the neighborhood that has come to be knot* as Death Mile,” where 27 of 28 families taffered in curable cancers and birth defects. Today, near Schenectady, N.Y. at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, GE employees continue to be negli gently exposed to radiation and can cer-causing asbestos. The film, well-narrated and punc tuated with interviews by GE victims and employees, casts a gruesome shadow over GE’s slogan, “We bring good things to life.” Both films are playing at the Mary Riepma Ross theater in the Sheldon An Gallery through Sunday. Movie makes an ‘Unlawful Entry’ as a box office hit “Unlawful Entry” By Gerry Beltz Staff Reporter Once again Ray Liotia of “Goodfcllas* and “Article 99” deliv ers a terrific performance, this lime in the spine-tingling thriller “Unlawful Entry” (Lincoln 3). Liotta plays Los Angeles police man Pete Davis, who is called to the home of Michael Carr (Kurt Russell of“Backdraft”and“Tangoand Cash”) and his wife Karen (Madeleine Stowe from “Stakeout” and “The Last Of The Mohicans”) after an attempted burglary. The Carrs arc very happy to meet someone like Davis, who truly cares about their safety and well-being. Davis is also pleased with the Carrs’ hospitality because he has gotten used to the altitude that it was “cops versus everyone else”... except when one is needed. Eventually, the professional rela tionship evolves into an overly-per sonal one. Davis’ previously-unknown imbalanced behavior comes out, show ing that he feels that Karen would be safer with him than with her husband, and that’s when the movie kicks into high gear. Directed by Jonathan Kaplan (“The Accused”), the same type of suspense and terror exists that was seen in “Pacific Heights” and “Cape Fear,” where the bad guys use the rules to their advantage to make the good guys powerless. What is really scary about this is that these arc realistic situations; things like this could feasibly happen. Kaplan builds up the suspense to a white knuckle ending. Russell and Stowe perform suffi ciently in their roles as the couple whose personal and professional lives arc being lorn apart by Lioua, but it is nothing overly spectacular. It is Lioua that walks away with this movie, as he is the star of every scene he is in. 1 He has the perfect physical charac teristics for this role; debonair smile, “apple-pie” innocence in the eyes — where in actual ity he is as ruthless and brutal as some of the criminals he arrests. Lioua handles his two-faced char acter with ease,one minute beating up on an innocent bystander, and the next minute talking to a group of schoolchildren about being “a friend.” Good stuff here, so check it out. It may seem too real.