Hello again. After a nice quiet January, this has been a slightly busier month for me, as I paid a visit to Kew Gardens to see their Orchid Festival, and I went to the cinema with a couple of friends. The latter in turn led to me watching a few more animated films at home, which has been a bit of a theme recently given my previous reviews of Wallace & Gromit and other Aardman productions, although this time they’re Disney films. So there are a few bits and pieces to mention in this month’s post and video, none of which is sponsored or gifted as usual, and I hope you enjoy!
Contents
Kew Gardens
I returned to Kew Gardens this month – following on from the sensory tour I had last year – to check out their Orchid Festival for the first time, which is a popular annual event that takes place in their Princess Of Wales Conservatory. Each year they focus on a different country, and this time they’ve shone the spotlight on Peru (which coincidentally is also the setting for the new Paddington film that I haven’t seen yet, but I’ll get around to it at some point).
The orchids are spread throughout the different environments in the conservatory, giving bursts of colour here and there amongst the greenery, sometimes in pretty arrangements with models of animals from the region like alpacas and flamingos. There are also information boards that put things into context and some nice artworks to look at, all while you hear a soundtrack of Peruvian music.
I wasn’t able to read everything of course, and a tour would have been better to get more information about what I was seeing. But it was still very nice to look at everything, and I did take photos of some of the boards to peruse later, as I often do for information panels in places like museums.
I also had a wander around some more of the gardens that afternoon, in particular having a look at the Hive installation and their big lake, which made for a nice walk in the fresh air. And there’s still a lot more of the gardens I can see on future visits of course.
Since originally publishing this post I’ve also uploaded some video clips to my Youtube channel if you want to check them out:
Films
The Lion King & Aladdin
The first film I saw at the cinema this month, with my mate Simon and his wife, was Mufasa: The Lion King, which was released just before Christmas. It’s a prequel to the 2019 movie The Lion King, which itself is a photorealistic remake of the 1994 cartoon classic that I loved in my childhood.
So having never seen the remake before, and as I don’t think I’ve watched the original since my childhood, I decided to watch both versions at home on Disney+ in advance of the prequel, to reacquaint myself with the story and compare them. Well, I say compare, but there’s really no contest as to which one is superior (the original, obviously).
I re-activated my Disney+ subscription for a month in order to do that, so to make the most of it I also watched the two direct-to-video sequels that I’d never seen before. And then I did the same for Aladdin, another of my favourite films from my youth, because I’d never seen one of the animated sequels or the live action remake of that either.
And as a result of all that, I decided to buy the original Lion King and Aladdin films with their animated sequels for my Blu-ray and DVD collection. The sequels are inferior to the originals of course, but are still entertaining enough. I’m not interested in owning the live action remakes as well, but it was good to check them out once for the sake of curiosity.
So it was a great bit of nostalgia to look at those movies again, as they’ve got fun stories, great songs and enjoyable humour. You can read my thoughts on them along with details of the extra features in my Lion King and Aladdin reviews post.
Ratatouille
While we’re on the subject of Disney films, my friend and colleague Emily from Fashioneyesta recommended Ratatouille to me, as she’s a huge fan of it and reviewed an immersive dining experience relating to it this month (which I didn’t go to). So while I had my Disney+ account open, I figured I may as well check that out too, and it is pretty good.
it tells the story of a rat called Remy (Patton Oswalt), who’s a real connoisseur when it comes to food, unlike his garbage-eating family, despite his attempts to get them to try new things. But after he gets separated from his colony, he ends up in a fancy restaurant in Paris, where he helps Alfredo Linguini (Lou Romano), an awkward and incompetent new employee, to make a soup that really impresses the customers.
As a result, the two of them become friends, and develop a clever system to get around the cross-species communication barrier, so that Remy can put his culinary knowledge to good use, by enabling Alfredo to cook some amazing dishes. But this all has to be done without anybody else finding out, especially the angry head chef Skinner (Ian Holm), who hates rats as well as despising the boy. So there are challenges along the way, especially when a revelation leads to Alfredo being put to the test by the sternest food critic of them all, Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole).
It’s a fun story that flows at a good pace, with lots of humour and some sweet moments too. And the animation by Pixar is first rate as usual, with impressive set pieces including the discovery of Remy and his family by a shotgun-wielding homeowner, Remy’s exploration of the restaurant kitchen, a chase across the city, and the big cooking finale.
Disney+ also has a few extras as well, with 4 deleted scenes, interviews with chef Thomas Keller and screenwriter / director Brad Bird, and a short feature about the virtual camerawork in the movie. But there’s plenty more on the Blu-ray of course – which I’m not planning to buy, as I don’t feel the urge to own the film, but I did enjoy giving it a watch for the first time.
That’s probably the last animated film I’ll watch for a while now, as I’ve seen all the ones I wanted to check out for the time being, and I have other stuff I want to concentrate on. But it’s been fun to delve into the genre a little bit recently.
A Complete Unknown
Moving away from animation and back to the cinema, and the other film I saw on the big screen this month was A Complete Unknown with my friend Claire, about Bob Dylan’s rise to fame. The title of course comes from his big hit Like A Rolling Stone, and indeed his story was completely unknown to me beforehand, which made it all the more interesting.
Whether you’re a fan of his or not, there’s no denying that Bob Dylan is an exceptionally talented musician whose work has stood the test of time and has influenced many other artists. And I say that as someone who isn’t hugely into his music personally. I have a greatest hits compilation with all the obvious classics on it, but I’ve never felt tempted to look far beyond that, as his singing style doesn’t appeal to me hugely and I’m not a big fan of folk music. There’s nothing wrong with any of it, there are just other styles I like a lot more. So while I’ve heard it said that he’s a polarising figure that people love or hate, I’d place myself more towards the middle, in that I’m not a big fan but I still have a lot of respect for him.
This movie hasn’t changed my opinions in that regard, but I still enjoyed it, because it offers a great insight into someone who is such a massive figure in the music world, who had to put in a lot of effort to get himself spotted by the right people. It’s a totally different era from people getting noticed on social media and talent shows today, that’s for sure!
I don’t know how accurately it reflects his real life story, because I’m not familiar with it, and biographical films have to change things to keep the action interesting and dramatic anyway. But part of the reason we went to see it was that his fans have been heaping praise on the movie online, whereas if it were doing him a major disservice you know they’d be up in arms. So while I’m not treating it as a documentary, I’m assuming it’s at least reasonably faithful.
Certainly the guy who plays Bob Dylan, Timothée Chalamet, is very good indeed, as his voice is spot on and he performs the songs brilliantly. I didn’t know a lot of the tracks that were featured, by Bob and others, but there were naturally some very familiar ones in there, a few of which had me tapping along to them.
We also get a close insight into Bob’s personality of course, and in that respect he doesn’t come out of the film entirely in a good light. He does get rather selfish as time goes on, adamant that he wants to do his own thing rather than catering to what his fans and even his girlfriend would like from him. I had no idea there had been so much controversy over his switch to electric instruments, so it was interesting to see that unfold. I do get it though, because when you’re so used to your favourite artist performing in a certain way, it can be very jarring when they try something different. For instance, I’m a big fan of Queen, and their attempt at a more funky pop sound with the Hot Space album didn’t go down well with a lot of fans, even though it does have some very good songs on it. And I do like some of Bob Dylan’s electric stuff that’s performed in the film.
The portrayals of other music artists from the time are also very good, including Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook), who I didn’t know he had special connections with. Bob’s girlfriend, meanwhile, is played really well by Elle Fanning – she’s called Sylvie Russo in the film, as Bob had asked the production team not to use the real identity of Suze Rotolo, although apparently it’s still an accurate representation of her anyway and you do feel sorry for her as Bob rather pushes her aside. The rest of the cast are great too, as are the settings in which we see them, as you really do feel like you’ve been transported back to that time.
So all in all I’m glad I saw it. I wasn’t sure how interesting it was going to be, but with its authentic portrayals, atmospheric settings and good choices of music it all holds together nicely, and I learnt a lot from it. So if you’re not a Bob Dylan fan but still appreciate the 60s music scene, like me, then it’s well worth checking out, it is quite enlightening.
TV
Torchwood
This month I’ve started revisiting Torchwood, the adult spin-off from Doctor Who led by John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness. It’s very enjoyable, with a good variety of stories, interesting character arcs, plenty of action and special effects, amusing moments too, and a brilliant soundtrack.
I’ve just posted my in-depth review of Series 1, which is a pretty good first series on the whole, and I’ve included information about the Blu-ray extras and the soundtrack album. So do go and check that out if you’re interested, and look out for my reviews of Series 2-4 coming soon. I want to try and get through them all before Doctor Who returns for Season 2 in April if I can, but that’s quite a tight deadline so we’ll see how it goes. If I don’t quite finish it by then, I’ll just keep going until I do!
Modern Life Is Goodish
I’m delighted that Dave Gorman’s Modern Life Is Goodish has returned after just over 7 years off the air for three new specials on Dave (or U&Dave as it’s now pointlessly been rebranded, but nobody calls it that). Four specials were filmed in fact, but one was largely about Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace, so they had to drop it given all the allegations of inappropriate behaviour that came out, which he denies. But the three we’re left with are brilliant. At the time of writing, just one episode has aired so far, with the other 2 coming over the next couple of weeks. But the full trilogy (alongside all the previous series) has been posted in one go on U’s catch-up service, so I’ve watched them all there already.
Each episode consists of a meticulously crafted stand-up routine by Dave Gorman, looking at a variety of things that have grabbed his attention in person or online, illustrated by PowerPoint slides that include imagery and video clips. These include the fake search engines used in TV dramas, Google’s rules on the use of its name, shops inside other shops, meeting pods in car parks, a particular way of introducing special guests (with a great appearance by another of my favourite entertainers), why the alphabet is in the wrong order, his nemesis in the world of cryptic crosswords, the impact of AI, moving out of London, different interpretations and misuses of the term “celebrity”, and the TV show Cash In The Attic.
On top of that, as is traditional, each of the new episodes also includes a “Found Poem”, much to the audience’s delight given the huge cheer that goes up when he gets to that point. To create these poems, he finds stories that have sparked a lot of entertaining discussion online – in this case about star signs, sewage in the sea and the reaction to Joey Essex going on Love Island – and pulls together some of the more ridiculous comments that have been left underneath articles about them, in what he calls the “bottom half of the internet”. He then recites each poem in a serious fashion, accompanied by the Billroth String Quartet playing Sarabande by Handel, which makes it all the more hilarious given the nonsense he’s reading. Even he struggles not to laugh sometimes. And while we’re talking about music, I love the theme tune to the show, which is Pirouette by Stickboy.
All in all, therefore, it’s very clever observational comedy and amusing rants about all sorts of things, without anything political or offensive involved. And it’s arranged into a brilliant set that always has a great payoff at the end, by bringing all the little strands together. It’s a lot of work for him to produce each presentation, hence he stopped making the series for a while and has only done a small number of episodes this time, but his return has been well worth the wait.
So I’ve really enjoyed the latest episodes, and I hope he makes more in the future, even if they’re just occasional specials. They’re always a lot of fun.
Other Shows
There isn’t much else to mention on TV, as I’ve just continued watching my usual favourites really. I’m still enjoying The Last Leg for instance, and Josh Widdicombe from that programme also took part in the Midnight Gameshow on Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, where he was confronted with lots of wonderful 90s nostalgia including Mr Blobby, the cheerleaders from Fun House, bass guitarist Alex James from Blur, and footballer Peter Shilton, as well as some of the new stars of Gladiators, which I’m also loving. The new Remember Me segment on Michael’s show is also proving to be fun, with Miranda Hart and Holly Willoughby in particular both being very amusing, and Holly’s game had a very emotional conclusion.
It was also great to see blind comedian Chris McCausland make another appearance on Would I Lie To You?, along with many other people, it’s still a very funny series. And we’ve had the last in the current V series of QI, but they’re currently filming Series W, so we’ve got that to look forward to in the future.
Conclusion
And that’s it, I hope you enjoyed that. Being the shortest month of the year, and still fairly cold outside a lot of the time, there wasn’t a huge amount to cover altogether, but I’m glad I got out and about a bit. March is looking very interesting though, as I’ve got a couple of shows and a few social events in the calendar already. So I look forward to sharing some of that with you soon, and I hope you have a good month too!
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