There are two interesting stories today related to the new Disney movie Earth, and since I’ve seen the little kid-friendly doc and disagree with both sides of the backlash, I’m going to address the stories in today’s bloggery despite the fact that only a few film blogs have commented on this topic. First off, there’s the complaint from Newsweek’s Jesse Ellison who thinks the film is too violent to be rated G, to which I call b.s. If anything, the movie cops out too much when it comes to the food-chain kills that every kid is aware of. Bambi is more violent than Earth, and I do honestly believe Ellison made up, or at least exaggerated, his observation of a little girl jumping into her father’s lap. There were kids at the press screening I attended too, but they were so visibly bored with the tameness of the movie that they were literally running up and down the aisle of the Disney screening room.

As for the other story, apparently all of the footage in Earth is recycled from BBC’s Planet Earth series and basically only the James Earl Jones narration is fresh. Well, sure, maybe this is true, and maybe it’s a bit of a scam, but if so it’s at least a decent abridged and censored version with which to introduce kids to that series (since I’ve only seen bits of the series, I guess it was an introduction for me, as well).

So, I guess your decision to see the movie now rests on three things: you’re okay with a little implicit nature violence, you’re okay with an excellent nature series being retooled for your kids and shown on the big screen (where Planet Earth was not made available), and you want Disneynature to plant a tree in your honor, as promised by the studio’s genius promotion.

After the jump, some responses from the blogs, plus some bonus bloggery related to Earth Day:

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On Friday, singer Levi Stubbs passed away at the age of 72 following a long battle with cancer. Best known as the lead singer of The Four Tops, Stubbs also provided the voice for “Audrey II” in both the stage musical and the film musical versions of Little Shop of Horrors. Though his only film role as a voice actor (he could also be heard in the Saturday morning cartoon Captain N: The Game Master), it was plenty. His performance as the carnivorous plant put him in the ranks with Douglas Rain (”HAL-9000″), Anthony Daniels (”C-3PO”) and James Earl Jones (”Darth Vader”) as far as iconic vocal parts in live action movies go. Unfortunately, due to a lack of lasting enthusiasm for Horrors, Stubbs is not quite as celebrated as the others. But could you possibly imagine or accept any other voice begging for Seymour to “feeeeeeed” him? Just thinking of the idea reminds me of the clip of Darth Vader actor David Prowse speaking the lines before Jones’ voice was overdubbed.

As a kid, much of my delight with Little Shop of Horrors was with Stubbs’ voice, which I loved to try and imitate. In particular, it was this Oscar-nominated song, “Mean Green Mother from Outer Space,” written for the film and not originally in the stage musical, which was the most fun to sing along to, because of the racy (to a nine year old) lyric, “I’m gonna bust your balls!” And, of course, I always enjoyed the lead-in line, which I would often attempt in my best prepubescent baritone, “noooooo shit, Sherlock!” Stubbs performed the song live at the 59th Academy Awards, but I don’t recall how censored the lyrics were, and unfortunately only the performance of the winning song (”Take My Breath Away” from Top Gun) appears to be available online.

On October 28 the world will plunge into an irradiated nightmare, littered with the wreckage of civilization, overrun by savage super mutants. Or, my world will be, anyway. Next month is when the hotly anticipated new video game Fallout 3 will be released. It’s been over a decade since the first Fallout, a now classic post-apocalyptic role-playing game. How has the franchise maintained such a devoted fan base? Simple: great story, great characters, great setting, and killer cinematics.

The games have always been deeply indebted to post-apocalyptic cinema. The opening sequence of the first game is almost identical to the one in The Road Warrior, and the similarities don’t end there. As the Max Payne movie is (hopefully) about to prove, there is an elegant solution to the problem of video game movies sucking: make movies about games that are already steeped in cinematic influence. In other words, a Fallout movie would kick serious ass. It would have a similar feel to classics like The Road Warrior, but Fallout has its own brand of dark humor and retro-futurism.

After the jump, I take a crack at assembling a dream cast for such a film. I’m going to stick to characters from the first game, where it all began. Chime in with your own picks in the comments.

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I wasn’t surprised to enjoy Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, which I saw (and paid for) over the weekend. Even if I haven’t really been a fan of Martin Lawrence since his sitcom went off the air, I could tell the movie would be a stupid good time. I’m a not-at-all-secret fan of Mo’Nique (I was really disappointed that Phat Girlz was so tame), and I’ll watch James Earl Jones anytime, especially as a father figure (from Darth Vader to King Jaffe Joffer to Papa Jenkins). I was, however, surprised to like it as much as I did. And apparently I wasn’t the only film writer to think so.

For the New York Times, Matt Zoller Seitz wrote, “it’s a cut above other films of its type.” Jonathan Rosenbaum didn’t quite recommend the movie, but did call it, “a little better than formulaic,” while Slant’s Nick Schager said, “it’s not half bad,” Entertainment Weekly’s Clark Collis called it, “a decent enough way to spend two hours,” and Newsday’s Gene Seymour said it, “grows on you.” Meanwhile Kyle Smith of the New York Post took the words out of my mouth laptop by calling the movie a sure sign of the apocalypse due its being a Martin Lawrence movie he enjoyed. OK, so they aren’t tremendous raves, but considering the movie’s low, 31% critical rating on RottenTomatoes.com, I have to give these guys credit for not simply brushing this one off. …Read more

With the New Hampshire primary upon us, and in response to the results of last week’s Iowa Caucus, I’ve been thinking about the possible influence of pop culture on Democratic voters. Is it possible that Obama performed better than Clinton because 24 is a more popular TV show than was the short-lived Commander in Chief? The former has so far featured two African American Presidents, played by Dennis Haysbert and D.B. Woodside, while the latter was about a female President, portrayed by Geena Davis. The next season of 24, which is set to premiere once the WGA strike is finished, will actually feature a female President, played by Cherry Jones, but it may be too late. Americans could already be set on nominating a black man, because they’re more familiar with seeing such a President on both the big and small screen.

And what a crop of African American actors we’ve seen as the leader of the United States: Morgan Freeman (Deep Impact); James Earl Jones (1972’s The Man); Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister (The Fifth Element); Chris Rock (Head of State); Terry Crews (not so well known, but extra points for playing a porn star-President in Idiocracy); and of course Haysbert and Woodside. Now, let’s see who we’ve got for white female Presidents: Polly Bergen (1964’s Kisses for My President); Lisa Simpson (in a flash-forward episode of The Simpsons); Dulcie Smart (a TV movie called Post Impact); Ernestine Barrier (1953’s Project Moon Base) and of course Davis. Which group has more star power? Exactly. Even Robert Zemeckis chose to exclude the female President featured in Carl Sagan’s novel Contact when the director made his film version. Anyway, Clinton at least has a better chance than an African American woman. The only black female Presidents I can find in TV and film include one played by Melanie Henderson on an episode of The Electric Company and reference to one in a deleted scene from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, which features the woman as an added fifth face on Mount Rushmore.