Now that Halloween is over and the Christmas decorations are starting to get set up, it’s time for me to look back on this double feature to see what I’ve learned and whether my goal was accomplished. If you remember from my double feature’s introduction, my goal was to answer the following question:
When one watches a film purely as a film, not as an adaptation, can that film contain its own merit and entertainment value?
As I reflect on The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire and Queen of the Damned, I can honestly say that I did get my question answered. Even though I have never read any of the source material associated with these films, I ended up liking both movies. What I noticed is these films received a score in the 7 out of 10 range: The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire got a 7.6 and Queen of the Damned got a 7. This is really interesting because I hadn’t expected to score these films within the same range. While both films did have their flaws, they did have a good amount of merit while also being entertaining. I was really impressed by the creativity I saw in both films. It was so memorable that it stayed in my memory long after I saw these movies. Now that the mystery behind this question is solved (see what I did there? I think Sherlock Holmes would be proud), I’ll wrap up this post with one final thought and a lesson learned from each film.
The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire
Lesson learned: What I can take away from this film is the many different elements that can be featured in a Christmas movie. I know this double feature is Halloween themed, but The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire, surprisingly, took place during Christmas-time. I learned that Christmas, especially when depicted in a Hallmark movie, can look and feel different to the voice of that particular story.
One final thought: As glad as I am that Hallmark puts a good amount of emphasis on their Christmas movies, I would really like to see both networks make more creatively interesting choices and think outside-the-box more when it comes to their movies. When I heard the synopsis for Hallmark’s 2018 Christmas movies, most of them sounded the same to me. There were very few movies within this year’s line-up that seemed creative or unique from the others.
Queen of the Damned
Lesson learned: What’s so great about the movie blogging community is being given the opportunity to help people find movies that may bring them joy or movies that they may want to avoid. However, when I watched Queen of the Damned, I realized that it’s important to give yourself a chance to form your own opinions when it comes to movies. If it hadn’t have been for the positive responses I heard about this film, I probably wouldn’t have seen this movie. But I’m glad I did because now I can have an honest opinion about it.
One final thought: In my review for Queen of the Damned, I mentioned that I thought the acting was really good. This is especially the case for Stuart Townsend’s and Marguerite Moreau’s performances. Because of this movie, I would like to see Stuart and Marguerite star in a Hallmark Hall of Fame (HHoF) movie together. I don’t know if there’s anything preventing them from working on a Hallmark project or if they’ve gotten along well enough where they would want to work together again, but I would be interested in seeing if they have what it takes, talent-wise, to help carry a project like a HHoF movie. Since the Hallmark Hall of Fame branch moved to the Hallmark Channel in 2014, the network has made a conscious effort to try to cast at least one actor who’s a HHoF alumni and one actor who’s never appeared in a HHoF movie into their films (a good example of this is The Beach House). Since Marguerite starred in The Locket, a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie from 2002, and since Stuart, as far as I know, has never appeared in a Hallmark affiliated project, this would be a good balance for Hallmark; of recruiting new talent and welcoming back familiar faces.
Queen of the Damned poster created by Warner Bros. Pictures. Image found at https://www.warnerbros.com/queen-damned
In your introduction for this double feature, you mentioned that both Queen of the Damned and The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire were released in 2002. Can you think of anything from around that time period that could have influenced the creation of this film?
I think there are three things that influenced the creation of Queen of the Damned. The first is the character of Malcolm from Jurassic Park. As I mentioned in my Jurassic Park review, Malcolm is a rock-star-esque mathematician. However, Malcolm appeared to be a likable character. In Queen of the Damned, Lestat was a rock-star-esque vampire. Despite these characteristics, Lestat, for the most part, comes across as a likable character. The second thing is the 1998 film, Blade. I’ve never seen this movie, but I know that it’s a darker and more violent comic book film that, to a certain extent, discusses the subject of vampires. Because this film was successful enough to receive a sequel (that was, ironically, released exactly a month after Queen of the Damned), I’m speculating that Blade inspired the creative team behind Queen of the Damned to make their movie darker and more violent than their predecessor, Interview with the Vampire. The third and final thing is, interestingly, Interview with the Vampire. I’ve never seen this film either, but based on this film’s trailer, it appears to be a gothic film in the old-school sense. Queen of the Damned focuses on the new-school/modern gothic style, which is very different from the first film. Most movie series try to do something different with each new film, so I think this film’s approach was rather creative.
2. Were you able to follow along with the story and understand what was going on in the film despite not having read the source material?
For the most part, yes. I did some research about this film before I saw it, so I was aware of certain aspects of the film that some casual movie-viewers might not understand. For instance, in the film’s climax, there are various characters that are introduced. One of these characters is Pandora. If I didn’t know that she is a character from a spin-off book series that Anne Rice wrote, I would have no idea who Pandora was in this film.
3. Were your pre-movie questions answered?
Well, two out of my three pre-movie questions were answered. The only question that wasn’t answered was how Lestat survived being burned in the previous film. Honestly, I wasn’t as bothered by this as I thought I would be. Because this movie focused more on Lestat’s present and origin story, re-capping the first film would have felt like Queen of the Damned had too much content.
As for the two questions that did get answered, the reason why Lestat appeared like he was trying to pursue a romantic relationship with Akasha is because, in the movie, Akasha kidnapped Lestat and forced him to in be in relationship with her. Speaking of Akasha, she did reveal that the reason why she loved Lestat was because he reminded her of her deceased husband. As for Jesse, it appeared, in the movie, like she truly loved Lestat. Because she’s a vampire scholar, Jesse wasn’t as fazed by the vampire aspects of Lestat’s world. Also, because her aunt is a vampire, it seemed like Jesse truly appreciated the subject of vampires and the world surrounding them.
4. Were you right or wrong in your pre-movie prediction?
I guess I was kind of right in my pre-movie prediction {shrugs with a confused look on my face}. While Lestat was forced into a relationship with Akasha and Jesse wasn’t aware of this until the climax of the film, there is a moment during the film’s climax where Lestat pretends to drink more of Akasha’s blood then he should have. This allowed the other vampires present in that scene to defeat Akasha.
5. In this double feature’s introduction, when you talked about your reason for choosing to review Queen of the Damned, you said that the movie clips featured in the MsMojo video, ‘Top 10 Movies Based on Books That Need a Do-Over’, appeared bonkers to you. Was this movie bonkers or do you think these movie clips were taken out of context?
I definitely think these movie clips were taken out of context. To me, Queen of the Damned was not as bonkers as the clips within this video made it seem. The only thing I found bonkers in this movie was Lestat and Akasha’s “relationship” because of how problematic it was.
6. In a post from The Blog Complainer titled “How To Make A Good Movie Sequel”, there were several steps listed as if the article were a how-to for making sequels that are good. When a sequel successfully followed these steps, it means they passed the “Good Movie Sequel School for Dummies”. Because Queen of the Damned is a sequel, do you think it passed this school?
Well, yes and no. On the one hand, Queen of the Damned is based on two books from The Vampire Chronicles series. On the other hand, some stories were explored more than others because of this choice. Also, there were no references to Interview with the Vampire besides Lestat being a protagonist in the sequel. Lestat also had different characteristics than he did in the first movie, such as being less self-centered. However, the creative team behind this movie tried to do something different from the first movie. Lestat’s backstory was further explored and there were new characters that were introduced. If Queen of the Damned were enrolled in the “Good Movie Sequel School for Dummies”, it would probably receive a grade of somewhere between a B to C+.
7. Did you acquire any new thoughts and/or questions while watching this film?
Yes, lots! Because this post is already long, I will only list a few of these questions and thoughts.
What is Lestat’s net worth?
Why is there a small amount of security at Lestat’s concert? Since his band was aware of Lestat encouraging other vampires to show up at his concert to try and hurt him, wouldn’t they want to have more security at the concert?
Why would Jesse and Lestat return Lestat’s journal to David? It’s Lestat’s journal, so why wouldn’t he want to keep it?
How did Akasha know about Marius and Lestat’s conversation about Lestat needing a companion? Shortly after she kidnaps Lestat, Akasha tells him that she wants to grant his wish of a companion. However, Akasha was not a part of that conversation nor did anyone tell her about that conversation.
As I’ve already mentioned, I think that Lestat and Akasha’s “relationship” was problematic. The reason why I put the word relationship in quotations is because Lestat and Akasha were not together for a long period of time and their relationship didn’t develop over a significant amount of time. The way I would describe this “relationship” is with an analogy: the “relationship” is a car and Akasha is driving it. All Lestat is able to do sit in the passenger seat and take orders from Akasha. Honestly, I think this “relationship” is one of the most problematic relationships I’ve ever seen in a movie.
I really liked the sets and scenery in this film! For the most part, it made the environments in the movie feel inviting and appealing. I also thought the acting was really good! Everyone portrayed their characters so well and all of the performances were memorable. Something that I didn’t like in this film was most of the music. While I liked the violin music and the music that played during Akasha’s demise, I was not a fan of the goth rock music. When Lestat sang at his concert, he sounded unnecessarily angry. I would rather hear him play the violin than sing.
8. In Queen of the Damned, did anything stand out to you, whether for better or worse?
I liked the techniques in story-telling that were used in Queen of the Damned. There were several times when voice-overs from Jesse and Lestat were included to show the film’s story from their specific point-of-view. I think these voice-overs added depth to the story that we wouldn’t have gotten if they weren’t there. Most movies have one main plot and a few subplots. Queen of the Damned was told through several subplots that were all connected to Lestat in some way. I thought this was a very interesting approach to cinematic storytelling that I haven’t really seen before.
To me, the biggest flaw of Queen of the Damned is the run-time. This movie combines elements from two novels into one movie. However, the movie itself is one hour and forty-one minutes. Since the creative team knew they were going to incorporate so many story elements into their film, I think this movie either should have been a two-part over-arcing story (like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) or the run-time should have been longer. Because of this, some plots were explored more than others. For example, Lestat’s relationship with Akasha and Jesse seemed to move at a very quick pace, not giving these relationships enough time to develop and grow. I believe that any of my aforementioned solutions could have solved this issue.
9. According to the BMeTric charts in the Queen of the Damned Preview from Bad Movie Twins, it appears that interest in this film is rising. Why do you think that is?
Well, I think there’s two reasons for that. The first is negative reviews that the film has received. After hearing these reviews and seeing the 17% it has on Rotten Tomatoes, some people might choose to watch this movie out of curiosity, like I did. The second reason is Aaliyah’s involvement in the film. Some people might choose to watch this film as a way to respect her memory. Others may choose to watch this film because they want to learn more about who she was as a person and entertainer.
10. After watching Queen of the Damned, what is the one thing you can take away from this movie viewing experience?
While I think Queen of the Damned could have been a stronger film, I don’t think it’s as bad as some people have made it out to be. To me, this film is decent and I do think it has its merits. After watching this film, I started to notice a very sad pattern. I’ve only seen six vampire movies in my life, including Queen of the Damned. Out of those six, most of them feature at least one problematic relationship that is meant to be romantic. I can’t say if this is a norm in vampires movies or if this is just a pattern in the vampire movies I’ve seen. However, I was happy to see Lestat and Jesse pursue a romantic relationship with each other because, to me, they seemed like they truly loved and cared about each other. Their relationship also appeared to be a healthy one, where Lestat and Jesse loved one another for who they were and appreciated each other’s worlds.
A DVD of The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire. Screenshot taken by me, Sally Silverscreen.
In your introduction for this double feature, you mentioned that both Queen of the Damned and The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire were released in 2002. Can you think of anything from around that time period that could have influenced the creation of this film?
When Hallmark Channel began in 2001, the network didn’t have a strong identity like they do today. Because The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire was released the year after Hallmark Channel’s start, the creative team behind this film seemed to have more creative freedom on this project than they would have if it were made in recent years. With this creative freedom, the film was able to explore themes that are normally not found in Hallmark movies, such as various belief systems and raising awareness for endangered species.
2. Were you able to follow along with the story and understand what was going on in the film despite not having read the source material?
Absolutely! The thing about The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire is it’s written in a way that made me feel like prior knowledge of the source material wasn’t necessary to enjoy this film. From what I know about the Sherlock Holmes character and series, the stories seem pretty straight-forward. The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire was, for the most part, isolated from the other movies in this particular series. This makes it a good movie to introduce someone to Sherlock Holmes, as the film doesn’t make you feel like you have to watch them in a certain order.
3. Was your pre-movie thought addressed?
Because there were no legitimate vampires in this movie, my pre-movie thought was not addressed. The closest thing to vampires in The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire were vampire bats.
4. Were you right or wrong in your pre-movie prediction?
I was so wrong in my pre-movie prediction {face palms embarrassedly}. As I mentioned in answer #3, there were no vampires in this movie.
5. Within your pre-movie thought for The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire, you talked about how a film’s title can act as a promise to a film’s audience. Do you think the title of this movie was deceiving or honest?
It’s actually a little bit of both. On the one hand, most of the characters truly believed there was a vampire on the loose. On the other hand, as I’ve been saying, there were no vampires in The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire. If anything, this film’s title bent the truth.
6. Because The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire was released before the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel (formerly known as Hallmark Movie Channel) began, do you think there was anything within this film that could have influenced future films from Hallmark Movies & Mysteries?
I believe The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire was one of the movies that helped create the foundation that today’s Hallmark Movies & Mysteries films use in their stories. The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire is a murder mystery, which is the same type of mystery story that a lot of Hallmark Movies & Mysteries films choose to adopt. In terms of specifics, Watson and Holmes use autopsy reports to solve their respective mystery. This reminded me of how Jennifer Shannon, in the Garage Sale Mystery series, relies on Tramell’s autopsy reports to help her solve the case. What surprised me the most was that The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire takes place during the Christmas season. The only Hallmark Movies & Mysteries film that is set during Christmas is Murder She Baked: A Plum Pudding Mystery. I’m hoping Hallmark can have more of their mystery movies take place during Christmas, so that fans of the mystery series can solve mysteries year-round.
7. Did you acquire any new thoughts and/or questions while watching this film?
Yes I did! Here are a few of them:
As I mentioned in answer #1, the theme of various belief systems was explored. In The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire, every character believed in something. For instance, Sherlock Holmes believed in logic. It was interesting to see how these different belief systems correlated with each other to propel the story forward and help the characters solve the case. An example of this is how Holmes’ belief in logic and Dr. Chagas’ belief in knowledge and awareness of vampire bats were used together to not only prove Dr. Chagas’ innocence, but also to find the culprit.
As I also mentioned in answer #6, The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire took place during the Christmas season. While the Christmas theme, in this movie, did not have anywhere near as strong of a presence as in Hallmark’s Christmas movies today, I found this choice to be very interesting. When one thinks of what could be found in Christmas movies, the subject of vampires doesn’t normally come to mind. This shows that the concept of vampires can be incorporated into almost any type of movie in almost any time of year. This also shows how Hallmark thought outside-the-box when it comes to their Christmas movies.
There are very few Hallmark movies that feature characters with disabilities. Even fewer Hallmark movies feature protagonists or significant secondary characters who not only have a disability, but who also contribute to the film’s plot. In The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire, Sister Helen, one of the sisters who lived and worked at the church, is blind. However, she didn’t let her disability stop her from helping Sherlock Holmes find the guilty individual and continuing to carry out her congregation’s mission of sharing their faith with the community.
8. In The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire, did anything stand out to you, whether for better or worse?
For the better, I really think the camaraderie between Holmes and Watson was a highlight of this film. Matt Frewer’s and Kenneth Welsh’s performance was very natural and convincing, making their characters appear like they truly got along with each other. As I was watching this movie, I realized that this camaraderie is the foundation for all of Holmes’ interactions and relationships. If it was not for the believability of the camaraderie between Watson and Holmes, the other times where Holmes interacts with various characters would probably not feel believable either.
Now, for the worse, something that I felt was missing from this movie was humor. I’ve mentioned before on my blog that Hallmark incorporates humor into their mystery stories to give their audience a break from the darkness and sadness of the murder mystery. Since, in this movie, there were seldom moments of light-heartedness or humor, the audience isn’t able to take a break from the darkness of the murder mystery and the spookiness of the vampire theme. I don’t know if there is humor within Sherlock Holmes stories, but I’m pretty sure Hallmark could have added some light-hearted moments that would have be more in line with the tone and time period of a particular story like this.
9. When people talk about their favorite Hallmark movies or Hallmark movies that they like, no one mentions The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire. Why do you think the majority of Hallmark’s audience isn’t aware of this movie’s existence?
This movie is not available on Hallmark Movies Now and, as far as I know, it has never appeared on any of Hallmark’s networks. Because of this, Hallmark hasn’t given their audience an opportunity to see this film.
10. After watching The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire, what is the one thing you can take away from this movie viewing experience?
Well, for one thing, The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire is a different film from what is usually found on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. This is because the movie is dialogue heavy, with few moments of suspense and action. However, I do this is a good movie. As I mentioned within this review, I think this movie is a good introduction to Sherlock Holmes. I also think this is a good introduction to mystery stories from Hallmark. In a time when Hallmark Movies & Mysteries is thriving with their mystery series, I believe it’s important for Hallmark fans to be given the chance to watch the films that helped these stories be what they are today. After I watched The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire, I gained an appreciation not only for Hallmark’s mystery movies, but also for the foundation that was set in place so these movies could be as entertaining and intriguing as possible.
On October 12th, when I published my review of Without a Trace, receiving 35 followers was not the only achievement that I accomplished. That review became my 100th post on 18 Cinema Lane! Because this post came just weeks before Halloween, I decided to celebrate this accomplishment by coordinating a double feature in honor of the holiday! If you read my post about my Top 5 Dream Double Features at the Cinema, you might already know which two movies I would choose to review around this time of year. But, I’m still going to share with you what movies I picked, why I picked them, and I’ll elaborate on how I’ll set up both reviews.
It all started when I came across the MsMojo video, ‘Top 10 Movies Based on Books That Need a Do-Over’. During this video, the announcer talked about the film, Queen of the Damned, with clips from the movie being shown while the announcer explained the film’s placement on the list. When I first watched this segment of the video, all I could do was ask myself, “What the heck did I just watch”? because of the video’s assortment of movie clips appearing bonkers to me. Since curiosity got the best of me, I researched this movie to see if it was truly as bad as the announcer made it seem in the video. While on the internet, I looked up about 20 bad/worst/disappointing movies and/or sequels lists to see where Queen of the Damned placed. To my surprise, Queen of the Damned only appeared on four of these 20 lists. Out of those four, Queen of the Damned never placed in any of the top spots. For example, on a list of the Top 10 Most Disappointing Movies of All Time, Queen of the Damned was listed at number 38. I even looked at a list of Golden Raspberry/Razzie nominees and I discovered that Queen of the Damned was never nominated. With my curiosity still present, I looked through the comment section of the MsMojo video and at blogs on WordPress to see what other movie viewers thought about the film. Although it appeared that few people were talking about Queen of the Damned, most of the responses that I came across were genuinely positive. Even though there were also negative responses about the movie, most of them that I found were about Queen of the Damned not being a good book-to-film adaptation. All of these positive responses inspired me to ask the following question:
When one watches a film purely as a film, not as an adaptation, can that film contain its own merit and entertainment value?
This question is what I’ll be attempting to answer during this special double feature. Since this is a double feature, you’re probably wondering what movie will be paired with Queen of the Damned. I happened to find it while I was putting together my list of the Top 10 Worst Hallmark Movies of All Time. When I was creating that list back in June, I realized there were a lot of Hallmark movies that I have never seen. The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire was one of them. While learning more about this movie, I discovered this film and Queen of the Damned share some similarities between each other. Not only do both films discuss the subject the vampires to a certain extent, they were also released in 2002 and are both considered non-canonical representations of their literary source material. Now that I’ve gotten this lengthy, but necessary, explanation out of the way, I’ll now talk about how these double feature reviews will be set up. Instead of my usual format for writing movie reviews (Introduction, Things I liked about the film, What I didn’t like about the film, My overall impression, Overall score), I will answer a list of ten questions that I have created. These questions will help in my attempt of answering this question, as well as help me think about these films more critically. As I mentioned in my review of Christine, I don’t review rated R films often. However, because I feel that by talking about Queen of the Damned, I have an opportunity to add something new to this particular cinematic conversation, so this movie will be an exception.
Before I finish this post, I will list some pre-movie thoughts, questions, and predictions. Each movie will get its own section and I will reference everything I talked about before the movie in my reviews. My pre-movie thoughts, questions, and predictions are the following:
The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire
Pre-movie thought: My biggest hope is that in The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire, there’s at least one character who’s a legitimate vampire. When it comes to movie titles, there are times when a film’s title can act as a promise to a film’s audience. For instance, when Marvel decided to give Avengers: Infinity War that specific title, they promised their audience that the Avengers were going to show up in their film.
Pre-movie prediction: As Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson try to solve the mystery, they come across an actual vampire. Thinking that they’re the culprit, Holmes and Watson take the vampire in for questioning. While they question the vampire, they learn that the vampire is on the same mission as Sherlock and Watson: to figure out who is committing crimes in the neighborhood. Sherlock, Watson, and the vampire work together to solve the crime, while Sherlock and Watson gain more knowledge and appreciation for the vampire community.
Queen of the Damned
Pre-movie questions:
I’ve read that in the Interview with the Vampire film, Lestat gets burned alive by Louis. However, within the movie clips from the aforementioned MsMojo video and the Queen of the Damned trailer, it appears that Lestat not only survived this incident, but also doesn’t appear to have any physical evidence of ever having been burned. How exactly was this possible? I’m hoping that one of the characters in Queen of the Damned explains this possibility, even if it is a brief explanation.
2. One the biggest criticisms I’ve read about the Queen of the Damned film is that Lestat and Jesse choose to pursue a romantic relationship with each other, despite the fact that these characters never have any type of relationship in The Vampire Chronicles books. If Lestat and Jesse love each other enough to choose to pursue a romantic relationship with each other, then how come it appears, in the Queen of the Damned trailer, that Lestat is trying to pursue a romantic relationship with Akasha? This leads me to bring up my pre-movie prediction:
Pre-movie prediction: Lestat’s affection for Akasha is all an act. He is trying to distract Akasha so that the other vampires in that particular vampire world can create and execute a plan to defeat Akasha. This entire plan that I just mentioned was all Jesse’s idea. It would make sense because, from what I’ve heard, Jesse is a vampire expert, so she would know how to defeat a vampire.
Are Jesse and Akasha in love with Lestat or are they in love with the idea of being in a relationship with him? For instance, does Jesse see Lestat as a potential significant other or something to brag about?
Both of these reviews will appear on 18 Cinema Lane closer to Halloween, so stay tuned!
Have fun at the movies!
Sally Silverscreen
If you want to check out the references I mentioned in this post you can type in “Top 10 Movies Based on Books That Need a Do-Over” into Youtube’s search bar and visit this link:
Two months ago, Talk Film Society asked the following question on Twitter:
“If you could program your own double feature at a movie theater, what would it be”?
For weeks, I’ve been wanting to answer this question. However, I was waiting for the right opportunity to do so. This month, I reached the milestone of publishing 25 movie reviews (my review of The Dark Knight was the 25th)! To celebrate, I figured this would be the right time to finally answer Talk Film Society’s question. In the days and weeks leading up to this post, I put a good amount of thought into the potential double features I would choose to organize. I didn’t want any of the pairings to be painfully obvious (for example, having two movies be grouped together just because they have one obvious idea or concept in common). The double features that I would host would not only entertain the audience, but also engage and encourage them to think about what they’re watching. Five double feature pairings will be discussed in this post because I want to go into depth about why I would make a particular pairing. Now that explanations are finished, let the list finally begin!
The Road to El Dorado & Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Different, but quite similar. Screenshot taken by me, Sally Silverscreen.
1. The Road to El Dorado & Atlantis: The Lost Empire
For years, these films have been two of my favorite animated movies of all time! Also, in that time frame, Kida (from Atlantis: The Lost Empire) and Chel (from The Road to El Dorado) have become two of my favorite animated characters of all time! As time has gone on, I’ve noticed that Kida and Chel share some similarities between each other. I always wondered why these characters seemed so alike, especially since they were created by two different animators from two different animation companies. When I was thinking about what these characters have in common, I started to realize that their respective movies share similarities as well. These two movies being more alike than different is what this double feature would explore, whether these similarities were intentional or pure coincidence.
Matthew Rogers (a.k.a. The Wild Boy): The tragic literary character before there was Bucky Barnes. Screenshot taken by me, Sally Silverscreen.
2. The Wild Boy: Episode 1 and 2 & Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Ok, so I know this double feature contains a tv show episode, but trust me, this pairing makes sense. I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier for the first time two years ago. At the scene where it is explained how Bucky became the Winter Soldier, my exact thought was “this is “The Wild Boy” all over again”. What I meant by that statement was Bucky’s backstory shared several similarities with Matthew Rogers’ backstory. Matthew Rogers is not only my favorite character from Little House on the Prairie, but he’s also the titular character in both parts of the episode “The Wild Boy”. The similarities between Bucky’s and Matthew’s backstories and journeys would be discussed in this double feature. Another point of discussion would be how providing an explanation for some characters’ behavior and actions can be beneficial in cinematic story-telling.
The Dog of Flanders: Not well remembered, but definitely not forgotten. Screenshot taken by me, Sally Silverscreen.
3. The Dog of Flanders (1997) & Tales from Earthsea
Last year, I was introduced to Tales from Earthsea and it was one of the best movies I saw in 2017! When I saw the film, the animation style reminded me of the 1997 animated movie The Dog of Flanders. Since the late ‘90s, The Dog of Flanders has held a special place in the heart. What’s interesting is I have heard almost no one talk about the film. The Dog of Flanders seems to be so underrated, that it has never been placed on a list of underrated animated films. Tales from Earthsea also seems to be underrated, as few people have talked about this film. This double feature would take a look at the similarities between each film’s animation style, as well as celebrate both movies and help them receive the recognition they deserve.
Anastasia (1997): Familiar story, but creative execution. Screenshot taken by me, Sally Silverscreen.
4. Candleshoe & Anastasia (1997)
Anastasia, from 1997, is not only one of my favorite animated films, it is my favorite 20th Century Fox film! While thinking about Talk Film Society’s question, I tried to figure out what would be the perfect movie to pair with this masterpiece. After some thoughtful consideration, I ultimately decided I would pair Anastasia with the Disney movie, Candleshoe. Both of these films share a similar plot, where a female protagonist teams up with a con-artist to pose as a wealthy individual’s long-lost relative. However, this is not the reason why I would pair Anastasia with Candleshoe for a double feature. Yes, the basic premise for both films sound similar to each other, but Anastasia and Candleshoe feel so different from one another because of the creative choices that were made. It’s inevitable that stories are bound to get repeated over time. The way that story is told, however, can determine if there is a new perspective that can be brought to the table. This concept is what the Anastasia and Candleshoe double feature would discuss.
5. The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire & Queen of the Damned
Ok, so I’ve never seen these movies, but I’m considering doing a double feature movie review of each film around Halloween-time. While The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire and Queen of the Damned discuss the topic of vampires to a certain extent, I paired these movies together not just because of that singular reason. Both films were released in 2002 and they are non-canonical representations of their respective literary source material. This particular double feature would attempt to answer the following question: Despite being unfaithful to their source material, can The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire and Queen of the Damned contain any amount of enjoyment and merit as a film, not an adaptation?
What are your thoughts on my list? What would your dream cinematic double feature be? Please tell me in the comment section!
Have fun at the movies!
Sally Silverscreen
If you want to check out Talk Film Society’s website or find Talk Film Society on social media, here’s the link: http://www.talkfilmsociety.com/
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