In case you missed this, our dear animated Shakespearean gnomes are now sitting at the #1 Box Office spot!
Granted, box office charts are an incredibly relative measure and based entirely on what else opened that weekend. But still! Three weeks in, and this kids movie is still hanging in there. That means more people have the chance to go see it. I still contend that’s a good thing.
On the same subject, check out this article at Jim Hill Media which speaks of Disney’s own happiness at the success of this one, and how honestly they had no idea. What to do now that their next kids’ movie, Mars Needs Moms, comes out next week? Where should the advertising budget go? Decisions, decisions…

Ok, fine, nobody was willing to claim that any film could live up to the title of being the definitive interpretation of a play. I have to concede.
But I’ll take Alexi’s idea and open up a more specific topic — definitive cinematic versions. Will that make everybody happy? What is the definitive cinematic version of, say, The Tempest?
What’s a better definition for “definitive” in this case – would you call it the one you’d recommend to a friend as their first exposure to the story? Or would you go the other end of the spectrum and say, “No matter how many film versions of X you’ve seen, you simply must see Y.”

Today, Ian said to me that Taymor’s The Tempest was far from the definitive film version of that play. Which made me think of a question.
What are the definitive versions?
Choose a Shakespeare play, and tell me what you feel is the definitive film version of that play. Availability of the film in question is not relevant – if ever in your life you get a chance to see Chimes At Midnight, you must see it. Please explain what your working definition of “definitive” is.
If we need some form of common ground to start the discussion, let me offer this – the definitive version is the one you would recommend to someone who has little/no experience with the play. This film will be their first exposure to it, therefore you want their experience to be as close to Shakespeare’s ideal vision as possible.
Feel free to debate that, too. 🙂 But no fair saying “go see it live”, this is specifically about the ability to share a film, and to know that you can see a film, recommend it to a friend, and then have the experience of that film in common with others. That’s near impossible with live theatre.

Here’s an interesting find. An online version of Beerbohm Tree’s 1904 The Tempest, including all his edits to the text, cast list and so forth. I’ve got to sit down and read this, I’m intrigued. Does anybody know details about this particular version, and why somebody might have gone to the trouble of preserving it like this?

Popeater has a funny collection of pop songs as spoken word pieces, like that time Jude Law read Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” on one of the late night talk shows.
Not much Shakespeare, but it’s Sunday and I’m linking it because it’s amusing – and because the book critic doing Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” does bring in a King Lear reference :).

“I thought I knew what ‘try to touch my junk, junk’ meant. A junk is a boat. So, you know, she could be in China.”