NPR’s Bob Mondello keeps in mind the first film he ever saw in a theater and what it meant to him.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
With Memorial Day behind us, we are formally in the summertime film season. And there is no lack of titles to choose from. But, you understand, summer season is understood for a specific sort of motion picture, right? Think popcorn photos, escapist films that might have laughs or tears along the way however that end gladly. It’s a formula that has actually served Hollywood well, which has actually likewise served to make a lot of individuals into superfans, including our critic Bob Mondello. He now sees more than 300 films a year, many of which do not have pleased endings. However that matches him just fine. In this encore discussion, Bob remembers the moment all of it started – his first trip to a cinema.
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BOB MONDELLO: I was 9.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, “SLEEPING CHARM”)
BARBARA LUDDY: (As Merryweather) Come on, container, mop, broom. Flora says, clean up the space.
MONDELLO: A neighborhood theater in Bethesda, Md., in 1959; a matinee crowded with zillions of kids finding brand-new features of a fairy tale we all believed we knew.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “SLEEPING CHARM”)
VERNA FELTON: (As Flora) And now to make a lovely gown fit to grace a reasonable princess.
MONDELLO: The Disney “Sleeping Beauty” was various from the Brothers Grimm version. For one thing, the Disney animators decreased Princess Aurora’s seven fairy godmothers to 3 – Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. And Plants and Merryweather had very particular ideas about colors. Flora liked pink. Merryweather liked blue. And when they were amazingly developing Aurora’s birthday gown …
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “SLEEPING APPEAL”)
LUDDY: (As Merryweather) No, not pink – make it blue.
MONDELLO: … That caused issues.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, “SLEEPING APPEAL”)
FELTON: (As Plants) Merryweather, make it pink.
MONDELLO: They kept casting spells and blue and pink bolts of magic …
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LUDDY: (As Merryweather) Make it blue.
MONDELLO: … A few of which began shooting out the chimney like fireworks.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, “SLEEPING CHARM”)
FELTON: (As Flora) Pink.
MONDELLO: I believe the reason I remember this part is that eventually, both Plants and Merryweather cast a spell at the same minute, and the gown ended up splotchy and ruined. If something like that had actually taken place in my home, my sibling and I would have gotten spanked. But then Maleficent showed up, and we forgot colors and splotches for a while and anxious about curses and pricked fingers and swords of reality and forests of thorns and a big dragon and kisses that awaken fairy princesses, just to have the problem crop back up once again at the very end when Princess Aurora and her prince were dancing their method to happily ever after, fairy godmothers looking on.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “SLEEPING CHARM”)
BARBARA JO ALLEN: (As Fauna) Oh, I simply love delighted endings.
FELTON: (As Flora) Yes, I do, too – blue.
MONDELLO: I was worried that they ‘d splotch whatever up once again, however prior to they did, I relied on my mama and saw she had tears in her eyes. And I said, Mom, it’s not unfortunate. And she said, I’m weeping because it’s so happy, which, to a 9-year-old, is nuts. Later I would realize that mom and dad sometimes chewed out each other in real life, and I wasn’t connecting that to the enthusiasts onscreen. Though, I guess mama was. She understood then something I would not till later – that visions are seldom all they seem. However that day, combined messages were not what she wished to impart at my very first film ever, so she blinked and said, who desires ice cream? And I did. I’m Bob Mondello.
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