The Jungle Book
Release: 1967
Director: Wolfgang Reitherman
Notable Actor(s): Phil Harris, Sterling Holloway

In my eyes this is one of the more underrated Disney films to come out. Well that and also The Sword in the Stone; but no one in today's age has probably ever heard of that. I find it to be one of the more underrated films because it's not a generally attractive film in nature. It can be a colorful film, full of imagination, and has some great songs, but I never hear anyone really talk about this in line with other Disney greats. Maybe it's because of where this film came from, which was the classic novel from the same name, that makes people shy away from it. The story of an orphan being raised by animals certainly isn't that imaginative for a Disney film also it's been done a couple of times already in major films. (Mainly Tarzan comes to mind) There is two big reasons why people should love this film like any other Disney classic. One would be the amazing animation, and the other would be the songs.

Wolfgang Reitherman is one of the Disney Old Nine Men, or one of the nine animators that help shape the Disney studio. He's animated and directed some of the more well known Disney films including; Cinderella, Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp. What you can take away from his work is that a lot of his films look amazingly realistic. Take in point with this film; the backgrounds look so amazing and it almost feels like your in an actual jungle. The human characters and all the animals also look so close to real life. Well, obviously they take some liberties for the animals because it's animation. Snakes obviously can't do that with their eyes or all animals can't dance. (Biggest point is that they can't talk either) What I'm trying to say is that it is a beautiful looking film and the animators did a really great job making this look as realistic as possible. The other factor that makes this so great is the songs. I can't tell you how many times I get some of the songs stuck in my head through out the day. Everyone knows the song; "Bare Necessities", and it's a nice precursor to The Lion King "Hakuma Matata". But the song that is going to stay in my brain as long as I live: "I Wan'na Be Like You". Louis Prima was a famous jazz singer and his preformance in the song as King Louie is really memorible. By memorible, I mean that it gets repeated in your head because it has such a distinct tune to it. There's not a day that goes by that I don't whistle it in public or just mumble it sometimes when things get quiet. So people will remember it for the animation, but for me I will always remember it for the one song that won't leave my brain. That makes it a classic to me.

The Planet of the Apes
Release: 1968
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Notable Actor(s): Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall

There are so many people in the makeup department that should have a statue dedicated to them. Right next to the production designers who had to create the hundreds of birds for the film The Birds. If the humanoid apes did not look the way they do in this picture, then the whole film would not have worked. They put so much work to make these actors look like evolved monkey's that they even got an honorary Oscar for their achievements for the film. It was credited to the head of the department, John Chambers, and he's done a lot of great make up in other projects. If your a huge Star Trek fan, then your in luck, Chambers help design many of the creatures through out the original run of the series. Now obviously there is much more to this film then just the make up, we still have great acting in this. But as a whole, one of the major reasons for this film to be so good is the make up in this so I hope people appreciate it on a second viewing.

Again there is some great acting in this and the obvious person to look at is Charlton Heston. Say what you will about his life outside the acting spectrum, but he was a gifted actor. He really was the bonifide action hero; everything was always dramatic and the delivery of his lines were so serious. When he states: "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!", you really have to believe he's going to mess you up if you don't let him go. Everytime he is on screen you can just tell he is the lead man and he doesn't even need to say anything. But he's a smart man too, I mean he does a valiant job trying to explain to the evolved apes on why the humans aren't inferior, but they won't listen. One man can be considered a step better than Heston, and that would be Roddy McDowall. His career has spanned for several decades and he's an accomplished Television and Broadway actor as well. He is the sole reason to watch the many sequels of this franchise as well. It's weird to think that he's done all of the Ape films, especially when you see how worse each sequel gets. (Why they decide to continue after Beneath the Planet of the Apes is beyond me) McDowall was commited to play as Cornelius to show his progression as leader of the apes; so I guess he was more into this franchise then we give credit for. So yes there's the big twist ending, thanks to Twilight Zone fame writer Rod Sterling as he wrote the screenplay, but there's more to this film then that. It has great practicial effects used and the acting in this is better then you would believe. It's a more civilized action picture, that's the best way to describe it.

Rosemary's Baby
Release: 1968
Director: Roman Polanski
Notable Actor(s): Ralph Bellamy, John Cassavetes, Mia Farrow, Ruth Gordon

Well.....This is awkward isn't it? I mean, here I am ready to discuss a great peice of film like Rosemary's Baby and then suddenly Polanski is arrested. If I can add my two cents to the subject, I think it's great that this is finally going to get resolved. What Polanski did was downright horrible and he needs to pay for his crimes. If we can look at it another way though, if he were to be put in prision, we would lose one of the more legendary directors. You got to realize just how much influence he's brought to the industry in just a short amount of time. Even if his personal life is in shambles as it is now, you got to respect the work he has done through out his career.

On to the actual topic at hand, for his first major hit it's a pretty good one. Horror films now a days always seem to forget something; the actual horror. Thanks to films like Saw, it seems like more horror films are about either grossing you out or just show you disturbing images. There's never really any really fightful moments in today's films. With this however, just the idea of the plot if terrifying enough. Yes the idea of someone getting pregnaut by a demon seems a bit too far fetched. But Polanski directed (and also wrote) this in a way where it just seems horrible. The scene of where Rosemary (Mia Farrow) is shown to possibly be raped by the demon; it's really scary to watch. I mean any time you see rape it's horrible in my eyes, but the way it was shot really makes me scared to see it. It also doesn't help the the other tenants in the apartment for the setting is also unsettling to watch. Ralph Bellamy and Ruth Gordon, respectively, do a great job as the errie neighbors and Gordon won an Oscar for her preformance. This film just has a slow and unnerving pace to it; sure it does some of the cheap shocks at times; but overall it is a smartly written film. Polanski has done a great job with horror films. His first major release, Repulsion, was a different beast in terms of horror but it's such a great thing to watch. He never really went back to this genre which is a shame, he could set the bar today if he could do another one. If you want a smart horror film and some wonderful preformances to go with it, you can't go wrong with this film.

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