Overrated Disney Movie - Pinocchio

My boyfriend and I recently started watching Disney movies we have never seen before. We realized after watching the Lion King (re-released recently) that since it was so great, some classics that we would and could love surely had slipped through the cracks. For the past 6 months or so we have borrowed from our local libraries and rented the rest on Netflix. There have been some surprises. Treasure Planet was fun, The Black Cauldron was CREEPY, The Hunchback of Notre Dame pretty perverted, and Home on the Range was so boring I fell asleep.

And so, on to Pinocchio.

Let’s get this out of the way: Pinocchio has great animation and When You Wish Upon a Star, is an iconic song. The movie was released in 1940 and was Disney’s second feature length animated film (the first was Snow White).

Imagine a film where the main protagonist is both an idiot and a child. Everyone who loves the child has horrible judgment, and everyone who hurts and exploits the child gets away with it. This is why I don’t understand the appeal of watching Pinocchio. It’s a horror film with songs and cute animals.

The fact that Pinocchio is alive by the end of the movie is a miracle.

(Spoiler Alert!!!!!)

Literally! Because, yes, Pinocchio drowns and dies saving his loved ones. The Blue Fairy ultimately brings him back to life, but you have to wonder why he is tested so much before he is turned into a “real boy” when so many evil beings already exist in the story. More puppet-people, Blue Fairy, and less scoundrels and scam artists!

But what happens before Pinocchio dies? Is he abducted by a fox in a top hat and sold into puppet slavery for a cruel man named Stromboli? Yes. Is he abducted again by the SAME fox and sold to a different man and then partially turned into a donkey? Yes. He is abducted numerous times by numerous predators, and everyone who should be looking out for him doesn’t. You can’t even blame Pinocchio really, of course he is naïve, he is newly alive but still a child-puppet with a wooden head.

Watching this movie filled me with so much anxiety I couldn’t enjoy anything once Pinocchio leaves Geppetto’s house. What is wrong with these characters? Why is Geppetto letting Pinocchio walk to school by himself one day after he is given consciousness by the blue fairy? Why is the Blue Fairy letting Pinocchio have a nomadic cricket act as his conscience? Why isn’t Jiminy held more accountable for the horrible stuff that happens to Pinocchio?

There’s no resolution in the end, the little boys who are turned into donkeys remain donkeys, and presumably the man who owns the evil Pleasure Island continues to abduct children. The fox who sells Pinocchio twice is never caught. Stromboli is still a really mean and greedy puppeteer. Even though Pinocchio finally becomes a real boy, he still has to live in this depressing world with well-intentioned but useless guardians.

Underrated Sports Event - The World Cup

The World Cup can be so much fun if you give it a chance. Instead of one night like the Super Bowl, you get one crazy month! And, instead of every year, it’s every four years, so when it happens it seems way more special. For some reason, the really big American Football fans I know resist watching soccer.

I first started watching the World Cup in 2006 when it took place in Germany. I didn’t encounter very many people at the time that watched it. Then in 2010, it was located in South Africa, and while more people watched it that I knew, I still consider it an underrated event. Ask someone if they know what a vuvuzela is. If they know, they probably watched the last World Cup.

The games are straightforward: two 45-minute periods. Half time is not a long drawn out affair. The focus is on the game. The players are great athletes, there are always some amazing kicks and shots scored. If you are bored by the game, you focus on the crazy fans. There are always groups of people either in full body paint, or dressed completely ridiculously. Another fun thing to do while watching is reenact the players pretending they are hurt in front of the referees. Click here for a funny example.

I love that the teams are split up by country. It’s just like the Olympics, so I can be patriotic and root for Team USA, but if Italy has a game I have no problem getting excited.

The next World Cup will be in Brazil in 2014. And don’t forget, there is also a Women’s World Cup!

Overrated Sports Event - The Super Bowl

I have to thank my brother for this topic! When he suggested it, I was happy to see we were both on the same page in terms of which was overrated and which was underrated. And so . . .

The Super Bowl is overrated.

I don’t hate it or curse its existence, but I don’t really understand its popularity. I’ve never been a huge football fan, but I’ve watched my fair share of games. I have tried, really tried, to get excited for the Super Bowl, but I never can. There are four big draws to the Super Bowl. These are the angles pro-bowlers use to sell the game to ambivalent people like me.

1. The Game Itself

Obviously only two teams make it to the end to duke it out, but they are rarely the two teams that I want to watch. I’m not trying to be a baby and whine about my team not making it, of course the teams that make it are there because they deserve it. But what is the fun of watching two teams I rooted against during the regular season? And then there are two solid weeks of hype leading up to the game. I see the hype on TV, I hear it on the radio, I read it online. I never get as excited as the announcers, broadcasters, or writers. It becomes almost mandatory to side with one team, so I become obligated to pick the better of two evils and prepare myself to justify that reason to anyone who asks. However, really there are other things I’d rather make uneducated predictions about to some stranger in Wawa.

2. The Commercials

I used to love watching the commercials when I was younger. Now I just watch specific ones online or on TV when they re-air during a show I like. The commercials are really fun, but not enough to make it worth watching the game.

3. The Half-Time Show

I feel like this is something you watch so you can talk about it the next day, not because you think you will enjoy it. There was the controversy with Janet Jackson in 2004, and the controversy with M.I.A. this year. The crazy amounts of attention both have received seem excessive and annoying. It’s just like the commercials, I’d rather watch the show the next day online than put up with it live (well, 10 second delay).

4. The Company

Whether you watch it at a bar or a house party, this is the best reason I can see to watch the game. Delicious party foods, people to laugh at commercials with and poke fun at the half-time show with. But wait. . . we aren’t supposed to talk during the actual game? Noooooo!!!!!

Love the Super Bowl???? Convince me, please!