On a lighter word, in late June, once I needed to watch “The Aristocats,” I made a decision to meet a childhood want I had when, in 1981, my sister took me to see a double characteristic on the Arlington Theater: “The Aristocats” and Disney’s James Bond superhero spoof, “Condorman.” We didn’t keep for the second characteristic, a lot to my dismay. My total household refused to take me to see that movie. So, after I watched “The Aristocats” this previous June, I made a decision to fork over $1.99 for an Amazon Prime rental of a pan-and-scan stream of “Condorman” to meet that little bit of childhood neglect. My dad and mom have been proper all alongside. The eight-year-old me wouldn’t have preferred that movie any greater than the grownup me.
The week I watched “The Little Mermaid” in mid-September occurred to be across the similar time Disney launched the teaser for this yr’s murky-looking live-action remake. Talking of remakes, that additionally occurred to be across the time Robert Zemeckis’ live-action remake of “Pinocchio” had been launched. If there’s one factor I knew I didn’t want going into 2022, it was not one, however two extra remakes of “Pinocchio” to sit down by. Sufficient already!
Then got here October.
As said earlier than, on October 4, Sergio Mims died. No one noticed that coming and it was the primary time a pricey good friend of mine had handed away so out of the blue. On October eighth, I turned 50 and had a beautiful birthday celebration at a drive-in theater in Indiana. On October tenth, my dad was taken to the hospital after a fall that cracked his head. After a few week, he wanted greater than stitches and the prognosis was getting worse, then higher, then worse once more. This explicit week, I needed to watch “The Lion King,” a movie I’ve all the time liked, however this time it had a extra profound impact on me. There was nonetheless extra to say and extra to do, however am I going to be like Simba quickly? “Nah. He’ll pull by. We’ve been by this hospital stuff earlier than.”
The next week noticed extra journeys to the hospital for myself, my mother, aunt, niece, fiance, and my sisters. On Saturday, October 22, I made a degree of staying house and getting work executed that had been piling up, beginning with that week’s Disney film, “A Goofy Movie,” by which Goofy and his teenage son take a cross-country highway journey and find yourself bonding throughout some comical and cataclysmic occasions. It turned out to be a a lot better film than I remembered, one which I’m glad I watched once I did. “The Lion King” and “A Goofy Film” had been launched nearly a yr aside, which implies they have been in numerous levels of manufacturing nearly concurrently. Why did the Disney artists concentrate on father/son relationships throughout this time? The following day, on October twenty third, my father handed away in his hospital mattress, surrounded by his household.
