Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S2E15 - "Senate Murders"

This post contains spoilers.

In my latest re-watch of The Clone Wars, I recently watched "Senate Murders" and noticed some significant lighting in the climactic scene.

Lieutenant Divo suspects Senator Burtoni for the murders of Senator Farr and Senator Deechi, partially because the poison that killed Farr was developed by Kaminoans and Burtoni is a Kaminoan.  When Divo mentions that the poison affects only Rodians, however, Senator Amidala notes an inconsistency:  if the poison affects Rodians and the senatorial party all drank the poisoned drinks, Lolo would have been poisoned too.  As Amidala is considering this, Lolo is standing behind her, covered by her shadow:

As Amidala remembers that Lolo didn't drink, Lolo steps out from behind her, pulls a blaster on Amidala, and admits to the murders:

Lolo's standing in the shadow here represents two things.  On a simple level, it shows that she's trying to avoid the scrutiny of the investigation, but, more metaphorically, it also illustrates that her involvement has been obscured while Divo has been conducting his investigation and Amidala and Senator Organa have been doing their own.  None of them considered Lolo as a suspect until this moment, and when she steps out into the light, she reveals everything.  The shadow she's hiding in represents the characters' ignorance.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S2E14 - "Duchess of Mandalore"

After a bit of an unintentional break, I'm back to re-watching The Clone Wars.  I'd noticed before that in "Duchess of Mandalore," Duchess Satine doesn't accept the helping hand that one of her guards extends to her as she gets into her speeder, but when I watched the episode recently, I realized that this detail has significance.

Satine's not accepting her guard's help visually illustrates how extreme her independence has become.  Later, Obi-Wan confronts her about this:  "You need your friends with you, not held at arm's length.  In your quest to be self-reliant have you decided to cut your friends out of your life?"

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S2E13 - "Voyage of Temptation"

Even before I got to season two of Star Wars: The Clone Wars in re-watching the show, I was thinking about the episode "Voyage of Temptation."  When I re-watched it recently, I was able to confirm what I'd suspected.

For most of this episode, Duchess Satine is wearing an elaborate headdress:

When Tal Merrick* takes her hostage, however, he knocks her headdress off:

When it appears as if Merrick is going to escape with her as his prisoner, Satine confesses her love for Obi-Wan:  "Obi-Wan, it looks like I may never see you again.  I don't know quite how to say this, but I've loved you from the moment you came to my aid all those years ago."

Satine's headdress represents the hidden nature of her feelings.  Only after it's been dislodged are they exposed.

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*There's some discrepancy in how Merrick's name is spelt.  In the credits, it's Merrick, but on the Star Wars website, it's Merrik.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S1E19 - "Storm over Ryloth"

Like I mentioned before, I'm re-watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars again.  On a separate blog, I'm in the midst of pedantically noting the show's references to the movies, so - for now - any other comments I have will be posted here.

I recently re-watched "Storm over Ryloth" (S1E19) and noticed some significant in-world framing.  After suffering heavy losses while trying to break through a blockade, General Skywalker's forces have retreated.  He comes up with a new plan and returns to the blockade, intending to ram the command ship with his own crippled cruiser.  Apparently just to stall before the rest of his troops arrive, Skywalker contacts the Separatist commander Mar Tuuk and feigns negotiations.  Only he and R2-D2 are onboard, but he says, "I've been ordered to surrender myself, the entire crew of this vessel, and my ship in exchange for safe passage of food and medical supplies to the people of Ryloth."

Skywalker's face almost completely fills the Separatists' screen, as if to disguise the fact that there is no crew behind him.

After a scan reveals only one life form, Mar Tuuk realizes that this is a trick and confronts him:  "Skywalker, what treachery is this!?  You have nothing to bargain with!"  He replies, "Heh, in that case, I'll be going.  Oh, you can still have my ship," and as he speaks, he steps backwards.  Since his ruse has been discovered, he no longer needs to hide the fact that his cruiser is empty.

Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Back in May, I started a blog focused on Star Wars.  I plan eventually to copy most of the Star Wars-related posts I've written here to that blog, but for now, I'm re-watching The Clone Wars (again) and pedantically noting references to the original movies.  It'll take me quite a while to get through that part of the project, so, for the time being, any significant Star Wars comments I have will appear here.

I watched a bit of The Empire Strikes Back recently in order to verify a bit of dialogue and find the time stamp for it, and I noticed a detail in the set.  Last May, I wrote a post about differences between the original version of the film and the special edition, and one feature I mentioned was these panels in the background of Cloud City:

When Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO arrive, these panels have a warm glow behind them.  By the time Luke arrives, however, after the Empire's trap has been sprung, this warmth has disappeared, and the panels are colorless:

This contrast in color illustrates the change that has occurred.  At first, Cloud City seems like an inviting place, but once the Empire's presence is revealed, it becomes a stark and unwelcoming environment.

The Sound of Music

I recently watched The Sound of Music and noticed a small (and possibly just coincidental) connection between the movie's opening and Psalm 121:1, which is quoted by the Reverend Mother near the end of the movie.  The way she says it, it sounds like a statement:  "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence [sic] cometh my help."  I'm more familiar with it as a question:  "I lift up my eyes to the hills.  From where does my help come?"  This is answered by the following verse:  "My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."

The Psalm starts with the Psalmist looking at the hills, and in more ways than one, the movie also starts with hills.  Visually, it opens with multiple establishing shots of mountains and hills, and musically, it starts with the line "The hills are alive with the sound of music."

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

I was thinking about the names of the children in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory recently.  I had a notion (admittedly, a rather far-fetched one) about the significance of these names, so I re-watched the movie (for the first time in about ten years) in order to develop my argument.

The five children who find Wonka's golden tickets are Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, Mike Teevee, and Charlie Bucket.  Along with being the main character, Charlie Bucket is significant in that his name is evenly balanced:  his first name is two syllables, and his last name is two syllables.  The names of the other children don't have this feature.

This balance of Charlie's name illustrates something of his character, although this is demonstrated more clearly in his contrast with the other children.  All of the other children are selfish, but this selfishness is manifested in different ways.  Augustus Gloop and Veruca Salt are simply greedy.  Augustus is constantly eating, and Veruca is always demanding things (primarily from her father).  Violet Beauregarde and Mike Teevee are more concerned with acquiring other people's attention.  When she's interviewed after finding the golden ticket, Violet makes sure to mention the world record that she's won, and on more than one occasion, she pushes her father away from the camera's lens so that the attention is directed solely on her.  Mike Teevee's selfishness doesn't really present itself until he's in the factory.  After he sees how Wonka transmits a bar of chocolate through the television, however, nothing will stop him from "be[ing] the first person in the world to be sent by television!"  He wants this claim to fame.

Charlie doesn't act selfishly, and occasionally, he even inquires about the welfare of the other children.  He questions Wonka about Veruca and her father ("They won't really be burned in the furnace, will they?"), and at the end of the tour, he asks, "What's gonna happen to the other kids?  Augustus?  Veruca?"  When Augustus falls into the river of chocolate, Charlie even tries to help him get out by extending a giant lollipop for him to grab.

At the end of the movie, Wonka calls Charlie "a very honest, loving child," and he clearly stands in stark contrast to the other children.  While their behavior is the most obvious indication of this, their names point to this too.  The syllables of Charlie Bucket's name are evenly balanced, but the names of the other children are imbalanced in the same way that their personalities are.

The Ray Bradbury Theater - "The Emissary"

A few years ago, I got a box set of The Ray Bradbury Theater (which I'd been unaware of until I saw it in the store), but I didn't start watching the series until Bradbury's hundredth birthday last year (on 22 August).  Recently, I watched an episode titled "The Emissary," and I think the ending could be taken in two different ways.

This post contains spoilers.

The episode is about Martin Bailey who is basically confined to bed because of an illness that the episode never specifies.  His dog, apparently named just Dog, helps him to learn about the outside world by bringing various items back to him.  Early in the episode, it brings back a variety of leaves and plants, and these allow Martin to determine where the dog has been.  One day, Martin attaches a sign to the dog that reads, "Martin Bailey owns me.  Sick in Bed.  Needs company.  Follow me."  The dog returns with Miss Haight, who would have been Martin's teacher had he been well enough to attend school.  Over the next few weeks, Miss Haight regularly visits, always announcing herself with a cheery, "Company!" and bringing Martin a variety of books to read.

After Miss Haight is suddenly killed in a car accident, Martin becomes preoccupied with thinking about the dead, specifically how "it doesn't seem like much fun" for the corpses simply to lie underground.  He asks his parents, "Why don't they jump up and run around once in a while?"

Shortly after Miss Haight's funeral, Dog disappears and is missing for a day.  On the evening of what is apparently Halloween, it returns, and when Martin examines it to see where it's been, he finds mud and worms.  As he asks the dog where it's been digging, the lights in his room go out.  A glow comes from the doorway where a hand pushes open the door and a voice announces, "Company!"

Taken one way, this could be precisely the thing that Martin has been thinking about:  the dead "jump[ing] up" out of their graves and "run[ning] around."  In this case, Miss Haight is dug up by Dog, and she visits Martin once again.

Since Martin has some sort of illness, however, it's also possible to view these events as hallucinations that he experiences as he dies.  The dog doesn't really return covered with mud, and the hand of a corpse doesn't really push open the door to Martin's bedroom.  His illness and his preoccupation with the dead simply make him believe these things in his final moments.

Miss Haight's last words to Martin were "Hurry up!  I'll be waiting," so the "Company!" that he hears at the end of the episode could be upon his meeting her in the afterlife, not her coming back to his bedroom.

A Bug's Life

This post contains spoilers.

I recently re-watched A Bug's Life and noticed a detail in one scene.

Near the end of the movie, the ants realize that they're stronger than the grasshoppers if they work together.  As a visual representation of this solidarity, there's a shot that's composed almost entirely of ants, with hardly any glimpse of a background or anything else.  Here are two frames: