QUARANTINE BLOG # 452

June 25, 2021

Walt Disney first attempted to adapt Beauty and the Beast into an animated film during the 1930s and 1950s, but was unsuccessful because of the challenge to the story team.  The 1991 release of Beauty and the Beast proved to be an immense critical and commercial success for the Disney Studios.  It is based on the 1756 French fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, and ideas from the 1946 French film of the same name.  

Beauty and the Beast focuses on the relationship between the Beast, a prince who is magically transformed into a monster and his servants into household objects as punishment for his arrogance, and Belle, a young woman whom he imprisons in his castle.  To break the curse, Beast must learn to love Belle and earn her love in return before the last petal falls from an enchanted rose or else the Beast will remain a monster forever.

Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards, where it won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for its title song Beauty and the Beast (Tale as Old as Time).”  In April 1994, Beauty and the Beast became Disney’s first animated film to be adapted into a Broadway musical.

The animators drew the Beast with the head structure and horns of an American bison, the arms and body of a bear, the eyebrows of a gorilla, the jaws, teeth, and mane of a lion, the tusks of a wild boar, and the legs and tail of a wolf.  Glen Keane, supervising animator for the Beast, refined the design by going to the zoo and studying the animals on which the Beast was based.

Awarding the film a perfect score of four stars, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times compared Beauty and the Beast positively to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio, writing, “Beauty and the Beast reaches back to an older and healthier Hollywood tradition in which the best writers, musicians and filmmakers are gathered for a project on the assumption that a family audience deserves great entertainment, too.” (Emphasis added).

In addition to winning the Oscar for Best Original Song with the title song, the film had other Academy nominations: “Belle,” and “Be Our Guest.”

👉  The headline reads, “2021 Tesla Model S Plaid: Feel the Force – 0-60 in 2 Seconds.”  And the story in the Wall Street Journal says, “The Plaid lays claim to being the quickest/fastest production sedan in the history of the ¼ mile; the hardest accelerating; the most aero efficient; with the fastest charging of any production EV. At a 250 kW Supercharger, the Plaid can recharge at a rate equivalent to 1,000 miles of range per hour – or 187 miles gained in 15 minutes.”  Whatever all of that means.  And why do you need to go from Zero to 60 in 2 seconds?  No reason I can think of, unless you are traveling eastbound and are trying to merge onto I-20 at the Grovetown interchange and no one will move over, even though the outside lane is empty.  If you want one, prepare for sticker shock: $147,990!

👉  I’m not sure how this will work, but test your knowledge on great movie quotes.  Look at the picture and try to cover up the caption (like I did when reading Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story” – I put an index card over the last paragraph).

A League of Their Own: Tom Hanks

“There’s no crying in baseball!”

Animal Crackers: Groucho Marx

“One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas.  How he got in my pajamas, I don't know.”

Dirty Harry: Clint Eastwood

“You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’  Well, do ya, punk?”

Apollo 13: Tom Hanks

“Houston, we have a problem.”

👉  All right, Sports Talk fans, here is one add to your dinner table talk.  Baseball no-hitters.  As the yummies up on carpet corridor continue to tamper with the best game ever invented (the latest being practically strip searching pitchers looking for sticky substances) even suggesting lowering the pitchers mound to give the batters an advantage, this year’s Major League season tied a record last night.  

Seven no-hitters in a season was reached on the occasion of the 75th game for the Chicago Cubs as starting pitcher Zach Davies combined with relievers Ryan Tepera, Andrew Chafin and Craig Kimbrel to throw a “no-no” (as they say at the overblow ESPN reporting desk – for the uninitiated, that’s the ENTERTAINMENT and sports programming network, and yes, I meant to type it that way because the cable sports company owned by the Mickey Mouse company performs and presents it).

USAToday gave a list of when the last no-hitter was thrown by the other Major League teams.  Here are a few:

Corey Kluber, of the New York Yankees, threw one of 2021’s no-hitters on May 18, breaking a 22-year drought between no-hitters. The last one was David Cone’s perfect game, an achievement recorded so long ago that the Montreal Expos were the opponent.

John Means did it on May 9 and it was the first time in almost 52 years that any Baltimore Orioles pitcher had thrown a no-hitter by himself.  Though four different Baltimore pitchers teamed up for a no-hitter in 1991, no individual pitcher had thrown a no-hitter for the Orioles since Jim Palmer on August 13, 1969.

The Orioles had been the team with the longest individual no-hitter drought in baseball. That honor now goes to the Cleveland Indians, whose last no-hitter was Len Barker’s perfect game in 1981.

Joe Musgrove’s no-hitter for the San Diego Padres on April 9 was historic for two reasons.  It the first no-hitter in Padres history, which made sure that all 30 MLB clubs have at least one no-hitter to their name.  The second reason, for Pirates fans, he pitched for the Buccos last year.  What might have been.

Speaking of the Pirates, Francisco Cordova pitched nine hitless innings and Ricardo Rincon added a hitless 10th to beat the Houston Astros 3-0 on July 12, 1997.

And for you Braves fans, Kent Mercker threw your last no-hitter against the Dodgers on April 8, 1994.

That’s only 7 of the 30.  Click on this link to see the other 23.

👉  Today’s close is from Praying with the Psalms, by Eugene H. Peterson.

“Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart” (Psalm 119:2).

The law of God is not regulations to keep us religious, and it is not rules to keep us moral.  It is “the whole counsel of God,” which creates, preserves, and redeems.  The only adequate human response is the “whole heart” – a total revelation requires a total response.

Prayer: Father, you have anticipated everything that I need and have given me wise words of command, instruction and comfort to surround every circumstance.  As I listen and believe, accomplish your will in me for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

-30-