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A little over 10 years after starring in the quintessential mockumentary, THIS IS SPINAL TAP, Christopher Guest stepped behind the camera as well for his own mock doc, which skewers the world of local theater. Like SPINAL TAP, the performers in this celebration of a small Mid-West town have an over-inflated sense of their own talents. Played by Guest, Corky St. Clair failed to make it on Broadway, but his big city experience brings some glamour to Blaine, Missouri.

St. Clair runs his little production like a serious production. Having starred in Corky’s previous stage renditions of BAREFOOT IN THE PARK and BACKDRAFT, Ron and Sheila Albertson (Fred Willard & Catherine O’Hara, BEST IN SHOW) audition knowing the have secured spots. Their outgoingness and over eagerness sometimes make others feel awkward. Dentist Allan Pearl (Eugene Levy, AMERICAN PIE) whose less than perfect singing still impresses Corky, landing him the coveted roll as the town’s founder Blaine Faban. Libby Mae Brown (Parker Posey, SUPERMAN RETURNS) is the youngest cast member, who contemplates her future in the ice cream business at Diary Queen. Corky also recruits handsome mechanic Johnny Savage (Matt Keeslar, ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL). Narrating the play is the earnest Clifford Wooley (Lewis Arquette, SCREAM 2).

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As a child of the video age, there is a collection of films that have been ingrained in my memory for having watched them over and over again. LA BAMBA, the story of Ritchie Valens, is one of those films. Before I knew that I was watching something special, I responded to this musical biopic’s portrayal of the supporting characters in the life of the central star. No other film that deals with the rise of famous people deals so honestly with how fame affects those in the star’s life that stay anonymous folk.

Before Ritchie Valens rose to fame, he was migrant worker Ritchie Valenzuela (Lou Diamond Phillips, YOUNG GUNS). A young man obsessed with rock ‘n roll, he never goes anywhere without his secondhand guitar. One day his leather jacket-wearing brother Bob (Esai Morales, FAST FOOD NATION) rides into camp on his motorcycle. He’s made enough money to move his hardworking mother Connie (Rosanna DeSoto, STAND AND DELIVER) and his three younger siblings to Los Angeles. He’s so cool he sweeps Ritchie’s crush Rosie (Elizabeth Pena, LONE STAR) off her feet and onto the back of his bike on his way down the road too. In L.A., Ritchie joins a local band where he is relegated to the background, but moves himself to the front and center via his passion. Along the way, he charms the white daughter of a car dealer named Donna (Danielle von Zerneck, LIVING IN OBLIVION), a later inspiration for a song when her dad doesn’t like her hanging with a homie. Ritchie also attracts the attention of smalltime record producer Bob Keene (Joe Pantoliano, THE MATRIX), who creates Ritchie Valens, a teenager who quickly has three hit singles and tours with rock icons like Buddy Holly.

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Bob Dylan is an enigma, and that is exactly what one could call Todd Haynes’ film that contemplates the seemingly contradictory sides of the famed singer’s personality. Haynes has always been a filmmaker who takes risks from his unsettling SAFE to his pseudo-Bowie biopic VELVET GOLDMINE to his Douglas Sirk, 1950s melodrama-like FAR FROM HEAVEN. Now he contemplates the many aspects of Dylan, leaving the audience thinking (maybe even confused).

Six difference actors play six different Dylan-like characters. The various stories are woven together and a few even intersect. We begin with an 11-year-old African-American boy hitching a ride on a train calling himself Woody Guthrie (Marcus Carl Franklin, TV’s LACKAWANNA BLUES). He’s traveling the country playing ’40s blues and acting like it isn’t 1959, avoiding the social turmoil of the times. Next we meet 19-year-old poet Arthur Rimbaud (Ben Whishaw, PERFUME) cagily avoiding definition during an interview. In a documentary-like segment, we learn about the career of influential folk singer Jack Rollins (Christian Bale, BATMAN BEGINS), who hasn’t done an interview in years since be converted to Christianity. Robbie Clark (Heath Ledger, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) is a womanizing actor who became famous playing Jack Rollins. We see him during two periods in his life — meeting abstract artist Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg, THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP) and then watching as their marriage falls apart as Vietnam ends. Jude Quinn (Cate Blanchett, ELIZABETH) is an arrogant star that has turned his back on folk music and plugged in. During a tour in London with The Beatles, he challenges reporter Keenan Jones (Bruce Greenwood, CAPOTE) on his lack of caring about “finger-pointing” songs. Finally, in an almost dreamlike sequence, Billy the Kid (Richard Gere, CHICAGO) wonders the countryside trying to find freedom.

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Following two years after Walt Disney’s first Latin American feature, SALUDOS AMIGOS, this film is longer, more daring, less propagandistic, but ultimately less bearable than its predecessor. Upon the failure of this film, a planned Latin American trilogy was scrapped, saving the world from CUBAN CARNIVAL. Unlike AMIGOS, THE THREE CABALLEROS has a more flowing structure, reminiscent of the final sequence of the first film. It’s definitely the trippiest Disney production and makes one wonder what’s in that cigar that Jose Carioca is always smoking.

Like AMIGOS, CABALLEROS starts off like an anthology film, but soon morphs into a more free-flowing musical experience. A framework of Donald Duck receiving presents from his friends in Latin America introduces the first two segments. “The Cold-Blooded Penguin” follows the penguin Pablo, who dreams of relocating to warm climates. Next, “The Flying Gauchito” involves a little Argentinean boy who enters a horse race with the winged donkey he discovers. For the third segment, “Bahia,” Donald meets up with wisecracking parrot Jose, shimmies the samba with live-action dancers and salivates over the beautiful women. In “Las Posadas,” the lively rooster Panchito Pistoles tells of the Mexican Christmas traditions, leading to Donald try his hand at the piñata. This is followed by “Mexico” where Panchito takes Donald and Jose on a flying serape through the gorgeous beaches of Mexico where Donald can’t control chasing a bevy of live-action beauties. But in “You Belong to My Heart,” Donald focuses his affections of the popular Mexican singer Dora Luz. The film concludes with “Donald’s Surreal Reverie,” which sends Donald on a “love is a drug” infused tour, filled with lush colors, flowers and pretty live-action woman.

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This barely-a-feature Walt Disney feature, which clocks in at a mere 43 minutes, is actually a piece of wartime propaganda. Fearing Nazi Germany’s influence in Latin America, the U.S. Department of State paid for Walt Disney and his artists to tour Central and South America on a goodwill tour. The resulting film combines 16 MM live-action film shot during the trip and four separate short productions meant to enlighten the audience about the Latin American culture. While the film was meant to build support in Latin America, the film received lukewarm response in the States.

The first of the four segments, “Lake Titicaca,” casts Donald Duck as an American tourist where he bungles his way through the local village, having particular trouble with a snooty llama. Coming next is “Pedro,” the story of a pint-sized mail plane who must take the treacherous route over the mountains in Chile to deliver the mail after his father gets a cold. The third segment, titled “El Gaucho Goofy,” puts American cowboy Goofy into the attire and customs of the Argentinean gaucho. To close the film, “Aquarela do Brasil” (or “Watercolor of Brazil”) begins with a flowing musical number and ends with the introduction of the Latin parrot Jose Carioca, who shows Donald Duck around South America while trying to teach him the samba.

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Mike Leigh is a film director who comes from a theatre background. He usually doesn’t work from a script to start, but improvises each scene with his actors and then writes down what they discover. However, with its period detail and well observed look at its real life characters, TOPSY-TURVY may be Leigh most scripted work for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. Working with many of the same actors he always works with, Leigh, with great wit, has crafted a captivating tale about the creation process and its personalities.

Composer Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner, GREY ZONE) and writer W.S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent, IRIS) have reach stardom on the international stage, but have hit a slump. Their latest opera PRINCESS IDA is derivative of their other work, and Sullivan, who is suffering from kidney disease, doesn’t have the passion to work on the same old trifle anymore. The cynical and disagreeable Gilbert has written another play with magic potions and Sullivan can’t score it. Then after visiting an exhibit of Japanese culture, Gilbert has a revelation and pens the story for the opera THE MIKADO.

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While not an bad film, Disney’s THE ARISTOCATS is tragically forgettable. Too often the film feels like its 79-minute running time is being padded with plot elements from 101 DALMATIANS and LADY AND THE TRAMP. The look and feel is appeasing, but it lacks the spark of the best Disney animated features. Many of the pieces are beautifully done, but they don’t fit together to form a complete picture.

Duchess (Eva Gabor, TV’s GREEN ACRES) is a privileged feline living in a mansion in Paris in 1910. Her owner, Madame Bonfamille (Hermione Baddeley, THE SECRET OF NIMH), has willed her fortune to her cats. This upsets her butler Edgar (Roddy Maude-Roxby, SHADOWLANDS), who captures Duchess and her three kittens, dumping them in the country. Desperate to get back to Paree, they gain aid from scruffy alley cat Thomas O’Malley (Phil Harris, THE JUNGLE BOOK).

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HORTON HEARS A WHO! was animation legend Chuck Jones’ second collaboration with Ted Geisel aka Dr. Seuss, following 1966’s animated classic HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! HORTON isn’t as successful as the GRINCH, but this Seussian fable is still entertaining and as relevant as ever.

One day, Horton the elephant (Hans Conried aka Snidely Whiplash) hears a voice coming from a speck of dust. Discovering a whole society of Whos living on the white piece of fluff, Horton dedicates himself to protecting his new tiny friend Dr. Hoovey (Confried). However, the folks of Horton’s world, especially Jane Kangaroo (animation legend June Foray aka Rocky J. Squirrel), think he’s a little nuts, as do the Whos of Dr. Hoovey when he claims their world lies on the trunk of a peaceful pachyderm. Fearing that his radical way of thinking will destroy their way of life, Jane enlists three devious monkeys, the Wickersham Brothers, to steal Horton’s Who haven.

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This film is featured as bonus material on the deluxe-edition of HORTON HEARS A WHO!

Ralph Bakshi is best known for his adult animation FRITZ THE CAT. But in 1989 for Turner TV, he mixed his sensibilities with those of pre-school icon Ted Geisel aka Dr. Seuss. The result is one of the best Seuss adaptations ever made, and sadly one of the most overlooked. Even Seuss himself felt this was the most faithful adaptation of his work. Considering he adapted the script, he of course had a big part in that.

A grandfather (Charles Durning, TOOTSIE) tells his grandson a tale of the Zooks, who live on the other side of the wall and butter their bread butter side down. Yikes! So as a patriotic Yook, the grandfather in his younger years patrolled the wall keeping an eye out for any upside down buttering behavior. During a patrol, a Zook uses a slingshot to break the grandfather’s tough-tufted prickly snick-berry switch. This begins a race for bigger and bigger weapons to threaten the other race with.

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This film is featured as bonus material on the deluxe-edition of HORTON HEARS A WHO!

This 1995’s adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ book is a fairly straightforward rendition of the story. The brightly colored Emmy-nominated Hanna-Barbera production takes the color palette and design right from the books. It doesn’t have the energy of some of the other Dr. Seuss adaptations, but it also avoids some of their mistakes.

The Cat in the Hat (Henry Gibson, THE ‘BURBS) narrates the tale of Mayzie McGrew, who one day sprouts a daisy from the top of her head. At first her fellow students ridicule her. Her teacher, principal, parents and various other townsfolk are baffled by what has occurred. But when agent Finagle (Tim Curry, ANNIE) shows up, he lures Mayzie to sign a contract, promising fame and fortune. But as these kinds of tales often go, fame and fortune aren’t always fun and fancy-free.

Like other Seuss TV specials, this one includes songs. But the lyrics are based on the words from the book, which combine the music from Philip Appleby well. Many of the tunes are solos introducing supporting characters, which works by not being too intrusive. To stretch the story to a half hour, some uninspired slapstick was added, which is better than disruptive songs any day.

As a faithful adaptation of the book, the special captures the themes of tolerance and proper priorities well. The production doesn’t have any individual flare, relying on the Seussian poetry. For some this will be enough and for me it’s certainly enough to recommend.