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Tom Wagner

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 7:35 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 597 Location: Long Island, NY

How difficult is it to perform that a scene that is sentimental? If done wrong it can come off as forced or "heavy handed". How does one walk that fine line?

In this day and age does sentimentality still work? We have become so jaded as a society and do we generally accept sentimentality in media? The reason I ask this is because I just got back from my yearly visit to Walt Disney World and when I hear Rex Allen in the Carousel of Progress I get a lump in my throat that I'm sure the average person doesn't get. Does sentimentality "sell" these days?

Thank you.

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Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:28 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 905 Location: HERE!

I think, just as in playing absurd comedy or heartbreaking tragedy, so long as an actor lets the words and imagery carry the sentiment, each individual audience member will be moved by their own organic response to a scene or role.

The actor's challenge is to resist the temptation to oversell the moment, by underscoring their dialogue with maudlin tones and gushing rendition of emotionally charged words and phrases, or with heavy doses of sniffling and weeping thrown in to give the audience license to "let it all out" in chorus with the character. In this more "hardened" cynical age, I'd think people are far more likely to feel tricked or manipulated into opening up emotional floodgates by "cheap" sentimentality that was once a well accepted convention of popular melodrama; now scoffed-at as too "corny" or "cheesy" to taken to heart.

But indeed sentimentality does still play an important role in generating sympathy and empathy with a character's plight, and surely must be secretly craved by even the most sophisticated audiences for a socially-sanctioned "session" of cathartic emotional release. Only it must now be handled with realistic subtlety to be "bought"; best lightly underplayed, instead of overtly "ladled on" with the kind of heavy-handed theatrical syrup that once was popular. A single tear down the cheek can strike like a thunderbolt; whereas a sobbing, blubbering spectacle of sadness will evoke only derisive laughter and embarrassment from most people, who would be mortified to be seen as "caught up" by such calculated "tearjerking" manipulation of primal emotions. You just have to trust the scene to play effectively all by itself, and perform the lines with reserved realism.

Experience will dictate when and how far the actor can take a key moment of performance to stimulate its intended reaction, without the audience becoming aware of any exercise of craftsmanship or egocentric display of talent behind the performance. Otherwise you may find yourself permanently relegated to the unenviable category of sappy Soap Opera hack, who no self-respecting director would trust to deliver sincerity and believability with any role - sentimental or not.

(*Many of our generation, myself included, "fall apart like a cheap suit" upon hearing the sound of Rex Allen "back home" in the Carousel of Progress. But we wouldn't have that reaction, if his inclusion in the cast were to have been heralded by a fanfare of sentimental glop, or framed by warm and fuzzy strains of wistfully evocative musical flourishes to oversell his already nostalgically rich and folksy "comfort food" vocal tone. Now that's how sentimentality is done right for today's audience!)

Mike Sommer

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 2:31 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 455 Location: Los Angeles

Long gone are the Hollywood Boulevard, dramatic "open arms to the heavens" Shakespearean soliloquies of John Carradine.

I'm with you on underplaying. So we should let the words carry the emotion, and the audience can take it from there. Right?

~~~~~
A tiny rant here:
Sometimes I wonder if todays modern audience is really all that sophisticated or just distracted? For the past year I've noticed at the theater or at outdoor events, the blue-green screens of "textters" or Fallini over there with his bloody camcorder. These unwanted distractions have yanked me out of the "emotion of the performance" more then a few times. "Grrrrrrrr!"

Rex Allen gets me every time too. "Pass me the tissues CB. An' someone call me a cab, I don't think I'll be able to drive home tonight." Sniff Sniff

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Tom Wagner

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 3:09 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 597 Location: Long Island, NY

Mike Sommer wrote:

Rex Allen gets me every time too. "Pass me the tissues CB. An' someone call me a cab, I don't think I'll be able to drive home tonight." Sniff Sniff

Mike, I must confess that being in WDW for over a week I visited CoP close to 10 times (Just can't get enough) and EVERY TIME I heard Mr. Allen's voice in that final scene it affected me.

Now if we could only revert the CoP to the old days and get rid of Jean Shepherd, I'd be a totally happy man.

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~ There's a Great, Big Beautiful Tomorrow...~

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:58 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 905 Location: HERE!

Mike Sommer wrote:

...we should let the words carry the emotion, and the audience can take it from there. Right?

More or less, yes. Although a few subtle brushstrokes of showmanship can still be appropriate, if applied sparingly, with a skilled hand.

Quote:

Sometimes I wonder if todays modern audience is really all that sophisticated or just distracted?

Oh, I think, on average, modern audiences are less sophisticated than the far more literate population of generations past. They only flatter themselves into believing they are "too cool for the room", and reject earnest efforts by performers to touch their calloused or stunted emotional organs. So, emotions must now be unlocked by the "sneak attacks" buried in the words and imagery of the script, with so few willing to let the music of voices reach their vulnerable "soft spots". Even then, they are compelled to swear and ridicule performer and audience alike, for "falling for" such "girly-man" sentiment. As if it were foolish to experience richly evocative entertainment on a meaningful level!

Tom Wagner

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:13 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 597 Location: Long Island, NY

This could be a thread all by itself but...how do you know something is going to work? Can you sense that the scene you just performed is going to connect with the audience or do you send it out into the world to fend for itself and hope for the best?

Thank you.

_________________
~ There's a Great, Big Beautiful Tomorrow...~

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:02 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 905 Location: HERE!

That's the gamble one always takes as a performer: You Never Know - until the results play out to "paying" audiences on a grand scale. But experience can certainly make those results quite a bit more predictable: You will increasingly learn what generally works, and hopefully figure out some of the reasons why.

Mike Sommer

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:24 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 455 Location: Los Angeles

Tom Wagner wrote:

I must confess the last time I saw COP was 35 or so years ago, where at the end you passed Walt's original model of EPCOT as you walked out- CB may remember that.

I knew there had been some changes but I had no idea that they had replaced "Fathers" dialog with Jean Shepherd. I did a quick YouTub query and yep, there is was. There have been some definite changes some for the better, some not- but that may be my sentimental heart speaking.

Jean is a great story teller, but I don't believe he was ever know his singing abilities, there are a few moments there Jean sounds like CB doing his Grind House spot.

At the end Rex really pops out of the mix, there is some age in his voice playing grandpa but other then that he's solid as a rock, and all the other voices sound thin and week next to him.

There's been talk of bringing COP back to DL, but Tony Baxter has been tight lipped about his Tomorrowland makeover, due to begin sometime in the next 4 years.

_________________
The problem with reality is, there's no background music.

The Blog:
http://voiceoveraudio.blogspot.com/

Tom Wagner

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:34 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 597 Location: Long Island, NY

The two voices that stand out in the CoP are Rex Allen and Mel Blanc. Mel's Uncle Orville and the Parrot overshadow everyone except Rex. Shepherd doesn't "fit" in the show and his singing is mediocre at best and until you get used to it is jarring.

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~ There's a Great, Big Beautiful Tomorrow...~

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:57 am

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 905 Location: HERE!

I can't help but agree...

Incidentally, I'd heard that most (if not all) of the host character's singing is actually a soundalike performance. If so, it's a perfect match, to my ear. (Which raises the question: Why even bother?)

Tom Wagner

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:30 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 597 Location: Long Island, NY

Wow! They would have been better off using Rex Allen's original vocals for the singing. Who ever the sound-alike is he did a great job in sounding crappy Very Happy

_________________
~ There's a Great, Big Beautiful Tomorrow...~

Mike Sommer

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:13 am

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 455 Location: Los Angeles

CB wrote:

Doing a quickie Wiki: This last update was done in 1994. There was a lot of sitting around over there at Imagineering at that time... doing anything was better then doing nothing i guess.

While watching the 1940's segment on YouTube, I could not help but notice the kitchen table was moving around a bit, as if father was cutting his BLT with a jackhammer. This movement draws the eyes to the circa 1980's acrylic salt and pepper mills, and that "Big Lots" jack-o'-lantern. Yeesh!

We also see Father looking a little like... No, a lot like Bernie Lomax, from "Weekend at Bernie's"

Much better, father in his original pose on the stool.

What a difference a strong pose and great staging makes! Very dynamic indeed.

Sorry if I'm off topic, I've been kind of punchy today.

_________________
The problem with reality is, there's no background music.

The Blog:
http://voiceoveraudio.blogspot.com/

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:09 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 905 Location: HERE!

And y'know - come to think of it:

...That awful wig is completely wrong for the era. "The Dry Look by Gillette" didn't even exist until the 1970s; and the style is... well... "Waayy too cool for the room, Daddy-o".

Here's hoping for a clever new tribute makeover of the grand old attraction, now that WDI has Lasseter at the helm. That would certainly be Great...

"Or does that sound like an echo from the past? Well, I guess it's about time to move on. All of us should know the song by now. Let's sing it together..."

Tom Wagner

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:16 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 597 Location: Long Island, NY

Here's a clip of Walt Disney with his Carousel of Progress: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn1y0cCmJVE

Everyone sing along with Rex Allen!!!

_________________
~ There's a Great, Big Beautiful Tomorrow...~

Mike Sommer

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:21 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 455 Location: Los Angeles

CB wrote:

Where's my Brylcreem?.. A little dab will do ya!

CB wrote:

And y'know - come to think of it:
Here's hoping for a clever new tribute makeover of the grand old attraction, now that WDI has Lasseter at the helm. That would certainly be Great...

Amen. Have you ever worked with Mr Lasseter?
The few times that I've happened to meet him at Park events, he always came across as a gracious, fun, talented and a creatively intense man... A force to be reckoned with.

_________________
The problem with reality is, there's no background music.

The Blog:
http://voiceoveraudio.blogspot.com/

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