al Page 8 -The Michigan Daily- Wednesday, February 19, 1992 Disney cashes in with a Baker Street Mouse The Great Mouse Detective dir. John Musker et al by Michelle Phillip Those guys at Disney are at it again. Apparently the powers that be de- cided that the 100 million-plus that they're raking in from Beauty wasn't enough. The greedy bastards have re-released 1986's The Great Mouse Detective, in hopes that it will coast in on the coattails of Beauty. Fortunately for them, this little trick is going to work. The Great Mouse Detective is a charming tale based on the Basil of Baker Street series. The evil Ratigan (a rat with the voice of the consum- mate villain, Vincent Price) as part of a sinister scheme to become the ruler of Mousedom, kidnaps Faversham, a kindly toymaker. Mind you, Ratigan does it in front of Faversham's daughter, Olivia - if this doesn't play with your fear of abandonment, I don't know what does. Lonely and terrified, Olivia befriends Dr. Dawson (a.k.a Watson) who introduces her to Basil (a.k.a. Sherlock Holmes). Together the three are off to rescue Faversham. Along the journey, Basil stumbles and bumbles his way to clues. He never can seem to remember Olivia's last name, and if it weren't for the Deus ex Algebra, he never would have been able to save Dawson and himself from Ratigan's death trap. But Basil manages to stay ahead of the game, making for many amusing moments in Mouse Detective. Thesfilm has a well-written and well-paced story. Mouse Detective's plot has no major holes, and achieves dramatic tension nicely by showing what the bad guy is up to while the hero is busy tracking him down. It's impossible to lose interest, unlike some non-animated features that cost $100 million in which we don't see the antagonist for 45 minutes, viz. 12. And there's lots of juicy violence, including a cat that eats the Ratigan's foes who dare to make the mistake of calling him a rat (obviously playing on that old mouse/rat dichotomy). The Great Mouse Detective was made at a time when Disney wanted to recapture the splendor and glory of days past. Although Mouse Detective is good, it's not as lavish as The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast. There are only two musical numbers (well, 2 1/2 if you count the recording of Ratigan's farewell death song), and neither the songs, nor Henry Mancini's score are very memorable. The backgrounds aren't very elaborate, and if you watch closely, half of the characters don't move most of the time. But Disney draws very hard on the golden days in this one, making references to its past magnifi- cence (Watch for the Dumbo hommage). In its attempt to regain the crown as reigning champ of animation, Disney succeeds. Although animation has been regarded as light children's fare, The Great Mouse Detective has all the sophistication necessary to attract adult audiences and shouldn't be overlooked. THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE is playing at Showcase. . If Teenage Fanclub is homely, then Primal Scream is fuckin' ugly, right? But one member's cool enough to wear a Teenage Fanclub T-shirt. 1 - Winners display laurels by Emily Manriont SCREAM Continued from page 5 When it comes to the subject of rock music, Duffy is very animated about what he sees as a lack of glamour and exoticness, which to him is personified by people like Iggy Pop and Sid Vicious "We are our own heroes. There's too many businessmen making records these days. No one's real anymore. I respect the Happy Mon- days and Kate Bush. People that are honest. At the same time, I respect Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker. They're still making good music." Duffy is equally animated when the subject turns to drugs, the one topic that is the focus of just about everything ever written about Primal Scream. "I think people get lazy, don't know what to write, so they focus on (drugs). I mean, when we were just touring in Europe, we would get complete strangers coming up to us, doing interviews, and the first thing they would say was, 'What drugs are you on?' They could be secret ser- vice police or something! It's per- sonal. Everyone's got their own drug. When we say 'Get high until the day you die,' to us, it's a very spiritual thing." 4 I There's more to music education than sitting in practice rooms and orchestra rehearsals. The School of Music's Annual Concerto Com- petition allowed the most talented to shine in their diverse musical styles and instruments. The goal of the Concerto Com- petition was to present to the pu- blic outstanding undergraduate and graduate performers at the School of Music, and to give stu- dents the opportunity to appear as soloists with an orchestra. Though all students have the opportunity to perform as soloists, a winners' concert is a prestigious showcase of the cream of the crop. On Monday night, half of the winners presented the pieces with which they competed. They were accompanied by the University Philharmonia Orchestra. The so- loists were Todd Craven,- trumpet; Joel Hastings, piano; Scott Hol- den, piano; Robert Bracey, tenor; and Jeffery Lyman, bassoon. On Wednesday, the University Symphony Orchestra will accom- pany the second set of soloists. This evenings' performers are Marjorie Bagley, violin; Robert Tuttle, clarinet; Shun-Lin Chou, piano; Katherine Oliver, bassoon; and Soo-Reyon Kim, piano. They will perform works such as Rach- maninov's Piano Concerto No. 3, and Copland's Clarinet Concerto, student Leslie Hogan's com- position Cavalcade. THE ANNUAL CONCERTO COMPETITION WINNERS will perform at 8 p.m. tonight at Hill Auditorium. Admission is free. FANCLUB Continued from page 5 the music, but I don't really like Robert Plant's vocal. I think some days, you do something musically and it seems a bit crazy to stick a vocal over the top, you know ... "I think a lot of bands mess around with instrumentals but they never really use them because they don't think they should. We just think, 'Oh, well, we'll just do it' ... I don't think you should feel like you have to use a formula for what you 'We're not afraid to be uncool.' -Raymond McGinley TFC guitarist do. If it seems like an instrumental, then just do it." But is it cool to "just do it," to be in TFC, or to like TFC (or MSP for It's possible that Primal Scream is just more honest about their drug use than other bands, especially in this almost Victorian era of "Just say no." There's probably other bands that do a lot more drugs than Primal Scream. "I don't know about that one!" Duffy replies with a hearty laugh. He continues, "For us, the music is the real drug." PRIMAL SCREAM plays St. An- drew's Friday as part of "3 Floors of Fun." Tickets are $7.50 at. TicketMaster (p.e.s.c.) .Doors open at 9p.m. that matter)? "Of course, yeah. But we're not afraid to be uncool," McGinley, states."I think the good thing about anyone is not being able to blow your cool on occasions. And we've blown it on quite a few things. I think we got away with it." TEENAGE FANCLUB plays with SUPER CHUNK at St. Andrew's, Hall on Saturday. Tickets are $5.50 in advance at TicketMaster (p.e.s.c.). P;gx; tt \)o FUNDING Continued from page 5 there were questions for Rapanos, Pollack, and Sederburg. Many in- quiries dealt with how well legisla- tors and members of the MCACA represent the interests of the average person in matters of art. The panelists' replies reflected a trust in the democratic system: the elected are accountable to their constituents, and it is they who ei- ther make decisions about public art interests, or appoint those who do. Rapanos also pointed out that the in- put of arts professionals is sought when making policy and funding de- cisions. The concern was again raised that those "professionals" rep- resent an elite group, whose tastes don't necessarily represent those of everyday people. Participants then split up into small"brainstorming" groups, where they exchanged ideas about how to influence policy making. They came together thirty minutes later, with most of the groups having reached similar conclusions: to affect a change in government policy toward the arts, it is first necessary to edu- cate people - all people - in the arts, and to make them available to everyone. Not a surprising conclu- sion by any means, but one that needs to be affirmed and reaffirmed again and again. But there is a vicious circle at work: less public money spent on the arts means that a shrinking elite becomes the only group who has ac- cess to the arts, which means that fewer orchestras, theaters, and mu- seums can reach out to those com- munities that can't make private do- nations; the smaller number of pa- trons an institution attracts, the less funding it receives from public sources. The other conclusion is perhaps; the most important. The "arts community" isn't just made up'of opera singers or abstract artists wh' dress in black turtlenecks. They are the engineering majors in Men's Glee Club; they are members of a community orchestra; they are people who visit the University Art' Museum and kids who finger paint;, they are people who write poetry, or, go to poetry readings; they are the, people who watch films as well as~ those who make them; writers about, the arts, and just as importantly,. those who read about them. As a 'theater-going, record-buy- ing, "Wayne's World" fan, YOU TOO can participate in the arts and determine what kind of impact they can make on the rest of society.;; Don't let anyone with season tickets to the Bolshoi tell you different. ~\ i/ With your host Blake Robinson and studenvt comedians Tom Cohen UNIVERSITY Dino Markus CLfor more information call 763-1107