Thursday, October 9, 2008

Apatow/Rogan remake Disney

So I was home ill yesterday and pleased to find some pay-cable channel or another showing "Knocked Up". I had seen it in the theaters and enjoyed it and identified with it strongly (Paul Rudd's character, not so much the porn-site running stoners or the pregnant girl). It is certainly the strongest offering in the now oversaturated Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen market (though I'm yet to see Pineapple Express).

Anyway, it dawned on me as I watched parts of it this time that it's a remake of Lady and the Tramp, sans songs and siamese cats. Rogen is a tramp who struggles with this woman pulling him away from his Bohemian lifestyle, and Heigl's character is (obviously) Lady, slowly being charmed by the tramp's carefree attitude. Rogen's character is truly a tramp, unemployed and living off the last $900 of an accident settlement he believes will carry him for a few years. She slowly warms to aspects of his lifestyle, even helping him screen movies for celebrity nudity to log on his website; much like Lady was willing to throw off her muzzle and scrounge for hand-outs with Tramp. I didn't make it through to the end on this viewing, but if I recall correctly it is almost identical to the end of the Disney film - in the same way that Tramp ends up domesticated with Lady and a litter of puppies, Rogen ends up domesticated with Heigl and a newborn.

Then "Hot Fuzz" was on next....seems I miss a lot of good movies by being gainfully employed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I liked Knocked Up a lot. It was part of a number of 'secular' movies that decided to show what happens when you keep the unexpected pregnancy, which is pretty interesting. And Paul Rudd is always wonderful...sigh.

But it drives me crazy that movies are so often about some loser-y guy, not very attractive, but funny and with a good heart who somehow manages to score a really hot girl by showing her that being a loser is really just being true to yourself.

I'm sure that it's an encouraging message for guys out there, but I have to admit, kind of lame for the ladies.

Jason said...

Don't worry, us unattractive loser-y guys know better. I think these kind of movies are our equivalent of romance novels. We know they're fantasy, but it's a fantasy world we like to live in for a couple of hours every now and then.

I kind of disagree as to the broad generalization of "Knocked Up", though. I think Rogen's character certainly has "grown up" more by the end than Heigl's character has "slackered down" to his level.