Vivement la rentrée

I watched the Daria TV-movie "Is It Fall Yet?" primarily because I have a friend from the Internet (won't name names) who loves the show, and urged me to see it -- and to see the episode before it called, "Dye! Dye! My Darling!" (I think that's the title).

So, I taped it and last Tuesday, I watched it. And was it ever fun! The movie features the adventures of Daria, Jane, and the rest of the crew from Lawndale High off on summer vacation. However, it's more about how Jane and Daria try to deal with their relationship, which has been tested thanks to the fact that Jane's romance with Tom Sloane didn't work out and he is now dating Daria (something which begins in the earlier episode). Daria feels torn between Jane and Tom and her cynical attitude and her guilt nearly wreck any possible romance between her and Tom! Fortunately, things work out: Jane gets over her understandable feelings of hurt, Daria doesn't lose her friend, and she and Tom try again in their developing relationship.

As I said, I really enjoyed it. The movie was very smart and funny, and it was rather deep too, as it dealt with a friendship being strained, and a romance strained by the attitude of Daria and by her own guilt. I was glad that the whole thing was resolved -- Daria and Jane emerge from this crisis with a stronger friendship than before, enabling Daria to try again with Tom. A neat subplot deals with Quinn, Daria's sister, and how she learns she has more depth and more intelligence than she may have once realized. Her seeming lack of depth is a mask -- one of the many masks or defensive shields used by characters in this movie, such as Jane and Daria.

In short, I almost wish I had seen the series earlier. I hope to see how things turn out in the fifth season.

Belle Book

Having seen Daria only once or twice in its MTV days (and liking it even then), I recently became a REAL fan when I saw the show's reruns on The N (nearly the only reason that station is worth watching). I since sought out the two films, "Is it Fall Yet?" and "Is it College Yet?", I was not disappointed.

After seeing this one, I was immediately taken by the further depth and insight into the characters, particularly the title character, her best friend Jane and her younger sister Quinn. Daria opens up so far as relationships, but by far the best point is Jane's convictions of who she is and the fact that no one is going to change her mind. Outstanding. I always knew there was more to Quinn than the Fashion Club "Depths of Shallowness" (see the episode "Monster") and I was glad to see it come to the surface.

This was a great one, containing all and more of the wit and dry humor of the series. 10/10.

Nobody who has ever seen Beavis and Butt-head could've imagined that the universe of one of the supporting characters would turn out like this. The opening theme is a spoof of those beach blanket movies of the early-1960's, and the theme song can only be described as an anti-Beach Boys song.

Our beloved heroine Daria Morgendorffer(Tracy Grandstaff)spends the summer feeling guilty over how she ended up with Jane's ex-boyfriend Tom, who we find is the son of one of the co-owners of the investment firm Grace, Sloane & Paige. Jane, hoping to escape the turmoil of her relationships with Tom and Daria spends the summer at an artists' colony, which turns out to be populated with a bunch of pretentious snobs. When a tattooed girl named Alison(Alternative rocker Bif Naked)makes sarcastic remarks about a "mentor"(voiced by the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl), Jane thinks she may've found a new partner-in-crime. Unfortunately, she turns out to want something from Jane that Daria never wanted... her BODY! Fans have often speculated Daria and Jane are closet lesbians, simply because they aren't girly-girls. This movie tries to raise the issue and put it to rest, yet both characters remain lesbian icons in some circles.

Speaking of girly-girls, Daria's normally happy-go-lucky sister Quinn fears her grades are keeping her from attending a party college, and ends up getting a tutor named David Sorenson(former TRL host Carson Daly), who's not as swayed by her good looks and charms as other boys. And though she tries to keep her tutoring a secret, fashion club rival Sandi uses it to try to humiliate her, but as usual this backfires and makes her more popular. When the other girls give him a try, Sorenson realizes that Quinn is the only member of the fashion four who takes his lessons seriously. But what he doesn't realize is that there's more to this than Quinn's desire to get a passing grade... she actually starts to fall in love with him. But does he feel the same? Meanwhile, Jodie Landon and M.J. "Mack" MacKenzie will end up spending another summer apart from each other. Lawndale itself does not realize the misery it'll face when Kevin Thompson and Brittany Taylor are hired as...LIFEGUARDS!!

Like Daria, Anthony DeMartino ends up spending the summer at Mr. O'Neill's summer camp program called the "It's Okay to Cry Corral," and if Daria doesn't have enough of a reason to cry already, she befriends a nerdy angst-filled kid named Link, who's more pessimistic than she is. When Mr. D takes his hatred of Kevin Thompson out on a camp bully with a painting of a football player, he actually becomes popular and respected for the first time since who knows when. And when Mr. D. gets fed up with the touchy-feeliness of the camp and takes the kids on a hike in the woods, his popularity with the kids is sealed.

The longest song ever performed by Mystik Spiral "Freakin' Friends" is a clear plea for Daria & Jane to maintain their friendship. And after seeing Daria secretly harbor(and deny) a crush on Trent in seasons one, two, and much of three, we get to find out how she handles having a boyfriend for real. The only people who would be disappointed with this movie are those who expect Tom to be evil and hope for a street-brawl between him and Trent. Every other Daira fan, will find something they like about it, even if they don't think it's the best Daria episode/movie ever.

That movie was pretty damn funny! I was so glad to see that Daria had her own made for TV movie. I think that if you like sarcastic, sassy, brains you will love Daria. If you love QBs, cheerleaders, unintelligent life, annoying, prissy, fashionable people you are crazy and you'll love everyone else that pollute Lawndale!

I have a confession. Even though I am an adult and parent of a teen, I watched all the Daria TV shows and movies when they first aired. Apparently, this show aimed at teens is something I could still enjoy--even though I am an old fuddy-duddy! Recently I bought copies of the two Daria movies. I would have bought the entire show, but so far they have not been released! How MTV could do that or allow the shows to have been rebroadcast a few years ago on Noggin (chopped up in many cases as well as only showing about half the episodes) is beyond me.

If you have never seen the DARIA television show or if a cartoon about teens isn't something that would interest you, then you might not particularly love IS IT FALL YET?. However, being a high school teacher and having two teens of my own, this insightful and funny movie is terrific.

At the onset, I need to point out that the quality of the animation for all the DARIA shows and movies is very poor--something typical of almost all the MTV cartoons. However, despite this, the writing is so good and so dead-on that I highly recommend this to anyone--especially those with an irreverent sense of humor.

First let's give a general overview of the main character, then let's discuss the film. Daria is a high schooler who is both very bright and very cognizant that many of her contemporaries are idiots. She and her best friend, Jane, are the definite odd-balls on campus as they have no interest in fitting in and they are just biding their time until they can graduate! Additionally, they spend most of their time together making commentaries about the idiocy of the students and faculty of Lawndale High School--commentaries that are extremely accurate.

This movie is about the summer before their senior year and Daria and Jane's relationship is very strained due to Daria's poor decision to date Jane's ex-boyfriend. Not unexpectedly, most of the summer is spent apart--Jane at an art camp and Daria working as a counselor at a touchy-feely camp run by Mr. O'Neill. The film not only follows their summer, but also that of several other Lawndale High's students as well.

The movie is quite angst-filled as well as very insightful and funny. Teens and parents alike should be able to see a bit of themselves and their classmates in the characters--though of course in an over-the-top manner. For example, while empty-headed jocks are something we all can relate to, finding one as dumb as Kevin is a tough assignment! The only reservations I have at all about the film are the quality of the animation (but I looked past this very quickly and it didn't in any way inhibit my ability to enjoy the movie) and a brief scene involving bisexuality. For teens, this isn't particularly a problem. As a school teacher, I know that teens talk about this a lot--probably too much. But for younger audiences, parents should be aware of this.