Voir's Funny Face.
It should tell you something is amiss right off the bat when the best three parts of a Fred Astaire movie (Audrey Hepburn's fashion shoot in Paris, her beatnik solo in a Parisian cafe, and--best of all--Kay Thompson's fabulous "Think Pink") do not feature Fred Astaire. Maybe Tessa has some secret Audrey Hepburn fantasy, but the number is less a xerox than a carbon copy, down to the cheap knockoff costumes. I cringe whenever I have watched this, and get infuriated that this won Worlds over Marlie's iconic Die Fledermaus FD. And before Matt K and other Voir ubers come rushing in, I thought Voir should have won Worlds for Carmen (flawed as that FD is) over Marlie's Notre Dame. Those teams always did seem to win for the wrong programs. Tis a mystery.
By the way, Kay Thompson also wrote one of the best children's books ever: Eloise. The sequels are good, but Eloise is classic.
Oh, and here's a hilariously b*tchy take on Funny Face, the movie, by Tom and Lorenzo:
http://tomandlorenzo.com/2007/05/musical-monday-funny-face/
Yes, I was fascinated to find, as an adult, that the Kay Thompson who wrote the Eloise books was a movie performer as well.
I want a topic with your comment for all the programs.
No, Kay Thompson was one of the KEY figures in the golden age of American movie musicals at MGM and, as I said, the author of the children's classic Eloise (and its four sequels, all of which are wonderful, but Eloise is just one of the great characters of American children's literature).
You can read more about her here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kay_Thompson
I still the Eloise books, particularly Eloise in Paris
That was the first one I read as a child, so I still have a soft spot for it. Ankles is right: she's a wonderful, enduring literary character, like Pippi Longstocking and Madeline.
Here's one of Thompson's best scenes from Funny Face. It's a great lampoon of the fashion industry while being delightfully chic at the same time. Look at all those killer business suits the ladies are wearing. As you watch this, try to keep in your mind a vision of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX6TaA6IRkk
As much as it pains me to type this, I have to add another vote to Plush's Sabre Dance. I mean, credit to him for being one of the few people who can skate to such frantic music and not lag behind, but the music itself... should it even be called "music"? Made my ears bleed, and the costume kinda made my eyes bleed too. Enero's comment is spot-on, especially the "I’m surprised it didn’t drive the audience and judges batty" part. I guess I should be thankful it was a short program. Plush, too, since the technical mark is the tie-breaker in the short program.
I feel weird that I have no problem with Michelle's Scheherazade or Yuna's Kiss of the Vampire. Scheherazade would've been more than enough to win her the Olympics had she not fallen (and even with the fall, I enjoyed it more than Irina's lackluster performance). Yuna's Kiss of the Vampire wasn't as distinct as, say, her Vancouver SP, but it was still gorgeous. Or maybe I'm just blinded by how pretty her dress was, haha.