Last year's Pesky Squirrel Pumpkin. Here's the pattern; it was a big hit with the neighborhood. I recommend a big pumpkin, a melon baller, and a vegetable peeler for effects.
Tomorrow night, the good little children shall be getting Snickers, KitKats, and M&Ms. Children who don't bother to wear costumes shall get Smarties. Mwahahahaha!!!
This year, I am also giving you some nightmare fuel. Click to read:
Continuing the tradition of finding weird Disney things, how about some weird Disney Halloween-ish things?
Here's "The Skeleton Dance" from 1929 (NOTE: 20's era cartoons = creepytown) set to Taco's version of "Puttin' On the Ritz". I'd give you the original version with the original music, but I couldn't find it, and this AMV is pretty good and actually makes this song listenable:
I LOVE "Trick or Treat" from 1954! Donald Duck and June Foray as a nice witch both = Instant win. And dig the song's compellingly confusing lyrics ("Your little white house turns green!"):
And speaking of Donald Duck (my brother under the skin; we're both horror story sissies) here is a spooky cartoon from 1945 that is not only the eeriest Donald Duck cartoon, but one of the strangest Disney cartoons ever made (though not the weirdest*):
Now having just watched "Duck Pimples" again, I noticed that it's certainly stranger than I remember. It is incredibly dark for Disney; you'd never expect this kind of unnerving surreality from them.
Everyone have a happy and safe Halloween!
* - "Duck Pimples" is simply darker than expected, and it might even freak you out if you watch it late at night. But the weirdest Disney cartoon, for those of you just joining this blog, is "Plutopia", the usual reaction to which is, "what the hell did I just watch?"
Shortly followed by, "I just watched a Mickey Mouse cartoon that started out completely normal, but ended shortly after Pluto was being overfed by a self-loathing, suicidal, sadomasochistic cat who constantly begs Pluto to bite him. And I cannot UNsee it."
Note: I can guarantee that by the time some of you read this, most of these old cartoons will have been taken down. Tell you what, Disney. If you want to keep people from watching your cartoons online, how about you f***ing air them on television once in a while?
I remember when Toon Disney first arrived and the people in charge of it had the balls to say, "We're BETTER than Cartoon Network! They just acquired the rights to the MGM and Warner Bros. libraries. But we have an almost 100 year old tradition behind us!"
Guess what's on Toon Disney tonight?
"Power Rangers" reruns.
Well, first of all, raise a pint to Geocities. Somebody at FARK called this the end of the fun "oh, what the hell" era of the Internet. I don't know about that, but I will say that seeing this got me more emotional than I expected. It's the first Obligatory Holiday Content of the season! Yay!!! I absolutely love this time of year. Since Halloween is fast approaching, I'd like to inaugurate the Halloween Costume Count (and Inadvertent Pop-Culture Barometer) on this blog. All you have to do is list what the kids in your neighborhood are dressed as this year. It's a lot of fun to see which costumes fluctuate in popularity and which kids are the most creative. I have noticed that every year Princesses, as a group, are most popular among girls with no one character taking the top spot. Superheroes are most popular with boys with a different character being most popular each year, often depending on who's most visible in the public consciousness that year (I got a lot of Batmans last year for example). Last year (checking my retired MySpace page again; I've been "rescuing" old posts from my retired websites), I had well over fifty kids Trick-Or-Treating over the course of two hours, peaking around 8:00. This is the time of year where I learn that my neighborhood is full of weirdos very creative people. I think the best costumes were a glowing Ariel and light-up Spider-Man (brother and sister; they might have been hand-made too), and a kid that went as "your mom". As far as strange Trick-Or-Treaters, I once had an entire family of seven - including grandma - in creepy masks (it's funny how Halloween is such a Weirdness Censor; a masked family crashing into my porch and begging for candy at any other time of year would be... worrisome). I also had Wonder Woman and her dog (she was carrying her little terrier around as she traveled the neighborhood; I'm sure the dog loved this), and a "Red Sox Fan" -- a paper fan with socks pinned on. Now, this picture is from last year, but it illustrates an important issue that some of you may be facing this week: What to do with all those pumpkin seeds? Yes, all those seeds came out of this one little Sugar pumpkin (IMO, your best bet for simple carving). Some people like to roast and eat them, but I mix them in my bird seed. The local Cardinals go nuts for them, so they are worth saving. Last year, I wasn't sure what to do with the "meat" (does that word really apply to a plant?) I've since found a recipe that, it it's good, I may share in a future post as it could work for Thanksgiving as well. If I don't mention this recipe, you may feel free to assume that it was either a failure or the meat wound up in the compost pile. "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" airs tonight at 8:00PM. You may be aware that there was a book published a couple of years ago, Schultz and Peanuts and that it caused a bit of a sensation in cartoon and comic fan circles. There's an excellent article about the book written by Bill Watterson, who manifested in our Dimension for the first time in many, many moons to weigh in on the controversy. Now, I couldn't help but think of all this the last time I watched "Great Pumpkin", "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving", "It's the Easter Beagle", and especially "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Apparently, many people were surprised at the book's revelation that Schultz was somewhat bitter and angsty, and that this was a huge surprise as there was no indication whatsoever of this in the happy-happy sunshine world of "Peanuts".
Don't get me wrong, I love the Peanuts specials and have nothing but deep admiration for the comics, but there's no effing way these characters were born out of an optimistic, "people are wonderful" mind. Anyway, this year "Great Pumpkin" is taking second-billing to something called "Monsters Vs. Aliens Vs. Evil Pumpkins", which I have seen approximately one-million commercials for compared to about three ads for "Great Pumpkin".
For your enjoyment, here is a link to "Disney's Halloween Treat" on YouTube. Disney Channel brats will remember this one. Dig the creepy low-budget 80's horror movie effects. Note that part one starts with the notoriously nightmare inducing Evil Satanic Laser Mickey company logo. I'm warning my fellow born-in-the-late-70's people so they can fast-forward through the Nightmare Fuel. For older (or younger) people, just try to imagine having to get through this in order to watch "Winnie the Pooh" or "Mary Poppins" or something.
As usual, let's have some art (from last year, but still awesome) first. Click to go to the Flickr page and see the larger version. I'll have my Comicon thoughts after they're organized. Heck, I am probably going to wait until after Halloween and devote the entire next week to it. It is going to take me a long time to sort through my freebies, purchases, photos, sketches, and contacts. It was a very long and exhausting weekend in general, but I had a lot of fun and met a lot of really awesome people and exchanged lots of postcards with other illustrators. Illustration isn't a very social career choice, so anytime large numbers of artists get to talk face-to-face is fantastic. I actually ran out of promotional postcards about an hour before I left - but that's definitely a good thing. To anyone joining the Blog after meeting me there, welcome! I'll be writing about drawing, animation, film, literature, and anything else interesting that comes up. For those of you standing, please hold on to the handrails throughout our journey and stay clear of the doors. For the comfort of others, no smoking please. Thank you, and welcome to our highway in the sky! ---- But because it's holiday-appropriate, if Mario and Princess Toadstool are reading, the "Twilight" features can be read here and here. And if anyone still needs to find a costume for Saturday, I have some last-minute suggestions at The Realm. I you have a Geocities website, you have until tonight to rescue it!
(NOTE: This post pretty much repeats everything from the previous post about Bo-Com-Con, so here's cuteness. As always, click for big:)
Boston Comic Con - Saturday & Sunday October 24th & 25th. 10am to 5pm both days. Admission: $10 per person each day. Children under 10 free. Wear a costume and get in for FREE! Really, you have no excuse not to come in costume. Where: The Back Bay Events Center, 180 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA This place is a little hard to get to. It's probably easiest to take the T. Take the Green Line to the Copely Square station. Walk down Boylston Street, past Dartmouth and Clarendon Street, until you hit Berkeley Street. Walk down Berkeley, past St. James Ave., and The BBEC should be the large building on your right. Alternatively, follow all the people in costume.
I will be at the Comic Artist Guild Table. As this is the weekend before Halloween, I will probably have photos to share later if I can take some discreetly. Come on down and get yourself a promotional postcard!
And it is also time to Thrill The World on Sunday! Go join a pack of dancing zombies near you.
AND, we've started seeing commercials for "A Christmas Carol". We've done enough harping on ugly animation, so I'll ignore that factor for now. I'm more curious about something my cousin and I discussed after seeing the commercial for the third time during the course of one twenty-minute long television program:
COUSIN: "Another movie based on 'A Christmas Carol'?! WTF?" TRISH: "Yeah, how did this conversation go? 'I'm sorry, Rob, but they've already made A Christmas Carol into a movie.'" COUSIN: "Ha ha, 'Oh, but what if we made an animated movie?'" TRISH: "'There are dozens of animated Christmas Carols! And it is practically obligatory for every animated series to do a holiday episode that parodies the story too!'" COUSIN: "'Aw, man... WAIT! Has anyone ever made a THREE-D CHRISTMAS CAROL MOVIE?'" TRISH: "OMG you are a genius!!!'"
Well, first off, here's some art. Click for big: A week ago, I worked in the garden for the first time in months. I will not put off working in the garden for months if I can at all help it ever again. I had to dig up a lot of weeds and encroaching grass (it is almost hilarious how I have grass growing happily where I do not want it and no grass at all where I do want it.) As of the time I am writing this, I'm still hurting in some sensitive areas.
(Oh, calm down. I meant my joints. And my thumbnails. And my most of me.)
I don't know if I've had a chance to mention this before, and even so, I'm hoping some of you are new readers who met me at Boston Comicon and are doing an archive binge of this blog (I am extremely and very nerdily honored if this is the case). I am a native New Englander. That means I am genetically predisposed to complain about the weather. However, to be honest, I like seasonality. I like the fact that the growing season is ephemeral up here; it makes it all the more lovely. And I enjoy colorful leaves in autumn and -brace yourselves- I like snow.
With all that said, I'm wondering if spring bulbs are a distinctly temperate zone phenomenon. I had a fair number of daffodils early this spring, but I figured this would be a good year to replenish the garden. Bulbs are fairly easy to deal with and are a great choice for a family project - IF your kids are patient.
Like, having to wait up to twenty-four weeks for "delivery" patient.
You see, that's the downside of planting bulbs. Actually getting them in the ground takes a bit of effort and good timing (wait until after Daylight Savings Time ends and you may have completely wasted your money). I've got at least 120 out there now, and I am betting that at least half of them make it through the winter.
If this makes you cringe, you'll be happy to know that bulbs are easy to "cheat". Wait until the week after Easter (April 4, 2010) and you can snap up full-grown tulips and hyacinths for half off. This is much more expensive than planting bulbs en mass in autumn - but it's also easier on the nerves.
This is how most books of gardening will encourage you to plant bulbs.
And normally, I don't do this. I've done it with the onions only because they're easy to see and I only have a few of them. For tulips, daffodils, and the Anemones I'm experimenting with for the first time, I just dug a pit several inches deep, tossed the bulbs in, set them right-side up, and covered them with dirt and mulch. It's just as random as the "scattering" method shown above and much easier to keep track of. And this is the "after" picture. The yellow and burgundy mums are there just for color as my perennials have all gone to seed. Occasionally, these mums will turn out to be perennials themselves, and will show green leaves early in spring.
As a funny addendum to the previous post, there is now no evidence *at all* of the storm on Sunday. As a matter of fact, it was pretty warm in the sun on Monday.
So now, the only major thing to do out there is get the bird feeder set up...
First off, this song is dedicated to everyone who I hope saw the same cold white stuff I did yesterday:
I went to the Zoo! Then I went home and wrote a picture-heavy post about it.
Naturally, I did a lot of sketching at the Zoo. I think this was maybe the second time I've ever been to Franklin Park and maybe the fourth or fifth zoo I've ever been to. (We could argue all day about what constitutes a zoo, but I'm counting traditional "animals from all over the world here for you to learn about" zoo: the maybe two times I've been to FPZ, the one time I've been to Roger Williams Park Zoo, and a zoo I randomly visited while randomly in Indiana.) The thing I have to point out is this:
NOBODY noticed me drawing.
That was actually pretty disconcerting after a while.
(I did meet one nice lady to whom I gave my postcard because You Never Know. And there was one more typical guy who asked, "What're ya gonna do with those drawings?" I didn't know how to answer that one, but at least it was original.)
My aunt and I were the only adults visiting the zoo without being accompanied by a herd of small children, which helps explain things. It's funny how all the people at FPZ were either parents or children under the age of, say, seven (maybe. See, I lack whatever intuition normal women have that allows them to judge a child's age at a glance.) Point is, it made me feel a little sad that there weren't many older children or younger adults. It's not like there's an age where humans outgrow seeing live animals.
Is there?
Photography at the zoo tends to be more socially acceptable but is, as you can see, a dicey proposition. If I knew how to build a newfangled high tech camera, I'd add a feature where you could tell it to focus on the leopard or the Kea, not the fence behind which the leopard or the Kea lives. Duh.
That said, I can't tell you how happy I was to see these guys. I actually didn't even know about Ground Hornbills until I read Tetrapod Zoology's excellent article about them (this is the older, somewhat more evocative version). I wish I could print out copies and hand them out in front of this exhibit to get people to linger her a bit longer instead of rushing to the next Obligatory Big Famous Mammal; they really are fascinating in action. This guy played with a patch of grass for a good twenty minutes.
The Franklin Park Zoo, overall, is awesome for those of you wanting to be a mammal staring at dinosaurs. They do have the aforementioned Obligatory Big Famous Mammals (Lions and Tigers and Zebras and Giraffes and Gorillas and so on - not knocking them, it's just that they're so popular.) However, they have a stunning variety of birds. They have a fantastic aviary and a walk-through tropical forest which is worth the price of admission in itself. And it's open nearly all the year, which is fascinating to me.
I may have to revisit the Ostriches when it snows, see how they cope with it.
And here are my favorites among the many sketches I drew at the Zoo. Click these thumbnails to see the normal sized drawings:
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You may have heard of this Design a "Simpsons" Character contest. If not, here is a brief explanation with a perfect accompanying image. This makes me actually feel a little sad, because I would have be ALL OVER THIS CONTEST - in High School.
But now? Well, now I'm just, "m'eh."
From the official Email I just got. Everything in blue is added by me.
Boston Comic Con - October 24-25th! Only one more week 'till The Boston Comic Con!!
Saturday & Sunday October 24th & 25th. 10am to 5pm both days. I'll be there both days at the Comic Artists Guild table.
Guest starring: Tim Sale (You may recognize him as the guy who does nearly all the art in "Heroes".), Walt Simonson (just added), Geof Darrow (Best known as one of the concept artists for the "Matrix" trilogy.), Herb Trimpe, Mike McKone, Khoi Pham, Cliff Chiang, Stephane Roux, Eric Canete, Jim Calafiore, & David Mack!
Admission: $10 per person each day. Children under 10 free. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! - Wear a costume and get in for FREE!Weee! I like this because it means you have no excuse to not go dressed as your favorite character (or whatever you come up with at the last minute.)
Where: The Back Bay Events Center, 180 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA This place is a little hard to get to. It's probably easiest to take the T. Take the Green Line to the Copely Square station. Walk down Boylston Street, past Dartmouth and Clarendon Street, until you hit Berkeley Street. Walk down Berkeley, past St. James Ave., and The BBEC should be the large building on your right.
Alternatively, just follow all the people in costume.
The Boston Comic Con is the largest comic book show in New England. Don't miss it! 'Nuff Said.
PS. Bill Sienkiewicz has been rescheduled to the April 2010 Boston Comic Con.
Aww, I was going to bring in that weird Santa Claus book for him to sign. Oh well, maybe next time.
I've been to Bo-Com-Con twice so far and have enjoyed myself each time. Even if you aren't a comic book fan, you'll find something interesting there for you. Just the opportunity to meet artists is enough of a reason to go, and there's a good mix of well-established professionals, people who are just starting out, and everything in between. And for those of you who heard the horror stories from this past year's San Diego Comicon, rest assured that Bo-Com-Con is much less overwhelming in scale, less about hyping the latest big Hollywood summer blockbusters, and more about illustration and meeting artists and having fun. The atmosphere is like a big party, and it is very family-friendly. You know how some communities host Open Farm Weekends so that kids can "learn where their food comes from"? Bring the kids to Comic-Con so they can learn where their favorite characters come from.
Ow, my thumbnails. And pretty much everything else. I may have gone a little overboard gardening yesterday. Anyway, the second half of this essay (here's Part One) is made up mainly of book reviews (for the record, I was required to consider whether each book was appropriate for a school classroom) and a brief summary of the author's biography and Bibliography:
The Sign on Rosie's Door, Written and Illustrated By Maurice Sendak As in the Picture Book Analysis Project*, I will be considering these eight books in chronological order. In this way, I will be able to review Maurice Sendak's growth as a writer and artist. The Sign on Rosie's Door is the thirty-ninth book illustrated by Maurice Sendak. However, it is only the third book that Sendak himself wrote, based upon his own original ideas. The story is about an imaginative little girl whom Sendak has since identified as an amalgamation of several children he'd known in real life in his Brooklyn neighborhood. Like her real-life counterparts, Rosie is a born actress with a wildly creative imagination. She has a talent for bringing other children into her fantasy role-playing and refuses to break character for anyone, even if the play is interrupted. This is a book that celebrates a child's ability to use her imagination. Rosie is the typical Maurice Sendak child-hero. She's spunky, artistic, and not always appreciated by adults and less imaginative children. Her story is both hilarious and achingly ironic (the ending of the first chapter is a great combination of humor and pathos). The illustrations are charming and energetic. We feel like we know these children, as their faces and gestures convey a great deal of personality. Sendak's style of illustration in this book tends to be less concerned with realistic detail and more with animation and characterization. Sendak's books are almost always better for older children, but Rosie is appropriate for all ages. Overall the book feels like an episode of an animated series (one can easily imagine the further adventures of Rosie and her friends). As it happens, Rosie and the four little books of the Nutshell Library formed the framework for the animated feature "Really Rosie", one of Sendak's disappointingly rare excursions into film. * - I had to review a series of picture books by one illustrator in chronological order. I'll have that up sometime later, possibly December. (You'll see why when you see who that illustrator is.)
Where the Wild Things Are, Written and Illustrated By Maurice Sendak Here is Maurice Sendak's signature book. Wild Things caused a sensation when it was first released in 1963. It would go on to win the Caldecott Medal, and it is today regarded as a classic of its genera. However, it is also a book that tends to make adults anxious. Are the titular monsters too scary? For some children, especially very young ones, they could be. You might not want to read this as a bedtime story to a preschooler. However, it's wonderful as an energetic read-aloud for second-graders and other children around the age of the hero, Max. You'll notice, in the book, how Max finds the Wild Things more comical than menacing. In fact, Sendak has recently explained that his inspirations for the Wild Things are none other than his older relatives. More specifically, they are caricatures of how he saw them as a little kid. The pen and ink and watercolor artwork in Wild Things is evocative, and once again brings to mind a particularly lavish animated film. Much has been said about Sendak's creative use of borders and of blank, white space. As Max travels to and from the world of the Wild Things, the images grow until they fill the page, and then shrink back down again. It took Maurice Sendak quite some time working on the story of Wild Things before he finally decided he'd got it right. The language of the text is understated and adds to the dreamlike quality of the images. There is great humor in the story and a sense of fun, and above all Sendak respects the child's ability to use his imagination.
Hector Protector and As I Went Over the Water, Written and Illustrated By Maurice Sendak This book contains two obscure Mother Goose rhymes illustrated by Maurice Sendak. He hasn’t changed the rhymes at all, but he has expanded considerably on their plot. The illustrations are once again pen and ink and watercolor and very animated. Hector Protector, in Sendak’s version, is a little boy who’d probably rather be outside playing but instead has to get dressed up nicely and deliver a cake to the Queen. He protests this unspeakable injustice by screaming “no!” repeatedly, and drop-kicking the cake the moment he’s outside. After encounters with a lion (who may have wandered in from the island of the Wild Things), and a boa constrictor, our hero makes a truly memorable appearance in the Queen’s court. In the second story, “As I Went Over the Water”, another little boy sails about in a ship that is swallowed by a rather silly looking sea monster. The boy heads to an island where he meets two accusatory birds. After taming them in a fit of violence, the boy heads back into his boat (recently regurgitated by the monster) and makes the repentant animals his skippers. It’s obvious that Sendak had much more fun expanding on “Hector” than “Water”. The first story is so hilarious and memorable that the second pales in comparison. It’s hard to say how this book could be used in a classroom, but it’s fine for older students to read by themselves.
Higglety Pigglety POP! Or There Must Be More to Life…, Written and Illustrated By Maurice Sendak 1967 was a very hard year for Maurice Sendak. His mother had fallen very ill. While on a trip to England, he had a severe coronary attack. After recovering from his near-death experience, Sendak returned home to find that his beloved terrier, Jennie, was suffering from cancer. Higglety Pigglety POP! was published less than a month after Jennie died. This book is a love letter to a dear, lost friend. It is illustrated in loving, intimate pen and ink drawings that simulate the look of Dürer engravings. Many of these drawings are based directly off of photographs Sendak had taken of Jennie. The story is an engaging modern fairy tale. Our furry heroine heads off on a voyage to find her destiny, meeting a series of unusual characters along the way. (They are also very patient characters. For example, the first living thing Jennie converses with is a potted geranium who accepts Jennie's appetite, her most prominent personality trait. The plant does not complain as the dog rapidly eats off all its leaves.) Jennie lives happily ever after, safe and loved in a mysterious castle that no one can quite remember the directions to. This book can be enjoyed by children of any age. However, it is perhaps most profoundly moving for older readers. It should be noted that the book is actually quite humorous in tone and its underlying themes of loss and remembrance are kept very subtle. Perhaps there aren’t many young children who could understand the subtexts. But you never know with some children, so I wouldn't use this in a classroom if I knew that a student had just recently lost a pet.
In the Night Kitchen, Written and Illustrated By Maurice Sendak Bizarre, unique, and ultimately unforgettable, this book is one of Sendak's personal favorites. Night Kitchen contains a wealth of pop-culture cross-references, and it is a celebration of everything Sendak remembered well from his childhood. The hero, Mickey (named after Mickey Mouse of course) has a very strange dreamlike adventure in a realm where three fat, happy bakers bake cakes all night long. The story is inarguably weird. It works, however, because the text is bold and brassy and has the feel of an old nonsense-rhyme. The artwork is colorful and energetic. It is straight out of a Windsor McKay comic illustration, and is packed with wonderful details and inside jokes. With all that said, this book might not be for all people. All of Sendak's books have a dreamlike quality, but this one actually takes place within a characters' dream. That means that the story doesn't use the same logic that more normal stories do. This could be a little much for the classroom. Not to mention the fact that Mickey is unabashedly naked for most of the story. It's hard to say how In the Night Kitchen would fit in a classroom, but it is worth reading. The book is a hallmark of Sendak's career and it was made into a delightful animated short film by surrealist director Gene Deitch.
Some Swell Pup! Or Are You Sure You Want a Dog? Written By Maurice Sendak and Matthew Margolis and Illustrated By Maurice Sendak Two little children, a boy and a girl, sit in the windows of their playhouse longing for a puppy. A mysterious stranger (who happens to be an anthropomorphic dog) overhears them and drops an adorable puppy on their doorstep. The children are overjoyed by their good fortune. Their new puppy proceeds to urinate on their carpet. The puppy then goes on to maul the upholstery, defecate on the floor, and generally trash the playhouse. So Maurice Sendak, with the help of Matthew Margolis, the director of the National Institute of Dog Training, has created an unflinching, warts-and-all guidebook about the reality of raising a puppy. His use of comic book style art and formatting adds much-needed humor to the mayhem. He makes it very clear that pets can be a handful sometimes. Yes, it is funny when the puppy pees on the floor... but guess who’s going to have to clean up afterwards? This is a book that faces issues up front that very few children’s books are willing to acknowledge. But Sendak has faith in the fact that having a pet is well worth the effort. The love is rewarding. In the end, the children accept their new responsibilities. This book is an excellent resource for parents who want to discuss with their children exactly what to expect after bringing a pet into the house.
Outside, Over There, Written and Illustrated By Maurice Sendak This is perhaps the best of Maurice Sendak's more recent books. It is an eerie modern-day fairy tale based upon a wide variety of elements that had been floating around in its creator's unconsciousness for decades. Ida, the greatest Sendak heroine since Rosie, takes her eyes off her baby sister for a split second, and in that second the baby is snatched away by mysterious, cloaked goblins. Furious, Ida immediately sets out into the weird demon playground of the title in search of her sister. She finds an ingenious way to defeat the creatures and returns with baby… and her mother and father have no idea of her dangerous adventure. Visually, this book contains the most astonishing artwork Sendak has ever produced. The colors are intense and reflect Ida's changing moods. The bizarre other world of the goblins is as strange and scary as a horror movie. In fact the book is without question too frightening for small children (and unnerving for adults as well; the eyes on the ice doll the goblins replace the baby with will haunt you for days). The story is exciting and the writing is offbeat and poetic. It follows the strange logic of folktales, and Sendak isn't shy about putting his characters through serious danger. Sendak has since hinted that each of the characters and events in the story has a real-life counterpart from his childhood in the 1930's. Ida could be Sendak's older sister. Baby could be the kidnapped Lindbergh baby, and the entire story could have been sparked by Sendak's horror about the case and its outcome. The goblins might be caricatures of the Dionne quintuplets, there is a cameo from Mozart, and the ironic ending is clearly inspired by "the Wizard of OZ". While not as familiar as Where the Wild Things Are, Outside, Over There is a masterpiece.
We Are All in the Dumps With Jack and Guy, Written and Illustrated By Maurice Sendak This is easily the strangest Maurice Sendak book of all and that's saying a lot. Dumps is fairly recent, published in 1993, and is one of the last of Sendak's books to receive significant attention in the mainstream press. It is about as far removed from Sendak's previous nursery rhyme books (such as Hector Protector) as you could possibly get. Instead of happy and funny, this is rather downbeat and more than a little disturbing. Here's the story. In the first rhyme, a group of orphans live by themselves in a little shack. They are tormented by nasty, scary-looking ratlike monsters who kidnap a huge litter of kittens and a tiny baby. The story continues into the next rhyme, where two of the orphans, Jack and Guy, rescue the baby and the kittens with the help of the ever-present and increasingly angry moon. This book is bleak, even though the story ends happily. All of the environments are dirty alleyways, smog-belching factories, and overgrown ditches. The bad monsters are terrifying and the helpful moon isn't any less scary. I like Sendak, but this book was a bit too much. It isn't hard to see why this book gained notoriety. It pushes a lot of thematic buttons. It is very difficult to decide who out there would enjoy a book like this and I haven't the slightest idea what you could do with it with children in a classroom. Nonetheless, it is so unusual that it is worth it for adults to read.
Biography * - Born Maurice Bernard Sendak on June 10, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York; * - Parents were first generation Polish immigrants; * - Sendak never enjoyed good health as a child. He entertained himself by making up stories with his older brother and drawing pictures to go along with them; * - Took inspiration from the daily life of the city around him; * - Sendak’s art is most profoundly influenced by Disney films and Windsor McKay comics; * - Sendak’s books never speak down to children. He celebrates childrens’ use of imagination and love of fantasy;
Books and Films
Books Maurice Sendak wrote and illustrated himself (selected): Kenny’s Window, Harper, 1956 Very Far Away, Harper, 1957 The Sign on Rosie’s Door, Harper, 1960 The Nutshell Library, Harper, 1962 Where the Wild Things Are, Harper, 1963 Hector Protector and As I Went Over the Water, Harper, 1965 Higglety, Pigglety, POP! -or- There Must Be More to Life, Harper, 1967 In the Night Kitchen, Harper, 1970 Some Swell Pup -or- Are You Sure You Want a Dog? Farrar, Straus, 1976 Seven Little Monsters, Harper, 1977 Outside, Over There, Harper, 1981 We Are All in the Dumps With Jack and Guy, HarperCollins, 1993
Selected books Maurice Sendak illustrated for other authors (starred writers are frequent collaborators, so to speak): * Ruth Krauss, A Hole is To Dig, Harper, 1952 * Else Minarik, Little Bear, Harper, 1957 Hans Christian Anderson, Seven Tales, Harper, 1959 * Randall Jarrell, The Bat-Poet, Collier, 1964 Isaac Bashevis Singer, Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories, Harper, 1966 George Macdonald, The Golden Key, Harper, 1967 (currently published by Farrar, Straus) Frank Stockton, The Griffin and the Minor Cannon, Collins, 1968 * the Brothers Grimm, The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm, Farrar, Straus, 1973 E.T.A. Hoffman, The Nutcracker, Crown, 1984
Filmography: Maurice Sendak’s only director credit (so far) is the animated film, “Maurice Sendak’s *Really Rosie*”. However, a feature film was made of “the Nutcracker” with sets and costumes based upon his designs. Surrealistic animator Gene Deitch made a delightful short film adaptation of “In the Night Kitchen” which is well worth hunting for. It and “Rosie” have been released on home video by Weston Woods. Both Little Bear and Seven Little Monsters have been adapted into ongoing animated series.
Online Resources Curiously, Maurice Sendak doesn’t appear to have his own official website. His publishers have very brief information to share. Here are their websites: Harper Collins Hyperion Books
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The main reason why I was moved to publish this online is because it seemed last week as though someone had cried out, "Let the 'Where The Wild Things Are' backlash begin!" Listen, Maurice Sendak says he loves the hell out of the film*, and that's enough for me. And it turns out that the few people who have seen "Wild Things" and disliked it have also admitted a dislike for the thematically very similar "My Neighbor Totoro". Apparently, the slow and whimsy-heavy pacing of "Wild Things" is very Miyazakian. They act like that's a bad thing in a movie for kids. * - He very succinctly shares his opinion on an issue I brought up earlier: "The controversial content of the book hardly bothered anyone, but for some reason now that it's a movie everybody panics. WTF?"
Boston Comic-Con is a week from tomorrow! I'll be there, of course, at the Comic Artists Guild table, and as of right now I am scheduled for mid-day both Saturday and Sunday. Come by and pick up a promotional postcard!
And if you live in New York City, you can go see some at WizardWorld this weekend! And I'm very glad that ToughPigs recently posted a blog about this television special which, as you'll see, was so strange I thought I dreamed it.
Because "Where the Wild Things Are" made me think of it, of course, and because I was lucky enough to find it on the first backup CD I took out of the filing cabinet (trust me, this is very impressive.) I don't think I mentioned this before, but I have my Master's Degree in Education, with a focus on children's media. Basically, this means you can trust me when I recommend a work of fiction directed at children. With your life. Anyway, what you're about to read is one of the many essays that comprised my thesis project. (The thesis itself is about four inches thick.) I was assigned to write a biography on a significant figure in the world of children's fiction and Sendak turned out to be one of the most fascinating people in the field. Today, I'm posting the bibliography and biography, and the next post will have book reviews and whatever else didn't fit here. Final draft originally "published" 5-1-2005.
Bibliography Children’s Books Written and Illustrated by Maurice Sendak: * Grimm, Wilhelm. (1988). Dear Mili (Ralph Manheim, Trans.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (Original story written 1816). * Kushner, Tony. (2003). Brundibar. New York: Michael di Capua Books. * Sendak, Maurice. (1960). The Sign on Rosie’s Door. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers. * Sendak, Maurice. (1963). Where the Wild Things Are. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. * Sendak, Maurice. (1965). Hector Protector and As I Went Over the Water. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers. * Sendak, Maurice. (1967). Higglety Pigglety POP! -or- There Must Be More to Life. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. * Sendak, Maurice. (1970). In the Night Kitchen. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers. * Sendak, Maurice and Margolis, Matthew. (1976). Some Swell Pup -or- Are You Sure You Want a Dog? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. * Sendak, Maurice. (1981). Outside Over There. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers. * Sendak, Maurice. (1993). We Are All In the Dumps With Jack and Guy. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
Other Books * Jones, J. Sydney. (2000). Sendak, Maurice Bernard. In Alan Hedblad (Managing Ed.), Something About the Author (Vol. 113) (160-169). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, Inc. * Lanes, Selma G. (1980). The Art of Maurice Sendak. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. * Sendak, Maurice. (1970). Fantasy Sketches. Philadelphia, PA: The Meriden Gravure Company * Sendak, Maurice. (1988). Caldecott and Co. Notes on Books & Pictures. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. * Zinsser, William (Ed.). (1998). Worlds of Childhood: the Art and Craft of Writing for Children. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Articles and Films * Maguire, Gregory. (2003). A Sendak Appreciation. The Horn Book Magazine, Vol. 79, 667-682. * Marcus, Leonard S. (2003). Where the Wild Things Are. The Horn Book Magazine, Vol. 79, 703-706. * Sutton, Roger. (2003). An Interview With Maurice Sendak. The Horn Book Magazine, Vol. 79, 687-699. * Deitch, Gene (Writer/Director). (1987). In the Night Kitchen [Motion Picture]. Weston, CT: Weston Woods. * Fleming, Victor (Director), Langely, Noel (Writer), & LeRoy, Mervyn (Producer). (1939). The Wizard of OZ [Motion Picture]. Hollywood, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. * Luske, Hamilton & Sharpsteen, Ben (Directors), Battaglia, Aurelius (Writer), & Disney, Walter (Producer). (1940). Pinocchio [Motion Picture]. Hollywood, CA: Walt Disney Motion Pictures. * Sendak, Maurice (Writer/Director), & Riss, Sheldon (Producer). (1976). Maurice Sendak’s *Really Rosie* [Motion Picture]. Los Angeles, CA: Wood Knapp Video. * Schindel, Morton (Producer). (1985). Getting to Know Maurice Sendak [Motion Picture]. Weston, CT: Weston Woods.
"We'll Eat You Up, We Love You So" - The Worlds of Maurice Sendak One of Maurice Sendak's earliest memories from his childhood was a cold February day in 1940; the day his older sister took him into town to see the Disney film, "Pinocchio". Although they arrived late, and missed the first twenty minutes, Sendak was enthralled. This movie was imaginative, scary, and poignant. And best of all it was smart enough to understand what life was really like from a child's point of view. It respected the fact that childhood is full of happiness and wonder, and that it is just as often frightening and upsetting. It immediately became one of Sendak's all-time favorite films. When Sendak was a teenager, he decided to read the original Carlo Collodi novel, which inspired the Disney film. He was stunned by what he read. Disney's Pinocchio is an innocent fool-hero; he runs into trouble without meaning to do so. But the original, printed page Pinocchio is a nasty little brat from the very beginning. Worse yet, he is told, over and over, that the only way to redeem himself is to fully obey all of the adults without question. The punishments given to Pinocchio when he refuses to obey are astonishingly cruel. Maurice Sendak was appalled. Here was a story written by somebody who clearly didn't understand young children at all. Or else, the author hated children and thought they were malicious by their very nature. In either case, Collodi clearly believed that children needed to be frightened into behaving nicely all the time. (Sendak, 1988) This was an important turning point in Sendak's career as a writer for children. He vowed that no matter what, he would respect his young audience on their own terms, and he would never, ever talk down to them. For this reason, Maurice Sendak is inarguably one of our generation's most important writers for children. Maurice Bernard Sendak was born on June 10, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were both immigrants, both from small Jewish neighborhoods outside Warsaw, who had come to America from Poland some time before World War I. Maurice was five years younger than his brother Jack and nine years younger than his sister, Natalie. As a child, Maurice Sendak never enjoyed good health. When he was very young, he fell ill from both measles and double pneumonia, and was bedridden for thirteen weeks. His parents worried ceaselessly about Maurice's chances for survival… within the boy's earshot. It seems they took for granted that little Maurice wouldn't understand what was going on, but they were very wrong. "…My parents were indiscreet enough to bewail my sickliness and carry on about how long I'd be around. I learned early on that it was a chancy business, being alive… We don't like to think of kids worrying about such things but of course they do. They have no choice, if they're intelligent and sensitive and alive to what's happening in the world." (Sendak, 1988, p 209-210) Since he wasn't allowed to go outside and play very often, Maurice often had to entertain himself. His happiest memories of boyhood are of creating stories with his father and his older brother. Jack would write the stories down and Maurice would draw pictures to go along with them on sheets of cardboard. He still lists these books as the official first entries in his career-spanning bibliography. Not coincidentally, Jack became an author as an adult, and he has collaborated with his brother on a few books. Although he wasn't often allowed to go outside to play, Maurice did have something very important and fun to look forward to every week: his family's Friday night trips to the movies. Sometimes, they would go into New York City to go out for a special dinner, and afterwards they'd see a film. New York itself enthralled young Maurice, but it was the movies that had the most profound influence on his work as an adult. "If I'd been a Renaissance child and had lived in Rome, I could have gone down the block and seen Michelangelo working on the Sistine Chapel, and I would have been a much more enlightened and tasteful human being. But since I was a Brooklyn kid, there was only the Kingsway Theater and you made shift." (Sendak, 1988, p. 212-213) Sendak's favorite films as a child were the aforementioned "Pinocchio", and "the Wizard of OZ", "King Kong", the Busby Berkeley musicals, and the Laurel and Hardy comedies. He also spent a great deal of time reading comic books, and especially loved the lavishly illustrated fantasy stories of Windsor McKay. These books and movies would all be directly referenced in Sendak's three personal favorite books: Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, and Outside, Over There. Maurice Sendak's books speak directly to children, and to the child within every adult. His characters are spunky heroines and sassy heroes who are far more emotionally complicated than the literary characters in many books for adults. In many ways, Sendak's characters are incarnations of himself: wildly imaginative people who aren't usually understood by other, more sensible people. Other people don't appreciate the Sendak heroes' use of imagination and their emotional intensity. This is very important, because there seems to be a movement nowadays to shield children from anything that might upset them. The trend isn't exactly new, but the magnitude and intensity of it lately has become downright alarming. Children today are treated as delicately as porcelain dolls. They aren't allowed to play Tag during recess because it's too exciting and competitive. Teachers are told not to use red pens while correcting papers, because it might hurt their students' feelings. What Sendak does in his best books is acknowledge something that these well-meaning adults have overlooked: Kids aren't stupid. They are amazingly perceptive and can handle the issues and ideas that many adults would rather shield them from. "Children are extremely tough - they know exactly what's going to frighten their parents, and they don't ask questions that will upset mommy and daddy... you don't want to give them ulcers with questions they can't deal with. So you find out in the backyard, or from the landlady's daughter. But you do find out. Even before television, you found out. Isn't it kinder to give children the bitter pill in a work of art?" (Sendak, 1998, p. 23) Maurice Sendak legitimizes the unspoken concerns of children. He deeply understands that every child faces fears and disappointments, happiness and wonder, and his books are celebrations of the imagination. ---- On to Part Two! And head over to The Realm and enjoy a gallery of bizarre cheap Halloween costumes. Meanwhile, in real life, I am hopefully planting those spring bulbs I mentioned before...
First off, happy National [Enter Your Favorite Funny Satirical Name for Columbus Day Here] Day! Over the weekend, Time Out London published this feature which (internet fandoms being what they are) didn't take long to send some ripples through the animation community. Personally, I love the hell out of Gilliam. I hope "Dr. Parnassus" miraculously out-grosses "Transformers: Michael Bay Learns How to Add and Subtract".* I adore his animation style and sense of freewheeling "What the hell" surreality. And I like what he has to say about "Heavy Metal" in his list:
"Sadly, it's not the breast-filled bloodbath of orgiastic carnage set to the savage cacophony of Iron Maiden and Sabbath that one remembers. What we're in fact offered is a jarringly discontinuous parade of badly drawn cockamamie featuring... Stevie Nicks bleating away over an inscrutable snippet of hamstrung space opera."
"But Trish!" you ask, dear readers (both of you), "Why are you not crying foul over the fact that this is CLEARLY not a list of Gilliam's fifty favorite animated films, and is instead very obviously a list of fifty random animated features he wanted to say funny things about (although you like his 'Top Three')?!?" Well... actually, I was just about to say that. He does have a lot of questionable entries ("Robin Hood" ranks higher than "Pinocchio"?!?) And the only reason Ralph Bakshi's version of "Lord of the Rings" makes the cut is obviously so he can rip yet another hole into it. But it's a fun read, and it will hopefully introduce people to some great works they've never heard of. Plus he includes both "The Secret of N.I.M.H." and "The Brave Little Toaster", which is good enough for me.
* - It will never stop being funny. NEVER. ---- As a fan of speculative biology and creature design, I'd like to call your attention to The Morae River. Brynn Metheney's artwork is terrific, it reminds me a great deal of Terryl Whitlatch's "Star Wars" creature designs, and I certainly hope she succeeds in publishing her world-building project.
I just learned about this event, taking place this Sunday, called The Big Sit. Think of it as the hardcore version of Project Feederwatch. Clear your calendar for Sunday (it should be pretty clear anyway it being Sunday and all), register with the Birder's World website, and check your backyard (or any other small area you like) throughout the day, keeping a running tally of the birds you see.
The name naturally comes from the idea that some people will get a deck chair and sit in their backyards to participate. Not a bad idea, as long as it's sunny.
If I had known about this event in advance, I definitely would have participated. Now that it's eleven at night, the night before the night before, I'm not sure...
(Oh hell, I will join in. Maybe even do another Great Backyard Birdcount-style live-blog. Cause I'm crazy like that.
Besides, how can you NOT join in something called The Big Sit?)
UPDATE
My circle was wowed by the Loons and the Ravens and Osprey. Here's hoping the Golden Bird is in that list, though I'm expecting that to be something a bit more rare than anything we saw.
I didn't mention this yesterday, but the instructional Big Sit video is worth a watch:
Note the drunken birdwatching! I am not saying that I condone such behavior, but I am wondering, if you're going to go ahead and birdwatch while intoxicated, why stop at alcohol?
"OMG, I see an Alicanto! Ooh! There's a Rahonavis! Wow! And there's a Zapdos!!! I gotta get a sketch of this!"
Residing in my game cabinet is this odd little relic of 1980's Disneyana. Jaymer Puzzle 2424: "Disney Friends, Then and Now". Let's start putting it together, shall we?
The "Then" portion of the puzzle is pretty self-explanatory. Portraits of the five most popular Disney cartoon characters based upon their earliest known or most iconic early appearances. I actually really love this puzzle because it's a lot more challenging than you'd think. All those bright colors get very confusing after a while. Now, that big empty spot is where the "Now" comes in. Let's start with America's fun couple:
Our old friend Mickey is rocking his iconic "Costume I stole from James Spader while he was filming 'Pretty in Pink' / Bright Red Chuck Taylors" ensemble. This is what Disney thought would make Mickey look cool to us 80s kids with our Mtv and our Nintendos and our British bands and our Hula Hoops and our piercings and our Bullfrogs and our children's card games... But hoo boy, take a look at Minnie! No matter how crazy this image gets, know that there was a considerable upshot: Minnie Mouse became a far more interesting character than she'd ever been after fifty years of being "Mickey's girlfriend". As a matter of fact, she had her own "Totally Minnie" album, her own television special, and...
And very quickly and sadly devolved back into her boring old self once this was all scrapped and Disney fired up the cutesy-poo "Minnie and Me" merchandise line. She once again donned her polka-dot dress and giggled over Mickey. Sigh... But moving right along...
Pluto's hip and current outfit is a little more subtle than the others. For that, I suppose, we should be grateful.
But I don't know what the hell is going on with Goofy back there. Is he meant to look like a fighter pilot? A la "Top Gun"? Remember, it was around 1987 and Tom Cruise was still every 80's kid's cool uncle. And then, there's Donald.
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No, really. I don't know what I could add to this to make it funnier.
Here's the full "Now" image (this time from the puzzle's box for a clearer view). It's funny how, while there have been some costume changes, these are essentially the "default" designs for the characters even now and they haven't changed much. You may even see images Mickey and Minnie the way they look here floating around the Internet.
Hoo boy, I wore myself out before Noon yesterday. I decided to start work on a project that I had worked on for hours and finished multiple times in my imagination. (As I get older, I realize that the only thing more annoying than finishing a big project in your sleep and then waking up to see that it still isn't even started is getting into an argument with a Twilight fan.)
I eventually bullied myself into digging. Five feet of rocks, roots, and other (I like this word) stressors later, I gave up. I had realized that this was silly because I was lacking the proper tools for this job and hadn't even really thought this plan out and I hit a wall. A very cold wall made out of wind. I really just wanted to extend the main line of rocks out one foot. That will give me enough room for the many, many spring bulbs I have to plant.
You will probably have some fun stories about these bulbs in your future...
Above, you'll see my last Sketchbook and my current Sketchbook. Summer '09 is a 6 x 12 '' Pentalic Nature Sketch. It was amazing for just pure drawing and for watercolors. However, it did not play well with scanners. It's weird how that factors into choosing a Sketchbook for me now. Here's a look inside: Fall 2009 is an 8.5x11'' Cachet Earthbound I found in -of all places- Wall-Mart. I'd used one of these books before and while the unbleached paper takes a bit to get used to, it's fantastic to draw on. This is 100% recycled paper; this is paper with history. I like sketching on paper with some history.
Now as for the meat of this post, I may have to scream (or type angrily rather) and swear a lot, so sensitive readers may want to wait until Thursday, when I'll post about another Weird Disney Thing. OK? OK. You'll notice a "Yellow Submarine" bumper sticker on Fall 2009. This is my silent protest. You see, recently, Disney announced that Robert Zemeckis is all set to helm a 3-D motion capture remake of "Yellow Submarine": "'Yellow Submarine' is one of the greatest fantasy films of all time, and making this new 3D performance capture movie is a dream come true for me. With the latest advances in technology, we will be able to take moviegoers on a voyage unlike any other, and bring new excitement and dimension to Pepperland and the various sea worlds they encounter." - Zemeckis (from here)
..... Robert Zemeckis. Is going to remake "Yellow Submarine". Using Mo-Cap. In 3-D.
..... One more time. Let it a-a-a-a-a-a-l-l-l-l-l sink in:
..... 1) Robert "About to lose the Free Pass For Life I gave him for 'Roger Rabbit' and 'Contact'" Zemeckis.
2) Is going to remake as in "not bring something imaginative and new to the screen". "Yellow 'Essentially "Fantasia" with Beatles songs and one of the few full-length animated features that really doesn't look like anything else out there' Submarine".
3) Using Motion Capture technology... 4) ...In Three-Effin'-D.
5) And the reason given why he is doing this is, essentially, "Because we can." Well, folks, we've finally reached the absolute, uncontroversial nadir of the (not as) recent (as everyone thinks) "Let's Remake/Adapt EVERYTHING!!!" trend in modern (mainstream) film-making.The word "soul-less" is coming to mind here.
Speaking of which, this exists.
Edit - Best counterpoint to this "Yellow Submarine" remake: the teaser trailer for "Beatles Rock Band". I agree, I'd love to see an entire feature done in this style:
Just starting with a handy reminder that it's Pumpkinhead and Cocoa Cats season. If you are a Beer Snob and you also enjoy Peeps, good luck finding these. Coraline - Funny story. Right before I was about to settle down and watch "Coraline", some friends called and asked if I wanted to go see "The Orphan" with them. I declined. I dislike horror movies. They returned and we shared opinions of the films we'd seen. Turns out that "The Orphan" did not contain anything half as creepy as "Coraline". "Coraline" is an amazing film, especially from a technical standpoint. (Stay tuned after the credits to see a behind-the-scenes look at one of the cleverest effects.) It is definitely worth watching. During the day. With all the lights on. Because, you see, Neil Gaiman wrote this story after he discovered a direct mainline to every child's (hell, every person's) creepiest and most Freudian anxieties. (And by "Freudian anxieties", I don't mean "the whole thing is about sex" [which isn't even really what Freud was all about anyway], I mean "I had to read Bruno Bettelhelm's The Uses Of Enchantment in Psych 101 and I can't UN-read it".) In a decade or so, expect to hear the kids whose unsuspecting parents rented this for them saying to each other, "Remember 'Coraline'? Holy s**t, that movie messed with my head as a kid!" (See also my generation's "Return to OZ", "The Mouse and his Child", "Watership Down", and so on and so forth. Mind you, I'm not saying it's a bad thing for a kid to get freaked out by a movie...)
Night Watch / Day Watch - A pleasantly confusing dark fantasy film in two parts. It goes in some refreshingly strange directions. The second film is actually better than the first and is that rare sequel that actually rewards you for paying close attention to the first film. I highly recommend it... But ye gods, that ending. :( SPOILER TIME I'm not really cool with long movies that end with the hero going "I wish none of this had ever happened." And then they cut back in time to the beginning where the events of the story were set in motion, only this time they don't and the characters just go home or something instead of on the adventure. So, in short, the entire movie didn't happen. That's an acceptable ending to, say, a twenty minute episode of a Disney Afternoon series. It's a giant middle finger in my face when it's used to conclude a four-hour-long fantasy saga that I might have been little more emotionally invested in.
Blade Runner: the Final Cut - Every few years or so, you need to watch an older movie to remind yourself how awesome it is, and this new director's cut of "Blade Runner" is the perfect excuse. This is a gorgeous film and if you have somehow never seen it, you've got to go add it to your queue immediately. It's astonishing how well this movie has aged; it's twenty-seven years old and it looks better than some movies made last year. The city in which "Blade Runner" is set is still one of the best fictional cities ever created and I'm fairly certain it was all created with practical effects. It make a huge difference when things that cannot exist in reality occupy physical space. (Yes, I know how weird this sounds coming out of an animator. Once again, I do not dislike CGI. When it's used intelligently and not with and attitude of "ooh shiny, we're using CGI!") The script is fabulous as well, but this was the first time it struck me how deeply depressing the theme of this movie is. (Sometimes third time's a charm when it comes to finding a work of fiction's Big Theme.) More observant viewers have probably noticed this before, but this was the first time I realized that "Blade Runner" is all about death. More specifically it's about how utterly horrifying it is to be a human, because it means that you're terribly aware of your ultimate demise. Heavy stuff to have in my head right before bedtime after two glasses of White Zinfandel. Anyway, "Blade Runner". Still one of the best fantastic fiction films ever made. Dark City - It doesn't look like it from here, but I actually gave this and "Blade Runner" a lot more "room". Once again, great fantastic fiction film, great-looking fantasy city for a setting, smart, imaginative story - and another depressing theme. This time, it's another reason why it's utterly horrifying to be a human: the unreliability of memory. You may remember that awesome place you spent your early childhood with crystal clarity, but what if you go back there and it's not there anymore? How can you ever convince people it was ever there in the first place? And as you get older, how can you form any meaningful new memories at all if everything and everyone seems to change so fast? And if you can't trust your memory, can you ever really trust yourself? Now, "Blade Runner" dealt with this idea a little as well - in one particularly sad scene and not much else after this. "Memento", another film I adore, dealt with this very extensively. But "Dark City" takes this in a very unusual direction, and if you haven't seen this film yet, go for the director's cut. It lets the story unfold on it's own. The theatrical version (stop me if you think that you've heard this one before) had an opening narration that just explained the whole mystery right up front so the audience wouldn't be scared or confused. The Fall - I had no idea what this was about and was pleasantly surprised. The fantasy sequences are very well done and, refreshingly, consist almost entirely of practical effects. The framing story is actually done very well. (Personally, I think the "amazing fantasy adventure is actually just a story being told to/read by some kid" is one of the laziest storytelling tropes of all. If your movie isn't "The Princess Bride" [which basically parodies the concept] or "The Neverending Story" [which gets downright meta with it], don't bother.) It helps that the little girl character is a genuine honest-to-goodness little girl. Everything's new to her; she asks questions about things that adults wouldn't even worry about and the concept of personal space is as alien to her as the concept of personal property. It's incredible how much of a difference this makes. Incidentally, while this film is by no means okay for young children, it is rated R in America for reasons I can't fathom.
The Bear - I was vaguely reminded of this film by "The Fall"; both films contain nightmares that remind us that stop-motion animation can be the creepiest film technique and both films just step back and let their characters act natural. In "The Fall", we finally get a little kid who acts like an actual little kid. In "The Bear", we have animal characters who act like genuine animals. I hadn't seen this movie since I was very young and I only remembered being vaguely creeped out by it. The dream sequences notwithstanding, I think I understand why: the bears don't talk. There isn't even a narrator. There's no reassuring human voice calmly putting the animals' behavior in terms we can understand. There's hardly even any music. The film feels practically like a documentary rather than the fictional drama it is and the effect is amazing. It's a stunningly beautiful film and really demands a cleaned-up DVD release. Incidentally, this film is rated G for reasons I can't fathom. Weird.
Now, of all the rescued LaGremlinLand articles, the following has been postponed and rescheduled the most. It's probably the one I feel the most "meh" about: Never Mind "Another Brick in the Wall-E", Here's "Little Davey in Slumberland" (Modified from a feature originally posted at LaGremlin Land on 6/4/02.)
This is pretty awesome for something I stumbled upon by accident in college. (As with all former LaGremlin writings, no drugs were involved. Except coffee. Lots of it.) While this isn't going to be the next "Dark Side of OZ", it might at least be the next "Siamese Fantasia". That is to say, we're gonna talk movie/CD syncs. What You Need: The CD "Before These Crowded Streets"; the movie "Little Nemo in Slumberland" (sadly, it is very hard to find a good copy these days, but every video store used to have one); a CD player that lets you repeat a CD without screwing up. (I'm a traditionalist here. I'm sure a Magical Tiny Machine That Holds Music would work too.)
Plot Summary: (well, you aren't going to be able to hear the dialogue) For whatever reason, this movie is fairly obscure unless you are a Miyazaki completest. I'm a "Nemo" cheerleader. There really are some fantastic visuals in this movie. The animators managed to get the look of McCay's illustrations spot on. This Total Media Bridge review sells the film very well; I'd thought I was the only one who liked it. Nemo is a perfectly normal kid by day, but every night he has very strange dreams. After the circus arrives in his hometown, his dreams become more intense until finally the people in his dreams invite him to visit their world, Slumberland. There, Nemo must aid King Morpheus in protecting Slumberland from the Nightmare Demons. Goaded by a nasty little green gnome/clown/thing named Flip, Nemo learns that Morpheus has a demon imprisoned beneath Slumberland. They accidentally allow it to get loose and kidnap the King. Now Nemo and his friends must journey to Nightmare and save him.
How to Do the Sync: Set the CD to repeat and pause it. Start the video. The Tokyo Movie Shin... Shaw... Somethingorother title card will appear. Un-pause the CD when the red "V" part of the "M" in the studio logo starts to fly offscreen. If you're doing it right, Nemo's room fades into focus when Dave begins to sing in "Pantala Naga Pampa". Enjoy.
