_The Time-Traveler's Wife_ , "Howl's Moving Castle", and other old reviews rescued from MySpace

(Originally posted on 3/22/06.)
When I started my old MySpace blog, I was on the hunt for a decent book. I had quite a few disappointments, even giving up on books that had been highly recommended to me. So I halfheartedly pick out a book I'd seen at the Library for some time now that looked kind of interesting, Audrey Niffenegger's The Time-Traveler's Wife. Go figure, it ended up being the first book in a long time that, about three chapters in, I had to do the Neverending Story thing with. (Neverending Story thing = Locking oneself in an attic and finishing a thoroughly amazing and engrossing book in one go. You know what that's like don't you?
Don't you?
I am a nerd.)
This is a book that made me laugh, it made me sob, it made me blush, and it made me shudder and - this is the kicker right here - the f___er made me think. And best of all, it made me think in the same way that my favorite truly thought-provoking fantastic fiction made me think. It takes a worn out fantasy concept and treats it with all-out seriousness, daring to ask what living with this fantastic element would really be like. (What I mean by this is, for example, that we learn the sometimes kinky, more often heartbreaking, and darn near always hellishly confusing and upsetting ramifications of quantum sex.) Imagine a good mash-up of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "The Sixth Sense", and "Memento". It's an emotional and mental workout, but it is well worth it.
And if I haven't sold you yet, there is the fact that your secret loathing of Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock-n-Roll" is finally vindicated in this book. Yes.

I must now heap praise upon Hayao Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle", which is on DVD this week. Now, If you're ever going to trust me on any movie recommendations, trust me on this. The Studio Ghibli films are Anime for people who don't think they like Anime. Everything Disney nailed in their heyday can be found here. I highly recommend you check them out.
"Howl" is Miyazaki's latest triumph. Dude must be sick of hearing that. Doesn't he get bored of making superior movies? The characters are absolutely delightful and I love how there are more interesting things going on in any given background painting than some animators put into an entire feature. (It's almost poignant seeing the "Chicken Little" teaser trailer on this DVD.) That said, it might not be the best place to start for newbies; I say start with "Kiki's Delivery Service". It's my favorite (if I have to pick) and the most easily accessible of his films. From there, watch "My Neighbor Totoro" (one of the best children's films ever and just released on DVD), then try "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" and "Princess Mononoke" (two of the great action-fantasy Animes of all time), and then "Laputa: The Castle in the Sky", "Howl's Moving Castle", and "Spirited Away" (surreal fairy-tale fantasies). And keep an eye out for "Little Nemo" - an underrated Studio Ghibli production but one of my favs.
Incidentally, I have to mention something about "Howl" that I find very, very strange: some critics have said that the plot is too convoluted. Honestly, I didn't find it any more hard to follow than other Anime. Whatever, dudes. Next you'll be complaining that chocolate tastes too good or something.

I got two strange animated films from the fifties at an evil supermarket for a dollar. They were "Panda and the Magic Serpent" and "Adventures of Mr. WonderBird". And they were actually pretty good.

And finally, I watched "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" on DVD. Dad and I both agreed that it was pretty good. We also both agreed that, although we know the work that the person in charge of condensing the "Brick" Harry Potters into films has cut out for him, it was very strange some of the things left out. The SPEW subplot is an obvious example. But where was the payoff to the Rita Skeeter subplot? And for cryin' out loud, how come we didn't get to watch the Quidditch World Cup or how the other Triwizard Champions battled their dragons? Honestly, as I was reading the book all those years ago, I was secretly thinking to myself, "You just know J.K. put this in because it'll look kickass in the movie." The more I think of it, the more disappointed I am...
I might have fully transformed into a Harry Potter nerd right there. Hang on...
Iorek Lives!!!
That's better.
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I've rescued a few old posts from MySpace and they'll be popping up over the next month.
And, there's a new review at The New Realm. Starting next month, there will be new reviews (or shamelessly recycled features with some new material) every week!
AND, I've uploaded a bunch of new art (and older art that I'd unintentionally hidden from myself earlier this crazy summer) at Flickr. Here is a sample, and you may consider it blatant foreshadowing of a future article:



In sillier news, did you get Oak's Letter yet?

One of my problems with cartoon-based movies.

Thus far, we've seen a "G.I. Joe" movie and "Transformers 2: Rollin' on the Floor" "Michael Bay Learns How to Add and Subtract!" Both of these made an obscene amount of money despite the fact that they both strikingly resemble irony-free remakes of "Team America". Later on, we're going to be subjected to another damn "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie, as well as this little brain-tulip, which I saw a commercial for earlier and which inspired this post:

Never mind the insanely sh**ty CGI used on Scooby Doo here. Here's what irked me:
In twenty-five years of "Scooby Doo" reruns, the question of how Scooby and Shaggy met never once occurred to me.
Likewise, I never asked myself, "Gee, I wonder what Cobra Commander was like before he dedicated himself to supervillainry?" Or, "Why are the robots always dealing with kids named Witwicky?"
There's a decent discussion on this very subject in this article, but honestly, I'm just very bitter because the local theater has three screens each dedicated to "G.I. Joe" and "Transformers", yet they do not appear to know what a "District 9" or a "Ponyo" is. Wah.
By the way, were any of you at all aware that the stupid-looking dentist show on Nick-at-Night was produced by Michael Eisner? Cause I wasn't.

Comic-Con International!

*sigh* Such are the perils of shuffling your scheduled posts around. I originally had this as a footnote to the next post, which was originally going to go up on Wednesday but got pushed back to Friday thanks to the "Let's Recast 'Futurama' For No Good Gorram Reason" debacle. Blame FOX. For everything.

Um, I mean, San Diego Comic-Con is this weekend! Woo-Hoo!

As you may have noticed, I usually focus on announcing conventions that take place in the upper-right-hand corner of the country (it's so that I don't have the "Ha ha, you can't go" song in my head), but this one's too important not to get a mention. I am unable to attend, due to being in the exact opposite end of the U.S. right now. But for those of you who can go, have fun, get your butt in the seat for the Disney Animation Panel tomorrow at 12:30 (Miyazaki!!!!!), and good luck dodging the Twilight fangirls.

Speaking of: Dear mainstream media. Girls enjoy attending comic book conventions. I know that, for whatever reason, this is very hard for your tiny minds to understand. But girl geeks who don't give a fetid pair of dingo kidneys about glittery vampires exist. And we are legion.

As far as the girls attending comic-con this year who do care about glittery vampires, a FARK commenter with the excellent screen-name Brigid Fitch said it so I don't have to:

"...The problem isn't women attending the con -- it's gaggles of non-fans swarming all over a con, sucking all the fun from the room. We'll never escape the Asperger's candidates & hygienically challenged portion of our ranks, but if you're stuck next to one, you can at least find common ground and have a reasonable conversation with them (if by "reasonable" you mean discussing the finer points of violating the Prime Directive, of course).
"But the Twilight fans aren't like that. They're interlopers. We couldn't care less about sparkly vampires and they haven't a clue what to expect at a ComicCon! They're there to swoon over Robert Pattinson, and have no idea who Ray Bradbury is, let alone why someone would give their right arm to be at his discussion panel.
"...It's like a school trip to a Yankees game: The girls know NOTHING of baseball, ask a lot of inane questions, and are only there because they think Jeter is hot. And whenever he's on the field, they squeal in that ear-piercing way that only 15-year-olds know how to. How patient would you be?"

Some thoughts on "3-effin'-D!!!"

3.28.09 - 3-effin'-D!!!
Originally uploaded by Babbletrish
Click for big (and legible).

Now, I lurk in a lot of discussion boards (and post in... two or three of them). Every so often, you catch a moment of sheer brilliance. I was inspired to draw this parody of the "Monsters v. Aliens" poster after reading this exchange at FARK.com. Full comments and the related article can be read here:

Cold1s: "I love puppetry... Gesture and posture are the game here. Big Bird's bowed head after (his memorial performance of 'It's Not Easy Bein') Green' spoke volumes.
In an age of digital whatever-you-want-to-see-you-see, I hope true stage performances like puppets and Muppets come back."

Dokool: "I had similar thoughts when I saw the Wallace & Gromit link two rows below this one.
In an age where we're bored of CGI-based films because there's so many of them (imagine anyone taking you seriously if you were to predict that around when 'Toy Story' came out!), nobody even considers returning to the older methods. If you watch an average episode of the 'Muppet Show', or 'Fraggle Rock', or even 'Sesame Street', the level of the craft is astounding.
The fact that articles (and threads) like this even exist is testament to the fact that they connected with us in such a meaningful way that even 20 years later people remember it. I was only born in '85 but I remember all of my 'Sesame Street' and Muppet-related VHS tapes like I'd just watched them. Will they say the same about any of the stuff kids watch these days?"

Note that, although I think the "CGI vs. Hand-Drawn" debate is stupid as hell (so where do stop-motion, cut-paper, pixilation, and so on fit into the debate?), I have no problem with CGI films.

When their scripts don't suck. When I actually end up caring about their characters. When the people making the films do so with intelligence and heart and creativity, rather than an overall attitude of "Ooh CGI, shiny!!!".

Actually, why don't I just direct you to this, by way of Cartoon Brew (of course. And, yikes, they really all do that one eyebrow thing.)

As far as animation that does not suck goes, the Onion AV Club has posted a lovely review of "Spirited Away" (which you are not allowed to read another word of this blog unless you promise me you will add it to your Queue immediately). It's sparked a lively discussion as well.

Am I hearing Orioles already? Seems a little early given that the trees haven't leafed out yet.