Long-delayed Thoughts on Recently Experienced Media

I know, I haven't written anything in over a month and it isn't like there hasn't been a ton to write about.  Let's ignore all of that.  What have I been watching/reading/etc.?

Movies

"Jurassic World" - There really isn't much I can say about this movie that hasn't been said before, except that it exists and it's in our world and it's somehow already one of the top five movies ever (???!!!???) and there's going to be a sequel and there's nothing we can do about it.

"Inside-Out" - I'm just so *happy* that this movie exists and is amazing and being *appreciated* for how amazing it is. This movie is going to be a formative experience for a lot of kids.  I know I'd probably be in a better headspace right now if there was a sad movie for sad girls reassuring us that there is nothing wrong with being sad back in the day.

"The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" - (Trish just makes a long, drawn-out raspberry.)

Okay, seriously.  There is no reason at all why this inch-thick children's book had to be three bloated movies long, Wyvern!Smaug looks dumb as hell from the neck down, I cared more about what Beorn was doing during the battle than the filmmakers thought I should (and I cared several orders of magnitude less about Bard's stupid kids than they thought I should).  I could go on, but I can't wait for the reasonably-lengthed single movie fan edit, and if anyone is checking in from the timeline where Guillermo DelToro made "The Hobbit", please tell me it wasn't any better than this.  Look right into my eyes and lie.

"Into the Woods" - And meanwhile, here's a movie that had every reason in the world to be split into two movies (covering acts one and two respectively) but wasn't.  What the hell?  It wasn't that bad, but boy did it ever feel rushed.

"Jupiter Ascending" - I really wish that this was another "John Carter" situation where I could say, "Hey, remember that crazy-looking fantasy space adventure that bombed spectacularly?  It's actually really good and even better, in some respects, than a similar, far more popular movie."  And I just cannot, in good conscience, do that.  It's not even fun-stupid (ladies, let's promise that if anyone wants to make us Queen of Earth where the other option is Normal Girl - especially if we can tell the villains to sod off and leave Earth alone in either case, let's all decide to be Queen of Earth).

I did like the part at the end where Channing Tatum transformed into the humanlike version of literally every unimaginative kid's DeviantArt Original Character.

"Chappie" - Now this movie was something else.  I liked it well enough, and the robot was adorable, but... well, Matt Singer said it best:

CHAPPIE left with me one or two questions about the nature of consciousness and a million questions about Die Antwoord.

— Matt Singer (@mattsinger) March 5, 2015

"Ex Machina" - Great, great movie.  I wouldn't dare spoil it, so watch it already.


"Predestination" - Another really good science fiction Indie.  Honestly, I'm just impressed that anyone managed to adapt "All You Zombies" into a film, and an excellent one at that.

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Television/Streaming

"Bojack Horseman" - This might be the best kept secret in all of made-for-streaming television.  It's weird and hilarious and full of surprising pathos.  Lisa Hanawalt's character designs are incredible and that "Chicken for Days" episode is unreal.

"Sense8" - Get through that first episode.  Trust me, that isn't what this series is.  Like the best science fiction, it's focused more on how the fantastical element affects the characters in their everyday lives.  It's really good.

"Wet, Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp" - It doubles-down on the craziness of the movie, that's for sure.  Some folks will love that; some will hate it.  Personally, my opinion is a little mixed but I *died* during the third episode.

"Rick and Morty" - Do you miss "Futurama"?  Did you enjoy the more bonkers episodes of "Community"?  You might dig this.  It's dark, weird, and God damned awe-inspiring.

"Seigfried and Roy: Masters of the Unbelievable" - There was a rumor going around the Something Awful forums that the "We Hate Movies" podcast was going to do this as part of their Animation Damnation series.  I watched it only because I had extremely vague memories of seeing a commercial for it as a kid.  This show was either (a) a failed pilot, (b) the longest, weirdest early "Final Fantasy" cutscene ever, (c) an entire failed SERIES awkwardly mashed down to one 90 minute special, or (d) delirium tremens.  Anyway, I don't want to make the We Hate Movies crew watch the New Kids on the Block cartoon anymore.  You can watch the whole shebang here.

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Sketch of the Day

I have also been watching many Let's Plays and doodling along.

Thoughts on Recently Experienced Media

It feels like it's been a while...

Movies

"Ink" - Interesting, sometimes very clever independent dark fantasy film.  I found a lot to like in it except for the twist at the end, which prompted less of a "woah" and more of a "what?"

"Mirrormask" - Somewhere out there, beneath the pale moonlight, there is a collaboration between Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, and the Jim Henson Workshop.  And it is, sadly, not as awesome as that combination promises.  It is worth a look since the film does at least have a very unusual look and the story is almost a test-run for ideas that would be refined and far better implemented in "Coraline".  (Let's see here, girl who has some issues with her family finds her way into an alternate universe ruled over by a scary doppelganger of her mom and everything is kind of whimsical but also weird and off-putting?  Yeah.)

"Madagascar 3" - The first and certainly less mortifying of two "Why the hell was this in my queue; somebody out there in Internet-land must have convinced me it was worth watching" movies I'll be reviewing today.  I thought it was pretty bad, and there were even a few moments that were downright disturbing.  On top of that, whoever came up with the seal character hates me.  They don't even know me, yet they hate me.  ME, personally.  Ye gods...

"Sucker Punch" - The second of my two "Why the hell was this in my queue; somebody out there in Internet-land must have convinced me it was worth watching" movies and hooooooooly sh*t.  This movie.  It sure was a movie.  Still images were projected at a rate that gave the illusion of movement, and there was a soundtrack.
Seriously, though.  When "Sucker Punch" wasn't looking exactly like an adaptation of Kate Beaton's "Strong Female Characters" made by somebody who didn't get the joke at all, it reminded me uncomfortably of "Cool World" of all things, probably because it's another awkward glimpse into the creator's subconscious.  You can very definitely count me on Team "If you honestly think that this film is somehow 'empowering for women', please, just, STFU."

"Upstream Color" - Then again, neither "Sucker Punch" nor "Madagascar 3" made me literally scream and swear at the TV.  Your mileage, as they say, may vary, but you may count me on Team "This wasn't so much 'confusing' as it was 'straight-up antagonistic towards the audience'".

"A Monster in Paris" - Underrated CGI feature made in France by a former Dreamworks director.  It's slight, but very nice.  I only wish the DVD wasn't so bare-bones.  The voices picked for the dub are fine enough but shouldn't this at least have a French soundtrack?

"Peter and the Wolf" (1996) - I wanted to check this out because it's a gap in my Chuck Jones education(?), and I'm sad to report that it's entirely skippable.  You need to sit through nearly ten minutes of live-action footage of a grandpa trying to impress his very 90's grandson with the titular tale to get to the animation.  When you finally do, you learn that it's not Chuck Jones' animation at all.  It's his very Jonesy late-period character designs animated by a different team of animators who were, there is no polite way to put this, not skilled enough to handle them.  The result just looks wrong and kind of depressing.

Books

Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell - So... I recently acquired a Kindle Paperwhite and I have been consuming books like crazy.  One of the first places I descended upon was my local library's E-Library, where I found this gem from my assigned reading in high school.  I'm happy to say it still holds up.


Ready Player One, Earnest Cline - Hey, do you remember this thing that happened in the 80's?  Cause that sure was a thing that happened back in the 80's!
Okay to be perfectly fair, this book is pretty good when, you know, it's not doing that.  But the thing is, it does that a lot.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot - Haunting is the word for this true story of bizarre biology, class and racial politics, and a family's heartbreaking quest to know the truth. If you only follow one of my recommendations in this post, make it this one.

3500, Ron Miles -  The deeply strange, utterly fascinating, and ultimately incredibly heartwarming story of Ron Miles and his son, Ben is now available in its entirety in book form and is well worth a read.  You'll want to hug your children afterwards, but you'll also feel a little better about humanity.

My Beloved Brontosaurus, Brian Switek -  I would guess that anyone reading my websites already owns a copy of this book (or perhaps even two: one for yourself and one to pass around to friends so they can finally be on the same page as us when it comes to dinosaurs), so you already know how awesome it is and that it's well worth purchasing the hardcover edition for the terrific artwork.

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Sketch of the Day! Man, Pokefusion is way too much fun to play with.

Thoughts on Recently Experienced Media

Other than the Disney Sequels, obviously.

The Animator's Survival Kit, by Richard Williams - I was looking forward to reading this massive tome by the great Richard Williams.  It's very informative, filled with excellent artwork, and a good reference -- if you do not already have one that covers the same subjects.  Because unfortunately, for me, this book didn't really contain any information that was new to me (my copies of Preston Blair's instructional books for Walter Foster have long ago been loved to death.  Don't worry, I have the very nice omnibus edition as well.)  Williams also does not talk much about his experiences in the animation world, and because he has had one of the most interesting careers imaginable as an animation artist, it was a huge letdown to find the book nearly half-filled with walk-cycles instead.

Color and Light, by James Gurney - Some time ago, on his excellent blog, James Gurney wrote a long and extensive series of posts about color theory, lighting effects, and different painting media and their lightfastness and whether "Cadmium Red", for example, will be exactly the same no matter what paint brand you buy.  All of that information, ALL of it and plenty more, is collected in this book.  It is definitely worth a read for all artists, but is probably especially useful for painters.  For the rest of us, at least it is a very nice compilation of Gurney's beautiful art.

Chanticleer and the Fox, illustrated by Marc Davis - Speaking of beautiful art, this picture book is illustrated with the wonderful concept art Marc Davis created for the shelved Disney film based off the tales of Reynard the Fox and Chanticleer the Rooster.  The character designs are wonderful, even if the story is a little mediocre.  As it happens, this little book is more informative and interesting than some of the longer collections of never-produced Disney animation.  Speaking of...

Disney Lost and Found, by Charles Solomon - Full disclosure: I read this a while ago and I don't even remember if I reviewed it here.  It has, as you might expect, a lot of art in it.  It also has very little explanation as to what you are looking at.  Like, one of the particularly strange paintings in the first third of the book will simply have subtext that says, "This was going to be a scene in 'Rescuers Down Under'."  The two chapters that contain art from two features that were never made have *just* a bit more information.  "My Peoples" probably would have been charming, but "Wild Life" would have been fascinating.  Funny thing is, there's more information about one of the lost films in this incredible, and very sad, blog post then there is in the book.

"The Butterfly Ball" -  Three years ago(!?!) I wrote a post about a strange animated music video that turned out to be part of a larger concert film.  That film quickly went into my Netflix "saved" queue and now it's finally here and I have watched it. 
Welp. 
Turns out "Love is All" may be the ultimate case of "Context will not help you in any way at all, sorry."  That animated video is actually the least strange part of the show.  I'm at a loss to describe the concert film, but there's a part of me who wants to rent it again next time I have a party and have it running in the background, just to see how long it takes for guests to wonder WTF they are looking at.

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Sketch of the Day!

Hey, finally a current sketch! Here is my incredibly appropriate contribution to a stunningly significant recent historical event:

Thoughts on Recently Experienced Media!

Brief Reviews of Random Stuff!

Strathmore Windpower Watercolor Pad - Fantastic little Sketchbook. It's very short (only fifteen pages), but the small size is perfect for travel, and at just under three dollars at Dick Blick's, it can't be beat. Plays well with watercolors, pencils, and inks.

"9" - So this guy, animator Shane Acker, makes a really awesome short film that gets the attention of Tim Burton, who takes Shane under his sketchy, striped wing fresh out of art school to make his first feature-length film. So this film has a pretty awesome story behind it. The short film in question is fantastic and it is worth renting the DVD just to watch it. The sad thing is, the feature adaptation of the short is not remotely as interesting. The world and the creatures that inhabit it is cool, but the story is incredibly dull, confusing, and obvious and populated with bland, interchangeable characters. On top of that, and this is the mildest of spoilers, you may well rename the film, "Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: the Movie!"
Speaking of Tim Burton...

"Alice in Wonderland" - Um... it didn't suck as much as I thought it would, I guess.I wish there was more I could say here. I really do. I can't recommend this film, but I can't hate on it too hard either. Tell you what, it's better than "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". But if I'm going to watch a "takeoff of a beloved fantasy children's book where the hero returns to the magical land and saves it from a new evil" movie, I'm going for "Return to OZ". At least that one's weird as hell.

"Voyage of the Unicorn" - Ever run into an adaptation of a book you liked as a kid that's SO different from what you liked in the book, yet gets so much stuff right, that it just ends up being frustrating? Yeah. (And yes, this is apparently based off Voyage of the Basset; I guess unicorns are a bigger draw than historical puns.)

"127 Hours" - Stop being such a sissy and watch it already.
OK, seriously, this movie is very good and is currently running neck-and-neck with "Scott Pilgrim" as my favorite of the past year. (No, I'm not sure exactly why these films either.) My gore-disliking aunt and mom are both crazy about it. You will believe a half-finished bottle of orange-flavored Gatorade that has been sitting in the back of a car in the Utah heat and cold for days and days will look appealing.

"Black Swan" - I told you feathered dinosaurs were scary! But you didn't believe me! WHY didn't you believe me?!?
(OK, seriously. Not among my favorite movies this year, but very good.)

"Tales From Earthsea" - I know a little bit about the rather sad story behind this particular Studio Ghibli film although the special features skip over it entirely. The film itself is... decent. It isn't fantastic, but that's only because Goro's father has set the bar so damn high. Also, the Earthsea books (which I have a rather odd relationship with; maybe I'll tell that story later) are turned into a rather ordinary stereotypical fantasy/Anime plot. There are some neat moments towards the end, like an effectively monstrous bad guy. 

The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, copyright 2010 written and illustrated by Gregory S. Paul and published by Princeton University Press - It is, I will state again, very sad to see a favorite artist of mine who influenced me so greatly suddenly turn into such a... yeah, I'm sticking with douche. (At least a douche is clean; younger readers, it means "shower" in French.) But let's ignore the deluge of controversy Greg Paul has stirred up in the past few months, because I am also sticking with my initial Clint Mansel-scored animated-in-a-rush-past-Midnight reaction. You need this book in your library. For an animal anatomy reference (yeah, I went there), it is indispensable.
And it is also... not quite as good as Predatory Dinosaur of the World. It doesn't have as many anatomical studies, has far, far fewer life restorations, and seems to have fewer skeletal studies (which is especially odd, as this book supposedly covers more species). And, yes, Paul gets... eh... just a little lump-happy. (In that people who misunderstand the Triceratops/Torosaurus thing would bleed out of their eyes reading this book.) That said, I read the whole shebang, cover-to-cover. There aren't many giant textbooks I can say that about.

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Art Of the Day!

I got a little hooked on watching this.

Trish (finally) Watches "The Watchmen" and "Dr. Parnassus".

I am temporarily adopting my usual "three times a week" schedule because there is suddenly much out there in the world of stuff I can geek out about arts and entertainment. Had I stayed with my twice-weekly summer schedule, this review wouldn't have seen the light of day until July.
July is when Drawgasmic is happening! Also, I think -I hope- a certain book will be published during that month. Stay tuned...

On to the movie reviews. So I finally got around to watching Zack Snyder's film adaptation of Watchmen.
Well. That was interesting.
I guess if a Watchmen movie has to exist, it might as well look like this. Did that sound weird? This whole blog post is going to come across as weird.
OK, look. I've read Watchmen many times. The first time was the best, of course. If you have read it, you know why. If you have not, then you probably have heard that the novel has a surprise ending. This is a bit of an understatement; I won't ever forget the experience of reading that ending for the first time. And the thing is, the book pretty much hinges on that ending. Reading the book again, you realize how incredibly *tight* it is. There isn't a single scrap of extraneous information in the book, which is phenomenal if you pause to think about it.
I would say that the film-makers agree with me here, because the entire book, save for maybe a chapter's worth of information, is in the movie.
Seriously. The film "Watchmen" feels like sitting down next to Zack Snyder as he reads the graphic novel to you.
...Until around the two hour, eleven minute (!) mark. Whereupon he puts the book down and makes some stuff up for a couple of minutes.
But the thing is, he then picks the book up, flips ahead a few pages, and starts reading right from it again. Hrm...
I have mentioned this before, back when the film was in theaters, but yes, the ending is different. Except when it isn't.
So is the movie good? Well, yes. Actually, it's very good. They pull off some of the things I thought were going to be tricky or downright impossible (in particular, Dr. Manhattan, who in the film looks and acts as alien as he ought to.)
But you know, I wish I had some kind of a control group -- people who had never heard of the book before much less read it. What in the world did they think of the movie?
By the way, that had to be the second most-uncomfortable-to-watch sex scene I've ever seen in a superhero movie...

Shortly after watching "Watchmen", I was finally able to see "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus". You may recall that this film has been at the center of contention here at the Obligatory Art Blog. It is Heath Ledger's final film, and we American fans (a built-in audience for this movie, mind you) almost didn't get to see it. The given reason for this is because the major studios who would have bought the rights to it as it was being shopped around at film festivals believed it to be "too weird". That I read that news during the same week where the number one movie in the country was some crazy jazz about giant robots who are also cars that want to blow up the sun felt like a giant rude gesture in the face of me and anyone else who likes nice things.
Ah, but thank goodness for Netflix, as arbitrary studio b.s. does not affect the DVD market too badly. I say to everyone reading this, put this movie in your queue. Even if you never actually watch "Dr. Parnassus", renting the movie is your vote for challenging, imaginative films.
RANDOM READER: "That's all very noble, Trish, but DID YOU LIKE THE MOVIE?"
Errr...
If I said that this film is, out of all of Terry Gilliam movies, possibly the single most Terry Gilliam-est, would that make sense?
HALF OF THE READERS: "Yeah, OK. I immediately get what I'd be getting into watching this movie and also what you thought of it."
THE OTHER HALF: "... ... ... Terry Who-in-the-what-now?"
OK, then. The Other Half of you might want to give it a shot anyway. I suggest following it up with "Lost in LaMancha", a documentary about Gilliam which is worth watching in it's own right. It's on Netflix instant watch as is, I just found out, all three seasons of "Avatar". So why aren't you watching that right now? Do it!

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Sketch of the Day!
Guess what's finally happening at my hummingbird feeder?!



EDIT: GO CELTICS OMG!!!

Books About The Disney Movies that Could Have Been

Well, first of all, holy mythology episode, Batman!

As we all know, it takes a very, very long time to make an animated feature film. With that in mind, it isn't all that surprising that many of the films in the Disney Animated Canon were significantly different during the various stages of their production. Other Disney movies never even saw the light of day. Recently, I read (but did not remember to take pictures of) two very different books about this very subject. Both of them were interesting reads, but varied a great deal in content.

Mouse Under Glass by David Koenig, 1997 - Billed as the hidden stories behind Disney movies and theme parks, this is a very quick read. I polished most of it off while waiting in this line:

I don't think I mentioned this before, but there was a very impressive line for Boston Comicon. That's new...
There are no Disney illustrations in this book; the few illustrations are from the literary source materials for the movies. Each chapter covers a different movie in the Canon. A lot of the stories are fairly well-known (and you can find many of them here). There are some cool stories about the controversies over certain Disney movies, but nothing particularly shocking (and you've already read about most of them at Snopes or the aforementioned TV Tropes.) What's most puzzling about this book are it's omissions. "The Black Cauldron" gets a lot of mentions - but, of all movies, it's one of the few features that doesn't get it's own chapter! It's a very strange oversight among several. Also, I think I'm going to be taking some of the trivia in this book with a grain of salt the size of my head, thanks to things like this. Spot the surprisingly common mistake, kids:



The Disney That Never Was by Charles Solomon, 1995 - Actually, I read this book before I read Mouse Under Glass, which turned out to be a mistake as this book put the other one to shame. There are TONS of artwork, salvaged from the Disney Vault and shown to us unwashed fans for the first time. Most of the never-finished films are actually shorts, and altogether not all that interesting. However, there is also a great deal of information about unfinished full-length films like "Chanticleer", "Gremlins", the original "The Little Mermaid" and the "Hans Christian Anderson" anthology film, and all the stalled "Fantasia" sequels.
It should be noted that both of these books made me appreciate "Fantasia" much more. Walt Disney was essentially the James Cameron of his day, making a movie with technology that he had to invent as he went along. Some of his plans for the first "Fantasia" were almost insane. "Odorama" (scents -including real gunpowder- filtered into the theater during key scenes) before there was a word for it. Three screens stitched together for a sort-of Cinerama effect (you can sort of get what Disney was going for by watching the very nice "Impressions De France" film in EPCOT.) And a sort of primitive version of the infamous (and failed) "hologram" skeleton idea kicked around during the production of "Black Cauldron", where the magic brooms in "Sorcerer's Apprentice" would march along the walls of the theater. The whole point of "Fantasia", even as it is today without any of the aforementioned effects, was essentially Disney and his animators getting to say, "Look at what we can do!" Therefore, the many planned periodic "Fantasia" movies (of which we got... one) would have been the animators saying, "Look at what we can do NOW!"
The lack of periodic "Fantasias" may be the single most haunting Disney could-have-beens of all. Think about it. They could have altered the history of American animation!
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Phylo (the game formally known as Phylomon) got a mention on GeekDad last week! My little House Sparrow was picked as one of the accompanying illustrations! More exposure, yaaaaaay!!!

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Dammit, Blue Sky, I thought you were different! :(

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Sketch of the Day!
I have to counter the Worst Thing I Have Drawn Recently (see the previous post) with the BEST Thing I Have Drawn Recently. As always, click to see the big version:

Highlights from the Bo-Com-Con Pile

I have just read everything in this pile:



Let's just dive right in and I'll share my thoughts. Click the picture to access the large size, as usual. Starting in the lower-left corner and spiraling clockwise...

Sara Richard's stickers and Sketchbook. The fishing kitty now proudly resides on the protective case thingie on my MacBook. I never really mastered ink and brush, so I am in awe of Sara's beautiful line art. That, and the sheer amount of art she's produced.

A Schedule of Upcoming Guests/Topics on Sci-Fi Saturday Night. Someday, I will do a post about all the podcasts that have helped me keep sane while Photoshopping. "SFSN" is a semi-local 'cast and I have nothing at all bad to say about them because they love my rabbit illustrations.

Inbound 4: A Comic Book History of Boston. An anthology created by the Boston Comics Roundtable, and a fascinating read to boot. The old Mug-and-Muffin coffee shop has been immortalized for all time.The Tick Comicon Extravaganza. I am not going to get too crazy here. It is a comic about comic book conventions, and it stars Quincy's own superhero.

Fat Cat Funnies' Distracula. Speaking of Quincy, it turns out Fat Cat Funnies is based here. A local publisher! A wikkid local publisher, if you will! Awesome.

(Barely visible) Mouse Under Glass by David Koenig. Actually, this is the book I brought with me to read on the T. It's pretty interesting and I will review it and another "secrets of Disney" book I finished earlier soon.

"After Watchmen, What's Next? Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis!" That's how I'm reading the title anyway. There were similar abridged comics like this at the autumn Boston Comicon. The best of them had excerpts from all of DC's comics that could remotely be considered dark and/or edgy. At least with this one, I got to learn for myself what everyone else already knew about the Identity Crisis storyline.
Spoilers: Imagine sitting down to watch "The Thin Man", and suddenly in the first act, the film jump-cuts to the ending of "Seven". The actual "not so much sad as tear-out-your-heart-and-stomp-on-it" ending to "Seven". I'd like to be exaggerating right now.

"Penny Arcade" the books! "Trish why in the world would you buy collections of a comic you can read for free online?" Well, because there's something about a book. I always liked comic strip compilations (I will admit I was never really all that into "Calvin and Hobbes" until I found the first collection.) Mainly, it's because the sheer size of the "PA" archive intimidates me. Plus, the writer's comments on the strips are often hilarious. Glad to know I'm not the only person who looks through their old art and sometimes goes, "Oh dear Lord... tell me I didn't really draw THAT..."
(Cue the kind of music you hear in movies when Foreshadowing happens...)

The Boston Independent Film Festival schedule. While searching for their website, I learned that Boston suddenly has (at least) two film fests! As someone who enjoys nice things, I should try going to both. This festival starts next week, and some of the films sound fascinating. Wish me luck in convincing other people to go.

Various random business cards! I got to trade a lot of cards with people. Urchin Punch had a lot of neat stuff at their table, but sadly there does not seem to be much at their website yet. "Silver Circle" is an independent CGI animated science fiction film with kind of a cool origin story. I may have to dedicate an entire post to it later. The Angry Penguin is a little strange, but how could I resist that sticker? And it should surprise nobody that New England has it's own branch of the Ghostbusters and a Storm Trooper Garrison.

Donald Duck Free Comic Book Day abridged comic. I was intrigued by this for two reasons: 1) Free Comic Book day is in May. 2) This is a Halloween-themed story. It was too weird to leave.

And finally, my Pokewalker, which (it's hard to see) racked up about 51,000 steps... and I still don't have a gimmicky Surfing or Flying Pikachu! This makes me feel angry!

Ah, anyway. Overall, a great haul and a great time.

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At the Realm, there is a review of a strange thing I got at Disney World. If you stop and think about it, the Harry Potter series, much like "Star Wars" and "Avatar" (already!), has a lot to answer for.

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Sketch of the Day!
How about a completely random page?


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Post #200! Yay!!!

Thoughts on other Random Movies and Books and Like Such As!

"Star Trek" - I'm not going to get to wordy here. It is an *awesome* odd-numbered "Star Trek" movie. Yeah, I know!"Duel" - Steven Spielberg's first movie is terrific. Definitely worth a look if you've never seen it. Just don't watch it before a road trip...

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" - I was curious as to how this would translate to film as the book is loads and loads of exposition mixed with loads and loads of relationship drama, topped off with a relentless bummer of an ending (and I still keep forgetting how damn sad it is). It doesn't translate well at all, in fact this is one of the weaker Harry Potter movies. It reminded me of "Goblet of Fire" in that it included about a third of what was in the book while also adding in new stuff that was just strange. That and the motives of a certain character are completely unambiguous (quite unlike the book), to the point where you just end up feeling sad for him.
This is as good a place as any to mention that I enjoyed "Prisoner of Azkaban" the most out all the "Harry Potter" films. After reading Deathly Hallows, I was sad that we wouldn't get to see Alphonso Cuaron tackle the battle of Hogwarts, especially in light of "Children of Men". That could have been amazing."TimeCrimes" - Interesting indie science fiction thriller. Again, it's better if you don't know what it's about. Too bad the title's a bit of a give-away.
NOTE: If you have seen "Primer" and now have a fear of indie time travel stories, know that "TimeCrimes" is far less likely to give you a psychic nosebleed."Inglourious Basterds" - It's the war movie that Quentin Tarantino's been wanting to make for ages and ages. It makes history teachers cry at night, but it gets away with it because it's also crazy awesome. Again, I didn't know much about it going in, just know that the commercials are very misleading.

"Moon" - The SECOND-best thought-provoking, low-budget indie sci-fi movie of the past summer! Seriously, though, Sam Rockwell deserves a Best Actor Oscar nomination and a Best Supporting Actor nomination, and it makes me sad that this film has been completely ignored by almost every award show I am aware of.
(I don't want to spoil anything but trust me, the Best Actor and Best Supporting thing will make sense after you watch it.)"It's a Wonderful Life" - Watched this before Christmas, naturally.
Every time I watch this movie again, it hits me how blatantly depressing it is. My generation grew up with the impression that this was a merry holiday classic. I think what older people love, what they remember most, is the happy ending.
What they forget is that George has to earn the f*** out of that happy ending..."Harvey" - This is the second time I've tried to watch this movie and the second time I fell asleep. I just remember the first time, I was watching it with my grandmother and my younger cousins, and all through the whole thing they were asking, "where is the bunny? I was promised that there was a bunny in this movie!"
And if you're wondering why I watched the last two movies..."Donnie Darko" - Ha ha ha.
I hadn't seen this movie in a long time and I'd forgotten how good it is. Definitely one of the best of the past decade. The 2000's will probably be most notable for the sheer amount of bad movies we got, but it was also a really good decade for weird and/or cult movies. One of the writers for my local newspaper even voted it his favorite movie of the 2000's! (This was probably not the same person who wrote this wallbanger.) Give it a rent if you haven't seen it yet."The Box" - I should mention that I did not rent the Director's Cut of "Donnie Darko". I have heard that they've changed quite a lot of the music, which is a worthy criticism in this particular film. But the other major criticism of the director's cut is far more interesting: people don't like it because it explains too much. "Donnie Darko" was more interesting when it was more ambiguous.
Which brings us to "The Box". I definitely thought this was weird. Very, very weird. But I would have liked it a lot more if it had embraced that weirdness and flatly refused to explain what was really going on. But in light of all the terrible reviews this got, it certainly wasn't the worst movie I saw this year."Surf's Up" - It is at least a lot more fun than the other animated movie with penguins from around the same time. It's not very memorable, but it looks really pretty. Turns out that one of the technologies used to make "Avatar" was also used here. Crazy."Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" - I watched this? I did? You sure Netflix Rental Activity list? Because I don't remember anything about it. Yet, apparently, this is one of the best-reviewed animated films of the past year (85% on Rotten Tomatoes). What is it about "Meatballs" that I didn't get? Please tell me because I'm starting to worry.

"Point Break" - I made this the Swayze-est Christmas of them aaaaaaaaaaaaaaall!!!
Seriously, this was a lot better than I expected. You are going to say, "LOL what?!" at least once reading the opening credits.

"The Hurt Locker" - The best and also the most relentlessly stressful war movie I've seen since the criminally underrated "Jarhead"."Fanboys" - An abject lesson in the horrors of executive meddling.
The movie itself is okay, but it is also terribly obvious what scenes were demanded by the studio, who wanted to make a sweet story about friendship and fandom edgy and hip. You can listen to the director, Kyle Newman, describe the entire spectacular debacle in this episode of the wonderful /Film Podcast.
----Imaginative Realism - James Gurney's art instruction book is, naturally, gorgeous. Better yet, like his excellent blog (see links list at right), it's also warm and very informative. My favorite art instruction books gave me ideas I never would have thought of myself, and having read this one I may need to build myself a Taboret.
I only have one small nitpick: this books serves as a great collection of Gurney's artwork, so it is well worth purchasing even if you're just a fan and you hate oil painting. Unfortunately, some of the artwork included practically begs for longer explanations. (TV Tropes, of all places, has a good list of all the Dinotopia spinoffs. According to Imaginative Realism, there were originally meant to be more. Many more. Imagine an animated Dinotopia film that was made by people who actually bothered to stick to the books...)
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Trailers I saw at the Movies:
"Percy Jackson: The Olympians: The Lightning Thief: Colons!" - Nothing is funnier -NOTHING- than one of those "making of" trailers where the Newbie teenaged stars are asked to describe the plot of the book-based elaborate-backstory-heavy fantastic film that they have found themselves starring in.
"Tooth Fairy" - Jeepers creepers, this thing's real?!?
YouTube has sadly failed me here, but when Arnold Schwarzenegger was on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" ages and ages ago (possibly right around when "Terminator 2" was out), he described how he was going to be in this movie. Now here it is, more than a decade later, with The Rock. As a Tooth Fairy. With pretty sparkly Fairy wings. So this movie somehow survived being in development limbo for, let's guesstimate, fifteen years, and I already knew as a teen that the concept was hopelessly stupid.
"Shrek 4: Let's Just Get This Over With*" - So wait, we're not getting seven Shrek sequels after all? This is really the last one ever? Yaaaaay!!!
* - It was funny for the "Star Wars" prequels, it's funny here."Alice in Wonderland" - M'eh.
Well, you see, I'd already seen the trailer for "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus", and that is the only upcoming crazy-ass fantasy film for me. Now if only there was some assurance that my part of the world was ever going to get to see it! (Dammit, high-paid executives, some people like weird movies. Plus, this one has a built-in audience!)
"Cats and Dogs 2" - I may never get to see Heath Ledger's final performance in the theater, but I'm going to be able to watch a "Cats and Dogs" sequel.
This also means that we live in a world where "Cats and Dogs" can have a sequel. Also, "Tooth Fairy" exists now. This means that all bets are officially off.
"Inception" - This OWNS!
Thus far, this is the only movie I am 100% on board for this coming year and I want to stay totally clean. Don't tell me what it's about!!!
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Sketch Finished Piece of the Day
Remember that long-necked dragon from a few days ago? Well here he is in shiny finished form:

Old reviews of "Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories" and "KH2". And the awesome that is Snaiad.

But first - I was just flipping channels yesterday when OMG WTF LOONEY TUNES MARATHON!!!???!!!
Yes, I know I have the DVDs. It's not the same.
Switching from Warner Bros. to Disney, I don't think I've ever mentioned my love of "Kingdom Hearts" before on this blog, so rescuing this old review from MySpace (originally posted 9/27/07) is as decent an excuse as any.

"Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories".
Let's not EVEN compare this to the PS2 "Kingdom Hearts" (which I maintain is the best Disney movie -so to speak- in years). It's not remotely fair. I did enjoy revisiting the characters and story. The animation is gorgeous and the music is terrific.
Now for the bad news. It is very close to being too f**king hard. Hard to the point of not being fun, really. It's almost entirely the fault of the combat system, a bizarre combination of a card game and a melee "button-masher". It's hard to explain, but the best analogy I can think of is trying to play chess and as you are trying to think through your strategy, your opponent is throwing pawns at your face. In the climactic battles, this approach is downright infuriating.
That said, this game is sort of a breakthrough in interactive storytelling, as it sets up major plot points in the official "Kingdom Hearts" sequel. And the idea of finishing the game only to discover that you may now play through the story again from an entirely different character's point of view is inspired.

"Kingdom Hearts 2"
This game is *reeeeeeeally* long.
Oddly enough, it's only a few actual hours longer than the first game. But the thing is, the first game didn't feel long. It started out coasting along on the novelty of "Final Fantasy" and Disney characters mixing it up, and then you got caught up in the main story. While there were a few awkward interruptions (Gummi. Ship.) the pacing never felt off. That's not the case with "KH2".
Perhaps you have heard of the infamous five-hour-long prologue?
Seriously. It's five hours long. A five hour long Prologue. It's a hell of a lot to ask of the audience's patience. It came dangerously close to reminding me of what people who hate, hate, hate the Shire-set opening chapters of Fellowship of the Ring say reading those opening chapters is like. (NOTE: People like that exist.)
In this five-hour-long Prologue, there's no sign of the main characters from the first game. (I have a serious problem with any sequel where the main characters and/or main storyline are completely ignored for the first five hours/twenty chapters/three episodes/whatever.) Instead, you're playing as some random new character. And to top it off, this new character *disappears* at the end of the prologue. Admittedly, he does figure into the plot to a small degree; but I figured out how in the *opening credits*. (Which are absolutely the best part of the game. This has even more of a "this is less a video game and more an animated film with some interactive bits" feel than the first "KH".) However, the game itself doesn't clarify how until the very ending - which also happens to be the one other time the character appears in the story. Hilarious.
And did I mention that the nature of this aforementioned character will actually ruin other role-playing games for you? Especially if you're like me and you tend to analyze every work of fiction you consume? I'm serious. Every time you run into an enemy in an RPG, you are going to feel a twinge of guilt before bashing their skulls in for hit points.
It's Spoilertime: It's a pretty controversial example of the aforementioned What Measure is a Nonhuman Trope. In the game, we're introduced to these new enemy creatures called "Nobodies". Most of them are just mooks, like the Heartless in the original, but some of them are bosses. These boss characters are basically just normal people - but there's something different about them, so they aren't normal. Turns out most of them really want to be normal and there is a lot of poignant character development and attention paid to the Nobody characters, Roxas, Axel, and Namine. Roxas doesn't even know he's anything other than a normal person for the five hour long prologue!
And then later on, after Roxas is "dead" and Sora takes over the story, practically every mentor-type character assures him that it's okay to kill all the Nobodies, major characters and otherwise, because they "don't count" as real people. The fact that Sora does not question this and the player is basically forced to agree with him ensures that you will need lots of marshmallows if you join (or, God help you, start, as I did) any discussion about the nature of Nobodies in this game.
I'd feel less grumpy about the length and the pacing if the prologue didn't set the standard for the game as a whole. The further the story strayed from "random Disney and Final Fantasy people help a boring kid in Hammer Pants battle evil and search for his significant other", the more it tried my patience. And it strays from the main plotline quite a bit.
Think of how people who hated the second season of "Lost" felt about the second season of "Lost" and you have the idea. (NOTE: These people also exist.) Organization XIII = The Dharma Initiative.
Furthermore, if you're going to dump a vast all-reaching conspiracy and a Guild of Calamitous Intent-style organization into the mix, for crying out loud please focus on it. We barely learn what's going on until the last third of the game (really, in the end it feels more like "KH 1.5", "KH 2" and "KH 2 and 1/3").
Last night, I was at that magical point - and I'm sure every game in the role-playing genera has one towards the final chapters - where the play is just like work. I had level grinding to look forward to (fighting enough enemies so that the hero does not crap his Hammer Pants and keel over when he finally meets the final boss villains). Not to mention the final villains, and there are five of them; one for each hour of the Prologue. Two of these villains are hard, one is really annoying, and the leader, in the grand tradition of "Final Fantasy" bosses, just won't f-ing give up (actually, I think you have to battle him five times - one Epic Battle for every hour of the Prologue hahaha).
And I didn't think it was possible, but the Gummi Ship is even more annoying than it was the first time around. To the point where *part of the fight with the final boss includes a Gummi ship battle*. I sh*t you not. And whoever came up with the "Little Mermaid" *sing-along* level / "Guitar Hero" rip really needs to sit and think about what they have brought into this world.
BUT!!! (And this is plainly a big "but".)
I stuck with it until the end. Granted, I was largely curious to see how the hell they were going to wrap everything up, but I really and honestly did get really into it in the end. Also, the "Lion King" level is great fun and seeing Donald and TRON together made the 80's-era Disney fan in me go "yay".

Update: There is a new chapter in the "Kingdom Hearts" series released on the Nintendo DS. And it is AAAaaaaaalllll about Organization XIII. I can't say whether I've truly fallen out of love with this series, but I don't know if I can do this game.
That and I still haven't even finished "Platinum" yet...
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So what is Snaiad? It's a fantastic world-building project started by science fiction illustrator Nemo Ramjet (who, incidentally, has the greatest name of any sci-fi artist*). And it includes some of the most insane -yet totally believable- alien creature designs you'll ever see. It's a little overwhelming but it's definitely worth an archive binge.

* - Brynn. Terryl. Aya. Nemo. I ought to just change my name to Trych and see what happens.
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So if anybody out there saw "2012" "2112" "Roland Emmerich Destroys The First Three Cities That Everyone Can Name. Again." "Tragedy Porn", and thought "Oh noes that could really happen waaargarble!!!", please take a minute to watch this:

LIL' APOCALYPSE THAT WASN'T - watch more funny videos

Random thoughts on recently seen fantastic (or not) movies

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.

_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?