This is partially for my benefit, partially for you readers to laugh at. I just finished an archive binge on my own blog and here are all the subjects I said I would write more about "someday":
* - WACOM Tablets and why they own so hard.
* - Jeff Smith's Bone. Actually, let's just get this one done: It's very good. Great art, terrific story. Just be aware that this is the kind of graphic novel that starts out like "Pogo" and ends like Dragonlance, and we all know what those are like, right?
* - Executive Meddling. Though I think between Don Bluth Month and the "Alien 3" review, I think that's been adequately covered. If you just can't get enough sad stories about an artist's vision being screwed by the higher-ups, you may read the namesake Trope, or listen to the whole spectacular debacle that the director of the film "Fanboys" suffered in this episode of the /Filmcast.
* - Speaking of: Podcasts! I got another shout-out by the very nice guys at "Science... Sort Of" in a recent episode. I think it's time to return the favor.
* - Obscure and or strange cartoons and shows like the previously and very briefly mentioned 1990's "Land of the Lost" reboot, "Kidd Video," and"Glow Friends".
* - The 1980's "Dinosaur" documentary with Phil Tippet animation and the PBS "Dinosaur" documentary with cel animation.
* - Reviews of illustrated books that somehow influenced me. William Stout's Dinosaurs, Rien Poortvliet's Gnomes, and Wayne D. Barlowe's Expedition.
* - Hazel Hedgehog and the Smurfette Principal. Maybe. Once again, the namesake trope pretty much covers it. Hazel herself is mentioned in the "Comics" section.
* - Classic Ranger Rick, though this is seeming less and less likely, and that makes me sad.
* - "Inception" and how much it melted my face off. Actually, yeah, there's my review. "Inception" = Awesomesauce.
"Trish, this is a movie that is essentially a victory lap for one of your favorite directors, stars an actor you've been a fan of since forever, the rest of the cast is incredible, it has amazing music, a brilliant fight scene unlike anything ever attempted before, and many shout-outs to M.C. Escher and Jungian symbolism and other stuff that you find awesome. And all you have to say about it is, 'It's Awesomesauce'? You know you wrote an entire blog post about a Tinkerbell book..."
Yeah. Yeah I know. It's just that I'm very late to the party and better writers have beaten me to everything interesting I could say about "Inception". I'm pretty sure I don't need to sell the movie to anyone at this point either. And I consider the Tinkerbell review an Old Shame.
By the way, Christopher Nolan was totally robbed. Bad Academy! Bad!
* - Other good 2010 movies I haven't got a chance to review yet and deserve long write-ups because they are underrated/obscure/whatever.
* - MOER OLD PALEOART!!! Especially the tale of Syntarsus (got that ready for Thursday!) and the Simon and Schuster Encyclopedia.
* - "Fraggle Rock" for cryin' out loud! Jim Henson's stuff in general.
* - "Invader Zim" and "Super Mario Brothers"
* - Movies That Are Good But Have a Ton to Answer For.
* - Expensive bird seed failure.
* - Dinosauroids and maybe other weird pop culture paleo-stuff.
* - And maybe this will be the year I write about the classic Christmas specials, yah?
OK, I'm promising nothing, but there's a good long list of subjects. Hopefully "someday" will be "over the next few weeks".
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Art of the Day!
I have updated my DeviantArt ID finally! I don't know, I think Spewey is a good mascot don't you?
DA ID 2011 by ~babbletrish on deviantART
Showing posts with label being late to the party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label being late to the party. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Thursday, September 17, 2009
In Which Trish gives up and watches "Happy Feet"!
Yes, even though, ages ago, I said I didn't feel like I'd ever need to. Because this movie about a penguin who tap-dances to bad covers of popular songs can't possibly be a fraction as entertaining as reading the message boards and discussion threads where people, people who are probably reasonable adults in real life, have ridiculously intense arguments about (just as a reminder) a movie about a tap-dancing penguin.
As you may recall, the animation-enjoying population of the internet was essentially ripped asunder when this thing won Best Animated Feature. If you do not recall, or you want to relive the magic and wonder of that experience, here's the relevant Cartoon Brew thread. (Bring marshmallows. Lots of them.)
It was partially that and partially rereading this Onion AV Club review of "Babe: Pig in the City" that inspired me to add it to the ol' Netflix Queue. I rented "Pig in the City" as well and was able to watch both films back to back. (It is three-thirty in the morning as I write this fresh off the experience.) My reaction to "City" was nearly identical to that of Scott Tobias and his readers. It is a brilliant, criminally underrated, beautiful film that is also batsh*t insane in all the right ways; "the stuff of impeccably choreographed nightmares". The animals are better actors than most humans and, best of all, the voice-over acting is refreshingly understated with help from a witty, oddly moving script. Naturally, I was pumped for "Happy Feet".
As I mentioned, it is very early in the morning as I write this. I could probably just say that I can see why people were, shall we say, opinionated about this movie.
Let's get it out of the way: the Mo-Cap is ugly. There's something off-putting about human eyes and giant, humanlike mouths and tongues in an otherwise fairly realistic nonhuman creature. There's something off-putting about seeing a creature that is anatomically wildly different than a human move and act like a human. I never thought I'd ever feel like I was hit with the Uncanny Valley stick by a cartoon penguin.
The voices are downright surreal. Why hire Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman for your animated film if they're just going to do lame impressions of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe? What the hell is the point? Why not hire actual voice actors who'd do better imitations? And why oh why do we have to be hearing Robin Williams come out of the noise-hole of every other character? (OK, maybe it just sounds that way after a while. Still.)
The songs are beyond surreal. Sometimes you can tell, during a musical whose soundtrack is made up of pre-existing songs, that the people who compiled the songs were only seeking catchy beats and tunes or focused on one or two lyrics relevant to the story. This is such a musical. Boy, is it ever such a musical. There's a scene where an adorable/creepily humanlike baby penguin sings "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash, and I do not believe that it is possible for any living thing with breath in their body to watch this scene without going: 😨
As far as the story... Okay, WTF was the lesson here? Pick a moral, kids!
* - Animals are only interesting when they act like people.
* - If there is something new and different, everyone must eventually conform to this new thing or else.
* - If you are different and/or special, your life is going to suck. Hard. Even if you eventually save the day, you must expect to be banished at some point. Probably by your own family.
* - The last wild places in the world, those uninhabited by mankind, are worth saving. If they're amusing to humans. If not, f*** 'em.
The film also boasts a memorably awkward happy ending, the last moral on my list (I guess I was supposed to get "save the penguins" out of it but it sure doesn't come across that way) is delivered with all the subtlety of an entire season of "Captain Planet", and did I mention that Robin Williams voices more than one major character? I don't even know how to react to this movie. It is astonishing. Not the good kind of astonishing, but the "What the hell did I just watch?" kind of astonishing.
Overall, Best Animated Feature of 2006? Really? Really? REALLY?!? So the lesson I'm taking is that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences obviously hates Richard Linkletter's animated films with the white hot fury of a thousand stars.
Oh, the well-loved Tex Avery short, "I Love to Singa" is on the DVD, and I find this ironic, funny, and sad because it owns the hell out of "Happy Feet".
Addendum: Albertonychus' review!
As you may recall, the animation-enjoying population of the internet was essentially ripped asunder when this thing won Best Animated Feature. If you do not recall, or you want to relive the magic and wonder of that experience, here's the relevant Cartoon Brew thread. (Bring marshmallows. Lots of them.)
It was partially that and partially rereading this Onion AV Club review of "Babe: Pig in the City" that inspired me to add it to the ol' Netflix Queue. I rented "Pig in the City" as well and was able to watch both films back to back. (It is three-thirty in the morning as I write this fresh off the experience.) My reaction to "City" was nearly identical to that of Scott Tobias and his readers. It is a brilliant, criminally underrated, beautiful film that is also batsh*t insane in all the right ways; "the stuff of impeccably choreographed nightmares". The animals are better actors than most humans and, best of all, the voice-over acting is refreshingly understated with help from a witty, oddly moving script. Naturally, I was pumped for "Happy Feet".
As I mentioned, it is very early in the morning as I write this. I could probably just say that I can see why people were, shall we say, opinionated about this movie.
Let's get it out of the way: the Mo-Cap is ugly. There's something off-putting about human eyes and giant, humanlike mouths and tongues in an otherwise fairly realistic nonhuman creature. There's something off-putting about seeing a creature that is anatomically wildly different than a human move and act like a human. I never thought I'd ever feel like I was hit with the Uncanny Valley stick by a cartoon penguin.
The voices are downright surreal. Why hire Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman for your animated film if they're just going to do lame impressions of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe? What the hell is the point? Why not hire actual voice actors who'd do better imitations? And why oh why do we have to be hearing Robin Williams come out of the noise-hole of every other character? (OK, maybe it just sounds that way after a while. Still.)
The songs are beyond surreal. Sometimes you can tell, during a musical whose soundtrack is made up of pre-existing songs, that the people who compiled the songs were only seeking catchy beats and tunes or focused on one or two lyrics relevant to the story. This is such a musical. Boy, is it ever such a musical. There's a scene where an adorable/creepily humanlike baby penguin sings "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash, and I do not believe that it is possible for any living thing with breath in their body to watch this scene without going: 😨
As far as the story... Okay, WTF was the lesson here? Pick a moral, kids!
* - Animals are only interesting when they act like people.
* - If there is something new and different, everyone must eventually conform to this new thing or else.
* - If you are different and/or special, your life is going to suck. Hard. Even if you eventually save the day, you must expect to be banished at some point. Probably by your own family.
* - The last wild places in the world, those uninhabited by mankind, are worth saving. If they're amusing to humans. If not, f*** 'em.
The film also boasts a memorably awkward happy ending, the last moral on my list (I guess I was supposed to get "save the penguins" out of it but it sure doesn't come across that way) is delivered with all the subtlety of an entire season of "Captain Planet", and did I mention that Robin Williams voices more than one major character? I don't even know how to react to this movie. It is astonishing. Not the good kind of astonishing, but the "What the hell did I just watch?" kind of astonishing.
Overall, Best Animated Feature of 2006? Really? Really? REALLY?!? So the lesson I'm taking is that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences obviously hates Richard Linkletter's animated films with the white hot fury of a thousand stars.
Oh, the well-loved Tex Avery short, "I Love to Singa" is on the DVD, and I find this ironic, funny, and sad because it owns the hell out of "Happy Feet".
Addendum: Albertonychus' review!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
I was following the pack all swallowed in their coats...
Hello, my name is Tricia and I am a recovering AOL user who has spent the past two weeks being blown away by the Awesome that is Firefox. And so...
Why don't I tie up a few loose ends while I'm here:
* - I finished "Justice League Unlimited" and it was unspeakably awesome.
* - I've watched "Escape to Witch Mountain" for the first time since elementary school. Of all the G-rated live-action 70's Disney movies, this is easily the G-rated live-action 70's Disney movie-est. I haven't got the slightest idea why this story warrants revisiting.
* - I watched the first season of "Entourage" and enjoyed it once I realized that we're not necessarily expected to like these characters.
* - I watched "Horton Hears a Who" and it was... decent. The character animation was excellent and it was the only feature-length Dr. Seuss book-based movie that didn't give me a violent reaction.
* - I watched "Hellboy 2" and just basked in the Wayne D. Barlowe-designed awesome. I am very excited to see what DelToro does with The Hobbit. (A Barlowe-Smaug would make me very happy.)
* - After reading about the Pine Siskin invasion during the Great Backyard Bird Count, I got a finch sock (King Gerald's Banquet Hall!) just to see what would show up. I haven't hung it yet but will do so soon after posting this.
I hope to start on reviewing the various Animal Anatomy for Artists (henceforth AA4A) books I've mentioned a while ago. Be prepared for some very, very long posts.
By the way, if I got Fleet Foxes stuck in your head (not that that's a bad thing), this is probably the best way to get them out.
Why don't I tie up a few loose ends while I'm here:
* - I finished "Justice League Unlimited" and it was unspeakably awesome.
* - I've watched "Escape to Witch Mountain" for the first time since elementary school. Of all the G-rated live-action 70's Disney movies, this is easily the G-rated live-action 70's Disney movie-est. I haven't got the slightest idea why this story warrants revisiting.
* - I watched the first season of "Entourage" and enjoyed it once I realized that we're not necessarily expected to like these characters.
* - I watched "Horton Hears a Who" and it was... decent. The character animation was excellent and it was the only feature-length Dr. Seuss book-based movie that didn't give me a violent reaction.
* - I watched "Hellboy 2" and just basked in the Wayne D. Barlowe-designed awesome. I am very excited to see what DelToro does with The Hobbit. (A Barlowe-Smaug would make me very happy.)
* - After reading about the Pine Siskin invasion during the Great Backyard Bird Count, I got a finch sock (King Gerald's Banquet Hall!) just to see what would show up. I haven't hung it yet but will do so soon after posting this.
I hope to start on reviewing the various Animal Anatomy for Artists (henceforth AA4A) books I've mentioned a while ago. Be prepared for some very, very long posts.
By the way, if I got Fleet Foxes stuck in your head (not that that's a bad thing), this is probably the best way to get them out.
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