Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Anything's Possible

I never in a million years would have expected this show to come out on DVD:


This is one of those long-dead shows that the Sci-Fi Channel would play all the time back when I was in high school. (Also back when Sci-Fi was spelled right) It kinda sucks becoming a big fan of a show after it's already been canceled for about a decade.

But for a 19 year-old show that went downhill pretty fast by turning a gritty supernatural drama into a goofy romantic comedy (it was like turning The X-Files into Moonlighting... but with werewolves) it's still coming out on DVD.

I really think someone at Universal was scanning their list of properties for something to cash in on the Twilight/vampire craze and came across this.

There are numerous titles that only made it to DVD because there was a big movie to jump on for. I'm convinced that's the only reason Aeon Flux got a decent DVD release.

I wonder what kind of Hollywood tie-in there'd need to be to get Max Headroom on DVD. Neuromancer? A re-make of Blade Runner?

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Would you trust someone who smiles like this?

I'm still not sure about Planet 51, which comes out this next Friday. I like the concept of a role reversal of the standard alien invasion and all, but I don't know if it'll actually be any good.

I haven't even seen all that much promotion for it. That is until today I was at the store when I saw this face glaring at me from the freezer section:

Is this part of the dreaded `Tude that John K always warns about? Not really, but it is the stock "squash one side of the face and stretch the other" expression that doesn't really mean anything. And in this case, his eyes are crossed just enough to make him look like an imbecile.

I can't get too hyped about a movie when the press shots of the main character make him look like a moron.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

More like a Book-va-snow-day

Suddenly, I can understand how people at political rallies and such can overestimate the crowd size by twenty-fold.

My boast of owning 1000-2000 thousand books fell a tad short once I actually counted them:

562

Now I haven't really counted them all, just the ones on my shelves. There are a few books laying about on desks and end tables, there's several in "The Box" which is where I keep books I've bought but haven't gotten around to reading yet. Plus I have a whole other 5'x3' bookcase the completely full in storage. (which is code for "In my parents' basement.")

All those will probably push my over the 1000 mark, but I was still way off. Lucky I didn't go with my original claim of having more books than the New York Public Library. I'd have felt pretty stupid.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

All Hail Slobovia!

I get so much of my animation news from Cartoon Brew I giving it it's own tag.

Check out this Brew post about an award winning, but rather unconventional Scottish kids show.

It's hard to really judge a show when all you got to go on is a 50 second song chanting about intercourse, plus I haven't found an actual episode form their season on sexuality yet, but here's part 1 of their episode of Charles Darwin:



All in all, I was really impressed by all they covered. Darwin's life, his work, his conflicts with religion, as well as a general snapshot of life in the mid 19th Century. And with a goofy song as a kicker. I'm well past the target demo, but I still felt like I learned something.

When I think of educational TV, I immediately picture the Sesame Street-type shows aimed at the pre-preschool set. So educational shows geared toward 11-16 year-olds is a far less explored area, apart from the Bill Nye/Beakman's World "Science is Wacky and Cool" kind of shows. But even those didn't quite appeal to the learning to drive crowd.

I think it'd be interesting to see more junior high/high school aged educational shows. Especially ones that talk about Friedrich Nietzsche and sing songs that contain the word "erection."

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Instructor Zim

If you're not already a regular visitor to the ASIFA-Hollywood blog, you should be. It's a treasure trove of animation and comic art as well as scan of entire books that've fallen out of print, like the original Preston Blair book or Nat Falk's How to Make Animated Cartoons.

One of their current features is high-res scans of Zim's Cartoons & Caricatures, or Making The World Laugh by turn of the (last) century cartoonist Eugene Zimmerman.



What I'm most impressed with is how lively his roughs can be while still being so specific. No vague stick figures or stiff layouts. Plus there's definitely a different style and sensibility to cartooning from 100+ years ago, before the influence of animation.

Apparently the pages are going to start being cycled off soon, so if you want to get the entire book you'd better head over there now. Besides that's the only place you can get it, and it's free.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Book-valanche

I'm embarking on a quest to answer one of the hardest questions in my life: "Just how many damn book do I own again?"

A couple years ago I took up the very nerdy task of cataloging all my DVDs on a spreadsheet so I could easily say how many I own, (about 500) many total discs there were (about 980) and how long it would take to sit down and watch the entire collection. (about 2½ months)

Now I'm setting off to do the same with my book, simply because I couldn't even hazard a guess as to how many there are. 1000? 2000? I have absolutely no idea.

I figure if I pace myself and do a shelf a day, I should be done in about 2 weeks.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Uncannily Expensive

Word is that Robert Zemeckis' mocap Christmas Carol cost $180 Million to make, putting it above Up which cost $175 Million.

So far it's safe to say that these motion performance capture films aren't better than what studios like Pixar have to offer. But if they're not cheaper, what's the point of making them?

Thursday, November 5, 2009

We're getting a bigger kit

I'm not crazy about re-buying a book I already own, but I guess I can make an exception for the best animation book ever written.



I haven't heard what "expanded" means, not even how many pages more it'll be. But since I don't see myself dropping $1000 on the DVD set anytime soon, I guess I'll have to take it.

Hello World

This blog begins...

I'm Grant Beaudette and this is my new blog where I'll talk about art, animation and... books about art and animation. I assume I'll talk about other things too.

I'm slowly collecting my thoughts and writing up some actual posts.

Plus check the Twitter widget (or Twidget, if you will) on the sidebar for mini-updates between posts.