“The long-awaited Simpsons movie debuts this summer. Part of the hook for the animated feature is that the filmmakers say they’ll reveal what state the fictitious “Springfield” is a part of. For some added incentive, the film’s producers want the many real-life Springfields across the country to compete to host the film’s premiere.
Chad Pergram, a radio reporter for Capitol News Connection, interviewed several members with Springfields in their districts last week. According to Pergram’s report, the favorite so far appears to be Springfield, Ore., because Simpsons creator Matt Groening hails from nearby Portland.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 19, 2007 in Comic Books
This is fantastic! Someone has gone ahead and done a side-by-show showing panels of the comic book 300 next to to stills. The funny thing is that they’re pretty darn close, check out this great Flickr slideshow:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 18, 2007 in Animation
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Gumby, all 200+ Gumby episodes will soon be available in full length on YouTube and other video sites. Each episode includes the original soundtrack and has been digitally remastered by Art Clokey, the son of Gumby creator Joe Clokey. The first Gumby episode, Gumby on the Moon, is here:
“The much anticipated movie “J & J Project” or “双Ｊ计划” starring kung fu star Jackie Chan (成龙) and Jet Li (李连杰) has changed the title into “Kings of Kung Fu” or “功夫之王”. The movie will start shooting in late April or early May.
The movie tells a story about an American boy Jason who travels back into ancient China with special mission. Jason meets with action master Lu Yan (鲁彦) played by Jackie Chan and Jin Yanzi (金燕子), plus a silent monk played by Jet Li. They overcome many difficulties and defeat the evil power. In the end, they finish the redemption of saving the Monkey King. It is the first time that the two action superstars cross swords and is worthy of attention.
Renowned American director Rob Minkoff of “Lion King” will helm the movie and the screenplay is written by John Fusco. The Chinese kung fu, legends and myths from Western angel must be fresh and interesting to Chinese audience. It is still not dicided yet who will play the two key female roles in the movie – Jin Yanzi and Bai Fa Mo Nv (白发魔女 or White Devil).”
“Color Me Kubrick” is a new film that stars John Malkovich, Kubrick fans are going to love all the inside jokes in this film:
“For months Alan Conway, a perfect stranger, passed himself off as one of the greatest film directors of all time, Stanley Kubrick. Conway knew nothing of the filmmaker or his films, but this didn’t prevent him from using and abusing the credulity of those who thought they had come in contact with the mythical and equally discreet director.”
Teresa is one of the best creature makers I’ve ever met! One of her latest creations is Frankenbunny (seen above). What I love about Therea’s work is that the dolls always have this great expression on their faces, they’re also always very well dressed – it makes you want to hang out with them! Check out her Flickr account and fun website:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 15, 2007 in Animation
They should have done this years ago! John Musker and Ron Clements are co-directing this new film, so it looks like Disney is starting to go into a much better direction at long last:
“The Walt Disney Co. has started production on an animated musical fairy tale called “The Frog Princess,” which will be set in New Orleans and feature the Walt Disney Studio’s first black princess. The company unveiled the plans at its annual shareholders’ meeting in New Orleans.
John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Disney and the Disney-owned unit Pixar Animation Studios, said the movie would return to the classic hand-drawn animation process, instead of using computer animation that has become the industry standard. He called the film “an American fairy tale.”
“The film’s New Orleans setting and strong princess character give the film lots of excitement and texture,” Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook said. Disney said its new animated princess — Maddy — will be added to its collection of animated princesses used at the company’s theme parks and on consumer products. The film is set for release in 2009.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 15, 2007 in Animation
Alex Toth passed away last year at the age of 77. Along with Will Eisner and Jack Kirby, Toth is considered one of the giants of adventure comics. ASIFA-Hollywood’s website AnimationArchive.org has a great collection of high resolution scans of his model sheets for shows like Birdman and Sampson.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 14, 2007 in Animation
If you want to learn animation from one the best, here’s your chance! Shown in this series of videos is animation legend Glen Keane, the animation director of Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Tarzan holding a lecture at Cal Arts in the early 90s (found via Erlend Dal Sakshuag):
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 14, 2007 in Videogames
Some people just have too much time on their hands, but then I see something like this that blows me out of the water! Some fanboy made a Wii out of Lego bricks, but the cool part is what’s inside the box:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 13, 2007 in Star Trek
In this 1982 commercial William Shatner is selling “the wonder computer of the 80s” which is the Commodore Vic20. I love how the commercial starts with him being beamed in, and better yet he’s doing his Captain Kirk voice:
I do have to admit that the $300 price tag was a plus, I had a later version of the computer ( a C64) in the late 80s which was a great computer to start with even if it didn’t have lower case letters and lacked a floppy disc!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 12, 2007 in Science
This story reminds a great deal of one of my favorite anime shows “The Big O” which features an entire city that has lost it memories. Well it seems that the ability to remove memories might become reality, scientists working on a treatment for Post-traumatic stress disorder have succeeded in erasing a single memory from a lab rat. Selective amnesia drug U0126 has been shown to remove fear from lab rats who were shocked while listening to two different musical pieces. While this treatment may not work in humans it does open up an avenue of research:
“The brain secures memories by transferring them from short-term to long-term storage, through a process called reconsolidation. It has been shown before that this process can be interrupted with drugs. But Joseph LeDoux of the Center for Neural Science at New York University and his colleagues wanted to know how specific this interference was: could the transfer of one specific memory be meddled with without affecting others? “Our concern was: would you do something really massive to their memory network?” says LeDoux.
To find out, they trained rats to fear two different musical tones, by playing them at the same time as giving the rats an electric shock. Then, they gave half the rats a drug known to cause limited amnesia (U0126, which is not approved for use in people), and reminded all the animals, half of which were still under the influence of the drug, of one of their fearful memories by replaying just one of the tones.
When they tested the rats with both tones a day later, untreated animals were still fearful of both sounds, as if they expected a shock. But those treated with the drug were no longer afraid of the tone they had been reminded of under treatment. The process of re-arousing the rats’ memory of being shocked with the one tone while they were drugged had wiped out that memory completely, while leaving their memory of the second tone intact.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 12, 2007 in Japanese TV
Akihabara48 (often shortened to AKB48) is an idol girl group produced by Akimoto Yasushi. Though their name implies they have 48 members, they started in December 2005 with only 20 girls. Currently, AKB48 has 53 members divided into 3 teams: Team A, Team K and Team B.
Right now DoCoMo mobile phone in Japan has an American Idol style commercial which features A48:
“In spite of the casting uncertainty and production rumors surrounding Sin City 2, there doesn’t appear to be a shortage of Frank Miller material headed to the big screen. The opening date of 300 is looming closer, and now IESB has posted the news of the latest Miller graphic novel to be chosen for a film adaptation. 300 producer Gianni Nunnari has confirmed that he is already planning his next project — an adaptation of Miller’s Ronin. Ronin is the story of a dishonored 13th century samurai existing in an apocalyptic New York packed with mutants, cannibals, and a reincarnated demon while on a quest for redemption. The story has a little bit of everything; Miller himself has described it as “a superhero, science fiction, samurai drama, urban nightmare, gothic romance.”
On board to direct this delicate balance of a movie is the unlikely choice of Sylvian White, whose most memorable credit so far is the teen dance drama Stomp The Yard. In a recent interview with White about the project, he answered the question foremost in the mind of fans — are they sticking to the original story? White admits that some cuts will be made, saying, “Ronin is very dense and very long, so of course we are going to have to streamline the story to fit it within a movie time frame. ” Sin City definitely raised the bar when it comes to comic book films, so hopefully White can keep up.”
“Biker-movie veteran Larry Bishop, is set to begin filming this spring on “Hell Ride.” The movie will be a blood and sex-soaked tale of motorcycle revenge and retribution under the “Quentin Tarantino Presents” banner.The “chopper opera” has Bishop starring, writing, directing and producing along with Tarantino.
Bishop will play bad-ass biker Pistolero, (named after the original title for Robert Rodriguez’s “Desperado”) who along with his brother The Gent and Comanche, hit the road to avenge the death of Pistolero’s old lady Cherokee Kisum, by the 666ers a rival motorcycle gang. Production is scheduled to start late April in Los Angeles.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 10, 2007 in Animation
I discovered Włatcy Móch via YouTube, the show is an animated comedy series from Poland and reminds me a great deal of South Park. There’s very little information on the show in English, but I was lucky enough to find a wikipedia entry for Włatcy Móch, however it’s in Polish (and Google has yet to make a Polish to English translation tool). But from what I can see the show went on the air in 2006 in Poland on TV4 and is now in it’s second season. About 13 episodes have been made so far (the show is in it;s second season), and the title seems to refer to the novel “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding.
Here is part one of the first episode (lesson one):
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 10, 2007 in Television
Kuso Kuso is a new comedy tv show from Taiwan. Comedian Zhang Shao Wei is the host who is dressed in drag and he has seven cute girls in the cast that he calls his “daughters”. Here’s a clip of the show with a pet theme:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 9, 2007 in Comic Books
No word on if Spielberg would make Tintin into animation or live action, but it’s a sure thing that he’d do a good job with any film that features a kid and cute doggie:
“Tintin, the heroic young journalist and adventurer created by Belgian cartoonist Hergé, is set to take to the silver screen again — this time with the help of Steven Spielberg.
Spielberg and his company DreamWorks have committed to produce at least one Tintin movie and are gearing up for pre-production on the film, Nick Rodwell, head of Hergé’s Moulinsart Studios, which holds the rights to Tintin, said Thursday.
“If movie No. 1 works, we will continue,” Rodwell said, adding that it is still unclear which of Tintin’s adventures — depicted in 24 books — will be filmed. A completed movie could show up in theatres by 2009 or 2010, Rodwell told a press conference.
Since his debut in 1929, Tintin has enthralled comic readers with his ongoing adventures. In 2004, fans around the world celebrated his 75th birthday.”
Why just settle for watching Battlestar Galactica when you can star in your own episode? Taking a page from the Star Wars Kid the Battlestar Galactica Videomaker Toolkit allows you to create your own four minute sci fi epic. And a lucky few fanboys (or perhaps fangurls) will have their video broadbast on an upcoming episode of Galactica:
