One of the best parts of the original Star Wars trilogy were all the practical effects, mixed with worn elements to give the impression of a realistic, lived-in world. One of the biggest failings of the prequel trilogy was tossing that out the window in favor of clean cities and cartoon aliens, all rendered in fake-tacular CGI. Director J.J. Abrams has previously expressed his plan to use practical effects in Star Wars Episode VII (as well as shoot on film). In a video today, we got our first peak at a new alien — and he’s a puppet! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 19, 2010 in Animation
The above video is from the 80s British television series Spitting Image which ran from 1984 to 1996: The show never made it over to America however the characters did get some exposure with the Genesis music video Land of Confusion. What amazed me about this segment (aside from the parody of Madness) is how much the 80s are like today — I knew there was a serious unemployment crisis in England at the time but I don’t recall hearing much about a collapse in the housing market.
Like most of you I’ve been watching in horror as Mel Gibson goes into full self-destruct mode, which is a tragic ending for Mad Max to say the least. And making things worse rumor had it that the beaver film that Mel was working on was suppose to be great (as in Oscar material), but will now be shelved. I think this video by talented puppeteer Loren Feldman sums up this situation the best with an exclusive interview with the beaver!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 20, 2009 in Star Wars
Skippy is the clever creation of NearFar Productions in California, in this video he tries to explain the entire plot of Star Wars in under one minute (while he may not have succeeded I had a fun time watching him try). What I love about good comedy is that it’s all about the timing and Skippy nails that — I also liked his explanation of Lord of the Rings: Read more…
