#Studio Jake Arnold

[sckh-visualarchive]

#Xavier Beltran Architecture #X Beltran Architecture #Los Angeles #Brentwood #Spanish Colonial Revival style #Paul Williams #1930 #Studio Jake Arnold #interior design

[doubleattitude]

NUVO Dance Convention, Chicago, IL: RESULTS

High Scores by Age:

NUbie Solo

1st: Calla Massey-’Control’

2nd: Sadie Wilson-’Barbie Girl’

2nd: Aubrey Mooney-’Calling All The Monsters’

3rd: Brady Rosenberg-’Look Out’

Mini Solo

1st: Aoife Nugent-’Blackbird’

2nd: Nina Poulimas-’Buenos Aires’

2nd: Ella Dobler-’Sara’

3rd: Eva Coufal-’As We Lose Sight’

4th: Taylor Page-’The Rose’

5th: Sydney Madurzak-’Eden’

5th: Gracie Adamson-’Rich Girl’

5th: Olivia Manship-’The Water Rises’

6th: Emmie Plitt-’This Old Heart of Mine’

7th: Sage Sulentic-’Breathe’

8th: Brielle Baumgart-’Blink of an Eye’

9th: Lilah Ryan-’Clay’

9th: Landry Wilson-’Let Her Go’

10th: Olivia Georgy-’I Can Breathe Again’

Junior Solo

1st: Natalia Garcia-’Hallelujah’

1st: Kylie Kaminsky-’The Offering’

2nd: Audrey Mayernik-’All Human Beings’

3rd: Ellie Buckland-’Le Jazz Hot’

3rd: Ella Sexton-’My Breaker My Keeper’

3rd: Kenley Fogltanz-’One Mistress’

4th: Kendall Burkhart-’Bending Shadows’

5th: Emma Arentz-’Noise’

6th: Nathan Carter-’Bringing The Heat’

6th: Amelia Duncan-’Lonely’

7th: Jake Siswick-’Corner of the Sky’

8th: Alessandra Rocco-’Avril14th’

8th: Madeline LaCoursiere-’Mama Yo’

8th: Gabriel Johnson-’When There Is Love’

9th: Keighan Kinard-’Native’

9th: Lily Neumann-’Red Flags’

9th: Sienna Yilk-’Sines’

10th: Keira McCarthy-’I Will Wait’

10th: Lila Block-’Madam’

10th: Sophia Padilla-’We Move Lightly’

Teen Solo

1st: Kylie Buedel-’Freyr’

1st: Ella Querrey-’Ottto’

2nd: Andres Jiminez-’Frontieres’

2nd: Blanche Arnold-’How To Be Your Own Person’

3rd: Taylor Dieter-’Portrait’

3rd: Tess Muelbroek-’The Prayer’

3rd: Scarlett Szewczyk-’Things They Don’t Talk About’

3rd: Ryan Hyun-’Underwater’

4th: Kaitlin Menz-’All Is Fair’

4th: Alexis Adair-’A.M’

4th: Ella McCarthy-’Anna’s Theme’

4th: Athena Reel-’Emerge’

4th: Cassie Kefalas-’Jealous’

4th: Sophia Springer-’Lannantuoni-’Thousand Years’

5th: Reese Noha-’Another Love’

5th: Callie Weinert-’Comfortable’

5th: Quinn Fridrich-’Cute’

5th: Micaella Gennett-’Remember’

5th: Kaja Chow-’Retreat’

5th: Kylie Czarnik-’Solace’

5th: Zoey Straka-’White Flip Flops’

5th: Brandon Wolfington-’yeah.’

6th: Audrey Donnelly-’Breakdown’

6th: Addison Sadowski-’iMi’

6th: Isabella Laucys-’Mood’

7th: Sophie Madden-’Collision’

7th: Audrey Zhu-’Everybody Knows’

7th: Emma McMahon-’On Broadway’

8th: Abigail Welenc-’Formidable’

8th: Keira McDonald-’Painting Greys’

9th: Shane Gould-’Changes’

9th: Kenzie Karges-’Enter One’

9th: Anna Coufal-’Into Wind’

9th: Sophia Balara-’Peace’

9th: Nevi Marinakos-’Rain’

10th: Avery DePaul-’Dissolved’

10th: Lilly Loften-’Greim69′

10th: Samantha Veerachat-’I Do What I Love’

10th: Delaine Tyler-’Inhale’

10th: Dylan Newman-’Next To You’

10th: Lara Kounkel-’The Sacrifice’

Senior Solo

1st: Katrina Hidalgo-’Jump’

1st: Elle Tosh-’Rubble’

1st: Sophie Tosh-’The’

2nd: Elisabeth Pabich-’The Art of Dealing With Pain’

3rd: Olivia Zeiml-’Armira’

3rd: Minda Li-’Efforts to Reignite’

4th: Samantha Schmaling-’Then I Heard A Bachelor’s Cry’

4th: Gabrielle Koenig-’Treve’

5th: Katie Kim-’River Rise’

5th: Kendall O’Keefe-’Sweet Dreams’

5th: Jordin Suwalski-’The End’

5th: Lexi Heath-’Visions of Gideon’

6th: Kaya Martin-’Golden’

6th: Ellie Rowoldt-’Remedy’

7th: Ola Asuan-’Gold’

7th: Brianna North-’Melancholia’

7th: Olivia Wegner-’Ship In A Bottle’

7th: Maliah Keaton-’Street Fighter’

7th: Colin McKee-’Tomorrow’

8th: Avery Boose-’Both Sides’

8th: Olivia Papa-’The Lakes’

8th: Emma Sangorska-’Twilight’

8th: Mackenzie Haensgen-’Vendetta’

9th: Ella Schwarzenbach-Don’t Look Down’

9th: Madeline Bannwarth-’Godspeed’

9th: Rachel Samojedny-’Heart of Glass’

9th: Cammie Schultz-’Past Lives’

9th: Madison Burkhart-’Revolution’

10th: Keaton Eakins-’All My Heroes’

10th: Kayla Kamilis-’A New Emotion’

10th: Amelya Fox-’The Wire’

10th: Allie DeMay-’Timeless Flight’

NUbie Duo/Trio

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Wash That Man’

2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Get Silly’

Mini Duo/Trio

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Take It’

2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’

3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Do It Like This’

Junior Duo/Trio

1st: Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Spring’

2nd: Accent on Dance Mukwonago-’Smiling With You’

3rd: Embody Dance Company-’Ashes’

Teen Duo/Trio

1st: Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Cello Sonata’

2nd: The Colony-’Slippin’

3rd: Nolte Academy-’Unison’

Senior Duo/Trio

1st: Nolte Academy-’Colors’

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Hot Hit’

1st: Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Symphony of Sorrow’

2nd: Woodbury Dance Center-’Lonely’

3rd: Academy of Dance Arts-’Circumstance’

NUbie Group

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’How Will I Know’

2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Walk The Dinosaur’

Mini Group

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’I Won’t Hurt You’

2nd: Steps Dance Center-’SHHHH!’

3rd: Inspire School of Dance-’Despicable Me’

Junior Group

1st: Academy of Dance Arts-’All That’s Left’

1st: The Colony-’Lose Control’

2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Jet Black’

3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Falling’

3rd: Inspire School of Dance-’Tightrope’

Teen Group

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Magnets’

2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Get Low’

3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Ripple Effect’

Senior Group

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’Confessions’

2nd: Woodbury Dance Center-’What Happens to the Heart’

3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Forget Your Troubles’

NUbie Line

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’Monday Monday’

2nd: Elevate Dance Experience-’Zero to Hero’

3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Special Delivery’

Mini Line

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’Go Your Own Way’

2nd: Impact Dance Studio-’You Can’t Stop The Beat’

3rd: Inspire School of Dance-’I Do What I Love’

Junior Line

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’Derniere Danse’

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’Mein Herr’

2nd: Impact Dance Studio-’Hallelujah’

3rd: Academy of Dance Arts-’Perfect Harmony’

Teen Line

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’New York New York’

2nd: The Colony-’They Don’t Love You’

3rd: Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Santa Maria’

Senior Line

1st: Woodbury Dance Center-’Cleopatra In New York’

2nd: Impact Dance Studio-’Here Comes The Rain’

3rd: Woodbury Dance Center-’Uninvited’

Mini Extended Line

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Ay Caramba!’

2nd: Elevate Dance Experience-’Pray’

3rd: Steps Dance Center-’I Won’t Dance’

Junior Extended Line

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’It’s A Hard Life’

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’Thoughts’

2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Looking for Something’

3rd: Inspire School of Dance-’Get Jiggy’

Teen Extended Line

1st: Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Recomposed Summer’

2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Flight of Fancy’

2nd: Inspire School of Dance-’Ya Nas’

3rd: Elevate Dance Experience-’Everybody’

Senior Extended Line

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Show Me’

2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Gimme A Beat’

3rd: Academy of Dance Arts-’Epiphany’

Junior Production

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’One More Time’

Teen Production

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’Free’

2nd: Elevate Dance Experience-’All For Us’

High Scores by Performance Division:

NUbie Jazz

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’How Will I Know’ 2nd: Elevate Dance Experience-’Zero to Hero’ 3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Let’s Boogie’

NUbie Hip-Hop

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Special Delivery’

NUbie Lyrical

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’We Belong’

NUbie Specialty

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’Monday Monday’

Mini Jazz

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’You Can’t Stop The Beat’ 2nd: Inspire School of Dance-’I Do What I Love’ 3rd: Inspire School of Dance-’Awoo’

Mini Ballet

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Pizzicato Polka’

Mini Hip-Hop

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Ice Cream’ 2nd: Steps Dance Center-’SHHHH!’ 3rd: Inspire School of Dance-’Roller Girlz’

Mini Tap

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Pennies from Heaven’

Mini Contemporary

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’I Won’t Hurt You’ 2nd: Inspire School of Dance-’Cattails’ 3rd: Elevate Dance Experience-’Pray’

Mini Lyrical

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’Go Your Own Way’ 2nd: Inspire School of Dance-’Daughter’ 3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Rainbow’

Mini Musical Theatre

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Ay Caramba!’ 2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Revolting Children’ 3rd: Elevate Dance Experience-’We Go Together’

Mini Specialty

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’Despicable Me’ 2nd: Inspire School of Dance-’Zooma Zooma’

Junior Jazz

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’One More Time’ 1st: Academy of Dance Arts-’Perfect Harmony’ 2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Dummy’ 3rd: Embody Dance Company-’I Want To Love You’

Junior Ballet

1st: Steps Dance Center-’One Note’

Junior Hip-Hop

1st: Steps Dance Center-’New Zs’ 2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Jet Black’ 3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Looking for Something’

Junior Contemporary

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’Thoughts’ 2nd: The Colony-’Lose Control’ 3rd: Steps Dance Center-’From The Lily Pad’

Junior Lyrical

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’Hallelujah’ 2nd: Academy of Dance Arts-’All That’s Left’ 3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Falling’

Junior Musical Theatre

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’Mein Herr’ 2nd: Elevate Dance Experience-’I Wanna Rock’ 3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Telephone Hour’ 

Junior Specialty

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’Derniere Danse’ 2nd: Inspire School of Dance-’It’s A Hard Life’ 3rd: Inspire School of Dance-’Tightrope’

Teen Jazz

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’Free’ 2nd: Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Santa Maria’ 3rd: Inspire School of Dance-’Somebody to Love’

Teen Ballet

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’Welcome to the Jungle’ 2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Concerto’ 3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Ascension’

Teen Hip-Hop

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Magnets’ 2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Get Low’ 3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Back It Up’ 3rd: Inspire School of Dance-’Give It Away Now’

Teen Tap

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Brain Stew’ 2nd: Steps Dance Center-’In The Air Tonight’

Teen Contemporary

1st: Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Recomposed Summer’ 2nd: The Colony-’They Don’t Love You’ 3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Ripple Effect’

Teen Lyrical

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’Son’ 2nd: Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Then You Look At Me’ 2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Nicest Thing’ 3rd: Embody Dance Company-’Turning Tables’

Teen Musical Theatre

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’New York New York’ 2nd: Elevate Dance Experience-’A Chorus Line’ 3rd: Embody Dance Company-’Nowadays’

Teen Specialty

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Flight of Fancy’ 1st: Inspire School of Dance-’Ya Nas’ 2nd: The Colony-’Said and Done’ 3rd: Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Highest Flood’

Senior Jazz

1st: Woodbury Dance Center-’Cleopatra In New York’ 2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Forget Your Troubles’ 3rd: Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Fade’

Senior Hip-Hop

1st: Steps Dance Center-’Show Me’ 2nd: Woodbury Dance Center-’CrAzY’

Senior Tap

1st: Academy of Dance Arts-’Creep’ 2nd: Academy of Dance Arts-’Bird Song’

Senior Contemporary

1st: Inspire School of Dance-’Confessions’ 2nd: Woodbury Dance Center-’Uninvited’ 2nd: Woodbury Dance Center-’What Happens to the Heart’ 3rd: Academy of Dance Arts-’Calamity’

Senior Lyrical

1st: Academy of Dance Arts-’Epiphany’ 2nd: Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’How Do I Live’ 2nd: Steps Dance Center-’Empty Space’ 3rd: Woodbury Dance Center-’Vagabond’

Senior Specialty

1st: Impact Dance Studio-’Here Comes The Rain’ 2nd: Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Moonlight Presto’ 3rd: Steps Dance Center-’Gimme A Beat’

Best NU Groups:

NUbie

Steps Dance Center-’Special Delivery’

Inspire School of Dance-’Monday Monday’

Elevate Dance Experience-’Zero to Hero’

Mini

Steps Dance Center-’Ice Cream’

Inspire School of Dance-’I Won’t Hurt You’

Impact Dance Studio-’Go Your Own Way’

Junior

Steps Dance Center-’New Zs’

Inspire School of Dance-’It’s A Hard Life’

Academy of Dance Arts-’Perfect Harmony’

Impact Dance Studio-’Derniere Danse’

The Colony-’Lose Control’

Teen

Inspire School of Dance-’Ya Nas’

Impact Dance Studio-’New York New York’

The Colony-’They Don’t Love You’

Elevate Dance Experience-’All For Us’

Steps Dance Center-’Magnets’

Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Recomposed Summer’

Senior

Inspire School of Dance-’Confessions’

Impact Dance Studio-’Here Comes The Rain’

Woodbury Dance Center-’Cleopatra In New York’

Academy of Dance Arts-’Epiphany’

Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Moonlight Presto’

Steps Dance Center-’Forget Your Troubles’

Studio Pick:

Steps Dance Center-’Magnets’

Academy of Dance Arts-’Epiphany’

Artistic Edge Dance Centre-’Recomposed Summer’

Elevate Dance Experience-’All For Us’

Embody Dance Company-’Turning Tables’

Inspire School of Dance-’Ya Nas’

Lake Shore Dance-  Port Washington-’Heaven I Know’

#nuvo #dance #2021 #chicago #illinois

[popculturebuffet]

The Three Caballeros Movie Review: Rejoice Now Donald’s Been Laid (Commission)

It’s time at long last we talked about those three happy chappies in snappy serapes. Who say so? @weirdkev27​ say so! He’s planning on funding an ENTIRE retrospective on the boys, so in addition to my Tom Lucitor Retrospective (Expect that to return very soon as one of the episodes in it is time sensitive), Road to Just Us Justice Ducks, and look at “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck”. I’m proud to announce a new recurring feature on this blog “The Ride of the Three Caballeros!”, a look back at these birds of a feather who flock together and their wild and wonderful history cumulating in “The Legend of The Three Caballeros”.  Honestly I thank Kev for the idea as it’s a damn good one. Ever since seeing them on House of Mouse, which I both really need to cover and Disney needs to add already as we’re a year into Disney plus already, I’ve loved Jose and Panchito, and reading barks story years ago, and again recently, gave me a lasting love of these goofs. They have great snappy designs are the rare pre-ducktales 2017 non duck bird character, and have wonderful personalities. There’s nothing not to love and thus nothing not to love about covering their adventures. So i’m excited for this and not just for the much needed christmas money.  Naturally we’re starting the adventure here with the founding of the trio, though Kev, for now he could change his mind, choose to start with this movie instead of it’s predecessor Saludos Amigos,  on this date for two reasons. The first is it’s Friday the 13th, which besides being the basis for an utter classic of a Hey Arnold episode

Which yes for those unfamiliar with Hey Arnold features Arnold dealing with a spell of bad luck, some bullies and his grandmother dressing up wlike a black cat to rescue black cats, which is sweet.. and training them into her horrifying army of the damned, which is somehow still sweet as it is awesome.  It’s also the day this guy barges into my house thinking it’s camp crystal lake

I swear to gods Jason GET A FUCKING PHONE WITH GPS. We are not clearly not teenagers. And he’s always so embarrassed and the stab wounds always take so long at the hospital to treat. It’s just a mess.  But it’s also, according to this film Donald’s BIrthday! This was during an earlier point in his career, that will be important in a bit, so Disney hadn’t yet settled on their tradition of having their characters birthday’s being the same date as their first appearance. For the record that would make Donald and Della’s current birthday June 7th. I did a special on Donald Duck shorts for it this year. Not sure what i’ll do the next. We will see. And for fun and my own curiosity I looked up the birthdates of some of the other Ducktales castmembers as well as my boys here They are: 

Jose: August 24th (World Premier of Saludos Amigos)  Panchito: December 21st (The Mexico City Premiere Date for this very movie) Scrooge: November 14th (Thank you INducks seriously it’s a massive help with this.  Daisy: June 7th (Debut of Mr. Duck Steps out) Huey, Dewey and Louie: October 17th (First appearance in Donald’s Newspaper Strip) Webby, Beakley and Launchpad: September 18th, thanks to launchpad’s driver’s license as well as all three characters debuting in the opening arc. Though to separate them i’d likely  try to find different dates for both. For now i’m going with October 12th for Mrs. Beakly (The airing date for the Ducktales 87 ep maid of myth) and October 29th for Webby (the airing date for another 87 episode, this one about webby and a horse).  Gladstone: August 15th, as while it was released in january there is no firm release date for it. Plus a summer birthday fits him better anyways. Thank you Inducks for that.  Magica:  September 28th, finally a firm publication date. While there’s a creation date unlike Gladstone I see no need to use it.  Darkwing Duck/Drake Mallard: September 6th GLOMGOLD: July 26th Was that entirely necessary? No Would I do it again.. absolutely. It also means I really need to do something for Scrooge’s Birthday in two days. But that’s future me’s problem. Current day me has his own problems specifically a movie review to continue.  The films genesis was a in a good will tour Disney did in South America, as part of America’s Good Neighbor Policy. FDR started it in order to try and strengthen ties between Latin America and North America, to prevent any sort of war with our close neighbors and to foster good economic ties between both as well as integrate Latin culture into americans lives to make them care about those countries more. And given it was started as HItler’s rise to power grew, and America knew they’d inevitably be dragged into World War II, and thus wanted to put the kibosh on several Latin American’s Nazi Ties. So in exchange for Money, since Disney was struggling due to overextending itself and the big animator’s strike at the time, The US sent Walt and some of his animatiors to South America, where MIckey Donald and Goofy were big and to make a film based there. Hence we got Saludos Amigos which is .. kind of forgettable to be honest, though the Gaucho Goofy segment is fantastic as the “How to” shorts with goofy around the time usually were. But the film gave us Jose, hence why Donald and him are familiar with each other here, and was a moderate success. This lead to the Goverment, who’d already contracted a bunch of propaganda, one of which I covered in my Donald Duck Shorts Birthday Marathon because it contained prototypes for Gladstone and Scrooge, so another feature for South America was a win win: The US got another way to strengthen ties between the Americas, and Disney got a film they could put out during said war to lift spirits, as well as on that would likely be a hit in South America due to them not being under wartime money crunch or the misery of having a war looming overhead. As a side note. I found out after looking at the wikpiedia article on The Good Neighbor Program.. it eventually and sadly collapsed as the US post WWII shifted to the Cold War and thus threw away non interference if it meant beating the Russians. Classy.  So yeah.. this film and i’ts predecessor are technically propaganda pictures. There was also another disney full length propoganda picture about fighter jets, I only learned about this thanks to the slashfilm article I found on the movie that told me a lot of this in the first place. It’s not avaliable but it should be.. though at the very least unlike say House of Mouse, Wander Over Yonder, Penn Zero: Part Time Hero, American Dragon Jake Long, The Weekenders, Pepper Anne and MANY more, it’s absence from Disney + makes sense. And I will continue to bitch about this till Disney actually starts adding more legacy animated shows, or at least makes a few of it’s own, though I will concede reviving the Mickey Mouse shorts that Disney Channel started up is a VERY good first step and i’m sure What If and Proud Family: Louder and Prouder will be fine. I just want more animation content on the streaming platform of one of the biggest animation studios in the world with one of the most storied histories. I’m REALLY not asking a lot. 

That bit of bitching aside I will give Disney+ credit where it’s due. The service offers MOST of the Disney vault for a very reasonable price a month, in crisp HD, and thus allows someone like me, who hasn’t really dived into the disney vault and slept on watching three cabs despite borrowing it from some friends, to dive into beautiful animation like this any time. It also allows me to explore disney’s older films, the ones I want to anyway, at my leisure and it’s a REALLY nice feeling. It’s also nice to have all the various animated shows in nice clean copies. So while there are sizeable gaps in the library, many of which as highlighted above have no reason for not being there and some like Song of the South have DAMN GOOD reason for never being there, I still apricate the service for being a vast, glorious digital library of Disney content as well as stuff they’ve acquired like the marvel show library, and this review would not have been as easy to do without it. So with my opinions on D+ and the exposition for WHY this exists out of the way, as I couldn’t find much else on this flim’s background, join me after the read more for a full review of the film! Who says so? I says so! 

We open with.. the Disney+ content warning again. In my review of the last part of “Catch as Cash Can” I went on about how much I apricated it and it stands: while i’m not blind that it’s a blanket statement to cover disney’s rears, it’s still apricated for them to care enough to force the content warning on the viewer. Given how bad they usually are at falling on the right side of history, this is very admirable. Though thankfully this film isn’t as offensive as the last content warning I got for the last part of “Catch as Cash can” aka “Watch registered White Guy Hamilton Camp play a bad indian sterotype for 22 minutes while my soul slowly dies”. Here there are bits, which i’ll get to now to save me the trouble later: The Littlest Gaucho’s side characters are all drawn pretty carcturish and a bit cringe inducing. The other is of course Panchito our Mexican representative.. who wears a sombrero and shoots two pistols around. And there’s just a tinge of white man going ot another country to get laid with the way Donald behaves throughout the picture. Basically little touches here and there but nothing that spoils the picture overall or makes whole scenes unwatchable. Still worth having the warning up, but not worth getting too worked up over.  So onto the film itself and as mentioned i’ts Donald’s birthday! And I will say the film has lots of great little gags here and there.. I won’t be pointing all of them out because this film was 70 minutes long but their very charming. HIs first gift is a projector and screen.. which he naturally has to fight to get working and which first projects on his ass, already a good start. And a general thought I like is how receptive Donald is to soaking in another culture. He just seems joyusly enthralled by the various films, gifts and places his friends bring him.. 

But again we’ll get to that. Point is it’s very nice to see Disney portay learning about another culture so positively and with such a hot head as donald. Even if i’ts in part to appease the US Goverment, ther’es a genuine feeling that they truly fell in love with these countries and aren’t JUST shilling them because it’s in their contract, but because they genuinelly liked it there.  So with that we get to our first segment. See the film is one of Disney’s Package films, anthology films taking a bunch of short segments and pasting them together, but here it’s framed through the narrative of DOnald’s birthday, so there is KIND of a plot.. but it’s mostly an excuse for musical numbers, short films, and more musical numbers.

Dammit Elmo, we will get to it! So naturally i’l lbe dividing up this review into various pieces. First up...

1. The Cold Blooded Penguin: Life of Pablo, The Good Version This is a brief but endearing short about a Penguin named Pablo who dosen’t like cold weather, can relate, and wants to move to some tropical paradise, again can relate. It’s BARELY related to the theme of hte movie, celebrating Central and South America, but it’s so damn charming I can’t help but love it. And Pablo is so damn adorable, as are his friends. I mean look at him. 

He’s just so precious and you just want him to finally get to his paradise with the help of his friend, his boiler there smokey joe, and root for him as his farewell party dwindles from a bunch of penguins to just bob and gary here. 

I may love Gary, the tall one, more than I love Pablo honestly> His sad eyes or the way he’s the ONLY one who sticks it out to the end, seeing Pablo off at last. Pablo’s first attempts, going without his boiler, which just ends iwth him freezing and attempting to carry smokey joe on his back both fail, he eventually decides to go with a boat and cleverly simply saws the ice berg he’s on so it’ll drift with his house and possessions, and has Gary hit it with a bottle both to christen it and to send it flying. Plus having bags on the bags on my eyes myself, I can relate to their tired expressions. As can we all after this year. Just a month and a half and it’s finally blessedly over. 

Pablo makes his way through, finally finding his island only to nearly have his iceberg melt before he gets there. But he persevers and gets his paradise, even adorably eating a banana> Though it ends on a mealoncholy yet still funny note of Pablo missing home even though he has a pet turtle/butler now. Man I want one of those.  One final note is that the short is narrated greatly by Sterling Holloway.. aka the future WInnie The Pooh using that exact voice which while a little weird in hindsight, just makes the short that more adorable if you imagine Pooh is reading a story to you. Just a really damn cute short with some good and intentive gags, and penguins. I mean i’ll be honest I have a soft spot in my hart for those tudeoxed boys thanks to the comic strip BLoom County and it’s lead character Opus taking up a LOT of real estate in my heart and brain. Here’s a few samples of him just so you get why.  

Just a sweetheart. Though his honker would grow exponenitally with time. And once get grabbed by a card carrying MAGA asshole. But I can talk about my boy here and this strip again another day. Point is I may love pengies but even that aside this is a good short and a good way to start things off. Sadlly the pacing then lops out a bit as the next two bits aren’t QUITE as entertaining. 

2. Birds Birds Birds: Of Arcuan BIrds and Toucan Sex Donald then watches a film on birds, and i’ts basically just a bunch of short funny gags with various tropical birds. There are a FEW notable bit sin the short, and I will get to them now, but otherwise it’s just okay.. not great but not exactly memorable. I honestly forgot there was anything BUT the Arcuan bird in this bit. Speaking of which A) The Arcuan Bird, a hyperactive pink little guy who makes a little “yatatata” noise, and boops donald a bit and later shows up in the film to steal Jose’s Cigar. Easily the most entertaining part of this section and there’s a reason why he became a massive fan faviorite, as well as got a more expanded roll in Legend of the Three Cablleros. He’d also apparently later return for another Package Film. What a bird.  B) There’s a bit with Toucans, which I remember because I freaking love Toucans, the big colorful beaks look neat contrasted with their black and white bodies and they seem friendly and the one fictional one besides Toucan Sam I can rmemeber is Tuca of Tuca and Bertie. Nuff said. And because they mention the Tucan’s making love. First off this is how a Tucan makes love. 

And secondly, clealry the term has evolved considerably, but it’s still chuckle inducing to have that term in a disney movie, especially since it makes me think of a number of things most notably this. 

Which, fun fact, is the song that will likely be sung when Donald and Daisy finally have sex in the Ducktales Reboot. Della didn’t buy those choir robes for nothing. Though the joke here is simply that they can’t kiss because they have big noses. GET IT. Though I have seen incompatable noses end marriages. 

See I told you his honker got bigger. Okay onto the 3rd thing from this bit. 

C) The Flamingos, who retract into themselves while Donald adorably copies. What a boy. With that I can move on from this segement thankfully and onto... an even worse one!.. wait... 

3. The Littlest Gaucho: The Boring One  This one’s a leftover from Saludos Amigos, likely because that one already had a Gaucho Bit with goofy and because it’s not very good. But Disney was strapped for cash so use everything you got. And yes I advocated for using everything in my review of life and times part 1.. but that’s more for a shared universe and left “Oh hey I found this short in our garbage let’s put it in another movie to save money” way. I appreciate being cheap, I myself am unemployed and right now these reviews are my source of income, but you could’ve just you know.. let the film be shorter? You didn’t have to waste animation leading inito this bit.  This one is the story of a young boy, as narrated by his older self who can somehow see through the veil of time and yell at his younger self. How? 

But it dosen’t really help the story as i’ve seen far better interactive narrators and ones clearly editing history. Especially since, despite ending on a VERY sour note, How I Met Your Mother was a pro at this. It’s not the film’s fault, but even back int he 40′s I swear they could do this better. 

It’s the simple story of the little Gaucho finding a flying Donkey, befriending him, and then entering him in a jockey race which they win. There’s one or two good gags here, but it dosen’t have the cutness of the previous segments and only one or two good gags. It just feels like filler and if I watch the film again, which I probably will, I will fast forward past this. Thankfully after this we finally get a break. 

4. A Song For Bahia: They call him JOSEEEEEEEEE.. and he’s Donald

Jose enters! Donald’s next gift is a book from Brazil that’s smoking..mostly because so’s Jose. The two friends reunite, with Jose in a story book asking Donald about , what I assume is Jose’s home state of Bahia, one of Brazil’s 20 states and spelled Baia in this movie for some reason.  We then get an absolutely beautiful sequence of Jose’s voice actor singing about Bahia and showing off how beautiful the country is through gorgeous animation. It’s a really marvelous segment and really pretty to look at. And once that segment’s done the film starts to pick up in energy, though unlike the Gaucho segment, the Bahia song is actually good. 

5.  Os Quindins de Yayá: The Sleeper Has Awakened.. and by the sleeper I mean Donald’s Penis.  There’s a few bits here. We start with the wonderful song, “Have You Ever Been to Bahia?”.. which is almost entirely Jose asking that to donald who says no, with some fun mindscrewy animation.. the film has not BEGUN to mindscrew, but we’ll get to that. 

Also for this segment Jose apparently has Jamie Madrox powers.. or he’s from Cragg.. either way, Donald hasn’t been to Baia so let’s go. The boys take a train, the Arucan messes things up again, etc etc and soon their in Baia where two major aspects of the film show up: Blending Live action with animation, and Donald being really horny. It’s not to a creepy degree outside of one segment, we’ll get there, but Donald being really into live action women is a major part of three segments of this film. If your wondering while Daisy had debuted, she wasn’t the ETCHED IN STONE, presence she’d become for Donald. Which I don’t have a problem with, I love them in Ducktales 2017, their one of the few tolerable aspects of the quack pack’s i’ve watched, and they were great in House of Mouse. I”m just saying some works don’t really have her around in them (Donald’s spy and papernik adventures), while other more charming and eligible women are, while others have her as outright abusive (Legend of the Three Caballeros). I’m not against Donsy when done properly, again huge fan of the Ducktales 2017 version of the couple, I just dont’ think it has to be mandatory. The fact the Italian comics made Donald a fairly likeable alien queen as a love interest proves it. 

But yeah here Donald’s thirsty as fuck, can relate, and thus we get our next musical number.. and that blend of live action and animation. I will admit, especially on second viewing.. it’s pretty obvious their mostly using a green screened animated backdrop with the charcters on it. The other segments are much more integrated. That being said.. i’m perfectly fine with it, as Disney was on a really low budget, only able to get financing for package films like this since their main financer wouldn’t given them money for anything but shorts, so it was a workaround, not to mention having a mass talent exodus over the strike and World Fucking War II to contend with. So cheeping out on ONE segment in a large film, and STILL having it come out good is fine just fine. And it truly does, the segment centers around Yaya, a cookie seller and the object of Donald’s affections, though he gets mad when a guitar man slips in and woos her instead for a bit before eventually leaving her alone, with Donald getting a kiss. But while parts of that clearly haven’t aged well, it’s an utterly joyous and fun musical number in an already fun musical, and Aurora Miranda who plays Yaya, and is sister of Carmen Miranda something Disney actually put in promotional materials.... come to think of it I didn’t watch the trailer.. I’ll get to it in a moment. Point is, Miranda is very talented and it’s  VERY fun number. Have a listen since the sequence itself is WAY to long to put video of up on youtube. 

And having watched the trailer during that music break, it’s not bad, I expected more cringe. The most I got was them calling the women “latin american lovlies” which.. seems.. wrong. But with the romance of Bahia setting and Donald dragged out by Jose, we can get into our next segement as, over halfway in, we finally get our third Cabllero 

6. The Three Cablleros: Who Say So? We Say So!

HERE COMES THE PANCHITO Ladies and Gentleman and Others! HERE COMES THE PANCHITO! the moment you’ve been waiting for! HERE COMES THE PANCHITO! the pride of Mexico! HERE COMES PANCHITO! Panchito Pistoles! 

When then meet Panchito who joyfully shoots guns around, because stereotype but thankfully he’s also joyful, jubilant and likeable much like his pal Jose. Panchito’s just a thoughtly likeable character and next to his smooth talking pal, it’s easy to see why the two became huge fan favorites. And thus we get our title track. 

IT’s a beautiful, fun segment, that while some portions, such as Panchito’s yelling or “some Latin baby’ haven’t aged particularly well, is still a fun colorful number with amazing music and great gags, that utterly sells our boys camaraderie. I have no notes, ten out of ten flawless classic number. Who Say So? I SAY SO! Also given both boys kiss Donald at some point.. yeah these boys are bi as fuck and damn i’ts awesome. 

7. Mexico: Bored Again, Naturally.  Donald then gets a pinata and we get a short story about a bunch of kids going around to places only to be told “no shelter no posada”. Like the Gauchito bit.. it’s pretty boring and nonconesquential and only gets a leg up due to being far shorter and a little adorable versus not really as adorable as the segement thinks it is. The kids end up at a party with a pinata. We do get a fun sequence after this nothing of a story of Donald batting a pinata around while the boys mess with him a bit. It’s fun stuff.  Out of the PInata we get another storybook, and another slow segement of Panchito singing about mexico which is a less fluidly animated, and thus far less entertaining, version of the Bahia song.. diffrent song, same premise of a bird melodically and beautifully singing about his home land, but less engaging because it’s just still images. I get they were low on budget but while I can forigve that for the Yaya sequence.. this one.. I just can’t as they not only already did this, but did it less good the second time around. The song is lovely though, and I do miss a time in our culture when we looked at Mexico with fondness and didn’t have a FAR too large portion of our population think anyone from there should go back where they came when they come to our brave country to find shelter, aslym and opportunity just because they didn’t go through “proper channels’ even though that’s difficult. WHat i’m saying is fuck our immigration policy for the last 4 years, and bless the president-elect for planning to fix that ASAP. I felt it was worth mentioning in a review ABOUT a Mexican character who, in the reboot, is an immigrant to America. 

8. Everybody Dance: Another fun number. 

We’re onto Mexico and it’s time for another musical number

So our heroes dance, Donald hits on some more women.. stuff we’ve seen before but it’s still a fun beautiful song and unlike the last bit while the animation has clearly aged enough to be more obvious, it still looks great next to the various live action dancers and blends real well. A fun time that gives us more great music and another reminder from donald that...

I mean I get being thirsty as shit, again can relate.. but the next segment takes it from Donald and the Boys being kinda horny to. 

9. The Beach: Donald Gets Creeptacular

Yeah this bit is .. less endearing. The boys fly the serape over to a beach, and divebomb the girls, which isn’t a sex act.. that i’m aware of. But yeah chasing around several women, and donald leaving the Serape to chase them around old beach movie/benie hill/trying my patience style. It’s cringe is what i’m saying as a man literally chasing a woman around is considered flirtitng here and that’s all kinds of EUGGGGHHHH. The previous segments had Donald be kind of respectful in his woman chasing: while he was pretty horny, he also tipped his hat, flirted a bit, asked to dance you know, normal shit.. not decided “let’s chase them with a serape that will turn them on!’ jesus.. yeah not much to say here either just.. really creepy. But we have not reached peak horny donald yet.. oh no. 

10. Donald’s Surreal Revere: WHAT EXACTLY THE FUCK. 

Dora Luz appears in the sky of Mexico after the boys exit the book and flip to Mexico’s night life... just go with hit and Donald swoons over her before joining her int he book and after getting a kiss from her and swooning over her.. has an acid trip. I .. I don’t know how else to describe Donald’s surreal reverie. It’s clear Walt just told the animators do whatever. I will TRY to describe this sequence as best I can, but I make no promises except what I describe is exactly what happened, see for yourself.

Okay so after Dora’s magical floating kisses, just go with it, kiss donald he explodes, in a rocket blast clearly symbolizing his errection, then becomes a neon sign and a hummingbird, just go with it, tries to kiss Dora’s image appearing on a flower, then Jose and Panchito BURST out of the flower with tiny chipmunk voices and gun violence, a SCREAMING TECHNICOLOR TRANSTION, dora singing the song in the middle of a flower again , donald making out with the flower but it turning out ot be panchito with a giraffe neck saying “Some fun eh kid?”, donald falling through a sea of ladies, donald chasing the ladies on a serape. Donald’s disembodied head looking at the ladies before bursting out of the picture to chase them GOOD GOD DID WE NEED MORE OF THAT?! The boys ending up on female bodies and them some sort of horse abomination. Then we get into what must of inspiried a young david Lynch as donald kisses the flower agian, then ends up in one as they replay a creepy whispery recording of either Jose or Panchito saying pretty girls while we see still images of the girls from the beach. Hummingbird Flower Donald then has a romantic duet with a lady because WHY NOT at this point, then multiple donalds before he spins away. We get one last number with donald dancing with living cacti that turn into mini donald’s that’s slightly more sane and finally this bit is done. IN conclusion. 

I just.. I have no words. The giant mess of text up there should explain it and I purposfully didn’t divy it up as i’ve been trying to do more often, as it deserves to be one long string of nonsense. I just.. it’s beautiful to look at but what the hell was that. Is this going to happen every time Donald and Daisy have sex? Is this what Donald’s brain is like all the time? Did Panchito inject him with pure liquid acid?

So yeah we thankfully conclude the film after that with 

14. The Wrap UP The boys horse around with a bull and then heartwarmingly watch fireworks together.. there isn’t much to add it’s jsut fun to watch and a nice pallete cleanser after loosing my sanity. Isn’t that right keith david?

You always say that! So...

Final Thoughts: I’ve made my thoughts on the various segments clear, but what of the film as a whole? As a whole.. it’s pretty fun. Is it the best film Disney’s Produced? probably not. But it’s a fun, brisk 70 minutes, hampered by a few slow spots and some weird horny bits, and various segments feel like an acid trip despite having never taken acid. But our boys easlly anchor the surreality and thirst and all three have great chemistry both comedically, friendship wise and romantically. It’s also very easy to see why this film and it’s cablleros got big in Mexico and Brazil as the film seems like a love letter to both, and is fairly respectful. WHich for the time, sex tourism aside, is pretty damn inspried. So yeah in conclusion, this is a really fun memorable film, it was even better on a second watch and it’s an enjoyable colorful reminder of Disney’s package film era, which I might dig into a bit.. I just may have to borrow a copy of make mine music.. guess what just got added to my list of “why the fuck isn’t this on disney plussss?” 

Regardless this was a fun review and auspcious start to the ride of the Cablleros. if you’d like to comission your own movie or tv review, hit up my ask box or submit box or shoot me an ask to get my discord. You can also join my patreon, patreon.com/popculturebuffet, Until then you can check this space for the various ongoing series mentioned and regular Ducktales coverage every monday. Until then, Adios, with a christmas message from my personal fourth Cabllero

#the three caballeros #donald duck #panchito pistoles #jose carioca #bahia #mexico #donsy #opus the penguin #bloom county #ducktales #aurora miranda #disney #disney plus #disney + #disney+ #comissions #ride of the three cablleros

[a-marlene-s]

This is a... long list of stuff I have watched or read. Along with a list of Au’s I would write for.

If any of you want to know what ‘Fandoms’ I would write for, here’s a list of things I have seen or watched, and I am willing to write for. Along with a list of AU’s I will write for. 

Keep in mind, the list is subject to change and I had left out some things or I forgot about it. If any of you have any questions, throw me an ask or message.

Anime/Manga:

Books:

Ancient Magus’ Bride

Attack on Titan

Black Bird(Read the first couple of chapters, I need to go back an continue it.)

Black Butler

Black Lagoon(First season-ish?)

Bleach

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo

Cyborg 009

Digimon Frontier. (Due to reasons, I will only write for this season.)

Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball Z(Still a better love story than Twilight.)

Durarara!!(I really need to watch the rest of this…)

Fairy Tail

Fullmetal Alchemist/Brotherhood

Hellsing

Hetalia(I… I only watched it because my brother told me one of his friends watched it. There’s a fine line of insanity, and it crossed it for me.)

Howl’s Moving Castle

Inuyasha

Kiki’s Delivery Service

Kimetsu no Yaiba

La Corda D’Oro

My Hero Academia

Naruto/Naruto Shippuden/Buroto

Oban Star Racers(I love this show!!!!!!!!)

One Piece(First couple of seasons. It’s been a while…)

One Punch Man

Ouran High School Host Club

Ponyo

Prince of Tennis

Princess Mononoke(My first Studio Ghibli movie. I wasn’t even ten.)

Seven Deadly Sins

Shaman King

Soul Eater

Soul King

Spirited Away

Sword Art Online(Only watched the first couple of episodes. I like it.)

Tokyo Mew Mew

Trigun(I really need to rewatch this.)

Wolf Children

YuGiOh/YuGiOh GX/YuGiOh 5D’s(I will only write for Yugioh 5D’s. Due to personal reasons.)

Zatch Bell

Cartoons: (I’ve seen a lot more, but I won’t mention them here.)

A Christmas Carol

BFG

Charlotte’s Web

Harry Potter

House Of Night Series

Hunger Games(Only the first book.)

Twilight

Games:

6Teen

Addams Family

American Dragon: Jake Long

Atlantis

As Told By Ginger

Avatar: Last Airbender

Batman

Batman Beyond

Batman the Animated Series

Ben 10

Chalkzone

Code Lyoko

Codename: Kids Next Door

Courage The Cowardly Dog

Danny Phantom

El Tigre

Fillmore

Gargoyles

Generator Rex

Growing Up Creepie

Hazbin Hotel(I recently just watched the pilot… it was interesting.)

Hercules: The Animated Series

Hey Arnold

Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi

Jackie Chan Adventures

Jimmy Neutron

Johnny Test

Josie and the Pussycats

Kim Possible

Legend of Korra

Lilo & Stitch

Men in Black, The Series

Mighty Ducks

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Chat Noir

Monster High

Mummy: The Animated Series

My Life as a Teenage Robot

Mystery Skulls Animated

Pokémon

Proud Family

Pucca

Rocket Power

Rugrats/All Grown Up

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch

Samurai Jack

Scooby Doo

Secret Saturdays

Speed Race: The Next Generation

Static Shock

Super Robot Monkey Team

Sym-Bionic Titan

Teen Titans

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Three Delivery

ThunderCats

Time Squad

Total Drama Series

Totally Spies

Voltron: Legendary Defender

Winx Club

X-Men

X-Men Evolution

Xiaolian Showdown

Yin Yang Yo

Young Justice

Movies:

(A lot of Otome games. Just ask.)

Dragon Age

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

Elder Scrolls: Blade

Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Eldarya

Fable

Fallout

High School Story

Hollywood U

Love Nikki

Mortal Kombat

My Candy Love/University

My Forged Wedding

My Sweet Bodyguard

Mystic Messenger

Sly Cooper

Super Smash Brothers

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger

Tv Shows: (English and Spanish)

10,000 BC

101/102 Dalmatians

13 Ghosts

2012

50 First Dates

A Cinderella Story

A Little Princess

A-Team

Ace Ventura

Addams Family

Agent Cody Banks

Alice in Wonderland

Aliens/Predator

An American Tail

Anastasia

Annie

Antz

Aristocrats

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

August Rush

Batman

Beauty and the Beast  

Beetlejuice

Big Hero 6

Black Cauldron

Borrowers

Brave

Camp Rock

Casper

Charlie Angels

Cinderella

Coco

Conjuring

Coraline

Corpse Bride

Crimson Peak

Dawn of the Dead

Despicable Me

Doctor Doolittle

Ella Enchanted

Emperor’s New Groove

Epic

Fifth Element

Finding Nemo

Firehouse Dog

Forrest Gump

Frozen

Green Mile

Hairspray

Halloweentown

Harry Potter

Hellboy

High School Musical

Hobbit

Hocus Pocus

Holes

Homeward Bound

Hotel Transylvania

How To Train Your Dragon

Hunchback of Norte Dame

Hunger Games(One the first movie.)

I Am Legend

I, Robot

Ice Princess

The Incredibles

Independence Day

Inside Out

Iron Giant

James and the Giant Peach

John Wick

Jumaji

Krampus

Kung Fu Panda

Legend of Tarzan

Lila & Stitch

Lord of the Rings

Matilda

Meet the Robinsons

Megamind

Moana

Mostly Ghostly

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium

Mummy

Nanny McPhee

Night At the Museum

Nightmare Before Christmas

Parent Trap

Penelope

Peter Pan

Phantom of the Opera

Pirates of the Caribbean

Pocahontas

Polar Express

Princess and the Frog

Princess Diaries

 Moves under the Main Disney Banner:

Bones

Marvel or under the same publication:

Snow White

DC Films: 

X-Men

DC Animted:

Superman I, II, II (1978, 80 and 83)

LIst of AU’s I will write for:

Superman: The Animated Series

A Christmas Carol

#Long List of Stuff #The List #List of Fandoms and Au

[thecomicsnexus]

Casey in Point

TALES OF THE TMNT #37 AUGUST 2007 BY JAKE BLACK, PETER LAIRD, DIEGO JOURDAN, VILLAGRAN STUDIOS, ERIC TALBOT AND ERIC THERIAULT

As Casey Jones saves a man on the street from being beaten to death, he invites him for a drink and to proceeds to tell him his origin story.

SCORE: 6

This is a fun story and the reason it got such a low score is because of the art. I am having real problems trying to figure out who is who, especially when men and women look the same. When Diego is not doing a very specific perspective work, his panels look too bi-dimensional and distorted. Another thing I do not like about the art, is that we get black and white (no semitones, no gradients, no scales of gray), except for backgrounds. This issue needed those grays in the actual characters. But that is just my opinion.

Spoilers after the break...

So in this story we are told that Casey Jones is inspired by the brutal killing of his brother to become a vigilante.

Except that... this is just a made-up story. Casey likes to fantasize possible stories and this is one of them. I mean, the clues were there to see. One of the most obvious is that his mother usually calls him by his real name: Arnold. No mention of Arnold here.

If this were his true origin, it wouldn’t really upset me. I think it works. But it feels a little rushed (like him watching violent movies after his brother was beaten to death, and having a good time). So while the origin would have worked for me, I feel like I prefer this to be an imaginary story. There will be an actual origin story at a later point.

#mirage studios #diego jourdan #comics #review #2007 #modern age #indie #casey jones #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tales of the tmnt

[mateushonrado]

Power Rangers Ultraverse teams 49-64

Status Post #8396: Folder | List

49. Space Squad (same name as Japanese version but this one is an Ameritoku version)

Ryan Steele / VR Alpha

Kaitlin Star / VR Beta

JB Reese / VR Delta

Sam Collins / Servo

Jo McCormick / Red Striker Beetleborg

Dex Stewart / Masked Rider

Jack Landors / SPD Red Ranger

Elizabeth Delgado / SPD Yellow Ranger

Andros / Red Space Ranger

Karone / Galaxy Pink

50. Astro Rangers (Rangers comprising of science fiction characters)

Adam of Eternia (He-Man) / Red Astro Ranger

Ahsoka Tano (Star Wars) / Green Astro Ranger

Son Goku (Dragon Ball) / Orange Astro Ranger

Mako Mori (Pacific Rim) / Blue Astro Ranger

Takashi "Shiro" Shirogane (Voltron) / Black Astro Ranger

Jaylah (Star Trek) / Purple Astro Ranger

Ladios Sopp (The Five Star Stories) / Gold Astro Ranger

Nova Maxwell (Power Rangers) / Silver Astro Ranger

51. Dino Elite Rangers (superteam comprising of dino-themed Rangers)

Jason Scott / Red Tyranno Ranger

Kira Ford / Dino Thunder Yellow

Koda / Dino Charge Blue

Nelida Valensis / Brave Charge Black

Lauren Shiba / Red Samurai Ranger II

Eric Myers / Quantum Ranger

52. Ninja Elite Rangers (superteam comprising of ninja-themed Rangers)

Adam Park / Blue Wolf Ranger

Shane Clarke / Ninja Storm Red

Leanne Omino / Thunder Storm Yellow

Sarah Thompson / Ninja Steel Pink

Delphine / White Aquitar Ranger

David Trueheart / White Ninjetti Ranger

53. Titan Rangers (Rangers comprising of Young Justice/Teen Titans)

Timothy "Tim" Drake / Red Robin Ranger

Conner Kent / Black Superboy Ranger

Bart Allen / Silver Impulse Ranger

Cassie Sandsmark / Gold Wonder Ranger

Anita Fite / Purple Empress Ranger

Greta Hayes / White Secret Ranger

Cissie King-Jones / Crimson Arrowette Ranger

Grant Emerson / Orange Damage Ranger

Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle Ranger

Kiran Singh / Yellow Solstice Ranger

M'gann M'orzz / Green Martian Ranger

Virgil Hawkins / Navy Static Ranger

54. Mutant Rangers (Rangers comprising of New Mutants/X-Force)

Danielle "Dani" Moonstar / Blue Mirage Ranger

Samuel "Sam" Guthrie / Orange Cannonball Ranger

Xi'an Coy Mahn / Pink Karma Ranger

Roberto da Costa / Red Sunspot Ranger

Rahne Sinclair / Crimson Wolfsbane Ranger

Douglas "Doug" Ramsey / Yellow Cypher Ranger

Amara Aquilla / Gold Magma Ranger

Illyana Rasputin / Black Magik Ranger

Russell "Rusty" Wilson / Orange Firefist Ranger

James Proudstar / Silver Warpath Ranger

Evan Daniels / Silver Spyke Ranger

Laura Kinney / Tan Wolverine Ranger

55. Sentai Strike Force (a mix of Sentai and PR)

Captain Marvelous / Gokai Red

Nanami Nono / Hurricane Blue

Ian Yorkland / Kyoryu Black

Luna Konokoe / Midoninger

Ryan Mitchell / Lightspeed Titanium

Ashley Hammond / Yellow Space Ranger

Robert James Finn / Purple Wolf Ranger

Sydney Drew / SPD Pink Ranger

56. Sentai Elite (a mix of Sentai and PR)

Tsuruhime / Ninja White

Masato Jin / Beet Buster

Yuri / Time Pink

Akira Nijino / ToQ 6gou

Leelee Pimvare / Vampire Black

Conner McKnight / Dino Thunder Red

Veronica "Ronny" Robinson / Overdrive Yellow

Merrick Baliton / Silver Wolf Ranger

57. Avatar Rangers (Avatarverse)

Aang / Avatar Orange

Katara / Avatar Blue

Sokka / Avatar Navy

Toph Beifong / Avatar Green

Zuko / Avatar Red

Suki / Avatar Emerald

Korra / Avatar Cyan

Mako / Avatar Crimson

Bolin / Avatar Teal

Asami Sato / Avatar Indigo

58. Voltron Rangers (Voltron Alliance)

Keith Kogane / Voltron Black

Allura Aquilla / Voltron Red

Lance Azul / Voltron Blue

Katie "Pidge" Holt / Voltron Green

Hunk Garrett / Voltron Yellow

Acxa Nova / Voltron Purple

59. Netflix Rangers (Rangers comprising of characters from Netflix animated originals and films under Dreamworks, Wonderstorm and other animated studios)

Callum (The Dragon Prince) / Red Netflix Ranger

Rayla (The Dragon Prince) / Green Netflix Ranger

James "Jim" Lake Jr. (Tales of Arcadia) / Silver Netflix Ranger

Claire Nuñez (Tales of Arcadia) / Pink Netflix Ranger

Jake "Stretch" Armstrong (Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters) / Blue Netflix Ranger

Carmen Sandiego (Carmen Sandiego) / Scarlet Netflix Ranger

Adam (The Hollow) / Black Netflix Ranger

Adora (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) / White Netflix Ranger

Alucard Tepes (Castlevania) / Gold Netflix Ranger

Miko Kuroda (Devilman Crybaby) / Silver Netflix Ranger

60. Cartoon Network Rangers (Rangers comprising of characters from CN, Boomerang, WB Animation, Hanna-Barbera and Warner Animation Group shows and films)

Ben Tennyson (Ben 10) / Green CN Ranger

Gwen Tennyson (Ben 10) / Blue CN Ranger

Lion-O (ThunderCats) / Red CN Ranger

Cheetara (ThunderCats) / Yellow CN Ranger

Jack (Samurai Jack) / White CN Ranger

Juniper Lee (The Life and Times of Juniper Lee) / Purple CN Ranger

Jonny Quest (Jonny Quest) / Black CN Ranger

Kiva Andru (Megas XLR) / Silver CN Ranger

Rex Salazar (Generator Rex) / Orange CN Ranger

Kimiko Tohomiko (Xiaolin) / Pink CN Ranger

61. Disney Rangers (Rangers comprising of characters from Disney Channel, Disney XD, Jetix, Fox Kids, Disney and Pixar animated shows and films)

Goliath (Gargoyles) / Black Disney Ranger

Elisa Maza (Gargoyles) / Orange Disney Ranger

Mason "Dipper" Pines (Gravity Falls) / Blue Disney Ranger

Mabel Pines (Gravity Falls) / Pink Disney Ranger

Jacob "Jake" Long (American Dragon: Jake Long) / Red Disney Ranger

Kimberly Ann "Kim" Possible (Kim Possible) / Indigo Disney Ranger

Robin Hood (Robin Hood) / Gold Disney Ranger

Fa Mulan (Mulan) / Green Disney Ranger

Charlie Landers (Aaron Stone) / Silver Disney Ranger

Alita (Alita: Battle Angel) / Navy Disney Ranger

62. Nickelodeon Rangers (Rangers comprising of characters from Nickelodeon, Nicktoons and Paramount Animation animated shows and films)

Daniel "Danny" Fenton (Danny Phantom) / Black Nickelodeon Ranger

Samantha "Sam" Manson (Danny Phantom) / Purple Nickelodeon Ranger

Mahad (Skyland) / Red Nickelodeon Ranger

Lena (Skyland) / White Nickelodeon Ranger

James Isaac "Jimmy" Neutron (The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius) / Blue Nickelodeon Ranger

Bloom (Winx Club) / Pink Nickelodeon Ranger

Arnold Shortman (Hey Arnold) / Green Nickelodeon Ranger

Jenny Wakeman (My Life as a Teenage Robot) / Silver Nickelodeon Ranger

Casey Jones (TMNT) / Green Nickelodeon Ranger

Charlie Watson (Bumblebee) / Yellow Nickelodeon Ranger

63. Sentai Showdown (a mix of Sentai and PR)

Sokichi Banba / Big One

Remi Hoshikawa / Five Yellow

Hayate / Ginga Green

Rin / Houou Ranger

Chad Lee / Lightspeed Blue

Vesper Vasquez / Black Hyperforce Ranger

Ivan / Dino Charge Gold

Clare Langtree / Gatekeeper Purple

64. Sentai Prime Force (a mix of Sentai and PR)

Kaoru Shiba / Princess Shinken Red

Gaku Washio / Gao Yellow

Hyoko Hayase / Sieg-Jeanne

Masumi Inou / Bouken Black

Emma Goodall / Megaforce Pink

Ziggy Grover / RPM Green

Kiya / Blue Omega Ranger

Tyzonn / Overdrive Silver

#power rangers #power rangers ultraverse

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: EDITORIAL: Movies and the 9/11 effect

(Image: pathtoparadise.com)

EIGHTH EDITION: UPDATED SEPTEMBER 11, 2019– In an update to my annual editorial (after the original post on the 10th anniversary in 2011), I’ve got new movie inclusions in several sections, including the most recent section of faded and relaxed sensitivity in films.  I plan to make this an annual post and study for at least until the 20th anniversary in 2021.  (All poster images are courtesy of IMPAwards.com)

Never forget.  There’s no doubt that every American over the age of 25 won’t soon forget where they were 18 years ago at 8:46AM on September 11, 2001.  The world and our American lifestyle changed forever that day in more ways that we can measure.  I know movies and cinema are trivial pieces of entertainment compared to the more important things in life, but movies have always been two-hour vacations and therapy sessions from life, even in the face of immense tragedy.  Sometimes, we need movies to inspire us and help us remember the good in things, while still being entertained.  In seventeen years, they too have changed.

I’m here for an editorial research piece on the anniversary of 9/11 to showcase a few movies, both serious and not-so-serious, that speak to that day whether as a tribute, remembrance, or example of how life has changed since that fateful day.  Enjoy!

MOVIES THAT WERE OPENING THAT FRIDAY EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO

Call this a time capsule, but these were the notable movies that opened Friday, September 7, 2001 and Friday, September 14, 2001, the two Fridays surrounding 9/11.  Such a different time, huh?  Needless to say, few people were in the mood for a movie in those first weeks and the fall 2001 box office took quite a hit until the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone showed up in November 2001, followed by Ocean’s Eleven and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring that December.

The Musketeer  (September 7th)

Soul Survivors  (September 7th)

Rock Star  (September 7th)

Hardball  (September 14th)

The Glass House  (September 14th)

All were box office bombs at the time.  The Musketeer garnered a good bit of overseas earnings and Hardball got some of the best reviews of Keanu Reeves’s post-Matrix career and grew to be a DVD hit.  Still, talk about bad timing.

EXAMPLES OF 2001-2002 MOVIES CHANGED BECAUSE OF 9/11

Spider-Man— Many of you may remember seeing this teaser for the big comic book blockbuster before it was pulled post-9/11. (New remastered video in 2019)

Donnie Darko— Suggested by Feelin’ Film Facebook Discussion Group contributor Josh Powers. Released months before 9/11, few remember how much this film was somewhat buried and forced to become an underground cult favorite due to a pivotal moment involving a horrific plane crash.

Lilo and Stitch— See a side-by-side video clip of differences in Imgur.  The trivia notes behind it are explained on IMDb.  

Collateral Damage— The Arnold Schwarzenegger terrorism movie had its release date bumped and terrorist overtones mellowed down.  (trailer)

City by the Sea— The production on this Robert DeNiro/James Franco thriller was moved from New York to Los Angeles in July 2001, dodging the terrorism attacks that would have threatened their home Tribeca studios.  (trailer)

Sidewalks of New York–– Edward Burns intermingled love story movie was bumped to November and had to have its posters changed.  See right here on the left for an example.  (trailer)

Men in Black II— The original scripted ending of the movie was scripted to have the World Trade Center towers open up to release a barrage of UFOs.  (trailer)

Serendipity and Zoolander— Both movies had shots of the WTC digitally removed from the skylines of their finished films before they hit theaters that fall.

The Time Machine— Had its December 2001 release bumped to March because of a potentially sensitive scene of meteor shower over New York (which it cut).  (trailer)

Big Trouble— It too had its nuclear bomb-centered plot cause a release delay well into 2002.  The delay didn’t help this already awful movie.  (trailer)

MOVIES ABOUT 9/11 ITSELF

September 11  (2002)– International directors from around the world, including Ken Loach, Mira Nair, and future Oscar winner Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, made a two-hour anthology of short films showing creative expressions of other cultures and their reactions to the tragedy. 

United 93  (2006)– Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass took an unknown cast and directed a harrowing real-time account of the flight that fought back.  Hard to watch, but undeniably powerful without exploiting the tragedy.  (trailer)

World Trade Center  (2006)– Conspiracy specialist Oliver Stone turns off the urge to dig into his usual musings and delivers an incredibly humble, respectful, and understated (words that hardly ever describe an Oliver Stone movie) true story of the last two men (Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena) rescued alive at Ground Zero.  Worth every moment to see and a great tribute to the first responders and their families.  (trailer)

9/11  (2017)– I think we all knew a day would come where some hack film was going to come around and exploit the tragedy that is the 2001 terrorist attacks.  That award goes to Charlie Sheen, Whoopi Goldberg, and director Martin Guigui’s straight-to-VOD trash heap.  Sheen, a noted conspiracy theorist on 9/11, took it upon himself to make a glamour project stepping on history.  Do not waste your time with this film.

MOVIES WITH PROMINENT 9/11 CONNECTIONS

The Guys  (2002)– One of the first reactionary films to 9/11 came from Focus Features in 2002 and starred Anthony LaPaglia and Sigourney Weaver.  Based on Anne Nelson’s heartfelt play, LaPaglia plays a fire captain who lost eight men on 9/11 and Weaver plays the editor who helps him write eulogies for the fallen.  The film is only available on disc from Amazon.  (trailer)

WTC View  (2005)– Gallows humor bubbles to the surface in this off-kilter indie romance from Brian Sloan about a SoHo man who placed an ad to find a new roommate and September 10th and now lives through a more difficult and trying landscape.  (trailer)

Reign Over Me  (2007)– In a rare dramatic turn, Adam Sandler plays a fictional wayward man who lost his wife and daughters on 9/11 and tailspins through life fiver years later when an old college friend (Don Cheadle) tries to help keep him from being committed to a psychiatric care.  (trailer)

Remember Me  (2010)– Billed as a coming-of-age film starring Twilight star Robert Pattinson, it features a fictitious family affected by the tragedy, including the fall of the WTC.  Most critics found the 9/11 connections exploitative and offensive.  (trailer)

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close  (2011)– Speaking of exploitative, the Tom Hanks/Sandra Bullock Oscar nominee from this past year definitely rubbed more than a few audiences the wrong way in using 9/11 as a backdrop to a fictional family tragedy.  Critics (including this one) clamored that if you’re going to bring 9/11 to the big screen, use a real story.  (trailer)  (my full review)

September Morning  (2017)– Independent writer/director Ryan Frost crafted a small drama about five college freshman staying up all night after 9/11 weighing the impact it will have on their present and future.  The film won a youth jury award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.  (trailer)

MOVIES ABOUT THE WAR ON TERROR

In the decade since September 11, 2011, our largest response as a nation to the terrorism of that day has been a pair of wars overseas in the countries of Iraq and Afghanistan.  The “war on terror” has quickly grown into a ripe orchard for possible movie storylines.

Home of the Brave  (2006)–Rocky producer Irwin Winkler earns the credit for the first mainstream Hollywood movie depicting the Iraqi War and the initial soldiers returning home to re-acclimate to society.  Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, and Jessica Biel.  (trailer)

The Hurt Locker  (2008)– Of course, the best-of-the-best is the 2009 Best Picture winner from Kathryn Bigelow starring Jeremy Renner as a driven, yet dark Iraqi bomb specialist.  Its quality needs no introduction.  (trailer)

Grace is Gone  (2007)– In the Audience Award winner of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, typical gender roles are reversed when John Cusack plays a homefront father (in my opinion, the best he’s ever acted) who has to find the best way to tell his two daughters that their soldier mother was killed in Iraq.  This movie is “guy-cry” level brilliant.  (trailer)

Rendition  (2007)– Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, and Meryl Streep get together for a movie calling out the wrongs of detainment, interrogation, and torture.  (trailer)

The Kingdom  (2007)– Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman investigate a bombing and throw down in the streets of Riyadh.  (trailer)

Lions for Lambs  (2007)– Robert Redford delivers a three point-of-view discourse on U.S. war affairs before home and abroad with the help of Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep.  (trailer)

In the Valley of Elah  (2007)– Crash director Paul Haggis leads Tommy Lee Jones (in an amazing Oscar-nominated performance) and Susan Sarandon as parents investigating with a local detective (Charlize Theron) the disappearance of their AWOL son returning home from Iraq.  (trailer)

Body of Lies  (2008)– Ridley Scott’s fictional take on the CIA’s involvement in preventing Jordanian terrorism starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.  (trailer)

Stop-Loss  (2008)– Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play three young Texas schoolmates who are finally home from overseas but are forced back via the stop-loss clause.  (trailer)

The Messenger  (2009)– Woody Harrelson was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a U.S. Army Casualty Notification Team officer mentoring recent veteran (Ben Foster) on the uniquely difficult job of informing families the bad news.  (trailer)

Taking Chance  (2009)– Along the same bringing-bad-news-home lines is this gem of a HBO film starring Kevin Bacon (like Cusack earlier, in arguably his best performance as an actor) as a desk officer who never saw combat but takes on the duty of escorting a young fallen soldier’s body back to his old hometown.  Even though this wasn’t in theaters, it is outstanding and worth your time on DVD.  (trailer)

Brothers  (2009)– Jake Gyllenhaal takes care of his older brother’s wife (Natalie Portman) while he (Tobey Maguire) is declared MIA in Afghanistan, from director Jim Sheridan.  (trailer)

Dear John and The Lucky One  (2010 and 2012)– These two adaptations of Nicholas Sparks romance novels briefly touches on the War on Terror through Channing Tatum and Zac Efron’s lead characters’ return home to romance.  (trailer and trailer)

Green Zone  (2010)–Director Paul Greengrass followed United 93 with his Bourne series star Matt Damon in this taut and marginally-dramatized account of the early unsuccessful searches and the possible cover-up of Baghdad’s supposed stores of weapons of mass destruction.  (trailer)

Restrepo  (2010)– The highly acclaimed National Geographic documentary film follows a one-year look at the real men of the platoon embattled in the deadliest fortified valley of Afghanistan.  (trailer)

Act of Valor  (2012)– Disney pumped up the military with this fictional anti-terrorism film using active duty Navy SEALs.  Coming out after the death of Osama bin Laden, this was a welcome and well-promoted hero picture and recruitment reel.  (trailer)

Zero Dark Thirty  (2012)– The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow made a film about the SEAL Team 6 men and their story of taking down Osama bin Laden.  The film was my #1 movie on my “10 Best” list for 2012.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Lone Survivor (2013)– Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) directed an outstanding and patriotic film based on the Afghanistan saga of Marcus Luttrell starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster, and Emile Hirsch that echoes another true-life story from the ongoing War on Terror.  Very good movie!  (trailer)  (my full review)

A Most Wanted Man (2014)– Spy novelist John LeCarre’s multi-layered 2008 novel about the world of inter-agency espionage happening in Hamburg, Germany, the same city where the 9/11 conspirators hatched their plans, is an excellent and different post-9/11 film with an international flair and flavor.  It will also be remembered as one of the last performances of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was phenomenal in the film.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit  (2014)– This modern reboot or update of the famed Tom Clancy character, now played by Chris Pine, roots his pre-spy origins in the aftermath of 9/11 and the War on Terror that followed.  (trailer)

American Sniper  (2014)– Clint Eastwood’s Best Picture nominee war drama about the real-life story of the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (played by Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper) went on to become the highest grossing film of 2014 (north of $350 million).  Kyle’s journey from the heartland to the front lines was spurred by a sense of duty and patriotism that started from the attacks of 9/11.  This is, by far, the most high profile movie to date to feature the War on Terror directly correlating 9/11.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Good Kill  (2015)– On the smaller side, but just as solid with warfare and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is this under-seen film which had a limited theatrical release during the summer of 2015.  Andrew Niccol (Lord of War, Gattaca, The Truman Show) shifted his focus to the War on Terror by showcasing a Las Vegas base of drone pilots dealing with the ramification of their actions and the war being waged on their screens and with their joystick controls.  (trailer)  (my full review)

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi  (2016)– Director Michael Bay’s slanted look at the September 11, 2012 embassy attacks that have become a political firebrand since certainly qualifies to make this list.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot  (2016)– Tina Fey shed her comedic image for a heavyish war drama loosely based the true story of Afghanistan/Pakistan television journalist Kim Barker.  (trailer)  

Snowden  (2016)– Renowned politicized filmmaker Oliver Stone brought his brush of dramatic license to the story of whistleblowing former spy Edward Snowden, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  The paranoia of the post-9/11 digital age was the mission field for Snowden and many other young men and women who sought the security and counterterrorism industries. (trailer) (full review)

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk  (2016)– A company of soldiers who lost their commanding officer in Iraq are making a victory tour of press dates and public appearances when the reflections of the title character (newcomer Joe Alwyn) fill the day.  Ang Lee’s film felt ten years too late and was not well received.  (trailer) (my full review)

Thank You For Your Service  (2015) and Thank You For Your Service  (2017)– This popular conversation sentence was the title of two different works.  In 2015, Tom Donahue’s documentary opened eyes to the shoddy mental health governance for modern veterans and made waves that changed actual policies.  The 2017 feature film borrows inspiration from David Finkel’s 2013 nonfiction bestseller dealing with the PTSD topic of returning Iraqi tour soldiers adjusting to civilian life.  Miles Teller is the headliner and is joined by Haley Bennett, Beulah Koale, Joe Cole, and Amy Schumer.  (trailer) (trailer)

Megan Leavey  (2017)– 2017 was a busy year for War on Terror-connected films with five new entries.  Taglined “based on the true story about a Marine’s best friend,” Megan Leavey stars Kate Mara as the soldier leader of a bomb-searching pooch on deployment in Iraq.  Touching film!  (trailer)

The Wall  (2017)– Nocturnal Animals Golden Globe nominee Aaron Taylor-Johnson and emerging WWE movie star John Cena play two soldiers pinned down by an Iraqi sniper in a single-setting thriller from action specialist Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow).  (trailer)

War Machine  (2017)– Enough time has passed now in 2017 where the War on Terror has reached a point of being a target of satire.  Animal Kingdom and The Rover director David Michod puts a witty spin on things creating a fictionalized account of U.S. General Stanley McChrystal with Brad Pitt in the lead.  Netflix is the exclusive carrier of this one.   (trailer)

Last Flag Flying  (2017)– The last and best of the 2017 bunch is Richard Linklater’s dramedy about three old Vietnam veterans (Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne) who come together when one of their sons is killed in Iraq and coming home for burial.  The excellent acting trio and Linklater’s writing (adapted from Darryl Ponicsan’s novel, a spiritual sequel to his The Last Detail) deliver touching brevity and sharp commentary on the echoes of war across generations.  (trailer) (my full review)

A Private War (2018)— Documentary filmmaker Matthew Heineman made his feature film debut with a biopic on British photojournalist Marie Colvin, who made her stops through the hellfire of Iraq and Afghanistan in her storied career. Rosamund Pike was snubbed for an Oscar nomination that year. (trailer) (my full review)

Vice (2018)— Speaking of biopics, writer/director Adam McKay brought his machete for satire to the life of former Vice President Dick Cheney. The film dove deep into the manipulated machinations from Cheney that engineered the War on Terror during the Bush administration. While not as good as The Big Short, Vice did earn eight Oscar nominations (winning one for makeup), including Best Picture and Best Actor for Christian Bale in the leading role. (trailer) (my full review)

Official Secrets (2019)— When invading Iraq was on the table to push the war to the ground, the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Tony Blair were lockstep next to the U.S. on seeking United Nations approval. The true story of whistleblower Katharine Gun unearthed secrets that led to questioning the war’s legality before it even began. This is a nice step-up for Keira Knightley. (trailer) (my full review)

The Report (2019)— Not yet widely released in 2019 after huge buzz at the Sundance Film Festival, frequent Steven Soderbergh screenwriting collaborator Scott Z. Burns made his directorial debut with this searing docudrama of the use of torture by American agencies during the War on Terror. Check out the film’s trailer:

MOVIES ABOUT THE CHANGES IN AMERICAN LIFE (BOTH SERIOUS AND NOT-SO-SERIOUS)

25th Hour  (2002)– New Yorker Spike Lee was quick to not shy away from the post-9/11 pulse of New York City following Edward Norton’s character’s last night of debauchery and unfinished business before going to prison.  Filled with scathing social commentary and visual reminders of 9/11 and Ground Zero, its amazing opening credits sequence alone set the tone as only Spike can.  (trailer)

Fahrenheit 9/11  (2004)– Documentary maverick Michael Moore’s slam at the handling of 9/11 and the war on terror became one of the most successful box office documentaries of all-time.  (trailer)

Sorry, Haters  (2005)– Robin Wright played a professional woman who receives conversation and unexpected interaction with an Arab New York cab driver in this IFC production.  (foreign trailer)

An Inconvenient Truth  (2006)– By contrast, in a small snippet and computer graphic on melting glaciers in this Oscar-winning documentary, Al Gore lets us know that half of Greenland or Antarctica’s melted ice would put New York, including Ground Zero, underwater within the next 50 years.  (trailer)

The Terminal  (2004)– Airports are now covered in bureaucratic red tape.  Heaven forbids, you’re not from America.  (trailer)

Anger Management  (2003)– Showed us that you can get kicked off a plane now for just about anything.  (trailer)

Soul Plane  (2004)– Then again, come on, guys.  Air travel can still be cool, even with the new security rules. (trailer)

Snakes on a Plane  (2006)– OK, maybe not so much… (trailer)

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay  (2008)– You’ve got to hate racial profiling as much as you equally love a good parody.  (trailer)

Iron Man  (2008)– Marvel’s steely hero had his Vietnam origin story conveniently and modernly flopped for an Afghanistan-connected one.  (trailer)

Bridesmaids  (2011)– Now, that’s how an Air Marshall gets down! (trailer)

Source Code  (2011)– Our fear of catastrophes on planes can easily be translated to trains as well.  (trailer) (my full review)

The Reluctant Fundamentalist  (2013)– For a serious look at the warped view of Muslim citizens post-9/11, take a look at Mira Nair’s dramatic thriller about a young Pakistani man (newcomer Riz Ahmed) who is successful on Wall Street but viewed differently through profiling after 9/11.  (trailer)

The Fifth Estate (2013)– The film story of the WikiLeaks of Julian Assange carry a loose connection to the changed post-9/11 landscape of security and more.  (trailer)

Boyhood (2014)– Richard Linklater’s huge biographical opus was filmed over the course of 12 years with the same cast growing up and aging to tell their family story.  The film starts in 2002, where the incidents of 2001 are fresh on the minds of the characters and discussed openly during the first year sequence of the journey.  Later on, political mentions of Bush, Obama, and the War on Terror make it into a reflective conversation as well.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Won’t You Be My Neighbor  (2018)– A key moment in the extraordinary Fred Rogers documentary chronicled when a retired Rogers was brought back for a special televised message to young viewers about reacting to the 9/11 tragedy that played on-screen for so many viewers.  It’s a touching historical moment.  (trailer) (my full review)

MEMORABLE PAST IMAGES OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER IN MOVIES

Sometimes, all it takes is the camera making a fleeting, yet memorable, glance at those beautiful and now-gone skyscrapers to immediately remind us of a different time.  The WTC towers have been shown in innumerable establishing shots.  We’ll highlight some great ones.  Beginning with the closing credits to New Yorker Martin Scorsese’s 2002 film Gangs of New York, here’s a great montage of cinematic views of the WTC from various pre-2001 movies.

Superman  (1978)– Even a passing fly-by over “Metropolis” feels different.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York  (1992)– Tell me this clip didn’t just go from cute to eerie to sad.  Wonderful then, but different now.

Godspell (1973)— Submitted by friend-of-the-page and larger-fan-of-musicals-than-me Josh Powers, enjoy this dance number from the summery musical filmed and completed before the skyscraper’s ribbon-cutting.

King Kong  (1976)– While it may not match the iconic 1933 image of the original ape towering on top of the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center plays a big role in the 1976 remake starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange.  (trailer) 

Independence Day  (1996), Deep Impact  (1998), Armageddon  (1998), and The Day After Tomorrow  (2004)– These all constitute the prominent disaster movies that leave New York (and, in three cases, the WTC) in destructive shambles.  

HONORABLE MENTIONS:  Godzilla  (1998), Cloverfield  (2004), War of the Worlds  (2005), and Watchmen  (2009).  Kind of not so entertaining for few seconds anymore, huh?  See for yourself.  Here’s a montage of NYC movie destruction:

MOVIES THAT FEEL DIFFERENT IN THE POST-9/11 WORLD

I don’t know about you but a lot of movies just don’t resonate or feel the same as they did before September 11th.  We’ve changed and the perception has changed.  For some movies, their message and impact is only made stronger (in good ways and bad) since 9/11.  In other cases, what was entertaining then doesn’t feel so right anymore.

Airplane!  (1980)– Farce or not (and still funny to this day), we could never get away with anything that happens on an airplane from that movie now.  (trailer)

Passenger 57  (1992)–Let alone this movie… (trailer)

Executive Decision  (1996)– …and this movie… (trailer)

Turbulence  (1997)– …and this movie… (trailer)

Pushing Tin  (1999)– …and probably this movie too… (trailer)

True Lies  (1994)– Slammed even then for its depiction of Arab terrorists, it likely has picked up a little more egg on its face. Adding to its burial, the movie hasn’t been released on any physical media format since 1999, which includes zero Blu-ray editions in its history (factoid from Josh Powers). Do you think 20th Century Fox wants that movie to go away or what?  (trailer)

The Siege  (1998)– This frightening martial law thriller with Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, and Bruce Willis makes True Lies look like G.I. Joe starring Ken from the Barbie dolls toy line.  Scary and eerily prophetic in its over-the-top terrorism and bombing scenarios.  (trailer)

The Dark Knight Rises  (2012)– Though fictional with Pittsburgh standing in as Gotham City, the New York imagery and parallels occurring during its terrorist takeover led by Tom Hardy’s Bane have eerie 9/11-inspired ramifications.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Syriana  (2005)– George Clooney won an Oscar, but the touchy subjects of torture, terrorism, and the oil industry evoke a little dose of fear.  (trailer)

Munich  (2005)– The Black September assassination of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and the Mossad’s reaction was probably the last time before 9/11 that terrorism made worldwide live media headlines.  (trailer)

Arlington Road  (1999)– While this resonates more as a comparison to Oklahoma City-style domestic terrorism, the Jeff Bridges/Tim Robbins underappreciated thriller is no less scary now than then.  (trailer)

Fight Club  (1999)– Watching Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt/Edward Norton) destroy New York’s credit district is another example of domestic terrorism and destruction that rings a little louder post-9/11.

The Sum of All Fears  (2002)– Many people found the Super Bowl bomb plot far too soon to see those images just a year removed from 9/11.  (trailer)

V for Vendetta  (2006)– Urban terrorism in London via a Guy Fawkes fan resonates a little different for a public scare on our side of the Atlantic.  (trailer)

Courage Under Fire  (1995)– Our first trip to Iraq foreshadows a lot of the equal futility, bravery, and loss experienced in our second trip… (trailer)

Jarhead  (2005)– …especially when told from the true account of a disillusioned soldier who was there.  (trailer)

Charlie Wilson’s War  (2007)– The same foreshadowing can be made out of our 1980’s Cold War involvement on the side of Afghanistan versus the Soviet Union as outlined by a gem of a Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman film.  To think that we could have stuck around and cleaned the place up before they became our enemy.  (trailer)

Rambo III  (1988)– Speaking of an American fighting on the anti-communism side of the Afghans!  (trailer)

Air Force One  (1997)– Not that George W. Bush or Barack Obama ever channeled Harrison Ford here, but don’t you now root a little harder for a take charge President… (trailer)

The Patriot  (2000)– … or a flag-carrying American hero from 230+ years ago… (trailer)

Pearl Harbor  (2001)– …or the last great American tragedy that galvanized a nation and sent us to war.  (trailer)

MOVIES SINCE 2001 THAT RENEW THE AMERICAN SPIRIT

These examples (as well as the aforementioned World Trade Center) will get your patriotic heartstrings going and boost your down spirit.

The Last Castle  (2001)– Opening just over a month after the tragedy, the military and flag-waving patriotism of Robert Redford’s underrated drama undeniably stirs you.  (trailer)

Behind Enemy Lines  (2001)– Leave it to Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson (of all people) to win macho patriotic points for loosely re-enacting the famous pilot Scott O’Grady Bosnian prisoner escape story.  (trailer)

Black Hawk Down  (2001)– Released during the 2001-2002 awards season, Ridley Scott’s powerful depiction of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu showed the uncompromising courage of U.S. Army Ranger and  Delta Force soldiers at a time when our current soldiers were likely preparing for going overseas to similar urban warfare.  (trailer)

We Were Soldiers  (2002)– Mel Gibson may be embroiled in unpopular headlines now, but his 2002 action-drama from his Braveheart writer about America’s first official military action in Vietnam is as powerful and it is impressive.  Like Black Hawk Down, it added to the heroic mystique of the American soldier, even if it was set in the past.  If you don’t cry watching those wives deliver those first casualty letters, there’s something wrong with you.  (trailer)

Spider-Man  (2002) and Spider-Man 2  (2004)– New York’s #1 resident superhero always fights for a way for the citizen of the city to stand up together.  I suppose you can throw in the pair from the reboot (The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2) for some of the same reasons.  (trailer)

Gangs of New York  (2002)– Martin Scorsese is a quintessential New Yorker and his mid-1800’s history piece (while definitely violent) was a love letter to the city’s great history.  (trailer)

Elf  (2003)– Will Ferrell put the Big Apple back in the Christmas cheer.  (trailer)

Ladder 49  (2004)– Though it wasn’t set in New York, you can’t help but think of the 343 NYFD men and women that lost their lives on September 11th and ardent first-responders when you watch Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta as macho Baltimore firemen.  (trailer)

Million Dollar Baby  (2004)– America loves a good underdog story and Clint Eastwood gave the public a heck of a good one that went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.  (trailer)

Miracle  (2004)– What better way to boost American spirit than to relive our greatest Olympic triumph. (trailer)

National Treasure  (2004)– How about a history lesson to make you feel good about our great country?  Why not?  (trailer)

Hitch  (2005)– Will Smith brought popular romance back to the City That Never Sleeps. (trailer)  He would capture hearts for a different reason the next year with The Pursuit of Happyness.  (trailer)

We Are Marshall  (2006)– Another real-life airplane tragedy sets the stage for an amazing story of athletic and community rebirth.  One of the most underrated football movies out there.  (trailer)

Live Free or Die Hard  (2007)– Why not give NY’s best bad-ass cop a chance to save the nation’s capital? (trailer)

Captain America: The First Avenger  (2011)– Last but not least, you can’t get more patriotic and underdog than this skinny guy from Brooklyn transformed into a red-white-and-blue super soldier.  He followed it up this past summer saving New York in The Avengers.  (trailer and trailer)  (full review and my full review)

American Sniper  (2014)– The tremendous reception Clint Eastwood’s film had to become the highest grossing movie of the year made Chris Kyle a household name and heavily amplified a previously dormant red-blooded (and “red state-d”) surge of patriotism and soldier appreciation. (trailer) (my full review)

Sully  (2016)– Both the incredible true story of Flight 1549 from 2009 and Clint Eastwood’s respectful retelling featuring Tom Hanks as Capt. Chelsea “Sully” Sullenberger remind audiences of the strength of New York City.  There’s a great line in the movie where someone is trying to thank Sullenberger and says that it’s been a long time since the city has had good news about anything like the “Miracle on the Hudson,” especially about a plane. (trailer)  (my full review)

Patriots Day  (2016) and Stronger  (2018)– The way the city of Boston rallied from another terrorist attack on American soil during its marathon has key inspirational value.  It’s too bad the film was the Mark Wahlberg show rather than a well-rounded ensemble approach.  (trailer) (my full Patriots Day review) (trailer) (my full Stronger review)

Spider-Man: Homecoming  (2017) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018)– Much like the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield web-slinger movies that came before, Tom Holland’s take on Peter Parker is a born-and-raised New York kid that supports and protects his neighborhood and city from dangers foreign and domestic. His protection, joined by fellow New Yorker Doctor Strange, expands with the united effort with The Avengers when Thanos shows up in Avengers: Infinity War.  One part down on that with one to go in the summer of 2019.  (trailer) (my full Spider-Man: Homecoming review) (trailer) (my Avengers: Infinity War review)

Only the Brave (2017)– Just as with Ladder 49 thirteen years before it, you can’t beat the sympathy generated by the hard work, dedication, and sacrifice of firefighters.  Forest fires aren’t terrorists, but the feels are all there.  (trailer) 

The 15:17 to Paris (2018)– Four years after American Sniper, Clint Eastwood dipped his filmmaking brush in the hero worship paint again to tell another true story.  The wrinkle of this one is that Eastwood called upon the actual heroes that thwarted the 2015 Thayls train attack to star in their own movie recreation.  Results were mixed, but the Eastwood prestige is there. (trailer) (my full review)

THE UP-AND-DOWN PULSE OF CONTINUED SENSITIVITY AND/OR CENSORSHIP TO 9/11 SIMILARITIES

For 2014 and going forward, this is a new section I’m adding to this study.  Now that enough time has passed since 2001, I’m beginning to notice that movies are starting to go back to some of the images and themes of violence, destruction, and terrorism that were hands off for so many years after 9/11.  Like all history, even 9/11 will fade.  What we were offended by after the horrific incidents have returned, in some cases, to be more tolerated and even acceptable and celebrated again.  Sure enough, there are plenty who vividly remember 2001’s events and images and are quick to point out when something is in possible poor taste.  That shaky barometer has led to some allusions and reminders to 9/11 and some flat-out censorship changes and corrections.  Some get flak and slaps on the wrist while some don’t.  Here are some examples in recent years.

Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down (2013)– Both competing White House takeover films from 2013, one from Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) and one from Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) had a bit of split audience reaction to their violent and terrorist content.  Some rooted and cheered as if it was the 80’s again and America is always going to win.  Others were not so keen or ready to see the White House become a target and battleground, even if it was just a movie.  Between the two, Olympus Has Fallen, the R-rated and more severe one of the two, was the bigger hit.  In a way, no one batted an eye. (trailer and trailer)  (my full Olympus Has Fallen review)

Man of Steel  (2013)– Despite being one of the most all-American heroes around, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel gave Superman a very serious tone that, in a way, can’t be included on the category before this one of movies that renew the American spirit.  Also, many people were not very pleased with the immense city-wide destruction scenes of Metropolis during the film’s climax.  Even though Chicago was the filming location of a fictitious comic book city, there were staunch critics who had a problem with huge office buildings and skyscrapers in very 9/11-esque rubble. Its 2016 sequel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice mildly addressed that a city can’t be destroyed without consequences, even on Superman’s watch in a colorful comic book setting.   (my full review)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)– Much like Man of Steel, the third Michael Bay Transformers movie features a great deal of city-wide destruction (again, in Chicago) that rubbed a few people the wrong way.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)– Throw in the terrorist label for the villain and his bombings and the big San Francisco starship wreck during this film’s ending action that was clearly a larger scale to a passenger jet taking out buildings.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Godzilla (2014)– Add the King of the Monsters to the list of more city destruction that raised an eyebrow for some.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)– Outside of this string of modern and accepted examples of urban attacks and destruction, is the minor amount of hot water the makers of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles got it for a promotional poster that had an exploding skyscraper that cut too close to 9/11 similarities.  The study pulled the poster and had to apologize.  Censorship and sensitivity won that argument and mistake.  (trailer)  

The Walk  (2015)– A very big test to peoples’ memories of the World Trade Center will be coming in the Fall of 2015 with Robert Zemeckis’s film The Walk, the true story of the French high-wire artist Philippe Petit’s quest to tightrope walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974 (previously featured in the Academy Award nominated 2008 documentary Man on Wire).  Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the film will prominently display, thanks to Zemeckis’s stunning use of CGI,  a tremendous amount of imagery of the two lost skyscrapers.  Even though it’s a period piece to a non-turbulent time, no film since 2001 has attempted to show this much of those building.  Public reaction was mixed and the film was not a box office hit.  (trailer)  (full review)

Independence Day: Resurgence  (2016)– I guess it’s OK for patriotic mass city destruction again.  London gets it worse than New York, though.  (trailer)  (full review)

Ghostbusters  (2016)– Well, New York was safe for at least a month anyway between Independence Day: Resurgence‘s release and the new reboot (which conveniently made sure its city destruction in Times Square and other places be easy to erase).  Not far behind was the fictional Suicide Squad and its over-the-city halo of supposed death.  (trailer)  (my full review)

Rampage (2018)– Larger in size than the old World Trade Centers used to be, Chicago’s Willis Tower, the former Sears Tower and tallest building in the world, was the targeted collapsed skyscraper spectacle of choice in the Brad Payton/Dwayne Johnson live-action video game adaptation.   Monsters aren’t terrorists, but the imagery hits close as the Willis Tower was one of many skyscrapers across the country evacuated on 9/11 out of fear of becoming another target.   See the collapse clip above. (my full review)

I hope everyone enjoyed this little (OK, large) retrospective about the impact of 9/11 in movies for the last 18 years and counting.  Take some time this coming weekend to appreciate the freedoms we have the people fighting to keep them for us.  Support your troops and first responders and, again, NEVER FORGET!

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[arcticdementor]

A couple of days ago, journalist Vicky Ward once again alleged that editor Graydon Carter had cut incriminating reporting from her 2003 profile of prolific predator Jeffrey Epstein in Vanity Fair.

…

When I read that response, I tweeted that I believed Ward's account because Graydon had cut verified material from my stories when I was a contributing editor in the 1990s, seemingly to placate a friend or a celebrity. I have never discussed this publicly, but now feels like the time to speak up.

Let me say at the outset how thrilled I was to be writing for Vanity Fair — at least for several years, before everything started to change. I was hired in 1993 when Graydon was maybe a year into the job. I was a staff reporter at The Washington Post, but I had a deal to do three stories a year for the magazine, which was throwing dazzling sums at writers. The money, the parties, the perks were all amazing. I remember venting at one point to an editor when I was reporting a particularly contentious story and he sent me for a spa day on the company. It was such a good gig that I was practically jealous of myself.

…

During my first few years, Graydon never made any concerning changes to my stories. Tina Brown, then at the height of her power, had just taken over The New Yorker while Graydon was editing a magazine that the chattering class had dubbed "Vanishing Flair." He had a lot to prove.

…

Nothing cut from my stories was anywhere near as important as what Ward alleges was cut from her Epstein piece, but the cuts didn't seem OK to me, either.

One example: For some reason Graydon was fascinated by Planet Hollywood. He asked me repeatedly to write about the struggling restaurant chain but I had no interest. After I finally gave in, it quickly became clear that my story would not be flattering to entertainment attorney Jake Bloom, who had been handed stock and whose clients, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, had wound up losing money in the venture.

…

One aspect of the story seemed like it would be the most delicious candy to Vanity Fair in that era: Bloom, expecting to make a life-altering killing on the stock, had built a multimillion-dollar house near Sun Valley, Idaho. I put in the God-is-in-the-details goodies: I remember there was a jacuzzi room graced with a large Buddha’s head. But things had gone south so fast with Planet Hollywood that Bloom was forced to put the house on the market before he really got to enjoy it. Not only was it a matter of public record, it was a perfect metaphor for hubris and thwarted ambition.

But Bloom told me that I absolutely could not mention the house — not because the anecdote was embarrassing but because, he said, there were armed anti-Semites in the area where he had chosen to build who might attack him. Bloom didn’t explain why he would want to spend time and money in an area where he thought his life was at risk, or why he thought the local killers would know nothing about a house valued — if memory serves — at $15 million until they ... read about it in Vanity Fair.

The more he demanded that I omit any mention of the house, the more determined I was to include it. Then I got a call from a Graydon underling. There was a problem fitting in the piece, she said, and the one thing that needed to be cut was the house. I said I could easily suggest other parts of this overly long story that could be trimmed but no, it had to be the house.

Was including the house important in the grand scheme of things? Maybe not. But I felt that I was being sold out. I was confident that kind of information would not have been cut for anyone other than a Graydon friend. In the end, Bloom didn’t look great in the piece, but at least he got to sell his house without embarrassment.

…

There was one anecdote about how Paramount had discovered, to its horror, just a few weeks before shooting Wayne's World 2 that the script from Myers relied too heavily on a 1940s British comedy. Key players were called to a meeting in studio chief Sherry Lansing’s office, and several sources with direct knowledge of what happened told me Lansing had confronted Myers angrily and ordered him to rewrite the script fast, before the cameras rolled.

I reported the meeting as described, but then I heard that Myers had called Graydon (I was told by an editor that I had made Mike Myers cry) — and suddenly my copy was different. In the published version of the Wayne’s World 2 story, Myers had not poached the material but had used it having been assured by a producer that the rights had been obtained. Not one person had told me that, but that’s the way it read.

In the end the piece still wasn't positive, but it was no longer accurate. Some of my sources felt betrayed. It was not just embarrassing; it was damaging to me.

…

I don’t know Vicky Ward, though I encountered her briefly when she was at Talk. But given my experience, I don’t find it hard to imagine that Graydon cut out information about Epstein, who had knitted himself into New York society so effectively. Having seen my own pieces nipped and tucked and altered for reasons that seemed to have nothing to do with journalism, I believe her. So should you.

#kim masters #hollywood reporter #vicky ward #vanity fair #graydon carter #journalism in action #jake bloom #'armed anti-semites' #mike myers #wayne's world 2

[riotatthemovies]

Dead Ant (2017)

Man that movie pilot comment is true and yet so misleading. It is like Spinal Tap meets Tremors yet not anywhere near . Honestly it was better than I expect it. Lots of great parts but like many american horror comedies of the 21st century it lacks flow. An insane opening scene that comes off fairly hilarious for monster violence and completely illogical nudity. Then jumps into a movie that basically takes the whole time in an RV either driving in the dessert or stuck in the dessert. The idiocy of the band is a lot like Spinal Tap but more as a bad impression of them instead of anywhere near as creative or funny. I have no idea where I got this idea but for some reason I thought that band in the movie was actually played by Steel Panther, which may not have been better acting but may have been more interesting. The CGI killer ants are not too bad as this is not a no budget backyard schlock movie but a jump back to way studio left over movie was handed to the lower ranks to in turn make stupid schlock movies, like Anaconda movies or especially Eight Legged Freaks. It is kind of like that as its a project by one of those guys that makes Christmas movies to help investors in hollywood make leftover money “disappear”.

 The ant attacks are very on par with lesser Critter movies and as mentioned Eight Legged Freaks... but again let me say , not as enjoyable. Well ok maybe as enjoyable as Critters 4 cause I personally thought that movie stank. Tom Arnold however as the bands burned out at wits end manager is shockingly very good and almost likeable in this, in a fat run down Bruce Campbell kinda way... so yeah basically in a Bruce Campbell kinda way. Oddly enough Tom sells egotistical aged rocker with gore and pain gags as he laughs out losing his hands... hmmm also not unlike Bruce would.

  Oh yeah the plot... uhhh a band on its way to perform at a stoner festival i the dessert gets stuck off the road in the middle of nowhere just as evil giant Ants invade out of the sand. They hide out in the RV as they get pegged off one by one by the monsters that get bigger and bigger . All in the name of dated hair metal references (normally I would also enjoy that) . They even use shitty hair metal to fight killer ants. A lot of driving around and bitching about life until the killer ants get them and then you get a scene as they try to find the keys to there truck while hiding the injured friends in the back and trying not to wake up the ants... so that of course is when you say “Oh yeah this is like tremors, just dumber”. It is aware that it is dumb, which does not always mean it helps the fact.

 Cheap but funny with predictable monster gore and trying to hard with sex jokes and also just plain bad jokes. It all takes places in a tiny location in the desert until the end battle of the monsters at the concert location.  Makes you wonder how the budget was decided. Probably to fill in contracts so no production budgets just real actors that needed to get paid, unlike most movies with similar plots these days. Well ok if you count Tom Arnold, Jake Busey and Sean Astin as buyable actors. Oh yeah and Tommy Hill from Twin Peaks.

 Sean Astin in his laziest role, he bare even gets up in the movie. I guess you get what you pay for eh Rudy? Goonies never say die and neither does metal dude.  Actually SPOILER Sean Astin does and he gets fucked wrecked which is his best part in the movie cause he is covered in gore effects. Kudos Sean.

All and all not thrilled but I think people will get a laugh out of it. However you could just double bill Spinal Tap and Tremors and be doing a million times better for yourself.

For now I shall sing the Pink Panther theme.. deadant deadant deadantdeadant deadant deeaaddaaaaannt.... get it?..... oh shut up.

#dead ant #bad movie #4 life #tom arnold #no hands clapping #cheese #horror #comedy #riot at the movies

[decadeslife]

Emily in Paris Season 4 Web Series 2022 Release Date, Trailer, Songs, Cast & Synopsis

WEB SERIES NAME: EMILY IN PARIS SEASON 4 WEB SERIES (2022)

Release Date: Released date is not announced yet by Netflix

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Creator: Darren Star

Showrunner: Darren Star

Producer: Andrew Fleming, Tony Hernandez, Lilly Burns, Darren Star, Stephen Brown, Stephen Joel Brown, Shihan Fey, Jake Fuller, Lily Collins, Raphaël Benoliel, Joe Murphy

Music Director: Chris Alan Lee

Production: Darren Star Production: s, Jax Media, MTV Entertainment Studios

Certificate: 16+

Cast: Lily Collins, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Ashley Park, Lucas Bravo, Samuel Arnold, Bruno Gouery, Camille Razat, William Abadie

Synopsis: No logline or plot synopsis is available at this time for Emily in Paris season 4. Emily, an ambitious marketing executive from Chicago, unexpectedly lands her dream job in Paris when her company acquires a French luxury marketing company — and she is tasked with revamping their social media strategy. Emily’s new life in Paris is filled with intoxicating adventures and surprising challenges as she juggles winning over her work colleagues, making friends, and navigating new romances.

In season 2, now more entrenched in her life in Paris, Emily’s getting better at navigating the city but still struggling with the idiosyncrasies of French life. After stumbling into a love triangle with her neighbor and her first real French friend, Emily is determined to focus on her work — which is getting more complicated by the day. In French class, she meets a fellow expat who both infuriates and intrigues her.

Source: https://www.decadeslife.com/emily-in-paris-season-4-web-series-2022/

#emily in paris #emily in paris season 4

[isleofsam]

Pretty Woman: The Musical to Release Cast Recording

The new musical begins previews at the Nederlander July 20.

Pretty Woman: The Musical, which begins previews on Broadway July 20, will release an original Broadway cast recording. Producer Paula Wagner is teaming up with Atlantic Records to release the album, which will be produced by the musical's composers, Grammy winner Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance.

The Pretty Woman cast recording will be available for pre-order beginning August 9.

Following a world premiere in Chicago earlier this year, Pretty Woman: The Musical arrives on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre. Directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, the contemporary stage adaptation of the popular romantic comedy from the ’90s stars Samantha Barks as Vivian alongside Andy Karl as Edward.

Pretty Woman: The Musical will officially open August 16. Based on the movie about a star-crossed meeting between a prostitute and a disillusioned businessman, the stage musical features a book co-written by the film’s director, the late Garry Marshall, and screenwriter J.F. Lawton, and music by Adams and Vallance.

“It’s fantastic to be working with Atlantic Records on the original Broadway cast recording,” said Adams in a statement. “I’m a huge fan of the label and its incredible legacy, and what they’ve been doing in the Broadway arena over the past few years has been extraordinary.”

"It's no small thing putting 30 people in a studio and recording an entire cast album while performing eight shows a week!” added Vallance. “Our Atlantic Records team is incredibly experienced and knowledgeable, and they’ve been a dream to work with throughout the whole process.”

Completing the principal cast on Broadway are Orfeh as Kit, Eric Anderson as Mr. Thompson, Ezra Knight as James Morse, and Jason Danieley as Philip Stuckey.

The company also features Allison Blackwell, Tommy Bracco, Brian Calì, Robby Clater, Jessica Crouch, Anna Eilinsfeld, Matt Farcher, Lauren Lim Jackson, Renée Marino, Ellyn Marie Marsh, Jillian Mueller, Jake Odmark, Jennifer Sanchez, Matthew Stocke, Alex Michael Stoll, Alan Wiggins, Jesse Wildman, and Darius Wright.

Pretty Woman: The Musical is produced on Broadway by Wagner, Nice Productions, LPO, New Regency Productions, Caiola Productions & Co., James L. Nederlander, Roy Furman, Hunter Arnold, Graham Burke, Edward Walson, deRoy Kier stead, Michael Cassel Group, Stage Entertainment, Ambassador Theatre Group, and John Gore Organization. 101 Productions, Ltd is the executive producer and general manager.

"I am so incredibly proud to be working with Atlantic Records on the original Broadway cast album of Pretty Woman: The Musical. The quality and artistic integrity of Atlantic is a perfect match for the original score created for the stage by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance,” said Wagner.

For tickets and more information, visit PrettyWomanMusical.com.

#samantha barks #pretty woman the musical #cast album #original broadway cast recording #atlanticrecords #andy karl #bryan adams

[wazafam]

Popular movie franchises provide so much more than just a few hours of entertainment. They dominate their industry’s landscape, galvanizing fans and creating a powerful sense of community. If done well, they can become a cultural force, building from one film into a massive connected universe. Unfortunately, sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way - even when a studio has planned something big.

RELATED: The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Action Movie Franchises, Ranked By Average Rotten Tomatoes Score

Sometimes a presumptive franchise is poorly handled or incorrectly timed and it just doesn’t connect with audiences. Sometimes studio interference ruins the good times for everyone. Whatever the reason, here are ten franchises that were never allowed to realize their full potential. All of them have the potential to return someday, in some capacity, but all of them would need a significant makeover first.

10 Conan

1982’s Conan the Barbarian was successful, nearly quadrupling its budget at the box office and establishing Arnold Schwarzenegger as an action hero. Unfortunately, the sequel (Conan the Destroyer) did poorly both critically and commercially.  While a third film was in development, super-producer Dino DeLaurentis attempted to create a spinoff, Red Sonja. Featuring Conan in a supporting role, it was a tentative step towards an innovative extended universe.

RELATED: Every '80s Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie (Ranked By Metacritic)

Unfortunately, Red Sonja’s studio wasn’t able to license the rights to Conan, so Schwarzenegger was forced to play the Conan-esque Lord Kalidor instead. That film performed even worse and got even poorer reviews, and by then Schwarzenegger’s contract was up and he abandoned the franchise. He’s spoken of returning since, but so far nothing has come of his claims.

9 The Amazing Spider-Man

The reasons for Sony’s Amazing Spider-Man franchise ending early are simple: the second film’s reception was horrible. Fans hated it, critics mocked it, it didn’t meet expectations at the box office… It was meant to spin off an entire Spider-Man universe, with Venom and Sinister Six movies on the horizon, but Sony put all of those plans on hold.

RELATED: 5 Things The Amazing Spider-Man Got Right (& 5 It Got Wrong)

Now, with the Venom franchise in full swing and a spinoff movie about Morbius in the can, it seems like Sony’s plans might finally come to fruition. But who is the Spider-Man in this universe? It’s probably no longer Amazing’s Andrew Garfield, and an appearance by Michael Keaton’s Vulture in the Morbius trailer implies that it might be Tom Holland. However, nothing has been confirmed, leaving this franchise in a fascinating limbo.

8 National Treasure

Starring Nicolas Cage as treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates, the National Treasure films earned middling reviews but were quite successful at the box office. However, since the second film in 2007, there has been no further development of the franchise. A higher-up at Disney said that “the company was never able to capitalize on it as a franchise,” meaning that the films had little merchandising potential. Kids just weren’t clamoring to buy action figures of Benjamin Gates’ estranged father.

RELATED: 10 Reasons To Be Excited For National Treasure 3

Now, well over a decade later, a new film is supposedly in development. Whether or not it will actually come to be is anybody’s guess.

7 Chinatown

Any cinephiles will already be aware of Chinatown, one of the most acclaimed films of the '70s. However, even devoted fans might not realize that it was, in fact, part of a larger franchise. There was a sequel, released 16 years later and directed by series star Jack Nicholson himself. The Two Jakes followed Nicholson’s character Jake Gittes on a new case, one which saw him deal with the events of the earlier film and the death of Evelyn Mulwray.

RELATED: Jack Nicholson's 5 Most Lovable Characters (& 5 Most Hatable)

A third film, Gittes vs. Gittes, was planned but scrapped when The Two Jakes performed poorly and received mediocre reviews. It’s a solid film, but following up a classic so many years later was always going to be a tricky proposition.

6 The Chronicles of Narnia

This beloved fantasy series must have seemed like a slam dunk in the mid-2000s, like a hybrid of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. The first film, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe did perform to expectations. Unfortunately, the second film in the series, Prince Caspian, was more expensive to produce and made far less money. Disney, who had been co-producing the films, got spooked and stepped away, with 20th Century Fox eventually taking their place. The third film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, only earned slightly less money than Prince Caspian, and the budget was significantly lower. However, the next film in the series, The Silver Chair, was never produced. A Netflix series was announced in 2018, but as of 2021, a release date has not been confirmed.

5 Hellboy

Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy series was profitable, critically acclaimed, and beloved by fans, so why wasn’t his trilogy completed? Director del Toro originally delayed the project because of his interest in The Hobbit, then the Pacific Rim franchise, though he always remained invested in Hellboy. However, Hellboy 3 was meant to be a grand finale, with a much higher budget. Despite the success of the previous films, no major studios were willing to take the gamble.

RELATED: Hellboy: 5 Ways The Reboot Is Not As Bad As People Say (& 5 Ways It Failed)

Finally, del Toro was able to work out a deal with Legendary Pictures: if his Pacific Rim sequel did well then Hellboy 3 might have a chance. Then del Toro left Pacific Rim: Uprising, voiding the deal and dooming Hellboy 3 for good. Instead, Lionsgate chose to reboot the franchise, which did not go well.

4 Divergent

Critics never responded to the Divergent series, calling it derivative of other Young Adult franchises like The Hunger Games. Audiences disagreed, flocking to the theater in droves. However, the third film, Allegiant, was a box office bomb, earning only $180 million worldwide on a $142 million budget. Compare that to the first film in the series, which earned double its budget in North America alone. As had been done with many YA properties at the time, Lionsgate Films made the decision to release the story’s final chapter in two volumes. However, because of the public’s lack of interest, the fourth film was canceled, with plans shifting to a TV movie on the Starz channel. By that point seemingly no one in the cast or crew was still passionate about the project, and the franchise was abandoned for good. This may be the most high-profile franchise ever to be abandoned largely out of boredom.

3 The Hulk (Edward Norton Edition)

Aside from an appearance by Thunderbolt Ross in Captain America: Civil War, the events of 2008’s The Incredible Hulk have been largely ignored by Marvel in the intervening years. Most notably, the original Hulk Edward Norton did not return for 2012’s The Avengers. Norton did take it upon himself to rewrite the entire script and argue with Marvel over the final edit. Regardless, The Incredible Hulk was the lowest-grossing Marvel movie, and its failure (coupled with the negative reception for Ang Lee’s Hulk five years earlier) convinced the company to stop making Hulk solo films for the foreseeable future.

2 The Dark Universe

Much like Marvel, Universal tried to build its own extended universe, one based around their classic monsters. It all began with 2017’s The Mummy, a film intended to establish the series’ continuity and introduce both its first hero (Tom Cruise’s Nick Morton) and the Nick Fury type who would bring the team together (Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll). It was an expensive film, and though its worldwide box office was reasonably high domestic numbers were shockingly low. Reviews were poor and audience reaction was extremely mixed, so the entire Dark Universe concept was scrapped. Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, originally intended to be the Dark Universe version of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

1 The Snyderverse

This is still an ongoing situation, but it seems that the Snyderverse has been shelved… again. Every fan knows the story by now: Zack Snyder was the guiding voice in the DC Cinematic Universe, but his films earned a very mixed fan reception. When he had to step away from Justice League for personal reasons DC brought in Joss Whedon who radically altered the film. Fans fought to see Zack’s original version, which didn’t really exist at the time. Eventually, DC gave in and allotted him the money to finish it. Fans loved it, but it didn’t bring as many new subscribers to HBO Max as expected. If it had, perhaps the Snyderverse could have gotten a second chance. As for now, things aren’t looking so good…

NEXT: 10 Movies That Deserve The Snyder Cut Treatment

10 Movie Franchises That Were Cut Short For Strange Reasons from https://ift.tt/3xW6gOG

#Blogger

[aryastark37-blog]

Avatar 2: Everything We Know About the Sequel Story

Avatar broke all box office records when it was released, and here is everything you need to know about the sequel Avatar 2. The movie is under production for over a decade, and fans are eagerly waiting for the film to release.

Avatar 2 is an upcoming American science fiction movie directed, edited, produced, and co-written by James Cameron and co-produced by 20th Century Studios. The film is the second installment of the franchise. The first was released in 2009 with the title Avatar. The screenplay was written by five writers, including Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Friedman, Amanda Silver, and Shane Salerno. The film casts Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Michelle Yeoh, Vin Diesel, Edie Falco, Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao, and Matt Gerald.

In 2006, Cameron stated that the team would like to make the Avatar’s sequel if it became successful. They announced the sequel in 2010 and planned to release the move in 2014. The production team is also thinking for three more sequels and developing new technology to film the sequences underwater. The film underwent eight delays in the theatrical release with the latest release on 23 July 2020. But again, the release date was postponed and rescheduled on 16 December 2022 with a corresponding release on three more sequels on 20 December 2024, 18 December 2026, and on 22 December 2028. The shooting of the film started on 15 August 2017, in Manhattan Beach, California. The team was simultaneously shooting for Avatar 3 in New Zealand on 25 September 2017.

Although the production of Avatar 2 now concerns its fans. Despite the film Avatar’s box office success, the movie was criticized by many critics for focusing on the impressive visuals more than characters or plots. According to the reports, the team is developing new filmmaking technology for the next sequel, which indicates Avatar 2 is again focusing on the aesthetics over content. And content-driven audiences might be worried about the little information. However, the visual spectacle sequences for the Avatar sequel are worth a $1 billion budget.

Time Jump

From the glance of some photos of Avatar 2, the fans can see details about the content.  According to the director, the movie will feature an eight-year time jump, and hence some characters will also be involved. The protagonist from the first sequel Neytiri and Jake, wasted no time getting down to business after the movie ended, and they have an eight-year-old daughter at the start of Avatar 2. It is yet to watch if the upcoming film is all spectacle with no content or stronger and deeper sequel. Sure, it is exciting to hear that the movie will be a family film.

Focus On Family

The film producer, Jon Landau, shared that all the sequel of Avatar will be a family-focused content as the theme, while the film has some standalone stories. Although the audiences think that Avatar 2 can not beat the box office success as Avenger: Endgame, but the family-centric idea of the movie is a canny one, and it might benefit the creators. The concept of MCU with this film is to focus on a wide range of heroes rather than lone protagonists. Landau also confirmed that the franchise would create an epic story that explores one family’s story through a multi-film saga. The film will be one of the biggest hit movies of 2022 if it does not delay any further. The story expands the already large cast of Avatar 2. It will focus on the next generation of Na’ vi, which allows the creator to explore Pandora’s world more. The plot will entail an exploration of the planet’s oceans, too, a unique sequence that convinced Cameron to develop new film making technology.

Underwater Technology

Cameron shared that a big chunk of Avatar 2’s action sequence took place underwater. The shooting created some unusual problems for the director and DOP, who have spent the last decades adapting technologies to shoot the film scenes efficiently. The release of Avatar 2 has been delayed six times, and that has put even the die-hard fans in a dilemma whether the film will release or not. Although the filming underwater explains the delay, as to shoot underwater is much different than in general. And the team is developing motion-sensors to capture the scenes. The film cast needs to increase their breath-holding abilities because Cameron did not use scuba technology while shooting the actors underwater.

Avatar’s Villain Returns

Avatar’s reception was mixed; some stars such as Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang were singled out for praise. The first film’s large cast makes the fans wonder how many original cast will be back for the sequel. However, the name of Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch has prompted excitement among fans. The lovable character and larger-than-life villain, Hammy, is back for Avatar 2, and also Cameron’s character will return in the sequel. The plot also has few twists and turns, and the character’s death would not stop Arnold Schwarzenegger’s role.

Fans feel that 2020 will bring some smart science fiction to the screen, and Avatar 2 will be one. The film will come to the theatres with big expectations. James Cameron is the only director who can create such hype for his movies.

Arya Stark is a Office expert and has been working in the technology industry since 2003. As a technical expert, Tango has written technical blogs, manuals, white papers, and reviews for many websites such as office.com/setup.

Source:- Avatar 2: Everything We Know About the Sequel Story

#Avatar 2

[keensdesign]

McDonald’s, whose marketing has been tilting increasingly toward minimalism in Europe, has launched an outdoor campaign that’s both subtle and loaded with swagger. 🍔 The ads from Leo Burnett London don’t mention the fast food brand by name, show its logo or include any pictures of the products. Instead, we simply see a list of the key ingredients that make up some of McDonald’s core products — the Filet-O-Fish, Egg McMuffin and Big Mac. 🍟 Color plays a key role too, with each ad’s palette staying true to McDonald’s branding. The ads were created in partnership with typographer David Schwen, the founder and creative director of Minneapolis-based Dschwen studio. CREDITS: Agency – Leo Burnett LondonCCO – Chaka SobhaniCreative Director – Pete HeyesArt Director – James MillersCopywriter – Andrew LongDesigner – Jake Arnold, David SchwenHead of Design – Phil BosherAccount Director – Steph BatesSenior Account Manager – Rob Ellen Account Executive – Callum MatthewsProject Director – Emily Green McDonald’s:Marketing Manager – Hannah PainCampaign Assistant – John McClure   💬 #advertisement #advertising #advert #ads

[totalactionrampage-blog]

Adventure Time Rewatch: Introduction and History

With Adventure Time Season 8 wrapping up tomorrow night with the broadcast of “Three Buckets,” fans of the series are faced with a scary prospect: one more season before the end. The inevitability of the series eventually coming end doesn’t make things any less sad, but if the forthcoming season follows the progression of those leading up to it, it will be very special indeed. On the air for over seven years, the show is very nearly an institution at this point, and recent highlights like the Elements miniseries make it hard to remember that it wasn’t always so. Poised as we are at the beginning of the end, I decided to take this opportunity to rewatch the show in its entirety, tracing its development from lolz random!!!1 pilot to the work of art it is today. First, a bit of context is in order.

There was never a show quite like Adventure Time. The years leading up to it had seen the Western animation industry in a state of flux: after the long, depressing dark ages of low-budget, low-effort Saturday morning garbage that followed the collapse of theatrical shorts distribution in the early 60s, the animation industry began to show signs of revival in the 90s when a new wave of animators began to produce more challenging material. The Simpsons paved the way for this development, demonstrating that cartoons could capture a prime-time audience by appealing to kids and adults alike – but while The Simpsons was, essentially, an animated sitcom, these new shows looked back further still. Channeling the anarchic humor of 40s shorts by the likes of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett, shows such as Ren & Stimpy, Beavis and Butthead or even South Park presented darkly satirical takes on life, the universe and everything, reveling in a no-holds-barred, anything-goes approach that shocked and offended the prevailing sensibilities of the day. While other networks mostly treated these success stories as one-offs, Nickelodeon – previously a failing children’s channel – accelerated into prominence by following up with a number of lesser-tier but commercially successful shows, now only remembered nostalgically by people roughly my age: Hey Arnold!, CatDog, AAAHH!!! Real Monsters and the like. Nickelodeon scored an occasional hit with titles like SpongeBob SquarePants or The Fairly OddParents, but these broadly followed the same pattern: goofy, ultra-cartoony cartoons, mostly without pretensions to continuity or character development and often reliant on frankly dumb humor.

No one ever accused these shows of being sophisticated.

Cartoon Network entered the scene in 1992, broadcasting titles from the Turner back catalog, producing their first original animated series in 1994: Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Reusing recycled cells from old Hanna-Barbera cartoons, the show wasn’t exactly an artistic achievement, but its postmodern deconstruction of talk radio brought with it a sense of hipster irony that came to be reflected in much of Cartoon Network’s catalog. After a few early successes, which shared Space Ghost’s pop art sensibilities (Dexter’s Lab, and Powerpuff Girls, both created by animation luminary Genndy Tartakovsky) and a later string of not particularly challenging work (Cow and Chicken, I Am Weasel, Courage the Cowardly Dog,) Nickelodeon launched Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack in 2001. From the time it debuted, this show was clearly something else. Previous animated TV mostly looked to back to the 1930s-50s Golden Age of Animation for inspiration, with a side of 1960s-80s alternative comix; Samurai Jack, in comparison, was at its soul a bushido revenge story, following the adventures of a wandering ronin cast adrift in a fantasy world. It was wildly imaginative, gorgeously animated, and (crucially for our purposes) marked by narrative continuity and featuring developing, maturing characters, even if the picaresque story structure allowed plenty of time to explore the show’s bizarre world.

Seriously, this show was just the coolest.

Following Samurai Jack, a change gradually crept over the TV animation industry. Nickelodeon, though continuing to produce more of the same sort of fundamentally unimaginative work that had marked its catalog from the mid-90s onward (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, ChalkZone, etc.) also debuted 2005’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, an epic animesque Bildungsroman, while Cartoon Network experimented with style (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends) and narrative continuity (Tartakovsky’s Star Wars: Clone Wars, which succeeded at the titanic task of making the Star Wars prequel universe compelling.) Cartoon Network’s late-night [adult swim] block, which continued in the vein of Space Ghost by specializing in hipsterish shows for teens and young adults, scored a string of cult (almost-)hits such as Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Boondocks, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law and The Venture Brothers.

At this point an improbably-named animator, Pendleton Ward, entered the scene. Having attended CalArts along with J.G. Quintel and Alex Hirsch (creators of Regular Show and Gravity Falls, respectively,) Ward attracted the attention of a Frederator Studios exec directly out of school, who encouraged him to produce a short for Frederator’s Random! Cartoons anthology series. The result was the Adventure Time pilot, a whacky exercise in randomness that, while falling far below the standards of worldbuilding and narrative that characterized the later show, nonetheless captured something of the Internet-meets-pop-culture Zeitgeist of the late 2000s. This approach payed dividends when the short leaked online, going viral in short order. Building on his success, Ward pitched the show to Nickelodeon, who rejected it twice, before approaching Cartoon Network. After Ward storyboarded an episode (Season 1’s “The Enchiridion!”) to demonstrate that the short’s success could be built off, Cartoon Network approved the show, which entered into production in September 2008.

The rest, as they say, is history. Eight seasons of Adventure Time have been produced to date, following Jake the Dog and Finn the Human’s adventures – beautiful, silly, scary, heartbreaking – through the world of Ooo. The show grew into Cartoon Network’s flagship property, paving the way for the latter-day TV animation renaissance we currently find ourselves in, launching careers and enabling the production of beautiful, even profound series like Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, and Rick and Morty.

Over the next few months, I’ll be tracing the show’s development, episode by episode. So c’mon, grab your friends…

We’re going to very distant lands, With Jake the Dog and Finn the Human, The fun will never end, it’s…

#adventuretime #adventure time #tv #cartoons #cartoon #animation #tv history #tv criticism #rewatch #cartoon network #cartoon news #nickelodeon #samurai jack #ren and stimpy #steven universe #rick and morty #gravity falls

[fakehappytv-blog]

Chrissy Costanza of Against The Current (@lionchrissy​) interviews Jake Ewald of Slaughter Beach, Dog (@mallratdog​) below the cut...

What solidified your decision to participate in the Fake Happy Tour and Show?  Honestly, I’m not entirely sure. I find myself questioning that decision after every night spent sleeping in a van with three other dudes. I think after my other band, Modern Baseball, announced our hiatus back in March… I needed some time to recover from our insane touring schedule. Once I felt like I was healed from that, I couldn’t wait to get back on the road. So I guess it was a bit of a rash decision on my part.

What has been the most pleasant surprise of this experience thus far? What are some ill side effects that you weren’t expecting? Not to be one of those guys that talks about his girlfriend all of the time, but meeting and getting to know Ashley has been one of the biggest surprises. It’s also really cool to think about all of the friends that I’ve made thanks to this tour. We all come from different backgrounds, walks of life, forms of expression… but we’ve all kind of managed to find common ground. We all kind of feel like a family, and I guess I wasn’t anticipating that strong sense of belonging. On the flipside of things, I think I underestimated how difficult it would be to go back to touring in a van. I got a bit spoiled in the last few years that Mobo was touring around in a bus. 

What do you miss most about home? Privacy is a big one. I also miss not having such a rigid schedule. I miss my cats a lot too… shout out to King Arnold and Moira. And the studio I run back home in Philly.

Who are your biggest influences both personally and in your career? My family has certainly shaped the way that I live my life. While I don’t share their religious values… the morals that were instilled in me from a young age have definitely stuck around.  As far as music goes, I pull from a lot of different places. With Slaughter Beach, Dog… I’ve been trying to cultivate worlds and tell stories of the people that live in them; sometimes they’re fictional, sometimes they’re not. Namely, I’d say people like Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash, and Alex G have definitely influenced the way that I approach storytelling. Also, bands like Pedro The Lion, The Front Bottoms, Bright Eyes, and Turnover have influenced the style of music I’m making now. 

What has been the highlight of your career so far? I’d probably say when Modern Baseball opened up for Descendents. Being able to share the stage with such post-hardcore legends was just… a fucking treat.

What’s your favourite thing about living in a van? Quite honestly, it’s the pits. Haha. When I first started touring when I was 18, van life was so exciting. Hitting the road for the first few years was such a freeing thing, but now that I’m getting older… sleeping in a van just makes me feel much older than I am. It does make me a bit nostalgic about Modern Baseball’s early days, especially since one of the guys that’s playing this tour with me as Slaughter Beach, Dog is Ian Farmer… Mobo’s bass player. So I guess to answer your question, I’d say reminiscing on old memories, and creating new ones.  

Tour food… hell yeah or oh god no? As long as catering has donuts and burritos, I am set. I’ll say hell yeah to that! Plus… it’s free, and a broke kid musician like me is always about those freebies. 

If you had to compile a Greatest Hits album right this second, which songs would you put on it? I haven’t really put out enough stuff to warrant a Slaughter Beach, Dog Greatest Hits album. Haha But! If I had to choose… I’d throw Monsters, Forever, Mallrat Semi-Annual, Jobs, and Drinks all from my record Welcome and then… Building The Ark, and Your Cat from Motorcycle.jpg, and then also… Gold And Green from my upcoming album, Birdie out October 27th. Aye!

What are three things you always bring on tour with you? Uhm, probably an old school kindle reader… the screen is easier on my old man eyes, andddddd my favorite black Nike hoodie along with at least one hat. 

Dead or alive, name two people you’d love to share a stage with? Can I just say Joni Mitchell twice? Is that allowed? Haha. Let’s throw in David Bazan of Pedro The Lion… that’d be so damn rad.