Alexandria

Okay I've forgotten

Wed, 27 May 2009 19:36:32 GMT

My last blog entry to my trifecta of somewhat-neglected blogs mentioned that I hadn't forgotten about my trifecta of somewhat neglected blogs. Well, it would appear that I was incorrect.

The program I use to publish entries to livejournal doesn't think that trifecta is a word. Heresy!

Anyway, uh, hey a blog! I've been pretty busy lately working on a radio drama/theatre project, more info on which can be found at www.lithiumtheatre.com. I've also been trying to keep my Computerchips site up to date and more or less failing miserably.

I've been playing inFamous lately. It's pretty cool. I also have this weird inclination to play a new Steampunk/Western game that came out called Damnation, which looks absolutely terrible. I don't really know why I want to play it. It's probably the setting.

I haven't forgotten!

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:25:53 GMT

I haven't forgotten about the three blogs I keep that are actually all the same blog. It's just that I've been rather busy of late, and that is then combined with the fact that I've not really had much I've felt like writing about. I'm currently working on a radio drama prorject, as well as occasionally posting stuff over on www.computerchipsonline.info. Between those things and my normal radio shifts and other random goofiness, I've stayed pretty busy. A few times I thought about writing on some films I've seen, but none of them have been so spectacular or so horrible to elicit more out of me than an "it was pretty good." Any game related babble I think of I'm trying to relegate to the other site.

Anyway, more stuff of some substance or other will probably be coming soon! The first step to becoming re-addicted to blogging is to write one entry, and now I've done so. Yay!

Hey wow a blog!

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:47:30 GMT

Well, I haven't written anything for over a month now. Whoops!

For a while there it was snowy and I was stuck at home. That, I guess, is the opposite of a good excuse for not blogging, since I was easily able to access my computer.

During the last month and a half, I've had a Netflix envelope with a Blu-Ray copy of Leatherheads in it sitting on the desk in front of me. I finally watched it today. I quite enjoyed Leatherheads when I saw it in the theater, and it's one of the few movies about sports that I've genuinely liked all the way through. I love silly George Clooney, and his direction and acting are both great. It's a wonderful homage to the old screwball comedy, a genre that doesn't really exist anymore and got swallowed up by the modern-day romantic comedy. The film also has a brilliant score by Randy Newman. Sometimes I think his style isn't quite right for the films he's hired to score, but here, it's an absolutely perfect match. The film is surprisingly poignant at times, and hey, it has random shots of a bulldog just sitting there being a bulldog. Not to mention Clooney doing a whole bunch of double-takes and silly expression changes. You can't go wrong with that!

This past weekend I saw Underworld Rise of the Lycans with a friend. This was my first exposure to the Underworld series. It was an okay film, marred by an almost total lack of meaningful plot, and some truly thin character development. It was cool to see actors like Bill Nighy over-enunciating every single word and desperately trying to make each piece of dialogue sound important, but the script was the weak link. It was a great looking and sounding film, and had some really visceral combat, if you're into that sort of thing. It wasn't so bad that it destroyed my want to explore the rest of the series, and I might still check out the other two. Despite being billed as a prequel, I feel like it would be more enjoyable if you've seen the first two films, and if you're not too concerned about things like plot.

Also this past weekend I assisted in auditions for an upcoming stage play/radio drama that I'm working on. More details about that as more things happen!

Last week the Unrated cut of Max Payne was released on video. I really like the game series, and the movie is okay. The new cut is decent, though in adding 3 minutes of footage, it doesn't really change anything. It's just little bits and pieces here and there. It sort of feels like it was the original version of the movie, and that it got trimmed a little bit to get a PG-13 film.

It would seem that this entry, and my blog in general, is mostly film dominated. I'll uh, have to do something about that, maybe? Well, until next time! Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Transporter 3, Australia, and a weird little game

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:59:36 GMT

I saw both Transporter 3 and Australia recently. Transporter 3 is....ugh. Well, somewhere in there, there's a good movie. But it comes nowhere near Transporter 2, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. However, it's still a decent film, just not as good as its predecessor. The action scenes are solid enough, and the plot is decent. The film is gorgeous to look at, but the editing and the script don't quite come through.

Australia is an epic monster from Baz Luhrmann, that's part Western, part World War II movie, and completely obsessed with the Wizard of Oz. As in, the classic film. If you've never seen that movie, you shouldn't even bother with Australia, because it relies heavily on your emotions for that movie to drive its own plot. It's a draining film, and it's beautiful. I imagine the running time will turn off most American movie-goers, but it's completely worth seeing.

I found this weird little game linked over at Penny Arcade. It involves music, and it's kind of a puzzle and...well you should just check it out if you have a spare moment.

www.playauditorium.com

I also posted a teaser over on ComputerChips Online for a new project I'm working on. I don't update that site as often as I'd like, but since it's just for fun, it's a relatively low priority most of the time. let me know if you check it out!

www.computerchipsonline.info.

Henry Selick finally returns

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:07:57 GMT

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39172

A Real RocknRolla

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:00:59 GMT

I saw Guy Ritchie's Rocknrolla the weekend before last, and it proves that Guy Ritchie can still make an awesome Guy Ritchie movie. I'm more curious to see Revolver now. If you're familiar with Snatch or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Rocknrolla can sit proudly among them and you owe it to yourself to see it if you liked those other films. Or heck, if you just like the idea of a British crime movie. Or if you just like Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton, or any of the other actors involved. It's good, and fun to watch.

This evening I discovered the demise of the Virtual Toad project. This guy was attempting to single-handedly create a virtual 3D reconstruction of the old Mr. Toad's Wild Ride attraction at Disneyworld, which was closed ten years ago. His work was progressing slowly, but the visual detail was phenomenal. I think that computers, especially today, can easily recreate a theme park attraction and it's something I've been fascinated with since discovering his site, and even before that when I played Bullfrog's old Theme Park game as a tiny head. If you want to see the work he completed, go to www.virtual-toad.com.

I've been severely neglecting this blog, and I hope to do less of that in the future.

City of Ember

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:09:13 GMT

I saw City of Ember yesterday and thought it was an enjoyable movie with some really amazing and gigantic sets. Unfortunately, the movie has somewhat bombed, bringing in only 3.2 million bucks over the weekend and coming in at 10th place. Yikes!

If you like post-apocalyptic stories or 80's fantasy/sci-fi movies or Bioshock or Fallout, you should go see it! It was an entertaining film, and it surprised me with its quality. I shall buy the Blu-Ray.

Apparently the book that it's based on has a couple of sequels, but I don't know if I really want another film story with how they handled the ending here. Looks like it's not going to be successful enough to get a sequel...so that's good I guess! Kinda?

Noooooooooooooooooooooo

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:27:18 GMT

I've just discovered that Marco Beltrami is the composer for the Max Payne movie. Yes, the man who tainted my own personal experiences with Terminator 3 and Live Free or Die Hard. I suppose this could be a chance for him to redeem himself, but well, we'll see in a little under two weeks!

I saw Appaloosa over the weekend and it was phenomenal. It's not as good as Sergio Leone's westerns, which are my own personal gold standard for that genre, but it's darn close, and the performances from Ed Harris and Viggo Mortenson are perfect. If you're not totally averse to westerns, you'd probably really enjoy it.

Max Payne, not long now!

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:37:01 GMT

This new flash-based graphic novel trailer thing for the Max Payne movie came out today, and it gives me full confidence that the movie will be just as awesome as the games.

http://maxpaynethemovie.com/graphicnovel/index.html

It's a trailer done in the style of the cutscenes from the games. Brilliant!

So! The Nightmare Before Christmas Blu-Ray

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:27:14 GMT

Yes, well this is only a week late! I actually don't have too much more to add to my previous post. The new Blu-Ray and DVD of this movie offer the same great digitally restored print that Disney has screened in 3D in theaters for the last couple of years around Halloween time. It's a gorgeous print, and the sound mix is a little punched up too.

My favorite new extra on the Blu-Ray is the stuff about Haunted Mansion Holiday. It's a little bit "promo fluffy" but it still gets the job done. I've never seen the variant on the ride in person, and it was neat to see all the nicely-shot footage that Disney provides here. The other extras on the disc are solid as well. If you love this movie, pick up the disc! If you've never seen it, this new version is by far the best version outside seeing it in digital 3D.

The only thing I don't like about it is the new package art. The art on both the DVD and the Blu-Ray covers is atrocious. It's a somewhat weirdly rendered close-up of Jack Skellington's head grinning sort of oddly. I would have just preferred a blank cover with the logo on it. The cover is the only area where the old DVD was vastly superior, and I guess it's a minor gripe since I display my cases spine-out and don't spend much time looking at the cover art.

The reason why I haven't blogged in the last week or so....

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:31:22 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuwe3xESHU4

Peter Stormare and Explosions!!!!!!

Yay!

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:27:50 GMT

The beautiful digitally remastered print of Nightmare Before Christmas that I saw in 3D last fall with my friend Sandy is finally hitting home video today, on DVD and Blu-Ray. Of course, this version doesn't have the 3D elements, but I think ILM did a beautiful job working on the print and I can't wait to see it again. You can tell it's the new version because it has the Disney logo at the front instead of the Touchstone logo. That's how it should have been in the first place! It also has a much better look overall than the earlier versions of the film, and probably looks better than the film did when it first came out in theaters. I would be more sure of this, if I could remember what it looked like in theaters, but I was kind of a young'un.

I'm also excited because the new disc has a couple of in-depth documentary thingies about Haunted Mansion Holiday, which I've never had the pleasure of seeing in person. Look for more random babble about this later today!

Going Against The Grain - Death Race and The Clone Wars

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:41:04 GMT

Well! Once again Alex's tastes veer with those of the critical media and the mainstream. I saw Death Race yesterday and The Clone Wars today, and I greatly enjoyed both of them!

Death Race is what it is. What it is, is 90 minutes of burly fellows riding around in crazy cars trying to blow each other up. The movie delivers on what it sets out to do and is surprisingly enjoyable, especially if you like stunt driving sequences. I had much more fun watching it than I thought I would, because it focused on the racing and the effects and action sequences were impressive. There's enough plot to keep the movie going, but it's very much in the spirit of classic 80's action movies.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars was a big surprise for me. I had a big dopey grin on my face throughout most of the movie, and I was shocked. The movie got panned by most critics, and it didn't make that much money either. For something that's basically a slick version of three episodes of an upcoming television series, it was fantastic! The pace is frenetic and it feels very much like a Star Wars movie. The art style is gorgeous, with a hand-painted watercolor look that I couldn't take my eyes off of. For something that's going on to be a television show, the detail here is remarkable, and if you like 3D animation it's a surprising treat. The backgrounds are sometimes breathtaking, and the action scenes are well choreographed and easy to follow. Not all of the voice actors are the same actors from the live action movies, but the cast does a solid job. The soundtrack was not done by John Williams, but it features enough nods to the original work to feel right.

The best and most surprising thing about it though is the Huttlette! There's a tiny head Hutt in the movie, the son of Jabba the Hutt. When I first heard about this, I thought it was going to be silly and stupid, but he's one of the funnier and more endearing animated characters I've seen in a while. He's just a cute tiny little guy, and his interplay with Anakin and the spunky young female padawan is pretty great. He never says anything because he's essentially a baby, and for some reason from reading some early reviews I thought he was going to be an annoying little talking character. My dad and I both thought he was great.

The movie is surprisingly fun and I'm totally stoked to see the TV show which follows it. Mightily impressive! And shocking.

Also, Yoda and Jawas are even more delightfully funny as tiny animated dudes.

The Big Stupid Adventure!

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:40:58 GMT

Hey! So, like many weeks ago I wrote a blog about a blog that I was going to write, and then never actually wrote the second blog. Behold, as I now meagerly attempt to recreate that second blog from the vague scraps of the memory that still contains its content. Thrills and excitement await you! And some text.

So a few weeks back, I dragged my friends Monica and Jesse on a rather elaborate quest. Preface: I like dark rides. Dark rides are rides that involve some time of conveyance, typically one traveling along a single rail, which carries you through a darkened environment past various scenes. The reason I like these is that they are able to approximate the feel of a film, but in a real, living space. And hey they can be fun. And sometimes thrilling! They range in complexity from your garden variety spook house all the way up to elaborate Disneyland creations like Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, or the Indiana Jones Adventure, perhaps the most technologically elaborate ride of this type.

It just so happens that there are two of these rides in Oregon. The first is called the Challenge of Mondor. I've blogged about t before. It's located at the Enchanted Forest in Salem, OR, and it uses a high tech trackless system and also requires riders to use little laser guns to shoot at various targets. At four and a half minutes, it's rather beefy for one of these (Disney epics not included) and features some great hand-made stunts and effects. It's pretty cool, and worth checking out if you are ever in the Salem area. It's worth the drive!

The other one is the Haunted Mine at Oaks Park. At least, that's what it is in my memory. The Haunted Mine used to be called the Haunted Castle, and it's a classically styled ride with wooden cars and hand-made scenery. Sadly, the Haunted Mine doesn't actually exist anymore. It's been replaced the Lewis and Clark: The Big Adventure! This ride is sort of a travesty, featuring a bunch of new scenes hastily grafted on to the old Haunted Mine stuff, and no plot, coherence, or any educational value of any kind.

On the fateful day mentioned oh so long ago (Actually just a few paragraphs ago), there was actually a third dark ride right here in Oregon. The Washington County Fair was going on, and they had a manufactured (or as I call it Store Bought) ride featuring modern stunts from one of the various few remaining dark ride effects companies. (A stunt is a scene in a Dark Ride, you'll pardon my lack of exposition, I'm writing this on the fly and when I should be sleeping).

So I had this crazy idea: Wouldn't it be great to go to three different places and ride three different dark rides in one day? Yes, yes it would! After all, this is almost never possible, and may never be possible in Oregon again! (Okay that's kind of a lie. The State Fair is coming to Salem soon, and they usually have at least one of these rides if not two. Plus its closer proximity to the Enchanted Forest would have made that trip a bit more palatable than my crazy escapade, but hey, craziness is fun!).

Off we went to Salem! We rode on Mondor and both Monica and I got a medallion. Then we traveled to Oaks Park. Or rather, then I got lost and eventually we found Oaks Park through the help of my dad! Once there, we rode on the Lewis and Clark Big Adventure (you'll notice I changed the name slightly. The text on the front of the building isn't too clear about where the "the" is supposed to be. At least in my opinion.) This essentially ruined my childhood memories. The Haunted Mine was one of my favorite things in Oregon in my latter childhood/early teenage years, and to see it so horribly desecrated with badly constructed plywood images of Lewis and Clark was disheartening. The ride has a number of problems, and is kind of ridiculous. I might say more about it in the future. In any case, I came up with a plan to fix it. Either spend a hundred bucks making some repairs, and add some music and voiceover to give it a point. That would work. OR, my personal favorite option, change the name of the ride to Lewis and Clark: The Big Stupid Adventure. For what it's worth, the girl who was running it that day was kind of cute.

The relative badness of the ride didn't stop me from riding it like 8 times, because I love these things so much, and because I missed the Haunted Mine. I nearly wept.

Okay I didn't weep. But it's the thought that counts.

Finally we made our way to the fair, and rode the Haunted Mansion, a generic and 90 second long...thing. The stunts are pretty decent, but it's over quickly. Still, it's much more like the classic Pretzel rides that started this whole thing. I won't start babbling about Pretzel Ride Company (I've already babbled enough!) If you want more on the history of these rides, spend an evening reading www.laffinthedark.com.

Phew! That's it for now. And that doesn't even cover the entire adventure! I left out the part where a giant Spider ride tried to eat Monica, not to mention the thrilling adventures of being scared to death inside Enchanted Forest's monster of a walk through Haunted House. It was a good, fun day, in spite of the fact that it was almost too epic. I will probably never attempt such a trek again, although I am trying to talk my dad into going to the State Fair sometime...we'll see. You never know.

Right then. Hopefully I'll blog again sooner rather than later.

PUBLIC NOTICE: My room has reached the breaking point as far as space to store fake plastic videogame instruments. I can hold no more fake guitars!

The Big Adventure! Of Mondor...Of Mondor

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 07:23:04 GMT

3 Dark Rides
1 Theme Park
1 Amusement Park
1 County Fair

1 Day!!!

Coming soon, which means whenever I get around to writing the rest of it, the story of my day today. Featuring the sad tale of how wooden cutouts of Lewis and Clark destroyed a little piece of nostalgia, ruined some of my memories, and made me see the limitless possibilities of a history-themed dark ride.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:58:49 GMT

So, The Dark Knight.

I really love it! Not only is it a great, high-action superhero movie, it's also a deep dramatic crime story. Christopher Nolan manages once again to take the Batman mythos, if you will, and drag it kicking and screaming into a real world context.

The acting is the real star of the movie. Heath Ledger gives a phenomenally creepy performance as the Joker, and the fact that he just sort of comes out of nowhere and into this world is the perfect setup for him as the anti-Batman. One of his final lines in the movie is probably my favorite in the whole film, and at the risk of spoiling it I'm going to recount it below.

"I have the feeling that you and I are destined to do this forever!"

That line delivered to Batman so perfectly encapsulates the relationship between Batman and the Joker, not only in this movie, but across all versions of Batman, whether they be animated, comic book, or live action. It's perfect, and really all the more wonderful when you consider the parallels to the Harvey Dent storyline, which in this movie probably gets its finest treatment so far. The first time I saw the movie, I wasn't sure how I felt about Aaron Eckhart, but having seen the movie twice, I think he nails it.

I'm going back again in a few days to see it in IMAX. I would say more now, but I think I'll wait a few months so as to avoid spoiling anything. If you're remotely interested, see this movie. Just be warned it's dark and creepy, and has the same level of gut-wrenching depression as a great Shakespearean tragedy.

That's right, I went there, I compared a Batman movie to Shakespeare.

Last week was pretty busy for me. I spent most of the week doing live radio coverage at the 93rd Annual Columbia County Fair and Rodeo, in St. Helens OR. It was great though, the fair had its highest attendance ever, and they had this really old unnamed dark ride there. I love dark rides, and so getting to experience a piece of dark ride history built in 1969 was a real treat. I actually ended up contacting the owner for more information, and I took some pictures too. I may write more about that in the future, and even post some pictures!

I am Max Payne

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:47:08 GMT

I've been waiting for the Max Payne movie for a really really long time. Remedy sold the rights to make a movie for the game way back when the first Max Payne game came out, which was in 2001.

The first trailer for the movie began seeping out onto the internet today. You can see a good quality version here:

http://ve3d.ign.com/videos/31425/PC/Max-Payne

It's also up on youtube, but youtube quality is not the greatest. Anyway, I'm pumped!

A tale of swords and souls, eternally retold!

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:45:16 GMT

One of my favorite Dreamcast games, and one of the best launch window games of all-time, Soul Calibur, is coming the Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday for ten bucks. I'm pumped!

Also, I've started down the often fruitless path of trying to clear out my backlog. A de-backlog-ification if you will. Over the last several years, I've built up a backlog of various entertainment products that I've never completed, and every now and then I go through and try and complete them, usually with little success. The current target is Diablo II, to celebrate that Diablo III was announced. We'll see how far I get.

I suppose I should be writing this type of stuff on my other blog, at the brand spanking new Computerchips Online Magazine. That's right, the magazine is an online entity now AKA a website designed and run by myself. It's still rather clunky and in development, but it should be more or less feature complete this week. If you'd like to see it, go to www.computerchipsonline.info.

I saw Wanted yesterday, and it was great, and not just because Angelina Jolie was in it. Though that certainly didn't hurt. The movie is definitely a case of style over substance, but since it's a kind of crazy action movie, that doesn't really matter. The movie is the American production debut of Timur Bekmambetov, a Russian director who is the at the helm of the Night Watch trilogy of films, of which two installments have already been released. He's a solid filmmaker, and Wanted is definitely a step up for him. I am looking forward to whatever he does next.

Wall-E

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:46:27 GMT

Well. I'm back! I did have another blog entry in the interim, but I got lazy and forgot to cross post it onto my facebook and myspace blogs. So if you don't read my livejournal you missed out on...well...on me posting a trailer video for Metal Gear Solid 4. Which was awesome. But that's not what I'm here to randomly babble about today.

I saw Wall-E today, Pixar's newest film. Normally I don't get terribly excited over Pixar films. They do their "Pixar thing," and their rendering tech is pretty cool, and I respect their work. This movie though, this movie is a whole different thing. I think this might just be Pixar's masterpiece. It feels like the movie they wanted to make for the longest time but couldn't due to the fact that it might not be a humongous hit, which is what's expected of them these days. The core of the film is a simple love story, but there's also messages about loving what you do, environmentalism, and the power of sheer will. That it's mostly a silent movie about a little robot guy is also quite impressive. There's no stable of lovable talking animals here, just a stable of lovable non-talking robots. The visual style is gorgeous, and Wall-E is quite the character even though the only word he can really say is his own name.

I loved the movie, but I think it's a little too abstract to be a huge hit with audiences. There can't be more than 10 pages of dialog in it. The human characters are not always portrayed in a favorable light. There are few jokes and references designed for kids. (References include such things as Pong, The Apple Macintosh Startup Sound, and 2001). Still, it's an incredible movie, well worth seeing if you're a fan of animation.

Okay that's it for now. See you again in another month. ;)

Courage is Solid

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:56:31 GMT

Also, I suck at blogging lately. I will make up for it eventually, honest!

T-Minus Two Weeks

Fri, 30 May 2008 19:29:59 GMT

Two Weeks from yesterday, on Thursday June 12th, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be released for the PS3, and I couldn't be more excited.

It's the end of a storyline that the creator has worked on for twenty years, and the end of my favorite saga in videogaming. I was a little late to the action, not hopping on board until Metal Gear Solid 2, but it immediately became my favorite game series of all time as soon as I played it. I went back and caught up on all the games I missed, and I've looked forward to each new installment with nothing less than fervor. I've been waiting for this game for four years, and the early reviews coming out all think it's phenomenal.

This little post is the beginning of my series on "Fours and Old Guys." For whatever reason, a number of classic franchises got fourth installments this year, and many of them feature dudes who some thought past their prime. I'll be covering GTA IV, Rambo IV, Indy IV, and yes, MGS IV. Expect to see many ramblings about Metal Gear in the coming weeks, a little bit about Mass Effect, some movie talk, and more of the nigh-pointless babble that I've made the trademark of my blog as of late.

Also, expect me to disappear for several days come June 12th. I can't wait.

Challenge Complete!

Tue, 27 May 2008 22:28:07 GMT

I had a pretty great Memorial Day. I spent the day at Enchanted Forest with my dad and it was awesome. I showed him the wonders of The Challenge of Mondor, Oregon's only Target Shooter Dark Ride. Essentially, it's a ride using a trackless system where riders travel through a variety of fantasy locations shooting at targets on evil monsters with a mystical ray gun. Yeah, it makes very little sense and I love it.

They give out medallions for the highest score of the day and the highest score of all time. The score for the day starts at a default of 3500, and that's really tough to get. The Challenge of Mondor fully lives up to its name. Someone got 4260, making the goal of getting a medallion even more difficult. After several attempts, one of the attendants clued us in to the Secret of Mondor, a way to get higher scores on the ride. With this knowledge in hand, I was able to win the Daily Challenge with a score of 4320! It was glorious and I won a medallion.

Yeah okay, so the medallion is just a really shiny piece of plastic with some goofy bits of the ride script printed on it, but it's awesome and it was a great day. My dad and I had a fantastic time.

I'm way behind in my blogging. I haven't talked about GTA IV really, and I've got a couple of movies I've been meaning to talk about as well. Also, this is the first time I've triple mirrored this blog onto Facebook. Why have my babbling in two places when it can be in three? If you're reading this on Facebook and you want even more of my ramblings to fill the empty time in your day, check out my myspace or livejournal page. (Shameless plug concluded).

I hope everyone had a great memorial day weekend!

Indy IV

Thu, 22 May 2008 23:34:38 GMT

Yup. It was awesome.

What's This?

Mon, 19 May 2008 01:01:29 GMT

Ever since seeing the Digital 3D print of The Nightmare Before Christmas, I've been aching for that restored print to come home in some form. The DVD that's out now is based off of old film elements, and while it looks good, the digital print was astonishingly clear.

Today I purchased The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe on Blu-Ray, and there was a trailer on it for...

The new 2 Disc DVD and Blu-Ray of The Nightmare Before Christmas, featuring the completely restored print, coming this fall!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Also, I saw Prince Caspian today, and it was quite entertaining. I suggest seeing it ONLY if you've seen the first Narnia film or are familiar with the franchise, as several moments are designed as payoffs for things in The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe.

Animation is Incredible

Fri, 16 May 2008 02:23:23 GMT

Tycho over at Penny Arcade posted a link to this short film today, and I have to say it's fantastic. It's proof of why animation, in any form, is one fabulous art form, and also good proof for why I love and appreciate it so much.

http://www.blublu.org/sito/video/muto.htm

I hesitate to say anything more, because I would ruin it. Check it out and share your thoughts!