Thoughtful Preparations: Media Spin Blog

Somebody on the CG Talk Forum dreamed this one up.

My impression is that the grand day of “Disney Animation” which is what they called their great hand drawn animation at Disney has been surpassed by Pixar quality computer animation standards. The atmosphere at Pixar the other day seemed quiet, as though there was a hushed excitement of anticipation over what changes might occur. Or more likely, computer animators are busy creating worlds of their own and are not thinking too much about billion dollar corporate deals.

I was underwhelmed by Disney’s Fantasia 2000 which I saw in IMAX. The original Fantasia was a Disney pinnacle of experimental animation designed around great musical themes. Fantasia 2000 seemed like a weak attempt by Disney to keep up with computer animation and the pack of animation innovators launched by MTV and the digital era. It is wise that Disney corporate is handing over plenty of creative control to the new generation at Pixar. It bodes well for both companies.

The foundation films of John Waters early Divine classics shot in Baltimore involved local gangs competing for King and Queens of Filth. Following in his trashy tradition, John Waters has a series coming out on Here! TV, America’s first gay televison network, entitled John Waters Presents Movies that will Corrupt You.

Here is the stuff that will test the mettle of curious Right-wing Puritans: films such as Freeway, Beefcake, and Sissy Boy Slap Party are just a few of the irreverent titles in the series. The movies Mr. Waters has chosen are designed to disturb you in a delightful way. Take walk on the wild side with John Waters hosting and adding commentary before and after each title.

Forming his own anti-Martha Stewart taste setting niche, Waters released A John Waters Christmas CD in time for this past holiday season, including gems by Tiny Tim and Fat Daddy.

This freedom of choice photo sums it up. One person with a baby, one vote.

If you enjoyed the wisecracking space cowboy thrills of the original Star Wars Han Solo, then you must check out Firefly TV Series DVD. Captain Mal Reynolds has the right headstrong stuff. The Firefly TV series opener is a fantastic film length origination story of this vagabond space crew 500 years in the future. I’m going through the Firefly series before I check out the more recent Serenity, The Movie.

The writing is excellent, by Joss Whedon, a co-writer of Toy Story, Pixar’s first 3D computer animated feature. Joss has a very interesting background, being the third of his family’s generation to write for television. His grandpa wrote for The Donna Reed Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Describing the inspiration for writing Firefly, the Production Notes on the Serenity web site explains…

Whedon conceived of the television series Firefly after reading Michael Shaara’s Civil War novel, “The Killer Angels.” The appeal of post-war survivors scraping by on the outskirts of society—in a science-fiction context—struck a chord with Whedon. “I was taken with the idea of a civil war and rebuilding from the point of view of people who had lost the war,” he says. “There were people after the war who internalized it so terribly that it completely destroyed them.”

The western flavor of the show feels sort of Australian, possessing a desperate, patched-together Mad Max Road Warrior tone to it. The soundtrack is cool, and varies between spooky, ambient mechanical noise to a yearning country fiddle echoing across the cosmos like an enchanted Celtic country music song.

I wonder what The Beverley Hillbillies In Space would look like… picture it, The Galaxy Spacebillies! Probably not much of a stretch for the mind of Whedon who wrote for Roseanne, Roseanne Barr’s TV show in 1988. Anyway… be sure to take a look at the Serenity movie web site.

The current maneuvering by CNN to outfox Fox News by hiring nationally syndicated conservative radio host Glenn Beck is an especially bad omen for messy cafeteria food fights to come between Fox and CNN. Here is an interesting blog keeping watch on CNN vs. FOX.

CNN Headline News categorizes Glenn Beck under “ENTERTAINMENT” in their Jan. 17, 2006 coverage of his hiring.

Beck’s hiring has fired up criticism from web-based media monitoring groups such as Media Matters for America in this Jan. 17, 2006 article.

Here is an audio clip of Glenn Beck on his recent notoriety and his opinion of Cindy Sheehan.

Television and radio are a far cry from the U.S. government’s Radio Act of 1927 which was a first attempt at establishing licensing regulations so that radio stations served the public interest. These days we are better off getting our news from the Internet, which is exactly what the new generation is doing, and is exactly why television and radio are resorting to serving up superficial commercial pap.

Recently watched the classic 1960 À bout de souffle (Breathless), which I hadn’t viewed since a History of Cinema college screening 30 years ago. Filmed in Paris, Breathless is Jean Luc Godard’s first feature, based on a story by Francois Truffaut. Heralded as a cornerstone of the French New Wave Cinema, it is shot in an edgy, spontaneous style of the beatnick jazz poetry of the times. The main character is a shiftless chain smoking car thief played by Jean Paul Belmondo. The film is often heralded as a turning point in filmmaking.

Naked, 1993 directed by Mike Leigh and filmed in locations around gritty parts of London. The protagonist Johnny, calls himself a cheeky monkey and is a similar chain-smoking, woman chasing, bad guy hero on the run cast from the same mold as Belmondo’s character.

My previous review of Kurosowa’s Drunken Angel covers the similar harrowing decline of a self destructive modern tough guy. Better him than me, eh Chuck-o?
So now that DV cameras are cheap, where are the new new wave of guerrilla cinematographers and little guys up against the odds of big established society? Perhaps they are with GNN: The Guerrilla News Network or Channel 101. We will know it when we see it: raw, jagged, real and maybe a little bit romantic.

I love this classic animation from the early formative years. Here is an archived 1937 cartoon by Paul Terry and his Terrytoons studio. It appears that a crucial shot early in the cartoon, where the little goat drinks alcohol is absent.

Fortunately, The International Animated Film Society: ASIFA-Hollywood has embarked on an ambitious project to create an animation archive, museum, and library for the benefit of the animation community, students and general public. The first phase of this project involves the creation of a virtual archive which will house images, movie clips and sound files pertaining to the art of animation. Their blog is loaded with art and information of interest to animation fans.

Beautifully composed photographs by Arno Rafael Minkkinen. See a recent gallery retrospective of his large collection of thought provoking images.