Turtle Origins

I love it when I happen into a stroke of luck, that happens to bring a quest to an end.  Just a couple of days ago, I ran into such a stroke of luck.  There's this one particular DVD I've been after.  It's been out of print for a while.  I thought about special-ordering it online, but never got around to it.  Most of my favourite DVD emporiums wanted too much money for it.  And there I was, in Canadian Tire the other day, and I found it in a discount bin.

What DVD is it?  This little gem.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Vol. 1!


Yup, this is the original, 1980s cartoon.  See, what some people may not remember is that Ninja Turtles, much like its fellow 1980s 'toon G.I. Joe, began its run with a 5-episode miniseries.  This DVD contains that 5-episode miniseries.  In this miniseries, you get to see the origins of the Turtles, the origin of the Shredder, the origins of Bebop and Rocksteady, the origins of Krang...this is where it all began.

When it comes to the original TMNT 'toon, those first 5 episodes are the ones that I am most nostalgic for.  I remember being just 10 years old, visiting my grandparents in Red Deer, who had this magical thing called "cable TV" which meant they got a heck of a lot more channels.  I was watching this new channel called "YTV" which was nothing but kids shows, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came on.  For those who want a quick primer in basic cable history, TMNT was actually a launch title on YTV and was a mainstay in their lineup until 1991 or so.  But I digress.

What I saw was the fifth and final episode of the original miniseries, and what I saw just blew my mind.  Compared to G.I. Joe and Transformers and He-Man, TMNT just seemed so...different and original.  I couldn't help but get sucked in.

Two years later, 1989, my family finally got cable TV, and along with it, YTV.  TMNT was on every night at 6, and my brother and I often implored our parents to let us watch it instead of the boring ol' 6 o'clock news.

And then, in the fall of 1990, TMNT was plucked from syndicated obscurity and became the lynch pin in the CBS Saturday morning lineup, thanks to the overwhelming success of the live-action movie.  I remember that well, because I was still working as a paperboy at the time, and had begun reading the newspaper every morning, and there was actually a huge write-up about that in the paper about TMNT being picked up by the networks.  Following suit, CFRN added it to their Saturday morning lineup, and that's when all my friends who didn't have cable finally got to start watching it. 

There's not much for bonus materials on the DVD.  As a great contrast to the show's origins, it also contains the final four episodes of the show!  Can you believe that the original TMNT cartoon was actually in production and ran on CBS until 1996?  As I said, it kind of faded off of YTV around 1991, and I'm pretty sure CFRN stopped showing it around 1993 or so.  I remember stumbling across the final episodes on CBS when I was in high school, and only watched one or two.  For the shows final season on CBS, they decided to overhaul it and it got kind of weird.

The animation style changed.  It got all darker and grittier and Batman: The Animated Series-ish.  Shredder and Krang were permanently banished to Dimension X, and the new archenemy of the TMNT was an alien warlord named Lord Dregg.  Lord Dregg activated a "hypermutation" in the Turtles that essentially turned them all into Hulks.  Literally.  When the Turtles got angry, they would grow in size and gain superstrength.  They were also joined by a Rick Jones-like kid who was similarilly "hypermutated" and would turn into a Hulk-like creature when he got angry.  Like I said...really weird.

But yeah.  Looking into it online, pretty much off the original TMNT is now on DVD, save for those final seasons with Lord Dregg. 

After watching that DVD, I got all hungry for more Ninja Turtles.  I was recently home for a bit of a vacation, and while I was there, I finally claimed all my old VHS tapes.  If you follow me on Twitter, you know that a bit of a Friday night routine of mine is to pop one of my old movies into the DVD player and re-discover it.  For the next few weeks, the theme of movie nights will be "stuff I haven't upgraded to DVD yet."  And of course, right on top of the pile of old VHS tapes, is the first live-action film from 1990.  I popped it into the VCR and watched the first few minutes.

My God, it's been a long time since I've seen it.  I forgot it has that great, gritty, low-budget 1980s sci-fi look to it.  (Look at the first Terminator film for another great example of that look.)  I'm sure it was accentuated by the fact I was watching it on VHS.  Man, how come I haven't bought this on DVD yet?  It was released on Blu-Ray last year...apparently, on Blu, the resolution is so high you can actually see the performers inside the suits when the Turtles open their mouths. 

I know why I haven't upgraded it to DVD yet.  The original live-action film is high on my list of films where I'm holding out for a special edition packed with bonus features.  Even when it was released on Blu-Ray last year, in a highly-touted "25th Anniversary Edition," there were NO bonus features on the DVD.  What do I want for bonus features?  How about a running commentary with the film's director, Steve Barron, and the creators of the TMNT, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird?  How about a massive featurette about the creation of the animatronic turtles?

I said this when the film came out in 1990, and I still believe it 20 years on:  those animatronic turtles represented a gigantic leap forward in animatronics for film.  Built by Jim  Henson's Creature Shop.  They were the last animatronic creations that Jim Henson personally had a hand in building before his untimely death in 1990.  Before TMNT, animatronics like that were manipulated by a massive series of cables leading to the puppeteers off camera, and the cables were cleverly hidden in the set.  When Jim Henson's Creature Shop got the contract to bring the Ninja Turtles to animatronic life, they looked at all the martial arts stunts the animatronic suits would be doing, looked at all the cables, and said, "OK, we're going to have to make all this stuff wireless."  And they did.

And while I'm putting together a wish list like this, I'm starting to love my obscure film scores.  How about if someone out there puts out John Du Prez's score for the film?  As part of that "gritty, low-budget, 1980s" look, the entire score is on synthesizers.  And while I'm ranting Du Prez's film work, I wouldn't mind his score for UHF, either.

But anyway, it's been fun reminiscing about this chapter of TMNT.  A year ago, it was announced the Nickelodeon just bought the "global rights" to TMNT, meaning they can now adapt it to every other medium.  A new movie is in development...rather than being all animated, or with animatronics, it'll be live-action, with the Turtles being animated.  A new cartoon is in development.  And a new chapter will begin.

Not bad for a low-budget parody of Daredevil that was thrown together one drunken night by a couple of starving artists desperate to break into comics.

And the new Transformers girl is....

Well, the world has been all a twitter the past few weeks asking one question:

Who's going to replace Megan Fox in Transformers 3?

For those who've been out of the loop, around a month ago, the world was shocked to learn that Megan Fox would not be returning to the role that made her famous...Shia LeBeouf's girlfriend in the Transfomers films.

There's still no clear reason as to why Megan Fox isn't coming back. She says she quit...Transformers director Michael Bay says he fired her. The one thing we all know was that they just did not like each other. Heck, last year, Megan Fox even went on the record as comparing Bay to Hitler.

So, it was a bit of a schock, but somewhat expected, when it was announced that Megan Fox would not be back for the Autobots waging their third battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons. And for the past month, every pretty young thing in Hollywood has been rumored to be the new "Transformers girl."

Well, today, it was officially announced that it will be...Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is a model who's been modeling since 2003. Since 2006, she's modeled exclusively for the Victoria's Secret catalogue. This will be her first acting role ever.

If it's like how Transformers made Megan Fox a star, expect this face to grace *every* magazine cover when Transformers 3 hits theatres next year.

Now, we can get back to more important issues for Transformers 3...like getting Frank Welker to voice Megatron.

Latest Targ's Up!

Are you ready for another episode of U62: The Targ? Well, even if you're not, it'll keep until you are!

Tonight, I've slapped together Episode 3.32: Purples Skies and Rainclouds. I'm offering up my thoughts on some classic games known as THINGS, I reflect on one of my favourite places in the world and, after having taken in some of the new Doctor Who, I've got some thoughts to share.

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The London 2012 Mascots

I love the Olympics.  Granted, I'm not much of a sports guy, but the concept of the entire world taking some time off to kick a ball around is something I can get behind.


The next Olympics on the horizon are the Summer Games in London, England in 2012.  Now, London's had some trouble with their Olympics already, and that's negative reaction to their Olympic symbols.  Backlash came from all across the world when they unveiled their squiggly logo a few years back:

But, London still had time to recover.  Yesterday, London 2012 revealed their mascots.  Mascots have become an important part of Olympic merchandising over the years.  They say it helps to get the Olympic message out to kids.

So, who gets to join the illustrious comapny of Springy the Springfield Spring, the Atlanta Whatzit, and the Montreal Vampire?

These guys, Wenlock and Mandeville

Right away, the world was united in one question:  what the hell are those things? 

The answer:  they are drops of steel that dropped off the edge of a welder's torch as the last girder was being welded into place at the Olympic Stadium, and they were brought to life by a rainbow.  I am not making that up.

So, this guy is Wenlock, and technically, only he is the mascot of the London 2012 games.  His head is designed to look like the top of a London taxi.  He sports the Olympic rings as friendship bracelets.  He is named for the British town of Much Wenlock, which hosted a sporting competition that inspired the Olympics way back in the 1890s.

This fellow is Mandeville, and technically he's the mascot of the 2012 Paralympic Games.  His head is designed to look like a bicycle helmet.  He's named for the British town of Stoke Mandeville, which hosted the first Paralympics back in 1948.

They both have one eye, because it's supposed to be symbolic of "the single camera lens that allows the world to watch the games."

The reality is they are the ultimate result of design by committee.  They were the result of more than 40 focus groups that determined that kids no longer want "cute and cuddly," instead they want "characters with intriguing backstories that they can interact with."

And interact you can!  With their unveiling yesterday, they also got their own Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.

So, what do you think of the London mascots?  I'd love to hear your thoughts, comments, and one-eyed monster jokes. 

Here's the London 2012 website, if you desire to learn more.

Latest Targ's Up!

Another week goes by, that means I've got another episode of U62: The Targ for you!

Not gonna lie...about 10% of my episodes are constructed over multiple days with loving care. The other 90% of just slapped together at the last minute. Episode 3.31: Information Please is one of the 90%. In this one, we're chatting up how I discovered Doctor Who, reflecting on the Austin Powers trilogy, and the growing trend of superheroes in adult entertainment.

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New Movie Reviews! Kick-Ass and Iron Man 2

So, as I blogged yesterday, I made it out to the theater to see Iron Man 2 and Kick-Ass.

My reviews are now written and posted. Go read them at the main site!

Latest Targ's Up!

I love it when I record the podcast, and everything clicks. I know what I'm talking about, I like the songs I've chosen, and it just rolls of the tongue. That's exactly what this episode of U62: The Targ is!

Everything was clicking for Episode 3.30: Tea Time. I chat about how one of the most infamous late-night infomercials of all time is messing with my mind, I take a moment to reflect on the 1985 classic The Goonies, and impart an important life lesson about the things I hate.

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Another Day, Another Blu-Ray

A friend of mine once remarked that the majority of my DVDs are the movies that you can watch on basic cable on any night of the week. Those words were running through my mind today when I bought the Blu-Ray boxed set of the Austin Powers trilogy. What can I say? I always liked it, and it was on sale for $25, so I thought, "Why not?"

Things was, I never got the Blu-Ray discs I set out to get. I've always had a soft spot for James Bond, so I thought about grabbing Quantum of Solace, but on the way out of the house, I saw my DVD websites indicated that a newer special edition comes out in a couple of months, so I figured I'd wait. As you may remember, I rented Whip It a couple of weeks ago, and that had the unexpected side effect of being temporarily obsessed with Ellen Page, so I was keeping my eyes open for Whip It. I'm also temporarily obsessed with The Goonies, and you'll find out why in tomorrow's podcast, but I couldn't find it on Blu-Ray.

Oh, look at that. It's not on Blu-Ray yet. I guess I could have just spent $10 to get the regular DVD out of the discount bin.

But those quests went out the window when I was in HMV, perusing some of the TV on Blu-Ray, and I saw a boxed set, Doctor Who: The Complete Specials. This is the series of TV movies that ran throughout 2009, signaling the swan song for David Tennant as the 10th Doctor. I actually haven't seen these yet, so after almost half an hour of staring at the boxed set on the shelf, wondering whether to get them or not, I got them.

But that wasn't all! It was also a movie day, so I had to go check out the first big blockbuster of the summer, Iron Man 2. I've got to admit, I've been disappointed with the films of 2010 so far, so I went into Iron Man 2 with some drastically lowered expectations. And I don't know if it was because of those lowered expectations, but Iron Man 2 completely blew me away. It's funny, it's action packed...I wouldn't say it was better than the first one, though. It's definitely on-par with the first one. Whatever, it was a hell of a ride and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

And then I went across the hall to finally see Kick-Ass. Kick-Ass is an incredibly messed-up film, but messed-up in a good way. As the superhero genre starts becoming more and more mainstream, I'm sure we're going to get more deconstructions like this, where people ask the question, "What would it be like if superheroes started popping up?" I was surprised at how darkly comedic the film was.

If I have one complaint about Kick-Ass, that would be the same complaint that was once raised about the first Shrek film. Around 2/3 of the way through the film, they switch from mocking the cliches of the genre to falling back on them. It really does feel like standard superhero fare at the climax.

But still, a highly enjoyable film.

Complete reviews in the next day or so.

More Marvel Movie Updates

Just a lot of Marvel movie news has come up, so I thought I'd share.

 

First, the big one on the next X-Men film, the prequel tale X-Men: First Class.  Matthew Vaughn, the director of Kick-Ass, has just signed on to direct this one.  And, 20th Century Fox has already locked in a release date:  June 3, 2011.

 

Fun trivia bit:  Vaughn was actually the original director of X-Men 3 for about one month of pre-production.  He left the project after constant creative differences with the head of Fox.  We can thank Vaughn for giving us Vinnie Jones as the Juggernaut and Kelsey Grammer as Beast, because that all happened on his watch.  Vaughn went and gave us Stardust instead.

 

Another fun trivia bit:  Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-Men films, was originally going to return to the franchise to direct First Class, and he was announced as the director back at Christmastime.  However, Singer realized that the scheduling conflicted too much with the production of his next film, Jack the Giant Killer, which begins filming in another month or so.  Singer, however, is still involved as a producer on First Class, and has already been deeply involved in the casting. 

 

While the title has remained the same, the plot of First Class has changed quite a bit.  Originally, it was going to be a New Mutants tale, focusing on some of those other mutants we saw in the background of the trilogy.  Then, it was going to mirror the First Class comic, be kind of a "Year One" tale focusing on the original line-up and their first adventure.  Now, it's a prequel tale, showing how Xavier and Magneto founded the School for the Gifted, and how their big bromance eventually disolved into them being arch-enemies. 

 

Meanwhile, another big Marvel movie in development, Captain America.

 

We learned this a few months ago, but yesterday, Marvel finally made the official announcement:  Hugo Weaving, still best remembered to nerds as Agent Smith in the Matrix trilogy and Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, will be playing the Red Skull!

 

To recap:  Chris Evans is playing Steve Rogers/Captain America, Sebastian Stan is playing Bucky Barnes, Hayley Atwell is playing Peggy Carter, and this is one of the  nine films where Samuel L. Jackson is playing Nick Fury.  Director Joe Johnson has said that Cap's old WW2 superteam, the Invaders, show up for the second half of the film, and head of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige has said that Nick Fury's old WW2 unit, the Howling Commandos, also make an appearance. 

 

The start filming next month for a July 2011 release.

Reflections on Batgirl

Those who listen to my podcast know that for the past few weeks I've been pouring through the graphic novel Batgirl: Year One.  I recently finished it, so I thought I'd just take a minute to share my reflections and reviews on this storyline.


I also noticed that Blogger now has a "behind the jump" feature, so I'll continue this behind the jump.

New YouTube Video! The Shriner's Parade!

I've kind of stopped doing YouTube videos for a while. Many event organizers started worrying about what kind of litigation they might face should I accidentally film someone who didn't want to be filmed, or post an interview of someone who didn't want to be interviewed. It got to the point where, when I showed up at an event with camera in hand, I'd be pulled aside and given a 20-minute lecture about what I could and couldn't film. They just weren't worth the hassle anymore.

But in the past few weeks, I've been getting a few e-mails. I've been running into folks on the street -- people who've just moved to Athabasca -- who go, "Dude! You're videos are AWESOME! They make this town look so great! That's why I moved here!"

So, the residents of Athabasca are afraid they're going to get sued over these. People outside Athabasca think I make the town look so awesome and so cool they just have to get here.

So, while I try to figure out where to go from here, I've thrown together another one. Athabasca just had a Shriner's Parade. Nothing fancy, no libelous interviews, just me filming the parade. Enjoy!

Latest Targ's Up!

Time for that weekly Sunday ritual, as certain as skipping church to watch football. It's a new episode of my podcast, U62: The Targ!

For your listening pleasure, I made Episode 3.29: Spectral Visions, in which I show off my batch of obscure film scores that arrived in the mail, wax philosophical about one of my favourite cartoons, and reminisce about the 1960s.

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First Looks and First Pics!

Alright, granted the summer movie season of 2010 is about to being, but the summer movie season of 2011 is already before the cameras, filming so as to be ready for next year!

First up, right after Iron Man 2 hits next week, the next film from Marvel Studios will be their classic spin on Norse mythology, Thor. Here's our first look at the title character, Thor, as played by Chris Hemsworth.



To recap who all is working on Thor:

As already mentioned, Chris Hemsworth is playing Thor. Hemsworth was last seen in last year's Star Trek, playing Capt. Kirk's daddy in the pre-credits sequence.

Tom Hiddleston is playing Loki, Thor's half-brother and arch-enemy.

Oscar-nominee Natalie Portman will be playing Jane Foster. In the original comics, Jane Foster was a nurse employed by Dr. Donald Blake, Thor's human secret identity. From what I gather online, for the movie version, Foster has been changed to a grad student studying Norse mythology whose research is torn asunder when the God of Thunder literally falls from the sky and lands in front of her.

An Oscar winner, Anthony Hopkins, plays Odin, Thor's father and ruler of the Gods in Asgard. Renee Russo plays Frigga, Thor's wife. And in a nice nod to the shared universe Marvel is developing for their films, Clark Gregg reprises his Iron Man and Iron Man 2 role of SHIELD agent Phil Coulson.

The director is the legendary British actor/director Kenneth Branagh. This is Branagh's first attempt at a Hollywood blockbuster since Mary Shelley's Frankenstein way back in 1994.

May 2011 is when this'll hit theatres.

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And that's not all. As I've already extensively blogged about, a live-action movie version of The Smurfs has just started filming to come out next summer.

And here's our first look at Hank Azaria as Gargamel!



God, I laughed when I saw that.

The plot has one of Gargamel's latest spells going awry, transporting Gargamel and the entire Smurf village to present day New York City. (The Smurf village gets safely hidden in Central Park.) Neil Patrick Harris plays the New Yorker given the task of helping the Smurfs get back to their own time.

And there's an all-star voice cast voicing the Smurfs:

Jonathon Winters is Papa Smurf
Katy Perry is Smurfette
George Lopez is Grouchy Smurf
Anton Yelchin is Clumsy Smurf
Fred Armisen is Brainy Smurf
Paul Reubens is Jokey Smurf
BJ Novak is Baker Smurf
Kenan Thompsan is Greedy Smurf
Jeff Foxworthy is Handy Smurf

The director on this one is Raja Gosnell, who brought us such legends as Beverly Hills Chihuahua and the live-action Scooby-Doo films. I wonder if this means a talking dog shows up.....

August 2011 is when it's slated to come out, and yes, it'll be in 3D.

Toy Story 3 Goes Viral

Just had to share this neat bit of viral marketing for Toy Story 3. Pixar actually made some fake retro commercials for one of the central new toys/characters in the film, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear:





Not to be outdone, they also made a Japanese commercial:





Huh. Maybe these commercials aren't so fake. It's been announced that, as part of the merchandise for Toy Story 3, they actually will be making a Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear.

How I Spent My Weekend

I don't rent movies as much as I used to. I don't know why. There was a time when I'd run out and rent any movie with a modicum of critical praise to see what cool stuff I was missing. I think the main reason why I don't rent as many movies any more is because I've got this vast library of DVDs now, so it's easier and cheaper to just watch Star Wars again. But, with this new Blu-Ray player, I thought I should break it in by renting a few Blu-Rays.

First up, in the spirit of the time when I'd rent movies on an almost weekly basis, I figured it was time to finally check out the winner of the Best Picture Academy Award for 2009, The Hurt Locker. If you haven't seen it now, the film is about Sgt. James, a US Army bomb disposal expert as he disarms bombs in Iraq and battles his own personal demons.

I found it to be pretty good. It was tense when it needed to be, provided some moments of dark comedy, and had a couple of good action scenes. And hey, Ralph Fiennes shows up! I enjoyed it, and I think it was deserving of the Best Picture Oscar.

Secondly, I rented Whip It, the tender, coming-of-age tale where Ellen Page learns who she is out on the roller derby track. There was a lot about this film that had me curious...mainly, how it was heavily hyped as the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore. Plus, a lot of Saturday Night Live fanboys and fangirls where heralding a breakout performance by Kristin Wiig.

There's a lot of good stuff in this film. It looks good. The performances are great. Even Jimmy Fallon, who I usually find more annoying than funny, was actually pretty funny as the announcer of the roller derby games. And it was great to see Daniel Stern again, playing Ellen Page's father. He was so funny, but then he kind of disappeared in the mid-90s, and now he's back, as his good ol', slightly clueless self, who you know would just love to be more supportive of his daughter, if only he weren't slightly afraid of his fierce and fighting wife.

And the soundtrack is amazing. Did I mention the soundtrack is amazing? Music that haunts me.

My only big complaint is that the plot is a fairly typical coming-of-age story. Gee, will mom actually show up to watch the big game? What do you think? Hardly any surprises in the plot, but it's all just packaged so well you can't help but love it.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Last up, I fired up the British film Pirate Radio, but I kind of like it's original British title, The Boat that Rocked. They year is 1966, and there was this growing trend in the UK of pirate radio stations. They were based on boats, anchored just off shore in international waters, and broadcast their high-powered signals to the mainland. This the story of one such station, Radio Rock, who specialized in a lot of the rock banned in England at the time. I was curious about it, because they just don't make a lot of movies about radio stations anymore.

The closest we have to a main character is Carl, a young man, just kicked out of school, sent by his mother out Radio Rock to get put to work out at the station. While there, he meets the wide assortment of personalities who man the airwaves, and learns about life, the universe and everything. Meanwhile, in a very funny subplot, Kenneth Branagh plays the stodgy old MP given the task of finding a way to shut down these pirate radio stations.

There's not much of a plot to this film...more just a series of vignettes with some outlandish radio personalities. That being said, though, I did find it quite funny and found myself laughing out loud quite a bit.

Again, I highly recommend it.

Latest Targ's Up!

New week means I've got a new podcast! What's going on in this week's episode of U62: The Targ!

This week, I threw together Episode 3.28: Feeling Blu-Ray. I talk about my newly-acquired Blu-Ray player, offer up an early review of Batgirl: Year One, and share some miscellaneous Pixar news.

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Code Blue (Ray)

So, I finally got my Blu-Ray player. Woo hoo?

I've been wanting one for so long, and keeping my eyes on the sales and everything, that you think that finally getting one would be much bigger payoff. But no. There's a different vibe to this...a different energy from when I first purchased my DVD player 9 years ago.

Wow, have I really had my DVD player for that long? In my waning days at university, several of my friends had DVD players, and I was instantly in love with them. When I graduated, I was all like, "Dude, I'm going to get me one!" All throughout Y2K, I'd been saving my pennies, carefully tucking them away, and in January of 2001, when the first round of Ralphbucks arrived in the mail, that put me over the top, and I booked a day off work special to go into the city and buy it.

Now see, it's funny when it comes to me and buying technology. I'm a man who tries his best to do everything right. I save my money. I do my research. I find models that are well-known for affordability, reliability, and quality. I map out a budget. I wait for my particular model to go on sale, so I can get an even better deal. And then, when the day comes, I walk into the store, all my budgets and research go out the window, and I get the shiny one.

That's exactly how it happened when I bought my DVD player nine years ago. I had my eye on this $300 model. However, my friend who came with me that day, talked me into a $400 model that had more bells and whistles. The salesman also helped in making the upsell. However, my friend and I found the salesman to be a colossal douche, so when the salesman's back was turned, we grabbed the DVD player off the shelf, and went up to the tills, so that way the salesman didn't get the commission.

With DVD player safely purchased and in my car, my friend and I then hit about three or four video shops in Edmonton, getting my first batch of DVDs. I must have dropped $600 that day, between the DVD player and my first batch of DVDs...roughly twice my budget.

And for the next few weeks, it was awesome, as I had friends over to show off my DVD player and we poured through bonus features and just enjoyed the movies.

Flash-forward to the present day. That $400 model is now 9 years old. While it was still pretty good, it was starting to do some funny quirks and hiccups and I knew it was on its last legs. So if I was going to buy a new one, I may as well make the upgrade, right?

Lot of similarities between buying my Blu-Ray and buying my DVD player. I dutifully saved my pennies for a year. A government cheque put me over the top (Ralphbucks in 2001...tax refund in 2010.) But a lot more differences. I went in alone this time. I did it on a typical weekend...no special day off from work. No high pressure salesman. I had my eye on a $250 model and I was able to stick to my budget and that model. Rather than go all over town looking for a dozen discs, I just grabbed a couple that I was mildly interested in. The whole endeavour cost me $300 in the end.

I can't figure out what I'm not as jazzed and excited about Blu-Ray as I was about DVD. Maybe it's because DVDs play on Blu-Ray players, so I've still got this massive library of films...it's not like I'm taking my first step into a larger world. Maybe it's because all my friends were getting them at the time, and our collective excitement made it more exciting. At this point in my life, most of my friends and colleagues really couldn't care less about Blu-Ray and movies and stuff of that nature.

Oh, well. I have embraced the next generation. If all goes well, I'll be set for the next 9 years in home entertainment. Now if only I had the flatscreen LCD TV to go with it to fully enjoy hi definition entertainment.

I think I know what I'm saving for next year.

Clash of the Titans Review

Even though I saw it a week ago, I finally got around to writing my review of Clash of the Titans.

Give it a read, if you please.

Return to Monstropolis

After months, nay, years, of speculation, Pixar finally made the official announcement yesterday.

Monsters Inc. 2 is a go!

No word yet on what the plot is, or if any of the original creative team will be back. At the very least, I hope Pete Docter is back on board as director. Docter, of course, last directed Up, which won the Best Animated Film Oscar last year.

But we do know a release date: November 2012.

Fun Fact about Monsters Inc #1: Bill Murray was the original choice to voice Sully. As is the stuff of urban legend in Hollywood, Murray doesn't have an agent. Instead, he has a special phone with an answering maching hooked up to it that people call to leave their movie offers on. The directors of Monsters Inc met with Murray, Murray seemed interested, and then the directors called that number to officially offer Murray the role. When Murray never returned their calls, the directors took that as a "no."

Fun Fact about Monsters Inc #2: Billy Crystal was the original choice to voice...Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story. Crystal turned it down, and has since gone on record many times as calling it the biggest mistake of his career. So, when the directors of Monsters Inc called up Crystal to offer him the role of Mike, Crystal dropped everything and said, "Yes."

The Latest DC Animation

So, there's another new cartoon coming this fall based on a DC Comic title. The latest entry in the DC animated pantheon is...Young Justice.



Young Justice was a group of teen superheroes that existed in the late-90s/early-00s. It was kind of created to fill the void left by the Teen Titans, because they all grew up and became simply "The Titans." The group was disbanded with the bulk of them being mentored by the Titans to become the new Teen Titans.

As you can see, the line-up in our superhero group is Superboy, Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad (who has arbitrarily been made African American to add racial diversity), Miss Martian, and Artemis, who from what I gather online is based on the current Speedy.

The 'toon premieres on the Cartoon Network this fall. Oh, and good news for a super-geek like me, the creator/showrunner is Greg Weisman, who was the creator/showrunner of Disney's cult classic 'toon, Gargoyles.

And speaking of DC animation, here's the latest trailer for the next DTV animated film, Batman: Under the Red Hood.

Latest Targ's Up!

It's Sunday morning! As always, I celebrate with a new episode of U62: The Targ!

Not gonna lie...kinda phoned it in this week. I hit you with Episode 3.27: Funny Numbers, where I reminisce about the tacky tourist traps of Japan, tell you all about the latest book I read, and take a look ahead to 2010's summer blockbusters.

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The Big Interview

So, my alma matter has been making the news recently. NAIT was recently toying with the notion of canceling 13 programs as part of budget cutbacks. Most controversial of these cuts was ending their captioning & court reporting program. Since the graduates of this program go on to provide captioning services, and it's the only institution in the country that teaches it, that decision raised the ire of a lot of hard-of-hearing advocacy groups.

However, it's all moot now, as today NAIT's governing council decided against canceling the programs, and they'll find some other way to make up the money.

I kept getting distracted during the coverage, though, because whenever they went to NAIT's president Sam Shaw for a comment, I couldn't help but think, "Hey! I interviewed him once."

Yeah, it's true. When I was attending NAIT to get my diploma in broadcasting, I interviewed him for a news story. I was a little bit out of my league, but it was one of those times where I thought, "What they hey?" and just went for it.

At the start of my third semester in the program, my news professor was laying down the rules of her class. "Some interviews you get," she said, "Will be of such importance, that I'll have no choice but to give you a high grade. Heck, and interview with the president of the college would probably get you an instant 100%" I made a note of that offhand comment. I made a promise to myself. If my grades were low in news, and I needed something to get them back up, I'd go get an interview with the president.

As semester three started drawing to a close, news was one of my better subjects and my grades were never in fear of slipping. When it came time to file my final news stories of the semester, I was stuck for an idea for a story. As I was wandering the halls of NAIT looking for inspiration, I walked by the president's office and though, "Let's do it. Let's interview the president." I entered the president's office, walked up to his receptionist, and pleaded my case. She went into the president's office to see if he wanted to do this. She left the door open, so I heard the president say, "Sure, why not? Sounds like fun!" The receptionist came back out, looked at the president's calendar, and said to me, "Will tomorrow at 2 be OK?"

Next day at 2, I showed up at the president's office with my recording equipment. I was escorted into his office, I sat down, we shared pleasantries, and then I fired up the tape recorder and went to work. We spent about 15 minutes talking about life, the universe, and everything. NAIT's always had overcrowded parking lots, so I asked about the parking problems and what he was doing to fix them. We'd also just been through a provincial election, so I got his reaction to the election and what it would mean for post-secondary education. There was one thing that came out of the election that caught my eye and was eager to get his opinion on.

Back in the late-1990s, during another round of government restructuring, Ralph Klein did something very controversial in education circles. He decided to take the department of education and the department of post-secondary eduction and amalgamate them into one super-department: the department of learning. School boards and post-secondary governing councils were aghast at this concept, citing that while it might look logical on paper, the two forms of education were actually vastly different and one person could not look after it all. So, then, after the 2004 election, buried in the back pages, was that Klein had decided to split the department of learning in two, and once again, there was a department of education and department of post-secondary education.

So, of course, I had to ask the president how things would be different now that post-secondary education once again had their own individual voice in cabinet. He said it was a very, very, very good thing, and that post-secondary institutions would no longer have to compete with elementary schools and high schools for funding.

I got about three good news stories out of that interview, and as my professor stated at the start of the year, got 100% on it.

Just one of those fun, silly things where it was worth it to go for it.

McFarlane Leaps to the Silver Screen; Kirby's Lost Projects

A couple of interesting movie news tidbits came across my desk today.

Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show, is looking to make his big screen directorial debut. The script is called Ted, and was written by MacFarlane and two of his fellow Family Guy writers, Alec Sulkin and Wellsley Wild.

The script is about a guy who, when he was kid, makes a wish that his teddy bear were alive and his best friend. And, cuz it's a movie, the wish comes true. The guy and his teddy bear grow up to the best of friends. And then, the man meets the woman of his dreams. But, she finds this guy's relationship with his teddy bear to be weird, and issues an ultimatum: it's her or the teddy bear. Can this lifelong friendship be severed?

MacFarlane is in negotiations with Universal Pictures to produce the film. MacFarlane, in addition to writing and directing, would also do the voice of the teddy bear. No word yet on casting, but rumor has it MacFarlane wants his old friend Mila Kunis, who does the voice of Meg on Family Guy to play the girlfriend.

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Now this bit of movie news is really interesting. Hollywood is so desperate to turn comic books into movies, that they're looking for unproduced comics!

Jack Kirby. A legendary comic book artist. Working for Marvel comics, he co-created Captain America, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Silver Surfer, and countless others. In the 1970s, he went to DC, where he created the entire New Gods saga. In the late 1970s/early 1980s, he grew tired of comics and went out to Hollywood to try his hand at animation. He worked on such classic 'toons as Super Friends and Thundarr the Barbarian.

While working for the animation studio Ruby-Spears Productions, Kirby created several proposals for cartoons. While these proposals blew away the management at Ruby-Spears, none of them were ever produced, and were filed away, lost to the ages.

Until today. These unused Kirby proposals were recently sold to the legendary TV producers Sid & Marty Krofft, who gave us such classic shows as Land of the Lost and H.R. Puffnstuff. The Kroffts tend to develop these Kirby proposals into full-blown media franchises.



Some of the Kirby proposals include:

Roxy's Raiders - Described as a "female Indiana Jones," as she travels the world with her fellow treasure hunters as they go evil-fighting and tomb-raiding.

The Golden Shield - A superpowered Mayan warrior battles the forces that strive to bring about the end of the world in 2012.

The Gargoids - A group of scientists gain superpowers after being exposed to an alien virus.

Some of these sound really good. I hope something good comes from them.

The Targ Returns!

And we're back from having taken Easter off! We're here with an all-new episode of U62: The Targ!

I think this one was worth the wait. It's one of those ones where everything was clicking as I produced it. Episode 3.26: Spellbound analyzes the growing mainstream coverage of pornographic parodies, geeks out over the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode Chill of the Night!, and tries to answer the question that many a school child has asked, "What the hell is the point of the 12 minute run?"

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Chill of the Night

I just finished watching the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode Chill of the Night!, and I must say, that's got to be one of the best episodes of that cartoon to date. Granted, I like it because it's got gobs and gobs of fanservice going for it. But, added to that, is the fact that it is a very good story. And for a cartoon that's prided itself on being a more lighthearted take on the Batman mythos, it is shocking how dark of an episode it is.

It's one of those episodes that goes deep into Batman's origins and tries to figure out what makes him tick. Those always make for good episodes of any Batman cartoon, as Batman has a very grim origin with lots of dark alleys to explore.

So, the plot. In an otherworldly nexus, two of DC's supernatural heroes, the Spectre and the Phantom Stranger, are having a discussion. The Phantom Stranger applauds Batman for always being on the side of justice, but the Spectre is upset that Batman hasn't become an agent of vengeance who dispatches the guilty in grizzly manner. So, the Spectre and the Phantom Stranger essentially make a wager for Batman's soul. Should the Spectre win, Batman becomes a murderous agent of vengeance. Should the Phantom Stranger win, Batman continues on his path as an agent of justice. So what case is Batman working that brought the Spectre and the Phantom Stranger together to have this discussion? Batman is very close to solving the case that created him: finding the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. That's right, Bruce Wayne is finally about to track down the man who killed his parents. Once Batman finds this man, will he become an agent of vengeance and murder his parents killer, or remain an agent of justice and turn him in to the proper authorities?

As I'm sure you can imagine, Phantom Stranger and Spectre show up to assist Batman in this case, and they very much play the roles of the angel and the devil on Batman's shoulders. And there's also a great sequence where Phantom Stranger throws Batman back in time, and Batman actually gets to meet his parents and fight along side his father...who's also dressed as a bat, thanks to comic book contrivances.

Now, I mentioned the great gobs of fanservice in this, so let's look at that. First up, the episode was written by Paul Dini. Dini was one of the main creative forces behind Batman: The Animated Series all those years ago and is still pretty much acknowledged as being one of the greatest writers to write Batman in the past 20 years.

And let's not forget the stunt casting! Here's our galaxy of guest stars.

Phantom Stranger is voiced by Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman on Batman: The Animated Series.

Spectre is voiced by Mark Hamill, who voiced the Joker on Batman: The Animated Series. Oh, and of course, he was Luke Skywalker, too.

When Batman is thrown back in time, Thomas Wayne is voiced by Adam West. You know, Batman on the 1960s TV show. And Martha Wayne is voiced by Julie Newmar, who was Catwoman on the 1960s TV show.

And another that wasn't hyped, but I picked up on. Moxon, the mafioso who ordered the death of Thomas Wayne, was voiced by Richard Moll. Still best remembered as Bull on Night Court, Moll also voiced Two-Face on Batman: The Animated Series.

But yeah. It was just a great episode, and I can't stop watching it.

Selick Returns

Now, here's a neat bit of movie news that came across my desk today.

Henry Selick is returning to Disney!

Selick, of course, is the stop-motion animation guru who gave us the modern-day classics The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. I say he returns to Disney because, dude, Disney made Nightmare and James and the Giant Peach before cutting Selick loose. After Disney cut Selick loose, he was kind of freelance for a while before he found a home at LAIKA, which made Coraline. And then, for reasons I never really figured out, Selick and LAIKA parted company back in the fall. And Disney got him back. Hooray!

Here's the kicker though...Selick's films are going to be made under the Pixar label!

Pixar's getting into stop-motion animation...awesome.

Here's hoping the first thing that they put Selick to work on is Tim Burton's stop-motion animated remake of Frankenweenie. It'll be nice to see a Burton/Selick collaboration again.

Oh, and speaking of Pixar, I've had this kicking around for a while now and wanted to share. Pixar has been unveiling all these character posters for the new characters in Toy Story 3, and I love this guy who goes by the name of Twitch.



He is very obviously inspired by the designs of the old Masters of the Universe figures. Back in my childhood, I would have definitely wanted this guy alongside Mekaneck and Man-E-Faces.

Sequels, Remakes, and How to Promote Them

So Pixar is about to unleash this bit of promotion for Toy Story 3 that I'm not sure I agree with.

Coming to colleges next month is Toy Story 3: The Cliffhanger Edition. Pixar is launching a college tour where they'll be going to theatres on campuses all across the USA and screening the first 65 minutes of the film...the first 2/3rds, to be specific. And then, when the third act of the film is about to start, they flash, "To Be Continued," and to see how the movie ends, you've got to buy your ticket and see the whole thing when it comes out in June.

Again, I'm not sure I agree with this, mainly because you're spoiling far too much of the film.

Oh, well. It's open only to college students, so it's not like I can go anyway.

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You know, with all the pointless remakes that Hollywood is churning out, I knew it was just a matter of time before this one was announced.

Legendary Pictures, the production company that's part of the Warner Brothers empire, announced today that they just signed a deal with the legendary Japanese movie studio Toho Studios to produce an all-new, American remake of Godzilla.

Because, you know, the last time there was an American remake of Godzilla, it turned out so well.





Yeah, it wasn't a very good film, but I still think that was one of the best movie trailers EVER.

No word yet on any creative talent involved with the film...just that Legendary Pictures wants it in theatres for Summer 2012.

Finding Lost Music

The one thing that always strikes me about music is how it can be easily found, and then easily lost. You know what I mean. You'll be listening to the radio, you'll hear maybe 30 seconds of the song, but you'll miss the announcer saying the name of the song, and you'll never find out what the song is called or who sings it, and it'll haunt you for the rest of your days!

Don't you hate it when that happens?

That's why it always brings me such joy when I'm able to rediscover one of those songs. Just one day, you'll finally hear the whole thing on the radio, and be all like, "DUDE! That's it!" and you'll finally hear the whole song and the name of it and it just gives you a good feeling. I had one of those moments recently, and little did I know that the song was right under my nose.

In this case, it wasn't a snippet heard on the radio. It was a snippet of a music video. When I was but a wee lad in Entwistle, one afternoon after school I caught a little bit of Video Hits, and I saw this really weird music video. The only thing that stuck with me after all these years was this one part of a guy being rolled down a conveyor belt, while he's poked with sticks and eventually covered with glue, and then he's stood upright and peels the glue from his face. It just always stuck with me. I tried finding it on YouTube, but you actually don't get a lot of hits when you search for "that music video with the guy on the conveyor belt that gets covered in glue."

So it wasn't too long ago I was leafing through the Edmonton Journal, and I read an interview with 1980s Canadian pop sensation Gowan. The interview described the music video for A Criminal Mind as being made of "low-budget props and gloopy goo." Something about "gloopy goo" made me think "guy on a conveyor belt that gets covered in glue." So I did a quick search on YouTube for A Criminal Mind by Gowan, and lo and behold! It was the music video that haunted me in my youth!







We've played that song quite a bit on the River, so why I never figured out that the music video for that song was one song that I'm now quite familiar with, I don't know.

So why was Gowan recently being interviewed in the Edmonton Journal? Well, it turns out that 2010 marks the 25th anniversary of his hit album Strange Animal, which spawned the hits A Criminal Mind and Strange Animal. To commemorate this occasion, Gowan, now going by his full name Lawrence Gowan, has released the album Return of the Strange Animal. Disc 1 is his album Strange Animal, all digitally remastered and sounding better than ever. Disc 2 is a DVD, containing the music videos for A Criminal Mind and Strange Animal, plus some original tracks, some new videos, and a new documentary about the making of the album.

Reading that article, Gowan's had a pretty good career after his pop superstardom in the 1980s. In the 1990s, he started going by his full name and went to a more easy listening sound. He had a few smaller hits, but nothing as big as his 1980s successes. And then, in 1999, he became the new lead singer for Styx, and continues to rock out crowds all over the world.

I just might have to pick up Return of the Strange Animal, just so I can forever have that music video in my collection.

Latest Targ's Up!

It's that time of the week! A new episode of U62: The Targ!

So, this time around, I slapped together Episode 3.25: Tears of Joy. I'm just so happy because so much stuff has arrived in the mail! I've got some Tron Legacy viral marketing swag, my final "Weird Al" Yankovic albums arrived, and I take a minute to remember tasty foods from years gone by.

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What's My Hero Up To?

So, some news came across my desk yesterday about one of my heroes, Brad Bird. Bird made my favourite film, The Iron Giant, and then moved on to Pixar where he won a slew of Oscars for writing and directing The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Bird has been trying to break into live-action for a while now. After the success of Ratatouille, he said he was working on a historical epic called 1906, about the 1906 San Fransisco Earthquakes. But nothing's come of that yet.

And now, a rumor has come forth that Bird has been approached by J.J. Abrams and Tom Cruise to direct Mission: Impossible 4.

Abrams, of course, was the director of Mission: Impossible 3, and after Abrams' Star Trek became a huge hit, Cruise was all like, "Please come back to the franchise and do #4" and Abrams was all like, "I'm busy with the Star Trek right now, and I can't. Tell you what...I'll produce it and help you find an awesome director. How about that?"

Also on the short list to do M:I 4 is Edgar Wright, who brought us the modern day classics Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and Ruben Fleisher, who did the recent hit zombie comedy Zombieland.

Robots in Disguise, Real American Heroes, and the Cap

A few bits of movie news have come my way that I feel like passing along.

One of my buddies, who's a fellow fan of 1980s cartoons, recently sent me a text message. "Hey, what's going on with Transformers 3?" he asked. "And how about G.I. Joe 2? Will there be a G.I. Joe 2?"

As if on cue, there then followed a couple of big announcements on Transformers 3 back on Monday. Some how, director Michael Bay managed to land Oscar winner Frances McDormand and multiple-Oscar nominee John Malkovich to the cast. Who they'll be playing, we don't know yet. Seeing as to how we saw John Turturo in his underpants for far too much of the first two films, I expect Bay will make McDormand do full-frontal nudity.

Just to be clear: I don't want to see full-frontal nudity from Frances McDormand. But knowing what Bay has done in the past, I'm expecting it.

Also added to the cast is Ken Jeong, still best known as "the guy in the trunk in The Hangover."

Also added to the cast...a Ferrari. Yes, Bay has signed a promotional deal with Ferrari, so a new Autobot will turn into a Ferrari.

Meanwhile, over on G.I. Joe 2, as I told my buddy, the first one made enough money to justify a sequel. Both Hasbro and Paramount want to make it happen. Back in January, Paramount hired Rhette Reese and Paul Wernick, writers of the hit comedy Zombieland, to write it, and that's the last development there's been.

And now, the latest Marvel hero to get the big screen treatment, Captain America, is moving closer to hitting your local cineplex. It was just announced that Chris Evans has signed on to play Steve Rogers, aka Captain America. Evans, of course, is no stranger to the Marvel universe, having played the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four films.

Joe Johnson, director of The Rocketeer, Jumanji, Jurassic Park 3, and, most recently, the remake of The Wolfman, will be directing. They start filming this summer for a summer 2011 release.

King of the Wild Frontier

You know, something happened in pop culture last week that I haven't taken the time to acknowledge yet.

Last week, Fess Parker passed away at the age of 85. To Disney fans like me, Parker will always be remembered as Davy Crockett.





I love Disney's Davy Crockett. Way back when I was but a wee lad in Entwistle, and VCRs were starting to become commonplace, and you had to actually rent VCRs and the movies, one of the movies my folks ever rented to entertain us kids was Davy Crockett and the River Pirates. I was instantly smitten. Disney's Davy Crockett tales are nothing but stories of high adventure, perfect for young boys.

I was caught an interview with Buddy Ebsen, who played Crockett's best friend and sidekick George Russel, in which he talked about the series. "People think it was this huge series that ran for years, but we only made 5 episodes!" And that's correct. The five episodes are thus:

Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter - Crockett volunteers to help settle an Native American uprising.

Davy Crockett Goes to Congress - Touching upon Crockett's political career, as he makes a name for himself as a congressman.

Davy Crockett At the Alamo - Chronicling Crockett's final days as he heads to Texas to assist in the fight for independance.

Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race - Crockett crosses path with ruthless keelboat skipper Mike Fink and they engage in a race.

Davy Crockett and the River Pirates - Crockett allies himself with Mike Fink to take down some ruthless river pirates.

Even though all TVs were black and white back in the 1950s, Walt Disney had the foresight to film all these episodes in colour. That way, he could edit these episodes into movies and release them to theatres. The first three episodes were edited into the film Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. The latter two were edited into the aforementioned Davy Crockett and the River Pirates.

Disney released the complete series on DVD as part of their super limited edition Walt Disney Treasures collection back in 2001. The movie versions have been released on DVD and are available "wherever DVDs are sold," as they say on TV.

As for Fess Parker after Davy Crockett, he had pretty good career. In the 1960s, he played another frontier hero, Daniel Boone, on the same-named TV series for 6 seasons. And then, in the 1970s, he retired from acting, bought himself a vineyard, and made "some mighty fine wine," as the song says.

Predators Trailer

You know, out of all the modern day science fiction classics that geeks of my generation love, I still haven't seen Predator. I know! Shocking, isn't it? That being said, though, I can't help but enjoy the story of how the long-awaited third film, Predators, came to the big screen.





Way, way, back in 1994 or so, Robert Rodriguiz was one of the hot young things in Hollywood, thanks to his smash hit, low-budget action films El Mariachi and Desperado. At this time, Rodriguiz got a call from 20th Century Fox. "Hey, we've been trying to get a third Predator film off the ground. Are you interested?" Rodriguiz, being a geek who loved the first film and all it's sci-fi trappings, said, "Hell, ya!" Rodriguiz took a crack at it, wrote a few drafts of a screenplay, and the suits at Fox said, "Are you mad, man? This thing is far too expensive to film!" And that was the end of that.

15 years and a few changes in management at Fox later, Rodriguiz gets a phone call from Fox. "Hey, after those crappy Alien vs. Predator movies, we're looking to reboot the Predator franchise. We found this old script you wrote in our files, and we think it's the perfect direction to go in. Shall we try this again?" And once again, Rodriguiz said, "Hell, ya!" Luckily, "far too expensive" in 1994 movie talk is now actually quite reasonably priced in 2010, so the greenlight was quickly given.

Rodriguiz did not direct this film, only served as producer. The directing duties fell to Hungarian director Nimrod Antal, who recently did the action thriller Armored. The whole thing was filmed at Rodriguiz's Troublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas.

The plot is this. Several of the greatest killers on the planet -- soldiers, mercenaries, hit men, and even a plain ol' serial killer -- are abducted and stranded on a deserted planet. From an old soldier who's survived on this planet for years, they learn that this planet is a game preserve for the Predators...and that they are the prey.

Adrian Brody plays the leader of our ragtag group, an American mercenary. Robert Rodriguiz regular Danny Trejo is a Mexican drug cartel enforcer, Topher Grace is the aforementioned plain ol' serial killer, and Laurence Fishburne is the old soldier who's survived there for years.

It comes out on my birthday, July 7! Lots of time to seek out the first one and finally rent it.

Something Old, Something New

If there's one thing I'm sure you've learned by reading this blog, that's that a Saturday in the city is usually followed by a Sunday on the couch watching all the DVDs I bought. And this past weekend was no exception.

Had to grab a couple of animated films that had a little something in common. First up, was the all-new computer animated version of Astro Boy. As I said in my original review, it is an animated film that offers nothing new. The plot is by-the-numbers, and borrows from dozens of other much better sci-fi films about robots. But you know what? My childhood nostalgia for the character was so strong that I thoroughly loved it.

The other one, of course, was Disney's triumphant return to traditional animation, The Princess and the Frog. Again, as I said in my original review, the plot is very by-the-numbers. If you've seen any other Disney animated film, you've seen this one. However, it was so good to see Disney back to doing what they used to do best, that nostalgia made it easy to overlook the flaws. It was their first time taking the boat back out on the water...best not to rock it.

And that's the one thing that those two films have in common. There is just nothing new in them...nothing to really push the limits of animation and what kind of story can be told in the medium

Which is why I thoroughly geeked out when, among the previews on the Princess and the Frog DVD is a trailer for a forthcoming, all-new, super-special edition of The Black Cauldron, one of Disney's most notable efforts to push the limits.

My jaw dropped when the trailer promised that this new special edition would boast deleted scenes. The Black Cauldron is the one Disney animated film with the most infamous deleted scenes. See, at the film's climax, the evil Horned King unleashes his army of "Cauldron Born," essentially a zombie army. In a demonstration of this power, the Cauldron Born kills a few members of the Horned King's army, and these dead members instantly spring back to life as Cauldron Born. The infamous deleted scene concerns the rapid decomposition of these dead soldiers, as they turn into Cauldron Born. The scene was sloppily edited out of the film...you can hear the jumps in the music and everything.

Disney already released The Black Cauldron as part of their "Gold Collection" of DVDs around 6 or 7 years ago. It's rare to find Disney DVDs in the discount bin...what, with their practice of the Disney Vault, DVDs tend to go out of print and off store shelves before they get to the discount bins. So when I saw the Gold Collection of The Black Cauldron in a discount bin a couple of years ago, I had to snatch it up. It was pretty good for just a Gold Collection...it even feature a gallery of Tim Burton's conceptual art.

Yes, Tim Burton got his start as an animator at Disney. Burton has gone on record many times as saying it was one of the least creatively-satisfying periods of his career. One of the final blows was when all of his conceptual art for The Black Cauldron was deemed unusable. It was just...too Tim Burton-y, and not Disney.

All the trailer for this special edition says is that it's coming in 2010. Most of my favourite DVD sites have no info yet, some are suggesting it's coming in June. I'll keep my eyes open.

And speaking of animated films that are different, I can't forget that Fantastic Mr. Fox comes out on DVD on Tuesday. I'm wondering if I should run out and buy it as soon as it comes out. I'm still very upset that I missed it in the theatre, especially if it's as good as everyone says it is. If it is that good, I'll probably wind up owning it anyway.

Still want to see 9, too. Rent them first? I don't know. So many busy weekends coming up, not enough time to rent movies....

Latest Targ's Up! Latest Movie Review is Up!

It's time for a new episode of U62: The Targ!

Here we go with Episode 3.24: The Sweet Stuff. I take another look in "The File," which contains the stuff to racy for my day job. I also play some recently uncovered Weird Al, and talk about an upcoming remake.

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Oh, and I went to see Alice in Wonderland the other day!

You can read my review here.

Free Movies!

Nothing like going to see a movie, and then getting a free movie out of the deal!

So I head into the city today to finally see Alice in Wonderland, cuz I'm a big Tim Burton fanboy and all that. I get to the theatre, I'm all nestled in my seat, I'm enjoying the coming attractions, and then I see the Warner Brothers logo. "That's weird. I thought Alice in Wonderland was Disney," I think to myself.

And then the opening credits to Cop Out start to roll.

The first thought that goes through my mind, "Aw, crap, I'm in the wrong theatre." I mean, in all these multiplexes with three dozen screens and all that, it was bound to happen eventually, right? I get all turned around and walk into the wrong theatre. So, fearing that I might miss the beginning of Alice in Wonderland, I grab my coat and bolt for the door.

I get out of the theatre, I look at the sign above the theatre, and I see that I wandered into the theatre that was showing...Alice in Wonderland. What's going on here?

Some kids who bolted out ahead of me were talking to the usher, and they came to the proper conclusion before I did. "Hey, mister," they said to the usher. "Alice in Wonderland isn't playing in that theatre, Cop Out is!"

By now, people are coming out of the theatre in droves. The usher waved over the manager, the manager saw the situation for herself, got on her walkie-talkie and asked the projectionist what the heck was going on. At this point, with the proper authority figures on the scene, I returned to my seat. The manager relayed the situation to the crowd. "Sorry, folks, we showed Cop Out in this theatre last night and we forgot to change the film in the projector. Alice in Wonderland will be staring in 15 minutes. You'll all get a pass for a free movie at the end of the show. Thank you for your patience."

Sure enough, Alice in Wonderland started in 15 minutes, and at the end, I got a coupon for a free movie! So, yay, for that projectionist being asleep at the switch!

As for the movie...meh. They took all the familiar Alice in Wonderland characters and made them fill roles in your familiar fantasy epic kind of plot. It was all so...familiar. It felt like Tim Burton did it for the paycheck.

Full review on the website tomorrow!

Animation Bits and Bites

A few bits of animated movie news came across my desk today that I feel i need to share.

First up, we've got our first trailer for Megamind:





I've blogged about this one quite a bit. I'm drawn to it for two reasons:

1) Superheroes in animation. I love them and I want to see more of them.

2) Written and produced by Ben Stiller. Stiller's usually pretty solid when he's behind the camera.

Anyway, November is when it hits theatres, and it might be the first DreamWorks movie I actually go to the theatre and see since Shrek 2.

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Next up, we've got another train pulling into the remake station. One of my favourite directors, Tim Burton, is apparently sniffing around, and exploring the possibility of doing a new movie version of The Addams Family.

Burton hopes to do it with stop-motion animation, in the same vein as his other hits The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. Burton already has another stop-motion animated film in production, a feature-length version of his 1984 live-action short film Frankenweenie. It's due out in 2011.

The only thing is, with Burton doing The Addams Family, you just know Johnny Depp is going to be Gomez and Helena Bonham Carter is going to be Morticia.

A Smurfy Recap

So, if you're my friend on Facebook or if you follow me on Twitter, you know that for the past week or so, I've been throwing up updates on the currently-in-development live-action movie version of The Smurfs.





The film is being produced by Columbia Pictures, and it's going to be the same kind of blend of live-action and animation that we saw in Garfield and Alvin and the Chipmunks. The director is Raja Gosnell, who brought us the live-action Scooby-Doo movies and the recent Disney hit Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

First, let's get to the humans.

Neil Patrick Harris, still best remembered as Doogie Howser, and currently stealing the show on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, has been cast as the still unnamed "lead human." The official character description calls this lead human "an expectant father whose life is turned upside down when he enters the world of the Smurfs." The expectant mother will be played by Glee star Jayma Mays.

But the big announcement today was that Hank Azaria will be playing the Smurf's arch-enemy, the evil wizard Gargamel. Azaria, of course, is a well-known veteran comedic character actor, best known for the multitude of voices he does on The Simpsons. He's Moe, he's Comic Book Guy, he's Disco Stu, he's Apu, he's Chief Wiggum, the list is endless.



And now we get to the Smurfs. As is the way in Hollywood right now, lots of big celebrity voices are signing on. There are a few offbeat choices in here that I'm still wrapping my mind around.

First up, the legendary comedian Jonathon Winters will be voicing Papa Smurf. Interesting trivia note: Winters voiced Grandpa Smurf in the original, 1980s toon. (The original voice of Papa Smurf was a legendary voice actor named Don Messick, who passed away in the late-1990s.)

Next up, that geek favourite cult film director Quentin Tarantino is voicing the know-it-all, suck-up-to-Papa-Smurf, the bespectacled Brainy Smurf. I can see the scene now.... "Papa Smurf says that in France they call a Quarter Pounder a Royale with cheese, and Papa Smurf is always right, and Papa Smurf always says...." and then we get the classic scene of Brainy being punted from the Smurf village.

Well-known Mexican-American stand-up comic George Lopez will be voicing Grouchy Smurf.

Alan Cumming will be voicing the new, created-for-the-film Smurf Gutsy Smurf.

And the one choice that's still making me go "WTF," Katy Perry is voicing Smurfette.

That's right. This is Smurfette.





Sorry, Smurfette, no girls for you to kiss in the Smurf village!

They're going to do some location filming in New York's Central Park, which suggests that it takes place in the present day. Filming begins next month for a Summer 2011 release.