Latest Targ is Up!

Still getting back into the swing of things with the ol' podcast. Almost no episode this week because it turned out to be a busy weekend! But I still found 15 minutes in front of the recording equipment to get something on tape!

Episode 3.02: Snurkles goes off on a variety of geek topics, including World of Warcraft, Winnie the Pooh, and the Beatles! It's a pretty good one, if I do say so myself!


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The Worst of 2008

Let me let you in on a little secret. I hardly rent DVDs anymore. Mainly because I own so darn many, that I figure that rather than rent something, I'll just watch The Dark Knight again. But this evening, I finally made good on something I've been threatening to do, well, all this year.

There were two summer blockbuster that came out last year that I really wanted to see, but I didn't, mainly because the reviews were so horrible that I figured it wasn't worth driving into the city and dropping my $12 to see them. So tonight I rented them. And I just finished watching them.

First up, it was the long awaited return of Mulder and Scully, The X-Files: I Want to Believe. So, it's been 6 years since the end of the show...six years since Mulder and Scully last rode off into the sunset. Scully has gone back to her roots -- in both her training and her faith -- as she now works as an MD at a Catholic hospital. Mulder lives in her basement, in hiding, where he still investigates paranormal activity through the Internet and by clipping articles out of various newspapers. But when an FBI agent mysteriously disappears, the FBI reaches out to Mulder, offering to clear all the charges against him, and bring him in to consult. For you see, a pedophile priest is having psychic visions about this agent's abduction. Is the psychic genuine? Well, Mulder and Scully are the experts in such things, so they're in on the case!

Truth be told, I was kind of "meh" towards the whole thing. Maybe The X-Files is just one of those things I've outgrown. Maybe it's because the whole thing really didn't feel like a movie. I agree with one critic I read online who said that, 12 years ago, at the show's peak, it would have been a very good episode. It does feel like a very good episode...but not a movie.

One thing, though, I do feel like addressing. A friend recently tweeted that one of the problems he had with The X-Files all those years ago is he didn't believe that Scully would have been a skeptic for as long as she was. "All 9 seasons and both movies," my friend said. Well, the true fans will remember that Scully did become a full-on believer comes season 8 -- the season Mulder left. And the new character, John Dogget, became the new skeptic. And in this second movie, Scully is once again the skeptic. But this time, her skepticism is rooted in, "I have a normal life now! I don't want to go back to chasing monsters in the dark!"

So, yeah. Good but not great. I'm going to go all Dr. Hackborn on this and give it a 2 out of 4, even though I really want to give it 3.

The other one was Mike Myers' latest comedy, The Love Guru. I've been a fan of Myers comedy all the way back to Wayne's World, so I was hoping that Myers still had it.

Myers latest characters is the Guru Pitka, an American raised in India and now uses elements of Hindu spiritualism to be a self-help guru. The Guru Pitka is soon contacted by the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, played by Jessica Alba. It seems that the Leafs' star player has a marriage that's on the rocks, and it's starting to affect his performance on the ice. So, the Leafs' owners wants the Guru Pitka to get the star player to reconcile with his wife, so his game will return to normal, and the Leafs can win the Stanley Cup. Can Pitka save this marriage and finally wind up on Oprah?

Yeah, a lot of the humor is crude and tasteless (the climax involves elephants fornicating), and the plot is rather formulaic, but you know what? I laughed my ass off. And as many a wiser film critic has said, at the end of the day, the only way to judge a comedy is whether you find it funny or not. And I found it funny.

I give it 3 out of 4.

So, come back a year from now, when I rent and review "the worst of 2009," the films I wanted to see this year but the reviews scared me off. Just taking a quick look at things, that'll probably be Terminator Salvation and Land of the Lost.

And the next DC Animated movie is....

Yay! Today, Warner Brothers Animation and DC Comics announced what they're next direct-to-video animated movie is!

Well, the next one is Superman/Batman: Public Enemies which comes out in two weeks. I'm talking about the one after that one. And the next one is....

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.

This is a largely original story, drawing from the rich multiple Earths of DC's Silver Age. Although, some are already pointing out that it bears many similarities to Grant Morrison's graphic novel JLA: Earth Two, which re-imagined DC's "parallel Earth populated with evil twins" concept. You heard me right, evil twins.

Here's the plot. One day, the Justice League is approached by Lex Luthor. But this isn't our Lex Luthor...this is a heroic Lex Luthor from a parallel Earth. In this Luthor's world, all the heroes are the villains, and the villains are the heroes. Luthor has come to the Justice League's universe because he's been overpowered by the Crime Syndicate - the evil counterparts to the Justice League - and he needs help. So the Justice League teams up with this good Lex Luthor to defeat the Crime Syndicate! But all is not as easy as it seems, as Owlman - the evil counterpart to Batman - unleashes an evil plot that could mean the destruction of both Earths.

And they even announced the first batch of celebrity voices in the cast. We've got:

- Mark Harmon, currently kicking ass and taking names as Special Agent Gibbs on NCIS is voicing Superman.
- William Baldwin, one of the Baldwin brothers and a big-time heartthrob back in the early 1990s, is voicing Batman.
- Chris Noth, best known as Det. Mike Logan in the Law & Order franchise and Mr. Big in the Sex and the City franchise, voices the heroic Lex Luthor.
- Legendary actor James Woods is voicing Owlman.
- Gina Torres, still best remembered by nerds and Whedonites as Zoe on Firefly/Serenity, is voicing Superwoman, the evil counterpart to Wonder Woman.

It'll be hitting your favourite DVD emporium sometime in the spring.

But let's not forget about Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, coming out in two weeks!

It's looking really cool so far. It's based on the first storyline in the Superman/Batman comic book, written by Jeff Loeb and with art by Ed McGuiness. In fact, for the animation, they tried to adapt McGuiness's style. Anyway, the plot. A gigantic kryptonite meteor is heading towards the Earth, threatening to take out most of the planet's population, and President Lex Luthor decides to turn this negative into a positive. Luthor frames Superman and Batman for the whole thing, declares them public enemies #1, puts a $1 billion bounty on their heads, and starts making plans to conquer what little of the world remains. So, on the run from bounty-hunting supervillains and government-backed superheroes, Batman and Superman seek to clear their names and save the world from Luthor and the meteor.

What makes this notable is, once again, the voice cast. They reunited the big three voices from the Batman and Superman cartoons of the 1990s. Kevin Conroy is back voicing Batman, Tim Daly is back voicing Superman, and Clancy Brown is back voicing Lex Luthor.

Some of the new special guest voices in this film include John C. McGinly, still beloved as Dr. Cox on Scrubs as Metallo, Alison Mack, still beloved as Chloe on Smallville, as Power Girl, and Geordi LaForge himself, LeVar Burton, as Black Lightening.

As I said, two weeks!

Disney Odds and Ends

So, this past weekend, Disney held their first ever D23 event down in California. You know how George Lucas does his "Star Wars Celebration" official Star Wars conventions? Well, D23 is pretty much the same thing...it was the first official Disney convention. As such, a lot of news came out about upcoming Disney projects, and since a former co-worked once called me "Mr. Disney" because of my knowledge of all things House of Mouse, I figured I should comb through the news and highlight what I think are the highlights.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - They made it official at D23...a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film is on the way. Johnny Depp is back as Captain Jack Sparrow, Ted Eliot and Terry Rossio are once again writing the script, Jerry Bruckheimer is once again producing and...that's all that's been announced so far. Summer 2011 is when this'll be hitting theatres. But what got me excited is, as soon as their done making this, the entire creative team goes on to make....

The Lone Ranger - Always had a soft spot for the masked man when I was a kid. As I said, it's the same creative time as POTC. Bruckheimer producing, Eliot and Rossio writing, and Johnny Depp is NOT playing the Lone Ranger...Depp will be playing the Lone Ranger's faithful sidekick Tonto. The search is on for the Lone Ranger! Summer 2013 is when this comes out. But what will be filling the gap in 2012?

John Carter of Mars - Edgar Rice Burrough's other famous pulp fiction character comes to the big screen. (The first one, of course, is Tarzan.) John Carter is a soldier during the American civil war who passes out in a cave one day and wakes up on Mars. Mars -- or Barsoom, as the locals call it -- turns out to be a rich fantasy land with all kinds of dragons to slay and princesses to rescue. Oh, and because of Mars's weaker gravity, John Carter has super-strength. So, Barsoom is pretty much Eternia, John Carter is pretty much He-Man, and Mattel pretty much ripped off the whole thing for Masters of the Universe. But why I'm excited is this is going to be the live-action directorial debut of Andrew Stanton, the brilliant Pixar animator who wrote the Toy Story films and wrote and directed Finding Nemo and WALL-E. Summer 2012!

Toy Story 3 - Speaking of Pixar, there were a few more announcements on Pixar's blockbuster for next year. Newly added to the voice cast are Jeff Garlin, Bonnie Hunt, Whoopi Goldberg, and James Bond himself, Timothy Dalton. The only new character revealed was Mr. Pricklepants. Mr. Pricklepants is a lederhosen-wearing stuffed hedgehog that "one might buy as a souvenir from Europe." That's who Dalton is voicing. Summer next year.

Yellow Submarine - One of the most controversial announcements was that Disney is looking to do a remake of the classic Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine. Robert Zemeckis, who gave us the Back to the Future trilogy and Forrest Gump, looks to make this his next performance capture epic. Zemeckis, of course, has become the performance capture guru, having given us The Polar Express, Beowulf, and this Christmas's A Christmas Carol. Apple Corps, the company that manages all things Beatles, are officially on-board with the project. 2012 is when they want it in theatres.

The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made - Yup, Disney now owns the Muppets, and they announced that this is the title of the next Muppet movie. What raised eyebrows was that Jim Henson originally proposed a fourth Muppet movie back in 1985 that was called...The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made. The plot apparently had Gonzo as a film director, and his budget quickly got out of control. Frank Oz tried to resurrect the project in Y2K, to little success. This new one is being written by Jason Segel, the writer and star of the romantic comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Winnie the Pooh - So, Disney makes their triumphant return to traditional, 2D hand-drawn animation this Christmas with The Princess and the Frog. Their next traditional 2D animated film is going to be an all-new Winnie the Pooh movie. Head of Disney animation John Lasetter revealed what this new Pooh film will be about. Lasetter said that they decided to go back to the source. They poured through all the original A.A. Milne stories and found 5 Pooh stories that have yet to be adapted to another medium. So they took those five stories and wove them together into a singular plot. Christmas 2011.

Star Tours II - Lucasfilm was on hand to make this announcement! Ever since Episode I hit theatres 10 years ago, it's been rumored that Lucasfilm and Disney would be overhauling and/or updating their ever-popular Star Tours ride at Disneyland. And they finally made it official. The new Star Tours will be done with cutting edge computer animation, be in 3D, and incorporate many of the new planets we saw in the prequels. The original Star Tours will be closing next year, and the all-new Star Tours II opens up at Disneyland theme parks in 2011.

Disney's Double Dare You - This is an interesting project. Disney has teamed up with Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy director Guillermo Del Toro to create this new production arm at Disney, dedicated to creating spooky tales to provide thrills and chills for all ages. Del Toro will have a hand in everything that this label produces. Their first project is a film called Trollhunters, which will be written and produced by Del Toro.

The Bear and the Bow - And I do feel I have to mention this one, because Pixar was making a big deal about it. This Pixar animated film is due out Christmas 2011. Now, Pixar is regarded as the best computer animation studio working today, however, they are starting to get a lot of flak for the fact that they have yet to make a film with a female protagonist. The Bear and the Bow will be their first film where the main character is a heroine. Set in medieval Scotland, The Bear and the Bow follows the adventures of Princess Merida, who decides to renounce her title and become an archer. Sadly, though, this decision has dire consequences for her family, and she's soon on a quest to restore her parents to the throne. This is also Pixar's first film directed by a woman. Director Brenda Chapman who was a writer and storyboard artist on Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Chicken Run and Cars.

There was lots more news, but as I said, those were my highlights.

The Targ is Back!

Hey! There's been no episode of U62: The Targ for the past three weeks. Why? Because I've been on vacation, that's why! And it's time to tell you all about it!

It was also time to add another click to the old odometer and start re-numbering them. So, may I present Episode 3.01: Back from Vacation, in which I tell you all about my vacation!


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A Hard Day's Basterds

I do so love spending a day in the city. Especially days like today, where I have my goals in place, but they're spread out enough so I can accomplish several side quests.

First and foremost was to finally see Inglourious Basterds. Quentin Tarintino's latest opus has been in theatres for almost a month now, but because I was off on vacation and far from theatres, I didn't have a chance to see it until now.

What can I say about Inglourious Basterds? It's awesome. It's fantastic. It's thrilling. It's got Tarintino's trademark over-the-top with everything. However, there were enough scenes that made me go "Meh," so I'm not ranking it as highly as Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill. I give it 3/4 nibs. Full review coming in the days ahead.

I also had to succumb to the hype and pick up one of the Beatles' remastered albums. I just had to pick up A Hard Day's Night. People usually get a charge out of hearing me tell the joke about how, during my time in Japan, I used to close the karaoke bars...and in Japan, that's really difficult to do seeing as to how karaoke bars are open 24/7. But the detail that I usually leave out is that it was songs off A Hard Day's Night that I would belt out. That's how I really discovered the music of the Beatles...a little Hard Day's Night, some Can't Buy Me Love...I found that all of their early stuff was the easiest and most fun to sing.

Plus, as is well-documented, the album doubles as the soundtrack to the film of the same name. I have the DVD of the film...it really is a great film. Very funny, and of course, fabulous music.

But yeah...no DVDs on this trip to the city. We're at a point right now where there's not much in the way of blockbusters that I want to pick up. All the summer blockbusters are going to start coming out on DVD next month, in anticipation of the Christmas shopping rush. And I usually have a list of discount bin stuff that I snatch up, should we be in a blockbuster lull, but the discount bins at my usual haunts seemed strangely empty. But that's OK. Because today, my usual DVD budget was earmarked for another purpose.

I bought a bookshelf!

See, it's like this. I have my extensive DVD collection, and I keep most of it in a bookshelf. It's one of those cheap, particleboard, assemble-yourself bookshelves that you can get for around $50 at most department stores. At around this time last year, the bookshelf became officially full. And ever since, I've been keeping my DVDs in neat little piles all around my apartment.

So today, I bought a second bookshelf. It's another cheap, particleboard, assemble-yourself bookshelf that you can get for around $50 at most department stores. Getting it home, though, required some engineering. As I looked at the box, I started fearing that the bookshelf would be too big to fit into my car. So, I ran over to the hardware department, bought a cheap tape measure for $2, and then ran out to the parking lot to measure up my car and make sure it would fit. Once I had the numbers, and with some clever arranging, I figured that yes, it would fit. And lo and behold, it did!

It's now lying on my apartment floor. Assembling it will be my lazy Sunday project.

The Latest on Weird Al

Alright, I've been away from a computer for two weeks, so let's get to it. A lot happened in the world of "Weird Al" Yankovic while I was gone.

First up, the fifth and final song from his Internet Leaks project was released. It's a cute little ditty about a problem of the modern age, called Ringtone.



I like this one. This is some old-school Weird Al, from the guitar solo to the arrangements. This would be right at home on UHF, despite the timely subject matter.

And that's not all!

While I was gone, Weird Al announced the release date of his next album! Sad news, it's not a new album. It's going to the long-awaited Greatest Hits vol. 3. It's called The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic and drops on Oct. 27.

Thing is, this is a 2-disc CD with 38 SONGS on it! In the past, Weird Al could only fit 12 songs onto a greatest hits album. As he explained it once on his website, he still has to pay royalties to the original artists for his parodies. And when he did greatest hits albums in the past, he'd eventually reach a point where royalties paid out to the artists became more than the royalties he'd get, and thus the album become unprofitable. But, his new record label figured out a way around that, hence the massive number of songs.

Anyway, here's the official announcement on Weird Al's blog, where you can see the album artwork and the complete track listing.

Latest Targ's Up!

Here we go once again. It's a new episode of U62: The Targ! This week, we're hitting you with Episode 2.43: New Ones, where I pick apart the new works of "Weird Al" Yankovic and Hayao Miyazaki.


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Ponyo and GI Joe: Off the Cuff

Had me a wonderful day in the city! I did something I don't do very often anymore...I did a double feature day. You know, that's when you see two movies in one day. I don't do it very often anymore because, damn, dude, movies are expensive now! When I was frequently doing double feature days around 10 years ago, I'd go to half-price matinees, and it'd pretty much work out to be 2 for 1. But now...it's just too expensive! But still, it's fun to do every one in a while.

First up was one I've been blogging about for quite some time now, the latest from world renowned Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, Ponyo.



Miyazaki's films truly work in transporting you to another world. You just accept this world where a goldfish with a human face can become a little girl. The traditional, hand-drawn animation is wonderous to look at. And that music! Composer Joe Hisashi kicks all kinds of ass. This is definitly lighter fare than what Miyazaki's been putting out recently (ie Spirited Away). This really feels a lot like My Neighbor Totoro. And there ain't nothing wrong with that!

If I have one complaint...it'd have to be with Lisa, the character of Sosuke's mother. Now, Miyazaki is renowned for putting strong female characters in his films. And Lisa looks to be about the same...except for one scene.

SPOILER WARNING!

So, Sosuke's father/Lisa's husband is a ship captain. He decides to take another job and thus be away from home for longer than expected. Naturally, Lisa is upset. But Miyazaki has her throw a very childish tantrum and then sulk like a 7 year old. Seemed kind of out of place.

END SPOILERS!

Other than that, it truly is a magical film so go see it! 3.5 nibs.

And then, we went across the theatre to see G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.



Wow, what a world we live in! Two live action Transformers films, a live-action G.I. Joe...bring on He-Man!

What can I say about The Rise of Corbra? It definitly draws more from the classic cartoons than the classic comic books...there's a stronger focus on the action than the character development.

It's formulaic as hell, they made some deviations from the source material, but you know what? Enough of what I enjoyed as a kids was retained, and that made me happy...kind of like the first Transformers.

3 nibs!

Now let's hope they learned from Transformers example and don't fuck up the sequel.

Astro Boy Trailer

Another of my childhood heroes is coming to the big screen! Hitting theatres this October, it's the all-new feature film version of Astro Boy!



The vital stats: this is the second film from animation studio Imagi. Their first film was 2007's computer animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The director is David Bowers, a long time Dreamworks and Aardman storyboard artist who made his directorial debut a few years back with Aardman's Flushed Away.

We've known for a while now who the celebrity voice cast is, but only recently was it revealed who all their voicing. Previously, the only celebrity voice and who they're playing that we knew was Freddie Highmore as Astro. Highmore is probably still best remembered as Charlie in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Astro's creator, the distraught scientist Dr. Tenma, who creates Astro in the image of his deceased son, is voice by noneother than Oscar winning actor, well-known comic book nut, and all around crazy guy, Nicholas Cage.

As we trace through Astro's origin, of which this film largely tells, we know that Tenma soon regrets what he did, and sells Astro to an abusive ringmaster, Hamegg, who makes Astro the star attraction in his circus. Hamegg is voiced by Nathan Lane, still best loved by a generation as the voice of Timone in The Lion King.

Astro is soon rescued from the circus by Tenma's old colleague Dr. Elefun, who recognizes Astro and knows that his potential is being wasted. Elefun is being voiced by Bill Nighy, who's still probably best known in North America for playing Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Elefun soon encourages that Astro go to a regular school with regular kids, where he meets Cora. Cora is voiced by Kristen Bell, still beloved by geeks the world over as Veronica Mars.

In addition to the origin, they also drew a bit from the "Peacemaker" storyline from the original manga. President Stone (voiced by Donald Sutherland) sees Astro's obvious military potential, and when Astro refuses to become a WMD, the President unleases the Peacemaker robot to bring in Astro.

And there's a couple of celebrity cameos revealed at the San Diego Comic Con a few weeks ago that are worth noting. Samuel L. Jackson voices Zog, that robot that Astro brings to life in the trailer up there. And Charlize Theron reads the opening narration.

What am I thinking? Well, I'm cautiously optimistic, because I liked the CGI Ninja Turtles. However, there's a lot of gags in that trailer, like with the robot going "Is this thing on?" and the dog driving the car and all that. I understand the need for comic relief, but that trailer leaves me thinking they may have made the film a little too goofy.

We'll find out on October 26 if it really is goofy, or if they decided to cram all the comedy into the trailer to make it look goofy.

Lost in Translation

OK, if you've been reading this blog all summer, then you know I'm kind of looking forward to seeing Ponyo when it hits theatres this Friday.

Most of Hayao Miyazaki's films have become known for their catchy theme songs. The theme from My Neighbor Totoro is still hummed quite a bit. And the theme song for Ponyo was likened to the Totoro theme, and was quite a big hit in Japan. Here it is:



While it is cute and catchy, it's not quite radio friendly, Billboard Hot 100 material here in North America.

Well, like Miyazaki's last batch of films, it's being dubbed by Disney. And Disney's gotten very good at making the bubblegum pop these days, what the prevalance of the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus on radio these days. And hey! Disney got Frankie Joanas (little brother for the Jonas Brothers, and frequently joins his big brothers on stage as the "Bonus Jonas") and Noah Cyrus (little sister of Miley) to do voices in the American dub. So let's have them cover the Ponyo theme. Sounds good on paper.

But the resulting version is AutoTuned to death and will make your ears bleed. They threw in every cliche of modern pop. Oh my God. It's like some incestuous child of the MiniPops.

Fencing off the Hoodoos

First up folks, sorry there's no podcast this week. I was down in Red Deer for my brother's wedding! We'll be back next week.

And now, I story I saw in today's paper that I want to share. Let's head further south to Drumheller.



Word from Drumheller today that they're going to fence off the Hoodoos.

Being one of Drumheller's best known landmarks, for the past five years, Drumheller's best known museum, the Royal Tyrell Museum, has been co-sponsoring folks to look after the Hoodoos for the past five years. And the results are no good. All the tourists walking around them, climbing on them, and carving their initials into them have significantly accelerated their erosion. So, since the "please keep of the hoodoos" signs are no longer effective, they have no choice but to fence them off.

The plan is to take tenders for the fencing-off project this fall, build the fences over the winter, and have it ready for next year's tourist season. They want a set-up where you can get nice and close to them on a boardwalk, and fences on the hill behind so no one can jump down on top of them.

Here's the whole story.

Weird Al's Latest: CNR!

Alright, the summer of "Weird Al" Yankvoic continues! His new song was released today. It's a loving homage to both The White Stripes and Charles Nelson Reilly entitled CNR:



I really like this one. The sad thing is, though, you don't get the joke until someone clues you in that Charles Nelson Reilly was a flamboyant effeminate television personality and actor back in the 1970s. I'm already seeing the comments, "Who the heck is Charles Nelson Reilly?"

But once you get it, it's funny as hell.

New Ponyo Trailer!

Hey! A new trailer for Ponyo went online last week!



I've already blogged about it quite a bit.... Ponyo is the latest work from Hayao Miyazaki, the Oscar-winning director of such animated fare as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke. His movies are awesome and you should watch them all...like I did last year.

It finally comes out here in North America on August 14. I managed to catch his last film, Howl's Moving Castle in the theatres, and dude, Miyazaki's animation is made to be seen on a big screen, so go see it when it hits your town. They say it's opening on 800 screens...the biggest opening ever in North America for a Miyazaki film. I just hope that one of those 800 screens will be in Edmonton so I can go see it opening weekend.

Now, I know there are some anime purists out there who are like, "NO! I refuse to see it in the theatre! Because in the theatre, it will be dubbed. Only subtitled anime is the proper way to watch anime!"

Yes the whole "dubbed vs. subbed" debate is one that has torn anime conventions asunder. It seemed to have been rendered moot with the advent of DVD, where you can switch between the two with a push of a button. But it rears its ugly head now and then when you get a major theatrical release like this.

So, in this case, let's talk to the director himself, Hayao Miyazaki. Several years ago, in an interview, he was asked if he prefers that English-speaking people watched the dubbed or subtitled versions. His answer? He wants you to watch the dubbed versions. His logic is he wants your eyes to be on the animation, not on the subtitles on the bottom of the screen.

So, there you go! You have the director's blessing to watch the dubbed version. So everyone head out on August 14 to see Ponyo!

Latest Targ's Up! Latest Movie Review Up!

Doing lots of catching-up on the website on this long weekend. First up, hey! I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince a week ago. I finally review it!

Read the review here.

And now, the regular Sunday business....





Yup, another week, another episode of U62: The Targ! Still trying out my endless rant format. In Episode 2.42: He Fights for the Users the rants include gourmet coffee in fast food places, the first look at Disney's Tron Legacy, and DVD extended editions!


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Green Lantern: First Flight Review

Alrighty, I was just in the city last week. I rarely run into the city on the weekend two weekends in a row, mainly because it gets costly. But, it was a long weekend, and I felt like going a little nuts. Besides, there was a DVD out that I really, really, really wanted to get. As longtime readers of the blog know, I've been collecting and enjoying all of the Warner Brothers/DC Comics straight-to-DVD animated films. I knew I had to get their latest one. I just finished watching it. So sit back, as I review....

Green Lantern: First Flight

Directed by Lauren Montgomery

Starring the voices of Christopher Meloni, Victor Garber, Tricia Helfer, Michael Madsen, John Larroquette, Kurtwood Smith, William Schallert, Larry Drake, Malachi Throne, Rob Paulson and Kath Soucie.

Backstory: Well, like most average joes, my favourite character in the DC pantheon has always been Batman. But I've always had a soft spot for Green Lantern, going back to when I was 8 years old and my brother gave me a Green Lantern Super Powers action figure for Christmas. I also thoroughly loved the last DTV animated film, Wonder Woman, and when I saw that most of the same team that did Wonder Woman was working on Green Lantern, I was ecstatic. But would this one live up to the hype I was placing on it?

Plot: Test pilot Hal Jordan is summoned to the dying alien Abin Sur. Sur is a Green Lantern, and on his deathbed, his power ring chose Jordan to be his successor. Now a Green Lantern, Jordan is promptly taken to the Lantern's home base, the planet Oa, where the debate begins as to whether Jordan is truly worthy. The Green Lantern known as Sinestro volunteers to take Jordan under his wing. Jordan goes along with it, but soon grows disillusioned with Sinestro's brutal tactics. As Jordan begins to investigate into Abin Sur's death, it appears that there's a traitor within the Green Lantern Corps. Who could it be?

What I Liked: The film opens with a very anime-influenced transformation sequence when Hal Jordan dons the ring for the first time. We journey to strange new worlds, we see all kinds of aliens, and Sinestro really gets brutal for an animated film. Way to earn that PG-13 rating! And, the voice acting is really top-notch.

What I Didn't Like: There's so much action that it's a detriment to character development, as we barely get a chance to get to know anyone.

Final Assesment: Thoroughly satisfying, but Wonder Woman is still the best one.

3 Nibs

Bonus Features: For bonus features on the DVD, you get previews for the last three DTV animated films, a sneak peak at the next one (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies), a featurette about the epic Green Lantern storyline The Blackest Night, playing out in the comics right now, a featurette on the history of Green Lantern, two episodes of Justice League focusing on Green Lantern, and an episode of Duck Dodgers spoofing Green Lantern.

Fantastic Mr. Fox Trailer

I'll never forget 2005, when two stop-motion animated films, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit came out at the same time. One of the animators was asked what he thought of two stop-motion animated films coming out at the same time, and his answer was, "At the very least, I hope it means we're keeping [stop motion animation] alive as a folk art."

And 2009 is getting notable in that in this year, we are getting two stop-motion animated films. The first one was Coraline, which came out at the start of the year. And now, at the end of the year, we're getting Fantastic Mr. Fox, based on the class Roald Dahl book of the same name.



What really makes this one special is that it's the first animated film directed by Wes Anderson, the indie film auteur who gave the world The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and, most recently, The Darjeeling Limited.

Anderson began work on the film back in 2004. The original plan was for Anderson to be the director, with Henry Selick serving as animation director...that is, the director who is actually hands-on involved with the animation. (Anderson and Selick had previously collaborated on The Life Aquatic, where Selick and his team of animators provided all the stop-motion animated sea creatures.) But then, the studio that was originally making the film ran into problems, and Selick left the project to go direct Coraline. So, Anderson decided to direct the whole thing himself.

I haven't been able to dig up much on the actual production yet...I have heard that Anderson decided to record all the voice actors in natural settings. For example, if the characters are walking down a dirt road, Anderson actually got the actors to walk down a dirt road and recorded them reading the lines to each other. It was probably hell on the sound designers....

And the animation really does look...lower budget than Coraline. It looks kind of like one of those 15-minute long British children's shows.

This could be quite an interesting little film.

November.

Toy Story & Toy Story 2 3D Trailer

This is something interesting that I thought I'd share. It's the trailer for the 3D special editions of Toy Story & Toy Story 2!



See, with Toy Story 3 being Pixar's blockbuster of next year, they decided to re-release the first two films to theatres as part of the hype. And since every animated movie is in 3D these days, they decided to re-master them into 3D.

The original plan was to release the 3D Toy Story in October, the 3D Toy Story 2 in March, and then Toy Story 3 in June. But some where along the way, they decided to mix things up. Now, this October, we're getting a double feature of the first two Toy Stories, with the new trailer for #3 premiering between them. You know, it's like Grindhouse for 10-year-olds.

And what is Disney now releasing in March to fill the void left by Toy Story 2? A 3D edition of Beauty and the Beast.

Ya know, the Toy Stories are the only Pixar films I've never seen in the theatre...I'm actually looking forward to this.

Latest Targ's Up!

Some weeks, I can hardly wait before I sit down and record an episode of U62: The Targ. Others, I sit at the computer, wracking my brain for hours trying to come up with something worth saying. This week is definitley one of the latter.

Episode 2.41: Cat Days of Summer chronicles my experiences with Photoshop, I continue debating cellphone vs. BlackBerry, and I update you on my summer reading project.


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"His name is Tron. He fights for the users."

Ah, at long last! This hit the San Diego Comic Con a year ago. This year, it was remastered in 3D and shown again, at a panel discussion on the making of this here film. Ladies and gentlemen, the long awaited sequel to Tron, entitled Tron Legacy.



My memory gets fuzzy going that far back, but Tron may very well be the first movie I ever saw. I was in the second grade. My school principal, Mr. Stelter, had this tradition where, once a year, he'd call an assembly, and in this assembly, we'd watch his favourite movie, The Apple Dumpling Gang. I forget why I missed that assembly in the first grade, but I was looking forward to it in the second grade. So when the day came, and the assembly was called, Mr. Stelter announced that he wasn't able to get The Apple Dumpling Gang that year, so instead, we'd be watching another Disney movie, Tron.

And it was good. For the rest of that summer, my BMX was a light cycle and frisbees were those Tron discs.

Rumors of some form of Tron sequel or remake have been circulating ever since I discovered the Internet and started using it to track down movie news. The earliest one had to be 1998 or so, when it was rumored that Pixar -- yes, the makers of Toy Story and Wall-E and this summer's smash hit Up -- would be doing a 100% computer animated remake of Tron. That story turned out to be 100% bullplop.

Disney finally got around to releasing a 2-disc super-special edition DVD in 2002, in time for the film's 20th anniversary. The disc featured extensive interviews with the writer/director/creator of Tron, Steven Lisberger, and Lisberger showed off some concept art for a project dubbed Tron 2.0. The DVD even had a teaser for something called Tron: Killer App. Would this be our long awaited Tron sequel?

Well, Tron 2.0 and Tron: Killer App turned out to be the PC game Tron 2.0. Positive reviews, but sluggish sales of the game kind of made Disney lose interest in pursuing a theatrical film.

A few rumors popped over the years. Around 2006 or so, the announcement was that Disney was pursuing a remake, done to be more contemporary and work in more contemporary computer concepts like the Internet. And then it just kind of faded away....

Until last year. Disney showed that above footage at the San Diego Comic Con last year as a special bonus at the end of their panel, and all hell broke loose. The Internet went ablaze with news that a Tron sequel was on the way.

Yeah, that above footage isn't a trailer, exactly. It's a test reel...a proof-of-concept...a thingie done by the filmmakers to show what a contemporary Tron would look like. It was directed by a veteran commercial director named Joseph Kosinski, who immediately announced as the director of this new Tron film. Jeff Bridges, star of the original Tron, was convinced to come back and reprise his character of Kevin Flynn, an ace computer program who gets sucked into a computer, has to do battle with a villainous A.I., and finds an ally in a computer program named Tron.

The sequel began filming in Vancouver back in April. In addition to Bridges coming back as Flynn, Bruce Boxleitner is back as Tron, and Tron's real-world counterpart, computer programmer Alan Bradley. New characters include Garret Hedlund as Flynn's son Sean, John Hurt as the new villain, and Olivia Wilde as a new program who helps our heroes.

As already mentioned, it's being directed by Joseph Kosinski. Steven Lisberger, the creator of the entire Tron universe, is on-board as a producer. Electronica artists Daft Punk are composing the music.

From what little I've gleamed, the plot is something like this. Based on his adventures in computer world, Kevin Flynn created some advancements in computers that made him a legend in the computer community. But then, he mysteriously disappeared in 1989. Now, 20 years later, Flynn's son Sean finds some new evidence as to what happened to his father. Sean embarks on a quest to find his father, that eventually leads him into the computer world....

It hits theatres next year. If it comes out late June/early July, I think I know what my birthday movie is going to be.