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jaylleoo14 · 7 months

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guys, hear me out

i just had the most BRAIN BOGGLING IDEA I JUST NEED TO SAHRE

Imagine:

You're set to marry Jade due to your families being able to benefit from the marriage, though you've only ever met Jade a couple of times during the meetings hosted regarding your pre-planned marriage. During that time of discussion in his manor one day you come across a single painting, looking at it you can see another person who looks just like Jade but with some differences. Upon staring so long Jade notices and comes up to approach you. You ask who this person is because you don't ever recall there being another son in the family and if that was him. Jade shakes his head, saying how it was his dead brother Floyd and the atmosphere around you get grim and you feel awkward now from the sudden drop. You ask how he died and Jade explains how he too was supposed to marry off, however was killed off in an unfortunate accident when his assigned bride tried to run off. Ever since then, what Jade had said about his brother sticked inside your head and you felt a gnawing feeling in your chest for having the knowledge of his deceased brother. One night you had a dream, a weird one. You and Jade were out in a creek, and from afar you can see that it was you, but you are also currently watching you and Jade from afar. Though upon closer look as they turn to face each other, something seems off. Jade looked, different. Something about him seemed different. You feel yourself going cold as you watch you and a different looking Jade hold hands, looking at each other. His smile slowly looked more eerie and disturbing, his sharp teeth shining under the moon light in full view. When suddenly, he turns his head at YOU, the you watching all this happen. You feel your heart drop, your eyes widen as you and him lock eyes. He pushes the you that you can see next to him aside and starts trudging forward and you feel yourself stuck in place, trying to get away. A low laugh escapes his mouth, but it doesnt sound like the Jade you knew.

"Ehhh~? Is this the shrimpy that's going to marry my brother? You're so tiny!"

He's mere inches in front of you now, his tall figure wrapped with ragged grooms clothing towering over you. Is this... Floyd? There's a red soaked bloodied line around his neck, its edges jagged and frayed of skin and you're frozen in fear.

"Hmm? Are ya scared?"

He leans forward, your faces lining up as you stare back at him with terrified wide eyes.

"Ah, Jade's lucky. His bride aint runnin away. Heard Jade was talking to you about me, it's rude to stare ya know hehe"

Okay but like, i might make this an actual story AHHHHHHHH><

A ghost groom Floyd trying to snatch you away from Jade! You're stuck in the horrors of the supernatural and an unwanted marriage, an eventful tragedy of who can take your hand and seal your fate. Hehehehehe who knows, perhaps Jade is actually head over heels for you and you never knew, but what about Floyd who you've piqued his interest? His last bride ran off and ended him, so he still needs a bride to put him at peace. GAHHHH the ideas are splurging ><

#jellorambles #twst #twisted wonderland #jade leech #floyd twst #Of course its going to be horror themed #ahhh yantweels #I MIGHT BE COMING ONTO SOMETHING #this is heavily based on tim burtons film #but its such a good concept!#i already have too many wips though ;;;#I have one of Trey #twst jade #floyd leech twst #floyd leech #jade leech twst #twst x reader

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severalpossiblemusiks · 19 days

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What are your top three favourite album covers?

Ooooo. I have to really think for this one.

Just from my own collection I can name like 12 really good ones. I’m struggling to think of criteria, cause I like both simple and complex album covers.

I think I have a too 3 plus an honourable mention or two.

Note: all album covers will be added at the bottom of the post cause I can’t seem to properly add them in the middle of text.

Honourable mentions:

Meat Loaf and the “Bat Out of Hell” trilogy of albums. They’re just amazingly pulp fantasy-esque it’s awesome.

Rush’s magnum opus “2112”. It’s so simple and stark it’s great.

Now for the real top 3:

3: Rainbow, “Rising” By pulp fantasy artist Ken Kelly, it’s so magnificently striking, with the giant fist clenching a five-coloured rainbow over a slightly eerie mountain range, it grabs your attention in almost every regard of the word.

2: Mike Oldfield, “Tubular Bells” By photographer and artist Trevor Key, some of his ideas were initially rejected by Oldfield, including one Oldfield would use on a later album. After spending hours on a beach trying to get the absolutely perfect shot of the waves, he then went to his studio to create the bent bell, inspired by Oldfield accidentally breaking the tubular bells he was using during recording. The photograph of the bent bell was then superimposed on the waves, and Oldfield liked it so much he requested his name and the album title be small and unassuming so the full image could be seen as the artwork it truly was.

1: Avantasia, “Moonglow” By Alexander Jansson, who was influenced by Tim Burton’s films, and based the cover heavily off of what Tobias Sammet told him about the rough concept and storyline of the album, which is an Entity lost in a new world, and struggling with acceptance and rejection, ultimately finding solace in the titular moonglow that is close to the darkness it is familiar with. This is one of my favourite albums and bands of all time, and I just cannot get over how serene and peaceful yet busy this album cover is.

And here are the album covers themselves to look at and enjoy:

#asks #answered asks #album covers #album art #meat loaf #rush band #rainbow band #mike oldfield #Avantasia

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twistedtummies2 · 2 years

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Top 6 Versions of Sleepy Hollow

Due to a mixture of recent events and the Halloween Season (I don’t know about you all, but it started almost a month ago for me), I’ve been on something of a kick lately for one of my favorite classic spooky stories: Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” For those who don’t know, the basic story goes like this: a schoolteacher named Ichabod Crane travels to a town in New York, called Sleepy Hollow (which is a real place, for the record), and has a series of adventures as he tries to woo a wealthy young lady - Katrina Van Tassel - and matches wits with his rival - the town prankster, Brom Bones. At the climax, Ichabod is attacked by a mysterious ghost known as the Headless Horseman. He ultimately vanishes without a trace, his fate left ambiguous.

I’ve loved this story ever since I was very small: I used to tell it to children in schools, and for me, no Halloween is complete without seeing at least one version of the tale on that date (along with Hocus Pocus, but that’s another story). Recently, I’ve been revisiting several versions, so I thought it would be fun - with October fast approaching - to share some of my personal favorite renditions. Now, I’m not talking about different editions of the book itself, with different illustrators and varying edits to the text. I’m talking adaptations for film, TV, theatre, and so on. So expect those sorts of things here. There’s not much else to say, so let’s get right into it: these are My Top 6 Favorite Versions of Sleepy Hollow!

6. Tarrytown.

This musical is actually the reason I wanted to make this a Top 6 to begin with, because I felt it would be a crime not to mention it here. Created by Adam Wachter, “Tarrytown” is a musical reimagining of the Sleepy Hollow story. There’s actually been a couple of attempts at creating a proper, full-blown musical based on Sleepy Hollow, but Wachter’s, in my opinion, is the most unique and intriguing. The plot of the musical essentially makes two big twists to the story: first of all, it takes place in the modern day, rather than the late 1700s. Second of all, instead of wanting the love of Katrina, Ichabod instead wants the love…of Brom Bones. Yes, Ichabod is a homosexual in this story. Brom and Katrina are already married, but their marriage has become an increasingly unhappy one. Ichabod, realizing this, and wanting Brom for himself, drives a wedge between them to try and force them apart for good. Brom - while ambiguous in his own sexuality - is ultimately still very much in love with Katrina. Brom wants to salvage the marriage, thus leading to the conflict that results in Ichabod’s fateful encounter with the Headless Horseman. Just like in the original book, none of the three main characters are really perfect people. None of them are purely awful, but they all have their own vices and faults. It’s a tantalizing modern reinterpretation. Unfortunately, I’ve never actually SEEN this musical, which is why it ranks so low: all I have to judge are a plotline written up on the show’s official webpage, and the recent Studio Cast Recording. The Cast Recording stars Andy Mientus as Ichabod, Krysta Rodriguez as Katrina, and Jeremy Jordan as Brom: all three are brilliant performers I absolutely adore, and they each play their parts perfectly. If nothing else, listen to that soundtrack: it’s more than worth it.

5. The FOX TV Series.

I only recently got back to revisiting this series, and while it’s not perfect, I actually do find I like it more in returning to it than I probably did when I first checked it out. Heavily influenced by the Tim Burton film version (more on that later), the FOX TV series “Sleepy Hollow” is a supernatural crime drama, similar to shows like “Lucifer” or “Supernatural.” In this version, Ichabod Crane is not a selfish schoolteacher, but a dashing Revolutionary War hero. After a battle with a monstrous soldier - who becomes the Headless Horseman - Ichabod is seemingly slain…but his wife, Katrina - a witch - casts a spell that causes him to reawaken in the modern day. Working as a consultant to the local police department, Ichabod tackles strange crime in the area, battling wicked witches, warmongering demons…and, of course, the Headless Horseman. While the show and its interpretations of the main characters from the story only bear the slightest of resemblances to Irving’s classic legend, I love the actors and the different story arcs the characters have. Tom Mison as Ichabod, himself, is particularly impressive. His physical appearance manages to both call the character of the book to mind while matching the basic vision of a charming war hero, and while his character is very different from the character in the story, he does bring a sort of energy to it that reminds one of the spindly schoolmaster’s many quirks in other adaptations, all while still having his own unique handle on the part. Altogether, the show is a crazy ride, but it’s one I’m happy to take.

4. The Hallmark Production.

Once upon a time, this version actually ranked more highly for me, but over time, I’ve seen more and more of its flaws. Having said that, it’s still an extremely worthy adaptation. Released in 1999, no doubt capitalizing on the hype around Tim Burton’s movie that same year (again, more on that later), this TV film production is basically just a straightforward adaptation of the original story, stretched out to fit a feature length. It doesn’t really change much from the original tale, unlike a lot of other “long” versions of the story, but simply expands on different things brought up in the book to create its plot. Like I said, this one DOES have some issues: the pace drags in a couple of places (though not especially badly; trust me, I’ve seen far worse), and it’s not really all that scary when the dark stuff comes up (partially due to the fact the Horseman is deliberately imagined as a more benign specter than in almost any other version), but it’s still got a great sense of atmosphere and some fine performances. Once again, chief among them is our Ichabod: the character is played by Broadway actor Brent Carver. In my opinion, Carver is the definitive Ichabod Crane: when I think of Ichabod, it’s Carver’s version I think of above all else. Out of the six renditions here, he simply looks, sounds, and all around FEELS the closest to how I, personally, imagined Ichabod Crane when reading the story. Carver almost singlehandedly makes this version as good as it is, and more than worthy of high placement.

3. Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow.

Once upon a time, I actually really, REALLY disliked this movie. Nowadays, I’ve softened up to it considerably: I now consider it an underappreciated masterpiece, the very definition of a cult classic. This is mostly because, back then, I didn’t really UNDERSTAND the film; nowadays, I do, and it has given me a whole new appreciation for what the movie wanted to accomplish. Arguably one of the most influential versions of the story, Tim Burton’s 1999 blockbuster is a drastic reimagining of the tale: in this movie, Ichabod Crane (played by Johnny Depp, because of course he is) is a detective, not a schoolmaster, who comes to Sleepy Hollow to solve a series of murders. At first, he believes they are the work of a mortal serial killer simply emulating the legendary Headless Horseman, but he ultimately comes to learn that the ghost is VERY real. With this in mind, Ichabod then changes course to try and determine why the spirit of the Horseman is committing these crimes, and thus uncovers a dark conspiracy at work in Sleepy Hollow. The movie is designed to be, in just about every respect, a Hammer Horror film. It is not simply an homage to those films, but in many ways, it feels EXACTLY like a Hammer Horror film made in the late 90s…just without Hammer’s brand name. Everything about this film - from the performances, to the aesthetic style, to the writing, and even to elements of Danny Elfman’s musical score - all feel precisely how I would imagine a Hammer version of Sleepy Hollow might have been like. And as I’ve come to adore Hammer Horror over the years, I appreciate the film more than I ever did before. I have also come to appreciate that, while the movie radically reinvents the legend, it also keep a lot of elements from the original story, and even references the Disney version, of all things, in a few places. It is a brilliant reinvention of a timeless classic, and deserves all the credit it gets, and possibly more. Ultimately, the only reason it isn’t higher is that I like the original story more. Plain and simple.

2. The Rabbit Ears Production.

This is quite possibly the most obscure entry on the list, but it deserves its upper-tier rank. Rabbit Ears was a company that produced a series of children’s books retelling various classic stories. The books alone were amazing, but this wasn’t the best part. Rabbit Ears also created a series of audio cassettes (yeah, remember those?) of professional readings of the stories featuring major celebrity actors. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL! The company ALSO provided DVD and VHS videos that essentially “animated” the illustrations of the books, with the professional readings as the soundtrack; these were sometimes aired on T.V., too. The animated shorts were low budget – basically just literal moving illustrations, as I said – but the series was extremely popular. Their version of Sleepy Hollow was nominated for several awards, including a Grammy, and actually won a couple! And by God, you can see why. What makes this version so wonderful, in every way, comes down to one word and one word only: ATMOSPHERE. This production is DRIPPING with atmosphere. More so than any other Rabbit Ear production, and, in fact, more than ANY version of Sleepy Hollow. That’s right, ANY version of Sleepy Hollow; even our number one spot can’t quite top it on the atmosphere spectrum! It is narrated beautifully by Glenn Close, whose voice lends a truly haunting and even mystical quality to the whole thing. Credit must also be given to Robert Van Nutt's illustrations. Even though the animation is minimalistic, the actual images are so breathtaking, and so drenched in the style of an old New England storybook, it lends even more weight to an already heavy work. And then there’s the music. Oh. God. The. MUSIC! Composed by Tim Story, this is frankly some of the most beautiful, breathtaking music I have EVER heard in connection to the tale. From LITERALLY THE FIRST FEW NOTES, it immediately grabs your attention, and immerses you in the haunting world of Sleepy Hollow. Quite simply, this is perhaps the most artistically beautiful take on the story out there. It seems to sort of be off-and-on YouTube, so if you’re lucky, you can find it for viewing there. Or you can purchase the DVD off Rabbit Ears’ website: your choice.

1. The Disney Version.

Alongside Tim Burton’s version of the tale, Disney’s take on Sleepy Hollow is probably the most well-known and influential. And to be honest, I’m more than okay with that. Narrated and with music performed by the immortal Bing Crosby, Disney’s version is essentially an animated pantomime of the original tale. What I love most about this version, as an adult, is how it handles the source material. You would expect Disney to change a lot of the story and characters, but surprisingly, this is one of the most book-accurate versions on the list. Most of Crosby’s narration is either directly quoted or paraphrased from Irving’s story, and the three main characters are not greatly changed from their original versions. No one of the three - Ichabod, Katrina, and Brom - is made out to be a pure-blooded hero, and no one of the three is made out to be a purely naty baddy. They’re all bad in their own ways, and good in their own ways. It’s kind of amazing to see Disney take such a sincere stab at things. At the same time, they do make the story more cinematic, injecting slapstick cartoon antics and creating a rip-roaring climax that might be one of the greatest finales to any Disney animated short of all time. The songs, though few in number, are all very fun and highly catchy: I still hum and whistle them to myself from time to time, regardless of the year. And, as you would expect, the animation is top notch. The short initially was released as part of the package feature “The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr. Toad,” where it was preceded by a short film version of “The Wind in the Willows,” narrated by Basil Rathbone. However, you can also find the short on its own, if you look around, or just skip to that part in the feature; it doesn’t affect much to do that. However you choose to watch it, it is a true masterpiece, just as classic as the story that spawned it. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is My Favorite Version of Sleepy Hollow.

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astrovian · 2 years

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Richard Armitage interview in Reader's Digest UK (due out January 2022) via. Twitter (14/12/21)

Part 1/2

Part 2 here

Full transcript for interview (both part 1 & 2) under cut

Richard Armitage on Hollywood, the Hobbit and Hard Work

From bursting onto the musical theatre stage, the prolific actor has gone on to star in Hollywood blockbusters and hit TV shows – all while being “shy”

He’s been in the Hobbit franchise, featured in the Marvel universe and has a string of acclaimed TV performances under his belt. But having got his start in musical theatre, Richard Armitage never envisioned a career beyond the stage.

“I wasn’t sure somebody like me had a place in film or television,” the now very much in-demand actor admits to thinking when he was growing up in Leicestershire. “I thought I might be able to do something on stage but I never dreamed about working on scree and it was only later in life when people started giving me chances that I thought, Maybe I can do this.”

I ask him what he means by “somebody like me” and Richard elaborates: “Somebody who’s a bit shy and not necessarily a showoff. I felt like you had to have this supreme confidence to be an actor in film and TV, but having met a lot more people in the business who are like me I’ve realised there are two kinds of actors – people who have big personalities and enjoy putting them on film, then other people who use character as a skin to hide in or escape to. I fall under the latter category and it’s provided me with the most incredible adventures.”

Those adventures includes playing an assassin in the huge-budget Captain America: The First Avenger, filming the Hobbit trilogy in New Zealand and being directed by Tim Burton in Alice Through the Looking Glass on the big screen, while also starring in Spooks, The Vicar of Dibley, Robin Hood and Hannibal on the small one. And when we catch up via. Zoom, 50-year-old Armitage is dialling in from Seville, where he’s currently filming crime drama The Man From Rome.

The subject at hand, though, is the new eight-part Netflix thriller Stay Close, which is based on the Harlan Coben book of the same name and centres around three people – working mum Megan (Cush Jumbo), former documentary photographer Ray (Richard) and detective Broome (James Nesbitt) – whose pasts come back to haunt them.

Having previously been in another Coben adaptation, last year’s The Stranger he was drawn to Stay Close because it meant being reunited with the same team. Plus, he saw Ray as a fascinating, dishevelled, heavily tattooed, and ultimately down-on his-luck character.

Richard’s hair is shorter and tidier when we chat and his arms aren’t covered in tattoos, but the actor says there is some common ground between him and Ray.

“There’s a slight solitude to him, although that’s through circumstance rather than choice, but I understand that side of him because I have a tendency to be a recluse or introvert. Ray also has quite an artistic brain and artistic mind, which I related to and enjoyed.”

Born in the village of Huncote, near Leicester, Armitage mastered the cello and played in local orchestras before studying drama and dance at Pattinson College boarding school, recalling: “It was quite strict but that served me well because it gave me discipline and it made me a very hard-worker.”

Having worked in Budapest for six months to gain his Equity Card (Equity is a UK trade union for actors), he then returned to the UK and did lots of musical theatre, appearing in the likes of 42nd Street, Annie Get Your Gun and Cats. “Then I started thinking about what the rest of my life might shape up to be and I didn’t want to just move around various musicals in the West End before ending up teaching somewhere – not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I felt there was something else in me, another facet to my personality that wasn’t being fulfilled. I felt I needed a career with more longevity.”

So he enrolled at LAMDA and after graduation worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company before slowly inching his way into television, eventually landing the role of John Thornton in BBC’s 2004 North & South (notably his first and so far only period drama).

Two years later he was Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood and also got to romance Dawn French in The Vicar of Dibley, saying: “That was like a little diamond in a field of coal. When they asked me, I was like ‘Really? Have they seen what I usually do? That’s not my bag’. But it was great fun and it was my first experience of a live studio audience, seeing the marriage of theatre and TV together and how brilliant Dawn was at bringing the audience in.”

After a regular gig as MI5 protégé Lucas North in Spooks he then found himself playing dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield under the direction of Peter Jackson. “I was obsessed with his Lord of the Rings films and wished I’d been in them. Then I managed to get in a room with him and by some bolt of lightning he decided I was right for the role. That was one of those life-changing moments where I had to pick myself up off the floor.”

Also in the Hobbit trilogy was Richard’s Stay Close co-star James Nesbitt. “So we reminisced a lot about being in New Zealand for nearly two years, having this extraordinary experience.” He laughs. “Most of my memories are about surviving the costume and make-up because it was so hot and heavy, Most of the time you were sitting in a chair wheezing and trying not to collapse.”

Stay Close was filmed in Manchester, Blackpool and the west of Lancashire. “And it was a really interesting period,” Armitage says of getting back to work after lockdown. “Productions had started up again and we came in at a time when COVID was feeling a little bit more controlled. The world was slowly opening up but we were still in this strict bubble, getting tested twice a week, with masks everywhere. That was an asset having worked with this crew before because meeting people from behind a mask is a bit of a challenge but it was like meeting up with old friends.”

He’s been labelled a method actor but he doesn’t really know what that means, although her does a lot of preparation for a role and writes character diaries to fill in their back-stories. “Maybe some people just learn the lines and turn up but when you’re given a role you start working and you have a plan. That’s my method, I suppose, to read as much as I can, find as many influences as I can and try to get the work done before shooting so when you’re on set your brain can be completely focused on the scene.”

When it comes to his private life, he keeps it very private indeed, not because he’s a guarded interviewee but because of actors like Gary Oldman noting: “The thing that’s great about actors like him is that you only really know them for their characters and you don’t know much about their lives. Likewise I don’t want my life to get in the way of the thing I’m trying to create. If people know less about me and more about the character then I’m doing my job well.”

Richard smiles. “A painter doesn’t paint a portrait, put it on the wall and stand in front of it. They get out of the way.”

#richard armitage #stay close #ray levine #interview

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tchalametgifs · 3 years

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Timothée Chalamet will play the world’s most famous chocolatier in “Wonka,” a musical based on the early life of Willy Wonka.

Though plot details are being kept under wraps, the Warner Bros. prequel film serves as an origin story of the man who later opened an elaborate house of confectionary treats. Reps for Chalamet confirm he will be singing and dancing in the movie.

Roald Dahl’s popular children’s book, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” follows a poor boy named Charlie Bucket, who wins a golden ticket to tour the world-famous and heavily guarded chocolate factory run by one Willy Wonka. Since the upcoming movie takes place before the chocolate factory opened, Charlie and company won’t be making an appearance in “Wonka.”

Gene Wilder memorably portrayed the candy man in the 1971 movie adaptation, and Johnny Depp later embodied the role in 2005 reboot directed by Tim Burton.

Paul King, known for “Paddington” and its sequel, is directing the Warner Bros. movie. David Heyman, a driving force behind “Harry Potter” and “Paddington” will produce “Wonka,” based on a script by Simon Rich.

The movie is scheduled to debut theatrically on March 17, 2023.

More to come…

Source: Variety

#timothée chalamet #update

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thenightling · 3 years

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Those things you associate with Halloween that ...actually weren’t created for Halloween...

You know how we associate certain movies, books, and songs with the Halloween season? It’s a major pet peeve of mine when people say things like “Halloween is over.” or “Wait until Halloween” for (insert thing here). But here’s the thing. We keep sweeping away a lot of our spooky, Gothic, and horror related content for the Halloween season and a lot of it wasn’t even created for Halloween to begin with. Here. Let me show you.

Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow - The story begins slightly before Halloween as when Ichabod arrives in Sleepy Hollow they are having an All Hallow’s Eve celebration. But the majority of the story is set in November and even concludes either on New Years Eve or New Years Day. “Just in time for a new century.” Also the film was released on November 17th, 1999. So no, not actually a Halloween movie.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (film) - Bram Stoker’s Dracula was released on November 13th 1992.

Interview with The vampire (film) - Interview with the vampire was released November 11th, 1994. I’ll point out right here that Bram Stoker’s Dracula film and Interview with the vampire’s movie were released the day after and day before my birthday. They have more to do with my birth than Halloween. :-P

Corpse Bride - Corpse Bride is distinctly set in the winter time. There is snow on the ground. The film was released on September 16th, 2005.

Dracula (1931 film) - Dracula starring Bela Lugosi was actually released on February 14th, 1931. It was a Valentine’s Day movie, technically. Happy Valentine’s Day! Here’s Count f--king Dracula.

Dracula (1979 film) - The version of Dracula starring Frank Langella was released July 13th 1979. Admittedly it was a Friday the 13th but it was not Halloween. The film is set in late Autumn, likely November.

Love at first bite (1979) was released April 13th, 1979. Yes, it was a Friday the 13th but it was not Halloween. Hmm... Two romantic Dracula films, each released on Friday the 13ths in 1979. I wonder if that was on purpose.

Frankenstein (1931 film) - the 1931 Frankenstein film was released on November 21st, 1931.

Frankenstein novel - The Frankenstein noel was written in the summer of 1818 and the Creature was brought to life in November, according to the novel’s own story.

Dracula novel - The Dracula novel was published on May 26th, 1897.

Dracula’s Guest - This is considered the “deleted” chapter of the novel Dracula and it is actually set on Walpurgisnacht, which is April 30th, exactly half-way toward Halloween.

Over The Garden Wall - This one bugs the Hell out of me. I see a LOT of people online saying “I wait all year for Halloween so I can watch Over The Garden Wall again.” Here’s the thing. Over the Garden Wall was originally released on November 3rd, 2014. The first episode starts around midnight the morning after Halloween. It’s November 1st. The majority of the story is set in November and implied to encompass Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yes, the boys’ adventure started on Halloween but that’s not even revealed until the second to last episode of the mini-series. There are plenty of Hallowe’en aesthetics to Over the Garden Wall but the visuals are based on vintage (turn of the century to early twentieth century) Hallowe’en, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Cards. The Beast’s song is even a twisted version of O’ Holy Night (a Christmas carol).

Just watch it whenever you want, especially if you happen to love autumn.

Ghostbusters (movie and song) - Ghostbusters was released June 1st, 1984. and yet we associate the song and movie so heavily with Halloween.

Ghostbusters 2 - Ghostbusters 2 was released June 16th 1989. And the story is set a day or two after Christmas and reaches it’s climax on New Years Eve.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife - Ghostbusters: Afterlife has a November 19th, 2021 release date.

Michael Jackson’s Thriller - The song Thriller was considered, for many years, to be one of the major songs of Halloween like Monster Mash or This is Halloween, however... It’s not actually a Halloween song. The song was released in November of 1983 and the music video was released in December 2nd 1983. It’s closer to being a zombie Christmas song than a Halloween song.

Monster Mash by Bobby “Boris” Picket - Monster Mash (long considered a staple of Halloween parties) was released August 25th, 1962. Yup, Monster Mash is a summer song.

Lost Boys (film) - Released July 31st, 1987.

Fright Night (1985 film) - Released August 2nd, 1985.

Castlevania - Season one of Castlevania premiered on Netflix on July 7th, 2017.

Dracula (1958) - Dracula (1958) also known as Horror of Dracula was released to cinemas May 8th, 1958. In fact almost none of the Hammer Dracula or Frankenstein movies had autumn releases.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein - The 1994 film called Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (not actually very faithful to the novel) was released November 4th, 1994.

The Wolf Man (1941) - The Wolf Man was first released December 9th, 1941. Where are my Werewolf Christmas decorations? I demand werewolf Christmas decorations!

The Sandman - Considered one of the greatest Gothic horror / Gothic fantasy comics of all time The Sandman features various tropes we associate with Halloween. There are literal creatures of nightmare, ravens, haunted houses, sorcerers, murderers, curses, ghosts, demons, and spooky castles. There’s also a Jack-o-lantern headed character. The Sandman was first published in November 1988 with an official release date of January 1989.

The Sandman audio drama act 1 - Act 1 of the audio drama version of The Sandman was released July 15th, 2020 and was an almost instant best seller.

Hocus Pocus - I kind of put this one here as a bonus. Though Hocus Pocus is set at Halloween and is easily considered a Halloween movie, it was actually released to cinemas on July 16th, 1993. Yes, Hocus Pocus was actually a summer movie. Weird, huh? But its ability to endure shows that people can do and do love it any time of year despite it being a “Halloween movie.”

Anyway, why did I write all this? My point is simple. If you love Gothic Horror, if you love spooky stuff, don’t starve yourself until “Spooky season.” Don’t feel like you can only watch, read, or listen to your favorites only around Halloween. Love what you love whenever you want and don’t be ashamed. Just because it’s fashionable to sweep these things away until October doesn’t mean you have to conform to that behavior. If you want to watch Over the Garden Wall in March, do it. If you want to watch Hocus Pocus on Easter, do it. Don’t let anyone stop you. What you love does NOT have to be consigned to just a tiny part of the calendar.

#Halloween #Hallowe'en #Over the Garden Wall #OTGW #Hocus Pocus #Dracula #Frankenstein #Monster Mash #Thriller #Ghostbusters

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tcm · 4 years

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Ray Harryhausen: The Master of Movie Magic By Raquel Stecher

June 29th marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late, great Ray Harryhausen. A master technician and visionary, Harryhausen transported audiences into worlds of fantasy and mythology through his stop-animation. What now takes a team, Harryhausen did mostly on his own. He was autonomous, preferring to have control over his work and his vision, and he became heavily involved in many aspects of filmmaking including writing, storyboarding, producing and in many cases co-directing.

Harryhausen fully immersed himself in the process by analyzing the skeletal structure of ancient beasts, studying animals in motion, sketching models and building them by hand and then finding the most creative and dynamic ways to bring his fantastical creatures to life on screen. He poured so much of his time and energy into his models that he’d often develop emotional attachments to them. Harryhausen’s unique gifts as a visual effects artist improved on the work that came before him and would pave the way for future filmmakers to come. Among those who credit Harryhausen for inspiring their work include directors Tim Burton, James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson.

Harryhausen’s own source of inspiration came from the work of stop-animation artist Willis H. O’Brien who worked on the monster adventure classic KING KONG (’33). Watching KING KONG for the first time made an indelible mark on teenage Harryhausen. Inquisitive by nature, he set out to learn about how the film was made. Once he learned about stop-animation, he contacted O’Brien at MGM and made his acquaintance. O’Brien took Harryhausen under his wing and the mentorship would help him launch his future career. His parents were extraordinarily supportive of their teenage son. His father built a small studio in the corner of their garage and his mother would give him scraps of fabric and fur for modeling. Harryhausen’s father was particularly good at creating armament, the metal structure that helps the models move with manipulation, and would work with his adult son on many films.

What was unique about Harryhausen was his singular vision and ingenuity. It can be seen with the innovations he brought to many of his projects. Harryhausen worked with O’Brien on the film MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (’49), another monster adventure film that was born out of the continued success of KING KONG. Harryhausen worked for two years on the film, and while O’Brien was busy solving production problems, Harryhausen got to work on the animation. He studied footage of large gorillas from the Chicago Zoo and according to Harryhausen the film proved to be “most useful for studying the pace and stride of his walk as well as detailed idiosyncrasies.” The armature was based off the skeleton of a gorilla and Harryhausen used his skills to manipulate the model to give Joe Young more nuanced movement than Kong had before him.

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG led to work on other monster films like THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (’53), where Harryhausen used front-projection technique as a cost-saving measure, and IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (’55). The latter film included a giant killer octopus that Harryhausen gave six tentacles instead of eight. Time meant money in Hollywood, something Harryhausen was keenly aware of, and it made sense to spend time animating fewer legs. Especially when the audience didn’t need to see all eight to get the full effect.

With UFOs being all the rage in the 1950s, Harryhausen used his unique brand of innovation to animate flying saucers for the science fiction film EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (’56). He used an aerial brace that connected the saucer to metal wires. The brace allowed Harryhausen to tilt the saucers so they appeared to fly at an angle when necessary. The most difficult part of this project was depicting the saucers destroying buildings. In his book Film Fantasy Scrapbook Harryhausen wrote, “they had to be photographed in the process of disintegration by a death ray, frame by frame —each falling brick being suspended by invisible wires.”

Harryhausen found his calling when he transitioned to fantasy stories where mythical creatures are aplenty. Working alongside his longtime collaborator Charles Schneer, to ensure that THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (’58) was a success they came up with a new name for Harryhausen’s work: Dynamation. Had the film been promoted as a live action film with animation, adult audiences might turn away thinking that it was for children. Dynamation rebranded the stop-animation to cast the widest net possible. In THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD Harryhausen animated a skeleton in a thrilling sword battle that would be revisited in just a few years on a bigger scale.

JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (’63) was the pinnacle of Harryhausen’s career. He called the film his favorite because it was “the most complete.” The skeleton fight sequence, which has since become the most iconic scenes of Harryhausen’s work, took four months to complete. Harryhausen insisted there be seven skeletons because of the importance the number seven had in mythology. However, this created more work. He created anatomically correct skeletons with movable heads, arms and legs. Stuntmen and actors rehearsed to get the action scenes just right and Harryhausen filmed the skeletons over a rear-projection of that footage matching the skeletons’ movements with that of the actors. The longest animated sequence in the film features Talos, a giant bronze statue that comes to life to seek revenge. Harryhausen was inspired by the myth of Talos and by the Colossus of Rhodes and created a gigantic version of Talos with movements “deliberately stiff and mechanical.”

Other innovations include the giant crab in MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (’61). Harryhausen bought a live crab from Harrods in London, had it humanely killed and replaced the meat with metal armature and reanimated the dead crab on screen. In CLASH OF THE TITANS (’81), he finally got his wish to create a more dynamic interpretation of Medusa. He specifically created a reptilian Medusa to avoid having to animate a human one with clothes. Animating Medusa was incredibly difficult as each of the twelve snakes on her head had to constantly be in motion. Harryhausen joked that the process gave him a “Gorgon-sized headache.”

While Harryhausen’s style of animation has now been replaced by more advanced stop motion techniques as well as CGI, his films continue to awe and inspire audiences. It’s still a thrill to see his many mythical and ancient creatures come to life in his films.

#ray harryhausen #stop motion #animation #special effects #claymation #King Kong #Mighty Joe Young #Clash of the titans #TCM #Turner Classic Movies #Raquel Stecher

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moviesinfocus · 3 years

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Blu-ray Review: Tim Burton's Brilliant BIG FISH Is Worth Catching

Blu-ray Review: Tim Burton’s Brilliant BIG FISH Is Worth Catching

The films of Tim Burton have often been criticised for being more about style than substance. Critics would say that they feature a lack of humanity, leaning heavily on visuals rather than heart. This cannot be said for 2003’s Big Fish, a father/son drama which is one of Burton’s most heartfelt films and one that features a finale which packs a serious emotional punch. Based on Daniel…

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#albert finney #alison lohman #big fish #billy crudup #danny devito #danny elfman #ewan mcgregor #helena bonham carter #jessica lange #marion cotillard #steve buscemi #tim burton

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theold-ultraviolence · 4 years

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31 DAYS OF SPOOKY SONGS

8. Remains of the Day by Danny Efman

About the song

This song is part of the soundtrack for the Tim Burton, stop-motion film, Corpse Bride (2005). The movie is about a clueless young man in an arranged marriage, who simply cannot say his vows properly at the wedding rehearsal, and in his nervousness, he runs off into the woods where he accidentally resucitates the spirit of a corpse bride that had been cursed to wait for the love of her life to propose to her.cAhhh, if you know me, you know...Danny Elfman is THE MAN when it comes to halloween (the actual pumpkin king aka Jack Skellington himself). This song is meant to tell how Emily, the corpse bride, died. It’s heavily based on his Cab Calloway influences, and originally the song was written to be performed by a someone with a raspier, lower tone of voice. However, none of the singers they tested out really worked, so Danny ended up singing himself. Despite him claiming that this song was based on his blues roots, there’s no denying that all that brass and percussion and overall upbeat vibe totally has a strong Oingo Boingo pressence in it. And just as a fun fact, the character he’s meant to be playing is credited as “Bonejangles”.

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#irma's halloween recs #halloween #halloween 2020 #songs #31 days of spooky songs #danny elfman

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teaandgames · 4 years

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The Tea Times - June 2020

Well, we’re officially over halfway through the year at this point. I know for many people it feels like we’re dragging ourselves over that point but try and keep your chin up. All bad things must end. In the world of games it’s been a rather packed month, with some high profile releases and some unexpected announcements coming out of the woodwork. Hopefully that’ll tide us over for the second half of the year where things will, hopefully, start to look up.

At A Glance

Valorant, Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, Desperados III, The Last of Us Part II, Summer in Mara and Pokemon Cafe Mix released.

Resident Evil 8: The Village, Crash Bandicoot 4, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2, Pokemon Unite, Pokemon Snap and Lost in Random announced.

Kingdoms of Amalur is getting retooled!

Rumour mill: Far Cry 6 and Batman!

UK strikes out at loot boxes!

Playstation 5 is revealed!

Cyberpunk 2077 Re-Delayed!

The Releases

My goodness there’s a lot to get through this month. Let’s begin with Valorant, a team shooter developed by Riot Games. Many team shooters have jumped up and been smacked right back down but Riot Games, the League of Legends lads, have some proper grunt behind them. I’ve heard a lot of positive chatter about Valorant, and seen some exciting videos, so there’s every chance. I’m too incompetent for these type of games but if you’re not then it released on PC on the 2nd June.

I’m also too incompetent for Command & Conquer: Remastered Collection but that’s not going to stop me. While it’s not much of a collection, containing only Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer: Red Alert, there’s a lot of love in the package. The retooled art is nice to see, while also preserving the spirit of the original. It’s a heavily nostalgic game and a reminder of when RTS games were about the base building and not screaming at your teammates. If you fancy a trip down a FMV-laden memory lane then it was released on the 5th June.

Desperados III caused some long forgotten light bulb to spark in my head, though I can’t really explain why. It’s a real-time stealth game set, rather unsurprisingly, in the Wild West. Was there much stealth there? My mind has been too corrupted by images of people blind-firing at each other with revolvers. Still, Desperados III seems to have an action element to it as well for when you’re bored of killing people and stashing their bodies. It’s also getting decent reviews too, which is encouraging. If you fancy some rootin’-tootin’ throaty slittin’ then Desperados III came out on Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on the 16th June.

Summer in Mara is a funny one. It popped up constantly on my Facebook, sending me ad after ad. Normally this would turn me against a game but, in a rare twist, it actually got me pretty excited. It’s a farming game, with an exploring element to it and I am all about that. It also looks gorgeous, in screenshots at least. I actually didn’t realise it was out yet so I will soon be booting up either Steam or my Switch to get on that. I’m ready to waste another hundred hours. It released on the 16th June.

Well now here’s one that’s been doing the controversy circle. Released on the 19th June, The Last of Us Part Two was quickly subjected to review bombing. Possibly because it committed the cardinal sin of acknowledging that the LGBT community exists. Ah well. That nonsense aside, it’s picking up top scores and awards, much like its predecessor. It appears to be heavily story focused though the physics, by the look of it, are top notch too. If you liked the original then give it a whirl. It was released on PlayStation 4 on the 19th June.

Even more unexpected is Pokemon Cafe Mix. Not too much to say about this one, to be honest. It’s a pleasant little puzzle game about serving folks in a cafe, which is staffed by Pokemon wearing adorable outfits. It’s free to play, with microtransactions, and seems like a nice little game to kill a few minutes. It dropped on the Switch on the 23rd June.

The Announcements

It seems like every five minutes, I found another game that had been announced. Not least of all is Resident Evil 8: The Village. If you remember, I adored Resident Evil VII and I hope that the sequel carries on its spirit. It’s certainly in first person and the trailer gives me hope. It also has an old man in a flat cap with a shotgun which always gives me hope. The trailer is absolutely dripping with symbolism too. It should be coming out next year.

Next in line of the unexpected sequels to nostalgic games is Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, which has a trailer set to The Rockafeller Skank just to maximise that early 2000s nostalgia. As you might expect, it’s about time. That title has its tongue buried deeply in its cheek. It looks like a proper return to form too, with bright colourful graphics and a fresh Cortex plan to ruin. While I never got on that well with the Crash Bandicoot franchise, I know a lot of people will be excited for the return to form. It’ll be out on October 2nd.

Lord, they are cranking out Bloodstained games, aren’t they? Back in 2018, the original Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon came out, which was an old school Castlevania game in all but name. A companion game, Ritual of the Night, made things 2.5D. Now however, we’re back to Curse of the Moon with Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2. It looks like it keeps the old school Castlevania art style, which is nice to see. If you’re in the mood for an older flavour of game, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 will be out on the 10th July.

The second controversy on this list is a new Pokemon game, Pokemon Unite. In this case, the ire may well be justified. Pokemon Unite is a MOBA, of all the bloody things, which is a bit of an odd move. It’s a pretty heavily saturated genre, full of big names, and I don’t honestly know how much market Nintendo will be able to carve out of that. Add in the fact that it has a definite connection to Chinese company Tencent (which doesn’t have the best reputation) and it goes some way to explaining the mountain of dislikes the video has gotten. Ah well. A release date has yet to be announced.

What is much more up my street is Pokemon Snap for the Nintendo Switch. The original was one of the highlights of my emulation days. Basically, you ride on a little cart through the world of Pokemon, taking pictures of them in their natural habitat. Then Oak looks through them and reveals how weak of a photographer you are. It’s not a game for everyone but if you always wanted to see Pokemon frolic around like normal animals then Pokemon Snap is your game. No release date yet, though.

Still not too sure about Lost in Random to be honest. I think I just like me some dice games. It’s set in a fairly dark world where people’s fates are decided by a roll of the dice, but it also has something of an upbeat tone in the vein of Tim Burton. It’s an action-adventure game, with some pretty heavy looking combat, set in a gothic fantasy world and all of those are good things. If you like the sound of it, then Lost in Random will be out next year.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

Well this is one I wasn’t expecting. I did a whole piece about how the intellectual property had been handed around like a game of hot potato, even landing in the hands of the state of Rhode Island at one point. THQ acquired the property rights in the end and they’ve now announced that they are giving it a fresh coat of paint, which is being handled by the folks at Kaiko, who did the Darksiders remasters. So it should be fairly decent.

What confuses me is that the things they are working on are the graphics and the gameplay. The two things that Kingdoms of Amalur didn’t really suffer from. The game always looked pretty gorgeous, to be honest. It captured the spirit of a fantasy forest nicely. I never looked at it and thought, damn this needs retooling. Same with the gameplay really. It wasn’t anything amazing but it wasn’t screaming for a remaster.

Honestly, Kingdoms of Amalur’s biggest flaw was from the core design. The huge open levels with bugger all in it, quests that didn’t really do anything interesting and long lore dumps that put you to sleep. That’s not really going to change if you’re just doing surface level stuff. Still, we don’t know for sure what they’re changing so you never know. The remastered version should be out in August.

The Rumour Mill - Exotic Locales And Batman

The first of our rumours this month revolves around Far Cry 6. The latest entry Far Cry 5 was set in North America and revolves around a cult, which probably hits a little too close to home for some people. If that’s not your bag then you’ll be pleased to know that Far Cry 6 will be set somewhere more exotic. No exact details at the moment but I imagine there will be sunshine and clear waters. It’s also supposedly due to be released before April next year, COVID19 depending. If the rumour is true, we’ll hear more about this on July 12th.

For those more interested in the caped crusader then you may be interested to know that there’s a good chance of Warner Bros. announcing two Batman games in August this year. This rumour is fuelled by the fact that two domains have been registered. They point towards two titles, ‘Gotham Knights’ and ‘Suicide Squad’. The second one is more obvious and probably inevitable, given that we’ve had a whole film about them. Not sure about Gotham Knights though. We should hopefully have more info at DC’s fandome event on the 22nd August.

UK Says Loot Boxes Are Not OK

Following on from the example of companies like Belgium, UK ministers are asking for a review of evidence with regards to Loot Boxes in games. The issue comes from the definition of Loot Boxes as gambling. It’s not an unreasonable definition, as it encourages people to put in a varying amount of money for the chance at getting something rare and exciting. Everybody wins, of course, but most of the time it’s basic stuff that entices you to try again. Sounds like gambling to me.

People aren’t too happy with advertising gambling to under 18s so this decision has a lot of weight to it. If Loot Boxes are declared to be gambling, then games will be required to remove them or change them up so they can be sold to under 18s. They may even remove the games entirely. How enforceable that will be remains to be seen but it will likely make it harder for multiplayer games to be marketed in the UK. Not a happy thing but we’ll have to wait and see what the evidence says.

The Sleek, Sexy… Router?

Well here’s an interesting one. Sony released their first images of the PlayStation 5 design this month and people are already disagreeing with it. I can see why. It’s a very sleek, futuristic design. Minimalist white and grey in an obelisk like shape. I’m in two minds about it myself. On the one hand, it’s quite sleek and attractive. It doesn’t look like a ‘console’ which I think is a good thing. It looks memorable.

On the other hand it looks like a wireless router. You’ll have to make your own mind up on this one.

Re-delayed

Just a quick one to end on. CD PROJEKT RED are fully committing to making sure Cyberpunk 2077 is ready to go. To that end, it’s been delayed back to November 19th. They’ve been fully transparent as to why as well, which is refreshing. Essentially, while it’s good to go content-wise, they need extra time to go through everything and iron out those bugs. A good reason, as reasons go.

They did however release some new gameplay trailers to keep people going, so make sure to check those out to remind yourself why it’s worth waiting until November! That’s all for June, see you in July!

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moviemunchies · 4 years

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Back in the early 90’s, when Batman: The Animated Series was at its peak there was this idea that they could maybe release an animated movie in theaters and it would be a smashing financial success. The result was Mask of the Phantasm. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t a financial success, but it was still very good, and both audiences and critics liked it enough that it’s still something of a cult classic among Batman fans.

The Plot goeth a bit like this: some masked figure called the Phantasm is going around Gotham killing mob bosses, and because this figure is masked and hooded and it’s really dark in Gotham, people assume that Batman has finally lost it and turned into a homicidal maniac. Meanwhile, Bruce has to come to grips with his past and his reasons for becoming Batman in the first place, which become more complicated as the Phantasm’s killings seem to have a connection to his own past.

This movie was, at one point, designed to be the series finale for Batman: The Animated Series. That obviously didn’t happen, what with the series being retooled into The New Animated Adventures of Batman, Batman Beyond, and of course Justice League all happening in the same continuity. And this goes on for about a decade; more if you count the occasional movies that DC still releases straight-to-DVD set in the same continuity. Still, as a finale movie, it feels very good. The fact that it’s not makes it feel very… odd, for someone like me just coming back to it after watching all the shows and spin-offs for years. There are longtime characters from the series, like Robin and Batgirl, who aren’t even mentioned in this movie, which is pretty egregious from a continuity standpoint. And Joker’s fate in the end is ambiguous, which is ridiculous for longtime fans because we know that he survives, making the ending a bit weird.

Heck, I don’t think this movie is mentioned or referenced at all until the episode of Justice League Unlimited that was meant to be a Batman Beyond sendoff.

None of this makes this a bad movie though. If I speak straightforwardly: this is a spectacular animated superhero movie. I think the animation has aged quite a bit; but it’s still very good. It ties the character’s origin with the events going on right now, without having to actually rehashing the origin that we all know by heart at this point (even back when this film was released in 1993). It’s a story about what makes Batman… well, _Batman_ and how he maintains that balance (or lack thereof) in his life. It’s about what drives him, and why he keeps fighting. Which makes a pretty compelling Batman story.

This reminded me very heavily of the Arkham series of video games which followed over a decade afterward. The animated series and the games had some of the same creative team: notably, Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as Joker, and series writer Paul Dini. Like those stories, we have a dark, atmospheric Gotham, Batman finding himself desperately fighting for his life against a new and dangerous enemy, and also Joker hijacks the Plot in the last third of the movie despite not having too much to do with it.

It also has a soundtrack that is ten times as hardcore as most live action superhero films nowadays. It takes the theme of the animated series (which itself is based off of the theme from the Tim Burton film) and adds vocals. The subtitles on Netflix helpfully tell me that it’s Latin, although I have my doubts, and TV Tropes claims it’s actually gibberish made from singing the names of the film’s artists backwards. Or something. Either way, it sounds like the film is trying to convince you that Batman is THE Epic Hero of our time. Which I didn’t mind because I’m a huge Batman fan, but I’d understand if some viewers thought it was a bit much.

If you like Batman, and especially if you’re a fan of the animated series, you should definitely see this film. Otherwise, I still think it’s well worth the watch, but it might not hit you quite as hard. It’s currently on Netflix, and it shouldn’t be difficult to track down copies of the video if you know where to look.

#Mask of the Phantasm #Batman #Batman: The Animated Series #Kevin Conroy #animation #Movie Munchies

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mrjoelgarcia9 · 4 years

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Let’s Talk #Superman: Brainiac Attacks

In 2006, during the lead-up to Superman Returns, Warner Bros released a new animated film to accompany the live action film.

It makes Returns look good by comparison.

For a review of Superman: Brainiac Attacks, feel free to keep reading. There will be spoilers.

An asteroid containing the alien cyborg Brainiac strikes one of Lex Luthor’s facilities, and he proceeds to steal all of his data. After a prolonged fight, and saving Lois Lane, Superman presumably destroys the cyborg. However, Lex secretly picks up what remains of Brainiac and they team up to take down Superman with some Kryptonite and the Man of Steel’s DNA. Meanwhile, Clark struggles over revealing his secret identity to Lois.

This film is awful.

While based on Superman: The Animated Series, it is not part of the show’s canon. The film was directed by Curt Geda, who previously directed several of the show’s episodes as well as both Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman. The only other things the two have in common are character designs, backgrounds, and a few voice actors.

Tim Daly notably reprised his portrayal of Superman for the first time since the animated series (due to other commitments at the time, he was unable to appear in Justice League). Dana Delany (Lois Lane), David Kaufman (Jimmy Olsen), and George Dzundza (Perry White) also returned, although the former two previously made brief appearances on Justice League.

In the film’s first major flaw, the villains were recast.

In the original show, Lex Luthor, Mercy Graves, and Brainiac were originally voiced by Clancy Brown, Lisa Edelstein, and Corey Burton, respectively. In the film, they were instead voiced by Powers Boothe, Tara Strong, and Lance Henriksen. All three are clearly giving it their best, but their performances clash with the characters as they were previously portrayed in the show.

Lex Luthor now acts like an over the top version of Gene Hackman’s Lex; Mercy sounds like a serious take on Harley Quinn; Brainiac talks like he came straight out of Super Friends.

The film’s second major flaw is the plot.

It is bare bone, basically being about Brainiac wanting to kill Superman because he beat him once and also take over Earth.

Consequentially, the film has glacial pacing in order to drag out the conflict. The first act does a good job setting up the premise and characters, but the rest of the film struggles to reach 75 minutes. Superman’s fights with Brainiac are prolonged to let the latter monologue, get Lex involved, and for multiple fake outs. The fights in the animated series had better pacing compared to this film.

The subplot between Jimmy and Mercy goes nowhere, taking up a lot of time which could have been used to show Superman in the Phantom Zone. There are a few good moments between Perry and Jimmy, but they also felt like padding. Not counting the subplots, the main conflict barely takes up less than half of the film’s already short runtime.

The film’s last, but not least, flaw is the soundtrack. It sounds like a generic placeholder that simply never got replaced. A theme song which sounds eerily reminiscent of the animated series’ theme is also featured, as if Warner Bros wanted to avoid paying royalties and make the film for as cheap as possible.

Superman: Brainiac Attacks is a terrible film. While it is great to hear most of the series’ voice cast one more time, especially Tim Daly, and the animation is OK, they do not make up for the lackluster plot, bad pacing, and dull music.

It is impossible to integrate the film within the DC Animated Universe due to several continuity issues ranging from Lex’s personality to the Fortress of Solitude. It could best be seen as an alternate finale that disregards the show’s downer ending. Otherwise, it is a soulless cash grab which was just the first of two bad Superman films released in 2006.

Long story short, Superman Returns could have been so much better.

One year later, in 2007, Warner Bros would release another Superman film, Superman: Doomsday. While it did also look reminiscent of the animated series, mostly due to being produced by its creator Bruce Timm, the film clearly drew a line between the two by heavily altering the character designs and adding just enough violence to gain a PG-13 rating. It was still not a good film, but it clearly differentiated itself from the Saturday morning cartoon.

Superman: Brainiac Attacks is available to own on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital. It can also be streamed on HBO Max.

Until next time, thank you for reading!

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astrovian · 2 years

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Richard Armitage interview in Reader's Digest UK (due out January 2022) via. Twitter (14/12/21)

Part 2/2

Part 1 here

Full transcript for interview (both part 1 & 2) under cut

Richard Armitage on Hollywood, the Hobbit and Hard Work

From bursting onto the musical theatre stage, the prolific actor has gone on to star in Hollywood blockbusters and hit TV shows – all while being “shy”

Richard’s hair is shorter and tidier when we chat and his arms aren’t covered in tattoos, but the actor says there is some common ground between him and Ray.

Richard smiles. “A painter doesn’t paint a portrait, put it on the wall and stand in front of it. They get out of the way.”

#richard armitage #stay close #ray levine #interview

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lavender-montgomery · 4 years

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Brahms: The Boy II (2020) - Thoughts [SPOILERS]

So I went to go see The Boy II within a few days of release. I mean, Monday is half price day AND I get someone in free with me due to disability, plus The Boy is one of my favourite movies, so how could I not? I’m writing this post a week after seeing it - not a good sign already. Also, I have a post in my drafts about something else I watched that I currently don’t have the heart to finish. So here I am writing about The Boy II.

I will start this by saying - what a disappointment. I absolutely adored the first movie. I loved the nanny, I loved the doll, I loved Brahms, I loved his parents. I loved how it looked like the doll was haunted by a dead child but turned out it wasn’t, it was unexpected and was different to the usual haunted doll we see so often. I respected that and that’s part of why I love the film so much. However, the sequel completely went against that and went against the whole point of the first movie. In the sequel, the doll IS haunted by Brahms. After the end of the movie, Brahms put the doll back together and eventually died. Doesn’t say when or how. Just that he died. The doll was haunted by him, it was centered around the house he was raised in and it was passed from family to family wreaking havoc. Why? The whole point was that he wasn’t haunted. That was the idea. Very disappointing that they went against that. I kinda understand, it woulda been a bit harder to incorporate the actual Brahms into it. But they coulda done so much with this and they just... didn’t.

I don’t want to talk badly about this movie, I really don’t. I’ve said how muh I loved the first, I’m considering customising my own Brahms doll and I was so, so excited for the second movie, more so when I found out it was in the cinema. But this movie was bad and bland. It relied too heavily on jump scares which is incredibly boring.

So, let’s talk about the movie and go through the plot.

It started off with a theme that I believe wasn’t featured in the first movie. It reminded me a lot of the music in Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd. Yeah. I just sighed to myself at that part, not off to a great start already - as much as I love his version of Sweeney Todd, it’s great but awful. The movie is based around a family of three - two parents and their son who is about eleven I’d say. Dad was British and quite attractive. Mum and son were american. One of the first things one of the parents said, I believe it was the dad, was ‘you’re too old to sleep with a teddy.’ Excuse me?! I am OFFENDED. I am 22 and I sleep with MANY teddies - with PRIDE. Hehe.

It starts off with the dad being away for work, so mum Liza and her son Jude are home alone. She wakes in the night to sounds so goes to investigate - but not once turns a light or torch on - then son investigates, to be attacked by people who broke into the house. Both are traumatised, kid goes mute and mum is angry a lot and has vicious nightmares. They decide to take a break, spending some time away at a house a while away. Shockingly, it’s a house neighbouring the one Brahms grew up in. Within minutes of arriving at the house, Jude gets hold of Brahms. Didn’t take long at all. Most boys his age wouldn’t really want a doll as that’s ‘girly’, but Jude dug Brahms up out of the dirt. His mum cleans Brahms up and Jude is very quickly attached to him. Then things start to get weird. Jude communicates through a notebook - which Brahms also writes in. But what I don’t get is... No one sees Brahms moving, they only see him after he moved. Does Jude see Brahms write in the book? They are together 24/7. Brahms writes a note that says ‘take me to where you found me’, where Jude discovers Brahms’ belongings and the rules from the first movie.

There is a caretaker character that I don’t like in the movie. He knows about the doll and Brahms from the start, yet when he sees Jude has the doll, he doesn’t tell Jude’s parents anything. Why? Surely knowing the truth about the doll he’d try and help them. The caretaker’s dog really doesn’t like Brahms, infact he barks at it whenever he sees him and he sits outside the family’s house.

It takes a while for the parents to realise there’s something creepy about the doll. Only when the doll locks itself in a bedroom does the mum’s cogs start turning. Of course when she researches the house, learns the history and confronts the caretaker, she’s horrified yet STILL doesn’t do anything about the doll. So frustrating. Not even when Jude starts dressing like Brahms, when his cousin nearly dies, when the dog is murdered or when Jude draws himself killing his own parents, not even then does the mum properly take action.

There is a scene where Jude and Brahms Doll are back at Brahms’ home and the mum follows where they go inside the walls where human Brahms used to live, here I was hopeful that human Brahms would make an appearance, but he doesn’t.

Two things I did like about this movie - the movement from the doll was minimal. Eyes shifting, head turning, every movement was slight. I also liked both scenes of Jude wearing the Brahms mask that human Brahms wore - once in his mum’s nightmare and once in the big house.

It’s quite chilling how Jude was becoming Brahms, not quite a demonic possession but Brahms’ spirit was slowly becoming inside of Jude. It was creepy and the child playing Jude performed it incredibly well. It wasn’t at all over the top or underdone, he did it perfectly and this child was the best part of the whole movie.

The part where Brahms was left outside and Jude told his mum everything made me sad. This poor child feared the doll, yet it seemed like he also loved him.

Towards the end of the movie, the dad smashes Brahms’ head I think with a baseball bat. Inside he was a disgsuting, black, rotten fleshy... thing. Why? What was the point in that? It was creepy but didn’t really make sense. The doll had been smashed before and he didn’t look like that. After the doll was smashed, Jude returned and was no longer becoming Brahms. It was very quick and sudden.

I didn’t like the ending, it was too predicatable. The doll being disposed of and Jude still being disturbed and keeping the Brahms mask was what I expected and sure enough that’s what happened. I wish something more exciting happened at the end, but with the final scene with the doll I suppose not much could have been done anyway.

The spirit was in the mask that Jude kept. Will there be a third movie? I hope not, not if the second was anything to go by.

I wasn’t satisfied with this movie. The first movie was excellent. A gripping plot, lots of twists, an unexpected ending, spooky and didn’t rely on jump scares. They really milked the fanbase for the second movie and I feel it was too rushed and cheaped out on. I wouldn’t recommend this movie, especially if you haven’t seen the first installment, and I definitely won’t be watching it a second time.

Was it really necessary to make Brahms doll a haunted doll, when the end of the first film really emphasised on the fact he wasn’t haunted? This second movie was deifnitley nothing but a rushed money maker, not contributing anything of value to the fanbase or first movie.

What a disappointment.

#mine #my post #horror film #horror movie #horror movie review #Horror film review #the boy #the boy ii #the boy 2 #brahms #brahms: the boy 2 #brahms: the boy ii #haunted doll #horror #scary #spooky

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dannyreviews · 5 years

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Period Piece Lesbian Romances: Gentleman Jack (2019) and Elisa and Marcela (Elisa y Marcela) (2019)

HBO and Netflix are some of my go to areas for quality content. In the last few months, both networks have syndicated period pieces about taboo lesbian relationships. The first from HBO is a BBC made TV series called “Gentleman Jack” based on the diaries of LGBT pioneer Anne Lister. The second is a Spanish film that competed at the Berlin Film Festival about the first recorded gay marriage called “Elisa and Marcela”. For this post, I would like to compare how both programs portray their lesbian relationship and reflecting the mannerisms of the era.

For the first time on this blog, I’m reviewing an active television series, but when it comes to comparing similar content from the film medium, how can I pass up this opportunity? Sally Wainwright’s adaptation of Anne Lister’s diaries is done very tastefully and doesn’t go overboard with the sex scenes. Anne Lister (Suranne Jones) and her partner Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle) couldn’t look any more different. Lister dresses in black and looks like a Tim Burton creation and Ann Walker is the carbon copy of a Jane Austen heroine. But it’s those contrasting features that makes the relationship flourish on screen. Everything from their dialogues, to the make out scenes are all done in Romantic era poise and grace. Both Jones and Rundle are breaths of fresh air and never disappoint in making their characters stand out in the rigid world of upper class customs. The close contacts, the fighting and the moments of commiseration��were very realistic. Even as the show got snubbed by the Emmy Awards, it still remains a standout in the ever-growing movement of British period piece programs reaching America and I look forward to the coming seasons.

On the other hand, “Elisa and Marcela” was a tepid and almost pretentious look at its title heroines who look and sound exactly the same. Unlike the differences in both Anne Lister and Ann Walker, both title characters (Natalia de Molina and Greta Fernandez) look like twins. There were times where I couldn’t tell who was who. Even as Elisa donned the “Mario” persona and looking like Anne Lister, I still wasn’t convinced it was a worthy disguise. Then, there was the contemporary mannerisms of said characters. Was this a legitimate period piece or a game of dress up? They got the background costumes and art direction down well, but Elisa and Marcela stuck out like sore thumbs. The make out scenes, like “Gentleman Jack”, were not overdone, were beautifully filmed and the actresses seemed to get heavily involved in the plot. Outside of that though, the dialogues were contrived, unrealistic and stilted. Like so many disappointing films I’ve seen, I can tell the actors did their best, but the director, Isabel Coixet, didn’t do enough to make the era stand out and instead used black and white photography, old film reel filters and iris effects to mask the imperfections.

While both programs did a good job at showing the romantic contact, they differed on character mannerisms and the plot executions. It just shows that while the premises are nearly identical, the way in which their director/showrunners added their artistic touch, but with stark differences in the final product.

GJ: 9/10

EaM: 6/10

#dannyreviews #gentleman jack #elisa and marcela #elisa y marcela #hbo #netflix #lesbian #lgbt #anne lister #suranne jones #sophie rundle #natalia de molina #greta fernández #isabel coixet

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trick-and-treaters · 5 years

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An In-Depth Look at Oogie Boogie

Tim Burton has gone on reccord stating that he doesnt think Oogie Boogie is evil, and I’m inclined to believe him. Let me convince you.

So, what are Oogie Boogie’s motivations?

It’s not a silly question, as I’ve found a lot of people seem to miss it. In the extended cut of Oogie Boogie’s song it is expressly stated, and heavily implied everywhere else, that he wants to cook and eat Sandy Claws (and Sally, but that’s incidental)

(The orange stuff is his “snake and spider stew,” and the 8-ball contraption appears to be blender/dicer blades flipped upside down.)

Now here’s an easier question; what is Oogie made of?

“Bugs!” Every person who has ever seen the movie shouts in their head. That’s wrong, but for the sake of simplicity, and me not wanting to write an extra lecture about insects and the like, let’s just say yes. He’s also got some spiders and a snake, and those bats in the rafters could possibly be a part of his hivemind (I don’t have proof of this other than I think it’s weird that they can sing)

So what is he made of, summed up in one word?

Carnivores.

His motivations as presented are fueled by the most basic survival instincts, eating and reproducing.

Yeah.

The thing is, while these things are in his nature, I don’t think “evil” is his nature either.

Let’s compare him to Dr. Finkelstein, the only other character shown to have these traits.

He is the only character we see actively eating (though Barrel licks a lollipop and mentions liking Oogie’s stew), and is also actively seeking a life companion, first in Sally, then in Jewel. He also seems to be the second most organic character to Oogie, with flesh and organs. While he’s mad and a stock evil scientist type, he’s not really evil. He’s antagonistic to Sally through a desire to be less lonely, not just “because.”

So no, I don’t think Oogie is acting out of “evil,” I think he’s just trying to survive in a very difficult situation.

So let’s talk about this “situation.”

Wherever he is, it’s outside of town and buried under a tree. It’s clear he can’t leave, and is imprisoned as a form of punishment for something. Whatever this was, who really knows (not really a fan of the Bug Day thing, but it could apply), but I think he’s suffering more than just imprisonment.

Take a look at the Oogie Boogie puppet from the film;

Notice how much he just sags. Burlap does not naturally fold this way (trust me, I’ve cosplayed 9) unless there’s quite a bit of slack. Also ruling out natural folds is the way his weight falls, specifically his feet— look at how slack and creased they are around the “ankles” compared to his arms. And of course, the floppy part off the top of his head that barely has dimension.

The puppet is 2 feet tall, and the Disney Magic Kingdoms app says he’s about ten feet with 12,000 “bugs” inside. 12,000 bugs... is not a lot, even with the mass that the snake would add.

He’s not full— his “body” is made to hold a lot more than we’re shown.

On top of that, he relies entirely on Lock, Shock and Barrel to bring him food. Who knows how much or how often that is? And while his “bugs” are capable of mass reproducing, you’d think that would be enough to fill him out more.

I think his bugs resort to eating each other. There are spiders in there, and many others will eat other bugs. That’s pretty messed up.

After who knows how long, years, centuries, of this imprisonment, he is desperate. So why does he toy with his victims with torture and gambling? Boredom. Torture devices are just toys to the Halloweentown denizens (the corpse kid and mummy play with a guillotine). He doesn’t know how to really interact with people, so he tries with his gambling games, tortures them because he thinks it’s normal, and eats them because he has to.

So, where does this bring us with how others see him? We don’t have a lot, but I think it’s a lot more complex than at first glance.

The general consensus is that, based on how the Mayor addressed Lock, Shock and Barrel, he and the townspeople are afraid of him. I, however, think he merely meant it about them. Why wouldn’t he? They’re canonically imps (stated in the art book), mischievous fae or demons described as “lively” and of “small stature.” They’re not evil or threatening, they just love to cause chaos and misfortune, which, if you’re in charge of organizing an important event such as a holiday, is the worst possible thing that could befall your tight schedule.

Jack doesn’t even seem to act angry at the thought of him at first, just annoyed. He calls Oogie, in front of several other people with no reaction of the mention, a “no-account;” a person of little importance or use.

Personally, I think this panel from Zero’s Journey says a lot about how the town and Jack sees him;

That’s his grave. Quite the memorium for somebody that is supposedly hated and feared, right? And it’s not even that far away from Zero’s grave!

So, I don’t believe Oogie Boogie is evil or hated, and if the og Nightmare crew ever ever had a hand in content again, I think we’d really see that.

#the nightmare before christmas #oogie boogie #OOC #character analysis

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