Posts Tagged ‘Old Yeller’
3 items.
I don’t know if the theaters in your hometown do this, but at every theater I got to, I am bombarded by STUPID, LOCAL ADVERTISEMENTS! This annoys me to no end because I like to get to the theater early so as not to miss any previews. If you get there too early, being subjected to these ads is the equivalent to Chinese water torture.
In the theater, these ads are placed into a slide projector that automatically forwards. There is usually a mix between local ads and those for Coca-Cola (who has obviously sunk a lot of cash into sponsoring this subtle invasion of privacy). I don’t know whose ads offend me more – the shoddily designed local spots that aggravate my keen sense of composition and information hierarchy. Or the Coca-Cola ads – who’s lame trivia and “fun” games insult my intelligence.
Of course, to top it all off, they’ve got “Movie Tunes” blaring over the PA system before the start of the show. Movie Tunes masquerades itself as a radio station with one of the world’s largest listener-ship. Yeah, you’d have a pretty large listener-ship too if the audience was held captive. That’s like saying Saddam Hussien is the world’s most convincing public speaker.
Does anyone remember a time when you could go into a theater before a movie started and have a nice conversation? To hell with that!
A few things I’ll mention:
I want to give a shout out to Ctrl+Alt+Del. This strip has been getting a lot of attention lately and it’s well deserved. The drawing of this toon is excellent. It’s shaded and colored and looks like an animated short, or something. And the writing is top shelf to boot.
I also got an e-mail from my friend Nick who sent me a really funny short essay about working as a movie-theater projectionist which I will be posting to the site sometime later today. Nick and I are college buddies and he’s been in a couple of strips on the site. Nick graduated an English major, so soon you will be treated to the wonders of correct grammar, spelling and punctuation!
Sometimes I think I spoil you.
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Jun04
GUEST STRIP – JOERULES AND MADMUP
June 4th, 2006 |- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(4 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)
Maybe I should be slightly disturbed by that knowing wink that Charlie and Truman share in the third panel, but how can I be wary when the ever-talented joerules and MadMup are at the helm? Seriously, these guys are Theater Hopper guest strips MVP’s. If you aren’t familiar with some of their earlier collaborations, you should darn well make yourselves accountable! When you’re done doing your homework, you should visit their individual websites as well – Digital Pimp Online and MadMup.com!
Come tomorrow I’ll be back in the saddle again doing comics. I always get a little nervous coming back from long breaks like this. So hopefully I’ll be able to fall into a groove fairly quickly.
Cami and I saw X-Men 3 again this afternoon – this time in English. Was it any better? Meh. It was okay. I guess I wasn’t as heartsick over some of the key character deaths as I was the first time around. My complaints are pretty much the same as everyone else’s. Too many mutants, not enough backstory. Would it have killed them to show Iceman in his full ice-form more often in the movie? Ice bridges? Anything? I guess we’re supposed to think of them still as kids becoming familiar with their powers. But a nerd can dream, can’t he?
I was particularly annoyed that Colossus seemed to be relegated to the background a lot. Especially in that last fight. Notice how he’s always over someone’s shoulder and out of focus. It’s like someone told Brett Ratner that for every shot he’s "armored up," that’s $1 million being syphoned away from Halle Berry’s "Gimme More Money Or I Walk!" fund.
I will say this – the guy who played the President in the movie? Worst actor ever. I know he’s been in a ton of stuff. Old time character actor-guy. But he was totally hamming it up. Not on the same wavelength as any of the other actors. I dunno. It’s not like the movie is all that good or any of the dialogue he was given you could say with a straight face. But everyone else played it straight.
We stuck around for the end credits and the big reveal. Again – meh. So Xavier implants his conciousness onto the guy that doesn’t have one? Wasn’t that his warning regarding the abuse of power he was talking about in his lecture to the students?
I suppose it was kind of neat that the movies were following the lead of the comics and painted Professor X as more of a manipulative jerk, but it’s inconsistent with the theme of the movie.
Oh – and no matter how many times Beast saying "Oh my stars and garters!" in the comics was funny, it’s sounds weird as hell when Kelsey Grammer says it. All things said, however – he was the best part of the Wolverine and Storm Movie – er, I mean, X-Men 3.
See you here tomorrow!
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What do you guys think of Tom and Cami’s totally 70s kitchen wallpaper? Pimpin’, right?
If you’ve been following me at all on Facebook the last couple of days, you’ll know that I’ve been wrestling with a creative decision regarding the production of comics related to Toy Story 3. It seems no matter what I do, I keep thinking up jokes for this movie. Good jokes, too (or so I tell myself.) Jokes that I don’t want to let go to waste. It’s times like these that I lament making the decision to go to one comic a week.
Certainly nothing is iron-clad, though. I’m not purposefully restricting myself to one comic a week. If I have the time and the inclination, I have no problems throwing in a bonus comic or two.
The problem is that I don’t have the time at the moment. I’m wrapping up one of my summer night classes and I’m going two times a week. I’m reading case studies, writing essays and putting the finishing touches on a group project. I pretty much have time for work, school and sleep right now. It sucks, but after next Tuesday, I will have completed this latest gauntlet.
A few people have stepped up and volunteered themselves to illustrate my scripts – which is very generous. But I’ve never collaborated like that before and I’m very protective of my ideas. It’s hard to turn people down without sounding like a selfish jerk.
Some readers have told me to spread the comics out over the next three weeks. By their estimation. Toy Story 3 will still be the most popular movie in the country, so the jokes will still be timely. Looking ahead at the release schedule, maybe they’re right. Knight and Day? Grown Ups? The Twilight Saga: Eclipse? The Last Airbender? None of these movies inspire me like Toy Story 3 does.
So let’s talk about Toy Story 3 for a little bit, shall we?
Cami and I took Henry to the movie on Saturday and all of us had a blast. All three of us have been talking about it all weekend. Henry’s investment in the film has been exacerbated by a toy purchase reflecting on of the characters in the film. But, by in large, all of us have remained captivated by the film.
It’s been 11 years since Toy Story 2 and 15 years since the groundbreaking, original Toy Story. Despite a span of nearly two decades, the legacy and strength of Andy’s band of misfit toys remains in tact.
Pixar shows great care and concern for their flagship characters by maintaining the time line of the original films. Andy is now 17 years-old and heading off to college and he doesn’t have time for childish things. In a demonstration of both profound love and profound futility, his toys make a last-ditch effort to reconnect with their distant owner by hiding his cellphone in a dog pile beneath them in his toy chest. His disinterest signals the coming of their obsolescence.
The anxiety of these characters has always been something Pixar scribes have captured well on screen. The essence of the Toy Story movies have always been about the fear of abandonment and irrelevancy. In many ways, these toys reflect more about the human condition than any movie “aimed” at children has a right to. But it is because of these profound themes that audiences relate so well to Buzz, Woody and the rest of the gang. It’s the same reason we are so sad to see them go. Many of us have grown up with these characters. Like Andy, we’re being forced to say goodbye. But at the same time, we know we have to.
I won’t bore you with the plot details of the movie. How, in a series of misunderstandings, the toys end up donated at a daycare center whose toy population is run with a benevolent-on-the-surface strawberry-scented teddy bear. I won’t complicate my review by rehashing the Rube Goldberg-like escape plan hatched by Woody and his friends in the second act. I certainly won’t reveal where Andy’s toys finally end up. You need to experience all these things on your own because their staging and execution is absolutely brilliant. Especially the ending.
The ending of Toy Story 3 is note-perfect. It never talks down to us or makes us feel foolish for investing so much in these characters. It is a sublime love letter to fans of the Toy Story films that will leave you beaming while it breaks your heart.
Bring Kleenex.
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