Don't mind the traffic...

Well, I just doubled the number of posts I've written here in the last two months! Sorry to clog your rss feeds or whatever, just posting some audition pieces for a blogging gig. Will let you know results, obviously. (and feedback welcome on the posts!)

Flying Houses = best sub-genre ever?

Pixar’s “Up” leave you hanging for more flying house action? Then you’re in luck!

Check out this 1921 short “Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend,” by the self-proclaimed “inventor of animated drawing” Winsor McCay. In fifteen minutes, it tells the story of a debt-plagued man who decides to solve his problems by… outfitting his house with a propeller and flying it to the moon. What could possibly go wrong?

For early animation it is really surprisingly beautiful and entertaining. Check out the flying house zipping through an astronomically accurate view of the solar system around eleven minutes in. Of course, the astronomical accuracy is tossed aside when it’s time for the Man in the Moon to chase down our heroes with a giant fly-swatter…

Monster Safari

Kermit the Frog, meet Trogdor the Burninator.

The good folks and muppets at the Jim Henson Co. just announced a new stop-motion animated feature called “Monster Safari,” based on a short from the studio Screen Novelties. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the story concerns “what happens when the Earth’s monsters come out of hiding and a pair of bumbling crypto-zoologists spring into action to save them from a ruthless big-game hunter.”

And if that weren’t awesome enough… the feature is being scripted by Craig Zobel and Matt Chapman, creators of Homestar Runner.

Please say this means the “bumbling crypto-zoologists” will search for a particular dragon-like creature with a beefy arm and consummate V’s. Because the only way to deal with a “ruthless big-game hunter”? Is to burninate it with fire.

Check out a great gallery of images from the original short here: http://www.screen-novelties.com/news/2006/10/monster-safari-short-completed.html

And, what the heck. Trogdor!!!

Hello, WALL*E

...in which we learn of the unlikely immortality of the b-tracks from “Hello, Dolly,” thanks to animated robots...

Eagle-eyed viewers of last night’s Tony Awards (all three of them) caught a surprising nod to animation during the Broadway community’s annual celebration of cheesy tourist-fare.

A lifetime achievement award was presented to Jerry Herman - composer of “Mame,” “La Cage Aux Folles,” and that musical the high school drama club did in 10th grade - while slides showed the titles of his big numbers. And in an unlikely twist, the tune “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” was credited as being “from Hello, Dolly! and WALL*E.” Really?

Must be Broadway trying to ride some Pixar coattails. Of course, the fifty-year-old tune isn’t originally from WALL*E. But the film’s adorable robo-Casanova did learn his moves from an old VHS of “Hello, Dolly!” It seems the trash compactor himself was originally supposed to present Jerry Herman’s award, as part of Disney's Living Character Initiative, but Wall*E was mysteriously cut from the broadcast. He was probably getting drunk backstage with Liza Minelli.

Additional fun fact! Jerry Herman knew last year that he’d licensed some of his songs to Pixar. But he had no idea the extent to which they were being used. Until he sat down and watched WALL*E. [HuffPo]

Can you imagine? Not only you have the surprise of your fifty-year-old songs - and not the most widely-remembered in your songbook - turning out to be a major plot point in this fantastic little robot movie, but also? That this fantastic little robot movie says your fifty-year-old songs are going to OUT-LAST CIVILIZATION.

Re-visit the world outside of Yonkers:

All you need to know about Shrek The Musical

Amazingly, there is yet more animation news out of last night’s Tony Awards. The broadcast featured a production number from the stage musical version of “Shrek”... Which looks every bit as awful as you probably already guessed.

Somehow they’ve managed to suck all the charm and individuality out of the original Shrek by turning him into a guy in a green rubber fat suit. Although you gotta give Lord Farquat credit for dancing on his knees.

But between this clunker and last year’s damp “Little Mermaid,” it seems this is the age of Painful Musicals Based On Excellent Cartoons That Shoulda Been Left Well Enough Alone. Stay home and watch the South Park musical instead. Steven Sondheim said it was the best musical of the decade. True story.

Back to The Futurama

Step out of that Suicide Booth – “Futurama” is back!

Comedy Central has ordered 13 new episodes of the best cartoon scifi sitcom since Jane Jetson finally stopped that crazy thing, reports Collider. The original series ran on Fox from 1999 till 2003, before going into the cryogenic freezer until four direct-to-dvd specials in 2007.

Here’s the great thing about being an animation fan: our canceled masterpieces can actually be revived. First Family Guy, and now Futurama – and of course The Simpsons has been the walking undead for about a decade. No amount of boycotting and dvd-sales will ever get Firefly back on the small screen (sigh), but all animated shows need is a butt-load of cash and they're good to go - actual actors get old and busy and stuff, but Fry and Bender are just where we left them.

Read it and weep, Browncoats! (Dear Santa: Firefly The Animated Series maybe pls?)

In celebration, here is a completely arbitrary list of some fantastic Futurama clips. Starting with, appropriately enough, Futurama's explanation of why actors are so darn pesky for staging revivals...

Al Gore meets Bender

Futurama Discovers Sexuality

You've Got To Be Insincere

The Devil Went Down To Bender

JK Rowling's 2008 Harvard Commencement speech - The Drinking Game

[repost from Facebook, back-dated accordingly]

JK Rowling’s Harvard Commencement Address
DRINKING GAME
June 6, 2008

By the 2008 Commencement Choir


Single drink for each mention, unless otherwise noted:

About herself
- being a single mother
- writing on napkins in coffeeshops
- if she wrote her speech on a napkin
- if she claims to have still been thinking about what to say in the speech last night
- if she got the idea in Drew Faust’s bed last night
- Talks about what inspired her
- Talks about her kids
- Quotes directly from her own writing
- Denigrates herself in comparison to the other people on stage
- Talks about her own college days
- Talks about her shiny new Hahvahd degree
- People lining up at midnight for books
- How long it took to get the books published
- Number of books sold
- Richest woman in the world
- Her earnings vs Harvard endowment
- If she stutters, Liz gives Harker a dollar
- If she drinks, waterfall

Harry Potter
- If she reads us an original story
- If that story is in the Harry Potter universe, squeal happily
- Actual new info about Potterverse, two drinks
- Uses phrase “Potterverse,” three drinks

Harvard vs. Hogwarts (drink in general, and one for each specific)
- Annenberg
- Houses
- Academic regalia
- Compares Faust to McGonagall
- Compares Voldemort to George Bush
- Compares Yale to Durmstrang
- Whomping willow
- Quidditch
- Sorting hat as metaphor for college admissions/life


General
- ___ is the real magic
- Drink at every pun
- Imagination
- Creativity
- getting kids to read
- God, or the lack thereof
- Puritans, witch-burning, Salem
- Following your dreams
- Luck (felix felicis, two drinks)
- Women speaking at commencement
- Mentions that Drew Faust is, in fact, a girl
- if she talks about homosexuality
- if she talks about gay marriage
- If she outs any new characters
- If she outs Drew Faust
- If she outs herself
- If she has sex with Drew Faust on stage, drink till blind
- If she mentions Ted Kennedy, drink till your liver cries

British
- pronounces something funny
- attempts Boston accent
- Criticizes American politics
- Tony Blair
- British vs American education
- Other Cambridge
- The Queen
- Btdubs, Dumbledore is a Queen

Graduation speech cliches
- provides a dictionary definition
- asks a rhetorical question
- forgets to answer rhetorical question
- mentions The Facebook
- consulting sucks, Econ majors drink
- references Faust’s speech
- references what she did with Faust last night

Unlikely stuff (drink as much as you want)
- Potter Puppet Pals
- If it becomes Naked Time!!!
- Harry and the Potters back her up
- If the Happy Brigade are aurors
- Fan fiction, one drink. Slash fan fiction, three drinks
- If Larry Summers appears
- If Larry Summers appears in conjunction with the Avada Kedavra curse

Magic
- If she is wearing any Harry Potter paraphernalia
- If she utters any spells
- If she uses an Unforgivable Curse
- If she uses any fake Latin, sing the first verse of 10,000 Men
- If she performs a magic trick, finish your drink
- If she performs real magic, finish the bottle
- If she bursts into flames and rises from the ashes, pour drink on flames
- If the steps of Memorial Hall open up and a basilisk emerges, run like hell
- If the graduates have crossbows under their academic regalia, steal one from the nearest CS major

Music
- References the choir
- References the band
- If she says Glee Club needs women, RCS drinks
- Any editorial comment or look from Jim
- If the band plays the Harry Potter theme
- If she sings at all
- if she announces the release of her upcoming solo pop album, chug
- If she compares Fair Harvard to the Hoggy Hoggy Hogwarts, sing a round of “Weasley is Our King”
- If she says “baller,” finish all drinks on campus


If she never mentions Harry Potter, chug until tour