The original Fright Film....

Happy Halloween!

How animation should be done

I grew up in a household of animation. By that I mean that animation was never "cartoons" and never just for kids. My dad worked in film in the San Francisco. For a brief while he owned and operated a small production company. His notable productions were a series of ads for Rice-a-Roni -- which meant we ate lots and lots of Rice-a-Roni for a while -- and a multi-part syndicated history of California.

But his first love was animation. His closest friends and colleagues all worked in animation, either as producers, artists, or animators. I worked with him for close to 10 years and was a very crackerjack animation stand operator. Given a little more ambition and willingness to travel (i.e., to Los Angeles) I might have made it a career. Alas, it was not to be.

I mention all that by way of preface. Because of all that, I love a good animated show. In the United States, unfortunately, this almost always means kids' flicks. In this country we maintain the prejudice that if it's animated it's a cartoon and cartoons are meant for kids. The rest of the world doesn't agree with this, especially Japan.

"Anime" is the name often given to animated films coming out of Japan but I find the name vaguely derogatory. Anime, as a term, seemed to surface as a response to the flatly insulting "Japanimation". Japanimation, in turn, was genuinely lousy animation. Oh, it could be very pretty to look at but the actual animation, the movement, was terrible. Anime was an attempt to improve the product, to improve the animation while maintaining the art. As a term it also was used to separate the Japanese product from its American -- and elsewhere -- counter-part.

But because it came from that entire pit of Japanimation, "anime" always carries with it a certain veneer of cheapness. Anime fanatics will now attempt to murder me in my sleep, but sorry, that's just how I feel. If it makes you feel any better, that's not how I feel about the actual products, the films themselves.

For me, the revelation of anime came with Akira. Real long-term Japanimation/anime fans might point to an early film but for me (and, maybe, most others) Akira is the eye-opener. Released in 1988 it is mostly the result of 100% hand animation. There's nothing computer-generated, though a computer might have been used to calculate some of the actions. Using classic painted animation cels, Akira is a thing of beauty and wonder that earns its R rating the old-fashioned way, by being violent and profane. It's about as far from a kiddie cartoon as a film can be.

And it's animated.

More films followed along, including the Ghost in the Shell films and TV series. The latter rivals any season of 24 yet it's all done with voice talent and drawn images. I'm not enthusiastic of every animated project that oozes from Japan, and some of their shows that are actually aimed at kids are downright awful, but the films, the stuff for the big screen, are just marvelous.

Since winning the Oscar for Spirited Away, most publicity seems to focus on Hayao Miyazaki, but lately I've come to admire the genius of Satoshi Kon. His trifeca of films -- Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers -- demonstrate the talents of a man who loves to make motion pictures. His production timelines are more in line with regular film productions (taking a couple of years as opposed to, say, the 10+ years production schedules that Akira director Katsuhiro Ôtomo took for something like the marvelous Steamboy). Indeed, Satoshi makes regular yet brilliant films; he just happens to use animation instead of actors. Perfect Blue is film in the Hitchcock tradition of psychological thrillers, while Millennium Actress is an exploration of motivations and desires.

As good as those two are, and Perfect Blue is excellent, Tokyo Godfathers is the stand-out. The set-up is simple: Three homeless bums discover an abandoned infant. From that discovery, Satoshi spins a tale of reconciliation and redemption, all so appropriate since it happens on Christmas Day. As is appropriate for the season, there's even a miracle or two. Laced with humor throughout, Tokyo Godfathers nonetheless packs an emotional wallop of the sort similarly themed films desire but never achieve.

And so, since the powers that be never saw fit to release Satoshi's latest in a theatre even remotely near me, I am in anticipation of November 27, the official release date for the DVD of Satoshi's latest, Paprika. This film delves straight into the world of science fiction and the power of dreams and, as with his other films, probably could have been made with live actors working in a CGI world. He remains true to his roots, however, and I anticipate a wild and entertaining ride as a result.

Prestige Pictures

Dirty Harry asks What Happened To The Prestige Picture? and has an answer:

When you look at the best Picture nominees of the last three years it’s astounding to realize that of the 15 nominations, only three cracked the $100 million mark — two by a whisker. The average box office gross of the 2006 nominees was $59 million; in 2005 it was $49 million. Another way to look at it is that 98% of the population just wasn’t interested. 

While there’s still plenty of prestige films left to be released in 2007, as of now things are looking even worse: Michael Clayton, In The Valley of Elah, Lust Caution, Sicko, The Brave One, Eastern Promises, Into The Wild, The Darjeeling Limited, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, have each been, or are looking to be, very expensive flops… Or, are they?

To call these films failures is fair in the sense that audience indifference is quite spectacular, but not when you take into account that audience reaction had little or nothing to do with their conception. Prestige films are no longer produced for public consumption by moguls eager to feed a public hungry for smart challenging stories –instead they’re produced by Hollywood for Hollywood, and to impress critics, festival-goers, and awards’ judges. It’s easy to blame this shift on an American people eager to see their Transformers, but in fact it’s Hollywood that’s changed.

Nice post, interesting points.

Right, uh-huh, no media bias

This is how the speech is reported:

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - The U.S. mission in Iraq is a "nightmare with no end in sight" because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today, a former chief of U.S.-led forces said Friday.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded coalition troops for a year beginning June 2003, cast a wide net of blame for both political and military shortcomings in Iraq that helped open the way for the insurgency - such as disbanding the Saddam-era military and failing to cement ties with tribal leaders and quickly establish civilian government after Saddam was toppled.

But that's not the opening subject of Sanchez's speech, this is (original in all-caps, changed here for clarity):

On the other hand, unfortunately, I have issued ultimatums to some of you for unscrupulous reporting that was solely focused on supporting your agenda and preconcieved notions of what our military had done. I also refused to talk to the European Stars and Stripes for the last two years of my command in Germany for their extreme bias and single minded focus on Abu Gharaib.

And:

This is the worst display of journalism imaginable by those of us that are bound by a strict value system of selfless service, honor and integrity. Almost invariably, my perception is that the sensationalistic value of these assessments is what provided the edge that you seek for self agrandizement or to advance your individual quest for getting on the front page with your stories! As I understand it, your measure of worth is how many front page stories you have written and unfortunately some of you will compromise your integrity and display questionable ethics as you seek to keep America informed. [...] For some, it seems that as long as you get a front page story there is little or no regard for the "collateral damage" you will cause. Personal reputations have no value and you report with total impunity and are rarely held accountable for unethical conduct.

This, of course, was not worth reporting.

As for his military assessment of Iraq, I think Allahpundit says it best:

It’s like saying, “Victory is within reach -- if only the American people were completely different.” Thanks for the helpful advice, General.

Arguably the Best Casting Decision in Film History

From Ain't It Cool News, comes this:

Fucking Yippee, Harry Here!!! Ok - I'm in. Simon Pegg as Scotty is as wonderful as an Asian Girl Sandwich night. I'm fucking deliriously happy. This is the first piece of STAR TREK casting that JJ has done that has made me drool with anticipation. The word is that the budget has gotten bigger and bigger and that for the first time in the history of the franchise, STAR TREK is being given a truly epic budget to recreate, conceive and explore Gene's universe. That news and SIMON "fucking" PEGG - make this the happiest day in Trek geek life, other than the day STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN was released.

Sorry, had to leave all the F-bombs and R-spikes in there because it's obvious that Harry is ecstatic, and so am I. The rest of the casting for this film has left me cowering in a corner in fear. This single move, even if of a secondary character, might just save the day.

Yes, I think Simon Pegg is that good.

I Wanna New Phone

I put it in those terms because while my Treo 650 is beginning to show its age, it still (mostly) works. It does randomly stupid things, such as resetting while sitting on the table not being touched, and sometimes the call volume is ridiculously low (though that could just be my ancient and aging ears).

My needs are relatively simple. Anything I buy must do a desktop sync with Outlook. (Don't give me any grief, Outlook works just perfect for me.) I make this demand because I don't want to rekey all my contacts into a new phone, let alone my to-do's and calendar. If it syncs with Outlook then, voila, the phone just populates itself from my existing data.

After this comes my wish list. I'd like to be able to write and edit on any new device. This might be something as simple as entering a note and syncing it into the aforementioned Outlook, or something more complex like Documents-to-Go on the Treo (though Documents-to-Go frankly sucks and was the source of 99% of my Treo problems...until I just deleted the junk).

It would be nice if it played music, but I don't use that feature on my Treo. Thus, a lack of tunes would not cause me to pause. (Speaking of tunes, I'm listening to Steve Jablonsky's wonderful score to Transformers. Perfect music for the film and not half-bad to listen to all on its own.)

My shortlist of finalists includes the Helio Ocean, the T-Mobile Wing, and the forthcoming Sprint Touch. A dark horse candidate is a refurbished 4GB Apple iPhone. Why so specific? Because the theoretical price of such a device would be $250, and that's damn tempting. Of them all, though, the Touch causes me to drool the most.

For instance, the iPhone has some major drawbacks, primarily no solid support of 3rd party applications. Look at the fiasco with the latest 1.1.1 firmware update. It semi-bricked a slew of phones and killed any hacked apps. I don't question Apple's right to do this, since they gave fair warning that such hacks weren't supported, but it accentuates the developer-hostile attitude Apple currently has toward potential iPhone programmers. Things will change, but right now it's a huge red flag waving me away.

Meanwhile, the Ocean syncs with Outlook only on a very basic level and only from a distance. You go through some hoops involving exporting your Outlook contacts to either your Helio web account or another online service (such as Gmail) and then import them into the Ocean. It's a kludge but it works, and there's every potential that in the (near) future Helio will offer full desktop sync between the Ocean and Outlook. But that's speculation and/or wishful thinking.

Which brings me to phones running Microsoft Windows Mobile. Since I want to create and edit documents that narrows me further to the Professional version, which includes, among other things, mobile versions of Word and Excel. (This requirement also excludes the otherwise wonderful T-Mobile Dash.) If high-speed networking isn't an issue, then the Wing wins. Nice touch-screen, neat slide-out keyboard. Memory expandable via some variation of SD chip (micro? mini? whatever?). This is close to being a perfect little smartphone.

I'm less enthralled with some of its cousins, like either the AT&T 8525 or Tilt, or the Sprint Mogul, mostly because of the data plans those companies mandate. This is especially so for AT&T. The cost for each easily exceeds $80 a month for unlimited texting and unlimited data. In contrast, T-Mobile runs around $60 a month, including unlimited text/data. Of course for the extra money both AT&T and Sprint offer much faster data networks, or at least in theory as far as AT&T is concerned. AT&T doesn't offer high-speed networks in my area, so they're pricing is outrageous.

So you might think the Mogul is perfect, but it's heavier than the Wing and costs wads more.

Which returns me to the Wing and the Touch. The Wing would be cheaper to feed each month, i.e., a lower monthly bill, but the Touch is...well, the Touch is just damn gorgeous. To my very biased eye it makes the iPhone look like a hack. It's small, it's elegant, offers full sync with Outlook, gives me access to Mobile Word and Excel (and more), has a useful and (again) elegant home screen, and offers as that brilliant little final touch (ha!), the Touch-Flo interface.

The largest complaints about the original HTC Touch center on the included RAM, the processor speed, and its touchscreen keyboard. The Sprint version offers double the RAM, double the processor, and three keyboard layouts. And if none of those is satisfactory, there are at least two other options available for download and install, either of which looks really, really sweet.

Which, btw, gives a final reason to ignore the iPhone for now. The touchscreen keyboard in the iPhone is very nicely done, in contrast to the standard Windows Mobile software keyboard, yet while Apple actively loathes and shuns 3rd party developers, Microsoft embraces them. Thus HTC was free to develop its Touch-Flo interface on top of Windows Mobile, while other developers were free to develop better software keyboards.

In short, I think I'm willing to pay the higher monthly fee for the Sprint Touch because Sprint offers its high-speed data network in my area, and the Touch meets all my needs. As a bonus, it is just plain geeky cool, hated only by those who are utterly and insanely committed to the Apple iPhone.

The only question is what the initial purchase price will be like, and that should be revealed shortly as the rumored release date for the Sprint Touch is November 4, 2007. If it's too high, well, there's always the Wing to fall back on, and it, too, can use those same software keyboard add-ons. Thus I'm in a win-win situation.

I hope my Treo won't get too depressed.

DVD: Black Book (Zwartboek)

I confess, I am a Paul Verhoeven fan. Even when he stumbles, I'm still entertained. All right, I've never seen Showgirls, so it's possible, even probable, that he's made at least one totally irredeemable film. That said, I'm still a fan.

I discovered this wholly by accident. I saw Robocop, was surprised how much I enjoyed it, and saw that Verhoeven not only directed Robo but had also directed one of my favorite war films, A Soldier of Orange. I hadn't paid attention to who directed Soldier, and so this all came as a pleasant surprise. From then on, I kept a watchful eye for the next Verhoeven film, carefully avoiding Showgirls (which may or may not suck, though I am given to believe that it sucks pretty damn hard, pun possibly intended). And so I got a little depressed when he left the US in search of his cinematic roots. I heard about his next big thing, but until the DVD I wasn't able to at last catch up with Black Book (Dutch title, Zwartboek).

Black Book tells the tale of Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten), a Jewish woman hiding in occupied Holland during World War II. Everyone is on pins and needles in anticipation of the coming Allied liberation. Our heroine is no different; she's riding out the last days of the war hiding in a barn. (Her protectors, btw, are Christian. Their brief moments together are quietly touching.)

All of this comes to an end, though, when an Allied B-17 bomber rumbles overhead, pursued by a German fighter. To shed weight and climb to safety, the bomber is dumping its bombs, and one kills Rachel's benefactors and destroys her hiding place. Lucky for her, she'd just started flirting with a man who now takes her to his place to hide. From there she is lured to a boat that is ferrying Jews out of the country. This goes horribly wrong and she winds up with the Dutch resistance. Yes, it happens just about that fast and easy.

But that's all right because now the story really begins. Black Book is a story of betrayal, and not just a single betrayal but a succession of them. The film proceeds in straight, linear fashion, the twists and turns of the plot revealed to the audience as Rachel experiences them. There's very little that happens that we're allowed to see that she isn't. As a result, Verhoeven forces the audience to go through the same travails as our heroine.

She's not particularly admirable. For the most part, she just wants to stay alive. As a result, she's buffeted by demands on all sides, yielding to those which have the best chance of seeing her survive the day. This slowly becomes not enough and the plot evolves from survival to discovering who is the genuine traitor in their midst.

It's all great fun, in that in-your-face-brutal way that Verhoeven has. Verhoeven has never shied from violence, yet I've never found his films exploitive. Black Book is no exception. There is a particularly brutal and nauseating sequence involving Rachel, as degrading as it can be. What Verhoeven does with such material is present it in a direct, matter-of-fact fashion. He doesn't let his camera linger and he avoid slow motion like the plague that it is. The result is that's he's second only to Michael Mann in realistically depicting violence on the big screen.

That said, Black Book is not Verhoeven at his best, but it is certainly a return to form. It's an intense experience and one fans will applaud. Newcomers might be a little put off, but I think they'll find the experience worthwhile. I was happy to see him present a straight story, and never mind the half-baked allegories or analogies that weaken so many of his films. (For instance, did you know that Starship Troopers was satire? Didn't think so.)

I have a few complaints. First, the film opens in 1956 Israel, with Rachel living in a kibbutz. From there the film is a long flashback. I dislike this film technique in general because it shows a lack of faith in a film's actual opening act, and here it destroys any suspense that should have been growing from Rachel's worsening predicament. We already know she survives, so why should we worry when she's caught, tortured, etc.?

Second, Rachel seems a little too willing to go from one step to the next. Hide? Sure. Hide here? Sure. Jump on that boat? Sure. Join the resistance? Hey, it's the thing to do! Seduce and sleep with a Nazi? Oh, heck yes! On and on. Eventually you come to understand that this is her character, but at first it just seems oh ho-hum and convenient. You actually cheer when she finally says, "Hey, enough!"

Last, Verhoeven very deliberately has the Nazis refer to members of the Dutch resistance as "terrorists". This is in stark contrast to history and reality. It's a less than subtle way of making the inane and insane statement that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". It's stupid, morally bankrupt, mentally lazy, and condescending. Every time a Nazi said, "Terrorist!" I was jarred straight out of the film.

I managed to make it through the film by mentally substituting "member of the resistance" whenever a Nazi said "terrorist". By ignoring the backhanded slap at the United States, I enjoyed Black Book as Verhoeven returning to form and style. If he can avoid silly political commentary, which was just as unsubtle as his films usually are, Black Book may mark the return of a great director.

Iowahawk, Sewer Side Chat

Iowahawk, Sewer Side Chat:

Questioner
Hi, I'm Josh Markin of the ESU Progressive Student Alliance, and I'd just like to say that as a campus activist for peace and justice, that I am totally down with how you have stood up against the fascist neo-Jew GPA thugs at A E Pi, and their plans for busting every grade curve on this campus.

Gromulak
Moje vznášadlo je plné úhorov Gromulak! Pun jegulja loma-làn!

Interpreter
These words please Gromulak! Continue your tribute, Hu-Man!

Questioner
Awesome! But I do have one problem. Warren continues to blame you and the mutant community for the sewage explosion that destroyed Baxter Hall in 2005, even though all the evidence points to an inside job! For example, did you know that sewage doesn't burn? Why did A E Pi have advanced warning? And what about the damage to Rec Building 7? All the facts are in this pamphlet! Why won't you come out and tell the truth that you are innocent, and that Warren's thugs blew up Baxter so he could plant illegal monitoring devices at the sewage pit, and jail mutants without a warrant, and...

Gromulak
Mia kusenveturilo estas plena da angiloj skeertuig is vol palings, loma-làn! Lije k'o iz kabla R'Qqharbok!

Interpreter
Your words grown tiresome like vines of cess algae, Hu-Man! Feast now on his pallid flesh, minions!

Questioner
Whoah! Don't eat me bro! Aaaaah! AAAAAAAH!!

 ROFLMAO!