Disney cartoons, pretty girls, fair use and free culture?

How one Walt Disney Cartoon was made:

(Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs behind-the-scenes)

Here are a couple quotes from the documentary:
“…the thousands of pencil drawings go to the inking department. Here, hundreds of pretty girls…”
“The inked celluloids next go to the painting department where more pretty girls apply the final colors.”

Damn…Walt Disney was a bigger genius than I ever realized. Unfortunately, to some degree, we also have the Disney Company to thank for possibly being detrimental to cultural diversity. One can argue that a rich, continually replenished, public domain is necessary for continued artistic creation. Disney as we know it wouldn’t exist if the current copyright laws were in place years ago because many of Disney’s animated films are based on Nineteenth Century public domain works, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Pinocchio, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Alice in Wonderland, and The Jungle Book.

There has never been a time in history when more of our ‘culture’ was as ‘owned’ as it is now. And yet there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the uses of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as it is now. (pg. 28 of Free Culture)

Free Culture is a book about the social dimension of creativity: how creative work builds on the past and how society encourages or inhibits that building with laws and technologies.

get a digital copy of the book for free

 

And here’s a humorous, yet informative, review of copyright principles delivered through the words of the very folks we can thank for nearly endless copyright terms:

A Fair(y) Use Tale

the work that must have gone into this…woah.

Giant Big Ass Badgers

Renaissance Badger?

If you’ve been paying attention you should already know about badgers, but I just discovered a couple new badger threats:

• Giant badgers terrorize Iraqi port city
  (this is real: giant badgers are stalking the streets by night, eating humans.)
• Big Ass Badgers
  (this is awesome: it’s a trailer for an exciting new film!…)

Gatchaman update

Gatchaman | Battle of the Planets | G-Force

Here are my 2 favorite pieces of production art from the new Gatchaman movie:
yummy sci-fi outer space goodness.

I hope those walker things in the distance don’t look anything like AT-ATs.

Ain’t it Cool News has more to say about it than me…and they’ve got more pictures. I would, however, like to point one thing out: Tom Gray (the producer) said, “Yeah, and this is one we’re going PG-13 definitely. This is our – we put it on the pants on this one. This is going to be a very interesting film and even maybe pushing R.” …so that means it’s going to be a heavy PG-13 at the very least, but I’m hoping it means they might even go for an R rating. Because that would be very, very cool.

a few updates

John Waters | Singer and McQuarrie | TMNT featurette

• I’m a big fan of John Waters, but not of the movies he makes. The only film of his that I’ve seen is Cecil B. Demented and, while I loved the premise, I felt that the movie did not live up to it’s potential. You might even say the story zig’d where I would have zag’d. In fact, I didn’t know he was the director when I saw the movie…I found out later when I watched a documentary on him. That documentary made me a fan. I really like what he’s about and what he was trying to do with his earlier films…even though they’re not really my thing (sidenote: cannabis is not my thing either and I don’t smoke it, but I wouldn’t want to live in a world where it didn’t exist…I don’t even like the fact that it’s illegal.) I will say this: John Waters is absolutely one of my favorite movie stars (he says that “a movie star is someone you want to either get drunk with or have sex with” and I’d love to get drunk with him) and I wish there were more people with such unique perspectives in the world. I like people that do their own thing and push the boundaries, so I think it’s delightful that he may soon be influencing young minds through film. This is what he had to say about the children’s movie he’s planning: “It’s a terribly wonderful children’s adventure called Fruitcake. It is a children’s film. One that I’ve been working on a long time, and I’m hoping to start shooting it in the fall. It’s a very special film, and it’s one that could appeal to children that are especially creative.” I can’t wait. And maybe I’ll get around to watching some of his other movies before this one comes out.

• Bryan Singer (X2, Superman Returns) and Christopher McQuarrie (Way of the Gun) are teaming up again for a multi-character ensemble piece set in World War II. The last time they worked together was The Usual Suspects, so you can guess how much I will be looking forward to this project. (edit 2: oh yeah…they’re saying that the next Superman movie will NOT be delayed because of this.)

• There’s a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles featurette with footage (heh) that isn’t in the trailers. It’s worth a watch and it touches on the individual personalities of each turtle.

Paprika, Next, 1408 and more Sunshine

Sunshine (update) | Paprika (anime) | Next (PKDick) | 1408 (King)

New Sunshine trailers: Kaneda and MSN Exclusive

This might be all you get for a while…apparently the US release date for this movie has been pushed back until December. (but not the UK release date…what’s up with that?)

 

Paprika trailer

Paprika seems to be about a detective who can enter the dreams of the people she is investigating. There’s so much potential for unbelievable and amazing imagery with a premise like this that I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t be worth seeing. It looks to me like something that Michel Gondry might have created, but since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind dealt with the inner workings of the mind that’s probably to be expected.

 

Next trailer

Since Next is based on a Philip K. Dick story (and I’ve liked almost everything of his that has been adapted for the big screen: Blade Runner, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, etc.) I’m hoping that it will be good. It’s about a Las Vegas showroom magician named Cris Johnson who can see a few minutes into the future.

 

1408 trailer

This one has been out there for a while, but I forgot to share. It’s based on a Stephen King short story, but I think it might actually be worth watching (unlike many of his other adapted works.) It’s about a horror writer that checks into hotel room #1408 because it is rumored to be haunted.

some things of interest (to me)

(edit 2: I will be constantly updating this page with Rotten Tomatoes links so I can see how good I am about picking movies.)

It’s been a while since I posted and it might be a while before the next new entry so this will be a monster-sized post of things that I’m looking forward to seeing. (edit: in somewhat chronological order.) Some of them are only mildly interesting to me, but there are a few that are really exciting:

 

Bridge to Terabithia (84% fresh)
The trailer (click and search for it) looks interesting enough and I have no expectations since I’ve not read the book. I’m hoping that I will like this one more than the Narnia film because I really like fantasy stuff and there’s not much of it in the movie realms.

 

the Number 23 (8% fresh – I really guessed wrong on this one) :
Coincidences can be really cool and I like Jim Carrey in serious roles. It all depends on how they put it together. (click for the trailer.)

 

The Astronaut Farmer (59% fresh – barely missed it.)
The tagline for the movie says it all: “If we don’t have our dreams, we have nothing.” (click for the trailer.)

 

Zodiac (87% fresh):

(click for trailer)
David Fincher kinda got bogged down with details in Panic Room, but hopefully he’s beyond the need for that. I’ve heard some good things and it looks really nice so far.

 

 

 

300 (61% fresh):

(click for trailers)
This movie looks amazing. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet do yourself a favor and click the link. It gave me the chills. (and Gerard Butler is the new Brian Blessed…just like I said.)

 

The Hills Have Eyes II (14% fresh…damn.)
The first one was really intense and if the second one is only half as good it will still be worth watching. [link is to my previous entry]

 

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (32% fresh…seriously?):

(click for trailer)
I had some collected versions of the comic book and I really liked them. This project looks like the closest I will ever get to the turtles I know. [link to my previous entry]

 

Meet the Robinsons (67% fresh…so far)
This just looks like it will be fun. Plus…I just really like time travel. (click for the trailer.)

 

Grindhouse:

(click for trailer)
Tarantino and Rodriguez are not to be missed. And the ‘fake’ trailers between the movies seem equally cool. The gun leg is a bit much though.

Sunshine:

[link is to my previous entry]
The sun is going out and a group of astronauts are on a mission to restart it…what’s not to like? Danny Boyle and Alex Garland too?! Icing on the cake.

 

 

Hot Fuzz:

(click for trailer)
As far as I can tell…these guys can do no wrong. All I’m saying is: they need to figure out how to create faster. [link to my previous entry]

 

the Invisible:

(click for trailer)
Goyer is on my must-see list because of Batman Begins, but I’d probably be interested in this movie even if he wasn’t attached to the project. It looks like something we haven’t already seen a hundred times.

 

Disturbia:

(click for trailer)
This one probably only makes the list because I like Rear Window so, so much.

 

Spider-Man 3
I think it’s kinda messed up that they found Mary Jane 2 movies too late and then decided to make her into Gwen Stacy, but I’m still a huge comic geek and this movie looks like it will satisfy. Raimi’s version of the character is better than just about anyone else’s could have been. I wonder what things will be like with a completely new creative team.

 

28 Weeks Later… :

(click for a clip of “raw footage” from 28 Weeks Later)
This is another sequel that I’m looking forward to even though it has a new creative team. It will be difficult to follow in the footsteps of the original, but I’m hoping it will be a worthy successor.

 

Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End
I’m one of the few people that seemed to like the second movie and I’m sure the third one will recapture the mutineers. [link to my previous entry]

Toy Story Requiem

this is completely amazing:

Toy Story 2 + Requiem for a Dream

Teenage Gatchaman Turtles and the Ninja Battle of the Mutant G-Force Planets

I’m sure everyone remembers the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They’ve been all over the place. The thing is…many of you know the wrong turtles. You only have to read 7 pages of the first issue of the original TMNT comic to see the difference. This is what my turtles look like:

They DO NOT, however, look like this:

So…you can imagine how excited I was to hear that the new TMNT movie “will derive its tone from the original comic-book series and will be slightly grittier than the previous live-action pictures.” I know you’re probably thinking: “The teaser trailer was released in July…this is nothing new.” or “So what? I don’t even like turtles.”, but I’m only bringing it up because the director, Kevin Munroe, has recently announced that his next project will be Gatchaman:

I can’t claim any cool points with Gatchaman because I remember it as Battle of the Planets. The heavily edited American version removed the violent scenes and replaced them with scenes of an R2D2-like robot (and his pet robot dog!) talking to the audience. Despite that…somehow Battle of the Planets replaced Speed Racer to become my favorite animated series when I was a small child-like creature. What I mean by that is that I like G-Force as much as many of you people like those silly hero turtles. Also, to add to my excitement, the new Gatchaman movie will definitely be PG-13, “even maybe pushing R.” I hope it ends up being rated R…the kids get enough happy, non-violent animation as it is.

[edit: click for my march 24tH Gatchaman update.]

Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury [5.9995/10]

Before watching this I had a few reservations:

• I thought the Chronicles of Riddick was quite bad. (this could easily be worse.)
• Peter Chung’s animation has never really done much for me. (it was neat at first, but seems a bit odd to me now.)
• I thought the Chronicles of Riddick was quite bad. (but I liked Pitch Black so much that I was willing to give this a chance.)

While watching I had some more:

• the animation is odd. (I admit: I’m an animation snob.)
• the Toombs character is barely even introduced.
• of course there’s a fight in the dark. :: rolls eyes ::
• I’m not so sure about this soundtrack.

After it was over I decided:

• Dark Fury was easily twice as good as Chronicles and I guess I kinda liked it.
• They probably could have made it a bit longer and I would have liked it more.
• Maybe I should check out the game at some point.

Incredibles: mostly worth it, but over-hyped. [8.7/10]

It wasn’t that incredible. But I did see it at the $1.50 cinema and that dimmed the experience considerably. It did help me rediscover the kinds of things that kids think are funny though. And make me wish that there was some kind of comparable non-kid type entertainment.

“Quick! Let’s run down the Incredibletunnel!”

There were some really outstanding sequences, but there were some anticlimactic sequences as well. It’s still very entertaining, but not the perfect movie that the hype wants you to think it is. The story was kinda clunky…for lack of a better describing word. Not many films I’ve seen recently have lived up to the hype. It’s one of those projects that I wish I could have influenced in some way. How do you get to be a person that helps other people’s ideas? I wish I could figure it out.

also: I’d love to know what they changed about the fantastic four movie because of this one. Even though I fully expect that movie to be bad.