O For Tuna

Cleveland Tourism Video

We Got Time and Closed Zone

As found on Cartoon Brew...

Susan Boyle rocks the world

Susan Boyle has rocked the world on Britain's Got Talent. Here is a dowdy middle-aged woman who claims she wants to be the next Eileene Paige. The results are extraordinary. Even Simon is speechless. You can view the entire clip here on YouTube.

Christian Bale Animated

A group of artists at Pixar, Spline Doctors, held a contest to see who could create the best character animation based on, of all things, Christian Bale's famed rant on the Terminator Salvation set last summer. The rant was recorded on a cell phone while he chewed out some lighting guy for walking into his eye line off camera. You can see the results here. I recommend watching the compilation film under here are most of the other entries.

Sir Sponge-alot

As found on Cartoon Brew...

Rest in Peace, Lawrence Kutner

Hope you enjoy that great White Castle in the sky!

Movie Weekend

After a fun night out Friday, I stayed in the rest of the weekend and watched a bunch of movies that have been out for a while but were new to me. Here's an overview:

Enchanted

The young Princess Giselle (Amy Adams), is banished from her animated fairy tale world to the "real" live action world of Manhattan. After wandering the streets, she literally falls in the arms of Robert Phillip (Patrick Dempsey), a matter-of-fact divorce attorney and single dad. Abandoned by his wife, and a divorce attorney, he has learned the harshness of the world and won't have anything to do with fairy tale nonsense. Meanwhile, Giselle's fiancée, Prince Edward (James Marsden), follows her and searches Manhattan to get her back. But now she isn't so sure she really believes in the fairy tale. Will she choose Robert or Edward? Meanwhile, after several attempts to kill the princess are bungled by her assistant, Edward's evil step mother (Susan Sarandan) shows up to finish the job.

Enchanted is a fun spoof on the Disney formula. Giselle and Robert challenge one another's assumptions about the world. Giselle learns to think a little more critically about her relationships – that it's important to get to know the guy she wants to spend the rest of her life with. Meanwhile, Robert needed the opposite lesson – to accept that it is possible to fall in love at first sight. 

The animation sequences were, appropriately, directed by Musker and Clemens, the team directly responsible for the Disney renaissance of the 1990s. (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.) Music for the entire film is scored by the same musical team for those films, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. There are of course, countless visual, story and musical references to the Disney films. 

The Illusionist

Eisenheim (Edward Norton), born the son of a cabinet maker, falls in love with a dutchess, Sophie (Jessica Biel). Driven apart by class, Eisenheim leaves town and travels the world. He returns years later a great magician. He learns that Sophie is betrothed to the crown prince (Rufus Sewell), a violent alcoholic who has designs on his father's throne and the nasty habit of dispatching his lovers. Inspector Ruhl (Paul Giamatti), who himself has grown from peasanthood to a position of power, is sympathetic to Eisenheim's desire for Sophie, but is politically obligated to support the Prince. He ultimately shuts Eisenheim's show down after he publicly humiliates the Prince. When Sophie is murdered, Eisenheim begins a new type of show, where he communes with the dead. Sophie ultimately appears and implicates the Prince in her death. Ruhl is caught between keeping his job and bringing Sophie to justice.

The Illusionist is stylistically beautiful (I love the cinematographic homage to the silent era films – the flicker and sepia tones) and the acting is superb. It is difficult not to compare this film to that OTHER magician movie, The Prestige. Both films play off the slight-of-hand, The Prestige is a far more the more fluid and complex film – and more satisfying.

The Battle of Shaker Heights

This charming little indi film is about an otherwise intelligent high school student, Kelly Ernswiler (Shia Le Beouf), who finds it easier to escape reality than deal with the building anger he has toward his ex-addict father. He participates in World War Two reenactments. He convinces himself he is in love with his best friend's far older sister who is about to be married. Meanwhile, the "girl next door" invites him to a concert and he turns her down. He mouths off to the school bully and his teachers. At his ultimate low point, Kelly even disrupts the wedding.

A mix of light comedy and drama, The Battle of Shaker Heights is a charming film. It does not hit you over the head with any message. (Spoiler alert!) When he finally confronts his father at the end of the film, as much as a motormouth as he is, Kelly doesn't go into some long, heartfelt monologue. He just quietly enters his father's hospital room and sits next to him and watches TV. Nothing more needs to be said.