Coming Soon

The word is out: Disney has announced that the title of the newest Stat Wars film is "The Force Awakens."

  

Principal photography wrapped today and the film is expected to release December 2015.  Can hardly wait. 

Horror Trailer Mashups

Halloween is coming, and I do like a good scare.  So let me take my childhood favorite movies and see how we can change them.  For example...What if "Labyrinth" was a horror movie? Not much of a stretch really.  I mean, The Goblin King stole a baby.  When I saw this as a kid I thought he was already kind of creepy... in a cool way.
 But then there's this one for "Mary Poppins" that is pretty well done.

Jungle Book Remake: Same Ol' Same Ol'

Disney loves to shine up something old to make it new again (which I've been ranting about on here continually).  Now they are working on remaking their 1967 version of the "Jungle Book," starring Bill Murray as Baloo, and co-starring Scarlett Johansson and Christopher Walken.  Jon Favreau is set to direct.  If you remember, just 10 years ago in 1994 they made a live-action version of the classic story, and the reviews were average.  Then you had the straight-to-video "Jungle Book 2" sequel, which was even worse.  What makes Disney think they can do better this time?  Well because it's being described as a "live and animated hybrid," which sounds so much better than "remake," right?

Oh, and because Disney can't even think of anything new, why should any other studio?  Warner Bros is coming out with their own version of the story exactly a year later.

Monday's This & That

As I enjoy the nice Spring weather, let's take a peek at what's around the 'net.

HBO is casting for their mini-series Mildred Pierce, that will star Kate Winslet in the role that won Joan Crawford a Best Actress Oscar. HBO did really well with the 're-imagining' of Grey Gardens starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore. Let's hope this one does Ms Crawford justice, as well. Not familiar with Mildred Pierce? See a (hilarious) dubbed over part of the film featured in a previous post.

And speaking of unnecessary remakes, Dermot Mulroney is in talks to star in a 'reboot' of The Rockford Files TV series, taking over James Garner's famous role. Also to star is Beau Bridges. House creator David Shore will be a part of the 70s remake, and Steve Carell will executive produce.

Apparently Disney is making their newest fairytale flick "less princessy." They've changed the title from the classic "Rapunzel" to Tangled in an attempt to attract more boys to theaters. We'll see if it works. Critics speculate that its animation will be the real test, as the film is being done using traditional hand-drawn style animation, and critics say the style is of something that this generation of kids may not be accustomed. A teaser trailer is appearing on The Princess and the Frog DVD for the Fall release, but you can see it here, as well.

And the role previously thought to be taken by Keira Knightley may now be going to Carey Mulligan. The role? In another remake, of course. This one being My Fair Lady. The role Mulligan is close to signing was originally perfected by Julie Andrews on stage and Audrey Hepburn on film.

Got any NEW ideas, Hollywood?

Happy Birthday, Donald Duck!

He's officially a whopping 75 years old today! So enjoy this classic cartoon starring our favorite web-footed friend.

Toy Story 3 Teaser Trailer

Looking forward to this next summer...

A Perfect Combination

My birthday just passed recently -- don't ask how old I am now.

Anyway, I've gotten some good gifts in my time, but this one takes the cake. My friend seems to really know me, because she gave me the perfect combination of a few of my favorites, culminating in to a Darth Goofy bobblehead!And in his underpants, too. Classic.

The Art of Skiing

Following up on previous post of the Goofy holler, and the fact that I'm taking off for Big Bear this weekend to try some skiing/snowboarding myself, I thought this appropriate:

The Goofy Holler

As a hah-yuge fan of Goofy, I had to fall in love with this post from Michael J. Ruocco's blog For the Birds:

"YAAAAAAA-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOOEEEYYYY!!!"
Recognize that onomatopoeia? It's the famous "Goofy Holler"!

The Goofy Holler's debut was in the 1941 cartoon The Art of Skiing, originally recorded by a professional yodeler by the name of Hannes Schrolle. Since then, it has become a staple of the history of cartoon sound effects and voices.

He was kind enough to make a compilation of Goofy Hollers, a la The Wilhelm Scream Compilation. See the video and read a bit more here!

Happy Birthday, Walt!

Today Walt Disney would be 107 years old!

During World War I, a young man at age 16 lied about his age to join the American Red Cross. The boy was Walt Disney, and he returned home, where he won a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. There, he met a fellow animator, Ub Iwerks. The two soon set up their own company. In the early 20s, they made a series of animated shorts for the Newman theater chain, entitled "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams". Their company soon went bankrupt, however.

The two then went to Hollywood in 1923. They started work on a new series, about a live-action little girl who journeys to a world of animated characters. Entitled the "Alice Comedies", they were distributed by M.J. Winkler (Margaret). Walt was backed up financially only by Winkler and his brother Roy Edward Disney, who would remain his business partner for the rest of his life. Hundreds of "Alice Comedies" were produced between 1923 and 1927, before they lost popularity. Walt then started work on a series around a new animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This series was successful, but in 1928, Walt discovered that M.J. Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz, had stolen the rights to the character away from him. They had also stolen all his animators, except for Ub Iwerks. While taking the train home, Walt started doodling on a piece of paper. The result of these doodles was a mouse named Mickey. With only Walt and Ub to animate, and Walt's wife Lillian Disney (Lilly) and Roy's wife Edna Disney to ink in the animation cells, three Mickey Mouse cartoons were quickly produced. The first two didn't sell, so Walt added synchronized sound to the last one, Steamboat Willie (1928), and it was immediately picked up. It became the first cartoon to use synchronized sound. [source]

Walt went on to revolutionize the world of Animation, launching the first fully-animated film, developing new coloring, inking, and camera techniques, and building an empire -- all starting with a mouse. On Dec. 15, 1966, Walt Disney passed away.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Mickey Mouse!

Mickey's birthday was yesterday...The Walt Disney Company celebrates his birth as November 18, 1928 (meaning that he would have turned 80 years old!).According to the official legend, Mickey Mouse was the result of a brilliant burst of inspiration, which struck Walt Disney during a train ride from New York to Los Angeles. In New York, he'd just seen his popular character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, hijacked by his distributor and farmed out to another animation outfit. By the time he arrived in Hollywood, he was ready to roll with Oswald's replacement. Whether Mickey was more a result of inspiration or perspiration, he first appeared in Plane Crazy (1928), and very soon eclipsed Oswald. [source]

Happy Birthday, big guy!

"Race to Witch Mountain" Trailer Released

One of my previous rants has been about the remake -- or "reimagining" as the producers like to call it -- of "Escape to Witch Mountain," called "Race to Witch Mountain." Starring The Rock, here's one of the first trailers for the film. See what you think of this 'modernization' of a Disney classic.

Attack of the Remakes!

If you're getting that feeling of deja vu, it's because there's more of Hollywood's lack of originality on the way. Besides the ones we've previously mentioned, expect these additional regurgitations coming soon to theaters near you:

The Day the Earth Stood Still, an update to the 1951 classic, this time starring Keanu Reeves.

1984, updated from the 1965 version, which doesn't even make sense. It's supposed to be about the future, yet it's titled 1984 and its expected release is 2009??

Barbarella, this time starring Rose McGowen as the title character.

Land of the Lost, a remake of the popular 1974 TV series.

Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams.

The legendary cult fave The Rocky Horror Picture Show is in the works, much to the chagrin of Susan Sarandon.

The Birds starring Naomi Watts.

The Wolf Man, a remake of the 1941 classic.

Friday the 13th, called a 'reboot', not a remake -- but the lack of originality is still there.

The A-Team, in production since the mid-1990's, is finally set to be released in 2009.

Robocop, which is being kept hush-hush as to whether it will be a "re-imagining," a sequel, or a remake.

There's also talks about remakes of "Dune" and "Nightmare on Elm Street." And don't forget all the sequels!

Jurassic Park IV
Lethal Weapon 5
Pink Panther 2 (which is a shameful sequel to a remake of the original Peter Sellers comedy)
Night at the Museum 2
Fast and the Furious
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Toy Story 3
Alvin and the Chipmunks 2
Iron Man 2
Shrek Goes Fourth
Beverly Hills Cop IV
Cars 2
...and more Spiderman movies...
The list goes on and on as the years go by...Anyone heard of any others??

"My Fair Lady" Remake Planned

The Fabulous Audrey Hepburn blog has reported that there will be yet another Hollywood remake, this one taking the classic My Fair Lady and casting Keira Knightley in the Audrey Hepburn role of Eliza Doolittle. Daniel Day-Lewis is on the producers' wish list to play the role of Henry Higgins.

I know the 1964 film was a remake of a Broadway play that was based on a Greek myth, but this is ridiculous. Must Hollywood make another remake?? Are there no original ideas out there anymore? I mean, why did the writers strike when all it seems like they're doing is recycling old ideas?

And once again a classic film is being "updated." Please, we're not that stupid that we can't interpret old movies to our time period.

Update: Speaking or remakes (especially ones we've already harped on), as for recent news on Race to Witch Mountain, the producers announced who the kids will be: AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig. My favorite part...they're calling it a "modern reimagining" of the earlier film. It's called a remake, people!!

WTF is with Angelina Jolie & Disney?

Angelina Jolie is complaining because there are no Disney princesses that represent her children who are African-American.

Obviously Jolie hasn’t read a newspaper or been on the internet in the last two years...Disney’s been in development of a new African-American princess “The Frog Princess” since 2006.

But besides that, Disney has covered other races in the past: Mulan is an Asian princess, Pocahontas is a Native Indian American princess, Jasmine from "Aladdin" is an Arabian princess... Additionally, their other movies have had a large variety of races and cultures explored. For petesake, the entire movie "The Lion King" is set in Africa.

But the real question is: Who the hell says that Disney has to be the United Nations of animation? Why are they made responsible for covering every race and culture? There are many other animation companies out there (Dreamworks, Warner Brothers...). And African-American actors have been in many many animated features in the past (Chris Rock in "Bee Movie," Jada Pinkett in "Madagascar" to name two). Why does Jolie think a princess is the only representation for her children to emulate?

And if it really bothers Jolie, why doesn't she put some money together and make her own damn movie?

Return of the Escape to the Race to Witch Mountain

That's right, Disney once again cannot come up with an original feature film idea to save their life. Instead of coming up with something new, they keep cracking open the vault and redoing a movie from the past. They've redone "The Shaggy Dog," "The Absent-Minded Professor" ("Flubber"), "Parent Trap," "Freaky Friday," "That Darn Cat"...I've touched upon this in a past post about Disney sequels, but these remakes are getting out of hand, too.

Well the latest news is that they're remaking "Escape to Witch Mountain," the 1975 classic with the flying Winnebago, and calling it "Race to Witch Mountain." The copycat film will star former professional wrestler “The Rock,” as well as Cheech Marin. No news on who the kids will be yet, but I'm guessing they'll be some hot teen wanna-be's whom with Disney wants to create a signing career.

Lemme guess: In order to get Tia out of jail Tony will play an electric guitar instead of a harmonica, performing a new pop hit to make the broom and raincoat beat the guard up? Hey! I could be a Disney writer!!

C'mon Disney, seriously? You can't think of any new stories? Instead you have to rip off old movies and remake them until they're just teenie-bopped and commercialized carbon copies of the classic originals. Hire some better writers, guys. Hell, hire me! I'll regurgitate old stories better than "Flubber."

Monday's This & That

So let's dive in to the latest floating around the internet...

More classics being redone... ContactMusic.com reports:
A musical version of the classic Audrey Hepburn movie "Roman Holiday" has been staged in London. The 1953 film was Hepburn's first starring role and earned her a Best Actress Oscar for her performance alongside Gregory Peck. And now the movie has become the latest legendary picture to be transformed into a West End show, with the story interspersed with the classic songs of Cole Porter. "Roman Holiday"'s London debut follows the musical version of "Gone With The Wind," which opened there earlier this month.

Music by Cole Porter? Has to be good...

Joan Crawford's arch-rival Bette Davis gets her own box collection released on DVD. The set includes "All About Eve," "Phone Call from a Stranger," "The Virgin Queen," "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte," and "The Nanny." (Available on Amazon.com for $36.99 as of this posting.)

...And Disney's going green with their new film label Disneynature, which will produce nature documentaries about environmentalism. (If you've ever been to Walt Disney World and ridden on some of the rides, you'll see this was a long time coming.) The first of seven films that are to revive the classic nature documentary style will be Earth, set for release on Earth Day (April 22, 2009). "The movie focuses on a yearlong journey of three mothers -- a polar bear, elephant and humpback whale with their offspring." Awwww.....

Legendary Disney Animator Passed Away

It's like the official end of the classic era of Disney animation. Ollie Johnston, the last of Disney's "Nine Old Men" who animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Bambi and other classic Disney films has passed away at the age of 95.

The AP Wire reports:
Perhaps the two most accomplished of the nine were Johnston and his close friend Frank Thomas, who died in 2004 at age 92. The pair, who met as art students at Stanford University in the 1930s, were hired by Disney for $17 a week at a time when he was expanding the studio to produce full-length feature films.

Johnston and Thomas and their families became next-door neighbors in the Los Angeles suburb of Flintridge, and during their 45-minute drive to the Disney Studios each day, they would devise fresh ideas for work.

He was especially proud of his work on Bambi and its classic scenes, including one depicting the heartbreaking death of Bambi's mother at the hands of a hunter. That scene has brought tears to the eyes of generations of young and old viewers.

"The mother's death showed how convincing we could be at presenting really strong emotion," he remarked in 1999.

Johnston's other credits included Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Robin Hood, and The Rescuers.

Thursday's This & That: Disney Edition!

I know I've been all about the "This & That" lately, but there's just so much cool stuff going on! And today's edition is all about Disney.First of all, there are more Anne Leibovitz photos on the web for the Disney Parks campaign. (I took the "Snow White" one with Rachel Weisz and 'sweep-a-fied' it, above.) Can't wait to see more of these!

The Hollywood Reporter reports "Comic book legend Stan Lee has set up three projects at Disney, which houses his production shingle POW! Entertainment...The projects are based on stories and ideas from Lee, who will executive produce." The stories are: "Nick Ratchet," revolving around the exploits of a private eye, and action-adventure project called "Blaze," and "Tigress" (working title), that follows a woman who starts getting tiger-like instincts.

The University of Rochester's Campus Times has taken time to discuss the Top 10 Disney Princesses: who's the hottest. (Unfortunately pinup girls impersonating Disney princesses were not applicable.) Oddly enough, they listed many in the top 10 that are not even princesses: Jessica Rabbit, Tinkerbell, and Jane from "Tarzan" to name a few... So check out the list and then tell us who you think is the hottest in the comments!

Wednesday's This & That

April is here, and so are the wonderful unseasonable Santa Ana winds!

No, I didn't play any April Fool's jokes this year...except on the Lounge MySpace page, where I confessed that I am really a 45-year-old man from Duluth. But no one fell for it...I guess that's a good thing.

Some interesting sites are up and running... Disney fans will love Stuff From the Park, an often nostalgic look with "a collection of images and other items from Disneyland, theme parks and other amusement parks."

It's not very up-to-date (it still doesn't have Season 3 up), but there's a new wiki online for one of the greatest sitcoms on television today, How I Met Your Mother. Chock-full of Barneyisms, trivia, and other fun stuff. Still not as good as the Barney blog on the network site, but it's a start.

And comedy fans will be ecstatic over Comedy Juice, the essential guide to comedy in the universe. Watch videos, read up on your favorite humorists, and find out who's performing when. Very funny, very cool.

I have also just been hired as The Swingin' Capybaras' graphic artist, commissioned to assist in designing their album covers. So far I've completed their latest albums released "Under the Wizard's Cloak, Vol. 3" and "By the Light of My Monster Truck." Check out their MySpace page for all the good stuff.

Enjoy surfing!