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2012 the year of the Super Hero Movies
Wolverine or two Batmans?
Marvel has been dominating at the box office for the last couple of years. Warner Bros and DC are hoping to crush Marvel with Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated third and final chapter of his Batman Saga The Dark Knight Rises. Batman is going up against serious competition and going mano a mano a mano with Marvel’s The Avengers and Sony’s reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man.
Oh yeah, there is also Nicholas Cage’s return with Ghost Rider. Pfffft!
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
This is “not really” a sequel to the crappy Ghost Rider from 2007. Nicolas Cage is back as Johnny Blaze the Ghost Rider, as directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor have tried to revive the franchise by completely disregarding everything from the first film except for Cage. In the new film we have Blaze in Eastern Europe as he battles with his curse. He has no choice but to embrace his powers after being recruited by by the church to save a young soul from the claws of Satan.
The Film was released on February 17 and is not doing too well.
The Avengers
Marvel Studios announced in 2005 their plan to ramp up towards an Avengers feature film by establishing a ‘Cinematic Universe’ with a series of solo movies. Fast Forward to 2012. Marvel has planted a solid foundation with the $2.3billion earned by their iconic line-up of hero films: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger. They have been lucky to keep the majority of the original cast members still on board except Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner who was replaced by Mark Ruffalo. The stage is set for director Joss Whedon to give fanboys major Super Hero wood!
All we know about the movie is that the Avengers must assemble to thwart Thor’s douche nozzle brother Loki. Seeing Iron Man, Hawkeye, Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk, and Thor kicking ass together is guaranteed to be a killer film. Even if it sucks it will still be pretty good.
The Avengers is set for release on May 4th.
The Amazing Spider-Man
Sam Raimi’s three Spider-Man movies earned $2.5billion! It still wasn’t enough for Sony to extend Raimi’s stay on Spider-Man. Sony decided to start over with a total reboot. Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst were also given the heave ho as Sony brought in Marc Webb to direct who then hired up and coming actor Andrew Garfield to play Peter Parker, The Amazing Spider-Man.
I’m not too wild about the lame first person web-swinging and wall crawling action in the trailer. I don’t like the costume’s blue and red design, but I do like the black webbing. Also it’s worth mentioning that they are bringing back the Peter Parker built web shooters! I was grossed out by the wrist hole spurts from the Raimi films. I’m looking forward to seeing Spidey take on the Lizard. Besides, no matter how bad this film turns out, even if it’s worse than The Green Lantern it will still make a bazillion dollars.
The Amazing Spider-Man is set for release July 3rd
The Dark Knight Rises
The only things we know about Chis Nolan’s final chapter in the Batman Saga is that it begins eight years after The Dark Knight and that Batman will go up against his greatest some heavy shit with Bane the guy who broke Batman’s back in the comic book. Anne Hathaway will be playing as Catwoman which is fine by me. Although I’m not feeling the Catwoman costume as of yet. I dunno. I think it needs a little more “Meow” if you know what I mean.
Nolan has said that The Dark Knight Rises will bring an end to the story he started with Batman Begins. With Bane as the villain, I’m sure Nolan will draw heavily on the classic KnightFall storyline and leave Batman ‘broken’ or dead. This movie is going to be intense and is the one I am most looking forward to.
The Dark Knight Rises is set for release July 20th.
2012 is going to be an awesome year for super Hero films. I’m sure The Avengers will break records and make a ton of money for Marvel. Sony’s reboot of Spider-man will have a great start. But I predict The Dark Knight Rises will spank them all as the best film and biggest money maker.
Why Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead.
When I was a wee lad no matter how crappy things got at school every week I always had one beacon of a hope. One thing to look forward to, and that was Saturday Morning cartoons. Sadly Saturday Morning cartoons are now dead. People ask all me all the time. “WTF happened to Saturday morning cartoons?”
This is what I tell them.
Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because Kids Grow Up Faster
In 2012 kids grow up faster than they did in 1987. I don’t mean they grow faster physically. I mean their little minds grow up faster. These days kids have to face the real world at a much younger age. For many it’s no longer cool to watch cartoons after reaching the age of 10 years.
Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of Home Video.
Those of you who are in your 30′s and older, think back to when you were a kid. Home videos weren’t the big deal they are today were they? We had one or two videos tops. Not like kids today who are raised on home videos rather than Saturday morning cartoons.
Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because Cable channels like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, show cartoons on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Kids can watch toons any time. They don’t have to wait until Saturday morning.
Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of the Internet. Net Flix and Youtube.
If you want cartoons you can find pretty much whatever you want at any time on the web.
Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of the FCC.
The Federal Communications Commission requires that every broadcast station at least three hours of educational and or informative TV per week. Networks are sure as hell not going to show this crap during the day while kids aren’t at home. They aren’t going to schedule this stuff at night instead of their prime time shows garbage. So when do they have the least to lose and can still nail kids with educational crap? On Saturday mornings instead of cartoons.
Saturday Morning Cartoons are Dead Because of Video Games
Video games increase in popularity more and more every year. Why watch transformers when you can be a transformer?
Ciao!
R.
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An Epic animation undertaking that was tragically screwed at the hand of the corporate machine.
Richard Williams Animating at his desk.
The Thief and the Cobbler was supposed to be the greatest animated feature film ever created! The film is master animator Richard Williams life’s work.
Stills from the Thief and the Cobbler.
Williams labored on his dream project for over 30 years. Sadly, his masterpiece suffered a similar fat such as The Magnificent Ambersons and the unfinished Don Quoxite by Orson Welles. Imagine how much it sucks to have your life’s work taken away from you because of money and then released to the public in a form totally different from that you intended. I call this artist’s hell. That’s the tragic and sad story behind The Thief and the Cobbler.
When he began production in 1964, Williams wanted The Thief and the Cobbler to be his masterpiece, and a milestone in the art of animation. Because its complicated animation and independent funding, The Thief and the Cobbler was in and out of production for over three decades. Williams worked for years as a producer of incredible TV commercials. Every cent he earned went into the gradual independent production of The Thief.
How the whole thing began.
Williams illustrated some books by Idries Shah based on the ancient Arabian stories of Nasrudin. The film was developed based on the illustrations. Williams brought in Legendary Warner Bros. Master Animator Ken Harris to start working on some early animation for the project. Harris knocked out quite a bit of footage, but the relationship between Shah and Williams went South. The film was changed to remove the main character Nasrudin and a thief character was created and the story was built back up from that point.
The Thief
Legendary Disney Master Animator Art Babbitt did some test animation with the character of the Cobbler. Then came Zig-Zag voiced by Vincent Price from 1967 to 1973 who died in 1993. It was Price’s final appearance. Zig-Zag was mostly animated by Williams. King Nod and Fido were also animated by Babbitt.
Animator Ken Harris
Animator Art Babbit
In the early 80′s the film got financial backing from Prince Mohammed Faisil of Saudi Arabia. Williams went into production on the war machine sequence. They agreed that if the backers liked the sequence they would finance the rest of the film. They did like it but delays and extra expenses scared away the prince.
At this point the film had developed a cult following. Some documentaries came out about Ken Harris, Art Babbit, and Williams himself. This created a buzz within the animation business among artist. In the mid 80′s Williams took his film to San Francisco to show his good friend the legendary Disney Animator Milt Kahl at ILMs (Industrial Light and Magic) screening room. Afterwards some ILM guys came out of the projection room gushing their pants over how awesome the film was. Williams told the ILM guys that he didn’t have the money to finish the film.
Underground Legend!
Video copies of a work print made during Williams’ involvement of the film circulated among animators at many studios. I myself got a VHS copy in 1995 while I was working on The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Disney from an Irish Animator friend of mine who got it when they worked at Bluth Studios in Dublin.
The word spread quickly. The Producers of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? asked to see it and Williams sent it over. Robert Zemeckis, Stephen Speilberg, and some big wigs people at Disney got to screen it and were blown away. Even though they didn’t want to fund The Thief and the Cobbler it impressed them enough to ask Williams to Direct Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Roger Rabbit proved that animation could be big business and Williams was able to get outside funding to complete The Thief. He signed a deal with Warner Bros. in 1990 to finance and distribute the film, but Williams the perfectionist to the end, was unable to complete The Thief on time so Warner Bros. subsequently pulled out. The Completion Bond Company took control from Williams of The Thief and the Cobbler and had it finished by producer Fred Calvert without Williams. Which they did very crapilly. As Williams’ involvement with the movie came to an abrupt end, the annihilation of his life’s work began.
Instead of following the work reel that William’s had provided Warners, Calvert did a complete re-edit of the film. He took out many of Williams’ sequences, adding songs and voice overs to make it more marketable.Fred Calvert’s sent new sequences to be completed in Korea by animators used to working on Saturday morning children’s cartoons. That these sequences look grotesque when juxtaposed with Williams’ original work should have come as no surprise. The finished film was released in Australia and South Africa as “The Princess and The Cobbler”. Miramax then purchased the film and made a few more changes like adding voices for some of the silent characters and cutting a few scenes. This version was eventually released in the US under the name “Arabian Knight.”
The version released on video by Miramax is an unwatchable collage of third rate animation. Worst of all is the bad soundtrack, featuring the voices of Jonathan Winters, as The Thief, and Matthew Broderick, as The Cobbler. Both characters were originally created by Williams as pantomime characters. Broderick’s pointless commentaries and Winters’ unfunny monologues add nothing but annoying noise to the film.
Neither version was a box office success. Thanks to it’s history and intent the film has earned significant cult status among animation professionals and fans. Some very prominent Animators from the Golden Age of animation were involved in the creation of the film and played a noteworthy role in preserving the knowledge and skill of animation for the newer generation of animators. Guys like Art Babbit, Grim Natwick, Ken Harris and Emery Hawkins to name a few.
The Thief and the Cobbler's Villain Zig Zag the Gran Vizier. Voice of Vincent Price
When the film was released in the Fall of 1995, it was crammed with Disney-style songs, large amounts of new dialog, and a promotional campaign that made it look like a cheap rip-off of Disney’s Aladdin. While some moments of Williams’ brilliant vision remain, the finished project ended up NOT being the innovative, completely un-Disneyesque epic that he had toiled for so long to create. It BOMBED!
Welcome Richard Williams to the Man vs. Art Pantheon of Awesomeness!
For the reasons I raved about above and in the podcast and because of his determination, vision, talent, and mastery of animation, I hereby nominate Richard Williams to the Man Vs. Art Pantheon of Awesomeness! Dick Williams spent 30 years trying to pull off an animation masterpiece, a true work of art, the like of which may never be seen or attempted again.
Richard Williams Man vs. Art Pantheon of Awesomeness Inductee
But……There is a silver lining to this cloud!
In 2006, a fan named Garrett Gilchrist put together a non-profit fan restoration of William’s work print, named The Thief and the Cobbler: The Recobbled Cut. It was done in as high quality as possible by combining available sources, such as a bootleg copy of Williams’ work print and better-quality footage from DVD and VHS copies of the released versions. This edit was much supported by numerous people who had worked on the film, with the exception of Richard Williams himself, who wishes not to have anything to do with the film anymore. This edit gained positive reviews and is considered “the best and most important ‘fan edit’ ever made”
This is the film you guys get to watch today. Enjoy!
