#Disney+ Original Stop-Motion Series

[disneytva]

RUMOR: IMDB Reveals Characters And Recurring Guest Cast For Rhona Who Lives By The River.

According to IMDB, this might be the full recurring guest cast and character named for serialized stop-motion musical comedy Rhona Who Lives By The River

Obviously take this with a big grain of salt since that site can be edited by anyone only one who seems to be correct is Karen Gillian beacuse she was confirmed to be Rhona since the greenlight PR....

Wilmer Valderrama (Walt Disney Animation Studios Encanto) as Pablo

D'Arcy Carden (The Ghost And Molly McGee) as Kayleigh

Fred Armisen (20th Television Animation’s Central Park, Elena Of Avalor) as Mr Kortle

John Cho (Netflix Animation Over The Moon) as D’ John

Laura Aikman (Disney Europe Animation Space Chickens in Space) as Rhona’s sister Rhona #1

Kai Alexander (FX Pistol) as Knox

Alan Cumming (Broadway Musical A Strange Loop) as Hamish

Tony Curran (Marvel Television Daredevil and Dreamworks Animation Television Voltron Legendary Defender) as The Narrator

Jenifer Lewis (Walt Disney Animation Studios The Princess And The Frog Franchise & Pixar Animation Studios Cars Franchise) as Missy

Dawn Steele (BBC River City) as Elspeth

[thenightling]

Addressing some old confusion about Nightmare before Christmas

Tim Burton is getting a lot of attention lately because of the new Beetlejuice sequel so a lot of his other work is being talked about. The Spooky season also leads to conversations about his work. And every year it's the same thing. Someone will list their favorite Tim Burton movies and someone will go "Umm... Actually, Henry Selick directed Nightmare before Christmas." Yes, he did. But I am willing to argue that three men deserve the bulk of the credit for Nightmare before Christmas. First we need to go backward to the early 1980s when a young Tim Burton was working for Disney as an animator, uncredited, for The Fox and the Hound. An unpleasant aspect of working for Disney is anything you create while working for Disney... belongs to Disney. While working for Disney Tim Burton doodled the characters that would become the main characters of Nightmare before Christmas. He also wrote a long-form story book / poem in the style of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss. It wasn't until the early 1990s that Disney finally agreed to allow this story to be adapted into a film, and also allowed the book, itself, to finally be published a mere few months before the 1993 release of the movie adaptation. In the early 90s there was a cinematic trend that the author of a Gothic book was in the movie title such as Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. But as Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley are long dead, no one mistook them as the director of their movies. The easy mistake may have been deliberate on Disney's part since Disney was preying on the (then) current rising success of Tim Burton's film directing career. (The 2004 Halmark mini-series of Frankenstein is closer to the Mary Shelley novel than the movie called Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, by the way.) Early in the production of the movie Tim Burton went to composer Danny Elfman's home and told him the story piece by piece. Danny Elfman immediately related to the protagonist Jack Skellington as he was in the middle of his own identity crisis as a the lead singer of New Wave rock band, Oingo Boingo. Danny Elfman had recently discovered his talent for and love for film and TV composing. Danny Elfman soon had eleven songs composed that made a full opera of the story Tim Burton told him. In fact, according to Danny Elfman, Tim Burton is uncredited but wrote some of the lyrics. Danny Elfman became so attached to Jack Skellington that he was also the character's singing voice for the movie. Danny Elfman's opera version of the story (just the songs without dialogue between them) became the basis for annual concerts that were performed as recently as last year at the Hollywood Bowl.

Henry Selick was the director of Nightmare before Christmas (the movie) and he had to deal with the tedious work of overseeing the entire stop motion process, probably the most painstaking part of the project. Caroline Thompson wrote the script for Nightmare before Christmas but only after the eleven songs were composed, the dialogue she wrote for the movie consisted of less than ten minutes of the movie's running time. So for the confused: The director of Nightmare before Christmas was Henry Selick. He had to oversee the entire stop motion animation process. The score, song lyrics, and Jack Skellington's singing voice was Danny Elfman, who wrote all eleven songs before there was a script and wrote them so well that they could stand without a script. (But he says Tim Burton wrote some of the lyrics but is uncredited). Tim Burton wrote the original short story / poem that was published the same year as the movie's release as an illustrated children's book. Tim Burton wrote some of the lyrics, chose the color pallets of the sets, and even was the one who decided Sally's socks would have to be striped when the puppet couldn't stand up right because her ankle were too small. Yes, Henry Selick should get credit as the director. But Tim Burton should also get credit for the original story, the character designs / concept art, and Danny Elfman needs the credit for all The scoring, most of the lyrics, and Jack Skellington's most passionate moments as he was the singing voice and Jack did a lot more singing than talking.

These three men, together, with their collective talents, are why we have Nightmare before Christmas.

[coolchevistianofficialsite]

What are your thoughts on Disney TVA's upcoming lineup (Primos, Zombies The Re-Animated Series, StuGo, Cookies & Milk, Rhona Who Lives By The River, Sam Witch, Dog & Frog, SuperStar, The Witchverse, InterCats, Fantasy Sports, Neon Galaxy, La Familia Avenunes, Journey and the Darkwing Duck and TaleSpin reboots by Seth Rogen?

1- Primos

Mira mijo para mí toda la polémica estuvo bien pendeja, ya que todo el crew del show fue puesto en el mismo saco de boxeo por las declaraciones de Myrna Velasco, como persona que conoce a Natasha Kline desde su trabajo en Big City Greens te puedo asegurar por Dieguito Maradona que no es un demonio como otras personas en el internet la están poniendo.

El show NO es sobre la cultura mexicana es sobre la cultura chicana en Los Angeles y como persona que se vio el piloto filtrado antes de que un chistosito lo subiera para crear bardo te digo que es lo mas harmless y inocentón del mundo, los que se están quejando son gente que solo lo hace para crear ragebait y farmear vistas.

2- Zombies The Re-Animated Series

Not really my thing since the movies where "eh" for me but those days i was sick, so i recall the songs, happy for Aliki and the team tho, probably will watch it when i rewatch the films.

3- StuGo

Really interested for this one specially since this one is slated to be Disney TVA's 100th Series, so im curious if Disney will have some kind of event planned besides that, the synopsis is interesting also this show had multiple people of Jellystone! and the crew from the axed CN movie Driftwood on board, so i think it will be interesting as the show saved this people from being jobless.

Just realized that is called "STUGO" beacuse they are STUdents stuck three months on a wild tropical island, so they need to "GO".

Heh. It's like a pun or something. Heheh.

4 - Cookies & Milk

Apparently this is the second project from the Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur EPs, i wonder how will they handle a down to earth slice of life series, imagine if they hire Flying Bark again becoming their first slice of life project with the Rise/LEGO/MGADD animation lol

5- Rhona Who Lives By The River

I like how the concept art has a Cartoon Saloon vibe and wondering how will translate to stop-motion which is interesting, i like Karen Gillian for her role as Nebula on GOTG trilogy, what i wonder is how Disney will handle the show with the Elfman scandal, will they quietly drop it without any mention of Elfman like MAX did with Fired on Mars EP or finding a new composer for Season 2.

6- The Witchverse

I played the VR short recently and OMG is so cute and adorable, the world they created has a big potential for multiple storylines, hoping S1 is more focused on Magda, Sasha (Yeah they have to change her name) and her mother, their relationship was so adorable, hope Daisy Ridley returns for the full series.

7- InterCats

Apparently this will be Disney's first workplace comedy series for YA audiences and it sounds cute, apparently is co-created by one of the Nimona screenwritters Pamela Ribon, so that's a plus.

8- Fantasy Sports

Super looking forward to this one, i loved the original novels and hoping Disney makes justice to Sam Bosma's world and characters, i can see Wiz and Mug becoming perfect additions to crosspromotion events at ESPN.

9- SuperStar

BTW just like to mention that i named it SuperStar as a placeholder title, the show dosn't have a name as of yet, based on the cast call we can see that Alejandra is latina so maybe it's a mixture between MGADD and Hannah Montana, wonder which person created the show.

10.- Journey

Since we don't know it's creator is very hard to tell what to expect BUT the synopsis is interesting kinda a awnser to LEGEND OF VOX MACHIMA but more family friendly, im wonder if this is the project created by Amy Hudkins, Ian Mutchler and Jonathon Wallach since they like Dungeons and Dragons, Legend Of Zelda and Magic The Gathering.

11- La Familia Avenúñez

It's a spin-off of The Proud Family Louder And Prouder with a latino cast pues suena chido la vdd, esperemos que cuando se anuncie no ocurra lo mismo que Primos.

12 - Dog And Frog, Neon Galaxy, Sam Witch

They don't have creator or synopsis as of yet besides a title revealed via a trademark, so it's hard to give overall thoughts

13- Darkwing Duck and TaleSpin Reboots

After TMNT Mutant Mayhem, The Boys, The Boys Diabolical and Invincible im confident that Rogen's team will do Darkwing Duck and TaleSpin justice and wishing good luck to the crew behind them.

[iolaussharpe-24]

So like, does anyone have any good Beauty and the Beast type movies to recommend? I've seen all four Disney movies (the original, the two DVD sequels, and the live-action remake), Belle (the anime), Blood of Beasts (a low budget Viking movie), Beauty and the Beast (the series starring Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton), I am Dragon (a Russian movie about a dragon), The Shape of Water (the Del Toro movie that everyone needs to watch at least once in their life), Penelope (Christina Ricci movie where the girl is actually the 'beast'), Corpse Bride (the stop motion musical about a dead woman trying to marry a living man), Warm Bodies (Zombie!Romeo x Survivor!Juliet), Edward Scissorhands (needs no introduction), Bram Stoker's Dracula (the sexy one with Gary Oldman), the Shrek quadrilogy (even if only the first one really fits the mold), and I'm going to include TAU on this list (a movie about a kidnapped girl, a sadistic scientist, and a tortured AI) because you can't convince me that it wasn't a love story.

I love Beauty and the Beast and stories that are similar, so any recommendations are appreciated.

(Also, if you want to count Phantom of the Opera as a Beauty and the Beast story, I've seen the 1943 version, the Robert Englund version, half of the Julian Sands version (it was really bad), and the Gerard Butler musical version.)

[anotheruserwithnoname]

12 favourite things about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

So I saw the Beetlejuice sequel over the weekend. I saw the original in the theatre nearly 40 years ago. And I admit was a bit nervous about whether the film would live up to the original, or would it be derailed by so many of the things that have caused remakes or continuations of legacy properties to fail in recent years. (Those factors vary from person to person but often boil down to either failing to recapture lightning in a bottle, or going against the spirit of the original in some way.)

I'll put in a spoiler break before I pass along my favourite things about the film, but the tl;dr is I had a blast, and I should never have doubted Tim Burton.

The following includes not only plot spoilers for B2, I also have to mention a major spoiler for the Wednesday series, so you are warned.

Favourite things about B2:

Jenna Ortega

Michael Keaton has managed the near impossible - reprising a role from decades ago without losing anything. It makes me sad that we'll never see his proper return as Batman in the now-lost Batgirl movie. I won't name specific names, but with only a couple of exceptions (most of them in Deadpool and Wolverine), so many times an actor reprising a role from years past has either failed to recapture the magic or does a good job but is still missing something that makes their reprise feel lesser in some way. You could splice together scenes of Keaton from B2 with scenes from B1 and you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

Jenna Ortega

Winona Ryder is terrific as the older Lydia. I loved the fact they made her a "paranormal-reality" TV star; I figured Lydia would have grown up to be either that or a goth-rock singer. I am not in favour of always darkening characters when they return after a while, but I think the idea of Lydia being haunted (literally) by her past and seeing dead people was well handled and does put a bit of a dark spin on the happy ending of B1. But in a way that works.

Jenna Ortega

For reasons best left to a google search, Jeffrey Jones was unable to appear in B2. His absence was well-handled by way of photographs, having his character lose his head, and a very clever and unexpected stop-motion sequence that at times looked like it was one of those wild AI-generated shorts.

Jenna Ortega

The change of style - the stop-motion, and the Italian art film pastiche that served as Beetlejuice's origin story - were a couple places where the film distinguished itself from the original. Same with Beetlejuice pulling a Deadpool a couple of times and talking to the audience.

Jenna Ortega. OK, seriously, she's a lot of fun in this and is a highlight of the film. My only complaint is they're not completely successful in separating her from Wednesday, both when she gets involved in a Beetlejuice-driven dance sequence, and a subplot where her character falls in love with a boy who turns out to be a villain - which is identical to what happens in Wednesday; the actors even look similar (there is the big Wednesday spoiler I warned about). That's one of the only major criticisms I have with B2, made a bit more glaring as Burton produced Wednesday and I think the film and show used the same writers. Jenna is in danger of being typecast which I'm sure she wants to avoid. I hope her star just continues to rise.

Bob. 'Nuff said.

Burn Gorman of Torchwood fame makes an unexpected appearance in the film as a preacher. He's quite funny to watch in his few scenes. He's become quite a good character actor over the years.

The Disney joke. Aside from the fact I know it'll play well with the many who have been turned off the House of Mouse for various reasons (including their treatment of various franchises and the never-ending Snow White saga), it has a different meaning when you realize that reportedly Burton had a bad experience making the live-action Dumbo for them, so this wasn't just a topical dig at Disney (like we saw in Deadpool) - this one was personal. When film scholars of the future write their books examining Burton's films and he and everyone else involved in his movies have collected their copies of the Handbook, the joke will probably get covered in quite a bit of detail, even though it comes and goes so quickly on screen.

One criticism I have is that Monica Bellucci's character doesn't really do too much. Reportedly Burton and Bellucci began dating while making the film so at least those two got something out of it. But her end was a bit overwhelming. I also felt Willem Defoe's character was underused. But if someone decided to do a spinoff of his actor-turned-underworld cop character, I think it could do well. I know both Bellucci and Defoe were playing plot maguffins - their purpose was to push things along to get to the Beetlejuice/Lydia reunion. But there could have been more. (I also didn't care for the fact no one thanked Beetlejuice for saving the lives (and souls) of Jenna's character by dealing with the boyfriend and everyone else by helping dispose of Monica. That's the only part of the film I disliked, but a minor point.)

Is B2 better than B1. I would say no, but it is an excellent film. I don't know if a third movie is justified, but the prospect of releasing a film called Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice may be too much temptation to ignore.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Knock knock, Simba...

INSIDE OUT 2 - with a little Labor Day bump - finally dethrones LION KING '19, and looks to wrap up with or a little below $1.7b, in addition to being one of the only animated features to cross $1b in overseas non-North American totals. Hey Disney, why doncha use that money to cover the so-called "losses" of LUCA, TURNING RED, ELEMENTAL, etc. instead of writing those movies off as "failures" or whatever. (Yeah right, lol.)

DESPICABLE ME 4 tops $900m, now at around $915m, looks to unseat MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU's $940m take from two years back. Might even do the big billion. Outside of the animation-loaded DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, it's really cartoony animated features making the big behemoth bucks this summer, if not whole year. Keep that in mind, industry...

Elsewhere, CORALINE 15th Anniversary continues to do pretty well, only slipping 45% for the three-day. At $116m domestically, it is now the highest-earning stop-motion film, topping Aardman's CHICKEN RUN from 24 years ago. Worldwide, the fowl still have the upper bunk. Still, $169m worldwide so far, a second life well-lived for CORALINE, proving once more how the first theatrical release is really only the infancy of a movie.

I wonder how long INSIDE OUT 2 keeps this highest grossing record, considering how amazingly it has done around the world.

If any upcoming animated film can challenge it for that throne, I think it's SHREK 5. If not SHREK 5, I really do not know. FROZEN III could outgross the already massive second movie, which is in 3rd place currently behind LION KING '19. Maybe the MARIO sequel, given how huge the first one was. INCREDIBLES 3 has a shot. MINIONS 3 probably not, I think the first MINIONS was the box office peak of that series. I would love to say BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE could do it, but those movies do better domestically than they do overseas.

Anyways, it's nothing short of amazing how much of a bump we saw from INSIDE OUT ($850m-ish) to INSIDE OUT 2. Didn't stay flat nor make less, pretty much nearly doubled what the original made back in 2015. Just printing money, really. But let's do hope that ELIO and HOPPERS don't fall under, the last thing we need is Disney telling Pixar to re-route once again and stop taking risks.

[themattress]

Eras of a Franchise:

The Origins Era (1923 - 1942)

The studio is founded and creates theatrical shorts (series like Alice Comedies, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and Mickey Mouse) until pioneering the fully-animated theatrical movie.

Movies released in this era: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Pinocchio Fantasia Dumbo Bambi

The Wartime Era (1943 - 1949)

Funds are diverted to aiding the country during World War II, so the movies created during this era are just normal animated shorts packaged together to fill at least an hour runtime.

Movies released in this era: Saludos Amigos The Three Caballeros Make Mine Music Fun and Fancy Free Melody Time The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

The Rebound Era (1950 - 1969)

Traditional animated movies make a comeback, to varying degrees of financial success but all to high degrees of quality. The era ends shortly after Walt Disney's death in 1966.

Movies released in this era: Cinderella Alice in Wonderland Peter Pan Lady and the Tramp Sleeping Beauty 101 Dalmatians The Sword in the Stone The Jungle Book

The Declining Era (1970 - 1988)

Without Walt, the company's leadership becomes aimless, and Disney becomes pigeonholed as a frivolous studio that makes funny cartoon animal movies for children. After reaching a nadir in 1985, things gradually begin to shape up due to a skilled new leadership quadrate.

Movies released in this era: The Aristocats Robin Hood The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh The Rescuers The Fox and the Hound The Black Cauldron The Great Mouse Detective Oliver and Company

The Renaissance Era (1989 - 1999)

A decade in which Disney movies were arguably bigger than ever, being critical and/or box office smashes, and the majority of the movies being musicals. Tragically, the leadership quadrate was broken halfway through, which ultimately brought about the era's end.

Movies released in this era: The Little Mermaid The Rescuers Down Under Beauty and the Beast Aladdin The Nightmare Before Christmas* The Lion King Pocahontas The Hunchback of Notre Dame Hercules Mulan Tarzan

The Experimental Era (2000 - 2007/2008)

A time when Disney moved away from their musical formula and put out radically different films. Unfortunately, the studio was often undermined by corporate decisions, now almost exclusively managed by Michael Eisner, leading to the majority of these movies flopping.

Movies released in this era: Fantasia 2000 Dinosaur The Emperor's New Groove Atlantis the Lost Empire Lilo & Stitch Treasure Planet Brother Bear Home on the Range Chicken Little Meet the Robinsons

The Revival Era (2008/2009 - 2019)

With Eisner gone and his replacement Bob Iger bringing aboard Pixar's John Lasseter as the head of the studio, Disney begins putting out high-quality movies that are critically and/or financially successful at a regular pace, including its biggest hits ever Frozen and Frozen II.

Movies released in this era: Bolt** The Princess and the Frog Tangled Winnie the Pooh Wreck-It Ralph Frozen Big Hero 6 Zootopia Moana Ralph Breaks the Internet Frozen II

The Current Era (2020 - Present)

Disney is experiencing some....technical difficulties right now. Repair time unknown.

Movies released in this era: Raya and the Last Dragon Encanto Strange World Wish

*The Nightmare Before Christmas was put in development to be part of the Disney Animated Canon. However, studio leadership ultimately backed out of this plan and had it released via Touchstone Pictures instead since its stop-motion animation was deemed too different from the other movies' hand-drawn animation. Which is funny since otherwise it being a musical makes it fits more than The Rescuers Down Under, more of a Declining Era holdover, does.

**Debate persists whether Bolt should be considered the end of the Experimental Era or the start of the Revival Era, as while it was the first movie overseen by John Lasseter and was a critical and box office success, it also lacked the staying power within the company brand (sequels, spin-offs, merchandise, etc.) that The Princess and the Frog and onward did.

[twh-news]

‘Loki’ Puts Plot Over People in a Less Focused Season 2: TV Review

Time travel is impossible in real life, but it’s also pretty difficult to pull off in fiction, where a nifty plot device can too easily devolve into a tangled nest of convoluted exposition. The first season of “Loki” avoided this problem, making the Disney+ show a bright spot in a somewhat stagnant era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In following a “variant” of the Norse trickster god into the depths of the Time Variance Authority, or TVA, the series paired impeccable production design with a simple emotional narrative — especially once our primary Loki (Tom Hiddleston) met his match in his female counterpart Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), a relationship that opened questions of identity, free will and self-determination. Tracking the potential branches of the so-called Sacred Timeline could make your head spin. Like a Zen koan, “What makes a Loki a Loki?” is grounding and easy to grasp.

In the final moments of its first season, “Loki” revealed it would become the first Marvel Studios show for Disney+ to have a second season. This news came as a relief, given its cliffhanger ending; after Loki and Sylvie traveled to the end of time, Sylvie killed He Who Remains (Jonthan Majors), the founder of the TVA and the primary obstacle keeping the Sacred Timeline from becoming a full-fledged multiverse. When Loki, having tried to stop her, returned alone to the TVA, he found an office transformed, with statues of He Who Remains looming everywhere and employees like Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) having no memory of their quarry-turned-collaborator.

[Spoilers ahead]

Two years later, “Loki” is back, and not a moment too soon. Though the show started the MCU’s Multiverse Saga on a high note, the franchise’s latest phase has since run into trouble onscreen and off. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” was a critical and commercial disappointment that failed to build on the goodwill generated by “Loki,” despite using some of the same concepts and characters. Meanwhile, Majors is facing trial for charges of assault and aggravated harassment against his former girlfriend, throwing Marvel’s plan to make his character the next Thanos-style archvillain into question. (Not that blockbuster business planning should be anyone’s main concern when it comes to allegations of domestic violence, but with this much money on the line, it is a concern to some.)

Such circumstances place a great deal of pressure and scrutiny on “Loki” Season 2, which has also seen some personnel shuffles behind the scenes. (Eric Martin takes over head writing duties from creator Michael Waldron, while sole director Kate Herron has passed the baton to a larger group led by collaborators Justin Benson and Aaron Morehead.) But while “Loki” remains a cut above other MCU shows, second only to “WandaVision,” Season 2 succumbs to the same traps the original story so cleverly avoided.

While the first episodes of “Loki” used its namesake as an audience surrogate, gradually laying out the purpose, customs and bylaws of the TVA, Season 2 begins in media res. Right away, Loki is tasked with finding Sylvie, figuring out why he’s hopscotching through time and navigating the chaos of a TVA workforce that’s just discovered all memory-wiped variants from “severed” — or less euphemistically, eliminated — timelines. It’s a lot, perhaps too much, for both Loki and the viewer to process, especially since the story feels increasingly unmoored from Loki’s own journey of (literal) self-discovery.

Instead, the season introduces new MacGuffins like the Temporal Loom and characters like Ourobouros (Ke Huy Quan), a kind of cosmic IT guy tasked with keeping TVA equipment in shape. There’s frantic motion and momentum, but not as much of a sense of who wants what, and why, when it comes to complicated questions of personal autonomy versus the collective good. In fact, one gets the sense that “Loki” maintains the breakneck speed precisely so it doesn’t have to slow down and root the action in its characters’ wants and needs. Online explainers will surely lay out the logistics in exhaustive detail, but they can’t create the sense of emotional urgency the season palpably lacks.

At least there are the performances, delivered by an ensemble within the MCU’s mega-ensemble that remains one of its best. On an extended victory lap after his Oscar win for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Quan brings an antic energy to Ourobouros, or OB, that complements the wacky hijinks he’s asked to facilitate. Rafael Casal is less well-served as a TVA employee who’s barely introduced before becoming a fugitive we’re told is crucial to the plot, though through no fault of his own. And when taken on its own terms, Majors’ work as He Who Remains in his various incarnations is an idiosyncratic and strangely magnetic break from Marvel house style — though whether it should be considered separately from his off-set behavior is another question entirely.

The playful, inventive visuals also continue to give “Loki” an added edge, from the crammed gadgetry of OB’s workshop to a quick detour in 1970s London to an entire episode set in 19th century Chicago. But where everything from the set design of the TVA to its complicated cosmology once felt in service to Loki’s burgeoning ability to feel camaraderie and love, the hierarchy now feels reversed. Even though, via spoiler-y means, Loki and Mobius do get to resume their buddy routine, there’s less space for either their friendship or Loki’s bond with Sylvie when everyone is racing around for unclear reasons. “Loki” is still a good time, but despite the renewal, it may not have been built for a long one.

[harleiquina]

All TV series I've ever seen II

Let's see how many I remember from this time period.

1940 - 1970

1980 - 2000 (this post)

2010 - Now

1983 - V

Aliens have come to Earth but they are nice and willing to help us... or so they say.

Everybody remembers Diana eating rats, the dramatic face reveal of any reptilian, Freddy Krueger beeing a good guy (this time) and I'm sure Stephenie Meyers wish that Reneesme/Jacob had the same level of acceptance than "the child from the stars" (name given in Latinoamerica, don't know if it was also used in the original show) and whats-his-name.

Saw it on TV but we also bought the bootleg DVD because my mom and aunt never saw the ending of the show as kids.

1985 - Amazing Stories

I hardly remember anything (I was too young when it was played on TV) but I do remember beeing traumatized by Christopher Lloyd's severed (and reattached) head.

It was created by Spielberg, some stories land better than other ones. Maybe I should try and rewatch some?

1986 - Sledge Hammer

Is he sexist, violent, gun-lover and conservative AF? Yes... but he's also hilarious! This is satire people! Don't be like the NRA that gave somekind of award to this fictional character because they have the same level of comprehension than a brick.

Saw it on TV but it is also available on Youtube.

1986 - ALF

Alien finds himself on a typical american family house and chaos begins.

Do you live under a rock? Don't you know who ALF is? Just go watch it.

It was on TV when I was growing up, I'm pretty sure you can find it anywhere.

1989 - The Simpsons

I will keep on saying it, we argentineans speak in 3 languages: Spanish, Lunfardo (a Buenos Aires dialect but each province has their own as well) and Simpsons' quotes (latin spanish obviously, everyone agrees that it's the definitive Simpsons). Earlier seasons are better, we all know that... they kind of lose us when the original latin dubbers were replaced (it would seem that Disney brought them back but I hardly watch TV now, so I don't know)

1989 - Eureeka's castle.

I don't remember a THING about it but my family says that I was obsessed. It's a Muppet-style show of a young witch apprentice and her friends.

Upon further looking, it was co-written by R. L. Stine? So I didn't got into Goosebumps as a child but got this... who knows?

1989 - Agatha Christie's Poirot

I haven't watched everything just yet (it's been on for 20 years, people!) but I do like David Suchet's Hercules Poirot (my family disagrees because for them Poirot will always be Peter Ustinov). Hey, at least it's not Albert Finney!

1990 - Caloi en su tinta (Caloi in his own ink - Argentina)

It wasn't a series properly said... it didn't have a story to follow. Caloi was a very important artist in my country (his character Clemente became a staple in our comics just like Mafalda) and he had this TV show where he curated animations of all kinds, from all over the world. I remember seeing a stop-motion version of Barber of Sevilla and I think that I also saw Queen's Innuendo videoclip for the first time in here.

Some stories were funny, others melancholic, elegant or grotesque... but all of them were Art, with a capital A.

1990 - Twin Peaks

I don't understand the hype around this show. The only thing that I though was cool was to have a season and a half to find the killer.

Before someone tells me "you have to think how ground breaking it was in the time it came up" or "it's high end art, open your mind to it" trust me I can do that... it doesn't change the fact that I don't see why so many people like it so much.

I'll grant it a few points for showing us David Duchovny as a trans woman FBI agent that saves the day on the episode she shows up. I did like the character.

1993 - The Nanny

What would happen if instead of María taking care of Von Trapp's children in the Alps, we had a jewish it-girl from Flushing, Queens? That was Fran Drescher's pitch, the rest is history.

I got to confess I usually get bored with sit-coms but this is the only one that I can watch over and over again (and the final episode still brings single tear in my eye). Yeah, the whole plot of Fran trying to get pregnant was dragged for too long, but still it's like 3 or 4 episodes, no biggy (unless my memory fails, it's been a while).

1993 - Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

For whatever reason a alien (?) race decided that teenagers are the appropiate warriors so they choose 5 Angel Grove locals to kick Galactic-Witch Rita's ass. Monsters that grow size but still look like rubber suits, the Rangers use spandex but for whatever reason they release sparks when a blade touches them. Still sweet little 4 year old me loved this show.

I checked a few episodes on Youtube not too long ago and I was pleasently surprised by the fact that each monster represented a struggle the Rangers where having on their civilian life... so facing and defeating them actually helped these kids in their ordinary life. A nice message that I completely forgot while self-convincing myself that this show was a lot dumber than I remembered.

Oh! By the way when it was on TV I watched -maybe- up to season 2. When the movie came out I was shocked that Jason, Trini and Zack were not in it.

1993 - The X Files

The most recognizable tune ever, the OG monster-of-the-week format, a skeptic + a believer, some comedy, another bit of drama and , in ocassions, straight-up horror = one of the greatest TV shows ever made.

Regardless what people think I preffer Agent Dogget (there, I said it!!) to Mulder, but of course that sunflower-seed eater, porn aficionado, spooky guy will always be loved either way.

Of course I didn't watched on TV (my mom and aunt had that privilege, I was literally a baby) but I got the whole series on bootleg DVD.

1993 - Frasier

I only watched a few mixed up episodes and I have the first 4 seasons on bootleg DVD but it was my aunt who liked it the most.

A psicologyst with a radio TV show has to live with his dad and his brother visits very often.

You might recognize them as Sideshow Bob and his brother as well.

1994 - Friends

Watched it on cable when I had it, mixed up as usual but still... for whatever reason sitcoms bore me... and this is not the exception. Again, I don't understand the hype.

1995 - Xena: Warrior princess

Ancient Greece, a female warrior... my (probably by the time we got it in Argentina) 6 year-old self loved this show. Until certain fling with Hercules... I didn't liked romance then (or now, but I'm a little more tolerant as an adult) and it ruined the show for me.

Yes, now I see certain undertones that my youngself didn't. I get it. Leave me alone!

1995 - Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

Yeah... I didn't liked Hercules but I watched a few episodes either way. I always liked a good fight on TV.

1996 - Sabrina, the teenage witch

Who didn't wanted to have magical powers growing up becuse of her?

I can't really tell how many season I've watched because, as I said, in Argentina you were lucky if the TV channels bought more than 2 season to repeat on end. Still... I didn't quite liked it as much once she left for collage. Kinda lost its magic *wink, wink*

1996 - Millenium

The year 2000 was upon us and the promise of the end of the world, so Chris Carter decided to play a little bit with it.

Frank Black is a retired agent that has a peculiar way of getting into the mind of the criminals (the audience is the only one that knows that he can see what the criminals see... live) so he is called over an over again to help on different cases.

It ended too soon (got cancelled I believe) but it has its final episode in season 9 of The X Files (if I'm not mistaken). It deals a lot with religion (mostly Christianity) and its a lot darker than Mulder & Scully's adventures (with the exception of that one episode where 4 demons get together in a coffe shop -desguised as old men- and tell their latest works done).

1997 - Meego

I got to be honest with you... I hardly remember anything from this TV show. It was basically ALF but with a human playing an alien instead of a puppet. Still we remember it fondly at home so I guess it was good enough?

1998 - Charmed

Argentina beeing Argentina, I saw a few seasons... maybe... I do remember that I liked more the original 3 sisters.

It's fun... sometimes cheesy... as any tv or film of that time.

1998 - Will & Grace

As I said, sitcoms end up becoming boring and repetitive. But that doesn't take away that sometimes jokes are good... some are very 90, but ah, well...

2000 - Dark Angel

Maybe I saw 2 season on TV but I was obsessed.

Typical supersoldiers experiments developed this superhuman creatures that got tired of beeing an experiment and broke out the facility when they were children, so now as grown ups live in our society. The lead Max (Jessica Alba) has a job as a courrier but every now and then steals, that's how she meets Logan a journalist with vigilante tendencies that needs someone to do the dirty work.

2000 - CSI (later known as Las Vegas)

Have I ever watched a show just to laugh at it? Yes, and it was called CSI, the original (I saw a lot of Miami as well).

I had a few glimpses here and there from this procedural that were the definition of Deus-ex-machina and later I decided to give it a shot just to see if, within this universe, it made sense. And nope.

If one of mom's doctors dissed House for his nearly-impossible diagnosis... I'm pretty sure some forensics did the same with Grissom's team.

Side note I really love Ted Danson, that guy is awesome.

2001 - Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

At first I thought it was a yet another The Brain + Person that explains him like many others... but Goren and Eames are the best detective duo. PERIOD.

You get to see them investigating (so Goren, mostly, doesn't know everything off the bat... he does go to the library, kids) and Eames is not just a blank space for the audience to jump in and have Goren explain everything to her. My favourite moments are when she can add up to his theory by just having the female side of things.

Goren isn't the typical I-only-think kind of detective (like, let's say Poirot) he can -and will- get into dangerous situations when needed.

You have to watch for D'onofrio's performance.

I like Jeff Goldblum as well... but his season was kinda... meh

2002 - Los Simuladores (The Pretenders - Argentina)

What if there was a group of people to solve any kind of situations? And what if this situations are quite basic, borderline stupid, like meeting the in-laws, giving a hard exam at the end of the year and such?

This is it, that's the plot.

This was a huge hit back in the day but it took me a decade (almost) to watch because if you knew argentinean tv and film as I do... you wouldn't believe that there are actually some good ideas burried very very deep in the mud.

2002 - Monk

A detective with OCD is soooo good at his job but cannot be a detective again because of it (it got worse once his wife died in a attack). Fun and wholesome... maybe it did dragged for too long.

And no matter what... we are Sharona stans in this house!

2002 - CSI Miami.

Just like CSI I watched it just to make fun of it (and because in cable they will put all CSIs together in one afternoon so it was easier to compare them).

At least this one didn't take itself too seriously!

2003 - Tru Calling

Med student has a weird ability where dead people can reach her and make her repeat the day to try and save their lives.

It ended too soon on a great cliffhanger that we will never see resolved. Damn it!

2004 - Lost

We all know Lost... it started great... and it ended.

Luckily for me the TV channel where I was watching it stopped after season 4 and I never bothered to try and catch up again.

2004 - House MD

Sherlock Holmes goes to med school and instead of solving crimes, he solves impossible diagnostics.

Gotta give it to Hugh Laurie for beeing a lovable a-hole the whole time.

It did lasted too long for me, I didn't watch the final seasons but I did watched a few mixed up episodes in cable so I kinda know what happens after, lets say... season 4? (the final one I've watched, maybe).

2004 - CSI New York

Same as the others. Just watched for Gary Sinise and Edward Furlong's guest appearence.

2004 - Miss Marple

I was never a fan of Miss Marple in writting... but on TV she is less annoying.

How come she is never suspicious? She's always around when a crime happens!

2005 - Invasion

Does anybody else remembers this TV show set after the Katrina hurricane that, apparently, also uncovered a race of aliens living underwater that have a body-snatching way of taking over the world? It's only 1 season, got cancelled I believe and I watched it on TV at 6 or 7 AM while getting ready to go to school. Ah, old times!

2005 - Mosca & Smith (Argentina)

(Mosca can be translated as "Fly" -the bug- but in this case is the character's Last Name so I'll leave it as it is)

Buddy cop with two overly eccentric characters. A silly comedy with some really in-depth meta humor of argentinean justice system. Some jokes are in poor taste... and I think it got raunchier in it's second season (I didn't watched it because one of the leads was replaced and the 2nd actor didn't had the same punch)

2005 - Bones

A forensic anthropologyst helps the FBI to solve crimes.

This is the BrainTM taken to an extreme. Dr. Temperance Brennan just can't be good at eeeeeverything. This kinda changed as seasons passed but still... who says smart people is always entirely clueless about how to be a normal human? And why so egocentric? (Most truly smart people are usually super-humble because they know that there is a lot more to learn).

In any case, it is fun. Watched on TV (earlier seasons) and continued on bootleg DVD.

2006 - Ugly Betty

The main reason why I didn't listed Betty, la fea in here it's because it is a telenovela (soap opera) everybody in Latinoamérica watched it. Some things are not so good (maybe I'll write about it one day) but overall it had a good story.

Those dubious things got changed in the U.S version... and it changed the whole story. It was easier to create something new than trying to bring people on board using a name that is well beloved to a certain ethnicity... just saying.

2007 - El Hombre que volvió de la muerte (The man that came back from Death -Argentina)

Think of a mash up of The Count of Montecristo and V for Vendetta.

It was a remake of a TV show done in the 60s... 70s? By Narciso Ibañez Menta, a Spanish actor that was naturalized as argentinean and was our very own mix of Boris Karloff (with his love for make up) and Vincent Price (he did a lot of Edgan Allan Poe stories as well). The original story was about Elmer Van Hess, who was subject to different experiments. The lab caughts on fire, he's inside and survives. For whatever reason his organs end up being given to other people so he embarks on a quest to retrieve them.

The remake also had Elmer Van Hess who was a happy fool about to get married, his boss and associates set him up and ends up in prision for fraud. Not happy with that, his boss strikes a deal with a Doctor so Elmer can be his human guinea pig (in order to do so, he asks other inmates to torture him while in prision so his only escape would be to go with the Doctor). He's experimented on as results he gets superhuman strenght and, of course, the chemicals affect his brain turning him into a very dark and blood-lust creature. The lab is set on fire, everybody thinks he died but he comes back 10 years later ready to take revenge on all of them. He was very cruel and his idea of revenge was very Saw-like... but deep down he's still in love with his almost-wife and she's the only one that can sort of ease him in the worst moments.

For an argentinean fiction it was very good.

2008 - Fringe

The X Files but even crazier? You got it.

Mom and I did got lost after season 4... but we still have the bootleg DVDs, it's just that we should start all over again and we don't have a lot of time 😝

2008 - The Mentalist

A guy is so good at reading people that decides to ripp them off saying that he's a medium. He got the wrong guy, this guy kills his family so now it's personal!

Patrick Jane's quirks might be amusing in the early episodes but after a while you, just like everyone else on the show, will want to punch him in the face.

From my little corner of the Earth I scream: Justice for Cho!! He also deserved a happy ending!

2009 - Doll House

A bunch of people got their memories wiped and now they receive other memories (fabricated sometimes) to take on dangerous tasks.

Dubious consent galore... but overall the premise was engaging. It lasted 3 seasons, the third one included a time-jump... the end didn't quite landed for me but... meh! It's entertaining at least.

2009 - Flashfoward

The entire world fainted at the same time. Everybody had visions of the future... so now some things need to be prevented for whatever reason.

Only one season, got cancelled. I don't remember a thing except the tribute to one of Jorge Luis Borges stories (El Jardín de los senderos que se bifurcan/ The garden of paths that bifurcate) and another to David Bowie's song Scary Monsters and Super Creeps. That's all I remember, I swear.

2009 - Modern Family

Sitcom that broke some barriers on what a typical family looks like. It's fun...but yeah, it also bored me.

Note to everybody: not all latinos sound like Sofía Vergara... not even Sofía Vergara sounds like Sofía Vergara the whole time.

[disneytva]

Song Mapping Beggings For Rhona Who Lives By The River, Hinting Potential 2024 Release

An owl house is set to end...... why don't you come to hang at the river..... it seems so nice. 🌊

Rhona Who Lives By The River seems to be the first series of the young adult animation-trio from Disney TVA  for Disney+ as recently on a IG Story from Karen Gillian from March 23 on 2023 revealed that mapping for the songs of the first season of Rhona Who Lives By The River has started, potentially hinting a 2024 release for Disney+.

Rhona Who Lives By The River is a upcoming stop-motion musical animated series created by Emily Kapnek (Nickelodeon Animation Studios “As Told By Ginger”) and Executive Produced by Danny Elfman (Tim Burton’s “Wednesday”) and Karen Gillian (Marvel Studios “Guardians Of The Galaxy Franchise”)   follows the adventures of Rhona #3 (Gillan), the third-most-interesting Rhona in a small Scottish town, whose life is utterly dull. But after a freak clootie well accident results in bacterial pinkeye and the ability to make her own wishes come true, Rhona’s star finally is on the rise,

The series is produced by Disney Television Animation & 20th Television Animation in association with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

Rhona Who Lives By The River is the first of young adult animated series from Disney Television Animation for Disney+ the other three series include “The Witchverse” and “InterCats” from Baobab Studios and a untitled serialized animated comedy created by Molly Knox Ostertag (”The Witch Boy” Disney “The Owl House”)

[rockybloo]

i like the way you draw zeke's gashes and gore, do you like horror/have horror recs (any media)

As much as I like to draw mushy wholesome romance between two characters...I love horror to an almost unhealthy extent. It is my favorite genre of anything honestly (I have spent days binge watching horror films back to back to back on Netflix, even the bad ones)

I've never really done a recommendation list before for anything so I can only list my favorites that I could spend a day rewatching no problem. I also need to add that I am a gore hound and the gorier the film or series is, the higher my chances of enjoyment so please keep this in mind.

My FAVORITE horror films are:

Brain Dead/ Dead Alive: I need to state that this film basically has EVERY trigger in it and did not age well AT ALL in terms of some of the jokes. However, having watched it when I was young, it was a crucial part of me becoming a horror fan and I love this trainwreck dearly...for its special effects. Mainly just the special effects. I do appreciate how the film is kinda split in two. The first being funny zombie comedy stuff and the last half being...well a shit ton of blood and gore. Also it has stop motion in it at some points which I love as someone who also adores stop motion.

The Final Destination Franchise: Not recommended for the paranoid but I love this 2000s ass film franchise. The premise is creative as well as the deaths. I also love that Death is super petty in this series and refuses to just kill someone up front and instead chooses the Rube Goldberg approach to offing people. Plus the original voice actor for Kratos pops up in one of the films which is a bonus if you are a God of War fan like me. If I had to pick a favorite out of the franchise, I'd say it's a tie between the first and the last. HOWEVER, the last film is oh so more rewarding if you watched the entire franchise-I will not spoil why but just trust me.

Candyman: The original film specifically. It's so interesting how the antagonist is a living myth and is so poetic in his words that sometimes I kinda forgot he was the villain. I love his design and the fact this film deeply touches on certain issues and not just being focused on being a typical slasher.

The Haunted Mansion: Yes the...original Disney live action film with Eddie Murphy. I count it as a horror film because it was genuinely scary to me as a kid. There's still some horrific stuff in it now. I mean, you got the opening credit scenes leading up to a dude straight up hanging himself, the zombies looking like straight up corpses, A DUDE GETTING DRAGGED TO HELL. The music still haunts me to this day.

Nope: A recent addition but this is def one of the best horror films I've seen. It is filled to the brim with so many details that you don't catch on the first watch. Plus, the "spaceship" is such a well designed element that I still think about how it works and how smart of a concept it was. I love the protagonists in this film as well and the bit of humor sprinkled in. I actually enjoyed this film so much I read the script for it since it was online (which I've never done for any film before). Cannot recommend this film enough.

Us: This film is just a level or horror that I only feel when reading Junji Ito stories. The idea of a doppelganger never scared me until this film because the entire concept is your other self hunting you down to kill you. There's a murder spree scene in this film that is so well framed and done because you see both everything and nothing at the same time because of the camera angle. The Tethered are underrated as monsters.

The Thing: The old one with the husky dog. The original Among Us and the best "WHO THE FUCK IS THE KILLER" film. The special effects are amazing and the fact that the audience cannot tell who the alien is is so great because we feel just as scared as the crew members. Plus...the alien absorbing people is just straight horrific.

This list is getting long and I have so many horror films I got jingling around in my brain but my last one is Pet Semetary. I was gonna put Poltergeist, which is also a favorite and is the only paranormal film I enjoy (I am not a big fan of ghost movies but that's because I love gore and carnage), but I kinda...don't really see it as a horror film. It certainly is one but there's so many cute and funny moments and it's kinda more whimsical than scary to me.

ANYWAYS BACK TO PET SEMETARY-There's an unsettlingness to it that I can't really explain. It's not just the dead pet aspect, it's just the vibes in it. The happy music becoming twisted as well as the always foreboding mood where you know something bad is gonna happen. There's a couple things that are left up to the audience's imagination but there's enough context that you just KNOW something terrible happened (like that ending). Plus, the little kid actor going on a killing spree is...kinda funny. He's just a little fella with a knife having a good ole time before bedtime.

ANYWAYS-I'VE RAMBLED ENOUGH ABOUT HORROR FILMS!

[321spongebolt]

Underdog is one of those popular characters who fell into obscurity in recent years. Now that "Underdog" is owned by Universal, I think there should be a CG reboot movie. Unlike the live action Disney film released in 2007, I would want Underdog's CG reboot to be more faithful to the cartoon (even though I never saw it). This film would be released in theaters in 2D, 3D, IMAX (2D and 3D), and 4DX (2D and 3D)

Up above is how I would envision an "Underdog" movie poster. I have a blank one for those who want to try better than what I have done. You can view the older versions of my movie poster concept art on this page.

PRODUCTION COMPANIES

Illumination

DreamWorks Animation

DISTRIBUTOR

Universal Pictures

RATING

Obviously, PG, moving on.

ANIMATION

In terms of the animation, I wasn't sure if the CG should be fluent or stop-motion like, similar to some scenes in "Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish", but I was thinking that the same people who worked on "Mr. Peabody and Sherman" could try animating the characters. It could even be the first time Underdog, Sweet Polly Purebred, and other animal characters have actual fur. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2018)" also showed us how good hair and fur could work on CG characters.

OPENING LOGO VARIANTS

For the Universal Pictures logo, have Underdog fly around the earth as the letters spelling "UNIVERSAL" follow him (Assuming Underdog can breathe in Space).

The Illumination logo would feature the minions jumping off the Illumination logo and trying to fly, only for them to just plummet to the ground.

And for the DreamWorks Animation logo, I was thinking make Underdog 2D animated (with either traditional or flash animation). And after Underdog fishes on the moon, he would jump off the moon and fly through the clouds transitioning from 2D to his 3D design we see in the movie.

The title for the film itself would appear at the beginning and end of the movie. The end credits themselves would be 2D animated.

STORY CONCEPT

What I had in mind was if Dr. Simon Bar Sinister teamed up with Underdog's nemeses and formed a legion too powerful for Underdog to take on by himself. In fact, Underdog himself could get a team of his own consisting of other animal superheroes like him. And after putting Dr. Simon Bar Sinister and his legion behind bars, the movie would end with Underdog starting his new job at a superhero headquarters, which serves as the backdoor pilot for a TV show based on my movie idea.

CLOSING LOGO VARIANTS

After the credits (and post-credits scenes depending on if we'll get any) and the closing Universal and Illumination logos, Underdog would fly back onto the moon of the DreamWorks Animation logo and continue fishing until the screen fades to black.

TELEVISION SERIES BASED ON THE MOVIE

The TV series based on the movie would continue from the ending of the movie, and in addition to seeing more of Underdog in action, some episodes focus on Underdog's new superhero friends. This show, I was thinking would return to its original 2D routes, but this time through flash-animated software like Toon Boom Harmony, or something similar to that.

[thenightling]

Nightmare before Christmas remake rumor

We're in autumn and the thirtieth anniversary of Nightmare before Christmas so this is the time of year for rumors and gossip about Nightmare before Christmas and Hocus Pocus (which is also now thirty-years-old). Remember, for years there were rumors of Hocus Pocus 2 "coming soon" before the sequel was finally made, twenty-nine-years-later.

The latest rumor is that Johnny Depp will be playing Jack Skellington in a "Live action" Nightmare before Christmas remake to be directed by Tim Burton. This rumor has appeared on several Halloween groups and pages that I follow. Now, here are the reasons I do not think the rumor is true.

1. Back in the 90s Disney wanted to do a direct-to-video Nightmare before Christmas sequel but i would have been computer generated. Because they would not consent to stop motion, Tim Burton would not allow it. 2. Part of what makes Nightmare before Christmas what it is, IS the stop motion. The stop motion animation in Nightmare before Christmas is a tribute to classic Rankin-Bass holiday specials (mostly Christmas) which were usually done in stop motion animation. 3. The very reason Zero (Jack's ghost dog) has a tiny Jack-o-lantern for a nose (referenced as early as Tim Burton's original Nightmare before Christmas poem) is a homage to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, more specifically Rankin-Bass's stop motion animated Christmas special of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. 4. Yeah, it would probably mostly be CG but do you know how many special effects the movie would need? The main character is a skeleton. It would be a half-CG, half-live-action abomination, and probably with sub par computer animation. You know how cheap Disney is with their remakes. 5. Tim Burton actually hates working with too much CG. Apparently he nearly had a break down while making Alice in Wonderland because of all the green screen he had to work with. He prefers practical effects and Disney is not likely to allow that. 6. Nightmare before Christmas is very personal and precious to Tim Burton. You really think he would let them make a dubious fad live-action remake out of it? 7. Johnny Depp currently has substance abuse problems combined with a soiled reputation from the whole Amber Heard situation. Disney has not been very kind to him lately because of these things. They wouldn't be fast to cast Johnny Depp in anything. Yes, Tim Burton loves to work with Johnny Depp but Disney still has final say. 8. Tim Burton has been pretty busy lately with Beetlejuice 2 and Wednesday the Netflix Addams Family spin-off series. 9. There are no legitimate news sources for the claim that Nightmare before Christmas is getting a live action remake. 10. The first time this rumor circulated was on April 1st. April Fool's Day. This is why I hate fake news stories on April Fool's Day, because months (or even years) later people start spreading the story again as if it's true. 11. Henry Selick knows where the Disney execs live...

[leebird-simmer]

Intro to Film Studies, Ch. 10

per John Halas, animation’s key characteristics are:

symbolization of objects and human beings

picturing the invisible (sound waves, magnetism, radar, etc)

penetration (showing interior workings of the body or of a machine; showing complex inner states, like dreams or memories or fantasies)

selection, exaggeration, and transformation

showing the past and predicting the future

controlling speed and time

as early as 70 BC, there is evidence of a mechanism that projected hand-drawn moving images onto a screen, described by Lucretius in De Rerum Natura.

16th century: erotic flipbooks in Europe

1825: Peter Mark Roget’s ‘persistence of vision’ theory, explaining how human beings perceive movement (later debunked by neuroscience, but a very reasonable theory at the time)

1831: phenakistoscope developed, made up of two rotating discs which appeared to make an image move

1861: Kinematoscope developed; employed a series of sequential photographs mounted on a wheel and rotated.

1877: praxinoscope pioneered by Emile Reynaud. A strip of images were mounted in a revolving drum and reflected in mirrors, a model later revised and renamed theatre optique.

1890s: comic strips become popular in print media. This is important because comics provided some of the initial vocabulary for cartoons (characters continuing from one episode to the next, sequential narratives, visual jokes, speech ‘bubbles’)

Proto-animation: early live-action cinema demonstrated certain techniques which preceded their conscious use as a method in creating animation. This is largely in regard to stop-motion, mixed media and the use of dissolves to create the illusion of metamorphosis in early ‘trick’ films.

Incoherent cinema: influenced by the ‘Incoherents’ (artists working between 1883-1891), a movement principally led by French caricaturist Emile Cohl, this kind of animation was often surreal, anarchistic, and playful, relating seemingly unrelated forms and events in an often irrational and spontaneous fashion. Lines tumble into shapes and figures in temporary scenarios before evolving into other images.

Animated documentary: In recent years, there has been an exponential rise in the production of animated documentary. This has essentially been characterized by the fusion of documentary tropes (non-fiction subject matter, participant interviews and analysis, use of statistical and archival evidence) and animation, resulting in a reclamation of what might be termed ‘naïve histories’ in the spirit of offering alternative perspectives on the dominant grand narratives of contemporary social, cultural, and national existence.

Character animation: Many cartoons and more sophisticated adult animated films (Japanese anime, for example) are still dominated by ‘character’ or ‘personality’ animation, which prioritizes exaggerated and sometimes caricatured expressions of human traits in order to direct attention to the detail of gesture and the range of human emotion and experience. This kind of animation is related to identifiable aspects of the real world and does not readily correspond with more abstract uses of the animated medium.

Anthropomorphism: The tendency in animation to endow creatures, objects and environments with human attributes, abilities and qualities. This can redefine or merely draw attention to characteristics which are taken for granted in live action representations of these things, and literally create original ‘worlds’, which nevertheless have a high degree of familiarity and identification. {note: Bojack Horseman does an incredible job with this; the eating habits, gait, posture, mannerisms, etc. of the background characters add so much texture!}

Walt Disney remains synonymous with animation because of his radical technical & aesthetic innovations between 1928-1942, sometimes referred to as the ‘Golden Era’ of cartoon animation.

1. Walt Disney Productions founded in 1923

2. Disney premiered first synchronized sound cartoon in 1928: Steamboat Willie

3. Disney introduced Technicolor to cartoons in 1932 with Flowers and Trees (which later won an Oscar)

4. Ub Iwerks (Disney’s first and most influential animator) developed the multi-plane camera, which achieves the illusion of perspective by having the relevant image painted on a series of moveable panes of glass placed directly behind each other. Elements of the image can be painted in the foreground, other elements in the mid-spaces, and other elements in the receding background.

5. Disney releases the first full-length, Technicolor, sound-synchronized, animated cartoon feature: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Deconstruction: All media ‘texts’ are constructed. To understand all the components within each construction, it’s necessary to deconstruct the text and analyze all its elements. For example, the cartoon is made up of a number of specific aspects which define it as a unique cinematic practice (i.e. its frame-by-frame construction; its modes of representation and so on).

Synecdoche: The idea that a ‘part’ of a person, an object, a machine, may be used to represent the ‘whole’, and work as an emotive or suggestive shorthand to the viewer, who invests the ‘part’ with symbolic associations.

Iconic: The dominant signs that signify a particular person or object (Chaplin’s bowler hat, mustache, and cane; Daffy Duck’s upturned beak and lisping voice)

Ideology: a dominant set of ideas and values which inform any one society or culture, which are imbued in its social behavior and representative texts at a level that is not necessarily obvious or conscious. An ideological stance is normally politicized and historically determined.

Metamorphosis: The ability for a figure, object, shape or form to relinquish its seemingly fixed properties and mutate. This transformation is literally enacted within the animated film and acts as a model by which the process of change becomes part of the narrative of the film.

Condensation: The compression of a set of narrative or aesthetic agendas within a minimal structural framework. Essentially, achieving the maximum amount of suggested information and implication from the minimum amount of imagery used.

Squash & stretch: Many cartoon characters are constructed in a way that resembles a set of malleable and attached circles which may be elongated or compressed to achieve an effect of dynamic movement. When animators ‘squash’ and ‘stretch’ these circles, they effectively create the physical space of the character and a particular design structure within the overall pattern of the film. Interestingly, early Disney shorts had characters based on ‘ropes’ rather than circles and this significantly changes the look of those films.

Reduced animation: Animation may be literally the movement of one line which, in operating through time and space, may take on characteristics which an audience may perceive as expressive and symbolic. This form of minimalism constitutes reduced animation, which takes as its premise ‘less is more.’ Literally an eye movement or the shift of a body posture becomes enough to connote a particular feeling or meaning.

[graphicpolicy]

Tokyopop reveals a new Nightmare Before Christmas series, The Battle for Pumpkin King

Tokyopop reveals a new Nightmare Before Christmas series, The Battle for Pumpkin King #comics #comicbooks

Following the success of Zero’s Journey and Mirror Moon, Tokyopop is excited to announce a third installment in their line of original The Nightmare Before Christmas graphic novel series, titled Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Battle for Pumpkin King. Set before the events of the original stop-motion film from Tim Burton, the brand-new original story follows the friendship…

[quietfounder]

I hope Disney realizes how much they screwed up with The Owl House and be able to give it more content. I’m talking plushies of all the kids’ palismen, an art book of the series, comic series spin-off (anything for more of Camila & Vee and all those missed adventures/storylines), and a real-life The Good Witch Azura. Oh, you know what? I think a podcast featuring the characters discussing the books ‘The Good Witch Azura,’ ‘Ruler’s Reach,’ & ‘Cosmic Frontier’ and how much it resonated with them would be a good idea.  

Besides thinking about what we can hopefully get in the future, I’ve also been thinking on what’s likely to happen now. The Owl House finally got some Chibi Tiny Tales, so maybe it’ll eventually get a Theme Song Takeover and Broken Karaoke. 

I was thinking The Owl House could finally be given a Theme Song Takeover since most of the other shows have one at this point. At first, I thought toh wasn’t able to have one because its theme song wasn’t originally written with lyrics, but then I remembered that Amphibia had one where it was reimagined as video game. So now I’m thinking it’s possible for toh to have one with the visuals changed where it could presented in the style of either manga panels, stop-motion animation, or even as a pop-up book.

I would be very happy if Disney ever releases a Broken Karaoke featuring any of toh characters (though to be fair, some of them were there as cameos in the ‘Sidekicks’ song). I think it would be interesting to listen to either Gus or Willow sing, but I wouldn’t mind it if Luz got a song and maybe it could be a duet.