#would love to play as her again... someday a cowboy themed game will find me.. n she will live again...

[luck-of-the-drawings]

(OLD OC SKETCHES) Meet Sunnabelle Von Sunnoviche, final daughter of the Sunnoviche family. Peeking from behind a window, she witnessed a wizards final spell, one that reduced the world to a wasteland. Her noble blood damned her to [HELL], but unwanting to suffer with her family, she made a deal with the devil. She now hunts in his name. The top of her head was taken by the blast on that day. The fires of her spirit have boiled her blood into a super-heated plasma.

[thepixarenthusiast]

Toy Story 2 (1999)

Back to the toys! What a fun revisit! Toy Story 2 is that rare sequel that improves upon its predecessor in its art, humor, storytelling, character development, and heart. This is the film that solidified Pixar’s place in movie-making history. Its release was the moment everyone knew that this company was going to continue to be wildly successful for decades.

While the original Toy Story and A Bug’s Life were both fun, lighthearted children’s romps (with enough charm to entertain the adults), this is the first time we see Pixar transcend the typical kids’ movie genre into something truly timeless and relatable for all ages: a glimpse into what Pixar would continue to produce time and time again.

The movie starts out in a tone familiar to its predecessor. We see Rex playing a video game that features Buzz in a battle with his nemesis Zurg – a fun nod to Star Wars for the adults in the theater. So we’ve got our gang of the lovable Rex, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky, Hamm, Buzz and Woody back together for the kiddos and enough pop culture references to keep the grown-ups tuned in.

*Side Note* There’s a very funny pop culture reference of Buzz being thrown into one of those 3D pin-pression toys (the kind where you can leave an imprint of your hand, or if you were a gross little kid like me, your face), and it leaves an imprint of him like Han being frozen in carbonite – a reference I definitely missed as a kid. And there’s another good one where Rex is chasing the rest of the gang in the toy car, and Mr. Potato Head looks back at him in the side mirror – a nod to Jurassic Park, of course, which is supplemented by the fact that our villain, Al of Al’s toy barn, is voiced by Wayne Knight, who played the bumbling DNA thief in Jurassic Park.

But soon this story becomes much more than just an adventure tale or buddy comedy. After a heroic rescue attempt at a yard sale, Woody finds himself in the clutches of Al, a toy collector who wants to make big bucks by re-uniting the Woody’s Roundup Gang – which we come to find was a classic black and white kids’ show whose merchandise are now collectors’ items, with Woody as the grand prize. We meet Jessie, Bullseye, and Prospector Pete for the first time. They’re being boxed up and shipped to Japan for display in a Toy museum. Woody must now face an internal conflict of whether to return to an old life or start a new one.

Woody becomes much more likable in this movie. His motivations, desires, and torn feelings are relatable and very human. Because Andy left him home from Cowboy Camp after accidentally ripping his arm, Woody feels understandably hurt and unwanted, which contribute to a change of heart about going to the museum. This is the first time we see Woody grapple with the fact that childhood is temporary – that Andy will someday grow up and lose interest in his toys – that loss of innocence and coming to terms with one’s own mortality that becomes a strong theme throughout the Toy Story franchise. Woah. That’s deep for a kids’ movie.

Where this really comes to light is through Jessie’s song “When She Loved Me.” This one’s a tear-jerker for sure. Jessie had a little girl that loved her too – but that girl grew up and left Jessie behind. It’s then that Jessie’s story starts to resonate with Woody, and he begins to believe that Andy left him behind, too. Thankfully, Buzz and the gang quickly come to the rescue to remind him that although childhood innocence is impermanent, it is still worth experiencing and should not be let go too soon. Buzz becomes the voice of reason this time, him being the one that reminds Woody that he is a toy. That his purpose is to make a child happy, not to be ogled or admired behind glass. The little details throughout the movie reflective of this theme are also worth noting – for example, when we meet a shiny new Buzz in the toy store, you can see how Andy’s Buzz has some scratches and dirt on him that are evidence of toy well-loved. Ultimately, this is what Woody chooses for himself too, and it all works out, because Andy’s still a kid, and he hasn’t forgotten Woody. Woody will eventually choose that new life for himself later in the franchise (think Toy Story 4), but it’s not time yet.

I love the character development in this movie. You see Woody becoming more sympathetic, and less motivated by being the center of attention. He goes out of his way to help Jessie become part of the gang and helps her realize that she can be loved by a child again. We see Buzz become a voice of reason – which is hilariously emphasized by the shiny new Buzz in the toy store who thinks he is a space ranger, like our Buzz did in the original film, and hilariously wonders about how he could have been that irritating. We get some new characters, like Jessie, who could be seen as a bit selfish at the start for wanting to pull Woody away from his life just so she doesn’t have to be in storage anymore – but then you come to truly understand and empathize with her through her song, because you were a kid once too who grew out of your toys. These thematic elements and iconic characters are truly what makes Pixar great.

Final thoughts:

Toy Story 2 improves on everything from its humor to its storytelling to its characters and will forever hold its place as a classic.

Fun fact:

When Barbie is giving the gang a tour of Al’s Toy Barn and they cruise through the Buzz Lightyear aisle, she says “In 1995, shortsighted retailers did not order enough dolls to meet demand.” This is in reference to how after the first Toy Story film was released, toy stores didn’t anticipate how big the film would become, and they didn’t stock their shelves with enough merchandise.

Best character:

Woody redeems himself here. This is the Woody we know and love.

Tear-Meter: 2/5 teardrops. “When She Loved Me” definitely activated the tear ducts, but not giving it a full 5 because some of Pixar’s later films have even bigger emotional impacts.

Current ranking: 1/3

Move over Toy Story 1, we have a new front-runner.

1. Toy Story 2

2. Toy Story

3. A Bug’s Life

[buzzdixonwriter]

Writing Report June 11, 2021

“Let's get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.”  ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

. . .

This one goes in the “how this writer’s mind works” bin.

. . .

I’ve long been a fan of the Beats.

I’ve also long been of fan of old half-hour mystery dramas like T.H.E. Cat and Johnny Staccato.

Many decades ago -- perhaps as early as 1978, certainly no later than 1980 -- I wrote (for my own amusement) a pilot for a faux-1950s half-hour crime show called Too Cool For Comfort.

The protagonist was a Beat Generation (not a beatnik!) photographer who got mixed up in a murder when he took a gig to document a cheating spouse for a divorce lawyer.

He had a live-in Gal Friday / model who wasn’t a romantic interest, though today we’d call it friends-with-benefits.

Once I finished the script and got it out of my system, I filed it away and forgot about it.

(It’s not a bad little piece of work, nothing great, but entertaining enough; someday I’ll post it here so you can take a look.)

. . . 

I’ve long been interested in the history of Hollywood, both at the macro and micro levels, what “officially” happened, what actually happened, but especially Hollywood folklore as documented by Kenneth Anger in his Hollywood Babylon books.

(Don’t ever mistake Anger’s books for well documented factual accounts -- they ain’t -- but they are fascinating glimpses of the stories and lies and gossip Hollywood loves to tell about itself.)

Decades ago -- not as far back as Too Cool For Comfort -- I came up with an idea for a novel about the early days of Hollywood before WWI when the last of the real cowboys found themselves stuck in a small Southern California town that looked on them to recreate the myth of the recently vanished past.

Still wanna do that book.

That’s been a back burner one-of-these-days projects ever since.

. . . 

After leaving Stan Lee Media in the early 2000’s, I developed several graphic novel concepts for the Christian tween-to-teen female audience.

One was about a young woman who comes to Hollywood hoping to be an actress, and the struggles and conflicts she faces trying to balance her career ambitions with the Hollywood way of doing business.

While I had success with other ideas I’d generated at that time, this one never found a slot on the schedule, so while it’s not a bad idea, it remained an unfulfilled one.

Then I got this idea where I could combine her story with the pre-WWI Hollywood idea, a multi-generational look at Hollywood dropping in on every decade from the 1910s to the 1960s.

I recognized I needed a linking theme to bind all the books together, and the idea of a religious cult (and lordie, does Hollywood ever have a lot of those!) engaged in generations of nefarious doings sprang to mind…

…but it didn’t quite jell.

It would be okay for maybe one book in the series, but all of ‘em?

Nah.

Then I reconsidered the multi-book idea as focusing on one person as the series’ antagonist, a movie mogul who rises from entry level to running a big studio, and how his evil desires keeps everything stirred up.

Hmm, better, but still not good.

While jotting down notes for over a decade and doing research, I never got any traction on what the real story should be.

. . . 

I come up with a lot of story ideas, some only suitable for short stories, others for longer works.

One idea was a modern day variant on the old honey trap / badger game con games.

Cute idea, but in and of itself not enough to support a story.   

I noodled around a couple of additional complications that could occur and again filed this in the one-of-these-days bin. 

. . . 

Among the many ideas I’ve toyed with but never put any effort into working on was an epic covering the social history of the 1960s, from JFK’s election to Nixon’s resignation. 

There’s a wealth of material there, so be sure, but never an obvious angle of approach for me.

I’ve stockpiled a few books, bookmarked a few websites, but really haven’t put any effort into this.

. . . 

Read about a legendary hippie commune, a cannabis Camelot that lasted for the better part of a decade until Bastards With Money decided they didn’t want their property values dragged down by their free lovin’ neighbors so they waged a legal war on them to drive them off and take over the property.

Same old sad story.

Interesting…but nothing there.

Filed it away in the back of me widdle head…

…and forgot about it.

. . . 

The history of Bryanston Films always struck me as hilarious, and while I never attempted to tell the story in fictional form, I’m fond of relating it to others.

. . . 

And there’s tons of other stuff – people I’ve met / things I’ve seen / lies I’ve been told; ideas and concepts and flotsam and jetsam and trivia and factoids and rumors and all kinds of junk -- that I’ve encountered over the years and never did anything with except file them away in the grey cells of my brain.

. . . 

Had a dream a couple of weeks ago.

A really good dream, very detailed, and with an actual beginning / middle / end story to it.

It’s a comedic crime story, an overly complicated caper that goes awry in the worst ways possible dues to the crooks’ inability to follow instructions trust or one another.

This one I plan to do, fleshing it out as I go.  Out of necessity it needs to be a period piece, set no later than the mid-1970s, or else the cape can’t work.

A minor sub-plot involving a Mafia-run film distribution company ala Bryanston also figures into the story, and should be fun.

. . . 

The legendary commune drifted onto my radar screen again a couple of days ago.

I read the post, clicked on a couple of links, saw nothing really new or that I hadn’t been aware of before…

…then I remembered a couple of the people at the commune had been Vietnam war vets too stressed out to go home again, who calmed their hearts and souls and minds by living as close to nature as possible…

Then it struck me:  What if one of them was an 84-Charlie? (i.e., US Army military occupational specialty 84C:  Motion picture camera man.)

Holy cow…that’s not too far from my Beat photographer in Too Cool For Comfort, is it?

This guy comes back from the war burned out, can’t fit in back home, the only thing he knows how to do is shoot 16mm film…

Who was using 16mm film back in the 1960s?

Technical and educational film companies -- but they’re too straightlaced, he’s too frazzled to work there.

Underground movies?  There’s your counterculture.

Cheap TV shows and low budget exploitations?  There’s your gutter level Hollywood.

Porn?  There’s the overlap between crime and the counterculture.

Instead of half a century of Hollywood history, condense it down to the mid to late 60s, from 1965 to 1969.

Show how the changes that affected the rest of the nation, the rest of the world played out on Hollywood Boulevard.

The legendary commune?  This is a work of fiction, leave the real commune where it was actually located, create a fictional one that mashes up a bunch of groups and movements and places in California during that era.

The aforementioned religious cult?  Makes a lot more sense, seems a lot more plausible set in those five years than in fifty.

The honey trap / badger game?  That can figure into things by lacing several different elements together.

The moralistic actress?  She’s part of this story, struggling to keep her head and heart above water.

The Hollywood mogul antagonist?  That can be two or three characters now, each with a different area of influence, perhaps working together, perhaps in competition.

I’ve always been a fan of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe books and how he made Los Angeles a character in the series.

Well, here’s an opportunity to do the same thing with Hollywood.

The pre-WWI Hollywood story and the 1970s bungled caper stories?  Still viable, and they can link up to this story without actually having to be a part of it.

I say “story” because I see this as focusing on what happens to my camera man character over the course of five years but I also see this as being several individual books, each covering roughly a year in his life and Hollywood history.

(And they won’t all have to take place in Hollywood; I can envision a sojourn to NYC to get involved in the world of grindhouse film making.)

There’s a rich tapestry waiting to be woven here.

  © Buzz Dixon