Author: Robert Greenberger

Win a Digital Download for ‘King Kong’

  • News
  • October 5, 2010

King Kong remains one of the most imaginative, exciting and innovative movies of all time. The story alone is a pulse-pounding gem but then you add in Willis O’Brien’s groundbreaking special effects you have an instant classic. The 1933 film is being released today on Blu-ray and is now available as a digital download.

Warner Bros. Digital Distribution is releasing of
the classic film King Kong for Download at iTunes..  Take the beast on the run! 
Fans can now enjoy KING KONG on their iPhone, iPad and more…

Warner Digital has given us a digital download to give away to one lucky ComicMix reader. All you have to do is tell us what makes you go ape. The best answer provided in the comments section byt 11:59 p.m. Thursday evening will win this special treat.

 

 

 

mg-9614-7146878

Paige O’Hara, the voice of Belle, on being part of ‘Beauty and the Beast’

  • Uncategorized
  • October 3, 2010

mg-9614-7146878On Tuesday, the eagerly-awaited Blu-ray edition of Beauty and the Beast finally comes out and Walt Disney has been making certain we all know it. Yesterday, we presented a chat with Alan Menken, who helped make the music sound so wonderful. Today, we hear from Paige O’Hara, the talent voice actress who made Belle a memorable heroine.

Question: Did they incorporate any of your features when they drew Belle?

Paige O’Hara: Oh yeah. The eyes and cheekbones and the way she raised her eyebrow and pushed her hair out of her face—that was me. Little things and expressions. When I looked at the wall, there were pictures of Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn up, and my little funny picture was there too. The fact that she wasn’t so perfectly beautiful made the film that much more successful. She is a little odd. Of course that’s the character and I identified with her. I was odd as a kid. I was into Gershwin. I definitely identified with Belle. More girls than not feel that way I think.

Question: How excited were you to be part of such a legendary Disney title?

Paige O’Hara: You know, Mary Poppins is my favorite film and I loved Bambi and all the other Disney animated films. I was always an artist as well so I appreciated the animation too. Playing Belle was a dream come true.

Question: The film won two Academy Awards. Tell me what it was like being there.

Paige O’Hara: Oh it was incredible. It is the only animated film to ever be nominated for Best Picture so it holds that stature as well. I was really excited. We had heard rumors about the songs being nominated and there was a lot of discussion about celebrities performing our songs, but Mr. Eisner and Mr. Katzenberg insisted that the original artists get to sing their songs. That was really, really wonderful. It was the only time I sang with Angela Lansbury and Jerry Orbach. Angela introduced me at the Academy Awards. I remember we were backstage and of course I was going to be singing live which was scary so I was shaking. She was shaking too. She patted me on the butt and said if, “I had your voice, I wouldn’t be shaking. Don’t be nervous.”

Question: What else do you remember about the experience?

Paige O’Hara: It was fun being a part of the parties. Honestly, the worst part about the Oscars was that I didn’t like my dress—the one I performed in. They told the designer to put me in blue and it was this blue and white dress that looked more like Bo Peep or Dorothy. It was way too frilly and not very “Belle-y.” It was a checkerboard pattern. I had to perform in that dress, but afterwards I got to change into a beautiful Bob Mackie teal green gown. I even made one magazine’s Top 3 Best Dressed list!

(more…)

alan-menken-6975-3454002

Alan Menken Revisits ‘Beauty & The Beast’

  • News
  • October 2, 2010

alan-menken-6975-3454002In case you missed it, Walt Disney is finally releasing their wonderful Beauty and the Beast on Blu-ray this coming Tuesday. The movie, which earned an Academy Award nomination for best picture, is getting the full PR treatment and they provided us with this interview with composer Alan Mencken, whose work with the late Howard Ashman re-energized the films during the 1980s and 1990s.The combo pack will include the Blu-ray, a standard DVD and a digital copy for your personal use.

Alan Menken has composed huge hits such as THE LITTLE MERMAID, ALADDIN, HERCULES, POCAHONTAS   and ENCHANTED and   has won more Oscars than any other living person. He sat down for the following  interview.

Question: You have been involved with so many wonderful Disney films, what does BEAUTY AND THE BEAST mean to you?

Alan Menken: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST has been a perennial favorite of people who love Disney animation. They   have a continued appetite to know more about it and to see it enhanced. That is incredibly gratifying. I love the film too. I just watched it  again and it is gorgeous. It is possible that it is even more beautiful than it was when it debuted. It is very gratifying to have this “Diamond Edition”.

Question: Can you explain what it was that you did musically  with BEAUTY  AND THE BEAST?

Alan Menken: All  Howard and I did  was to tell the story, which is very romantic. The setting is   timeless and I just went to my gut, which is what I always do. With  this one, Howard was in his last days, although at the beginning I didn’t know that, but by the end of working on it, I knew that this was  a great artist’s last creation. I am sure that emotion informed what we did. We worked with a palette of French and classical and Broadway music and it was a culmination of a certain kind of  emotion for us. Also all these projects we do – whether it is THE LITTLE MERMAID OR BEAUTY AND THE BEAST or ALADDIN –  are  homages. This  one is an homage to the most romantic  parts of the Disney canon. Maybe I was channeling something special I don’t know, but it was clearly romantic and timeless and I credit Howard with a lot of what we came up with.

Question: The music has everything: from poignancy, to humor and ultimately joy, how did you convey that spectrum of emotions?

Alan Menken: That is what we always aim to do.  As an ideal, the Disney musical   is  always a combination of things that are joyful and things that are wistful and scary too and BEAUTY has all those elements. I can only be as good as the stories I am telling and  the characters that I am bringing to life. And with this film we were bringing some powerful things to life. (more…)

Sci-Fi Fan Favorite Summer Glau is Supergirl in ‘Superman/Batman: Apocalypse’

  • News
  • September 29, 2010

Summer Glau knows her audience.

Whether as River Tam in Joss Whedon’s cult classic series and follow-up film, Firefly and Serenity, or as the indestructible android-from-the-future Cameron in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Glau has cornered the market on playing attractive, demure young females with the controlled homicidal power to destroy an opposing legion of trained warriors.

So it was only natural that as her first-ever animated voiceover role, Glau would fit neatly into the role of an uber-powered Kryptonian who falls under the spell of one of Superman’s greatest foes. Glau finds the perfect mix of youthful curiosity, teen angst and alien-turned-Earth-girl aggression as the voice of Kara, cousin of Superman (and ultimately destined to become Supergirl) in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, the ninth entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original PG-13 Movies out this week from Warner Home Video.

Based on the DC Comics series/graphic novel Superman/Batman: Supergirl by Jeph Loeb, Michael Turner and Peter Steigerwald, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is produced by animation legend Bruce Timm and directed by Lauren Montgomery (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths) from a script by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Tab Murphy (Gorillas in the Mist). Produced by Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is now available as a Blu-ray Combo Pack, Special Edition DVD, On Demand and for Download.

Glau’s career has been populated with frequent visits to the fanboy realm, adding regular roles on The 4400 and Dollhouse to her featured gigs on Firefly/Serenity and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The professionally trained ballerina had a seven-episode run on The Unit, and will appear in the upcoming NBC series, The Cape, as well as in the film. Knights of Badassdom.

Following her recording session, Glau freely discussed a number of subjects – from the acting strengths of the Whedon alumni association to her consistent on-set nerves to a strong desire to land more adult roles. Here’s how that conversation went …

QUESTION: Was it easy to find a way to relate to Kara?

SUMMER GLAU: Kara was a really comfortable fit for me because she’s sort of a girl coming into her own.  A girl becoming a woman and finding out who she is, and so I felt like there were moments when it reminded me of River because she is so powerful, but also young and naïve and a little bit lost. She has this underlying strength that comes from out of nowhere. (more…)

superman-batman-apocalypse-edit1-5986381

Review: ‘Superman/Batman: Apocalypse’

superman-batman-apocalypse-edit1-5986381While the various animated series featuring the DC Universe heroes have had a loose connectivity, the feature films from Warner Premiere have been fiercely independent with variations in look, vocal cast and attitude. That is, until now. In Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, out today from Warner Home Entertainment, we have the first animated feature to immediately pick up on the events of a previous offering, in this case Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. Of course, it makes sense since they both are drawn from the Superman/Batman ongoing series and comprise the title’s first two story arcs.

The arc, from Jeph Loeb and the late Michael Turner, introduced Supergirl to New Earth. In [[[Public Enemies]]], President Luthor tried to blame a large kryptonite asteroid en route to Earth on Superman. After the World’s Finest team destroyed the threat and exposed Luthor’s criminal activity, all seemed safe. As the new feature opens, a voiceover recaps those events and sets up a chunk of the shattered rock splashing into Gotham Bay. As [[[Batman]]] investigates, he encounters a naked, confused teen girl who is speaking gibberish. Demonstrating super-powers, she is confused and causing havoc, requiring intervention from the Man of Steel, who comes to realize this is his cousin Kara Zor-El.

The personality differences between the Dark Knight and the Metropolis Marvel have never been better portrayed in a story, which was adapted for the film by Tab Murphy. Batman’s suspicious and cautious while Superman is delighted to find a blood relative after all these years of emotional isolation. How they react to her arrival informs their actions for the remainder of the story. Also, Murphy does a nice job of delineating a teen who has lost her parents and home, finding herself a stranger in a very strange land. She’s young and innocent, striving to find an identity and rebelling when the adults try to dictate her future without consulting her.

(more…)

Fan Favorite Tim Daly returns as Man of Steel in ‘Superman/Batman: Apocalypse’

  • News
  • September 28, 2010

Tim Daly, the fan’s choice as the quintessential voice of the Man of Steel from his days portraying the title character for the landmark Superman: The Animated Series, once again supplies those All-American tones in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. The ninth entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original PG-13 Movies arrives Tuesday from Warner Home Video.

Produced by Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse will be available as a Blu-ray Combo Pack, Special Edition DVD, On Demand and for Download.

Daly was the voice behind the world’s ultimate super hero for 52 episodes of Superman: The Animated Series and several animated movies, all the while starring in one primetime television series after another – from eight seasons on Wings to memorable roles on HBO’s The Sopranos and From The Earth To The Moon to his current ABC hit, Private Practice. The Emmy nominated actor made his feature film debut in Barry Levinson’s 1982 classic Diner.

Daly joins forces with Batman voice Kevin Conway to lead a Superman/Batman: Apocalypse cast that boasts two-time Emmy Award winner Andre Braugher (Men of a Certain Age) as the evil lord Darkseid, sci-fi heroine Summer Glau (Serenity/Firefly; Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), and multi-Emmy winner Ed Asner (Up) as Granny Goodness. Based on the DC Comics series/graphic novel Superman/Batman: Supergirl by Jeph Loeb, Michael Turner & Peter Steigerwald, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is produced by animation guru Bruce Timm and directed by Lauren Montgomery (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths) from a script by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Tab Murphy (Gorillas in the Mist).

Amongst the many activities surrounding the film’s upcoming release is “Destination Apocalypse,” an interactive online promotion that allows fans to get even deeper into the mythology of Superman/Batman: Apocalypse.  Fans can access “Destination Apocalypse” and explore the many sections including games, quizzes and information about film. Fans can even send Kryptonian messages to their Facebook friends.  In each section, participants virtually “check in” and earn badges to unlock an exclusive video clip from the movie.  In addition, earning badges for participating in the various activities in each section help to unlock exclusive movie poster downloads.

Daly joined the festivities at the World Premiere of http://DestinationApocalypse.com in Los Angeles on September 21 at The Paley Center for Media. The Metropolis, er, New York City-born actor offered his thoughts on a number of subjects – ranging from the Superman/Batman dynamic and the importance of a great villain to his love of farming – in a playful interview. And here’s what he had to say …

QUESTION: What did you find unique and/or fresh about this latest Superman-Batman vehicle?

TIM DALY: What’s interesting about the relationships in this film is that Superman and Batman are really on the same page. They are united and they only give each other a very modest amount of grief, whereas at other times they’ve been a little more at each other’s throats, and more dubious about the other one’s methods.  And Kara is, perhaps, Superman’s last surviving relative. So he feels very protective of her, and sort of glad to have someone who has had or is about to have a similar experience as he’s had coming to a different planet.  So it’s kind of touching, really. He’s very paternal towards her. He really wants her to do well and to stick around.

It’s nice to see his powers used in connection with something personal. He’s not saving the planet, he’s not saving Metropolis. He’s not saving Lois. He’s saving a blood relative. So it’s that kind of deeply personal feeling. I do enjoy that in the script.

(more…)

Review: ‘Doctor Who The Visual Dictionary’

  • Uncategorized
  • September 25, 2010

Doctor Who The Visual Dictionary

By Neil Corry. Jacqueline Rayner, Andrew Darling, Kerrie Dougherty, David John and Simon Beecroft
144 pages, DK Publishing, $24.99
 
Your first thought is, why on earth are we reviewing this book when it came out last year? The answer is – because this is a brand new edition, incorporating only some of the previous edition’s material and thoroughly revised to incorporate the known exploits of the eleventh Doctor.

The problem with fact books based on ongoing franchises is that almost immediately, the facts are outdated. Wisely, this new volume covers the entirety of the fifth season of the current version of the BBC’s perennial [[[Doctor Who]]] and is being released in that fallow period between the season ending and the Christmas Special.

Interestingly, Matt Smith’s Doctor is merely an insight to the brightly colored Daleks fronting this book, which is in the traditional large DK guidebook side. The Doctor’s equipment, friends, and foes certainly deserve large pages in which to luxuriate in the minutia. And boy is there plenty of detail here. Taking a cue from the [[[ Star Trek]]] tech manuals, the multitude of authors provide pseudo-scientific explanations to how things work. We get a nice double-gatefold examining the TARDIS and now we know what each station does. Yet, the cut-aways for the new Sonic Screwdriver do not give us any idea where the readout display goes.

Visually, the book covers the five seasons beginning with the Christopher Eccleston revival, heavily favoring the current Matt Smith era. The text, however, delves through the years with some information dating back to the earliest days of the Doctor so fans of the entire series will appreciate the acknowledgment of the past.

There, of course, can be quibbles. Some 20 pages are spent on the Daleks in all their colorful glory while the Doctor and his eleven incarnations get a mere six pages. Torchwood is under-represented as is dear old Wilf.

In some cases, we learn more about the alien races here than we ever did on the series, which enriches them to a degree. The photography and layout is visually engaging and clean to comprehend which is greatly appreciated.

If anything is missing, is some sort of timeline, establishing the various eras and worlds visited by the Doctors, which probably deserves a book of its own. This is a fine collection to flip through and cherish until the next edition rolls out. You have to love the Doctor to fully appreciate this treasure trove of information but most of us here at ComicMix fall into that category. Be sure to tell Santa you want this.

Review: ‘Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics’

Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics
By N.C. Christopher Couch
Abrams ComicArts; 224 pages, $35

The early days of comic books was a vast frontier as the rules were being written and the flourished so rapidly that the demand for talent was voracious. As a result, just about anyone, of any age, who could hold a brush or tell a story was given a chance to work. The more successful ones built up a client base and then brought in others to assist, paralleling the development of comic strips.

When young Bob Kane added the costumed feature Batman to his list of properties produced for Detective Comics, Inc, he found himself in need of help. He had already been working with writer Bill Finger to take his shapeless ideas and turn them into witty adventures. But, Batman meant Kane also needed artistic help and a chance meeting led to 17 year old Jerry Robinson beginning an artistic career that begins today.

Robinson is one of the last of his generation and remains a vital talent, curating museum shows and encouraging the next generation of talent. His story is known in bits and pieces but for the first time, his wide-ranging artistic career is covered in the aptly named [[[Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics]]].

Written by N.C. Christopher Couch, a former [[[Manga]]] editor and professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst, the book begins with a young Robinson learning to draw on his own while his family fell from the middle class during the Great Depression. It was while Robinson was on a brief vacation in the Poconos that Robinson met Kane and a friendship developed.

Quickly, Robinson was immersed in Kane and Finger’s world, brainstorming stories and characters whenever they were together. Robinson realized he was going to learn by doing and absorbed everything he could with Finger proving a knowledgeable tutor about all manner of fine arts, especially foreign films.

As organized, Couch’s work divides Robinson’s career into thematic chapters but you never really fit all the pieces together. While we know Batman had already debuted in [[[Detective Comics]]] # 27, on sale in the spring of 1939, and can intuit that by the time Robinson began working for Kane it was September, just in time for Finger to create Robin and add him to the feature but we’re never told which issue first featured Robinson’s work. Not long after, though, DC must have commissioned the [[[Batman]]] quarterly title which led to Robinson’s greatest contribution to comic books: creating the Joker. But Couch doesn’t lay it all out for us in a linear manner, so there are jumps and overlaps in Robinson’s career that would have benefitted from a better chronology or timeline as an appendix.

(more…)

Win a Digital Download for ‘300’

  • Uncategorized
  • September 22, 2010

300-1-9841117“We are Spartans!”

Join your voice once more as Zack Snyder’s wonderful 300 invades iTunes with as a digital download with Extras starting today!  Relive the action on your iPad, iPhone, etc…plus see behind the scenes footage and interviews with lead actor Gerard Butler and Snyder.

The Warner Bros. movie is now available for purchase at iTunes.

ComicMix readers, though, can win a a free digital download from our friends at Warner Digital. All you need to do is tell us before Thursday at 11:59 p.m. what you would have done in a similar situation. We’ll judge the answers and select one lucky winner.

<object width=”640″ height=”385″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/2SuvsYp6zvU?fs=1&hl=en_US”></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/2SuvsYp6zvU?fs=1&hl=en_US” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”640″ height=”385″></embed></object>

glee-season-11-4779684

Review: ‘Glee the Complete First Season’

[[[glee-season-11-4779684Glee]]] is frothy, delightful television that is as prone to being over-the-top as it is to be emotionally powerful. That it can successfully veer from one extreme to the other is one of the more impressive aspects of the Fox series, created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. The show burst into the public consciousness with the clever airing of the pilot in the waning days of the 2008-2009 season and got people excited with something fresh and seemingly original (at least for prime time; no doubt Fox saw its potential after Disney’s success with [[[High School Musical]]].

When the show arrived last fall, it proved it was able to blend soap opera, music, and dance with an oddball assortment of characters with several vying for breakout status before Jane Lynch’s Sue Sylvester captured pop culture’s heart. The plight of the misfits that find themselves forming a glee club at Ohio’s William McKinley High School is the overarching theme as the team grows from a sextet to a full squad and prepares for sectionals and then regionals. As a result, we see them working on numerous pieces and with the show’s ratings climb, they stuffed in even more musical numbers which has neatly resulted in several soundtrack CDs already available.

When the show took an extended hiatus, Fox Home Entertainment released Glee, Volume One: Road to Sectionals to tide fans over. Now, in time for the premiere of season two this evening, Glee; The Complete First Season is out in both standard DVD and Blu-ray sets.

The show revels in its absurdity and doesn’t once try to make us think any of these characters are real or that the high school is really a place for learning. After all, we never see the kids in any academic class nor is homework ever a factor. Apparently, few of them need jobs or when they do can take them without breaking a sweat. We know there’s a faculty because we see them in the lounge where some of the more embarrassing adult shenanigans get discussed.

Where the series fell down was properly making us care for the dilemma Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) faced with his ditzy, desperate, deceptive wife Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig). Her fake pregnancy sub-plot was totally wasting time for other stories and her expulsion from the marriage seemed pre-ordained and yet, she remains attached to the show like a barnacle that won’t go away.

(more…)

Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks