Category: News

Roald Dahl’s imagination is to be celebrated. His books never repeat themselves and offer readers a vivid variety of ideas and images, memorable characters and incredible situations. Thankfully, technology today allows the works to be adapted with an eye towards retaining as much of his creations as is possible. The latest such adaptation is Fantastic Mr. Fox, another stop-motion production.

Available this week through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment,  the fall 2009 movie is available in the combo package of Blu-ray, standard DVD and digital copy. Directed by Wes Anderson, making his first animated foray, the movie is a largely satisfying and entertaining production.

With an all-star vocal cast including George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray it tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Clooney and Streep), who live a poor but happy life with their eccentric son Ash (Schwartzman) and visiting nephew Kristopherson (Eric Chase Anderson).  That is until Mr. Fox slips into his sneaky, old ways and plots the greatest heist the animal world has ever seen.  When mean old farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean  (Michael Gambon, Robin Hurlstone, and Hugo Guinness) join forces to surround Mr. Fox and his family, they don’t realize they are not dealing with any old fox.

Anderson, who says Dahl was a personal hero, added the opening and closing scenes to frame the novel and they have the right feel, giving the film a nice resolution. Co-writer Noah Baumbach nails the voices of the characters and retains their inventive personalities.

The stop motion work is fluid and attractive, with a nicely selected color palette to make the story feel, well, fantastic. Credit goes to not only Anderson, but to Henry Selick, who collaborated with him on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. When Revolution Studios folded, Selick left to make the equally engaging Coraline while Anderson kept the Dahl book and cut a deal with 20th. The voices were recorded in a variety of settings for a different tonal quality but it’s so subtle as to be effectively pointless. But the performances themselves are terrific all the way through the cast.

The Blu-ray comes packed with a variety of extras to accompany the 89-minute feature. Making Mr. Fox Fantastic is a six-part featurette including the visual look, adapting the script to the stop-motion film, the puppet makers, the puppet animation, the vocal cast and Bill and his Badger (only the 7-minute from script to screen segment can be found on the standard disc). A Beginner’s Guide To Whack-Bat is a fanciful newsreel about the sport played throughout the film; while Fantastic Mr. Fox: The World of Roald Dahl celebrates the author as is appropriate.

Read your children the book then let them revel in this film, which will stand up to repeated viewings.

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On the road again… see ComicMix folks Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, Aaron Rosenberg, Matthew Weinberger, and probably even more of us this weekend at I-Con 29, back at the campus of SUNY/Stony Brook on beautiful Long Island. In addition, you’ll be able to hear Aaron and Glenn on Destinies: The Voice Of Science Fiction on WUSB 90.1 FM, or online at http://www.wusb.fm.

Glenn’s schedule (subject to change):

Meet the Pro’s – Friday from 8:00pm – 10:00pm in Islip Ballroom
Good Prose/Bad Film – Saturday from 12:00pm – 1:00pm in SAC 302
Pimp Your Talent – Saturday from 3:00pm – 4:00pm in SAC 302
Superman: An American God? – Saturday from 4:00pm – 5:00pm in ESS 001
Business of Publishing – Saturday from 5:00pm – 6:00pm in SAC 302
Slans, Mutants, and Vampires Rule! – Saturday from 7:00pm – 8:00pm in SAC 302
Eye of Argon/Amanda McKittrick Ros Reading Competition – Saturday from 11:00pm – 12:00am in Ronkonkoma Room
Smack Yourself in the Forehead Moments – Sunday from 10:30am – 11:30am in SAC 303
Just Add Sex – Sunday from 2:00pm – 3:00pm in SAC 302

Aaron’s schedule (subject to change):

Meet the Pro’s – Friday from 8:00pm – 10:00pm in Islip Ballroom
Popular Media Licenses & Gaming – Friday from 8:00pm – 9:00pm in ESS 131
State of the Industry – Indie Press/Freelance edition – Saturday from 10:00am – 11:00am in ESS 001
Writing Media Tie-ins – Saturday from 11:00am – 12:00pm in SAC 302
Business of Publishing – Saturday from 5:00pm – 6:00pm in SAC 302
So You Want To Be a Game Designer? – Saturday from 9:00pm – 10:00pm in ESS 131

Matthew will be on various and sundry comics panels, and Mr. Greenberger, of course, will be doing the world famous I-Con Movie Previews both Saturday and Sunday.

Stop by and say hi. Tickets are still available. It’s a hell of a convention, and literally has something for everyone and the only way they’d get a bigger dealers room would be to rent Nassau Coliseum.

There’s only one reason for Warner Home Video to release the 1993 disaster of a film, Arizona Dream: Johnny Depp. Anything with him in it is virtually a license to print money so the movie is released this week as a part of their Archive Collection. The DVD comes with the movie and nothing else as in keeping with the line designed for collectors.

While Depp was still at the beginning of his film career, the cast includes veterans who should have known better, including Faye Dunaway and Jerry Lewis. That’s right, Jerry Lewis playing a straight role.  The film also has veteran character performer Michael J. Pollard in a cameo and relative newcomers Lily Taylor and Paulina Porizkova.

The movie was shot in 1991, released in Europe only two years later and didn’t come to America until 1994. The original cut ran for 142 minutes while the television and home video cuts are at 119, including this release. From what I’ve seen, that’s more than enough and the director’s cut can stay in the vault.

David Atkins wrote what is politely called a romantic fantasy about Axel (Depp), a young man trying to make it on his own in New York City when his cousin Paul (Vincent Gallo), essentially kidnaps him for a trip to Arizona for Uncle Leo’s (Lewis) wedding to the much younger Porizkova. Depp, with his vivid dreams about Eskimos, is coaxed by Uncle Leo to stay and join the family car dealership. When Axel tries, he falls for Elaine (Dunaway), a woman who dreams of flying. Her stepdaughter Grace (Taylor) has her own dream: suicide and reincarnation as a turtle. Axel and Paul vie for Elaine’s affections while Uncle Leo is convinced he’s dying and wants to leave the family together.

The script, though, under-develops every character and there may be some comedic elements, but there’s little to hold things together. Why does Leo want to marry the younger woman and what does she see in him? How did Elaine get to be so daft and what demons drive Grace towards her own death? There’s a morbid tone to everything and despite the desert setting, the film feels dark and forbidding.

There’s a lot of talk of death from all the characters but there’s no rational behind any of it and interestingly enough, only two actually die. And let’s not even discuss the final scene.

Directed by Emir Kusturica (who cowrote the story) has some terrific performers to work with but doesn’t let any of them shine. Lewis is wasted in a nothing part and you wonder why the extremely selective performer agreed to be in such a minor role. Depp’s characterization tries too hard and at times feels like he’s in an entirely different film.

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Robert Culp, best known to genre fans as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell on The Greatest American Hero and as Trent in the Outer Limits episode “Demon With A Glass Hand”, passed away after a fall outside his Los Angeles home. He was 79.

Culp gained fame very early in his career as the star of
the 1957-59 Western television series Trackdown
in which he played Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman, but was best known in the 60’s for the series I Spy, where he co-starred with Bill Cosby, the first time a black actor got equal star billing. Culp wrote the scripts for seven episodes, one of which he also
directed. One episode earned him an Emmy nomination for writing. For all
three years of the series he was also nominated for an acting Emmy for lead actor, but lost each time to Cosby. He returned to prominence in 1981 with The Greatest American Hero, a role that brought him a new generation of fans, many of which he greeted the last few years at conventions as talk of a movie adaptation surfaced.

We were lucky enough to interview Robert Culp back in 2008, and he was one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet. My wife still has an audio clip where he wished her a happy birthday.

Take the time tonight and watch some of his great work. Choose from his Emmy nominated written episode of I Spy:

or The Greatest American Hero:

After announcing the acquisition of the British hero Marvelman last summer, Marvel Comics finally has scheduled their initial offerings. In a press release, the company said they would be celebrate the rich history and reprint material from the beginning.

Once Fawcett ceased publishing Captain Marvel stories in the 1950s, the British publisher of the comics chose to convert the hero, supporting cast, and villains into original characters under the similar name Marvelman. Under the guidance of artist Mick Anglo, the characters lasted until the 1960s then vanished. Dez Skinn resurrected the character for Warrior magazine and has been a source of fascination ever since.

Here’s the release:

Marvel is proud to announce the return of Marvelman to shelves everywhere with the release of Marvelman Classic Primer #1 in June! Who is the mysterious Marvelman? And just why is he one of the most enduring super heroes of all time? The answers arrives in this commemorative one-shot featuring interviews with creator Mick Anglo, superstar Neil Gaiman and more who contributed to this character’s history over the years! Plus, get all-new pin ups of key Marvelman characters by superstar artists Mike Perkins, Doug Braithwaite, Miguel Angel Sepulveda, Jae Lee, Khoi Pham and Ben Oliver! This landmark issue features two covers—one with the timeless art of Mick Anglo and another with the now-iconic rendition of Marvelman by Marvel Editor-In-Chief—and superstar artist—Joe Quesada!

Then, in July, thrill to the debut of Marvelman Family’s Finest #1, a new ongoing series reprinting Marvelman’s greatest adventures for the first time in the US! Plus, no comics fan can miss Marvelman Classic Vol.1 Premiere HC, reprinting Marvelman’s earliest adventures in chronological order!

Now’s your chance to learn just why Marvelman is one of the most important characters in comic book history—it all begins in Marvelman Classic Primer #1, this June!

MARVELMAN CLASSIC PRIMER #1
Written by JOHN RHETT THOMAS
Cover by JOE QUESADA
Variant by MICK ANGLO
Rated A …$3.99

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