Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Neil - someone's doing a film version of We Can Get Them For You
Wholesale? Interesting. Hrm... thinking of that... I wonder if I could
get a copy of Peter's dream sequence from the stage production I did.
Getting tapes of anything from the artistic director is like trying to
catch a cloud in a butterfly net. Still, it'd be fun to be able to give
you a little something when you're out here for the Coraline kick-off.
Which reminds me, that's next month! 

Squeaks - Have you been following this? Do you know if we have to buy
tickets in advance, or even exactly where it is?

Mike - I've heard this point made a few times, but after the last
couple of weeks working on this film I really understand it. Putting
real people in front of a camera allows for so many wonderful happy
accidents that you just can't reproduce with animation. There have been
several times where I've done something "in the moment" that I hadn't
been asked to do that the director just loved. It can be as easily as
putting my hand accidently into a pool of sunlight, showing a reaching
out from shadow into light... nothing I ever planned to do, but it just
happened and it made him incredibly excited. 

I love animation, but you just can't replace live actors. Same thing
with theatre. I love film, but it's not the same as having living,
breathing actors in front of you in all their sweat and breath and
energy.

Although CG slash porn sounds REALLY funny.
  

    

Would somebody please post here the details of the Coraline kick-off that 
seems to be happening HERE??
  

    
Oh I miss all the fun.

Yes! Yoda flipping around was my favorite part. I would pay 7.50 again
just to see that. 

John-Mike- you're welcome--though I don't understand why you keep
spelling my name with a K. It's okay though. I kind of like the
change...

I have a problem with people mixing animation with real people. I like
cartoon's. I also like real actors in movies. I can't stand it when
they mix. It ALWAYS pulls me out of the story. [Nice, moving, emotional
love scene, you're being drawn into their world and then-- stupid Jar
Jar shows up and ruins it all.] 
I miss muppets. They mix better with humans. 
  

    
There was this animated/live action movie I loved when I was little,
called Dot and the Kangaroo or something. I don't remember much, except
that part of it was cartoon and the rest real and the dingos were the
baddies, and their impending arrival was announced by a few digeridoos.
I'm sure it was not a superior movie -- I loved it at the time but
can't remember anything about it other than the above -- but the fear
of the digeridoo has stayed with me all these years. In fact, Vito woke
me up out of a deep deep sleep once by playing his digeridoo in my
ear, which caused me to flail wildly, whacking the digeridoo and
splitting his lip in the process. So I suppose that that the
animation/live action was effective for me. . . 

It was my last day of school today. I am sad now, and unemployed, so I
went shopping. Megs and I are going dancing tonight at Frankie's Blue
Room, I think, but I'm still sad. I'll miss those knuckleheads.
  

    

Erynn, did you ever see the movie Anchors Aweigh, the 1945 movie starring
Gene Kelly?  The absolute highlight of that movie was a dance that Gene
Kelly did with Jerry (the mouse of Tom and Jerry) that is the best
human/animation scene ever, IMNSHO!
  

    
Erynn -- I think it's because I don't see too well at the moment, and
at this distance the "E" looks iike a "K."  Apologies.

Linda -- curiously enough, ANCHORS AWEIGH is on Turner Classic this
evening.  And MGM originally wanted Kelly to dance with that other
mouse (you know, the one who owns Central Florida), but he turned them
down.  So they used Jerry, who was an MGM contract player anyway.
     The technique goes way back -- the Fleischers did some pretty
amazing stuff in the Thirties with Betty Boop and Koko the Inkwell
Clown (Koko hopping off the drawing board and messing around in the
live-action studio), but then the Fleischers were pretty darn amazing
anyway.  For the two SUPERMAN serials, they did the shots of Supes
flying with an animated figure, which works a lot better than you might
think -- he's rotoscoped, and his movement is much more fluid and
lifelike than any live-action method of the time, like a matte shot or
Lydecker shot (a dummy on a wire, as in the ROCKETMAN serials).

Uh, yeah, I like animation too.
  

    

I so LOVE animation!
  

    
The moment there are more details than an area -- the Bay Area -- and
a date -- July 2nd -- they will be posted everywhere Linda, do not
worry.

Dan -- there have been enough student film adaptations of WCGTFYW to
fill several DVDs. They range from the awkward to (in the case of the
scandinavian one) utterly brilliant.
  

    
Maure - (re: Watership Down) I took a picture of a bunny in the desert
in Utah. It was nibbling things. Cute!

re: Clone Attack - Overall, IMHO, the movie was fun, and TONS better
than the Phantom Menace. But I still laugh at a quote from one of my
friends the day after he saw it: "I can't believe I wasted eight bucks
to watch a CGI Muppet do kung fu."

In general, I like animation stuff. But I tend to prefer the cartoon
variety. :D

As for Coraline - What he said. ;)

squeaks, who was all ready for her afternoon snack until she realized
it was practically bedtime. 
  

    
Re: animation with live action
the thing is, it can work. Roger Rabbit worked wonderfully... Mary
Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks were also both very fun... I seem
to recall a film called Water Babies that didn't mix them directly, but
had them both in the film. But for the most part, it works when you're
trying to be whimsical. As a drama... it just doesn't work well.

Neil - I had no idea. I fully realize the futility in asking this..
but is it possible to get/see any of them? They're student films, so
I'm guessing the only people who have them are the people who did them,
their schools, and you.
  

    
E-mail from Jouni:

Hello.

Maure -- Thank you. It's a pleasure to illustrate a good story (starting
picture #7 today) :-)

Neil -- Sherlock Holmes Meets the Cthulhu Mythos -anthology... coool. Cait
(Kiernan) has also talked about it in her journal. Could you give some
details about it? Does it (the anthology I mean) have a name yet? Who's
publishing it? Who's the editor? When will it be out?

Jouni (who's harassed almost every possible publisher/association/individual
about getting Neil to visit Finland sometime soon... like within next 20
years or so... yes, I'm gettin' desperate...)
  

    
Maure- I *loved* that movie when I was a kid.  *Dot and the Kangaroo*,
I mean.  That song "The Bunyip's going to get you,/ under the Bunyip
moon" always frightened me.  Of course, I was very easily frightened
back then, so.

I saw *EpisodeII*, and mainly only liked it for the thirty seconds
that Yoda went medieval on Christopher Lee.  And I couldn't help
remembering that, while Christopher Lee had made Ian McKellan
breakdance for the few seconds that turned *LOTR* into *Breakin' 3: 
Hobbit Bugaloo*, he got pretty much spanked by a creature that was,
once upon a time, a muppet, and is now nothing more than a tape mark,
or perhaps a ping-pong ball on a stick thanks to modern technology. 
Other than that, though, I've realized that Lucas is, to me, another
artist along the lines of, say, a Dean Koontz; while I was a huge fan
when I was young, and impressionable, I've since outgrown them (even
though I am still, in fact, young and impressionable [well, I hope so,
at least.  I mean, I'm only 24.  Still young, I think, and most things
still impress me, so]).
Of course, Lucas strikes me as an idea man who just can't quite
execute.  *A New Hope* was good, of course, but *Empire* was the best
of the original trilogy (and, hence, all five films [Well.  IMNSHO]),
and it was neither written by nor directed by Lucas.  Which leads me to
believe that Lucas should come up with the story and hand it off to
other, more capable writers and directors (I mean, really, those puns
from C3P0?  God, they were *so* bad).

And concerning the animation, it was *good*, yeah, but I think I'd've
rather had Yoda a muppet than CGI.  There was something too... fluid,
perhaps?... about him.  In fact, a lot of the movie was like that.  I
think the thing that gets me so badly is the leaps and bounds
technology has made for the *prequels*.  As in the ships, and the
cities.  That first shot of that long ship is probably one of the more
famous shots in movie history (in *EpIV*), but now it just looks
clunky.  I mean, the Millennium Falcon?  Supposed to be the fastest
ship in the galaxy, 23 parsecs in a minute or somesuch wonky speed
indicator, but it certainly doesn't look like it could keep up with
ships that are supposed to have come out twenty years before.

And I'm with Erynn.  I miss Muppets.  God, I miss Muppets.  Jim Henson
is, I think, the only artist I've liked since I was a child.  Right up
until the end (Gosh, I'm getting misty writing this little bit), he
was just an amazing artist.  I recently got the *Labyrinth* DVD, and it
has a behind-the-scenes documentary on which you can see why Henson
was so good at making people happy; what he did made *him* happier than
I've seen many people.

Actually, I came to Neil through Jim Henson.  I'd read about some guy
named Gaiman in *Wizard* (this was back when *Wizard* was cool, and
funny, and informative, rather than the... well, whatever it's become),
but *Sandman* never really sounded like something that'd interest me
(Well, in my defense, I was reading *X-Men* and Koontz and Stasheff
back then).  When Henson passed, it hit me pretty hard, though, and
then, in, God, I want to say 1995, I read, again in *Wizard*, that Jim
Henson Productions had picked up the rights to a novel called
*Neverwhere*.  I don't know that Jim himself had anything to do with it
(I think *Neverwhere* came out after he'd already passed, but I'm not
sure), but there was Henson attached to *Neverwhere*, and so I read it
and discovered my new favorite writer (a title you still hold to this
day, Neil [not that it's an important title, or anything.  I mean, that
and, like, three or four bucks'll get you a fancy cup of coffee, or
something, but, well, someday I'd like to be someone's favorite writer,
so]).
  

    
Will,  dear god, you know that movie?? I'd always halfway thought I'd
made it up, because no one ever knows what I'm talking about, and the
few who say they do have a proclivity to humor me too much. And you
even remember lyrics? Wow! Now I am reassured that my digeridoo-phobia
isn't just a spontaneous neurosis. whew...

Jouni,  no need for thanks because it's just true, thank you, and yay!

Squeaks,  I did much the same thing re: thinking it was afternoon at
bedtime. I wanted to go out to get a zip disk, and was halfway down the
stairs of my building before I realized it was after 12. Hmm.

I still haven't seen Ep2. I'm really not very interested in seeing it,
I think. Sadly enough, I'd rather see Spiderman again.
  

    
Dan W. -- WATER BABIES (from Kingsley's book) separated the live from
the animated worlds, much as Chuck Jones's version of PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH
did.
     Combining the two forms works when there's a good reason to --
ROGER RABBIT couldn't have made its point any other way.  THE
FLINTSTONES, contrariwise, was just a stunt -- "hey, we can do this all
with animatronics and CG for only about fifty times as much as a
cartoon would cost, and with worse jokes!"  (Of course, as the late
great Bill Scott said of the original version, "It's so mediocre it
gives us a lot of hope for our own show.")
     We now get BOOMERANG on cable, a Cartoon Network spinoff that is
the afterworld of Sixties cartoons -- sort of Hanna-Gehenna.  If
someone had told those guys that someday there would be a
commercial-free station programming two-hour blocks of DASTARDLY AND
MUTTLEY . . .
     One curious thing is that when you show an HB half-hour without
ads, even with the full title sequences at both ends, it runs twenty
minutes.

Will -- EMPIRE was not only not written by Lucas, it was written by
Leigh Brackett, who was not only one of the Founding Mommas of Space
Opera,* but one of the best American screenwriters.  THE BIG SLEEP.  A
whole passel of Howard Hawks westerns, including RIO BRAVO and EL
DORADO.

*and married to Edmond Hamilton, a Founding Pop thereof and also
creator of the Legion of Super-Heroes.  Oops, I'm starting to sound
like James Burke again, or maybe it's David Hare.
  

    
Chuck Jones did that movie of the Phantom tollbooth?  I didn't know that!
And now I am sniffling, because to make sure I wasn't hallucinating that
there were maybe two Phantom Tollbooth movies, I looked it up on google, and
one of the links I got included a link to a news article that Chuck Jones
died in february.  One sudden turning on of gravity too many for poor old
Wile E, I guess.   Wah.

The funny thing is that it's been so long since I"ve seen the movie that I
remember it looking just like the Jules Feiffer illustrations in my book,
but I think I must be hallucinating that...
  

    
     While Jones certainly had his own drawing style (the Tom & Jerrys
he did, near the end of the series, are distinctly his) he also had
respect for other folks' art -- he also did THE DOT AND THE LINE
(magnificently narrated by Robert Morley), and one of the high points
in GAY PURR-EE is the series of portraits of Mewsette by various
artists (Lautrec, Picasso, etcetera).
     Though Feiffer has more nibs to his pen than scratchy pen-and-ink
-- he used to work on THE SPIRIT under Eisner, and did a comic
involving the murder of a comics artist in very funny sendup of
Eisner's style (particularly the sound effects). 
  

    
Maure - I remember _Dot and the Kangaroo_ pretty well, HBO used to
show it a lot when I was a kid! I watched it every time it came on. I
seem to remember that it was about a little girl who gets lost in the
outback, and gets found and taken care of by a mother kangaroo... I can
even almost picture the little girl! I had totally forgotten the movie
until you mentioned it, but I remember that I loved it!

EpII - I enjoyed the movie, for several reasons. Mostly, I am very
captivated by the universe and storyline. Star Wars (the world, etc.)
has a very mystic feel for me. It was very much the coolest thing in
the universe, as I was growing up. So my main interest in the movies is
the continuance of the storyline that I have come to love very much.

I have also discovered that when I watch a movie my imagination will
make the experience better for me, without my noticing. It will fill in
gaping plot holes, upgrade acting quality, interpret vague dialog, and
create bridges of storyline when the movie leaves something out. So,
during the movie, I rarely get annoyed by the things that most people
would notice. Of course, once we're out of the movie and the
conversations begin about it, I can take a step back from the story and
look at the quality of the movie. The result is that I rarely have a
bad time at the cinema :) and it takes a frightfully horrible movie to
keep me from getting sucked into the story. 

So, as a continuation of the storyline and lives of these characters I
have come to love, I really enjoyed Episodes I & II. Intellectually, I
think that Lucas should be kept as far away from screenwriting and
directing as possible, for the sake of all humanity. I *know* Natalie
Portman is a better actress than these movies show her to be, and the
one scene where Anakin really shines showed me that Hayden wasn't
coaxed into his potential either. 

Something that a friend of mine said really hit home about the newest
movies. "Lucas cannot do the one thing that everyone seems to want him
to do - make them 9 years old again." My captivation with Star Wars is
very much due to how old I was when the movies came out, and now that I
am older they are still mystical, but they aren't nearly the holy
grails they were at age 9.

So, what is this about Coraline and the Bay Area? 
  

    

> one scene where Anakin really shines

Which scene are you thinking of, out of curiosity?
  

    
you know, I loved the book... but never saw the Phantom Toolbooth
movie. On the other hand, I loved watching Water Babies as a kid, but
never read the book.
Funny how that works.

Meg - The thing about making us all 9 again... I think that's really
spot on, but not the way I think your friend ment it. Lucas has gone on
record as saying that the Star Wars movies are kids movies. All well
and good... but originally he talked about them being like the great
classic serials. In a way, the Star Wars movies *are* supposed to make
you 9 again... not in terms of stopping being 31 (in my case), but in
terms of getting us so caught up in wonder and excitement and awe that
we "become 9" again... we become so entraptured with this incredible
world that we forget who we are. The thing is... in 1977, people who
were 31 became 9 again. 

In some ways Lord of the Rings and Spider-Man do that for me.
Spider-Man in particular wasn't perfect, and had some "oh please"
moments for me... but by and large it made me want to dig out my Spidey
comic books and be 9 for a while.
  

    
<madman> I'm guessing it was the scene where they finally got him to
stop being such a bratty little whiney snot. Like father like son and
all that... At least that was one of the biggest cheer-scenes from the
bunch in the theatre on opening night.

As for the problem with the Star Wars series? Lucas should never
write. He can supervise. He can come up with the best ideas. But he
should never write...

Ooh! the Prisoner episode of the Simpsons is on. Not that it's such a
great episode, but it reminds me of an autographed mouse cage and that
my next mouse is being named "#6" (or Pip for short)...

squeaks, who really needs to eat something now.
  

    
Hanna-Gehenna?  I just spit garlic cheese toast across the dining
room.

Hmmmm, perhaps that's a little TMI.

Will--I had a friend who referred to every sequel as "Whatever 2:
Electric Boogaloo".  So "Die Hard With A Vengeance" would be "Die Hard
2: Electric Boogaloo".  I think it's a much more sensible way of naming
them.

Maure--and we took you to Outback Steakhouse?  What if they had played
one of those infernal things?  Someone could have been hurt! ;-)

Neil--glad you got to go to Florida, and glad you had a good time. 
Very excited about the Holmes/Cthulhu anthology.  It sounds like a
great deal of fun.  *Love* the sketch of you as a South Park character.

Oh, and Debbie-the-lurker, of DebbieandChris, had a birthday, and is
now, officially, old.  ;-)

Boy, am I gonna pay for that.

Mary (reading The Phoenix Guards by Steven Brust)  
  

    
Ooops, forgot--Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones and Boogaloo--OK, I
was amused for a couple of rather long hours, but please George, let
somebody else write the script.  Please.  Anybody, really. Anybody that
wouldn't dress Amidala in a black leather dominatrix inspired get-up,
and have her prate on about how devoted she is to her job.  "You-you're
studying to be a Jedi.  And I'm a Senator!"  "In a black leather
bustier!" muttered someone I'm sure I don't know........

I mean, I'm a girl.  I'm supposed to enjoy the romance parts.  I do,
in movies where the relationship is well-written.  But I kept yelling
"Get back to the killing & blowing stuff up!"  It was rather
unsettling.  By the next movie, I may be rooting for the Dark Side to
hurry up & *take* him already.

OK, rant over.  Must go call the old pers..., uh, er, Debbie to
discuss her new DVD player.  Ooooooo......... 
  

    
Meg,  that's so cool! I'm so glad it really does exist. I went to
Amazon and looked it up -- and bought a copy. I have to see it again,
because I really don't remember much of it at all.

Mary,  heehee, I'm building up an immunity to digeridoos. Every once
in a while I hear one in a radio commercial for Outback. I get cold
shivers up my spine and it gives me goosebumps, but I don't strike out
unless I'm sleeping and can't control my reaction. I don't like the
sound nail files make either, but I don't mind nails on chalkboards.
(Just some useless information for you.)
  

    
neil,  the Neverwhere site is fun.
  

    <scribbled by dfowlkes Tue 3 Jul 12 10:14>