I’ve been looking for one of these animations since I was a kid with little hope of finding it.  I caught part of one on the Disney Channel a few years ago just buy luck on video once but of course I couldn’t get the VCR started quick enough so I only got the last 1/2 and even then they were only showing part of the original.

Then about a month ago I stumbled on something, I already forgot what, that talked about Dr Werner von Braun working with Walt Disney on videos about space travel so I googled for von Braun and Disney and found out not only had they released a DVD with the animation I was looking for but IT WAS ALREADY OUT OF PRINT!  Fortunately there were some for sale from 3rd parties.  I got my copy today!

The specific animation is called “Mars and Beyond” but in general the animations in the whole series totally inspired me as a kid.  Watching them again makes me just as excited for the future as I was back then.  There’s something about just hearing the voice of the narrator, Dick Tufeld.  He was the narrator for nearly all of Disney’s projects back then including things like the Adventure thru Inner Space ride so his voice was the voice of the future and the voice of science and technology for most of my childhood. 

One disappointment was I assumed another animation I was seeking would be included and it’s not.  The animation shows Disney’s ideas for the future which you’d think would be included in a collection called “Tomorrowland”.  The animation I’m looking for was all about the future and showed things like computer controlled cars that looked like a glass encased living room.  You’d program in a destination then play games or watch TV with your family while the car drove itself to your destination.  Another was an atomic powered tunnel maker that melted through a mountain like butter.  Toward the end of the segment they showed freeways going through the arctic and under the ocean.  They used to show parts of this animation on the Rocket Rods ride at Disneyland.  If you know where I can find a copy please tell me.

I saw the Butterfly Effect on video recently. I had heard good things about it so I was looking foreward to it. I wasn’t bad but it wasn’t worthy of recommendation IMO.

Things I find unbelievable in movies or inconsistant generally distract me out of the movie so here’s a few of the problems I had with the Butterfly Effect

** SPOILERS **

(*) The biggest disappointment for me was the scene where he goes back in time to save the mom and baby from dying from the exploding mailbox. Clearly he was in control of himself. He already had experience with this time-travel like condition so there no excuse of being disoriented and yet completely out of character like a dumbass he walks right into the explosion. That made absolutely no sense and was clearly written just to for the consequences later.

(*) The scene where Lenny kills Tommy also seemed out of sink to me and while I could buy it, they never explained why he couldn’t just go back to that same point in time and replay it. Clearly all he needed to do was go back, not give Lenny a sharp object and say what he said to Tommy again to get him to stop. Same with the scene above. Go back, don’t walk like a dumbass straight into the explosion. Still, I’ll except that idea that he can only go back once to each location. That absolves this issue but not the one above.

(*) The scene where he goes back to elemetry school and punctures his hands. The inconsistancy is that THE FRIGGEN MOVIE IS CALLED THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT. That means by the title of the movie a small change in anything should have a big effect on the future. Having changed the past in that scene he would no longer be standing in the prison since by “the Butterfly Effect” the effects would have propgated. He would have had to go to the hospital or at least the nurse changing his whole day back then, changing the reaction of his mom, changing how serious she would take the murder drawing, etc. etc.

Even more inconsistant through, in the “new” world, the world with his hands having scars, everyone would know him is the guy with scars on his hands. The cellmate would not have noticed the change. Coming back from his hand puncturing episode the cellmate would be like “ah, you’ve always had those scars, what’s your point?”.

(*) The final scene. Having established that he can only go back to times where he blanked out in childhood we have to except that somehow he had a blankout episode as a baby in the womb. In fact, in all other scenes he is only able to go back based on his memories but we are supposed to accept that he has memories of being in the womb? Yea, I know babies do remember stuff in the womb but they are not concrete memories enough to visualize actually being there of the kind he required in every other scene.

(*) If you haven’t seen Donnie Darko stop reading, more spoilers follow.

While the two movies are not THAT similar they do share a common resolution. In both movies the characters figure out that their death eariler in their life would have been best for everyone involved.

Donnie Darko is a slow creepy movie. It doesn’t have any real time travel etc but it also has a more arguable resolution. It’s only 30 days worth of effects he’s considering and we can except that his death at the beginning of those 30 days prevents many of the bad events that happen during those 30 days.

In Donnie Darko you can even assume that he has not choice, the 30 days of experiences is just for him to come to terms with his death.

With the Butterfly Effect though, it’s 20 years of effects. We don’t know his death would have really fixed anything. Although we are told they do he doesn’t get to know that, remember he only gets the new memories AFTER he gets back from an episode. As far as he gets to know because he wasn’t born mom gets massively depressed from a 3rd stillborn baby and commits suicide, Tommy and Kayleigh’s Mom’s new husband is child abuser, etc. etc. The point is, there is no way for him to know his death as a baby would actually have a positive outcome and if like in every other case he was wrong and it actually caused more problems, in this one case, he can’t go back and try to fix them again.

I watched Dawn of the Dead (the remake) just for the hell of it. I gotta say that I’d really be happy if someone would make an intelligent reality based horror movie.

Maybe that’s an oxymoron. By reality based I mean something like 28 Days Later vs something like Hellraiser. Something that seems semi based in reality instead of something based in magic or religion although any intelligent horror movie would be great.

…(spoilers)…

Dawn of the Dead I’m sure is entertaining but the older you get the less you can excuse all the BS about don’t kill that guy, he’s bit but you just can kill him and all the other BS like saving the dog, splitting up when their’s no need, driving like madmen just as an excuse to have a car flip, etc, etc, etc. Even things that are not techincally wrong but are still fairly unbelievable like a gun master not being able to take care of a zombie or two coming through a dog door that he is prepared for.

…(end spoilers)…

Another would be without all the irrational people. Yea, I know, people are irrational but still, it’s so cliched it’s boring. I’m sick of the only reason anyone dying is because some character is too stupid or too “compassionate”.

Lots of people say, “with out all that kind of stuff the movie wouldn’t be interesting” to which I say BS. The movie would be 1000 times more interesting if it had flawless logic because it would actually be different from 99.99% of all the other horror crap.

I can’t think of any off the top of my head except maybe Aliens.

I’ve been renting quite a few movies lately being stuck at home with a cold. I recently rented “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” which I was told was pretty bad but I was in the mood for a popcorn movie. Anyway, it wasn’t quite as bad as I was lead to believe, probably because I watched with the right attitude but it did raise a few questions.

One was “Who was Dorian Gray”. I looked that up and found the book although I’m not sure if I’m interested enough to actually read it. It sounds very interesting though. The other was, what was Captain Nemo really like. I have not read that book and like many my only points of reference come from the Disney movie.

So, I went to go look it up on Amazon.com but then I realized it’s a friggen old book and should be public domain by now. I searched for it and found it here. Amazon sells a PDF version for $4.95. Why would I want that I’m not sure. I can see paying for a printed version since it’s still easier to read on paper.

But that’s not the interesting part. The interesting part is someone went to the trouble to make a computer reading of it here. I’m not sure I could take that type of speech for too long but there are people working on systems that sound more natural.

I went to see Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse with a bunch of friends last night. Apparently only I enjoyed it. I’m guessing I just went in with the right attitude. I knew exactly what I was going to get. A stupid action horror movie with lots of plot holes but because of my expectations I was able to let it slide and just enjoy it.

I also enjoyed the first one. It too was a stupid horror movie but it was the best movie based on a video game to date, not that that is saying much but still, I came out more entertained than I expected to be.

SPOILER WARNING:

I actually felt like it was fairly creative. There were several cool action sequences like the motorcycle one and the one where she runs down the side of the building.

In fact, I guess that makes it less a horror movie and more an action movie but the main character basically being able to kick so much ass in a horror movie seemed original to me and I liked the way it played out.

Of course in general I don’t like coincidence in movies and this one had way too many, for example. Why did Alice know to come into the Church? And even if she did how did she happen to come in at exactly the right time? Still, that scene rocked.

Why did she appear at exactly the right time for the dog scene and wasn’t it a little too convenient that there happened to be a fire proof blanket exactly where she needed it to be.

How did her friends happen to come pick her up at exaclty the right time at the end of the movie?

All those could be extreme luck so even though they are examples of poor writing the worst was the zombies in the cemetary. They didn’t fit with the consistency of the world of the movie. How do fleshless bones come back to life from the T-Virus? They don’t.

There was surprisingly little CG in the movie. That was both good and bad. It was good because for some reason it seemed to me they had to be more creative in thinking of how to make this type of movie without the budget for lots of CG. On the other hand, all the fighting is lots of super fast cuts which is basically an excuse for not being able to actually do the moves. Most current action movies just seem to use lots of CG for those parts. Spiderman 2, DareDevil and Catwoman for example all use CG fight scenes.

but don’t let all those things stop you from seeing it. Just go in knowing what to expect. If you liked the first one I think you’ll like this one as well.

For some fun ku-fooie fun you’ve got to check out Sockbaby!.

I think it was a Slashdot link that led me to the video game stuff on the Internet Archive. That led me to the Neverhood Electronic Press Kit which reminded me of the guys that made it so I searched and found out Doug TenNapel’s new thing, Sockbaby!. Some of the same guys also made Skull Monkeys and Earthworm Jim.

I got to see a preview screening of Spiderman 2 today. AWESOME! In fact I’d say it’s by far the best superhero movie yet. I definately recommend it!

Cutie Honey the movie RULES!.

I went to see Cutie Honey today as a friend had recommended it. I went with no expectations and was totally blown away. One of the best Japanese live action comedy movies I’ve ever seen.

Cutie Honey is a very famous Japanese Anime character from quite a while back. I believe a few animated movies based on her have made it to the states but not much of the original series.

The movie is made for adults who used to watch the show as a kid, not for kids, and the first 10 minutes of the movie are probably some of the most entertaining stuff I’ve seen in a long time. Of course the movie is total camp and its energy is not consistant throughout but if you love fun campy movies and you aren’t put off by girls in bikinis then I can give it the best recommendation I know how which is that I would happily go pay another 1800 yen to see it again

It’s made by the same director as “Red Shadow” which is also made in the same vain. Red Shadow was a disappointment though, probably because the setting was too serious for a comedy. The basic premise of Cutie Honey is itself completely silly so going for total over the top camp really fit this time.

GO SEE IT! (y)