New Django Unchained Poster is Decent

It's always interesting to see how movies created by real film buffs like Tarantino frequently have really great posters. That doesn't always apply, considering that Martin Scorsese is a massive film fan and most of his movie posters suck. The Last Temptation of Christ was interesting, and was, noticeably, very similar to this poster.

All of these posters harken back to the groundbreaking work of Saul Bass and the amazing movie posters of the late 50's and 1960's. And Saul Bass, I think, owes his aesthetic to the avant garde work of the Russian Constructivists.

I think that Paul Rand holds the distinction, as though he needed to be more distinct, of being the first person to apply those principles to a movie poster with his 1950 treatment for the movie No Way Out.

But that's neither here nor there. Movie posters are something that have lost much of their importance. Designers, real designers, rarely make them anymore. Directors and producers rarely have anything to do with their production. Increasingly, posters are simply an image that says "THIS MOVIE EXISTS." Tarantino has a history of great movie posters, and while I would say that this teaser is the least of them, he undoubtedly has a real killer in the offing for the official poster.

All of this just further confirms what Grindhouse laid out: Tarantino doesn't just like movies, he likes everything about movies. He likes the trailers, the posters, the ads, the credits, the sound. I'm amazed that he hasn't sold pieces of gum from the floors of old Brooklyn theaters.

We need more people like that. Not necessarily total auteurs, like Tarantino, but people involved in every aspect that love that aspect. I want poster people who love movie posters for the sake of movie posters. Trailers for the sake of trailers. Credits for the sake of credits. It's not like Tarantino has a higher midi-chlorian count than anyone else or something!

It doesn't take a special sauce. All it takes is love and dedication.

Legend of Korra Premiers In Less Than A Week

Legend of Korra, which has ditched the title Avatar undoubtedly because of James Cameron's abomination, premiers in FOUR DAYS. Make sure to check out their expansive internet exploration of the main city in the story, Welcome To Republic City.



I'm very excited for two reasons: one, it is a female-centered cartoon, and we don't have many of those. Two, I had many criticisms of The Last Airbender because Nickelodeon is a soulless monster run by brain-eating zombies. As such, they placed limitations on the show that shouldn't have been there and further reminded the market why little boys ran from Nickelodeon and into the arms of the Internet and Cartoon Network.

One of the biggest examples is no usage of the word "die" in the proactive sense. People have died. Characters are concerned that people will die. But at no point in the show does a character actually die, nor does any character say that they will kill someone. Everything is communicated through wan euphemisms. The character of Jet, for all intents and purposes, dies, but that is never said. The show even makes fun of itself later on, which to me was a direct mocking of Nickelodeon's restrictions on the show.

These limitations forced the show into certain narrative dead-ends. Iroh should have died. Why? He theoretically caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people in the past (the show even states that he is considered a war criminal in the Earth Kingdom), and we are supposed to feel bad about his son? There are certain Shakespearean restrictions on narrative, and there is no redemption for someone who has caused that much destruction.

The trailer for Legend of Korra, and also Nickelodeon's recent overtures to the male market with Dragonball Z Kai, give me hope that this show will have dramatic power. The Last Airbender was a better show than the new Thundercats, but without the fear of real repercussions, there was no drama. Lots of characters died, and continue to die, in Thundercats.

Not-So-Sly References In Pixar's Brave

Left-to-right: Lord MacGuffin, Lord Dingwall, and Lord Macintosh

I just realized that the names of the three suitors for the hand of Merida in Pixar's Brave are all references. A MacGuffin is a plot device for an object that everyone wants but isn't really explained. I'm assuming that Dingwall is a reference to the town of Dingwall, in the Scottish Highlands. Perhaps the production crew stayed there when they were scouting areas for inspiration. And finally, Lord Macintosh is undoubtedly a reference to the fact that Steve Jobs was one of the founding fathers of Pixar.

"Hotel Transylvania" Trailer Disappoints

Genndy Tartakovsky is one of the more ground-breaking animators in recent memory. While I wasn't the biggest fan of, well, any of his work, it was undeniably different. And in the animation industry, different is rare. Different that sells is even rarer. SO when I heard that Tartakovsky was working on a CGI film, I was hoping to see something different. We appear to have gotten... half and half.

The animation itself is very different. I haven't seen anything like it in CGI yet. Look at the animation of the shadowed monsters running, Dracula walking down the hall, or the husband skeleton who bursts out near the end. Their movement is 100% Tartakovsky. It's refreshing.

The character designs are not Tartakovsky, nor is the texture of the film. All of the characters are cut from the same "meat" as all of the characters in every other CGI film on the planet and appear to be the design work of Cal Art CGI sculptors.

That said, aside from Brave, I am most excited about this film over all other animated projects in the pipes. I wish Tartakovsky the best of luck after his unfriendly break-up with Cartoon Network (they cancelled his Sym-Bionic Titan show because it didn't have enough toys attached to it. I'm glad to see that quality is job-1 at CN).

Dreamworks' "Rise Of The Guardians"... um, Rises

Danielle: So, it's about Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny?
Me: And the Tooth Fairy...s, and the Sandman, who bind together to fight a dark... character.
Danielle: ...That's the dumbest goddamn thing I've heard in my entire life.

Yeah. That about says it all.

A History of Subversive Animation

Part three is unembeddable for some unknown reason. Find it here.

Vixen Of The Week

I've found myself being really lax with producing much of, well, anything. I think that if I put myself on a schedule (or shehjewall if you're British) I'll produce more. So here it goes. I don't like this as much as my Thin Woman, but I just wanted to get it off of my working list.