where ideas go to die
Well, I got my replacement PC yesterday afternoon: a Dell XPS M170. Though I think posting some sort of half-assed review less than 24 hours later would be premature, it seems like a sweet machine to me. It’s the most powerful computer I’ve had to date and it’s a laptop.
This crazy, new-fangled technology. I swear!
I call her “Stacy”.
Okay, back to the animation stuff for a moment so bear with me.
I’ve been hearing about Sweatbox for a number of years now. It’s a documentary about the making of Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove. It was directed by Sting’s wife Trudi Styler. The movie is famous for its warts and all peek behind the curtain. It’s also famous for being utterly squelched by The Walt Disney Company. If I’m not mistaken, it was intended as an eventual DVD extra but never saw the light of day. I’m not going to go into how and where I finally got to see the picture (and, no, I can’t get you a copy) but I will say it’s quite an amazing piece of work. First of all, Sweatbox doesn’t smack of a vanity project at all. Despite the fact that it was made by the mother of Sting’s children and its primary focus is Sting’s journey in writing the songs for the film, it’s very well-made. In fact I’d say it’s the finest doc I’ve ever seen about animated filmmaking. It’s also not hard to see why Disney would want to bury it. The suits in this film do not come off in a good light at all. The process of making the film is fraught with waste and ill-concieved “creative” input from two men who, thankfully, are no longer with Disney Feature Animation at all.
I would submit that this picture would probably be of interest to even those of you who are not fans of animation per se. The personalities and the politics involved would, I think, be interesting to even the layman. So, if Disney ever lets the film out from under the rock they’ve buried it under, try and check it out.
Sweatbox
***1/2 (out of five)
Why? Brother, if you have to ask, you’ll never know.
The site feels like 40% cooler already.
I own a Sony desktop computer. For the past couple of years it’s been working just fine. Now, suddenly, the internal cooling fan is starting to go out. This isn’t at all unusual. Parts wear out. No biggie, right? Well, it wouldn’t be if I could do want everyone else does in this situation: drive down to Best Buy and buy a new fan for 25 dollars. No, Sony uses proprietary cooling fans so you have to send your computer to San Diego where they will replace the fan for you. Total cost: 350$. Total time without a computer: 3-4 weeks. Priceless.
My wife and I ordered a Dell last week.
Oh, yeah, don’t buy Sony computers.
You know, looking back over this blog, it seems that a lot of it is pretty cut and dried. Even though I kidded Kevin Smith in part one of “Perils”, at least we can say that his stuff has a little color. I’ve been resisting the idea of getting too personal here for a couple of reasons. One: my wife works in a potentially dangerous field and I didn’t want to call attention to our private lives in any way (because, as you and I both know, criminals spend a LOT of their time reading blogs — it’s just how they are). Two: because I had some crazy notion of limiting my posts to movie reviews and discussions about animation and pop culture. Well, recently, my wife complained about how she never gets mentioned here and I’m beginning to find the limitations I imposed on myself earlier to be too, well, limiting.
So, in short, I think I’ll loosen the reins a little. Although you probably still won’t have to hear about me taking a dump or rubbin’ one out. If that’s what you’re into I’m sure there are plenty of other places for you to go on the Net.
Today I finished a rough version of Draft Two. I’m calling this The Franken-draft. It incorporates a lot of the information the clients asked me to include but pays no heed to the ripple effect this new material will no doubt cause. I’m sure that I’ve got a lot of holes to patch and edges to smooth. I think I’ll give myself 24 hours away from it before I print it out and begin fine-tuning it. At the moment, I’m a little concerned that the new material has made my original structure lumpy and lopsided. It’s possible that we’ve gone beyond the scope of my original piece in a deterimental way. We shall see after I’ve had a chance to look it over and play with it a bit.
Hopefully I’ll be able to whip it into shape before Monday the 3rd (which is my next deadline).
This film is a very effective primer for those interested in learning more about Mr. Disney’s life. At a lean 84 minutes, it’s certainly more accessible than some of the biographies out there right now in book form. Where Walt excels is in its behind the scenes footage. This runs the gamut from rare material shot by the Disney Studio itself to some of Disney’s own home movies. Much of it is simply priceless.
While not especially deep or controversial in any way Walt is a very entertaining little documentary.
Walt
***1/2 (out of five)
You know I’ve been following John Sanford’s “Chippy and Loopus” online comic strip for some time now and it just occurred to me I haven’t given him a direct link. Since he’s just moved to a dedicated server now seems like a good time.
The strip started on a Blogger blog and John was having too many problems with the service. If you want to start from the beginning then start here:
Chippy and Loopus (old school).
I’m putting the new site in the links at the right.
[© John Sanford.]
Not much to say about this one really. It looks great and a lot of the animation is really terrific but it’s a comedy and it’s not funny. Too bad.
Chicken Little
Mark Dindal, director.
Like five people, writers.
**1/2 (out of five)
Well, I got feedback on draft one of my freelance writing project earlier this evening and, I must say, it couldn’t have gone any better than it did. Of course there are changes I’m going to have to make but the general reaction was very, very positive indeed. People were entertained by what I did and that’s extremely gratifying.
So, definitely, so far so good.
I’ve got two weeks to prepare a second draft.
Another friend of mine from Atlanta has got himself a fine Blog goin’. Check out his thoughts on being a stay-at-home dad as well as a freelance writer.
Below and to the right:
You’d think a book called How to be Like Walt would be schmaltzy and it definitely is. It’s also repetitive, simplistic and naive. But it also has some really strong things going for it. More on that in a moment.
Walt Disney is a personal hero of mine. Sure, the man’s movies and overall sensibility skated dangerously close to the cornball on occasion but you can’t deny that he had a singular vision and the uncanny willpower to make it all happen. As far as I’m concerened, Walt was one of the most important people of the twentieh century. His impact on popular culture was staggering. I know this view may not be shared by a lot of you so, if you disagree, that’s cool. You know what though? You’re wrong. Show me another person who accomplished as much as Walt did in one lifetime and then we can talk. We could argue whether or not Mr. Disney’s impact was all to the good but we’d be missing the point. It’s an empirical fact that Walt and the company he founded gave a lot of joy to quite a lot of people and that that was the man’s stated aim. How many of us have that same knack for self-actualization?
Even though How to be Like Walt is digressive and simple I think it succeeds brilliantly on two levels. 1) The author had unprecidented access to the Disney family and some of Walt’s closer associates. There are anecdotes in here that I’ve never heard before. That’s quite a neat trick since I’ve read most of the books published about Disney in the last thirty years. “Be Like” does an outstanding job at giving us a portrait of what the guy must have been like in his everyday life. 2) The whole premise behind the book is a solid one. This isn’t just a biography but a breakdown on what made Walt so successful. Each chapter ends with an analysis of a particular character trait of Mr. Disney’s. Now, admittedly, not all of these “lessons” are well-reasoned or insightful but I can’t fault the basic idea behind them. One could do a lot worse than taking Disney on as a role model and How to be Like Walt at least attempts being a roadmap toward that aim. –So, “A” for effort there.
“Be Like” is definitely a flawed piece of work but the book has it’s heart in the right place and the author’s approach is an unconventional one.
How to be Like Walt
by Pat Williams
**** (out of five)
I hadn’t seen The Black Hole since the mid 80s so I figured it was time for another viewing. The movie is pretty much as I remembered it: a failure, albeit an interesting one. On the plus side there is the production design and a truly ballsy (if confusing) climax. On the negative there is the awkwardly indecisive tone. The ships in this film and most of the sets are truly inspired in their design. The Cygnus in particular (the bad guy’s ship) is a beautiful piece of work. And the end of the picture is amazingly 2001-y for what ostensibly is supposed to be a children’s film. By the admission of those who worked on the movie it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but it is striking thematically and visually. But now we come to the robots. Oy. “Vincent” and “Old Bob” are two remarkably ill-concieved bits of character design. They’re an obvious concession to Star Wars‘ R2-D2 but filtered through the Disney cartoon department. Their googily eyes and toony behavior are a tad embarrassing. This points up The Black Hole’s frequently inconsistent tone. The movie can’t decide if it wants to be a serious sci-fi adventure or a movie for kids. It wants to provoke thought and sell toys at the same time. Ultimately it is neither fish nor fowl.
The Black Hole
1979
Gary Nelson, director.
Jeb Rosebrook, Bob Barash and Richard Landau, writers.
**1/2 (out of five)
Well, I spent a long weekend writing and finished Draft One of my freelance document slightly ahead of schedule. I’m relatively happy with it. I think it does everything a first draft needs to do; I.E. show intent and give a basis for discussion. Which isn’t to denigrate the piece at all; I think it’s an entertaining read.
I should get some feedback Monday or Tuesday so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
I picked this one up in a three for two sale at Border’s. I suppose it’s one of the better-known books on writing and it wasn’t a bad read; it just wasn’t memorable in any way. Chalk it up to my own admittedly scatterbrained nature but I came away with very little from Writing Down the Bones. The one thing I can recollect is author Natalie Goldberg’s frequent citing of nuggets of supposed wisdom from her Zen master (this occurs at least every ten pages –I checked). Goldberg writes well and you’ll have a good time with “Bones” while you’re in it, but I suspect you’ll be like me and remember very little once it’s done.
Writing Down the Bones
Natalie Goldberg
**1/2 (out of five)
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