Back from the Dead

Woah. It’s been crazy under the rock that has been my home for the last month or so. Between work and volunteering with the American Cancer Society, things have been nuts. I have done a lot of things and seen a lot of movies and I want to write about all of them! So in the next coming days, my goal is to catch up on everything from California Adventure opening this coming Friday and all the new merchandise they have to offer to every movie I’ve seen in the last few weeks: Avengers, Dark Shadows, Men in Black 3, and Snow White and The Huntsman. It’s going to crazy so hang on.

I have seen more movies in the last few weeks than I have seen in the last year. I used to go to the movies all the time, but then things got busy and I just didn’t have time to go anymore. Plus, there were very few movies that I really really wanted to see. This movie season has definitely proven worthy. Everyone knows that Avengers was awesome so I feel like I would just be wasting a blog if all I did was rant about something everyone already knows so I think I’m going to skip that one and go right into the most disappointing movie of the year, Dark Shadows. Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. What could go wrong? Apparently, no matter how good you are at making a movie, you have to have a good script. You can have every great actor and the best director, but if your script sucks, you’re screwed and that’s exactly what happened with Dark Shadows. I never watched the TV show so I was going in blind expecting greatness. But as I mentioned, the script was boring and I didn’t give a shit. Of course Johnny was awesome and the movie was pretty to look at, but that’s where it ended. Johnny’s character is cursed by a witch when he falls in love with someone other than her. She turns him into a vampire and locks him in a coffin until he’s found by construction workers decades later. Naturally, the witch is still alive and has taken over his family business. He tries to get it back from her and blah blah blah. I’m bored already. All comedic timing was lost and I was left asking “WTF?” Very disappointing, especially because all the people who watched the TV show were pretty much boycotting the movie. The least Tim Burton could have done was made this movie freaking awesome so people would have no choice but to see it. Maybe next time, Tim. Long story short, don’t see this movie. Don’t even waste the $1 at Red Box. Don’t even download it illegally.

Minimalist

I love creative, minimalistic art. When it's done well, it looks awesome and it makes you want to hang it on your wall. Someone recently made minimalist posters for all of Tim Burton's movies and they all looked awesome. Simple, but you know exactly which movie is being depicted.

The most recent set of minimalist posters that I can't get enough of are new Pixar posters. Lee Wonchan created a poster for almost every Pixar movie and they're super cute. I think some of them could have been different, but I still like them. For example, I think Up should have been a balloon. But the rest are really cute. See for yourself.











I think Toy Story has to be my favorite. Ratatouille is pretty cute too. Which one do you like most?

Magical Year

Sorry for abandoning my blog for a few weeks. There were some insane deadlines at work leaving no time to look at what was happening in the world other than presidential events, but that's not what this blog is about. This is about the fun things that take us away from the cruel world and into the awesome, fantastical world.

So let's move on to the happiest place on Earth. California Adventure has a lot going on and I can't wait until the end of this year when it's all complete. I want to run around like a child! Cars Land is nearing completion and I keep seeing amazing images and videos and it just looks fantastic. The front entrance area is going to look like old Burbank when Walt first arrived to California. I'm most excited about the statue of Walt and Mickey that will be placed in the middle of the square.

Not sure why I love the statue so much. It's just Walt and Mickey with suit cases. What's really cool about it is that the statue of Walt and Mickey in Disneyland is supposed to be the two of them looking at all their accomplishments, while the new one at DCA is the two of them just starting out. Good job with story telling Disney folks.

Anyway, going back to the changes. The area where ElecTRONica is currently, is going away and becoming an Alice in Wonderland/Mad T Party themed bar area instead.

I'm not sure the motivation behind making this area a bar after dark. Seems kind of weird to me, but at least Alice in Wonderland is more Disney than ElecTRONica... Although, this Alice in Wonderland is going to be more like the Tim Burton version and less like the cartoon we all know and love from Disney. So I guess nothing is really changing except the decor. The change is going to take place this summer.

No matter what, I think this is what the Disney folks should have done with DCA in the first place. The changes that are being made are very awesome and I definitely think it will draw more people to the park once it's finished. I guess it took the Imagineers going through a little bit of failure with the park before realizing what the park should actually look like.

Pumpkin King

Tim Burton is kind of amazing. There are times where I think that whatever he has to do with is going to be insane, but now that I got a glimpse into his life I feel like I have a better understanding. I still think he's a little nuts, but in a good way. I went to see his exhibit at LACMA on Saturday and it was incredible. Makes me wish I could draw. I loved the way it was laid out. You start in his early years when he was living in Burbank with his parents feeling alienated and then the exhibit takes you through his time when he was studying at Cal Arts to his time working at Disney and then to his most recent movies and adventures. He has a freaking insane imagination. He draws all of these crazy little creatures with scary teeth, but it's amazing what he can do with these little sketches. He can create such simple drawings with many layers. It's kind of fascinating. He must have some crazy nightmares and he must just draw all the time. I didn't know about half of the little stories and characters he created until the exhibit. The thing that makes me sad though is that all the plaques kept saying how alienated he felt and how he turned to drawings to create his own worlds. Makes me sad that such creativity came out of sadness. There was one sketch of him and his mom sitting at the dinner table and neither one of them looked happy. There was another of his parents just watching TV and it makes me wonder if his childhood with his parents wasn't great. But I guess amazing creativity has to come from somewhere, right? Either way, if you haven't seen it, you definitely have to. It's at LACMA until Oct 31.

A Wonderful Nightmare

I am so excited for this! I received a letter in the mail more than a year ago as a teaser and it’s almost here. LACMA will be having a Tim Burton exhibit starting in May and ending in October. There will be over 700 drawings, paintings, photos, moving images, storyboards, puppets, concept art, costumes, etc. Tim Burton is even bringing in work from his own archives. Stuff that hasn’t even been released. That sounds awesome. Yes, Tim Burton can be a little batty, but in kind of an awesome way. It makes me wonder what kind of dreams he has at night. I love how he uses so much color in everything he does. Even if the story is a dark story, there is so much color. I love the super artsy stuff. I think my favorite thing Tim Burton did was Beetlejuice. It’s one of those movies you can watch over and over again and always notice new things or gain appreciation for new things as you get older. I used to watch the cartoon before school when I was a kid, which he produced as well. I remember it being kind of gross, but I could handle it. Tim Burton will also have a book signing at LACMA. This is like the wet dream for crazy minds.

Off With Their Heads

I saw Alice in Wonderland this past weekend and I have to say that all the hype surrounding it lead to disappointment. Of course, when you see a million trailers for a movie it’s more than likely going to be bad, but no one expects a bad movie from Tim Burton. I was very sad to see that he in fact didn’t make a great movie. Yeah the movie had a huge opening and made a billion dollars, but the movie was kind of blah. I was waiting and waiting for something super exciting to happen and it never did. I was really hoping for an awesome, insane movie. All I got was the insane. Johnny Depp did his thing, but he wasn’t as great as he has been. At one point he sounded like Jack Sparrow and that’s never like him to cause people to think of another character he’s played. He always makes each role super unique.

The CG and visual effects were amazing, but that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted a good story too. Maybe we forget that the original story by Lewis Carol was kind of boring and Tim Burton did what he could with it? I don’t know. All I know is that I was disappointed.

I saw the movie in 3D even though I’m usually very against that, but I figured why not. I have to say that the 3D didn’t really make a difference. It didn’t even seem like the movie was in 3D. I heard the movie was filmed in 2D and adapted to 3D and that never makes for good 3D effects. It was a sad day for me in Wonderland.