One of the things I always find odd is how long animation in the United States has remained a children’s medium. Which is not to say that there haven’t been animations aimed at mature audiences – but for the most part the commercially viable animation has been in the children’s section. And yes, we can talk about the rise of anime in the marketplace, but that’s still not American animation, now, is it?
Every now and then, we catch glimpses of what might have been in American cinemas if the artists had had their way – Ralph Bakshi notwithstanding. There’s Walt Disney’s concept images for The Song of Hiawatha – a darker movie in tone than anything else he had ever produced, which was ultimately abandoned in favor of the more kid-friendly Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. There’s the still kid-friendly but more wild and woolly The Thief and the Cobbler, which was canceled midway through production and the unfinished footage sold to hackwork animation studios that have released it in butchered form on DVD.
And there’s this clip from over at AMC today, featuring a very Fleischer-like rendering of John Carter, Warlord of Mars.
Why were these shorts never produced? Well…
Burroughs and Clampett wanted to make a serious since fiction adventure while the studios (in typical studio fashion that foreshadowed decades of missteps) wanted to make a sci-fi slapstick comedy.
Sometimes, you just have to wonder. What is it that drives Uwe Boll?
Honestly – when I see something like this video (with some not-safe-for-work language), I start wondering if this mad German filmmaker may just possibly be pulling an extended Kaufman on us – and getting hella rich in the process.
I mean, really – Michael Bay, sure. Boll’s movies are, strangely, more entertaining than the majority of Bay’s work.
Right now, a lot of people are lining up to dance on HD-DVD’s grave. It appears it’s all over except for Toshiba’s quiet, lonely sobbing. Engadget reports that, hot on the heels of Netflix ditching HD-DVD from its rental service, Best Buy is breaking its long-held neutrality in the next-gen DVD war.
Starting in early March the store will showcase Blu hardware and software on its shelves and website, and switch from its current neutral stance, to recommending Blu-ray to any customers that ask.
If you’ve voted for my video on Project Breakout – Thanks! The vote isn’t over yet, though, and you get 15 votes a day. Which, it appears, you can use on a single video if you’re so inclined. To move on to the finals, all I need is to finish in the top three for one of the weeks of the initial stage. Help get the ArtMachine on television! Vote early, vote often!
But if you’d like to vote today… I’m running for political pundit.
My recent political videos got somebody’s attention on MySpace, and now I’m registered in Project Breakout’s political pundit competition.
So I’d appreciate it if some of you would click the banner below and go vote for my video – and see if I can get some work ranting about politics on television.
Sometimes it becomes apparent to me how woefully behind the times I’m running.
It was just as the year was beginning that I wrote about Air America, and pondered aloud why I should continue to subscribe if they might delete my favorite show halfway through the year.
Then I also talked about HD disc formats and the war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD as though it would continue for a long time.
On January 14, Air America dropped The Young Turks and the show became available exclusively through their website.
And with the defection of Warner Bros. to Blu-Ray exclusive, people are largely ready to declare the format wars over and Blu-Ray the victor.
Well! I’m glad we got those two issues out of the way. So how about that Kucinich? Think he can take Ron Paul in the upcoming election?
