Leaderboard

I'm not sure if people know this but if you want a break from bad movies The National Theatre, The Show Must Go On (Dame Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber), and Shakespeare's Globe YouTube channels are all uploading free full length plays for short windows of time for people to watch. If you're into Shakespeare today The National Theatre is doing Anthony and Cleopatra starring Voldemort himself Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo. And Macbeth next Monday over on The Globe's channel. If you act quickly you can still catch the Cumberbatch/Lee Miller Frankenstein on The National Theatre and The Globe's The Two Noble Kinsmen.

I wouldn't say I hate Bakshi, but I think almost every movie I've seen is not very good (but as Quasar said, I remember liking Fire And Ice and I have some fondness for Lord Of The Rings). I respect him for doing low budget animation largely outside the studio system for adults instead of pandering. I like the ideas he tries to do and the complicated nature of his movies. But his movies never convey his ideas well. When I've heard him talk about what he's doing in his movies, they all sound super interesting. The final product is a big mess. I've wondered how much is his low budget but I suspect they wouldn't be that much better with more money (except they'd look a lot better probably).

Credit for the look and the style, also the inspiration, but doing paintings (as stone-cold brilliant as Frazetta was) is different from crafting an actual film.

Fair enough, though I think I would give Frazetta the bulk of the credit for that movie. The roto looks OK in that trailer at least!

This movie may be peak Pretty Brad Pitt.

It makes sense in the context of the era but I still hate it

Would love to see this covered for so many reasons that have been mentioned already as well as Jones racing timed explosions on a motorcycle. I enjoyed this one a bit more than Dante's Peak as it was the more actiony of the pair, though that's the route I usually go with twin movie releases. Armageddon > Deep Impact Tombstone > Wyatt Earp The Prestige > The Illusionist Olympus Has Fallen > White House Down

Bakshi will forever have my love for Fire And Ice:

1. I love that Tall John Scheer pronounced my username as something like "renounce-able shaw". 2. Terry Pratchett does everything JK Rowling does (and more) but does it with more thought, humor, intelligence, humanity, and pathos.

No way — he owes them big time. Either he limps across the finish line and benefits from the lowered expectations, or more likely, realizes that a neat, satisfying ending is fundamentally at odds with the story he's been telling and retires in peace on top of a gigantic pile of money. Personally, the most authentic GOT ending is Martin unceremoniously dying of old age without providing any sort of resolution, and I genuinely hope that is his plan.

Understandable. I've only seen American Pop once with friends which they loved but I didn't. Cool World has a place in my heart because I saw it when I was a kid sneakily watching late night cable. It was too bizarre to look away from and felt like I was seeing some sort of anomaly I wasn't meant to. Plus the soundtrack. Who knows if the original idea for the movie before all the interference would have been better.

Grawp (or whatever) was another pointless detour. I think that whole situation *might* amount to a little more in the book, but there’s absolutely no reason why that was included in the movie. It’s brought up once and forgotten forever.

Def a love-hate relationship with Harry Potter. Didn't care at all for the first book, turned around and loved the richness as it build in the second and third, only to be disappointed and apathetic by the end. One of the key disappointments was the whole SPEW thing. Here is a character (a strong female protagonist) clearly aiming to do something heroic and fight a true injustice against an impoverished indentured class, only to have it be so dismissed on every level by the characters and the author herself. I understand that implicitly an American is going to read into these class-ish issues differently than a British person, but it's Just. So. Glaring. If being anti-establishment in this manner is going to make me a Slytherin, then damn straight I'm going to wear those color with pride. In related news, for a different writing project, I set out looking at strange conspiracy theories. Apparently there is a real conspiracy theory out there that JK Rowling doesn't exist. That would explain a lot, though.

I agree. It’s fantastic world building, but the stories themselves are pretty clunky—particularly the later books, which I feel really needed some editorial oversight. Like, I get she was making people a ton of money at that point and it’s hard to say “no,” but there are plot lines that are introduced and dropped with no resolution or impact on the overall plot. For example, Hermione’s S.P.E.W stuff is a nice idea, but really slows the momentum of the books down—especially when you consider it never really pays off. The last page of the last book ends with Harry demanding a sandwich from Kreacher for Christ’s sake! Lesson clearly not learned! (Although I’m sure she has a BS excuse like, “Just because you defeat one evil doesn’t mean prejudices don’t still exist,” or some such. And even if that actually was her intention, it comes off sloppy.)

I will say I don’t think the HP books are as flawlessly executed as Jason thinks they are (maybe we gotta get DanRad back on the show) but they are very good and something I recommend as comfort reading. JKR reminds me so much of Hermione when she is mad. She goes scary places. Anyway, I look forward to future articles about George RR Martin’s “petty” revenges on the show runners.

Fucking. Cool. World. I absolutely loved that movie as a kid (probably not the greatest movie for a kid to watch but Can't wait to rewatch it now

Ha, wow. I had never heard of this but I can't say I am surprised, she seems like a challenging person to deal with.

Here’s a funny Cracked article from a few years ago regarding Rowling’s petty revenge on Stephen Fry.

Oh, Cool World. Oy. I hate Bakshi and rotoscoping (at least, 90s and earlier roto) so hard to say if I'll put myself through that again. One comment about the Harry Potter audio books: Jim Dale is fine but Stephen Fry reads the UK editions. And for those like me who enjoy HP well enough but wish it was more, shall we say, gay: I highly recommend the two Simon Snow books by Rainbow Rowell, Carry On and Wayward Son. It's essentially HP fanfic, but well written and compelling and fun. They are actually spinoffs of one of her other books, Fangirl, which is also good but honestly I like the Snow books the most of all her stuff so far.

In response to the first caller, I think it’s best to maintain a certain level of continuity even though you’re at home. Lunches shouldn’t be that difficult if you were already preparing lunches for school. You can just make a lunch the night before, put it in a lunchbox, and give it to them for lunch. You don’t have to straight up cook every meal just because you’re home Also, we try to take our kids for a walk or bike ride twice a day—practicing safe, social distancing, of course. Nothing super long, but long enough that they can run and get some of their energy out. This way they are less inclined to be crawling all over you while you are trying to work. Also, there are a ton of really cool educational apps out there for kids that can keep them pretty well occupied without being total brain rot. The Google Arts & Culture also app provides virtual tours that my kids love. Nothing is perfect of course, but these things have worked pretty well for us.

Mods, please feel free to edit if I messed anything up, I was just so excited (I Kermit flailed) because we're finally getting Cool World! ::DJ airhorns:: You can also watch Cool World through Tubi. A part of me still feels like the initial Sonic trailer was a scam and intentionally bad to drum up outrage/press/general interest and the final product always existed.