Comic Con miscellany

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I don't have it in me to put together a real post today, but Comic Con was, in blog years, about a century ago, so if I'm going to say more I need to get cracking.

Jerry Robinson, the creator of the Joker, thought Superman would never last. He also named Robin Robin to keep him human.

Gary Gianni recommends the following movies: Chandu the Magician, The Black Pirate, The Orphanage, A Cottage on Dartmoor and Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages which Mike Mignolia also loves. (One of these films is not like the others.)

I learned from Lewis Trondheim that 'good mayonnaise' is French for 'good chemistry'.

From the new Spike and Mike show, may I recommend the following?

i would love to show more but these are the only ones i can find online

Peter Jackson says imagination is a muscle. And he exercises his with Goodfellas and Casino. I'm guessing he's more excited than I am for Shutter Island.

I've been meaning to write about the EW-sponsored panel featuring Peter Jackson and James Cameron. I was impressed by the culture of giving that they represented. Cameron did, yes, some, but really I'm talking about Jackson here, how he picked up an unknown to direct Halo and how he gave a very thoughtful answer to a ten-year-old aspiring filmmaker. Peter Jackson really represents the best filmmaking has to offer, as far as human beings are concerned. (Definitely follow the link if you want to see the crazy guy.)

The Star Wars Spectacular panel was the most hideously boring thing at the Con. Everything was heavily scripted and painfully uninteresting. At least the Clone Wars cast reading showed some spunk. The voice actors were a little less containable. Good for them.

This movie Legion? Looks stupid. And it doesn't help that writer/director, when asked about the film, can only answer, "It's angels with machine guns! How cool is that? Angels with machine guns." You can plan on skipping this one.

(The actor playing the angel said, regarding holding two machine guns and emptying them out, "I was in the Royal Shakespeare Company, but this is why I wanted to be an actor.")

District 9 on the other hand looks really really good. A couple of the guys I was staying with got in to see the whole thing and wouldn't shut up about how great it was. I saw probably ten or fifteen minutes and you're lucky I can still shut up about it.



(Sorry for the crap up front --- the official version has disallowed embedding. Disallowing embedding of trailers, stupidest thing ever? Discuss.)

The script for D9 was just an outline and the actors were unscripted. The lead actor had no professional acting experience. But all this plays into the documentary feel.

You can watch the short film it's based on here.

Here's the original short 9 is based on:

I saw an extended clip from this as well and it looks fun. I don't have much else to say other than, Hey! Stop asking the actors questions! And you don't need to tell Tim Burton he's great!

Although speaking of Tim Burton, he was like Peter Jackson when it came to the director of 9, Shane Acker. Every time a question was directed at him, he would either give a worthless answer (if the question was purely for him) or gently push it over to Acker. He took none of the glory to himself. I thought that was marvelous.

Disney is going to start making shorts again. One though was expanded and will appear this December as a Christmas special on ABC. It's called Prep & Landing and I saw the opening sequence and I will definitely be tuning in.

Although, speaking of Santa variants....

I saw Bill Plympton's Santa: The Fascist Years twice. It's pretty good but the most amazing thing is this: he animated it in four days. How is that possible?

I also saw the newest entry in his Dog series. And I think "Horn Dog" might be the best since the first.

And that's probably enough for one post, don't you think? More next week. (Next time, if there is a next time, I should definitely bring internet along with me so I can post as I go....)