Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 15, 2009 in Star Trek
The year is 1982 and Star Trek is all but finished — the first Star Trek movie was a disaster of bland storytelling and had no life at all. Yet Paramount decides to take a chance and allows Nicholas Meyer to direct Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. To be blunt about it: The movie was so damn good that not only did it turn the film series into a franchise — but it’s now over 25 years later and there have been four additional series and a new set of films in the works.
A huge part of that is due to the screen performance of Ricardo Montalbán (November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009). Firstly in 1982 to all of America he was known as Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island — and maybe lesser known for selling automobiles that featured “soft Corinthian leather”. Meyer could have cast anyone for the part, but the fanboy in him (and God bless him for doing it) made him go back to Montalbán. In fact it was Montalbán’s performance in the original 1967 episode of Space Seed that played a role in him coming up with the story in the first place. Read more…
In the good old days (a year ago) we’d somehow get our hands on a preproduction sketch from an upcoming film — and then within hours await for the lawyers to contact us. But in the modern world of viral marketing the smarter film folks actually stalk fanboy oriented websites and reach out to us fanboys via Twitter!
So it seems that the fanboy friendly folks behind Ghostbusters III are doing an outreach campaign to plug their film production. So far they have a Twitter account and a production blog setup which features footage from the field and even some production artwork.
Here’s a scene featuring panicked folks fleeing some unseen sort of CGI monster:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 12, 2009 in Japanese TV
This is latest sketch from one of my favorite Japanese comedians — Ken Shimura (志村けん)! What I love about his work is that even if you don’t speak Japanese his comedy is physical enough to get a sense of what’s going on while making you laugh in the process:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 11, 2009 in Animation
I had always falsely assumed that the animated Sugar Bear character was created just for commercials, but this isn’t the case as it turns out that he got his start on Saturday morning TV in 1963. He was featured in the cartoon Linus the Lionhearted which crossed the now unimaginable line of having advertising characters (pushing junk food no less) appear on regular cartoons aimed at kids. Also it turns out that Sugar Bear was based on Dean Martin which explains his demeanor — I guess I could see Sugar Bear drinking a martini and starring in a Matt Helm movie. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 10, 2009 in Japanese TV
This Pocari Sweat advert is clearly aimed at the fanboys! You’ve got a little of everything here: A sword welding lady in full battle armor, an exotic kitty cat, sphinx and some sort of 3D CGI alien creature mascot sidekick. What more could you ask for?
The history of tech is so ironic: Once upon a time in the early 90s Apple gave birth to the first real PDA — the Newton. I was at the first MacWorld in Boston when an army of eager developers got their hands on this gizmo, you could feel the magic in the air. In retrospect most people look at all of the flaws of the Newton (like a hand writing recognition) but people forget what a breakthrough it was at the time. Read more…
The Aérotrain sounds like a plot device from a steampunk novel — a rocket powered railroad car designed to travel on a monorail. This amazing retro tech project was lead by engineer Jean Bertin in France from 1965 until 1977. Sadly Bertin passed away in 1975, and his technology was passed over in favor of high speed trains that used high-powered electrical motors. Shown above is a working prototype from 1967 that was powered by Pratt & Whitney JT12 engine. Below is an early concept model which was created in 1962 which used compressed air: Read more…
The year is 1983 and as an art school student me and my buds are convinced that the era we were in was a low point for animation — except for Anime! Even though a generation has grown up loving He-Man we tested the dude, because his D&D routine wasn’t half as cool as Star Blazers or Mobile Suit Gundam. Looking back I still stand by my thesis of the lack of quality in Filmation productions, but now I can see how a generation of kids could look fondly back on this stuff. Read more…
For an entire decade you’ve given it your all — not just to turn around the company we love, but to make computing fun, sexy and exciting again. Read more…
The joy of New York City is that for a fanboy there are all sorts of unofficial landmarks that become special to you over the years — and as this is a city of change the heartbreak of this is that you realize that nothing can last forever. And over the years I’ve watched some of my favorite landmarks vanish like CBGBs where I spent my New Year’s Eve in 2000. Well sadly it looks like Love Saves the Day will be joining the ranks of lost fanboy destinations as they will be closing their doors in mid-January. Read more…
The most recent NASA soap opera started with administrator Michael Griffin giving the incoming Obama transition team a hard time — coming from an engineering background Griffin’s fear was that the Obama administration was going to gut the new moon rocket program. To be fair to Griffin the program was way over budget (so it looked like a good target) and early in the campaign trail Obama sent mixed signals on his support for manned exploration. The latest chapter was Griffin’s wife sending out a sad email pleading his case to keep his job (despite the fact that he is a Bush administration employee). Read more…
Back at Comic Con in 2008 Ralph Bakshi gave an amazing interview on how to survive in tough times. As a creative working person this inspires me a great deal, so I’d like to share some of my take away points from Bakshi’s insights. Read more…
Editor’s Note: This week we’re lucky to have film critic Joe Strike offers us his insights and first impressions of the films The Day the Earth Stood Still, Desperaux, and The Spirit.
I tell you, the synchronicity around here can really get to you sometimes. The other morning I went to see The Day the Earth Stood Still, or as us folks in a hurry like to call it, TDTESS (which is stupid since they’re all one-syllable words anyway). Weekend morning shows are $6.00 at my just-up-the-street cinema, I thank you from the bottom of my recession, AMC. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 1, 2009 in Cinema, Design
This is THE best unintentional anti-drug commercial I’ve ever seen hands down! In this clip Andy Warhol interviews Steven Spielberg while Bianca Jagger pretends that everything is “just normal”. What’s odd is that Spielberg seems so off the wall — this must have been what it was like to hang out at Studio 54 back in the day: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 1, 2009 in Japanese TV
This 1997 advert stars Japanese actress Takako Tokiwa (常盤貴子) in the role of Cinderella! My favorite bit is the short bit of then cutting edge 3D animation of her magic horse drawn carriage.
