“A statue of Wallace and Gromit is to be built in Preston, Lancashire – the home city of their creator Nick Park. The Oscar-winning animator is working on designs for a permanent bronze tribute to the pair. Preston City Council must raise £100,000 to build the statue which it says would give a “boost” to the area. Mr Park, who dreamt up the characters as a student, said the statue would be “a wonderful honour”. He said: “This is a really exciting project and I’m delighted to be working on the designs.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 6, 2007 in Videogames
By chance I came across the following video on YouTube which shows the Atari 2600 game based on the classic movie E.T.:
But what’s funny is that I don’t recall seeing this game when it came out, but my first reaction looking at the video was “that looks horrid!” So I knew there had to be a good story behind the game, and it turns out that E.T. was the start-of-the-end for the golden age of Atari:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 4, 2007 in Pulp Fiction
Shown above is the Chesley Awards winner of the best hardback cover illustration which is awarded at Worldcon each year by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists. The artwork is for the cover of the book River of Gods, and the talent behind the painting is Stephan Martiniere. For me the real test of artwork with a fantastic theme is if I would want to step into the painting and explore the world being show, and in this case Martiniere has created a very inviting world with a wonderful sense of scale and architecture.
“Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the original iconic Star Wars film, this replica of the headstrong astromech droid is a full-function, 628 x 528 pixel web camera that wirelessly transmits real-time video and audio to a computer, and has worldwide remote access capabilities, allowing you to control R2-D2’s movements and access the web camera from a laptop or a PC anywhere in the world.”
“A manga-illustrated canned coffee product that went on sale during the Comic Market (Comiket) 72 convention in August has turned out to be a hit among visitors to the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition venue. The “Seichi no Kohi” (sacred-site coffee) features two manga-like designs. One shows a girl carrying a bag along with another girl wearing glasses and carrying a thick book, resembling one of the official Comiket guides. The other shows a cosplay character in a sailor-type school uniform. The product was conceived by Big Sight Service, a company that operates stalls at Tokyo Big Sight, where Comiket is held.”
This is an interesting story from the BBC on a skycar that a company called Moller is working on (their website is quite interesting and worth a glance). It’s funny because I grew up watching science fiction I’ve always not thought much of skycars because you’d see them in shows like the Jetsons, while more realistic technology like a permanent moon base would be featured in shows like Space:1999, so it would be ironic if I lived to see flying cars take off in my lifetime while we’re still so earthbound:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 2, 2007 in Japanese TV
Shown above is a clip from a 1966 episode Ultra Q titled “Challenge From The Year 2020”. Ultra Q was a sci-fi/horror tv series which was like a cross between the Twilight Zone and the Toho monster movies. When this came out it was the most hight budget tv series being produced.
“After years and years of rumors about a potential live-action Dragonball Z movie, it has finally been announced that work is soon to commence! April 1st was a long time ago, so I am guessing this time the news is for real. The film will be produced by 20th Century Fox (as had always been rumoured) and will have a budget of US$100 million. Filming will take place in Montreal this fall and winter. There is good potential Fox will screw the film up, but is is certainly extremely interesting news for DBZ fans nonetheless.”
Not only is Tarantino correct that he was talking up Casino Royale before it was made, but also his vision of setting the film in the 60s was much more creative:
“Director Quentin Tarantino has slammed the Casino Royale producers for making the movie without his input, according to the UK movie magazine, Total Film. Tarantino, 44, best known for hit cult films like Pulp Fiction, said remaking the Bond movie was originally his idea.
“I never saw Casino Royale because I was so mad at those guys,” he said. “They said publicly that Casino Royale was un-filmable. The minute I said I would do Casino Royale, it’s on all the websites and it is the film that people want to see. They should have said thank you, ” added Tarantino.”
When I first read this I got excited, the idea of Russia or China landing on the moon would force the United States to re-invest in NASA and perhaps lead to a Mars landing as part of a new space race. But alas my fanboy hopes were dashed when I read further as it seems the Russians don’t even want to get to the moon until 2025 which pretty much makes their plans science fiction:
“MOSCOW, Aug. 31 (UPI) — Russia says it will send cosmonauts to the moon by 2025, with plans for a permanent manned base. Anatoly Perminov, head of the space agency, said a manned flight to Mars is scheduled for after 2035.”
It looks like good old TV Guide will cease to be published as a magazine, alas the company will live on but the publication will fade into history. As a fanboy this is rather sad for me as TV Guide has such a rich history of featuring all sorts of cool shows on their covers, making the back issues very collectable. Shown above are covers for Star Trek, Superman, the Six Million Dollar Man, Lost in Space, and Land of the Giants.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 31, 2007 in Animation
At long last Hollywood is starting to discover the animation industry in Korea. Shown above is a still from the film Yobi the Five-Tailed Fox which is featured in this recent Variety article:
“Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the country was a prime destination for outsourced animated work, with companies such as Akom Prods. (which produced much of the animated work behind “The Simpsons” TV series and recent film) leading the way. Nonetheless, few locally conceived and financed projects caught on with auds, or made much of a mark overseas. But newfound ambition and a rising generation of talent are raising hopes for a local renaissance.
Although what I liked best about the site is that it allows members to upload their own fan art, and thus allows you to create your own virtual dress up dolls. While some of the results may not be as slick as a professional artist, I admire the effort and energy some of the community members have put into their work. In fact got a kick out this Hamtaro entry which is very cute.
“Honey, why is your face glowing? In 1951, A.C. Gilbert introduced his U-238 Atomic Energy Lab, a radioactive learning set we can only assume was fun for the whole math club. Gilbert, who Americanmemorabilia claims was “often compared to Walt Disney for his creative genius,” had a dream that nuclear power could capture the imaginations of children everywhere. For a mere $49.50, the kit came complete with three “very low-level” radioactive sources, a Geiger-Mueller radiation counter, a Wilson Cloud Chamber (to see paths of alpha particles), a Spinthariscope (to see “live” radioactive disintegration), four samples of Uranium-bearing ores, and an Electroscope to measure radioactivity.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 30, 2007 in Comic Books
Fearless Frankie is a EC Comics inspired zombie comic book set in the jungles of the Vietnam War. This well done mini-epic is illustrated by Canadian artist Rob Sacchetto, and the comic is completely free online or as an Adobe Acrobat download.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 29, 2007 in Star Wars
You only have $50 to get your fanboy friend a gift, but the only trouble is do you pick something with a Star Wars theme or a cool Transformers toy? Well if you want to get the best both worlds you should check out the Hasbro Star Wars Transformer Deluxe Death Star that changes into Death Star vehicle mode into a mecha Darth Vader. The funny thing is that the mecha Darth sort of reminds me of a Gundam robot too…
Side Note: I keep looking for worthy Star Trek goodies to write about but the merchandising biys at Lucasfilm seem to be in hyperdrive mode this year. Maybe that will change when the next Trek film comes out.
