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Don Bluth: The Man who would not scream "Eek-A-Mouse"

Don Bluth: The Man who would not scream "Eek-A-Mouse"
Hey again, Lordofnoyze here with an unusual look at one overlooked master of animation. Now, for this blog, I will talk about a time way before DreamWorks Animation and Pixar, way before 3-D (well, as we know it or we are about to know it…I see you, James). Ever since the launch of Walt Disney Studios, in the 1930s, the Mouse firm maintained a strong domination in terms of animation feature films. (Warner Bros. and Universal only competed in short films).
That is, until the 1980s, when a renegade director born in El Paso, Texas (*insert Clint Eastwood music here*) took the challenge to direct animation feature films and fight Dinsey on their own turf.

The first Don Bluth-directed movie was for MGM, a little movie called “Brisby and The Secret of Nimh“. It was adapted from a Robert O’Brien book, that may have its second coming on screen thanks to Paramount and Neil Burger (but this time, it would be live-action…with a little CGI enhancement, of course).

It was followed by two videogames: “Dragon’s Lair“, and “Space Ace“. But Don Bluth hit the jackpot when he associated with Steven Spielberg and Universal. The results were two of the better-remembered 80’s kids flicks: “An American Tail” in 1986, and “The Land Before Time” in 1988. It spawned two franchises built around the heroes, Fievel the Mouse from the West, and Littlefoot. Fievel had one theatrical sequel, and two direct-to-video sequels. Littlefoot returned in a staggering 12 video sequels (!!!), the most recent dating way back to 2007. Both also had animated shows, and proved worth a lot of money for Universal.

This is where I pause. You know the first time when I cried while watching a movie? Nope, it sure wasn’t “Bambi”. It was the earthquake scene of “The Land Before Time”, when Littlefoot loses his mother. It was disturbing as hell to me, and it was the first time where I realised my own mortality, as well as the ones around me. Needless to say, putting four orphan dinosaurs put into situations of danger, all while grieving, took a lot of balls. It made for a highly emotional movie, that disputed any of the Disney classics.

Shortly after that, Bluth reunited with MGM for his most daring movie yet, “All Dogs Go To Heaven“. And if you thought that “The Land Before Time” had dark subject matter, I present to you the IMDB pitch.

A dog returns from the dead looking for revenge on his killer using an orphan
girl who can talk to animals.

Yes, we’re talking about a G-rated movie.

And a kind soul put the ending on YouTube, so to all of you that are not afraid of spoilers (right…like you cared about this movie until now), enjoy the imagery.

I mean…

Come on.
The movie was the first one produced under his new Sullivan Bluth Studios in Ireland. Right after the average box office scores, trouble began. Right after finding trouble in investments, and having a hard time distributing “Rock-A-Doodle“, his final movie for the Lion Firm, Bluth signed a deal with Warner Animation Studios, a newly founded wing destined to produce animation movies…and also compete with Disney. He produced two movies under the Warner banner: an adaptation of “Thumbelina“, one of Hans Christian Andersen’s tales, and “The Pebble and The Penguin“. The first one did good, the second one was a flop, critically and commercially.

Bluth had to wait until 1997 until luck found him again. 20th Century Fox appointed him and Gary Goldman to be chairmen of Fox Animation Studios, also a new division destined to compete with Disney and soon-to-be-open DreamWorks Animation. The success of “Anastasia“, with voices from Meg Ryan, John Cusack and Kelsey Grammer, led to a DTV sequel around Bartok the rat (again). But the phenomenal flop of “Titan A.E.” in 2000, scripted by three screenwriters well-known of us geeks, John August, Ben Edlund and Joss Whedon, led to an early retirement.

Now he’s opened his own website, donbluth.com, and his Don Bluth Films based in Phoenix, AZ, produces content for Web and IPhones alike.

OK, so…what’s my point?

Well, Bluth is a forgotten “artisan” that always stayed true to 2-D animation, and if you can see anything in his movies, it’s uncompromising (and yes, often dark) subject matter. But even if seeing it with very young kids is not a very good idea, it stays great to rediscover an alternative to rosy-colored, two-dimensional characters. I mean, for crissakes, the dogs in “Charlie” gamble, and it’s set in 1930s New Orleans, Vice City before Miami claimed that crown!!! But think about it: if there weren’t any Bluth movies, would Disney execs have accepted a pitch where an old man goes on a quest for adventure when his wife dies of illness?

(Well…they probably would have, since it’s Pixar. But you get my point.)

So, here’s my 2 cents to respect the artist. And I’ll leave you with a few in-depth links:
– Interview to IGN back when Titan A.E. was released

Oh, and a lot of his movies may be available on the YouTubes.

I said “may”.

Better Off Ted: Better Living Through Comedy

Better Off Ted: Better Living Through Comedy

Hello, Blog Nation. My name is Lordofnoyze, alias Lordy, and I have the honor to be the first guest blogger of TV Calling, so I hope to be up to the task. Either that, or I’m off answering calls in a Madagascar-based hotline company. And nobody wants that, especially not the fellow employees there.

I’m a French (former?) student about to embark in a career of journalism. But as a side hobby, ever since my teenage years, I’ve developed an unhealthy addiction for all things TV and TV shows. Soon, the voices in my…..er, I’ve been compelled to write about the good, the bad and the ugly in the now-defunct website “Ligue des Téléspectateurs Extraordinaires”, where I was getting a kick out at reviewing shows like “Boston Public”, “X-Files” or “American Dreams”. But college life, and the aforementioned closure of the site, got in the way, and after a (mostly) failed attempt at starting my own personal blog, I went on hiatus. Until today.

Also, I love pop and hip-hop music, so if you see a few “clever” musical references in some of the blogs, it’s not by pure randomness. And I love inserting them, especially when Lex is not looking. So, without further ado, here’s my first, show-and-prove blog.

For my first guest blog, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about an underrated, and below-the-radar comedy of this year. It just happens to close its season on July 28, burning off the 5 last episodes in summer. A usual move for shows that are cancelled (hello, Pushing Daisies! Dirty Sexy Money! Eli Stone!) , but not when the show is being renewed. I’m talking about “Better Off Ted”, one of the many ABC’s midseason entries (remember In The Motherhood? Yeah, me neither.)

A show that premiered somewhere in March, with little fanfare, and was paired with “Scrubs” on Wednesdays, just before “Lost”. Of course, it attracted under 5 million viewers, and 7 episodes were aired during the “normal” season. The show was as good as dead, but Steve McPherson and his army of drones considered there was “something” there and decided to save the show until Midseason 2010, where it will be paired with the new, almost-JD-less “Scrubs: TNG”, a.k.a. “Scrubs: the Yung, Hip, Med School Years”.

So what was that “something”? Did McPherson lose his mind?

Well, as all network presidents, he’s already genetically insane. But he’s right to keep the show on the air. Here’s why:

Set in the headquarters of a fictional multinational company called Veridian Dynamics, “Better Off Ted” is barely hilarious. No, it’s not the second coming of “Arrested Development”, even if it features a top-notch, pitch-perfect performance of Portia De Rossi as the cutthroat boss, Veronica. But it slowly unveils a sense of absurdity and delicate lunacy that is welcomed.

The 7 first episodes are really solid, mainly thanks to a really good pace in editing and directing (CRUCIAL in comedy), and a very promising cast. The lead, Jay Harrington, is hardly recognizable, but he’s been seen in the promising thriller “The Inside” opposite Rachel Nichols, and with Tim Minear as his boss. That doesn’t tell us much about his comedy chops. But he was really good as the unlucky reporter in “Back To You”, the FOX comedy that never really delivered on its great potential. As things stand, his character, Ted, is a handsome everyman that has to handle daily crises alongside Veronica. He also has to deal with the sexual tension with Linda (comedy journeywoman Andrea Anders), and the everlasting disputes and ramblings of Phil and Lem, the scene-stealing tandem of the show.

Of course, it already seems like the comedy version of “Fringe”, with mad science aplenty. But the show works primarily because of the interaction and cracks between his characters, and the evil and outright absurdity that is Veridian Dynamics is kept in the second plan. Unless you wanna count the hilarious commercials, that illustrate the “theme” of each episode.

Plenty of credit goes to Victor Fresco, creator of “Andy Richter Controls the Universe”, another underrated gem that recently was released in DVD in the USA. But it feels like the show has yet to really deliver and free itself of the conventions, since it already has a universe of its own. For example, the lab rats that are partners of Phil and Lem, or Ted’s daughter, were barely used during the season, but are strong nevertheless.

So, if you want to check those out, the final episodes are being aired on ABC over the next few weeks. Definitely more worthy of your time than, say, the umpteenth season of “Entourage”.

Five games Hollywood should make into movies

Five games Hollywood should make into movies

Like we saw yesterday, studios are starting a new thing: board game-based movies.

I loved this great fad so much that I decided to help the poor execs by giving them a Top 5 list of games they should quickly make into movies.
The audience is just dying for ground-breaking entertainment, let’s give it to ’em!

The choice was extremely hard to make, some plastic tokens were lost in the process, but all is well now.
Let’s dive right in.

5) Connect 4

A classic game but how could one adapt this into an Oscar-winning motion picture?

Easy. Just imagine the following pic:
“A parallel world where everything is decided via a game of Connect 4. Suddenly, throughout the globe, strange events start happening as soon as people put pieces in the Connect 4 slots.
Cows explode, buildin gs are destroyed, Ahmadinejad converts to Judaism.
One man can save us all, he’s our only hope: the world-champion of Connect 4.”

I just got chills.

4) Chinese Checkers

The clock is ticking for Denzel Washington, who must uncover the truth behind a global conspiracy that threatens international security.
A new Sino-American pact has just been signed. The pact allows trading of state secrets between the two countries.
This thrilling political thriller will shed a light on a(nother) secret society inside the U.S. Government.
Ultimately, the movie will have no relation whatsoever with the game it is based on except for the name, a clever pun.

Chinese Checkers, the new political thriller by Tony Scott, coming soon.

3) Risk

Okay, this one is more like a half-joke.
I’d genuinely be interested in seeing what movie could be based off this great board game about world conquest.
My thinking is it’s something close to Napoleon meets Michael Bay.
A global fight for land involving epic space lasers and giant elephants.
Why elephants? Why not.
That, or a movie on colonialism.

2) Scrabble

What if a secret code was hidden inside Scrabble boxes everywhere?
In deciphering this Scrabble code one would uncover what lies inside the obscure fraternal organisation known as ‘Freemascrabble’ currently ruling the world.
Think Da Vinci Code meets National Treasure but for nerds.
It’s pretty original.

If Jon Turteltaub directs this on a script by Akiva Goldsman starring Nicolas Cage, I want to see the movie now.

1) Pictionary

So many ways to adapt this pictureless (and pointless) game.
What about a family-oriented movie with kids solving a murder thanks to clues that must be drawn and guessed just to piss those damn kids off?
And best of all, the audience can participate too!
Just shout the answers to the clues at a responseless screen to play.
That’s right, you’re publicly encouraged to annoy even more your already-annoyed movie theatre neighbour.

It’s like the Mamma Mia! movie sing-along, only with pretty pictures.

Well, I think the Top 5 list is now over.
What about you? What board games would you like to see adapted on screen just for shizz and giggles?