Filed Under: SF Films
What are some of you favorite 1980s bad genre films? Examples might include Weird Science, Willow, Krull, Flash Gordon... I leave it up to the individual to define “bad” and “favorite.” I’m making a list, but I want to make sure I don’t forget any. Please help, Obi won Livejournal. You’re my only hope.
Filed Under: Film, Recommended Media, SF Films, Speculative Fiction, Top Post
Do you remember that Disney CG film Dinosaurs? It’s original concept involved a feature length movie with animals that only emoted, and never spoke. Having always been a big fan of computer animation, I was excited at the early rumors of the film. Unfortunately, Disney execs got involved and the result was the talky-travesty that we eventually saw. Okay, so maybe “travesty” is a strong word. It wasn’t a bad film– It just failed to live up to it’s potential as a work that stretched the boundaries of its format.
WALL-E succeeds in many, many ways, but the most fascinating aspect for me was the extent to which Pixar relied on nonverbal communication to convey the story. I have a strong feeling that in preparation for this film, the animators watched reels and reels of silent comedy films; Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin especially. Watch the movements of WALL-E, and I think you will see some of the exaggerated mannerisms of those silent film stars. Wall-E is all angles, but angles that can change their composition to one another, so he meets the basic principles of computer character animaton established by John Lasseter so many years ago with Luxo. He can squash and stretch.
(This review contains spoilers.)
Filed Under: SF Films, Speculative Fiction, Uncategorized
I didn’t have a chance to write a good post today, so here’s some recycled content from last year:
Nobody believes me when I tell them that I think Fiddler on the Roof is the best science fiction musical tragicomedy ever.
Fiddler on the Roof, at its core, is about a slightly old-fashioned man experiencing future shock. In a time of great cultural change, Tevye’s ways, the old ways, are repeatedly assaulted. First, his daughter Tzeitel refuses her arranged marriage and begs to be allowed to marry the poor tailor that she loves. And Tevye relents! He overcomes his culture shock, his fear of the new, and realizes that things won’t be so bad this way. Then, his second daughter rebels, asking for only his blessing for her wedding, not his permission, and again, he relents! One again, he overcomes the cultural bonds of tradition, moving forward with the times. As a modern viewer, I felt such pride for the human race, that he could see through the old things and allow passion to bloom.
Then, the tragic turn. Tevye’s third daughter has fallen in love with a non-Jewish Russian, and asks to marry him, but Tevye cannot allow this. He has found the line that he cannot cross. He becomes a victim of future shock and it destroys him. He cannot speak with this daughter again, and you can see that the man is absolutely devastated by his decision, and yet still he remains firm. This moment… “on the other hand… on the other hand…” there is no other hand! It was one of the most moving scenes of any musical for me. Rationality loses in the end, but I think the moral, from this perspective, is just that, perhaps we cannot force change too quickly without breaking the things that we wish to preserve through societal upheaval.
It’s not that long ago that marrying for love seemed like an outlandish concept, even a speculative one. Fiddler on the Roof may not have been written as a SF story, but it does what a great science fiction story does; it deals with the intersection of people and ideas; in this case, the traditional man of Tevye, and the idea that tradition not need hold in opposition of love. It needs no robots or rocket ships. The future does not always come in the form of technological advancements.
Hi! My name is Jeremiah Tolbert, but you can call me Jeremy. I am a fantasy and science fiction writer, photographer, and web designer living in Northern Colorado. I am currently starting a new job and cannot take freelance work at this time. Drop me a line if you have any questions or comments. I love hearing from new people and I now have a lot more time to chat.
My story from the excellent anthology Seeds of Change (edited by the Anthology God, formerly known here as the Slush God, John Joseph Adams) has gone live over at Escape Pod. This is a story that was published to mixed reviews. But I am astounded by the job that Philippa Ballantine did here. Her reading [...]
Hi Folks. After a ton of work on the part of myself, Sarah, and my sound engineer and good friend Nate Periat, we’ve finished and posted our first Dr. Roundbottom Field Sounds podcast. It’s only 5 minutes long, so don’t hesitate to just go to the site and hit play. Please let me know what [...]
Do you remember that Disney CG film Dinosaurs? It’s original concept involved a feature length movie with animals that only emoted, and never spoke. Having always been a big fan of computer animation, I was excited at the early rumors of the film. Unfortunately, Disney execs got involved and the result was the talky-travesty that [...]
I forget where I got this, but I think that it’s the level of quality I’d like to see in more book trailers online:
Having Tim Curry as a narrator is probably outside of the range of what we can afford as SF/F writers, but still. Let’s go over what makes this awesome:
Tight pacing. 2 minutes [...]
Located 15 minutes south of Fort Collins, Coyote Ridge is a natural area consisting if a couple hundred acres of prairie. A trail runs from the road up across several ridges. Today, I walked to the base of the second ridge before coming back. I’ll make the full hike to the end [...]
