Prayer request. Simpson show review. Dante’s teeth. Sleeping Beauty
October 2, 2008 in Copyright Protections, FAMILY, MOVIES, THE SIMPSONS NEWS
FAMILY
Before I write anything else, I would first like to ask for your prayers. My daughter’s Godfather’s mother is very sick and maybe dying, It’s a very difficult time for them right now and I would please ask you to keep him, his mother, and their family in your prayers. Thank you.
THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Last Sunday, the second show I worked on this season was broadcast. I didn’t watch it because, to be honest, I always forget the show is on. The show was mainly about Homer and Flanders teaming up to become bounty hunters, while the “B” plot has Marge getting a job in an erotic bakery. In any case, my co-workers who saw and worked on the show were really disappointed in the show. It turns out that the show was overwritten which means that it was two minutes longer than it should have been. In order to be able to air it, the show had to be edited down. This meant cutting quite a bit of content. The result was that a lot of the best gags were lost. For example, the show has a sequence that spoofs The French Connection. In the cut we saw, it goes on for a while as Homer almost runs over all kinds of people, but in the version that was aired, they cut the sequence down so that he only runs over one person and then it ends. There was also a great running gag with Chef Luigi that was cut completely. There where a lot of things like that, that were cut. Not only that, but during the retakes processes (which is the processes where they fix all the mistakes the colored version of the show has. And sometimes, where they re-write gags they think they can improve) they re-wrote some fun silly gag with an angry Leprechaun and replaced it with the Hulk instead. That really stunk because that was one of the crew’s favorite gags. Sometimes the writers, re-write stuff because they don’t think it’s funny but that’s only because they’ve seen the gag too many times. To everyone else, it’s still fresh. This happens just about every show. Sometimes I think the writers should watch a show with an audience so they could see what gags are working and which ones are not. There are gags that, we at the studio laugh our heads off, that they cut just because they don’t think it’s funny anymore.
I think the thing that has me most bummed out about hearing how much of the show was cut, is that fact that no one is going to get to see these gags but us in the studio. It MIGHT come out in the season 20 box set but I’m not sure it will. So far, not everything that gets cut gets put in the box sets. In any case, it’s just disappointing.
FAMILY
For picture of Munchkin with teeth bigger than her head, click here.
FAMILY
Well, Munchkin is no longer obsessed with Snow White, she’s obsessed with Sleeping Beauty instead. I decided to show her the movie to see how she would react to it. I wanted to see if the movie would caught her attention like Snow White did. It was actually kinda funny because when I put the movie in, and the movie began to play, Munchkin had a frown on her face. She was looking at me and at the movie as if she didn’t trust it to be any good. This suddenly made me feel responsible if the movie failed to entertain her. So I sat there watching her watch the movie wringing my hands anxiously, hoping she would like it. It was very silly. She pretty much kept the expression through out the entire movie. When it was all over, Munchkin stood up, looked at me and asked me to play in again. Now she asks to see the movie every chance she gets.
The things, she likes about it, really surprise me. For one thing, she loves the music. That’s not as surprising so much as the fact that she loves to listen to the orchestral part during the opening credits. Since the movie is old, it has the credits at the beginning of the movie with a sampling of the music that will be played through out. Munchkin loves to sit there and listen to it. She smiles, listens and turns to me with anticipation during that opening. Unsurprisingly, she gets up and tries to move and dance like Princes Aurora in the forest but what surprises me is during the times that Maleficent in on screen, she doesn’t seem to get very scared. She’s completely fascinated with all the fairy tale elements in the story, including the exciting finally against the dragon.
For my part, I’m glad she wants to watch this movie. Why? Well I’ll explain myself below…
MOVIES
Sleeping Beauty is by far my favorite “girl marries prince” Disney movie. It’s an amazing movie to look at. I can’t help but admire all the artwork in every scene of that movie. The art direction is simply amazing. The background paintings are drop dead gorgeous.
The animation, by “The Nine Old Men” is masterful. The music by Tchaikovsky is beautiful. The character designs are great, the consistency of the drawings of the characters is remarkable (a major flaw in modern 2D Disney movies). The fact that every line on all the characters was hand inked, with different colored inks, on different parts of their bodies, onto a cell is just mind blowing. The bad guy in the move is one of the coolest bad guys in the Disney pantheon.
The dragon she turns into is sooo awesome and the design is simply amazing. As little as we get to know about Prince Philip, he comes across as really cool. Even though he had A LOT of help fighting Maleficent from the good fairies, he still comes across are very heroic. Not only that, but the iconic symbolism of that fight is really great.
I mean, he’s protected by The Shield of Virtue and he fights with The Sword of Truth and with it he slays a dragon. It really calls to mind Biblical passages:
7 And there was a great battle in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels. 8 And they prevailed not: neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world. (Revelation 12: 7-9 Douay-Rheims)
11 And I saw heaven opened: and behold a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true: and with justice doth he judge and fight. 12 And his eyes were as a flame of fire: and on his head were many diadems. And he had a name written, which no man knoweth but himself. 13 And he was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood. And his name is called: THE WORD OF GOD. 14 And the armies that are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp two-edged sword, that with it he may strike the nations. (Revelations 19: 11-15 Douay Rheims)
Just having his shield be Virtue (like the Four Cardinal Virtues and the three Theological ones: Fortitude, Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Faith, Hope, and Charity), made me think about what it must mean to be protected from the dragon by it. And you HAVE to like a movie that has goblins in it (I guess that last part is just the Tolkien/Fantasy/D&D geek in me, talking).
COPYRIGHT PROTECTION
FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP
According to our sources THE HOUSE WILL TRY TO PASS THE ORPHAN WORKS BILL TODAY 10.3.08 If this Bill is only meant to help libraries and museums, why did they draft it behind closed doors? Why have the doors been opened wide for commercial infringement of the work of living authors actively licensing their work? Why do they want to pass it when nobody’s looking? Why do they want to re-write copyright law without an open debate? Stop this effort to give content to Big Internet firms by undermining copyright law. Get the word out. · Light up Washington and home offices of your Congressman.
THE MESSAGE for your Congressman, Key Leaders, Aides, Media · The “Dark Archive” – where infringers can register their paperwork in secret – will not protect our copyrights. · An “Open Archive” – with orphaned work exposed to to the public – would be a come-and-get-it bank for plagiarists and infringers. · Artists cannot monitor tens or hundreds of thousands of images every day to see if somebody somewhere has infringed their work. · There are more than a trillion images subject to orphaning each day. · Artists should not have to digitize their life’s work at their own expense to comply with a law they don’t want or need. · The high cost compliance would make compliance prohibitive. · The loss of exclusive rights would devalue our entire inventories of work.
Phone, fax, email these Congresspeople immediately DELAHUNT Phone: (202) 225-3111 Fax (202) 225-5658 CONYERS Phone: (202) 225-5126 Fax: (202) 225-0072 NADLER Phone: (202) 225-5635 Fax: (202) 225-6923 BERMAN Phone: (202) 225-4695 Fax: (202) 225-3196 PELOSI AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov HOYER steny.hoyer@mail.house.gov YOUR REPRESENTATIVE YOUR LOCAL MEDIA – Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Board of the Illustrators’ Partnership _______________________________________________________________
Over 75 organizations oppose this bill, representing over half a million creators. U.S. Creators and the image-making public can email Congress through the Capwiz site: http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/ 2 minutes is all it takes to tell the U.S. Congress to uphold copyright protection for the world’s artists. INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS please fax these 4 U.S. State Agencies and appeal to your home representatives for intervention. http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00267 CALL CONGRESS: 1-800-828-0498. Tell the U.S. Capitol Switchboard Operator “I would like to leave a message for Congressperson __________ that I oppose the Orphan Works Act.” The switchboard operator will patch you through to the lawmaker’s office and often take a message which also gets passed on to the lawmaker. Once you’re put through tell your Representative the message again. If you received our mail as a forwarded message, and wish to be added to our mailing list, email us at: illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com Place “Add Name” in the subject line, and provide your name and the email address you want used in the message area. Illustrators, photographers, fine artists, songwriters, musicians, and countless licensing firms all believe this bill will harm their small businesses. |
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