Blue Swede - Hooked on a Feeling
1973
"Hooked on a Feeling" is a 1968 pop song, written by Mark James and originally performed by B.J. Thomas. Thomas's version featured the sound of the electric sitar (played by Reggie Young) and reached No. 5 in 1969 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1973, the Swedish poprock group Blue Swede did a cover version, which included the ooga chaka introduction from a 1971 cover by Jonathan King. King had heard Johnny Preston's "Running Bear", which was the inspiration for the ooga chaka chant. This version reached number one in the US in 1974.
In 1992, Blue Swede's recording was featured on the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino's debut feature Reservoir Dogs.
In the mid-90's, the Dancing Baby "sk_baby.max" model became one of the first viral memes. The animation was also shown on several episodes of the 1998 legal comedy-drama series Ally McBeal as a recurring hallucination, suggesting a metaphor for the ticking of Ally's biological clock, and was accompanied by Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling". Various commercial advertisements presented the Dancing Baby animation to international markets continuing the mainstream media attention. This particular manifestation of the video, bound to the song, is widely distributed and referred to as the "Ooga Chaka Baby", further cementing the scene in pop culture history.
The 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy, which featured the brass fanfare and title lyrics of the Blue Swede cover version prominently in its trailers and theatrical release, resulted in a significant spike in sales for the recording; the film's soundtrack reached the top of the Billboard 200 chart in August 2014. The song was also featured in the teaser trailer for the 2017 sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.
Blue Swede's frontman is singer/actor Björn Skifs. He did the Swedish dub of Woody in the first two Toy Story movies, as well as singing in stead of Phil Collins in the Swedish dub of Brother Bear.
"Hooked on a Feeling" received a total of 81,9% yes votes!
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Kaiju Week in Review (January 21-27, 2024)
Godzilla Minus One made awards show history in both Japan and the U.S. this week. Its Oscar nomination for best Visual Effects is the first of the series (Godzilla [1998], Godzilla [2014] and Godzilla vs. Kong were previously shortlisted) and the first for any Japanese film. Small wonder Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, and their team went berserk when the nomination was announced. The other nominees are The Creator, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Napoleon, and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. According to IndieWire, The Creator has the edge, but Minus One could very well win. And while it naturally made less headlines in the Anglosphere, Minus One also picked up a whopping 12 Japan Academy Film Prize nominations, exceeding Shin Godzilla's 10.
Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color is now in North American theaters. I was intrigued enough to make it my fourth theatrical viewing of this movie, but in the end it did basically strike me as a gimmick. Godzilla Minus One was shot digitally with sets designed for color, so making it actually look like a film from the 40s was always going to be an uphill battle. Even with the regrade, there wasn’t a ton of contrast in most shots, and some of the scenes taking place at night were quite hard to see. Still, apart from the Odo Island massacre, I found the Godzilla scenes as gripping as ever.
Thanks to Minus Color, Minus One made $2.6 million this weekend, crawling back into the box office top 10. Its total in the U.S. and Canada now stands at $55 million, third among all foreign-language films released in the U.S.
Brush of the God, Keizo Murase's directorial debut after a lifetime in movies, is finally complete. It'll play at the Osaka Asian Film Festival in March (link contains more images), and hopefully travel overseas very soon. Murase will also receive an Association Special Award at the Japan Academy Film Prize.
Clover Press shipped out copies of Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett to Kickstarter backers, myself included. It's an excellent art book, and there are plenty of deleted and altered scenes mixed in with more familiar sequences. Believe it or not, Bennett drew the panel above for Kong: Skull Island—they considered having James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) flash back to an encounter with King Ghidorah in Vietnam. Not sure how that would've worked, as Ghidorah is generally not one to lie low for a few decades, but it's the first I've ever heard of it being considered. I'm hoping to post some more scans soon. Here's the order link.
Minecraft social media accounts teased a crossover with the Monsterverse, in what's likely to be the most high-profile of the Godzilla x Kong video game collaborations. The Mobzilla mod was created over 10 years ago, so this is long overdue.
The big toy news this week was Titanic Creations revealing the digital sculpt for its Yongary figure. This guy's had even less figures than Gorgo - I can only think of one, and very few of them were made - so expect massive demand. New Godzilla toys were also on display at London Toy Fair, both at the Playmates booth and among the plushies made by an unknown company.
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So... You Wanna Hyperfixate on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As a neurodivergent person, I know what it's like to come across a piece of media and start to obsess over it. To the point where it consumes all of your thoughts and waking hours. One of my personal favorites is the M.C.U., or the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
However, there is a lot of incomplete information out there on this franchise, so I've got you covered.
What is the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, or M.C.U., is a multi-media franchise adapting characters and storylines from Marvel Comics, and is comprised of films, television series, short films, web series and even, appropriately enough, tie-in comics. Beginning in 2008 with the film "Iron Man", it has continued to flourish and produce new entries until the present day. For the purposes of this post, we will be covering only live-action and animated entries in the franchise, totaling 70 entries as of June 2024.
What is the Marvel Cinematic Universe About?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is divided into two Sagas, both of which are further divided into Phases. Phases are a grouping of projects, while Sagas are a grouping of Phases.
The two Sagas of the MCU are the Infinity Saga, comprising of Phases 1, 2 and 3, and the Multiverse Saga, comprising of Phases 4, 5, and 6.
The Infinity Saga revolves around the six building blocks of reality, known as the Infinity Stones, and how they impact the lives of the groups of superheroes known as The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as the quest of the power-hungry alien Thanos to obtain the six Infinity Stones. The Infinity Saga is comprised entirely of movies, specifically the first 23 movies in the franchise, with the 23rd, Spider-Man: Far From Home, serving as an epilogue to the entire Saga.
The Multiverse Saga, currently ongoing and roughly at its midpoint, revolves around the Multiverse, a collection of infinite alternative realities where events unfolded just slightly differently, resulting in vastly different outcomes. The villain of this saga is slated to be the time-traveling, reality-hopping Kang the Conqueror, as well as his Variants, or alternate reality counterparts. The Multiverse Saga is comprised of the 24th film (Black Widow) onwards, as well as the 13th television series (WandaVision) onwards. (See below for full film and series listings.)
There is also an unofficial Saga formally known as The Defenders Saga, comprised of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Punisher, culminating in The Defenders. The series Echo has retroactively been added to The Defenders Saga.
What is included in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
As mentioned above, we will be tackling everything except the tie-in comics, which results in 70 entries across the following formats; films, television series, short films, web series, animated series and telefilms.
MCU Films (aka Marvel Studios)
Iron Man (2008)
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Thor (2011)
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
The Avengers (2012)
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Ant-Man (2015)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Doctor Strange (2016)
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Black Panther (2018)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Ant-Man And The Wasp (2018)
Captain Marvel (2019)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Black Widow (2021)
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings (2021)
Eternals (2021)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022)
Thor: Love And Thunder (2022)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
The Marvels (2023)
MCU Short Films (aka Marvel One-Shots)
The Consultant (2011)
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor's Hammer (2011)
Item 47 (2012)
Agent Carter (2013)
All Hail The King (2014)
Team Thor: Part 1 (2016)
Team Thor: Part 2 (2017)
Team Darryl (2018)
Peter's To-Do List (2019)
MCU Television Series (aka Marvel Television and Marvel Spotlight)
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013-2020)
Agent Carter (2015-2016)
Daredevil (2015-2018)
Jessica Jones (2015-2019)
Luke Cage (2016-2018)
Iron Fist (2017-2018)
The Defenders (2017)
Inhumans (2017)
The Punisher (2017-2019)
Runaways (2017-2019)
Cloak & Dagger (2018-2019)
Helstrom (2020) - [1]
WandaVision (2021)
The Falcon And The Winter Soldier (2021)
Loki (2021-2023)
Hawkeye (2021)
Moon Knight (2022)
Ms. Marvel (2022)
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law (2022)
Secret Invasion (2023)
Echo (2024)
MCU Web Series
WHiH Newsfront (2015-2016)
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot (2016)
The Daily Bugle (2019-2022) - [2]
I Am Groot (2022-2023)
MCU Animated Series (aka Marvel Animation)
What If...? (2021-2023)
MCU Telefilms (aka Special Presentations)
Werewolf By Night (2022)
The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special (2022)
[1] While Helstrom was originally meant to tie in with a Ghost Rider tv series, itself a spin-off of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Ghost Rider was scrapped and later statements from the show runner and some actors put its connectivity into question. However, the show itself slots in perfectly into the tapestry of the MCU and can be treated as equally as any other part of the franchise.
[2] The Daily Bugle is divided into three "seasons"; one marketing Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019 on YouTube, one marketing Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021 and 2022 on TikTok, and one marketing the movie Morbius (which is NOT in the MCU), also in 2022 and also on TikTok. This third "season" is non-canonical to the MCU and can be disregarded.
What Are Some Storylines To Look Forward To?
Anti-Superhuman Sentiment: A huge undercurrent throughout the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, both films and television series, is an aversion to superhumans, which could eventually evolve into the anti-mutant hysteria of the comics when the X-Men arrive to the MCU.
Gods and Mythology: From the Asgardian pantheon with Thor to the Egyptian pantheon with Bast, Osiris and Khonshu, to the Vodou pantheon such as Papa Legba and Baron Samedi and the Greek pantheon with Zeus and Hercules, gods and mythology and alternate dimensions are present in several series of the MCU.
Demons and Witchcraft: I tried to avoid naming direct entries in this section in order to maximize surprises, but these themes are ones that truly ingrain Helstrom into the rest of franchise, tying into Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Runaways, Cloak & Dagger, WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Where Can The Marvel Cinematic Universe Be Watched?
Disney+ has the vast majority of the MCU entries, at 62 of the 70 entries.
Hulu has two of the entries, the television series Cloak & Dagger and Helstrom.
Additionally, if you get a premium subscription to Hulu, you can also watch Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is otherwise unavailable to stream.
The CW App has one of the entries, the television series Runaways, due to being removed from Disney+ in May of 2023 as a result of cost-cutting measures. It can be streamed for free.
YouTube has all three of the web series; Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot, WHiH Newsfront and The Daily Bugle. Compilations of all individual episodes are searchable. Though 3 of the 10 WHiH Newsfront episodes are on Disney+ as special features for Ant-Man.
The final entry, the short film Peter's To-Do List, is only available physically on Blu-Ray copies of the Spider-Man: Far From Home film.
If you would like to request the missing entries to show up on Disney+, you can click on this link. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, look for the box labeled "Give Feedback" on the right hand side of the page, click on "Submit Feedback" in blue. A window labeled "Share Your Feedback" will appear with a drop down menu captioned "Select a feedback type". Click on "Request a movie or show" and you will be prompted to type in 3 titles. Be sure to use the official names for the missing entries, which will be listed below. Once you've entered your 3 selections, click "Submit Feedback", and you will receive a quick message that your feedback has been submitted.
WHiH Newsfront
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot
Marvel's Runaways
Marvel's Cloak & Dagger
Peter's To-Do List
The Daily Bugle
Helstrom
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Welcome to the MCU. Hope you survive the experience.
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