#if my memory serves it was designed by jim henson

[does-this-look-inanimate-to-you]

y’all ever think about how audrey ii is a muppet

[scripttorture]

Torture in Fiction: Farscape, Season 1, Episode 7

Farscape is the most off-the-wall, ludicrious sci fi series I have ever watched and I have very little idea how to explain it to anyone who didn’t have the joy/horror of watching it on release in the early 2000s.

The plot centres on a scientist and astronaut, John Crichton, who accidentally ends up in a distant galaxy. He is taken in by a group of escaped prisoners fleeing the oppressive Peacekeeper regime. They travel through uncharted space on a living ship, attempting to evade pursuit and build a comfortable life for themselves.

One of the big highlights of the series is the set and character designs. Farscape was made in partnership with the Jim Henson company and it shows. There are humanoid mostly-human looking aliens but there is also a real commitment to creating creatures and characters that look decidedly inhuman. Creative design and excellent puppetry really brings the Farscape world to life.

But I’m not here to talk about my desire for more inventive aliens in sci fi, I’m rating the depiction and use of torture, not the story itself. I’m trying to take into account realism (regardless of fantasy or sci fi elements), presence of any apologist arguments, stereotypes and the narrative treatment of victims and torturers.

This episode sees the crew come across a legendary Peacekeeper ship in ruins. The crew elects to explore the Zelbinion, some of them hoping for answers about what destroyed her and some just looking for salvage.

Rygel, a character who is usually arrogant, unflappable and hard to shock, is visibly shaken by the sight of the Zelbinion. He refuses to go aboard and makes excuses over why he can’t.

Eventually he confesses to Zhaan that he was imprisoned and tortured on the Zelbinion. We see flashbacks of this featuring a sadistic Peacekeeper captain and Rygel in a state of helplessness and despair.

As Rygel tries to hide away Zhaan convinces him to go aboard the Zelbinion, if only to provide Rygel with proof that the man who tortured him is dead.

Rygel agrees. He finds the dessicated corpse of the torturer, identifiable by his uniform and items he stole from Rygel. The torturer appears to have shot himself, either during or after the events that destroyed his ship.

Rygel reflects on the time that he lost while imprisoned and concludes that after everything his torturer lost. He spits on the corpse and leaves.

I’m giving it 7/10

The Good

There’s incredible emotion through these scenes and it feels all the more extraordinary because ‘Rygel’ is a 2 ft puppet. The intensity of his lines, his expressions and responses are all a combination of superb voice acting and exceptional puppetry.

Rygel is generally a pretty unsympathetic character in the series. He’s arrogant, self absorbed and often puts his desire for status over the safety of other characters. But here, in the context of him being a survivor, the narrative is very much on his side. He’s understandable and sympathetic. He’s shown as deserving compassion.

Torture is shown to have had a lasting effect on Rygel, even though this happened a considerable number of years ago and the implication is that he’s had a lot of time to recover.

Nothing Rygel goes through is high tech or complicated, even in an advanced sci fi setting. He’s caged, beaten and dragged along a floor. The torture itself is realistic.

Much of Rygel’s behaviour is typical for a survivor. He deflects. He withdraws. He avoids potential triggers. And he responds antagonistically towards Peacekeepers that had nothing to do with his torture, the negative association applying to a wider group.

Rygel’s speech to his torturer’s corpse is short but very well done, it captures a very typical antagonism towards torturers. ‘You robbed me of so many cycles but no matter what you did to me I’ll always remember one thing: You Lose.’

The Bad

This is not a good way to handle traumatic flashbacks. The flashbacks are very literal, showing us things that we have to assume actually happened. Real flashbacks are often more symbolic then literal. They are not the replaying of an accurate memory of an event, but the feelings that came with that event resurfaced. More symbolism and creative juxtaposition could have made these elements more realistic and more narratively satisfying.

The design choice for the torturer himself is… very much not to my taste. He’s shown with a distinctive facial scar and a self-satisfied smile. It seems to be riffing off the physical description of one particular Nazi torturer whose description gets used in fiction again and again. It’s become so ubiquitous that I feel it suggests torturers are visually distinct.

It also positions torturers as sadistic and inherently different to ordinary people. The evidence we have so far doesn’t back this up. Organisations attempt to screen out anyone viewed as sadistic or ‘deviant’. Interviews with torturers themselves as well as their families and colleagues suggest that torturers are mentally healthy before they begin torturing. Their mental illnesses seem to be caused by torture not the other way around.

Miscellaneous

Zhaan’s advice that Rygel ‘must’ confront his torturer and go onto the Zelbinion is not necessarily good advice. This kind of thing can be a massive help to survivors but only if they’re ready for it. Pressuring survivors into confronting their past before they’re ready can be incredibly damaging and traumatic. I don’t feel as if the episode portrays this as a universal good idea but it also doesn’t take the time to hint at the potential dangers. It pays off in Rygel’s case, in a way that feels realistic.

Overall

The episode strikes a really nice balance between showing that torture has serious long term effects and showing torture survivors as whole, independent people. Rygel is afraid, he is mournful, he is angry. But he isn’t controlled, broken or sympathetic towards the people who abused him.

Rygel’s story is only a subplot within the larger narrative of the episode, but his defiance and insistence on living are some of the most powerful moments in the episode. They serve to add depth and humanity to a character who is often unsympathetic.

There are flaws here; most of them come from the fact this subplot isn’t the main focus of the episode. Shortcuts, like very literal flashbacks, function to save time. There are mistakes in the portrayal and characterisation of the torturer but they don’t server to lionise him.

The focus is resolutely on Rygel, on the survivor. And for all that he’s a 2ft puppet I think it’s done very effectively.

Available on Wordpress.

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[sssshhhthefilmsabouttostart]

The best and worst films of 2018

If after watching 112 films teaches you anything, it's that Hollywood will continue to pump out the franchise blockbusters - and audiences will still hand over their cash to see them, no matter how below average or unoriginal they may be.

Cinematically, 2018 was a year that marked the final screen appearances for both Robert Redford (’The Old Man and the Gun’) and Daniel Day-Lewis (’Phantom Thread’), heralded Bradley Cooper’s impressive directorial debut (’A Star Is Born), served up an innovative high-tech thriller (’Searching’) and bestowed the most gob-smacking showdown involving MCU’s greatest heroes and villains (’Avengers: Infinity War’).

It was also a very good year for Netflix loyalists who saw the company release a succession of well received films including ’Annihilation,’ ‘Roma,’ and ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.’

Despite Dirty Harry’s memorable comment that “opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got one,” the films that have made this year’s ‘best list’ have been selected on the basis of the lasting impression they have left on this viewer after the lights have come up and the curtain’s been drawn.

So, what succeeded and what failed?

Ladies and gentlemen, may we please offer for your consideration…

50. THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN

49. INCREDIBLES 2

48. FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL

47. THE POST

46. CHAPPAQUIDDICK

45. RED SPARROW

44. GAME NIGHT

43. DEADPOOL 2

42. BOY ERASED

41. WIDOWS

40. STRONGER     

39. MOLLY’S GAME

38. FAHRENHEIT 11/9  

37. THE DARKEST HOUR

36. FIRST REFORMED

35. A STAR IS BORN

34. ISLE OF DOGS

33. BREATH

32. THE WIFE

31. READY PLAYER ONE

30. BLACK PANTHER

29. WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOUR

28. BRIGSBY BEAR

27. LADY BIRD

26. SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO

25. BEAUTIFUL BOY

24. PHANTOM THREAD

23. GHOST STORIES

22. FIRST MAN

21. TULLY

20. I, TONYA

19. SUSPIRIA

18. RBG 

17. THE FAVOURITE

16. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY 

15. MANDY

14. BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 

13. SEARCHING 

12. A QUIET PLACE

11. BLACKKKLANSMAN

10. SWEET COUNTRY

The Australian ‘western’ is a genre all its own, and ‘Sweet Country’ was the finest example of its type. Both Warwick Thornton's direction and Dylan Rivers’ cinematography was outstanding, as were all of the lead acting performances. Shot in both Central and South Australia, ‘Sweet Country’ transcended the genre’s tropes to tell us a quintessentially Australian story, albeit a bloody, brutal and tragic one. 

9. VICE

As with his previous film ‘The Big Short,’ writer/director Adam McKay set aside the clean, colourful look of his comedies (’Anchorman,’ ‘Step Brothers’) in favour of a washed-out, edgy look, with the frequent use of hand-held cameras. The entire ensemble - including Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell and Amy Adams - were all impressive but it was Christian Bale’s skilful and highly effective portrayal of former VP Dick Cheney that deservedly received the kudos from critics everywhere. 

8. THE ENDLESS

Indie filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, wrote, directed and starred in this terrific slow burner about two brothers who decide to revisit their childhood UFO death cult for some closure. Initially, the film’s daunting atmosphere gave the impression that this horror/sci-fi would follow the usual story ‘beats’ that accompany the genre. But after some mind-bending twists, ‘The Endless’ soon switched from being about a crazed cult into something else!

7. SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

It’s no secret that Sony’s last few attempts with the character of Spider-Man have been underwhelming to say the least. However, this rousingly entertaining superhero adventure was easily 2018′s most unexpected surprise. The film’s impressive animation was beautiful, fluid and unique, whilst the storyline was both compelling and genuinely funny. What can we say - we finally got the ‘Spider-Man’ movie everybody wanted. It’s OK Sony, we now forgive you for ‘The Emoji Movie.’

6. THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Sadly robbed of the Best Picture gong at last year’s Academy Awards, this third movie from award-winning playwright Martin McDonagh (‘In Bruges,’ ‘Seven Psychopaths’) was a dramedy that started with cleverness and wit before opening up into something truthfully human. McDonagh’s screenplay was so good that every single cast member, no matter how little their screen time, gave a great performance.

5. AMERICAN ANIMALS

In this true-crime movie, four bright and well-off college students in Kentucky plot to steal some rare books from their university's Special Collections Library in a misguided quest for personal glory. Written and directed by Bart Layton, ‘American Animals’ cleverly woven script was narrated by the heist's actual participants, bringing a fascinating layer to the proceedings as well as a connection between the characters and audience.

4. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

It may have been the most intense, complex and stirring MCU film yet, but it was as lean as epics get, with none of its nearly two-and-a-half-hour running time feeling wasted. While the many characters and intersecting plots may have confused casual viewers (it’s assumed audiences are now familiar with all that's come before), for fans, it was one mind-blowing moment after another.

3. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT

Who would have thought that a 20+ year franchise would have been able to deliver one of the most exciting and visceral action films in recent memory? ‘Fallout’ saw the stepping up of both the action and the stakes, with the personal screws tightened on Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the horrible consequences for failure. Love him or hate him, Cruise's performance was lean and focused, whilst Christopher MacQuarrie’s direction was effective and thrilling, always hitting every action beat - dead centre.

2. YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

Director Lynne Ramsay’s bleak yet effective thriller about a broken and tormented ex-military vigilante (Joaquin Phoenix), who makes a living rescuing kidnapped girls and making the perpetrators violently pay with a hammer, was a dark and twisting journey into one man’s soul. Ramsay's filmmaking powers and script, combined with Phoenix's committed, unadorned performance and Johnny Greenwood's absolutely superb soundtrack, easily delivered one of this year’s most standout movies.

1. HEREDITARY

Although it polarised audiences everywhere, ‘Hereditary’ was a refreshing example of a studio (A24) subverting expectations and the perfect showcase of what horror is capable of when taken seriously.

Even as the film ventured into territory familiar to its genre, writer/director Ari Aster skillfully orchestrated the tension into something that felt like a nightmare straight from hell. What begins as a drama about a family tearing apart with grief, slowly descends into madness and the supernatural. 

Rather than rely on a ‘conveyor belt’ of jump scares strung together with a derivative story which exists purely as a vehicle to deliver those jump scares, ‘Hereditary’ put family drama at the forefront and milked every ounce of dread from the hideous realities of familial cohabitation for what they’re worth. 

Whilst the film’s cinematography, production design and score were all some of the best the horror genre has seen, it was the performances that finally sold ‘Hereditary,’ notably Toni Collette’s tormented turn as a manic mother who is mourning the loss of a parent. 

‘Hereditary’ didn’t just redefine horror - it successfully put its own wicked stamp on the tropes of the genre, and provided audiences everywhere with a truly unsettling experience.

Hail Paimon!

…AND NOW, THE WORST!

20. VENOM

19. THE MEG

18. MILE 22

17. WINCHESTER

16. LIFE OF THE PARTY

15. BLOCKERS

14. SKYSCRAPER

13. THE WEDDING GUEST

12. DEATH WISH

11. BOAR

10. THE NUN

Sadly, this fifth chapter in the ‘Conjuring’ universe was nowhere near as scary, inspired or coherent as its predecessors. The quick onslaught of jump scares, punctuated by sudden noises on the soundtrack, quickly dashed the hopes of viewers who saw the entire exercise as a colossal waste of time (not to mention that the titular character was almost ‘missing’ in her own movie). 

9. THE PREDATOR

This was a prime example as to how you kill a franchise. ‘The Predator’ was so bad, it made both ‘AVP’ movies look like modern day masterpieces. Whilst the acting and storyline were awful, the film suffered from plot holes, the lack of any kind of script, the constant desperate dramatic music featured relentlessly throughout and the forced jokes. Why director Shane Black thought injecting a comedy script into this franchise was a good idea is anyone's guess. 

8. THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS

Brian Henson, son of the legendary Jim Henson and the director of ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ and ‘Muppet Treasure Island,’ somehow thought this juvenile attempt at humour was a good idea. Instead, it did the most offensive thing that a comedy could ever do - it failed to make you laugh. 

7. THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME

This forgettable and redundant comedy, from its tired title to its forced acting and humour, tried desperately to be everything at once and ended up being nothing at all. Given the talent involved, one would have expected some semblance of subtly and finesse to let these strong performers elevate the material as they've been known to in the past. However, when the material was as blunt as a sledgehammer, there wasn’t much anyone could have done. 

6. GRINGO

Despite its polished production values and stellar cast, ‘Gringo’ amounted to an absolute bust. Director Nash Egerton’s unsavoury and amoral comedy of errors qualified as something contrived, convoluted and ultimately incoherent. Crammed with a myriad of ‘madcap’ situations that weren’t even remotely funny or original, this crappy caper failed to keep up with its talented cast who struggled in their portrayal of such unpleasant stereotypes.

5. PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING

CGI vomit. 

4. THE 15:17 TO PARIS

Anybody desperately wanting to watch this train wreck should fast forward the first hour and six minutes. Clint Eastwood’s effort to pay tribute to the three brave men who foiled the 2015 Thalys train attack was a cinematic misfire of epic proportions. The bold step of having the real-life heroes play themselves was a bad call (awkward delivery, mumbled lines), whilst the film also had an underlying Christian/pro-gun/pro-military vibe about it.  

3. ROBIN HOOD

From the over-the-top bow and arrow fights to the bizarre mix of costumes, ‘Robin Hood’ was comparable to Guy Ritchie’s disastrous reimagining of ‘King Arthur,’ only worse. Far worse. This umpteenth version of the legendary heroic outlaw was severely lacking in the entertainment and thrills department, and continued the Hollywood tradition of blockbuster remakes absolutely falling on their arses.

2. ACTION POINT

The ‘Jackass’ films were great, but this dismal wannabe ‘Caddyshack’ or ‘Porky’s’ left audiences longing for the relative artistry and sophistication of the crazy lads’ glory days. ‘Action Point’ was a predictable, exceptionally cheap and humourless affair, a watershed moment in terms of anyone ever bank rolling a feature film for these guys again. RIP gentlemen, it was a fun ride.

1. HOLMES AND WATSON

It’s all elementary as to which film was by far the very worst of 2018.

Everything about ‘Holmes and Watson’ was lazy, incompetent and decidedly unfunny. This shockingly misguided assault of repetitive bad slapstick and terrible writing squandered the remarkable talents of John C. Reilly, Rebecca Hall, Steve Coogan, Kelly Macdonald, Ralph Fiennes and Hugh Lawrie, and saw Will Ferrell give what was easily the worst performance of his entire career.

This was no ‘Step Brothers’ - this was pure, unadulterated garbage. 

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Whisper Network, Bradbury, James Bond, Isle of Dread

H. P. Lovecraft (DMR Books): The first thing to keep in mind is that this cache represents one of the great epistolary friendships in the history of letters. The two never met in person, but the Mutual Admiration Society CAS and HPL formed between them was forged of eldritch steel. Both considered the other the Greatest Living Weird Fiction Author. It is obvious in every letter they wrote and confirmed by comments they sent to other correspondents.

  Comic Books (Bleeding Fool): Two weeks ago, we published the second part in our ongoing series of articles investigating the secret “Whisper Network” – a secret group of (mostly) women that’s been allegedly colluding to torment comic book pros and publicly harass creators they disagree with. Within that exposé, a major story was uncovered that should have rocked the comic book industry when it first happened, but was buried or “memory holed” by comic industry press at the time, with sites like Bleeding Fool erasing it after publishing it and Comics Beat, IGN, Newsarama and all others ignoring it entirely.

Cinema (Bounding Into Comics): In a new video interview J.J. Abrams declared that his film production company Bad Robot will make hiring based on looks a top priority. Speaking with Time Magazine about the film industry Abrams discussed what he wants the industry to look like in the future. He then made it clear that Bad Robot will be focused on people’s outward appearance when it comes to hiring.

Robert E. Howard (John C. Wright): As previously announced, Jeffro Johnson, author of Appendix N, Zaklog the Great, Nate the Greater, and your truly gather electronically to talk about Robert E. Howard’s verse….

Ray Bradbury (Pulpfest): Ray Douglas Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois. From an early age, he was a voracious reader and consumer of popular culture — movies, pulp magazines, radio programming, newspaper comic strips, circuses, magic, and more. He was enamored with the Buck Rogers newspaper strip, the stories of L. Frank Baum, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and more. By age twelve, he wanted to write.

James Bond (25 Years Later): Raise your martini glasses! We are only a few months away from (hopefully) another fantastic James Bond adventure (er, at least, we think so. It’s already been delayed once by a global pandemic that is starting to feel like something a diabolical Bond villain would think up). No Time To Die, the 25th official James Bond release, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (Beasts of No Nation), stars Daniel Craig for the fifth, and likely final, time as superspy James Bond ending what has been a sterling era for the rugged 52-year-old.

Fiction (Benespen): This is another expedition into the past of popular literature. Abraham Merritt, whose byline is nearly always A. Merritt, was a popular author who wasn’t even best known in his own time for his fiction. Rather, he was a celebrity journalist, making enough money to travel widely and pursue arcane hobbies.  The Moon Pool [Amazon link] is the work I usually see cited as typical of Merritt’s work, and it is listed in Gary Gygax’s “Appendix N” as an influence on Dungeons and Dragons. Let’s dive into the Moon Pool and see what happens!

Science Fiction (Starship Cat): This novel is pretty much a direct follow-in to Citadel, and continues to be mostly Dana’s story, with occasional appearances by Butch and some cameos by Vernon Tyler. Dana’s story is pretty much an enactment of the proverbial Chinese curse “May you come to the attention of those in high places.” Her heroism at the end of the last book has made the Powers That Be decide that she’s leadership material — and send her to the new station, to command a squadron from the various Latin American countries.

H. P. Lovecraft (Tentaculii): I’ve encountered an interesting item which perhaps throws a small sidelight on the use of the telephone in Lovecraft’s “The Statement of Randolph Carter” (1919). You’ll recall that a telephone is taken on the descent… The telephone might sound like an unlikely thing to take down below. But wired long-distance field telephones were a known ‘thing’ at that time, not least because of their use in the war.

Conventions (Dragoncon): Part two of our three-part interview series where past Dragon Award recipients talk about their award-winning novels and their Dragon Awards experience. In part one of our three-part Dragon Awards interview series, our award-winning authors talked about their background, what motivates them to write, and about their novels that captured Dragon Awards audiences everywhere.

Cinema (0themastercylinder): William Smith. He was born in 1933 in rural Columbia, Missouri on a cattle ranch. That background served him very well during the many Westerns he was to appear in later. The first big surprise I got in examining his background was how early his film career started. He appeared as a child actor in 1942’s “The Ghost of Frankenstein” as the boy who befriends the Monster portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr.

D&D (Paint Monk): wo years ago, I picked up Goodman Games’ Original Adventures Reincarnated #1, where I re-lived the fun of TSR’s original D&D modules “In Search of the Unknown” and “The Keep on the Borderlands”. This month, I finally picked up OAR #2 – The Isle of Dread, and I’d like to share just how much I enjoyed this book and the work the fine folks over at Goodman put into making it a success.

Fiction (Dark Herald): Been a while since we’ve seen a new Dresden Files book and we will be getting two this year. So at least 2020 isn’t a total write off. Butcher’s last addition to this series was in 2014. He had been rather productive up until this time. Usually producing one or two books a year. I’m not sure why there was a prolonged interrupt, possibly it was his divorce.

Beer (Trinkelbonker): Got these as a delayed birthday gift the other day, six cans of Ace Of Aces American Lager with a rather nice (and collectable, if you ask me) motif. The aircraft you see is an American Lockheed P-38 Lightning and the pilot that flew it was Richard Ira Bong, the first child of nine of Carl Bång, an immigrant from Sweden and Dora Bryce, who was an American by Scots-English descent. Richard, nicknamed Dick by his friends, shot down over 40 Japanese aircraft in the Pacific Theater during WWII and became one of the most decorated pilots of the war.

Game Review (Black Gate): This is the second article in my “explanation” of Conan 2d20. Last time I focused on 2d20’s core mechanic and on this game’s design philosophy insofar as it is an emulation of the “physics” and flavor of Robert E. Howard’s Conan fiction. This one will detail more aspects of gameplay, particularly player character components and action scenes. Last article, I maintained that Conan 2d20 characters begin as powerful in mechanical ability (unless the alternative Shadows of the Past character generation is used).

Cinema (Irish Times): because these things only happen in the greatest superhero movie ever made: Flash Gordon. The 1980 camp classic, which has been restored in 4K to mark its 40th anniversary, has a history of happy accidents following its hero’s first appearance in a comic strip in 1934. Buck Rogers, another intergalactic hero, had already spawned novelisations and toys when King Features Syndicate – a subsidiary of the Hearst newspaper empire – approached Edgar Rice Burroughs with a plan to adapt John Carter into a comic strip.

Small Press (Tentaculii): New on Archive.org…Howard Collector #5, Summer 1964.  Howard Collector #6, Spring 1965. With the poem “Who is Grandpa Theobold?”, from a letter. This would count as another early use of ‘Lovecraft as character’, albeit not in fiction. I wonder what the likely year on this poem is?

Cinema & T.V. (Dark Worlds Quarterly): Heroic fantasy films and television changed after 1982. The release of Dino DeLaurentis’ Conan the Barbarian sent Fantasy films in a new direction. Movies had to have a mix of violence, sex and flash that previous movies seemed to lack. Whether you like or hate these films is a matter of opinion. There were bright spots of Fantasy filmmaking among the direct-to-video duds like the Brian Froud-Jim Henson films, Legend by Ridley Scott, and Ron Howard’s The Lord of the Rings known as Willow.

Book Review (Benespen): War Demons [Silver Empire affiliate link] is the veteran’s take on supernatural horror. Sometimes we casually refer to the men who come back from war suffering from PTSD and survivor’s guilt as demon-haunted; but for Michael Alexander it is anything but a metaphor. We now come to the third book covering similar territory I have read recently. I don’t often end up reading lots of similar books together in succession, so I can compare and contrast these.

Science Fiction (Future War Stories): Packed in seemingly every military science fiction work are futuristic firearms and some, like the Colonial Marines M41A1 Pulse Rifle has become an icon of sci-fi weaponry…then there are others that never get their day in the limelight. One of those military sci-fi weapons is the United States standard issue endo/exo assault rifle of the 2060’s: the M590. Featured in the legendary 1990’s FOX one-season TV show Space: Above and Beyond.

Science Fiction (Rough Edges): Robert E. Vardeman has been writing top-notch science fiction for about forty years now, and that’s almost how long I’ve known him. His latest novel, THE DUST OF STARS, is the first book in a new series called ENGINEERING INFINITY, and it’s everything I love about science fiction. First, it has big ideas. And I mean E.E. “Doc” Smith big: An ancient, long-disappeared alien race scattered planet-sized machines throughout the galaxy.

Pulp Fiction (DMR Books): Merritt outlived the CAS-HPL correspondence of 1922-1937, though not by much. In the CAS-HPL letters, one sees Klarkash-Ton belatedly discovering Merritt–and HPL belatedly discovering The Metal Monster. Throughout the course of the correspondence, Merritt was the most successful exemplar of the weird fiction that CAS and HPL were themselves creating. While they did not always agree with the directions he took in his fiction, there was no denying that Merritt dominated the market for pulp fantasy.

Tolkien (Sacnoth’s Scriptorium): So, for years I’ve been convinced that the old story about the Tolkien Estate having gone after TSR for their use of hobbits, ents, balrogs et al in early printings of D&D was wrong and that it was actually Saul Zaentz’s group, Tolkien Enterprises (the movie merchandising people) who’d issued that cease-and-desist back in 1976. But while I’ve able to build up a probable case I’ve been lacking direct proof. Now Gygax has provided it.

Sensor Sweep: Whisper Network, Bradbury, James Bond, Isle of Dread published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[theothermodulesideblog]

In defense of Anastasia (1997)

20th Century Fox’s 1997 animated film Anastasia is.... let’s face it, not very well thought of by most animated film fans. It’s widely thought of as Don Bluth’s worst work, due to what most of them thought of as pandering to the Disney audience. It was a princess musical from the creator of The Secret of NIMH, of course animation nerds left and right were gonna call bullshit on that. 

I can kind of see where they’re coming from here, but the film itself is gorgeous. The animation is clean and (mostly) devoid of what I like to call “90′s face animation slide”, which is when a character’s face tends to slide around between frames as they move, which is something I noticed a lot of in late 90′s animated features like Beauty and the Beast. It also has some of the best motion I’ve ever seen in a 2D cel animated/cg film, probably only bested by the more action-packed animated movies of the late 90′s, like DreamWorks’ Prince of Egypt and Disney’s Mulan, both of which required a lot of smooth motion scenes and believable kinetic moments. The art direction -- especially the backgrounds -- are stunning, and do a great job representing pre-Revolution Russia. They do a great job immersing the viewer in the aesthetic of the time when it was set; all the decadent golds and reds of the Romanoff palace contrasted against the greys and browns of the rest of the city is a powerful image. 

Another aspect in which it does well is the character building and designs. Dmitri is a whiny little bitch and no mistake, but his character grows with Anastasia and they have an incredibly cute romantic arc (I really love the idea of two people that approach each other as equals and have natural chemistry that manifests in being annoying and teasing each other). His bestie Vlad, and his love interest Sophie (who enters in the middle of the second act, if memory serves), are my favorite part of the whole film. These two characters are adorable and sweet, and they flirt with each other for pretty much all of the time they’re on screen. Anastasia herself is.... Meg Ryan with red hair that magically changes length, probably due to some oversight on the animators’ part. She’s not really a very compelling character to me, but I do like the final (long hair) design. She has some very good costume choices (the blue dress and ponytail she wears on the boat is lovely, as is the sparkly midnight blue dress she wears to the French Opera -- tangent: apparently they had to devise a new technique to animate that dress), and, as she is voiced by Meg Ryan, is very facially expressive. I also love that she has a dog, but then again, I love dogs.

The musical score and songs are great. There’s really no question there. I haven’t seen this movie in 5 years and I can still call to mind pretty much any of the songs from it. They’re memorable and catchy without breaking the character of those singing it, besides maybe I Can Learn to do It, which, okay, I can’t imagine Dmitri going with that. But Rumour In St. Petersburg and Once Upon a December (the first two songs in the film) are incredibly strong, and the animated sequences that accompany them are great. Rumour has a big group scene where everyone in St. Petersburg is complaining and gossiping, and it shows in the animation how miserable the revolution made them (historically inaccurate, yes, but we’ll get to that), and Once Upon a December has a haunting ghostly ball in an abandoned ballroom at the Romanoff’s palace that’s just lovely. It has all the hallmarks of a scene from Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice (2005) -- revolving camera view, yellowy colorscheme, ballroom, tension -- and I love that. The song itself gives me goosebumps just recalling it. The songs from the second act (Paris Holds the Key To Your Heart and In the Dark of the Night) both have slightly lacking lyrics, but the animated sequences still hold up after 20 years. I have to give special credit to Paris Holds the Key because it went for some pretty ambitious visuals and had quite a few references to period-appropriate 20th century French thinkers/writers/artists, which both my sister and I find pretty great. The end song, At the Beginning, is probably the weakest song (it was written by Richard Marx, what can ya do), but I can forgive one song not being as great as the rest. 

Yes, I will admit this film has quite a few shortcomings, not the least of which are the glaring historical issues. The Russian revolution wasn’t brought upon by some evil sorcerer hellbent on killing the aristocracy. There were no evil sorcerers in 19th century Russia to begin with, let alone to incite some big revolution. And I’m no expert on the revolution aftermath, but I’m willing to bet they weren’t secretly wishing there was one Romanoff left to guide them back to their previous ways, because yes early Russian socialism was pretty shit, but I doubt they’d want to go back to having all the issues they wanted to rectify in the first place. Also Anastasia was missing and presumed dead, but I think they actually confirmed her as dead at some point in the last 100 years, so yknow, also there’s that. 

Another criticism which I mentioned earlier is that this is seen by most discerning animation fans (read: animation nerds) as Don Bluth selling out. His last few animated features, Rock-A-Doodle and The Pebble and The Penguin, were meh at best, and hot trash messes at worst. They’re really not well-thought of, and are nowhere near as beloved as The Secret of NIMH and Fern Gully, two of his best-known films. This man was well-known and well-loved for not pandering to his audiences, and giving them dark children’s content, which may be coming back into vogue now, but wasn’t really a big thing back in the 80′s (unless you count Jim Henson). To see him creating what is essentially dumbed down Disney content was disheartening to a lot of his fanbase, and upset most of them. And it’s not hard to see where they’re coming from; if Alex Hirsch had decided to cop out and make more seasons of Gravity Falls, or if Over the Garden Wall had been extended further for the sake of making money, I’d be really upset too. I’m a drama queen about this sort of thing, so I’d most likely wail about how my favorite creators were losing their integrity to the great machine of capitalism, and I wouldn’t be completely off. But the fact of the matter is that market trends change, audiences change, and art changes as a result of them.

 Anastasia is probably a copout, yes, and is probably the worst of Bluth’s filmography if you grew up with his darker 80′s material, but it is by no means his worst work. This is a film very near and dear to my heart and I will fight whoever says it’s not at least worthy of a viewing, because it’s kind of a masterpiece. The animation style is gorgeous, the songs and score are literally haunting, and the characters are well-written and expressive, and they grow as characters -- something not a lot of animated films care about anymore (absolutely throwing shade at all the Smurfs movies). It may not be Bluth’s best work but it is SUCH a far cry from his worst, sellout or no.