#though i imagine he's more cgi than actual puppetry

[vvrathb]

cinematic parallels

[thecartoonuniverse]

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Review

So I am uploading the script for the review here for everyone to see simply because I don't think I can get a video for this out before the show comes out. I spent all weekend at a convention and this is a huge script so I just haven't had the time/energy to make a full video. That being said, enjoy the review!

In 1982, audiences everywhere were introduced to the awe inspiring world of Thra in the Jim Henson film: The Dark Crystal. It was a beautiful tale of an alien world that begged for more development! Plans for a sequel were made, but ultimately it never got around to happening in movie form.

Now, after 37 long years, The Dark Crystal is finally returning in the form of a new series, albeit as a prequel called The Dark Crystal: Age of resistance, which is arriving on Netflix on August 30th.

I might say this a lot in this review, but I cannot believe that this show exists. I couldn’t even believe the original film existed when I first saw it. The Beauty of this world is really hard to summarize… so I won’t. You’re going to get the full story (and you’re gonna like it).

Imagine, if you will, 17-year-old me watching TV one day to see a show called Jim Henson’s creature shop challenge. Every week contestants had to face a different challenge where they made puppets based off of the given theme. The episode I happened to watch tasked the participants with making a skeksis. Of course I was like, what the heck is a skeksis? So, I googled it (not sponsored) and what I found blew. My. Mind.

The Skeksis were one of just many many many many many… many insane creatures that exist in the film ‘The Dark Crystal’. The film itself was an eerily dark children’s tale following two human-like creatures known as ‘Gelflings’ as they travel the lands of Thra with the hope of healing their world. From there I quickly invested in the expanded lore: books, comics, and pretty much anything else I could find.

The stories were amazing, but nothing ever came quite close to the beauty that the movies captured. You see, this stunning alien planet was brought to us using nothing but puppetry. From the smallest little buggy boy, to the tallest long-legged-larry, everything that dazzled our senses was done using ground breaking puppetry from the Master himself: Jim Henson.

While I enjoyed the outside material, comics and prose never quite captured the marvel of advanced puppetry. When the new show was announced, I was a bit worried. Practical effects have been replaced by Digital ones in almost every corner of the industry, and it seemed certain that a return to the screen would mean embracing 3D animation.

But then they showed us the trailer… (show flash of the amazing action in the trailer).

And I was stunned.

Everything looked so amazing. The Action was insane, the cinematography was beautiful, and the puppetry… oh my god they did the whole thing with puppets! I couldn’t wait to see it.

Literally. I couldn’t wait. But thankfully I was sent all the episodes before they aired and now, I get to tell you guys what to expect and why you should watch. Because trust me, for the sake of all things beautiful and good in this world, you need to watch this.

There is so much I want to say, but this WILL be a spoiler free review!

Now there is much more to the story of the Dark Crystal than just two little elves saving the world! The story at its core are about the Urskeks, a group of higher dimensional beings sent to thra through the power of the dark crystal. When trying to return home, the Urskeks accidentally divide themselves in half, with each one becoming two new creatures, the Skeksis, and the Mystics. The skeksis are essentially pure evil and want to live forever. They increase their lifespan by draining the Crystal of its power and then using it to drain the life essence of other creatures. When a prophecy foretells of their downfall at the hand of gelflings, they set out to annihilate the entire species, but miss two infant gelflings who manage to find safety. These two gelflings, Jen and Kira, grow up, discover one another, and heal the crystal, which allows for the skeksis and mytics to merge into their true forms once again, and bring peace to thra.

That was basically the Spark Notes version of the Dark Crystal, but Gizmodo has an article that does a good job of summarizing the rest of the lore… though you can also just watch the movie!

Now if you are wondering what happens next then this show… ISNT going to be helpful. Instead, the age of resistance is a ‘prequel’ which flashes back to the time when the Skeksis could no longer rely on the crystal alone for life energy, and turn to sucking the life out of other creatures instead. This prompts the gelflings to fight back against the skeksis, forming, as the title suggest, the resistance!

The choice to make to make this a prequel series is something I was always ecstatic about. Unlike with any sequels, a prequel would allow us to get a view into what Gelfling were actually like as a species, and let me tell you the show does not disappoint on this front.

As we learn, 7 different clans existed, each with their own customs and unique physical appearance. In particular, the Vapra, Stonewood, and Grottan clans are featured the most in the series, although we do meet members from the other clans as well.

our three main characters each hail from one of these clans. Brea is a Vapran princess, Rian is a Stonewood guard to the skeksis, and Deet is the most adorable Grottan to ever exist.

I learned about all the clans in the recent Dark Crystal novels, but it was still amazing to see what they officially looked like.

And as for the main characters themselves, they are all pretty great.

It is pretty clear that Rian is supposed to be our Jen stand-in, but his personality is very distinct, so I do not have a huge problem with this.

On the other hand we have Brea, who does have a resemblance to Kira but only because they likely hail from the same clan. Otherwise Brea is very studious and loves reading and drawing.

That brings me to the odd one out, Deet. She has never been on the surface of Thra before, meaning that her positive and cheerful way of thinking will be tested when she faces the challenges set before her.

However, there is one other character that has a huge role in the series that I have yet to mention. That is of course Aughra, who is more or less the personification of Thra. That being said, she is basically an old grumpy woman. Personally, I was not a huge fan of her in the original movie. She seemed very unhelpful and too cryptic in her responses. Yet, she is definitely a more proactive character in the series, and I actually really grew to like her. As a being born from the ground of Thra, she of course does not want to see the world become corrupted, so her actions in this season make sense.

But those are just the humanoid characters, which are really not what I’m here for.

Where the real excitement begins is looking at all the Skeksis. Look at them! They’re hideous! Just as they’re meant to be. And unlike in the movie they are younger and not quite on the edge of death. It’s just really nice to see the Emperor ruling the Skeksis as he was meant to. Chamerlain is up to no good as usual, and the rest of the skeksis are pretty terrible as well. I just need to take a moment to appreciate SkekMal. He is the only one who is not already decrepit, and he makes use of all four of his arms to hunt gelflings. He’s terrifying, but terrifyingly beautiful (don’t judge me).

Their counterparts the urRu don’t play the biggest part this time around, which is hard for me to forgive since they were my favorite creatures from the movie. But they have purposely hidden themselves from the outside world so their lack of presence makes sense.

And the rest of the animals in Thra are adorable. Llike with the original film, there are plenty of moments that will have you pausing your screen to get a better look at the amazing creatures inhabiting this world.

It really is indicative of the most important thing of all: The puppetry

For the most part, it is extremely well done. The Skeksis in particular have the best range of emotions, despite having just eyes and a beak to work with, and the other animals are really neat to look at, as I said.

I wish I could say the same for the gelfling, but the puppets are not quite there yet. In particular, their mouths just can’t provide the range of motion that human mouths can. This is due to their faces being made of latex, so their movement is limited. The eyes however are perfect.

That brings me to something many of you may be wondering about. Yes, CGI is used, and you can for the most part tell when it is because any of those elements move better than the rest of the world around them. For example, often the skeksis’s tongues were animated, and it is clear that some creatures are computer generated in their entirety. I mean I do understand, since making things fly or move in very precise ways is difficult with puppetry. Overall the show is beautiful and the CG is not that big of a deal.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about the story. While it was never like the reason to watch the Dark Crystal, the prequel really dives deep into the lore and expands on it. However, it also attempts to re-explain everything that was previously learned, meaning that there are occasionally long sequences of just explaining things. I enjoyed them, but this may not be the case for everyone.

With that there is also a boat load of characters. For more dedicated fans they may see a lot of familiar faces from the novels that have been releasing for the past few years. However I did feel like the introduction of some of these characters, such as Naia and Kylan, was rushed and kind of went unexplained as to how they got to meeting up with the main characters unless you have read the books. Not that they have the biggest roles in the show, I just feel like for more casual fans them being in the story will feel pointless.

But that being said, holy crap this show is dark. Ha ha, dark crystal, yeah of course it’s dark. But I mean this show is gruesome. Yes, the movie was pretty dark, but imagine that but brought to a whole new level. Both kids and adults alike are sure to get nightmares after this.

However, as someone who loves anything animated and hopes for more story-based shows, Age of Resistance is everything I could’ve hoped for and more. It doesn’t really pander to old fans in the way that some series revivals do. Some people may be mad at any small change, but I for one welcome them as they allow the new series to become something much greater than the movie could ever be.

And looking at the marketing for the show, it seems like both Netflix and the Jim Henson company want this to be a huge success. I’m talking funko pops, action figures, an extensive social media campaign, tie in books, a video game, a panel at the biggest stage at SDCC plus a whole booth, and even a comic which is a prequel to this prequel series.

And I don’t blame them. It took YEARS to get this made. There are so many different puppets that had to be made, I cannot believe this was actually pulled off. I’m talking dozens of gelflings, almost every skeksis, mystics, podling, other creatures, plus the environments had to be made by hand and be unique to each location.

Even if you aren’t a big fan of the story, I urge you to watch this show for the visuals alone. Trust me, it is worth it.

I also want to quickly mention, for the ten people that actually watch this that have gone head first into anything to do with the Dark Crystal, that I don’t really know if the books fit in perfectly with the series. This timeline released by Gizmodo does not include the novels at all despite what I heard about them being canon. Plus, from what I saw, unless I am totally wrong, certain things are retconned. This was kind of disappointing since I have been loving the novels, but it would definitely be hard to make everything work out since the main characters from the books are more like side characters in the series.

But still seriously read the books they’re amazing.

So that is pretty much what I thought about Age of Resistance without spoiling too much. I love this show a ton, so I hope everyone that watches this review gives it a chance, and then tells all their friends about it as well.

In an article, the creators said they have two more seasons planned, so we need to make sure they happen! I don’t want this to be another instance of a great show on Netflix being cancelled because not enough people watched it.

Do it for the puppets.

[briangroth27]

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom Review

I thought Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom was very good, even if it didn't live up to the original Jurassic Park. Of course, JP is my favorite movie ever, so I've long since given up on expecting a movie in this franchise to top it. That said, despite lacking some gravitas and wonder (though I think the lack of both is on purpose), I enjoyed Fallen Kingdom a lot!

Full spoilers…

J.A. Bayona's direction was masterful, creating beautiful imagery through the use of shadows and light. I loved the look of this movie all around and dinosaur reveals in particular were outstanding: whether illuminated by lightning strikes, dripping lava, or fiery smoke, the cinematography made them into majestic animals with an air of fantasy to them; fitting since they don’t belong in the world anymore. The way many of the dinosaurs were shot was gorgeous and the mix of CGI and puppetry was seamless. Moving the action to a remote manor complete with its own mad science labs as well as shots of the Indoraptor in front of the full moon achieved a classic, iconic Universal Monsters feel I absolutely loved! The mix of bright color and deep, truly dark black was a great change from modern blockbusters' reliance on washed-out looks and helped to build the tension perfectly when combined with Bayona’s filming style. Filmmaking choices like the (seemingly?) one-take sinking of a GeoSphere vehicle also brought a thrilling and breathless sensibility to the action sequences. The T-Rex blood extraction scene was another great sequence that achieved a perfect balance of tension and comedy. When Bayona incorporated physical comedy into the action scenes, like a tranquilized Owen (Chris Pratt) trying to evade lava or Blue knowing to dive out of a room about to explode, it added to the fun, classic adventure vibe of the movie rather than wrecking the tone. The movie is self-aware enough to play a scene with Blue as an action hero yet still takes the proceedings seriously enough to create a real sense of danger, and Bayona walked that extremely tough line very well. He also managed to pull genuine emotion out of the dinosaurs’ plight as Isla Nublar succumbed to the previously dormant volcano at its center. I didn’t want to watch so many dinosaurs die and it was heartbreaking to see them drowning, but nothing prepared me for the lonely death of a brachiosaurus on a dock. Watching the animal, obscured by smoke and unable to get to the boats that narrowly escaped the island even as lava crept up behind her, was without a doubt the saddest moment in the entire franchise. I didn’t walk into the movie expecting to feel so strongly about a random dinosaur, but Bayona absolutely nailed that scene and it left a definite impact.

I really liked what the movie did with Owen and Blue’s relationship. It was cool to see their earliest moments together via video of their first training session and I liked that their bond was strong enough to bring Owen back to Isla Nublar despite what he'd been through and the imminent volcanic eruption at the island's core. Their relationship was very well-explored here and even though it ended tragically because of a double cross—Blue came to associate Owen with getting shot and put in a cage—I’m glad to have seen this phase of their relationship and I'm excited to see where it goes next. It’s a little weird that Blue has taken the raptors from the scariest villains of the franchise into half of the films’ most iconic and heroic dino duo (the other half being Rexy), but it’s a testament to the writers of this film and Jurassic World, Pratt, and Blue’s puppeteers that it totally works and I completely buy that the bond between Blue and Owen overcomes Blue’s instinct to eat people. It was also nice to see Owen’s familiarity with the other dinosaurs come in handy when he tricked one of them into helping him and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) escape from their own cage. Owen’s general demeanor throughout the movie was very entertaining and I’m interested to see how living in a world overrun by dinosaurs changes him. He can’t just run off to his remote cabin now; he actually has to deal with these animals out in the world.

I like Claire, but I wish she'd gotten more to do in this movie. She does spearhead the Dino rescue mission and convinces Owen to come back, but outside of providing the inspirational drive of the movie, she doesn't get to be very active. This worked in Jurassic World, where her arc took her from relying on (and obsessing over) control to embracing chaos by opening the T-Rex cage and allowing life to finally find a way, but here her relative inaction left me wanting more. I am glad she didn't stay down after her leg was injured in the climax and that she at least tried to take down the Indoraptor, but she didn’t feel like she had as much of an arc here. I think it’s interesting that her big moment in this film was a reversal of her choice in JW: she doesn’t open the door this time and is willing to let the dinos die to keep them from getting loose. She's apparently OK with life being free as long as it's free elsewhere (humans come first), and I hope this sticks with her as we go into the third film. Hopefully it'll bring about a more active Claire, whether she’s trying to make up for her choice by peacefully rounding up the dinos or something completely different. I liked that the movie’s villains tried to paint Claire and Owen as complicit in exploiting and domesticating the animals via Jurassic World as theme park attractions, but I wish our heroes had given at least some thought to how right they might’ve been. That was a good counter-argument to her seemingly totally altruistic turn towards conservatism and I wanted to see her deal with it. I feel like the writers, Howard, and Pratt crafted a perfectly contentious-yet-caring relationship between Owen and Claire that makes total sense as to why they’re not together anymore and provides fun beats like him saying it would be her fault if he died on Isla Nublar, yet never feels like they hate each other or are out to hurt one another. It also falls into the franchise’s history of relatively chaste romantic entanglements. I don’t know that I need them to end up together; I wouldn’t mind if they do, but wouldn’t be disappointed if they didn’t. That might seem like I’m not engaged in their connection, but the fact is I can see it going either way and am up for either.

Claire’s assistants, Franklin Webb (Justice Smith) and Zia Rodriguez (Danielle Pineda) were really likable and I hope they return in the next film. Even though they kinda disappear for segments of the movie's third act, it's easy to imagine they were having their own adventures and didn't just cease to exist until the script called for them to appear again. Webb especially seems like he had a hilarious series of misadventures undercover in various roles on the villains' ship and later in the lab. I loved how in over his head he was and Webb freaking out at everything never got old to me. I liked that Zia was always cool under pressure, though I do think they could've made a bigger deal out of her being a paleo-veterinarian who had never seen a living dinosaur before. Yes, Dinos have existed in this world for 25 years so there are probably extensive resources for her to study, but anything she's learned would still have to be theoretical or second-hand to her and they could've used that to increase the stakes and tension if things didn't go as smoothly on the operating table as she hoped. It also could've been dealt with as simply as her saying treating a living dinosaur was different than she'd imagined. This was a minor thing to me though and didn't hurt my enjoyment of the film or her character. I liked that they gave her a good moment of wonder when she finally did get to see a dinosaur for the first time; fittingly, the only character to express pure wonder over these animals at this point is the one whose job involves healing them. I'd like to see how she grows into an expert in her field with the world the movie ushers in.

I was sure the Maisie (Isabella Sermon) secret was that she was Ellie Satler, Sarah Harding, or maybe even Mrs. Kirby's daughter, all of which seemed like ridiculous and unnecessary callbacks to the franchise's previous entries. So, I was very glad she turned out to be what she was instead; that was a very cool twist that felt like a natural growth of this world’s science. I wonder if she has some dino DNA in her, given her somewhat enhanced speed and strength, good balance, and the very cool shot of the Indoraptor's face reflected over hers in a pane of glass. And she sees the dinos as being more like herself than the people in the world… Either way, letting the dinos free because they were like her was a good moment. I hope that if she does have Dino DNA in her, though, that this is the extent of what we get and not the militarized dinosaur soldiers that have been rumored over the years and pitched in JW. The franchise tie-in they did give Maisie—that she's related to John Hammond's silent ex-partner—worked very well. James Cromwell felt like a natural choice for someone who would've been a contemporary and associate of Hammond's and I liked what their falling out entailed. However, I thought Maisie’s nanny Iris (Geraldine Chaplin) insisting that she speak with an English accent was a bizarre choice. I wonder if it’s meant to be a subtle example of people trying to impose their will on nature, but if that’s the case, I would’ve liked a moment of Maisie choosing to defy that and speak with her natural accent. Regardless, I’m interested to see what role she has in the new world this movie leaves us with.

The Indoraptor was a cool, creepy monster. They upped the ante of smart Dinos nicely in that hybrid, with creepy moments like the Indoraptor smiling and playing with its prey. I also enjoyed the appearances of the mosasaurus and the new tradition of Rexy smashing the skeleton of the previous movie's "villain" dinosaur. I’ve seen it suggested online that the opening sequence of stealing the I-Rex bone is pointless because Rexy destroys it before Wu (BD Wong) can use it, but I don’t think that a subplot having an end—even if it’s not what the characters intended—is pointless. I also don’t have a problem with Wu needing the sample even though he created the I-Rex, another complaint I've seen online. He obviously left Jurassic World in a hurry, so it’s reasonable to assume he didn’t get to grab everything he needed and that he needed the finished I-Rex product, not just his notes on it.

Humanity's willingness to screw with, try to control, and make a profit off of nature has always been the real enemy in these films so it doesn't hurt the movie for me that (Wu aside) the human antagonists are fairly thinly drawn (though the actors played their parts well and the characters served their purposes). I did appreciate that Ted Levine’s Ken Wheatley had such character to him, even if he was an absolute idiot. What a big man, stealing teeth from animals that had already been caged! I was glad to see him go, but then we are supposed to be. The rest of the villains were a means to an end, caught up in distortions of nature brought on by other foolish men and/or their own greed and couldn't help but be destroyed by them. I think that's perfect, because the franchise is playing into exactly what Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) said Jurassic Park's original creators were trying to do: break barriers in science by standing on the shoulders of other geniuses without consideration for the cost or respect for the power they had, just to patent it, package it, and sell it. Much like Jurassic World played with the idea that dinosaurs are passé nowadays and they’d have to be genetically toyed with to continue being entertaining (like reigniting an old, classic franchise), Fallen Kingdom takes the wonder out of these animals and becomes a monster movie where the dinosaurs are literally auctioned off. The people controlling dinosaurs' fate have lost the wonder and respect for the forces they're manipulating and only see them as profit generators, never once considering whether they should see the dinosaurs as more. The sequel trilogy's story has become an exploration of the effects of the loss of wonder and respect for both the animals and the science that brought them back. Now that we've seen humans completely lose control, we're about to see humanity face the full force of nature snapping back and I can’t wait! Dinosaurs don’t respect, fear, or have any reverent wonder for humans either… Perhaps the final chapter will see the surviving humans finally relearn that respect and reverence for nature; hopefully they’ll do it before we go extinct (or maybe Satler was right all along and women will inherit the Earth after the dinosaurs eat all these foolish, greedy men).

I loved the debate over saving or letting the dinos die on Isla Nublar and it makes total sense Malcolm came down on the side that he has since the first film: the dinos shouldn’t be here and if nature is going to take them out again so be it. I wish we’d seen more of Malcolm, but this was a great use of his character. I’d love it if the next movie brought back not just Goldblum in an expanded role, but reunited several of the previous characters now that the world is completely different. Alan Grant, Ellie Satler, and Sarah Harding are all specialists that could find new lives in a Jurassic World. Maybe the resourceful kids we’ve seen over the course of the franchise—Lex, Tim, Kelly, and Eric—have grown up to become dinosaur experts themselves. Lex and Tim could become the true heirs of Hammond’s legacy; I liked that this film remembered that Hammond developed into a conservationist in The Lost World after the first Jurassic World only focused on his earlier “spared no expense” philosophy, and Lex & Tim could be instrumental in embodying that development. Of course there’s one character who’s persisted since the first film—Dr. Wu—and I can’t wait to see where the end of this trilogy takes him. He works for me as a modern mad scientist and if he does just want to see what he can do (while blaming his employers when things go wrong) that’s fine by me, but I wouldn’t be opposed to learning more of his story (as I’ve seen others requesting online). Whatever they do with Wu, I don’t think he should get eaten by a dinosaur, at least not until he’s had a final confrontation with Ian. They butted heads in the first film and it would be especially fitting if out of all the characters, Malcolm was the one to face him down again. Seeing the two of them face off one last time would be a very cool culmination of the saga and close to the franchise (or at least this chapter of it).

I like that the Jurassic franchise is old-fashioned in that it hasn’t tried to build an expansive universe that’s building to some enormous and unwieldy climax, but has hit on the same themes of family, scientific and environmental responsibility, nature vs. science, and chaos vs. control in different scenarios. It’s true that there have been some repeated themes—a park with dinosaurs, a fight to save the dinosaurs, a horror show trying to survive the dinosaurs—but I have liked all the movies to varying degrees and this was no exception. I thought the callbacks to earlier films were well-placed without feeling repetitive or overdone. While the first World captured nostalgia for the first film via the idea of the theme park and this one did feel similar to The Lost World, I greatly preferred this one's mainland events to the previous film's. I never disliked the T-Rex getting loose in San Diego and still think it's a fun sequence, but the turn towards horror in this film is better IMO. Additionally, the ending is very promising. With the dinosaurs finally free and roaming the world, it seems like the franchise is headed in a truly original and fresh direction that I’m very excited to see! How humanity interacts with these animals is a fascinating prospect and I’m thrilled to see the movies going there. I’m really excited to see the world this movie has set up! Even if this generation of free dinos is captured or naturally dies out, the science is finally out there and there will be no stopping the various shadowy organizations from producing further dinos…or doing something totally original. Plus, they can always go to Isla Sorna and pick up the Site B dinos if they need to bring more adults onto the mainland; that island was mentioned here, but it seemed unclear as to whether Nublar’s volcano was going to destroy both islands or not. Either way, seeing dinosaurs interacting with modern civilization wasn’t anything new (even just in terms of this franchise), but it still left me anticipating the possibilities of what the world will look like when we revisit it in Jurassic World 3 (they totally could’ve included the post-credit scene in the ending montage, though; why save it?). The idea of using dinosaurs for the military is kinda silly in this day and age IMO, so I’m glad we still haven’t seen it happen and I hope we don’t. Dinos implemented by private loons and organizations for defense might be something worth touching on, but even these animals seem so low-tech compared to modern warfare that it has never seemed worth the trouble. I'd much rather see dinosaurs presented as an invasive species no one can contain.

Fallen Kingdom is a thrilling, fun monster movie that sends this franchise into completely new territory by the end! I think it’s an improvement on Jurassic World and definitely worth seeing. It’ll be on home video in a couple of weeks and I've already pre-ordered it. Check it out!

Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

The Shape of Waiting: 7 Guillermo Del Toro Films Stuck In Development Hell

New Post has been published on https://nofspodcast.com/shape-waiting-7-guillermo-del-toro-films-stuck-development-hell/

The Shape of Waiting: 7 Guillermo Del Toro Films Stuck In Development Hell

The Shape of Water, which finally gets its worldwide release this weekend, has already stolen the hearts of many. With near unanimous praise from critics, Guillermo Del Toro’s gothic romance is prime for a busy awards season. The Shape of Water leads the Golden Globes with 7 nominations, which is the icing on the cake of a year dominated by genre film. Taking home some hardware would be a much deserved cherry atop Del Toro’s incredible career, who is widely regarded as one of the most imaginative filmmakers working in Hollywood today. In the wake of his new film, there have been many articles chronicling Del Toro’s career and ranking his filmography. Instead of contributing another, we’re venturing into a world of what could have been.

Though Del Toro has a decent sized filmography, the list of films he’s almost created is three times as long. The Mexican director has a relentless work ethic and more ideas than he knows what to do with. He’s infamous for being attached to many projects whether it be via writing, producing, or directing. I’m sure we all wish Del Toro had the time and resources to make every film his heart desired but alas, some projects will never come to be. In the spirit of the holidays, let’s visit some of the ghosts of movies’ past. Here are 6 films that Guillermo Del Toro almost brought to life!

1. Hellboy 3

I have to get this one out of the way first because it hurts the most. Del Toro was already well known in the film community for The Devil’s Backbone, but it was Hellboy that brought him into the mainstream spotlight. Hellboy was a unique, gothic superhero film released towards the beginning of the comic book movie boom.. It was our first taste of Del Toro’s insane world-building abilities, blending fantasy with the paranormal. This world was then expanded upon in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, elevating everything from the first. Del Toro imagined the franchise as a trilogy, but ran into trouble getting the third into production reportedly due to conflict over budget. But the franchise gained a strong fanbase, banding behind Del Toro and Ron Perlman. Back in January, GDT took to Twitter to see if the fans could help. Despite efforts from passionate fans, Del Toro later confirmed in February that film was 100% not going to happen. But, it didn’t take long for Lionsgate to announce a Hellboy reboot for 2019.

2. I Am Legend

We all know Guillermo Del Toro loves working with creatures and monsters, including his vampires of Blade 2 and The Strain. So to little surprise, Del Toro was approached to direct the zombie-vampire thriller I Am Legend by Will Smith himself. He expressed a lot of interest in the film, being a big fan of the Richard Matheson novel. Del Toro ultimately had to pass in favor of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. There was a small silver lining though, GDT stated in an interview with TIME that his influence still made its way into the film:

Some of the notes about their biology actually came from me going to Warner Bros. to show them my ideas. I found it quite nice that visually the vampires in that movie had some passing similarity to those from my movie Blade II. The way they move, the fact that they all lose their hair and become these pale creatures.

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

blad

It’s a little hard to imagine Guillermo Del Toro working within an established franchise despite the fact that the Harry Potter is practically a gothic fairy tale centered around a school of children. That said, one word makes it easy to see why GDT almost directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Werewolves. But let’s be real, it would have been DOPE to see a practical effects werewolf (performed by long time-collaborator Doug Jones, maybe?) on screen rather than the mediocre CGI lycan we were given. Del Toro passed on the project to direct Hellboy and Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, 2013) went on to direct the well-received Harry Potter film. So everything worked out in the end I guess.

4. Justice League Dark

Of all the movies on this list, Justice League Dark was the closest film GDT came to actually making. The film is currently in development hell, as many other directors such as Joseph Kahn (Detention, Bodied) have also dropped from the project. Del Toro was attached all the way back in 2012, with a penned script that was completed in 2014. For those who aren’t comic book nerds, Justice League Dark is a team of superheroes/antiheroes who deal with the darker paranormal threats of the DC universe. The team is comprised of: a dead guy, a demon, an occultist detective, a magician, and a character literally named Swamp Thing. Everything about the team and premise begs for Guillermo Del Toro to bring it to the big screen. A comic book movie seen through a horror lens with a unique story and killer effects could have been a game-changer. Del Toro was incredibly passionate about the material and we’ve already seen what he could do with dark superhero franchise. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts with Pacific Rim 2 and the rise of the DCEU, Del Toro had to step away from the project.

5. Pinocchio

It’s been a grueling 10 years of development hell for Del Toro’s imagined stop-motion take on Pinocchio. And of course whats holding it back, as the case with a few other unrealized projects, is getting it financed. GDT is a true artist in the sense of the word, he won’t make something unless it’s exactly his vision. Del Toro’s dark take on the classic tale would would be a Frankenstein twist on the original fairy tale, utilizing a combination of stop-motion and live puppetry. Though ambitious, the heavily practical production would be expensive, with a proposed budget of aprox $32 million. All the pieces are in place from the script to the production team, we’ve seen promo art and even a short clip. All that’s missing is the money to make it happen. Hopefully The Shape of Water‘s box office performance makes the nice list this Christmas and we get one step closer to seeing the film brought to life.

6. The Wolverine

Fans really enjoyed James Mangold’s The Wolverine, but it’s hard not to think of what it would have looked like through Del Toro’s eyes. GDT has been connected to several superhero films over the years, including Thor and the above mentioned Justice League Dark, but this one fascinates me the most. In an interview with Collider, Del Toro revealed he actually sat down with Fox Executives and Hugh Jackman about directing the film. It would have been cool to see him take on a story set in Japan, as Del Toro often drenches his films in culture like Pan’s Labyrinth  or even Crimson Peak. Logan and Hellboy share a lot of similarities, so I could see why this was an attractive project to him. Two things I desperately wanted from The Wolverine was more body horror with Logan losing powers and a practical Silver Samurai. Had GDT taken on this project, perhaps I would have gotten my wish. Del Toro eventually passed the project along to Darren Arronofsky, who then passed it on to Mangold. How cool would it be too see each director’s different vision on the iconic character.

7. At the Mountains of Madness

Lastly is Guillermo Del Toro’s passion project, the classic H.P. Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness. The story is a connected anthology of sorts, a professor recounts stories during an Antarctic expedition. Del Toro has been trying to get this movie for over a decade, with the project being cancelled in 2004 by Dreamworks and then again in 2012 when he refused to make it PG-13. The second time around came pretty close: the script was complete, James Cameron was on board to produce, and Tom Cruise was in talks for the lead role. The film was denied once again over funding and the creative differences in tone, but as of 2013 Del Toro has stated he would try one more time. The film sounds like a terrifying thriller and the story would be treated with the highest respect, Lovecraft is a clear influence in Del Toro’s work. Hopefully with his relentless passion, the film will eventually get made and see the light of day.

  There are plenty more unrealized or up-in-the-air projects in Del Toro’s catalog including Godzilla, Beauty and the Beast, and The Haunted Mansion. At one point, he was even offered the entire Dark Universe! The talented director can only do so much, but with a mind like his can you blame the world for wanting as many Del Toro movies as possible? Today’s film landscape is so saturated with reboots and remakes, every Guillermo Del Toro project is a breath of fresh air. It’s unfortunate we can’t get more unique and imaginative films like Pacific Rim or Pan’s Labyrinth. To heck with the Dark Universe and the DCEU, I’m putting the GDTEU (Guillermo Del Toro Extended Universe, working title) on my Christmas List. One thing is for sure, at least The Shape of Water isn’t a project on this list. Go and support the film so we can get even more from Del Toro, perhaps At the Mountains of Madness if we’re lucky.

Which Guillermo Del Toro dream project do you most want to see on the big screen? Let us know in the comments below!

[juenofhotep]

Sentai Reviews :: Choudenshi Bioman

Wow it’s been a while hasn’t it? I think my last post was for Jyuohger in February of this year. My apologies. Life took a bit of a turn but these past two weeks I’ve been in a brand new apartment in Japan with no internet. That means I had plenty of time to completely consume all of Choudenshi Bioman!

Let’s get started!

1. What is the basic premise of the show and does it work?

Dr. Man is an evil scientist bent on ruling the world. He aims to destroy whatever he wants to scare the people of earth and make them bend to his will. Thankfully Pebo, a robot from the world of Bio, is on earth with a giant robot mech. 5 individuals whose ancestors were radiated with Bio particles are found to protect the world and fight against Dr. Man.

These heroes include:  Shirou Gou (Red 1) Shingo Takasugi (Green 2), Ryuuta Nanbara (Blue 3), Mika Koizumi and then Jun Yabuki (Yellow 4) and finally Hikaru Katsuragi (Pink 5). They’re all from different walks of life but they band together to battle Dr. Man.

It’s a simple premise that you can understand quite quickly. Dr Man believes robotics should rule over humanity. Our heroes fight against his aggression. Lots of simple plots for each episode.

2. Who was my favourite team member?

Yellow 4 was such an interesting character but not the first Yellow 4. The second Yellow 4, Jun, was my favourite character for sure. She had a lot of spunk to her. She was super fun to watch and a really lively character. She could sometimes be a little rash but she was honest with her emotions. She was a spunky female character and I really enjoyed her. I feel she had a lot of growth as well.

She almost felt like the main character after she was introduced into the show. She was the one who got a love interest. She was also the one who used a unique weapon nearly every single episode. She was basically fantastic. It's been a while since a female team member has been my favourite and I'm so happy for her existence! She's definitely one of my favourite sentai ladies of all time.

3. What did I like about the show?

Red One can talk to animals. It's so weird and comes out of nowhere in episode two but it's definitely interesting in its absurdity. I wish it had been used more.

This was the first Super Sentai show to feature two women on the team. Which is actually quite amazing given that it’s from 1984!

The foot soldiers of this show remind me of the ones from Go-onger. The way their shot and also their deaths. This show must have been the inspiration for them in Go-Onger.

The helmets were really cool with the lights always going off within the screen.

There was a lot of destruction in this show. I imagine a lot of people died in these explosions set off by Dr. Man. It made the enemies feel truly intimidating and dangerous. They were going for world destruction.

Like the older shows you don't get a lot of updates with the giant mech. I prefer this as the mechs aren't really my source of enjoyment in the show. I don't need constant upgrades to remind me of the toys the show is selling.

The villains were really well done. They felt intimidating and well rounded as a team.

Dr. Man was great as a leader of the villains. He had a lot of depth to him. This came to be moreso in the latter part of the show and I loved that! You had bits and pieces throughout the show.

A bit of a spoiler but we do have two Yellow 4s. The first one is around for only the first 9 episodes before she's replaced. Apparently it had something to do with pay but the actress left the show. Regardless of the reason they decided to let Yellow 4 go out on a heroic note. She protects her friends until the end and as a result she dies. This was an emotional episode and very well done. Furthermore, I feel we got a better Yellow 4 out of it.

There were so many episodes of the show that focused on our female members of the team. Usually we have a couple but this season we had many. So great to see Hikaru and Jun working together!

The more recent shows have been heavily focused on Red storylines and it's so great to watch an older season that spreads out focus on different characters. I really wish the more recent season would do this more.

There wasn't really a monster of the week, moreso a plan of the week. This meant we really got to know our villains: Mason, Monster and Farah. These big three players had evil plans every week.

The villains knew the names and identities of our heroes. I do enjoy plots that don't involve hiding identities from the villains. That's just something I like.

I did enjoy the cheesy special effects. In the 80s things were practical and that meant goofy reverse shots and also some basic puppetry. I loved it. It might not look realistic but it was super fun to watch!

Our female characters had really well developed hobbies and personalities. Hikaru played the flute and was incredibly feminine and Jun was an archer aspiring for the Olympics (she also had dreams of being a ballet dancer). I love female characters with this level of depth!

Silva was an interesting villain whose attacks could definitely wound our heroes. I really liked him and I wish he had been expanded on more.

4. What didn't I like?

Our male characters in the team were fine but they didn't have nearly the amount of depth that Yellow and Pink did. This is only a problem for me because I like to get to know everyone in the team. Though in the long run there have been far more series with well developed men and less developed women. So...while a flaw I did like that it went this way.

I didn't really fancy the chest part of the costume. It seemed pasted on and awkward looking. I got used to it but I was never really a fan.

I didn't find the giant villainous Kans to be all that interesting. We had to have a giant robot battle at the end of every episode, obviously, but I don't think they worked the villain's robot (known as Kans) well into many of the plots. They seemed like an afterthought, sent out because we had to have a giant robot.

I did not like Pebo as a character. They fortunately weren't around frequently but when they were I found their personality grating and annoying. They were quite loud when they spoke and the plots that focused on Pebo often had them running away from something in fear. Definitely not a great mentor figure.

I didn't find lots of the plots to be really compelling. They were well and fine but there was just something about a lot of them that I found a little boring. This was more about my own personal taste than anything else.

While I didn't actively dislike any of our heroes I also didn't find myself getting incredibly attached to any of them. They were fine but not...amazing. There are heroes I've felt far more compelled to root for.

There was quite a bit of facial overacting. Moments when the camera would zoom into the faces of our heroes and their faces would move in exaggerated shows of what I can only assume was supposed to be horror or shock. I found it a bit difficult to take.

The role call wasn't anything amazing. Spinning to face the camera. I love a good role call and this one didn't have it.

While I enjoyed the practical effects there was some...CGI that was just terrible. This is to be expected given the budget and time period but god it was bad sometimes. Images of walls pasted on to the film and more. I get what they were aiming for but gosh they were so bad sometimes.

While I liked Silva I found him really under-used. He would show up, hurt our heroes but then disappear. He never followed through with his threats and for many episodes he had no expansion on his story. Really disappointing.

5. What was better: the opening or the ending?

The opening was “Choudenshi Bioman” by Miyauchi Takayuki and the ending was “Biomic Soldier” by  Miyauchi Takayuki as well. Both songs were pretty run of the mill I think. I wasn’t wowed by either of them. If I had to pick one I guess I’ll go with the ending because it was a bit more fun and interesting.

6. Why would I/wouldn't I recommend this show for others?

As far as the older shows go, Bioman is really good. The characters were entertaining, the female characters were altogether fantastic and the villains were really good. I wasn't completely drawn in but I did find it really entertaining. I'd still have to put it in the latter half of the Super Sentai I've watched. I wouldn't rewatch it any time soon and I wouldn't make my friends watch it with me.

However, that being said, it was still a well done show. I enjoyed watching it and made it through quite easily though that is mostly because I watched it after moving to Japan and going for a month without having internet in my apartment.

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

2017 FarscapeWatch: 1.01 ‘Premiere’

I’ve made a few posts about this before, but for any new readers, welcome. This is the first official entry in my FarscapeWatch series for 2017. I’ve never seen the show before, and so I decided to react to it and write down my thoughts as I watch each episode, and make a series of it. As a millennial LGBT Brit, what I’ll end up thinking of this 90s US show should (hopefully) be interesting! Format wise; each of these entries will start with a stream-of-consciousness style recap of the episode and my thoughts as I watched, and will also feature character and plot analysis sections and a character ranking of my faves at the end. So without further ado...let’s get into this episode!

1.01 ‘Premiere’

Open on Earth. A dude. (Main dude?) Oh, he's pretty hot. Nasa? Astronaut. American Dude. A bit Buzz Lightyear. Douchey 90s scientist friend. I'm getting slight Fantastic Four vibes, but our main guy is more Ben Grimm than Mr F. Working with his dad, okay. This guy's an astronaut, so could go either way scientist or dudebro. These guys are Southern? My American knowledge is not super solid. This dad and son stuff is running between charming and cringey... unsure what age this show is aimed at.

Okay the spaceship is away up. Predictably everything goes wrong: premise, activate. Wormhole to some distant part of the universe = Actual spaceships, aliens.

Interesting theme song. Very otherworldly. No lyrics or cheesy stuff. This guy seems to be our lead then unless it's ensemble.

Other major players introduced. Another human woman, improbably enough, as #2. Some kind of weird Jar Jar Binks like alien midget, a guy who will obviously be The Big Guy and a blue lady who looks like some kind of mystic Sinead O’Connor. It was the 90s, after all. Other random aliens, spaceships, space. The humans bonding, of course. And credits are done.

We're still in space. He's in a firefight? Oh great someone's crashed into him, veered off and blown up. Now there's a massive ship...space station? He's being sucked in, tractor beam or something.

Okay the CGI is not wonderful but it's the 90s so I'll whistle past it. I know this is Jim Henson so there'll be puppetry somewhere...as weird a premise for an adult show as that is.

Okay he's left the safety of the ship. Unarmed. This guy's meant to be a smart scientist?

Spaceship is...a kind of retro-junk, Firefly feel to it. Not sleek tech. Lol he's getting menaced by some little robots. Like Noo Noo from the teletubbies.

Approaching the alien people. Well done. They're not talking English, good. That's one stupid trope averted. Oh, they've noticed him. Ooh blue lady is creepy.

Oh, translation injection or something. Interesting. Oh, they think he's advanced tech...lol.

Red guy is angry. Blue woman is calm. Who'dve guessed with that character design?

Despite the size of this ship there's only a few of them on.

Little sluggy guy is a bit Emperor Palpatine. Creepy.

Did blue lady deflect some spaceships with magic, psychic powers or something? She was praying or casting a spell right before.

So the ship seems to have just got free from whatever it was locked in just by chance. Red guy did something the equivalent of kicking the computer when it won’t work, and that seemed to do the trick.

Oh, the ship can teleport, okay, so Star Trek-ish. Starburst. Cool name. Even if that's a name of some sweets here in the UK.

 We meet our enemies, I'm guessing. Red and black and military style. I like this military lady, military officer? Seems to be a second in command to this guy whose brother seems to've died in the spaceship crash.

Oh, the pilot guy is quite positive. Just called 'pilot'?

Haha...American dude (John?) is predictably aghast at all these new things and people. Americentrism in action. Definitely aimed to engage the American audience to sympathise tho. I'm getting the feeling this might end up being a show with him as lead and everyone else supporting, not an ensemble. They knock him out and spit on him lol, at least the two dudes do. Blue lady seems to be the voice of reason here.

Scene cut to blue lady and red guy. They seem to just be meeting for the first time too?? They know each others' species. Ooh blue lady is so creepy! (Zan? Xan?) She also seems to be...sexy? But also a priest? Interesting. Huh. She seems to be, surprisingly, also a bad girl. How complex. Red guy is..or seems to be a typical Honour Guy. Blue lady emasculates him a wee bit...she might be much older than him, despite flirting. Interesting.

Sets these two up to be opposite forces...but also hints at some shipping. (already! in episode 1!)

John wakes up. Thought he was dreaming, wasn't. Appears to be...naked? They've locked him up.

Palpatine comes floating by to dispense some snark. He’s a pompous ex-emperor or something. Fitting.

Oh, John's locked in with a robot or something. Huh. Oh, no, it's a woman. Mrs leading lady. Ohgod he's smiling at her and flirting. Yes! She fights back! Right away. And brutally! Oh, I quite like her too.

Officer Aeryn Sun. Cool name.

Okay, team bonding. They will all eventually become pals I imagine due to the premise and the opening. Blue lady and John seem to have some signs of bonding. On the flipside, enmity between red and Aeryn AND red and John, and no-one seems to like Palpatine.

They're all jockeying for power and leadership...bless.

Oh, there's farting and fart jokes...okay. I don't know how I feel about this. Not thrilled. Is this show aimed at adults? DVD covers seemed to suggest so.

It's a bit Xena with the sets, acting and everything.

I love how Aeryn just does not give two shits. She and blue lady are two bright spots of light in this pretty messy pilot episode.

Aeryn and John escape their cell and Aeryn immediately rats them out to her commander. The military guys come to pick them up, but don't seem to care much about Aeryn.

As it happens, Aeryn and John and the others end up on the same planet although they took different ships to get there. Red guy comes to recapture Aeryn and John. They are all menaced by military guy tho who Aeryn has snitched to.

Aeryn defends John, ish. She is being logical, but commander guy takes it for emotional.

So this is how they become a team, because Aeryn gets cast out and now has nowhere else to go and has information that can help the rest, and also because after John helps them all escape he insists on taking her too because she defended him.

Denouement; John uses scientific knowledge and Aeryn her steering ability to give the spaceship extra speed using a planet's gravity. That's actually pretty clever scripting to use all of their skills.

Post-plot finishing: we get more character stuff. Zhaan meditates naked. Red guy threatens John and is focused on being free above all else. Aeryn shows signs of being a bit of a white supremacist, or whatever the alien equivalent is. Close with John making a report/diary log, a good closer.

CHARACTER BEATS (complete with having googled character names so I know how to spell them now)

JOHN

Honourable, maybe to a fault. A bit naive. Scientific, although appearing on the surface to be a bit of a dudebro character. Reminds me a bit here of Riley from Buffy. Seems to be the main character. Quite attractive, although not my usual type. Very American in terms of what he's assuming and the jumps he's making. Also a very 90s character; seeking peaceful solutions or resolutions wherever possible, a character archetype that peaked in popularity then.

ZHAAN

An interestingly complex character for one that seems on the surface to be several easy stereotypes; the mystic, the witch, and the beautiful alien. Being a priest but also flirty/promiscuous but also the voice of reason but also showing flashes of having a manipulative streak makes for a very interesting character, to see where she goes from here and which traits become dominant. They planted a lot of seeds with her character.

 D'ARGO

Seems to be by contrast, a much less interesting character from this first episode. An Honourable Warrior archetype who is also The Big Guy, aggressive, and will probably want at some point to be the head honcho on board. Seems to have clashed with everyone so far.

 RYGEL

Shockingly like Emperor Palpatine but probably not as clever. Really good puppetry on the design. A bit of a creepy old man vibe. I can see myself not liking this character. The farting, burping and spitting is all a bit disgusting for me as well, I thought I was watching a space opera, not Dumb and Dumber. Has already in 1.01 shown hints though of having a blustering, daft facade covering a much more sly personality underneath. Reminds me a little of Boris Johnson.

 PILOT

Is the pilot literally called Pilot? Creative. This character looks to just be a face on a screen for a lot of it, and looks to probably be long-suffering having to deal with so many volatile personalities on board. Just look at that face already.

 CRAIS

Not much to say on this dude. As if one of the villains from Xena escaped that show and managed to commandeer a spacecraft. He does what he has to for plot reasons, but it's not that sophisticated a story. Still, Buffy's season 1 plot wasn't the strongest either, so I can let it go.

AERYN

Finally another character I have more to say on. I quite like her. She, like Zhaan, has a interesting mix of characteristics. She has the emotionless woman down to a T, but there's also shades of Honourable Warrior there, an archetype I don't so often see applied to women. (I haven't yet seen Wonder Woman, but I imagine that would be one notable exception) I like that she seems to be largely self-serving and will be forced to work as part of a group, I'm wondering how she'll adapt to that. Also the actress is doing a stellar job, and I can't quite make out her accent, almost British, which I wasn't expecting. Also, what a cool name and spelling.

 PLOT POINTS AS OF 1.01

The team are all together, in space

Crais and the Peacekeepers are chasing them, both because they are all criminals and for a personal vendetta

Their quests: to escape, and to go back to their homes, free

  WHAT THIS EPISODE ADVANCED:

Mainly plot setup, with a little bit of shipping between D'Argo and Zhaan, and hints of possible ship tension between Aeryn and John, although I didn't like that as much because John seemed to be assuming she'd be into buddying up. I was so happy that she stood on her own two feet and didn't fall into his arms. I feel like since the 90s, we've moved full circle on those stereotypes and now run the risk of playing into them so as to 'surprise' the audience who are used to straight subversions.

  CHARACTER RANKING AS OF 1.01:

1) Zhaan (easily)

2) Aeryn

3) John (just... none of the male characters have really caught me yet)

4) D'Argo (a dull character type)

5) Pilot (not much fuel here, but not as hateful as..)

6) Rygel (ugh)

7) Crais (probably the flattest character thus far)

and if we're ranking major AND minor characters, I'd put Crais's unnamed (?) female officer just above John because I love her attitude and delivery.

 And that's it for this episode of FarscapeWatch! Check back in my Farscape 2017 section on my blog (linked on the homepage) for my next episode reviews, as they come! Or feel free to give me a follow to catch all of my stuff ;)

Also, if you’re enjoying these, feel free to shoot me a message or comment :3

[caveartfair]

Why Artists Love the Eerie Sensation of Characters That Look Almost Human

The Love Doll/Day 27/New in the Box, 2010. Laurie Simmons MCA Chicago

(Female Figure) 2014, 2014. Jordan Wolfson Fondation Beyeler

I learned about the “uncanny valley”—and a lot of other things in my intellectual repertoire, but that’s for another time—from 30 Rock. Tracy, worried about his legacy, has been trying to design the world’s first pornographic video game. Frank warns him that the project is doomed to fail: “As artificial representations of humans become more and more realistic, they reach a point where they stop being endearing and become creepy”—a point known as the uncanny valley. For example: C3PO and R2D2 are cute because they’re robots and they’re not supposed to look like human beings. But Tom Hanks in The Polar Express? CGI Stormtroopers? A wax figure of Nicole Kidman? Nearly human, unsettlingly so.

A tenured robotics professor at MIT couldn’t have explained it to me better. As Frank’s pop culture examples suggest, artists have always imagined beings who are both human and not—and, as Tracy intuits, many of these were beautiful women built to satisfy male creators’ erotic urges, from the legendary Galatea to the iBabes of Her and Ex Machina and Blade Runner 2049. Some of the most arresting art of recent years—Laurie Simmons’s love dolls, Ed Atkins’s videos—mock the hubris and lewdness of our species’s attempts to build artificial people, even as they employ the same cutting-edge technologies. At the core of these and other works is an undeniable proposition: In the last few decades, we’ve developed tools that might conceivably allow us to erase the difference between artificial and real altogether. The uncanny valley seems to be the only thing standing in the way.

Hair by Ed, 2013. Ed Atkins Artists Space

That, at least, was the thesis of the Japanese robotics professor who coined the phrase “uncanny valley” in a 1970 essay of the same name. Masahiro Mori, who turns 92 this year, is something of an anomaly: a visionary who has survived long enough to see his predictions come true (it’s telling that no authorized English translation of the essay existed before 2012). Studying the ways in which people interact with toys, puppets, and prosthetics, Mori extrapolated a generation of robots that would inspire revulsion in their users because they looked too human. When the world finally caught up, he found himself highly in-demand—not just among roboticists, but computer scientists, philosophers, designers, and artists.

Mori was highly original in some ways, derivative in others. At the core of his most famous essay is a whimsical and rather un-scientific graph in which he plots the “human likeness” of various things—a toy robot, a healthy person, a doll, an ill person, even a zombie—against their hypothetical shinwakan, i.e. “affinity.” He drew inspiration from his country’s rich theater tradition, arguing that its famous bunraku puppets were both highly lifelike and highly likeable, but perhaps only because audiences viewed them from the comfort of their seats.

By far the most important thing Mori takes for granted in his essay is the existence of a category called the “uncanny.” Like “robot” (or, for that matter, “uncanny valley”), the word “uncanny” is a surprisingly recent invention. It originated in the 16th century, but didn’t acquire its full modern definition until 1919, when Sigmund Freud penned an essay on the subject, citing, by way of example, the creepiness of dolls, puppets, and waxworks. What distinguished these objects was, for Freud, their combination of strangeness and familiarity—the more familiar the observer found them, the stranger they became. More than half a century later, Mori refined Freud’s theories by applying them to the world of robotics.

Window Washer, 1984. Duane Hanson Gagosian

Untitled (Big Man), 2000. Ron Mueck Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

But for all the attention Mori has received lately, it’s not entirely clear where his most famous essay stands on the biggest question it raises: Will the uncanny valley ever be crossed entirely? Mori, a reclusive type, has suggested on more than one occasion that he thinks it will, but more often, he sidesteps the question. His essay concludes by encouraging designers to build deliberately un-lifelike machines, and in 2012, he said simply: “I feel that robots should be different from human beings.”

Not everyone is heeding his advice. The recent, much-laughed-about cases of Alexa’s blood-curdling laughter suggest that Amazon’s best and brightest may be trapped in a auditory version of the uncanny valley. When it comes to the human face, however, machine-learning programs don’t seem to have any such difficulty. Whether or not the uncanny valley is a dead-end, big tech seems determined to cross it, against the recommendations of its discoverer.

Still, one person’s glitch is another’s creative inspiration. While computer programmers struggle to merge the artificial and the human, artists continue to revel in the uncomfortable gap between the two. It’s safe to say that Freud himself would have admired the sculptures of Ron Mueck and Duane Hanson, both of which are often misleadingly characterized as “hyperrealistic.” Mueck’s figures are undoubtedly lifelike, but they’re often far larger than life, giving them an eeriness impossible to capture in photographic reproductions. Much the same could be said of Hanson’s work: His sculptures—often cast in fiberglass, painstakingly painted, and, finally, dressed in second-hand garments—have all the intricacies of actual human bodies, and yet, by dint of their silence and stillness, they’re firmly lodged in the uncanny valley. Encountering Hanson’s Slab Man (1974–75) as a teenager, I did a triple- or quadruple-take, realized that I was looking at a sculpture, not a person, and finally, overcome by the deadpan humor, surrendered to giddy laughter—the proper Freudian response.

It’s no surprise, considering the long relationship between robotics and sex, that some of the most striking artworks evoking the uncanny valley also touch on themes of gender and eros. Even though the artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller have made a career out of puppetry and robotics, their 2014 installation The Marionette Maker still bears special consideration. It features a life-sized replica of the sleeping Cardiff, surrounded by impish, Lilliputian creatures that dance and play guitar as they scamper across her body. The replica could be interpreted as a passive Sleeping Beauty, waiting to be saved—and yet Cardiff and Miller leave open the possibility that she is the titular “maker,” dreaming the whole, uncanny scene.

The robotic sculpture in Jordan Wolfson’s Female figure (2014) is plainly not a woman—and yet. Wolfson gave it a curvy, scantily clad body, but also exposed, factory-like metal joints; red, pillowy lips; flowing, Monroe-ish hair; and a long, hooked green nose like something out of The Witches. This combination of sensuality and Goya-esque grotesquerie is textbook uncanniness, haunting in a way that neither would be on its own.

Watch a seven-minute video captured at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and you’ll see Wolfson’s robot do many things. It mumbles. It has a conversation with itself. It dances to Paul Simon and Lady Gaga. It shakes its ass. Most jarringly of all, it stares straight into the camera. Even as I told myself there was nothing behind its glaring face, I couldn’t force myself to stare back—the illusion that I was confronting a person was too powerful, and too painful. In this way, Female figure sums up a paradox that most tech developers seem not to recognize: The robots that inhabit the uncanny valley—in other words, the ones that are almost, but not quite, life-like—are often the most human.

from Artsy News