Losing Track of Halloween…

These last few autumns haven't been ideal for me. Autumn is actually my favorite season of the year, in case anyone didn't know. I've never been big on the solstice seasons. Winter is way too cold and full of hassles (plus I'm a New Englander, so... Storms!) and drags once you get to February-March. Summer? …

‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ – An Animation Thesis…

My next pick for animation thesis isn't an all-animated film, but it contains a lot of animation... Pure animation, too. Not VFX trickery and lifelike creations. Who Framed Roger Rabbit... A Walt Disney Pictures/Amblin Entertainment film released under Disney's Touchstone banner, spearheaded by Back to the Future trilogy director Robert Zemeckis and executive producer Steven Spielberg, …

The Odd Parallels Between Disney’s Animation and The Beach Boys…

Maybe I'm totally reaching with this, but I'm gonna go for it... Disney Animation and The Beach Boys are very similar to each other... Like, really similar. Both are American, both have hailed from California, and both are as iconic as baseball, apple pie, and the red, white, and blue. Both also are more than …

‘The Thief and the Cobbler’ – Another Animation Thesis

Weeks back, I wrote about how Walt Disney's 75-year-old animated feature film Bambi not only holds up, but is an animation thesis that argues why animation is an incredible medium. Some of animation's most special qualities are rather ignored today in the world of American mainstream animation, as we are pelted year after year with …

‘Bambi’: An Animation Thesis, 75 Years Later…

A nice little break from the more personal stuff and ramblings, I wanted to talk about Walt Disney's Bambi... Yesterday, August 9th, marked the 75th Anniversary of the film's world premiere in London, which predated the general American wide release by a few weeks. Disney recently re-released the title on Blu-ray to celebrate, in an edition …

Nostalgia? Or Something Else? A Personal Story About Drawing and Media

I am often a stern critic of nostalgia. What even is nostalgia? It's the sweet feeling you get when you remember a time in your life, presumably one that occurred long ago. Nostalgia can be triggered by looking at something you once enjoyed, or something you've enjoyed all your life even. To me, it's like …

Imitation? Part 2

A few months ago, I was inspired to write a piece after discussing a very derivative movie with my blogger/reviewer friend Rachel. She had then recently seen the Canadian/South Korean animated feature Spark, which saw a brief limited theatrical release here in North America in the middle of April. It came and went, no one …

Sunshine Dream: A Review of The Newest Beach Boys Archival Release

If you haven't been here for a while, here's the skinny... I am a bonafide super-fan of the Brothers' Wilson and friends... Known as The Beach Boys, of course. I'll spare the introduction, because this is a review of an archive release exploring a year where The Beach Boys ceased being popular on American soil, …

60 Recent Jams

Usually I do a "15 Songs of the Month" post, where I talk about songs I'm currently loving - either new discoveries or old favorites. I've been slacking on these for quite a while, so I'll cover March, April, May, and June. 60 songs altogether! ... and of course, if you like what you're hearing, …

‘Age of Ultron’ Re-watch, and Movie Sandwiches…

Movie sandwiches? What the heck does that mean? What does it have to do with the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Also, why Avengers: Age of Ultron? Isn't that movie two years old now? Today, I had the urge to re-watch Avengers: Age of Ultron, the second Avengers movie and the eleventh installment in the movie series. …