Articles by amy-goldschlager
Tue Aug 11, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
Film Review: 'Ponyo' ('Gake no ue no Ponyo' )
Ponyo (“Gake no ue no Ponyo”), an animated feature film directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Dubbed English voices by Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina
Fey, Liam Neeson, Cloris Leachman, Betty White, Lily Tomlin, Frankie Jonas, and others.
In advance of its August 14 limited release, Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film Ponyo made its East Coast debut at Symphony Space in Manhattan on Sunday, August 9, to the great delight of those of us who have been waiting too long for a Miyazaki film, thanks to the legal issues surrounding Tales From Earthsea. Free posters were given out to several people waiting on line. and plush Ponyos were tossed into the audience, one of which was claimed by one of my companions in an impressive high catch.
The title character, Ponyo, is apparently the oldest and most powerful of the many girl-faced goldfish daughters of the sea goddess Gran Mamare and Fujimoto, a human-hating, hollow-cheeked wizard who lives underwater. Curiosity brings Ponyo to the surface and gets her stuck inside a jar; a 5-year-old boy named Sosuke rescues her, dumps her in a pail, and feeds her a ham slice. These deeds are apparently enough to win Ponyo's heart; she uses some of her father’s magical elixirs to turn herself adorably human and show up on Sosuke’s doorstep. Unfortunately, her act upsets a natural balance, putting most of Sosuke’s town underwater and threatening further damage unless Ponyo declares his love for her. Yes, you got that right. He’s five, and he’s got to promise to love her always—whether as a sister or as a future bride, it’s not entirely clear. How many of us have declared their eternal devotion to someone we met at the age of five? How many of us are even still friends with someone we met at age five? (I’m still friends with one woman I met at age seven, and that’s really pretty impressive, I think.)
As other reviewers have mentioned, Ponyo is essentially a riff on The Little Mermaid, but without the singing of the Disney movie or the walking-on-knives and rigidly Lutheran moralizing of the original story. Frankly, some appropriately directed moralizing might have been what this story needs (over and above the usual love nature, hate pollution message that’s present in all Miyazaki films).
Disney produced the English-language version of Ponyo; these are the same people who were so disturbed that the 13-year-old witch protagonist of Kiki’s Delivery Service was drinking coffee, they awkwardly wrote the English dub to indicate that she was drinking hot chocolate instead. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that execs had considerably more ethical qualms about this film, but given the international box office and prestige that Miyazaki gained in previous efforts, decided to stifle them.
Continue reading Film Review: 'Ponyo' ('Gake no ue no Ponyo' ) ›
Fri Jul 24, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
#SDCC: 'The Prisoner': Do You Want ... Information?
Jim Cavalziel (The Passion of the Christ) suffers a whole new kind of persecution when he stars as Number Six in the six-episode remake of Patrick McGoohan’s classic 1960s show The Prisoner, which is set to air on AMC in November.
Today’s SDCC panel on The Prisoner reboot featured Jim Cavalziel as well as Prisoner co-star Lennie James (Jericho), AMC VP Vlad Wolynetz, and miniseries writer Bill Gallagher. Alas, Sir Ian McKellan, who takes on the role of Six’s nemesis, Number Two, was not present.
Gallagher characterized the remake as a “response,” and not a duplication of McGoohan’s concept. (We don’t have to worry about Cavalziel being overly influenced by McGoohan’s take on the role of Number Six; according to a Wired interview, he’s never even seen the show. Maybe that’s worrying in a whole different way.)
The panel premiered nine minutes of footage from the new Prisoner, embedded below for your viewing pleasure, and of course, your judging. According to official AMC tweeter, ThePrisoner_AMC, “The crowd ... [went] wild after rover is revealed in #ThePrisoner panel at Comic-Con.” Presumably, that was out of appreciative nostalgia, not fear, because the Village’s security device is still a decidedly unintimidating, giant white balloon. Watching the footage, it’s clear that the premise has shifted quite a bit, although several scenes and bits of dialogue have carried over and sound a bit odd voiced in American accents. The setting has also moved thousands of miles from the cool, green precincts of Wales to a considerably hotter, more arid enclave in Namibia.
Marvel Comics and AMC have also collaborated on a Prisoner comic, which is being given away at San Diego. Download a PDF of the comic from the AMC website.
Fri Jul 24, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
#SDCC: VIZ Media: Shonen Jump, with Toriko, Bakuman, and... Stan Lee?
The room was packed for Viz Media’s Shonen Jump panel, which took place at 10:30 am in Room 10. The company announced two new series: Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro’s Toriko, about a “gourmet hunter” of the same name who apparently tracks down the most dangerous and tasty beasts, which he sells to exclusive restaurants; meanwhile, the metafictional Bakuman from Death Note creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata promises to shed light on that most mysterious of arts, producing manga. Both began running in the Japanese magazine Shonen Jump Weekly in 2008 and are still ongoing.
However, the star attractions of the panel were Hiroyuki Takei (Shaman King) and Stan Lee-- yes, THAT Stan Lee, not some Japanese guy with the same name-- co-creators of Shonen Jump’s new manga, Ultimo, which is making its English debut in the July issue. The story concerns two robot boys, one who champions ultimate good (Ultimo) and one representing ultimate evil (Vice) battle it out in contemporary Tokyo to determine which force is supreme.
According to Takei, he’s already “vaguely” decided which robot will win. He based the character design of the robot boys’ creator, Dunstan, on Stan Lee himself. Apparently, he was quite nervous about showing sketches of Dunstan to Lee, but Lee claims that he didn’t even see the resemblance at first.
Lee noted that he’s really having fun working on a project that’s such a departure from American comics, while Takei spoke about the challenge of creating a manga that pleases both Japanese and American audiences. The difference in approach is perhaps exemplified by the two creators’ answers about what readers should “take away” from the manga. Takei said that Ultimo was about “good and evil,” while Lee said that it was “all about selling a lot of copies.”
Fri Jul 24, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
#SDCC: Metalocalypse's Murderous Multimedia Mayhem
Those of us who would Do Anything for Dethklok will now have many more opportunities to share the love. (Why, yes, I do have a cartoon crush on Nathan Explosion. He can “teach me who rock” anytime.) The creators of the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse are preparing an assault on several platforms.
If you’ve actually bothered to read the Adult Swim bumps instead of fast-forwarding past them on your DVR, you already know that in Season 3, episodes of Metalocalypse will double in length to 30 minutes, and the second Dethklok album is scheduled for this fall.
On Wednesday, Konami announced that they'll be putting out the downloadable videogame Metalocalypse: Dethgame, which will be available for Xbox and PlayStation. The soundtrack will feature tracks from both the old and the new Dethklok albums. Game creators are promising a thrilling and an exceptionally gory time as the player takes on the role of a Klokateer, one of the band’s many masked minions. Here’s hoping that they will be able to fulfill that promise: a very early version of the game is currently being showcased at San Diego, and one IGN reviewer is already profoundly unimpressed. Apparently, gameplay now mainly consists of urinating on, brutally beating, and slicing up Dethklok fans. Hey, that may be enough for some people.
Also on Wednesday, the one-shot The Goon vs. Dethklok hit comic book store shelves. That was quickly followed by Thursday’s announcement from Dark Horse that a Metalocalypse comic book series is in the works. The Dark Horse San Diego Comic-Con panel takes place later today, and no doubt more details will be released at that time.
Fri May 1, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
Grave of the Anime Companies: Central Park Media Files for Bankruptcy
Anime and manga distributor Central Park Media filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last Friday, which means that the company does not plan to restructure and its assets will be liquidated. CPM put out such classic anime as “Revolutionary Girl Utena,” “Project A-Ko,” “Demon City Shinjuku” and “Grave of the Fireflies.” They also published yaoi manga under the Be Beautiful imprint as well as assorted shojo and shonen titles. However, they hadn’t issued any new releases in a year.
This news comes less than two years after the collapse of Geneon USA. Apparently, CPM won’t comment on how they got to this unfortunate pass, although they've obviously been struggling for some time. Of course, times are tough in publishing, and the bottom’s dropping out of the manga market in Japan. Geneon also cited illegal downloading as a factor in their troubles, and I’m wondering what role that played in CPM’s demise.
It’s sort of ironic, really. Fan subs and scanlations helped build the manga and anime industry in the U.S., and now they’re probably helping to tear it down.
Amy Goldschlager is an editor at findingDulcinea, the Librarian of the Internet, and SweetSearch, the smarter search engine.
Tue Apr 28, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Quirk Books; April 2009; $12.95
What is there left to be said about the Undead Sensation That’s Sweeping the Nation? The buzz for this book was so loud that they rushed it into publication a few months early (which no doubt accounts for the inconsistently applied British spellings in the text). Everyone and their newly risen mother has reviewed it, or at least written about it, and it’s now spending a second week on the New York Times bestseller list.
As broad farce, the book succeeds. It does a fine job of interleaving the original text with brutal confrontations with the undead, katana swordplay and ninja ambushes. There’s even a note of pathos in the fresh explanation for why Charlotte chooses to marry the dreadful Mr. Collins: she’s been stricken with the zombie plague, and wants to eke out her final days as a married woman before someone must behead and burn her. I also particularly enjoyed the revised faceoff between Lady Catherine and Elizabeth. In the original, Lady Catherine sneers at Elizabeth for not being personally educated by a governess; here, Lady Catherine mocks Elizabeth’s inferior martial arts tutelage in China—apparently true gentlewomen go to Japan to learn how to kick butt.
Continue reading Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith ›
Wed Mar 18, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
ComicMix Quick Picks - March 18, 2009
Some items from the past few days:
- Sad news: Natasha Richardson, scion of the famous Redgrave acting family and star of the film adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian The Handmaid’s Tale, has died from injuries suffered in a skiing accident. Our condolences go out to her husband Liam Neeson, their two boys, and the rest of their family.
- David Prowse, the body of Darth Vader and the man who got Christopher Reeve bulked up to play Superman, is completing treatment for prostate cancer.
- Family Guy has won its lawsuit against a music publisher that claimed that the allegedly anti-Semitic lyrics of “I Need a Jew” damaged the reputation of their song, “When You Wish Upon a Star” from the Disney film Pinocchio. The song and the episode in which it appears, “Once Upon a Weinstein,” have faced accusations of anti-Semitism before. Fox refused to show the episode when it was originally produced; audiences didn’t get to see it until 2003, when Cartoon Network broadcast it.
- In other legal news, German book publishers are suing file sharing readers. Not ISPs... readers. German book publishers' association leader Alexander Skipis said "his group intends to keep German courts busy with thousands of lawsuits. He also called P2P file sharing "organized crime" and lamented that politicians were ignoring the impact illegal downloads were having on book publishers."
- And in case you missed it: Neil Gaiman on The Colbert Report.
Anything else? Consider this an open thread.
Amy Goldschlager is an editor at findingDulcinea, the Librarian of the Internet, and SweetSearch, the smarter search engine.
Wed Feb 18, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
ComicMix Quick Picks - February 18, 2009
Today's list of quick items that don't fill a full post on their own:
- Cartoon Network has committed to 26 episodes of Marvel Super Hero Squad, to begin broadcasting in late 2009.
- Apparently, the classic romantic comedy of manners is just not considered to be of sufficient interest anymore. First, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy were battling zombies; now, they’re facing an alien invasion. Where’s the reverse of this trend? When do they put “Mars Attacks—and Hosts an Afternoon Garden Party” on the schedule?
- The BBC plans to put Doctor Who on stage. (Wow, and it worked out so well for that other beloved British property, The Lord of the Rings. Heck, maybe Coraline will prove me wrong.)
- Dragonball purists will no doubt be disappointed to learn that Goku will be played by a 26-year-old in the live-action film Dragonball Evolution. However, fans of James Marsters—who’s portraying Goku’s foe, Lord Piccolo—are probably salivating at the slashy opportunities that this choice offers. Let’s face it, slash is a fine manga/anime tradition; plus, that episode of Buffy Season 6, in conjunction with that episode of Torchwood Season 2, suggest that Marsters is making a career of playing characters who confuse fighting with foreplay (and that’s definitely not a bad thing…).
- Cardiologist needed at the Satellite of Love (or its current equivalent), stat! Mike Nelson, formerly of MST:3K, now of RiffTrax, is spending the month of February on an all-bacon diet. He’s not allowed to add any sauces or condiments to the bacon, either, which seems an unwarranted restriction, because how can you go on an all-bacon diet without trying Bacon Explosion?
Anything else? Consider this an open thread.
Amy Goldschlager is an editor for FindingDulcinea.com.
Sun Feb 8, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
ComicMix Quick Picks - February 8, 2009
The collection of non-NYCC posts that have come in over the last few days while we've been on the floor at Javits.
- Casino Royale director Martin Campbell is talking with Warner Bros. about directing the live-action version of Green Lantern.
- In conjunction with fellow Macmillan imprint First Second Books, science fiction and fantasy publisher Tor is publishing online comics at the Tor.com Web site.
- Seattle withdraws their 2011 Worldcon Bid. Looks like we're all going to Reno!
- Noel Clarke, best known in this country as Mickey in Doctor Who, just won the BAFTA Rising Star Award.
- Coraline debuted this week and earned $16.3 million, making it the top-debuting, wide-release, stop-motion film in movie history.
- Michael Ausiello is reporting that ABCFamily will cancel Kyle XY after the current batch of ten episodes air. The series' ratings are down sharply this season.
Anything else we missed? Consider this an open friend.
Amy Goldschlager is an editor for FindingDulcinea.com.
Tue Feb 3, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
Review: 'Planet Saturday Comics: Volume One' by Monty S. Kane
Planet Saturday Comics: Volume One
Written and illustrated by Monty S. Kane
Planet Saturday, LLC, $12.95
Planet Saturday Comics: Volume One collects short vignettes previously published on the Planet Saturday Web site. The stories, apparently based on the writer/illustrator’s own life, all concern either the child Emory (aka M, as in Monty), and his attempts at Calvin and Hobbes-like flights of fancy, or the 40-year-old Emory and his travails parenting his daughter Dorothy. (I’m not sure where the mother is in this picture. In real life, Kane’s wife helps him run the site.) Each vignette is accompanied by an entirely unnecessary text explanation that seems to be there solely to pad out the book.
Critiquing Planet Saturday feels a bit like kicking a puppy. The characters are just so darn sweet, and if you buy the book directly from the site, they’re donating $1 to health care for uninsured kids. Nevertheless, if I don’t kick the puppy, I must at least nudge it gently back into its owners’ yard; it’s not getting a particularly warm reception over here, despite its almost desperate eagerness to please.
It’s unfair, considering that so many of the mainstream newspaper features have moved online, but I still expect Web-only comics to be a bit more edgy or niche-oriented than the stuff I read in the local daily. I really can’t see what this strip provides that I couldn’t find in Stone Soup, FoxTrot or (shudder) the For Better or for Worse retread. Emory’s kid imagination is pretty garden variety (I wish I could fly so I could escape the local bully; I ruined my shirt pretending to be a caveman), and his parent’s-eye view offers no insights we haven’t seen before (my daughter plays her music too loud and she’s growing up too fast). The strip’s just not funny, or quirky, enough to really grab your attention. The art is nice (appealingly rounded, slightly exaggerated figures against a softly detailed background), but that’s about all this book’s got going for it.
If you simply must see the strip for yourself, I’d advise sampling the free milk online, rather than paying for the print version of the cow. (You can still donate that dollar to children’s health, though, if it’ll make you feel better.)
Amy Goldschlager is an editor for FindingDulcinea.com.
Fri Jan 30, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
ComicMix Quick Picks - January 30, 2009
- From America's Finest News Source: Obama Disappointed Cabinet Failed To Understand His Reference To 'Savage Sword Of Conan' #24
- This year, the Bunny’s bringing mango juice: Red Dwarf returns for a two-part Easter weekend special on British digital channel Dave.
- If talking mice are more to your taste than a talking Cat, you'll be glad to know that the next Narnia film (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader), dropped by Disney, has been picked up by Fox.
- In the Unnecessary Sequels Department: “Eagle Eye” co-writer Travis Wright is working on a sequel to Blade Runner, even if no one wants to look at it.
- And speaking of sequels, Angelina Jolie is definitely out of the picture for the “Tomb Raider” reboot; blog rumors tapped Megan Fox to replace her, but she says she doesn't want the role.
- Earlier this week, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announced their noms for this year's GLAAD media awards, and several sf/fantasy dramas made a proud showing. Both Torchwood and True Blood are up for Outstanding Drama Series; Ghost Whisperer, Supernatural and the American remake of Life on Mars each got a nod for Outstanding Individual Episode (in a series without a regular LGBT character).
Anything else? Consider this an open thread.
Amy Goldschlager is an editor for FindingDulcinea.com.
Mon Jan 26, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
Neil Gaiman wins Newbery Award, 'Moribito' wins Bachelder
Many of you probably already know by now that Neil Gaiman picked up the 2009 Newbery Award for The Graveyard Book
But unless you’re connected to the children’s book world, you might not have paid attention to all the other awards the American Library Association handed out today. The Bachelder Award is given to the “most outstanding” book published in a foreign language. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
This year marks the second year in a row that a novel translated from the Japanese has won the Bachelder; last year it was Miyuki Miyabe’s Brave Story, published by Viz, which had not previously been known for its non-media fiction.
Amy Goldschlager writes for FindingDulcinea.com.
