Animation: Popeye and Archie

Time to talk about Popeye and Archie DVDs. Today two things came out, and I was anticipating them, to different degrees. First up, Popeye Volume 1:
This Popeye set has the first 60 theatrical shorts from Fleischer Studios, which produced 108 Popeye shorts from 1933 until they dissolved 1942. From 1943 to 1957, Paramount, under the name of Famous Studios, took over and produced 125 more shorts. The same thing happened to their Superman cartoons.

This is some high quality stuff right here, Fleischer Studios was pretty technically skilled. In addition to the 60 shorts, there are a couple of commentaries on the history of Popeye and of animation, as well as a bunch of "popumentaries" on the different characters.

I remember the first time I saw a Popeye cartoon, still have that video. I feel like looking it over and seeing what studio it's from...

Anyway I'm not even 1/3 through Disc 1 but already this set is awesome.

So when I was at the store, I noticed that this had also come out:


So we're going from Popeye which was produced during the golden age of American animation to...1968, well into the TV era. Big drop in quality here. I used to be a huge fan of Archie comics, and back then any from of Archie on TV was something I had to see at least once. I bought some Archie digests from Giant yesterday for the hell of it, and whenever I see some of the 70s comics for a few bucks I try to get those. So I...still read Archie from time to time. There I said it.

That's why I was more pumped from for the show Sabrina The Teenage Witch than any 11 year old kid should have been.


After seeing it I was like "WTF? Salem isn't suppose to talk! And they got Hilda and Zelda wrong, they're supposed to dress like actual witches...and...AWW HELL NAW!" In addition, Hilda was supposed to HATE non magical people. But hey, it's a TV show, so I guess they had to adapt it. So after a while I ended up liking the show and was like "You ever read the comic? No? Then suck it you freeloading bandwagon jumping Step By Step watching fuck ." Same thing when the Josie and the Pussycats movie came out, but I didn't bother to see that shit. Despite all this, I was still thinking "Oh, so Melissa Joan Hart found work after Clarissa Explains it All? Good for her."

But it still fucked up the comic, they changed the way everybody looked, since they had to cash in on the show's popularity. Hilda and Zelda were updated to wear modern clothes, and Sabrina also looked different: She didn't have her hair in that constantly folded backwards over her head with a plastic headband look. Nobody looks like this:



Now back to The Archie Show. First off This Intro should tell you all you need to know about the show. One year when I visited India as a kid I got this Archie video. (By the way if you ever want infinite Archie comics, go to India.)

So anyway like I said, anything to do with Archie in TV form was something to look at at least once. That video I got in India was the first 2 or 3 episodes from this DVD. As a result, I'd see those episodes a couple times every year that I visited. So there's a nostalgia factor. Anyway this is very cheap animation, they don't even draw the black checkered lines on Archie's head. And the voices seem wrong for the characters. But this show spawned a couple popular songs, including "Sugar Sugar". Yup, that song that people remember from time to time "you are my candy girl" and all that, is by The Archies, a "fictional" band just like the Gorillaz. If you like Sugar Sugar, I recommend Bang-Shang-a-Lang. I'll see how the rest of the series is, so far I haven't delved into new territory.

But on the back of the booklet for the DVD it said to look out for more Archie stuff on DVD next year. I can only hope it's The New Archies, which was pretty good. I remember it used to be on The Family Channel in the early 90s.

Summary: Popeye is awesome, and Archie could be cool too.

A trip to Costo turns into something entertaining.

Here's some fun. So how do Costco and Deadwood mix? Like this:

Costco is a nice place. Lots of stuff. Occasional good prices on DVDs.

I've also been watching Deadwood the last few days. The lowdown is that due to a coupon, each season costs $30 where it would otherwise be $50, at Costco.



So I'm minding my own business watching an episode of Season 2, and the disc starts skipping on me. I thought "Oh hell no, you did not just do that." After multiple cleaning attempts it still would not work. All right, time to pay a visit to the Costco returns department.

When I got there, I happened to be standing behind some dude who was returnign linguine. I felt like backing away slowly, but decided to stick around anyway. Anyway I am able to return it, but not after a long conversation with the damn lady. First I find out via my brother that there are no more coupons left. And secondly I can't exchange the DVD for a new one, only refund it. That's fine, but then I'd have to pay $50 for a new one. No good. I mention most of this to the lady and hand her the membership card:

"Wait, this isn't your card."
"It's my mom's."
"You can't shop with this."
"Yes I can."
"She has to add you to the card. I'll have to put a block on the card."
After a little more of this, I'm like "Just give me the refund."

BUT HOLD UP TIME OUT:

She gives me a $50 refund when I actually paid $30, because she failed to pay attention to the coupon that I mentioned repeatedly, which was the primary reason I was there. "Uh excuse me miss--you gave me extra money--oh wait you were an asshole? Guess you'll be wondering why you're missing $20 when it's time for the final count at closing time numbnuts."

So anyway, I'm about to leave, because I don't have the coupon booklet....but I find out that the lady in Aisle 7 has it and scans the coupons in for people. Sounds like a nice person that I should pay a visit to.

I get another copy of the DVD, and get a spot in aisle number 7. Oh guess what, she scans the coupon, and gets someone to overrides the override that that other dumbass put on the card.

Summary: Lady gives me $20 for free.

Consider this the bridge.

A Flick a Day is on vacation. But I did see Ratatouille again today. Haven't seen a movie besides that since last Wednesday. Feels...refreshing. Like 7-Up.

The reason is that there were other things to do, reading that new Harry Potter being one of them, wanting to take a break being another.

I'll be back to see more movies hopefully soon, and of course, that list from last post is not going to be followed.

Before I go, here's a round up of all the "Aww Hell Yeah!" movies:

Caddyshack
The Sting
Rashomon
The Old Man and the Sea (animated short)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Rope
City Lights
Bicycle Thieves
Yojimbo
Sanjuro
Ratatouille
Ikiru
Transformers
The Iron Giant
High and Low
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
The Sandlot (not discussed yet)


All right that's it for now.

Stop. Hammer time.

I'll put up the posts on days 45-47 later. Day 48 (yesterday) was skipped for a couple reasons, the main one being this:

And it will likely be the reason for any delays today too. Anyway the count is 52 movies for 49 days, so we're still ahead. Yippee Skippy as Miss Piggy would say from Muppet Babies.

Oh yeah some people wanted to know what the future movies are. They'll probably be these:

Easy Rider
Kid Vengeance
Vampires in Havana
Stray Dog
North by Northwest
and the 1970s King Kong

All right, that's it for now. Later.

Day 43/44: Die Hard 1-3

Counting this as days 43 & 44 to make up for that day I missed and to get back on track, watching these 3 movies should make up for that (07/15)

Background
I found out about a pricing error this week. Basically the collection to the left was priced at $7.50 and it includes a free ticket to the new Die Hard movie. Yippee Ki Yay Motherfuckers.

So today I checked out the first Die Hard, and after that was in the mood to watch the rest, so that's what happened to my day. Let's hit it.

Die Hard (1988)

The one that started it all. Terrorists, led by Alan Rickman, take over a skyscraper and John McClane is there to take them down.

Random Connections

• The guy who talks to Bruce Willis over the CB radio throughout the movie is the dad from Family Matters.

• The City Worker who pops out of the sewer is none other than Henry from Blank Check. I was like "I know that voice....it's the John Candy wannabe limo driver from Blank Check!" And guess what, Die Hard has a comic relief limo driver as well, so this dude has been in two movies involving limo drivers in secondary roles. Shit I never would have expected so many Blank Check connections during this movie a day thing, but here we are.

And since I never got to put up a poster from Blank Check, here's one now:

• Oh yeah this is also Alan Rickman's feature film debut, and among other things he's Snape in the Harry Potter movies, which were talked about a few days ago.

• The deputy police chief was played by Paul Gleason who was the principal in The Breakfast Club, and he was also in a lot of other stuff.

• This last one isn't so random, but the cinematographer for this, Jan de Bont, got into directing a few years later, and his first movie was Speed.

Thoughts
I liked this a lot, I saw the ending on TV once but never the whole thing. Should have seen this sooner. Once the action starts it doesn't stop.

Rating
Aww Hell Yeah!

Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990)

People were right, this is like Die Hard but with airplanes. It was pretty random that it took place at Dulles of all places. Who knew Centreville could be the center of so much action. Oh yeah and since when did it snow so much during Christmastime in this area anyway?

So John McClane is back, and this time there is trouble at the airport. This movie isn't as good as the first movie, but it's still pretty good. It had some cool moments and surprises.

Rating
Oh hell yeah.

Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)

This time we add Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Irons. I saw this on video a while back, and now it's time to see it again.

Okay so in this one, Jeremy Irons plays Simon, the brother of Alan Rickman's character from the first movie. He's pissed, and as a part of his big plan, makes John McClane and Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) play a high stakes game of Simon Says. I always liked the puzzles that Simon made them do.

So this is the first movie that gives John McClane a 'partner' but it's a good addition. It takes the series in a different direction which is pretty cool. And as with the other Die Hards, this one has a good amount of shit getting blown up.

Rating
Oh Hell Yeah.

Day 42: Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002)

Background
This movie looked random, and Friar once said "I can't believe you haven't seen this." Now that I've seen it, I can't believe I hadn't seen it either.

What's goin on?
The main dude/writer/director/actor, Steve Oedekerk, inserted himself into a 70s martial arts movie and redubbed all the sound.

How is it?
This movie is the shit. The dubbing and all that stuff is hilarious. I made my brother see it later that day.


Rating
Aww Hell Yeah!

Days 36-41: A lot of stuff.

Been a couple days since the last post. Anyway let's do this.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Day 36, 1975)
Pretty famous movie, was pretty good. Saw most of this for a high school movie class, but didn't see the whole think until now. I don't have much to say about this...except there are bunch of people in this who go on to fame, and Christopher Lloyd is also in it. On that note, I need to see Suburban Commando.

Random connections
Well Danny DeVito and Jack Nicholson are both in this, and they both become Batman villains. That's probably not a coincidence though: I think Nicholson suggested that DeVito be in Batman Returns.

Rating: Oh hell yeah.

Son of Kong (Day 37, 1933)
This was a follow up to King Kong, and was released in the same year as its predecessor to cash in on its success. The producers realized that it would be foolish to try to emulate the scale and magic of King Kong, so they decided to make a more comedic movie. And it's only 69 minutes long.

The movie takes place a couple months after the original. Carl Denham, the dude who brought Kong to New York, is being sued by everyone because of the damage that King Kong caused, and he sets out to sea to get away from it all. But he ends up returning to Skull Island, with his old captain Englehorn, the stereotypical chef Charlie and a new female character.

It was actually an entertaining movie up until the ending, which was pretty terrible in terms of being unrealistic on many levels as well as closing all doors to any sequels. But hey, we always have Mighty Joe Young for more giant ape action.

Rating: Oh yeah

Moving on to the next movie,

Singin in the Rain (1952, Day 38)

I'd heard the title song a lot due to watching A Clockwork Orange a lot, as well as listening to the soundtrack. That song is pretty catchy.

Anyway this is a tight movie, nice dance moves and choreography. I liked the story too, about making movies, and talkies coming out during the end of the silent era. That was sort of explored with the Chaplin movies earlier.

So it's mainly about three people, the main dude (Gene Kelly) who's an actor, his best friend (Donald O'Connor) who is a music director and a girl (Debbie Reynolds) who runs into the main dude.

A cool thing about this movie: In a lot of movies the main character's best friend gets the shaft and is often relegated to comic relief, is antagonistic towards the main character's love interest and is pushed aside as the main dude is trying to win the girl. Well in this movie he does have comic scenes, but he actually gets good screen time and comes up with the smart ideas, and is actually friends with the girl. Something different.

Rating: Oh hell yeah!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Day 39, 2007)

So this time, Voldemort is about to come back and nobody believes Harry and Dumbledore. On top of that the Ministry of Magic is trying to keep both of them quiet.

So I've read all the books and seen all the movies, but I'm not one to complain about (or even remember) what was cut out of the movies and all that. I've enjoyed all the movies that came out, and I expected the same with this one. But man, even I was surprised at what they cut out, mainly because I didn't end up giving a damn about characters I was supposed to care about. One of the worst of the Harry Potter movies, but maybe it'll be better on future viewings or something.

Rating: Oh.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (Day 40 1988)

Now this is what I'm talking about. The title is all I need to know. And the tag line "In Space no one can eat ice cream" didn't hurt.

Random connections
This is connected to King Kong in a way: The Chiodo brothers, who wrote and directed this movie, are featured in the King Kong documentary that's on the DVD for that movie. This is the only major movie they worked on but I think they're puppeteers or something so they know about King Kong.

The movie
This was a silly movie, again, the title says it all. If you're looking for a corny funny movie, then watch this. Oh yeah and it has an awesome theme song.

Rating: Oh yeah.

Rescue Dawn (Day 41, 2007)

This is the movie that i was trying to see a couple weeks ago. Even though I had to pay this time, it was still worth it, this was tight. It's a true story about a US Navy pilot, Dieter Dengler, played by Christian Bale, who get shot down in Laos during the Vietnam War (before it escalated) and taken as a prisoner. He attempts to escape along with other people who have been imprisoned for over two years.

So Werner Herzog is the director, and he had done a documentary about the dude a little while ago, Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Oh yeah and Werner Herzog is a hardcore dude. He filmed this movie in Thailand, and they didn't have trailers, instead they stayed in the sets that were used as the prisoner's quarters, in bamboo huts. Also, once he was shot during an interview with an air rifle and, even though he was bleeding he was like "nah, let's just continue with the interview." And he saved Joaquin Phoenix from a car crash and left before Phoenix could say thanks. In conclusion, watch this movie.

Rating: Oh Hell Yeah!

Bebe's Kids (Day 41, extra movie, 1992)

This is on a long list of early 90s movies that I had heard of, but never seen. Reginald Hudlin was the writer of this movie. Oh yeah and he's now the president of BET.

So this movie is based off the comedy of Robin Harris and it's about this dude who's trying to get with this woman, who has a son. She suggests he take them to a theme park called "Fun World", but three kids also tag along. Who are they? Bebe's kids. So, one thing sort of weird about this movie is that the kids refer to themselves as "Bebe's kids". I don't know about you, but I never met a group of siblings who identified themselves as their mother's children.

Random connections
LOC ALERT LOC ALERT LOC ALERT
Tone Lōc is in this movie. We last saw him in Blank Check as Juice. This time he plays a baby, one of the three Bebe's kids.

In case you need a reminder as to his awesomeness, here again is a link to one of his music videos. Because it bears more repeating than the fucking white stripes, that's for sure.

Oh yeah now back to the movie. This is so ridiculously random that I don't know what to say. The animation is pretty bad, but it's interesting. This movie gets a brand new rating.

Rating: What the fuck?!

But if I were to give it a 'real' rating, it would be oh yeah.

Day 35: High and Low (1963)

My bad
I missed a day a couple days ago so I'll try to make up for that. My average is still higher than 1 movie per day since I started this, so that's on track. (7/7/7)

Background
It's another Kurosawa movie with Toshiro Mifune. Loosely based on the book King's Ransom by Evan Hunter.

What's this about?
A kidnapping occurs and it gets really interesting after that. A police procedural movie.

Thoughts
This is the kind of movie that shows stuff which other movies would just glance over. Scenes that would last 1 minute and be brushed aside are given focus and last longer than usual, for example there's a scene with all the police that are involved in the kidnapping case, and they go over many different aspects of the case in detail.

On another note this movie made awesome use of widescreen, with characters placed on opposite ends of the screen, and well framed shots like this:

The story also has a good balance of focus between the police crew, and the main character (Mifune).

Rating
Aww Hell Yeah!

Days 31, 32 33 and 34

Black Snake Moan (2007)
This movie looked good, but actually wasn't that good.

What's it about?
Samuel L. Jackson sees to it that the nymphomaniac Christina Ricci is cured of her ways. He goes about this by chaining her to a radiator and playing blues music.

Rating
Oh yeah.





Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
This is an animated movie about a brother and sister who survive air raids in Japan during the last days of WWII. Pretty sad. I decided to see this after reading Ebert's essay on it where he said that this movie "belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made."

Rating
Oh hell yeah.







Transformers (2007)
I don't know anything about the TV show, but this movie was awesome. Really good special effects.

What's it about?
Giant Robots on Earth.

Rating
Aww hell yeah!

Update
I caved and bought one of the toys. Man it's so cool. Took me forever to figure out how to transform it though. That shit was hard.



The Iron Giant (1998)
I should have seen this sooner. Back when it came out, I dismissed it as a kiddie movie based on trailers, but now I know I would have loved it then.

Another important bit of information is that Brad Bird directed this. He also directed The Incredibles and Ratatouille, and he knows his stuff, so that should have been a retroactive tip off as to the quality of this movie.

Rating
Aww hell yeah!

Day 30: The Hidden Fortress (1958)

History
Yeah another Kurosawa movie.

Storyline
Two peasants just escaped a battle and are now searching for gold. They stumble upon a general who is trying to protect a princess. The peasants get involved, motivated by their greed.

Connections
Toshiro Mifune is the General.

This movie also inspired George Lucas about telling a story from the perspective of the two lowliest characters, in his case R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars.

Thoughts
This was cool. Toshiro Mifune is good in his role, and there were some nice action scenes.

Rating
Oh hell yeah

Day 29: Ikiru (1952)

History
Another Kurosawa movie was available at the library. Given the track record so far, I had to check it out. This came in between Rashomon and Seven Samurai.

Storyline
A man finds out he has six months left to live.

Thoughts
This is the best movie I've seen during this summer and is one of my favorite movies now.

Rating
Aww Hell Yeah!