A match made in geek-heaven

NME reports that Watchmen author Alan Moore will be working with Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett on the duo's new, as-yet-untitled opera, following last year's Monkey: Journey to the West.

Albarn and Hewlett, co-founders of Gorillaz (and Blur frontman/Tank Girl creator, respectively) have enlisted the comics god to write the libretto - "script," to those generally unenthused about opera - for the new piece, for which Albarn has reportedly written 70 songs. In return, Moore hopes to feature Gorillaz in his new magazine, Dodgem Logic. Joy!

Incidentally, the "Ultimate Cut" of Watchmen arrived on DVD last week, which splices the animated Tales of the Black Freighter short into the film, thus, staying that much more true to Moore's original creation - not that he cares...

But where's the pop culture sass-talk in 3D?

Wall St. Journal has an interesting story on the labored process of bringing next month's The Princess and the Frog, Disney's bid to revive hand-drawn animated musicals, to the screen.

Frog is a gamble for the studio, not so much for the generally accepted "reason" that today's audiences only want computer-animated movies, but because Disney has hyped the film as the return to its early '90s heyday (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Lion King are prominently featured in Frog's original trailer), and deviated from the standard Hollywood pattern in the way that they made the picture.

As the article reports, cel-animation workstations were recreated or hauled out of storage, and writer-directors Ron Clements and John Musker (Aladdin, Mermaid), who'd been laid off when Disney closed its traditional animation department, were rehired to make Frog. Additionally, news that the story was set in New Orleans, featuring a mainly African-American cast, was not received without controversy.

All of which sounds pretty risky for a studio not known for such behavior in recent years. No surprise that Pixar founder John Lasseter, who now also heads Disney Animation, is behind the bold moves. Pixar got to where it is by taking chances, and the Mouse House will have Lasseter to thank - or blame - for Princess and the Frog's performance at the box office.

The most important thing that Lasseter brings to Disney, though, may be his belief in the idea that story trumps everything else. In a veiled reference to Disney's relative lack of success in both hand-drawn and computer-animated fare over the past decade, WSJ quotes Lasseter as saying, "I've never understood why the studios were saying people don't want to see hand-drawn animation. What people don't want to watch is a bad movie." It's hard to believe that the average moviegoer sees a film based on what kind of animation methods it employs; whether or not the film's story is compelling and emotionally affecting is, generally, a much better gauge of why audiences connect with certain pictures.

Having said that, I trust Lasseter, and I'd like this foray back into hand-drawn animated features to do well, but I'm just not sold yet. The trailer is...a little boring and familiar:


But maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. On the plus side, Randy Newman wrote the songs, so it's got that going for it. Thoughts?

Uuuuuggh

Just in case you didn't know...

1.) Weezer's new album is called Raditude

2.) This is the cover:

It's like something you'd find in the $1.00 bin, or how the CD of your cousin's band might look. Sigh.

It's probably some powerful allegory, but it's lost on me

A couple months ago, I speculated that, based on its first single, "The Field," Mason Jennings's Blood of Man might just be the folk singer's best album since 2000's Birds Flying Away. Now, I can confirm that that is, indeed, the case.

Blood is Jennings's darkest, heaviest record yet, as evidenced by new single, "Ain't No Friend of Mine." I can safely say that I never thought a Jennings song would remind me of Rage Against the Machine (or, at least, Audioslave). Enjoy its video below, featuring animation of drawings done by Jennings - about battling demons...or something along those lines:

"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the biopic?"

The Tribune has a fascinating, albeit brief, interview with the celebrated Angels in America and Munich scribe/controversy magnet, Tony Kushner, who comes off surprisingly restrained. No doubt the influence of Lincoln - about whom Kushner just finished a screenplay, reuniting him with director Steven Spielberg - has had something to do with Kushner's seemingly newfound pragmatism.

Famous for his unabashed liberalism, Kushner, due to receive the Tribune's Literary Prize at this weekend's Chicago Humanities Festival (a great lineup this year), has some none-too-kind words for the far left in the article. I actually think Munich is one of Spielberg's best, and I appreciated its ideological ambiguity, so, I'm looking very forward to Lincoln.

Incidentally, Kushner's partner, Mark Harris, wrote a great book last year, Pictures at a Revolution, about the ways in which American filmmaking changed in the '60s.

Happy Halloween!

Who better to celebrate the day with than the scariest dude of them all, Mr. Christopher Walken? I find his spooky recitation of Poe's "The Raven" a pretty solid way to kick off All Hallow's Eve:

God bless us, every one!

One weird rumpus

I've generally enjoyed the two movies that I was most looking forward to seeing this year, Watchmen and Where the Wild Things Are, but as each's credits rolled, I found myself wondering whether they really needed to be adapted from the beloved books on which they're based. It's still hard to believe that either film even got made, and I'm grateful to Warner Bros. that they did, but I can't help thinking of them more as worthy experiments than solid movies. Both were helmed by former music video and commercial directors who treated the material reverentially, and it's probably no coincidence that the stylish trailers for each turned out to be better than the movies themselves.

Nonetheless, both are truly unique pictures, with Wild Things the more deserving of that description. While many childhood staples are routinely, cinematically plundered by movie studios (I'm looking at you, Cat in the Hat), Warners seemed genuinely interested in effectively serving the material of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book, and kept him involved throughout the process. Sendak's choice of Spike Jonze as director - and Jonze's choice of Dave Eggers as co-screenwriter, as well as the Jim Henson Creature Shop as effects providers - all but ensured that this would be no typical kids' film.

The result turns out to be an engaging experience that, like its source material, refuses to talk down to its target audience of elementary school-age children. Wild Things captures the ferocity, imagination, and emotions of Sendak's story, and always feels a little dangerous. When picture-book Max chases his dog around with a fork, it's rascally; when movie Max (in a fantastic performance by newcomer Max Records) does the same in the opening scene, it's a little chaotic and violent.

Not surprising then, that - again, as with the book - some parents have lashed out against the film as being inappropriate for (little) kids. I suspect, though, that more stories exploring childhood's wide range of unpredictable emotions might be just what kids need. I saw Wild Things with my nine-year-old niece, who's probably the perfect age for it, and found it helpful to see the film through her eyes. It made me appreciate that the story of a boy who deals with a turbulent homelife by imagining elaborate worlds can serve as a discussion generator, allowing children to talk through complex feelings. Having said that, I'm not sure it makes for the most entertaining movie.

Some parents may be upset at the film's content, but just as many are bored by it. Which is likely due to the fact that, once Max reaches the island of the Wild Things...not much happens in the way of a plot. The strange story meanders, and is driven by emotions, rather than narrative - in much the same way that real-life make-believe goes. The fantasy segment (the bulk of the movie) is technically brilliant in terms of cinematography, tone, and the Wild Things themselves, but I found myself wanting the character to return to scenes of the real world, which provide strong bookends to the film.

I certainly didn't mind that Wild Things is unconventional, but I wish that it reflected more of the book's fun in the same way that it's able to effectively translate other elements of the story. Still, as an only child who grew up escaping to well-defined realms of make-believe, I felt closely connected to Max, and was emotionally affected by the movie in a rare, powerful way. I won't ruin the last scene, except to say that it's free of dialogue and pitch-perfect.

If Jonze's goal for Where the Wild Things Are was to enhance the book's ability to capture the experience of childhood in a way that isn't patronizing, he nailed it.

Grade: B+