King Kong (19330 on the Big Screen

Well, This looks like fun!

Check it out https://www.facebook.com/Hollywood3Horrorshow

 

The Silent Comedy Watch Party

During Pandemic 2020, people are coming up with all kinds of great ways to help all of us stuck at home. Last week I got to watch the 'pilot' of The Silent Comedy Watch Party with Ben Model playing along to two old silent comedies. And just the other day I received the following message from Ben. So, I know what I'll be doing tomorrow afternoon.

Last Sunday's "pilot" of The Silent Comedy Watch Party was a success! Over 360 people watched the show, and I got so many touching and enthusiastic comments from people about it. Most of all, for me, were the comments that the show and the hilarious films were a bright spot in their day, a much needed one after everything that had gone down last week.

So (drumroll please)...

Steve Massa and I will be doing another show this Sunday, March 22nd at 3pm (Eastern time). This will be the official "premiere" and episode #1 of The Silent Comedy Watch Party!

Here is the link:

https://silentfilmmusic.us11.list-manage.com/track/click…

Treasures from the Disney Vault on TCM

On July 2nd, TCM is presenting their 3rd instalment of Treasures from the Disney Vault hosted by Leonard Maltin. Other than the animated cartoons, but I do not think I have seen any of the movies they are presenting, so I look forward to another great night of popcorn and movies.

Anna May Wong

A long time ago, before the internet came along, I used to receive a book catalogue in the mail every so ofter. I ordered my first (of many) Gilligan's Island books from this catalogue.  One particular issue has Anna May Wong on the cover. I liked the cover so much, then when I tossed out the catalogue, I pulled off the cover and kept it. Years later I saw bunch of Anna May Wong movies on TV and decided to record them. I remembered having the cover with her on it and decided to use to to make a DVD cover for my collection. I have had it sitting on my DVD shelve ever since and stare at it all the time. Tonight I decided to see what other great Anna May Wong pictures I could find online. I was amazed to see that this photo that I liked so much did not come up in my Google search other than a very small version which was on a book cover. So, I decided I would share this great image on my site, along with the cover I made for my DVD. I am always looking on line for DVD covers that others have made for stuff I have, and thought it would be awesome if someone ended up finding mine and using it. Enjoy!

The Return of the Video Store

I have been kinda bummed lately that all our two local video stores have closed. First Willow Video closed about 8 months ago, and then Rogers Video closed at the end of December. The truth is that I had not been visiting any of them with much regularity over the past few years, but that was not because I was switching to downloading everything, it was more to do with the fact that I have been buying so many DVDs of late, mostly TV series which typically have over 400+ minutes per set. Thats a lot of viewing. And then there are all the hockey games on TV these days, I usually watch/record 6 or 7 games a week. That is easily 20+ hours a week. And then, recently I have become a fan of the Turner Movie Classics station which I have been recording up to 4 or 5 movies a week onto my PVR. So, who has time to rent movies. But that didn't stop me from feeling some sadness as I watched all my local video stores close. Who my age doesn't remember standing at the new release wall of a local video store, with family/friends as you try to agree on what to rent? But with current rush to switch over to renting movies online and or doing what it seems most people are doing - stealing them online - it seemed that the trip to the video store was now a thing of the past. That is until tonight, when I noticed that the Willow Video store by my home, had reopened, after closing down 7 or 8 months ago. I guess it says something about my wife and I that we both got very excited about the store reopening. We of course had to check it out. I wasn't in the market for a rental, but I did end up buying a previously viewed copy of the TV show The War at Home for just $5, and I look forward to heading over the the video store on Monday for cheap Monday rental night. I'm not sure we'll have time to watch whatever we rent, but it'll be fun to stand there as a family and try to figure out what we can all agree on for a movie!

The Sheldon Comic Strip Makes Fun of Me!

I was going though some stuff I had dropped into a folder on my iMac and came across this cartoon I snagged from the Sheldon Comic Strip Daily Webcomic by Dave Kellett. This simple cartoon made me chuckle at myself as I realized how many times I have sat and watched something on TV (with commercials) that I own on DVD, but was too lazy to get of the shelf and load into my DVD player! And, I don't know if I am the only one who thinks this, but I find some sort of satisfaction in watching something that I know others are watching at the same time... even if they aren't watching it on the same TV as me!

One of Worst Openings in the History of Cinema

Recently while at our local cheap theatre my son asked for the poster from Aliens Vs Monsters. Since we go to the theater so much the owner is more than happy to help us out with our poster requests. On this particular day he brought out two posters, the one my son had asked for, and another animated film poster that he thought my son may like. When I opened it to have a look I found it was for the film Delgo. I remembered reading about the film on Cartoon Brew. Check out what they had to say about the film:

The CG animated feature Delgo opened last weekend and nobody went to see it. According to Box Office Mojo, Delgo had the worst opening ever for a film that opened in more than 2,000 theaters earning just $511,290 or $237 per theater. Moments like this really make one pause and reflect. What is the world coming to when an animated film with the voices of Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Chris Kattan, Anne Bancroft, Eric Idle, Val Kilmer, Lou Gossett Jr, Malcolm McDowell, Michael Clarke Duncan, Burt Reynolds and Kelly Ripa isn’t a box office blockbuster? A story that makes sense and visuals that don’t make you want to heave are quaint touches, but the filmmakers behind Delgo understood where it really counted: celebrity voice actors. They hired every B- and C-list actor this side of Dancing With the Stars and somehow still failed. You know the recession is affecting Americans deeply when they no longer want to see Chris Kattan and Kelly Ripa voicing their CG characters.

The theater owner who game us the poster said that it was the ONLY kids movie that he had ever played for just ONE week before removing it for another film. So not only did it do poorly on opening weekend, but it did just as poorly when it moved over to the cheap theaters.

I was going to toss out this poster as neither my son or myself really want to put it up on our walls, but I thought, with the film being so poorly received, that someone might actually want it. If anyone reading this wants it, just email me and if you are willing to pay for postage, its yours!

What's UP with this!?

This August, just a little more than two months after the release of Disney/Pixar's UP to theaters, comes the GoodTimes Home Video movie called What’s Up: Balloon to the Rescue. In the past there have been cheapo versions of Pocahontas, Pinocchio, and other classics, trying to cash in on the successful theater releases of Disney films. This one, is such a rip off, its hard to think that the Disney lawyers won't be contacting GoodTimes for something a little less than some good times!

BATMAN New Times

There is a ton of cool stuff on the internet, and it's impossible to find it all!
Here is something I found a year or two ago and forgot about until tonight when my son and I were hunting though YouTube.com looking for Batman stuff. I remembered seeing this amazing Batman student film a few years back and after a few seconds of Google searching we found it again. What makes this short film so cool is not only is it a very well done short film visually, but they actually got Adam West, Mark Hamill, and Dick Van Dyke to do the voices of Batman, Robin and Commissioner Gordon. Click here to check out the film, and when you are done, click the "Movies" logo at the top right of the screen to see all of their other student films from Dave School the Digital Animation & Visual Effects School.

Bolt Sneek Peek Preview

Don't let the promo poster scare you away!

My wife, son and I went to a special advanced screening of Bolt tonight. Without doing a full review, let me say we all enjoyed it thoroughly. My wife who almost never laughs at movies laughed throughout the movie and my 3 year old son found plenty of chuckles throughout the movie, including a bunch of times when he was the only one getting a chuckle - mostly when someone was getting hurt! I myself found it to be a greatly engaging story from start to finish and it looked great visually. It is definitely a film both adults and kids will enjoy.
I was pretty surprised at how few people were at the screening, but then, they didn't promote this special prerelease screening that much. Those who were there all seemed to enjoy themselves. And best of all, we didn't have to stand in the incredibly insane lines that were all over the megaplex full of people there to see the new James Bond flick "Quantum of Solace."

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Today (Sept 19th) be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so avast there mattie and swabs me poop deck while I missin this mast... or something like that! Here is a great cartoon from PVP from last year poking fun at one of my all time favorite movies, the Pirate Movie from 1982. I saw the movie 10 times when it was in the theater back in '82 (I broke that record with 12 when Disney's Atlantis came to theaters in 2001). I own the laser disc of the movie, the 2 LP soundtrack, the official and unofficial DVD releases and am looking to add a promo poster to my collection.

Little Golden Book Monday #55

Tonights little Golden Book is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I picked this book up at the thrift shop because I love Little Golden Books and loved the cover. But I have never actually seen the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and don't have a clue what the movie is about, other than it obviously stars an old looking car.
I looked up the movie on the Internet Movie DataBase and found the the movie came out in 1968, which is the same year as this book, so it looks like this is a fist edition. As for the plot of the movie, here is what I found on the IMDB: A wierd inventor (Caractacus Potts) invents an amazing flying car, which drives by itself. It takes him and his family to Vulgaria, where the sinister buffoon Baron Bomburst kidnaps the car. The baron has made children illegal, and Caractacus and Co. have to try and rescue the children of Vulgaria.

Little Golden Book Monday #52

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp, based on the 1955 feature film, which includes two of my favorite Disney songs; "He's a Tramp" (written by Sonny Burke & Peggy Lee performed by Peggy Lee) and "The Siamese Cat Song" (written by Sonny Burke & Peggy Lee performed by Peggy Lee).
The film also has two of my favorite Disney characters, which are the two mischievous Siamese cats named Si and Am.
The book is adapted by Teddy Slater and illustrated by Bill Langley and Ron Dias.
The artwork throughout the book is great. I love the rich colors. It reminds me a lot of "Sleeping Beauty".
What makes this book special for me is that it was previously owned by a dog. If you don't believe me, check out the scan of the inside front cover. You can plainly see the paw print on the "This little Golden Book belongs to" space in the book. That really is how I found this copy when I picked it up at a local thrift shop.

Pretty neat huh!

Disneyland Subs Don't Find Atlantis

Today while surfing some of my favorite Disney blogs, I saw some photos of the newly reopened Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. Part of me was happy that that large lagoon in the middle of Disneyland was now filled with working subs once again, after laying dormant since 1998. But, another part of me was angry at what we didn't get. The Voyage to the Lost Continent of Atlantis was something that Disney was planning around the time they were finishing up work on the film Atlantis The Lost Empire (2001). The plan was to reinvigorate the stale Subs by retheming them to the Atlantis movie. But, as the movie hit theaters and movie goers didn't flock to the box office to see the film, Disney scraped the idea, and the subs stayed in drydock for another 7 years.
Being a big fan of the Atlantis film, I was very excited when I heard the news that Disney was planning to retheme the Subs with an Atlantis storyline. I was extremely disappointed when I found out they were scrapping the idea and the Subs would remain silent.

Check out this article from Jim Hill Media regarding the movie and proposed attractions:

"Jim Hill looks back at Disney Feature Animation's Summer 2001 release -- a project that started out with plenty of promise ... only to have WDFA executives second-guess this film's chance at greatness away.

During the summer of 2001, most Tinsel Town insiders felt that Walt Disney Pictures had a pretty decent shot at success with its animated action-adventure film, "Atlantis: The Lost Empire." But "A:TLE" turned out to be a real disappointment, grossing only $84 million (which hardly came close to cover its production costs, never mind the tens of millions more that Disney poured into the marketing of the movie).

So what went wrong with "Atlantis: The Lost Empire?" Well, to hear Disney Studio insiders tell it, "A:TLE" really was a project with plenty of promise. At least when the production initially started out. But then "Atlantis" lost its one real chance at box office success as the project's film-makers -- under the guidance of WDFA's allegedly Creative VPs -- kept second-guessed themselves. Fixing and futzing with their film until "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" had become a pale shadow of what it once was.

Back when work first began on "A:TLE," this movie truly had some balls. "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" started out with a prologue that showed a crew of blood-thirsty Vikings meeting a grisly fate in the North Atlantic. Their longboat obliterated by some immense mysterious creature with tentacles. (This sequence was to have been the audience's initial introduction to the Leviathan, the massive mechanical creature that guarded the one remaining gateway to Atlantis.)

Well, Wise and Trousdale seemed pretty passionate about their idea. And given that Walt Disney Studios actually used to make live action films like this (EX: "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," "Swiss Family Robinson," "In Search of the Castaways," "The Island at the Top of The World"), Don thought that he might be able to sell the Mouse House brass on making a movie like this.

Just as Ray Harryhausen used to load up his stop motion epics with lots of bizarre creatures, "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" was originally supposed to have had a lot of monsters. Lots and lots of monsters.

I mean, if Kirk and Gary had just stuck to their guns, "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" would have had the crew of the Ulysses -- once they survived their deadly encounter with the Leviathan -- battling squid bats, lava whales as well as bugs the size of school buses as they made their way deep down into the bowels of the Earth. (Those of JHM readers who'd like to get some sense of what these sequences would have been like would be wise to go pick up a copy of the 2-disc collector's edition of the "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" DVD. Here, hidden among the disc's extras, you'll find deleted storyboard versions of these various scenes. Which should give you some idea how truly exciting "A:TLE" COULD HAVE been -- had these sequences been left in the movie.) In short, this film would have been just the sort of production that Ray Harryhausen could have been proud of.

But then ... well ... Wise, Trousdale and Hahn began getting all of these inane notes from WDFA's cadre of allegedly-Creative Executives. Plus the movie's monsters -- what with all of their numerous legs, wings and antennae -- were proving to be pretty darned difficult to animate. Expensive too. And -- given that Kirk, Gary and Don were coming under continuing pressure from above to streamline "A:TLE"'s production as well as keep costs down -- the easiest thing to cut back back then was the squid bat attack, the crew's deadly encounter with the lava whale sequence as well as the bug hunt (Kida's original introductory sequence, which was to have shown the Atlantaen princess -- to the audience, anyway -- as this truly awesome warrior).

The only problem was ... once these three sequences were cut, Wise and Trousdale's animated adventure film -- supposedly crafted in the style of Ray Harryhausen -- was now decidedly light on adventure and monsters.

Which is a real shame. Because -- its flaws aside -- there's a lot to like about "Atlantis: The Lost Empire." From the film's distinct design to its wonderfully loopy supporting characters. I mean, how can you dislike a picture that features Gaetan Moliere, perhaps the weirdest individual to ever appear in a Disney animated film?

Yes, I know. A lot of you animation fans were very disappointed with "Atlantis: The Lost Empire." That -- in spite of the promise of its premise -- the picture basically failed to deliver the goods.

I say ... if Wise and Trousdale had actually been allowed to produce the picture that they had originally pitched to Don Hahn -- a film in the Ray Harryhausen tradition -- this story might have ended very differently. "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" might have actually found the success at the box office that it deserved.

Which would have meant that WDI would have been able to go forward with construction of those "Atlantis"-themed attractions that the Imagineers had been planning for Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

Which would have meant that -- this summer -- WDW visitors would have been able to scream their way through "Fire Mountain," Disney World's first transforming coaster (which was to have been built -- inside of a giant volcano-shaped show building -- out behind Adventureland's "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride). And guests at Disneyland would have been able to reboard that theme park's Tomorrowland subs to go out on an undersea treasure hunt in Atlantis (and -- with luck -- avoid an encounter with the Leviathan)."

[I have used just a small part of the story. Read the full story at JimHillMedia.com]

So, here we are 7 years later and this story still makes me cringe every time I think about it. As I said above, I am happy that the Subs are back in service at Disneyland, and the Nemo theme will probably appeal to a new, young audience, but I happen to think the attraction could have been so much more. Sure, the lines are long now, as people line up to ride the Subs for the first time in 10 years. For many young kinds, this is the first time the Subs have been running during their lives. Although I have not experienced the attraction myself yet, it seems to me that the Nemo theme may become stale pretty quickly. To me the new Nemo Subs are a "D" attraction. The Atlantis Subs could have easily been an "E" ticket attraction, with a real life expedition to Atlantis and a Disney style encounter with the Leviathan.

It reall is a shame that the box office receipts of the movie were enough to kill the imagineers plans for an "E" ticket attraction to fill the lagoon in Tomorrowland with an exciting underwater adventure to discover the Lost Empire of Atlantis, while avoiding Disney style animatronic monsters.

* At the top of the article you will find the original Submarine attraction poster from 1969, along with my slightly altered poster. One can dream, right!?

Who Framed Rick Flint?

Yesterday while visiting some new thrift stores, I picked up some great records, games, and lots of books! I am a big fan of the 1988 classic Disney film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and always love adding something new to my Roger Rabbit collection. I found these two great items;
1) Disney Adventures issue from April 1992 with Jessica Rabbit on the cover along with Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse. Although Jessica is on the cover, there is nothing to do with Roger Rabbit in side this one. I also have another issue of Disney Adventures with Jessica on the cover - if I remember correctly she with standing with a bunch of Disney female characters and someone from one of the Star Trek series.
2) Roger Rabbit: Who Framed Rick Flink? from 1991 is a graphic novel style reprint of issues #10 and #11 of the Roger Rabbit Disney Comics. The title of this graphic novel comes from the title of issue #11, which is printed first in this collection. If you never saw the Roger Rabbit comics from Disney Comics in the 90's, they are well worth checking out. Being a big comic book and Disney fan, I bought all the comics that Disney put out in this line of comics including Roger Rabbit and Roger Rabbit's Toontown.

Black Hole Collectables

"A journey that begins where everything ends!"
The other day while searching though some local thrift shops I found two great Walt Disney "the Black Hole" items. The first is the Walt Disney Productions' "the Black Hole" coloring book from Whitman, and dated 1979. Amazingly, this coloring book is in mint condition and completely uncolored, which is not something you see very often from coloring books you find at thrift shops! I'm not sure what the original price of this item was, but I paid a whopping 25 cents.
The second item is the 1979 novel written by Alan Dean Foster, from Del Rey Books, with a cover price of $1.95. This one cost me 50 cents.
Strange that I found both items at the same shop. I wonder if they both came from the same home, perhaps belonging originally to another "the Black Hole" fan.

Coming July 15 to a theatre near you

Back in 1937 Walt Disney released the first full length feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" which went on to be rereleased many times over its 70 years. Here is an ad for its July 15th, 1983 theatrical rerelease in North America.

Walt Disney's New characters in his first full-length production!

The Happiest, Dopiest, Grumpiest, Sneeziest movie of the year.

The Best Loved Musical Of All Time

The Show Sensation Of The Generation!

Walt Disney's First Full Length Feature Production

Behold - The Miracle Of The Movies! - Coming To Amaze You, Charm You, Thrill You!

The One That Started It All

Still the fairest of them all!

Death Proof

The new double feature Grindhouse was released the theaters last week. I have not yet had a chance to see it, but will make it out to my local googleplex some time soon for sure. I am not a fan of Tarantino or Rodriquez, but, but I love the look of this double feature with all the effort they have put into making them look like old grindhouse films. The movie posters, movie trailers etc all look amazing! Being a big fan of movies such as "the Car", I am especially interested in seeing Death Proof. And I would love to own the movie poster for Death Proof. Hopefully when it comes to my local theater, I can talk the owner into giving me the poster for this one!

The DEATH Car

One of my favorite movies is "The Car", a 1977 "B" movie about a possessed car. There were others that tried this formula such as Christine, but this was the original. I remember seeing it at the Drive In when I was young and being pretty scared by this large black car that drove around mowing people down. One of the best scenes in the movie occurs at nighth, and as the car driving right though the second story window of a house, with the just the sound of its horn blaring as it crashes through the house! It scared me then, it makes me smile now.
I loved this quote from one of the review of The Car on Amazon.com, "The Car is so extravagantly cheesy as to be almost surreal. To really understand the greatness of The Car, one must compare it to John Carpenter's Christine, another haunted car film based on one of Stephen King's weakest novels. I've seen Christine once and really don't care to view it again. I've seen The Car many times and will watch it every chance I get. Accurately noted by several reviewers, "The Car" is really "Jaws" on land. This souped up automobile is a sleek black Lincoln possessing a fog horn and a bumper the size of Wilford Brimley's mustache. It runs over bikers, hitchhikers and tuba players with hungry ease, tormenting the local yokel police force with demonic glee."

I recently found this painting of a toy truck sitting on the last step of a staircase. I love the title above the painting. Although it has nothing to do with the movie, every time I see this, it makes me chuckle as I imagine someone coming down the stairs and placing their foot on this toy truck, and woosh, the same results as in the movie!

Supreme Shock Sensation of Our Time!

1n 2004 I read on the internet about a movie called The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. It was a 2004 movie, but made to look like a 50's B horror movie. I just had to see this movie , but unfortunately it was being shown at a select few movie houses around North America. To my delight it was showing at Tinseltown in downtown Vancouver. I hopped on the skytrain and headed downtown to see this movie. I was not disappointed! It was everything I had hoped it would be and more... terrible sets, goofy lines, cheesy music, and a talking skeleton with wires making it move. What wasn't to like. I liked the movie so much that I joined the Lost Skeleton of Cadavra Yahoo group, and bought the DVD the day it was released. I also made this desktop for my computer using all the fake merchandise they pictured on their official web site. If you still have not seen this movie and you need to get a hold of a copy and see what you're missing!