THE NIGHTMARE OF 3D!

Tonight was the night that I had been waiting for all year. Since I saw the trailer during Monster House, I was dying to watch this movie. Although I own the dvd, and have it taped on VHS, I still wanted to watch it theatres, and especially 3D!!

The night began well, went out with some friends wearing our "nightmare" t-shirts, had a nice dinner and then we proceeded to the movie theatre. We walked in and too my surprise we waited in a long line. I was Suprised and kinda excited. Excited cause lines gets my anticipation up, and surprised cause I never thought a film that is being re-issued would cause a line up. Anyways. We get our seats and the lights turn down. The theatre is packed with all adults, I didn't see one kid in that theatre. Take that you people that consider animation a children's field! The Walt Disney and Tim Burton credits come up, and cheers begin to ring out, and more when the title "The Nightmare Before Christmas" appears. But to all of our surprise, THE 3D SUCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I had just come off of hearing how "Amazing" and " Breathtaking" this 3d format was. Even Tim Burton himself praised it. The characters had depth, but it was all inside the screen, nothing was really in my face, as the PROMISED! Now maybe, and hopefully, the digital projection was off, because Jack and the gang never came an inch off the screen. With a film like "Nightmare", where literally every scene has something coming at you, the potential was clearly there. Either Disney just didn't take advantage of it, or the projection was off. The high point was that I was still watching nightmare in theatres, which I never got the chance to back on its initial release. The sound was top notch, the songs sounded beautiful, and more intense. All in the all the night wasn't a total bust, I still managed to start a pretty rousing applause out of the crowd at the end of the film, because as bad as the 3d was, the film itself is still a masterpiece and deserved a applause.

I hope to get the chance to see again, FOR FREE at another theatre to see if it was indeed the projection at my theatre that screwed it up, or just another Disney let down.

HALLOWEEN ROUNDUP PART ONE

Here's a list of my top five Halloween flicks

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Topping my list is The Nightmare Berofe Christmas. Who could have seen this coming? This is by far the best Halloween movie ever made, but it's also the best Christmas movie ever made. Tim Burton's masterpiece, and one of the greatest animated movies ever made, is a film that can be viewed on both Halloween and Christmas, why? Because both are so clearly defined in the film, that it can be watched on both occasions. The whole film works, the casting is briliant, every voice is well suited for each character.and the animation is stuning. The fact that these puppets move with such life, but are not actually alive is so exicting and wonderful to experience. The music is also great, Danny Elfman's songs are probably some of the very best in the history of the animated film. The songs are so catchy and well fleshed out, no one can tell me they never got "what's this" stuck in your head. The look is so distinctivly Tim Burton, from the swril it the mountian right down to the leaves on the ground. This film is truly a groundbreaking film and continues to gain more and more fans every year. And now, being show in 3d in less than a week, it will reach a new audience and hopefully mezmerize them, as it did me.

THE WIZARD OF OZ

The Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite movies of all-time, but it's also a great halloween movie. The whole film is about a strange land, people in costumes, and a wicked witch. How closer to Halloween can you get. Another reason why this is on my list is because its a damn good movie. It was so ahead of its time, story and effects wise. The acting is still top notch and out does many of todays actors. Judy Garland who was only 16 when she made this film, carries the film so brilliantly and effortlessly, you really start to care for poor Dorthy. There hasn't been an actress like her since. This movie is just so warm and fun to watch all year around, but on Halloween you get a different feel that you wont feel any other time of the year.

BEETLEJUICE

Tim Burton's second film on my list, and boy is it a good one. Beetlejuice is one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen, but it's also one of the funniest. Michael Keaton plays Beetljuice so brilliantly, you wouldn't even know its him playing the role. Although Beetlejuice is only in the film a total of 17 minutes, he's still the heart and soul of the whole film. The production design on this film is so amazing, this is probably one of the live action films were Burton's style is so clearly visible. The film was made on a shoe-string budget, but suprisingly became a huge hit, and launched Burton's career.

SLEEPY HOLLOW

Another Tim Burton Classic on this list. I saw this in theatres, and was absolutley amazed by it . I was interested in seeing it, because I loved the Disney animated version, but I was blown away at how different it was. The Disney version, although it was dark had nothing Burton's version. Heads being sliced off and all the bright blood squirting all over the gray setting was just so brilliantly shot. The movie also took us deeper into the Headless horseman's back story, and told us how he became headless. A truly amazing halloween flick, and another triumph from Tim Burton.

CASPER

This is a classic film based on the popular comic book. I saw this movie when I was only 9, and I fell in love with it. It had a more serious tone for a kid film, maybe thats why I fell in love with it. Watching it again now, shows how dumbed down family films have become. Films like Casper appeals to kids and adults, and still holds up today.

SEASON SIX BABY!!!

:Warning if you havent watched the season premiere, dont read this!

Well Smallville's sixth season premiere has come and gone, but man what an EPISODE! The episode opened right where the finale left off, with a trapt Clark in the Phantom Zone. We finally got to see inside the P.Z, and man was it good. Props to the crew for shooting an amazing scene. The set was a dessert like wasteland with these jagged mountains and kryptonian spikes coming out of the ground. Really cool. It was shot very Minority Report-ish, with that blue un-saturated look to it.

Clark also met a hot kryptonian named Raya, who ends up dying saving Clark and helping him escape the P.Z. Auggh, how come all the hot ones always die. Meanwhile back on earth Lex is still possesed by the spirit of Zod, and his plans of rebuilding Krypton on earth is going as planned, that is until him and Clark square off in probably the BEST tv fight I've ever seen, thus freeing Lex from Zod and saving the world.

All in all this was probably one of the best Smallville episodes ever, if not the best.

I applaude the writers and directors of the show on continuing to make a great quality program like Smallville.

Well the animation roadshow came around again, its a animation book fair for those that don't know what the animation roadshow is. Every year I tend to lay down at least 80 bucks on books there. This year I didn't spend as much, thankfully, but I did pick up two great books.

The first is Mariachi Samurai by: Jose Lopez. This is probably my favorite of the two because the style is so cool and so ispiring. This is one of those style changing books, every now and then I get a book that affects my way of drawing, this is definetly one of them. Every cartoonist should add this to their book shelves. Also look out for Jose's artwork in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie coming out next March. Apparantly he did designs for the film.

My second is simply titled Chris Sanders sketchbook 1b. I've loved Chris Sanders' art every since I watched Lilo & Stitch, which he directed. His style has always amazed me, no one draws quite like him and he's inspired me to draw my characters differently then I would, especially my women. His lines are so lose and curvey, I just love it. So if your a big fan of Chris Sanders or are just rying to dab into different styles, this is definetly a good buy. Look out for Chris' next movie American Dog due out in 2008, It's still far away I know, but some amazing artwork is online. It's worth a look.

MALEFICENT

I was watching Sleeping Beauty and decided to dabble with Maleficent, for the very FIRST time. I can't believe that I never drew her before either!

Not as tight as should be, but still ok for a first attempt.

MAYA

The hell Begins..........

Just finished my first week of Maya, and to be completly honest it wasn't that bad. I mean It's only been a couple of days, and I only have a couple of spheres rotating under my belt so far, but I'm really enjoying this. I've heard so many horror stories about Maya and how hard it is, and how by the second day your gonna be crawling back to hand drawn animation, but I'm enjoying every minute of it.

It is difficult, I mean it is the hardest thing I've ever done, but I 'm lucky to have great instructors that are very well rounded in Maya and are very good at explaining it, so thats been really good. The other day we made a little virtual solar system, just a way how to learn to rotate spheres on their axis'. We also did some basic lighting stuff and some texturing. The hardest part about Maya is just learning where everything is, every little thing is inside a folder and then you gotta open a file. That's pretty much the hardest part.....so far.

So I'm really looking foward to the rest of the year.

Pixar I'm one step closer.

JUST SOME DISNEY STUFF I DID TONIGHT.

KIRA

Check out this cool podcast with a lengendary Disney cartoonist, Floyd Norman.

His reputation includes Disney comic strips and films like Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan and even Toy Story 2.

http://www.o-meon.com

ACCEPTED

I just saw this movie last night, and I must admit I totally loved it. It looks like another dumb teen movie, but its surprisingly very good. It has the appeal of an American Pie or Eurotrip. The cast is really good, the music is good and the writing is sharp.

I encourage those of you who wanna sit back, relax and dish out about $10.95 for a funny movie, choose this one.

...and also, don't forget about Talladega Nights, another brilliantly funny film.