Category: DISNEY/PIXAR-Related

PAPERMAN

Post author By oddmoonmediareviews
Post date November 3, 2020

SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: Approx. 6 min. (Black & White)

Originally accompanying Wreck-It Ralph’s 2012 theatrical release, this dialogue-free Disney animated short from director John Kahrs relates a possible romance between restless office worker ‘George’ and ‘Meg,’ who is evidently interviewing for a job across the street.

Kahrs doubles as George’s sound effects, though his character (coincidentally or not) resembles lanky actor John Krasinski. Veteran voice actress Kari Wahlgren provides Meg’s demure sound effects.

On a windy morning in a downtown subway station (perhaps New York City or Chicago), commuters George and Meg shyly meet before going their separate ways. Thanks to the wind, a demure Meg has inadvertently imparted a kiss in red lipstick on one of George’s work-related forms. Later that morning, a smitten George glimpses Meg in the building across the street from his firm’s high-rise office.

Dreamily trying to catch her attention, a disheartened George loses sight of a still-oblivious Meg. Yet, his discarded paper airplanes won’t give up that easily.

Note: This 2013 Oscar-winning cartoon is included on the Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection Blu-Ray/DVD.

REVIEW:

Complete with composer Christophe Beck’s gentle score, Paperman is a beautifully-rendered example of visual storytelling. Imbued with starry-eyed romanticism, the story’s use of lipstick as its sole color makes for an inspired creative choice. Even more so is how the animators masterfully reveal George & Meg’s wistful emotions only through facial reactions and a few vocal noises. For any timeless romantic, Paperman is an opportunity to view an animated valentine unfold without words (even through the closing credits).

BRIAN’S 10-STAR RATING: 10 Stars

IMAGE NOT AVAILABLE

Action Figures DISNEY/PIXAR-Related MARVEL-Related Movies & Television (Videos) Toys & Games

EVANGELINE LILLY AS ANT-MAN’S HOPE VAN DYNE/WASP (MARVEL LEGENDS/HASBRO ACTION FIGURE)

Post author By oddmoonmediareviews
Post date October 30, 2020

SUMMARY:

Released in Hasbro’s 2018 “Build-A-Cull Obsidian” Marvel Legends series, this approximately 6-inch Hope Van Dyne’s Wasp (in actress Evangeline Lilly’s likeness) celebrates the live-action Ant-Man and The Wasp film released the same year. Sporting her metallic gold, blue, and red costume with silver wristbands, Marvel’s Wasp also wears a silver helmet with antennas and yellow plastic safety goggles.

On her back, she can wear a detachable silver hard plastic wing-pack with four clear plastic scissor-like wings that are individually attachable. Her immaculate costume is completely painted on, including the sculpted (and non-removable) wristbands & knee pads, as well as the silver shoulder straps for the wing-pack.

Note: The other figures in this particular series are: Thor; Black Widow (blonde); Ant-Man; Malekith; and the Black Knight.

REVIEW:

The sculpted look of this Hope Van Dyne / Wasp figure is superb, including a flawless paint job. Sporting a detailed metallic helmet, her eyes and eyebrows are easily visible through the helmet’s googles. The alternate head (an unmasked Hope Van Dyne) is also top-caliber. The wing-pack is easily workable, as are the four wings.

The articulation points include: 1. The head nods and turns slightly in both directions. 2. Slightly bending at the frail elbow joints, her arms can rotate a full 360-degrees. 3. The wrists have full rotation capability. 4. Her upper torso swivels the full 360-degrees swivel. 5. The Wasp can slightly bend into a bowing pose. 5. The knee joints are surprisingly limber. 6. The legs provide excellent flexibility. 7. When properly positioned, the figure can stand indefinitely in display poses. For playtime, the sky’s the limit, so to speak re: flying poses. Her boot heels include peg holes for display stands she will fit on, though none are included.

In terms of her articulation points, this figure enjoys the advantage of being both a display item and a solid play toy (though her tiny elbow joints might be a future problem). As a welcome addition to any super-hero collection, this Marvel’s Wasp is a wonderful homage to actress Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne’s Wasp.

ADDITIONAL CONTENT:

Included are a matching extra set of two slender gloved hands; a variant of Hope’s silver wing-pack; and an unmasked alternate head featuring an excellent likeness of Evangeline Lilly. It’s a shame that the Wasp’s wrist-firing “stingers” couldn’t have been thrown in as an extra. The Build-A-Cull Obsidian piece is his head.

PACKAGING:

Hasbro does an excellent job promoting the Wasp in its nicely-secured box.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 9 Stars

ALL FOR LOVE (by Bryan Adams, Sting, & Rod Stewart: The Best of Me)

Post author By oddmoonmediareviews
Post date October 29, 2020

SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 4:40 MIN.

Recorded as the love song for Disney’s 1993 Three Musketeers movie soundtrack (complete with an MTV video), Bryan Adams teams up with Sting and Rod Stewart. Among the albums this ballad later appears on is Adams’ second career retrospective: 1999’s The Best of Me.

REVIEW:

Deploying an upbeat approach, it treads the same chivalrous turf as Peter Cetera’s “Glory of Love” ballad, which serves as the love theme of 1986’s Karate Kid, Part II. Working off a catchy melody, the good-spirited harmony amongst Sting, Stewart, and Adams remains this track’s best asset. Mostly deferring to his two cohorts, Adams’ husky vocals deliver solid support in the choruses.

However, the Three Musketeer-themed lyrics, unfortunately, are so schmaltzy that the tune risks becoming a real eye-roller. There’s no doubt that the intent was to copycat Adams’ 1991 “Everything I Do (I Do It for You),” but Adams and co-writer/producer Robert “Mutt” Lange don’t come close to recapturing their hit song’s magic. The forgettable “All for Love” just isn’t in the same league, especially with a string of half-hearted clichés that the Sting-Adams-Stewart trio are stuck pitching.

If “Everything I Do (I Do It for You)” hadn’t already existed, this knock-off might have well taken its place as Hollywood’s best swashbuckling love song. Instead, “All for Love” only ages so well for an even more hollow reason than listeners practically tasting the syrupy lyrics. This mercenary tune plays like it’s the equivalent of Adams, Sting, and Stewart cashing their hefty paychecks.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 6 Stars

Books & Novels Children's Books DISNEY/PIXAR-Related Fantasy, Horror, & Science Fiction

THE CHRONICLES OF PRYDAIN # 2: THE BLACK CAULDRON

Post author By oddmoonmediareviews
Post date October 22, 2020

Written by Lloyd Alexander

SUMMARY:

Though the Newbery Honor-winning book was originally published in 1965, this 229-page Bantam Doubleday Dell paperback reprint was released in April 1990.

Roughly eighteen months have elapsed since the Companions’ first adventure in The Book of Three. Assembling in Caer Dalben, Prince Gwydion’s trusted forces map out a three-prong counter-attack against the malevolent Arawn Death-Lord, which includes a strike against Arawn’s feared home base of Annuvin. Assigned to guarding the mission’s pack train, Taran feuds with embittered Prince Ellidyr, who resents being relegated to the back-up squad, which now includes Princess Eilonwy and Gurgi.

Attacked and separated from Gwydion’s allies by Arawn’s minions, Taran re-assembles his closest friends for a fateful journey into the Marshes of Morva to find and destroy the reputed ‘Black Cauldron.’ It’s reputedly the cursed source of Arawn’s zombie-like, undead soldiers known as ‘The Cauldron-Born.’ Among those standing in their way is an unpredictable trio of ‘golden ghoul’ witches.

Facing desperate choices, Taran, Gurgi, Eilonwy, and a wounded Fflewddur must overcome tragedy and unexpected treachery to have a chance of survival, let alone thwarting Arawn’s mystical factory of constantly regenerating new henchmen.

REVIEW:

Much like how The Empire Strikes Back takes a decidedly darker turn after Star Wars, the same can be said of The Black Cauldron following the traditional fairy tale charm of The Book of Three. Still, what high-spirited charm this second Chronicle of Prydain deliberately lacks, it compensates with a welcome sense of macabre unpredictability and a more sophisticated form of storytelling.

Though some sequences may prove unsettling for younger readers, author Lloyd Alexander concocts a powerful fantasy tale that honors some of the grim realities of heroism. Quite likely, The Black Cauldron’s storyline of sacrifice and redemption rates as the second-best of Alexander’s five-part Chronicles of Prydain, behind only its poignant finale: The High King. All it needs now is a scenic big-screen adaptation in the same league as Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.

ADDITIONAL CONTENT:

Alexander provides a short ‘Author’s Note.’

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 8½ Stars

Note: Disney’s disappointing 1985 animated adaptation is really a mish-mash with the Companions’ prior adventure, The Book of Three.

Books & Novels Children's Books DISNEY/PIXAR-Related Fantasy, Horror, & Science Fiction

THE CHRONICLES OF PRYDAIN # 1: THE BOOK OF THREE

Post author By oddmoonmediareviews
Post date October 22, 2020

Written by Lloyd Alexander

SUMMARY:

Though the book was originally published in 1964, this 224-page Bantam Doubleday Dell paperback reprint was released in April 1990. Long ago, in the Wales-like ‘Land of Prydain,’ young Assistant Pig-Keeper, Taran, resides on a secluded farm known as Caer Dalben. Longing for heroic adventure, Taran is rebuffed by his elderly guardian, the wizard Dalben, and his more sympathetic mentor (and aging ex-warrior), Coll.

Suffering swollen fingers, Taran learns the impudence of indulging his curiosity by handling Dalben’s mystical Book of Three journal (which knows all past, present, and future). When word reaches the farm that the menacing Horned King and his troops are approaching on the warpath, Taran desperately chases after his terrified charge, the oracular pig Hen Wen, who flees into the forbidden forest.

By pure chance … maybe or it’s simply fate, Taran embarks on an unforgettable journey to recover Hen Wen. Among those he will encounter include: Prydain’s greatest champion, Prince Gwydion; an outspoken young sorceress, Princess Eilonwy, a courageous bard: Fflewddur Fflam, whose cursed harp retaliates whenever he lies; belligerent dwarf Doli; and the endearing yet perpetually hungry forest creature, Gurgi.

Not only must Taran and his newfound friends elude the wicked Queen Achren’s wrath, they must dare cross Prydain’s dangerous terrain to warn the far-off Sons of Don nobles of the Horned King’s deadly rampage.

REVIEW:

As timeless as Lloyd Alexander’s first ‘Chronicle of Prydain’ remains, The Book of Three could be best described as a bedtime fairy tale vaguely mixed with elements of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Even more so, the unlikely quartet of Taran, Eilonwy, Fflewddur, and Gurgi exhibit a similarly likable chemistry comparable to Luke, Leia, Han Solo, & Chewbacca in the Star Wars saga.

Including some characters (as well as their names) inspired by Welsh folklore, Alexander ingeniously conjures up his own enchanting world that is well worth re-discovery. It’s also one absolutely ripe for a scenic big-screen adaptation in the same league as Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.

ADDITIONAL CONTENT:

Alexander provides a short ‘Author’s Note.’

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 8 Stars

Note: Disney’s animated 1985 adaptation of the saga’s second book, The Black Cauldron, is really a mish-mash with The Book of Three.

Art & History Books & Novels DISNEY/PIXAR-Related Fantasy, Horror, & Science Fiction Movies & Television (Books) STAR WARS-Related

STAR WARS ICONS: HAN SOLO

Post author By oddmoonmediareviews
Post date October 22, 2020

Written by Gina McIntyre

SUMMARY:

Published in 2018 by Insight Editions (through Disney and Lucasfilm), this 242-page coffee table hardcover purports to be the ultimate visual guide to Han Solo. In addition to examining his various incarnations (most notably, actors Harrison Ford and Alden Ehrenreich), this collection’s insights includes rare glimpses of artwork, merchandising, and rare behind-the-scenes images from Solo’s live-action history.

For this project, insightful interviews with Ford, Ehrenreich, Peter Mayhew, Billy Dee Williams, Mark Hamill, directors J.J. Abrams and Ron Howard, screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan and Jake Kasdan, among others.

Further, the character’s evolution (including preliminary sketch drawings) beginning with Lucas’ earliest version depicts how Han Solo became pivotal to the Star Wars saga. The book also analyzes Solo’s appearances in comic books, radio, novels, newspaper strips, role-playing, video games, etc. over the past forty years.

REVIEW:

It’s stellar! Short of a retrospective documentary, this informative, vault-like hardcover acknowledges seemingly everything imaginable about Han Solo. There’s even a section on other pop culture characters evidently influenced by him. Yet, unlike a video, author Gina McIntyre designs this nostalgic book in such an interactive way that fans can reach out and explore the character on a far more personal level. McIntyre’s text stays on point and corresponds well with the constant imagery.

The enormous wealth of visual material celebrates Harrison Ford’s legacy with rare glimpses from inside the original Star Wars trilogy. Gratefully, there is far less emphasis on all the various forms of merchandise. A reasonable portion covers 2018’s Solo movie, which confirms that this book is meant as a cross-promotional tie-in. While giving the prequel movie project its due, Star Wars Icons: Han Solo is far more an eye-popping treasure trove honoring Ford as the legendary Corellian smuggler-turned-Rebel hero.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

As this book should be handled with care, the extra goodies include a bookmark, fold-out artwork, and multiple instances of detachable sketches. Although there isn’t an index, there is a helpful bibliography and an acknowledgments page.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 10 Stars