Time travel is in vogue right now. The subject ebbs and flows in
pop-culture, but right now the Venn Diagram of popular and nerdy sits
with time travel comfortably nestled in the middle. Consider the recent
and rapid rise in popularity of the BBC's Doctor Who
in American TV culture. Sure America is a few years late in joining
the party with the space and time hopping time lord and his companions,
but Netflix and the growing geekery have seen fit to go so far as to put
Matt Smith's bowtied mug on the cover of Entertainment Weekly!
And on the big screen, Rian Johnson's time-travel action film Looper
is scoring positive reviews and continuing Joseph Gordon-Levitt's year
of success. Now, I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to
give anything away. I went into the movie knowing only the vaguest
premise, having forced myself only to see the teaser trailer,
and enjoyed it much more having avoided spoilers. Basically: JGL
works for the mob, whacking targets sent back in time from a future
where time travel exists. This already works for a compelling premise,
but the real kicker comes in when JGL's future self is sent back for
execution. And the real kick-ass comes in when JGL's future self is
Bruce Willis. Seriously. It's awesome. But don't look it up. Just go
see it. Today. Tomorrow. Yesterday. Whenever.
Looper's release has prompted a flurry of sites cataloging
time-travel rules, time-travel movie moments, and top time-travel
stories. But: So many of these sites contain subtle Looper spoilers, so
I don't want to link to them. (Sorry, Wall Street Journal's "Four
Rules of Time-Travel," you get no love from me.) Thankfully, a few
pages exist sans-Looper, so we'll include those. (Other movies will be
spoiled. But they're old. After five years, no forgiveness needs to be
granted for spoilers. And beyond fifty years, things that are
"spoilers" should enter common knowledge.*)
Discovery put together a
nice tidy list of Top 22 Time Travel Movies with vague descriptions and background information. Better, albeit more spoilery, though, is TotalFilm's list of the 50 Greatest Time Travel Movie Moments.
Some of them are questionable. (Did George Bailey really time
travel?) Some are surprising. (Love that Muppet Christmas Carol made
the cut!) One is... Dali.
And, for all the Back to the Future references, one is mysteriously
absent. It's like the list makers said, "Roads? Where we're going we
don't need to mention the fact that where they're going they don't need roads!" It's your list, TotalFilm! Something has got to be done about your list!
That's all for today. Be sure to thank the management... It's Boss's Day!
From the Desk of the Morning Reporter: A guided tour of the Internet.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Google In Slumberland
Following a brief vacation and a week of intense and focused panel work,
the Report returns. (Though as one reader rightfully pointed out,
"Report" is a generous term for something with such scheduling
irregularity. But it's too late to rename it now!) Hopefully we'll be
back to regularly scheduled programming for a while now, especially
given the promise of Halloween report tricks and treats...
And speaking of treats, have you been to Google today, dear readers? The doodle team has really outdone themselves this time, creating a brilliant tribute to celebrated cartoonist Winsor McCay Of course, I don't expect Mr. McCay's name comes up in conversation often. Today is likely the first time a lot of people have even heard of him, as his Wikipedia page and YouTube videos get soaring hits thanks to Google. But it doesn't take much digging to find that Google has just about perfectly captured the style and substance of McCay's most famous creation, "Little Nemo In Slumberland."
Little Nemo, first published 107 years ago today, was a weekly comic strip printed in the New York Herald for six years and the New York American for three. Where comic strip today carries the connotation of a three or four panel quick set-up and punchline, McCay's weekly strip existed on a much grander scale. In 10 to 15 colorful panels, the pajama-clad Nemo would continue on his dream-quest to meet the Princess, daughter of King Morpheus. Each strip would begin with Nemo going to bed, and his bed would often serve as a means of conveyance in the dream world. Inevitably, each strip would end in the same manner, with Nemo being woken up and falling out of bed, often at an inopportune, cliff-hanger moment.
The brilliant colors, sprawling panels, walking bed, and total whimsy are all captured in the Google doodle, but Google is not the first to animate Nemo. McCay himself created an animated version of his character in 1911, inspired to animation by one of his children's flipbooks. The adaptation that I know, the one that introduced me to Little Nemo in the first place, was the 1992 film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, with a screenplay helmed by Christopher Columbus, now famous for directing the first two Harry Potter films.
Hopefully Google's doodle will inspire the webworld to seek out McCay's original work, available in a complete collection on Amazon. (Though it's apparently out of print and mega-expensive now. I say now because I own a copy that I snagged for like twenty bucks in a discount bin at a Barnes and Noble a while back.) Even more hopefully, this will trigger the interest of comics artists to create Sunday strips that capture the imagination like McCay's did.
Non-comic strip fans have reason to celebrate the day, as they can kick it up a notch to wish a happy birthday to Emeril Lagasse. Bam!
And speaking of treats, have you been to Google today, dear readers? The doodle team has really outdone themselves this time, creating a brilliant tribute to celebrated cartoonist Winsor McCay Of course, I don't expect Mr. McCay's name comes up in conversation often. Today is likely the first time a lot of people have even heard of him, as his Wikipedia page and YouTube videos get soaring hits thanks to Google. But it doesn't take much digging to find that Google has just about perfectly captured the style and substance of McCay's most famous creation, "Little Nemo In Slumberland."
Little Nemo, first published 107 years ago today, was a weekly comic strip printed in the New York Herald for six years and the New York American for three. Where comic strip today carries the connotation of a three or four panel quick set-up and punchline, McCay's weekly strip existed on a much grander scale. In 10 to 15 colorful panels, the pajama-clad Nemo would continue on his dream-quest to meet the Princess, daughter of King Morpheus. Each strip would begin with Nemo going to bed, and his bed would often serve as a means of conveyance in the dream world. Inevitably, each strip would end in the same manner, with Nemo being woken up and falling out of bed, often at an inopportune, cliff-hanger moment.
The brilliant colors, sprawling panels, walking bed, and total whimsy are all captured in the Google doodle, but Google is not the first to animate Nemo. McCay himself created an animated version of his character in 1911, inspired to animation by one of his children's flipbooks. The adaptation that I know, the one that introduced me to Little Nemo in the first place, was the 1992 film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, with a screenplay helmed by Christopher Columbus, now famous for directing the first two Harry Potter films.
Hopefully Google's doodle will inspire the webworld to seek out McCay's original work, available in a complete collection on Amazon. (Though it's apparently out of print and mega-expensive now. I say now because I own a copy that I snagged for like twenty bucks in a discount bin at a Barnes and Noble a while back.) Even more hopefully, this will trigger the interest of comics artists to create Sunday strips that capture the imagination like McCay's did.
Non-comic strip fans have reason to celebrate the day, as they can kick it up a notch to wish a happy birthday to Emeril Lagasse. Bam!
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