Reviews

Over the years Batman has been a demigod, comedian, and psycho in a funky costume.

Rather than bicker about which movie, TV series or individual comic book run is the definitive Batman (and for the record, I thought Batman Begins was a bit weak), I'll say this is a very good Batman.

Burton's version of Batman is definitely more demigod than comedian, leaving the snarky(and highly quotable) lines to the Joker, as portrayed by Jack Nicholson.

From Batman's first appearance, terrorizing criminals more like Dracula than a bellowing blowhard on a zipline, to his final confrontation with the Joker, something suitably more Gothic than a runaway rail train, he's presented as something almost supernatural.

The real fun in this movie lies within the supporting cast, which adds a lot of charm to what would be a movie full of rehashed stereoty-excuse me-archetypes. Robert Whul lights up the screen as Alexander Knox. Billy Dee Williams has commanding screen presence as Harvey Dent(a role "Forever" scared by Tommy Lee Jones and J. Schumacher). William Hootkins' gravelry delivery as Lt. Eckhart steals (well, borrows) the show. Even Tracey Walter, no more than Nicholson's shadow and foil as Bob the Goon, show's some bitch'n acting chops.

Free from on-screen sound effects, and hopping tanks, Batman is an overblown action film that packs sizable thrills, a few laughs(within context), and a fair amount of Tim Burton's recognizable touches, all of which keep the overall film, dark, moody and ultimately entertaining.

There is nothing horribly wrong with this picture, if not compared to it's source material.

If you're after stock action fare and a gimmick, then this movie's for you.

A mysterious madman threatens to start the first world war a little early through weapons sales and terrorist acts. The 19th century British Secret Service call upon Alan Quartermain(King Solemon's Mines) to assemble a team of extraordinary gentlemen, all of which are literary characters.

The movie has explosions, a few cool effects, and quite a bit of plot left in the typewriter.

I would, however, recommend reading the Graphic Novel first. While the Novel was enriched with detail and was a stunning read, the movie picked up on the premise, altered the characters, screwed with the plot and put it on the screen. I assure you, the book was wonderful, this is merely average at best.

With Pokemon, Beyblade and Yu-Gi-Oh gracing the small screen, it has become difficult to take Japanese Anime seriously. Thankfully, Cartoon Network has put a block of Japan's finest in their red-eye time slot, spearheaded by Inuyasha.

The general gist of the plot is Kagome, a modern schoolgirl, winds up in feudal times and must help a half-demon(Inyasha) recover the shards of a jewel of ultimate power.

One might say that Inuyasha combines the best of both Shonen and Shojo stylings. The world of feudal Japan is laced with ghosts, demons and other critters who roar, slash, dash, slice, splat and snarl, and at least one of these beasts duke it out with the title character per episode. On the other hand, there is romance, guilt, past betrayals and secrets to be discovered, not to mention sight gags and running jokes.

The visual quality is a step above pocket monsters and moon princesses as well. The show is thankfully devoid of giant sweat-drops, fountain tears and misplaced mouths.

It takes patience to watch the series, with 100+ episodes and long-running character development, it would take a fortune of DVD purchases or steadfast loyalty to the television at 1:00 am (as of this writing)to get the entire story down.

But even so, I highly recommend this show to anybody yearning for more than just flaming mesomorphs and pocket monsters.

Mickey's Christmas Carol is not a full-length movie, which is to it's merit.

As with any adaption of a Christmas Carol, the less seen of annoying Tiny Tim, the better.

Carl Barks' Scrooge McDuck plays Ebenezer Scrooge as various other Disney Characters teach him to be kind and not miserly with the tried and true 3-celebrity ghosts formula.

The true entertainment isn't in the plot but in the nuances of the character behavior, for example, Scrooge's first encounter with the ghost of Jacob Marley.

Since it's a half-hour Christmas special, Mickey's Christmas Carol moves at a rather fast pace, free of songs or other distractions that may bore those with short attention spans.

All in all, I highly recommend this piece of work.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass have served as the basis for many different adaptions, the most famous of which is the Animated Film by Disney.

I consider this version as the definitive live action adaption of the books. It follows them verbatim. Rather than taking selected scenes and splicing them together in one film, the movie is in two parts, the first being Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Second being Through the Looking Glass.

There are celebrities (for 1985, anyway) everywhere in this thing. I wont bother to list them here since the full cast is already listed.

The acting is good, they do compulsively sing songs, but it doesn't grate on the nerves.

I highly recommend this to those who know Alice and those who merely think they do.

A little history: Tim Burton used to work at Disney, were he developed the idea of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" based on his own sketches and a poem. Back then, the subject material was too unorthodox so Disney shelved the project. Fast forward a few years, now Tim Burton is an internationally acclaimed director. He approaches Disney about producing this idea he had while he worked there, of course, why not? He's Tim Burton, he spins gold out of thin air!

So Nightmare Before Christmas was released under Disney's manufactured subsidiary, Touchstone.

The film follows Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown, as he discovers, tries to celebrate, and almost ruins Christmas. The movie sports Burton's unmistakable visual style and superb direction by Henry Selick.

I give this film full marks, and suggest this oddly charming title to anybody and everybody.

Argh, It's like so many people had done so much work for nothing.

Since the "Batman" TV show in the 60's, there has been an ongoing effort with comic book artists and even a couple of filmmakers to return the Dark Knight to his roots, rather than the "Pow!, Bam!" stereotype Howie Horwitz gave him and pretty much all comics. In such efforts, these people had brought up some of the finest pieces in fiction, the extraordinary stories by Dennis O Neal and Neal Adams, "The Dark Knight Returns" by Frank Miller, the first two Batman films by Tim Burton, and of course the fantastic "Batman: the Animated Series".

So now I look at the new "The Batman" on WB, with Adam West and Frank Gorshin as regular voices, all of the old voices and character designs thrown out in favor of the stylization from "The Jackie Chan Adventures" and ostentatious gadgets and vehicles that scream "Toys Toys Toys".

The methodical pace of "TAS"(The Animated Series) has been replaced by a rapid-fire quick change motif, suiting ever increasing attention spans, I'm sure. While in TAS, physical action might sometimes take a back seat to the stories,"The Batman" overflows with Kung Fu, Slow Motion, and Dramatic rapid-Fire Jump Cuts.

The Characters have been "Updated', Batman is no longer square jawed, but has a triangle for a head, Comissioner Gordon is gone. The Batcave has gone back in time about 35 years and is complete with Batpoles and the Apple-red support beams that were prevalent in the old Adam West TV show. The Joker now sports a colorful straight jacket and hair the size of Beachball rather than his stylish purple suit of years past.

While the 'Extreme' approach may appease those with no exposure to engaging storytelling, I prefer TAS, which had strong, character driven stories, a cinematic style complete with orchestrated music, references to the best of all the batman representations, not just Adam West, and most importantly, looked like an actual movie, not a toy commercial.

'The Batman' has flashy animation, color keys that don't variate, CGI, and a ton of flashy camera techniques. But I say that it's all frosting and no cake.

In an effort to update their image, the Disney Theme Parks, with permission from George Lucas, produced the world's first motion simulator ride, Star Tours, which has been often copied, but never topped.

As opposed to a ride that goes somewhere or follows a track, Star Tours is a small theater that is bounced and jostled around in synch with a P.O.V. special effects film made by ILM where the craft flies through maintenance bays, meteors, and the famous death star trench. The effect is far more believable than it sounds.

The story is that guests are a commercial spaceport, boarding a flight to the moons of Endor, the que goes past several robots, including R2-D2 and C3-P0, repairing one of the shuttles.

The Shuttle is piloted by a first-time pilot robot, Rex who is physically there in front of the screen/window. The ship takes off to a rocky start, taking a wrong turn at the launch tunnels and flying through the maintenance bay, followed by light speed and a detour through a crystalline meteor shower. Then the craft stumbles into the middle of a battle between the Empire and the Rebellion, including Star Destroyers and the trench flight of the Death Star, then quickly returns home so the guests can be herded into the nearest souvenir shop to buy things.

Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers was pretty good, with nifty vehicles made of old toys and garbage, quality animation and good voice acting. However, it could have stood a few more episodes. The balance of characters was strong enough to carry out another season's worth of plots without any slowdown.

There was Gadget, unaware of her genius and beauty, Monteray Jack, tough guy with a cheese fetish, Zipper, a fly who frequently acted as a parachute for the various rangers, and Chip 'n Dale, constantly bickering and talking incredibly fast.

Disney did occasionally add new episodes to their animated shows, Gargoyles for example. I've seen Chip 'n Dale and I've seen Gargoyles. And I think Chip 'n Dale could have produced more episodes than Gargoyles.

Problably the defining story that ever Featured Captain America was that the Avengers found him floating in an Ice Cube, so the Movie was pretty fidel to the book. But the crappiness of this movie shows why you shouldn't be fidel to the book (like Harry Potter)

First and Formost, this movie hits the comic strip right on the nose (it was goofy looking and freak'n violent). The one thing that always gets me is that we have detectives, feme fatales, rutheless gangsters, exploding cars and machine guns, all done in super bright rainbow colors. I find that the bright colors really pull this movie off, It conveys the whole "comic book" idea, better than the giant balloons from Batman, the verbaitum sound effects from X men, and certainly those annoying "panel" shots from hulk.