This Movie Needs a TOON Up?

Okay, this is a new one. Actually, it’s an old one. With a twist.

Isn’t that how it usually seems to go?

However, this time, it really is a “new” one.

It’s fascinatingly wrong... and therefore maybe a good idea.

Hollywood is producing yet another remake. But again, there’s a twist. Not in semantics this time, as in “reboot” or “reimagining” or “revisionist” or “retooled” or anything of the sort. The “rub” is who’s starring in it.

The movie being retackled is The Stooge. It starred Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Who on earth could re-do those two, right? Oh, probably in Hollywood-ese that likely works out to George Clooney and Jim Carrey, yes? No. Ready for the twist? Martin will be portrayed by Mickey Mouse and Lewis by Roger Rabbit in an animation & live-action hybrid film. Whoa.

With any luck it will be an entertainment classic. But regardless of how good a movie it turns out to be, it has earned a place as a truly original take on a hackneyed “genre.”

And despite all the rest of it I, for one, would love to see Roger frustrate Mickey. Could be fun.

Oh yes - there’s one other “twist” as it were. Also ‘starring’ are Walt Disney and the great Orson Welles. Ah, what CGI and the 21st Century can’t do, eh? I do find this idea unnerving. I just hope they creatively use their previous utterances to shape ‘new’ dialogue for them. In other words (ha!) there’d been talk MANY moons ago about being able to feed all of a person’s voice recordings into a computer and then have it interpolate and extract and configure it into an entirely new set of words, the result of which is [supposedly] how said person would have sounded when speaking it. For instance, in theory it’s possible to have John Lennon sing a NEW song. In my opinion, this is creepy and wrong. So, yeah, I hope they never perfected this practice...

But anyway, here's to it coming out well and we pray it doesn’t make stooges of them, the cartoons, Hollywood and us.

Interpretations CAN Be Wrong

Somebody’s interpretation
of Peter being a

“betwixt-and-between”

bird & human is quite freaky.

I’ll have to go with this being utterly the wrong idea.

This, you see, makes it even more complicated than it already is.  In order for this image/idea to be so, his parents would had to have seen him as a bird to begin with... and if that were the case, they certainly wouldn’t have left the window open.  It also implies that he mutates fully into a human later on in life.  If THAT were the case, then he’d lose his special magical quality of being neither-nor.  Besides all the [warped] logistics of it contained therein and beyond, we can’t ignore the fact that Barrie had been well aware of Rackham’s drawings.  Which means that if Pan had been meant to literally be “betwixt-and-between” in physical form, Barrie would have corrected Rackham’s interpretation.  Sure he would have, given how fussy and attentive he’d been when it came to his eternal boy.

For anyone needing clarification on "Betwixt-and-Between" you'll certainly find it in my interquel novel.  As you might expect, it expands the idea into the broader scope of the character of Peter Pan. 

He's BACK!

Hi.
I know, it's been a while.  There's no real excuse other than getting tired of bitching about things in typed form... not finding time (in the mea culpa sense) and many other events that have happened to me.  But I return, just like Pan always says he will.  And I've brought good news.

Peter Pan: 
Betwixt-and-Between
My interquel novel bringing to light the lost years of everybody's favorite lost boy.
is HERE!  That's right... AVAILABLE!
Amazon link

How did a wild, eternal infant in a London park become the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up fighting pirates in the Neverland? Which, of course, requires growing up — and ceasing again? Tall questions for such a small boy. At long last, the story of how a baby came to be the boy we know on the magical island.

Once again, I've scoured Barrie's remaining ideas, delved into his world and devised the answer to one of the most troubling dilemmas in all of the Pan-iverse.  I hope you enjoy it.  I've already had two of the toughest Pan critics delight in its pages... and some non-fanatics are satisfied as well.

It's been too long, but I am finally able to bring it to you.  Thanks for waiting.  I really appreciate it.

P.S. - If the e-book versions aren't available at the time of this posting, they will be up soon.

E-GAD! E-BOOK NeverWorld!

It's been far too long...

but NEVER too late.

Peter Pan's NeverWorld
is finally available as an e-book!

So if you've been waiting, Pan's at the window.
If you're already a fan, be sure to let your electronic-book-reading friends know they can visit Peter again, too.

Happy e-reading!

Amazon Kindle
Barnes & Noble Nook  

Hooked on "Jeopardy!"

See? Jeopardy! loves Barrie.
Again and again.

Though this time around the "question" is correctly "Who is Captain Hook?" and this is notable since, oddly, he's not a commonplace occurrence in these all too common occurrences.

Also, about this entry, just a Jeopardy!-esque nit-pick.

It should read "Peter and Wendy" not "Peter Pan" since it says literature.  When I think of Literature, I think books.  A play is fiction as well, but it falls under the Theatre category.  There may be no distinction here but my own, and it certainly doesn't belittle or inflate the issue either way.  Especially since Jeopardy! could in fact be referring to any of the myriad of publications of the well know tale under the title "Peter Pan."


Oh well... until Pan and Barrie fly into the little blue rectangles again...

No Question About "Jeopady!" Anymore...

Once again Barrie has shown up on Jeopardy!

Interesting category for it.  What it refers to (as Alex Trebek explained) is the leading man in Kate Winslet movies.  They were asking for the name of the movie.

"What is Finding Neverland"? is the question of course.
I'll not mention the lack of his moustache and how it makes no sense at all.

I say "No Question" in the title there, but there is certainly room for coincidence or over-sensitive noticing of Barrie and his famed creations showing up.




What are the other appearances?

Scooby-Doo It Some More

Way back in this post, I expounded on the latest incarnation of eveybody's favorite enigma-solving and ghost chasing pooch - Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorportated.

This is a quick status update.

I’d spoken of how it has brought a much needed new element to the Scooby-verse - a narrative story arc. Well, it hasn’t lost sight of that. Far from it. It’s not only kept it up, but has layered it upon itself. What on earth do I mean? Simple.

 I’d told you of how the Scooby gang had been receiving strange leads and clues from someone hailing as Mr. E. Well, we’ve since learned who he is. I don’t want to spoil it for you if you’ve yet to see the whole saga, but suffice to say it’s not a superfluous character. Rather Mr. E is imbedded into the tale already. And once we learn more of this pre-established backstory, it doesn’t stop there. We’re suddenly privy to a clearing up of what happened long ago in Crystal Cove’s past. Yet it still doesn’t stop there! We delve into the mystery that had been around long before, one that the mystery-solving team prior to Scooby’s took on and only partially succeeded in figuring out. Thus, we have fresh story with backstory in a backstory derived from a backstory. Wow. They really took their time developing this concoction. It may sound as if it were convoluted, but I assure you, it’s not. Well, it’s not so far as a Scooby Doo cartoon is concerned.

And all the while, they have not dropped any of the side issues among characters, nor ignored any of the great avenues to explore.

On the whole, they’ve managed to bolster the world of Scooby into something practically logical. And we all know how preposterous it had been in the first place.

I should mention that a friend of mine who has long moved away now and happens to be a big Scooby fan also enjoys the show, but he feels that the overlaying storylines get a bit thick and out of hand, perhaps even unnecessary or in the way. But by the same token, he didn’t pooh-pooh them or wish they were entirely absent.

And then there’s Zoey, who watches it peripherally when her kids do. She thinks it truly awful what they’ve done with the franchise. She specifically cited the Shaggy and Velma “romance” (which fails- no mystery there!) as one of the offenses. You might recall that I also raised an eyebrow at this notion, but kept on with it only to see how well it had been handled - and that it brought along with it a character development that had been sorely needed after so many manifestations. So I told her she’d have to see it all from the beginning and let it do its thing, since it most definitely relies on the power of the Story Arc to work.

So, to the entire team who brought us Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorportated, I say:
BRAVO! Bravo, indeed.