ThaOGDreamWeaver

Side note: priorities were chosen. And now embargo is down, yes, the toy is already out, and the video gives you a nice rundown of what the Cinder can do. Or if you prefer, Darth Jar Jar's Dark Falcon from Rebuild The Galaxy, which is... dammit, actually pretty cool. PS: This is just a meme, I have other priorities. Like catfood. And also finding some Lego shelving that's above niece height.

At the risk of trashing yet another French classic (after La Totale, Jean de Florette etc)… Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville would be a good one to bring up to date, possibly with some slightly less silly character names (Lemmy Caution, PI?). It’d be very timely, with a benevolent(ish) sentient AI and its mad(ish) creator ruling over a city of drone-like humans on an oddly familiar off-world colony, who are abandoning their sense of individuality to fit in with the collective.

Last day of D23 doesn't usually have any big movie announcements, because it's all about the parks and other entertainments. Couple of fun things though: The other big-showtunes movie finally hits Broadway/West End - Hercules. Not sure if they'll be able to get Danny deVito to reprise Phil - though he's very keen on doing the live action movie). Massive Parks expansions - how many actually happen and when, we don't know, but... New Monsters Inc. Scare Factory flying coaster at Hollywood Studios New Avatar zone at California Adventure (still not sure where they'd fit it in, but...) New Cars, Avengers, and Frozen-themed attractions at various locations Joint Encanto/Indiana Jones Maya-themed area at Magic Kingdom AND... FINALLY... ...THE ONE YOUR DARK, TWISTED LITTLE HEARTS HAVE ALL CRAVED... THE VILLAINS PARK! (Okay, it's an extension to Magic Kingdom, but a big one, with at least two new major rides, plus Maleficient's Castle. Day One, I'm moving in and that wizened old witch ain't stoppin' this b... ahem.)

BTW… Hoppers teaser art. Starring Jon Hamm, SNL alum and voice regular Bobby Moynihan, and Disney Channel graduate Piper Curda. Well, it’s something different…

Skeleton Crew's opening does feel very Amblin, and that's a good thing. (I mean, there's no reason that a suburban backwater Imperial planet couldn't look like Hill Valley, Sherman Oaks, San Dimas or Freeport. Parallel evolution and all that. I think just maybe they're hewing visually a little too close to the classics). And the way they find into adventure is very, VERY Goonies. But after that point, I think we go full-on Star Wars - they've mentioned being quite close to Andor in terms of the threat to the characters. Mando & Grogu is a full-length, theatrical-release feature. S4 may still happen at a later date but this is a standalone, summer-tentpole flick. Big swing for these characters and the Filoni-verse. And yes, there are pictures. I'm not sure how long it'll be before the Imps hunt down and remove this (very smol) teaser, so take a look while it's still up: Just in case it explodes, here's a run-down so our Bothan spies didn't die in vain...

Haven’t got round to seeing it yet, and I suspect won’t until it turns up on streaming or an airline, when I’m sure it’ll go well with some popcorn. I just ain’t schlepping to a multiplex for it. That said, having read a few of the reviews… …I get the distinct feeling this script wasn’t the same one this cast or director signed up for, and it got exec-noted all to hell. Maybe there’ll be a Roth cut at some point.

More stuff: - Freaky Friday sequel with JLC and Lohan got very good reception. - Toy Story 5 announced - Woody returns home and finds his friends being ignored in favour of an iPad. - Daredevil series trailer, with Bernthal returning as Punisher and literally stuffing Charlie Cox in a locker - Incredibles 3 announced with Brad Bird returning. Hopefully they’ve got somewhere more interesting to take this than Inc2, though there was some decently fun stuff in there… - Tron: Ares didn’t get a trailer, but did get a band - Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor’s been doing solid work as a movie composer for years, but my little dark gothy heart flutters as he’s bringing the whole band this time. - Andor S2 early footage, featuring Ben Mendelsohn as Director Krennic and Alan “I’m In Everything These Days” Tudyk as K2SO. - Zootopia 2: not sure how much further they can stretch the adult-Richard-Scarry schtick, but adding Ke Huy Quan as a slithery bad guy. - Avatar: Fire And Ash. Meh. Smurrrrrrrrrfs. - delayed Ironheart series now in production. - live-action Lilo & Stitch remake gets teaser and test CGI. Stitch is suitably fluffy for selling MANY plush toys in the future, and I hope they carry on his subversive little traits now that they can rope in Marvel and/or Star Wars properties for him to mess with. One of my favourite Disneys and knocked their heads loose after a decade of overproduced worthy duds, so hoping they don’t screw it up. - Moana 2 AND Moana live action upcoming. - Hoppers: bodyswap beaver-related comedy. As you do. - Frozen 3: well, you’re gonna need earplugs on every train and plane again for a while. Conclusion to the epic money spinner series. - Dream Productions: Inside Out spinoff about the mental inner movie business. - David Blaine - Do Not Attempt: mumbly magician eschews excruciatingly dull endurance stunts for a flat-out tricks series. Good. And if you can find the video from d23, I think that may be a record for the world’s biggest audience-participation card trick… And One More Thing…

Annual Mousefest begins. Will add to things as they come up, but: Mando + Grogu: Very early teaser footage - it’s only been in production a couple of weeks. But already some nice shots, a side trip to Hoth(?), and a suitably grumpy looking Zeb. Skeleton Crew Trailer: Whatever I was expecting an alien world to look like, it wasn’t that…

Well, the reviews are coming in. I'll wait for the audience scores. But so far - other than the "unkillable charisma of Cate Blanchett"... ...oh dear Goddess, ouch.🤢 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/borderlands

...I may have to use these in work emails now when someone tries to mansplain tech I helped design to me.

Yup. I'm with Scalzi on this one.

Suddenly thinking Tom Sturridge. (Especially as Sandman may be on hold for a little while 😬.)

On that note... I'm not sure if this is just me or if something I'm doing wrong. I used to do the Apple thing of extracting tracks from my CDs using iTunes, and loading them onto my iPhone Music. However, one day the ripped tracks started erasing themselves without warning. Which is annoying, since some of them were from friends, and now I can't find them anywhere else. Is there a way of stopping it doing that in Music or is that Apple DRM in overdrive?

I understand that MMOs and competitive FPS have to have regular income of some kind for server upkeep, whether that's subscriptions or micropayments, or in COH's case, donations. (Which I've happily done for this game, but I'm usually not fast enough.) [WARNING! INCOMING RANT! WARNING! INCOMING RANT!] What I object to is buying a thing, then being forced to subscribe to it to keep it working, giving the company that made it a revenue stream - with no guarantee of additional functionality. I no longer use Ad**e products for work for this reason - there are plenty of third party apps that are pretty close to being as good, or good enough for what I need, that don't self-destruct if I don't want to fork over my credit card. And also, incidentally, aren't crash-prone bloatware. (eg: Pixelmator Pro for Mac if you need a pretty damn decent paint programme.) However, the whole micropayment addiction is starting to creep into other areas of life, and I do not like it. For example, BMW now wants you to pay for features that came with the car... https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/12/23204950/bmw-subscriptions-microtransactions-heated-seats-feature ...whereas John Deere had to be stopped from remote-bricking tractors if someone tries to fix them themselves rather than paying for "authentic" parts and service plus unlock codes. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64206913 And most recently, those blasted newspaper site blockers have gone from whining about using ABP to block cookies to requiring a subscription for "enhanced" privacy. PS: genuine request... if anyone knows of a decently priced colour printer that doesn't throw a screaming hissyfit if you use non-"authentic" cartridges / refills or demand subscriptions, drop me a DM.

Melbourne Ska Orchestra - Best Things In Life Are Free

Quite a lot of the footage seems to be nicked from Hidden Figures, especially Costner and Taraji Henson. (BTW, that is a pretty good movie - including a remarkable straight-ish turn from Jim Parsons.) I still don't know if Pedro can sell awkward nerd, though that's closer to his real persona than a lot of stuff he's done on screen.

Errr.... hate to say this, but that's one of those blasted Screen Culture fake concept trailers. (And not one of their better ones - especially the rather dodgy voice cloning. Wish they wouldn't put "Official" on that stuff either. That kinda garbage clags up the internet.) New Rockstars have a proper breakdown of everything that was shown in the real trailer, if you can stand the huge number of ad breaks, plus photos from a cunning Bothan spy who made it into Hall H.

...wow. I has tribute art. I'm genuinely blushing. Thanks x

New tarot card: Seven Of Wands ...and The Tower (tagline: if you're not running away, you've not been paying attention.)

Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé - Barcelona

Vangelis - Chariots Of Fire

If anyone's better at Mids than I am, what AT is Simone Biles? I'm thinking MA/Super Reflexes Scrapper with Leaping, Flight, possibly Teleport as well because how in tarnation... Sad to see Andy Murray bow out for good pushing the drama button just one too many times. But it's been a hell of a run and good to quit while you're having fun with it. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Finally, mildly surprised we haven't had a bunch of Korean DP/Devices and Turkish DP/T-Shirt guys wandering around Atlas.

Some more spoilery thoughts on Ep1: All in all... it's not quite the kickoff episode you'd want, but not without its merits.

I see what you mean about the animation style. It looks... less refined than classic TAS, a little bit like 2000s-era Flash animation, though I think it's supposed to be modelled after early comic books: some of the villain faces resemble Dick Tracy more than Batman. I'm much more a fan of the backdrops and buildings that are styled after 20s/30s travel posters and such.

Just posted the new trailer on the other thread and... well, still not sure if this is one I'll wait for streaming on. But given I took a punt on the D&D movie and loved it... maybe? (Oh, and I think if they do the Wonderlands movie next I'm definitely in)