NPR's All Things Considered ran a story earlier this week asking whether Kickstarter backers get refunds when a project fails. The answer, of course, is 'no'. There's no oversight on the part of Kickstarter, and the kind of person who makes lofty plans that can't be completed often doesn't want to admit to failure ' which giving back the money would be an admission of. As NPR says,
'That's the conflict at the heart of Kickstarter: While the company's policy says creators have to give refunds on failed projects, the website doesn't have a mechanism to do it.'
Not to mention that Kickstarter keeps its fees no matter what, so failure will cost the project organizer. Since many have gone to Kickstarter because they don't otherwise have the funds they need, that's unlikely to happen as well.
TechCrunch followed up the NPR piece, pointing out that the Kickstarter founders took the coverage seriously enough that they responded publicly. They've added more questions to their FAQ to clarify this area of accountability, but the answers don't provide any new information, simply reiterating that they don't take responsibility for backers getting what they paid for. I find this question most odd:
Is a creator legally obligated to fulfill the promises of their project?
Yes. Kickstarter's Terms of Use require creators to fulfill all rewards of their project or refund any backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill. (This is what creators see before they launch.) We crafted these terms to create a legal requirement for creators to follow through on their projects, and to give backers a recourse if they don't. We hope that backers will consider using this provision only in cases where they feel that a creator has not made a good faith effort to complete the project and fulfill.
What, exactly, are backers supposed to do? What good is a legal obligation if there's no way to enforce it? Are the Kickstarter founders suggesting a class action as the ultimate enforcement mechanism? They go on to talk about how they perceive this risky environment as 'a feature, not a bug'.
I don't think this is going to be enough to quell the rising concerns, especially as more projects make millions without sufficient oversight and no products delivered. It only takes a few bad apples (getting the most attention) to ruin a tool for everyone.
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Not a surprising announcement, after the news at the beginning of the year that the company would no longer be publishing new releases ' now Bandai Entertainment is completely ending its U.S. marketing and sales. Anime News Network reports that
the company will discontinue sales of its Blu-ray discs, DVDs, manga, and novels. The company noted that it will make its final shipment of manga and novels to retailers by the end of October.
While it's never a good sign to see a company cease, in this case, it's not something that affects me or the manga readers I know. Looking back at the site, we only ever talked about one manga title ' The Girl Who Leapt Through Time ' and Ed didn't much care for it. Their anime releases were better known, but the only one of their titles I was even curious about was Planetes, and that's only because I liked the manga so much.
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Posted by Johanna on September 5, 2012 at 10:06 am
Category: KC, Shopping Guide
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Posted by Johanna on September 2, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Category: LinkBlogging
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Anime News Network has a story reporting that Young Ace magazine will be publishing a manga adaptation of the brilliant BBC series Sherlock. While there have been various Sherlock Holmes comics and manga in the past, this one will adapt specific episodes of the show written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss and, based on the cover art, use the character likenesses of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, who play Holmes and Watson, respectively.
In the comment thread, someone suggests a crossover with Young Miss Holmes, which would be hilarious.
Watch for this to spawn even more fan fiction and art. My favorite, discovered just today, is this short piece in which Holmes is an alpaca and Watson is a corgi. I don't know why those animals, particularly, but they're adorable.
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Brett Uren, creator of the horror comic Kuzimu, has posted an Indiegogo campaign for you to give him money so he can visit the New York Comic Con. From his pitch:
[Kuzimu] was first self-published as a webcomic, then as the first independent comic published through Graphicly's digital platform. Now this year it is being released as 194-page full colour graphic novel (paperback) by indie publisher 215 Ink, in stores and at Baltimore/New York Comic Con. I am looking to raise $1750 for travel to and accommodation in New York for Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th October.
I have 3 other Kuzimu Graphic Novels planned and would love to have the full story see the light of day. Naturally, this depends on not only sales of the book but also awareness of it. If there is a perfect place to do this, it is at Comic Con, where I can turn the press, fans, and comics professionals onto my work.
Getting a comic to this stage largely on my own has taken a toll on personal finances, relationships, and my health to a degree. It is make or break time to take it to a higher level. I need some help to raise the money to get me and my pencils to the next step toward a career in comics.
In return for you giving him money, he'll send you signed copies of his book, t-shirts, or sketches. So far, he's gotten about $500 of his $1750 goal from four people, and the campaign hasn't budged in the last six days.
I'm not surprised to see someone attempt this kind of crowd-funding, but it strikes me as scraping the bottom of the barrel. Yes, making money from the arts is hard. Budgeting for standard marketing expenses, like personal appearances, is even harder, especially if you don't live near New York City or Portland, Oregon. (Brett's in the UK.) But if you can't afford to go to a convention, don't go. Find other ways to gain attention for your book and yourself ' I'm told that the internet is very helpful for this, especially if you can build a noticeable public persona.
Seriously, at a large convention, as New York has become, you're one drop in a very big ocean. It's going to be difficult to catch the attention of 'press ' and comic professionals'. Especially if, like so many other young creators, you've chosen to start your career with a personal epic spanning 800 or so pages. Much better to aim small, grow slowly but steadily, and only spend money you can afford.
Also, the book was solicited in the June Previews catalog, which means it should have come out last week. From what I can tell, it didn't.
Judge Dredd, according to Wikipedia, is an immensely successful comic, running since 1977 in the British anthology 2000 AD. Yet the character and the series has never quite caught on over here in the U.S. Perhaps it's because we don't get the satire, liking the idea of a tough-guy enforcer instead of being scared by it.
No idea of the artist, image found on the internet.
Regardless of the relatively small sales of the comic here, the concept is immediately striking, as shown by the kind of art that can be done with a faceless tough guy with a really big gun. Plus, there's the whole dystopian future setting, with lots of darkness and grimy tech. Which may be why they keep trying to make a movie featuring the character.
Lionsgate is releasing Dredd 3D on September 21. Here's the short TV spot for it, which demonstrates how you can get the idea of the action movie across really quickly.
It stars Karl Urban (Bones in the Star Trek relaunch) as Dredd, although since we should never see his face, that's kind of hard for him. The plot involves him and the psychic Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) trying to stop 'a dangerous drug epidemic that has users of Slo-Mo experiencing reality at a fraction of its normal speed'. This longer trailer shows more of the plot ' and attitude, with villain Ma-Ma played by Lena Headey (Game of Thrones).
Note that this is reportedly NOT a remake of the previous Judge Dredd movie, the 1995 one with Sylvester Stallone. Dredd 3D instead takes its inspiration 'from John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra's revered comic books'. If you'd like to compare for yourself, the earlier Judge Dredd film makes its Blu-ray debut three days earlier, on September 18. It's a bare-bones release at a reduced price, as suits a film well-known for ' well, let's say, not being great. This is the theatrical cut, by the way, since there's discussion around a director's cut existing but never having been released. The movie also stars Rob Schneider for comic relief, Armand Assante as the bad guy, and Diane Lane. Not Sandra Bullock ' that was Demolition Man, which also has Stallone as a tough guy in the future.
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You may have read KC's post about the struggles of moving a large comic collection. He estimated 400 boxes of comics. Turned out, once we got a final count, that there were 480 comic short boxes on the truck. (Oh, and they didn't end up reboxing them, thankfully.) Now, a few of them contain stacks of Archive volumes or similar, but that's still an awful lot of periodicals.
With a new home comes a new home insurance policy, and I noticed they had an interesting clause about Memorabilia, which includes 'souvenirs and collector's items such as trading cards, comic books' and similar articles for which the age, history, scarcity, and condition contribute substantially to their value.' We don't have many particularly rare or valuable single issues; it's just that when you count them all up, there are a lot of them. It's the sheer quantity.
But that clause means, to get the comics insured, I need a rider that spells out what's being covered. Which means I need an inventory and an appraisal. Neither of those are a problem ' the former just takes time, and we know people locally in the industry who would be recognized as experts in the field for the latter. The problem is the quote I got. For $300,000 worth of coverage, it's $4800 a year extra.
(And $300,000 isn't enough. Figure 200 comics a box x 450 boxes (rounding down from the count) = 90,000 comics x average $4 replacement cost = $360,000.)
That's a lot of money that doesn't apply if the comics are in book form (so collections are cheaper to keep than issues) or digital (where replacement is a heck of a lot easier). So yet another reason to move to more preferable formats.
The story's at Robot 6: Comic publisher Bluewater ' known for ripping off artists while chasing trends with incompetent and poor quality biographical comics ' is taking its ball and going home. Since not many people are interested in buying their works, Diamond has been canceling Bluewater orders for not making the minimums necessary for Diamond to distribute them. So Bluewater is quitting Diamond, the only significant avenue into the comic shop direct market.
They're now going to be distributed ' and printed ' by something called Comic Flea Market, which, when you have a reputation for putting out badly done comics, may not be the best choice for a name. Company President Darren G. Davis says in regard to choosing to end their relationship with Diamond, 'if we have a book that only sold 500 copies, there's no reason why they should distribute it. But it just doesn't help me as a publisher.'
Well, no, and I would wonder why a publisher would bother putting out a comic that only sold 500 copies. The motivations are different for a self-publisher, of course, and Bluewater may have other sales channels that make up for the low comic market numbers ' but I haven't seen any evidence of such things and don't know what they might be.
Bluewater comics will still be available to retailers at similar discounts as they were getting from Diamond ' if they have any interest and are willing to do the extra work of going direct. I suspect most won't bother. Betting opens now on how long the publisher lasts after cutting themselves off from the most important outlet for periodical comics.
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Viz has announced that, for those titles that are released digitally, they will come out on the same day as the print editions. From the press release:
Beginning today [August 7], all VIZ Manga releases will debut on Tuesdays. In addition, digital volumes of current releases will debut on the same day as its print debut.
Viz has the most comprehensive digital strategy of any manga publisher ' and one that compares favorably to all comic digital releases. They put out a lot of material, make it easy to find on a variety of platforms (Android, iOS, and web), and price sensibly. Where print books start at $9.99, most of their digital releases are only $4.99, and they run frequent sales.
Note that while they're promising that the digital releases won't lag behind the print versions, some titles come to digital early. Blue Exorcist Volume 8, for example, is coming out online three months before its scheduled print release on November 6. Psyren Volume 6 is out now digitally, while the print version ships September 4.
John Jakala has more analysis of what this decision means, including how
It signals Viz's commitment to digital. To be honest, at times I questioned Viz's will and/or ability to stick with digital, but this reassures me.
It makes Viz perhaps the only publisher to charge less than print for digital day-and-date.
That last one is probably the most significant and the place where Viz is the most forward-looking online publisher.
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Viz has announced that their new anime channel Neon Alley will be launching exclusively on the Playstation Network and the PS3 game console this Fall.
They've also snagged the famous pirate series One Piece for the channel. Episodes will air uncut with English dubs. Other new content announcements include Blue Exorcist, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, and Nana.
I'm sorry to hear that they're debuting via an avenue I can't access, but I know that's a wide-ranging established venue for this kind of entertainment.
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The Warner Archive continues its impressive release schedule by releasing Born to Be Bad, a 1950 Nicholas Ray film about a naughty girl wrecking homes and destroying lives. As the site describes it,
Joan Fontaine plays Christabel Caine, the anti-heroine who has the face of an angel and the heart of a savage. King of Noir Robert Ryan plays the rough-hewn writer who is good enough to share her bed, but not her hand, while Zachary Scott plays the aviator millionaire too much the naïf to escape his fate. Joan Leslie and Mel Ferrer deliver standout performances as the bystanders, one victim, one ambivalent witness, to the wreckage Christabel leaves behind.
Christabel steals the millionaire from her cousin while loving and sleeping with Ryan's character ' who knows how truly horrible she is. He's a writer, though, and not rich enough for her. Although black and white, the sets and costumes make for impressive visuals.
The film has been remastered for this release, plus it's got a stunning bonus ' a never-before-seen alternate ending. There were apparently debates between the director and the studio, then run by Howard Hughes, and the director's original choice was only recently discovered. I've seen the movie a few times, and it's always enjoyable melodrama. I can't wait to see the new conclusion! Learn more about this release on the Warner Archie podcast.
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In Justice League #12, out August 29, Geoff Johns is pairing up Wonder Woman and Superman as a couple. ''This is the new status quo,' says Johns, adding that the relationship will have a seismic impact on all the heroes and villains in the DC universe.' The cover shown here is by Jim Lee, who 'took inspiration from Gustav Klimt's The Kiss and Alfred Eisenstaedt's V-J Day in Times Square photograph.' With added bondage elements. I wish they looked a little more romantic or passionate, instead of like posed plastic action figures.
I also dislike the growing trend of removing all the humans from the superhero comics, such that we're only left with stories about 'demigods' pounding on each other. Superman and Lois Lane belong together ' and while I'm sure DC will eventually bring that relationship back as well, since their modis operandi is rewriting older stories and reintroducing pre-existing characters, I'm not that interested in how they get there.
Especially since this seems to be another stunt done to raise controversy and thus sales. As the article says, 'Johns and Lee expect some outcry and certainly some debate. Actually, they're counting on it.' Of course they are. It's easier to sell superheroes these days based on fan emotion instead of good stories.
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I just discovered the cute web video series Husbands through the Jane Espenson (she co-writes) / Nathan Fillion connection. He guest-stars on episode three, shown here:
The show is about a flamboyant actor and well-known baseball player who wind up wed by accident ' they were celebrating equal marriage rights legalization in Vegas and overdid it ' and then decide to stay together to avoid giving the press a story about gays not being able to handle marriage. The first season is 11 episodes, but they're each under three minutes.
The credits don't roll until the last episode, and look what I noticed!
I bet that's the Tania del Rio whose work I enjoyed on the manga Sabrina and other stories for Archie Comics. What a neat little surprise connection!
If you're interested in the series, season 2 has just started, and there's a lengthy (nine minutes) behind-the-scenes with the actors and creators. And if you're a Whedon fan, you may want to check out the cameos in that first episode!
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Nathan Hale (artist and illustrator of the recommended graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge) tells true tales of American history in the new Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series, aimed at kids looking for excitement and humor. The publisher promises 'history's roughest, toughest, and craziest stories in the graphic novel format', and that's what Hale provides.
The first, One Dead Spy, focuses on the author's namesake, Nathan Hale, a Revolutionary War spy famous for the quote, 'I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.' The attitude is very modern, with Hale and his hangman bantering before he's killed and a meta-textual history book showing up to demonstrate to Hale the importance of his last words. It's also entertaining in its sprightly refusal to take anything seriously.
I found myself feeling bad for laughing at a story narrated by someone's who about to die, but Hale does his best to drag us away from that part of the story, not showing us the finale. He does remind us, though, that the only famous spies are the ones who got caught. By the second book, the characters are joking about Hale's pending death, with an almost '1001 Nights' feel to the way he says, 'well, I can tell you that other story, but only if you're not ready to hang me yet.'
The book falls firmly into the category of 'using comics to educate while entertaining', although it puts much more emphasis on the entertainment. It also subscribes to the Great Man approach to history, where biographies of a few key men are considered sufficient to understand other time periods. (I don't recall seeing any women anywhere in either of these books.) In addition to Hale, this volume includes information about Henry Knox, a former bookseller who loved guns and became Chief of Artillery, with mini-bios in the back for other key figures. Plus, an eight-page minicomic at the end tells the story of Crispus Attacks and the Boston Massacre.
The boys this book is aimed at will greatly enjoy the Hangman character, who's ignorant, goofy, and only wants a sandwich. The third narrator, in addition to him and Hale, is a British soldier who provides someone to argue with.
The second book, Big Bad Ironclad!, moves to the Civil War. The three narrators return, still waiting around to hang Hale while telling tales of future history. This time, it's all about the naval battles ' trying to build a blockade, capturing ships, fighting coastal forts, and developing new technology with the metal-plated ships known as 'ironclads'. William Cushing, a prankster and hero, gets plenty of focus, as does the grumpy John Ericsson, Swedish inventor.
The hardcovers are handsome, solid and comfortable to hold. Each is printed in grey and one other color. One Dead Spy uses red; the nautical Big Bad Ironclad! uses blue. They're also long reads for younger readers, since pages might have as many as 15 panels, yet Hale keeps it all readable. And the second book has a running joke about toilets; I think Hale knows his audience.
The series has a companion blog with background information and character sketches. The author also has a really cute unpacking post for the release of the books at his blog. Two more books in the series will be out in summer 2013. (The publisher provided review copies.)
I'm enjoying the Guinea Pig: Pet Shop Private Eye series so much that the books have joined my permanent collection. (Not an easy hurdle to pass, given that space is at a premium right now.) They have a lot of re-read value, and they always pick up my mood with their humor and animal antics.
I've previously covered the first three books in the series:
Hamster and Cheese
And Then There Were Gnomes
The Ferret's a Foot
Now I'm catching up on the two most recent. Fish You Were Here came out last summer, while Raining Cats and Detectives is new this month.
Fish You Were Here begins with the very confused pet shop owner, Mr. Venezi, trying to hire an assistant. Amongst his missteps, he somehow manages to hire Viola, who seems like the perfect choice. She actually knows what all the animals want most. Unfortunately, that makes Mr. V feel unwanted, so tension arises.
The character interaction is what makes this series so charming. Sasspants, the guinea pig, walks the line between suspicious and insightful in her observations ' that's what makes her the great detective. Hamisher's more ebullient passion for art and imagination provides lots of funny lines and silly ideas that are quite entertaining. The fish are nearly mindless in their groupthink but good-hearted, even if they can't even remember their own names. It's all drawn with plenty of expression while keeping the fuzzy creatures cute. Oh, and the fish are cute, too.
In their quest to find Mr. V, the detective duo leaves the pet shop, showing off some of their clever inventions and also visiting with the mice neighbors. It all works out ok, with Viola learning to balance work ethic and watching TV on her laptop, once the pets teach her a lesson, and Mr. V learns that everyone's needed to be part of the big store family.
This is so much a world I want to be part of, from the wide-ranging friendships and cozy community of the animals to the charming neighborhood shops. The opening page of Fish You Were Here shows a diverse group of applicants hanging outside the pet shop, in a row with a bookstore and a bakery and ice cream store. What a lovely area to envision!
Raining Cats and Detectives tackles the difficult question of what happens when some of the pets are bought and have to leave the store. We also meet Tummytickles, the sleepy bookstore cat. The owner, Charlotte, and her niece, Bree, visit as well.
The gags fly fast and furious, with all kinds of creative combinations surprising me. Hamisher's trying to make case files for their new detective office, and his portraits are great. Then comes a new owner for Sasspants, a real-life detective. The other animals try to cope with her absence, while she meets the other inhabitants of her new home ' including some really smart fish! It's silly fun how the other animals think that you become a detective when you put on the right hat. Makes for some charming visuals, though, with even the fish in fedoras. The overall problem, of not wanting any of the animals to actually leave, is even solved in a clever way.
The third in the series of Mickey Mouse strip collections continues providing exciting adventure stories in serialized form.
In the first story in the book, Mickey and Minnie pilot a plane to get food to a snowed-in mountain town, where they also discover a plot to steal the mine's gold. The events are flat-out ridiculous at times ' with a windmill rotor replacing the propeller and a plane launched from the top of a tree used as a catapult ' but they are certainly thrilling. Especially once the pirates show up. The way events keep spilling out demonstrates just how much imagination and creativity Floyd Gottfredson puts into every installment.
The second major story is a Western in which Uncle Mortimer's ranch, and those of his neighbors, are threatened by 'The Bat Bandit'. This tale is full of threats and double-crosses, as Mickey is set up to be thought one of the thieves, as well as some terrific physical sight gags. For a change of pace, the next series sticks with comedy, as Mickey winds up the owner of Bobo, a baby elephant. He spends the whole time trying to get rid of him, finding that being a responsible animal owner isn't all that easy.
Mickey also goes to the Arabian-influenced Umbrellastan to recover 'The Sacred Jewel' with the aid of 'Dippy Dawg' (later renamed Goofy). Pluto next gets the focus in a story about crooked dog track gambling. 'Editor-in-Grief' pits Mickey against crooked politicians as he takes over a newspaper and struggles with racketeers demanding bribes. Donald Duck makes a cameo, too, as a street-corner paperboy.
'Race for Riches' returns the characters to the West, as they look for a hidden stash of gold to pay off the mortgage and keep Clarabelle in her home. That's followed by 'The Pirate Submarine', in which Mickey pilots a 'submarplane' to stop an evil scientist who's been kidnapping ship crews. Both of these stories are reminiscent of earlier tales in general plot structure, but they're still told with verve and pluck.
While the strips are surprisingly entertaining to readers not used to such a vibrant version of the title character, I enjoy the supplemental material just as much. The introduction by Thomas Andrae puts the work in context and point out key observations that aid in getting more out of the comics. Here, for example, we learn, with examples from the Mickey Mouse cartoons of the time, about how he has become more of a grownup leader than the more childlike character of the previous strips. There are also key comparisons with movies and events of the early 1930s period, as the comics take on bigger political topics and set stories on a global scale.
Each story section gets its own introduction, and Bill Blackbeard's piece from The Comic-Book Book (1974) is also reprinted in part. The back section contains additional related art samples, character profiles, and more information on creators and related cartoons.
Amazon isn't selling the first volume of Wandering Son right now, so the third-party sellers that list on that site have bumped up the price on the book. As of this writing, it starts at $65 US.
However, smart shoppers remember that Amazon isn't the only source for online retail. Checking the publisher's site shows that Fantagraphics is still offering the book at cover price. If you're looking for a copy, why not go straight to the source?
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According to Collider.com, Warner Bros. and the WWE will be teaming up for a new Scooby-Doo animated movie in which the gang solves a mystery at Wrestlemania.
Wrestlers such as Triple H, John Cena, Kane, The Miz, and more will lend their voices and animated appearances to the film.
So will Vince McMahon. (I bet they draw him younger and buffer.) There's a long history of bizarre guest shots in the Scooby-Doo cartoons, from Batman and Robin to the Harlem Globetrotters, and if the kids are still interested in wrestling entertainment, hey, why not. The film will be available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download.
I really just wanted an excuse to run this picture of the girls in superhero-like leotards. Love the elbow and kneepads!
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Universal is getting the digital copy thing right. They allow customers to choose their preferred formats and provide both streaming and download options with a single code.
For UltraViolet format, you can choose whether to redeem through Universal, Flixster, or Vudu, plus you also get to pick a download copy through either iTunes or Amazon. I really like that I have both options as well as vendor choices. And the code is good for almost three years, expiring in April 2015.
Of course, that doesn't fix the fundamental problem of UltraViolet, which is that it's still too complicated and rarely works right. The iTunes side was beautiful, just click a link, enter the code, and the movie plus bonus features starts downloading. The only problem was that it was expected to take nine hours over my low-level internet connection I'm using while traveling.
UltraViolet, on the other hand ' I could log into their website, but using the same information through the Flixster side caused either an error or timeout. I'm not sure which, because all I got was a blank screen. All this is while the same browser has a tab open with me logged into UltraViolet using the same credentials that Flixster was choking on. So I ended up having to create a Universal account anyway, which now makes four movie studio accounts I have to go along with my UltraViolet account.
It took me a good half-hour just to get all these systems to recognize a legitimate purchase, not even counting time to actually download and watch it. This is why I still like plastic discs.
Back to the Movie
So, how is The Lorax DVD? Lots of fun, and beautiful to watch. It's short and punchy at an hour 26 minutes, much like its star, Danny DeVito, who's instantly recognizable as the voice of the fuzzy orange Lorax. This film isn't about hiding its voice stars; instead, they cast for recognition, with Betty White most obvious as the grandmother.
The movie adapts and extends (with a framing story) Dr. Seuss' great ecological fable, written long before 'green' concerns became fashionable. Thneedville has artificial trees that run on batteries, so they need machines to provide fresh air, as they explain in a ridiculously over-the-top musical number. Ted (Zac Efron) has a crush on Audrey (Taylor Swift), only she dreams of someday seeing a real tree. Like all great journeys, this one begins with the age-old desire to impress a pretty girl. (Thus playing into the usual stereotype of guys pretending to care about something political in order to get the hippie chick's attention.)
Stalwart Ted's present-day quest is to acquire a tree for the achingly cute Audrey. But in order to find one, he must track down the ancient Once-ler (Ed Helms), who narrates the tale of how he first encountered the Lorax, who in Seussese 'speaks for the trees'. The Once-ler blames himself for destroying the long-ago pastoral environment by creating a consumer fad made from the plants. The Lorax's world is all bubblegum and day-glo, populated by cute and clever bears and a literal Greek chorus of singing fish (the most Seussian of the characters in appearance), whose numbers include both Chopin's Funeral March and the theme from Mission: Impossible. (Illumination Entertainment, the folks behind Despicable Me, clearly believe all their movies must have cute sidekicks, in the vein of the Minions.)
How the Story Is Told
As most everyone knows, the average Seuss book can be read in two to ten minutes ' which is a problem adapting one into a 90-minute animated movie. There are a lot of action/comedy sequences jammed into the film, which don't really advance the story. By the end, they've gotten just plain silly, as the town's mayor (Rob Riggle) and his goons chase the kids and their family to obtain the last tree seed, complete with Matrix-style special effects. But these scenes often present bizarre images ' as when two bears are rubbed together to make static electricity ' which are highly amusing.
There are also several original songs, none of which are bad, but none are very memorable, either (except for the consumerism anthem 'Everybody Needs a Thneed'). The opening number, 'Thneedville', which sets up the story, is very Seuss-like in the way that the townspeople suddenly break into song and then immediately go back to what they are doing as soon as the tune is over. I also giggled at 'How Bad Can I Be?', the Once-ler's anthem of commercial success justifying any action. Its weirdly Communist support marchers provide counterpoint, while the line 'a portion of proceeds goes to charity' reminded me of the recent 'pink ribbon' controversy.
Upon The Lorax's original release, it was criticized roundly for burying the original message of Seuss' book behind glossy animation and production values. I found the environmental message of the film strongly intact, and I think it will find its true following on home video ' along with its true audience of kids who might actually be able to change the world (assuming the in-the-way politicians eventually die off). Perhaps the original reviewers didn't like the film because it wasn't exactly Seuss's book. Or, rightfully so, because the film's promotion was lunk-headedly tied into some very environmentally un-friendly products.
While its intentions are good, The Lorax is still Hollywood gloss at its heart. It's a tad bizarre watching such an obviously artificially made movie talking about how we need to get back to nature, but at least there was always something to see on-screen, with imaginative settings and scenes. The visuals are fantastic and will stick with me. There's something particularly mythic about the way the young Once-ler ' wearing a hipster-like hat and vest ' brings sin into paradise with his first swing of an ax against a tree.
Special Features
The Blu-ray includes three new-to-disc cartoons focusing on the animals. They look somewhat like extended action/comedy outtakes from the film, but they're enjoyable nonetheless. These (and all of the following) can also be seen on the DVD version. These new 'mini-movies' come with a three-and-a-half-minute making-of. You can see glimpses of the new cartoons in this trailer:
'Seuss to Screen' (4 1/2 minutes) features the voice actors and movie makers praising the artist's genius and the way the movie came together.
One deleted scene (1 1/2 minutes) shows in slapstick-y fashion how the scarf-like thneed became a trend.
'Seuss It Up!' is 10 1/2 minutes in three segments showing kids how to draw some of the characters ' the Lorax, the Bar-ba-loots (bears), and the humming fish.
The 'Once-ler's Wagon' is an interactive game where the animals play with objects based on what the viewer clicks. 'Truffula Run' is another game. There's also a sing-along and a directors' commentary.
Due to being on the road, I wasn't able to check the Blu-ray-specific features, but this site has a good rundown based on that particular format. (The studio provided a review copy.)
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