1,626 Topic by Invid

(2 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I have climbed the mountain.

For their Christmas release this year, Rifftrax has put out a video on demand riff of Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny, from 1972. This is, in no uncertain terms, a masterpiece. The movie is so perfect Mike and friends had to edit two songs out so we wouldn't die from too much perfection. It's also on Youtube I believe un-riffed for those not in the capitalistic spirit this holiday season.

The story is this: in 1971, there was a small amusement park in Florida called Pirates World which had old Coney Island and NYC Worlds Fair rides and hosted lots of rock concerts. Life was good. Then, Disney World opened and their days were numbered. In response, the park did the only thing it could:

They surrounded a horrible Thumbalina movie shot around one of their live theater productions with a wrap around story about Santa stuck in the Florida sand and how the Ice Cream Bunny came and rescued him proving Mickey Mouse is a pussy.

Buy this. Watch this. Your world will never be the same...

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1,627 Reply by Invid

(111 replies, posted in Episodes)

Wait, so the Jews killed Moby Dick too?!?

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1,628 Reply by Invid

(111 replies, posted in Episodes)

DorkmanScott wrote:

And I did like his point that, of all the things one could use to search for a rogue submarine and/or whale, a helicopter is well over on the "less effective" end of the scale.

As shown, yes, but iirc dropping a sonar buoy from a helicopter is a traditional way to find subs. You just don't do it at top speed smile

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1,629 Reply by Invid

(32 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Maybe the computer thinks your memory is just that bad?

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1,630 Reply by Invid

(346 replies, posted in Off Topic)

redxavier wrote:
Invid wrote:

Going by history, I'll pay attention to SKYLON when they're fully funded and bending metal smile

Definitely... at the moment they really need funding. Their first major challenge is to make a full scale prototype and prove the concept of their heat exchanger works, the key to making the two-in-one engine work.

There's a saying a guy in the space newsgroups has that I think fits: "Extraordinary boosters require extraordinary funding." I wish them well, but expect to never hear about them again smile

Then there's some sort of fancy laser-propelled concept, which sounds pretty far off but could be something interested. Reminds me of an 80s anime called Odin, where much of the space travel in our solar system was being done along these laser highways.

Ah, yes, one of the worst anime ever made, and a favorite of mine. It's so clear what the creators were trying to do, and they manage to fail every step of the way. It would be perfect for Down in Front but it's probably too far outside their normal viewing pattern to really understand the horror and the reasons for it smile

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1,631 Reply by Invid

(4 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Thanks for that link. I honestly thought the pictures would be much harder to find then the script, but the middle of the last row does seem to be Pern art.
PunBB bbcode test

If Dorkman can find the script, or even a treatment, I'll buy a second shirt from your store (the first should be getting here any day).

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1,632 Topic by Invid

(4 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Ok, I'm at enough of a loss to come to the experts smile

I'm currently taking another dip into some of my "comfort" books, the first 6 or so Dragonriders of Pern books by Anne McCaffrey. They go down hill once she starts trying to work out a back story and I still haven't made it past All the Weyrs of Pern, but the ones I like I really like (particularly the audio books). Anyways, my mind today wandered to the last serious attempt to film this story: a 2001 Ron Moore (of Trek and Battlestar Galactica fame) TV series for the WB.

This was going to happen. They cast the actors. They built the sets. He wrote the 2 hour pilot, then sent the script for a final approval. Literally a day before the first day of shooting, the script comes back... with requested changes done by another writer that turned it into a Buffy clone. Moore insisted the show stick closer to the books, the studio held firm, and production shut down.
http://www.trektoday.com/news/050401_04.shtml
http://www.annemccaffreyfans.org/forum/ … -2151.html

Now, my searches have come up with little apart from a) the script and some production art is floating around, and b) it's obviously floating where I can't find it. I'm really curious as to what they were going to do, and would love to read the script.

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1,633 Reply by Invid

(346 replies, posted in Off Topic)

SpaceX has done good, no doubt about that, although the fact they ARE the first highlights how hard this stuff actually is. The number of failures are many, and the powerpoint presentations promising the solar system are legion. Going by history, I'll pay attention to SKYLON when they're fully funded and bending metal smile

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1,634 Reply by Invid

(6 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Are they commentaries that have been released? smile It just hit Netflix this week, so if you had I couldn't have seen it until now regardless.

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1,635 Topic by Invid

(6 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Just saw this new DVD on Disney's animation department from 1980-94. Well recommended, and again makes me want to see an original cut of Black Cauldron before Eisner edited it . Oliver and Company was the first Disney movie I went to see in theaters as a teen, and hitting at the same time as the anime wave made me love animation again.

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1,636 Reply by Invid

(9 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Zarban wrote:

Oh right, right, right. Anything that's been optioned and not produced needs to come down. But the article specifically says they're targeting all scripts they own, not just unproduced ones.

Which I call being consistent. If you own it, it's up to you to control access to it. Unless produced scripts are public domain, I don't see the real problem (apart from us wanting to read them)

Fox has been stupid about stuff like this for a long time, tho. I got a cease and desist letter in 1996 because I had a website with, among other things, one page each that had Simpsons and X-Files wallpaper and icons that I created. Paramount, on the other hand was apparently unconcerned about my Indiana Jones page.

It goes in cycles. Paramount cast a blind eye on lots of stuff in the fan community as it kept interest up in "cult" shows like Trek. But they have come down on some stuff now and then, if they think you're making money or if they want to make money selling what you're now doing for free. A wave of cease and desist letters around the publishing industry scared the publisher of the unauthorized Trek Nitpickers Guides to pull the plug after 4 volumes, even though they hadn't been targeted yet. That was a sad day...

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1,637 Reply by Invid

(30 replies, posted in Episodes)

Actually it reminded me of the 1991 anime film 'Roujin Z', written by Katsuhiro Otomo of 'AKIRA' fame. A new computerized hospital bed breaks out of the hospital with an old invalid in it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roujin_Z

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1,638 Reply by Invid

(30 replies, posted in Episodes)

DorkmanScott wrote:
beldar wrote:
Matt Vayda wrote:

if only they'd had Boujou.

$10k a copy? Jesus. *raises glass* Long live Blender and those like it.

Which is a bit like saying "Who would spend money on a forklift when you can get a cheap van off Craigslist?" Because even if the van runs great, it can't do what a forklift does. And a $10k forklift is better than none at all.

Which brings to mind what someone said about the high price of Apple's photo software Aperture, to the effect that if it's too expensive then you're not a professional. Which I think finally made my ex-brother in law realize his hobby was still just that...

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1,639 Reply by Invid

(30 replies, posted in Episodes)

Seth_Brower wrote:

A fantasy novel that approaches this on two fronts is that of Mistborn, the back of the book quote that kinda sold the idea to me was ... wow this is from memory so ... There was a hero that was destined to defeat the great evil and save the world, there is always a hero, but what if in this story he failed, and now we live in the world that is left.

Reminds me of a story idea I had as a teen, of what if the heros actually DID defeat evil which tossed the universe out of balance, and our main character had to work to bring evil back. Scenes like being happy his minions perform their first rapes is why I never actually wrote it smile The original Dragonlance books had a similar theme for the backstory, where the Gods decided the world had become too good so they let evil rule for awhile.

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1,640 Reply by Invid

(30 replies, posted in Episodes)

I think they all have to have SOMETHING for the hearing impaired, so if there's no subtitle option there have to be closed captions.

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1,641 Reply by Invid

(30 replies, posted in Episodes)

After hearing you guys comment on no subtitles for either this or Reservoir Dogs... have you tried just using the closed captioning on the TV? That's how I got subtitles on Reservoir Dogs while listening to you guys.

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1,642 Reply by Invid

(30 replies, posted in Episodes)

This is going to be interesting on my end because the only copy of the movie I have at the moment is one where I added an iRiff to the audio, so along with the faint dialog I'll hear faint mocking while listening to you guys do your thing.

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1,643 Reply by Invid

(12 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Teague made some good suggestions. My one beef with the site is I'd like to know which commentaries are syncing to a PAL version of the film. I can make a guess, based on a .uk web site, but it saves time to have that information right up front smile

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1,644 Reply by Invid

(2,061 replies, posted in Episodes)

I'm a non drinking non social atheist anyways, so fun was never in the equation smile

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1,645 Reply by Invid

(2,061 replies, posted in Episodes)

After Armageddon, I think some controls would be needed in the drinks department for something like this. A designated commentator maybe, who would stay sober and could toss anybody having a bit too much off of the couch smile

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1,646 Reply by Invid

(2,061 replies, posted in Episodes)

And if you have people dropping out and coming in to take over, we could see what a Teague-less commentary is like smile

Maybe you could do the animated Hobbit the week before.

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1,647 Reply by Invid

(20 replies, posted in Off Topic)

You probably would have liked it better with a framing sequence, like in The Wizard of Oz where we find it was a dream where as in the book it was real. Maybe we discover it was a grandfather telling the kids what he did during the war. Or a fake title card where we learn this is from a recently discovered un-produced 1942 script. Because that's what I think this is, a war time movie where the actors get to win all the victories the actual military at the time isn't doing yet.
(haven't seen the movie yet, just going by the reports)

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1,648 Reply by Invid

(111 replies, posted in Episodes)

To be fair, there was no forum when the first episode came out (or at least few of us were here) and we don't bother going back to comment on old episodes. Now, the fact everyone is ignoring the Reservoir Dogs thread in favor of this... smile

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1,649 Reply by Invid

(20 replies, posted in Off Topic)

beldar wrote:

I've always thought of movies as either art (like Alien) or not art (like Aliens).

I definitely don't go along with that. It's all art, but we can divide it up by kind and quality.

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1,650 Reply by Invid

(20 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Wait, I think you've come up with a new tshirt idea- "Down in Front: DIF-ing movies since 2009"

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