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The Romance Will Poke Yer Eyes Out!: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is now enhanced with 3D.

Does Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST need to undergo digital conversion to the 3D format in order to lure audiences back into the theater? It shouldn’t, not really. BEAUTY is a certified classic, the first animated film to net a “Best Picture” Oscar nom and the one that re-energized the Disney animation division. To think that it has to go through a “It’s the film you’ve known and loved, back on the big screen where it belongs… now with candy,” process in order to get butts into seats says more about the current theories of film marketing than it does about what was lacking in the movie itself.

Nevertheless, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is back, and Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons have strapped on the 3D goggles to determine whether the film prospers or suffers from the tweaking, as well as discussing whether the film’s stature still holds some twenty years later, and examining how the contributions of the songwriting team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken permanently transformed animated storytelling.

Plus: Steve delivers his capsule judgement on the apocalyptic thriller THE DIVIDE, and the CFQ team discuss their reactions to the animated short TANGLED EVER AFTER. Plus: What’s coming in theaters.

GOING TO SEE UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING THIS WEEK?
TWEET YOUR “WALK-AWAY REVIEW” TO @cfqspotlight.
(Please don’t tweet during the film!)

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You Can't Go Home Again - Worst-Case Scenario: Patton Oswalt and Charlize Theron in YOUNG ADULT.

Bless screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman their twisted, little hearts. In a season rife with people bettering themselves through moody introspection, they introduce us to Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron), author of young adult novels and a woman who looks within and comes away with all the wrong lessons.

YOUNG ADULT, isn’t season-specific, but it does serve as a healthy counterbalance to all that holiday growth and belonging. In it, Mavis — who generally lives on a diet of Diet Coke breakfasts and hard-liquor suppers — decides on a whim to go back to her hometown, to the bemusement of former high school nerd Matt (Patton Oswalt) and the befuddlement of her one-time sweetheart (Patrick Wilson), for whom she has returned to rekindle their romance, despite the fact that he’s now happily married and recently become a father. It’s going to take more than an Andy Williams holiday marathon to smooth out this homecoming.

Click on the player to hear the Jason Reitman press conference.

YOUNG ADULT
Trailer

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Official Website:
www.youngadultmovie.com

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There Can Be Only One: World Champion Judah Friedlander.

You’ve got to admire the man who, having reached the highest pinnacles of human achievement, still finds it within himself to make the occasional descent and spend time with us lesser mortals. God knows, comedian and actor Judah Friedlander doesn’t need to bother with our petty activities; as universally acknowledged World Champion, he exists on a more exalted plane. Yet he has deigned this year to once again make regular day trips out to Queens, New York, where he graces the set of NBC’s 30 ROCK in his role as sketch writer (and trucker hat model) Frank Rossitano. One can only hope his cast-mates appreciate the effort.

So when my sponsor, Samsung, began their own quest for excellence with their Stage competition, I knew that I had to find out, for the sake of the contestants, what life is like when one is bestowed with the highest of accolades. Judah was gracious enough to give me a glimpse into his illustrious life, as well as discuss how it led to the creation of his book, How to Beat Up Anybody. Click on the player to hear the interview.

MEET JUDAH FRIEDLANDER: WORLD CHAMPION

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THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE WORLD CHAMPION
BUT YOU CAN HELP TALENTED HOPEFULS ACHIEVE
THEIR OWN DREAMS
VOTE NOW AT SAMSUNG STAGE!

CHECK THE VIDEO!

Continue reading »]]> I know the past can come back to haunt you, but who knew that my childhood icons would be making guest appearances at this late date? Hanna-Barbera’s classic cartoon character, Yogi Bear, had his debut some fifty-three years ago, yet when my sponsor, Müller, built an epic commercial around a whole host of pop culture personages, there was Yogi — along with another, somewhat more junior HB creation, Muttley — holding front-and-center in the crowd, clearly the leader of the gang. (You can check out the ad itself and a neat making-of video below.)

That piqued my interest: How does an affable, animated rapscallion born pre-Camelot manage to be beloved by generations who weren’t even glimmers in their parents’ eyes when he was created? I decided the only way to find out was to reach out to the man who knows: Jerry Beck, animation historian and operator of the respected news and history site, cartoonbrew.com.

We had a good, wide-ranging conversation — hear it by clicking the player above.

“Müller Wünderful Stuff”

“The Making of Müller Wünderful Stuff”

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Continue reading »]]> 2011: Definitely a good year for aliens. They waylaid a couple of fanboys, staged a showdown with cowboys, wrecked a tween’s film project, invaded LA, twice (must be the universal lure of In-N-Out Burger) — yessir, if you had more than four limbs and a palate for human flesh, you had a home in theaters over the past twelve months.

But the extraterrestrial infestation wasn’t really the big news in genre film for 2011. With an open couple of weeks before the final onslaught of major science-fiction, fantasy, and horror releases, Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons decided to look back over the year and pick out their favorites in ten categories*, including Best Performance, Best Use of 3D, and Best Film, among others. The selection they’ve come up with may well surprise you. (Hint: A certain film featuring big-ass robots does better than expected.)

Click on the player to hear the show.

*And yes, we acknowledge that this is a provisional list, given that such titles as TINTIN, THE DARKEST HOUR, AND MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL have yet to screen.

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Gears Set in Motion: Asa Butterfield and Chloë Grace Moretz uncover the true heart of film in HUGO.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like there’d be much intersect between HUGO — the fanciful film based on Brian Selznick’s vividly illustrated novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret — and director Martin Scorsese. It’s set in a Parisian railway station circa the 1930’s, so there’s little opportunity for Brooklyn accents; it’s about an orphan boy (Asa Butterfield) who tends to the clocks in that station while hiding out in its secret passages, so there’s little chance we’ll be seeing Joe Pesci kick someone’s ribs in; and it’s driving force is an automaton that contains within its works a secret about the station’s not-so-kindly toy vender, Papa Georges (Ben Kingsley), so forget about hearing any of the traditional, four-letter-word-laced dialogue this time around. It’s only when you find out what that secret is that you realize not only why Scorsese is the perfect choice for this film, but why this may be the film he’s been waiting his entire career to make.

beabetterbooktalker.com’s Andrea Lipinski joins Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons to explore how a tale about the founding father of fantastic film has stirred a legendary director to create his sweetest and most enchanting work, and how it in turn pays tribute to those who seek to instill the sense of wonder in audiences around the world.

Also: Andrea gives her take on THE MUPPETS. Plus: What’s coming in theaters.

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Street Tougher: Adult Swim's BLACK DYNAMITE.

Come 2012, Adult Swim is going to get bad-ass. In honor of the grand and sometimes delirious world of blaxploitation, they’ve latched onto the 2009 feature satire, BLACK DYNAMITE, and are bringing it to the video screen as half-hour, animated series.

With the film’s Michael Jai White and Byron Minns continuing their roles as producers, writers, and stars — White as ex-CIA agent Black Dynamite; Minns as compatriot Bull Horn — plus the feature’s director Scott Sanders helming the episodes and THE BOONDOCKS’ Carl Jones backing them up as exec producer, the show promises to carry forward with the movie’s vision of a world where the hair is big, the lapels are wide and the action is nonstop.

Adult Swim brought in White, Minns, Jones, and Sanders — plus Kim Whitley, who plays Honey Bee — for their roundtables, and we got to speak with all of them. Click on the player to hear the show.

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Page to Page: Jim Henson's typewriter conjures a cinematic establishing shot in TALE OF SAND.

Lest we forget that Jim Henson was about more than Kermit and Big Bird (ahem, DARK CRYSTAL, THE STORYTELLER, and on, and on…), this year’s New York Comic Con staged a panel in which Henson archivist Karen Falk and Archaia Editor-in-Chief Stephen Christy exhibited footage from the Muppet-master’s experimental short films, commercials, and TV plays, and discussed the imminent publication of Tale of Sand, a wry, surreal, Kafkaesque graphic novel based on an unfilmed script co-written by Henson and frequent writing partner Jerry Juhl.

After the presentation, Falk and Christy granted us a few minutes to discuss Henson’s eclectic soul, how that translated into the furiously antic/ominous vision that became TALE OF SAND, and how Henson’s history is tied inextricably to that of CFQ. Click on the player to hear the interview.

Continue reading »]]> You never forget your first Roger Corman film. Mine was THE TERROR, which I admittedly was drawn to out of a combined curiosity over a film that was shot in two days on leftover sets, and that featured a young Jack Nicholson before he became THE Jack Nicholson. But whether it was the cheap-ass drive-in fare with unforgettable titles like ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS or the surprisingly trenchant horror-comedy cheapies like LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS or the lush Poe adaptations that essentially defined Vincent Price for the balance of his career, or the first shots he gave to directors like Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich (TARGETS, yeah!) and Joe Dante, or BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, the STAR WARS knock-off that was more entertaining than any of the official prequels, the man has placed his indelible stamp in the minds of countless genre film fans.

Corman was at the con to sign autographs and promote the new, career-spanning documentary, CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL, and took a few minutes to talk with us.

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Dean Venture succombs to the inexorable pull of the Floyd Hole in THE VENTURE BROS.

Yes, Cinefantastique Online was at the just-wrapped New York Comic Con 2011, and we’re going to be bringing you tons o’ goodies — in both audio and video form — over the coming days (and weeks!). But we figured we should start you off the with the choice of the choice: the full press conference for Adult Swim’s hit series, THE VENTURE BROS, featuring creators Jackson Publick (a.k.a. Christopher McCulloch) and Eric “Doc” Hammer.

It’s close to a full hour of goodness, during which Publick and Hammer not only field questions about the show but — as has become legendary during their press conferences — also take the audience on a wild ride through their fertile imaginations, including expressing frustration for their lack of involvement in the DOCTOR STRANGE movie, confessing an unsettling fascination for a certain, esoteric sex act, and developing on-the-spot an entire action-thriller movie starring Liam Neeson as a man on a desperate quest to rescue his child bride.

Even if you’ve never seen THE VENTURE BROS. (and you should — it’s one of the best animated series going), you should check this out. It’s funny, it’s informative and, fair warning, it’s definitely NSFW. Plug them headphones in.