Uncategorized Archives - Page 32 of 130

17FebFebruary 17, 2024

The Iron Vault of Tax Write-Offs: Tim Burton’s Hansel and Gretel

Twitter was blowing up in Twitter rage this week because Coyote vs. Acme's temporary reprieve had run out. Gentle reminder: This movie was about a lawsuit that Wile Coyote launches against ACME, the company whose product line has failed him at every turn. I'll be honest, it sounded to me like the premise for an ultra low budget 1980s Looney Tunes clip show. The kind where there is five minutes of cheap new material inter-spliced with clips from Termite Terrace's golden age...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

16FebFebruary 16, 2024

The Rabid Puppies at Ten Years

I indeed and truly thought I was never going to have anything else to say about the Hugo Awards ever again.I mean what was there to say that hasn’t been said already? There was a time that the Hugo Awards indicated, well I’m leery about calling it excellence because there were too many genuine classics in the field that never got an award. Classic example. The powers that be at the Hugos had been criticized for never giving J.R.R. Tolkien a...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

14FebFebruary 14, 2024

The Dark Herald Does Not Recommend Madame Web

You know you are in for a special treat when everyone’s contacts at Marvel Studios are all saying, “Dude, I swear we had absolutely nothing to do with this one.” No one wanted credit for it. You know how a modern movie has fifteen production company plates at the start of it these days? There were only two for Madame Web “In association with Marvel” meaning this is as far as we can distance ourselves from this thing without endangering...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

13FebFebruary 13, 2024

Totally 80s Comics – First Comics

It’s no real secret that the man with the golden Rolodex is going to get ahead in life. I recently talked to one of the guys that runs a publishing house that is usually near the top of the KU store. He had started with an email newsletter. If you wanted a boost as an author you just sent him your book’s info and he’d give you a boost, provided it was science fiction or fantasy, and not romance or...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

11FebFebruary 11, 2024

80s Table Top – Star Frontiers

Recently, while cleaning out the garage I ran into something I'd completely forgotten about.Finding this book touched off a wave of bittersweet nostalgia for me. 80s tabletop RPGs were unquestionably the best of all time. If you disagree I'm not going to pretend you have an opinion that can be respected. It was the Golden Age. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was still owned by an independent TSR that was controlled by the god of gaming, Gary Gygax. Dragon Lance was taking it mainstream-ish. FASA had...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

09FebFebruary 9, 2024

Is Disney Abandoning California?

There was an all hands emergency meeting at Disney Animation Studios Burbank.They started the meeting by telling the animators that no one at Burbank was being laid off. Which probably means that everyone is being laid off.It turns out that the Moana 2 movie that Bob Iger announced last night is going to be made by a surprise studio that just sprang into existence in Vancouver British Columbia with a staff of 400. Seemingly overnight so far the as the...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

09FebFebruary 9, 2024

The Carano Lawsuit

The reason I haven't covered this suit is simple enough. It's never going to go to Discovery. There is no way on Earth Disney can let it go that far. It's bad enough that the results of LucasFilm's complete dysfunction is available for all the world to see. The one thing Disney doesn't want is to reveal just how disastrous things are behind the scenes. However, part of this suit was actually jaw dropping. Under a lot of pressure to issue an apology...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

08FebFebruary 8, 2024

Disney’s Feb 7 Earnings Call Impressions

Fellow travelers within the cabal are circling the wagons around Bob Iger with a view to preventing Nelson Peltz and Jay Rusulo from getting on the Disney BOD. These weren’t softball questions, these were T-ball questions. Clearly they had been instructed about that which they could and could NOT ask questions about.The closest thing to a hard hitting question was, what are you going to do about the film business? Iger replied with what I think is the most terrifying...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

07FebFebruary 7, 2024

A Less Optimistic Appraisal of the Netflix Avatar Trailer

It's been a while since I posed anything by E;RMostly because it's been a while since he posted anything himself.Regardless he's a bigger Avatar fan than I ever was so I will respect his opinion on this matter.Dour as it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-8TkayFT34 Note: I might not be posting tonight, depending on how interesting the Disney earnings call is today.

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

06FebFebruary 6, 2024

RE:Play – F.E.A.R.

I’ve made no secret of my disdain for Blockbuster Video. When I was a young man and down on my luck, I could count on their brutal return policies to leave me surviving for a week on Cheez-its and Value Star Bean Dip. The company’s insistence on leasing rather than owning their property cut the Blockbuster’s own throat when they were down on their luck. There was a reason Family Video survived for a decade after Blockbuster went under.Nonetheless, there were...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized