I'm BACK! (And I Brought A Friend)

Greetings, friends!!
I'm back. In retrospect, frustrating as it was at the time, the fact that due to problems with the Blogger web-site I was unable to update The Word From On High for two days was a good thing. After four months of posting nearly every day, I was getting a little burnt out. So I took a couple of extra days off, after a perfunctory post to let the world know I hadn't slit my wrists in the bathtub, to renew my creative energies and revive my will to write. And to eat and sleep, neither of which I do enough of. It is, however, time to get back to the daily grind of the unforgiving blogosphere, lest I lose my audience completely. If I take any more time off, my five readers may abandon me in frustration. Besides, the daily routine provdes me with some semblance of sanity or an unreasonable facsimile thereof, sorta.
Okay, I'm rambling. Let's move on.
In the near future, I'm finally going to get to some reviews of books I picked up at SPACE last month, and take a look at what the broadcast TV networks have in store for us in the fall, and tell you what I really think of Last Comic Standing.
For today, though, I thought I'd ease back into the swing of things and share some pictures from the aforementinoned Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo, which took place right here in the magical land of Columbus, Ohio on May 13.
The first pic is of me posing with the Drunken Cat eponymous namesake of Drunken Cat Comics. (Click on that link for a shot of Cerebus writer/artist Dave Sim hobnobbing with the DC)
The second is me wearing the head of the Drunken Cat costume and standing next to Drunken Cat Comics guiding light, Brian Canini.
Big THANKS to Brian for sending me copies of the pics and for allowing me to stick my greasy head into his nice home made mask.

Too Much Tim

It's ironic, isn't it?

After two days of being unable to update The Word From On High because I couldn't access the Blogger site, I don't really feel like writing anything today. Maybe I'll take the weekend off as well and get my head together (by which I mean drink heavily).

One thing, though...What's up with that Tim Meadows guy?

Between Last Comic Standing and Game Show Marathon, it was almost impossible to get away from his smarmy, self satisfied grin this past couple of weeks.

Is he just a total TV whore who will do anything to get his face on the boob tube, no matter how ridiculous? If he's that desperate to get on TV, maybe he should just swallow what little pride he may have left and go crawling on his belly back to Lorne Michaels, admit that his "movie career" is a pathetic joke and an abject failure, and beg Michaels to let him back on Saturday Night Live. After all, anyone who'd appear on Game Show Marathon obviously has no self respect.

All right, that's all the bile I wish to spew today. The trivia quiz shall return next Friday.

Billy Preston Dies..

Singer-songwriter Billy Preston dead at 59

From jamming with the Beatles to being the musical guest on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live, Preston had quite a career in the 60's and 70's. I remember my friend Jonny Hartwell telling me, one time when I played Prteston's Nothing From Nothing on an oldies radio show I hosted on WCCB, the Clarion University of Pennsylvania student radio station, that it was the first record he ever bought. For me, it was one of the songs on the radio that helped define the summers of my childhood. I'm sorry if I'm rambling a bit here. I don't really have much to say here, I'm simply too overcome with shock, sadness and nostalgia.

Ill Omen

Not a lot of movies get released on Tuesdays, but I guess if your movie is a remake of the 1976 horror classic The Omen the date 6/6/06 is almost two good to pass up. In fact, the smarmy smart asses at The Other Paper have even joked that the only reason the film was even made was to take advantage of the date. As much as I hate to agree with anything printed in that not-fit-even-for-wrapping-fish piece of pseudo-journalistic garbage, I think that they may be onto something, because from all I've seen and heard of this new Omen I can't think of any other reason for it to exist.

The new Omen is billed as a "faithful remake" and comparing trailers from the two films last week, I noticed that many scenes had pretty much recreated exactly. In his review, Frank Gabrenya of The Columbus Dispatch states that the remake was made using the same script of the original. If you're going to remake a movie, especially one as well regarded as the original Omen, then you should have something new to bring to it. A shot for shot rehash like this is simply a waste of time and film, and the studio could have just saved themselves the cost of making this travesty and re-released the original.

Reality Preview: America's Got Talent

Two of the most annoying men on TV are teaming up to bring us the latest "reality" show hoping to cash in on the success of American Idol. The annoying men are Idol's co-creator Simon Cowell, and the man who helped kick off the current "reality" TV craze as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Regis Francis Xavier Philbin, and the show is called America's Got Talent, created by Cowell and hosted by Philbin, debuting on NBC on June 21.

Unlike other recent talent competitions, such as Idol, So you Think You Can Dance and Last Comic Standing, AGT is open to anybody with (or without) any talent. The promos have shown singers, dancers, and even jugglers. Personally, I hope to see a plate spinner. You never see plate spinners much anymore, not since the demise of The Ed Sullivan Show. (I do remember seeing one on David Letterman's show a few years back, though..which is appropriate, as Dave broadcasts out of the Ed Sullivan Theater) It would be a shame for plate spinning to become a lost art, even though it is kind of a silly thing for people to be entertained by. But then again, so is 85% of what's on TV.

A Rare Admission of Error

DAMN. DAMN! DAMN!!

I really, really hate to be wrong, and I hate admitting that I was wrong even more.

However, it is important to me to maintain the faith and trust of my readers, therefore I will admit the rare mistakes that I do make.

A while back, I posted a trivia question that asked for Clark Kent's favorite book, and the answer was To Kill A Mockingbird. Later, when I read the collected edition of the Reign of the Supermen storyline, published in trade paperback as The Return of Superman, it was the film version of Mockingbird that was revealed as Clark's favorite movie. I wondered if I'd remembered it wrong or if DC had changed it for the book for some reason.

My copies of the original issues are stored in my sister's basement, so I couldn't check right away. In fact, it wasn't until yesterday, when I was at her house for the monthly poker game which she graciously allows me to hold there, that I was able to dig out the relevant comics.

Well, it turns out that I had, in fact, remembered that sequence from Superman #81 (Sept. 1993) differently than Dan Jurgens had actually written it. To Kill A Mockingbird is, in fact, Clark Kent's favorite movie.

I guess a guy like Superman who's constantly saving the world from super-villains and alien invasions just doesn't have a lot of time for reading novels. Although, as he is a newspaper reporter, it sort of made more sense to me that he would prefer the printed version to the film. (But expecting anything written by Jurgens to make any sort of sense on any level is futile, but that's an entry for another day perhaps.)

"Reality" Preview: Big Brother All-Stars

The summer "reality" TV season is in full swing and Survivor and American Idol clones are set to dominate the brodacast networks schedules for the next three months. Up until I started blogging about "pop culture" on a daily basis and needed material about which to write, I pretty much avoided the "reality" genre, with one big exception.

Big Brother has been what you might call a "guilty pleasure" of mine for a few summers now. I first began watching with BB3. I did not have cable, so my TV viewing options were somewhat limited, and on Thursday nights I'd fallen into the habit of watching Whose Line Is It Anyway? until about mid-summer when ABC kept pre-empting it with movies. I'd lost interest in Friends a couple of seasons before, and I can't remeber what Fox was offering but I do know that I wasn't interested. So my options were shutting off the TV and reading a book, or watching BB3. I chose BB and ended up hooked. I eagerly look forward to the arrival of each year's new set of houseguest to my TV screen. This year, though, the houseguests won't be completely new to the game.

Ever since Survivor did it's All-Star edition, I've been wondering if we'd ever see a similar stunt on BB. Well, this summer we will. BB7 is the BB All- Stars competition. In a BB special on June 21, CBS will roll out a list of 20 houseguests from seasons past who are vying for the chance to return to the house and take another shot at the half million dollar prize. BB fans will then have one week to vote on-line for who gets to come back.

The voting, and the unveiling of the candidates, is still about two and a half weeks away, but I was browsing the CBS site, and the homepages for past editions of BB, to refresh my memory a bit and I have come up with a list of 12 past BB houseguests whom I would like to see again. Of course, I have no idea who's on the list that I'll be voting from (and I will be voting), these are simply some of my favorites.

From BB3: Marsallis and Amy. Marsallis is one of the most popular houseguests ever, so he most likely will be back, and Amy was his best friend in the house.

From BB4: Retired FBI agent Jack, and former couple Robert and Erika

From BB5: Will, Nakomis (Jennifer), and Marvin

Finally, from BB6: Howie and his BB6 partner Rachel, Janelle, and Kaysar. Kaysar, during his first stint in the BB house (he was evicted and voted back in on-line by the audience), may have been the best strategic player the game has yet seen. He let his emotions get the best of him after his return and his second chance lasted only a week. I think he deserves a third shot.

Well, that's all for today. Gotta run.

(Now, THAT'S Trivia! #17) A ? About Prince

Okay, for today I have come up with probably my most obscure piece of trivia yet...except for the one about the movie 48 Hours and Zagnut bars. Yeah, that was a bit esoteric.

Anyway, today's question concerns Prince and his performance of his 80's classic "Kiss" at the ceremony in which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 2004. There's a line in the original version that goes: "You don't have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude.." For his 2004 performance Prince plugged in the name of a more recent, and I believe still running at the time, show. What was it?

The answer is at the Answer Blog.

Whatever Happened To...That Guy...From That TV Show?

I was watching Last Comic Standing on Tuesday night, and among the thousands of people vying for a spot in the next round I was surprised to see someone I actually recognized, Marc Price, the former child actor who played the Keaton's annoying next door neighbor "Skippy" on the quintessentially 80's sitcom Family Ties. He joked that he chose Last Comic Standing to make his return to weekly TV because his only other option was Celebrity Fit Club (seems he's gained a pound or two since Ties ended).

Back when I was in college, only a couple of years after Ties ended and more people still knew who he was, Price did a show at my college, Clarion University of Pennsylvania. I didn't attend and I've always regretted that. (I do not, however, regret my decision to stay home when Yakov Smirnov came to campus.)

It looks like little has changed for Price in the twenty years since he passed through Clarion, Pennsylvania. Apparently, he's still doing his stand up act and attempting in vain to recreate his seven and a half minutes of near fame. At least he seems healthy and well-adjusted, not dead, on drugs, or in jail like some other former child stars.

Unfortunately for "Skippy" (I bet he hates it when people call him that, and I bet many still do), despite being invited back by the judges to perform in front of a live audience, he failed to advance to the semi-finals. Well, Skipster, there's always The Surreal Life.

By the way, all this has got me wondering whatever became of Saved By The Bell's Dustin Diamond (Screech)?

Summer Movie Preview--Clerks II

"Ten years ago,

they were going nowhere.

Sadly,

they've finally arrived."

Even with a new X-Men movie out and the return of the Superman film franchise, there really wasn't any movie scheduled to come out this summer that I was really looking forward to. That is, until I checked out some trailers on-line before writing yesterday's entry. Now there is one flick that I can't wait to see, and no, it sure as hell ain't Snakes On A Plane (Geeeezz, just the title gives the creeps.) I'm talking, of course, about the film whose trailer I quote above, Clerks II, the sequel to the 1994 low budget cult favorite that launched Kevin Smith's career.

Smith claims that he made the film because, while working on the 1oth anniversary DVD of the original, he was reminded of why he loved these characters and why he got into film making in the first place. Apparently, Smith also promised Jason Mewes, aka Jay of Jay and Silent Bob, that if Mewes could stay off drugs, he'd make one more Jay and Silent Bob picture.

Whatever Smith's reasons for making the film, I'm glad he did. Unlike some of his other film, like Dogma, he appears to have no message to convey or axe to grind and set out merely to make people laugh. Which, if the trailers are any indication, he has done.

The humor is in the same vein as the first Clerks, perhaps even more extreme, but the setting is new.

The Quik Stop burns down..

Randall surveys the wreckage. "Terrorists?"

No. Not quite.

"I left the coffee pot on again, didn't I?"

Yep.

...and Dante and Randall move into a field even more degrading and dehumanizing than working in a convenience store---Fast Food. They end up at Mooby's, the fictional fast food chain that was, I believe, introduced in Dogma, bringing their eternally adolescent disrespect for both the bosses and the customers, especially the customers, with them.

Not much more to say until I've seen it, so I'm outta here.

See you tomorrow.

Suumer Movie Preview--World Trade Center

The "summer movie season" officially started this past weekend, although in reality it's been in full swing for a while with Mission: Impossible III in theaters for the better part of a month now. There are plenty of wanna-be blockbusters on the way, including Superman Returns; Cars; Pirates of the Caribbean II; a Garfield sequel; a remake of The Omen; the bizarrely, yet intriguingly, titled Snakes On A Plane and even a Miami Vice movie, but I want to talk about a couple of films coming up in the next few months that aren't your typical summer "popcorn movie."

A few weeks ago, prior to the release of United 93, many people were saying it might be too soon for a Hollywood treatment of 9/11, but the quality and power of the film has won over most critics. The next 9/11 film to hit theaters, World Trade Center, may be controversial for other reasons, and I suspect that many people will make judgments about it before having seen it based solely on the man in the director's chair, Oliver Stone.

Since he made JFK back in 1991, Stone has, perhaps undeservedly based on his overall body of work, aquired a reputation as a purveyor of paranoid conspiracy theories. However, from all I have heard and seen of WTC, including the trailer, it seems that this time out Stone has left the conspiracy theories on the cutting room floor and filmed a straightforward, respectful and emotional story of two police officers trapped in the wreckage of the Twin Towers and their families' nervous vigil awaiting word of their fate.

Paranoid or not, Stone is a master of cinematic storytelling and World Trade Center should actually be worth seeing.

Next time, I'll give you my advance take on Clerks II.

The Word From The Box Office

Anyone who could not have predicted that X-Men: The Last Stand would top the box office this past weekend has no business writing about pop culture. The film's $120 million opening weekend is apparently a record for a film hitting theaters on Memorial Day weekend. (More details and complete box office top ten here.) So, I'm betting that this won't be the Last Stand for Professor X and his merry band of mutants after all. The boys at Fox have to be looking at that bottom line and drooling, besides I read in Playboy that they already got Kelsey Grammar to sign on to another film when he inked the deal to play the Beast.

Over The Hedge, meanwhile, continues to defy my will and fly in the face of my earlier prediction that it would disappear quickly, checking in at #3, with The Da Vinci Code filling the second slot. Mission: Impossible III, the sequel to a remake of a 60's TV show, and Poseidon, the remake of Irwin Allen's disaster epic, The Poseidon Adventure, round out the top five.

Y'know, whether Poseidon is a good film or not, and most reviews I've seen lean toward not, it has one distinct disadvantage compared to Allen's original: no Ernest Borgnine.

(STRAY THOUGHTS) Topic: In Concert

I was rereading George Carlin's book Napalm and Silly Putty recently, in which the "About the Author" blurb claims that Carlin performs over one hundred concerts a year.

Really?

What instrument does Geroge Carlin play? Has anybody ever heard him sing?

A comedian's performance isn't a "concert." A concert is a musical performance. Comedians stand up on stage and tell jokes. The only stand up comedian you could say gave "concerts" was Steve Martin, because at least he played the banjo. He even had a hit single with King Tut.

Apparently, there are also "dance concerts." Wrong. No such thing. Sure, there's music involved, but it's not the main point of the performance and the featured performers aren't making the music, just reacting to it. So it's not a concert.

So You Think Anyone Really Wants To Watch This Crap?

Success breeds imitations, often really, really, egregiously awful imitations, and sometimes the worst, most godawful imitators are the product of the creators of the original success. Simon Fuller, who with that other Simon, Simon Cowell, created American Idol is also responsible for the virulently lame Idol clone So You Think You Can Dance. Fuller has copied the Idol formula down to the minutest detail, from the open auditions in which untalented losers are held up for public derision to the bickering between judges. There's even a smarmy Brit among the judges.

Bad dancing, however, just doesn't have the entertainment value or mass appeal of bad singing, although the guy who slipped and smashed his nose into the floor during his audition was good for a chuckle or two. That kind of thing never happens on Idol, I'll bet. Overall, though, I was just bored.

The judges weren't very entertaining either. There was no one gushing mindlessly as Paula Abdul does on Idol, or desperately trying to sound hip like Randy Jackson. (Was he really in Journey? Now, that is not hip at all.) Furthermore, the British judge, Nigel, is most definitely no Simon Cowell. He lacks Simon's ego, his mean streak and his warped, sometimes cruel, sense of humor. In short, Nigel is too damned nice.

I don't think airing this the day after Idol's finale was a great idea. Fox should have allowed some time for memories of Idol to fade before foisting this lame, watered down copy on the public.

(Now, THAT'S Trivia! #16) Wandering X-Men

The third and supposedly (until the opening weekend box office numbers come in, I'll bet) final installment of the X-Men movie series opened today, so this week's trivia question examines some of the travels and travails of a trio of members of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's original team from the early 60's, also known as the Silver Age of Comics.

It's hard to believe now, but back then X-Men was Marvel's lowest selling title, and was all but cancelled in the early seventies. The book continued by reprinting earlier issues from #66 through #93, until Len Wein, Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum introduced a whole new, and far more popular, team of mutants in Giant Size X-Men #1. Original team members Cyclops and Jean Grey, formerly known as Marvel Girl, stayed with the new team, but Angel, Beast and Iceman went off to make their way in the world away from Professor Xavier's school. These three did not rejoin the X-Men until the early 90's and spent the 70's and 80's with a variety of other super-hero teams.

Can you name those teams?

The answer is, as always, at The Answer Blog.

Meanwhile, among those who've commented, opinion on whether or not I should continue the weekly trivia questions is evenly split. So, for the foreseeable future, I'm going to keep it up.

Idol Wrap Up

Last night, I watched two hours of filler with dubious entertainment value, including a "surprise" appearance by Clay Aiken that a blind man could have seen coming from due to its obvious and awkward set-up, to get to the formal announcement of what was pretty much a foregone conclusion by that point; that Taylor Hicks had defeated Katherine McPheeble to win the fifth season of American Idol.

Even though when he first showed up during the Vegas auditions no one could have imagined that he'd make it into the top twenty-four, let alone the top twelve or, perish the thought, all the way to the finale, Taylor's victory was pretty much assured weeks ago when Paris and Chris, the only remaining contestants who could have offered him any real competition, got sent packing. With Chris gone, Taylor found himself up against two singers, Elliot and Kat, whose performance varied widely in quality from song to song, often within the same episode. Hicks, on the other hand, while not the best singer in the game this season, consistently gave his best each and every time.

I'd never watched Idol before this season, but I would willing to bet that Taylor's improbable rise has to be the unlikeliest Cinderella story in the show's history. How, you have to have asked yourself at some point, did this happen? How did Taylor Hicks manage to outlast seasoned performers and better singers and win American Idol? The answer lies in the fact that even though Idol is, as Simon Cowell constantly reminded us throughout the season, a singing competition, the people who decide the outcome are not, for the most part, music industry professionals. (The country, not to mention the recording industry, would be in real trouble if there really were 63 million record company executives out there)

Simon said at one point that Taylor really was a good singer despite his "balminess," totally missing the fact that it was that very quality that had taken Hicks that far and would propel him to victory. More than his vocal talent, it was his boyish Southern charm and his spastic dance moves that endeared him to the viewers and, more importantly, the voters. Cowell also once compared him to someone's drunken uncle at a wedding, a type we all know and, despite himself, love, and want to succeed. We voted for Taylor because we liked him and wanted him to win.

As for the finale episode itself, it was, as I hinted above, about an hour and fifty minutes too long. The awards parody was lame and unfunny. Besides, Idol. itself may not have won any awards, but first season winner Kelly Clarkson picked up a Grammy or two this year and just Tuesday night season 4 winner Karrie (am I spelling that right--I ahve no idea) Underwood took two Academy of Country Music Awards. That should be validation enough, I'd think. It was nice to see some of the previously eliminated contestants again, though I hope that after last night I never have to see that little twerp Kevin Covais again. I do wish, however, that they'd let Mandisa have a solo number. She deserved it. She was the best female vocalist in the top twelve and her departure took a little bit of the luster off the proceedings.

So, now that Idol is over for this year, and with my season ending wrap-up put to bed, I can move on and begin looking forward to Big Brother 7.

By The Seat of Their Pants

The great state of California has long held a reputation as a place where strange people do strange things for strange reasons, perhaps coming from its position as center of the American entertainment industry. The latest bit of weirdness from the Left Coast, however, has nothing to do with celebrities or even Scientology, showing that odd behavior is not the exclusive province of Tom Cruise.
California appears to be suffering a minor epidemic of men found stuck in chimneys without their pants. You may remember this item that I clued you into a few weeks ago:

Santa? No! It's Naked chimney guy!

It concerns a man who got himself locked out of his house and attempted to gain entry via the chimney, first shedding his clothes lest they slow his descent.

On its own, its an anomaly; a weird but meaningless curiosity. But yesterday, I came across this item:

'Stargazer' Says He Fell Down Chimney

Now, it's a trend.

The latest incident involves a man who claims he was up on a roof to "look at stars" when he tumbled into the chimney and got stuck near the bottom. Thinking quickly, he removed his pants and began waving them around in order to set off the home's motion detectors and summon aid. Eventually, it worked, and he was subsequently arrested on suspicion of burglary.

The story he told about being up on the roof to look at stars doesn't wash, since his arrest for burglary would seem to indicate that this was not his house, thus why would he be stargazing from that particular roof? Maybe he meant that he took a few moments to check out the sky before going about his business of breaking in to the home and fell down the chimney moments before he would have jumped down it anyway.

So, what's behind this rash of pantsless men stuck in chimneys? Me--I blame global warming, the all purpose villain for the new millenium. Or maybe Californians really are as nuts as the rest of the country thinks they are. I do have an uncle out there who, in the few times I've actually seen him, has never quite struck me as being totally sane. Whatever the cause, I shall keep you abreast of further developments on the pantsless guy in chimney front as I hear of them.

What I Won't Be Watching Tonight

After nearly four months, the improbable rise of Taylor Hicks reaches its crescendo tonight and tomorrow as the fifth season of American Idol concludes. After Mandisa left several weeks ago, I half jokingly predicted that Taylor would be taking what I had thought would be her place in the final two. Serious or not, it turns out that I was right. Of course, I was still convinced he'd be facing off against Chris Daughtry, so I won't be quitting my day job and going into the full time psychic biz anytime soon.

Now, if you're not an Ido worshipper, let's see what the other broadcast networks are offering up in competition.

The soon to be one mini-networks UPN and WB, most likely just biding time until the debut of the CW network in September, are just going with repeats of regular series, Gilmore Girls and America's Next Top Model. NBC ain't putting up much of a fight either, slapping up a lame clip show called Most Outrageous Moments. I wonder if it includes the outrageous moments when some moron at the network thought Deal or No Deal and Celebrity Cooking Showdown sounded like good ideas.

CBS is giving us The Academy of Country Music Awards. As far as I'm concerned, there hasn't been any country music worth awarding, or even listening to, for about twenty years. The only possible reason to watch this is that it's being hosted by the lovely Reba McEntire. She's also the only real reason to watch the otherwise astoundingly average sitcom that bears her name. Reba isn't on the CW's announced fall schedule, but there's a possibility that it may return in mid-season.

Finally, ABC is airing Stephen King's Desperation. With the ratings Idol's been getting this season, the title Desperation is an apt one for anything seeking to compete with it. TV Guide describes this King outing as a story about "...a small town plagued by a big evil." I used to read a lot of King's books (before Misery, a book so awful that it turned me off the man's writing for life) and that description could cover about half of his total output. So, it doesn't appear that Desperation is going to offer anything particularly original, but if you're a King fan, "more of the same" is what you expect from him.

Looking back over the shows I've just described, I can see that, Idol or no Idol, except for Gilmore Girls, which is one of my all time favorite shows, I probably wouldn't watch any of that crap anyway.

At The Box Office

Well, for the moment, at least, it appears that Over The Hedge won't be disappearing all that quickly from theaters after all, despite the "Wendy's Curse," as a manager at one Wendy's restaurant dubbed my theory that every movie Wendy's is involved in promoting bombs. (I don't call it a curse because I don't believe in curses.) Hedge took in over 37 million bucks to land at No. 2 in ticket sales for last weekend. The reviews I've seen have been pretty decent, so Hedge might just be sticking around for awhile.

Of course, we all know what's going to be the No. 1 film at the box office for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. Yep, it'll be X-Men: The Last Stand, the (supposedly) final installment in the X trilogy.

I say "supposedly" because you can be sure that if Last Stand makes anywhere near the moolah the first two did, 20th Century Fox execs will be thinkin' sequel. Sure, director Brian Singer intended the series to be a trilogy, but Singer split the Xavier School for Metropolis, Krypton and points west to guide the cinematic comeback of a certain strange visitor from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. (According to the Internet Movie Data Base, Singer is already signed for what is currently known as Untitled Superman Returns Sequel, due in 2009. I like that title. they should keep it.) With Singer gone, the backroom bigwigs could probably give less than a flying fig about his "vision" for the X series, and likely care more about milking that cash cow until it dries up. So get in line now for X4, coming in 2009 to a theater near you!

Hedging My Bets

The new computer animated film Over The Hedge, which opened yesterday, is going to tank. It'll be at the second run theaters in less than a month.

Why do I say this? Because Wendy's has the kid's meal toy account, and over the last few years every film that Wendy's has helped promote, from Quest For Camelot to Muppets From Space to, most recently, Curious George, has been gone from theaters after just two or three weeks. You know I don't believe in curses, so let's call it a "trend."

One thing that Hedge has going for it that may help it buck the trend is that it's computer animated, which has pretty much box office gold ever since Toy Story, so much so that traditional hand drawn animation has all but disappeared. Even Disney has abandoned hand drawn features in favor of compute animated fare.

I'm not sure this is such a wise decision. On a behind the scenes documentary on The Incredibles DVD, one of the animators relates the trouble they had getting Violet's hair right. At one point, the animators and programmers were ready to give up, believing the realistic animating of long hair to be "theoretical" at that time.

That's the main reason why I'm not in favor of the wholehearted embrace of computer animation at this time. Computer animation just isn't at the stage where it's ready to completely replace hand drawn animation. To a man with a pencil and pen, after all, nothing is "theoretical."