Comic-Con has been a staple of San Diego county summers for 40 years. It is, in fact, become so large an entity that other larger venues are wooing the convention and the consensus is that Comic-Con’s days at the San Diego Convention Center are numbered.
Oddly enough, I have never found the time to make it to this 4-day event and on the occasions when I’ve decided to go, the event was sold out. But because I have a friend who goes religiously every year, this year I got a goody bag.
In addition to the 2010 souvenir book, I got Brightest Day (issue #0) and a beautiful tee-shirt for the upcoming Jon Favreau directed movie, “Cowboys and Aliens,” which I am not showing here until September.
Sadly, because there are so many creepy people in the world, I don’t want to name my friend, but I have directed her to this post and I want to say publicly and loudly, “Thank you so much!! These gifts made my year!”
While channel surfing this evening I came across the latest incarnation of this classic, cross-generational cartoon on Cartoon Network. And I admit that I was surprised and very pleased by this latest version.
Probably, the biggest surprise concerning this 40 year old franchise is Velma. First off, Velma looks like she lost about 20 pounds and secondly, she and Shaggy are a couple. (Shaggy wants to keep this a secret from Scooby which irritates Velma to no end.)
The “meddling kids” in this version are in high school and live with their parents. Their home town, Crystal Cove, is the home of monster sightings and has built its tourism trade upon that fact. The gang still investigates sightings and attempts to expose the fakes, all to the dismay of the local sheriff.
As someone who has watched all of the resurrections of this series, to include the ones with Scrappy-Doo, this version is a delight. The voice acting is grand to include Mindy Cohn (The Facts of Life) as Velma and Matthew Lillard as Shaggy (Shaggy in the live action movies). But what makes this show a winner is that the story is about the group dynamics of the people trying to hook up and discover who they are and not solely about Shaggy and his dog as comedy relief. It means for the first time in more than 25 years I can actually watch an episode from beginning to end. It means I liked what I saw and hope for more of the same.
Last week, I talked about creating a website for the 1950’s TV show, Have Gun – Will Travel. Well, I did and while it is, frankly, still a work in progress, it is basically complete.
BillA1’s Have Gun-Will Travel Tribute Website has the series back story and links to other HGWT sites. This site is something different for me. Normally, I create sites to hold my stories with very little linking back to original show. This time everything on my site links back to another original site. Eventually, I hope to write stories that will fill out the site the way my JLU site is.
Anyway, the site is up and it is time for me to get to work on tales to fill it out. Comments are welcome.
This has been a long five day weekend for me and it’s been an interesting couple of days.
- Have been reading Quotable Star Trek by Jill Sherwin all week. If you are a fan of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, this is a great book to have. Be warned that it does not have any of the quotes from the last years of Deep Space 9, the last year of Voyager, the last two Berman movies or the 2009 Star Trek movie. Nevertheless, this is among my favorite books. And for the record, the doctors in Star Trek
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Let me say that if you don’t intend to see this movie because of the actor casting issues, you don’t need to read any further. If you believe all the negative reviews that have come out in regards to this movie, you can stop reading now. Why? Because I actually liked this movie. A lot.
The actual title of this movie should been: Avatar – The Last Airbender: Book One – Water. But that would have been an incredibly long title for what is essentially the live action Reader’s Digest version of the anime (and James Cameron already used the title Avatar). The target audience, viewers of the original cartoon, know the story to include the magnificent ending. The production team of Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, along with series creators Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko produced a product that I found more than acceptable. There were many scenes that appeared in the film that I said to myself, “I remember that from the show.” Those scenes worked in the anime and they worked in the movie.
The director, M. Night Shyamalan is going to catch flak for the casting, but he should not be tar and feathered for the film he delivered. This is the first of three planned films and it is very “talky” in some spots. But remember, it is the reader’s digest version for those who have seen the cartoon and foundation laying for those who have not.
Is it a great movie? No, but I tend to view this movie just like I viewed the 1978 “Superman: The Movie;” in that, it was a setup to the wonderful “Superman 2.” Don’t waste your money to see this movie in 3D. The 3D was added as an afterthought and is not worth the additional cost.
I’m actually looking forward to Book Two (the second movie), but I understand the various arguments of those who choose to boycott the film and the series. Just understand, I won’t be a part of the boycott because this film worked for me and worked well.
Honestly? I was surprised at how much I liked this just recently released addition to the DCAU. Crisis on Two Earths, written by Dwayne McDuffie, tells the tale of a Justice League on Another World (pun intended) led by Lex Luthor. Yes, Luthor is the good guy who enlist the aid of our world’s good guy Justice League to help him set things right on his world. 
The writing was solid and Luthor was a credible hero even to point on one occasion declining Superman’s help because as McDuffie wrote in The Once and Future Thing, Part 1, a man needs to balance his own accounts. Luthor did, in deed, balance his accounts.
One more point on the writing. There were many shout outs in this tale, especially to Star Wars. And if you look hard, you’ll find a nod to Alan Moore’s Twilight of the Superheroes, the most famous never written comic. The dialog was smart and well paced. The problem with this film is not the writing. It is the voice acting.
Mark Harmon as Superman was not really objectionable. William Baldwin as Batman was. To be blunt, Baldwin talked his lines while on the other hand, James Woods as Owlman, acted his. The difference was day and night and makes you wonder how great the confrontation between Owlman and Batman could have been if it had been Kevin Conroy instead of Baldwin as Batman. We’ll never know, but every time Batman spoke I cringed and that was not good.
By the way, if you’re looking for the evil Hawkgirl in this film, look quick because she has very limited screen time. I’ve included a shot of her so if your a fan like I am, you can get your fix. There is a story behind this Thanagarian and Martian that begs to be told and maybe someday, some fanboy (or fangirl) will take a crack at telling it – but it won’t be me.
I’ll leave it up to you whether you buy the DVD or view (and record) it from an On-Demand pay–per-view channel. The bottom line is that this is very good addition to any DCAU Justice League collection and you’ll enjoy it as long as Batman isn’t speaking.
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