Kevin Smith on Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which he previewed at Comic-Con '08: "The last one took a shit, and that's when everything started going down the toilet. I went into a deep depression. No seriously -- I did.Then I discovered weed and everything got better. Sorry, I know there's kids in the audience. Doesn't work for everyone, kids -- but it worked for Uncle Kev."
So I'm inside Hall H again, this time having just witnessed more CGI destruction than my already-addled brain can handle with Sony's 2012 panel. (Q: "Why do you keep destroying the planet?" Roland Emmerich: "Because I love it!") Now up is Iron Man 2, which I'll live blog, for your sitting-around-hearing-me-talk-about-something-you'd-rather-be-watching-for-yourself pleasure.
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Disney's The Princess and the Frog marks the studio's long-overdue return to hand-drawn animation, and those hands belong to Ron Clements and John Musker -- two animation veterans responsible for later-era classics like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. From the beginning, Disney proudly trumpeted that Frog would feature their first African-American princess with Tiana, a gesture that would go a small way towards righting the wrongs of all the yarn-spinning uncles, jive-talking crows and Neverland savages that came before her.
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Picture it: Seth and I are outside the San Diego Convention Center. It's sunny, it's hot. All around us, men in Dharma Initiative jumpsuits and women dressed as sexy Klingons stop to pose for pictures. Meanwhile, an eight-foot-tall paper bag in a Hawaiian shirt stands alone.
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Speaking of the Alice tea party, all those scoops were well and good, but the most dramatic moment for me was coming face to face with the red fright wig Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter wore in the film. Seth, you're right: Carrot Top better check his scalp. Click through for the full-sized picture.
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I'm not sure whether all the other geek webmasters heard the Disney publicist say, "Come to the Alice in Wonderland tea party!" and demurred, imagining a scene of ten-year-old bedlam ripped from your mall's American Girl Place, but I just wandered through the exhibit and I think I kinda have some scoops!
Though posting the picture above may get me into hot water with Summit Entertainment and child protective services, I feel it is my duty to help all you non-Conners understand the moment where thousands of female audience members simultaneously orgasmed, menstruated, gave birth, and passed out. It came during a Taylor Lautner shirtless scene from the New Moon preview that could only be described as "ludicrously fantastic," and we have it for you (until they're onto us!) after the jump:
What's your name?
Carlos.
What are you dressed as?
Blanka from Street Fighter.
What's involved in putting an outfit like this together?
A lot of expensive, alcohol-based paint, an airbrush, some pants that you ruin, contact lenses, and a lot of time spent on dying and bleaching your hair.
How much does this look cost?
Like, over $600.♦
Everyone has their own '80s cartoon franchise that meant something to them, and mine was ThunderCats: The Rankin/Bass series followed of a race of humanoid felines from the planet Thundera, forced to evacuate after their home comes under siege by the fearsome Mutants of Plun-Darr (who looked a bit like reptilian Ernest Borgnines.) Yes, I still hold a fond place in my heart for Lion-O, Cheetara, Panthro, Tygra, Snarf and the rest, and so Warner Bros.' announcement a while back of a Thundercats movie filled me with the warm, fuzzy feelings one typically associates with watching Saturday morning TV while eating peanut-butter-and-grape-jelly sandwiches. The script, written by Paul Sopocy, was to follow Lion-O's origin myth from young cub to his anointment as Lord of the ThunderCats, and was to be directed by veteran art director Jerry O'Flaherty.
In conjunction with our coverage of Comic-Con 2009, Movieline has obtained O'Flaherty's never-before-seen Thundercats concept art, demonstrating just how gorgeous and ambitious his vision for this production is. After the jump, you'll see Thundercats renderings of Lion-O, The Pyramid, Third Earth, and Mutant Attack.
We've been handed down a mandate to share every crumb we stumble upon in regards to a certain upcoming CGI feature about a race of blue people who live in an enchanted forest filled with giant inhabitable flora and predatory feline creatures, and who share only one female among them.
No -- not The Smurfs Movie, silly! Avatar!
Well, yes -- yes it will. Sorry, folks, but while the most fully realized and wholly immersive CGI achievement in cinematic history probably won't cure peptic ulcers or reverse male-pattern-baldness, it will definitely make you go "whoa" more times than Keanu Reeves on his first visit to the Long Beach Aquarium.
The Avatar panel is about to begin. Fox head Tom Rothman has come out, and is describing this as a once-in-a-movie-executive's-life experience. The technology, as amazing as it is, he insists, "is resolutely in service of plot and character."
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Well, I survived the New Moon panel, and I'm happy to report there were no deaths, and only one mauling -- of a tall, chubby male photographer who stood in front of the stage and blocked an entire section's view of stars Ashley Greene (yay!), Kristen Stewart (YAYYYY!!), Taylor Lautner (AHHHHHHHHHGHHAHAHAHAH!!!!) and Robert Pattinson (*SOUND OF UNIVERSE FORMING*). Director Chris Weitz was on hand too, and asked to describe how Pattinson reminds him of his vampiric role, replied, "He has almost translucent skin, like Edward Cullen, and when the light shines just right he sparkles like diamonds." It seems not even The Golden Compass director is immune to Pattinson's charms.
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So it's been a whirlwind of 3-D delights inside Hall H over here at Comic-Con. The rules, as they portend to liveblogging, recording, photographing and the like are somewhat amorphous, but as best as I can make out, recording video is punishable by death, still photos of slides is kosher, and photographing the visitors (like Johnny Depp! And The Big TronBowski, who was in attendance, and who Patton Oswalt actually made a "Big TronBowski" joke about) is encouraged.
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