Amentep

I've always wanted to see someone create a stop-motion performance like Haryhausen did but use modern CGI to make sure it was integrated better than the old blue screen process. There's a certain character in stop-motion animation - because the armature & figure exist in real 3D that computer animation hasn't been able to match. But certainly element integration is more seamless now with computer technology - love to see that explored. Words aren't limited by technology, really (although they are limited by ability to read or hear/understand). (And all media has its detractors - I know people who'd never watch a B&W film, who'd never listen to a mono recording, who'd never read a 1940s comic book or who'd never watch an old TV show where the status quo had to be restored every week).

Gravity fields disappear when the masses that originate them cease to exist, dissipate or what have you. Black holes are thought to eventually evaporate so in the far future there would be no masses that can generate gravity. Do you mean gravitational waves? I have no idea what would happen with those in an expanding universe. I must admit, I'm not up to the latest developments, so heat death may well be obsolete. The point remains, however. The observed acceleration in the expansion of the universe results either in hyperacceleration (Big Rip) or the aforementioned heat death (depending on the cosmological constant IIRC). In the more extreme case of the Big Rip, at a certain point you have a situation where the observable universe is smaller than arbitrarily smaller structures, first tearing apart molecular bonds, then atomic nuclei, and finally fundamental particles. Either way, all information and possible observers have been destroyed. How can an infinite amount of anything be destroyed? Yeah, I'm not the best one to explain it, science isn't really my forte. So while I got the basics of it, I'm going to have a terrible time trying to get it across to someone else.

I probably liked Book of Life best of the animated films from last year.

I haven't seen Book of Life, but I figure the Lego movie might not have been eligable due to the live action sequences. Unless it's been changed, the eligibility rule used to be "a motion picture of at least 70 minutes in running time where a significant number of the major characters in the film are animated, and animation figures in no less than 75% of the picture's running time." I think THE LEGO MOVIE MEETS both, surely the LA couldn't accounte for more than 25% of its running time.

I think the problem to my mind is that if we're talking a historical position, words like "outdated" and "timeless" are ultimately useless in understanding the context of the game. Its trying to play the game as if it was a modern game which is always going to be outdated (unless you played the game and have fond memories of it back in the day, in which case it is timeless). In a larger context, though, what is being lost is the...er...larger context. It bugs me to no end to see someone talking about fantasy/sci-fi film history who starts talking about unbelievable rubber masks, blue screen halos etc. Yes we all know that there are actors who couldn't turn the wheel to match the backscreen projection to save their lives - that's why it was mocked in Airplane! But ultimately that has nothing to do with the history. Yes, you could argue that Jack Pierce's makeup effects in FRANKENSTEIN is subpar to what's been done today, or that Kenneth Strickfadden's machines don't make any sense. But it fails to understand the context of the time. If you're going to talk about a game in a historical context it needs to be compared to other games in its historical context. Read an eviscerating review of Sega's ETERNAL CHAMPIONS - a really fun game at the time IMO [Timeless! ] that was a knock off of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II in the Genesis era. The review was hung up on how poorly the game looked against the arcade versions of MK and SFII (instead of their Sega ports). The context of the game was lost - so it was understandable why the reviewer was mystified about the game's popularity at the time of its release.

Heat death of the universe isn't considered to be the going theory anymore as I understand it. Thermodynamics doesn't take into account how a gravity field might actually decay (and IIRC gravity fields decay rate is unknown) and IIRC (and if I understand correctly) the Dark Matter theories regarging where the extra energy in the universe is coming up (because expansion of the galaxy is speeding up rather than slowing down as predicted) puts a big swerve in the whole thing.

An oldie but a goody (and since Sargy isn't here to ask): How long exactly is a dragon's flight from Lac Dinneshere?

^ I'm not kidding, that original outfit was cool looking. The dress Elsa makes later was okay, I guess, but the original dress was much cooler looking (IMO). Once you mentioned it, I rememberd about the storm thing.

To be fair, the film industry DID go and remake a bunch of stuff when they went to sound (say, BEN HUR (1925) and BEN HUR(1959)) or went to color (The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The Man Who Knew To Much (1956)) or color to 3D (Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) in 2 Strip Technicolor and HOUSE OF WAX (1953) in Natural Vision 3D). Particularly with early cinema, to remake an older film the studio had to have the rights to the older film (meaning, in some cases, they had to BUY the older film from another studio). But this has led to the suppresion of some films (MGM famously bought all of the copies of the 1931 Fredrick March version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as part of their remaking the film with Spencer Tracy and the film was considered lost for many years). There is a really good parallel that the article misses which is that this same trajectory is held by pretty much EVERY new media. They've all went through periods where their history has been junked. Look at big stars like Theda Bara (3 films extant of 40 made) or Clara Bow (30 extant of 57 made). Why? Because there wasn't a continuing market for them. Many early films were recycled to recover the silver in them. Even the biggest stars weren't immune - there was no reason to keep them. Now, of course, we realize the importance of keeping these films and people scour the earth trying to find copies (if I hear one more rumour about LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, I'll scream). But at the time, no one cared about film history. It takes time for criticism and history to be valued in new media in a way that outstrips their commercial market. Television has also had this same problem. Its well known in fan circles about the BBC junking much of their pre-1975 library, often videotaping over old programs or throwing out films of others. There wasn't a continuing secondary market at the time like there is now. But another strange, sad case is the DuMont network. Never heard of them? Well in the 1940s and 1950s when NBC and CBS were programming the early days of television, the DuMont network was there as well. After the network folded, their film library landed in the hands of ABC. Some were recycled (for the silver again) and many were dumped into the East River. Of their 10 years worth of programing, most is gone. And most of the surviving episodes are of one show - DuMont's CAVALCADE OF STARS (where Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners started), followed by various sports broadcasts and handfuls of episodes of others (several with only 1 episode extant). Some shows - including the first US tv show to star an asian-america lead, Anna May Wong's The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong - are gone forever. Similarly US comic books went through the same period - most of those early, huge print runs being recycled. Many key creators having passed away before fans became historians and tried to track down the history of the medium. There is a chance here, I think, for people to realize that the history of gaming is important and worth preserving and understanding. But I don't think understanding the history is important necesarily means that you have to play Arena and Daggerfall (anymore than I think it means you have to sit through BIRTH OF A NATION to understand film history or the impact of Cecil B. Demille on film history, or watch all 635 episodes of GUNSMOKE to understand its place as the early dominant force in US television)

Yeah...that was rough. But you know its a good animated film when you feel stuff like that.

^Yeah it was a very good cast all around. And they adapted Rex Stout's stories very well as well. It is probably my favorite classic mystery-detective tv series (closely followed by a sentimental favorite, the short-lived Ellery Queen series from the 70s which starred Nero Wolfe's Timothy Hutton's dad, Jim Hutton and Ellery)

Yeah, that, too. Actually, the thing that probably bothered me the most about the movie was...weirdly, Elsa's voice actress. I didn't see anything of the movie besides dumb commercials, and so shouldn't really have had any expectations of what her voice was gonna sound like...but man, her voice seemed really out of sync with her character sometimes. I thought she sounded fine in "Let it Go", but it was making me physically uncomfortable listening to her in both parts of "For the First Time in Forever". It probably didn't help that her lyrics were pretty crappy both times, but even so. That might've just been me, though. ...that, and her throwing away her totally dope looking queen's dress in exchange for the comparatively silly-looking ice gown. But uh, that's a relatively minor complaint in the grand scheme of things, I guess. Yeah the Queens dress was much better than the ice dress she made. Anyhow, regarding the castle and the path, given that Elsa was in control of the storm itself, my thought is that she created the path subconsciously simply by traveling. When she found a spot she liked and created a castle, her subconscious formed the storm to make it accessable. Didn't really mind them not dealing with the ramifications of creating Olaf (the film wasn't "The Ramifications of Creating Olaf" after all), but they gloss over a lot of details to fit in songs and tell the story. I liked all 4. Tangled is a fun, fun film. The bit with Rapunzel leaving the tower for the first time is one of the most hilarious sequences in recent animated films IMO. Frozen is one of the few animated heavily musical films I've liked - and there's a lot to like in it - BUT I think its overladden in songs at the begining at the expense of spending some more time with the characters. Wreck It Ralph is a fun story AND fun as a video game fan, and Big Hero 6 is a blast - a very good take on the superhero genre.

Apparently, an infinite amount of them. They've been doing them in droves for decades and decades and decades. It is interesting how the dramatic crime/mystery show has been such as staple and so popular for seemingly forever. Different eras do them differently, but they're still basically the same concept. Guess humans just love a good detective mystery!** **long live Columbo! "Oh...just one more thing. I don't mean to be a bother, really. But you know my great uncle Louie once said..." "It was as if a serpent had entangled my legs!" Thing I thought really worked on that show was the repertorie approach - so many of the same actors showed up every week it became difficult to guess who might be the killer (unlike a lot of shows where the murderer and/or the victim is always the biggest guest star). Veronica Mars' Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggerio are behind it which means it'll get a look from me for the pilot at least.

Aquaman was great in BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD "Never trust an amphibian. Land or water, choose a side!"

Yeah, I liked him in Conan - and I liked the film too, but that was despite all of its problems.

Yeah, its a popular take on the police drama which doesn't seem to be slowing down. The CW's changed iZombie to be more of a police guy teams up with zombie assistant mortician who retains memories from brains she eats to solve crimes from what I hear too (although the original had aspects of that - but no police. Also iZombie is from Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggerio from VERONICA MARS so I'll give the pilot a shot).

The Golden Age is the best place for ridiculousness. Marvel has a super-speed character who got super-speed because, while in Africa he was bitten by a cobra and was given a transfusion of mongoose blood(!) which countered the cobra venom(!!) and saved his life, while also giving him super-speed(!!!) He then donned a bright yellow & blue costume(!!!!) and fought crime as The Whizzer (!!!!!) I like Momoa too, so I'd like him to get a vehicle that works for him.

^supposedly while the bar and supporting cast are in the pilot, there's also a new character - a policewoman who befriends Lucifer and gets his help on unusual cases or some such. So less "Law and Order" and more "Castle (of the Damned)" or "Unholy Mentalist" or "Elementary Fallen Angel Edition"

The weird thing is (in some versions) the fact that Aquaman is a blonde is important (as there was a prophecy involving a fair-headed child in the typically dark haired royal family). That said I don't hate it, acknowledging that the DC movies are flying far afield from fairly frontward focuses on continuity. Sorry, the aliteration got away from me.

Does this mean we might be dealing with the pundead here?! Oh no! We must be dealing with pundemonium. We'd better find the Pundemonicon and exorcize any bad puns from this world in earnest! "Klaatu... verata... n... Necktie. Nectar. Nickel. Noodle." This probably is how big head mode canoniacally was first encountered in the Project Eternity world.

If I was a ghost I would EXPECT to walk through walls. When the only food available is zombies, zombies will become the staple meal. I could see a post-apocalyptic fantasy going there. I'd be more worried about Lucasfilm/Disney suing over the use of a lightsaber in this scenario. People do have issues with guns and stuff, but honestly if the lore supports a weapon (like some of the fantasy or science-fantasy hybrids I've seen), there really isn't a problem.

Guillotine Gun? My mind, it boggled. Not sure if I'm disappointed or not that it's just a gunblade analogue, I was sort of hoping for a gun that actually fired Guillotines. Still, as a side effect I know about the might actually have been real Chinese 'Flying Guillotine', which I'm sure will be useful in future.

I'd have ditched the bananas but I love mushrooms. Just not a big fan of most fruits on a pizza (or in salsa)* *Yes I know that tomatoes and chilli peppers are fruits.

I voted #2, but truth is I don't really care. Either solution I'm cool with.