June Toy Display: Jawas

Every month I rotate my toy collection by creating and putting out different scenes or collections in my work area. This is June scene where Luke bought the droids from the Jawas. The Sand People are there to prevent shoplifting.

Hurley in Color

I recently created this to be used as a T-Shirt design and for Stickers and magnets to hand out during Comic-Con. Im working on other designs also.

4171 posts at Ain't It Cool

I have to give a hand to the Lost talkbackers at Ain't It Cool.com. They have kept the on-line discussion going a whole month after the season three finale and have kept the post in the top talkbacks the whole time. Quite an achievement!

Check out the discussion.
http://www.aintitcool.com/talkback_display/32774#comment_1578504

Boy am I Lost

My review on Ain't It Cool

Well I sent my review into Ain't It Cool website and they put it up on their website along with four other reviews! Go here to see it, my review is the fourth one down.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33042

RATATOUILLE Review

I saw RATATOUILLE last night at one of the advertised pre-screenings on Saturday night and while not perfect I really loved it. In fact I think that its one of my favorite Pixar movies. I won’t spoil it for everyone, but will talk about a number of the elements that I liked and didn’t like. The thing that really struck me was that it reminded me of some of the classic Disney movies, in particular 101 Dalmatians. Since I have studied animation in art school and also done some freelance work in character design I really appreciated the wonderful use of different shapes that they used to design the human and rat characters. I loved how the Rats looked like they came from the Muppets. 101 Dalmatians was also a very stylistic movie.

I felt that the story was very classic Disney also, very magical while being grounded in reality. It showed the imperfections of France with its sewers and personalities while still being able to reveal the true beauty and magic of Paris. The story moved at a quick pace, I brought my four year old and the whole time he was just entranced. He loved the part near the end where the Rats all got together and cooked the Ratatouille best.

Besides the great designs I really loved the characters and how we even learn the stories of the background chief characters. The little head chief even reminded me a little of Cruella Deville, during the chase scene I could just see her in my head as she slowly drove by and the puppies were hiding from her. I would almost have to say though that while all of the voice actors did an exceptional job the one that I really thought did great was Peter O’ Toole as Anton Ego the Critic. I just loved that rich voice.

I also liked the fact that it was totally clean, since I have my four year old with me. We saw Surfs Up and while it was also a great movie and technically very beautiful. I didn’t like the fact that the first half had a lot of words like pecker and crap and a scene with Tank making out with his trophies. I’m glad that I can count on Pixar for a clean kid friendly movie.

The movie did have a few flaws though, like how nimble the old granny with the shotgun was at the beginning. She was a lot faster then Geri from Geri’s Game. I also thought that the ending was a little choppy. Another thing that bugged me was the Lifted short the main alien reminded me to much of the “I Will Survive” animation that was everywhere online about five years ago where the alien was singing “I Will Survive” and then at the end a disco ball falls on it and flattens it. There were some funny parts, but not great.

All in all it was a very enjoyable movie.

Troopers & X-Wing

More Steve

Steve!

This is my friend Steve who went with me. He likes his picture taken.

kitbash & Lego

I was quite impressed by these Kitbash sets that people made. A lot of quality and hard work was put into these. It really surprised me that when talking to one of the creators that they were a pharmacist! It goes to show you that you don't have to be a full time artist to create wonderful things.

More Star Wars

Slave Princess Leia

There were lots of Slave Princess Leias at the convention. I was surprised that there actually an organization of Slave Princess Leias in San Diego. There was even some guy who dressed in the Slave Princess outfit. Steve insisted on get a picture with him.

Creatures

More Celebration

For some reason there were people dress as non Star Wars characters. This Jack Sparrow guy not only looked like the character, but he had the mannerisms down. I like the pictur of Vader choking me. normally I don't have my picture taken since I like to take reference photos, but I like this one.

Star Wars Celebration 4

Last weekend my friend Steve and I went to Star Wars Celebration 4. It was a lot of fun and I toke a lot of pictures. I was two when Star Wars first came out so I ended up not seeing it until they the first two movies were re-released right before Return of the Jedi was released in the theaters. I just remember how amazed by it all while watching and how I would rent Empire Strikes Back every time that I got the chance. I love the first picture, because it shows a lot of the old toys. I was really into the action figures and really loved the little dye cast figure sets.

New Blog, New Name

I am separating my blog into two separate blogs. This one will now be called Hoof Prints and will be used for my drawings, designs and other artwork and now a second one to show and document my sons Benjamin’s and Nathan’s pictures and artwork. http://ben-nathan.blogspot.com/