The Creature

Haunted House films can be classified as one of the easiest films to come up with, but are very popular. With films like The Haunting, Poltergeist, The Shining, House on Haunted Hill, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark & Paranormal Activity it can be easly seen why people would enjoy them.

This film makes them look like kid’s movies With Flesh eating Pianos, Flying Heads, Cat Paintings shooting out blood, all of that and more in the 1977 Japenese film HAUSU (House)

The film was the feature film debut of TV Ad Director Nobuhiko Obayashi who was hired by Toho when the film was on hold for two years since no one wanted to direct it.

The film tells of a schoolgirl named Gorgeous who was going to Italy on vacation with her father, but when finding out she gets a stepmother, she’s distraught and instead ask her aunt to visit her instead. She accepts and Gorgeous decides to bring along Six of her friends. When they arrive they begin to experience Supernatural happenings in the house and try to survive.

Some of the girls’ personality are giving by their names like Melody plays piano, Kung Fu knows some Martial Arts, and some of the others are like that as well. Most of the characters go through supernatural experiencs like Melody gets eaten by a Piano and Mac’s flying head bites

The Film has painted backdrops in most of the scenes which gives it an unique style. It also has surreal special effects (Which the Director was known for using) and uses different filming techniques which adds to the surreal nature of the film. Plus, it uses some animation in the film which look like markers drawn on the film reel which are added into some of the supernatural scenes of the film.

The Film was recognized for having mostly Amateur actors and getting Negative Reviews in Japan; but favorable reviews whe released in the USA in 2009 & 2010, and gaining a cult following with a release on DVD by Criterion Collection.

Final Thoughts: This is one of the most strangest films I’ve seen…But it was awesome. The film is very pretty to look at with the Sets & Painted Backdrops, But it also contains some of the most surreal supernatural scenes you would probably see on film. I can’t really say anything on the writing, but I thought it was ok.

Overall, If your looking for something completely different from the usual Haunted House flick, I’d recommend this.

(Posted originally before the movie came out.)

I figured I might as well join in and Share my opinion on this.

When the anouncement was first made about this, I wasn’t very sure what to think, like most of the Bronies at the Time. Then the Images of the Mane 6 as humans came out and most Bronies either Ran & Hid under Rocks or they Screamed like Twilight in the Trailer.

Most people were quick to Judge. Most considered this to be a horrible idea and wanted to Ignore it completely stating that the writers didn’t know what they were Doing.

Reminds me of what some people thought of a Certian Season Finale.

And then it became a Spin Off Film and when the Trailer came out, The Sh*t Storm Grew Larger. People ACTUALLY STARTED SENDING DEATH THREATS TO THE CAST & CREW and some of them are considering leaving the show.

Personally, After I Saw the Trailer, I thought it looked GOOD. I decided that I’m going to see it with a bunch of my Brony Friends when it comes out.

One of my main reactions for the hate was similar to this:

Character Designs I thought it was interesting that everyone in the human world is Multi-colored. Reminds me alot of the Show Doug.

Spike as a Dog I don’t really care about that. They could have made him a Duck & It still wouldn’t have upset me.

Plot I know it looks like a High School Drama but Maybe it’ll be good.

“Brad”

So People say he looks like Shining Armor…I Don’t see it. I think he looks more like A humanized Comet Tail.

It doesn’t bug me that Twilight might have a BF in it. Besides, If Shining Armor was in this, He Probably would be in College or have a Job.

And for the death threat thing….ARE YOU F***KING OUT OF YOUR MINDS!??!??! IT’S A CARTOON FOR LITTLE GIRLS!!! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THAT?!

Most Bronies are treating this like its A Type of Cancer! It’s Extremely Premature and I think you should at least give it a look before you judge it.

I’m doing the same thing with Terrence Malick. I’m watching his films before I actually can saw anything about him & his work.

If you have some doubts about the whole thing, I ask you to consider a few things:

1. It’s Intended Audience is Little Girls. It wasn’t made ONLY for Adults.

2. Alot of Bronies wanted an MLP:FiM Movie. And now that we get one, you complain.

3. It’s A Spin Off. It mostly likely will not be Canon with Season 4.

4. DON’T JUDGE A BOOK BY IT’S COVER!!! This is the One Thing everyone did & is doing with the film right now. Yes, It looks like a Teenage High School Drama film but Maybe it will be like a John Hughes film (Except with Ponies)

Overall – It Looks Good. I’m going to see it June 22th with a bunch of my Brony Friends. I’ll post a review/My Thoughts on the Film a few days later.

…Why Does This Exist?

Plot: You wake up to see Trixie where She tells you that you get to spend Three Days in Ponyville and she turns you into a Red Earth Pony.

As you go through Ponyville, you get to meet The Mane 6 (Except for Rarity) who are usually hanging out by their Houses. You can also meet Vinyl Scratch/DJ Pon3, Spike, Dr. Whooves, Big Mac, and you can keep talking to Trixie who later can give you a Horn or Wings so you can explore Cloudsdale.

Objective: The Game has only One major Objective or Choice with the Female Ponies….

you F*** them… Seriously, It’s the only way to progress in the game…

I went into this Game not knowing anything about it and that was my first mistake. I later found out that it was made for the “Cloppers”. I Don’t Know who made this Game and I Don’t want to know. Most fandoms have a Dark Side and this Game comes from it. It looks like it comes straight out of the Pony Thread Simulators.

Graphics: They’re Ok. Some parts of the Game aren’t finished yet and are shown in a Rough Sketch like the Scene with Zecora and how she was actually Queen Chrysalis. The Game has only been in Alpha Every since it was released and Updates will be made for it…Unfortunately…

All I would put for the Graphics is This:

Final Thoughts: Don’t Play This. Don’t Look it Up on Youtube, Don’t Look it Up on Google, Just Please Stay Away from this Game! I’ve seen some stuff that has been considered Nasty, but in my Opinion, this Tops all of them. I would never recommend this to anyone and I would never show this to anyone.

The 1st Dimension – Involves a Line

The 2nd Dimension – Involves a Flat Surface

The 3rd Dimension – Involves the Physical World

The 4th Dimesion – Involves Interaction with Film

The 5th Dimesion – Involves The Twilight Zone

The 6th Dimension – Involves … THE FORBIDDEN ZONE

This film was made for two reasons:

1) To capture the essence of The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo (Later Named Oingo Boingo) on Film

2) To Retire Director Richard Elfman’s work from the Mystic Knights and to start a film Career (The Group later lead by his brother, Danny Elfman)

The Film is set in Black n’ White and takes place in a small house in Venice, CA owned by the Hercules Family (Previously owned by a Narcotics Peddler, Pimp, and slumlord named Huckleberry P. Jones after discovering the portal to the 6th Dimension in the basement.)

The film focuses on how the Hercules Family,One by One, discovers that in the Basement Lies the Portal to a place called The 6th Dimension and they each enter it.

The 6th Dimension itself is a kingdom which is ruled by King Fausto (Herve Villechaize) and Queen Doris (Susan Tyrrell) with their daughter, the topless Princess, and their Frog Man servant Bust Rod.

Each of the Characters has their own experience inside the 6th Dimension

Frenchy Hercules (Marie-Pascale Elfman) is the First of the family to enter the 6th Dimension. She could be considered the Protagonist since the film mainly focuses on everyone trying to find her and get her back home. She eventually get found by the princess and brought to the King & Queen.

The King falls in love with her, but the Queen, Noticing this, tries to have her tortured or killed throughout the film.

Flash Hercules (Phil Gordon) and Gramps both go into the 6th Dimension to try and rescue Frenchy but get captured by the Queen.

Pa Hercules get blasted though the Stratosphere and ends up in the 6th Dimension and gets captured, but he doesn’t really care.

Ma Hercules is the last to enter the 6th Dimension after realizing that no one else in the house but her.

Although the film is about the Hercules Family, They didn’t go into the 6th Dimension after Huckleberry did. The film also stars Squeezit and Rene (Matthew Bright) the Henderson Twins. Rene, Squeezit’s Transgender Twin, goes in first and becomes a slave to the King and Queen.

His/Her Brother, Squeezit (often called Chicken Boy) Notices his Sibling was Missing but doesn’t do anything about it. When Frenchy goes missing, Flash seeks the help of Squeezit but he refuses. Finally, when Flash calls him from the 6th Dimension to ask for help again, He decides to help them.

When he decides to go into the 6th Dimension, he’s caught and taken to Satan (Danny Elfman) where he bargains with him saying that he will help Rene and Frenchy if Squeezit can capture the Princess and bring her to him and then Squeezit loses his head.

The Film does have songs throughout it, most of them written by Danny Elfman and are sung by most of the cast. The one I would recommend out of them is “Squeezit the Moocher” which is just Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher” with different lyrics, but I enjoyed that one the most.

It also has a few animated sequences by Cartoonist John Muto.They look like they come out Monty Python’s Flying Circus and are mixed in with Live Action Sequences. They are very minimal and they can be seen when someone enters the 6th Dimension or during a song.

When the film was released, It was not liked and Richard Elfman was accused on Racism (The film contains a few characters using Blackface) and Anti-Semitism; but it later gain a cult following, got Midnight Screenings much like Rocky Horror Picture Show, and in 2009, was Colorized.

Final Thoughts: It was strange, but I enjoyed it. The film seemed like a mix of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Alice in Wonderland with the Set Designs and the Character’s Personalities. I didn’t really have any favorite characters except for Queen Doris and Maybe Satan. I recommend seeing it in Black n White since I think the Colorized version dates it.

When I did my Top 26 Favorite Films, I noticed that I only had One Animated Film on there. So I decided to make a List of them to make up for that.

( It’ll probably be obvious for my Number 1 is since it was one my favorite films list. )

13. Sita Sings the Blues

I recently discovered this one not too long ago, and was really surprised by it. It was done in multiple animation styles based on what the scene, the main character’s dialogue was all Annette Henshaw songs & ended up being really enjoyable for me.

12. Heavy Traffic

Ralph Bakshi. He’s always made some bizzare Animated films & I felt the need to include one of them on here. It’s got alot of Adult themes in it (as most Bakshi films do.) and I found it to be a memorable and Bizzare watch.

11. Fantasia

It’s Fantasia. I don’t really need to say much more. (If curious, My Favorite Segments are Night on Bald Mountain & Soceror’s Apprentice.)

10. Yellow Submarine

Peter Max Style Animation mixed in with Beatles Music. You can’t go wrong with it.

9. Toy Story

Although I like a lot of Pixar Films more than this, Toy Story has my overall favorite. I like the characters, the animation was ground-breaking (Some parts of it haven’t aged well.) [Plus the story has been used alot.] It still ends up being very enjoyable for me.

8. Akira

Ok, I don’t watch much Anime. I’ve only seen 4 Anime films and this one I found the most enjoyable. The Animation in this looks outstanding and ended up being an enjoyable sit for me.

7. Alice in Wonderland

This has to be my favorite Classic Disney film.  I’ve watched it alot as a kid and I often will still watch again. I also often read the original story as well.

6. Iron Giant

Brad Bird has always been one of my favorite film Directors. I always love his films, especially this one. I like how it’s set up similar to a B-Movie in the ’50s where you’d see films about Giant “Monsters” (Bugs in particular.) or Invaders from Space, I Like the Characters (Mainly the Giant & Mansley), the relationships of the characters, and the animation. [ I also find it interesting Pete Townshend produced this.]

5. Secret of NIMH

It can be a favorite Animated films list without Don Bluth, So I picked his most popular. I like how it has a Dark Atmosphere to it mixing Science, Nature, & the Mysterious. I love the use of Backlighting for the Animation, the film has a good cast, and It’s a great film.

4. Secret of Kells

This film has some of the best Art Style & Animation I’ve ever seen. the Animation looks like it goes 3 Dimensional at times, even though it’s hand drawn, The Characters are likeable, and It not obnoxious as some animated films can get.

3. Persepolis

Of course I picked a film that’s had some controversy behind it. This one dealing with a child growing up during Iranian Revolution, based on the Director’s Novel. I liked how the animation was mainly in Black & White in the past, plus I ended up liking the main character and found her life interesting. (Especially since her uncle was voiced by Iggy Pop.) I highly recommend seeing this if you haven’t yet.

2. Mary & Max

I discovered this a Month Ago and I was amazed how dark the subject material was for this film. I never expected a film to dive into the territory of Child neglection, autism, (particularly Aspergers) Depression, and Anxiety. The characters in this looked a bit ugly, I found it interesting how one both of the characters’ worlds were both in Different colors. The film ended up being a bit depressing, but enjoyable as well.

and my #1…..

1.Nightmare Before Christmas

I’ll do a quick recap of my thoughts on my film. It’s my first Stop Motion Animated film I’ve Seen, It looks amazing, I like the song, and it ended up as one of my favorite films.

As a movie going audience, people always try to explore and expand their pallet by checking out some films that are outside their range or likeness. With that being said, I wanted to something a bit different with this list. I’ve decided to share My Top 13 Films that I Never Expected to End Up Liking.

These will cover many different genres and hopefully different decades of film as well.

On that note, here’s the List:

13. The Last Temptation of Christ

Personally, I’m not a religious person. I usually tend to not see most Religious films, but this film and its history got me intrigued enough to watch it. (I heard this movie wasn’t really liked with some religious communities.) I was expecting a film very similar to The Passion of Christ; then I found out about the film’s source material and it got me intrigued. After viewing it, I was surprised. It was actually a fascinating way of portraying Christ as an actual human being instead of just a 1-note character.It definitely stands out among other Religious films. Plus where else will you find a Jesus movie with David Bowie in it?

12. Fright Night (2011)

Im mostly likely not alone when I say that modern remakes suck. Thankfully though, we get some small glimpses of decent if not good reboots and for me this was one of them.

I’m not going give away to much since I’m going to do an Old vs New on Fright Night soon, so I’ll leave it at this:

I thought it was good. Although the CG Blood was annoying.

11. Badlands

You’d think that with my thoughts on Terrence Malick’s films, I’d probably absolutely his first film….

It turns out this film had Characters with Personality, A Story that made sense, and it didn’t bore me.Add in his usually tricks with a Camera and you get a Malick film worth seeing.

10. The Princess Bride

When I was a kid, I barely explored the Fantasy genre. Aside from reading the Narnia & Harry potter books, I knew very little about it, so I was hesitant to watch this when I was younger. Especially with the title, I thought it was aiming more toward the female demographic. Thankfully, Rob Reiner did a great job with the film mixing in Comedy with the Fantasy and giving the world many lines of Memorable and Quotable dialogue.

9. My Dinner with Andre

It’s two guys…who sit down at a restaurant…and they order & eat their dinner while talking…for at least 100 Minutes…what could I possibly see in this film?

…Well, I found their conversation to be interesting, it’s a rather unique if not dull idea for a film, and I really enjoy Wallace Shawn & Andre Gregory in the film.

8. The Endless Summer

Documentaries can always be a bit of a mixed bag. It mainly depends on the Directors and how they handle the subject material. With the Endless Summer, It was an interesting documentation of two boys who went surfing all around the world. I also found to be a bit informative considering I’ve never have gone surfing (but many of my friends/former classmates did and a few of them looked like Jeff Spicoli.) So, I find to be a good documentary on an activity that I’ve never participated in.

7. Akira

I’ve mentioned this before, but I rarely watch Anime. I’ve barely found some that really spark my interests. Then I found this film and it really opened my eyes into the Genre. With the film’s acclaim and popular reputation, I don’t need to say much aside from this:…I need to watch more Anime.

6. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

I know that I said that this is my All Time Favorite Movie, and that’s probably going to bring up the question: “Why isn’t this your Number 1?” While I consider the film to be my favorite, it definitely wasn’t as some the other films on here. So, I still love this movie. I just think my Top 5 had more impact on the “Never Expected to like it” aspect.

5. Mary & Max

…This was a Depressing film…that’s what I heard about it, and that’s what I have to say about it. It’s still a good film though & I do recommend seeing it.

4. Drive

As I mentioned that I don’t like most of Terrence Malick’s films, it’s probably hinting that I hate most Arthouse films. Thankfully Nicolas Winding Refn helped me take a second chance at them. This was definitely a rather different Arthouse film though. While still sharing the style similar to a Malick film, the film gives a Moody Atmosphere, Synthpop Music, Plenty of Action Scenes, and some good performances from the actors. Plus it gives off the feeling of Miami Vice crossed with Transporter if it was directed by David Lynch.

3. Sideways

Being in California, Ive been taken to Wine Country many times in my life so far. (Im not into drinking Wine yet.) I was recommended this movie by a couple of people (my parents included) and it definitely was a unique sit. I didn’t know how a movie about going to Santa Barbara would turn out, thankfully it turned out better than I thought. (With it being a comedy, I almost expected a Raunchy-Road trip movie similar to American Pie.)

2. Her

Personally, I had no real expectations on this film when I heard of it. I am a fan of Spike Jonze’s previous films, although I wasn’t to keen on the idea of a man having a relationship with a computer. (I expected some a bit graphic) Plus I have to admit, I am not a fan of most Romance Movies (or “Rom Coms”.) Surprisingly, it ended up being very charming and the relationship aspect was handled very well with the writing and performances from Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlet Johansson’s voice acting as the OS. There is one thing that bothered me but it’s very minor and doesn’t take away much from the film as a whole.

and finally my #1 choice…

…this film pretty much eliminated my expectations going into it. I was expecting an extermely generic dance film which was an earlier version of the Breakin’ trilogy…I was very wrong. The movie pretty much took me by surprise with the film’s themes and some minor issues that are still around, John Travolta’s performance, and the film’s soundtrack. With what people will say it’s about it may come off as a dated dorky film, but trust me when I say that it’s more than just a simple movie about Dancing.

I hope you enjoyed the list & feel free to share some of your examples of films that unexpectedly caught your interest.

Recently, Two Music Videos of songs from Rainbow Rocks were released. So I decided to look at them.

Shake Your Tail

The video depicts the Mane 6 setting up for either a Dance or their Concert. Each of them have a different theme for it, but they can really agree on any of them. So, Rainbow Dash decides to mix them all together. It’s also mixed in with them as a Band playing the song.

If curious here are the themes they each had:

Pinkie – Hawaiian

Rainbow Dash – Sports

Applejack – Farm

Rarity – Masquerade

Twilight Sparkle – School

Fluttershy – Animals

Apparently, the one thing I noticed a lot of people liked about the video was the fact it showed that they had Normal Feet.

I guess that could be considered a relief to some considering how long their legs look and with their Knee High Boots; it looked like they would have huge feet. Personally, I didn’t care about ho big their feet are, but I guess it’s nice they aren’t huge.

The song itself was alright in my opinion. It mainly just sings about getting ready for something, and them saying “Shake Your Tail.” Not really much else to say about it.

One thing I’ve actually noticed is that so far, Each of the Shorts have been used in the Trailer for it. That leaves the possibility of the film being either Different or it’s not a film, but just a bunch of Shorts. After all, we don’t know why Twilight goes back or why they form a Band in the first place. So that does leave room for it to be much better than expected. (Much like the first film.)

Overall, I thought it was alright. I thought it was ok for being a Music Video & I think it would have worked better as just a short.

Perfect Day For Fun!

This MV is set in a Carnival hosted by Canterlot High where the Mane 6 go around and do various things around it in 3 separate groups: Twilight is with Fluttershy, Rarity is with Pinkie, and Applejack is with Rainbow Dash.

(If you listen closely, you might be able to hear thousands of Shippers shrieking in joy at this site.)

They mostly text throughout it to tell each other where they are via Cutie Marks and photos of where they are in the Carnival and they eventually do perform at the Carnival to a decent sized crowd (At Least for a School operated Carnival.)

Throughout the Video, They do various typical Carnival stuff such Carnival Games, Eating Cotton Candy, and various other things as shown via Photos on Cell Phones.

I have to admit, the Screenshot of Fluttershy walking out of the Funhouse unimpressed is an accurate portrayal of how I walk out of most modern Horror Films.

The MV, much like the EqG Movie, is packed in with a lot of Cameos. You see Photo Finish, Trixie, Cheerilee, Big Mac, the CMC, Derpy, Granny Smith, and Luna. Plus Twilight even wins a Discord Plush, much to Fluttershy’s discomfort.

Spike also makes a minor cameo in the video, so he obviously goes back with Twilight.

The Video does also show that Twilight does know how to use a cellphone, so she probably will start to be able to understand Human Technology in the new film. Either that or this is the Twilight Sparkle in the Human World that Pinkie brought up. ( It’s most likely not though.)

The Song that was song was pretty decent. It was basically a song about hanging out with your friends. Not really much to say. I will admit, I actually liked it sung in Spanish more than in English.

There was one thing that bugged me half way through the video…It was when I spotted a certain character…(you’ll spot who I’m talking almost immediately.)

……

At first, Flash Sentry didn’t bother me at all in the first film, but he eventually started to irritate me and now I just get upset whenever he pops up. Unfortunately, this might imply that he’ll probably be in the next Movie…

Overall, I thought it was Alright, aside from my obvious problem with it. I liked this one a bit more than “Shake Your Tail” mostly because of the Song. I thought it was a decent song wtih a decent video for it.

P.S. With them being at the Carnival, the whole video reminded me of the last 10 minutes of Grease.

Recently, wreceived some shorts that revolved around Rainbow Rocks and after the original trailer, which didn’t really much, It was refreshing to see something different. So I decided to take a look at both of them.

Spoilers Ahead.

“Music to My Ears”

The first short was Vinyl Scratch/DJ-Pon3’s EqG Counterpart and her listening to her music as she goes about her day.

…and that’s pretty much it.

There isn’t really much to say about this. All Vinyl does is walk around, Listen to Dubstep, and heads back to the School. Five of the Mane 6 make a cameo in it while at a Coffee Shop. I’ll admit that the short didn’t give anything away relating to the film, at least I don’t think so, aside from knowing Vinyl will have a major role in the film.

Vinyl doesn’t talk at all which probably could be a good thing as many people love the Fandom’s VA for her. (I forgot her name at the moment, but I do like her as well.)

The only problem I had with the short is simple…I Hate Dubstep. No offense to people who do like it, I just find it to be extremely loud, Annoying, and very Pointless music that would make Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music seem like New Age Sounds of Nature.

Aside from that, I thought it was a good short.

“Guitar Centered”

The Five Girls decide to go to an Instrument Store/Guitar Shop so Rainbow Dash can replace her incredibly damaged Guitar. She spots a Double Neck Guitar and decides to get it, but Trixie wants it as well. So the two decide to have a Rock Off to decide who gets the Guitar. (Let Me Guess, the winner also has to pay Tenacious D’s Rent.)

They basically play some Riffs and Rainbow somehow activates her powers and wins the competition but decides to take the Guitar she won the battle with instead of the Double Neck. Trixie then buys it, but finds out it costs $12,000.

I have to admit, it was nice seeing Trixie again and getting more lines than the first movie. Plus I had no idea she could play Guitar. With Rainbow Dash playing Guitar, wasn’t very surprising at all since they build her up to be “Awesome” all the time. I want to know how exactly she can activate her powers simply by playing Guitar. (It would make sense to me if she were playing a Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page song extremely accurate.)

Personally, I thought it Good as well.

Hamstocalypse Now

Fluttershy gets assistants for Rarity for taking care of an absurdly large amount of Hamsters in a Pet Store while she takes care of cleaning their cages. After she’s done, they are everywhere and apparently Rarity named all of them and turned them into some kind of Hamster Soap Opera. Fluttershy then uses her Tambourine, which apparently hypnotizes them, and gets them back into their cage.

Unlike Rainbow Dash who had to get a new Guitar, Fluttershy already had the Tambourine. (If it was Green, I would recognize the Obscure’60s song reference.) Much like Rainbow Dash, when she plays the Tambourine, she activates her Powers by simply playing. I wish they would explain how that works. I hope they do in the future.

Also, The first thing that popped in my head when I saw the title was Colonel Kurtz whispering “The Horror. The Horror.” (It’s Incredibly Obvious Why.)

I thought it was a good short overall.

Pinkie on the One

Rainbow Dash is seeking a new Drummer for her band, but she just can find anyone who has the Energy, the ability to use both hands at once, and the right “instincts” apparently…

Gee…I wonder who she’s going to pick…

…That would be Awesome, but no, it’s obvious she picks Pinkie Pie for it.

After playing a small solo, Rainbow is pretty much convinced and she becomes a member of the band.

The set-up for this was very different for the other shorts. It didn’t really have anything happening in it like the previous ones. This one was just a bunch of things happening throughout the day mixed in with some Comedy instead of one major event that needed Pinkie to be on Drums. (I’m mainly basing this idea off Rainbow’s short Guitar Centered.)

Pinkie Pie being on Drums wasn’t much of a surprise for me. It seemed very fitting for her.

Overall, I thought it was a good Short. (This has been pretty repetitive hasn’t it?)

Player Piano

Rarity has to get her Piano to band practice but can barely move it. So she gets the help of the Diamond Dogs by having them carry it with her on top.

[I have to admit the Diamond Dogs look weird in this.]

When she arrives, they run out of time and have to move their practice to the gym. Pinkie then suggests instead of using the Piano, she recommends the Keytar since it’s lighter. She then accepts using it by simply playing it. (Like everyone else, that’s how she activates her powers.)

This short, much like Music to my Ears, didn’t anything that resembled a real conflict. It seemed more like a Minor inconvenience. So that was a bit of a disappointment for me.

The one thing I was really wondering since the first trailer came out is “Why does Rarity get a Keytar?” I understand why she’d have a Piano, but since they are trying to come off similar to an 80’s Rock Band, I think Rarity should have a Synthesizer instead.

Never the less, I thought it was a decent short. Plus I actually think this was one of the weaker shorts. (That’s a shame considering Rarity’s one of my favorite Characters on MLP.)

I bet after Rainbow Rocks, she’d probably take some Keytar tips from Jan Hammer.

A Case for the Bass

During a Yard Sale at the Apple Family Home, Granny Smith accidentally sells Applejack’s Bass Guitar to a couple of Pawn Shop owners and the Girls decide to get it back.

…and who ones this Pawn Shop? None other than two of my favorite Secondary Villains from the show, Flim and Flam!

(At first, the way they look bugged me, but seconds later I got over it.)

She tries to get it back from them at the same price of $2 that Granny Smith sold them, but instead they ask for $1000. Plus they also have their doubts, suggesting she can’t even play the bass. So, she does to prove them wrong. Even after doing so, they still want the money, but they instead come up with the idea for a trade so she doesn’t have to give them the money which ended up having Applejack in a Banana Suit advertising their store.

…You’d think it would be an apple suit, but I guess they probably didn’t have one in their shop.

( One thing I did notice in the pawn shop was that there’s a Dark Side of the Moon Album except it had Rainbow Power instead of the Traditional Rainbow on it. I thought that was a nice touch. They also had the first Velvet Underground album as well. )

Granny Smith does bring up an interesting question. “Since When Do you Know how to play Bass?” I am actually very intrigued on that question with most of the Girls’ instruments. Except Fluttershy, the Tambourine is way too easy to learn. Rarity and Rainbow were most likely given Lessons. Pinkie pretty much knew how the instant she sat in front of a Drum set.

As for Applejack, I think she probably got to learn bass by hanging out with Lemmy Kilmister.

Or maybe since she’s a cartoon, maybe she hung out with Murdoc Niccals…

…Actually, that’s a bad idea.

Never the less, I do think that a Bass Guitar is very fitting for Applejack. (Either that or she should have an Acoustic Guitar.)

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but this is still an important issue for me and for all of the shorts. I really want them to please explain WHY playing an instrument suddenly activate their powers. I really need this to be explained. It’s happened for the entire mane 6 and it’s starting to bug me.

Overall, I think this was probably the best of the Shorts so far. Even though I not a big Applejack fan, I still enjoyed it a lot.

Well, This probably might be all of the shorts considering Twilight Sparkle doesn’t have an instrument to play. Although, they still could do a short about Sunset Shimmer’s role in the next film since Rebecca Shoichet announced she would be in it….I just really hope Flash Sentry isn’t in it. I’ve started to get annoyed by him recently…

Creature: A Long Time Ago in the Early ’90s, the world of video games was coming to a new age of Home Entertainment with New Genres and Higher Quality. One of the more popular genres to spawn was the First Person Shooter which put the player in the point of view of the main character and was popularized with a little game called Doom.

The Original game from 1993 was a milestone for the video game industry that spawned many sequels, as well as some controversy, and has become one of the most influential and popular video games in history. Eventually, the executives over in Hollywood got the idea to adapt the game onto the Silver Screen. So, Jim Bevan and I decided to take a look at the film.

Jim: Thanks for having me here, Creature. Though I have to confess I’m coming into this partially blind. I never played the original DOOM or its sequels when it came out (at the time I was more of a console gamer and only really played adventure games on the PC). Even when I got older I never had much of an interest in it or related media, including the film version released in 2005. When Mathew Buck reviewed that version on Bad Movie Beatdown, my curiosity was piqued. I had to see if it was, as he put it, a guilty pleasure. I have to disagree with Mr. Buck, as the movie doesn’t even reach the level of ‘so bad it’s good’, at least not for me.

Indeed it can be “So Bad, It’s Good” (depending on the viewer.) So let’s dive into it.

Creature: In the year 2046, the Union Aerospace Corporation sends out a Distress signal from their Research Facility on Mars of a Quarantine Breach involving some unknown enemy force. A team of Eight Marines [The Rock, Karl Urban, and 6 others] are assigned to go up to the Red Planet to contain the facility, retrieve the scientists who sent the call, & neutralize the threat. As they go further in the base, they soon realize the threat might be more dangerous than they realize and try to stop it before it reaches Earth.

Jim: The movie starts off well enough setting the scene for the marines’ arrival on Mars and their first confrontation with the evil that’s infested the UAC facility, but then it falls apart. The biggest problem is how it ignores the source material. In the game, the monsters encountered have come from hell through an interdimensional rift created from a failed teleportation experiment. Here, the creatures are created by injecting humans with gene samples from the remains of an ancient Martian race. That’s not DOOM; that’s Resident Evil, along with dozens of other horror/sci-fi plots that revolve around monsters born of genetic tampering.

Aside from scrapping the game’s premise for something more cliched, the movie is dragged down by a number of glaring plot-holes. Just off the top of my head: the marine squadron, who should all be well-trained, make incredibly idiotic moves like splitting up into small groups and firing at anything that moves. The infection spreads, as Dr. Samantha Grimm exposits, by detecing the genetic marker for “evil” to find a new host, which is a stretch even for a fantasy. Every victim who becomes a carrier mutates into a hideous abomination, except for the designated hero John (because he’s pure or some such nonsense). Basically, the writers decided to treat genetic science as magic that could change as the plot depended on it, which would have been unnecessary if they’d just kept the hell aspect, since the effects could have been explained as truly supernatural.

Creature: I was Disappointed with the plot. They definitely went with some very idiotic decisions with it, especially the whole “Infection” idea.

Creature: Some of the casting choices for this seemed similar to an Action film. Karl Urban is Reaper and he’s supposedly the main character from the games (“The Doom Guy”). He basically seemed to be “Pure”, as Jim Mentioned, he didn’t have much of a motive to him and wasn’t a very good character to me.

Oddly, the Rock comes off more as a villian in the film. More so than the monsters. In D3, they had a villian who caused the demons to start spreading throughout the base, Dr. Betruger. In this, they threw the whole Demon aspect away and made the Rock seem more like a Leader who basically wanted every threat dead. (Which oddly reminded me of Sgt. Kelly from D3.)

Rosmund Pike plays Repaer’s Sister whose a Scientist working on Mars and provides nothing but exposition for what’s happen and how the infection is spreading.

The other soldiers came off as pretty generic. They didn’t have personalities to them and only exist to get killed off in the film. The only character that seemed a bit likable to me was Pinky.

Jim Bevan: Just about everyone in the cast played a stock character that you see in many generic action/horror films – the normally stoic, battle-hardened soldier who eventually goes crazy or becomes a puppet of the evil he’s fighting (Sarge), the scientists who succumb to their own monstrous creations (Dr. Carmack and Pinky), the ex-criminal seeking redemption, eventually sacrificing him/herself (Goat), the heroic white people who end up saving the day (the Grimm siblings), and so on.

It doesn’t really matter which actors ended up portraying them, since I feld the script was so weak that no matter who was in the part would have performed just as poorly considering the material they were given. None of the cast were memorable or interesting, just bland and cliched. When the protagonist from the DOOM tie-in comic is a more engaging character (“Now I’m radioactive! That can’t be good!), the writers and directors have failed.

Creature: Based on what I saw throughout the film, the “Demons”were mostly based on the designs from Doom 3. They only use Three of the demons that were in the game: The Hell Knight, Imps, & Pinky. [There was also Zombies but a lot of Games have those. Thus they didn’t really stand out to me like the others.]

 

The designs for their movie counterparts seemed actually very accurate to D3 with a minor difference with Pinky having Wheels instead of mechanical legs. So, at least the film got that part right.

For the special effects, they were alright. They seemed to be regular CGI that you would see in these kind of films.

Jim: Pinky was the only creature I found truly impressive. The build, fusion of the wheelchair to its body as a reminder of the transformation it went through, and lack of eyes made it stand out. All the other monster designs seemed rather generic to me. I haven’t played DOOM 3 so I can’t say how they compare. I would have liked a little more variety than just three monster types; they could have been used in place of the generic zombies, though I suppose budget restrictions prevented that from happening

Creature: I definitely agree that they needed more monsters from the game. Personally I would have loved to see some Lost Souls or Cherubs running around the base.

 

Creature: Of course with this being a Video Game Movie, Changes were made, and being a very big fan of the video games they were very easy to notice. The obvious one, as Jim Mentioned, is that they are Demons but they are just humans who were experimented on…Okay, this basically ruined the whole idea and the atmosphere that the Games set up with its very Demonic and Graphic imagery. The movie also tried to be consistent with the lighting of the game especially since in the 3rd one, your flashlight is one of the most frequently used items to explore the Facility, but the problem is sometimes you can’t see very much of anything. Then there’s the First Person Scene….

The scene was supposed to replicate playing the game in Rampage or Beserk mode, but it ended up looking like your watching a Walkthrough of the game on Youtube. For me, this doesn’t not even hold up well to the games.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Creature: I thought this was a dumb movie. Being a fan of the game, there were aspects of it that were disappointing, some choices I didn’t like, although it could come off as a Guilty Pleasure for fans of the games, Not for me though.

Jim Bevan: As I said before, I never played the games so I can’t judge them regarding how faithful they are to the source material. But as a film judged on its own merit, it’s just dull. I didn’t even get an ironic sense of entertainment from how poor it was. I was just bored. I will agree that some of the aspects they tried to bring over that you brought up, such as the lighting and the FPS segment, were good in theory but weak in execution.

Like you, I can’t say this is a guilty pleasure. It’s not horrible, but sometimes mediocrity is worse than outright badness.

Thanks for having me here, Creature.

The Creature: Thank for joining me in the Review.

I’ve noticed that I’ve looked at a lot of Dark MLP fan-created projects on here. I mean I’ve looked at some fanfics, games, and videos that have all been a bit on the dark side.

I think it’s time for a Break.

I decided for the next couple of “Letters to Celestia” Blogs, I’ve going to try and stay away from the Graphic Stuff I’ve looked at in the past and look some that are happy and are a lot like the show. For Today’s topic, I picked a random piece of fanfiction that I found online, and the one that I chose is called “Never Stop Smiling”.

[I’m not showing Images for now since they are major spoilers for it.]

The story is told from the perspective of Rainbow Dash and is in the form of a letter which is being addressed to Pinkie Pie.

In the letter, Rainbow tells Pinkie of how much she had fun with and reminisces about the good times they’ve had together as friends. Plus she brings up the facts of how she was there to comfort when she was REJECTED by the Wonderbolts Academy. She then starts to develop Feelings for Pinkie but never really admits it to her.

The Next day, Rainbow awakes to find Pinkie not moving…at all…for several hours… She then comes to conclusion that Pinkie Pie died.

She’s then taken to a Hospital where it’s revealed that she apparently had a Disease (It never states the name) and Pinkie apparently never revealed it to anybody and pretended like it wasn’t there at all. Obviously, everyone is completely distraught by the news and Rainbow was the most crushed by the news since she had recently develop feelings for her. (Which was the day before the incident.)

The Letter that she’s writing is apparently being written 8 YEARS after the whole incident and she tells to Pinkie what happens to everyone after it. Twilight moves back to Canterlot where she becomes a Royal Assistant to Princess Celestia (She doesn’t become a Princess. This was probably written in between Season 3 since they reference “Wonderbolt Academy”.) Rarity and Fluttershy apparently start Dating and become engaged, and Applejack and Rainbow Dash get married. Although she still has feelings for Pinkie. This is the main reason why she wrote the letter, to tell her this since she didn’t have the strength to do so when she was still around.

Personally, I don’t really care about Shipping and I don’t Ship anyone either. So the whole idea of this fanfic seemed like it was one big Sad Shipping Party. It reminded me of something like Love Actually if the Alan Rickman/Emma Thompson story affected all the others and it had a sad ending.

Most fanfics exist in some kind of different reality due to the situations that involved in the stores. This one was very similar to the show’s storyline with some minor changes to it. (Twilight is not a Princess, Rainbow being rejected from WBA, etc.)

If only Quinn Mallory was there to help.

To be honest, I do not like Rainbow Dash at all. She’s my least favorite character in the show and she just makes me upset whenever she pops up. (I’ll probably explain why in the near future.)When I wasn’t looking foward to reading this since she would probably do the same old stuff she always does, but in this she didn’t actually bother me at all in this. She actually seemed likeable to me and she showed some genuine emotions in here.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty decent Fanfic. It will seem like one big ship-fic towards the end of it, but I’m use to seeing ALOT of those so it didn’t bother me. I guess you can read it if you want to.

Recently, the film V/H/S/2 came out on Netflix and I decided to check it out considering since I saw the first one and thought it was ok. Plus, this one is considered better than the first one so I figured that’s worth a look.

Much like the first one the film is set up in the style of a Found Footage Anthology film. I’ll be looking at each segment individually as well as the film overall and how well the set up works with it.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD.

Main Narrative/Tape 49

A College Kid goes missing and Two Private Investigators go to his Apartment to check things out. In there, they find a whole bunch of Analog Televisions along with A Bunch of VHS Tapes (Much like the First one.) and his Laptop which contained a Vlog about his thoughts on the tapes as well as some of the Stories for the film. One of them decides to watch the tapes while the other goes on exploring the apartment.

Phase I Clinical Trials

After a car accident, a man gets surgery on his missing eye in which he gets an Artifical Eye which has a Camera inside it which is part of a test the doctors are conducting. Later that day, he starts to see people who mysteriously enter his home without showing any intention of what they want.

The segment, basically, turns into a mini ghost film. The segment only offers one more character named Clarissa who apparently had surgery done on her hearing and can also see the ghosts.The method of only them seeing the ghosts isn’t explained but it’s hinted that if you’ve either had replaced body parts or have been in a near death experience, you’d be able to see them. (Similar to The Frighteners.)

I thought this one was the weakest segment for me in the film.

A Ride In The Park

A guy filming his bike ride with his Go Pro comes across a woman who needs medical attention. She then bites him, and he eventually becomes a zombie.

The rest of the segment is just him going around bitting people and getting attacked while he also vaguely remembers who he once was near the end of it. That’s pretty much all I can say about this segment.

(Interestingly, I found out this was made by the Directors of The Blair Witch Project.)

I thought this was Ok. I didn’t really like it, but it’s not the worst segment on here.

Safe Haven

A camera crew goes to a Indonnesian Cult group to interview their Leader and hope to answer some questions upon some rumors that have been spread about him and his “Children.” Meanwhile, a few of the crew members explore the area to find some rather bizzare ritualistic style of events that soon will plague the Interviewers.

Each of the interviewers finds something that encounter in the village like area where they could basically be killed almost instantly and it ends up to be a part of a Ritualistic Sacrifice to summon a Demon from the pregnant filmmaker.

This one was definitely the most bizzare of the bunch…and it was the Best Segment out of the whole film.

Slumber Party Alien Abduction

….Gee, I wonder what happens in this segment….

As the title pretty much says, a bunch of guys are having a Slumber Party all day and they constantly pick on the main boy’s older sister & boyfriend, and, Obviously, Aliens arrive and they decide to take each of the kids one by one.

The Camera work on this one was done by a Go Pro style of camera, like the zombie segment, that was mainly strapped to the Dog the family had. The segment made the footage look damaged and a bit blurry to help hide the look of the aliens. As for the aliens themselves, they were Greys, The most generic type of Alien.

This one ended up being one of the segments from Both films that I really enjoyed.

(Another interesting fact, this segment was made by the Director of Hobo with A Shotgun, Jason Eisener.)

As the film progressed, I noticed that each of the encounters in the segments involved some form of monster. The first film didn’t really have some consistent encounter like that and it was a mix of Serial Killers, Monsters, and an Exorcism.

One of the bigger issues I had with the first film was wondering how did they put some of the footage onto a VHS Tape since a few segments were done Digitally. Thankfully, 3 of the segments were on the missing kids’ laptop and the Safe Haven segment was on VHS.

Overall, this one was more Enjoyable than the first one and I ended up liking it. I guess I could say watch it if you want to see a Found Footage Monster fest.

When one gets ideas for Musicals, they often are inspired by Film or True Events or the one that has always been used the most…Books. Many of the most popular musicals on the 20th and 21st Century are based on some pieces of literature either forgotten or highly recognized. One of the more recognized of recent years is a novel by Gaston Leroux from 1910 entitled “The Phantom of the Opera”

The Novel that has been adapted to film multiple times in the early 1920’s and 1930’s and eventually became an inspiration for one of the most popular musicals of all time by Andrew Lloyd Webber in the 1980’s. The musical has a great success and is personal of my favorites in the Theater circuit with great art direction, costumes, and of course the songs…BUT…That isn’t what I’m here to talk about today. I’m here to look at the first musical adaptation of the novel that came out in 1974 by Brian De Palma and has been a massive cult classic Musical just as Campy as Flash Gordon or Blood for Dracula. Before we had Rocky Horror Picture Show, We were given The Phantom of the Paradise.

A Songwriter by the name of Winslow Leach (William Finley) gets the attention of the mysterious Record Producer Swan (Paul Williams) who steals Winslow’s song “Faust” believing it will be perfect to open his new theater “The Paradise”. Winslow tries to contact Swan about it, but is eventually arrested, badly injured, and is presumed dead. Sometime later, Winslow confronts Swan who offers him a deal to right music for Swan and he will keep Winslow’s name on it.

Much like the Phantom, the film also tells a bit of a Love-Triangle between Swan, Winslow, and a singer named Phoenix who originally caught Winslow’s attention and believes she is perfect to sing the piece. Throughout the film, Swan and Winslow conflict over Phoenix and her singing with multiple different singers replacing her.

The film not only is an adaptation of the Phantom of the Opera, but it also carries elements and plot points from Faust and The Picture of Dorian Gray. The mixtures of stories are often contained with the two characters. Winslow carried the Phantom plot, while Swan had Faust and Dorian Gray. Plus it has allusions to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Frankenstein, and a minor parody of Psycho.

It is definitely one of the most Unique Adaptations out there…In a good way.

The characters throughout the film resemble the majority of the characters of the Phantom of the Opera. Winslow and Swan split the role of the Phantom into the two characters. Winslow represented the obsessive side that writes the music and who also loves Phoenix, while Swan was the Manipulative side of the Phantom. Plus the two also have elements of some other characters. Winslow had elements of Raoul within him, seeming to make him like a fallen hero; while Swan also represented Andre and Firmin, the Opera Managers from the book. With the two similar yet different characters, they came out as my favorite characters from the film.

The rest of the characters are pretty obvious who they resemble. Phoenix is the equivalent of Christine Daae, except she doesn’t have as much development as her though. Then there’s Beef….

Aside from Swan and Winslow, Beef was probably one of the better characters basically because of the over the top camp factor of the whole character. He was the Equivalent of Carlotta if you gave her a Glam rock David Bowie-esque outfit as well a stereotypical gay accent but comes out singing like Meat Loaf. (Plus his name is probably a parody of Meat Loaf.)

There were many characters that were in the book that they left out but that didn’t leave much leave a difference of the film since this is a very loose adaptation of the book.

The Songs in the film were written by one of my favorite Songwriters and one of the main actors in the film, Paul Williams.

The main song that is played and sung by multiple people is Winslow’s song “Faust” which tells the story of Faust and is one of the major plot points throughout the film and to be fair, Faust is the best song in the whole film. Winslow’s singing voice originally was William Finley, but after he became the Phantom, it changed to one that is Paul William’s singing voice. That’s ok to me since Swan doesn’t sing the film anyway.

A bunch of the songs were sung by a Band which changed their appearances throughout the film. They started off as a Rockabilly style band called the Juicy Fruits, then a Surf Rock band called the Beach Bums, and then a Doom Metal style band called the Undeads. Phoenix and Beef get songs as well in the film but they’re much later into it. They are still good, but I still think Faust is the best in the film.

FINAL THOUGHTS: I Love this Movie. This is probably one of my favorite musicals as well. I loved the Songs, I love the Camp Factor of it similar to Rocky Horror Picture Show, I liked the majority of the characters, it was a very creative adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s Story, and it definitely should be seen by more people. I Highly recommend seeing this…In fact, why are you still reading this? Go Watch The Movie!