Friday 4 October 2013

Hallowe'en is coming!

It's October! That means Halowe'en time, and that means Treehouse of Horror time! Check out this clip of this year's opening. The couch gag was conceived by Guillermo Del Toro.

Thursday 12 September 2013

2013 Animation Festival Preview

Hi! Long time no blog. The Ottawa International Animation Festival starts next Wednesday! It is basically the best thing that happens in Ottawa all year. This year I am busy with friends' weddings so I won't be seeing much of it, but fortunately a lot of the films are available online! Here's a preview of what you are missing by not going:


I Am Alone and My Head Is On Fire by David OReilly - McLaren's Workshop App from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo.

Wednesday 3 July 2013

Can't sleep

It's been several weeks! Well, tonight I just can't get to sleep. Here is the kind of thing that my mind dregs up on a sleepless night. Prepare for nostalgia (assuming you are from Ontario and grew up on mid-nineties YTV, that is).


All Shapes and Sizes

This is from Imaginaria. YTV used to air these things as "Short Circutz." Remember, "Chomp chomp! Got to eat a record, uh-huh," and "He's Styro, Styro the Dog?"

Actually, I liked all of these so much that it's hard to pick one to post so I think I'll post another one.


Bells and Whistles


Don't forget, we are of the butterfly. Whatever that meant.

Tuesday 18 June 2013

Batman Only Works in Black...and Sometimes Very, Very Dark Grey

What do Batman, the Ninja Turtles, and some 2002 NBA All Stars have in common? They all have Lego Mini figures and they're all in this trailer:



Calling it right now. Best film of 2014.

Thursday 30 May 2013

K.K. Slider is Up All Night to Get Lucky

It's been a little while! Here's the latest weird music thing I've come across: a K.K. Slider cover of a Daft Punk song, "Get Lucky." Since everything Daft Punk does is electronic anyway, K.K.'s vocals work nicely.



Aww, I want that Animal Crossing 3DS XL soooo much!

via GoNintendo

Thursday 16 May 2013

Probably the Most Inspirational Music Video Ever

No computer graphics in this video! Commander Chris Hadfield recorded this music video in space to mark his departure from the International Space Station. Everything this man does is amazing.



Some lyrics changed from the original David Bowie version, so he doesn't die at the end. That would not be good.

Also, JJ Abrams was onto something. Space IS shiny.

Friday 26 April 2013

I Made This #4: What to do when you have too many mugs


I have a little problem. I have a ton of oversized mugs! They don't really fit in the cupboard anymore. And then, for my birthday, a friend bought me the biggest mug I've ever seen and I joked about how you could use it as a flower pot. But after I said it I thought, wait, I WILL make this a flower pot! And then I did.

And you can too! The project won't set you back more than $20, so if you have some mugs or ceramics or whatever that you want to repurpose, read on! The key issue is drainage.

Book of Mormon/Death Note Mashup Works Unexpectedly Well



If you are familiar with the basic plot of Death Note this is awesome. I guess there are some similarities between Light Yagami and Mormon missionaries... okay not really. It might be fair to say they both set out to do something that would "blow God's mind" as the song says; just, Light does it by killing lots and lots of people.

Found via Topless Robot

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Letters to an Absent Father



The artist from my previous post reminded me of a mini comic series that was popular a couple of years back. Every Pokémon fan has wondered at some point where the heck Ash's dad is hiding. Then Maré Odomo made a surprisingly touching comic series on the topic. His comic is available for sale here, but it's not too hard to find them all on the internets if you know what you're looking for. Still, those stickers that come with the book are soooo cute!

Too tired to name this post.



Check out more comics at Magical Game Time!

Or read about the author, Zac Gorman, at Joystig!

Friday 5 April 2013

Huey Lewis and Weird Al in American Psycho Parody

In this video, Huey Lewis lets Weird Al know how he feels about Al's song parodies. It's pretty good, by the way.


Want to see the scene from American Psycho that this video is based on? Go here.

UPDATE: Apparently Funny or Die don't like having their videos embedded. Here's a link to the video instead:

American Psycho with Huey Lewis and Weird Al

I Made This #3: Elephant Bank



I painted this elephant bank on my birthday. My sister Anne made the salt and pepper shakers. My cousin Erin also made a bowl, but I don't have a picture of the finished bowl, so here it is before being baked:

Friday 22 March 2013

Tuesday 19 March 2013

College Humor Highlights

Saw some stuff on College Humor today that I thought was worth sharing.



1)In this video, College Humor clarifies the meaning of the title "Paperman." I knew that magical flying paper stuff was all too good to be true.

2) Click here to see an article about candle scents that you might like but which will probably never exist. I think my favourite one would be "tennis ball can." I would add "Canadian Tire" and "That Powder Soap They Have at Walt Disney World" to my personal wish list.

Monday 18 March 2013

The Star Wars Conspiracy



Well, I'm convinced. Darth was in on it all along. Funny, I never knew he owned a construction company.

Sunday 17 March 2013

I Shouldn't Find This Funny, But I Do


If I was singing this song: "Il est venuuu le temps des cathedraaaa - gasp cough hack! Air I need air!"

First off, let me make this clear: I love this song and I would totally marry Bruno Pelletier's voice if that was a thing that you could do. So if you are french-canadian, please don't kill me.

Now that that's out of the way, just listen to this song. It's hillarious.

Things to note:
  • you don't need to understand french to see what I mean
  • the song's not supposed to be  funny
  • if you watched it and you still don't find it funny, you probably have a better sense of humour than me, so don't worry about it. My sense of humour is kind of weird. Or broken.

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Mickey Mouse in "Croissant de Triomphe"


Mickey Mouse - Croissant de Triomphe by Flixgr

I used to be a big fan of Mickey Mouse, but recently I've lost interest. Why? Because for a long time it's felt like Disney lost interest in him. CG Mickey? No thanks. Not even Kingdom Hearts Mickey could resuscitate his character for me. I know, I hear you gasp.

But wait! It looks like Disney is staring to remember that they make cartoons! They are making 19 to be exact, starting with this inexplicably french one. Is there an English dub? I have no idea; Disney only lets Americans watch stuff on their site, so I found this video on a french site. Don't worry, the french isn't difficult.

Maybe there's hope that Mickey will be redeemed. There's also talk of a Mickey Mouse/Roger Rabbit movie. Take a look at the news here.

Via ign.

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Worst Commercial Ever

Recently I came across the free Tamagotchi L.I.F.E. app in the Google Play store and I was like, "Free? Heck yes!" and I downloaded it. Now it bugs me multiple times a day and I wonder why I bothered.

But anyway.

Fortunately I did not see this advertisement before I downloaded it. If I had I might have steered clear.



What it this garbage? Have you ever met someone like this in your entire life? I mean, someone you didn't want to punch?

By the way guys, no tamagotchi for you.

Monday 11 February 2013

Destino



Here's a curiosity. Many years ago Walt Disney and Salvador Dali collaborated to make a short film, but it was not completed in the end because it was too expensive. Then, years later, Roy E. Disney decides to pull out the storyboards and make the film, and it was completed in 2003. The results are... interesting.

Having trouble understanding it? Read on for my thoughts on interpretation.


Friday 8 February 2013

Winnie the Pooh's Rabbit is Not a Woman


So here's a random confession: when I was a kid I thought Rabbit was a woman. It made sense to me. Everyone always refered to Rabbit as "Rabbit;" I think they rarely ever said "him." Rabbit always reminded me of my grandma (sorry Grandma!) and he was always fussing about the house and garden, which said female to me back then. Anyone else ever make this mistake?

Hipster Princesses!

Ahahaha! It's hipster Disney princesses! You have to check these out! The Mary Sue has a bunch of 'em here.

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Where Are My Youtubes?

UPDATE: That was short! The videos came back on their own! What happened? I guess we'll never know.

Original message:

For some reason embedded youtube videos are not showing up on my blog today. If you wanted to see that Up On Poppy Hill trailer click HERE. In the mean time, I'll try to sort this out.

From Up On Poppy Hill Trailer



From up on Poppy Hill is the Latest Studio Ghibli movie to be released in North America. This one is directed by Goro Miyazaki, son of the famous Hayao Miyazaki who, if I remember correctly, thinks he is a terrible director and practically disowned him. Anyway, Studio Ghibli hasn't exactly been on a roll lately, with Tales of Earthsea being panned and Ponyo only getting good reviews because all of the reviewers were afraid to admit that they didn't get it. The Secret World of Arriety seems to have done okay, but I haven't seen it yet so I can't confirm.

That being said, this one looks like it may be something more like a cross between Whisper of the Heart and Grave of the Fireflies, in which case I thouroughly approve.

In other news, has anyone else heard that Disney no longer holds the rights to any Shtudio Ghibli films? Apparently this 'GKids' owns them all now. I've never noticed them before, but they were the ones who distributed The Secret of Kells, so they're all right.

I nearly tilted this entry 'From Up On Poopy Hill'

Saturday 2 February 2013

Aaaarghmyeyescanttakethecutenesssss!!!1

How can these toys be so cute? And these suckers are made of METAL.

These are made by crazy-amazing toy maker Hot Toys.Website is here.

Via Topless Robot

What is Downtown Abbey and Why is Everyone Referencing it?

Seriously, first it's the fake SNES Downtown Abbey game and now it's Sesame Street. I've never even heard of this show before this week. Now it's EVERYWHERE. O-O


Video Games I Would Have if I Had $ and Time

Ever since I went back to college I haven't had the time or money to get into video games, but I like to torture myself sometimes by following the latest hype. So I decided to compile for myself a list that I can come back to when I'm rich and living a life of leisure. And then I can pay twice the price for all the games that are considered 'rare'.
Here's the list in no particular order:


Wednesday 30 January 2013

Disney Animation

I've seen a few articles today mentioning that Disney has posted their Paperman animated short to their youtube account. Which is cool. I checked out their channel and I thought it was even cooler that Disney's been putting up some stuff about computer animation and the tech they use. Check out this video demonstrating hair shaders:



Entertainment weekly's got some stuff about the next Muppets movie. You should check it out.

Tuesday 22 January 2013

The Money Pit

I once watched a movie called The Money Pit with friends on the basis that all Tom Hanks movies are okay. This is the movie that shattered my belief in Tom Hanks' invincibility. There are so many things wrong with the movie, but in this little article a lawyer pulls it apart from the legal angle.

Read the article here.

Monday 21 January 2013

The Lamp that Defies Nature

Recently I thought, wouldn't it be funny if someone made a light that was powered by a candle? You know, because it already produces light, so, like, using it to power another light would be crazy, right? Because why. I was picturing bringing it onto the Dragon's Den and the people would ask me, "Why would anyone buy this?" and I'd be like, "Uh, I never thought about that part. Isn't it cool?"

But then I googled it just for fun, and it looks like I'm not the only crazy person around. I present to you, dear reader, the Candle-Powered LED Lantern:

It looks like a tiny candle oven!



"This innovative lantern emits a surprising amount of light, considering its power source. No power cord or batteries are required; it generates its own electricity by harnessing the heat energy of a single candle flame to run eight LEDs. It produces the equivalent light of about 18 tealight candles (70 lumens), more than enough to read by or illuminate a table top."

You can buy one of these babies at the Lee Valley website. Now that I've seen my idea realized, I kind of want one.

Saturday 12 January 2013

Love on the Line

Happy New Year world! A cartoon I once saw at the animation festival popped into my head today and I thought I would share it. This is what teenagers got up to in the time before the internet and the telephone. Haven't we come a long way?