Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts

Monday, September 12, 2011

The Secret of NIMH

secret of nimh
 The most awesome thing about The Secret of Nimh -- one awesome thing in a sea of awesomes -- is that, while watching, it never actually crosses your mind that it's animated. Dark as hell, creepily straddling the divide between The Rescuers and The Ninth Gate, it's about a widowed field mouse who has to find the cure for her son's sickness. Made by renegade Disney animators who resented the degenerating "quality of the artwork, a deteriorating production process, and management's declining respect for the artists" (great article, btw). Whatever got it made, it's an unsettling, unhinged, adrenalized cartoon. Go watch it.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Sherlock

sherlock holmes bbc

There are so many ways this show could've gone wrong. Setting Sherlock Holmes in the present day. Using text messages as a vital plot device. But it's dangerous and funny and geeky and awesome. It gets both the armchair-detective thing (quick, clever character bits) and the action sequences. You'd think it was stepping on the toes of that other Holmes movie from last year, but it's not. If all Holmes-related movies were this good, everyone should be allowed to make one.

It helps that this Sherlock was created by Steven Moffat, who made Coupling, also on NI, and is currently head writer on Doctor Who. There are only three episodes so far, but they're making more, and those last two links  should keep you busy for a while. Or till tomorrow's post, at least. Go watch it.