Private SNAFU - Booby Traps (1944)

Private Snafu learns about the hazards of enemy booby traps the hard way. This is one of 26 Private SNAFU ('Situation Normal, All Fouled Up) cartoons made by the US Army Signal Corps to educate and boost the morale of the troops. Originally created by Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and Phil Eastman, most of the cartoons were produced by Warner Brothers Animation Studios - employing their animators, voice actors (primarily Mel Blanc) and Carl Stalling's music.

Marvel’s first family of superheroes,The Fantastic Four, meets their greatest challenge yet in FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER as the enigmatic, intergalactic herald, The Silver Surfer, comes to Earth to prepare it for destruction. As the Silver Surfer races around the globe wreaking havoc, Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben must unravel the mystery of the Silver Surfer and confront the surprising return of their mortal enemy, Dr. Doom, before all hope is lost.
The trailer is up now. To see it click here.


(Picture and synopsis provided by 20th Century Fox)

James Brown don't feel good. (05/03/1933 - 12/25/06) R.I.P. It's gonna be a funky Christmas in heaven.

Use North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)
to track Santa Claus and see if he's going to bring you that Wii that you wrote him about.






(Photo of Bubba (a.k.a. Amal) and Santa supplied by BATF)

The new Transformers trailer is here. To check it out click here.






(Pictures courtesy of leftlanenews.com)

R.I.P. Tower Records. We'll still have those fond memories of all those years that you ripped us off. Now,the next order of business, DRM's.

I know that there were alot of sappy things written about Peter Boyle this past week by people who probably never really thought much about him other than his role he played on 'Everybody Loves Raymond'. But, for everyone else I offer this...


















(T-shirt and photo courtesy of Y-Que Trading Post)
For more info on how to get yours click here.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Joe Barbera, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that produced such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, died Monday, a Warner Bros. spokesman said. He was 95.

Barbera died of natural causes at his home with his wife Sheila at his side, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said.

With his longtime partner, Bill Hanna, Barbera first found success creating the highly successful Tom and Jerry cartoons. The antics of the battling cat and mouse went on to win seven Academy Awards, more than any other series with the same characters.

The partners, who teamed up while working at MGM in the 1930s, then went on to a whole new realm of success in the 1960s with a witty series of animated TV comedies, including "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons," "Yogi Bear," "Scooby-Doo" and "Huckleberry Hound and Friends."(AP Photo/ Douglas Pizac) (Story via AP).

Boston • Cleveland • Los Angeles • San Francisco

// // //

Saturday, December 16, 2006 Shrine Auditorium Expo Center 700 West 32nd Street, Los Angeles 90007 11am-7pm, $2 at the door, ATM on-site

...And I shall shed my light over dark evil... For dark things cannot stand the light... The light of the Green Lantern! Those are the words that were spoken by one of the most famous comic book heroes ever. That character was created by Martin Nodell. Martin Nodell passed away this weekend (Sat. Nov. 09, 2006). Martin Nodell started working in comic books in 1938 as a freelance artist. He then joined DC comics where he created the Green Lantern. He then left DC to join Timely Comics. Timely Comics would eventually become Marvel Comics and that is where he worked on characters like Sub-Mariner and Captain America. He retired in 1976. R.I.P.

Pauly Shore gets knocked out. (Via ifilm.)

The Queen Haters were quite possibly the greatest punk rock band on earth. Actually, they were the greatest band that never was. With Martin Short on vocals, Eugene Levy on Guitar, Andrea Martin on rhythm guitar, Joe Flaherty on bass and John Candy on drums they appeared on Mel's Rockpile (a recurring sketch on SCTV) and proceeded to rock the house with their one and only song "I Hate The Bloody Queen". With lyrics like "I'd like to drown the Queen! Off the coast of Argentine. Throw her off a battleship With her Falkland war machine! She taxes me to death I can't afford me dope. I'd like to get her high Yeah, that would make me laugh." I can't understand why they didn't actually release a single. Couldn't have been any worse than some of the other drivel that was coming out at the time like "Puttin' on the Ritz" by Taco.

The Crispin Glover movie, What is it? will be playing at the Hollywood Egyptian Theater Dec. 8-10. Showtimes are nightly at 8:00 p.m. Preceding the film is an hour-long live dramatic presentation of his "Big Slide Show" which features illustration and commentary from eight of his books. Following the film screenings he will appear for q & a at all shows The evening will end with a signing of his books Rat Catching, Oak Mot, and What It Is, And How It Is Done.

Special Ticket price: Cinematheque Members $12; Students $15; General Admission $18.(per American Cinematheque)

To link to Crispin Glover's official website click here.

Ridiculous!

Picture of Winona ryder from the upcoming movie called Sex and Death 101. Plot Outline: A guy's life is turned around by an email, which includes the names of everyone he's had sex with and ever will have sex with. His situation gets worse when he encounters a femme fatale (Ryder) who targets men guilty of sex crimes (per imdb). Slated for release in 2007. (picture via agcn).

Have you ever wanted to take the Beatles and mash them up beyond recognition? Well, the Beatles(s) have a new CD out with (legal) mash-ups of their own songs called Love. The songs are mash-ups in the sense that they consist of parts from different pre-existing tracks to make up one cohesive musical track or song. But, the fact that they are just Beatles songs mashed up with other Beatles songs kind of seems a bit lame to me. Other projects like The Beastles (click here) and the Beachles (click here) are so much more interesting and imaginative. For more on this cd click here.

(Two down and two to go)

Don't forget about the Felt Club Holiday Meeting on Saturday December 9th, 2006. Dozens of vendors scheduled to be there. For the Felt Club website click here.

Aerial view of our headquarters.

Anybody remember Harvey Films? (per Harveyville fun times homepage)"The story of the Harvey World Famous Comics - founded as Alfred P. Harvey Publications in 1940. The company created by Alfred Harvey (who, at one time, worked for Fox Publications alongside young talents Joe Simon and Jack Kirby) scored early successes through well-known characters licensed from other creators, such as The Green Hornet, Blondie, Terry and the Pirates, Dick Tracy, Li'l Abner, Felix the Cat, and many others. Harvey was eventually joined by his brothers Leon and Robert.

It was in the 1950's that the company acquired the rights to a family of animated characters created by Paramount Pictures for animated short subjects, including Baby Huey, Little Audrey, and a friendly ghost named Casper. In the ensuing years, Alfred Harvey augmented this roster with equally endearing creations of his own - including Wendy the Good Little Witch, Little Dot, and Richie Rich and all enjoyed tremendous popularity among youngsters in their comics (and in theatrical, then televised, cartoons) throughout the 1960s. He also proudly lent the characters to public service announcements for various organizations, increasing their visibility and firmly establishing Harvey Comics as a leader in comic book entertainment.

The original company ceased publishing in 1982, and after a short hiatus, resumed publication in 1986 by Alan Harvey, Alfred's eldest son. Then, in 1989, Jeffrey Montgomery bought the company, renamed it Harvey Entertainment, and republished the old Harvey comics as "Harvey Classics". He struck a worldwide publishing and distribution deal with Marvel Comics; distributed the animated cartoons in every market; sold 20% of the company to MCA, parent company of Universal Studios (which licensed the rights to use the characters in its theme parks); and optioned Casper and Richie Rich for two multi-million dollar feature films that were produced.

Alan Harvey retained the rights to certain Harvey characters such as Sad Sack and Black Cat and has published under the names of Lorne-Harvey Publications and Recollections.

Harvey Entertainment, meanwhile, ceased publishing again in 1994. Montgomery was ousted in 1997 and the company changed names to Sunland Entertainment in 2000, the current owners of the Harvey characters. The licensing of the Harvey characters is currently handled by Classic Media." For Harveyville Fun Times Homepage click here.

For the Harvey Entertainment current website click here.

I went to the Make Magazine Issue #8 Launch Party yesterday and it was not that great only because of the cramped quarters that they held it in and the fact that the featured speaker , Simon Penny, was a bit long winded. Not as much fun gadgetry there as i was hoping there would be. On the other hand there were these two guys there who came up with a game called MobZombies that is handheld and (per their website) "explores a new dimension of handheld gaming by adding motion awareness to classic arcade style gameplay. Using a handheld device, and a custom motion sensor, players enter a virtual world infested with pixel-art zombies (a homage to vintage 8-bit console games). The goal of the game is to stay alive, running away from or planting bombs to destroy the ever-encroaching zombies.

The twist is that a player's physical position controls the position of their zombie-world avatar, forcing the player to actually move around the real world to succeed in the game.

The virtual zombie-world is a simple environment -- the game's complexity comes from players having to negotiate real-world objects in order to avoid the zombies and stay alive. The scoring system is simple: the longer you can stay alive, the higher your score. Of course, the longer you stick around, the more zombies you'll encounter." For Info on MobZombies and to see some pictures of the Make Magazine Issue #8 Launch Party go to their (Mobzombies) website by clicking here.
For info on Make Magazine click here.

HUNTER S. THOMPSON
GONZO

DECEMBER 2, 2006 - JANUARY 20, 2007

612 NORTH ALMONT DRIVE
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90069
TEL 310 550 0050
FAX 310 550 0605
TUE-SAT 10-5

I went to see For Your Consideration and I wanted to love this movie so much because I had been looking forward to seeing it for awhile now but, oy vey. I guess the fact that some the of actors that are in this movie have set the bar so high for themselves with movies like Spinal Tap and Best in Show that any other movies that they do just sort of pale in comparison. Catherine O'hara's funny transformation towards the end of the film is pretty funny but, the best part of the movie is Fred Willard as the Entertainment Tonightesque reporter. Gee, maybe I need to see this movie again just to make sure. I was feeling a bit mishuga when I saw it anyway. For more info click here.

I just had to post this picture of Jenny Lewis from Rilo Kiley. Who knew? Ben Seaver (from Growing Pains) missed out big time!

Doggone this picture! Why?!

If you don't already know about the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players then you are probably some sort of jackass who shouldn't be reading this blog anyway! But, if you insist on reading on then I will just tell you that what they basically do is take vintage slide collections that they find at estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores and turn the lives of anonymous strangers into pop-rock musical exposes based on their slides. I'm already regretting telling you this but, the drummer reminds me of a young Meg White in training. Doh! Now i've gone and said too much. Now if we could only get them on a double bill with the Shaggs. What? You've never heard of the Shaggs? Please remove this blog from your bookmark section as I bid you good day. I said good day! For more info on the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players click here.

Destructor was the first comic book I ever bought when I was a kid. I still have that very comic book to this day. It was put out on Atlas Comics which has since ceased to exist. Dave Cockrum worked on that character and created many others while working at Marvel. He also restarted the X-Men series in 1975 after it had been on hiatus since 1970 (due to low sales) helping to create new characters like Colossus, Nightcrawler and Storm breathing new life into the series. Dave Cockrum passed away on Sun, Nov. 26, 2006. His rendering of Wolverine is set to be used as a postage stamp in 2007. Click here for more info.

Mommy, can I ride the Game of Death ferris wheel again?
The raddest thing in the world happened on Sunday when a ceremony was held in Shunde (near Hong Kong) to formerly inaugurate the planning of a new theme park based on kung fu legend Bruce Lee! The article entitled, “Ground Broken on the New Bruce Lee Theme Park” comes to us care of the sensible Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) but probably should have been entitled, “Ground Broken and Shattered into a Million Pieces by Lightning-Quick and Deadly Fists and Kicks on the New Bruce Lee Theme Park.”

Of course, this news was announced a couple of months ago but we didn’t want to get our hopes up after they were dashed …um … frozen in liquid nitrogen and then kung fu chopped into a billion fragments about Shanghai’s Disneyland.

When you read the CBC article, the theme park -- which is receiving some mysterious funding and progressing with the approval of Bruce Lee’s supposed former mistress, Betty Ting Pei, and younger brother -- comes across as somewhat innocuous. Even reverential. Stated plans include a memorial hall, a statue of the film star, and a martial arts training academy.

Well that sounds tasteful. Die hard fans should really appreciate it. Not really a theme park. But…

But then you go back and read the earlier article from the Sunday Times (London) and it is revealed that they are also planning a roller coaster that emits Bruce Lee’s signature squawks and grunts! The park will be patrolled by robot-mannequin Bruce Lees! And the whole shebang is controlled by a special secret control room housed in a giant statue! Yes!

The park is slated to be finished in three years and we can pretty much guarantee, without doing any research or talking to anyone, that there’s going to be a hall of mirrors of some kind in this thing.

Photo from imutoo's flickr.com page. (via shanghaiist)