Not to be outdone, they also made a Japanese commercial:
Huh. Maybe these commercials aren't so fake. It's been announced that, as part of the merchandise for Toy Story 3, they actually will be making a Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear.
Selasa, 27 April 2010
Toy Story 3 Goes Viral
Just had to share this neat bit of viral marketing for Toy Story 3. Pixar actually made some fake retro commercials for one of the central new toys/characters in the film, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear:
Not to be outdone, they also made a Japanese commercial:
Huh. Maybe these commercials aren't so fake. It's been announced that, as part of the merchandise for Toy Story 3, they actually will be making a Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear.
Not to be outdone, they also made a Japanese commercial:
Huh. Maybe these commercials aren't so fake. It's been announced that, as part of the merchandise for Toy Story 3, they actually will be making a Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear.
Minggu, 25 April 2010
How I Spent My Weekend
I don't rent movies as much as I used to. I don't know why. There was a time when I'd run out and rent any movie with a modicum of critical praise to see what cool stuff I was missing. I think the main reason why I don't rent as many movies any more is because I've got this vast library of DVDs now, so it's easier and cheaper to just watch Star Wars again. But, with this new Blu-Ray player, I thought I should break it in by renting a few Blu-Rays.
First up, in the spirit of the time when I'd rent movies on an almost weekly basis, I figured it was time to finally check out the winner of the Best Picture Academy Award for 2009, The Hurt Locker. If you haven't seen it now, the film is about Sgt. James, a US Army bomb disposal expert as he disarms bombs in Iraq and battles his own personal demons.
I found it to be pretty good. It was tense when it needed to be, provided some moments of dark comedy, and had a couple of good action scenes. And hey, Ralph Fiennes shows up! I enjoyed it, and I think it was deserving of the Best Picture Oscar.
Secondly, I rented Whip It, the tender, coming-of-age tale where Ellen Page learns who she is out on the roller derby track. There was a lot about this film that had me curious...mainly, how it was heavily hyped as the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore. Plus, a lot of Saturday Night Live fanboys and fangirls where heralding a breakout performance by Kristin Wiig.
There's a lot of good stuff in this film. It looks good. The performances are great. Even Jimmy Fallon, who I usually find more annoying than funny, was actually pretty funny as the announcer of the roller derby games. And it was great to see Daniel Stern again, playing Ellen Page's father. He was so funny, but then he kind of disappeared in the mid-90s, and now he's back, as his good ol', slightly clueless self, who you know would just love to be more supportive of his daughter, if only he weren't slightly afraid of his fierce and fighting wife.
And the soundtrack is amazing. Did I mention the soundtrack is amazing? Music that haunts me.
My only big complaint is that the plot is a fairly typical coming-of-age story. Gee, will mom actually show up to watch the big game? What do you think? Hardly any surprises in the plot, but it's all just packaged so well you can't help but love it.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Last up, I fired up the British film Pirate Radio, but I kind of like it's original British title, The Boat that Rocked. They year is 1966, and there was this growing trend in the UK of pirate radio stations. They were based on boats, anchored just off shore in international waters, and broadcast their high-powered signals to the mainland. This the story of one such station, Radio Rock, who specialized in a lot of the rock banned in England at the time. I was curious about it, because they just don't make a lot of movies about radio stations anymore.
The closest we have to a main character is Carl, a young man, just kicked out of school, sent by his mother out Radio Rock to get put to work out at the station. While there, he meets the wide assortment of personalities who man the airwaves, and learns about life, the universe and everything. Meanwhile, in a very funny subplot, Kenneth Branagh plays the stodgy old MP given the task of finding a way to shut down these pirate radio stations.
There's not much of a plot to this film...more just a series of vignettes with some outlandish radio personalities. That being said, though, I did find it quite funny and found myself laughing out loud quite a bit.
Again, I highly recommend it.
First up, in the spirit of the time when I'd rent movies on an almost weekly basis, I figured it was time to finally check out the winner of the Best Picture Academy Award for 2009, The Hurt Locker. If you haven't seen it now, the film is about Sgt. James, a US Army bomb disposal expert as he disarms bombs in Iraq and battles his own personal demons.
I found it to be pretty good. It was tense when it needed to be, provided some moments of dark comedy, and had a couple of good action scenes. And hey, Ralph Fiennes shows up! I enjoyed it, and I think it was deserving of the Best Picture Oscar.
Secondly, I rented Whip It, the tender, coming-of-age tale where Ellen Page learns who she is out on the roller derby track. There was a lot about this film that had me curious...mainly, how it was heavily hyped as the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore. Plus, a lot of Saturday Night Live fanboys and fangirls where heralding a breakout performance by Kristin Wiig.
There's a lot of good stuff in this film. It looks good. The performances are great. Even Jimmy Fallon, who I usually find more annoying than funny, was actually pretty funny as the announcer of the roller derby games. And it was great to see Daniel Stern again, playing Ellen Page's father. He was so funny, but then he kind of disappeared in the mid-90s, and now he's back, as his good ol', slightly clueless self, who you know would just love to be more supportive of his daughter, if only he weren't slightly afraid of his fierce and fighting wife.
And the soundtrack is amazing. Did I mention the soundtrack is amazing? Music that haunts me.
My only big complaint is that the plot is a fairly typical coming-of-age story. Gee, will mom actually show up to watch the big game? What do you think? Hardly any surprises in the plot, but it's all just packaged so well you can't help but love it.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Last up, I fired up the British film Pirate Radio, but I kind of like it's original British title, The Boat that Rocked. They year is 1966, and there was this growing trend in the UK of pirate radio stations. They were based on boats, anchored just off shore in international waters, and broadcast their high-powered signals to the mainland. This the story of one such station, Radio Rock, who specialized in a lot of the rock banned in England at the time. I was curious about it, because they just don't make a lot of movies about radio stations anymore.
The closest we have to a main character is Carl, a young man, just kicked out of school, sent by his mother out Radio Rock to get put to work out at the station. While there, he meets the wide assortment of personalities who man the airwaves, and learns about life, the universe and everything. Meanwhile, in a very funny subplot, Kenneth Branagh plays the stodgy old MP given the task of finding a way to shut down these pirate radio stations.
There's not much of a plot to this film...more just a series of vignettes with some outlandish radio personalities. That being said, though, I did find it quite funny and found myself laughing out loud quite a bit.
Again, I highly recommend it.
Sabtu, 24 April 2010
Latest Targ's Up!
New week means I've got a new podcast! What's going on in this week's episode of U62: The Targ!
This week, I threw together Episode 3.28: Feeling Blu-Ray. I talk about my newly-acquired Blu-Ray player, offer up an early review of Batgirl: Year One, and share some miscellaneous Pixar news.
Click here to go download it!
Head here to subscribe in iTunes!
U62: The Targ on Facebook
Code Blue (Ray)
So, I finally got my Blu-Ray player. Woo hoo?
I've been wanting one for so long, and keeping my eyes on the sales and everything, that you think that finally getting one would be much bigger payoff. But no. There's a different vibe to this...a different energy from when I first purchased my DVD player 9 years ago.
Wow, have I really had my DVD player for that long? In my waning days at university, several of my friends had DVD players, and I was instantly in love with them. When I graduated, I was all like, "Dude, I'm going to get me one!" All throughout Y2K, I'd been saving my pennies, carefully tucking them away, and in January of 2001, when the first round of Ralphbucks arrived in the mail, that put me over the top, and I booked a day off work special to go into the city and buy it.
Now see, it's funny when it comes to me and buying technology. I'm a man who tries his best to do everything right. I save my money. I do my research. I find models that are well-known for affordability, reliability, and quality. I map out a budget. I wait for my particular model to go on sale, so I can get an even better deal. And then, when the day comes, I walk into the store, all my budgets and research go out the window, and I get the shiny one.
That's exactly how it happened when I bought my DVD player nine years ago. I had my eye on this $300 model. However, my friend who came with me that day, talked me into a $400 model that had more bells and whistles. The salesman also helped in making the upsell. However, my friend and I found the salesman to be a colossal douche, so when the salesman's back was turned, we grabbed the DVD player off the shelf, and went up to the tills, so that way the salesman didn't get the commission.
With DVD player safely purchased and in my car, my friend and I then hit about three or four video shops in Edmonton, getting my first batch of DVDs. I must have dropped $600 that day, between the DVD player and my first batch of DVDs...roughly twice my budget.
And for the next few weeks, it was awesome, as I had friends over to show off my DVD player and we poured through bonus features and just enjoyed the movies.
Flash-forward to the present day. That $400 model is now 9 years old. While it was still pretty good, it was starting to do some funny quirks and hiccups and I knew it was on its last legs. So if I was going to buy a new one, I may as well make the upgrade, right?
Lot of similarities between buying my Blu-Ray and buying my DVD player. I dutifully saved my pennies for a year. A government cheque put me over the top (Ralphbucks in 2001...tax refund in 2010.) But a lot more differences. I went in alone this time. I did it on a typical weekend...no special day off from work. No high pressure salesman. I had my eye on a $250 model and I was able to stick to my budget and that model. Rather than go all over town looking for a dozen discs, I just grabbed a couple that I was mildly interested in. The whole endeavour cost me $300 in the end.
I can't figure out what I'm not as jazzed and excited about Blu-Ray as I was about DVD. Maybe it's because DVDs play on Blu-Ray players, so I've still got this massive library of films...it's not like I'm taking my first step into a larger world. Maybe it's because all my friends were getting them at the time, and our collective excitement made it more exciting. At this point in my life, most of my friends and colleagues really couldn't care less about Blu-Ray and movies and stuff of that nature.
Oh, well. I have embraced the next generation. If all goes well, I'll be set for the next 9 years in home entertainment. Now if only I had the flatscreen LCD TV to go with it to fully enjoy hi definition entertainment.
I think I know what I'm saving for next year.
I've been wanting one for so long, and keeping my eyes on the sales and everything, that you think that finally getting one would be much bigger payoff. But no. There's a different vibe to this...a different energy from when I first purchased my DVD player 9 years ago.
Wow, have I really had my DVD player for that long? In my waning days at university, several of my friends had DVD players, and I was instantly in love with them. When I graduated, I was all like, "Dude, I'm going to get me one!" All throughout Y2K, I'd been saving my pennies, carefully tucking them away, and in January of 2001, when the first round of Ralphbucks arrived in the mail, that put me over the top, and I booked a day off work special to go into the city and buy it.
Now see, it's funny when it comes to me and buying technology. I'm a man who tries his best to do everything right. I save my money. I do my research. I find models that are well-known for affordability, reliability, and quality. I map out a budget. I wait for my particular model to go on sale, so I can get an even better deal. And then, when the day comes, I walk into the store, all my budgets and research go out the window, and I get the shiny one.
That's exactly how it happened when I bought my DVD player nine years ago. I had my eye on this $300 model. However, my friend who came with me that day, talked me into a $400 model that had more bells and whistles. The salesman also helped in making the upsell. However, my friend and I found the salesman to be a colossal douche, so when the salesman's back was turned, we grabbed the DVD player off the shelf, and went up to the tills, so that way the salesman didn't get the commission.
With DVD player safely purchased and in my car, my friend and I then hit about three or four video shops in Edmonton, getting my first batch of DVDs. I must have dropped $600 that day, between the DVD player and my first batch of DVDs...roughly twice my budget.
And for the next few weeks, it was awesome, as I had friends over to show off my DVD player and we poured through bonus features and just enjoyed the movies.
Flash-forward to the present day. That $400 model is now 9 years old. While it was still pretty good, it was starting to do some funny quirks and hiccups and I knew it was on its last legs. So if I was going to buy a new one, I may as well make the upgrade, right?
Lot of similarities between buying my Blu-Ray and buying my DVD player. I dutifully saved my pennies for a year. A government cheque put me over the top (Ralphbucks in 2001...tax refund in 2010.) But a lot more differences. I went in alone this time. I did it on a typical weekend...no special day off from work. No high pressure salesman. I had my eye on a $250 model and I was able to stick to my budget and that model. Rather than go all over town looking for a dozen discs, I just grabbed a couple that I was mildly interested in. The whole endeavour cost me $300 in the end.
I can't figure out what I'm not as jazzed and excited about Blu-Ray as I was about DVD. Maybe it's because DVDs play on Blu-Ray players, so I've still got this massive library of films...it's not like I'm taking my first step into a larger world. Maybe it's because all my friends were getting them at the time, and our collective excitement made it more exciting. At this point in my life, most of my friends and colleagues really couldn't care less about Blu-Ray and movies and stuff of that nature.
Oh, well. I have embraced the next generation. If all goes well, I'll be set for the next 9 years in home entertainment. Now if only I had the flatscreen LCD TV to go with it to fully enjoy hi definition entertainment.
I think I know what I'm saving for next year.
The Aviator
Release: December 17, 2004
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: John Logan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin, Kate Beckinsale, Alan Alda, Gwen Stefani, Danny Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jude Law, Kelli Garner
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: John Logan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin, Kate Beckinsale, Alan Alda, Gwen Stefani, Danny Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jude Law, Kelli Garner
Jumat, 23 April 2010
Clash of the Titans Review
Even though I saw it a week ago, I finally got around to writing my review of Clash of the Titans.
Give it a read, if you please.
Give it a read, if you please.
Click
Director: Frank Coraci
Cast: Sean Astin, Kate Beckinsale, David Hasselhoff, Julie Kavner, Adam Sandler
Cast: Sean Astin, Kate Beckinsale, David Hasselhoff, Julie Kavner, Adam Sandler
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