Joe Ranft (1960-2005)

Pixar story man dead at 45

Joe Ranft, probably best known for his voice-work as Heimlich, the caterpillar, in A Bug's Life, died yesterday in an automobile accident.

Joe also provided voices for Jacques, the cleaner shrimp in Finding Nemo, and Wheezy, the singing squeak-toy from Toy Story 2.

But Joe's true passion was the story. He received an Oscar nomination for his contribution to the writing of Pixar's first feature-length film, Toy Story. He also received several other awards and nominations for his writing.

I remember watching the special features on the DVD for A Bug's Life where they tell the story of how when Joe recorded the voice track for the character Heimlich, it was meant to be a scratch/temporary track until they could find an actor to re-record the part for the finished film. Well, they never found an actor who could improve on Joe's perfect Bavarian accent for the hungry, hungry, Heimlich, so when you watch A Bug's Life (which I plan to do soon), every time you're laughing at that big fat caterpillar, that's Joe.

UPDATE (09/12/05)
Films Recently Watched (in memory):

A Bug's Life (1998) dir. by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton. In memory of Joe Ranft, co-writer.
This is a genuinely good film, not just for the kids. The story is top notch, though, admittedly, the basic premise is lifted from Seven Samurai and, more recently, The Three Amigos. The dialogue is witty, the animation is perfect, great voice acting.

Toy Story (1995) dir. by John Lasseter. In memory of Joe Ranft, Head of Story.
This groundbreaking film is celebrating it's 10th Anniversary this year. In so doing, Pixar has released a new DVD edition about which I've been hearing amazing things. Now, you may or may not know my policy about what is commonly referred to as "double dipping" (i.e. purchasing the same film more than once on the same format), but, generally, I'm agin' it. This is no exception, I'm afraid, though rest assured, I am not opposed to receiving gifts that would otherwise be considered double dipping. Anyway, I just watched my standard version of Toy Story, but enjoyed it none the less. Make no mistake; Story is king at Pixar and Joe Ranft was the King of Story. He will be missed.

Weekend Getaway!

Christy and I were able to get away this weekend. We dropped Hannah off at my Mom and Dad's on Friday and spent the weekend in downtown Indianapolis. We took in a couple of shows, ate at a couple of nice restaurants, did some shopping, slept in, relaxed. It was really nice to get away for a couple of days with just the two of us!

Films Recently Watched:

Open Water (2003) dir. by Chris Kentis
A well-done suspense film, but also an amazing story of the potential to succeed in independant filmmaking.

From IMDB Trivia:
This movie was financed by director Chris Kentis and his wife, producer Laura Lau, both avid scuba divers. The movie cost $130,000 to make and was later bought by Lion's Gate for $2.5 million after its screening at Sundance.

Not too shabby!

Great Expectations (1946) dir. by David Lean
My Jr. High literature class got to watch this after reading the Charles Dickens novel, but didn't know (or care) who David Lean was at that time. Now, if someone had allowed the courtesy of mentioning to me that a young Obi Wan Kenobi was playing the role of Herbert Pocket, I might have paid more attention, though, strangely, he looks nothing like Ewan McGregor. Hmmm. Anyway, I'm trying to work through the David Lean catalog. Up next: Dr. Zhivago, Passage to India, maybe The Bridge on the River Kwai.

March of the Penguins (2005) dir. by Luc Jacquet
This is currently in theaters. Christy and I saw it while we were in Indianapolis.

A really sweet National Geographic documentary about Emperor Penguins in Antarctica. An amazing story of family, life over death, but above all things, it's a story about...love. Good for just about any age, young or old.

Before this film, we saw the trailer for Tim Burtons' Corpse Bride. I am really stoked to see this now. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a similar Tim Burton creation and is one of my absolute favorites, so I'm anxious to see another one in this tradition. Releases September 23rd!

Weekend, etc.

Sunday, we went to a baseball game. Christy's work was giving away tickets to the Indianapolis Indians game at Victory Field. I've been to Victory Field a few times and it's always a treat. Of Triple-A clubs, they must have one of the nicest home fields.

It was hot, but not as bad as it has been and the rain held off other than a few refreshing sprinkles. We rooted, rooted, rooted for the home team and the Indians won, beating the Toledo Mud Hens 6-1, sweeping the three-game series with Toledo. That's right, "Mud Hens."

I was a little worried about heading downtown with the Brickyard 400 happening same day, but traffic wasn't a problem coming or going.

[Click on any picture for a larger version]




We got back into Anderson early enough that we decided to go to a park in our downtown area. They've got an area with water fountains that people can run through and play in. Hannah quickly made friends with a girl about her size who enjoyed sticking her whole head and face directly in the path of the fountains. Now, Hannah still screams "bloody murder" when I dump water over her head in the bath to rinse out the shampoo, but some stranger makes it look like fun and suddenly she'll take it right in the face from a high-pressure nozzle like a circus clown! Go figure.




Monday, Hannah's daycare had a cookout/pitch-in at a local park. It was nice to get to meet a few of the parents of Hannah's playmates.





Films Recently Watched:

Just a general note about my "Films Recently Watched" entries. Forgive me for not doing the standard reviews on these films I watch with a plot synopsis, etc. It isn't always just a case of being lazy. There are at least two films in this post alone (The Sullivans and Brief Encounter) where virtually any explanation of the plot would lessen the impact of watching the film versus going in knowing nothing about the story. Other times, yeah, I'm just lazy, so waddaya gonna do 'bout it?

Bambi (1942) dir. by David Hand. Produced by Walt Disney.

Born Yesterday (1950) dir. by George Cukor
I speculated that Judy Holliday, who plays the leading female role in this film probably should have gotten a 4th place finish at the Oscars in 1951. Well, she was good, but I still don't think she deserved the Oscar. Judy Holliday was spot on in her role as the dumb blonde in this picture, but Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd. would have easily gotten my vote.

1941 (1979) dir. by Steven Spielberg
Several funny gags, to be sure, but generally, a misstep for Spielberg.

Predator (1987) dir. by John McTiernan

The Sullivans (1944) dir. by Lloyd Bacon
If you've never seen this and don't know the story on which this film is based, I recommend that you just watch it with no knowledge about the story going in. I think it would have played better for me that way. It's a very sweet story, and a true one at that.

Fantasia (1940) dir. by James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Ford Beebe, Norman Ferguson, Jim Handley, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Ben Sharpsteen. Produced by Walt Disney

Escanaba in da Moonlight (2001) dir. by Jeff Daniels
This was highly recommended to me by my tween-aged Nephews, Tyler and Anderson. As soon as I picked up the DVD at the library, I turned it over and noticed the rating: "PG-13 -- For Uncultured Humor." I guess I should have known what I was in for. Very odd. Sorry boys, this one won't be making my top 250. Original music by Alto Reed, and yet, not a saxophone to be heard; I kid you not.

Brief Encounter (1945) dir. by David Lean
What a simply wonderful piece of filmmaking! These "romance" films don't always connect with me, but this one did. The two David Lean films with which I was familiar going into this one were Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai. Brief Encounter is far from these two epic adventure films, but mesmerizing, none the less. Stunning!

An appropriate quote that came up recently on my Google Personalized Home Page; "Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired." --Robert Frost

Friday Night Lights (2004) dir. by Peter Berg
What was up with the camera constantly zooming in and out during this film? The hand-held camerawork just didn't work for me. The movie was OK. Give me Hoosiers anyday, though. It has more heart.

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) dir. by Michael Moore
I'm happy to live in a country where a film like this can be made (and distributed).

The Lost Weekend (1945) dir. by Billy Wilder
Another "Best Picture" winner. Only about 40 left to go!

IMPS - The Relentless: Chapter 1

I got a surprise in the mail Saturday.

As I mentioned before, one of Christy's relatives is involved with the guys that made the Star Wars fan film, Troops. They're making what will eventually be a feature-length film, I.M.P.S. The Relentless, but they're releasing it in small pieces (these guys all have full-time jobs, besides devoting lots of their "spare" time to this project).

They released the trailer back in March and released the first chapter back in May.

So why am I waiting to tell you about it until now? Good question.

I tried several times to download it, but couldn't.

I could download it at work, but couldn't play it there. I downloaded and installed the correct DivX player at home (which was the problem at work), but had some trouble downloading the actual film over my dial-up connection there (it's a 200MB+ file).

All that to say, Nathan was kind enough to mail me a DVD copy of the first chapter and trailer!



So now that I've seen it, I'm happy to report to you that it is really good! This is not your average (or even above-average) fan film.

This has a really high production value throughout, and these aren't just a bunch of tight shots on actors either, they've created a world for these ships and characters and they allow the viewer to see it! There is a lot of detail here that could have easily been left out. The ships are believable inside and out and these aren't just all the same ships that we've seen in the Star Wars films. They have created new ideas and expanded on what we've seen before. I was especially fond of the TIE docking stations and the landing gear on the Corellian freighter. Very nice.

Believable sound effects that, again, expand on the Star Wars universe, but still fit the part. I even heard a "Wilhelm" scream in there! Very nice work, fellas!

More on the plus side, there was original music composed for this production. More on that HERE. The CG elements they use blend in nicely with the real sets and actors. Editing, mixing, all quite good.

With a narrator speaking over the first several scenes, I started to worry that the entire thing would be like that, but once you get to the dialogue, there are several genuinely funny moments, some spoken, some not.

I'm anxious to see in what direction this film is going to go next, though I'm a little worried that they're actually going to make me care about some of these troops that were always so easy to hate from Lucas' films.

Other that that, the only downside that I can think of is that I am probably now on every government terrorist watch list between here and California! Besides getting a package in the mail that says "Special Imperial Agent," now, with all this terrorist nonsense happening over in London accompanied by headlines like MURDER AT STOCKWELL, BAD DAY AT STOCKWELL STATION, and STOCKWELL RAIDS, well, I'm pretty sure that I'm being monitored by the F.B.I., C.I.A., etc.

May the Force be with me -- and also with you!

County Fair

We went to the Madison County Fair last week. The clouds were threatening rain, but we decided to go and hope for the best. The "best" was that we got some food and managed to find a picnic table under a tent at which to sit before the rain started pouring.

Corn Dogs, Hot Dogs, Pork Chop Sandwiches, curly fries, Corn on the cob, strawberry shortcake, cotton candy; oh, and I think that Christy and Hannah may have eaten something, too, though it's hard to be sure.

So, when the time came to go get the strawberry shortcake, I asked, "How many?" The reply from Christy, "Three." Simple enough, right? So I dashed out in a moderate rain and got three strawberry shortcakes with the works and brought them back in a box lid. Christy's eyes got wide and she says, "I meant three spoons!" -- Oops. To be fair, there was some mention before I left to retrieve the strawberry shortcake about spoons, and it may have been in close proximity to my question, "How many?" but I didn't believe that there was any reason to ask how many spoons to get. Anyway, Christy and Hannah shared one (one shortcake, not one spoon, wiseguy), and while I still maintain that I could have polished off the other two myself, Christy encouraged me to find somebody else to give the "extra" one to. There was a family sitting at our table that had two teen-ish boys who happily took the "extra" one and shared it amongst themselves.

Once the rain quit, Christy and Hannah still had time to go on one ride. "The Bear Affair" appeared to be one of the only rides that we thought Hannah could handle with seats that weren't drenched from the heavy rain.
Here's a picture:



Even besides the food and the ride, Hannah made out pretty well. The boys who got the "extra" strawberry shortcake had won a stuffed clownfish at a carnival game that they decided to give to Hannah. Also, out of the clear blue cloudy gray sky, some girl came up to Hannah and asked her if she wanted a a goldfish.

Introducing: Hannah's first pet: "Jaws"


Perhaps, you'll be happy to know that over a week later, Jaws is still alive and -- um -- swimming! We have gotten several suggestions about how to "accidentally" kill a goldfish. Some people are just sick! Though, if anybody has any suggestions on how to "accidentally" kill a cat, send them my way! (Note to self: Send e-mail to Haloscan to prepare them for the deluge of comments I'm about to recieve on this post.)

If we ever take a vacation, we might need to take up the services of this local boy who has been advertising his new pet sitting business (this struck me as funny -- he seems to be going after a very niche market):




Films Recently Watched:

Double Feature:
The Next Karate Kid (1994) dir. by Christopher Cain
Million Dollar Baby (2004) dir. by Clint Eastwood

Well, I was going to do this clever "compare & contrast" segment about Million Dollar Baby and The Next Karate Kid, but apart from the obvious fighting sports theme and the presence of Hilary Swank, there are few comparisons to be made, just lots of contrast.

Really though, Million Dollar Baby packed such a punch (so to speak) that I couldn't bring myself to be "clever" about it.

If you haven't seen Million Dollar Baby, I highly recommend it.

Fellow HTF member, Haggai, says this:
Time after time, scene after scene, Clint knows what we want, and then he makes us wait for it, and then he hits us with it at precisely the right moment.

That's a good summation of Eastwood's skill as a director.

I, Robot (2004) dir. by Alex Proyas

The Final Countdown (1980) dir. by Don Taylor
An interesting fantasy concept: A modern-day aircraft carrier encounters an electrical storm which throws the ship and its crew back in time to December 6, 1941, just hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Do they take action and prevent the events of that fateful day, or by their inaction, hopefully avoid the Grandfather Paradox? Though, I would have liked to have seen more discussion of "what if" scenarios, starring Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen, this is a decent sci-fi/fantasy/war film.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) dir. by Alfred Hitchcock
No, this isn't the latest Hollywood summer blockbuster. This is completely unrelated to the new Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie action flick, though the premise of the 2005 film is much closer to your typical Hitchcock film than the 1941 film is. Hitchcock's Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a straight-ahead screwball comedy starring the original "screwball" herself, Carole Lombard. No murder, no mystery, no "wrong man," no trains.

The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) dir. by Robert Altman
Again, of the older (1965) and newer (2004) versions of this film, the older is clearly the better film. Good performances by Jimmy Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Ernest Borgnine and several other cast members. Though the basic plot in both films plays out very similarly, Altman uses several quieter moments for character development that is unfortunately absent from the 2004 re-make. I enjoyed the 1965 version better even though I saw the newer version first and, thus, was not surprised by the "twist" while watching the older version.

Sunset Blvd. (1950) dir. by Billy Wilder
It's astonishing that this film and All About Eve were released the same year. I've never seen the academy award winning performance by Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday, but I know now that I must. If it is honestly better than Bette Davis and Anne Baxter in All About Eve and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd., it simply must be an amazing performance! More probably though, the vote in this category was split three ways and the likely 4th place finisher ended up winning! (Update: I did find "Born Yesterday" at the library, but haven't watched it yet. Stay Tuned!)

Empire of the Sun (1987) dir. by Steven Spielberg
This is one that you can watch over and over and see new things every time.
Perhaps I didn't state it clearly enough here from my first viewing: "Watch this film!" It is most definitely worth your time.

Again, I will refer you to the thread at the Home Theater Forum, EMPIRE OF THE SUN -- Steven Spielberg's Overlooked, Misunderstood Masterwork.

The following is a quote from Ernest Rister, the gentleman who began the discussion at HTF:

It is said that there are two types of media -- lean-forward media and lean-back media. Lean-forward media asks you to particiapte, to do your own work, to sort things out. Lean back media does all the work for you, the film acts upon you, as opposed to you injecting yourself into the film. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a lean-back movie. E.T. is a lean-back movie. Jaws is a lean-back movie. Even The Color Purple is a lean-back film.

Empire of the Sun is a lean-forward film, but because Spielberg had created so many masterful films in the classic Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, John Ford, and Walt Disney mold, this is what people expected from him. Empire of the Sun was something completely new from Steven Spielberg - a film that worked on multiple levels of reality, with one informing the other. Audiences and critics did not know what to make of it.

The French Connection (1971) dir. by William Friedkin
Check off another AMPAS "Best Picture" winner for me. The French Connection also won for leading actor (Gene Hackman), director, film editing, and adapted screenplay.

Taking on the drug culture head-on; dirty cops; the large-scale car chase; these elements may have been progressive at the time, but have since become such an integral part of American films that they appear clichéd looking back now. Of course, that isn't the fault of the original, but it definitely shows its age.

To Boldly Go...

NASA Returns to Flight

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Coming Soon:
Vietnamese and my confectionary storage facility
Counter-Attacking of the geologic change's
Mr. Smith and his cuckoldry
Good elephant's disheveled hair
The strongs big of frightening territories
and the ever-popular,
All your base are belong to us / Somebody set up us the bomb (2-pack)

Scotty, Beam us up!

Star Trek's "Scotty," James Doohan, dies at 85.

1920-2005

If you're paying attention at all 'round here, you know that if I had to choose between Star Wars and Star Trek, I'd easily choose Star Wars, but I have to acknowledge the passing of Mr. Doohan, who, in addition to being part of the original Star Trek cast, also was wounded storming Normandy on D-Day.

R.I.P., Mr. Scott.

Transformers - July 4, 2007

In hopes of not being scooped again by Pat or Prink, I'm reporting this news received from Comic Con in San Diego (via Google News via Slashdot via Yahoo News).

Live-action Tranformers film less than two years away

A couple of months ago, Pat put up a post that Michael Bay was considering this, but now it's official.

Here is my comment from Pat's post:
Anybody who's wondering about the viability of a "live-action" Transformers movie needs to check this!

Ignore the Saturday Night Fever dance moves, the CGI here is pretty good! Very few, if any, cheats on the physics, too. I wouldn't mind watching 90 minutes of a live-action Transformers movie that looked like this. Imagine a Matrix Reloaded Freeway chase where the cars ARE the characters.

I'm not saying that it can't be done poorly, especially by Michael Bay, but I am saying that it could be very, VERY cool.

Click on the link from my comment and it takes you to a short car commercial that uses the type of visual effects that Hollywood is best at. Definitely a lot of potential there.



Films Recently Watched:

The Phantom of the Opera (2004) dir. by Joel Schumacher.
I got this DVD when it came out a few months ago, but finally watched it with Christy. She really liked it! I've been humming showtunes ever since I saw it again!

All About Eve (1950) dir. by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

The Terminal (2004) dir. by Steven Spielberg
Tom Hanks does a good job, as always.
After seeing Minority Report, I mentioned I was looking forward to seeing War of the Worlds. That was intended to be a compliment. After seeing The Terminal, I really want to see War of the Worlds; and that isn't.

Garden State (2004) dir. by Zach Braff

It Happened One Night (1934) dir. by Frank Capra

Jaws (1975) dir. by Steven Spielberg
This is just a lot of fun to watch. Lots of thrills. Perfect pacing, a wonderful John Williams score, and that captivating speech by Robert Shaw about the U.S.S. Indianapolis. The new 30th Anniversary Edition DVD looks and sounds great. The 2 hour documentary, The Making of Jaws, is also exellent. Made for the Jaws laserdisc (and edited to 59 minutes for the 25th Anniversary DVD), this documentary goes into multiple aspects of the film from the adaptations of the best-selling novel, to casting, to the rigors of shooting a film on the ocean where everything is moving, to the happy accident that they couldn't usually get the mechanical shark to work. Interviews with Spielberg, Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Sheider and the author of the original novel and screenplay, Peter Benchley.

Non-Stop

We've had one of those non-stop sequence of days that, though you're tired from it by the end (let's be honest, you're tired from it by the middle if you weren't before it began), you wouldn't go back and do it any differently, even if you could.

The events, themselves, didn't begin until last Saturday (6/25), but we spent much of the prior week preparing for said events. Besides your standard cooking, cleaning, lawn mowing, etc., one of my big projects was the car port. You see, my clunker of a car has had a bad-and-getting-worse-oil-leak for a number of years. I typically park said clunker in the car port on the end of our garage. So, over the course of the the five years we've lived in our current house, I've managed to create a pretty decent oil spill (think Valdez minus dead seals). Well, we knew that Saturday and Sunday were going to be hot, so we thought we could probably use the shade provided by our car port, but we didn't want to have people (and especially kids) stepping in or even having to dodge the spill, so, after trying a couple of homemade remedies, I got some oil stain remover from Lowe's which, after some additional scrubbing, did the trick!

Saturday:
In attendance:
Ryan and Cari
Even though they weren't able to come Sunday with everybody else, we had a great evening with Ryan and Cari. We had a few of the menu items for Sunday with them and were able to test a few things on them. I don't think they minded being guinea pigs. I got my shish-ka-bob technique down and we made certain that we had plenty of toppings for ice cream sundaes. We had a blast with Ryan and Cari.

Sunday:
In attendance:
Randy and family
Pat and family
Tim and family (who, thanks to the gathering, now has a blog of his own . . . kind of)
Everybody who came Sunday has kids (or kid, at least) All the kids had a good time together.



Despite the fact that we were getting together because of campmeeting, actually, none of us ended up going either night. Shame!

Sunday night, after everybody left and we got things mostly cleaned up and put away, it occurred to us that our weekend was over and we both had to go back to work in the morning! Good Grief!

A big thanks to my wife, Christy for not only allowing a bunch of my college buddies to come over, but for volunteering to host two nights in a row!

Monday:
After work Monday, we grabbed something to eat and went to another party that was being held at our church for some friends who were in town briefly after being out of the country for a while. It was great to have a chance ot catch up with our friends and hear about what they've been doing and what the future holds for them. After playing a version of "Duck, Duck, Goose" with the kids who were there where everybody ran around a circle when "Goose" was called and then lifting every kid there high enough to touch the basketball net, I was tired.

Tuesday:
Tuesday was the end of the line for concurrent parties. Isabel, a friend of Hannah's, was having a party celebrating the 6th anniversary of the day on which she was born, so we made a quick shopping trip for a birthday present and then a brief stop at Isabel's house for opening presents, and then cake and ice cream.

Wednesday:
Wednesday, we were able to catch our breath a little, though we did make 3+ gallons of punch for a party at my work on Thursday.

Thursday:
Thursday, I helped with a going-away party at work for a friend from work. Served aforementioned punch, etc.

Saturday:
Saturday, we went to Symphony on the Prairie which is the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's Summer Series at Conner Prairie. It was a perfect night for this outdoor event. Too perfect, I'm afraid. By the time we got there, the place was already packed! I've been to at least a half dozen of these and I've never seen the place anywhere near that full. The orchestra's band shell sits at the bottom of a large hill where the audience is allowed to sit, picnic, etc. Well, had we been a group of only two, we might have found a spot to squeeze into, but with some friends from our Church, we were a group of eight and there was simply no way. We ended up over the hill (literally) where we couldn't even see the orchestra. We were able to hear the music, but we mostly just chatted together. My apologies to any who were in ear-shot of our chatting during the concert, but really, those who was close enough to hear us were over the hill, too and couldn't see the orchestra either, so the dirty looks were really unwarranted. On the plus side for the night, we did have a really good view of the fireworks following the concert and we were pretty close to the Howitzer Artillery Cannons that they use to add some Oomph to the cannon shots during the finale of the 1812 orchestra!



Sunday:
Our church had an outdoor service Sunday morning after which we headed to my cousin's house near Crawfordsville for the Stockwell family 4th of July get-together. Swimming, basketball, good food, fireworks. I've always looked forward to these 4th of July family gatherings. Ever since I was a kid, these were always memory makers for me. I hope that they will continue to be the same for Hannah.





Monday:
For the holiday, we managed to get Hannah down for an early nap after which we loaded up the bikes and went to a local park for a bike ride, picnic, and playing on the playground.

If they haven't figured it out already, regular readers of my little corner of the web will know how busy we've been when I say this: I haven't watched a single movie in over two weeks. I don't have any updates to the Films Recently Watched portion of my sidebar!