Magazine Envelopes

I have been making envelopes out of old magazines I got at the thrift shop today. I really really rather love it.
I sent out some mail today that was in plain enelopes from the store, and I bought an extra one to use as a template and have been sitting here making envelopes since. It is so much fun and I cant wait to use these!

Here are some of my favourites:

The Voyage of the Dawntreddar (Slight spoiler warning) + Tangled

Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawntreddar
I didnt hold out much hope for Voyage of the Dawntreddar, based on the fact that I really wasnt terribly impressed with the first two in the Hollywoodised Chronicles of Narnia.
I need to preface by saying that I love the Narnia books, and I also grew up on the BBC version Narnia movies that nobody seems to have heard of.
From a modern standpoint, the old movies really dont age well. The effects are absolutly terrible, but that aside, I appreciate the way they are very accurate to the books in both storyline and the way they protray the characters, which the Disney movies just.... werent.

However, Disney dropped the franchise and Fox picked it up for VotDT, and Fox has done a much better job at it. While Disney decided to gloss over and remove the christian alligorical aspects, Fox largely kept them in. In fact Fox went to the other extreme and the movie came off fairly preachy from a non-christian perspective, with characters repeadedly making statements like "You just need to have faith. :)"
Im sure other critics are going to rip the movie to shreds on that point, but to me it makes sence. I dont think its fair to come down on a christian author writing a christian series for saying christian things.

The movie did make a few silly changes that, clearly the creators thought would make it more dramatic from a cinima perspective. While in the original the journey is mearly to find the seven missing lords, this was apparently not exciting enough, so they took the Island of Nightmares and ran with it, making the central point of the film to find the Seven Swords of Aslan that the Lords carried so they could put them all on Aslans table, thus destroying the spell of the dark island. Well... okay, whatever. I get you needed to make it more exciting to disillusioned modern audiances. But it didnt disrupt the core of the story too much, and wasnt a major distractor.

Lucy and the beautificiation spell was handled...interestingly. While in the book the spell would have merely taken Susan beauty away from her and given it to Lucy, in this version, the spell actually turns Lucy into Susan and erases Lucy from existance.
This appears to make it much more intense and dramatic, but the effect is that it actually dramatically changes what the problem was with this. While in the book, Lucy is rebuked by Aslan for harboring jealousy and vanity, in this movie she is chided for undervaluing herself.

Eustice was brilliantly played. First half of the movie you completly hate the little snot, he plays the part very well. And I have to say, the scene where Aslan turns him back into a human was beautifull. There are aspects of the original movies take on that scene that I still perfer... namely, Aslans calm quiet voice saying "Its not enough.....I must do it for you."
This version instead has no dialoge, and instead just shows Eustice make an attempt at scraping the dragon skin off of himself, and then Aslan tears it off for him. The visuals were actually very powerfull, and I think that it came out well.

And I couldnt write about VotDT without touching on this versions Reepacheep. Reepacheep was everything you would want him to be, loyal, honoral, brave and noble. Both voice and animated beautifully, and his interactions with Eustice were very fun to watch.

All in all I really quite enjoyed this movie. I felt it did its best to but the christian aspects back in while still making it entertaining from a non-christian audiances perspective, and I really appreciate that. Not everyone will be happy that the christian aspects are less glossed over, but I am.
Character interactions and attitudes were also much more in keeping with the original books. I hate to come down on Disney, but Fox just... did it better.


Tangled

Ill spare you the usually "Im getting tired of 3D animation" speech from here on out. The fact is: 3D animation is here to stay, american film has largely abandoned traditional animation, and thats just the way its going to be.
That said, this movie is gorgeous. You can tell that an awfull lot of talent and work went into this. The backgrounds are breathtaking, everything is rendered to perfection. The charcter designs are spectacular... and Rapunzel is just the cutest little long haired sheltered naive heroine ever.

This is I think going to stand the test of time as one of Disneys great classics. The story is very beautifully told, and fits right in with all of the other Disney princesses.
Rapunzel, while being as stated very sheltered and naive, is unique in totally not being helpless at all. This girl will kick some ass with her frying pan, I tell you.
It also includes one of the most memorable animal sidekicks; the cameleon is absolutly adorable and hilarious. Never talks, but my word the animators did some brilliant work with facial expressions alone.

The villainess is very well done, and what was even more interesting is her relationship with Rapunzel, who belives her to be her mother.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys fairy tales and disney princess movies, to anyone who enjoys animation, music, or romance.

Robots on Horseback (/DeDraMo)

I did a bunch of robot mascots for a local band named "Robots on Horseback"... these are part of a banner project for their website, this isnt all there will be but its what Iv got so far.

You can check out the website at http://www.robotsonhorseback.com/

DeDraMo 2010 02

Falling in love with the Zine Scene

I'v always been a lover of books, since way way back.

The time before way way back, I remember being very behind the rest of the children my age in reading. I remember realising that I was still taking picture books out of the library, while everyone else had graduated to "chapter books". But I also remember the very first series of novels to grab hold of me and not let go -- Nancy Drew. I devoured Nancy Drew books and from that point on I skyrocketted ahead of my class in reading; I was a voracious reader and I would spend long hours into the night, and even through class much to my teachers displeasure, reading novels.

Mystery novels were my first love. I read slice of life books, Anne of Green Gables and others of her ilk. Later on when I read Lord of the Rings, my mind began to expand and realise that non-reality was much more creativly engaging then reality, and I read science fiction and fantasy. Then, something magical happened and I discovered graphic novels, comic books, manga, and superheros.
The combination of art and text to me was a stroke of pure genious. Animation and comic books became a fascincation for me as I had a great appreciation for the time and effort and skill involved in creating such a thing, from an artists perspective.

Manga was my first comic love. But I quickly expanded to american comics, appreciating the strange and wonderfull stylistic differences.
But as I went through more and more of both I began to realise that I was seeing much of the same things over and over again. So here I started to look for independant comics. Comics published at home on photocopiers. Comics done by people like me; my age, with their own distinct style, and their own stories to tell. Comics that didnt have the backing of a big publishing company.

So I bought my first few comic zines. I instantly fell in love with them. With the entire idea that there were people out there publishing their own comics, in styles that didnt fit into the other comic genres. Interesting artwork that I had never seen before. All of it was enchanting. Because of my encounter with this, I sought out the zine communities. I wanted to self publish my own comics.

And then, upon entering their online spheres, I came in contact with all sorts of other underground press movements. Magazines, music reviews, poetry books, short stories, artwork, comics.... and all or most of it activistic, political, opinionated, creative, strange. Compliation zines of numerous peoples thoughts on a topic, or a zine of one persons vacation trip with illustrations, each book representing a unique individual who was putting their voice out there, wanting to be heard, wanting to express.

Uncensored and raw, these are peoples voices in print format. These are a rejection of the media and a creation of a new, more honest media. DIY culure unleashed! Its rather spectacular, and powerfull, the peoples ability to create their own culture and their own underground media movement. I am blown away by the force of such a movement.

I have no intention of abandoning traditional print. My book collection will continue to be added too, shelves filling with great published authors and artists.
But now my shelves have a new collection, small, but growing. Of things that publishing houses would likely not spare a second glance at, but I have.

DeDraMo 2010 01

Its time for DeDraMo! This time Im actually going to try to keep up with it. One drawing a day! I cant promise they will be good drawings. But here you have it. And a fanart of Burungel to kick things off.

SHOELACES

Finally got some shoelaces for my boots, and they are epic.

Summer Wars [Possible Spoiler Warning]

Mamoru Hosoda is one of my favourite anime directors, because his style is so unique and so recognizable, and I first encountered it in my all time favourite, Digimon. He hasnt done a whole lot, still as far as I can tell, relativly new on the scene. Anyone who is fans of Digimon will recognise his work in Digimon Adventure and Our War Game, two of the three Japanese films that were spliced together for the English release of Digimon: The Movie.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was also his work, with scenes that had a very similar feel to Our War Game, as well as his same slick artstyle.

Now we have Summer Wars, and I had to see it because I really do love his style. I knew that I was in for a movie with the same visual look and feel, and the same sorts of thematic qualities as Our War Game.... however what I didn't know was that the movie would basically be exactly the same as Our War Game.

For a refresher course: Our War Game features a rouge virus type Digimon taking over the Internet. The DigiDestined kids and their Digimon have to battle this virus, because with the chaos of the Internet the entire world falls into disaray. Its quite the statement on our current dependency on technology, and the results of a super-virus taking over the net are not too far from what would probably actually happen. The virus has also launched a missile from a military base, because it now has access to that, that will kill lots of people and start a war. Fighting the Digimon becomes a race against the clock.

Summer Wars is pretty much exactly the same, except without the Digimon. We have a super AI thats hacking peoples accounts and taking over the entire Internet (cyberspace is called OZ in this futuristic setting). From here everything falls into almost the exact same plotline, even down to the clock ticking because a satellite from space has been set to crash into a nuclear power plant. Sure the background plotline differs, as do the characters, but the entire core premis remains the same. They even beat the bad-guy in the same love-in type manor. Interesting. Im suprised the director felt the need to retell Our War Game, which is what I suspect he is basically doing.

So which one is the better movie?
Well, Our War Game, from my point of view, is just simply more entertaining. It has flashier character designs, more interesting battle sequences, and less emphasis on familey drama and relationships. Sure Digimon has its silly drama, but its all just that: silly. This movie is more serious which in this case translated to more boring.
But that is strictly speaking my own opinion. On Summer Wars side, its all those things I just mentioned: more serious, more realism, more of a sci-fi drama, then a kids monsters-fighting-monsters action movie. The sequences inside the net make a little bit more sence too, because in Our War Game the viewer always seemed to feel a bit odd about its portrayal of The Internet... I would often find myself saying to myself, "But... the internet just dosnt... WORK like that..." but in Summer Wars, since its a future in which they actually have developed a virtual reality internet system, it feels more natural.

In the long run Im not sure sure that one or the other is better then the other really, it just depends on your own preferances. People not into kids cartoons and wanting a sci-fi drama will gravitate towards Summer Wars and those of us more into flashy action and robots/monsters will be more into Our War Game.
Basically its the same story, told in two different ways with two different audiances in mind, and thats fine by me I suppose. Although I do hope that his next film isnt a straight up retelling of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Digimon Xros Wars - up to episode 11 now

Finally been catching up on my Xros Wars and..... I am still having trouble with it. Not to the point where I wont watch it, oh no, it is Digimon and thusly I must consume it.
However there are the things in it that irk me.

First of all I still find it incredibly irritating that none of the children have a Digimon Partner. Taiki is the only actuall "DigiDestined" as he is the one with the Digivice, and Im sure there is an argument to be made for Shoutmon being his "partner", but he can use all of the Digimon, Shoutmon just happens to be his #1 go to guy. So, in essence, that special bond between a human and their digimon really dosnt exist in this instance of the Digital World. Taiki gets to be a General and lead an Entire Digimon Army, and his two human friends get to...well, tag along, I guess?
Iv seen some websites saying the Cutemon is Akaris digimon, but in the show I really see no evidence of that, Cutemon seems more attatched to Dorulumon then anyone else. Besides Akari does not have a Digivice, so she cant have a digimon.

Then there is the fact that there is no digivolving in this Digital World thus far. only crossing digimon with other digimon. There was a bit of this kind of thing seen before in prior seasons, but it was always as an extra to actual digivolving.

Now I know, I know. The Digimon franchise has a history of no two reboots functioning the same. They always want to change it up, and I get that. But the biggest crime to me is in removing the dynamic between a Human and their soul-bonded Digimon Partner. That was the entire essence of the show, what gave it its charm and made it stand out from the other shows like it. Frontier was a huge failure; nobody liked it and do you know why? Because the kids didnt have partners! Actually, in my own opinion, Frontier wasnt as bad in that respect as Xros Wars. Why? Because in actuallity, the children of Frontier did have partners, their partners where just basically spirits/ghosts that lived inside their digivices and needed to borrow the kids bodies in order to come out. There where a few episodes when the children actually talked to their digimon through their divices, which says to me that they actually were seperate entities from the kids, rather then just a cool transformation.
Xros Wars completly elliminates the kids each having their own, just-for-them special Digimon Partner, and I just cant get over that.

For all that though, I am enjoying the show on other levels. Much like with Frontier (and Data Sqaud for some people, although I actually loved that season), once you make a concious decision to ignore the aspects that are jarringly out of place from the Digimon you know and love, its still a pretty rockin show. And lets not forget that it is a mega-franchise designed for the sole purpose of selling toys to children. The character designs of the Digimon that have not been previously seen are really quite cool. I am loving Dorulumon, Persiamon and Baalmon, respectivly. These are really great looking digimon, and Dorulumons character in particular is fascinating to watch. Hes cool, aloof, tough-guy-outside-but-warm-inside, and noble to his core. Judging by his role in the group and his lion-inspired design, one has to wonder if hes going to be this seasons Leomon Death. Sure he isnt a Leomon, but this season is already not holding to tradition, and he does fit the personality and the lion type-cast.

The storyline is working quite well, with very menancing villains ala Lilithmon, Balmon and Tacitmon, as well as two other human children whose allegiances and motivations are shrouded in mystery. Its kind of really cool how this season is set up as an all out war, where previous seasons have always been more kind of guerrilla warfare. This means tactics will have to be different, and I am quite interested to see how it turns out.

All in all heres the thing. This season is certainly not bringing Digimon back to its glory days of the first three seasons, but it is a pretty decent show and worth watching if you are either a Digimon fan, or 10-15 years old.... the rest of you wont care about it, but that is quite alright. Those of us still into Digimon know we are the odd ones out ;)

Secret of Kells

I am a HUGE fan of animation as a medium. I love to soak in all sorts of it and see what innovative artsits are doing.
That said it is INCREDIBLY difficult to find any animation that is not either Japanese or American. Both of which I am an avid pursuer, though perhapes moreso towards the Japanese, since the Japanese animation is much more often aimed at older audiances and with more mature themes, but I digress. I am always delighted to come across anything from somewhere else.

Secret of Kells is an enchanting little tale of magic, but before discussing the storyline I want to focus on the artisty because thats really much more impacting, simply because it is in a style that is rarely seen. The film is an Irish-French-Belgian production which means that the art style is in a distinct European flavour and they went with a rather folkish look. While character designs are simple, backgrounds are lush and intricate. The contrast works very well, as well as how scenes of a violent nature are charicatured in more storybook manor, that still manages to convey the terror the characters are feeling, while feeling more poetic.

As for the storyline, its a mixed bag. Its a fun film, with a relatable and sympathetic main character. The problem lies in the strange paganism meets christianity infusion of religion. Obviously for a non-religious viewer, this isnt really a problem, but from a christian persective, it is a little strange. Incorperating a girl who is apparently from some race of nymphs or magic users who controls the forest, a strange fight sequence with some olde worlde snake god, so that they can use his crystal eye to write a great "holy book"? The whole thing feels like an ambiguous, surreal religion mash up with no real idea what it is, even though it is asserted that it takes place in an abbey, and has christian iconography throughout the backgrounds. Although a Christian viewer may find these elements at odds with each other, it is worth mentioning that this is actually a rather accurate portrayal of of the ecclectic nature of medieval european belifes. So while not really a comfortable view of christianity from a modern perspective, its an interesting picture of how christianity did in fact merge with various other ideas at the time in eurpoean minds.

Once again however the characters are engaging, and you can really feel their emotional journeys. They are played very well, top notch voice acting that really comes accross. I dont really like the religous chaos of the film, but the production is solid and it was an entertaining enough movie, and I do recommend it for those of you who, like me, like to get their hands on more obscure animations.

Owls of Ga'hool: Legend of the Guardians

This is one of the most visuall stunning films I have seen in a while, for the single reason that it is about owls. Owls are not a species that have been explored much in narrative, especially movies. The only thing similar I can think of are the Silverwing books which were adapted into a brief 2D animated series where the characters were anthropomorphasized rather then drawn realisticly.

The owls almost strike that perfect balance between actually looking like real owls and having human enough expression to make them relatable characters. If they err, they err on the realism side; it can be a tad difficult to tell characters apart simply because they do look so real.
Add to that the fact that we have owls in battle armor and this movie looks pretty awsome. Animals in armor is always cool. Remember The Golden Compass? Yeah, it was universally considered a pretty terrible movie, but nobody can deny that that polar bear was kick-ass.
Not to mention the stunning and sweeping backgrounds of this movie, from eerie mist filled forests, amazing Owl cities, and evil fortresses of misery, every setting in this movie looks incredibly. So props to the visuals on this, this is some wonderfull work!

The only area where the movie begins to fall apart is in some of the key plot points which just arent fleshed out or explained well enough. Now this movie is based on a series of books, so I am sure that there is information that was left out from the film, and Im actually quite interested in reading the books now. Although the movie is still complelty enjoyable it does feel a little bit forced when key details remain unexplained. What ARE these evil/magical 'flecks' of metal? How on earth does 'moonblinking' work? If the movie might have slowed down a little bit to explain some of these things it would have felt much more well rounded.

Depsite this, its still a very engaging storyline with sympathetic characters.
The movie also makes some very interesting statements on war and the glory of battle. The concepts of fighting for what is right and yet, not enjoying, or taking glory from it, is a key underlining aspect of the story and its characters.
It leaves room for a sequel, which I suspect is because it is based after all on a series of books, which probably continue a long ways past this movie.

The music is great, including a great theme track from Owl City, a band I fall more in love with the more I hear from.
Also? Owls in Battle Armor!!

JESUS IS LIKE CHEEZEBURGER

JESUS IS LIKE CHEEZEBURGER SHIRT FOR SALE OMG

Travis came up with the slogan/idea one day so I made it and opened a zazzle account.
I AM SELLING SHIRTS NAOW.