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Iron Giant
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Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not. |
Sunday, August 1, 1999
One year ago: Arkham Horror
Two years ago: Partir, c'est mourir un peu
After our water park adventures, we took it pretty easy today. I was pleased to see that I'd been careful enough about applying sunscreen -- no burnt patches! Jack's head still hurt, and mine did also, a bit.
We'd read in the paper that Iron Giant was going to have a sneak preview, so we drove up to Bellis Fair Mall to see it. H---, Jack's daughter, was confused by the term "sneak preview." We assured her that we'd be seeing the entire movie, not just a short preview or trailer.
I thought the movie was just great! The animation was beautiful, funny, and clever. They used animation styles of the fifties to depict a story set in the fifties. The story held my attention, and I enjoyed the characters. John Cusak voiced "Dean," a beatnik artist who runs the junkyard. I did see some similarities between the mysterious robot of the title, and a painting by Kelly Freas from the fifties depicting a giant robot, saddened because he's injured a human. It's not a direct copy, though.
H--- was slightly embarrassed by Jack's hearty laughter at some scenes. How old do you have to be before you realize that you probably won't be judged according to your parents' behavior? I think I was in my twenties!
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In the course of doing a search for web pages about the movie, I found Acme City. A very clever gimmick! Instead of clamping down on fan-built websites, they are doing all they can to make it easy for folks. Acme City is a Warner Bros. site; I think the offer of webspace and graphics is a good use of synergy.
I added a cool link to a robot site to my new Pita page.
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I'd intended to make this month's design a variation of what I did in July, 1998. But I liked the picture that VJ took of me when I was visting her, and I remembered being intrigued by the decor of the souvenir-bedecked restaurant where we had breakfast. So I collected some images of plates and postcards and viewmaster reels, and did an image to tile. Then I read an article in Retro Magazine about big-letter postcards, and decided to create one of my own. All this meant that doing the design took longer than I'd planned, which is why this entry is rather retro in itself, being written a few days after the fact.
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