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Gargoyles

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Comment Room Archive

Comments for the week ending June 7, 2015

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So I was doing some research on Fantasia, I knew that it was a critical and commercial flop when it was released what with the whole World War and everything. It's famous because it was the predecessor to music videos and because of the sheer number of times it was re-released in the following years. Of all the Fantasia segments that I thought could make great material the best would be Mickey as "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", but Disney already tried that and botched it with the Nic Cage film and Kingdom Hearts did something similar to it.
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman

Okay, Harlan.

http://i.imgur.com/l9lffwf.gif

Inland
Signature: People are people so why should it be

Algernon> For some reason, reading your post, the first thing that popped into my head was "DARKNESS! NO PARENTS!"

I may have a problem.

Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
"It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

I'm just don't see how they expect to get 90+ mins of story out of "Night on Bald Mountain", a short who's "plot" is basically "Satan rocks out to classical music for 10 mins".
Algernon

Brainiac>"It does get annoying when everything trends only to the super-hit, though. In particular, Tron 3's cancellation in the wake of Tomorrowland not being a gigantic moneymaker REALLY grates on me, though I can certainly recognize Tron's overall popularity is quite niche."

Tron ended fine with Uprising. As much as Tron is vastly better than the action brands Disney actually uses (the MCU, with three notable exceptions, is hot garbage, and Star Wars is meh), it's not like they really need Tron. It's a blessing in disguise. It's the rare blockbuster brand that actually actually KEPT its dignity with a sudden resurgence and return.

It's mildly disappointing there was no Rebels/Uprising power hour, as that really does market itself.

Inland>"I did in no way infer correlation between the two or any. All I meant is that Disney could bring back Gargoyles, it's prime time. That's it."

Adapting Fantasia, one of the most iconic Disney brands of all time, and making a movie out of one of its own iconic sequences isn't "hungrily grasping at straws that aren't Gargoyles" as much as it's just seeing "Huh, Maleficent made some money. I guess people are down with seeing some darker returns to some of Disney's spookier iconic brands."

And if you don't see any correlation between the two, it seems weird to bring them up together (though, really, I was referring more to Neill anyway). It's something worth bringing up about, maybe, the Rescue Rangers movie, but FANTASIA? You think it's risky to do FANTASIA in comparison to a cartoon only predominantly nostalgic millennials really care about? (Or...that...both are risky? I dunno, you seem to heavily emphasize Fantasia's riskiness in comparison for some reason).

At this point, I could live without a Gargoyles movie because if I have to hear one more fucking movie franchise get a "cinematic universe", which is intrinsic to Gargoyles's DNA as a brand and by and large the intention of its wider design, I'm probably gonna break someone's face off.

There's, maybe, a time and place for the Gargoyles hopeful to lament the lack of exploring Gargoyles on the big screen. I don't think the announcement of a Fantasia adaptation is really one of them. That's clearly a different ballpark.

"Can I have my rational human being card back?"

No.

Matthew>"Yeah I was miffed about Tron 3 cancellation (or prolonged postponement). As for Gargoyles getting it's own movie, I would be thrilled that Disney is advertising it (and indeed just giving it any kind of attention) but I would also be cautious if it was being handled by other writers and/or directors who might takes certain liberties on the story or focus on the wrong things in general."

The main appeal of a movie from a Weisman perspective is that it essentially creates a venue for comics or more television, which is the big appeal for me from a strict "Weisman writing" perspective. As far as a movie goes, as long as it didn't really bleed into the content of a television show, I'd actually VASTLY prefer a weird take on the material. My main beef with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, besides the movies being shit, is the fact they're basically milquetoast renditions of iconography and not, like, actual stories. It took until Guardians of the Galaxy and Age of Ultron to actually feel like movies made by actual human beings and not robots (and season 1 of Agents of SHIELD, but not season 2, is a fairly serviceable, disposable b-movie procedural for TV that passively killed an hour an week that I generally enjoyed), and the last thing I really want is Gargoyles given the milquetoast blockbuster treatment of "Safe version of this thing you recognize as a wee baby." If the real place Weisman shines is TV ANYWAY...

I hesitate to actually give a name for someone I'd want to actually do a Gargoyles film, because it requires someone who's enough of a full blown auteur to actually take advantage of the material and make it his own, but who's also JUST pop culturally accessible enough to not necessarily make the movie into something the property isn't.

My instincts lean toward Max Landis, whose various just for fun Disney pitches like Winnie the Pooh and Mayweather are generally compelling and relatively inspired takes on those properties, but they also fall into the trap of leaning TOO much into really deconstructing and analyzing what makes those properties tick...and I like Gargoyles for its sincerity, even if the Weisman fandom as a whole is a bit TOO obsessed with how subversive they insist the show is because how else will we feel smart, I guess. So while I feel Landis would do well at embracing the material, there's the risk of his take on the property would feel like it was too clever for its own sake, and generally not too clever at all.

I want something like Rob Zombie's Halloween. Not the exact tone or storytelling style, obviously, but I admire those films despite being so much of a Halloween purist the closest I think the film gets to an ACCEPTABLE sequel is the comic mini Nightdance because...they're Zombie's interpretation of the material. None of it is necessarily TRUE to the original's intent, but it's a particularly involving and individual manifestation of Zombie's perception of Halloween's messy arc as a whole. You can debate the QUALITY of those movies (I LOVE the second one, but it's not necessarily a great film), but it's hard to debate the fact they're the exact things Zombie wanted to put on screen.

I feel like the ideal director/writer/whoever is someone who, really, has no attachment whatsoever to Gargoyles as a specific property, but resonates with the themes and concepts therein. I wouldn't want a BRAND movie and, truthfully, I would rather Weisman write a television series (one of the spin offs, presumably 2198) than just write a film with a story we already know. Make a movie in the SPIRIT of Gargoyles's first and second seasons, divorced from their eventual commercialized intent as the NEXT BIG THING: a weird, guerilla project given creative freedom because the large parent company just doesn't feel up to paying attention to it. Let the movie be branded JUST ENOUGH for a companion TV show run by Weisman, but not be branded so much that it's a giant initiative ala Marvel or Star Wars and it can still be some director's personal interpretation that makes a modest budget that doesn't warrant a sequel, but we still get some guy's REALLY WEIRD version of Gargoyles.

Fuck it. Just give it to Rob Zombie. That'd be HILARIOUS.

Harlan of Ash and Foam
Let the ol' tail wag.

Yeah I was miffed about Tron 3 cancellation (or prolonged postponement). As for Gargoyles getting it's own movie, I would be thrilled that Disney is advertising it (and indeed just giving it any kind of attention) but I would also be cautious if it was being handled by other writers and/or directors who might takes certain liberties on the story or focus on the wrong things in general.
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman

Woah. I think I've been misunderstood.

I did in no way infer correlation between the two or any. All I meant is that Disney could bring back Gargoyles, it's prime time. That's it.

Can I have my rational human being card back?

Inland
Signature: Damn me for ...

I wonder how much the stone boulder that Demona picks up and throws in "Temptation" weighs...?
Matt - [Saint Louis, Missouri, USA]

Harlan> It does get annoying when everything trends only to the super-hit, though. In particular, Tron 3's cancellation in the wake of Tomorrowland not being a gigantic moneymaker REALLY grates on me, though I can certainly recognize Tron's overall popularity is quite niche.
Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
"It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

Their logic makes perfect sense if you don't assume Gargoyles is the cultural center of the universe, like a rational human being.

Like, Gargoyles is my favorite thing ever, but if we're seriously arguing that Disney is taking one of its most iconic pieces of all time and using it as some roundabout way to cash in on the aesthetic appeal of a TV show it created decades later that appeals to a very specific demographic of millennials that's much more narrow than the time tested and timelessly proven Fantasia, I think that's the moment you just kinda have to stop. You have clearly gone too deep.

"They're adapting a property from the 40's that's defined their company for literal generations and a dude in it kinda resembles Goliath sort of, so why not just adapt Gargoyles/they must be using this to adapt Gargoyles without adapting Gargoyles" is not the thought of a personal taking this into anything resembling a real context.

I'd almost grant the Not Gargoyles movie from a while back as reason to be suspicious, but this is clearly more in line with Maleficent and whatever else they're making, not that.

Harlan of Ash and Foam

Disney is hungrily pulling straws that aren't Gargoyles.

It's odd. They can be avoiding it because it's risky, their making an adaption of a sequence from a 40's animated film. _That's_ risky.

Inland
Signature: It also sounds stupid.

Gonna be all about how Chernobog was oppressed by the Patriarchy.
Algernon

Ahh Night on Bald Mountain providing vintage nightmare fuel since 1940. Seriously though I am not optimistic about this partially because Disney's live action movies haven't been all impressive lately. And secondly because Night on Mountain/Ave Maria are so well contained within their own story that expanding on that feels not only unnecessary but that it will take away the things that made it special in the first place.
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman

The writers were probably more interested in doing an echo of Elisa's "solid stone" line at the start of the series than strict physics, anyway.
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

sooooo... I'm just gonna leave this here:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/disney-adapt-iconic-fantasia-sequence-799554

I think that's awesome... but then you basically have a creature that looks like a Gargoyle... why not make a Gargoyles movie then?

Neill - [neillgargoyle(a)gmail dot com]
watch my Demona AMV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNGrg5Wm12E

Paul> It could well be the panels are each made of solid steel while the entire door overall is not, but I'm inclined to think that the usage of "solid" may not have been literal. To be fair, calling something "solid steel" is a fairly common bit of vernacular regardless of the actual quality and composition of the metal.
Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
"It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

It seems weird, then, that Jason would refer to the door as "solid steel," although I suppose it wouldn't be nearly as dramatic if he had said "What could be strong enough to leave claw marks in segmented steel?"
Paul - [nampahcfluap at yahoo dot com]

For those of you who are curious as to the calculation, we estimated the door to by 15 x 18 x 1/2 ft and went with one of the lower densities for steel, ~ 484 pounds per cubic foot. This leads to approximately 484 x 135 = 65,340 lbs or roughly 32.5 tons.

Of course, that result presumes said door is solid steel which it clearly is not as you can see when Demona ripped it off its hinges. It clearly has segmentation in its structure. Plus, Demona doesn't lift the weight so much as dig her talons in (which act as potent focusing points for bringing her strength to bear) and toss the door aside. That requires less strength, not to mention only needing a solid grip on one section rather than the entire weight of the door. So overall, I would estimate the feat is a fair bit less impressive than described for lifting an over-30-ton weight but still impressive.

I don't know what the current weightlifting record is, but I do know Guinness had a listing for largest weight lifted as roughly one tenth of the result above three decades ago. I do think an estimation of gargoyles being on average ten times stronger than humans is not outside the realm of possibility.

Actually, after looking at the episode again, I'm more intrigued by the fact that the door still basically held its structure, despite the obvious strain of only being supported by Demona's grip in one single section. Who cares about analysis of gargate strength, I want to talk to that building's designer and contractor!

Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
"It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

So, that Death Battle did make me wonder about just how strong our gargoyles are. Demona might have the greatest on screen feat of strength to make this judgement, of course I'm talking about when she tore that solid steel gate off of Xanatos's warehouse, picked it up and threw it during "Hunter's Moon Part One".

After doing my own estimates on the size and thickness of the gate, with a steel weight calculator as well as talking with Brainiac... as a conservative estimate, Demona probably lifted and threw 32.5 tons.

Goliath is definitely stronger than Demona, physically.

Greg Bishansky

Coby: I loved every minute of it. I especially loved how they made the Sega Genesis sprites look so good, even when going up against arcade sprites. But I agree that they they'd have a lengthy discussion about Shakespeare or Dostoevsky instead of fighting.
D. Taina
"The story is told -- though who can say if it be true..." -Shari

I know I'm probably late with this, but what were everyone's thoughts on the Goliath vs. Beast DEATH BATTLE? I was rooting for Goliath the whole time, but was still pretty surprised. Although, to be fair, I doubt they would start fighting as soon as they saw each other. Maybe a verbal debate on their favorite book.
Coby
"This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Elliot-

(10)Tenth!!!!!!!!!! And away we go on with the show. Hopefully.
Vinnie - [thomaspeano at yahoo dot com]
Mark Twain: "Don't argue with stupid people. They'll take you down to their level and beat you with experience."

While it's a bit simplistic, I finally got around to looking through the Young Justice tie in comic issues to get an overall good idea what fits where.

And while it could use more fleshing out, here's my list of the episode/issue continuity list:
http://youngjustice.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Antiyonder/Where_the_comics_fit.

Antiyonder

Ra, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys.
Algernon

8th

I missed the comments last week concerning the abandoned '98 Gargoyles live action movie. I didn't see this link shared so I thought I'd share it now:
http://propstore.auctionserver.net/view-auctions/individual-lots/?key=gargoyles
It shows more pictures and you can really see the detail. You can also see what the items sold for, and for what it's worth, it's cool to see they all for MORE than the max.

Anthony Tini

Seventh!
Matt - [Saint Louis, Missouri, USA]

5th
Adam - [carl006_1999 at yahoo dot com]

My dream Gargoyles film director is me.

Having the past set one thousands years give or take sounds just fine, I'm not a stickler for the exact number.

I've thought it'd be cool tool have the "modern" setting still be in 94, but the scifi hovercrafts and ships, laser guns, would make that goofy. Floppys in one scene, floating space bikes the next. You'd also have to CGI in the Trade Center... Won't do any good in a blockbuster.

Inland
Signature: Fifth.

Ira Gamagoori, Uzu Sanageyama, Nonon Jakuzure, and Houka Inumuta!
Masterdramon - [kmc12009 at mymail dot pomona dot edu]
"It's not society that determines people's futures. It's people who determine society's future." - Inspector Akane Tsunemori

Thrice!
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman

Second!
Phoenician
"The suspense is terrible, I hope it lasts" -- Willy Wonka

May I be the first to say that, whatever our thoughts on the style of those live-action garg models, it's nice that they sold for more than expected.
Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
"It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."