Comic-Con 2009: Interview with the Winner Twins

Posted on July 26, 2009 at 11:56 pm

One of the highlights of Comic-Con was the time I spent with Brianna and Brittany Winner, 14-year-old identical twins who are cuter than a box of kittens and more fun, too.

When the girls were in fourth grade, they became discouraged because their learning disabilities made reading and writing difficult. They told their parents they thought they were stupid. But their parents knew that the girls were exceptionally intelligent and imaginative. Their father suggested something almost unimaginable — that the girls who found reading and writing such a challenge should write a novel. Once they completed the first chapter, they were excited to see what would happen next and had the confidence to finish the book. They have since finished a sequel, a comic book supplement, and a soundtrack CD. And they say that the best part has been the way it has brought their family closer together and given them an opportunity to speak to more than 45,000 students about overcoming challenges and achieving their dreams.

The books are about a “super-hero with no super-powers,” a brilliant scientist who discovers that accelerated evolution is producing predators who are about to put the entire human race at risk. He uses science to develop tools to help him understand and defeat the creatures. The books ae vivid and exciting, grounded in reality (it opens at the White House), rich in fantasy, but focused on character. The girls say that they want them to be fun to write so that they will be fun to read. They sometimes disagree with each other about what to write, but say that it is only temporary and makes the books better. They bring a creative energy to everything they do, including two books (so far), a comic book, a CD, and even their attire and the strings of pearls in their hair.

The girls are bright, creative, and enthusiastic, but what makes spending time with them so much fun is their endearing curiosity and courtesy. They are fully engaged in everything that goes on around them and deeply committed to helping others through their new non-profit and their work to encourage other kids. As exciting as their book series is, the next installment I am most looking forward to is what they will do next.

To arrange for the twins to make a no-charge visit to your school or other group, contact Ilene at 714.396.7685 or at ilene@strandprophecy.com.

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Festivals Interview

Comic-Con #2

Posted on July 25, 2009 at 3:09 pm

There may be red carpets and glamor and great big movie stars in great big movies, but at it’s big, beating, heart, Comic-Con is still about passionate fans of the popular arts, whether of the most arcane and all-but forgotten radio programs or comic strips to the most mainstream and squeal-worthy, like the next installment of the “Twilight” or “Iron Man” sagas.

I’ve said it before. Comic-Con is the Iowa caucuses of popular culture. For a while, there was some attempt to tie in the movies, television shows, books, games, and music on display here to comics. There was almost always some element of fantasy or action. But now even a suburban sitcom has come here to give its first previews. The Comic-Con audience is fearless — they never care what anyone else has said about something or whether it is cool or not. They are happy to decide what is cool and pass it on to the mainstream. By the time the kids who were too cool to talk to them in high school have caught on to whatever is approved here, this crowd will have moved on to something else.

Or by the time others have moved on, they will remain faithful. One of the most endearing aspects of Comic-Con is seeing the audience enthusiasm for people whose work has been overlooked or forgotten by the mainstream. It was a thrill to see a packed ballroom cheering for Stan Freberg, who talked about his experiences doing voices with Mel Blanc for more than 400 cartoons, helping to create “Beany and Cecil,” and revolutionizing advertising with his cheeky commercials for Pizza Rolls and Contadina.

One of yesterday’s highlights was a “Coraline” panel with author Neil Gaiman, writer/director Henry Selick, voice talent Teri Hatcher and Keith David, and some of the other people who worked on the movie. They brought some of the figures used in the film and the detail and sheer beauty were astonishing.

I’ll be posting more pictures later, plus my interviews with the Winner twins, two of the stars of the forthcoming “Boondock Saints 2,” and more, so stay tuned.

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Festivals

Comic-Con 2009 #1

Posted on July 24, 2009 at 10:45 am

“I really like your fangs!”
This is not a comment I had ever anticipated I’d be making, but at Comic-Con it seemed perfectly natural. As did her response:
“Thanks! We make them ourselves!”
Comic-Con 2009 025.jpg
Some things are different at this 40th anniversary Con. This is the first time there has been an iPhone app to help attendees navigate their way through the hundreds of events and exhibitors. And it has come a long way expanded its range and its audience from the couple of hundred who came to a hotel to swap comics four decades ago. It now includes all of the “popular arts,” movies, music, games, books, and television. James Cameron is here with “Avatar,” probably the most eagerly anticipated appearance, with the “Twilight” cast a close second.
My favorite moment so far was my interview with the Winner Twins, the 14-year-old identical twin novelists. I’ll be writing more about them later. I also attended panels on “Robot Chicken” with Seth Green and Cartoon Network’s “Chowder” and “Flapjack” with their writers and casts. Stay tuned!

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Festivals

G-Force

Posted on July 23, 2009 at 6:00 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for some mild action and rude humor
Profanity:	Some schoolyard language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Characters in peril, violence, scary dog with big teeth, scary robot, reference to parental abandonment
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	July 24, 2009

Top voice talent and good 3D computer graphics cannot make up for the fact that this film is utterly synthetic as well as crass, loud, and vulgar. Even at a brief running time of under 90 minutes, it overstays its welcome.

A team of super-agent guinea pigs, assisted by a reconnaissance fly and a computer whiz mole (Nicolas Cage), fail in a mission to find out what weapons-dealer-turned-consumer-electronics mogul Saber (Bill Nighy) is up to. So, over the protests of their human leader, Ben (Zach Galifianakis), the program is shut down by the FBI’s Kip Killian (Will Arnett). The guinea pigs and mole have to escape from a pet shop — and from children who abuse them — to prevent Saber’s diabolical plot from being executed.

The script is predictable and derivative. References to other movies like “Die Hard” and “Scarface” may amuse parents and potty jokes may amuse children but they contribute to a crass and lazy feel to the film. The 3D effects are mostly used to make the audience duck flying glass shards and spraying water. If they’re smart, they’ll just duck the movie.

The Ugly Truth

Posted on July 23, 2009 at 4:00 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Adult
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for sexual content and language
Profanity:	Very strong language, some crude
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking
Violence/ Scariness:	None
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	July 24, 2009

There is little chemistry between co-stars Katherine Heigel and Gerard Butler in this charmless war of the sexes story, but there is even less chemistry between the two genres it tries to combine, the romantic comedy (sunny pop song over opening credits, cute meet, conflict with some sparks of attraction, makeover sequence) and the outrageous sex farce with many raunchy references to sex acts and body parts.

Heigel, whose wholesome beauty worked effectively as a raunch repellent in “Knocked Up,” here plays Abby, a typical romantic comedy heroine — romantically idealistic but a little controlling to make up for her insecurity. She is the producer of a low-rated Sacramento morning show featuring a married couple (John Michael Higgins and Cheryl Hines) who are all perkiness on camera but snipe at each other off air between segments. To improve ratings, she is forced to add Mike (Butler) to the show, a guy from cable access who believes that both men and women need to understand that everyone will be happier if they just acknowledge that we are essentially animals. So, men may pretend they want to respect women but all the time they are listening sympathetically and making romantic gestures they are only hoping to .

Abby despises everything Mike stands for. But when she meets her very own Dr. McDreamy, a man who has all ten attributes on her check-list, she enlists Mike’s help in bagging him. He tells her to be unavailable, laugh a lot, wear skimpier clothes, never complain (“Even constructive criticism?” she asks in disbelief), and wear lacy, remote-controlled vibrating underpants, which he thoughtfully provides. So we are subjected to a scene in which a child finds the remote control and clicks it on and off and ON and OFF just as Abby is at a restaurant with Mike, Dr. Perfect, and some big shots from corporate.

One scene lurches into the next with no sense of moving toward anything. For a movie like this to work, we need to believe that the parties will come out of their opposing corners and make some progress toward the big clinch. Heigel and Butler seem to be watching the clock, as uncomfortable with their unlikeable characters as we are. The truth may not be ugly, but this movie is.

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Comedy Movies -- format Romance