DISNEY BUYS MARVEL

Well that was unexpected.



The AlCave Action News Team presents our in depth coverage of this amazing announcement. In other words we make idle speculation that we can no way prove and is probably very, very wrong.


This is huge news, a win win. I'm hopeful that Disney will leave the comic book side of things alone. But there's an issue. A lot of Marvel's properties are at different movie studios.

Sony has Spider-man.
Fox has X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil
Marvel Studios/Paramount have Captain America, Thor, Iron man, Antman, Hulk, and the Avengers.
New Line has Blade.
Lions Gate has Punisher.
Columbia Pictures has Ghost Rider.

Its a logistical nightmare. I'm sure Disney is going to do whatever it takes to get these movies back when contracts expire. So all of the heavy hitters are off the table, where does that leave Disney?

With a great library of secondary characters:

She Hulk
New warriors
Runaways
Thunderbolts
Exiles
Cloak and Dagger
Dr. Strange
The Inhumans
Agents of Atlas
Iron Fist
Luke Cage
Spider-Woman
Moon Knight

And that's just off the top of my head. Disney has 5,000 characters to choose from! 5,000!

Once they get the rights back from the other movie studios we could see a Secret Wars movie. Something that seemed impossible just a few days ago.

But wait there's more. There was a line of comics called Cross Gen that went under a few years ago. Guess who bought them? That's right Disney.

So does this mean that we'll see Disney comics produced by Marvel? Not necessarily. Disney has a deal in place right now with Boom! Studios. I wouldn't be surprised if BOOM! Studios isn't bought my Marvel/Disney in the near future.

As a Marvel Zombie, I'm pretty excited (and a little frightened) about this. The next few years for Marvel are going to be very interesting.

Looney Bay: Hate Monster In Training

Was today a day of doom? Maybe...

Lesson: Fruits of the spirit (Love)

Script: Java and Lenny flood the town so everyone moves in with Sam and Herm. Herm gets very stressed. The Hate Monster decides that this is the perfect time to spread hatred. Unfortunately his son Winky, doesn't want to be a hate monster. He wants to be a balloonist and fire weiner dogs out of a canon at passing balloons. Herm loses it after all his stuff is broke so he kicks everyone out. Winky then offers to help Herm clean up, spreading love instead of hate.

Thoughts: Winky is a great addition to the cast. He talks like one of the Beatles. We'll definately be seeing him again.

Adlibs/blunders: Things were going along great until Ben went off script and screamed OMG. A big no no. Lenny tried to distract the kids by diving over the wall. Unfortunately none of the kids really reacted to Ben's OMG outburst. Kinda sad really.

Oh and Jonathan went crazy with adlibs again at the end of the script. I think he has tourettes.

Overall: Great day until Ben's outburst.

Not much to say

Not much to say today so...


Cobra Commander kicking your dog since 1985

Turtles Forever

I'm eagerly awaiting an upcoming TMNT special Turtles Forever. Its a crossover between the 1987 cartoon and the 2003 series. Basically the final episode for both series. They are still debating if it will be a tv or a direct to dvd special. Here's a sweet poster for it.

CONVOLUTED

I swear today has been the most convoluted day ever.

I would be surprised if I was attached by ninja raccoons on the way home.



See, what I'm going on about. That doesn't even make sense.



And what is this?



Look I don't even care anymore.

Equal time

Since I made a post about Matthew yesterday, its only fair to do a Jackson post today.



You know, in 10 years Jackson will be driving, kinda scary.


I have nothing to worry about, right?

Happy 100th birthday Matthew

Oh wait, I made a typo.

That should say "Happy 100th Birthday Matthew". There much better.



Well kid you survived year one. Congratulations. It only gets harder from here.

If Jackson messes with you, you have my permission to bop him in the nose.

Music for your tv

Ever watch a tv show with great music and think I would really like that on my mp3 player. Well you're in luck.

I found this nifty little site called www.televisiontunes.com. They have tons of music from just about any show you can think of. I found some nifty music from Phineas and Ferb, futurama, and Scrubs. Right click and save as to download.

And its all free!

Looney Bay: Masters of Hiccup-fu

Another week, another miracle of Jesus. I'm the only person who can make miracles sound ho-hum. :p

Biblical Lesson: Jesus heals the sick.

Script: Herm's perfect day is ruined by horrible hiccups. The other puppets offer a variety of solutions from being fired out of a catapult to sniffing a shark tail. Herm asks for a miracle but the frog tells him the only one who can perform miracles is Jesus.

Thoughts: Jesus did some amazing things in the Bible, but they are hard to write scripts around. I had thought about doing a script about Bogus the Possum being a faith healer before finally settling on Herm gets the hiccups. Hopefully next week we'll do something out of the old testament.

Ad Libs/Blunders: Herm's hiccups got rather ridiculous. Jonathan tried to adlib with the frog, it made no sense whatsoever.

Overall: Okay day.

You can't keep a good anime down

There's a new anime based on Fullmetal Alchemist airing in japan. Its called Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Unlike the original anime, this one closely follows the plot of the manga. We have no clue when these will be dubbed and brought to America.

Fortunately for you, you can watch them now in Japanese and subbed at the official site!

Check it out

You can also view the current One Piece episodes as well!

Fun Fact 08/21/2009

Forgot to mention, before the RiffTrax Live they were showing the typical movie facts and mistakes.


So here's what one said:

Movie Mistakes:

Casting Keanu Reaves in "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

There were other silly facts/mistakes but that was the best one.

Adding To My List

Went to Riff Trax Live last night. It was a blast!


They opened with footage of the theater in Nashville, showing the crowd and what not. Then the riff crew came out and did introductions and assured us this was all really live and anything could happen or go wrong.

We then watched the short The Flying Stewardess. It was an awful short about how to be a stewardess but the riff crew made it oh so hilarious.

They then gave away an IPod.

We then watched a commercial for the Flour & Mill convention. It was hilarious and created by the guys over at somethingawful.com.

We then had 2 songs from Jonathan Coulton: The Future Soon and Re: Your Brains. It was fun having a zombie sing along with the all theaters across the nation while Kevin Murphy tried to act like a zombie.

We then had another somethingawful commercial for BerryWatch, a security system for your strawberries, blueberries, etc.

Then the rifftones came out and sang "Plans 1-9 from Outer Space".

Finally we had the riffing of Plan 9 from Outer Space. It was fun watching the riffers get tickled at certain points during the movie. The movie is so bad, you can't help but laugh.

A really fun night and I would encourage you to go next time if you missed it. There were a few technical hiccups. We lost the live feed a few times, but only for a second or two.

I guess I can add another Great Moments in Al History to my list:

1. Met Snoopy
2. Fed Shamu the whale
3. Saw Zsa Zsa Gabor in person though no one believes me (or was it Eva)
4. Rode the Scooby Zoom
5. Saw the naked cowboy and some guy covered in tin foil in time square
6. Met Bruce Campbell
7. Mannheim Steamroller concert.
8. Midnight showing of Star Wars Episode 3, opening night.
9. Weird Al concert.
10. Riff Trax live.

Fun Fact of the Day

Today we look at a fun fact from my favorite disney movie, Old Yeller.



They had to film the finale of Old Yeller 17 times, because Tommy Kirk kept wounding the dogs and not getting a kill shot.



Okay it was joke... chill out! I never liked your stupid movie anyway. Geez.

Stupid dog.

First day of school

Jackson started school today. Is he ready for school?

and more importantly is the school ready for Jackson?

Riff Trax Reminder

Bought my tickets tonight for Riff Trax. Remember its this Thursday night. For those who don't know, Riff Trax are made by some former members of MST3k. They are basically commentary tracks for popular movies that are riffing the movie.

Don't miss it or you'll have to answer to these guys.

Its Monday... be happy

It's Monday!

I'm starting a new thing on the blog where I try and post something happy on Mondays to brighten your day.

Oh wait. Crud! This is a time travelling post. I'm actually posting this on Tuesday... I think I may have broken the space time continuum or something?

Oh well, hope your Monday was a happy one.

Looney Bay: The Dead Parrot Script

This week we tackle the tricky subject of raising people from the dead

Biblical Lesson: Jesus raises Lazareth from the dead.

Script: Baby dinosaur is lonely and upset that he is the last of the dinosaurs. Victor Vulture comes up with a scheme to trick baby dinosaur out of money. He claims he can raise the dead. The plan is to pretend that Salty the parrot is dead and then have Victor say the magic words and bring him back to life. Easy enough. Unfortunately Salty doesn't realize that dead birds can't talk and the whole plan quickly falls apart.

Thoughts: This was a tricky subject to write a script about. The monty Python title only occurred to me after I had written 3/4ths of the script. The magic words that Victor used to raise the dead came from Thundercats: "Ancient Spirits of Evil, transform this decayed bird to Salty, the ever-living!"

Ad Libs/Blunders: A kid called out that John was performing Salty the Parrot. Then the kids explained how John's magic trick worked. Darn kids.

Overall: Fun script

Why aren't you watching The Mighty Boosh?

The Mighty Boosh is a quirky British comedy. It follows the adventures of the egotistical Howard Moon and the outrageous Vince Noir. They are usually accompanied by the enigmatic Naboo and Bolo the monkey. Basically if Monty Python and H.R. Pufnstuf had a kid it would look like this.


I've only seen six episodes. In those six episodes I've encountered Killeroos, Monkey Hell, Beta Max Tape Monsters, Coconut People, the moon, and people trapped in cabinets. Yes its weird, but its oh so funny.


Be warned that this show is not for kids and often contains adult humor.

The Mighty Boosh airs on Adult Swim Sunday's at 1 am and is available on demand and online.

Riff Trax Live (sorta)

Mike and the gang are doing live riff trax in Nashville and then broadcasting it to theaters across the country next thursday, August 20th.

They'll be showing Plan 9 from Outer Space plus a brand new short. There will also be digital giveaways. And yes Tinseltown is participating.

Click here for Full details

I wonder if these come in Matthew's size

Source

Based on a true story

Most people don't know that George Lucas borrowed lots of his ideas for star wars from Flash Gordon and the Hidden Fortress. What you may not also know is that several of the ideas were based on real world events.




Click to enlarge







More here...

The Real GI Joe

I recently reviewed GI Joe: the Rise of Cobra and was pretty generous. I gave the movie 2 and a half stars. Well I'm taking those stars back after I saw this little gem.

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

Better costumes, better cast and all with a smaller budget. I know its a parody but this is GI Joe. The characterizations are spot on. Hollywood once again proves its clueless. This is what we want, not some wimpy movie about an international peace keeping force wearing power ranger's costumes battling the MARS corporation. A movie too scared to put Cobra Commander in costume because we don't want to offend.

Mr. Sommers are you listening?

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go watch Destro and Baroness practice the clarinet.

Bone Returns

At comic-con Jeff Smith announced some new Bone projects!





From the official Bone Website:

Last night I announced two new BONE projects; BONE: Tall Tales and BONE: Quest for the Spark.

Tall Tales, pictured above, is a major repackaging of a book I did with Tom Sniegoski a few years ago called Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails. This new book, which takes place after the Bones have returned to Boneville, revolves around Smiley and Bartleby telling tales around a campfire to a group of young Bone Scouts (their names are Ringo, Bingo, & Todd!).

One of the tales will be the long out of print story I did for Disney Adventures that was not in the BONE books, and will now be returned to the BONE cannon with a beautiful coloring job by Steve Hamaker. Another will be the The Adventures of Big Johnson Bone, Frontier Hero, which appeared in black & white as Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails. Tom Sniegoski, who wrote SSRT, has written two new Johnson Bone stories, both of which are pretty incredible. All now in glorious Hamaker colors! I will be writing all the new Smiley and Bartleby stuff.

BONE: Quest for the Spark is a slightly different kind of thing. It is not a comic; it’s a novel. A series of three novels written by Tom Sniegoski that follow a new generation of Bone characters into the Valley.



I was a bit unsure about this project when Tom first suggested it, but when I read the first book I laughed so hard, I agreed to do it. Scholastic was so blown away by it, that they decided to make it available in hardcover and wanted the illustrations, of which I think I’m going to do about twenty, full bleed and in color.

While not an official sequel to my comic, it will be fun to see some the characters again, like the stupid rat creatures, and Roderick the racoon.

BONE: Tall Tales is scheduled for Summer of 2010, and BONE: Quest for the Spark volume one, is set for 2011.

Looney Bay: The Snake Hunter

Its sunday so you know what that means.


Biblical Lesson: Jesus walking on the water

Script: A snake is loose in Looney Bay and Church Mouse is scared to death. The Amazing Who hypnotizes Church Mouse into not being scared. Church Mouse proceeds to beat the mess out of the snake. Amazing Who then informs Church Mouse that he really didn't hypnotize him. Church Mouse loses faith and the snake starts chasing him, until the owl shows up.

Thoughts: I'm still recovering from Al Flu so I was going to write myself out of the script. Somehow I ended up writing myself in every scene. Whoops.

Ad Libs/Blunders: I'm still trying to name the owl. This week I had Church Mouse call him Hooty which caused Church Mouse to break out into Hooty and the Blowfish songs. Back to the drawing board.

Overall: Okay day

No Joe!

Thursday I recommended giving the GI Joe movie a chance... I sure hope you didn't listen to me.




Full spoilers below.

So the movie opens with the line "In the not to distant future..." at which point my brother and I both broke out into the Mystery Science Theater 3000 theme song. Not a good sign.

The movie is non stop action and doesn't make a lick of sense. I thought the bad guys were cool but the Joes were horrible. Besides Scarlett and Snake Eyes I wanted them all to die a painful death. Especially Duke... he was boring as all get out. Horrible actor, they should have cast Brendan Fraiser instead.

Then we had Breaker, the arabic geek on the team. He was one of the most whiny characters ever and I kept expecting to see him in a dress. It was ridiculous.

Heavy Duty was okay but never really did anything.

And then we had Ripcord played by Mr. Wayans. The klutzy comedy relief. He ends up hooking up with Scarlet (what?!?). Half the time he seemed to be in love with Duke. Seriously I thought they should have almost gotten married instead of Duke and Baroness.

Yeah that's right there's a whole love story between Duke and Baroness that falls apart due to her kid brother dying but not really dying.

Oh and the plot... well Destro develops a weapon for nato and then steals it but then needs to kidnap a civilain scientist (Baroness's husband (not Duke)) to weaponize it since he can't do it himself being a weapon's designer and all.

Oh and we never hear the word Cobra until the last 15 minutes of the movie... What?

The movie is watchable and even entertaining at points but quickly falls apart over and over due to shoddy writing and accelerator suits. It was kinda like someone saw an episode of GI Joe Sigma 6 and thought this would be a great movie. The last 30 minutes are decent enough but the movie ends with Cobra Commander and Destro being captured and Baroness switching sides.

I give it 2 and a half stars out of 5. Not the worst movie I've seen but it could have been so much better. I know this movie was rushed out the door due to the writer's strike so I tell you what. Hire new writers and recast the Joe team and I'll think about seeing the sequel... I'll think about it... no promises.

I'm eagerly awaiting the riff trax. If you want to watch a great GI Joe move, please watch GI Joe Resolute instead and wait for this one to air on FX.

Don't you forget about me

John Hughes died of a heart attack yesterday.

Another architect of my childhood is gone. Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the Home Alone series, Planes Trains & Automobiles, the Vacation series. So many great movies that I watched over and over again as a child, especially Ferris Bueller.



John Hughes you're my hero and you'll be missed.

And knowing is half the battle

As a child of the 80's (actually late 70's but close enough) I was obviously a huge fan of GI Joe. The cartoons, the characters, the toys, it was all good. The plot was simple. GI Joe (America) vs the Cobra (the bad guys). That's all you needed to know. Cobra was always going to have some crazy plot involving weather dominators or red rocket burgers and the Joes were always going to be there to stop him.

Then came change. Two new characters were added: real life Sgt. Slaughter and Serpentor. I liked these two, but I missed the days when Cobra Commander was running things. This was followed by an abysmal animated movie featuring Cobra LA and Cobra Commander turning into a snake. What had happened to my Joes?



Soon GI Joe returned with new episodes by a new production company. The show was turned into a cheaply animated comedy and beyond ruined. At the same time the toyline completely ran out of gas with crappy characters like the Ice Cream Soldier.

I was done with GI Joe... or so I thought.

It was around this time that my brother Tim and I discovered GI Joe comics. This was during the gulf war and the body count was through the roof. This was definately not the cartoon show. I soon refell in love with these cool characters especially Snake Eyes. All thanks to one man Larry Hama.

And that is why I'm giving the movie a chance. Larry Hama served as a consultant on the film. He has given the movie his blessing. He wrote every issue of the GI Joe marvel comic run. Everything you love about GI Joe is because of him.

Sure people hate the accelerator suits in the movie. But there was a lot of silly sci fi going on in the old cartoon, so lets overlook that.

Check out the cast: Dennis Quaid, Ray Park, Mr. Eko, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sienna Miller, Arnold Vosloo. That's a heck of a cast. On the other hand you have Marlon Wayans... but I think the good outweighs the bad.

Now some (myself included) have complained about how Cobra Commander looks. Well apparently this is just a temporary suit and he'll have his classic duds in the next movie.

So what am I saying? Give this movie a chance. Will the movie be perfect, no. Will you have fun, probably. We could be seeing the birth of a really cool franchise here but it will never happen if no one goes and sees it. I for one would love to see the dreadknocks, Shipwreck, BATS, Serpentor, the twins, Springfield, and more. But we'll only get that if we get a sequel.

Sick days be gone - and the storm clouds lifted

I'm at about 85% today so this will be our last sick day on the blog. It looks like the flood waters have subsided as well. Lets step outside and see what's going on.



Screw you sun! At least the moon gets my name right!

Normal posting resumes tomorrow with my thoughts on the GI Joe movie.

Al Flu Day 7

I think I'm finally starting to recover from the accursed flu. The last week has been kind of a blur. What did I miss...



Apparently there was a flood last night... and for some reason I'm a turtle... riding a bike... again. >:(

Al Flu - Day 6

Day 6 and I'm still sick but I was dumb enough to go to work. Yay me. Meanwhile on the homefront the rest of the crew have all been hit hard by the Al Flu. Matthew mostly lays around and moans like a zombie. Jackson on the other hand has momentary bouts of hyperness. Poor Andrea is stuck at home in the middle of it while trying to get well herself. Here's a pic to explain what I mean.

Here we see Andrea offering the boys their medicine.



Try to figure out which squirrel is which kid.

happy birthday love

today is andrea's 30th birthday.

Here's to many more happy tomorrows.

Now I'm going back to bed... where's my nyquil.

plans for next week

Once I get back up to a 100% I'll resume posting the usual stuff. Here's a preview:

On the radar for July where we showcase all the cool stuff that came out. The return of Bone. TMNT Forever. And Scribblenauts!

Of course this is all subject to change at any moment.

Oh look a deer!