Slowly but surely, we’re developing a new cinematic language when it comes to CGI films, especially 3-D ones. Avatar went a long way to codifying it; Alice in Wonderland, I think, takes us a small step backwards.
Where Avatar took pains to avoid the whole “those humans don’t look real enough” creep-out factor, Tim Burton’s Alice rides the Uncanny Valley like a skateboarder on a half pipe. You’re never not aware that you’re watching actors on a blue screen. Sometimes that’s a wonderful thing, but the net result is slightly off-putting and never 100% engrossing. We’re getting there, but we’re not there yet.
On to the crass commercialism. Certainly you’ve heard the lies that the liberal media elite (or, as my brother calls them, “the goddamned liberal media elite”) have spread about the world wide web growing out of a military computer networking system called ARPANET. Here at Evil Arts and Crafts, we’re all about bringing you the truth. So, we bring you the latest addition to the Evil Schwag store– “The Birth of the Internet”, a limited edition print by my lovely co-conspirator Andrea.
An animation student, Andrea hopes to sell enough copies at $15 a pop to pay for her airfare to this year’s Siggraph convention in Los Angeles. Make her dreams come true, wouldja? She’s just radiant when she’s happy. You should totally buy a copy here.
Have a great week, everybody!
Luke
I kind of liked that halfway point between realistic and fake since it made it seem a whole lot more surreal. But after reading on infloox about how Burton was influenced by Lewis Carroll, I was a bit let down by the overall plot.