Once again another installment of Out the Box Commentaries. This time focusing on Nostalgia Critic segment Old vs New. Admittedly, this is not my favorite segment of his, mostly because my opinion differs from his own, but hey, he isn't telling us what is good or what is bad, but rather giving his own opinion and explaining why he feels that way about a particular movie.
I am okay with the previous segments chronicling Batman (1989) vs the Dark Knight and Lord of the Rings (1970s) vs Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings one is probably my favorite one and not because he picked Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, but it is the one I most agree on with a few small differences in my opinion. The Batman one was alright, even though I have yet to see the original Batman and make a fair judgment of which is the better of the two or equal.
However, one personal beef in particular lies with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) vs Charlie and the Factory (2005). While I will agree with some of his comments about the recent one, I personally believe both are those type of films where the jury is divided. You have one group that will adore the original (the Critic), one that is neutral and accepting of both (me), and the other that think the recent is good to fantastic (ThatFellowintheCoat). But really, I believe the core problem with this Old vs New segment lies in that fact that I feel there was a greater bias towards the original without looking at it objectively. For example, I said before I agree with criticism about Charlie in the recent incarnation, but to be fair it's not a hundred percent of the actor's fault with the portrayal of the character. It's just the way the character was written in the script and a majority of the time, the blame can lie in the direction of the director, the screenwriter, and/or the actor in general. It's tough to say for sure.
Another beef is the songs. Let's be fair on this--there are some people out there who actually hate the songs in the original as there are some who hate the songs in the recent adaptation. It lies more with personal preference in what one would find charming and acceptable. For instance, the Willy Wonka song in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I actually don't mind the song itself, but I can understand how it can become annoying fast. But then again, I've heard far more annoying songs in the past and felt (and still feeling) that song is the least of it. In my opinion, it's along the similar vain as It's A Small World Afterall. Good for the first few times, tiresome so after.
While I cannot make a fair assessment on Willy Wonka as a character as I have yet to read the book, I can tell you that both actors playing him I feel bring their own spin on the character, whether sucessfully or not. Some people feel Johnny Depp's rendition was the best, others feel Gene Wilder's portrayal was the best. I consider these both extremes that can be interpretted in different ways, though it mostly depends on the person and their feelings about them again.
Lastly, one of my beefs is the mention that both deviate from their source material. While that is true, the recent one felt a little more closer to the book despite Tim Burton's additions. And before you ask, I did a quick Wikipedia search to find out as well as skim the book to find out. Whereas the original almost greatly deviated from the book. In fact, it's been said on multiple sources that the book's author Roald Dahl hated the way they changed his original script (which he wrote, but later a ghostwriter came in and made all the changes). So much so that he refused to even see the film. His wife would later claim if he was still alive, he would have greatly appreciated the recent incarnation. We may never know, but its interesting trivia.
Bottom line, we shouldn't take the Old vs New at face value as the segment is just the opinion of one person. Personally, the segment is good for voicing one person's opinion. But with that opinion comes a personal bias, which can be good or bad depending upon how well its managed. Same thing applies to Old vs. New. Whether you agree with said opinion or not, that's your business. After all, we can't agree on everything. We are not mindless followers, we have our own personal tastes and thoughts and shouldn't follow suit with anyone, even if they're popular.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Blackblood Alliance - Consider It Dead
Before I began, no this isn't another bash Blackblood Alliance post. While I do agree with the majority of the criticism about the webcomic itself, it's not why I'm here.
First of all, if you haven't heard from deviantart, a quick google search, or even the infamous post by Encyclopedia Dramatica, Blackblood Alliance is basically a popular webcomic by Kay Fedwa and E. Siegel. The plot from what I can surmise is about an ongoing war between the sabertooth tigers and the wolves of Inaria. The wolves are losing the war and call aid to their former elite guard known as Blackbloods to aid them. Some of you may be wondering what's the reason for the war between the sabertooths and wolves? And importantly what's in it for these Blackbloods for helping the wolves of Inaria? I honestly don't know, but I assumed that would have been later explained in future issues. But in all honesty at this point, that's a giant if.
Before I explain any further, I'm going to start with something complete different. First, I will give both creators of Blackblood Alliance some amount of credit for making a decent opener and present a scenario that leaves us as readers guessing what's going to happen next based on what they have learned in the beginning. Second, for giving us good artwork, unique designs for the characters, and even most of the panel layouts. However, that's where my praise ends and my criticism begins. First off, most of the characters other than Swiftkill and Bloodspill are flat, one-to-two dimensional characters who have nothing distinct about them personality wise. Some of the dialogue for the characters is formal and slitted. And the pacing itself, while okay in some pages, comes off as too quick. Particularly with pages six and seven, it's still too quick for my liking. Why not have an extra page in-between the pages actually revealing the two sisters Swiftkill and Bloodspill and show them tackling the scouts? This way it won't seem too abrupt rather than having the "Meanwhile" caption, which really screams laziness.
While all three points are personal nitpicks of mine, one particularly beats them all out. I was hoping that many of the issues would be resolved in future pages, so far I've been disappointed. It's been since the beginning of July when page eleven of issue two came out. Where the hell is the next page? It's almost the end of November and we haven't had a page in almost five months? If you haven't guessed it, one of the biggest problems with the Blackblood Alliance is inconsistent and bordering-on painfully long updates. Multiple times Kay says (on her deviantart page) that she'll update the comic regularly and yet she hasn't. Repeatedly, this is due to some major events in her life and I'm sorry for being insensitive for saying this, it has become quite possibly a lame excuse. I have teachers, sequential art teachers mind you, that not only have their teaching jobs but also juggle their families, jobs from major publishers like Oni Press, Dark Horse, and Marvel, and even their own side projects. Grant it with their side projects and their job at the comic book publishers (whether it is writing, penciling, inking, coloring, or all four, perhaps more) there might be delays, but generally all of them try to get their work done as quickly and effectively as possible. I understand this is a hobby for her, but for god's sake, her readers are counting on her to advance the story and so far, she's not doing a very good job. At this point until she has fully get her life on track (supposedly), she might as put the comic on an indefinite hiatus and work a way into having regular updates again.
And this hiatus wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't for this one thing that lead me to speculate she's not taking the comic seriously anymore. On the official website for the webcomic, the most recent updates in August mind you were about having more figures of her characters Swiftkill and Bloodspill for sale as well as an near completed online game. So let me if I got this straight--Kay's selling off the figures of her two characters as well as helping to develop an online game for her Blackblood Alliance universe while issue two of the comic itself has barely been completed. UGH, logic fails me here! J.K. Rowling and Jeff Smith were thankfully not anywhere near this level of stupidity (sorry for being harsh, but it's the truth). At least they waited awhile to see if their books were sell well before even considering grant the okay for licensing merchandise relating to their respected characters and universe. What Kay here is doing to promoting merchandising for a comic that only a small a small following of people know and not even focusing on the advancing the plot and wait out for at least a few more issues. Yes, one can agree about tie-in materials such as for majority of the Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and such comics and even the movies, but here's the thing--most of these particular tie-ins came from sources that were already well established and therefore a lot of people know them. With Blackblood Alliance, only a small following on deviantart know about the comic. And yes, I don't think it was meant to be an all around commercial success, but hey, at least webcomics like The Meek and The Phoenix Requiem, both creators were smart enough to keep things simple if only to see if their comics would be well received and then make the choice of whether or not to publish their comics in print form and/or have merchandise for sale.
My general advice to Kay if she really wants Blackblood Alliance to be a success and taken seriously: stop focusing on merchandise and creating games and start working on advancing the plot and developing her characters, and get your life on track to focus more time on updating regularly. If she can't do that, then I'm sorry to say this comic is a dead project and is not worth your time. Instead focus your attention on good webcomics that at least try to update as frequently as possible and have distinct characters and are further along plot wise. My recommendations: Wurr and Off-White.
First of all, if you haven't heard from deviantart, a quick google search, or even the infamous post by Encyclopedia Dramatica, Blackblood Alliance is basically a popular webcomic by Kay Fedwa and E. Siegel. The plot from what I can surmise is about an ongoing war between the sabertooth tigers and the wolves of Inaria. The wolves are losing the war and call aid to their former elite guard known as Blackbloods to aid them. Some of you may be wondering what's the reason for the war between the sabertooths and wolves? And importantly what's in it for these Blackbloods for helping the wolves of Inaria? I honestly don't know, but I assumed that would have been later explained in future issues. But in all honesty at this point, that's a giant if.
Before I explain any further, I'm going to start with something complete different. First, I will give both creators of Blackblood Alliance some amount of credit for making a decent opener and present a scenario that leaves us as readers guessing what's going to happen next based on what they have learned in the beginning. Second, for giving us good artwork, unique designs for the characters, and even most of the panel layouts. However, that's where my praise ends and my criticism begins. First off, most of the characters other than Swiftkill and Bloodspill are flat, one-to-two dimensional characters who have nothing distinct about them personality wise. Some of the dialogue for the characters is formal and slitted. And the pacing itself, while okay in some pages, comes off as too quick. Particularly with pages six and seven, it's still too quick for my liking. Why not have an extra page in-between the pages actually revealing the two sisters Swiftkill and Bloodspill and show them tackling the scouts? This way it won't seem too abrupt rather than having the "Meanwhile" caption, which really screams laziness.
While all three points are personal nitpicks of mine, one particularly beats them all out. I was hoping that many of the issues would be resolved in future pages, so far I've been disappointed. It's been since the beginning of July when page eleven of issue two came out. Where the hell is the next page? It's almost the end of November and we haven't had a page in almost five months? If you haven't guessed it, one of the biggest problems with the Blackblood Alliance is inconsistent and bordering-on painfully long updates. Multiple times Kay says (on her deviantart page) that she'll update the comic regularly and yet she hasn't. Repeatedly, this is due to some major events in her life and I'm sorry for being insensitive for saying this, it has become quite possibly a lame excuse. I have teachers, sequential art teachers mind you, that not only have their teaching jobs but also juggle their families, jobs from major publishers like Oni Press, Dark Horse, and Marvel, and even their own side projects. Grant it with their side projects and their job at the comic book publishers (whether it is writing, penciling, inking, coloring, or all four, perhaps more) there might be delays, but generally all of them try to get their work done as quickly and effectively as possible. I understand this is a hobby for her, but for god's sake, her readers are counting on her to advance the story and so far, she's not doing a very good job. At this point until she has fully get her life on track (supposedly), she might as put the comic on an indefinite hiatus and work a way into having regular updates again.
And this hiatus wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't for this one thing that lead me to speculate she's not taking the comic seriously anymore. On the official website for the webcomic, the most recent updates in August mind you were about having more figures of her characters Swiftkill and Bloodspill for sale as well as an near completed online game. So let me if I got this straight--Kay's selling off the figures of her two characters as well as helping to develop an online game for her Blackblood Alliance universe while issue two of the comic itself has barely been completed. UGH, logic fails me here! J.K. Rowling and Jeff Smith were thankfully not anywhere near this level of stupidity (sorry for being harsh, but it's the truth). At least they waited awhile to see if their books were sell well before even considering grant the okay for licensing merchandise relating to their respected characters and universe. What Kay here is doing to promoting merchandising for a comic that only a small a small following of people know and not even focusing on the advancing the plot and wait out for at least a few more issues. Yes, one can agree about tie-in materials such as for majority of the Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and such comics and even the movies, but here's the thing--most of these particular tie-ins came from sources that were already well established and therefore a lot of people know them. With Blackblood Alliance, only a small following on deviantart know about the comic. And yes, I don't think it was meant to be an all around commercial success, but hey, at least webcomics like The Meek and The Phoenix Requiem, both creators were smart enough to keep things simple if only to see if their comics would be well received and then make the choice of whether or not to publish their comics in print form and/or have merchandise for sale.
My general advice to Kay if she really wants Blackblood Alliance to be a success and taken seriously: stop focusing on merchandise and creating games and start working on advancing the plot and developing her characters, and get your life on track to focus more time on updating regularly. If she can't do that, then I'm sorry to say this comic is a dead project and is not worth your time. Instead focus your attention on good webcomics that at least try to update as frequently as possible and have distinct characters and are further along plot wise. My recommendations: Wurr and Off-White.
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