I was talking with a student here at the paper, and we were discussing our favorite rides at amusement parks. I told her I loved Disney World, and that the Haunted Mansion was my favorite. Also It's Small World, Hall of Presidents and of course the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. She made the comment to me that I must have been there recently. I told her no, it had been about 12 years, and she argued that the movies hadn't been out that long. I smiled at her and told her that the movie was based ON the ride, not the other way around.
That got me thinking about things like that. We have had movies from real life, movies from books, movies from songs, movies from TV shows, movies from rides and movies from video games. And some of those movies from TV shows they should not have done. I am very skeptical about this upcoming movie from the kids show Land of the Lost. I LOVED that show growing up. And even though Wil Farrel is suppose to be in it, I wish they would quite screwing with our original things. Its like when they screwed with the Coke formula. New Coke bombed, thats why we went back to Classic Coke.
Sigh.
And another favorite was the cartoon How the Grinch Stole Christmas. With Boris Karloff doing the telling. I will lay money that the kids these days have no clue who he was or how scary he really was without having to use excess blood, gore or DGI affects. Lights, sounds and your imagination were enough.
I have always had this mini movie in my mind where you have Jason, Freddy and all those other blood and gore and these modern day vampires that are either punk rockers or suave and sophisticated (just the bad ones, not the good ones like Angel of course.... ) and have them go against the classics; the REAL Dracula, Wolfman, Mummy, the Thing, Creature from the Black Lagoon. and as the upstarts and their egos snorted that the old folks would have no chance, you see how sound and lights and imagination work... no DGI, no big FX, the illusion, the simple raise of an eyebrow or twitch. How your own thoughts worked against you. Of course the classics won in my scenario. But that's me. Now-a-days it seems that people have to be spoon feed, verses using their own imagination. Perfect example would be The Lord of the Rings movies. How many know that there was a book called The Hobbit before? Or there was a movie of the same name long before these new ones were made? My friends and the people who are into sci fi and fantasy, long before it was fashionable, read all of Tolken's stuff. You had to read The Hobbit and the trilogy as a rite of passage of sorts. Anyone who tells you they read them and found them great and 'oh this' and 'oh that.' They are not an easy read. Don't get me wrong, they are great books; but you read them to understand, to know where a lot of the fantasy now a days comes from. Its the equivalent of having to teach ancient history to see where we are now.
I have learned that I stumble upon things that I find that I love. Like this series of books by Jack Vance. I remember I was pulling OD Duty once at Kemper and on my night shift, there was this book in the desk in the OD's office. Since there was nothing else to read I started reading it. I loved it! I didn't understand some of it, but it transported me to another planet and to different cultures.
I eventually found the other books to that series and found other books by Vance. Classic science fiction, that I would bet, would mostly go unappreciated by today's sci fi fans and audiences, unless there were explosions, blood, boob and sex. Again, just my opinion. I just know what I like. I have read that series over and over. It is one of my favorites and I even found that GURP's put out a reference manual for it. Anyone that's interested can research what Jack Vance wrote and discover his works. I have given you his name, so anyone who wants a recommendation for an author, here it is. Trust me, I have many more, and I know a few and their autograph copies in my library. So its not like I am limited. I hope you enjoy!
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