Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile at Walt Disney World. Happy fall, everyone. Except us in Florida. Remember, kids, if a Disney Princess rolls her eyes, it means your wish will come true! Please note that, during COVID: Meet and greets are reduced to 35%, ride capacity reduced to 50%, park capacity reduced 20%, hotel amenities reduced to 40%, fireworks reduced 100%, parades reduced 100%, transportation service reduced 50%, ticket prices UNCHANGED. Disney is almost ready for Halloween. Their first planning meeting is just three weeks away. Buy a virtual ticket to enter the virtual queue for our virtual maze and have a virtually enjoyable experience! Please don't post photos of our construction walls and say "New coaster coming along!" YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE'RE BUILDING AND YOU'RE EMBARRASSING YOURSELVES! Cast Members, don't call any attraction a "Must-See." Just say "If you don't visit this attraction, there will be consequences for your family." To decrease bottlenecks, Guests will now be let into the park in alphabetical order. If you don't wear a mask in the park: 1st offense: Verbal warning (from 6 feet away), 2nd: Written warning (via email), 3rd: Written warning (via text), 4th: Cast Members will shake their heads at you, 5th: A Princess will roll her eyes, 6th: You will be shot by Security snipers. Enjoy your day in the park, everyone.
A pair of new parents are under fire from, if I'm being honest here, just some random d-bags on the Internet so, all in all, this isn’t really that big of a deal. But still, some parents are being accused of endangering their baby for helping the tot break the world record for youngest water skier ever.
Casey and Mindi Humpherys took their 6-month-old son Rich Casey Humpherys to Lake Powell, Utah so they could help the little guy achieve a world record, like any good parents would. What kind of loser infant doesn’t have a world record before their first birthday? So they strapped him into an infant-safe water ski and bagged the kid a world record. Look at this...
It was adorable and, honestly, it looked pretty safe too.
After watching the video this might be the most impressive baby I’ve ever seen. I’ve met six month olds. Six month olds can’t do this. Did they glue this kid’s hand to the bar?
I suppose critics are right, this would be dangerous… for a normal, weak baby. But this baby is some sort of god child. A young Hercules. Maybe the second coming of Christ? He is sort of walking on water. We can’t rule it out, though it would have been easier if his wake had turned into wine. But God likes to work in mysterious ways.
Regardless of whether or not this baby is some sort of demigod or X-Man in the making, it’s actually pretty cool that these parents are having fun with their child. And they’re clearly in control the entire time. The boat is going as slow as is possible while also allowing the kid to get up on the baby skis, and the dad is right there. I am more likely to drown in my toilet while trying to pee in it while black out drunk than this kid is to drown.
Rock on, Humpheryses. Suck it, nerds.
Bear with me here as I explain this entire family tree. Twins who married another pair of twins and are now living all together are now pregnant at the same time. I know, this can be a little confusing.
Briana and Brittany Deane are identical twin sisters who clearly do everything the same and together. In 2018, they attended a twin convention, the Twins Days Festival, which is where they met identical twin brothers, Jeremy and Josh Salyer. These four were the stars of TLC’s "Our Twinsane Wedding," which essentially just covered how both of these full genetic siblings got married and are now living together. Yes, all four of them are under the same roof. Joshua Salyers married Brittany Deane and Jeremy Salyers married Briana Deane in a girls’ fairy tale dream double wedding, and now that they’ve had their joint wedding last year, the four are proud to announce that both girls are pregnant. The girls even wore identical dresses during the joint ceremony for a “twice upon a time” moment. And now their next huge event will be having children around the exact same time.
The girls initially tried to get pregnant at the same time, but both unfortunately miscarried. In Salem, Virginia, Brittany Salyers got pregnant to which Briana went with her for a check-up. Soon enough, Briana found out she was pregnant as well. Briana is due just about 9 months after Brittany. And according to their doctor, because of how their genetic makeup is, Josh’s children and Jeremy’s children will not only be cousins but could technically be considered siblings.
It’s wild to even think that there is someone exactly like you, down to the smallest chromosome in your body. But it’s even wilder to not only do everything together but to act and dress the exact same. And when I thought it was the wildest to marry another paid of identical twins who do the exact same thing, these people live together under one roof. And are now planning to raise families under this one roof, while sharing a nursery!
Look, as long as they’re happy, then sure, by all means, I support it. But I can’t help but wonder, which they did mention that they get asked all the time if they confuse each other’s partners. I would be irritated at the lack of privacy too, even if someone was exactly like me. But, I’m not a twin, so I don’t want to judge too harshly.
Yesterday, Ellen Degeneres kicked off the 18th season premiere of her daytime talk show, "The Ellen Degeneres Show," with a proud opening monologue. In it, she directly addressed the allegations regarding workplace abuse and having a toxic work environment behind the scenes of her show.
As she spoke to her studio audience virtually, the 62-year-old apologized to the ones who not only spoke out about the mistreatment on the show but also to those who hadn’t spoken out who had also been affected. She said that she is, “starting a new chapter,” saying, “As you may have heard, this summer there were allegations of a toxic work environment at our show and then there was an investigation.”
Back in July, the allegations of a toxic workplace were exposed in a Buzzfeed News report by unnamed former employees and staffers, to which several high-ranking producers were named. The internal investigation had followed the allegations, conducted by the Warner Bros., resulting in the departure of the show’s three senior top producers, Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman, and Jonathan Norman, as told by a Warner Bros. spokesperson to "Good Morning America." Negative experiences with the talk show host herself had also come to light on, especially in tweets, social media to which Ellen Degeneres addresses in the same opening monologue, “There were also articles in the press and on social media that said that I am not who I appear to be on TV because I became known as the ‘Be Kind Lady.' And here’s how that happened. I started saying ‘be kind to one another’ after a young man named Tyler Clementi took his own life after being bullied for being gay. I thought the world needed more kindness. And it was a reminder that we all needed that. And I think we need it more than ever right now.”
She also explained that she hopes this new season can keep the show on track to be a place where “people can go to escape and laugh,” despite the tragedies that have occurred this year, including COVID-19, social injustices, the California wildfires, and more. As she assured the audience that the necessary changes have been made to her show’s workplace culture, who knows what the show’s future is going to look like next in Hollywood.
She admitted that she understands that she comes from a “position of privilege,” humbling explaining that she is also human. But in light of more positive things moving forward, she announced that Stephen “Twitch” Boss will be her new co-executive producer.
My thoughts because I do have a few... I would like to believe that Ellen is actually the “Be Kind Lady” that she’s known to be, but I do not know her personally to make a decision on her character. With that being said, media is the hell of voices and I don’t want to assume poorly of her either.
But I will say this: all of this has given the show attention. Whether it’s good or bad, people are paying more attention to the "Ellen Degeneres Show" more than ever, and regardless of intentions, the talk show host got to seize an opportunity in bringing her show back in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. You can mull over that inference any way you would like.
Have you been waiting for updates on the second season of "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance"? We finally got one but it isn't exactly good news. It has been confirmed that Netflix decided to cancel the fantasy series after just one season.
The cancellation was confirmed by Jim Henson Company CEO and executive producer Lisa Henson in a statement shared with io9.
“We can confirm that there will not be an additional season of "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance." We know fans are eager to learn how this chapter of The Dark Crystal saga concludes and we’ll look for ways to tell that story in the future,” Henson said. She also pointed out that the studio was grateful for Netflix giving them a start on the show. “Our company has a legacy of creating rich and complex worlds that require technical innovation, artistic excellence, and masterful storytelling. Our history also includes productions that are enduring, often finding and growing their audience over time and proving again and again that fantasy and science fiction genres reflect eternal messages and truths that are always relevant. We are so grateful to Netflix for trusting us to realize this ambitious series; we are deeply proud of our work on "Age of Resistance," and the acclaim it has received from fans, critics and our peers, most recently receiving an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program,” Henson said.
Although we're really disappointed that the show will not continue on Netflix, we're also hopeful considering that Henson is already looking for other networks that will allow them to continue with the series. Here's hoping that we haven't seen the last of the world of Thra just yet.
We already know that Temuera Morrison will be showing up in "The Mandalorian" Season 2 although his role has not yet been revealed. But is it possible that the former Jango Fett actor will play his character's unaltered clone? Morrison's agency may have confirmed that Boba Fett will be returning to the Star Wars Universe through the Disney+ show.
The revelation comes from Morrison's Australian agency which has updated the Aquaman star's film and TV credits. Interestingly, Morrison's page currently confirms that he will portray Boba Fett in "The Mandalorian" Season 2.
It's no secret that fans have been wondering about Morrison's role on "The Mandalorian" Season 2. Although many have pointed out that it would make sense for Morrison to play Boba in the series, it's important to remember that the character has been somehow killed off in the original Star Wars film trilogy. Others yet believe that Morrison will portray the live-action version of Captain Rex, the Clone Trooper who appears in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." For now, people can rest assured that Boba is still alive and will show up in the second season of "The Mandalorian." Perhaps we'll finally learn if he actually survived his fall into the Sarlacc Pit or if we might be seeing a flashback from the original film trilogy.
Speaking of Disney+, if you recently watched The Little Mermaid on it you might have seen a major change in the movie. Check it out...
One thing I have learned about Disney since I have worked for the company since 1988 is that they don't miss a bloody beat. Check this out...
Yeah, you can be buried in a Mickey Mouse coffin. Cashing in on COVID I am sure. Ha! Kidding! It was a joke! So, today's guest Brad Bird created the Incredibles, which those movies are some of my favorites. There are some toys from that franchise that are questionable though...
You're welcome, gentlemen. Disney is somewhat unrealistic when it comes to their princesses. For example this is how Cinderella should have looked...
Am I right? Ever freeze a Disney movie on DVD or Blu-ray or Disney+? It'll look a little like this...
That's not as funny as I thought it'll be. If they make a live action Incredibles movie it should have this in it...
Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York, here is...
Top Phive Things To Do On An Off-Season Weekday At Walt Disney World
5. Count the leaves on a random tree!
4. Wave to the park's only fuzzy character as he goes on break!
3. See how many of your favorite rides are closed for refurbishment!
2. Wake up a bored Princess!
And the number one thing to do on an off-season weekday at WDW is...
1. Beat the traffic home!
The Incredibles is really dark for a kids movie. The villain murders dozens, tries to kill some parents, tries to kill some kids, kidnaps a baby, and is then shredded alive in a jet engine.
The 136th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...
Stephenie will be on the Phile this Monday. Okay, let's take a live look at my favorite place on the planet, shall we? Port Jefferson, New York.
A Florida woman was rushed to the hospital after suffering leg injuries from a surprise alligator attack while she was trimming trees near a lake.
The 27-year-old woman was working near a lake in Fort Myers, Florida when the reportedly 10-foot long predator ambushed her. The woman suffered injuries to both legs and was transported by rescue workers to a Fort Myers area hospital.
Florida Fish and Wildlife authorities contracted an alligator trapper to remove the gator from the lake. Thankfully the woman is okay. That’s the number one thing here. I have no doubt that the whole alligator threat is overblown. I assume if you live in Florida gators are more shrug inducing than anything. Apparently on average Florida only has five unprovoked alligator on human attacks a year.
Still, I wouldn’t hang around any wild-looking body of water without at least a pocket knife, if not a bat with nails sticking out of it and barbed wire wrapped around it. Or maybe a shotgun? You know, something that can expose dinosaur brains to sunlight as quickly as possible. The details of this attack are sparse but I sort of imagine the woman was just standing there and got dragged down to the ground like in every movie ever featuring a scary animal attack on land. Which is pure nightmare fuel. Imagine actually almost dying in the way you’ve seen a thousand times in the movies. It’s also just annoyingly ironic. There are a lot of thoughts you don’t want to have while dying... “Ow,” “Why God!?!”... but I imagine that “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me” ranks up there. Living in Florida basically just playing a game of "Pitfall"?
Hahahahaha. Oh, boy. If you spot the Mindphuck let me know.
This is cool, kids. Today's guest is an American animator, director, screenwriter, producer and voice actor, best known for his animated feature films The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Incredibles 2. His live action films are Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Tomorrowland. Please welcome to the Phile... Brad Bird.
Me: Hey, Brad, welcome to the Phile from Walt Disney World. How are you?
Brad: Howdy, it's great to be here.
Me: So, when the latest Incredibles movie came out in 2018 it was out about the same time as Black Panther and an Avengers movie. Is that why Incredibles 2 was made, because of all the superhero movies being so popular?
Brad: You could throw a rock and hit a super hero these days, can't you?
Me: Yeah. Hahaha. What is different about The Incredibles opposed to the other super hero movies?
Brad: I think the little place that we staked out was not super powers for super powers sake but to use them to comment on roles within the family and to certain periods of our lives. That's how I picked the powers. I picked them around the positions in the family.
Me: Hmmm. Give me an example, Brad.
Brad: Men are supposed to be strong so Bob is super strong. Mothers are pulled in a ten different directions so I have Helen being elastic. Teenagers are defensive and insecure so I have Violet being invisible and have force fields. Ten-year-old boys are energy balls who want to open up every door and press every button and bases are unknown. They could have no powers or they could have all the powers.
Me: How much of the movie is based on your own parenthood?
Brad: Um, it's half influenced by the family I grew up in, my sisters and my parents.
Me: How many of you?
Brad: Five in my family, six in the family I grew up in. Half it is based on my family I have with my wife and sons. It's all of that combined into a gumbo of spy movies, superhero things and action adventures I loved as a kid.
Me: Any specific things from your own life make it into the film?
Brad: Yeah, all over the place. An argument that is in the first Incredibles where Bob and Helen argue about one of their kids graduation quotes is an argument my wife and I had. Guess which part I was? Hahahaha.
Me: How old are your kids, Brad?
Brad: They're all in their twenties now.
Me: They were young when the first one came out though.
Brad: Yes, my middle boy, Jack, was baby when I first came up with the ideas and we called him Jack-Jack so he made it in.
Me: Was it cool for them to have their dad behind the big film of the year?
Brad: Well, it was weird because I was working on this thing but I didn't really show them any of it until the wrap party. And so I like to do that because I like it to be all spiffy and finished when they see it.
Me: I thought you'd want to show it to the kids early on to get feedback. No?
Brad: No. I'll aways go it's not ready yet. It's like saying check out my new car, it's all in parts across the front yard but it's really cool. It's going to be great when it's together, you're going to love it. So I always wait unto the "cars" together and that was one of the highlights of my life, sitting there with my boys leaning forward with their eyes wide open going "wow."
Me: So, what made you decide you want to be an animator, Brad?
Brad: Well, like any normal kid I loved cartoons. I loved animation. I was particularly fascinated by Disney films because of the thoroughness of the imagination.
Me: What are some of the movies you liked back then?
Brad: When I saw The Jungle Book something inside me snapped because I recognized the distinctness of the vision. Meaning that when I saw the panther jumping across onto a branch it didn't just look like a cat, like somebody had studied cats. It looked like a panther versus other cats. It didn't just look like a panther, it looked like a panther who was sort of stuffy. I realized that someone did that. Someone's job on the face of the earth was to figure out how a stuffy panther would move. And I thought that was the coolest job in the world.
Me: That's true. So, do you feel the same way when you watch that movie now?
Brad: Yeah, I didn't lose that. In the particular movie the same animators who did the stuffy panther had to figure out how an old over the hill prize bear would be an how I really arrogant tiger would be and how a hypnotic snake would be. I'm just saying they got to transform themselves into all kinds of different things. They were very particular. Here's a problem what an animator has to del with... I want my character to shrug. Okay, my character is a snake.
Me: So, how do you do it? The snake doesn't have shoulders...
Brad: Well, the animator bunched his body up the way that suggested shoulders and moved up in relation to his head. The line goes, "And where would that be?" And he goes, "Search me." He didn't want to say that because he's got Mowgll who the tiger is looking for up in the branches. As soon as he says it he realizes he said too much and he swings his body around to cover his mouth. It's creating snake body as shoulders it's making it hands, and that's just genius. They're miracle workers those guys.
Me: Okay, so, what's your favorite Disney animated movie?
Brad: Peter Pan. What's yours, Jason?
Me: Robin Hood. Okay, so, Disney is making "live action" versions of so many movies... they are even doing a Lilo and Stitch live action remake. If they were going to make a live action Peter Pan... I know there's been tons of Peter Pan movies, but if Disney was to make one based on the animated movie what can Disney do to it?
Brad: Well, that's a question that has really become obsolete.
Me: Why is that?
Brad: When I first started in the animation business as a plaid employee there were all old-timers around. I'm not taking about the old Disney masters who I still revere to this day, I'm talking about the more kind of hacky animators. They used to say, "Listen, kid, if they could do it live action they should never do it in animation." I was thinking at the time if they believed that then they're going to be obsolete because very soon they'll be able to do ANYTHING in live action. That's not the reason to do animation anyway. The reason to do it is caricature. That's what animation is great at. It's about intensifying what the essence of that.
Me: What does that do people like me as viewers?
Brad: Well, I think if you look at a good caricaturist like somebody like Al Hirschfeld. Do you know who he is?
Me: Yeah, but tell the readers who might not know who he is.
Brad: He did the caricatures for the theater, for The New York Times for like a hundred years practically. He was great. So he would do a drawing of a person and the rating of the person would look more like the person than the person did. You might go how was that? They took what was distinctive about a person and emphasized it and took away the things that didn't emphasize it. So it's almost like it's boiled down to its essence. Well, animators do that not only with the style how something looks but how it movies. It becomes this very concentrated way to look at things, and it's its own thing. It's fantastic.
Me: Do you think there's people in your position who would be pretty jaded by now? Hahaha.
Brad: Oh, yeah, and I could bring out the jaded aspect of my personality but I don't think you want him on the blog. It cohabitants with my more hopeful side.
Me: Ha. So, how does a movie go from your brain to all the people that work on the film?
Brad: Well, it depends which part of the process you're talking about. If you're talking about the storyboard process then it's all about the over arching story and it's about character moments. I remember doing a very detailed screenplay pages for "the hundred mile dash," or a sequence called "the hundred mile dash" which is in the first Incredibles where he goes running from the Velocipod's and all of that stuff. I wrote it out and the person who storyboarded it just had him run on water. I said no, no, no, when he runs on water he thinks he's going to fail and then he finds he can run on water and he's exhilarated by it. And so it wasn't just the action, the action wasn't enough. It's how does the character feel about the action. Then the action becomes a character which becomes more interesting.
Me: Okay, so, I want to bring something up. I work at Star Tours: The Adventures Continue at Disney's Hollywood Studios and years ago I flew John Lasseter on the ride and his family. That was before Finding Dory came out and I wanted to say to him, "Forget another fish movie, make another Incredibles movie." Anyway, Lasseter left Pixar because of sexual allegations, which he denies. Anyway, I don't think I should ask this but I will anyway, what did you tell your people about this whole thing and what did you think?
Brad: We had a year basically taken off our schedule so suddenly we had enough time to barely having enough time. So that was my focus, and I said, "Look, I know we are in weird insecure times but don't forget what we are doing." I actually spoke to my crew.
Me: What did you say?
Brad: I said, "Don't forget why you came here. You came here to tell stories and that's what you should focus on now. All the other stuff is distractions. You're here to tell a story around a campfire and the campfire is as big as the world. Focus on that."
Me: Did it cross your mind the importance of the work environment?
Brad: Ummm, it has crossed my mind as long as I've been directing. When I wasn't directing I worked on several films that were badly managed and I probably learnt as much if not more... well, I had lots of those experiences than the good experiences. I saw how people get demoralized and how money was spent to. Often times people bring employees down and then they try to compensate my making them work more hours so the people get progressively more miserable. The biggest most significant line that never shows up on a budget that makes a huge impact on the budget is morale.
Me: And your team feels happy?
Brad: My people feel listened to and at least feel appreciated than for every dollar I spend I get three dollars worth of value. Then if morale is bad for every dollar I spend I get 25 cents of value. So it's a HUGE factor in the quality of our work.
Me: Okay, so, I was told just to ask you about Disney stuff, but I have to do this... so, you were responsible for "Do the Bartman" on "The Simpsons." I love "The Simpsons" so I have to ask you about that. Haha.
Brad: Yeah, I was the sucker who took on that assignment.
Me: How do you feel about it now?
Brad: It's a quirky thing to have on my resume. It did very well, it was the Number One video in the world for a couple of weeks.
Me: So, were you proud of it then?
Brad: Yeah. I mean look, it was the hardest thing I'd ever done because I had to go to Hungary. We couldn't produce it in the United States because everyone was working on the show. So they asked me a couple of times and I turned it down. Finally they begged me and said this was really important so I said alright, I'll do it. So I went over to Hungary and in Hungary they only had the Tracy Ullman one minutes so they thought "The Simpsons" were super crude. They thought that was what we were going to do so they were very confident they could pull that off. I landed and said, "Here's what it is. It's a big dance thing and we have every character that's ever been in 'The Simpsons' going to be seen it at some point or another and it's all original animation, it's full animation, it's not limited." And their faces were going white. They said, "No, Simpsons is this..." And they show me one of the one minute clips and I said, "No, man, that was two years ago! This has to be real video and that means the characters are going to move around and dance and do a lot and we have about a hundred characters..." They just went... ahhhhhh!!! We had to do it in about two and a half weeks, a five minute film, with a crew that primarily did not speak English. It was being advertised it was going to be premiered globally at the same moment all over the planet. So they were making these announcements and we didn't even have a film. It was really, really, really hard to pull off. You wouldn't know it by looking at it, it looks like a trifle but we basically got ever animator in Hungary involved.
Me: Haha. That's great. Brad, thanks for being on the Phile. Please come back again soon.
Brad: You bet. My pleasure.
I don't want you, cook my bread, I don't want you, make my bed, I don't want your money too, I just want to make love to you. - Willie Dixon
No comments:
Post a Comment