tick tick tick...

[ealgylden]

One month exactly until The Two Towers is released on DVD. Just one month left until noble, frozen Edoras, Eowyn and Eomer and all their tragedy, Theoden min god cyning, Hama the cuddliest doorwarden to ever ward a door, the swords and the horses and the Horn of Helm Hammerhand, and all the rest of Rohan are back within reach. Sure, there's other stuff in the movie, things not involving the Rohirrim, but that's just gravy. I'm here for the horselords.


So to celebrate having only one month left to wait, I finally cancelled my order for the Galadriel and Prologue Elf Warrior action figures, which has been in limbo since, what, February? The store kept putting me off and putting me off, so at long last, I gave up. Not ten minutes after I finished with them, I had a new set ordered from an Ebay seller I've had good experiences with in the past, and my elves will be on their way early next week. And to think it only took me six months. Sheesh. I have another auction still going that I don't want to jinx, but with any luck in one day and nine hours, I'll be crowing about... the thing. Fingers crossed!


And sadly I'm down to my last two Boromir candy bars. Too bad- they were yummy and they made me giggle (well, I thought it was funny that Boromir and Aragorn were both peanut butter. Aww. My chocolate OTP). It's a pity Disney missed the merchandising boat (ship, sorry) on PotC, or I'd undoubtedly have pirate candy to tide me over until RotK (chocolate doubloons, maybe? Though I probably have some old Chanukah gelt around, if I get desperate). And action figures, why on earth didn't they come out with action figures? Don't they know how neat it would be for me to have pirates mixed in with my elves, warriors, martial arts masters, spacemen, vampires and slayers, and whatever the heck else I have? Foolish Disney. I'm a geek with a shopping addiction, and you're not taking advantage of that! Such a wasted opportunity. I want my six inch Jack Sparrow with sixteen points of articulation and "authentic" pistol firing action! I want my Barbossa-and-monkey, with undead variant figure and apple accessory! I want my Pintel/Ragetti two-pack! Can this really be the same company that tried to sell me Pocahontas Native American popcorn and Hunchback of Notre Dame soap-on-a-rope? Where are the shelves full of useless fripperies? Can't rely on anything anymore.


One month left. tick tick tick...

Comments

Re: The Mouse

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Sam Neill! I definitely need to see it then. I've been a Sam Neill fan since I was a wee thing staying up way past my bedtime to watch Reilly Ace of Spies (he was so cool). Right, I'll add that to the "must rent" list before I forget.

being the Mouse and animation, the writer doesn't see a penny of royalties, if they're using stories from episodes.

Yikes, seriously? That's awful. Poor writers. They (well, you) always get stomped on.

And truly you are a goddess among women and a supplier of excellent cartoons. I throw roses at your feet (I would throw naked mole-rats, but that's mean and Rufus wouldn't approve). I've gradually trained my sister to call her SO's irritating friend Ron "Stoppable"- he doesn't know why, and it makes her giggle (yes, we're still 12). She doesn't watch the show, though, so she doesn't really get it. Poor sis.

I have the song stuck in my head now. Curse you! ;)

Re: The Mouse

[kathlaw.livejournal.com]

Animation writers, until relatively recently on the prime-time stuff, aren't even called writers. There actually was a good reason, once upon a time.

Originally, there were no writers. Cartoons were created as storyboards by artists, including for features. The first totally scripted Disney animated feature was Oliver and Company as I recall. The Mouse learned their lesson with The Black Cauldron which was a total mess as each storyboard artist created their own segment and they didn't always inter-relate well. Cost over-runs were an even larger problem than nothing they could turn into a movie.

So in the early 90s we got officially/legally changed from "storymen" to "story person" by the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Union (839) which felt like a major improvement for some of us. :-) Of course animation writers have been trying to get into the WGA for close to two decades, and now there's the Animation Writers Caucus within the WGA, and a number of shows are Guild. But all the old stuff that was total buyout, we get nothing when it's put out on DVD, when it's turned into comic books here or in foreign countries, computer games, anything. *sigh*

I have the song stuck in my head now. Curse you! ;)

Yeah, I went to bed thinking of it. :-) And you're very welcome. Like I said, sometimes I forget, but I'll endeavor to get the first four onto the tape. What I really want is a TiVo, but that's got to wait until the exchequer is a whole lot healthier. It would be so nice to let it remember to tape stuff, rather than having to program it constantly. Ah well. Eventually.

Re: The Mouse

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

I had no idea about any of that, and it's really interesting. I always thought, if I thought about it at all, that animation writers had pretty much the same standing/rights/etc as any other screenwriters. Weird to think that you don't, really. And the lack of a script explains so much about Black Cauldron

But all the old stuff that was total buyout, we get nothing when it's put out on DVD, when it's turned into comic books here or in foreign countries, computer games, anything.

You get totally ripped off then. That seems so blatantly unfair I don't see how they get away with it, but then I don't have exec-brain, so obviously I don't get it. Greedy dorks.

Oh, and my PotC CD finally came, and I agree with you- fun score but muddy-sounding CD. It sounds a little better on my big, fancy stereo with the good speakers than on my computer, but even then it's not what it should be. Grr.

Re: The Mouse

[kathlaw.livejournal.com]

You get totally ripped off then. That seems so blatantly unfair I don't see how they get away with it, but then I don't have exec-brain, so obviously I don't get it. Greedy dorks.

Yes. :-)

Oh, and my PotC CD finally came, and I agree with you- fun score but muddy-sounding CD. It sounds a little better on my big, fancy stereo with the good speakers than on my computer, but even then it's not what it should be. Grr.

Oh, good. I mean .... I'm glad you agree with me that it could have been better. :-) And it sucks that they didn't invest anywhere near what they should have into its production. It's still a terrific soundtrack, but having the Polidouris CONAN, and Williams STAR WARS and all my other wonderful orchestral scores, this one just doesn't quite match up. And it could have!