For those of you who miss the good old days when there was some sort of trailer mashup emailed to you every day... get ready for the non-stop barrage of Dark Knight mashups!

We've already seen a few:

• A rather brilliant mashup of the first Dark Knight trailer, with footage from the old Adam West television show.
• A version created entirely out of Legos.
• College Humor called out the similarity between the trailer, and Tim Burton's original movie, with side-by-side comparisons. (To be fair, and so there's no confusion, the footage that represents the Burton Batman is heavily edited with clips from the rest of the movie, but it's still interesting to watch.)

Now, with the Dark Knight's second trailer officially on the net, plucky young editors have taken the past week to cobble together a new batch.

Continue reading "Dark Knight Trailer Mashups Are the Next Big Internet Meme" »

Think it was neat seeing Jeff Goldblum dissolve stuff with his saliva? Wait until you see Isabella Rossellini, one of the most beautiful film stars of all time, take a crack at a gigantic plate of spaghetti.

In her entrancing new short film series, Green Porno, she costumes herself as a housefly, a spider and many other ugly bugs in order to demonstrate how they have sex. Enacting both male and female roles (where they apply), Rossellini proves herself to be a timeless sex symbol even when saddled with cumbersome gear like compound eyes, spinnerets, and mantis-claws. I hope Tobey Maguire is paying attention; she could surely teach shy Peter Parker a thing or two about how male spiders are supposed to conduct themselves in the boudoir.

To see how Isabella Rossellini Fulfills Her Girlhood Dream With Green Porno, click here.

It's been a quarter of a century now since the Rebels won the day, and the Ewoks still can't get any love. Such is the the gospel of Andrew Zilch, whose music video about the fuzzy little bolo-throwers -- still reviled by some as a cheap lure existing solely to pander to younger viewers -- is blowing up big. Whether crooning soulfully in a meadow or backed by a full gospel choir, Zilch's video Runaway Box-produced video urges us to give the cuddly primitives their due respect, and lists all their admirable qualities: "They're tiny warriors... They fought so bravely... Livin' like the Amish..." What more can we ask of em? Preach it, brother.

Cowboys and laser guns rarely mix outside of the playground (though Serenity and The Wild Wild West spring to mind). This is why we need High Tech Noon, which touches up the classic Western with space-age special effects, turning Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly into an Old West Luke and Leia as they battle the Miller gang with satellites, force fields, and other anachronistic contrivances.

Some of the effects are Star Trek-era cheesy, but others are remarkably sophisticated for a DIY project -- the sight of four outlaws materializing through a transdimensional portal will make you wish this short was a full-length remake.

Designing visual effects for movies and video games must be the coolest job ever, right? Think again. The comedy short Digital Grunt charts the adventures of one lowly worker-bee as the pressure mounts and his deadline approaches.

Rest assured that coffee will be guzzled, No Doz will be gobbled, and his family will wonder whether he's ever coming home from work again. Error messages (and nitpicky notes from the client, who manages to pinpoint the one bad pixel that needs work) are fired like fast-forward cannonballs to the tune of the "William Tell Overture."

Watching the sweat literally pour out of his hat may be hilarious (or unpleasantly familiar, if you can relate), but it does give me a little more appreciation for the work that's gone into every little explosion and creature effect I've seen lately -- I sure hope that guy is okay.

Fans of bland low-budget cartoons from the 1960's are are counting the days until Speed Racer hits the big screen. Outside of the peppy theme song, I never went for the show. It always felt flat and joyless, the kind of boring kids' entertainment that I associate with Tin Tin. I never bought into the idea that it's hip and cool, that's something soul-less baby-boomers keep telling themselves, aided by nostalgia merchants and media outlets like Time and Newsweek, who insist that it's gonna be a helluva ride.

Don't get me wrong, Speed Racer wasn't any worse that the stuff on The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, but I don't see anyone spending $200 million on a Secret Squirrel movie. (If only!)

So instead of watching the Wachowskis' movie, save yourself ten bucks and watch this delightful parody, Race Speedster, by Charged.

Osamu Tezuka is often called the "father of Japanese animation," but he could just as easily be credited as the father of sci-fi animation. (You can spot the DNA of Astro Boy and Gigantor in everything from Akira to The Iron Giant.) Now Cartoon Brew has uncovered one of his most obscure creations, the loopy The Amazing Three. (You can view the zany retro intro here.)

A product of its time in the best possible sense, The Amazing Three boasts a premise that would give even Adult Swim-addled stoners pause: Three aliens disguised as a rabbit, a duck, and a horse must decide if they should blow up Earth, or save it. Like all of Tezuka's shows, the animation perfectly captures the stylish artwork from his beloved mangas. And you can't beat that peppy, Astro Boy-esque theme song. (Cartoon Brew has also uncovered some original negatives from The Amazing Three which are for sale on eBay in case you've got an extra $24,000 to throw around.)

Continue reading "Tezuka's The Amazing Three - A Lost Classic From the Father of Anime" »

John DeNardo's post on Budd Clampett's animated pitch for John Carter of Mars reminded me of another potential animated classic that almost was: Nexus. In 2004, artist-illustrator Steve Rude adapted his comic book (which he created with writer Mike Baron way back in 1981) into a two-minute promo. Circulated at conventions, and sold by Rude on his website, the briskly animated promo brings to mind classic Alex Toth creations such as Space Ghost and The Herculoids.

Continue reading "Nexus: The Animated Classic That Almost Was" »

If you haven't been watching the new Battlestar Galactica, now's your chance to catch up with this eight-minute video that reviews all the major plot points of the first three seasons. The recap was inspired by last year's seven-minute Sopranos summary.

If you have seen Battlestar Galactica, you can watch the video to relive the memories from the past three seasons.

If you hate science fiction, well then you're probably on the wrong website. But seriously, even people who don't like sci-fi admit the show is great. So take the next eight minutes to watch the video, and if nothing else, you can feel cultured.

The final season of BSG begins Friday 10PM (EST) with a re-airing at midnight. And if you can't wait, SciFi.com will stream the premiere at lunchtime tomorrow.

I've been looking for a reason to link Matt Stone and Trey Parker's recently launched South Park Studios for a while. Tired, in their words, of constantly having to steal their own television shows when they wanted to download an episode, they have generously and brilliantly released every episode of South Park ever free, online.

Which is great and all, but it doesn't really intersect with science-fiction... except that the latest episode of South Park was a genius parody of possibly the most ridiculous, misogynistic and, well, just plain French animated film of the hair '80s, Heavy Metal.

Fair warning: if you do not find the thought of a cartoon in which a balding Jewish man dressed only in his underpants fights a fourth grader to the death in a Coliseum shaped like a gigantic human breast to be a tasteful example of sophisticated parody, this won't be the right cartoon for you. But for anyone who ever sat through Heavy Metal, this is just spot on.

Watch South Park Heavy Metal Parody [South Park Studios]