WAS1 Productions

Originally Written 05/12/08

The folks behind EscapePod and Pseudopod have finally opened their new fantasy-themed audio-fiction podcast, Podcastle. I’ve been listening to the first several episodes, and like their other podcasts, the stories and production values are both very good.

They started off with one of Peter S. Beagle’s (of “The Last Unicorn”) early works, Come Lady Death. Another story is a retelling of a classic Grimm’s fairytale, Goosegirl, which gets into the psychological schisms caused by a spell forcing a switched identities.

There were also two stories, back to back, which have heroines going up against social conventions and norms, Fear of Dragons and Run of the Fiery Horse. The stories get a little political, and the first one is a bit heavy handed, while the second is more balanced. Both of them had neat takes on Easter and Western tales of dragons (or serpents) and I loved the mythology of them, especially the Fiery Horse one.

Originally Written 05/02/08

I got together with Jen, Gan and Chris for a bad movie night last night. Gan’s brother had an old VHS tape of the 1992 movie Evil Toons, that had promise, but unfortunately it turned out to be like an R-rated version of Manos: the Hands of Fate. As I quipped, you’d think a bunch of slutty girls in a house with a lusty werewolf and David Carradine would be fun, but somehow they managed to prevent that.

Even bare breasts didn’t help the movie, well not much. And I don’t know how they blackmailed David Carradine to be in that turd; he didn’t even look like he was having fun slumming it. The best part of the movie was the necronomicon book they found, complete a talking face on the cover and with VCL art of lascivious demons and werewolves inside. One of them comes to life, and the animation was good. Unfortunately they blew their budget on that and could only afford about 40 seconds of it. Otherwise the film was painfully dull and plodding.

Afterwards we watched a  movie I’d rented which sounded interesting. Shinbone Alley had a neat early 70s animation style, which was reminiscent of School House rock segments in many places. I liked the slightly-gritty look of the backgrounds. It also got trippy and weird in a few segments. It’s a musical and based on a series of stories, so the plot is kind rambled, but it was interesting.

It started out kind of whimsical and fun but got more serious and darker as the movie went on. I kind of liked the movie, but it had some severe problems. In the end it was a drama about a dysfunctional friendship. It acknowledged that people rarely change and if you love/care for someone than you have to take them faults and all.

That’s all well and good, but the movie didn’t seem to know what its message really was. In the end it’s almost a celebration of this damaged character, without acknowledging how messed up she is. It was an interesting idea, but the story could’ve been a little tighter and the ending left kind of a bitter taste in my mouth.

Originally Written 04/24/08

I’ll admit it, I love a good zombie story. For one thing the themes of a small group of people fighting to survive the apocalypse make for some good drama and also can hold a mirror up to society. Plus, the walking dead make for some neat yarns. So I was happy to find Pseudopod had another zombie tale in a recent episode. The Sons of Carbon County is a historical-fiction period piece. It’s standard zombie fare, but well told and with some nice claustrophobic atmosphere, as well as a bit of political subtext. Good stuff.

Another recent story Heart Strung mixed a bit of visceral horror at the clever satire of the idea of literally wearing ones heart on your sleeve. It takes the absurd notion and works well giving way to mental horror, at the notion of losing emotions. The idea of the loss of childhood in a right of passage was interesting, but unfortunately the story got heavy-handed with its axe to grind about injustice towards women.

However, it was a good companion piece to an earlier piece of another barbaric coming-of-age ritual The Mill. That was more visceral, but managed to do it all without having to show or tell very much, and it was the suggestions which got me. It was also a compelling metaphor for cultural relativism, the perceived normality of something so wrong, and how society and family pressures can trap and bind people. It was very successful in psychological horror, which is another reason I like Pseudopod so much, it’s not just gross-out, there’s a lot of smart, well-written and thought-provoking work there.

And if horror isn’t your bag, check out EscapePod for a great mix of science fiction, and their newly-opened PodCastle for fantasy stories. Their feeds rock and I’ll continue to plug them.

Originally Written 04/19/08

also got to finally see one of the episodes of the new season of Dr. Who last night as well. “Voyage of the Damned” was a good one, but how can you go wrong with an idea of the Titanic in space?

I liked how they played with the disaster movie plot points; it reminded me of The Poseidon Adventure (the original film) in several places, in a good way. The melodrama might have been a bit overdone, but it was still good.

There was an added bonus of killer androids too, which was just icing on the cake. I loved the references to the classic Tom Baker episode “Robots of Death” they got in there.

Originally Written 04/19/08

I saw The Forbidden Kingdom last night. I was worried that it might suck, but was hopefully with it getting a good rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so we decided to check it out. The film was a treat, even though it wasn’t perfect.

It was good fun to see Jackie Chan and Jet Li together in a movie. Yes they’re showing their age a little bit, but better late than never. Both of them still have their chops too. There was a lot of good martial arts. Some of the editing was a bit choppy, but the fight choreography was impressive.

The movie had lots of nice visuals too. It’s a pastiche of a whole bunch of kung-fu movies and legends, but it’s obviously made by people who love the genre, and it’s good fun for fans. Unfortunately the movie is flawed.

The biggest problem with it is the choice of actors for the kid who played the chosen one. I can be down with using an American in the roll, but the kid they chose had no charisma or screen presence, so he ended up sucking energy from a lot of scenes. He did get better towards the end, but I would’ve definitely liked someone else.

I didn’t hate the film, and I had fun with it, but it could’ve been better. Still, for fans of the genre, who can overlook some faults, it’s worth checking out.