Thursday, February 03, 2011

For Thursday, a little animation extravaganza

With a title like that, where else to start than with the return of "Beavis and Butthead" to MTV?

Mike Judge mentioned some time ago that he had been monkeying around with his old friends and had come up with material for 30 new episodes or so, but until now, there hadn't been any word that anyone had picked them up. This week, however, MTV indeed announced at its upfronts that the dastardly duo will be returning to the network, perhaps as early as this summer.

No matter how old I actually get (and it is fairly old), I don't ever think I'll ever really be too old for a few minutes with these guys, so here goes .... a classic, the guys watching Radiohead's "Creep," and then stick around for more animated goodies, and finally the trailer for one of the movies I'm most looking forward to for 2011.



To keep the funny going, and much funnier than "The Simpsons" has been in many years (though perhaps they've undergone some kind of renaissance of funny I've missed, because I haven't watched an entire episode for years now), the folks at College Humor were kind enough to take the best of McBain - easily one of the show's funniest characters - and edit it into one little four-minute-or-so movie. As that, it really works, and it's a hoot. Enjoy.



Next, even though this is clearly extremely old, I'm a sucker for anything Maurice Sendak, and Nell Minow was kind enough to point out to me that, along with listening to Carole King's great "Really Rosie" soundtrack, which I do whenever work gets to be even more of a bore than usual, you can watch segments of the 1975 TV special individually on YouTube. Even if these were designed to be instructional songs for 5-year-olds, they're simply fantastic at any time for anyone, evidenced by this clip of "Chicken Soup With Rice." Priceless.



I can't say I have extremely high hopes for "Rango," the animated Western of sorts starring one Johnny Depp and coming out March 4, but I've been wrong at least once before, and probably already today (but it is early), so here's hoping. What I do know is that I like Los Lobos quite a bit (mi hermano gave me a live recording which I think is called "Chuy's Garage" - if it were possible to burn a hole in a digital file, I would have done so with that by now for sure), and they've recorded this fairly nifty theme song for the movie. Enjoy, and then stick around finally for the nonanimated trailer for a flick that I think is really gonna sneak up on people and be a charmer.

Los Lobos - Rango Theme Song by antirecords

Thomas McCarthy, when he isn't acting on "The Wire" or in movies like, yes, really, "2012," is easily one of my favorite directors. "The Visitor" and the "The Station Agent" are both sublimely entertaining little movies, and he's got two upcoming projects that should be well worth checking out. He directed at least the first episode of HBO's upcoming series "Game of Thrones," and, well, I can't say anything really about that except watch it! But he's also got a movie coming out March 18 called "Win Win," and it's one of those that looks just tailormade for me. As you'll see from the trailer below courtesy of The Playlist, it stars Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan in a sort of "The Blind Side" in the world of high school wrestling. I'm probably not selling it very well, but watch for yourself and I think you'll agree this is one to look out for. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.


Win Win
Uploaded by ThePlaylist. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

5 comments:

Jake Mabe said...

I saw a clip the other night from the "B&B" episode in which the old guy (is it Mr. Anderson?) pulls up to the drive-thru window and orders "large fry...pie...large coffee, PRONTO!" I had forgotten about this scene and proceeded to laugh for about an hour.

Curious to see what the episodes will be like. Knowing Mike Judge, they'll be good.

Jim Marquis said...

I had endure a whole summer of my son and his buddy talking like B&B when they were younger.

Reel Fanatic said...

Ha ... Luckily I was a bit too old to do that when they came around the first time, Mr. Marquis, but I'm not ashamed to admit I did spend at least a bit of my time imitating the philosopher kings

Nell Minow said...

Thanks for the shout-out -- I love "Really Rosie." And I am going to be interviewing Tom McCarthy about "Win Win." I spoke to him about "The Visitor" and can't wait to talk to him again.

Reel Fanatic said...

Very jealous, Nell .. I'll definitely stop by to check it out!