I'm Watching Pingu Right Now And Wow How Did I Forget That Pingu Once Tried To Recreate The Tower Of

Sketches by Bengali film director/artist, Satyajit Ray for his unproduced THE ALIEN. Late 1960s.

At one point Peter Sellers was more or less attached, Steve McQueen and Marlon Brando were interested, but Ray got scammed by his representative in Hollywood and the project unfortunately stranded. Ray later believed films such as CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and E.T. especially were directly inspired by his work, as mimeographed copies of his script were freely floating around in Hollywood.

I first came across this story in a biography on Peter Sellers that I read in the late 1990s. I remember thinking, I wish I could read Ray’s script, see his sketches. Well, long live the Internet. There’s a book on the episode now too (image 3).

A point of light appears as a reflection in the water, grows bigger and bigger until the pond itself is lit up. The chorus of frogs, crickets and jackals grows in volume, and is joined by a humming sound. In a blaze of light something descends on the pond, shattering its placidity.

I’m so glad the Guillermo Del Toro Pinocchio movie is being received really well, because it was literally my most anticipated movie of the year! So here’s some fun facts about the crew, concept, and production that got me excited about this movie and that I think would excite much of tumblr as well:

-the screenplay was cowritten by Del Toro and Patrick McHale, creator of Over The Garden Wall and a writer on Adventure Time.

-the movie was codirected by Mark Gustasfon, who was the animation director of Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

-the primary art/animation designers of this movie (production designer Curt Enderle, art director Robert DeSue, character designer Georgina Hayns, animation supervisor Brian Leif Hansen, and photography director Frank Passingham) previously worked on projects that include Coraline, the Corpse Bride, Paranorman, Isle of Dogs, Frankenweenie, Kubo, and Chicken Run.

-Besides Netflix, it was produced by the Henson company (always a good sign when you’re doing anything with puppets) and ShadowMachine, who have produced a lot of Adult Swim shows including Robot Chicken, Moral Orel, and Tuca and Bertie, as well as the Netflix original BoJack Horseman.

-Del Toro was inspired to make this adaptation due to the similarities he’d always noticed between the original Pinocchio story and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Both are about a man-made character’s relationship with his father/creator, and his attempts to understand what it means to be human. This inspiration is why the film takes on a gothic feel at times.

-the movie is over 10 years in the making. Del Toro announced the project in 2008 and production began in 2012, but it went into development hell and no further updates were made for several years. Del Toro has described it as his passion project, saying "I've wanted to make this movie for as long as I can remember.”

-the backdrop of Mussolini’s Italy was intended to show how Pinnochio was able to find his own humanity and will in a time where everyone else was acting like a blindly obedient puppet. Del Toro wanted to deviate from the original book’s themes of obeying authority by making his Pinocchio virtuous for questioning the rules and forging his own set of morals. (Also if you know anything about Del Toro, the guy likes to dunk on fascism.)

-Del Toro didn’t feel the need to have Pinocchio become flesh-and-blood at the end of the movie, saying all you need to be a real human is to behave like one.

I was lucky enough to see this movie in 35 mm in a movie theatre on Thanksgiving weekend. If there are any movie theatre showings near you and you’re in a position to be able to attend them, I would totally recommend it especially if you can go with loved ones. It was a gorgeous, heartwarming, and magical movie to experience on a big screen and perfect for the late fall/winter holiday season.

Birb and friends

Billy Wilder, Audrey Hepburn, and William Wyler.

Character sketches // Alter ego

Life update 2023

𝕒𝕟𝕚𝕞𝕖 𝕗𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕘𝕚𝕗𝕤 (1/?)

Jeanette Winterson

“The King fears the Ackermans because he can’t control us.”

Can’t stop thinking about how attack on titan is not a romance but how its narrative hinges upon the most devastating love stories I’ve encountered in fiction.

How Ymir and Historia cling to each other under the burden of a crown they didn’t ask for.

How Eren, the definition of an “attack” protagonist does anything and everything for Armin, who shrinks away from violence (despite having to become the embodiment of war).

How Erwin gave Levi the sky, and it is a debt that Levi knows he can never repay.

How subtly yet thoroughly they work Moblit into every scene, a step behind Hanji, cautioning them and supporting them, so that you don’t even notice him until he’s gone.

How Mikasa’s “Akerbond” to Eren goes so much further, so much deeper, because he exhibited such raw, unfettered inhumanity in the name of protecting her when she was a child, when he barely even knew her, and that is all she knows of love.

How Connie feels like he’s lost half of himself with Sasha gone.

How much Carla loved her son.

How much of an impact Marco made on Jean.

How Armin could eat Bertoldt’s love for Annie and have it latch onto his own admiration of her.

How Marlowe thought of Hitch as he was dying.

How Reiner keeps going for the kids he has to mentor.

How Falco put himself between Gabi and danger over and over again.

How violently Sasha’s family mourned but how reverent of her spirit they were to forgive her killer.

Idk man I just think for a show that started off as kids fighting giants and turned into “my war crime is worse than your war crime”, it is driven almost entirely by unique, poignant and thoroughly convincing love stories.