Snow Day!

[Mr Wallstreet]

Another blizzard hit the east coast yesterday. It's been snowing since 6:am Thursday morning and has continued well into today and is still snowing. So we've gotten 3.5 feet of snow (which really isn't that bad) and continuing. I've shoveled about 3 times so far. Everything is closed down today: schools, businesses and public transport is operating with minimum efficiency. I so Happy! I know I'm gonna complain like a bitch when it stops snowing and freezes to ice making everything slippery and dangerous but for now it's great.

I'm extra happy about this snow day because the last snow day we had where everything was shut down (a few weeks ago) I stupidly went to work and there was no one there. This morning I got up, shit, shaved and showered only discover that it was impossible to walk and that nothing was running.

So since this morning, in between shoveling, I've watched Deadspace: Downfall (based on the game), played Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, ordered pizza, watched Wonder Woman: The Animated movie, starting to watch Green Lantern: First Flight and intend on watching Superman/Batman Public enemies and then capping the night off with some Left 4 Dead 2.

I'll probably have to shovel at least twice before I go to sleep tonight though.

How is everyone else doing?

[Tragic Angelus]

Ours is almost all gone here, only existing in those large piles from weeks ago. It snowed on Wednesday but nothing stuck because I came home last night and everything was fine the whole way up. It's a bit chilly, and pretty windy right now, and the forecast I saw last night has something blowing soutwest over the state over the next day, eventually hitting where I'll be Sunday night in the end. But I'm sure it wont be anything too bad by then.

And you ordered pizza during a blizzard? You dick lol

[Mr Wallstreet]

I assure you sir it was not a dick move. Very few businesses opened today. I therefore had a solemn duty to ensure that those few businesses that did open did not do so vain, and try to help them make a return on the cost of opening their business. In effect, I was helping keep the local economy afloat during this troubling time

But yea, it was kind of a dick move given the pizza place is literally around the corner from me.

I'm sure by the time the blizzard blows your way, it'll have worn out most of itself, hopefully.

So I watching the Wonder Woman film, which is my favorite by the way and I noticed more things that hadn't caught my attention the first time. For example, the inclusion of zombies! Amazon Zombies! I couldn't believe I didn't notice it the first time. Amazon Zombies! This movie has now just elevated it's status in my eyes.

I noticed a few other easter eggs in the GL film. First the interstellar bar where Hal and Sinestro track down the alien who killed Abin Sur was an homage to the Star Wars Cantina where Luke and Obi Wan go, right down to the way Sinestro describes it. Then the speech in which Sinestro describes to Hal how he fights: "They hit, I hit harder, They bring gun, I Annihilate" The Sean Connery "Chicago Way" speech from The Untouchables.

Good stuff. Gonna go out and shovel some more and come back and watch The Superman/Batman: Public Enemies film. Would've been nice to have the Crises on Two Earths film for tonight but whateves.

[Tragic Angelus]

I haven't decided if the Crisis tops over WW yet.. I really need to watch it again but I had a lot of fun with it, and it had tons of little easter eggs for JLA fans, and you can very easily see how it was supposed to be the transition piece from JL to JLU in the cartoons. I would have preferred it actually now that I've seen it. But it was still a great film, and yet nothing tops NF for me. I'm a big fan of Teams over solos so I don't know yet how it'll eventually come out in the long run yet.

As for the pizza, I totally understand. I've had a place deliver to me on the biggest football game day of the year in my town and they're almost right across the street. But we had been in no position to drive, so it was Justified

[Mr Wallstreet]

My lower back has declared that I am done shoveling for the day.

I'm not a fan of one type of film over another (team or solo) I just felt WW had the best combination of action, humor, adventure and drama of all the films thus far. My lack of excitement over NF is over the fact that I just wasn't that enthralled by the original book by Darwyn Cooke (cue crazy rant by XIII about how I have no taste in comics) and I was only marginally more entertained by the animated feature. But who knows, Crises on Two Earths could be even better than WW.

Perhaps what I need though, is a second viewing. Yes, thats it. I plan on watching Superman/Doomsday, New Frontier and Gotham Knight in the soonish future. Then I'll round it out with Mask of the Phantasm, Batman: Beyond Return of the Joker and Crises on Two Earths. It shall be a grand day when it happens.

And of course, I noticed a few other things in the Public Enemies film that escaped my attention the first time around, like how animated Powergirl looks an awful lot like Allison Mack (who voices her in the film). I wonder if this was intentional on the part of the animators or just something that was a great coincidence. If it was intentional, then the animators must have known almost right from the projects start that Allison Mack would be voicing PG, because if not, it was a huge stroke of good luck.

Other things: Between Keri Russell and Lucy Lawless - who I think are both fantastic as Wondy - Kerri inches Lawless out in the end. I feel Russell should be the definitive voice of Wondy going forward; she's got the right combination of naivety, humor, wonder, anger and general voice range/expression for the character. Lawles' WW is more direct, tougher and all around more cynical. In short, she's got a permanent edge to her voice that doesn't fit a character just going out into "the real world".

Still think Lawless is damn awesome though and eventually I'll get that complete Xena Box set...whenever the hell they re-release it.

Apologies for the long posts, but I've been up since 6:30am shoveling, watching films and pretty much just cooped up in my house all day.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

[Tragic Angelus]

1. I'm sure due to our film discussions, the other thing XIII will rant about is WRONG FORUM!!!! unless someone beats him to it

as for the team v solo, that's not just in animation, but in everything really. The books, movies with team elements (Ocean's 11 for example) and everything else. I just find them so much more dynamic and fun because of all the different personality types you get.

As for these, I watched the NF film long before reading the book, tho not for lack of trying. I just could never track down all the issues or both trades at the same time until I moved to Bloomington and caught it all there. Afterwards I loved the book and respect the film as something from it, but not 100% identical, because sadly nothing can be.

It's still top for me tho, but if I could find a copy of Mask of the Phantasm I would go APE SHIT! SUCH a good Batman film, and I have been trying to find it for years. That might be the top DC animated film when I think about it. I've yet to find a copy of Beyond's Return of the Joker which is all I'm missing to round out the complete Batman Beyond run too.

Superman/Doomsday I just didn't care for. The art was just skewed enough from the traditional DCU style in a way I didn't like, and I felt most of the voice acting didn't fit. I love Marsters and Baldwin, but not as Lex and Superman respectively.

Bringing me to voice, I totally agree on Keri as WW, as she has the bit of naivety in her voice like you said. BUT I think Lawless was fantastic for the WW of the 1950s and 60s, who would have been a much more brazen, tougher Wonder Woman than the one coming into our world now. And, having listend to the commentary and features dozens of times, the creators emphasized their choice because of the time period rather than who they wanted for the part. They got people who would be recognizeable on a certain scale, but who's voices seemed to them to fit Korea, Red Scares, and the following timeline, and I think that it's a good thing. While it isn't the voice of my Batman or Superman (Tho I'll take Boreanez as Hal anyday), it really comes off as the voice for that time to me, which is why I enjoy her for that Wonder Woman.

[XIII]

I haven't seen in a flake of snow in about a month now.
But the pics from NYers on Twitter are fun.

[Tragic Angelus]

It actually came down here fairly decent right after I said we had lost all of ours. from about 8-1 it snowed enough to stick to the roads and cause a bit of driving trouble, but it stopped already. I wonder if it'll stick around tomorrow...