Who Watches The Mr. Men? "What if Marvel (and others) had created the Mr Men? What if Alan Moore was pals with Roger Hargreaves?" asks Seven Hundred, aka Steven Anderson. "The idea basically sparked from the realization that Mr Happy from the Mr Men, looks a lot like the Comedians badge from Watchmen." (82 Super Heroes/Villains Drawn As Mr. Men via BuzzFeed)
This is the ultimate Swiss Army Knife. Who needs nail scissors, saws and screwdrivers when you have an array of weaponry like this? Really, what couldn't you accomplish? Damn heavy though.
Top: Noisy Cricket from Men in Black; Rorschach’s grappling gun from Watchmen; Frodo’s sword Sting from Lord of the Rings; He-Man’s Power Sword; Thor’s hammer; Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber, Harry Potter's wand; Lion-O’s Sword of Omens from Thundercats; James Bond’s Walther PPK.
Bottom: Doctor Who’s sonic screwdriver; Hellboy’s revolver; Star Trek phaser. (Geek Army Knife by Ian Summers)
The Fast Food Watchmen are well paired with their restaurant equivalents. Ozymandias is as full of himself as The Burger King is. Jack as Rorschach? Well, the face matches well. The Taco Bell Chihuahua as Doctor Manhattan makes sense, as I could see their food having the power to destroy the world. Wendy as the Silk Spectre II is obvious, being the only female fast food mascot. Ronald McDonald as The Comedian is perfect, a nihilist pushing his burgers onto the world and Colonel Sanders as Nite Owl II, a past-his-prime, impotent shlub. (Link via Funktards)
Oh! You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why: Rorschach is coming to town!
He's making a list, He's checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty or nice. Rorschach is coming to town! He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. He knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!
Rorschach hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason. It could be that his fedora wasn't screwed on quite right. It could be, perhaps, that his trench was too tight. But I think that the most likely reason of all May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.
Rorschach is Chaotic Good? I guess so, but it's so hard to assign to assign goodness to his actions though I suppose he did think what he was doing was for a greater good.
Top row: John Locke [Lost], Dwight [Sin City], Rorschach [Watchment] Middle row: Indiana Jones, Niko Bellic [GTA4], Tyler Durden [Fight Club] Bottom row: Darth Vader, Anton Chigurh [No Country for Old Men], Joker
Once you realize what a joke everything is, being the Comedian is the only thing that makes sense...
Nite Owl: But the country's disintegrating. What's happened to America? What's happened to the American dream?
The Comedian: It came true. You're lookin' at it. Now c'mon... let's really put these jokers through some changes.
Of course I don't think Stewart is as amoral as The Comedian. If he really was a Watchmen, I figure he'd more likely be Ozymandias, willing to do what must be done to save us all.
One of the attendant joys of the release of the Watchemen movie has been all the pop culture parodies that have come with it. I thought I'd seen the best with the Futurama trailer and the Saturday morning cartoon, but I have come across a brilliant reworking of the graphic novel, using newspaper comic characters.
Web comic Player vs. Player has recreated the characters, portraying Popeye as Rorschach, Jon Arbuckle/Garfield as Nite Owl II, Charlie Brown as The Comedian, Dagwood as Dr. Manhattan,Dilbert as Ozymandias and Cathy as Silk Spectre II.
In the opening credits of the Watchmen, accompanied by Bob Dylan's song The Times, They Are A 'Changin', the credit sequence shows a brief history of masked heroes.
The scene that stood out for me was the party for Sally Jupiter’s retirement from The Minutemen, which is based on Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. I love that this homage/parody has once again risen in current pop culture.
Seated left to right: Mothman, Silhouette, nurse, The Comedian (in the seat of Judas), a pregnant Silk Spectre I/Sally Jupiter as the Christ figure, her husband Laurence Schexnader, Nite Owl I, Captain Metropolis, Hooded Justice.
Some people have been waiting to see the Watchmen on film for more than 20 years, me, I've been waiting to see it for about two months. I think I have the better end of the deal.
I watched the Watchmen yesterday and saw a brilliantly faithful adaption of the graphic novel, with some scenes matching panels down to the smallest detail. Sure, some things were left on the cutting room floor, as would happen in any adaptation of dense source material. The pirate tale of the Black Freighter is coming out on a separate DVD, which will also include elements of Hollis Mason's tell-all book Under the Hood. The non-heros have also been excised, but at little loss.
So was it unfilmable? Hardly. Sure, back in 1987 there is no way they could have made this film, neither technically nor stylistically. It would have been like Tim Burton's Batman is to Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight. Sure, it's violent, but nothing you haven't seen in Kill Bill, Sin City or Oz for that matter. And, as to the rumours that you don't see Dr. Manhattan's lower Manhattan, it's there and you can understand why he's a superhero. Oh yes, the ending also makes a hell of a lot more sense.
But hey, I'm no film cricket, so I'll the summation to my friend James Rocchi. I'll just leave you with this Saturday morning cartoon adaptation that Alan Moore should be thankful has never come to fruition.
This is the best trailer mashup I've seen in ever. Futurama, Watchmen, Jesus Zoidburg! Thanks to Topless Robot for alerting me to this piece of joy, and for the headline "The world will look up and shout "save us," and I'll whisper, "bite my shiny metal ass."
Here is the official trailer, should you need a refresh:
Ok, I just opened them in separate windows and played them side by side and they match perfectly, scene for scene. This is some geeky goodness.
And in a related note (it's funny how things group themselves togather) the Globe and Mail ran a piece on Super Joes: about "real-life superheroes are donning costumes and prowling their streets, looking to fight crime - or at least shovel a senior's walk."
There are quite a number of caped crusaders out there, and while most appear to be philanthropists with a penchant for Halloween, there are a few of them who clearly have a Watchmen fetish.
They even have a pseudo Justice League, called the World Superhero Registry. Through most of them have MySpace pages, which I think should disqualify them immediately.
The hype for the Watchmen is likely to ramp up, especially as it appears Fox and Warner have stopped squabbling over the film and settled things while I was away the way the do in Hollywood — with a giant dump truck full of cash.
I've not posted about the Watchmen before as I've only recently finished reading it for the first time. I felt I was missing a piece of pop culture cred without this under my belt, so I decided to tackle it before the March release date. If I can't get out to many movies, I might as well read the inspirations. That and I've discovered I have a growing taste for comics and animation.
Now that I have read — and loved — the intertwined, three-pronged plot line, I wonder how a movie will manage to pull it off. I imagine that a lot of the background and pirate side story will have to be excised to get down to the main story. Still, all the trailers I've seen have nailed the look of the book dead on and the ancillary material is doing a great job at expanding the Watchman universe. Maybe that's how they will put together the whole story — multimedia tied to the film itself. I'm starting to get excited.
A good trailer recut manages to blend elements from the audio and video of its movies to create something new and unexpected. It's been awhile since I've seen one that has managed to get it right, but this recut of The Dark Night and Toy Story 2 nailed it, right down to synching up the lips and voices. Plus they cast Woody as the Joker (congrats on the posthumous Golden Globe win, Heath).
Toy Story vs Pulp Fiction
There's something about Toy Story that lends itself to recuts. Perhaps it is the digital nature of the films. While this one misses on the lip movements, it more than makes up for it with pure style.
300 Toys
When you think about it, there really is a lot of action in the Toy Story films. Toys! Tonight we dine in Hell!
Toy Story: The Horror
Miles Mungo recut Toy Story into a wonderfully creepy horror of his own making. This one would give kids nightmares.
Toy Story 2 vs Watchmen
And the Toy Story mashup continues into the future.
Toy Story 2 vs Requiem for a Dream
Of course the best Toy Story recut ever is this mashup with Requiem for a Dream. Talk about changing the original tone and intent of a film! Pure brilliance.
Rorschach is Chaotic Good? I guess so, but it's so hard to assign to assign goodness to his actions though I suppose he did think what he was doing was for a greater good.
Nite Owl: But the country's disintegrating. What's happened to America? What's happened to the American dream?
One of the attendant joys of the release of the Watchemen movie has been all the pop culture parodies that have come with it. I thought I'd seen the best with the Futurama trailer and the Saturday morning cartoon, but I have come across a brilliant reworking of the graphic novel, using newspaper comic characters.
In the opening credits of the Watchmen, accompanied by Bob Dylan's song The Times, They Are A 'Changin', the credit sequence shows a brief history of masked heroes.
Some people have been waiting to see the Watchmen on film for more than 20 years, me, I've been waiting to see it for about two months. I think I have the better end of the deal. 
13th Bullet Bulletproof
In-flight Flight
