Scanner : animation

Watch Jennifer Aniston Googly-Eye Brad Pitt

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:33:00 GMT

Besides Philippe Petit balancing an Oscar on his chin [see this post], the Oscars were almost entirely forgettable. Here's a moment, however, that you may have missed: watch Jennifer Aniston lock eyes with Brad and Angelina, starting somewhere after the 25 second mark.

Note that they are sitting in the front row and to Aniston's left... and that the camera mysteriously cuts off Brad Pitt's face, so we can't see what he's thinking... or maybe that's just bad YouTube bootleggin'... either way, apparently, this is what the internet is talking about this morning.

Related:

While You Were Sleeping: Westboro Stoops To New Low, Falls On Its Face

Scanner Predicts the 2009 Academy Award Winners

If You're Doing Anything For the Next Ten Minutes...

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:06:00 GMT

...get lost in this extraordinarily adorable, funny, sexy, and entirely delicious stop-motion film starring muffins, limes, squash, and other edibles.

The internet doesn't get any better than this, folks. More of this lady's animated mastery is on exhibit here.

"Star Wars" Retold by Someone Who Hasn't Seen it Sounds About Right to Us

Emily Farris — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:34:00 GMT

As we have admitted here more than once, we have never seen "Star Wars." We don't know why, really. Maybe our parents did a terrible job of raising us? Whatever the reason, we probably now hold the blame ourselves for doing absolutely nothing about it. But it's sort of become this thing, like a party trick: "I've never seen 'Star Wars!'" Maybe it's our Cinderella shoe; perhaps we're fated to marry the man who finally sits us down and makes us watch it. Until then we're perfectly content to watch "'Star Wars' Retold by Someone Who Hasn't Seen It," a video made by some guy after his friend Amanda told him she'd never seen the Triology but could tell him what happens.

We're glad to know that we're not the only ones who think Han is named Hans.

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Related:

Star Wars Tattoos... and Shame

Video of the Day: Star Wars Trumpet Solo

Did Han Solo Show Princess Leia His Spaceballs in the Trailer? (this is the post we corrected from 'Hans' to 'Han' after a nice commenter told us what was up)

Video of the Day: "Princess Bride" Lightsaber Battle

Sloppy Seconds: Courtney Love's Bizarre Death Rant

Emily Farris — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:19:00 GMT

After male superhero movie after male superhero movie after male superhero movie, Wonder Woman is finally going to the big screen—except not. It's going straight to DVD. And it's animated. [Jezebel]

Britney Spears equates her life to a jail sentence. [People]

Is Nicole Kidman going to be the next star to quit the biz? Yawn. [Yahoo!]

Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson Wentz are still waiting for that baby to pop out. [MTV]

Courtney Love would like you to know she's not suicidal after a crazy death rant on her MySpace blog. [Us]

Wall-E's Puppet Master Revealed: It's Al Gore!

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:24:00 GMT

The right wing has gotten tired of trying to find something wrong with Obama's mortgage or which hand he uses to wipe away his Muslim tears while he salutes the Nazi flag. They have a new enemy, one who''s smaller than an ogre but still bigger than John McCain: Wall-E.

Although we haven't seen the movie, we've heard for weeks that Pixar's latest animated film would feature some political content, including some "left-wing propaganda."

“It was like a 90-minute lecture on the dangers of over consumption, big corporations, and the destruction of the environment,” Pollowitz writes at Planet Gore, National Review’s global-warming blog.
I have been a huge fan of Disney Pixar's movies. Parents are usually just as entertained as their kids are. With WALL-E, that's probably true only if you thought An Inconvenient Truth was Oscar-worthy. As for me, Pixar's latest offering was Godforsaken dreck. From the first moment of the film, my kids were bombarded with leftist propaganda about the evils of mankind. [National Review]
It’s propaganda! We’re talking about a movie that foists off on little kids the idea that human beings are bad for planet earth. And that’s not true. Why are human beings bad for planet earth? … If you take your kids to this, understand they’re going to come away with the idea that mommy and daddy are bad for the planet and the planet would be better off without them. [Lars Larson on MSNBC.]

Other conservatives disagreed with these assessments, with some bloggers/writers supporting the argument that Wall-E is actually right-wing propaganda:

“I was relieved to see a kids’ movie in which the obligatory message of ecological apocalypse is framed in terms of jeopardizing our own humanity, rather than being mean to poor Gaia,” writes Matt Frost at The American Scene.
Robert Patrick J. Ford of The American Conservative suggests that “Wall-E” is... more right-wing than left-wing. “The real tragedy of these callous conservative critics (say that three times fast) is that they are missing the real lessons of the movie, ones I found immediately attractive to a traditional conservative,” Ford writes. “In the film, it becomes clear that mass consumerism is not just the product of big business, but of big business wedded with big government.

Did you see Wall-E? Let us know what your thoughts are on the film, its quality, its political content, and anything else you think of.

Via Political Wrinkles.

Scanner Survey: Should We Abolish Superdelegates?

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:49:00 GMT

No, not should we abolish the process... should we abolish them with a great big laser, drowning them in popcorn, as in the end of Real Genius?

Vote in our poll, which really just asks the former, although we were tempted...

Meanwhile, the award-winning folks at Agit-Pop have produced an animation for your pleasure.

If you agree with this video, you should sign the letter (click on Take Action, above):

Dear Democratic Party Leadership (and you know who you are):

We the undersigned, do hereby urge you to fundamentally overhaul the superdelegate system. Or ditch it completely. You decide. Don't let this meltdown happen again. You're the "Democratic" Party for God's sake. We're watching and we vote.

They'll send the letters as e-mails to friendly DNC types like Al Gore and Donna Brazile... so if you agree or disagree, let us know in the comments.

Video of the Day: Roommates

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Room-mates

Sometimes we have to get all cute and fuzzy on you, especially on Mondays.

If we'd ever had roommates like these, maybe we wouldn't live alone and get all nomadic and eat dinner out of toaster ovens...