Flixens: Movies, DVDs, TV, comic books and pop culture for women. The boys shouldn't have all the fun.

Legendary animator Ed Benedict died August 28 at age 94, according to his longtime friend and fellow animator David Sheldon earlier this week.

If you don't recognize Benedict's name, you will certainly recognize his work.  Arguably responsible for the incredible success of the Hanna-Barbera animation studio, Benedict was the lead animator and designer on many of the studios initial creations, including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quickdraw McGraw, and The Flintstones, including Fred, Barney, Wilma, Betty, all of the "stone age" houses and machinery.

"Benedict's designs are both simple -- they needed to be to accommodate the strenuous demands of limited TV animation -- and highly sophisticated, containing that indefinable drawing quality that gives a drawing charm and personality," wrote Amid Amidi in his book Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation.  You can also find Amidi's online tribute (with sketches) here.

Benedict had requested that his ashes be spread over California's Carmel Bay, where his wife's ashes were scattered previously.

You can see some sketches from Benedict's lengthy career at AnimationBlast.  Also, see John Kricfalusi's (Ren and Stimpy, Ripping Friends) blog back in April where he talks about how he was influenced by Benedict's work (with Flintstones sketches).

The board at the National Film Preservation Foundation has announced that the 1000th film that the organization will preserve for future generations will be Huckleberry Finn, a classic 1920 adaptation of Mark Twain's great American novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of the last surviving films from director William Desmond Taylor.

Taylor died at age 50 in 1922, after directing dozens of films over his 10 year film career, such as Anne of Green Gables, Captain Kidd Jr., and The Witching Hour.  His last film was The Top of New York, after which he was MURDERED.

Ah, I love the smell of Hollywood Babylon scandal in the morning... it smells like... Fatty Arbuckle's coke bottle.

The film will be preserved by the George Eastman House from what is believed to be the only surviving complete print of the film, a Danish 35mm color-tinted silver-nitrate print.  The print was repatriated to America from Denmark a few decades ago.

The NFPF is a non-profit organization that was set up in 1997 by the U.S. Congress (another time, another world) to save America's film heritage, that essentially started with George Eastman's Kodak motion picture film and Thomas Edison's motion picture camera. Actor and former Senator Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., who serves on the NFPF board of directors, said "with only a few hundred thousand federal dollars a year, the NFPF has rescued films from every part of the country and illuminated whole slices of American history."

Yeah so AICN broke some story about Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.  Apparently, the producers are going the Ben Grimm route in creating the character.  They are totally going to go with practical effects and stuff, which to me is kind of lame.  I liked Ben Grimm in the first movie even though that costume was a bit hard to take, but I mean, haven't digital effects places been doing Silver Surfery looking stuff since like 1980?  I mean how much would it cost to create a human and then be all FINISH:  MIRROR!  And then bam.  You have yourself a Silver Surfer.

Anyway, click on the pic above to see how the Surfer MIGHT look.  And to all who were fooled into coming here because I am a lying scoundrel.  Nyah!  My favorite part of the fake pic?  It looks like Norin Radd might be scratching his pooper.

Now THIS is what I'm talking about!  FINALLY, a studio gets it right.

Just the other day we hear that Jim Carrey and Steve Carell are supplying the voices for Fox's CGI-animated Horton Hears a Who, animated by Blue Sky Studios.

Now, USA Today breaks out the first picture from the film, and I am just BLOWN away by the sheer awesomeness of it.  Feast your eyes on the Carell's character, the Mayor of Whoville...

This is how a Dr. Seuss movie should look... not like that overblown Grinch or that scary John Wayne Gacy Cat in the Hat movie.

Now I can only pray that they just do the story as it is and don't concoct some cockamamie "back story" like they've done with the previously-mentioned abominations.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Star Trek, perhaps one of the most influential and groundbreaking shows ever to hit television.  The show, created by Gene Roddenberry, first aired on NBC on September 8, 1966 with its premiere episode, "The Man Trap," which featured the horrendous salt-sucking monster.

The show introduced viewers to life in the 23rd century, warp drive, phasers, hand-held communication devices, automatic doors, transporters, the United Federation of Planets, Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons, Andorians, Tribbles, and even the Mugato.

But the show never did well in the ratings, and the threat of cancellation loomed over the first and second seasons.  The show earned a third season thanks to fan intervention, but the 79th episode, "Turnabout Intruder," aired on June 6, 1969 and the show was cancelled.

The rest of course, is history.

For me, I didn't discover The Original Series until the late 80s, AFTER The Next Generation was on the air.  I was just a kid... only born in 1980 after all.  My first Star Trek captain was Jean Luc Picard, not James T. Kirk.  But I've grown to love ST:TOS the most for many of the same reasons I love all of those old Universal classic monster movies.  There's just something very pioneering about the whole thing that appeals to my spirit.

But when you consider the cultural impact of the show, after all these years, is still as significant and perhaps stronger than ever, you realize that, like many great works of art, the initial understanding of the work is immaterial.  It is only after time passes that the full ramifications are realized.  In my opinion, a mark of truly great sci-fi is when inventions that it hypothesises come to pass, as if the very idea of them spark the imagination enough to make it a reality.  One only has to look around at the automatic sliding doors in supermarkets and the flip-style cell phones and wonder, "would we have had those if it weren't for Star Trek?" As I read about modern 3D printers that create three-dimensional plastic models, I think "this is the beginning of the Star Trek replicators."

You even have to wonder about the shows impact on issues of race in this country, when Nichelle Nichols, who despite playing a capable, well-educated, articulate communications officer on the show, grew frustrated with her lack of screentime and considered quitting, only to be dissuaded by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who told her that seeing a black woman working alongside whites could only help to further racial equality.

So please join me in wishing Star Trek a happy birthday and add your favorite Trek memories here!

Gojira, The Original Japanese Masterpiece, will be coming to DVD on September 5th.  The double-disc edition will feature two versions of the first Godzilla movie... the original Japanese version, and the reworked American version with Raymond Burr.

For many, this is exciting news, for they have never seen Gojira in its original form.  I was lucky enough to actually see this on the big screen recently, and it was an amazing experience.

The theater was packed for a double-feature of Gojira and then Son of Godzilla.  So many people, who grew up on the Godzilla films of the 70s but never saw the original, were ready to be treated.  Many had brought their children who would be getting their first sight of Godzilla as well.

In hindsight, that probably wasn't such a good idea... or at least, they should have shown the films in reverse order.  Show the goofy Son of Godzilla for the kiddies, let them go home and then show Godzilla.  Because let me tell you... if you haven't seen the original before, it's actually kind of scary.

The original 1954 non-Burr version spawned from (and alludes to) an actual incident where a Japanese fishing boat was contaminated by an American nuclear test.  The film opens with that scenario, and it's horrifying and shocking.  Unlike so many of the later Godzilla films, the first was filmed in a completely serious manner, and the harsh, black and white cinematography only reinforces the stark and somber mood of the film..

Filmed only 9 years after Japan's defeat in World War II, and only a few months after the fishing boat accident, the movie still stands the test of time as an allegory for the nuclear bomb, or perhaps the growing rise of America as a nuclear power.  Godzilla is represented as an unstoppable force, laying waste to anything in its path.

The scope of the film is initially quite small in scale, focusing on the local fishing village on Oto Island, where fishing has been poor and the villagers blame it on "Godzilla," an ancient god of the sea.  An elder mentions that in the old days, the villagers used to sacrifice girls to Godzilla to avoid his wrath.  That night, the villagers perform an exorcism ceremony, hoping to rid themselves of Godzilla's effects on their fishing.  Later that night, a terrible storm wreaks havoc on the village, and Godzilla arises from the sea to destroy the village.  In this scene, we don't actually see Godzilla yet.  He is implied through villager reactions and screams.  Their screams, along with the sound of the storm and Godzilla's roar, is truly a terrifying moment.

It was at this point where you could see parents in the audience, who were waiting to see a guy in a big goofy rubber suit, nervously looking around, wondering, "gee, this is pretty scary.  Should we take the kids home?"

Later, a team of scientists is sent to the island to inspect the damage, where they find huge footprints.  In a very quiet scene, a geiger counter clicks off a wild number of hits, indicating the high degree of radioactivity surrounding Godzilla's path.  Again, when you think of the time that this film was made, the sound of the Geiger counter, combined with the reaction of the scientists and villagers, gave me goosebumps.

Strangely enough, Godzilla is not the main focus of the film.  He is more a catalyst that causes scientists and the military to try to come up with a way to defeat him.  The ultimate decision comes in the form of an "Oxygen Destroyer," which is implied to be even more devastating than a nuclear bomb.  The scientist who invented it at first refuses to use it, saying that its power is far too great, and will only be abused by later men.  Once he agrees to use it, he destroys all of his research so that it can never be built again.  Thrown into the mix is an interesting love triangle angle that focuses the film more on the personal relationships of the characters, and the human element, rather than on the monstrous elements of destruction.

This leads us to the final scene, where the two men in the love triangle descend to the bottom of the ocean to release the Oxygen Destroyer next to a sleeping Godzilla (which itself was a really cool effect, just seeing him lying there).  As the weapon is activated, the inventor cuts his oxygen hose, thus dying along with his invention and Godzilla, with no chance of it ever being used again.  Love, honor, and sacrifice.  End scene.

Interestingly enough, Godzilla vs. Destroyah uses plot points and characters (and even flashbacks) from this film to explain the creation of the Destroyah monster, which also proves to be a match for Godzilla at the end of that film.

Director Ishiro Honda crafted this pacifist, reactionary tale of post-nuclear Japan.  It's not the Godzilla you remember from your youth, I'm sure.  I was amazed at how well this film stood the test of time, and just how somber the mood was in the theater afterwards.  It is absolutely a joyless film with nothing hopeful in it whatsoever, which is just heartbreaking when you think about the time it was made.

The American version, in contrast, is a subtley different film, with the original's anti-war message skillfully excised in favor of an angle with Raymond Burr at the center of the "story of the century."

Both films were successful, but it's possibly due to the success of the American version that the Godzilla series morphed into what it became in the 70s.  The name change alone, from simply "Gojira" to "Godzilla: King of the Monsters!" is evidence of that.

But.... now you will be able to compare both and decide for yourself.

Instead of just boring webmaster messages, I figured I'd post this video that I saw referenced on the Instructables.  The video is widely believed to be the first animated cartoon and it was done 100 years ago by J. Stuart Blackton at Vitagraph Studios.  Maybe the AFI big wigs should take time from giving us lists of the 100 greatest sneezes captured on film and give us a three hour tribute on the centennial of the cartoon?