I love stop-motion animation. Films like The Nightmare Before Christmas feel so wonderful and real.

I remember the moment I developed this love. I remember watching TV one afternoon when I was just a little kid. On one of the childrenchannels there was this film. This awesome film about a boy who gets a flying ship. It’s a well known Russian fairytale, a great story. And I was wholly enchanted by all that was happening on my screen. The old man who secrectly builds the beautiful flying ship out of snow and ice while Pjotr (the protagonist) is sleeping. All the different characters Pjotr picks up on his journey to the Tsar.
These were real people to me, I could see them moving and laughing and being sad. This wasn’t some film made of drawings, those were real living puppets, they could touch each other and interact with their surroundings. It was one of those films that just stick in your mind and never leave. And I wouldn’t want it to.
I have often wondered where I could find it again. Nobody I asked knew the film. It didn’t help that I asked it like ‘that film about a boy named Pjotr and a flying ship and an army of twigs’. But yesterday Google and Wikipedia aligned (like the stars) for me and my search paid off. It’s called The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship (watch a few bits edited together on YouTube). There is only one place that has a dvd of it (Amazon) and that’s currently unavailable. I would love to have this film in the Dutch version, because that’s how I remember it. But the English would be awesome too. Thankfully I’ve found a torrent of it, and it just finished the download. I will go and watch it after posting this.

So there you have it, the film that’s responsible for me loving stop-motion animation. The comments of that youtube video show that I’m not the only one who remembers it from seeing it as a child. There’s even someone asking if anyone knows where he can find a Dutch version.

In other stop-motion news, I cannot wait for Coraline to come to Dutch theaters. I love the book, and I think stop-motion is the best way to bring it to the big screen. It sucks that I’ll have to wait until May 15th for it.

Ik heb zojuist een account bij videoblog.nl geopend, hardstikke leuk! Je kan er zelf heel snel met je webcam een filmpje maken en meteen terugzien, en je kan ook andere filmpjes die je ergens anders hebt gemaakt uploaden. (Maar alleen als je een pc hebt, voor een mac kan dat (nog) niet. Zie mijn filmpje. )

Het is ook mogelijk om de filmpjes te integreren met een al bestaande site of weblog, gewoon een htmlcode plakken en knippen. Alleen… werkt het niet bij mij. Ik weet niet of het aan de code ligt of aan wordpress, en ik weet van HTML te weinig om dat uit te zoeken. Maar hé! Als jullie nu ook allemaal videobloggers worden, kunnen we elkaars vriendjes zijn en misschien lukt het een van jullie wel! (wink wink nudge nudge)

Elkeweg, mijn videoblog: eefje.videoblog.nl

(Update: ik heb meteen al een reactie op mijn filmpje van de makers van videoblog, met dat er binnenkort een mac-uploader aankomt. Doen ze goed!)

…Everything is possible!

I still haven’t seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I’m a bad fangirl.

So who wants to go with me? I know reviews of the film say it’s not a great movie, but it’s Indy! I’m too young to have seen the original three in theaters, I need to see this one on the big screen.
But, if you’ve already seen it there are some other options for going to the movie theater with me:

Dark Knight: yes, it’s Batman time, and Joker time. Two of my colleagues have already seen it and they were gushing about the greatness of this film. If you know the guys, that’s saying something.
It’s Dark and Epic and I need to go see it.

Hancock: Because a hobo superhero is sure to be entertaining. I know from reviews that the first half of the film is briljant, and the second kinda… not. But I think I’ll live. Will Smith usually plays Will Smith in his movies, but he’s supposedly doing really well as something else for a change, so let’s go and be entertained.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Gasp! a film in my list that’s not superhero/adventure-related? Who would have thought? It’s a romantic comedy, and I have no idea weather it’s good or not, but it has Kristen Bell as the titular Sarah Marshall, and I am currently obsessed with Kristen Bell. I loved her as Elle Bishop on Heroes, and because of that I figured I’d check out Veronica Mars, the television series she had the lead in before she came on Heroes. I love it! Unfortunately it’s still airing in the Netherlands, and thus only the first half of the first season is available on dvd (so the first 12 episodes I’ve seen). I have read all the recaps on Twop though, so I know what happens. (I often work in the evening, so I can’t watch television series as they air.) Kristen Bell is a great actress, she’s just really, really awesome! So I want to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall because she in it. (I also can’t wait to see the movie Fanboys, in which she is part of a group of friends obsessed with Star Wars, how can that not be cool! I don’t know if it’ll come to Dutch theaters though…)

Heerlijk Nederlandse film! Natuurlijk gaat het over verliefd worden en samen zijn met Sinterklaastijd, maar het is veel meer dan dat. Ik ben er net met Anke en Frederique heen geweest, en het was supergezellig en de film was ook nog eens heel erg leuk.
Ik heb me kapot zitten lachen bij een heleboel scenes, en ik heb stiekem ook hier en daar een traantje weggepinkt.
En geloof me, al ben je een kerel die niet van vrouwenfilms houdt, dan nog vind je deze film leuk.
Alles is Liefde is een film die ik net als Love Actually graag op dvd (wil) heb(ben) en zo af en toe wil kijken om weer in het leven te kunnen geloven.
En ik vond het helemaal niet erg dat Love Actually het onstaan van Alles is Liefde geïnspireerd heeft, want Alles is Liefde is een hele Nederlandse film (vol grappen over homo’s en zwarte pieten bijvoorbeeld) en dus ook heel anders dan Love Actually.

Uploaded with Skitch!

Skitch is a great app with which you can easily and quickly share something with friends and do small picture editing.
It’s Mac OS only, and works perfect with the grapic interface, so it looks cool too. (It intergrates iSight seamlessly and you can also upload directly to Flickr, both of which I love.)

The image above is a still from a Heroes episode (2nd of season 2), and that show just ROCKS!
The actress is named Hayden Panettiere and she’s great in her role of Claire the Renerating Cheerleader.