Griff's Village

Hundreds of Beavers, directed by Mike Cheslik, is one of the most memorable movies I've seen in a long time. It owes a lot to the slapstick of the past, but still feels modern. Set in the 1800s, it tells the story of Jean Kayak (played by Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, who co-wrote the film with Cheslik), a man who must learn to survive and thrive in the woods during a cold, harsh winter. Much of the film focuses on his career as a fur trapper, trying (with increasing levels of success) to kill wolves, beavers, and other animals--all of which are portrayed by humans in mascot costumes. The film, although live-action, has the energy of an animated  short, and the (relative) lack of dialogue recalls the works of the silent screen comedians. Nevertheless, it's very much its own thing with its own style. And it's the funniest comedy film I've seen in ages. A lot of pastiches try to copy the classics without doing anything of their own. You can't accuse Hundreds of Beavers ...

Ernest Cline's novel  Ready Player One is a love-letter to nostalgia. As the name implies, it focuses on gaming, but all types of popular culture--from movies to music--are lovingly referenced. I didn't read it when it came out in 2011, nor have I seen Spielberg's 2018 adaptation, but I've always been aware of the story. I've recently decided to borrow a copy of the audiobook (narrated by Wil Wheaton) from my local library. I was sceptical; having heard so much about the nostalgia, and so little about the characters, story, and prose, I began to suspect that the nostalgia was all the book had to offer. Still, this book did resonate with a lot of people, so there must be something worthwhile about it. Even if it might not be the sort of book I'd love, it might at least be the sort I'd like--something with a few fun scenes that'll help pass the time. And that's exactly what it was. Cline's novel takes place in 2045, in a society that revolves aroun...

When I first started this blog, my intention was to write about other people's creations--the books and movies and video games that I have read or watched or played, and that I felt compelled to discuss. This post is going to be different, and it's going to be more stressful, because it's about something that I created myself. For the past several years, I've been spending a portion of my spare time in RPG Maker creating a game. That had always been a dream of mine, and I knew that I wasn't going to be satisfied until I made it happen. And now I have. Song of the Enchantress has finally been completed and released. You can download it for free here . I am very aware that this is an amateur effort, but it is one that I worked hard on, and I think that I achieved what I set out to do. I wanted to design a Dragon Quest -style game that is full of secrets. Every medium has its own strengths and own quirks, and the advantage of video games is that they allow you to exp...

I've loved animation for as long as I remember, and the cast of Looney Tunes have always been my favourite animated characters. Heck, they've always been some of my favourite fictional characters, period. As much as I love Disney and Ghibli, there's no seven-minute stretch of time in all of animation history that means as much to me as  The Great Piggy Bank Robbery or Rabbit Fire . However, as much as I love the Looney Tunes' short films, their theatrical  features 1  are a mixed bag. Both Space Jam movies have their moments, but neither are very good overall. Back in Action is the best dedicated Looney Tunes theatrical feature I've seen yet, but it's still not as good as the original shorts. I grew up in an era when these cartoons were easily available and the characters were on every piece of merchandise imaginable, from video games to T-shirts. Looney Tunes wasn't just a series of short films or a TV series: it was a property. These were beloved...

The Life of Pi originated in 2001 as a novel by Yann Martel. In 2012, the story returned, this time as a movie. I read the book about twenty years ago and saw the movie about ten, so I went into Lolita Chakrabarti's stage adaptation (performed at Toronto's Mirvish Theatre, and directed by Max Webster) knowing what to expect. My only question was how well this story would work on the stage. I had high expectations going in, and I'm happy to say the show met them. Life of Pi is about Pi, a young Indian kid (originally a boy, though Pi was played by Riya Rajeev and rewritten as a girl for the performance I saw) who is stranded on a boat with various dangerous animals--most notably, Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger. The original book is very philosophical, dealing with issues relating to religion, truth, and storytelling. Yet, like Moby Dick , it also functions as an adventure story. The movie turned Life of Pi into a visual spectacle, and the stage version follows suit by u...

I'm a huge fan of old black-and-white silent comedies. In that world, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd cast such a large shadow that it can be almost impossible to notice anyone else. Nonetheless, I'm always open to discovering new gems, so I recently purchased and watched Flicker Alley's 2019 release, The Extraordinary World of Charley Bowers . These movies--a collection of short films, both animated and live-action and predominantly comedic--are a delight, and it's a shame that their star isn't more well-known. Bowers--or Bricolo, as he is known in France and in the French-language intertitles included in this collection--had worked as an animator before becoming a screen comedian, and he continued to use his skills during his live-action career. He loved stop-motion the way Keaton loved stunts, and used it to create effects that hold up surprisingly well almost a hundred years later. Some of his earlier live-action shorts only make use of stop-mot...