The STAR WARS Saga: A History

This post was originally posted as a review for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on my Letterboxd film-watching diary. It turned into a little history lesson about the entire saga. 

All right, let’s put this all into perspective.

The underbelly of STAR WARS and the conversations that arise from it: the love and the hate, the this vs. that, the fan service vs. risk-taking, etc. it seems to me this is partly based on an expectation that Star Wars, as a story, is like a sprawling and perfect saga that its creators always knew everything about from the very beginning: well defined and coherent, with all of its rules firmly in place.

But it’s not. It never has been. It started as an experimental film by imperfect people that became a phenomenon by accident.

Covered in Wonder: The Dark Crystal - Age of Resistance

One of the most pleasant cinematic surprises of 2019 came in the form of the much-anticipated prequel series for Jim Henson’s 1982 masterpiece The Dark Crystal. The 10-episode saga Age of Resistance debuted on NetFlix in late August, delighting fans worldwide with its innovative puppetry and epic storytelling. The original film is like a poem, and this new series is like a novel, described by many as “Game of Thrones with puppets.”

 As a lifelong obsessive devotee of the original Dark Crystal since the age of 7, I was thrilled to discover that Age of Resistance not only honored its source material, but expanded it with new layers and improved upon its various characters, set pieces, and nuances. If you haven’t looked upon its wonder yet, it is worth your time in every frame. Spoilers lie ahead, so if you’ve enjoyed the series already, continue to read my “words that stay” and dreamfast with me.

Make Your World In Its Light: The Story and Structure of Jim Henson's THE DARK CRYSTAL

Another world...another time...in the age of wonder. 

Such was the age of wonder I was in myself, at age 7, when I first heard those words in a dark movie theater for my first viewing of The Dark Crystal - a film I was already obsessed with before walking into my seat. Seeing the movie poster advertisement in the newspaper and hearing that the same guy who made The Muppets had a new movie with things called "gelflings" was one of those formative moments in my life, and the obsession hasn't really stopped. So read on whilst I geek out a little bit with a few ponderings...

The Dark Crystal has a fascinating history behind the mere making of it, which is outlined in full detail through documentaries, books, and rare TV spots on YouTube. (Of which my favorite is embedded at the end of this article - watch it later, and all the way to the end)

Apocalypsis: An Interview with Eric Leiser

Apocalypsis is the newest film by Eric Leiser, who collaborates with his brother, composer Jeffrey Leiser, to bring surreal spiritual imagery and storytelling to the screen. In years past, I've been invited to interview them about their previous feature films Imagination and Glitch in the Grid.

With their new film, the Leisers have crafted an action-packed psychological thriller that explores the Book of Revelation in a poetic montage of imagery and intrigue. What I appreciate about their work is their ability to combine ingenious sound design and experimental animated imagery with intimate explorations of relationships between characters in an on-going narrative. If you are looking for something out of the box, these are films worth looking for and supporting.

Apocalypsis is out now for viewing on screens large and small (including Amazon and iTunes) so here is my newest conversation with Eric Leiser, what inspires his vision, and what's coming next.

Reflections on The NeverEnding Story

Posted on the 30th Anniversary of the release of "The NeverEnding Story" (July 20th, 2014)

1984. I was 9-years-old, sitting in a dark Michigan theater with my dad and a bag of Twizzlers, and before me on the screen was a story that would begin to speak to me...and literally never end.

As a young boy who was not only obsessed with what the '80s brought to the world for fantasy cinema (stuff like The Dark Crystal, E.T and Ghostbusters), but also loved to read books and write my own stories, this strange German production of The NeverEnding Story touched a nerve with me like many others I know who grew up with it.

Exactly one year later, my family bought our first VCR and this was one of the first movies we "recorded" off ShowTime on cable TV. (On the same video cassette were The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Last Starfighter.)  To this day I vividly remember laying on my stomach on the carpet of our family cottage in the woods "up north" in Michigan, and re-watching those opening scenes of the Rock Biter in the Howling Forest with its brooding musical score as he spoke about The Nothing. Meanwhile, a thunderstorm literally began brewing outside and a warm summer breeze rolled in through the screen door.

30 Years Later: The Last Starfighter

Posted on the 30th Anniversary of the release of "The Last Starfighter" (July 13th, 2014)

Any boy who grew up in the 1970s or 80s understands the impact that Star Wars had on our generation and the way we lived. For us, the school playground at recess and the backyards & basements of our homes were not merely steel structures, expanses of grass and cement or cozy rooms, but were in fact the corridors of the Death Star, the forest of Endor in the summer and the icy sprawl of Hoth in winter. That fictional universe somehow meshed with ours and we played and lived in it as if it were as real as the gravel beneath our size-5 shoes. It seemed to call us to a sense of adventure beyond our reality, but we reached out for anyway and pulled it close. 

So it was, in the context of this frame of mind for me as a 9-year-old boy in 1984 that another little story captured my imagination as well. This one was different, in that it didn't take place exclusively in a galaxy far, far away, but brought that other galaxy and our own planet, the Heavens and the Earth as it were, together. By telling the tale of a boy who lives in a trailer park on Earth and is carried off to outer space and back again, it also showed how these two worlds depended on each other, and brought the adventure home. It suggested the reality of that other world was not as far away as it seemed. That story was told in The Last Starfighter, which I first saw in a tiny theater with my dad in Traverse City, Michigan, one hot summer day in 1984 with a bag of Twizzlers in my hand. It blew me away, and 30 years later, it's still one of those films that found its way into my DNA and stayed there.

Sometimes the Sky Calls: The Auralia Thread

I was on an airplane en route to New Zealand when I finally arrived at the conclusion to Jeffrey Overstreet's fantasy novel series The Auralia Thread. As I looked out my window after reading the final sentence of the last book The Ale Boy's Feast, I just happened to be coming out of a misty white fog similar to that which was described in the book, and the beautiful green shores of the North Island were just coming into view. It was breathtaking, and my spirit was uplifted by the perfect timing of these two journeys. Upon settling in Auckland, I found it fitting to celebrate with a good dinner at a restaurant called "The Shakespeare," for as the king in Hamlet called out "Give me some light!" I felt this is exactly what The Auralia Thread had done.

Remembering with ParaNorman

Aggie: Aggie... My name was Aggie... I - I remember... My mommy brought me here once. We sat under the tree and she told me stories. They all had happy endings. Then those horrible men came and took me away and I never saw her again! 

Norman: Sometimes when people get scared, they say and do terrible things. I think you got so scared that you forgot who you are. But I don't think you're a witch. Not really. 

Aggie: You don't? 

Norman: I think you're just a little kid with a really special gift who only ever wanted people to understand her. So we're not all that different at all.

I’ve been telling people for months I had this inkling that ParaNorman might be one of the most important films of 2012, and possibly, as time will tell, of the decade. It’s taken me awhile to process and let its nagging significance soak into my head, but I think more and more I’m starting to see why.

The Sacred Space of The Muppet Show

Once upon a time, on Friday nights in the late 1970s, there was a little 30-minute space of time on the CBS network which would grow to define a generation. Carved out between shows like Dance Fever, Family Feud and The Incredible Hulk, which were mostly predictable week after week, a program called The Muppet Show provided the kind of variety, humor, playfulness and absurdity that provided a welcome respite from the usual sound and fury of prime-time programming. Looking at much of what passes as "entertainment" these days, looking back on certain moments from this show makes you wonder how it ever got broadcast to begin with. The show drew on age-old traditions of vaudeville, show tunes, mime, and international styles of puppet theater brought up-to-date for its modern audience, in a manner seldom seen on television at all since then. For several years, US networks turned down Jim Henson's concept of a prime-time slot for puppetry, and it might never have happened were it not for the faith that British producer Lew Grade put into the show to green-light it for production and syndication. The first season in particular, first aired in 1976-77, featured a mix of British and American guest stars who had previously worked with the Muppets or who were friends of the production team. Once the show grew in popularity, finding guest stars became an easier task, allowing them to attract everyone from the "high culture" of classical ballet and opera to the freakish fringes of 70s shock-rock & pop...from Beverly Sills and Rudolf Nureyev to Alice Cooper and Debbie Harry. Through the entire 5-season run of The Muppet Show, as I've enjoyed it so much from those first original airings as a small child, into re-runs and collecting of episodes as I've grown up, there is one particular feature of the show which I have come to notice as rather poignant and significant.

The Music that Changed my Life, Part 3

Continuing from The Music that Changed my Life, Part 2....and Part 1 before that, here is the final chapter of my reflective series on the albums and songs which have moved me, challenged me, ingrained themselves into my molecules and continue to grace my playlists for constant re-discovery.  As noted in my previous articles, there seems to be some common threads in much of the music I'm drawn to: vocals and instrumental elements which feel like soaring, a sense of storytelling, and a sense of longing for something that is lost. Whether it's expressed through notes and chords of rage or more quiet, introspective melodies, a lot of the music I tune myself into also invokes images of driving. I first fell in love with music being driven around in the car with my parents, and when I was able to drive myself, so many significant journeys and experiences in the car were inevitably set to music.

This chapter of my musical memoirs begins with me leaving my home state of Michigan and literally hitting the highway on a road trip to Vancouver, where I still reside today.  For 5 days in late August 1998, my friend Brandon Moses and I drove across America, and literally began our descent onto that first freeway ramp with the opening notes to Movin' Right Along off The Muppet Movie Soundtrack. Along the way we would listen to practically every album and mix tape we each brought with us, including much of the music I've mentioned in my previous two chapters of this series. In some ways, it was like a musical flashback of my life thus far following me along the road into the next phase of the journey.

Outside Over There: Reflections on Maurice Sendak

Earlier this year, on May 8, 2012, I was struck unexpectedly by the news on the radio as I crawled out of bed, that Maurice Sendak had passed away.  On my commute to work, I somehow stumbled across his final interview on NPR, and 19 minutes later, had to fight back tears as I stepped off the train. What I had heard in my earbuds was a story and testimony all at once extremely beautiful, extremely sad, and yet full of mystery and grace. I was hearing for the first time the longings of an artist who I only knew in a relatively shallow manner, but who I discovered meant more to me than I ever fully realized.

I only knew him through one of my favorite books, Where the Wild Things Are, plus some fond memories of seeing the films and books for Really Rosie and The Nutshell Library as a child.  I regret to say that outside of these particular works, I was not overly familiar with the rest of his life until hearing of his passing and reading up on the various news reports that followed. It's one of those unfortunate realities of life that we often don't spend enough time studying the lives of artists we admire until they have left us. By then it's too late to send them a note of thanks or encouragement, or to anticipate any other projects they may be working on.

The Music that Changed my Life, Part 2

Continuing from The Music that Changed my Life, Part 1, this second act of my musical journey takes me from the Shire of my tiny Hobbit-hood into the dark night of high school and beyond.

As the late '80s segued into the '90s and I segued from childhood to something else, life found me moving into a different house and different schools, leaving the church of my youth, and breaking bread with all kinds of new souls. Alongside the music of the time as it shifted from pop to hip-hop, and from glam to grunge, this time period also found me catching up on some classics, and mixing them up with the signs of the times. While some sounds have faded into the past, the ones which have stayed with me continue to be those which invoke a sense of storytelling, a longing for something that is lost, and in many cases, a cry of rage from the wilderness.

A Poem for Jerry Nelson (1934-2012)

His voice was rough as sandpaper,
Yet could be smooth as rock,
It went from a gentle whisper
To a screaming laugh or squawk.

He sang all styles of music
And sang them all so well,
Each ballad drifted from his throat
Just like a silver bell.

Yet as these tales in song were sung
With such amazing grace,
We saw so many sides of him,
But never saw his face.

He was a hipster bassman,
He was a little green frog,
He was a Scred who took advice
From the Great and Mighty Favog.

He was a hard-working otter
With a simple Christmas wish,
He was a guy who blew things up,
And another who threw fish.

He was a count who loved numbers
And a wise old heap of trash,
He was a Fraggle named Gobo
And a Skeksis, evil and brash.

He was all these wonderful creatures,
And all of these creatures were him,
We say good-bye and look to the sky,
Where he's up there jamming with Jim.

The Music that Changed my Life, Part 1

Music is one of the major obsessions in my life (right next to puppets, movies and books), and often I find myself pondering over just how much certain albums and songs have stuck with me and never left, to the point where they have seeped into my DNA. In our modern age of one-hit wonders, iPod shuffles and selecting tracks from iTunes rather than holding a physical "album", it's also important to remember the significance that albums can have as a unified, solid piece of work...something of a rarity these days.  Today most of my music listening happens while working on freelance animation projects, or on my daily commute to work or the occasional car trip.  My iPod shuffles through various playlists of favorites, both old and new, and I allow myself to get lost in the random selections of new discoveries mixed in with classics which have become as much a part of me now as they were when I first heard them.  At the outset of the first notes, I am transported back to different places, sitting alongside people from other times and chapters of my life, and I am able to bring the magic of those moments into wherever I am now.  Listening to certain albums and songs, I am as much 5-years-old, or 8, or 14, or 23 as much as I am    insert current age here   .

Such is the timeless power of music which I can barely express in words, but in a feeble attempt to do so, I feel compelled to review and muse over the albums and songs which have enriched or changed my life in one way or another....in particular, the ones which have stayed in my playlist and never left. Some songs and albums may have been important once upon a time, as passing fads tend to be, but as nostalgia sifts the good from the bad, time tends to bring to light and determine which ones will age like a fine wine, bringing out new flavors & fragrances. Like friends and acquaintances, some of them come and go, some are re-visited after years of separation, and some become consistent influences who either change you or become part of you. With each new listen to a song or album, new meanings are revealed and continue to unfold, and the universal language of the sonic vibrations "pour forth new speech", as my perceptions and experiences grow along with me. It's also fascinating to look back and see how the reasons why certain albums "spoke to me" ended up revealing themselves in later chapters of my life, as if they were dropping clues for things to come.

This Part 1 of my life's soundtrack starts at the beginning, and unpacks the albums and songs of my early childhood which I still listen to, including a few honorable mentions.

Imagine That Summer Arts Camp 2012

Every summer I teach animation workshops to kids at Cedar Park Church's one-week Imagine That Summer Arts Camp. Here are the latest short films made by kids at the 2012 camp, each with their own stories, sets, characters, voices & animation.

Invasion of the Spiders (2012, ages 9-13)

Adventure at the Calgary Stampede (2012, ages 6-8) 

See more on my Workshops page

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

July 8th 2012 I delivered this Sunday morning sermon at Cedar Park Church.

Drawing upon references to Madeline L’Engle, Pink Floyd, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and the Muppets, this message Shine On You Crazy Diamond unpacks how the Bible inspires us to find our true calling and shine on to bring glory to God in our lives (and also explains what this image is…)

Click here to listen or download mp3 audio file >>

20 Haikus About Movies

These are 20 Haiku poems I've written, each one describing a different movie.  See if you can guess them all!

Two fishes search the
Ocean looking for another
Fish in a tank.

Two people fall in love
On a great big ship
And then one of them dies.

Some men catch a gorilla
And bring him to New York,
Then they kill him.

Breath of Life Animation Festival 2008-2011

The Breath of Life Animation Festival, a one-day event I started at Cedar Park Church in 2008, has had a great 4-year annual run, allowing kids of all ages to get their hands dirty with the art of animation.  This year, the festival will be on hold, as I will instead be focusing more energy into teaching animation to kids at our Imagine That Summer Arts Camp, July 23-27.

The format of the Breath of Life festival may possibly resurrect itself in another fashion in the future, but for now there are other things that need attention and other stories to be told. I want to thank everyone who has been supportive of this fun event over the years, and look forward to working with you all again.

Enjoy this look back at the dedication and inspiration that we created every June for past 4 years...




See details and photos from previous festivals here:
2010
2009
2008

The Muppet Movie in 60 Seconds

My friend and co-worker Scott Hastings and I created this short entry for Virgin Radio Vancouver's Fake Film Festival, 'The Muppet Movie in 60 Seconds' and made it into the official selection for the Top 24 films.



...and here is a side-by-side comparison to the original film (no audio)...

See pictures from behind the scenes below!

It's the Wolf

Bonita Versh is a 40+ year veteran of the animation industry who I have had the privilege to know over the past few years during her annual visits to VanArts as a guest instructor and founding advisory board member. A few years ago she showed me some footage from a short film that had been shot during her time working in the layout department of Hanna-Barbera Studios in 1969. It was shot near the studio backlot and directed by layout artist Jerry Eisenberg while working on a cartoon series called "It's the Wolf." The film was only partially edited, combined with all of the extra footage, so Bonita and I thought it would be fun to restore and complete the film after all these years. So I cut the scenes together and asked one of our talented animation graduates Micah Baker to produce a musical score. Here is the final restored edit of the Hanna-Barbera "production", It's the Wolf.



...and here is an audio commentary with Bonita Versh and myself, talking about the history of the studio and production of the film, along with all of the extra footage which was shot.