I absolutely can’t wait for Zootopia to arrive, it looks amazing. This particular Sloth-centric sequence is made all the more intense by the fact that the police officer looking for results is a bunny. There is something of a difference in the way each of these mammals binds time to their world view, after all. This animation makes extensive use of facial puppeteering to create the various characters personalities, which makes me believe it is a discipline I should be learning.
There are less than positive implications sometimes when a Humanoid Robot With AI meets the cold, cruel world. This interpretation on how it might work out is not exactly comforting to the intelligence at the core of this story, and should not make the rest of us feel very easy about it. When the time comes that we face these situations, I hope you are ready to stand up and be counted among those who believe in freedom and justice.
The primary option this week is Deadpool, a unique anti-hero in the Marvel pantheon. I will definitely be in the theater for that one, but that isn’t to say it is the only option. There are two music inspired films as well, Bigger Than the Beatles being about the Beach Boys and songwriter Charlie Manson, and Punk’s Dead: SLC Punk 2. I don’t think either of those are in too many theaters, and the only web site I could find for the first one had been hacked and taken over by a fashion blogger, so I am sticking with the Marvel offering this time around.
Freaks of Nature has a strange premise: Zombies, Vampires, and Humans all live in harmony, until Aliens invade the Earth. The cast includes Patton Oswalt and Joan Cusack, which is enough to convince me I need to see this Comedy/Horror. I should probably also mention Spectre, Daniel Craig’s last turn as James Bond, which didn’t do that well with the critics, but might still be worth watching. The Horror film Crimson Peak didn’t have a lick of comedy in it that I heard about, so I will be passing on that one. If there was any genre TV this week it snuck right past me with nary a ripple.
In Anime, Shirobako 1 is the rather recursive tale of 5 women who work for an Anime company, and according to the reports it is a fairly accurate depiction of the industry. This is the first half of the series, with the second coming along in May. Likewise Akame ga Kill: Collection 1 is the first half of its series, with a group of renegade assassins out to bring down the corrupt empire which bought and trained them. Finally, Lord Marksman and Vanadis: The Complete Series tells of two enemies who must work together to save a nation from destruction.
For decades Virtual Reality has been expensive and flaky, but no more; this is the year it goes mainstream and affordable. Part of that is because of projects like Google Cardboard, allowing you to assemble your own VR headset for as little as $150 (cell phone, head set, and trigger button). Until recently there has been a lack of content for VR, but that has changed as well, with everyone from the Discovery Channel to the Dali Museum putting together presentations for it. In the case of the museum, they converted one of Dali’s paintings into a Virtual Reality exhibit entitled Dreams of Dali. Once at the museum they have Oculus Rift headsets for you to wear while exploring the VR environment they created of it.
This week Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will be in the theaters, giving a whole new twist to the classic story. It is the kind of thing you might have gotten if Jane Austen was writing episodes of Buffy for Joss, and it might just be enough fun to watch to overcome my dislike of horror. There is a non-genre film that also looks pretty interesting, Hail, Caesar!. From the trailers it looks very amusing and the might just end up being the movie that gets my ticket money this weekend.