Today’s movie of the day is Lost Soul: the Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau (2014) directed by David Gregory.

It has Richard Stanley, Fairuza Balk and Hugh Dickson in it. The documentary discusses Richard Stanley’s attempt in the early 90’s of bringing to life “The Island of Dr. Moreau” to the big screen.

Richard Stanley directed such films as “Hardware” (1990) and “Dust Devil” (1992) wanted one of his favorite childhood books to be the next movie to make. He reimagined and wanted bring the Island of Dr Moreau to a more contemporary setting but still stay faithful to the book.

However days into the production Richard Stanley was fired from the movie and was replaced with John Frankenheimer. Reasons as to why Stanley was fired varied from executives from the studio thought he couldn’t handle a big budget movie, to Val Kilmer(who had one of the starting roles in the movie)wanted him replaced.

This movie covers a lot of different view points from various people who were involved in the project including Fairuza Balk who starred in it.

It was a great documentary about the trial and error of the beginning to end of the 1996 movie. The weather barriers, diva movie stars, uninvolved directors etc. I remember really being attached to this movie when it came on cable. I would watched it continuously and be so enthralled in it by the monsters in this. So when I learned about this documentary I had to watch it.

I wasn’t aware of Richard Stanley’s involvement in this movie until I watched the documentary. Now I always will wonder what if he ended up making his movie. I feel like he would of done an interesting post apocalyptic take of the island of Dr. Moreau and been way more successful than the movie that ended up being made.

Fun fact: Even though Richard Stanley was fired and removed from this project he still found a way to be on the set. There was a rumor that he was one of the monster extras!

Until next time!

Patty we are in-sync this week!

This week’s round of comic book cover art:

In the early 1930”s the Kool Cigarette company decided the best way to advertise their cigarettes was with a cartoon penguin. Weird as it seem they released this cartoon short in 1935. Most likely this would of been shown between some newsreels for a movie peg for a mature audience.

The penguin in this short would later became the Kool company’s first mascot named Willie. If you want to know which one Willie is in this cartoon. I assumed he is one of the penguins that are smoking because in countless other ads with Willie he is always holding or smoking a cigarette.

The short starts in the Antarctic where a bunch of penguins leave their cold comfort and death of being skinned to work at the Kool Cigarette factory in Kentucky.

They seemed to be born to work there because they seem to automatically know what to do there and the cartoon takes you through the whole Cigarette assembly line from start to finish.

To how they picked the tobacco leaves to make the Cigarette:

To how the add the “kool” factor:

The penguins are even involved in the finishing small touches

They are even responsible for putting the cigarettes into the packages!

After you witness the whole process you would think that they would pack up the boxes and put in trucks and drive away but actually the penguins fly (apparently penguins can fly in cartoon form) with the Kool Cigarettes and canvass towns and cities with Kool Cigarettes.

One penguin (I’m thinking it is Willie) makes a stop at the Statue of Liberty and gives her a Cigarette and they cartoon ends like this:

You can view this a good chuck of this cartoon on YouTube.

Until next time!

Luann , I swear this week we are totally twinning!

From 1918 to 1920 the world suffered from one of the most deadliest sicknesses that seemed to encompass whole towns, cities and country all at once. Influenza (it was also termed as the “Spanish Flu”) diseased the lives of at least five million people and  killed between fifty to hundred million people.

It deeply affected the population of the early 20th century by cutting the normal life rate of a person by twelve years thus making Influenza one of the most lethal natural disasters in history of mankind. The most venerable to this disease was young adults who were relative healthy vs those with weak immune system.

No one really knows how Influenza start and why it spread like rapid wildfire for two years however they are various theories. One example is that the source started from army bases with men who were prepping to go over seas to fight in World War I. One person had the disease and it spread to other people on the base and so forth. Another theory is that it started in a hospital in Etaples, France where French troops  held a base camp around the hospital and doctors there realize this recent outbreak was both aggressive and quickly in attacking the immune system of young adults, making them sick and killing them with a span of hours or a week.  Something as simple as coughing or sneezing with covering your mouth would cause a frenzy panic among people. Another reason why this kind of flu travel so fast is because people were starting to travel more by new modes of  efficient transportation such as trains, cars and boats.

During those two years of this disease  you would see a rapid advertisements of hoax remedies that claim to cure this sickness.

Unfortunately most of theses products were just gimmicks, super expensive and just did not work. However people brought anything and everything in hopes that it will save themselves and their loves ones from being close to death’s door.

The necessity and demand for nurses and doctors were at a all time high:

Surgical masks were the norm to wear everywhere you go:

They were even nursery rhymes, and cartoons made about this deadly sickness:

At the end of December 1920 this deadly sickness that cause to much death and destruction in it’s path just ended. There was no remedy or medication that caused a cure for it. Less and less cases of the flu were being reported in major cities around the world until it died completely down but it already made it’s mark on the world because it claimed so many lives.

 

 

Until next time!

 

 

 

 

This week’s round of comic book cover art

In 1860 a bunch of fake depth photos (objects are actually farther away than they seemed!)called stereoscopic photographs were made in Paris. It was displayed in sets of small clay figures of scenes of what they assumed the daily life of hell would look like. They deemed this whole art form “Les Diableries.”

These scenes depicted more much of a tongue and cheek take of how life was in Paris during the second empire when Napoleon the 3rd was in power. During his reign it was something like the rich grew richer and the poor became poorer type of society. This art form was a way for a lower classes to get there point across in a digestible way for the when there country was run.

Adolph Block was responsible for publishing these series and only three sculptors were know to have made these scenes. The scenes that have survived were mostly published by Adolph Block.

About five years ago I was walking through a book store and a book called “Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell” by Brian May, Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming caught my attention. It goes in depth about the process of how these scenes were made, the history of the time and how to make your depictions of hell in this kind of art form.

Fun fact: Brian May (from the band Queen) has been collecting these scenes since 1973 and has an extensive collection.

Until next time!

Agnes Skinner we are twins this week!!