Showing posts with label Mermaids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mermaids. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Saturday, May 20, 2023

The fight in the fountain!



I've failed to find the original version of the cartoon embedded below, so I can't give proper credit nor do I even remember the actual title... but I found this short cartoon featuring an indignant mermaid and her attempts to defeat a statue of a little boy peeing hilarious when I first saw it many, MANY years ago and I find it hilarious today. I hope you do, too!


And if anyone out there knows the original source and creator of this animation, please let me know, so I can give them proper credit and put a review header on this video. (It's an easy Nine of Ten Stars, by the way.)

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

It's Mermay!

Some say mermaids are just imaginary creatures... but we have photos that prove otherwise! 



 
  
 
 

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Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Low-budget Amateur Film with an Excellent Script!

Sirene en Captivte (Mermaid in Captivity) (2014)
Starring: Fallon Hammer, Nick Sarnelli, and Lucas Waldron
Director: Alyssa Waldron
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A cruel freakshow operator (Sarnelli) captures a mermaid (Hammer) and puts her on display. But some beings are not meant to be caged...

Fallon Hammer in "Mermaid in Captivity'

If you've been around this blog for a while, you know we like to go digging in obscure corners of YouTube for student and amateur films and then share those we think are worthy of your time and attention.

We came upon "Mermaid in Captivity" while looking for items that tied in with the Mermay theme we presently have going on. It's another one of those films made by young high-schoolers or college kids trying to emulate the old-time silent movies, presumably for a class project. Overall, it's slightly better than most such efforts, but there are two things that writer/director Alyssa Waldron did better with this effort than a majority of her filmmaking peers.

First, she clearly had a general sense of what she could and couldn't pull off with the resources she had at her disposal. She didn't attempt to show us the mermaid swimming under water, but through excellent use of intertitles and some creative camera work that is meant to seem like we are looking through the mermaids eyes as she swims to the surface, she still manages to convey the notion of a mermad in her natural habitat. While a better job could possibly have been done on the aquarium the mermaid is placed in, it could also have been far worse.

Second, the script for this film is excellent. The unfolds swiftly, the characters are well-drawn, and the shocking twist that kicks off the finale is extremely well set up and filmed. While the lack of budget and developing skills of the director/cinematographer behind the camera and the actors in front of it are apparent, might tempt some viewers to stop watching when the carnival owner goes into black-hatted, mustache-twirling borderline parody of a silent movie melodrama villain... but that would be a mistake. The story in this film, and how it's presented, is far superior to many productions at this level. (I don't know if Waldron went onto a career as a writer, but I certainly hope so. She seems to have had the talent for it.)

Take a few minutes to watch this film by clicking below.

Thursday, May 4, 2023

Magicians and Mermaids and Babes--Oh My!

The Mermaid (1904)
Starring: Georges Méliès
Director: Georges Méliès
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A magician (Méliès) uses water from an empty fish tank to summon fish, a mermaid, and sirines. Along the way, he performs a variety of other summonings, as well as transformations of both himself and the mermaid.


This is one of the more impressive performance videos that Méliès produced. The transitions that create the in-camera effects are generally so smooth that they rival effects you see made today, 120 years and technology that Méliès couldn't have dreamed of later.

The only weakness of this film arises because of circumstances beyond Méliès' control, such as the wind blowing the hammock and the positions of the fish swimming around in the aquarium. Most viewers--especially back in 1904 when this film premiered--will have their attention focused on the main action, though, so the weird little disruptions in motion and teleporting fish escapes notice... just like they would during a live magic show where keeping the audience focused on a specific thing is important to maintaining an illusion. Since I, as a reviewer, am looking for flaws, I pointing out some very nitpicky weaknesses in this otherwise excellent effort from a trailblazing special effects artist.

But you shouldn't take my word for it. Take a minute out of your busy day to watch a little old-time movie magic by clicking below!


Wednesday, May 3, 2023

It's Mermay!

For several years, artists have been posting pictures of mermaids every day in the month of May in observance of MerMay. This tradition was originated by veteran animator and illustrator Tom Bancroft to encourage young artists to hone their skills and share their work.

We're going to kinda-sorta take part in MerMay this year, with each Picture Perfect Wednesday this month spotlighting Chicks of the Sea!

We're kicking things off with Ann Blyth in a couple of promotional photos for "Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid". (We may even get around to posting a review of that film later this month.)
 
Ann Blyth as a mermaid
Ann Blyth as a mermaid

 
Here's a vaguely sea-related song to get the month started right. (Maybe we'll post a song every Wednesday, too, if we find ones that are appropriate!)



Thursday, July 15, 2021

This 'Jest of Honor' deserves your attention

Jest of Honor (1934)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors (delivering two lines consisting of nonsense words)
Director: Vernon Stallings
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

The Little King inadvertently triggers an insurrection in a coastal town after getting busy with a mermaid.



"Jest of Honor" is seven-and-a-half-minutes of fast-moving nonsense. In fact, it will go by so fast that you'll be surprised that it's over. This is because this film, like many of "The Little King" series features animation that is among the best you'll find in any Van Beuren offering, and because there is not a moment where something that is visually interesting isn't happening on-screen--and there isn't a set-up that doesn't resolve itself into a well-timed visual gag.

Two of the most interesting points about this installment in this series is that although it consists of bits of action that are almost entirely nonsensical (from the Little King's introduction, though his interaction with fish and a mermaid, through a bizarre tickertape parade, and into the revolt during the climax) they all fit together to form a story that is more complete and coherent than what you'll find in most Van Beuren animation--with a beginning, a middle, an end, and even a denouement. The fact that the nonsense bits feed into each other and add up to a complete story is perhaps also one of the reasons the "Jest of Honor" flies by the way it does; there's nothing to take you out of the moment as you watch it. Secondly, the character designs continue to distinguish between the Little King and his servants and staff and the subjects of the kingdom. The subjects have few sharp angles, unlike the king and those at his court.

One other interesting bit of trivia in the character design department... the mermaids that the Van Beuren heroes Tom & Jerry came across a year earlier in "Rocketeers" were both more sensible in their outfits and even a little sexier than the one in "Jest of Honor". It doesn't really impact the overall cartoon, but it is the one point where a Tom & Jerry outing not animated by Jim Tyre beat "The Little King" series quality-wise.

But why don't you check out "Jest of Honor" and maybe let everyone know if you agree or disagree with my take on it? Just click below, sit back, and watch.


Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Closing Out Mermay

Mermaid by Whitley Sandel

The annual MerMay festival/challenge (where artists create a mermaid piece that incorporates a pre-determined theme assigned to each day in the month of May) is coming to a close. We're marking the occasion with a random selection of mermaid portraits for your enjoyment, including one by Mermay-originator Tom Bancroft. (We wouldn't have known this was a Thing if not for a random comment from Frank Cho.)



Mermaid by Paul Abrams


Mermaid by Milo Manara

Mermaid by Tom Bancroft

Thursday, January 2, 2020

'Rocketeers' is something of a misfire

Tom and Jerry: Rocketeers (1932)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors
Directors: John Foster and George Rufle
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

Tom and Jerry build an experimental rocket intending to go to the Moon. After the rocket misfires, out heroes instead find themselves exploring a strange world at the bottom of the sea and frolicking with mermaids.



The title made me excited for this one, and I hoped I was in for surreal sci-fi weirdness similar to "Astronomeous" or "The '?' Motorist". Instead... well, let's just say I was disappointed. This Tom and Jerry installment has the crisp, fluid animation that I so love in this series, as well as a hefty amount of the cartoon physics and physical transformations that I love in many of the cartoons from the late 1920s and early 1930s, but I just couldn't enjoy this one.

I can't really point to something that made me cringe or that I found boring--I just wasn't engaged with the one I the way I've been with some of the other "Tom and Jerry" installments. Maybe it's because I can't watch it through th eyes of a 6 year-old, and so I couldn't get past the notion of Tom and Jerry surviving, not to mention singing and dancing and playing the piano, on the bottom of the ocean as easily as they would on land. Maybe it's because the music wasn't as good in this one as in some of the others. I don't know... I just couldn't get into this one the way I did with "The Piano Tooners", for example.

That said... "Rocketeers" did contain both the most horrific scene I've ever encountered in a cartoon, as well as one of the cutest. The first involves Tom and Jerry merging into a single, singing creature, while the second is them dancing and singing with mermaids. The unbridled insanity of cartoons from the late 1920s and early 1930s is both the stuff of dreams and nightmares...

Why don't you take a few minutes out of your day and check out "Rocketeers" for yourself? I've embedded it below for your convience and viewing pleasure. I would also love to hear your opinions!

Friday, September 18, 2015

Mermaids: The Deadliest Catch?

NUELOW Games has just released its latest art pack--"Mermaids & Skin Divers." Here are a few samples.

By Ralph Mayo
By Dick Ayers
Like always, the artwork in this set is licensed to purchasers to use in almost any way they like. You can see previews of the entire collection (as well as the royalty-free usage license)  by clicking here to visit RPGNow.