What a photo op! The city councilman and his wacky pal!

With the actual trailer for The Dark Knight set to premier at some point in the very very near future, I've been feeling inspired to doodle.
And doodle I have.

On my new toshiba pc, there was a lovely piece of software called Alias Sketchbook Pro. The first time I opened it, I was amused at how dinky it was. So simple and featureless. Man what a dumbass I was. I mean sheesh. It has no effects, no features, and a limited set of brushes, but it doesn't need them.
It's absolutely perfect in its simplicity. Like MsPaint except a decent piece of software.
So the other day I drew my own version of the Joker. Slightly based off the pre-Timm Joker but with my own bit of a style added.

I like to draw fiendish smiles on everything. I dont know why.

Anyway, the software is great. It's specifically for pressure sensitive tablets meaning the harder you press, the thicker the line, just like a real pencil or brush. It's got to have the most realisic looking digital pencil I've seen in a piece of art software. It's downright frightening.
Using this thing with SketchbookPro isnt quite as silky smooth or easy as using a real pen or paper, but its better than anything else I've tried.
Today I was doodling again. The first thing I drew was an ugly-as-shit generic robot that I erased as quickly as possible (much like the viking ship I doodled yesterday) and in it's place I drew a horrible monster.

Yet another thing with a freakish evil grin. Why do I feel compelled to give so many things huge freaky smiles.
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(incoming big dumb rant)


You know, I try not to rant on this blog, because it seems like almost all the other artist blogs out there are just people whining about the good ol' days and why everything these days sucks and why so-and-so sucks for drawing like this or this or whatever blahbedy blahbedy bullshit.
However, I think the time has come to discuss this:

You know, over the last few decades there have been alot of movie retreads of cartoons. Most are done in live action because its cheaper. Some of them are pretty decent like the Flinstones Movie with John Goodman. Some are utter shit like Underdog and, sadly, Garfield.
Guess which category Alvin and the Chipmunks fits in with?
Lets tackle all the problems here. First of all, there was already an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. And it was great for the most part. Now, as much as I liked Jason Lee in "My Name is Earl" and "The Incredibles" he's been making some shitty movie choices as of late. I will admit, he makes a decent Dave, but surely he knew what kind of film this was? The origin story of the Chipmunks has been changed. They break into Dave's house now? And knock him unconscious? Oh okay. Heaven forbid, you know, we try to provide a decent backstory, or hell even use the original story from the cartoon. I realize, with this being live-action, they HAD to use realistic-looking chipmunks. And hey, I'm ok with that, except for the fact the chipmunks are only about 5 inches tall. And their faces...oh god their faces. I dont even wanna know what the chipette's must look like. By the looks of the trailers that have been playing over and over and over on tv, the characters seem to have the same "too much motion blur than is needed" problem that Garfield had. Why is DAVID CROSS in this? Has he gone mad? Why do Alvin, Simon, AND Theodore all sound exactly the SAME? What happened to them having slightly different voices? They all sound like Alvin now? Was it too expensive to adjust the octaves on the sound-editing software a few notches?
And of course, rather than getting voice actors, they have relied on celebrities to do the voices. WOW JUSTIN LONG. I CAN TOTALLY RECOGNIZE HIS VOICE IN THIS. Oh wait. No I cant because its been altered to a chipmunk voice. A waste of a paycheck to a big-name star.
This movie clearly runs on the same stupid fuel alot of other "family films" have been running on. There's a fart joke in that trailer, and a poop joke in the other one. WHY DOES ALVIN EAT POOP? WHY ARE TURTLE FIGHT ON TRUCK? Was that the best amusing thing the writers could come up with? Making a classic cartoon character devour the feces of his brother? I'm not even touching the "Bow chicka wow wow" bit that's been repeated in every trailer. The fact the chipmunks even know what porn music IS shows the sort of standards adhered to in this film.

You know, crap as Garfield the Movie was, at least they didnt change the characters personalities. Why is Simon acting like Alvin in this?
The only part that gives me any hope in this was that little bit at the end where Theodore tells Dave about his nightmare. They perfectly captured Theodore's cuteness and fraidy-cat personality. And they even went through the trouble of altering his facial expression unlike the poop-eating trailer where neither Simon or Theodore move a muscle whilst Alvin downs the fresh hearty log of shit.

And....was that a Fergie song Alvin was singing? FERGIE? Is that the highest quality music Hollywood managed to dredge up to use in this movie? WHY DAVID CROSS WHY!?

IN SUMMARY: NEEEEEEEEEEERD RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(end of big dumb rant)
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In happier movie news, I was lucky enough to see Enchanted with a few buddies the other day.
And I must say, it was hilarious. Wonderfully quirky and weird without seeming forced. Great 2d animation, funny acting, perfect casting.
It actually reminded me of Hocus Pocus, which is a great funny movie with Bette Midler as this 1700's witch whom along with her two dumb sisters, gets stuck in 1995. It's a real hoot. Sadly Disney released it nowhere near Halloween so it bombed majestically.
Speaking of Holidays, it's December! And I have yet to drink any eggnog or eat any pumpkin pie. What the fuck is with that? I have shamed this holiday. I am going to make it a point tomorrow to get some Nog from the gas station and slurp it on down, no matter how watery it may be.

But now the time has come to listen to music and drift hopefully into sleep.
I bid you all good day.