How to Get to Watching Sesame Street’s Fantastic History on VOD

1 May

Friday Film Review--"Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street" | KPCWBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Coming to VOD on May 7
Pre-order on Amazon USA

Nearly everybody has watched the educational program Sesame Street, and it’s pretty much in everybody’s childhood for some length of time. It was a product of Joan Ganz Cooney and Carnegie Foundation vice president Lloyd Morrisett. Through many meetings with child educators and psychologists of the 70s, they had a solid idea on what to construct. Many talents worked behind the scenes–namely puppeteers Jim Henson, Caroll Spinney, and Frank Oz (to name a few) and important to this series success is writer/director Jon Stone. In front of the camera, the list is enormous.

Marilyn Agrelo‘s excellent documentary, Street Gang, is a fascinating look from this series humble beginnings to where it is now. The breadth of information compressed to 107 minutes is very comprehensive. If there’s anything missed, it’s only because it didn’t fit into the narrative about what made this show special to children and adults alike.

No show is without some controversy; maybe the play on a Beatles song was too much. At least it’s humorously addressed.

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Is the Pokémon GO’s Snap Celebration Event Broken? My Hopes for May Events…

29 Apr

pokemon-go-logoBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Taking part in these back-to-back Pokémon GO events can be exhausting. Not everyone has to participate, but they do anyways. Part of the reason is that most long-time players want mega candies for specific ‘mons as spawn rates are increased for a few days. I’m after more Magikarp candy myself. They help evolve the lil’ beasts beyond level 40.

The only aspect of the game which keeps me going are the weekly special event completion quests. The rewards are decent. This week’s celebration of the release of Pokémon Snap for the Nintendo Switch is okay at best, and the one-time special field research tasks are incredibly broken. It’s easy to photograph the same wild beast over and over to breeze through the tasks. There’s nothing unique to “photographing” your ‘mon with the real surroundings, other than to post on it twitter with the #gosnapshot hashtag that you’re is participating in this four-day event. The purpose is more about showing off your trophies and so far, all I got was a shiny Lotad. I’ve done a lot of photos of wild pokémon and only had one Smergle show up out of 60 or so snapshots. The rate seems better after random creatures are caught though. It’s hilarious that I can recursively photograph this artist and get another appearing on top over and over. 

In a world that is supposed to be in lockdown because of the third wave of covid-19 cases, we shouldn’t be encouraged to leave home and find these pocket monsters. Technically, it can all be avoided since parks and outdoor spaces allow for distancing. 

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Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans Teaser Trailer & Thoughts

29 Apr

Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans Teaser and Release Date RevealedBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans will release July 21, 2021, and the three series which make up the Tales of Arcadia will truly come together. Princess Aja and Prince Krel Tarron barely had a presence in the third arc, Wizards. I hope they are more involved in the film. The teaser trailer which dropped this week suggests big things.

The title brings to mind the Greek giants of yore. Executive producer Guillmero del Toro loves playing with mythology, and we may see all twelve “titans” and the mother of them all–Gaea (Earth)–as this series antagonists. She represents more than just creation. Some see her moods shifting with the seasons, and I feel the life, death and rebirth cycle also factors in. One of the monsters they face looks like a giant-sized cross between a Heatran and Gigalith from Pokemon GO, and I doubt the combined team want to catch this mad beast.

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The Details are on The Last Action Hero 4K Release this May!

29 Apr

Finally, Last Action Hero Is Coming To 4K Blu-ray On May 18thRELEASE DATE:
May 18th, 2021

Available to preorder on Amazon USA

The magic of action cinema can’t look any more pristine in this remaster of an 80s classic which stars Jack Slater (Arnold Schwarzenegger). All those explosions and crazy stunts is sure to colour this release–and we get a well-meaning fantasy to boot!

This movie is cheesy in its tribute to the many action adventure films this era is famous for. In reality, the movie is about a young boy who doesn’t have a father-figure in his life. We can relate in how this boy retreats to a movie house in order to live out a fantasy. He finds solace and a strength to be his own hero by the film’s end.

There’s all new features included in this 4K release! The blu-ray edition had none and anyone who has been patiently waiting will be glad to find this definitive edition will have everything you’d want, including an alternate ending!

SYNOPSIS
Young Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien) is a lonely 11-year-old boy who escapes from his bleak reality by watching the action adventure movies of his favorite film character, Jack Slater (Schwarzenegger). When his best friend, Nick the projectionist, gives him a special ticket to the new Slater film, Danny is magically transported into Jack’s world, where the good guys always win. Danny becomes his helper as Jack battles a trio of nefarious bad guys, Benedict (Charles Dance), Vivaldi (Anthony Quinn) and The Ripper (Tom Noonan). But things get out of hand when Benedict steals Danny’s magic ticket stub and transports himself into the real world, where crime can, and often does, pay. Jack and Danny must leave fictional Los Angeles for real-life New York and battle the villains without the aid of movie magic or stuntmen.

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In Search for that MPLS Sound…

27 Apr

MPLS Sound - Softcover TradeBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Life Drawn Publishing
Available to order on Amazon USA

Spoiler Alert

Some graphic novels can benefit from having that MPLS Sound if pressing those cheap plastic vinyl records is possible. This book could have been brought up a notch had it included a soundtrack too, as an insert or digital code, so readers can benefit from listening to the music that defined that Minneapolis style.

In this book’s case by Joseph P. Illidge & Hannibal Tabu, it’s about why Starchild aka Theresa Booker became a musician. she fell in love with the music that not only Jimi Hendrix made famous but also Prince. It’s also an indirect look at who the musician Prince is and what he represents. Not everyone knows his origin story, and Theresa’s tale is supposed to represent his struggles as a musician. After reading this illustrated work, however, I have to revisit Purple Rain. Both works examine how tough it is to become respected in the music industry. The fictional characters introduced in this book felt very real.

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