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Archive | July, 2019

Middelboe Chronicles, Part 6: Jonah

By on July 16, 2019 0

I’d planned to follow up Macbeth and Hamlet with yet another tale of obsession, vengeance, and fate, namely Moby-Dick (2000), part of the Middelboeverse “Animated Epics” series.

But although I’ve seen it (it’s really good, and features Rod Steiger voicing Ahab), it seems not to be available online at the moment, so instead I’ll jump to the whale of a tale I would have gone to next after Moby-Dick, namely the biblical story of Jonah (1996), part of the Middelboeverse “Testament: The Bible in Animation” series.

SciFi SongFest, Songs 32-33

By on July 16, 2019 0

What these two songs have in common is … well, I’ll give you a hint:

David Bowie, “Fashion” (1980):

Leslie Fish, “Surprise” (1983):

Middelboe Chronicles, Part 5: Hamlet

By on July 15, 2019 0

Following Macbeth with another tale of a murderous, usurping king and his comeuppance: an especially beautiful, every-frame-a-painting Hamlet (1992), likewise from “Shakespeare: The Animated Tales.”

It begins, like both Olivier’s and Kozintsev’s versions, with waves crashing on the rocks below Elsinore; but the ghost is clearly based quite directly on the Kozintsev ghost – not surprising, given how many artists involved with these projects are Russians, for whom Kozintsev’s work is presumably more familiar than it is to many in the Anglophone audience. (If you get a chance to see the Kozintsev versions of Hamlet and Lear, don’t miss them!)

SciFi SongFest, Songs 30-31

By on July 15, 2019 0

Once again, two non-Bowie songs, but the first one counts as Bowie because I’m also including Bowie’s cover of it:

30. Beatles, “Across the Universe” (1970):

Bowie’s 1975 cover version:

31. Bart Howard (author) and Kaye Ballard (vocals), “Fly Me to the Moon” [a.k.a. “In Other Words”] (1954):

While Kaye Ballard’s version of this song was the first one recorded, the best known version is of course Frank Sinatra’s from 1964:

Middelboe Chronicles, Part 4: Macbeth

By on July 14, 2019 0

Continuing the theme of Scottish tyrants and female magic-workers, we turn from The Green Man of Knowledge to Macbeth (1992), part of “Shakespeare: The Animated Tales” (another series in the Middelboeverse):

With (for some reason) a special appearance by Gandalf in the final scene!

SciFi SongFest, Songs 28-29

By on July 14, 2019 0

“She was not like the other girls ….”

28. David Bowie, “Born in a UFO” (2013):

29. Ash, “Girl from Mars” (1977):

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