Okay, “Iron Man 3” doesn’t come out until May, but we can enjoy some teasery goodness, can’t we?
The teaser trailer is apparently coming this weekend. And above is the teaser poster.
Oh, Marvel, you tease.
It’s that time of year again. Time for the return of the ultimate trio of monster cereals.
Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry, of course.
I was at Target today and snapped the picture above of a Count Chocula box. It was part of a display, near the checkout, of the three General Mills monster cereals.
Talk about your impulse buy aimed at 30-, 40- and 50-somethings.
Although there are plenty of indications General Mills makes the three cereals year-round, they seem to show up on store shelves every fall.
General Mills’ own website makes the connection to the fall release of the cereals:
Remember the excitement of autumn back in your childhood years?
Fall brought pumpkins, falling leaves, and a fun holiday when you could morph into anything you desired. With a mental image of the character selected, you devised a brilliant Halloween costume idea. There were parties, caramel apples, and chewy peanut butter kisses, and breakfast.
Monster breakfasts.
Count Chocula and Franken Berry were introduced not for Halloween, though, but in March 1971. Boo Berry, a ghostly figure, came along in December 1972.
General Mills doesn’t say so, but the cereals were almost certainly intended to capitalize on the rebirth of interest, beginning in the late 1950s and continuing into the 1970s, of the classic Universal Studios monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy.
That interest had been kicked off by the release to television of the “Shock Theater” package of 30s and 40s Universal horror classics.
While I was fond of the cereals, I don’t remember some of the spin-offs and freebies. Like a record, “Monster Adventures in Outer Space,” that must have been included in cereal boxes.
Anyone else remember the two discontinued monster cereals? I can’t say that I remember either Fruit Brute or Fruity Yummy Mummy.
They were introduced at a later date and didn’t have a long shelf life. Pun intended.
The monster images changed somewhat over the years. Above is an earlier Count Chocula image.
One thing that hasn’t changed? The monster cereals are “part of this nutritious breakfast!”
Considering what a clever show Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was, it shouldn’t be surprising that its treatment of Halloween would be exceptional.
More than a few series use “Halloween” as an easy holiday to hang an episode on. “Community” and “Roseanne” got some good laughs out of putting their characters into freaky costumes and situations.
But part of what made “Buffy” Halloween episodes special was the premise that Halloween was indeed different for the Scooby Gang and the rest of the people living on the Hellmouth.
Halloween, the characters note, is something of a night off for real-life creatures of the night and the people who battle them. Self-respecting vampires like Spike consider Halloween “amateur night,” kind of the way big drinkers feel about New Year’s Eve.
The series’ second-season episode, “Halloween,” finds Buffy, Willow and Xander going out in costume to trick-or-treat. What they don’t know is that the costumes are cursed and make the wearer adopt the traits of the outfits. Buffy’s old-timey lady costume turns her into a shrinking violet. Willow’s ghost costume turns her into … a ghost.
It’s a great episode, the first of three set on Halloween that the series featured.
Random observations:
Xander’s guise as a soldier – and his instant depth of knowledge about the ways of a warrior – are retained, in a way, after the episode ends. His skills come in handy in later episodes.
The episode introduces not only costume shop/chaos worshipper Ethan Rayne, an old frenemy of Giles, but gives an early indication of Giles’ past as much more than a stuffy old watcher.
We once again see Oz, Willow’s future significant other, as the series continues to tease us with important characters still to come.
Could. Not. Be. Any. Cuter.
Seriously, our latest dip into vintage Halloween costumes is probably the cutest picture yet.
The devil on the left is pretty doggone cute.
But the Frankenstein on the right? Wow.
Maybe it’s the cute grimace in the mask. Or the cheesy tunic.
But I personally think it’s the upraised hands, fingers curled in monster-ific fashion.
Awwww!
Bonus points if anybody can identify the costumes. I did Google image searches to see if the costumes were from Collegeville or Ben Cooper, big makers of kids costumes in the 1950s and beyond, and didn’t come across them.
DC Comics won a round – maybe the final round – in the long-running legal battle over rights to the Superman character just yesterday, and today’s L.A. Times says DC/Warner Bros. is planning to release a “Justice League” movie in 2015.
Interesting timing there, DC. It just so happens that the “Avengers” sequel comes out in the summer of 2015.
For years now, DC has been unable to get its rich comic book catalogue onto the big screen in any successful manner besides Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” movies. Although Nolan is overseeing “Man of Steel” for next summer, he and his grim and gritty Batman weren’t a likely fit for a “Justice League” movie.
In other words, it seemed like DC/Warners/Nolan were as ashamed of colorful characters and tights as 20th Century Fox was back when they put the “X-Men” in black leather rather than blue and yellow.
The Times article indicates that DC will not try to introduce its “Justice League” heroes in solo big-screen adventures before teaming them up.
Here are some questions we’ll be interested in seeing answered sometime:
Will Henry Cavill, set to star in “Man of Steel” next year, return as Superman in “Justice League?” Or is Cavill one and done before his movie even comes out?
Will Joseph Gordon-Levitt play Robin John Blake as Batman in “Justice League?” Or will DC ensure that Bruce Wayne is the Batman we’ll see in the team-up movie? And we know that won’t be Christian Bale.
Will they find a “realistic” actress to play Wonder Woman? Or will the Amazon Princess be played by a five-foot-tall, 100-pounder?
Will Ryan Reynolds return as Green Lantern? It seems unlikely. How about making GL the GL that kids know, John Stewart?
Which “other” Leaguers will make the cut? We have to have the Flash. How about Aquaman? One of the Hawks? Cyborg, who’s part of the current comic book lineup?
Will DC’s apparent intention to introduce the characters in the team-up movie – a probably necessary reversal of Marvel’s strategy of introducing the future “Avengers” in solo movies – work?
And can we please, please, please avoid mini-origin stories for each JL member?
I might as well link to this since everyone else is.
Here’s a link to one of many, many places online where you can find pictures taken inside the Nightmare Fear Factory, a haunted house on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.
The haunted house’s owners put still and video cameras at strategic scary parts of the haunted house. The resulting photos are hilarious.
Enjoy.
I dread the onset of winter, but I really like a lot about fall: Halloween, crisp colors and the colors of turning leaves.
So here are a few fall pics I snapped with my iPhone while on a walk tonight.
Close up or at a distance, the colors are so warm they belie the cool weather.
Jet trails make a nice contrasting image.
Here’s another of our looks back at old-timey Halloween costumes, pulled from the vast array somebody plunked down on the Internet.
Your guess is as good as mine – likely better – on a time frame for this snapshot. The boots on the kid in the middle are interesting and make me guess early first half of the 20th century.
As for the costumes?
The fringe on the kids on the outside makes me think they’re western getups, maybe Indian costumes.
And while I can’t quite figure out the mask on the kid in the middle, that outfit sure looks like one worn by a clown or jester.
More next time.
Disney announced today the Nov. 6, 2015 release of “Ant-Man,” directed by Edgar Wright and featuring the longtime Marvel Comics hero. No casting has yet been announced.
Why should we be excited about “Ant-Man?” He’s just a guy who shrinks, right?
Wrong. Here’s why we’re excited about “Ant-Man.”
Edgar Wright. This is the guy who directed cult classics like “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz.” And he loves Ant-Man. He’ll bring an offbeat approach to a somewhat offbeat hero.
He’s important. Ant-Man, also known as Henry Pym, was a founding member of the Avengers. He’s been there since the beginning – in the comics, at least. He’s linked to the Wasp, his girlfriend/wife Janet Van Dyne, who in the comics gave the team its name.
He might be edgy. If they choose to go that way, “Ant-Man” as a solo movie or member of “The Avengers” paves the way for some domestic drama. In some versions of the character, Pym has anger control issues and even abuses his wife. It’s a character point not unlike Tony Stark’s alcoholism. It might not make its way into the movies, but a lot of people will be wondering and speculating, and that creates buzz.
Ant-Man is not Aquaman. I love Aquaman as much as anybody, but he’s (unfairly) received a reputation as the worst member of the Justice League. And to the outside observer, Ant-Man seems just as limited. He shrinks. Hmm. But in reality, Henry Pym has a lot of cool capabilities – apparently the Ant-Man test footage screened this summer at conventions demonstrated this – and they’re not all based around shrinking. Pym has also, at various times, adopted other personnas including Giant-Man (Guess what? He not only shrinks!) and Yellowjacket (Goes with Wasp, get it?). Plus he’s a genius, not unlike Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. Getting Pym on the team will add a lot to the roster.
Most of all, Ant-Man’s existence in the Marvel movie universe paves the way for my favorite Avengers villain of all time, Ultron, an android created by Pym who becomes a recurring and deadly enemy for the supergroup. If the next “Avengers” movie – due out a few months before “Ant-Man” – revolves around Thanos – that guy glimpsed in the end credits of “The Avengers” – then Ultron would make a great bad guy for the third movie.
Excited yet?
When last we saw the survivors of the zombie apocalypse, they had weathered a long, long season at Hershel’s farm and were on the verge of discovering the prison where, we imagine, much of the third season of “The Walking Dead” will take place. Andrea, meanwhile, has been rescued from walkers by a mysterious woman with a sword and two zombies in chains.
The woman is, of course, Michonne, a fan favorite from the comics, here played by Danai Guirara. She’s only one of the changes in the new season.
Tonight’s third season premiere of “The Walking Dead,” “Seed,” opened with Rick leading the others into a a house, cleaning it of zombies. Months have passed. We can tell because Lori is pretty far along into her pregnancy. The group has turned to foraging in a big way. Carl rustles up canned food and Daryl shoots and plucks an owl. (Sorry Hedwig.)
The group comes across the prison and it seems like a natural hunkering-down place, complete with two sets of fencing to keep walkers out. The survivors set about cleaning the inside of the prison of zombies. Because they’re low on ammo, that means hand-to-zombie-hand combat. There’s some funny, innovative stuff here, including how you kill walker prison guards in protective riot gear.
While the prison assault – yeesh – is taking place, we meet Michonne, who is a badass. She and Andrea have formed a bond over the past few months as well. I’m looking forward to their getting to Woodbury, the town overseen by the Governor.
Aside from the gleefully gory walker extermination scenes, a lot of tonight’s episode left me oddly unmoved until near the very end, a nicely claustrophobic inside the prison that seems to seals the fate of a major character.
Random thoughts:
I know Daryl looks cool on it, but I wouldn’t be riding a motorcycle with zombies lurching around. Same for Maggie’s strappy tank top, hot as it is. I’d be wearing heavy Carhartts or something.
New opening credits. Still pretty creepy.
Lots of walker wasting tonight.
Daryl wields a crossbow and gives backrubs? He’s dreamy.
Still can’t bring myself to care about Lori. Just can’t.
keithroysdon 