The Angry Birds Movie Update: Blake Shelton Is A Big Fat Pig

Posted on January 6, 2016 by geelw

Hey now! Step away from the keyboard and put down that baseball bat, folks. Shelton IS a big fat (and green!) pig. Or more precisely, he’s voicing a big fat (and green!) CG pig named Earl in the upcoming The Angry Birds Movie:

Blake Shelton voices “Earl” in in Columbia Pictures and Rovio Animation’s ANGRY BIRDS.

Of course, the filmmakers aren’t letting the man’s musical talents go to waste at all. The award-winning singer (and co-host of The Voice) is also lending his voice to the film’s soundtrack. No news as t what he’ll be singing or when it will be sung has been revealed, but there’s nothing wrong with a little (or big) surprise, I always say. Um, that does depend on the surprise, though. This counts as a good one.

Adding to an already talented cast that includes Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, Kate McKinnon, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Hannibal Buress, Ike Barinholtz, Jillian Bell, Cristela Alonzo, Danielle Brooks, Romeo Santos, and the YouTube team known as Smosh (Anthony Padilla, Ian Hecox), it looks as if the film will be getting a few (well, a lot) more fans hoofing it to a theater new them when it opens this summer.

Show & Tell: On Ray Harryhausen’s Fairy Tales

Posted on November 8, 2014 by geelw

In regards to every well-worn fairy tale, “It’s not the tale, but how it’s told” is the order of the day. Parents and other creative adults well-versed in story time voices and acting have this mantra branded on their brain cells and know how to make any yarn they spin keep kids at rapt attention. Still, for many of his longtime fans, Ray Harryhausen’s incredible stop-motion versions of Mother Goose stories and five classic fairy tales are some of the most memorable versions ever created.

Save for The Tortoise and the Hare (which was incomplete until its 2002 premiere), I can recall some of these films along with his earlier Mother Goose shorts being shown during assembly hall sessions or in the occasional class where a regular teacher was out sick and the substitute called in hadn’t time to whip up a proper lesson plan. While most of these 16mm shorts were part of my childhood, I’d imagine plenty of today’s little (and more tech savvy) whippersnappers haven’t a clue who Harryhausen was or what made (and still makes him) him great and such a huge inspiration of countless filmmakers and visual effects artists to this day.

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Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein Trailer: Kids Deserve A Better Monster Flick, I Say…

Posted on September 24, 2013 by geelw

“It’s alive… it’s aliiiive!!”

I almost lost it earlier because I saw this in my inbox and thought it was a live-action and CG flick like those other modern films featuring The Chipmunks. Fortunately, it’s only a cartoon, but that doesn’t forgive Universal Studios for this one completely. Look, Frankenstein’s monster has been through animated hell enough already, so you’re not winning any friends among us crankier fans of your classic creations, people. Oh well, I guess it’s “better” than another Scooby Doo rehash (“Zoinks!”) or worse, some indie director trying to make a modern take on the classic book that misses the mark or cheap scares, core effects and a few nude scenes. *Yawn*… Well, this one’s another one I won’t be seeing unless it creeps up on cable and I happen to flip by as it’s beginning. Unless… this is actually an OLDER film and I got suckered by Universal into running it, as their YouTube channel has been running a LOT of trailers for a number of movies from their library recently… if so, oops!