I like to see the Muppets embrace new technology. Even though they don't have a Broadcast TV show anymore, they're still churning out quality sketches on-line.
Like this little gem from Muppets Studio and Muppet Labs: The Carve-o-Matic.
A Halloween-themed Special vid featuring Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his trusty lab assistant Beaker in a black-and-orange-balloon-decorated lab and a pumpkin carving machine that would make Tim "Tool Time" Taylor proud.
Do you really need to hear more?
In honor of the latest film in the Twilight series Twilight Saga: New Moon opening today in theaters, I give you this post.
Let me start by saying: The Twilight Saga is not my series.
It's just not for me.
I get that.
But I also get that there is a large following who loves this series.
A series about vampires and werewolves... which I DO like.
I also like jack o' lanterns and pumpkin carving and am a Halloween Addict.
So we'll meet in the middle: below you'll find links to stencils for characters from the Twilight New Moon Saga for use in carving your pumpkins into hot teen hearthrob jack o' lanterns.
Don't thank me. Thank PinkRayGun.com for finding and posting CREATING the stencils in the first place.
There.
See?
Compromise.
From a Halloween Addict to a Twilight addict I say, "Enjoy."
If you don't know, Robot Chicken is a stop-motion animated, sketch comedy show using toys and action-figures as the puppets. The show usually lampoons (a fancy word for "parody") pop culture in all forms. Read up on the wiki HERE.
I've enjoyed the show since its debut back in aught-five and have always wanted them to jump on the Halloween Special bandwagon.
In an effort to find a Robot Chicken Halloween Special I stumbled upon this wonderful little nugget o' fun called simply "The Worst Halloween."
The stop-motion animated short moves along at a clip that even caffeinated hummingbirds won't mind watching and clocks in more jokes per second than any SNL Digital Short.
2009 has been plentiful with Friday the 13ths. We had one in February, March and November.
In February we got the Friday the 13th Remake or Reimagining.
In March we got the Last House on the Left Remake or Reimagining.
What do we get today?
Um... 2012?
No horror today. Just... disaster... which can be horror-ble... um... yeah.
-ahem-
I like to celebrate Friday the 13ths in some way. I consider them sort of cousins to Halloween. (Halloween is on the 31st which, if you switch the numbers, is 13. See? Cousins!)
They don't occur too often so you gotta enjoy 'em when you can.
So, as I'm always looking for an excuse to watch horror movies, I give you a few themes.
1) There's always the mainstream slasher series Friday the 13th. You've got 12 movies to pick from: Friday the 13th Friday the 13th Part 2 Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3D Friday the 13th IV: The Final Chapter Friday the 13th V: A New Beginning Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives Friday the 13th VII: The New Blood
Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday Jason X Freddy Vs. Jason Friday the 13th (2009)
Wow, I guess that means the next film will be the 13th.
No pressure remakers...
2) November 13, 1974 Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his 6 family members at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, NY.
He said the voices in his head told him to do it.
Because of this tragedy, George and Kathy Lutz got a steal of a deal on this house and moved in. Soon after fleeing the house with reports of paranormal activity, the rest --as they say-- is history and you can watch the filmed drama play out in a little film celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year: The Amityville Horror.
3) Lastly: HERE'S a brief article from 1984 by, the master of the macabre, Stephen King for the NY Times on Friday the 13th the DAY.
Keep in mind he wrote that WAY before he wrote "1408" (which if you add up the numbers, equals 13).
Crazy.
If Google has taught us anything this week it's that Sesame Street is celebrating its 40th Anniversary TODAY.
That's right, on November 10, 1969 Sesame Street debuted and has been teaching kids for 40 years what NEAR and FAR is... how to count by a counting vampire called "The Count"... and that monsters sometimes like to be tickled.
You may think that just about everything that can be written HAS been written about It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. But I'll be you haven't read THIS.
Over at Sluganimation.com there's a fantastic article by Justin Hilden that goes into the color design and theory of the Halloween classic and it's a pretty fascinating read.
If you're a fan of the Charles Schulz Peanuts special, whether you know it or not, you probably have some sort of emotional attachment to it, stemming from childhood or the sense memories it evokes. I know, myself, that for such a simply drawn cartoon it certainly takes me back to crisp Autumn nights on the east coast.
Reading the article made me realize that perhaps some of those feelings are being stirred up by the color choices and position of characters in the frame. As Justin analyzes:
Fences change from warm browns to cool blues. The green grass loses its yellow tinge and becomes more saturated. While we have been busy watching Linus wrestle his pumpkin homeward, the very air around the characters has changed and we can feel the coolness of night and a hint of the excitement that darkness will bring to Halloween.
It's an entertaining article and is backed up by various screen grabs used as examples.
Though it's a bit "looking behind the curtain" I think most of us are adult enough to be able to read the article and yet still enjoy the special in the years to come. It will probably make you appreciate It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown even more than you may already do.
"When darkness falls and thunder drums, something speedy this way comes."
I'm not sure if this is a new thing with all videogames, or just SEGA embracing the Halloween holiday (see also my SEGA Bayonetta post HERE).
SEGA has released a Halloween-themed TRAILER for their new racing game "SEGA All-Stars Racing."
It's pretty um, "Halloweeny" in its choices too. It starts out with a flash of a jack o' lantern over the SEGA logo and then the spooky narrator does a modified quote from Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Bats fly across a full moon.
It's certainly got the goods... until the racers show up. Then it's pretty much a racing game commercial.
Further research reveals that there is a playable character from House of the Dead EX and a House of the Dead-themed track too. Which must be where the spooky imagery at the beginning of the trailer comes from.
Might be worth checking out for some Halloween gaming, or just enjoy from afar through THIS trailer.
