From: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org (stillpt-digest) To: stillpt-digest@smoe.org Subject: stillpt-digest V4 #43 Reply-To: stillpt@smoe.org Sender: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk stillpt-digest Saturday, March 16 2002 Volume 04 : Number 043 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: normal again??? [GHighPine@aol.com] Re: normal again??? ["David S. Bratman" ] Re: normal again??? [Joseph Zitt ] Re: normal again??? ["David S. Bratman" ] Re: normal again??? [GHighPine@aol.com] Re: normal again??? [GHighPine@aol.com] Re: normal again??? [allenw ] Re: normal again??? ["Marta Grabien" ] Re: normal again??? ["David S. Bratman" ] Re: normal again??? ["David S. Bratman" ] Re: normal again??? [GHighPine@aol.com] Re: normal again??? [GHighPine@aol.com] Re: normal again??? ["David S. Bratman" ] Re: normal again??? ["Marta Grabien" ] Re: normal again??? ["Marta Grabien" ] Re: normal again??? ["Berni Phillips" ] Re: normal again??? ["Berni Phillips" ] Re: normal again??? [Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury ] Re: normal again??? [Todd Huff ] Re: normal again??? [Joseph Zitt ] Re: normal again??? [GHighPine@aol.com] Re: normal again??? [Joseph Zitt ] Re: normal again??? [meredith ] o/smg commits career suicide [meredith ] Re: normal again??? ["Marta Grabien" ] Re: o/smg commits career suicide ["Marta Grabien" ] Re: o/smg commits career suicide ["David S. Bratman" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 10:47:40 EST From: GHighPine@aol.com Subject: Re: normal again??? In a message dated 3/14/02 9:05:42 PM Pacific Standard Time, jzitt@metatronpress.com writes: << Sunnydale also has a pretty high mortality rate, especially among the young and not too bright, which I suspect seriously cuts into the DoubleMeat Palace talent pool. >> LOL! And it makes sense! Gayle ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 09:16:05 -0800 From: "David S. Bratman" Subject: Re: normal again??? At 08:51 PM 3/14/2002 , Meredith wrote: >I don't know, the whole "I spent two weeks in an institution" thing just >stank of Convenient Plot Point to me. It seemed to come way out of left >field, and even after reading the various pointers people have raised here, >it still rings rather hollow. I'm with Donald in considering the "Summers blood" plot point last season to be not only hollow, overly convenient, and out of left field, but completely inconsistent with the other known facts. But this one doesn't bother me. Clearly, we need a comparative test for personal impressions of hollowness. Maybe knocking on the plot points with our knuckles and listening for the sound. >The cutting back-and-forth between the two worlds was brilliantly done. Yes, but either not as brilliantly as previous such instances, or else I'm getting blase. >>She was damn lucky no one broke her/his neck when thrown down those stairs! > >No kidding. Based on some rumors I have seen floating around about this >season, I was honestly afraid that something awful was going to happen to >Tara, at the very least (since reason dictated that Joss wouldn't dispose >of an opening-credits character). Yeah, they're not wearing red shirts. Joss has done some daring things with disposing of other characters, but unlike Berni I just couldn't believe that the demon-attack scene was a disaster in the making. And I couldn't believe it more for external than internal reasons. Too mundane a demon after all the unstoppable Adams and such we've had before, too many previous narrow escapes from demons without Buffy's help, too many times that Buffy has abandoned her duty before, too many times that Angel or Spike has gone psycho, too big a potential massacre of opening-credit characters, and most of all, MOST of all, too far from the end of the season. If I were really there, even if I were as cool about demon-attacks as Willow and Xander have become over the years (to the extent that they are), of course I'd be as worried as ever. Any time could be it. And this was intended to be searing, and was for many. But as a viewer, my buttons have been pushed too often. This particular button is getting worn out. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 12:16:57 -0600 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: normal again??? On Fri, Mar 15, 2002 at 09:16:05AM -0800, David S. Bratman wrote: > If I were really there, even if I were as cool about demon-attacks as > Willow and Xander have become over the years (to the extent that they are), > of course I'd be as worried as ever. Any time could be it. And this was > intended to be searing, and was for many. But as a viewer, my buttons have > been pushed too often. This particular button is getting worn out. Yeah, I didn't have any real worries about any of the characters dying in this one -- they've been in enough trouble before that I worried about how, but not if, they'd escape. OTOH, remember that they killed off Buffy's mom mid-season. And that ST:TNG pulled off one of its more shocking deaths by having a random and somewhat trivial goop monster offhandedly kill Tasha Yar. - -- | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | New book: Surprise Me with Beauty: the Music of Human Systems | | http://www.metatronpress.com/nj/smwb.html | | Latest CDs: Collaborations/ All Souls http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 09:40:17 -0800 From: "David S. Bratman" Subject: Re: normal again??? At 10:16 AM 3/15/2002 , Joseph wrote: >OTOH, remember that they killed off Buffy's mom mid-season. And likewise with Jenny. But those weren't as big as this would have been. Big big changes, like killing off half the regular cast would be, are always end of season; we expect that by now. >And that >ST:TNG pulled off one of its more shocking deaths by having a random >and somewhat trivial goop monster offhandedly kill Tasha Yar. Which is why it _would_ have been shocking if this demon really _did_ kill Xander, Willow, et al. The more so because I was firmly expecting it not to happen. And sure enough, it didn't. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 12:39:51 EST From: GHighPine@aol.com Subject: Re: normal again??? In a message dated 3/15/02 9:16:12 AM Pacific Standard Time, dbratman@stanford.edu writes: << reason dictated that Joss wouldn't dispose >of an opening-credits character). >> I don't think that reason dictates that. Nor does past history of the show. Being in the opening credits means that the actor is under contract that guarantees his or her availability. and thus must be paid for every episode during the contract period whether he or she appears or not, since the contractual obligation precludes them from accepting other work. (Hence, the industry term is "contract player.") Contracts used to run for whole seasons minimum, hence our gut (TV-experience-based) sense that contract players cannot be killed mid-season. But that is no longer the case. A contract can run for as few as five episodes nowadays. If a contract player is killed or eliminated from the story, it is usually planned to coincide with the end of their contract for obvious reasons (otherwise the show has to keep paying someone after they are dead!) but contracts usually specify that the contract player cannot publicly reveal the length of their contract, so we as viewers have no warning about whose number is up. My vote for likeliest to die this season: Spike. Gayle ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 12:52:06 EST From: GHighPine@aol.com Subject: Re: normal again??? In a message dated 3/15/02 9:27:18 AM Pacific Standard Time, jzitt@metatronpress.com writes: << this was > intended to be searing, and was for many. But as a viewer, my buttons have > been pushed too often. This particular button is getting worn out. >> I didn't think anyone would die, but it was certainly searing to see Buffy coldly send her friends to their intended deaths. That is a button that's never been pushed before... or if it has, when? The death of trust can be as shocking as the death of a character. How can her friends ever totally and completely trust her sanity again? In the "real" Sunnydale world, Buffy has now gone bonkers in a deadly way. That's an interesting take that just occurred to me now.... as she grew more sane in the Doctor World, she grew more insane in the Sunnydale World, and vice versa. Gayle ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 11:55:16 -0600 (CST) From: allenw Subject: Re: normal again??? Spoiler Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > In a message dated 3/15/02 9:16:12 AM Pacific Standard Time, > dbratman@stanford.edu writes: > << reason dictated that Joss wouldn't dispose > >of an opening-credits character). >> > True, but then Tara (not really an opening-credits gal) walked in. And there've been rumors she's going to die every season since she was introduced, including this one. I still remember the exact moment I realized that "Buffy", the show, was something special; when the possessed students ate Principal Flutie 5-6 episodes in. I was already impressed when Xander ate the cute piglet earlier in the ep, and then: Flutie, continuing character, in every episode since the pilot, somewhat sympathetic, harmless: student-chow, just like that. Like Snyder said, "that's the kind of wooly-headed liberal thinking that gets you eaten." Granted, I would have been even *more* impressed if Xander had taken part in the Flutie-feast too. ;) Anyone know if Joss planned that from the start, or was there some issue with the actor? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 09:57:38 -0800 From: "Marta Grabien" Subject: Re: normal again??? > My vote for likeliest to die this season: Spike. > Noooooooooooooooooooo. He is too yummy a character to die. Of course that may doom him. btw, Warren has outlived his usefullness. Johnathan was in the first Buffy show ever. I think he will be a hero of sorts. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 10:11:05 -0800 From: "David S. Bratman" Subject: Re: normal again??? At 09:39 AM 3/15/2002 , Gayle wrote: >In a message dated 3/15/02 9:16:12 AM Pacific Standard Time, >dbratman@stanford.edu writes: > ><< reason dictated that Joss wouldn't dispose > >of an opening-credits character). >> Correction: I didn't write that, that was my quote of Meredith. And while I agree with her in substance, I wouldn't put it quite that way, for the reasons that you discuss. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 10:25:44 -0800 From: "David S. Bratman" Subject: Re: normal again??? At 09:52 AM 3/15/2002 , Gayle wrote: >In a message dated 3/15/02 9:27:18 AM Pacific Standard Time, >jzitt@metatronpress.com writes: > ><< this was > > intended to be searing, and was for many. But as a viewer, my buttons have > > been pushed too often. This particular button is getting worn out. > >> And that line is mine. (As quoted by Joseph.) > I didn't think anyone would die, but it was certainly searing to see Buffy >coldly send her friends to their intended deaths. That is a button that's >never been pushed before... or if it has, when? For me, it's all a part of the "mortal danger/Buffy can't help/good character turns evil" button. The Buffy can't help part has come up before, admittedly not quite in this form, but most strikingly in "Anne" when she abandoned Sunnydale (thus leaving her friends without her protection from demons, which admittedly isn't the same thing as tying them up, but it's close enough), and was at first inert in the face of the danger that did directly confront her. And the good-character-turns-evil bell has been rung so often, first with Angel and then in a different way with Spike. > The death of trust can be as shocking as the death of a character. How >can her friends ever totally and completely trust her sanity again? We've already been over this over and over again with Angel. So it doesn't shock me as much as it should to have it come up with Buffy. And I'm afraid it doesn't interest me as much as it should, either. It interests me more to consider whether Spike can be trusted, because his situation is quite different, and more mysterious and ambiguous. >In the >"real" Sunnydale world, Buffy has now gone bonkers in a deadly way. And if Doctor-world is just an illusion of which she's now cured, there's no reason to think it'll come up again. Unless some other rabbit gets pulled out of a hat. If it's not an illusion and/or the poison remains in her, well, yes, that might mean Buffy can no longer be trusted. Though I read the ending as saying that Buffy finally figured out where her loyalty lies. But even if she's liable to relapse, as we've already gone through so much of a wringer over whether Angel can be trusted in exactly the same way, my wringer is wrung out. Unless a newer and more imaginative twist is introduced. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 16:27:31 EST From: GHighPine@aol.com Subject: Re: normal again??? In a message dated 3/15/02 10:00:04 AM Pacific Standard Time, sfmarty1@attbi.com writes: << My vote for likeliest to die this season: Spike. > Noooooooooooooooooooo. He is too yummy a character to die. Of course that may doom him. >> I agree with you, I don't WANT Spike to die. But a death on the show is supposed to have impact, and it only has impact if you don't WANT the character to die. The reason my vote is for Spike as likeliest is because 1) I don't see many (new and compelling) future directions his character could take at this point, and 2) I do see quite a few different ways that his death could have a lot of impact. Gayle ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 16:27:33 EST From: GHighPine@aol.com Subject: Re: normal again??? In a message dated 3/15/02 10:25:29 AM Pacific Standard Time, dbratman@stanford.edu writes: << If it's not an illusion and/or the poison remains in her, well, yes, that might mean Buffy can no longer be trusted. >> Oh, I think she probably can be, it's her friends' trust that might be a little impacted. You are right, this has been done on Angel. I don't follow Angel with as much interest as I do Buffy, so that had slipped out of my brain. BTW, as far as quote attribution, the software automatically puts the name of the most recent poster, and I rarely even look at the name it puts when capturing a quote. But I can understand wanting to straighten out a misattribution. Gayle ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 13:44:01 -0800 From: "David S. Bratman" Subject: Re: normal again??? At 01:27 PM 3/15/2002 , Gayle wrote: > You are right, this has been done on Angel. I don't follow Angel with as >much interest as I do Buffy, so that had slipped out of my brain. It's been done over & over again on _Angel_ the show, but it was done with Angel when he was still on BTVS too. Xander, who perhaps never quite trusted Angel before, certainly had additional reason for mistrust after the events of the later part of season 2. If he now finds his love for Buffy warring with mistrust, that could be interesting. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 14:01:40 -0800 From: "Marta Grabien" Subject: Re: normal again??? Xander, who perhaps never quite > trusted Angel before, certainly had additional reason for mistrust after > the events of the later part of season 2. If he now finds his love for > Buffy warring with mistrust, that could be interesting. Xander has never trusted anyone ...errr..any male that came close to Buffy. He has been mean and vindictive to all of them. He has a history of not delivering urgent messages from Buffy to whoever Xander perceives as a male threat. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 13:58:32 -0800 From: "Marta Grabien" Subject: Re: normal again??? > The reason my vote is for Spike as likeliest is because 1) I don't see > many (new and compelling) future directions his character could take at this > point, and 2) I do see quite a few different ways that his death could have a > lot of impact. Alas, I agree with you. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 19:26:49 -0800 From: "Berni Phillips" Subject: Re: normal again??? From: "allenw" > I still remember the exact moment I realized that "Buffy", the show, was > something special; when the possessed students ate Principal Flutie 5-6 > episodes in. I was already impressed when Xander ate the cute piglet > earlier in the ep, and then: Flutie, continuing character, in every > episode since the pilot, somewhat sympathetic, harmless: student-chow, > just like that. Like Snyder said, "that's the kind of wooly-headed > liberal thinking that gets you eaten." Granted, I would have been even > *more* impressed if Xander had taken part in the Flutie-feast too. ;) > Anyone know if Joss planned that from the start, or was there some issue > with the actor? I don't know about that, but in the commentary track on the first season DVD, Joss says that he purposely introduced Jesse in the pilot just in order to kill him off. He wanted to have him in the opening credits so it would be even more of a shock but decided it would be too expensive to do two sets of opening credits. Berni ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 19:28:32 -0800 From: "Berni Phillips" Subject: Re: normal again??? From: "Marta Grabien" > > My vote for likeliest to die this season: Spike. > > > > Noooooooooooooooooooo. He is too yummy a character to die. Of course that > may doom him. > > btw, Warren has outlived his usefullness. Johnathan was in the first Buffy > show ever. I think he will be a hero of sorts. No, no, kill off the other guy, Andrew! He's a real nothing. Warren still has villain potential and Jonathan's good for a laugh. (I'd still like to see him try to join the Scooby Gang and be inept with them.) Berni ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 16:13:25 -0700 From: Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury Subject: Re: normal again??? On the question of which world is real, I'd like to submit the observation that when Buffy was totally into Sunnydale World (as in at the end of the episode), she was catatonic. This, to me, is an indication that Doctor World is the imaginary one because even when she said she felt detached from Sunnydale World she was into it enough that she would not have been very forthcoming/communicative in Doctor World. And if she is not very communicative in Doctor World, how do they know so much about Sunnydale World? The only way Doctor World people would know so much about Sunnydale World is if Doctor World is the imaginary world (a world inside of Buffy's head). Being in her head gives them access to her other memories and that's the only way they would know that kind of stuff. Phaedre/Kathleen workshop@burgoyne.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 19:41:44 -0800 (PST) From: Todd Huff Subject: Re: normal again??? > No, no, kill off the other guy, Andrew! He's a real > nothing. Warren still > has villain potential and Jonathan's good for a > laugh. (I'd still like to > see him try to join the Scooby Gang and be inept > with them.) > > Berni This mirrors my own thinking. Can't you just see Johnathon and Dawn trying to get along? I also would expect Spike to die, perhaps while saving one of the Summers girls, with some hint that his soul is saved in the process. Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage http://sports.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 22:44:54 -0600 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: normal again??? On Fri, Mar 15, 2002 at 07:28:32PM -0800, Berni Phillips wrote: > No, no, kill off the other guy, Andrew! He's a real nothing. Warren still > has villain potential and Jonathan's good for a laugh. (I'd still like to > see him try to join the Scooby Gang and be inept with them.) OTOH, of the three, killing off Jonathan would have the most emotional impact, since he's still somewhat sympathetic. And it would up the ante in our perceptions of the other two, though how it would do so depends on how they're involved. If the tradition of Buffy having one major antagonist (person or group) still holds, we only have five episodes to end their story, and, other than their essentially accidental killing of Katrina (from what I can tell from the script, not having seen the episode yet), they're still mostly nebbishes rather than much of a threat. - -- | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | New book: Surprise Me with Beauty: the Music of Human Systems | | http://www.metatronpress.com/nj/smwb.html | | Latest CDs: Collaborations/ All Souls http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 23:13:25 EST From: GHighPine@aol.com Subject: Re: normal again??? In a message dated 3/15/02 7:36:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, workshop@burgoyne.com writes: << On the question of which world is real, >> I don't think there can be any question; if Sunnydale were not the "real" world, how could things happen in it that Buffy does not know about? And your point is another good one. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 23:12:51 -0600 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: normal again??? On Fri, Mar 15, 2002 at 11:13:25PM -0500, GHighPine@aol.com wrote: > I don't think there can be any question; if Sunnydale were not the "real" > world, how could things happen in it that Buffy does not know about? Well, it depends what you mean by "Buffy" and "know". I'm not being facetious: having experience with people with dissociative disorders, I've seen how parts of the mind can create immense running architectures of which the primary consciousness appears unaware. - -- | jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt | | New book: Surprise Me with Beauty: the Music of Human Systems | | http://www.metatronpress.com/nj/smwb.html | | Latest CDs: Collaborations/ All Souls http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt | | Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 00:37:51 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: normal again??? Hi, Marty noted: >Like when someone (Tara?) say to Buffy, 'be home before Dawn". It was >completely illogical for her to say that just then, unless..... Yes, Tara said that, in Buffy's dream in "Restless". But the best part is, Dawn's appearance was first foretold a year earlier in season 3, in Buffy's dream in "Graduation Day 2". Faith says to Buffy, "Oh yeah. Miles to go. Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0." 730 translates to 365 x 2, or two years ... and two seasons later, Dawn appeared. Joss has always had Plans. David responded: >I'm with Donald in considering the "Summers blood" plot point last season >to be not only hollow, overly convenient, and out of left field, but >completely inconsistent with the other known facts. But this one doesn't >bother me. I guess that explains it ... the "Summers blood" thing made sense to me, so apparently that means I was destined not to Get this one. :) >And if Doctor-world is just an illusion of which she's now cured, there's >no reason to think it'll come up again. Unless some other rabbit gets >pulled out of a hat. I don't see it that way. From the perspective of Willow, Dawn, Xander and Tara, who may not be able to look at the situation as rationally as we the viewers can, Buffy may carry the potential to go bonkers all over them again. They may not stop to think that it was all the poison's fault, or even if they do, they may not entirely believe it. Gayle replied: >I don't think that reason dictates that. Nor does past history of the >show. Being in the opening credits means that the actor is under contract >that guarantees his or her availability. I understand that. By "reason", I meant my knowledge of how the business works, and the reality that Joss realizes that killing off Willow or Xander would cause an irreparable revolt among the fan base. This is the reason why Spike didn't get staked long ago: James Marsters is overwhelmingly popular amongst the fans, and Joss knows that he'd have a public relations disaster on his hands if he were to kill him off. (This is why I will fall on the floor in utter shock if Spike does indeed not survive the run of the show.) Allen wondered: >Anyone know if Joss planned that from the start, or was there some issue >with the actor? The impression I've gotten from various interviews, as well as the DVD commentary is that Joss planned it from the start. ======================================= Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth ======================================= Live At The House O'Muzak House Concert Series http://www.smoe.org/meth/muzak.html ======================================= (: New England Patriots - Super Bowl XXXVI CHAMPIONS :) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 00:55:25 -0500 From: meredith Subject: o/smg commits career suicide Hi, I just endured a two-minute glimpse into the pits of movie hell. The trailer for the Scooby-Doo movie is now online, at http://www.moviefone.com/multimedia/previews.adp?movieid=10535&format=bb&_rememberformat=1&x=7&y=10. Sarah Michelle Gellar couldn't have taken a bigger axe to her career, not even if she staggered onto Jay Leno's stage high on smack and loudly announced to the world the details of her secret double life as a serial killer. Setting aside the fact that Scooby-Doo is a beloved kitschy part of my childhood, from the trailer (and everything I have read about the script and production details online) it is painfully obvious that this movie is going to give _Battlefield Earth_ a run for its money. The production values are horribly bad and it simply looks awful; with the exception of Shaggy (who is played Just Right by Matthew Lillard) the characterizations are COMPLETELY wrong; and the all-CGI Scooby Doo, with human eyes popping out of his badly-animated head is just *creepy*. Oh yeah, and SMG apparently forgot that she's a good actress, at some point on the flight to Australia. I'll stop ranting now ... if you dare, take a look at the trailer and see for yourself. If the movie stays in theaters longer than three weeks, I'll be surprised and deeply disappointed in the human race. ======================================= Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth ======================================= Live At The House O'Muzak House Concert Series http://www.smoe.org/meth/muzak.html ======================================= (: New England Patriots - Super Bowl XXXVI CHAMPIONS :) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 23:03:53 -0800 From: "Marta Grabien" Subject: Re: normal again??? > No, no, kill off the other guy, Andrew! He's a real nothing. Trouble with killing off Andrew is that no one would care. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 23:24:31 -0800 From: "Marta Grabien" Subject: Re: o/smg commits career suicide > I'll stop ranting now ... if you dare, take a look at the trailer and see > for yourself. If the movie stays in theaters longer than three weeks, I'll > be surprised and deeply disappointed in the human race. Fortunately the picture was distorted. (I haven't changed over to the correct pixel size. ) The sound was scary. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 23:49:26 -0800 From: "David S. Bratman" Subject: Re: o/smg commits career suicide At 09:55 PM 3/15/2002 , Meredith wrote: >Setting aside the fact that Scooby-Doo is a beloved kitschy part of my >childhood, from the trailer (and everything I have read about the script >and production details online) it is painfully obvious that this movie is >going to give _Battlefield Earth_ a run for its money. The production >values are horribly bad and it simply looks awful; with the exception of >Shaggy (who is played Just Right by Matthew Lillard) the characterizations >are COMPLETELY wrong; and the all-CGI Scooby Doo, with human eyes popping >out of his badly-animated head is just *creepy*. Oh yeah, and SMG >apparently forgot that she's a good actress, at some point on the flight >to Australia. > >I'll stop ranting now ... if you dare, take a look at the trailer and see >for yourself. If the movie stays in theaters longer than three weeks, I'll >be surprised and deeply disappointed in the human race. Be prepared to possibly be disappointed, then. Creepy CGI creatures that don't bother people are par for the course. I've never seen anything creepier-looking, and inter alia fake-looking, than the famous Dancing Baby. But many people thought he was cute. And then there was that hideous monster, E.T. Many people thought he was cute, too. I liked the original trailer for Scooby-Doo: the one with the camera rushing up the stairs of the empty house, while the voice-over intones about the need for a hero, and then the backlit shot of Scooby with his ears up, so that you're sure it's Batman, and then the quick shot of Scooby's face looking surprised, quick end. That doesn't mean I'll go see the film, though. I didn't even like the original show. And I thought it would be an unalterable law of the universe that any girlfriend of Freddie Prinze Jr. would make only bad movies. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 23:55:15 -0800 From: "Marta Grabien" Subject: Re: o/smg commits career suicide > I liked the original trailer for Scooby-Doo: the one with the camera > rushing up the stairs of the empty house, while the voice-over intones > about the need for a hero, and then the backlit shot of Scooby with his > ears up, so that you're sure it's Batman, and then the quick shot of > Scooby's face looking surprised, quick end. Eddie Izzard says Scooby Doo is recognized all over the world. ------------------------------ End of stillpt-digest V4 #43 ****************************