Cartoons? What the heck, get over it!

Disbelief in the illusion is only the disbelief in the reality. What is reality, a voice of the past or merely the existence from the whisper of a memory? It pains me so to hear one still refer to something that is animated, as still just a cartoon. Were it not the plays, the art from the likes of Shakespeare, our forefathers reveled in so much whom brought themselves from the wallows to drop their plows and escape, even for just a few measly hours? Was it not the great ballets or the intricate operas that were written in the time of romance? These… were these real? What about a moving piece that Mozart composed, or a piece from Chopin? What have you? Some of these are about mystical almost dogmatic illusions, and yet these are our Literature set in stone. These are what we learn about in our schools, our colleges, our Universities. These are what hold the test of time. Steven Spielberg, what about Hayao Miyazaki? James Cameron, what about Katsuhiro Otomo? These are names… will they be forgotten? I honestly hope so… If I can place a “cartoon” in the eyes of my grandfather, a man who survived the death of his best friend in Iwo Jima, the Great Depression, and everything else life has thrown at him… watch tears bleed from his eyes, from a “cartoon”… then, I hope Shakespeare is lost in time, Homer, Steinbeck, Lee, even Twain. To this day, these “cartoons” are scoffed at, the same images that press ideas, feelings, beliefs that still not one single producer in North America is willing to risk their credibility for. Back in the 80s, I thought culture was turning, by the 90s I thought humanity was burning… Now I think we are searing… I still wait. If you ask thousands out there, what they thought about the Matrix many will laugh at you… when you ask about the first one… then that answer gets a little more serious, when you ask them about the Animatrix movie… then you may get one of three answers: “No, that cartoon thing, yeah, I heard about it, but…” “…Whoa… that was…uh… …” or “Animatrix, I have never heard of it.” That’s the sad part… if you talk to that second person… they know… They know what that story was fully about… It’s funny, there are these stories out there that are told and yet are never heard. I would love to say they fall on deaf ears… but they often don’t fall onto ears at all… Anxiety about the world is what most of human kind fears, would it be personal life, financial life, or even what the future beholds… These “cartoons,” these old novels, these ancient works, even the stories from our mentors… are they not one in the same? A man by the name of Makoto Shinkai directed a film that was a mere 30 minutes long. This film was a “cartoon” only dated a few years back, but it fell into a version of science fiction that is alarmingly close to home… it has nothing to do so much as it has to do with the future, it has nothing to do so much as it has to do with technology… what it has is humanity… I think back to this film and as I do, I get a phone call on my cell phone… I hope it’s that person that I need, a friend, a family member, a lover… I hope someone is there… I hope anyone is out there… someone… anyone…

“I Had A Dream…”

Searing mass produced fantasy that stimulates a dream, but only tickles the desire… The idea of an all controlling Hollywood film industry dominating a “comic book”, “fantasy”, and, “superhero” genera must STOP!!! There is this general idea that if we can sell it or if we can make it than it must be produced. THIS IS BALONY!!! Painfully, as I must put it, each and every story, whether it may be the most benign “X – cross over” or the weakest of “DC Superhero” ideas will sell to us, the viewers, we are stupid… But that is no excuse, for the excuse of quantity that seems to have hit the industry like a fever. I WANT QUAILITY!!! I want to watch Batman and say, damn that really is the “dark knight.” I want to see Punisher in the movies and say, “wow, that is really Frank Castle, those guys are screwed!” To elaborate on the viciousness of the industry and its tragic results, I recently tuned in to a local Boston radio station and the “stars” were commenting on an unconfirmed movie rumor about the next Superman movie. They Flipped Out when the reporter announced DC and Warner’s alleged idea to only release the film under the condition of this new film to be of darker design. Their feelings were that this was trash and should be scraped. While, I will agree with their comments to a degree, I do want to bring a child to see the same Superman that I grew up with, a well mannered man whom placed justice above all, a superman, whom always got to the crime scene in time to stop the violence. But, I will tell you what… the other half of me says, screw it, and let me see a DAMN GOOD Superman movie period! Darker design or not, I want one of the great story tellers to come out of the comic book world and weave us a screen play that gives us a Superman that all of us are craving. It’s NOT that hard! Heck, work jointly with a big shot Hollywood producer, stand your ground on the key points of the movie and move on. Don’t just talk about, DO IT! I don’t care if Superman can never get there in time, and people die, I don’t care if they work on the Else world’s fall of Superman movie, or even if Superman gave up and became a farmer… I don’t care! Tell a tale, really work on it, put your heart into it, and then give the world a GOOD STORY. I once had a dream, it was that imagination and story telling drove me to some of the most wildest and unbelievable events and situations. In this dream the “Superheroes” were cool, the “fantasy” was fantastic, and the “comic book” was the stuff of legends. I had a dream that there was no industry it was an underground scene that only a few could enter, it was that scene that made us all in and the best part of all, everyone else was out. I had a dream, I could love each and every story for what it was and move on to the next with the recollection of the last burned, engraved into my own imagination and would help me dream the next… I had a dream… now, I don’t know if I am “allowed” to…