I was lucky enough to catch A BUG'S LIFE, PRINCE OF EGYPT and RUSH HOUR a few days back when Harry and I were out in LA. I must admit I was not very excited about seeing Rush Hour, Jackie's American films have not been all that good to me ( I love his Hong Kong work) and Chris' recent work (Jackie Brown excepted) I find grating, but this was a chance to be part of a World Premiere at the world famous landmark Grauman's Chinese Theatre. I mean the original King Kong premiered there, so did Dracula, Frankenstein, A Star is Born, and literally hundreds of Hollywood's most classic films. When I was a kid I'd watch excitedly the TV coverage of these events, and go to bed dreaming dreams of Hollywood and its stars. In the 1970's when I was doing collectible shows up and down the California coast I would make a point of visiting it's famous courtyard every trip, leading Harry from footprint to footprint, handprint to handprint, telling him stories of tinsel town along the way, buuuut there was never a premiere happening. Now I've been to lots of world premieres, starting in New York in 1957, and continuing in San Antonio, Austin, even Hollywood, but never at the theater of my childhood's dreams, never Graumans. Wild horses couldn't have kept me off that plane!
We were barely settled in our Sunset Strip hotel Tuesday morning when the writer/director of the little indie film Slaves of Hollywood knocked on our door. He had dropped by to discuss the plight of "little" filmmakers and the festival system with us, but geek that he was after about a hour our conversation had degenerated into one of pop culture in general and collectibles in particular. After about 2 1/2 hours he left and Joe Hallenbeck showed up with Sir Etch-a-Sketch one of AICN's top Disney moles. Joe had promised a surprise on the phone, but Head Geek & Father Geek were not prepared for what they had planned for us. We piled into Joe's vintage Cord and roared down the strip for our undisclosed location. Sketch flashes his ID and the guards melt away, and we find ourselves outside the famous Chaplin screening room. What awaited us? Our questions were answered with ear-to-ear grins. We entered the hallowed hall and took our lonely seats.
WOW!!!! It's A Bug's Life. What an opening shot. What beautiful color. What a wonderful temp-score. What exacting detail. This film is stunning! My chin hits the floor. Every kid under 10 is going to love this film. Every animation nut in the world is in for a feast of gorgeous eye-candy, but folks I feel it ends there. It's 1st class animation, it's fantastic to look at, but it's not Toy Story. The characters just didn't do it for me, the story just didn't grab me the way Pixar's earlier effort did. Now I realize that they were not trying to make another Woody & the Space Ranger flick, and I appreciate that. I didn't want or expect a carbon-copy of their great pathfinding movie. I did however expect an effort that would catch me up and pull me into the story the way the first one did. I was expecting a story that was aimed at both children and their parents. What I got was that beautiful baby-sitter that the kids love, but that can't carry on a conversation with the adults in the house, you may love to ogle her but that's it. And it wasn't the fact that the leads are bugs, because one of my all time favorite animated films is the magnificent 1941 Max Fleischer musical-comedy cartoon feature Mr. Bug Goes To Town. It's story of love and sacrifice, of danger and adventure, of good guys and bad, of a quest for a safe homeland is everything A Bug's Life isn't, and I miss that. If you're an animation fan go see this, it's a beaut, but don't expect more than great visuals, the story is strictly by the numbers.
After the flick we left Sir Sketch, and Harry, Joe and I met up with several movie town spies from MGM, Lightstorm, Warners, etc... We gathered up over 30 scripts and headed to Jerry's Famous Deli in Westwood for supper. I settle down with my Super Rueben sandwich and onionrings with raspberry tea, but before I take a bite we're joined by 5 other people, fans of the site who work in various studios. They sit down, McGwire hits #62 and some execs from Bay Films stop to chat, other film pros approach our tables, it's cool, but man I want to scarf this great food. 2 hours later we finally leave, stopping in at Stan's Donuts to get something for the hotel.
8am comes early, we have to meet with our ad people for breakfast followed by a visit with Sir Etch-a-Sketch and Sir Spirograph. They're driving us over to Dreamworks for a behind the scenes trek through their animation studios, cool. Harry has covered this in his post from LA last week. All I'll add is that it was a totally open visit, we could and did see all we desired, no one has treated us to so much inside info on such major projects, thanks to all who made it happen, the collector in me was going crazy.
What does Father Geek think of Prince of Egypt? Well, all that I said about the beauty of Bug's Life applies here as well. Stunning visuals and music, fantastic animation, multi layered effects using all the tools available to todays animators, plus a great, classic story that captures your heart and does not let up for a second. Great, that's right, GREAT film making, by any definition of the terms. A film for the ages. A cartoon full of real actors. Characters that convey emotion with a glance, fear with a look, envy, love, hate, worry, etc... by using the classic methods of a stage trained actor. This motion picture is a true first time event, a major step forward for the animated film. I've been waiting for this movie my entire adult life. I find it hard to believe that Prince of Egypt could disappoint anyone weather they're animation fans or not. I think you'll want to see this one over and over.
Harry and I race back to our hotel, shower and change just in time for our limo to Grauman's. Cooooooool!!! Pure Hollywood magic. Once again Harry's covered alot of the event in his review, so I'll jump right into my thoughts on the film itself. As I said at the top of this article I was not expecting to like this film, in fact I fully expected to find it unbearable. I was wrong. I had alot of fun with this film. Now its no POE, not even close, but that isn't what they were attempting here. The goal here according to the producers and director in their opening remarks was to make an old time buddy cop flick with a few new twists, some exciting kung-fu action and some rib tickling laughs. In these goals they succeed with ease. Jackie has made his best American film and in his 1st truly lead role Chris proves his comedic powers to carry a film. This is one of those silly, yet exciting little films that you can have alot of fun with if, and this is the key, if you will let your self. It won't standup to the overly critical eye, it doesn't make alot of sense, it's not really my kind of movie, but it was fun and I'm going to see it again tomorrow night with some friends.
After the flick we partied up at the beautiful Yamashiro on the cliffs overlooking all of LA for about 3 hours before returning to the hotel which was abuzz with people in town for the MTV awards the next night. A couple of hours later we finally get to sleep. We awake to a message that the John Carpenters would like us to stop in for coffee and conversation before we fly out for Austin. We drop in and chat for a couple of hours about the state of the Horror film, test screenings, DragonCon, and movie collectibles, nothing very serious just fun stuff. They're great people, we felt totally at home. The crowning event of an eventful 3 days.
