Filmmaker and dancer Daniel Cloud Campos choreographed, shot, and directed this fantastic video all by himself. I don’t want to give away too much since that would diminish the effect of the video. Let’s just say this is how I wish cleaning would get done at my apartment.
[Via @kevinpereira; steveyeuntumblr]
The famous Looney Tunes cartoon gets brought to life thanks to Apache Pictures. Meep meep, and enjoy.
[Via Nerdist]
You might know him as the six-time Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest champion, but Takeru Kobayashi caught a new kind of attention this month when he agreed to eat as many bananas as he can in one minute to celebrate the release of Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii. The pre-release (marketing) stunt took place in Toronto and you can watch Kobayashi do his thing in the banana eating challenge video embedded above. It’s on like Donkey Kong! Oh wait–can I say that?
[Via Kotaku]
Comedy legend Leslie Nielsen passed away on Sunday due to complications from pneumonia. At the time of death in a hospital near his home in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida he was surrounded by family and friends. He was 84.
Nielsen is a television and film icon who will always be remembered for his deadpan perfection as Lt. Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun and Dr. Alan Rumack in Airplane!.
[Via THR]
Matt Stone and Trey Parker, aka the creators of South Park, are writing a musical…for Broadway! The plot does not revolve around Kyle, Stan, Cartman, and Kenny. Stone and Parker are finalizing a story “about a pair of mismatched Mormon boys sent on a mission to a place that’s about as far from Salt Lake City as you can get.” This is an elaborate musical they’ve been working on for the last five years. And if you’re a fan of the brilliantly raunchy duo you should know that they hold a special place in their hearts for musicals. Their very first feature film was Cannibal! The Musical (1993), and this was followed by Orgasmo (1997) which they say “should have been a musical”–they wrote it that way. And although South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (1999) and Team America (2004) were not billed as musicals, Stone and Parker admit that they not-so-subtlety injected tunes into them because they just couldn’t help it. If you’re an avid South Park fan I’m sure by now you’ve picked up on the creators’ passion for musicals. With all that said, it shouldn’t come to a surprise that these guys are living their dream by actually making a live musical for Broadway.
Josh Gad (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart) and Andrew Rannells (Jersey Boys) are set to play the two male leads. Other cast members include Nikki M. James, Rory O’Malley, and Michael Potts. The Book of Mormon‘s music and lyrics are by Stone, Parker and Robert Lopez, the showrunner for Broadway’s long-running puppet show Avenue Q. Stone and choreographer Casey Nicholaw will direct. Preview performances begin February 24, 2011 in New York at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre and opening night is expected to roll around in late March. Get your tickets now before they go on sale to the public at large! Look after the break to hear Stone and Parker talk about the show. You know it’s gonna be pure adulterated gutbusting insanity.
[Via SouthParkStudios] Continue reading South Park creators are doing a Broadway musical
This video of a supposedly homeless man performing the Queen/David Bowie classic “Under Pressure” has gone viral and it truly is a must-see. The man says it’s a street performance “meant to entertain and inspire.” That it does.
[Via @andrewseely]
Pokémon Apokélypse is a fan-fiction trailer “responding to the common trend of ‘dark and gritty’ reboots of popular franchises.” But when it first “leaked” on the Internet fans of the popular trading card game (that also enjoyed a short stint on TheWB), rabid fans were led on to believe that this was actual footage from an upcoming live action Pokémon movie. It turns out the leak was staged and the production team behind it revealed that this was simply a side project. From the live incarnations of Ash, Misty, and Brock to the super cool CG Pokémon, the trailer is pure win. Read the synopsis and mash play!
Celadon City hasn’t been the same since the Gyms closed down. Pokémon fighting has gone underground, and the sport has gotten a taste for blood. Ash, Misty, and Brock have been forced deep into the city’s seedy underbelly to keep training, but the Pokémon aren’t the only ones in danger. Now, Ash must choose to either become a master in the grim world of illegal pokémon fighting, or make a desperate stand to free them all from the criminal grip of Rocket Industries.
Interested in learning more about how this trailer came to be? Head over to ShogunGamer to read an interview with director Kial Natale and exec producer Lee Majdoub.
Late last week the inevitable finally happened: Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The movie and game rental company has initiated “pre-arranged” chapter 11 proceedings, meaning the magnitude of this unfortunate news did not suddenly creep upon them. A plan for a comeback is in the works. According to the press release (in full after the break), “the recapitalization plan would substantially reduce the Company’s indebtedness — from nearly $1 billion currently to an estimated $100 million or less when implemented.” But how will Blockbuster “recapitalize its balance sheet and put the Company in a stronger financial position as it continues to pursue its strategic plan and transform its business model”? First by filing for bankruptcy; next by evaluating all its stores. Though Blockbuster promises that all 3,000 stores will continue to operate normally during this transition period, don’t act surprised if handfuls of them are asked to close their doors. It’s happened before; around 1,000 stores closed up shop within the last year. With Netflix and other companies like it riding the coattails of the digital revolution, it’s really only a matter of time before Blockbuster and its brick and mortar initiative is dead and gone. Sadface?
[Via Bloomberg; Engadget] Continue reading Blockbuster’s gone bankrupt; it took this long?
111 human bodies over the course of four hours reenacted a game of Pac-Man moving around from seat to seat inside an auditorium. Watch it because it will make you happy. If the home-brewed sound effects don’t make you giggle like a little kid, there is something seriously wrong with you. Now smash play!
Note: This video is one of five performance of the GAME OVER Project from the French-Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond. Head over to the NotSoNoisy YouTube channel to watch more video game-inspired stop motion masterpieces. Human Tetris, Space Invaders, and Pong await.
[Via likecool]
Something Left, Something Taken. By Max Porter & Ru Kuwahata.
This beautifully designed animated short is a “dark comedy” that follows “a vacationing couple’s encounter with a man they believe to be the Zodiac Killer.” It’s funny, engaging, suspenseful, and smart. What’s the phrase again? Oh right–sit back, relax, and enjoy.
[Via @kpereira]
BIG BANG BIG BOOM: an unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life … and how it could probably end.
Produced by Blu.
This ten minute spectacle captures the birth of life on Earth, the slow but eventual rise to human species, and ends with an interesting twist on how everything might unravel. How is something so intricate as wall-painted animation made, you ask? The magic of stop-motion does the trick. Street artist Blu would paint a sequence of images on a surface, take a picture of said images with a digital camera, paint new images onto the same (or new) surface, take pictures of those, and repeat. After all the painting and photography was complete, he took the entire collection of images, laid them out side-by-side, and transformed it into a film. Yes, this is an extremely tedious process; Blu admits this video took “months of work and hundreds [of] buckets of paint”. The end result is nothing short of exquisite.
[Via NewScientist]