Wednesday 16 March 2011

The Small Time Past of Oscar Winners: Tom Hooper

Having won the Best Director gong at this year's Oscars, it may come as surprise to see where Tom Hooper got one of his earliest breaks in the director's chair.

In 1997, Hooper directed an episode of the classic CBBC show Byker Grove. A bi-weekly drama that revolved around the goings on in a Newcastle youth club.

He has come along way then. However, what remains a mystery is why Hooper picked Colin Firth over Geoff Keegan for the lead in The King's Speech.

Howay the Toon!

Monday 7 March 2011

Animated Lookalikes Of The Week: Stuart Broad and Willow Smith

A few months after the release of Toy Story 3, England cricketer Stuart Broad was asked via Twitter whether he saw the resemblance between himself and Andy. To be honest it was not even a question that needed asking - the answer is clearly that Pixar had based Andy's appearance on the blonde bombshell.

Just have a look for yourself:


So the real question is just how many more of these animated lookalikes are there?

Well to my mind, there is at least one other blatantly obvious one. Whereas Andy seemed to grow into his real life counterpart, the opposite seems to have happened to Willow Smith. As she gets older each day, her resemblance to her father's character in the Dreamworks animation Shark Tale is uncanny. See here:

This leads to a worrying conclusion. If animation is going to start capturing the appearance of real people so successfully - how are we going to tell the difference?

I, for one, already feel the urge to smack Fresh Prince Jr over the head with a wooden oar (though I'm unsure whether that has anything to do with the lookalike thing).

Friday 4 March 2011

Limerick Review - The Disappearance of Alice Creed

There once was a girl named Alice,
Tied up all day she could not piss,
Twists and turns occur,
And sadly for her,
The film is a bit hit and miss.