A Disturbance in the Force

Year 17, Day 208 - 7/27/25 - Movie #5,092

BEFORE: Really, I have not seen a week of movies like last week's ever before. From Yacht Rock to the California Raisins, and everything in between. An actress left Hollywood and became a nun, the "South Park" guys came to Colorado and became renovators and restaurateurs. Two hippies founded an animation festival, and a white rapper had his dad buy him an animation studio. Luther Vandross became a superstar, and Bill Watterson became a recluse. Some crazy, crazy stuff - but I'm not finished with documentaries just yet. 

I'm kicking off another crazy week with a doc about the "Star Wars" holiday special from 1978. If you know, you know. If you don't know, watch this doc. You may recall my claim to (near-) fame is appearing in a doc myself, one called "The People vs. George Lucas", as a self-proclaimed "expert" who found himself getting interviewed one year at the San Diego Comic-Con. The filmmakers really wanted to interview my boss, who ended up knowing very little about "Star Wars", and he said, "Well, you guys should be talking to my booth-mate here, he probably knows a lot more about this than me." which is code for "He knows a lot about Star Wars and rarely ever shuts up about it."

I gave them an hour of my best stuff, and what 30 seconds of it ends up in their movie?  My discussion of the infamous Star Wars post-Thanksgiving holiday nightmare, how insane it is and how it belongs "in a museum". I might have been riffing on Indiana Jones there, but since they HAD footage of the special being screened at the Museum of TV & Radio, I had accidentally given them the best segue possible, I said just what they needed, and didn't even know it. So, umm, why wasn't I called when somebody else made a whole doc JUST about the special?  

Seth Green carries over again from "Dear Mr. Watterson".

THE PLOT: In 1978, George Lucas is persuaded to turn over Star Wars to the world of the TV variety hour, culminating in "The Star Wars Holiday Special", often cited as one of the worst forms of entertainment of all time. 

AFTER: Another coincidence, and you just HAVE to believe this one, because there's just no way I could have predicted this, George Lucas was at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, for the first time EVER. I just found about this yesterday, and I've had this film programmed here for months, so you tell me, what are the odds against that? Now, sure, Lucas is not there to talk about the Star Wars holiday deal or even anything related to "Star Wars" - besides, he got out of the "Star Wars" deal years ago, and I should know, it was right around SDCC time in July 2012, and I was supposed to visit the Skywalker Ranch that week, right after San Diego. But because of his surprise announcement, the Ranch was on lockdown and I was not able to visit. So George still owes me for that one - I had a great two days in San Francisco but that's beside the point, I was supposed to visit the Ranch, I guess you can't win 'em all. 

Anyway, George is supposed to appear TODAY in Hall H, this will be one for the ages, and please, please, PLEASE somebody ask him about the Holiday Special - it's the equivalent of asking Donald Fagen how he feels about the term "yacht rock". The skinny is that some people will be waiting in line for Hall H for 24 or even 48 hours. Hey, if that's how you want to spend two days of your life, go ahead but I'll take a pass. I always had better things to do with my time in San Diego than trying to get into Hall H. Like going out for BBQ or beer floats, just a couple of reasons why I miss that giant, wacky, confounding Comic-Con. 

Despite what you might have heard about the "Star Wars Holiday Special" in the past, this doc proves that it's NOT really the "Poop Cruise" of TV specials, this was all kind of normal (?) for 1970's variety TV. To prove this, they air a few seconds of shows like "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special" and "Wayne Newton at Sea World", two specials that apparently really existed and were more terrible. I fondly recall watching "The Circus of the Stars" on CBS when I was a pre-teen, also "Battle of the Network Stars", and these were probably also very low-art, the early attempts at reality TV and were also terrible, but I think I was just watching for the tight-fitting clothing, or to see actresses in swimsuits coming out of the dunk-tank. (Really, how some of that got by the network censors, I'll never know...)

Still, it's by far the worst "Star Wars" product ever put on the market, and there were no safeguards yet to ensure QC coming out of Lucasfilm, in fact the only reason any safeties were put into place are because the holiday special was SO BAD. Well, we only have air bags in cars because so many people died in crashes, and we only have emergency exits in buildings for similar reasons. Once we're aware of the problem, we can take steps to try to ensure it never happens again. The reins were given over to people who knew nothing about writing or producing science-fiction, they had experience doing music & comedy variety shows, so that's the direction this went in. The cast list alone is a head-scratcher, with Art Carney, Bea Arthur and Harvey Korman topping the bill, and the cast of "Star Wars" putting in what were essentially cameo appearances, except for Carrie Fisher, who got to sing a song at the end. At every step of the way, it's like somebody was saying "What could POSSIBLY go wrong?" and that's how you tempt fate. 

Really, there's about 5 minutes of story in a 90-minute special, so the majority of it is filler, filler, filler - a cooking show with Harvey Korman as a four-armed female alien (femalien?) and Bea Arthur as the owner of the famous Star Wars cantina, singing a song to all the costumed freaks in the style of a Kurt Weill number. Chewbacca's son watching a holographic routine of circus tumblers, and Chewbacca's father-in-law watching a VR experience that satisfied his secret fantasies, and based on what the human character was saying, is perhaps best described as "Wookiee porn". And a full 10 minutes (!) of Chewbacca's family getting ready for their LifeDay holiday but speaking ONLY in grunts and growls with no subtitles. And let's not forget special guest Jefferson Starship, in another hologram, performing their song "Light the Sky on Fire". 

Simply NONE of this advances the storyline, it all takes place while Han & Chewie are on their way to the Wookiee homeworld, Kashyyyk - and while this story might have been more interesting if told from Han & Chewie's perspective, that's not how this thing goes. They only had Harrison Ford for five minutes of screen-time, and they had to make the most of that. So we're waiting, waiting, waiting for them to arrive, it's a bit like hosting Thanksgiving and you're waiting hours for your relatives to arrive because there's so much traffic in the Outer Rim. OK, well, let's watch a cartoon, that will kill some time - and while the animation seen here was very crude, it did feature the first appearance of Boba Fett, who was very important in the next movie, and so those of us who watched the TV special all had a leg up on the normies. 

This documentary also reveals the REAL reason that the Holiday Special exists, back in those days we didn't even have VHS tapes yet, so really the ONLY place you could watch a "Star Wars" product was in a movie theater, and we only had the ONE movie, not 12 of them, like now. So George Lucas and 20th Century Fox knew it would be THREE long years before another movie could be made, and they also wanted to re-re-release the first movie in theaters again, so they figured a TV special might stir up some more interest, after all there were a few teens out there who had only seen the movie 7 times and not 10. Also, there was the matter of the toy sales for Christmas, and 1978 was really the first holiday season where toys were available - nobody realized how successful this movie was going to be, so the action figures were NOT ready for the 1977 Christmas season, but you could buy an empty stand to hold the first 12 figures, and a certificate that allowed you to receive FOUR of those figures some time between February and June. Hey, if you were looking to teach your kids a lesson about patience, that's one way to do it. 

So a Holiday Special that aired after Thanksgiving, hmm, the timing now makes a lot of sense because that was when people started their holiday shopping. And a few ads during the "Star Wars" Holiday special for the action figures, spaceships and board games seemed like the best way to promote those productes, and boy, did it work. Remember yesterday when we learned that Bill Watterson didn't allow any merchandise to be made with his Calvin & Hobbes characters? Yeah, George Lucas was kind of the opposite of that. If a character was in "Star Wars" for more than a second and a half, it got an action figure.  Movie grosses had to be balanced against the cost of making the film, but toy and merchandise revenue was almost pure profit. Really, who gives a shit about the quality of the TV show if it makes kids buy the toys? 

The weird thing was, if you were 8 to 12 years old at the time, and you made it home that night to watch the Holiday Special (and remember, it only aired once, and we didn't have VCRs or DVRs or DVDs just yet) you probably thought it was the greatest thing in the world. But then most of those people grew up and kind of forgot about it, and then like 20 years later somebody mentioned it and Star Wars fans collectively kind of said, "Oh, yeah, I sort of remember that. Whatever happened with that?" and there were a FEW copies out there on VHS somehow, only you could only buy bootlegs that were a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, and the tracking was off and the colors were all weird, so it kind of became this thing of legend, like did it really exist?  I had a copy that my wife tracked down, and so I ended up making copies for people who didn't believe it existed, and then there came a time when my DVD recorder just WOULD NOT copy from that tape, and I joked that the special was so bad, that the machine refused to dub it. 

Yes, time is a fickle mistress, if you watched the special when you were young and then watched it again as an adult, well, with different eyes you could really see how corny and stupid it all was, and you realized that they made the 57 Wookies in the finale scene wear traditional robes, because making 50 Wookie masks was cheaper than making 50 full-body fur costumes, and other stuff like that across the board. Or you realized that Mark Hamill was wearing WAY too much make-up, or that Carrie Fisher was probably high as a kite. Also there was a fair amount of clips that looked like they were out-takes from the first film, and costumes during the Cantina scene that, umm, just didn't look right. So this was all made "on the cheap" and kind of thrown together, and maybe some memories from childhood probably should have stayed there.  

Still, there was that Boba Fett animation - and because Lucas spoke out about the Holiday Special, and said he'd never release it, and a quote got attributed to him about how if he had enough time and a hammer, he would smash every copy of it he could find. Well, shit, now people just HAD to get a copy of it somewhere - I'd find it on YouTube every once in a while but I don't think it would stay there very long, before someone at Lucasfilm would get it un-posted. It not only attained legendary status, but when you denounce something, that makes it all the more desirable, like it was naughty to watch this somehow, when in fact it's not unsavory at all, except for the Wookiee porn. 

Surprisingly, this didn't destroy anyone's career, everyone who worked on it lived to tell the tale and many of them continued to find work, even the band Starship. And George Lucas learned a valuable lesson about maintaining control of his own properties, so maybe we all understand a bit more now about why he wouldn't release the original cuts of the first trilogy of SW films ever again. Honestly, I'm just glad to cross this one off, the cast list posted on IMDB was so incomplete at first that I just didn't see how I was ever going to link to it, but I really shouldn't have worried, there were a lot of ways to get here - but really only ONE when I programmed it. 

Anyway, the Comic-Con is over now and so is my little mini-chain of hardcore geek stuff that reminds me of it. No lie, there are SEVEN people in this film's cast (including archive footage) who are people I met at Comic-Cons or tangential related activities. Yes, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill are two of those people. If I hadn't kept going to SDCC, that wouldn't have happened. I'm sorry I haven't been out there in 8 years, but that includes the pandemic so I'm thinking I really haven't missed all that much. George, I hope you enjoyed your first time there.

Directed by Jeremy Coon (director of "Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made") & Steve Kozak

Also starring Alisa Abdurahmen, Beverly Abdurahmen, Steve Binder (last seen in "Elvis Presley: The Searcher"), Bonnie Burton, Anthony Caleca, Mick Garris, Bobcat Goldthwait (last seen in "Destiny Turns on the Radio"), Gilbert Gottfried (last seen in "Yogi Berra; It Ain't Over"), Larry Heider, Miki Herman, Taran Killam (last heard in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"), Scott Kirkwood, Jason Lenzi, Bob Mackie, Craig Miller, Kyle Newman, Donny Osmond (last seen in "Little Richard: I Am Everything"), Patton Oswalt (last seen in "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire"), Mark Pevers, Jonathan Rinzler, Lenny Ripps, Matthew Robbins, Steve Sansweet (last seen in "Fanarchy"), Paul Scheer (last seen in "Slice"), Steve Schuster, Pete Sears, Kevin Smith (last seen in "Clerks III"), Rolland Smith, Yuichi Sugiyama, Bruce Vilanch (last seen in "I Am Divine"), Rick Wagner, Brian Ward, "Weird Al" Yankovic (last seen in "Animation Outlaws"), 

with archive footage of J.J. Abrams (last seen in "Spielberg"), David Acomba, Bea Arthur (last seen in "Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed"), Carol Burnett (last seen in "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story"), David Bowie (last seen in "Luther: Never Too Much"), Art Carney (last seen in "Becoming Mike Nichols"), Diahann Carroll (last seen in "Valerie"), Shaun Cassidy, Cher (last seen in "Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer"), Tim Conway (last seen in "Betty White: First Lady of Television"), Howard Cosell (last seen in "Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes"), Bing Crosby (last seen in "Sid & Judy"), Kaley Cuoco (last seen in "The Wedding Ringer"), Anthony Daniels (last heard in "Jim Henson: Idea Man"), Roger Ebert (last seen in "Faye"), Jon Favreau (last seen in "Deadpool & Wolverine"), Dave Filoni, Carrie Fisher (last seen in "If These Walls Could Sing"), Harrison Ford (last seen in "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story"), Mark Hamill (ditto), Robin Williams (ditto), Jeff Garlin (last seen in "Daddy Day Care"), Sean Giambrone (last heard in "The Secret Life of Pets 2"), Fred Grandy, Alec Guinness (last seen in "Spielberg"), Simon Helberg (also carrying over from "Dear Mr. Watterson"), Kunal Nayyar (ditto), Bob Hope (last seen in "Beatles '64"), Bernie Kopell (last seen in "Get Smart"), Harvey Korman (last heard in "The Flintstones"), Kris Kristofferson (last seen in "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"), Elvis Presley (ditto), Gary Kurtz (last seen in "Jodorowsky's Dune"), Ted Lange, Jay Leno (last seen in "Tom Hanks: The Nomad"), Charlie Lippincott, George Lucas (last seen in "Join or Die"), Paul Lynde (last seen in "Say Hey, Willie Mays!"), Gavin MacLeod (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Ann-Margret (last seen in "Queen Bees"), Peter Mayhew (last seen in "Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi"), Wayne Newton (last seen in "Class Action Park"), Conan O'Brien (last seen in "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple"), Marie Osmond (also last seen in "Little Richard: I Am Everything"), Richard Pryor (last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), Robert Shields, Clive A. Smith, Kevin Sussman (last seen in "Ira & Abby"), Ken Welch, Mitzie Welch, Raquel Welch (last seen in "Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story"), Jill Whelan, Barry Williams (last seen in "The Brady Bunch Movie"), Henry Winkler (last heard in "Scream" (2002)), Lorene Yarnell, 

RATING: 7 out of 10 Lifeday gifts

Dear Mr. Watterson

Year 17, Day 207 - 7/26/25 - Movie #5,091

BEFORE: Seth Green carries over from "Animation Outlaws". I can't say that I met Seth Green at a Comic-Con, but I saw him, twice - we just were not formally introduced.  One year I worked at a booth way down at the far end, and the booth next to us had been rented out by Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, JUST for the purposes of holding autograph signings there. A different group of animators from a different show showed up each day. One day it was the guys from "Metalocalypse", one day it was Tim & Eric, and one day it was the creators of "Robot Chicken".  So I got to watch Seth Green sign postcards for a couple hours, I was too chicken-shit in those early days to talk to celebrities directly. I think maybe I gave him "the nod".  

And here's the crazy part, they RE-decorated the booth every day. They had fountains and fake shrubbery and statues of owls, and every day they re-did everything in a different color scheme.  So they didn't just have statues of owls, they had them in four different colors. That's crazy, who does that?  99% of people would decorate their booth ONCE and then they're good for the whole event. I like the enthusiasm, but man, that was a lot of unnecessary work. If my boss asked me to re-decorate the booth every damn day I probably would have quit a lot earlier than I did. 

There's one other person in this doc I met at a con, Bill Amend, creator of the "Foxtrot" comic - I didn't recognize him at first, like who recognizes print cartoonists?  But I got a little sketch of his characters out of the deal, so we good. 

THE PLOT: A documentary about the impact of the newspaper comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes", created by Bill Watterson. 

AFTER: This is really a documentary that wants to waste your time. After explaining to us what the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip was about - and why use ONE person to do this when you can use TEN - there's a montage of different people telling us what it meant to them. Umm, "WHO CARES" to each and every one of them, that's a very personal thing, and although in this case it's nearly universal, the fact that it's universal and that everyone loves this comic strip should be an indicator that this montage is not needed. At all. 

This is followed by another montage, from fellow cartoonists - since Bill Watterson was not available and/or did not respond to a request for an interview, assuming one was made - and they all say the same exact thing, that they LOVE the comic strip. Again, something that goes without saying is exactly that, it does not need saying. Some of the other cartoonists admit they learned storytelling or drawing techniques from "C & H", well, OK, now we're getting somewhere, but this also hardly counts as constructive or informative.  

Really, if you're a documentary fillmmaker and your subject declined to be interviewed - or possibly could not be found - then the best thing to do is to choose another subject.  Seriously, now you've got 90 minutes to fill and you can't interview the ONE person who knows the most about the subject matter. Still, he persisted, he interviewed not just other cartoonists but also people who run a comic museum, people who run the archive for the original art from the comic strips, and then more people who just LOVE "Calvin & Hobbes" - and the whole thing feels like he's grasping at straws, from start to finish. Filler, filler, filler.  

The director goes to the hometown of Bill Watterson, which is Chagrin Falls, Ohio - and what do you know, he finds scenery there which resembles that seen in the comic strip. Umm, so that's houses and yards and a town square, which basically can be found in just about every town in America. So, again, no great ground being broken here, no grand revelations about the meaning of life or much insight into the creative process of a man who somehow nobody has ever met in person.  

THAT should be the story here - in the age of the internet, how is it possible for someone to hide away from the world? I should just be able to Google or Wiki the guy and come up with his home address, or at least what state he lives in. Instead the director has to go to his home town, a place he probably hasn't been to in a decade or more, and find illustrations he did for his local newspaper and high-school yearbook. Umm, sure, those are great but they don't have Calvin or Hobbes in them. So really, it's more wasted time.  

This ended up being more about the director of the film than his subject matter, and that's not really appropriate for a documentary that claims to be about something. The director spends some time near the end trying to tell us which of his favorite Calvin & Hobbes strips is his favorite, at least his current favorite, because that changes over time. Guess what, nobody cares, and by the way, it's not about YOU, or at least it shouldn't be. 

OK, maybe there's a question over who "owns" the strip - the cartoonist, the syndicate or the fans?  I once appeared in a documentary about George Lucas that posed a similar question, namely who owns "Star Wars", and does the director have the right to keep making changes in the film, and restrict access to the classic versions that some people prefer. Well, guess what, he does, because he's George Lucas and he owned the rights, at least before he sold out to Disney.  

That's the other point almost made here, that other comic strips have created merchandising based on their characters, and that's turned out to be a rather profitable venture. The money that Charles Schulz got from licensing his "Peanuts" gang to MetLife Insurance and dolls, lunchboxes and network TV holiday specials created an industry much larger than the "funny pages" ever could. While I will agree that Mr Schulz was a total whore, at least he had the stones to make money from his characters, which could be seen as the whole point of living in a capitalist society. Mr. Watterson has shown incredibly restraint (or stupidity) over the years by NOT licensing Calvin & Hobbes characters for any merchandise outside the strip. 

And yet it endures, with book collections passed down from father to son or older sibling to younger sibling, and who knows, maybe that was the point all along, not this "take the money and run" approach that has worked out so well for others, and all it really cost them was their self-respect. Maybe Watterson knows something we don't, or maybe he just wants the art to speak for itself.  We'll never know if nobody has the opportunity to ask him. 

There's still one more day of San Diego Comic-Con going on, and I intend to take advantage of it, since my subconscious brain planned it that way. Back here tomorrow with something sci-fi related. 

Directed by Joel Allen Schroeder

Also starring Joel Allen Schroeder, Bill Amend, Brian Anderson, Tommy Avallone, Berleley Breathed, Tony Cochran, Todd Dziobak, Jan Eliot, Andrew Farago, Norm Feuti, Jennipher Foster, Zeke Hanson, Tim Hulsizer, Dave Kellett, Keith Knight, Jef Mallett, Nevin Martell, Wiley Miller, Stephan Pastis, Chari Pere, Glen Phillips, Dan Piraro, Jenny Robb, Lee Salem, Jean Schulz, Melissa Sears, Charles Solomon, Lucas Turnbloom, Joe Wos, Mia Ziegler 

with archive footage of Fred Armisen (last seen in "Claydream"), Walt Disney (ditto), Johnny Galecki (last seen in "I Know What You Did Last Summer"), Simon Helberg (last seen in "American Symphony"), Kunal Nayyar (last seen in "Spaceman"), Jim Parsons (last seen in "Spoiler Alert"), Amy Poehler (last heard in Inside Out 2"), Pamela Reed (last seen in "The Burial"), Steven Spielberg (last seen in "Tom Hanks: The Nomad")

RATING: 4 out of 10 drawing boards (which the director here should have gone back to)

Animation Outlaws

Year 17, Day 206 - 7/25/25 - Movie #5,090

BEFORE: This is the point in the countdown where I had scheduled the doc that was made years ago about another animator, my employer for over 30 years. I needed to use it for linking purposes, honestly I sort of built this little sub-section around it, but since being fired a couple months ago, I've realized that I'm 99% sure that I've watched it before, so to keep it on the list would be a violation of my own rules. Also, I don't need it for the linking, as Will Vinton carries over from "Claydream". Also, eff that guy. 

To be fair, that film was something of a puff piece, it really had nothing negative to say about him, so I'm fairly confident that the definitive documentary about him has yet to be made, and I'm also fairly confident that if someone were to make a true portrait, warts and all, about him, they would have to go through me for the details. So I've got that going for me. 

THE PLOT: The story of Mellow Manor, a company run by two hippie friends who created a first of its kind animation festival and ended up helping the rise of the independent animation scene and the careers of many artists and directors. 

AFTER: There's footage here from San Diego Comic-Con, so it's an extreme coincidence (one of MANY) that I landed this film's viewing right during this year's event. Really, the scheduling is done by my subconscious mind, which is aware of lots of things that my conscious mind just does NOT take into consideration when blocking out this stuff. And it's Friday, so if Spike's at SDCC, maybe tonight he'd be running "The Gauntlet" there, which is a screening of the films being considered for the Sick & Twisted Festival, and if the audience boos them, they're removed from the program mid-screening. I used to run a booth at San Diego Con, and my boss pressured me for a couple years to get the booth right across from Spike's, not only because he seemed to have a lot of foot traffic, but also so we could kind of pair up and create our own little "Animation Alley", though I was never able to get the management to promote our section that way. Probably we just wanted to steal some of his traffic, but you know, a rising tide lifts all boats, they say. 

Spike would stand in his booth and use a microphone to get attention (a clear violation of the floor rules of the event) and bust on the cosplayers walking by - like intentionally mixing up "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" or mis-reading what people were dressed up as. When things were slow he'd offer to give a free DVD to the first person who would say "I'm a nerd and I live with my mother" on the mike. And he'd throw shade over to our booth by making fun of my boss, so you know, sometimes I smiled over what Spike was laying down.  If you could turn the camera just a bit to the left during the Comic-Con footage in this doc, you'd see my booth and maybe see that I was holding back a laugh. Spike got the Inkpot Award at last years Comic-Con, so I'm pretty sure that he's still hustling there. Hell, I just wanted to Google him and make sure he's still alive before I post, what with the recent rash of celebrity deaths. Spike would also make announcements from his booth like "I'm famous, and you're not." and "Mike can't be here today because he's dead." and really, there's no way saying those things could become ironic.

Two years ago (3 years after this film got released), Spike's company got acquired by Skybound Entertainment (not Skydance) and they're going to keep his library of films going around as a touring festival, or stream them, whichever, and I hope Spike got a big payout. I wish other animation notable were as forward thinking and connected (apparently) as Spike is - if other people had found connections like this, I'd still be employed. Or who knows, if my boss had sold his film library and cashed out, maybe firing me would have been his next move, who can say? Part of why I'm sitting at home now has everything to do with him NOT being able to sell his library, I'm fairly sure.  

I never met Mike Gribble, he died maybe two years after I got into the industry, and I think at that point I was still figuring out who everybody was and what they did. But I knew him by reputation, he was the M.C. and the showman for the festival, while Spike was the quiet one who lurked in the background and made business deals, the "Silent Bob" of the pair, if you will. And after Mike died, Spike had to become a different sort of person to keep the festival alive. But together they grinded out the publicity for their touring shows, and accidentally created a whole cottage industry for indie animation, really the best idea from two guys who didn't know what they were doing since the Wright Brothers put wings on a bicycle and drove it off a cliff. 

(My boss told me that Mike took some pill that turned his beard different colors, which I realize now is ridiculous. Even if such a pill existed, which I'm pretty sure it doesn't, that seems so much more dangerous and foolhardy than, you know, just using hair dye, which does exist. My boss was really gullible, or Mike said some weird things just to mess with people, probably both.)

I remember shipping out boxes of VHS tapes of animation collections to Mellow Manor, we had other distributors but Spike loved to sell our tapes along with his own. Later on he got some competition from Terry Thoren, who created another touring show called the Tournée of Animation. There's probably a whole other documentary that could be made about the competition in a tight market, but I never met Terry, though our San Diego booth was usually next to Animation Magazine's booth which was run by his ex-wife, Jean.  

As I said yesterday, the animation business is very insular, everybody knows everybody, it's a relatively small group of people when compared with filmmaking overall. Over my career, "live-action" was frequently heard as an insult, it's that other group of people who can't animate and just film what's in front of them, how pedestrian. But if you make a good animated film, it's like you just killed a buffalo, you're part of the tribe now. And everyone's got to start somewhere, people who were just out of college and knew nothing about distribution or how to promote themselves found that the road maybe got a little easier if they went through Spike & Mike, in fact the pair would often help young animators finish their films, include their films in their touring festival, and pay them money. I'm sure Spike & Mike kept some money for themselves, I mean they had to keep their business going and they were doing most of the legwork, but you don't hear anyone complaining in this doc about getting ripped off by them. (If such people are out there, yes, I realize it's very simple to just NOT include their testimonies in the film.)

But just read the list below, it's a veritable "Who's Who" of indie animators, or ones that were indie and then got jobs at Disney, Dreamworks, WB, or Pixar. They really only missed a few people who rose to fame with some help from Spike and/or Mike: Don Hertzfeldt, Eric Fogel, Chris Wedge, John Dilworth and the "South Park" guys. Maybe those people were all busy, or maybe they hold grudges, it's not for me to say. I thank Spike for creating an outlet where there was none, and though he comes off as a gruff, scary guy, he's very entertaining with a microphone in his hand on the Comic-Con sales floor. And he proves that if you keep doing what you're doing, eventually everyone's going to know who you are. They may hate your work or think you're totally nuts, but they will know who you are. 

The Spike & Mike festivals may have been started to function just like a rock concert - but one without all the trouble of dealing with rock bands that tended to be unruly or unreliable or untalented - but it turned into a phenomenon of its own. Instead Spike just had to deal with a lot of animators, who I can confirm tend to be a similary weird bunch, but at least they show up when you program their films. Plus, some of them are rational people - really, it's puppeteers that you have to watch out for. 

Directed by Kat Alioshin

Also starring Spike Decker, Danny Antonucci, Jerry Beck (also carrying over from "Claydream"), Peter Lord (ditto), Nick Park (ditto), Bill Plympton (ditto), Marilyn Zornado (ditto), Bruno Bozzetto, Jonathan Davis, Pete Docter, Emek, John Evershed, David Fine, Joan Gratz, Seth Green (last seen in "Sex Drive"), Steve L. Harmon, Keith Lowell Jensen, Mike Judge (not THAT one), Bob Kurtz, Patrick Maloney, Dan Mirvish, Mike Mitchell, Kenn Navarro, Marv Newland, Jan Pinkava, Everett Peck, Shane Peterson, Joanna Priestley, Roger Raderman, Sean Rielly, David J. Russell, Bob Scarano, David Silverman, Libby Simon, Alison Snowden, David Sproxton, Andrew Stanton, Sarah Chavez Shelton, William Stout, Steve Tenhonen, Ralph Torries, Weird Al Yankovic (last seen in "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story")

with archive footage of Sergio Aragones, Brad Bird, Tim Burton (last seen in "The Sparks Brothers"), Mike Gribble, Mike Judge (OK, THAT one, last heard in "Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe"), John Lasseter, Olivia Munn (last seen in "Ride Along 2"), Kevin Pereira, Terry Thoren,

RATING: 5 out of 10 balloons popped by Scottie the Wonder Dog

Claydream

Year 17, Day 205 - 7/24/25 - Movie #5,089

BEFORE: OK, I'm about to get really personal - the next couple of films are about animation, but not the Disney/Dreamworks type - I'm talking about indie animation, "South Park" kind of comes close but I'm now getting into the even indie-er, darker stuff. I have worked and lived as part of that world for over 30 years, and while I may have met the "South Park" creators once or twice, I knew Will Vinton personally.  I worked for Will Vinton - OK, in a roundabout way - because I worked for Will's agent for a long time, a company that represented him and his studio to ad agencies to land them more commercials. Will ran something called the Creative Conference, so I got to fly to Portland, OR twice on the company's dime to attend. 

In another one of those impossible coincidences, today is the first day of San Diego Comic-Con - and I used to run into Will now and then at that event, and this was after he lost his company - but he knew that I'd worked for him, he knew I worked for other animators, and he was always very friendly to me. So we'd hang out a bit at SDCC, or if he didn't have time or I was too busy working the booth, I'd at least get "the nod" which meant that we saw each other, he knew I was there and I knew he was there, and we'd catch up later, maybe at a party or an industry event.

Of course, I was Team Will in the conflict between him and Phil Knight, however I was also getting a paycheck from Laika, the new company that formed from his studio's ashes. The world of animation is actually pretty small, everyone kind of knows each other and works with each other and dates each other and I call it "incestuous" to a degree, but there's probably a better word for it. Maybe "insular" is better. Anyway, I had a front-row seat for some of the things in today's movie, or maybe it was second balcony, I'm not sure.  Also, my ex-boss of 31 years was interviewed for this film, I'll have to hear his voice for the first time in months, but I've got to deal with that sooner or later. 

Eddie Murphy carries over from "Luther: Never Too Much".

THE PLOT: The meteoric rise and dramatic fall of "Father of Claymation" Will Vinton is the subject of this fascinating portrait of one of cinema's unheralded innovators. 

AFTER: I can't possibly be impartial here - I used to messenger out reels of Will Vinton's work to NYC ad agencies so my boss could bid on commercials they wanted to animate. I was there when a couple of WVS directors came to NY and took a meeting with BBDO creatives and they landed the m&m's job, which was their FIRST real CGI commercial project, and led to a decade's worth of commercials, a multi-million dollar account. That was a real feather in my boss's cap, his company got 10% of all the m&m's ads for a while, which basically paid my salary for years, too. I joke about how I "got paid in m&m's for years" but that's not very far off. 

The company I worked for was so successful in landing work for Vinton Studios that my boss had to, over time, dump his other clients because once Vinton got into CGI, there were conflicts with the other animation studios he represented. And then after WVS became Laika, the company got bought and became the Laika East Coast commercial division. That lasted about five years, my checks came from Portland and I built up something like a retirement fund that I'm not ready to use just yet. But when I do, it's good to know it's there. At some point our four-employee business moved out of a residential apartment and found a new space in another Manhattan apartment building, which acted as a de facto hotel room if Will Vinton or another director came to town. (There was a Murphy bed, one I also slept in during the famous NYC black-out of 2003).

What Will Vinton wanted to be all about concerns creativity - he held that Creative Conference so that he could somehow crack this code about what it means to be creative, how many different ways can people be creative, and besides animation, painting, music, what other methods of creativity could there be? Some people say he was trying to be the next Walt Disney, to be the figurehead of a large group of talented people that he gathered together who could work together, bounce ideas off each other and by pooling enough people with different talents, they could make films from concept to completion all in-house. It's a nice idea, but could it work?  For a while it did, funded by those California Raisins spots and then m&m ads, there was enough money to hire more people and ramp up production on two TV series, "The PJs" and "Gary & Mike". Then from there the ultimate goal was to get the film division back on its feet and profitable again. 

One of the times I visited Portland, I got to see the giant airplane-hangar-sized building that the company bought that housed all of the sets for those 2 TV shows. Well, you have to spend money to make money, or so I've heard. But we know that everything good comes to an end, so in 2001 when both TV shows got cancelled, the company tried to pivot and keep the whole staff around, but just put them to work on a feature film instead of a TV show.  The plan might have worked if Will hadn't taken on Phil Knight from Nike as a minority investor, and also set up a board of directors to oversee the process of investments as well as make major decisions about the company. During the process, Will had accidentally signed something that gave the board the right to remove him from the company, if there was a valid reason to do so, but also for no reason at all, if need be.  

Phil Knight's son, Travis, had taken a position at the studio as an animator, after failing as a white rapper under the name Chilly T. (really, I swear.). By forcing Will out of the company he founded, there was speculation that essentially the senior Knight had planned all along to buy his son an animation company that he could run. But we know that this is not the case, because Phil Knight, during the legal proceedings that came after showing Will the door, claimed that this was not true. And we all know that nobody ever has lied during a legal action, right?  But the end result was that Travis became the head of the company, moving up from animator to CEO, so whether or not that was the original intention doesn't matter, his daddy bought him an animation studio to run. We all knew it. 

You can make a case that Will Vinton was a creative person first and maybe a business person second. You can say that he should have had a better plan for what the company should do in the event of its two TV shows being cancelled. You can say that maybe Will should never have given up any control of his company just to insure there would be more money coming in and he wouldn't have to lay off any staff. But considering all of that, his Academy Award and reputation couldn't prevent someone with more power and money and influence from using the power of the courts to take away what a very creative man had built up during his career. 

The structure of this documentary is such that the opening part has to mention Bob Gardiner, who was a part of Vinton's early career, they worked together on "Closed Mondays", an animated short that won an Oscar, and while Vinton may have coined the term "claymation" and really turned it into a viable business later on, Bob Gardiner had no interest in doing so, and he was known around Portland as a bit of a nutjob, he'd bring his Oscar with him to bars and see if people would buy him drinks. Bob had no interest in continuing to work in animation, and even if he did, he wasn't dependable enough to succeed at it - yet he accused Vinton of stealing his ideas and not giving him enough credit, and basically making Will the fall guy for everything that had gone wrong in his life. He'd spray paint messages on the studio walls and even send death threats to Will - which is not really the way to prove that you should be given a steady job. 

So by telling the Bob Gardiner story, and also mentioning that Will got divorced twice, both times not giving his spouse much notice, there's a suggestion here that maybe karma is, in fact, a bitch. But assuming that Will Vinton mistreated Bob, or failed to give him credit, or stole his ideas or career, does that mean he deserved to have his company taken away from him?  No, it does not. And shame on the documentary filmmaker if suggesting that was his intent. If a restaurant owner fires a waiter for doing a bad job, or not showing up or being unreliable, does that mean that down the line, he deserves to have someone buy the building and shut his restaurant down? No, of course not. 

However, the prevalent theme that I've seen running through many of the Docs in this year's Block, is of course that after you get successful, it's a lot of work just to stay successful. Once you get to the top, how long can you stay on top?  If Will Vinton aspired to follow in Walt Disney's footsteps, there was no guarantee he would be successful. And then once he had his own studio, 300 employees and a couple of TV series, success is still not guaranteed, because it only took a couple of cancellations and one scheming billionaire with an unemployed son to take it away. Somehow, against all rational thinking, the new studio that formed after became wildly successful, releasing films like "Coraline", "Paranorman", and "Kubo and the Two Strings". Now here is where some people might assume that the company might never have gotten there with Vinton at the helm, and maybe some new blood was exactly what the company needed to achieve its goals of success in the world of animated features.  Ah, but don't forget that someone stacked the deck - the distribution deal for feature films was signed the DAY after Will Vinton was released from his contract. So come on, the fix was in. 

Is this, like sounding familiar to any current news stories? Can I make some kind of connection here between Phil Knight v. Will Vinton and Donald Trump v. Paramount? Another very creative man, one I admire, is facing the end of his TV show because someone with more power and influence and an affinity for filing lawsuits decided that he didn't like somebody making jokes about him, and would hold up the sale of a major corporation in response. It's not right, it's a clear abuse of power, however sometimes it is the way the world works. You might think you're pretty good at this entertainment thing, but if somebody doesn't like the way you play the game, you'll find that at some point you have to just pick up your ball and go home, and hope to live to play another day for a different team. I know, it sucks, but to keep the sports analogy going, even if you get signed to a big league team like the Yankees, if your performance level isn't maintained, or the team owner just doesn't like you, there's some kind of clause in your contract that will lead to your being traded or just dismissed. Sometimes it doesn't seem fair or right, but playing the game doesn't mean that you're in charge of the game.

To Mr. Colbert, who's provided me with ample entertainment over the last couple of decades, I just want to say that sure, things look unfair right now, I get that. You were just trying to entertain Americans and point out the foibles and failings of our President, which is perfectly fine, and free speech is protected by the Constitution and all that. But by taking a political stand, you can easily alienate half of your audience - just something to consider.  Also, it could be worse - it could always be worse, right - just imagine if Trump had forced Paramount to hire one of his sons as an executive producer of your show. Or worse, imagine if Don Jr. had taken your job as host and head of the company - because that's kind of what happened to Will Vinton. 

Also, Will got sick around 2006, this is something to think about, too. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and pretty much retired in 2008 - and he did get to spend more time with his family while working on developing a few projects in those last 10 years of his life. So I think he was probably going to have to retire in a few years anyway, however this by NO MEANS suggests that it was OK for Phil Knight to boot him out of his own company in 2005. Not cool. 

Directed by Marq Evans

Also starring Will Vinton, Craig Bartlett, Jerry Beck, Ted Berenson, Steve Box, Webster Colcord, David Daniels, Chuck Duke, Adam Elliot, Sam Fell, William Fiesterman, Richard Goleszowski, Hal T. Hickel, Gary Kachelhoffer, Peter Lord, Michele Mariana, Philip Marcus, Melissa Mitchell, Jeff Newitt, Chris Ohlgren, Nick Park (last heard in "Shaun the Sheep Movie"), Bill Plympton, Susan Shadburne, Brett Shuman, Tom Turpin, Marilyn Zornado, 

with archive footage of Fred Armisen (last seen in "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"), Carrie Brownstein (last seen in "The Oath"), Walt Disney (last seen in "Tom Hanks: the Nomad"), Hugh Downs (last seen in "Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story"), Bob Gardiner, Michael Jackson (also carrying over from "Luther: Never Too Much"), Steve Jobs (last seen in "Join or Die"), Phil Knight (last seen in "McEnroe"), Travis Knight, Robin Leach, Spike Lee (last seen in "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple"), Jane Pauley (last seen in "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind"), Charlie Rose (last seen in "Brats")

and the voices of Tim Allen (last heard in "Tom Hanks: The Nomad"), Christopher Moynihan (last seen in "Mascots"), Harland Williams (last seen in "The Turkey Bowl")

RATING: 6 out of 10 in-house characters that never really caught on like the California Raisins did. 

Luther: Never Too Much

Year 17, Day 204 - 7/23/25 - Movie #5,088

BEFORE: OK, I'm catching up today on posting, no matter what - I've been working at the NY Asian Film Festival, two late nights in a row - I worked a movie the day before that, and was there to see "Superman" the day before THAT, so finally I've got a day off. Sure, I should be updating my job search history for the Dept. of Labor, but first I've got to post. Post or Die. OK, actually it's Sleep Late, then Post or Die. I've been so tired I've been falling asleep at 2 am, which for me is way early, I'm nocturnal now. Also I've been living on iced coffees at the theater, too many probably, so by the time I get home and sit down in the recliner, it's not long before my brain shuts off and my eyes close, I don't even have to try. Still, somehow I'm behind on sleep, go figure. 

Bette Midler (and others) carry over from "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary".

THE PLOT: Chronicles the life of an iconic musical performer, from childhood musical talent to worldwide fame. Explores his collaborations, influences, character and relationships with family, friends and fans. 

AFTER: Just 15 docs left in the block (or maybe 17, we'll see) but this film is the last one on the topic of musicians or singers. That was what, 18 or 19 in a row? Anyway, new topic tomorrow as the Doc Block rolls on. I'll admit I didn't know a ton about Luther Vandross, but I did know about the David Bowie connection, because I watched several docs about Bowie in the past, and he was often featured in the footage from certain performances because he served as a back-up singer for many artists during the 1970's, including Roberta Flack, Chaka Khan, Ringo Starr, Sister Sledge, Donna Summer and the band Chic, but the longest tours were with David Bowie and then Bette Midler. You can hear Luther and his friends prominently on Bowie's song "Young Americans", and then Luther just went ahead and got a lot of credit for putting those vocal arrangements together. 

He could do it all, sing and compose and arrange and direct, so he had a very lucrative side business during the 1980's writing and recording commercial jingles for NBC, Juicy Fruit gum, Mountain Dew, Burger King and KFC. Eddie Murphy poked fun at him for his work on fried chicken commercials, and Vandross took that in stride, at least at first. But it was a different time, when it was easier to find humor in making fun of another person's appearance, by time Cedric the Entertainer came around, he wouldn't make jokes about Luther's weight, as the singer had become so universally loved in the black community.  

Ah, but the media persisted - curse the media, and this was long before there was even social media. When Vandross managed to finally lose some weight (using the power of positive thinking, apparently) the print media was right there to speculate that maybe he had AIDS. To be fair, it was the 80's, but more to the point, please shut up, print media. Luther had diabetes (or "the sugar") and that made weight loss very difficult, also since he never got married, there was already speculation about his sexual orientation, and printing that he might have AIDS probably sent him into a downward spiral of emotions, and he was accustomed to turning to food for comfort, so naturally he gained most of that weight back over time.  

Look, I don't know if he was gay, the doc kind of dances all around it but has no definitive answer - it doesn't really matter now, of course. Except that it kind of does, it would explain a few things, because Luther had several close female friends in his early singing groups, and they now say there was nothing romantic between them. After his music career was enormously successful, he said that his one regret was not finding that one special person to share his life with, and my first thought was, "Well, just PICK SOMEONE, what's the problem?"  As Albert Brooks said, you find that special person when you stop looking. But his situation might have been more complicated than anyone knew, if he was afraid to come out and shock his mother and also lose his female fan base. I guess some of his friends kind of outed him years after he died, which I'm not sure is OK, for several reasons including the fact that it was done to late to help him deal with it or change anything at all. Again, none of my business - but it's perhaps reminiscent of the complex situations of George Michael, Elton John and many others. 

After finally going solo in 1980, he got his first number one song with "Never Too Much", which led to a string of successful albums, and then his work started winning Grammys in 1991 - but I don't think he had another really really big hit until the "Dance with My Father" in 2004. The album with that song debuted at #1 and he (and co-writer Richard Marx) won the Grammy for Song of the Year. But Vandross had a stroke in 2003, and took a long time to recover - and then the year after "Dance with My Father" hit big, he died from a heart attack. 

But he'd maybe led a few lives, starting out as part of a singing group called Listen My Brother, which got hired to appear on the first season "Sesame Street" to sing the alphabet and count to twenty in new and innovative rhythmic styles. It's not a bad gig, but he left NYC to go to college in Michigan, however he dropped out after just a year or so to get back to New York and work on becoming a background singer. Man, this week's documentaries seem to really be about the power of networking, first the future members of Toto appeared on every smooth rock album produced in the 1970's, and now Luther went on tour with every soul act under the sun. That's the life of a singer, just move on to the next gig and the next gig and keep gaining experience until you can become a headliner. 

So here's to networking, and here's to following your dreams and rising to the top - but as we've seen many times in the Doc Block, once you reach the top, there's really nowhere to go but down. You can get to the top, but can you stay there?  Something, whether it's alcohol, or drugs or food or a plane crash is eventually going to happen. Vandross was involved in a car crash in 1986, and was charged with vehicular manslaughter, after his musical protege Larry Salvemini died. There was no evidence of DWI, but Luther pleaded "no contest" to reckless driving, he had to settle the case with Salvemini's family and also perform a benefit concert, I think. 

The other legacy (briefly mentioned in the film) is that the combination of a hamburger on a glazed donut came to be known as a "Luther". I've tried it, and enjoyed it, but I'll eat just about anything. I guess I can see how it's not for everyone, some people just don't appreciate high-calorie meals or the combination of sweet and savory items. It's their loss...

Directed by Dawn Porter (director of "John Lewis: Good Trouble")

Also starring Carlos Alamar, Jocelyn Brown, Mariah Carey (last seen in "Pavarotti"), Ava Cherry, Robin Clark, Lisa Fischer, Roberta Flack (last seen in "Rolling Thunder Revue"), Jamie Foxx (last seen in "The Burial"), Patti LaBelle (last seen in "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple"), Cheryl Lynn, Richard Marx, Marcus Miller, Kevin Owens, Jon Platt, Nile Rodgers (last seen in "Little Richard: I Am Everything"), Valerie Simpson (last seen in "Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over"), Danyel Smith, Alfonzo Thornton, Mary Ida Vandross, Dionne Warwick (also carrying over from "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary")

with archive footage of Luther Vandross (last seen in "Moonage Daydream"), Debbie Allen (last seen in "Fame" (2009)), Michael Bolton (last seen in "Listening to Kenny G"), David Bowie (last seen in "Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes"), Karen Carpenter, Johnny Carson (last seen in "Brats"), Cedric the Entertainer (last seen in "Unfrosted"), Dick Clark (also carrying over from "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"), Michael Jackson (ditto), Otis Redding (ditto), Diana Ross (ditto), Stevie Wonder (ditto),  Andy Cohen, Katie Couric (last seen in "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story"), Matt Lauer (ditto), Oprah Winfrey (ditto), Ann Curry (last seen in "Inside Job"), Tommy Davidson (last seen in "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls"), Clive Davis (last seen in "What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?"), El DeBarge, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds (last seen in "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project"), Eminem (last seen in "Straight Outta Compton"), Melissa Etheridge (last seen in "Janis: Little Girl Blue"), Aretha Franklin (last seen in "Wham!"), Bryant Gumbel (last seen in "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind"), Arsenio Hall (last seen in "Join or Die"), Jim Henson (last seen in "Jim Henson: Idea Man"), Cissy Houston (last seen in "Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over"), Gladys Knight (ditto), Whitney Houston (last seen in "Waiting to Exhale"), Ice Cube (last seen in "Ride Along 2"), Freddie Jackson, Jesse Jackson (last seen in "I Am MLK Jr."), Mick Jagger (last seen in "Travelin' Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall"), Jay-Z (last seen in "Paper Soldiers"), Alicia Keys (last seen in "The Secret Life of Bees"), Ben E. King, Carole King (last seen in "Murphy's Romance"), Kool Moe Dee (last seen in "The New Guy"), Eddie Murphy (last seen in "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple"), Joan Rivers (last seen in "Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed"), Garry Shandling (last seen in "Remembering Gene Wilder"), Maria Shriver (last seen in "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind"), Snoop Dogg (last heard in "The Garfield Movie"), Ed Sullivan (last seen in "Beatles '64"), John Tesh, Alan Thicke (last seen in "That's My Boy"), Usher (last seen in "She's All That"), Denzel Washington (last seen in "Tom Hanks: The Nomad") and the voice of Casey Kasem (last heard in "What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?")

RATING: 5 out of 10 greatest hits compilations

Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary

Year 17, Day 203 - 7/22/25 - Movie #5,087

BEFORE: I mentioned that I have a few docs this year where the cast lists are SO huge that I could basically drop them in anywhere in the chain and they'd probably link on both sides, you know, provided that I stay more or less on the same topics, of pop music and TV and film actors and such. The first one was probably "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple", with a cast of 265 all told, both live interviews and archive footage. Today's film probably counts as the second of them, spanning an entire sub-genre of music, but also including footage from talk show hosts, comedians and news reporters, of course. That leaves at least one more doc with a giant cast, two if I change my mind and decide to include the one about Barbara Walters, who, well, interviewed just about everyone over the years. But let me deal with all the paperwork processing the giant cast of today's docs, then I'll think about whether I want to bring Barbara and her enormous posse in to this year's party. I'm kind of on the fence about it. 

Elvis Presley carries over from "Casa Bonita Mi Amor!" Really the best thing to do with these well-stocked docs is to use them to get out of any linking jams, like that whole classic rock thing kind of dried up and I was forced to use the Beatles and Elvis at the end to make my connections. There's just no artistry in that, the Beatles are in nearly every music doc. So I promise better links ahead, and weirder ones too. 

THE PLOT: Chronicles the rise of the smooth West Coast sound pioneered by artists like Steely Dan, Toto and Michael McDonald, exploring its widespread influence. 

AFTER: I love this sort of documentary, it doesn't really take itself too seriously, nor do its featured musicians, many of whom are still active and playing on nostalgia tours thanks to the long memories of their fans, combined with the over-specialization of satellite radio channels, which is partially for the re-classification of several 70's and 80's artists as "Yacht Rock". Also, they're all still talented and still able to play and compose music, they're just plain old. Well, the ones that are still alive are old, people like Walter Becker and Brian Wilson found a way to stop getting older, but I don't really recommend it. 

There are Yacht Rock radio channels, Spotify playlists, Pandora streams, it's a genuine thing and there's also a list of which musical acts are "Nacht Rock", meaning they don't belong with the Yacht Rock, although apparently there's much debate about what is in and what is out. Toto's definitely in, while Hall & Oates are completely out. (No yachts in Philadelphia, it's technically not on the coast.). The Doobie Brothers are definitely in (anything with Michael McDonald is in) and thankfully, Jimmy Buffett is technically OUT. (Too Caribbean and not sophisticated enough, and I'd have to say I agree.). Christopher Cross is way way IN, even though he wrote "Sailing" and most yacht rock is NOT about actual boats, but he's kind of the exception that proves the rule, while Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles are all NOT invited to the yacht rock party. The songs all have to be smooth and evoke leisure, often with a bit of melancholy, and songs like "Hotel California" and "Saturday Night's All Right for Fightin'" are really just musical stress dreams. Look, I don't make the rules, I just learn to live by them. 

Yacht rock seems to be composed of a lot of songs that I play for my wife in the car on long road trips, when I'm trying to stump her with songs from the 70's. Boz Scaggs (one of her favorites), Ambrosia, Robbie Dupree, Kenny Loggins (the older stuff), Toto, and the Doobie Brothers.  Plus all of the lesser 70's one-hit wonders, and now I wonder if Gordon Lightfoot qualifies, we play a few of his songs in heavy rotation, but he was probably too early. The doc traces the origins of the genre back to Steely Dan, who used Michael McDonald's talents on a few albums, then McDonald went on to join the Doobie Brothers, meanwhile the guys who would eventually form Toto were working on simply EVERYONE's albums, from Christopher Cross's "Sailing" to Michael Jackson's "Thriller". They were kind of like what the Wrecking Crew was to those 1960's Beach Boys and Mamas & Papas albums, the guys working behind the scenes, adding instrumentation here and there, and creating this new sonic vibe that was bouncy and relaxing at the same time, and made you feel good listening to a song about a guy that got left by a girl, but still you can't help but enjoy it because the chord progression is REALLY cool. 

Tangentially there are black artists who qualify as yacht rock, too, like Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" is in, because it was written by Steve Porcaro from Toto, and then there are some songs by George Benson and Grover Washington Jr. that have the same sound, so they're kind of in, too. You'd think that Yacht Rock would be an exclusively Caucasian thing, because, you know, yacht clubs are probably more racist than golf clubs, but it's not really like that, this genre transcends racism because (supposedly) the bands didn't care about the color of your skin, they liked you if you could come up with a great guitar solo that fit the bridge exactly. When you know the sound you want the song to have, you just hire the guys who can give you that sound. And in the 70's the sound of Steely Dan and the Doobies was king, and from their ashes rose Toto and a hundred other bands that tried to replicate their sound. Yeah, I know, they claim a song called "Africa" written and performed by an all-white band isn't racist at all, I'd kind of like to see the paperwork on that one. 

You can call it adult-oriented rock, or the West Coast sound, but there was a web-series a few years back that helped coin the term "yacht rock" and it seems to have stuck. You don't need to own a yacht to enjoy it, and if the term sounds funny to you, remember that they had classical music for a few hundred years before anyone called it "classical music", really it had to be over before it ever earned that name, and sure, the 70's and 80's are over, so now it's time to look back it and re-define it. MOST of the included artists are enjoying the resurgence - really, any time that songs you wrote and performed 50 years ago are back in the public consciousness, you should be thrilled about that, and prepared to pack a bag and go out on tour again, even if it's on the nostalgia circuit. What's ironic is that Daniel Fagen of Steely Dan, the man whose music probably had the most to do with the start of this trend, hates the term and refuses to capitalize on it. Watch until the end of this film to see what happens when the doc director finally gets Fagen on the phone and requests an interview. 

The other thing that's kept some of the yacht rock alive is that "Doobie Brothers bounce", which usually involves upbeat chords played on an electric piano.  Some of them proved to be irresistible when the hip-hop artists were looking for songs to sample - "Regulate" by rapper Warren G (feat. Nate Dogg) uses four bars from Michael McDonald's song "I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near). Once you hear it, you can't unhear it, and there are many more examples of this trend.  De La Soul famously sampled the Steely Dan hook from "Peg", of course. If you read a lot of album credits, eventually you'll end up with one of those giant bulletin boards full of pushpins with string or yarn connecting them, and you'll look like an insane person trying to keep track of all the connections. Very relatable, for me at least. 

Who cares? It's all just great music, enjoy it while you can, it's summer and that's the best time to crank up the stereo, pour some pina coladas and just relax with the A.C. on, because it's too damn hot to even go to the beach. Yacht rockers are right, Jimmy Buffett sucks, but Michael McDonald and Christopher Cross have CLASS, man. 

Directed by Garret Price

Also starring Fred Armisen (last seen in "Will & Harper"), Bethany Cosentino, Christopher Cross, Mac DeMarco, Jay Graydon, Steve Huey, Steven Hyden, Brian Robert Jones, Gary Katz, Jason King (last seen in "Listening to Kenny G"), Molly Lambert, Kenny Loggins (last seen in "The Greatest Night in Pop"), Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, David Pack, David Paich, Alex Pappademaas, Prince Paul, Amanda Petrusich, Steve Porcaro, Questlove (last seen in "American Symphony"), Brenda Russell, J.D. Ryznar, Tom Scott, Rob Tannenbaum, Thundercat, 

with archive footage of Peter Allen (last seen in "Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story"), Diana Ross (ditto), Rosanna Arquette (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Mo Astin, Burt Bacharach (last seen in "Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did for Love"), Quincy Jones (ditto), Carol Bayer Sager (ditto), Lance Bass (last seen in "Trolls Band Together"), JC Chasez (ditto), Chris Kirkpatrick (ditto), Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Walter Becker, George Benson (last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), Ritchie Blackmore, Anthony Bourdain (last seen in "Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain"), David Brinkley (last seen in "ReMastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black"), Joni MItchell (ditto), James Brown (last seen in "Little Richard: I Am Everything"), Jackson Browne (last seen in "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple"), George Clinton (ditto), Sammy Davis Jr. (ditto), James Gandolfini (ditto), Mark J. Goodman (ditto), Daryl Hall (ditto), Herbie Hancock (ditto), John Oates (ditto), Bonnie Raitt (ditto), Ronald Reagan (ditto), David Byrne (last seen in "The Greatest Night in Pop"), James Ingram (ditto), Al Jarreau (ditto), Cyndi Lauper (ditto), Madonna (ditto), Anita Pointer (ditto), June Pointer (ditto), Ruth Pointer (ditto), Prince (ditto), Lionel Richie (ditto), Dionne Warwick (ditto), Bobby Caldwell, Larry Carlton, Jimmy Carter (last seen in "Join or Die"), Ray Charles (last seen in "Travelin' Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall"), Dick Clark (ditto), Chevy Chase (last seen in "The Last Movie Star"), Bill Clinton (last seen in "Joan Baez: I Am a Noise"), Hillary Clinton (ditto), John Ford Coley, Phil Collins (last seen in "Wham!"), Alice Cooper (last seen in "Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon"), Stevie Wonder (ditto), Stewart Copeland, Don Cornelius, Simon Cowell (last seen in "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"), Bryan Cranston (last heard in "Kung Fu Panda 4"), Dash Crofts, Billy Crystal (last seen in "Little Richard: King and Queen of Rock 'n' Roll"), Phillip Daniel, Ted Danson (last seen in "Made in America"), Joyce Dewitt, Nate Dogg (last seen in "Head of State"), Michael Douglas (last seen in "Shining Through"), Dr. Dre (last seen in "Jagged"), Daryl Dragon, George Duke, Robbie Dupree, Billie Eilish (last seen in "American Symphony"), Donald Fagen, Jimmy Fallon (last seen in "Butterfly in the Sky"), Donald Glover (ditto), Joey Fatone (last seen in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3"), Will Ferrell (last heard in "Despicable Me 4"), Tina Fey (last seen in "Tom Hanks: The Nomad"), George Michael (ditto), Warren G (last seen in "Listening to Kenny G"), Marvin Gaye (last seen in "Whitney"), Barry Gibb (last seen in "Elton John: Becoming Rocketman"), Merv Griffin (last seen in "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind"), Bill Hader (last seen in "IF"), Don Henley (last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), Gregory Hines (last seen in "Waiting to Exhale"), Michael Jackson (last seen in "The Beatles: In the Life"), George Martin (ditto), Reggie Jackson (last seen in "Yogi Berra: It Ain't Over"), Chaka Khan (last seen in "Sheryl"), Stevie Nicks (ditto), Joe Walsh (ditto), Bobby Kimball, Jimmy Kimmel (last seen in "Ezra"), Mark Knopfler (last seen in "Under the Volcano"), Simon Le Bon (ditto), Kris Kristofferson (last seen in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore"), Jason Lee (last seen in "Tell"), John Lennon (last seen in "Killing John Lennon"), Paul McCartney (ditto), Ringo Starr (ditto), Annie Lennox (last seen in "Little Richard: I Am Everything"), Shelley Long (last seen in "Dr. T & the Women"), MC Lyte (last seen in "Girls Trip"), Jim Messina, Bette Midler (last seen in "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story"), John Travolta (ditto), Rick Moranis (last seen in "George Carlin's American Dream"), Olivia Newton-John (last seen in "Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over"), Ray Parker Jr. (last seen in "Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives"), Charlie Parker, Jeff Porcaro, Mike Porcaro, Danny Pudi (last seen in "American Dreamer"), Otis Redding (last seen in "Billie"), Kyle Richards, John Ritter (last seen in "Gilbert"), Smokey Robinson (last seen in "Beatles '64"), Joe Sample, Boz Scaggs, “England Dan” Seals, James Seals, Paul Simon (last seen in "Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes"), Suzanne Somers (last seen in "Say It Isn't So"), Danielle Spencer, Sylvester Stallone (last seen in "The Expend4bles"), Sting (last seen in "The 100th: Billy Joel Live at Madison Square Garden"), Barbra Streisand (last seen in "Sid & Judy"), Donna Summer (last seen in "Love to Love You, Donna Summer"), Andy Summers (last seen in "Count Me In"), Jake Tapper (last seen in "Memory"), Ted Templeman, Toni Tennille (last seen in "Tina"), Ernest Thomas, Justin Timberlake (last seen in "Reptile"), Kathleen Turner (last seen in "Beautiful"), Lenny Waronker, Grover Washington Jr. (last seen in "Blues Brothers 2000"), Betty White (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Brian Wilson (last seen in "The Beach Boys'), Bill Withers, and the voice of Howard Stern (last seen in "The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden")

RATING: 8 out of 10 yacht rock songs with "fool" in the title (another dead giveaway)

Casa Bonita Mi Amor!

Year 17, Day 202 - 7/21/25 - Movie #5,086

BEFORE: I can still get this one in as a Monday film, part of a double-feature of sorts. I had to get up very early on Monday morning, not to work at the theater, but to report in at the Department of Labor, a mandatory meeting with a jobs counselor. Unfortunately there was no way to change the date or time of the meeting, or even let my counselor know that, you know, I'm not really a "morning person", and could we possibly meet sometime after 1 pm?  Not only was there no way to do that, it probably wouldn't have been a proper way to present myself to a jobs counselor - but hey, it's true, I don't like getting up early. 

Anyway I was up at 7 and out the door at 7:30 (OK, 7:45) to take TWO buses across Queens, NY, to a very non-descript building that had a bunch of cubicles on the 2nd floor, and I described my job search, told my counselor about my "temp job" that sometimes lets me work 20 hours a week and also sometimes zero hours a week, if there are no events happening. She pointed out that I need to keep better records of which jobs I've applied to, just in case they want to audit my account, which could lead to denying me benefits if they think I'm not applying myself to, well, applying. But I have gone on interview (note singular) and applied for a dozen different things, including being a mascot at a notable restaurant - I probably won't get it, but it counts toward "things that I applied for", so there. 

Elvis Presley carries over from "God Is the Bigger Elvis". 

THE PLOT: Casa Bonita, a quirky Mexican restaurant in Colorado with cliff divers and other attractions, faces closure. "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone try saving this piece of their childhood history.  

AFTER: If you've ever done any home renovation, or repairs on a larger building, then this may be the film for you. Because maybe things with your reno went smoothly, but more likely there were unforeseen problems and also the cost was greater than you thought it would be. Now multiply that by a hundred - no, wait, a thousand - and you'll see what the creators of "South Park" were up against when they decided to buy and update a Colorado Mexican restaurant that they enjoyed visiting during their childhood that had closed during the pandemic. 

It's a relatable story, sure - thousands of restaurants closed in the past few years because they weren't able to pivot and adapt to delivery systems, or didn't realize that people nationwide would completely abuse the "Unlimited Shrimp" promotion (I'm innocent of this, for once, though I may have been single-handedly responsible for the demise of the Queens Sizzler back in the day). Any time a restaurant is closed for any period of time, it's going to take time and money to resurrect it. But multiply that by another thousand - no, wait a million - and you'll see what went down at Casa Bonita. 

The systems in place may have been at fault - even fans of the restaurant will admit that there was always an odd smell to the place, like you just can't mix a chlorinated indoor pool with carpeting and Mexican food and think that nothing could possibly go wrong with that combination. But after 18 months of work and a budget that escalated to eight figures, you have to wonder if it might have been cheaper to just bulldoze the old Casa Bonita and build an exact replica with better electrical systems and working HVAC. When the project costs hit $10 million and far exceeded what the new owners spent to buy the restaurant in the first place, any rational owners would have cut their losses and walked away, hopefully $10 million smarter than when they first started. 

Thankfully (?) Parker and Stone are not rational people, well not in the accounting sense, they're Hollywood animation creators, and they've been very successful over the years by pushing the envelope, some might say exceeding the boundaries of good taste with their cartoons, however they garnered a lot of publicity for doing that, and between "South Park" and "The Book of Mormon", generated enough income to be able to do the unrational things sometimes. There's a condition I've come to call "artist brain" which means that primarily someone needs to be creating art and worrying about the costs later. As a general rule those people surround themselves with other people who worry about accounting matters and logistics, while they focus on "What should this character look like?" and "Hey, is this funny? If not, how can we make it funny?"

There's nervous laughter throughout this whole film, as Parker and Stone learn from their people that the previous restaurant owners neglected upkeep on the building, preventive maintenance was not done for decades, and there was a constant practice known as "Safety Third" which means that it's a miracle that nobody over the years working as a cliff diver wasn't killed by hitting their head on a fake rock or electrocuted in the shower area after leaving the pool. Maybe whoever first designed the place just had the "artist brain" and did not surround themselves with the proper experts on safety and logistical matters, I don't know. Or it was the restaurant group that took over for the original owners that placed profit ahead of long-term building upkeep. 

It turns out there are three kinds of management - there's daily management, long-term management, and micro-management. Daily management is what you have to do right now to get through the shift, so your current customers will leave happy and satisfied and entertained. Long-term management means fixing whatever is broken, so that you know next week the A/C will be working and the roof won't be leaking and as we often see, some people prioritize daily (short-term) over long-term repairs, however this has long-term negative effects. Micro-management is a whole different thing, it can involve fretting over the color of the paint or worrying that the puppet show doesn't have enough jokes. I don't care much for micro-managers, but I'll admit they do get stuff done, however they tend to stress the same points again and again and again and sometimes those are contradictory to the daily management. I've learned this from managing a movie theater these last four years and occasionally having to bend a rule or three during the course of a shift. I want all of my guests to leave happy and satisfied and entertained, even if I had to skip dinner or stay an extra hour. 

Well, we know how the "South Park" guys spent their pandemic years, now. They probably could have made three seasons of their show if not for investing so much time and money into resurrecting this restaurant. But they're local heroes in Colorado now, hell they were before, but now even more so. I hope they can sell enough dinner platters to make up for all the effort, they did put people in place who actually cared about food quality and cleanliness, unlike the previous owners. A quick reminder that my blog has never officially endorsed any product or featured advertising of any sort, but I'd be remiss if I didn't remind you that new episodes of "South Park" start airing THIS WEEK. Make of that what you will. 

We're heading into a section of films that focuses on people in the animation field, some of whom I have had professional dealings with in the real world. This is the first of them, because I met Trey Parker at the Toronto Film Festival in 1997, when "South Park" was really just starting up. "Orgazmo" was screening in Toronto, and I was there promoting the film "I Married a Strange Person". I saw Trey hanging out before the screening and I spoke with him, asked him if he wanted to meet my boss, which he did, and then I think we talked a little shop. I also managed to get myself invited to a preview of the first South Park Halloween episode, which Trey and Matt showed at the Caroline's Comedy Club. (Still upset that I wasted a question during the Q&A, sorry.). The chain dictates that I have to go back to music matters for a couple of days, but then, I promise, more stories about me meeting animators IRL. Well, look at that, it's programmed right around the time of San Diego Comic-Con, whaddaya know. 

Directed by Arthur Bradford

Also starring Trey Parker (last heard in "Despicable Me 3"), Matt Stone (last seen in "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage"), Steve Bender, Amber Blais, Jim "JB" Brown, Ramiro Cazaux, Aaron D'Addario, Ron Daniels, Torrey DeMasters, Luis Barron Elias, Anne Garefino, Dan Jennison, Paul Lang, Bethel Lindsley, Charles McQuerry, Rudy Morado, Betty Boogie Parker, Randy Parker, Phil H. Phillips, Jared Polis, Carly J. Price, Rochelle Rich, Dana Rodriguez, Benjamin Schrader, Don Shannon, Scott Shoemaker, Chuck Spaeth, Chris L. Spellman, Patricia Stevens, Paul Vinyard, Bill Waugh, Frances Waugh, Don Whitcomb, Chad Wonder, 

with archive footage of Rob Christie, Carson Daly (last seen in "Sheryl"), Shani Jonas, Hoda Kotb (last seen in "Marry Me"), Kristian Lopez, Ricardo Montalban (last seen in "I Am Burt Reynolds"), Al Roker (last seen in "Personality Crisis: One Night Only"), Harry Smith, Jeff Todd

RATING: 6 out of 10 sopapillas (I'm resolved to learn exactly what those are)