{"id":2846,"date":"2004-10-02T05:31:51","date_gmt":"2004-10-02T19:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2004\/10\/02\/disney-turning-bloom-county-3-d\/"},"modified":"2022-03-07T09:51:03","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T17:51:03","slug":"disney-turning-bloom-county-3-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2004\/10\/02\/disney-turning-bloom-county-3-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney turning Bloom County 3-D"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:10114,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.ucomics.com\\\/bloomcounty&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20080906234539\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.ucomics.com\\\/bloomcounty&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-11 01:26:57&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-09 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06:52:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10120,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.miramax.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260304015005\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.miramax.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-11 01:27:24&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-09 06:52:03&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-09 06:52:03&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10121,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.viewaskew.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260311015655\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.viewaskew.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-09 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00:53:03&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10123,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www-2.cs.cmu.edu\\\/afs\\\/cs.cmu.edu\\\/user\\\/clamen\\\/misc\\\/tv\\\/Animaniacs\\\/Animaniacs.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.cs.cmu.edu\\\/afs\\\/cs.cmu.edu\\\/user\\\/clamen\\\/misc\\\/tv\\\/Animaniacs\\\/Animaniacs.html&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8822,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/click.linksynergy.com\\\/fs-bin\\\/click?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941.10000002&amp;subid=0&amp;type=4&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10124,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/click.linksynergy.com\\\/fs-bin\\\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DOrbital%2526albumTerm=Snivilisation%2526songTerm=Attached%26partnerId%3D30&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6779,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/click.linksynergy.com\\\/fs-bin\\\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DOrbital%26partnerId%3D30&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10125,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/click.linksynergy.com\\\/fs-bin\\\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DOrbital%2526albumTerm=Snivilisation%26partnerId%3D30&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>You know, much as I&#8217;d like to get excited about the prospect of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucomics.com\/bloomcounty\/\" title=\"Bloom County\">Bloom County<\/a> feature film, given <a href=\"http:\/\/disney.go.com\/\" title=\"Disney Online\">Disney<\/a>&#8216;s track record over the past few years (nearly anything without <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pixar.com\/\" title=\"Pixar Animation Studios\">Pixar<\/a>&#8216;s involvement is a waste of time &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/asin\/B0002XL342\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"Pirates of the Caribbean\">Pirates of the Caribbean<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/asin\/B00005JL96\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"Lilo and Stitch\">Lilo and Stitch<\/a> are the only exceptions I can think of, and even Lilo, while enjoyable, isn&#8217;t quite up to the standards Disney used to have), the news that their first foray into 3-D animation without Pixar&#8217;s involvement <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediainfocenter.org\/story.asp?story_id=57875290\" title=\"Disney Unit to Start Making 3D Films\">will be a Bloom County film<\/a> doesn&#8217;t thrill me.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  Miramax Films will co-finance and distribute computer-animated family films starting with &#8220;Opus,&#8221; adapted from the popular &#8220;Bloom County&#8221; comic strip, the company said Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>  Miramax will release some of the films under its Dimension banner and produce them in conjunction with Wild Brain Inc., a San Francisco-based animated film company perhaps best known for creating the nasty toe fungus in commercials for the prescription drug Lamisil.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Now, while I don&#8217;t know anything about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wildbrain.com\/\" title=\"Wild Brain\">Wild Brain<\/a> (or their nasty toe fungus), the fact that the movie will be under the Disney subsidiary <a href=\"http:\/\/www.miramax.com\/\" title=\"Miramax\">Miramax<\/a> does give some hope that the end result won&#8217;t be as Disney-fied as might otherwise be the case (after all, Miramax does distribute a lot of movies I enjoy, including many of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.viewaskew.com\/\" title=\"Views Askew\">Kevin Smith<\/a>&#8216;s works). So maybe it won&#8217;t be all bad, right? But then the article goes on&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  The deal envisions lower budget feature films consistent with Miramax&#8217;s independent studio status. Films will cost about half of the bigger budget movies produced by Pixar Animation Studios or DreamWorks SKG.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;What you spend doesn&#8217;t necessarily reflect on how good the movie is,&#8221; said Jim Miller, Wild Brain chairman.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Well, sure Jim, that&#8217;s quite true &#8212; there are many, <em>many<\/em> examples of low-budget films whose quality far outshines the big-budget extravaganzas foisted upon us by the movie studios each summer. However, that said, &#8220;low-budget&#8221; isn&#8217;t really a term I tend to associate with CGI. Still, I will easily admit that I know jack squat about the costs involved in CGI. Maybe it is possible to create a quality feature length CGI film on 1\/2 the budget of a Pixar film (though given how <em>good<\/em> Pixar&#8217;s films are, and how successful, I&#8217;d hesitate to consider calling their work too expensive).<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m also having a little difficulty trying to envision the Bloom County universe as a fully three-dimensional rendered world. I keep trying to picture Opus, Bill, and the rest of the critters as 3-D models, and stumbling. On top of that, there are the human characters &#8212; Milo, Binkley, Steve, Cutter John, Oliver &#8212; and human animation is getting better, but will it be good enough to actually realize the characters I&#8217;ve grown up with?<\/p>\n<p>But beyond the quality of the animation and the talent of the animators, there&#8217;s this little thing called the script that someone&#8217;s got to worry about, and when dealing with a property as well-known and loved as Bloom County, that&#8217;s got to be very important consideration.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  The choice of subject for the first film reflects Miramax&#8217;s eclectic tastes and could prove to be a hard sell, especially to younger audiences.<\/p>\n<p>  The character of Opus is a rotund penguin with a cynical world view &#8211; far from the heartwarming characters at the center of such films as &#8220;Finding Nemo.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;We agree that it&#8217;s a challenge,&#8221; Miller said. &#8220;How do you take the essence of those characters, who are a little cynical, and move them into a story that can reach adults at the &#8216;Bloom County&#8217; level and children at their level? We think we have a terrific story.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  The challenge has been given to screenwriter Craig Mazin, whose credits include &#8220;Scary Movie 3.&#8221; &#8220;Bloom County&#8221; is written by Berkeley Breathed.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And therein lies my real fear.<\/p>\n<p>So far, I&#8217;ve only ever seen two properties that I ever felt could really bridge the gap between children&#8217;s entertainment and adult entertainment in a way that successfully appealed to both age groups without pandering to either: The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.muppetcentral.com\/\" title=\"Muppet Central\">Muppets<\/a> (with the original television show and the first movie being the high points) and <a href=\"http:\/\/www-2.cs.cmu.edu\/afs\/cs.cmu.edu\/user\/clamen\/misc\/tv\/Animaniacs\/Animaniacs.html\" title=\"Animaniacs Pointers\">Animaniacs<\/a>. All too often, either something ends up being watered down too much in order to aim at the children, and the adults have to sit through mind-numbingly asinine shows to appease their children, or the humor is aimed so much at the adult level that parents aren&#8217;t comfortable allowing younger children to watch.<\/p>\n<p>Combining the two is a very tricky business, often requiring a level of subtlety that I just don&#8217;t see much these days. Rather than going for obvious &#8220;adult&#8221; or &#8220;juvenile&#8221; humor (which, admittedly, these days seems all too similar, usually revolving around toilet humor, with the only real difference being whether or not there&#8217;s a sexual overtone), it seems to require more thought to the humor &#8212; more intelligent jokes, more puns, veiled references&#8230;done well (as both the Muppets and Animaniacs did), it can be incredibly enjoyable for both age groups. Done poorly, and nobody enjoys it as much as they should.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, as with all things, there will be no real way to know until it comes out, which should be sometime in 2006. Until then, though&#8230;well, I won&#8217;t be holding my breath. And if all else fails, there is a lot of Bloom County in print that is just as funny to me now as it was when it came out (sometimes funnier, as I&#8217;ve grown older and more able to understand some of the humor).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/click?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941.10000002&amp;subid=0&amp;type=4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" width=\"61\" height=\"15\" alt=\"iTunes\" src=\"http:\/\/images.apple.com\/itunesaffiliates\/logos\/iTunes_sm_bdg61x15.png\"><\/a> &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DOrbital%2526albumTerm=Snivilisation%2526songTerm=Attached%26partnerId%3D30\">Attached<\/a>&#8221; by <a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DOrbital%26partnerId%3D30\">Orbital<\/a> from the album <em><a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DOrbital%2526albumTerm=Snivilisation%26partnerId%3D30\">Snivilisation<\/a><\/em> (1994, 12:25).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You know, much as I&#8217;d like to get excited about the prospect of a Bloom County feature film, given Disney&#8217;s track record over the past few years, the news that their first foray into 3-D animation without Pixar&#8217;s involvement will be a Bloom County film doesn&#8217;t thrill me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2036,2037],"tags":[2582,23,6],"class_list":["post-2846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-tv-and-films","tag-bloom-county","tag-film","tag-humor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}