Via Gawker

A Florida chapter of scientifically-illiterate, hyperreligious paranoid xenophobes The Citrus County Tea Party Patriots have uncovered yet another threat to The United States of Christopia: MANATEES. American Conservatives’ endless quest to make the bad guys from “Captain Planet” look nuanced by comparison marches on…

Edna Mattos, the “leader” of the Citrus County Tea Party Patriots has launched a campaign to oppose increased protections on edangered Manatees in King’s Bay:

“We cannot elevate nature above people,” explained Edna Mattos, 63, leader of the Citrus County Tea Party Patriots, in an interview. “That’s against the Bible and the Bill of Rights.”

It’s also, of course, all part of the conspiracy by the United Nations – that scaaaaary organization of untrustworthy Europeans and Brown People who want to take your guns and Bibles – to take over the world through environmental regulations. Mattos explains:

“We believe that (federal regulators’) aim is to control the fish and wildlife, in addition to the use of the land that surrounds this area, and the people that live here and visit. … As most of us know, this all ties in to the United Nations’ Agenda 21 and Sustainability.”

“Agenda 21” is a largely symbolic, essentially-unenforcable U.N. resolution (so, in other words, a U.N. resolution) from 1992 to encourage environmentally-responsible development. Nobody cared about it (again, U.N. resolution) until Glenn Beck convinced his acolytes that it was evidence of “the plan.”

I’m generally reluctant to post stuff from MSNBC (or anyone else’s) opinion programs because it always degenerates into mutual bile-spewing about “bias;” but this clip from last night’s Rachel Maddow Show is too much of a treasure-trove of religious-psycopathy for me NOT to call attention to…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640

These are REAL guys – not satirists – many of them speaking to cheering, agreeing crowds of THOUSANDS in an allegedly modern country. I don’t care what, if anything, your spiritual or political affiliation (or lack thereof) is – that FACT should scare the shit out of you.

Whenever I’m on about “Thinkers vs. Believers,” this is the stuff I’m talking about.

Somewhere between the post-production of “Spider-Man 2” and the clusterfuck of shenanigans surrounding “Spider-Man 4;” something seemed to have gone vaugely “awry” with Sam Raimi. Longtime collaborator Danny Elfman claimed they’d had a major falling-out, and on the business side his innability to make a project come-together was approaching that of Guillermo del Toro.

Recently, though, things appear to have turned a corner. The rift with Elfman has apparently been healed, his “Oz: The Great and Powerful” feature is looking like it could beat the inexplicable glut of upcoming “Wizard of Oz” alterna-takes to the screen, and now Bloody Disgusting reports that the long-promise “official” reboot of “Evil Dead” is on the way…

Supposedly, the Raimi-produced remake of the original “Evil Dead” has re-entered development, and BD claims that a highly sought-after young talent has been tapped to direct: Federico Alvarez, an Uruguayan indie wunderkind whose short film “Ataque de Panico!” (“Panic Attack!”) – in which Montevideo is leveled by giant alien robots – became an international sensation a year or so back:

So that’s what giant robots look like when they don’t suck…

Another two-parter.

People who are bigger fans of Tintin (the franchise really doesn’t “exist” here in the States for the most part, though a cartoon ran on Nickelodeon back in the day) are going to have to tell me if the movie seems to be “getting it” or not; but thus far I’m pretty enthused.

I’m still not convinced that motion-capture animation is “there” yet, but it’s not going to get “there” if people don’t keep refining it. Also, good filmmaking can overcome limiting techniques, so we’ll see.

It’ll be interesting to see how, if this is good, it effects the debate in the animation world over the technique. Last year, The Academy Awards made headlines by deciding that films primarily using mo-cap DON’T qualify for animated-film Oscars; which to be honest sounds somewhat illogical to me. I understand that there’s a pervading fear/resentment in the animation business that motion-capture devalues (literally and figuratively) the work of full-blown animators; but people have been rotoscoping for decades and I don’t see how this is appreciably different – particularly in the case of something like “Happy Feet,” which used humans to mo-cap non-human animal character with major animation-additions later.

It’s the weekend! Here’s some of the stuff you may have missed on the MovieBob Blogs this week!

THE BIG PICTURE: “TURTLE MAKI”
The infamous TMNT Anime is the subject.

AMERICAN BOB: “JOBBED”
Politics, jobs and the U.S. economy.

GAME OVERTHINKER – EPISODE 53: “THINGS LEARNED IN THE DARK”
The Playstation Network hack/blackout is discussed. Also, a bunny.

I was INTERVIEWED by EXAMINER.COM

ESCAPE TO THE MOVIES: “HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN”
Nuff said.

INTERMISSION: “THE MORE YOU KNOW”
How to speak Hollywood movie-press speak.
Naomi Harris is (maybe?) the new Miss Moneypenny.

VOTE on the topic of the NEXT “Game OverThinker” episode!

Here’s a FAQ post about the new(er) shape of “The Game OverThinker” series!

REMINDER: MovieBob will be out and about at the IGDA Sumitt in Seattle!

As ever, feel free to follow MovieBob on Twitter @the_moviebob

UK’s Daily Mail – currently basking in the glow of being a British tabloid NOT shuttered by a horrific phone-hacking scandal – reports that the next installment of the rebooted James Bond series has found it’s Miss Moneypenny: Naomi Harris, late of “28 Days Later” and “Pirates of the Carribbean.”

If this is legit, it will make Harris the sixth actress (three in the “main” series plus two in the “side” films); and the first black actress to play the role. That second part will, of course, pass by largely un-remarked-upon and will not at all generate bleats of outrage from “racially-conscious” white people about “losing” this or that artifact of pop-culture; as everybody got that out of their system on “Thor”…

…right? 😉

It’s as good as it sounds.

“Intermission” is about movie news, once more…

Awhile back I did an interview with Charles Huang of The Examiner, the text of which is now online for everyone to bask in. ENJOY!