Flavorwire

The 20 Best Disney Animated Feature Films

By Tyler Coates on May 16, 2013 2:30pm

Eighty-five years ago this week, on May 15, 1928, Mickey Mouse made his animated debut in the short “Plane Crazy,” the little-seen film that isn’t quite as popular as the first distributed Disney film, “Steamboat Willie.” While Mickey Mouse became the face of the Disney empire, he didn’t make it into many of the studio’s feature films. But his success and popularity made his creator Walt Disney a household name, and he paved the way for the great animated films for which Disney’s studio became known. To celebrate this anniversary, we took on the massive task of ranking Walt Disney Pictures’ 20 greatest animated features. … Read More

Books

Flavorwire Exclusive: Lindsay Hunter on Her Favorite Short Story

By Emily Temple on May 16, 2013 2:00pm

The short story can be a magical thing. It’s a breath, a moment, a captured mood — or an entire teeming world packed into a few pages. Maybe, if it’s really great, it’s both. The only trouble with short stories is that not enough people read them. So, in a series to celebrate Short Story Month (and help you add to your reading list), Flavorwire is asking some contemporary masters of the form to talk about the short stories they love. In this installment, Lindsay Hunter, whose electrifying second collection Don’t Kiss Me is forthcoming in July, recommends one that she can’t just get out of her head. … Read More

Television

Mapping the ‘The Office’s’ Slow Decline

By Chloe Pantazi on May 16, 2013 1:36pm

For the dedicated fans of The Office who haven’t been offended/ disappointed/ heartbroken enough by its gradual decline over the seasons to abandon it entirely, tonight’s series finale may be its biggest disappointment yet. For all the show’s flaws, the Dunder Mifflin employees have indeed become something like family — not just among themselves, but to those committed viewers who have stuck with the gang through the good times and the very bad ones. Now that it’s time to bid the show goodbye, here’s our guide to the show’s steady descent, in a series of moments that made The Office really start to suck balls. (That’s what she said.) … Read More

Film

Flavorwire Interview: Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach on Creating ‘Frances Ha’ Together

By Jason Bailey on May 16, 2013 12:30pm

Anyone who saw Greta Gerwig providing the soft, gooey center for Noah Baumbach’s sharply acidic Greenberg would understand why he’d want to cast her again; as the accidental love interest to Ben Stiller’s misanthrope, she gave a performance so nuanced yet winning and deeply felt that it sent anyone who observed it reeling for synonyms for “star quality.” His initial idea for their follow-up, Frances Ha, was vague: “I just had more general ideas that it would be something in New York and something in black and white and something with Greta,” he recalls. “I didn’t really know more than that — and maybe something that felt sort of European to me, some, like, story of youth.” But he wasn’t interested in solely collaborating as actor and director. “I suppose I had an instinct, to kind of involve her in the process of coming up with what it was going to be.” Gerwig jokes that his motivations may have been more pragmatic. “I think part of it was, he was like, ‘You’re cheap, right?’” … Read More

Music

How Does Google Play Music All Access Compare to Spotify and Rdio?

By Tom Hawking on May 16, 2013 11:45am

Another week, another new streaming music service. Yesterday Google launched the not-so-catchily-titled Google Play Music All Access, a subscription service that basically extends Google’s existing music service to create a Spotify/Rdio-style magic jukebox, and also includes a Pandora-style, algorithm-based radio station. Like Spotify and Rdio (but unlike most of Google’s other services), it costs money — it’s $9.99 a month, or $7.99 if you start a trial before the end of June, and there’s no free option. So, is it worth it? … Read More

Photography

Multiple Exposure Photographs Inspired by Impressionist Paintings

By Chloe Pantazi on May 16, 2013 11:00am

Influenced by the Impressionist aesthetic of Monet and Turner’s work, these gorgeous multiple exposure photos by the artist Eeva Karhu (via Faith is Torment) possess the evocative quality of painting. Indeed, they look more like paintings than they do photos; note the grainy, hazy texture of Kahru’s photos and the way the light blurs the landscape within each frame. Her work doesn’t just emulate the Impressionist masters, however — it straddles that liminal space between mediums and worlds. In fact, Kahru’s portraits seem more like imagined renderings than real ones, but of course they are real. These pictures remind us that there’s something innately beautiful and painterly in our surroundings. … Read More

Film

Despite His Protests, Zach Braff’s Cannes Deal Violates the Spirit of His Kickstarter Campaign

By Jason Bailey on May 16, 2013 10:15am

It’s not like anyone was crossing their fingers and wishing upon a star to talk about Zach Braff and Kickstarter again, but here we go. “Zach Braff’s Kickstarter Film Lands Full Financing,” reads the headline at The Hollywood Reporter, which got all the details of Braff’s Cannes deal with Worldview Entertainment to “fund much of Wish I Was Here,” the Garden State follow-up that Braff already raised $2.6 million for via the crowd-funding site. It’s a deal that seems to confirm the worst grumblings about the project (that it was a publicity stunt, that it was a vanity move, that it was a gross exploitation of crowd funding by a multimillionaire). And though the Reporter has updated its piece with softer language concerning the full extent of Worldview’s participation, the new controversy surrounding the project raises further questions about exactly how these hybrid Kickstarter/Hollywood projects should work — and who will benefit from them. … Read More

Books

15 Books You Should Definitely Not Read in Your 20s

By Emily Temple on May 16, 2013 9:30am

The Internet (this site not the least bit exempt) is fond of telling you which books you should read. Particularly, it seems, when you’re in your 20s. But now that you have enough of those lists to last you a lifetime, which books should you make sure to steer clear from in this most transitional and tender of decades? Well, here are a few to consider. Disclaimer: all of these (okay, most of these) are good books. They’re books you should read. Just not in your… Read More

Design

Comic Book Covers Featuring ’80s Post-Punk/New Wave Singers as Superheroes

By Tom Hawking on May 16, 2013 8:45am

If you’re a regular-ish reader, you might remember that Flavorwire has featured the work of a pop culture and Smiths-obsessed Brazilian artist by the name of Butcher Billy a couple of times over the last few years. Well, he’s back, and this time he’s designed a series of faux comic-book covers featuring ’80s post punk/new wave singers (including Morrissey, of course) as superheroes. They’re amazing. Obviously. … Read More