After watching this video that Ohio designer Adam Ladd created with his five-year-old daughter, you’ll be smiling from ear to ear. Ladd asked her to share her thoughts about popular logos belonging to some of the world’s biggest corporations. She candidly shares her feelings about each image — in only a way that a five-year-old can — and the commentary is adorable, insightful, and allows you to look at age-old brands in a refreshing way. She instantly recognizes the Disney, Apple, and McDonald’s logos, which isn’t too surprising. Other symbols are simplified to a funny degree. Starbucks simply becomes the “coffee logo,” and anything that looks like it could be a cheetah is a cheetah (Greyhound, Puma, etc.). Check out her commentary past the break.
ABC recently announced an order for a new one-hour pilot based on Beauty and the Beast – about a week after The CW announced their own pilot for the same kind of show (though they claim theirs is a crime drama). Add to this the successful 3D re-release of the 1991 Disney animated film and it seems like it’s shaping up to be a great year for Belle and all her talking-furniture friends.
We’ve already revisited some other Beauty and the Beast-like girl-loves-ugly-boy couples – now let’s look at the many interpretations of the original French fairy tale that have surfaced throughout pop culture.
Today at Flavorpill, we perused Pop Candy’s list of Joy Division/Unknown Pleasures-inspired stuff — especially timely due to that Mickey Mouse tee Disney made. We learned all about the C-word. We watched Vanilla Ice become an indie rock star. We held our breath watching people jump from Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands. We found these Persian stamps to be surreally beautiful. We raised a brow at Twitter’s censorship policy. We smiled at Community writer Megan Ganz’s meeting note doodles. We wanted to adopt a Dire wolf. We heard what advice Snoop Dogg gave Kris Humphries about Kim Kardashian. We were amused by Chris Pratt with a lightsaber. We admired the best of Paris Spring couture. And finally, we liked these hipster Disney princesses — even if we didn’t know that a few of them existed until today.
1. Even though former Joy Division bassist Peter Hook took it to be “quite the compliment,” Disney has decided to stop selling its Unknown Pleasures-inspired Mickey Mouse t-shirt. According to a company rep, “As soon as we became aware there could be an issue, we pulled it from our shelves and our online store to review the situation further.” [via P4K]
2. Steven Spielberg is in serious talks to direct a new movie about Moses for Warner Bros that will hopefully remind you more of Braveheart than The Ten Commandments. Says an insider: “There have been glossy versions of the Moses story but this would be a real warrior story.” [via Deadline]
3. Uggie, the Jack Russell terrier who stole our hearts in The Artist, is apparently retiring. “He may do a couple of little things here and there because he enjoys them,” explains his owner, “but I don’t want to put him through long hours anymore. He’s getting tired.” [via Vulture]
4. “We have been working on this show for over a year and we wanted to partner with the right people. DJs are the new rock stars, it feels like the right time to make this show.” — Simon Cowelldiscusses his next reality project, which will see him partner with Jada Pinkett-Smith and Will Smith’s production company.
5. Are we the only ones who think that NBC giving Rainn Wilson from The Office his own spin-off about life at Schrute Farms is a really horrible idea? Did this network learn nothing from its misguided decision to air Joey? [via EW]
Today at Flavorpill, we learned just how snarky Nickelback’s Twitter account can be. We watched a badass panda burning trash in a shopping cart for warmth in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. We uncovered the level of artifice that goes into crafting daytime courtroom TV shows. We pondered calling the G-Spot (now said not to exist), the G-Zone. We were weirded out by this Obama/Hulk mashup. We stared at a red dot that made our eyes do funny things. We listened to some of the purplest musical artists of all-time. We giggled at Alec Baldwin’s Piers Morgan impersonation. We found out what the Vimeo updates will entail. We watched a comedian attempt to sleep at 13 celebrities’ homes. We wanted to travel back in time to this neon New York office building in the 1980s. And finally, we loved Iggy Pop’s description of his job as Record Store Day Ambassador. He said he felt like, “ … a representative from some exotic jungle full of life and death and sex and anger, called upon to wear a leopard skin and translate joy to the world of the dead.” He should probably get a side gig writing job listings.
Disney princesses have been getting a ton of fan-art love lately. We’ve seen them as magazine cover models — twice — and the seven deadly sins. One illustrator even did some research into the history behind their costumes. But what about Disney princes? Perhaps sensing that they felt left out, the blog Petite Tiaras has followed up its princess magazine cover series with a new collection that places The Little Mermaid‘s Prince Eric on the front page of Men’s Journal, while Prince Charming models for GQ. Check out the first images from the project after the jump, and follow Petite Tiaras on Tumblr to see each new cover when it debuts.
Disney’s 1991 animated favorite Beauty and the Beast is being re-released in theaters on January 13. The studio saw dancing dollar signs in their eyes when a 3D re-release of The Lion King performed well at the box office. They decided to give their film about an unlikely love connection the same treatment. The mouse house has three other 3D versions planned for Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., and The Little Mermaid — which is a genuinely cool opportunity to enjoy the classics on the big screen if you missed them the first time.
The contemporary screen fable was inspired by the 18th century fairy tale La Belle et la Bête and Jean Cocteau’s stunning movie of the same name — both of which didn’t feature Law & Order‘s Jerry Orbach as the voice of a feisty French candelabra, but all things can’t be perfect. The trope of the angsty monster — a device sometimes used quite literally and other times implied — soothed by a kind and loving lady has been a cinematic plot line for ages (cue “Tale As Old As Time”). We looked at several examples of beauty and beast romance on film past the break. Did we leave out your favorite star-crossed lovers? Share them with us below.
According to the British, last week contained the most depressing day of the year. Other accounts swear it’s always the Monday of the last full week of January. For us, February always seems bleakest — winter’s been happening for much too long, and there are still way too many weeks to go. Either way, the season of depressing weather and agoraphobia has begun, so we thought we’d help you out by offering a list of devastatingly sad movies for you to watch while you hole up in your apartment for the next three months. You may wonder why we prescribe depressing movies for the cold — after all, shouldn’t we be trying to perk you up? — but the Greeks traditionally put on tragedies in the winter months, believing that to be the time for catharsis, whereas the summer months were better for lighter fare. It’s time to embrace the bad weather and your growing grouchiness and watch these ten films, each guaranteed to be more devastating than the last. Film not your thing? Check out our lists of sad music and sob-worthy books. Did we miss your favorite? More tragedy — let us know in the comments.
Justin Bieber recently discovered steampunk, so it makes sense that Disney would be the next one to get the aesthetic makeover. DeviantARTist MecaniqueFairy (didn’t the name give it away?) has given several of the Mickey Mouse studio’s villains and other characters a pseudo-Victorian makeover, outfitting each creation with period accessories and other modifications. See if her works meet your nerdy approval past the break. Read More »
