Since popular Pixar film Up hit screens in 2009, there has been more than one homage to its iconic flying house. The best — or at least the most realistic — of these, a house built in Utah to look almost exactly like its animated counterpart, has just been sold to two self-described Disney fanatics who had been searching for a house with an ‘Up feel.’ The house, which now serves as a tourist attraction, wasn’t up for sale, but after meeting Clinton and Lynette Hamblin, builder Blair Bangerter decided he would be leaving the place in good hands. Even better, at least for the Hamblin’s, was the price tag — $400,000, still a hefty number, but less than the run-of-the-mill homes they had been looking at in California. Bangerter Homes received special permission from Disney to construct the house, with the stipulation that the plans be turned over after completion, making it the only house of its kind. ”That movie just made us grow as a couple,” Lynette Hamblin said of Up. “Life is never over, and adventure is out there.” [Daily News and Hollywood Reporter]
Love can make you do some crazy things. And we’re not just talking about what happens when you fall for another person — just look at the legions of Twihards who camped out for days to catch a glimpse of the red carpet at last week’s premiere of Breaking Dawn. But you know what’s even more unpredictable? What will happen you bring two culture vultures with a mutual passion together, and give them free reign to visually celebrate their relationship and their shared obsession. Imaginations run wild, and the resulting photos can range from giggle-inducing to surprisingly touching — and in some cases, they’re a little bit of both. Need pictorial proof? Check out the collection of tradition-bucking engagement shots that we’ve rounded up after the jump. Read More »
Today at Flavorpill, we thought that this little kid dressed up like Carl Fredricksen from Up was quite possibly the cutest thing that we will ever see. We looked at the jaw-dropping views from the world’s tallest observation deck at the Shanghai World Financial Center. We watched an amazing time-lapse video of 47,000 people running across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at the start of the New York City Marathon. We listened to a segment from one of Tina Fey’s two new hour-long radio specials, “The Hidden World of Girls.” We had to hit replay on the new “Muppet Show Theme” about five times in a row before locating the Joanna Newsom vocals. We visited Track 61, the long-abandoned train platform that’s underneath the Waldorf-Astoria. We hopped on board of The Guardian‘s world literature tour, which is currently focusing on writers from Argentina. We wondered if Andy Rooney was really “The Godfather of Troll.” We were amused to learn that Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn is working on a Friday Night Lights tribute album. And finally, we were impressed by this 3-D Lego army that was designed by Leon Keer for Chalkfestival in Sarasota, Florida. Don’t the minifigs look real?
Stuck in that season between summer and the holidays that breeds stir craziness in even the most balanced of people, it’s easy to feel the pang of wanderlust. But sometimes a living room couch or movie theater is as far as our paychecks and vacation-day allotments will take us. If you’re itching to get out and get lost, these movies, filmed and set in phenomenal locations, will satisfy at least one of your senses and tide you over until you can get away for real.
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We came across Fauxgo, a new blog by Tymn Armstrong dedicated to chronicling the fictional logos used in television and film, over at Swissmiss, and we’re not ashamed to say that after racing through it we’ve spent a significant amount of time thinking of all of the other “fauxgos” we’ve seen on screen. Logos are one of those things that you often internalize without thinking very much about, but they’re meant to instantly evoke the company they represent on sight, so it’s pleasantly confusing to be faced with a logo you think you don’t recognize but has definite sense-memory associations attached. And it’s even better when those associations revolve around Michael Scott. Click through to see some of our favorite fauxgos, and head over to the site for even more.
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Remember when National Geographic built a replica of the house from Up for a TV show that they’ll be airing this fall? Thanks to some help from 300 8′ weather balloons, they even made it fly! Portland-based lawyer Randal Acker — who just so happens to have offices in an 1894 Queen Anne Victorian that’s surrounded by tons of construction — went the lo-fi route with his Pixar homage, but it still puts a smile on our face. How about you? [The Daily What via Reddit]
Today at Flavorpill, we placed our vote for the Fugliest Celebrity of the Year. We watched James Bond (aka Daniel Craig) do drag for a good cause. We read what might be the best wedding-related headline ever. We were impressed by National Geographic’s real-life re-creation of the flying Up house. We wanted to meet the owner of this Wu-Tang bathmat. We looked at some of our favorite movies in bar code form. We were impressed to see that Kevin Smith’s distribution plan actually seems to be working. We were jealous of these stranded airline passengers who got an impromptu performance of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” from Cyndi Lauper. We were kind of freaked out by this footage from a Star Trek convention back in the ’70s. We had entirely too much fun playing around with the Daily Mail-o-matic (that is until we found out that it may cause cancer). And finally, we vowed never to eat — or even look directly at — a Bhut Jolokia pepper. As the world’s hottest chili pepper, it’s more than three times hotter than a habanero.
Long before he was one of Pixar’s most important employees, Pete Docter (who directed both Up and Monsters Inc.) was but a lowly student filmmaker at the California Institute of the Arts working on a project called “Winter.” While it’s super short, and obviously, much cruder than his more recent work, you can see the foreshadowing of future greatness in this animated feature; the simple story, which is told with a single piano, focuses on a little boy who gets extremely excited about getting to go outside to play in the snow. After the winter we’ve had, maybe the kid should consider moving to New York. Click through to check it out now.
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Ivan Guerrero, aka whoiseyevan, is the gifted video editor who made that clever trailer for ”Ghost Busters” that you all emailed to each other a couple summers ago — you remember, the one that repurposed all the footage from the old movies so that Ghost Busters was a 1954 comedy starring Bob Hope, Fred MacMurray, and Martin and Lewis. He has turned out several more of these “premake” trailers in the interim; his latest “pre-magines” Up! as a 1960s Walt Disney live-action movie, in the style of The Love Bug or The Absent-Minded Professor.
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For the first time in 67 years there will be ten Best Picture nominees, rather than the typical five, at this year’s Oscars — which is not good news if you’re a betting man. So we’ve done some research to help your odds. Among what we discovered: In the past ten years only one book based on a true story has won Best Picture — A Beautiful Mind in 2002. So if history repeats itself The Blind Side, Up in the Air, An Education, and Precious won’t be bringing home top honors. And despite its marker as the highest grossing film in history, we can pull Avatar from the list, as well as District 9, as sci-fi flicks aren’t popular with the Academy. Comedies are rarely winners — even dark ones — which rules out A Serious Man. Plus, the Coen brothers already won in 2007 with No Country for Old Men. And let’s face it, as adorable as Up! was, there’s no way an animated film could ever win in this category.
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