Monthly Archives: December 2009

Disney’s The Princess and the Frog: Cartoon Fantasy and Social Reflection

December 30th, 2009 | Posted in animation, cartoon, Disney, fantasy

I haven’t seen Walt Disney’s The Princess and the Frog movie yet, but living in a neighborhood with young families many of them have, and they seem to have enjoyed it. The television advertisements for the film make me a little wary since it is supposedly the best Disney cartoon since The Lion King. But […]

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AVATAR: Probing Beyond Visuals to Culture and Identity

December 26th, 2009 | Posted in Avatar, digital technologies, fantasy, science fiction, social commentary

My latest article for Cinefantastique Online is now available at this link, a review and commentary on AVATAR. Following is an excerpt: In regards to Na’vi religion, some commentators have referred to it as pantheism, but this is technically inaccurate. The Na’vi believe that Eywa, the divine “All Mother,” is connected to and in some […]

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays From TheoFantastique

December 23rd, 2009 | Posted in holiday

I extend a very merry Christmas and happy holidays to all the readers of TheoFantastique. I hope you have a fantastic and monstrous holiday season that meets your greatest expectations. And may 2010 bring us better things than the challenges of 2009.

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Young Frankenstein Turns Thirty-five

December 20th, 2009 | Posted in comedy, Young Frankenstein

My poking around the fine blog Frankensteinia reminded me that I was remiss in recognizing the 35th anniversary of the film Young Frankenstein which appeared in theaters in North America on December 15, 1974. I saw this film in the theaters at ten years of age and laughed from scene to scene. Today this film […]

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Screenwriter Dan O’Bannon Passes Away

December 18th, 2009 | Posted in Obituary

Various media sources are reporting on the death of screenwriter Dan O’Bannon. He was perhaps best known for Alien and Total Recall, as well as the remake or re-envisioning of Invaders from Mars. He also wrote the screenplay for the neglected horror film Dead and Buried, which involves an interesting take on the zombie mythology. […]

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Two Promising Books, Authors, and Interviews for 2010

December 15th, 2009 | Posted in monsters, vampire

I’m reading a couple of books to prepare for interviews after the first of the year. They are both very good, so I’ll give them a plug and a preview. I became aware of the first one while reading a book proposal for my friend W. Scott Poole, author of Satan in America. It is […]

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Bob Hope, Zombies, and Politics

December 13th, 2009 | Posted in comedy, political commentary, satire, zombie

The following post brings a little levity to TheoFantastique with a brief clip from a Bob Hope film, The Ghost Breakers (1940),  that combines comedy, pre-Romero voodoo conceptions of zombies, and politics. The clip seems especially relevant in light of our current national debate over health care legislation and the Democratic majority related to this […]

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Comic Review: Majestic-XII

December 11th, 2009 | Posted in comics, Uncategorized

Like any specialized blog or website TheoFantastique receives a number of review copies of items, including comics. Comic books and graphic novels are an expression of the fantastic in popular culture, and they have been discussed here in the past. But with this post we turn over comic reviews to a new guest columnist, Richard […]

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Weekend Nostalgia: The Day the Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet

December 8th, 2009 | Posted in 1950s, Forbidden Planet, science fiction, The Day the Earth Stood Still

Last weekend I took a stroll down memory lane courtesy of a couple of special edition DVDs from my local library. I picked up copies of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Forbidden Planet, two films that are presently in my library, but the two in my collection do not include the extra features […]

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Edgar Allen Poe: Gone But Still Setting Records

December 6th, 2009 | Posted in Edgar Allan Poe, horror, literature, Vincent Price

When we think of bestselling authors in literature let’s not forget a giant who made his mark in a number of genres, particularly horror. That author is none other than Edgar Allen Poe. Poe recently set a record at an auction for one of his works. The Baltimore Sun for Dec. 5 reports: Move over […]

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