A very Lego Dalek Christmas
The Addis family of Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England, like to decorate just like any other family during the holidays, but they go one step further: They build giant Lego sculptures (such as nutcrackers, churches and postboxes) every year.
This year's, just in time for the "Doctor Who" Christmas episode, is an especially geeky one: It's a Dalek, the robotic extraterrestrials who have caused so much trouble for the Doctor and his companions all these years.
CNN Geek Out spoke with Mike Addis about his family's long-running holiday tradition.
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What inspired a visual effects master?
Without a doubt, two of the most visually stunning movies of the year are "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and the newly released "Adventures of Tintin."
The visual effects for both came from WETA Workshop (best known for "Lord of the Rings") and both were overseen by Joe Letteri, whose career goes back to "Jurassic Park," the special edition of "Star Wars: A New Hope," and the second and third "LOTR" movies.
Like many fans of the films he worked on, Letteri was inspired by effects he saw in movies growing up.
"There was the original 'King Kong' (Letteri worked on the 2005 version of that as well), the Ray Harryhausen films, 'Star Wars.' All of these things start you into a new world," he told CNN Geek Out. "It's a way to allow you to create."
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'Her Universe' is Ashley Eckstein's battle cry
Ashley Eckstein, voice of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" kick-ass Jedi Ahsoka Tano, believes there is a stereotype built around girls who like sci-fi that's as thick and impervious as a brick wall. And it's finally starting to crumble.
The words geek and nerd "are not necessarily being looked at as negative labels anymore," she said. For the last two years, her company Her Universe, which creates sci-fi fandom T-shirts, hoodies, pajamas and jewelry for women and girls, has proudly been using the phrase "geek girl" in their advertising and communication.
"Like, 'heck yeah, I'm a geek girl, and proud of it!' " Eckstein said. "I think that that's a major shift. If you had seen, a couple of years ago 'geek girl,' in an article or if you were being referred to as a geek girl, it wasn't necessarily a positive thing." Geeky girls, she said, have similarly been marginalized when it comes to expressing their love of sci-fi.
"Several years ago girls just had to accept the fact that if they wanted to show off their fandom and their geek pride, they were just stuck wearing a guy's oversized tee," she said. "And I'm trying to say, 'No, you can look fun and sexy and flirty and girly and strong and powerful all at the same time.' Our items are just as geeky as what the guys have but they're truly made for women." FULL POST
I want my Totoro (but I was not fast enough)
Last week, the Austin-based Mondo (The Alamo Drafthouse's collectible art boutique) shook up the Internet by announcing a brand new collaboration project between two very well known names - artist Olly Moss and Studio Ghibli. The first poster in this series was based on "My Neighbor Totoro", the beloved 1988 animated film about two young children who encounter a mythical creature.
A total of 590 of the posters were made, 420 of the regular version in English and 170 of the variant version in Japanese. Mondo announced them on sale on Twitter last Friday, and within three minutes, they were sold out.
It was impressive to see how voracious collectors were to own this piece of art, at $50 for the regular version and $90 for the variant.
Twenty-three years after the release of the film that inspired it, "My Neighbor Totoro" has firmly established itself as a part of the iconography of Studio Ghibli. Even in America, the furry grey beast with the pointy ears has become a memorable symbol of all the magic and joy associated with Ghibli productions. FULL POST
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