“Little Saint Nick,” The Beach Boys, 1963
I hail from South Texas, so it is a little bit harder for me to relate to songs about snow and ice and roaring fires. The only fires I experience in December are those started inside of a barbeque grill. The Beach Boys set Santa’s reindeer aside in favor of “a little bobsled called Little Saint Nick.” Appropriately enough, the song’s structure comes from “Little Deuce Coupe.”
“Winter Wonderland,” The Eurythmics, 1987
Except for their big hits, I’m not terribly familiar with The Eurythmics’ music, but their synth-ed up version of Winter Wonderland really does it for me. It stays true to the standard, but The Eurythmics really make it their own. Nothing says 1980s quite like synthesizers!
“Please Come Home for Christmas,” The Eagles, 1978
In the interest of keeping my spirits (and yours) up, I’ve decided to post a different Christmas song here every day. I love Christmas, I enjoy music and so it seems appropriate to celebrate the ‘sounds of the season.’ In addition to the standards, I hope to drop in a few oddballs here and there. Enjoy!
I’ll start out with my all-time favorite: “Please Come Home for Christmas.” Originally recorded by Charles Brown in 1960, the version most folks will be familiar with is this 1978 Eagles cover. To this day, those first four piano notes still make my eyes misty whenever I hear them. I find it odd that I like the song so much because the lyrics are a bit on the depressing side, because nearly all of my Christmases have been joyous affairs. Then again, it is The Eagles, and who doesn’t like The Eagles?
INTRODUCTION
Fred Perry’s Gold Digger comic book is one of the oldest examples of what some call “Amerimanga,” where an American comic artist adopts the style and conventions used in Japanese comics, or “manga” as they are known in Japan.
It is also one of those comics that I repeatedly saw on the shelf of the comic shop but just wasn’t intrigued enough to actually buy. At the time, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Recently my friend Chris Holm (who is apparently creator Fred Perry’s biggest fan/stalker) told me that Gold Digger was Tomb Raider before Tomb Raider came along. After sheepishly admitting to Mr. Perry that I had never read his work at the South Texas Comic-Con, I bought a copy of “Gold Digger Max” to see what it was all about.
I like what I have seen of Gold Digger so far, Fred Perry has created a fascinating world that is filled with exotic locales and lots of interesting characters and adventure. He does a good job of tightrope-walking between world-ending seriousness and comedy. It is a shame that it took me so long to discover it. Comparing it to Tomb Raider is something of a disservice because it is so much better than Tomb Raider.
Fast-forward to the third day of San Japan :3 and as dealers are oft to do on the last day of a con, the Antarctic Press table is having a sale. I figured I would give the Deluxe Edition of “Gold Digger: The Movie” a try. According to the box text the movie “retells the very first Gold Digger adventure” so I figured it might serve as a nice little introduction to the GD universe. After having a bite to eat for dinner and doing laundry for the week, I fired it up.
SOUND PROBLEMS
As the top menu appeared, I heard a blast of music. I quickly reached for my receiver’s remote and immediately turned down the sound. I figured I had left the sound up from listening to the radio earlier but that is not the case. The DVD is just loud. I normally have the sound adjustment on my PS3 maxed out, because DVDs tend to be relatively quiet, but in this case I ended up turning it down to zero to make sure I don’t end up with angry neighbors or blown speakers. After making the adjustments, I shrugged my shoulders and started the movie.
THE MOVIE
My initial impression is that Gold Digger: The Movie is intended for fans of the comic: it is assumed that the viewer already knows certain things. As an example, there is no explanation given as to why Gina and Brittany refer to each other as sisters until near the end of the second act. We also never find out just why the Digger sisters are looking for the Time Raft, and wouldn’t a 7-foot tall were-cheetah prove that some myths are valid? That is my inner anal-retentive nerd talking, but a viewer unfamiliar with the series might be a bit puzzled at certain aspects of the movie. I need to show it to someone unfamiliar with GD to see if my inner nerd should just be quiet and enjoy the show. Actually that’s probably true, anyway.
The story is fairly straightforward: The first third of the movie establishes the adversarial yet good-natured relationship the Diggers have with each other and showcases their bad-assery in two Big Fights. The middle of the movie features plenty of exposition and of course, we have the Climactic Battle at the end. In truth, though, the movie is really all Gina and Brittany, and we gradually learn more and more about them as their adventure unfolds. The sisterly bickering between the two survives the transition from comic to animation quite well and provides some of the movie’s funnier moments. The other characters aren’t quite as well developed, and the villain does his duty,
SUMMARY
Much to my chagrin, sound issues persist throughout the DVD. There is an odd echo whenever Gina Diggers speaks and Dreadwing’s voice sounds overprocessed. This effect seems to lessen over the course of the feature but it never goes away completely. The audio mix also gets a bit weird in the second act. The music becomes too soft, and there appeared to be one or two ‘dead air’ moments. In one scene Brittany is on the ground struggling to escape and while she appears to be growling or grunting we don’t hear anything at all.
As I watched the 3rd episode again to hear Fred Perry’s commentary, the audio completely turned to crap in the last few minutes. This combined with Gina’s echo and the loud volume at the start make me wonder if something happened during the process of making the DVDs or if the audio was just poorly done to begin with. I also thought it might have have been my Playstation 3, but the same thing happens when I play it on my iMac.
The animation gradually improves form episode to episode and really shines in the action sequences. It is fascinating to see Fred Perry progress as an animator throughout the adventure and I look forward to seeing what he does next.
Gold Digger: The Movie doesn’t quite do as good a job at being “Gold Digger 101” as I had hoped, though. As I mentioned near the start, there seems to be an assumption that the viewer already knows certain things.
The voiceover work ranges from good (Gina Diggers) to adequate (Dreadwing appears to be trying to channel Tony Jay but doesn’t quite pull it off) to annoying (I quickly found Brittany Diggers’ voice grating but I think that’s more a reflection on me than anything else) to inconsistent (Elves). Overall, it does the job, though.
Technical issues aside, fans of Gold Digger will be excited to see it come to life. Strangers and neophytes to Fred Perry’s fantastic world might find themselves scratching their heads now and again, but nevertheless, Gold Digger: The Movie provides an hour of action-packed fun and I recommend it.
NOTE: The author received no compensation for this review.
Someday, I will buy a PlayStation 3. I’m not sure when that day will be, but once there are enough good games to justify the purchase, I will go out and buy one. It would be nice if Sony would drop the price on the blasted thing, though, because with $400 I could buy a netbook and have cash left over.
Hmm, now I’m contemplating a netbook. Anyways…
The impending PS3 purchase has me in a bit of a bind where buying movies is concerned. Blu-ray looks pretty good on those nice shiny displays at the stores, and I imagine they’d also look pretty good on my 32-inch Sony LCD (its a placeholder, I’m reserving getting the real TV for after I buy a house).
When a new movie I like comes out on video now, I have to decide whether I should buy it on DVD, or wait until I get that Playstation 3 and can watch it in glorious high-definition via Blu-Ray. The decision isn’t quite so cut-and-dry, though.
On the one hand, DVDs are relatively inexpensive, and while they have to be “stretched” to fill a widescreen, they still look good. The pretty picture of Blu-Ray, on the other hand, comes at a cost: the difference in price between Blu-Ray and DVD versions of the same movie can be from five to twenty bucks!
Next time you are at a store that sells movies, browse through the Blu-Ray section and look at the prices. I promise you that at some point you will say to yourself: “No way I would pay THAT much for <insert crappy movie name here>” Its so ridiculous, you might even say that about a movie you like.
The other consideration is that there are some movies and TV shows that don’t really need to be seen in high-definition. Movies like The Matrix would rock in high def, as would anything by Pixar. In contrast, I could watch Chris Rock or Futurama on a crappy old black-and-white TV and they wouldn’t be any less funny.
So thus we have the question: “DVD now, or Blu-Ray later?”
The answer?
Well, lets just say I haven’t bought any new movies in months.
Eduardo Soliz 