I have a new favorite site for geeking out, and I had to come tell you about it right away so that you could point at me and laugh. Wait! No! I mean, I had to tell you right away so that you could love it, too. Because you will, I swear.

You have to go check out Project: Rooftop. You will want to love it and hug it and pet it and squeeze it and call it George. Just see if you don’t.

Finger’s credit goes to Pop Candy, where Whitney Matheson put it this way:

If comic books and Project Runway had a baby, it might be Project: Rooftop. The website specializes in redesigning superhero costumes, and the results are quite eye-catching. Check out these winners of a recent Iron Man contest, for instance.

Many of the designs come from professional artists, and judges provide funny, kinda nerdy and fashion-forward commentary. (Matt Fraction helped judge the last batch, which makes sense, since he writes Marvel’s Invincible Iron Man.)

I promise you that if you dig comics, this site will not disappoint. The illustrations are top-notch and the commentary from the writers is fascinating. I wouldn’t even consider myself a huge comics buff and spent more time than I will admit working my way back through the archives, last night. Good stuff.

It’d be particularly fun to share with your kids, too, if they’re into that sort of thing. Even if the commentary bores them (and it shouldn’t!), they’ll still love the drawings.

I wonder if Project Runway knows about this little lovechild…?

Well, Speed Racer was… about what I expected. If you’re planning to see it and haven’t, yet, consider taking some dramamine. Better yet, consider doing something else entirely! Or—here’s an idea—you could wait until Friday and go see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian instead!

There was a nice piece about the next Narnia film in Variety last week:

Showing a surer sense of cinematic values in his second live-action venture, “Shrek” vet Adamson stages the surging action with verve and a respect for old-school virtues, rather than tricking it up with modern affectations. Caspian’s flight from the Telmarine castle — a splendidly iconic one built on a rock and approachable only by bridge over a deep ravine — and stealthy return in the dead of night are dramatically filmed in considerable darkness. The reappearance of Tilda Swinton’s White Witch is a riveting surprise but has the unfortunate side effect of making you wish she’d step out of her pane of ice, as she desperately desires, to take a central role here.

When all is said and done, this is a pretty straightforward war film. Once Caspian escapes, Miraz’s men methodically prepare to conquer the wayward Narnians by building a big bridge across the river to the forest. Final combat comes in two stages. First, to avoid carnage on both sides, a winner-takes-all mano a mano is arranged between the vain Miraz and Peter (who for 15 years was High King of Narnia, after all). Scene is tensely and intensely enacted, with some unusual details.

When this doesn’t do the trick, however, the two armies pour it on, with the balance swaying this way and that for nearly a half-hour of CGI-dominated mayhem. Given that there’s no question as to how it will turn out, and that Aslan will eventually intervene at the crucial moment, pic is still able to play a couple visual-effects trump cards that provide something audiences haven’t seen before.

It sounds like fans of Narnia won’t want to miss this one. And there can’t be two movies I’m really looking forward to, in a row, that end up getting panned by the critics… right?

Don’t answer that. I’m plugging my ears until Thursday, and then I may peek at the reviews before the weekend.

As I’ve mentioned before, Speed Racer has been a hotly-anticipated movie in my household. I’d be hard-pressed to tell you who’s more excited about it, actually—the kids or my husband. Now it’s finally almost here and I have some good news and some bad news.

Good news first? Okay! Check out this Go Speed Weekend! contest, where a bit of creativity could land you a weekend trip to Los Angeles or other cool prizes. Entries are being accepted through Tuesday, May 13th, 2008, so you still have time to enter if you have a need for speed swag.

The bad news, I’m afraid, is that the critics aren’t exactly embracing Speed Racer with enthusiasm. The Tomatometer is running towards “rotten,” with reviewer quotes indicating that this movie is best handled with a few analgesics:

Maybe every generation gets its own “Tron.” Not to whine, but: my eyeballs were on fire.

Kyle Smith
KyleSmithOnline.com

Oh. Dear. Um… ouch?

The lure of seeing this in Imax is certainly… ummm… waning in the face of the reviews, I have to say. But after all of this anticipation… I just don’t know. We may see it anyway.

I’ll bring my sunglasses.

Dear Hollywood,

Sincerely,
The Toy Box Mommy

Seriously, people. I’m experiencing some hefty deja vu, here. Some books are meant to be enjoyed as books. Period. That’s part of their allure.

I guess Hollywood didn’t get my memo, though. Hugo Cabret is slated to become a feature film:

“Ice Age” helmer Chris Wedge has signed on to direct Brian Selznick’s magic-themed children’s novel “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” for Graham King’s GK Films, Johnny Depp’s Infinitum Nihil and Warner Bros.

“The Aviator” scribe John Logan has been tapped to pen the adaptation.

King and Infinitum Nihil’s Christi Dembrowski will produce the live-action film, which centers on an orphaned boy who secretly lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station and looks after the clocks. He gets caught up in a mystery adventure when he attempts to repair a mechanical man.

The studio is eyeing a fall start date.

I’m crushed. It’s not that I think it won’t make a good movie—it probably will—but it will be something entirely different from the experience you get in reading it, and I fear that it can’t help but somehow degrade the tale, that way. Great books should just be great books, sometimes.

I know most people disagree with me. That’s fine. Why, back in my day, we read books, and movies consisted of hand shadows made on rocks with a flashlight. Harumph.

Now, where did I put my Geritol…?

I’d never seen a graphic novel before I became a mom; never much of a comics fan as a kid (except for the obligatory comics smuggled into the cabin at camp, to be read by flashlight after lights-out), I’ve never heard of one that really piqued my interest. Even after learning more about graphic novels I sort of assumed they were just for grown-up comics geeks and didn’t explore the matter further.

And then Scholastic started their line of graphic novels and I began to see the allure, at least for kids. (Do not get all up in arms if you, an adult, enjoy graphic novels as well. That’s great. My experience thus far has only been with volumes targeted to younger readers.) As my kids devoured these graphic-laden tales I began to see how it really is a niche all its own, one that cannot be filled with just chapter books or just comic books.

And so I was, of course, delighted, to read the news that DC Comics will be bringing us graphic novels for the kiddie set:

DC Comics is teaming up with children’s book and graphic novel publisher Stone Arch Books to produce a series of illustrated chapter books based on DC’s famous characters Batman and Superman. The new line of books, called DC Super Heroes, will launch later this spring with 12 titles and publish a total of 48 titles over the next four seasons. The following season the line will add chapter books based on DC’s Wonder Woman character.

The books will feature original prose stories with illustrations by DC Comics artists. […]

Stone Arch Books President Joan Berge said basing chapter books on DC super heroes, “is just one more way to hook a reluctant or struggling reader. DC characters are well-known and of high interest to the striving young reader and we hope they will spark a growing interest in reading.”

I can’t wait to see ‘em. I don’t care how much your son dislikes reading… he won’t be able to resist the lure of these caped crusaders, is my guess.

I read the news out loud to my youngest, and he immediately started crafting a letter to Santa. You know, even though it’s May. Because as soon as he heard that Ben 10: Alien Force is being made into a video game it was a no-brainer that nothing better could possibly come along between now and Christmas, right?

Ben 10: Alien Force The Game begins five years after Ben put away the DNA-scrambling Omnitrix. With Grandpa Max missing and a diabolical Highbreed alien plot threatening planet Earth, gamers must help Ben take the Omnitrix out of retirement and lead eight different playable characters—including cousin Gwen, enemy-turned-ally Kevin Levin and five of Ben’s brand new alien forms—in super-powered battle with the intergalactic invaders. New aliens Swampfire, Jet Ray, Humungousaur, Spidermonkey and Big Chill allow Ben to manipulate fire, swim underwater, grow more than 60 feet tall, stick to walls and fly at mach speed. Players will also be able to harness Gwen’s new talent to create an energy shield and use it to protect and attack, and Kevin Levin’s ability to absorb materials like concrete, wood and metal to create an impenetrable shell on his body.

The fast-paced, 3D, side-scrolling action-adventure offers an unlimited combo system, along with puzzles and challenges that will engage players of all skill levels. The Nintendo DS version will offer alternate playable alien forms including Goop and Echo Echo, giving players additional unique powers to command and explore.

The article reports that D3Publishing will be developing the game for all major platforms, and release is scheduled for this Fall. Just in time for holiday shopping, sounds like.

I suppose it’s too much to hope for a special wii controller that’s basically an Omnitrix, right? Hey, I can hope….

There’s always just a little bit of apprehension inherent in a favorite character from childhood being turned into a star of the big screen. Will they get the story right? Will they get the casting right? Will it be the way it should be or will they blow it?

Oh, is it just me who thinks all of those things? C’mon. You can admit it. I won’t tell anyone. It’ll just be between you and me, Internet.

Anyway, this weekend’s opening of Iron Man gave me that all-too-familiar feeling of… worry. It’s such a meaty story with great characters. Have they pulled it off? Dare I check the reviews?

I dared, and then I heaved a big sigh of relief. The Tomatometer is registering unexpectedly high—94% Fresh, in fact, the last time I checked—and it appears that the hype surrounding this project may well be warranted. So far, the critics love it.

And if you’re the sort of person who loves a little backstory, be sure to check out Newsarama’s Inside the Iron Man piece by Joe Tirella, too. It’s a nice little peek into title actor Robert Downey Jr.’s journey in this project. I, for one, feel better already to know that he read decades-worth of Iron Man comics to prepare.

I guess I know what we’ll be doing this weekend….