Arriving to stores just in time for Christmas is the DVD for Family Guy's upcoming sequel to the original Star Wars spoof "moviesode" Blue Harvest, entitled Something, Something, Something Dark Side. The special this time will spoof The Empire Strikes Back, and the episode will have its television debut in early 2010 when the season starts back with a few new entries before the break. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, series creator Seth MacFarlane announced that they were already at work on spoofing Return of the Jedi, but confirms that he will quit, and not move into the prequel territory. Although, he offers up the Indiana Jones series, Star Trek or the Back to the Future trilogy as the possible next targets. The article also offers two rumored names for the third episode, The Great Muppet Caper or We Have a Bad Feeling About This. Some bizarre news comes the way of a fellow Blogger account called StopAvatarMovie, which is protesting James Cameron's critically appraised Avatar, due out Friday, because the story is set in the future, but does not contain any primary gay, lesbian or transgender characters. Luckily, in a poll questioning how the author's readers would protest, 92% said they wouldn't. Anyhow, I don't really see how it is offensive that there is no outright gay love in the flick. I am sure, unless the entire thing is going to play out a lot differently than what I'm imagining, that most of the characters' sexual orientation will remain undisclosed, as it does not fit in the story. Also, gay people can't be entertained by a heterosexual relationship on-screen? The cat that writing this wouldn't be touched, and would be offended with others in the homosexual demographic, that enjoyed something like Charlie Chaplin's City Lights or even something like the year's best film thus far in my opinion, Inglourious Basterds due to the lack of explicitly stated homosexuality? Does this mean he expects us breeders to be unable to enjoy something like Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy or the highly praised Brokeback Mountain, due to the characters being different than us? The most bizarre argument of the blog is that Cameron should have casted someone like Kimber James for the role of Neytiri rather than Zoe Saldana. Because, James' other work such as Transsexual Babysitters 8 was definitely touching enough performances to land her in a film budgeted at $500 million. I hope, for the sake of the gay community, as well as cineaste's watching this thing, that it is a joke, although, the more you read it, the more you beleive it is legit.
Variety reports some sad news today, the passing of Walt Disney's nephew, Roy E. Disney. Disney was very influential after his iconic uncle's passing within The Walt Disney Company, mostly working with the financial elements and theme parks rather than racking up actual movie credits, although he did produce, and was heavily involved in getting the ball rolling for Fantasia 2000, finally realizing a dream of Walt's to continue his 1940 classic Fantasia as an ongoing project, as well as a writing credit for The Black Cauldron. He also produced one of my favorite short films of all time, Destino, a restored and completed short from Dominique Monfery, originally started as a collaboration between Walt and Salvador Dali.
Finally, here is a new trailer for Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland, which shows off more of the bizarre Burton landscape we are used to seeing in his films.
