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Animated Vampires, Christmas Movies and more!
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust courtesy Urban Vision Entertainment
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
See Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this week's new flicks in Movie Talk!
Question: Are there any animated, feature-length vampire movies? — Josh
FlickChick: Yes, there are, but ery few of them are American. Overall, the U.S. animation industry is geared toward making movies for kids, and undead bloodsuckers aren't really Disney's cup of tea. That said, Warner Animation's The Batman vs. Dracula (2005) is a great idea and a pretty good little picture that, as you might have deduced, pits the haunted crimefighter in creature-of-the-night drag against the real, honest-to-goodness lord of the vampires. And Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron (2007), a sequel to Guillermo del Toro's live-action feature featuring the same cast in voice roles, pits the good demon (Ron Perlman) against a vampire inspired by real-life "bloody countess" Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614).
But most of the animated vampire features are Japanese, including the stunning Blood: The Last Vampire and the sci-fi/action/horror hybrid Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (both 2000), plus Vampire Wars (1991) and a 1985 version of Vampire Hunter D, neither of which I've seen. There's also a TV series called Hellsing (2001-2002) that's available on DVD; strictly speaking, it's not a movie, but it's long-form, animated vampire fiction that doesn't pull its punches. And then there's the Cuban Vampires in Havana (1985), a broad political comedy that was briefly released in the U.S. and spawned a sequel, Mas Vampiros en La Habana (2003), which wasn't.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
Question: Can you tell me when and why movie previews started including scenes that aren't in the movie? Isn't this a form of false advertising? — Jen
FlickChick: Around the same time that trailers started showing you every single thing you might have been willing to go to the movie to see, including the "surprise" plot twists — which I'd say was in the early 1990s. And while in practice that does work out to a sort of false advertising, it's not deliberate.
This is something a friend who owns a well-known trailer company and I have talked about, and the trouble is that long lead trailers, which appear months before the movie opens, are made before the final cut of the film is locked down. (Teaser trailers, which appear as much as a year in advance, often have no footage from the film at all, just a catchy image, a tagline or even a specially staged snippet of footage designed to give an idea of the film's mood or hook.)
So the filmmakers turn over footage they think will definitely make it into the final cut and let the professionals take it from there. When a studio isn't sure how to sell a particular movie, they'll sometimes bid it out to multiple companies. The contenders read the script, figure out how they'd entice moviegoers to see the movie they think the filmmakers are going to deliver, and then cut together a rough version of the trailer they'd make using footage from other movies.
(There was an amazing feature about the process called "The 150-Second Sell, Take 34" in the New York Times Magazine from July 28, 2002. The Times has successfully locked it up in its pay-only archive, but if you're a Times Select subscriber I strongly recommend checking it out.)
The salient point is this: Sometimes the scene that seemed a sure thing while the movie was in production doesn't make it into the movie you pay $11 to see. I personally think that nervous studio executives' ever-greater reliance on focus groups and test screenings is the reason films are tinkered with more than ever after the filmmakers have delivered what they consider a finished film. The previewing process is deeply flawed, but it gives executives an out: "We tested it and everybody hated the ending, so we had it reshot so the mom doesn't die," or "Audiences said they loved the romance but hated the funny stuff at work, so we cut it out. See, here are the notes." Thank God for special-edition DVDs.
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Question: I know that for a lot of people It's a Wonderful Life is the movie for the holiday season, but for me it's Loretta Young's Christmas Eve. I used to watch it every year, and now they never show it anymore and I can't figure out why. I've seen it for sale on tape, but for a really high price. Was it her last movie, is that why the tapes are so (to me, unreasonably) expensive? — Dorothy
FlickChick: The award-winning, made-for-TV Christmas Eve (1986) wasn't Loretta Young's last movie, but it was one of her last and it has a devoted fan following. But the fact that it's either out of holiday-season TV rotation or relegated to specialty stations that most households don't get isn't as unusual as you might think. I can't tell you how many e-mails I've gotten from people wondering why the 1972 remake of Miracle on 34th Street with Burl Ives as Kris Kringle or the acclaimed House Without a Christmas Tree (1972) or It Happened One Christmas (1977), a remake of It's a Wonderful Life with Marlo Thomas playing a female version of Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey have all vanished or all-but vanished from the holiday-TV lineup. And it's mostly because where made-for-TV movies are concerned, the new drives out the old, and there are more original holiday-themed movies being made than ever. Networks and cable channels alike are churning out literally dozens of them every year, and something like It Happened One Christmas is lucky to find a slot on Pax. I don't get Pax and neither does anyone I know, so if I'd wanted to see It Happened One Christmas last year, I'd have been out of luck. And apparently it was cut, too, but that's another story.
As to the price of Christmas Eve tapes, even if it had been Young's swan song, that's not the kind of thing that factors into price. Anna Nicole Smith's Illegal Aliens, which came out on DVD on the heels of her death, lists for $19.95, just like the average new DVD. But Christmas Eve has never been on DVD and it's out of print on VHS; Goodtimes Video put it out 10 years ago and it's never been reissued. So my advice is to suck it up and pay the $20 or $30 that used tapes are going for on eBay, Amazon.com and other respectable online sites. Amortize that over the number of times you're going to watch it over the next 10 years and the price doesn't seem so bad, does it?
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Question: I saw a movie where a gargoyle turned into this beautiful black lady. She was with a white guy and he promised not to tell anyone her secret; when he did, she killed him and went back to the gargoyles with their child. I'd like to see it again: Do you know the title? emdash; Noel
FlickChick: You know, Noel, when I saw the subject line on your e-mail emdash; "Gaygoyles" emdash; I was pretty intrigued. A gay gargoyle movie emdash; now that would be something different. But even though your question turned out to be about plain old vanilla gargoyles, I can help. You want Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), a multi-segment horror picture inspired by the syndicated TV series Tales from the Darkside (1984-1988), which was produced by George Romero and aimed to be a modern-day version of anthology horror shows like Rod Serling's Night Gallery , Thriller (hosted by Boris Karloff), One Step Beyond and the like. The gargoyle story, which starred the beautiful Rae Dawn Chong and James Remar as her artist husband, was the third and last segment and the only original screenplay, penned by Romero himself. (The other two were adapted from existing stories by Stephen King and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.) It's readily available on DVD. Thank you, S.Z.!
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May 2, 2007 11:04 PM
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I am suspicious of George Romero's third story with gargoyles in Tales from the Darkside: the Movie, being an original one.
The exact same story is in a Japanese anthology movie called Kwaidan from 1964, only instead of a gargoyle, its a snow witch.
Its been available in the west for a long time, so maybe he saw it and subconsciously told the same story.
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May 2, 2007 11:20 PM
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I'd skip the original Vampire Hunter D, which bored me to near tears. It's highly regarded, though, so perhaps I'm missing something.
If you like Blood: The Last Vampire I suggest checking out the TV series Blood+ currently airing on Cartoon Network. It acts both as a sequal and a lighter, longer retelling of Blood: The Last Vampire. Hellsing is an anime series that also aired on Cartoon Network. I only really liked half the episodes.
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May 3, 2007 12:22 AM
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"The award-winning, made-for-TV Christmas Eve (1936)"
1986 actually (sorry for pettifogging!)
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May 3, 2007 2:17 AM
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I was wondering how one of Loretta's last movies was done in '36.
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May 3, 2007 11:28 AM
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There are so many good Christmas movies and so few of them get shown. NBC has destroyed my It's a Wonderful Life tradition and I have never made it through A Christmas Story (it just doesn't do it for me like it does for so many others) which eats up an entire day on TNT. And no one shows that Marlo Thomas movie anymore... and it's pretty good.
AMC seems to be rotating the original Miracle on 34th Street with one of the later remakes. And that's OK. But that only leaves TCM.
A few years ago they showed Holiday Inn on Christmas Eve and it was wonderful. It seems that since then, it's all about White Christmas. And it's okay, but the original is sooo much better. Not only does it have Fred, but it doesn't have that whole war hero thing fused into the plot. And Rosemary can sing, but child, she sure can't act!
Other than those, once a year I like to see Christmas in Connecticut, Heidi, The Bishop's Wife (but they even show that in June!) and maybe Meet Me in St. Louis (OK, yeah, it takes a while to get to the song, but it's a great way to wrap up the year because it covers almost a whole year of time).
What do y'all like to see at Yule time? A Christmas Wish/The Great Rupert anyone?
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May 3, 2007 1:19 PM
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The original Vampire Hunter D was a bit boring but the newer one, Bloodlust, is both visually beautiful and the story is a little less dry (more romance, more action, yadda yadda). I would choose Blood: The Last Vampire which is far more superior, like SurrealElle said. Vampire Princess Miyu is also an anime series for which a movie was created.
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May 3, 2007 3:59 PM
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Nobody gets PAX anymore since it became iON, but I get iON and I don't even have cable--it's on a broadcast station.
As for the Xmas movies, no remakes of Miracle on 34th Street for me. Christmas Eve was pretty good, but I wouldn't put it in the "watch over and over" group. Once or twice is enough. I like White Christmas (and Rosemary Clooney may not have been Katherine Hepburn, but she was better than Bing in that movie), but when you think about it, it isn't really a Christmas movie. Leave out the song, and it doesn't have anything to do with Christmas. Holiday Inn isn't really a Christmas movie either (and I wish people would quit pretending WC is a remake of HI--they may have similarities, but "remake" doesn't describe the situation).
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May 3, 2007 9:36 PM
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Staley - I get so peeved when I see people write "Xmas" instead of
"Christmas." Why do it? Even if
Christmas doesn't fit in with your
beliefs, you should at least respect the beliefs of others: wouldn't you want them to respect yours? Think about it.
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May 3, 2007 10:06 PM
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I discovered Vampires in Havana when I checked it out from my local library. It's crudely animated but there were some funny scenes near the end and some wonderful Brazilian jazz throughout. Worth recomended for animation fans.
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May 4, 2007 2:15 AM
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achyfakey: Spotting typos isn't pettifogging -- thanks for catching the wildly incorrect date on Christmas Eve.
jaymazing: When I referred to the Romero segment of Tales from the Darkside: The Movie as "original" I meant only that it wasn't directly based on pre-existing material. You're absolutely right that it echoes the snow-witch wife segment of
Kwaidan -- a movie I love and highly recommend -- which in turn echoes dozens of folk tales from around the world.
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May 4, 2007 10:23 AM
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Staley:
Holiday Inn is a Xmas movie. The whole movie does not have to take place in December. The whole movie could take place in June for all I care! It has its emotional crescendo in the song about Xmas and it captures the spirit of that season. So it fits right in even though the whole movie is about romance. But so was The Gift of the Magi.
But it's definitely not a Abraham's Birthday movie!
I agree that there can be only one 34th Street... but why do you think Clooney was so much better than Bing? I just don't see it. They both sang well so... ? Still, without Fred's dan-cin' (that opening and closing gets me every time), it's just not as good as the original.
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May 4, 2007 11:38 AM
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Actually Xmas isn't a derogatory way to spell Christmas. The hypersensitivity of today's Christians would like to make it so, but the fact that early Christians used it THEMSELVES would seem to contradict this notion.
Here is a link for snopes opinion on the matter:
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/xmasabbr.asp
Here is dictionary.com's entry:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Xmas
Let's not forget that the early Christians took the pagan winter solstice celebrations for their own. Many historians think that Christ was actually born in March.
This reminds me of the people who wish to keep "In God We Trust" on certain items. It was started in the 1950's. Prior to that there wasn't this big rush to ensure the world knew the US was Christian. It was more important to our founding fathers to allow people of ALL beliefs to feel they had a place.It is so funny to me that Christians seem to have this innate fear that they are being slandered or decimated. I have never had a Jew or a Muslim come to my door trying to convert me. Nor has a Hindi or Buddhist. The Christians however seem to try to outdo each other. Baptist, Mormon, Jehovah Witness, the list goes on and on. I must admit I have never been approached by a Catholic. I guess they think I am too far gone! LOL!!!
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May 4, 2007 11:49 AM
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That is kinda funny feline. People think Catholics are so restrictive on everything compared to most of Chirstianity. But I have no problem with "Xmas" even without reading your Snopes post. Then again, I am hardly representative of the group... interesting info you dug up though!
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May 4, 2007 1:07 PM
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I use "Xmas" sometimes because it's shorter and universally recognized as shorthand for "Christmas." (Anyway, how would Christmas "not fit in with my beliefs?") If someone is offended by abbreviations, they need to learn to put aside their personality flaws and get a life.
The reason Rosemary Clooney was better than Bing Crosby in White Christmas is that she was giving a straightforward performance, while he as playing an annoying jerk with irritating "hepcat" lingo.
Holiday Inn wasn't a Xmas movie because it was about more than just Xmas. They can show it at Xmas, just as they can show it any time. When I say "Xmas movie," I mean a movie primarily about the holiday, especially those which show the holiday rejuvenating the spirit of the characters. It's why I don't think "White Christmas" itself is really a Xmas movie--it's set at Christmastime, but that seems only coincidental (really, just so they can sing the title song). It's a wandering plot, designed to use a bunch of Irving Berlin songs, which eventually is about the two guys helping their old commander, but the song is the only Xmas element present.
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May 4, 2007 6:12 PM
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