February 2012
2 posts
17 tags
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic S2E17 'Hearts...
A bit late here (especially considering the ep was prematurely released), but seeing it’s Valentine’s Day, I might as well put in my few cents on the recent ep.
Usually I enjoy the CMC eps, it’s sort of the ‘beta’ group of friends to the Mane Six, and this episode’s no exception. I thought it would be incredibly annoying to watch them basically try to force...
23 tags
I Just Don't Know What Went Wrong - TDIT on the...
The following are two separate posts on Pixar Planet by TDIT in reply to several members’ opinions on Derpy Hooves’ recent portrayal in ‘The Last Roundup’, an episode from ‘My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic’. The pivotal scene where Derpy’s name is canonized drew controversy and criticism when fans wrote in to object to the name and behaviour of the...
January 2012
1 post
10 tags
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic S2E14 'The...
This is the best day of my LIIIFEEE…!!!
Part of the reason why I enjoy being part of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom is that the creators frequently acknowledge and interact with the fanbase. I don’t mean this in the patronising ‘sell merchandise and flog spin-offs’, although MLP: FIM does the former to an extent. I mean it in the honest sense of engaging...
December 2011
3 posts
12 tags
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Review
Just another day at the office.
Ethan Hunt and his team of Impossible Missions Force agents are pulling off yet another ridiculously difficult assignment (breaking into the Kremlin undetected and stealing classified documents) when things go spectacularly wrong. A nuclear extremist called Cobalt detonates a bomb that destroys the Kremlin and escapes with the codes to arm Russia’s nuclear...
6 tags
TDIT's Season's Greetings
The following was posted on Pixar Planet, Christmas Day Singapore time:
Hello again, my fellow Planeteers! Been a long time since I’ve been here, but just wanna drop by and wish y’all a very Merry Christmas, Hannukah, Saturnalia, and New Year! :) If there’s one thing great about this day (besides the birth of a very significant historical figure), it’s the one time of...
13 tags
TDIT makes the news on Equestria Daily's Roundup
Equestria Daily: Nightly Roundup #182
Surprise!!! Today I made the headelines for the ‘Nightly Roundup’ on Equestria Daily. I’ll let my email to ED from Monday explain it all:
“Dear Equestria Daily,
I’m a recent university graduate from Down Under and a self-professed Brony. Two months ago, I started my first job as a graphic designer at a Sydney-based coupon...
October 2011
1 post
28 tags
The Lion King (In 3D) Review
The ‘mane’ cast just ‘lion’ around.
The Lion King has often been hailed by critics as one of the greatest motion-pictures of all-time, no small feat for a film back when the medium was still deemed by the average moviegoer as ‘just for kids’. Later animated flicks like Toy Story, Shrek, and Spirited Away began to change that perception, but this 1994 Disney...
September 2011
3 posts
22 tags
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic S2E1 'The...
~ Discord: The Biggest Troll of All. ~
I’ve been a Brony since I started watching this wonderful animated series in March, so it is with great anticipation that I finally saw the first episode of the new season about an hour ago. If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you check it out on Youtube or a rerun on Hub first. There will be SPOILERS ahead.
The episode starts off nicely...
16 tags
What do you think makes a person intelligent?
~ The following is TDIT’s reply to a thread on P Planet sharing the title of this post. ~
This is a very subjective but I suppose interesting question.
In my opinion, what makes a person intelligent is experience. This is closely linked to knowledge acquisition. Nobody is innately born knowing everything about the world. Even savants and geniuses need to undergo learning, just that...
16 tags
Good Filly Hunting
Guess who’s TDIT?
So I crashed at one of my best friend’s place yesterday after a night out in the town (we had a steamboat dinner and sang karaoke to celebrate the Mooncake Festival). Another good pal of mine stayed over, and I thought it would be a nice occassion to introduce them to the fandom. The first friend, who I’ll call J, had already seen the first part of the pilot,...
August 2011
6 posts
22 tags
Cars 2 Toys linked to Human Sweatshops & Child...
Disney’s best-selling “Cars” toys are being made in a factory in China that uses child labour and forces staff to do three times the amount of overtime allowed by law, according to an investigation by The Guardian.
“One worker reportedly killed herself after being repeatedly shouted at by bosses. Others cited worries over poisonous chemicals. Disney has now launched its...
29 tags
Rush Season 4 Begins 1st September
If anyone’s wondering what on Earth’s my forum sig’s on about, it’s just my way of plugging the return of one of my favourite Australian TV shows of all-time: Rush. Based on the real-life Critical Incident Response Team in Victoria, the fictional Tactical Response Unit fills an operational gap, handling cases deemed too dangerous to be handled by uniformed officers, but not...
25 tags
Ice Age: Continental Drift Cast Announcement
‘Ice’ knowing you.
Well, 20th Century Fox has just announced the cast for Ice Age 4: Continental Drift. [b]Minor spoilers[/b] about new characters ahead, although they’ll probably be revealed in the next trailer.
Jeremy Renner plays Gutt, “a master of the high seas determined to make Manny, Sid and Diego part of his crew,” pirate Wanda Sykes Sid’s stowaway...
9 tags
A Retrospective Look at Bruno
A cheekier title would’ve been a “A look-behind at the gayest movie of all-time”
Ach, Brüno… I remember a news report about his fiasco in the Milan fashion festival a few years before the film’s release. Kinda disappointed with this movie because unlike Borat, he doesn’t actually capitalise on his character’s homosexuality to ‘test’...
15 tags
My experience as a student film reviewer
The following was posted in reply to a P Planeteer’s enquiry about the nature of my prolific film-watching:
As most of you who know me online and in real-life would be aware of by now, I am a student contributor to my university magazine. Essentially, we contact the editor and enquire if there’s anything that needs reviewing in the office. Sometimes, she will tip us off if...
22 tags
Happy Feet 2 Teaser Poster & 2nd Teaser
Don’t call it a comeback!
Here’s the teaser poster. Not really a remarkable composition, although I’ll admit it’s a little difficult to make the Antarctic tundra look exciting. Interesting ‘tilt perspective’, and I really like the ominous evening clouds compared to the first movie’s bright and cheery blue skies. It seems the ‘SexyBack’ and...
July 2011
7 posts
21 tags
We must not let racism and religious extremism...
On July 22, 77 people died at the hands of one man. Anders Behring Breivik, a 32 year-old Norwegian, singlehandedly carried out his massacre through the bombing of government buildings in Oslo and a shooting spree at a youth camp of the Liberal-based Labour Party on Utøya. His deranged plot against what he perceived an Islamic invasion of Europe was outlined in his manifesto, 2083: A European...
22 tags
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Review
This spells war!
So this is it, folks. This is the end of the end, the final conclusion to the epic saga that lasted a decade. As of writing, the Potter series has beaten Bond and Star Wars to becoming the highest-grossing franchise of all-time. The Potter-maniacs have turned out in droves to send Harry and friends off on his swan song, and oh, what a magnificent farewell it is. David Yates has...
15 tags
How Cars 2 Story could be improved
What do double-decker buses and London cabs transport in the Cars world?
A few fans on the various forums and blogs I follow have said that Pixar has the right to try a fun movie once in a while, especially three emotionally-draining pics (if we start from Wall-E onwards). And I agree that Pixar should cut loose and that they don’t always have to make tearjerkers.
But one of my biggest...
13 tags
TDIT's MLP: Friendship is Magic - Season 1 Review
Where’s Derpy?
I finished the series about a month ago, and although the season finale was somewhat anticlimatic, it was a good run. I’m already looking forward to the second season, even though Lauren Faust won’t be on board. I’m sure the new successors will handle it nicely.
My favourite episode is a toss between ‘Griffon the Brush-Off’ and...
15 tags
5 Things I got from Cars 2
Accordion not included.
A while back, I wrote a post describing 5 things I expected from Pixar’s sequel Cars 2 such as ‘It will be a spy movie’, ‘There will be few slapstick jokes’, ‘There will be heart & soul’, et cetera. I’ve provided a link to that post at the end of this one. It is now time to review that post in light of having seen the...
25 tags
Cars 2 & Kung Fu Panda 2 Comparisons
If there’s one thing they share, it’s that ‘Dreamworks’ smirk…
Note: I have tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible, but I still advise you watch both films first before reading the following.
About a fortnight ago, I went to see one of my most anticipated films of the year, Cars 2, with a friend. You can read about my thoughts and opinion about the Pixar...
21 tags
Cars 2 Review
NOTE: I have tried to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but I strongly advise readers to see the film first in case I reveal any minor plot or character details.
Pixar’s latest film has achieved an astounding feat, although it is not one its producers and fans have been hoping for. After eleven critically-acclaimed movies and sixteen years of feature film production, the...
June 2011
18 posts
15 tags
A clarification on my last post
It seems I have gotten some interesting responses from my ‘TDIT’s thoughts on Cars 2 Rotten Rating’ post on my fan forums, and I want to clarify some of my statements.
First off, I apologise if I have offended any Cars fans with my last post. It was not my intention to revel in the negative reviews, in fact, those who were present on Twitter yesterday afternoon would bear witness to my...
17 tags
TDIT's thoughts on Cars 2 Rotten Rating
It’s official: Pixar has done the impossible. Cars 2 is its first film to have a Rotten rating on the film review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. This event is unprecedented; no other Pixar film in the history of the studio’s fifteen years of existence has dipped into Rotten territory, not even for a second.
Pixar fans on forums such as Pixar Planet and Wall-E Forum (of which...
21 tags
5 Things I expect from Cars 2
The motion picture event of the summer every Pixar fan and animation enthusiast has been waiting for is almost upon us (well, it’s out tomorrow, actually).
Over the past months, I have ranted and raved about Pixar and this sequel to one of my most beloved films in equal measures. Now that I have had the wisdom of a couple of trailers, several posters, and countless, countless turntable...
17 tags
Empire Australia June Issue Preview Part 2
This is a continuation of the last post, where I share a couple of interesting articles in this month’s issue of Empire.
Here’s a rave review of Kung Fu Panda 2, which I wholeheartedly agree with. 4 stars, no doubt. I would’ve given the same too. Not a perfect Dreamworks film, but still up there with its best (the first Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek). Nary a...
17 tags
Empire Australia June Issue Preview Part 1
So I was at my favourite haunt (an underground newsstand in Queen Victoria’s Building near Town Hall Station) when I spotted Empire’s June issue. I had a flip-through and decided to buy it because of a few articles that caught my attention, which I’ll share below:
To celebrate the release of Cars 2, Empire ran two articles in its ‘News etc’ section. The first is...
12 tags
Sneak Preview of Cars 2 Tie-In Books
So I was in Big W at my local mall the other day when I saw the new Cars 2 tie-in books. I have surreptitiously taken a two photos each (of the cover and interior) for your perusal of the ‘The Cars 2 Essential Guide’ and ‘Cars 2 The Magical Story’.
I took a quick flip-through (I haven’t seen the movie yet, and I don’t want to be spoiled), but I just wanna...
8 tags
Ratatouille Mad Fold-In
Check it out! A Ratatouille-themed Mad Fold-In!
Fold-in copyright of Al Jaffee and Mad Magazine. Photo taken by TDIT.
15 tags
Kung Fu Panda 2 Premiere Report
For the last fortnight on Twitter and various forums, I’ve been raving about my attendance at the Australian gala premiere of the new Dreamworks animated film Kung Fu Panda 2 in Sydney on June 13th. This would be the first time I have actually attended a film premiere. At last, I went with a friend of mine on Monday night, and here’s how it went:
I stepped out of the cab at the...
17 tags
Temeraire Series Fan-Gush
‘TEAM FRANCE’ by FlamebloodQuickblade. Not actual book illustration.
I’ve just borrowed ‘Empire of Ivory’ from the library. It’s the fourth book in Naomi Novik’s excellent series of a dragon and an Aerial Corps commander, set during the Napoleonic wars! And guess which French general who became emperor makes regular appearances throughout? Yeah, I sort...
13 tags
Reverence blinds you to inquiry
The ‘Brenda Chapman incident’ discussion continues on the forums. Members’ quotes are in italics, with my responses below.
why the hate on Pixar???
If that was directed at me, I assure you, I have the studio’s best interests at heart, and that I still have faith in them if they do a little soul-searching and be more trusting of its employees. If that was directed at...
14 tags
Further ruminations on the Chapman incident
To elaborate on my last post, notice I mentioned that there could be many reasons why Brenda was removed from the project. The fact that they attributed it to “creative differences” without giving us any specific details, probably due to property confidentiality, only provides fodder for feminists and conspiracy theorists to comment on the studio.
Speaking from personal...
22 tags
Being Brave is not for girls
Lauren Faust’s (developer and creative director of My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic) recently wrote a deviantART journal entitled ‘Brenda Chapman, Brave and women in animation’, in which she expressed her disappointment upon hearing of Brenda Chapman’s departure from the director role of the upcoming Pixar film Brave. The following is TDIT’s posted response:
...
21 tags
Kung Fu Panda 2 Review
Dreamworks usually cops a lot of flak for being an animation studio that has relied on sequels and spin-offs (especially the Shrek franchise). So naturally, some folks might be concerned that this follow-up to the ‘08 smash-hit (pun unintended) Kung Fu Panda might not stand up to its predecessor’s surprisingly good storyline and well-developed characters. Well fear not young...
15 tags
Happy 5th Birthday to Cars!
Wow, we’ve been celebrating a lot of Pixar movies’ birthdays lately!
Well, I can’t believe it’s been five wonderful years since I fell hood-over-wheels in love with Pixar. While Finding Nemo was the primer fuel, Cars was the spark-plug ignition that kickstarted my ‘romance’ with the studio. It combined two of my greatest loves, cars and movies, into one...
20 tags
Tatsumi Trailer
Singaporean filmmaker Eric Khoo has just screened his first animated film ‘Tatsumi’ at the Cannes Film Festival, and is currently seeking U.S. distribution. The film is an autobiographical documentary celebrating the life of the artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi, a disciple of the legendary Osamu Tezuka and pioneer of the alternate Japanese comic art Gegika.
I really like the cel...
22 tags
What's in a Username?
I can’t remember if I revealed this here before, but I guess now’s a good time as any.
I went through many ideas before signing up on Pixar Planet (I was a lurker for about two years!), but I finally settled on ‘thedriveintheatre’ because it combines my two loves for cars and films. What could be a better physical manifestation of the world’s love for automobiles...
18 tags
Happy 8th Birthday to Finding Nemo!
Copyright Disney Enterprises LLC
This is a very significant Pixar film for me, because it was the first one that my siblings and I saw in cinemas since Toy Story. It was also during a period for which I had an intense hatred for Pixar because of what I thought they were doing to traditionally-animated movies. I believed back then that Pixar started the whole CGI-craze that was killing the...
17 tags
A message from a Pixar Planeteer
‘Doc Hudson’ - yamihoole/lennonluvr9
The following was posted by Pixar Planeteer x3haijessiex3 that bears reading and contemplation, not just by Planeteers or Cars fans, but for Pixar fans in general, too:
Some of us have stayed with each other through the harsh and the beautiful. We’ve made lovely relationships with each other, plans to meet each other, and we shared our...
May 2011
31 posts
21 tags
NEW! Happy Feet 2 Trailer - TDIT comments
2 Fat 2 Fluffy
Funnily enough, I was pondering the day before yesterday if they were gonna release a Happy Feet 2 trailer soon and whether it would be similar to the first one’s rather spectacular teaser.
Well, it’s just been released over on Apple Trailers, and yes, it’s pretty similar to the first movie’s teaser. It has lost the mystery and appeal of the first...
30 tags
Naturally-Aspirated
We all have dreams and aspirations. Here are some of mine:
After watching not one, not two, but four Brazilian-themed movies last month, I have a deep desire (or as the cariocas would call it, saudade) to visit The Marvelous City.
I have been to most of the Anglo/Euro-centric cities like Paris, Amsterdam, Honolulu, Milan, Madrid, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, London, Moscow, Zurich,...
22 tags
Three Non-Blockbuster Movies to Look out For
She’s got a gun!
Right now, three non-blockbuster films have my interest.
Colombiana: I’ve been a fan of Zoe Saldana ever since Avatar (well, she wasn’t acting in the flesh, so to speak, but I like her performance). I also enjoyed her character in the underappreciated ‘The Losers’ and rediscovered her cameo in the first Pirates movie. So I’m really looking...
25 tags
More on 'What Would You Do' + 'Man vs Food' &...
So full of itself, it makes you want to puke.
The following was psoted on P Planet:
EJE: I actually stayed up until 4 yesterday just watching clips of it! I love the scenarios; WWYD if you encountered a teen boy abusing his girlfriend at the park, an interracial couple being harassed by racists, a store manager and security guard searching a customer based on racial profiling, a conman...
18 tags
What Would You Do?
I saw a great show called ‘What Would You Do?’ on the graveyard shift. It’s basically a combination of ‘candid camera’ and social experiments which pose moral and ethical dilemmas to unsuspecting bystanders, and challenges them to stand up for victims of injustice or ‘do the right thing’.
The episode I watched had a paid actor and actress pretend to...
12 tags
TDIT reminisces about his history with Pixar...
Pixar Planet was the second forum I joined. The first is Varaces (a car chase fan site). I still log on there occasionally.
I remember when members like rachelcakes1985, lizardgirl, thewisecookiesheet (although she’s popping in every now and then), hannahmation, Mitch, wannabechef91 used to hang out here.
I remember when ffdude was telling us about his Up obssession and how he became...
30 tags
A Drink Too Far
I am very fed up with the alcohol-related violence in Sydney (and Australia). Aussies have a very strong drinking culture, and while I have nothing wrong with alcohol consumption (I like a lil’ Singapore Sling and Caipirinha myself), there is always a limit. We should partake in everything in moderation; you can even have too much of a good thing.
Some stupid people think it’s...
14 tags
Why say 'Special' when you mean...
Oh he’s special alright!
The following was a critique on a thread title on P Planet called ‘Who’s here’s Special?’:
I actually have find it strange that we are using a euphemism to describe what is essentially a mental condition.
Please bear in mind that I am not discriminating against people with mental disorders. One of my closest friends is a girl with...
20 tags
It Gets Better
Today is International Day Against Homophobia, and to commemorate the occasion, I’d like to talk about this important issue for this post.
First of all, I’m a heterosexual, straight-as-an-arrow male. I had a pretty early sexual awakening thanks to a picture of Carrie Fisher in her Princess Leia slave girl outfit I saw in a newspaper when I was ten (True story!). I’m as...