Here’s a tip if you are planning on going to see Ted, the feature film directorial debut of Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. Give the 1980 version of Flash Gordon a quick watch. Without giving away too many spoilers, the film is an important one in the lives of John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) and Ted, the stuffed teddy bear that Bennett magically wished to life when he was a boy. The film serves as the basis for a couple of jokes as well as a plot point or two. (No a crazy, bearded scientist doesn’t kidnap them on a home-built rocketship to Mongo.) Having the film somewhat fresh in your mind will certainly help with appreciating those moments.

But that’s not to say that the film is entirely dependent on a parade of pop culture references, a charge that has been fired at MacFarlane’s Family Guy by its critics. If anything, Ted is a combination romantic comedy, bromance and very fractured fairytale. It is also a very funny and raunchy film that still manages to have some sweetness at its core.

An avuncular narrator informs us at the beginning of the film that following the initial media explosion of Ted’s miraculous appearance, he slipped back into relative obscurity, “like Corey Feldman”. And now, 25 years later, he is still John’s best friend. They share an apartment, get high and still watch their favorite movie from childhood – Flash Gordon. And although the pair may have physically moved from the suburbs to downtown Boston, their lives have not progressed much further.

Surprisingly, even though John works the counter at a local car rental agency, he has managed to land himself a fairly successful girlfriend in the form of Lori (Mila Kunis). On the eve of their fourth anniversary of dating, Lori tells John that they need to take their relationship to the next level and that includes diamond rings and Ted getting his own place. John reluctantly agrees and even though Ted moves into a rather dingy apartment above a Chinese takeout place, John still spends an inordinate amount of time with his furry buddy, to the point where Lori breaks up with John in exasperation. However, the two reunite when Ted finds himself the target of some unwanted attention from a stalkerish former fan and his son.

As expected, MacFarlane plums every situation for laughs and never is satisfied with just giving us the first one he finds. Many sequences, such as an out-of-control party at Ted’s apartment and a fight between Ted and John in a hotel room, continue to build and escalate to absurd levels. And kudos should be given out to the handful of celebrities who cameo as, and poke fun at, themselves.

But MacFarlane manages to ground the high concept and silly shenanigans with some strong character writing for the three leads. Unlike many movie couples, where you only believe that they are together for the sake of the plot, the relationship between John and Lisa feels very natural and sweet. MacFarlane’s script gives the couple moments that hint at their long relationship and Wahlberg and Kunis’s chemistry together sells it easily. When it comes time for Lori to insist that Ted move out, there is a hint of sadness revealing that although she feels what she is asking is the right thing for everyone, she still realizes that she is coming between two great friends. It could have been very easy to make her seem like a bitch at this point, but MacFarlane goes for a more nuanced moment. For his part, Wahlberg delivers his best comedic performance yet and manages to enhance it with some pathos when he finds himself torn between Lori and Ted.

While some might dismiss the film’s high concept of a talking teddy bear as just another in a long line of talking non-human characters that have appeared in his work, MacFarlane manages to use the relationship between Ted and John as a metaphor for the pressure to leave behind childish things when one reaches adulthood. It’s an additional layer one doesn’t normally expect to find in a summer comedy, and its inclusion is welcome.

The weakest portion of the film is the plotline involving the creepy father and son who bear-nap Ted. This is what drives most of the third act and although it does help to resolve the relationship issues between Ted, John and Lori, it still manages to feel a bit tacked on and perhaps could have been more strongly set up earlier in the film.

In a multi-part series, Comic Book Film Editor William Gatevackes will be tracing the history of comic book movies from the earliest days of the film serials to today’s big blockbusters and beyond. Along with the history lesson, Bill will be covering some of the most prominent comic book films over the years and why they were so special. This time, we continue our four week “vacation” overseas with the most notable one-off comic films Japan has to offer.

If Europe is to be commended for so easily accepting comic books as art, then Japan should be given the gold star for the way it totally embraced the art form. Manga is read by all-ages in Japan, and by all social classes and has reached a level of cultural status unseen in the country.

Over the last quarter century, manga’s influence has grown into the United States, to such a point that if you were to walk into any bookstore (if any bookstores still exist when this post is published), you’d find the shelves dedicated to manga out numbering the shelves devoted to American comics by four to one. While Magna’s dominance of the American market is a relatively recent occurrence, American audiences were exposed to one of manga’s greatest characters decades before.

Osamu Tezuka has been called the Japanese Walt Disney for a variety of reasons. Both have had an indelible effect on the fields of animation and comic books in their respective countries. Both have inspired generations of fans and influenced generations of artists. And both have created characters that have touched the hearts of millions.

Tezuka created many characters in his lifetime, but perhaps the most popular in the United States was Astro Boy. Created by Tezuka in 1951, the character was a little robot boy who was created by a scientist named Dr. Tenma as a replacement for his dead son, Tobio. When Tenma realizes that the robot could never take the place of his dead son, he sells the robot boy to the circus. While at the circus, he catches the eye of another scientist who works at the same Science Ministry as the robot’s creator. The scientist, Professor Ochanomizu, adopts the robot, and becomes its legal guardian. The robot, now known as Astro Boy, would go on to have many adventures, striving to keep Japan safe.

American audiences were first exposed to the character when the Japanese anime adapted from the manga was redubbed and run in syndication on U.S. television. The U.S. cartoon originally ran from 1963 to 1965, although it has been rebroadcast at various times since then.

In 2009, the robot boy got computer animated with the film Astro Boy.

The film cost $65 million to produce and featured an all-star cast of voices, including Nicolas Cage, Freddie Highmore and Nathan Lane. However, it only grossed under $40 million worldwide.

If Astro Boy was the Mickey Mouse of manga/anime, then you can argue that Akira is the Citizen Kane of the mediums. Akira first appeared in 1982 in the pages of Young Magazine and was created by Katsuhiro Otomo. The story told the tale of a Neo-Tokyo, a new version of the city that sprung up after being destroyed at the start of World War III. A nuclear bomb was blamed for the blast, but it was really due to the powers of a telekinetic named Akira.

Neo-Japan is dominated by civil unrest, an oppressive government, and warring biker gangs. When a gang member by the name of Tetsuo Shima develops telekinetic powers similar to Akira’s, all hell starts breaking loose.

The manga was an epic story with various subplots and characters interwoven together. Some say that Akira is a parable for postwar Japan and the generation that was born after WWII. The story was brought over to the United States in 1988 by Marvel’s EPIC imprint, was part of the first wave of the manga invasion, and helped the cyberpunk genre take off. Otomo would write and direct a film version of his story, which would hit theaters in 1988.

The film differs from the manga to quite a degree, as it would due to trying to convey six volumes of story into a two-hour film, but the film made a lot of best-of lists and stands today as a cult classic. A live-action version of the story, with everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio to James Franco to Zac Effron rumored to be attached to it, is in development hell even as we speak.  

Another manga turned film soon to be remade by Hollywood is Old Boy. The manga, which ran in Weekly Manga Action from 1996 to 1998, focuses on a man who was imprisoned in a private prison for 10 years and, upon his release, has to track down the people who kept him captive and the reason why he was held. The manga was the basis for the Korean film, Oldboy.

The film, while keeping the basic plot of the manga, makes a couple significant changes to make it darker than the source material. The character is locked up for 15 years, not ten, and still has to find a reason why, but the path he takes has more disturbing twists and turns. Incest is added as a plot point, the violence and gore is amped up, and the resolution is less positive. But, like Akira, even with the changes, the film Oldboy was very well received. It also is heading for an American remake, with Spike Lee tapped to direct the project.

Next up, the European comic book film franchises.       

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the tweaking of rules for four Academy Awards categories. The rules affect the eligibility for films in four categories – Best Visual Effects, Original Song, Makeup and Foriegn Language film. The changes were approved earlier this week by the Academy’s Board of Governors and will take effect for the 85th Academy Awards scheduled for February 24.

Starting with next year’s Oscars, the final nominees for the Best Visual Effects category will be chosen from a shortlist of ten films where as previously the shortlist could consist of anywhere between seven and ten films.

The Academy has modified the rules of the Best Original Song category to allow a fourth songwriter for an individual song “in rare and extraordinary circumstances.” The last time the eligibility rules for this category were modified was in 2005 when it allowed two writers per song to be eligible with the possibility of a third under extraordinary conditions.

The Makeup Category is being expanded to include hairstyling as well and will be known as, appropriate enough, the Makeup and Hairstyling Category.

And while entrants for the Best Foreign Language Film must continue to be submitted to the Academy in either 35mm or DCP formats, they do not necessarily have to have been exhibited in either of those formats in their home country.

Interestingly, the Academy did not make any changes in the way that eligible songs receiving nomination into the Best Original Song category. Last year’s Academy Awards generated some controversy when only two songs received the required voting score to compete for the Oscar statue. The Academy stated that it would examine the rules to see if a change was necessary. Unfortunately, it appears as if they have decided to keep the status quo.

1. Ted (Universal, 3,239 Theaters, 106 Minutes, Rated R): It’s hard to imagine when Seth MacFarlane wasn’t one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. Family Guy was cancelled after three seasons and it looked like he might just fade into the ether.

However, Family Guy got an unheard of reprieve  on FOX after it became a hit as part of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim line-up. FOX gave it another chance on the network, the new found fans followed it back, and soon enough, MacFarlane add American Dad! and The Cleveland Show to the FOX line-up, lining his pockets all the way.

And now, films. This one has an interesting premise (a childhood wish for a bear that could come to life has different implications when the kid grows up) and a good supporting cast, but, for me at least, Mark Wahlberg seems miscast in the lead role. Not to be ageist, but I feel the part would have been better served with a younger actor.

2. Magic Mike (Warner Brothers, 2,930 Theaters, 110 Minutes, Rated R): So, we finally get to the male stripper movie.

Loosely based on the real-life adventures of star Channing Tatum’s days as a stripper, the film focuses on a young man being taught the stripping ropes by a more experienced dancer. All directed by Steven Soderburgh (?).

I have no idea how how this film will do at the box office. I did get the cover story in Entertainment Weekly, but that was back in May. The film looks like either a drama or a comedy, depending on what ad you saw. It does have a good ensemble cast. But will it draw a big enough audience to make some money? We’ll see.

3. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection (Lionsgate, 2,161 Theaters, 114 Minutes): Tyler Perry once seemed to be a sure-fire box office draw. He had a built in audience and every film he did seemed automatic to debut at number one. He’s been struggling of late, but this latest film seems to be an attempt to reach a larger demographic.

Eugene Levy and Denise Richards star as the Needlemans, a family that has to enter witness protection. Why? Because Levy’s character was accused of running a Ponzi scheme that somehow the Mob was involved in. How were they involved? I don’t know. But I also don’t know why Madea’s house was chosen as the Needlemans hiding spot either.

The Madea movies still do well at the box office, but I doubt this film could beat the other films released this week, let alone Brave. 

4. People Like Us (Touchstone, 2,055 Theaters, 115 Theaters, Rated PG-13): Chris Pine stars as a man who finds out while settling his late father’s estate that his father, well, got around. Got around so much that his father fathered a daughter with another woman.

He does what anyone would do in this kind of situation–he tracks his sister down, infiltrates her life without ever once telling her who he is. She does the natural thing when a cute young man ingratiates himself into her life and becomes a positive role model for her son. She falls in love with him.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

All brought to us by the writers of Star Trek, Cowboys and Aliens and  Transformers. Of course.

Why do I have the feeling that Marvel Studios honcho Kevin Feige is having a good laugh this evening?

No sooner does news break that an adaption of the comic book heroes the Guardians of the Galaxy may be the occupying the second of the two announced 2014 dates that the studio has staked, then comes word that writer/director Edgar Wright has shot some test footage for his long in-development with the studio big screen treatment of Ant-Man. The open spot on Marvel’s release calendar is on May 16. The studio currently has Captain America 2 scheduled a month earlier on April 4.

The Hollywood Reporter was first with the news that Wright shot the footage a few weeks ago as a test to see how some of the proposed effects would look on the big screen and to try to give studio execs an idea of what the tone of the film would be.

Ant-Man is actually scientist Hank Pym, who discovers a type of radiation that allows him to shrink in size. Armed with a device that lets him control ants, Pym was a founding member of the Avengers. He would also sometime use a reverse of his shrinking process to fight evil as Giant Man. Wright and co-writer Joe Cornish have been working on the screenplay for the project for the past couple of years.

Of course, this doesn’t automatically mean that Ant-Man will be moving into production anytime soon. If Marvel decides to finally greenlight Ant-Man, they will need to wait until Wright shoots The World’s End, his third comedic collaboration with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost which is scheduled to start shooting this fall.

No matter which project gets the nod, I would expect the answer to come next month from Marvel at the San Diego Comic Con.

“What? I thought there were only two? And we don’t even know what the second film is and we’re getting a third?”

Relax. Relax. This will not be a Marvel Studios film.  Marvel is owned by another movie studio, remember?

Big Hero 6 will likely be the first foray of  Marvel Comics characters into the world of Disney Animation. This is the same arm of Disney that will be releasing Wreck-It-Ralph this year and Frozen next year.

The Blue Sky Disney blog confirmed an earlier rumor that the adaptation is in the pipeline, although not fully green lit as of yet.

Big Hero 6 is a Japanese superhero team that was created by Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau in 1998 in the pages of Alpha Flight. It was later reimagined in a Manga style by Chris Claremont and David Nakayama in a 2008 miniseries. I’d wager a bet that the latter will be the inspiration for the kid friendly film.

One of Marvel’s more obscure teams (even though they have had two miniseries to their name, they haven’t appeared much outside of that), the fact that Big Hero 6 is getting a film means that Disney wasn’t joking about wanting to get their hands on Marvel for their deep pool of intellectual property.

So, who is on the team? Well, in the comics, one of the members was Silver Samurai. Since he’s going to be a villain in The Wolverine, he won’t be showing. Another X-Man, Sunfire, was once leader of the group, but, being a mutant, the rights to him are also owned by Fox.

What we are left with are heroes based on Manga archetypes with names such as GoGo Tomago and Wasabi-No-Ginger and team members that include a 13-year-old genius with a giant robot bodyguard and a girl whose super powers come from her purse.

The Academy Award Oscar statuette that Michael Curtiz received for directing the 1943 classic Casablanca sold at auction this evening for $2,056,120.00. This is short of the estimated $2.5 million the gold-plated statue was expected to go for. This morning the bidding was only around $700,000.

Casablanca, considered one of the greatest motion pictures ever made, won three Academy Awards and this win for Curtiz would be the only one of the director’s career.

Curtiz’s Academy Award is the latest in string of statues that have gone under the hammer in recent months. Orson Welles’s Oscar for Citizen Kane went for $861,542 in December. This past February an additional 18 statuettes were auctioned, bringing in a total of over $3 million.

In 1950, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences mandated that all Oscar statues being awarded going forward could not be sold be the award winner or their heirs without first offering to sell them back to the Academy for the nominal sum of $1.00. The rule doesn’t apply to statuettes awarded pre-1950 and the last several years have seen the Best Picture Oscar for Gone With The Wind (1939) fetching $1.5 million at auction while its star Vivien Leigh’s Best Actress statue going for $550,000.00. Director Steven Spielberg has shelled out six-figure prices for pre-1950 Oscar statues awarded to Clark Gable and Bette Davis in order to donate them back to the Academy in perpetuity.

The auction was conducted by Nate D Sanders. The images below (click on each for a much larger version) are from their online catalog as is the following product description -

Oscar statue awarded to Michael Curtiz for Best Direction of the 1943 film “Casablanca,” one of the most respected films made during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Like other films considered the greatest of all time, “Casablanca” has consistently grown in acclaim over the years, although it was recognized in its day with three Academy Awards in March 1944 including Best Picture and this Oscar for Best Director. It’s now considered by the American Film Institute to be the second best film of all time, just behind “Citizen Kane.” Produced by Warner Brothers, the film is set in Casablanca, Morocco in 1941. Humphrey Bogart stars as the owner of Rick’s nightclub, with Ingrid Bergman as his ex-lover and Paul Henreid as her Czech Resistance leader husband. Its blend of wartime political intrigue, romance and humor culminates in one of the most moving and quoted final scenes in cinematic history: “Here’s looking at you, kid.” As Rick Blaine, Bogart’s decision to honor duty above all else supports the belief of “Casablanca” as an allegory of the United States’ entry into WWII. Many of Curtiz’s films received Oscar nominations in various categories throughout his career, but “Casablanca” is his singular win. The plaque affixed to the front of the base is engraved: “Academy First Award / To / Michael Curtiz / For The Direction of / ‘Casablanca’”. The plaque upon the opposite side reads: “Academy Of / Motion Picture / Arts And Sciences / First Award / 1943″. Gold-plated statue of “Oscar” standing on a film reel measures 10.25″ in height atop a round black Belgian marble base to an overall height of 11.75″. Base measures 5.5″ in diameter. Statue weighs 6 lbs. 13 oz. Light speckling to finish, else near fine.

In this digital age, journalists no longer have to work in the same office. Heck, FBOL Editor-in-Chief Rich Drees and I don’t even live in the same state. Odds are the staff of Latino Review has a similar arrangement. However, they should probably schedule a conference call or keep in touch better through e-mail or something.

Why? Because way back on June 5, just over three weeks ago, Latino Review writer El Mayimbe swore that The Black Panther would be the film in the remaining 2014 spot held by Marvel. He claimed he heard it from four sources! We duly relayed the news here.

However, today Latino Review writer Da7e states that no, the 2014 film will instead be Guardians of the Galaxy. Sheesh! Make up your mind!

While El Mayimbe is the only one of the two listed as a contributor and, well, had four sources, I’m leaning towards Da7e with this one. Here’s why:

1. Marvel has been buying up any domain name having to do with the Guardians of the Galaxy over the last several weeks.
2. In the Marvel Comic book Avengers Assemble, a comic introduced when The Avengers film was still in theaters, with a cast of characters that mirrored the cast of characters in the film, which also featured Thanos as a bad guy, the Guardians of the Galaxy have just made an appearance. The team making an appearance in a book that was custom designed to appeal to new readers who loved the movie can’t be a coincidence.
3. Avengers Assemble writer Brian Michael Bendis, arguably Marvel’s biggest superstar when it comes to writing, is rumored to be writing a new Guardians of the Galaxy series some time in the near future.
4. As we reported here, Kevin Feige was asked which Marvel property in development–Inhumans, Ant-Man, Runaways or Guardians of the Galaxy–would Marvel be bringing to theaters the soonest. Feige cryptically answered that two of them were closer to the big screen that anyone thinks. Note Black Panther was nowhere on that list.
5. The version of the Guardians pictured above, the most recent incarnation of the team and the ones guest starring in Avengers Assemble, are a space-faring force that specializes in staring down universe threatening bad guys, which would fit perfectly in with building up Thanos as the bad guy in Avengers 2.

So, which one is it? Well, we’ll find out in three weeks when the San Diego Comic Con kicks off.

So how do you make the story of a monster hunter more realistic? That’s the task writer/producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are starting to wrestle with as they begin their work at remaking the 2004 film Van Helsing. Kurtzman was talking with Crave Online and revealed that he and his partner are trying to think of a way to differentiate their version of the character that originally appeared in Bram Stroker’s original Dracula novel and the many different cinematic interpretations that have followed.

Well, I don’t want to give away too much, because we are actually at the very beginning of talking about what to do with it. But I do feel like the Van Helsing that Anthony Hopkins plays in [Bram Stoker’s] Dracula is sort of the parody version of it, and the Van Helsing that Hugh Jackman played was obviously in a different place as well. I think that these kinds of movies have evolved a lot since then. You know, The Dark Knight was a major, major corner-turning moment in the way that genre and superhero stories could be told. Really grounded in reality. Really grounded in really cool things. That’s what I’d like to do without sacrificing the fantasy element. We aspired to do that as well on Trek, you know, keep it “real.” That’s such a different franchise than Batman, but that’s really what we wanted to do. And we’d love to do that with Van Helsing.

Now while I know that the 2004 film does have its fans, I hated it. I thought the the entire thing was poorly written and directed and generally just a joyless, unwatchable mess. Having characters that seem more grounded in reality while they react to the more fantastic things going on around them would be a vast improvement. It has worked for the movies that Kurtzman name checked – The Dark Knight and the 2009 Star Trek reeboot – and since Kurtzman and Orci worked on that, so I think there is reason to believe that this remake should be a marked improvement on the original.

Deadline is reporting that a deal has been reached for the rights The Human Fly, the star of a Marvel Comics comic book which ran for 19 issues from 1977 to 1979. The producers are aiming to bring character to the big screen with an independent release.

Independent release, you might say? Well, aren’t all Marvel Comics characters that appeared in their comics over the years owned by Marvel, who is owned by Disney, who is a major studio? Yes, they are, unless it was, say, a comic book based on a real-life stuntman that Marvel licensed to cash in on a popular pop culture phenomenon of the day.

The Human Fly was a Canadian stunt daredevil, one of many that rose up in the wake of Evel Knievel. The Human Fly did public stunts, albeit with a twist. He had a comic book costume, complete with a full luchador-style mask that hid his identity, and he would donate a portion of the profits to charity.

As part of the promotional push for The Human Fly, the people working with the anonymous stuntman contacted Marvel Comics to see if they would be interested doing a comic book series about their business associate. Marvel, thinking they were getting into business with the next Evel Knievel, jumped at the chance.  Unfortunately, The Human Fly’s career had no buzz to it (Sorry) and the comic book lasted just over a year and a half before being cancelled.

Deadline’s Dominic Patten makes the film out to be your prototypical superhero film, even bringing up the fact that Marvel characters such as Spider-Man and Daredevil cameoed in the Human Fly’s series. However, a cursory search of the Internet would bring you to thehumanflymovie.com, which, like Patten’s article, lists Steve Goldmann as the director and Tony Babinski as the writer of the film. It also includes the film clip I’ve embedded below, which is a snippet of a documentary account of The Human Fly’s short life on the world stage where Goldmann and Babinski are once again credited as director and writer.

From the looks of the site and the above clip, I doubt that we will be getting a superhero film like Patten thinks but instead either a fictionalized version of the real-life Human Fly’s story or, more likely, a documentary about the costumed daredevil. Also, not to kick a fellow journalist when he’s down. it appears that the Human Fly was not Joe Ramacieri like he stated, as the film clip shows Ramacieri as one of the men behind the gimmick. That same cursory search of the Internet would have told Patten that the Human Fly was most likely a stuntman named Rick Rojatt, a fact confirmed by the man who built one of his stunt bikes.

So, The Human Fly might not be the next comic book superhero film to come down the pike. But that might not be that bad because the real life story seems far more interesting.