Stardust

[altivo]

So Gary brought home a DVD last week. Remaindered, probably at Walmart, for $5. He picked it up because of the steam-punkish picture on the front, of a dirigible carrying a metal ship's hull aloft.

The picture is called Stardust and neither of us had heard of it. He wanted to watch it, so we did, tonight. While unwrapping it, my librarian's eagle eyes (cataloging DVDs is bad for your eyesight, you have to read all that teensy-eensy print and it becomes a habit) noticed that it was... produced by Neil Gaiman, from the book by Neil Gaiman... Wait! What? I never heard of this book by Neil Gaiman.

So we watched it. And you should too. It's clever, of course, and witty, and hilarious. Turns out that the "book" was actually four comics, or a graphic novel, illustrated by Charles Vesa. The original will be in my hands by Monday so I can see what it was like. But this film gets at least 4 apples from us.



Oh, and the bandwidth controls on my new router setup passed the preliminary tests today. One more thing to do, and that's set up a caching web proxy on it. Should be ready to go live next week.

Comments

[kint.livejournal.com]

Remaindered, eh? I may have to go scout out WalMart. I actually saw that one in the theater, was a lot of fun.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I assume it was Walmart where he got it, but I didn't ask. It's the usual source when these things appear, though.

[marzolan.livejournal.com]

Stardust IS an awesome movie.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing the book is better. I always think that when I've read the book.

[flamekist.livejournal.com]

Michael and I loved Stardust! We saw it years ago at the theaters and just yesterday we put it into our Netflix que.

Another Gaiman movie I fell in love with (but not Michael) is Mirrormask. I missed it when it came and went at the theaters in the blink of an eye, but my Tivo (not the 'Tivo, obviously...) caught it at random on tv.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

How do you catch random movies? Bait a hook with random eyeballs?

[flamekist.livejournal.com]

Not so much random ones. Cute ones seem to work better and my dark-steel blues apparently did the trick.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Dark-steel blue see-throughs I hope ;)

[flamekist.livejournal.com]

Well it all depends on how much tequila I had the night before...

[soanos.livejournal.com]

There is no such thing as too much. :)

[flamekist.livejournal.com]

If you weren't so far away I'd take that as a challenge. ;)

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Oooo... I see. I wouldn't mind at all. However, I prefer moderation so I rarely have too much, if ever. Even though I may consume a rather large quantity over long period of time...

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to have a squiz at that.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's worth hunting down, in my opinion. No cats in it, but there's a bird and a mouse.

[frith]

Edible dormouse (Glis glis). Believe me. I just spent at least a frustrating hour looking for screen-grabs of the damn rodent. Finally I found some Youtube clips of the movie and yes, they did use a dormouse as stated in the Wikipedia page for the movie. I saw the movie for the first time this week (quite good, 4 out of five) and at the time I thought the "mouse" was a marsupial mouse or maybe a honey possum.

Next question: what's the bloody bird? Some kind of English jay? And did the witch fry the unicorn?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The bird is a jay, I think, probably the Eurasian Jay which is a corvid cousin to the American blue jay and scrub jay.

I'm not sure just what happened to the unicorn, though my preferred assumption would be that it disappeared back into the magical dimension from which it had come, rather than actually being destroyed by fire.

[frith]

I think it's a white-throated magpie-jay. Native to Central America though.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look more closely at the images on the DVD. I don't remember the bird being as bright or intensely colored as the Central American jay. Of course, it could have been a bird from anywhere, chained to a perch as it was. An exotic pet on display. But someone did refer to it as "a jay" I think.

[frith]

Try this youtube clip from the movie.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'll hold off on youtube, thanks. It's sorta like being hit by a truck continuously for a half hour when you're on dialup. Easier to just go back to the DVD.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

It was a book first, I believe. I have the paperback. I haven't seen the film because I didn't like the book much, and that's decidedly odd for a Neil Gaiman reader who usually loves twists on fairytales.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Comic book version 1997-1998, and book 1999, apparently. Audiobook version 2006, film 2007. I had to request the comics from another library, but it turns out we had the 1999 book on the shelf. It's sitting on my desk now.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Well well! For some reason I had it that the book was first. That might actually explain why I didn't enjoy it. Transmedia adaptations and all.

[felder.livejournal.com]

I loved his too! It has Horsies n a pretty unicorn in it too ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I was disappointed by what apparently happened to the unicorn.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Me, too. Fortunately I have mostly forgotten about the movie so I don't remember much.

[herefox.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised you missed Stardust, my friend's list babbled about it incessantly when it was in the theater.

It was originally released in comics but they did do a normal book version as well as well as a graphic novel-ish thing. Lovely, really, though I adore Charles Vess's art and Neil Gaiman is usually a win.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'm not much of a movie buff, and I especially hate going to see them in theatres. Consequently, as with television, I tend to let these discussions fly right past me.

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

I liked the film as well. Of course, I would because I like fairy tales. It was a perfect balance of light-hearted and witty humor with a serious conflict between good and evil. And the romance wasn't sappy or overdone, but likable and believable.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

And, as felder pointed out, there was a pretty unicorn and lots of nice looking horsies. XD

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

That's true, although like you, I was a little disturbed by the unicorn's implied fate.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

I am just glad I have a memory like a goldfish. -.-

[songcoyote.livejournal.com]

I read the comic with a devouring hunger when it first came out. While I did really enjoy the movie - it's rare when a decent job is done transferring from book to film - my adoration of the original is much stronger, particularly as I find Charles Vess' artwork delectable.

I almost wish the book had come first, then the comic, as it's a decent read on its own but was not as fulfilling after absorbing the comic. Of course, had it been first I would have formed my own visions of what the characters looked like, so perhaps the comic wouldn't have been as good to me.

Chicken <-> Egg :)

Light and laughter,
SongCoyote

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I plan to compare all three. I'll let you know what I think. :)

[songcoyote.livejournal.com]

Please do - I value your insight.

One of my favorite book to movie adaptations (which I may have mentioned to you before) is Watership Down. The movie is nearly as grim, uplifting, hard-hitting, disturbing, and beautiful as the book. It's worth seeing if you enjoyed the book at all, but it's not light fare. Small wonder it tanked in the box office but now has a small cult following :)

Light and laughter,
SongCoyote

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I love that film as much as I love the book. Oddly, our adult book club has selected Watership Down for its May discussion. The group is all women and mostly reads "chick lit" so I'm not sure whose idea that was. I do intend to be present for the discussion, though.

[songcoyote.livejournal.com]

Good heavens - I hope that book club knew what they were getting into and didn't think it was a happy, cheery story about fuzzy bunnies. Not that it isn't that sometimes, but not often :)

Please let me know how that discussion goes. If they were prepared it should be fine, but if not it could get quite interesting....

Light and laughter,
SongCoyote

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

Dear Rider.

I am confused. I watched Stardust on my VCR long before moving to MI back when I was doing video cassette repairs for Video City. VHS I would think.

Was a cool fun film kinda like other ones nobody had ever heard of such as The Navigator and so forth.

So it could NOT be a 2007 release, maybe 1997 at the latest.

Impers very confuzzled as usual but cute and sexy as always

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You're right and wrong at the same time. There is indeed a 1998 film called Stardust but it's a different film that I haven't seen. This Stardust really was released in 2007.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

There was acomputer game "Stardust" too, but it is completely unrelated tothe movies, and is a space shooter game, not much unlike Asteroids. :)

[cetasdolphin.livejournal.com]

If it helps you I can vividly recall watching The Navigator here. That is if you mean the movie about the boy who gets sent to the future because he was abducted by an alien ship who implanted into his brain the star charts needed for it to get home. He ends up going on an around the world trip in the ship trying to at first get home and then to the proper time of home.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

I looked up the youtube clip.

@.@!

Okay, thats family movie night. XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, "family" in the sense that there's nothing beyond some rather suggestive scenes. A lot of bathtub stuff but nothing ever shows and it's only ever one person in the tub at once. Oh, and perhaps an excess of kissing scenes. Now I like kissing as much as anyone does, I think, but I find it intensely boring to watch closeups of it. ;p

The character played by Robert De Niro, though, is a rather amazing stereotype. He was very funny about it.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

I have seen the movie, too. I can say I'd be willing to watch it again with someone when I forget enough about it so it will feel new to me again. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

From your other comments, sounds like you may have already forgotten enough. ;p

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Probably. I have a memory like a goldfish.
Which is probably saying a bit much.
Okay. A demented goldfish...