Sterfish and TV and A Movie

Today, I watched three things that are about as different as can be.

-First up, Looney Tunes: Back in Action. This was a pretty funny movie. It’s no secret I’m a big fan of the Looney Tunes, and the movie, on the whole, gave them justice. There were gags everywhere you looked, especially in the background. Virtually every Looney Tune in existence is in this movie, even those who appeared in only one cartoon. There’s a lot of Hollywood satire in the movie like brief scenes where Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzales lament political correctness and Shaggy and Scooby get mad at Matthew Lillard about the live-action Scooby-Doo movie and his performance in it. The human portion was okay, and Brendan Fraser probably did the best of the live-action cast. It’s a shame the movie didn’t make more money at the box office, but hopefully it will find fans on DVD.

The special features on the DVD are very good. The deleted scenes section features Bugs and Daffy watching the scenes a la Mystery Science Theater 3000 (minus the silhouettes). Unfortunately, some bright person at WB decided to put the rest of the deleted scenes on the DVD-ROM portion of the disc. Also, there is a brand new Looney Tunes cartoon called “Whizzard of Ow” that features Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. The cartoon wasn’t as good as the movie. For one thing, the opening of the cartoon (you know, the signature rings and WB shield) looked strange. The way it came on was cool, but it looked cheap. Then there’s the fact that the credits are in widescreen, but the cartoon is pan-and-scan. The wizards that appear at the beginning of the cartoon are on opposites of the frame and they have to pan so you can see one of them. The animation is nice and bright (it was done by the same people who animated much of Futurama), but the cartoon itself was basically kind of lame. The gags were so-so (although there was a nice twist on a classic gag seen in the Roadrunner cartoons) and the ending was just wrong. While I hope the other new Looney Tunes that they made are better than this one, it definitely wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been.

-Next up is Playing It Straight, one of two new FOX shows that premiered on Friday night. I taped it (since I was watching Looney Tunes at the time) and watched it later on. Basically, it has a girl picking from a group of guys...the catch is that some of them are gay. If she picks a straight guy, they split a million dollars but if she picks a gay guy...he gets the whole million to himself. There’s no clue how many of the guys are actually gay. As reality dating shows go, this one would be pretty bland if not for the whole gay twist.

Like most FOX reality shows, there are plenty of elements of deception and manipulation by the producers. They made sure that the girl was an all-American small town-like girl with “values.” This of course means that she probably has had next to no interaction with gay men and hence, no real “gaydar.” This is confirmed when...SPOILER ALERT...she gets rid of two guys that turn out to be straight. Here’s where more manipulation comes in. When I thought about it, all the producers had to do to make the show interesting is cast wussy/nervous guys and “metrosexuals.” The girl used one guy’s nervousness to really interact with her as a sign that he might be gay...which he wasn’t. And as for the “metrosexuals,” well one of the guys was worried that the girl would think he was gay because...and I’m not making this up...he had a hair dryer to give her when she asked for one even though he has short hair. He wasn’t eliminated, so his sexuality is up in the air, but if having a hair dryer makes you gay then what’s next? Having lotion? Wearing clear nail polish? Actually flossing your teeth?

The message of the end of the show was “you really can’t tell who’s gay or who’s straight.” We all know what this means...there could be a gay person anywhere at anytime and you won’t know! Now every guy who can’t get a girl because they’re a geek or a nerd will be questioned even more. But, what I’d love to see is a version of this where a guy has to choose a girl from a group that includes straight girls and lesbians. If you think a straight girl has trouble picking a gay guy out, it’s tougher for straight guys to pick out lesbians that aren’t “ butch” or “masculine.” In fact, a lot of guys would probably think that most girls are at least bisexual anyway. But could you imagine the joy the guy would have upon finding out? Even if he got no money, he’d might try and pick the lesbian just for the chance to see her make out with another hot girl.

-The other new FOX show that premiered was Wonderfalls. It has a girl who can see and hear inanimate objects talking to her. In other words, it’s Joan of Arcadia with a FOX twist. I really enjoyed this show. One thing I liked about it was that you can't quite pinpoint what kind of show it is.

It has elements of:

Wacky FOX Comedies (when the main character returns a purse to a woman, she gets punched and gets into a fight with the woman)
Surprising FOX Dramas (the main character’s sister is revealed to be a lesbian)
Sweet WB Dramas (the main character and her sister repair their relationship)
Teen Dramas (the unorthodox budding romance between the main character and a new bartender...although neither are teens)
and it even has some sly references (one of the objects sings a song that Michigan J. Frog sang in the Looney Tune “One Froggy Evening”)

It's a fun, whimsical show and I'm looking forward to the next episode.