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[bryant]

I have achieved very little of the Boston Fantastic Film Festival, to my regret: two weeks of extended brutal workload at work is to blame. I was late to Infernal Affairs on Friday, late enough so that I decided to recover instead of seeing the movie -- I was up late Thursday thanks to Saw. and since I didn't leave work until 11:30 PM on Wednesday I had no reserves. I skipped Appleseed and The Bottled Fool on Saturday in hopes that I'd have some margin left today. I may have been wrong.

But Five Children and It was fun. It was twee and Victorian, as the BBC warned, but in a way I enjoyed -- it's a children's story, after all. And the kids were very good, particularly Jonathan Bailey, who played Cyril. Full marks. Eddie Izzard's voice work was solid, marred only by a pedestrian puppet which looked little like the Psammead I knew and loved as a child:

The children stood round the hole in a ring, looking at the creature they had found. It was worth looking at. Its eyes were on long horns like a snail's eyes, and it could move them in and out like telescopes; it had ears like a bat's ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider's and covered with thick soft fur; its legs and arms were furry too, and it had hands and feet like a monkey's.

I suspect that the eyes were moved for the sake of easier dollmaking. But I cannot be sure. The story was updated for the sake of tension, and if Horace wasn't such a good character I'd be deeply resentful of the addition of a malevolent cousin to the mix. Really, most of the details are unrecognizable -- the original novel begins with a note of joy as the children find themselves in a house with no rules, which is exactly the opposite of the rules-heavy abode of the movie's Uncle Albert. Still, there's a Psammead, and there are the five children, and I was content.

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

OH NO SAD MODRON :((((

Where the heck did you get that?

[bryant]

It is a cameraphone picture of a miniature mgrasso made for the Planescape one-shot he ran on Saturday. Is it not cherce? See his little wing there on the left side?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I demand the mass production of these miniatures.

(cherce?)

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

Well, seeing as how he was made with a cheap die, two paperclips, a broken Q-tip stalk, and gum (yes, literally chewing gum), the logistics of mass production are dicey. (Oh, God, I didn't mean that, really). :)

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

Man, my D&D lore is so out of date. "Modrons", "genasi", "abishai"--Mike's game sounded cool but half of his description was nonsense words to me. Modrons are like intelligent cubes and triangles and shit? That live on one of the outer planes, is that right? And people can play them as PCs? "Crazy, crazy world."

[bryant]

Planescape was what people who wanted to play Over the Edge but hadn't yet discovered it played during the AD&D second edition years. It's sort of Grimjackesque. Cool stuff.

[head58.livejournal.com]

D&D looked at White Wolf and realized they were facing a Nonsense Lingo Gap. Thus Planescape. It even has clans!!

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

Man TRUE. Can you imagine if we'd ever gotten to the point where we'd gotten splatbooks for the 15 factions? ::drools::

[jeffwik.livejournal.com]

I played one as a PC.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Planescape is also the setting of the best computer RPG ever, "Torment". You can probably buy it these days for about $10, and it'll be the best $10 you'll ever spend.

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

This icon ownz0rs m33.

[that-cad.livejournal.com]

I can't believe you turned that picture into an icon! You are my new hero!

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

So sad I missed it

[xiombarg.livejournal.com]

Okay, I love the "sad modron" icon.