Ed Wood By Tim Burton.

Viktor Vasnetsov and Hayao Miyazaki.

Sleeping Beauty/Howl's bedroom.

Two senseis of the visual arts.

Fun Fact:

The Cheshire Cat was first introduced in Lewis Carroll's novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". The character was inspired by an old phrase "Smiling like a Cheshire cat". The origins of that phrase are still debated to this day, but the most widely accepted theory is that it refers to a cat living in the English county of Cheshire, which is known for producing a lot of milk and dairy, which cats love, hence the smiling. Carroll decided to personify the cat from that phrase, he gave it a physical form, a personality and magic powers. In the book, the cat doesn't play quite as large a role as he does in the Disney movie, but the two have very similar characteristics. They talk in really confusing ways that are sometimes funny but also kind of annoying, they raise philosophical questions to Alice even though she clearly doesn't understand them and while they sometimes appear to be making a situation worse for her, they're actually rooting for Alice to succeed and even are helping her indirectly.

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore.

A story originally created to serve as a warning of what could possibly arise from the Thatcherite government of the 1980s, V for Vendetta has stood the test of time as one of the premier works of the comic book medium. A story that tells a tale of tyranny and the valiant effort made to thwart it that's as timeless as it is harrowing.

Over the Garden Wall by Patrick McHale.

So apparently back in 2014 there was a really good miniseries that aired on Cartoon Network. It's creepy, charming, clever, and deep.

This miniseries is a thing of beauty - a thing to treasure.

Tremendous tale! Beautiful!

Fun Fact:

Humans have been astral planing a LOT longer than we thought.

Researchers analyzed hair strands from a burial site in Menorca and detected scopolamine, ephedrine and atropine. Atropine and scopolamine are naturally occurring substances in the nightshade plant family that cause hallucinations and altered sensory perception, while ephedrine is a stimulant taken from certain shrubs and pines that boosts excitement and physical activity. Before this discovery, we'd only found indirect evidence of psychedelic use in ancient cultures. The cave that the analyzed hair strands were taken from was first occupied around 1600 BCE and featured a chamber that was used as a funeral space until around 800 BCE. It's estimated that 210 individuals were laid to rest here, but only certain people had their hair dyed red, placed in containers and sealed in a chamber further back in the cave. We don't know what made these individuals so special that their hair had to be preserved but we are certain that a major psychedelic discovery was just made in Spain.

Fun Fact:

Appearances can be deceiving. So whatever you do, do NOT mess with a kelpie. You're not gonna want to pay the price to escape.

A long time ago in Scotland, there was a string of disappearances. Nine children went missing, and no one knew who to blame. One day, a little boy was playing by the water where the children were said to have vanished when he saw a black horse emerge from the water dripping with every step it took towards him and sporting a mane made of kelp. The boy was fascinated and wanted to take the horse out for a ride, but when he stroked its nose, he realized his mistake. His finger was stuck to the beast, meaning this horse was actually a kelpie, a creature known for drowning and devouring anyone who dares to ride it. The kelpie started to pull the boy back towards the lake, but he refused to become its snack. Left with no other choice, he took out his pocketknife and chopped off his finger, allowing him to escape a watery grave.

Fun Fact:

Medusa the Gorgon had babies. Yep… 2 of ‘em.

Mere moments after Perseus cut her big ugly head off, her two children by Poseidon exploded out of her neck stump. One of them was Chrysaor, who went on to father the three-headed giant Geryon whom Heracles killed while completing his 10th labor. The other was the famous winged horse Pegasus. In myth, he assisted the hero Bellerophon in slaying the Chimera, a fire-breathing lion/goat/snake hybrid. By flying just out of range of the Chimera's attacks, Bellerophon was able to weaken it with his bow and arrows before brutally killing it with a spear down the throat. It was an epic battle and finding that his pride had grown 10 times the size, Bellerophon decided to ride Pegasus directly to Mount Olympus, an arrogant move that Zeus punished him for by sending a gadfly to bite Pegasus. This caused the horse to buck Bellerophon off, sending him crash landing into the Earth's surface, dead. Meanwhile, Pegasus was warmly welcomed into Zeus's home and given a constellation to honor him.

What a good boy.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein

Darkman by Sam Raimi.

Along with Batman (1989) and Spider-Man (2002), this signals the birth of quirky, inventive, modern comic-book movies. This film was very close to the genre, and it wasn't even based on a comic!

Note: I think the explosion that originates Darkman is meant to be an Alec Holland wink to the masterpiece: Swamp Thing.

Fun Fact:

Before Victor Frankenstein created his infamous monster and sparked the debate over man's right to create artificial life, a 16th century Jewish mystic called the Maharal invoked the names of God to give life to clay. This created a golem with superhuman strength and loyalty that guarded the mystic's community from persecution in medieval Prague. The golem also wore an amulet that gave it the power to turn invisible and summon dead witnesses whose testimonies were considered totally valid in Prague's court and used to prove the innocence of people who judges were biased against. The problem with the golem is that although it was animated, it couldn't speak, had no free will and took instructions way too literally, causing it to do things like chop down entire forests when asked to get firewood. And one night, the golem was feeling lonely and neglected, so it rampaged through town, attacking the innocent people it was supposed to protect. This forced the mystic to remove one letter from the Hebrew inscription of "emét", changing the meaning from "truth" to "death" and rendering his creation lifeless.

The story started so positive too...