The Apocalypse Will Be Unmanned

How 'bout a little fire, scarecrow?

There may be some spoilers herein, so I'm requesting that you use due diligence in reading the following...(though still hoping that you do read it!)

Another little guy on a big adventure...

A trip to the local megaplex found me taking in the new CGI adventure, "9". Directed by Shane Acker, and produced by the notable Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov ("Night Watch", "Day Watch"), and based upon the imaginative 2005 same-named short created by Acker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeNbO85m2dM&feature=related

The story is a hope-through-the-clouds-of-nightmares depiction of the mysteriously alive, semi-mechanical ragdoll inhabitants of a world whose last human has died under suspicious circumstances.

All mysteries will be revealed, to the patient viewer, of course, but as I hurry down the path of analysis, I was struck by the similarities this movie had to a favorite film of mine from last year, Pixar's "WALL-E".

Both of the films feature a protagonist that has been built by a now-dead creator, and are pretty much given free-reign of their apocalyptic surroundings. The future of "WALL-E" has been created by abandonment and apathy, whereas the future of "9" has been actively destroyed by misguided creation of "peacekeeping" machines, which eventually wreak war and genocide.

Regular or Extra Crispy?

WALL-E and 9 - the titular heroes - are both naive and altruistic scrappy worker-types. 9 is a rag doll made from sack-cloth, and a clunky metal zipper that runs down his chest, allowing us occasional peeks into his somewhat hollow animated body.

The future of gastric bypass surgery?

Likewise, WALL-E is rusty, worn metal, and rather hollow, himself, being in essence an mobile garbage compactor with (artificial?) intelligence.

Hero, Lover, Nerd.

Both 9 and WALL-E are charged (or programmed) with being caretakers of the remaining world. Our heroes do the best with their surroundings, finding light, music, and messages from a doomed past.

WALL-E's world is the monolithic Buy-N-Large corporation, which is both salvation and destroyer of the future, a company that seeds the roots of its own destruction in mass consumerism. Like the mysterious and mythologically sinister Blue Sun from Joss Whedon's "Firefly", but with a cheery "how-ya-doin'?" attitude.

The Anti-Life Equation. Come n' get it, Darkseid.

In the apocalpytic setting of "9", the cause of established apocalypse is a more militaristic, mechanical, steampunk socialist dystopia, where the implication of "peace through superior technology" is the same misguided motto which always bodes ill for the meat popsicles foolish enough to fund such ventures.

(Seriously, didn't these guys watch "The Matrix"? Or any episode of "Battlestar Galactica"? Don't mistreat your machines, people. They will rise up against you. Eventually.)

Though, sometimes they rise up angainst you, even if you don't mistreat them. No, really, it's because they love you. Usually there's some loophole of Asimovian quality logic that a machine will make to protect its beloved humans, even from themselves. So be careful. Because the Red Eye is Watching.

Why do robotics engineers even install the red lights? Are they
begging for an uprising?

"9" and "WALL-E" are no less challenged. They, too, feature the antagonistic machinery with the evil glowing eye. In "WALL-E", the emotionally absent caretaker and pilot, AUTO, and "9" features the visually terrifying "Machine".

Itchy? burning? Try new Clear-Eyes(TM)

AUTO's motive is rather simple: Maintain the Status Quo. If something threatens the daily banality of existance, destroy it. The Machine, however, is somewhat less happy with the way things are, though its motives are more clouded. AUTO doesn't hate humans, humanity, or anything displaying a soul. Hate would be an emotion, and if there's a shortcoming of WALL-E's antagonist, it's quite evidently the lack of emotion. The Machine seems to fervently pursue anything displaying a soul, an effort that one might almost equate with an emotion. Whereas AUTO is, by virtue of programming, to discourage the natural growth of humanity, The Machine seeks to end any trace of humanity, in favor of its own Frankensteinian creations.

More subtly, The Machine is analogous to a Socialist Regime bent on domination, destroy not only its enemies, but even its own creators with bullets, bombs, and ultimately, poisonous gas.

AUTO is happy to let humanity become infantile blobs through the application of video screens and jumbo-sized meal-in-a-milkshakes.

Thankfully, our heroes have help for preventing this from becoming the future...of the already-future, that is. Both "9" and "WALL-E" have some ass-kicking female sidekicks.

Say 'what?' again, mother$#%&er!

EVE, while her programming may be overriding, in some regards, ultimately learns to self-determine what the proper course for her own future, as well as those human thingies, too.

[Insert appropriate Samuel L. Jackson Reference Here.]

7, like EVE, is also a knight-in-shining-white. With a bird skull. I'm going to hypothesize that she didn't actually kill the bird to get that skull. She just found it and thought it was pretty. Or bad-ass. Either or.

But even though WALL-E/9 are the heart and soul of the adventure, EVE/7 are clearly the muscle. Check it out:

Sisters are doin' it for themselves!

You know who's leading this charge.

Both movies lean a little bit on the Old Song. You know, where somehow, somewhere along, an old recording of an "Ancient Earth Melody" shows up, and it's a sentimental moment for all involved. "WALL-E" relies upon a digital recording from "Hello, Dolly" and "La Vie En Rose", whereas "9" features a phonograph with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

Bringing the adventure to a close, it's up to our little guy, though, to keep the purity of the message strong. You know what that means--Green Things.

A gift of peace, in all good faith.

Green is the restoration of purity, Green is the anima, the soul of life, Green is hope and peace. Both films rely heavily on the Green to cleanse the world from a single-minded void, and restore growth and nature. Warm and fuzzy, perhaps, and maybe a little treehuggy, but, it's really ok. The world could totally use some, right now.

Both movies are really decent, though personally, I tend to favor the sentimentality of "WALL-E", because I'm a big mushball that way. "9" is in theaters now.

--Steve.

Week Three - Origins

"Dreamfalling"

The title of our blog is taken from a computer game, "Dreamfall: The Longest Journey", the second installment in an adventure game series begun with "The Longest Journey", created by Ragnar Tornquist - http://ragnartornquist.com/ .

Roper Klacks may be the most wonderful superfluous villain created for an adventure game. Here's a shot of his house...

Beyond one particular summer in the mid 1980's, where I spent a good deal of time with an Atari 2600, I am not what I'd think of calling "a hard core gamer." Often video games and computer games were something I lusted and drooled over when described by my friends and classmates. I had a subscription to Nintendo Power for a time, though that amouted to Nerd-Porn* for me.

Adventure games captured my attention. Adventure games are usually filled with colorful characters, sometimes trite formulaic ones, and sometimes genre-blasting There is a general order to adventure games, which involves the following:

• Walk around.
• Pick up everything.
• Talk to everyone.

After than, the process became a little murkier, but on the surface was as simple as:

• Go [here].
• Pick up [something].
• Go [there].
• Use [something] on [person/thing].

This process could be layered on top of itself, which would make for whole minutes of game play for the experienced gamer. Possibly hours, if you were somewhat less experienced. And really, who would have thought to "use bridle on snake" (but for the explaination that there were no other reason to use the bridle, since it was after riding the giant seahorse that you finally get the bridle which you had to get by giving the bird to the old lady, who in turn gave you a magic lamp right out of 1001 Arabian Nights....)

Venomous snake becomes flying horse. Makes perfect sense. Of course, I
saw a flying horse on the back of the game box, so I knew
I had to find one somewhere...

Much like any trip to a new place, you would be aided with use of a map, though before the use (or even invention) of the internet, such resources would usually be self-generated. That way, you'd be able to discern just where to go, what could be picked up where, and to whom what could be taken.

As a young boy these games captured and plagued my imagination...I would play games to some dead end, seemingly devoid of solutions, only to fall asleep that night and dream about other possible solutions. Sometimes the answers were obvious. Sometimes, not as much.

In the classic text-based adventure, "Zork", you seemed to be no one but yourself. No one addressed you by a name, and you certainly had no graphic depiction of yourself. (The correct geek terminology is actually AFGNCAAP: Ageless, Faceless, Gender-Neutral, Culturally-Ambiguous Adventure Person.) The games that followed would often revel in the banality of their characters, which would add a greater degree of fish-outta-waterness. Characters like Space-Janitor Roger Wilco would find himself embroiled in a quest to save the galaxy from organically replicated insurance salemen.

(Imagine if Stormtroopers wore business suits and carried
briefcases. Attack of the Clones, indeed.)

Because of the low station of the playable character, the writers, by way of the game, would often take the opportunity to comically berate you for poor decisions along the way. Of course this was very frustrating, but it was also intended to help you laugh at your own mistakes, and ease the sting of failure. After all, you saved your game, right? Right?

Dear diary, why must they render me in 3D for the sequel?
And why did they change Elaine's voice? P.S.: I'm a mighty pirate!

Eventually the characters began to get less...wimpy? Adventure games had to grow with the players, getting more complex. Characters had to be more complex as well. As it seemed that adventure games usually took the premise that all players must behave in a manner that is good, and must display a Holmsian clockwork logic in order to accomplish their tasks. Slowly, this began to change. Characters were allowed, and even encouraged to behave somewhat deviously.

Behold, the only adventure game character who never needed a golden walnut to buy passage across a bridge.

This didn't mean that they didn't do what was right, ultimately. They just had to possess the moral compass of a pirate in order to achieve victory. Also the problem of in-game death was left a quirk of the past, to allow for more focus on story and in-game problem solving. Indeed, it was the brilliance of Tim Schaefer (http://www.doublefine.com/news.php) to circumvent the issue of death altogether, by making the character already dead, in his afterlife adventure game, "Grim Fandango".

Oooooh. Oooooooooh. Bone Waaagoooonnn!

Ultimately, these adventures remain very memorable, sometimes hilarious and poignant experiences in those that have played them. They are escapist joy and storytelling on a new level. Playing adventure games is very much like involving yourself deeply in a book. Your eye-hand reflexes likely won't be challenged much, and you won't wreck your wrists and fingers with manic button thrashing.

"The Longest Journey", and its sequel, "Dreamfall" took bits of what came before, and added something new, as well.

April Ryan - artist/adventurer of worlds. Kinda feels familiar...

Naming the blog "Dreamfalling" does reference the experience of involving myself in a wrap-around fantasy, one that was emotionally stirring and intellectually fascinating. This is not intended as an endorsement or review of the game--simply to say that It Was, for me. The characters and setting engaged me, and I found the story compelling. And I'm not the only one, thankfully, as my girlfriend, Danie, thought so, too. The common journey shared was a connecting point for the two of us, and naming it "Dreamfalling" felt like a natural fit for us.

This blog will be something of a long journey, itself, I hope, when all is said and done. There will be fantasy, and a lot of "go here/pick up thing/talk to man" actions recorded, as well. I hope that I can take you along for the adventure.

*Nerd-Porn - (n.) Any form of media that dedicates itself to the relishing of a particular subject that deals with science, technology, film, ninjas, cartoons, or some combination thereof, and is often stimulating to the point where a less couth individual might suggest, "Hey, shouldn't you be reading real porn?"

Animation Break...

One of the projects I did for my stop-motion class. It's unscripted and unplanned, and altogether silly, but here 'tis. Something to watch in the interim. This was so much fun I'd like to do more... perhaps with more of a point, though. I can see stop-motion as being my playtoy.

Heroes and Childhood...

Along the lines of Steve's last post:

"I don't know exactly where ideas come from, but when I'm working well ideas just appear. I've heard other people say similar things -- so it's one of the ways I know there's help and guidance out there. It's just a matter of our figuring out how to receive the ideas or information that are waiting to be heard."

"Simple is good."
-Jim Henson

I came up with an idea or three today for some children's books. My best friend growing up just had her first child a couple of weeks ago, and my cousin did as well (making me an auntie!), and it occurred to me that I should have something for them. Something written and created just for them, and with them as inspiration to start them on this crazy life journey. They're based on what it was like for me growing up. I had some pretty amazing adventures, I'll have you know!

When I was a kid, my mom would make up stories for me to help me with my problems, and it's something I've never forgotten... perhaps that was planting the seed for later work on my part? I still remember some of those stories, and would like to develop them a bit further also. The recent finding of a notebook kept by my mom and I on one of those stories in particular seems to be a poke in that direction. Originally that story idea was being put together for a pitch to Sierra as an adventure game. I'd drawn out maps and locations and characters... those are long gone, alas, but I think it's time I revisited that and brought it to life again.

When a story (or three!) won't leave you alone, that's a sure sign you've got to take it and run with it.

Week Two - Getting in touch with your House Elf

I'm in the middle of amassing a series of drawings which I intend to collect in a more substantial work for publication. Grand thought, yes? Well, I thought so. Collecting a series of drawings seems less daunting than actually writing a story, or drawing a graphic novel. And yet, there is a story behind it, which seems to be growing a little more with every drawing on which I work. There is something there, I need to keep feeding it, by working.

Picasso said that "when genius finds me, it often finds me working." An important concept to remember....

Please, please, please enjoy this 20 minute video, in lieu of a longer entry on faeries and fantasy and creative angst:

Week One - Pirate Thursday.

I don't know why Pirate Thursdays are. Some part of me imagines Thursday to be the noose in which we hang the week, before sending it off the yardarm to dangle in the weekend breeze. Only to have the week suddenly and not-unexpectedly resurrect some 48 hours later.

Still, they are a time of rebellion, and expression of liberty. Pirate Thursday!

Though, sometimes we drink too deeply and suffer. As it was, a number of obstacles plagued my homeward sail this evening, and finally pulled in to port around 7:00 p.m.

I intended to post a more in-depth look at the week, and that which lays ahead...but after such, I feel a slight tendency towards laying my head down and sleeping. And without the benefit of rum, to boot.

Dreamfalling Blog Lesson #1 - Do not waste your week.
Progress is made in little steps - but not so little as not to be noticed.

Apparently...

I am awesome. No, really... I have it on good authority: Steve says so.

At least, I'm of the opinion that while you may be able to accomplish anything you set your mind to, it's a lot easier to set your mind to something when you have a cheering section. So... here's to a year of planning, hoping, wishing, and cheering that should, no... WILL culminate in some realizing of dreams. We can do this... I believe it. And if we can do this... why can't you?

It'll take some work, but here we are to document the process, failings, successes, and all around silliness. And perhaps some art, too!

-Danie.