Since the first announcement of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the fanboys and fangirls have been wondering how strongly and frequently the show will pull from the Marvel comics. We already knew that the show would tie in to the Cinematic Universe, and we’ve already had references to pretty much every character from The Avengers, not to mention specific plot connections to Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The First Avenger. But what comic fans were really hoping for was something aimed at them. The early rumors were that J. August Richards’ character from the first episode would turn out to be Luke Cage, and there was quite the outcry when he turned out not to be, crushing the hopes of a direct connection with the comics. However, the fans’ prayers might have been answered a bit tonight, as SHIELD encountered a character straight from Marvel’s pages. But let’s take it from the top before we get ahead of ourselves. Continue reading
Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards, in a moment that changed the face of the animated film landscape forever. It signaled that the Disney Renaissance that began two years earlier with The Little Mermaid (or perhaps even earlier with Oliver & Company) was not just a fluke and was destined to continue on. It showed that animation is just as important as other types of film, and that they could be just as artistic and meaningful. And while it eventually lost to The Silence of the Lambs, it still stood as the moment when animation as an industry and a media announced itself as an equal to the rest of Hollywood. And while it was a number of years before feature length animation received its own category in the awards (2001) and even longer before another animated film would be nominated for best picture (2009’s Up), the fact that animated films are now consistently among the highest grossing films each year and are often the most popular and longest lived of new releases owes a lot to Beauty and the Beast.
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