Aw, I love Pixar

They're making a Dug short!

I was talking about this trend--started by The Incredibles? Monsters, Inc.?--whereby Pixar makes little animated shorts that take place in the realm of their movies (as opposed to the shorts they show before the movie which are independent of the film). I love these little movies way more than I should. My entire family can quote "Jack-Jack Attack" (and does, especially when sitting around in a game of Hearts).

Anywho, I was so keen on them having more with Dug, the really dim and adorable puppy from Up and now they will! Hurrah!

Where do you put that on your resume?

Veronica Cartwright was not told about a significant plot point involving her character in two movies. You might have heard about the trick that Ridley Scott pulled on her (and the rest of the cast save John Hurt) in Alien. But did you know that she was also not informed about what would happen when she ran into Donald Sutherland in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers? (Um, spoilers at that last link!)

Is that a salable talent or an insult to her abilities as an actress?

The remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) was decent. I enjoyed Kevin McCarthy's cameo, but it really made me wish that Donald Sutherland had had half of McCarthy's suave slyness at the outset. I guess they didn't want a lead actor who would compete with Leonard Nimoy for having the most soothing, slick voice. Nimoy, for reals, yo, that shit is distracting. I know people with British accents who can't schmooze so gentle. (Regarding that link: I will fight to the death over Virgina Madsen's superior Dune intro. I don't care which version of the movie you like better, but I will fuck your shit up if you don't get props to her Irulan versus Princess Whiny from the miniseries.)

I even really liked the change to the ending from either of the two the original had. The original original ending was awesome. (The studio-demanded reworking, with its reCOCKulous frame story, was less so.) So I consider it doubly impressive that they went the route they did and had it work. (Well done, Ms. Cartwright, I might add.)

I think I'm ready to move onto the less-well-received remakes of this classic. I sincerely doubt that Body Snatchers will be notable for much more than the fact that it stars that awesome IRA chick from Burn Notice, but what the hell? I'm going to watch The Invasion at some point (probably), so I might as well watch them all. While this logic has led me, in the past, to watch some truly tedious bullshit, I will point out that being thorough got me to see the Dolph Lundgren version of The Punisher which is possibly the most wonderful bit of schlock action ever, so there's that.