Dances With Blue People
March 8th, 2010Well, Avatar was denied a Best Picture Oscar last night. I did actually see Avatar, and I enjoyed it for the most part. It is definitely groundbreaking in the realm of effects. But I think most people would agree that the technical accomplishments didn’t really merit a Best Picture win. And James Cameron can still rest on his laurels as king of the gross box office earnings world. And he is now undeniably the king of the special effects world as well.
When I left the theater after viewing Avatar 3D (”Real-D”), the first person that crossed my mind was George Lucas. I imagined him slowly getting up from his seat in a private screening room at Skywalker Ranch. He sends James Cameron a congratulatory message and exclaims how impressed he was by the film. He then quietly slips upstairs to one of his private antechambers.
Quietly locking the door behind him, his hand trembles slightly as it leaves the doorknob. He turns fully into the room, gazing upon shelves and shelves of Jar Jar Binks motion-capture suits, models, and conceptual designs. His growing anger is momentarily tempered when he catches sight of the beta version Jar Jar action figure he mutilated after seeing the first footage of Peter Jackson’s CGI Gollum. But then his gaze falls upon a large animation cel from his final post-production Phantom Menace representation of Jar Jar and his anger boils.
The Skywalker ranch hands hear the screams almost immediately, but it takes them several minutes to actually get through the door and pull Lucas off of the pile of destroyed Star Wars prequel special effects memorabilia. Hands bloodied, the quietly sobbing Lucas eventually comes to a restful state.