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The "trailer" posted on the website isn't so much a trailer as it is a sneak peek. The movie isn't even finished yet. I suggest waiting until the movie comes out and you see it before you condemn it.

(b) a lot of very prominent celebrities in roles not really meant for them

Also, this is just silly. Aside from the fact that Phillip Pullman named Nichole Kidman for the role of Mrs. Coulter before she had it, is any role really meant for a celebrity? Actors' jobs are to pretend they're something they're not. And the people cast in the roles are good actors (the people I've heard of, at least). Daniel Craig is a fan of the books, as is the little girl cast as Lyra. I'm sure they're just as emotionally invested in them as you are, and wouldn't be okay with being in a half-assed version.

As far as the religious stuff is concerned, I'll just say this. Hollywood can really surprise you. Sometimes producers, writers, and directors aren't afraid to go into that sort of thing. Look at the first and third Indiana Jones movies. They are heavy with religious iconography and they're still considered family films.

And while religion is the underlying reason for the stories, it's not the whole thing. I didn't even notice any religious stuff at all my first read through the books (except the third, which is more blatant than the first two about the religious undertones). I'm sure most kids who're fans didn't notice them either. You have to remember, they're mostly making this movie for the kids who are the fans, and while I'm sure they won't just make it a "kiddy movie", because it's not just a "kiddy book", that IS their target audience. If they please all the kids who loved the books, then they'll make their money and be happy.

Honestly, I don't know why you're letting yourself get so worked up about it. Who cares if a bunch of people you don't know think about a book you love differently than it was meant? Maybe this movie will make them want to read the book and then they'll learn better.

Don't go red or Helm will kill you.

Didn't seen the movie or played the game, but I think they are probably unrelated. Since Jack Frost is a common mythical character.

Well, after a quick look, the story is definately the same as the movie, and unless it's a common Russian story, I'd say that it was based on the movie as well. I could do a bit more searching to find out if it's a common story, but I'm too lazy.

Someone else who cares more should look it up!

I sincerily respect your mother and wish her all the best.

Oh no you di'in't!! Take some of THIS!

Your mother is a quality member of society and I am thoroughly impressed with her volunteer work.

She is also looking rather trim these days. Her trips to the gym have really paid off.

Well I guess you had it coming...


Once last summer I was at your mother's house waiting for you, and she made me tea and cookies and we had a wonderful chat. She really a wonderful person.

Ohhh ohhhh you went there

Remember that time that your mother went out of her way to make your favorite cake for your birthday and also to get you that game you really wanted? And then she sat down and played the game with you,even though she wasn't really interested, but she knew it meant a lot to you? And it did mean a lot to you? That was totally awesome of your mom.

I sincerily respect your mother and wish her all the best.

Oh no you di'in't!! Take some of THIS!

Your mother is a quality member of society and I am thoroughly impressed with her volunteer work.

She is also looking rather trim these days. Her trips to the gym have really paid off.

Callahan's Crosstime Saloon is my second all time favorite adventure game. If you loved it and don't know, it's based on a series of books by Spider Robinson that I highly recommend reading (in fact, I'm currently rereading them now). It's a fantastic game and a fantastic series of books that makes you feel just good in your tummy after enjoying them. Glad to see others appreciate it as much as I do.

You know, it's funny. I have a half-brother, too. He's not my father's child and my father has raised him since he was an infant. He's 33 now.

And he acts exactly like my father. Some of his mannerisms, even, reflect my father's. I don't know how his father acted, my mother doesn't talk about him much, but I often wonder if he was anything like my dad is and it's genetics, or if it's just how he was raised. It's an odd thing, the "nature vs. nurture" argument.

Because the sprites are so little, you need to up the contrast between your shades. Otherwise the colors just blend into each other. I'd do an edit, but I'm leaving for work soon and also I'm lazy. Also, on the two big tough guy sprites, I'd suggest getting rid of all the chest lines and letting your shading do the work in that respect. As it is now, they look shirtless and wrinkly. I'd also say something about pillow shading, but again, because I can't do an edit, I'll let someone else go into that.

Also, I love the sprite second from the right.

It's funny, the silly stories people make up to entertain kids. Children love it when adults come down to their level and forget things like logic and sensibility that seem to be staples of adult life. I love telling completely random stories, equivalent to Alice in Wonderland in silliness, to my nieces and nephews.

Does this mean I'm a drug user? I must be constantly high in order to think up these sort of things! But the fact is that I've never been high, not once in my entire life. And I hate that a good imagination is constantly credited to drug use.

It really annoys me, all the uninformed mythology that surrounds Alice in Wonderland. The so-called "drug references", the idea that Charles Dodgeson was a pedophile who was in love with Alice. I've had a slight obsession with the stories since I was a kid, and with that came an interest in who created those stories. Clearly because he's a grown man and told stories to little girls, he wanted to have sex with them. The fact is, much of this is speculation. I recommend reading the book "In the Shadow of the Dreamchild" by Karoline Leach for a well researched, alternative view to what's been believed for so many years about Charles Dodgeson.

As far as popular culture, the effects on his stories and poems, especially Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, are far reaching. If you look for them, you'll see them everywhere. The amount of ones related to goth and hippy culture are actually very few, they're just the most obvious, most obnoxious ones. You could refer to games like King's Quest 6 and the latest Oblivion expansion pack, The Shivering Isles, and books like "Alice" by Whoopi Goldberg. There's the movie "Jabberwocky" (which I've never seen, but I've heard is actually pretty terrible).

With the proper research, you could have a very interesting piece on your hands. I hope you share it with us once you're finished with it!

Yeah I like now though I consider myself a rational, positivistic person mostly, I have a very strong inner belief that 'it'll work out for me/my family in the end'. I don't attribute this to anything than blind optimism, which I believe to be a safety switch/brain function that stops me from killing myself when I go through a bit of depression or somesuch, rather than any sort of 'spirit' or other higher entity.

I don't think of it as a spirit or a higher being of any type. That'd be sort of silly (no offense, God Friends!). Just a sort of... force of nature, like the wind or stars or atoms or adorable kitties or whatever. Nothing mystical about it, I'm sure there's a rational, scientific explanation behind it. It's just an explanation that we can't figure out at this point in time. Maybe someday in the future there will be a formula for God!

In secondary school however, I guess people were a bit grown up, and it was a different part of Ireland too... so they were a lot more relaxed about their view of god. IE he's just a loving parent who sits in heaven and waits for all his children to come to him so he can party with them. They also believed in evolution, and said that they can't be sure exactly how god created the earth and when he did it, but they believe he's there. Surprising for a bunch of Catholic people, but it was the nicest concept of god I've ever known. They also all went to church of their own accord on Sundays, so it wasn't like they were only half-heartedly believing in him... it was really just what they believed a good god to be like.

FTw.

I like this view on God a lot. If I were to buckle down and decide I believed in God, this is the view I would have.

I'd like to share my religious upbringing, since I find it interesting. My mother was raised Catholic, and while she may not be Catholic any longer, she definately believes in God and has a lot of faith in God's plans for the world. She believes in karma, evolution, and doesn't let her belief in God conflict with her belief in science. My dad is more or less lacking in any real faith system at all, for the most part. If he's a spiritual person, he definately doesn't show it. Neither of them ever tried to force their beliefs on me and taught me to make my own choices on what I believed.

I have only been to church once in my entire life, when I was in elementary school and spent the night at a Catholic friend's house. It was a bizarre experience to me, because my parents never really talked about religion. I remember being completely lost during Sunday School, not knowing any of the subject matter they were discussing. The whole Jesus wafer thing was lost on me too, and I was disappointed that we only got one wafer.

My mother always talked about God, so I had a vague idea of who He was, but I never really understood the concept. It wasn't until I was in 8th grade that I learned about religion. I went to a school that was mostly mormons, and before school started, they would all go to a special class at the mormon church across the street. I was friends with a mormon kid named Andrew, who was dating my friend Paula at the time. One day after the class at the church, Andrew came right to school and broke up with Paula, because she wasn't mormon and he learned at church that morning that anyone who wasn't a mormon was going to hell, and he didn't want to date anyone who was going to hell. This exchange colored my impression on the whole religion thing. It seemed really sad to me that people let religion control their whole life like that. The more I learned about the control people let their religions have over them, the more I disliked the idea of being part of a religion.

For a few years I called myself an atheist, but I found the whole viewpoint depressing, though I was a teenager and I didn't really have a proper idea of what atheism was. I tried Buddhism for a while, because the gentle beliefs of Buddhists appealed to me, but again, I lacked the knowledge to follow it properly. This seemed to be the same for every religion I tried in my teenage years, so eventually I gave up on the whole idea of religion, preferring to make my own belief system.

Now, I would consider myself somewhat of a spiritual person, but I refuse to put a name to my spirituality. I believe that there's more to the universe than we know about, some sort of cosmic force that equates to the concept of God. I believe in karma and a necessary universal balance, which is something I gained from my mother. In our hardest times growing up, she has always said "It will work out for us." and it always has. But I also believe that you make your own destiny and that karma will only work in your favor if you make the effort.

So, that's it for my Serious Post of the Year. Now I'm going back to insulting people randomly.

Yes, stop being pathetic internet losers and let's get back to talking about pedophiles, please.

I think all of you grown men should stop putting these teenage girls up on paedostals.

I agree with Helm in this situation, a sixteen year old girl dating a 25 year old man is creepy at best.

My first instinct is to agree, and indeed I can't see myself going out with anyone younger than 21 or so.

But then, you know how it is with relationships, sometimes you just meet someone that you can't get out of your head, and when that happens their age doesn't seem to matter any more.

I see what you're getting at here.


You had me at "hello", CJ. You had me at "hello".

MY wife is 3 years oldern than me. She's a pedo! (true though).

If Matt's interest are games and music, it could very well be a little mature girl that likes the same things. Time will show really...

Your wife is a pedo?

Helm is just expressing how he feels about the situation.

Exactly as I am, on a different situation though.

As I mentioned earlier I also agree that maybe she's a tad young, but I have a feeling that for both of them this is not a problem. Furthermore I don't see it courtous, nice, or useful to comment on a relationship like that in public. (the argument this is not the critics lounge works in the games in production forum, but does not work in this thread? ) But anyhow, it's one of the agree to dissagree issues I gather...

If the 16 year old was my daughter, I might call the guy home to see what he's about. Since it's been brought up that is.

I genuinely don't care about being courteous, nice, or useful.


Also, I agree with Helm again, if you want to be safe from being commented on, don't post pictures. Although this is a magical thread that's non-picture posts are deleted regularly, people still have every right to say what they feel about the pictures you post.

Matt, nobody accused you of being a pedophile. Helm just mentioned that your girlfriend looked young, and indeed she IS young. 16 is young, whether you think so or not and whether it's legal or not. Maybe she's more mature than most 16 year old girls, but that doesn't change the fact that she's young. Nobody is telling you to break up with her. If you're secure enough in your relationship with her, what the hell does it matter what some people on a forum feel about it?

Helm is just expressing how he feels about the situation. I think between the two of them, Helm has come off as the more mature, especially since Matt inferred that he wanted to beat up Helm for simply making an observation.

I agree with Helm in this situation, a sixteen year old girl dating a 25 year old man is creepy at best. But the way we feel about it doesn't change anything. Matt can go ahead and date his teenage girl all he wants. It's technically not illegal. I just wonder how her parents feel about the relationship.

Nikolas, you're creepy.

ME???

Why?

It is the rule, I tell you! the rule!

That one post is not the only thing that prompted my comment.

In reality I'm a genderless mind-flayer. Sorry to dash all your hopes.

How big are your tentacles?

Bigger than you can handle, mortal being.

How old are you, Pesty? Are you a girl?!

I think it's safe to say now that I've been a member of this community for so long, that I've been lying about being a girl.

In reality I'm a genderless mind-flayer. Sorry to dash all your hopes.