Whisky Duo at Eden Bar

Posted on by Thor


I decided to cover the Florida Film Festival as an outsider. My film, COVID Dystopia was rejected by the festival. My thought is that the Florida politics shown in the film probably disqualified it. It is a bit too hard edged for the quaint hometown FFF.

I have sketched the festival many times in the past and I know you can rub shoulders with some pretty incredibly film makers just by hanging out at the Eden bar.

I saw more than my share of films at the Cleveland Film Festival which was a truly incredible experience. So I don’t feel the need to review films at the Florida Film Festival. Instead my thought is to cover the Florida Film Festival ancillary activities.

As I walked up to the Enzian Theater I could hear live music. Whisky Duo was performing outside on the patio in front of the Eden Bar. The bar was packed as were most of the outside tables. The front two tables closest to the performers were however empty. Chairs had been borrowed to seat more people at other tables so I set out my art stool. I masked up since it was a dense crowd.

I was enjoying the set until they broke into playing The Bear Necessities, from Disney’s The Jungle Book. Ugh, Disney’s sweaty paw seems to try and permeate all local arts and culture. I liked that yellow blooms had fallen from a tree onto the table and I liked that the Live Music banner reflected the dense Florida foliage that surrounds the Enzian. The performance was free, you can’t beat that.

On the night I did this sketch, International Animated Shorts were to be shown at 9:15pm. The laughing crowd around me were probably waiting for that show to begin.I figured that a crowd interested in seeing International Animated Shorts might have a familiar face but I didn’t recognize anyone. This weekend I will be buying a ticket to see the shorts for myself. I am curious what types of animated films were selected.

The musician announced that they were performing their last song. I panicked and sketched faster. I got some semblance of line work done of the performers before the end of the song. I spent the rest of the time working on the background and adding color. The lights made the painting a challenge since they kept changing color. I settled on the bright purple lights.

The Jungle Book opens April 15th.

Posted on by Thor

I went to a preview screening of Disney’s, The Jungle Book at The Regal Winter Park Village Stadium 20. The Florida Film Festival was going on at the same time and because of that, the preview audience was let into the the am earlier than usual before the screening time. When I was young, I saw drawings from the original Jungle Book movie on display in a mall in New Jersey.  The drawings were fro a scene in which the menacing tiger Shere Khan gets up and walks back into the forest. The drawings were awe  inspiring and they lead me to want to someday animate for Disney. That dream eventually came true and [ got to work beside some of he best draftsmen in the world. When digital films took over the need for hand drawn animation disappeared.

Since The Jungle Book played such a pivotal roll in my boyhood dreams and aspirations, I was excited to see this new adaptation. Quite honestly I expected it to fail miserably. In the opening sequence, Mogli is running through the jungle being chased by an unseen predator. The jungle glowed warm and was a character in it’s own right. The second an animal spoke I groaned. Cute wolf cubs seemed like an overly saccharine sweet touch. But then the stony tool hold and the talking animals grew on me. Baloo the bear was played by Bill Murray. The voice stopped me in my tracks until [ could place it. Then Bill breathed new life into an already lovable character. I was shocked when tears welled up as Baloo told Mogli, that he didn’t want him around anymore. Of course the big bear was lying, he had become emotionally, attached to the boy, but Bagheera the panther had convinced him that the man village was the best place for the boy.

The film was astonishingly dark and real. Mogli always had scrapes and scars from the jungle. The scene that showcased the monkey king  reminded me of a scene from Apocalypse now in which Marlon Brando rubbed his bald head with cold water. Louie, the monkey king and Sher Khan were both incredibly menacing characters. Some children were crying in the theater, Yet it is precisely this brute force that makes this film a true classic. I was blown as by it’s power and majesty. I was swept away by the mythos of a young boy finding his way alone in a cruel world. Friends help in times of trouble. I can not recommend this film enough. It opens in theaters nation wide on April 15th.