Welcome to the Disney Club House

The interwebs or at least the nerds/geeks/fans are abuzz this week after the news broke of Disney's acquisition of Lucas Films and officially The Star Wars franchise.

I myself believe this is a good thing. Allow me to explain

In 2004 Disney took the reigns of Jim Hensons world. Although it took them a while to get The Muppets to do anything [six years! Seriously?] , it was welcome news, and it would be assured that felt-friends from The Muppets would be moving to a home where they could continue to be loved by generations to come. 

Disney produced the first full-length features by Pixar [Toy Story, A Bugs Life, Monsters Inc...] and everything since then, and has made both parties a lot of money and I have benefited with the most indelible characters I have ever known and will look forward to whatever they make in that partnership. So in 2006 after more than a decade long partnership Disney buys Pixar, then puts the head of Pixar at the head of Disney's Animation Department. I saw Tangled[2011] and loved it and just hours before writing this was bowled over by the top-shelf feature Weck-It Ralph and the lovable short Paperman. 

Fast-Forward to 2009. Disney acquires Marvel. 

Fresh off the success if IronMan in 2008 which started a ripple effect that gave rise to this years The Avengers. There possibly has been little ill effect from this partnership.

2012. Disney + Lucas Films.
Now [George]Lucas is an industry all to himself. Much like Jim Henson he created characters molded from inanimate objects to believable feeling entities that I know and love. His studio, ILM developed the first bit of rendering software that became Pixars Ace: Renderman. And for any of my collegues in architecture ILM also developed software that would be the basis for 3dMax, Viz and other rendering software.
This pairing of two industries started much earlier that most might think.

Exhibit A:


So if you still think that this merger is a bad thing, GET A CLUE! Disney is now run by creative people, not just one person with an EGO! The worst thing that has ever happened to Star Wars HAS HAPPENED:



and it could get worst but the best might yet be "still-to-come".

MAKING SOME NOISE

I started this blog essentiallly as a collection of my different interests and works. And today I am here to add my foray into the Audible arts. Voice acting. I've had an affinity for audio books and podcasts since my college days when I moved to Manila and had access to a relatively faster internet connection and the acquisition of an iPod. I still do enjoy music in my audio consumption, but I will admit to its lesser frequency of plays. As a fan of radio as medium you understand that the reason you listen to the radio is less for the music but more of the personalities eminating from the speakers. And What a personality I found that day when when I searched Comedy on iTunes on the BBC page. Russell Brand Radio 2 Show.

After that I became a fan. And the show became a constant companion during sleepless nights of finishing plates, projects etc. The internet was literally a gateway for me, the classic works of literature read by the best voices in the industry were now taking up the majority of my iPods memory space. And the number has been growing.

Then a few years back an event was held for the Local Voice Acting industry held by the leaders in the Voice Acting industry. And ever since then I have had it in the back of my mind that I could be part of this industry... now I actually have taken the initiative and have recorded my voice.

Here are a few samples:

If you consider yourself a comic book fan, you should know who Alan Moore is. I you dont, read on here.

Seeing what he looks like especially to me was quite jarring, what more the first time I heard him speak. I thought the trees of middle earth had a child in England. Anyway he appeared brefly on BBC The Wow Signal reading a message for our galactic brother. I never heard the audio but I Saw it as an opportunity to pay homage .

The Wow Signal Alan Moore by Solo Lirios Galura

After which I kept to my Sci-fi bend and being a fan of Blizzards Starcraft. I went in search of its lore.

Mothership by Solo Lirios Galura

And to my utter joy while perusing one of my many favourite sites I came upon an oddity that could only happen in this generation. A theatre company know from Tennessee thought of crossing James Cameron's cinematic masterpiece with Shakespeare. They posted their script and I did a reading. I was very happy hear back from them and give me a crack at their second released script.

Terminator The Second by Solo Lirios Galura

And I have been asked to do my first reading of a short story. Which was released this month. have a listen.

Since then I have taken a bit of a hiatus, since my studies must now take precedent. But i have been able to have fun on the side.

Muppet Shakespeare by Solo Lirios Galura

Rest assured more is to come.