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Are you tired of catching flack from hardcore Harry Potter fans about how you’ve never sat through all eight of the movies?
Do you want to check out all the films without committing more than a minute of your time to the task?
Is watching a recap of Harry going from apprentice wizard to defeater of Voldemort the only way you can start your day?
Well then this snack sized video should satisfy any/all of these requirements as quickly as possible.
–via The Mary Sue
I can’t think of a better way to re-envision a classic tale like “Of Mice And Men” than to cast an orc and goblin as the two main characters, throw them into a fantasy world, then let the orc kick some human tail in the name of freedom. Just don’t let him near any puppies!
–via Destructoid
Charlie Jane Anders and the staff of io9 assembled a staggeringly huge chart showing the rules and principles of magic in about fifty different fantasy series, both in print and on screen. You can see the entire assembly at the link. Be prepared to lose a couple hours of your day.
Link -via The Mary Sue
Remember when Saturday morning cartoons were full of fantasy adventure? This throwback Skyrim cartoon by Harry Partridge reminds me of watching the Dungeons and Dragons animated series as a youngster, with eyes full of wonder and monster manual in hand.
–via Destructoid
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Peter Jackson is such a visionary film director that he’s even changing the way movies are advertised to the public by releasing a video blog series which shows the making of his new J.R.R. Tolkien movie adaptation “The Hobbit”.
He shows things that directors generally keep to themselves, like the process of filming 3d footage with a stereoscopic camera, all the while remaining in charge of the production like a total badass. This video is number 4 in the series, so check out the other 3 if you want to see more behind-the-scenes footage from “The Hobbit”.
–via Ology
It was almost a year ago that we introduced you to the remixed movie concepts of Sean Hartter. Since then, he’s expanded the collection to 120 movie posters! It was hard to decide which poster I like best, but I would stand in line to see either of these two films. Maybe you’d prefer Ving Rhames in Mad Max or maybe The Halloween Chainsaw Massacre or Tim Curry as The Joker. Some posters are slightly NSFW. Link
Thanksgiving is great, but let’s face it –sometimes it’s just not relatable enough for those of us obsessed with fantasy and sci-fi tales. If pilgrims and natives aren’t your thing, then turkey, cranberry and pumpkin might not cut it either. For those of you who are thankful for good contributions to geek culture, here are a few ideas to make your own Thanksgiving feast a little more memorable.
This fantasy epic is filled with so many delicious food and drink ideas that there is already more than one blog out there dedicated to creating the tasty treats in real life. Inn At The Crossroads is the best known of these blogs and the site even has a cookbook coming out soon.
For those looking to spice up their Thanksgiving with some kingly delights, may I recommend the Rack of Lamb in a Crust of Garlic and Herbs served with a cup of Salladhor Saans Hot Wine. If you’d like something a little more exotic for your main course though, the Grilled Snake, served with a spicy mustard sauce, looks rather delightful.
If you’re familiar with Dune, then you know that it is all about the spices. That being said, the two best recipes from this story are both beverages. Whether you prefer Spice Beer or Spice Coffee, I’m sure either one would make a great contribution to your Thanksgiving menu. Grumpy Frenchman suggests adding cinnamon to your beer for Spice Beer, but he also warns that that makes the foam go crazy, so pour accordingly. Meanwhile, GeekChill has a fantastic recipe for Spice Coffee that blends Chai tea, coffee and cinnamon –yum!
Middle Earth is awash with great food and drink, but because most of Tolkien’s stories take place on the road, we tend to hear about the ones that are good for travel…which are not necessarily the most delicious treats around. That being said, while the hobbits seem to tire of Lembas bread, it is certainly the most delicious travel-friendly bread around and The Geeky Chef has a great recipe to make your own.
As for The Hobbit, the many mentions of seed cake seem to indicate that it is certainly one of Bilbo’s favorite foods and Historical Foods has an excellent recipe based on the time period for which Tolkien based the setting for his classic tales. That means, this seed cake is about as close to what Bilbo would eat as possible.
This is what Elder Scrolls: Skyrim would have looked like if it had been released in the 1980s, complete with cheesy 8-bit soundtrack and glorious pixelated graphics.
This fun parody trailer pays homage to such classic video games as: Legend Of Zelda, Duck Hunt, SkiFree, and Final Fantasy. Maybe the team at Bethesda should take a break from making hi-resolution games and explore their pixelated roots.
–via Geekosystem
Hakan Martensson knows his away around the sweet stuff, and his chocolate sculptures of fantastic beasts and pop culture icons are so detailed it would be a shame to eat such a beautiful work of art! Be sure to check out Hakan’s website for more fabulous sculpts by the master chocolatier.
Stark landscapes populated with impossible combinations of wildlife, vulnerable humans and ominous weather-these images are the stuff of dreams if you live on the dark side, beautifully photographed and digitally manipulated by artist Sarolta Ban. Check out the gallery, its full of images that seem like they were shot on location at the edge of limbo.
Comments Off I have been waiting for years to get my hands on a new Elder Scrolls game, and my excitement can barely be contained. Enter an equally excited, and fashionably medieval, bard to sing the praises of the newest incarnation-Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.
The “Song of Skyrim” is beautifully animated by Harry Partridge, and is so catchy that you’ll be humming the tune all day as you wait to get a copy of Skyrim in your hands.
–via Ology
Afniel has an intriguing but simple method of drawing fantasy maps starting with absolutely nothing. She presents it as a way to get children interested in cartography, because the results look quite like real maps. Well, it might get an adult interested in world-building as well! The map shown looks a bit like western Europe, don’t you think? Link -Thanks, Charis Michelsen!
Felicia Day is one of the hardest working people in the entertainment industry today, and normally seems sweet as blueberry pie, but her new web series, based on the Dragon Age video game franchise, finds the demure Miss Day kicking some serious tail. I think it’s going to be a bloody good time, and seems to stay faithful to the games, but let’s hear from the gamers out there. Dragon Age web series-fun or failing?
Many of these places have been mapped, but now we get the big picture, from Dan Meth. I had no idea Oz was so close to Middle Earth! Frodo would have made sure Dorothy got home safely. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
I know we’ve posted a few cool Lord of the Rings LEGO creations before, but this 8′ wide model of Isengard might just be the most impressive one yet. Built by LEGO masters OneLUG, this monstrosity weighs over 145 pounds and uses 22,000 bricks.
Link via Geekosystem
DeviantArt user Santani creates unbelievably cool fantasy creatures with fabric, clay and fur. The designs are simply amazing and incredibly realistic even though the creatures are obviously imaginary.
These cupcakes were made by chef JB Cada & Stephanie Santos of The Regali Kitchen in the Philippines. They consist of chocolate cake with caramel icing and edible toppers featuring insignias from the HBO series Game of Thrones. Link
When fantasy genre and food enthusiast Adam Bruski read the “A Game Of Thrones” novels by George R.R. Martin, he paid close attention to an aspect that i’m sure very few reading the books have even noticed-the amazing sounding recipes. So he has taken it upon himself to recreate the recipes, using only ingredients which would have been available during the Medieval period, on his cooking blog “Cooking Ice And Fire”. Bruski’s passion for food shines through in his recipes, of which there are six so far, and the fantasy food turned haute cuisine recipes range from the strange (cold egg lime soup) to the sublime (veal cutlets blanched with almond milk). With many more books and recipes to go, Adam aims to show us all what we’ve been missing while reading through the series, and how we can bring home exotic and interesting flavors from our favorite fantasy novels!
Reactions to this new bundle pack will range from “How much? No thanks…” to “Awesome!”, with lots of mehs in-between. But if you’re still using your Wii for anything other than Netflix, and you enjoyed the previous Legend of Zelda games, then you’ll probably want to check out the new Skyward Sword game bundle, even though it’s set to retail at $70. The collector’s bundle includes a golden Motion Plus Wiimote, game and 25th Anniversary Concert CD, so you can take your new theme music with you wherever you go!
Was Bone too cute and cuddly for you? Wishing he were a giant pile of muscles wielding a massive sword while saving bikini clad babes? ComicsAlliance has answered your prayers with their latest indie comic reboot-Bone the Barbarian! Here’s a taste of what Bone is like in a sword and sorcery setting:
Exiled from his homeland of Boneboria, the warrior Fone Bonan sets out on a epic quest to find the mythical Crown of Horns, an artifact of great and terrible power that will grant a vast kingdom to any man who dares to claim it.
Comments Off Yeah, this video is really long, and nearly impossible to sit through all at once. Clocking in at a whopping 45 minutes, this is an in-depth tour of Middle Earth which was constructed in the game Minecraft, with some cheesy sounding dialog that you’ll probably want to mute. But the value of this video isn’t in the presentation, but rather in the effort put forth by the “builders” of a virtual Middle Earth, and the fact that this open ended construction game is capable of such an epic scale construction. But, f you don’t care to sit through the entire thing skip ahead to the highlights-Rivendell, at around 28 minutes, and the Mines of Moria, at around 33 minutes. Who knows, you might find yourself inspired to build your own cubic fantasy world.
The first Harry Potter book came out in 1997. In the 14 years since then, some of the many fans of the book and movie series have tried to bring the world of the young wizard and his friends to reality. Take, for example, the sport of Quidditch.
There is, in fact, an ACTUAL National Quidditch League and an International Quidditch Association. They even have a World Cup (like in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). The International Rules are based on a game devised at Middlebury College in 2005, and it’s now the basic model used throughout the United Kingdom, the United States and much of the rest of the world. Obviously, no magical Golden Snitches (which are supposed to be quasi-sentient, flying balls) are available, so instead individual players take on the role. Everyone is still required to run around on brooms, however.
Yes, that’s right. People are running around on brooms in this sport, kind of like our grandparents used to do with those toy horses that freakishly were just a creepy-looking, lifeless, severed horse head at the end of a broom handle.
Read about the other things from Harry Potter that have become a part of the real world at Ranker. Link -Thanks, Brian!
The other night I turned on TV and caught half an episode of the original Star Trek where Captain Kirk meets Abraham Lincoln. Seriously. Sometimes even our favorite science fiction and fantasy franchises can be quite silly. Check out this list of unintentionally hilarious lines from science fiction and fantasy. What are some favorites of yours?
Sometimes our favorite movies and TV shows feature some hideously ridiculous dialogue. Sometimes nonsensical and melodramatic speech is part of why bad movies are such a guilty pleasure. Here are the 10 awesomest lines of unintentionally funny dialogue from science fiction and fantasy movies and television.
DeviantArt user Ferret42′s Speedking of Angmar is a seamless blend of two of the greatest movie epics to ever grace the silver screen. Fantasy and sci-fi have never gone so well together.
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We’ve featured Ben Heine‘s ‘Pencil vs Camera’ project before, and he’s back at it with a whole new series of photographs mixed with pencil sketches that mix reality and fantasy. Sometimes they’re whimsical and sometimes they’re meant to make you think, but they’re all quite creative.
Link via Flavorwire
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UK’s Royal Mail released a new set of postage stamps this week featuring famous wizards, witches, and enchanters from legend and literature. The eight stamps depict Merlin, Morgan le Fay, Aslan, the White Witch, Nanny Ogg, Rincewind, Volemort, and Dumbledore. See them all in a gallery at The Guardian. Link -via The Daily What
Dan Meth came up with the definitive map of fantasy places you know and love -all in one big continent! It’s “the very first accurate map of the entire fantasy world.” Let the arguments begin. Link -via Buzzfeed
Fantasy meets fiancé and so much more in the latest Good Neighbor vid. You will laugh. I promise. (Warning: minor language in the beginning only)
AFP, Neil Gaiman, and Team Chaos present a low-budget re-interpretation of a scene from the movie Labyrinth, starring Amanda Palmer. For comparison, see the theatrical version of the same scene at YouTube. -via Metafilter
Think having a wizard for a friend will make all your troubles go away? Think again -possessing the power of magic doesn’t always mean one possesses competence! Take Orko, for example:
One of He-Man’s running gags is Orko poor magical skills, in that nearly every time Orko attempts to use magic, it backfires. He also has a seemingly magically-imbued hat that can contain many more items than the hat’s outside appearance and size would suggest.
It’s never made clear why Orko is so inept, from Orko supposedly losing an amulet that allowed him to properly use his magic, to it being suggested in an episode that Trolla’s natural laws are opposite of Eternia’s.
See all ten not-so-wonderful wizards at Geekosystem. Link
