DID YOU KNOW?

In 1989, the logging industry wanted The Lorax removed from school reading lists. This was the first time one of Seuss's books faced censorship.

There’s only one of these prints left with the quote: “You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams" Dr. Seuss.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/264040849/dr-seuss-love-quote-illustration-ink

FILM 1613: LA LA LAND

TRIVIA: According to composer Justin Hurwitz, all the piano performance featured in the film was first recorded by pianist Randy Kerber during pre-production. Ryan Gosling then spent two hours a day, six days a week in piano lessons learning the music by heart. By the time filming had begun, Gosling was able to play all the piano sequences seen in the film without the use of a hand double or CGI.

Emma Watson turned down the role of Mia due to scheduling conflicts with Beauty and the Beast (2017), while Ryan Gosling turned down the role of the Beast in that film to appear in this one. Coincidentally, both are musicals.

The audition scene, where the casting director interrupts Mia's emotional performance to take a phone call, was actually inspired by one of Ryan Gosling's auditions in real life.

Won seven Golden Globes, more than any other movie ever.

John Legend, singer and pianist, had to learn how to play the guitar for his role.

The express lane freeway ramp used for the opening number, Another Day Of Sun, is the same stretch of freeway as used for the iconic "bus jump" sequence from Speed (1994), where a 50-foot section of the ramp was digitally removed using CGI to create the gap the bus must jump over.

The line in the film said by Sebastian (Ryan Gosling): "That's LA. They worship everything and they value nothing.", was actually added in by Ryan himself, when he heard his real life girlfriend, Eva Mendes, mention it as a "joke".

Films that were inspirations/influences and screened for the cast/crew include: Singin' in the Rain (1952), Top Hat (1935), An American in Paris (1951), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), Swing Time (1936), The Band Wagon (1953), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), and even 8 1/2 (1963) for the film's opening traffic number.

Damien Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz came out with the idea of the film during their senior year at Harvard University in 2010 with Hurwitz writing the musical tracks and Chazelle on dialogue. Initially they found two financial backers and a producer for a budget of $1 million. However the demand for a lot of script changes made them to drop the project off. After Whiplash found critical success, the project was resurrected with the studio increasing the budget to $30 million; this allowed the filmmakers to rent the Griffith Observatory for filming (a full day rental there costs $10 thousand).

The crew had a limited time window of 30 minutes within two days to film the dusky purple twilight Hollywood Hills dance sequence. According to Damien Chazelle, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling managed five takes per day, where after each take, they would go back to the starting point with the assistants wiping their sweat before starting the dance routine again.

The phrase "pisi-kaka" that Ryan Gosling says twice is Hungarian for pee and feces. Meaning that it is not important. Ryan Gosling spent 5 months living in Budapest, Hungary whilst filming the sequel to the 1982 Sci-fi film Blade Runner.

FILM 1588: THE BFG

TRIVIA: This theatrical feature film has been in development for almost twenty-five years.

Steven Spielberg tried to convince Gene Wilder to make an appearance in the film, but Wilder declined. Wilder played the titular character in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), also based on a Roald Dahl book.

This marks the reunion of director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Melissa Mathison, following their celebrated collaboration on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

The Queen makes a call to Nancy asking for Ronnie only to find that he was asleep. This could be a reference to Nancy Reagan and Ronald Reagan, the latter of whom known for taking naps regularly while in office. This would also set the movie sometime between 1981 and 1989, when Reagan was in office, and perhaps also when E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) was made and first released sometime between 1981 (filmed) and 1982 (debuted in cinemas).

The movie's source Roald Dahl novel "The BFG" (1982) was ranked at the No. # 88 spot of all-time Top 100 Children's Novels by the monthly American 'School Library Journal' in 2012. "The BFG" (1982) is the fourth Dahl novel to be included in their hundred list, more than any other author.

Actor Mark Rylance was immediately inspired by Melissa Mathison's screenplay, and said: "Melissa added some twists and turns and made [source novelist Roald] Dahl's original story much more dramatic, in a way that gives you more of a chance to see the friendship develop. He is just misunderstood. The BFG and Sophie are both isolated beings, and they find a friend who understands them, maybe better than they do, and those are the best kind of friends. That's part of the great love and friendship they have for each other."

Before her breakout role in Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown auditioned and was on the shortlist for the role of Sophie.

FILM 1566: ZOOTOPIA

TRIVIA: Originally, the film revolved around Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman). However, test audiences reported that they had a hard time connecting with him emotionally and instead found themselves drawn to Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin), so the story was changed.

Animators decided upon Judy's purple eye color because they thought the rest of her gray fur markings were too dull, particularly for a main character. Purple was chosen to represent her energetic and optimistic personality.

Nick Wilde's design is heavily based on the title character of Disney's Robin Hood (1973) (who is also a fox).

The pirated DVDs that Duke Weaselton is selling are movies with word plays to other Walt Disney Animation Studio features. Examples are: "Pig Hero 6" (Big Hero 6 (2014)), "Floatzen" (Frozen (2013)), "Wrangled" (Tangled (2010)), "Wreck-It Rhino" (Wreck-It Ralph (2012)), "Meowana" (the upcoming Moana (2016)), and "Giraffic" (the upcoming Gigantic (2018)).

There are numerous sight gags consisting of animal versions of common human brand names, including, Lucky Chomps (Lucky Charms cereal), Urban Snoutfitters (Urban Outfitters clothes shops), Zuber (ride hailing service Uber), Pawpsicle (Popsicle frozen pops), Lemming Bros. Bank (erstwhile Lehman Bros.), Trader Doe's (Trader Joe's food stores), Mousy's (Macy's department store), Moustercharge (MasterCard credit cards), Furs National Bank (instead of First), Targoat (Target), Catsio (Casio), MuzzleTime (FaceTime), and Hoof Locker (Foot Locker), among others.

HIDDEN MICKEY: If you look closely at Clawhauser's spots, you will see a hidden Mickey Mouse on his cheeks.

The horn heard when Judy Hopps leaves her hometown and again when she arrives in Zootopia is the horn from the Monorail at Disney Parks. The SkyTram in the rainforest zone is a reference to the Skyway that ferried guests from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland in Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. The Sky Buckets were removed from Disneyland in 1994 and from the Magic Kingdom in 1999.

Chief Bogo, when chastising Judy for having unrealistic dreams of becoming a "real cop" tells her that they aren't living "in a cartoon world where you sing a little song and all your dreams come true" before telling her to "let it go." This is an obviously self-referential nod to the large body of prior Disney animated classics, which frequently feature heroes seeking to fulfill lofty dreams, singing, and wishing, particularly the mega-hit Frozen (2013) whose feature song was the anthem "Let it Go" by Idina Menzel.

Judy's two obnoxious next-door neighbors, who can constantly be heard to tell each other to shut up, are a reference to the infamous "shut up little man" recordings. The tapes were a pre-internet viral sensation where a pair of next-door neighbor male roommates were captured on audio arguing incessantly, often ending with the pair screaming at each other to shut up.

In Doug the Ram's night howler lab he is talking on the phone when he hears a knock at the door and says, "Walter and Jessie are here so I'm leaving now..." Walter and Jessie are the names of the two main characters in the American television drug drama Breaking Bad. Doug also wears a yellow boiler suit, as do Walter and Jessie in the later seasons of the drug drama.

BOOK 140: STEPPENWOLF: HERMANN HESSE

Steppenwolf (orig. German Der Steppenwolf) is the tenth novel by German-Swiss author Hermann Hesse. Originally published in Germany in 1927, it was first translated into English in 1929. Combining autobiographical and psychoanalytic elements, the novel was named after the lonesome wolf of the steppes. The story in large part reflects a profound crisis in Hesse's spiritual world during the 1920s while memorably portraying the protagonist's split between his humanity and his wolf-like aggression and homelessness. Hesse would later assert that the book was largely misunderstood.

From the very beginning, reception was harsh. American novelist Jack Kerouac dismissed it in Big Sur (1962) and it has had a long history of mixed critical reception and opinion at large, Already upset with Hesse's novel Siddhartha, political activists and patriots railed against him, and against the book, seeing an opportunity to discredit Hesse. Even close friends and longtime readers criticized the novel for its perceived lack of morality in its open depiction of sex and drug use, a criticism that indeed remained the primary rebuff of the novel for many years. However as society changed and formerly taboo topics such as sex and drugs became more openly discussed, critics came to attack the book for other reasons; mainly that it was too pessimistic, and that it was a journey in the footsteps of a psychotic and showed humanity through his warped and unstable viewpoint, a fact that Hesse did not dispute, although he did respond to critics by noting the novel ends on a theme of new hope.

Popular interest in the novel was renewed in the 1960s – specifically in the psychedelic movement – primarily because it was seen as a counterculture book, and because of its depiction of free love and explicit drug usage. It was also introduced in many new colleges for study, and interest in the book and in Hermann Hesse was feted in America for more than a decade afterwards.

Hesse's 1928 short story "Harry, the Steppenwolf" forms a companion piece to the novel. It is about a wolf named Harry who is kept in a zoo, and who entertains crowds by destroying images of German cultural icons like Goethe and Mozart.

The name Steppenwolf has become notable in popular culture for various organizations and establishments. In 1967, the band Steppenwolf, headed by German-born singer John Kay, took their name from the novel. The Belgian band DAAU (Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung) is named after one of the advertising slogans of the novel's magical theatre. The innovative Magic Theatre Company, founded in 1967 in Berkeley and which later became resident in San Francisco, takes its name from the "Magic Theatre" of the novel, and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, founded in 1974 by actors Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise, took its name from the novel. The lengthy track "Steppenwolf" appears on English rock band Hawkwind's album Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music and is directly inspired by the novel, including references to the magic theatre and the dual nature of the wolfman-manwolf (lutocost). Robert Calvert had initially written and performed the lyrics on 'Distances Between Us' by Adrian Wagner in 1974. The song also appears on later, live Hawkwind CD's and DVDs. Danish acid rock band Steppeulvene (1967-68) also took their name from this novel.

"Be Here Now"(1971), by author and spiritual teacher Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) contains an illustration of a door bearing a sign that reads "Magic Theatre - For Madmen Only - Price of Admission - Your Mind." This references an invitation that Steppenwolf's Harry Haller receives to attend an "Anarchist Evening at the Magic Theatre, For Madmen Only, Price of Admission Your Mind."

The Black Ice, by Michael Connelly, has J. Michael Haller making a reference to the author when he mentioned that, if his illegitimate son took his surname, he'd be "Harry Haller" instead of Harry Bosch.

Paula Cole references the concept of the steppenwolf in her song 'Pearl' on her 1999 album Amen.

Steppenwolf was also referenced in the film Mall (2014).

Lobo da Estepe by the brazilian band Os Cascavelletes was also inspired by the book.

(Information taken from Wikipedia)