I thought I was losing my mind when the “Researching the North Pole” scene started showing different languages for the “Santas on Strike” news headline and “The Discovery” as well as the “Devoid of life” headline in the Boy’s encyclopedia.
Apparently that can happen when someone starts playing around with the backwards-forwards controls a bit too much on a portable DVD drive. My guess is if you let the DVD play from an earlier point, my guess is that it’ll show the English text as it’s supposed to, but once you start scrolling backwards or forwards to one of those moments, it’ll show either French or Spanish, and if you resume playing from there the language stays there.
Haven’t checked the whole movie, but Santa’s note at the end also reflects whichever non-English language is used.
For The Polar Express fans who have some musical training under their belt, this is a fantastic (albeit fast-paced) breakdown of the frozen-lake orchestral score. One of my favorite strategies Alan Silvestri uses here (at 1:45) is inverting the triumphant main Polar Express theme into a minor key to turn it into a darker version. Sticking it here if anyone’s interested in checking it out!
This is one of the coolest bits of holiday music I’ve ever encountered. Perfect for those who want something really different and perfectly subtle. Enjoy.
THERE IS STILL TIME TO START HOLIDAY HOMEMADE GIFTS
NEVER GIVE UP
A million years ago when Flash was a web thing, I was building a site during a client presentation.
I had a literal runner sneaking from the conference room back to my desk to tell me where they were, as I was hammering out pages they would see in the next 15 minutes.
I do not recommend this.
We (somehow) won the account and thus the crew’s size doubled.
The moral of the story: don’t do this and just tell your loved ones “your gift is going to be late this isn’t a job and I love you”
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/12/19/podcast-neil-gaiman-christmas Even huge Charles Dickens fans may not know that A Christmas Carol is organized in five stanza-like sections called “staves.” They might not know the author’s only surviving “prompt” copy of the book, that is, Dickens’s own annotated version used for live readings, is held at the New York Public Library. But it’s without a doubt that Neil Gaiman gives one of the greatest deliveries of the classic holiday tale. Made up to resemble a nineteenth century man by Jeni Ahlfeld, the author was transformed for a performance at the New York Public Library, and his engaging reading captured the liveliness of Dickens’ prose. And so, as is our NYPL holiday tradition, we’re sharing Gaiman’s delightful performance of A Christmas Carol. We hope you enjoy it as part of your family tradition too.
If you’ve ever wanted to hear me read Dickens’s performance version of A Christmas Carol, while dressed as Dickens, now is your chance. Or if you think it would keep your animals company while you head out into the snow, unsure of whether or not you will ever return in these uncertain times, it’s good for that too.
Also wheezing here. There are so many gems here: The placement of the tree makes me cry because people sitting on the sofa can’t see each other, “DO NOT SUGGEST ALTERNATIVES. They will stab you in the neck” which is very accurate, “the perfect gift will always be $10 too expensive. There is no winning. Just give up”, THE EVERYTHING BAGEL ORNAMENT, the fact that his future family will in fact have to deal with a random heirloom Christmas tree ornament despite the fact that they’ll likely be very, very Muslim….
