This, plus the Oliver Reed comparison below, REALLY makes me want to see this. (But, the Ben Franklin comparison would hold if Crowe's character is more of a womanizer — TR was always a bit prudish.)

(I think the actual lyric is "Star Trekkin' Across the Universe".)

Yeah, first thing that popped into my mind.

Well... one of the prevailing theories (which I find pretty convincing) is that Tom is the Vala Manwe. That would put him on a level with Melkor, who was the master of Sauron, not with Sauron himself. Sauron was a Maia, one level down from Vala — on the same level as Gandalf.

What I loved the most about the RAPTORS IN THE KITCHEN scene was that it did something really unexpected. I get what The Squid is saying above, the T-Rex sequence is very tense and scary... but it's also pretty much what you know you'd fear about dinosaurs once you knew there was a T-Rex amongst them. Up to the…

Takes a while to type all of that. ;-)

The actual span of time, 77 years, is indeed an eye-blink to the elves. However, it's not incorrect to say that between the time of The Hobbit and LOTR, the elves passed a tipping-point in their relationship with Middle Earth. There isn't any indication in TH that the elves are aware of their Age coming to an end...…

The point is, your definition of who "looks" Mongolian is too narrow, if we're talking about half-descendants of the historical Mongol Empire, and not about "people who live in Mongolia today".

No, but if as other posters are saying, the Mandarin in the comics is half Mongol, then the Mongols aren't "Chinese" either... although, some Chinese are, to some extent, Mongol. However, the Mongols also conquered parts of India — go look up "the Mughal Empire" (i.e. builders of the Taj Mahal, etc.). Direct…

To be accurate — the GOP of his own day eventually disowned Teddy because he was way too progressive for them. It's just that the GOP of his day had a substantial enough progressive wing for TR to split the party (rather than go rogue by himself). But it was very much an intra-party war at the time, and it wasn't the…

Don't get me started on the design of the map. Some of it makes sense, but some of it really clearly doesn't. So you can tell that some of it was at least partly thought out — "given Texas as its own country, what are its likely borders? why?" — but some of it just looks like the mapmaker said "the heck with it" and…

Thank you! I have that reaction EVERY TIME I see that picture. I keep wondering if they did it on purpose.

Thanks! I remember the scene (I kind of caught up with the latter half of last season all in a rush), but I hadn't really examined the doors. And at the time, I missed any discussion about them, since I wasn't watching as they were aired.

Good point! Sometimes I forget what Disney shorts have covered and what they really haven't.

No, I do agree; if Dr. Whale was Monstro, it would be the most obvious reference they've made so far. Not that their references are that obscure, but they usually aren't quite so straight-up.

Frankenstein isn't really part of the Disney pantheon that they've been drawing upon, though, is it?

Stephen Collins: tsk. Tales of the Gold Monkey was AWESOME. A straight-up Raiders of the Lost Ark rip-off type of thing, but still (or perhaps, because of that), great fun.

No, of course not. But what scifi/fantasy elements do you see on display in the Lone Ranger trailer? Aside, as I said, from Depp's "fantasy Indian".

I keep feeling like Dr. Whale ought to have something to do with Pinocchio's story. But maybe that's too obvious. If you were trying to come up with an allusive name for Peter Pan, though, I don't think that's what you would reach for.

Hah! No, I agree, HOW recaps would seem kind of out of place here. But that's partly my point, I guess. The trailer looked less "historical fantasy" than I initially expected. Not very steampunk. Just... steam.