the buzz log

J.R.R. Tolkien in 38 minutes. For free. Online. What are you waiting for?

Actually, many have not waited, as searches have surged for the fan fiction film, "The Hunt for Gollum," which debuted on May 3 online and at the London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film free premiere.

Billed as a prequel to "The Lord of the Rings," this new storyline tells a brief tale of Ranger Aragon and wizard Gandolph seeking Gollum, the mutated Hobbit. The filmmakers, who call themselves "a bunch of Tolkien enthusiasts," modestly call their effort "an unofficial home movie," but a contagious enthusiasm is making this a viral favorite. BBC News describes the venture as a "lavish production" that got permission from Tolkien's estate by being a non-profit enterprise.

With a cast of 10s (say, 150) and a $3,000 budget, the mini-epic dips into the beloved Tolkien minutiae of Ranger life and pays high-def homage to the epic standards set by director Peter Jackson's cinematic trilogy. And, even the volunteer actor who plays Aragon looks like he could be an English cousin to big-screen counterpart Viggo Mortensen.

Fan fiction has always had a huge online following, with regular lookups on Yahoo! for "harry potter fanfiction," "twilight fan fiction," "ncis fanfiction," "the l word fanfiction" and "sailor moon fanfiction." By all rights, this latest respectable entry into Rings lore should, as GigaOm and the blogosphere point out, inspire studios and other "content owners to get engaged with their fan bases" by equipping die-hards with the tools to make such amateur creations and keep the mania going. That would be a fantasy fiction come true.

Filed under: Movies, Literature, Viral, Videos, Cyberculture, Fan Fiction

I'm just a bill. Yes, I'm only a bill, and I sit here on Capitol Hill.

If those words have triggered an incessant yet pleasurable hum in your brain, you belong to a generation exposed to Atari video games, Shaun Cassidy, jelly sneakers (when they appeared the first time around), and "Schoolhouse Rock."

Musical cartoon shorts or "educational interstitials," the '70s-era "Schoolhouse Rock" comprised enlightened breaks between Scooby Doo adventures and Bugs Bunny reruns, and put topics like multiplication, grammar, and history to a jazzy uptempo or moody folk beat. Culling from that vast repertoire, Disney (which now owns the cartoons) has repackaged an election special DVD this week, to help a new generation get in tune during a presidential year and induce random lyrical outbreaks among older folks.

Oh, we were suffering until suffrage.
Not a woman here could vote no matter what age,
until the 19th Amendment struck down that restrictive rule.
Oh yeah!

As with all seemingly good acts, ABC's motives to air "Schoolhouse" weren't entirely pure: Consumer activists rebelled against the inordinate advertising time on Saturday mornings targeting kids, and the FCC decreed children's programming had to have an educational component (a ruling lifted during the Reagan years).

Oh, elbow room, elbow room,
Got to, got to get us some elbow room.
It's the west or bust, in God we trust,
there's a new land out there...

After a long absence, rock versions of the songs were released, Disney bought the franchise, and attempts at a musical have been made. While the math and grammar lessons still hold up, Time magazine's TV blog Tuned In took Tuesday's DVD release to muse about these segments as a post-Watergate "kind of socio-political time capsule," and how they couldn't perhaps be made today.

We're gonna elect a president! (No more kings)
He's gonna do what the people want! (No more kings)
We're gonna run things our way! (No more kings)
Nobody's gonna tell us what to do!

All the more reason to brainwash a new generation, although serious reviews suggest getting the comprehensive 30th Anniversary edition, released in 2002. After all, in any good election year, you also got to know some choice interjections.

Hallelujah. Yea.

Filed under: TV, Politics, Videos, Animation, Cartoons, Kids, Animated Characters, Elections