So excited! I ordered “The Art of Up” from Amazon back in September, but it’s been on back-order. So my awesome BFF snagged it for me from B&N. It’s like the rest of the Pixar “Art of” books with concept, early sketches, and storyboards, but it also has a lot of information about the writing, which is why I wanted it.

It talks about Carl’s arc, how all the characters evolved through re-writes and tons of other good stuff. I just wish the actual screenplay was available for purchase or on the internet.

I love YA Fantasy. I have no shame in admitting that. The original “Spiderwick Chronicles” weren’t revolutionary, but they were fun. So I was excited when I got “Beyond The Spiderwick Chronicles” for Christmas. Yet, now that I’ve read them I’m fully disappointed. The second trilogy is a complete sell-out.

The story focuses on a whole new family with the original characters barley making cameos, but I can live with that. Gone however is the fleshed out relationships seen in the first series, which is odd because thematically, “The Spiderwick Chronicles” is all about family. Plus when the old characters do show up, they aren’t anything like how they used to be. They are kind of assholes and there is no explanation for the personality change other than bad writing.

Plot-wise there really isn’t much to the second series. It’s thinner than thin and even less engaging than the new characters. Unless you or your kids are a hardcore Spiderwick fan, this new series isn’t worth the time.

I’m not mean enough to do a list for every medium, but these various things were the worst of the worst in 2009.

• Avatar - If I didn’t know better I’d say the dialog was stolen straight from bad 80’s cartoons.
• Project Runway - The move to Lifetime and L.A. was not a good one. Calling this past season a “hot mess” would be putting it too nice.
• The Ugly Truth - I love romantic comedies but this crapfest gives all romantic comedies a bad name.
• NBC – Sure they have a few watchable shows, but on a whole the ship has sunk. When The CW and cable networks have higher ratings you know something is wrong.
• 3D Movies – I saw eight movies in 2009 in 3D and they weren’t worth it. The whole process is still too gimmicky. Talk to me again when 3D moves the medium forward.
• Halo ODST – I was super hyped for the game, but calling it a game is wrong. It turned out to be nothing more than a badly marketed expansion who’s gameplay was nothing new or fun.
• Grey’s Anatomy – My the mighty have fallen. If it wasn’t for fast forward I wouldn’t have been able to make it through the episodes that aired this fall.
• Opinions of Obama - Everyone has an opinion on Obama and I’m sick of hearing it. I’ve heard him been called Jesus incarnate and I’ve heard him refered to as the anti-christ and you know? I don’t care. The only time I have an opinion on Obama is when he interrupts prime-time TV.
• Jon and Kate – Why did they ever have a TV show? Why did they become so big? She’s a bitch, he’s stupid, and now the kids are f* up.

Although I read a lot, I don’t read enough to name the BEST books of 2009. However I devour YA fiction and feel confident that the list below is a pretty accurate one (they aren’t in any particular order):

• Fade (Wake) by Lisa McMann
• The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 5) Rick Riordan
• Fire (Graceling) by Kristin Cashore
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman
• Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor
• Garcia, Kami & Margaret Stohl. Beautiful Creatures
• Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud
• Gateway by Sharon Shinn
• City of Glass (Mortal Instruments) by Cassandra Clare
• Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

What truly makes this work is seeing Taylor Lautner argue the side of Team Edward.

A trend started yesterday with people making fake YA Book covers. Since those are the books I primarily read… I had to make one!

Universal has greenlit a 3D animated adaption of “The Lorax.” This has me concerned since the original animated adaption is my all time favorite Seuss-ian thing in the world. The movie is scheduled to hit theaters in 2012.

Jeff Smith explains the expansion of the “Bone” franchise by clarifying that the new trilogy will be novels and not graphic novels.

BONE: Quest for the Spark is a slightly different kind of thing. It is not a comic; it’s a novel. A series of three novels written by Tom Sniegoski that follow a new generation of Bone characters into the Valley.

I was a bit unsure about this project when Tom first suggested it, but when I read the first book I laughed so hard, I agreed to do it. Scholastic was so blown away by it, that they decided to make it available in hardcover and wanted the illustrations, of which I think I’m going to do about twenty, full bleed and in color.

While not an official sequel to my comic, it will be fun to see some the characters again, like the stupid rat creatures, and Roderick the racoon.

After Disney pulled out of the franchise, I hadn’t heard what was going to happen with it, but it seems that production on the third movie begin yesterday and that 20th Century Fox is picking up half the cost of the movie.

I laughed hysterically when I heard the following pick-up line: “Hey baby, how about I be the Seeker so I can get your Snitch?”

The first poster for “New Moon” has been released. It’s freakishly creepy.

Neil Gaiman wants everyone to know: George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.

This is a useful thing to know, perhaps a useful thing to point out when you find yourself thinking that possibly George is, indeed, your bitch, and should be out there typing what you want to read right now.

Saw that Pop Candy linked to the screenplay for “New Moon” so I went and go it. As Whitney said, it’s not really a big deal since people can go buy the books, but if you want to check it out, I have the whole thing after the break. Of course chances are this is a fake.

Updated: Was contacted by Lawyers telling me to remove the script. The email I got from them is below. I guess it also means that the script was the real deal.

(Read on …)

“Ultradome” will be a web series staring/produced by Milo Ventimiglia where fanboys argue who would win fights between fictional characters. For example: Harry Potter vs Darth Vader.

“My whole life has been spent engaged with friends in intellectual debate … like whether Captain Kirk is tougher than Spock or if Middle Earth is a more difficult place to live than Tatooine,” Ventimiglia said. “With ‘Ultradome,’ we can bring these debates to the public and settle them in the most logical way possible: through armed combat.”

Columbia Pictures green lit “The Lost Symbol” as the third Da Vinci Code film. Sounds crazy since there is no third book, excpet that the third book was announced at the same time and will be released this fall (Sept. 15th). Supposedly the book/movie will focus on Freemasons in Washinton, D.C.