Pulpy Goodness

Last night Laura took me to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which long-time readers of my blog will remember I’ve been goobering over since I first heard it was in production (back before it had a studio distribution deal). As many of you know, I’m an absolute nut about the pulp fiction of the 30s and 40s–a shelf here in my office groans under the weight of Doc Savage, The Spider, G-8 and his Battle Aces, and many other pulp reprints, along with books about the pulps.

So, it’s little surprise that I really liked the movie (Hell, I’m probably the only person who liked the latest film versions of The Shadow and The Phantom). It’s a tone-perfect tribute to…well, tons of stuff, really. I caught visual references to the Max Fleisher Superman cartoons, several of the air-hero pulps, the “Dan Dare” comics from the UK, Republic Serials (like “King of the Rocketmen” and others)…there were even nod-and-wink references to Godzilla and King Kong. In some ways, it almost comes off like the visual equivalent of electronic music (another of my loves), with visual elements as the samples. It was goofy, it was pulpy, and I liked it….even if they did have a P-40 Warhawk fly underwater in “amphibian mode.”