Eric Vilas-Boas

@ericvb

@vulture.com writer and editor covering animation, streaming, movies, and TV | die-hard fan of hiking and physical media “i’m not a miracle worker, i’m a janitor”

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Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· 26d

solid blog on this discourse. if you can't see The Odyssey in Imax, I absolutely promise you it will command your attention on a big-ass screen in a dark room www.patreon.com/MaxRead/post...

But the tweet is also revealing about the discussion. "What NOLAN actually filmed" may have been 1.42:1, and rich people might catch a bigger picture, but The Odyssey was obviously framed for a traditional widescreen aspect ratio. (Arguably the tighter widescreen crops are much more focused and dramatic!) The case for seeing The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm over any other format (and its corresponding aspect ratio) is almost entirely that such a huge screen, filled from edge to edge, will enable a singularly immersive and overwhelming viewing experience—not that there's something special or important about the 20 percent more forehead. Even if you could project the 1.42:1 image onto a regular widescreen (not really possible in most circumstances), as many are asking, what would that actually gain you? Twenty percent more ship mast? A smidge more beach? Tom Holland's hair? Matt Damon's helmet plume? The point of IMAX is that it's big, not that it's square.

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· 27d

Fascinating graf in this fresh column from @tvmojoe.bsky.social

Which brings us to something else that may be contributing to Netflix’s current issues: the quality of its programming. While the service has a lot of shows that get consumed, it hasn’t done as good of a job lately launching long-running, beloved franchises that hold on to audiences á la Stranger Things, Bridgerton, or even more modestly successful veterans such as Virgin River or Emily in Paris. As a result, it’s not surprising when so many second seasons end up with so-so ratings. “Most Netflix shows are not great,” says our exec at a rival platform. “So when these not-great shows go away for a year-and-a-half or two years and then come back, nobody cares. Nobody’s built a lasting relationship with them, and so they move on.” Somewhat surprisingly, this exec doesn’t actually think this is a big deal, at least not in the eyes of Netflix execs. “I’m intrigued that people are paying attention now to what has been true about Netflix for a long time,” he says. “And they seem to be doing just fine. I think this is all an annoying distraction to the people over there.”

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· 28d

google's $190 billion spend on AI this year definitely working out for them

A search for 'The Odyssey' obviously referring to the new Chris Nolan movie that googles AI erroneously describes as having been "directed by Fede Alvarez"

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Jun 22

"It really is the storyboarding... Nowadays with CG, you can do anything, and somehow it's still not as cool as that." –Genndy Tartakovsky on why Hayao Miyazaki's movies and shows look so good www.vulture.com/article/best...

GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY:
I was 24, 25, and I was trying to figure it all out. I would look at this sequence and think, How did he make this feel so dense? And it really is the storyboarding. Because it’s still done on a TV budget. Everything’s very controlled, and you spend the money where you need to spend the money. The animation is not feature quality, but it’s just very specific and neat, because the compositions are great. The choreography is great. Everything is very clear, and it’s staged very simply because it has to be production friendly.

There’s this one shot where Lupin is coming around the big plane, and it’s just a pan, but it just feels really great and very simple. Super clear action. You know where to look. Nowadays with CG, you can do anything, and somehow it’s still not as cool as that.

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Jun 15

apparently per the Castle in the Sky artbook, Miyazaki went back and forth on including it? makes you wonder about all the ideas that don't make it into his movies

Pazu plays the trumpet.
The concept art that inspired Pazu's design, along with his trumpet, was originally designed for another project. Mr. Miyazaki had quite the back and forth about whether or not to include the scene in which he plays his morning fanfare, but it ultimately made it to film after Animage editor Osamu Kameyama insisted that it be kept.

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Jun 10

this is a moral disaster. a collective sin committed against literal babies. and we know exactly the people responsible

In the first years after birth, the human brain develops at a remarkable pace. Every second, more than a million new neural connections spring into being, shaping a person’s physical and emotional health for the rest of their life.

Since the Trump administration entered the White House last year, at least 500 babies and toddlers have spent some of that pivotal time in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE has dramatically increased detentions of children aged 3 and under, holding 25 of them in custody on an average day between January 2025 and March of this year, according to a new analysis by The Marshall Project and MS NOW of records obtained by the Deportation Data Project, a group of academics and lawyers who collect and share federal immigration data. That number is 10 times higher than it was in the previous 12 months under former President Joe Biden. Back then, on an average day, fewer than three babies and toddlers were held at facilities across the country.

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Jun 8

It's really bleak, and stuff like this is especially petrifying www.chronicle.com/article/my-s...

$My students from districts that surrendered to devices and standardized testing arrive cognitively winded. A democracy that requires a literate electorate is now training one fraction of that electorate out of literacy while marketing to the other a “deep work” lifestyle as a luxury good. The students who cannot read a 20-page article today are the voters who will not be able to read a bill, or the jurors who cannot follow a closing argument, tomorrow.$

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Jun 8

this is a brutal read in part because the middle-school teachers I know are burnt out fighting their own literacy battles, and it doesn't feel like their younger cohorts now are "bouncing back" in the post-covid era. it feels like it's getting worse.

But I want to be plain about the limits of what an individual instructor can do, and all of these solutions have costs. Scaffolding a 20-page article into halves compromises the integrity of the argument I am asking students to engage, just as modeling note-taking in a credit-bearing rhetoric course is using a college slot to teach a middle-school skill. None of the syllabi I teach are designed to deliver this type of cognitive rehabilitation, and pretending otherwise has produced credential inflation. We cannot keep conferring degrees on students who cannot do what the degree is supposed to certify.

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Jun 5

As part of our reporting on the success of 'The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act' — yesterday's box-office leader with $7.8M in sales — Tim Brinkhof talked with a few other YouTube animators why they stick with the platform...

Another YouTube Phenomenon Is Crashing Theaters This Weekend
This one is an indie cartoon — and it already beat He-Man, Scary Movie, and Backrooms on Thursday night.

By Tim Brinkhof

created by artists who cultivated large YouTube followings and sold it to Adult Swim). “No gatekeepers, no development cycles, no committees. You can make something strange, release it immediately, and see how people respond in real time. That direct line to an audience is something the studio system still can’t really replicate.”

For Haver, sticking to YouTube is also a matter of principle. “I turned down a major streamer to make an animated series for them for this very reason,” he says. “I’d much rather make my stuff for less, and make less from it, if it meant I retained my true independence.”

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Jun 1

oof. Scott Pelley ripping into management at CBS News/60 Minutes this morning

Pelley did not let up, however. The veteran newsman told Bilton and Forelle that the way management handled the firings was "cruel." Forelle—yet again—responded by calling Pelley "rude."

"I'm not being rude," Pelley shot back. "I have some pretty—you know what was rude? Black Thursday. That was the absolute definition of rudeness. Telling Tanya Simon she had to be out of here at five o'clock. Sending Draggan Mihailovich to HR to get fired, because nobody could look him in the eye. Not talking about Tanya's contract. Not talking about Sharyn Alfonsi's contract. Not talking about Cecilia Vega's contract. Just calling them up and telling they were fired. That's rude. This is a conversation. That is rude, and you were part of that."

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· May 19

I also asked Murase what his feelings on AI were. He's open to experimenting with the tech in his films — though not without some key reservations And "probably not" for the third chapter of the Hathaway trilogy www.vulture.com/article/nymp...

He did comment on another issue that’s dominated conversations in animation circles lately, though: the use of generative artificial intelligence. Murase denied using any AI tools to make Nymph Circe but did express curiosity, tempered by caution, in using them in animated films going forward: “I do have a desire to use it at some point. When you think about AI, the source of where the knowledge base that the AI is built on is not very clear. So from a production standpoint, we need to be very careful,” he said. He pointed out that it’s probably becoming more cost-efficient to use AI rather than the CG used to bring films like Nymph Circe to life, “but whether or not we’re going to use AI for the third chapter of Hathaway, probably not.” (He was careful to disclaim immediately afterward that his stance on AI might differ from “the official standpoint of Bandai Namco.”)

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· May 19

Some long stretches of the film (like its predecessor 'Hathaway') play out in the dark, almost "pitch-blackness" per director Shuko Murase. That was creatively intended, he said, but even he had trouble controlling the levels of darkness he wanted onscreen www.vulture.com/article/nymp...

When robotic forces do eventually clash, the struggle is explosive and largely plays out at night, lit by the muzzle-flash of green laser weapons. Murase’s goal for the combat, he told Vulture in a brief interview ahead of the film’s release, was to avoid the blue tones typically used to depict night scenes in anime and to, instead, shroud the film’s action in a “pitch-blackness” inspired by the nighttime of the real world. Doing that, he felt, would better capture the dread of not being able to see one’s enemy: “There are some elements that I myself couldn’t control, and so some scenes are even darker than I wanted them to be,” he said.

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· May 15

bong joon ho animated action movie let's fucking goooooooo variety.com/2026/film/gl...

Is there something new and exciting for you as a storyteller that animation gives you that you didn’t have before?
Just personally as a director, I’ve always wanted to create an awesome action sequence, to create a sequence that can surpass the great ones created by George Miller or Miyazaki Hayao, and I felt like this film was my chance to practice that ambition. With live-action, to do an action sequence you have to block all the roads, you only have three prop cars that you can explode and there’s a deadline. But with animation, there’s no limit — the control freak in me can be fully unleashed.

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· May 12

Rex Reed could be everything people say and more—offensive, cutting, and very funny—usually in one sentence. He could also be sweet, when he wanted to be. I'm grateful to have known him. RIP.

email from Rex Reed, Aug 26, 2021:
-
Eric,
I am in a total state of shock.. I thought and hoped you would be one of the exceptions to the mass exodus that has become the Observer trademark. I do not blame you for departing for greener pastures, but I am sorry we never met. I care what happens to you from this point on, so please do me the favor of keeping me posted on your future plans. I too have greatly enjoyed working with you. It is always a concern when one editor leaves and you have to get used to another one, so I only hope moving forward will not be as daunting as it seems now. I am the single longest employee still connected with NYO, and I have survived all of the previous changes, so I hope my luck holds. Meanwhile, best of luck to you and I am still hoping one day we can meet in person and perhaps discuss the past. Rex

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· May 4

important www.vulture.com/article/jaco...

Vulture headline:
ART IMITATES LIFE | 2:03 p.m.
Jacob Elordi Cans Cannes Plans, Not in Jury Due to Injury
Ouch! His foot!
By Fran Hoepfner

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Apr 22

it's high time Logan teamed up with Snoop Dogg

[Verse 1: Snoop Dogg & Doggyland]
There is no one better to be than myself
There is no one better to be than myself
Today is going to be an amazing day
Today is going to be an amazing day
My feelings matter
My feelings matter
I get better every single day
I get better every single day
I choose to feel happy
Ichoose to feel happy
My family loves me so much!
My family loves me so much!
I care about others
I care about others
I learn from my mistakes
I learn from my mistakes

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Apr 16

thought “It’s a great time to be a novelty-seeking wellness writer on Substack” was the most demoralizing sentence i'd read today before i made it to "Those pharma brands need to advertise somewhere" i mean sheesh

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Mar 24

grateful to @roxana-hadadi.bsky.social for articulating the problem with Dr. Robby's villain season on The Pitt www.vulture.com/article/the-... @vulture.com

Robby’s transformation serves a narrative purpose — how much more foreshadowing could a trip to a place called “Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump” provide? — but in emphasizing his PTSD and burnout, The Pitt is neglecting the colleagues most affected by it. The character interactions are no longer reciprocal: Robby yells; the person he’s yelling at looks upset but doesn’t get to defend themself or engage in a way that illuminates the character; Robby finds someone new to yell at. Robby’s heel turn is purposeful, but in order to pull it off, The Pitt is undercutting the rest of its ensemble.

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Mar 19

i don't think he's on here, but shoutout to the editor on the project, Nic Juarez, who wrote this yesterday when it ran in @nymag.com's One Great Story newsletter

If Vulture has a calling card, it is our love for making extremely comprehensive and undeniably definitive ranked lists. We debate, watch, rank, rewatch, fight, rerank, and sometimes cry (which actually happened this time) during a yearlong process that ultimately pays off with a list that feels original and authoritative, and invites plenty of spirited debate. Last year, the bravest, weirdest Vulture staffers were game to endure the lengthy process of researching and evaluating every original series from Adult Swim, the beloved and freaky late-night programming block from Cartoon Network that shaped the tastes of a bleary-eyed, post-ironic generation of comedy fans. As the potential Paramount acquisition of Warner Bros., the home of Cartoon Network, looms and the fortunes of cable television decline, the future of Adult Swim has never been murkier, so we felt a long look at the network's history and impact felt imperative. The team approached the exercise with a balance of deep analysis and rigor against personal biases and tastes. As you'll see in the ranking, the result is part critical history, part love letter, and the full Vulture list experience.

—Nic Juarez, staff editor, Vulture

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Mar 17

we're really still doing this sort of thing, huh

“Lanterns” co-creator Damon Lindelof has published a statement on Instagram after finding himself in hot water with DC Comics fans due to a joke he made on podcast last year when asked why his show wasn’t just called “Green Lanterns.” The creator wisecracked at the time: “It’s called ‘Lanterns’ because we all agreed that the ‘Green’ was stupid, so now it’s just ‘Lanterns.'”

Lindelof’s words came back to bite him following the release of the first “Lanterns” trailer earlier this month. The footage left some fans worried about the series given that, aside from a quick shot of one character taking flight, nothing about “Lanterns” was giving comic book vibes. HBO appears to be marketing “Lanterns” more in the lane of a “True Detective” mystery than a superhero show. There was also no green in the trailer, which prompted Lindelof’s original comment to resurface about the “Green” in the title being “stupid.”

Comic book writer Grant Morrison, who was behind a popular 2018-2021 run of “The Green Lantern,” then to took to Substack to address Lindelof’s comment by writing: “TV writer/producer Damon Lindelof’s comments notwithstanding, the ‘Green’ in ‘Green Lantern(s)’ is not ‘stupid.’ Why does a writer attach himself to this kind of narrative if he thinks it’s fundamentally ‘stupid’? … What is this jockish dismissal of superhero conventions intended to prove anyway? … The only people who give a fuck about the Lanterns TV series are Green Lantern fans. Why alienate them at the start? That feels more like ‘stupid.’”

“I made a dumb joke on a comedy podcast. I’m not going to bob and weave about context, the joke was dumb, the fandom is not. I owe them an explanation and a genuine reflection of my actual feelings,” Lindelof added about his resurfaced comment, later clarifying: “Green is not stupid, it is my lifelong favorite color and I have a questionnaire that I filled out in third grade to prove it. Green is fucking awesome.”

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Mar 11

With KPop Demon Hunters likely to win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, I'm bumping this short piece again. Three cheers for smears! www.vulture.com/article/kpop... @vulture.com @nymag.com

KPop Demon Hunters Is Worth Watching at Half-Speed
Netflix's animated megahit owes its success, in part, to a techniwue that dates back to the earliest days of animation.
By Eric Vilas-Boas

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Feb 23

This new Kiki's Delivery Service poster (using concept art by Yoshifumi Kondo) they made for the Imax debut is really something else

new poster for Kiki's Delivery Service in IMAX that features Yoshifumi Kondo concept art

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Feb 23

and jesus said-eth to him i am the way and the truth and the $5000 home theater on wheels www.theverge.com/tech/881788/...

anker nebula x1 soundcore with speakers outstretched like arms

christ statue looking over rio de janeiro

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Feb 12

Things You Cannot Actually "Repeal" for $2,000, Alex

NYT breaking news alert:
Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change
The administration repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and the environment, ending the federal government’s legal authority to control the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet.

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Jan 15

cry "havoc!" and let slip the blogs of war, george!!! www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-featur...

One night in 2024, while the second season was airing, Martin wrote a blog post, “Beware the Butterflies,” which publicly revealed some of his gripes. When he woke the next morning, it was as if Martin had unleashed his own Red Wedding. An upset HBO exec had called Martin’s manager, who phoned Martin’s assistant, who took down the post — but not before entertainment sites (including THR) picked up Martin’s comments. “I would’ve put it back up, but then I would’ve looked like an idiot,” he says. “And 80 percent of it was praise, but that’s not what people focused on.”

Still, the post was meant to be just part one of six detailing the author’s issues with Dragon.

Martin says he can’t say anything beyond this. But sources say Martin and Condal’s relationship deteriorated further and came to a head during a Zoom call with the show’s producers and some HBO executives. The purpose of the call was for Condal to present his vision for season three. After Condal spoke, Martin detailed his many objections and allegedly declared, “This is not my story any longer.”

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Jan 9

One day, a weary blogger will publish the last "how to watch TK EVENT" post. When that day comes the world will not mourn. But in the meantime I intend to keep tapping this sign while we can www.vulture.com/article/how-...

But the best way to watch this, and pretty much any live event, is a cheap antenna you can buy at a dollar store. The broadcast will be free after the cost of the device, which will deliver HD video marvelously. It will also spare you yet another streaming subscription — or handing your email or other marketing info over to a streaming company.

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Jan 9

May we all walk in this world with the moral courage of Jafar Panahi variety.com/2026/film/gl...

What is your reaction to Donald Trump saying, “I pray and hope that 2026 will be the year that we make Iran great again” and his pledge to strike Iran if protesters are killed, which they have been? Do you fear U.S. intervention in Iran?
This regime has fallen already. And, as I have said before, the people who are carrying out the protests in the streets, they want to make that happen. Of course, international support can make a difference. But until people themselves decide to do something or not, nothing is going to happen. Nothing is going to make any difference. It has to come within, from within the country, by the will of people.

So you do not feel the need for U.S. intervention in Iran. Correct?
You do not seem to understand. Let me say it again: Until people have the will to change something from within, nothing will be able to make that change. It has to be by the will of the people from within.

You have repeatedly stated your desire and resolution to return to Iran as soon as your activities related to the promotion of this film allow you to do that. But given the escalating violence against protesters and dissidents in your country, and also given the fact that you have been given a prison sentence, are you having second thoughts?
These developments make absolutely no difference in my decision. As I also said during my interviews in Cannes, it doesn’t matter what will happen to me as a result of this film: I have to go back to Iran. And I did go back to Iran [after Cannes]. I am the kind of person who needs to be in his country. I need to breathe there and work there. And even if they want to go ahead with that prison sentence, they can go ahead. Nothing will change my mind about going back.

The real question is: why wouldn’t we want to stay in Iran? Why should it be us, the people, leaving?Whereas it is the regime and its representatives that seem entitled to stay there. We are entitled to our own country. It’s the regime that has to leave and go. Because it has fallen.

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Dec 11

Bit more from her here, on the irony of the tools as described... www.vulture.com/article/open...

➼ Will the bet on Sora — which feels a lot like a play for Gen Z and Gen Alpha — actually pay off? Lin pointed out that the restrictions Disney and OpenAI will have to impose on the use of its characters will be strict, possibly strict enough that they’d be a turnoff for their target audience. “They’ve spoken about having these kinds of safeguards that will prevent any sort of disturbing or terms-of-service-violating content from being made,” she says. “But to me, that limits sort of what the novelty of this technology was about in the first place. If you can only generate things that are company approved, I don’t see what the purpose of investing in this technology is.”

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Dec 11

NEW: Animation Guild prez Danny Lin speaks out against Disney's OpenAI deal. “It feels like Disney throwing in the towel, rather than competing with these tech companies,” she says. Read it at @vulture.com / Buffering >> www.vulture.com/article/open...

Eric Vilas-Boas@ericvb· Dec 9

you will be visited by 3 spirits