German Treasures

There aren't enough pictures from the 2007 German "Treasure Island" (Die Schatzinsel) production on the Internet. This as a preface to why this post probably seems somewhat crowded with sketches. Alas, they're sketches only of Aleksandar Jovanovic's Doctor Livesey character from that Treasure Island, too, but every little helps?

I may have mentioned before that I never bothered to get a TV when I last moved, my mother using the last one I bought after hers went kaputt. So when I postponed my Christmas visit to her place by one day, I missed the first part of that Treasure Island on TV here. By the time I got around to something of part two, my first glance reaction seems to have been that oh, this one has Tom Sizemore in it, looking unexpectedly hot. 

Second glance said I'd been mistaken on the actor. No offence to Sizemore, who looks fine enough otherwise. A minute or two more told me I even had the language wrong, what with the volume being too low to hear properly late at night.

I have a slight fondness for good Long John Silvers and Tobias Moretti wasn't among the worst at least, and this Treasure Island had packed in a good looking bunch of actors in general. I'm fairly sure pirates didn't look quite such a lot back in the day, for one. It also became clear that their version had gone for a Pirates of the Caribbean approach with Mr. Hunter and Mr. Joyce as well as the ending, but who says no to some derring-do or jolly old romps sprinkled with hints of comedy, anyway? Ben Gunn's Apocalypse Now shot may have been slight overkill though.

Another thing they changed was the character of Doctor Livesey, here played by Aleksandar Jovanovic. Not Tom Sizemore, no. Not Hugh Grant either, even if going by the man's floppier hairstyle of 12 years ago, seen in Kurz und Schmerzlos movie snippets on that rather well-known video clip site.

While the story itself isn't a masterclass in deep character analysis, adventure being more it, Doctor David Livesey is more on the noble and altruistic side in the book. Here the impression is more of deep suspicion of Jim Hawkins and of his possibly even having ganged up with Silver for the treasure. If I had to describe the character in one word, asshole would be one option. If I had to add something before it, righteous asshole could do.

Not to fear, that's said with considerable fondness. I always appreciate a good character like that. Despite his emphasis on the pirates hanging, "lawful good" or even "lawful neutral" might not be correct in Dungeons & Dragons style character morality categories. There was far too much scheming and potential to be self-serving while focused on the treasure to easily decide what he was. If I had seen more I'd probably know better.

Appreciation it was in any case. So much so I wanted to remember some of that and other things for later as well. I have a bad habit of being economical with videotapes and only grabbing titbits of whatever. If I've already missed however much, grabbing all of the rest seems a little off, but I grabbed a few snippets from here and there in any case. This stems mostly from my being old enough not to have had the Net and having lived in the middle of nowhere, relatively speaking. You have no idea how much incentive a 12-year-old gets to sketch if there are no pictures, no magazines or anything about their TV shows and such. Being able to do that from a video still was a luxury rarely got.

I don't draw often and there are wonky bits in all of them, even if I was only doing 5-15 minute sketches in any case. I kept writing stuff about the wrong bits or what to remember later on the paper as well, only to end up drawing the next things part over those. The eraser blotched up everything, so I couldn't really use that much either.

If there are bits missing, I've erased irrelevant other sketches or texts from there.The example on the right also leads to my endlessly going on about the top being too short or bottom too long and not meaning to draw the head in either as the top of the paper was coming up and blah blah text blah.

(Medizin für Ihre männ(er?) oder nicht?)?

Why post? Well, I don't think I have another use for them either. It takes such forevers to get around to drawing these days that I doubt I'll have time to arrange for a composite type thing or to redo something properly for a colour version. I had in any case stubbornly decided that I was going to get sketches to bring with me back to where I live, since I wasn't going to have access to anything else either. I understand there may be a DVD of Die Schatzinsel, but like I'd ever get to see that. I'd like another glance at their Mr. Joyce Gotthard Lange as well, there being potential in that character, much as they were used like the pair of soldiers in PotC.

It also seems like a vague excuse to get back after the prolonged absence. Same with having an excuse to draw something again, since there wasn't a lot of material about their Treasure Island online.

It turns out that Aleksandar Jovanovic is apparently a common name combination if going by Google results. I also have no idea why Serbian-origined people use "Aco" for its nickname, and I can't for the life of me remember the German rules for pronouncing o in such words. If they'd even apply, given the foreign origins.

That my German is even more rusty than my drawing is no wonder though, since it's been over 15 years since I had my two years of it. All of which later lead to the realization that I'd lived far longer in times without the Berlin wall than with it, and other random cultural ponderings, of which no more here.

Check that Treasure Island or Schatzinsel out in any case. I understand Francois Göske/Goeske is pretty popular among some people as well, and they added in a girl, gasp. And if you do get it from somewhere, throw me a picture or two, please, so I can stop abusing drawings.