Posts Tagged ‘entertainment’

I am absolutely thrilled that Team Bling Bats took home the prize from Halloween Wars. While they had some bumps in the road when creating their final masterpiece, it was still head and devil tails (ha – I’m so witty) above Team Boo. Don’t get me wrong; Team Boo finally managed to produce their best work in the final episode. Their “Gates of Hell” showpiece was quite spectacular on many levels. As always, Ray Villafane’s sculpting skills elevated his other team members’ ho-hum work.

Team Boo - Gates of Hell - Halloween Wars

Ray helped out quite a bit with the sculpting work. Not only did he carve that massive pumpkin, but he created the demon out of modeling chocolate. It was his first time using modeling chocolate, and it was a bit rough but still impressive for his first attempt at sculpting with it.  Compare the sculpting work to Team Bling Bats’ Devil!

Life-sized Devil & Beast - Team Bling Bats - Halloween Wars

Yeah. That’s right. That devil is sculpted out of cake by the amazingly talented Karen Portaleo. The pumpkin work is amazing too. I wondered if Shawn Feeney’s hands were going to fall off while carving all those teeth. And check out the black sugar wings and poured-sugar cyclops eye on the beast! Team Bling Bats, as always, had the perfect balance of skill in their final piece.

That’s why Team Bling Bats won: the balance between each artist’s skill level! I don’t think anyone on Team Bling Bats was weaker than the other, and the same clearly cannot be said about Team Boo. Even though Team Boo’s final piece was the best they’ve done during the entire run of Halloween Wars, the sugar work and cake work were childish next to Team Bling Bats’ work. To be honest, I thought the pumpkin work was a little weak compared to other things Ray has done on the show, too, but he needed to make time to sculpt his demon. I get the trade-off; he felt he needed to compete directly with Karen Portaleo’s amazing sculpting work. Further, the cake work on the Gates of Hell piece wasn’t impressive in the least. We already know from last week’s Zombies vs. Vampires episode that his cake artist cannot sculpt very well in cake: well, at least not as well as Karen Portaleo. There was little to no cake sculpting on Team Boo’s final piece. It was a flat cake with a few lumps and bumps, painted in dark colors to look like a scorched-earth landscape. *yawn* The entire fat body of that devil was made of cake, people: cake – and covered with fondant! That’s fucking impressive no matter how you slice it. And even though Team Boo’s sugar artist stepped it up a notch with the old poured-sugar-in-ice technique to help create the orange, glowing rock interior in Team Boo’s hell, that technique is also ho-hum and relatively easy compared to the work Susan Notter did. Again, look at the wings on their pumpkin beast! Look at the tongue on their pumpkin beast! Look at that creepy-ass cyclops eye on their pumpkin beast! Nothing else from Team Boo’s sugar artist even comes close to those.

So, haters, stop whining about the judging being rigged. Clearly, they made the right call in awarding Team Bling Bats the final prize. The criteria for judging was creativity and a true balance of elements and skill from all team members in each piece. Team Bling Bats nailed it consistently throughout the entire run of Halloween Wars, including in their final piece. Remember, they won every challenge but two: one on the first episode, and the mini-challenge on the last episode. Also, I thought the life-sized devil and pumpkin beast were way more creative than a very literal interpretation of The Underworld. I could have easily dreamed up something from Dante’s Divine Comedy or Greek mythology. I couldn’t in a million years have dreamed up the devil beast. I’m just not that creative!

Anyway...HOORAY BLING BATS!

Did you see it? It’s the highlight of my Sunday evenings, and I will be sad when it’s over. The Halloween creations are so stunning and inspirational! Thus far Team Bling Bats has stolen the show, winning every challenge except for one in the very first episode. Alas, I don’t have any photos of their zombies-vs-vampires creation to share with you here, but suffice it to say their work was so incredible it drew high praise from Rob Zombie. Yeah — that Rob Zombie!

I’m in total awe of their skills. I would love to have all three of them create their wonderful cake, sugar, and pumpkin creations for my house every Halloween. Of course, that would probably lead to an epic ant invasion (I live in the forest), but it would be totally worth it! The ants would just add to the Halloween atmosphere.

On another note, my heart just aches for Ray Villafane. I ♥ him so much! He is an extraordinarily talented artist, but Team Boo just doesn’t have the same mojo as Team Bling Bats. His life-sized pumpkin zombie from last night’s episode was nothing short of a Halloween masterpiece:

Rob Zombie, Pumpkin Zombie, and (c) 2011 Ray Villafane

I thought Team Boo might actually win based on his zombie alone. Rob Zombie gave it two enthusiastic thumbs up, but the judges ultimately docked them for the quality of the cake vampire, stating that it just dragged down the exceptional quality of Ray’s pumpkin work.   That’s been the story of Team Boo throughout Halloween Wars; either Ray’s pumpkins overshadow everything else in the piece, or the other components don’t stand alone even when Ray shows restraint. However, Team Boo lived to fight another day and will be facing off against Team Bling Bats in the final episode of Halloween Wars. May the best team win…but I’m rooting for Karen, Shawn, and Susan.