Animation Revelation's Animation Blog

First off, Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash decide that they’re sick of being the Garfunkel and go off on their own in order to fight evil. And what a better first mission than to go face-to-face with Cadmus? However, the three have bitten off more than they can chew as they discover secret projects with mind-controlled staff and armies of artificially created beings. And above it all, they uncover a plot to usurp the Man of Steel. Thus, the former sidekicks have to take things in their own hands and learn how to fight off everything without the help of their benefactors.

And despite it sounding like a sausage fest, don’t worry. Future episodes won’t have any of that.

So that’s the first episode of Young Justice, DC’s latest venture into animation, as guided by Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti. If the synopsis sounds familiar, it should given how it has a few ties to the original Teen Titans comics. If you consider that a detriment to the show’s quality for being even vaguely connected to the series from a few years ago, then you will be vastly mistaken, because it serves to be much different by lacking super-deformed scenes and the penchant for theatrics in favor of something more encompassing. Though admittedly, the Robin here could fit rather well in the former series.

Those familiar with Weisman’s work know full well that this show is absolutely assured to be good. With a diverse ensemble cast (the premiere already introduces more than twenty characters), decent animation, and an already interesting interpretation of the source material, the opening explodes at the viewer with the scope of a supernova. From seeing the heroes fight off ice-themed villains, to showing the Justice League in their entire splendor, this show is affectionately sprinkled with characters and references from the DC Universe without it being contrived like in Under the Red Hood or in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse.

So far, my only gripe is that Robin’s acting is a bit off, with the character giving a rather dissonant Jokeresque laugh in his opening scene. With that aside, the rest of the voices are pretty good, such as Khary Payton giving a pretty stoic performance as Aqualad and how Nolan North does pretty good playing both the inexperienced Superboy and the weatherworn Superman. As for the actual characters, Robin’s behavior and actions are a bit reminiscent of Ed from Cowboy Bebop, with lucidity and shoes being the only things keeping him from being a complete mirror in personality. Aqualad and Superboy come off as quite distant and a bit submissive, while Kid Flash gives off a few undertones of previous Wally West interpretations. Also, the Justice League is portrayed in a pretty balanced way, being protective of the characters while not being too stuffy about it. As for the main villains—enigmatically known as the Light—it’ll be interesting to see how they quickly reveal themselves as the episodes go on.

Overall, it’s a well-done start that shows great promise for the series at large. I really—and I mean really—hope that this show will last a while. Weisman’s never been known for pulling off a hat trick, so it’d be nice for that habit to be broken.

Originally posted on Sunday, November 28, 2010.

The production history of Tangled, Disney’s 50th animated classic based on the classic fairy tale Rapunzel, is as tangled as the title itself. This time i want to get straight to the review, so I’ll just say that if you’re interested in discovering how the making of this movie went down, look it up. you’re sure to find some interesting info if you take a look around. The basic gist of it is that Tangled was Glen Keane’s(animator of Ariel, the Beast, Aladdin, and other classic Disney favorites and son of Family Circus creator Bill Keane) baby, and the movie has been in production for at least 8 years getting the kinks fixed on it.

After John Lasseter’s recent winning streak as the head of Walt Disney Feature Animation but the disappointed box-office results of The Princess and the Frog, a lot seems to be hanging on the success of this movie. A lot of that seems to come from the lack of support from the male demographic, so Disney changed the title from Rapunzel to Tangled, and gave it’s male lead equal attention in advertising. Disney seems stressed enough to the point that they hid the fact that this is a musical in the traditional Disney sense in their advertising.

For instance, here’s the US trailer.

And to contrast, let’s compare it to the trailer for another country. Let’s say… Japan.

Yeah, pretty big difference there.

Despite that, word has been good on it since day one, and Tangled has already broken records in theaters, so all should be good. How is the movie itself, though? It’s kind of a step down from Disney’s recent return to hand-drawn animation, but there’s more than enough good for Tangled to hold it’s own as a future classic.

The movie begins with an opening narration straight out of American Beauty when Flynn Rider(who I’ll delve more into later) talks of how he died, taking us back to eighteen years beforehand. In a forest, an old hag takes an enchanted flower and uses it to hide the effects of age from her body. At the same time, the queen of the land(where, as usual for Disney, is undetermined, but since the original author of the story came from Germany, that’s probably they are) is sick while in labor, and needs the magic of the flower to survive. Guards search and find the flower where the hag, now transformed into a younger-looking woman, hid it. The help turn the flower into a type of drink and have the queen drink it, and she gives birth to a daughter peacefully.

The woman comes to the castle and finds the child, whose already long, blonde hair(guess that’s not going to stay on her…) seems to be glowing. The woman cuts off a lock of the princess’s and discovers that when you do that, her hair turns to brown. The woman kidnaps the princess and takes her away to a giant tower to raise the girl as her own.

The king and queen are so distraught by the kidnapping of their child that they have their kingdom light up a bunch of candles and throw them up into the sky every year on their daughter’s birthday.

We jump forward up to just a few days before the narration begins, at the tower. The girl with the enchanted hair, named Rapunzel, starts her day off by cleaning the house, practicing her arts, and playing with her pet chameleon Pascal, when her mother, Gothel returns to the tower. Rapunzel’s hair is as long as anything, because Gothel refuses to risk the potential of losing her hair’s power. Gothel still uses Rapunzel’s hair as a deaging device, as whenever Rapunzel sings, her hair glows and magically heals Gothel’s signs of age.

As Rapunzel’s 18th birthday approaches, she tells Mother Gothel that she wants to escape the tower to see the light show that happens every year on her birthday. Gothel, disgusted at the idea, tells her that there is no way that this will happen, which depresses Rapunzel greatly.

This is when Flynn Rider comes in. The not-so-charismatic young thief and his two accomplices steals a crown, presumably the lost princess’s, from the castle. Rider and his followers already have a huge bounty on their persons, and are on the run from the royal guards. Rider gets to escape with the crown in tow, but leaves his men behind. Still on the lam, Flynn escapes all but an angry horse, known as Maximus, who continues to chase Flynn until he makes it to this strange tower.

I’ll end the synopsis here, as this seems like a good cut-off point. If you’re a fan of Disney animation, or at least have seen enough of their fairy tale movies to tell them apart, you can probably guess enough of what will happen at this point so that you won’t need me to tell the whole story. A lot of the basics of a classic (warm slapstick humor, a couple of cute romantic moments including a kiss fake-out, a complicated misunderstanding, a run-in with the villain before the final confrontation, and so on) are present, and the characters are a little derivative. Mother Gothel is a combination of Lady Tremaine from Cinderella and Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame with a little of Madame Medusa from the original Rescuers added in, Flynn combines Aladdin’s street-rat tricks with Prince Naveen from Princess and the Frog‘s arrogance, and one of my friends who saw the movie with me said that Maximus reminded him of Prince Philip’s horse from Sleeping Beauty. but that is, to an extent, the Disney charm: familiarity with enough heart and love to make it all forgivable. By the end, you should be entertained enough to forgive at least half of the tropes you can instantly recognize.

Now to the meat of the picture- the entertainment value. The American trailers promise a lot of humor, and the movie delivers. Although Tangled isn’t really built like a Dreamworks movie like the trailers would make you suspect, there’s plenty of laughs in it, and I’d even argue that this movie is funnier than any of the animated features from Katzenberg’s new house are. A lot of the movie’s humor comes from it’s animal sidekicks, Pascal and Maximus, who are the studio’s funniest comic relief characters in years. Their biggest appeal is that since both of the characters are silent, they don’t have to speak to get their point or a laugh across, so you don’t have to deal with something as useless like Pumbaa’s gas jokes or Louis’s buffoonery. Pascal reacts through his character animation, which is very responsive and smooth, while Maximus and Flynn have a strong chemistry between each other. Neither character are happy to have each other tag along, and their arguing is reminiscent of older buddy comedies then anything.

There’s also a group of vikings that look like they come straight out of How to Train Your Dragon. They are all unnamed but contribute to the story by helping Rapunzel and Flynn out during a few times in the movie. Each have a couple of decent lines and a cute, if not especially well-written song, except for a smaller, older fellow who is reminiscent of Dopey. Granted, they’re not particuarly hilarious, but they add more to the story than Maximus does(Pascal’s greatest accomplishment throughout the film is being Rapunzel’s shining ray of hope during her time in the tower, something that isn’t addressed, but easy to assume).

The actual characters aren’t meant to be as funny(although Flynn has some great lines), but that’s not their purpose anyway. Rapunzel is a great character. She’s an assertive female in the modern sense without being too pushy or the least bit self-righteous, but is also still very contained. She’s been trapped in a tower that is very hard to access for the entirety of her life, and never got to experience the joys of life that most of us are able to. When she exits the tower and walks on the ground for the first time and breaks into one of the reprisals for “When Will My Life Begin”, her solo number, it’s one of the most strikingly beautiful moments of the film. The attention to detail of the land Rapunzel gets to walk on for the first time, on top of the emotion of the scene and in Mandy Moore’s voice(yes, THAT Mandy Moore, but trust me, she does a good job), is very powerful and expressed perfectly.

Another thing that makes Rapunzel stand out is her interest in art and music. From her first performance of “When Will My Life Begin”, we already know that she can sing beautifully thanks to Moore’s performance, play guitar, and paint very well. She asks for painting supplies as a back-up wish for her birthday, paints the kingdom’s crest when she arrives, and seems to have an artistic knack during the rest of the movie. Rapunzel is a smart girl with a lot going for her.

Flynn Rider is a solid love interest for Rapunzel. He’s a charming, funny fellow, like Disney men before him, and Zachary Levi of Chuck fame gives a very good performance of the guy, but the character isn’t perfect. Personally, I believe that Flynn doesn’t have enough character development for him to stand his own, and his change from common thug to Rapunzel’s lover is a little short notice. The only bit into his character that we delve into is when he tells Rapunzel why he came up with the pseudonym of Flynn Rider(earlier, he reveals to her that his real name is Eugene Fitzherbert). As an orphan, the young Eugene used to idolize a storybook hero with a similar name, and retooled said character’s name into something he can use to hide his true identity. Other then that, Flynn’s life is basically a mystery, and his motives are fairly vague.

Mother Gothel makes for an engaging villain, even if she isn’t quite up there with Maleficent, Cruella De Ville, Scar, or Dr. Facilier as one of Disney’s best. Her motives are mostly blank, typical for a Disney movie. Gothel keeps Rapunzel as she needs her hair’s magic healing powers to keep her young and beautiful. If she is away from the hair for a while, Gothel’s face grows increasingly wrinkled, her hair becomes white, and her body drastically weakens. The chances of her surviving to the point in time the movie takes place without the powers of Rapunzel’s hair or the flower are next-to-none.

Mother Gothel and Rapunzel have a bit of a complicated relationship with each. Gothel mostly sees Rapunzel as a reason to stay alive, but tries to treat the girl with as much care as she can. There is definite warmth between the two characters, but Gothel often runs that by saying some incredibly hurtful things to Rapunzel, even sometimes acting like she doesn’t mean them. As the movie progresses and Rapunzel becomes increasingly free however, Gothel’s true colors begin to become apparent, and she becomes less caring right to her face. It’s that touch of snarkiness and bitterness that makes Mother Gothel as engaging of an antagonist as she is.

The animation is another high point. This is the first computer-animated Disney fairy tale, and while it’s not quite as visually impressive as Princess and the Frog‘s return to hand-drawn animation was, the movie is still very good looking. Rapunzel’s hair especially is very responsive and sharp, which is amazing considering how much of it there is. You can almost see every follicle of hair on her head. The land looks very good, and reflects the original hand-drawn layouts very well. I went to see this movie in 3D, not knowing if my local theater had a regular showing or not, but I don’t regret the $10 purchase. While the visual effect wasn’t used especially well, the movie looked stunning in the glasses.

The music, however, I’m a little conflicted on. The score itself is outstanding. I swear that it’s Alan Menken’s most inspired since Hunchback of Notre Dame almost 15 years ago, but the songs themselves aren’t as impressive. I think the lyrics are to blame, as they’re often a little clunky. Rapunzel’s “When Will My Life Begin”, Mother Gothel’s “Mother Knows Best”, and the vikings’ “I’ve Got a Dream” especially suffer from this. The first adds too many activities into it’s first performance which spoils the recipe and makes it become needlessly wordy, while the other two aren’t as clever or funny as they think they are.

I think the soundtrack’s highlight is “I See the Light”, Rapunzel and Flynn’s duet during the light show. While some viewers have compared it to the “Kiss the Girl” sequence from The Little Mermaid, I think this is a much sweeter scene and stronger song than that was, and this is probably going to be the strongest contender for Best Song at the Academy Awards this year.

Another problem I have is the lack of an overlapping theme in the movie. I can’t seem to find one, at least not one as effective as the power of money and it’s effects in The Princess and the Frog, discovering where you belong in life and your destiny in The Lion King, or freedom and accepting who you are in Aladdin. You don’t necessarily need a moral or theme to make a great movie, even a Disney movie, but I’m kind of disappointed in the lack of a common theme between the main characters. I can see a little bit of a repeat of Aladdin‘s lessen in Tangled, but that’s mostly since Flynn is derivative of Aladdin.

That said, even with it’s biggest flaws, there is more than enough in Tangled for me to recommend to just about everyone. Fans of Disney will more then likely be satisfied(especially before the movie starts, as we get a little easter egg celebrating this particular milestone), and people who aren’t as big on Disney should find enough to connect with to not regret their ticket purchase. Disappointments aside, I can’t wait to see the movie again and see how it clicks for me in repeat viewings.

Before I end this review, there is one thing I want to point out. The movie is rated PG, so some parents may be wary of taking their younger kids to see this movie. I personally say that if you children are old enough to see Beauty and the Beast or Sleeping Beauty, they should be more than able to handle this movie. The only time I think it was worthy of it’s rating is a particular scene at the climax of the film involving the stabbing of a particular, but again referring to Beauty and the Beast, if your children can handle it when Gaston stabs the Beast at the end, this should be fine for them.

Originally posted on Saturday, November 27, 2010.

Yeah, I’ll admit it. Until last week, I never saw a single episode of Trigun. And for that, I have no excuse. This is coming from someone who was addicted to Toonami and Adult Swim Saturdays since grade school. Certainly, you’d expect a kid who was raised on shows like Outlaw Star, Tenchi Muyo!, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Rurouni Kenshin to have at least seen the Humanoid Typhoon in action. But alas, it somehow escaped my radar. Therefore, it’s time to get rid of past mistakes by taking a look at the series about the $$60 billion man and the land of Gunsmoke.

If you match my previous description and never saw the show, then here’s this: Two insurance agents known as Meryl and Milly are trying to seek out and investigate the rampaging outlaw known as Vash the Stampede. Through their efforts, they locate a spiky-blonde man with a red coat, sunglasses, a love of food, and a penchant for pacifism. Initially laughing him off as just some random poser, a succession of mishaps with the law and duels with desperate civilians looking for bounty and revenge lead them to slowly realize who this gunslinger is. And seeing that Vash is doing good instead of the chaos he’s known for, Milly and Meryl join him on his journey throughout Gunsmoke, encountering glow-in-the-dark raiders, preachers packing pistols, cats, and all sorts of adventures. Oh, and then this guy called Legato shows up and makes Vash’s life a living hell…

Now if you read the above and thought “A western? Fuck that shit!”, then…

With that out of the way, Trigun holds its own pretty well. It has most of what makes a good show: likable characters, a pretty good soundtrack, cool animated scenes, the works. It utilizes the typical character archetypes (the “thou shalt not kill” protagonist, the gang of quirky minions, the misanthropic antagonist wanting to rid society of its pain by killing it, and the two onlookers caught through it all), combines them with surprisingly heavy Christian overtones (which are also surprisingly subtle, despite having a main character carrying a giant cross), and presents an enveloping mixture of action and symbolism. And given the setting and themes more typical for American works, it’s a perfect gateway for anyone looking to get into anime.

Then we get to the acting, which is some of the most natural sounding I’ve ever heard from a dub. Johnny Yong Bosch gives his all for one of his first voice-acting roles. From being silly to being somber, he absolutely masters playing Vash. Wolfwood has a well-done pitch that screams “sleazy, yet well-meaning”, which is a pretty good achievement for the guy whose previous role consisted of shouting “Super Shocker!” all the time. As for everyone else, they give fairly good performances. And due to the time it was being dubbed, there’s a bit of dissonance in hearing a large chunk of the Digimon cast here. But with how ubiquitous several of these actors have been in more recent dubs, especially the aforementioned Bosch, that’s not really much of a matter.

And since the show was made over twelve years ago, it’s quite interesting to watch it and see how it has influenced the stuff that came after. The coat and shades that Vash sports obviously foreshadow leads such as Alucard. The prosthetic arm and the flashbacks showing his childhood remind me a bit of Edward Elric. His Angel Arm makes him heavily resemble the main character from Saikano. And then you see how many other shows like Black Cat and Desert Punk clearly borrow many of Trigun’s themes, with the character of the former being almost exactly like Vash in terms of personality. It’s kind of like how Dragonball Z has entrenched its tone and style in most shonen shows.

However, the main problem is that the show just didn’t have compelling villains for me. Legato, while being perfect at being unsettling and absolutely antithetical to Vash, just doesn’t have much beyond that. I mean, we get little back-story for why he’s a misanthropic sadist, so it feels like he’s just evil for the sake of it. (Yeah, I know the manga is supposed to explain this, but the show’s still at fault for not including it) But for all my complaints, he still serves as a good villain. It’s just that the lack of in-show explanation kind of sullies things. But even then, Legato is still well-developed in comparison to the main villain of it all, Knives. While he has somewhat of a reason for being what he is, he doesn’t carry the charisma that Legato does. There just isn’t that much that differentiates him from other villains that go “EXTERMINATE ALL HUMANS! WE ARE THE SUPERIOR BEINGS!” And given his history with Vash, you’d expect someone more layered and detailed. Instead, Knives just feels rather one-note.

So that’s the series in a nutshell. Previously out-of-print for a while, FUNimation recently got it back to the shelves. The special features are non-existent, and the DVDs are pretty vanilla as they come, but it’s at a relatively decent price for anyone willing to try. But if that’s not enough to satiate yourself, there’s a film just recently made—called Trigun: Badlands Rumble—that’ll probably be released here in the near future, though rumors suggesting that the original cast won’t reprise their roles (which aren’t helped with how Nimoy gave a statement saying FUNi got a new guy instead of him to do Wolfwood) don’t bode well. And of course, there’s the manga—Trigun: Maximum—that’s readily available in your nearest Borders or whatever. Overall, if you’re looking for a show full of action that doesn’t talk down to you, watch Cowboy Bebop… but after that, watch Trigun.

Rating: 9/10

Originally posted on Wednesday, November 24, 2010.

Doctor Who has been one of the largest cultural landmarks when it comes to British media. For over 45 years, the Doctor and his companions have been going through time and space in search of aliens, adventure, and the occasional genocidal pepper shaker. One key factor to its success is its versatility. The show can change from over-the-top sci-fi to brooding psychological horror in a snap. You could get an affectionate tribute to someone like Van Gogh one episode, and get an Inceptionesque thriller the next. The series has gone through so many genres and mediums, that it’s only natural to get an animated adaptation somewhere along the line.

And it did. Four times in fact. So let’s see how our dear Doctor’s fared in the world of cartoons.

Scream of the Shalka

Now technically, this isn’t the first foray into making a Dr. Who cartoon. There was Death Comes To Time, a webcast featuring the Seventh Doctor and Stephen Fry, Shada, an adaptation of an unfinished episode penned by Douglas Adams, and Real Time, being exactly what it says on the title. However, those three aren’t so much animation as they are a series of illustrations. Imagine the Watchmen motion comic but with even less movement, and you wouldn’t be too far off. And since all three have since been released on an audio-only format, whatever animation they had was inconsequential. So by all means, this can be consider the first fully animated Doctor Who story.

If you want some production backstory, it was 2003. The show had been cancelled for at least 14 years, with the only new DW media being books, radio plays, and the Paul McGann movie from 1996. And with the fortieth anniversary of the series growing near, the digital branch of the BBC decided “Fuck it. If new Doctor Who isn’t gonna be on the telly, it may as well be on the internet.” So it was decided that they make a sequel series to be shown on BBC’s website. Cosgrove Hall, previously known for such works as Danger Mouse and Count Quackula, was assigned with the job of animating the webcast, with Richard E Grant cast as the Ninth Doctor. Paul Cornell, currently known for his Action Comics run and having written some of the more memorable DW episodes, was given the story to write. And so, the plans for Scream of the Shalka were set in motion. Overall, things were going smoothly… until it was announced that the series would get a proper continuation on TV, rendering Shalka from the first of a new generation to a non-canon oneshot even before it premiered. So all in all, tough shit for them.

For the plot, the Doctor has found himself in the quiet land of Lancashire. However, silence will fall as a cacophonous species known as the Shalka rise to scream at humanity into submission. With a new companion by the name of Allison Cheney, the forces of UNIT, as well as an android replicant of his old enemy the Master, the Doctor must stop these creatures from enslaving mankind and destroying this world.

This will be something I’ll say throughout this feature, and I may as well say it now. The animation is awful, the flow is poor, the designs are unappealing, and the art is mediocre at best. Honestly, it made it hard to sit through the whole thing. I know it’s a webcast from 2003, but this is from professionals. I’ve seen videos from Newgrounds back then that have better production values than this.

But where the webcast lacked in animation, it excelled in the cast. They somehow managed to get Richard E. Grant, Sophie Okonedo, Sir Derek Jacobi, and a shade of unintentional foreshadowing from a David Tennant cameo. All of them give performances ranging from decent to quite enjoyable. Jacobi in particular manages to make the role as The Master his own, with a mix of affability, some malice, and a sprinkle of camp.

And for all that matters, the story’s interesting. It’s much more brooding in comparison to the main series, with the more mature tone, less humanoid aliens, and the lack of Murray Gold music causing a vast dissonance from its counterpart. Unfortunately, it carries the old show’s burden of having slow pacing with multiple scenes where the characters just don’t do anything. But for what it’s worth, Cornell writes some well-done dialogue, and how the Doctor solves the threat by the Shalka is pretty amusing and something that only a Time Lord could figure out.

So despite the fact that it’s firmly non-canon, it’s a decent look at what could have been. If you can get over the horrendous animation and slow plot, then this might be worth your time.

The Invasion

Back in the late 60s and early 70s, networks like the BBC and ITV had the bright idea of erasing most of their archives in favor of reusing the tapes for newer programs. As a result, a large chunk of the original Doctor Who serials are either incomplete or entirely missing. Fans have desperately tried to reverse this, from discovering old tapes at Hong Kong to having plays made out of the stories. But as days wear on, lost features such as Marco Polo or The Highlanders will remain just that. However, with one serial that unfortunately lost a couple episodes, but fortunately retained the audio, it was decided to animate the missing parts and release it on DVD. And like it says up above, that serial goes by the simple name of The Invasion.

The same studio that made Scream of the Shalka was brought in to animate the missing episodes, specifically the first and fourth. But unlike with Shalka, the animation somewhat fits due to the tone, setting, and era when the original episodes were made. And it helps that Cosgrove has improved a bit. Really, my only gripe is that it doesn’t have enough of a retro feel. The sharp designs give off an extreme dissonance with the audio, giving an uncanny valley effect as characters drawn with computers recite lines recorded decades ago. It would be absolutely perfect if it could be a retread of old Hanna-Barbera animation, but it’s at least good enough for what it is.

Now for the story, the Doctor and his companions, Jamie and Zoe, find themselves stuck on 1960s England after discovering a mysterious ship near the moon. During their time, they find themselves under the scrutiny of a corporation known as International Electromatics and its chairman, Tobias Vaughn. With help from the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, or UNIT for short, the Doctor has to unravel the secrets behind Vaughn and what his organization is up to. However, a familiar enemy will be up in the sky watching his every move.

Just missing the 200 minute mark, this serial isn’t kind to those looking for a fast-paced story. Indeed, the titular invasion doesn’t even occur until the last three episodes. But with this, it also makes sure to give great detail to the workings of UNIT, how the invasion gets plotted, as well as how the Doctor tries to uncover everything. Either way, it’s best to watch this over the course of a few days given the cliffhangers for every part.

As for the acting, Patrick Troughton’s erratic behavior is still retained in the reconstruction process. Kevin Stoney gives Tobias Vaughn a very full-of-himself demeanor, one that can’t help but be compared to how Roger Lloyd Pack played a fellow purveyor for the Cybermen during the new series. Seriously, both of their performances are very similar to each other. It wouldn’t be farfetched if the Pack didn’t watch Stoney’s performance to get a feel for his own character. As for the rest of the actors, their performance is rather casual, with acting that definitely hasn’t aged well. Overall, it’s not something I’d use to introduce someone into Doctor Who, but it’s a nice treat for those looking to see how far the show’s come since then.

Unfortunately, this practice of animating missing episodes has since been abandoned, which is a shame, given that it’d be nice to see serials such as Evil of the Daleks or Fury From The Deep be brought back through this format. Still, the rest of the lost episodes are still available through audio recordings and fan reconstructions. And maybe one day, they’ll continue on with remaking them.

The Infinite Quest

Unlike the previous attempts, this special was made to coincide with the third season, or twenty-ninth if you’re a completionist. The actors at the time, David Tennant and Freema Agyeman were brought to reprise their roles. And in contrast to the two above, this one actually got shown on TV.

On this adventure, the Doctor and Martha have found themselves on the quest to find the key to one’s desire. They’ll have to face off against oil pirates, giant bugs, and robot jailers. And through it all, they must brace themselves against the one of the most feared space raiders of all time… Rupert Giles.

This time not having Cosgrove Hall as an animation studio, the production quality gets taken up several levels, with a bit of CG added into the mix. Admittedly, the character design still leads to some unfortunate uncanny valley (there’s just something off about Toon!Tennant’s eyes), but it still beats Shalka by miles. Alas, this will be considered the peak of how Doctor Who has been animated so far, especially when you see the feature below.

With the plot, the pacing’s so fast you can barely take a whiff of what’s going on. It’d be like if the first season of Jackie Chan Adventures was condensed into a couple episodes. Just a few minutes into one situation, the story shoves the characters into another. It makes quite an interesting contrast to the last “treasure hunt” plot Doctor Who did with the 1970s arc “Key To Time”, which took 26 episodes to finish. Granted, this oneshot’s original presentation as a series of shorts shown once a week probably accounts for how poorly-paced it comes off as when viewed all at once. So, I’ll probably be better off blaming the DVD producers for editing it into a singular episode rather than what it was supposed to be.

As for the acting, David Tennant and Freema Agyeman retain their quality from the main series, though the former hams it up quite a bit in comparison (and since it’s Tennant, that’s saying a lot). Anthony Stewart Head, obviously known for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, somewhat known for already having a guest stint on the show, and quite uncommonly known for actually being asked to play the title character back in the 90s, is very brooding in his role. However, this tone doesn’t completely work given that his role looks like a swashbuckling pirate with a gas mask.

All in all, it makes for an interesting venture. And unlike Shalka, there’s nothing to stop this from being considered canon (though there’s a nil chance that events from here will ever get referenced). However, the use of talking robot animals and stereotypical pirates that seem oddly reminiscent of Ms. Frizzle mean that a younger audience will probably find more enjoyment out of this than the older fans.

Dreamland

So for this episode, the crew decided to animate this in CG, and AAGH, WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF ANIMATION IS THIS? Stuff like Reboot or Beast Wars looks like something out of James Cameron compared to this, and they came out more than a decade ago. Hell, it looks more like Thunderbirds than actual computer-generated work. Forget what I said about how awful Shalka’s animation it was, this makes that look like a Nick Park production. Honestly, this is just pitiful.

Rage at the production values aside, the Doctor finds himself as Area 51 during the height of the Cold War. With the help of a diner waitress and kind-of-but-not-quite-Fonzie, he gets himself into trouble with the US Army, where a colonel plans to use alien technology to one-up Russia in the arms race. But since they’re aliens, he gets a pretty raw deal and the Doctor has to save the world’s ass yet again from an invasion.

And now with performances, David Tennant is a bit more somber to correspond with how the live-action Doctor was like by the time this was being made, with a bit less ham and some more brooding when it comes to dealing with alien genocide. David Warner, who most readers here will probably know as Ra’s Al Ghul, kind of phones it in when playing the main villain. It’s still alright, but there nothing out of him that feels anything special. Also, the leading actress, Georgia Moffett, manages to get out a convincing enough American accent. Nothing out of the rest of the cast that stood out at all, though Moffett aside, the casting director did a good job at getting actual Americans to play the characters, with Clarke Peters from The Wire getting a tiny role from this. Sucks that the animation can’t capture the emotional range from the acting though, making it so that it feels like I’m watching puppets.

So by all means, this is just really another oneshot to get out of the Tenth Doctor before he was going away. The story’s nothing special, the acting’s nothing different, and the animation’s awful, so unless you’re really, really, holding out for something animated and involving the Doctor, avoid this.

And so that’s it. Three Doctors, four adventures, and lots of bad animation in-between. All I can hope is that they get someone decent by the time they make a cartoon featuring 11 and Amy.

Originally posted on Monday, November 8, 2010.

Hey hey! Tonight I’m going to suck!(reads next card) Your blood! I’ve been a big fan of The Simpsons pretty much my whole life, and I’d be lying if I said that the annual Treehouse of Horror episodes weren’t a big part of that. I see that Desen has already done a list, and a really good one at that, so I decided to highlight a few that he didn’t mention, even though many of his choices are among my favorite. So, from the same people who brought you such frightfests as “World’s Deadliest Executions” and three straight weeks of “The Chevy Chase Show”, this is SNES Chalmers’ look at-

My 10 Treehouse of Horror Picks!

10. Hex and the City(THOH XII)

Going through Ethnictown, The Simpsons make a stop at a gypsy’s shop, only for Homer to ruin her act. The gypsy puts a curse on not Homer, but every one he loves, and he and Bart set out to attract a leprechaun using Lucky Charms(their first attempt only managed to attract rabbits, thanks to Homer using Trix) to break the curse. The method works, but not in a way Homer had hoped, and not before Bart apparently dies. There’s a few good gags in the episode, and some great quotes, like when the shrunken heads are awaken and one exclaims “Wait a minute, this ain’t Cedar’s Sinai!” and immediately after when the gypsy wonders why she didn’t see it coming, then looks down and sees two cards that say “The Flaming Jerk” and “The Ruined Gypsy”

9. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson(THOH XVIII )

It’s so hard for me to pick more recent episodes of THOH, since pretty much everything past season fifteen is a blur to me(this goes for the show itself, not just the THOH episodes), but this one does stick out to me, partially because it’s one of the bloodiest episodes of the show, such as the waiter who gets shot through the head, and his blood drips down the pyramid of wineglasses that has been set up. The episode features both Homer and Marge as assassins, who are unaware of each other’s doings until Homer’s orders to kill Kent Brockman is thwarted by Marge. This leads to a confrontation at the Simpson house, which is reported to Chief Wiggum by a certain “neighborino”, and Homer shoots and arrow into his chest(“I would’ve taken a bribe!”, Wiggum exclaims as he dies). Marge realizes that killing people turns her on, and proves this to Homer by showing him on top of Wiggum’s dead body. The episode ends with the two admitting their escapades to Principal Skinner, who tells him he only called them in to talk about Bart. The two exchange looks, and proceed to shoot Skinner as the screen goes black.

8. The Terror of Tiny Toon(THOH IX )

This one is essentially a 11 minute Itchy and Scratchy cartoon, which is one of the things that make this episode so memorable to me. At one point or another, Itchy and Scratchy had depicted the stereotypical cartoon physics, but in this one they manage to demonstrate nearly all of the universal cartoon laws, using Bart and Lisa as their target. I love the live-action crossover bit as well, with the characters landing on the set of Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, which results in Kathie Lee storming off the stage(“That’s it, I’m going home! Dom DeLouise can interview himself!”)

7. Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores(THOH VI)

“Lock your doors, bar your windows, because the next advertisement could destroy your house and eat your family!” Cue commercial break. I love this one, Homer steals Lard Lad’s giant donut, after getting disgruntled at the stores’ supposed Colossal Donut. The Lard Lad comes to life seeking out his donut(“He came to life. Good for him!”), and once he gets it back, he and his giant mascot buddies proceed to reek havoc on the citizens of Springfield. In the end Lisa, with the help of Paul Anka, persuade the town to stop paying attention to the mascots, which effectively destroys them(with some of the mascots taking the Springfield Children’s Hospital, the Springfield Orphanage, and the birthplace of Norman Vincent Peale). One gag I liked was when Lard Lad starts his rampage he kicks a barking dog, which lands in the distant horizon. This gag has always gotten a laugh out of me, and even the similar gag in The Simpsons Movie where the polar bear kicks the fox does this to me too. I hope this doesn’t make me look like a monster, but maybe I find giant characters kicking a significantly smaller cartoon dog humorous.

6. Citizen Kang(THOH VIII )

A good political parody consisting of Kang and Kodos taking over the bodies of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole in order to rule the Earth. So much great stuff, form Homer bursting into the kitchen ready to tell Marge his story of being abducted, but first he makes up a story about catching the biggest fish he’d ever seen, to Homer storming the debate, only to get thrown out with the guard throwing the American flag he had brandished at him with a “here’s your stinking flag.” And of course it gives us some good advice on voting for third parties, that is it is essentially throwing away your vote, to the expense of Ross Perot. “I don’t get why we have to build a weapon to destroy a planet I’ve never heard of.” “Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos!” And yes, I am aware that that last line inspired the name of a ska band later on down the road.

5. Dial ‘Z’ for Zombies(THOH III)

Now this one is a fan favorite. From Bart’s initial book project of From A-Apple to Z-Zebra, a book that he only read most of, to classic exchange “Dad, you just killed Zombie Flanders!” “He was a zombie?”, there’s just so much humor mixed with the terror of zombies, something movies like Shawn of the Dead and Zombieland later excelled at. Neither of those two movies however had Bart chanting an incantation consisting of several condom brands to disspell the zombies, and that is what sets this apart from those two.

4. Nightmare Cafeteria(THOH V)

“Surely some one will come and save the two Simpson children!” Don’t count your chickens Bart, especially when the principal comes up with a new alternative to detention, turning delinquents into meals for the staff. I love the tense Martin in the cage, and Skinner subsequently telling him to ease up before he becomes all stringy, and the whole bit with “You could say we all have a little ‘Uter’ in all of us. In fact, you could say we just ate Uter and he’s in our stomachs right now. Wait, scratch that last one.” Way to keep it subtle there Principal Skinner.

3. The Raven(THOH I)

A great retelling of the Edger Allen Poe classic, this story features Lisa reading the story, James Earl Jones narrating it, and Bart playing the raven and Homer playing the man driven to madness by the bird. The episode ends with Bart laughing at Homer through the window, to which Homer replies” I hate Halloween!”

2. Nighmare on Evergreen Terrace(THOH VI)

“You’ve mastered a dead tongue, but can you handle a live one?” Ah, one of my favorite THOH episodes, if only for some of the quotes. I love the parents getting together for a discussion on fixing the school calender(“Lousy Smarch weather”), to Homer changing the thermostat( “Do not touch Willie, good advice!”), and the end with Willie coming back to terrorize the Simpson children once more, only to leave his gun on the seat of the bus he was riding. One of the best gags however is the scene where they are pushing Martin’s corpse out of the classroom, only to have the plastic cover slip off and the site of the corpse scares the children in the classroom, and Skinner has them just get it out of the room, only to have it pushed into the Kindergarten room, where more screams arise.

1. Bart Simpson’s Dracula(THOH IV)
So, here we are, the best of the best. Well, maybe not the best, but certainly my favorite. A tale of a family out to seek the head vampire and destroy him, so that the curse that has fallen on Bart and turned him into one of the Lost Boys is removed. I love the gag with the “Super Happy Fun Slide”, with Lisa persuading Homer not to ride it, to which he replies “You’re right, killing him will probably be fun enough.” Homer’s method is a little bit unorthodox however; as he hammers the stake into Burns’ body, Lisa informs him that he is indeed driving the stake into Mr. Burns’ crotch. Homer corrects himself, and proceeds to drive the stake through Burns’ heart, with Burns shrieking in agony in a well animated death(not before taking the time to fire Homer, yet again). The family returns home thinking everything is all right, only to discover that they had not killed the head vampire, and that it was in fact Marge, who claims “Hey, I need to get out of the house somehow!” The special ends with the family circling around singing “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” in vein of It’s a Charlie Brown Christmas, complete with Milhouse playing a toy piano and Santa’s Little Helper doing the Snoopy dance. Wrong holiday guys.

Well, that’s that. Have a happy Halloween, and remember, stay out of the Three Bears’ house!

One thing of note, my number one choice was one, if not the, last appearance of the Wes Archer twister mouth, where Bart turns his head as he’s talking but his mouth stays in the same place. It’s a shame they did away with that, it was one of my favorite running gags from the early seasons.

Caio.

Originally posted on Sunday, October 31, 2010.

This year, in the theme of the great tradition of this eerie day, we figured it would be fun to give a list of what we consider to be some of the best parts of the season. That being, The Simpsons’ great specials based on this unique day. I decided to limit my list to one segment per special, and decided to spread it out over the many years of this tradition. Take a look at my list, then go watch them for yourself. These really deserve to be a yearly tradition for anyone who loves Halloween. Now without further ado, I’m Desensitized and this is-

Desen’s Treehouse of Horror Top 10!

Trying to limit myself to one segment per episode was hard, (and I had to cheat once) but I wanted to make this more interesting for myself by seeing which of The Simpsons’ classic Halloween Specials stood up the best outside of their packaging and as geniune episodes of horror and entertainment. This is what I came up with:

1. THOH IV (THOH IV)

I didn’t want to take up all three slots from what is obviously the best THOH episode of all, but every segment here is brilliant and easily the best segments to come out of the whole special’s 20+ years history, that I simply can’t choose one over the other. Bart introduces each segment through eerie paintings and a setting that manages to set the mood for each segment just right. Need I list the classic moments? God owing Homer a brain? Moleman’s car exploding for no reason? Mr. Burns firing Homer despite being a pile of ashes? There is not a weak moment here in what is probably the best Halloween special ever. Choosing one segment over the other, just isn’t going to happen.

2. Clown Without Pity (THOH III)

This terrified me as a kid. It still kind of creeps me out. A murderous doll that one stop at anything to kill Homer just because his switch was set to evil. Despite being scary as hell, has some of the absolute funniest jokes in the whole series. It has horror- That’s good! This joke is usually cut in syndication- That’s bad. It’s really funny- That’s good! Unfortunately it gets overlooked on many best of lists simply because it’s a Halloween episode, isn’t that ridiculous?-… Can I move on now?

3. The Thing & I (THOH VII)

Creepy. Utterly creepy. This one gives the old “Evil Twin” plot-line a shot in the arm with some truly bizarre twists, and a mirror joke that needs to be seen to be appreciated. Even the strange pigeon rat joke, as stomach churning as it is, works despite the fact it probably wouldn’t in any other episode. This is easily one of the best (and as horror goes, most satisfying) episodes on the show. Just don’t watch it alone at night in your room, that Hugo voice still gives me chills.

4. Bad Dream House (THOH I)

The very first segment on the very first THOH special is still one of the best. It nails the mood and the more subtle and dry humor of the early seasons, yet manages to use the more lax pacing to establish a great setting. The walls bleeding blood and the house choosing to kill itself instead of live with the family are obvious highlights. The ending where everyone pointlessly blames Lisa is a great cap off, too.

5. Hell Toupée (THOH IX)

In my opinion, this is the only “slasher” segment that works great (Nightmare on Elm Street parody not withstanding) on the THOH. It manages to be really creepy, but the deaths are so hilariously over the top and strange, that you can’t help but laugh. The final stand at the end is painfully long and gut splitting, but the pay off is worth it. Also, how often do you get to see Homer punch Bart in the face?

6. Nightmare On Evergreen Terrace (THOH VI)

I don’t like the idea of Milhouse having two spaghetti meals in one day.

This segment is sort of overlooked because it comes between the pop culture behemoth of “Attack Of The 50 Foot Eyesores” and the groundbreaking “Homer³”, but I really do think this one trumps them both. Both in how crazy everything gets, and in how mundane (yet hilarious) the dialogue can get as the example above shows. (Especially considering the important moment he’s talking over) Also, special attention has to be made of Russi Taylor’s incredible death scream as Martin in this episode. It is quite possibly the funniest one in the entire series.

7. House Of Whacks (THOH XII)

After a surprisingly weak THOH the year before, the Simpsons thirteenth season brought it back a bit stronger, but not perfect. Easily the best segment, House Of Whacks goes back to the heart of what makes these segments so fun by being incredibly over the top, yet remaining funny throughout and managing to keep a tense atmosphere. Something that has been lost in recent years. Though seeing the back of Homer’s head is still cringe inducing… but in a good way.

8. The Ned Zone (THOH XV)

Eerie and gruesome as it is funny. This segment is pretty much the what the THOH was made for, a “What if” story where nobody is actually out of character but given a unique spin on what would happen if the universe worked slightly different. The gags are strong in this one (how Ned causes death no matter what he does, especially how he tries to prevent Homer from destroying the town but still causes it anyway), everything just works surprisingly well.

9. Desperately Xeeking Xena (THOH X)

Not so much creepy as it is just really funny, this episode skewers nerd culture brilliantly, and has the weirdest celeb cameo the show had offered to that point. It showed that these segments didn’t need to be based around horror concepts to work, just so long as they treated them with as much respect as they did to the horror genre. Also: Best. Death. Scene. EVER.

10. It’s The Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse (THOH XIX)

A more recent special, but still a surprisingly strong segment in it, this one nails every important aspect of being in the THOH. The humor is of course closer to the more modern humor, but as a whole this one can easily hang with the best of them. The best part being that no matter what the townsfolk do, they are cursed with being assaulted by a creature of some sort. The gay joke was surprisingly funny, too.

Yes, I know I have nothing from the legendary THOH V. Unfortunately, I couldn’t choose another full episode, and I couldn’t pick one segment from it, so you’ll just have to deal. This is indeed a strange universe, this Treehouse Of Horror, so just sit back and enjoy the mayhem.

Heh.

Originally posted on Sunday, October 31, 2010.

Hey there guys, just in time for Halloween, here is part two of the Tiny Toon Adventures specials, this time featuring Night Ghoulery. This special first aired in primetime on Fox on May 25th, 1995, five months before Halloween(why it aired at this time I have no idea). Like Tiny Toons’ Spring Break, this special was only aired once, but unlike Spring Break, it was made available on VHS in 1997.

The special starts off with a parody of Disney’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, with the Jack Skellington parody singing of his boredom of Halloween and wishing for something new. He goes into the forest, just like in the actual movie, and instead of becoming intrigued by the Christmas door, it is the door that features the colorful rings from the TTA titlecard that peaks his interest. As soon as he opens the door though, the Tiny Toons come out of it and start singing a Halloween variation of the theme, squashing Jack with the door in the process. At the end of the song, Jack re-emerges, charred from a lightning strike, and wondering how long it is to Mother’s Day.

True to the name of the special, the overall theme of the episode is a parody of the television show Night Gallery, with Babs as the curator walking from painting to painting demonstrating each story(a similar theme was done on The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror IV, broadcast nearly two years prior, only with Bart in place of Babs). Some of the stories include parody of Edger Allen Poe’s classic The Telltale Heart, titled The Telltale Vacuum, with Plucky Duck going crazy over destroying Hamton’s vacuum, which in the end he admits to Hamton after being eaten by guilt, and he repays Hamton by posing as his new vacuum ; Fuel, starring Calamity Coyote and Little Beeper, a parody of the bossman Steven Speilberg’s directorial debut Duel, one of my all time favorite car chase movies; Hold That Duck, which features Buster and Plucky as a parody of Abbot and Costello, complete with black-and-white; Frankenmyra, which features Elmyra as Dr. Frankenmyra and her sidekick Dizzygor trying to create the perfect pet, which involves the Looney Tunes’ own Gossemer ; The Devil and Daniel Webfoot, a story of how Plucky Duck goes to court against the Devil to see who keeps Montana Max’s soul(the Devils’ jury contains the most vile scum to ever walk the earth, including a network executive who believes wholeheartedly that The Chevy Chase Show is a success); and Gremlin on the Wing, which is of course a story of how Plucky sees a little demon on the wing of the airplane he is on that is focused on downing the plane, whilst all the other passengers are blissfully unaware of their impending doom.

Like Spring Break Special(and many other episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures) many characters from various WB productions make cameo appearences. Several characters from both Tiny Toons and Animaniacs, including the Jerry Lewis-esque director, the Beavis and Butthead look-a-likes Beaver and Hoghead, and the Barney the Dinosaur parody appear in a shot in The Devil and Daniel Webfoot segment. The segment Gremlin on the Wing features many references to the original Star Trek series, with Plucky imitating William Shatner’s Captian Kirk, and Nichelle Nichols’ Lt. Uhura herself appearing. Brain from Pinky and the Brain appears in Frankenmyra, and is mentioned during the end credits(the gag credit reads “The Brain appears courtesy of Acme Labs”). Even a couple of characters from the original Looney Tunes shorts appear; the gremlin who first appeared in Bob Clampett’s 1943 short Falling Hare appears in Gremlin on the Wing, and Gossemer the red monster from Chuck Jones’ 1946 short Hare-Raising Hare appears in Frankenmyra, albeit having the traits of Elmyra herself.

Overall the special is a pretty good Halloween special that is on par with several other childrens’ shows of the type, and some of the segments are similar to segments done on The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror episodes, but it’s understandable, since stories like The Telltale Heart are well known and often parodied. Like Spring Break Special, this particular episode never re-aired on Fox Kids, Kids WB, or on cable once the show made it’s jump to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. It’s a shame too, since it would have done well alongside all the other Halloween episodes of the various cartoons of the era. It was however released on VHS a few years after it aired, and can still be found on sites like Amazon.

Some of the Tiny Toons’ costumes, including Plucky Duck as Freddy Krueger, Montana Max as businessman J. Paul Getty, and Gogo Dodo as “the scary Soupy Sales”.

Originally posted on Sunday, October 31, 2010.

Straight from the director and staff behind GITS (as in the show, not the Belgian village, the punk rock band, or the loud-mouthed brats at the subway), Eden of the East is a short, but sweet thriller leaking with cyberpunk and mystery. We start off with a girl named Saki Morimi on the middle of her post-graduation trip. And while at Washington DC, she finds herself face to face with a naked man and his gun. Said naked man, who we shall know as Akira Takizawa, has no memories or idea what’s going on. And after a roundabout chase consisting of discovery, dick-flashing, and lost IDs, the two find themselves together in a quest to crack conspiracy-laden events and find out who’s the puppeteer pulling their strings.

I’ve been hearing all these comparisons to the Bourne Trilogy, which also features an amnesiac agent fighting against his superiors to find out what’s going on. Having not watched any of the Bourne films, I instead see a EotE to be reminiscent of another work. And while I might be making wild guesses at this point, but the set-up and characters feel very much like the first season of Doctor Who. You have this bored girl trying to find more in life, an eccentric and mysterious man who just escaped an immense event where he had to play the bad guy, the unrequited hypotenuse who thinks this man might be a threat to everyone else, as well as a malevolent higher-up who wants to bring about mass destruction in order to create his own paradise. How one of the characters described above, Ohsugi, spent most of his time wearing an outfit similar to the Tenth Doctor doesn’t help things. Now, this isn’t a criticism but more of an overlook at how this series mirrors another. That’s like saying Firefly sucks because it just happens to resemble Cowboy Bebop.

But as for the actual quality, it’s good. Quite good. It has an edge that should be nothing less expected from Production IG. It contains a cerebral feel without being too contemplative, while having enough action without being Bayesque. With only 11 episodes, the show stuffs each one with great amounts of suspense and wonder. Any other show that did this would have godawful pacing or be forced to double the amount of episodes to keep it fluid, but Eden of the East thankfully manages to escape this stigma.

Now for the characters, Akira fulfills the usual traits of an oddball lead: Charm (enough to convince a guy to give him his pants), the occasional film reference, an utter lack of shame, and the drive to do the greater good no matter what people might think of him. Saki carries an everyman vibe to her, with the urge to find purpose in the world but little ability to truly express that feeling. The supporting cast consisting of Saki’s friends, despite not having enough time to truly shine, has a decent dynamic going on between them and the main two. And just as with them, many of the other antagonists and side characters really only have a couple episodes at the most to make their mark. However, they’re quite distinctive. Even the vocal-only support for Akira, Juiz, has somewhat of a personality going for her.

The animation is smooth and vibrant, with much of the scenery, especially the opening scenes featuring DC, being paid great attention to. It’s akin to Ghibli or how Durarara!! accurately portrayed Ikebukuro. And the designs of the characters, while more in line with the usual anime norm in comparison with Kamiyama’s work on Ghost in the Shell and Moribito, definitely have their charm. One thing that interests me about this is that the characters look rather young for their stated ages of 21. There are plenty of shows, such as Yu Yu Hakusho and Bleach, where characters who are 14 or 15 instead look like they’ve long since finished high school (I’m looking at you Kuwabara), so it’s provides a nice contrast to see the opposite occur (and not in the fetishistic “let’s draw an 8-year-old girl and say that she’s 18!” way). It also helps add to how the characters, no matter how many feats they’ve pulled off, are more or less immature and just starting out in the grander schemes of life.

So to wrap this up quick, the show is a roller coaster ride that sadly ends too quickly. But fear not, for there are two sequel movies furthering the adventures of Akira and Saki. I have not seen them yet, but word of mouth suggests that you should expect them to feel more like a second season rather than feature films.

Rating: 8/10

The show’s currently out on DVD and Blu-Ray. But if you’re a cheapass like me, just go on FUNi’s website or YouTube to watch. Movies’ aren’t out yet, but expect reviews once they do.

Originally posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010.

Months after the previous film, with opening dialogue alluding to Luthor being impeached, a ship crashes through Gotham City and is revealed to contain a Kryptonian named Kara Zor-El. Because the bonds of family bind both ways, Superman decides to trust her. Unfortunately, Batman and Wonder Woman don’t. Through a series of scuffles and character exaggerations, Kara gets captured on Darkseid’s orders. With help from Big Barda, the Big Three are off on a rescue mission to face the legion of Apokolips and rescue Supes’s cousin. However, Kara has a different say on this…

For those expecting an improvement from Public Enemies, don’t. Like its predecessor, Apocalypse is filled with overblown fight scenes and barren with plot. Whatever little story elements are done via idiotic and out-of-character moves from the cast, with even Batman’s paranoia becoming grating. Also, we get fanservice. Lots of fanservice. The production staff seems hell bent on trying to get Kara either naked or in something revealing any chance they can. It’s akin to Code Geass in shoehorned cleavage shots. Hell, the last part of the title sequence is a goddamn tit shot.

As for the fight scenes, this movie would probably be barely an hour if they were gone. I know a fight between an army of Doomsday clones and Amazons might look awesome, but what’s the actual point? The build-up to most of them is fairly thin, and the end result isn’t really rewarding to say the least. The last one was particularly gratuitous, since most of the plot had already been resolved before that point and really only seemed to be there to fill up more time. Where a good movie would have fight scenes complement the plot, it gets inverted here.

The characters, Supes and his cousin aside, just don’t make much of a mark. Batman has little part to play in the grand scheme of things, and Wonder Woman doesn’t fare much better in plot relevance. Darkseid and his particular plan to take in Supergirl as one of his champions doesn’t exactly have any grounding, and just seems like a contrived way to give this movie any conflict. And like I said in the previous paragraph, Doomsday doesn’t have much reason to be here other than “Hey, we need a really strong DC character and we already used AMAZO last time.” Like the fight scenes, the characters don’t so much carry the plot so much as the plot carries them. For example, Wonder Woman shouldn’t normally assault Superman and kidnap his cousin in order to exile her to Themyscira (after all, we haven’t seen her do that to many other superpowered female characters), but since the plot demands this action to stretch whatever story this film has, this apparently must come to pass.

And this might be nitpicking, but Darkseid’s voice is awful. The voice actor, Andre Braugher, just doesn’t have that intimidating tone to him. Instead, it just feels dull. You don’t feel like you’re hearing the scourge of the New Gods from him, just some guy reading the script with a somewhat low tenor. On the contrary, the rest of the cast do fine. Daly and Conroy are as good as usual. Eisenberg hasn’t changed since the days of JLU. And while age has limited his range a bit, Asner is still menacing as Granny Goodness. After gathering up a good chunk of the previous actors to reprise their roles, having Darkseid played by someone other than Ironside just feels weird. It’s like the Brady Bunch Variety Hour in how jarring it feels.

Then we get to Summer Glau, who does a fairly well done job as Supergirl. What’s interesting is that the writers aren’t particularly subtle about who’s playing the role. We have a girl who is found at a mysterious container, naked and confused. She has mental lapses as well as a relation to one of the main cast, who is also the only one she’s on good terms with. This girl has powers she barely knows about as well as a strangely high intellect, given that the film shows her learning English in under a week. And suddenly, a mysterious organization is out to hunt her down and use her as a super-soldier. It’s like the writer listened to the Fruity Oaty Bars song way too many times while typing this up.

And like all of the other DC films, the animation’s still consistent as always. The art looks quite wooden though, with Batman looking more like a carved marionette than an actual human. Other than that, it’s just as unremarkable as Under The Red Hood. Nothing that makes you amazed or cringe, it’s just not something that needs that much discussion.

So in short, unless you’re the kind of person that can only watch a movie if it had random fight scenes and fanservice (if you are, then you probably didn’t have the attention span to read this review), stay away from this and go watch something worthwhile. And since the film seems so adamant on mirroring one of its characters, go watch Firefly instead.

Rating: 4/10

But on the contrary, the Green Arrow short accompanying it is very good, having fights that actually flow with the plot, characters that actually have reasons to be there, and no reliance on Loeb source material. It definitely has a short but sweet feeling going for it, kind of like how Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars managed to be a hundred times better than the prequels. It’s still not worth buying the entire DVD for, but it still manages to be ten times better than the main course while being one-eighth of the length.

Originally posted on Sunday, October 3, 2010.

In these past few years, we have undoubtedly noticed that anime, aside from some few exceptions, has been lacking. For every Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, there’s at least a dozen K-On! clones. Whenever we see an original, genre-breaking show premiere, it’s always drowned out by the legions of pandering moe shows. But at least there’s something going on for TV when you compare it to how Japanese animation has fared recently at theatres. The tragic passing of Satoshi Kon means we won’t be seeing his post-modern presence anymore (though there’s supposed to be one posthumous work coming out soon). Studio Ghibli hasn’t been able to find a successor to Miyazaki or Takahata. And when you get right down to it, most of the output just consists of film spin-offs of already established shows like Evangelion or Pokemon. But like all mediums, you will, one way or another, find a gem among the pit. And for this review, we will be discussing a certain gem by the name of Summer Wars.

A timid math prodigy named Kenji Koiso finds himself living among his high school crush Natsuki and her gigantic mess of a family. On the first night there, he gets e-mailed an encryption code, and with curiosity killing the cat, ends up cracking it. By the next day, Kenji realizes that he’s been duped, having actually deciphered the code to break into the virtual reality world known as OZ that literally everybody’s connected to, and now the one who gave him the code to translate has taken his account and is wreaking havoc throughout the digital world. And given that everything’s online, this being has the ability to send all technology into disarray as well as even launch a nuclear missile just for the hell of it. Kenji, as backboneless as he is, doesn’t stand a single chance of fixing the mess he helped cause, but luckily for him, Natsuki and her family have some connections of their own.

And for those who think this sounds a bit familiar, it should. In many ways, this movie is an expansion of the Digimon short film “Our War Game”, by sharing a main plot about a bunch of kids having to stop a virus from ending the world, as well as having Mamoru Hosoda direct both movies. But it would be rather short-sighted to cry “Rip-Off!”, with Kenji being as far of an opposite of Tai as can be in terms of character (though he does share a few traits with Izzy). Where “Our War Game” served as a short after-series treat with the Digidestined saving the world once again, Summer Wars is a wide-ranging coming-of-age story featuring people forced out of their comfort zone and having to improvise like hell in order to stop Armageddon. And besides, WarGames did it first.

For the characters, the movie goes to great lengths to give even the most insignificant characters a distinct personality. Speaking as someone with an annoying extended family, the film definitely captures how awkward, yet interesting it is to be part of one. There are the judgmental aunts and uncles prying into your private lives, the older, overprotective cousins who think they know what’s for your own good, the grandparents who are very old-fashioned, but are usually the only ones able to moderate everything, as well as the submissive black sheep who end up being the most interesting members of the family tree. In any other movie, they would’ve been shoved into the background with only a couple getting any dialogue, but here, this clan is utilized to become one of the most endearing and realistic portrayals of what a huge family is like. It gets to the point where Natsuki just seems kind of bland in comparison to her relatives.

The art and animation is something that only few anime ever succeed at. The scenes in the virtual reality, OZ, are just an absolutely sight to behold. It’s all very stylized and vibrant. From the designs of the characters to the whole look and feel of the digital world, Hosoda pours truckloads of imagination into it. Even from the opening scene showing how OZ works, there’s definitely a sense of whimsy to it all. One of my favorite scenes is when the main villain absorbs millions upon millions of accounts and turns into this gigantic monster with its entire body being an amalgam of hordes of avatars. Just watching it move helped show the absolute desperation the main characters were going through when facing it. And the film’s no slouch when it comes to the scenes in the real world, with fluid character interactions and quite detailed scenery.

The voice acting is pretty good, having the benefit of not going through the usual talent pool (because God knows how many roles Hiroshi Kamiya or Kana Hanazawa already have on their resume). It also helps that they cast actual teenagers for the two leading roles. They give their characters a sense of authenticity that is seldom heard in other animated films. And everyone else fits fairly well in their roles, with the point where the grandmother and head of the clan narrates how her family should accept their aloof half-sibling Wabisuke no matter what being one of the most moving scenes in the film.

So overall, this is the best anime I’ve seen in over five years, putting Hosoda right up there among Miyazaki, Oshii, Anno, and Kon. Yes, I’m probably overrating it. And no, I don’t care. If quality were measured in height, Summer Wars would be among the bloody Himalayas. It’s so good that it makes me hate other anime more for how they can’t be like this. Whether you’re a click away from torrenting it or waiting for FUNi to release the DVD, every anime fan owes it to themselves to watch this movie.
Rating: 10/10

Originally posted on Wednesday, September 29, 2010.