cartoon-related stories
Posted Nov 7th 2009 10:00AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Animation, Reality-Free
Cartoon Network's
Star Wars: The Clone Wars just might be the best action/adventure show on television. Come to think of it, it might be the only true action/adventure show on television.
But, as the show ramps up the action content and significantly sweetens its visuals, its increased intensity might be driving away some younger viewers.
As
The Clone Wars moves through its second season, the war is growing -- both in scope and violence. Viewers are seeing more dead Clonetroopers, more crashed vehicles and more beloved characters in deadly jeopardy.
Its ratings continue to cruise in hyperspace (especially for males), but I wonder if the darker tones of season two could drive younger kids and their parents away from the show.
Continue reading New Clone Wars episodes stunning, but less kid friendly
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 8:35AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews
(S04E03) I swear to you, dear reader, that I do my best to stay somewhat objective when reviewing
The Venture Bros. It's tough, though, when the writers keep knocking them out of the park like this. We're only a few episodes in, but I'm already enjoying things more than I did with season three, and it's not just because this episode had mind-blowing prog rock and UPS guys with the Shining.
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - Perchance to Dean
Posted Sep 30th 2009 2:00PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Industry, Animation, Reality-Free
Lucasfilm's
Star Wars: The Clone Wars might just be the
beat best action and adventure show on television.
Admittedly, there isn't a ton of competition as action shows are few and far between on TV these days. They're expensive to produce in live action, so reality TV, detective shows and "chick-flick" dramas drive network schedules. Since the
Star Wars universe exists only in the imaginations of George Lucas and his team encamped north of the Golden Gate bridge,
The Clone Wars has more room to play affordably.
The second season of
The Clone Wars launches this Friday on Cartoon Network. To build some force behind the premiere, LucasFilm Animation hosted a press event at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County. Munching on Wookie-Cookies (as all of the catering was
Star-themed) and rubbing elbows with costumed Clone Troopers and bounty hunters, show creators and cast members mingled with reporters in an enthusiastic, nerd-friendly atmosphere.
Continue reading Set Visit: Clone Wars returns with better visuals, darker stories
Posted Sep 18th 2009 5:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Reality-Free
One question I've had with the
Disney acquisition of Marvel is how the House of the Mouse is going to deal with certain un-P.C. franchises. The one which came to mind was the comic series
Marvel Zombies, which deals with an alternate Earth in which all superheroes were turned into flesh-eating undead and consumed the rest of the world's populace.
While I don't think I"ll be getting my answer anytime soon (perhaps the zombies will simply get locked in the Disney vault), some animator decided to redo the introductions to the 1960's Marvel Comics television cartoons in the zombie style. The original cartoons were essentially stop-motion comics of the original Lee/Kirby works. It's rather impressive how accurately the animator duplicates and parodies the original intros.
These videos can either be taken with humor or disgust as Zombie Captain America decapitates several soldiers and the heads of Norse Gods are thrown around. I leave it to you to judge for yourself. The videos are after the jump.
[via
Topless Robot]
Continue reading Why Disney trembles in fear
Posted Sep 13th 2009 11:03AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim
In case you have not heard already, the fourth season of
Venture Bros. arrives on [adult swim] at midnight on October 18 (meaning the night of the 18th, technically the morning of the 19th). Mark your calendars.
This news has already been floating around for a while, thanks to sites like the
Mantis-Eye Experiment, but things have been confirmed by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer during their panel at DragonCon. Some footage of this has finally been released by AdultSwim.com, so you can stop crawling around YouTube for people's crappy cell phone recordings.
Continue reading Venture Bros. premieres October 18
Posted Aug 14th 2009 12:01PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Programming, Animation, Adult Swim, Reality-Free
Cartoon Network picked Thursday to announce a lineup of new, green-lit shows and the return of a couple successful 2008 outings.
The two new original comedy animated series include
Regular Show and the intriguingly entitled
Horrorbots. The former was developed by the network's sort of "animator in training" developmental system, Cartoonstitute.
Regular Show is created by J. G. Quintel and was developed as a short for the development program. In each episode, "two bored groundskeepers, Mordecai (a six-foot-tall blue jay) and Rigby (a hyperactive raccoon) are best friends who spend their days trying to entertain themselves by any means necessary, much to the displeasure of Benson (their boss, who is a gumball machine) and to the delight of Pops (an older, lollipop-headed gentleman)."
Continue reading Cartoon Network gets animated with new series announcements
Posted Jul 13th 2009 3:03PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen, OpEd, Reality-Free
Hollywood continues to mine ideas from previous generations in an effort to keep up the movie production machine. This time it's
Hong Kong Phooey, number one super-spy. The character was voiced by Scatman Crothers, who would later go on to voice Jazz in
The Transformers.
My hopes are pretty low, given that the production credits of the team involved (Alex Zamm and David Goodman) include Carrot Top's
Chairman of the Board,
Inspector Gadget 2 and
Dr. Doolittle: Million Dollar Mutts. Goodman is also a writer/producer of
Family Guy.
Is it possible to create kid-friendly fare based on cartoons of my childhood that is also pleasing to adults? When I think of this genre, I can only come up with the awful
Scooby Doo movies and
Alvin and the Chipmunks (and despite sucking hard, both movies are either getting or have had sequels).
Based on the people involved, the movie will likely be juvenile and formulaic. I look forward to it with the same glee I look forward to train wrecks.
Posted Jul 3rd 2009 1:04PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, Animation, Reality-Free
Thank the late-90s gods for the existence of
Daria and praise be to the supernatural entities responsible for DVDs. For the first time ever,
Daria will be available on DVD.
We feared it couldn't be done, but it's going to happen! I can hear sour-faced now-20-somethings celebrating now. Yes, they're quiet, but they're definitely excited. Keep it cool, guys, keep it cool.
Continue reading Excuse me? Daria finally coming to DVD
Posted May 6th 2009 1:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Reality-Free, Star Trek: Original Series
Admittedly, I haven't seen anything from
Atom Films in a while, but someone brought my attention to this cute animation they did for a supposed "missing"
Star Trek pilot from the 90's that deals with Kirk's years at Starfleet Academy. All the high school movie clichés are present and accounted for.
Actually, there's a lot of
Trek stuff that's been brought to my attention floating around the Interwebs in anticipation of the
Star Trek movie opening this coming Friday. There is this beauty of
William Shatner serenading George Lucas. Or this
lovely Christmas ornament. Or this great article about Shatner
being the one, true Kirk.
I have my trepidations about recasting these television icons. In the new cast, as far as I know, neither of the actors who play Kirk or Spock are Jewish. Chris Pine isn't even Canadian, for Spock's sake.
Despite all this, I'm still seeing the movie opening weekend. In the meantime,
Trek Yourself is after the jump.
Continue reading Trek Yourself and other Star Trek tidbits
Posted Nov 14th 2008 5:08PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
After the
Thor movie is released in 2010, Marvel will be doing a follow-up by
releasing an animated Thor series on television. The series doesn't yet have a channel where it will be broadcast, but given the big Marvel hoopla nowadays, it probably won't be a problem to find one.
Granted, Thor isn't one of Marvel's top tier, like Spider-Man or the X-Men, but he's easily in the second tier. Given Marvel's current strategy of a shared universe of movies leading to
The Avengers movie, the character will only get more popular over time.
To me, the classic Marvel cartoon remains the Spider-Man one from the 60's, but Marvel had a bunch of other cartoons in the 60's of the original Avengers characters, including Thor, based on the Kirby comics of the time. They each had some memorable, albeit brief, opening jingles. After the jump, I've included the one for Thor. Sing it! "Cross the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard..."
Continue reading Thor is going animated
Posted Aug 11th 2008 1:41PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E11) We haven't seen the entire Venture family really buckle down and do some hardcore adventuring since last season's "Twenty Years to Midnight". This was more of a
Da Vinci Code-esque adventure though, in the sense that it also involved mysterious paintings, secret codes, and weird albinos. This was one of the best episodes of the season, finally setting us on the right path to understanding many of the strange revelations from the flashbacks. Plus, it has set the perfect tone for our inevitably epic two-part season finale, starting next week.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: ORB
Posted Aug 4th 2008 8:02AM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: Video, Animation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Reality-Free
OK, now that was just plain fun. What was, you ask? I just got finished watching the less-than-four-minute clip of
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer: The Animated Series.
Four years ago, it looked like this series was a go, but somehow, it just went. Our friend Jane Espenson penned some of the scripts, and tells us she's in if the project ever takes off again. And rumors abound that the
Buffy animated series may just be revived.
Continue reading Watch animated Buffy while you can - VIDEO
Posted Jul 28th 2008 9:22AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E09) This was a real treat for all of those that love some old-school Team Venture action ("Action, action, action!"). In this episode, we found past and present protagonists and antagonists meeting for the first time in decades. The action-packed cold open featured Jonas Venture, Sr. as a terribly unconvincing Asian stereotype sporting a nipple on his face. You know,
that same old story. Of course, this far-fetched disguise was just another part of the Team's plan to bring down Scaramantula and his Fraternity of Torment, a sort of a not quite as impressive Guild of Calamitous Intent boasting the powers of Brainulo and a young Manotaur.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: Now Museum -- Now You Don't! - VIDEO
Posted Jul 6th 2008 11:58PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E06) I'm not sure what I just watched, and I'm not sure if I liked it. I recently realized that my anticipation from week to week has been less about looking forward to another episode and more about waiting for something as awesome as "
Escape to the House of Mummies, Part II" or "
Twenty Years To Midnight" to come along. The show is still amazing and all, but it's not packing the same punch as before. Last season, I had a new favorite just about every week, but this time around, I have to watch the episodes multiple times before I really like it. It's like I've built up a tolerance to
The Venture Bros. Soon, I'll have to cop four or five viewings a week, just to get that same high.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman
Posted Jun 30th 2008 1:03AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Venture Bros.
(S03E05) In last week's review for "
Home Is Where The Hate Is," I mentioned how I felt the season so far has all been set-up, set-up, set-up and we're still waiting for the punchline. I mean, it's been hilarious and beautifully animated set-up, but it's been set-up nonetheless. With "The Buddy System," we're finally getting back to everyday life on the Venture compound. It feels good to get a better sense of the family's present.
Continue reading The Venture Bros: The Buddy System
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