TVSquad

Hey gang, here's what happening in the world of cartoons:

A new Simpsons game, possibly created to coincide with the movie, has been showing up on some retailer's list as "The Simpsons Game." Electronic Arts is publishing the game, which will be available for pretty much all the major platforms, including Wii.

You know those two Hellboy movies being created for Toonami? The first movie, Sword of Storms, premieres in three days (October 28 at 9:30 pm), and if you're a purist who prefers Mike Mignola's comic version over the film adaptations, you'll be happy to know that these animated movies will be based, both in story and aesthetic, on the original comic books moreso than the live-action film. Actors from the film version will be providing the voices of the characters, but Mignola, who co-wrote and executive produced the movies, had a strong hand in this adaptation, according to Tad Stones, who co-directed the movies along with Phil Weinstein. The second movie, Hellboy: Blood and Iron, is slated for 2007. I've placed a trailer for Sword of Storms after the jump.

This could be the coolest news I've heard all day. On July 17, Cartoon Network and VIZ Media will launch Toonami Jetstream, a free broadband service where you will not only be able to watch shows from the networks Toonami block, but also awesome anime and adventure series the network doesn't air. The initial launch will include the following shows: Naruto, Samurai Jack, Hikaru No Go, MÄR, and The Prince of Tennis. Other shows to follow include IGPX, Megaman NT Warrior, and Zoids Genesis. Now, to be honest, I never got into Toonami all that much, despite having a lot of friends in college who would drop everything they were doing and rush to the TV when Dragonball Z was on. Nevertheless, it's cool to see Cartoon Network once again taking advantage of streaming video. I'm definitely checking this one out come July.

There's been a lot of talk lately about the upcoming sequel to The Dark Crystal, which will be directed by animation wunderkind Genndy Tartakovsky and combine both puppets and CG backgrounds. What I didn't catch until recently is that there may also be an animated Dark Crystal series which will air as part of Cartoon Network's Toonami block. David Slack, who also worked on Teen Titans, will work on this series. I haven't seen much on this, save for little tidbits here and there, so I guess we'll have to wait and see. The series will apparently work as a kind of prequel to the original film, focusing on life before the Crystal cracked and the Gelfling race was (nearly) wiped out.

Last night I happened to stumble upon the premiere of Wulin Warriors: Legend of the Seven Stars on Cartoon Network. The show is part of the network's Toonami block and focuses on two warriors in the land of Wu (Lone Sword and Scar)  who are trying to find the Lord of the Stars in order to restore peace to the land. Also, it's not very good.

 

The show resembles Thunderbirds in some ways, except it uses dolls rather than marionettes. The dolls have no real decernible mouth movements, and the whole show seems less like an action adventure and more like watching people playing with dolls for half an hour. Those lackluster production values could almost be forgiven if the characters, especially Scar, weren't so cloying. Scar is meant to be the comic relief, but his lines are delivered with all the grace and subtly of an egg beater being crammed up your nose. By the end of the episode I wanted to take their dolls away until they promised never to make a show like this again.

A bit of research revealed that Wulin Warriors is actually an Americanized version of a popular Taiwanese program. Therefore, I'll allow that perhaps something (or everything) was lost in the translation. Cartoon Network has always tried to place the best shows in its "speciality" blocks like Toonami and Adult Swim, and I'm not sure exactly how something this lackluster made it to air. Apparently thirteen episodes of the show have been created, and if it lasts beyond that, I'll be surprised.