12/01/08 Platypus Comix
• Before Venkman or Egon, before Jake or Eddie, there were the REAL Real Ghostbusters: the 1975 Saturday Morning show by the same title that had no relation to the 1984 movie! The Ghostbuster name was originally worn by two bumbling fools and a man in a gorilla suit? Now that's scary!11/25/08 Platypus Comix
• Presenting Platypus Comix's live* coverage of the 82nd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!!
*Depending on viewing time, the parade may be either live, tape-delayed, or from the future11-11-08 The Drawing Board Website
• "Draw Your Own: Hellboy!" A small but well rendered collection of artist impressions of the giant red wonder!11/10/08 Platypus Comix
• Local television rarely gets stranger than what we're looking at this week.
If you've listened to what a lot of other websites have said about this set of SpongeBob SquarePants episodes, you will have heard a chorus describing a show in gradual decline. The standard line is that, while SpongeBob is still good, it’s not what it once was; the magic has gone. Some of the more critical voices might even suggest that, after a movie and unexpected mainstream success, Bikini Bottom’s favourite blue-eyed resident has jumped the shark. Posters here at Tone Zone have blamed the posited drop off on the departure of executive producer Steven Hillenburg: Mickialla's gloomy statement that "the new SpongeBob contributes to the downfall of animation on TV" represents a majority view. Even Toon Zone's Maxie Zeus argues that the show has become one-dimensional in its characterization.
I dissent. On the evidence of Season 5, Volume 2, I would say that the show is still as good as it ever was and arguably looks better than it ever has.
I do have some reservations about this release. As a DVD set this is nothing special. It contains twenty-one episodes on two discs, and that’s about it—and these include the feature-length episode Atlantic Squarepants, which has already received its own DVD-release. It’s always slightly irritating to own the same thing twice in different places. So fans who went out and bought the Atlantis Squarepants set might feel a little short changed. There are no extras apart from a number of karaoke videos featuring songs from Atlantis Squarepants and "Pest of the West". I can’t help but feel that fans might expect more.
That said, the ten episodes that follow Atlantis Squarepants on Disc 1 are on the whole pretty strong. I tend to like episodes that centre on the Krusty Krab, because a lot of the humour comes from the conflict between the characters who work there, and especially from the contrast between SpongeBob’s eternally wide-eyed and naïve optimist and Squidward’s tired cynic. And I think the concept of a guy who just loves his low-level job at the local burger joint remains fresh and intrinsically funny. Also, basically every time I see a Krabby Patty, I want one.
So, true to form, the strongest episodes here, "Mermaidman vs. SpongeBob" and "Le Big Switch", are all about the Krabby Patties. There are some great "single theme" shorter episodes here too: Sandy brings home a truly horrific flea infestation in "A Flea in Her Dome"; "The Donut of Shame" finds Patrick guiltily agonizing over a donut he stole from SpongeBob; in "Blackjack" SpongeBob is terrified by the return of a childhood bully; and the jobsworth SpongeBob goes totally OTT over cleaning a dirty plate in "The Krusty Plate". These are all pretty entertaining. The show is less successful when it tries longer narratives: "The Pest from the West" promises to be a great Western-themed, all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza but, ironically, it is Disc 1’s damp squib.
Disc 2 isn’t quite as strong because several episodes in a row ("The Inmates of Summer", "To Save a Squirrel", "20,000 Patties Under the Sea", "The Battle of Bikini Bottom") focus on SpongeBob and Patrick’s Dumb and Dumber routine. I don’t tend to like SpongeBob and Patrick adventure episodes. There are still funny moments in these episodes but a lot hinges on the incredible stupidity of both characters. "The Battle of Bikini Bottom" is probably the pick, featuring as it does some risqué humor and a good old-fashioned cartoon battle between the squeaky-clean SpongeBob and the filthy, mud-wallowing Patrick. "Whatever Happened to SpongeBob?" bucks the trend with a SpongeBob solo advenure and, remarkably, boasts a guest appearance by Ray Liotta. It is one of the longer, narrative episodes, which—in my opinion—have never been the show’s forte. The highlight of Disc 2 is probably "The Two Faces of Squidward", which casts Squidward in an unfamiliar leading role after he's become the most handsome … erm, squid … in Bikini Bottom. "Banned in Bikini Bottom" is also a great Krusty Krab-centric pattitastic episode.
One of the outstanding things in this season is some of the extreme "gross-out" close-ups we’re treated to, a la Ren & Stimpy. The horribly detailed snapshot of Mermaidman and Barnacle Boy’s grizzled, gnarled, and decrepit bodies is particularly gruesome. "The Battle of Bikini Bottom" also has a few especially disgusting ones. I'd also praise the dialogue, which, for a show that is nominally aimed at younger kids, is often exceptional. Consider this exchange between Plankton and some of his potential customers in "20,000 Patties Under the Sea":
Plankton: Hello little boy, would you like a Chum burger? Boy: Ummm, does it come in raspberry? Plankton: Er, no. Boy: Does it come in blueberry? Plankton: No. Boy: Ummmmmmmm, raspberry? Plankton: Oh come on kid, you asked me that already! Now quit wasting my time! Boy’s mother: Hey, you can’t talk to my son that way! Who do you think you are? Plankton: I’m Plankton, you old hag, and your son smells like boogers! Boy’s father: Hey, you can’t talk to my wife that way! What do you think this is? Plankton: I think it’s time for you to lose some weight, fatty, that’s what I think it is! Old woman: Hey, you can’t talk to my grandson that way! Someone should put you in a mental hospital. Plankton: Someone should put you in a box floating down the river, Grandma! Old woman: (looking sad) You’re probably right.
That scene just comes out of nowhere, and this sort of thing is the norm rather than the exception.
If you’re a fan of this show of old, then do not listen to those people you might tell you that it is starting to level out. The good stuff still outweighs the bad, and out of the twenty-one episodes on this set I’d say more than two thirds are above average. Yes, the writers may take some short cuts...[read more]
ASIFA-Hollywood has announced the nominees for the 36th annual Annie Awards, "recognizing the year's best animated features, television productions, commercials, video games and short subjects." DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda racked up 17 nominations, including Best Animated Feature and the awards for directing, character animation, character design, and writing. Disney's Bolt earned 9 nominations, with Disney/Pixar's WALL-E trailing close behind with 8, with both competing with Kung Fu Panda for the Best Animated Feature. The remaining 2 Best Animated Feature Annie nominations went to Sony Pictures Classics' Waltz with Bashir and Sherman Pictures/Lama Films $9.99 (see Toon Zone News' earlier coverage of these two films).
Nickelodeon dominated the television awards with 12 nominations total, including two for Best Animated Television Production for Children with Avatar the Last Airbender and The Mighty B! competing with Warner Brothers' A Miser Brothers Christmas (Warner Brothers), and Cartoon Network Studios' Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends "Destination: Imagination" and Underfist: Halloween Bash.
The Annie Awards will be given on Friday, January 30, 2009, at a special ceremony at UCLA's...[read more]
The New York Times has taken a look at The Cleveland Show(free registration required), the upcoming animated spinoff from Family Guy which will premiere next fall, and was previewed for the audience of the...[read more]
The New York Times has taken a look at animation outside the mainstream (free registration required), focusing specifically on the works of Bill Plympton, Signe Baumane, and Don Hertzfeldt. All 3 eschew the funny animal CGI stereotype that drives Disney and DreamWorks Animation, usually in favor of hand-drawn animation and more mature subject matter. The Times describes the market situation for more serious animation as "comparable to that of California wine, pre-1976," despite...[read more]
Nickelodeon's new animated series, The Mighty B!, will get a DVD release on 2/24/09. Entitled The Mighty B! - We Got the Bee, the DVD contains an hour and a half of cartoons as well as a "Behind The Mighty B!" featurette. Price is not yet available.[read more]
I doubt I need to tell too many of you what Wall*E is about: its $223 million at US box offices alone speaks to the movie's runaway success. A little robot abandoned on an Earth drowning in trash finds a way to save it and the human race that abandoned it. It sounds simple, and in the end it probably is a bit simple, but that only adds to the power of the emotion it brings out. If you've never cried during a movie before, you very well might during this film.
And you would be crying for a robot who can't even speak. That is the essence of its characterization and it's what makes the movie work. It’s a return to silent-film technique, with a character who can't talk; more than that, it's a character who doesn't look remotely human and who can only emote through motion and some bleeps and bloops.
Once again, Pixar has hit a grand slam with this, probably their best movie since Monsters Inc. You will believe that a robot can have a heart and a soul. Even with a few gaping logic conundrums and holes, the story perseveres and eventually triumphs, and the visuals stand the test as well. Pixar has never done something that required such a degree of visual believability before, and they aced it. Between the absolutely stunning visuals and the expansive sound stage, any of you with a home theater system will find it getting a very good workout.
The Wall*E DVD set is a fairly well stocked package. The three-disc set I received for review includes the movie, a commentary track with director Andrew Stanton, a couple of deleted scenes, and a featurette on making sound for the movie. Disc two has more featurettes on the creation of the movie, a couple more deleted scenes, some incredibly satirical B&L shorts, and a documentary on the history of Pixar up to 2006. Disc three contains a digital copy of the movie for laptops and other such portable hard drives. Think of it as a legal rip of the movie, but it does have a lock out code on it, so it is not totally DRM-free.
The commentary track is probably the most important extra overall, and the only one exclusive to the DVD since our very own website has links to most of the other special features here. Mr. Stanton discusses the gestation of the story and quite a bit of the process behind its production, though not a whole lot about the ideas that it embodies. He seems skittish about the film's rather self-evident environmental message and its pretty harsh cultural critique. Just coming out and saying "This is what the movie is about and you're an idiot if you don't get it" probably wouldn't be the smartest move. Still, between the movie itself and the viciously cutting B&L shorts on the second disc Pixar has turned a very harsh light on the excesses of the culture that birthed the company and says some thing that not everyone will be comfortable hearing about themselves, so dodging that does seem just a little bit like ignoring the proverbial elephant in the room.
Beyond the commentary the rest of the special features are pretty much the standard variety of behind the scenes peeks that any well done DVD includes these days. They are not totally exhaustive, and I doubt Wall*E really needs a Lord of the Rings-level treatment, but they do very effectively show how much work went into creating the world we see on screen. The most interesting part is how much work they did with filming and replicating the kinds of lighting used in regular movies. The other really big extra is the documentary put together by Leslie Iwerks on the history of Pixar, covering the period from John Lasseter's graduation from Cal Arts to the release of Cars. If the name "Iwerks" seems familiar for some reason, it is the name of her father's company, which does the assembly work for a lot of the films and equipment used in theme park simulation attractions. Also, her grandfather was Ub Iwerks, one of the original Disney animators, so there's a lot of connections running throughout the various production houses involved in making Wall*E.
Sadly, I must give Disney/Pixar a very hard rap on the knuckles for the way they have packaged this DVD set. Rather than using the usual plastic case with a swinging flap, they used a paperboard box with two wings that you pull out to get the DVDs out, which almost guarantees that you will damage your DVDs. (I'm fairly certain that the odd hiccup in my copy at about a minute into the film is caused by a scratch from the packaging.) Since they're not secured at all, it is very easy for the DVDs to slide around in the sleeve and get scratched; it is also very easy for them to fall out of the sleeves when they are pulled out. Additionally, the package is very easy to damage, making it difficult to even pull the DVDs out in the first place. Perhaps in deciding to go this route they were thinking that paperboard is more "green" than plastic, though given the complexities that surround the manufacture of paperboard, it's still a pretty debatable decision.
That being said, if you like what Pixar has out with before, you will not be disappointed in Wall*E, If you like movies period, you will not be disappointed by Wall*E. Without a doubt it is one of the best movies released so far in 2008 and will easily pass the test of time to become yet another...[read more]
To help fill the gap between seasons of the animated series, Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder has announced BoondocksBootleg, the "Offiical Unofficial YouTube channel of Aaron McGruder" that will contain online video sketches starring characters like Granddad...[read more]
Newsarama's Animated Shorts has interviewed Craig McCracken, creator of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, about the new 1-hour episode "Destination: Imagination" which premiered on November 27, 2008. McCracken talks about some of the influences of the show, the role his wife Lauren Faust plays in...[read more]
Teshkeel Media and Endemol UK are teaming up to produce the animated adventures of The 99, based on the comic book series of the same name from Teshkeel. The series focuses on a superhero team whose members derive their powers as an embodiment of one of the 99 virtues of Allah. Production will be done in India...[read more]
Variety has noted the two Israeli animated movies set to be released in U.S. movie theaters soon: the documentary Waltz with Bashir and $9.99, based on the short stories of Etgar Keret. The stop-motion movie $9.99 is a "surreal, multi-stranded musing on the meaning of life featuring disparate characters including a disgruntled guardian angel," and Keret finally consented to the adaptation of his work because he felt that live-action movies wouldn't do them justice. It will be handled by Regent Releasing, with its theatrical run starting on December 12, 2008.
Waltz with Bashir follows the deployment of director Ari Folman during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and has been receiving critical acclaim and...[read more]
Warner Home Video has announced that Chowder Vol. 2 will be released on March 3, 2009. The disc will contain the following 10 episodes of the show:
"The Wrong Address"/"The Wrong Customer"
"The Burple Nurple Stand"/"Shnitzel Makes a Deposit"
"Gazpacho Stands Up"/"A Taste of Marzipan"
"The Puckerberry Overlords"/"The Elemelons"
"Sniffleball"/"Mung on the Rocks"
The Sci Fi Wire reports that the fourth and final Futurama film will be on DVD & Blu-Ray in Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder.
The film features guest voices Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy), hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg, and magician Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller fame. Fans will also find out more about the mysterious "number 9 man."
The film also includes audio commentary from Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, writers and animators, a making-of mockumentary, deleted scenes, a How to Draw Futurama feature, Bender's Movie...[read more]
GhibliWorld.com is reporting that Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Fankie Jonas, Noah Cyrys and Cloris Leachman will be in the English dub cast for Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, the newest movie from director Hayao Miyazaki. The US version is produced by Frank Marshall...[read more]
* Modern artist Takashi Murakami will be opening an animation studio in Los Angeles as the next step in his production company Kaikai Kiki, starting with a feature film based on his "Planting the Seeds" animated shorts. [Los Angeles Times]
* The South Korean government will be investing 410 billion won (US $274 million) in a third cultural stimulus package. $67 million is allocated...[read more]
Superhero Hype reports the teaser trailer for the new video game, Batman: Arkham Asylum is already out. You can watch the trailer here.
The new video game will be out early next year for the Playstation 3, XBox 360 & PC, and features the voices of Mark Hamill as The Joker and Kevin Conroy as Batman....[read more]
Quite a few collections are on their way from FUNimation, some of which are license rescues:
* Dragon Ball GT Season 2: 2/10/09 - $49.98
* Dragon Ball Z Season 8 Uncut: 2/10/09 - $49.98
* Kurau Phantom Memory Box Set: 2/24/09 - $69.98
* Love Hina Complete Box Set: 2/24/09 - $49.98
* Nerima Daikon Brothers Box Set: 2/17/09 - $49.98
* Ragnarok Box Set: 2/10/09 - $39.98
* Shattered Angels Complete Box Set: 2/24/09 - $59.98
* Shin-chan Season 2 Part 1: 2/10/09 - $39.98
In movie news, as previously reported on at Toon Zone, Afro Samurai Resurrection is seeing DVD and Blu-ray releases on 2/3/09. They will be available in both edited ($29.98) and uncut versions ($34.98; $39.98 for Blu-ray) Also, Dragon Ball Z's seventh and ninth movies, "Super Android 13" and "Bojack Unbound", are seeing DVD and Blu-ray releases on...[read more]
To many in the United States, anime consists of giant fighting robots, ninjas, game adaptations, and the occasional bit of tentacle porn. Even true fans of anime should admit that non-Japanese audiences are exposed to relatively few of its many genres. In more ways than one, then, Emma: A Victorian Romance represents a quirky offering from Right Stuf: a very proper, very conventional Victorian-era love story. It may represent an attempt on the distributor's part to reach an audience with something other than the usual otaku subjects, and fans of shows like Masterpiece Theatre or the many adaptations of Victorian-era British novels will surely get a kick out of Emma, especially fans of the teenaged variety. More conventional anime fans may also find it a sneaky way to introduce anime to girlfriends who think that it's nothing but lasers, swords, and fan service.
Based on a manga series by Kaoru Mori, Emma doesn't exactly break new ground. The title character is a young maid in the employ of retired governess Kelly Stownar. In the debut episode, she receives a visit from her former charge, William Jones. Sparks smolder between the two almost immediately, despite the enormous gulf between William and Emma's social classes. Jones is the first-born son of a wealthy merchant newly inducted into London's gentry, so it is quite unthinkable that he would rather court a maid over the high-born Miss Eleanor Campbell, the girl his father has chosen for him. The entirety of this season set is dedicated to the slow burn between Emma and William, with interesting obstacles arising in the form of William's family and Prince Hakim, an Indian prince and friend of William on an extended visit from India. The pair also get unexpected assistance, or at least encouragement, from Miss Stownar and, oddly enough, from Prince Hakim.
Emma takes some getting used to, especially if you're more used to the pacing of the comedies or adventures that dominate the American animation market. Emma gets off to an almost impossibly slow start, even when compared to similar live-action period dramas. Simply getting through the first disc may take a bit of determination, and it may be best if you don't start watching it when you're tired. But whatever hurdles the show presents early on, it doesn't take very long to get you thoroughly engrossed in the plot. If you can make it through that first disc, the remaining three will seem to pick up speed quickly. The end of the season feels like it comes a bit too soon, and yields an ending that will leave viewers who have made it that far screaming for resolution.
It must be said that many of the characters on the show tend to be archetypes rather than real people at first. Emma herself especially comes off as an enigmatic figure, and even at the end of the season, it is a bit of a mystery why so many men seem smitten with her. For that matter, it's never made entirely clear how deep William and Emma's feelings for each other truly are, although this may well be a deliberate creative choice rather than a failing of the show. In the end, neither Emma nor William are very well fleshed out, and William has the added detriment of seeming appallingly insensitive to the feelings of Miss Campbell. Of the characters on the show, Prince Hakim ends up being the most interesting. If Emma is an enigma, Prince Hakim is positively baffling, but in a way that makes him seem intriguing rather than underdeveloped. Some of this is due to an unfortunate tendency to exoticize Hakim, in the same sort of way that early American movies tended to portray inscrutable Orientals like Mr. Moto or Charlie Chan. It soon becomes clear, though, that he just inherently enjoys toying with people, although this doesn't really excuse the odd portrayal of his blasé retinue of exotic Indian women. In any event, the show successfully keeps us guessing about Prince Hakim's true motives and thoughts, and whether he truly wishes to help William or if he's sabotaging the affair so he can move in on Emma himself.
The subject matter of the show may make one wonder why it was animated at all. However, hardcore animation fans love to emphasize that animation is a medium, not a genre, so perhaps this is the wrong question. Why shouldn't there be animated Victorian romance tales? However, Emma does give a rather overt answer to the question in the middle of episode 3, when Prince Hakim and William ride on an elephant through in the middle of London. Doing a comparable scene in live-action would have been a logistical nightmare, or would have required CGI effects that are usually beyond the budget or the ability of an average TV drama. The less obvious answer to "why animated?" comes in the way that the show can get all the minor details of costuming and setting exactly right. Emma can do enormous crowd scenes of people in period clothing without the same difficulty in costuming a few dozen extras, and without ever having to worry that a pair of Nikes will poke out from under a skirt. Using animation also means that nobody needs to worry much about building sets or worrying about some anachronism from creeping into the frame, like an airplane trail in the sky or a modern car visible in the background. The trip that Emma and William take to London's Crystal Palace on volume 3 is a gorgeous set piece, and a live-action production would have had great difficulty in pulling off the setting and the massive crowds of people in the scene wearing period clothing. Clearly, a lot of work and research into Victorian-era London went into developing Emma, and all this work ends up on-screen, creating an unprecedented sense of authenticity.
The animation for Emma has a quiet and understated manner to it, which fits the subject and the story. The character design accurately mimics Kaoru Mori's style from the original manga, and will remind American comic book fans of Takeshi Miyazawa's work in Marvel's Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane or Runaways. Most of the real overt visual dazzle is found in the backgrounds and settings, since the character design and character animation are both rather limited. Indeed, until you learn to check the hairstyles, it is quite easy to mistake William Jones for his much older father, since their character designs are so similar. Even so, the show manages to get tremendous mileage out of the smallest glances and the subtlest movements. The way a character will stiffen up or give a careful sideways glance will speak volumes about their emotional state, as their British reserve prevents them from expressing their true feelings in words. Like many of the best British costume dramas, there's as much or more information communicated non-verbally than verbally, and the fact that Emma can bring this across so effectively with such limited animation is quite impressive indeed.
Right Stuf has opted to release the complete first season of Emma in one boxed set of four thinpak DVDs rather than stretching it out over several individual volumes to be collected later. This is almost certainly the best decision they could have made for the material, considering the tough sell it has next to other titles in the anime section and because of the series' rather slow start. The show is presented in enhanced widescreen format, with sensible chapter stops throughout each episode that let you skip past the opening and closing credits quickly. The soundtrack is only available in 2-channel stereo, and only in the original Japanese. (It wouldn't have made any sense for Right Stuf to spring for a 5.1 Dolby Digital mix, considering that the entire show is just talking heads.) Apparently, there is an English dub of the show, but for whatever reason Right Stuf didn't license it. This isn't too big of a deal—if you're the type willing to sit through a show like Emma, you're also probably the type that isn't bothered by subtitles, and you rather quickly get used to the proper British types speaking Japanese. Each disc contains only three episodes, which is probably the only really minor complaint one could level at the show's presentation. For shows like Aquarion or Jyu-Oh-Sei, FUNimation manages to pack 11–13 episodes on two discs with no discernible loss in quality, and with multiple soundtracks to boot. The extra discs mean Emma takes up more space and requires twice the number the disc changes to get through the series—minor annoyances, to be sure, but annoyances nonetheless. Special features on each disc are limited to trailers, character biographies, and "special fan thanks" credits.
The real bonus feature comes in the "Emma Victorian Gazette": a surprisingly thick booklet packed in with the box that contains event summaries from the show presented as news stories, alongside a lot of pre-production artwork and explanations of the minutiae of life in Victorian-era London. It's a fascinating read all on its own, and is a very nice change of pace from the growing number of DVDs that come with no printed material at all. Be warned that the Gazette...[read more]
AOL's Moviefone service is hosting the trailer for Imagi Animaton Studio's upcoming Astro Boy, based on the manga and anime by Osamu Tezuka. The trailer is available in streaming video and [read more]
The latest Anime Today podcast from Right Stuf speaks with Bandai Entertainment about the Toward the Terra TV series. Participants include Richard Kekahuna (series producer), Brian Cutts (series assistant producer), Robert Napton (director of marketing) and Anthony Foronda (marketing coordinator), who discuss the series production, release...[read more]
On December 6, 2008, he DC Anime Club will be hosting a marathon of animation based on the works of Osamu Tezuka, often credited as the father of anime and the god of manga. Highlights will include Phoenix, Kimba the White Lion, Black Jack, and Astro Boy.
Nickelodeon has released highlights of their December 2008 programming schedule, focusing on the Christmas and holiday-themed specials. Animated premieres include the Christmas episodes of Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, The Wonder Pets!, and The Fairly Odd Parents. Other seasonal episodes of The Backyardigans, Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego, Go!, and Yo Gabba Gabba! will also be running on Nick Jr.
