Animation Unlimited

Check it out, CNN and the AP picked up the story about Sony Online Entertainment's new joint venture with Pizza Hut. We ranted about Everquest 2 incorporating /pizza into the game last week in this entry.

Aw hell, it makes me wish I did this story as a stringer instead of posting here ... I could have make a few bucks. Ah well, easy come, easy go... now where is that /pizza and b33r?

Well, they were not terribly interesting this year. I feel for Martin Scorsese, I wonder if he is ever going to be recognized for his work by the academy. You know they are going to have to give him a lifetime achievement award at some point.

Did anyone else feel it was a really strange format with presenters in the audience? I feel it broke things up too much and created some really awkward moments. Hell, for best Animated Short Film, we did not even get to see any clips... or Best Picture for that matter!

All-and-all it was a pretty ho-hum ceremony this year.

Ok, I'm going to keep this on-topic -- here are the Animation Highlights from the Oscars:

Shrek gets screentime with Charlie Chaplin. Nice little bit of CG work having him play "hacky sack" with Chaplin.

Brad Bird takes home two Oscars for The Incredibles - Best Original Screenplay and Best Animated Feature.

Pierce Brosnan presents costume design award with Edna Mode (from The Incredibles).

Ryan wins Best Animated Short Film. (Anyone see this film?)

The best animation moment of the night goes to a very animated comic, Robin Williams. Before presenting for Best Animated Feature, he went off on a short tirade about the controversy over SpongeBob allegedly being gay:

"They tell me now that SpongeBob is gay. SquarePants is not gay. Tight pants maybe. SpongeBob Hot Pants? You go, girl!"

"What about Donald Duck? Sailor top, no pants. Hello?" "Chip and Dale, never apart, live in a tree, run around gathering nuts? Hello?" (ed: don't recall the exact quote on this one and can't find it, sorry) "Bugs Bunny. More dresses than J. Edgar Hoover at Mardi Gras. Hello?"

I think if ABC allowed him sing his originally planned song in "the voice of a preacher" it would have been even funnier... but ABC showed the usual spinelessness associated with the post-Jackson-nipple era by cutting the whole thing. Read more here.

The cut song included the lines:

"Pinocchio's had his nose done! Sleeping Beauty is popping pills! The Three Little Pigs ain't kosher! Betty Boop works Beverly Hills!" "Fred Flintstone is dyslexic, Jessica Rabbit is really a man, Olive Oyl is really anorexic, and Casper is in the Ku Klux Klan!" "Chip 'n Dale are both strippers," "Bugs Bunny's a sexaholic," and "Josie and the Pussycats dance on laps."

Now that's comedy.

I have been an avid reader of Megatokyo for a while now - and I have to say, I am really pleased with the direction the story has taken in the past few weeks. Romance is heating up, conflict is brewing, and the artwork just keeps getting better.

For those that don't know, Megatokyo is the story of a couple of American geeks who, after getting drunk at E3 a few years ago, decided to hop a plane and go off to Japan. After gaining access to the country via a MortalKombat Visa, Piro (the nice one) and Largo (the crazy l337 dude) find themselves stranded with no money and no way home. Hilarity ensues.

Also, you can blame Megatokyo at least in part for the proliferation of l337 sp33k... gotta love those t-shirts.

After starting this as a hobby, Fred Gallagher started writing Megatokyo full time a few years ago - and is truly living his dream as an American Manga artist. The comic is published online every Monday, Wednesday and Friday... and the first few years are published in book-format from Darkhorse. His website is great, he publishes his own rants along with Dom, one of his cronies. It is on my must-see website list every week.

Use the coupon code "berserk" at Rightstuf and get 33% off (see post below) on Megatokyo, Volume 1; Megatokyo, Volume 2; Megatokyo, Volume 3.

I recieved Just this announcment from Rightstuf. Time to Stock up on DarkHorse Products! Megatokyo anyone?

-----

Here's a great one for the manga fans! Time to stock up on reading material, because you'll go berserk over the savings we're giving you on Dark Horse!
We've slashed prices down so you can easily pick up some wonderful titles like Berserk, Blade of the Immortal, Hellsing, Trigun, and perhaps even the upcoming
Vampire Hunter D novel!

From now until 3/2, get 33% OFF Retail price on all Darkhorse items!* That includes novels, graphic novels, t-shirts, lighters, everything!

Plus, if you're a Got Anime Member, you can use your membership and get savings that will frighten everyone you know!

How? Just use the following reusable coupon code when you check out through our online store:

Coupon code: berserk
Expires: 3/2/05 at 11:59PM CST

Not sure what products are from Dark Horse? Just use their Advanced Search Option to find everything they produce!

Now this is bloody brilliant. The people over at Sony Online Entertainment have brought gaming sloth to a whole new level.

In the middle of a mad hunt in Everquest 2 and hunger pains got you down? Don't despair, just take yourself away from bashing orcs in the head for a second and type /pizza in the command console. A new browser window will pop up within seconds and you can type in a Pizza Hut order to be delivered to your door. Read more about it here.

Granted I have been ordering my Papa John's pizza online for a few months now, but to integrate it into the game itself... now that is slick/sick marketing!

Grab the l33t pizza of tummy filling and don't forget the m4g!c b33r +1! Go for the b33r!

From the AP - NEW YORK Feb 17, 2005 — Bugs Bunny and his pals are being updated for the future way in the future. The WB network will take the famed Looney Tunes characters as models for a new children's series, "Loonatics," that will air on Saturday mornings starting this fall. The characters' descendants Buzz Bunny and the like will be superhero action figures for the cartoon set in the year 2772.

The network's animators have re-imagined Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Wile E. Coyote as sleek new figures for a modern age.

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Oh man, here we go again ... reaching back into the archives for an "update." I know in my Bio I complained that were no "new" Looney Toons when I was a kid, but this is not quite what I had in mind. I like dark animation as much as the next guy, but to take a classic such has this and to twist it to this end ... I've got a bad feeling about this. Superhero actions figures? It's like seeing Looney Toons in Bizarro world. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

You may not want to see more, but look at this. Aint It Cool news has a preview of the new toon.

The WB has done some really good updates in the past, and most of them were superhero related. Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman, Justice League, and Teen Titans were all good updates of some older cartoons. But unlike this, most of those updates made the cartoons more true to the original source material, the comics they came from ... this is a real deviation from the source. The Loonatics look like "new" pro-sports mascots.

And the biggest question, can this be funny? I certainly don't see any "What's up doc?" happening here.

Darkness clouds everything.

Post your thoughts in the forum.

More off-topic news. My aunt, Nina Romano, has an excerpt from her upcoming novel featured in the Spring 2005 edition of Dimsum Literary Journal .

"Edited by Nury Vittachi and published three times per year, Dimsum is available worldwide through major wholesalers in America and Britain and directly to readers through leading online booksellers in the USA, Britain, Canada and Asia." Dimsum features "short stories, poetry and selected non-fiction by Asian authors or on Asian themes."

In addition to my aunt's work, this edition features contributor pieces by Thomas Keneally (author of Schindler's List) and Yu Hua (author of To Live and Chronicle of a Blood Merchant). I have added a direct link to the journal under the "Links" section in the left sidebar. Or, simply click here. Check it out today!

I finally pulled the trigger and sent out my "Shameless Self Promotion" announcement that we are officially live. I guess you can call it my one-and-only SPAM announcement.

"Euuh, I don't like Spam!"

Yeah, me either, but you have to start someplace. Regardless, if you are visiting as a result of that email, welcome! Feel free join in the forum and the fun! Things are still a little sparse at the moment, but you need to start someplace.

Again, thanks for stopping by ...

Microsoft announced Thursday that it will recall over 14 million power cords for the Xbox game console. The recall covers all Xboxes manufactured for Europe before Jan. 13, 2004 and the rest of the world before Oct. 23, 2003. All Xboxes manufactured after these dates were redesigned to avoid the issue.

Apparently original Xbox power supply/cord design is a fire hazard due. Microsoft claims that the risk is fewer than 1 in 10,000.

If you have an Xbox, go to the Xbox website and request a new power cord. Microsoft is replacing the cords free of charge. You will need the serial number and manufacture date off of your console, so be sure to have that handy.

This is a good year for fans of Seth MacFarlane. First, Family Guy will be coming back with all new episodes on Fox starting in May after a three-year hiatus. In addition, American Dad, a new animated sitcom by MacFarlane also begins airing on Fox in May. The pilot episode of American Dad aired after the Superbowl two weeks ago and will again in March, and it looks very promising.

American Dad is the story of Stan Smith's family. Stan is a right-wing nutjob of a CIA agent who seems to spot terrorists at every corner and not afraid of using his government influence to his advantage - or wacking toast if it pops up the wrong way. His wife Francine is a seemingly sweet doting wife that hides a party-girl past, and 18-year old Daughter Hayley is as much to the left as her father is to the right. So far the All in the Family parallels are pretty strong... but once you add in the geek son Steve, Area-51 alien escapee Roger and CIA-expirement-gone-wrong fish-with-the-brain-of-an-East-German-guy Klaus who has an unhealthy crush on Francine... well the similarities end. Whew.

Although not as mad-cap as Family Guy, the comedy is true MacFarlane - irreverent and racy. One of the best cut-away's came when President Bush gets a phone call from God asking him to downplay their relationship ... only to have God hang up when he gets a call from Cheney, "Yes Sir?" Woah boy!

The animation is in the exact style of Famly Guy, I suppose you could say the Smith family lives in the same "world" as the Griffins... so there are no issues with the quality. It looks really good.

As far as concerns go, I don't know if Stan can be as endearing a focal character as Family Guy's Peter Griffin, or how easily political satire can connect with this medium in the current U.S. climate (though the idea of furnishing Iraq with Ikea is still pretty funny), but if anyone can pull this off, I think MacFarlane can. The show did have a few shining moments, and I think it has a ton of potential... and MacFarlane lending his voice talent to Stan and Roger certainly helps. I'm looking forward to the season starting.

Check out American Dad when it airs again on March 6th and decide for yourself.

I watched a couple of more episodes of Teen Titans on the DVR this weekend. In "Birthmark" we see the return of the Titan's archenemies, Slade. He's back from the dead, bigger and badder than ever ... and has a message for Raven on her birthday: "You will fulfill your destiny." It seems our favorite goth girl is destined to destroy the world - and Papa wants to be sure it happens.

This could get interesting.

In 'Cyborg the Barbarian," Cyborg is transported several thousand years into the past where he becomes a barbarian tribal champion after defeating hordes of green monsters with his "boomstick." This episode felt so much like Army of Darkness that I was waiting for him to grab the tribal leader and say, "Gimme some sugar baby."

Alas, not this time. But, at least they allude to some fun movies in this show, if I had a dollar for every Star Wars reference ...

Buy Teen Titans at Amazon

This is the first entry in Animation Unlimited's Macross vs. Robotech series of posts.

Perhaps I'm just an ubergeek, but ever since I watched Robotech for the first time, I've wondered what the real differences were between the Macross Saga in Robotech and the original Macross: Super Dimensional Fortress. Sure, you can find some information on how the Macross story was changed so that it would fit into the greater Robotech Saga (I won't rehash how they made Robotech here, you can read about it in the Robotech FAQ), but I've never been satisfied with the descriptions I Googled or Yahoo!ed.

Now, after over a dozen years, I finally get my chance. As I said in an earlier post, I bought the subtitled version of Macross in its original form. It's the remaster that was released by AnimEigo a few years ago, and they used to be more expensive than I care to think about. The DVDs arrived from Rightstuf yesterday.

I'll be watching the Robotech DVDs first as I am more familiar with that format, then I'll view the Macross DVDs for comparison. As we get deeper and deeper I'll give spoiler warnings, but for now I'm not giving much away. I only got to watch the first two episodes of Macross SDF last night, and there are differences - and in some ways they are a bit more heavy-duty than I expected. It actually feels like a completely different show. Within the first 10 minutes of the first episode, I wrote down 10 changes I thought noteworthy. I guess I should not be surprised, purists have often said Macross is better, but I am by no means a purist - I'll say just say different for now.

So, without further ado, here is:

Macross vs. Robotech: Part 1 - "10 Differences in the First 10 Minutes"

» Read More

There is a new Star Wars spoof that was just released and it is very good. N. T. Bullock at SequentialPictures.com has created Star Wars Episode III: A Lost Hope. This fanfilm is one of the best I have seen. It has great production values, a good script, and nice effects. It runs about 7 Minutes and is rated PG-13 by the creator. Go check it out.

Well, Googlebot, MSN, and Yahoo! have all finally found us - look Ma, we have some real readers now!

After several months of playing with the site - moving from static pages to a true CMS (content management system), posting some real reviews, getting retail affiliates, and finding the right look for us - things are really starting to take shape! We still have plenty of work to do, formating and such ... but things are almost to the point where I'm happy with it. Now you guys just need to start speaking up in the forums (a slow process I know, no one likes an empty forum - it's on my list).

Anyway, since there are quite a few new eyes on us, I'd thought I'd take the opportunity to reintroduce ourselves.

Who are we? Well, Animation Unlimited my little slice of the animation pie. It's my chance to talk about any type of animation I want... no holds bared, nothing is off limits. Well, nothing within reason ... we'll try to keep it clean.

Why animation? There are several hobbies I know best: computers and video games, Jeeps, old Star Wars Trivia, how to brew beer ... and animation. To be honest, I have tried making static sites dedicated to all those other things in the past and they just did not keep the creative flow going. I work on computers all day so I don't like to talk about them much (my wife would disagree), there are others that know Jeeps a heck of a lot better than I do (the people at SouthernJeeps.org are a good example), and beer is hard to comment on to the masses (few people know what East Kent Goldings or Fruggles are and it's not legal for younger audiences).

Animation is fun, and it has a growing universal appeal. 'Toons are not just for kids anymore. I generally watch a cartoon of some sort almost every day, something I can't say for my other hobbies, so I figured this might be the right subject for a creative outlet. So far, so good, I am really enjoying myself here.

For the time being you will read the musings of myself and VHex, a buddy of mine who will give you animation reviews that are a bit on the lighter side. If you care, you can read more about us in either of the links below. Others may follow.

Who is Johaan?

Who is VHex?

So poke around, read our musings, join in in the forums, and most importantly have fun.

Tonight I saw some Comcast trucks rolling through the neighborhood for no apparent reason. They were working in tandem, one on each side of the road, lights blinking. My cable has been working fine so I did not think there were any issues ... but I had about what could be going on. I turned on my TV, cable box, and pushed the "On Demand" button on my remote - to find glorious video on demand. Cartoon Network on demand, Anime Channel on demand, Boomerang on demand - as if I did not have enough toons before - Comcast put more at my fingertips!

I know they may have turned this on within the last few weeks,and my finding it tonight was coincidence, but I have been waiting for this for a long time ... and not just the two years I have been living in this house aware that Comcast was working on it.

Sometime around 1992 I was in a pre-req Journalism course in college, "Mass Comm and Society." While he was on one of his many tangents, my professor told us about all the new media technology was supposed to be coming down the pike. A new form of Laserdisc, a video on demand service, and something called HDTV, he said, all were supposed to hit the market in about 5 or 6 years. (Incidentally, that same year I wrote a paper on something called the Internet that I thought would change the media forever ... I even had to petition the College of Engineering to get an email address ... boy things were different then. And I guess you can say I nailed that one!)

Well, he missed the mark on some of it by a little bit - it took roughly double the amount of time - but it did arrive as promised. I have HDTV in my house, a DVR that has made VHS recording a thing of the past, DVD, and now video on demand. Granted, the programing is still a little limited, but I could watch the Smurfs on demand and follow it up with some Robotech if I wanted to - and then go post about them on the Internet.

It's about time.

There is a great thread going on over at slashdot.org about an article that came out on C|Net today. Fansubs under fire! The gist of it is this: Media Factory, an animation studio out of Japan, is the first studio to break ranks and not turn a blind eye to the phenomenon that is known as fansubbing - and the fansub community is apprehensive.

What is fansubbing? Fansubbing is when fans of an anime show get a copy of a title that is not in the US and then subtitle it for free distribution on the net. In the old days, fansubs were done on VHS and the quality of the video was generally pretty bad ... but fansubs were often the only way to see anime titles that would have never made it to the states otherwise. More recently, the shows are done in high-quality DIVX format and released on BitTorrent to a much wider audience. Some of the fansubs are often considered as good, if not better than the subs of the big studio houses.

Why has this gone on for so long without any studio raising a stink? There has always been an is an unwritten rule that fansubs are only done on unlicensed shows. If a show get "picked up" by a US company, the fansub distribution for that title stops and the show all but disappears from the net. Basically, once a legit company can make a buck on it in the states, it goes away. What is different here is that Media Factory is the first company to give cease and desist notifications on unlicensed shows ... shows no one is making any money on in the states yet.

How do I feel about this? Well, it's a double edge sword to be honest - fansubbing seems to walk the line between moral and illegal. It is illegal no doubt, copyright laws transverse national boundaries - but morally, the line is much more gray. While it's not right that the creators are not getting paid for their work, these are shows that no one from Japan can make money off of in the states anyway, they are not licensed and unobtainable by the masses. What's more, once they are licensed, the shows will disappear from fansub distribution. Sure someone will hold on to that rogue copy of thishotnewshow, but one positive aspect is that fansubs often promote titles and build anticipation in advance of an actual licensed release - they can help the studio sales by building a fanbase before the licensed titles are released.

In the past I have watched fansubs from time to time. For instance, I found Battle Athletes Victory, a show I would have never thought to purchase, as a result of the fansub I found on the net a few years ago. But it has been a number of years since I went looking for them. I find that with the rate anime shows are being released in the states, there really is not much need for fansubs anymore ... at least not for me. I have a hard enough time keeping up as it is.

In the end, I don't think this shift will really affect one way or another how much anime is seen in the states - though it may hurt some grassroots efforts for particular shows and the community in general. Sure the industry can get along without them, but is it much better off? I really doubt it, but it is one more sign of the changing times in the digital age.

Last night I cracked open my copy of Robotech Remastered Extended Editon, #02, only to find a glob of "paint" on the data side. I guess some silkscreen splattered when they made the disc. What a bummer! I don't know anyone else that finds defective DVDs like I do, but I average at least 2-3 a year. I hope this fills up my quota for 2005!

Well, I have an e-mail and voicemail into ADVFilms to get this thing replaced so I can happily go on my Robotech way. I could possibly go back to the retailer, but since I bought it so long ago I'm afraid I might have a fight to replace it. When I had a bad Lilo and Stitch disc last year, Disney replaced it right away with no issues. I have also received replacements from MANGA Ent and Rightstuf in the past. I hope ADVFilms gives me the same kind of treatment.

I'll keep you posted.

-UPDATE-

ERK! The reply came quickly - but the standard form for the replacement said the turnaround time is 2-8 weeks! I'd like to avoid that kind of downtime. Time to call the e-tailer.

-UPDATE-

As I feared, a 30-day return policy on the DVD at the E-tailer. Looks like I don't have a choice in the matter... I'd better get it in the mail tomorrow. SO, expect my Robotech Remastered review to be delayed.... instead, you may get Robotech Remastered reviews at the same time as MACROSS vs. Robotech. That is, if those discs make it in soon!