Okay, so the new Avengers cartoon was released out to the masses today, and after seeing the teaser on the Jeph Loeb video a few weeks ago, I was really looking forward to this. Finally, an Avengers cartoon with a slick look, with the main lineup (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Giant-Man, Wasp, Hulk) and one of the main launching projects of the newly Disney acquired Marvel. Then I saw this...
UGH! It looks terrible. The animation is third rate at best, and is barely a step above the previous cartoon attempts the Ultimate Avengers animated movies, which took the amazing grittiness of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's comic Ultimate Avengers and just made it as blah and generic as possible and produced this spectacular piece of crap.
The sequel with Black Panther was just more of the same, so I won't even bother posting that video here. I mean, what is wrong with Marvel? Can't they take a good long look at DC/Warner Brothers' animation projects (Batman, Superman, Justice League, Batman Beyond, Legion of Superheroes, and now their string of animated features) and see that quality animation is always going to win out over rushed, hacked out, sub-par garbage?
When watching the new Avengers cartoon trailer above, I could only really think of the first attempt to put the animated Avengers on the small screen...
Marvel has gotten some animation right but I'll save that for another post, because I have just as much praise to heap upon those works as I have bile and resentment for these.
C'mon Marvel, Disney's got your back, give us the good stuff.
K
Showing posts with label Animation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animation. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Futurama Rebirth!
Following in the footsteps of the mighty animated television program Family Guy, the comeback kid that proved that fans can indeed resurrect their beloved shows, FUTURAMA is back on the air. Matt Groening's bastard stepchild of a show never came close to the success of The Simpsons, but it was a show that I enjoyed for all the science fiction tropes they spoofed, and after catching a lot of reruns on Cartoon Network, well I was eager to see this series come back to the future.
| Futurama | Thursdays 10pm / 9c | |||
| New Episodes on Comedy Central | ||||
| ||||
I was able to obtain a sneak preview of the first two episodes to review for you 'Clubbers out there. There's good news, and bad news. The good is it's all the same voice actors, the show looks and feels exactly the same, and all the ridiculous sci-fi cliches are there. The bad is that the humor isn't.
Well, I did laugh out loud a few times, but at the random lines. The 'jokes' just felt really forced and almost dumbed down considering the quality of punchline we usually get in The Simpsons or classic Futurama episodes. I can only assume it's because they're getting back into the swing of things after a seven year hiatus (not counting the four straight to DVD movies, which I can only assume were released to test the market's waters).
That said, I was entertained throughout. The first episode had some fun moments as a few in-jokes of their "rebirth" are tossed about, and we watch the entire cast reborn through SCIENCE! (you'll see what I mean) From there it jumps right into robot dopplegangers, the science of death, and the limits of love. (for real!) The second episode was a bit more groan worthy, but maybe that's because I don't love Zap Brannigan. It really did have its moments though.
Here's the first 90 seconds of the first new episode:
| Preview - Interstellar Fugitives | ||||
| ||||
Phew, that was not unlike traveling through time & space! So, another animated classic was revived after Cartoon Network re-aired the episodes. I think this sets a great precedent, that fans, or their money anyways, can make a difference in what stays on the air (after years and years of fanboys & girls trying desperately to save doomed shows, from Millennium to Moonlight).
And really, it's good to have new episodes to look forward to with this gang. Fry has really grown on me, much like a fungus, and the humor will hopefully improve as they get a few more episodes in and get comfortable again...if Comedy Central doesn't kill it again before that.
If you've never seen Futurama before or you just want to catch up on what you missed during the five season the show ran, well Comedy Central has provided this hand Recap-O-Rama video for you.
| Futurama | Thursdays 10pm / 9c | |||
| Recap-O-Rama: 5 Seasons in 7 Minutes | ||||
| ||||
I kept this review spoiler free, but after you watch the episode, feel free to leave comments below on what YOU think the future holds for Futurama.
You can get a ton of more behind the scenes material over at Comedy Central Insider's Countdown to Futurama blog posts.
Special extras: Live action Futurama film? Futurama mini-figures from Kid Robot. Lego Planet Express.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Dethklok vs The Goon One-Shot Review
I just finished Dethklok vs the Goon, a one-shot published by Dark Horse Comics this past July 2009. It pairs up Dark Horse's other horror fighter, Eric Powell's The Goon, with Brendan Small's metal band Dethklok, from the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse.
Now, I need to say I came into this as a Dethklok fan, as I sit in Think Coffee listening to the song The Lost Vikings at 9am in the morning, and before I went to bed last night I watched the season 3 premiere. For those unintiated in the black metal awesomeness, just imagine the Monkees as a metal band and you're close.
I've never read an issue of the Goon, but Powell's art is amazing. Beautifully rendered scenes of horrific violence against mutants and monsters. I love the early 20th century feel of the characters and the world they inhabit. A time when monsters could have very well walked among two-fisted men in cool caps.
This comic is pretty much an episode of Metalocalypse with the Goon making a guest appearance. Brendan Small is listed as assisting with dialogue and plot points, and it shows because this feels very much like Dethklok and I even put their voices in as I read the dialogue.
The basic premise is that Murderface, bassist of Dethklok, is descended from inbred royalty by a secret society looking to create a perfect anti-human whose mere presence would destroy space/time. A warlock tries to control Murderface as a manchurian candidate Dr. Rockso (the rock'n'roll clown) is sent to kill Dethklok by the Illuminati that watch over Dethklok's doings. 
All of Mordhaus, Dethklok's castle, is transported to the Goon's reality, and hilarity and antics ensue. The story takes a long time to even get to the Goon's time, and it's really just jokes and carnage from there on out. The Goon seems pretty weak even as his world, which looks interesting and goregeous in its horror filled panels, kind of just lies flat.
The art is crappy and thin lined for the Dethklok bits, and looks just like the cartoon, whereas the Goon bits are so well done that the art alone would make me want to read his own books. But it won't, just as the art I've seen before wowed me time and time again, I don't feel the urge to read more of Powell's stories.
All in all, great episode of Metalocalypse but bad issue of the Goon (not that I really know). But based off the success of this issue, Dethklok will be getting their own Dark Horse series, which I will definitely tune in for... I mean pick up each Wednesday.
Like the Goon? Want to defend Powell's honor? Hate Dethklok? Tell me I'm wrong in the comments below, I dare you!
K
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
"What's the deal with..." Motion Comics
Okay, so we know what Mobile Comics are: sequential art on your phone/eReader; static images of scanned in comic book pages with transitions between panels. Basically still a comic book, just in a digital format.
Motion comics, however, have more in common with cartoons/animation, and in their own way, are more enjoyable to watch, but a lot of creators question whether something that moves, speaks, and has music (thereby requiring no reading) is still a comic book at all.
I'm not going to get into that debate here. No, I just want to evaluate what is out there and available in this new electronic comic format/medium. I'll try and keep it chronological for the sake of witnessing the development of the technology and see who did what first.
I Am Legend. Watchmen. Batman. Obviously with Warner Brothers backing DC Comics (now more than ever as part of DC Entertainment) they were an obvious forerunner to Motion Comics.
I recall first seeing original Motion Comics promoting the movie 'I Am Legend' and upon searching could only find these two: I Am Legend: Isolation & I Am Legend: Awakening. The art is good and it's entertaining, I particularly like the jail story in Isolation, but they didn't do much with it past when the movie premiered. Although I have just learned they are on the DVD as extras, and as one reviewer said, they're good pilots for sequels without Will Smith.
Then the un-makeable, comic book, anti-superhero epic Watchmen was to be released, and Warner Brothers decided to put out the story as Motion Comic Webisodes. The good thing is there's a whole site based around the project, which is available on iTunes, Amazon Video on Demand, as well as a DVD release. I watched the first episode on the Black Freighter/Under the Hood extra DVD that was released after the movie, and it was pretty faithful and well done. The only complaint I can drum up is that it's treated as an audio-book with one guy doing all the voices, even for the ladies.
I watched previews of Batman: Black and White, Batman Adventures: Mad Love, and Batgirl Year One last night on my iPod touch. I've only read the Batgirl Year One in print and I really loved that story, seeing it in action is really amazing. It's available here on Amazon Video on Demand and iTunes. The other Batman stories seem cool as well, but I'm not the biggest Batman fan. Batman: Black and White is available here on iTunes and Amazon Video on Demand.
Here's a link to Time Warner's info on their webcomics/motion comics.
They've also released Superman Red Son on iTunes and I've watched some snippets of the webisodes/chapters of the stories, but I'm hearing some bad things, technical and story editing-wise, about these so it seems that Warner Brothers has some work to do to learn how to properly market and put out their stories. It does show, however, that they know which high profile comics/graphic novels to push (not hard to figure out if you look at sales, I suppose). Here's a little snippet from YouTube.
SyFy Channel has been airing the Street Fighter & Voltron (both originally published in print comic form by Devil's Due Press) Motion Comics as part of their Ani-Monday lineup (Monday night at Midnight) both of which have been released on DVD earlier in 2009 by Eagle One Media.
There isn't a lot of animation here and unless you're a huge fan of either one I don't think you'll be that entertained by it. I enjoy it as I am a huge Ken fan, and the art is really cool (in that post-modern American manga sort of way), the voices, sfx, and music are fine, but in the end it's Street Fighter and Voltron. So there you go.
To buy these on DVD (and many other motion comic DVDs, including CrossGen Comics [whatever happened to them?]) click here Eagle One Media.
Then we come to Stan Lee, who will never give up putting something out there, and so his company POW! Entertainment teamed up with Disney to produce TimeJumper which is available on iTunes. Below is the sneak peek of episode one, and it looks good, but generic-- much like most of what Stan Lee has put out in the past few years (*cough* Striperella *cough*).
And apprently Striperella is its own iPod/iPhone mobile comic, and you really need to watch this video.
This brings me to Marvel. They offered Spider-Woman: Agent of SWORD for $1 for two weeks, before bumping the price up to $2, which is still half of what a print comic costs these days. And in a cool marketing move, they released this comic as a motion comic first, then published in print a month later. The big deal here is that this is an in-continuity story that's released in digital format before it's put into it's regular print format.
The Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic trailer; the art and animation seem really cool, advanced way beyond what's come before it (in some respects), and kind of worth a buck or two. The good thing is they're keeping the releases of their motion comics coming out every two weeks, with Spider-Woman leading up to the launch of Astonishing X-Men, which with Joss Whedon and John Cassaday on the writing and art respectively, and it being the X-Men and all, this is definitely their most mass media/comic fanboy friendly project.
This, to me, looks awesome. I know some other comic fans that disagree with me, but I definitely enjoy the extra level of detail that went into animating this. It may be even closer to animation/cartoons than some of the other motion comics above, but that's what I love. It retains the same art and storytelling as the original comics, and then adds in extra drama with the voices, music, and animated action.
Marvel knew they'd have to go the extra mile to pimp out this badboy, so here's a clip from Marvel.com of the premiere of Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic on October 28, 2009, held in Union Square. I've heard mixed (a little on the bad side) reviews of this event, but I think it was mostly due to the weather. There was a signing with Chris Claremont, Dan Slott, Neal Adams, Frank Tieri, Paolo Rivera, Jacob Chabot, and my boy, Reilly "Big Time" Brown. Watch the merriment upon Reilly's face as he sketches and chats with fans!
They really wanted to sell this to not just comic fans, but also to the video game, music video, anime loving crowd, and so, released this music video on the G4 Channel.
All in all, a pretty decent media push from Marvel and a great digital product to go along with it. Marvel even held an animating contest through a website called Aniboom looking for motion comic animators. They've narrowed the contest down to five finalists which they have posted for your viewing pleasure here.
They seem pretty interesting, and you really get a sense of how motion comics can be directed really well, or really poorly. If you look on Aniboom's website you'll see some of the less than stellar results which I think is just as interesting as the well done ones.
Here's a few more articles on Marvel's Motion Comics and Motion Comics in general:
Newsarama
Marvel's Motion Comic Spider-Woman at Newsarama
Inside Warner Brothers Digital Comics
iPhone Saves Small Press?
Kindle 2, iPods, and Comics Future
ComicBookResources
Motion Comics: Graphic Novels in the Digital Age
Now, if we follow this trend, imagining that iPod-ish technology will catch on and never go away, digital floppies (or singles, issues, etc.) should be the standard comic book weekly Wednesday and then collected trades, hardcovers, omnibuses to be released regularly in print AND digital. The only problem is that the print weekly comics can never fully go away, as that was always the fun of going to a comic store. Buying these things online is a novelty, but I still hunger for a physical storefront. But maybe tomorrow's generation won't mind a world without stores.
All this makes me wonder one thing: when are we going to see Sam Keith's MTV produced The Maxx series on DVD?! (Which really did this whole thing 13 years ago.)
K
Motion comics, however, have more in common with cartoons/animation, and in their own way, are more enjoyable to watch, but a lot of creators question whether something that moves, speaks, and has music (thereby requiring no reading) is still a comic book at all.
I'm not going to get into that debate here. No, I just want to evaluate what is out there and available in this new electronic comic format/medium. I'll try and keep it chronological for the sake of witnessing the development of the technology and see who did what first.
I Am Legend. Watchmen. Batman. Obviously with Warner Brothers backing DC Comics (now more than ever as part of DC Entertainment) they were an obvious forerunner to Motion Comics.
I recall first seeing original Motion Comics promoting the movie 'I Am Legend' and upon searching could only find these two: I Am Legend: Isolation & I Am Legend: Awakening. The art is good and it's entertaining, I particularly like the jail story in Isolation, but they didn't do much with it past when the movie premiered. Although I have just learned they are on the DVD as extras, and as one reviewer said, they're good pilots for sequels without Will Smith.
Then the un-makeable, comic book, anti-superhero epic Watchmen was to be released, and Warner Brothers decided to put out the story as Motion Comic Webisodes. The good thing is there's a whole site based around the project, which is available on iTunes, Amazon Video on Demand, as well as a DVD release. I watched the first episode on the Black Freighter/Under the Hood extra DVD that was released after the movie, and it was pretty faithful and well done. The only complaint I can drum up is that it's treated as an audio-book with one guy doing all the voices, even for the ladies.
I watched previews of Batman: Black and White, Batman Adventures: Mad Love, and Batgirl Year One last night on my iPod touch. I've only read the Batgirl Year One in print and I really loved that story, seeing it in action is really amazing. It's available here on Amazon Video on Demand and iTunes. The other Batman stories seem cool as well, but I'm not the biggest Batman fan. Batman: Black and White is available here on iTunes and Amazon Video on Demand.
Here's a link to Time Warner's info on their webcomics/motion comics.
They've also released Superman Red Son on iTunes and I've watched some snippets of the webisodes/chapters of the stories, but I'm hearing some bad things, technical and story editing-wise, about these so it seems that Warner Brothers has some work to do to learn how to properly market and put out their stories. It does show, however, that they know which high profile comics/graphic novels to push (not hard to figure out if you look at sales, I suppose). Here's a little snippet from YouTube.
SyFy Channel has been airing the Street Fighter & Voltron (both originally published in print comic form by Devil's Due Press) Motion Comics as part of their Ani-Monday lineup (Monday night at Midnight) both of which have been released on DVD earlier in 2009 by Eagle One Media.
There isn't a lot of animation here and unless you're a huge fan of either one I don't think you'll be that entertained by it. I enjoy it as I am a huge Ken fan, and the art is really cool (in that post-modern American manga sort of way), the voices, sfx, and music are fine, but in the end it's Street Fighter and Voltron. So there you go.
To buy these on DVD (and many other motion comic DVDs, including CrossGen Comics [whatever happened to them?]) click here Eagle One Media.
Then we come to Stan Lee, who will never give up putting something out there, and so his company POW! Entertainment teamed up with Disney to produce TimeJumper which is available on iTunes. Below is the sneak peek of episode one, and it looks good, but generic-- much like most of what Stan Lee has put out in the past few years (*cough* Striperella *cough*).
And apprently Striperella is its own iPod/iPhone mobile comic, and you really need to watch this video.
This brings me to Marvel. They offered Spider-Woman: Agent of SWORD for $1 for two weeks, before bumping the price up to $2, which is still half of what a print comic costs these days. And in a cool marketing move, they released this comic as a motion comic first, then published in print a month later. The big deal here is that this is an in-continuity story that's released in digital format before it's put into it's regular print format.
The Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic trailer; the art and animation seem really cool, advanced way beyond what's come before it (in some respects), and kind of worth a buck or two. The good thing is they're keeping the releases of their motion comics coming out every two weeks, with Spider-Woman leading up to the launch of Astonishing X-Men, which with Joss Whedon and John Cassaday on the writing and art respectively, and it being the X-Men and all, this is definitely their most mass media/comic fanboy friendly project.
This, to me, looks awesome. I know some other comic fans that disagree with me, but I definitely enjoy the extra level of detail that went into animating this. It may be even closer to animation/cartoons than some of the other motion comics above, but that's what I love. It retains the same art and storytelling as the original comics, and then adds in extra drama with the voices, music, and animated action.
Marvel knew they'd have to go the extra mile to pimp out this badboy, so here's a clip from Marvel.com of the premiere of Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic on October 28, 2009, held in Union Square. I've heard mixed (a little on the bad side) reviews of this event, but I think it was mostly due to the weather. There was a signing with Chris Claremont, Dan Slott, Neal Adams, Frank Tieri, Paolo Rivera, Jacob Chabot, and my boy, Reilly "Big Time" Brown. Watch the merriment upon Reilly's face as he sketches and chats with fans!
They really wanted to sell this to not just comic fans, but also to the video game, music video, anime loving crowd, and so, released this music video on the G4 Channel.
All in all, a pretty decent media push from Marvel and a great digital product to go along with it. Marvel even held an animating contest through a website called Aniboom looking for motion comic animators. They've narrowed the contest down to five finalists which they have posted for your viewing pleasure here.
They seem pretty interesting, and you really get a sense of how motion comics can be directed really well, or really poorly. If you look on Aniboom's website you'll see some of the less than stellar results which I think is just as interesting as the well done ones.
Here's a few more articles on Marvel's Motion Comics and Motion Comics in general:
Newsarama
Marvel's Motion Comic Spider-Woman at Newsarama
Inside Warner Brothers Digital Comics
iPhone Saves Small Press?
Kindle 2, iPods, and Comics Future
ComicBookResources
Motion Comics: Graphic Novels in the Digital Age
Now, if we follow this trend, imagining that iPod-ish technology will catch on and never go away, digital floppies (or singles, issues, etc.) should be the standard comic book weekly Wednesday and then collected trades, hardcovers, omnibuses to be released regularly in print AND digital. The only problem is that the print weekly comics can never fully go away, as that was always the fun of going to a comic store. Buying these things online is a novelty, but I still hunger for a physical storefront. But maybe tomorrow's generation won't mind a world without stores.
All this makes me wonder one thing: when are we going to see Sam Keith's MTV produced The Maxx series on DVD?! (Which really did this whole thing 13 years ago.)
K
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Write Club! We Are An Asian Sandwich Links
Rick Lacy's Blog
DC's Blog THE SOURCE
Diane Nelson's Introduction
Paul Levitz's Stepping Down
Industry Reacts To Paul Levitz's Return to Writing
Read up on Disney's Lawsuit vs Air Pirates
Cup O' Joe Q&A with Joe Quesada regarding the Disney Acquisition
Bergen Street Comics
MoCCA - Museum of Comic Book & Cartoon Art
Midtown Comics
Models Inc.
Becky Cloonan & Hwan Cho's KGB Comic
Dennis Calero
Nikki Cook
Buy Asterios Polyp!
GRAPHIC NYC!
Seth Kushner's Photography
Comicbook Resources
The Beat
MTV Splash Page
DC's Blog THE SOURCE
Diane Nelson's Introduction
Paul Levitz's Stepping Down
Industry Reacts To Paul Levitz's Return to Writing
Read up on Disney's Lawsuit vs Air Pirates
Cup O' Joe Q&A with Joe Quesada regarding the Disney Acquisition
Bergen Street Comics
MoCCA - Museum of Comic Book & Cartoon Art
Midtown Comics
Models Inc.
Becky Cloonan & Hwan Cho's KGB Comic
Dennis Calero
Nikki Cook
Buy Asterios Polyp!
GRAPHIC NYC!
Seth Kushner's Photography
Comicbook Resources
The Beat
MTV Splash Page
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