Stuff I'm Making and Watching.

New Reviews are now at Rotten Tomatoes

2010-08-20T16:13:00.000-07:00

I finally got a profile at Rotten Tomatoes, and I'll be posting all my reviews there from now on, as it's a better place to get more exposure, and there's quite a large community of film fans there to talk with. However, I will gather all the reviews I post there each month as a mega-post for this blog.
Read my reviews here

Update

2010-07-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hello again nonexistent readers. I haven't posted much lately because I haven't felt like posting, and I haven't done much with this blog. I just updated it with a new template and a simplified layout, so maybe I'll start writing on this thing and promoting it actively again.

My First Script

2010-07-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

I tried to write a TV pilot, it's probably a bit too short of a script, and I haven't read it over yet, so be warned, I wrote this entirely as a personal project so it may be a bit muddled.
read it here
I'd appreciate comments/criticism.

What's wrong with this picture?

2010-07-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

This Summer really sucks for movies. Not that all these movies are bad (I loved Toy Story 3) but it says something a bit disturbing that of the top 10 movies of the Summer, only 1 is not a sequel/reboot/adaptation. Come on guys, original ideas please?

Fatherly Advice

2010-05-08T13:52:00.001-07:00

A new cartoon I made last week but never got around to publishing. Enjoy or something

I wish there was someone I could kick....

2010-01-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.collider.com/2010/01/11/spider-man-reboot-already-written-film-to-be-gritty-contemporary/

But it's just how Hollywood works. Trend followers. Obviously, since The Dark Knight made the most money ever, people want all of their super hero movies to be "gritty". And apparently, because JJ Abrams and Michael Bay successfully took old franchises and made tons of money from them, it's suddenly OK to re-make any movies that are more than 5 years old. I've been fairly mellow about the reboot thing so far, but come on, seriously, rebooting a critically and commercially successful franchise just because Hollywood thinks people now want to watch new versions of the same thing over and over and over again only darker and grittier, that's just appalling.

Of course, leave it to Hollywood to put all the success of a film on its tone. The Dark Knight didn't become the world's #1 blockbuster because it was dark and gritty. It's because it was well made, exciting, action packed, had Heath Ledger, TONS of hype and was based on a popular comic. Plus, it was dark and gritty for a good reason. It wasn't dark just for the sake of being dark, it was dark because that's what the Batman comics are like, which appealed to the legions of Batman fans. The original Spider Man wasn't exactly gritty, but it was still emotionally powerful and incredibly well made. In my opinion, Sam Raimi's first two Spider Man films were better than The Dark Knight. And they were successful even though they weren't gritty. But Hollywood doesn't care about that, so don't be surprised if you see Clark Kent contemplating suicide or Mr. Fantastic having to choose whether Dr. Doom blows up The Thing or The Invisible Woman.

New Domain

2010-01-08T12:34:00.000-08:00

The blog can now be accessed from kieranpertnav.tk. It will also still be accessible from the original blogspot address.

3 New Reviews

2010-01-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Avatar-

Have you ever been ashamed to be human? Ashamed to be in a species that steals and murders, that destroys the planet it lives on? Then perhaps you have something in common with James Cameron, whose masterpiece Avatar shows humans given a chance to experience the magic of life from a newer, purer perspective, while delivering a fantastically beautiful and powerful hero story as well.

It's pretty much impossible to review Avatar without first giving a nod to its fantastic special effects. Even though this is not an effects movie, the scale and detail with which the world is rendered is nothing short of breathtaking. The groundbreaking new technology with which the film is made allows for the creation of one of the richest fantasy worlds ever created.

The story and characters have been criticized as being simplistic, however, while they are definitely familiar, with James Cameron at the helm you'll be happy to see them return. Avatar is a classic fantasy fused with elements of sci-fi, making for a fresher presentation, and the film is expertly paced. Even though its running time is close to 3 hours, it never drags and is a joy to watch. The characters come off as very sympathetic, and the villain of the piece is the kind that you love to hate. It's important to have these familiar and likable characters to guide you into a completely new universe and a new era in film, and they're strong enough to keep the story grounded; they're never once upstaged by the special effects.

However, I don't think that the film is just an effects-heavy hero story; while it retells a classic fable about nature love and loyalty with enough gusto to make these age-old messages inspiring again, its sci-fi element brings something new to the table.
Many of the main characters are humans who are able to inhabit the world of the indigenous Na'vi by using technology to inhabit Avatars- Na'vi bodies that they can control. However, as the main character, Jake Sully, comments at the beginning of the film, they are always forced to leave the gorgeous fantasy world of Pandora and wake up in the hash reality of the human world, filled with despicable corporate attitudes and led by evil men with no respect for life. As Jake struggles to live in both worlds, he is increasingly frustrated by the fact that he has to wake up. But I don't think James Cameron wants to wake up. By creating the technology needed to create the planet of Pandora, Cameron allows the audience to experience that world- the film becomes an Avatar for them. By doing so, Cameron implies that we can all start again. If we are inspired by the beauty of this film, this Avatar, then it allows us to believe again in peace, it allows us to reconnect with nature. Ironically, even though the film's origins are entirely technological, it is used to allow us to reconnect with the fantasies that can still be fulfilled. This adds greatly to the power of the film, giving the final push that moves Avatar from a great film to a masterpiece. If this is what James Cameron's dreams are like, I'll walk in them any time.

The short version-
||||||||||| 10/10|

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan-
(Warning: contains mild spoilers regarding seasons 1 and 2 of Battlestar Galactica)

I am a huge fan of Ronald D. Moore's re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series. I firmly believe that it is one of the best shows ever to air on television, and that is why The Plan is such a colossal disappointment. It not only lacks all the powerful emotions, great characters and compelling storytelling of the series, but the nature of the film allows it to do so while simultaneously ruining some of the best moments of the series.

The idea of The Plan is to re-visit the first two seasons of the series from the perspective of the villains- the Cylons, while resolving some of the continuity issues and tying up the loose ends made during the series. It's a good idea on paper, however, it's filled with disappointment and missed opportunities. Ironically, although The Plan is supposed to resolve continuity gaffs, the first minutes create a very serious continuity gaff that can't be explained away. As it goes through the series, it continues to dispute known facts about the show in order to create poorly executed drama, muddling some of the best moments of the show. Instead of showing the reasoning behind the Cylon actions in the series, it changes them from the unified, powerful, frightening force that they were into the series to a bumbling collection of cranky incompetent bufoons who barely seem to count as villains at all.

Continuity issues would be forgivable if the story was any good- the Battlestar series had plenty of odd plot twists that overcomplicated the show, but it was so relentlessly entertaining that it didn't really matter. However, The Plan's "story" if you can call it that, is incoherent, meaningless, and mind-numbingly dull. A large amount of the footage is recycled from series episodes, and while it sometimes works, watching an entire scene that you've already seen just so you can see one "revelation" that doesn't mean much of anything, or watching a Cylon attack again just to show how it was a complete disaster for the Cylons and they really just had no idea what they were doing at all. The movie seems like a collection of deleted scenes from the show, and if they were, they would have been deleted for no good reason. A lot of the character development goes to Simon- a character who barely appeared in the show. While it would be interesting to give more backstory to the lesser known Cylons, Simon's story is flat and uncompelling. It lacks the long-term development of the series, and instead seems to be rushed and half-baked- then again, that's a pretty good description of the entire film.

The short version-

|||| 3/10|

Family Guy: Something Something Something Dark Side-

Star Wars jokes have been a staple of pop-culture humor for a while now, and Family Guy is no exception. However, the show's nonsensical tangential form of humor works better as episodic television than as a double-length parody. To call SSSDS a Star Wars parody is a bit generous- it's pretty much just Family Guy characters in Star Wars costumes making regular Family Guy jokes. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing, as the show's humor is still very funny, and even though creating an entire Star Wars spoof series just to showcase the show's signature humor seems a bit gratuitous, it doesn't make it any less funny. When the show does take shots at Star Wars, however, it's really spot on. There a lot of great jokes at the expense of the classic trilogy, but not enough to justify the hour run time.
Overall, Something Something Something Dark Side is a fairly funny episode that relies a little too much on novelty value and the type of humor that could appear in any episode of the show, but it's still fairly entertaining and funny.

The short version-
|||||||| 7/10|

Mantracker

2009-12-13T18:02:00.000-08:00

Mantracker was awesome. I'm not allowed to talk about most of it, but suffice to say it was an amazing experience and I learned tons, it was an incredible adventure.

Um, I don't have TV, but I'm pretty sure Mantracker airs at 10 on Discover Science. But I'd check that.

I'm a Production Assistant! [and other updates]

2009-12-06T12:08:00.000-08:00

Wow, so the first post in over a month. I guess I haven't been that motivated to blog, even though I really should. But anyways, the reason I'm finally posting again is I have big news.

I get to be a production assistant on the show Mantracker for 1 day. It's nothing glamorous, but I get to be on the set among the crew, which is really super awesome.

The blog may be getting a new domain soon, so keep watch for that.

Hagen Dazs

2009-10-07T19:40:00.000-07:00

The debate tournament went great, I went undefeated. But this post is to talk about something else I did on Oahu. I went to Hagen Dazs Iced Cream. We had 20 minutes of free time at Ala Moana, of which I spent 15 searching for a bathroom. When I finally arrived at our meeting place, the food court, I was exhausted (I'd also been up at that point for about 14 or so hours with only 2 hours of sleep the night before) but relieved. I glanced around the food court, and asked myself if I could only go to one place there, where would I go. The answer was obvious, the most amazing iced cream store I've ever been to. Seriously, the packaged Hagen Dazs iced cream we get in the stores here is awesome, but putting a scoop of that world class iced cream in a chocolate sprinkle cone and covering it in sprinkles is something else.

Debate

2009-10-02T13:12:00.000-07:00

AKLASDKLJFSDKLFGJKSDKGJKJSDFJKDSJKLF Yeah, I know its been like, almost 2 months since my last post. Sorry. Haven't seen a lot of new movies, not a lot's been going on in my art world and school's been going strong.
I have been doing debate though. I had my first tournament on Friday and won in my category, novice Lincoln-Douglas. Tomorrow I'm heading out at 4 am to go to another one on Oahu, but its amazingly fun.

Tale of Kaua'i Part 2.

2009-08-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

Day 3: We headed up north towards Hanalei and stopped at the Kilauea lighthouse. It was an awesome place, and it was incredible to see how many birds there were. I had heard it was a good place to look at birds, but I didn't realize they were the main attraction, but there were hundreds of them all around. There wasn't much you could do in the lighthouse proper, but the sights outside it were fascination, and the rugged peninsula felt more like the pacific northwest than Hawaii. Then we proceeded down through Hanalei and down to the edge of the Na Pali Coast. On the way we stopped at the massive wet and dry caves, both of which were fascinating. My grandfather was adamant about hiking some of the famous Kalalau trail, but we weren't exactly prepared for the hike and didn't have time or equipment, but we were able to see some nice views. Then we took a dip at the nearby beach and headed back to Hanalei for shave ice. We had already sampled some of the massive selection of flavors at Waimea's Jo Jos clubhouse the day before, but found that although it had a smaller array of flavors, Shave Ice Paradise had finer, smoother ice. On the way back to our condo we had the best meal of our trip at Scotty's Beachside BBQ. The ribs were incredibly tender and the sauce was delicious.

Day 4: Even though we were pressed for time as we had a flight to catch, the final day of our trip featured perhaps the most rewarding adventure of the trip. After a disappointing stop at the Spouting Horn blowhole (which wasn't spouting much that day, but made an interesting sound) we went to our condo's nearby beach before checking out and then proceeded to the tall, grand Wailua falls. Our guidebook had stated that we could swim in the pool beneath the falls, but I was dismayed to find that there was no apparent trail down from the lookout. However, our every handy guidebook showed us where to look, and we had a blast on the incredibly steep trail down to the falls. The trail was so steep that there was a ropes system set up so that you could lower yourself down and pull yourself up the trail, which was a lot of fun. Once at the falls, we had the incredible experience of swimming across the pool and standing on the ledge below them. Standing behind the thundering wall of water as it plummeted almost 200 feet was incredible. The chilly spray from the falls was exhilarating, and the sheer power of them as they plunged into the water was inspiring. We made sure not to get hit by the gargantuan payload of water, and then made our way back up the ropes and up to the lookout.

A tale of Kaua'i, Part 1

2009-07-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

Day 1: even most inter-island flights have a layover in Honolulu, so we stopped there and I got to ride the escalators (yeah, I obviously haven't spent much time in the city). Then we hopped on over to Lihue, where we had lunch, saw some of the island's ubiquitous wild chickens, and headed down to our far too nice condo in Po'ipu. From there we got our towels and backtracked to Kipu falls, an awesome place. A 20 foot high waterfall empties into a deep pool thats safe for jumping into, and a rope swing on a nearby banyan makes the plunge even more fun.

Day 2: We headed up to the Waimea Canyon/Koke'e area, where we marveled at the canyon but were much more stunned by the awesome lookout over Kalalau valley. The lookout at the very end of the road offers an amazing view, where you can walk right up to the edge of the 2,000 foot valley walls. We also went to the condo pool (nobody under 16 in the hot tub, *grumblegrumble*) which had a small but fun waterslide.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

2009-07-23T14:38:00.001-07:00

Someone needs to send David Yates a copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating A Suspenseful Action Sequence. After all, the director who, unfortunately, will helm the Harry Potter series to its very end, is a master of the anti climax. Last time, he ruined one of the most exciting, imaginative, and unique sequences by reducing the department of mysteries sequence to a disappointing shell of its former grandeur in his disappointing adaptation of one of the best books in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Now Yates has been given a smaller-scale book to deal with, and has slowed down the frantic, rushing pace he set on Order of the Pheonix to the brisk but uneventful filler that is Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The film moves by quickly enough, filling the first two hours with the entertaining and humorous teen drama that Rowling used to form the backdrop for her epic series finale. However, unlike Rowling, Yates doesn't reward his audiences for their trek through the melodrama with an intense and powerful finale, but with another weak, rushed effort at emotion that falls flat. Its exceedingly frustrating to watch Yates's adaptations as he is handed increasingly interesting material and continues to make it uninteresting. He managed to get the pacing right for most of the movie, making it entertaining, but when it comes to a scene of real weight and tension he disappoints due to his utter failure to create suspense. His action scenes are so briskly paced that they are over before audiences can feel any of the atmosphere he creates. His visual prowess is apparent in his construction of the final action scene, but unfortunately this impressive yet fairly detached light show is over all too fast, only rewarding us with a few seconds of special effects. The emotional climax of the film is likewise rushed, and while the reactions of the students of Hogwarts to this latest blow they are dealt is touching, he doesn't give us time to feel it. Overall, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is a fairly entertaining comedy that fails to convey the urgency and emotion that gave the book a scope that was far grander than its melodramatic setup.

The short version:

|Score: |||||- 5.4/10|

Coming up, a Harry Potter recap? And my long awaited (or not) account of my vacation to Kaua'i.

I was on Kauai yesterday.

2009-07-10T21:00:00.001-07:00

For a Summer trip I spent 4 days on Kaui, one of my neighbor islands. It was a really amazing experience and I'll say more about it soon, and hopefully post some pictures.

I just died a little inside.

2009-07-02T02:08:00.000-07:00

http://nerdarmada.blogspot.com/2009/07/welcome-to-new-cn.html

Words cannot describe how much I hate CN Real. Not only does it betray everything the channel is for, but it betrays all the animation fans who still care about quality 2D animation. I'd heard about this and raged about it before, but Greenblatt's few words and the video are so sad that it really shows the whole thing.

BOYCOTT CN REAL. The shows are not worth your time, and I hope to make it so they're not worth the network's while.

Salmon King

2009-06-30T17:37:00.001-07:00

3 Days Later

2009-06-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

And I'm still in love with UP. Seriously, I can't wait till this movie is out on DVD, it's really stuck with me.

Old Trailers

2009-06-23T12:59:00.000-07:00

I watched The Maltese Falcon last night, and one of the most interesting features on it was "Warner Night at the Movies" which showed the trailer, newsreel, and cartoons shown before the film. Despite all the love for Looney Tunes, there are certainly some bad ones, and this obscure WWII spoof certainly was one of them. The humor and advertising used back then was so strange and different. The original trailer for the film is included and is funnier than the cartoon, with weird transitions from scene to scene and dramatic and repetitive narration. Its funny how things were advertised back then. The question is, is advertising now any less ridiculous? Sure, seeing special effects or jokes from the most exciting and funny scenes of the film whiz by in 30 seconds may seem more exciting than the slow ads of years long passed, but whether its an abundance of information or almost none at all, ads still don't usually give an accurate sense of what the film is like.

UP

2009-06-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

The blog is here to stay for the Summer. I haven't been blogging very much and didn't get all the reviews out that I hoped to, but I'm gonna be doing daily posts for a while to get the blog back in shape. Let's start with my review of UP, which I saw yesterday.

The people who came in late missed the best part. Up begins with a montage so poignant and beautifully excellent that it carries the rest of the film. As a result, director Pete Doctor is able to hit just the right emotional notes due to the deep emotional background that powers the film. When I first heard about Up, I immediately fell in love with the concept. A man tying balloons to his house and floating away? What's not to like? But I wasn't prepared for the incredible humanity and depth that makes this film not only an easy candidate for Best Animated Picture, but Best Picture overall. Up is sad, memorable, deep, sweet and hysterically funny, and gets just the right balance of humor and depth to keep audiences of all ages enthralled. The film made me laugh many times, but parts of it also had me tearing up. It's all masterfully wrapped up in just 96 minutes, and they're bound to be some of the bests minutes you spend on a couch or in a theater. PIXAR's masterpiece Up is a timeless, hilarious, bittersweet film that everyone can enjoy.

The short version-

|Score: |||||||||| 10/10|

A whole bunch of new reviews coming up.

2009-05-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

I finally saw Milk, Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler. I'm going to see Star Trek today, so look for reviews for all of those. Also, I made some logos and I want to take a poll on which I should use.

Film Seminar

2009-04-25T21:35:00.000-07:00

My school hosted a film seminar today, and although the scene was mostly adults trying to get into or succeed in the industry, it was a valuable experience and it got me some good contacts. Things started off with an address from David Cunningham. When I read his bio I thought "he directed The Seeker" man, that movie sucked. Then I saw his presentation, it was funny and informative, he was smart and his other movies looked good. Then I found out that after he had finished shooting The Seeker the studio decided to market it to 8 year-olds rather than the teen audience he expected. One thing was made clear: if I want to get into this business, I'd better prepare to be screwed over. Television producer Karl Fink described situations such as a gritty show about war and rebellion turning into a show about crime fighting dolphins, and a ripoff of his show airing right before he finished making his, forcing him to change his tactics. I will go more into each of the mini "breakout sessions" I attended and the rest of the program in future posts.

The Blog Lives!

2009-04-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, and I'm sorry. There will be some new posts coming up soon, but let me just give you an update on what's been going on.

I just watched Brazil. I would give you some thoughts, but I still haven't figured it out.

The Shak Budisen movie is at a standstill, but I'm determined to finish it and not make it yet another unfinished project.

I have learned a bunch of photoshop skills.

I am attending a film/television workshop thingy this Saturday, and will post about it.

Thats all.

It Sorta Occurred To Me

2009-03-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

I'm on break right now, and when I'm on break, I don't have to get up. But even when I get out of bed my mind doesn't really wake up. I don't really think I've been awake all day today.

Burn After Reading

2009-03-10T18:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally saw Burn After Reading, and while it featured good filmmaking, humor, pacing and style, the lack of a definite protagonist and the fact that almost none of the main characters are even remotely likable makes it very difficult to enjoy the film. While the Coens' characters have long been less than perfect, they're at least human enough for us to identify with, but Burn takes the "imperfection" of the characters far enough that its impossible to like them, and they fail to function as accurate criticisms of human beings because they're so completely hateful that they fail to register as human. While the film does pack some good comedic lines, it is not essentially a comedy, and the grimness quickly douses the fun of the comedy, worsening the film by making it difficult to be able to tell when the Coens are being serious and when they're making a joke out of there pathetic, hateable characters, until the whole film becomes one big joke on watching the torment of their characters. The filmmaking is better than the characters are, with strong pacing and performances, and crisp photography, but it is not enough to redeem this otherwise shallow, unfulfilling film.

The Short Version

|score- |||||- 5.5/10|

The Powerpuff Girls Rule!

2009-02-22T10:46:00.001-08:00

And so does Mojo Jojo!

I've had my Powerpuff Girls complete series DVD for a while now, and having watched all 6 seasons, I sat down and watched the new special- The Powerpuff Girls Rule. Animated by the flash animation team that did Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, the animation is fast lively, and frenetic, which matches perfectly with the pace of the story, which is ridiculously fast paced, trying to cram as much action, humor, and villains into 22 minutes as possible. However, where this might become confusing for any other series, fast-paced frenetic action is what PPGs does best, and the extreme pacing of the episode brings out the best in the show. Its fast, funny, and at some points even touching. Its a fitting end to the series, and a fitting beginning as well. But one things for sure- for now, the day is saved, thanks to the Powerpuff Girls!

The Short Version

|score- |||||||- 7.5/10|

|guilty pleasures score- ||||| 5/5|

Star Wars-The Clone Wars

2009-02-21T09:54:00.000-08:00

I'm Over It

Star Wars Episode I- The Phantom Menace was horrible beyond belief, and I easily thought it was the worst Star Wars movie yet, full of boring "political" plot lines, and dull acting, not to mention *shudder* Jar Jar Binks. That was before The Clone Wars, a movie so unbelievably awful that the fact that it shares a name with Genndy Tartakovsky's amazing animated miniseries disgusts me. The characters barely resemble their film counterparts, both physically (for the animation is stiff and ugly beyond words) and personality-wise. They constantly spew corny catch phrases and awful nicknames, making every line of dialogue cringe-worthy. Oh, and there's a new character, Anikin's apprentice, who's completely irrelevant anyway, and who's main purpose seems to be coming up with sickening nickname after sickening nickname, and screwing up the star wars timeline even worse than all the fan fiction spinoffs that are already out there. Not even the action is entertaining, as the animation is so stiff and uninteresting that it seems more like watching a bad video game from the 90s. I would like to give a small nod to the music, which, although unbelievably out of synch with the tone of the movie, displays a slight hint of originality, using vocals to create atmosphere in a fashion similar to Richard Gibbs and Bear McCreary's music on Battlestar Galactica. However, the visuals are so inadequate that there is no mood for the music to set. Unfortunately for Star Wars fans, the torture is not yet over as the movie is but a 90 minute pilot for a TV series of the same name. The fact that it is a pilot shows greatly in its pacing and narrative structure, which seems to consist of three half hour segments mashed together with vaguely similar (albeit completely unimportant) story lines. This adds to the film's problems even more by making it disjointed and even less exciting. Overall, The Clone Wars is bland, irritating, and a worthless addition to the already bloated Star Wars Universe that only serves to further mangle the timeline.

The short version-

|Score- || 2/10|

|Guilty Pleasures Score- - 0.5/5|

Tennis & 1000 Hits

2009-02-07T14:13:00.000-08:00

I've started doing tennis, and it takes up a lot of my time. So I'm gonna be posting even less than usual now that tennis is going on.

In other stuff, I just looked down at the hit counter, and the blog has finally passed 1000 hits. Thanks to everyone who came and visited :D

New Theme

2009-01-26T09:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I changed the blog title to make it less cumbersome and I changed the theme. I may mess with the colors later. Thats all. (lame post)

Kung-Fu Panda

2009-01-25T17:02:00.000-08:00

Here I go with yet another review thats waaaay late

Kung-Fu Panda is a breath of fresh air considering the general low quality of Dreamworks movies as of late. Its certainly nothing special, but its light, humorous, and, most important of all, its not another Shrek movie.The film is a decent movie and a great Dreamworks movie which shines through the thick layer of scum that has coated Dreamworks movies since the days after Shrek 2. It opens with a Samurai Jack influenced 2D sequence, which made me want more 2D feature films. The CG style almost seemed like a disappointment compared to the fun traditional animation, but the 3D animation is also high quality. Although the fat joke centered trailer made me cringe, Panda is a stellar example of how things that are generally frowned upon can still prove funny if done well. That being said, like the humor, the film is well executed but lacks depth. Its story is the typical underdog story, and a lot of the moments are incredibly cliche. The main thing that makes the film unique is the humor, which basically makes it an irreverent take on a cliche hero story rather than just a cliche hero story, which turns out to make all the difference.

1 Year of Blog

2009-01-19T18:33:00.000-08:00

Yep. Its been a whole year since I started this blog, with my first post being "I had mac and cheese for lunch" ah, what auspicious beginnings. It started out as a daily blog with a lot of style and opinion and a little substance, and has evolved into a review and production blog that updates a lot less often, but with better quality posts. I think things have slowed down a bit more than I wanted them too, and I'm going to try to pick up the pace a bit in the blogs second year. I think there were a lot of bad posts last year, and a lot of good posts. Some stuff was misguided, some was correct. I'm hoping to perfect my posting style, spelling and grammar, and film critique for next year. Heres what you can look forward to in year two

• A review of the complete Powerpuff Girls DVD set

• Another really late review, this time of Kung Fu Panda which could be the last redemption for Dreamworks (and possibly the last time I use the Dreamworks label in this blog, I don't even know why they get their own label)

•The Shak Budisen Movie and more production news- the movie is currently still set for release this Summer, I just have to finish it, which I will do eventually. I've done some new animation which I need to score.

• Lots more reviews of movies I will be seeing.

• More random crap to keep the blog active.

• Me being pompous when I get 1000 hits.

• Yet another new name for the blog. I'm thinking of simplifying it to: "Stuff I'm Making and Watching"

• The premier of my new show

• Possibly a music video

• Possible move to a private server where this will become part of an expanded site

• Stuff

Ok, thats all I got, but hopefully that will keep things interesting and keep this blog going.

~Kieran

Indy 4

2009-01-18T15:43:00.000-08:00

So heres my very very very late thoughts on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A lot of fans were disappointed by this movie, but I am not a fan, so I set my standards even lower. I had heard it was awful, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was mildly entertaining. Yes, it follows the classic Indy formula the least, but since I didn't like the classicy Indy formula, I didn't mind. It was some fun mindless car chases, nothing special, but certainly not bad. That being said I do have a few gripes. Marion Ravenwood's appearance is pathetic and completely unnecessary. It seems like a failed bid at fan approval/nostalgia. Obviously, Indy is too old to fight Nazis, but fortunately for him, there's plenty of communists to fight. Go figure. Finally, the ending is a total anti-climax, and while the rest of the film was fairly exciting, the ending didn't live up to its promise, and the final love scene was bad as well. Overall, a pretty mediocre movie with nothing to offer besides some cheap entertainment. But thats all the series was worth to me anyways, so I don't really mind.

The Most Bested Show in the Whole Wide World.....NOT!

2009-01-09T12:53:00.000-08:00

OK, so this is great. I was eating dinner at the local pizza restaurant and their TV was playing this show called Wrecked. Unfortunately, this show was not about things being destroyed or demolished or some other adjective that means the same thing. This show was about tow trucks. Yes, there is now a show entirely devoted to those interested in towing. Better yet, it features a guy named Trike. Yes, he was actually named Trike. So Trike and his team set out to tow a school bus, which is dragged out for about 5-10 minutes longer than it should. But of course, they have to build the excitement, which involves attaching the cables, rotating the bus, etc. But the lamest thing about this was one of the main conflicts: they lost the keys to their truck. Yes, the main excitement of this show involved them looking for the keys to one of their trucks so they could tow a school bus. Needless to say, I was on the edge of my seat. The title of the show embodies its spirit: to take something totally mundane and make it exciting, unfortunately, the show fails at this too. I get the feeling that the title "Trike and His Tow Truck" wouldn't exactly have drawn audiences in, and the title "Extreme Towing" could possibly have been even lamer. Yet here I was watching it. Its really kind of sad that today's entertainment includes a show about people towing things. But what's even sadder is that there are people who would want to watch it.

FYI, I saw Indy 4, and theres a post on that coming up

Two Follow Up Reviews

2008-12-26T18:16:00.000-08:00

What? No Christmas post? Well, this is kind of a Christmas post since the two films I'm doing a follow-up on were brought to me courtesy of gift-giving relatives. Thanks folks :D.

Anyways, the follow-ups I'm doing are on two of the top rated Summer movies: The Dark Knight and Wall-E. Second viewings made different impressions than before, with Wall-E's being considerably better. Anyways, lets get to the reviews.

The Dark Knight: Revised Score: 7.8

I'm pretty sure thats the same score I gave it last time, because, while my views of The Dark Knight's flaws has changed, the amount of flaws stays the same. TDK is definitely a very entertaining movie, but I find that a shorter cut could have improved the pacing and general flow of the movie. I think TDK's greatest weakness is that it feels like two separate 90 minute movies, with three climaxes, since the second half's climax is a double climax. TDK is full of great scenes, but they feel somewhat out of order; it seems as if the development of the multiple plot lines impedes the flow of the movie, since the film is so overloaded that the plot lines consistently interrupt each other. While I have no problems with an over the top, overloaded film, I do have a problem with the fact that the overload actually results in a decrease in intensity. This is TDK's greatest problem, and it greatly impeded my enjoyment of the film.

TDK's greatest strength, and a lot of its appeal comes from the amount of risks it takes. It deals even casualties to both sides, and actually kills off one of the key protagonists. Must like its titular hero, TDK does things that other movies wouldn't do, and that gives it strength.

Although the pacing and the sense of flow aren't very good, all of the independent scenes are excellent, they are well produced, and quite entertaining. Unfortunately, this whole doesn't make a sum as big as its parts make it to be, but it is still entertaining and technically well made.

Wall-E: Revised Score: 9.3

I was right about this one. I enjoyed it far more this time around. Like with my first time watching TDK, Wall-E's pacing caught me off guard since I didn't know the run time. Since most current P.I.X.A.R films clock in at about two hours, I expected Wall-E to be much longer and heavier and was disappointed in that regard. However, evaluating it as what it is, Wall-E packs lots of depth, laughter, fun and emotion into 90 minutes, and I predict it will grow on me even more as I continue to watch it. It's very easy to watch but also very rewarding, so I think I'll be popping this one in for years to come.

Journey In 3D

2008-12-17T11:32:00.000-08:00

Well, after watching Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D, I can say that it was definitely not worth it. Much like dumb action movies with too much dumb and not enough action, Journey is a 3D movie with too much headache and not enough 3D effects. The ones that are there are cool, but there are nowhere near enough to justify the movie being 3D. At this point I think the most effective way to use 3D technology is to have a 3D movie of Kurt Russell throwing chain-saws at the screen for an hour and a half. With a movie like Journey, 3D changes it from a Sci-Fi Adventure movie to an effects movie, where the plot only gets in the way, since every moment of dialogue is a moment of not actual 3D, and any moment of not actual 3D is a moment of thinking "can I take these glasses off now?"

Inflation Hits McDonalds...Sort of

2008-12-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

So I went to McDonalds on thursday and was dismayed to find that the double cheeseburger had migrated from the Dollar Menu to the Sandwitch section. However, to my relief, in its place on the dollar menu was a new sandwich called the McDouble. I asked the cashier what the difference was between the McDouble and the double cheeseburger, and she said that the McDouble had one slice of cheese while the double cheeseburger had two. The price difference was nineteen cents. Wow. Poor Ronald McDonald really had to tighten his belt during these tough economic times. He deprived dollar menu goers of 1 whole slice of american pasteurized, processed cheese food in order to save 19 cents. Of course, I wasn't about to pay extra, so I got the McDouble and of course, it was almost exactly the same. Now I'm not going to diss McDonalds for being cheap, but I'm wondering if there is anyone out there who is still buying the double cheeseburger in order to get that extra slice of cheese. I can accept that McDonalds wants to save some McMoney, but its strange to me that anyone would buy the double cheeseburger.

What the point of this post is, I don't know, it sounded much better in my head. I'm kind of out of the blog zone, as you can see by my pitiful amount of November posts, so I need to get my skillz back. But heres a post for December, and now that I'm on break 'yalls can expect summor.

Journey to the Center of the Earth Review

2008-11-30T18:37:00.000-08:00

First of all, I'm not gonna bother putting "late review" in the title since all my reviews are late.

Second of all, the review:

At first I was worried from the look of things that this movie was going to be a violently unfaithful adaptation of the Jules Verne classic, but I am relieved to say that this film doesn't even attempt to be an adaptation. Rather it is an independent storyline that is inspired by the book but features different characters and plot. However, unlike the book it owes so much to, this film is exceedingly unimaginative. Its basically a vaguely entertaining string of cliches with a sci-fi plot to keep things moving. Its amazing it took three people to write the screenplay for this movie considering how exceedingly unoriginal is, especially regarding the dialogue, which is extremely typical and stiff. The acting is also weak, with flat performances, and Brendan Fraser spends most of the film yelling in an unintentionally ridiculous sounding voice. However, as unoriginal and stiff as this film is, its surprisingly tolerable. Despite the fact that the characters border on annoying and the plot pushes the boundaries between acceptable sci-fi and ridiculous fantasy, the film still comes off as entertaining. The action sequences are cliche but solidly built, and as this was originally made as a 3-D movie, a few cheap thrills is the most you can expect from it. Journey is nothing special, in fact its decidedly mediocre, but it definitely doesn't fall below the expected standards of a mediocre family adventure.

5/10

3rd of all, I wanted to watch the movie in its original 3-D form, but my family was insistent on watching the 2-D version in order to prevent headaches. That being said, I intend to see it in 3-D as well, so expect a Thoughts On follow up post on the 3-D version

Good News and Bad News

2008-11-19T18:56:00.000-08:00

The good news is that before the premier of the Shak Budisen Movie, there will be at least one more episode of Shak Budisen. The reason is that I had a killer idea for an episode.

The bad news is that the movie will be pushed back until at least next year. If I'm going to make any more cartoons they need time. But the Shak Budisen movie is nearing completion so it definitely won't be lost to the sands of time.

Speed Racer Late Review

2008-11-15T18:11:00.000-08:00

Ok, my review of the new Speed Racer is long, long overdue, so I considered making this a Thoughts On post but I decided that the only scale I could use for this would be the guilty pleasures scale. Why? Because for some strange reason I actually liked this movie. A lot of action movies are known for being the top, but action scenes in movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones often left me thinking "they could do more" especially since the action scenes are generally the only redeeming qualities that those films have. But, with Speed Racer, despite the fact that it is dizzying, blinding, and exceedingly corny, the action scenes were incredibly commendable in the fact that they couldn't possibly be any more ridiculous and over the top than they already are. I actually found myself liking the psychedelic yet appealingly cartoony style in the same way I enjoy nachos with a gallon of that nacho cheese stuff dumped on them, or a McDonalds burger. I really shouldn't be enjoying it, but I do, so might as well leave well enough alone, right?

4/5

The Air CN Shows in Widescreen Petition

2008-11-07T11:45:00.000-08:00

Oh, and be sure to grab the Chowder vol 1 DVD! It has the first five produced half-hours on it (10 stories total), each presented in their original wide-screen format. You'll see more picture than was shown on broadcast, plus an animatic for Chowder's Girlfirend.

That's from C.H Greenblatts blog. according to this, Chowder was originally made in widescreen. However, I have yet to see a single episode in widescreen, and the iTunes episodes are in pan and scan as well. This makes me angry at CN and it makes me wonder if there are other shows that are being made in widescreen and aired in fullscreen.

So, post a comment and I'll add your name to the petition to get chowder and possibly other shows like it shown on CN in their original state

signatures

--------------

James Sutton

Wow

2008-11-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

The amount of posts on this blog has really declined. October had the second fewest posts this year. Part of it has to do with me being back in school, meaning I'm lazy, and part of it has to do with me spending more time on forums and less time on blogger. Whatever. The Shak Budisen Movie may have to be delayed, but I'm still working on it.

Slick Cape 4

2008-10-26T21:09:00.001-07:00

I made 12 seconds of randomness to cure my boredom.

Two New Reviews: Iron Man and Underfist

2008-10-19T12:08:00.001-07:00

Its been about a week since I saw both of these movies, but the powers of procrastination slowed it down considerably. That being said, lets start with Iron Man.

When I was ranting about the republican-ness of the titular character of Iron Man as displayed in its trailer several months ago, I reached the right (no pun intended) conclusion for the wrong reasons. While Iron Man is definitely a republican film, it does its best to seem as democratic as possible, including the section shown in the trailer. Tony Stark is essentially a republican hero, who's solution to everything is to blow it up real good and then pretend that he didn't blow it up (except for the agonizing "joke" taking place in the last few seconds of the film). Despite the fact that after presenting Stark as a right wing war fanatic the director has him go through an experience that supposedly makes him liberal, he merely makes a transformation from a bold faced military man to an apologetic and secretive vigilante. This changes him from extremely dislikable to mildly irritating in a slightly charming way. Now of course, that doesn't change the fact that there are in fact people in this world who agree with Tony Stark's politics, but the problem is that those people aren't the target audience. Iron Man has managed to infiltrate the other side's choir, seem like he's preaching to them, and in fact be preaching to the other side. So the film's flaw is not that it is essentially right wing, but the fact that it quite effectively pretends to be left wing. However, the other problem is that as a film, it is well paced and well made, and incredibly entertaining, with generally well constructed action and character development, and a plot that successfully manages to build tension. Technically its an incredibly well made film, with excellent pacing and special effects (although it lags a bit in the beginning and becomes a bit implausible at the end). The special effects, filmmaking and writing make Tony Stark far more likable than he should be, and I don't know if that's a good thing. Technically its a four star film, politically a two star film, so I give it 6/10

And now for something completely different.

The other film I watched last week was Underfist, an hour long cartoon spinoff of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Obviously, I'm not going to review it in the same way I did Iron Man, so I'm introducing a new rating scale. Generally I rate movies on a scale of one to ten, but my new Guilty Pleasures rating system only goes to five. I will use this scale to rate cartoons and other films that I seem to like for no particular reason other than it appeals to my personality. As such, these reviews will be much more biased.

To be honest, there is very little plot to Underfist. Its something to do with candy trying to take over the world, but that doesn't especially matter. What does matter is that there's a guy with a chain-saw for a leg and a hand that can be virtually any weapon, a talking, singing, spider, "The One Eyed Weirdo", a kid who somehow manages to be "half mummy, half vampire, half nerd" and Fred Fredburger, who likes to spell his name real good and say "YES". If that sounds good to you, than we're on the same page. If not, well, you're probably missing out on either some pretty big laughs or some pretty strong migraines. That being said, theres plenty of action and name spelling, and just enough plot to make it comprehensible (but I totally didn't understand it the first time watching it, but I think that had something to do with the fact that I taped it from TV and put said tape into my barely functional VCR). Underfist is perfectly suited to the Guilty Pleasure scale, because I love it, but I don't know if you will. I don't know if that makes any sense, but I give it 4.5/5

I have to eat my words

2008-10-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

In fact, my two new reviews aren't up. Go figure. I was going to write them when I came back from the beach but I stepped on a sea urchin, so I ended up doing my homework and watching the grim adventures of billy and mandy. That's not so bad, but I will get those reviews up eventually.

Coming Tomorrow

2008-10-12T20:02:00.001-07:00

I'll have two new reviews up: a belated review of Iron Man, and a review of Underfist, a new cartoon movie that will use a new rating scale specifically designed for this type of movie. This stuff will be posted tomorrow, but I wanted to post something today.

Slick Cape 3

2008-10-05T15:36:00.001-07:00

This was produced back to back with slick cape 2, but I didn't upload it till today.

Slick Cape 2

2008-10-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

My parents had a party today and I showed the original Slick Cape and it went over pretty well so I made a sequel where its an action series thats not at all like the original book. While I work on my real series (SafetyNet and Shak Budisen) expect to see these cranked out whenever I'm bored and lazy. Here it is

The Shak Budisen Movie is Still Alive

2008-10-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

The production of the Shak Budisen "movie" is slowly moving along, and it should still be ready by winter. I hope to finish it before that so I can start my next webtoon and use it to promote the movie. I recorded a long overdue cameo by my friend Jesse Tarnas as the senile drummer Red Palmer, and I talked to Kevin Temmer on Flapjackfan.com about doing some 3-D Animation for the movie and for my new webtoon SafetyNet. Which means things are gonna get awesome. Of course, the voice timing is awful as always, but the Shak movie will have actual backgrounds and background music, animation and voices not made by me, and all new character models. I hope to have it out by mid December, and to premier SafetyNet in mid November.

Arnold Sings Flapjack

2008-10-02T10:40:00.000-07:00

I just had to make this even though its completely weird and irrelevant: Arnold Shwarzenegger sings a song from Flapjack. Enjoy!

Hilarious Post From John K.

2008-09-30T17:40:00.001-07:00

I stopped reading John K's blog long ago because it made me feel bad about watching modern cartoons, but I was looking at the Racattack Junction blog list, I saw a title that made me visit the site once more: Smokey the Pectoral Bear Raises Your Children Right. This is honestly one of the funniest John K posts. Enjoy

RIP Paul Newman

2008-09-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

I only just learned today that Paul Newman is dead, and I had no idea what to say. He was such a major American figure and so much more than just an actor. But as I was spreading some Newman's own tomato sauce onto a french bread pizza and thinking about the news, I knew I had to post something. Rest in peace Paul.

The full article on his death is available on rotten tomatoes .

My deviantArt

2008-09-25T21:56:00.001-07:00

With all my involvement online as far as cartoons go, I decided to get a deviantArt . Its not much now, but its something, and I'm workin' on it.

Also, (just to make this a less pathetic post) I revamped the look of this blog a little. I basically just switched a couple of colors, but whatever.

Some News

2008-09-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

Ign's summer movie awards are out, unsurprisingly, The Dark Knight got the most awards and Heath Ledger got best villain.

Homestarrunner.com has posted its 200th Strong Bad Email. Its awesome.

pretty weak post huh.

In the Doldrums

2008-09-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

I've been stuck creatively now that school is back full swing. I think its because once I'm in school I fall into this pattern of "just get it done" which, if you think about it, isn't the best mindset to make movies. I've had tons of ideas, but they usually seem to pop up in class, and by the time I get home, the creative urge is gone. The Shak Budisen movie is still set for this winter, and I've got tons of ideas for a new webshow called SafetyNet, but its just not making it through. The only creative work I get done in all my classes except drama are lots of doodles, which I draw so fast I have more drawings than notes. I'll post a new character design that I really like soon.

Ghost Town, Another Film that Has Caught My Attention

2008-09-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

This movie caught my attention for a couple of reasons: its 100% tomatometer (although it only has 5 reviews), the plot sounds fun but with a chance for plenty of deeper development, and it is the first directoral outing of screenwriter David Koepp (Jurrassic Park, Spider Man). Here's the RT page

Finalized Designs

2008-09-13T13:51:00.001-07:00

I'll get back to posting regular stuff later, but I've been on kind of a drawing spree, so here are the final designs for the host of my upcoming webshow SafetyNet, premiering in 2009 or once the Shak Budisen Movie is done, it will be a live action/animation combo, hosted by Bearded Cyclops, and featuring demos of safety principal's by the stunt man, as played in live action. Here are the designs for Bearded Cyclops.

Lotsa Drawings 3

2008-09-11T21:49:00.001-07:00

The third and final upload of Sunday night's drawing spree

Lotsa Drawings 2

2008-09-09T19:53:00.001-07:00

I made so many I couldn't post em' all at once.

Lotsa Drawings

2008-09-08T22:39:00.001-07:00

Thoughts on Ghost Rider: The Deterioration of Action Scenes

2008-09-06T12:14:00.000-07:00

When someone goes to see a movie like Ghost Rider, the least they can expect is some good action scenes. However, it seems like a new trend in Hollywood action fodder: not much actual action. First of all, Ghost Rider is a movie that takes itself about 10 times as seriously as it should. It seems to think it is some emotional, deep, epic, exciting, ghost story, but it doesn't seem to actually deliver on the action. It seems like once Spider Man introduced super heroes with emotional problems to Hollywood, every super hero movie has tried to copy it. However, emotion is much harder to execute than action, but with the focus of the day set on developing emotional conflict, the action is shoved aside. Now in some cases that may be a good thing, but usually, when a movie is bad, it can fall back on action. Not so with Ghost Rider. Each of the villain's main henchmen fall prey to Ghost Rider within 7 seconds. It doesn't help that the titular character's powers turn him into a glorified special effect. If Hollywood can't do action anymore, than what can it do?

Awesomeness 3

2008-09-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

I'll post some real stuff soonish.

More Awesomeness

2008-09-04T10:51:00.001-07:00

Rotten Tomatoes: The Summer In Review

2008-09-03T18:30:00.000-07:00

Read the article here
I personally think WB deserves more than third place.

Awesomeness

2008-09-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

Some Lego Stop Motion and Shak Budisen Movie Update

2008-08-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

Here's my entry into the overpopulated world of lego stop motion. I mostly just made it for fun. The Shak Budisen movie is really coming along. There's almost 4 minutes of completed voices, animation, sound and music, so Shak is aimed for a winter release instead of summer. The Shak Budisen movie will be one of, if not the last Shak cartoon I make so I'm moving on after this. I may make another trailer. I probably will just revise the old one.

Soap Opera vs. Nature Show: Human Stories vs HUMAN Stories

2008-08-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

Has anyone out there ever put two spiders in a jar, hoping to see them fight to the death. I sure know I have. Now, I like TV just as much as the next man, but when you turn on the tube you're essentially paying people to do the same thing, an in my future, I'd sure love to see those things. TV shows are like nature shows focused on the animal we find most fascinating: ourselves. Basically, what is the key to the story of any TV show: battles or relationships. Isn't that basically what nature shows are after. I loved to watch nature shows when I was from around 8 to 10. Maybe its because watching animals fight and mate is a less sophisticated version of humanity. Eventually, we move on to watching people do it, and that's how our media works. The more actual day to day life is in a show, the less popular it becomes, with a few exceptions. Maybe the same children who dreamed of wrestling with crocodiles are watching TV staring with great anticipation into what their adult lives could be. And maybe a decade or so later they'll be sitting in front of the tube looking back at what they think their life could have been, or desperately scrambling to salvage it before the onset of aging. Of course what most of them don't realize is that TV is an incredibly condensed version of the interesting parts of life, which is why I sometimes enjoy episodes of a a show where almost nothing happens. Its refreshing. Of course, on a nature show, probably 75% of the time they're shooting is just walking through the jungle looking. But we don't have to look anywhere but the screen. Lucky us!

Here's What's Happening

2008-08-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

I've got a couple of new posts coming up but I haven't gotten around to posting them yet. Coming soon is the new rant: Soap Opera vs. Nature Show: Human Stories vs. HUMAN Stories. The first almost three minutes of the Shak Budisen movie have been animated, voiced and scored, and I've got some thoughts on posts I've wanted to do, but school is starting to wear on me again meaning I have less time to work on this stuff. As of now there are 15 minutes 'till the start of school so I can't really write the posts I want to write right now but I might as well post something so here it is.

The Dark Knight Review

2008-08-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing about the Dark Knight, it is fat. The amount of stuff crammed into it is enough to make it seem horrendously obese.But don't judge it by its fatness, its a very entertaining movie bogged down by excess. The first half-hour is in fact, very boring and I was beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately, the amount of action they manage to cram into the next two hours requires that kind of set- up in order to remain comprehensible, which, thankfully, it does. After getting all of its characters introduced, Dark Knight launches a thrill ride of darkness, death and irony. Heath Ledger as the Joker dominates every scene he's in and you can't really see enough of him, and the effects used to create "two face" Harvey Dent are both impressive and gruesome.Unfortunately, the incredible tension created by the joker, and the excellent subplot of Harvey Dent, are marred by a fairly unnecessary beginning, with long scenes used to set up very brief, albeit interesting scenes later in the film. None of this stops the Dark Knight from being entertaining, but steers it out of masterpiece territory. Another bad point is its uneven pacing. After about an hour and a half, Nolan gets the pacing down, creating a fast paced action film with some excellent moments providing commentary on human nature, with one of my favorite scenes being one where the Joker puts a detonator on two boats, one full of prisoners and one filled with refugees, and asks one to blow up the other before he destroys both. In contrast, however the "crime drama" parts are painfully slow. All in all, some poorly paced and largely unnecessary segments can't drag the Dark Knight down, but keep it from being the fast-paced super powerful film it has been hailed as. Score: 7.9 out of 10

Back in School

2008-08-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

I am ugh, "finally" back in school. Hopefully my doodles can be developed into new cartoons and movies, but unfortunately I will have less time to work on projects and post on this blog. I may be able to see "the Dark Knight" on either tomorrow or wednesday so look for a review.

Flash Animation Using the "Model System" and New Shak Budisen Models

2008-08-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

With Shak Budisen I use the "model system" which, although simpler than drawing the frames individually, makes the animation look a lot worse. Basically by right clicking or control clicking (for PC and Mac respectively) on a selected drawing and then selecting convert to symbol you can save a drawing in your library. Then, by creating a duplicate and hitting edit using the right click options, you can create a moving version of that model. This is very convenient because instead of drawing the characters and their motions every time you can just drag and drop preset animations from the library and by dragging the frames in the timeline repeat them as many times as you want. The disadvantage is that, although these repetitive models are good for just characters standing still and talking, you cannot create specific action animations, which is why in Shak's Aikido there are a lot of non-model drawings of Danny. Here are some models from the upcoming Shak Budisen MovieShak's eyes are closer together, and his mouth movements are designed to synch better. I especially like his angry animations this time around. Danny has the most radical new model as he is sporting a brand-new goatee. Nilfenburger is also featured as he will become one of the major characters of the film.

Shak Budisen: The Movie set for next summer.

2008-08-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

One of the most spontaneous ideas to spring from a random sketch was this "movie" that I hope will make it to the web at between 10 and 30 minutes, which is long considering that most Shaktoons are only about two minutes. The film was born when I drew the main villain of the film, the alley man, who I sketched absently. I liked the character so I made the drawing into a movie poster, then a movie trailer, and hopefully, a movie. Here it is I haven't developed the story much beyond what I said in the trailer. Nilfenburger from Slick Capewill be in it but with more lines and a different voice, and although the Alley Man is the featured villain I plan on very little story and a lot of strange guest stars.

Thoughts on: 28 Days Later, Cast Away, and I Am Legend

2008-08-10T12:52:00.000-07:00

For my first "thoughts on" post I will discuss three films, two of which have similar stories, and two of which have similar problems. One is probably my favorite movie. The others are excellent for the first two thirds and then are marred by a horrendously sappy ending that is completely out of tone with the rest of the film. Lets start with 28 Days Later.

A group of people break in to a facility and free a bunch of captured chimpanzees. A worker pleads with them not to let them go because they are infected with "rage" but the liberators pay no heed. 28 days later, a man named Jim wakes up in a hospital bed, and finds he is in an empty city. That is the beginning of one of the most visionary movies I have ever seen. It manages to effectively be a horror film, a survival film, a zombie film, an emotional film, and social satire. The characters in 28 Days Later are incredibly human, so they do not fall prey to the same situations many less believable characters fall to. They don't often split up, making sure not to lose each other, but as one of the "family" groups so often seen in films and novels, they work effectively. In fact the only reason one of the characters dies is because of compassion for a dead man. 28 Days Later was written by a novelist: Alex Garland, and the narrative shows it. As beautiful images of the English countryside and flesh eating monsters blend seamlessly together to create a story that manages to be both meditative and exciting, and the story is full of unexpected plot points because of the situation. Let me just say that the unexpected plot points are one of the things that I love about the genre. With other movies you are trying to find the treasure or get the girl or win the war, but in a world that is hell on earth you just have to survive and keep going in a direction without a map. When the characters find a goal and achieve it, they find that there isn't the security that they were looking for and that they have to move on. Garland's novel-like narrative is beautifully complemented by Director Danny Boyle's visual style, as well as the music of Godspeedyou Black Emperor. Boyle's photography uses slightly lowered image quality to its advantage, making the beauty and majesty still remaining in this post-apocalyptic London seem as surreal as it must seem to the characters. Humanity has gone to hell, but the world is still spinning, still green, and still eerily beautiful, ugly people fighting in a world that seems happier without them. Boyle's other cliche-breaking achievement in this film is not relying on the dark to create fear, but to make the daytime scary as wel. He creates a fear not so much for ones own life but for the loss the other characters will experience and have experienced. However, there is one curiosity to the film. There were two filmed endings, a happy one, and a sad one, both of which maintain the surreal feel of the film, although the sad one is more effective, and the happy one is a crowd-pleaser, both are good enough not to mar an excellent film.

Now on to Cast Away, the film with a fascinating beginning and middle, and a stifling interminable end. After introducing the characters, a truly frightening plane crash sequence leaves a postal worker stranded on an uninhabited island. Thus begins a fascinating survival saga. The first part of this story has virtually no dialogue, yet manages to show the character's duty to his job as well as his sheer desperation. The rest of the story begins when he creates for himself an "imaginary friend" of sorts, using a Wilson volleyball that was in one of the packages on his plane, which allows for dialogue and should get co-star billing above the other human actors. The story then details his survival and escape, and then his return to society. However, once he returns to society, the entire film falls to pieces. What was once a story about the will to live becomes another "girlfriend has moved on but he wants her back" story. The wrap-up to the love story is nowhere near as powerful as the wrap-up to his life on the island with Wilson, which is truly touching, rather than the phony ending.

I Am Legend is basically a combination of the two. Its about a man and his one, non-speaking friend, struggling to survive and to have the will to survive in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by diseased humans. When the film opens with a woman stating she has created a cure for cancer, followed by a wide shot of a deserted New York City, it may seem to be a 28 days knockoff. It is anything but. I Am Legend focuses on aspects of the Zombie Horror genre that are not typically explored. Instead of focusing on the survival of a "family group" fending off hordes of the undead, Legend focuses on the endeavors of one lonely man attempting to find a cure. Everything about what has happened is revealed in flashbacks, which are the only scenes with human dialogue. Dr. Neville's (Will Smith) only companion is his dog, Samantha, who leads him into some exciting and intense sequences, as well as saving his life, as he fights the disease that has taken over the world. That is what the first hour of the film is like, and its a blast. It manages to be emotionally satisfying, action packed, and distinguish itself from its other post-apocalyptic zombie predecessors. Unfortunately, that's only the first hour. From there, the film loses all of its momentum and all of its vision to become a typical Hollywood film. All this happens because the filmmakers felt the need to add two more characters, even though the film was better off without them. The characters are Anna and Ethan, although the latter should be called "silent kid" as he does not have a single line in the entire film. Anna merely serves as a catalyst to end the movie, and silent kid as a catalyst to create one of the "family groups" that characterizes so many films of this genre. It is like Cast Away in proportions of bad and good. The dog is Wilson, and Anna is like the postal worker's ex-girlfriend, who show's up just in time to blandify the film. It's disappointing, because the first hour is amazing (except for the poor CGI animation) but it falls flat to deliver a formulaic ending.

Television Reviews: My Plan of Attack

2008-08-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

Near the beginning of this blog, I started writing an episode by episode guide to one of my favorite cartoon series': Samurai Jack. I assumed I would write 52 separate capsules, one for each episode. However, once I had finished watching the show I had much less drive to write reviews and they became less and less frequent, so I have decided on how to do this. I will write one big review block for each season, with capsules for episodes I particularly enjoyed or did not enjoy, and flat out scores and basic credits and summaries for the ones that do not get full reviews. I will then do a season wrap-up and a DVD review. I hope to do this with other series' besides Samurai Jack.

Game of the Week: Trogdor

2008-08-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

Game: Trogdor
Why: Many levels of awesome Peasant Stomping Action
Play it

New Potter Trailer and Movie News

2008-08-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of you have seen this already, but here it is anyways I usually find that movies strip books down to their action only, ignoring important dialogue. However, for this particular Potter story, I strongly hope that most of the awful sappy teen drama is taken out. The trailer definitely seems to be focusing mostly on the pensive and not on the drama stories. There are some interesting stories in this week's weekly ketchup from ROTTEN TOMATOES, as well as some really dumb ideas (Why wont WB learn Looney Tunes + live action = crappy movie) oh yeah, spoiler alert...Sony, Venom is dead, like, as in deceased in one of the most wasteful deaths in any Superhero movie EVER. Of course, now that I think about it, Spider Man 3 is pretty bad. Ok, really bad (I love the first two) but anyways, time to stop ranting and let you read the article. click here

WHY! WHY!

2008-07-28T13:42:00.001-07:00

As of this fall, the Mr. Cranky website is closing down, so now's your last chance to check out some of his best reviews. Heres a link to the goodbye post. I'm so sad. Goodbye Mr. Cranky

Wall-E Review

2008-07-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally made it down to the theater and saw Wall-E, and before I begin writing this review, there were two things in the theater that distracted me that could have effected my experience of the film. First, the screen was horrifically small, as was the theater, and the screen's aspect ratio of either 1.77:1 or 1.85:1 did not match the 2.35:1 ratio of the film, causing some of it to be projected onto the curtains. Second, sitting behind me was a group of children who seemed to feel it was their sacred duty to narrate everything that was happening in the film. Fortunately, they let up for some of the beginning and most of the middle and end otherwise I would not be here writing this review, but instead rolling around in the grave. Now with that rant done with, lets get down to the review.

Director Andrew Stanton's Wall-E has some amazing components: amazingly effective robot characters who managed to progress the story with little dialogue, a creative world, and an interesting and satirical plotline. Stanton, who directed Finding Nemo, has created a world completely unlike his colorful reef world, but both his bleak wasteland and his vibrant space worlds teem with the imagination and attention to detail that made his previous film so enjoyable. In fact, although I felt at first that unlike last year's Ratatouille, Wall-E did not top the other P.I.X.A.R films with technological and storytelling prowess, Wall-E's world is one of the most thoroughly designed of all P.I.X.A.R worlds. One of my favorite subtle moments of the film is where the titular character enters an abandoned super store. Behind him is a banner that reads "evacuation sale". However, the ending of Wall-E almost ruined all the amazing preceding material for me, because, like many endings today, and like the movie itself, the epilogue seemed too short. Stanton certainly gave audiences a spectacular final action scene, but the emotional climax was cut painfully short, perhaps to go easy on the minds of younger audiences, however, the final plot-device was a brilliant idea and to see it tossed aside after minutes was anticlimactic and almost ruined the picture for me. But, perhaps my criticism is unfair. Wall-E's space scenes have incredible scope, it had a big budget, a big box office and big ideas, but for some reason it didn't feel big. It didn't quite reach the epic status some of the scenes seemed to be grasping for, because in the end, Wall-E is a simple love story with a lot of special effects, side characters and subplots that seem to distract from the emotions that, when focused on, are handled so well. It may be unfair to say so, but it seems as though Wall-E sets up a spectacular world populated by incredible characters, but doesn't quite take any of it far enough. Wall-E seems too big to be a kids movie and I felt that something important was lost through the child filter, while in other P.I.X.A.R films, nothing is. For all its incredible imagination, emotion and majesty, Wall-E feels incomplete. However, I feel as though I will enjoy it more when I see it again in the comfort of my own home. When I first saw Cars I was disappointed by its preachiness, length and lack of humor, but when I saw it on DVD all the subtle humor and depth came through to make it an enjoyable experience. During my viewing, Wall-E seemed to light, humorous and short to deal with its serious themes, but it seems like it could grow on me a great deal when I am not taking it at face value, too overwhelmed with the spectacle unfolding but not fully unfolding on the big screen to notice the subtleties that are hinted at amongst the action sequences. I had considered giving it a 7.8, but for now I give it an 8.4. When the DVD comes out, I'll do a "thoughts on" post giving me thoughts on a second viewing. As for the present, the score stands at 8.4.

I am also trying to see "The Dark Knight" bear with me, it may take me as long to see it as it did to see Wall-E.

Shak Budisen Commentary

2008-07-24T13:06:00.001-07:00

Shak's Aikido made the first season of Shak Budisen complete, even though it is only three episodes, now I have compiled them all and recorded a commentary track And here is the complete first season, the second season will begin as soon as I feel like it
Coming soon is a new series of post, the thoughts on series. Sometimes when I see a movie, it's really too late for me to review it, but sometimes viewing a film for the second time or seeing it later than others can still make me think, so these scoreless reviews will begin soon on my favorite older films and the ones that will be remembered as black holes of suckiness and bad filmmaking.

Shak Budisen Episode 3 is Here and Sooner Than Expected

2008-07-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

Here it is
I made this one pretty quickly. The Has-Beens was too complex so I made this fairly simple piece with only Shak and Danny. Shak is like evil now. Poor Danny and his misplaced hero worship, but hopefully Shak and his Aikido flaming punch can uphold the American dream.

News on Future Updates and Game of the Week

2008-07-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

Game of the Week to Last For the Week was a Thursday feature but I've gotten behind on that just like my Samurai Jack reviews, so it will become just Game of the Week and will be posted hopefully once a week on any day. I haven't been able to see the movies that I've wanted to see for a while because the nearest first-run movie theater is about an hour away, and so I haven't gotten around to it. But, Wall-E is playing at a people's theater closer to home, so stay tuned for a review. Until then, here's the game of the week.
Game: Treasure of Cutlass Reef
Why: Its addicting and fun. The ships move kinda slow though.
Play it

Shak Returns!...sort of

2008-07-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, Shak Budisen and the Has-Beens was too ambitious and had too many characters so it fell through. The idea I had for the next episode will be a fairly simple episode featuring only Shak and Danny. But I was too lazy to start it so I made this "teaser" short with Shak and Danny. Here it is

Slick Cape: A Cartoon for CHILDREN and Stuff

2008-07-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

Slick Cape is based on a fake children's book I made and features some of the worst animation I have ever done. I thought that children's book plots were so simple it would be easy to do one of my own and satire the genre. Of course, it's a bit more cynical than typical child's fare, but it still features one of the key basics: a virtually nonexistent plot-line based on a trivial object or character. Of course, there are great children's books, and there are the ones that keep the kids occupied, and then there are the ones like Slick Cape, you buy them for a dime at a grocery store and then dump them at some kid's birthday party. Anyways, here's slick cape. Enjoy, if you feel like it

Be Kind, Rewind Review

2008-07-14T13:34:00.001-07:00

Michel Gondry's films are usually brilliant, surreal, and sad, so when I saw Be Kind, Rewind, and saw that it seemed to be an straightforward, American, feel-good comedy, I was a bit disappointed. However, a little less than half way through the film, it becomes a bit more imaginative and salvages what at first glance seems to be a stupid premise with some funny spoofs. However, despite the fact that the film is basically a behind the scenes parody of the making of a Gondry film, the overall feel lacks his typical imaginative flair. Also, although Jack Black receives top billing, his character is merely a distraction. He is basically a catalyst for certain events in the movie who occasionally goes off on some sort of Jack Black comedic tangent. The film is about Mos Def's character, even though he has secondary billing, and his struggles with finding a creative identity and his relationship with his store, town, and father figure. However, the story and jokes are mostly formulaic, and the film is sustained mostly by Gondry's direction, the original elements of the story, and the feeling Gondry manages to instill even with a fairly cliche plot. Overall, I give it: 7.75

Game of the Week to Last for 6 Days: Stinkoman

2008-07-11T17:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, I was late. But anyways, here's the game.

Game: Stinkoman 20x6

Justification: A humorous side scroller that also has quality.

Play it: Stinkoman 20x6

As a bonus, check out the cartoon where this character was created (Strong Bad Email: Japanese Cartoon)

Viacom Sucks, This Video Rocks

2008-07-09T18:56:00.000-07:00

This is incredibly wrong, and I'm sure glad I didn't waste my ticket money on Indiana Jones 4 and Kung-Fu Panda. Check out this video at its source and be sure to add your comment to the growing list on YouTube. As for this video, it's a well crafted argument, and I'll be curious as to what Viacom has to say for themselves. Until then, let the boycott begin.

Persepolis Review

2008-07-07T13:29:00.001-07:00

I had high expectations for Persepolis and it definitely met them as a story that balanced a dark setting with a great human story. The fact that it is animated is not at all distracting and is successfully used to the benefit of the film, which also uses conventional film techniques in an animated setting for surprising effectiveness. The film is also one of the most accurate portrayals of a young child growing up I have seen in a film, and the music is excellent. Although it is a dark time and setting, Persepolis teems with life and death and never seems dull or cliche. Also, as it is a memoir of a person who is still alive, the ending would be abrupt but is tied together by the color scenes in an airport (the rest of the film is black and white). The ending lines are very simple but finally bring the memories together for an excellent film. Overall, I give it 9/10.

Note, I don't include summaries in my reviews because if you haven't seen the film you probably don't want to know what happens in it, and if you have than you don't need to.

Hand-Drawn Shak Budisen

2008-07-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

Here's what Shak looks like when he's not in flash.

Happy 5th of July!

2008-07-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

Happy 5th of July, the day before our favorite day of the year: 6th of July. Get out your fire crackers and your tub of lard and get ready to party!

Game of the Week to Last For the Week: Flash Sonic

2008-07-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

The Game: Flash Sonic

The Justification: Although there are tons of flash Mario games out there, there is only one competent Sonic flash game out there. I played this game before I had ever played a real Sonic game, and aside from the sense of speed, its pretty comparable.

Play it: Here

Cat the Movie 2 Production Has Started

2008-07-02T13:15:00.000-07:00

I have started shooting for Cat the Movie. When it is finished I will post a film profile and some clips. Well that's it. Yeah, my last couple of posts have been lame.

Wall-E Box Office

2008-07-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

The first film of the summer I want to see in theaters is out. Here's some info on its box office from Rotten Tomatoes and the Box Office Guru. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wall_e/news/1738128/box_office_guru_wrapup_wall_e_and_jolie_box_office_power_couple

I haven't been especially motivated to write anything, so just read this instead or whatever.

Game of the Week to Last for the Week: Downhill Jam

2008-06-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

The Game: Downhill Jam

The Justification: a 3D streaming web game, and a lot of fun.

Play it:

Downhill Jam

Don't Forget to Bring A Towel

2008-06-25T15:15:00.001-07:00

DON'T!

An Update From the World of Film Featuring 10 Years of Rotten Tomatoes and a new Trailer

2008-06-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

First off, here's a video from the 10th anniversary of Rotten Tomatoes. It really shows how crappy movies attract audiences. See how many times someone's response to a film is "I liked it"

Secondly, here's a really interesting trailer, it looks amazing, I just hope they don't turn it into a Brad Pitt showcase instead of an awesome film. It's directed by David Fincher, who made the abomination of Alien 3, however, I don't blame him for it. I've heard through the web that he was brought on late into the project, and his work was constantly interfered with by the studio. Heres the trailer.

Finally, last night, I saw a new film, Fitzgaraldo ( I am certain that is not how it is spelled but I really couldn't spell it since the title is almost as strange as the film) although I found it to be too long with the style featuring minimal editing, the story was intriguing, about a man who wants to bring opera to the Amazon, but needs money, and in earning it, ends up using natives to haul a steamboat over a mountain. Weird huh?

'Ow To Be Bri'ish

2008-06-24T13:47:00.000-07:00

Heres a new 'toon I made while taking a break from Shak Budisen. Its a tutorial/ spoof on how to act like a bad stereotype of a British person. Enjoy if you feel like it.

Don't Forget To Bring A Towel!

2008-06-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

Game of the Week to Last for the Week: Pacxon

2008-06-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

I know many gamers out there have probably played this one already, but for those who haven't, you should.
The Game: Pacxon
The Justification: It's amazing how a web game designer has managed to re-invent Pac Man more effectively than Namco.
Play it:

PacXon

New flash TP animation and film profiles for Cat the Movie 1&2

2008-06-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a break from Shak Budisen to work on real films, however, they will have animated components, let me tell you why. Cat the Movie started out as a slideshow project when I got my first Mac, and was playing around with iPhoto and iDVD, and it featured pictures of my cat. Later, I developed sequel slideshows also featuring my cat, with captions added in to make them like a photo comic book. Than, when I got my camera, Cat the Movie was the first film I made with it. The problem was that it sucked. It was a mash up of 2 of my slideshow stories, but it had horrid shaky camera work, mostly single take shots where the camera didn't cut in time, and crappy voiceovers to be the voice of my cat, who, being a cat, was very hard to film with. After cat the movie, I went on to work on my fake nature series Looking at Nature, and then returned to remake cat the movie, this time with slightly better editing and added special effects, but still with crappy voiceovers. The story of these two versions was mostly the same, with the cat being attacked by Mr. Cage (the cat's former owner in the remake) who was a servant of the evil emperor whose goal was to enslave the cats. However, although I completed the re-make as scripted, I decided to add another scene. However, that scene was never shot, leaving the remake partially uncompleted. I took a break from filmmaking for a while and then shot another remake, this time with the evil emperor removed from the plot, with Mr. Cage as the lead villain, whose brain was damaged in a toxic swamp. The film showed his failed attempts to capture the cat in a cartoon styled structure. The cat did not talk in this film. Also, this film was where I started to develop my style, with the opening credits resembling stop motion. Than I wrote 2 scripts, one for a sequel and one for a spinoff. The sequel was delayed due to the fact that the cat would not stay in the place I meant to shoot, because the grass was dry at that time of year. While the sequel was delayed, I set to work on the spinoff Aardvark man, which is halfway finished. However, since I edited while I shot, I started editing more and shooting less, leading to its incomplete state. After that, I started to work on my next flash series The Dumb Adventures of Billee and Frank, several episodes of which are posted on this blog. Than, after completing the six short episodes of that series, I created Pandybatter, and started work on Noggin' it up in Rutabegese, which failed technically. While I was sorting it out, I did my first drawing of Shak Budisen, and started his series. After doing his stop motion, I became interested in stop motion animation. Then, I started work on South Park Memories, which once again got me into film, and when I used a toilet paper character for a brief segment in the film, I got the idea for toilet paper animation, which I did in stop motion, and today in flash. Now I intend to make a new cat the movie sequel with a toilet paper villain combining stop motion, flash, and live action. Heres a taste of what flash TP will look like:

The Future of Animation: Toilet Paper

2008-06-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, I lied, I have to post one more thing before I leave on my trip, some new stop motion animation I just did as a possible component for my next film.