Fatherly Advice

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

3 New Reviews

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|

I just died a little inside.

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

3 Days Later

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. 

UP

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|

The Powerpuff Girls Rule!

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

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|

Kung-Fu Panda

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

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

Good News and Bad News

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.

The Air CN Shows in Widescreen Petition

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

Slick Cape 4

I made 12 seconds of randomness to cure my boredom. 

Two New Reviews: Iron Man and Underfist

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

Coming Tomorrow

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

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

Slick Cape 2

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

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

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.

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