The televisions show Buffy The Vampire Slayer (aired in March 10th, 1997 and ended in May 20th, 2003) is a fan-favourite. To say it is a "cult-classic" like I usually do would be an understatement. Because this is not a small or large group of specific people that love this show, it appears there are thousands, maybe millions who flock to watch the whole chronicle. Now, I'd usually talk about such things like cast and characters, but I think many people are familiar with them by now that I don't need to do that. Besides, since I am only doing an Episode Review and not the entire show itself, I think it is best to just talk about the episode in question.
"H.R. Pufnstuf, who's your friend when things get rough?"
Well, BARNEY!!! No, just kidding. But one has got to wonder since we have a big yellow talking lizard/dinosaur/dragon thing that has a head shaped like a hamburger. I mean, seriously???
Anyway, H.R. Pufnstuf is a children's television series made by Sid and Marty Krofft, this was their first creation and it came during the beginning of the 70's (1969). The show was short-lived, only running for three years (close enough) and only made three seasons until it was cancelled in 1972.
The show aired from the mid-80's to the early 90's with syndication. It followed the adventures of the baby versions of the Muppets who were watched over by "Nanny," who we never got to see because of the awful and over used cliche' of only being able to see the bottom half of the adult in the movie. That is just the animators being FREAKING LAZY!
The cast included all the muppet regulars Kermit, Piggy, Fozzy, Gonzo and more. It also had the ridiculously unnessary set of twins Scooter and Skeeter.
Note: If your haven't seen Doctor Who a highly recommend you pick it up your copy of Season One at Amazon.com, its that freakin' good. I guarantee its better than any season you've seen on TV in the past year. Also if you do have an interest in seeing the show or are currently going through the DVD sets, I'd advise you to stop reading THE REVIEW IS GONNA BE SPOILER INFESTED.
So not even a minute into the episode, the cliffhanger from "The Stolen Earth" is resolved and how they do it is pretty damn genius in my opinion. While The Doctor is regenerating the energy from it is transfered to his severed hand and gets stored in the hand, and saves The Doctor from regenerating into his 11th incarnation. I especially love how Tennant plays it off as nothing has just happened. That's what I love about Tennant's Doctor, the man could save the world from being split in two and he play it off as though he just deleted an email from his mailbox. The way Davies gave resoulution to the cliffhanger got a helluva alot flack from critics in the UK, but I didn't see what the big deal was (Then again I'm an American). Davros manages to find out where the TARDIS is and teleports it and its crew to The Crucible, the Daleks main ship. During their confrontation Davros disposes of the TARDIS with Donna still inside. As its burning up in the lava like stuff, Donna touches the severed hand's jar and it's gives her the energy from the recent regeneration, while in return it gives the hand the genetic makeup of Donna to make a new Doctor, who just in the nick of time saves the TARDIS from being destroyed.
This is where it starts to get complicated. The first time I first saw this episode I missed the first half hour and missed everything I just discussed and missed a hell of a lot, which left me confused for the whole episode. The actor that plays Davros in the episode is terrific and captures the character almost perfectly, in some scenes you see a bit of Wisher's Davros come out of the performance. The scenes between The Doctor and Davros are well played out, one of my favorite scenes has got to be when Davros shows the Doctor that even though he's a pacifist, he's turned his companions into weapons themselves.
My grandparents on my dad's side live with us. They're a lot of fun to be around since they act kinda wacky, and they're great to talk to. A lot of times when I'm bored, I'll head up to their bedroom and have a chat with them. Very interesting conversations can be tricked out of them if you ask the right questions. They're awesome.
Sometimes when I head up there, they have the TV on. They watch the same shows every day, so I always know what's gonna be on. My grandma's favorite show, however, happens to be Jerry Springer.
The final episodes (or at least one of the several versions of them) of the iconic anime mech series 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' by Hideki Anno, this film acts as the (now physical) final chapter in the Earth's desperate struggle against the alien race the angels.
This film had a lot of expectations to meet. After massive backlash from the fanbase over the psycologically and budget cut challenging ending of the TV series, people were desperate for a more resolved ending. To add to this, the first Evangelion movie: Death and Rebirth, only offered little more than a preview for the series final chapter, meaning fans had to wait yet another four months for a true ending.
So how does End of Evangelion begin? Well simply the main character (Shinji Ikari) cries over the comatose body of his fello pilot (Asuka Langley) only to pull some of the covers off her, prompting him to jerk off. A bit turned off? Well it's undeniable that in some ways End of presents itself as more visually shocking than the original series. As well as the prementioned scene, others of extreme violence and sadistic killing are also present, however these co-exist with the series' usual themes of psycology, religious icongraphy and the apocolyptic recreation of mankind, all of which create a unique experience that today still creates endless debates.
So how does the film play out? Well quite differently depending how far you watch into it. The first 'episode': 'Air', is far more action orientated, as the members of NERV face off against a desperate government force. This is the far less surreal episode, instead of messing with our minds it enforces one of Eva's two standings: As a mech anime. It's a well animated section, the eva fight is exhilerating and the action feels tense and full of desperation.
The second episode begins with the human intrumentality project activated, and here the focus shifts to the more bizarre and psycologically challenging. Nothing here is simple. Shinji doesn't simply approach mankinds fate with a yes or no, instead it's far more complicated. And even if you feel you can't appreciate the deepness of it you can still appreciate how unique and powerful it is. Character monologues, bizarre images and live action shots make a strangely involving sequence that requires applause. The CGI used in the subsequent scenes (and generally the whole movie) is very impressive, with Anno's unique directing just adding that polish on it.
In a way this isn't really the end of Evangelion. The bizarre (for lack of a better word) ending still creates endless internet debates today, and now with the whole series being remade as a set of new films, it's optional to accept this as Eva's end. Though many will have appreciated a less abstract ending, and though it may require a second viewing and a scan of it's wikipedia page to understand the film, it's easily a classic that will remain in your memory, and one you'll be happy to return to.
Just to add further praise, the music is a stunning collection of new scores and classic music, and both the Japanese and American (surprisingly) dub is brillaint, with all the actors from the original seriess reprising their roles.
End of Evangelion easily gave the fans the closure they wanted, and more besides. Fans of conventional anime and those who haven't been introduced to Eva maybe won't appreciate it, but then, hey their loss eh?
A couple days ago, I wrote a blog talking about how "The Simpsons" has gone severely down hill while reviewing an episode from the newest season.
I figured that since I wrote such a negative blog about the show, I should also write a positive blog, because lets face it -- the show sucks now, but in the 90's it was one of the best shows on television.
So, I present you with My Top 11 Simpsons Episodes. Why top 11? Because it's apparently becoming trendy for users to do here, and I just wanna be popular. :(
Ok, so my girlfriend was telling me about that website hulu.com where you can watch full episodes of TV shows. I thought it sounded pretty cool, so I decided to check it out. It is pretty cool, actually. I'd reccommend all you ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com users go give it a look-see!
Gargoyles are strong nocturnal creatures that turn to stone at night. In 994 AD, they were betrayed by the humans they once protected, resulting in the Gargoyle genocide. Goliath, the gargoyle leader, finds out that the only members of his clan still alive are cursed to sleep in stone until their castle rises above the clouds, in other words forever. He decides to have the same spell cast on him in order to kill the pain of being the last of his kind. He basically asks to be killed.
1000 years pass and a billionaire, David Xanatos, purchases their castle and has it placed on top of his skyscraper. This breaks the gargoyles' curse and awakens them in modern New York. Xanatos uses them to create a steel army in their likeness and betrays them with it. The Gargoyles defeat his army and now must find a way to survive in their new surroundings.
This definitely wasn't Goof Troop or Recess. Disney's highly underrated action cartoon didn't hold back much and wasn't always concerned with a happy sing-along ending. This dark cartoon had people saying hell and showed blood all it wanted while killing any typical Disney feeling. Sadly, they stopped releasing season sets due to it not reaching Disney's ridiculous sale expectations.
Edit: Wow, am I an idiot. XD Thanks to x33 for the info, and man, I can't believe I copy and pasted TWICE. Yeah, bear with me as I learn all this. :P
Last night, the American Film Institute had their annual list celebrating some aspect of movies. You know the routine; top movies, top romances, top stars, top thrillers, top quotes. Last night, they had something different; selecting the top ten movies across ten different genres (frankly, I think they're running out of ideas). These were animation (although the great Brad Bird, and I agree with him, says animation is an ART FORM and not a GENRE), fantasy, sci-fi, sports, western, gangster, mystery, romantic comedies, courtroom drama, and epic. This is bit of a breakdown on each catagory, and what was right and wrong. Please feel free to diss me all you want for anything you disagree with, as I'm gonna be doing a bit of dissing all my own. :P Seriously, keep the comments nice and to the point.
ANIMATION: For starters, completely dominated by Disney, but considering they've held the monopoly for the last 70 years it's kind of hard to blame the AFI here, and as it's purely American, anything from Japan or Europe is out of the question. But what about a nod to some of the independent, subversive animators out there? Ralph Bakshi, Don Bluth, Bill Plymton, Richard Williams? And why not Nightmare Before Christmas (Disney, still, but so very much unlike anything Disney has ever done)? Why not Iron Giant? Or heck, if you want to use an old, old movie, why not the Fleischer Studios Gulliver Travels? Aside from Shrek, a safe bunch of kid friendly choices. Hell, they studiously avoided the one truly most groundbreaking animated film of all time - South Park.
So, my first blog. And after some thought, I've decided to do it on the pilot of a new show that's just dripping with nostalgic possibilities: Swingtown. Not nostalgic for me, mind you. I was born in 1984, so this show set in '76 might as well be in the dark ages regarding my ability to determine its accuracy to the period. Though my parents are being a big help in that regard; I particularly like their reminisces about the smell of paper fresh off something called a ditto machine, although since neither of them can quite find the words to describe just what this smell was like, I guess it's one of those things that will forever remain a mystery to me, like how people could think the name Bruce sounds gay.
And even knowing as little about life in the '70s as I do, just the pilot of this show rams its setting into your head over and over so by the time it was done I practically felt like I had just inhaled a bunch of hemp. I don't think there's a single second that went by that didn't have some kind of music playing behind it. Though that didn't really work so well since there didn't seem to be any attempt to make them songs from 1976; as long as it was released some time within the decade, it went in. Other than that, you've got big closeups of people drinking Tab, sliding their feet into flip flops that Dr. Scholl apparently used to make before they got into stopping blisters, and my personal favorite, everyone sitting down to watch game show that half the fans seem to think is The $10,000 Pyramid while the other half think it's Password. I have some familiarity with the latter because of that one Odd Couple episode, but I still have no idea whether that clip was from it or not. Boy, game shows were so interchangable before we came up with making the contestants live on islands and stuff.
As for the story, the main couple is moving up the food chain and thinking about a so called "open relationship." Am I the only one who gets the feeling those things were a lot less predominant that we're led to believe nowadays? The husband is played by Norrington from Pirates of the Carribean, who happens to be my personal favorite for the next star of Doctor Who once it's pried from David Tennant's cold, dead hands. Unfortunately, so far he really isn't given much to do, and his English accent slips out every fifth word or so. Take some lessons from whoever Hugh Laurie and Idris Elda went to, would you, Jack? The wife's supposedly feeling trapped in her current life, but from all I can see Norrington's a very good husband and father, so I get the sinking feeling this is going to turn into one of those English Patients or Bridges of Madison County stories where the wife slutting it up is supposed to be empowering somehow, when if a man did it he'd be instantly villified.
Disney may have been guilty of a lot of things, but I never thought their reach would go as far as some of my favorite non-disney cartoons.
I was pretty excited when they started releasing DVD volumes of The Tick cartoon. Fox's super hero lineup was a definite highlight in the '90s. Disney must have noticed their greatness and bought a number of their action cartoons. They eventually decided to release 2 volumes of The Tick, but with episodes missing. Okay, they'll put the missing episodes on volume 3, right? Okay, where's volume 3??? Hopefully they're just taking their sweetass time releasing it. It's been almost a year since I bought volume 2.
I'm worried because of a certain incident involving Gargoyles. Remember that cartoon? One of the few Disney cartoons that actually had some edge. They'll say Hell and show blood all they want. I bought season 1 and anxiously awaited season 2 for a number of months. What I got was season 2 volume 1 at a completely unreasonable price and more waiting. Then I found out through the creator's blog that "Season 2 volume 1 sold well, but didn't meet Disney's expectations and they have no current plans on ever releasing volume 2." Thanks, Disney.
This is why I have reason to believe they'll do the same to The Tick. The first two volumes were already incomplete and 10 dollars more than they should have been. It's perfectly reasonable to fear for the life of the final volume.
And remember all the other kickass action cartoons? Spider-man? X-men? Disney owns them, but are they doing anything with the rights aside from putting them on their spinoff channel?
"Well, they released sets of Spider-man to coincide with the movies and had a huge spoiler by releasing the Venom set way before any official news came out on his disappointing appearance in the third movie."
OK, I'll give you that one... But are they planning on releasing season sets? No. Are they planning on releasing season sets of X-Men? No. Are planning on banking off the success of the Iron Man movie by releasing season sets of the cartoon instead of keeping an iron grip on the rights to it? No.
At least they plan to stop making shitty straight-to-video sequels.
Tv Show Reviews
