Calculating the cost of Calvin and Hobbes’ shenanigans

Actual ‘study’ link here.

candybowl

Some time ago I found a page that went into exquisite, delicious detail in ripping on Challenge of the Superfriends episodes. I mean, this would put even Roger Ebert to shame in its level of detail. Having been a huge fan of StompTokyo.com for years now, it’s the same thing – take (largely kids) shows that are starving for lampoon, and send them up by simply using logic and plain observations of what actually happens in the plot. And THEN throw in the frequent slam, comparison or grammar analysis that further pummels the show into the dust. 🙂

So as per usual, a random memory came into my head of reading these (whenever it was in the past) and looked them up again – it turns out there are actually 3 sites devoted to this, and they are all hilarious! Of course it helps if you are 40+ and spent way too many saturdays watching the original cartoons on TV in the mid-late 70s. If you aren’t, or didn’t (or simply didn’t watch ENOUGH of them) – you can catch many on YouTube now (of course).

here are the sites:

Seanbaby.com – The Superfriends

Jabootu – Challenge of the Superfriends

Roger Wilcox – The Challenge of the Superfriends

and here’s my fave quote so far from the first one (talking about Grodd, the evil-super gorilla from the Legion of Doom):

“….He comes from a secret invisible village of talking gorillas, but that’s not that big a deal. I describe my hometown of Baker City, Oregon exactly the same way. At least the people in my town all had rifles. Grodd doesn’t even have pants. But to be honest, even a non-talking gorilla is tougher than most of the people on the Legion of Doom….”

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great article. Although truth be told, I haven’t ever seen much of this show. But I should…..! And a possible reboot?

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Definitive Oral History of a TV Masterpiece

Joel Hodgson Wants To Resurrect Mystery Science Theater 3000 In 2014

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You be the judge – $1000 a week, or $1000 a day? Bill Murray vs. (the original) Terminator? 🙂

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So the summer movie-going season kind of hit a wall in mid-July due to work and other commitments, sadly. But that’s why the DVD was invented, rightl? 🙂 So I finally saw Pacific Rim this afternoon on DVD. While I’m sure the effect of mecha-robots and kaiju slugging it out was diminished somewhat by watching it at home – it was still entertaining.

Likes: – the way the soundtrack draws you in when the battles intensify (this was done well IMHO in other recent movies, notably The Avengers);

– The robots are pretty cool, even if not that original (we’ve seen them all pretty much a zillion times before if you have seen Transformers or any anime mecha from Gundam onward through Evangelion) although I was a bit disappointed the majority of the battles occur at sea rather than on land – gotta smash up those buildings and stomp the people and cars! One of the mecha uses an actual ship as a bat at one point, so that’s pretty cool, too, even if I think they have a bit of a comparative scale issue on that point;

– The actors are all fairly unknown (to me, at least) save Idris Elba, who seems to be really hitting the big time of late. Charlie Day also resembles Sam Rockwell more than a little bit – I was surprised it wasn’t the latter. I’m glad they did it that way and not just have a bunch of big names who demand more money and more screen time – stories like this are about kaiju and the men/women who waste them with huge robots, first and foremost!

– the fact that the robots didn’t just win the war at first go and that the kaiju kept coming back, meaner and more vicious.

And, then the inevitable gripes and spoilers (alert!)

– it’s been pointed out many times over that building big robots to take out big monsters wouldn’t work. Godzilla proved that with Mechagodzilla, and that was guys in rubber suits (and arguably, both characters were bad guys anyway)! Suffice it to say that with mecha, you just have to disbelieve from the word go, or you can’t enjoy it;

– why, oh why don’t the robots simply RIP OFF THE MONSTERS’ HEADS when they fight them? It’s obvious from the start of every fight that trying to punch them out (especially when half submerged in water) DOES NOT WORK. Nor does throwing them around, on the few times they try it. And when you have pilots trained in martial arts and that have flexible swords mounted in the back of the mecha, using those skills and weapons more than as an afterthought *might* make sense – who knew? Again, a boxing match works best on land, and more likely between guys in rubber suits who don’t have the benefit of CGI weapons. 🙂

– the whole thing of the monster shorting out all the mecha in one of the later battles excepting the Gypsy Danger because they were ‘digital’ and it is ‘analog’ is completely bogus. Do you really think that shorting out wires and hardware depends on whether there’s a CPU? The answer is NO. Fried wires and computers are fried, period, guys. Ask any Cylon, old or new.

– there are a few too many ‘fight to the last man’ cliches here, but at least the movie doesn’t drag them out, so they don’t distract *too* much.

– I don’t care how many helicopters you use – there is no way they could lift a mecha like that? But barring some other plot device (like how the Autobots could fly when the plot suited it), not sure how you resolve that one….?

All in all, an entertaining ride, even if not seen on the big screen. Next up, catching Elysium and Oblivion on DVD to finish out summer movies …. three months late!

A final word – throughout this movie I was constantly saying to myself – Gojira would have kicked ALL their a**es! Thankfully we only have to wait until the start of next summer to see it happen……muhhahhah!

candybowl

So over the past few years I’ve seen an increasing trend (news to nobody I’m sure) of retro art inspired by previous art. That is, you have ‘fake’ movie posters or wholly new ‘ads’ for TV series re-imagined, like the book imaged below, which I saw in a Barnes & Noble recently (and was able to resist buying it, even!).

I’m sure the myriad of artists on Etsy have long been in this game, came across some cool recent examples there, too:

The Geekerie

Sci fi movie pulp covers

Star Trek: The Art of Juan Ortiz

(a few more pics)

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I wanna go!

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to a Giant Robot! 🙂

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Started watching the 2001-2004 Cartoon Network series Samurai Jack again while I ride the exercise bike in the basement. I’ll chart my fave episodes here as I go.

So far, from Season One:

The Beginning, Parts 1-3. Here we see Jack fight Aku, get sent into the far future, get his name, and help a group of dog archeologists(?) enslaved by Aku to their freedom. I like the setup in Part 1, which to me also seemed a bit inspired by the start of Yellow Submarine where the Blue Meanies attack Pepperland. Jack’s arrival in the far future is our first sight of how Aku has changed the world. It’s interesting, to be sure, and gets further revealed in each episode of the series from there on. What’s also interesting is that it’s implied Aku rules with an iron fist and enslaves a lot of the world – but there sure seems to be a lot of people running around in the jungle and big cities irrespective of his rule? Kinda weird.

Jack and the Three Blind Archers. Jack assaults a mysterious tower on a remote island that contains a secret well possibly able to grant his wish to go home to the past and rid the world of Aku. The tower is guarded by three unbeatable archers that have easily and completely defeated legions of soldiers’ previous attacks. This episode is one of the earliest to really show Jack’s commitment to his discipline – he carries out part of the assault blindfolded based on his observations – and the episode (like many others) contains a strong moral lesson. Certainly the latter is fairly stereotypical for martial arts subject matter, but even in a kids show the story doesn’t insult the viewer.

More to come!

candybowl