Top Ten TV Cartoons (plus Three Honorable Mentions)

-Swinebread

Disney Buys Marvel 3... ...and Swinebread's Thoughts

Disney buys Marvel and the pop culture world shakes… Some folks are upset, some think it’s great, some are wait and see. Me? I’m feeling a little worried about it as Disney can be quite a hog when it comes to pop culture. Plus, the house of mouse has an image that doesn’t exactly appeal to the average male. On the other hand Marvel has been screwing up most of their characters lately so why not. Disney could sure use the help too because it’s all but tapped out when it comes to creativity. The idea of Marvel and Pixar working together gets the fanboy similes going regardless.

The weird thing about all this for me is that it completes a setup of the big 2 comic companies that I think is backwards. DC has been a part of Time/Warner for a while now but you know what? It never sat right with me. Superman and Batman don’t belong with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck imho. DC has always been the goodie two-shoes universe and so they belong with the goodie two-shoes Disney characters. I’ve always thought the nebulous morality of the LT cartoons lent them selves better to the angst ridden Marvel Universe. Warner has done some great things with the DC animated shows so my bias has been tamped way down but with the sale of Marvel to Disney it jumped back up to the forefront. Spiderman and the Hulk with Mickey and Donald? Yuck….!
And since Disney owns the Muppets too I just know they will come out with Muppet versions of the Marvel Supers too, although that’s not so bad.

Ultimately all this probably means nothing except that the Marvel Superheroes will eventually get overexposed and Marvel might get much more litigious.

I do have one caveat to all of this in that it was pretty cool when Duck Dodgers joined the Green Lantern Corps. Maybe will see Super Goof join the Guardians of the Galaxy?


-Swinebread

A Few Things

I’ve been watching SyFy’s (I F-ing hate the name change btw) new hit show Warehouse 13. Essentially it’s a show about that “secret government warehouse” you’ve been hearing about all these years. All kinds of supernatural relics or advanced artifacts are acquired and stored here so the general public is kept safe. Every episode usually revolves around the lead characters tracking down an object after some weird/supernatural occurrence happens. It’s not a perfect show as the investigations are laughable but it has a Buffy-esque charm that plays well. W13 could easily devolve into an artifact of the week akin to a monster of the week show but thankfully it’s mostly a character driven program with moments of humor. Probably the best things about the show (besides the excellent casting of Saul Rubinek) is that W13 is one of the best possible ways to do a “fantasy show” with a limited budget. It’s had a few hiccups but I feel it’s on good footing for a first season. It’s interesting to note that 50% of the audience for W13 is female which is a huge jump for the SyFy channel. The first season hasn’t even finished its run yet and a second season has already been green lit. On a comic book geek note CCH Pounder who plays the government agent Amanda Waller in Justice League Unlimited plays a similar role here as Warehouse 13’s Shadowy boss.

I’ve also been enjoying the BBC’s Being Human about a Vampire, Werewolf, and Ghost sharing a flat together. It sounds really corny and it kinda is but like Warehouse 13 I like that fact that there is almost no budget for the show consequently so much relies on the dialog and the personality of the characters. It rips off tons from the World of Darkness games (among other things) but BH has a certain charm. The first episode was confusing though because I felt that I had missed an episode and indeed I had. There was a pilot that had two of the three major characters cast with different actors and of course that pilot was not shown in the states. Check it out if you like “Thrift Store Horror.”

I tried to think of something fun to give my niece last month and for some reason Galaxy High School popped into my head. Why I thought a 23 year old Saturday morning cartoon would entertain a modern high schooler, I’ll never know. But my intuition was on the money as apparently she’s been watching the DVD set over and over like crazy. It’s too bad it only had one season.

I saw program about exoplanets over the weekend on the science channel. What the was really cool is that the show nicknamed planets that orbit pulsars as Zombie Planets because they are dead worlds created from the debris after the destruction of a whole system. Hmmm…


-Swinebread

I had an interesting foodie experience at Trader Joes last weekend. The wife was feeding a sample of gnocchi to Jr. and he was enjoying it so much that I decided to give it a try as well. I grabbed a cup and while I brought a spoonful of the gnocchi to my mouth I noticed that there was some sort of tomato sauce with zucchini on it. Not thinking much of it, I popped the food in my mouth. I noticed that it had a wonderful sweet-earthy taste and I actually thought to myself this sauce was real peasant food. Then I had the image of Anton Ego’s reaction to eating Remy’s Ratatouille dish. After savoring another bite I thought, “hmmmm Ratatouille must really taste similar to this.” I looked over at the sample stand to see what the sauce was and the sign read Ratatouille.

I’ve never had ratatouille in my life… and I had no idea what it looked like or the ingredients in it beyond the Disney film. It’s weird. Ratatouille is a great film but I never realized that it actually had the power to impart what something actually tastes like.

see here for a picture of Trader Joe's Ratatouille.

-Swinebread

Marvel House Ad 1986

-Swinebread

Moody's Photo Tag

Moody Minstral tagged me way back in February. Better late than never... Gulp! (His post is really sweet so make sure you check out the link)

Anyhoo, I'm supposed to go to my photo archive, look in the fourth folder, post the fourth photo in it, and talk about it. Then I tag four more folks.

I was really happy that the picture ended up being quite interesting and comic book related rather than something lame. What's even better is that this picture was taken during my honeymoon. Ironic that Moody, who is in Japan, tags me and its a picture from my first trip to Japan.

In December 2002, I snapped this shot during a quick stop at Osamu Tezuka World, in Kyoto Station (for a good blog post about it see here). It's a smallish attraction dedicated to the god of Japanese comics (yes they really call Mr. Tezuka the god of Japanse comics. In the states, godfather of manga might be a better translated title). The statue in the image is Princess Sapphire from the manga and anime series Princess Knight. It's a lovely little children's story set in a fantasy middle-age setting. It's one of the manga grand-master's more famous works after Astro Boy (Atomic Boy), Phoenix, and Black Jack although it has a much more spotty release history in the United States, sadly. I wasn't familiar with PK before I went to Japan, so it was nice to be introduced to her and to other Tezuka characters that aren't as famous in the US. Going to Osamu Tezuka World was kinda a booby prize for not being able to go to the The Osamu Tezuka Museum in Takarazuka which is outside of Osaka.

It's important to note that Osamu Tezuka's impact on Japanese comics and animation is incalculable. Everything goes back to him. All the norms in Japanese graphic-storytelling from big eyes and fantasy/sci-fi lead straight to him. In America, he's often called the Japanese Disney, which chaps my hide, because, one, he's his own institution and two, the analogy is not encompassing enough. Tezuka is more like the Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, Harvey Kurtzman, Stan Lee, Tex Avery, Max Fleischer, Wally Wood, Jerry Siegel, and Joe Shuster of Japan (and few more names too). I'm really happy that his entire legacy of characters and stories is finally being released in the states in total. FYI, BlackJack happens to be my favorite work by Osamu Tezuka.

Way back when when Mrs. Swinebread and I were planing our trip to Japan, I really wanted to see Kyoto because of its historical importance and landmarks. Unfortunately, at the time we went (December) three of the major attractions I wanted to see were closed, The Golden Temple, Nijo Castle, and Toei Movie Land. This was a hugh disappointment. I didn't even consider that such a thing might happen because in the states lots of folks have vacation during the Xmas season so most attractions are open. On the plus side, the temples and shrines that were open weren't very crowded and so we had a much more peaceful time than we could have exploring these national treasures. My wife has been to Kyoto three times now, and every time the The Golden Temple has been closed. I guess we'll have to go back again someday... maybe with Swinebread Jr!


-Swinebread

Saturday Morning Watchmen

iSwinebread!

No Hurm, No Foul

Watchmen's visionary* director Zack Snyder went into some detail about the DVD release of his pending film based on the classic graphic novel. The running time of the DVD will be a whopping 3 hours and 25 minutes. Mostly because it will include the Tales of the Black Freighter which will not be in the theatrical release.

Of course Black Freighter will be released on it's own DVD to coincide with the release of the film but I can't imagine how fans of the book would want to see it any other way than included in the overall story since it parallels and complements the larger Watchmen narrative.

Here's the trailer for that DVD if you haven't seen it-



(*Warner Brothers requires under pain of broken fingers that you refer to Zack Snyder as "visionary" whenever you mention him in writing.)

Merry Christmas Everybody

Have a wonderful, and wacky holiday... but mostly just give a big hug to your loved ones.


-Swinebread

Supers for the Tree

There wasn't a lot of new christmas ornaments for our tree, but here's two that were hung for the first time this year.

You just gotta love Space Ghost and here he is hanging on the Swinebread family tree.


I bought this dark suit Spidey at an after Christmas sale last year so he's making his first appearance this time around.



I hope your Christmas eve is happy and safe.



-Swinebread

I sure wish they had THIS cartoon when I was a kid!




-Swinebread

Uhura Takes Charge

Audio Not Work Safe

-Swinebread

Movie of the Week: Fire and Ice

Fire and Ice by Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta




-Swinebread

Galaxy High School

I picked up the Galaxy High School DVD set. It’s a fun little cartoon from 1986 that only lasted one season. Basically, it’s your not-so-standard high school drama with two earth kids that interact with all kinds of weird alien creatures, and corny sci-fi at an intergalactic school. The show was imaginative for it’s time and has a pretty good soundtrack. Of course, you have to throw logic and reason out the door and just enjoy the crazy antics of the characters. GHS has obviously been released to ride the success of Andy Mangles’ cartoon boxed sets like Dungeon and Dragons and the Filmation programs that have come out the last few years. He clearly didn’t produce the Galaxy High School DVD as it has absolutely no extra features and is not digitally re-mastered, but then at ten bucks, it’s a great deal. Oh those Saturdays… they had lots good-natured gems, and GHS is one of them.





-Swinebread

Sorry I haven't had a lot of time for posting and comments

-Swinebread

Generation Freakazoid!

I finished up Generation Kill this week. The reviews have been very positive and I have to agree. This HBO mini-series based on the book by Even Wright is, in some sense, the most elaborate docudrama ever made because it simply lays out what happened. Nothing is glorified, and the Marines’ boredom is as palpable as the combat. It’s easy to make up your own mind about the folks involved and their actions but Generation Kill never asks you to and I appreciate that. And of course Sergeant Majors are crazy… …they’re always crazy. The tagline for this production might be “War is”

Here’s one of the Trailers. Note that the show itself doesn’t have a “soundtrack” like this trailer.


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I picked up the first season of Freakazoid!. It’s got a cult following so I wanted to see if it lived up to it’s rep. Well, I have to say it’s a fun show with lots of wild antics and an Animaniacs style of humor. I like crazy superheroes a lot and this one doesn’t disappoint. Freakaziod is clearly a forerunner to the content of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network.

Another reason I was interested in this show is because of the controversy with Madman creator Mike Allred. Madman is considered to be one of the main “unaccredited” influences on Freakazoid but I really don’t see it all that much. Ambush bug and the Mask seem to be ripped off much more directly.





-Swinebread

Watcthfriends - Watchmen meets Super-Friends

It had to be done by somebody right! Great job Ironycoast!





-Swinebread

Foxxy She-Hulk

The other day, between feedings and diaper changes, my mother-in-law, and my wife were relaxing while I scanned through cable channels. At one point I came upon Disney 2, which was showing the Incredible Hulk cartoon from the 1990s. Now, I’ve never seen this show because I was outta the country at the time it aired, so I’ve always been interested in it because the 2nd Season starred She-Hulk. The particular episode that was showing did have Shulkie and it was fun to see her in action. Apparently, Jennifer went home for her high school reunion and all broke hell broke lose when the Gargoyle’s minions attacked. He was in love with her and the Gargoyle thought he could force her to be his lover (makes me wonder what the Silver Age Hulk tales would have been like if She-Hulk had been around then).

Anyhoo, my wife and my mother-in-law actually watched the cartoon for a little bit. They found She-Hulk intriguing. My SO remarked, “wow! She’s really tall,” and then she explained to her mom that She-Hulk was the female Hulk in Japanese while making a few more comments. This was fun for me because my wife has seen me read the She-Hulk comics but has always tuned me out when I talked about the character before. I guess it’s another thing entirely to see She-Hulk in action even if it’s just a cartoon. I hope that Shulkie will be in the next Hulk movie that way more folks will get see how cool she really is.

After watching that episode for a while I realized that I’ve heard She-Hulk’s voice before. Rather quickly, I recognized that She-Hulk had the same voice talent as Foxxy Love from Drawn Together… minus the jive of course. Cree Summer provides the voice work for both characters. I’m thinking It would be fun if She-Hulk did have Foxxy’s speech patterns though, imagine She-Hulk saying: "Hey Hey Hey" or “I'm like Sherlock Holmes, if he played tambourine and shaved his cooch.” Hmmmm… sounds like a good idea for a youtube.


-Swinebread

We Make Holes In Teeth!

For those of you that might not know about the Cavity Creeps as mentioned in my Tubular Expression post it's Youtube to the rescue.








-Swinebread

New X-men Cartoon Trailer

A new X-Men cartoon is on the way and Wolverine is absolutely the star. Looks good and Gambit is nowhere to be seen... Awesome!



-Swinebread