#I developed three characters for an animated series pilot

[conspirartist]

Revisiting the character designs I did for my barchelor thesis (part 1/3). The older version is bellow the cut. I tried to stay as close as possible to the original designs, as I still think they work very well...

Anyway, meet Peter, a silver-tongued ghost punished to work as a bartender in his after-life.

[hawkatana]

So, given everything that's happened in recent hours, I thought I might give people who don't know about Gundam some stuff to learn about. Hopefully I can give a balanced and not-racist take like some people.

What is Gundam?

Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino with help by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and animated by the studio Sunrise (currently Bandai Namco Animation, though I refuse to call them that), the original Mobile Suit Gundam released in 1979 to initially-limited success, though would gain popularity through a combination of fujoshis shipping the characters, the sale of plastic model kits referred to as "Gunpla" and a recut of the series into three compilation movies throughout the early 80's. And as of 2024 is the 66th highest-grossing media franchise of all time, beating out Scooby Doo, Minecraft and the Simpsons.

Also, I'm pretty sure it's what sparked Japanese sci-fi's obsession with O'Neill Cylinders.

The original anime takes place in the year 0079 of the Universal Century, where the Principality of Zeon: a nation composed of orbital space colonies declares a war of independence against the Earth Federation. This "One Year War" has already claimed half the human population by series start and is waged through the use of "Mobile Suits": bipedal mecha powered by a fusion reactor capable of effectively fighting out in the reaches of space.

Main character Amuro Ray is the son of a Federation engineer who lives in an out-of-the-way space colony, though soon finds his home under attack by a Zeon infiltration. After finding the secret Mobile Suit project his father was working on: the RX-78-2 Gundam, he fights off the Zeon invaders, though finds himself and a bunch of other kids conscripted by the Federation to fight the forces of Zeon aboard the ship the White Base. Throughout his journey, Amuro and the Gundam fight many battles against Zeon, including against their mysterious masked ace pilot Char Aznable.

The series was responsible for the codification (but not creation, people get this wrong all the time) of the "Real Robot" subgenre of mecha, where the robots were relatively more realistic and used as weapons of war as opposed to the more fantastical "Super Robot" subgenre pioneered by Mazinger Z and Getter Robo.

A major theme of the show, and the franchise as a whole is "War is bad", as demonstrated through this meme:

Yes, this is the original version of this meme format.

Anyway, Tomino, a renowned pacifist who grew up in the shadow of Japan's involvement in WW2 tried to use his platform as an anime director to try and tell a story that would get people to realise war's futility and brutality.

So I hear you asking, "That's nice and all, but what about the space lesbians who beat Destiel on their home turf?" Well, let's get into that.

What is the Witch From Mercury?

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, or "G-Witch" for short is one of the more recent entries in the Gundam Franchise and a (very) loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Set in the year 122 Ad Stella, the solar system is under the de facto control of the Benerit Group: a megacorporation with borderline-medieval internal politics that maintains a system of capitalism that benefits Spacians at the expense of those who live on Earth.

Main heroine Suletta Mercury enrolls at Asticassia School of Technology owned by the Benrit Group at the behest of her mother: CEO Prospera Mercury of the Mercury-based Shin Sei Development Corporation, and wins a Mobile Suit duel against a bully in her own MS: the Gundam Aerial. This however means she has now won the hand in marriage of daughter of the Benerit Group CEO: Miorine Rembran, beginning a series of consequences that shape the very political landscape of the solar system.

G-Witch was a massive hit, both critically and commercially. The first episode: the Witch and the Bride attracting record numbers for the studio and the Gunpla kit for the Aerial is currently the best-selling Gunpla kit ever.

Contrary to popular belief, G-Witch is not the first piece of Gundam media to feature a female protagonist. That honour would go to the 2002 Japan-only manga École du Ciel, nor would it have the first queer main character, which goes to 1999's Turn-A Gundam (and if you were to ask any fan of the series, they'd so it goes back to the very beginning). But it became notable for its lesbian representation in anime (in spite of Sunrise's attempts to downplay it, to the anger of the director, writer, producer, artists, animators, cast, fans and even their own parent company Bandai Namco who forced them to back off).

One thing I need to clarify: You don't need to have watched the original series to enjoy G-Witch. They're not even in the same continuity.

So if you're interested in the series and you've only watched G-Witch, I'll give out three recommendations for you all to enjoy:

Mobile Suit Gundam 00

Gundam 00 takes place in the year 2307 (the only series to use our own calendar), where the world is divided between three global superpowers: The Union of Free & Solar Nations (The Americas, Australia, New Zealand and Japan), the Human Reform League (China, South, East, Southeast and Central Asia) and the Advanced European Union (all of Europe, including all of Russia west of the Urals) who each control a space elevator near the equator and wage proxy-wars in Africa and the Middle-East over Earth's dwindling resources. This eventually culminates in the emergence of Celestial Being: a terrorist group consisting of Setsuna F. Seiei, Lockon Stratos, Allelujah Haptism and Tierria Erde, all of whom use powerful "Gundam" Mobile Suits and try to forcefully impose global peace on the Earth.

00 is pretty slow-paced and is more about the world than the individual characters, but said characters are really well-written, especially the characters from the three power blocs who are the de facto protagonists as they try to stop what are in their eyes a bunch of crazed terrorists preaching a hypocritical and incoherent ideology of "peace through force".

And to address the elephant in the room, this series is VERY post-9/11. Constant talks about terrorism, proxy-conflicts in the global south (especially the Middle-East), religious extremism, dwindling resources and the wars fought over them. While the franchise has always been political and of-its-time, you can just tell 00 was made in the mid-2000's. Again, it's good. But just something to keep in mind.

Turn-A Gundam

Turn-A Gundam is one of the weirder elements of the franchise for a myriad of reasons. Not the least of which being its unique setting taking inspiration from the famous sci-fi novel War of the Worlds.

In the Year 2345 of the Correct Century, human civilisation is at a level of technology reminiscent of the late-19th/early 20th centuries, save for the Moonrace on... well, the moon. As part of their queen Diana Soreil's plan to reintegrate both Lunar and Terran societies, several scouts are sent to the planet to set up their return to the planet. One such scout: Loran Cehack integrates into Terran society as a driver for the wealthy Heim family, though at a coming of age ceremony for the family's second daughter, a member of the Moonrace attacks the technologically-inferior Terrans. However, a mysterious mustached statue breaks apart to reveal a "White Doll": the Turn-A Gundam, allowing Loran to fend off the invaders. rest of the series becomes more of a mystery to how the supposedly-peace loving Moonrace could allow of such brutality.

The setting of the Correct Century timeline alone is one of the draws of Turn-A, though its excellent characters and compelling mystery also help a lot.

I do however have two warnings for people interested in watching it. The first is that this series was never dubbed. While it did receive an official sub in 2015, there still isn't a dub for the series. So if that bothers you, there's your warning.

The other is that there's a pretty big twist in the latter part of the series that while I will not spoil it here, it's such a big deal that I can't not mention it. It doesn't make any sense, and it actively detracts from not just the series, but the whole franchise. You'll know it when you see it. It doesn't ruin my enjoyment, but a lot of people don't like Turn-A for that alone.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam

Favourite entry. Don't care. It's peak.

In the Year 60 of the Future Century, war has been abandoned by the nations of humanity in favour of the Gundam fight: a quad-annual fighting tournament between Gundams representative of the countries of the world where the winner rules space until the next Gundam fight, all while leaving the Earth ecologically devastated in the fighting. Neo-Japan's Gundam Fighter: Domon Kasshu arrives on Earth seeking information on his older brother Kyoji, who killed their mother and led to their father's arrest before stealing the experimental Devil Gundam to Earth, beating up every Gundam Fighter in his way. However, he eventually learns of far more dangerous revelations about the incident.

G Gundam is to put it bluntly: bat-shit insane. And I love it. It basically took a look at the then-stagnating franchise in the wake of the wet fart that was Victory Gundam and said "I know what can save this franchise, Bruce Lee movies!" And it somehow worked.

Word of advice: watch it dubbed. Mark Gatha absolutely kills it as Domon every time, and puts just the right amount of ham into every line.

So yeah, that's some stuff on Gundam. This was a long post to write out. I'm gonna take a break now.

[coco-bee]

COCO’S REVIEW: RAMSHACKLE (PILOT)

Welcome to Coco’s Review! Where I review and breakdown episodes, movies and etc and overthink every tiny detail and/or give my thoughts and opinions :D

Today I’ll be discussing Ramshackle by Zeddyzi

Ramshackle is an animated pilot by online creator Zeddyzi that’s been in development since 2010 and has a thesis film, webtoon and now an animated pilot! (I’ll be discussing the Pilot)

It’s about three street rats Vinnie, Stone and Skipp who try to survive the grimy and gross streets of Ramshackle with their various scams and schemes while trying not to die!

The animation is really good! The characters have very expressive faces and sharp silhouettes! All the designs feel so angular and have a very warm color palette! Not to mention there’s the sorta coffee paper or brown paper texture to it that I really like!!

And it takes what Disney did during their Bronze Age with the scribbly line art and that scratchy kinda feel. (even using crosshatching)

I also find it interesting how the town of Ramshackle is set in its own universe and not sticking to a specific timeline with its mix of different vintage aesthetics mixed together! (in the creator’s words)

To me it feels a lot like a mix of the Great Depression and the Victorian Era!

The humor is a lovechild of early season Spongebob and Gravity Falls! Because this pilot is so fucking funny for no reason 😭

It just has so much visual comedy and dialogue that makes you go “Did I hear that correctly??”

I’ll be honest the plot isn’t perfect but the characters and humor easily makes up for it and makes things very enjoyable!! THE LITTLE DETAILS THEY PUT IN THE BACKGROUND JUST CRACK ME UP WITH EVERY REWATCH!

These are some of my personal favorite details but it’s more fun to spot them yourself!!

I also want to talk about Maggot who is a baby the trio found and decided to try and raise!

I’m not going to spoil the ending BUT MAGGOT IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!

I love how they didn’t go with just the dumb baby trope with Maggot- I swear he is such an entertaining part of the pilot I’m a little sad he probably won’t appear in the series again 😔

And just the comedy they got out of him is so great I love him smm

The main trio are just as entertaining!

They complement each other so well!! The way they bounce off each other and have very different personalities but the same goals

I’ll get this out of the way VINNIE IS SO DAMN HOT ARGHHH LIKE AAAAA I LOVE HER SMM- Shes so badass and lowkey reminds me of Grunkle Stan personality wise

Stone is basically the mandatory emo boy but now hes upgraded to main character- I love his unlimited supply of alcoholic drinks and I hope tumblr loves him

Skipp is just underrated imo 😭 I love how he has a heart of gold but he also doesnt mind scamming people (he has no other choice anyway

The way theyre so caring with Maggot just warms my heart<33

THEYRE SUCH A GREAT FRIEND GROUP I CANTTT

Anyway there are only a few complaints I have- some of the jokes can be hit or miss and it gets a bit chaotic which can possibly be a little overwhelming. Bug I want to talk about the “scam” aspect of the main premise, I feel like the webtoon explored that part of the trio’s lives much better than the pilot. They could’ve done a lot of interesting scams with a baby but applying him to a baby pageant isn’t really a scam.

The obvious commentary on the high class’s treatment of the lower class feels a bit on the nose in my opinion (like it feels almost too obvious) but doesn’t spoil the experience. Like I said the humor and character still make up for it!!

I highly recommend this pilot and series!!

Congrats to Zeddyzi and their team for bringing this year long project to life!

This is Coco typing… Thank you for reading!

[wanderersrest]

An Abbreviated History of Mecha Part 7: The Witching Hour Is Here!

Spoiler Warning: This post contains spoilers for one Brave Bang Bravern. I'd recommend watching at least the first episode of Bravern before continuing.

Welcome to the final installment of An Abbreviated History of Mecha! Last time, we had some technical difficulties due to the Lich screwing things up with its time shenanigans covered what many would consider to be mecha's "Dark Age." Now, we will see how the genre has recovered. It remains to be seen how this decade will go down in history, but so far mecha shows have had a minor bit of a rebound. Though that insipid line of thinking (you've probably heard it at one point: "mecha shows are about the robots, not the characters") is still doing a bit of harm to the general reception of mecha shows, the canon is doing better than before. Not well, like it was in the 90's, but it's not in dire straits.

Victory is never decided by mobile suit performance alone.

Nor by the skill of the pilot, alone.

The result itself is the only proof!

Kyoukai Senki/AMAIM: Warrior At the Borderline (2021)

Kicking off the decade, 2021 would give us a new franchise in the form of the former Xebec, now Sunrise Beyond series AMAIM: Warrior At the Borderline. Sporting smaller robots in a setting similar to Code Geass but Japan was split into three by three world superpowers like it was Post-World War II Germany, AMAIM would be one of the few new mecha shows to come out that would be animated entirely in 2D.

Megaton Musashi (2021)

Developed by Level-5 Studios, Megaton Musashi is a game series that pays homage to the mecha stories of old, particularly that of Getter Robo. The game itself would suffer in terms of marketing, as Level-5 would end up shuttering their US studio in this decade. Which is wild, because this series would also get an anime adaptation that's only started airing this year.

Also, Megaton Musashi has a lot of crossovers with older mecha shows like Getter Robo and Combattler V.

SSSS.Dynazenon (2021) & Gridman Universe (2023)

Returning in 2021 would be Studio Trigger with the follow-up to SSSS.Gridman, SSSS.Dynazenon. Based off of the Dyna Dragon from the original Gridman the Hyper Agent, SSSS.Dynazenon would carry on the energy from its predecessor in terms of energy and heart.

2023 would also see the worlds of SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon collide with the movie finale Gridman Universe, bringing the casts of both shows together for one last hurrah for Trigger's Gridman trilogy.

Back Arrow (2021)

While 2021 was a good year for mecha in general, one show that doesn't get talked about more is Goro Taniguchi's Back Arrow. Set in the walled world of Lingalind, Back Arrow would give us a story where the mecha are powered by a character's convictions.

That's right! Back Arrow is quite possibly the single greatest series in terms of highlighting what piloted giant robots are all about. These stories were never about the giant robot itself; the giant robots were living extensions of the pilots who controlled them. Hence why the breiheights of Back Arrow are based purely on a character's core beliefs.

Getter Robo Arc (2021)

2020 would also see the surprise announcement of an adaptation of the unfortunately unfinished Getter Robo Arc. With the goal of wrapping up the story as best as possible without the guiding hand of series creator Ken Ishikawa, Getter Robo Arc's anime adaptation would finally release in 2021. With this, the Getter Robo saga can finally come to an end.

If you've already watched his video on Getter Robo, Cheese GX also has a follow-up covering Getter Robo Arc specifically.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash (2021) & Cucuruz Doan's Island (2022)

And in case you didn't believe me when I said 2021 was a good year for mecha, let me remind you of something: Gundam was featured as part of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Gundam would see the creation of the now-disassembled RX-78-2 Gundam in Yokohama as part of the celebration of the games. The RX-0 Gundam Unicorn would also make a cameo in the background during the Olympic Rock Climbing event, as Gundam Front Tokyo was the venue.

Most important of all for us, is that 2021 would see the release of part one of a trilogy of movies based on the Hathaway's Flash novel. And as if that wasn't enough, 2022 would also see the release of a movie based on the infamous episode of the original series known as Cucuruz Doan's Island. And as a reminder: Gundam's not done yet. I haven't even gotten to the other big Gundam series yet. These were just the two major series released for the Universal Century in this decade.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (2022)

Where Gundam made really big news in this decade was with the release of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury. Set in the Ad Stella timeline, G-Witch would bring awareness to the franchise that hadn't really been seen since it's heyday in the 90's. G-Witch would also differentiate itself from the rest of the Gundam series by presenting us with Gundam's first female main protagonist, the very tanuki-coded Suletta Mercury (and that depends, because if we're saying Gundam protagonist, then I'd argue technically War in the Pocket's Christina McKenzie has Suletta beat by a couple decades; this isn't even getting into Ecoile du Ciel). And not only is she the first female protagonist, Suletta is also Gundam's first queer protagonist!

Bullbuster (2023)

If there is any series that I wish I had caught while it was airing last year, it would definitely be Bullbuster. Cut from the same cloth as Patlabor and Dai-Guard, Bullbuster presents to us a construction robot is used to fight... aliens?

LEGO movie, is that you?

Okay, seriously though, I do think Bullbuster got drowned out due to being in a year that also included The Witch From Mercury.

Brave Bang Bravern (2024)

Man, if you thought The Witch From Mecury was gay...

2024 would open with Cygames Studio's Brave Bang Bravern. Directed by Masami Obari (a man who I have somehow failed to mention until now), Bravern would manage to capture the joy of the Brave franchise of old (and really mecha shows on the whole), all while making it very gay.

And I mean it. Bravern is quite possibly the single gayest show to come out in the 2020's. Maybe even of all time.

And that's really a wrap on pretty much everything that's come out, but there is one upcoming series set to come out next month...

Grendizer U (Airs July 2024)

Not seeming to want to be left out, the Mazinger saga would also get a surprise announcement in 2023 with a teaser for Grendizer U. Set to air in 2024, Grendizer U is going to be a reboot of the original UFO Robot Grendizer series, though some changes have been made (namely, Kouji has now brought along both Sayaka and Professor Yumi; more importantly, Kouji will now be piloting Mazinger Z instead of playing a support role like he did in the original Grendizer).

You can bet that I will be covering this series, especially if it's picked up by Crunchyroll this coming summer.

Looking Beyond Grendizer U & 2024: Live-action Gundam, Hathaway Parts 2 & 3, Gunbuster 3, and Patlabor EZY

Going beyond 2024, there are also other series that are set to be released some time in this decade. 2016 saw the release of the Patlabor Reboot promo, which is supposedly a test run for a new Patlabor series: Patlabor EZY. Supposedly set to air sometime in 2026 (at least last I saw), I'm as excited about this as Isao Ohta is about any type of gun that comes across his path.

Studio Gaina (again, not to be confused with the now-closed Gainax) also has plans to release Gunbuster 3, though that will probably be on the shelves for now until Grendizer U wraps up.

And of course, Gundam still has two more parts of the Hathaway movies to work on. There's also a live-action Gundam series that is also in the works at Legendary.

Conclusion

And that's a wrap, folks. Finally, after ten whole posts, I've covered an incomplete history of mecha! Yes that's right! Incomplete! Why did you think it was called abbreviated?

Jokes aside, I thought this would be a relatively simple project. Just cover a handful of mecha shows from the decades since their inception, say a thing or two about them, and move on. It turns out that, even when I cherry-picked the shows to talk about, there were still a lot of them.

Do I regret doing it, though? No. Well, maybe that bit about Valvrave specifically. Outside of that, I think it is important that this series of posts still exist. I tried my best to be as impartial as possible, and hopefully you, dear reader, have caught that. I really don't want this project to turn out to be identical in tone to Professor Otaku's Complete History of Mecha video series. Man literally cannot hide his disdain for shows he doesn't like very well, and I think it does a massive disservice to both his series and himself.

What I want you to take away from this series of posts is: every show I covered on here is someone's favorite. I've seen at least one person go to bat for every series I named here. I've done it for G Gundam and Patlabor, and I plan on doing it for a couple more series on here. The real important thing here is that this post helps in dismissing that wrong-headed claim of "mecha shows are just about the robots and not the characters." Which is a thing I will talk about soon.

But not right now. Now I want to rest. And by rest, I mean throwing my wrist out while playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

God Groose is such a great character.

[teh-kittykat]

Tron: The Animated Series (1986-1989)

What do you mean you haven't seen Tron: The Animated Series? It was my favorite cartoon when I was a kid!

So this all started as an exercise in how to explain why Sam inexplicably had merch for a 2010 movie in his 1989 house. In-universe there would have probably been toys using the 1982 aesthetic since that was what the video game used (and Sam DOES have an 82 Tron figure in his house!) but why the Grid stuff?

Enter THE CARTOON.

It was the 1980s everybody who was everybody made cartoons to sell toys. Encom made home gaming consoles by this point, and they would have had peripherals like Nintendo did. They had licensed characters like Nintendo did. You see where I am going.

Encom wants to sell Encom Gaming Power Gauntlets. Kevin wants to introduce kids to the ideas about the Digital Frontier since he's a futurist and knows kids will be mentally flexible enough to digest the new zeitgeist if it's fun and animated!

Production of the cartoon ran from Kevin's official retirement as CEO until his disappearance. Three official seasons with a fourth in production. Season three's airing was cut short due to the furor surrounding Kevin's going missing, but the "lost" final episodes of S3 were restored when the DVDs were eventually released for an anniversary collection.

The cartoon was also successful in syndication through the 1990s and early 2000s since it successfully anticipated the Educational/Informative movement-- Tron: The Animated Series actually does teach kids some of the basics of computer science around the silly adventure stuff. Think Captain Planet meets Captain N the Game Master for the overall tone of the series. It's not realistic, but you get the general concepts and issues.

The cartoon's popularity among millennials keeps Tron alive in pop culture to the present day. The IP remains a perennial revenue stream for Encom, and every so often they'll throw the fanbase something to keep the money going. (This is an ordeal to the program himself, since he has to deal with hackers sent by groups named after him on the reg.)

What's it about?

Young video game enthusiast Jethro "Jet" Keene lands himself the after school internship of a lifetime getting to work at Encom in a special new program for teenagers with attitude run by Kevin Flynn (voiced by himself).

However, it's not all fun and video game testing with the sweet new Encom Power Gauntlet. Thanks to some cartoon physics hijinks, Jet finds himself transported into the Grid, the Boss's new experimental computer system!

Jet gets to work with Clu (they hired a voice-alike for him) and Tron (ditto) to find a way back home to the real world, solving problems and learning how to code along the way... and that was the pilot episode.

Because this is a cartoon for children, Jet is naturally the regular User of the Grid instead of Flynn, though Flynn makes occasional appearances to dispense Yoda-like wisdom and is revered by all the programs inside the system as the Creator.

There are also no lasers or anything like that-- Jet does a silly toku-like thing with the power gauntlet to commute into the system.

Clu is more likable than in real life. He's mostly benevolent, trying to make a more perfect system but the show's writers actually picked up on the idea that making a perfect system is kind of an impossible lift and made it central to his character development. He's a little obsessed with copying the User world, and there's an arc in S3 where a lot of the conflict revolves around why can't programs be programs about it.

Tron's not a mayhem goblin, which is a crime. He's portrayed as a little bit Optimus Prime, since Jet's the primary mayhem source, and Fighting for the Users is otherwise his defining personality trait. He gets a surprisingly deep fate/free will arc in S2, since naturally several episodes revolve around attempts to reprogram him since he's the Champion and all. Afterward, he's a bit more chill.

Jet's storyline parallel's Kevin's real-life one a little bit-- a lot of the episodes focused on him as a character revolve around him trying to balance his double life.The cartoon also does not mention the time dilation jetlag. Jet, unlike Kevin, does learn how to ask for help, especially as S3 decides to diversify a little more and adds a girl intern, Paige.

S3 in general has a lot of emphasis on diversity and tolerance of others and their differences. The ISO-Basic tensions were running high in the real Grid. It was on Kevin's mind a lot. He was also starting to make thinks on introducing the ISOs to the rest of the world at the time.

Like Reboot in the 1990s, Tron has a lot of episodes devoted to video games and playing games on the Game Grid is a frequent trope. (Hardcore Tron partisans accuse Reboot of stealing this.) Unlike in Reboot, there's no derezzing the losers if the User wins. Games are sometimes the entire plot and sometimes an obstacle or diversion from solving an episode's actual problem.

Since the Grid is open in Tron, there is a recurring cast of villains in the form of viruses and hackers from other systems in addition to technical problems that have to be solved through coding and computer science know-how.

The fourth season didn't get much past a few animatics for the S4 pilot, but what was there got a release for the fancy anniversary collections as special features. Design docs indicate that some new characters were about to be introduced-- Jalen and Radia. Kevin Flynn disappeared while voice actors were being cast for these roles.

NGL I am extremely mad this wasn't a real cartoon.

[maxwellatoms]

Congratulations, one of your characters made a cameo appearance in my midlife crisis!

This takes a little time to explain, but on the art web site FurAffinity, living users are represented with a tilde, while living impaired users get an infinity symbol in front of their names. I was at a low point in my life when I drew this, and thought about what would happen when the Grim Reaper eventually closed the loop.

Anyway. This was supposed to be for questions, so I'll ask one. The career of an animator seems to be nomadic... they'll spend some time developing a series for Cartoon Network, then move to Disney, then migrate to Nickelodeon, only to return where they started (cough cough CH Greenblatt cough).

Any reason, or reasons, why this happens? Honestly, I have a difficult time understanding why anyone would go to Nickelodeon to start a show, given the way so many artists have been treated by the network in the past. Do all the networks act like this?

Just curious. Thanks for your time, and for the years of entertainment.

You guys look great together, but no loop closings please!

Gotta bilde the tilde, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, yeah... Animators all know that Other Studios have Other Problems. It's not at all uncommon to hear someone say, "I'm about ready for new problems".

I spent most of my career (until the wonders of the recent mega-merger) at WB, so I've really only known WB problems (with a light sprinkling of Disney Troubles). I've asked friends like C.H. Greenblatt and Jessica Borutski about the long-haul at Nick, so I have a basic idea what the culture is like. But if I land at Nick in five years, it could be a completely different set of circumstances and maybe even a completely different set of employers.

I know maybe three studio execs with solid careers who've spent the majority of their time at one studio. Most of the time, the low level executive track is even more of a meat grinder than the creative track. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the middle-management meat grinder is the cause of the creative meat grinder.

The job of an executive is to make impressive decisions that dazzle their superiors and shareholders. If you've just been hired to replace someone and have inherited a stack of 32 animation bibles in various stages of development with assorted creators, are you really going to just continue going through that pile? I mean, you're replacing someone for a reason, right? So probably better just to toss that whole pile of animation bibles in the trash and start again. Because you're going to look like an idiot if even a single one of those fails. And if it succeeds, it just makes your predecessor look smart, which steals some of your shine. So you axe those creators and all of their support goes away and the cycle begins anew.

During my career, these executive turnovers (and the following creative turnovers) happen about every four or five years. With a little luck, it takes (in my experience) about two years to get a show through development to pilot, and then another year to decide if it's going to be a series. In short, there is precious little time where a creator/EP can interface with and rely on a competent executive to champion them. If you don't have that, you're not going anywhere.

I'm not sure how anything gets made. From the inside, development is always trickle-down sweaty desperation. I guess somehow, every now and then, a neurodivergent 23 year old slips through the cracks and makes a kid's show about The Grim Reaper. It could all be luck.

There are definitely execs who love animation and have made it their life's work. But there are also people who just got into the business as, say, a personal assistant and hasn't watched an animated cartoon since they were six, but suddenly find themselves in control of many millions of dollars worth of IP. There are execs who think of entertainment only as a commodity and who literally don't understand why creatives feel so passionate about "just cartoons" but will remind you "how lucky you are to work in entertainment" if you ask for a raise.

In short, the problems are usually management related. And those problems are mostly the same across studios, with the occasional Infamous Despot you want to avoid at all costs. The good news is that said Despot probably won't last five years.

There are perks at the different studios too. Proximity to decent food. Occasional amusement park passes. Friday morning bagels. The sort of stuff that hopefully nobody is taking a job specifically for.

At the end of the day, there are three or four big studios we can work for. There are also a smattering of smaller indie studios which... make content for those three or four other studios anyway.

The long and short of it is that there's just not a lot of choice where we can work or who we work for. We definitely talk to each other and the studio culture does weigh heavily when you're deciding where to go. Assuming you have the luxury of choice. It all kind of sucks, and it all kind of sucks in the same way. But sometimes you get bagels.

Stay Frisky!

[thebroccolination]

Behind the Scenes The Evolution of the Near-Punch in Between Us

Intro

One of my favorite things about any production is when I find out that there's been a collaborative effort in the storytelling and character-building. Between Us, directed by New Siwaj Sawatmaneekul, has a fantastic example of this: the evolution of the post-drowning scene in episode six.

So! Overall, there have been three iterations of the scene: the original in the novel, the pilot teaser released in February of 2022, and episode six of the main series.

Let's see how we got from A to Bee to Sea. (I'm not sorry.)

The Novel Scene

“Entering the pool without permission from an authorized person is breaking the rules. You can be kicked out of the club.” His fierce eyes were looking at the junior who was now very pale. “And if I had not noticed the light from the pool, which made me come to check, what would have happened?!” Win felt a chill in his heart. He had just walked past the club and had seen the lights. He thought he had forgotten to turn them off, so he came to check. But instead, he saw someone drowning in the middle of the pool. If he hadn’t come in time... “Answer me, Team! Why are you doing this?!” Win grabbed the boy's shoulder and forced him to make eye contact. “I wanted to practice.” “What?!” “I just wanted to practice so that I could get a good time tomorrow!!” “What fucking practice!!" Win shouted, his eyes redder than the person who almost drowned. "You almost drowned, you bastard!! you almost died in front of me, do you understand!” “I…” smack The senior punched him hard in the face with a force that caused him to sway. Team cried out and felt the taste of blood in his mouth. He wanted to make excuses, but when he saw the pain in the senior's eyes, he couldn't speak. “Hia, I...” “If I came one minute later. No, even if only thirty seconds later, you might have already drowned at the bottom of the pool, do you understand?” “I…” The boy hugged himself tightly. It was true. A few more moments and he would have... Team was shocked when his body was suddenly pulled and hugged, his face buried in Win’s chest. Win's whole body was trembling like a frightened animal. Team’s guilt was so overwhelming that he couldn't say anything, but he raised his hands and hugged him back. He gently stroked Win's wet back to comfort him. “Don't do this again...” “Mmm…” “My heart will break…” “Mmm…” Team hugged the senior more tightly as warm tears fell from his eyes. It was not only him who was hurt. Hia was, too. - Hemp Rope (Eng Translation)

To summarize, Team is nervous about the upcoming qualifying meet. He only got two hours of fitful, nightmare-ravaged sleep on his own the night before, so he decides swimming will help him sleep. He sneaks into the pool, doesn't stretch, and swims until his leg cramps up. He nearly drowns, Win saves him, berates him, punches him, hugs him, takes him home, etc.

In many ways, it's very similar to the scene we got in the main series. But it's different enough that I wanted to talk about it.

I've talked about my personal perspective on the novel scene before. Basically, I've drawn a line in my head between Novel WinTeam and Main Series WinTeam. Novel WinTeam are LazySheep's creation, so what they do and say and think and feel are primarily decided by LazySheep and her editor. Main Series WinTeam, however, were created through the close collaboration of Sheep acting as a scriptwriter adapting her work for the screen, New, and WinTeam's actors Boun and Prem. (And opinions and reactions from fans and professionals affiliated with the series have also likely shaped their development along the way.)

[Sheep drew and posted this adorable comic of WinTeam and BounPrem together the day Between Us was first announced on July 5th, 2020.]

Boun's Win has always had a casual, insouciant kind of charisma that feels inherently nonthreatening, whereas Novel Win sometimes feels more like a Dude. A Good Dude, but a Dude nonetheless. Then we have Prem's Team who is, simply put, sassy and adorable, whereas Novel Team is also, y'know, kind of a Dude.

Take the hookup scene as an example. In the novel, there's no conversation about consent, no careful check that Team's sober and aware of what's going on. It's just what you'd expect from two horny guys down to bone: some light banter and then Win gives Team a handjob while they're still outside. And that's fine! It's realistic! It's probably happening somewhere right now. <3

“What do you want me to help you with?” Win crossed his arms across his chest and looked at the junior who was clearly uncomfortable and looked like he was ready to slap his face. “If you leave it like this, it's torture, don’t you know? It'll be very uncomfortable. Just helping each other as friends, right?” He raised his eyebrows, challenging the junior. Team turned around and peered at the darkness around him. Only the sound of the waves from the beach hitting the shore and the laughing sounds of the other young men who were still at the barbecue could be heard. “What are you looking at?” Team gulped and asked tentatively. Win shrugged his shoulders, pulled the upper arm of the junior, and walked towards the dark corner of the bungalow and into the dense, quiet bushes. “Shit! Huh, really? Seriously?” Team, who had never let a friend help him jerk off, was feeling light-headed. The more he saw, the more he knew that hia was serious. Team was startled when he was suddenly turned to face the bungalow wall. “Shush, don’t make any noise. People in the next room will hear,” Win said while pushing his leg in between Team’s own legs to push them apart. Team squinted and stared at the senior with shock. So skillful! “Mmmm…” The boy could barely hold his breath when he felt the warmth on his back. His elastic pants were pulled down along with his underwear. He almost didn’t want to believe what he was doing right now. - Hemp Rope (Eng Translation)

This is just standard hookup culture. Team's hot, Win's DTF, Team makes the startling realization that he, too, is DTF, so they go off and F. After the handjob, Win goes to his room, then Team hesitates and follows him. No coercion, just like the series. We don't get the sex scene in detail, but we know from Team's narration that they did in fact have some good ole fashioned penetrative sex that night (with protection!). And then they don't have sex again. We're up to chapter seventeen of Hemp Rope, and so far, chapter one is the only time they've Done the Deed. [EDIT 12-16-2022: Chapter eighteen was released yesterday and -spoiler- there’s a note from the author saying WinTeam have sex there but she’s releasing the scene later on as bonus material.]

I bring this up to emphasize that these are different characters from the ones BounPrem are portraying. So when I read the chapter with the punch, I thought it fit. Because it's who they are in the novel. We don't really see Win's insecurities explored in Hemp Rope, so for me, punching Team came across as evidence of how frantic and primal his fear of losing Team was, and perhaps a bit of his role of club senior crossing wires in his brain with his role as Team's Surrogate Sentient Bolster Pillow.

It's also worth noting that Team sneaking into the club in the novel is framed as a bad thing that he knows he could get in trouble for.

He risked getting caught sneaking in. The tall, slim body of the intruder was standing on the edge of the pool, staring blankly at his reflection in the water. Initially, Team was determined to go back to his room, but after he thought it over, he was so nervous that he couldn't sleep. He decided to sneak into the club to practice for a couple of hours. It might help him feel more comfortable and sleep better. - Hemp Rope (Eng Translation)

He's sneaky about it. He doesn't casually tell Manaow or anyone that he's going. There's no plan to stay with Pharm, no DeanPharm date that stops him. He's just an ornery, sleep-deprived cat in a bad headspace, so he sneaks into the pool knowing it's going to get him in trouble if he's caught. In essence, he isn't framed as Team the Terribly Tragic: he's exhausted, sure, but he's also being irresponsible.

So to me, the punch in the novel felt like a, "You nearly died in front of me because you broke the rules to practice for a qualifying meet you wouldn't even have remembered in five years, you spectacular idiot." And because Win and Team being more Dudes' Dudes in the novel, that gave them an added feeling of Dudes Being Guys Who Punch. (See Also: PeteKao) It's not right or good of Win to do, but for me, the situation made sense for the characters as they are in the novel.

That brings us to:

The Pilot Teaser

The pilot teaser was our first visual of the scene, released in February of 2022.

According to behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, BounPrem practiced the punch with New on the set multiple times before they started rolling. So it was fully in the cards as something they were going to do.

But then, in the middle of the scene itself, Boun made a different choice.

Thing is, Win does hug Team in the novel. Boun just skipped the punch. When he was asked about it, Boun said he didn't feel like Win would ever hit Team.

And this is where I have a ton of respect for New and Sheep and their production: they listened to him. And then they actually incorporated his choice into the canon.

In the same pilot teaser where Boun literally pulled his punches, Prem cried after singing, even though the script didn't mention anything about Team crying. When Sheep asked him why, Prem said, "I just think Team would cry."

And again, they listened to him. They kept it.

Yesterday, Sheep did a Twitter Space talk with fans where she said Prem has been devotedly asking her if he's portraying Team correctly. She told him warmly that he knows how to play Team, and the version he portrays in the series is Team, but a Team who is fully his.

The thing with great adaptations is that they have to be allowed to become their own creation. Boun and Prem have lived with these characters in their hearts for so long that they have their own readings now of how they feel and breathe. Boun loves Win so much he said he felt empty when they unofficially wrapped up filming last month; Prem loves Team so much he's asked Sheep over and over to confirm and reconfirm that WinTeam get a happy ending (they do). They're not just doing this for a paycheck; this is a passion project. WinTeam gave them their spotlight, and they viscerally treasure these roles.

And to me, the fact that their feelings and thoughts were discussed and put into practice on the fly is really, immensely beautiful to me.

The Main Series

Now for the version we all saw yesterday.

I was so excited to see this scene. It's my second favorite in the novel (the first being the homophobia scene that we'll see next week in episode 7), and I was wildly curious about what else they'd added or adapted around Boun's punch-less choice.

First of all, the energy from both Boun and Prem is a lot higher than it was in the pilot teaser, and you can see the calm leave Win's eyes when Team gives his excuse.

The pilot teaser scene was great, and I think it fit the novel well, but the main series has been building up to Win's breakdown, so this scene really had to sell it. The script has been hinting at insecurities that are all yanked out for display in this scene.

I think Boun might have ad-libbed the "damn it" part, too, which made it my favorite line delivery of the scene. Win's voice not only breaks because he's so angry, it's also higher in tone than Win usually speaks, underscoring how out of his mind and beyond rationality he is.

Then we get to the raised fist.

And what I love about these three shots in succession is that we go from: fist, face, combination of both. The action, the emotion, the realization.

Then we see moment he realizes what he was about to do, and what he can't do.

And finally, what he chooses instead.

They took Boun's character choice and built on it beautifully. His raised fist in the pilot teaser is quick and angry and impulsive, but the main series shows him shaking and angry and terrified. He has the impulse, but he's a rational person at his core, and the sight of Team accepting whatever Win is going to do to him, because he believes he deserves it, is what snaps Win out of it.

Win's been portrayed by Boun in three different iterations now: 1) Until We Meet Again, in which he didn't have a lot of material to work with, so he let Win borrow some of his own personality traits. 2) The Between Us special episodes released in autumn of 2021. These aren't canon and were based on Sheep's social media skits that she just posted for fun. The episodes were produced as a symbol of gratitude to fans for waiting so long for the main series. As a result, the characterization in the special episodes is all over the place, and they were extremely aware of it. SWS staff and actors made a lot of jokes on social media about which scenes were BounPrem and which were WinTeam, so they're very much Grain of Salt content. 3) The main series currently airing.

Ever since Boun was cast as Win in spring of 2019, he's spent a little over three and a half years with this character, so it makes sense that the character's depth would become more and more multifaceted through his choices. Sheep started posting chapters of Hemp Rope back in or before 2017 even before the rights to The Red Thread had been sold to New and Wabi Sabi. There was no Boun, no Prem, no UWMA. Just a fun little hookup-to-lovers story with some trauma thrown in.

When Boun was cast, some fans of the novel complained that he was too thin and he looked nothing like the character. Putting aside my own very normal feral yet parasocial feelings of protectiveness for Boun and how much unnecessary pressure fans put on actors to look a certain way, there are indeed some superficial differences between the novel character and the actor. Physically, Win is drawn and described by Sheep as broad and muscular, even more so than Dean.

Team looked at him with a sharp expression. Then he moved his eyes to Win’s abs. Because he was a very attractive person, he did not like to wear shirts. He liked to show off his tattoos regardless of his roommate. Looking at those abdominal and chest muscles, Team grabbed his own muscles. Mm, pretty good. - Hemp Rope (Eng Translation)

Sheep was a little hesitant about Boun at first because of this, but New stuck by his casting choice. Once people saw Boun with his hair dyed, it's been said by older fans that the majority of the complaints ended. With this in mind, the Win we have now was always going to be a different version from his novel self purely because New and Sheep chose an actor by his skill and his chemistry with his screen partner rather than by a physical likeness to the character.

After Boun was cast as Win, and after Sheep got to know him and Prem, and after Between Us was green-lit, she continued writing new chapters of Hemp Rope with a slightly newer take on the characters. She's said on Twitter that she's struggled to separate BounPrem from the characters (mostly jokingly), and she was also adapting the script for the series at the same time, so a lot of character building was going on at this time.

In 2021, Sheep wrote a long, long thread on Twitter telling fans how anxious and afraid she was of getting Between Us wrong. Not for herself, but for BounPrem. For New. For the queer community. She's an author who truly understands, to a debilitating degree, the amount of influence her work has. She knew this is BounPrem's first major series as leading actors, and she clearly felt the stress of that responsibility as the scriptwriter.

This whole scene does so much to showcase their strengths and growth as actors. Just like the scene itself, they've evolved over the years and shaped the characters and their story.

Hemp Rope doesn't deeply explore Win's insecurities and flaws, but Between Us needed to because it shines a spotlight on both of them. To make this a full and complete series, they needed to add to the story LazySheep created, and I believe that Boun and Prem's contributions, delivered from a place of love for their characters, will be what elevates Between Us into a truly iconic series.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Looks like Eddie Murphy has some muscle when it comes to these sorts of things, because DreamWorks is apparently at work on a DONKEY movie, set for release sometime after SHREK 5 comes out.

Murphy did say in a recent interview that he "thinks" SHREK 5 is going to be out next year, but with DreamWorks having three films slotted for 2025 - DOG MAN, BAD GUYS 2, and GABBY'S DOLLHOUSE... I don't think so.

2026 seems right still, plus the first movie turns 25 that year. But Murphy has recorded some lines for it for a few months, so it's closer than not.

Given how well both PUSS IN BOOTS movies did (I get the sense that the first one is kinda-sorta forgotten? It actually did very well way back in 2011), and the sequel was a leggy phenomenon, so I'm not surprised that there'd be some traction on a Donkey movie. The SHREK franchise is as alive as ever some two decades after SHREK came out, and some three decades after the original book by William Steig was published.

I'm wondering if it's going to be more than just "Donkey yuks it up for 90 minutes", but that would still be fun anyhow. After THE LAST WISH, I think it'd be cool to see a Donkey movie be told through his perspective in a way animation can really pull off. And not in the more expected way CG movies, including the SHREKs, often do. THE LAST WISH goes hard on a storybook/fairy tale look and tone, and retains the very Three Musketeers/Spaghetti Western-informed vibe of the first PUSS IN BOOTS. When action happens, there are those little flourishes and such that - to me - make you experience the story the way the character is feeling it. Very much like classic Disney animated films, ironically. Maybe a Donkey movie could do the same, but in a way that really puts you in the head of this wisecracking ass.

Also, is it theatrical? Or something that'll be sent to a streamer? (Either ORION AND THE DARK-style where it's a full-on DWA picture that for whatever reason didn't go to theaters, or MEGAMIND TV Pilot-style where it's made somewhere else w/ a wholly different team and was never meant for the big screen or potential awards.)

If it's a theatrical movie, that would make it, I think, one of the first big-time Western animated movie to spawn theatrical spin-offs based on two separate characters. Theatrical, that is. If any Disney animated feature got a spin-off, it was largely through direct-to-video stuff and that's a whole other clustercuss of its own. ICE AGE recently had that Disney+ Buck Wild thing made at some other studio, as well.

But no, I'm referring to theatrical... Especially if made by the same studio.

I think THE LEGO MOVIE got there first. As pretty much everyone knows, Batman was a character in that movie... And he got his own theatrical movie in 2017 featuring tons of other DC and WB-owned characters, it's the second-ever release in the LEGO MOVIE series. An unusual move in retrospective, LEGO MOVIE 2 probably should've been next, *then* LEGO BATMAN. Warner Bros. made an equally unusual decision to follow that up with THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE towards the end of 2017, which featured *no one* from the previous two movies. It was all characters from the Ninjago line and assorted new faces. It lost money on its release, too... I think doing two spin-off movies about two separate sets of characters before a proper LEGO MOVIE sequel helped hurt that film when it finally came out in 2019... Five years after the first movie. It didn't enjoy any of the success of the original, and Warner Bros. offloaded the franchise - probably sans Batman and such - to Universal... Who, as I understand, are still deep at work on a LEGO MOVIE 3 of sorts.

Worth noting that Warner also had other LEGO MOVIE spin-offs in development before LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART released. A Jorge R. Gutierrez-directed pic called THE BILLION BRICK RACE was one of them. Warners really though they had a whole expanded LEGO MOVIE-verse going on there, and perhaps got lost in that before building a solid base with Emmet Brickowski and friends.

DreamWorks, of course, is making a DOG MAN movie. The DOG MAN books are a spin-off of Dav Pilkey's CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS, which DreamWorks adapted into a movie in 2017. DOG MAN may or may not feature the Captain himself.

Illumination's DESPICABLE ME has two MINIONS movies, which cover... Well... The Minions, a whole group. A character unit itself, and young Gru appears in both movies, having a much larger role in the second one. Kinda spin-off/prequel-ish movies... But there's no movie that's just about, say, Lucy or younger Vector or anyone like that. So, that's just one for DESPICABLE ME.

Pixar... TOY STORY has one character-centric spin-off movie in LIGHTYEAR, though that was a wholly different take on Buzz. CARS has one in two PLANES movies about a character who doesn't appear in any of the CARS movies. The PLANES movies were made at Disneytoon Studios by crews who mostly weren't on the CARS movies. John Lasseter is exec producer of them, and wrote the story for the first one. They're by all means direct-to-video type movies made elsewhere, much like the Disney ones of the '90s and '00s, but they got theatrical releases. We almost got a third one that was all about spacecraft, and a fourth one about city transit. We almost had a whole CARS cinematic universe there, with 3/4 of it not being made by Pixar.

So yeah... DreamWorks finally having two separate characters headlining their own movies apart from the larger franchise they come from... Interesting development. Luckily for them, they were four movies into SHREK when PUSS IN BOOTS came out, and they'll be five movies in if DONKEY happens.

[historyhermann]

The Indie Animation Boom Continues in 2022 [part 1]

In August of 2021, I wrote about the boom in indie animation, consisting of almost exclusively crowdfunded animations. Earlier this month, I expanded on that and wrote about various indie animations, specifically noting Hazbin Hotel and Wild Card which are in development. As storyboarder Amber Avara put it on January 7, “2022 is the year of sick indie animation, let’s make it happen!” Various creators are making it happen. Due to the number of indie animated series being produced, it is near impossible to mention all of them. Despite that limitation, this article will highlight over ninety indie animated series, giving you a snapshot into the existing boom of indie animation at the present time, with particular notice to those currently airing.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs, my History Hermann WordPress blog on Jan. 21, 2023, and Wayback Machine. This was the ninth article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on January 27, 2022.

On January 27, the fourth episode of Gods’ School, a French indie animation about Olympian gods and Greek mythology, will air on YouTube. The series is created by one animator, Gaylord Cuvillier Philippe Libessart, on his own! In 2018, the series received support from the French National Center for Cinema and Animation, which gave Libessart the “opportunity to start the production and make the pilot episode.” The first episode aired in January 2019, telling the story of Eris, a goddess trying to find her place among gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. Gods’ School has been described as having animation as “gorgeous as classic Disney,” and it is adorable, really cool, an addicting and amazing cartoon that should be more well-known, and praised for its talented voice cast. Some have drawn fan art of the show’s characters. As of the writing of this post, three episodes of the series have aired.

Other indie animated series currently airing include Wisdom Nunn’s Bob’s World, Vivienne Medrano’s Helluva Boss, and Nico Colaleo’s series, Ollie & Scoops. Helluva Boss also includes several LGBTQ characters: Blitzo is pansexual, Moxxie is bisexual, Stolas is gay or bisexual, and Sallie May is a trans woman. In the latter series, there was an episode in October 2020 centered around a teacher, Binnie, admitting she liked a fellow teacher, Wendy. Just as prominent is Eddsworld, a long-running animated series which began in December 2004. It continues to rack up millions of views on its YouTube channel, even with its Eddsworld Beyond season, which began in 2021 with Matt Hargreaves as a showrunner.

Additional currently airing series include the spy mystery series SCP Origins, where incompetent spies try and take down villains, an adult animated comedy named Nora and Zin, and an ongoing series named The West Patch which describes itself as “a dark look at the side effects of consequence-free children’s programing.” For the latter series, at present, there have been two episodes so far. There are spinoffs also like Space Triage and The Following Call. Also currently out for viewing are the Instagram clip show Ronzilla, an original animated web series in which all the characters are dolls with the name of Project Infinity, and a murder mystery series named The Marvelous Adventures of Danny DeComp. The majority of these series air on YouTube. This again makes clear the preference of the video sharing platform as a place to share series, making it even more popular than somewhere like Newgrounds.

Official art of Umi, Port, and Jolly Roger in Port by the Sea

In January of this year, non-binary Argentine artist, Moon, creator of the sci-fi series in development, Indigo, asked indie series creators to promote themselves. Many people responded. Georden Whitman shared news about his animated pilot in development, Port by the Sea, which focuses on two kids (Umi and Port) sailing the seas to “find pieces of their broken moon, before an ancient deity swallows the world in ocean.” Matt Acuña shared information about The Garden Age, a series in development focused on “cute bugs on their journey to stop a lawnmower from destroying their world.” Andre Grandpierre noted that he is developing Long Way from DelArte, an animated series about friends traveling around the world, in hopes of “achieving their artistic dreams.” Some said that they were developing hand-drawn animated films or animated series, all in distinct stages of development. [1] Of these creators, some had some prominence in the animation industry. For instance, Whitman is the creator of Nomad of Nowhere and Acuña is the Production Coordinator for Bob’s Burgers.

There is more “indie animated goodness,” as Whitman termed it. This includes series in development with a focus on magic and adventures like Warlocks of Wrath High, Century Park, True Tail, Stars Align, Wimp Witch, and Evelynne Doom. There are many other animated series in development. [2] One example is a series about a non-binary sheep who is making their way through high school titled Sheepish. Another is a cop buddy show between an ace cop and a succubus entitled Succubus Cop. Two others, Band of Mythix and Stellapie are action series, with the former a musical series as well.

In addition, Mugshot & Pollen is about two best friends hanging out, Starmakers, an action/adventure series, is about a bisexual girl named Astra who joins a guild and teams up with people to fight monsters after escaping those who want her as a “source of power.” There is a sci-fi, comedy, and horror series with the title The Heroes of Tomorrow and a series about wolves called Wolves of Cecila. It is one of the many wolf-related series out there, with those in development including Demon Soul, the concluded series All Lone Ones, and The Shadow Marked. An animated “homage to 8-bit retro gaming” named Bit Wars and a sci-fi series which may be released in June titled Monkey Wrench are just two more examples of potential upcoming indie animated series.

The creators of The Descendants said they would pitch their show this year. The series Lumi and the Great Big Galaxy had a fundraiser while the show was in pre-production. Amber Avara, mentioned at the beginning of this article, continued working on an indie anime named Nocturne, sharing information about the character, images of color tests, and character sheets with her followers. Alpha Betas is going ahead, according to its Twitter and listings on its YouTube page. It appears that Long Gone Gulch, by Tara Billinger and Zach Bellissimo, is also going onto the next stage of its development, either by submitting the pilot, or becoming an indie animated series beyond the pilot. It’s hard to know where Long Gone Gulch goes from here, whether it will stay on YouTube or end up on a major network.

Screenshot from opening of Wild Card

The indie, adult murder mystery series about lawyers set in a Boston where “elite legal universities rule the legal system,” titled Wild Card, keeps moving forward. A pilot episode is in development and there was even a webcomic created on Line Webtoon to generate interest in the series and tell some stories using certain characters. The series’ official Twitter account, and additional social media accounts associated with the series, shared news, test animations, and music in the series. The show features LGBTQ characters like the show’s bisexual protagonist, Jack, based on show creator Alex Bahrawy (who is also bisexual), and a non-binary character. Some called the series, which has been in the works since 2016, “one of the coolest indie productions,” and “really cool.”

Since my last post, Cartoon Connect‘s series Little Ron Ron, Gotta Be Mo, Lumen, or Loyalty High have not been continued. He appears to be working on a new animated series called Kenny Quick, asking for voice actor auditions in November 2021. The same is the case for Brandon Wright – it looks like his animated series Silver Lin is unlikely to continue. The same appears to be the case for Guardian Instance. Despite this, Diver appears to be on track, as a video this month noted that a new episode was being developed. The Quickening, with a pilot airing in July 2020, and Ascendants, a series which appeared to be in development, are dead in the water. [3] While those shows may be ending, unless something miraculous happens, Howdy Cloudboy, a Western genre series with a main cast who are “all black lqbtq+ folks,” is being developed by a Black and Queer led studio named Faeduck Studios.

The Far-Fetched Show, created by Ashley Nichols and Dave Capdevielle, who both previously worked on Hazbin Hotel, has gone ahead. The official account put out a call for more animators and clean-up artists at the beginning of this year. Far-Fetched is a horror comedy about Rue Cervello (voiced by Nola Klop), a young woman who loses her chaotic canine, Kira (voiced by Jazmine Luevanos), and joins a bunch of musical misfits (Quinn, Griff, Piper, and Warren) who are part of the band Sesamoid. They work together to fight and survive in a place where science clashes with the supernatural. There are two villains: Drain (voiced by Michael Zekas) and Blair (voiced by Lauren Landa).

At one point last year, there was a post of the show’s official Twitter, showing the characters holding LGBTQ flags. Rue holds a sweater saying she is questioning, Quinn Hickley (voiced by J. Michael Tatum) holds the demisexual panromantic flag, Griff (voiced by Jacob Takanashi) holds an asexual flag, and Piper Stubbs (voiced by Dani Chambers) holds a lesbian flag, while Kira and Warren Webber (voiced by Jonah Scott) are allies. This was clarified by Nichols. The show’s current route is to fully fund the pilot themselves, then launch a larger crowdfunding campaign and merchandising to give the series “longer episodes” and make additional “bonus content.”

Presumably, shows like Satina, a dark comedy, will include LGBTQ characters. Hopefully, Satina will premiere this year. Like Satina, which continues to be in development if anything can be gleaned by creator Hannah Daigle’s YouTube channel, once the episodes of Far-Fetched are finished, they will be on YouTube. Comics of the show’s characters will likely be released.

© 2022-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[ridley-was-a-cat]

What I Watched This Fortnight – 9/17- 9/30

Space Adventure Cobra – RetroCrush added this to their streaming catalog just as everyone was posting their remembrances after the mangaka passed away, so I figured I should probably see what it was about. What I got was a interstellar romp featuring a blond-haired frat boy with a gun-arm and a smorgasbord of comic book villains and nearly naked women that entertained me despite my better judgement. It’s directed by Osamu Dezaki, with all the pastel freeze frames and three pans he was known for, and still looks pretty darn good for a 40-year-old anime. If you’re ever in the mood for a turn-your-brain-off sort of adventure peppered with smugly delivered one-liners, this should deliver the goods. 7/10

Project Blue Earth SOS – I found this one night while randomly poking around Crunchyroll’s library, and it’s a nice little retro-futuristic sci-fi that’s much better than its MAL score lets on. It’s set around the year 2000 in an alternate timeline Earth where humanity has developed powerful engines that allow for near-light speed travel, leading them to be targeted by an alien civilization bent on subjugating the planet. Rising up in opposition are two brilliant teenagers, one the son of the manufacturer of the powerful engines, and the other the son of astronauts killed in a space disaster years earlier, who work together with a quasi-governmental secret agency to drive them away. The art style is vibrant and colorful with a delightfully 1950s ray gun sci-fi vibe, and the story had lots of twists and turns and revelations straight out of a midcentury B-movie. 7/10

Initial D: Extra Stage – This two-episode OVA follows the driver of the blue Sileighty from Usui Pass as she faces down a challenge on the road and one in her love life. The first episode, Beyond Impact Blue, has her racing one of the Lan Evo drivers from the Emperors after he insults female drivers as a whole and challenges her to what he assumes will be an easy race for him. The second episode, Sentimental White, has her go on a date with one of the divers from the Night Kids, who suggests that he would want his girlfriend to give up a dangerous hobby like street racing, leading her to do some thinking about her life. I didn’t feel like the racing was as exciting as it was in the main series, and I don’t love this mangaka’s approach to writing female characters or romance content, but I did like watching Mako take control and set a path for herself. 7/10

Space Dandy – I don’t know what took me so long to watch this series, as an episodic space comedy directed by Shingo Natsume featuring dozens of top-tier animators and guest directors is completely my kind of food. It starts off a little dubiously with the title character monologuing about tits and asses before heading off to his favorite breastaurant, Boobies, but it was hard to stay mad at this charming idiot blundering his way around the galaxy with his talking vacuum cleaner robot sidekick and alien cat freeloader, Meow. Some of the episodes were fantastic sci-fi short stories that packed a ton of worldbuilding and creativity into 20 minutes, and others were just sort of okay monster-of-the-week episodes, with a thread of a overarching plot loosely connecting them. The art and animation varied a bit depending on who worked on the episode, but on the whole, it was very good work and a lot of fun to watch. 8/10

Gunbuster – The old anime nerds have been talking up this series ever since Discotek licensed it, and Crunchyroll added it to their catalog this week, so I watched it. If you watched Aim for the Ace and thought to yourself that it would be better if it had more mechs and titty fanservice, this is the show for you. The first episode is an almost frame-for-frame homage to the beginning episodes of Aim for the Ace, which is kind of amusing when all the girls were training to be mecha pilots to fight the alien horde. It had some solid space fights and substantial sci-fi scenarios, and I appreciated how big the stakes felt. I only wish there were fewer lovingly animated bouncing titties. 7/10

Sasaki and Miyano: Graduation – This is one of those movie sequels to a series that’s kind of hard to put a rating on. On the one hand, it’s more of the story I enjoy with the characters I love, and it’s great to see some of the moments I remember from the manga animated and acted out. On the other hand, however, it’s not structured like a movie in the least, and runs through the material pretty quickly, leaving the viewer little time to take in what they’ve seen. It’s basically just two more episodes smooshed together without an opening or ending song. If you like the series, you’ll like this, but it’s not a movie-length story with a dramatic arc that stands alone. 8/10

[piggybankstomfoolery]

It didn't feel like it was going to be a game-changer when I attended the backer premiere party (maybe because for me it's just one of many indie animation projects I know are floating around out there, lol), but it's exciting to see Lackadaisy's pilot bring a lot of new excitement for indie animation to folks who otherwise didn't seem to acknowledge it. I've had family members ask if I've seen the Lackadaisy short (which caught me off-guard as most of my family doesn't usually know about animation beyond the big studios), and friends have told me they're now looking for ways to take their current projects and "ride the wave". It's even got me looking at some of the projects I've had going over the past year and considering a re-evaluation.

I started up a few things last year after the Pencilmation downsizing and layoff: a Doog short film, a series pitch with a studio which was presented and still being developed, and a small game (besides Seaside Fireflies) which got an equally small publishing deal last year. All three are exciting in their own way, but I'd be kidding myself if I said I had the resources and manpower to develop all three of those at once, or the funds to pay people to help me out.

That said... I think all of this new buzz has got me considering reviving the Doog project. The game project is fun in its own way, but its audience is very limited, and without the help of a good friend on the project who has since dropped offline for health reasons, I've been feeling aimless and have been considering putting the project on indefinite hiatus. The studio project is exciting to develop too as it's with a studio whose output I've always loved, but with the marketplace for investment in new series having clearly dried up to both insiders and outsiders, it feels like a lot of practice with developing a project, but without much of any return of investment for my part.

Meanwhile, Doog is short (probably around five minutes at most), simple to draw (black and white lineart drawn in Procreate), and mostly made by myself (with Joshua Tomar voicing the one character who currently has lines). The film could probably do a short festival run as well, and I've already got a little bit of marketing synergy going for the short with Newgrounds, as Tom was interested in giving the short a front-page banner and maybe working out some other stuff if we can.

The real question then becomes whether I can get the time to actually, y'know, make all this stuff. Will see what happens...!

[spiderdreamer-blog]

Disney DTV Sequel Capsule Reviews: Atlantis: Milo’s Return (2003) and 101 Dalmatians: Patch’s London Adventure (2003)

The legacy of the DTV sequel/TV spinoff era for Disney’s animated films is a fascinating question. In terms of the naysayers, it was seen as diluting the brand with cheap recycling of the characters and plots of the classic movies (this is also the current argument aimed at the live action remakes). On the positive end, fans who grew up with them cite expanded worldbuilding and stories with new, compelling characters as points in their favor. I’m somewhere in the middle: I think at their worst with films like The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, The Jungle Book 2, or The Fox and the Hound 2, the stories are lazy and inspired with dull characters that don’t further the narratives. (FATH2 also lands in the strange “midquel” territory, which tends to present structural and dramatic issues) But at their best, those positive elements do stand out: even with some janky animation here and there, the Aladdin sequels and series created a robust action-adventure universe, The Lion King 1 1/2 is a genuinely clever spin (I also have a fondness for the Timon and Pumbaa TV show in terms of unabashed cartoon shenanigans, and Simba’s Pride has some strong drama to it), An Extremely Goofy Movie is a very solid follow-up to its predecessor, while Cinderella III: A Twist in Time arguably improves on the original in terms of the character writing. So I find myself here today having watched a couple of them I hadn’t seen before and found them interesting enough to write about. Let’s dig in, shall we?

Atlantis: Milo’s Return

So the first interesting note here is that this technically isn’t actually a sequel film. Prior to the summer 2001 release of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, a follow-up TV series called Team Atlantis was developed by Disney TV animation stalwarts like Tad Stones, Victor Cook, and Greg Weisman. It got far enough into production that three episodes were fully completed. Then the bad news came from on high: Atlantis had underperformed at the box office (though not outright bombing in the way, say, Treasure Planet did) thanks to a certain green ogre dominating all he surveyed, so the series was cancelled. This is quite a shame, in my opinion. Atlantis is one of my favorite Disney films, especially from that weird experimental era where they were attempting to experiment and get away from the strict Broadway musical formula that had dominated the Disney Renaissance of the late 80s through the 90s. We had this, Treasure Planet, Tarzan, The Emperor’s New Groove, and Lilo & Stitch in a five year span (we also had Dinosaur, Brother Bear, and Home on the Range, so not all of them were GOOD experiments, though I like Range more than most). It has great characters, some of my favorite character animation in the canon, and is gorgeously realized in terms of the various blended aesthetics and filmmaking. But someone got the bright idea in their head to compile the completed episodes and add some bridging animation to see if they could make some money off it. Incidentally, this is not the first time this has happened: Belle’s Magical World is made up of three episodes of an abandoned Beauty and the Beast spinoff series, and the first of these, The Return of Jafar, was initially created as the pilot movie for the Aladdin TV series before Michael Eisner suggested the video release.

We pick up sometime after the events of the film. Kida (Cree Summer), now Queen of Atlantis, is pondering if she should end her late father’s isolationism and return the city to the surface. Before she and Milo (James Arnold Taylor picking up for Michael J. Fox, the only original cast member not to return since he was presumably too expensive for a series budget) can make that decision, friends like Whitmore (John Mahoney, though a few lines sound like Corey Burton ADR pick-ups), Mole (Burton), Vinnie (Don Novello), Sweet (Phil Morris), and Audrey (Jacqueline Obradors) drop in for a visit. It turns out weird shit is happening on the surface that may be related to lost Atlantean artifacts, so the group goes to investigate. This gets us into our three recycled episodes: the first involves a trip to a village near Trondheim, Norway that is besieged by a Kraken and the mysterious Volgud (Clancy Brown); the next takes them to Arizona and an encounter with dust coyotes; and the third involves a former competitor of Whitmore’s, Erik Hellstrom (W. Morgan Sheppard), who had a mental breakdown and now believes himself to be Odin, wishing to bring down Ragnarok on the world.

I admit to grading on some fairly generous curves here. The animation is a notable downgrade from the film in the level of detail and fluidity, though it’s better looking than other spinoff series like The Legend of Tarzan, which cannot remotely replicate the intricate designs of that source film on a TV budget. And while Taylor is a fine actor that replicates Fox’s nerdy exuberance well, it’s distracting that he sounds “off” when every other major character outside of Cookie (Steven Barr taking over for the late Jim Varney, who died prior to the film’s release) steps right into place like they never left. But in terms of an old-fashioned episodic adventure series, it’s actually pretty entertaining once we get underway. 

One major point in its favor are that the characters are all on point writing wise (Sweet is forever my favorite thanks to Morris’ cheerful motor-mouth contrasting so well with his massive size), and it’s nice to see progression on things like Milo and Kida’s romantic relationship being low-key sweet or the obvious question she would have to answer in terms of Atlantis’ status. It’s also interesting to watch the stories progressively get better. The first one has some decent action and Lovecraftian atmosphere, but Volgud is a mostly periphery threat who could’ve been emphasized more; it feels like a waste of the always great Brown, who adds a Nordic chill to his bass tones. The second has more of a fun Western vibe, with a good sneering villain in the form of Thomas F. Wilson as Ashton Carnaby, shifting his Biff vibes into sleazy con man mode, and he gets a grimly karmic fate for his transgressions. A Native American spirit named Chakashi also has some interesting beats as a character, not revealing whether he’s friend or foe until the end, and I like Floyd Red Crow Westerman’s dry, foreboding performance. The third story is unquestionably the best. Sheppard (in an ironic bit of casting since he played the genuine article Odin in an episode of Weisman’s Gargoyles) is a commanding and charismatic presence as Hellstrom, who carries the action formidably. His recasting of Milo as the trickster god Loki and Kida as his daughter Brunhilde reminded me of how Batman: The Animated Series handled the character of Maxie Zeus: his delusions are so overpowering that they barely seem to inconvenience him. You even feel a slight touch of pity as he cries out for his Asgard at the end. It also has some fun lifts from Jack Kirby in how a frost giant and presumably Surtur are visualized.

All told, I think I had this quite a bit of potential as a series even with the noted flaws. Among the planned episodes were a crossover with Gargoyles called “The Last” that would’ve featured an unnamed Demona and one of the Canmore family’s Hunters, which got as far as recording and model sheets before the plug got pulled. I don’t know that it would’ve been groundbreaking, but we still could have had plenty of adventures with this crew, and maybe more continuations like a theatrical sequel. Hell, I’d be down for a revival Disney Plus series at this point. But this is all that remains of a curious, half-formed dream.

101 Dalmatians: Patch’s London Adventure

The original 101 Dalmatians is not what I’d call a four-star classic of the Disney canon, but it’s a solid B+ with a great 60s London vibe and one of the all-time classic villains in Cruella De Vil. She’s so iconic and funny that they half considered using her in The Rescuers (which IMO would’ve been a considerable improvement) and they had to get no less then the great Glenn Close to play her in the 90s live action remake. The massive success of said remake reignited interest in the property, with a spinoff TV series that melded elements of the original film and the remake, as well as a sequel to the live action film, 102 Dalmatians (the height of creativity, as you can see), and this sequel. I’d never seen it before, but found a good recommendation for it in a YouTube ranking of all the sequels, so I decided to check it out.

We pick up after the film as Roger and Anita Darling (Tim Bentnick and Jodi Benson, the latter managing a pretty good British accent to these Yankee ears) prepare to move their pound of puppies, as well as Pongo (Samuel West) and Perdita (Kath Soucie), to a farm in the country, their “dalmatian plantation”. One pup, the titular Patch (Bobby Lockwood), increasingly feels left out and not recognized for his own qualities. Naturally, he fawns over TV hero Thunderbolt (Barry Bostwick), who’ll be in town for a get-on-the-show-as-a-guest-star contest, and Patch seizes the opportunity when he’s accidentally left behind in the move. After Patch embarrasses himself at the contest, Thunderbolt’s sidekick, Lightning (Jason Alexander), informs the star that the producers are planning to kill him off and replace him with a younger dog, in a bid to make himself the star after stewing in his shadow. Thunderbolt then determines he should commit real acts of heroism to raise his profile and recruits Patch to help him when he realizes the fan remembers more about his own show than he does. Meanwhile, a disgraced Cruella (Susanne Blakeslee) meets strange artist Lars (Martin Short, going full-bore on the pretentious French artiste cliche) and is inspired by his spot-centric art, eventually getting a wonderful, awful idea to inspire him in turn...

The first, most obvious thing about this movie is that it looks great. Disney’s then-still-in-action Japanese unit replicates the Xerography look of the original quite well, giving it a fresh digital crispness in the process. Especially good are the backgrounds, which are a lovely callback to the modern, abstract cityscapes of London. They accompany this with their typical brand of fluid, snappy character animation that suits figures like the larger-than-life Thunderbolt and the extravagant Cruella. It feels like a channeling rather than a stale imitation, which is key to these projects. The acting is also very much on point, particular highlights including Lockwood being chirpy and likeable without becoming grating, Bostwick riding a good line of an egotistical jerk that you nonetheless care about, Alexander using his smarmy asshole routine to great effect, Blakeslee adding to her repertoire of recreating old-timey villains (she’s also a great Maleficent) by chewing every last scrap of scenery available, and Short managing a good two-step with a character who is at first deliberately annoying but undergoes a pleasantly surprising change.

“Pleasantly surprising” is a good way to put it overall. Like the original, it’s not groundbreaking, but it finds purchase in pursuing solid character dynamics. A dilemma like Patch’s is quite a fertile one, and they mine it well without going too far into bathos territory; notably, once it’s discovered that he’s missing, his family IMMEDIATELY leaps into action. The bond between him and Thunderbolt is nicely organic, with the star learning that his actions do have a positive impact even if they’re just “acting” in his mind. And while they have a slightly rote “liar revealed” moment when Lightning gleefully rubs it in that Thunderbolt was using Patch for his own benefit, the pup’s hurt is well-handled, and Thunderbolt actually owns up to it rather than make excuses, which assists his ultimate redemptive moments (he’d also already been feeling guilty and tried to admit it beforehand). Cruella is used in interesting ways too; even if she reverts to her old self to a degree, it’s fascinating to see her kind of broken down and in a real relationship. There’s also a few good chuckles out of the culture clash between the thoroughly American Thunderbolt and his British surrounding, such as a gag where he chastises drivers for being on the “wrong” side of the road. The only really tired/eye-rolling moment is a drag-disguise scene with henchmen Horace and Jasper that doesn’t really add anything a less elaborate, gendered disguise couldn’t have accomplished. I get that a lot of these old-school drag bits weren’t inherently malicious, but it’s always a bit jarring to go back (compare to, say, Bugs Bunny, who gives remarkably zero fucks in ways that are more palatable to modern lenses).

My ultimate conclusion here, I suppose, is that while hard work and talent do not always make up for weak premises and starting points, as many of these sequels evidenced, the fact remains that a lot of hardworking, talented people who cared about the craft did work on these. The law of averages demands that can come through even under mercenary circumstances and with less resources. I find myself glad I dipped into these waters again, thinking more fondly of the whole enterprise.

Except you, Little Mermaid II. You still suck.

[hijinks-n-lowjinks]

Hi! For the JJK asks:

how about 17, 18, 3, 12 and 13 ??

17. Match your favorite JJK character with a song.

Megumi baby has soooooo many songs I connect him to. Roadkill and Keep The Rain by Searows, Backslide by Twenty One Pilots, evermore by Taylor Swift (ft Bon Iver), and Save Me by Noah Kahan.

18. Share a headcanon about your favorite character.

Animals just naturally gravitate towards Megumi. He'll come across feral cats, people walking their dogs, random frogs and reptiles and they'll all just chill with him as long as they can.

3. What would be your cursed technique/domain expansion in JJK?

Loser/funny answer is something warrior cat themed. It's become a part of my irl brand because I was in so fucking deep in elementary and middle school, that's become a big inside job for my family and friends to associate with me.

Domain Expansion: Thunderpath - a bigass road opens before you where you're hit by a semi

12. If you could change one even in Jujutsu Kaisen, what would it be?

Easily Yuki’s death, but more specifically how she died. The whole situation with her is my biggest complaint of the entire series, I’m being so deadass. Other complaints I have are mostly just things I think could have been done better but I understand the intent whereas Yuki was SUCH an underutilized character imo.

She was so fucking cool and had such a rad CT that we only got to see ONCE. I wouldn’t have minded as much if she’d been in a few fights beforehand and then died in the fight with Kenjaku, but all we got beforehand was everyone saying she’s one of the three Special Grades and then she dies in the first battle we see?????? L for that choice, gege.

13. Which character do you think deserves more screen time or development?

Yuki. And Kirara. I would have liked to see more of her backstory and interactions with Tengen. And Kirara is just our cool trans queen, I want to see more of her and Hakari.

[ecsundance]

My name is Sam Levy and I’m a senior at Eckerd College with a major in Communications and a minor in human development. I’m really looking forward to making my way to the Sundance Film Festival and being exposed to the culture of independent film and indie filmmaking.

5 Feature Films: 

Ponyboi

This movie revolves around an intersex, sex worker who is running from the mob after a drug deal goes wrong on a Valentine's day in New Jersey. This caught my eye because it stars Dylan O’Brien who is an actor that I love. I look forward to seeing an intersex perspective. 

How To Have Sex 

This movie looks like utter chaos which is something that really drew me to the film. It follows three British teenagers who are battling their own depictions of sexuality and sex. I wonder how this film articulates sex.  

I Saw the TV Glow 

This midnight special is about a teen who is exposed to a supernatural late night TV show. With a view into the supernatural world, the teens' reality begins to blur. I’m drawn to this movie because of how interesting the concept is and it’s an A24 film and I love that production company. 

Freaky Tales

I’m very drawn to this movie because it covers several different story lines but they’re all interconnected. All the characters are presented with obstacles that they need to overcome. Pedro Pascal is one of the main characters and I’m also a big fan of his work so I look forward to seeing this premiere. 

Love Lies Bleeding 

When I watched the trailer for this film I was immediately sold and it had to make the list of my top five movies I want to watch. It’s a queer horror/romance movie and those are all genres that I love to see. 

“‘Love Lies Bleeding’ Trailer: Kristen Stewart Seduces a Bodybuilder in Queer Romance Thriller”

5 Short Films:

Bug Diner 

I’m looking forward to this animated short film because I love the animation style and the plot as well which revolves around two bugs that go to a diner and drama unfolds. This short film looks chaotic and funny all at the same time and I look forward to seeing what happens at the bug diner. 

The Rainbow Bridge 

This is a midnight short film program tha’s about a woman and her dog. These two have an unnatural bond. I think that this concept is really interesting because of this prior knowledge that I have associated with the word rainbow bridge. I look forward to having questions answered when I watch the short film. 

SHÉ (SNAKE)

This is another midnight short film program which is about a violinist who begins to go down a dark path of being the best violinist at her school. The description reminds me of Whiplash, but with a darker, more sinister twist. 

guts

This is about a woman in recovery who asks a random stranger on a dinner date. This intrigued me because I have not seen a lot of comedy media that focuses on recovery and I wonder how this short film will play out. 

Say Hi After You Die 

This film piqued my interest because it follows a grieving woman who convinced herself that her deceased best friend has come back as a porta-potty. This is a very different topic that I haven’t seen before. It looks like it will be both funny and emotional. 

2 Indie/Episodic Films:

Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza

I’m most looking forward to this episodic series due to the fact that I’m a big music fan and love to learn more about the stories behind these massive festivals. This covers the summer of 1991 and the first Lollapalooza which completely changed the culture of music festivals. I love music festivals so this interests me. 

La Mesías (Episodic Pilot Showcase)

I’m eager to watch this episodic pilot because it follows two siblings who have a toxic relationship with their mother. Family dynamics are a genre that intrigues me because of past experiences. It’s always interesting to see other perspectives woven into the storyline. 

Samantha Levy 

[aecho-again]

For the TF Q&A:

Anything Else, Sweet Rims, and whichever one you’d like to answer as a third option. :)

Anything Else?: Besides Transformers, what else are you a fan of?

It may not look like it, but I love the Metroid franchise, but it's hard to determine whether I'm a bigger fan of it or Transformers. I think I like them equally, just in different ways.

Metroid combines my love for hard sci-fi, space and exploration of the unknown with amazing lore and subtle storytelling and it works so well. The Metroid Prime Trilogy is my favorite game of all time (all three of them), because it does everything right in my opinion. It has a few flaws of course, but I love it nonetheless.

The Brave/Yuusha series is a close third. It may have started as a Transformers knock-off, but it is no less valid that it and watching the animes makes me feel things.

Even though J-Decker, Goldran and Gaogaigar are the fan favorites and (I am obsessed with Draias from) Fighbird which is also really good, these shows only come in second place. In my very unpopular opinion, Da Garn is just the best. It has a rocky start and the characters are bland and boring then, but as the plot grogresses, character development strikes (sadly, this is not the case for every character, least the robots) and the interactions become more interesting. I don't know why I like it more than the objectively better shows. All the Braves are just amazing.

Sweet Rims: If you could own a vehicle in the shape of the vehicle mode of any Transformers character, what would it be? (Beast modes don’t count)

Ooh, I'd love to own a plane or a flier of any kind (helicopter, aaa-!), but I have no pilot license so the vehicle will be useless, unless I rent it to someone who has. I'll have to settle for a grounder, a sports car, a matt gray Lamborghini Aventador that goes by the designation Lockdown (Bayverse). I'm not sure if any character turns into a Murcielago so the Aventador is my next pick. But I love both models the same.

Love: Who is your favorite character from any series?

Soundwave :-D

Especially TFP Soundwave, but most of his other versions are also cool.

I can and will use every opportunity that presents itself to babble about him. Who doesn't love a loyal, devoted, competent single dad who tries his best to keep the entire faction afloat by sheer force of will? He deserves the world.

[historyhermann]

Futurama Season 8 Part One Spoiler-Filled Review

Futurama is a mature animated sitcom with elements from the sci-fi and comedy drama genres. The original series aired from 1999 to 2003, then 2008 to 2013. Matt Groening created this series, like The Simpsons and Disenchantment. He developed it with David X. Cohen. Both were executive producers along with Ken Keeler and Claudia Katz.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the fifty-fifth article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on November 9, 2023. By this article, I've surpassed how many reviews I wrote for The Geekiary (52 posts), meaning I have written more for PCM than The Geekiary!

Part One of Futurama's eighth production season (and eleventh broadcast season) is a Hulu revival. It focuses on a crew of six misfits who work for Planet Express, a package delivery company. Turanga Leela (voiced by Katey Segal) pilots the Planet Express Ship. In a continuation from the Season 7 finale, she is the girlfriend of Philip J. Fry (voiced by Billy West), a man cryogenically frozen for 1,000 years before arriving in January 2999. They are joined by a foul, impertinent, alcoholic, smoking, and egocentric robot named Bender Bending Rodriguez (voiced by John DiMaggio), or Bender for short, the staff physician and lobster-like extraterrestrial John A. Zoidberg (voiced by West), and long-term accident-prone and ditzy intern Amy Wong (voiced by Lauren Tom). Other protagonists include company founder Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth (voiced by West) and company accountant/bureaucrat Hermes Conrad (voiced by Phil LaMarr).

Some characters play supporting roles. This includes Amy's partner, Kif Kroker (voiced by Maurice LaMarche), a lieutenant and assistant of Captain Zapp Brannigan on the Nimbus, a Democratic Order of Planets (DOOP) starship. Brannigan, like Fry and the Professor, is voiced by Billy West. He is a general with 25 stars, part of DOOP, and has feelings for Leela. There's also a highly intelligent animal, who often acts cute and innocent, named Lord Nibbler (voiced by Frank Welker), the rough janitor Scruffy (voiced by David Herman), and an aggressive corporate CEO named Carol "Mom" Miller (voiced by Tress MacNeille). She heads a mega-conglomerate known as MomCorp, which monopolizes robot production. She has three sons (Walt, Larry and Igner), and previous romantic relationships with the Professor and his nemesis, Dr. Ogden Wernstrom (voiced by Herman).

The first episode begins by re-introducing viewers to Futurama's characters. Bender cheers return of Leela, Fry, and their friends. The series takes place in 3023. Fry believes he has "achieved nothing" for his 23 years in the future. After taking Leela's advice, he pledges to watch every show ever made. He does this even after Bender warns him about the terrible TV content out there. There are also jokes on actual show names in blink-and-you-miss-it moments. Fry subscribes to the fourth-biggest streaming service in the world, known as Fulu, a play off Hulu.

The episode has social commentary about the binge model: Fry wears goggles which drill directly into your brain. Such devices allow a user to watch all the episodes in one continuous stretch but you must sit perfectly still in an all-encompassing metal suit. In the real world, binging a series can lead to regret, depending on whether viewers plan binging ahead of time. It can contribute to people feeling like they are "bored" unless they binge shows. In the case of this episode, Fry stays in a chair, sitting perfectly still for months without any breaks. His mind is soon overpowered by binging. He loses touch with reality.

In a plot line which echoes the goals of the recently concluded WGA strike, and ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, Fry's friends convince the robot bosses of Fulu to reboot All My Circuits. They produce episodes as fast as they can, so that Fry doesn't die. To make matters worse, Fry watches the episodes at double-speed. The writers can't keep up with the fast script production. Bender declares that "any idiot can be a TV writer," beginning to write scripts himself. This episode makes clear how writers are so stressed/crunched in the current entertainment industry. The writers collapse from exhaustion during the episode.

The episode ends with the reality of the entertainment industry: executives give constructive notes, say the show isn't working, cancel it, and declare "you will always been an important part of the Fulu family." The episode undoubtedly comments on how TV shows work and ravenous corporate executives. I the past year, Ridley Jones, Inside Job, Dead End: Paranormal Park, and Human Resources were cancelled by Netflix, while The Owl House and Archer ended. For Fry, his friends attempt to shift his focus from the streaming world back to the real world. This plan is unsuccessful, as there is a huge explosion, and they believe he is dead. In reality, he had left the suit two days before, so he could catch up on reading.

Fry admits he stopped watching All My Circuits because the show quality decreased in the last couple of episodes (because Bender wrote them). In another timely moment, there is a mock presidential summit on the dangers of streaming television. Fry declares that shows should not be rebooted without quality. He states that viewers must binge responsibly, streaming no more than 10 episodes in a row. He adds that a TV show must be cancelled every few years if it cares about its audience. This episode is an effective way to begin the series. Even so, it is more dramatic than funny, with some comedic moments.

The next two episodes focus on entirely different subjects. One talks about definition of motherhood, noting that Amy is the smizmar of Kif Kroker and mother of their child even though she contributed no DNA, unlike Scruffy, Kiff, and Leela. Another is on the nose when it comes to social commentary about the cryptocurrency boom and Bitcoin. In that episode, Leela calls the latter a "pyramid scheme for rubes," after the Professor reveals that Planet Express went bankrupt because he invested in it. What follows is an episode spoofing the Gold Rush. The characters go out West, hoping to strike it rich, traveling to a town where all the electricity goes to Bitcoin mining computers, with everything else resembling the Old West.

If that isn't enough, everyone has a Wild West-flair. Roberto has a knife-shooter gun. Leela becomes a barmaid/sex worker. Fry meets a man made of borax (Borax Kid). Zoidberg becomes the town doctor. Dwight tries to team up with Roberto to rob a stagecoach (and take a USB stick). Bender kills a donkey by accident. In one of episode's, best jokes, they use Bender's "shiny metal ass" to sift through river stones. Amy complains there is very little Thalium and just "worthless gold."

The episode ends with their confrontation at the Bitcoin mine. The saloonkeeper, Delilah (voiced by MacNeille), is using robot heads to calculate numbers. She defends her action, says that all the money earned is donated to an orphanage. In the end, she gets away with it, even putting three heads of the robot mafia into "the mine." Even so, the Borax Kid is punished for copying public domain stories almost word-for-word and changing a few words himself, so he could get the glory. This story ends with a classic so-called "Mexican standoff": everyone fired guns at each other, and the characters shown from multiple angles. The episode closes with everyone walking off into the sunset together, a good ending for the main cast.

The fourth episode is one of the best in this series revival. The beginning, which centers on worms attacking Nibbler's brain, seems to be on par with usual shenanigans in other episodes. This changes when the crew are transported in a toy tank, inside of Nibbler's litter box. They come across dung beetles and magic psychedelic dust. In a clear parody of Dune, the beetles lead them through the sand to find the worms, setting off a pounder (like a thumper) to attract the sandworm. In a callback to the original series, these worms are the same ones that once made Fry smarter. This goes even further: Nibbler claims to be "the messiah." He declares that everything is interconnected and should stay as it is, undisturbed.

As a result, Leela becomes despondent. She even surrounds herself in pure uncut magical sand. It helps her see how everything is interconnected. It is revealed that smaller parasites are weakening the worms. They put aside the whole "everything is connected" mantra to stomp out the smaller parasites, saying a line must be drawn somewhere. This is akin to characters discussing eating good "meat" in a 2000 Futurama episode, entitled "The Problem with Popplers." Later, Nibbler talks to his fellow intelligent beings about how Leela's bravery and loyalty allowed his previous consciousness to be restored.

More than other episodes, this is the most inventive, even featuring a character chewing on a Bart Simpson doll. As Jean wrote in a review on this very website, Dune, based on the well-known novel by Frank Herbert, can have a twisted timeline, dense plot, and have a wide scope and scale. It is, more than anything, a sci-fi epic, centering on the desert planet of Arrakis, with the resource of spice sought after by all. Even with its sweeping visuals, make-up, and CGI, there is exposition over the top. Characters are often referenced by their full names rather than abbreviations. The film is relatively long. Some of this energy comes through in this Futurama spoof, which is a sci-fi series quite different from Dune or Release the Spyce.

The fifth episode has extreme relevance when it comes to corporate conglomerates which dominate the economic landscape. Mom is the epitome of this, with her Momazon service, a play off Amazon, which runs a "fulfillment center" on the Moon. Some people resist these efforts, saying that her warehouse is polluting the Moon. She buys everyone off with speech recognition software known as Invasa, her version of Alexa. The way that the warehouse functions echoes criticism of Amazon for avoiding taxes, toxic work culture, and mass data collection from consumers. These workplaces take the conditions of the real-life equivalent a step further. They are fully automated by non-union robot workers who endure the conditions 24 hours, 7 days a week. When Mom is challenged by Leela, saying the robots are engaged in forced labor, she says the workers enjoy the work.

Not everything is happy: Bender, after quitting Planet Express, is forced to work at the plant. He even sends a package with a warning so his friends will save him. To make matters worse, the "wonderful" artificial intelligence (A.I)., turns against Mom, going rogue, and it ends up taking over the entire universe. As such, they can order what they want from Momazon with quick deliveries, which is supported by abysmal labor conditions. There are many Futurama callbacks, like the destruction of the Apollo lander, the man with a hat declaring "The Moon Will Rise Again," and the return of Al Gore's floating head. Bender ends up back in the same apartment with Fry and Leela, and is fine being the third wheel, rather than working in a warehouse.

This episode is not unique in criticizing A.I. Take Light Hope in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, who tries to activate a planet-destroying weapon to annihilate the universe, and attempts to exploit Adora (as She-Ra) to accomplish that end, or Lunella's A.I., Skipster, in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, which skips important parts of her life that she found "boring." Also consider Cyrano in Cleopatra in Space, an A.I. created by series villain Octavian who tries to control a protagonist, and a paranoid A.I. scared of ghosts, the godlike A.I. depicted in The Orbital Children, or malevolent A.I. in Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Moon Girl has a living/A.I. supercomputer named LOS-307. An A.I. named T.O.M.I. (Technical Operations Management Interface) is in Supa Team 4. A ship navigator named KRS is in My Dad the Bounty Hunter. The worst example of A.I. is in the first, and second (to a lesser extent) of idolish music series Kizuna no Allele. That series had a pro-NFT segment and almost encourages creation of anime by A.I. This Futurama episode leans toward criticism in Cleopatra in Space, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Moon Girl, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and The Orbital Children, and away from other depictions. The episode acknowledges prevalence of A.I., as Carole & Tuesday does, with a music producer named Tao using advanced A.I. to ensure performers are profitable. It hints at danger of relying on A.I., which relies upon models trained by extremely low-paid workers.

Other episodes are callbacks or more relevant now than they would be even five years from now. One is an X-Mas themed episode featuring efforts to stop murderous Robot Santa with a time travel machine. Another parodies the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This involves quarantines, masks worn on ears, people working remotely, and conspiracy theories on Facebag (the version of Facebook in this world). The latter is enhanced by competition between the Professor and his sworn nemesis, Wornstrom. The Professor gives people a flimsy paper card (a dig at COVID-19 paper cards) and 3D chips inside of a vaccine to track it. The episode ends when everyone gets a vaccine using voodoo practices, likely a reference to Louisiana Voodoo rather than Trinidadian Vodunu or similar syncretic religious practices in the African diaspora. The episode ends with the statement that any sufficiently advanced magic is distinguishable from science.

This Futurama episode was one of the more hilarious ones. It echoed a "missing" Cleopatra in Space episode about protagonist Cleo facing the consequences of avoiding quarantine, and the August 2011 Futurama episode "Cold Warriors." The former includes Cleo realizing, after she infects the entire campus (but is a carrier), the importance of quarantine. At the episode's end, she enters quarantine as she presumably has common cold, and declares “quarantine stinks!” The Futurama episode is different because it parodies the oft remote work and hints at delays from the virus.

The eighth episode is just as strong. Zapp is brought before a DOOP disciplinary hearing after an egregious incident with Kiff. It is declared that he is "cancelled." DOOP strips him of his title and states that he must undergo mandatory sensitivity training. The episode centers on "cancel culture," known as consequence culture. It has been covered poorly in some media and better elsewhere. In this episode, Leela becomes captain of the Nimbus. Fry and Bender join her as first officers. The sensitive training class teacher, Dr. Kind (voiced by DiMaggio), is abusive, and DOOP's worse groper.

While Zapp apologizes to those he harmed and Leela gets a medal of valor, there's a lot more going on. There are sequences which resemble Star Trek films, part of an all-around parody of Star Trek itself, including about the Prime Directive. Leela, Fry, Bender, and others come down to the planet in a bucket, making the residents of Tacila believe they are not advanced. Their society has sophisticated machinery running on pneumatic technology. This aligns with the original Futurama series where DOOP engaged in intensive mining operations and worry of Beckett Mariner in Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 that Starfleet has become a fighting force involved in armed conflict. DOOP only wants a treaty with Tacila to acquire air rights.

This episode ends with Dr. Kind, almost ruining the air with a Durian. At the last second, Bender (likely) orders the Nimbus to fire upon Dr. Kind, killing him. Later, Leela gets the aforementioned medal. She is discharged for not wanting to fire on innocent civilians. Everything returns to the status quo. Leela, Fry, and Bender return to Planet Express. Zapp goes back to DOOP. He doesn't care about civilian casualties if it "gets the job done." At the episode's end, the idea of consent is emphasized. Zoidberg sucks on Leela because of the Durian smell, and she thanks him for asking first.

Futurama's penultimate episode is a mixed bag. It includes some good moments poking fun at toy commercials, but is also dark with death, dismemberment (of cars), horrors of war, and the like. There is a strange plotline about a Space Prince (voiced by LaMarr), who Leela only loves because of a spell. Even so, there are good points about absurdity of religion (to an extent) and respecting ability of women to voice their opinions (although Bender doesn't support that view).

The final episode, for now, goes further, touching on the meaning of "life." The Professor creates a simulated universe, with copies in three-bit form. He declares that the simulation's beings are "nothing more than ones and zeroes" and aren't real. After he promises to Bender that the simulation won't be terminated, he changes his mind. He even finds an alternate power source to keep the universe functioning. Bender goes into this simulated world, wanting to tell them the truth (that the Professor made the world). He decides to not do so after that world's Fry, declares that it doesn't matter.

The episode closes with Bender returning to the real world. A solution to preserving the simulated world is presented: underclocking the processor. Although these beings realize the world is simulated, they care little about it. In many ways, this episode echoes the computer programs, known as "programs" in Tron: Uprising, but those depicted here are more basic.

Moving on, a largely-circulated spreadsheet in which people anonymously described their conditions in animation studios, does not mention The ULULU Company, previously known as The Curiosity Company, an animation studio and production company, that produced this series and Disenchantment. The company previously worked on the five Futurama films. Sadly, it isn't listed on Glassdoor. So, the company's conditions cannot be determined. Hopefully, people are being treated fairly and the work environment is productive.

The same spreadsheet had eight entries for Rough Draft Studios offices in Glendale and Burbank. These reviews were overwhelmingly negative, with anonymous entries saying there was overwork, disorganization, harsh treatment, and inflexible hours. These revealed an anti-union environment with unionbusting in Burbank. The same studio previously reached an agreement with Local 839 of the Animation Guild, which covered animated TV series and features at their studio in Glendale.

It is hard to know where the series will go from here. This is only part one of the eighth season. It has ten more episodes of its Hulu run, as part of the revival. Watching this revival is nostalgic. It was one of the first animated series I ever watched. I fondly remember episodes parodying Napster and homophobes opposing same-sex marriage, and visual jokes. Some episodes coined terms such as robosexuality, meaning love/sexuality between a robot and humanoid. The strong sci-fi themes stuck with me: the series premiere had the protagonist (Fry) time travel from 1999 to 2999. More than that, there was dimensional travel, voice actors such as Dawnn Lewis and Frank Welker, commentary on worker exploitation, heartfelt moments, advertising parodies, and storylines focusing on family history, roots, and connections.

Overall, the Futurama revival is different feel than the original. Even so, it differs from Final Space, and others like Disenchantment, and Steven Universe. The series is not fundamentally different than the original show. It is improved without few changes. For instance, there are no episodes about queer identity of main cast members or anything along those lines. In this way, it is like The Proud Family revival. Hopefully, the series continues to improve as it moves forward into Season 8 Part 2, and beyond. Futurama is currently streaming on Hulu, Apple TV+, and Disney+ (in some jurisdictions).

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.