Let's Binge "Gargoyles"!

I can't offer you much in these Interesting Times, but I can offer you some recommendations what to binge watch while we're all stuck indoors.

I've done a few series marathons in the past in the good/bad old pre-streaming days and thankfully it's easier than ever to binge some of my favorites like "Gummi Bears" and "Fraggle Rock".  The former is available with Disney+ over which quite a lot of digital ink has been spilled and my extremely controversial opinion is that it is Good.  For one thing, it enabled me to finally, finally binge "Gargoyles", something I've been meaning to do since at least the late 90's and has been really difficult, up until Disney+ gave ready access to nearly every Disney Afternoon series.

Here's the trip report.  It gets a little spoilery the further in I get so either read it after or watch along with me.  My other really controversial opinion is that "Gargoyles" is excellent; easily one of the best animated series of the 1990's.  I'd go as far as to say that this is a series that tells as elaborate an ongoing saga with as well-developed characters as "Game of Thrones" except it's much more consistently good at it.

All that and you're internal dialogue will be voiced by Keith David for a while.

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Art!

Sweet like potatoes and molasses - Thoughts on "Over the Garden Wall"

On Saturday night I dropped ten bucks on iTunes for a series I have never seen and that hasn't even technically aired yet.  I watched the first episode, briefly thought of saving the rest for the next morning to enjoy over a cup of Pumpkin Spice coffee, and by Midnight I'd already ditched that plan and watched the whole thing.  And wanted to watch it again immediately.  And write this review telling everyone I know (and whoever I don't know who stumbles upon this here blog of mine; welcome, please stand clear of the doors and enjoy the ride) about how awesome the series is and how they should watch it, even though I was rendered pretty speechless and had to sleep on it, with the incredible songs and dreamy Jack Jones narration running through my brain all night.

Quick tangent, but it's an important one: We live in an incredible time for fans of animation.  Thus far in 2014, three of the best television series I've been watching are all animated ("Adventure Time", "Steven Universe", and "Gravity Falls".)  Lest we forget, "Legend of Korra" makes a fourth television series - if it were on TV but let's not even go there.  So far "South Park" has been very good, and there has been a host of great shows from previous years I missed out on but have been able to catch up with on Netflix instant ("Young Justice"!!!)  And so now we live in a world where Cartoon Network can air a five-night animated miniseries.

If Patrick McHale's animated miniseries (and again, how awesome is it that I live in a world where I can type that!) "Over the Garden Wall" isn't the best animated series I'll see in 2014, it will at least have been one of the most fascinating.  And if you don't want to read me gush about how wonderful the series is and what it *feels* like, just know that "Over the Garden Wall" is awesome, and you need to DVR it immediately.

It's rare that we get to see anything that feels so much like a glimpse into it's creators' brains in live-action, never mind a well-promoted animated miniseries on a popular cable network directed primarily at young folks.  And yet here's a weird, slightly spooky fable about what it is to be lost children in an overwhelming world that looks like it was dug right out of Maurice Sendak and Max Fleischer's long lost files.  It's a strange, forgotten, but lavishly illustrated turn of the century storybook set to fantastic music.  I can see how this story could have been told as a feature film, but the miniseries format helps it tremendously.  It allows the writers the freedom to follow the rambling, surreal tangents of traditional folktales.  The characters really only have one goal: finding their way back home, so why not get lost in the weird corners of imagination along the way?

Addendum: A quick look around the Internet reveals a minor controversy about "Over the Garden Wall": is it "too scary"?  My feeling is, if your kid freaks out at the monsters in "My Little Pony", this is definitely a no-go.  If your kid coasted through the Lich episodes of "Adventure Time", they should be fine.  Honestly, the creepiest thing about "Over the Garden Wall" is (spoilertime) this is the one animated series I'm aware of where the crazy "Ash is in a coma!" "Finn is dying and dreaming this whole thing!" people are right!

So yeah, "Over the Garden Wall".  It's outstanding.  You should watch it.  Then download the soundtrack and join me in a rousing rendition of the Highwayman's Song.

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Sketch of the Day!

It's a small throw-away joke, but you have to love Greg's unique theory, RE: dinosaur soft tissue. (With apologies to Brian Engh.)

"... ... ... I *love* it! I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT!!!!!" - Thoughts on "Wreck-It Ralph"

But first, I'm 35 years old today.  I refuse to stop loving Disney animation, thank you very much.

Movie # 66: "Wreck-It Ralph"

Well, guys, this is going to be one big old gush session, because "Wreck-It Ralph" is SOOOOO GOOD, YOU GUYS!!! You guys! Guys! It's so good!

This is by far the best-looking CGI Disney feature of all; the entire second half of the movie, set in a "candy-coated heart of darkness", is a veritable feast for your rods and cones and both the characters and the worlds they venture through are top-shelf designs.  The script is terrific and (as demonstrated) it's as quotable as classic "Futurama".  I'll thank director Rich Moore for this as he is responsible for some of the best loved early episodes of both "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" -- though not, as often reported "Jurassic Bark".  It's easy to see where the confusion could come from, seeing as "Ralph" has it's own scene where, if it didn't hit you right in the enteric nervous system ("The Feels" as the kids say), I don't know if I can trust you.

On that note, I'm glad to see Disney make a feature that is overall just so joyous and fun, but isn't afraid to get dark as f*** when it needs to.  It's all in service to the story and characters, and the characters themselves are wonderful.  A few critics complained that Ralph himself is too reminiscent of the title character in "Shrek", but I have to say I loved him immediately, while I can never say I even really liked Shrek over the course of four movies.  Part of this is because Ralph isn't a misunderstood cranky innocent; the whole conflict in the movie is due to him screwing things up for selfish reasons, and his redemption arc is ultimately incredibly moving. 

Best of all, this is the first Disney movie in years where I don't feel like I have to go on and on convincing you all to watch it, because this is the first universally-beloved-by-almost-everybody-I've-met Disney movie since the heyday of the Bronze Age.  Finally we are at the point, and I am so happy to be able to say this, where I can say that the most recent major animated feature from Walt Disney Animation is the best since the last one.  I'm going to tentatively go ahead and say we're finally, finally in the Iron Age of Disney.

It's been a long rough road since the end of the Bronze Age, hasn't it?  But I think we've finally hit the end of it since Disney is finally back to knocking it out of the park each time.  "Enchanted" was quite good.  "The Princess and the Frog" was terrific.  "Frankenweenie" was good, "Winnie the Pooh" was very good, and "Tangled" was outstanding!  Hell, I even liked "TRON Legacy" a lot, and it was a sequel to "Tron"!  As for "Ralph", as I said, it's excellent; made me feel brand-new at the end of a long stressful day.   I had a big stupid grin from the sixteen-bit Steamboat Willy studio logo to the "Kill screen" at the very end of the credits.

For more posts in this ongoing series, go here, or click the Chronological Disney Animated Canon tag below.

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Art of the Day! Speaking of Disney and video games...



(I'll be the first to admit this really applies better to the later games in this series.)

Random 90's Animation - "Cats Don't Dance!" (1997)

I watched "Cats Don't Dance" the other night with my seven-year-old cousin and my younger sister and -God as my witness- both of them were enthralled for the whole hour and ten minutes.  I am taking this as empirical evidence that "Cats Don't Dance" is so good that if you do not like it, you are not to be trusted.

And "Cats Don't Dance" is wonderful.  The last time I watched it was way back in high school and I only remembered liking it a lot.  Well, upon rewatching it, I had forgotten just how incredibly *good* it is!  This review could easily turn into a gush session, so let's take care of some context first then.

"Cats Don't Dance" was directed by Mark Dindal for Turner Animation.  And as it is, it's the very first and very last Turner Animation film ever.  The studio was consolidated into Warner Brothers Animation thanks to Ted Turner and his weirdo studio politics.  While there isn't much elaboration about this online, I wonder if this is the "Suspended Animation Studio" Brad Bird spoke of in this Los Angeles Animation Festival clip?

In any case, if a studio is only going to end up making one movie ever, it's a big damn miracle if you create something as awesome as "Cats Don't Dance".  It reminded me a great deal of "The Brave Little Toaster" in many ways.  The animation is gorgeous, the characters are well-defined and well-designed and their development is very moving, and all the songs are terrific.  And of course, it's a one-hit wonder that seems to have appeared right out of the blue, in complete defiance of everything we know about mainstream animation, like a gift just to make you happy.

Most of all, "Cats Don't Dance" made me miss the hell out of mainstream American hand-drawn feature animation.  I'm serious.  Like I said, the animation is absolutely gorgeous.  You can tell when the people working on an animated film had a lot of fun doing so because it shows.  If you love 1940's golden age Tex Avery-style animation, this is the movie for you.  There are scenes in this movie that consist of what can only be described as genuinely funny drawings and beautiful drawings and poignant drawings.  The word that came to my mind constantly was, "fearless".

And speaking of fearless, this movie is, when all is said and done, a story about equal rights.  Which is, to say the least, still timely.  And that should depress the crap out of all of us.

But it's never preachy or obnoxious about it, and indeed, I'd forgotten how straight-up hilarious "Cats Don't Dance" is.  The script is so deft and the energy is infectious.  I was catching jokes and gags my little cousin wasn't registering -- but she was also laughing at a lot of the same things I was.  And so help me, when I say that there were gags that only the adults were catching, I mean it in the sweetest way.  No, you won't see anything that pushes the film's G-rating; no fart jokes, no winking "we know you're too cool for this" sarcasm, and no instantly-dated pop-culture references.  Oh, there ARE pop-culture references -- but they are to the golden age of Hollywood and classic theatrical cartoons. You can't even imagine how refreshing this feels!  (As it happens, there are a few more timely references, but they are shunted off to the end credits.  It's amazing how badly some of them have aged in comparison to the gags based off older movies.  For example, there is a "Batman and Robin" parody.  Ouch.)

Speaking of, and I will admit this is why I wanted my young cousin's opinion of the movie too, and am very happy to say that she enjoyed the whole thing.  One of the most consistent criticisms leveled at "Cats Don't Dance" I noticed during research for this review, and I could not make this up if I wanted to, is the assertion that children will hate every minute of it "because it keeps making references to old movies and old movie stars they've never even heard of!  How dare this children's movie even acknowledge that there were things that happened before the children were even born?"  The stupid, it hurts...

If we lived in a perfect world, "Cats Don't Dance" would have been a huge hit and Mark Dindal would have been able to make more movies like this without the higher-ups of a gigantic studio breathing down his neck.  In a better world, "Cats Don't Dance" would have a cult following much like "The Brave Little Toaster" or "The Iron Giant" or even Dindal's own "The Emperor's New Groove" now has.  Seriously, if this review inspires even one other person to check it out, it'll be worth it.  Netflix periodically has it on Instant Watch, so what have you got to lose?

Next week: Our third movie that wound up available for instant-viewing.  As to why I almost left it out, blame Canada!

(Oh ye Gods, that was forced...)

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Sketch of the Day!

More Maine Wildlife Park sketches! These ones include madness overheard at a zoo.

"You Gotta DEAL With It!" - Thoughts on "The Legend of Korra"

Today we're going to talk at length about a television series that serves as a sequel to a very well-loved cult hit that was set in a richly imagined fantasy universe and benefited from excellent characters and intelligent writing.  In its three seasons, it also did everything it could to school people who were skeptical about the kinds of things you could do in a series like this.  So the sequel series had a lot to live up to.

Set many, many decades after the original series, the sequel explores how the imagined world of the original had changed in all that time, and how those changes affect the various fictional peoples - including a few relatives and descendants of the characters in the original series.  Meanwhile, the series focuses on a whole new and, in many ways, very different cast of heroes and villains.  During the production, the creators of this sequel series must have felt like Odysseus sailing between Scylla and Charybdis -- except all of Scylla's horrible heads are screaming, "IT'S TOO DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL!!!"  And there are equally angry voices calling out from the giant Charybdis whirlpool, "NO, IT'S TOO SIMILAR!!!"  Fortunately, almost all of those voices shut up once the series found its groove.

So yes of course I am talking about "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

But I am extremely happy to report that the same can all be said for "The Legend of Korra".  Yes, even the part about the series finding its groove.  Because here we are only four episodes in and this series is already off the chain, as the kids say.

I will try to describe a few specific reasons why without spoilers, but the point is that both "Avatar" series are excellent and you should watch them.  Like right now.  Like, instead of reading this.  There isn't a new episode scheduled for this weekend so you have time.  Do it!  (Let's not acknowledge the live-action movie, except for the fact that it so conveniently serves as the best-ever argument against live-action adaptations of animation.)

The first episode (hopefully still available streaming on Nickelodeon's fantastic homepage for the series by the time you read this) was preceded with a prologue that gave out just the very minimal amount of information for kids new to the "Avatar" universe to catch up.  After that's over with, the series proceeds to do exactly zero hand-holding, which is incredibly refreshing.  As it happens, this is indeed a sequel series in the "Star Trek" sense: it is set in the same world and a few of the characters from the first series show up here and there, but they mostly give the new main characters a lot of room.

And Korra is a hell of a character.  I've seen her described over and over as essentially the exact opposite of Aang in every meaningful way.  From the beginning, Aang was the kind of character you expect as your protagonist in an Epic Hero's Journey (TM); brave and enthusiastic, but also apprehensive and not exactly excited to confront the main villain anytime soon.  Korra could have very easily have been "Aang with a uterus", but thank the spirits she is very definitely not.   She's feisty, overconfident, and relishes in her God-tier powers.  She's in way over her head but she's still absolutely ready to save the world... except that the world of "Avatar" is technologically complicated now.  As a consequence, it has lost its mysticism and finesse.  Mastering the elements isn't such a huge deal as it once was.

This is essentially the story of a person who is an incarnation of God born into a world that is simply not impressed and it it airing before Noon on Saturday mornings and that is awesome.  (It's also a very interesting theme given that "Avatar" takes place in a world where spirits are absolutely real.  Huh.)

While enough digital ink (and spit and sweat and blood) has been spilled on this point on the message boards I frequent (sometimes admittedly to the point of tedium) it is also well worth mentioning that this is a Saturday morning cartoon set in a world where maybe one out of every ten humans is capable of manipulating part of nature.  There hadn't been much exploration in the original series of how much it would genuinely suck to be a person with no powers in a world where people can chuck mountains and lightning at each-other.  Well, to put it succinctly, that there is the main conflict of this series.

And without ruining a major plot point, I also love, love, love how the writers take something that a lot of fans decreed as a silly Deus ex Machina in the finale of the original series and make it the reason the main antagonist is so threatening in this one.  Fantastic.

The animation is gorgeous, absolutely breathtaking in the action scenes we've seen so far.  There are moments that remind me of both "Cowboy Beebop" and "Tokyo Godfathers".  And, of course, there is this, which is as good a note to end on as any:



Honestly, if you don't want to watch just to find out the context of this scene I do not understand you.

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Sketch of the Day!

Okapiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!

Great day for "Up"!

You know, some day Pixar is going to make a movie that totally sucks just to see what it feels like.

Fortunately, "Up" is not that movie. I just got back from the theater (regular format because 3D makes my visual cortex cry after a while) and here are my disjointed thoughts about "Up" and the whole experience:

* - The first twenty minutes made my eyes rain. I wasn't alone. You could hear a pin drop in this matinee full of seven-year-olds and their adults.

* - Hooray for Chuck Jones' obvious influence on Pete Docter! Note the shapes of the rocks during the chase sequences, Kevin's somewhat familiar character design, and the dead-on characterization of Dug. Speaking of...

* - Dug is not only one of the best characters ever, he's a triumph of animal characterization. I kept thinking of what James Gurney talks about in this blog post: the best animal characters are the ones allowed to be themselves.

* - And as a Miyazaki fangirl, I am obliged to go "yay" at the "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" shout-outs as well. Generally speaking, animated films about things that shouldn't be able to fly but do so anyway are awesome.

* - It's a little eerie how much I related to Carl more than any other character...

* - "The Princess and the Frog" trailer got a pretty enthusiastic reaction, which is good given that the other trailers included everything from "Shorties" to "G-Force" (but not, curiously, "Toy Story 3" or "Ponyo on a Cliff".) That gets my hope up.

* - RE: "Shorties". It amuses me to no end that Robert Rodriguez can go from "Sin City" to a crazy "What If" movie for little kids.

* - RE: "G-Force". If this "Not Another Talking Rodent Movie" outgrosses "Ponyo" and "Princess", I may have to say "f*** it" and start studying to be a dentist.

* - I'm a chick, so "Partly Cloudy", which I knew nothing about going in, made me go "SQUEEE!!!" Props to Pixar for seeing the cuteness in Knifefish.

* - As I said before, I'll talk about the Pixar Needs Women debacle later.

All told, "Up" is excellent, go see it.

Also, it is hilarious that Direct-To-Video/DVD companies are still doing stuff like this.