Cartoon Connoisseur

New year, goal for more

2011-01-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I've been a bit bad about keeping up with this. So lets get things going again! New year, shooting for one review a month.

Also, I'm considering adding a new set of written reviews here. Since I can only do a full review of a completed cartoon series and there are so many new series coming out all the time, I might start doing a 'first impressions' synopsis.

My quandary is mostly about, do I write this after the very first episode, or should I wait anywhere from 2-5 episodes in before writing up something. Once I have a number, I'll stick with it for all series, just to remain consistent.

Though to wrap it up, best new cartoons of 2010?

Generator Rex
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Transformers: Prime
Sym-Bionic Titan

Also I haven't seen Young Justice yet! I know I know I'm a terrible cartoon fan for that!

And as a random bit of cartoon geekery, Deviant art pages for Lauren Faust and Craig McCracken <3

Once Upon a Forest

2010-07-08T16:26:00.003-07:00

Type: Movie

Rank: Amusing

Summary: A cute family movie from 1993, this was one of the ones I fondly remembered when growing up. The cast is a set of woodland creatures that have to go on a journey to find a plant needed to save their sick friend. A sweet film with a typical coming of age tale and overtones of responsibility lessons.

Story: The young woodland creatures are called 'furlings' and are all expected to attend a sort of furling school.

Like many other features with woodland critters, the evil MAN. They are constantly referenced as doing terrible things that cost the lives of the dear little woodland creatures, such as orphaning innocent furlings, and destroying beautiful meadows. Though unlike many others, the evil MAN actually had a moment at the end that seems to show a far more redeeming quality to them kinda saying 'hey, we've done some stupid things, but we're doing what we can to make things better'. It's one of the things I found the most memorable about the movie and what keeps it from being like all the others.

Characters: First of all, the thing I was really happy about with this movie was that the names of the characters were real names, so to speak. Too often in family movies, when you have animal characters they tend to be named after the animal themselves or some pun based on what they are. So, hearing names like Abigale, Russel and Edgar make for a nice change of pace.

A few other aspects that seem to break the usual mold set for most children's movies is that the sort of leader of the group is a girl, the mouse Abigale. What is even more surprising, is that she isn't really targeted as a romantic interest, even though she does flirt in a few scenes. The other two characters, Russel the Hedgehog and Edgar the Mole really don't stand out as much.

The other problem is that there is very little development for the characters. It feels like they attempted to do it but fell short. Most of their learning experiences, or at least that's what they seemed like, felt half-hearted. There isn't much that attaches you to the characters or makes you feel for them. Even though the movie was barely over an hour, I still feel like they could have done more with the time given.

Voice Acting: There are times where the voice acting can be a bit over-emotive, Probably the best performances came from Benji Gregory as Edgar the mole and oddly enough Will Estes as Willy the Squirrel. Even though the part was small, I felt it was executed well.

Soundtrack: I can't really say any of this was truly remarkable, it's nice music but simple. There are also a total of 2 musical moments in the movie as a whole. The best part has to be the overly religious birds and their southern baptist singing. It's quite catchy and probably one of the most memorable songs of the movie. The ending theme is also rather cheesy and very 90's.

Honestly, this probably one of the most fun parts about the movie.

Quality and Style: The style in general is vaguely Disney-esque, though many movies did try to feed of the Disney fame. In regards to animation quality, it's alright, not terrible, but it could have been smoother. The character animation is decent, though a bit choppy at times, likely using the minimal amount of frames to get the motions across. To kids this won't be a big deal, but most of those more picky about animation will notice.

You can see how the edges of the lines on Abigale and Edgar are slightly cut off

And something else I have to pick at are the moments where the characters really don't feel like they're moving on the ground, and almost look like they're floating slightly while walking or running. There were also moments where frames for the character animations didn't seem to look right against the background, but it was only for a few moments. It's not painful to see but it still could have been a bit better.

However the details in the painted backgrounds really look great.

Conclusion: While it's not the most amazing movie in the world,If you have kids, it's likely something they will enjoy and remember fondly. I was also pleased with how the story about MAN was taken, as it was a bit off the beaten path. Though at the same time, you may not want to go well out of your way to find it.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

2010-07-01T01:28:00.006-07:00

Type: Movie

Rank: Great

Summary: This is one of the many new Direct to DVD animated movies being done for the DC Universe. Likely inspired by the Crisis on Infinite Earths concept, the story is about an alternate earth where the bad guys are good guys and vice verse.

Story: The general story is that Lex Luthor from an alternate world, in which the Justice League there is comprised of villains, hops over to the world we all know and love to seek the aid of the resident Justice League. What was supposed to be a much more localized task, then becomes much more complicated with the creation of a bomb that could destroy all life on a planet.

In the beginning I have some of my issues with the plot, such as the fact that Superman figures out that the new Lex that shows up is not the same one... because his heart is on the opposite side. Considering the fact that we very quickly learn that there are thousands of other worlds this little feature doesn't make much sense. But to be fair, this moves the story very quickly without too much padding.

Because checking for this totally makes sense.

Other issues include a plot point that includes a random ability to 'lock out' someone from a specific earth with just the transportation device itself. It seems a little unnecessary and only seems to serve the purpose of providing extra tension to a situation that is already pretty intense.

Though my biggest issue without have to be the love side story with J'onn and the President's Daughter. There were some very sweet moments, although a bit forced, and pleasant all around to see J'onn connect with someone romantically. However, at the end he simply leaves her there. That entire set up was all for nothing and a weak joke; it was highly disappointing.

Characters: We first have your basic Justice League cast of Batman, J'onn J'onzz, Wonder Woman, Green Lanturn, the Flash and Superman. Most of their designs are pretty basic and un-changed except for J'onn's that appears to be greatly different from his other versions. Everything from his face to his costume and even original form appear somewhat unique. To be honest, I think I prefer this costume to all the others I've seen, it makes it look more like uniform, rather than something with ridiculous crisscross suspenders with blue bloomers.

On our alternate earth, we have the 'Crime Syndicate' which include alternates of our Heroes. Ultraman is the alternate to Superman with bold blue and yellow colors and a U symbol on his chest. (anyone else getting 40K flashbacks?) There isn't much to say about his character, other than being brash and greedy.

Superwoman is the alternate of Wonder Woman, with a very simplistic black and gold motif with a small red S on her neck. I like her look the best as it really feels classy. I also really loved her voice actor, Gina Torres, who was Vixen in the Justice League Unlimited series. She also seems to be the most developed of our Evil Counterparts, aside from Owlman.

Speaking of, Owlman is the alternate of Batman. Even though he wore the typical black, his appearance is greatly different from Batman. One of the most noticeable parts is his sloping shoulder-line which is a huge contrast to the other typical hero structures, and makes him seem less threatening. I think it was a good direction to take the character, as it made his moments of combat even more surprising. He gets the most talk time of the alter egos, apart from Superwoman.

Johnny Quick, alternate of the Flash wears a gaudy yellow suite with tall red hair and has an Australian accent. Very little in the way of character development is done with him. The Green Lantern's alternate barely speaks, and J'onn's counterpart gets killed in the beginning of the movie.

Lex Luthor was rather enjoyable in this series as well, and even appeared surprisingly Genre Savvy. Design wise, he looks pretty much like the Lex from the JLU series, and his suit is pretty much the same looking as well.

Voice Acting: Nice performances overall, though Green Lantern, voiced by Nolan North felt a bit dry in some of his execution. Mark Harmon just wasn't making me feel Superman actually cared about anything. And, even though I keep expecting to hear the voice of Kevin Conroy when Batman begins to speak, William Baldwin still did a great job with the character.

Though, I think some of the best of the movie were Gina Torres's Superwoman and James Wood's Owlman. But then again, would you expect any less from Hades?

Soundtrack: The movie itself has an overall good score. However, the part that stands out to me the most is the title track. It's a very powerful and beautiful track, appropriately 'epic' for the movie itself. The rest of the mood and atmospheric music is well done.

Quality and Style: The look of the movie bears a resemblance to the Bruce Timm versions of the Justice League, but with more definition. It's a look that works great for the movie and helps draw in people like me, that very much enjoyed the 'Timmverse' of cartoons.

The animation quality itself is great, there's a lot of subtle motion in character actions that give them more life. The action scenes are also fluid and easy to follow, sometimes giving us full fights with very few cut-aways.

I also have to add here that I found the opening title to be very fun.

Conclusion: The movie itself was just great, aside from nitpicks, though it's those nitpicks that keep it from being Phenomenal. It is something that is enjoyable to watch for any fans of the DCU. Even I felt like watching it a second time after watching it first, this does not happen very often. It also makes me glad to see a movie like this take itself seriously, and it really does feel like the whole team cared about what they were doing. Maybe we will see better use of the Animation medium yet.

The Spectacular Spider-Man

2010-06-12T16:32:00.015-07:00

Type: Series

Rank: Phenomenal

Summary: This series was another take on the Spider-Man mythos, calling from the range of source material and melding it together. Unlike the 1990's cartoon, this series was to take place at the beginning of Spidy's career, back to the days when he was a teenager.

Story: First, this series starts things off right, with their supervising producer being none other than Greg Weisman, known for his equally stellar series, Gargoyles. Stan Lee himself also wrote many of the episodes as well.

The story arcs are well construed and follow some of the original plots, though everything has been handled in a far better manner than was seen by Spiderman: The Animated Series. The story arcs are not dragged on for any longer than necessary. Thankfully, they took chance to lay off the heavy doses of 'Break the Hero' while still keeping things dramatic. I realize that part of the draw to Peter Parker was that he was more empathetic than most heroes, but it's not a good sign when I feel like I want to punch a hero for just acting so self loathing.

Characters: As one would expect, you have your typical characters of Peter Parker, Harry Osborn, Aunt May, Doc Connors, JJ and the basic Spider-Man rouges gallery. However, many of these characters get presented in a way that sometimes even exceeded their previous incarnations. Previously there was not much done with Peter's High School classmates, but this series worked to build them up further as people and not just as 'background noise'. Even Flash Thompson begins to show himself as being more than just a hard head Jock.

What is the most noticeable, is the history of Eddy Brock and his friendship with Peter. Watching it become more strained as the series went on helped set the stage for when Eddy finally donned the Mantel of Venom. The end result was something that really made you feel for him as a character rather than being just another bad guy. Many of the other villains have this same feel to them and this dynamic is something I always appreciate and feel makes a series worth viewing.

Voice Acting: Every performance in this series is just great and every voice chosen just seemed to 'work'. Josh Keaton's portrayal of Peter Parker was just great and you could sense a difference in the voices going back and forth from Spidey to Peter. James Taylor did a wonderful performance of Harry, and I feel he was able to capture the changes in Harry's personality very well. Even the side characters were felt as though they were given just as much care, which is not something that is always true of side characters in many cartoons.

Ben Diskin's work on Eddy Brock was probably one of my favorites though. You could feel the subtle changes in him as a person, is transition to the person that would don the guise of Venom became very apparent even before he got the symbiot, which is a huge contrast to his personality in the beginning of the series.

Soundtrack: Wonderful all around. The title song was very different from it's 1990's counterpart, but fun nonetheless. However, there weren't many stand out moments in the score itself, the kind that really stick with you. Not to say it's bad, just nothing I'd want to put in my playlist.

Quality and Style: The whole series has excellent animation quality, and was one of the first things that caught my eye. First of all, the characters were designed by Sean "Cheeks" Galloway an artist that I had admired for a few years. The style was quite a bit different from previous versions of Spider-Man, however I thought it was an excellent merge of both modern and classic looks. Of course some may be a bit put off by the simple style, but when you also consider ease of animation and marketability, going a more streamline, styled look is very important.

The character designs also follow the rule of shadows very well, as primary characters can be easily recognized by their silhouettes alone. It is also interesting to note that the Villains are given mostly green colors or colors close to green where as Spiderman is predominately red, giving the Villains cool colors and the Hero warm colors, almost feels a bit Ironic.

The animation itself is beautifully fluid, from the slow scenes to the action scenes, you can tell that a lot of care went into it. Something that always bug me about most actions cartoons, is when production teams cheap out and cut up an action scene, using cuts and speed lines to give the appearance of combat, but without allowing the viewer to see the moves or acrobatics all the way through. Instead, they took their time with these action scenes, making them both beautiful and easy to follow.

Conclusion: This series just hits every key correctly, and is in my opinion, currently the best incarnation of Spider-Man to date. Unfortunately, this series only lasted a total of 2 seasons, falling prey to the decline in funds Marvel had faced. While the rights changed hands a few times and did end up back with Sony, they have since dropped it to just start over with a new series. My only hope is that this new series is smart enough to pick up where Spectacular Spider-Man left off, and with the same team, rather than start something new all over again.

Introduction

2010-06-05T14:17:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, a review blog, like that hasn't been done before.

But here I am doing it anyway. This is a little spot for me to express my love for all things that are animated. For years, Cartoons have always been my very favorite form of media, to the point that Live Action shows have a very difficult time holding my interest.

Too often, especially in the States, cartoons as a whole are regarded as a medium for children. The medium itself is rarely treated with any form of respect, especially in the states, and stories used in it that could have been good are often dumbed down. To make matters worse, any form of cartoon made for 'adults' is most often filled with the same empty jokes, but with some swearing and sex thrown. This needs to change.

My aim of this blog is to talk about and showcase cartoons I think that are great and maybe those that are not so great as well as touch on the matters regarding it as an art form. I'm not an 'angry reviewer' so most my articles will be positive in nature, but not without their criticism if it calls for it. But who knows, some series might cause me to have the occasional bee in my bonnet. I also plan on going over different aspects of animation and art style as well as character design aspects, as I will be referencing those factors a lot in my reviews.

I do hope to change the general public's notion of cartoons as a story telling platform, but I think that may be hoping for a bit too much.