Thanksgiving is my birthday, too

Getting ready to fly back to Minnesota tomorrow. Gotta finish packing and stuff. Lots to do, lots to get done and such. Lots of folks I'll try to get in touch with when I'm there. And there's my birthday, too.

HI HI PUFFY AMIYUMI

No Time For Purrs or Pats
by Alan M.

There's a long tradition of music and cartoons that goes back to, well, the first time sound and animation were combined. From STEAMBOAT WILLIE through today's anime music videos popular music and cartoons go together like a fiend and his dope or a drunkard and his wine. Television has exploited the rock and roll solubility of cartoons with fabricated and real acts such as THE ARCHIES, THE JACKSON 5, and THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, 2200 A.D.. And now, Japan's PUFFY, or as they're marketed here, PUFFY AMI YUMI.

First off, HI HI PUFFY AMI YUMI isn't anime. It's more like the bastard child of UPA's GERALD McBOING BOING and JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS, without the later's need to solve mysteries. Each half hour episode is broke down into 3 shorts which econimizes the storytelling, and cuts way back on any music showcasing. Musical interludes are the staple of this kind of show, unfortunately there's only enough time for maybe a minute of HARD DAYS NIGHT type hyjinx and we've got to get back to the story. Here's hoping that maybe we'll get some long playing luv in the future, and if you would please use Rodney Greenblat's designs from the PA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PUFFY show, please?

How much you like this show depends on how much you like extreme cuteness. Because, from what I've seen so far, this show isn't a triumph of the human spirit. It's cotton candy for the eyes and empty calories for the soul. And while we're not talking HB cartoons ala PIXIE AND DIXIE the limits of limited animation are on display here. Is Macromedia getting a piece of the action?

You wanna watch it? Sure, go ahead, it's perfectly harmless...

I've been sick....

Sorry about the lack of blog. I was down all day yesterday because I started the morning with the contents of my stomach coming up. I followed that with a deep coma-like sleep for about 7 hours...

While I was out the DVDs continue to trickle in. From Amazon I recieved Peter Jackson's MEET THE FEEBLES and CARTOONS THAT TIME FORGOT: THE UB IWEKS COLLECTION VOLUME ONE. This will sate my appitite for gross puppets and Flip the Frog for awile. I guess I should finally get that copy of LET MY PUPPETS COME someday. Showa Video came through with 4 DVD-Rs of PRINCE PLANET. I'm guessing that the titles will be edited out, but I'll still screen them tonight.

I haven't mentioned the 20 hours of Something Weird Video that I got on monday. Their Super Sale ends on November 30th, and I'm probablly gonna place at least one more order.

This is so wrong... 

Commercials: EPISODE III

Today I got AUDITION from HKFLIX and NINJA SQUAD from Amazon UK and I finally got that STAR WARS TOYS COMMERCIALS DVD Compilation that I won on Yahoo Auctions.

Somehow I screwed up and got 2 copies of AUDITION, so I gave one to Mundee, she's amped about it because she saw a few clips of AUDITION on 100 SCARIEST MOVIE MOMENTS on Bravo. I'm looking forward to watching it, dispite the crappy Bravo clip show.

Dude, don't dis the clip show!

Playlist

Working once again on the OtakuHELL DVD, making a list of shorts for the compilation. MY JAPAN goes to the top, of course. As do a number of Sid Davis shorts, LIVE AND LEARN for certain, DANGEROUS STRANGER is a possiblity.

Still haven't solved the commentary recording problem. Looks like it could be much more expensive to pull off then I once thought.

I've been thinking about another project, involving flash animation/machinema of public domain films. My first idea was to take NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and divide it up into scenes and have animators sign up and animate each scene to it's original public domain soundtrack. But I realised that it'd be unmanagable for a first project. The film is long and the odds that I could find enough people to sign up for scenes is a long shot.

However, if I picked something smaller, like a short from the public domain, I could animate it myself. And that's an easier goal then a whole motion picture. Although I'd still like to try to do an entire public domain movie eventually. Looks like I need to start working on my MOHO skillz and get to work....

Corto Malase

CORTO MALTESE "LA COUR SECRETE DES ARCANES" 

The 2 DVD English Subtitled release from France.

I got the CORTO MALTESE DVD from Amazon France some time ago. I've been wanting to write it up but somehow I can't bring myself to do so...

Johnny Socko and Tetsujin 28 Gou!

Today's DVDs include JOHNNY SOCKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT from Showa Video, and TETSUJIN 28 GOU Part two and GOLD LITAN from Discount Anime DVD. Now I have all the episodes to the new Tetsujin 28 series, no thanks to the fansubbing community.

Well, I'm not as impressed with Showa Video's handling of TV shows. They edit out the openings and end credits to each and every episode. Which I suppose is good if you're one of those folks who fast forward through that stuff. Me, I like opening and ending theme songs and all that stuff. So the Showa Video disks kinda chaff me. Especially when I see that there's still room on the DVD-Rs for something like THE SHOW CREDITS. While I'll be the first to admit that the American International credit rolls are no triumph of the human spirit, they are part of the whole package. And the episodes feel lacking without the credits and theme songs.

Will I order more tv shows from Showa Video? Yeah, I probablly will. But I'm more likely to order movies that are unedited...

Weak Ends

Went to Wizard World Texas with Bruce. The con was rather disappointing. Quarter bins are now non-existent. Found some fun stuff in some fifty cent bins, but no Millies under $20. Crud.

Brett and EK showed up to hang out with George 'Space Ghost' Lowe and brought Bob dog and Dini. And we took George to Dave's BBQ, much fun was had.

Over the weekend CHARLEY SAYS came in from Amazon UK and KAIJU BIG BATTEL from Overstock Dot Com.

On the down side, I went to copy THE LAST WAR for Bruce and couldn't find it. I ONLY JUST GOT IT ON FRIDAY! I remember watching it Friday night before falling asleep and now it's AWOL! WTF?

New DVDs Today...

From India Plaza:
2004 SUPER HIT SONGS and DJ DOLL
From Showa Video:
THE LAST WAR and LAST DAYS OF PLANET EARTH
And lastly, from HKFlix:
THE STORY OF RICKY, TEMEGOTCHI, 2002, THREE and VAMPIRE VS. VAMPIRE

Note: This was originally a much bigger post but Blogger had an "Internal Server Error" and I lost a rather long and time consuming post that I couldn't reconstruct from computer memory or my own memory. So, this'll have to do. See you Monday!



Shout out to Chris for letting me use his credentials at Wizard World TX...

Badge Designs

I'm going through the sketchpiles for suitable illos for the one inch buttons. Cute popart style things to scan and vectorize and color and layout. I'm just gonna try it for now, I really don't know what to expect, but I'm gonna give it a chance. While I know what I like and I like what I draw I can't predict the tastes of the public at large. Whoo boy, who knows what's going on in the heads of my fellow Americans these days...

On the video front, we got some good video in. I watched as much of FREE TO BE YOU AND ME as I could stomach last night and was thrilled with Fantoma's release of FORBIDDEN ZONE. The extras are worth the price of the disk alone! I need to contact Showa Video about THE LAST WAR, I haven't heard a thing since I sent the money...

The Last Man on Earth

Went shopping at Target on Halloween morning and found a widescreen DVD of THE LAST MAN ON EARTH with Vincent Price for only a buck. So, along with a big ol' bag of candy for the Trick-or-treaters I bought it and watched it as soon as I got home. Brother lemme tell ya, this was more then a bargain.

This movie was one of those, "I'll get it, someday" type of movies. I've seen it on Something Weird's Catalogues, and Sinister Cinema, others. And I've wanted to get it, but not as much as other films. I just didn't want it bad enough. I should've wanted it more, it's a great little movie, especially for Halloween.

The movie is like a sidebar to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and it's much better then the more visible OMEGA MAN. Vincent is much more believable then Charles Heston, and TLMOE isn't burdened with the cultural baggage of OMEGA MAN. No hippy bullshit instantly makes LAST MAN a thousand times better...



Bruce tipped me off to CHARLEY SAYS on DVD so now It's on the way from Merry Ol' Amazon UK and with any luck I'll be showing THE AMBER GAMBLER at the next OtakuHELL!

In other video news, I tracked down a copy of THE LAST WAR for Bruce, and TETSUJIN 28 GOU Part 2 just became available. Happy? Oh yeah, I'm feeling really good about the finds. Can it get any better? Check it out:



THAT'S RIGHT! I got the CARNIVAL OF SOULS SUPER-EXCLUSIVE MIKE NELSON AUTOGRAPHED COLLECTOR'S EDITION. If you squint you can sorta make out, "Mike J N" on the cover...