For those of you not in school with me, this is a rare glimpse of the blogger behind Art of the Cartoon.
So every week for Animation Mentor (The school I’m attending) I make an intro video to the week. I try to be entertaining, it is more of a way to get my face out there and to put some fun into other students’ workspaces. Anyway, this last video I did I talked about my Top 5 Cartoon Wedding moments. Enjoy!
If this gets a good response, I may post up more of my intro videos in the future…
At the moment there are 2 stellar video games that feature the sweet science of pugilism or boxing. Fight Night Round 4 is one of those games and the other is the revival of the classic Nintendo series Punch-Out!! on Nintendo Wii. I think I have already demonstrated once before how animation and boxing are related, and these new video games bring out both the great physics (Fight Night Round 4) and the great enterntainment (Punch-Out!!) of the sport of boxing.
Even though one is more geared toward simulation and real-life and the other toward exagerration and cartoon, they both have a common thread in terms history. They both harken back to this Set the VCR moment, from arguable the greatest boxing video game of all-time!
Hit the jump to read more about this Set The VCR moment: Continue reading
I am huge fan of the 1990’s X-Men animated series. It is still the best cartoon X-Men out there (It’s out on DVD now!) I think the intro was classic:
However, after seeing the Japanese intro for the 90’s X-Men…
I kinda wish the 90’s X-Men looked like this. They even made another intro!
Can we get a special edition 90’s X-Men series set DVD and/ or Blu-Ray with selectable intros… PLEASE!
Black Cat (anime)/dir. Shin Itagaki/ 24 episodes/ 2005 – 2006
I bought the Black Cat anime series on a whim earlier in the year, about the same time I purchased the Beck anime series. I first watched Black Cat, a series I enjoyed, but then before I could ever write about it, I started watching Beck. And well, this happened.
Beck was one of the best anime series I have ever watched and the unfortunate side effect was that Black Cat was left as an afterthought. So for me, Black Cat has the unfortunate distinction of forever being paired with Beck.
So after a couple of months, I’m finally getting around to reviewing Black Cat, an entertaining series with nice visuals, an interesting set-up, and memorable characters, but the story sputters out towards the end.
(hit the jump for the rest of the review) Continue reading
I have been on a mini hiatus from this blog. With school starting up, and work keeping me busy (especially in this economy…yeesh!), it’s hard to keep up with all the animation, cartoons, and comics that come my way. The reviews that I want to write are waaaay backed up (I have about 4-5 animated movies I want to write about). Add to that all the Bootleg Classics, the Set the VCR moments, the film studies, Filipin@s, and all the animated shorts I want to plug, and I’m really backed up (at least I never run out of material to write about).
Anyway, let’s begin again. Here’s an animated music video for “Three Times” by Giacomo out of the UK. I enjoyed the beat, and the paper cut-out stop-motion animation gave this piece a surreal kind of vibe to it.
Giacomo “Three Times” /Plasic Horse Films/ 2009/ UK
What’s up good folks! I’m about to start another exciting term at school, but before I venture out, I thought I would show you my progress from last class. Keep in mind it’s not the greatest animation in the world, in fact, its pretty crappy, but hey I’m learning! Isang Bagsak! One more down!
Yesterday was one of those surreal days. I think mostly everyone will remember the day Michael Jackson died. Combine this with the whirlwind of Farrah Fawcett passing away earlier in the day and Ed McMahon passing 2 days before that, it was just madness. I’m not even sure how they went through with an NBA Draft. Anyway, my dude jabok stated it best over twitter:
the worlds coming to an end. =(
A little overblown, but I think that was the general consensus. Now I know everyone is doing their little tributes and look backs to the “King of Pop” at the moment. It’s amazing really, MTV started to play music videos again… really! I’m going to ignore all the craziness and all the controversy surrounding the last few years of Michael Jackson’s life for the moment, and focus on this one touching moment in television animation history.
Hit the Jump to read more about this Set the VCR moment: Continue reading
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen/ dir. Michael Bay/ 2009
As a huge fan of the Transformers franchise, especially of the original Generation 1, all I really expect from the 2nd live-action Transformers movie is some great Autobots vs. Decepticons fighting complete with guns, explosions, battle damage combined with a bunch of transforming action, and give a nod to the fans, especially those of Generation 1. If you do that, I can pretty much forgive the shortcomings of the film. For example:
Weak Story/ Confusing Plot: That’s fine! Let’s be real, Transformers has never been about story, its been about huge robots that transform and fight each other. And as a veteran of countless animes, I can deal with a confusing plot. Continue reading
Who is going to see the new Transformers tonight? Raise your hand…
(Raises hand)
Yeah, you know I was going to go see the newest live-action Transformers tonight. I mean I started this blog with a post about Transformers! And even though we won’t get near the number of homies attending this showing as the last one, the nostalgia factor is just too strong for me to resist. Look for a review of the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen hopefully tomorrow. But in the meantime, I would like to re-visit one of my favorite Transformers Generation 1 episode, and yes… it is a bootleg classic.
Transformers “Heavy Metal War” December 15, 1984
Background:
You already know! But just in case… they are those robots that change (transform) into cars, airplanes, etc. C’mon you know… Optimus Prime and the Autobots (aka the good guys) vs. Megatron and the Decipticons (aka the bad guys). You know what!? If you need a background on Transformers why you reading this blog!
The Episode:
Megatron challenges Optimus Prime to an honorable one-on-one gladiator style duel. The loser of the duel must take his respective team and leave Earth forever, thus ending the long bitter war between the Autobots and the Decipticons. However, unbeknownst to Optimus, Megatron cheats by taking the abilities of the other decipticons, giving Megatron a huge advantage in the duel.
(Hit the Jump to find out what makes this a Bootleg Classic) Continue reading
Art of the Cartoon 