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BlazeFox
Reviews
The Postman (1997)
Despite inconsistencies, this is a great movie.
Usually I'd trust the opinions of Roger Ebert or Rotten Tomatoes, but I have to disagree with the negatives here. Sure this isn't the greatest film of all time by any standards, but in a time dominated by Doom & Gloom generic post apocalypse movies, The Postman was a breath of fresh, positive air and if you can ignore the little things like "Why is there a lion in Oregon" (Portland Zoo?) or "How did the Holnist come to power? " this is a great movie with a great message. The main character may have initially only used the story of being a Postman to get food and so he wouldn't get shot when he walked into a village, but his lie inspired hope. The movie has a comedic lightness to it, but it has it's serious moments and there are some great quotes like "Wouldn't it be nice if the a--holes who started wars were the ones who had to fight them?" General Bethlehem represented the aspects of the violent, racist, misogynistic gun-hoarding survivalists, taking advantage of the ''clean slate'' provided by the apocalypse to re-create civilization the way he saw fit, but with all the bad parts of it. His idea of a society was more like medieval times. He killed people who were mere children, just to get at his foe and he recruited people into his army who didn't want to be a part of it in the first place.
Knowing (2009)
Signs + National Treasure = Lame.
Coming from the director of such cult classics as "The Crow" and "Dark City" one would expect this too would be something that will endure the test of time and embed itself into the public conscious. Unfortunately, this movie only repeats tired clichés with mish-mashed concepts and will likely go the way of 'Signs' and the remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still."
Aliens have always been a popular trend in movies, but in the last decade American cinema goers have not seen many that actually relied on story and characters over typical Hollywood flash. Honestly, I wish for once a person would spend as much on the writing as they do on over blown CGI effects. At least when pie plates on strings and rubber suits were the norm we were blessed with a decent story.
This is a movie that tries so hard to be unique and thought-provoking that it comes off as preachy and irritating. At first it starts out okay, there's the Wednesday Adams-looking little girl hearing voices, so you already know it's going to have something to do with the supernatural. Fast-forward to present day, with Nick Cage and his son who by some stroke of luck (or misfortune) gets the cryptic number prophecy sheet. Cage, in a drunken stupor, figures the sheet out for what it really is, and starts tying its numbers to 9/11 and a bunch of other disasters. How very Nostradamus....
There are some events that have yet to happen, and Cage, for some reason, believes he can actually prevent them... So he tries to be at ground zero of as many of the disasters he can. One of these involves Cage witnessing a plane crash tearing through a congested highway, and then running to the site of the carnage and yelling "Hey!--HEY!" at people walking around covered in flames. The other humorous moment is when he tries to stop what he assumes is going to be a terrorist attack in New York. He calls the FBI and rambles in detail about how there's going to be an attack and that if they don't do what he says, people are going to die... making -himself- sound like a terrorist.
Eventually we get to see Lucinda's old house with all her newspaper clippings of various disasters and her number codes scrawled on the walls, oh and there's this weird picture depicting a passage from The Bible about aliens??? Great, it isn't demons or some cult who're after Nick's son, but aliens... Angel Aliens who look like some crap out of 'Mission To Mars' and predict disasters (like a super solar flare about to kill everything on Earth) but won't do squat to stop them. Guess it's punishment for all the wars and ravaging of the planet, or maybe they're just voyeuristic death fanatics.
So the aliens take the kids anyway, poor Nick is stuck on Earth for it's inevitable destruction all because he couldn't "hear the call" (rapture?), and the worthy children get to go to a fresh new planet which I'm guessing is supposed to be Eden since there's the big "Tree of Knowledge" that God / The Aliens don't want anyone eating from or "they shall surely die." I hope they checked the place for talking snakes. This movie wouldn't have been so laughable if they'd got somebody else besides Cage and if it hadn't tried to mix Religion with Sci-Fi.
Wipeout (2008)
Re-make of a comically dubbed-over Japanese game show.
I guess I probably shouldn't be too annoyed at a show that rips off another show, which is basically a comedic American re-dubbing of a Japanese show (Takeshi's Castle), but I can't watch "Wipeout" without immediately thinking of Spike's "MXC: Most Extreme Challenge." The obstacle course names, the way the announcers try to crack visual pun jokes and call all the contestants by nicknames, its all borrowing from MXC, but the show seems to lose something without the whole "people ad-libbing over Japanese stock footage" part. It's like if MST3K were re-made, but done "seriously," and with new actors trying to replace the old B-movies that were being mocked.
"Wipeout" tries to be "MXC" like "Repo: The Genetic Opera" desperately tries to be "The Next Rocky Horror Picture Show," and like Repo, Wipeout is barely as good as what it attempts to copy. I've even read on Wikipedia that ABC tried to buy up the search term "MXC" through Google to try to re-direct traffic to their official Wipeout website. If "MXC" hadn't come first (and been made 5 years prior, 17 if you count the age of the source material for the re-dub), maybe I could watch this show and just take it for what it is; people competing in a crazy foam prop obstacle course for money.
Oh and btw, contrary to the belief of some, you didn't have to be an anime-obsessed "weeaboo" to enjoy the hilarity of MXC.
Knight Rider: Knight Rider (2008)
A Mustang? Ummm, how about no.
NBC completely botched this one. I mean they changed the car from a Pontiac to a Ford (probably because Ford offered the most money, and who wouldn't for an hour long product placement spot?) the new actor is the guy from The OC. The voice we all know and love, William Daniels (Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World) is replaced with Will Arnett. There is NO Turbo Boost (jump mode), and the Molecular Bonded Shell is replaced with some stupid "Nanobot Technology" so instead of KITT being indestructible he hasta go sit in a corner and rebuild himself like Stephen King's Christine. No busting through walls, no jumping through the sides of semis or over ravines. And most importlanly, NO TRANS AM! Even a 6 year old modified '02 model Firebird would look better than that Mustang. The dash may as well be stock analog, its not the "Darth Vader's Bathroom" from the old show. KR'08 alienates fans of the original series and gives them NOTHING from the original show to savor, except the Hoff. And let's face it the Hoff has about as much acting talent as William Shatner. Even kids would probably see how lame this crap is. Here's to hoping Glen Larson's MOVIE turns out better.
Knight Rider (1982)
James Bond meets Herby the Lovebug.
Ask anyone who grew up during the early 1980's what their favorite non-animated show was as a kid and they'll probably say "Knight Rider" (unless they're from the south, then they'd probably say Dukes of Hazzard) KR, as its affectionately called by some fans, may seem quirky and obscure nowadays with its Atari Centipede sound effects, poofie aqua-net hairdo's, over-acting and "sooo not the original artist" synthpop covers, but we didn't care... To us this was the best thing on TV besides Smurfs and He-Man and it appealed to our parents as well.
KR was James Bond meets Herbie the Love Bug. While our mothers drooled over the blue-eyed hunky Hasselhoff, we were captivated by the ominous-looking but friendly talking black Trans Am, K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Two Thousand) we giggled at the odd-couple banter between Michael and KITT, we smiled every time thieves tried to steal KITT and failed, and we cried when KITT got destroyed (but they -always- managed to fix him) From 82 to 86, this was the coolest show on TV.
Knight Rider 2010 (1994)
This isn't "Knight Rider" at all...
This 'movie' is rarely discussed or aired on TV. There is a very good reason why, I'll explain.
Aside from the name in the title and a guy driving a car, this movie really has NOTHING at all to do with the 80's TV series 'Knight Rider'that most of us grew up watching. Instead this movie is more like a low budget Mad Max sequel with cyber-punk undertones. I'll try and sum up the movie for you: In the future earth is barren and polluted, there's this guy with a big truck who smuggles people into the clean air domes (makes ya think of Total Recall, eh?) he meets up with this scientist guy who wants to steal his organs using this soul-stealing crystal thing, the immigrant smuggler guy's girlfriend gets her soul trapped in the crystal instead, immigrant smuggler guy then puts the crystal into a car he built from scraps of a Mustang. The scientist villain guy is thwarted, a joke is made about doing some matrix-ish cybersex interface thing and our heroes drive off into the sunset.
The TV movie before 2010; KR2000 was crud but it at least had some relevance to the 80's series, Team Knight Rider was also terrible but still had ties to KITT and The Foundation. KR2010 is crap. Mr. Hasselhoff and Mr. Larson; if you have any sense, don't let 'Knight Rider: The Movie' be like this. Base it around the pilot ep where Michael Long is shot, please... We're tired of made-for-TV garbage. If Dukes of Hazzard can have a decent theatre movie, can't Knight Rider?
Rudora no hihou (1996)
Another game that SHOULD'VE been release in the USA.
Rudora no Hihou (or Treasure of Rudora) is a game for the SNES/SuperFamicom made by Squaresoft. The game is your typical RPG except with one important difference; you can make your own spells as well as learn spells from enemies. The downside is that the process is done by combinations of kanji (the Japanese alphabet), but once you get the hang of it, spell-making is as easy. Since Square didn't think this game would appeal to Americans, it was never released over here.
Thanks to emulation and fan-made translation patches you can play this great game in English. The game centers around aspects of dharmic religion, in partical the wheel of time. Rudora (Rudra) is the God which destroys the world every 4000 years so that a new world can be born. The story takes place during the 15 final days before the race known as 'humans' are to be eradicated and a new race is to be made. I won't say much more for fear of accidental spoilers. ^^;;;;
Seiken densetsu 3 (1995)
Hey Squaresoft, what about us Americans?
Seiken Densetsu 3 is the game that would've been Secret of Mana 2 in the USA, had it been translated and released here. Thankfully there are translation patches on the internet for the rom files. SD3 is a riveting game with a similar story to SoM1 but with better looking graphics. The only things that aren't up to par with its predecessor is the magic system, battle mode and weapon/spell leveling. There are less spells and sometimes a 'Class Change' is necessary to have magic.
Weapons and spells no longer level up from use like in SoM1.
The battle system is still overhead view and not the typical Final Fantasy battle screen, but you can't avoid battles by walking away from enemies anymore. But there are some aspects that make SD3 better than SoM; you get a very spacious inventory with which you can hold up to 99 of every item. Upon starting, you get to chose your party of 3 from 6 available characters and depending on which you chose as your main hero you fight a different boss at the end of the game.
Flammie is still there, so is Cannon Travel, but you also get ships you can ride to docks and a giant turtle you can summon to travel by water. The world is more expansive than in SoM, SD3 is also more difficult.
Square made a BAD choice by not releasing an official USA version, with the popularity of Secret of Mana, who WOULDN'T want to buy its sequel? Its not the first time Japanese game companies have left Americans behind. Namco's Tales of Phantasia was released for SNES, Playstation and GBA, but they never made an English port, the only way you can play it in English is thru the wonder of emulation. Sad because had the companies released them here we most certainly would've bought them.
8 Man After (1993)
One of my first exposures to anime.
Before Cartoon Network had Toonami and Adult Swim, the budding "Sci-Fi Channel" had a weekly marathon they called "Saturday Anime." They'd play stuff like Cashaun: Robot Hunter, Tank Police, Project A-Ko, and my favorite: 8-man After. This wasn't Tiny Toons or Chip & Dale, this was the extreme world of Japanese animation. I don't remember much of it since I was 12 when I had seen it, but 8-man is a complicated hero who not only must battle the bad guys but must fight to keep himself sane as well, less he kill everyone around him.
He shreds through the air at lightning speeds and though he is ashamed of it, he gets his energy from a kind of cyber-dope. A company called "Bio-Tech" has been manufacturing the drugs and the cybernetic limbs and selling them to street gangs as well as a football team. The team goes berzerk and sets their sites on the spectators, 8-Man loses his grip and he mercilessly kills the players to save the innocent. The girl he had earlier saved screams at him, calling him a monster.
8-Man begins to question if he really is in control of himself. It is a very twisty and emotional piece that pulls you in. Before Sci-Fi ran the stuff I didn't even know anime existed, now its EVERYWHERE!
Knight Rider: The Game (2002)
Nice graphics but physics and game play sucked.
I like any other child of the 80's was excited at the notion of a game based on my favorite TV show. The screen shots made it look pretty awesome. I finally got my chance to experience being "behind the wheelof KITT." I bought my copy of KR at Gamestop for $5, only after playing it did find out why. Other than having good graphics this game is junk. The physics are terrible, the voice acting sounds nothing like the characters, and the game is depressingly short.
I would have expected a more epic adventure from Knight Rider. Some of the levels are just stupid and the boss battles are even worse. Sure a highway shoot-em-up wouldn't have been true to the TV series but it would've at least been fun. In this game you have to solve puzzles, chase a car, and then you fight a boss, but instead of shooting lasers at him you just bump into him until one of you dies. I honestly got more enjoyment from the 8-bit NES and Turbo Grafix 16 KR games.
I thought buying the rights from Universal dented Davilex's budget, but actually they have a history of making mediocre games. Such obscure titles as "Beach King Stunt Racer" and "Londer Racer World Challenge." I'm disappointed, there was potential for a great game, Davilex should've spent more time on KR or let someone else make it.
The sequel: Knight Rider 2, I hear, isn't much better. I'll probably buy it anyway so the box can look pretty on my shelf.
Wonder Showzen (2005)
Sick, twisted, blasphemous. I LOVE IT!!!!!
You may remember the segment "Kids Show" on the popular comedy website Ebaumsworld, well MTV2 bought it and now its "Wondershowzen." This is THEE funniest damn thing on television. Think of Sesame Street meets TV Funhouse. Kids saying things you never thought you'd never hear them say, twisted satirical cartoons, numbers and letters having gay sex, weed smoking hippy puppets going on shower strikes. Sometimes the show doesn't even make sense but its still hilarious. This is comedy for a generation of sadistic hyperactive anti-christs. Jimmy Uringer (of MSI) probably loves Wondershowzen. I know I do, and if you're lucky enough to catch it, you will too. ^_^
Father of the Pride (2004)
Hilarious, but not for kiddies. I still like it though ^.^
Father of The Pride is the creation of Dreamworks, the same people behind Shrek. But FoTP is no children's show. Its an edgey, irreverent animated comedy meant for an audience mature enough to understand it, this is why its on at a late spot. Even though there are only a handful of episodes I put this up there with the likes of The Simpsons, Dinosaurs (jim henson creation w/ a Homer-ish T-rex, his family live in the great continent "Pangea"), Family Guy and other such satires. This show speaks to many audiences; ravers, music/movie buffs, furries and just about anyone seeking a good chuckle.
My two favorite episodes are "Nip Heads," where Larry and his wife Kate find "nip" (their version of weed) in their daughter Sierra's room. They ground her, she sneaks away, they think she went to a rave so they go and she's not even there. Larry and Kate eat a nip necklace they picked up at the rave not knowing what it was. They get blitz'd and make complete arses of themselves while Sierra is trying to have an interview with a teacher from the school for the gifted.
Kate: Your father and I were very furried about you. *giggles* Hey Larry, check it out, I just said furried.
Larry: Heh, furried... That's awesome... umm, who are you? *makes cross-eyed face*
(a definite nod to those of us in the fur fandom, who incidentally, make up the most of the fanbase for this show and other anthro-animal related programs =P)
The nip turns out to be the grandfather's and of course Sierra feels alienated by her parents not trusting her in the first place when she told them it wasn't her's.
The second one that I really enjoyed was the episode where Hunter locked himself in the bathroom and is being ansgty (depressed), Sierra runs to the living room to tell her parents "Maaaaawwwwm! Hunter's listening to Tori Amos in the bathtub again **cut to Hunter singing along to "Silent All These Years"** The Grandfather then responds "Are we still pretending he's not gay?" The Grand-pappy lion then takes it upon himself to straighten the kid up, so he takes him out to the forest with his "tribe" to hunt elk. (kinda like the Simpsons eppie where Homer tries to make Bart shoot a dear to prove he's not homosexual)
I thought that was cute, I am male Tori fan, and yes. I am gay =P Trent Reznor and Tori should hook up.
There is also another ep in which the Shrek Donkey (who is a big celebrity to them) comes to town to shoot a commercial. Larry thinks that if he can get the celeb to come to Hunter's show and tell it will impress him. He accidentally kidnaps Donkey's very gay sounding stunt-double. VERY VERY FUNNY!!!!
Don't watch this show unless you've got a TOLERANT sense of humor. Otherwise you will just end up hating it like all the other "liberal" television shows people like to bash, like Will & Grace and Queer as Folk. And for those who say Dreamworks shouldn't have made an adult humored show fearing they will mistake it for "wholesome" Shrek, FoTP was on at a time most of you put your kids to bed. And even still there is the V-Chip, try looking at the little rating in the corner of your TV, OKAY???
-Kitsune =^.^=
Sonic X (2003)
Excellent animation.
I first heard about Sonic X when I was visiting a furry site made by my friend Alasanso Sansi (Tyro Racoon). I saw pictures and character bios for a cartoon series concept that was unveiled at some sort of World's Fair in Tokyo.
Later on the series debuted in japan and some viewers over there were nice enough to record some episodes into AVI, then the nice folks at Team Artail decided to make fansubs for all us english speaking fans.
I think they only managed to sub eps 1 and 2. But what I saw, I totally fell in love with.
Sorry if I offend anyone here, but THIS is soooooo much better than the saturday morning Sonic show that ABC had (yes, I'm reffering to SatAm) The animation is almost near that of the promotional artwork from the games. The concept is much like that of any fan-fiction you'll find among the Sonic fandom websites.
Sonic and his pals end up in our world by accident. Sonic befriends a human boy. How cool is that eh? And Tails is drawn suberbly! And not also is he drawn extremely well, he actually gets to be a functional part of this show!
I'm waiting for this show to hit America, (Its slated to hit FoxBox in September) anyone who's had a Dreamcast or played any of the games will LOVE this show. am going to love this show. My only gripe is that its probably going to butchered in the process of being translated and americanized.
-BlazeFoxKitsuné =^.^=
Tales of Destiny (1997)
Awesome game, very S.o.M. story.
This is the continuation of Tales of Phantasia. This game comes to us on the Playstation game console and flaunts some great graphics and some animated 'movie' sequences. The concept bears a resemblence to Square's Secret of Mana as did T.o.P. You fight with a sentient sword to protect the 'Tree of Life' from evil doers who wish to drain planets of mana.
Tales of Phantasia (1995)
Quite possibly one of the BEST RPG's for the SNES.
Tales of Phantasia was made for the Super Nintendo. It was probably the first and maybe the only Snes game to have a full length j-pop song (The Dream Will Not Die, sung by Yokari Yoshida) as well as a voice cast for its> characters. Game play is a mix of side-scroller/battle screen. Mixing elements of Street Fighter (being able to do special moves with the d-pad and buttons that you learn along your quest) as well as Final Fantasy (casting spells and using items to heal yourself) some of the aspects of the game bare a resemblence to Squaresoft's "Secret of Mana."
In T.o.P. your task is to protect the Tree of Life, those who're hungry for power who abuse Mana are causing the tree to die. You get a sword that alows you to travel through time. Also some of the Elemental Spirits seem to've been borrowed from S.o.M. Shade, Sylph, Gnome, and Undine are used in the game to cast spells upon your foes. The Harpees in this game look alot like the ones in Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2 that was never released in the USA) Plus the fact that the main villain, Dhaos, is trying to create a Mana Seed to save his home planet.
All so very intriguing.
There are rumors that Squaresoft was working on the game then decided to sell what they already had to Namco instead of completing it themselves. This is a great game but I doubt you're going to find it anywhere other than on the net as a emulated rom file. And those are also becoming scarce. This game is classic, the storyline and especially the end dialogue is enough to bring a tear to my eye. I guess maybe I'm just one of those wierdos who gets uber-passionate over old video games.
If you played T.o.P. and liked it I reccomend that you play Final Fantasy Adventure for the gameboy (the prequel to Secret of Mana, also refered to as Mystic Quest), then Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, and Legend of Mana for the Playstation. In my opinion those were the best RPG games ever made. Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross were good too, but I have a soft spot for the Mana game series.
Seiken densetsu 2 (1993)
The best damn RPG Squaresoft ever made.
Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2 in the USA) is the continuation of Final Fantasy Adventure (also called Mystic Quest) which was made for the gameboy. It still follows the same concepts of the Tribe of Mana. The Mana Tribe are a group of people who must maintain balence in the world. To do this they must make sacrifices. The men of the tribe become the Mana Sword and the women of the tribe become the Mana Tree. The Mana Knight uses the sword to protect the tree from evil. The characters do not have set names in this adventure, you name them yourself which is pretty nifty.
There are several things that make this a great game.
[1]Storyline: the characters are well made, the dialogue is simply awesome. Its a very long game and this makes it fun. Most people spend days if not weeks on this game. Its not short by any means at all.
[2]Weapons system: You acquire a plethora of weapons, each weapon you must level up just as you level up your characters via experience points. The weapons also go through changes using the Mana Orbs that you get after you beat each boss. You can do special attacks with each weapon depending on how leveled up it is and how long you charge it with the attack button.
[3]Magic system: You choose from a great host of Elemental Spirits to cast your offensive, defensive, and healing spells. Each time you use a spell you level up that elemental. There's also a bit of an easter egg, you can level your magic's up to level 8.99 and you'll notice a change to each spell. For instance if you get Gnome up to level 8.99 and cast "Earth Slide" you'll see the mud ball is larger and has a face. Salamando's "fireball" turns into 3 serpent-like fire dragons that encircle your enemies. Sylph's "Air Blast" changes from 3 blades of air to a large yellow tornado.
[4] Color!: Some games just aren't colorful enough, S.o.M. is definately not one of them! All the colors as well as the characters themselves are very vibrant and bright, even those gothie badguys.
[5] Travel: You do lots of travel in this game, a good bit of it is on foot. You're other method of travel is by cannon. The game map is flat the same way it is in T.o.P. and Secret of Evermore but still pretty neat looking. Later in the game you get Flammie, the legendary White Dragon. How cool is riding on the back of a dragon eh? Kinda makes ya' feel like Bastian from Never Ending Story.
This has to be one of the best RPG games Square ever made. To be honest, I'd rather play the older stuff than the newer fancy-schmancy Final Fantasy X2's or Everquests or Zelda: Windwakers. So its 3-Dimensional.. big whoop! Give me 2D game sprites and decent gameplay. I'm an emulation puritan and damn proud.
If you liked this game, try to find translated versions of Seiken Densetsu 3 and Tales of Phantasia. Also try Tales of Destiney for the Playstation (it has a story very similar to S.O.M.'s) You definately won't be bored with those games. In fact you just might get obsessed with them like me ^_^ Though sadly it seems like there is a lack of sites to get emulated games nowadays, good thing I've got my collection backed up on CDR.
Preserve our video-game heritage!
Robotto hantâ Kyashân (1993)
Kinda reminds me of MegaMan but way cooler.
Its got to be one of the best anime's I've ever seen. I saw Cashaun: Robot Hunter on Sci-Fi channel's "Saturday Anime" block. Basically its a movie about a scientist who made a robot who's prime directive was to clean up earth and bring it back to its natural glory. The robot figured that the best way to clean up earth is to get rid of all the humans, thus getting rid of pollution and war. The scientist also made two other cyborgs. One being Cashaun and the other being a dog. Together Cashaun and his dog (whom makes Rush look mega-weak) must stop the eco-crazed robot and his henchbots from driving the human race into extinction. If you really want more on this film you'll have to go somewhere and rent it.
-BlazeFoxKitsune =^.^=
Defenders of Dynatron City (1992)
A weird freaky show based on a comic (or did the game come first?)
This show ran on Fox around the same time as Bucky O' Hare. It was based on a comic series (or so I'm told) about a few repairmen turned into superheros after they were exposed to Dr. Mayhem's "Protocola." Later they team up with some others who were unfortunate enough to have had the same experience with the substance.
The heroes were Ms. Megawatt who had electrical powers, Toolbox who had a hammer for a head, Radium Dog the radioactive super pooch who could carry cars in his mouth. Jet Headstrong the man with the detachable rocket for a head, Monkey Kid who throws metal bananas at the bad guys, and Buzz Saw Girl who had a buzz saw for a leg (think Gizmoduck's motorcycle wheel thingie) and they're all trying to stop the evil Dr. Mayhem from taking over the city with his Robot Drone Soldiers.
I was curious as to the origins of this show and I found a website saying that it was a Lucas Arts NES game, I rented the game when it first came out and enjoyed watching the cartoon. But I don't know which came first, or who created it. When I do web searches I mainly get stuff about the game and not much at all about the comic or TV series.
A great show durring Fox Kid's best years in my opinion.
-BlazeFoxKitsuné =^.^> PS: Thanks goes to whoever it was that told me the correct name of the show, my memory of those years isn't great so I had thought it was called "Dynacity Warriors."
Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills (1994)
Hurry up end end so I can watch Knight Rider!
The only reason I even sat thru this horrendous excuse for a TV show was because it came on USA Network around 4PM right before Knight Rider (watching an automated black Trans Am and a guy with the same leather jacket in every episode was choice entertainment for me :P) So anyways yes, I had the un-pleasure of watching T.T.A.F.F.B.H. It was a wierd and nonsensical show that seemed like an even less palatable version of Power Rangers (which I hated more than Barney, Masked Rider was okay, talking cars RAWK!)
I always wondered about those similarities, like the Tatoo's seem to have the same function as the Ranger's communicator watches. And what the heck was that thing that they always called upon in some Captain Planet-esque fashion to vanquish the bad guy? It looked like a 2 dimensional cardboard cut-out. Old Godzilla flicks had better costumes and special effects. Zodiac signs? Elements.. sure. Animal totems..Why not? But Zodiac signs? WTF? Maybe they should fight the bad guys with mood rings too?
This show was good for laughs and thats about all it was good for. Welp, I'm gunna go watch Knight Rider on the SF channel. Skareeew you 1990's and your damned 70's flashback bell-bottom hippy crap. Long live the 80's! Witness the re-birth of MY decade! Behold, clueless trend-mongers! It is coming!
*insert maniacle laughter*
-BFK
Sonic X (2003)
Excellent animation.
I first heard about Sonic X when I was visiting a furry site made by my friend Alasanso Sansi (Tyro Racoon). I saw pictures and character bios for a cartoon series concept that was unveiled at some sort of World's Fair in Tokyo.
Later on the series debuted in japan and some viewers over there were nice enough to record some episodes into AVI, then the nice folks at Team Artail decided to make fansubs for all us english speaking fans.
I think they only managed to sub eps 1 and 2. But what I saw, I totally fell in love with.
Sorry if I offend anyone here, but THIS is soooooo much better than the saturday morning Sonic show that ABC had (yes, I'm reffering to SatAm) The animation is almost near that of the promotional artwork from the games. The concept is much like that of any fan-fiction you'll find among the Sonic fandom websites.
Sonic and his pals end up in our world by accident. Sonic befriends a human boy. How cool is that eh? And Tails is drawn suberbly! And not also is he drawn extremely well, he actually gets to be a functional part of this show!
I'm waiting for this show to hit America, (Its slated to hit FoxBox in September) anyone who's had a Dreamcast or played any of the games will LOVE this show. am going to love this show. My only gripe is that its probably going to butchered in the process of being translated and americanized.
-BlazeFoxKitsuné =^.^=
Dominion (1988)
Makes you miss Sci-Fi's Saturday Anime.
I first caught this movie when I would watch (HEAVILY) Sci-Fi Channel's Saturday Anime block. Without that lineup of quality japanese animation every saturday I would've never known about anime at all.
I got to see all sorts of awesome stuff like the megaman-esque "Cashaun: Robot Hunter," "8-Man After," "Project A-Ko," "AKIRA," and of course, the classic "Dominion Tank Police" This wasn't Bugs Bunny, Chip N Dale, or Care Bears, or any of the soft american animation I was used to. This was something totally new to me. It was rough, dark, and agressive. But with enough humor thrown in that I could chuckle at it. This was intelligent animated entertainment.
The technology they use, the furutistic concrete jungle they live in. The concepts and ideas. Incredibly interesting. And they actually cursed! I had never heard anyone cuss in cartoons except for Beavis and Butthead. (not top notch on intelligence but its funny)
Everything about this movie is just awesome. Okay well maybe not all of it, their noses look pretty wierd and sometimes its hard to understand but hey, its anime and not everyone in anima draws in the same style. The humor and the things discussed in this movie aren't for your kids to watch (unless they are mature enough to understand it) there's a part in the movie where Anna and Una Puma start tossing out all these plastic sheets that turn into giant multicolored phalluses (think about it for a while.) Plus there's alotta destruction and gunfire. Still awesome. Oh and anime cat chicks rock! (even though I'm gay hehehe ^.^)
Rent this movie. Or do something even better and complain to Sci-Fi till they bring back Saturday Anime.
The California Raisin Show (1989)
What the heck were they??
This was a semi-cute, creative cartoon spinoff using the Bill Vinton claymation characters from the shorts that were supposed to boost the sales of the little red boxes of raisins that we all ate as a kid in some point of our lives.
Basically the whole show was about a fabricated singing sensation called "The California Raisins." They sorta seemed like one of those Mo-Town groups in the 60's and 70's. They were dark, purple looking and had "soulful" voices, so I assume they were African American raisins?
I would've been less suprised if someone had attempted to make a cartoon that was aimed at boosting sales of milk. I mean milk was pretty big. But also milk pretty much sold itself, especially if you have babies. Not a whole lotta people bought raisins.
The shorts and the show somehow made a miniscule thing such as dried out grapes into a "trendy" treat.
Sidenote: Bill Vinton also created the Domino's Pizza stealing super-villain, "The Noid" who also got his own game for MSDOS computers entitled "Avoid the Noid" where you play a brave pizza man trying to avoid the red rabbit-esque fiend and a Nintendo game called "Yo Noid" in which the Noid is the hero bouncing on pogo sticks and riding on skateboards.
Imagine the royalty checks for this guy..
-BlazeFoxKitsune'
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Beginning (2002)
Its missing something. Where's the talking tiger? BattleCat!
Yeah yeah, another "new" show for Cartoon Network to flaunt, just like Transformers Armada, both are updates of classic 80's shows which are just now becoming popular again because of the trendy retro movement (just like the 70's flashback in the 90's, and the 50's comeback in the 70's, see a pattern yet? I can only imagine what ungodly horrors they'll bring back for 2010 when the 90's become retro trendy. Yeesh! Perhaps MTV's "Real World: the animated series" will hit Cartoon Network eh?)
Well anyways back on topic. The animation is new and crisp with some noticible hints of CGI. I like shows that mix CGI and cell animation. Sonic X, Ghost In The Shell:SAC, and Zoids do this and it looks cool. So this is an okay show. If you're 12 years old and don't know that a similar show existed in the 80's.
My big problem with the show.. Battle Cat. Why is he so silent? Oh! Thats write, the writers for the "new" show were aiming for a more adolescent audience and they figured that a talking tiger was just to childish and mythical for a cartoon show! And magic,telepathy, transformations,talking bees,birdmen and all those other things aren't? STUPID WRITERS!! *SMAAAACK!*
But of course you have to expect atleast one or two screw ups from a re-make. Lets just hope the folks making the new Knight Rider movie don't decide that a talking Trans Am is too childish for an audience.
Or else I, and a million other KR fans will be upset.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002)
Nice, but not as good as the 80's version.
Yeah yeah, another "new" show for Cartoon Network to flaunt, just like Transformers Armada, both are updates of classic 80's shows which are just now becoming popular again because of the trendy retro movement (just like the 70's flashback in the 90's, and the 50's comeback in the 70's, see a pattern yet? I can only imagine what ungodly horrors they'll bring back for 2010 when the 90's become retro trendy. Yeesh! Perhaps MTV's "Real World: the animated series" will hit Cartoon Network eh?)
Well anyways back on topic. The animation is new and crisp with some noticible hints of CGI. I like shows that mix CGI and cell animation. Sonic X, Ghost In The Shell:SAC, and Zoids do this and it looks cool. So this is an okay show. If you're 12 years old and don't know that a similar show existed in the 80's.
My big problem with the show.. Battle Cat. Why is he so silent? Oh! Thats write, the writers for the "new" show were aiming for a more adolescent audience and they figured that a talking tiger was just to childish and mythical for a cartoon show! And magic,telepathy, transformations,talking bees,birdmen and all those other things aren't? STUPID WRITERS!! *SMAAAACK!*
But of course you have to expect atleast one or two screw ups from a re-make. Lets just hope the folks making the new Knight Rider movie don't decide that a talking Trans Am is too childish for an audience.
Or else I, and a million other KR fans will be upset.
World Traveler (2001)
3 Reasons for seeing this movie.. Trent Reznor, Trent Reznor, oh and did I mention..
Trent did the piano stuff for this movie. So that alone is reason enough for me to like it. Trent does some wonderful piano works. And I know what you're thinking. Its another one of those damn Reznorite jerks who worship that NIN guy.. Well you're absolutely correct. The man does good musical scoring and he deserves to be acknowledged and given credit for his genius.
-BlazeFoxKitsune =^.^=