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Branson Reese, the creator of Swan Boy, has a bunch of funny reviews of old theatrical cartoons. 
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Aug 28, 2023 15:21
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 18:02 |
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Larryb posted:Meanwhile in Marvel land: Hmm, weird choice. Its possible they're getting Polygon Pictures to animate it, since they're also animating the new Spiderman cartoon.
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Sep 4, 2023 02:39
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Adventure Time sure aged well. I went back and watched most of season 10 and the ending is great. The Distant Lands stuff that comes after is also great! Its such an expansive world to the extent I don't think I've ever seen before in any medium. They could just keep telling stories in Oooo forever.
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Sep 10, 2023 23:25
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Its too bad Pokemon never produced anything for fans who aged up with the series. I've been watching Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake and its incredible how they can tell more mature stories in the same setting as the previous all ages show. Maybe the Pokemon world can't live up to that kind of scrutiny, but the type of pokemon world from the Electric Tale of Pikachu manga I remember reading as a kid kind of felt like that, a bit of darker tinge to the atmosphere and a clear distinction that the tournaments Ash was competing in as a 10 year old were for novices, and it wasn't actually feasible for a kid to become champion. Digimon is another series that tried to age up with its audience but kind of fumbled, producing a divisive sequel series I couldn't bother finishing and movie I feel conflicted about.
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Sep 26, 2023 02:47
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SlothfulCobra posted:I think Japan doesn't really age-segregate its media as much as the US does, it doesn't generally seem to feel the need to do "mature" editions of longrunning franchises. That being said, there was a thing for Medabots, which I sure liked as a kid when the show was brought over. Only one of the mainline Medabots games ever made it over here because translating RPGs is a pain and modern TV channels are garbage at co-marketing. Anyways, one of the more recent Medabots games had a lot of softcore, and that sure sounded weird. https://hardcoregamer.com/news/medabots-girls-mission-is-far-more-perverted-than-expected/190446/ Medabots was good. And especially weird for them to try to get sexual with it because the show's character designs are like potato people. I remember that show mostly just for how iconic certain english voice acting was. And later learned a lot of heavieight animators worked on it. It wonder if it was a nice break for them because of how simple all the designs are.
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Sep 27, 2023 00:06
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After rewatching all of Adventure Time I'm now trying to fill the hole with Steven Universe. There's some stuff about this show I like, but overall I'm having to keep to the episodes considered part of the main plot because the one off random adventures don't really interest me in the same way that random adventures in Adventure Time could. They just feel a bit aimless. The ones that are leading to something and revealing a bit of the mystery and suggesting longer continuity and simmering conflicts are interesting though, and the fact that its a long series with a lot of time to grow is promising. It's not very funny though. I think Rebecca Sugar was a crucial part of injecting emotion into Adventure Time but in her own show its so much about the emotions and hardly any laffs.
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Sep 27, 2023 03:01
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I'm through Season 3 of Steven Universe now, partway into season 4. Some nice plot progression, although my favorite episodes aren't necessarily part of the main plot but moments where there's heavy character development for Steven, Connie, or Pearl. That means high points so far have been Sworn to the Sword in season 2, and Mindful Education and Last One Out of Beach City in season 4. I also enjoyed the season 1 finale with Garnet's song. Amethyst.... I get she has her own problems but the cartoony voice makes it hard to take her seriously. Same with Peridot, although I get the sense the creators are trying to depict some kind of neurodivergence with her. Its an interesting experience watching this show because at times it feels like anime what with its Gurren Lagaan and Sailor Moon influences, but I don't think most anime approaches growing emotional intelligence or character growth in general like this. Mostly anime seems to be a process of characters learning to step up, stop crying, and be determined. And then using that determination to punch harder. In fact the only series I've seen that had characters attack their trauma as directly as in Steven Universe was a latter arc of Berserk shortly before the author died. Edit: Wait no, Wonder Egg Priotiy also had some of that good attack trauma (literally lol) before it slipped and fell over itself from production problems. Ccs fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Oct 2, 2023 |
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Oct 2, 2023 21:10
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I finished Steven Universe's original series and the movie. Inspired choice to make the movie's villain such a riff on Disney and rubber hose American animation, after the tv series was mostly anime inspired. It also moves really well. I'm a bit conflicted about how they take down White Diamond in "Change Your Mind". Thematically it works, it's just so abrupt. Like Steven delivers a zinger and suddenly she's shamed into an epiphany. I'm not sure how they could have done it differently, though more time might have helped. Or making it more obvious that doubt was starting to grow in her mind when Steven's removed gem didn't come back as Pink Diamond, making the zinger more obvious as a final blow that was coming on top of a lot of other uncertainties. We don't get a lot of verbal sparring in cartoons, so I felt they needed a bit more time in storyboards to figure out how each bit of the talk is putting a dent in White's certainty the way that a fight choreographer would carefully figure out how to show why a certain punch finished a fight. Other than that I really enjoyed the series. Now I have two gem shows I really enjoy, SU and Houseki no Kuni.
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Oct 5, 2023 02:14
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After finishing Steven Universe, I rewatched Over the Garden Wall, which is still great and fitting for this time of year. There are youtube videos that go into all the references and media they pulled from to inspire the series, but it's delivered by presenters who sound like they're making a checklist instead of appreciating what it is about those references that give the show its unique tone. I need some old art history professor to do a lecture on that show with real appreciation. I'm now trying out Owl House, Gravity Falls, and Amphibia as they were all recommended. I've watched 2 episodes of Owl House and I think I'll definitely continue. I wish the style was a bit more anime because it would fit the tone and make the action pop a bit (the crew can move the characters well, but if they were a bit more realistically designed it would look cooler.) I've gone through 3 eps of Gravity Falls and while i think it will continue to place wacky hijinks, humor, and mystery over any sort of larger emotional payoff, it's good fun. I've only seen 1 episode of Amphibia and I'm not sure I want to watch an entire show about slimy frog creatures. They're a bit gross. Maybe if they were wearing fun outfits like the frogs in Over the Garden Wall. Oh I also watched all of Bee and Puppycat on Netflix. What a strange gem of a show. Bizarre final episode. Not sure it sat right with me, but it was interesting to watch something that felt like a cartoon network show one moment and Ranma or a Masaaki Yuasa movie the next.
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Oct 19, 2023 03:12
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Growing up I think I enjoyed Superman TAS more than Batman, but only because there's a lot of not so stellar episodes of BTAS. Like the whole thing is on Netflix now and I tried to think of what episodes I'd want to rewatch and couldn't come up with many (The first few clayface and two face episodes, Mr Freeze's first episode, and maybe the one which reveals Robin's origins.) Superman meanwhile has a ton of episodes I'd be happy to rewatch. When they rebooted Batman to stand alongside Superman I think it produced some of its best episodes, despite taking a bit hit in the lamer designs of Joker and Riddler. But episodes like Over the Edge, Mean Seasons, Mad Love, Growing Pains, all great episodes. The epitome of both those series is the Worlds Finest crossover though. Absolutely great stuff with fantastic animation from Telecom, who was working with some of Ghibli's best animators since they owed Telecom a favor. I've been watching Gravity Falls recently, finished season 1. Good show. It's comedy over character growth which makes me miss Adventure Time and Steven Universe, but at least the story does have an overarching plot and character relationships do develop a bit. And the comedy does deliver. I can see why it was so appealing, though it ending after 2 seasons seems like a real shame, such a flash in the pan. I don't know if Alex Hirsh will get the opportunity to do something else at that scale since his deal with Netflix seems to be dragging on with few results.
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Oct 24, 2023 03:45
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Yeah the story behind the making of Avatar is pretty incredible. The creators are anime fans but never had the chance to practice that style in production on King of the Hill, so in addition to pitching something way outside of their drawing comfort zone they also talked too long, just loading the development executive down with all their cool ideas. Thankfully they were talking to the right executive, and he was won over by their enthusiasm and let them produce a pilot. Then you had all these americans come in for the show who had to suddenly draw storyboards that were cinematic and considered things like focal length, which most cartoons never do. Joaquim dos santos, who went on be one of the co-directors of Across The Spiderverse, said that Avatar was the first show he worked on where he actually had to think of the camera as a physical object and study a ton of live action movies to figure out how to stage the series. Which is strange because he did work on Justice League before that, but Avatar was next level in terms of how much they considered the constraints of an actual camera in staging. It also sounds like the co-production with Korea was the most inpur an outsource studio has had on an American production since Bruce Timm let episodes of Batman and Superman be directed by people at TMS/Telecom. Surprisingly though the studio "Avatar Studios" is working with to produce the new animated stuff is in Australia, a place called Flying Bark. I thought that they'd be using Studio Mir in Korea since its track record on Korra, but I suppose it is easier to work more directly with a crew when you all speak the same language. I know some people at Flying Bark and its a cool studio doing some very high quality work, but its sort of mysterious how a studio that used to only do kids shows can suddenly pull off anime style work. I worked at a Canadian studio that tried that and it crashed and burned. Ccs fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Oct 25, 2023 |
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Oct 25, 2023 02:31
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Yeah, Flying Bark is a pretty versatile studio, they did the recent Ninja Turtles tv series which was 2d, but also the best looking episode of What If, the 3d marvel show (with toon shading.) So i'm expecting a lot of 2d/3d integration. I hope the characters themselves are still traditionally animated though (i mean it doesn't have to be paper on light tables, but on 2s drawn on Cintiqs instead of 3d models or rigged puppet anim.)
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Oct 25, 2023 03:45
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I finished Gravity Falls. Fun show. I wasn't emotional at the end though which either meant they didn't have enough time to make me really connect with these characters the way Adventure Time/Steven Universe did, or they didn't flesh out the characters enough, or a combo of both. Still I look forward to seeing whatever Alex Hirsch does next. I guess I'll move on to Owl House now.
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Oct 29, 2023 01:45
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Like hearing the creator is specifically an Indian pickme chud Wait what does this mean SlothfulCobra posted:I'm always into Youtubers making very in-depth takes on Scooby Doo. Here's another Billiam. Drew Goodin has a really funny Scooby Doo video too. Did somebody already post it? Anyway here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU-7kn8EXWA
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Nov 2, 2023 00:13
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I'll be interested in how "adult" they make season 1 compared to the cartoon season 1. I always think of season one being the most most childish of the original series but there were a lot of episodes that are pretty dark, starting with The Southern Air Temple and continuing with The Storm, The Blue Spirit, the Solstice episodes, The Deserter, and the finale. It just spaces out its sillier episodes throughout instead of doing them all early like season 2. So if they excise the silly stuff and just keep the content from those darker episodes the whole show will automatically feel a lot more serious. Plus they can't do any wacky cartoon faces or visual gags to take the edge off. The levity will mostly all rest on the occasional jokes. Anyway, talking about a series that will never be adapted to live action, I can't stop rewatching Adventure Time. Its such a comfortable show. Though seasons 1 and 2 feel like almost a different show before it finds its groove in season 3.
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Jan 29, 2024 19:21
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Nice artwork, somewhere between disney channel and cartoon saloon.
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Jan 29, 2024 23:42
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Has anyone watched Summer Camp Island? I am tempted because it started up production around when Adventure Time ended, and so it took a lot of the same crew. Art director Sandra Lee, writers Kent Osborne and Jack Pendarvis, storyboard artist and songwriter Seo Kim, etc. And the design is very charming. But the first episode feels like its targeting a much younger demographic. Then again, Adventure Time's first 2 seasons also skew a lot younger than what it became as it developed, so I'm wondering if the same happens with this show or if it always remains a charming show but one that doesn't have broad appeal to older viewers.
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Jan 31, 2024 05:39
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Larryb posted:We’ve got our first trailer for the new TMNT show: Huh. If they're using any toon boom/puppet animation on this they hide it pretty well, trading in smoothness to prioritize impact.
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Feb 8, 2024 18:46
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That's the second afro-futurist series Disney has put out. This came out a little while ago: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14866860/ I assume these were all greenlit following the success of Black Panther but it's cool it allows for a different look in animation. Although Iwaju looks closer to typical disney feature rendering than I would have liked, was hoping for more stylized stuff.
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Feb 14, 2024 00:26
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Larryb posted:X-Men ‘97 drops March 20th I like how this looks. A bit more appealing from a movement and color perspective than the original, but not a lot more appealing. The intentionally stilted animation and somewhat muddy colors.
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Feb 18, 2024 00:57
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I watched the first episode of ATLA live action and thought it was half decent, and apparently its the worst of the bunch. Granted I had low expectations but I was curious about it. I sort of hope that despite some very lukewarm reviews that it hits the viewing targets Netflix cares about to actually renews shows.
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Feb 23, 2024 02:44
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There’s two other fantasy series with magic that have done the “transitioning into the Industrial Revolution and beyond” storyline, The First Law and Mistborn. In The First Law magic gets more and more useless as a force to shape the world and is gradually replaced with economic and technological power. I haven’t read past the first trilogy of Mistborn so I’m not sure what happens in that scenario. I’d like more Avatar I guess but I’m not sure what era of story I’d want told. Katara is a real wet blanket so far in this live action adaption.
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Feb 24, 2024 21:09
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Mr Interweb posted:i'm at ep 3 but the remake has some of the worst exposition i've ever seen lmao Yeah it has some of the most awkward line readings I’ve ever heard. I’m still probably gonna finish it but my initial shock that episode 1 wasn’t complete garbage has been replaced by a sense of “oh it’s interesting how they’re moving some things around but overall why don’t I just rewatch the original?”
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Feb 25, 2024 04:26
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Overanalyzing Avatar on youtube had a really good take on the live action series. He also goes through the comics and Korra, which made me realize weaknesses in Korra's first season which I didn't really pay much attention to because overall it was really cool to me. But specifically how certain moments dont make thematic sense, or how the series squanders the emotions of its characters to make some cheap jokes where the original ATLA would probably have treated them with more sincerity is interesting, and shows how the first season's "maturity" is sort of a gloss on top of more careless writing. I guess I also give Korra a pass because coming off of Avatar season 3, the crew was so honed so production values were so high (and I think Studio Mir was using the show to really prove themselves). Everything in Korra looked so good, even the music seemed like a slight step up. It helped hide some story mistakes.
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Mar 8, 2024 15:34
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When I rewatched Korra a couple years ago, book 2 wasn't as bad as I remembered. It was still a big misstep and I'm glad season 3 basically redeemed the whole show. But it wasn't as much of a chore as it felt when I watched it as it first aired. I caught up on a bunch of the Avatar comics and its weird, the first 5 graphic novels all look a lot like the show with art by Giruhiru, but the writing feels like a big step down. It reminded me of Korra season 2 where the villains aren't very good, it uses the spirit world in weird ways, plus it has barely any of the comedy from the show. Then there's a new writer and artist team for the 6th one and suddenly it feels a lot more like a natural continuation of the show, although the art feels a fair bit different. Not bad, and the characters look a bit suitably older, but the colors in general dont capture the feel of the cartoon that much. But its a much more effective book. Guess Faith Erin Hicks really understands how to write Avatar material. They should hire her the upcoming animated projects. There's also a very good fan comic about Zhao that is unfortunately on deviantArt which is not a good platform for reading comics on... https://www.deviantart.com/noselfcontrol/art/Water-Tribe-001-69837313 Acebuckeye13 posted:I've seen this suggestion before, but given the tech levels that already exist in Korra, skipping ahead that far would put the series pretty solidly into outright sci-fi or post apocalypse territory. Which could be cool and have a lot of potential, but it would be pretty far departure for the series. Haha now I'm imagining a post apocalyptic Avatar where the traditional elements have been replaced with Fire, Ice, Slime, and Candy. And there's a boy and his dog... Ccs fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Mar 10, 2024 |
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Mar 10, 2024 02:11
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Acebuckeye13 posted:Overanalyzing Avatar guy (who imo generally has good takes) released his overview of the first episode of the live action series. Yeah I really like this guy's videos. I never would have seen what was going on with the comics without them. Although I'm kinda bummed he stopped doing the Korra review videos to focus on the live action Avatar reviews for a while cause I already know what I think of live action Avatar and want to hear his takes on Korra.
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Mar 11, 2024 04:49
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I'm rewatching Legend of Korra again, from best to worst season (3,4,1,2). In season 2 again, and the episodes I previously didn't like are more acceptable than I remember, while the episodes I liked (Beginnings parts 1 and 2) are worse. Visually they might be the strongest of the bunch but their effect on the "lore" of the show is so outsized and spoils a lot of the spiritual ambiguity that I think allows Avatar to hold together as a narrative. The only other thing I noticed in my rewatch that irked me is acupuncture in season 3 functioning as magical therapy. There's just something weird to me about a pseudoscience being depicted as so incredibly effective. Because in the fantasy world where the rules about how humans work is different, it actually can be! But I felt it was playing into some odd ideas the creators might actually have. I dunno, I had the same reaction to Frozen 2 when it used that concept of 'water having a memory' in its plot. An easy way to get viewers to buy into a story point because that fictional idea is already floating around and promoted by grifters.
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Apr 3, 2024 03:51
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For sure, but chi functions as just a sort of a convenient power level meter. Whereas people spend hundreds of dollars a month for ?? benefits from acupuncture, and physical therapists even get in on the game with dry needling, another bunk treatment. Anyway, it's not a big deal, it works in the context of the story, but it was a bit like seeing homeopathy suddenly pop up in my favorite show.
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Apr 3, 2024 04:07
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Ghost Leviathan posted:
Oh yeah, that's an all timer episode. Guh, why can't Korra season 2 be better. It's so almost great. Love Varrick, love the look of the Wan episodes, the bits that seem so Spirited Away, some funny stuff with the propaganda films, Unalaq's design is cool, Jinorra's growing importance in the plot and her spiritual side. So many good elements, why doesn't it hold together....
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Apr 4, 2024 01:25
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