I realize that comic strips can play around with the rules of their chosen genre, but come on: If you’re going to set a comic strip in medieval times, you don’t go giving your characters a refrigerator:
And evidently the wizard now lives in the same house as Blondie and Dagwood. Look at the damned furniture. And they have lamps?
At my house lately, it’s all about “The Beatles: Rock Band.” This game is so well done, so affectionate to the source material, and so durned enjoyable. This is a game that my wife – who previously had never once turned on the Xbox – seeks out and plays when she has a moment to herself. That’s some sort of litmus test right there.
I’ll confess to getting a little bit misty the first time I saw the animated introduction to the game, which is seen here:
Seriously, though. What the hell is that thing?
And then look at the dad. What’s sticking out from under the hat – is that his chin? or his nose? Jeez, either way it’s horrific.
And look at dad in this one. His chin is about to detach from his face entirely.
You know me, I can’t start my day without reading my stories. Before I can properly function in civilized society, I need to know how that new nurse is faring at the nursing home in “Rex Morgan M.D.” I need to see what the Tenzin has to say in “Apartment 3-G.” Yes! It’s important! I read them all, religiously, every day, except for “Cathy” which I skip religiously.
So here’s the question: Why the recent color-palette emphasis on black lately in the usually sunny “Hi and Lois”? Just look at these two panels:
Black swimming pool water? What the hell, Hi? I know times are tough, but if you can’t afford the chemicals needed to keep your pool clean, you need to be a good neighbor and shut that sucker down for the season. That’s just nasty.
But it’s not just the pool … even the greenery is less green than usual:
Black shrubbery! Lois must have made some kind of arcane pact with Cthulthu, and the darkness is starting to spread into the physical realm. Or is this subtle social commentary? I dunno. But the pool still squicks me out.
About 10-15 years ago, there was what felt like a new golden age of television animation, most of it taking place on the Cartoon Network. Dexter’s Laboratory … Samurai Jack … the Powerpuff Girls … so much awesome stuff, so funny and intelligent and high-class!
That gave way to an endless parade of Spongebob knockoffs, each trying to out-squick the others. So very not gooder than hell.
There is a new show that has much of the feel of the aforementioned gems, with a wit and sparkle of its own: Disney Channel’s awesome “Phineas and Ferb.” Read the rest of this entry »
There was some brouhaha (a great word) that coincided with the premier of the latest Pixar film “Up,” about the fact that Pixar has made ten awesome films but none of them have had a main character that is a female.
Let me put this to you, Linda Holmes and all the other presumptive bloggers that picked up on this: How do you know WALL-E is not a female?
I re-watched the film recently, and unless I am missing something, there is nothing in the film that explicitly details that WALL-E is a male robot. Eve is quite clearly female, yes, but WALL-E could easily be a girl.
So, if I am right about this, then Pixar has not only flipped the whole debate on its ear – since the people making the complaint are the ones who assumed him to be male, because what else could he be? – but they have introduced the first same-sex relationship in a Disney film.
No, I’m not talking about the DJ or producer or whatever he is, I’m talking about the world’s greatest – and shortest – secret agent!
With his trusty hamster sidekick Penfold, Dangermouse kept children of the 80s and 90s delighted with 10 seasons of that wonderfully British mix of silly and smart. Think James Bond plus Maxwell Smart plus Bugs Bunny. What could be better?
Thankfully, the whole series is now available on DVD, and it’s a joy. My kids (2 and 5) are spellbound by it; it has the added benefit of spellbinding me, too, on a different level. Pure fun!
Check out this full episode of “Close Encounters of the Absurd Kind”:
Boy, what a treasure this is. In the early 1970s, the staff of Mad magazine was commissioned to do a pilot for an animated TV series. Evidently, the person doing the commissioning didn’t really read Mad, and was shocked by the irreverent and “offensive” tone. So the 22-minute special was pulled, and is the stuff of comedy/animation legend.
Bootleg copies exist out there, of course, but we were lucky enough to find the opening credit sequence and the first five minutes on YouTube. Here’s a bunch more background information on the special.
What’s your hurry? Ya’ll care to prac-tize with me for the square dancin’ tomorrow? One of the funniest films in the Bugs Bunny canon, and that’s saying something!
This is a 1950 gem that you may not have seen on Saturday morning television, depending on your age – it was heavily censored in the 1980s, banned outright by some stations in the 1990s, only to see the light of day again on the DVD edition, complete with a rather condescending warning on the box that this is “intended for the Adult Collector and May Not Be Suitable For Children.” Oh, and you have to sit through a warning message from Whoopi Goldberg, reminding you that times have changed. Seriously.
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