The Jedimobile

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Check out this amazing Jedi themed Star Wars Car.

Will the Muppets finally return to primetime?

A brand new pilot for a Muppet mini-series is being passed around Disney, a spoof on mockumentary series like ‘The Office’ that has the Muppet gang getting back together to put on a new show after venturing off on their own to find new jobs:

Will the Muppets finally return to primetime?

The CBS 1965 Saturday Morning Lineup

A short promo for the 1965 Saturday morning cartoon lineup on CBS:

Exploding Robots Hunt Killer Asteroids

This is a great idea, but it would be even cooler to have a backup fleet of atomic armed robots that could finish off trouble-making asteroids:

Exploding robots may scout hazardous asteroids

“A fleet of exploding probes could prepare the way for warding off hazardous asteroids. Several of the small spherical robots would land on a single asteroid, some exploding while others listen for vibrations that could reveal the object’s inner structure.

NASA has a list of more than 800 asteroids considered to be potentially hazardous because their orbits carry them close to Earth’s. If one of them is found to be on a collision course, knowing its physical properties will be crucial in devising a mission to divert it.”

Spiderman Three: Website Live

The new Spiderman movie website is up and running and loaded with tons of goodies (like Spidy wallpaper):

Spiderman3.sonypictures.com

ClikClak

This is a nicely designed 3D animated short from France, I like the character design of the robots and the use of typography in the animation. There’s also a nice Rube Goldberg theme going on:

The official website for the film is clik.clak.free.fr.

The Great Gourmet Cooking Show

The Great Gourmet Cooking Show is a humourous 3D animation from France which is set in in a 70’s cooking show. You can tell they did a great job with the voice acting even if you don’t speak French:

Here’s the website for the film (in French of course!).

Spirk Suggests: The Hitcher

From Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes studios (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror) comes the next horror genre remake in The Hitcher. Based on the 1986 movie of the same name from a script by Eric Red the Hitcher hits on all cylinders for action suspense and downright creepiness factor.

Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings, National Treasure) is the mysterious hitcher John Ryder in a role previously played by Rutger Hauer. On a dark rainy night a young couple almost runs over a hitchhiker and then leaves him at the side of the road. As the camera closes in on the face of the hitcher it is at that point that you can tell their fate is sealed.

Read more…

The Aliens Need More Time…

An old argument against aliens is that if the galaxy is filled with advanced civilizations they would have already found us. This theiry was first put out by Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi, and is known as Fermi’s paradox. Well now it looks like someone may have an answer to Fermi’s paradox:

Aliens need a lot more time to find us

“Rasmus Bjork of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, has calculated that eight probes – travelling at a tenth of the speed of light and each capable of launching up to eight sub-probes – would take about 100,000 years to explore a region of space containing 40,000 stars. When Bjork scaled up the search to include 260,000 such systems in our galaxy’s habitable zone, the probes took almost 10 billion years – three-quarters the age of the universe – to explore just 0.4 per cent of the stars.

So, Bjork’s answer to the Fermi paradox: aliens haven’t contacted us because they haven’t had the time to find us yet. He adds that the search could be optimised by visiting only those stars that harbour habitable planets, which could be identified by planet-finding missions such as NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder. Bjork is also “cautiously optimistic” about listening out for aliens with radio telescopes.”

Crumbs Covered in the Times

There’s a great article and multimedia slideshow on cartoon couple Roberta and Aline Crumb:

Mr. and Mrs. Natural

“They moved to France 16 years ago, sickened, they said, by the infiltration of their once sleepy California town, Winters, by newcomers who bulldozed hilltops for McMansions. The Crumbs also wanted to shield their daughter, Sophie, from a growing conservative and fundamentalist Christian influence while continuing to educate her in what they consider the classics. They reared her on “Little Lulu” comics from the 1940s and ’50s and Three Stooges videos.

It was Mr. Crumb’s absorption of such popular culture that led to his signature style. He applied a lowbrow, all but forgotten crosshatched technique to a kaleidoscope of sexual fantasies, controversial racial topics and images of the hippy counterculture. In so doing, he laid the groundwork for adult-theme graphic novels, influencing everyone from Daniel Clowes, the creator of “Ghost World,” to Art Spiegelman, the author of “Maus.”

“He’s a monolithic presence, who rewrote the rules of what comics are,” Mr. Spiegelman said.”

Hanasakemee!

Hanasakemee is a popular avatar character on Yahoo! Japan created by Polygons. Here’s a well done (and very cute) animated commercial designed to introduce the Hanasakemee:

Animated Hipster Help Advert

I love the look of this animated commercial from England which is for samaritans.org:

Readymechs: Free Oragami-like Toys

Readymechs are flatpack toys for you to print and build. They are designed to fit on an 8.5″x11″ page and printed with any printer. You ’ll need double-sided tape, thick matte paper, and 10-15 minutes for build time. And they’re 100% free:

Readymech.com

Jack Kirby Interview

This is a video clip from a documentary called ‘The Masters Of Comic Book Art’. It’s introduced by Harlan Ellison. Jack Kirby is seen talking about his cosmic Marvel comics and how those led to his Fourth World books at DC. He then says a few words about the history of comics:

Read more…

The Twilight Zone Writer’s School

This is a 1965 commercial for a home study writing course pitched by none other than Rod Sterling:

I have to admit that if I could write half as well as Rod I’d take the course in a minute…

Superman and the Senator

Following his 50th town hall meeting in Massac County. U.S. Senator Obama poses in front of the Superman Statue in downtown Metropolis, IL. known as the home of the DC Comics super hero.

Animated Ringtones

In the press they’re going on and on about how cell phones in Japan are as cool as the Apple iPhone. I don’t know if that’s the case, but this DoCoMo commercial from Japan does show that the Japanese are having fun with their cell phones. The advertisement below showcases a phone (the FOMA 901i and 700i) that allows you to play animated ring tones (ChakuMotion) using Disney characters:

Gumbo: Japan’s First Free Manga Weekly

Here’s a news report from Japan on Gumbo which will be a free weekly manga publication:

Found via Japan Probe.

Disney goes to Mars?

It look’s like Disney might produce a series of films based on John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs:

Disney options ‘Mars’ series

“Disney is optioning rights to the Edgar Rice Burroughs sci-fi series “John Carter of Mars” as a potential franchise for the studio. The pic begins with a Civil War veteran whose retreat into a cave to avoid capture by Apache Indians takes an otherworldly turn as he’s transported via time portal to the planet of Barsoom and taken prisoner by 12-foot-tall green men. Burroughs wrote eleven volumes of Carter’s adventures and Disney is hoping the film will launch a franchise.”

Where No Man Has Gone Before: Remastered

Here’s a preview of the Delta Vega station from the remastered Star Trek episode ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ which airs this weekend (click on the image to see full size):

Alien vs. Predator vs. Film School

The first rule they tech you in film school about directing a horror film is ‘never show the monster on screen, it’s more scary that way’. Well here’s a sneak preview image from the upcoming ‘Alien vs. Predator 2’ flick, and yes it looks like the director skipped class:

Game Boy Advance Commercial

A very silly Nintendo commercial from Japan for the Game Boy which stars a pig on a bicycle:

DrawerGeeks!

DrawerGeeks is a website where professional artists (mostly from the comic book, animation and illustration world) draw their own version of a famous fictional character. Since 2004 the site has been a showcase for quite a few little gems representing every character from Catwoman (shown above) to King Kong.

The Kabaya ‘Jersey Cow Moist Milk Cookie’

This is a silly cow themed animated commercial from Japan for Kabaya cookies: