Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 6, 2009 in Star Trek
Inspired by Captain Kirk Star Trek Tiberius Cologne promises to be casual yet commanding. Now frankly I always pictured Kirk as more of an Old Spice type, although he always struck me at the type that wouldn’t go all metrosexual to attract the green skinned ladies.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 5, 2009 in Animation
Shown above is the beautiful Soviet propaganda film Mister Twister from the height of the Cold War in 1963. I really love how they’ve done so much here with such a little budget and no technology by modern standards. And of course my favorite shot is the opening scenes showing a decadent New York City which is cluttered with vintage ads. What’s also interesting to me about this cartoon is you can really see how Jim Crow really hurt the image of America abroad during that era: Read more…
On this day in 1960 the British film The Brides of Dracula made it’s American debut. The film was produced by the beloved Hammer Film Productions which did some amazing horror and science fiction work in the 50s with films like The Quatermass Xperiment and The Curse of Frankenstein. Although by 1959 they started to revert to sequels and by 1974 had produced a total of 9 Dracula flicks. Of course in this case the Dracula title is slightly dishonest as the lead vampire Baron Meinster (played by handsome David Peel) was in fact just a mere disciple of Count Dracula as seen in this trailer: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 4, 2009 in Star Trek
Shown above is a wonderful shirt clip of director Nicholas Meyer on directing the Spock death scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. Meyer points out that not being a Star Trek fan gave him the freedom to turn that film into art. I’d take a bit further than that myself: Coming to Star Trek with a fresh eye pretty much saved the franchise. And by killing Spock he bought the series back to life…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 4, 2009 in Videogames
This is the 90 second gameplay trailer for the American launch of Mini Ninjas. I’ve got to say that I love the variety of scenes shown here — it’s very inventive how they’ve got everything from bobsledding to battles with bears.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 4, 2009 in Cinema, Horror
What do you get when you mix up Dracula, a cloned version of the comedy team of Martin & Lewis and a guy in a gorilla suit? Well on this day in 1952 you got the opening of the cult classic comedy film Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. Frankly poor Bella was always an afterthought, in fact he only spends a few minutes on the screen although it’s his name that has kept the flame going for lovers of camp films all these years later. The film was made at the height of fame of the comedy act of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis — in fact the duo sued to stop the film but failed. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 3, 2009 in Animation
I loved The Royal Tenenbaums and I can see some of Wes Anderson’s touches on this film, but there’s a major problem looking at this trailer. What Anderson is great at is getting emotion out of actors on a screen, so a small nuance can communicate volumes of emotion and storytelling. But every frame of an animated film demands painful planning to achieve that spontaneous feeling. And what I’m seeing in the trailer above is a very stiff looking film which is bad news for an animated film. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 3, 2009 in Comic Books
Born on this day in 1923 Mort Walker was a fanboy of comics in the truest sense; by the ripe old age of 12 years old in 1935 he sold his first cartoon. By 1943 he was drafted into the army for World War II after which he pursued a career in cartooning in New York City. After his first 200 or so cartoons were rejected he found success with Beetle Bailey. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 2, 2009 in Fandom, Tech
If you live in my neck of the woods you may want to think about attending the Vintage Computer Festival East this year: It’s running from September 12th until 13th at the InfoAge Science Center in Wall, New Jersey. Shown above is an amazing video from last year which shows an ancient PDP 8 computer running Space War. This year the fest will feature an 8-bit music concert, a by-the-pound book sale, a build-your-own PockeTerm workshop, and the BASIC Programming Challenge. The keynote speaker is Ted Hurewitz who worked on RCA computers in the 1950s. A single day is $10 and a weekend pass will cost you $15 (hell that’s coat check tip at one of those fancy web 3.0 conferences).
The purist in me hates the ideas of giant frogs wandering around the planet Dagobah distracting poor Luke Skywalker as he tries to learn the ways of the Jedi from master Yoda. Yet the fact that I can imagine this silly scenario means the fanboy in me loves this! If I had this in my childhood this would be a great set for an epic Super 8mm film project where Jedi knights do battle with giant bullfrogs. If you wish to live out this cinematic fantasy yourself the Dagobah Frog Habitat is available via ThinkGeek.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 1, 2009 in Animation
The latest Space Cruiser yamato film is set to come out on December 12th this year and a new trailer has been posted to the official website yamato2009.jp. Looking at the trailer above I’m happy to see less of an obvious computer graphics look to the film, but on the other hand the plot looks exactly like something that we’ve seen before. And that’s an amazingly sad statement for me to make given that I can’t even speak a word of Japanese! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 1, 2009 in Videogames
I’m blown away by the fact that Sega is making a Napoleon videogame: Because you’d have to be a Napoleon in your medium to take on the subject of Napoleon as an entertainment project! Firstly the man is larger than life, and his story is a canvas that stretches across all of Europe (and other places like Egypt). In fact silent film makers didn’t even touch this story until 1927: Directed by Abel Gance the result was one of the best known films of the 20th Century. Read more…
Despite having no mouth Hello Kitty has taken a huge bite out of America, yet most mundanes have no clue who Doraemon is! Example: When I came across this cute Doraemon flash light it was sadly listed as a “Space Kitty Rechargeable Flash Light”. Now looking at this site it’s clear to me that I’ve committed the crime of just shining the light on all things Sanrio — so here’s a quick intro to Doraemon, the other Japanese kitty you should know:Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 31, 2009 in Science
No where in the mainstream media did I see any coverage that there was a space shuttle launch on Friday. This is sad to me because each launch of the shuttle is a news event to this humble NASA fanboy; for what you are seeing is takes a ton of work where the crew is putting their life at risk. Under no circumstance should we fall into the apathetic notion that this is in the same class as an airplane taking off even if NASA makes it look that easy. And here’s some footage of the shuttle docking to International Space Station: Read more…
Shown above is the GeGe no Kitaro Original Version posable figure which goes on sale in October. It’s amazing for me to think that the character of GeGeGe no Kitaro has been around since 1959 yet he’s never become well known in the United States. Kitaro is a demon spirit who was born in a cemetery; his trademark look is that he’s missing one eye which he cover up with his hair. Since his manga introduction he’s gone on to star in about six anime series, a PlayStation game and two live action films. Here are the opening titles from his 1968 anime series which hold up rather well: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 30, 2009 in Television
You can tell that this 1988 promotional spot for Florida TV station WBFS was done on a low budget, but it’s impressive that it features the voice of Pee-wee Herman who had defiantly gone big time at that point. I also love the added touches of the MTV graphics and the matching Madonna soundtrack. It’s funny to think back to a previous era when you’d enter a contest by sending an old school analog letter instead of an email or tweet…
The Terminator Salvation Real Arm Figure can also double as a very impressive back scratcher in addition to serving as a fine conversation piece that can be placed strategically on your coffee table to baffle mundane house guests! This nifty goodie is being manufactured in Japan, but it won’t shop until December — however pre-orders are currently being accepted.
This is a promotional video for the anime themed Nintendo DS game Spice and Wolf: The Wind that Spans the Sea which comes out on September 17th. This is the second title in the series, Spice and Wolf: Holo’s and My One Year came out earlier this summer. Here are some screen shots from the up and coming title: Read more…
Is it me or do you get the feeling that the team that designed the RIBA Robotic Assistance Bear had the entire robot designed — but then only after the fact slapped a moe looking bear head on the poor creature just to get some press? And as much as I love bears from a marketing point of view I just don’t think of them as a nurses best friend! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 29, 2009 in Videogames
Looking at this clip of Guitar Hero 5 on the surface it feels so wrong: Nirvana was really about punk at heart — a do-it-yourself ethos that rejected commercialism. But sadly I know that’s a lie because the genius of Kurt Cobain was mixing punk with pop music. And that ability to bring the Sex Pistols into the shopping malls of America in the 90s was a sort of wonderful magic moment which for a few minutes made mainstream entertainment a little bit more entertaining. Read more…
Even though she doesn’t have a mouth Hello Kitty can serve you well when making meals: This Hello Kitty kitchen timer can not only time mark the start and stop points of your gourmet galavanting — but kitty also doubles as a USM memory stick! So she can hold up to 2 gigs of your recipes while helping you cook up a storm — hard to top that, no? Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 28, 2009 in Videogames
For your entertainment I’ve stitched together three commercials from the early 80s for Intellivision Major League Baseball. The first spot features none other than sports writer George Plimpton giving a comparison between Intellivision and Atari. What then follows is a spot which show rabid fans in the bleachers who feel the same way, and that’s followed by a French translation! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 27, 2009 in Animation
This is the third trailer for AstroBoy, yeah there’s a quick shot of Tezuka (at the 1:18 mark) if you don’t blink or get distracted by the bad voice acting. But what pains me is the poor animation I’m seeing here. The danger of doing 3D animation is that you put yourself up against Pixar unless you are doing something very different, and for something that’s very different (it is suppose to anime, no?) this looks like a 2nd rate Ice Age straight-to-video project. Of course the real problem from what little I’m seeing here looks like the script, if you can’t get that all the money you throw at the screen won’t improve anything. Read more…
Looking at this clip of Guitar Hero 5 on the surface it feels so wrong: Nirvana was really about punk at heart — a do-it-yourself ethos that rejected commercialism. But sadly I know that’s a lie because the genius of Kurt Cobain was mixing punk with pop music. And that ability to bring the Sex Pistols into the shopping malls of America in the 90s was a sort of wonderful magic moment which for a few minutes made mainstream entertainment a little bit more entertaining. 