These two commercials for the Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek! attraction at Tokyo Disneyland are enjoyable on two levels: First it’s great to see these familiar Pixar characters speaking Japanese, it almost gives them an anime like quality. Next on the first ad above I love the intercuts of the typical Japanese family mirroring the actions of the animated characters. In fact the high quality of the Japanese voice actors almost makes me want to re-watch the film in Japanese with English subtitles just to see what they did. Read more…
Speck and Spock is a conjoined alien created by Lindsey Banker — I really love the sense of humor in her work, I’d love to see these creatures turned into puppets. Her store on Etsy is called Adopt An Alien, and each of Lindsey’s critters comes with a birth certificate: Read more…
American McGee is a legendary game designer whose now has an episode game running at GameTap called Grimm which is set in a twisted fairy tale universe. Normally I hate comic book adaptions of videogames, but what makes this book interesting is that they went the extra step and are having fun with a superheroes universe which is a clever twist. The artwork for this book is by Grant Bond and you can tell that he’s having a good time with the subject matter — this detail from the front cover is a good example: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 14, 2009 in Animation
In this ReelzChannel interview the stars of the new Dragonball film reveal that not only have they been signed up for a sequel — but that there may be two in the works! By the way I’ve never seen actors work so hard in an interview to unsell me on the film, you get the feeling right away that they put no energy into learning their kung fu moves (to be fair showing the strings doesn’t help). And no where in the interview do they even fake having seen the anime series and loving it. But you be the judge! Does this shot look like “the actress” engaging in intense combat or casual jazzercise: Read more…
These Star Wars Kokeshi dolls touched my heart as they perfectly combine the timelessness of Star Wars with the charm of Japanese craftsmanship. For those of you not in the know Kokeshi are traditional dolls from northern Japan — what makes them unique is that they’re made out of wood and always lack arms or legs, and they’re always hand painted. The artist behind these cute goodies is Muluc whose store on Etsy is called temple7e. Shown above is Princess Leia and below is Han Solo: Read more…
Found on Ebay is a delicious collection of “freaks, celebrities, conceptual art, and high concept sellers. plus stuff I was too cheap to buy!” curated by digital archivist olga-saglo. This kitsch themed virtual museum has informal focus on femme icons from the 60s and 70s and what’s interesting is that through dolls you can see how the idea of role model changed in just two decades: Read more…
I just read that Starlog magazine is ceasing print publication, and as a fanboy my heart is broken. Back in the day before the internet it was damn hard for a fanboy to find anything anywhere on science fiction films and TV shows — and riding a wave of Star Trek fandom Starlog magazine filled that gap. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 11, 2009 in Science
It’s funny I’ve been watching the space shuttle for so many years that when I see a design like this it brings me back to my early childhood of watching the Apollo projects — it’s been that long since I’ve seen a spacecraft that was designed to leave Earth’s orbit. NASA is still awaiting the hear from the Obama administration to find out who the next leader of the space program will be, so it’s questionable if Orion will become real (although the administration seems to be motivated to return to the moon thanks to China).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 10, 2009 in Star Trek
For me the original Star Trek will always be my first fanboy love — and if you feel the same way and want to show it this collection of over 20 different Star Trek Peel and Stick Wall Appliques can be a fun low budget way (only $13!) of showing your appreciation for those who went boldly where no other TV show went before. There are also two additional versions: On that features Captain Kirk and other with Mr. Spock: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 10, 2009 in Comic Books
Yes I’d love to pretend that there was an era when Emily the Strange wasn’t just about the merchandising, but that would be a lie. I first ran into Emily at Virgin Mega Store (sad to think that they’ll be gone) and her image adorned t-shirts, notebooks and other knickknacks — yet it was the sort of brand that was always slightly under the radar, which I think to me was the appeal. If you gave an Emily item as a gift she’d stand out as just a bit different in a Hallmark world. Well sadly that’s coming to an end and above is the first step where Emily goes mainstream — that sad bit of artwork above is the cover of a limited comic book series. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 9, 2009 in Videogames
To one of the most classic videogames of all time — I’ll drink to that! ThinkGeek is featuring a super cool Ice Invaders Icecube Tray which allows you to make a total of 24 alien ice cubes to chill your beverage. Read more…
50 years ago in April of 1959 the then new American space agency NASA started Project Mercury — the goal of which was to have manned spaceflight. In 1962 Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. would make the first American sub-orbital trip — and later in 1962 John Glenn (shown in the video above) would make the first orbit: Read more…
Being an animation fan from time-to-time I’ll see an ad for a “serigraph cel” from a favorite animated film or TV show. As most fans of animation know old school cartoons were made with hand painted animation cels — which is a piece of acetate inked on one side and with the color painted on the opposite side. These animation cels are always punched so they can be registered, and it takes a mind numbing number of these to make an animated film which is shot at 24 frames per second (although most animation is done by limiting this 12 cels per second or less which is known as “shooting in twos”). Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 8, 2009 in Animation
The Girl That Leapt Through Time really put director Mamoru Hosoda on the map for many Americans — his next film will be Summer Wars which is a light hearted action-adventure film about a modern day Japanese family.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 8, 2009 in Star Wars
This is a vintage 1979 Star Wars themed public service announcement produced for the Department of Transportation. The funny thing to me about the Cantina scene is that for this dive bar filled with scan and villainy the music is inspired by Benny Goodman, which is rather upbeat: Read more…
No self respecting fangurl can be seen at the Mountains of Madness without the proper millinery and this 100% original crochet toque designed by Lesley A. Karpiuk does just the trick! With handmade tentacles and wings soft worsted weight yarn mere mortals will fear your every move. Frankly zombies are so last year — real fashion forward folks in-the-know know that Cthulhu is set for a huge comeback this season… Read more…
This past evening Japanese cosplay singer Reni gave her second performance here in NYC and from all accounts the audience loved every minute of it! Shown above is some video footage of Reni performing the theme from Lucky Star. Mind you she did this as a request from the audience, but I’m especially impressed that she had her dance moves down so well for he song. To check out Reni’s English blog go here.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 6, 2009 in Videogames
It’s a good thing with the obesity epidemic that videogame companies here aren’t getting into co-branded snack foods! However in Japan that doesn’t seem to be a worry so far as game publisher From Software has made a deal to create a ninja themed snack to coincide with the release of their game Onore no Shinzuru Michi wo Tatashike. The game takes place in Edo-era Japan where ninja warriors have to solve puzzles to recuse a princess: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 6, 2009 in Animation
This fan made video is brilliant — someone edited together every single scene from Star Blazers (Space Cruiser Yamato) which features Leader Desslok firing the famed but ever so flawed Desslok Gun which is a cannon mounted on his flagship. Needless to say if he ever destroyed the Yamato with his gun the series would have been slightly on the short side. One things that’s interesting for me to note is that I like the American voice actor (Eddie Allen) for Desslok much better than the Japanese actor. By giving him a Boris Karloff he seemed much more original, interesting and somewhat twisted: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 5, 2009 in Comic Books
Marvel has has released a series of comics based upon classic books which have been unimpressive on every level, but a wonderful exception to this has been the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which features illustrations by Skottie Young. It’s hard to reinvent the universe of Oz because the visual style of the story has been so defined by the 1939 film — but Young manages to reinvent this world while staying true to the story. Issue #5 in the series comes out this Wednesday, above is a detail of the cover art and it just looks great. I also love the powerful palette of colors by Jean-Francois Beaulieu who brings Skottie’s drawings to life. Below is another wonderful panel: Read more…
I knew I wanted a copy! For those who don’t know her 
