Editor’s Note: This week we’re lucky to have film critic Joe Strike offers us his insights and first impressions of the films The Day the Earth Stood Still, Desperaux, and The Spirit.
I tell you, the synchronicity around here can really get to you sometimes. The other morning I went to see The Day the Earth Stood Still, or as us folks in a hurry like to call it, TDTESS (which is stupid since they’re all one-syllable words anyway). Weekend morning shows are $6.00 at my just-up-the-street cinema, I thank you from the bottom of my recession, AMC. Read more…
Over the years I’ve kept running into the same group of 3D retro-styled characters in Japanese printed advertising and that at first reminded me of Rankin-Bass style stop motion characters but have their own original look. I was guessing they might be stop motion since they were photographed rather than drawn or rendered.
On doing some research I figured out they came from a mid 1960s series Hyokkori Hyoutan-jima (ひょっこりひょうたん島) which translates to something like “Unexpected Gourd Island” and the characters were puppets rather than animated. They have to be Japan’s most famous puppet TV show though of course the Muppets are seen all over and “Saku Saku” was trendy for a while.Read more…
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 14, 2008 in Animation
Editor’s Note: This week animation industry insider Joe Strike gives us a second take (my photo tour is here) on the Too Art for TV 3 gallery show that features the fine art side of New York’s animation industry:
Williamsburg Brooklyn is so goddam hip they won’t let you off the subway at the Bedford Avenue stop if you’re not wearing shades & one of those little mini-beardy things just under your lip. Fortunately I fooled the border guard (“wow, look over there – a latte grande!”) & made my way to the Erebuni Gallery on Roebling Street. (Why is a street named for the family that built the Brooklyn Bridge closer to the Williamsburg one?) Making my way to the gallery I spotted big big lights which had lit up the loft building across Roebling for ABC’s Life on Mars:Read more…
Editor’s Note: This week animation industry insider Joe Strike takes us to a charity auction where the who’s who of NYC animation embrace their inner fanboy to swap goodies and gawk at cartoons.
Whatever possessed me to raise my hand? I went into the ASIFA auction on November 20th, as broke or broker as anyone else in the USA today, just to see who was there and what was going on… before I knew it I was bidding on a 1926 copy of Animated Cartoons, by one E.G. Lutz, a copy of the book that taught Walt Disney how to animate (or so the legend goes), for a mere $60. Read more…
In my never ending hunt for cool and unblogged about pop culture in Japan, I found this mysterious item at the convenience store:
What sold me was it apparently went fast enough or was powerful enough to shatter it’s own UPC code. My first impression was that it had something to do with racing given what I thought was a speedometer or cyclometer. Then there is the fake signs of scraping and damage printed on. Read more…
Posted by Guest Author on Nov 24, 2008 in Star Trek
Editor’s Note: Today we have a special treat for all Star Trek fanboys (which includes myself). Our good friend Joe Strike gives us a behind scenes report of the recent Star Trek XI preview:
Paramount sneaks us a peek at… ‘Slash Trek’!
I put on the freebie Star Trek t-shirt I picked up at Comicon ’07, the one that says ’12-26-08′ on the back and went to see Paramount shake their big sci-fi moneymaker – the return, after a blessed multi-year respite, Star Trek. The lure (apart from free popcorn, soda and a big bag of candy): a quartet of scenes from its May ’09 guaranteed blockbuster or, as the studio exec introduced it, “a great re-invention of a classic American franchise.” (Well, at least he didn’t call it a brand.)
Director/producer J.J. Abrams, he of Cloverfield and Mission: Impossible 3 ‘fame,’ intro’d the quartet of clips. (Cloverfield sucked, by the way, but you probably figured that out on your own.) “I’ve never been a Star Trek fan,’ JJA all but boasted. (Evidently he’s been doing this at every press opportunity.) “I never got it,” sez he, because as a grade-schooler he couldn’t figure out whether he identified with Spock or Kirk (Me, I was always more of a ‘David Vincent’ fan, Roy Thinnes’ character on the contemporaneous Larry Cohen sci-fi/paranoia series The Invaders.) Now however, and just in the nick of time, he’s “become a Trekker,” just to let everyone know he’s hip enough not to say ‘Trekkie.’ Read more…
Posted by Guest Author on Nov 23, 2008 in Animation
Editor’s Note: This week we’re lucky to have animation industry insider Joe Strike offers us his insights and first impressions of the films Madagascar 2 and Bolt.
My Week in Cartoonland
The week being November 3-7, which began in one jungle in Africa and wound up in another in the land of Nool, with a NY-Hollywood road trip connecting the two. Monday it was time for a Madagascar 2 screening, which was good since I had to review the co-directors the next day. Another hour and a half spent with a quartet of neurotic Central Park Zoo animals who didn’t bowl me over in the first place. (I live in Manhattan, have to deal with neurotic Manhattanites all the time, especially myself.) Read more…
In the past two articles I’ve been writing about staying out late night in Tokyo when trains and busses make their last run at midnight.
Part 3: Last month I went to a restaurant in Shibuya real late with a special friend. I think my friend thought I was staying in Shinjuku, which isn’t too far, but actually I couldn’t find a hotel there and settled for Edogawa, which is quite a ways East of the center of town, almost as far as Tokyo Disneyland. It was 2 subway transfers and about 40 minutes from Shibuya. Taxis run all night. A Shibuya to Shinjuku taxi might be $30 or so, but a Shibuya to Edogawa would surely cost a lot more than a night at a normal hotel room.
But I figured that I really wanted to see my friend and would maybe either crash at their place or hang out in Shibuya until around 5 AM for the morning trains. Anyway what I wasn’t going to do was leave in a rush and risk getting stuck somewhere unfamiliar because of all the transfers to get back.
So after the dinner I said my mock teary farewells a decided to find a Manga Kissa (sometimes spelled Mangakisa) to hang out at. These are somewhat buzzworthy and controversial establishments typically on upper floors of buildings where you basically pay a fairly reasonable hourly fee to read their manga library.
Part 2: In Japan public transportation stops running at around 12 AM and starts again around 5 AM. That makes for a predicament if one is out late away from where they are staying. I’ve been trying out some scenarios of what one can do over a few recent trips to Japan. One obvious solution would be to just pay for a taxi back. Last year I tried that. Basically to get in a taxi and (in theory) not go anywhere the minimum fare is over $6. Helping to reinforce the possible validity that taxi companies had politicians make sure no public transportation runs at night is that taxis have an additional 30% late night surcharge.
It’s often quoted that a daytime taxi from Narita Airport to downtown tokyo is somewhere over $300. It’s not a case of tourists being tricked what supposedly happens to some foreign tourists in America. That would be the normal fare, though I guess most times someone states the $300 taxi fare factoid they neglect to mention the airport is well over an hour from downtown tokyo. It had to do with the older Tokyo airport Haneda (you’ll see it in old movies) becoming too small over the years, but not soon enough to be able to buy enough land closer to Tokyo. As a comparison, the cheapest train to tokyo is around $12, though a lot of luggage might be awkward and it’s not that fast. There are many more trains and busses in the $20 to $30 range though that are direct and can deal with luggage.
The 12 AM last run for trains means that shows at clubs typically start at 7 PM and end around 10:30 so people who live further away can get home. A fair number of clubs with space for dancing will open (or reopen after a live band set) around 11 PM and have DJ sets until dawn. This is especially true on Friday and Saturday nights.
Part I: One of the differences most visitors to Japan point out sooner or later is the reality that most public transportation in Tokyo as well as throughout Japan starts to shut down at midnight to start up again after 5 AM. With trains and subways the reasoning is to perform thorough daily maintenance. The fact of the matter is they do run on time. Apparently the stationmaster will even issue a late pass if a train is late so you don’t get reprimanded for being late at your job. I guess it’s harder to justify busses not running either. It’s often rumored that perhaps taxi drivers used political influence to make sure no alternative to taxis run at night, but that might be a popular myth.
Posted by Guest Author on Aug 1, 2008 in Animation
Before the classic anime version “Astro Boy” (“Tetsuwan Atomu”) in 1963, there were a couple of partially animated tries at bringing Tezuka’s manga creations to TV. Previously “Tetsuwan Atomu” had been adapted as a live action TV series with an animated prologue in 1959 (shown above). Then in 1963, Mushi Production teamed up with the Takeda Puppet Troupe to adapt his manga “Galaxy Boy Troop” (“Ginga Shonen Tai”) for 2 seasons of TV:
What caught my interest besides the puppet work was most of the effects are being cel animated. It’s well known that TV posed an enormous challange for animation production since the schedule and budgets were extremely tight. So one assumes that the puppets were cheaper and very likely faster than animation.
However in this circumstance, while cel animation was economic for special effects, I’m guessing that miniature effects weren’t. Then again all those miniature effects really ace it for Gerry Anderson’s science fiction puppet shows (“Thunderbirds”, etc.). Though perhaps the cel animation was something to give Tezuka’s Mushi Animation company a piece of the pie. The first episode actually aired after the all anime “Astro Boy”
premiered and for all intents eclipsed it.
Apparently most of the ninety-two 15 minute episodes have been lost or destroyed. Only some examples subtitled for French broadcast in 1964-5 have survived, hence the giant French subtitles from the 1960s. …Hmmm, the notion of a subtitled kids shows is something to think about.
Kinosuke Takeda (1921-1979) was the man behind the puppets. I’ve not run into much info about him though the Takeda name has been associated with mechanical dolls since the 17th Century and there is a museum theater displaying his work. Another Takeda still performs there, most probably his brother. He and his team made other science fiction puppet series in the 1960s that were not based on Tezuka’s characters. I’ve seen an episode of “Spaceship Silica” from 1961 and “Aerial City 008” from 1969 on NHK’s “Puppet Chronicles” series of DVDs. All have scores by Isao Tomita who’s best known for his “Kimba the White Lion” music as well as his excellent synthesizer arrangements of classical music from the 70s. Recently he scored a “Black Jack” anime feature based on Tezuka’s characters.
Nick Kent is a New York based artist who works with electronic media and is an occasional pop culture pundit.
Posted by Guest Author on Jul 26, 2008 in Comic Books
Currently working on Deathblow with Jim Lee and Bill Sigkevich. Staff artist at Wildstorm. Mr. Gomez pictured below has just wrapped up a reworking of the Lost Boys!
Editor’s Note: Let me guess: Super Shoppa’s secret powers are getting on line first for limited edition toy robots and being on “the list” for exclusive after hours Comic Con parties.
After getting more than a little lost we caught up with our main man Patrick Ma of Rocket World. Based in San Francisco, this independent custom toy outfit just launched a very tight themed custom toy collection. The I.W.G. Astro Krieg space hunters collection is really well thought out. Patrick attributes this design to the fusion of outdoor hunting, the military, toys from childhood, and an industrial design ethos. We picked up the hippo and the bear both wearing space suits!
Posted by Guest Author on Jul 26, 2008 in Star Wars
The Medicom Toys booth: These are super hot! We have 5 versions of this cute Darth Vadet with the big head and big hands. Everything from gangsta to steampunk and all in one glass case. I am surprised these fat headed ego cadets don’t tear each other apart. Oh wait they are not alive…
Posted by Guest Author on Jul 26, 2008 in Comic Books
Oh no you didn’t! Oh yes we did: Met up with Hector Casanova and Harold Stipe of the now famous Screamland comic. All five issues are sold out so everyone is waiting for October 29 and the launch of the series in a combined book. The publisher is Image Comics – as in McFarlane and Silvestri! This is whopping big!
, a copy of the book that taught Walt Disney how to animate (or so the legend goes), for a mere $60. 
