Thoughtnami™

A couple of days ago, my little seven-year-old cousin made one of his trademarked weekend visits. We saw a commercial for the Popeye 3D special video release, and I was like "What did they do to Popeye?" He looked at me and asked, "Who's Popeye?" For one moment, I was wondering is this kid on something. Afterall, I grew up watching the excellent Fleischer Popeye shorts, the great Famous Studios Popeye shorts, the so-so King Features television Popeye shorts, the uncharacteristic-but-okay Hanna-Barbera shorts, and the abysmal Popeye and Son over the years. I've seen the comics when I went out of state because the Virginia Pilot didn't carry it in its papers (which is not only shocking considering my locale's reputation as Navytown, USA with its shipyards and Naval and Coast Guard bases, but also our paper would rather carry the likes of Shoe, Cathy, and The Wizard of Id). Since Cartoon Network refuses to show anything older that isn't made by W...

I haven't seen ads for Doom 3, Halo 2, and GTA: San Andreas, three of the year's biggest video game titles aimed towards an older teen/young adult audience on a programming block which is designed for an older teen/young adult audience. I've seen car ads and ads for slightly harder PG-13 movies, but no ads for, say, R-rated actioners like Constantine or Blade Trinity. So, the question has to be asked. What's so "adult" about Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup? I could kind of understand why the network refuses to advertise Adult Swim programming outside the hour before the block on Cartoon Network. However, that's no excuse to not advertise for Adult Swim on any of the other Turner networks. If the viewership is huge because of the power of the internet, imagine how the viewership would be with the addition of large majority that don't check out the nerd boards that'll check out the block. Of course by adding more "adult" advertis...

I don't know if I ever told anybody at the site or the boards this, but I'm a huge Superman fan. I'm just a big a Spider-Man fan as I am Superman, but The Man of Steel is the iconic hero of the comic industry. Don't get me wrong, I won't plaster the shield on everything in my house nor name my first born child "Kal El," but I am definitely a huge Superman fan. A few columns down in my Christopher Reeve obit, I even admitted that I had Superman pajamas with a velcro-tabbed cape when I was a little kid, often waking up mornings climbing on the chairs in the living room with my arms at my side and my chest beaming doing a cocky laugh as my cape flew in the breeze of the oscilating fan. I've enjoyed both the comic tales as well as the televised adventures of Superman, both the animated (I'm probably one of the few folks that actually got up at 8 in the morning to check out the '88 Ruby Spears series) and the live-action (Dean Cain was good and ...

It's been a little over half a year since you guys bought TechTV and merged it with your ill-conceived G4 network. Originally, you guys said y'all were going to name the new network G4, but smarter heads prevailed to a point and named it G4techTV. Admittedly, I felt you guys would have been better and name it something entirely different, creating a new brand as a result. But G4techTV failed . . . badly. It landed on its ass and hasn't really caught on with the masses. Sure, G4techTV is on 50 million households, and that's good. But who's really watching? And what are they really watching? Yeah, they're largely watching X-Play. X-Play is the most watched series on G4techTV. It's also 70% of why you guys bought TechTV. You turned The Screen Savers into a 75% gaming show instead of the 85% tech-oriented show it was meant to be (and pushed out a bulk of the older, wiser Savers to boot). What's worse is that you took out three minutes of The Screen Sa...

Have you seen the new Stargate SG-1 Season Seven DVD set? I'm glad that they're promoting the series and all, but one thing perplexes me. With all the talent and finances that MGM has in their employ, not to mention the monies Sony will imput in the months to come, how come the geniuses who came up with this ad misspelled a TV Guide declaration, the only one in the whole ad? Instead of "A Worldwide TV Phenomenon," they said, in huge bold letters: A WOLDWIDE TV PHENOMENON Yes, my friends, and it's circulating on the network that supposed to be G4techTV (but not; I'll talk about later) all week long. Incredible.

Another Superman from my youth passed away yesterday. Earlier in the year, Danny Dark, voice of the Superfriends' Man of Steel, died, and this morning, I learned that the quintessential Superman, Christopher Reeve, died yesterday afternoon. He was 52. I've seen and heard many individuals portray the first iconic superhero over the years, from Bud Culdyer and George Reeves to Tim Daly and Dean Cain to George Newbern and (at least in the Clark Kent identity) Tom Welling, but it was Christopher Reeve who put a human face on the comic book character. Twenty-six years ago, he graced the silver screen in a way that, at the time and, to some, still has, changed the way the American public looked at comic book-driven films and television shows. Think about that for one moment. Until the Superman movie came out, Americans still considered the 60s Batman series as a template for all comic book-based productions. Campy, over the top, full of overdramatics, hamtastic acting, just...

I rarely look at my local television stations nowadays. Aside from a few shows on Fox, ABC, The WB, UPN, and NBC (yeah, I know CBS exists, but there's absolutely nothing on it worth watching), I rarely look at broadcast television anymore. Most of what I look at on television is on cable. Sunday nights belong to HBO from 9 to 11 PM (of course, and I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I'm digging ABC's Sunday lineup now) and Cartoon Network the rest of the night, Monday nights, I check out Raw on Spike TV. I look at some of the broadcast comedies on Tuesday nights, but I check out the FX dramas like The Shield and nip/tuck at 10. After Smallville goes off, I pretty much channel surf for an hour until Good Eats comes on. After Smackdown goes off on Thursdays, I channel surf again. Fridays, I check out CN, ABC, Monk on USA, and HBO throughout the night. Saturdays, well, if you don't know by know, perhaps you really don't know me nor my other site. Broadcast tele...

When I created The X Bridge way back in the year 1998 (okay, it was a little over six years ago, but in web years, that's ancient), people wondered why I created a site dedicated to a block like Toonami. One of the reasons why I launched the site was because of the way the block presented itself, which was like nothing I've seen in this country . . . well, not since Sci-Fi's Animation Station block, but that's something I'll dwell on at the main site one day. When Tyler L. launched Toonami Multimedia (later Toonami Miscellanious) and Zogg started Toonami Basement that captured the on-air bumpers, idents, and openings the folks at Williams Street made, people knew that this block really had a good thing going. When Tyler and Zogg merged their sites into Toonami Digital Arsenal , the premiere destination for all multimedia relating to Toonami, the Toonami fan community were given a true digital gift that is, in fact, a historical archive of the evolution of a cable ne...

. . . when the following phrase emits a chuckle out of you: Technicolor Ends Here

I mean, big time TXB update coming this Friday. You remember TXB , right? It's that lame action-oriented webpage with the sporadic updates because the webmaster doesn't have time to get online much except to post inane comments on various fan forums? Yeah, The X Bridge will have reviews, feature articles, commentaries, databases, Toonami talk, and all other sorts of things to make your head boggle. I'll also enlighten the masses about this thing called X-Ventures Comics a little more further. I would have had it up Monday, but life got complicated . . . plus I'm still editing the reviews, including this one show that has an unemployed 19-year older recruited by a toy company to wear this funky looking battle suit and living in an apartment complex filled with rivals and villians. Melrose Place meets Ultraman with a touch of Tenchi Muyo. Great show. I'll talk about it later in the week. The big upload begins later today for me for the big time update on...

Back in the 80s, foreign firms began buying classic American studios like they were on fire. One of the most noteworthy purchases was Sony's purchase of Columbia Pictures from Coca-Cola (yeah, believe it or not, Coca-Cola actually owned television studios). MGM/UA was sold to everybody from Ted Turner (who actually kept the bulk of the library and animated projects) to foreign parties and back to Kirk Kerkorian, who sold it. Heck, back in the day, Kerkorian even sold the Culver City studios where MGM made their biggest films to Columbia Pictures. After months of speculation between Time Warner (who suddenly has money to actually buy companies now) and a group led by Sony including the likes of Comcast, Kerkorian stayed away from the clouds and decided that The Lion should sleep with the Lady with the Torch, merging the large United Artists/Orion/Samuel Goldwyn/American International/Polygram/post-1986 MGM libraries with the Columbia/Screen Gems/Tri-Star/Revolution Studios film a...

I'm old enough to remember a time when computer-animated creations weren't prominent in feature films. I'm not talking about 3D animated films, there are plenty of those, and I don't want to give them any more press time than they already get (I'll come back to that around the time The Incredibles gets ready to premiere). Plus, Square Pictures' Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within could have did a lot better if it wasn't called Final Fantasy, especially since there was little connection to the familiar elements in the film, but that's a whole other conversation. It's been many moons since Young Sherlock Holmes, The Abyss, and T2, and CGI heroes, antiheroes, and villians are as commonplace as an unoriginal idea in films. I'm kidding about the unoriginal idea joke (to a point). If it wasn't for CGI, the Lord of the Rings trilogy couldn't possibly be made. Okay, that's a lie, it could have been made, but it would have been a dramati...

After looking at the two hour block of Family Guy episodes last night, I decided to wait a while before commenting on it. After all, you're not supposed to write anything when you're angry because you might regret it later on. A little under a day has passed. I've calmed down a lot since last night, and I feel I could go about this post with a rational perspective. *cough* Why in the hell did Fox bring back Family Guy again? You know, I hear a lot of [mute] about Cartoon Network's editing standards. I've heard rabid otakus call them numerous names liks [mute], punks, and idiots. After witnessing the first Fox broadcasts of Family Guy in almost four years, I feel that everybody who has ever criticized the standards department of CN should apologize . . . now. Last night saw numerous edits on all four of the episodes shown. Words like "crap," "bastard," and "dump" were muted sporadically. When I mean sporadically, I mean some ...

So are network executives, but I'll get to that later on. As the continual eradication of classic animation continues within the halls of Techwood Drive and the continual spitting on the legacy of those same classics continues within the halls of Williams Street, I wonder who the real culprits are behind the executive changes, and it comes down to three people: - upper management of Cartoon Network and Time Warner - programmers at Cartoon Network - stupid, stupid rat creatures, also known as kids I'll pick on the kids because, well, I can. Kids are stupid, stupid little rat creatures who are too spoiled, too conceited, and way too commercial-obsessed. Their attention spans are about the size of a gnat. Their tastes are ever-evolving and foolishly, network executives try to cater to them. That's why you see shows like Ed, Edd, and Eddy, Totally Spies, and Billy and Mandy as well as junk like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh filtered at almost all of the kid-vid hours. ...

I'm still trying to understand what it's about myself. I think I have the gist of it. Warner Bros. Animation has this online "battle" competition of animators called Cartoon Monsoon. Every competitor creates a series of Flash-animated shorts for consumption, and the visitors vote on the best ones. I think that's how it goes. Everything else is a blur to me. Here's the first cycle of shorts created, including a short that basically turns a popular C-level DC Comics heroine known as Zatanna into what is essentially an "American magical girl" series. I'm sure the powers that be at DC never even thought of that concept for the character. The second round is underway, and a new cycle of shorts are coming to the Monsoon stage. So, how come you don't hear so much about this in the animated press? And why isn't it even advertised on that aniamtion channel TimeWarner owns in the US? No, not Boomerang, the other one with the checkerboard...

It may come to no surprise that in many outlets today, including WSJ and the AJC, that Cartoon Network are going to add a preschool-oriented block (presumably commercial-free) to their daytime lineup this fall. One of the shows, surprisingly the latest DC Comics-based property Krypto, had already been announced earlier in the year, and it's likely that a lot more shows, new shows from Warner Bros and some of their preschool-friendly shows like Pecola, Sitting Ducks, and hopefully Hamtaro will be a part of it. Of course they could be smart and bring their older Small World property to weekdays, but, as the cute-voiced announcer reminds us everyday, this is Cartoon Network. This related byte also got on my nerves. They say that if the preschool block does well, Cartoon Network might turn Boomerang into a preschool network. Let's see, how should I react to that? Oh yeah! No. No. No. No. No. No. NO!!!! Boomerang is this country's first and, unfortunately only show...

If G4techTV has a show called G4TV.com and an awards show called GPhoria as well as continuing to show reruns with the G4 logo (still telling folks to go to the old G4 domain) and new episodes of shows still using G4 microphones as well as continues to show the G4 logo whenever possible and naming the entire production company responsible for all shows on the network G4 Media, is the network really called G4techTV? If it is, they really need to either be unified as a true combined network or, dare I say, create a brand new name for the network.

The moment when I saw the first Aliens Versus Predator ad on Cartoon Network, I let out a very loud, very verbose reaction. "WHAT THE HELL?!?" The reason why this ad made me react this way wasn't because it was a theatrical version of the epic battles first introduced in comic form a little over ten years ago. I knew it was coming this year. The reason why I reacted that way was because Cartoon Network doesn't air any ads for R-rated movies. All the hopes of seeing a truly visceral bloodfest that was spread out through six previous films in the original Alien and Predator films were immediately dashed the moment I saw the ad on Cartoon Network. At that moment, the rumors that I tried to avoid all these months were indeed true. Aliens Vs. Predator is rated PG-13. The great Hollywood machine has once again ruined an R-rated franchise, and heaven knows there weren't many of them. The Aliens/Predator movie could have been a testament to the legacy they hav...

Today, July 27, the first 24/7/365 all-anime network in the USA, The Anime Network, officially begins its broadcast reign. People (myself included) thought that such a network would ever happen in this country, and the lineup, mostly ADV Films productions, has begun. Of course, on the heels of the launch, other anime distributors are wondering whether or not they should start their own all-anime networks. Viz made public their plans a few months ago while FUNimation announced their ambitious plans last week. This is good and all, but all parties are going to learn that they have a long road ahead of them. Anime is popular in this country right now, but it's not as popular as some distributors believe. Middle America still sees animation as a children's media and there are those in the bible belt that sees anime as a tool from a godless land to corrupt the nation's youth (and yet, one of the first anime series many people have seen in my generation was Superbook and F...

Well, not really, but I've got to get something off my chest. You know, I've been online for a little over six years now, still with the same old machine (please send money, if you can). I also singlehandedly run a website , also for about six years. I have a reason for my mistakes, and I know that I make them often. I'm only one person. I make no excuses for my mistakes and delays on my site. There's a reason for everything. I'm human. I make errors. I sometimes slack off, which isn't always my fault (this week, I've been taking care of my sick mother, who had stomach problems). Still, I do end up working on my site. And yet, there are some sites that are crammed with workers that claim to have workers at all times, and yet their professionalism and reputations are questionable. I've seen one site that has an alright selection of news items, unabashedly ripped from more professional outlets, and yet they claim that every site that finds th...

Nicktoons TV is going to present an international animation festival on television. This is exactly something Cartoon Network should have done since its inception. If (when?) it succeeds, perhaps this will be the catalyst Nicktoons need to become a serious animation network. They're already doing a better job showcasing the creative process of animation, something I don't recall Cartoon Network doing on a regular basis. I hope it's successful. Here's the press release: Nicktoons, Nickelodeon's digital channel for animation, has teamed with Frederator Studios and ANIMATION MAGAZINE to present The Nicktoons Film Festival. The first on-air festival of its kind, The Nicktoons Film Festival, will showcase independent cartoon filmmaking by animators from around the globe. Fred Seibert, president of Frederator Studios will serve as exec producer of the festival; Rita Street, publisher of ANIMATION MAGAZINE and Eric Homan, vp of creative affairs for Frederator Studios...

It's funny, the one thing that never made sense to me when I was a kid was the whole Christmas In July concept. All the commercialized Christmas characters like Santa Claus, Rudolph, Frosty, and The Grinch selling everything from electronics to cars to, well, everything. Stores used to put the commercial side of the Christmas holiday in all of their ads, and cable networks used to show Christmas programming around the weekend of July 25. It was a whoot seeing The Grinch, Yogi's First Christmas, Twas The Night Before Christmas, and all of those kitschy-but-cool specials around this time. Heck, they even showed the ultimate Christmas crossover, Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas In July (little known fact, although the stop-motion characters were made in the good ol' US, a lot of those Rankin-Bass specials were animated in Japan, kind of like their last major project, Thundercats, were). This year . . . nothing. It's strange that this weird commercial concept that has ...

Now that I've seen most of VH1's "I Love The 90s," I can officially answer a question that's been plaguing my mind since the thought of a 90s retrospective entered my thoughts. Did we really need an "I Love The 90s" special now? No, we didn't. Let me explain. Half of the specials were very nostalgic for me. 1990 - 1995, maybe 1996 were probably the best of the series for me because it did seem like it took place a long time ago. The latter half were pretty dang recent to me and not really worth the trip back in time. By looking at the, ahem, celebrities and their reactions to the latter half, it did seem that they were almost forced to wax nostalgic about 1996 - 1999, considering it wasn't that long ago. I feel that maybe in another three or four years that they could have done an I Love The 90s (and yes, I'm aware that the BBC, who created the frnchise, did a 90s retrospective pretty recently as well). 2004 was just a little too so...

For some reason today, I wondered whatever happened to Donovan Cook. Back in the day, I really, really enjoyed his two big shows, 2 Stupid Dogs and Nightmare Ned. Now, a lot of people dismissed 2 Stupid Dogs as a strange ripoff of The Ren and Stimpy show, but those people are idiots. Yeah, Big Dog and Little Dog were a big and small duo not unlike the dopey fat cat and the bruatl asthmatic chihuahua, but that's where the similarities ended. Big Dog and Little Dog were dumb and dumber long before Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels took on the roles of Lloyd and Harry, going on numerous idiotic adventures where they encountered mundane events, the oafish Hollywood, cats (ahh, cat!! woof. eee!), and the Red trilogy, which totally twisted the Little Red Riding Hood story with a heroine as loud and abrasive as the one in that Bugs Bunny cartoon was. It was silly and stupid, and that's what made it so fun. Well, that and the Super Secret Secret Squirrel shorts which totally changed the d...

The mothership is undergoing a period of inaction for the next couple of days. For those just coming from the front page and haven't been here before (or experienced some technical difficulties as I have as of late), welcome. Now, I want to talk about Spider-Man 2. Yes, I'm the king of the segueways, or at least the court jester of the segueways. Warning, I'm going to spoil a few things. Not a lot, like the last moments of the film, but some to whet your whistle. If you haven't seen this movie, I hope you've enjoyed your slumber from beneath that huge rock. We have a lot to catch up on. For starters, the producers were wise to recap the events of the first movies in the opening credits, not unlike the second Superman movie (you know, the best one). Unlike Superman II, which had clips from the first movie in the opening credits, the producers of Spider-Man 2 relied on the skills of Alex Ross to visualize key scenes from the first movie in his own inimiatble fa...

Spider-Man 2 has made $40.5 million in one day, the biggest opening day in movie history. I'm going to see it this weekend anyway, and I've been avoiding everything that might be spoilerish, including behind the scenes shows, comic adaptations, even commercials. Needless to say, I'm impressed. I'm just glad Doc Ock isn't a Power Rangers reject like the Green Goblin was in the first film.

It seems that Astro Boy can't get a break. Sure, it's not the 60's classic nor the 80's revival (that wasn't really seen in the North American market), but the current Astro Boy is well-animated (it's very fluid unlike a lot of anime out there, which rely on closeup shots, still frames, and other forms of limited animation, which is like 85% of the anime titles out there now) and well-produced, especially considering we're looking at a Westernized version of the series. However, there are strange minds that rely on ratings to judge a show's performance. Anybody who has ever read my regular site knows what I feel about the Nielsen ratings system (and apparently, large metropolitan areas around the country are now feeling the same way, as evident in the delay on Nielsen's People Meter ratings gathering system). Also, in private conversations, I learned that certain ratings are made just to attract advertising dollars. Regardless, Astro Boy must not ...

Head over to the Beaver Lodge, then make a quick jaunt to DeGrassi High, and relax your mind in front of the TV watching Kids in the Hall, You Can't Do That On Television, Ed, Edd, and Eddy, Tripping the Rift, and the other fine shows to come out of the Great White North. It's Canada Day, a time to reflect on the wonder and greatness that is our neighbors to the north. Pop in an Ocean or Optimum dubbed series (either an anime masterpiece or an American series like X-Men) and give props to the fine actors who spent a lot of their time giving an English voice to popular shows. Man, it'd be nice if Comedy Central reran the Conan O'Brien in Toronto episodes back to back in honor of this great day. Chug a Clearly Canadian and enjoy the day. (Americans . . . our day is on Sunday, but a lot of fun is to be had on Monday around these parts). In the meantime, check out Zannen, Canada , a site dedicated to create anime awareness in Canada. Canadian culture is nice an...

Here's a thought to make you question what's in the water at Cartoon Network: There is a belief in the fandom that the only reason why classic cartoons are either in poor viewing slots or pulled completely off the network is to sell the DVD collections. Let me state that again. They pull shows off the air to get people to buy DVD sets of said show? Does that make any sense to you? I'm still trying to figure out how NOT airing a show is advertisement to get people to buy a DVD set of a show that's not on the air. Isn't that what advertising is for, to advertise for a product? So, here's the mentality I'm trying the fantom without giving myself a migrane. Cartoon Network took off The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, Top Cat, and now Tom and Jerry to sell DVDs. Scooby-Doo must not have been worth the DVD promotion since it's actually on the air (about twelve hours a week). Heck, they took Space Ghost Coast To Coast and Samurai Jack off...

Wasn't E3 almost two months ago now? I'm sure it was, but if you only watched G4TECHTV, sorry, G4techTV, you'd think that E3 was just last week. And you'd be thinking this every week. Geez, how long will this amalgamated mess of a network take to actually create more new (or fairly new) episodes of their shows? Granted the TechTV side of the programming, for the most part, has been pretty fresh. Screen Savers, X Play, and Unscrewed have been new most of the time. The dominant G4 programming, which makes up primetime and most of the afternoon lineup, has been reruning the same old shows. Icons is probably the best show from the G4 side of the programming, and I kind of dig Cheats, Filter, and Pulse (which should be revamped to cover tech news ala TechLive as well as video games). The rest of the G4 castoffs seem like video game shows if MTV made them (definitely not a compliment). I'm still trying to fantom how an okay video game musician has enough credential...

Nobody gets Boomerang. It's probably the most requested cable network on cable, but apparently cable outlets know what the network is all about. Cartoon Network wants more people to ask for Boomerang. How? They've been removing classic cartoon titles from the lineup. First to leave the network were the Hanna-Barbera titles. Second, the non-Tom and Jerry MGM titles from regular rotation. Then, the pre-48 WB shorts, which had been a prominent part of the network's lineup since day one. Then, a good chunk of the post-48 WB titles. Finally, on July 5, Cartoon Network is removing the lone classic animation showcase at a decent timeslot, Tom and Jerry. Naturally, fans of classic animation are, to say the least, a bit upset. And why dhouldn't they? Afterall, the network has dropped 90 minutes of Tom and Jerry for an early morning airing of Totally Spies (which is already on for an hour each day) and an extra hour of Camp Cartoon Network (great, just what we needed, mor...

You may know me from my other website, the action-oriented portal, The X Bridge . Or maybe you've seen me lurking around the various forums at Toon Zone . Or maybe you remember me from the olden days on Usenet. My name is Jeff Harris. Welcome to Thoughtnami. Why Thoughtnami? This is the place outside of my site where I can post opinions about everything else that comes to mind. There's a lot of things floating around, and this site is totally a freereign site where nothing is off limits, except maybe religion (I'm religious, but not preachy) and politics (both sides have their flaws). I can dive into things that won't get my hosts in trouble and deviate what TXB is all about. I'll talk a lot about animation around here, basically the stuff I won't cover at my regular site. Guess this means I can talk live-action as well. I'll open up about a little more things as we venture further with this endeavor. This experience is new to me, so I'm goin...