Thoughtnami™

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...