Monday News: We’re not discussing the thing that we’re discussing
This is apparently the year when everyone decided to apply their dissatisfaction with George Lucas to everything else in the history of ever as I can guarantee that something like 3000 articles will appear about Brave not being as successful as the other Pixar films because it “betrays the brand” by seeming too much like a Disney film. Most of those articles are going to state how it’s unfair to compare the film to other Pixar films and then immediately spend most of their points discussing how Brave compares to other Pixar films while reminding us how terrible Cars 2 and mentioning the massive failure of John Carter; optional asides are possibly taken to discuss the silent first half-hour of WALL-E or other elements from Pixar films, none of which are actually comparing Brave to other Pixar films through the magic of needlessly elaborate language trying to cover for a lack of solid points while demonstrating that the writer is someone who needs to be taken seriously because they have an English degree or at least needs to seem like they do.
Other things appearing on the internet, that are far more worth your time, appear below!
– First pictures of Perfect Cell emerge, I restrain myself from making some kind of pun about how well-executed it looks
We’ve officially gotten our first look at the winner of Tamashii Nations’ Facebook poll in the form of Perfect Cell, and I have to say I’m extremely impressed, both with the figure’s quality and the pictures they’ve taken of it. He looks almost flawless and I can’t think of a better way for Tamashii Nations to demonstrate their desire to entrench themselves in the North American toy market if they’re making pieces like this. He even comes with a Kamehameha blast effect which is one amazingly clever way of including a part that functions with most of the DBZ releases. They’ve done an excellent job of making these figures and the MonsterArts accessible (excluding those accessory packs for the latter) right down to me seeing Future Trunks last week and various Kamen Rider characters before that. Cell is going to arrive in the fall at a price of around $56.99 and in all likelihood will probably be distributed through Diamond, something doubly beneficial as it lets him be ordered in Previews and helps to lower online prices. [Source: Tomopop]
– See some amazing concept art from one of the proposals that didn’t make it for the Lego film
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have Lego: The Piece of Resistance coming in 2014 but theirs is just one of several proposals presented to the Danish building block company; get a look at some of the art submitted from Jeff McNally of Blur Studios fame above, part of a pitch with Jeff Fowler. I never thought I’d see someone try to work the Duplo brand into the Lego films but points for creativity despite how I don’t think Thomas would actually end up being in the film. You can see other images from their proposal here but it’s interesting to note that however the Lego film ends up being like on-screen, it’s apparently going to involve most of their major brands. Can I hope for a Vikings or Space Police appearance? [Source: Kotaku]
– DC puts out a Masters of the Universe comic that’s not that James Robinson series that’s still coming soon
Arriving with almost zip publicity (I first heard of it from fleeting mentions on Twitter), a new digital-first Masters of the Universe comic has arrived. Penned by Geoff Johns, it’s a short bit about the origins of his character Sir-Laser-Lot, who’ll be one of this year’s 30th anniversary figures. I haven’t read it yet, as I’m saving it until I finish writing this news you’re reading right now, but for only $.99 it seems reasonable enough especially since it’s the first in a series of shorts about other MOTU characters. [Source: Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation]
– Albert Uderzo’s pre-Asterix work gets collected, part of leading to his appearance at next year’s Angoulême
Uderzo’s work from before the time he teamed up with René Goscinny for Oumpah-pah and Asterix is getting collected in a series of new volumes, the first seeing release this October. Made up of everything from childhood sketches to his drawings for the Belgian version of Captain Marvel Jr., the Bleeding Cool article describing contained at least one hugely surprising revelation to me: Uderzo, 85 years old now, stepped down from working on new Asterix albums. That comes as a surprise to me as Uderzo assured everyone that Asterix and the Falling Sky wouldn’t be the last album in the series a few years ago but it turns out he wasn’t exaggerating: he’s passing down the characters to someone else. There’s precedent for that in the BD industry, as characters like Lucky Luke has had a few new albums since Morris’ passing a few years ago, but it seems a little shocking to me especially in how this has been common knowledge for almost 3 years. When Uderzo appears at Angoulême, it’s expected that the first album by the new team will get announced, something I’m still having a little trouble wrapping my head around. [Source: Bleeding Cool]
– Sideshow reveals their SDCC exclusives,
Newton Gimmick has a brief writeup on the exclusive Lt. Falcon that’s going to serve as the Joe entry in this year’s Sideshow SDCC product. I’m kind of shocked they’d pick such a recognizable character for it, as in the past they’ve usually done figures that are straight reuse like Crimson Guard Cobra Commander or the Ninja Viper. Falcon’s pretty recognizable and with the rate of releases in Sideshow’s Joe line, I’m wondering why they picked a character that’s as prominent as he is; if they were going to do a Joe character I’d think they’d look at someone like Short-Fuze first. Also announced was the pair of Modal Nodes members that will likely bedevil collectors looking to complete the complete lineup of instruments and musicians from the Mos Eisley Cantina; I hope they’re different enough to warrant buying the same figure repeatedly though now I bet the previously released Figrin D’an’s prices are probably getting more reasonable. [Source: Infinite Hollywood]
– Digital Manga Press puts up a new Kickstarter for a Tezuka work and it’s both a pretty popular title and in a unique format
The other day DMP began their Kickstarter campaign to license Osamu Tezuka’s Unico in full-color, the first time the title’s seen that qualifier outside of Japan. Unico is one of the better known Tezuka characters; my pseud0-girlfriend in high school had both Unico movies on VHS tapes from when she was a kid and she knew more about the character than I did when I met her. The manga was originally published in a color magazine owned by Sanrio so Unico’s considered part of their character stable in some way; just a thought for anyone out there who likes Hello Kitty and associates. That fact makes it so this isn’t a tough sell the way Barbara and the Swallowing the Earth reprint are but the bonus here is that if the goal’s reached early, Digital Manga Press will immediately announce another Tezuka license. It’s already known that it’s one of his all-ages titles, like Unico, but excluding Astro Boy, Tezuka’s more adult works have overtaken the younger fare in the past few years so that’s hardly a bad thing. My bet is on The Amazing Three though I’m hoping it’s something that can’t support a Kickstarter by itself. [Source: Kickstarter]
Geez, there are some staggeringly bad articles out there on the internet aren’t there? Maybe I’m just seeing a lot of them lately with all the virulent hate towards Brave seeming too much like a Disney movie to seem cool or the 10,000 breakdowns of every scientific error presented in Prometheus but honestly, you shouldn’t be spelling “weak” as “week” by this point unless you haven’t graduated 2nd grade. Don’t worry though guys, I’ll try to never write an article with a tag of “… you probably haven’t seen/heard of/listened to/watched/played” because while the content in something like that could be across the board excellent, it’s kind of patronizing and a dismissive way of addressing your audience. Then again, being confrontational is kind of the way for hits on the internet especially if you’re needlessly destructive; there are people who built their entire sites on it, and trust me, I hear about them all the time.
Huh, what? Oh yeah guess I shouldn’t fly off on rants like that as it’s a little unprofessional. Kind of like writing an article saying you should get credit for predicting a movie that’s already happening. Wouldn’t it be great if Christopher Nolan made a third Batman movie? Not like he hasn’t said that he was planning that from at least The Dark Knight or anything, right?
While you politely ignore me flying off the handle there are at the end, you can check out all the stuff that was up in the past week including last week’s round of brief news covered in a thick syrup of distilled anger! In the meantime I’m going to start scouring reviews of The Amazing Spider-Man to see if there are mentions of any “real Donner Superman moments” which is seemingly unconscious code for “I’m reaching to say something good about this”.
Monday News: Non-functioning tape
Tuesday: Playin’ Muzik 5X5
Wednesday: Episode #93
Thursday: The search for Jaysun’s new favorite band #9
Don’t have too much fun until next week guys especially since Ted, the movie I’ve had to hear about how funny it’s trailer is from what seems like a 100 different people is coming out; it’s a comedy about an irresponsible man child who never grew up. I can already tell how it’s different from That’s my Boy because one has Seth Macfarlane and the other has Adam Sandler.
Suddenly I’m really excited about reading some of those Ted reviews.
Planned Banter 