Reflections on ReBoot

I've been watching an awful lot of ReBoot lately.  Shout! Factory, the folks who did those impressive complete series boxed sets of The Transformers  and G.I. Joe, gave the same treatment to ReBoot this year.  Seasons 1 & 2 came out back in the spring, and Seasons 3 & 4 came out just a month ago, and you can get the whole thing together in a big boxed set called The Definitive Mainframe Collection.  I bought the two separate sets because they were good and cheap.

For those who don`t remember, ReBoot was the world's first computer animated half-hour television program.  And it's Canadian, too, made by Vancouver-based Mainframe Entertainment!  It premiered in the fall of 1994 -- beating Toy Story by one year -- on YTV in Canada and on ABC in the USA.  The show was created by Mainframe's founders, Gavin Blair and Ian Pearson.  Blair and Pearson were already widely known in animation circles for doing the computer animation in the legendary Dire Straights video Money for Nothing.

The series was set inside a computer system known as Mainframe.  It followed the adventures of Bob (a Guardian...aka anti-virus software) who sought to defend Mainframe from the evil computer viruses Megabyte (who sought to conquer all of Mainframe) and Hexadecimal (who was just psychotic and near-omnipotent).  Bob was assisted in his mission by Dot, who I think was Mainframe's OS, which made a business mogul who pretty much owned all of Mainframe, and her kid brother Enzo, who idolized Bob and hoped to grow up to be a Guardian like Bob someday.









What really hampered their efforts was the frequent arrival of the Games, massive cubes that descend from the sky by the User.  Of course, if Mainframe's citizens lose the game, a whole block of the city gets wiped out (to save your high score, I'm guessing).  So, Bob, Dot and Enzo have to go into the games, take on the role of the Game's antagonists, and try to stop the User from winning.

So,  yeah.  Whenever you fire up Super Mario Bros, Bob becomes King Koopa, pretty much.  And this is one aspect where the series gains its cult classic status, as most games turn out becoming a gigantic spoof of a well-known movie or video game, with Bob becoming the game's villain.

Because it made sense, I started with Season 1, and the one thing that really struck me watching season 1 again after all these years was how tame season 1 is.  In the early 1990s, there had been a growing backlash towards increasingly violent children's programming.  Remember, the same year that ReBoot premiered on YTV was the same year that YTV pulled Power Rangers because a very vocal parents' group raised a ruckus about its violence.  So ReBoot: Season 1 is full of your non-violent cartoon cliches.  Megabyte comes up with some kind of comical scheme to take over Mainframe, and Bob just kinda pushes Megabyte's buttons until Megabyte is hoisted on his own petard.

A good example would be the episode The Crimson Binome, in which Mainframe is raided by software pirates, who in this computer world, take the form of actual pirates.  Do we get a swashbuckling adventure on the high seas as Bob brings the pirates to justice?  No!  Things are resolved when Dot takes a look at the pirates' financials, and convinces them that there's more profit to be had as a legitimate shipping firm.  The pirates then see the error of their ways and return all their stolen booty.  So, remember, kids!  Avoid a life of a piracy or else you might get...a free business consultation.

However, the episode Talent Night is pretty awesome, as Bob and Megabyte decide to settle things with a rock battle.  I once read about the production of that rock battle.  Apparently, the producers sought out one of the hottest club bands in Vancouver at the time, brought them into a recording studio, and told them to just go nuts.







Season 2 was where things started to change a little bit.  From what I've gathered online, during season 1, ABC made some pretty ridiculous notes on the series, and the gang at Mainframe felt devoted to these notes so as to get that much-vaunted USA exposure.  One of the most ridiculous notes was that, apparently, only the female antagonists could have cleavage, while the female protagonists could not.

And that's why Hexidecimal is ridiculously stacked while Dot has a vaguely breast-shaped band across her chest that some fans refer to as "the uniboob."

However, Season 2 was when Disney bought ABC.  Mainframe saw the writing on the wall...that ABC's Saturday morning line-up would soon be all Disney cartoons, so it was just a matter of time before they were canceled.  So, the producers decided to ignore all the notes from ABC, and just worry about the notes from the far-more-cool YTV.

Season 2 did introduce a vital new character, thought.  AndrAIa.  AndrAIa was a game sprite who became infatuated with Enzo in a game, and she figured out a way to leave the game and be friends with Enzo forever.  As season 2 progresses, she becomes Enzo's girlfriend/sidekick.

Season 2 ended with something that would eventually become the series' best known format:  the 4-episode story arc.  Season 2 ended with such an arc when Mainframe was invaded by a Web Creature.

Necessary backstory:  Mainframe was on "The Net," which was eventually established to be the Internet.  However, season 2 established a much more dangerous network known as "The Web,"  which was most likely the World Wide Web.  A monster from the Web invades Mainframe and it's up to Bob to track it down throughout this arc.

The third episode in the "Web Creature arc", Trust No One, is one of ReBoot's more famous episodes.  As this was the height of popularity of The X-Files, the whole episode becomes a gigantic spoof of The X-Files, complete with special guest star Gillian Anderson as the voice of the Agent Scully character.

Season 2 ended with quite the cliffhanger.  As Mainframe goes to war against the Web, Bob is forced to team-up with Megabyte to defend Mainframe.  As it looks like Mainframe is about to win the war, Megabyte launches Bob onto the Web, seals the rift, and then promptly turns on Mainframe.  Enzo, who was upgraded to a Guardian cadet by Bob, calmly picks up Bob's keytool (a Guardian's trademark weapon), and resolves to continue the fight against Megabyte. 

And BOOM!  No more ReBoot.  It took a year for ReBoot to come back for another season.  Computer animation was still really expensive back in the day, so it took them a year to raise the funds.  Luckily, they found a new USA distributor with the much more liberal Cartoon Network, that was able to help them secure more funding, and Season 3 premiered in the fall of 1997.

ReBoot: Season 3 really is a different beast compared to the first two seasons.  Season 3 is pretty much a gritty reboot.  In a typical Saturday morning cartoon scenario, Bob probably would have been rescued at the climax of the season premiere, defeat Megabyte, and the status quo would be restored.  However, Bob isn't rescued until 3/4 of the way through the season.  Season 3 consists of 16 episodes, and the whole season is divided into four, 4-episode arcs.

The first arc, To Mend and Defend, is where the new grittiness becomes apparent.  Mainframe is now in a state of total war.  Abondoning the comical schemes, Megabyte is now pure evil.  He's killing people.  He's racking up a body count.  He sees his opportunity for domination and he's taking it.  And Enzo, while he has been upgraded to a Guardian, is still just a kid, so he's struggling to keep up the battle.  But, Enzo manages to hold his ground, eventually imprisoning Megabyte in his sector behind a firewall...which, inside Mainframe, is a literal wall made of fire.  However, this arc ends on a down note, as Enzo and AndrAIa find themselves in a Game they cannot win.  I should have mentioned earlier that, if you lose a Game while you're inside one, you die.  However, Enzo and AndrAIa found a way around this.  They manage to shift their format to game sprite, and ride the Game out of Mainframe.







The second arc, The Net, opens with our re-introduction to Enzo and AndrAIa.  They are now young people in their 20s, using real-time years, and a lifetime of fighting in the games has made him grow up into a total badass, armed with a big-ass gun.  Yeah, he's a collection of 1990s comic book cliches, but dude, it works.  And kudos to Paul Dobson, who did the voice of grown-up Enzo.  It is still my definitive "gruff, anti-hero" cartoon voice.  I actually heard Dobson using that voice for Edmonton Oilers radio spots a couple years back, and that totally made me geek out.  But I digress.  Enzo -- now preferring to go by his last name Matrix -- and AndrAIa use the Games to travel from system to system on the Net, providing aid to whatever system they land in.  The arc ends with Matrix and AndrAIa discovering that game time is accelerated, so while they're now hardened warrior adults, not a lot of time has passed, so there's still a chance to save Mainframe from Megabyte.  The final system also has access to the Web, so that means Matrix and AndrAIa can head onto the Web and try to rescue Bob.

Which leads into the third arc, The Web.  Matrix and AndrAIa enlist the helps of the the Crimson Binome and those pirates from season 1 to help them sail the Web.  This arc is pretty good, as there's a lot more character stuff.  To help them navigate the Web, they enlist the aid of a search engine named Ray Tracer, and AndrAIa and Tracer have a bit of flirtatious relationship, driving Matrix into a jealous rage.  However, it does end with our heroes finally finding Bob, and heading back to Mainframe to finally stop Megabyte.

Hence the fourth and final arc, Viral Wars.  Matrix, Bob, and AndrAIa return to find Mainframe a devastated wasteland, Megabyte now in total control, and Dot valiantly leading the resistance.  The second episode of this arc, Showdown, features the long-awaited final fight between Matrix and Megabyte, and I swear, it was one of the most brutal fights I'd ever seen in a cartoon up to that point.  As Matrix is about to deliver the deathblow, I swear he's quoting Batman from his final battle with Superman in The Dark Knight Returns.  But don't worry, Matrix doesn't kill Megabyte.  Instead, Megabyte is sucked onto the Web, just like he did with Bob way back in season 2.







The series ends with a desperate gambit from Bob.  With Mainframe so badly damaged, Bob decides to sit back and do nothing and let Mainframe crash.  Maybe -- just maybe -- the User will restore the whole system from back-ups and Mainframe will be restored.  That's exactly what happens, and we have a mega-happy ending.

Or at least we did until 2001, when we all came back for Season 4.  Season 4 actually consisted of two TV movies, each one designed to be divided into a 4-episode story arc to spice up ReBoot's syndication package.  I'm sure somewhere I've still got these movies on VHS from when they were first broadcast on YTV.

The first movie, Daemon Rising, ties up one of the most tantalizing loose plot threads from season 3:  that the Guardians have become infected by a virus named Daemon.  Being lost on the Web when the infection happened, Bob is the only pure Guardian and thus the only one that can defeat Daemon.  We also get lots of flashbacks to before the series began, as we finally see the origins of Bob, Dot, and such forth.  This is a very action packed story arc, full of desperate characters who begin making desperate choices.  It's a very good arc.

It also provides a very interesting retcon for Bob.  Since Bob is supposed to be anti-virus software, why didn't he just delete Megabyte back in the day instead of allowing Megabyte to do his comic schemes for dominance?  Well, it's revealed that Bob subscribes to a radical theory that viruses can be reformed to be benevolent sprites, so Bob was allowed to let Megabyte live to try to prove his theory.

The second arc, My Two Bobs, opens when a second Bob is found lost and adrift on the Web and is brought back to Mainframe.  This one is a lot more character driven, as the two Bobs try to figure out which one is the real one, and as Dot tries to figure out which one is the man she loves.

Neat little attention to detail:  Bob's voice was originally done by Michael Benyaer, but Benyaer was unavailable for season 3.  So, Bob was recast with Ian James Corlett.  Benyaer was available again for season 4, so in My Two Bobs, Corlett voices one Bob and Benyaer voices the other one.  It's a nice touch.

Anyway, spoiler warning for a 10-year old cartoon, the second Bob is eventually revealed to be Megabyte in disguise, back for his revenge.  Megabyte's time on the Web mutated him into a Trojan Horse virus, which in the ReBoot world makes him a shapeshifter. 

Again, going back to things that never happened in season 1.  When Megabyte reveals his true form, he and Bob fight...they have a knock-em-down, drag-em-out brawl...something that these two arch-enemies had never actually done.  Blew my mind when it originally aired.

This arc ends with Megabyte once again taking control of Mainframe, and announcing that he no longer has designs on conquest or dominance, now he just wants revenge.  Megabyte gives the order, "Begin the Hunt!"







And we are presented with the most frustrating thing ever...a TV series that ends on a cliffhanger.  Apparently, the original plan was to do a third TV movie, and then end with a half-hour retrospective/clip show, and voila, a 13-episode season four.  But low ratings for the first two TV movies saw the third movie and clip show get cancelled. 

So, what of the future?  Rainmaker Digital -- aka the company formerly known as Mainframe -- finally resolved the cliffhanger in a webcomic back in 2007.  Rainmaker has had some form of a ReBoot reboot in various stages of development over the past five years, but nothing concrete has happened yet.

In the end, though, I am pleasantly surprised at how well ReBoot has held up over the years.  Season 3 still packed the same emotional resonance that it did when I first watched it back in college.  By taking a year off, and then coming back all darker and grittier, it's like ReBoot was allowed to grow up with its audience, and that's a very tricky thing that not a lot of people have been able to pull off.

So, yeah.  ReBoot is still awesome, and worth a revisit. 

Ghosts of Saturday Mornings Past

So, I'm spending another evening torturing myself by browsing through the Warner Archive Collection.  I think I've blogged about this in the past...it's a really neat concept.  Warner Brothers went through their archives and found a bunch of their classic films.  While they know there's a market to release these films on DVD, they know it's an incredibly small market, and really not worth it to produce the DVDs in mass quantities.  So, what they did was they converted these movies to digital files, and they make the DVDs to order.  That's right, they burn them on demand!

Granted, these DVDs have no bonus features, and they've done little to nothing in the way of digital restoration...just burned them to DVD straight from the highest quality source they could find.  But that's OK.  These are for cinephiles who wants these just because they never thought they'd see the light of DVD.

I have only one problem with the Warner Archive Collection:  THEY DON'T SHIP TO CANADA.  There's a few titles in there I'd love to get, but when it asks me for my address, it says, "Cannot ship to your location."  There's warnings all over that they only ship in the USA.  It's a very frustrating case of "look, but don't touch."  

And now, they're starting to dig through their animation archives, and starting to dig up some classic Hanna Barbera Saturday morning cartoons.

Man o man, this one was announced a few months ago, and I'd sure love to get it.  The definition of cheesy cartoon crossovers, The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones.  Thanks to Elroy Jetson's time machine gone awry, the Jetsons find themselves thrown back to prehistoric times, where they meet the Flintstones.  The Flintstones help the Jetsons adjust to the days of the caveman, and then the Flintstones are flung into the far future, where they quickly become the new mascots for Spacely's Sprockets.





It was made in the late-80s as part of this huge series of TV movies that Hanna-Barbera made, starring a bunch of their classic cartoon characters.  CBC showed them on Saturday mornings when I was a kid.  I'd watch them occasionally, as they nicely filled the void between CFRN's early morning of Masters of the Universe and The Smurfs, and ITV's afternoon of The Transformers, G.I. Joe, MASK, Visionaries, Jem, and everything else that made the 80s FREAKING AWESOME.  But yeah.  Among those movies, The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones is truly the best and most famous.

And then I start browsing some more, and I see they released The Dukes: The Complete Series.  Holy crap, they released The Dukes on DVD, better known as The Dukes of Hazzard cartoon.

At the height of The Dukes of Hazzard popularity in the early-80s, it actually spawned a Saturday morning animated spin-off known simply as The Dukes.  In grand Saturday morning cartoon style, Boss Hogg decides to end his long-standing feud with the Dukes once and for all by challenging the Dukes to a race around the world.  So Bo, Luke, and Daisy (and Coy and Vance in the early episodes, as this was made during the Coy and Vance era) hop in the General Lee and head off for Paris, London, Tokyo, and other exotic locales, with Boss Hogg and Roscoe in hot pursuit, cheating along the way to win the race.





I didn't get this cartoon on TV when I was a kid, but my grandparents did.  I have very fuzzy memories of watching it one Saturday morning when visiting my grandparents.  And I remember thinking it was incredibly cool.  I would get this purely on that fuzzy memory.

So, yeah.  Some of the things I'd be disposing my disposable income on if the Warner Archives shipped to Canada.  Those two...and Steel.  Come on!  Everyone should see the classic Shaq superhero epic!  Just to see what a train wreck it is.  

Ninja Turtles Return...Again

So...they're doing a new Ninja Turtles cartoon.

For those just coming in, about a year or two ago, Nickelodeon swooped in and bought the entire Ninja Turtles franchise.  They own all of it now.  And, of course, they're getting ready to bring it back in a big, bad way.  A new animated series is in production, to premiere in the fall of 2012, and today they unveiled the voice cast.  The new Turtles are....

Jason Biggs is Leonardo.  That's right, still best remembered as the guy who f--ked a pie in American Pie is now the leader of the TMNT.

Sean Astin is Raphael.  Astin, big child star in the 1980s, starred in The Goonies, his most recent big role was Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Greg Cipes is Michelangelo.  Cipes, of course, a veteran voice actor who was Beast Boy in the Teen Titans cartoon. 

Now here's where things get surreal for me.

Legendary voice actor Rob Paulson is Donatello.  Paulson was Yakko on Animaniacs, Pinky on Pinky and the Brain, Arthur on The Tick, and...Raphael on the original Ninja Turtles cartoon.

That's right, the original Raphael is the new Donatello.  In the interview with Entertainment Weekly where this new voice cast was announced, Astin did say that it's kind of weird having the original voice there in the recording studio, and he would frequently end takes by turning to Paulson and going, "Umm...am I doing this right?" 

It's going to be quite the thing to see when it premieres in the fall of 2012.

My Thoughts on the Smallville Finale

Despite the fact that I�m a bit of a comic book geek, and I�ve always leaned towards DC, I�ve never been more than a casual fan of Smallville. At the outset, it seemed like a good idea: Clark Kent�s teen years, as his powers first start kicking in and he starts out on the path to becoming Superman. But, like a lot of people, I found the whole �will they or won�t they� romance between Clark and Lana Lang to go on for too long and get too drawn out and annoying as hell. Plus, those early seasons really fell into a �monster of the week� kind of format, and it got formulaic really quick.


As I�ve blogged many times before, what brought me back � what was the one thing that made Smallville compelling to me � was watching Lex Luthor�s descent to the dark side. Every heartbreak, every twinge of paranoia that his best buddy Clark was keeping something from him, the pressure from his father to be this great modern-day conqueror/captain of industry...it was all adding up and serving to blacken his soul. And because it was episodic television, that descent to the dark side was painfully slow. Lex Luthor was what made that show for me.

And, well, because my earliest conscious memories of television are of watching The Dukes of Hazzard, it was also kind of neat to see Bo Duke as Pa Kent.

When Lex Luthor left, I pretty much gave up on the show completely. I�d tune in whenever I heard that some classic Superman villain was being introduced with a new twist, or some other superhero was making a guest appearance. I think the last time I actually sat down and watched it was last year�s epic 2-hour episode with the Justice Society of America. I heard that this was the final season, so I figured if I was going to watch just one last episode, it may as well be the final episode.

So, apparently, Clark Kent and Lois Lane are getting married. Or, they aren�t now, as Lois has decided not go through with it so Clark can be free to be a superhero. Clark�s not buying it. And the first 45 minutes of this 2-hour final episode is nothing but the �will they or won�t they� romantic crap that made this series so grating in the first place. What is notable, though, in order to start his new life with Lois and as a hero, Clark has decided to cut ties with his past completely, and this is not sitting well with the spirits of his two father: Jonathon Kent and Jor-El.

Apparently, the big bad for this final season was none other than the personification of all evil in the DCU, Darkseid, and he�s possessed Oliver Queen, and Oliver is seeking to sabotage the wedding. He�s replaced Clark�s wedding ring with one made of gold kryptonite, which has the power to permanently remove Clark Kent�s powers.

So, the wedding is going ahead, Chloe notices that Oliver, in his role as best man, has gotten a different ring for the groom. So, she stops the wedding, the church is evacuated, and Clark Kent and Oliver Queen throw down and Clark drives the evil from Oliver. They look up into the sky to see Darkseid�s home planet of Apokalypse descending on the Earth. End part 1.

Part 2, our heroes have gathered and are determining what to do. Tess Mercer � who is, apparently, Lex Luthor�s sister, is heading off to help our heroes but is mysteriously abducted. As I said, casual fan, so a lot of this continuity is lost to me. They make a plan. Clark talks with the spirit of Jonathon Kent, saying he was wrong to try to turn his back on his past, and he needs his father�s guidance more than ever. Pa Kent says that yes, Clark does need his father�s guidance on this...his other father, Jor-El. So, does Clark head on up to the Fortress of Solitude, get Jor-El�s advice, become Superman, and start kicking ass and saving the world? Nope. He goes looking for Tess.

Tess, as it turns out, was abducted by Lionel Luthor. I thought he died, but as I said, I�m pretty much just tuning in. Turns out Lionel has been cloning a new body for Lex (they wrote him out of the show by killing him off), but the one thing they still haven�t gotten right in this new clone body is a heart, so they seek to harvest Tess�s. Tess, however, kicks ass, frees herself, and shoots her father in his shoulder as she makes her escape. Lionel�s body, slowly losing life, crawls towards the currently lifeless body of Lex. Darkseid appears to Lionel, and Lionel sells his soul to Darkseid so Lex may live.

In his search for Tess, Clark goes to the burnt-out ruins of Luthor Manor. Remember those scenes in the show that quickly became clich�, where Clark would burst into Lex�s office in the Manor and confront Lex with the details of Lex�s evil plan, and Lex would just sit there all smug and evil? Well, we�re treated to one last one. As I said, Lex was always the most compelling character to me, so I was looking forward to this. Lex goes on to state his new philosophy, that he once thought people were defined by their friends or families, but he finally accepts that people are defined by their enemies, so he dedicates his life to being an enemy of Clark Kent�s. I half-expected him to quote the Joker from The Dark Knight: �I expect we�ll be doing this dance for years.� And Clark�s final line to Lex seemed somewhat poignant: �I�m sorry I couldn�t save you, Lex.�

Finally, Clark�s going to go to the Fortress of Solitude! He goes back to his old barn in Smallville to get the crystal that activates the Fortress, but he�s confronted by Darkseid, possessing Lionel Luthor�s body. Darkseid knows Clark is the only one that can stop him, and Darkseid throws Clark through a wall. Clark freezes in midair, and we retreat into his mind where he talks with Jor-El. We�re treated to a montage of all of Clark�s heroics throughout the series, and Clark finally understands that these were trials from him to prove his worthiness as a hero. Jor-El says Clark has been a hero all along. We then come out of this astral plane, and see that Clark did not freeze in midair...he�s floating.

That�s right, after every other Kryptonian who arrived on Earth and figured it out instantly...after every evil entity that possessed Clark was able to figure it out instantly...Clark Kent finally figured out how to fly. He takes out Darkseid with a flying punch, and flies north to the Fortress of Solitude.

In the Fortress, Clark communes with Jor-El and realizes that he must also accept his Kryptonian heritage to become the hero he�s destined to be. Jor-El admits his pride in his son, and says that Clark is ready. Jor-El says that while it�s Clark�s Kryptonian heritage that gives him his powers, it was Clark�s life in Smallville that made him a hero. The spirit of Jonathon Kent appears to present Clark with...the suit. Clark suits up, finally becomes Superman, and flies off to save the world.

Hey, what happened to Tess after she escaped from Lionel? Turns out she tracked down Lex in the Luthorcorp offices. Brother and sister have on last moment, in which Lex kills Tess. But, with her dying breath, Tess smears a neurotoxin on Lex�s face. This toxin will wipe out all of Lex�s memories. So Lex�s knowledge of Clark Kent�s powers...Lex�s tragic childhood...all of it, gone from Lex�s memories. I was really starting to wonder how they�d get rid of Lex�s knowledge of Clark Kent�s true identity, so I�m glad they remembered to do something about that in this final episode. With his memories gone, and nothing but a dark heart remaining, Lex Luthor looks out at the world. The gravitational forces of Apokolypse being so close to Earth smashes some of the letters in the �Luthorcorp� sign on the roof of the Luthorcorp tower. The remaining letters spell out �Lexcorp.�

We catch up with Superman. He saves Air Force One, and Lois Lane is on board, so she gets to break the story of Superman�s revelation to the world. Superman hurls Apokolypse into the darkest reaches of space. And Superman looks down on the world and prepares for his destiny. We never see Superman in close-up, though...just in wide shots, with his cape flapping in the breeze.

And here�s where things turn into total fan service.

The traditional score of the series fades away. They start recycling the classic John Williams score from the Richard Donner film. We flash forward seven years, and see that this entire episode has been a bedtime story that Chloe was reading to her young son. Apparently, Chloe married Oliver and is in the throes of living happily ever after. (I have to put on my Continuity Cop cap and point out that Green Arrow�s one true love is Black Canary, but whatever.) With her son down for the night, Chloe phones her cousin Lois Lane in Metropolis.

Lois Lane is an ace reporter at the Daily Planet. Perry White is angry as usual as Lois is missing her deadlines. Lois dispenses some advice to the recently-hired Jimmy Olson.

(�Hey,� you might be thinking. �Jimmy Olson was a regular character a few seasons back, and they killed him off. What the what?� Well, in Jimmy�s final appearance, they revealed that he was actually the older brother of the real Jimmy Olson, and the younger Jimmy decided to take his older brother�s name and follow in his legacy. Lois reaffirms this by telling Jimmy he�s got a long way to go to fill the shoes of his big brother.)

We see a shot of a TV monitor that announces Lex Luthor has just been elected President of the United States. Lois bumps into Clark in the hallway, and we learn that they�ve been putting off their wedding for the last seven years, because Clark always gets called away to perform superheroics...but they�re good to go for tonight! Just then, a Daily Planet staffer yells out that terrorists are threatening to blow up a building in downtown Metropolis. Clark tells Lois he might be a few minutes late, and runs up to the roof.

The classic John Williams Superman theme kicks in. Clark Kent goes through the classic transformation of removing his glasses and tearing open his shirt to reveal the Superman logo. We hold on the logo, and the end credits roll in the style of the classic Richard Donner film.

And that�s the end of Smallville. It was pretty good. Not going to lie, I stood up and cheered when Clark finally discovered how to fly. The references to Darkseid, and all the other references to the Superman mythology, as always, made me squee. But that first 45-minutes was a painful reminder of why the show started getting on my nerves.

It�s over now. Maybe someday I�ll pick up the DVDs and acquaint myself with the show properly. But all in all, it was a good ride.

Reflections on Mainframe

So I've been watching a lot of Mainframe cartoons lately.  Shadow Raiders is the first TV show where I bought every episode on DVD, and a few weeks ago in the city, I got the new Shout! Factory release of ReBoot:  Seasons 1 & 2  . Mainframe was once the kings of the computer animation for television.  In fact, that was their intended purpose.  When they were first founded in the early-1990s by Gavin Blair and Ian Pearson (still best remembered as the computer animators who did the legendary music video for Money for Nothing), their goal was to be the first studio dedicated to producing computer animation for television.  And it was a goal they achieved when ReBoot premiered in the fall of 1994.

Throughout the 1990s, Mainframe RULED Saturday mornings.  Their programs were noted for their strong sense of character, and focus on character development...something necessitated back in the day, because computer animation was still ungodly expensive, so the cast of characters had to be kept small. 

What added to the pride was that they were a Canadian company, completely based in Vancouver.  They had great exposure here in Canada, as most of their programs were co-produced by YTV, and therefore shown on their network. 

In the late-1990s/early-2000s, they had the reputation of being the most prolific computer animation studio in the world.  They changed owners a few times in the past decade and started getting out of the TV show business.  They go by the name Rainmaker Animation now, and they've dabbled in some special effects work, with the odd straight-to-DVD movie every now and then. 

But back in the Mainframe era, they were kings.  I thought I'd just take a minute to ramble off some reminiscings about their shows.

ReBoot (1994 - 1996; 1997-1998; 2000) - And this is the one that started it all!  The first computer animated TV show.  That alone would have assured it of cult classic status, but what really helped it out was that it was one of the first TV shows that was filled with incredibly subtle references to...well, everything, from computer programming to cult classic films.  It was your fairly standard hero fare.  Set inside a computer, it focused on Guardian Bob (your anti-virus program) and his battles against the virus Megabyte, who set out to conquer (and infect) the whole computer.  As awesome as the first two seasons were, season 3 was where things kicked into high gear, as Bob was seemingly killed by Megabyte, and Bob's kid sidekick Enzo was forced to grow up before his time and become the new Guardian.  With season 3, they also moved from ABC to the Cartoon Network, so the stories became darker, grittier, and more adult.  This program is truly deserving of its cult classic status. 

Beast Wars:  Transformers  (1996 - 1999) - Mainframe's next production was the beloved 1990s revival of the Transformers franchise.  The heroic Maximals, led by Optimus Primal, crash land on a mysterious planets with the evil Predacons, led by Megatron.  Transforming into animals to protect themselves from the unstable Energon radiation, and Maximals and the Predicons did battle with each other over the Energon reserves as they tried to unlock the secrets of this mysterious planet.  Strong character development, coupled with strong serialized storytelling, and some nerd-tacular references to Transformers lore made this a great addition to the Transforers canon. 

Shadow Raiders (1998 - 1999) - Still my personal favourite.  Set in a distant star system, four planets that have been at war with each other for generations must finally put aside their differences and band together to fight of the devourer of worlds known as the Beast Planet.  Season 1 focused on the political machinations of forging the Alliance, season 2 was a tip of the hat to Battlestar: Galactica as our heroes uncovered ancient technology to turn their planets into spacecraft and fled across the galaxy with the Beast in hot pursuit.  Even though it only lasted 26 episodes, I am constantly amazed at the incredibly rich and detailed universe they were able to create.  And great characters, too.  Based upon the short-lived toy War Planets. 

Weird-Oh's (1999) - Mainframe's first attempt at producing a comedy, focusing on some surreal characters as they raced their surreal hot rods and had all series of wacky misadventures.  I actually lost interest in this one about three episodes in.  It was apparently based on a series of novelty model kits from the 1970s. 

Beast Machines:  Transformers (1999 - 2000) - The follow-up to Beast Wars, as the battle moved back to Cybertron and Megatron has become absolute dictator of all.  The Maximals, now a perfect fusion of technology and organic beings known as "technorganics," seek to liberate Cybertron.  Darker and grittier than Beast Wars, but more introspective and philosophical as well, and that's where it lost people. 

Action Man (2000 - 2001) - Extreme sports star Alex "Action Man" Mann is captured and experimented on by the evil Dr. X.  Escaping from Dr. X's lab, Alex is now imbued with the AMP Factor...a power in which, under extreme stress, he can calculate the most mathematically improbably scenarios and make it happen.  Now, in addition to his extreme sports activities, Alex is also a secret agent,  on the mission to apprehend Dr. X.  If you ever wondered what a Saturday morning cartoon based on The Matrix would be like...you've got to watch Action Man.  Alex's handler with the shadowy government agency dedicated to bringing in Dr. X was very much based on Morpheus...large African-American, dark trench coat, dark sunglasses, speaking in cryptic hints.  And at each episodes climax, when the AMP Factor kicks in, everything turns to that green falling text, like in the climax of The Matrix when Neo finally accepts that he's the one.  Seriously.  This got dangerously close to being The Matrix:  The Animated Series.

Spider-Man:  The New Animated Series (2002 - 2003) - And here's where Mainframe peaked.  They got the contract to do a Spider-Man cartoon.  Officially designed to pick up on the continuity of the 2002 Sam Raimi film, and with Ultimate Spider-Man creator Brian Michael Bendis on board to run the writers' room, this was a really good addition to the long-stranding series of Spider-Man cartoons.  It ran on MTV in the States, and was therefore allowed to be a little more adult. 

And yeah...I stopped following Mainframe religiously after this.  They didn't do much more in the way of TV shows, and they began shifting their focus to straight-to-DVD animated movies.  For TV series, they did a couple of Hot Wheels cartoons...they did a couple of Halloween specials based on the Scary Godmother books....and that was about it.

Nope, for most of the 2000's, their bread-and-butter was straight-to-DVD movies.  They got the license from Mattel to pump out the Barbie straight-to-DVD movies, and it's something they still do to this very day under the Rainmaker name.  They did a Popeye straight-to-DVD movie, they did an Inspector Gadget straight-to-DVD movie.  I kept saying I'd rent them some day, but I never did. 

And yeah.  What was once the most prolific computer animation studio in the world has just kind of faded away.  But their great cartoons will live forever.

The New Wonder Woman

So, David E. Kelley, the creator of such classic legal shows like Ally McBeal, The Practice, Boston Legal and the new show Harry's Law, is the latest one to try to bring Wonder Woman to life.  He's currently working on a new Wonder Woman TV show.  A script for a pilot episode has been written, and today it's been announced who'll be playing the new Wonder Woman...Adrianne Palicki.  She was one of the stars of Friday Night Lights and will soon be in the remake of Red Dawn. 

I'm not too sure about this project...everything I've read online isn't giving me a lot of confidence.  Instead of being Diana, princess of the Amazons and the Amazon's chosen ambassador to the world, Wonder Woman now adopts the secret identy of Diana Thymescera, the president and CEO of Thymescera Industries.  ?

In between her superheroics, we get to see Diana try to balance her life between being a high-powered corporate CEO and her not-too-successful love life...you know, the kind of stuff that was revolutionary when Kelley was doing it in season 1 of Ally McBeal, but starting to feel cliched by season 3 of Ally McBeal.  Apparently, the script is even full of such "grrrl power" cliches like having Wonder Woman listen to Beyonce's Single Ladies while charging into battle. 

I don't know dude.  I still think an incredibly fantastic Wonder Woman movie can be made, and the fact that we're going to be getting Ally McWonder Woman instead just doesn't sit right. 

As with all my rants about Wonder Woman, I'll end by recommending you check out the 2009, straight-to-DVD animated film, which is the best straight-to-DVD animated film that DC Comics has produced so far.

Scared Shrekless

Over on my Facebook page, I was recently taken to task over my recent blog post where I cry woe over Cars 2, Pixar's recent discovery of sequels, and how DreamWorks started the whole thing by taking each and every film of theirs with a modicum of success and beating it to death with an endless stream of sequels.  Apparently, some 3 year olds read that blog post and were heartbroken.  After I stopped patting myself on the back for having some 3 year old fans, I started being amazed that 3 year olds can read blogs.  They grow up so fast these days....

Anyway, I can't be too mad at DreamWorks Animation for beating each and every dead horse they unleash on the screen.  They actually have a sound business strategy for it.  DreamWorks has said that the whole point of their endless streams of sequels is that they're trying to build a stable of beloved animated characters.  You know, Warner Brothers has Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the whole Looney Tunes gang.  Disney has Mickey, Donald, Goofy et al, and DreamWorks is hoping to make a universe out of Shrek, Po the Kung Fu Panda, and Ben Stiller the talking lion.  And the only way DreamWorks is going to do that is through constantly exposing us to these characters. 

And as part of their constant exposure is a new line of holiday specials featuring the DreamWorks characters.  It all started in 2007 with the Shrek Christmas special.  It continued last year with the Monsters vs. Aliens Halloween special and the Madagascar Christmas special.  And it kept going last night with Scared Shrekless, the Shrek Halloween special.  I thought I'd check it out of curiosity, mainly because brand new animated holiday specials don't come around that often anymore.

So, as the special begins, as you can imagine, ogres love Halloween.  Shrek, Fiona, and their triplets are having a grand old time scaring the pants off of trick-or-treaters.  Donkey, Puss in Boots, and some of your other favourite supporting characters unsuccessfully try to scare Shrek, only to have Fiona remind them that they're ogres:  "We do the scaring.  We don't get scared."  Disbelieving this statement, Donkey and Puss in Boots propose a contest.  They'll spend the night telling spooky stories.  And whoever tells the scariest story will be proclaimed King of Halloween!  Shrek gets the bright idea to raise the stakes by taking their contest down to Castle Duloc, which you may remember as Lord Farquaad's fortress way back in the first movie.  Apparently, it's lain in ruins since the end of the first film, and is now reportedly haunted by Lord Farquaad's ghost.

OK, here's where I've got to give the special kudos for being clever.  I still kind of like the first film -- you know, before they ran the premise into the ground -- and in their journey back to Duloc there were lots of wonderful callbacks to the first film as we saw everything in a new, spooky light. 

They settle into the ruins of Farquaad's throne room and being telling their spooky stories.  The whole thing then devolves into a ripoff of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror as we're treated to some parodies of horror stories featuring Shrek characters.  We've got:

The Bride of Gingy - Gingy the Gingerbread Man implores the Muffin Man to make him a Gingerbread Lady.  However, Gingy throws too much sugar into the mix, turning his bride into an obsessive, stalkerish, crazy lady.  Gingy thinks he disposes of her by tossing her back into some mixing batter, but this only turns her into a horde of zombie brides. 

Boots Motel - This tale is told by Donkey and Puss in Boots.  What starts off as a simple Psycho spoof soon turns into pure slapstick as Donkey and Puss in Boots come up with more and more outlandish ways to off each other. 

The Shreksorcist - Shrek's tale is a spoof of The Exorcist, as Shrek is called upon to be babysiter for a possessed and demented Pinocchio.  The usual round of head-turning-around and projectile-vomit-pea-soup jokes are in full force.  However, the punchline, concering the revelation of the voice in Pinocchio's head, is priceless. 

Fiona and the triplets show up, masquerading as Farquaad's ghost, and it's enough to scare off the rest of the supporting characters and for Shrek to win the contest.  Shrek, Fiona, and the triplets then cap off Halloween by egging the Seven Dwarfs.  "I am not Happy!" exclaims one of the dwarfs, thus ensuring DreamWorks won't get sued by Disney. 

And that was Scared Shrekless.  A few clever jokes couldn't salvage it from being more than an endless stream of repetitve slapstick gags.  I was really glad that they got back to what made the first film so great:  slamming Disney and the typical fairy tale conventions.  But yeah.  It just got too silly and too stupid after a while. 

If you'd like to see it for yourself, it's going to be on again on Saturday night.  And they advertised quite heavily that A Kung Fu Panda Christmas is coming in one months time.  You go, DreamWorks.  You work to make Donkey as beloved as Chip n Dale.

And for any three year olds whose hearts I may have broken with my comments, come on.  Come here.  Sit down with me on the couch.  I first saw this movie when I was about your age and I still love it to this day.  Let's watch it together, and you'll see it's a much better movie.  It's called Star Wars.   

TV So Far

Of course, this is a very exciting time in television.  It seems like just about every new TV show is premiering this week, and returning shows are having their season premieres, and I've been able to catch a lot of it.  So, just wanted to share my thoughts on what I've caught so far.

First up, as part of the kitchy, gimmicky stuff I love so much, had to sit down on Monday night and watch the big CBC special The Queen in 3D.  As the legend goes, the only existing footage of the coronoation of Queen Elizabeth II is the grainy, early black and white TV footage.  Well, as it turned out, the Queen's coronation was actually filmed in 3D, with the intent of showing it in theatres shortly after her coronation so you could have the experience of actually being there.  Well, what actually happened, back in 1953, once it was announced that the Queen's coronation would be televised, the whole of the UK actually experienced a massive boom in TV sales so people could watch it on TV.  With darn near everyone having watched the coronation on TV, the 3D footage was filed away in an archive and forgotten....

...Until last year, when some heroic archivists discovered it.  So of course, the footage was cleaned up, they shot some new 3D footage of the Queen when she visited Canada earlier this year, and the CBC made a 1-hour documentary about the Queen's previous visits to Canada.

I don't know about this one.  First complaint:  the 3D didn't look too good on my TV.  Seriously.  Even with the 3D glasses on, the whole thing looked as 2-dimensional as regular TV.  Second complaint:  they were advertising how it would be full of rare footage of the Queen's previous visits, such as visiting Expo 67.  All that rare footage was crammed into a 2-minute montage in the middle of the show.  Third complaint:  that 15-minute section about the history of 3D film was out of place. 

All in all, a good try, CBC, but it came off as too gimicky. 

Next up, it was what surveys said is the most anticipated new TV sereis of the fall season...the remake of the classic cop show, Hawaii Five-0.  Part of the appeal to me is the creators of this remake are Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.  These two are currently some of the hottest writers in Hollywood, having written the big screen versions of Transformers and the new Star Trek.  (They also wrote Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, but I still blame director Michael Bay for that one being so bad.) 

So, yeah, basic detective show set-up.  Steve McGarrett is a dedicated Navy SEAL fighting terrorists around the world.  When the terrorists kills his father in an act of retaliation, McGarrett returns home to Honolulu, where he's appointed the head of a new police task force to take down terrorists and all other kinds of dastardly criminals setting up shop in Hawaii.  He's quickly joined on his task force by Detective Dan "Dano" Williams, a New Jersey detective who recently moved to Hawaii to be closer to his ex-wife and daughter; Detective Chin Ho Kelly, a childhood friend of McGarrett's who was drummed out of the police force on false charges of bribery; and Detective Kono Kalakaua, a recent police academy grad, and Kelly's hot surfer girl cousin.  In addition to creators Orci and Kurzman, it gets geek cred by having Kono played by Grace Park, who played Boomer on the recent Battlestar: Galactica remake. 

The pilot was your basic cop show action/drama formula.  Nothing really too remarkable.  They uncover the plot thread that McGarrett's father -- also a Honolulu detective -- was investigating some massive conspiracy that may have contributed to him getting killed, so that'll be our recurring "mytharc" to be sure.  But yeah.  Despite the hype, I found it to be a fairly routine action show. 

From there, it was on to the season premiere of House.  For those just tuning in, the season finale cliffhanger for House, saw longtime characters House and Cuddy finally hooking up after six season of some rather antagonistic flirting.  I'm a little wary of this.  Seeing characters hook up like this is usually seen as a "shark-jumping" moment for a longrunning TV show, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out this season. 

I know that House usually gets a lot of flak for being a farily formulaic show and sticking to its episode formula pretty closely, so I'm always glad to see episodes completely break from its formula.  And that's what the season premiere was.  A complete break from the formula as House and Cuddy decided to take the day off work, just hang out, indulge in some passionate lovemaking, and just talk about their feelings and figure out if a relationship between the two could work.  Some great character stuff.

And the subplot brought some good comic relief, as Cuddy's absence and a few remarks from House result in the hospital almost being shut down, and House's staff frantically working to keep the hospital open.  It also generated some mystery, as the season finale saw Thirteen requesting a leave of absence, and staying mum on her reasons why. 

The real reson why Thirteen is taking a leave of absence is because the actress who plays Thirteen, Olivia Wilde, needs some to finish up Tron: Legacy and Cowboys and Aliens.  She is not leaving the show.  In the episodes ahead, Amber Tamblyn, still best remembered as Joan on Joan of Arcadia, will be joining the show as a sharp medical intern that House takes on his team as Thirteen's substitute.  Big changes this season!

And that brings us Tuesday, where I caught the season premiere of The Rick Mercer Report.  Always solidly funny.  And, as always, it'll be fun to watch The Rick Mercer Report devolve throughout the season as Mercer burns through his travel budget.  The first few episodes of the season are always in some exotic, far off location, and by the end, he's stuck to places in the Greater Toronto Area.

Last night's season premiere:  "Tonight, on The Mercer Report, we're in Shanghai for Expo 2010!"

$5 says this is the season finale:  "Tonight, on The Mercer Report, we're in the CBC break room playing foozeball with George Strombolopolis." 

And then after Rick Mercer I made the mistake of watching This Hour has 22 Minutes.  I'm sorry, but I find This Hour has 22 Minutes to be one of those TV shows that stopped being funny a LONG time ago.  I blame Mark Critch.  I find Mark Critch so unfunny I want to punch him in the face.  I just find him too bitter and cynical.  I have this theory about Mark Critch.  Critch was just a writer for 22 Minutes back in its glory days of the late-90s/early-00s, when Rick Mercer was on the show.  I think Critch and Mercer had some kind of falling out, and Critch is trying to show the world he was the brains behind Mercer.  But sadly, Critch just comes across as a bitter jerk trying to do Mercer's act.  All I'm really trying to say is Mark Critch sucks. 

And that's the new TV season so far.  This Wednesday night, we've got the season premiere of Law & Order: SVU, which I still watch even though I think it's starting to get ridiculous and sensational.  We've also got the season premiere of Cougar Town, which I actually find pretty funny, and my reality TV show addication, Hell's Kitchen.  Stay tuned....

Various Animation Ramblings

I can't believe that I didn't notice that my favourite Disney animated film, The Black Cauldron, just got a brand-new, 25th anniversary special edition DVD!  And it came out on Tuesday! 

Reading the tech specs, it doesn't sound like too much of an improvement over the original "Gold Collection" DVD.  It's finally in anamorphic widescreen, and for new bonus features, they added a deleted scene and an interactive game. 

Sadly, the deleted scene isn't the most famous deleted scene.

Here's the most famous deleted scene from The Black Cauldron:  the evil Horned King unleashed his Army of Cauldron-Born...you know, your basic unstoppable army of the undead.  There's this eerie green mist that surrounds them.  The Cauldron-Born encounter one of the Horned King's, you know, living warriors.  The Cauldron-Born leap on the warrior and



The green mist strips the flesh from the warrior's bones, turning him into one of the Cauldron-Born



Now a Cauldron-Born, the warrior leaps out of the green mist and joins the ranks of the Cauldron-Born.

According to legend, the scene was deleted because Jeffrey Katzenburg just became head of the Disney Studios, and when he saw the scene, he was mortified that such a graphic image was in a Disney animated film.  So he ordered it cut. 

It does exist.  I've seen screen grabs online.  It's shocking that such a thing exists, but The Black Cauldron  was Disney's infamous attempt to create an animated film for adults. 

Actually, there's a similar scene in my favourite DC Comics direct-to-DVD animated film, Wonder Woman.  In the film's climax, Ares has gained all the powers of the gods.  The Amazons unleash an attack on him.  Using his powers, Ares raises from the dead ever Amazon that's ever fallen in battle.  So, we have Amazons vs. undead Amazons. 

In the battle, one of the undead Amazons slays an Amazon.  The Amazon falls to the ground, dead.  Her skin shrivels up to the dull, grey skin tone of the undead.  Her eyes snap back open, the dead, soulless eyes of the undead, and she starts fighting alongside the undead Amazon that killed her.  A very chilling scene.

Have I mentioned that Wonder Woman is my favourite of the DC animated films?  It's so good!

Switching gears to Star Wars now, I read an interview the other day that made me laugh.

I'm not a big fan of the Clone Wars cartoon.  I saw the movie, and the movie was just so bad, that it killed all desire to see the series.  Well, I just read an interview Dave Filoni, the supervising producer on the Clone Wars cartoon, and what I read made me laugh. 

The interviewer asked that, now that the series has grown and evolved and is so drastically different from the film, if he could go back and change the film, would he?  Filoni said he loved to, and has even asked George Lucas about doing it.  Lucas said, "Sorry, dude, the film is done.  You have to let it go."

"C'mon man, let me do a special edition!" said Filoni, and George Lucas just gave him an icy glare. 

So, there you go.  Apparently, George Lucas doesn't like anyone changing Star Wars...unless it's him. 

Billie Mae Richards

Some tragic news came across my desk that I felt I must share with the world.

Back on Friday, Billie Mae Richards passed away.

Richards was a highly acclaimed Canadian actress and singer.  She was, however, best known for her work as a voice actress.  She started as a voice actress in the CBC radio drama department, where her specialty was voicing children.  Back in the 1960s, when she got her start, the CBC radio drama department was regarded as being the best group of voice actors in North America, and she got to do a lot of cartoon voices.  She did many voices on the original 1960s Spider-Man cartoon and Rocket Robin Hood.  In the 1980s, she did the voice of several Care Bears characters...most notably Tenderheart Bear in the first two movies, and Brightheart Racoon in the subsequent TV series.  In fact, according to the IMDB, her last credited role was reprising the voice of Brightheart Racoon for a direct-to-DVD Care Bears movie about five years ago.

But perhaps her most famous role is the one we hear every Christmas.




That's right, she was the voice of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Apparently, she could do Rudolph's voice right up until her dying days.  When her great-grandkids friends didn't believe that she was Rudolph, she would do the voice, and the kids would be gobsmacked. 

She was 88 years old. 

At the Movies Returns!

This news is actually about a week old...I just haven't had a chance to blog about yet.

About a month or so ago, like a lot of movie geeks, I was lamenting the loss of At the Movies, that classic movie review show started by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert all those years ago, and known as Siskel & Ebert during its heyday.  After 35 years on the air in one form or another, it was canceled this past August due to declining ratings.

Well, for over a year now, Roger Ebert has been mentioning at his blog that he was seeking other avenues to resurrect the show and bring it back to its roots.  Ebert, and many others agree, that in this growing age of digital downloads and pay-per-view and so many ways to get your movies, there still exists the need for some kind of program that tells you if movies are good or not. 

And so, last week, Roger Ebert announced the creation of his new TV show, Roger Ebert presents At the Movies.  He really is going back to his roots.  Just like the very first seasons of the show, it'll be produced by and air on PBS. 

The new critics on the show will be Christy Lemure of the Associated Press and Elvis Mitchell of NPR.  Regular contributors and occasional guest hosts will be film bloggers Kim Morgan and Omar Moore.  Ebert himself will appear in a regular segment called "Roger's Office," in which Ebert will geek out over one of his favourite films...either something new, or an overlooked classic. 

In addition to movie reviews, there'll be regular segments classic films, on-demand viewing, and genre films.

The series will also the return of the classic "Two Thumbs Up" rating system made popular by Siskel & Ebert.  The whole "Two Thumbs Up" system is actually owned by and a registered trademark of Roger Ebert and the Estate of Gene Siskel.  The original At the Movies program stopped using it when Ebert and Disney (the produers of At the Movies) got into royalty dispute.  Others say Ebert stopped letting Disney use it when Ebert didn't like the direction of the new show.  Either way, Two Thumbs Up is back.

The new show will be premiering on PBS stations all across the USA this January.

Here's Ebert's official announcement from his website. 

Sunday Morning at the Movies

While flipping around the channels on this Sunday night, I managed to catch the final episode of At the Movies.  The majority of the online film community has been shedding a tear for the end of this 35-year franchise and what it did for film.  Let me bring you up to speed.

At the Movies started way back in 1975 when Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert started meeting on Chicago's PBS station to review movies.  It was such a hit, that in the early -1980s, it went into syndication, first by Tribune Entertianment, and then by Disney.  During this era, it was most commonly known as Siskel and Ebert, and brought the world of movies into people's homes.

But, the past decade was not kind to At the Movies.  It all began in 1999, when Gene Siskel passed away.  Roger Ebert then had a rotating panel of co-hosts until Y2K, when he settled on his fellow Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper, and it became Ebert and Roeper At the Movies.  It was like that until 2006, when Roger Ebert had to step down due to his failing health.  So, it was Roeper and rotating co-hosts until 2008, when Disney decided to take the show in "a new direction."  That new direction was critics Ben Lyons and Ben Mankewicz.  I never caught it during this era, but reviews were not kind.  Last year, they were replaced with critics A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips, but it was too little too late. 


Watching that final episode, I was a little sadder than I thought I'd be.  I have fond memories of Siskel and Ebert.  In the early-1990s, my parents were good church-going folk, but I didn't want to go, finding church to be too boring.  Being old enough to be left at home on my own, my family would leave me at home on Sunday morning while they went to church.  And I stayed at home and watched Siskel and Ebert. 

The early 90s was the perfect time to be watching Siskel and Ebert.  I mean, growing up in small-town Alberta, where you rented movies from the local gas station and the closest movie theatres were an hour away, where else was a kid going to be exposed to the entire world of movies out there?  And with the rise of independent film in the 1990s, Siskel and Ebert was where I was first exposed to Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarintino, Hayao Miyazaki, and many other fantastic filmmakers.

Hell, my first exposure to Clerks was when the special edition laserdisc came out, and Siskel and Ebert showed the original ending to Clerks on the show and debated whether Kevin Smith was right to cut it or not.  (Consensus:  he was.)  My first exposure to Hayao Miyazaki was their review of My Neighbor Totoro.  Ebert loved that film so much.  That show gave a lot of films exposure that wouldn't have gotten any. 

And now, it's done.  Great films will still get exposure, though.  My favourite film, The Iron Giant, was brought to my attention, not because of a TV show, but because of all the reviews I read online.  Great films still have a way of getting out there.  Part of the problem, though, is on the Internet, there's just so many voices to weed through.  Not like the old days, when it was just two guys talking about films, and you were eavesdropping through the TV. 

More Robot Chicken and Family Guy Star Wars Spoofs

Well, Family Guy and Robot Chicken have announced the latest installments in their series of Star Wars spoofs.

First up, we have Robot Chicken Star Wars: Episode III, coming on December 12.  Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich say that this one will have more of a linear storyline than their other specials, and that it'll tell the entire Star Wars saga from the villains' point of view.

New celebrity voices include Community star Donald Glover, Family Guy and Cleveland Show writer/voice actor Mike Henry, current teen heartthrob Zak Efron as Anakin Skywalker, and Anthony Daniels returning to the role that made him famous, C-3P0. 

Returning celebrity voices include Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, Ahmed Best as Jar Jar Binks, Breckin Meyer, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane as Emperor Palpatine.

It airs on December 12.


And speaking of Seth MacFarlane and Family Guy, Family Guy's scene-for-scene spoof of Return of the Jedi will be hitting DVD and Blu-Ray on December 21.

For celebrity guest voices in this one, we've got Family Guy regular Adam West, original Star Wars star Carrie Fisher (she's become a regular on the Family Guy cast and they've been trying to get her in one of these Star Wars specials since the first one), Rush Limbaugh will be voicing the Sarlaac, and, apparently, they wind up doing some kind of crossover with Star Trek: The Next Generation and Patrick Stewart and Michael Dorn will be back as Capt. Picard and Worf.

No word on the title of this one.  They were going to call it We Have a Bad Feeling About This, but the articles today announcing the special guest voices say that it's "currently untitled."  Originally, because of all the animatronic characters that pop up in ROTJ, they wanted to call it Episode VI: The Great Muppet Caper, but they actually got into trouble from the Muppet folks over that.  I guess will know the title when they show their 10-minute sneak peak at the San Diego ComicCon in two weeks. 

The Latest DC Animation

So, there's another new cartoon coming this fall based on a DC Comic title. The latest entry in the DC animated pantheon is...Young Justice.



Young Justice was a group of teen superheroes that existed in the late-90s/early-00s. It was kind of created to fill the void left by the Teen Titans, because they all grew up and became simply "The Titans." The group was disbanded with the bulk of them being mentored by the Titans to become the new Teen Titans.

As you can see, the line-up in our superhero group is Superboy, Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad (who has arbitrarily been made African American to add racial diversity), Miss Martian, and Artemis, who from what I gather online is based on the current Speedy.

The 'toon premieres on the Cartoon Network this fall. Oh, and good news for a super-geek like me, the creator/showrunner is Greg Weisman, who was the creator/showrunner of Disney's cult classic 'toon, Gargoyles.

And speaking of DC animation, here's the latest trailer for the next DTV animated film, Batman: Under the Red Hood.

Chill of the Night

I just finished watching the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode Chill of the Night!, and I must say, that's got to be one of the best episodes of that cartoon to date. Granted, I like it because it's got gobs and gobs of fanservice going for it. But, added to that, is the fact that it is a very good story. And for a cartoon that's prided itself on being a more lighthearted take on the Batman mythos, it is shocking how dark of an episode it is.

It's one of those episodes that goes deep into Batman's origins and tries to figure out what makes him tick. Those always make for good episodes of any Batman cartoon, as Batman has a very grim origin with lots of dark alleys to explore.

So, the plot. In an otherworldly nexus, two of DC's supernatural heroes, the Spectre and the Phantom Stranger, are having a discussion. The Phantom Stranger applauds Batman for always being on the side of justice, but the Spectre is upset that Batman hasn't become an agent of vengeance who dispatches the guilty in grizzly manner. So, the Spectre and the Phantom Stranger essentially make a wager for Batman's soul. Should the Spectre win, Batman becomes a murderous agent of vengeance. Should the Phantom Stranger win, Batman continues on his path as an agent of justice. So what case is Batman working that brought the Spectre and the Phantom Stranger together to have this discussion? Batman is very close to solving the case that created him: finding the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. That's right, Bruce Wayne is finally about to track down the man who killed his parents. Once Batman finds this man, will he become an agent of vengeance and murder his parents killer, or remain an agent of justice and turn him in to the proper authorities?

As I'm sure you can imagine, Phantom Stranger and Spectre show up to assist Batman in this case, and they very much play the roles of the angel and the devil on Batman's shoulders. And there's also a great sequence where Phantom Stranger throws Batman back in time, and Batman actually gets to meet his parents and fight along side his father...who's also dressed as a bat, thanks to comic book contrivances.

Now, I mentioned the great gobs of fanservice in this, so let's look at that. First up, the episode was written by Paul Dini. Dini was one of the main creative forces behind Batman: The Animated Series all those years ago and is still pretty much acknowledged as being one of the greatest writers to write Batman in the past 20 years.

And let's not forget the stunt casting! Here's our galaxy of guest stars.

Phantom Stranger is voiced by Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman on Batman: The Animated Series.

Spectre is voiced by Mark Hamill, who voiced the Joker on Batman: The Animated Series. Oh, and of course, he was Luke Skywalker, too.

When Batman is thrown back in time, Thomas Wayne is voiced by Adam West. You know, Batman on the 1960s TV show. And Martha Wayne is voiced by Julie Newmar, who was Catwoman on the 1960s TV show.

And another that wasn't hyped, but I picked up on. Moxon, the mafioso who ordered the death of Thomas Wayne, was voiced by Richard Moll. Still best remembered as Bull on Night Court, Moll also voiced Two-Face on Batman: The Animated Series.

But yeah. It was just a great episode, and I can't stop watching it.

King of the Wild Frontier

You know, something happened in pop culture last week that I haven't taken the time to acknowledge yet.

Last week, Fess Parker passed away at the age of 85. To Disney fans like me, Parker will always be remembered as Davy Crockett.





I love Disney's Davy Crockett. Way back when I was but a wee lad in Entwistle, and VCRs were starting to become commonplace, and you had to actually rent VCRs and the movies, one of the movies my folks ever rented to entertain us kids was Davy Crockett and the River Pirates. I was instantly smitten. Disney's Davy Crockett tales are nothing but stories of high adventure, perfect for young boys.

I was caught an interview with Buddy Ebsen, who played Crockett's best friend and sidekick George Russel, in which he talked about the series. "People think it was this huge series that ran for years, but we only made 5 episodes!" And that's correct. The five episodes are thus:

Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter - Crockett volunteers to help settle an Native American uprising.

Davy Crockett Goes to Congress - Touching upon Crockett's political career, as he makes a name for himself as a congressman.

Davy Crockett At the Alamo - Chronicling Crockett's final days as he heads to Texas to assist in the fight for independance.

Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race - Crockett crosses path with ruthless keelboat skipper Mike Fink and they engage in a race.

Davy Crockett and the River Pirates - Crockett allies himself with Mike Fink to take down some ruthless river pirates.

Even though all TVs were black and white back in the 1950s, Walt Disney had the foresight to film all these episodes in colour. That way, he could edit these episodes into movies and release them to theatres. The first three episodes were edited into the film Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. The latter two were edited into the aforementioned Davy Crockett and the River Pirates.

Disney released the complete series on DVD as part of their super limited edition Walt Disney Treasures collection back in 2001. The movie versions have been released on DVD and are available "wherever DVDs are sold," as they say on TV.

As for Fess Parker after Davy Crockett, he had pretty good career. In the 1960s, he played another frontier hero, Daniel Boone, on the same-named TV series for 6 seasons. And then, in the 1970s, he retired from acting, bought himself a vineyard, and made "some mighty fine wine," as the song says.

Ode to Kevin Conroy

I'm still not one for pirating TV shows and movies, but I think it might be time to start, because I want to catch the new episodes of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. This is the latest Batman cartoon. Each one features Batman teaming up with another DC Comics hero...they've been digging up a lot of obscure, B- and C-list heroes to team up with Batman. For a lot of them, it's their first time in animation, so it's a lot of fun for the nerds like me. And now I'm geeking out because Kevin Conroy is about to do a special guest voice in a couple of upcoming episodes.

For those who don't care, Kevin Conroy did the voice of Batman on Batman: The Animated Series, and to a lot of fanboys out there, Conroy is *THE* voice of Batman. It's pretty much agreed that Conroy nailed his audition, and is still the definitive portrayal of Batman. For that series of straight-to-DVD animated films that DC Comics is currently doing, there's always a massive fan uproar when they learn that the film features Batman and Conroy is not voicing the character. For example, there's an upcoming one called Batman: Under the Red Hood, in which Batman will be voiced by Bruce Greenwood, best known right now to my fellow trekkies as Capt. Pike in Star Trek. He's got a great voice for Batman, but he's no Conroy.

I understand the need to have a different voice for Batman in these different interpretations. Sometimes, you just need a different actor to help with that different interpretation. Right now, in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Batman is voiced by Diedrich Bader, probably still best remembered as Oswald on The Drew Carey Show. And Bader is doing a wonderful job portraying a light-hearted Batman in this light-hearted interpretation. I'm not sure Conroy could do a silly Batman.

But still, it makes me geek out when it's announced Conroy is coming on to do a guest voice. In the last Batman cartoon, The Batman, Conroy popped up as John Grayson, the father of Dick Grayson, aka Robin. That episode was also geek-tacular in that Mark Hamil, who voiced the Joker on Batman: The Animated Series, voiced Tony Zucco, the mob hitman who murdered Dick Grayson's parents.

Conroy will be popping up on Batman: The Brave and the Bold doing the voice of the Batman of Zurr-en-Arr. In order to keep with the light-hearted tone of the series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold draws a lot from the comics of the 1950s and 1960s. And from that era, we have the Batman of Zurr-en-Arr. Zurr-en-Arr is another planet, where they have grand old time watching us with their high-powered telescopes. One young man is inspired by the exploits of Batman to become a Batman for Zurr-en-Arr. But eventually, the Batman of Zurr-en-Arr encounters a villain so great that the only thing he can think of doing is teleporting the real Batman the Zurr-en-Arr to help him out.

Apparently, Conroy will also turn up on The Brave and the Bold voicing The Phantom Stranger, so I've got to start watching that show.

Reflections on Rudolph's Shiny New Year

Feeling kind of run-down this morning, that's because I stayed up late last night watching TV.

But I had to tune in! Rudolph's Shiny New Year was on, and I hadn't seen that since one snowy New Years Eve when I was 7 years old. I had only fuzzy recollections of it, so I had to see how much I actually did remember.

For those who've never heard of it, Rudolph's Shiny New Year is the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer New Years special. It was made by the exact same people who made Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and it is kind of cute.

It's Christmas Day, and Santa has just gotten back from delivering presents, when he gets a note from his old colleague, Father Time. It seems that the Baby New Year has gone missing, and Father Time wants Santa to assist in the search. Since the North Pole is fogged in, Santa delegates Rudolph to do this task, as Rudolph is the only one who can navigate through the fog.

Rudolph makes his way across the Sands of Time to Father Time's castle, where Father Time plays the role of Captain Exposition. Father Time explains that the Baby New Year was gifted with abnormaly large ears, that cause most people to burst into laughter. This hurt the Baby's feelings, and he ran away. And, if the Baby New Year isn't crowned the New Year at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, then it will remain December 31 forever. Father Time suspects that Happy (the Baby New Year's name...short for "Happy New Year") might be hiding out on the Archipelago of Last Years. This is where the years go to retire after their reign as a year...each one chooses an island to be their home, and "time stands still" on that island, where it is that sovereign's year forever.

So Rudolph makes his way to the Archipelago, with the help of a talking whale named Big Ben. (Yup, there are all kinds of time-related puns in this special.) Rudolph visits many islands searching for Happy, and he soon gains assistance from the previous years:

- One Million BC (or O.M. for short). He's a caveman, and his island is populated with dinosaurs.
- 1023, a shining knight who is addressed as "Sir 10-2-3." His land is a fairy tale kingdom.
- 1776, or "Sev" for short. He looks a lot like Benjamin Franklin, and on his island, it's constantly the Fourth of July.

Each one tells Rudolph a similar story: Happy visited their island, made lots of friends, but as soon as Happy removed his hat and his large ears flopped into view, his new friends laughed, and Happy ran away with hurt feelings.

But soon, tragedy! Happy is soon abducted by Aeon the Vulture! Aeon lives for exactly one aeon, and then he turns to ice. His aeon is up at the stroke of midnight. With Happy as his prisoner, the new year will never come, and Aeon will live forever! Rudolph and his new friends make their way to Aeon's home, the Island of No Name. Rudolph makes his way to Happy, and they have a chat. See, Rudolph also knows what it's like to have people point and laugh because you're different, and Rudolph explains that he grew up and got over it. He continues to explain that, if someone is truly your friend, they'll eventually stop laughing and get to know you. To prove this point, Rudolph urges Happy to remove his hat. Happy's big ears flop out, and Rudolph chuckles. Rudolph explains that he was so filled with joy, that it had to come out somehow. Happy, learning to get over it, vows to go home with Rudolph and become the New Year.

This does piss off Aeon, but when Aeon sees Happy's big ears, he bursts into laughter. And Rudolph assures Aeon that no one who's heart is so full of laughter need never fear that he'll turn to ice.

But, oh noes! The clock begins striking midnight! It's too late! Or...is it? Santa finally appears, and says that if he can deliver presents to all the boys and girls of the world in one night, he can get Happy back to Father Time's castle before the clock finishes striking midnight.

They get to Father Time's castle, Happy is officially crowned the New Year, and they all lived happily ever after!

And that's how Rudolph saved New Years!

I thought it was kind of cute, and I loved having all my memories of being 7 or 8 come back to me. But, in retrospect, was this truly a good message to send to the kids? I mean, at the end of the day, the moral is, "It's OK to point and laugh at someone who's different." Or was the moral, "You'll get pointed at and laughed at because you're different, so get over it?" It could be taken either way.

But it was a fun special, and I see that tonight, another classic aniamted New Years special that I haven't seen since I was seven or eight is on again: Happy New Year, Charlie Brown.

Raccoon Musings

Christmas vacation is winding down, and as I flip through the channels on my parents' satalite TV, I find myself stopping on TeleToon Retro and watching a few episodes of The Raccoons. And Fraggle Rock is on right before it. If it started with The Wonderful World if Disney, you'd have the CBC's Sunday night line-up cirrca 1986.

Anyway, Raccoons. I remember watching the show as a kid, I always had trouble trying to figure out exactly what the relationship was between the three raccoons: Bert, Melissa, and Ralph. I mean, were they all related? Cuz they had the same last name. But then Melissa and Ralph were more mature than Bert...could they maybe be Bert's parents? But they all seemed the same age. The show always left it so vague.

What I finally decided on was that Melissa and Ralph were married, and that Bert was an annoying friend of Ralph's -- maybe even Ralph's brother -- who moved in with them and just wouldn't leave.

Such a great show. With remakes being the big thing, and talking animal movies dominating the animated film market these days, I'm surprised no one's attempted a remake or a reboot or some such thing yet.

More Christmas Special Stuff

So, in something that I am regretting this morning, I stayed up late last night to watch some Christmas specials. Two classics, and one new one, so I thought I'd offer up some off-the-cuff observations on them.

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town - Ah, this is one I always try to catch every year. That's the Christmas trilogy for me: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and this one. I've always loved this origin of Santa Claus..."Santa Claus Begins," as it were. However, it's only in the past five years or so I've started watching it with a critical eye, and there are a few things that catch me as being a little bit dated. For example, the character of Jessica, the woman who will be Mrs. Claus. When she realizes her love for Kris Kringle and vows to assist him in his task of delivering toys to children, she has this musical number called "My World is Beginning Today." And it's accompanied by some rather psychadelic animation, which was the style at the time. One thing that always makes me chuckle about that number is, in order to show her newfound status as a liberated free spirit, Jessica...lets her hair down. Literally. I mean, how cliched is that? It happens in every movie to show that woman is bucking the system, from the highest calibre Oscar-nominated drama, to the lowest budget adult productions about saucy librarians. And don't get me started about the wedding scene! Since Santa becomes an outlaw for delivering toys, he and the soon-to-be-Mrs.-Claus can't risk their lives by going to town and having a wedding in a church. So they have, like, this pagan wedding ceremony in the middle of the woods. As I said, it's only the past five years I've turned a critical eye to this one, so it's only in the past five years where I've watched that scene and go, "Wait, what?" But, despite the kitschy stuff like that, I still regard it as one of my favourites.

A Charlie Brown Christmas - Again, this one occasionally blows my mind how, for something that was made 44 years ago, still manages to remain topical. 1965, and already complaining about how commercial Christmas had become. And another reason why it stands out is because I don't think any other Christmas special has ever captured -- or even attempted to capture -- the depression that countless people feel during the Christmas season. Celebrating depression...that's what Charlie Brown is all about.

Prep and Landing - So, this is the new one that I wanted to watch. This one has been making lots of news in animation circles because it's the first animated Christmas special made by Disney. "But Mark," you're probably asking, "What about Mickey's Christmas Carol?" Well, that was originally shown in theatres, so it's not technically a Christmas special. Anyway, Prep and Landing explains how Santa Claus is able to get in and out of houses so fast on Christmas Eve. There's this elite team of elves called the Prep and Landing division that goes on ahead and prepares the house for Santa's arrival. Our story follows one elf on the Prep and Landing squad named Wayne. He's a long time vet of Prep and Landing, but when he's passed up for a promotion to Naughty List Intelligence, he kind of loses his Christmas spirit. It doesn't help that, this year, he gets partnered with a gung-ho rookie named Lanny. So, all depressed, Wayne decides to slack off this year, but his poor attitude means the house he and Lanny are assigned to doesn't get prepared for Santa, meaning that Santa will skip that house this year. Realizing his horrible mistake, Wayne has to jump back into action, get Santa to come back to this house, and save Christmas for this one little boy.

It was good, but it does have some of my earlier complaints about how, in newer specials, the magic of Christmas seems to have been replaced with a cynisism towards Christmas. "Ha ha! Elves are just cubicle jockeys like you and me! They also get passed up for promotions! Ha ha!" Yeah...elves getting mopey about not getting a promotion just doesn't scream Christmas to me. But there's some good jokes in it, and clever use of Christmas songs in the score, so I predict it'll be a timeless classic for at least the next 10 years.

And that's all for now. Still haven't caught other favourites like Frosty the Snowman or A Garfield Christmas, so let me know if you hear when they're coming on, OK? Cool.