The full trailer for The Pirates! Band Of Misfits is finally out, and it is a hoot. This animation is from the team that brings you Wallace and Gromit, so you know you are in for quality fun. It also has the best flying whale sequence since Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, and it should be out in March. I am ready for some silliness!
Once more, some very short but exceptional animations. You have already seen one of these before on this site, but this time I did not bother with the subtitles, since it seemed pretty self explanatory. All of these came from personal animation projects that got added to the NHK Digista site, and all of them are world class. Enjoy.
Yes, it is true. BBC America will be hosting a special TV presentation of NPR favorite Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me on Friday, December 23rd. Neil Gaiman will be playing their quiz game Not My Job, while Paula Poundstone, Alonzo Bodden and Phill Jupitus will be on the panel looking back at the years top stories from both a British and American perspective. The program will also be broadcast on NPR that weekend, so those of you reading this on the radio will not be left out. Had I been able to find a trailer, it would have been posted here.
For the second week in a row, no real new genre releases but they have turned one of the better books by a good author into a film I will be going to see: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. And once more, John le Carré’s hero Smiley gets put through the wringer for our enjoyment. They put together a quality cast for this project as well, in my opinion it should be a good counterbalance to enjoy against next weeks Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows release.
Topping of the film list this week is Cowboys & Aliens, the incredibly well done reimaging of Gene Autry’s 1935 classic The Phantom Empire. It absolutely gets my vote as best Western so far this century. As a counterbalance to that, Alien Armageddon has a bunch of cowboys trying to save Los Angeles from Space Zombies. Three guesses which one I will be bringing home. I am not even completely convinced that The Return of Post Apocalyptic Cowgirls wouldn’t be a better choice, also coming out this week, and extremely NSFW. And don’t even get me started on The Incubus, which can’t hold a candle to its 1982 namesake.
While not exactly genre, Jim Carey’s Mr. Popper’s Penguins is surreal enough to get an entry here, and a whole lot of fun. And the sleeper this week seems to be the Brazilian fantasy Astral City: A Spiritual Journey, which looks very reminiscent of What Dreams May Come, both in its cinematography and in its story. This one is worth checking out.
In TV, the primary choice this time around is The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Fourth Season. I miss Elizabeth Sladen, and am glad we have one more set of adventures to go on with her.
Captain Power: The Complete Series returns a 1980s show briefly to circulation. This one was somewhere between The Terminator and Power Rangers, and I think it may resemble the original Transformers by being a TV show spun off as a way of selling a children’s toy. But it did have a few things going for it, including the fact that along with Max Headroom that same year it was one of the first shows on TV to combine computer graphics with live action footage. But somehow Max has an honored place in my collection, while Captain Power does not, and will not.
In Anime, new this week is Tales of the Abyss – Part 2, continuing the story of the super powered boy hoodwinked by a general… or is he? Perhaps his companions will keep him from being used. Also coming around for the first time (that I am aware of) is Rozen Maiden Ouverture, which is an OVA prequel of the TV series. At the same time, they are also releasing Rozen Maiden – Complete Collection which includes season one (12 episodes), season two (another 12 episodes), and the prequel Ouverture (2 episodes). Since the complete collection is only double the cost of Ouverture while containing 12 times the number of minutes of animation, if you don’t already own the full series you will want to get the former.
Birdy the Mighty: Decode – The Complete Series finally brings this set down to a more reasonable cost than it had when broken down between the first and second season. I still own Birdy the Mighty: Final Force, which this one is pretty much a remake of, but I am looking forward to adding the new version to my collection. Also in re-release, Devil May Cry – The Complete Series S.A.V.E. Edition puts the entire anime series (not to be confused with the games, the manga, etc.) in your hands for noticeably less than $20 if you shop around.
A few more pictures from my trip to the UK the other month. These particular images are from (surprise!) the Doctor Who Experience, which will be moving from London to Cardiff this winter, to reopen in the spring. The London run will continue through February 22nd. The first image is the Tardis above the doorway at which you enter the exhibit, which tells you that you have correctly figured out the tube system upon arrival. The next is one of a large number of character mockups they have, in this case Davros. And finally, everybody’s favorite robot dog, K9. Yes, this really was the primary reason I made the journey over the water (OK, I admit, I never would have done it if a friend hadn’t been looking for a likely accomplice). Although I made sure to hit lots of other fun tourist spots, like Forbidden Planet and the Namco Funscape. I think there were some buildings and churches and castles and clock towers around, as well. I’ll have to check the photos and see.
