I love the fact that even the folks putting together the Academy Awards realize that animation is a wonderful way to create and share stories that could never be told any other way. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee created Frozen last year, won a ton of awards, and this year they got to host the Oscar party for all their fellow animators as their reward. I think they approached this with the right style, sharing a small but important slice of each nominees production, and then interviewing them about it, so they could share their vision with the world. This is a wonderful presentation; enjoy!
Terrestrial Human
Not a lot this week; Ejecta looks more like horror than sci-fi. For myself, I am going to hit one of the recent releases I missed the other week.
The best selection this week is the animated Marvel feature Big Hero 6, with a soft robot in an iron suit as one of the 6. The film is a bit of a homage to all things anime, and has a lot more humor than I was expecting. Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer’s Curse is the next direct-to-disc release in the Dragonheart franchise, with Ben Kingsley as the voice of the dragon this time.
In Anime Space Brothers: Collection 1 is literally about two brothers training to be astronauts, and this pack is the first 13 episodes in the series. There are at least 3 more seasons to the story after this first set; Crunchyroll is currently up to episode 99, I believe. Tiger & Bunny: The Rising is a feature film length presentation which has Bunny teamed up with a new partner on Hero TV as they fight to protect the citizens of Stern Build. In Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Yuta has worked hard to get past the belief he has has secret knowledge and hidden powers, but now a neighbor with that same belief system has shown up to drag him back into his delusions… or are they? Diabolik Lovers finds a girl living with six hansom but non-human boys, and she has to work hard to keep them at fangs length.
The new Superfly track is called White Light, released as a single last month. It is the title track of their new digital album, which will be coming out on May 27th.This song is the opening theme for Tales of Zestiria, an RPG for PS3. This short advertising version is the only one I found that can be legally posted, or I would have put the full 4 minutes on the page.
Somehow Monday slipped right by me without my noticing, so a bit late this week with the movie entries. Hot Tub Time Machine 2 might be as much fun as the original, this time they end up in the future while trying to get to the past… much like a certain 80s time travel trilogy. The Last: Naruto the Movie will only be available in a limited number of theaters in the US, but if you are near one of them it should be worth seeing on the big screen. Big in Japan is a musical comedy that has been making the festival circuit, it also has a limited run but looks kind of fun.
Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends completes the trilogy about the Samurai assassin who decided he would kill no more, and protect the weak and helpless. One OK Rock continues to be featured on the soundtrack, and the action is intense. You can find out more at the RuroKen Fan Site. The movie came out last September in Japan, and has been making the festival rounds; Amazon carries an all region DVD in stock, but somehow the release date went right past me without my noticing. This trailer was posted because it is about to be released in the UK.