According to the folks at Deadline, it looks like Fox has picked up the option to turn Issac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel into a movie. Considering what they did with the Will Smith version of Asimov’s I, Robot I don’t expect this one will be very close to the book either. Still, I will be in the theater when it hits the big screen, if only to see how close they came. Hopefully they will at least let the robot be one of the good guys this time. I should mention that I enjoyed their version of I, Robot, it just wasn’t very close to the book.
Rapparu is an 18 year old animator from Tokyo who appears to have more raw talent than most teens and some adults. The first piece is called Tenkou Kotofumi according to Crunchyroll (I can’t read the kanji and confirm that). The only part of the animation he didn’t build himself was the music, he got that as a free download song from Trial and Error. He has also created a ton of amazing black and white line art animated GIFs, and he compiled some of them into the second video on this page. I haven’t found anything of his that tells an entire story yet (or at least not one with dialog), but I am looking forward to seeing what else he comes up with.
This amazing video, called A Slice of Life, was put together by the folks at the GE Show. The premise of the program is to make the technology that is changing our day to day lives understandable in ways everyone can understand. The videos are short, punchy, and full of good information. The one presented here is the 7th in the series and demonstrates how an MRI works by giving you an analog equivalent; everyday objects (mostly food) are sliced up and photographed, the images then organized so you can view it in depth and over time. The soundtrack was nicely chosen to put a tempo to the process. Thanks to Laughing Squid for the heads up on this one.
According to Anime News Network, the latest film from Studio Ghibli, From Up on Poppy Hill, has blown away the competition to become the number one box office film in Japan for 2011. It did it so completely that it exceeded the box office draw of its next two competitors combined by $400,000 US, and is currently pushing the $54 million range. This is another work directed by Goro Miyazaki, son of renowned filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki who wrote and planned the movie. No word yet on when Disney will be releasing the film either in theaters or on DVD for the US market, but it is at least making the rounds of the usual film festivals in North America.
There really aren’t any genre films this week, so this might be a good time to catch up on anything you missed. We have two for next week however; the long-awaited Bunraku, and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.
Not much in the way of movies this week; the only things I could find are Aliens vs. Avatars and Area 51, neither one of which I find worth watching.
In TV, we have Fringe: Seasons 1-3 in a single box set. What I find strange about this release is the pricing; at Amazon as an example the season 1 through 3 box set runs $162.00; but you can pick up season 1 for $19, season 2 for $25, and season 3 for $37, totaling up to $81, or half of what the first 3 seasons box set runs. Also out this week is Castle: The Complete Third Season, which I have to mention because it stars The Captain.
In Anime, the main release is the feature movie The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. This only got a very limited theatrical release in the US, so for most fans this will be their first opportunity to see it. It came out in Japan between the first and second season of the Aliens/Espers/Robots/Time Travelers show, but I am not sure where in the story arc it properly resides. Also out this week, Katanagatari Premium part 2 continues the katana collection adventures with foes forced to cooperate if they have any hope of success. Looking at the picture on the series home page you could be forgiven for coming to the conclusion the series was a romantic fantasy rather than assembling a weapons supremacy. On the other hand, Amagami SS IS about romance across alternate universes, where we get to see what happens to different versions of the same boy in different timelines. One of the nice touches in this series is that each episodes closing theme song is sung by the female protagonist for that episode. This series is based on an eroge, or Japanese romance game.