Disney’s Big Hero 6 already has me laughing and cheering, and the movie won’t be out for months yet. I have commented on it previously from the perspective of the Marvel property it comes from, a graphic novel/manga of the first order with a lot of links to Japans Pop Culture. And that’s without even going into the whole Pixar/Miyazaki/Disney animation connection. As a single example, did you see Totoro in Toy Story 2, and recognize that high-quality animation universe crossover?
This is a look at what it would have been like to live on a space station in the mid-70s. Space Station 76 is just good silly fun in the retro-future. This has been making the film festival rounds since March 8th of this year, when it premiered at SXSW, but I haven’t seen it get picked up for theatrical release in the US, nor have I heard anything yet about a DVD release. If it comes to a Film Fest near me, I will be going to check it out.
In Movies The Amazing Spider-Man 2 continues this franchises high quality reboot, and the aspect they bring from the comic much better than the original set of films did is the humor. They got the wisecracking that Spider-Man used when taunting the villains down right; it was a major part of his fighting style, used to distract his foes and make them careless with anger. The vampire rocker romance drama Only Lovers Left Alive also makes it onto disc, after a sadly limited run in the theaters. This one deserved a lot more attention than it got.
In TV, Once Upon a Time: The Complete 3rd Season continues to explore everything it means to be characters in a fairy tale. In the new season, which starts September 28th, they are going to include Elsa and Kristoff from Frozen, and you get just a teaser of her in season 3. Revolution: The Complete 2nd Season also hits the shelves this week.
In western Animation Toy Story of Terror! seems to have taken a leaf from the Simpsons with a made-for-TV holiday special. By the way, how many people recognized Totoro in the Toy Story 2 film?
In Anime, A Certain Scientific Railgun S – Part Two has the bad guys cloning the level 5 telekinetic Misaka and then killing her off, over and over. Misaka is not happy about this, and is out to bring them down, any way she can.
The Disney movie Into The Woods won’t be in theaters until Christmas, but the teaser trailer which came out recently makes it look like it might be a fun film to watch. It takes four classic Brothers Grimm stories and ties them together with a new tale written just for the movie, bringing the whole thing up to contemporary times. A lot of humor and a few good tunes round out the presentation, which has one central theme: be careful what you wish for.
The film of interest this week is The Giver, about a boy growing up in utopia, who reaches a point in his life when he is chosen to be the one of his generation to learn about the real world. When he does, he realizes his community is fake, artificially insulated from reality, and it forces him to make some serious choices. Based on the book by Lois Lowry, this one explores the nature of discovering the world is not like the one your parents created to keep you safe as you grew up. I should also mention that the The Expendables 3 comes out this week as well; it may not be genre, but it is cult, and that counts for something.
In Movies this week we get Muppets Most Wanted, yet another excursion into the silliness that follows all things Muppet. Evil Kermit escapes from a gulag and tries to hide out by replacing the series primary protagonist, and as usual there are an assortment of well known stars along for the ride. In animation, Batman: Assault on Arkham is quite dark, taking place in the Arkham Asylum universe. This was shown at SDCC, but otherwise is a direct to video release. It did get 95% at Rotten Tomatoes and an excellent review in Forbes, so I am expecting it to be quite enjoyable. If you are in the mood for a genre documentary, Turtle Power: The Definitive History of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gives their history and an inside look at their creator.
In TV the show Bitten: The Complete First Season is a different kind of Werewolf story with a female protagonist. It is based on writer Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld books, and her heroines are all strong women. I do enjoy seeing an author I like have their works turned into TV programs or movies, and this one has been picked up for a second season, returning in 2015.
In Anime Fantasista Doll: Complete Collection is about a girl who has a deck of cards which can generate 5 magical girls who’s powers are needed to defend the Earth. Good thing she is a former champion of a trading card game competition, at least she has a clue about using cards in combat. From the New World: Collection 2 has Saki reeling from the death of her friends, but the conspiracies she has uncovered are only the tip of the iceberg. If she is to survive, she has to defeat the attacks on her mind and memories and uncover the secrets of two worlds.