Tomorrow, on July 22nd,the Cartoon Network will be presenting their Lego Star Wars TV Special, and it should be a lot of fun. Thanks to SFX for the heads up on this one. Called Lego Star Wars: The Padawan Menace, it has characters from every incarnation of Star Wars built so far, is written by the folks who do The Simpsons, and animated b the team who created Happy Feet. Nice to know that the franchise continues to evolve and perhaps even be a bit silly on occasion.
I can’t help enjoying quality Nerd Music, so here are a few more songs I really like listening to, starting with Don’t Unplug Me by All Caps, a great tune about robots in love. Next up is the Gryffindor Rally Cry which is (surprise, surprise) from the Harry Potter universe. Finally, the TWILIGHT SUCKS! Emo Vampire Song rounds out the series. Some of these videos are actually fun!
In movies, Limitless is a driving story of artificially boosted intelligence, and what the implications might be. I loved this one in the theaters, and ordinarily it would get my vote for top pick, but also out this week is the live action version of Tekken.
In TV, the choice release is Doctor Who: Series Six, Part One. I am not in favor of the new trend of releasing half a season of a program at a time because they try to use it to raise the prices, but sometimes you can find some good deals on these, and this is one of those times. Plus, it’s Doctor Who, so I would be picking it up regardless. Also out this week, Torchwood: The Complete Original UK Series, packaging up the first two seasons with the miniseries Children of Earth into a single box set. If you bought the seasons separately, there doesn’t seem to be a lot new here; while they mention 10 hours of bonus features, that was about what you had on the original single season DVDs when you added them up, and no where does the BBC say if they are new features or the old ones recycled.
In Anime, Queens Blade 2: Evil Eye Series Part 2 continues the battle royal to determine the new ruler, as well as the practice of selling series in half-season chunks. And in classic re-releases, Gungrave – The Complete Series makes Gungrave affordable in a single box set; around $26 with a little shopping around.
The film choice this time is a toss up between two movies. On the one hand we have an an animation: Rango, starring Johnny Depp, a comedy about a lizard in the wild west. On the other hand, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is a live action story full of heart and its own fair share of humor. There was also supposed to be a Sci-Fi Noir film staring Antonio Banderas called Terranova coming out this week, but I haven’t found any solid information on it.
The western TV selection of the week is Robot Chicken Star Wars: Episode III. I still can’t believe they got George Lucas to do his own voiceover for these.
In Anime, Naruto: Shippuden (DVD box 7) brings us the next season in that series with more Ninja action and drama. The DVD release schedule is around a hundred episodes behind what you can watch online with the latest seasons simulcast. Finally, >Allison & Lillia DVD Generation 2 turns a simple vacation into a fight against all the people trying to kill them, complete with a liberal dose of aerial combat.
Starz ran episode 1 of the new season of Torchwood: Miracle Day last night, and it was good. But we have still more Torchwood goodness before they run episode 2 next Friday in the form of three radio plays they recorded right after filming ended on the new season. On Monday the 11th we get episode 1 of The Lost Files when Rhys and Gwen go to the Ivyday Nursing Home to close out his elderly uncles affairs, something isn’t quite right. In episode 2 Captain Jack and company use a submarine to try to rescue a stranded alien in the Mariana Trench on Tuesday the 12th, and it finished up on Wednesday the 13th with episode 3 at The House of the Dead, the most haunted pub in Wales. These are all run in BBC4’s Afternoon Play time slot at 14:15 GMT, but they should also be available to listen to online for six more days after each one airs. While neither Torchwood or Doctor Who, I should also mention Best Interests, Thursday at 14:15. It features a confused young man with no I.D. and a Dr. Who fixation, so I am going to have to check it out as well. Also Starz has uploaded episode 1 0f Torchwood: Web of Lies to YouTube.
13 Assassins is an action movie set at the end of Japan’s feudal period, where 13 samurai are out to stop an evil ruler and save the country. This one gets my vote as best film for the week. Bloodrayne: The Third Reich has our half-vampire heroine up against the Nazi Vampire Army in WWII, and she has to stop them before they make Hitler immortal. Finally, Witchville is another made for TV movie from Syfy, so obviously I will be passing on this one, much as I did for their earlier efforts, like Sharktopus and Mansquito.
Also from Syfy is one of my favorite TV shows, as they roll out Eureka: Season 4.0, with the second half of the season hitting the airwaves on July 11th. It continues to confound me how they can produce such excellent TV series and such sucky TV movies. The lamentable The Cape: The Complete Series is also becoming available this week. It had such great actors and a good concept, but they dropped the ball on the execution part of the process (writing, filming, editing, etc.), which is why it evaporated after a single season. There is an enjoyable documentary TV series coming out, Mysteries at the Museum: Season 1 from the Travel Channel, which I will be checking out.
On the Animation front, Transformers: The Headmasters has been out for better than 20 years, but never previously available legally in the US. This is an alternate reality spin on season 4, where Optimus Prime never died and a whole new species of bots entered the battle. And finally, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie : A Wakening of the Trailblazer has the the Extraterrestrial Living-metal Shapeshifters (ELS) assimilating everyone in sight in a very Borg-like fashion. I am not a fan of the animation styles either of these classic Anime series used, but they both had very well developed story lines and situations, if you followed the original Japanese dialog and ignored the English forced on them to try to make them fit the Saturday morning cartoon time slot and target audience.