Over the years, Disney has done some of the best educational work ever assembled, translating complex concepts about science and history into forms we can all easily understand. This is one of my all time favorites from that collection, a story about the history of space science, and how we came to understand how it works. Mind, Disney did nothing about resolving the scientific questions, but it sure explained them so we all understood, and gave us a fun little animation to watch while doing so. I like it a lot, and appreciate the education it has given so many, including me.
Most of us never get picked for astronaut training (in fact a few like me never get picked to play on a team of any kind), but for those who don’t, astronaut Jerry Carr got together with TED and produced this great little animation on the topic. This will introduce you to some of the details that NASA usually doesn’t mention, like the fact that being an Astronaut is something you only get to do after doing a whole lot of support stuff in the background, to help the current astronauts get their job done. I do love the excellent job that Sharon Colman did on the animation; it is classic 50s Disney line drawings, just like they did for the whole Mission to Mars program and all the other wonderful Disney space shows they did over the years.
There are several films I am looking forward to that will apparently be running new TV spots during Superbowl. Star Trek Into Darkness is reported to have a new one, and I find it entertaining that J.J.Abrams is going to be in charge of that franchise and the new Star Wars films at the same time. World War Z, the Brad Pitt Zombie film, will also be getting a new trailer, although the sneak peak I saw of that mostly looked like a cut-down version of the longer one already released. Tom Cruse’s Oblivion should have a new trailer out as well, but I suspect some folks might get confused between that movie and After Earth, the new Will and Jaden Smith production. While the back stories and plot lines of those two films are completely different, the components that make up the action on the screen look a lot alike; crash onto the Earth, where humans no longer live, and discover things are nothing like you were expecting.
Disney will be going for not one, but three new movie trailers, and all three are on my must see list. Oz: The Great and Powerful rolls out March 8th and looks pretty amazing, telling a bit more about L. Frank Baum’s Universe, this time from the Wizard’s point of view. Of course Iron Man 3 hits the big screen on May 3rd, and that one has to be a no-brainer. As kick ass as Disney has been doing with the Marvel franchise, there is no way I would miss a single one of those. Finally, The Lone Ranger is going to be out come July 3rd, just in time for the quintessential American holiday weekend, and I could not imagine anyone better to channel Tonto than Johnny Depp. If you are thinking the last entry isn’t Genre, remember that one of the Lone Ranger spinoffs was a series about his nephew Dan’s son, The Green Hornet.
The bad news, of course, is that commercial time during the Superbowl is so outrageously expensive that these spots will only be 30 seconds long, or maybe a whole minute if the ad exec in question is feeling particularly brave. They all deserve to be two or three minutes long, to give us a good feel for the project on the screen at the moment. But at least these will be going before the public eye and get some awareness.
Not that that promises success; Disney spent this kind of money promoting John Carter during the last Superbowl, but they dropped the Of Mars from the title, leaving you with a generic name that didn’t give you a grasp of the hundred year old epic fantasy that spanned decades of books and multiple worlds. They also didn’t seem to care about telling you anything of the plot and subplots, the themes, the background of Earth (or Mars) at that time, the political, racial, or scientific environment the story took place in, or the motivations driving the various characters. They didn’t even hint at the love story at the core of this classic, or package the visuals for the core Steampunk/Gothic/Victorian fan group, with the only clue being Our World Is Dying. I admit I may be a bit bitter on this topic; the movie itself was true to the books in a way that few films are, a Steampunk masterpiece that should have been followed with the next 9 entries into the series. But because the marketing department dropped the ball on this one, I will probably not live long enough to see the entire thing on the big screen. I hope this years presentations are treated better.
Getting my vote for strangest movie with the best cast this week is Seven Psychopaths, which I completely enjoyed. All Superheroes Must Die is about four Superheroes stripped of their powers and trapped by their arch-nemesis in a situation where they must fight to avoid total destruction for their entire town. The western animation Hotel Transylvania is out this week as well for those in need of silly fun.
We finally get the US release of Misfits: Season Two, the show about the strangest group of Superheroes ever remanded to public service. Let’s see how many social workers sent to rehabilitate them they manage to kill off this season, while trying ever so hard to stay out of trouble. This is one of the best done shows out of the UK on virtually every front, and the soundtrack includes some of the best tunes I never heard here. I strongly recommend this show to everyone old enough to not get offended, but mentally young enough to not get bent out of shape.
In new Anime releases, Baka and Test: Season Two is coming out. It has a nice silly premise; class standings and personal differences are resolved using battle avatars who’s strength is determined by the students academic standing. Our protagonist Yoshii is a warm-hearted goofball with a solid string of F’s in all his classes, who wants to advance his station. He has nowhere to go but up, and he can’t even spell surrender, which makes for an amusing series.
Viz rolls out Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 13, bringing us up to episode 166 by the end of it. For those in need of a silly time, Shin Chan: Season Three may be the way to go.
Arakawa Under the Bridge Season 1 is the story of a man who falls into the river, to be saved by cutely insane Nino, who lives there. To repay her kindness he sets out to help her, meeting many of her friends in the process, some of whom are not human. This is a bit of a re-release, having been previously come out in a limited premium edition. Likewise, Fate/Stay Night: Collection 1 has seen the light of day before, but this time it is coming out as a Blue Ray Disc.
I am happy to report that the franchise begun with Chaos;Head, and continued through Steins;Gate and Robotics;Notes, has another series added to its universe: Occultic;Nine. I have enjoyed everything they have done so far, hopefully they will keep up the quality work on the new offering. Steins;Gate was one of the twistiest time travel stories I have seen in a while, and word is Robotics;Notes is getting a stage play treatment soon.
The new Doctor Who season kicks off on March 30th according to the folks at TOR, and I am certainly ready for the ride. Just to get you in the mood, here is the latest trailer.