Tomorrow will be "Back to the Future" day, the exact day Marty McFly went to the future. Sadly real life doesn't reflect what the film predicted, some of them kind of do but not in the way the movie shows, but there is a cartoon that got the internet right, way back in 1995 we had Freakazoid, a cartoon from the talented people who worked on Animaniacs.
Freakazoid is about Dexter Douglas, a computer nerd who inadvertently gets sucked into his computer following a series of events including a computer bug and a cat walking over a keyboard. These series of events turn Dexter into Freakazoid a super hero with all the usual super powers but with added insanity, think PG-13 Deadpool.
Freakazoid must stop an array of evil and often quirky villains including The Lobe and Candlejack to name a couple, using insanity, fourth wall breaking and slapstick humor to defeat them rather than his other powers common in regular superheroes.
Now Freakazoid is said to be made from downloading the internet into Dexter's brain, but rather than giving him infinite knowledge of the universe has instead made him unstable, insane and packed to the brim with a mixture of pop culture references, slapstick and visual gags which is basically what the internet is now where everyone is obsessed with Pop Culture, practical jokes, crazy stunts make up the brunt of the video sites, and millions of people view pictures of cats with funny subtitles under them.
In short Freakazoid prophesied the internet, well before it reached the level that it is now, that's how you predict something "Back to the Future" take something that's new at the time and predict how it will actually pan out.
Freakazoid's humor is among the funniest there is and along with Spielberg's other creations Tiny Toons and Animaniacs set the ground work for my generation to make the internet like it is today, whether that's a good thing or not is up to the history books.
This week will feature some shows from the current Disney cartoon range, this isn't an official week of reviews per say rather the next three or four reviews will consist of Disney made cartoons, starting with Wander Over Yonder.
Wander is a nomadic and overly-optimistic intergalactic traveler along with his Zbornak best friend and steed Sylvia, travel the galaxy spreading his philosophy of fun and freedom all the while avoiding the evil Lord Hater and his Watchdog army. A typical episode would feature Wander being his usual optimistic self while Sylvia tries to talk him out of the dangers he seemingly drags them into or moments when Wander is oblivious to the dangers around him and Sylvia while Lord Hater is seemingly defeated countless times by the duo usually by dumb luck on Wander's part.
This show was made by Craig McCracken of Powerpuff Girls fame and it shows in the humor which is pretty good for a relatively average show with a very basic story. While some people may not like the antics of Wander or the fact that he's too close in design to Spongebob, but Wander is easy on the ears, and while he may be annoying in some episodes, I would consider him quite low on the spectrum next to Spongebob and the rest of the current Nickelodeon for that matter.
In an age where copying each other seems to be the way cartoon channels work these days it's hard to find something good and Wander Over Yonder while certainly not the best cartoon from Disney it's no where near the worst either.
Now onto the next review, a major one as well, time to digest Attack on Titan.
100 years ago, humanity was brought to the brink of extinction by the sudden appearance of the Titans, giant humanoid monsters who eat humans for no reason. The remains of humanity are stuck within the walls of the remaining cities until a huge Titan breaches one of the walls, bringing the Survey Corps into action, a team which focuses on the exploits of Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert as them and their comrades fight the Titans flying around like Steampunk Spiderman. However this proves to be a one sided battle as Eren gets eaten, however the Soldier returns as a Titan, with more questions than answers.
Attack on Titan does a fantastic job of drawing you in instantly with it's awesome theme song, shocking scenes of death from those getting eaten, along with the dramas of watching humanity fight for it's survival but the longer you go through Attack on Titan the less effective that becomes.
If you watch a horror movie enough times it loses it's ability to scare you and eventually becomes laughable, the same can be said of Attack on TItan as the Titans themselves cease being scary and become an absolute joke, in fact they look like giant naked stoner zombies to me. This goes the same for the humans as well as it becomes a tired melodrama by the time you finish the series.
The problem with anime these days is that they are very well made but have a tendency to miss the point by the time they finish. Attack on Titan is the same breed as Sword Art Online, they are really well made but they just couldn't keep it that way, they had to go off track and because of that it's pretty much ruined, but at the very least Attack on Titan does last a lot longer than Sword Art Online before it gets to that stage.
Not seen the dub but have been told it's good.
Final Verdict: The show is really effective at attracting it's audience but depending on how invested you are in the story will decide whether you like this or not, I don't like it, but there are plenty who do.
No I'm not scrapping the barrel, nor am I desperate, this is an anime I finished recently and between this one and the next, I will bring up an important issue with today's anime, so buckle up for Cat Planet Cuties.
The show doesn't give you much introduction as main character Kio comes across busty Cat Girl Alien Eris at his uncle's party in Okinawa. Meanwhile the sudden appearance of aliens prompts a secret agent of Japan, a CIA wannabe, an Alien fanatic, a dog alien race and later a cult of cat worshippers all want a piece of Eris. As time goes on more Cat Girl Aliens come by as Eris makes herself at home in Kio's house while Aoi Futaba (3rd Person in anime named that after the Transvestite in You're Under Arrest and Vivid Blue from Vividred Operation) and Manami Kinjou play out a complex love triangle to win Kio's love.
This series had potential, it really did, it had a plot with infinite scenarios, clever references, decent action, decent ecchiness, some touching moments and some of the cutest looking cat droids ever, but it throws away what it could've done in favor of the complex love triangle, I mean seriously you call the show Cat Planet Cuties and Eris gets less screentime than Aoi and Manami, that's really a shame as this plot was so easy to get right that it's frustrating that they didn't, it doesn't help that Manami spends all her time getting Aoi and Kio together and complains about Aoi's shyness and inability to confess, yet Manami is being a hypocrite by not telling Kio her own feelings and this plays out for half the series of 12 episodes and there are plenty of scenes where this plot is not important in the grand scheme of things, then again the show has a habit of not throwing bones for it's audience as quite often were made to question why certain characters and situations crop up like the movie director, the terrorist, the Russian military lady and that Catgirl who also seems to narrate the show.
After all that, you can't help but feel unsatisfied and no amount of ecchiness or cute robot cats is going to save this train wreck. Dub is a little bit mediocre, so I'd go for subbed version for general viewing.
Final Verdict: This anime fails to use it's strengths and suffers as a result as were stuck watching a love triangle that doesn't finish, which is a shame because it really had potential.
Now I'll teach you about a harsh reality about reboots from the Inspector Gadget school of cartoons.
Inspector Gadget is an 80s cartoon co-produced by the States, Canada and France about a bumbling cyborg police officer with an endless supply of gadgets, paying homage to the Pink Panther's Inspector Clouseau in terms of character. With Gadget's niece Penny and her dog Brain, the trio attempt to stop the nefarious villain and head of MAD, Dr Claw, who on the scale of villains comes between Dreamstone's Zordrak and He-Man's Skeletor in terms of level of intimidation and competence, mainly for being unseen to the viewer and having a dark grizzly voice much like a long term smoker.
Inspector Gadget is formulaic to the point where you can explain any episode using this synopsis.
1. The Episode starts with something normal, usually Gadget spending time with Penny and Brain.
2. Chief Quimby then informs Gadget about a mission usually appearing out of nowhere.
3. The mission then explodes in Quimby's face regardless if he tries to avoid it or not.
4. Gadget goes on the mission but usually ends up mistaking MAD Agents for friendly locals.
5. Penny is solving the case behind Gadget's back while Brain watches over Gadget so he doesn't kill himself but Brain seems to take all the slapstick.
6. The case is solved usually by Gadget's dumb luck.
7. Dr Claw curses Gadget.
That pretty much sums up all 86 episodes with very little variation. But despite being this formulaic it still maintained a level of unpredictability in how the case was solved much like how in Scooby Doo it's never the one with the most obvious motive, and that charm made it well loved in it's era but I can't say much for the sequels.
Gadget Boy & the Gadgetinis need their own pages and don't get me started on the live action films so lets come to 2015 and look at the reboot.
While it keeps the formula intact there are some problems; Penny is now a teenager but her character feels dumber as a result, Dr Claw remains unseen but his level of competency is now the same as Dr Eggman; it's in CGI or the franchise killer as I call it and finally the new character Talon is annoying.
All I can say to the modern one is this. You had one job, the formula was easy to remember and you still messed up, there's no reason for Talon to exist nor should the focus be entirely on his personal battle with Penny which goes nowhere, but I digress, I can't expect the values of today replicating what was good 30 years ago and if it wasn't a reboot it would be okay but since it is a reboot it can only be judged as one.
But like the sad treatment done to Knuckles the Echidna, I can't forgive them for *Cringe* modernizing the theme music and *nearly vomits* changing the Gadget car. That felt dirty to say.
So overall the original Inspector Gadget is charming despite being formulaic but the reboot took said formula and misread the recipe and created something which is okay but mediocre compared to it's original counterpart.
