Le Rap de Noel

39 Degrees North: Nicholas Was (2011)

This Christmas Eve, keep in mind a poor, old man.

A Pack of Gifts Now

There's some language, but if you're familiar with the source material, that's no surprise.

H/T to Dangerous Minds

Vincent Price: The Storyteller

The Burger King!

Forget McDonaldland, we're heading for the Burger King Kingdom!

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1948)

From Jam Handy, Max Fleischer and Monkey Ward!

AD/BC

Do you like The Mighty Boosh? Did you enjoy Garth Marenghi's Darkplace? Well, you might like this.

H/T Dangerous Minds

La Detente (2011)

Here. Have a cute widdle punch to the gut.

Presents won't save you now!

Hey, it's from Anthony Bourdain. He did coke. He knows a nightmare when he sees it.

Anime Opening SUPERCUT

You could probably get five minutes out of "turning around" alone.

Flying High (1978)

Tonight... on the CBS Wednesday Night Movie.... This!

Time Trap (2014)

Rikki mentioned it. Thought I'd share.

Cyber Monday

Just thinking about Amazon and their new robots.

Martha Stewart can suck it

Oh, it's getting blue out....

Good morning Berlin
You can be so ugly, so dirty and gray
You can so wonderfully terrible
You're night, are devouring me
It might just be the best for me
If I go home and sleep
And while I'm walking through the streets
Black slowly turns into blue

Just Don't

Stay home if you can. Stay away from all that. Love your families. Be thankful you're alive.

Heino: Made in Germany

German folk singer Heino has been a part of AnimeHELL ever since we saw WFMU's That's Irritainment. But who is Heino? Watch this documentary and get the word straight from Heino himself.

Hattip to Dangerous Minds!

Happy Dethday

Happy birthday, Danno.

Gimmie the Mermaid

Happy 25th birthday, Little Mermaid.

Bord de Mer (2014)

Good night, everyone. Sweet dreams!

The Waif of Persephone

It is currently 28 degrees outside and I am thinking about everything but spring.

Twenty-Five Years....

...and still bothers to grace us with it's 15 seconds of yuletide delight.

It's funny but it's not

This has been currently getting a lot of play, getting posted on Reddit and, therefore, Boing Boing two days later. I put it off and finally watched it, and about five minutes in, realized this was the perfect ending to my vacation.

But what happens here, besides being funny at first, and then uncomfortable, then REALLY uncomfortable, then just weird, then almost funny again, is it reminded me of something.

More...

Peter Serafinowicz is one of the funniest people out there, but he's also super uncomfortable. The guy is always skirting the line between funny and creepy. Look at one of his music videos:



Which, really, if you think about it, has a long tradition in British humor.



Maybe it's because it's an island nation with an ancient monarchy, that's also hung up about etiquette. Who else does that describe?



And I'll tell you, the first thing that popped into my head when I saw that was:



It's been said that humor is the relief we feel when a conflict has building tension in our minds. Which may also explain nervous laughter; after all, the failure mode of horror is comedy.

I'll leave you with one last little bit. I saw this in the theaters when it came out. I was probably too young to really understand the implications, but I do remember everyone laughing at the end of this scene. I mean, uproarious laughter. It's not funny, really, if you think about it, but it is.



What did Mel Brooks say? "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."

Luminaris (2011)

Don't worry, there's no dialog.

Cray cray vacay

I'm on vacation. Starting now.

The Strange Spell of Screamin' Jay Hawkins

He learned classical piano and wanted to be an opera singer, and was the middleweight boxing champion of Alaska. And one drunken night in 1956 he recorded a song that you always seem to hear around this time of year.

I found this documentary while looking for another documentary about Ghoulardi. Watching it left me...Spellbound...

Happy Happy Halloween!

Celebrate in your own way.

Thunder of Gigantic Serpent (1988)

Enjoy the 80s direct to VHS giant monster classic complete with Greek subtitles!

American Drive-In (1985)

Had to notice this was up...

Visit our SNACK BAR!

I dare anyone to waste 5 hours today on this!

Vincent Price

Not much to add to that.

The Legend of Hell House (1973)

Dan and I disagree on if this is a good film or not. I think it's an amusing romp. He thinks it's stupid.

Well, if it's stupid, at least it's campy about it. Roddy puts in a good performance, though.

I think you can still rent it from Netflix, if you desire. Pay close attention to the first seance! A lot of it was used for this track:

Apart (2007)

Aw. It's a love story!

Prescriptive Cartoon Ads!

Seems like the best animation being done lately tends to be used for promoting medicines you have to ask your doc if you're 'ready' for 'em. Not that it stops us from enjoying the world that was put into each of these and how they let them breathe a little despite the usual wordy disclaimers we have to face. Hey, be happy*










*These ads aren't for everyone, side effects may include dizziness, depression, insomnia, drowsiness, obesity, vomiting, erectile dysfunction, sterilization and suicidal tendencies.  Commercials are not habit-forming.  Ask your doctor which one may be right for you.

Sciany (Walls) (1988)

While training to be a sculptor, Piotr Dumała discovered that scratching images into painted plaster could be a beautiful way to create animations. This is only one technique of a method called destructive animation, where one image is erased and re-drawn to create the next frame in the sequence.

Creepy, isn't it? Here's more in that vein.

Great Martian War

Would you like to know more?

Jack in the Box Training Film (1985)

Don't have time for this bullcrap, skip to 14:30 for the good stuff!

I just had to share this

That's from Dogway Melody. I'd link you to the film itself, but Warner Brothers took it down.

Just wanted to share.

A Day in the Life of Gojira

Supidaman Theme Song

AWA 2014 ANIME HELL

It's the 20th AWA and that means an extra-special Anime Hell, now in Hall D of the cavernous Galleria Convention Center!  How will we conquer this challenging spatial challenge? Find out Friday September 26!!

Preceded as always by Neil Nadelman's TOTALLY LAME ANIME and followed by Ryan Gavigan's MIDNIGHT MADNESS!!!!  BE THERE!

Mr. Cat (2012)

I was looking for something else, I swear.

(notes on) biology (2011)

(notes on) biology from ornana films on Vimeo.

You may fail biology, but you could get a passing grade in animation.

Don't touch my moustache

Last night, I showed Mom Hyakugojuuichi. When it came to the chorus, and "TV says donuts are made of fat, kazoo..." out of nowhere, Mom said, "Don't touch my mustache."

You see, there's a scene in Majority of One where Guinness is trying to teach Russell how to speak Japanese. Specifically, it's how to say "Thank you" and "you're welcome".

You’re Welcome: どういたしまして (do-i-ta-shi-ma-shi-te) (don't touch my mustache)

So, there you go. Mis-hearing Japanese anything is nothing new. I tried to weird out a 72-years-old woman and she weirded me out right back.

Also, that movie is kind of embarrassing to watch now.

Hyakugojuuichi

I've had this stuck in my head for two weeks now and this is the finest version I've heard.

Hell at Cosplay America!

Cosplay America is a new convention in Cary, NC that knows the key to a successful con is Hell. How could I argue with that? I'm pleased to be unleashing Hell at 7pm on Saturday, August 30th. It'll mostly be old favorites but with some new material mixed in to keep folks on their toes. It will also have virtually nothing whatsoever to do with cosplay, but I'm told that's just fine.

Treo Fiskur (2013)

Treo Fiskur from Treo Fiskur on Vimeo.

Fish for Friday.

Oh, Dumbo

Oh, I'll get all weepy, I will. Just seeing two tears from the kid will make me cry.

But, hey, pink elephants.

Hard Gay Pose Off at AnimeFEST 2014

Dr. Mila pelts the crowd with candy...and then...

More...

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya - Official Teaser Trailer from GKIDS on Vimeo.

I don't know if I can wait until October.

Parasyte

As excited as I was about the live-action version, this is looking pretty good as well.


Oh, that's too cute.

Views from AnimeFest 2014

Video shot by Avery Davies

More...

Peter Falk is your bartender and only serves Suntory Royal

No need to ask, all they serve here is Suntory Royal and Peter Falk's dry wit.

Little Quentin (2012)

It's far too long for us to show live, but you can enjoy it here.

A strange aside

When we called up the kazoo orchestra last night, I was handing them out: green, yellow, orange (I kept the purple one for myself). One of our orchestra members was dressed as a member of the Green Lantern Cops.

ME: It would be wrong of me to give you a yellow kazoo, wouldn't it?

HER: Probably.

HER BUDDY, IN BATMAN GEAR: I'll take it.

So, one girl got a green kazoo and one got a yellow one. La-de-da.

Anime Fest!

Huzzah! A most excellent show this evening. Kris* played a little pre-show music (don't forget he does a show on Wednesday nights!) and everyone was orderly and well behaved.

First contest is always Hard Gay, usually at the 30-minute mark, but we had to get our kazoo orchestra together (all fifteen of ya) and god bless if they didn't start playing "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (you were paying attention to the pre-show music!). Our winner there was an anime virgin (and for a prize, he took the Barbie book for a friend of his).

Camay walk went well and there were no sprained ankles.

The third contest...well, we just had a lot of swag to get rid of and so we had a Hard Gay\Camay mash-up. Mad props to the kazoos for playing StarWars music during that. Thanks for not making me take all that stuff home.

Best part of the night? Dan's reindeer\Frozen (and all of you singing along). My face still hurts from laughing so hard.

Bonus plus of the night. You guys were AWESOME at picking up after yourselves. I think this was the quickest cleanup evah. I'm still not sure about the reverse chairs, however. Did anyone notice a pattern? It almost felt like crop-circles.

EDIT: I was wrong in a post earlier this year. Our Quinceañera with Anime Fest IS next year. We're planning on a pinata, amongst other things.











*BTW, Kris is where I got my "Hey, you kids, get off my con!" t-shirt. We actually came up with that one while waiting to get into the room at A-Kon a few years back.

Great Scott!

That music is Raymond Scott and you should know who he is.

More...

It's a classic! You've heard it lots of places.

Here's the full piece, as played by HIS group.



Now, you say, how would I know that guy? Well, give this one a listen.



Now listen to this.



By the way, he was also an electronic music pioneer.



Haha. That would be more interesting to sample.



I'm pretty sure this was colorized. I've heard the tune before, but not with lyrics. It's kinda creepy now.



Huh! So that's how it's done. It's almost embarrassing if it wasn't so darn cool.



Really, this whole post came about because I got a CD in the mail and I've been listening to it in the car. I honestly can't think of a better soundtrack for my life.

I'll jump on that bandwagon

The REAL League of Extraordinary Gentlemen from Florian Liedtke on Vimeo.

The music is by Woodkid. You should seriously check out each name in this trailer and see what they've done.

Orbitas (2013)

Orbitas | by PrimerFrame from PrimerFrame on Vimeo.

Even though there are explosions that go boom (which would not happen in space), I still think it's a lovely little story.

Get the BOOM out of the SHOT

If you're going to do it, do it right.

Here's a cleaner copy of the audio.

AnimeFest 2014

That's right! Anime Hell will be preforming it's 14th year at AnimeFest. This coming Saturday night, August 16th at 11pm. Bring a kazoo (or your own favorite instrument) and join in on the fun.

Jinxy Jenkins, Lucky Lou (2014)

Jinxy Jenkins, Lucky Lou from Jinxy Jenkins, Lucky Lou on Vimeo.

Just a cute little feel-good cartoon.

The Birth of Mickey Mouse

As told by a drunk person.

Deathigner (2013)

Oh, I was at work today and it was the worst.

Work (2010)

Work from Michael Rianda on Vimeo.

I was on vacation this last week and I have to go back to work tomorrow and I don't wanna.

gimme animation mr kitty shelter

Enjoy the animated music video by and for Shaindle's ELEMENT OF SURPRISE comic!

Drifters

Drifters from ethan clarke on Vimeo.

Well hey! That's just the thing to watch before going to bed.

Moon Animate Make Up!

The fan re-animated episode of Sailor Moon is here! Woot!

The Trailer Project

What makes these really great is trying to guess what the movie is before the title...

...And then realizing how spot-on each interpretation is.

And now, a brand new dance to watch and learn!

Hooray, future

Sight from Robot Genius on Vimeo.

I'm not sure I'm cool with everything being a game.

Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

Or an ad.

THE INFINITY AUGMENTED REALITY CONCEPT VIDEO ON VIMEO from Infinity AR on Vimeo.

Or whatever the hell this is.

Shinbone Alley (1971)

Here, enjoy this while it's up. John David Wilson directed it and there's not much he didn't do.

The Time Machine (That I Found at a Yardsale) (2011)

I've been putting this off and putting this off and putting it off because I knew it was going to be a slog. So here I am, and I'm finally going to do it. I'm going to not only watch this film, but I'm going to give you a blow-by-blow and I know it's going to blow but here we go.

You see, I found this thing while looking for George Pal videos. Dan and I were talking about Tubby the Tuba, so I was checking out all these George Pal cartoons and on the side-bar it said THE TIME MACHINE (I FOUND AT A YARDSALE) FULL 84 MIN. VERSION. I thought maybe they meant they'd found a copy of the "The Time Machine" at a yard sale and it had some footage I'd not seen before. Excited by that possibility, I clicked the link.

Oh, but it is not what I thought.

There are others who have covered this thing. I have not read their reviews. I watched the first ten minutes, but had to stop, but then Danno dared me to watch the rest of it. As I've done some blow-by-blows for other movies, I figured I could do this as well.

So, I've got a box of crackers, a nicely chilled bottle of pino grigio, and a wedge of fromage d'affine. Let's do it.

THE EXTERNAL WORLD

There's stuff we don't show at Hell for a variety of reasons. This one hits them all.


















Warnings for: language, a cartoon penis, discrimination against poo, cartoon violence, alien breasts, (TRIGGER WARNING) a music lesson, fish slapping, intermission, turtle vaginas, masturbation, pseudopediphelia, unacceptable behavior, Hitler, cartoon nudity, suicide, lesbians (not shown), that teapot, Jesus, silent emptiness, and a haunting piano piece that will be stuck in your head for days.

Stupid Video Panel OF DOOM! Report, AnimeNEXT 2014

2014 was my first AnimeNEXT, and though I'd been saying I was never too keen on "Panel OF DOOM!" as an adequate descriptor, for 10 years I couldn't think of a better name. Taking a cue from the subtitle I added onto AWA 2013's, I settled on adding "Stupid Video" to the front of it. That way everybody could tell at a glance from the name as printed in the schedule what the panel would be about.

For a first-year panel, I'd say turnout was relatively decent: maybe 60% capacity? Far be it for me to lay any culpability on myself, so I'll give two justifications for that. First, the room had only one projector screen situated in the corner, so seats on the opposite corner were likely to have a hard time seeing the screen. More importantly, it was brought up to me that the Bridgewater hotel in which the panel was taking place was a brand-new addition to the con's layout as of that year. The convention was split up across four buildings, only two of which had an interconnecting pathway. The remaining two hotels required you go outside and walk 5-10 minutes, crossing outdoor streets and bridges, and (on Friday) without any signs in place. Since the new hotel wasn't within line-of-sight to the other buildings, I never would've known that hotel was even part of the convention had I not been told.

I was also a bit concerned that they had panel programming split up across multiple buildings, such that there were three rooms called, for instance, "Panel 1" which was the designation for the room I was in. You just had to know "Bridgewater Panel 1" wasn't the same as "Doubletree Panel 1"...which wasn't easy because the Doubletree had panel rooms ALSO named "Bridgewater." The big sign in front of my panel room said "Panel 4," but it was actually "BW Panel 1." People eventually figured this all out, but my hope for next year is they just give everything a unique number designation, then state which building it's in afterwards.

Oh, but it wouldn't be Hell/DOOM! though without technical difficulties, now would it? In the leading moments to the panel start time, my laptop which has served me in my DOOM! endeavors ever since I stopped running off VHS cassettes decided to finally die for good. It just wouldn't post. I always make a backup of everything onto a flash memory stick for such eventualities...and then it turns out that I packed the WRONG stick in my bag. (Before anyone asks: as is standard for most conventions, panel rooms weren't equipped with DVD players.) Staff/Tech Ops really bailed me out here. Thanks to creative use of a multitool knife as a makeshift screwdriver, I was able to diagnose the problem and figure out "well, if I could just remove the hard drive and connect it to another computer, it'll work." As fate would have it, one of the staffers packed a USB SATA enclosure and my laptop hard drive wasn't THAT ancient (there was momentary concern when it wouldn't fit, but it turns out the drive had a F-to-M adapter on it), so DOOM! started a mere 5 minutes late or so! Well. I guess I'd better start shopping for either a new laptop or a tablet capable of outputting video and running Windows. Kind of a tough expense to justify when literally the only use I have for the things is to run panels at anime conventions, but so it goes. Here's the list of what got run, most all of it items taken from THIS VERY BLOG:

More...

Laundry Day (I'm always concerned to run things seen by millions of people; a few remembered seeing it but 2014 is the year to run Sailor Moon parodies)
Elvis Is Speed Racer (nobody seemed to know about Viva Las Vegas or pick up that the song was from Speed Racer)
Nuigulumar Z Trailer
Kanpai Senshi
Bowser Says the N-Word in Mario Kart 8
Saison Credit Card commercial
Katsuhiro Otomo commercial from 1984
Doraemon Akira style (nobody seemed to know who Doraemon was or what Akira was)
Pepe Deluxe - Salami Fever
Welcome to the NHK - Sato Discovers Internet Porn
Sailor Moon Stars eyedrops commercial
The Women of Robotech
Midori Anzen - Bunen commercial to encourage gaijin to come to Japan, where indoor smoking is permitted
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman - Murder Music (I experiemented with running all the clips in order rather than spacing it out...it didn't go over as well)
Turkey Shoot trailer
Turning Girls episode 2
Sesame Street - Cracks
Cock Puncher trailer
Bushido Man trailer
The Wizard of Speed and Time
My Friend God
Doozy Bots (didn't get too many laughs; I had to explain "those are SD versions of the robots from Mobile Suit Gundam")
Sivaji the Boss
Your Anime Superstore commercial
Superman Never Says Yes to a Cigarette
Yogi Bear Cigarette PSA
Game Launch Rock!
Chuck Norris Missing in Action
Sidekicks (despite not knowing some of those anime bits, lots of people seemed to immediately realize this clip was from Sidekicks)
Gdgd Fairies Season 2 - Pkpk Clones
The Cat - Cat vs Dog fight
20/20 - Nuts for Nintendo with John Stossel
Old Glory Insurance
Japanorama - Cosplay
Ninja III: The Domination - Ninja vs Golfers
The Ninja Squad - Ivan the Red's First Victim (after what happened with Gatchaman, I left it at just the first clip rather than show the rest)
Charge! Men's School episode 4: We Can't Lose to the Foreigners!
Be A Man Samurai School - Somersault Instructions
Look Around You - Slimby and the Special Picture
Domain of Murder - Finale
Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown
Pong?
Sukeban Deka - Breakdance Fight
Monkey vs Robot
Danger 5 Season 1 Trailer
Chargeman Ken - Dynamite in the Brain!

Read More About It.

To learn more about whatever you can think of, the Library of Congress suggests these books...

These and many other informative books are waiting at your local library or bookstore, visit them, they'll be happy to help you read more about it!

It's dander time!

"Look, Mark. A token with which to lament your dead dreams!"

Animazement 2014 Report

Despite major technical difficulties - the new AV crew could only get a single laptop hooked up to their setup and the screen the audience watched everything on resembled a giant Lite-Brite - we managed to soldier on and deliver a pretty solid Hell at Animazement 2014. While I was too scatter-brained to get around to plugging the show beforehand, the full playlist is now available to enjoy. Thanks as ever to Animazement Hellions Jared Blashka, Cameron Blashka, and Chris Culpepper, with special thanks to my pal William Bloodworth for this year's awesome Hell flyer.

Anime North Anime Hell 2014 After-Action Report

The Koto drummers went on before Anime Hell - later in the day because the spa downstairs doesn't like the noise during their operating hours. Didn't cause a problem for us; in fact it was a great lead-in and the crowd was confused at first but appreciative. Which fits in nicely with Anime Hell.

Video was great, sound was better this year thanks to new speakers, tech went off without a hitch, room was filled to capacity, and we rocked for two hours.  Shain has video of the crowd here.  Here's what I ran:

The preshow included the songs "Stay Away From Downtown" by Redd Kross, a Lee Marvin PSA for Voice of America, and a song about a girl who had her little gun to protect little me.

Part one:

• The TV Show
• my 2014 opening, "Teeth"
• Why do we like anime?  Because American cartoons sucked. Like, say, 
• Super President
• Mr. T
• Chuck Norris Karate Commandos Supercut
• Anime is obviously superior because sometimes small woodland creatures trip out on mushrooms
• Bannertail the squirrel
• action scene from 009 Re:Cyborg
• action scenes from Space Pirate Captain Harlock 2013
• Pokemon seizure scene
• live-action Kiki's Delivery Service trailer
• live-action Patlabor
• Patlabor erected in Shibuya home video
• clip from live action Gatchaman film
• live action Lupin III trailer
• live action Lupin comedy clip
• Vickie The Viking live action film clip
• Kanpai Senshi After V
• Attack On Titan with cats
• Attack On Titan Subaru ad
• Char Zeonic Toyota
• Char scene from "How To Date A Fujoshi Girl"
• Yamato bike ad
• Yamato 2199 clips
• Star Blazers Will Return After These Messages
• Lighter Jii
• Saison credit card ad
• Upgrade credit card ad (Sailor Moon)
• Toon Makers Sailor Moon
• Women Of Robotech
• Sentai vs Magical Girl
• Laundry Day
• Dr. Bees
• Dr. Brule "for your hell"

Part two:

• Your Anime Superstore
• Eyesore Cinema ad
• Yogi Bear anti-smoking ad
• CG Peanuts film trailer
• Bring Me The Head Of Charlie Brown
• Godzilla 2014 trailer remix
• Bob's Burgers Equestrinauts
• My Little Brony
• Nuiguimar Z trailer
• VCS
• Pong
• Lea Press On Limbs
• Last Episode Of Naruto
• Devil Of Smoke
• Cartoon All Stars To The Rescue
• Maximum Hormone Stop The Winny Upload!!!
• Windows 7 girl
• Socket
• Galaxy Gear ad
• Cariboon/DJ-1/Cariboon
• Twain's Garbage Raft Rambles
• Shogi
• Shogun Warriors TV ad

And that was it for the night, and then we left the room so the tech guys could put everything to bed and we went out in the hall and had cake. THE END.  See you in Toronto next May!!!

Thurl Ravenscroft: A Legend

He's GR-R-R-R-EAT!

BONUS!

Anime Hell at Anime Central 2014

Gotta have blue hair

This reminded me of something.

More...

Ah, yes.

Anime Hell at Anime Central 2014

I haven't found any clips from last night's show at Anime Central, but here's a couple clips from 2011.

ANIME HELL ANIME NORTH 2014

it's all happening NEXT FRIDAY at 10pm in what used to be the Doubletree Hotel but is now the International Plaza Hotel as part of Anime North!!

THIS IS THE BIG ONE KIDS!! Our tenth show here in Toronto! DON'T MISS IT

Moon Animate, Make-Up!

Moon Animate, Make-Up! is what you get when over 200 fans re-animate an episode of Sailor Moon. I can't wait to see the finished project.

Leslie "Les" Carlson

David Cronenberg - Camera (2000) by thisisthat

Leslie "Les" Carlson has died at the age of 81. Cause of death was not released. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor was found in his Toronto home on May 3. Happy birthday to me.

'Tater Salad

It's at 2:30 that I knew I had to post it.

For the life of me, I can't understand why they weren't as popular as the Andrews Sisters.

Penguin's Memory: Shiawase Monogatari (1985)

Who knew a movie with penguins could be so dramatic!

Mike is a penguin soldier who returns home after being injured during combat. Estranged from his family and friends, he leaves his hometown and starts to roam adrift through the country.

Jellyfish Eyes

This is showing tonight at the Dallas Museum of Art and I'm sorry to say, but it's sold out.

But, maybe, you don't live in Dallas.

R.I.P. Bob Hoskins

Godspeed Bob. Thanks for the good times.

Anime Fest Panel Poll

It's that time of year again. Anime Fest is asking folk to vote for their panels. Anime Hell is one of them.

TIME TO GO VOTE.

Now, granted, only paid members can vote, so it's really not that much different from any election. Ha ha.

VIDEOTAPE: Images With Impact (1976)

More A/V Club material!

Anime Hell Facebook Page

Head over to the new Anime Hell Facebook Page.

Bad news, kids

If you were looking forward to seeing Anime Hell at A-Kon this year, don't. We're not doing it. No Dogsnack. No Hard Gay. No Camay Walk. No Kazoos. No Hell Nurse Katie. None of that.

I hear you asking, "Why? Sweet lord, why?" Well, we contacted A-Kon this year, at the same time of of year as we have the last few times, and got the following reply:

A-kon has for many years been shifting towards an environment where we do not seek out talent, we have talent beating our doors from panels to artists, and everything beyond.

Unfortunately this year I actually had a waiting list for groups and rooms starting in October. Additionally there was a last minute unscheduled change that leaves us without our largest video space for half of the convention, as it is becoming Registration. We are making due [sic] with all the changes but we don't have space between programming and events to fit you guys in this year, and our programming book has already gone to print.

In thinking about all the folks we had to contact to let them know it wasn't happening this year, I had to remember you, the fans. It's not that we've quit; we're just not going to be there this year. We'll be back next year and we're still planning on Anime Fest later this year.

Because, ya know, Vincent Price

Featuring the vocal sylings of Casey Kasem, Conan O'Brian, and VINCENT PRICE.

Yeah, OK. I know it's not Conan. It's Danny Kaye. But still....

happy kitchen #4

"Elvis, you'll never make it!"

Friendship is Beginning...

Just noticed 30 years ago, this came on the cathode ray tubes all across the country. Life was never the same since.

Logan's Run

I love that movie.

A Tribute to Playhouse Pictures

A little something for the old-schoolers!

ENJOY!

Thanks to Mike Kazaleh and others for sharing the love!

Popcorn (1974)

What does popcorn and the Air Force Reserve have in common? Nothing really, but this recruitment film produced by Hanna-Barbera's kinda corny!

ANIJAM! (NSFW)

ANIJAM (1984)

Mark Kausler, Anne Chevalier, Zdenko Gasparovic, Max Bannah, Sally Cruikshank, Guido Manuli, Wayne Morris, Kaj Pindal, Hal Fukushima, Janet Perlman, Dieter Mueller, Frank Terry, Per Lygum, Paul Vester, Paul Driessen, Gordon Stanfield, Kathy Rose, Brad Caslor, Frank Nissen, Kazunari Furuya, Zlatko Grgic and Marv Newland.

ANIMATION HAS NO BORDERS (1986)

Mario Garcia-Montes, Julian Antonisz, Olle Hedman, Max Bannah, Roman Meitsov, Daniel Schelfthout, Shaila Paralkar, Mahjoub Zouhair, Andre Lindon, Marilyn Cherenko, Alison Johnston, Bob Lin, Kresimir Zimonjic, Heikki Paakkanen, Steve Segal, Frantisek Skala, Vera Moe, Michalis Arfaras, Robert Alder, Fernando Garza Tamez, Chan Sanwei, Vera Neubauer, Taku Furukawa, Oliver Georgi, Walter Tournier, Alastair McIlwain, Vincenzo Gioanola, Jannik Hastrup, Robi Engler, Tsvika Oren, Jordan Ananiadis, Jose Antonio Sistiaga, Peter Szoboszlay, Robert Stenhouse, Marcos Magalhaes, Peter Sweenen

ACADEMY LEADER VARIATIONS (1987)

Georges Schwizgebel, Claude Luyet, Daniel Suter, Martial Wannaz, David Ehrlich, Jane Aaron, Skip Battaglia, Paul Glabicki, George Griffin, Al Jarnow, Jerzy Kucia, Piotr Dumala, Stanislaw Lenartowicz, Krzysztof Kiwerski, Mieczyslaw Janik, Yan Ding Xian, A Da, Chang Guang Xi, He Yu Men, Hu Jin Qing and Lin wen Xiao

CANDYJAM (1988)
David Anderson, Elizabeth Buttler, Tom Gasek, Joan Gratz, Karen Aqua, Paul Driessen, Christine Panushka, Joanna Priestley, Craig Bartlett and Marv Newland.

ANIMATED SELF-PORTRAITS (1989)

Sally Cruikshank, David Ehrlich, Candy Kugel, Bill Plympton, Maureen Selwood, Mati Kutt, Riho Unt, Hardi Volmer, Priit Parn, Jan Svankmajer, Pavel Koutsky, Jiri Barta, Bordo Dovnikovic, Josko Marusic, Dusan Vukotic, Nikola Majdak, Renzo Kinoshita, Kihachiro Kawamoto and Osamu Tezuka

PINK KOMKOMMER (1990)

Christopher Hinton, Craig Bartlett, Janet Perlman, Stoyan Dukov, Sara Petty, Alison Snowden, David Fine, Paul Driessen and Marv Newland

YELLOW STICKY NOTES | CANADIAN ANIJAM (2013)

Paul Driessen, Cordell Barker, Lillian Chan, Malcolm Sutherland, Alison Snowden, David Fine, Chris Hinton, Jeff Chiba Stearns, Marv Newland, Louise Johnson, Joel Mackenzie, Jody Kramer, Jonathan Ng, Howie Shia and Janet Perlman.

Happy 35th Nickelodeon (if needed)

Because I have no faith in it all, I'll leave you with this playlist of what I consider the best of said network (though mainly pre-1990, so all you Y/Z-Gen snots can just suck it).

Let's watch a cartoon!

The talents of Ken Muse, Ed Barge, Irv Spence and Lewis Marshall are being tested by rank amateurs.

Dogsnack Dancesnack

VHS Hell: Hard Bastard

Happy, Happy Monchhichi!

Let's celebrate the 40th birthday of one of America's forgotten toy crazes.

More...

Brought to you by ABC and these guys....

VHS Hell: Damager

Join me in a rabbit hole

Dan and I were talking about this track, which I love, and how I first heard it on Marketplace, because I am dull and square like that.

This got me thinking...

More...

See, I like Röyksopp, and I guess I like car insurance as well, because I dig this tune. But those graphics reminded me of something.



Oh, it was this thing by Pleix. Wait, what else have they done?



Well, OK, that's pretty horrible, but what's the reality?



Yeah, that's dreadful. It does work pretty well with the right soundtrack, however.

Just in time for Meatless Monday, too.

Shake your stump in the air 'cause you didn't take care

Look at this wonderful thing A\Very found!

It's actually part of a much longer thing.

More...

Yeah, we can't show that. It's too long.

Things We Lost In The Taco Revolution

You may want a blindfold and a cigarette for this, comrades.

More...

Late in the last century, Taco Bell used Socialist iconography for Capitalist purposes. And somehow nobody was offended by replacing Che Guevara with a chihuahua.



Corporate HQ is in a jungle, how appropriate.



We don't want you to confuse him with Fidel Castro.



Khakis and a red beret and you're ready for guerrilla fighting in the drive thru.



Yes, it is a glorious day for tacos, comrades!



Beret tip to Comrade Chris for this VHS.

VHS Hell: Bangkok Dangerous

VHS Hell: White Tiger

James Brown sings to his Cup Noodle (1992)

Sample that.

Epimenides Paradox

That's going to keep me up at night, now.

Luckily, there is a solution.

How to Play Your Casio Keyboard (1989)

What a way to waste an afternoon!

VHS Hell: Second Strike

The Last Belle (Neil Boyle, 2011)

This is going to rob nearly 20 minutes of your life, but it's 20 minutes that deserved to be robbed on something like this!

Grumpy Jii-san Loses his Grip and Buys the Farm

I just found out this chap passed away two months back. I'm sad to hear of it simply because I was very fond of his reviews and the unique way he went about reviewing anime while out and about in the Arizona countryside. His videos can still be view on his YouTube page but for now, here's just a sample of his work.

BRUCE "GRUMPY" WAYNE

1924-2014

Short Peace (this time, with subtitles)

Welp, I went to see Short Peace at the Angelika tonight and I took my mom. I think we should all be able to share anime with our parents and an anthology is as good as anything.

As this was only showing the one night, I suspect we were a test audience of some sort. I was the only one who filled out a card at the start, so I won two free tickets (You can't win if you don't play.) but I'm not sure what kind of feedback we were supposed to give. There were no previews. The sound was a little louder than it needed to be, but I don't think the turn-out was as good as they had expected (and that's why you're supposed to advertise), so there were fewer bodies to absorb the sound.

Luckily, this presentation was with subtitles. So! Let's see what we got right and what we didn't.

Spoilers!

More...

POSSESSIONS

What I missed at the beginning was the explanation that tools that are 100 years old gain a soul and become Tsukumogami.

Mom thought the kasa-obake were great, but she also collects frogs. The song they sing is basically "Here and there and everywhere. Get used up and thrown away." Our hero admires them before repairing them.

I was pretty much right about the cloth room, but the speech given is much creepier ("Am I still still pretty? Call me pretty. Mister, am I pretty?"). Once he's fixed up the ittan-momen, he asks to be released.

The final room, the prayer at the end was was on gratitude. "Thank you for your service." It was the recognition of use that saved him.

COMBUSTABLE

We never got any subtitles for the opening calligraphy.

The animation did a strange stutter at the start, but I think that's part of digital projection on the large screen. The kids are still adorable, but now you can make out the details.

What I did not realize the first time around was Matsuyoshi always wanted to be a fireman. When he first appears, he's holding a banner similar to what the fire brigade rushes around with and chanting "Make way! Make way!" When he sneaks out at night, it's to go watch a fire. After he's disowned (that still happens) he says he can be a fireman now.

The girl's name is Wakka (I'd called her Owaka) which means "water" in the Ainu language, so there's that.

Mom swears she's seen this story before, but not as an animated piece. We agree it's just one of those tales where there's probably multiple versions. We both agree this one has the best music and is the strongest piece.

And yes, I cried. Again.

GAMBO

Subtitles added absolutely nothing to this story except maybe people's names. It's still dumb.

FAREWELL TO ARMS

This had the most going on so subtitles added the most.

Gin (I'd called him Jin) has saved up all his money to buy four acres of vineyard. He promised to send us all a bottle of wine.

The brash kid I'd called Nobu (that's what it sounded like), but his name in the subtitles is Rum. The action is still pretty much the same for him; the only change I'd make is he insists on firing at the 'bot while the guy with the glasses is dragging him away.

Our guy with the glasses is named Marl (or Marle in the credits), but I thought his name was Maru. The reason he hits the 'bot with a green laser is to mark it for the drones, so he's not being dumb.

The 'bot is called a GONK. And Avery was right: there's only one. The underground was the original target of the journey, but they were side-tracked by the heat of the GONK and decided to take it out before proceeding.

Everyone knew about the missile on the train and they were going to just defuse it, but then the GONK showed up. As they couldn't disarm it, it had to be destroyed, but that went wonky due to being in a subway station.

The brochure handed to Marl at the end explained how "this is a rational war".

I will say, on the big screen, it's much harder to track what's going on. I can see a dub working OK for this (we're not asking for major dramatic performances from these folks), and that would make it easier to track what's going on.

All in all, if it does go into wider distribution, go and see it. It's worth it, even if it's only a little over an hour. Heck, take your mom.

VHS Hell: A Kid From Tibet

#Bfl O {ggGX = STwWcfl x 2s4 (cir. 1963)

Please do not look or laugh at Bugs Bunny!

Tex Avery Day

Oh my god, I can't believe I forgot this! Well, here it is, a day late.

Yesterday was Tex Avery Day. Above, we have an embed of the wonderful cartoon "I Love to Singa", for which there was a fantastic writeup on Saturday Morning Cartoon. Go read what they have to say about it! It's got some great history. Heck, we've posted on this cartoon before.

There's also some neat stuff at Cartoon Brew and Loop

And now, I'm gonna show some cartoons.

More...

We showed this cartoon once at Yulecon (we needed something holiday related), and it's shocking (looking at it as an adult) how many war gags were in it. Did we ever get those jokes as kids? Seriously, there's three war gags in the first 30 seconds and they just keep coming. Why would a kid ever laugh at a giant C sticker on the side of a boat? Actually, just go read that article and then watch the cartoon. It's funnier.



I have no idea why this is broken up the way it is. Probably to avoid a take-down notice.



According to the comments, this is Tex's last theatrical cartoon. What's great here is how the silence is used so effectively. The need to keep quiet was used that same year in Deputy Droopy and earlier in Rock a Bye Bear.


MGM Cartoon "The First Bad Man" (1955)

I am pretty sure that the first jail is based on the John Neely Bryan cabin in downtown Dallas (the map, by the way, is accurate). The cabin is not really that interesting, now that they keep the windows shuttered. It used to be you could walk up to it and look inside, which was actually kinda interesting when you're in fourth grade.



Picture distortion from passing airplanes! Oh, how far we've come.



Finally, "The Wacky World of Tex Avery". Mom told me if you can't say anything nice to not say anything at all, so I'll just keep mum on this one. They say the good die young; honestly, it's just they don't stick around long enough to disappoint you.



Oh come on, like I'd end on a down-note!

Short Peace (2013) (part 4, continued....)

OK! So, yesterday, we fought a "robot" and decided to head into the subway. Let's go check out underground and the horrors lurking within.

More...

Look, the guys even brought a little rover scout drone. Aw, how cute!

It even knows its name!

Deep in the subway, they've found several boxcars. Remembering what these guys did during the montage at the start, we can guess they're going to try to salvage something here.

And one of those boxcars has some plot in it. The music changes and people chat excitedly. No, whatever that is, they're not just going to haul it back to the truck. This is big stuff.

Oh, and explosions.

Someone is firing on them! It's another 'bot. This will be a very different battle, as Jin didn't have a chance to set up a kill-zone and Nobu is going to find it hard to snipe from the same level as his opponent. Also, Nobu's armor has gone out again. He's just sitting there.

Maru fires some grenades, but that might not be enough.

A different place, a different style.

What I really love about these critters, and part of why I started to giggle, is the sound effect of their lasers. I don't know why I get off on that as much as I do.

Jin has some missiles left, so he's going to set a kill-zone as quickly as he can. He might be more effective if he wasn't so spooked by the view of their vehicle outside and the smoke from it. I'll bet you Yankee's dead (he had no armor).

This thing is really mean.

The Chief tells Maru to go to the boxcar. Maru can't believe what he's hearing. Jin throws an electro-pulse grenade at the 'bot and it's momentarily paralyzed, but Maru has to puke in his helmet first (no, I'm not taking that snapshot).

Jin's taking pot shots at the bot while the Chief is un-burying himself. We can assume that Nobu is dead. Maru manages to make it onto the boxcar, which has power, for some reason.

The A-Train, it aint't.

The music is building. Something big is going to happen! The Chief frees himself from some rubble and uses his progressive-knife on a fallen bit of scaffold. Jin runs around the side from the 'bot. Maru busts open the roof and gets out of the boxcar. The Chief finds Nobu's sniper rifle.

Queue Philip Glass scales.

And then things get really unhinged. The roof on the boxcar starts to open. Maru gets hit by a laser. Jin jumps on the 'bot.

A worthy opponent.

Jin is vaporized. The Chief shoots a few more times. And then....

Not a minute too soon!

A minute-man missile comes out of the boxcar. Way to go, guys.

The warhead falls off, but the engine is still flying around in the subway, until it hits the roof. With nowhere to go, it just crumples up and kabooms.

Earth-shattering kabooms

The Chief and Maru make it out of the rubble that was the subway, but Maru's suit is still damaged from the laser hit it took earlier, so he has to do an emergency evac. A moment of relief that they're OK.

That was short-lived.

Oh no! The Chief is dead and Maru is defenseless! The thing is gonna kill him...and... No. It fires at his suit, but not him. In his struggle to get away, Maru loses his dog-tags and the 'bot fires on those, but not him. The 'bot tells him to have a nice day and starts to walk off. The 'bot should have a female voice when the dub comes, because that would be funnier.

You have to give him points for effort, though.

With everyone else from his party dead, Maru just beats on the 'bot with a rock. The 'bot's unfazed, but does take enough time to vaporize his clothing.

His butt looks like a kitty.

What else can you do? Maru picks up a warhead and runs at the automaton. Queue music. Queue credits. Queue my goony laughter. Final shot of Mt. Fuji!

Now, the fifth piece was not included in the final film, but here's a trailer.



Of course it's a game.

Short Peace (2014) (part 4)

Buki yo Saraba "A Farewell to Arms"

This one is worth the ending, and out of all the pieces in this Otomo anthology, it's the Otomost. Keep your eyes peeled for fiddly things, things falling apart, and automatons where every bolt has its own foley effect.

More...

Bingo.

We've got rock and roll, a desert, and an all terrain vehicle. No, it's not a commentary on the Gulf Wars, but it could be. It's just a bunch of guys in the desert. A bunch of guys with suits.

Casual Friday! No ties!

We've got the Chief (blond), Nobu, Jin (with the mustache), Yankee (Junkie? The driver), and Maru (in glasses). The roomie swears that Maru has an Osaka dialect. That's right; make the stereotypical intellectual the hick.

Don't stand there.

While they're tootling around in the desert, we get some flashbacks of them scavenging (salvaging?) various things. These guys get in their power suits and rummage around in the ruins, looking for guns or ammo or whatever. They pull the doors off containers looking for stuff.

No idea where they get gas for the vehicle or their snacky-treats, but there it stands.

They also have a drone.

Mail call!

The kids who watch this now are going to have fond memories about it the way I do for Robot Carnival. I'm kind of embarrassed for them, because this is going to look so dated in twenty years. This is the one they'll all remember and it's the one that will look the hokiest. (Also, I giggled like an idiot for the last ten minutes of this one.)

Anyway, the drone has some interesting footage. They've found something in the city and so it's time to drive over there, get into the “protect suits", and check it out.

Hey, Nobu. No showing off.

This is also where we get to see that the suits have “Peacekeepers" on the badge on the side. The suits are pretty nifty: both armor and power-assist with face-masks that are an intelligel that you can peal off after damage. I can hardly wait for the cos-play.

But the drone saw something in the city! Time to break out the heavy gear and go to town. Literally.

Don't forget the beer.

The boys rush into the city square and set up their kill zone. Maru sends some flying bombs on trip around the sky, Jin ties off some missiles to a railing, and Nobu sets up his sniper's nest. the Chief overlooks all of this and radios back to Yankee.

Because Yankee sees what the drone sees.

And we get to see what a drone sees right before it's blown to kingdom come by a robot. Yes, I know that a robot is actually controlled by an external intelligence and these are automatons, but I'm calling them “'bots" here because that's going to be easier for everyone.

Plus, look at it.

Maru decides to give away his position with a green laser pointer. The 'bot fires on him.

Nobu fires, but misses, so the 'bot fires on his position. Thankfully, Nobu knows that when you are the sniper, you fire, then relocate. This involves a little roof-jumping, but that's easy in a power-assist suit.

Also helps to have computer-assisted targeting.

Maru fires some of the flying bombs at the 'bot, but it's no good. Nobu gets another shot in, but a building crumbles under him during his relocate and the 'bot has him dead to rights.

With no power, it's just dead weight.

Maru runs out to save him, while the Chief watches. It looks like the 'bot is close enough to some smoke bombs; the Chief orders a full discharge to hide Maru and Nobu so they can get away.

The 'bot is just firing at where ever those smoke bombs came from, which is a nice distraction for the others to try to get a hit in. No luck. Nobu's legs aren't working, but he can still fire his gun, so he does. Maru just drags a guy to possible safety.

Finally, the dumb 'bot wanders into the kill-zone that Jin set up earlier. All the little lights turn from green to red and that's it. It shoots a few down, but...

Nice catch.

Bye, 'bot.

With that out of the way, let's go to the subway! There's no way that could be a bad idea.

Actually, this piece is a little long and this is a good place to stop. We'll pick up more tomorrow.