Last weekend was the San Diego Comic Con which traditionally means lots of news regarding comics and animation.
Some of the good news was that 3 DC Universe animated features are in the works for 2012 namely Batman: The Dark Knight Returns based on Frank Miller’s classic work, Superman vs the Elite and the Justice League: Doom.
I’m especially looking forward to the Batman feature, because the Batman animated features have proven to be the best entries in the DC Universe movies. The others sound at least intriguing so I’m also curious for those.
Also, a preview was shown for the new Green Lantern Animated Series. The style seems very similar to the Superman and Justice League animated series, but sadly rendered in CGI. Nevertheless, any DC animated series deserve a fair chance since they have a solid track record.
The Looney Tunes have appeared on DVD in various collections of which the Golden Collection was the best, with several classical shorts being included with restored images and plenty of extras.
In November the Looney Tunes will (finally) be making their debut on Blu-Ray format. But the main news for me is that finally a studio has picked up the clue that people who are interested to buy entertainment stuff want something special in order to actually buy it instead of downloading it for free, namely gift sets!
On top of the ‘regular’ release the Looney Tunes Blu-Ray will also come as a limited collectors edition in a box with some goodies:
Framed Litho Cel with Certificate of Authenticity
Souvenier Tin Sign
2.5 oz Character Collectible Glass
Commemorative magnet
Now, that is how a DVD or Blu-Ray set should be released! The only flaw may be if the discs are region protected.
Nineties classic MTV cartoon Beavis and Butthead will return to MTV this year and the first footage has been released.
Beavis and Butthead used to rule the airwave in the 90s as two dumbs metal heads with authority problems. But the biggest draw was their often funny and harsh commentary on a wide range of videoclips.
In the new show apparently Beavis and Butthead will continue providing commentary, this time (also?) on TV shows. Not sure if videoclips commentaries will also be included.
The animation looks very cleaned up in comparison to the original series, which shouldn’t be a surprise with current technology.
The 3D hype has been going on for over 1,5 year now ever since Avatar broke box office records and pretty much made the whole 3D thing mass accepted.
I saw Avatar in 3D to see what the hype around 3D was and I must admit it was intriguing to see the 3D effect for the first time. The first 30 minutes or so the 3D effect was very noticeable and it was a nice touch. Not something I’d miss if it weren’t there, but a nice to see thing for one time. After 30 minutes or so into the movie the effect of 3D started to fade and it felt like watching a 2D movie.
I said ‘for one time’ with a reason because 3D is not something I have to see numerous times. I’ve paid to see it once just to see what the fuzz was all about and now that I’ve seen it I don’t find it’s worth paying extra for.
Warner Bros has been trying to make a live action movie of anime classic Akira for a few years with little result so far.
But Variety is reporting that Warner Bros has assigned Jaume Collett-Serra as the director of the live action Akira with a budget of $ 90 million. No actors of actresses have been cast yet, though original Akira writer and director Katsuhiro Otomo will exec produce.
Changes apparently will be made to the story in comparison to the original anime. Instead of all the action taking place in Neo Tokyo, the live action version will be Americanized and therefore events will take place in New Manhattan. Rumours are the violence and sorts will also be leveled down in order to appeal to a broader audience. The latter doesn’t sound too good.
However, until I see some actual footage and designs, especially Kaneda’s bike, I’m trying to keep an open mind about this project.
I mean, wouldn’t it be cool if Akira actually was made into a live action version?
Coming weekend the biggest Comic Com will take place in San Diego, the SDCC. Lots of interesting stuff will debut at this con as well as SDCC exclusives/limited editions.
One of the limited editions is the complete 2nd season of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe from Mill Creek Entertainment which will have a different cover than the regular edition which will be released two months later than this SDCC exclusive.
I’m very happy with my BCI sets, so despite the attractive cover I’ll skip this one.
Moonbot Studios, lead by ex-Pixar animator William Joyce, has released an ebook app for the iPad which shows the potential of ebooks and could be a glimpse into the future of (e)books as we know it.
Almost ten years ago when I was attending university I wrote an article together with a friend about ebooks. Back then we already listed numerous benefits of ebooks, but the main drawback was the lack of an appropriate ereader.
With the iPad there seems to be an acceptable ereader. Though there still are some flaws in the iPad as a dedicated reader for ebooks, millions of people have already accepted it.
And with the hurdle of a suitable ereader out of the way publishers and writers have complete creative freedom to experiment with the format. Moonbot Studios has taken that opportunity by designing an interactive animated book. The trailer for their book The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr. Morris Lessmore looks very compelling and will undoubtly capture children’s attention and hopefully bring them back to reading books.
With traditional books we’ve already had pop-up books and books with sound, but now the iPad enables companies to also create books that have motion and interaction. I’m actually surprised there are so few companies that have utilized these benefits of an ebook so far, especially the traditional publishers.
Have they learned nothing from the music industry?
More footage for the new Thundercats cartoon series has leaked to the Internet.
In an almost 10 minute videoclip the new Thundercats are introduced.
The animation looks great again. The story seems to be taking a different route than the original series, but not less interesting.
Lion-O and Tygra are brothers and more insight is given to the Thundercats’ life on their home planet. The new series goes live on Cartoon Network later this month.
