Happy Halloween!

From the Shemp Bat. May his horrible, hideous face remind you of the holiday.

Rimmi's Cartoon Opening Challenge #11

Today's...This month's cartoon is Thundarr the Barbarian. I didn't see this show until it aired on Cartoon Network, or TNT, or something. I would say that it's an obvious rip off of He-Man, but I just cheated and found out that it's not true. More later.



Our intro starts with a lightsabre firing up. Only they're not allowed to call it that. Besides, the lightsabres were shaped like rods while this thing is shaped like a blade, so shut up! The camera pulls back to reveal Prince Adam, Teela with a tan, and the baby of the Cowardly Lion and Chewbacca. By the way, the pose that the woman is doing in this photo? All women do that when they stand up. As far as I know.



The next scene shows the premise of the show. Some comet passed by the earth and a large golf ball and things go bad. The clouds disappear and the golf ball cracks in two. This causes the civilizations of the earth to be destroyed the day after tomorrow. Did I mention that this took place in 1994? What was the deal with all the predictions of doom in the 90s. Bill Clinton was very lucky because all he had to do was show up and he seemed good due to the lack of armageddons.




The narrator tells us that earth is reborn 2000 years later. What?! Do you mean it took man 2000 years to rebuild after a long dark age? That's what I'm guessing he meant. Anyway, the moon is still fractured in the sky 2000 years later, even if that makes no sense. I guess magic holds it there. Anyway, we see some futuristic Jetson homes. They're not located in the sky, which means that this is still a bad future.

Hilariously, the narrator tells us that there's super science in the future. He says this JUST as a sorceror makes a dragon appear out of nowhere. Yep, science invented magic. The future world of 3994 sucks because mankind is enslaved to savage monsters, so we need a hero or something. Enter He-darr. He breaks his chains, just like his action figure probably does. Take that, lizard monsters! Thundarr hangs out with Princess Ariel the magician and Ookla the Mok, who finds a car that looks great after two milennium.




The narrator tells us that it will take Thundarr's strength, courage, and fabulous sun sword to get from episode to episode. We see Ariel deflect some magic, because she's a girl and girls are always white mages who can only heal and defend. Meanwhile, Ookla totally freaks out and lets out a great scream as he kicks something. It would be great if you could assign the scream to your delete key. The short intro ends as Thundarr offers more proof that he stole from Star Wars by making lightsabre sounds with his sun sword.


I was surprised to learn that this series predated He-Man. But in my defense, both of these series are stealing from the fantasy movies of the early 80s, so it's not like He-Man ripped off Thundarr so much as it ripped off Conan.

Here's the wiki entry. Nothing really stands out, except for the fact that our heroes apparently travel huge distances on horses. Maybe Princess Teela used her magic while offscreen.

I will admit one thing. 1994 was a really sucky year. At least for me. Maybe civilization really did end.

Seriously, girls always stand with there arms outward and their legs like they're action figures. Prove me wrong.

This Week In Entertainment (10/28/08)

My Pick of the Week is the MST3k 20th Anniversary Collection. To be honest, the episodes themselves don't interest me. It's the extras that I want, including the little Crow that comes with each set.

Also out on DVD this week is some 3D Tinker Bell movie. She didn't talk in the Disney film, right? So are they going to give her a voice or just make her nod her head to all the new boring characters they'll toss in her movie? The animation her look like a barbie doll, by the way.


These cartoons were made in 1920s. Try to see if you can see what's wrong with the box cover. (Pssst, the blacks and whites look a little nuanced, don't they?)

I'm not a Little Rascals fan so I wouldn't know if it's really complete, but here's the Complete Series of their shorts.

Speaking of complete, here's the entire Flintstones series. It's hard to think that this was once the biggest animated primetime show now. This doesn't even include the many times the show was resurrected on Saturday mornings.

While we're on the subject of complete sets, here is the Abbott and Costello set of Universal movies. Costello totally stole from Curly Howard. Just saying.

Is this referring to the Mayan Calendar? Because after the letdown of Y2k, I'm not worried about 2012.

All these women are dead. Haw!


On the Virtual Console this week is Episode 3 of Strong Bad, entitled "Baddest of the Bands." 1000 Wii poins.

Also on the VC is Earthworm Jim, Sega Genesis version. This game was so popular that it led to the great WB cartoon. (Someone PLEASE release that on DVD.)




You know what's NOT out this week? Hobgoblins 2. Thanks a lot, Rick Sloane. I was looking forward to seeing how bad that was, but you won't release it before this Halloween.

Yours truly,

Just in case you always wanted to see what I looked like.



Yep, that's how I dress. The advantage is that I don't have to wear a costume for Halloween. Also, check out my mistress.



I still don't know how it's possible that there is someone paler then me.

Hiatus

Sorry, no new stuff today. My heart hasn't been in it for a while. Except for the Monday update, I don't really plan to do anything for a while. I know I said I'd go on a hiatus before, but now is a great time to really do so.

Tork's Picks Week Eight

I'll take:

Tampa Bay over Dallas
Washington over Detroit
Buffalo over Miami
New England over St. Louis
San Diego over New Orleans
New York Jets over Kansas City
Philadelphia over Atlanta
Carolina over Arizona
Baltimore over Oakland
-
Houston over Cincinnati
Jacksonville over Cleveland
New York Giants over Pittsburgh
Seattle over San Francisco
-
Tennessee over Indianapolis

This Week In Entertainment (10/21/08)

Just to be a jerk, I'm going to make Wii Music my Pick of the Week. It may be remembered as the game that brought down Nintendo after it's brief surge.


In theaters this week is another Saw movie. WHY!!??! Didn't they kill off the bad guy at some poin?

Also out on video this week is The Incredible Hulk, a big improvement over the other Hulk movie.

I like the Loony Tunes Golden Collection but I haven't followed them since they're so pricey. This one promises more wartime cartoons.

Do you really need a 40th Anniversary for the 60s Casino Royale? It's a mess. I'm going to mark my calendar ten years from now to see if people really care about it's 50th Anniversary.

We can't afford a High School Musical, but we can afford this.

The moment that Ben Stein jumped the shark.

When I was a kid, the idea of a talking car was cool, so I liked the idea of Knight Rider at the very least. I can't imagine liking this show beyond the cheese factor.

Have you ever watched a silent film? I haven't seen too many, but I remember watching Fractured Flickers and noticing how unsubtle the actors were. There was a scene where a couple of women were panicking, and the star was upstaged by the wild gesturing of the slave.

I saw this video cover and wondered if it was the same Phantom Planet mocked on MST3k. It is. What the hell? Also, check out this video cover for Bride of the Monster.

On the Virtual Console is Tetris Party. Is this the reason why they don't sell Tetris DS anymore? So they can rerelease the online stuff for the Wii?

Tork's Picks Week Seven

I'll take

San Diego over Buffalo
Minnesota over Chicago
Pittsburgh over Cincinnati
Tennessee over Kansas City
Dallas over St Louis
Miami over Baltimore
Giants over San Francisco
New Orleans over Carolina
-
Houston over Detroit
Jets over Oakland
Indianapolis over Green Bay
Washington over Cleveland
-
Tampa Bay over Seattle
-
Denver over New England



Notes: Whatever

Robot Master Saturday #15

Today's robot master comes from the third game. He's Needle Man, and unless you're crazy, you fight him last.




I probably drew the Mega Man 3 bosses about the same time I drew the Mega Man 2 bosses, but we should see some improvement after the first eight drawings. Let's see.




I managed to make him look really fat. He looks like he has jowls.

What the heck are coming out of his hands? They look like ear syringes.

I'm so lazy that I only drew one needle, even if it's only a simple triangle.

Mother 3 Translation Out Soon

The long awaited sequel to EarthBound will soon have an English translation patch available for the Mother 3 rom. Nintendo will never release this game for North America so this is the best way we can get our hands on it.

The patch can be found here.

After you download this patch, you'll need to get your hands on the Mother 3 rom and a GBA emulator. I recommend Visual Boy Advance for the emulator. I won't help you get the rom. You'll need to download it from a rom site, but be careful because many of those sites have horrible viruses. Enter "Mother 3 rom" into google and hopefully you'll find the right site.

The translation website should help you figure out how to apply the patch to the rom. After that, just drag the rom to your emulator and enjoy the last Mother game.

(I plan to make videos of it like I did for the other two Mother/EarthBound games but I'm not sure if I'll do a blind run or just play through it a few times before making a thorough playthrough. Not that you care. I'm just typing words now.)

If you never played EarthBound, shame on you. Download a SNES emulator and the EarthBound rom now! Screw the copyright laws!

This Week In Entertainment (10/14/08)

My Pick of the Week is the DVD for the latest Indy movie. It's a good movie even if it lacks an ending. (They had 20 years and they ripped off the first movie?)


In other DVD news we have just in time for Halloween, a bunch of Hitchcock films I've never heard of.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and Freddy's Dead are both considered film favorites? Really?

I don't think the hadron collider is getting enough press outside the mandatory scare stories. It's neat, dammit!

The first Home Alone was one of the most important movies ever! At least to us ten year olds back when the first movie was released. It's hard to believe they made three crappy sequels, two without Macauley. The fourth was suppose to be a prequel with some kid playing Kevin while the guy from Third Rock plays one of the original villians. I think I'm not making that up, but I wisely changed the channel before long.

Dear God, they're making more of these in other countries?

On the Wii we have Sam and Max Episode 1, a game made by the same company who did the Strong Bad games. I've downloaded the first SB game and love it, so I hope to pick this game up as well.

In theaters is Max Payne, a movie about a game I never played. When even I never heard of your game, why bother making yet another crappy vg to film adaption? You can't blame everything on Uwe Boll.

Robot Master Saturday #14

Today's robot is Wood Man. I think there's a Capcom law that states that each Mega Man game after the first one has to have one robot master with a name that makes kids snicker. Wood Man is a tree stump who uses leaves as a shield and weapon.



Here's the picture I drew several years ago.



This room is so small that you wouldn't be able to jump over him.

You know what this picture lacks? Any sign that Wood Man is made of wood. But at least he looks like he's having fun.

I'm trying to figure out why I gave him elf ears.

Tork's Picks Week 6

I'll take:

Baltimore over Indianapolis
Minnesota over Detroit
New Orleans over Oakland
Jets over Cincinnati
Chicago over Atlanta
Carolina over Tampa Bay
Washington over St Louis
Miami over Houston
-
Jacksonville over Denver
Philadelphia over San Francisco
Green Bay over Seattle
Dallas over Arizona
-
New England over San Diego
-
Giants over Cleveland

Last Week: 10-4
Season: 48-26

A hiatus?

I don't know when the next time I'll be able to update this blog is. I'm really busy and unmotivated to update this blog. I'm also not sure how the weekend will go for me.


I will get to those last cartoon intros when I can. I'm sorry it's taking me so long to get to them.

I'll get to the last five cartoon intros!

Really! Later this week, hopefully. I'm really busy right now.

This Week In Entertainment (10/6/08)

My Pick of the Week is the latest volume of Three Stooges shorts. This takes us up to 1945, a year before Curly's career ending stroke. I bet Curly-only fans are pissed that they have to buy another set filled with Shemp shorts to complete their collection.


Also out on DVD this week is The Simpsons Season 11. This is a good season but I'm starting to lose interest in these sets. The only reason - besides the uncut episodes - to get these things is for the commentaries, and I don't enjoy them anymore. I wish they would put the complete catalog of shorts on one of these sets.

Here's a 2-disc set of Disney's Sleeping Beauty, the greatest film about old women arguing over dresses ever. Does Disney still bother with the "buy it now or we lock it in the vault...FOR A FEW YEARS! BWAAAHAHAHAHAH!" thing anymore?

Here's The Smurfs Season One, Volume Two. The Smurfs were on for about a decade, but I'm sure splitting the sets into volumes was not done because the studios are greedy. Nope, not at all.

Even the Peanuts have gotten political.

I'll give this to The Munsters. They have a complete series set while The Addams Family has three separate volumes.

Around the time MST3k was cancelled, SciFi Channel started advertising for Lexx, a show that seemed to be Star Trek with innuendo. Heck, take a look at the damn ship. I remember how MSTies focused their shock and outrage from the cancellation onto this show. Good times.

Apparently this is a documentary about Indiana Jones fans. Dorks. At least it wasn't some fanfiction film like I original thought.

See, this is why you shouldn't complain when somebody takes your crappy childhood memory and turns it into a really crappy movie. You'll eventually get enough interest in your memory that some studio will release it all so you can relive your memory once more.

There's something about this DVD cover that disturbs me.

Everything is.



On the Virtual Console this week is more Mega Man 9 stuff. For 200 Wii poins you can download Proto Man as a playable character and for 300 Wii poins you can play Endless mode. Proto Man has a slide and a charge shot, but he takes more damage then Mega Man. This means you have to pay an extra 2 bucks just to have the features that Mega Man has always had since the fourth game, plus you're punished for it! By the way, I already tried these features. I got to my thirtieth screen in my best attempt in Endless Mode before I died. The leaderboard had someone reaching over 3000 screens. I'm this close to catching up.

Shining Force 2 is a game I bought after playing the great Shining Force Game Gear game. I thought I would enjoy SF2 more because it had towns, but the game eventually bored me. I don't like the random battles in a strategy game. Also, I found the ending to be very troubling. "Only a human can kiss her. No dwarves allowed." Yikes, could they at least establish that the different races couldn't mate or something? 8 Wii poins.

Mario Golf was a N64 game that was one of the ones that I think had the Game Boy to N64 gimmick. You had to buy another golf game to unlock stuff on the N64 version. I hope you really like golf. This rom, of course, wouldn't have that gimmick.


If there were any worthwhile Wii or DS games, I forgot what they are. Stupid websites that I use only post future stuff.

Tork's Picks Week 5

I'll take:

Chicago over Detroit
Atlanta over Green Bay
San Diego over Miami
Giants over Seattle
Washington over Philadelphia
Carolina over Kansas City
Tennessee over Baltimore
Indianapolis over Houston
-
Tampa Bay over Denver
Dallas over Cincinnati
Buffalo over Arizona
New England over San Francisco
-
Jacksonville over Pittsburgh
-
Minnesota over New Orleans




Notes: I'll figure out what I've done so far one of these days. Really.


Last Week: 6-7
Season: 38-22

Robot Master Saturday #13

Today's robot is Heat Man. We already had a Fire Man in Mega Man 1, so they had to come up with a new design. Here it is.



As you can see, he's a lighter. Yep.

Here's what I drew.



Fire Man is a shorty, so I guess I gave him longer legs.

Look at his left hand. Did I draw him flipping us off?

I want to poin out that I made the ceiling look like it's crumbling. I guess I even have problems drawing straight lines.