Archive for the ‘Animated’ Category
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 14th, 2013
Most cartoons these days seem to be carbon copies of cartoons gone past just with different settings and characters. You got the superhero cartoon, adventure cartoon, anime cartoon, the really kiddie cartoon and the adult cartoon. Today, we have a classic I want to be a Pokemon imitator cartoon. It goes by the name Monsuno. Let us take a look inside the second volume and see if this one is more than an attempt to sell action figures and trading cards.
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Disc Reviews by John Ceballos on April 30th, 2013
Before Jay & Silent Bob, Harold & Kumar, and Seth Rogen, James Franco and their current band of merry stoners, there was Cheech & Chong. In terms of pot humor, they were the trailblazers who happily blazed on screen and on stage. The comedy duo’s popularity hit its apex with the release of 1978’s Up in Smoke, which became the year’s highest-grossing comedy. Still, Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong’s roots were always in music.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2013
The computer-animated feature film has reached the point where you don’t have to be one of the big boys to play. While Pixar and to a lesser extent Dreamworks have dominated this feature form pretty much since its inception, there have already been a handful of independent films that have managed to leave their mark on the landscape. Now the foreign market is getting into the act as well. A Monster In Paris, or Un Monstre a’ Paris, is the result of that evolution.
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Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 11th, 2013
The boogeyman, who goes by the name Pitch Black, is gaining power by turning children’s dreams into nightmares. An alliance of fantasy characters, North (Santa Claus), (the Easter) Bunny, Sandman, and Tooth (Fairy), come together to face this opponent. They call themselves Guardians who have sworn to protect all of the world’s children. In this adventure they recruit a new member, Jack Frost, who is on his own personal quest of discovery.
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Disc Reviews by Jonathan Foster on March 11th, 2013
“I am steel. I am doom. I march for Macragge, and I know no fear!”
The above quote is the motto of Ultramarines, the best of the best of the Space Marines from the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The popular miniatures star in their first movie, a CGI action/adventure tale from Anchor Bay films. I admit — as nerdy as I am — I’ve never had any interest in the Warhammer figurines. Because of that, I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy this movie. I was pleasantly surprised, then, when the story of the Warhammer universe and the Space Marines’ place in it was succinctly presented in the opening voiceover.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 7th, 2013
“I’m bad, and that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad.”
One of the easiest ways to let your age show is to talk about your favorite video games. If you’re old enough, you even remember a time when there weren’t any video games at all. Most people refer to this era as The Dark Ages. But I’m willing to admit that I put a deposit down on an Atari 2600 system these many years ago. If you have a love of all things video games and a great appreciation for the history of the field, Wreck-It Ralph was built just for you.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 6th, 2013
“All this has happened before and will all happen again. But this time it happened in London. It happened on a quiet street in Bloomsbury. That corner house is the house of the Darling family, and Peter Pan chose this particular house because these were people who believed in him…”
In 1953 with a little help from some Walt Disney magic, generations of children, and adults, of course, would learn to believe in the boy who never grew up
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Disc Reviews by John Ceballos on February 6th, 2013
“It’s time for Animaniacs. And we’re zany to the max. So just sit back and relax, you’ll laugh ‘til you collapse. We’re Animaniacs!”
I am a 30-year-old man, and I didn’t need any help remembering the lyrics to the Animaniacs theme song. (Yikes! That sounds like a confession I should be making at my next Man-Child Anonymous meeting.) Similar to the influential work of Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, Animaniacs served as the first exposure many children in the ‘90s had to classical music and literary masterpieces.
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Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 19th, 2013
Spongebob Squarepants, the flagship cartoon for Nickelodeon for the last few years, has been churning out DVD specials inbetween releases of complete seasons. Sometimes these are linked by a theme (such as the Halloween DVD I reviewed in October http://upcomingdiscs.com/2012/10/15/31-nights-of-terror-spongebob-squarepants-ghouls-fools/) and this would mean taking episodes from numerous seasons. This particular special mostly contains more recent episodes, all of which have some sort of “extreme” or somewhat violent/action oriented story. 
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 8th, 2013
To his credit, Tim Burton has managed to keep the art of stop motion alive and well in Hollywood. He’s also proven that it can still be quite effective and just as commercial with such classics as A Nightmare Before Christmas. Since that time he’s had a modest number of hits and misses, but nothing that has come close to the holiday staple…until now. Frankenweenie is destined to become a Halloween tradition at our house, and I suspect I’m not alone.
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Disc Reviews by John Ceballos on January 3rd, 2013
“For every dark, a light. For every foe, a friend. For every question, an answer. For every key, a lock.”
And for every kid-centric animated program, a lucrative line of tie-in toys. Monsuno borrows liberally — the nicest way I know of saying “rips off” — from previous phenomena like Beyblade, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! Though it primarily exists to help sell derivative trading cards and action figures, the show establishes a surprisingly intriguing world in its first handful of episodes.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 11th, 2012
“When you said you wanted an ocean view, you didn’t think you’d get the whole ocean, did you?”
When Finding Nemo was released in May of 2003 there were a ton of skeptics. It was certainly a divergence from the tried and true Pixar formula, and even the people involved with the project were concerned that it would become Pixar’s first flop. They needn’t have worried. The film was far from a flop. It took in over $70 million in just its first weekend. The final total would be just shy of a billion dollars. The animated feature took the Oscar for best animated feature that year.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 9th, 2012
One of the traps as a kid I never really got into was the art of the Magic card game. Sure, the cards were pretty to look at but the actual game behind it or the similar pretenders never seemed to interest me. Of course, these card games never quite stay card games, they become toys and often cartoon series. Today, I get one of those so called card games which have spawned a series. Its name is Kaijudo and the review is next on the Hub.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 3rd, 2012
There was some real enjoyment when I took on the reviewing reigns for the first season of Transformers Prime. It was the best thing since the infamous Generation 1 cartoons and showed great sound, dazzling video and fantastic character development. Now, we enter season two and if we watched the teasers, we learned that Optimus Prime was branded with the Decepticon logo possibly meaning the impossible. How could this be? Well tune in true believers, we shall find out all this and more.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 15th, 2012
Most of you reading this now have probably seen my reviews for part 2 and part 3 of this series. Well, the wonderful people at Shout Factory sent me a compilation disc in blu-ray nevertheless and I am very excited to bring it to the reading public for review. The important medium of digital or motion comics is about to receive its most significant package yet. But enough about an introduction, lets directly dive into the complete collection of Astonishing X-Men or better known as the Joss Whedon run of X-Men.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 14th, 2012
“The ancients spoke of it. It is the heart of this fierce land. It is carried in the wind. Born of our legends, and when we are put to the test, it is the one thing that we must always be.”
Readers of this site already know that I have a particular fondness for most of the films that have come from Pixar. The studio pretty much invented the computer-animated feature film, and they’ve been setting the bar higher with each new release. I’ve always thought it was rather fitting that the studio ended up as part of Disney. After all, it was the Mouse House that invented the animated feature to begin with
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 8th, 2012
My favorite genre of music to make fun of is Metal (even though I like listening to it). As an example, This is Spinal Tap, the best musical mockumentary ever, we learn that metal can be freaking hilarious. That’s why when my webmaster offered me Metalocalypse Season Four on Blu-Ray, I eagerly said yes even though I had only seen the cartoon once or twice. However, once I opened it up, I realized before me was perhaps one of the funniest dark comedic cartoons I have ever seen.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 28th, 2012
Quick, what cartoon was generally considered to be the first primetime cartoon of its kind, running from 1960 to 1966 with over a hundred and sixty episodes? Give up? Well that show would be the Flintstones, a stone age comedy that imitated the Honeymooners with quick wit and wholesome family jokes. Today, we have a review that brings together a couple of primetime specials that aired during the late seventies. Let’s explore the first volume of Flintstones Prime Time Specials Volume 1 from the Warner Archive.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 28th, 2012
Most people know I’m a sucker for cartoons and I am willing to give any new toon a try. Often in this day and age I might be let down as a lot of newer cartoons do not always hold up against many of the well defined classics of my childhood. However, I rarely get jaded and I am always eager for the next new show to come chomping down the block. The title for us today to review is Regular Show and 16 of the best episodes that a single disc can buy. Let’s take a look.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 23rd, 2012
“A dragon. A dragon. You bet we saw a dragon. So big and brave he came to save a village in distress. He kept the ship from crashing when he heard the SOS. He faced a group of villains and he fought them with success…”
When Walt Disney Studios released Mary Poppins, the entertainment world was turned on its ears. The integration of live action footage with animation had never been done with such success before. The studio that nearly singlehandedly perfected modern methods of animation was also the studio that learned how to combine it almost seamlessly with real breathing actors
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 17th, 2012
“Do you want me to give it to you straight?”
When last we left our main characters from the first two Madagascar films they were stranded in Africa after being shipped from their home in the New York Zoo. We knew the sequel was coming. They couldn’t have left it any more wide open than they did. Of course, the reasonable questions were already being asked by the time the second film began. Do we really need another Madagascar film? Is there any new territory to explore?
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Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 15th, 2012
There have been numerous DVD releases of Spongebob episodes that are linked together by a theme. Holidays are obvious choices and Halloween is an inevitable choice for any series that has multiple seasons under their belt. As expected as it may be, that does not dampen the loony fun that comes along with Sponebob.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 3rd, 2012
The residential cartoon aficionado is reporting for duty. I often think when I am 80 or 90 years old (if I live that long), I will be in my easy chair with a glass of Metamucil and my cane off to the side while I enjoy a heaping dose of cartoons. Then I will go yell at some kids and tell them to get off my lawn. That is the life, I am telling you. Today, I will be reviewing the third best of Adventure Time dvd with the always lovable Jake and Finn.
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Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 3rd, 2012
Dora sets out to teach kids a little English here, and a little Spanish there, as she goes on some Halloween themed adventures; most of which involving costume parades. The formula for each episode (Halloween themed or not) is identical, allowing kids to speak along with the characters, while grating the patience of nearby adults.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 20th, 2012
Every once in a while, we get surprises in the disc review world. I had reviewed the first volume of G.I. Joe Renegades on DVD and found it the best G.I. Joe series since the original. The cartoon only lasted a season and I secretly wished for a blu-ray of the complete season though I was pretty convinced it would never get made (and certainly not make it to my door). But lo and behold, it actually did. Furthermore, it looks impressive. Let’s take a look inside shall we?
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