Posted by Michael Pinto on May 21, 2009 in Star Trek
Over the last year or two I’ve noticed that sneakers have upstages t-shirts as a self expressive fashion item, and these limited edition Star Trek sneakers are proof of my theory. The sneakers are designed by jeffstaple and are known as the “Enterprise Edition”. They’ll be on sale at jeffstaple’s retail shop Reed Space which is located in SoHo, NYC and will set you back $80 (but only $60 fora kids pair). Of course if you’re a real fanboy that will be $160 as you’ll need to own a mint pair and one for actual wearing. Here’s the official description: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 21, 2009 in Animation
This amazing fan made video from Japan recreates the opening titles to The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi using the cast of Lucky Star. I’m quite blown away by the quality of this!
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 20, 2009 in Comic Books
I was looking through the latest stack of Marvel covers due out in August and one artist leaped off my screen time-and-time again: Skottie Young! Most of the Marvel covers have that flat photoshopped color look to them, but with Skottie I love how the power of his drawing comes out to dominate the page. Also Skottie isn’t afraid to be cartoony, and his illustrations always have a small amount of humor that brings the characters to life without the need to show them in some super stretched position or battling to the death with some super villain. Shown above is a detail from the cover of Iron Man & The Armor Wars #1 (Of 4) — what’s great about this cover is that it’s a homage to every previous Iron Man character design: Read more…
This nifty looking Transforming USB Flash Memory Device is due to come out in September. Designed by Takara this robot lion will hold 2 gigs of your digital files including your collection of screenshots from the original 80s cartoon. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 19, 2009 in Comic Books
On the surface this cover illustration of Red Robin #3 may not look like much, but to me that’s why it’s so good. Every month I see tons of covers that are crammed with detail but have little graphic impact, however this artwork by Francis Manapul is a great example of “less is more”. Although his cover looks simple there’s actually a great deal of detail and though going on under the surface. Here’s a breakout of what I love about this cover: Read more…
In a previous article where I explored Japanese pop singers who sound like robots I mentioned Aira Mitsuki having a strangely trashed sound which has little to do with poor quality Youtube sound:
Posted by Guest Author on May 17, 2009 in Animation
Editor’s Note: In this column animation expert Joe Strike allows you to test your Pixar smarts:
Think you know your Pixar? Take my little quiz… You could probably get all the answers via 10 minutes on Wikipedia, but that would be cheating. (Not that I have a problem with cheating – it shows initiative.) And away we go…
1. Pixar’s very first computer-animated short was
a) The Adventures of André and Wally B
b) Fish Story
c) Ghost in the Machine
d) Tin ToyRead more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 17, 2009 in Animation
On the final episode of this season’s Family Guy they’re doing a cute tribute to infamous musical triumph sequence of the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds. The term “nerd” itself became re-popularized in the 70s due to Happy Days where Fonzie would always refer to Richie Cunningham and his friends as nerds. And of course in the 70s everybody wanted to be Foznie, but by the 80s the baby boomers went in a more yuppie direction and started to focus on wealth — so he financial success of the computer industry (due to folks like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates) started to make it socially acceptable to be a nerd again. Although acceptable still wasn’t cool, that would have to wait until the 90s when publications like Wired made nerds look like rock stars on their covers. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 16, 2009 in Comic Books
Published by Silverline Books The Lava is a Floor is a kids hardcover comic book which is due out in August which looks like a great deal of fun (especially for us fanboys who are still kids at heart). The illustrations by Jeremy R. Scott have a energetic gregarious quality to them which makes you wish you had these devilish creatures as your personal pets to hang out with and to amuse your friends at parties. The story for the book is by Justin Shady and Wayne Chinsang and features the tale of a brother and sister (Blarg and Clarg) who live live in the crater of a volcano: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 16, 2009 in Comic Books
This is a detail of a cover from issue #3 of the comic book Chew which will come out in August. This illustration by Guillory is wonderful because it has a sense of humor which is sadly lacking from most comic book covers these days, I especially love the reference to the the 1958 cult film Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Here’s the full cover (click on it to see it at full size): Read more…
From Spain comes this amazing hand made felt iPhone. This bit of craftwork seems to be a one-of-a-kind object, but as with most gems that you find on Etsy if you see something that’s sold out you can always ask if the artist might create a similar piece on commission. What makes this iPhone work so well to me is that the artist went the extra mile to sew together every little icon on the screen, I just love those geeky details: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 15, 2009 in Japanese TV
As part of my obsession with Japanese comedian Ken Shimura I came across this clever comedy skit from 1984. In 1974 Shimura joined the Drifters who started life a rock band and comedy group in 1964 (think old school variety show routines). They had a very popular show on TBS from 1969 until 1985 which was called Hachijidayo, Zen’inshugo! (It’s 8 p.m., Everyone Together!”). The humor in the show pretty low brow by Japanese standards, although what I like about watching it is that you don’t need to speak Japanese to get the jokes which in this case can be very visual. One friend of mine once derided Shimura as “the Benny Hill of Japan” but as someone interested in animation I rather appreciate visual comedy, so to me Ken is a treasure.
If you’re an anime fanboy (or fangurl) who loves spaceship battles it looks like Infinite Space from Sega for the Nintendo DS will be a role playing game well worth checking out. These just released promotional films from Sega look amazing given the limits of the screen size on of the DS, the game itself allows you to build, control and outfit over 150 different spaceships and features over 200 anime styled characters to interact with during the course of your game. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 14, 2009 in Animation, Design
Saint Paul Police Detectives and Their Work was a public service color stop motion cartoon produced in 1940. The quality of the animation is itself quite crude and done on tabletop, although the design of each scene which represents a criminal activity is fascinating as each screen is well designed and uses everyday objects. The added touch of the art deco lettering gives you a Dick Tracy feeling offset by an almost surreal sounding soundtrack: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 13, 2009 in Star Trek
Burger King is running a funny series of ads to promote their tie in into Star Trek — these spots feature the Kingons who are a parody of the Klingons. The Kingons strike fear into the hearts of burger loving humans who like Star Trek collectables: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 13, 2009 in Comic Books
Nathan Lane will be an amazing Gomez Addams!The Addams Family is being turned into a Broadway musical and is slated to open in April 2010. In addition to Lane, Bebe Neuwirth will star as Morticia Addams. The Addams Family first started life as a cartoon in The New Yorker magazine in 1938 and was then turned into a hit TV show in the 60s. There have also been two films made in the 90s and even two animated TV series. Read more…
It’s ironic that just as Paramount is rebooting the Star Trek franchise with some high quality content that Lucas is starting the run the Star Wars franchise into the ground. A good example of this is this teaser trailer for the videogame which will be based on the the animated cartoon Star Wars: The Clone Wars. You now have an entire game based upon a side story, granted it’s not as bad as the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, but it’s getting closer all the time. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 12, 2009 in Star Trek
The above video shows a J.J. Abrams and a great deal of the Star Trek XI cast at a charity event which is put together by Bill Shatner (the Hollywood Charity Horse Show). There was a previous video put out by Shatner from this even featuring him meeting Chris Pine, but until I came across this more recent video I had realized that Abrams was there too. What at first seems like a chance meeting becomes something very planned — so I have to wonder out loud if this means that Shatner is in talks with Paramount and or Abrams to be in the next Star Trek film? Because if he isn’t this footage seems very out of place.
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 11, 2009 in Animation
Disney just released their latest trailer for The Princess and the Frog and it doesn’t look too bad, although it’s a bit early to tell. But from what I see here Disney is going back a step in a good way and getting back to a 2D style and good old fashioned fairy tales which has always been their strong suite. In general I like the Mardi Gras twist on the tale, but the devil is in the details to see if they can make this work. Here’s an official description of the film: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 11, 2009 in Star Trek, Tech
There was only one way to buy a Star Trek ticket (aside from getting on a physical line at a movie theater) and that’s to purchase it through Fandango. But having a relationship with Fandango isn’t my idea of “fun” — my goals when using this type of site is to get in and to get out, it’s a utility and anything that gets in my way is just a hassle. However some marketing dudes at Fandango somehow think that they’re Yelp! and want to push their lame attempt at a “community” by including reviews of films. Now I don’t mind that, but what I do mind is that their way of building a “community” is to spam those who purchased a ticket but never asked for any marketing emails to come their way: Read more…
I won’t give away my age but at the time I couldn’t see Alien because i was an R rated movie and i was too young — so what funny about this commercial was that they had a toy for the film which was clearly aimed a kids. It should be noted that a bit after the film came out that it was very popular in the early days of cable television, along with other R rated science fiction films I discovered from that era like Mad Max and the Warriors. Read more…
Taking him into the maze! Of course being a mouse playing a maze game is second nature when you kit bash Mickey Mouse and Tron. This Tron Mickey Mouse Vinyl Collectible Doll is available for preorder at National Console Support, here’s their description: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 9, 2009 in Japanese TV
I’m not 100% sure what show this is, but I know for certain that it’s a segment from a young child’s educational TV show which is produced by NHK in Japan. When I first started watching this I just assumed that I was in for two minutes of the cat being taunted by the singer in the video, but the addition of cat and mouse cosplay actors made me laugh right away.
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 8, 2009 in Star Trek
Well after a long wait I made my pilgrimage to see Star Trek open today which was filled with the usual rituals of waiting on line and hanging out with old friends. Given how cynical I’ve become over the years at seeing the franchise abused it was quite rewarding to see what they did with this film. The first thing that I liked about this film is that they stayed true to the original series. Not to Next Generation, not to Deep Space Nine, not to Voyager — but to the original flavor, the real thing. Read more…
