Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 25, 2009 in Animation
This is a trailer for an potential upcoming anime series called Cat Shit One by studio anima. First off what makes this look so different is that it’s interesting to see a Japanese studio do their take on what CGI should look like — we’ve seen Pixar set the pace for years, but this series clearly has its own sensibilities. Which brings me to the next point: The subject matter of this show is war with the twist of featuring cute woodland creatures. The last time anyone has tried anything like this was the animated film Watership Down which while being an amazing film was never a huge commercial success. Read more…
Being on Twitter every day I’m always reminded of the web 2.0 mantra that software should always be in beta — so being creative I started to wonder “why not take this to the next level and turn a bug into a feature?” Having some game design experience I know that having fun negative payoff can be much more entertaining than actually winning a game sometimes. So I applied this logic to the now familiar “Something is Technically Wrong” illustration and have come up with a series of customized versions which I propose that Twitter adapt right away. Sadly knowing that Twitter is now mainstream I’ve designed these screens to appeal to original core audience of geeks who may feel abandoned as every brain dead TV presenter boasts of their account on the air:
Akira Kurosawa was born on this day in March 23rd, 1910: I think my favorite film of his is Yojimbo the samurai classic that he directed in 1961. Half of what I love about the film is the performance of Toshirō Mifune, but framing that performance is an amazing story which was deftly portrayed by Kurosawa on so many levels from the cinematography to musical score (which almost becomes its own character in the film). In a sense Yojimbo is a western film, but what makes it amazing is that it about an old world giving way to a new world where chivalry is dead. Watching that film you could taste the dust in your mouth:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 23, 2009 in Science
On March 23rd, 1965 the Gemini 3 launched into history — it was the first manned Gemini flight. The ship was manned by John W. Young (shown above) and Virgil I. Grissom (shown below). Grissom named the spacecraft the Molly Brown in reference to the Broadway show The Unsinkable Molly Brown as he was hoping not to duplicate his previous experience with the Liberty Bell 7. This mission was very much a test flight and this was the first time ever that an American spacecraft had a crew of two. NASA was still in catchup mode at this point as the USSR launched the Voskhod 1 in 1964 which had a crew of three. Read more…
On this day in 1993 Intel introduced the first set of Pentium chips which ran at 60 MHz. While that hardly sounds impressive today, back in the day this was a critical breakthrough for the first PCs that would support multimedia. Looking back at it Windows 3.1 seems primitive, but this was the first generation of PCs that started to feel more Mac like — the improved ease-of-use opened the doors of computing to a generation of users who were put off my the MS-DOS text interface that dominated screens until that point in time. Read more…
“The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?” It’s funny at the time I didn’t realize just how well Back to the Future captured the spirit of the 80s — a good example of this was the DeLorean featured in the trio of films. In a bit of irony you can keep in touch with your Back to the Future nostalgia with this cute Back to the Future II DeLorean Vehicle model which features actual working gull-wing doors: Read more…
As a Quentin Tarantino fanboy I love this fan made remake of Kill Bill (parts 1 and 2 no less). The credit goes to directors Joe Burgess, Rocco Sulkin and Will Tribble of the University of York Filmmaking Society. And on a related note here’s a Lego Batman version of Kill Bill which I also got a kick out of:Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 20, 2009 in Comic Books
Looking at this grim cover of Daredevil #117 (which hits the street next week) my thoughts that the economy is more of a threat to the world than any super villain! This cover is by Marko Djurdjevic who usually does some amazing work, but like the stock market this isn’t his highest point. By the way for you purists, here’s the unblemished cover: Read more…
Here’s the latest trailer for Suzumiya Haruhi no Chokuretsu (also known as The Series of Haruhi Suzumiya) which is being produced by Sega for the Nintendo DS and due for release on March 26, 2009. Here are some screenshots from the game: Read more…
This Cryptid Silhouettes Pin Pack which I found on Esty reminded me a great deal of the 70s TV show In Search Of… which featured Leonard Nimoy exploring a new topic every week like UFOs or Bigfoot. This pin collection features Loch Ness, Bigfoot, Chupacabra and Jackalope (although I don’t recall any episodes dealing with Chupacabras or Jackalopes). The pins are illustrated by artists Quincy Pearson and Adam Maron. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 18, 2009 in Science
In my humble opinion one of the best ways of following the space shuttle this week is to watch the NASAtelevision channel on YouTube (or you can watch it live here) — sadly this is the sort of thing that the SyFy channel should be doing, but maybe this yet another sign that mass media is in decline. Shown above is the crew of the space shuttle being welcomed to the International Space Station, I just love the nautical touch of them ringing the bells. Below are the highlights from the 2nd day: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 17, 2009 in Television
I’ve loved science fiction for almost as long as I can remember my life — as a child I grew up screaming if my parents would drag me from watching a Star Trek re-run (in black-and-white no less) to waste time on something trivial like dinner! And I came of age in that magical time of the late 70s to the early 80s and watched every new TV show from Space:1999 to Red Dwarf. And you want to know a little secret? I’ve always hated the Sci Fi channel (now branded the SyFy Channel) from day one — here’s why: Read more…
Posted by Guest Author on Mar 16, 2009 in Animation
Editor’s Note: In this column animation critic Joe Strike gives us his take on the upcoming Pixar film ‘Up’ vs. Dreamworks’ ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’.
And this one goes easily to our Pixar Pals of Emeryville CA, as their upcoming Up easily clobbers Katzenberg and Ko.’s Monsters vs. Aliens – and that’s just based on seeing the first half of Up vs. all of MvA. Read more…
Posted by Guest Author on Mar 15, 2009 in Animation
Editor’s Note: In this column animation critic Joe Strike gives us our first review of Monsters vs. Aliens.
A few weeks back Jeffrey K came to town to hype his latest, first-in-3D animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens. Did you know (Jeffrey does) 3D is the third revolution in motion pictures, right after the introduction of sound, then color? Neither did I; in fact the film seemed more like the old paddleball in your face routine – which is literally how it begins. OK, I enjoy a meta-gag as much as the next guy, but after JK talked up what they were gonna do with the technology, I expected more than visual quotes. (And yes, the 3D was very cool-looking all the way through.) Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 14, 2009 in Comic Books
I think it’s safe to assume that by now most fanboys are going to their second showings of Watchmen or waiting on the DVD at this point. The one thing I’m noticing is that as time goes on I start to notice more and more plot holes and mistakes in the film. So without further ado here’s my laundry list (warning: this list will contain some plot spoilers, so if you still haven’t seen the film please don’t read ahead): Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 13, 2009 in Science
With all of the excitement today about space junk threatening the International Space Station it dawned on me just how easy it is to forgot how untypical life is on a space station. Shown above is a spacewalk from this week which didn’t even make the news, yet it’s an amazing under taking. What you’re seeing here is the crew if the International Space Station conducting a four hour plus spacewalk which included an experiment and photography of the Russian segment of the station. They’re doing this in advance of the next Discovery mission which will deliver a new set of solar panels which will make the station easier to spot from the ground. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 12, 2009 in Star Trek
Having watched the original series since my early childhood one of my early disappointments in life was the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture: You have to understand for me this was like Beatles getting back together again, but then producing a bad disco album. So it’s not surprising that I’ve blocked most of my memories associated with that “film” out of mind. But one thing that that the Paramount marketing dept. got right was the merchandising, and in this case I had forgotten that fast food giant McDonald’s had created a series of Star Trek themed Happy Meals to coincide with the film. Shown above and below are commercials that promoted fast food for Star Fleet officers in training. Read more…
It’s funny the one thing that always hit me about the character designs in Full Metal Alchemist is just how cute they seem to be, but this set of Full Metal Alchemist Choco Minto pushes it to the next level. These figurines are part of a merchandising push that ties in with the debut of the latest series which stays true to the storylines established in the original manga. Here’s a trailer for the upcoming series: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 10, 2009 in Star Trek
While wandering around Kenmare and Mott in Manhattan I spotted this stenciled Spock street art which features him in his Wrath of Khan outfit sporting a Marilyn Monroe hairstyle. Clearly a homage to Warhol (as shown by the near by tomato soup spray can below) the artist is Mr. Brainwash.
The above advert is for the upcoming April issue of Comptiq magazine. The magazine got started in the 80s as a computer magazine, but over time shifted to computers and in 2003 became mixed media. Over the years Comptiq has featured a quite a few serialized manga from Gunbuster to my favorite Lucky Star. Of course what caught my eye in this ad is the very prominently statuette of Konata which looks very cool.
You can now pre-order the Star Trek Original Series Lunch Box — but frankly the design of this schlocked out trinket misses the point in my book. For starters the side of the lunchbox misses the spirit of the entire show, the typography and graphic symbols have nothing to do with the late 60s. But the biggest missing part is that a lunchbox from that era wasn’t always photographic — in fact for a science fiction show you’d expect to see an illustration. And this I present to you the real deal, an authentic Star Trek lunchbox from the 60s: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 8, 2009 in Comic Books
From the moment I read Watchmen all of those years ago I always wanted to see it as a film — and I guess the lesson here is is that you should be careful what you wish for because you may just get it. After seeing the film I was left with a vey flat empty feeling, yes on a superficial level the director got almost every frame right but there was something lacking: the soul of the comic book. Read more…
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away there were these cute little mice! I know this sounds like we’re kitbashing Star Wars with the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy but these adorable sci fi rodents are the precious creations of the House of Mouse and can be found on Etsy on their very own page. There are 14 mice in the entire collection so far and they run between $35 and $40, but bet of all if your favorite character is missing they’re open to doing custom orders. Shown above is Princess Leia mouse and below is Darth Vader mouse. Read more…
Having watched the original series since my early childhood one of my early disappointments in life was the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture: You have to understand for me this was like Beatles getting back together again, but then producing a bad disco album. So it’s not surprising that I’ve blocked most of my memories associated with that “film” out of mind. But one thing that that the Paramount marketing dept. got right was the merchandising, and in this case I had forgotten that fast food giant McDonald’s had created a series of Star Trek themed Happy Meals to coincide with the film. Shown above and below are commercials that promoted fast food for Star Fleet officers in training. 
The above advert is for the upcoming April issue of 
