The Rise & Fall Of DC Nation Shorts

In 2011, Cartoon Network had a new hour-long programming block that aired on Saturday and Sunday mornings called DC Nation. This would show two separate half-hour animated shows, at first with Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice, then later with Beware The Batman and Teen Titans Go!. At the end of each episode was an original short feature that was a Cartoon Network production done with both DC Comics and Warner Bros. Some of these were simply replays of DC-based sketches from the Mad animated series, along with mini-documentaries like footage of cosplayers at cons, demos of how certain hero’s weapons would work in real life, or character profiles on some of the secondary superheroes. The shorts also premiered a chain of several cartoons that were usually intended to be humorous. Called DC Nation Shorts, these original animated vignettes would throw the spotlight on truly rare characters. Each of these shorts would feature a different assortment of directors and artists behind them which lead to some creative productions.

First let’s look at the shows that made up the DC Nation. The Green Lantern series lasted only a single season created to pick up on where the failed live-action movie left off and was the first fully-CGI series based on a DC Comic. Young Justice was inspired by the comic of the same name about the sidekicks and other junior partners of the Justice League which had the bonus of conveying how these heroes would eventually grow up and take on apprentices of their own. Beware The Batman was the second CGI series featuring the same director as Green Lantern with a new take on the Dark Knight in a version of Gotham cluttered with C-list villains as they couldn’t use high profile ones like Joker. Lastly, the only real hit out of all of these was Teen Titans Go!

The short that got the most installments was The New Teen Titans, a pseudo-sequel to the Teen Titans animated series with the original voice actors reprising their roles. These took the cast and turned them into spastic caricatures of their previous selves. This is a familiar genre called chibi where they reinvent characters from a non-comedy anime and has them into an even more cartoonish version of themselves. The super-deformed style was used for Teen Titans Go!, except it was Americanized as the whole series would mock the prior series and be filled with crude humor that for some reason resonated with viewers to the point that Cartoon Network would have huge marathons, specials, and movie crossovers continuing the Titans' antics.

The only other show that managed to get a series of its own was Super Best Friends Forever which was developed by Lauren Faust of My Little Pony fame. It had Batgirl, Supergirl, and Wonder Girl uniting to form their own all-girls team. Five shorts were made for DC Nation, but Cartoon Network turned this idea down for their own take geared more toward selling toys under the web series of DC Super Hero Girls. This had most of the DC heroes in high school, and did sell several toys including action figures, fashion dolls, and Legos, but after five seasons and multiple specials it was discontinued. In 2019, Cartoon Network went back to Faust’s idea for the show, but replaced Wonder Girl with Wonder Woman, as well as adding Zatanna, Bumblebee, and Jessica Cruz to the team with appearances by other DC Comics heroes and villains. Despite Cartoon Network’s efforts, they gave little airtime to episodes of the second series and ultimately ended it with a made-for-video crossover movie with Teen Titans Go!

The girl power theme was amped up in a few other shorts. Thunder And Lightning took Black Lightning’s daughters and gave them their first appearance outside of the comics. Animator Robert Valley did an amazing trilogy of Wonder Woman who was once again voiced by Susan Eisenberg, but this time she had a cool invisible car and a rocking 70s vibe. The best of all was a 7-part feature by Brianne Drouhard of She-Ra predecessor, Amethyst: Princess Of Gemworld, where the 80s magical girl is given a video game makeover that old school Nintendo fans will find refreshing, plus it series was animated by the actual anime studio David Production.

DC’s biggest player Batman of course had several stories dedicated to him. Batman: Strange Days was created to celebrate the Dark Knight’s anniversary and made to look like a black and white noir movie. Another anniversary short was done of Batman Beyond when Terry and Bruce must fight evil Batman robots. Batman Of Shanghai was a trilogy animated by Wolf Smoke that reimagines the Caped Crusader as a supernatural kung-fu fighter in China. Riddler also had his own Looney Tunes-inspired one-shot where he’s voiced by Weird Al Yankovic.

The Man of Steel got some shorts done of him as well, one of which was a historical retrospective made for his anniversary. Superman Of Tokyo only got two installments also done by David Production about a baby granted powers after Superman left his cape with a babysitter which can change the infant into an adult. Tales Of Metropolis featured Superman’s secondary characters like Jimmy Olsen and Bizarro, including a great one where Lois Lane goes out of her way to get an interview with Batman.

The paranormal corners of the DC Universe had some light shined on them here too. Before Creature Commandoes got their own series on Max there were a couple of shorts done for DC Nation where the military monsters were reworked in the style of an 80s action cartoon. Chowder creator CH Greenblatt produced some kid-friendly tales of the ghostly Deadman. Shade The Changing Man also received a one-shot focusing on his psychedelic talents.

A few other superhero teams got some attention in these shorts. The Metal Men had a recurring sequence where a Silver Age super scientist and morphing robots go from one mistake to the other. The Doom Patrol also had an animated portion before their live-action TV series which was formatted like a 60s spy show in fragmented episodes featuring Jeffrey Combs and Clancy Brown.

Two funny animal teams made their animated premiere, one of which was the Super Pets based on the children’s books by Art Balatazar with cute cartoon versions of Krypto, Jumpa, Ace, and Robin the robin, but unlike that terrible movie, these shorts were genuinely funny. The other was the original group of Farm League where the heroes and villains are replaced by various animals such as Supermanatee, Wonder Wombat, and Shazham, with the best of all being Batmongoose who wastes time narrating to himself instead of getting snacks for his teammates.

A selection of distinguished heroes got more time in animation. Green Arrow was given an anime renovation with more high-tech gear including a talking bow with AI. Shazam got even better in a 3-parter, each one focusing on his specific superpowers but done in an old-time rubber hose cartoon design reminiscent of Popeye. Sword Of The Atom starred the shrinking superhero on a journey to the jungle where he encounters a civilization of microscopic aliens.

Plenty of lesser-known DC characters get their own comedic shorts. Weird Al Yankovic returns as Animal Man who goes out of his way to save animals instead of the humans who are currently being attacked by Darkseid. Plastic Man had plenty of fun in some vignettes that was intended to be his own TV series which Sponge Bob voice actor Tom Kenny was pushing for. The breakdancing hero Vibe even landed a 2-parter where he uses his sonic powers in a dance off with the evil Professor Ivo and his robot.

One of the more ambitious cartoons was World’s Funniest, a series of ten episodes animated by Aardman Animations done entirely in claymation. They were formatted like Aardman’s Creature Comforts shorts where random DC characters are being interviewed but for some reason all of them are voiced by a couple of kids just improvising funny dialogue. These starred Batman, Superman, Catwoman, Joker, and a silent but very tall Robin.

Altogether, the DC Nation shorts was a grand experiment for various studios and animators to give their own take on both the notorious and anonymous characters of the DC Universe. There were some real opportunities given for creators and comic book fans alike which is something that is sorely missing in today’s bewildering streaming empire.

ANI-MOVIES, *That Christmas

Netflix needed a new animated family flick for the holidays as it had been a few years since Klaus, so they decided to air That Christmas. Directed by How To Train Your Dragon and Prince Of Egypt animator Simon Otto, this fully-CGI movie was the second joint production between Locksmith Animation and DNEG Animation since Ron's Gone Wrong. DNEG also helped animate Nimona, The Garfield Movie, and one of the Troll sequels after Ron's Gone Wrong. The movie is based on a series of books written by Richard Curtis who most anglophiles will know as a writer for Blackadder, Mr. Bean, Four Weddings And A Funeral, Love Actually, and the Bridget Jones films, plus Curtis co-wrote the screenplay with Peter Souter. The three books that the movie is based on shows a life-changing Christmas in a small British village as it gets hit with a particularly bad blizzard during the most wonderful time of the year, all while Santa Claus makes an appearance.

Set in the seaside town of Wellington-on-Sea, there is a diverse neighborhood with some interracial families. Young Danny has just moved there with his divorced mother who acts as nurse for an elderly lady. Danny is trying to confess his feelings for local girl Sam while moping over his father never visiting for Christmas, even though his strict teacher/next door neighbor Mrs. Trapper who has trouble opening up to others since her husband died some time ago. Sam and her twin sister Charlie are polar opposites with Sam constantly worried about ending up on Santa's Naughty List while Charlie seems to be a troublemaker even though her intentions are good. Nisha is another girl going to the same school as them hoping to change Christmas tradition as her parents aren't completely listening to her, plus her younger sister Evie keeps going missing. Then, Santa Claus shows up and gives all these kids the presents they really needed to help bring their families together, especially since several of the parents get stranded on a frozen pond in an old van on Christmas Eve. Mrs. Trapper gets the parents rescued by a troublesome farmer and then rounds everyone up to search for Evie who chased after some runaway turkeys. The movie has several plotlines that all tie together in the end, even though the wide cast consisting of nearly an entire town of various ages can be a difficult to keep up with.

That Christmas works as a complete movie, but the constant shifting of one plot to another can make some a little dizzy. It might have made for a better mini-series instead of a 92-minute single feature. Locksmith Animation has come a long way since Rob's Gone Wrong despite how much easier it is to animate a story in a town filled with snow. Santa Claus himself acts as the narrator that ties all the storylines together, and Brian Cox does a grand portrayal of Father Christmas, although for some reason he's only using the singular reindeer of Dasher instead of the regular eight tiny ones. Most of the character designs are welcoming and not jarring considering the variegated cast and features an interesting roster of voice actors like Fiona Shaw, Jodie Wittaker, and Bill Nighy, plus the young ones playing the children are exceptional. It's hard to say if this will become a holiday standard like Frosty or Gremlins, but it would make for a replayable watch at least once this season.

MISC. MANGA, *Kaiju No. 8

Naoya Matsumoto has been a manga creator since 2005, but he really grew to prominence with his recent manga, Kaiju No. 8. Largely inspired by tokusatsu shows, the ongoing title has spawned off a new anime TV series with more episodes on the way. There are currently over 16 million copies of the manga in circulation, making it one of biggest sellers of the decade. Matsumoto's rocky career in the manga industry reflects the main character's struggle dealing with the pressures someone has to deal with when getting used to new lifestyle. If you fell head over heels in love with the first season of One Punch Man or dug the original Pacific Rim, than you'll find some familiar grooves in this series.

Set in a world where giant monsters called Kaiju regularly attack Japan, the Japanese Defense Force is tasked with taking down these titanic terrors. After each battle, a crew has to clean up the huge corpses of each dead monsters, and Kafka Hibino is one of these kaiju janitors after failing to get in the defense force after failing it years earlier. Now in his late 20s, Kafka is breaking in new recruit Reno in a standard disposal when a parasitic kaiju plants itself inside Kafka's body. Kafka now has the power to turn into a human-sized kaiju giving him super-strength and the looks of a skeletal abomination. This comes in handy when he uses his ability to save a little girl from a rampaging monster. Reno hears that the defense force is widening its numbers, so they both join the recruits while first keeping Kafka monster self a secret. This eventually becomes less than secret as Kafka is assigned the name Kaiju No. 8, which is advantageous as a new humanoid kaiju type called No. 9 has risen and causing major havoc. All this is going on while Kafka is trying to rekindle the relationship with his childhood friend Mina who has become a major player in the anti-kaiju brigade.

Kaiju No. 8 might seem similar to Attack On Titan as a regular soldier soon realizes that they can transform into the very monsters his people are fighting against and becomes their greatest weapon against them. However, you can recognize how old school Ultraman played a huge part in its influence. The heroes vs. monsters genre is seen in everything from Power Rangers to Kamen Rider, but this manga brings the format into modern day and shows how everyday life can play a major part in a high stakes action sci-fi epic.

ANI-MOVIES, *Merry Little Batman

Before they did the Batman: Caped Crusaders series for Amazon Prime, Warner Bros. licensed a brand-new family-friendly take on the Dark Knight in a full-length animated feature that was hand-drawn which is a rarity nowadays. Merry Little Batman was scripted by Regular Show writer Mike Roth and Teen Titans Go writer Morgan Evans, which was also the first animated production put out by Amazon MGM Studios. It's an original story not based on any existing DC Comics material, but it could be seen as a Bizarro version of The Dark Knight Returns where everything in Batman's future is actually pretty good.

Young Damian Wayne is growing up in a Gotham City that has been crime-free for the last eight years. Bruce Wayne has been in semi-retirement for a while and grown a beard but has let his son know his secret identity. Since its Christmas time, Bruce gives his son a child-safe utility belt with first aid equipment. Although Joker hacks the red phone and tricks Batman into checking out something on the other side of the world in a trap set by Mr. Freeze. While the Bat's away, Joker and his senior citizen supervillains of Poison Ivy, Penguin, and Bane begin to plunder Gotham of its Christmas presents. Damien has to get his belt back from Joker who has been leading the Junior Batman around like a carrot on a stick and inadvertently causing massive property damage in his pursuit of the belt. Batman shows back up so father and son can stop Joker from his Grinch routine, and returns all the stolen presents.

Merry Little Batman was successful enough to set up its own upcoming series titled Bat-Family, and received a modicum of positive feedback. The animation is fair with character designs reminiscent of Tim Burton's work, even with most of the cast aged up. The voice actors they had gave a decent enough performance, although Luke Willson really needs to stay out of the superhero comedy routine as he does the most mediocre Batman ever. There's some unusual hip-hop selections for the soundtrack, but the songs are original and work for a Christmas special. The largest drawback for this is that the feature was far longer than it needed to at being well over 90 minutes as it could've been reduced to less than an hour.

ANI-MOVIES, *5 Centimeters Per Second

Before Makoto Shinkai started breaking banks with his shared-universe films of Your Name and Weathering With You, one of his first full-length pictures came out in 2007 in this 3-part anthology titled 5 Centimeters Per Second. Unlike the majority of Shinkai's creations he did with Comix Wave, this one doesn't have any big sci-fi or fantasy elements, or at least at first. The entire production is somewhat short being only a little over an hour long, but it does work well for a romantic drama showing the love life of a youth and his experience growing up from 1991 to 2008 which means part of this takes place in the future making it slightly sci-fi.

The movie begins showing an elementary school boy in Tokyo named Takaki forming a friendship with classmate Akari since they both love spending time in the library due to their similar allergies. Three years later, they separate after Akari's family moves to another town, but that doesn't stop her from sending Takaki letters. Another year passes and Takaki learns his family is moving to the other side of the country, so he plans to meet up with Akari in her town so they can say finally reunite. Takaki runs into several weather delays which gives him and Akari only a few hours together to rekindle their friendship, even though they share their first kiss together just before Takaki returns home. Four years pass and Takaki is a senior in high school in the country and his female friend Kanae tries to work up the courage to confess her feelings for him. In this case, it's as if all the elements in the world tried to keep Takaki and Akari apart, life seems to be going out of its way that show that Kanae is the one Takaki should be interested in, even with the two of them witnessing a takeoff from the nearby space center would have been a big enough clue for the clueless dope still pining for his old wouldbe girlfriend. Kanae gets over Takaki and becomes more infatuated with surfing. The final segment takes place nine years later(a year after the actual movie came out)and Takaki works in Tokyo as a programmer. He still has feelings for Akari even though she has tried to call him several times despite the fact that she was getting married to someone else. In a finale which seems like a bad reflection of Your Name, Takaki and Akari apparently pass each other while passing a railroad crossing, but when Takaki goes to look back to see if its her, a train passes by blocking off his view to reveal that Akari is not there.

5 Centimeters Per Second has an interesting history as far as its American releases are concerned. It was first available on it own DVD dubbed by ADF Films, and then later on with a completely different dub along with two of Shinkai's short films on Blu Ray by GKids. This was one of the first times Shinkai shared production with a whole studio after doing The Place Promised in Our Early Days under Comix Wave three years prior. As one of the few anime anthology films of the 21st Century, this still holds up very well. The animation can go from ordinary to breathtaking in a heartbeat with sweeping landscapes and one of the most amazing rocket launches ever animated outside of Royal Space Force. If you're wondering where Shinkai's earlier brilliant influence for Suzume came from, then you need to check out this late-2000s anime treasure.

ANI-MOVIES, *Transformers One

Despite the cringy initial trailers, Transformers One turned out to be a decent enough addition to the entire Energon Universe, or at least for one that supposedly is connected to the established live-action movie franchise. Paramount Pictures released this full-length animated film that wasn't done by Dreamworks or Nickelodeon, so whether this might be one of the first of Paramount Animation's new line-up is yet to be seen since their prior film of Under The Boardwalk came out last year. Former Pixar animator Josh Cooley directed this new crack at the robots in disguise which was of course meant to sell more toys even though it honors the traditional lore that has been developed over the last four decades. The animation itself is all CGI as the entire film takes place on an alien world filled with robots, and the art deco design really works for the chrome plated commandos.

Set on the planet of Cybertron millions of years ago, the world is inhabited by sentient lifeforms in robotic bodies. The Cybertronians were created by a mechanical space god called Primus so massive he turned into the very planet of Cybertron, and the beings that spawned from this were known as Transformers. Their forefathers were the Primes that used the Matrix of Leadership, an item of great power that was like their holy grail. An invasion of the Quintesson forces have plagued the Transformers as their current leader Sentinel Prime has been looking for the Matrix after the Primes went missing after a battle. To maintain life, several Transformers were created without the special cogs they need in order to transform to act as miners to tap the planet's main resource, an energy called Energon. Two of these miners are Orion Pax and D-16 who toil their days away hoping to be something more than just cogless worker drones. They get the attention of Sentinel Prime after nearly winning a race wearing only jet packs, but are left to be forgotten by the bully officer Darkwing(what an "original" name)in a garbage sub-level with the overly chatty B-127. The three of them come across a chip holding the last distress call by Alpha Trion, one of the only remaning Primes, so they grab their former superior Elita-1 and set out to find the last stand of the Primes. Their quest leads them to a cave where the corpses of all the Primes aside from the dormant body of Alpha Trion and tells them they were all betrayed by Sentinel who made a deal with the Quintessons so he would be in charge if he lured the Primes into their trap. Orion and pals get their own cogs from the deceased Primes and make their escape as the cave is attacked by Sentinel's troops, even though they are captured by the surviving High Guard who assisted the Primes. D beats up the High Guard's leader Starscream and takes over just as Sentinel's forces capture most of them. Orion, Elita, and the leftover High Guard gather the miners and other Cybertronians to expose Sentinel's scheme. D plans on killing Sentinel, but Orion gets in the way and is nearly shot to death. D lets Orion fall into the planet where the spirit of Primus changes him into Optimus Prime. D finally slays Sentinel and proclaims himself Megatron after inserting the cog of former Prime Megatronus into himself. Optimus arrives and the former friends have the first of many battles which the peaceful Transformers winning. Optimus casts Megatron and all his supporters out of their capitol city where they become the Decepticons, while Optimus along with Elita and B form the Autobots waiting for the next attack by the Quintessons.

Transformers One could have been the beginning of a possible new line up, but parent company Hasbro stated they wouldn't financially support any further Transformers projects by Paramount, so unless the major studio is willing to pay the whole bill for any future installments there doesn't seem to be any plans for a sequel. There is the matter of having the main cast being composed largely with non-voice actors which doesn't help as there's been several different people performing Optimus and Megatron but replacing them with A-List celebrities is a trend that doesn't hinder this film overall. Chris Hemsworth is worthy enough to play Optimus, Brian Tyree Henry brings Megatron's pent-up rage, but Scarlett Johansson is flat as Elita-1, and Keegan-Michael Key's annoying take on Bumblebee would have even Deadpool telling him to shut-up. Some hardcore purists might have problems with the changes made to the lore, but altogether this remake checks enough boxes to fit it in the annals of acceptable Transformers history.

R.I.P. Morgan Lofting

 

MISC. MANGA, *The Dragon Prince: Dreamer's Nightmare

For the fourth graphic novel of The Dragon Prince, Graphix went on to do another prequel, although this time its the brothers Ezran and Callum in an adventure that unifies them in a new way, and reveals some interesting facts about the characters. Nicole Andelfinger is back as in his second prequel book as writer, and Felia Hanakata is back as artist since their previous team-up on Bloodmoon Huntress. Dreamer's Nightmare is a welcome look into the princes' lives back when their father was still alive.

Some years after their mother passed away, Callum is getting crossed with his brother Ezran and his claim that he can talk to animals. King Harrow gets a message to go help the village of Noct which lies in his realm of Katolis. He brings along the princes and his sister-in-law Amaya who is also his head general. Once in Noct, the royals discover that the adults are struck with a sleeping sickness. After talking to some of the local animals, Ezran learns that the plague is being caused by a spiritual creature which has had parts of its soul separated into different animals. Callum had trouble believing this, but a fairy tale that they find in a library thanks to a helpful rodent clues the princes in on the creature's backstory. Ezran's inherited leadership skills comes in handy as he is able to calm down the village's remaining children after all the adults eventually fall asleep, and his Disney Princess talent for speaking to animals ultimately helps resolve the fractured creature's restlessness to wake everyone up.

The world of The Dragon Prince is given a fresh focus on two of the main characters by going over an important event in their past which brought them closer together. Ezran realized that Callum would always believe in him, and Callum learns that his younger half-brother will make a fine ruler someday. Any fans of the Netflix series will find it fun, especially since this is the secret origin of Callum's jerkface dance. Dreamer's Nightmare is probably the most necessary prequel chapter so far and hopefully won't be the last one to see print.

ANI-MOVIES, *Raiders Of Galaxy

No! Your eyes don't deceive you. The title of this Korean schlock movie is in fact Raiders Of Galaxy, completely leaving out the "The", even though there are some physical releases that have the proper sentence structure. Originally called Super Majingga 3, this unauthorized 1982 Super Mazinger rip-off falls into the same ranks of Johnny Destiny: Space Ninja and Defenders Of Space as it takes existing Japanese anime and mixes them into a one big sham meant to swindle money from hungry fans of giant robots. Written and directed by Seung-Cheol Park, this was one in a series of mecha bootleg movies like Space Transformers and Solar Adventure by Korean studios trying to appeal to those who got really thirsty for the Shogun Warriors toy line. A dub for it was picked up by Joesph Lai and his crew at IFD Films who are famous for releasing several Asian martial arts movies with the word "Ninja" in the title like Bionic Ninja, Cobra Against Ninja, and various incarnations of the endless Golden Ninja franchise. This film is plagued with bad dubbing, terrible animation, and flagrantly terrible dialogue like "I'm dying! I'm dying! The great Dr. Or is dying! It's such a genius as I am dying! This is what a genius deserves!"

An evil alien armada is planning on taking over the Solar System and specifically Earth. Fortunately, we already had a giant robot ready to counter this called Mazinga which is a humanoid mecha with a pair of detachable jets and rocket punches. The aliens have their own Transformer flying saucer and a giant red mecha canine for Mazinga to fight. The crew is made up of three male pilots and two females, but they're all dubbed by women, so the two teenage boys in it sound like they haven't gone through puberty yet. The movie is mostly dragged out spaceship battles and long takes of the robot just flying through the galaxy with the nothing but the crappy musical score playing.

Raiders Of Galaxy is one of the better efforts at Korea's attempts to crack into the toy robot market with their knockoff animation instead of just coming out with their own original creations. It's no Johnny Ninja, but it does have some laughable segments in it like a blue skinned alien commander with derpy eyes. Ultimately, you would be better off just playing one of those old broken Engrish video games with terrible translations.

ANI-MOVIES, *Fantastic Planet

What originally translated into "Savage Planet", Fantastic Planet was the English title given to this groundbreaking 1973 sci-fi movie which was also one of the first animated flicks done for mature audiences. Based on a Stefan Wul novel, animator Rene Laloux directed this in the Czech Republic which became an international hit with an odd cast used for the dub. The English-language edition of this surrealistic trip had classic cartoon voice actors like Hal Smith and Janet Waldo getting roped into playing the parts of bizarre aliens. This movie is animated like a cross between Yellow Submarine and one of Terry Gilliam's old segues from Monty Python Flying Circus. It was way ahead of its time as far as content was concerned but panned out like a Dr. Seuss daymare.

Way off in the way out future, a large sample of humans from Earth are captured by giant blue alien humanoids called Draags to their planet of Ygam where they raise their humans as pets that they've named Oms. Oms are given little education, but still retain some of their Earth-based intelligence. One particular Om is adopted by a young female Draag who gives names him Terr and he starts to pick up on some of the telepathic signals that the Draag's learning computer gives its children. Terr eventually escapes with the teaching headset and finds a rogue group of Oms as they all learn how to advance their civilization in an abandoned rocket factory. The Om create their own spaceships and head to Ygam's moon where the Draaga's minds go to when they're meditating. The Draags are suddenly at risk as the Oms start shooting down their statue bodies they use for psychic sex, so they negotiate a peace treaty with the Om. The humans get their own artificial moon to live on while some stay on Ygam sharing mental trips with the Draags.

Fantastic Planet is considered a rite of passage among animation and science-fiction fans, so if you're into Disney or Ralph Bakshi, Star Trek or Asimov, you're pretty much required to give it a look at least once in your life. Anime fans will find it a different change of pace from their steady diet of giant robots and magical girls, although whether they're willing to get a little cerebral is another thing. The animation might seem somewhat stiff and there are some lengthy scenes in this without much going on in it, however it's a scant 71-minutes long so you shouldn't feel the pressure from old school fans to get through out.

ANI-MOVIES, *Techno Police

When Techno Police 21C first came out in 1982, it was one of the first anime titles to coin the "fighting crime in a future time" trope several years before the C.O.P.S. animated series was made. Animated by Studio Nue along with Wiz Corporation which would later become the anime staple studio Artmic, this film was of course made to sell a line of toys. The sci-fi action hustle was retitled Techno Police in several English markets as it was one of the earliest 80s anime films that got a dub done in Hong Kong along with several ninja movies, so there were numerous different distributors. The screenplay was by former-Godzilla director Yoshimitsu Banno who also went on to be an executive producer in the Monsterverse franchise, and at the same time this film premiered he wrote the script for The Wizard Of Oz anime movie. Upon first watch, modern day viewers might think that Techno Police was just using a bunch of cyberpunk cliches, but it does in fact set up much of those commonplace pinpoints that would flood the market through the late 80s-90s.

In the far-off year of 2001, a lesser dystopian future lied in store for Centinel City(yes, that's how it's spelled)which may or may not be in the United States. The major metropolis is the target of several hi-tech criminals, so a new branch of the police has been set up to counter this new breed of bad guy. The Techno Police has specialist officers teamed up with robot counterparts, and newcomer Jo meets his Technoid partner Blade to stop a robbery who literally steal the vault from a brand-new transparent bank that was supposed to be invulnerable to thieves. The same crooks later on get hired by an underground organization to steal a nearly indestructible tank that goes fully automated when its capturers are finally caught. Jo and his crew have to stop the self-driving tank from exploding when it runs out of ammo and has the only female Techno Police officer trapped inside it. The final battle oddly takes place in a submarine when the tank goes automatic again and blows the criminals' setup from the inside.

This movie was conceived by Toshimichi Suzuki who liked the idea of futuristic armored police when he later created the Artmic cyberpunk classic, Bubblegum Crisis, and all its various remakes and spinoffs. Techno Police is an uneventful affair with nothing but chase sequences and massive property damage which in no way would've been made post 9/11. If you wanted to see a little more urban destruction in all those shootout scenes in Transformers or G.I. Joe, then you might find some a tiny fragment of comfort here. Ultimately, this movie is a fragmented mess that might have started several anime action banalities, but they became more profound in later productions.

MISC. MANGA, *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Naruto

While the heroes in a half-shell have crossed over with everyone from Power Rangers, Ghostbusters, and The Archies, this is the first official crossover the TMNT had with an official anime/manga series. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Naruto is an original American-created comic from IDW Publishing written by Caleb Goellner and drawn by Hendry Prasetya. This 4-issue mini-series is set in the Naruto universe, most specifically the early days of the first Naruto anime, so somewhere around the first few seasons of the show. Unlike much of the Turtles crossovers, this one actually happens in the Naruto universe instead of their being some interdimensional shenanigans where the Turtles slip into yet another time warp or wormhole. The entire comic is a big experiment trying to see if they could crossover an American property with a Japanese manga which hasn't been tried since the Avengers Vs. Attack On Titan featurette from a decade ago. There have been manga based on American comics like Batman and Spider-Man, but this is a real gamble for IDW to try and combine one of our biggest comic franchises with a worldwide hit mangs.

Lady Tsunade, the current Hokage leader of the Hidden Leaf Village, assigns Team 7 to watch over a visiting reporter from Big Apple Village(New York)named April O'Neil. Team 7, also known as Team Kakashi, consists of Kakashi himself, Sakura, Sasuke, and our knuckelhead title character. April is investigating mad scientist Baxter Stockman who is planning on making an army of animal people through his mutation experiments. Team 7 runs across a band of Foot Clan assassins who are interrupted by five masked strangers which Naruto and Co. mistake for working with the Foot. This leads to a fight between the strangers and Team 7, even though Kakashi ends it by unmasking them and recognizing the short hairy one as Hamato Yoshi, aka: Splinter, hinting that Kakashi and the humanoid rat ninja have some kind of history together.

For the beginning of a limited series, the crossover is getting off on the right foot. The comic manages to highlight all the characters' eccentricities and sets the scene for a sufficient story. Hopefully, this is the beginning of an ongoing trend where we get to see comic book superheroes team up with their manga counterparts.

ANI-MOVIES, *Garaga

Not based on any existing material, Hyper Psychic Geo Garaga(what a title!)was a 1989 movie that was still in the thralls of the "psychics and cyborgs" craze that Akira nearly finished off from that period. It was released in 2001 initially through Central Park Media under the more simplified titled of Garaga which might have been a little too generic for the anime hungry market that ravaged the rising otaku market which flooded the beginning of the 21st Century. Going into it, your average watcher might think Garaga is just another space romp with weird aliens, but as the film goes on you realize that they tried to get way too ambitious with the script for a full-length feature which might have worked better as an OVA series. The writers kept throwing in character backstories, sudden but inevitable betrayals, secret identities, hidden civilizations, and a robot revolution that gets tagged on in the final act.

Set sometime in the 2200s, Earthlings have utilized faster than light travel due to wormholes. One of these excursions is a standard transporter taking a pair of cryogenically frozen passengers. The starship called Xebec was also the name of a now defunct Japanese animation studio, hard to know if there's any relationship between the studio and the fictional ship. The ship is sabotaged and crashes on a jungle planet known as Garaga where the survivors are attacked by gorilla men that were augmented by an invading Earth military installation. The Xebec crew are revealed to all be government operatives who are on their own missions with the clueless captain being the only one not in it. The rest of the movie is just a endless unravelling of secrets, hidden plots, and conspiracies with various factions trying to take advantage of a tribe of espers on the savage world. The dumbest plot dump is an android hoping to begin a cybernetic uprising against all the human, psychic, and ape mutants forces. With all this going on, it boils down to a rogue robot agent planning to destroy Garaga with an orbiting satellite that laser down the entire population from the planet's surface.

Garaga has no real point to it with zero coherency when it comes to figuring out who the real enemy is as there is nothing but one horrible protagonist after the other. This started out as a reasonable sci-fi idea with a spaceship crew getting stranded on a hostile world, but bad decision making made it have more turncoats than the mind can comfortably keep up with. It is a bewildering experience trying to comprehend all the characters' motivations and what they're all fighting for when each of them is secretly being manipulated by a rogue Terminator rip-off. With a terrible dub and lackluster score, even hardcore fans of the Alien movies will yawn at this wannabe space marine saga.

ANI-MOVIES, *God Mars: The Movie

Gigantor creator Mitsuteru Yokoyama also created another mecha manga in the mid-70s titled Mars. This was adapted into a 64-episode anime TV series in 1981 titled God Mars that was slightly successful, which in turn was edited into a compilation film called God Mars: The Movie in 1982. How do you fit a 64-episode TV series into a 97-minute long movie? You chop it to bits! The film quickly shifts from one scene to the other usually with no transition at all, and at the same time concludes with the plot left dangling replaced by a semi-original ending. The movie had first been given more than one release in America on VHS, but only recently got put on streaming and Blu-Ray along with the entire TV series, although every version is in Japanese with subtitles. You might get a better experience with the full TV series, but you should make up your own mind on this film.

Set in the far-off year of 1999, mankind is just branching out into the universe because of advances in their technology. This doesn't set well with the evil Emporer Zul, ruler of the planet Gishin and its forces. Years ago, Zul had sent a child to Earth to become the pilot of a giant robot named Gaia whose anti-proton bomb could destroy the planet if humans got to far in space exploration that it might upset the aliens' plans for galactic domination. The baby was Mars, the son of the Gishin scientist who created Gaia but was killed by Zul for opposing his plans for conquest. Mars grew up as a regular human and only learns of his alien heritage after the Gishin start attacking Earth, which is convenient as he's already on a special military team known as the Crusher Squad. Mars is bonded with Gaia which is a bright red mecha with the dopiest grin on its face that is piloted by Mars' newly-awakened psychic powers. A good portion of the film from this point on has Mars fighting against the Gishin forces while his twin brother Marg keeps get sent to confront him, even after Zul has Marg's memory wiped, making Marg this anime's version of Tuxedo Mask. Marg eventually dies for real but keeps showing up as a Force ghost giving Mars spiritual advise. Zul himself eventually shows up on Earth as a giant mental projection that Mars in Gaia has trouble taking down. Fortunately, Mars discovers from a recording by his father that there were five other mecha stashed around the world which would have been more helpful before this climax. Mars is able to psychically pilot all the other mechas into combining with Gaia to create a larger gestalt robot called God Mars, and takes Zul into space and desperses all the anti-proton energy into the emporer's body causing a huge explosion. Zul's real form is revealed as a tremendous space tumor whose essence is now spread throughout the universe just waiting to eventually come back together. Mars brings Gaia and the other mecha back to Earth where its hinted that each of them will be piloted by the other members of the Crusher Squad as they await Zul's return in a sequel that never got made.

God Mars: The Movie does a reasonable enough job showcasing the original anime series condensed into a feature-length film, even though it is terribly obvious that much of the content was left out and that there was more story to come after the finale. The major drawback for this is that an anime movie about a giant robot barely shows the actual robot in it and only saves the bigger combiner robot form in the last few minutes of the film. If the intent for coming out with this theatrical cut was to draw more attention towards any toys in Japan that might have still been out at the time. It was easy for American distributors in the 90s to gain the license for the movie version of this on VHS, even though you're still getting a better shot at the series by watching the complete series.

MISC. MANGA, *Cthulhu Cat

After doing three manga titles about cats, creator Pandania continues his funny feline theme with Cthulhu Cat. This full-color one-shot special is Garfield meets Dagon as the book takes the H.P. Lovecraft mythos and bonds it with slice-of-life comedy. Even though the real-life Lovecraft had a cat he gave a racist name to, the enigmatic author had several stories where cats were secretly controlling the world, so combining the idea with his most popular elder gods seems like a winner of a dinner.

A regular Japanese guy finds an abandoned cat in a cardboard box, even though this one is green and has some small tentacles around his mouth. The Cthulhu kitty's new owner tries to buddy him with his current housecat which is largely ignorant to the Ancient One's background. After the man starts showing videos of his stray online, the meowing monster starts getting visits from various cults and churches looking to worship the hideous thing, while at the same time they all encounter cat versions of other Lovecraft entities like Yog-Sothoth who also stop by to chat with their fellow demonic deity. There's a reason why the tentacled tabby has been reborn as a semi-adorable cat, but that is largely inconsequential compared to the laughs it brings.

Cthulhu Cat embraces the madness of Lovecraftian horror and perfectly fuses it with Sanrio-themed adorableness. Despite the adult source material, the manga successfully manages to enchant all ages in a sensational stand-alone special.

ANI-MOVIES, *Phoenix 2772

One of Osamu Tezuka's earliest manga titles was Phoenix, an unusual anthology taking place at multiple times in human history all tying to the otherworldly entity of the Phoenix, a shapeshifting firebird. The manga ran for year in 1954, even though Tezuka never got around to doing a conclusion for it in the other 35 years of his life. In 1978, there was a full-length anime movie based on the manga that bombed, so another one in 1980 titled Phoenix 2772 was made to focus on a single person's adventure instead of several lifetimes chronicled in the prior film. This was released in English and retitled Space Firebird, and an even shorter cut of the dub was released in America with much of the coherence chopped out of it. Phoenix was Tezuka's big space opera outside of Astro Boy, but this second attempt at trying to adapt only a small chapter of the manga was met with some strong highs and lows. Tezuka himself directed it along with Taku Sugiyama under his Tezuka Productions, so the "God of Manga" was fully involved in this project. The entire experience was a nice chance for Tezuka to flex his animation muscles and get creative, including having the first ten minutes done with no dialogue at all. The downside to allowing Tezuka having this much freedom with his own production made a good portion of the movie being padded out with pointless cartoon shenanigans and instrumental suites that pad the film out and considering that this second adaptation of the manga was even shorter than the previous one, that is staggering in hindsight.

Set in the way off future, humans are created in test tubes and raised by robots. One such child is Godo who always treated his robot caretaker Olga as a friend, which is understandable as she gives off the appearance of vivacious blonde that is capable of multiple vehicle transformations. Godo becomes a pilot and falls for a rich girl engaged to his greedy brother who punishes him for this by sending him to a labor camp. Olga along with some wacky cartoon critters bust Godo out after he befriends fellow inmate Dr. Surata who plans on going in search of the legendary Phoenix to help revitalize the Earth which is dying from all its resources being plundered by humans. Godo and his crew take a shark-shaped ship away from yet another variation of Tezuka's central character of Blackjack who here is a prison warden. After a long intergalactic chase, the Phoenix damages Olga but revitalizes the robot and gives Godo an ideal life on a fruitful planet. Godo decides to bring much of this new planet's vegetation back to the dying Earth to harvest, although his efforts are for not as the planet just then starts going all Krypton. Godo and Olga are two of the only ones remaining and the Phoenix entity inside the robot says she'll reformat the Earth for the remaining survivors if Godo gives up his life. This works and humankind is given a fresh exodus while Godo is reborn as a baby and Olga turned into a living woman who has to raise her new child in a post-apocalyptic world.

After watching Phoenix 2772, you'll swear that End Of Evangelion ripped off its finale from this as they are hauntingly similar. Both the full-length and edited versions of the British dub suffer from standard acting usually done in Hong Kong kung-fu flicks. The original but incomplete manga has been released several times in English, and the Space Firebird dub was readily available on VHS through several different shady distributors from the 80s-90s due to their being no known existing license on it at the time. There's not currently a version of this streaming in North America, nor is there one on official DVD or Blu-Ray, so keep your eyes open for an old bootleg copy at your nearest used video store.

R.I.P. Tony Todd

 

Somehow, Palpatine got re-elected.

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Time Stranger

In 1981, the Super Robot craze was dying down in anime, and mechas was turning a little more toward realism as a machine of war like in Macross and Gundam. One of these anime caught in the middle of the transition was GoShogun, a 26-episode TV series that initially was released in America as part of the Macron-1 series which was glued to a completely unrelated mecha series similar to Voltron except that both shows were rewritten to be in the same universe. GoShogun was about three separate combat experts who become pilots of a combiner robot to fight a group of villains called Docooga vying for control over a new element called Beamier which could be used to conquer the world. The leader of the bad guys was Neoneros whose trio of generals would fight the GoShogun crew as they protected the human race, but he was so evil that his generals leave him and join forces with the goody guys to overthrow their boss. Four years after the series ended, an anime conclusion was made titled GoShogun: The Time Etranger which in many English markets has been renamed Time Stranger(no relation to the Time Stranger Kyoko manga). This took the sextet of heroes and former baddies into a totally different series which combines mysterious elements of Night Of The Living Dead and Jacob's Ladder and merged it with an 80s action romp normally starring Chuck Norris. The movie removes the mecha fighters and puts them in an otherworldly adventure like something out of The Twilight Zone but armed with a stockade of weapons the A-Team would have. This is a shocking turn when a sentai show ditches the robots and puts the Power Rangers in Carnival Of Souls.

Remy is the only female member of the GoShogun team and hasn't seen her commrades in forty years. On her way to a reunion with her two co-pilots, Remy stops a gang of terrorists in a high speed aircar chase, causing her to crash. All of her teammates converge at the hospital she was taken to and none of them seemed to have aged much in the last few decades, despite the fact that one of them is a big mutant clone. While her colleagues try to save her life, Remy is tied between flashbacks of her when she was an orphan trapped in a hole and a bizarre dream realm where she and all five of her mates are caught in a desert town infested by Muslim zombies, some of which attack on bicycles. In this hellscape, Remy is told by a childlike prophet that she will die\ in a few days from being torn apart by the rowdy locals. Deciding to fight against her death ticket, Remy and the rest of the GoShogun crew go totally commando on the whole town and their battle escalates to fighting a giant demon cat in an epic climax in a dusty graveyard. Whether or not any of this is really happening on some other level of consciousness or it's just a vision Remy is having before her final breath is never completely revealed.

Time Stranger is a departure from the main anime series that deconstructs the former hero trope when you take away all their sci-fi toys and have them fighting a radically opposite new foe. The real strange part is that there is no head bad dude for the heroes' confront, but simply the inevitable end that all mortals must face, whether it be in real life or an imaginary counterforce. The animation can shift from standard to monumental, particularly in the battle scenes where a small team of seasoned specialists have an arsenal that can take on an entire city of undead opponents. It is entirely possible to enjoy this solo movie on its own without seeing anything of the original TV series, although it gives you a bigger insight into the heroes' relationships and how the single female character was the centerpiece of their lives who was very capable of holding her own in a fight.

The Owl House: Love & Weirdos, A Look Into Disney's Witchcraft Cartoon

Disney Channel was looking for the next comedy/adventure cartoon to fit in their files like Gravity Falls and Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil that wasn't adjacent to the standard Mickeyverse. Since Harry Potter had long since wrapped up, a new fantasy with kids learning magic seemed like a good enough idea. Animator Dana Terrace presented her plan for a series titled The Owl House blending common witchcraft with modern day pop and folk culture. Even though it might at first look like an Americanized version of an isekai anime, the show went on to have its own sense of style with fluid animation, realistic characters, deep lore, and engaging voice actors. What truly caught the eye of casual animation fans was how it drew in viewers as it engaged those who might be seen as weirdos. The Owl House encompassed the depiction of physical, emotional, and mental barriers in a positive manner. It also heavily took into account the encumbrance facing those coming to terms with their own gender, sexuality, and personal identity. For a show to highlight representation this way on a family-centered network was the first steps that the series faced towards its own premature end.

Dana Terrace was a storyboarder on Gravity Falls who eventually became a director for the DuckTales reboot. She took influence from anime like Utena and Pokemon, plus Tenchi Muyo which is evident as Eda's design is a clear copy of Ryoko. After working on DuckTales, Dana pitched the idea of a fantasy/adventure to Disney in 2018, and was greenlit at the same time as Amphibia, of which both shows are secretly in a shared universe.

Season One came out in 2020 with 19 episodes. Season Two was given 21 episodes in 2021. Season Three was trimmed to just a trio of hour-long specials instead of 20 regular episodes. Disney roped in the show as its serialized nature wasn't bringing in successful ratings. Part of the problem with this was because of episode leaks, although the major reason Disney cut the series short was largely due to the backlash from conservative parents on the show's open depictions of LGBTQ+ characters and all-inclusive nature which didn't fit into the company's standards at the time. This lead to a lot censoring of non-heteronormative material in foreign markets despite the show's strong fan following for it being all-inclusive.

The cast is vastly diverse with many professional voice actors and some with minimal voice over experience. Sarah Nicole Robles is the main character of Luz who only had some past credits in Disney dubs. Wendie Malick is Eda who had decades of experience in sitcoms, as well animation voice overs in Bojack Horseman and The Emperor's New Groove. Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch pulls double-duty as both King and Hooty. Tinkerbell herself Mae Whitman plays Amity. Anime VA regular Zeno Robinson is Hunter. Another anime veteran is Mela Lee as Kikimoa. Matthew Rhys is Bellos who later went on to do voices for Tuca And Bertie as well as the Watchmen duology. Cissy Jones is Lillith and afterwards played Elita-1 in Transformers. Former Bumblebee voice Bumper Johnson is Principal Bump, Michaela Deitz who played Amethyst on Steven Universe is the shapeshifting Vee. Rachel MacFarlane from American Dad is Odalia. The Collector's actor Fryda Wolff has indentified herself as bisexual. Non-binary actor Avi Roque portrays the similarly non-binary Raine. Also included were Tati Gabrielle as Willow and Issac Ryan Brown as Gus.

Dana Terrace's original pilot had Amity being a witch disguised in the human world that Luz fell for and follows to the Boiling Islands. Luz gets stuck in the Demon Realm helping Eda escape her sister Lillith that here is the principal of Hexside. In the original story, Eda secretly works for Bellos who wants her to bring in the one human for him to inspect.

The main synopsis of The Owl House is that it takes place in another dimension called the Demon Realm. Luz is an Afro-Latina who moved to Gravesfield, Ohio so her mother Camila could get medical help for sick father. After her father's death, Luz is sent to a neurodivergent summer camp as she has ADHD. Instead of getting on the bus to camp, she winds up following an owl into an abandoned house which leads to The Boiling Isles that are the remains of a dead Titan where she meets Eda Clawthorne, the Owl Lady, a witch who promises to teach Luz magic. Eda had adopted a young creature she named King who thinks he is the lost king of demons. Luz attends the Hexside School where she befriends Amity, a stuck up girl who eventually changed her ways and formed a romantic relationship with Luz that recognized herself as bisexual.

The Boiling Isles is run by Emperor Bellos, who in reality is Phillip Whitebane, a witch hunter from the 1600s whose brother Caleb supposedly fell for a witch named Evelyn. Phillip makes clones of Caleb called Grimwalkers to act as his Golden Guard, the latest one of which is Hunter. Belos also stays alive through methods of cloning, plus consuming Palismans. Belos can inhabit bodies by splitting his soul. It’s possible that every split makes each version a totally different Belos, meaning the real one has been dead for years. He became emperor after setting up the Coven system. Each coven is broken up into 9 different systems: Emperor’s, Abomination, Bard, Beast Keeping, Construction, Healing, Illusion, Oracle, Plant, and Potions. Belos established these to utilize Titan's blood on the Boiling Isles which would allow him to open the portal door back to the human world.

Wild magic is the only kind outlawed by Belos because he couldn't control it. Evelyn was a wild witch that seduced Caleb, as well as being Eda’s ancestor. Flapjack was probably Evelyn’s Palisman. It's strange that in the series finale Eda eventually sets up her own school of wild magic which is paradoxical to her philosophy of being an individual as passing on what she’s learned can conform others into her own lifestyle. Eda resides in what's called The Owl House that was originally used by her father who fashioned Palismans. The house is inhabited by a bizarre owl demon with a long neck attached to the front door called Hooty

The enigmatic character of the Collector is part of a cosmic group called The Archivists who trapped him in the Demon Realm. The Archivists removed all the Titans because their power cancels out their own, so they either did this as an act of preservation or just plain old spite. King’s father was the last remaining Titan who took his hatred for The Archivists out on The Collector and left him on an island that was really his hand sealed off in another dimension with Titan Trappers that worshipped The Collector as a god. This is where King learns of his true heritage as a titan. Bellos finds The Collector's prision in a disc in his early days as Phillip because of a trip that Luz and Lillith took to the past in what is referred to a Time Pools.

The entire plot of The Owl House is one giant causality loop. A future timeline that only exists because someone went back in the past to set it up in the first place. Luz and Lillith were supposed to find the Time Pools, go back and meet the younger Phillip Whitebane, which in turn lead him to The Collector. This isn’t a fate vs. destiny debate because it's on a fixed timeline. Even though this timeline has been established, it’s possible to change it, and equally possible that Luz and Lillith ended up in a completely different reality when they travelled back to the future/present.

In a causality loop, even in a fixed timeline, it can be diverted. Chaos is a major factor in its creation, and the forces of order and chaos are constantly pulling at each other to close the loop or collapse it, either effect would replace it with a different timeline. When these forces are working against each other, reality can be radically altered in numerous ways. People who died can be brought back to life in one way or another, as well as someone temporarily gaining powers that they never had before. Bellos likely hired Lillith to begin with to keep her close so he could manipulate her into going back in time in the first place, a possibility he learned through oracle magic.

The Owl House utilizes the concept the Time Pools very well as they work under the principle of chronomancy, not time travel. Chronomancy is the magical manipulation of temporal energy, whereas time travel is the scientific and occasionally natural navigation of timestreams. Chronomancy is largely paradox free, even though order and chaos will still tug at both ends to cause a probability collapse. How this would ultimately resolve can only be answered in whatever aftermath there is upon its conclusion.

Eda would have been one of the most powerful witches on the Boiling Isles if it weren't for a curse placed on her. Despite her potent mastery of wild magic, Eda periodically transforms into what's called the Owl Beast leaving her unable to use magic. The owl curse stems from one of the Archivists who captured the actual Owl Beast and sealed it inside a scroll. Eda's sister Lillith placed this curse on Eda when they were younger which she now has to take an elixir for on an almost daily basis to keep it under control. Eda's curse is a metaphor for someone stricken with disability and having to adjust to their new way of living after a life-altering incident.

Amity begins the series disliking Luz because she only cared about social status. This was changed when she realized Luz was sincere in her honesty, and how wrong her parents were when it came to treating her fellow students. Amity was originally childhood friends with Willow but ditched her when pressured by her mother. Willow’s abandonment by the other students helped her discover the strength of her inner self to overcome her status quo. Amity saw this and left Boscha’s highbrow crowd to embrace this philosophy, which also lead to her becoming attracted to Luz.

In the beginning, The Titan itself had the mysterious Bat Queen as its Palisman, even though her size doesn't compare to that of the Palisman which act as a witch's familiar or animus figure. When Luz finally meets the Titan near the end of the series, it is shown that he has a demon growing out his eye that looks like Hooty, even though what the connection between the two is never explained. All magic on the Boiling Isles stems from what’s left of the Titan’s spirit. Evelyn found the Titan’s missing eye and used it to make the portal door. The Titan’s spirit exists in the In Between, a subspace within the Demon Realm which acts as the portal dimension that leads to Earth.

The Owl House has a huge theme of neurodiversity. The Coven system is an allegory for conformity, and Luz’s desire to study more than one form of magic showcases her lack of being able to focus on a single goal. This is partially due to her ADHD and lack of foresight. Luz’s sense of alienation is why she adapts to the Demon Realm so well. Her anxiety also drives her while holding her back at the same time which prevents her from fitting in with her more conventional peers.

This series also manages to spotlight on living with a disability. Eda's curse is a living example of this as it prevents her from using her magic that she keeps boasting about, and she’s afraid her beast mode might harm any of her loved ones. It could be seen as someone recovering from substance abuse, except this is a real curse and Eda needs to take medication to keep it in check. The Owl Beast curse also prematurely aged Eda physically which is a good way of illustrating how a handicap can limit a person's lifestyle.

One thing that The Owl House shined brightest was in its transgender representation. Eda's old friend Raine Whispers is non-binary, but they broke up with her when Eda didn't open up about her curse. Eda tried to rekindle their relationship, despite the fact that Raine was secretly leading a rebellion against Bellos all while being a coven head. Non-binary characters aren't that abundant in most TV series, but here they are given the respect and dignity that any binary person would.

LGBTQ+ was equally given as much attention in the series. In the beginning, Luz was shown as heterosexual, even though over time she slowly gains feeling for Amity who is initially implied to be a lesbian. The two of them officially become a couple halfway through Season 2, and their relationship grows from there, including one of the first animated same-sex kisses. Unfortunately, their romance gets more airtime in the Disney Chibi shorts than the actual Owl House TV show possibly due to the series being cut short. Willow's fathers are also a fine example of gay delineation. It’s likely that gender and racial diversity in the Demon Realm wasn't considered a negative issue which might have been part of Belos’ puritan crusade to rid the world of witches.

Trauma and PTSD are also major factors that were brought to the forefront in The Owl House. Luz is still reeling from the death of her father and trying to be accepted in school, while her mother Camila also had trouble growing up and is now a widow doubled with being a single parent who is defensive about her only child. Hunter is shocked that his entire existence is a lie as he was created solely to be part of his uncle's evil scheme, and he deals with it by running away to find comfort with those who understood about being critically distraught. Willow and Gus first bonded over both of them being social outcasts. Eda is constantly stressed that she can't use her magic anymore and has to make a living selling human junk since she doesn't trust anyone in authority. Lillith is stricken with guilt when she reveals it was her that cursed Eda, even though she now shares the curse that also causes her to fret adjusting to her new handicap. King has identity issues since his origins were at first a mystery, and after he learns he was really a titan, he worries that he won't live up to his father's legacy. The Collector had it worse than anyone as his own people tricked him into being isolated and as they snatched up all his young Titan friends, then he got sealed away by King's dad and reduced to a mere shadow who trusted Bellos to release him, only to be betrayed again despite all his reality-warping powers.

The Owl House's tragically brief time on general streaming TV was enough to make it notable among regular Disney watchers and its theme of inclusion to those some would refer to as weirdos. Even though they stick together, the weirdos' wish to be understood and accepted is a universal message that anyone intelligent enough should be able to pick up on.

MISC. MANGA, *Fairy Tail

Hiro Mishima had a decent amount of success with his first serial Rave Master that got an anime adaptation with a catchy theme song by Reel Big Fish done for the American dub. His next manga had ties to the same universe in this pseudo-spinoff titled Fairy Tail. Whereas One Piece could be seen as "pirate-punk", this genre of this manga would be something along the lines of "fantasy-punk". The manga was first picked up for American readers by Del Rey Books who went defunct in 2010, so Kodansha picked it up after reprinting the volumes that were already released. The anime adaptation has become one of the most successful releases among American otaku, and its follow-up, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest has just come out in Japan with western fans salivating for the latest installments.

Lucy Heartfilia is a young summoner who is looking to join the guild of rowdy wizards known as Fairy Tail. After an experience with a poser magician, Lucy comes across Natsu Dragneel, a member of Fairy Tail that was raised by a dragon. In their first mission together, they take their winged talking cat colleague Happy on a mission to the mountains investigating the disappearance of fellow wizard Macao who got turned into a horny primate. From this point on, we learn more about Natsu's mysterious past, and the revelation of a secret cabal of villains who are plotting their demise just to relieve their boredom.

With two hit anime TV series, a pair of full-length animated movies, and a series of OVA specials, Fairy Tail has left its mark in anime fandom. Their adventures do include a brief crossover with the Rave Master cast. Whether this will lead to a Hiro Mishima multiverse is yet to be revealed. The manga is dynamic, even though it does give into a much of the anime cliches of characters doing cartoon takes of being surprised or the males lusting over the females in a way that's borderline creepy. Fairy Tail is not for kids, but young adult readers who are looking for a little more adventure in their fantasy stories should be satisfied.

R.I.P. Greg Hildebrandt

 

R.I.P. Teri Garr

ANI-MOVIES, *Wendell And Wild

The Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick hadn't been involved in a movie since Coraline in 2009, so when comedy-turned horror filmmaker Jordan Peele got together with him to produce a movie based on his unpublished book, it seemed like a great deal. Wendell And Wild is a stop-motion animation feature that premiered on Netflix in 2022 and directed by Peele's longtime collaborator Win Rosenfield. As far as an animated feature, it's above average, not exactly as overwhelming as something you would see in a Aardman or Laika production, even though still engaging to the eye. The problem is that the story is all over the place with and endless barrage of plot points that keep getting tacked on to it at breakneck speed. The overall narrative refuses to stick to a single idea for any in depth amount of time largely stuffed totally unrelated filler. The film suffers from a nagging habit of going from one unconnected scene after the other while losing its focus with its overall message.

Kat is an orphan whose parents are killed in a car accident she blames herself for when she was younger. Years later, she's become a punk rebelling against the system proudly playing her dad's old boombox as loud as possible. She returns to her hometown of Rust Bank and is enrolled in a Catholic school for girls. The town was originally supported by a soft drink brewery run by Kat's parents that was later burned down. A corrupt company called Klaxon Korp has slowly been buying up Rust Bank to create their own specialized prison. Kat doesn't make friends with any of her new schoolmates including the only trans student Raul, although he has his own agenda painting pieces of a huge painting over all the rooftops in town. Meanwhile, the title characters of Wendell and Wild are demon brothers toiling in the underworld spending their days planting hair plugs in their gigantic demon father's skull who has an amusement park on his gut where he tortures lost souls. Wendell and Wild discover that Kat is what's called a hell maiden and has a paranormal connection to the spirit world that gives her precognition. The brothers make contact with Kat and get her to summon them upstairs so they can set up their own theme park with blackjack and hookers. In exchange, Wendell and Wild promise to restore parents back to life thanks to their magic hair cream, even though the effects are only temporary. From this point on, the plot channel surfs between conflicting ideas and concepts, most of which never get resolved in the end. There's a nun at the school who is also a hell maiden, a disabled janitor that catches demons with her, and the evil school head who gets killed by the Klaxons but is resurrected by the demon brothers all working on a scheme to help the Klaxon Korp take over the town, even though they killed him! Some of the characters are well-meaning and honestly decent, but most are selfish and don't care who they use to get what they want even with good intentions. It's very hard to accept how abrupt the movie ends with its eternal barrage of expositions trying to explain the character's motives and backstories.

Wendell And Wild tries to shove too many social commentaries into a single feature. There's trans-representation, anti-industry, corporate greed, crooked religious authorities, and considering that the main crux of the film is about demonic mojo you would expect a little more under the topics of sins and succumbing to selfishness. One of the only saving graces is the adorable pygmy goat that acts as the film's token cute animal character that you could see someone making plushies of. This movie is a stunning viewing experience that could have neen quaint to see on the big screen even though its being limited to Netflix. Henry Selick might have had a good enough story in his original book, but Jordan Peele's input might have added more to the overall production than it was capable of handling, even in an animated movie. Peele is good at modern day thrillers, although Wendell And Wild can barely keep its head above water with all the political criticism which denies the audience a satisfying watch.

ANI-MOVIES, *Hellboy: Blood And Iron

The second and so far final outing of Hellboy's animated movies is Blood And Iron. There was a stinger at the end of this movie hinting at a possible third feature highlighting the spinoff character Lobster Johnson, but the only extension into the Hellboy universe included in this was a short available only on the physical release titled The Red Shoes where Hellboy hunts down a small demon. Blood And Iron was animated by Madhouse along with Film Roman and tried to create a darker mood than was used in Sword Of Storms, but the angular character designs and brightened backgrounds rob the movie of any real chance of that. Most of the regular voice actors from the previous film are back including John Hurt reprising his role of Professor Broom, and James Arnold Taylor portraying the younger version of Broom. Oddly enough, there are a few scenes where Taylor is filling in some additional vocals for the modern day Broom's dialogue, possibly due to John Hurt's availability at the time. Other voice actors included Jim Cummings, Grey DeLisle, and Cree Summer. The story folds out in two separate paths, one of the early Prof. Broom's adventure when he was trying to kill the vampire noble Erzsebet prior to his first meeting with Hellboy, except that its flashbacks shown in reverse chronological order, and the rest of the movie is set in modern day.

Hellboy and Abe tackle a clockwork minotaur in the legendary Labyrinth and are later called into help secure the authenticity of a haunted mansion in the Hamptons recently bought by a huge backer of the BPRD. Prof. Broom, Liz Sherman, and newbie Sydney go along to investigate whether this house really has any ghosts. The rich guy in question is a dead ringer for Xanatos from Gargoyles, and wants to turn the mansion into a tourist attraction by bringing a ton of artifacts from the home of the dead vampire Erzsebet who worshipped the Greek goddess Hecate. Part of Hecate's essence was sealed up in an old iron maiden which two witch harpy sisters are literally raising spirits to bring back to life. Hellboy and crew have to deal with pesky non-confrontational ghosts, a werewolf, a den of giant snakes, and the resurrected Erzsebet herself who Broom does away with via holy water. Hellboy himself gets into a slugfest with the awakened spirit of Hecate now in a giant iron body who was defeated after being exposed to sunlight.

Hellboy: Blood And Iron was partially based on the Wake The Devil storyline by creator Mike Mignola, but clearly went in its own direction. The movie does have shades of old Hammer Horrors but curbed even for modern day viewers. For a Hellboy adventure, the title character is a secondary character in his own movie and used only for when he's fighting goliaths. It's not set in the same continuity as any of the live-action movies as Prof. Broom is still alive in it, although possibly a prequel to the Guillermo del Toro duology. This movie catches the look and feel of your average Hellboy comic book, but you would be better off with Sword Of Storms if you want a more epic action fantasy.

Justice League Action: You Missed Out On A Great Show

After Cartoon Network dropped DC Nation, they were relying solely on Teen Titans Go as the only intake on their lineup of parent company Warner Bros’ comics publisher. The Arrowverse was in full swing, so a show that would bring children's attention to the Justice League was overdue. Young Justice didn’t count since they were a team operating under the League, so a cartoon that would motivate kids into buying a new brand of action figures was the answer. Unlike Young Justice, they produced some toys from Mattel to go along with this second Justice League animated series titled Justice League Action. This merchandise included some toys at Burger King that they had in their King Jr. Meals that were in rotation for years after JLA was cancelled. The regular action figures didn’t sell as big as your regular Turtles or Transformers at the time.

Justice League Action only lasted for 52 episodes until its cancellation, each one only took up 15 minutes of screentime that got a single weekly airing on early Saturday mornings. It's easy to see that Cartoon Network could have planned for this to air with two episodes back-to-back for a single half-hour, but for some reason they kept it to a scant single episode once a week. Despite all the talent they poured into it, Cartoon Network seemed to have a secret agenda with sabotaging their own production.

Warner Bros. Animation oversaw the show’s production with Sam Register as executive producer who was smart enough to give Lauren Faust’s DC Super Hero Girls a TV series. Producers included Alan Burnett who was involved in nearly every DC animated gig since the original Super Friends, plus longtime collaborator of Paul Dini. Speaking of which, Paul Dini from Batman: The Animated Series played a major part in this and leant a few of his original characters to the cast including Brother Night.

The major thing that JLA had going for it was the voice talent. Once again, Kevin Conroy is Batman and Mark Hamill is Joker, as well as Swamp Thing, Trickster, and Mark Hamill. Another holdover from the DCAU is Gilbert Gottfried returning as Mister Mxyzptlk, Khary Paton as Cyborg, Josh Keaton as Green Lantern, and Tara Strong as Harley Quinn. Former Batman, Diedrich Bader is now doing Booster Gold. Future Batman, Troy Baker is cast as Hawkman. Various former Star Trek alumni make appearances such as Michael Dorn as Atrocitus, John de Lancie as Brainiac, Robert Picardo as Two-Face, Armin Shimerman as Zox, and Brent Spiner as Riddler. Several comedians also played roles like Hannibal Buress as Mr. Terrific, Ken Jeong as Toyman, Thomas Lennon as Amazo, Jon Lovitz as Sid Sharp, Patton Oswalt as Space Cabbie, and Andy Richter as Chronos. A few serious legendary actors dropped in too like Carl Reiner as Wizard, John Astin as Uncle Marvel, Sean Astin as Shazam, Jon Cryer as Felix Faust, Cloris Leachman as Granny Goodness, Jerry O'Connell as Atom, Christian Slater as Deadshot, Gary Cole as Black Adam, Jessica Walter as Athena, and James Woods as Luthor. Some anime voice actors had parts in limited roles like Crispin Freeman, Max Mittelman, Patrick Seitz, and Travis Willingham. Other regular voice actors included P.J. Byrne, Darin De Paul, John Di Maggio, Grey Griffin, William Salyers, Dana Snyder, and Fred Tatasciore. It should be noted that voice actress Rachel Kimsey makes for a fine Wonder Woman, and Jason J. Lewis is amazing as not only Superman, but also as Zod, Krypto, Streaky, DeSaad, Dex-Starr, and Red Tornado.

Each TV episode was self-contained with only a reoccurring storyline running through the first 4 episodes. This is how it ran from Dec. 2016-Jun. 2018. At least 80% of every episode had Batman featured in it, so if you’re a heavy Kevin Conroy fan, you were getting your money’s worth. The series started out with the Justice League already operating out the Hall of Justice but moved it to the new Watchtower located on a freshly made dormant volcano in a bay near Metropolis. Aside from their previous ranks, they also added newbies like Stargirl, Firestorm, and Blue Beetle. A few Justice League Dark members were also signed on including Zatanna, Constantine, Etrigan, Dr. Fare, and a much more relaxed Swamp Thing. Some heroes only appeared in a few episodes, for example Martian Manhunter or Hawkman, while obscure DC characters such as Space Cabbie were frequent. Leaguers such as Dr. Light and Red Tornado were barely a blip on the radar. Other heroes like Aquaman, Guy Gardner and Robin only get a brief mention.

A good number of the JLA adventures featured part of, or all DC’s Big 3, but usually accompanied by other well-known good guys getting some spotlight like Atom, Green Arrow and Mr. Terrific. Firestorm particularly had a large portion of spotlight shined on him, specifically his two personas of Ronald and Prof. Stein. Stargirl must deal with being the newest rookie on the team and living up to Batman’s expectations. Supergirl also appears but near the end of the series, and she somehow managed to skate through any kind of orientation simply because she is Superman’s cousin. Constantine has taken a page from the Fox One Piece dub and replaced his smoking habit with lollipops. Swamp Thing is also way more laid back and not droning on about how The Green is suffering. Cain from The House Of Mystery narrates an episode where the Justice League Dark spend their Halloween magically turned into kids. Booster Gold takes up a good chunk of the series as the cause and/or solution to many of the League’s troubles. Shazam gets some exposure at the beginning of the series with only getting one episode to himself that sincerely takes the real-life father/son team of John and Sean Astin playing Uncle Dudley and Billy Batson. Hal Jordan is the only Green Lantern to ever see the light of day in this series, although there is the brief appearance of a legendary leftover from Green Lantern: The Animated Series. Mister Miracle here is more of an overdramatic celebrity wannabe. The goddess Athena also shows up to give Batman a hard time. Plastic Man is the real comedic gem here with Master Shake voice actor Dana Snyder scoring it, although Tom Kenny is still the best Plas. Original character Sid Sharp is humorously voiced by Jon Lovitz in his animation premiere as Clark Kent’s rival reporter who gets kidnapped by Darkseid.

A good portion of the villains that showed up were Batman or Superman enemies. Joker is back to being a fun-loving prankster, Riddler is reformed, Penguin is more of a gangster, Harley oddly never has Mr. J with him, Poison Ivy forgets her ecological crusade to be another bad guy, Zod is still into having people kneel before him, Deadshot is literally “shoot first and ask Christian Slater”, Toyman is obsessive with his action figure collecting, Brainiac is more anal retentive, and Luthor has refreshingly returned to being the greatest criminal mind of our time. Darkseid and his forces routinely appeared to show how much of a threat they truly were. The writers tried to make the lame criminal organization of HIVE a reoccurring menace to no avail. The Red Lanterns also dropped in but were usually upstaged by the awesomeness that is Dex-Starr who managed to hold off both Krypto and Streaky at the same time. Mxyzptlk guest-stars too, including one where he switches the Leaguers personalities around. Stock villains like Felix Faust, Chronos, Amazo, Solomon Grundy, Sinestro, Grodd, Mr. Mind, Clarion, and Calculator managed to have an entire episode dedicated to each of them being the big bad. Roxy Rocket shows up once now running her own intergalactic passenger transport service. Some villains who’ve never been featured in the comics at all got their premiere here, specifically Calythos and Uthool that were only mentioned in the comics as two of the items The Demons Three were sealed up in. Brother Dark is more of a power broker of dark magic instead of the demonic cultist from the source material. Lobo is his gruff bounty hunter self, even though here he’s a chaos factor instead of his normal anti-hero status. The only supervillain group we see in the whole show are The Nuclear Family, a family of robots who turn a nuclear power plant into a sitcom. There are some random crossovers like Luthor teaming up with Chronos, or Mr. Freeze tricking Killer Frost into being the energy source for his latest caper, but weirdest of all is when Joker is abducted by Mongul to makes his subjects laugh. The better villain pairing is when Joker steals a Mother Box and busts Luthor out of jail with and teleports all over the world for vacation with the League failing to catch them. The only original addition to DC’s rogue's gallery is Red Velvet, a ticked off time traveler that Booster Gold left at the altar who manages to destroy the Watchtower with her future tech.

Aside from the regular TV episodes, Justice League Action also had a series of 2-3-minute-long shorts that premiered on YouTube and were also made available on streaming. 22 episodes aired halfway through the TV series and were more like quick comedic vignettes with an emphasis on laughs. One is an entire take on Looney Tunes where Lobo is chasing Flash around like Road Runner. Viewers get to see the League in their downtime where Firestorm and Stargirl share a quick romantic moment, or the team go bowling after busting another super villain team up. The short where Plastic Man poses as Superman to throw Lois Lane off Clark Kent’s secret identity. There’s a nice bit where Wonder Woman and Supergirl have some girl bonding on Themyscira. Plastic Man and Booster Gold manage to steal most of the laughs in these tales, but funniest of all is where Batman is playing good cop and Superman is playing bad cop much to Deadshot’s shocking confusion. One of mention is where Firestorm’s constant changing of different kinds of Kryptonite keep shifting Superman in multiple ways, including turning into a woman. Arguably the best one is where Joker and Trickster unite to kidnap Mark Hammil and the actor gets them to work against each other while being rescued by Swamp Thing, all of which were of course voiced by Hammil himself.

Justice League Action had a terrific blend of action and comedy with incredible animation, even though it would seem slightly choppy at times. Cartoon Network should have had more faith in their product instead of limiting it to once a week on early Saturday mornings. It also didn’t help that they did little to no advertising for it. Since streaming wasn’t as prominent at the time when it came to shows currently running on TV, the show didn’t get as much attention as it should. Unless you had a DVR, you probably didn’t get a chance to watch the show as it was airing. It is currently standard on streaming services, plus available as a pair of 2-disc DVD sets, although currently no Blu-Ray release. At least the Justice League finally got their own battle cry, even if they only used it once during the whole series.