Straight from the Sewers

I spent much of last weekend catching up on animated television by watching all the episodes of Nickelodeon's new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. I had no plans to care about this series until I caught a few minutes of the premiere a few weeks back and was captivated by the look of the show. Still, I put off watching it...until now.

This is one of those shows, like the new Thundercats, that has gotten everything right. They could have easily gone in the wrong direction, but wisely, the show decided to create a comic book feel for our heroes in a half-shell. I love the way the backgrounds look like comic book panels and the occasional still frame pauses that look like print. 

The four turtles have been given more depth than they had in the original series. Michelangelo, my least favorite from the original, is now my favorite character. The lovable misfit of the bunch is such a great character and gives the group a real dynamic. Leo as the leader-in-training is also a nice touch. The bad guys have also been stepped up, made much more sinister and cunning than The Foot ever was. 

This now makes four '80s cartoons from my childhood that have been given amazing second chances, along with Transformers Prime, the previously mentioned Thundercats, and the short-lived, but quality G.I. Joe Renegades. Now if only Hollywood had the same good sense as the networks then maybe we'd have entertaining movie version as well instead of the schlock they throw out there in an attempt to ruin the name of great properties.

The Electricity Fairy Has Spread Her Wings

After a week of no electricity, I'm officially back on the grid. Sorry for the outage, but nature thought it best to cleanse the Catskills with flooding rains. I suffered through without too much trouble. I certainly caught up on some reading, averaging a book a day. It was like camping, only in the comfort of my own home.

It wasn't all terrible. I got some really exciting news last week about the most recent manuscript I've been babbling about that I'll share in a couple of weeks. (You can find the blog posts on that manuscript by clicking the 'Limbo' tag below.) But I'm really excited about it and I'm glad to say so are some other people who will help it come to life. Sometimes it takes a storm of some magnitude to wash in some new luck.

In other exciting news, my Thundercats Wilykit action figure arrived over the weekend. It's the first new addition to me expansive action figure collection in quite some time and I'm happy to say, it's pretty awesome.

Everything Old is New Again

As I rule, I'm not usually a huge fan of remakes, and I especially hate the 'reboot' term as a way of trying to disguise a reinventing of a previous vision as somehow your own piece of imagination. Also, I really take issue with things being redone almost immediately (I'm talking to you Spiderman). So, with that said, I'd like to rave for a bit about a few remakes that have been exceptionally good of late.

Two episodes into the new Thundercats and I'm pretty much ready to declare it the best American cartoon since Avatar: The Last Airbender. The look of the characters is great. The story is dark and brutal in the opening, the way a story of this nature should be. There's a focus on character and story arch that avoids cartoon cliche. So far they are making a true middle grade series without pandering down. Even Willykit and Willykat, the comic relief, are realistic in their humor. I hope the series stays this good throughout because I already can't wait for the next episode.

Another cartoon that has been airing this year is G.I. Joe Renegades. I was nervous about this show given the terrible movie of two summers ago. Plus, the movie was a 'reboot' that changed the traditional story, rewriting the origins and creation of the key players. So when that was a disappointment, the idea of redoing it all over again with even newer origins kind of made me angry. I gave it a shot anyway and after a few episodes, it totally won me over. Again, this is darker than the original and presented in very comic book fashion. The characters have some depth, which is more than can really be said for any previous G.I. Joe incarnation. I also like the serialized nature of the show, building with each episode into a bigger story (something that is also true for the Thundercats so far). This show works much better than the Transformers cartoon that airs in the same hour block.

Lastly, I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes yesterday and thought it was really well done. I admit to being nervous about it given the disaster that was the Tim Burton remake several years ago. Thankfully, this movie had no connection to that and avoided all the stylization. I was impressed with how realized Caesar was as a character. There were moments of CGI overload, but other than that, it was a very good. It didn't try to be an overkill action movie, instead electing to attempt a thought provoking story within the context of action.

Despite my praise here for these projects, I'd still like to see more original ideas getting a chance to thrive. Remakes, reboots, reinventions, etc...They are all simply an easy way out for studios and networks. It's much easier to advertise and market something with a recognized name and potentially built-in audience than to create entirely new franchises out of the literally thousands of amazing books that have never been made into movies or television shows. It worries me that soon we'll reach a time when the slogan will be 'Everything New is Old Redone.'