Welcome to what I hope will be a regular, weekly feature.  I have been known to set my DVR from 9pm to 1am to watch every last second of the [adult swim] programming block on Cartoon Network.  I was proud to stay in Friday nights in high school so I didn’t miss Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. So, I like this stuff a lot.

Normally I’d begin with Sunday and preview upcoming new episodes, then on through the week, but last night at midnight [as] pulled a fast one on us for April Fool’s.

At midnight, a familiar Space Ghost was sitting behind his desk, interviewing “director”/”actor”/”writer” Tommy Wiseau, who promptly told us “Happy April Fool!”

Then they showed The Room.

Considered by some to be the west film ever, I had to see this with my own eyes.  And yes, it’s terrible.  The first 30 minutes is basically like a bad episode of Red Shoe Diaries starring ugly people.  Bad acting and flimsy plot and pretenses to get everyone to take off their clothes and get busy. Although, I’m sure there is generally better acting in your average porno.

Personally, I wish they would’ve gotten “Troll 2” and shown it as a double feature with its accompanying documentary “Best Worst Movie.”  That’s at least so bad it’s funny.

Coming back from commercials they also had tidbits of Space Ghost, Zorak, Moltar, and Wiseau, which was far more entertaining.  During one bit, Wiseau says that everyone should try to enjoy his film how it was meant to be experienced: in a theater.  Zorak and Moltar laugh hysterically and derisively.

Also entertaining—the warning from adult swim that ran across the bottom to not copy and distribute this copyrighted material.  Yeah, no real concern there, imho.  Lots of bit torrents of The Venture Brothers and Metalocalypse, but I don’t think The Room will be coming to Pirate Bay any time soon.

Even more entertaining, because of the aforementioned adult naughty bits and because this is still cartoon network, they had to do something about the… er….

Ha ha! Dangly parts.

So, here’s what they did.  Seriously—no lie—from my iphone to God’s ear:

Black boxes over the naughty bits.  In some cases, they black boxed out ¾ of the screen.  In my opinion, they missed another 25%.

And now on to THIS WEEK:

Sunday, Apr 4

We get 2 new episodes, and some classics in syndication:

Tim & Eric: Awesome Show! Great Job! Lucky. We explore the power of a Cinco product: Dream Cream, with Pierre, who isn’t too happy with the nightmares it’s giving him.  Another Rap from Kid Break, the group that brought you the song about dad’s dirty socks—it looks like there is breakdancing in vomit.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Juggalo. I can’t possibly comprehend what is going on here, so I’ll simply transcribe what the promo says: “With his life out of control, Shake turns to the internet to summon a higher power (an angel wearing a black pinstripe suit who has rocket boosters coming out of his hands and boots like Iron Man).  Then, Shake summons a lower power (a teenage Juggalo) to make the higher power go away.  With a special appearance by breakroom resident George Lowe.”

You can see all of this week’s schedule here, http://www.adultswim.com/schedule/index.html but here are some highlights:

The return of The Drinky Crow Show.  There’ve got to be some of you who like this show, and you’ll be able to get one (not new) 11 minute episode every night at 1:15 am ET/12:15 CT

Also playing this week: The PJ’s.  1:30/12:30?  Anyone like this at all? I usually switch over and watch Larry King, that’s how utterly boring this is to me.

Wed 12:30 ET/11:30 CT – one of my fav episodes of ATHF– “The Last One” where all of the Aqua Teen villains gather on the moon. Hijinks ensure.

As a general rule, I’m not going to review Saturday Nights and anime.  I just don’t get it, and I don’t have the background to tell whether this is a good anime or not.  I don’t know the difference between Cowboy Bebop, Big O, and Bleach.  To me, Bleach is what I use to scrub my grout or the seminal indie album by Nirvana before they got big.  Anime?  Meh.

But since you peeps who watch anime just looooooove it, here you go.  I’ll do this just once…..

We did get news that Kekkaishi will be coming to the Saturday anime block.  Here’s a press release, which I assume someone will translate for me as I lost my manga-to-english dictionary.

VIZ MEDIA LICENSES KEKKAISHI ANIME

SERIES TO ADULT SWIM

Life Is A Wild Adventure For A Teenager Balancing Girls,

Junior High School And Nighttime Demon Slaying

San Francisco, CA, March 31, 2010,  – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has licensed 52 episodes of the popular Shonen Sunday KEKKAISHI anime series to Adult Swim for domestic broadcast. KEKKAISHI will begin airing on May 29^th.

KEKKAISHI is based on the hit manga series by Yellow Tanabe (also published in North America by VIZ Media). A story of mystical forces powerful in the region known as Karasumori. For over 400 years, it has been the duty of a clan of “kekkaishi”—barrier masters—to guard this land and exterminate the supernatural creatures that are drawn to it night after night.

Yoshimori Sumimura is a junior high school student at Karasumori Academy, which is built upon the Karasumori grounds. By night, Yoshimori follows the tradition passed down through generations and fulfills his destiny as the twenty-second “kekkaishi” of the Sumimura clan. But by day, Yoshimori’s got other demons to contend with, like an obsession with cake making and a seriously crotchety grandfather! Yoshimori’s pretty neighbor, childhood friend and rival, Tokine Yukimura, is also a “kekkaishi,” but their families are caught up in a feud over who is the true practitioner of the art. Protecting ordinary people from the ever-present danger of the Karasumori grounds, Yoshimori will continue to grow stronger as he battles the forces of evil again tonight!

“Kekkaishi spotlights compelling cool characters, in an intense yet fun-filled supernatural action adventure saga. It possesses all of the hallmarks of great anime!”  says William Germain, Director, Programming & Music Sales, VIZ Media. We are very excited to add KEKKAISHI to the Adult Swim anime lineup for U.S. fans to enjoy.”

For more information on KEKKAISHI please visit www.ShonenSunday.com.

Thanks for reading!!

Next week I’ll do more in depth on other episodes you should catch during the week, as my review of The Room kind of supplanted that.  I’ll also include reviews of their online content, including their flash games.

Tonight was perhaps one of the best episodes of Clone Wars this season.  “Cat and Mouse” takes place over the planet Christophsis and refers to the dangerous game played by Anakin and the Separatist Admiral Trench.

Christophsis is under attack and deep blockade by Separatist forces and Bail Organa is left planet side as the lone hold-out of Republic forces.  He and the men he’s with are in dire need of a resupply and Anakin Skywalker is the man in charge of that operation.  Unfortunately, he’s in orbit outside the planet’s blockade, led by Trench, an evil spider-looking alien who is a master tactician.

Just before Anakin leads a suicide attack with his fleet, Obi-Wan arrives to stop him, explaining that he has a new prototype ship that might give them the advantage.  The Republic forces are forced to retreat behind Christophsis’ moon while Bail Organa is left to fend for himself.  Obi-Wan reveals the prototype ship as a stealth vessel that has cloaking ability and loads it with the supplies Organa so desperately needs and sends Anakin on a mercy mission to slip by Trench’s fleet and deliver the supplies.

Predictably, Anakin gets behind enemy lines and decides to take the mission into his own hands and opens fire on Trench.

The two are then engaged in their deadly game of cat and mouse that was oddly similar to all of the great naval films involving submarines.  Mandy from The Adorkable mentioned on Twitter (three full hours before I was able to watch the film because of my geographic handicap) that she thought it was like The Hunt For Red October, but I was a little more reminded by Das Boot.  In any case, the interior of the cloaked ship was designed quite deliberately, I assume, to resemble the interior of an old nuclear sub.

The episode was quite thrilling.  The animation was a cut above last weeks episode and the lighting effects were tremendous.  It’s always refreshing to see space battles and we certainly haven’t in quite a while and these were tremendous.

Also of note this episode were the references to A New Hope.  Not only was Anakin on a “mercy mission”, so too did Bail Organa proclaim that Obi-Wan Kenobi was his only hope.  They were great moments.

This episode was also Admiral Yularen’s time to shine.  He’s always been a minor character in a scene or two, but he was sitting behind Anakin advising him on the bridge of the prototype ship and his counter-balance to Anakin is always welcome.  It’s a different sort of counter-balance than Obi-Wan provides, because I get the feeling that Yularen is resentful that Anakin is in a position of power in the military hierarchy, specifically because of his recklessness, and Obi-Wan has more of a fraternal counter-balance. In either case it was fun to watch.

Having said all of that, this was a top notch episode and I hope we can see more like this for the rest of the season.

(Last interesting note: According to the episode guide on the official Star Wars website, only two episodes in the series take place before this one, The Hidden Enemy and one of the pieces of an episode called “The New Padawan” that was chopped up into the Clone Wars theatrical release.)

To catch up on Season 1, you can order The Clone Wars: The Complete Season One at Amazon by clicking the link.

For other Clone Wars news and reviews of previous episodes, click this link.

Late last week I was given the privilege to spend about a half an hour chatting with James Arnold Taylor, the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi on Clone Wars, in the video games and just about anywhere else you hear the character these days that isn’t in the movies proper.

He’s a talented, versatile voice actor who is the official voice of a lot of beloved characters ranging from Fred Flintstone to the Green Arrow.

He’s been the voice of Obi-Wan since Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars micro-series that was released between the release of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and has kept on the character ever since.

We spoke a lot about the qualities of the character, both currently on the show and what we might see in the future.  One of the most intriguing things we talked about was whether or not Obi-Wan suspected anything between Anakin and Padme during this era.

I was struck by how much care and love James has for the world and the characters.  We spoke of the prequel trilogy in particular and how wrongfully maligned it’s been.  To be honest, after a while we sort of stopped talking about Clone Wars specifically and began talking about Star Wars like the pair of geeks we are.

It was a very engaging conversation and I hope you guys enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed participating.  James Arnold Taylor is an incredibly nice guy and a class act, to be sure.  And he’s every bit as much of a fan of Star Wars as we are.

To listen to the full interview, check out Big Shiny Robot!s iTunes feed and subscribe to it. And be sure to visit Big Shiny Robot! every day for all sorts of geek news.

In part one of today’s DVD and Blu-ray column we will tackle animated films.

Today sees the release of three incredible animated motion pictures. Let’s start chronologically, shall we?

Pixar’s Toy Story redefined the way animated films were made and perceived upon its release in 1995 and sent every other company scrambling to find 3D animated films. Sadly, most of the 3D copycats of that era mistook the magic of the film for the way it was made and not the face that it was an incredibly well-conceived story told incredibly well. It created such an interesting and original take on what toys do when we’re not looking and all of the jokes in the film built up either that, or the story, leaving us laughing about a situation that was unique to this movie and this movie alone. It had some of the smartest screenwriting ever (even though there were 4 screenwriters, including Joss Whedon) and it was so economical and well animated that it was an instant classic. The Blu-ray re-release of this film is second to none in terms of sound and picture quality. Every time Pixar releases a high definition version of their films I’m astounded by how much attention is paid to the quality of it.

It’s truly breathtaking.

But the only thing that looks better in high-definition that Toy Story is Toy Story 2. Improving on a concept and world that I didn’t think could be improved upon, Pixar knocked out a sequel to Toy Story that actually surpassed the original. And it boasts perhaps one of the finest, most finely constructed scripts ever conceived for a motion picture, animated or otherwise.

There’s not much I can say about Toy Story and Toy Story 2 on Blu-ray other than you have to buy them. There really is no two ways about it.

The third animated film on the list today is Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. I was wary of this picture and did not see it until I got a review copy. After Darjeeling Limited, I had sort of felt like I was washing my hands of Wes Anderson for a while. I loved The Life Aquatic, but Darjeeling Limited felt somehow lacking. And the trailers for Mr. Fox made me think that the animation was going to be sub-par.

Let me be the first to say I was pleasantly surprised. It was an incredibly charming Wes Anderson movie that was appropriate for the whole family. It was funny (Michael Gambon’s Farmer Bean had me howling) and heartwarming. The voice cast is top notch. In addition to Gambon, Clooney lends his voice to the titular character and rest of the cast is rounded out by Meryl Streep, Jason Schwarzman, Willem Dafoe (as a bizarre Rat), Owen Wilson, and Bill Murray. But the movie straddled that line between interesting to adults with the lead character having a mid-life crisis, and interesting to kids with the lead characters son trying to find his place in the world. The humour is spread equally between the age-groups and watching it with kids is a must.

Come back for part two and we’ll look at some Kurosawa, Bogart, and more Clooney.

IESB is claiming that they have learned exclusively that Lucasfilm is putting together a second animated cartoon series for Cartoon Network. This cartoon would be based on the incredibly cool Galactic Heroes toys.

A lot of people will almost instantly dismiss this as George Lucas going for a grab for more money or something, but take a look at the Marvel version of this show with The Super Hero Squad, it’s incredibly fun and successful, and there’s obviously a market for it.  That and they are adorable and we need a more kids oriented Star Wars cartoon.

And really, more Star Wars never killed anyone.

George Lucas has been known to call the Galactic Heroes line “Squishies” and that is (according to IESB) the working title for the show.  They’re also reporting that a director has apparently been brought on board.

I’ll be back to report more as it becomes available, but I’m terribly excited about this possibility.

We have here a clip from Friday’s episode “The Senate Murders”, which was mysteriously added to iTunes for a brief time and I was able to catch it and review it for you here.

From the official press release:

When Senator Onaconda Farr dies under suspicious circumstances, Padmé Amidala sets out to find the person responsible – working independently of the efforts of the bureaucratic local inspector. Following a trail of clues, she delves into a dangerous world of backstabbing, lies and corruption. The tangled web of intrigue reaches to the highest levels of the Republic political hierarchy in “Senate Murders,” an all-new episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS airing at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, March 19 on Cartoon Network.

“Many of Padmé’s episodes center around politics, for obvious reasons, and they’re sometimes a departure – to a degree – from the action-packed episodes,” says Catherine Taber, the voice of Padmé in the series. “We try to create a feeling of tension and suspense, but Dave [Filoni] and the writers always include a touch of comedy, as well. It’s an essential element of the classic detective genre that influenced ‘Senate Murders,’ but it’s also such a key ingredient of classic Star Wars. One of the nice things about The Clone Wars is that we hearken back to all of the classic elements that made Star Wars so great, including the political intrigue,” she continues.  “Diplomacy – or the lack thereof – is essential to The Clone Wars, and part of the foundation for the Star Wars Saga. Good and bad, the motivations are so important; these are the reasons people fight. I love the great battle sequences and I love watching things blow up, but it’s all so much better when we know about the quiet conflicts underneath.”

Through rarely in the series’ epic spaces battles or out on the front lines, Padmé’s behind-the-scenes role often serves to shine a light upon the character motivations, revealing the driving forces – and devious machinations – which propel the war itself. Additionally, her own investigations, ambitions and efforts tend to uncover aspects of the conflict altogether unseen by the swashbuckling, headlining heroes.

“In her own way, Padmé brings so much to the larger story. Of course, she’s the reason that Anakin eventually falls to the dark side, and she’s the mother of Luke and Leia – but what I think is really interesting is that she’s such an important foil to many of the characters. It is often through her that we see other central characters illuminated.”

Due to some form of clerical error, technical glitch, or unannounced surprise gift from Lucasfilm, next weeks episode of Clone Wars appeared in the iTunes store this morning for all to purchase and download.  (More info on that here.)  It didn’t really matter why the episode was available, what matters is that I’ve been dying for new Clone Wars during this extended break and this episode scratched that itch considerably.

This episode is a bit of a mixed bag in influences, characters, and animation, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.  Hell, after a month of not having any Clone Wars at all, even a mediocre episode is a breath of fresh air.

This episode follows a murder in the senate and is equal parts Pink Panther, Scooby Doo, and Clue.  The new characters in the episode play like a long suspect list for the Closeau-like Detective Divo (voiced by Tom Kenney), but he has to deal with the fact that Padme and Bail Organa take the investigation into their own hands and are almost killed in a shadowy dock-yard.

The macguffin in the episode is an amendment to a war spending authorization bill and Padme and her cadre of Senators are leading the opposition to funding the war, they’re called unpatriotic for not supporting the troops, but believe cutting funding off from the Kaminoans for more troops is the only way to allow diplomacy to resume.  It’s thin, but it’s just a macguffin, so it didn’t bother me at all.  Though I do very much like the back and forth between Padme and Senator Mee Deechi, where he calls into question her patriotism for wanting to cut off funding.  She rightly tells him that the only thing she sees that’s unpatriotic is his constant war-mongering.  If nothing else from this episode sinks in with kids, I hope it’s that one exchange.

Detective Divo bumbles passively through the episode like a mix between Inspector Closeau and Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express, but he looks decidedly like Peter Lorre.  He brings new exposition to light, but his voice was just too…normal?  I wanted to see some actual character in there, if they were going for Peter Lorre or Hercule Poirot, I would have liked to see them go in that direction with the character.  But we have what we have and this character isn’t going to go down as being incredibly memorable.

My other question mark about the episode was the Kaminoan Senator.  She was an aging wretch of a Kaminoan and my first question was, “Why do the Kaminoans, whom no one in the galaxy knew about before the war, have a full representative standing in the Senate now?” But that question was quickly answered by a throwaway line of dialogue.  Apparently, they leveraged for a seat because of their status as the makers of the clone army.  Having a planet in Republic space didn’t seem to be justification enough.  But what was odd is that she seemed out of character for what we’ve seen of the Kaminoans.  Taun We and Lama Su were incredibly gracious and polite and Senator Bertoni was anything but.  I shouldn’t profile an entire race of people based on their representation in the films, but it was a good lead to follow.

And then I had to roll my eyes a little bit when Padme and Bail Organa decided they wanted to play Fred and Daphne and investigate things on their own.  Jinkies!  They were getting shot at!

But that brings me to the last thing I wanted to bring up.  The animation in this episode was a little uneven, particularly when it came to Bail Organa.  He was very stiff and looked almost…rubbery.  And having Phil Lamarr voice him was fine, but he didn’t sound much like Bail Organa.  Though Detective Divo and Senator Deechi, I thought, were very well animated.  And I really like how they’ve decided to do the eyes of the Rodians.  So, as far as the animation in this episode, like everything else, was a bit of a mixed bag.

There were a lot of good things in this episode, and a lot of things I think needed a little bit more time in the oven.

Having said that, though, any episode of Clone Wars after this long break is a welcome respite and I’m glad for it.  Be sure not to miss it on TV (if nothing else for the preview of the next episode) when it airs on March 19, 2010 on Cartoon Network.

Disney XD (A Disney Channel aimed towards the slightly older children) announced their 2010-2011 programming lineup yesterday, and in the mix is a new Avengers cartoon that will be making its debut this fall! Here’s the official description:

“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” — Further aligning the strength of Marvel’s hugely popular characters and stories with the burgeoning Disney XD brand and global reach, an all-new animated series, “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,” will debut in fall 2010 on Disney XD and DisneyXD.com. Beginning with the “Iron Man” and “Incredible Hulk” movies in 2008, the release of “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” follows Marvel’s overall “Avengers Assemble” strategy introducing the greatest heroes in the Marvel Universe through various content platforms, including the upcoming feature films “Iron Man 2” in May of 2010, “Thor” in May of 2011 and “Captain America” in July of 2011, all building up to the Avengers theatrical film in 2012. Produced by Marvel Animation, the animated series features 52 episodes targeted at kids 9-14, starring Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Giant Man and Wasp — who form the Avengers, a team assembled when no single hero’s powers can save the world. A 20-part “micro-series” that focuses on each hero’s backstory will roll out in fall 2010 on Disney XD, immediately followed by the series premiere on Disney XD in the U.S. and, shortly thereafter, around the world. Disney XD, the single largest distributor of Marvel content around the world, currently showcases approximately 20 hours of Marvel series (including “The Spectacular Spider-Man,” “Fantastic Four” and “Iron Man”) each week.

And you all thought Disney obtaining Marvel would be a bad thing…

Warner Bros. has been doing a pretty good job on their DC original movies, bringing to life stories from the comics that wouldn’t fit into a regular series or with the standard continuity of anything else that has come before it.

Sometimes, they score a hit, like Superman: Doomsday, sometimes they catch a piece of the ball and knock it to the back of the park but in foul territory, like Batman/Superman: Public Enemies, and sometimes they knock it out of the park, like with Crisis on Two Earths.

After watching the preview of this film on the Public Enemies DVD, I’ll admit that I was skeptical. I’ve always been of the opinion that most of DCs “Crisis” story lines were too convoluted for me to follow and too dense with characters I couldn’t remember for me to care, but Crisis on Two Earths, despite its awkward title, really boiled down a Crisis story to its essence and nailed it.

It made me excited over Crisis stories and wish that this is how they were told in the DC Universe, proper. This film opens up with Earth-2’s Lex Luthor and Jester (a pretty generic Joker ripoff) stealing some manner of technology and escaping from the Crime Syndicate, which consists of a Superman riff called Ultraman, a Batman riff called Owlman, a Wonder Woman riff called Superwoman and so on. These guys are evil and on their Earth they’ve completely subverted the people into making them rich gangsters.

Lex Luthor is the leader of this Earth’s iteration of the Justice League and develops a way to get to our Earth, wherein he asks the Justice League for help. The entire league, sans Batman, agree to go back to Earth-2 to help Lex Luthor. Batman stays behind, insisting that The Justice League is tasked with saving only their own Earth from criminals and intergalactic threats and the like, but his attitude soon changes when the Crime Syndicate hatch a plan to blow up Earth-Prime, which would cause a chain reaction that would destroy every Earth in the multiverse.

I really liked this movie, the voice acting was good even though Kevin Conroy wasn’t Batman. I mean, seriously, Kevin Conroy should ALWAYS be Batman. James Woods was excellent as the creepy and psychopathic Owlman and Mark Harmon filled Superman’s shoes quite capably. The animation was top-notch and the action sequences had an incredible kinetic energy to them. They were exciting and fit in with the story to the point where each and every one of them meant something. They were all very, very cool to watch.

On a side note, I can see the Italian American community upset about Ultraman. He’s a greezy goomba and, though it worked for me, they seem to get upset about any iteration of Italian American as a mobster, and that’s pretty much all Ultraman is.

Having said how much I liked this movie, there is a major problem I had with the film and I need to preface this with a MAJOR Spoiler warning.

There, you’ve been warned.

At the end of the film, and Owlman has set the QED device to blow up and destroy Earth prime, Batman changes the coordinates of the bomb, batarangs Owlman to it, and then leaves him to explode. It seems incredibly out of character for Batman to specifically tie a villain to a bomb and send him off to who knows where for him to die. It was very un-Batman. I understand the stakes were high, and this guy would probably try it again, etc, but that’s Batman’s one unwavering rule: The Bat does NOT kill.

So, that was my biggest gripe.

Aside from that, they decoded the film version of a Crisis story perfectly.

As for the Spectre short… Wow… On the disc there is an 11 minute short film that was written by Steve Niles featuring the Spectre. It had the look and feel of a 70s exploitational cop procedural on 16mm and though it was incredibly short, the first rate animation and story concentrated into such a tight time frame worked so well that I’d almost like to see more of these instead of more feature length films. A disc of these would be to die for. I must have watched this five times and shown it to twice as many people, I couldn’t believe how excellent it was.

The last thing on the disc I’d like to mention is the preview for the next DCU Animated film, “Under the Red Hood.” The good news is that we’ll be seeing portions of my favorite Batman story, A Death in the Family, animated. The bad news is that they are basing this off of Judd Winicks lackluster run, taking Jason Todd out of the grave and under the hood. We’ll see how it plays out, but this was my least favorite Batman arc in the last 20 years.

Overall, this disc was worth the price of admission and it has hours of bonus content that will occupy your time for…well…hours…

To order it on Amazon, simply click the link.