WGJ4K, Episode 7: Robert Burgless! Mickey responds to a letter from a “fan”, and the crew decides to make the show even wackier.
So what else has been going on? Someone has been a very busy bee on the Hotdiggedydemon Wiki, writing an extensive description of the plot and all the characters on the WGJ4K page. So thanks for that, whoever’s doing it!
I saw the movie Bolt the other day and it was surprisingly not horrible for a none-Pixar animated flick. The opening action sequence is actually really impressive. So check that out, I guess. Man, it’s got friggin’ talking dogs and sh*t! What’s up with THAT?!?
Also I’ve been watching Dino Stamatopoulos’ new brainchild, FRANKENHOLE, and it’s pretty damn incredible. I don’t know if it’s going to surpass my affinity for Orel, but it’s awesome nonetheless. Sundays on Adult Swim. WATCH… before it gets cancelled.
I just updated my fanart section with some really sweet fanartz from some very talented fans! Go check it out. Here’s a taste:
Come back here this time next week and I’ll have some totally sweet things for you! Can you believe it? I’ve been working hard I guess. YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK…
So a friend of mine named John Galbo runs a site called Adultswimcentral.com, a site that keeps Adult Swim fans abreast of all the up-to-date Adult Swim news. They have a podcast, the Adult Swim Central Swimcast, that I make an appearance on from time to time. It’s not a great podcast by any means, the recording quality is usually atrocious and it’s mostly occupied by awkward nerds (myself being the biggest culprit) who have a penchant for getting off on tangents.
BUT they’ve once in a while been lucking enough to interview some of the brilliant brains at Adult Swim, and when John told me they were going to be graced with one of my idols of writing Dino Stamatopoulos, I knew I had to be there. For the uninformed, Dino created Moral Orel, a show that has been monumentally influential to me
…I say “inspired”. You might say “plagiarism”. Hey, I’m not gunna tell you you’re wrong. But regardless, if it wasn’t for Orel shaping me as an artist, I’d probably have a very different creative mind right now. We all have our stuff that we’re passionate about, and I was super excited to be able to pick Dino’s brain.
Unfortunately it couldn’t have gone worse. My internet connection sucked and Skype disconnected me from the call every 30 seconds. 5 minutes later I’d get back in, John would have to call me back up, and the whole thing would happen all over again. I only heard about 15% of the conversation (which is why when I finally DID get to ask him a question, it was a question a fellow cohost had already asked)
So I was really disappointed, but what could I have done? No use getting hung up on it. Bad luck is bad luck.
So if you want to hear me embarrass myself in front of a man that I worship, click this link to listen to the show…
That’s that, then. Episode 7 of WGJ4K hasn’t really gotten going yet, I had some carpenters over my house the last week remodeling my kitchen so I haven’t been able to get a lot of work done. Gunna have to double-time this week!
And here’s this week’s comic. June gets Mickey to play Scribblynautz! Enjoy!
Episode 6 of Wacky Game Jokez 4 Kidz; The Tough Guy Front. As the tension amongst the crew begins to escalate, Mickey tries to get June and Eric fired so he won’t have to deal with them anymore. Can you believe season 1 is more than half over? Still left, we have….
Episode 7: Robert Burgless
Episode 8: Confirmed 4 Brawl
Episode 9: Mickey’s Rebuttal
Episode 10, WGJ4K Season Finale: Top 10 Hottest Game Chicks.
So I recently got Mega64, Version 3 in the mail. I’ve only seen 2 episodes so far, but it’s amazing already! I really do think the Mega64 guys will be famous some day. They’re not just flash-in-the-pan one hit wonders. They don’t pander to the lowest common denominator. They’re one of the very, very few internet content generators that has genuine, REAL talent, and I find their writing style incredibly fresh and new. Man, so cool! I’m so jealous of them, not just because of the success they’ve seen both critically and financially, but because they get to make movies with their best friends all day long. It’s influenced them creatively, as well.
My creative process has always been a lonely one, and I really lust for that think-tank atmosphere. I truly believe Mega64 is what it is because of their collective mind, as opposed to who they are individually. It reminds me of how you hear stories of how Pixar takes creative input from everyone in the company, not just directors and writers, and their content obviously speaks for itself. Art, as a collaborative process, can be incredible.
I hope to someday work with like-minded people who can help me workshop ideas and generally improve what I do. So yeah, just go buy it already. It’s awesome, and totally gets the official Hotdiggedydemon-brand seal of approval. And less and less stuff is getting that seal these days.
So last week I saw Toy Story 3 and it was one of those rare film events, a la The Simpsons Movie, wherein I feel I have a million things to say about it. Likes and Dislikes. Questions. Answers. Theories. Blah blah blah, all that garbage. i don’t expect any of you to read this wall of text, but if you feel so inclined, I’m happy to provide it for you.
I went out, appropriately enough, to the same theater I had seen Toy Story 1 in 15 years prior. Quite a head-trip. I wouldn’t surprised if I had even sat in the same seat, knowing how predictable I am.
I WASN’T excited about this movie because…
1: It’s a sequel.
2: Nothing in the trailer led me to believe it would bowl me over.
3: It’s a sequel.
4: I hated UP, and because of which Pixar is officially “on notice” with me.
5: It’s a sequel.
…And did I mention it’s a sequel? Remember, there are some people in this world who sincerely subscribe to the theory that sequels should not exist. That the general idea of what they are alone dictates how good they can be.
Am I one of those people? Not always. But most of the time, yes.
Not to mention the fact that Toy Story 2, while certainly not a bad movie by any means, is probably what you’d refer to as an “expendable” movie. It’s good, but not good enough to warrant it’s existence. I love Toy Story 1. When I was little, I was ALL ABOUT Toy Story. I could probably recite the whole thing to you, which would be a pretty damn adorable thing for an 8 year old to do. And a damn sad thing for an adult to do, which is probably why I’ve stopped doing it. But I never could connect with Toy Story 2 quite the same way.
Factor in all this information, and you might be inclined to think I wasn’t impressed by Toy Story 3. But here’s the crazy part: I might actually rate this movie a 10/10. Not because it’s perfect, but because I grade on a curve. And if Toy Story 3 isn’t going to get a 10, no movie is. I mean, this movie is really good. Like, really genuinely really good. I couldn’t even believe it! I pride myself on being a crotchety, grumpy critic who hates everything, but It has warmed this critic’s cold and hardened heart.
Why do we distrust sequels? Is it because they have such a lousy track record? Maybe. Probably. But for me, one of the most enjoyable facets of storytelling, and film, by association, is the notion of being introduced. Introduced to the characters. Introduced to the setting. Introduced to the world. With the sequel, this cog in the machine is removed, and with it goes all the satisfaction that’s derived from it.
Anyway, as I said, the film isn’t perfect, and in fact, it’s little imperfections seem to be the same flaws that plagued Toy Story 2. The original Toy Story was a buddy movie, very much about Buzz and Woody’s relationship. It was the bread-and-butter of what made it great. Toy Story 2 came with an unenjoyable development: Buzz joins Rex and Hamm and Slinky as a side character, and his influence on the “real” storyline is negligible at best. Woody takes center stage. Does this make ANY sense? It would be like making a Beavis and Butthead movie without Beavis. This problem follows right through to Toy Story 3. FFFFFFFF me no likey!!!!
Bo Peep isn’t in Toy Story 3. In actuality, a LOT of characters from the previous 2 movies aren’t, explaining that they were all sold at a yard sale or something. I could understand wanting to distill the character count down to the bare essentials seeing as they were going to add a bunch more once the plot had progressed to the daycare center, but it seemed SUPER AWKWARD to me that Bo would get the ax. Could they not secure her voice actress? She DEFINITELY struck me as “important enough”. Sure, she didn’t say jack-shit in Toy Story 2, but she was Woody’s damn love interest in Toy Story 1! SO WEIRD.
I have another minor gripe about how the movie was scored musically, and yet another about how the character Lotso was an all-too-obvious rehash of the character Stinky Pete from the preceding film, but they almost seem like moot points. The film is great. Easily the best sequel ever. It almost seems like it actually might even contain more references to Toy Story 1, trying to distance itself from Toy Story 2, as if to pretend that film didn’t exist. In short, the “true” sequel to the original Toy Story, and the one it truly deserves.
I’ll try to keep this out of spoiler territory, but the climactic scene from this movie is so crazy I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It made the whole film amazing retroactively. It is genuinely intense. In a nutshell, this was my face….
And then I was like….
and THEN I was like….
…So yeah, go see it. I mean, it’s got talking toys and sh*t! I mean, what the f*ck! Toys don’t talk!!!! Friggin WACKY.
POSTSCRIPT: Ken was a total riot and I would pay to see a movie starring just him and Barbie cause that would be brilliant.
