I Suck, I Suck

Yes, I know. I'm a terrible, terrible blogger. My heart's just not in it anymore. Or anything, really. But let's keep the pathetic-ness to a minimum.

I have an Emmy Nominations post in the works, but right now what's more important is that San Diego Comic-Con is going on. A lot of people think it's annoying that what used to be "nerd/geek" Heaven has now become yet another Hollywood promotional tool, but hey, at least Hollywood is mostly only sending COOL stuff there! (Glee was there once but we don't talk about that.)

For instance, this amazing Adventure Time clip was shown at Comic-Con this weekend:



I'm SO STINKIN' EXCITED for this...how often does fanart get animated? Not very. I guess it's different when the fan works for the show. But every AT fan loves Fiona and Cake, so how can you not be dying to see this? Also NPH is Prince Bubblegum so your arguments are invalid.

I'll keep you posted as to when this airs.

Cartoon Network Upfronts

Yesterday Cartoon Network, the channel that reigned supreme over my youth but then went to the crapper when it started showing LIVE-ACTION SHOWS, held its annual upfronts.

What happened of interest? Well, for one, Genndy Tartakovsky's (Dexter's Lab) Sym-Bionic Titan was canceled, effectively killing what was probably the most original cartoon on television. I wasn't a raging fangirl but every episode that I saw of it just struck me as being some incredibly inventive; it's certainly the only animated show on TV whose main character barely talks. It reminds me of the extremely popular Samurai Jack for this reason, which was also made by Genndy; however, I felt like this show could be slightly more accessible, maybe because of its setting. However, I guess the complicated nature of its plot probably hindered it, and so now the only decent cartoons left on the channel are Adventure Time and Regular Show, which you need to watch because they're great.

Some new cartoons were given premiere dates, like the godawful Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, which originated on the canceled Cartoonstitue project as "Uncle Grandpa." It was HORRIBLE. I don't see a bright future for the show, which doesn't have a set air date yet, but I guess it's possible that it will appeal to the Adult Swim crowd, maybe?

Speaking of Adult Swim, they passed on the disturbing, unfunny, obnoxious Problem Solvers -- smart move. Would have been better had their sister CN not picked it up instead! This show will be encroaching upon my beauteous Monday Night awesome cartoons black with its garish colors and Flash animation. You can watch the pilot on Youtube. I warn you, though, it could cause you to develop epilepsy. Also it sucks, a lot.

Other things in the works are a bunch of boring looking superhero shows (Green Lantern stands out; I always liked how he was black in Justice League Unlimited) and the Looney Tunes Show, which is about the Looney Tunes characters living in suburbia and having suburbia-related problems. Aside from the ugly CGI Road Runner shorts, it actually looks pretty decent. I like its style and its premise.

Finally this show has been in development for awhile now and will finally be premiering with Looney Tunes in May: The Amazing World of Gumball. I had high expectations because of the ADORABLE character designs but this preview didn't exactly wow me. Gumball is pretty cute, though.




So, that's that. We'll see how these shows do. It looks like Cartoon Network won't be heading into any Golden Age again any time soon, but at least we still have AT and RS. And I'm excited for Looney Tunes and Gumball, no matter what.

Man

I miss the days of 90s/early 00s television. They were, and continue to be, the best.

The ones I'm pining for the most at the moment are the ones by Mo Willems, the once up-and-coming animator and now kids' book writer. Sheep in the Big City is in my BitTorrent downloader thingy-mahjiggy right now. I didn't want to resort to that, but I have no choice. See what you're doing, Cartoon Network? You're making me not give you the money I really, REALLY want to give you.

The Offbeats was the coolest, too. Here's one of the episodes; they used to air on Kablam!, which was one of my favorite shows:



Sigh.

Better Than Both the Bologna and the Salami Combined

Today I bought something from Hot Topic for the first time.

Generally, I can't stay in that joint for longer than two minutes. But today? Today, I was there for TEN MINUTES. The cashiers were surprisingly friendly. The dude let me go even though I was six cents short. He also made it so that they wouldn't send me emails (because they have a free "Friends with Benefits" card thing and he made me sign up for that. Well, he didn't make me. But he was so nice!)

So yes. And even though I was in there with the mission to get my friend a birthday present (or three, because we are both awesome), I actually found myself WANTING TO BUY STUFF FOR ME. It was shocking.

Those of you Hot Topic and/or Fonzie Was Six Four-savvy might think, "Oh, well, they sell Contra, so you probably wanted that." But no. I did not want that.

I wanted their Rocko's Modern Life stuff.

Unless you had or were a child in the mid-90s, you probably don't remember what that was. But you should, because Rocko's Modern Life is one of the best cartoons EVER. And I do not say this ironically, unlike most Hot Topic patrons. I sincerely love Rocko's. It might seem weird that I still like the same stuff that I liked when I was three, but you can't really get some of the best stuff in Rocko's until you're older.

For a show on Nickelodeon, it was actually really dirty. Despite it being about an amiable wallaby, his neurotic and/or idiotic friends, and his "modern life," they managed to make it fairly adult, including in tons of sexual jokes. Because we all know sex jokes are adult.

Observe!

That frog is Mrs. Bighead, Rocko's neighbor who often gets into some really weird situations with him. There's this one episode that got banned called "Leap Frogs" that was basically about Mrs. Bighead trying to seduce Rocko. Yeah, it was pretty awkward. Especially since Mr. Bighead absolutely HAAAAATES Rocko, and pretty much everything. Like me!

The show often found itself censored due to its age-inappropriate content. In the earlier seasons, the fast food chain that is referenced in tons of episodes is called the Chokey Chicken, which is a joke that I never got until I was 12 while watching this show again. But later on, Nick wised up and made them change it to Chewy Chicken, which just isn't the same. Here's a scene that was censored after its original airing:

Pretty self-explanatory. I personally don't think that's one of the worst jokes, but then again, I like all of the jokes in the show, inappropriate or not. The thing is, the show always tried to "skew older," as its creator, my boy Joe Murray, said. Well, it didn't really try, but that's just how it turned out. They were able to create a show that was appealing to kids AND to adults. Those shows are always the best, aren't they?

And it had the coolest style. What I really like about animation is that oftentimes it isn't realistic. It creates this cool world that you would never encounter in your real life, and it just feels very massive to be. I love facial expressions, I like crazy colors, I like all of that stuff. Some directors try to take that style and apply it to live-action film (think Baz Luhrman), but it never turns out well. It feels too forced. But in animation, it comes pretty effortlessly.

Listen to the awesome theme songs, of which there were three (the third version is probably the most popular. It was done by the B-52s!):

Awesome. And even though the show had some adult stuff in it (not just the "dirty" jokes, but also a lot of social commentary; it's called Modern Life for a reason, as it often exaggerates and criticizes the late 20th Century life), it was still really kid-friendly and hilarious. Here's a song that I always liked from one of my favorite episodes:

Yeah, that's going to be stuck in my head for the rest of my life. And it's the kind of song that's catchy and funny enough for kids and their parents. It doesn't pander to either. And it's educational! So there! I think any show that wants to make it into the highest echelons of time needs to have a song in it. We always remember the songs from shows that we liked when we were younger. Music brings people together, as do cartoons. That's why you often see them combined.

I think most kids didn't really get what this scene was about (I know I didn't), but it was still hilarious. Now that I get that they were implying that Rocko was gay, there's a new understanding of it, but it doesn't change it that much. I do quite like it when he says, "Did I say 'rainbows?' I meant to say 'dolls!'" Tee-hee. And I like how everyone just immediately turns against him. I love that kind of stuff, animation or live-action.

Here's some clips from another really good episode where Rocko and his BFFAEAE (ugh, my friend says that all the time, it's so stupid) Heffer (a steer - not a cow!! - raised by this really classic family of wolves) go to France. This employs a lot of that social commentary that the show is so good at. And the facial expressions! I love this show's style! And Tom Kenny is one of the best voice actors ever.

I think my favorite character, other than Rocko (I always love the main characters), is Filburt. Filburt was this Woody Allen-esque turtle: completely neurotic, things never go right for him, etc. His "catchphrase," which was one of the show's few such things in a time when catchphrases were practically pre-requisites for getting your show on TV, was "I'm nauseous, I'm nauseous." Kind of sums him up. Oh, and Filburt, like Woody Allen, had a thing for really weird girls. His wife was this...cat...thing with a claw who always said, "Kay?" and definitely belonged in an asylum of some sorts. Dr. Hutchinson. She was insane.

Here's a Filburt clip!

And finally, here is the best scene from the absolute best episode of the show. Find some way to watch it; it's called "Wacky Delly." It was THE BEST. It was about the son of the Bigheads, who was based on and I think voiced by Joe Murray, who was the animator of this insanely popular but insanely stupid show called The Fatheads. He hated it. It was this great story about the tragic artist that was kind of subverted, because he calls on Rocko, Filburt, and Heffer to make a new show for him so he can go and do...well, nothing, really. And this is what was turned out, Wacky Delly:

And guess what? Everyone loves it.  But who wouldn't? I would watch that show. And I would watch Rocko's everyday for the rest of my life if I could.

And what a nice life that would be.

P.S. Please read the Wikipedia page. It has a lot of really interesting stuff that even I didn't know on it! Like Joe Murray's wife killed herself, for instance! I wonder how that really influenced the show? MAYBE WE CAN FIGURE THAT OUT TOGETHER. :)