What Are You Watching? |Special Edition|

[psychospacecow]

The weeb is strong with this one.

eh I didn't know actually wanting casting choices to remain consistent is weeaboo, but OK.

I don't want the main characters flashing peace signs and peppering their conversations with basic Japanese, girls busting through doors shouting "KONNICHIWA MINNASAN oh Hiro your misutaa roboto is so KAWAII DESU" or anything. But if they can't properly explain why the aunt of two Japanese children has a Japanese last name (hence she's from the father's side of the family), covers her house in Japanese shit, but isn't Japanese...I feel like the movie's being weebier than me at this point.


I mean sure, the character serves the role they're meant to play: the single caretaker of two boys, and the movie's scripting/scenario does a great job at portraying it. There's enough suspension of disbelief throughout the movie that you don't really question it while watching the film, and I didn't realize it honestly until afterward. But in hindsight, there's like a crater of a plothole here.
Of course no one's gonna think hard about it, but...yeah, what the heck.

---

On weebiness though:
I think the original comic, though is far more weebier.

Disney sorta whitewashed everything about this film to appeal to a broader audience stateside, I guess; the characters barely resemble the original comic, honestly - but that might be a good thing because the original comic's characters and setting seem a lot more bland in comparison now. :/

I could be mistaken, but basing it off that art, they seem to have done the opposite of whitewashing. Those just look like ambiguous asian/and or white characters.
Edit: I mean, Honey Lemon is latina, Wasabi's black, Baymax is now a balloon which is totally a race, Considering their city is called San Fransokyo, it seems to mask sense that it'd be an amalgam of Japan and America.

[Kosheh]

I could be mistaken, but basing it off that art, they seem to have done the opposite of whitewashing. Those just look like ambiguous asian/and or white characters.
Edit: I mean, Honey Lemon is latina, Wasabi's black, Baymax is now a balloon which is totally a race, Considering their city is called San Fransokyo, it seems to mask sense that it'd be an amalgam of Japan and America.

Well, yeah using it literally in the sense you're thinking of, they didn't that's for sure. Then the movie would've seriously tanked, and Disney would've been in hot water for Americanizing a bunch of characters of Asian descent. Sure - they could've carbon-copied the cast from the comic, but it probably would've ended up alienating its intended audience, and felt more like a CGI anime (which I guess would've still been cool, but doesn't translate well to a Disney audience)

It's been "Disneyfied" - the cast was diversified to appeal to a broader demographic; Baymax was Disneyfied, and they had to make up San Fransokyo so the Disneyfied cast would've made sense.
The movie doesn't resemble the original comic in the slightest - and quite frankly, I think I'm actually OK with that, 'cos I honestly don't see the original comic being that appealing (fyi, the original one was made as Marvel's attempt to get into manga)


I'm kinda curious what fans of the original comic thought of the movie, honestly. :V

[Maxpphire]

I could be mistaken, but basing it off that art, they seem to have done the opposite of whitewashing. Those just look like ambiguous asian/and or white characters.
Edit: I mean, Honey Lemon is latina, Wasabi's black, Baymax is now a balloon which is totally a race, Considering their city is called San Fransokyo, it seems to mask sense that it'd be an amalgam of Japan and America.

Nothing about Honey Lemon was Latina though, except she sometimes rolled her r's. Only sometimes, sometimes she also didn't which was confusing and inconsistent as fuck.

[psychospacecow]

I could be mistaken, but basing it off that art, they seem to have done the opposite of whitewashing. Those just look like ambiguous asian/and or white characters.
Edit: I mean, Honey Lemon is latina, Wasabi's black, Baymax is now a balloon which is totally a race, Considering their city is called San Fransokyo, it seems to mask sense that it'd be an amalgam of Japan and America.

Nothing about Honey Lemon was Latina though, except she sometimes rolled her r's. Only sometimes, sometimes she also didn't which was confusing and inconsistent as fuck.

What defines Latina, though? I think it was handled rather well. She's a person, not an ethnicity.

[Enchlore]

I'm not sure if this is an OK question here, but is there a fairly legitimate method of viewing said tokusatsu series? You know, that doesn't require me opening up a download manager of some sort?

I've been dying to see it, and if it's available on like, Netflix I'm all over that omg

every time he does that pose like 3 times, makes his declaration, and shouts SUPAIDAMAN I absolutely lose it

All the episodes are available in Marvel's official site for free (with subtitles in English). Here's the first episode - the first few episodes don't show up when you go to the show's page on the site (I guess due to a glitch), but they're all there. A quick search can get you to where you want if you don't immediately find an episode.

[Maxpphire]

I could be mistaken, but basing it off that art, they seem to have done the opposite of whitewashing. Those just look like ambiguous asian/and or white characters.
Edit: I mean, Honey Lemon is latina, Wasabi's black, Baymax is now a balloon which is totally a race, Considering their city is called San Fransokyo, it seems to mask sense that it'd be an amalgam of Japan and America.

Nothing about Honey Lemon was Latina though, except she sometimes rolled her r's. Only sometimes, sometimes she also didn't which was confusing and inconsistent as fuck.

What defines Latina, though? I think it was handled rather well. She's a person, not an ethnicity.

For example, If you're gonna keep an accent then keep it all the way through.

Latina could be defined in whatever way you want but if you gonna do it through a small bit, at least fucking keep it up all the way through.

[psychospacecow]

Nothing about Honey Lemon was Latina though, except she sometimes rolled her r's. Only sometimes, sometimes she also didn't which was confusing and inconsistent as fuck.

What defines Latina, though? I think it was handled rather well. She's a person, not an ethnicity.

For example, If you're gonna keep an accent then keep it all the way through.

Latina could be defined in whatever way you want but if you gonna do it through a small bit, at least fucking keep it up all the way through.

Accents blend. You ever move to an area and notice a few months in that you talk a little different? Heck, being the shut-in I was as a kid, I picked up a slight Jamaican bit from watching The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.

[Iceman404]

[TomGuycott]

Saw Mad Max: Fury Road last night. It was as awesome as the trailer made it look. It can get really quiet and then really loud out of nowhere, but that's kind of what I expect because in a world where everyone has it in for everyone else, it's just a powder keg.

I also love how over the top the villains are. Plus the guy who is strung up by cables and just constantly plays electric guitar as a war march is incredible.

[redblueyellow]

Was browsing Google of current movies, which eventually led me to finding Howl's Moving Castle on YouTube. Excellent movie that I definitely suggest if you haven't watched it.

[puggsoy]

I've been meaning to watch that sometime, yeah. It looks pretty good.

As for me, I've just about finished the Cell Games Saga in DBZ. Kinda nostalgic but I've forgotten enough for it to still be interesting.

[psychospacecow]

[DarkGrievous7145]

Saw Mad Max: Fury Road last night. It was as awesome as the trailer made it look. It can get really quiet and then really loud out of nowhere, but that's kind of what I expect because in a world where everyone has it in for everyone else, it's just a powder keg.

I also love how over the top the villains are. Plus the guy who is strung up by cables and just constantly plays electric guitar as a war march is incredible.

Can I destroy you, now?
WANT TO WATCH THAT!
ugh...
Well, glad to hear it's good at least.
I had some concerns based on those trailers.
Sadder than I probably won't be watching that movie till it's freely available on t.v. is I actually haven't seen the previous ones all the way through.

xD
The Villains.
Do they looks just as absolutely absurd as they did in the previous movies? lol

[Garamonde]

I've done it.

I've gotten into Rick and Morty.

I now understand the hype. I'm currently on season 1, episode 6 -- been watching it on Adult Swim's website since I try to be a nice person and support the creators of shows and stuff in what little ways I can like that, but I might have to find another source the next time I get back to it since they're saying that all of season 2 expires in October. :I

Every episode's been really good, even the very first one; jam packed with action/sci-fi stuff, some drama and even touching moments, while farther and fewer in-between than say, Steven Universe. And of course, it's very humorous between all of that, even if more grotesque than what I usually watch. It kinda reminds me of SU in that way. I'm really liking it so far.

I'm looking forward to this fabled season 2 finale cliffhanger to see what everyone's so mad about.

---

Oh, right, and speaking of SU: the last episode of the year is airing later today at 7:30 PM EST. Just when it was getting back into its regular schedule again.

GONNA MISS IT SO HARD.

Also on my eventual watch list are:

~Gravity Falls
~Over the Garden Wall
~Adventure Time
~maybe I'll try We Bare Bears, too

...all in the hopefully not-too-distant future.

[Yawackhary]

Lately I've been watching the new Danger Mouse cartoon and I've not enjoying it very much sadly apart from the beginning. The first two episodes have been really great and faithful towards the original yet keeping it up with the modern times however it goes straight downhill from Episode 3 onwards.

Danger Mouse himself is all right even if he lost most of his wit in this series, the problem is that he is obviously voiced by Alexander Armstrong so everytime he speaks, I just see it as the Pointless man since he sounds almost the same. I think it is his proper voice. In the original series, while DM was done by David Jason, at least he tried to sound a little different (the Narrator was also slightly different in some spots, his voice in others depending on tone) by being higher pitched. Then again David Jason does have a range (since he also voices Count Duckula, sounds more cheery in Only Fools and Horses/Darling Buds of May, more annoyed in Frost and an upper class voice in Edgar Briggs). Xander does have a range since he does a good Brian Blessed impersonation and no problem with his actual voice [outside of the show] however I do think they should use a different voice to differate even changing the pitch is enough to make him more DM and less Pointless. Penfold seems all right voice wise, no complaints there.

The problem I've noticed was that in the new series, it seems that the writers are blurring the differences between Danger Mouse and Penfold. In the original there was a difference, DM was the straight man hero while Penfold was the comedic and cowardly sidekick. Even then Penfold had his heroic moments. In the new series, DM has done stuff that Penfold would have done such as eating breakfast on a tablet or breaking devices and Penfold doesn't seem very scared, toilets aside or comedic. When the characters are interchangeable in personality, doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

New characters I'm not keen on at all. I don't like Professor Sqwalkencluck since she is a big jerk (she even cheered herself when Nero became a super villain) plus egomatic (her programming in Big Head) and due to her Scottish voice and personality, an unlikeable person (at least by personal experience, I know not all Scottish people are like that). Also she is pretty much the main character from episode 3 onwards, some almost focused on her (Big Head Awakens, the one with the Welsh plant) or was heavily involved (Planet of the Toilets, one I mentioned earlier). I know the writers were trying to make her like Q however she seems to be forced in there like we must have a main female character in there otherwise the network would complain. I think if she isn't as much of a jerk and the interchangable character problem with DM and Penfold, I would have been okay with it. As for Jeopardy Mouse, she somehow has a Jennifer Lawerence vibe to her for some reason. I did miss out on her debut episode but at least judging by Quark Games so it might be better on her debut one. While it is great that the series has female characters (well more than just Penfold's aunt), I just not keen on their characterisations of them and seem like jerks at the moment.

As for the Narrator, he is not a patch on the original. In the original, sometimes he got sarcastic or complainy even running through the credits. Sometimes even blending in with the script. Now he is pretty much the Come Dine with Me person and acts like it but even more tamer most of the time, only a few times where he did get comedic [first episode and one regarding the end of Danger Mouse even though it is the last two minutes].

Even the villains are disappointing. Greenback is at least still himself but I am not keen on his new voice. I don't know how to word it without possibly accidently offending someone so I wouldn't mention it. I am pleasently surprised that Stiletto is in the new series since I honestly thought that he would get the chop and kept his Italian accent. Yay! Sadly Greenback and Stiletto have only appeared in 4 episodes to date, even then in two of them not even 30 seconds worth (this is about 20ish episodes, nearly half the series!). By comparison, Greenback and Stiletto are the main villains in the original usually alternating with one shot villains but at least more memorable (such as Mack the Fork), Count Duckula or Professor Crumhorn. Most of the new villains are dreadful and I mean dreadful! The snowman has no imagination at all, Panda-monium is as dry as a bamboo stick, Dr. Loocifer should have been a one shot villain and felt out of place in Quark Games and the the others I can't remember since they are forgettable. If it was the original series; DM or the Narrator (or both!) would mock their lameness. The Collector was an okay villain however I swear that I've seen a very similar villain in another cartoon!

I think the only character that the new series got it mostly right was Colonel K. He pretty much acted just like the original and one episode even had memory issues like the later episodes of the original series [the one where he didn't know who Penfold was]. Stephen Fry has done a very good job on his voice, hard to tell the difference between his and the original consider well Stephen Fry has a recognisable voice and it ain't that. So well done.

As mentioned in parts, the writing doesn't seem as strong and doesn't seem to have many comedic moments and more plot or action scenes. Characterisation is all over the place, apart from Colonel K. It seems tamer and strangely more British patroitism than the original series, the Queen to my knowledge didn't appear in the original series or uses of the Union Jack/Flag. There are even a couple of iffyness moments of writing:

Spoiler

In the episode where a punk rocker escapes from Arkwright Aslyum (how original!) and uses his soundblaster to make the world rude, the beginning is shown has a flashback to 1983 with a younger Colonel K defeating him. However the original series is set in the 80s so Danger Mouse would have been around and Colonel K would have been exactly the same age as he is now. Plus the narrator said it had no respect or something like that however the 80s was mainly respectable, counter culture aside. Also how would a speech turn DM and Penfold back to normal?

Sometimes even similar plots are handled better in the original, the Planet of the Toilets is similar to Mechanised Madness from the original with appliances going out of control, the latter being more entertaining than the former. The episode Danger Fan seems to have been recycled from a completely different cartoon with more or less the same script and motives, even the same villain name. If only if I can remember which cartoon it was... It was a 90s cartoon though. Was it Tick or Freakazoid or something?

I wonder if there is some executive meddling going off in the cartoon since BBC likes control on things (even if the series is owned by Fremantle Media who also own the original series).

The only really positive thing that I can say is that the new series has miles better animation than the original, nearly everything looks original [not as much recycling and if there is, I can't notice it], faster movement and even the backgrounds look great. By comparison, the original series recycled a LOT of animation (London backdrop, Post box, inside the post box, Colonel K's office, the scenes where Danger Mouse is talking to Colonel K/Penfold, the lift, driving the Mark III, Greenback's base, Danger Mouse's walking animation and that's off top of my head) in most of the earlier episodes and when it got to the half hour episodes where it uses original animation, some scenes just looked a bit strange. I think if it wasn't for the animation, would have stopped watching completely.

While it isn't as worse than I thought it would have been, just have been disappointed with the series and it isn't memories of the original either. If the series was like the first two episodes, I would have liked it more than the original but has it is. At least there's Wabbit to come so see how that's like.