October 2013 | Otaku No Culture |

A Halloween Trick? No. It’s True, The Addams Family Gets the MGM Treatment!

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest) and James Robert Shaw (The Windup Geek)

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The Addams Family has been animated before in 1972 on NBC and 1992 on ABC, but it has never seen an animated feature film. Originally printed as one-panel comic gags in the New Yorker Magazine, the concept of bringing these characters under a family name did not come until much later. At least, not until the first television series was developed. This strip had a life of its own because it has a brilliant satirical look at the American homestead.

And if you can snap your fingers twice, MGM may well have magic in their hands. A decade has passed by since the last feature film, Addams Family Reunion (1998), was released. As for what will be done in this new iteration, Variety reported that Pamela Pettler, whose credits include Corpse Bride and Monster House, has been signed to write the screenplay. The film will be executive produced by Andrew Mittman and Kevin Miserocchi.

Negotiations are well underway with BermanBraun’s Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun to produce what may likely be a CGI film. Originally, Chris Meledandri’s Illumination Entertainment company had been developing a Tim Burton-helmed, stop-motion “The Addams Family” movie, but this company revealed that earlier this year it had ditched the project. Thankfully Berman and Braun are picking up the pieces to deliver what should hopefully be a fun romp through the Addams family household.

Source(s): Variety.

Happy Halloween From Otaku no Culture!

By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

That candy is obviously sugar-free. The poor child in the corner has died from malnutrition because of it.

We here at Otaku no Culture would like to wish all of our readers a safe and happy Halloween!

In this photo is Denise Pearson, award-winning professional Johnny Depp impersonator. Here she is as Captain Jack at Carnevil 2013, a event run on borrowed property by neighbourhood parents.

Halloween is a Perfect Day to Play Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon

Luigi has a bright career as a door to door Hoover salesman on Halloween night. He can leave the family plumbing business, ditch Mario and go out on his own. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon for the Nintendo 3DS is an entertaining action and puzzle game even though there are a few interface problems. And for fans of classic haunted house scenarios and paranormal pop culture, the little nuances placed into the level design can be appreciated. Gamers are getting a dose of a Ghostbusters style video game done right, a tour into Disney’s Haunted Mansion with a flashlight and a walkthrough of a Hammer Films retrospective of everything that goes bump in the night.

The game has four estates that Luigi has to deal with. Each of them are further divided into sub-levels (floors) and somewhere in the mansions are pieces of a crystal that he has to recover in order to save EverShade Valley from a Kirby-like evil spirit. Professor E. Gadd recruited Luigi to do the job because that was who he met in the original game. Dark Moon is a continuation from the game released twelve years ago on the Gamecube. And the professor has been spending the intervening years studying the nomenclature of a ghost.

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PIXAR’s Toy Story of Terror. Is It Scary Enough?

The new ABC Special, Toy Story of Terror is a fun filled homage to the horror classics by keeping the ideas PG-13.

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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The new ABC Special, Toy Story of Terror is a fun filled homage to the horror classics by keeping the ideas PG-13. There are a few moments that the well-versed fan of horror will pick out, but for the young ones, there’s nothing absolutely scary about it to make one go hiding under the sheets. Well, maybe the screams, but they are well earned. The humour is right on par with PIXAR’s feature film products,

Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), Rex (Wallace Shawn) and Mr. Potato-head (Don Rickles) all return for a nightmare filled romp. The tale seems to continue from where the third Toy Story left off. But when the build ups are wonderfully marginalized by Mr. Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton), to see his observations come true is just wonderfully hilarious. His understanding of what the horror genre of yesteryear is about is spot on. Writers John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton did a great job at penning this screenplay.

These days, horror does not have to be about visceral terror or in-your-face shocks. Everything done here in Toy Story of Terror is old school—the frights are implied. The question of what true horror is from a toy’s perspective is nicely done. Jessie shows that even she has fears too. Most of it centers deals with how neglected she was back when she was abandoned in Toy Story 2. Her character development defines much of this story’s plot, and if more episodes spotlighting each character are made, the potential for more Toy Story related tales may well be in store in the years to come.

To say too much more about this new product would just spoil the fun that ensues. Hopefully ABC will see to repeating this funhouse filled romp every year. Despite the fact that PIXAR shut down their Vancouver, British Columbia office, which was set to produce more Toy Story shorts, the fate of the franchise seems uncertain. At least the Emeryville headquarters will continue on strong.

North America To Get Their Own Yamato Movie

Skydance Productions has hired Jack Reacher screenwriter/director Christopher McQuarrie to direct and write the live-action adaptation of Star Blazers, the North American name to a Japanese Animated TV series known as Space Battleship Yamato

The series follows a crew of survivors from Earth whose planet’s atmosphere was radiated in an attack by an alien race from the distant planet of Gamilon. Using alien technology that was transmitted to the survivors of Earth, The Argo, an old sunken Japanese battleship, was resurrected. With scientists estimating the human race has just a year before the radiation from the surface will seep underground to kill the last vestiges of humanity, a bold crew of volunteers makes a desperate attempt to make a final voyage to outer space in the hope of saving planet Earth.

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Superman Celebrates 75 Years With Special Treats This Month

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Geek)

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I have to say this, but Superman is a partially Canadian invention, and he’s being honoured with several 75th anniversary commemorative coins by the Royal Canadian Mint this year.

Cleveland born Jerry Siegel and Toronto born Joe Shuster created this iconic character, and their simple ideals were at the forefront of what the Golden Age character was like. Superman’s ideals hardly ever changed in comic-book land. While the films took on a different front, that’s hardly the point of what I found great about this superhero. He’ll always be the ideal boy scout. This hero is supposed to represent the best of what the United States of America should be like. And I’ll leave the commentary about current political climate out of this exposition.

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