January 2015 | Otaku No Culture

Shout Factory! Kids Shows Love for Gerry Anderson & Upcoming Releases

Shout Factory! Kids has a wonderful selection of products that is now or will soon be available for purchase. Many will tickle the funny bone of fans from different generations and tastes. The following is a selection that the staff of Otaku no Culture has eyed while browsing their online catalogue.

In what’s coming, perhaps the biggest news is for Gerry Anderson fans as his library of works is being redistributed. See for yourself what the upcoming couple of months will reveal:

Jan 13 – Stingray: The Complete Series [50th Anniversary Edition]

Fans of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Marionation will celebrate at the redistribution of the underwater adventure series Stingray. Stingray is the flagship of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (W.A.S.P.) and under the command of heroic Captain Troy Tempest they patrol beneath the world’s oceans protecting the human race from what evil lurks in its depths.

Shout! Factory took over the Anderson licence after the home release rights with A&E Home Video expired. Fans may find similar extras on this edition as on the A&E version minus the French end-credits sequence. Such an extra to someone wanting to relive television’s golden years may find this trivial. But to the Anderson collector they may have to go fishing in deeper waters for that A&E release and pay extra cash in the process.

Jan 27 – My Little Pony: The Movie [30th Anniversary]

Bronies and young fans can catch this 30th Anniversary release where the Ponys get ready to celebrate Spring. But when the evil Witch Hydia has other plans involving a hideous goo called Smooze, that may get ground to a halt! This movie features the voices of Danny DeVito, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Rhea Perlman, Tony Randall and many more.

This edition offers sing-along tracks for children.

Pages: 1234

Is There a Mort in Mortdecai? a Movie Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Mortdecai

Johnny Depp is Charles Mortdecai, or rather, Captain Jack Sparrow … or should that be Barnabas Collins? There’s a debonair quality in Depp’s performance that’s familiar even though there’s nuances to make this new persona ever so slightly different. When his life is in danger, this boy is simply a coward. Just how he manages to remain an unscrupulous arts dealer really needs to be asked.

In a movie based on the works of English author Kyril Bonfiglioli’s trilogy of the same name, starting with, “Don’t Point That Thing At Me,” perhaps better explanation can be found within the book than in the film. When an arts restorer is killed working on a Francisco Goya painting thought to be lost, he’s called to the scene by agent Martland (Ewan McGregor) to track down where the canvas went. But when Martland has a past with Mortdecai’s wife Johanna (Gwyneth Paltrow), the issue of infidelity gets put into just one layer of this film’s rather confusing direction.

Continue reading “Is There a Mort in Mortdecai? a Movie Review”

A Look Into Shout! Factory’s Nightbreed and Lord of Illusions

Only the die-hard fans and film studies enthusiast will enjoy the extra content in the bonus disc that comes in this latest home video release of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed.

nightbreed-blu-ray-1 The underground world of Midian was very much alive within me many years ago, even before I discovered Clive Barker’s Cabel. I loved the narrative and it spoke to me as there were times I felt misunderstood. Life of an outcast as a nerd was never easy but I adapted. When the film Nightbreed appeared in 1990, I hoped some of the themes explored in the book would get translated over. Instead, what was presented was totally alien. This film was not Barker’s story and I wondered why. My favourite moments were either cut out or never written in.

As a rated R film, I hoped the way Boone connected to Baphomet would be represented but alas ….

Continue reading “A Look Into Shout! Factory’s Nightbreed and Lord of Illusions”

Pages: 123

Unwrapping The Boxtrolls, A Blu-ray/DVD Review

91geiQgmvFL._SL1500_ — Available on Amazon

Studio Laika’s The Boxtrolls is a very bourgeois film. Unless viewers know something about how European nations historically treated the lower class, some aspects of the tale will feel alien. Some explanation is offered in the home video release’s director’s commentary, but for the most part, the point of the bonus material is to show how much work was put into this adaptation of Alan Snow’s children’s novel, “Here Be Monsters!”

The story takes place in the fictional country of Norvenia rather than some real world. Anyone who has studied Western Civilization knows how some growing cities saw revolt when one social class chastised another. As a result, this film examines the problems facing the town of Cheesebridge. A baby is lost, and Archibald Snatcher (wonderfully voiced by Ben Kingsley) blames the trolls! Those who fear them stay safe in their domiciles, while the monsters and a human boy named Eggs (Isaac Hempstead Wright) skirt the city at night. These night crawlers scavenge for food and other sundries to make their life underground possible.

Continue reading “Unwrapping The Boxtrolls, A Blu-ray/DVD Review”

All Hail King Julien! A Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

file_124676_1_allhailkingjuliennetflix2

The high production values in Netflix’s All Hail King Julien certainly makes this cartoon worth paying attention to. Its CGI quality puts the animated television show Penguins of Madagascar to shame. Story wise, this show has a lot to like about how Julien inherits the throne. The series is not always about slapstick because the next ring-tailed lemur in the family has to learn how to be a proper king.

The irresponsible one viewers have come to know from the films and television series is Julien XIII (Danny Jacobs). In the past, he never learned responsibility and to be suddenly crowned by King Julien XII (Henry Winkler) is a bit of a shock to him. Even as a kid, he was a self-absorbed social misfit and party animal. He never understood about what courtly duties meant until now, and to make a series based on him learning important lessons puts this program right up there as a socially responsible show.

Continue reading “All Hail King Julien! A Review”

An Interview with the Producers of Black Fly

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Playing at Cinecenta
University of Victoria
January 20th
7pm and 9:15pm

Vancouver based writer / director Jason Bourque is certainly looking to break away from the norm. While his work in genre movies like Doomsday Prophecy and documentaries like Dreams of Flight helped establish him, the movies he directed for SyFy like Seattle Superstorm is a far cry from what he wants to express creatively. His first dramatic feature film, Black Fly, was easy to write and perhaps quite terrifying to express since a crime scene was unfolding about a well-known serial killer, Noel Winters, back when he was growing up and living in New Brunswick.

“Describing situations inspired by my personal experiences gave the script an honesty that sometimes can be difficult to find in other work,” said Bourque, “As a young teen, discovering that we had a serial killer as a neighbour left an indelible mark on me. It was a story that haunted me; I knew it was one I needed to tell.”

Continue reading “An Interview with the Producers of Black Fly”