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Halloween Inspired Thrills for (Animated) Ghostseekers!

18 Oct

Jeremy Zag en Instagram: “Ghostforce #ghostforce #zagheroez #ghost #superpower #superhero” in 2021 | Miraculous ladybug anime, Ladybug anime, Miraculous ladybug comicBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Part of the every year’s Halloween fun is to partake in the paranormal. Whether that’s with participating in a ghost hunt or trick and treating, there’s also bonfires and sometimes just enjoying a program on television on those chilly nights. Nearly every spooky animated television series has a Halloween themed episode. This year has a few new entries from popular shows for this decade, but the the classics, I’ll fondly turn to Scooby-Doo. “To Switch a Witch,” is a favourite. The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour featured “The Headless Horseman of Halloween” and What’s New Scooby-Doo? featured “A Scooby-Doo Halloween.”

In part one, I offer my picks from series where the ghost is a key figure in the cast. 

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The Croods: Family Tree Needs to Grow

14 Oct

The Croods: Family Tree - Hulu Series - Where To WatchBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

YTV (Canada)
Saturdays 9:00 AM EST/PST

Also on Hulu and Peacock Network (USA)

The Croods: Family Tree is a surprisingly short animated series which is now available across specific cartoon networks and streaming services. YTV in Canada is stretching the six episodes out, and hopefully, more episodes will be released sooner than later. Waiting this series out for new tales in 2022 is a long way away.

This series is decent enough for fans to enjoy. It retains much of the humour from the sequel, and it seems a lot of the Croods family dynamic has reset. Grug is even more overprotective of Eep, and instead of her and Guy leaving the compound they are in, they are all staying safe within. Plus, they have another clan to annoy, whom they met in Croods: New Age. If this series is supposed to take place within the time frame of this sequel as a whole, it’s not been said at all.

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Apple TV Plus is All A “Blush”

8 Oct

Blush (Short 2021) - IMDbBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Spoiler Alert
Available on Apple TV Plus

Joe Mateo’s computer animated short film, Blush, is definitely his most personal to date. After working on high-profile movies like Meet the Robinsons and Big Hero 6 in varying capacities, to see him direct is a win. In the former, he wrote the story about a boy getting a glimpse of the future, but is facing abandonment issues (he was left at an orphanage), and the latter, about a teen who loses his big brother and fears he has no one close to be with ever again.

The theme of loss is common for this storyteller, and he ups it another notch by exploring what it’s like to lose hope when a spaceship crashes on a desolate dry planet, and there’s no way to call for help. He’s somewhere in the boon dogs of space, and the small planetoid he lands on is bereft of life.

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Who Has the Power in Hasbro & Netflix’s He-Man & The Masters of the Universe?

20 Sep

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (TV Series 2021– ) - IMDbBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Spoiler Alert

Hasbro & Netflix’s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe may not appeal to all longtime fans. It’s been redesigned, and the new power of Grayskull is a trans-dimensional force of nature to perhaps contain and explain why these retellings over the years exist. Thankfully, this latest version stays true to the first series where it tries to teach young viewers the value of friendship, trust and teamwork. 

Rob David, the showrunner, is drawing from a cleaned up series bible. Hasbro and Funimation never made one during their development of the 1983 show. After so many retellings on different fronts, namely three televised series and the comic books–this latest takes the best of and explains the complex relationships that exists in this world. The motives are much clearer. It’s also completely different from what Kevin Smith is doing in his continuation, MotU: Revelation.

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Knowledge Network at 40 Years & Kids Programming Block Updates

27 Aug

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

The Autumn television season is almost upon us, and that often means school is starting. Whether that’s post-secondary or elementary, sometimes all it takes is an extra audio-visual component to make learning wonderous–and that’s where Knowledge Network comes in. They have an excellent range of documentaries to help broaden any viewer’s mind.

I fell in love with this network’s offerings because of a special on Australia’s aboriginal culture a long time ago. If only Western Civilization 12 was taught like how this channel enlightens, I may have became an anthropologist instead of journalist. Flash forward to today, this British Columbia based publically funded broadcasting network is continuing with their mission. I mostly watch their specials on ancient history. From time to time, I’ll have their kids programming material playing in the background. In the past, I listened to Bill Nye the Science Guy and tuned into animated adaptations of popular children’s books I grew up reading.

Over the many decades of programming, their Knowledge Kids brand, now in their tween years, is only getting better. Not only can people find it on air Saturday mornings but also to watch on the go on iOS, Android or Roku enabled devices. In 2021, they’re offering something old and something new. I had a chance to correspond with Michele Paris, the Senior Manager of Children’s Programming, on what’s coming up:

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