Category: Home Entertainment

Transformers Prime: Losing More than Just a Hand in Minus One

The writing team of Transformers: Prime knew how many episodes they had to work with, so it’s going to be interesting to see how well they can wrap this series up.

Transformers Prime ScreenshotThe writing in Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters continues to be exemplary. Not only was the loss of Ultra Magnus’ hand in the previous episode, “Evolution,” a brilliant foreshadow of things to come, but also the revelation comes to a head when viewers are playing along, wondering who is going to be “lost” in the episode, “Minus One.” This week’s show moves with the pacing of a smart murder mystery. Viewers see the Autobots capture a Decepticon, but as for whether or not Soundwave will divulge any information, the wait is intoxicating. The only letdown is that his silent warrior’s voice does not live up to expectations.

As for who may fail in this episode, the money was perhaps on one of the new characters introduced this season—either Ultra Magnus, Shockwave or Predaking.

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Transformers Exodus and Exile Examined (with 3rd Book News)

From the first book titled Rebellion to the last, Reconnaissance, publisher Del Ray has changed the formula around by not offering a teasinFg title like “Transformers: Extinction.”

transformers exodusFans of either Transformers Prime the animated series or the Fall/War of Cybertron games are well advised to read the book Transformers: Exodus: The Official History of the War for Cybertron. Written by Alex Irvine, he does a remarkable job in penning the lead up to one of cartoondom’s greatest wars of all time. As most fans know, the conflict is largely centered on a battle of wills between Autobot leader Optimus Prime and Decepticon dictator Megatron.

But for the leader of the Decepticons, there is more to him than meets the eye. He was a nameless factory worker who quite literally fought his way to the top. Domination is all he knew as he fought in the gladiatorial pits of Kaon. Despite his limited dealings with higher Cybertronian society as a whole, he believed they were corrupt. He wanted to do away with the caste system that was eroding the robotic civilization. He took on the name of Megatronus and preached that equity should exist. That is, no social or occupational ranking system is required to determine one’s way of life. Freedom should exist for everyone. Orion Pax agreed with this up-and-coming orator about what needs to be done, but somewhere along the way, a rift between them would form and a war would erupt.

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Finding Ohana in Stitch! the Animated Series

After three more movies and a television series, Disney put an end to their adventures with Leroy and Stitch–presumedly. But the love continues in Asia!

Lilo & Stitch! Together AgainWhatever happened to Lilo and Stitch? The series that began in 2002 enjoyed a good five-year run in North America. After three more movies and a television series, Disney put an end to their adventures with Leroy and Stitch. This 2008 direct to video release tied up all the loose ends and set the blue fuzzy terror free to terrorize in Stitch! He isn’t as much of a terror with thanks to Lilo; he learned how to be civilized.

During this run, Experiment 626 (Stitch) still had his moments of being wonderfully nasty. He was more of a selling point of the series than the subplot of building ohana, a Hawaiian term meaning family. In this series, Lilo further defines it as, “Nobody gets left behind.”

In this series, she sought to find a place where each quirky experiment, a cousin of Stitch, can safely belong. A few gems in the TV series existed which reinforced this point. But the one that says it all is with “Remmy,” where Lilo tries to cope on the anniversary of when her parents died. Nani, her older sister, tries her best to raise her, but that’s difficult to do when neither have an appropriate coping mechanism in place for them to grieve. Instead, what they do is to build their familial relationships to include everyone, so that no matter where the person (or alien) is from, they have brothers and sisters to rely on when hope is needed.

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Disney’s Gargoyles Season Two Volume Two is Hot! BUT….

Disney Movie Club is offering to their members the ability to purchase the much desired volume two release of season two of Disney’s Gargoyles!

Gargoyles DVD CoverSome fans of Disney’s Gargoyles can rejoice and others will lament. Disney Movie Club is offering to their members the ability to purchase the much desired volume two release of season two. But only residents of the United States can purchase this three-disc set at $19.99 USD.

The program is similar to Columbia House’s Music Club from a previous era, so let the consumer beware—more items must be purchased to fulfill this contract. While no date has been set for The Goliath Chronicles (Season Three), that may well take just as long, depending on how well sales go.

But if this company is going to limit the accessibility to this current video release by making this set an exclusive, they are only putting the proverbial nail in the coffin. Much like the cartoon about a clan of gargoyles seeking freedom and desiring to find a place to belong, this title is being tightly reigned. Some viewers might see this fine cartoon as an inspired epic in the same vein as many of Shakespeare’s historical and fantastical plays with a touch of Braveheart mixed in.

Show creator Greg Weisman reported back in 2006 that the video release for season two-volume two was cancelled due to lack sufficient sales of volume one. The initial season was short, but it helped establish the mythos that is of this world, where Oberon is the king of a third race–the faerie kind–and the Gargoyles are like Veritas, believers of truth and warriors of justice. The humans, well, they are hard to understand, much less trust.

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Ultraman Ginga Music Sample

Although a Japanese creation, Ultraman has been influential internationally in geek culture.

Through NihonHero we have sampled the theme song for the upcoming Ultraman Ginga TV series. The song is titled “Theme of Ultraman Ginga” and is performed by Yuji Inoue, guitarist of the J-pop group Girl Next Door.

Ultraman Ginga is produced by Tsuburaya Productions who are celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2013. The series will premiere in Japan on July 10, 2013. The album to the series will be released July 24, 2013.

The series stars Takuya Negishi, Mio Miyatake, Mizuki Ohno, Kirara Asuka and Takuya Kusakawa.

Although a Japanese creation, Ultraman has been influential internationally in geek culture. A prime example is Devo and their recent music video Monster Man.

The Struggle with Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures is Real

Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures is an update which may blink out much the same way. The title alone does not sound all that thrilling.

Pac Man and GangSpoiler alert

This year marks the return of Pac-Man, an iconic video-game character from the 80’s, in both animated and video-game form. While this character had his own cartoon back then, which was like a blip in the radar of animated cartoon history, Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures is an update which may blink out much the same way. The title alone does not sound all that thrilling.

The episodes are being broadcast now on Disney XD in a bid to generate interest to buy the game that’s scheduled to be released sometime during the Fall of 2013. It will be available across all platforms, the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 and 3DS.

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