Category: Television Reviews

JumpStart’s School of Dragons Needs a Better Cirriculum

In terms of continuity, some astute pupils may wonder why Hiccup is not the Headmaster in School of Dragons.

Welcome to the School of DragonsDespite the fact that the Summer is not yet over, fans of Dreamworks Animation‘s How to Train Your Dragon will soon be going to school. JumpStart launched an online educational product, School of Dragons, that will get young fans excited for science, botany and perhaps a whole lot more—namely Dragon Flight school.

This MMORPG went live in June for beta-testing. As new players come in to check this game out, they will soon find out that there is a membership fee (starting at $9.95 USD per month) to access the game’s higher functions like customizing their avatar or earning free coins.

Continue reading “JumpStart’s School of Dragons Needs a Better Cirriculum”

The Times They Are a-Changin’ in Beware the Batman, a TV Review

By Ed Sum

Beware-the-Batman-Full-Poster-Image

*Spoiler Alert

Perhaps the new character designs are not the only thing viewers should be wary of in Warner Bros. Animation’s sixth iteration of what Batman means to the masses. In Beware the Batman, the character of Anarky (a political activist/vigilante) will be pivotal to the series run and the animation style will take a while to get used to. The characters have a similar look to that of the cancelled Green Lantern: The Animated Series that not everyone took to right away. GL made use of bold colors and caricature. This style worked great when most of the story took place in alien worlds. But with a human world as a backdrop, everyone is going to look like an over-emphasized archetype.

Interestingly enough, the Bats looks like a well polished land turtle. From a distance, the material of his cape looks more like a polymer shell and the skin textures appearing more plastic than natural. This new animation looks like it took a few computer shading algorithms from the latest iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just so it can be quickly rendered. When drawn, the character designs looks great, but when enhanced by CGI, the detailing cannot be appreciated as much.

Continue reading “The Times They Are a-Changin’ in Beware the Batman, a TV Review”

Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated Series Analysis and DVD Review

The plots were simple and the latest series, Scooby-Doo, Mystery Incorporated, takes the concept further. Nearly all the cases the Scooby gang investigates are linked in some way.

Scooby Doo Mystery IncorporatedThe concept of having a talking Great Dane as a mascot to a gang of paranormal mystery solving enthusiasts was introduced in September of 1969, and the cartoon Scooby-Doo Where Are You! became a resounding success. The television show underwent many incarnations throughout the years and many kids watched a version of the show before going to school or as part of the Saturday morning routine. The plots were simple and the latest series, Scooby-Doo, Mystery Inc, takes the concept further. Nearly all the cases the Scooby gang investigates are linked in some way. And now it can be enjoyed with the series fully available on DVD. The last set was released in June.

Part of season one dealt with the Scooby gang discovering that they are part of an exclusive club. Apparently there was another group before them who created Mystery Incorporated, and both fellowships shared similar goals. To have this series slowly reveal details about this older group is intriguing and when the current gang discovers a legend about cursed treasure akin to what existed in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, the stage has been set. The gang slowly finds pieces of an astrolabe known as the Planispheric Disk, and they have to put it together before the coming of Nibiru, aka Planet X.

Continue reading “Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated Series Analysis and DVD Review”

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.

Continue reading “Transformers Prime: Losing More than Just a Hand in Minus One”

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.

Continue reading “Finding Ohana in Stitch! the Animated Series”

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.

Continue reading “The Struggle with Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures is Real”