Pulps Archives | Otaku No Culture

The Rhythm is in My Shoes with Disney’s Jungle Cruise

The race is on to find the gold in Disney’s Jungle Cruise: Whoever holds the arrowhead has the key to find the secrets to immortality.

Spoiler Alert

Disney’s Jungle Cruise is not the most original tale based on one of their rides. We see and hear nearly everything from that park attraction used in some capacity in the cinematic take about taking on the dangers of the Amazon river. It works to make this world come alive. Add in some mystique with fabled fauna, namely the Tree of Life where a leaf is said to cure any disease or magical curse, and that’s the start of a franchise!

The backstory is the best part, and I’d watch a film based on that alone. The symphonic version of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” is perfect to drive home the context in what drives those characters. Anyone who doesn’t know the lyrics would be missing a nuance. Fortunately, the song title speaks for itself. That also includes the relentless pursuit for the gold by the present treasure seekers.

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Hop Onboard with The Intergalactic Adventures of Max Cloud

The humour is not too overdone and ultimately it’s the spacecraft’s female commander who has a secret to help win the game.

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Well GO USA

Coming to Digital
December 18, 2020

The Intergalactic Adventures of Max Cloud joins the long line of films that transports an unwilling hero into a video game world. What makes this movie different is that Sarah (Isabelle Allen) wished for it and a mysterious lady from outer space shows up to grant it! Oddly, she can’t control Jake, the digital male avatar her spirit occupies. Her best friend Cowboy (Franz Drameh) has to play the game to see how this program ends.

When this video game character is the ship’s cook, I wondered how this particular zero becomes a hero. Sarah is no different. She’s a recluse, and this adventure helps her come out of her shell. Plus, we see some character development between her and this boy, which turns into love. Thankfully, this distraction isn’t part of the tale. Instead, it’s in how these two real life individuals have to work together to help video game characters Jake (Elliot James Langridge), Max (Scott Adkins) and Rexy (Sally Collett) to prevent Revengor’s (John Hannah) army from taking over their spaceship. It’s the only means of escape for everyone on the prison planet!

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A New Life with Hellboy and his Young Adventures…

The events in the series take place in May of 1947, before the events depicted in The Midnight Circus, Lighter in tone, Young Hellboy: The Hidden Land is an exhilarating adventure that embraces the thrills and chills of the pulp adventure stories of the 1930s.

In 2021, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, co-writer Tom Sniegoski, artist Craig Rousseau, colorist Dave Stewart, and letterer Clem Robins will explore an untold chapter of Hellboy’s childhood in Young Hellboy: The Hidden Land.

In this four-issue series from Dark Horse Comics, Hellboy and Professor Bruttenholm are stranded on a strange island after a mishap on their way to a South American dig site. They soon find themselves confronted by all manner of monsters, and even when the stranger who rescues them turns out to be one of Hellboy’s heroes, they aren’t as safe as they think they are. The four issue mini-series features covers by Folklords artist Matt Smith. Mignola and award-winning colorist Dave Stewart provide the variant cover for the debut issue, with subsequent issues featuring variant covers by Rachele Aragno (#2), Wylie Beckert (#3) and Anthony Carpenter (#4).

“Awhile back (when you could still do such things) I was at a convention in Boston and ducked out for lunch with Tom Sniegoski,” said Mignola. “Years earlier we co-wrote a more-than-slightly insane novel together, Grim Death and Joe: The Electrocuted Criminal and I brought up the idea of the maybe slightly insane globetrotting adventures of a very young Hellboy. Tom’s eyes lit up, as I kind of knew they would. So there was half the battle won, but we would need a special kind of artist to bring Tom’s madman energy to the page—and artist Craig Rousseau just happens to be that artist. And Craig just happened to be at that same convention, and when I told him the idea his eyes lit up just the way Tom’s had. It was almost too easy, and I’m happy to say the results are everything I could have hoped for.”

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All Hail the Popcorn King, A Review

For anyone who only knows some of Joe R. Lansdale’s stories, All Hail the Popcorn King is a must see to learn about what else he’s dabbled in.

If you look hard enough, playing at select film festivals is the documentary All Hail the Popcorn King. This biography about celebrated author Joe R. Lansdale is just as much of a celebration of his career, and sadly, the home video release was limited edition. It sold out faster than you can shoot a gun at a zombie! He’s known for penning the hilarious cult classic Bubba Ho-tep–a personal favourite of mine. Amongst animation fans, he penned a handful of notable episodes of Batman: The Animated Series.

Although no stone is turned in this work, the emphasis on his literary material stands out because a unique Texan style atmosphere permeates much of his work and really has to be analyzed.

The interviews with Joe Hill, Bruce Campbell and Amber Benson (to name a few) nicely add to learning why Lansdale is loved. He’s a special talent. The fact he was chosen to finish an Edgar Rice Burroughs story speaks about his mastery with the pulps. Apparently, his imagination was sparked when he listened to those old time radio programs. He especially loves those programs, like Flash Gordon, Green Hornet and The Shadow. Some of which became television programs and others, celebrated movies–but the love for the pulps has not been the same since the new century.

The crazy dreams he had after chowing down on his wife’s greasy (lard-coated) popcorn apparently led to many of the stories he wrote. If that’s the case, I shouldn’t be too worried about those LSD trips. They may even be wonkier than John Carter’s adventures. Who knows tho’. But for anyone who only knows some of this author’s materials, All Hail the Popcorn King. is a must see to learn about what else he’s dabbled in. Hopefully a new pressing of the disc can be made, as this work is considered essential viewing.

With luck, if all fans scream loud enough, perhaps Hansi Oppenheimer of Squee Projects LLC will listen.

4 Stars out of 5

Trailer

Taking Jumanji to the Next Level …

To up the ante in what Jumanji

Spoiler Alert

The world of Jumanji is dangerous, and The Next Level proves just how vicious it can be. This third film of the series shows that “players” from our reality are not simply transported there for fun. It’s sentient and the reason is with how it recognizes select individuals and helps them out in crazy vicious ways.

When it was first discovered, it was a board game. But when it realizes that video games are the in thing, like a Motherbox from the DC Comic book world, it reconfigured itself so anyone finding it will try the game out. Usually those who are baited in discover for themselves how much life is better afterwards.

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