Memorable TV cartoon characters of the past and present – Part 2

Of course, there are a number of memorable TV cartoon characters, both of the past and the present. There are the obvious character choices, such as Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Fred Flintstone, Woody Woodpecker, and Winnie the Pooh, just to name a few. I would also include Snoopy from the Peanuts specials in this list. But who else is there?

Going back to the 1960’s and 1970’s, I would have to say that one of the most memorable cartoon characters from that era would have to be Scooby-Doo. In fact, he’s so memorable, that he has continued to appear in various television shows including one that aired on Kids! WB earlier this decade!

If you go back to the 1980’s, I would have to say one of the most memorable cartoon characters of the era would have to be Optimus Prime from The Transformers. So many people of my generation remember Optimus Prime, especially since his death in The Transformers: The Movie caused such a controversy. I would also consider the Smurfs to be memorable 1980’s cartoon characters. And if you go back to the 1990s, I would have to say that several of the Rugrats characters (specifically Tommy, Chuckie, and Angelica) would also be in the memorable category.

From more recent cartoons, I would have to say that SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star also fit into this category. I’m around kids who really like SpongeBob, and a couple of them can even quote lines from episodes. For current preschoolers, one of the most memorable cartoon characters would probably have to be Dora the Explorer.

I would also have to include Bart Simpson and Homer Simpson in a list of memorable TV cartoon characters; with such catchphrases as “Eat my shorts” and “D’oh!,” who could forget these two?

From the anime field, I would definitely have to include Pikachu as a memorable TV cartoon character. There’s just something about Pikachu that captures children’s interest.

More than meets the eye: Anticipating the release of the Transformers movie – Part 7

For some odd reason the Transformers has never been made into a live action movie. I would have at least expected a lame 80’s version made with Technicolor and bad acting. We were not blessed then – but we are now.

The previews for the new Transformer movie have seemingly revealed the entire plot: alien robot beings come to Earth – some to protect us – most to kill us. There will be a battle and so on.

Most of us are not really all that interested in the story anyway, because we already know it and instead cannot wait to see the awesome graphical effects when Optimus Prime changes from truck to giant robot and slaps some Decepticons around!

The previews at least give us this high energy, butt-kicking impression. The robots are huge, several feet above humans (I can’t even guess how many), and are depicted as quite powerful. They shatter windows, throw tanks, and run along busy highways. They look stupendous and scary. How can this movie go wrong?

I hope it does not. The images on the official website are promising (www.transformersmovie.com). Luckily, the movie comes out July 4th!

I will always remember Transformers from my childhood and I hope that this movie will give me a renewal of interest for these heroes. It should be cool.

Movie reviews: The Transformers (2007) – Part 31

transformers : more than meets the eye, indeed! i just recently watched the ’80’s cartoon inspired motion picture (produced by THE Stephen Spielberg! ’nuff said!) and here’s what i thought:

they stomped spider-man 3! they killed live free or die hard! they even kicked the pirates of the Caribbean from port to stern! this is THE movie blockbuster of the summer! if you do not go to the movies but one time this summer, make the transformers the movie you choose.

the CGI was the best i have ever seen, the acting was superb, and the very concept of the plot was more than a die hard transformers fan such as myself could have hoped for! not to mention the new look for optimus prime! i mean, FLAMES, BABY! this film managed to keep true to the essence of the transformers saga while, simultaneously, bringing the franchise to a whole new level.

trust me when i say, this is more than a kid-targeted sci-fi flick. this ain’t your daddies transformers, fan boy! my father, a fifty-something ex-Vietnam vet biker, a guy who finds science fiction to be, at best, hokey, sat through this movie with a look of astonishment on his face. my four year old son, who has the attention span of a mayfly, sat stock still for the entire almost two and a half hours! a feat that is , by no means, small!

in short, whether you’re a die hard fan or being introduced to the famed robots in disguise for the first time, you are guaranteed to walk out of that theater with a HUGE smile on your face!

AUTO-BOTS, ROLL OUT!

Movie reviews: The Transformers (2007) – Part 26

“More than meets the eye” has been the iconic catchphrase of the Transformers franchise for over two decades, and while less pragmatic than “robots in disguise,” it has managed to persevere and thrive to this very day. It has become the Rosebud for children of the 80’s, at once nostalgic and melancholy; “They just don’t make shows like that anymore,” we say as we silently try to recreate the sound of a car transforming into a 40-foot robot.

While one could begin an article based on those words, a true fan would be remiss to exclude the less-popular but still important sentence uttered by Optimus Prime:

“One shall stand, and one shall fall.”

Those words, spoken by Optimus Prime in 1986’s Transformers and echoed by Optimus Prime in 2007 sum it all up, but for the sake those less familiar with the series, this article will be devoted to showcasing both the success and failure of the film, as both an action movie and a Transformers movie.

First, the (human) cast does a fantastic job. The characters interact with each other with the chemistry of people witnessing a robot apocalypse (It turns out that’s a lot of chemistry). Shia LeBouf proves he has significant acting chops and actually manages to be as compelling as the Transformers themselves, though his struggles are slightly less important, globally.

Second, the action. This is the most amazing part of the movie, and what everyone pays to see. The battle scenes feel real, totally immersive, and meticulously detailed. Even non-combat portions look beautiful. There is only one scene that seems slightly choppy and tough to follow, but it is mercifully short.

Third, the directing is brilliant. The audience is right where it should be nearly all the time, and any questions raised in a previous scene are quickly answered in the next. While it does become choppy at times it is obvious that Spielberg and Bay were fans of the series, as most of the Transformers are depicted in the same way as they were in the show.

So much for the movie part. The Transformer part, arguably the most important part of a Transformer film, lacked in the places where it should have shone. Simply put,

there were far too many unnecessary side characters and plots. To the casual watcher this makes for slightly erratic storytelling, and to the fan it makes for less giant robot time. A full third of the cast could have been cut with no ill effects. Instead, we get twenty minutes of a wholly unnecessary interaction between two characters who are inconsequential to the story, while one of the major Transformers has three lines in the whole movie.

So there it is: one shall stand, and one shall fall. The audience is given a solid action movie featuring Transformers, as opposed to an awesome Transformers movie featuring Shia LeBouf and friends. We have a cast of young stars on a meteoric rise, and a cast of CGI characters who function as the stepping stones to that success…in their own movie.

More than meets the eye: Anticipating the release of the Transformers movie – Part 6

Just the other day I was sifting through a box of my childhood toys that my mother kept around. I have children now, though my boy is not quite old enough to appreciate the capacity of the transformers as toys. They were so much more than a simple action figure and my love for them was equivalently more like an obsession. So I am kind of tickled, in a nostalgic kind of way, to see that they are finally coming out with a movie, and a full-throttle production at that.

The engineering behind the toys was brilliant. Especially since they developed triple-changers and sets of four or five which would combine into larger beings. However, it was necessary while playing with the toys to incorporate the wonderful sound effects of the transformations found on the tv show, and to mimic the characteristic voices of each robot. The show brought so much life to the toys. Reflecting on this makes me realize how effective the show really was.

When I saw a poster for the movie some time ago I thought, “Wow! A transformers movie.” I mean, after all these years I thought the concept was dead. I had no idea that it would actually be a live action movie, and upon seeing a still gallery of what the machines really look like, I am boyishly excited to see the end product. The actual transformers right before my eyes. I am thirty years old. I believe most of the fans of transformers are probably within a few years of my age. And this is definitely a generation of moviegoers, not to mention the fact that we are slow to mature (most of us still own multiple video game systems). So it is almost a shoe-in for box office success. I am aware that the voice of the original Optimus Prime has been on certain musical productions, so I imagine that he will be in the film. I have not yet heard, but it would be cool.

I believe kids these days will love the concept in live action, and I believe my generation will love the nostalgic rush of simpler days, so my prediction is success for the upcoming film.

VW Polo

Volkswagen Polo – a car in its (Optimus) Prime?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Even at this relatively early stage of my life there’s loads of things I wish I could’ve done a bit differently or encountered a bit sooner. A prime example would be the family holidays I used to go on. I was quite fortunate in that the three of us have seen most of Europe and lots of America. I remember all sorts, from jumping into a Volkswagen Polo hire car in Ibiza, long before I was aware of what those who aren’t on a family holiday do in Ibiza, to sitting in a Delorean at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

Whilst I always appreciated my holidays, now I’ve got a job, a mortgage and have to pay for such luxuries as holidays myself, I wish I could’ve made a bit more of the family trips than I did. It’s a similar story with music (which for the biography is as much a love of mine as cars). I lap up all sorts of audio, but my two big regrets are missing the boats that are Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins in their prime. The former came to a climatic end when I was only ten, so there’s not a lot I could do to change that, but the Pumpkins are a different kettle of fish.

I’ve known of them for years but it’s only this week I’ve truly discovered their brilliance. The problem is, I’m about twelve years too late from their prime so for all the excitement of hearing their stuff, I know I’ll never get to see them play live (or at least not in their original guise). It really is frustrating considering the dross that is popular in today’s music (I sound like my granddad!)

So where am I going with this whimsical tale of missed opportunities in my youth? I think the message is simply: just because something’s been around for a while, don’t take it for granted or assume the newer variations on an old theme are better. A prime example of this is the very car I sat in the back of years ago in Ibiza – the Volkswagen Polo.

The Polo has been around an astoundingly long time for a car – first hitting showrooms way back in 1975. It’s easy therefore to denounce the Polo as nothing more than a car over thirty years old that really should be collecting its pension each week and leaving the business of driving to the youngsters. However don’t make the mistake I‘ve made of taking for granted a great situation and not fully appreciating it.

Despite the age the Polo’s heritage harks back too, the latest model is no old man when competing in today’s market. Currently not the baby of the Volkswagen family thanks to the Fox and Lupo, the Polo emits a certain quality not found in all super minis. The styling is as you’d expect from a car designed to attract all spectrums of taste and is therefore subtle but still good-looking. A personal favourite are the rear light clusters that wouldn’t look out of place as Optimus Prime’s eyes in the Transformers sequel.

Essentially being a shrunken Golf, the Polo handles all situations very well, whether it’s city speed humps or countryside cornering. The entry level engines are a tad underpowered which mean more driver involvement to get going – great if you’re in the mood for working the engine, not so if you want to get from A to B quickly and peacefully.

The interior is the usual grade ‘A’ fare as you’d expect from a German manufacturer, with a chunky steering wheel conveying the quality of the cabin as a whole. On a personal note, I have a thing for blue neon lights so the Polo is heaven, with the majority of the instrumentation bathed in its soft glow. Rear legroom is good as is the boot space so it ticks all the boxes for a family shopping trip. Safety features also abound, with stability control and brake assist found on all variants. Residual values tend to stay high with Volkswagens, so if you do come to sell, this should be the least of your headaches.

It’s a busy crèche the baby Volkswagen finds itself in, with the Peugeot 207, Renault Clio, Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Corsa all fitting contenders for your money. Just remember when you’re looking for a new car, not to overlook the elder statesman, else you’ll miss a great car in its prime.

Video games reviews: Transformers: The Game (Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PS3) – Part 2

You know when an incredibly hyped-up film like Transformers is released there’s going to be a heck of a lot of side merchandise following it – and so the release of this game on the Xbox 360 wasn’t really a surprise to me.

-Synopsis-

The synopsis for the game will probably appeal to anyone with a destructive side and a tendency to want to root for the bad guys – you can either play a campaign as the Autobots, the goody-goody robots trying to protect Sam, the film’s protagonist (the game contains major spoilers so I would watch the film first if you haven’t already) or as the Decepticons, the evil robots hellbent on seemingly blowing everything up. Add in a few…extremely…deep…yet.. .painfully…

overpronounced…voices like someone out of CSI and you’ve got your game.

-Gameplay-

You start off with a nice little intro that clears everything up. Instantly you’ll be hit with the graphics – excellent. You then choose which side you’ll be playing on, and then it shows you the controls for that Transformer. One thing I like about this is it actually lets you read these controls before you progress, rather than just hoping you’ve got some kind of photographic memory and can take it in in 5 seconds, which is nice of them.

If you play as the Autobots you start off play as Bumblebee but will also get to play as Optimus Prime and a few others. You basically are just given the missions of destroying Decepticons, which starts to wear thin after a while. Sometimes game play is broken up with something a bit different like a car chase, but otherwise its all a bit ’same-y’. You have a map in the bottom right hand corner which is clear and easy to read and you also can pick up power-ups like life and ’secrets’ of which there are 100 scattered all over the game (for each character, I believe). At the beginning of each chapter you get a cut screen which tells you your mission.

During the game you are given a ‘rating’ – as an Autobot you are expected to kill enemies and not destroy things – although this is hard to help as everything acts like it’s made out of polystyrene. The more you act good, you are given a heroic rating. The opposite, a destructive rating.

Of course, when you play as the Decepticons you try and do the opposite – cause as much destruction as possible. Your first task is simply to completely DESTROY an air base. Great fun, but quite difficult, actually.

Although the game seems quite simple on paper its actually quite tricky – your time

Video games reviews: Transformers: The Game (Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PS3) – Part 1

If you grew up a fan of the Transformers and absolutely loved the Michael Bay film, you may want to avoid the video game. Xbox 360’s release of Transformers: The Game added to a growing list of movie-to-game flops. On the surface, the game looked appealing. I thought it would be a blast destroying everything in my path as my favorite robot. Needless to say, I was disappointed.

Presentation: The first thing people notice about a game is how it looks and how it sounds. That being said, Transformers started out on the wrong foot. While the robots look pretty cool, that is the only visual compliment I can give. The game developers definitely didn’t tap into the graphic capabilities of the Xbox 360. The stages have this depressing darkness about them, but not on purpose. The atmospheres seem to have a “painted on” look to them, unlike many of the outstanding looking stages on some of Xbox 360’s more popular titles. Sadly, the sound doesn’t do much in aiding the visuals. The actual voices used in the movie were used in the game. Well thats a good thing isn’t it? Nope, not really. After hearing my Autobot repeat a phrase for the 22nd time, it got old. The soundtrack and other sounds weren’t much better, they packed no punch. The Transformers movie was breathtaking as far as visuals and sound go. Unfortunately, the video game doesn’t possess either luxury.

Gameplay: I’ll have to admit, I had a tiny bit of fun destroying things on this game. Not enough to invite friends over, just enough to put off household chores for an hour. The problem is, the robots weaponry isn’t that fun. The long-range weapons are generally ineffective against the enemy, who have an uncanny ability to block nearly every attack. This, in turn, makes hand-to-hand combat the most effective. Close-range combat, however, has a very limited number of attacks. Pretty boring. I would rather barrel roll through the city while launching missiles and cars at my enemy. But don’t worry, it gets worse! There are actually missions on the game that involve driving from point to point in a city in a certain time, please tell me how this is fun. As I said earlier, I enjoyed destroying things on this game, just a tiny bit. While blowing things up is always clean fun, it happens too often on this game. It seems like if I even breathe on a building it is destroyed. I would honestly rather wreak havoc on buildings on the Nintendo classic, Rampage. I would say the bright spot of this game is playing as the enemy, the Decepticons. These robots are more fun than Optimus Prime and his pals, and the gameplay is actually more fun and engaging as the enemy. Overall, the gameplay is disappointing. What really stunk about playing this game was that it left so much to be desired.

Don’t let Transformers: The Video game tarnish your memory of the Transformer action figures you use to play with in the 80s. Don’t plug this game in expecting a smash hit like the 2007 film, you will be disappointed. The Transformers worked great as a cartoon, a movie, and as action figures. Not so much as a video game.

Movie reviews: The Transformers (2007) – Part 27

Well boys and girls, I saw the new Transformers movie yesterday, and it was everything I hoped it would be.

I had heard a lot of criticism of the films action over plot construction, however whilst not comparable to The Grapes Of Wrath, the plot was certainly passable, and true to the history of the franchise. Anybody who remembers Transformers will go away happy, and anyone who decided to see the film because of the adverts will get exactly what they expected, so the plot criticism seems to me a little unfair.

This movie really seems like it has been a labour of love, and is very faithful to the source material. The special effects are excellent, and the robots really do look like actual robots rather than CGI. The incredible level of detail does make it difficult to see what is going on at times, as there is just so much on screen, so perhaps I would have preferred the Transformers themselves to be more simply animated, after all, does Optimus Prime really need eyelashes? Also, if the animation of the characters had been done more simply it would have made it possible to bring more of the classic Transformers I remember from my childhood to life, as well as creating a more army v army feel, as 5 on 5 isnt really a war of epic proportions.

Despite the romantic plot that unfolds during the course of the film, I detected a somewhat homoerotic relationship between boy and Bumblebee, maybe I am mistaken, but look out for it. There are a number or genuinely laugh out loud moments, which I wont spoil, and the action is non stop from start to finish. I would say though, that myself and the guys I went to see the movie with, were all a little unimpressed with how much of a pansy Optimus Prime was – he was handed his ass on a plate in almost every battle, hopefully Rodimus Prime or Ultra Magnus will be more of a swashbuckling all action hero in the next film (and there is bound to be one).

Basically – go and see it.

Its kinda a little hobby of mine to spot product placement in movies, so here are the companies and products that obviously contributed to production costs:

HP – Computers

Apple – Macbook, Macbook Pro, Cinema Displays

Microsoft – XBOX 360

Dodge – Vehicles (after all Bumblebee was a VW back in the day)

Panasonic – Mobile Phone

More than meets the eye: Anticipating the release of the Transformers movie – Part 5

I have seen both early trailers for “The Transformers.”

I remember as a child watching the cartoons. I am, as are many my age, waiting with unbridled anticipation for the July 4th release of the movie. I got goosebumps at the glimpse of Optimus Prime in live action. I can hardly wait to hear him speak for the first time, the voice over being done by the same actor from the original cartoons per Internet Movie Data Base.

Do not be surprised to find the first showing of the movie to be filled with late-twenty somethings and early-thirty somethings, bouncing in their seats, hardly able to control themselves and telling their offspring how cool the transformers are. The hush that goes through the crowd as the lights darken and the opening credits begin. The chance to see a movie based on a cartoon from childhood, brings back all those things from our early years and maybe give us a shadow of that hope that little children have-the future being bright and all that.

The only thing that Michael Bay and Spielberg could do to disappoint is drift away from the true nature of the transformers themselves, let the heroes be heroes and the villains be villains. Robots have no place for in betweens or being “Mr. Data.”

“The Transformers” previews have distinct shades of movies such as “Independence Day” in which aliens attack the Earth and leave only a handful of humanity to fight. In this version, it appears that the attack comes because of Man’s intrusion on Mars though we fortunately receive assistance from friendly ‘aliens.’

No matter what the early press has to say, I will most definitely be there on July 4th, bouncing in my seat, telling my nephew how cool the transformers are and that he’s gonna love it!

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