Category Nerdvana

Nerdvana: San Fransokyo

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In the relatively short time we’ve been doing the Nerdvana segments on this blog, we’ve celebrated characters, songs, a food product and a building, but today’s Nerdvana celebrates an entire location. Today, Nerdvana geeks out over the setting of the geektacular Disney movie Big Hero 6, San Fransokyo.

If you can make it here, then you’ve got some sort of reality-warping machine, ’cause it’s a fictional location.
 
While the comic book miniseries that the movie is very, very, very, very, very, very loosely based on was simply set in Tokyo, the Mouse House’s filmmakers decided to make the movie’s setting a mash-up of Tokyo and San Francisco, just as the movie itself was a mash-up of Disney and Marvel. Even the Golden Gate Bridge is a Japanamerican mish-mash, viz:
Now I enjoyed the movie, but I REALLY fell in love with this city idea. As the producers have noted, San Fransokyo is practically a character in itself. This has already become one of my favorite fictional burgs, even surpassing Superhero City from Marvel’s The Super Hero Squad Show….
…of which I still like some of the architecture (particularly the Xavier Academy, Asgard and the Baxter Building, though I like the latter better with the blue hue it had on the show), but San Fransokyo edges Superhero City out on 2 counts: one, its’ buildings are more creative and imaginative, and two, San Fransokyo isn’t crawling with capes; if every other inhabitant of your city is enhanced, mutated or otherwise ‘superfied’ in some way, then being a superhero isn’t really anything special.
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Now I’d like to do a story or make a show with an Eastern/Western mash-up setting. Why do I dig San Fransokyo? Let me enumerate the ways: first, it’s ethnically and culturally diverse, populated by Asians, whites, blacks, wasians (white Asians), blasians (black Asians–is that even a thing? Well it is now, I’m calling it) and other races live together in peaceful cohabitation with all of the various cultures, architecture and nomenclature coming together…
Wasabi_BH6
 “Note how he said ‘blacks‘, as in plural. Yes, there are other blacks in San Fransokyo. I’m not the only one. So pressure groups, put down your picket signs.”
Baymax
 
 
“Don’t forget robots. This town has a thriving robotic and mechanical population, with machines performing many useful and vital duties for humankind. Sure, we aren’t allowed to vote and we’re rarely taken out to discos, but we’re here, we’re digitized, get used to us.”
 
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“Hey, dude. I get that you’re the current robot of the hour, but I gotta say, your look just ain’t cuttin’ it. Big, white and balloon-ey? No style. Fix yourself up with some styling metallic armor, with some gems and plates, a bot’s gotta have some bling. And stick a cannon to your arm, chicks dig arm cannons. But you can’t be blue! That’s my deal.”
 
That reminds me: another reason I like San Fransokyo is because it’s a futuristic city. I loves me some Cities of Tomorrow. San Fransokyo has a Science and Technological Institute…
…which is a haven for the future eggheads of tomorrow. There are even female students there.
 gogo-and-honey-lemon
Go Go: Yeah, girls like science and tech. No big whoop. I’m into anything that moves fast, flies high or causes motion sickness.
Honey Lemon: I love science! I also enjoy cosplaying at sci-fi and fantasy conventions. Ya hear that, writers of Conan and The Big Bang Theory?

“Hot babes who love STEM? My UltraMan boxer shorts just got tighter!”

Also, San Fransokyo reminds me of the wondrous cityscapes from Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball series, with the futuristic flying cars, presence of high tech, advanced science and a little bit of magic, and the ovoid and spherical building structures.

“Yeah, this place you’re geeking on is pretty nice and all, guy, but that name’s just not working for me. I’d give it a more impressive, more awesome name, like…Satan City! Now that’s a name a town can be proud of!”

GoGo_Transparent

“Yeah, the home of Satan. That’ll bring in the tourists!”

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that San Fransokyo is the home of boy genius Hiro Hamada and his MILF-ish aunt Cass, a gregariously underused element in the film, as far as I’m concerned.
Disney’s Rapunzel has aged pretty well, I’d say.

“Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson? Please say yes!”

 
Get outta here! I’m sure there’s a game of D&D going on that needs a Level 22 Archer or something.
-So come on down to San Fransokyo.
You’ll come for the beauty and the science, you’ll stay for the Sushi Burgers.

Nerdvana: My Ever Changing Moods by The Style Council

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On this edition of Nerdvana, I’m going to share with you another one of the songs that I’ve been grooving with. This is one that I first heard in 1984 on the late TBS 6 hour music video block titled Night Tracks, basically TBS’ answer to MTV (You know this was back in the 1980s, because MTV was showing music videos back then. This was back when the ‘M’ in MTV stood for “music” instead of “mediocre”). What I find interesting about this song is that it’s lyrics are about dealing with problems and inner conflicts, yet it’s sang in such a bright, upbeat tone. Now, whenever I’m going through some sort of creative headache or conflict, this song goes through my brain. Here’s “My Ever Changing Moods” by The Style Council. Enjoy.

Nerdvana: The Four Freedoms Plaza

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On this segment of Nerdvana, I’ll be talking about one of my all time favorite fictional home bases, the Fantastic Four’s current digs, the Four Freedoms Plaza.

It looks like a big number 4! That’s all, no more. Now that’s numerical!
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When I was a kid, I used to fantasize about living in a luxury shopping mall that was closed to the public (Hey, give me a break. I was seven!), but now, I think I’d prefer to live in a dwelling like this one. The Four Freedoms Plaza served as the Fantastic Four’s replacement headquarters after their original dwelling, the Baxter Building, was destroyed by Kristoff Vernard, the adoptive son of Doctor Doom.

Doctor-Doom

“Kristoff had a perfectly good reason for destroying that building! They wanted a background check and a drug test?? Preposterous!”

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The building’s outer walls and windows are constructed of advanced carbon-fiber composites, said to be nearly comparable in strength to diamond. Numerous small tubes run throughout the sections of the building occupied by the Fantastic Four, enabling Mister Fantastic to easily stretch to any floor or area. One elevator shaft has been deliberately left empty, to facilitate the Human Torch’s rapid flight to and from the upper floors. There are a set of “breakaway points” above the 50th and 70th stories with built-in explosive charges, designed to separate the upper floors from the civilian-occupied lower floors, should anyone try to lift the building into orbit.

Reed Richards

“We’re prepared for super villain attacks, inter dimensional portals opening up in sub space and alien invasions, but when Ben discovers that we’re all out of Twinkies, now that’s an emergency!”

 

The title of the building comes from a Franklin D. Roosevelt speech urging the Congress of the United States to enter World War II. In it Roosevelt outlined the four freedoms the world would enjoy if it united together to defeat the Axis Power:

  1. Freedom of speech
  2. Freedom of worship
  3. Freedom from want
  4. Freedom from fear

Of the 100 story building:

  • Floors 1 through 50 belong to the former tenants of the Baxter Building (e.g. Quasar).
  • Floors 51-70 are “buffer floors”, where the tenants do not have 99 year leases. Reed has left this space available in case the team expands or grows and needs more space.
  • Floors 71-100 serve as the headquarters for the team. The layout of the floors is essentially the same as that of the Baxter Building.
  • Floor 71 is a reception area where the team’s robot Roberta acts as both a receptionist and a guardian for the rest of the building.
  • Floor 72 acts as an inn where guests of the team can stay. Two suites maintained solely for aquatic visitors (such as Atlanteans) are accessible from pool entrances. These pools can also be used as aquatic conference rooms, and each suite has a different type of water: one fresh water and one salt water. A watertight elevator connects these suites with the river access tunnel on Sublevel 5.
  • Floors 73-75 are the team’s living quarters. Besides the four members of the team the floor also accommodated Alicia Masters (later revealed to be the Skrull Lyja), Crystal, Ms. Marvel II, Wyatt Wingfoot, and She-Hulk among others. There was also a kitchen, pantry, spa, two gyms (one for normal strength levels, the other for super-strong users), a large library, and a computerized classroom.
  • Floors 76 and 77 function as the team’s command center. Meeting rooms, communications stations, links to Starcore and other astronomical organizations, and a computerized medical station are here.
  • Floors 78-80 are storage for miscellaneous supplies. These floors serve as future expansion space and as a buffer in case of a disaster in Reed’s laboratory. Alicia claimed a section of 78 as a studio for the times she stayed in the building.
  • Floors 81-99 act as Reed’s laboratory and storage for his equipment. There is an identical workstation on each floor, enabling Reed to work on any floor. The workstation consists of computer terminals, communications console, and mechanical fabricators. None of these workstations is located overhead any other workstation and no three of them are in a straight line. This minimizes the risk of several stations being destroyed in a battle. The workstations were linked to each other and to a similar console in the Richards’s home.
  • Floors 90 and 91 contains the Negative Zone Portal. The Portal is in a heavily armored room with walls of strongly reinforced material.
  • Floors 98 and 99 serve as warehouse and machine shops. They support the hangar on 100 and act as a buffer to absorb damage from possible hangar disasters. Fuel tanks for the FF’s vehicles are on 99.
  • Floor 100 is the FF’s hangar. It fills the space under the four immense fours that top the building.
“I’ve been known to crash at the Four Freedoms Plaza on one or more occasions. I’ve also smashed the place a couple of times. I have anger issues.”
 
I feel I should give honorable mention to Marvel Universe’s Helicarrier. the reason why I didn’t mention it here is because the Helicarrier, while undoubtedly awesome, serves as an HQ. It’s a base of operation, not living quarters, but hey, the Helicarrier freakin’ flies!
iron_man_3

“You know, I had Stark Industries design my own Helicarrier. It was red and gold. My colors. Yeah, it was damaged by the Red Hulk, but I just built another one. It’s good to be rich.”


Ultimate-Fantastic-Four-Movie-Cast-2015-570x320

“Come visit the spacious, luxurious Four Freedoms Plaza today! No weirdos, please.”

 

Nerdvana: Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

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Today Nerdvana celebrates a short bearded guy with a deliriously sunny disposition. No, it’s not Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty, it’s Happy of the Seven Dwarfs.

“Happy, happy, happy! It’s party time, Jack!”
 
Happy is one of our favorite Disney characters, nee, one of our favorite cartoon characters at the moment and a rising fan favorite. Yet he didn’t begin that way. For a long time, it looked like if we were ever going to give Happy any mention here at all, it would be on Beyond the Background. Happy began his his career on a rather inauspicious note, despite being in one of THE most popular animated feature films of all time. Admittedly, it’s been quite a while since we’ve seen the movie, but thinking back, it’s hard to recall any real standout performances by Happy. He had a single verse to himself in “A Silly Song”, but that’s about it. Happy’s performance never really made much of an impact on proceedings; this is partly because the other Dwarfs, aside from Grumpy obviously, are likewise basically happy fellows, so Happy’s primary characteristic–being happy–had no real way of distinguishing itself among the among the other 5. Even though we always thought there was potential for greatness with the character even back then, it seemed as though the Hapster was destined to remain a bit player.
 
But then, the Mouse House decided to give the Dwarfs their own show, The 7D. For this new cartoon, the characters were all redesigned, then everybody hated the new designs so they had to be redesigned yet again. Here’s the result of Happy’s makeover:

His hat resembles a party hat. Nice touch.

Okay, Happy received some plastic surgery and a new wardrobe, but there was still doubt that he could hold his own as a character.
That all changed on July 7, 2014. (Get it? 7-7-14. The seventh day of the seventh month in ’14, which is 7+7. It’s a Seven Dwarfs thing, GET IT??)
Everything changed during the show’s premiere episode, “The Long, Long Winter”. (I don’t know if this was the first episode made, since many fans agree that the episode “The Littlest Giants/Gnome Alone” felt more like a pilot with all of its’ expository dialogue, but it was the first episode aired), at precisely this moment:
 Long Long Winter Gif 2
Long Long Winter Gif
Climbing_Song

“Ohhhhhhh, Uppity-up, uppity-up, up, up, up, up, uppity-up, uppity up, uppity-up, up, up, HARMONICA SOLO!”

Long Long Winter 1

“Does he have to be directly behind me?!?”

When I first saw this short, I thought, “They’re not really going to show him singing the whole way up, are they?” But they did. It was brilliant. Even falling doesn’t stop Happy. He takes a tumble, then after reassuring us that he’s not dead or injured, starts caterwauling again. And he goes on, and on, and on….And suddenly, BAM! At that exact moment, Happy’s untapped potential was finally realized, and he ascended from minor character to major player. That makes us happy.
Like all of the Dwarfs on The 7D, Happy’s basic characteristics were exaggerated for comic effect, basically cranked up to 11. Here, Happy isn’t just cheerful, he’s deliriously, almost insanely happy, and whoever’s idea it was to give Happy a penchant for breaking into inanely happy songs should be hailed as a genius. Happy’s singing habit could be Disney’s subtle jab at their own studio, which is known for featuring characters who burst into song at the slightest provocation. (Giving Happy a penchant for jokes and comedy would have worked too, but what they did is still good.) It’s also worth mentioning that Happy has read more episode titles aloud than any other character on the show.
A lot of Happy’s appeal stems from the talents of the actor who provides his voice, Kevin Michael Richardson, known to some of his fans as “Sexual Chocolate” due to his smooth bass voice. (And here I thought that was the WWE’s Mark Henry.)
Kevin Richardson, the voice behind our favorite guitar strumming dwarf. Hard to believe that Mr. Oompty-Smoompty Shmoodley-Doo and Nickelodeon’s Shredder are the same guy.
 
In one of TV’s great ironies, Mr. Richardson auditioned for the show assuming he’d be a lock for the voice of Grumpy. Indeed, Richardson would have made a decent Grumpy, given some of his past roles (most kids today probably know him best as the voice of Mr. Gus on Cartoon Network’s Uncle Grandpa), but that role went to Maurice LaMarche. Personally, I’m glad things worked out the way they did, because as previously stated, while Richardson could have worked as Grumpy, LaMarche sells the role; now I can’t imagine anyone else voicing Grumpy but LaMarche, nor anyone but Richardson voicing Happy. His voicing of the character is one of the highlights of the show.
Speaking of Grumpy, it’s amazing how in all this time, in all these years, no one at the Mouse House has ever thought of playing Happy off of Grumpy until now. The notion seems like a no-brainer, given that the 2 characters are night and day attitude-wise. In Snow White, Grumpy would frequently square off against Doc, but he and Happy interacted very little. But now that Doc on this show is basically a cross between Thomas Edison, Leonardo DaVinci and Carl Sagan, Happy is the Dwarf who annoys Grumpy the most. Seeing these 2 play off another and the light and dark contrast of their natures is another highlight.
So hats off to Happy. Congratulation for breaking out of background character status and hitting the big time. the following sums Happy up perfectly:
“Stay happy, my friends.”