I feel like I’m the only person who’s not really looking forward to the announced sequel to Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s not because I didn’t enjoy the first movie, quite the opposite, I thought it was great, one of my favorites, if not my all-time favorite Pixar movie, but I was actually OK with The Incredibles being a one-and-done film. The story was told: Superheroes fell out of favor with the public, the Parrs settled down into domestic life, a crisis erupted, the Parrs faced adversity (and their own personal issues) and triumphed, the public became OK with Supers again, and the family was back in business. The end. What more needs to said? What questions did the first movie leave unanswered?
It’s usually at this point that some wag pipes in with:
“Duh, they need to make a second movie since the first one ended on a cliff hanger. Ah-hyuk!”
Yeah, no. The ending of The Incredibles wasn’t a cliff hanger ending, it was a “We’re back in business” ending. Did you honestly think that Pixar was planning to devote an entire movie to The Underminer? Anyways, there was already a video game about that, Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer.
Which brings me to the other reason why I’m not exactly anticipating an Incredibles sequel: the reason the first one was so good was because it was about the superhero mythos as a whole; it wasn’t your typical “Bad guy makes trouble, good guys have to go out and stop him kind of deal”, it dealt with so much more: family, marriage, relationships, acceptance, hero worship, hubris, isolation. My big fear is the next movie will just end up being another generic superhero story, and reading some of the fanfics and story ideas that people have suggested for an Incredibles 2, most of which stink like day-old sushi, doesn’t make me any more optimistic. I really hope they don’t opt to make it a time-skip, ’cause I hate those.
However, Brad Bird has said that he wasn’t going to embark on an Incredibles sequel until he had a good enough story for one, and Pixar has managed to surprise us before (Finding Dory seems to be going over well with audiences, though it’s worth mentioning that I still haven’t seen Finding Nemo yet–yeah, I know; talking fish movies just generally aren’t my thing), so I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I’m trying to remain optimistic, though I still have reservations.
Anyone who’s ever worked in an office or a corporate or team environment has experienced that one day or meeting where their unit succeeds at getting absolutely nothing done. The Super Friends’ archenemies the Legion of Doom are having just such a day in this favorite Cartoon Network bumper from back in the day. Enjoy.
Note how Solomon Grundy always just piggy backs onto whatever request the last person who spoke makes. The “Solomon Grundy want pants too!” line gets me every time. Good stuff.
Today Nerdvana pays tribute to one of our favorite tropes in fiction: space aliens, those guests of ours from beyond the stars.
Today we’ll be listing some our favorite fictional Visitors from Beyond. First, some ground rules:
These won’t be in any particular order, so we won’t be numbering them.
We’re only talking about friendly aliens here; not the would-be world conquering kind…
…Or the human abducting and probing kind.
“Now understand, human, that we derive no pleasure from this procedure. This is purely for scientific research. That said, is it OK if my buddies here watch?”
Now that we’ve gotten the preliminaries out of the way,
LET’S ROCKET!
STARFIRE
Jason’s favorite Teen Titan, and who am I to argue? Starfire was and still remains one of our all-time favorite alien characters. She’s a golden orange skinned princess from a species of interplanetary hippies who naturally absorb sunlight and are fueled by their emotions, who can fire heat-and-light energy blasts from her hands thanks to experimentation by a race of scientist shnooks called the Psions, possesses the strength of 7 humans, can naturally fly and absorb language through epidermal contact, i.e., kissing.
Baby, you can learn colloquialisms from me anytime!
J’ONN J’ONZZ AND M’GANN M’ORZZ (aka Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian)
The stars from Mars. They’re from the same planet, belong to the same race (technically Megan is a White martian, but why split hairs?), have the same power sets and M’gann is J’onn’s niece, so we’re listing them together. Martian Manhunter was my favorite character on the CN Justice League show. I like the Martian’s power set: strength, flight, invisibility, intangibility, telepathy, metamorphosis and sometimes telekinesis (MM has been referred to as ‘the Swiss Army Knife of Superheroes’ for good reason); over the years he’s had more powers than a toad has warts, but good producers have modified them to decent effect for a good balance…
…Plus the dude rocks an awesome costume!
As for Miss Martian, imagine Martian Manhunter as a cute, perky teenager. The freckles are a nice touch.
I like how Miss Martian’s costume is a cuter, more feminine variation of J’onn’s. Kind of looks like a super sailor suit.
Cute green alien girl in a bikini? Yes, please! Captain Kirk would approve.
Bonus: the DC Super Hero Girls’ version of Megan is super-shy around anyone else besides fellow alien student Starfire. She squeals and goes invisible whenever anyone talks to her. Awwww.
QUANTUM RAY
He’s here and he’s Quantum!
The show Cosmic Quantum Ray wasn’t around for very long, but I dug this guy while it was. A delightfully daffy super guy from the 9th dimension who can lift a chunk of building over his head, detach his body parts due to being held together by some cosmic mucilage that we mere 3rd dimensional beings can’t see, can fly through space, transform his molecules into any organic substance from steely steel to anti-matter and exist in 6 other dimensions simultaneously. In this photo, Ray just happens to standing in front of a 7th dimensional kielbasa stand.
SUPERMAN AND SUPERGIRL
The Man and Girl of Steel, respectively. Like the Martians, they have the same planet of origin and the same powers, so we’re listing them together. Kryptonians rock, plain and simple. Superman is one of the greatest super aliens of all time…
…And Kara has all that, plus Barbie blond hair and an exposed midriff. (No, a bare belly doesn’t make sense to fight crime with, but Kara’s bulletproof so no big deal.)
Now some people feel that the Kryptonians aren’t so great. they think that Supey is a boy scout, that they’re too powerful, that they’re boring and lame, etc. Now those people are entitled to their opinions of course, but in actuality, well, I’ll let Dr. Cox field this one:
MARS (Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls)
Yet another green skinned Martian, this time with antennae! Mars has always been one of my favorite Galaxy Girls. It’s cool how Lauren Faust chose to represent Mars as a classic green alien (Ms. Faust must like 1950’s sci-fi kitsch too). her symbol is a flying saucer (nice!) and she’s a wacky modern artist who’s not afraid to get her oddball on. As weirdo artists ourselves, we stand by you, baby.
Words to live by.
THE WONDER TWINS
They’re twins. They’re named after Tarzan (Zan) and Jane (Jayna). Zan’s got the ‘tude and Jayna’s got the sass. Their pointy ears were inspired by Mr. Spock. They can touch and morph into any form of water or any animal, respectively. They’re alien versions of Donny and Marie Osmond. The eat CDs. They get to hang with the Super Friends. Plus they have a blue space monkey which they received as a gift from a space clown. ‘Nuff said.
YANCY ROBERTS (Out of Jimmy’s Head)
The sassy green teleporting space alien sister of the kid who has cartoons in his head, who was adopted by his astronaut mom. OOJH was a train wreck to be sure, but even though this plot point had nothing to do with the show’s premise, Yancy was one of the best parts of OOJH. I guess you can tell that we like our green teens here.
WASHU HAKUBI
Tenchi Muyo!‘s resident Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe! Washu’s either an intergalactic mad scientist, Ryoko and Ryo-Oki’s creator, a goddess who chooses to employ technology instead of her natural powers and stay in child form or all of the above, and she’s all kinds of awesome. Anybody who can create a doomsday device and a dimensional portal with a star-shaped door is A-OK in our books.
-And now, some Honorable Mentions:
MR. SPOCK (Star Trek)
Everybody’s favorite half-human, half-Vulcan science officer. To not include Spock would be illogical.
STARLEE HAMBRATH (TMNT Fast Forward)
Cody Jones’ blue skinned, pointy-eared alien intern. She has no powers, but like Washu she’s a genius (Starlee’s race, the Omatronians, possess twice the brain capacity of humans), plus she rolls around her lab on roller skates, so maybe she’s an honorary Galaxy Girl.
THE CAT (Red Dwarf)
Oooooooooooooooooowwwww!
OK, maybe this isn’t a conventional choice, but he belongs to a different race and he was born in space, so I’m counting him. Deal. Who doesn’t like The Cat? He’s a stitch! Delightfully vain and shallow, with a fashion sense even more outrageous than Mars. What’s his special power?
Lookin’ NICE!
ATEE & GEECEE (Cosmic Quantum Ray)
Two more crew members from Cosmic Quantum Ray (technically 1, since they hail from a planet where everyone’s a twin and therefore count as a single crew member). Another set of alien twins, these 2 possessing the powers to create super-strong, super-elastic DNA strands. Atee (the one in pink) is sweet, while Geecee (the one in baby blue) is sassy. Plus they’re pilots with the need…the need for warp speed.
COLONEL BLEEP
OK, the propeller on top of his helmet serves no purpose since there’s no air in space and the unicycle is kind of dorky, but we can’t help but like an alien ambassador who comes from a planet called Futura (so what did they call it in the past?), lives on an island located at exactly zero degrees longitude and zero degrees latitude and possesses ‘Futomic Energy’ which can conjure up a house in seconds.
Plus he has a mute cowboy puppet and a caveman as his running crew, or flying crew to be more accurate.
So there you have it, our favorite fictional super advanced space aliens. Let’s just assume that they are super-advanced; after all, if they can get here, then they’re already more advanced than we are.
A Squared plus B Squared equals C Squared, Dum-dums!
Over the years, there seems to be a trend towards “More is better”. hence, due largely to the success of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), the recent wave of comic book/superhero movies such as Batman V Superman: Dawn of Sucking, X-Men: Overstuffed and Ninja Turtles 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold, are now trying to cram as many characters as they can into a single movie and on TV shows the trend leans toward expanded worlds with a large number of cast members…
Hey! Did you spot Waldo?
…So naturally, I have to go against the grain and state this Unpopular Opinion:
I prefer small casts to large ones. Always have, and probably always will.
Yeah, I get that a lot of people think huge casts are great; there’s a ton of different characters and plots to explore, it feels more like an actual world, blah blah blah, but I’m more of a minimalist (and let’s face it: I’m also lazy); having to keep track of so many characters and story lines is a chore to me, and when there’s too many, I just lose interest.
Case in point: I was probably the only person on the internet who wasn’t having a fangasm when Cartoon Network’s Justice League mutated into Justice League Unlimited.
The original JL format wasn’t perfect (I was never keen on the idea of Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman being on the team without Hawkman, not that she wasn’t a good or capable character, but in my mind she’s part of a duo and I can’t see her alone, and shipping Hawkgirl with someone other than her spouse and turning Hawkman into a Shayera Hol fanboy stalker didn’t sit right with me at all) but it was worlds better than the format change. I never liked the expansion of the League from the Super 7 to the JL Army; I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now. For one, it just came off as gimmicky to me, like a ploy to sell more toys, especially since 2/3 of these new characters never actually did anything. Some people were fan-wanking:
“At the end of the Static Shock episode “A League of Their Own”, the heroes said that Static and Gear would be joining the Justice League one day, so why weren’t they on JLU? Where were they?”
To which I respond, if Gear and Static were actually going to be the focus of stories and you know, do stuff, then I’d be totally fine with them appearing on JLU; they’re both cool characters, but I don’t see the need to put them on the show just to occasionally see them hovering in the background every few episodes.
-FTR, we did get to see Static in the League in “Time, Warped”…
…and we got a glimpse of Gear in the SS episode “Future Shock”…
Too much time in front of a monitor, I see…
..So there’s that.
The other reason I didn’t like the JL Army was because it cheapened the whole product; made it look like any Joe Shmoe with a flashy costume and a gimmick could get into the League; not the best image to convey for what’s supposed to be the greatest force for good on the planet. A club’s not exclusive if just anybody can be a member. If the League was going to open their doors for total jobbers like Vibe, Gypsy, Shining Knight and Vigilante, then they might as well have gone the whole 9 yards and stuck Mr. T, Inspector Gadget, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling and the Super Globetrotters in there as well. The producers wanted to bring in some other DC characters to mix things up? Fine. Then just bring the occasional Super Guest like they used to do on the old Super Friends show and keep the Big 7 as an elite (and exclusive) group.
When it comes to fiction, I happen to follow the rule of KISS:
DETROIT ROCK CITY!!
That being Keep It Simple, Stupid. Give a hoot, don’t convolute . Don’t over-complicate things when it’s not necessary. Keep everything streamlined and only focus on the main characters and their stories. This results in a better quality end product, since the creator only has to concentrate on the characters that matter, rather than trying to squeeze in a ton of ancillary characters that you really don’t need and have no real reason to be there.
A good example of the latter is The Amazing World of Gumball.
Gumball‘s producers seem to want to take a Simpsons type approach to the show, focusing on the entire town/world as a whole and intent on giving every single character a spotlight episode, even the 1-note, 1-joke characters who simply aren’t interesting or capable enough to sustain an entire plot…
…Whereas my brother Jason feels that the show should focus solely (if not exclusively) on the Watterson family first and foremost, and I have to say, based on what I’ve seen of Gumball, I have to agree with him. (Big surprise, I know.)
It’s like the game Sonic Heroes. Why cram your game full of a bunch of ham ‘n’ eggers that most people aside from super-hardcore fans really don’t care about…
..When you could just as easily make a kick-ass game that only stars the biggest, most dimensional and most layered characters that people actually want to play as?
Again, think KISS: Keep It Simple, Sir. Let’s not confuse quantity with quality. More doesn’t automatically equal better, or even as good. Some of the best comedians used restricted tools, and some of the greatest works of all time have done so by keeping things small: The Honeymooners and All in the Family each had only 4 protagonists, Sanford & Son and Two’s Company only had 2. Red Dwarf, one of THE best shows of all time, has never had more 3 or 4 regular cast members (5 counting Holly). The best Looney Tunes shorts have always centered on only 2 or 3 characters at a time, like Bugs and Elmer or Bugs and Sam or Bugs and Marvin or Bugs and Taz or Bugs and Daffy or Bugs, Daffy and Elmer or Daffy and Porky or Daffy and Marvin or Porky and Sylvester. I’ve always preferred smaller casts and fewer main characters. If the characters you have are cool and interesting, you don’t need a ton of characters.
I’d rather have a small set of elites and mega-stars…
It’s been a few weeks since Cartoon Network launched it’s 2016 reboot of The Powerpuff Girls (unoffically known as Powerpuff Girls 2016), and I’ve seen the first crop of episodes. Now, there are folks out there who vehemently hate this show, but myself, I don’t love it, but I don’t feel like it’s the worst thing to happen since the ebola virus either. As far as I’m concerned, this is just another mediocre reboot of a beloved classic.
This isn’t going to be one of those “Old VS New” deals where we try to determine which incarnation is better, as both versions have their strengths and weaknesses and also because I have zero interest in doing that. However, there are a few curious points concerning this show that I’d like to address here. Some things about PPG 2016 that left me scratching my head wondering “Why?”. Before I proceed, I just want to say right off the bat that I won’t be talking about the PPGs new voices, nor will I be talking about “Horn Sweet Horn”, aka, the infamous unicorn episode. It’s overtones are touchy subject matter and discussing it here would be akin to opening Pandora’s Box. I’m not opening that can o’ worms here. If anyone wants to read complaints from fans about that episode, there’s literally everywhere else on the internet. Take your pick. That said, it’s nitpicking time!
OK, so on PPG 2016, Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles are a little older this time. No longer attending Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, but are instead attending elementary school (possibly middle school). I could deal with that, except…
…the Girls still look exactly like they did before! Why age them at all if they’re still going to look like 5-year-olds?
2. What was the point of writing out the Mayor’s assistant Sara Bellum? I thought that the whole point of PPG was to emphasize “Girl Power”, so why get rid of a female character who’s smart, resourceful and totally capable?
3. Jennifer Hale is still on hand to reprise her role as Ms. Keane, but another character previously voiced by Ms. Hale, Princess Morebucks, is being voiced by someone else. Why? That would be like rebooting Futurama and bringing Billy West back to voice Fry and Dr. Zoidberg, but then hire someone else to voice Professor Farnsworth.
“Sense no make. Sense no make.”
4. In the episode “The Wrinklypuff Gals”, the Girls use super science to age themselves to better fit in the older kids (who actually look their age) after being bullied by them and as a result, end up aging themselves into senior citizens. A passable plot, except that everyone in Townsville loves the Powepuff Girls and everyone in Townsville knows about them and that they have super powers. Who in Townsville would want to bully a Powerpuff? And who’d be stupid enough to try?
5. In the episode “Strong Armed”, Bubbles breaks her arm while battling a giant monster. Professor Utonium constructs a robot cast for her and during her 6 week healing process, Bubbles grows attached to the cast and treats it as though it were a person. OK, I can buy one of the Girls being injured by someone in their own strength class, but Bubbles breaks her arm and has to wear a cast for six weeks like a regular person? the Powepuff Girls are super beings! It was established back in the short “Cop Out” that even getting dipped in acid doesn’t hurt them. You’d think that being a Powerpuff, Bubbles would heal considerably faster than a normal human would.
I knew from the very beginning that fans of the original PPG would hate the rebooted series with the fury of 1000 suns. After all…
…However in this particular case, I can see why they would have some complaints. A lot of the things in PPG 2016 just seemed to be changes for change’s sake alone, which is never a good reason for change. Different doesn’t always mean better, or even as good. I could accept some of these creative changes if there were logic and reason behind making them, but as it stands, while I’m not declaring war on PPG 2016, I’m not going to declare my fandom for it either.
One more thing, despite of the mixed reception that PPG 2016 has been receiving, apparently this show is a hit with kids, as Natalie Palamides (the new voice of Buttercup) has confirmed that the show has been renewed for 2nd season, and that PPG 2016 will be crossing over with Teen Titans GO! in it’s 2nd season.
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