Ahem….
You know, when you strip away all the pretense and really think about it, the cartoon Johnny Bravo was actually just a show about a guy trying to get laid.
I know, right?
Page 76 of 127
2015 Progress Report
Hey, guys. I just thought I’d let you all know how things are coming along with those plans to revise the site that we mentioned at the tail end of 2014.
We’re about to blow up!
There will be videos. As of this writing, we’re still in the germinal stages of video making; they’re baby steps, but we’re making progress. Our brother Chaz (aka CJP of the Otaku Gamer Spot) has been giving us some pointers and we’re taking tutorials and watching instructional videos on how to do it and the right programs and software to choose, etc., so yes, original videos for this site will be happening. Our first attempts at video making will undoubtedly suck and suck hard, but you have to not be afraid to suck because that’s how you learn. If all goes well, expect the original videos to increase and the actual typed blogs here to decrease; in fact, I’ve been thinking of relegating the actual blogs to their own separate category, they’ll likely just cover site news and announcements and the few newsy type articles which don’t require a full video. Generally speaking, if it features visuals and jokey-jokes, it will done as a video rather than a blog article. We’re still mulling over choices for a video host; right now it looks like we’ll go with YouTube as our main host but also have a backup host in case YouTube decides to act funny regarding images and clips (we do plan to feature cutaways and such in the videos); right now we’re considering Dailymotion as a backup host, but if anybody has any suggestions or recommendations, please share your wisdom with us. We can use all the help we can get.
Now as for the content: in an earlier article when we revived and revised the Reviews on the Run segments, Jason (Goldstar) mentioned how the reviews need not be for a series as a whole: they could be about a specific character or a specific episode or even a specific scene from a particular episode. When we launch the videos, expect them to follow this standard. Additional inspiration comes from our friend Hobbyfan’s blog Saturday Morning Archives, in that we’re only going to cover the subjects that we choose to cover, regardless of whether they’re currently on the air or not. I try not to let myself become “time warped”, one of those people who allows themselves to get locked into one particular era, but at the same time, I admit that I have eclectic, almost esoteric tastes and simply lack the desire to try to follow everything that comes down the pike. As Goldstar noted, trying to please everyone by trying to cover everything was both time consuming and physically draining and we definitely won’t be going back to that.
The best way I can describe what I have in mind for the videos is something similar to the Nostalgia Critic (Doug Walker)’s commercial videos, only done as an on ongoing series so we can cover one thing at a time instead of several all at once and they can cover other topics such as cartoons, video games, sketches and products as well. Phelous, Calluna and Mike J’s videos are also indicative of what we hope to accomplish with the vids. I’d love to do the kind of stuff that Tony Goldmark (Some Jerk with a Camera) does but with varying topics. That’s the hope anyway.
Don’t worry, folks; the cartoon subjects won’t be going away. We’ll still be talking toons here, animation is and always has been a BIG part of our lives and that’ll likely never change, but we would like to branch out into other subjects as well (the 2 Funny and Nerdvana segments were born from this desire).
There will be riffs. As previously mentioned, I’d also like for us to do riffs on this site, kind of like Mystery Science Theater 3000’s Shorts videos, but as a series. We probably will do some 1950’s instructional type videos like Chicken of Tomorrow and Design for Dreaming type stuff sometimes, but I don’t want those to be our primary target because Rifftrax and The Isle of Rangoon pretty much have that domain covered, plus there are just other things I’d like to riff on. Ideally, I’d like for us to do riffs on cartoon shorts and episodes, TV shows and specials, commercials, movie trailers, etc., anything involving cartoons, costumed mascots, puppety oddballs or anything really campy and outlandish. Think Retsuprae tackling other things besides video games and you have the basic idea of what I’d like to accomplish with the riffs.
Hopefully, there will be cartoons. This idea is even more beta than the videos, but nonetheless it’s something I’d like for us to do in the future: original cartoons, either as web comics or possibly original animations. We have 1 idea that’s been in the planning stages for some time now; it’s sort of our take on the Johnny Test premise but with more Girl Power and very pro-STEM. Another idea we’re toying with is the Wild Cartoon Kingdom/Eat or Get Ate thing that we joked about previously but have since decided to actuallly pursue as a project, so we’ll see where things go from there. If all goes well with those, we may be giving the cartoons their own site, like what we planned to do with Twinsanity Toons: original cartoons.
So yeah, it may or may not look like it, but things are happening on that end. Expect Twinsanity to get more video-oriented and visual and less text-heavy in the coming months. We’ve been doing the site more or less the same way for 5 years now, and I just feel like it’s ready for a makeover. I’d like to see this site become bigger and better than it’s ever been. Our dream is for Twinsanity to become a fun site full of entertaining videos where we celebrate the stuff we like, cartoons and other things. Just good times and big laughs all around. We’ll keep you all posted as things progress, in the meantime…
Peeks: DC Super Hero Girls
Are you a fan of Girl Power?
Of course you are. Well, it looks like Detective Comics is jumping aboard the Girl Power train. Introducing the DC Super Hero Girls initiative.
Warner Bros. And DC Entertainment In Partnership With Mattel Launch DC Super Hero Girls, A New Super Hero Universe Designed Just For Girls, Slated For Fall 2015
Mattel to Launch Company’s First Action Figures for Girls
Unprecedented Initiative to Include Digital Content, TV Specials, Made-For-Videos, Publishing, Toys, Apparel and Other Products
Random House Children’s Books to be Master Publishing Partner The LEGO Group to be Exclusive Construction Partner
Beginning in Fall 2015, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Mattel join forces to launch DC Super Hero Girls, an exciting new universe of Super Heroic storytelling that helps build character and confidence, and empowers girls to discover their true potential. Featuring DC Comics’ most powerful and diverse line-up of female characters as relatable teens, DC Super Hero Girls will play out across multiple entertainment content platforms and product categories to create an immersive world.
Developed for girls aged 6-12, DC Super Hero Girls centers on the female Super Heroes and Super-Villains of the DC Comics universe during their formative years – prior to discovering their full super power potential. Featuring a completely new artistic style and aesthetic, DC Comics’ icons such as Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Harley Quinn, Bumble Bee, Poison Ivy, Katana and many more make their unprecedented teenaged introduction. Each character has her own storyline that explores what teen life is like as a Super Hero, including discovering her unique abilities, nurturing her remarkable powers and mastering the fundamentals of being a hero.
“DC Entertainment is home to the most iconic and well-known Super Heroes including Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl,” said Diane Nelson, President of DC Entertainment. “DC Super Hero Girls represents the embodiment of our long-term strategy to harness the power of our diverse female characters. I am so pleased that we are able to offer relatable and strong role models in a unique way, just for girls.”
The initial launch of DC Super Hero Girls in Fall 2015 will include an immersive digital experience, original digital content and digital publishing – providing opportunities for girls to interact with characters, learn about the storylines, and engage in customizable play. TV specials, made-for-videos, toys, apparel, books and other product categories will begin to rollout in 2016.
“Developing a Super Hero franchise exclusively for girls that includes all of the key components of a comprehensive entertainment experience – from content to consumer products – is something we are excited to be doing in conjunction with our great partners,” said Brad Globe, President of Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “It’s really an honor to be part of this cultural moment and to be delivering a concept so rooted in a relatable and empowered theme that the characters of DC Comics are uniquely able to present.”
As master toy licensee, Mattel is collaborating with DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Bros. Consumer Products on DC Super Hero Girls‘ narrative creation, interactive digital activations and ultimately a toy line launching in 2016. Mattel category-leading firsts include a line of characters for the action figure category, an area of the industry that has been primarily developed with boys in mind, and fashion dolls featuring strong, athletic bodies that stand on their own in heroic poses.
“Partnering with the best and being the best partner is of paramount importance,” said Richard Dickson, President, Chief Operating Officer, Mattel. “Together with Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment, the DC Super Hero Girls franchise will further expand our already powerful girls portfolio. We know Super Hero is a culturally relevant theme and the DC Super Hero Girls franchise will engage and inspire girls, providing cues to explore heroic acts through play and into real life.”
The Random House Books for Young Readers imprint of Random House Children’s Books has been appointed the master publishing partner for the franchise and will be creating a portfolio of books that will bring the DC Super Hero Girls world to life, beginning in Spring 2016. Random House’s publishing program will be complemented by a series of original graphic novels from DC Entertainment. The LEGO Group will also be key to building the DC Super Hero Girls franchise, leveraging their experience and success engaging girls in creative construction play to bolster this universe through an array of LEGO building sets designed to inspire girls’ imaginations. Additionally, consumer products partners around the world will be engaged in creating a merchandise line dedicated to DC Super Hero Girls across all key categories.
Thanks to James Harvey at World’s Finest for the info.
Here’s a first look:
The designs look very doll-like, almost Disney-esque, but Mattel, the company that gave us Barbie and Monster High, is behind this; clearly the plan is to sell dolls, hence the toyetic look. Some of the designs are pretty decent: I like how Supergirl seems to be a mix of her 90’s Superman: The Animated Series look with the Sakura-style sneaks, and her early 2000’s look with the blue costume. The collar gives her a schoolgirl like appearance. (No bare midriff, but oh well.) Kind of odd that they opted to go with Wonder Woman instead of Wonder Girl here, given that the emphasis is supposed to be on youth; why not use the teen Wondy when you have one? I guess DC figured that more people would be familiar with Wonder Woman, but that didn’t stop Lauren Faust from using Wonder Girl in Super Best Friends Forever. Either way, she looks good, I like the blue hair and star-studded pants. The shield seems kind of unnecessary since WW can block projectiles with her bracelets, though. Lets be real here: the main (if not only) reason Bumblebee and Katana are here is so there will be some non-white faces in the bunch. I honestly don’t know much about Katana and my only exposure to Bumblebee is the TV shows Teen Titans and Young Justice, so I’m a bit murky on their histories, so forgive me if I say that they’re kind of obscure characters to include. That said, I personally would’ve chosen Vixen over Bee in a Tantu Talisman rubbing split second, but that’s just me. I’m kind of sorry Miss Martian didn’t make the cut, but maybe she’ll show up in the second wave. To play both sides of the fence (or perhaps just to include more characters) we also get some villains, namely Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy; but I can go along with that I suppose; given that the goal is to make these characters attractive to girl consumers, the villain characters will likely be more annoying pranksters than out-and-out evil doers; their designs are OK, especially Harley’s. Bit o’ historical trivia: when Haley Quinn first made her debut on Batman: The Animated Series, I thought Harley was kind of lame, but to update that story, I think she’s kind of cool now. I actually think Harley’s more interesting and fun when she’s not mooning over the Joker, plus I like her skill set; I’ve always been a sucker for flippy gymnasts. I like the combination of black, gold and dark blue on Batgirl’s costume, and of course, Barbara’s front and center, and the only 2 villains depicted here are Gotham villains. Why?
Because BATMAN.
The article mentioned TV specials, which, if successful, could lead to a DC Super Hero Girls series, but where would such a show air?
If this were to become a series, under current circumstances said show would likely be an online exclusive. I don’t see Cartoon Network being interested in a DC cartoon unless it was going to be Teen Titans GO! goofy, not to mention that DC and CN are kind of on the outs right now after what happened with DC Nation and the boy-skewing CN likely wouldn’t be all that keen on acquiring a girl-centric show. No way in Helsinki is Disney going to air a DC show, and I just don’t see Discovery Family having any interest; the only animated shows they have are the leftovers from Hasbro’s reign, and they don’t seem to be in a hurry to pick up any more cartoons.
The only one of the Big 3 kids’ networks I could see showing any interest in airing this would be Nickelodeon, since the toys are made by Mattel and Nick has aired some specials based on Mattel properties before such as Monster High and some Barbie specials. I can definitely see DCSHG going to Nick before the boy-skewing Cartoon Network. Mattel has been putting adaptations of a lot of their products on the web (Monster High, Ever After High, Barbie, Polly Pocket, etc.), so overall, I’d say the internet would be the most likely outlet for this should Mattel and DC decide to turn this into a series.
Speaking of TV shows, the announcement of this project, some folks on the interwebz have begun assuming (and who knows where they got this idea) that the launch of DC Super Hero Girls will somehow mean that we’ll finally be getting a series version of Super Best Friends Forever, the 1-minute shorts which aired as filler segments between shows on DC Nation, depicting Supergirl (Nicole Sullivan), Wonder Girl (Grey Delisle) and Batgirl (Tara Strong) as MLP-esque besties rendered by none another than Lauren Faust herself.
Superheroism is Magic!
Uh, no. Why would the announcement of this mean that SBFF is coming back? There’s not going to be a Super Best Friends Forever show. That ship has sailed. The time to have jumped on that would’ve been back in 2013, when DC Nation was still relevant and Lauren Faust was still available (she’s working on a feature film currently). If anything, this project only decreases the chances of that happening. Why would DC need or want to resurrect some shorts from like 2 years ago when they now have this new property initiative with multiple platforms to mack on? That would be like if Warner Brothers Animation launched a new property called HB Racers or something like that, with popular Hanna-Barbera characters such as Fred Flintstone, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, and other HB stars in global races in stylized vehicles, and they had all the bells and whistles planned for it: toys, T-shirts, video games, DTVs, the whole 9 yards, and somebody said, “Hey, maybe now that they’re doing this we’ll finally get that Wacky Races Forever series that was a failed pilot that CN didn’t want back in 2004!”. The latter makes the former redundant, and there’d be no point in doing both ’cause it’s the exact same idea. For all intents and purposes, DC Super Hero Girls IS Super Best Friends Forever: The Series, in spirit if not in name.
I’m all for giving girls the spotlight once in a while, goodness knows it’s overdue (though I find it a tad annoying how in the wake of Powerpuff Girls, nowadays it seems that producers seem to think that the only way to make girl protagonists interesting is to make them superheroes or crime fighters–I’d like to see more girl-centric comedies myself), so I’m curious to see how DC Super Hero Girls plays out. This should be interesting.
On a final note: going back to DC Nation for a minute, one reason why Cartoon Network dropped the ax on Young Justice was because it was garnering greater viewership among girls than boys. Just pointing that out.
Boomerang Online (Revisited)
A while back, I wrote about an hypothetical idea for a website called Boomerang Online. In the wake of recent developments in the online entertainment industry, I thought that we’d revisit this idea with some minor adjustments made to it. Basically, it’s the same idea as before, only with a little bit of Patreon thrown in for good measure.
This is what the proposed app could look like. I also could have gone with the older big blue ‘B’ logo, but II don’t mind the new logo, so for the sake of argument, let’s go with this design.
Here’s how it would work: Turner could launch a website (the aforementioned Boomerang Online), as well as an app which could be downloaded onto one’s smartphone or tablet. Viewers could access the site anytime and would be able to access a select number of “old-school” Turner owned cartoons such as the 1990s Cartoon-Cartoon shows and cartoons from the old-school Hanna-Barbera library for free. However, Turner could also “sweeten the pot” by giving people the option to sign up and become members of Boom Online for a monthly fee of say, $3, $4, $5 or $9 per month. Turner could offer perks to paying members. For example, if someone visiting the site for free wanted to watch Dexter’s Laboratory, he or she would have access to a limited number of episodes which would rotate every few days or weeks and would have to watch them with a pre-roll ad as well as mid-rolls. But a paying member of the site would have access to all of the Dexter’s Lab episodes and could also view the episodes without mid-rolls. Paying members would also have access to a wider selection of shows as well as a wider selection of episodes of said shows.
And while we’re at it, why not throw in some SWAG for paying members as well? Turner could also offer Boom related stuff like T-shirts, hats and other cool stuff for those who are willing to pay for them. The more money that members are willing to give the site, the more stuff they would be able to obtain. Because as we already know…
Just had to get that in there. And hey, while we’re at it, why not propose a TV Land Online for fans of nostalgic TV shows?
These shows aren’t airing on TV right now, so why not?
Nerdvana: “Driven” by Rush
I first heard this number as a music video which aired on Speed Tracks, a music video show from the now defunct Speed Channel, back when it was still called Speedvision; it’s been one of my all-time favorite songs ever since.
The accompanying video is…OK, just not the visuals that I pictured for this song. My vision for this involves cyberpunks, a super-powered mutant child, a robot bounty hunter and an evil high-tech corporation in a futuristic setting. Hopefully I’ll get to animate it one day. In the meantime, enjoy “Driven” by Canadian band Rush.
Twin Images 
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