The Nostalgia Spot

June 21, 2018

Dragon Ball Z Movie Mondays!

By Joe

2VMZ1zRFPnUQtQp5K4WRXvDYBjh When I first started this blog back in 2011, I just wrote whenever I felt like it. I was a bachelor at the time with no significant other so you would be safe to assume that I had a lot of free time on my hands. Despite that though, I didn’t post a ton here. I felt like if I could do one post per week I was doing pretty well, and then I think that slid to twice per month. That’s not a lot of content, but I’ve also never blogged here for any reason other than pleasure so it’s not as if I really felt like I needed to do more. By and large, it doesn’t matter to me how many people read or follow what I do here, I just do it because it’s kind of fun to talk to myself via blogging and it’s rewarding to see my thoughts preserved. I love and appreciate any attention I get from subscribed readers and commenters, but I’d probably keep posting even if no one read at all.

I’ve found over the years though that creating goals for myself in relation to this blog is what gets me to actually write. And the more I write, the more rewarded I feel. Doing annual Christmas posts gives me a goal and something to work towards and starting the feature on Batman: The Animated Series last year gave me a goal to keep up with throughout the whole year (as well as provided me a good reason to revisit an old cartoon I enjoy). Since starting that I’ve been in search of another goal. Writing about Batman constantly does get a bit old, which is why it’s probably a good thing I at least limited myself to one a week. If you like that feature though, don’t worry, it’s not going anywhere and I’m as committed to it now as I was when it started, but I am posting today to announce my next little project: the movies of Dragon Ball Z!

As a smaller project than Batman, blogging about the 13 theatrically released Dragon Ball Z movies accomplishes similar goals, just on a smaller scale. I’ve wanted to revisit the movies for a long time, and a few I’ve actually never seen. They’re quite affordable on DVD, and since there are only 13 it makes for a nice summer time feature. Which is why every Monday this summer I’ll post a review/synopsis of each of the 13 original DBZ movies. Now you may be thinking to yourself, “What about the other two movies released in the last few years?” Well, I already did reviews for them, and if you want to check out my thoughts for Battle of Gods or Resurrection ‘F’ you can do so. Even though they are branded as Dragon Ball Z films, they’re actually part of Dragon Ball Super, but I suppose it’s all the same anyways.

Most of the movies can be purchased in multi-pack DVDs or as two-part Blu Rays.

The original 13 films were produced and created by Toei without input from series creator Akira Toriyama. They’re supplemental stories to the overall narrative of the Dragon Ball Z story. They all have an obvious, general time in which they take place relative to the story, but almost none of them could actually exist in the main story for the simple reason that it doesn’t contain room for them. Movie 3 for instance, The Tree of Might, obviously takes place around the time that Goku fought Vegeta because of how powered-up Goku is, but Goku spent that time either in a hospital bed or in a spaceship heading for Planet Namek so the events of that movie could not have possibly occurred in the same universe. And that’s fine, why should it have to? These movies are just for fun and not intended to intrude upon the actual Dragon Ball Z plot. The sooner you’re able to get past that the sooner you can start enjoying them for what they are.

For my reviews, I’ll be going in chronological order and using the English release titles and character names for simplicity’s sake. These movies are all available both dubbed and subtitled so you can enjoy them however you wish, it makes little difference. They’re mostly extended fight scenes with minimal plot developments rendering the non-visual aspects of each film kind of moot. That’s not to say that some aren’t better than others. For the most part, the films all seem to try and take some aspect of the main series, like Goku unlocking the ability to turn Super Saiyan, and truncating that story into a 45 minute movie. Most of the films are under an hour with the longest only lasting 72 minutes, so there’s not a lot of room for complicated narratives. I mostly want my posts to be spoiler-free reviews, but I found my main point of criticism is often in how the film’s choose to wrap-up the story and they’ve turned into more of a discussion/analysis than a true review. I don’t really think there’s much to spoil in these movies, since often the cover art or title gives away most of the plot and each film needs to reset the status quo at the end. I’ll still try my best to avoid them though and warn those who haven’t watched these movies ahead of time if I’m about to spoil something major.

Dragonball.Z.-.Movie.09.-.1080p.BluRay.x264.DHD.mkv_snapshot_13.27_[2013.12.01_16.35.45]

Since the movies are non-canon, you’ll sometimes get to see match-ups that you would have never seen in the main series, like Trunks vs. Tien.

If you haven’t seen all of them though then I encourage you to watch along with me as I go. Dragon Ball Z is largely an imperfect series, but it’s also inherently fun. Because of the wish-fulfilling Dragon Balls, the stakes are often pretty low even when they seem vast and the movies are full of plenty of humorous moments as well. They’re often a place for the underused characters, especially Oolong, to have a little moment to themselves which is often quite nice. The super-powered Saiyans seem to soak up a lot of the attention in the series, and they do in the movies too, but it’s easy to forget that the franchise boasts some pretty entertaining supporting characters as well. If this all sounds like fun to you, then check back this Monday for our very first movie – Dead Zone! And if you’re seeing this for the very first time and I’m well into the series, use the drop-down menu to your right to find all of the Dragon Ball Z movie reviews in one handy place. And if you love Dragon Ball, but don’t care for the movies so much, well good news because I have a few other posts on the way concerning the subject. I hope to see you Monday!

Leave a comment | tags: akira toriyama, dbz, dragon ball z, funimation, goku, saiyan, toei, vegeta | posted in Dragon Ball Z Movies, Film, Television

June 15, 2018

Batman: The Animated Series – “Heart of Steel: Part I”

By Joe

Heart_of_Steel_Part_I Episode Number: 38

Original Air Date: November 16, 1992

Directed by: Kevin Altieri

Written by: Brynne Stephens

First Appearance(s): Barbara Gordon, Karl Rossum, H.A.R.D.A.C.

There’s quite a bit to unpack in this one, which may seem odd since this is an episode that does not feature a “name” villain. Debuting in this episode is H.A.R.D.A.C. (Jeff Bennett), a clear nod to HAL2000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey who’s existence in this cartoon probably owes a lot to James Cameron’s Terminator franchise which was red hot in ’92. H.A.R.D.A.C., which stands for Holographic Analytical Reciprocating Digital Computer, is basically an A.I. like Skynet capable of integrating with the machines around it, as well as able to construct robots that resemble humans. H.A.R.D.A.C. will obviously appear in the second part of this two-part story and will also make another appearance in the series, but the big debut this week is none other than the someday Batgirl, Barbara Gordon (Melissa Gilbert). Up until this point, we have seen nothing of Commissioner Gordon’s home-life, but anyone who grew up with the comics or watched the 60’s television series knew that Gordon had a daughter named Barbara and she is Batgirl. What we don’t know about this version of Barbara is where she is at currently in her life. We also don’t know anything about her mother, but it would seem Gordon is a single father and I honestly can’t recall if that’s ever addressed in a future episode. The episode is also written by Brynne Stephens, who now goes by Brynne Chandler and at one point as Brynne Chandler Reaves. You may recognize that surname if you’ve been paying attention to the writing credits in this show as her former husband, Michael Reaves, is also a writer for this show. Stephens is interesting because she was given the role of basically being the Barbara Gordon writer as she is the main writer for all of her appearances. They must have felt she had a good grasp on the character, and maybe the show runners were just smart enough to realize it’s a good idea to have a woman write their most important female character. In addition to her credits here, she also contributed to some other stellar (and admittedly some not so stellar) shows like Gargoyles and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the good episodes, trust me).

Meet the newest addition to Batman’s rogues gallery: Briefcase Robot!

The episode opens at Wayne Enterprises. A blond woman in a white dress is shown walking in from behind and starts chatting with the officer at the security desk. She places a briefcase on the floor and just walks out. Now, if this was done in 2018 security would likely notice it and call in a bomb squad, but in 1992 they probably would just consider it a lost item. That night, the briefcase reveals itself as some kind of a robot by sprouting legs and producing a little camera that kind of looks like an eyeball. It sneaks into a restricted area and produces a laser to cut its way into a safe to vacuum out what look like fairly large microchips. At the same time, Bruce Wayne is heading home and he needs security assistance to make sure he doesn’t trip the alarm as he leaves. As he’s being lead out, the alarm goes off and they see the odd device on a security camera. The guard ushers Wayne into a safe room and tells him to remain there, just to be safe, which of course Wayne has no intention of doing. He activates some sort of revolving corner in the room vanishing from sight.

He really does have some wonderful toys.

As the little robot tries to escape, Batman emerges from an elevator armed with a trusty Batarang. Batman chases it to the rooftop where the robot fires off a rocket towards the beach. Apparently disabled, Batman retrieves a Bat-glider from a storage shed on the roof and takes off in the direction the rocket was fired. Meanwhile, the rocket touches down on the beach and the same woman from earlier is there to retrieve it. She picks up the stolen microchips and hops into a car with no traditional steering implements. She simply orders it “home” and the car obeys. Batman sees the vehicle speeding off from above. The woman notices, and the vehicle begins firing on Batman and strikes his glider knocking him from the sky.

Batman, failing to stop the thief, returns to the Batcave where Alfred is waiting. Some mechanical arms descend from the ceiling to hoist the battered Bat-Glider above for repairs. As Batman fiddles with it, Lucius Fox (Brock Peters) calls to inform him of what was stolen. The chips are apparently part of what Wayne Enterprises is referring to as wetware, a new advanced type of artificial intelligence. The good news though is that without the accompanying data files they’re useless, and the robot was not able to grab those from the mainframe.

Bruce getting a little creepy with Barbara.

The next day, Wayne and Fox meet with the Gotham Police at Wayne Enterprises over the theft. Fox informs Bruce that a Cybertron Industries is a competitor in this field, and he thinks they’re the only ones who could possibly make use of the chips. He doesn’t accuse them of being behind it, but it’s enough of a lead that Batman wants to investigate. This is where Barbara also makes her debut as she comes into the room to check on her father, Commissioner Gordon. She just returned home from college, and Bruce sort of pokes fun at the beat-up old teddy bear in her purse. Apparently, her dad always brings it along when he picks her up from the airport. As everyone leaves, Barbara forgets the bear and Commissioner Gordon returns for it in kind of a cute, and humorous moment. The implication being he obviously has more of an attachment to his daughter’s childhood toy than she does.

Randa Duane, who can blame Bruce for wanting to get to know her a little better?

It turns out, Wayne knows the founder of Cybertron, Karl Rossum (William Sanderson), who apparently taught Wayne about artificial intelligence. Bruce pays him a visit the and Rossum is happy to invite him into his laboratory to show him some of his work. He apparently knows about the break-in from the night before, but basically claims no knowledge of Wayne’s wetware seemingly because he wouldn’t need it. He then shows Bruce H.A.R.D.A.C., his newest A.I. which he seems to have high hopes for. He struggles to find the right words to explain how the colossal device functions, but they’re soon interrupted anyway by Rossum’s assistant who emerges from the machine. Clad all in a tight-fitting silver bodysuit, Wayne seems more than a little interested in Randa Duane (Leslie Easterbrook) and pulls the power move of asking her to dinner right in front of her boss (I mean, come on Bruce, you don’t know what her relationship is to Rossum) and she accepts.

Judging by Rossum’s expression, it would appear he is not too thrilled with this development.

Satisfied with landing a hot date for the following night, Bruce departs and Duane returns to H.A.R.D.A.C. The A.I. is apparently sentient, and it scolds Duane for not getting it the information it needs to make use of the chips stolen the night before. At this point, Duane removes her hood to reveal herself as the blond woman who orchestrated the theft. She apologizes, as quick cuts to inside H.A.R.D.A.C. reveal he’s constructing a humanoid robot that is to aid them in securing whatever it is it seeks. There’s a bunch of smoke obscuring the robot’s face as it emerges from inside H.A.R.D.A.C., but Duane seems impressed.

A couple of visitors at the Gordon residence.

We’re then taken to the Gordon residence, where Barbara is working on some homework on the floor while her father is reading the newspaper on the coach beside the grubby old teddy bear. When there’s a knock at the door, Jim goes to see who it is. When he opens the door he’s met by Duane and another individual who looks exactly like him. Duane hits him with some kind of stun-gun device, and soon Jim returns to the living room. Barbara, concerned by what she heard, asks him if he’s all right and he replies curtly that he’s fine. She notices he feels ice cold, and he continues to assure her he’s fine. Then he smacks the teddy bear to the floor and sits down on the couch to resume reading his paper. Barbara is shocked by this action, but says nothing.

The next day, Bruce is back in his office discussing new security measures with Fox when Randa Duane comes waltzing in. She’s clad in her white dress and pulls out a compact mirror to freshen up as Bruce and Fox continue their discussion. When they’re through, they all take their leave, but Randa leaves behind her compact. Just like the briefcase from before, it sprouts robotic appendages and a camera and starts messing around on Bruce’s computer.

H.A.R.D.A.C. has a continued presence throughout the episode, even though it’s rarely on screen.

At Wayne Manor, Bruce and Randa are enjoying a meal by the fire. Bruce is awkwardly still dressed in a full suit as he lays on the floor with her. He receives a call from Fox about a break-in at Wayne Enterprises, and he leaves to go check it out telling Randa to just sit tight. Once he leaves, H.A.R.D.A.C. contacts Randa (apparently he can communicate directly with her like some sort of robot telepathy) to inform her that the files the little spy robot acquired were false. They deduce together the real files must be at Wayne’s residence some where. She assures her robot overlord that she’ll find them, as Alfred comes into the room with tea. She unleashes that same stun weapon that she used on Gordon on Alfred and begins her search. Wearing some high-tech looking goggles, Randa is able to find the entrance to the Batcave, and lets H.A.R.D.A.C. know about her amazing discovery.

Wayne and Fox check out the database to see what the robot stole, and Wayne then lets Fox know about the dummy files. He tells him he has the real ones at home, and then calls to check-in on Randa and Alfred. When there’s no answer he leaves immediately. When he arrives home he finds Alfred unconscious. He wakes him up and Alfred is confused by what he happened, apparently not remembering what Randa did to him. Bruce puts on his Batman costume and heads into the Batcave. He quickly realizes his computer system has been hacked as it starts going crazy. The mechanical arms that once held the Bat-glider drop from the ceiling, grabbing Batman by the shoulders and hauling him high into the ceiling as the episode fades to black with the ominous “To Be Continued” emblazoned on the screen.

Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Heart of Steel: Part I” follows the same general formula as the other Part Ones that we have seen so far. It’s very methodical with little action as the main players are all introduced, and since we’re dealing with a lot of new characters, there’s a lot of information to unload on the viewer. There’s a mysterious aura around Rossum and Duane, but a lot of the lingering questions are answered by the narrative, just not explicitly. We obviously know that Jim Gordon has been replaced by a robot, and since he’s ice cold and Wayne made the same observation about Randa, we know she must be a robot as well. What we don’t know is how Rossum fits into all of this. Is he an unwilling participant in the crimes of his A.I.? He seemed almost afraid of H.A.R.D.A.C. when describing it to Bruce, but it’s possible he’s up to something. I’ve, of course, seen Part II before, but I’m purposely writing this before re-watching it as I don’t remember a lot of what happens, just bits and pieces.

Our villains are pretty intriguing though. We don’t know what exactly it is that H.A.R.D.A.C. wants out of Wayne’s wetware. We also don’t know how the issue of robot Commissioner Gordon is going to play out. He hasn’t been called on yet, but he obviously serves a purpose. Barbara also knows that something is up, but we’re not sure what she is capable of. For all we know, she’s already Batgirl, but since we’ve never heard even a whisper about that character we can probably assume that isn’t the case.

This scene probably bothered me more than it should.

There are some fun little trivia bits in this episode as well. Randa Duane seems to clearly be modeled after Marilyn Monroe, and considering she was likely built by a middle-aged man in 1992, I suppose it’s not a surprise he would want to model her after the actress. Karl Rossum also has a lot built into his simple name. He’s likely a combination of Karl Capek, who is credited with creating the word “robot,” and “R.U.R” is a play of his. That acronym is seen on the license plate of the getaway car early in the episode which apparently stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots. To top it all off, he’s voiced by William Sanderson who played inventor J.F. Sebastion in Blade Runner, the inventor of that film’s replicants. And I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but Cybertron Industries also shares a name with the homeward of the Transformers from that franchise. It’s not uncharacteristic for the show to have a bunch of Easter Eggs in it, but I’m struggling to think of a single episode with this many.

Crafty or Careless?

There are a few downers as well. This episode features a lot of people just walking and talking, which is notoriously hard to animate and it shows. There’s some awkward animation, and also one really bad image of Batman when he emerges from the elevator early in the episode. He looks really oafish and crude, like a Ren & Stimpy drawing. I also find it silly how many Bat-measures are built into Wayne Enterprises. The revolving corner of the safe room would be clearly visible, and storing a Bat-glider on the roof behind a rickety looking door seems pretty risky. I sort of touched on it in the write-up, but I also really hated the shot of Bruce casually laying on his side when dining with Randa while still wearing his full suit. They’ve shown Bruce in more casual clothes before, they couldn’t use one of those sheets? I suppose in an episode with a lot of new characters and backgrounds, some sacrifices had to be made somewhere.

There’s a lot going on in “Heart of Steel,” and it’s setup is pretty damn good. It somewhat lacks the shock value that “Two-Face” and “Feat of Clay” had at the end of their respective first chapters, but it feels like we’re well positioned for a successful conclusion next week. My main critique of the two-parters so far is that they’ve been really good at the build part, but the payoff has been disappointing. “Feat of Clay” is probably our current champion, but I’m optimistic that “Heart of Steel” can give it a run for its money.

1 Comment | tags: barbara gordon, batgirl, batman, blade runner, brynne stephens, hardac, leslie easterbrook, melissa gilbert, randa duane, terminator, william sanderson | posted in batman the animated series, Comics, Television

June 9, 2018

The Chronological Donald – Volume 2

By Joe

1e_66925_0_TheChronologicalDonaldVolume21 What day is today? It’s Donald’s birthday! He made his debut in the Silly Symphonies short “The Wise Little Hen” on this day back in 1934 making him one of the oldest reoccurring characters at Disney. And while he may not be the oldest, he’s the most entertaining. Yes, more so than Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and all the rest. He was basically the star of Disney’s shorts in the 40’s and 50’s when other characters were seeing their workload reduced. It was basically the creation of Donald that allowed Mickey to settle into his more everyman role as the wholesome and unblemished face of the brand. And while Goofy and Pluto continued to receive steady work during these years, they never came very close to eclipsing Donald Duck who proved to be the most versatile and naturally funny character in the company’s arsenal. He was likable enough that the audience could be asked to root for him, but possessed enough bad qualities that audiences could also delight in seeing him get his comeuppance.

Volume Two of The Chronological Donald is best known for containing the WWII cartoons.

The Walt Disney Treasures collection is a series of DVD releases now long out of print. They fetch a pretty penny on the resale market now mostly because Disney has never really revisited them or printed them in mass quantities. They were the brainchild of film critic/historian Leonard Maltin, who felt these treasured shorts that defined Disney in the early days should be celebrated and made available. Since Disney no longer directly profits off of these cartoons, save for a bonus feature here and there on conventional releases, most of the shorts can actually be viewed on various streaming platforms online at no cost. Disney is expected to launch its own streaming service next year, so it will be interesting to see if lots of copyright claims start going up this year to get them pulled down.

“Der Furher’s Face” contains some rather surreal imagery.

The DVDs are the way to go though if you want to watch these treasured shorts. Donald Duck had enough material to span four volumes, each being two discs, and of the four I think it’s safe to say the best overall collection is Volume 2. This captures the era of cartoons when Donald had settled into a nice groove, but had yet to become too formulaic. Released just after the Great Depression, there’s a lot of historical nuggets to chew on during disc one with Donald being rather poor and forced to ration things like rubber and gas. Perhaps most famously, are the World War II era cartoons contained in the “Vault” section on disc one. A lot of these could best be described as propaganda today, with Donald excitedly signing up for war in one and tackling Adolf Hitler in another.

The boys have some fun at the expense of their uncle in “Donald’s Off Day.”

A great many Donald Duck cartoons typically place Donald in a fairly ordinary role, maybe in a conventional job or portraying a farmer, and then have him face-off with an adversary. In “Bellboy Donald,” he’s a bellhop on his last chance on the job to keep guests happy and he’s forced to deal with Pete’s punk kid who really tries his patience. In “Donald’s Garden” he’s a simple farmer with a rodent problem. A gopher, perhaps a precursor to the more famous duo of Chip and Dale, wants to eat his crops but Donald isn’t about to share. And then of course there’s his nephews which he clashes with at times such as in “Donald’s Snow Fight,” in which Donald wrecks their snowman and they plot revenge via a spectacular, over the top, snowball fight.

Other cartoons basically pit Donald against himself. In “The Plastic Inventor,” Donald tries to build a plane out of plastic, but he makes the mistake of getting it exposed to water while flying causing it to melt. In perhaps the best cartoon on disc two (and maybe the whole set), “Donald’s Crime,” he steals from his nephews’ piggy bank for a night on the town and is forced to confront the guilt he feels. And sometimes he’s also basically just playing the victim and we laugh at his misfortune, like in “Donald’s Off Day” where he just want to golf on his day off but the weather won’t allow it, forcing him to stay home with his nephews who play a vicious prank on him.

DonaldDuckInNutziLand_zpscc10584a The war cartoons though, are definitely the most infamous on this set. Because they’re in The Vault and contain politically incorrect humor, they have a sort of forbidden fetish attached to them. They’re not all straight propaganda though. In “Donald Gets Drafted,” we see our duck protagonist in a very eager mood to enlist while a song cheerily lets us know that the Army is better than it’s ever been before. In the end though, while Donald hopes to be a fighter pilot, he just ends up going through basic training and is forced to peel potatoes. He gets some revenge against his mean drill sergeant, played by Pete, in the next cartoon, “The Vanishing Private,” when Donald uses invisible paint to disappear and harass his sergeant causing the general to think he’s crazy. “Der Fuehrer’s Face” is probably the most famous of these shorts, and not simply because it won an Academy Award. It depicts Donald in Nazi Germany being subjected to Hitler’s numerous brainwashing techniques and portraying daily life as horrible there. It also contains a rather unflattering portrayal of the Japanese, which also shows up in other shorts. It’s a surreal short though, and in the end it’s revealed to be a dream and Donald wakes up in the most garishly decorated bedroom of an unabashed American patriot. Everything about the cartoon is over the top, but it’s just so fascinating to watch as someone very far removed from that era.

Goofy isn’t too good to appear in a Donald Duck cartoon.

If there is a shortcoming to this era of cartoons it’s that they’re not always the best looking. Some just weren’t properly taken care of, like “The Village Smithy” in which the film had aged so poorly Donald is basically yellow. Money was tight because of the war effort, so backgrounds are sometimes bland or sparse. The animation, by and large though, is still exceptional Disney quality animation. Another drawback though is perhaps the absence of more classic adversaries for Donald. Chip and Dale won’t show up until Volume 3, and they’re often thought of as Donald’s best foils. Pete is present in several shorts, and Donald pairs up with Goofy in a few others. There’s no Mickey though as he always receives top billing in any cartoon he shows up in. There are some one-off villains like a buzzard and gorilla, and if anything it’s nice to see some variety. The cartoons featuring Chip and Dale are more of a novelty than anything, as those two basically possess the same qualities as the gopher from “Donald’s Garden,” they just happen to be more recognizable.

“A Day In The Life of Donald Duck” is probably my favorite special feature across the entirety of The Walt Disney Treasures line.

Volume 2 not only perhaps possesses the best set of Donald Duck cartoons ever created, but it also has arguably the best bonus features of any of the four. “A Day in the Life of Donald Duck” highlights the first disc and it’s a fake documentary of Donald’s day to day life from the old Disneyland TV series. He’s super imposed over live-action as he visits the Disney Studios in Burbank and even runs into his voice actor, Clarence Nash, at one point. It’s pretty funny and the effects still hold up well enough today. My own kids are convinced Donald is really interacting with the environment in it. Disc Two contains a sit-down between Maltin and current Donald Duck voice actor, Tony Anselmo. It’s a great interview and Anselmo details how he got the role, what it’s like to play Donald, and even discusses drawing and animating him. There’s also a retrospective on Carl Barks, long somewhat forgotten and ignored, Barks was the writer and artist for the Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck comic books that often didn’t even bare his name. He has since experienced somewhat of a renaissance as Disney tried to remedy that during the 90’s and 2000’s. It’s nice finally seeing him get his due.

“Donald’s Crime” may not be as famous as the WWII cartoons, but it might be the best on the set.

If you wanted to get just one collection of Donald Duck cartoons, then Volume Two of The Chronological Donald is the way to go. It tends to be the cheapest due in part to 125,000 sets being produced, which is more than Volumes 3 and 4 combined, though not as many as Volume One. You may not get the fun first appearances of Daisy, the nephews, or Chip and Dale, but what you do get is a collection of really entertaining cartoons. All of the sets are pretty entertaining in their own right, but Volume Two is the one I come back to most frequently. The cartoons are just really funny and feature good variety, though I could understand if someone preferred Volume Three over this one since it has more familiar adversaries, some great cartoons in its own right, plus it features the more memorable Donald Duck theme song. If you’re a fan of The Duck, or a fan of classic animation in general, then you should probably just try and get all four volumes because I don’t think you can count on Disney re-releasing these anytime soon or in a better package.

The Shorts

1940

The Volunteer Worker (presented as a Bonus Cartoon on disc two)

1942

Bellboy Donald
The Village Smithy
Donald’s Snow Fight
Donald’s Garden
Donald’s Gold Mine

1943

Donald’s Tire Trouble
Flying Jalopy

1944

Trombone Trouble
The Plastics Inventor
Donald’s Off Day
Donald Duck and the Gorilla
Contrary Condor

1945

The Eyes Have It
Donald’s Crime
Duck Pimples
No Sail
Cured Duck
The Clock Watcher
Old Sequoia

1946

Donald’s Double Trouble
Wet Paint
Dumb Bell of the Yukon
Lighthouse Keeping
Frank Duck Brings ‘Em Back Alive

The Vault

Donald Gets Drafted (1942)
The Vanishing Private
Sky Trooper
Der Fuehrer’s Face (1943)
Fall Out – Fall In
The Old Army Game
Home Defense
Commando Duck (1944)

Leave a comment | tags: a day in the life of donald duck, carl barks, clarence nash, der fuerher's face, donald duck, donald duck's birthday, leonard maltin, tony anselmo, walt disney, walt disney treasures, world war 2 cartoons | posted in Film

June 8, 2018

Batman: The Animated Series – “The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne”

By Joe

The_Strange_Secret_of_Bruce_Wayne-Title_Card Episode Number: 37

Original Air Date: October 29, 1992

Directed by: Frank Paur

Written by: David Wise, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

First Appearance(s): Hugo Strange

“The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne” is another episode of Batman: The Animated Series that can trace its roots back to a story from Detective Comics, in this case issues #471 and #472 “The Dead Yet Live” and “I Am the Batman!” by Steve Englehart. It introduces Hugo Strange to the Bat-verse, a scientist with a penchant for extortion. Strange uses a machine that can read the minds of individuals. Under the guise of therapy, Strange seduces wealthy individuals into agreeing to his services and when he unearths something nefarious from their subconscious he’s able to blackmail them in exchange for keeping their secrets. If that sounds familiar, then you’ve probably seen Batman Forever, where The Riddler used a similar scheme. We’re only 37 episodes deep, but we’ve already seen a few instances of where this animated series influenced a movie to come. Batman Forever borrowed some of the Two-Face bits from the episode of the same name, and Batman Begins basically adapted The Scarecrow’s scheme from “Dreams in Darkness.” It’s just another example of how far reaching this show was. This episode also marks the first time we’ll see a team-up of sorts out of Batman’s rogues gallery when Joker, The Penguin, and Two-Face show up in the episode’s second act.

Hugo Strange is today’s villain, and while there were tentative plans to bring him back, this ends up being his only appearance in the series.

The episode opens with a woman (who looks a lot like the woman being victimized by Poison Ivy in “Eternal Youth”) being approached on a bridge by some routine looking gangsters. The woman is revealed to be a judge in Gotham by the name of Maria Vargas (Carmen Zapata) and the gangsters want her to pay up in order to protect some information they have on her. Batman, apparently was tipped off or just happens to be in the right place at the right time, is watching from above as the judge hands over a briefcase full of money only to be told the price just went up. When she pleads with them that she can’t possibly pay more the crooks prepare to leave and Batman enters the fray. Vargas tries to take off and gets herself in some danger on the bridge, accidentally knocking herself out. Batman is forced to abandon his pursuit of the crooks in order to save her.

After the commotion is over and the police are on the scene, Commissioner Gordon explains he knows Vargas and can’t imagine her having a secret she doesn’t want out. He reveals he just dined with her recently and that she had just returned from vacation. He gets a call on his gigantic cell phone about the license plate on the limo the gangsters were driving and finds out it’s registered to the same resort Vargas just vacationed at. Batman then takes off via the Batwing, being piloted by Robin, and he playfully asks Robin if he seems stressed while remarking it may be time for a vacation.

MV5BMGQyYzNjMzMtMDVjZi00OGU0LTlkMTEtY2U2NjIzNDM5NTNlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjI4OTE1MTA@._V1_

Strange’s memory extracting machine is a bad place for someone with an alter-ego to find themselves in.

Bruce Wayne and Alfred immediately depart for Yucca Springs, a resort that just so happens to be owned by Roland Dagget (a piece of info that’s never elaborated on) and is home to Dr. Hugo Strange (Ray Buktenica). Wayne signs up for a therapy session and finds himself in the doctor’s machine. He’s told the machine will help ease his stress by forcing him to confront his past. It seems a little risky for Bruce to enter such a device, but he goes along with it. Strange pries at Wayne to reveal information on his past, specifically the death of his parents. Bruce’s thoughts are transmitted to a screen for Strange to monitor, and when he pries further bats appear along with a gloved fist and an unmistakable logo. Bruce hops out of the machine and remarks it doesn’t seem to be an effective stress reliever for him. Strange tells him the first session is often hard, but they’ll do better tomorrow. As Bruce leaves he removes a tape from his machine and refers to him as Batman. Dun dun duuuuun!

Bruce Wayne’s secret revealed!

Strange immediately starts calling around, and we’re treated to a pretty dark, but hilarious, answering machine greeting from The Joker. Strange is going to auction off his perhaps priceless information and in addition to Joker he also calls The Penguin and Two-Face. For Joker, this is the first time we’re seeing him since his apparent death in “The Laughing Fish” and no explanation for his survival is presented. It’s also a rare Joker appearance that occurs without Harley Quinn. For Two-Face, this is the first time we’ve seen him in anything more than a cameo since his debut. Apparently Arkham was unable to rehabilitate him. As for The Penguin, this is only his second appearance in the show after kind of a comedic debut in “I Have Batman in my Basement,” one of the more divisive episodes the show output.

Three fellas who would likely be interested in knowing who Batman is under the mask.

While Strange is busy peddling his tape, Wayne sneaks into his laboratory to get a closer look at the machine. He finds the tape on Judge Vargas (as well as many other, most of which are Easter Eggs) and sees what she’s been hiding in her past. When she was a little girl, she was playing with matches which lead to a fire at the Gotham Docks, apparently a pretty big story back in its day, as well as a destructive blaze. Bruce realizes his tape is missing and Alfred, sneaking around outside, radios him to let him know who Strange just welcomed to the resort. Bruce then begins erasing all of the tapes before finally destroying the machine. Strange and his muscle come in just as Bruce really gets going. He’s disappointed at the loss of his device, but he still has the tape of Bruce’s alter-ego so he’s in a pretty good mood. Bruce is tied up and tossed somewhere with Alfred. Alfred apologizes for failing him, but Bruce is taking things in stride claiming everything is going according to plan as he produces a lock pick and gets to work.

MV5BMjA0ODU2MjA2N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTg3MTg3MjE@._V1_

Making deals with the likes of Joker and Two-Face carries certain risks.

Meanwhile, Strange is presenting his finding to the villains. Surprisingly, they go along with the bidding and decide to pool their money together so they all can see what’s on the tape know it supposedly contains the true identity of Batman. I’m a bit puzzled why someone like The Joker wouldn’t just kill Strange and take the tape, but I’ll go along with it. Strange is very happy for his payment of approximately 50 million dollars, and gets ready to play the tape for them. Unknown to him, Batman is lurking in the rafters and he switches out the input on the projector to a different tape player. What plays is a video of Strange speaking with his cohorts about his plan to produce a phony tape about Batman in order to extort a bunch of villains out of their not so hard-earned money. This naturally enrages the attendants and Strange is forced to flee.

Joker, Two-Face, and Penguin eventually capture Strange and take him to the airport. Alfred, in their limo, picks up Batman and the two give chase while Alfred remarks he’s contacted Master Dick. The villains drag Strange onto an airplane and take to the sky. They plan to chuck him out and Strange starts begging for his life. He tells them Batman is Bruce Wayne, but no one believes him. Batman, able to stow-away on the plane, cuts the fuel line and the whole thing begins going down. It crashes, and somehow everyone on the plane is able to walk away fine just as the Gotham Police show up. As Strange is being lead away, he taunts Batman. He knows he used the machine to create a false tape of him to fool Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face. As he goes on and on, Bruce Wayne shows up, much to the shock of Strange. Batman says the two worked together to bring him down under the guise that Wayne and Judge Vargas are close friends and he wanted to get back at him. Once Gordon and Strange are out of earshot, Wayne is revealed to be Dick in disguise and everyone is ready to head home.

Bruce Wayne?! Batman?! How could this be?!?

“The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne” is a fun story – what would someone do with Batman’s secret identity? Strange’s actions are entirely logical for an extortionist, even if it’s a bit unrealistic to think he could get in touch with the likes of Joker and company so easily. The episode does jump through some hoops to preserve Batman’s secret in the end. I don’t like how the writers are afraid to show Batman as being fooled, and he instead needs to be one step ahead of Strange the whole time. The Bruce Wayne impersonation is also pretty unrealistic since Dick not only is able to look exactly like Wayne, but also sound like him as well. It’s the kind of thing a cartoon can get away with that live action would not. I guess they’re just taking advantage of the medium, but it does feel cheap. A lot happens in this episode so it moves really fast, which is fine. I suppose you could argue that the plot could have been dragged out across two episodes, but I’m fine with it as is. I did find it odd that Two-Face’s coin never came into play, he was ready to toss Strange out of the airplane, but I do like how he mentions that he knows Bruce Wayne and it’s why he can’t possibly believe that he would be Batman. Still, it’s kind of surprising that it was never revisited in a later episode with one of the three villains at least entertaining the notion. I feel like the plot of this episode is memorable, making this one of the most popular episodes of the show. I don’t know if it’s a top 10 episode, but it’s probably at least in the top 25. Just a good, some-what flawed, but entertaining episode.

1 Comment | tags: batman, detective comics, harvey dent, hugo strange, mark hamill, robin, the joker, the penguin, two-face | posted in batman the animated series, Comics, Television

June 3, 2018

Getting Creative With Lego Creator – 31052

By Joe

lego 31052 It’s been a few years since Lego released its Simpsons products. Somewhat tied in with the show’s 25th anniversary, Lego released two waves of mini figures and two sets over the course of a little over a year. I was a pretty big fan of the stuff Lego did with the license and scooped it all up. The Simpsons ended up being a part of the short-lived Lego Dimensions brand, an offshoot of Skylanders and Disney Infinity in which toys interact with a video game. Aside from that though, the Lego flirtation with The Simpsons ended there. I’m not sure what the reason was for it to come to an end. It’s probably a simple one in that Lego only licensed it for two sets and two waves of figures. Lego has maintained a fairly wholesome image for the life of the company so it’s also possible there was some minor discomfort with the brand and ending it sooner than later was for the best. It seemed to me like the figures and sets sold rather well, so I doubt Lego lost money, but they only put out so many waves of mini figures per year and devoting a third to a niche product like The Simpsons may have felt unnecessary.

Whatever the reason, I’ve been a little bummed at the line’s discontinuation. It’s true I had a hard time foreseeing it continue for the simple fact that there aren’t many iconic locales from the show that could be done as a $200 set. Springfield Elementary and The Nuclear Power Plant would probably require a bigger investment, and Lego isn’t going near a Moe’s Tavern or Duff Brewery. The Flanders residence is probably too niche, as is the Springfield Retirement Castle. The only one that felt like it had a shot of getting made was The Android’s Dungeon. Lego may have had to do it smaller than the Kwik-E-Mart which would have necessitated a lower MSRP and maybe the license made that difficult. They could have tried to make it as large as the famous convenience store, but that might have been too silly. I think they could have done it though, but evidently it wasn’t meant to be.

And that’s a shame, because what’s really missing is not so much more sets, but more figures. Without a third set it seemed unlikely we would see more figures, and the figures are probably a little on the costly side since Lego makes unique head sculpts for each one. Just look at the characters Lego did not touch (I’m not bothering to list ones tied in with alcohol, religion, or organized crime for obvious reasons): Skinner, Superintendent Chalmers, Sideshow Bob, Lenny, Carl, Otto, Lionel Hutz, Troy McClure, Frank Grimes, Sideshow Mel, Kent Brockman, Radioactive Man, Bumblebee Man, Roger Myers Jr, Agnes Skinner, Poochie. I could keep going, but the one that really bugs me is Principal Skinner since we have a Mrs. Krabappel and it’s kind of sad we have Ned Flanders, but not the rest of his family. Chief Wiggum doesn’t have his boys, Homer doesn’t have any co-workers – like I said, I could go on and on.

Wanting to do something with Lego, while also adding to my Simpsons collection, I picked up a set of Lego Creator. Set 31052, to be specific, which is a 3 – in – 1 set dubbed Vacation Getaways that can be constructed as an RV with boat, a camp with Jeep-like vehicle, or a massive boat. I eyed it for the RV construction which appears to be its main function. Why? Because it bares a strong resemblance to the RV Flanders has in “Call of the Simpsons” and “Lemon of Troy.” Since Ned doesn’t have a house, I figured I could give him some wheels. And as a bonus, it comes with a bear that Maggie can befriend as she did in “Call of the Simpsons.”

What we’re going for.

Construction of the RV is pretty simple and straight-forward. It’s a little on the narrow side, but a lot is packed into it (kind of like a real RV). The roof is removable in two places and intended to act as a place to store fold-up chairs and tables. There’s a portable grill as well that can be placed on top. The interior features a breakfast nook, sleeping area, kitchenette, and latrine with a two-seat cockpit upfront. One section can slide out where the bed is to make it a little roomier, and there’s lots of little built-in pieces that add to the livable nature of the set. The rear also opens up for better access. It comes with two mini figures of its own: an adult woman and an adolescent boy. A little speedboat and trailer can be built and attached (also a plus since Ned has a boat in “Homer Loves Flanders”) and it works really well. There’s also the bear and two trees that can be built as well.

Some other accessories featured are a side-mounted canopy that can be rolled out. It works much better than I thought it would. There’s a skateboard, camera, some periodicals, and a suitcase as well. The RV itself is white with a red and black stripe that, wouldn’t you know, is actually pretty damn close to what Ned’s RV looked like in the show right down to the number of windows. The likeness is so close that if Lego had done a Flanders RV set it probably wouldn’t deviate much from what’s here. The only things missing are the pink curtains and a giant lemon tree to strap to the top.

The only real downside to this set is it probably wouldn’t be a ton of fun to play with. The interior is so narrow there isn’t a lot of room for the figures. The cockpit is especially tricky to seat figures in because it’s not easily accessible, even with the roof off. Still, that’s rather minor for what I need it to do since it’s basically going to sit on a shelf with the other Simpsons Lego sets and figures. It was a fun build, and it scratched an itch I had to construct a Lego set. I just wish we had all of the characters from “Lemon of Troy” to pile into the RV to really recreate something special. This set has been retired, but it can still be easily found new on various websites for around MSRP. That might not be true for much longer, so if you’re like me and looking to expand for Simpsons Lego presence in your home you may want to act fast.

Leave a comment | tags: bart simpson, call of the simpsons, flanders rv, homer simpson, lego, lego creator, lemon of troy, ned flanders, the simpsons | posted in Television, toys

June 1, 2018

Batman: The Animated Series – “Cat Scratch Fever”

By Joe

Cat_Scratch_Fever_Title_Card Episode Number: 36

Original Air Date: November 5, 1992

Directed by: Boyd Kirkland

Written by: Sean Catherine Derek, Buzz Dixon

First Appearance(s): Professor Milo

After watching so many episodes of Batman: The Animated Series some patterns start to become obvious. A typical episode is split into two main parts: the discovery phase and the climactic confrontation between Batman and the villain of the day. Sometimes the episodes are uneven with one end of the episode not able to hold its own weight. Most of the time they’re both perfectly fine, but sometimes you get an episode where neither half really works, which brings me to “Cat Scratch Fever.” Aside from the fact that the title invokes unpleasant thoughts of Ted Nugent, in a Batman context it certainly brings to mind a certain woman, a cat woman, if you will. After a pretty lengthy layoff, we’re finally going to check-in with Selina Kyle (Adrienne Barbeau) and see what she’s up to while also getting a look at Roland Dagget’s latest scheme. This is also a noteworthy episode because it’s the final one animated by Akom. Akom was a frequent player in television animation. Based out of Korea, they would get a contract for work and often outsource it to other studios of varying quality (they famously did some rather shoddy work on X-Men’s pilot) and as a result they’ve produced some great episodes of animated television and some not so great, this episode being of the not so great variety which lead to their dismissal from the series.

Selina facing the music.

The episode opens with Ms. Kyle at a hearing concerning the events of “The Cat and the Claw.” If you need a refresher, Catwoman and Batman foiled the plans of Red Claw who could have unleashed devastation on Gotham City if not for their intervention. Her heroic deeds did not score her many points with Batman however, as following the defeat of Red Claw Batman still placed her in handcuffs for petty burglary. This was a case of the show trying to have Batman be stoic in his attitude towards the law – it’s not for him to decide if Catwoman should be punished, but the court. It’s hypocritical considering Batman breaks the law all of the time with forced entry and witness intimidation. It’s why he’s a vigilante after all, so he can operate above the law. Thankfully our unnamed judge here (played by Virginia Capers) sees things my way as she gives Selina probation on the condition that she never dawn her Catwoman costume to commit crimes (so I guess she’s free to break the law out of costume?).

A friend to cats everywhere.

An elated Selina returns home to her penthouse apartment and her assistant Maven is still there. We don’t know how much time has passed between appearances, but it seems like this is the first time Selina is home even though I would think she would have been able to post bail. Anyway, Maven informs her that her precious kitty Isis is missing and she supposes the cat went out looking for Selina, so Selina goes out looking for Isis. Deciding against dressing as Catwoman, she’s just plain old Selina. While looking for Isis, she stumbles upon a couple of hoodlums out collecting strays. They’re not with the pound, and Selina suspects the worst of them. Jessy (Denny Dillon) and Paunch (who isn’t voiced) are the two goons and they put up a fight. When things look like they’re going bad for Selina, guess who shows up. With Batman’s help, the two are put away effortlessly (the animation is careful to make sure Batman doesn’t strike the female thug, Jessy), but before Selina can thank him properly, Batman runs off as the police arrive. Finding a recently released individual like Selina Kyle in such a situation naturally prompts the arriving officers to bring her to the precinct, but Selina’s other knight in shining armor is there to bail her out.

Bruce and Alfred pick up Selina, who politely declines the advances of Bruce. She mentions the two thugs were quickly bailed out by Roland Dagget, which is a pretty good lead not just for Batman, but Catwoman as well. She somehow figures out that whatever is going on with the stray cat population is coming from a specific Dagget owned laboratory on the outskirts of Gotham. Inside, we get a peek at Dagget (Ed Asner) himself discussing some plans with a Professor Milo (Treat Williams, who I would have bet money on was Rob Paulsen) who has devised a rather nasty toxin. The toxin is placed into an animal which seems to cause the animal to react as if it’s rabid (he demonstrates on a dog). Their plan is to infect the stray animal population, which will in turn cause the disease to spread to humans, and then Dagget can sell the only cure for a rather tidy profit. We also see Isis is among the captured animals, and she’s Milo’s next specimen.

Bad kitty!

When Catwoman enters the lab she finds it’s dark and quiet. She quickly locates her beloved cat and frees her from her cage. Isis at first seems docile, but she quickly turns on Catwoman and bites her, then flees out an open window. The thugs, Jessy and Paunch return along with Milo and Catwoman is forced to flee. Milo takes note of the bite wound she received and lets his cohorts know they don’t need to pursue aggressively as the toxin will do the work for them. And sure enough, Catwoman is rather woozy and off-balance almost right away. She discards her mask and collapses in the snow as Isis runs off.

Paging Dr. Batman.

Elsewhere, Bruce Wayne has done some sleuthing on his own to figure out what the Dagget connection could be. Lucius Fox (Brock Peters) is able to provide some important info about a new drug Dagget is believed to be developing and no one knows what it’s for (the dialogue in this scene is very similar to another Dagget episode “Appointment in Crime Alley,” so much so that it had to be intentional though it could have also just been lazy writing). Batman heads out to investigate, which is a good thing since he finds Selina collapsed in the snow. He takes her to a nearby shack, of sorts, where she gets him up to speed on what happened before taking a little rest.

While Batman is busy tending to Selina, Dagget is getting impatient with the progress being made. He orders Milo to commence with the operation, while he explains he’s just waiting on Paunch to fetch some of the anti-toxin from another lab in case anything goes wrong. Unfortunately for Paunch, he’s going to run into Batman while he’s out doing Milo’s bidding. Batman was hoping to get some info out of Paunch, but he picked the wrong guy considering he’s mute and all. Still, Selina shared enough information with him to figure out Dagget’s scheme, but just in case he didn’t, Dagget and Jessy show up to confirm his suspicions (Dagget, like many villains, just can’t help himself).

Not the most fearsome trio, but left to right is Milo, Jessy, and Paunch.

Batman is going to be forced to deal with the likes of Paunch and Jessy, who are now armed with machine-guns, as well as the infected dog from earlier. The show is careful to not show Batman being too mean to the dog, he’ll use his cape and wits to subdue him before embarking on a “super fun happy slide” of his own through the snow. Paunch and Jessy confront him on a frozen lake, and their guns are able to cause a huge mess of things. Batman goes through the ice, but of course he isn’t down for good and ends up subduing the brutes. He’s able to utilize the anti-toxin on Selina, as well as our poor canine friend.

The episode ends with Selina back at home. Maven informs her that she’s being hailed a hero once again for her part in stopping Dagget’s plot, and this time it sounds like Dagget won’t escape justice as he’s under investigation for his role in the whole thing. Selina should be happy, but she never found Isis and she’s despondent over her still missing cat. As she sees Maven out, a basket is lowered in the background from the roof of her building containing her precious kitty. It would seem Batman knows how to make a romantic gesture, and best of all, Isis has been cured of the toxin. The episode ends with Selina lovingly hugging the cute little cat.

The episode mostly looks rather subpar, but it has its moments.

Your enjoyment of this episode likely hinges on how big an animal lover you are. I like them as much as most people, I suppose. I’ve had a cat all my life and when this episode aired I even had a little black cat like Isis myself. Even so, the whole poisoning of animals does little for me, and Professor Milo seems kind of cartoonishly evil. Jessy is especially annoying, but I suppose that’s by design. The whole scheme seems small and kind of odd, but I suppose it’s unique. The episode also re-establishes that Selina has a thing for Batman and only Batman, while Bruce lusts after her. By the conclusion, she’s also pushed to the sideline with an uncertain role going forward. She’s not really a villain, but does she have it in her to be some sort of vigilante on equal footing with Batman? The show will do a rather poor job with her from here on out, even the show runners have agreed as much.

What really can’t be denied is how crummy this episode looks. Character models are inconsistent and the facial details, in particular with Selina, look off-model at times. The effects on the infected dog are poor as well, with the foam/drool basically being the same color as the dog’s fur. I do appreciate the sort of rugged appearance of Jessy, though Paunch is so cartoonish he almost looks like he’s not from this series. He kind of reminds me of a Popeye character, or something. If I can give the visuals one compliment, it’s the the snowy scenery looks pretty good and it’s a nice change of pace from the usual visuals.

The only real noteworthy aspect of this episode is it reintroduces Catwoman, and also introduces a villain who will at least make a future appearance in Professor Milo. Milo isn’t exactly an A-list villain, but at least the episode does directly deal with the fall-out of a previous episode where Catwoman is concerned. It’s not one I was particularly excited to revisit, and one I won’t likely watch again anytime soon.

1 Comment | tags: adrienne barbeau, akom, batman, catwoman, ed asner, professor milo, roland dagget, Selina Kyle, treat williams | posted in batman the animated series, Comics, Television

May 25, 2018

Batman: The Animated Series – “Night of the Ninja”

By Joe

Night_of_the_Ninja-Title_Card Episode Number: 35

Original Air Date: October 26, 1992

Directed by: Kevin Altieri

Written by: Steve Perry

First Appearance(s): Kyodai Ken

Episode 35 gives us perhaps the first true villain and foe for Batman created just for television. Up until now, the made-for-TV rogues have mostly been mob bosses and white collar crooks like Rupert Thorne and Roland Daggett. Harley Quinn, is of course, the one character from this show that everyone knows now, but she’s been strictly a henchman so far. This episode introduces Kyodai Ken (Robert Ito), or simply The Ninja, who is the first villain who can actually go toe-to-toe with Batman that was created by the show. In doing some digging online I could not find a credit for who created the character. Steve Perry wrote the episode, but I don’t know that he created Kyodai. It’s possible it was just a collaborative effort from the likely many writing sessions and roundtables that took place during the planning stages of the series.

However Kyodai Ken came to be, it’s not surprising that he exists. Ninjas were pretty popular in the 80s and 90s as villains in cartoons and comic books. Always looking cool and possessing awesome abilities, the ninja character was often a fan-favorite whether he was a hero or a villain. Having a generic ninja character in Batman: The Animated Series helps to date the series, but in kind of a charming way. Kyodai Ken feels very “90s” as a result, but while he could have just been a simple physical foe for Batman, the show does add some depth via his past relationship with Bruce Wayne.

Only a bad guy would get a tattoo like that.

The episode opens with our new villain infiltrating a Wayne Industries building. Clad all in black, the apparent ninja sneaks his way past security and what little resistance he meets he deals with quickly and efficiently (but not lethally, since we’re talking about a kid’s show). We’ll learn via news broadcasts that this robbery is part of a string on Wayne Industries. Bruce learns of the latest during a sparring match with Dick in which we get a small tidbit of information that Bruce is a black belt in whatever discipline his choice is while Dick is a green belt. If the belts didn’t make it obvious, then the contest will as Bruce is clearly the better and Dick seems to take exception to how seriously Bruce takes everything. When Alfred informs them of what’s taken place, Bruce gets really irritated.

Batman has met his match? Say it ain’t so!

Summer Gleeson (Mari Devon) makes a return to the show in a more prominent role as a constant thorn in Bruce Wayne’s side. She’s there to ask him the tough questions about the robberies, and ornery old Bruce wants to hear none of it as he checks out the crime scene. She gets to do the cliche reporter trope of asking aloud if there’s more to Bruce than meets the eye, and even refers to him as The Bruce on one occasion. Apparently this was to suggest the tabloids had a cute name for him that thankfully didn’t stick as I don’t believe he’s ever called that in a later episode.

Never one to trust that the police can handle things, Batman is ready for the next target of The Ninja – Wayne Cosmetics. It’s a garish looking building with huge neon lips that the ninja has targeted, but this time instead of encountering a security detail he finds Batman waiting for him on the roof. The two square-off, and The Ninja is intrigued when Batman takes a martial arts stance. The two fight and The Ninja appears to have the upper hand until Robin shows up. As he makes a run for it, Robin nails him in the back with a shuriken exposing to Batman a demon tattoo on his back.

MV5BMTA3NTQ4MzUwOTheQTJeQWpwZ15BbWU4MDg4ODE4NzIx._V1_UY268_CR87,0,182,268_AL_

When Bruce was younger, he was sepia-toned. Everything was.

The tattoo means something to Batman, as we’ve been shown a series of flashbacks throughout the episode, with more to come. They’re all of Bruce Wayne’s training in Japan before he took on the Batman persona. There, Wayne was one of the star pupils but a rival by the name of Kyodai Ken proved to be his better on multiple occasions. Ken was rather cocky about it and seemed to resent Wayne for his rich upbringing (apparently the whole dead parents thing afforded him no sympathy). Sensei Yoru (Chao Li Chi) played peacemaker between the two, often being forced to admonish Ken for his dishonorable behavior. There’s more to the story though than just petty rivalry. One night, Ken tried to steal the Master’s prized blade – a weapon of considerable value. Wayne was there to catch him in the act, and Master Yoru interrupts their duel. Yoru banishes Ken from the dojo and he escapes further punishment, but Bruce never forgot the one man who could always beat him – the man with the demon tattoo on his back.

Batman is understandably irritated by the presence of Kyodai Ken in Gotham and he now knows that Ken is likely seeking retribution for Wayne’s role in getting him kicked out of the dojo all those years ago. Robin wants to accompany Batman in tracking him down, but Batman wants nothing to do with him. It becomes obvious that Batman is actually worried he can’t defeat this one (even though he’s got plenty of other tools beyond just his raw fighting ability, but whatever) and it’s taking a toll on his mood. Alfred fills in the details for Robin as he was there with Bruce to witness his many defeats at the hands of Ken.

He’s a clever ninja.

Bruce Wayne is to attend a a charities reception and he goes alone. As he makes his way out of the event, Gleeson chases after him and hops into his car with him badgering him about the robberies. Bruce offers little and when the valet wishes him a good night Bruce realizes it’s Ken in disguise – too late though as Ken hits the pair with some kind of knock-out gas and jumps into the car. When Bruce awakens he finds his hands are bound and Gleeson is with him. They’re at some kind of textile plant, I would guess, since there’s rolled up carpeting behind them. Ken is happy to reveal himself to Bruce and boast about his massive plan to electronically drain all of Wayne’s accounts and wire the money to his own. Bruce tries to play to his ego, as does Gleeson calling him a crook, for abandoning the way of the samurai in favor of being a ninja. Ken doesn’t seem to care about their judgements.

Batman-The-Animated-Series-Night-of-the-Ninja-2-700x380

The confrontation that apparently started this whole thing.

Luckily for Bruce, Robin did not heed his advice and has located them thanks to a tracking device in Bruce’s car. He’s not the stealthiest vigilante as he trips Ken’s alarm and is forced to face him on the rooftop. Robin holds his own, but Ken is able to slash out the supports of a water tower (in classic anime fashion where the splitting of the supports only occurs after Ken sheaths his blade) spilling the contents onto the roof taking Robin with it. During their confrontation, Bruce was able to get free of the bindings Ken had used and is ready for a fight when Ken returns. Kyodai mocks Bruce and taunts him that he could never best him, and that appears to be true. Bruce gets knocked around while Robin sneaks into the building, much more successfully than before. He realizes that Bruce is holding back due to the presence of Summer looking on. He’s able to tamper with the carpeting rolled up along the wall to get one roll to unfold over Gleeson, obstructing her view of the fight. At that point Bruce is able to let go and he soon proves the better fighter. Recognizing his defeat, Kyodai Ken flees diving into the nearby river, but not before informing Bruce that this isn’t over.

Oh, it’s on now!

After the police arrive, Bruce is able to thank Robin for his help. This small victory for Robin is enough to erase the frustration he felt earlier in the episode (and in “Robin’s Reckoning”) and he seems quite tickled to be praised by his mentor. Bruce also reveals that he told Gleeson Batman showed up to deal with Ken, which apparently was enough to get that reporter off his back (you would think she’d want to know more about the obvious past relationship between he and Kyodai Ken – some reporter she turned out to be) and put a nice bow on things, but with the obvious weight in the air suggesting that this rivalry is unsettled.

Bruce gives as good as he gets.

As this episode doesn’t feature a villain from the comics, it has a B-level feel throughout that even shows in the episode’s production. There’s some sparse shots here and there and a few instances of characters looking a bit off. There’s one close-up of Gleeson that makes her look kind of frightening when she’s shoving a mic in Bruce’s face. The opening scene of Kyodai infiltrating the Wayne Industries building also has a worker character seated at a computer where only his arms are animated. Everything is very static, including his coffee which the illustrators gave the appearance of a rippling liquid but no one animated it further just making it look weird. Ken is also really simple being a ninja dressed from head to toe in all black with just his eyes exposed. He sports a red sash for his sword, but that’s it. The artists also resisted any temptation to add shading to Kyodai Ken so he is strictly black. Often times in cartoons you’ll see similarly colored outfits shaded with blue or a lighter color to add definition and depth to the image. Ken basically looks like a shadow, but since this show had a pretty substantial budget I like to think this was a stylistic choice as opposed to a cost one.

If you enjoyed Kyodai Ken then good news, he will return!

“Night of the Ninja” is unofficially part one of a two-part story focusing on Batman and Kyodai Ken, so it feels a bit odd to judge it alone. By itself, it’s a solid episode and Ken is given a reason to exist in this universe by being Batman’s better. Their fight at the episode’s climax feels a bit brief, but perhaps that’s due to the follow-up episode having a more robust encounter. We’ll have to wait and see for their true showdown, but the simple fact that we’re left wanting more is a pretty good indication of the episode’s success at getting the audience to buy into a villain they’ve never seen before. It was also fun to get a glimpse of a Batman who’s confidence has been shaken. We’ve only seen a little of this side of Batman before, primarily when he first encountered The Scarecrow many episodes ago. That episode was more about an internal conflict of Batman vs his fears while this one presented a true physical foe that Batman was unsure if he could handle. We’ve seen plenty of bad guys go toe-to-toe with the caped crusader at this point, some more than holding their own, but we’ve never really been given any indication that Batman could possibly come up short in a fight. For that reason, Kyodai Ken fulfills a role and making him a character unique to this series means he’s not hampered by anything from the comics and the writers are free to do with him as they please. The episode ends up being probably better than most would assume if they heard it featured a villain created for television and I think it fits quite solidly into that tier of Batman episodes that’s pretty good, not great, but a better than average.

1 Comment | tags: batman, chao li chi, dc comics, kyodai ken, loren lester, mari devon, robert ito, robin, summer gleeson | posted in batman the animated series, Comics, Television

May 23, 2018

The Misfits Come Home – Newark, NJ 5/19/2018

By Joe

misfits The Misfits originally existed from 1977 to 1983. Formed by Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only our of Lodi, NJ, the band cycled through guitarists and drummers for much of its existence before finally disbanding. By then, Only’s younger brother Doyle was a fixture on guitar and the two represented the visual core of the band while Danzig’s songs carried the day. Like what has befallen many artists, they weren’t appreciated during their day, but years later it would become obvious how influential the group was in the punk, metal, and hardcore scenes. Following the band’s demise, Danzig went on to front other bands, most famously the one that bares his namesake – Danzig. During these years he never stopped re-releasing old Misfits material. During the band’s life it struggled to find record deals, but with the music done, recorded and previously released, Danzig found a partner in Caroline Records willing to press CDs and re-release the old stuff. Eventually the band found an audience, and Caroline was willing to release basically anything Danzig could produce.

By this point we were in the early 90s. Jerry Only had tried, and failed, at music with his Kryst the Conqueror outfit and had returned to the family business – a machine shop, to make his living. Danzig had been re-releasing the old material without paying anyone often trying to skirt responsibility by over-dubbing a lot of the music himself. Since he held the sole song-writing credits, this likely was good enough for Caroline. And while sales were low, it likely was, but as the band’s profile was raised (due in large part to famous covers by the likes of Metallica and Guns ‘N Roses) this proved untenable. Legal issues ensued, and one proposed resolution was to simply reform the band. At this point in time, Danzig the band had pretty much disbanded with the original record deal expired. Danzig though had a lucrative offer from Hollywood Records and wasn’t interested in re-forming the band. Maybe if Only’s invitation had come after the commercial failure of Blackacidevil things would have been different, but instead Only and Doyle reformed the band without Danzig. From this point on, essentially two versions of The Misfits had existed; the original from ’77-’83, and the one that reformed in 1995.

The Misfits re-formed for Riot Fest 2016 which meant lots of new march.

Jerry Only’s Misfits enjoyed its share of success while Danzig kept plugging along with his band. Jerry’s Misfits proved to be plagued by a lot of the same issues as the original. After releasing two albums with the same lineup, the band went through a lot of changes and turmoil with Only being the only consistent (no pun intended) with even Doyle eventually leaving the band. With just Jerry, he basically assumed all song-writing duties as well as vocals. His Misfits have continued right along up until the present day, and he and Glenn have co-existed in their own bubbles for the most part while sometimes dodging reunion rumors here and there. They were strongest in ’02, and according to Doyle they had a tentative agreement that fell apart at the last minute, but nothing imminent ever made it into the public. Danzig and Doyle had long since reconciled and he would occasionally join Danzig on stage for some Misfits songs, most famously during Danzig’s Legacy shows.

All the while legal issues continued to pop-up here and there. The biggest one was Danzig’s claim that Only had made a licensing agreement with Hot Topic and other retailers that made him the sole provider of Misfits merchandise. Absent a reunion, the Misfits likeness was its most profitable feature and both Only and Danzig were able to make use of it to sell merchandise. Only’s deal would have meant that stores wouldn’t sell Misfits related memorabilia from Glenn, and he would understandably find that irritating. These issues were partially litigated in public since a lawsuit by Danzig against Only was made public. This issue is largely credited as being the thing that got Danzig and Only talking once again about a reunion. Both guys had seen their output dwindle by quite a bit, and approaching 60, there was an end in sight for both. A full on Misfits reunion was a way for both men to settle their differences and make a lot of money in the process, which is what lead to the creation of The Original Misfits.

The original teaser image for the NJ show.

Promoters for the annual festival Riot Fest reportedly had been seeking a Misfits reunion for a few years. Danzig’s Legacy gig originated from there and it was clear there was an audience for it. In 2016, the timing was right for the group to reform and headline two editions of Riot Fest in Chicago and Denver. Danzig and Only were joined once more by Doyle on guitar while former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo was brought in to finally give the band the drummer it sought for so long. Former Joan Jet bassist Acey Slade was added on guitar to round things out, freeing Doyle up to just do what he does best and stomp around onstage smashing the hell out of his guitar. The shows were a pretty big hit, and a Los Angeles show and a Las Vegas show followed at the end of 2017 and just this past weekend the band finally returned to where it all started, New Jersey, for a show at The Prudential Center.

For fans like me, this was a chance to see something I never really thought I would get to see. The Misfits disbanded before I was even born and I came to find them around the time that I was 13. I was just the right age to be seduced by their brand of melodious violence, the horror imagery was appealing and counter-culture and I soon consumed anything Misfits I could get my hands on. The lone exception was the recently released American Psycho LP. Fronted by Michale Graves and not Glenn Danzig meant that I just wasn’t interested. I bore the group no ill will, but I didn’t want a Misfits without Danzig. Eventually I turned to the band, Danzig, for my fix. I didn’t know if I liked that group at first, because it was so different, but eventually I grew to love Danzig even more than I had The Misfits.

The Original Misfits are billed as Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only with Doyle.

Over the years, I’ve seen Danzig numerous times, but it’s never squashed my desire to see a proper Misfits show. Seeing Glenn with Doyle was good enough, or so I thought. My desire to see The Misfits on stage was less about needing Jerry Only there (no disrespect to him), but more about just wanting to see a proper full set of the songs I grew up on. Danzig was always quick to shoot down any rumor talk and many times went as far as to say it would never happen, and I took his word on it. I’m happy to say I was foolish to do so. Still, my responsibilities to my family first meant I couldn’t drop money on tickets, airfare, lodging, and other expenses to fly out and see any of the announced reunion shows. I kept faith though that The Misfits would eventually play a show on the east coast, and my faith was rewarded. New Jersey is about a four hour car ride from my home in Massachusetts, but my best friend lives in the city so not only did I have a place to crash, but a buddy to attend the show with me. This being potentially my only chance, I jumped on the tickets when they went onside and I’m happy to report it was worth it.

636540563643824839-TheOriginalMisfits-BandPhoto-CreditRichFury

Quite likely this was the biggest show in the band’s career.

On Saturday May 19th, 2018, I saw The Misfits live onstage. I never thought I would, and it was kind of a surreal experience for me. Preceding The Misfits was Harley Flanagan, Murphy’s Law, and Suicidal Tendencies – all bands/personalities that could be considered peers of the original Misfits. I’m not fans of any of the bands, but their appearance on this bill felt very appropriate and all were entertaining in their own right. Especially cool was Jimmy of Muphy’s Law stopping a song to pull a kid out of the pit because he was getting crushed. He placed the lad on the edge of the stage where he enjoyed the rest of the set from. Following that, he got to disappear backstage for what was hopefully an experience he’ll remember for a long time.

By the time The Misfits took the stage it was after 9 o’clock and the city of Newark apparently has a strict curfew of 11:00 PM for concerts. That didn’t stop the band from ripping through its set and going beyond 11 during the encore. The stage was adorned with numerous Crimson Ghost visages as well as two massive jack-o-lanterns from the cover of the Halloween single. Backing the stage was a screen that displayed classic horror clips, most of them serving as the inspiration for the song being played, that added a nice element to the performance. When the band hit the stage, with Only and Doyle emerging from twin coffins that flanked the drum riser, they tore into “Death Comes Ripping” with the same ferocity they must have brought back in ’83. Danzig emerged last to a raucous audience ready to sing along and go nuts.

Probably the most popular t-shirt design of the evening, either this or the NJ one. This was used for the poster as well.

Back in the day, The Misfits never played a venue as cavernous as the Prudential Center in Newark. Some 15,000 were in attendance for the sold out show, and even though this was their fifth go at it, the sound mix didn’t appear suited for such a large venue. The reverb on the guitar and bass was thunderous and Danzig’s vocals were drowned out. The reverb was so oppressive that it was hard to even make out what song was being played. I frequently strained to hear the individual notes in the early going, since I could hardly make out the vocals to be certain, and I’ve heard all of these songs probably a thousand times at this point. Danzig’s between song banter was often indecipherable, with only a few words here and there being discernible, which is unfortunate because he would often have to stall for time as Doyle tried to get his guitar back in tune or Jerry fetched a new bass, having destroyed the prior one (I think he ended up using five in total, but I could be mistaken). After a few songs things did settle down. The vocals became more pronounced, though the between song issues were never fully solved.

The Misfits played for over an hour and hit on most of their classic material. For me, it was a real treat to finally hear a live rendition of “Where Eagles Dare,” a favorite of mine for a long time. The band did a great job of hitting all of its eras, the early days as well as the waning ones, with material from Static Age, Walk Among Us, and Earth AD all well represented with 9 of my personal top 10 being played. There’s always room to nitpick, I would have loved to hear “Spinal Remains” or “Devil’s Whorehouse,” but there were few songs I would have kicked out in their place. The only true omission was “We Are 138” which had been performed at the other shows, but the curfew may have messed that up. I still feel like we were sort of denied a great sing-along moment though.

misfits-nj-concert-2018-reviewpng-16208978364b774e

The stage show was befitting such a large venue. Left to right: Jerry Only, Doyle, and Glenn Danzig.

Physically, Jerry Only and Doyle are just as imposing as ever. Now well past their supposed physical prime, you would never know it by looking at them. Doyle is still quite the specimen and his gigantic boots means he towers over the stage. Jerry’s coat adorned with spikes and skulls looks great, and he has the energy of a man half his age as he ran around, and at one point slid across, the stage. Danzig, being the one I’m most familiar with, still shows no signs of slowing down physically as he bounded around the stage ready to mix it up with the folks in attendance. The whole band appeared to be in great spirits, and both Lombardo and Slade more than held their own with the original members. The venue banned cell phones, having patrons lock them up in these little magnetic pouches for the duration of the show, but that didn’t stop some folks from ripping them out for a pic or two here and there. It was rather nice to be at a concert where the horizon was not dotted by thousands of illuminated screens, though I’ll admit I missed the light on my phone for when it came time to find my seat.

The Original Misfits was not a cheap ticket. The average price was probably around 100 dollars and general admission tickets were as much as $200. Despite that, the merchandise was surprisingly reasonably with t-shirts the usual concert price of $35 for most sizes. There was also a signed poster available for $100 (unsigned ones were $30) that bore both the signatures of Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only. Normally I would be tempted by such, but I resisted this time. Numerous t-shirt designs commemorated the event and basically every person I saw walked out that night with at least one of them. My personal favorite was the one depicting skeletal riders on horseback with the Statue of Liberty looming in the background, its face replaced by the unmistakable Fiend logo (this was the same image used for the poster as well), though the one used to promote the event was also pretty cool and featured the outline of the state of NJ with the Fiend filling it in.

Seeing The Misfits after being a fan for more than half of my life was an exhilarating experience and well worth both the expense and the horrendous backache as the result of too much time spent in the car. I left feeling both lucky and grateful that I got to experience it with my best friend, though I did wish a bunch of my friends from back in the day that had shared in my fandom could have been there with me. The event was made even more poignant by the revelation that just hours before the show Glenn Danzig’s mother passed away. He would have been well within his right to cancel the show, but he chose to go on. It added a little gravitas to the numerous backslaps I saw him receiving from his bandmates throughout the show. If this is the end for The Misfits as constituted then it feels like a fitting way to go out back where it all began. The rational person within me though sees how much money this event must have made and wonders how the band could possibly turn down future pay days like this one. There very well could be more one-offs in the future as there is likely still an intense appetite for The Misfits all across the world. They’ve yet to do a show down south and they also have yet to take this thing out of the US. Could they headline a festival in Europe or South America? Possibly. All questions to be answered in due time. For now, I’m satisfied having finally seen a band I grew up with for the first time, and maybe the last time.

The Set List (*encore)

Death Comes Ripping
I Turned Into A Martian
20 Eyes
Mommy, Can I Go Out and Kill Tonight?
Vampira
Devilock
Where Eagles Dare
London Dungeon
Hybrid Moments
Teenagers From Mars
Earth A.D.
Horror Business
Hollywood Babylon
Bullet
Who Killed Marilyn?
Green Hell
Halloween
Skulls
Die, Die My Darling
Astro Zombies
Last Caress
Night of the Living Dead*
Some Kinda Hate*
She*
Violent World*
All Hell Breaks Loose*
Attitude*

5 Comments | tags: acey slade, dave lombardo, doyle wolfgang von frankenstein, glenn danzig, jerry only, new jersey punk, the misfits, the original misfits | posted in Danzig, Music

May 18, 2018

Batman: The Animated Series – “The Laughing Fish”

By Joe

The_Laughing_Fish-Title_Card Episode Number: 34

Original Air Date: January 10, 1993

Directed by: Bruce Timm

Written by: Paul Dini

First Appearance(s): None

“The Laughing Fish” is our second episode of Batman: The Animated Series to be directed by Bruce Timm and written by Paul Dini* (asterisk on the written by credit which I’ll get to). You may remember the first as being pretty damn good: “Heart of Ice.” Interestingly, both that episode and this one are the only two so far to not feature a true title card as each opts for a focused shot on a subject that’s simply part of the first scene (in this case, a swinging sign on a pier for a company that could share a name with the episode title). This episode, unlike “Heart of Ice,” is not an original story by Timm and Dini and instead is an amalgamation of three different stories from the comics. Those stories being “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge (1973)” by Denny O’Neil and “The Laughing Fish” and “Sign of the Joker! (1978)” both by Steve Englehart. If you hadn’t guessed from the title of the episode, then surely you know by now based on those titles from the comics that we’re dealing with The Joker this week as he seeks to utilize his Joker toxin in a fairly unique manner in order to win money and score laughs.

I don’t care what Batman says, there’s no way I’m eating one of those.

This episode is quite stylized from the get-go and will remain so. It features some brief narration by our hero, Batman, which I believe is a first for the series. The fish being harvested in the waters of Gotham are all sporting a tell-tale Joker grin. Batman suspects the worst, but when he dissects a fish he finds there’s no danger to humans when consumed, which just makes him more curious. This is a good thing because the ghastly visage of these fish apparently isn’t stopping the local fisherman from harvesting and selling the things as we soon see Joker himself pay a visit to a local paper-pusher at a patent office about licensing rights. That poor sap, G. Carl Francis (George Dzundza), finds himself in the crosshairs of The Joker when he can’t help him file a trademark on the fish. It would seem The Joker thought he’d be able to earn money on every fish sold since they bare his likeness, but he’s frustrated to find out that isn’t the case. His lovely associate, Harley (Arleen Sorkin), sprays poor Francis with some icky perfume while remarking that she has a strong dislike of fish which the perfume should eliminate. Joker informs Francis he has until midnight to reconsider his patent claim. Joker then goes to his old standby – television, to essentially broadcast his threat against Francis so his old chum Batman can be aware of his plans.

Poor Harley is going to have a rough time with all of the fish in this one.

When Joker leaves the office angry, Francis does the right thing and enlists the aid of the Gotham Police Department for protection. They setup a watch for Joker that Batman soon crashes, much to the ire of Detective Bullock. They all patiently wait around for The Joker to make his presence felt, but noting comes. When Francis starts rubbing at his hands and makes the offhand remark that he never got to wash off the stuff Harley sprayed him with, Batman basically freaks out and starts demanding medical attention for Francis. He’s too late though as a speeding truck launches a swordfish through the window that stabs into the wall. It releases a gas and Francis begins to laugh uncontrollably, his face turns an ashen color and his mouth stretches into a hideous smile. Batman injects him with his anti-Joker compound and Francis begins to settle down. Batman deduces that whatever Harley sprayed on him mixed with the toxin in the swordfish to infect him. Joker soon appears on television to taunt Batman and also name his next victim: copyright office bureaucrat Thomas Jackson.

These transformation scenes felt genuinely disturbing to me as a kid, which is perhaps why this episode actually debuted in prime time as opposed to during normal children’s hours.

Having failed to stop Joker once, the police and Batman give it another shot with Jackson. They set up a security ring around him as well with Gordon and Bullock arguing over their approach. Apparently they’re doing this one Batman’s way and Bullock is less than thrilled. When Jackson’s cat comes waltzing into the room everyone soon notices it’s carrying a Joker fish in its mouth. The cat lunges at Batman and is able to bite him breaking the skin. Batman soon breaks out into laughter as his face becomes round and unrecognizable. Jackson jumps in to administer the anti-toxin, and it’s revealed that Jackson and Batman had actually switched places to try and fool Joker, unfortunately they couldn’t fool the cat.

Here kitty…on second thought, maybe not.

Batman makes the obvious observation that the fish the cat dragged in is a tropical fish not native to Gotham’s waters. This means Joker must be at the local aquarium. Batman, however, is the second person to figure this out as Bullock has already fled Jackson’s residence to head there himself (“I didn’t need no Batcomputer to tell me that weird-looking minnow came from the aquarium,”) and confront The Joker. It doesn’t go well for him and he soon finds himself strung up by a crane like a worm at the end of a fishing line for Joker’s pet shark. Joker is having a good time until he realizes that if Bullock was smart enough to figure out his location then surely Batman will too. He decides to use Bullock as Bat-bait instead and, what do you know, it works.

This sequence is pretty stupid.

Batman comes charging in and Joker’s two goons are no match for him. Joker has his ace though in Bullock and Batman is forced to hand himself over to secure Bullock’s freedom. Joker is happy to make the switch and Batman is tossed into the shark tank. As Bullock looks on, Joker decides he should go for a swim too and shoves him in (Batman couldn’t have possibly expected Joke to not do something like this) and then covers the tank depriving the two of precious oxygen. No matter, as Batman demonstrates his shark battling abilities. It’s a bit ridiculous, though I suppose it’s less ridiculous than the time Batman successfully fought off several crocodiles. He’s able to break the tank and free himself and Bullock as Joker takes off.

B4rpth8 Batman and Joker square-off outside the aquarium on a large dock. It’s the most physical we’ve seen these two get as Joker gets ahold of a large wrench and gives Batman a good strike with it (in a bit of censorship, the screen flashes as Joker connects reminding me of the old Pow! Bam! effects from the 60s Batman show). Joker, not to be confused as Batman’s equal in fisticuffs, is soon subdued and cornered. His last resort is to simply leap off the tall structure revealing a get-away float around his waist. He laughs and taunts Batman from the waters below, until his shark-buddy shows up and drags him under. The episode closes teasing Joker’s demise as a tearful Harley says her goodbyes. Batman, apparently aware that this is only episode 34 of an 85 episode run, tells Commissioner Gordon he doubts The Joker is truly gone. Truer words were never spoken.

The Batman fake-out definitely fooled me as a kid, as well as frightened.

“The Laughing Fish” is a very stylized episode of Batman: The Animated Series. It’s sound production and setup are very film noir and evocative of old crime dramas, with obviously a super hero twist. It’s an amusing plot with Joker just out for money and Batman gets a chance to demonstrate just how well he understands his foil. It’s a fun episode to re-watch as well especially for the scene in Jackson’s home. They don’t cheat, like they often do, the reveal of Batman and Jackson switching places by having Batman speak in Jackson’s voice and vice versa. Rather you never see either man speak until after the reveal. Joker is also at his best as he’s pretty cruel throughout the episode. He obviously can’t actually murder anyone, but it feels clear his intention is to do just that. It’s also interesting to see his relationship with Harley evolving. Here it’s very business-like with her referring to him mostly as “boss,” but it’s obvious she’s higher on the pecking order than the other goons since Joker bothers to remember her name. It’s also fun to see her broken up over Joker’s apparent demise, making it obvious she has an unhealthy devotion to the man.

MV5BNzYxNzMyODctZjUyMS00NmEzLWExOGItMzk2MGMxYTFlNzI5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjI4OTE1MTA@._V1_

Joker and Harley get to demonstrate a taste of their chemistry in this one. Here Joker makes her his mermaid.

Where the episode does sort of cheat the viewer is in its resolution. Joker obviously is not dead and will return for many more episodes. The episode doesn’t offer a plausible explanation for how Joker survived a shark attack, and it won’t bother trying to explain it the next time he shows his face in this show. He’ll just reappear and this won’t be the last time he cheats death in such a way.

Farewell, sweet clown prince. For now, anyway.

1 Comment | tags: arleen sorkin, batman, bruce timm, detective comics, harley quinn, mark hamill, paul dini, the joker, the laughing fish | posted in batman the animated series, Comics, Television

May 17, 2018

Marvel Legends Series 6 – Deadpool

By Joe

The name is Deadpool, Captain Deadpool.

In celebration of the release of Deadpool 2 I thought it would be a good opportunity to take a look at one of my favorite action figures from the Marvel Legends line – Deadpool! Marvel Legends is a series of action figures that originated with the now defunct ToyBiz and is now owned by Hasbro. The series launched around the turn of the millennium and was a sister series of sorts to the Spider-Man Classics line. It was a collector oriented line that likely grew from the diminished sales and interest in the standard ToyBiz figures. This was also after McFarlane kind of changed the game in terms of what an action figure could be with its Spawn line. McFarlane placed greater emphasis on the sculpting process realizing that spending just a little more time tooling a figure could give it broader appeal. Adding more detail to a sculpt really adds little cost to the individual toy and this proved to be a wise move. I’d even wager the Spawn toys were likely more popular than the comic.

ToyBiz, as well as other toy manufacturers, were forced to play catch-up. ToyBiz would end up not only improving its sculpts, but would also prioritize articulation correctly assuming that collectors who removed toys from its packaging would want to be able to create dynamic poses for their mini heroes. ToyBiz would only get better as the years went on before Marvel eventually decided it no longer wanted to be in the toy manufacturing business. ToyBiz was owned by Marvel and the Marvel toys it put out represented basically the entirety of the company’s catalog. Rising oil prices were making plastic more expensive and Marvel probably felt it could make more money, while assuming less risk, by simply licensing their intellectual properties to other manufacturers, which is how Hasbro eventually took over. It was a bit of a bumpy start for Hasbro and for awhile the line was discontinued all together, but its made a return of sorts over the last couple of years.

Marvel Legends Series 6 arrived basically during the height of the line’s popularity in late summer 2004. ToyBiz had yet to tap into all of Marvel’s hottest properties so there was still great anticipation for every line. They had also hit on some new sculpts and were packing their figures full of articulation. In particular, a figure of Daredevil for the Spider-Man Classics line (which had been rebranded as simply Spider-Man with an emphasis on a younger audience) that would go on to be the base of many other ToyBiz figures, including this one of the Merc with a Mouth – Deadpool.

Back when this figure first came out, Deadpool was far from a household name. He was largely a character getting by on his cool design, even if it was derivative of several other heroes and villains from comics. His comic was niche, but certainly unique given the character’s lunacy and penchant for breaking the fourth wall. This was in an age when the only popular Marvel properties were really Spider-Man and the X-Men. In a pre Marvel Cinematic Universe world, the likes of Iron Man and Captain America were for comic geeks only, though the Ultimate Universe was gaining in popularity and The Ultimates, the version of the Avengers for that world, were a pretty big reason why.

A meeting of the minds.

Marvel Legends Series 6 was a notoriously difficult series to find at retail. By now, the secondary market and specialty shops were fully aware of the line’s popularity and collectors were forced to battle with scalpers at the big box stores in order to land the toys they coveted. I don’t think I ever came across the entirety of this series at retail, which also included figures of Wolverine (brown costume), Juggernaut, Phoenix, Cable and The Punisher (Thomas Jane). Since The Punisher was based on a movie likeness, he was the only one I ever saw at retail because few people wanted him. I knew I wanted Wolverine, Deadpool, and Juggernaut especially so I actually pre-ordered them through an online retailer. I paid a premium, but it proved to be the right move as they quickly went up in price basically every where they weren’t sold out. I eventually traded with another collector for a Phoenix, and I never got my hands on Cable which is a shame since he would have paired nicely with Deadpool.

Deadpool was easily my favorite of what was otherwise a good series of figures. The Daredevil base is obvious given the tell-tale shoulders, but ToyBiz even left the holster on his right leg for Daredevil’s baton weapon. For Deadpool it makes a good holster for his sai, which were holdovers form a prior Elektra figure. In addition to those weapons he also came with two AKs, two katana, a handgun, and an alternate unmasked head. He also came packaged with Doop, not pictured because I never cared for the Slimer knock-off and didn’t bother to dig him out of storage. He also has an action stand which was becoming commonplace for the line in lieu of a more elaborate base. Eventually the bases would be dropped all-together for build-a-figure pieces to construct much larger figures. Deadpool also features a belt that’s separate from his sculpt. I suppose you could remove it if you really wanted to. It has holsters for his weapons plus molded on grenades and his adorable little mask-logo on the belt buckle.

Deadpool possesses extensive articulation which is befitting a ninja. He can be posed in almost any position you can think of. His joints are nice and tight and he really only needs the stand for more dramatic aerial poses as he can comfortably stand on his own just fine. The sculpting on the body is fairly simple and relegated mostly to just his musculature. His face features subtle, but effective, sculpting suggesting an angry expression is lurking underneath. His secondary, Freddy Krueger-like head, looks spectacularly disturbing and sports a character appropriate wild grin. The only short-comings with the sculpt lie with the hands and shoulders. The bulky shoulders were the cost of making the arms capable of posing in basically any position. They were the main draw-back to this character base. The hands are also articulated and we’ve come to learn over the years that articulated hands just don’t work well to hold weapons. Deadpool’s weapons are all nice and light, so he can hold them just fine, but you will be constantly tweaking them to get them just right (and don’t bother with the sai as they’re almost too thin for any worthwhile pose). If he were made today he’d probably just have swappable hands or just non-articulated ones capable of gripping both a sword and gun.

What always stood out for me with this figure is the simple look of Deadpool. The red on black is striking and there’s little that can be messed up as a result. The loads of accessories are also a huge benefit. Even if the sai kind of stink, they’re still nice to have and look good in that thigh pouch. The handgun is tucked away neatly on a holster while the katana and AKs can be stored on the back of his belt. The AKs don’t seat all that well, but it can be done. Lots of accessories plus places to store them is something i appreciate in any action figure, especially since keeping track of numerous little pieces can be a huge pain. The only thing he can’t store on his person is the second head, but that would be a little odd if he could.

As you can imagine, the Legends line has taken new stabs at Deadpool, especially in light of his growing popularity thanks to the film franchise. I have never been tempted to buy another though because I’ve always been happy with this one. Had I purchased one I’d probably be forced to concede it’s an improvement, but that wouldn’t diminish my fondness for this one. Deadpool is perfectly suited for the world of plastic and movies so it’s great to see this character’s popularity explode. And as a legacy piece, those who were at ToyBiz should be proud they made an awesome Deadpool when few people wanted one and it can still hang with today’s action figures more than 10 years later.

1 Comment | tags: action figures, deadpool, fabian nicieza, marvel comics, rob liefeld, toybiz | posted in Comics, toys

Recent Activity
Categories
Categories
Vital Signs
- 690,208 hits
Search
Email Subscription

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address:

Join 305 other subscribers

The Nostalgia Spot

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Recent Activity

Categories

Vital Signs

Search

Email Subscription