Category: Cartooning

It’s a Walt World, After All

The summer of ’65 is a source of fond childhood memories. I saw the Beatles in HELP!, and my eldest sister attended the first Beatles concert at Shea Stadium. I was captivated by an original James Bond Aston Martin DB5 that was on display over a weekend at a local shopping center, as a promotion for Thunderball.

The biggest event that summer was my family going to the New York World’s Fair. We were there for only one day, but I was enthralled by the fair and the memories remain vivid. As a kid, I knew nothing about the fair’s contentious origin or its controversial promoter, but the presence of Walt Disney couldn’t be mistaken or missed.

Make Mine Mini

The 60’s had miniskirts and, at Marvel Comics, mini-books. Mark Evanier explains.

I had the Cap and Hulk mini-books, both long gone, so I’m looking forward to getting this little set. I have it on pre-order.

With six kids in my family, growing up I probably had less spending money than Evanier. I was also into model building, which forced me into making some extremely difficult purchasing decisions with my $1/week allowance (equivalent to about $7.50 today). I’m sure that was why, without realizing it at the time, I majored in Economics in college.

Rock Em’ Sock ‘Em Robots!

Over the past 10 years I have taken advantage of familial opportunities, shall we say, to watch many hours of the Gundam anime TV series, but I haven’t seen any of the movie compilations. Here’s my chance “for a limited time.” Exactly how long that is, I don’t know.

https://youtu.be/yYunkmTxzH4

I am pleased that Sunrise Entertainment chose to use the original Japanese soundtrack with English subtitles.

https://youtu.be/QLSKZoW0lfI

At the 2012 New York Comic Con, Sunrise showed a preview of an upcoming Gundam series and held a vote on whether they should play it with subtitles or the English dub, and I lost that vote.

https://youtu.be/0vuXE97zmFc

It Will Disappear, as if by Magic… to Fairyland!

Out of Netflix to watch? Nothing more on Amazon Prime? Here’s a little trifle from what is, or was, Henson International Television.

Faeries has a rather uneasy mix of early computer animation, photos, and bland, “TV quality” character animation. The boy seems to bear more than a coincidental resemblance to Harry Potter. For me, animation obscurities like this one are worth scanning to see what the artists were able to do within their constraints of time, money, and talent.