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Comic and Rant for Saturday, March 23, 2002
Everyone's a Critic |
Okay, I said I’d talk about Image Entertainment’s upcoming release of Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna: The Warriors of the Star of Light (retitled simply Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna) and Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna & Ultraman Gaia: The Super Dimension Grand Battle (more inexplicably retitled Ultraman Gaia: The Battle in Hyperspace) (I can’t link directly to the entries listings - go to Image and you’ll find them either under “May 2002 Releases” or use the “Keyword Search” function). Okay, first off I can understand why the titles were shortened, and in the case of the Tiga/Dyna movie it’s quite likely that the credits will have the full title, but as far as the latter goes ... First off, the title doesn’t mention the other two Ultramen, which, while making the title shorter, makes it sound like a solo Gaia movie rather than one where all three 20th Century Heisei Headliners appear (Highlight for Spoiler: however briefly). Additionally, the only relation hyperspace has to the film is that several dimensions are involved and hyperspace is a dimension (though not one of the dimensions in the film!). Of course it’s possible that Tsuburaya Productions insisted on those titles. Didja ever notice that Japanese companies only insist on bad (*cough!* Weiß Knight Kreuz Hunters *cough!*) things? Next up for me to mercilessly nitpick are the sleeves. Compare the the US sleeves to the Japanese ones. ’nuff said! That’s really all I can whine about without further information (I’ve emailed Image, and will let you know what they tell me), but I’m a bit wary about the content. I know for sure each DVD or VHS will contain the movie, letterboxed (yay!), subtitled (yay!) and not dubbed (bwa-ha-ha!). Otherwise, all I know for sure is that the only extra mentioned is isolated score (something the Japanese DVD’s lacked, unless maybe they’ve been re-issued). There’s no mention of the trailers, music video, concept art and animated shorts that were on their Japanese counterparts. Most of those are pretty neat, but not really important. The animated shorts, however, were released theatrically with the movies. Without them, the movies are not only a bit incomplete, but also rather short (and the listed running times don’t exactly raise my hopes). Still, the movies are entertaining, and worth a look for anyone who likes Tokusatsu (especially if you wanna show your snobbish friends some decent examples of Japanese SPFX - just be selective about which scenes you show them ^_^ ). I suppose I could also complain about how the movies don’t make as much sense if you haven’t seen the TV series, and whine about how they should release the TV shows first, and about how a lot of companies do the same with Anime, but I think I’ll shut up now. At least about this. For now. As you’ve probably noticed, today’s strip is only three panels. That’s why (in the unlikely even you’ve been wondering) I designed the strip to scroll horizontally. I can have as many or as few panels as I need (I have a six-panel strip coming up!). I’ve noticed that most web comics are still drawn as if they were newspaper strips, and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with that I kind of wish that more would take better advantage of the essentially infinite canvas available to them (I’d better stop before I turn into Scott McCloud!). Mostly, the strip will be four panels, not only because four panels is generally a good number to do these kinds of gags (largely because Peanuts and Doonesbury have conditioned me ^_^), but also because laziness, procrastination and deadlines keep me from drawing more on a regular basis. Anyway, the subject of today’s strip is talking during movies - not the witty commentary (yeah, right ...) I sometimes engage in, but rather children talking because they don’t know any better. Now I remember one time when I was younger and the whole family watched a movie together during a free HBO week or weekend, my Mom told us we should be quiet and stay in our seats, just as if we were in a real movie theater. In contrast, I’ve seen parents actually encourage their children to talk! During the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence in Fantasia (the 1990 50th Anniversary re-release), I saw a little boy who, though he was kind of scared, seemed like he was managing (barely) to convince himself that it was all make-believe, and that the scary creatures (which would have garnered the film a PG if not for the fact that all pre-MPAA Disney flicks automagically get G’s) couldn’t “get” him. Then his mother decided to say to him “Look at the monster! Isn’t he scary?” Another example occurred, coincidentally, when I saw Fantasia 2000. During “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” one particularly bright mother (whose hair was worn up, presumably so she could block the view of the people behind her) decided to ask her daughter “Who’s that?” when Mickey appeared. I’d have more examples, but I tend to make it a point to see animated features at times when the child factor is low. I was recently reminded of this on Wednesday, when I was in a library writing Thursday’s rant. Libraries are, of course, great places to do reading or writing because everybody knows that you’re supposed to be quiet, right? Unfortunately, there was this little girl who was so bored she decided to sing, and her mother seemed to decide it was okay (or at least she only made token attempts to stop her). This was so bad that a couple who were reading found themselves unable to concentrate and left! If I’d done such a thing at that age, my mother ... actually, I wouldn’t have done that. But it’s not just the threat of a spanking - when my mother took me places when I was small she’d keep in mind that a child might not have the energy or attention span of an adult, and she’d make it fun. If she had to, say, get some books from a library whose ground floor was a well-stocked children’s section with tons of activities, she might let me wait for her there rather than dragging me with her to an area where I’d be bored out of my gourd. I dunno, maybe the singing girl’s mother was just overprotective, but more likely it never occurred to her. Still, it’s all very well for me to criticize others and theorize about what they should and shouldn’t be doing, but I wonder if I’ll end up eating my words in the unlikely even that I ever become a parent ... Mike emailed me some info on Movietunes, but I don’t want to post it without his permission, so in the meantime take a look at this (6.7 MB Windows Media Player) animation from bitterfilms.com. |
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