James Andrews

Last night I watched the 1st episode of the new FMA: Brotherhood series courtesy of Funimation. To continue on my future of television post. This is what I love about TV on the Internet. FMA Brotherhood Episode 1 was first shown in Japan 5 days ago. Funimation got it, had it translated and subtitled, in 4 days, and then had it online for the US anime audience.

It is located here in case you want to watch it.

The episode starts off with the same animation style that we say in the first FMA series. The general story telling seems very much the same as well. Ed gets all pissy about being called punnie, All the other members of the military seem to have the same mannerisms, not much different there. Within the first 5 minutes of the episode you can see that the continuity is off. Certain characters who you know should already be acquainted Major Hews his family, Ed and Al for example seem to meet for the first time here. When in the original series they had met before Ed became a state alchemist. In the original series Ed and Al even helped deliver Major Hews daughter who in the new series is already 2-4 years old. This really saddens me that they totally threw off the continuity. I am hoping there aren’t too many more similar issues.

So far it seems like it’ll be a fun series. We’ll see as they start introducing more characters.

Over the last 2 days I have managed to watch 102 episodes of a Japanese anime called “Naruto Shippuden”. I was able to do this legally online without having to pay to watch for each episode all thanks to the partnership between the Hulu and VIZ media corporation who are the license holders for Naruto in the US. There are a few things about this that really made me happy and I hope that some one somewhere in that industry reads this because I think they have a great thing going.

First off. I HATE Cartoon Network. As many of you may know CN is owned Time Warner when it was originally conceptualized the main idea was TW wanted a place where they could show all the old Hana-Barbera cartoons that they had purchased. That was all fine and good but it grew to be something more than that to the point where they were showing a lot of really great Japanese animation, as well as some great original material. Cartoon Network eventually started Adult Swim, which took control of CN’s airwaves after 10pm on weeknights and weekends. While they had some original programming based off of old Hana-Barbera media, they also had a nice collection of Japanese animation. Cartoon Network had become the leader in providing Japanese animation on TV despite ADV’s attempt at Anime Network.

Today’s Cartoon Network is a different beast. While they still do have some great original programming they have forsaken the Japanese animation even though there are still a lot of interest in Anime. With the exception of Pokemon which is played every weekday morning there is very little anime during the 7am-10pm hour. Adult Swim is a different story. For a while they had a lot of GREAT original programming. Aquateen Hunger Force which was my personal favorite and many others seemed to shine, but recently the shows have gone downhill in a menacing spiral and all anime has been pushed off to late saturday night/early sunday morning. A slew of [AS]’s mistakes include showing Family Guy to the point of it being unwatchable, shows like “Tom Goes to the Mayor” and “Tim and Eric good show great job”, and more recently the inclusion of “King of the Hill”, probably because some suit at TW felt that that horse hadn’t been beaten to death enough. They’ve basically ruined a good thing.

This is just one example of a television network screwing up and disappointing their viewers. Fox is notorious for scheduling changes that keep shows from becoming smash hits (ie Firefly/Family Guy), and I personally think that now is the time for the industry’s major overhaul.

NBC the parent company for Hulu is on the right track, but I still think they have a LONG way to go. Allowing the choice of what you want to view, when you want to view it is a great first step. Limiting the number of commercials per commercial break is AWESOME, even though I think they could do better in means of allowing the user a choice in the kinds of commercials that interest them. For example I don’t care about women’s products, don’t advertise them to me while I watch. The internet is empowering, allow the consumers the power to control what they want to see. There are so many times I turn on the TV and at 4am I can’t find a thing to watch because it’s all infomercials. Give me a world where I don’t have to watch banners at the bottom of shows advertising other shows. Give me a world where I don’t have to watch commercials about little blue pills until I need information about those little blue pills.

The state of television is dim, internet television’s future is bright, let’s do it right!

It all starts as the perfect day for Susan(Reese Witherspoon). She’s about to get married Derek (Paul Rudd) the very self centered local news weather man. Unknown to the bride is that her life is soon going to change for ever, when she is hit by meteor, that causes her to grow to be 150ft or so. Her wedding in shambles as she is taken in by the military to a secret facility where monsters are kept out of the public eye for their safety as well as the public’s. She is now Ginormica, and her life forever changed.

Monsters vs Aliens is a fun story of Gallaxhar’s invasion of earth in search of the very rare mineral that has made it’s way to earth. Ginormica along with her new friends B.O.B(Seth Rogen), Dr Cockroach Ph D(Hugh Laurie), and the Missing Link (Will Amett) take on Gallaxhar’s invasion. Will they succeed? You’ll only know if you see the movie. The 3D animation is incredible. Very much on par with the recent “Coraline” film. There was not a lot of quick motion, so very few 3D scenes had that annoying blur to them. I was worried that many of the best jokes were used in the trailers, and while that was partially the case there are still a lot of really funny moments in the film. Some great adult joke references as well. I will admit there were a few geekier jokes that I saw coming. The voice acting was great, and Stephen Colbert’s roll as President Hathaway was spot on. One of my favorite scenes being when the President tries to communicate with Gallaxhar’s initial robot probe for the first time.

The movie is very much worth bringing the kids too, but if you are an adult who likes animated motion pictures you will not be disappointed.