Finally, the true face's of villainy can finally be protected, the world can now rest easy.....I think?
Saturday, 29 February 2020
Stephen Colbert Villain Facial Hair Mask Sketch
Finally, the true face's of villainy can finally be protected, the world can now rest easy.....I think?
Friday, 21 February 2020
Miniatures Update February
Bit late on this one, wanted to get the recent Burrows & Badgers models that I just got in with this as well. Also, sorry for the poor quality of the photographs, will make sure that the painted versions are done better. This was sort of a late minute rush job just so I could get something up to show progress. Also, due to the basing paint, it seems the bases have blended in on the blue cloth I had them on for some reason (may have been the light I used). So let's start with Moonstone:
The First Set is Boris the Bunny Summoner and his Murder Bunnies, The Jackalope, Gloom and Chubs. After I undercoated them I noticed the gaps more clearly and have begun fixing them with green stuff.
The Second consists of Drunk Fritz, Anotnia, Danica, Zorya, KS exclusive Zorya, KS exclusive Gwendoline and KS exclusive Loubard. Fritz was probably the hardest to put together, but a few of these minis were also difficult to clean up.
Finally there is the Burrows & Badgers stuff that arrived. We have a Magpie, a female Hedgehog archer, a male Squirrel warrior, the KS Mole and a large female Border Collie warrior. The first three will be added to my own crew collection, while the last two will be the start of my second crew collection, which I'll start adding to later this year.
With any luck, I'll start feeling well enough to begin actual painting of these miniatures. I know that with the cooler weather coming over the next few months, that it should make it easier for me to get back into painting again. Let's hope so.
The First Set is Boris the Bunny Summoner and his Murder Bunnies, The Jackalope, Gloom and Chubs. After I undercoated them I noticed the gaps more clearly and have begun fixing them with green stuff.
The Second consists of Drunk Fritz, Anotnia, Danica, Zorya, KS exclusive Zorya, KS exclusive Gwendoline and KS exclusive Loubard. Fritz was probably the hardest to put together, but a few of these minis were also difficult to clean up.
Finally there is the Burrows & Badgers stuff that arrived. We have a Magpie, a female Hedgehog archer, a male Squirrel warrior, the KS Mole and a large female Border Collie warrior. The first three will be added to my own crew collection, while the last two will be the start of my second crew collection, which I'll start adding to later this year.
With any luck, I'll start feeling well enough to begin actual painting of these miniatures. I know that with the cooler weather coming over the next few months, that it should make it easier for me to get back into painting again. Let's hope so.
The Quest For Footage
So one of the biggest problems I found when I first started Animated Reflections was that there are many shows out there that have little to no footage on the internet. This problem is made worse when you realise that many of those ones also don't have DVD versions either and that the ones that do tend to be region locked to places like the USA/Europe. Thankfully, there are things like multi-region DVD/Blu-ray players and even video player programs on PC that allow you to view these, which has been a big help lately (recently I've begun looking back at the 80's/90's Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoons and thanks to a few programs I have I can now acquire some of the limited available US DVD options to view the shows).
But it's not just limited to animated shows, but to a large variety of them, including puppet based ones. Over the last few months I've been trying to find out anything I can on a show called Commander Crumbcake and as such there is little to no knowledge on it available. Even the few clips I've found a poor recordings of the theme and a few short clips of the first episode (which really doesn't give me much to go on). There are a couple of VHS tapes on ebay, but I need to unpack my old VHS player first to see if it works and even then there is no guarantee that the will work. At least Puddle Lane has a few clips up I can watch.
And these are for the shows I can remember. There are a few in my head where I remember a single scene and for the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the show or even find something that comes close to it. Robo Story was one of these ones that I only recently discovered over the last few years and so had to do one on it.
Hopefully with the way old footage keeps popping up more recently, I may get a chance to finally find or at least recognise some of these great classics from the past.
But it's not just limited to animated shows, but to a large variety of them, including puppet based ones. Over the last few months I've been trying to find out anything I can on a show called Commander Crumbcake and as such there is little to no knowledge on it available. Even the few clips I've found a poor recordings of the theme and a few short clips of the first episode (which really doesn't give me much to go on). There are a couple of VHS tapes on ebay, but I need to unpack my old VHS player first to see if it works and even then there is no guarantee that the will work. At least Puddle Lane has a few clips up I can watch.
And these are for the shows I can remember. There are a few in my head where I remember a single scene and for the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the show or even find something that comes close to it. Robo Story was one of these ones that I only recently discovered over the last few years and so had to do one on it.
Hopefully with the way old footage keeps popping up more recently, I may get a chance to finally find or at least recognise some of these great classics from the past.
Saturday, 15 February 2020
Sonic Movie Was Amazing!
OK, so let's start off by clearing a few things up. I am a Sonic fan and as such that probably helped swing my enjoyment of this movie a little. Second is, this is clearly set up as an origin story for both Sonic and Dr. Robotnik/Eggman and as such, this isn't going to please all fans off the bat. That said, thank goodness they re-designed Sonic from that original abomination, cause damn did that make a difference in being able to view this movie. So I'm going for a spoiler free round up, so as such there are a lot of things I can't talk about sadly. That said, their choice of actors for this movie was brilliant.
There's no looking past it, but Jim Carrey was the perfect person to play the outlandish Dr. Robotnik. His performance has been refereed to by many as 90's Jim Carrey, but for me it just seems he was having a blast playing the character and really enjoyed getting into the role. The character of the Doctor is an egotistical genius who cares only for himself and his machines, with a complete disdain for humanity and believes himself to be always right and unbeatable. This leads to some really great moments between Robotnik and other characters in the movie. To Robotnik, he is the greatest person ever to have existed and everyone else is as nothing to him. It really is all about him and his invulnerable brilliance and he can't stand it when it isn't.
Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic was another great choice. He nails it as a lonely, but fun loving youth who just wants to belong and have friends, but is forced into a life of hiding because of his powers. As the movie goes on, the character begins to slowly evolve into one we are more commonly familiar with, but still lacking some of that full confidence of the current version from years of battling the Doctor. He's a mixture of 90's Sonic mixed with things associated with modern kids, which may not appeal to all fans. He is also incredibly hyperactive, so also keep that in mind. I also believe (theory) that the energy he uses is also an explanation for why he can smash robots up like he does in the games, though he doesn't really spin dash in this movie much (he doesn't really understand the power or know how to really control it. So yeah, origin movie).
While I hate movies that take characters from their settings into our modern world (WTF Smurfs, Seriously?), this movie was probably one of the least problematic ones, given that it made some sense from a story stand point and Sonic has interacted with modern earth like elements in the games, so it has a better believably to it. Another problem with such movies is that it focuses too much on the human character rather then the main stars and feeling more irritating then adding to the story, but in this movie they seem to have avoided a lot of that, with a focus on fewer characters and more on the main ones and their interactions.
This is where the character of Tom Wachowski (played by James Marsden) comes into it. He's a small town sheriff who wants to join a big city police force in an attempt to feel like he can save lives and not just be someone who spends his time on pointless animal chasing and empty roadside speed camera runs. He is given enough time to get the audience familiar with him with out the character overstaying his welcome and his interactions with Sonic do come off quite genuine, as does his annoying of Dr. Robotnik. For a human companion to a cartoon hedgehog, this one worked really well.
There are also some rather nice references to not only the parts of the Sonic lore, but also to the fandom and online jokes (Sanic anyone). Also, stick around after the mid-credit sequence (done in a classic Sonic game style) for a scene which sets up a sequel.
Given the reaction in the theater, many of the kids and adults really like this movie. I absolutely loved it. Not only did it succeeded in satisfying the Sonic fan in me, but the movie overall was just fun in general. I have no doubt that if given the chance, I would definitely go see it again. It may even be my favourite video game movie now (going to really have to compare the enjoyment or re-watching it vs the Mortal Kombat movie, as that one was the original top spot to see which one now has that spot). Needless to say, I want a sequel and I want it badly. There is so much they can do with this now and the fact that they changed the movie for the better before release means they are on the right road to creating an even better sequel.
Either way, it's a great kids movie and a must see for any Sonic fan (might also be if you're a Jim Carrey fan too).
There's no looking past it, but Jim Carrey was the perfect person to play the outlandish Dr. Robotnik. His performance has been refereed to by many as 90's Jim Carrey, but for me it just seems he was having a blast playing the character and really enjoyed getting into the role. The character of the Doctor is an egotistical genius who cares only for himself and his machines, with a complete disdain for humanity and believes himself to be always right and unbeatable. This leads to some really great moments between Robotnik and other characters in the movie. To Robotnik, he is the greatest person ever to have existed and everyone else is as nothing to him. It really is all about him and his invulnerable brilliance and he can't stand it when it isn't.
Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic was another great choice. He nails it as a lonely, but fun loving youth who just wants to belong and have friends, but is forced into a life of hiding because of his powers. As the movie goes on, the character begins to slowly evolve into one we are more commonly familiar with, but still lacking some of that full confidence of the current version from years of battling the Doctor. He's a mixture of 90's Sonic mixed with things associated with modern kids, which may not appeal to all fans. He is also incredibly hyperactive, so also keep that in mind. I also believe (theory) that the energy he uses is also an explanation for why he can smash robots up like he does in the games, though he doesn't really spin dash in this movie much (he doesn't really understand the power or know how to really control it. So yeah, origin movie).
While I hate movies that take characters from their settings into our modern world (WTF Smurfs, Seriously?), this movie was probably one of the least problematic ones, given that it made some sense from a story stand point and Sonic has interacted with modern earth like elements in the games, so it has a better believably to it. Another problem with such movies is that it focuses too much on the human character rather then the main stars and feeling more irritating then adding to the story, but in this movie they seem to have avoided a lot of that, with a focus on fewer characters and more on the main ones and their interactions.
This is where the character of Tom Wachowski (played by James Marsden) comes into it. He's a small town sheriff who wants to join a big city police force in an attempt to feel like he can save lives and not just be someone who spends his time on pointless animal chasing and empty roadside speed camera runs. He is given enough time to get the audience familiar with him with out the character overstaying his welcome and his interactions with Sonic do come off quite genuine, as does his annoying of Dr. Robotnik. For a human companion to a cartoon hedgehog, this one worked really well.
There are also some rather nice references to not only the parts of the Sonic lore, but also to the fandom and online jokes (Sanic anyone). Also, stick around after the mid-credit sequence (done in a classic Sonic game style) for a scene which sets up a sequel.
Given the reaction in the theater, many of the kids and adults really like this movie. I absolutely loved it. Not only did it succeeded in satisfying the Sonic fan in me, but the movie overall was just fun in general. I have no doubt that if given the chance, I would definitely go see it again. It may even be my favourite video game movie now (going to really have to compare the enjoyment or re-watching it vs the Mortal Kombat movie, as that one was the original top spot to see which one now has that spot). Needless to say, I want a sequel and I want it badly. There is so much they can do with this now and the fact that they changed the movie for the better before release means they are on the right road to creating an even better sequel.
Either way, it's a great kids movie and a must see for any Sonic fan (might also be if you're a Jim Carrey fan too).
Thursday, 6 February 2020
February Update
Quick update, just recently started a new medication and damn have those side-effects have hit me like a train. So heads up if you don't see too much over this month.
Positive side, my Moonstone Kickstarter has arrived. Due to the casting and molds used for the models, there is quite a bit of cleaning up to do (they're a small company, so I'll let them off the hook for that), but once I clean them up and base them I'll do a little update and review on them. Needless to say, I am looking forward to getting a Faun/Animal crew up and running.
Update 9/2/20:
So quick update, while trying to clean up the miniatures, I ended up cutting myself. Blade slipped off while trying to fix up one of the models hair and pain ensured. Fun times. Anyway, there may be a slight delay on the clean and setting of the models because of this (due to not being able to hold them properly with the cut), but will try to get back on track as soon as I can.
Positive side, my Moonstone Kickstarter has arrived. Due to the casting and molds used for the models, there is quite a bit of cleaning up to do (they're a small company, so I'll let them off the hook for that), but once I clean them up and base them I'll do a little update and review on them. Needless to say, I am looking forward to getting a Faun/Animal crew up and running.
Update 9/2/20:
So quick update, while trying to clean up the miniatures, I ended up cutting myself. Blade slipped off while trying to fix up one of the models hair and pain ensured. Fun times. Anyway, there may be a slight delay on the clean and setting of the models because of this (due to not being able to hold them properly with the cut), but will try to get back on track as soon as I can.
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