Gems From the British Broadcasting Corporation

So I’m a fan of the United Kingdom’s version of PBS. In the UK, households that have a television capable of receiving broadcast transmissions are taxed 145.50 pounds (about 235 US dollars) per year. This fee, along with various other private and public revenue streams, provides funding for the largest broadcaster in the world, employing about 23,000 staff members. Some of their episodes get more than 350 million viewers worldwide. There are typically no commercials or advertisements in the original broadcasts in the U.K. I’m going to go over some of the shows I have seen and enjoyed and give a brief review of each. All of the shows I am reviewing are available on Netflix (several are available for instant streaming view). I’ll give my impression of the programs (or programmes as they say across the pond) and hopefully some of my descriptions will make them sound interesting enough for you to check out yourself.

First up is the one I have watched most recently, Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch (nice British name) as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson. It is a retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective stories updated and set in contemporary times. The series is only three episodes, ninety minutes each, so really like a series of movies more than a show. Series one is out now on DVD/blu-ray and series two will broadcast in the UK sometime late in 2011, so I look for the U.S. DVD release to be around November of that year as well. The acting by the leads is nothing short of amazing, and part of that is the superb material they were given to work with by the writers. Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson proves that he really can act again after his less-than-stellar turn as Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Fans of the original The Office will recognize him as Tim Canterbury, the show’s straight man. He plays Dr. Watson as a very capable and steely companion to Holmes. Technically speaking he’s the sidekick, but it really plays as more of a partnership. The real pleasure to watch is Cumberbatch’s scene-stealing performance as Holmes. Every move and mannerism exudes the confidence of a man who knows he’s the smartest guy in the room, no matter what room he’s in. On a side note, Freeman will be playing Bilbo Baggins in the upcoming 3-D epic, The Hobbit.

Cumberbatch and Freeman as Holmes and Watson in Sherlock

I have recently started watching Top Gear re-runs on Netflix instant streaming. It started life way back in 1977 as a conventional car magazine show. In 2002 it was relaunched/rebooted and developed into a humorous show in which the hosts bicker cordially about what car is the coolest that week and which one of them is the slowest driver or the most dithering Englishman. Now I’ve only seen a few episodes, but already I am a fan of the show. Not for the witty and insightful reviews on autos, but for the amazing chemistry these fellows on the show have with each other. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May (a.k.a. Capitan Slow) present cars, do stunts, make short films, and give each other a hard time. Then there is the anonymous professional test track driver they use known only as “The Stig.”

Pictured from left to right: Richard Hammond, Jeremy
Clarkson, James May, and last but not least, “The Stig”

Sounds simple, but when you watch it, it all comes together to give a very satisfying show. To me, the show is most of all funny, but it does have some excitement and “coolness” factor thrown in as well. For instance in the first show I watched, Capitan Slow took a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport to 417.6 kilometers per hour (259.48 miles per hour), the fastest a stock production car has ever been recorded to go. Reading this may not seem very exciting but watching it on the show actually was. The next episode I watched, the gents took a road trip from Miami to New Orleans. The catch was, they wanted to see if they could buy a car for what it would cost to rent one for two weeks, then sell the cars at their destination. So they bought cheap cars (under one thousand dollars each) and went on a road trip. The result was funny, touching, and at one point, quite scary. Redneck hillbillies were scary in Deliverance, and they are scary now.

The Bugatti Veyron and interior (world’s most expensive street
legal car with MSRP of 850,000 pounds or 1.7 million dollars)

In 2004, a programme called Doc Martin was released. The show stars Martin Clunes as a brilliant and highly successful London surgeon who happens to have developed haemophobia. So to avoid encounters with blood, he moves to a Cornish seaside village called Portwenn to be the towns General Practitioner. I am actually reluctant to include this show on this list because it definitely is not for everyone. It is a slow paced dramady that relies, at least in a small way, on the viewer’s ability to understand and enjoy the idiosyncrasies that come with being an Englishman. The location of the fictional town of Portwenn is actually Port Isaac, Cornwall, and it is beautiful. I don’t know if fishing towns like that really exist anymore or if they have modified it for the show, but it really is amazing. I don’t see how places that stunning aren’t overrun with residents…which would spoil some of the splendor. If you enjoy slow, occasionally funny, British drama with stunning seascape backdrops, this show is for you. If not, pretend you missed this last paragraph.

Martin Clunes as Doctor Martin Ellingham
and the sleepy fishing village Port Isaac

“If you want to live, run!”

“Who are you?!”

“I’m The Doctor.”

“Doctor who?”

“Exactly. Now come on!”




Wow. Who doesn’t like the new Doctor Who? I’ll tell you who. People who haven’t seen it. I will tell you right now that if you consider yourself at all a geek and you sit and watch the newer iteration of the series (relaunched in 2005 after a sixteen year hiatus) from the first episode, you will be hooked by episode three. There is a reason that this show has been on the air since 1963. It can be amazing. There is a reason that this show was off the air for sixteen years. It can be abysmal. However, the new series from 2005 onward is genuinely good TV. All the things you remember (or in my case, heard about) that were horrible about the old show are either gone, or made fun of in a tongue-in-cheek, self-referential way. For instance, in the old show, the evil creatures the Daleks were goofy, cheap-looking rolling garbage bins with plungers attached to the sides. There was a joke that to get away from these “scourges of the universe,” you just needed to find some stairs (please see figure 1). Now in the new series, they look…well, pretty much the same, but they do it knowingly, which makes a difference. Hell, they even have the heroes running from one at one point and they come to some stairs. They run up one flight and stop, breathlessly pointing out that they are safe now since it couldn’t come up the stairs. “Ha ha, we can poke fun at ourselves” they seem to be saying…right before the Dalek starts flying. Resume chase.

Left is the old Daleks, middle is the new Daleks…they look
different!...a bit…or not…then figure 1; the comic strip

The actors who have played The Doctor have all been very good in different ways, and his companions have been very good as well. In the first season, his companion is a blonde by the name of Rose Tyler (played well by Billie Piper). She’s one of those girls who when you first see her you think, “yeah she’s pretty I guess.” Then the more you watch her, the hotter she gets, until you wonder, “Why didn’t I notice all those glorious curves before?”

David Tennant as The Doctor with Rose (Billie Piper)
on left and Martha (Freema Agyeman) on right

The current season has a beautiful redheaded Scottish girl named Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) as his companion. This is one of my favorite BBC programmes ever, and I unreservedly recommend it to any geek.

Matt Smith as the current (loveable but geeky looking) Doctor
and his current (smoking hot) companion Amy (Karen Gillan)

The Office. When you speak of it, most of us Yanks think of the Steve Carell vehicle in which he plays Michael Scott, the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company (Scranton Branch). But the successful U.S. version is actually based on a successful British version in which David Brent (Ricky Gervais) runs the Slough branch of Wernham Hogg Paper Company.

Gareth, Tim, Oggy, David, and Dawn from 2001’s The Office

Tim Canterbury (again a perfect performance by Martin Freeman) is constantly winding up Gareth Keenan (Mackenzie Crook’s Gareth is as good as and in some ways even better than Rainn Wilson’s Dwight Schrute). I know, I know, this is all old news to everyone not living in a cave for the past 5 years, but how many people here in the States have bothered to watch this original? It consisted of two seasons with six episodes each, then a wrap up Christmas special. I am not going to go into an in-depth review here because I think anyone who enjoys “British” humour should do themselves a favor and watch it. Any review I give would only be me gushing over it some more. By far, it is my favorite show from the BBC, ever. If you are going to watch just one show on this list, for God’s sake, let it be this one. If you watch the entire series from start to finish, you actually get engrossed in these characters lives. The payoff at the end of the Christmas Special episode is one of those perfect moments in TV history…but only if you’ve watched up to that point. For me to tell anymore would be like telling you “Darth Vader is Luke’s father” right before you go see The Empire Strikes Back. This series was superbly written by Ricky Gervais and his frequent collaborator, Stephen Merchant.

David Brent demonstrating his mad dance skill in the Christmas special

Another project by Gervais and Merchant after The Office was Extras, a show about struggling actors working as extras on film sets and in theatre. This show actually aired on HBO in the U.S. shortly after it’s BBC airing as it was co-produced by the BBC and HBO. It also followed the same format of two seasons of six episodes each plus a Christmas special that The Office had followed. This format seems to really speak to me as it is long enough to get the viewer emotionally attached to the characters, but it stops before it becomes wearisome, leaving the viewer wanting more. Extras was also a little more like a traditional sitcom than the previous The Office, which was filmed in a mockumentary style. Each episode had at least one guest star playing themselves…or at least themselves through the veil of parody. For instance, one episode has Patrick Stewart as a guest star. It is kind of well known in the United Kingdom (according to their tabloids) that he tends to date only younger women and only as long as they are young. In the episode, Gervais’ character Andy is trying to get Stewart to read his script he has written. In convincing him to read it, Stewart in turn tells Andy of his own script he’s been working on in which he just gets to run around and beautiful women’s clothes fall off whenever he comes near them. It’s completely absurd and awkward and brilliantly funny when you see it on the screen.

Along with Ricky Gervais and Ashley Jensen, Extras
featured several famous guest appearances

Speaking of Patrick Stewart, in 2006, he played Professor Ian Hood in the series Eleventh Hour. Professor Hood is a Special Advisor to the Joint Sciences Committee in the United Kingdom (no idea if that’s even a real thing). He is basically like the egghead police, tracking down and troubleshooting threats stemming from or targeting “Science” (capitalized and in quotations because it really becomes like a character itself). He is followed around by Rachel Young (played well by Ashley Jensen), who is for all intents and purposes, his bodyguard. Yeah, he’s kind of a weenie, but he comes across as a lovable weenie. While the science in the programme is at times sketchy, overall I found it entertaining. There are only four episodes, ninety minutes each, similar to the format followed by Sherlock. While it’s nowhere near as good as Doctor Who, The Office, or Sherlock, it did serve as an adequate sating to my appetite for British programming. Being a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it was also nice to see Patrick Stewart back on the small screen again.

Patrick Stewart and Ashley Jensen as Professor Ian Hood
and Special Branch operative Rachel Young

If you are into spy thrillers at all, Spooks is a great drama about MI-5 (in fact, here in the States it was broadcast under the title MI-5 to avoid any potential confusion about ghosts). To give you a bit of background, MI-5 (Military Intelligence, Section 5) is the United Kingdom's counter-intelligence and security agency, working alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6). Where MI-6 operates abroad (a la the Central Intelligence Agency in the States), MI-5 operates domestically, mainly concerned with internal security, protecting Brittan's economic interests, and countering terrorism/espionage (a la our Federal Bureau of Investigation). The show has been on for nine seasons, with six to ten hour-long episodes per season. I have only seen the first season and part of the second, but the show is still in production. It is a fast-paced show with plenty of action and adventure. The characters use guns, which if you know anything about British shows, it fairly rare. It is a "post watershed" show, which means it can get pretty intense. It's not always appropriate for younger viewers as the show is somewhat well-known for things like depicting torture, murder, race riots, and killing off of main characters suddenly. I love this show and can't recommend it highly enough.


My next BBC watching project is Wallander, a show adapted from Swedish novelist Henning Mankell’s novels of the same name. The lead is played by Kenneth Branagh (probably the most well known Shakespearian actor/director of modern times) as the eponymous police inspector. I’ve only seen the first episode of the show (another 90 minute movie/3 episode series format), and it was not the best I've seen. The acting was terrific, one would expect nothing less from Branagh, but the pacing was slow. The pacing wasn't necessarily bad, as it was a steady build up to the climax, it was just a slow, steady build up. It held my interest long enough to finish the first episode, but I haven't yet started the next, so that tells you how good it was. If you like slow, methodical dramas that are heavy on character, this is for you. Be warned however that it really is slow. Have I mentioned the slow pace enough? Alright. Moving on.




To sum up, I find that BBC programming can be a very pleasant diversion from the banality of American television. If something is successful here in the United States, it has to have every last drop of profit squeezed from it and what you are left with is often times stagnation. If something is popular, we must keep it going. This can sometimes work to our benefit. I still enjoy The Simpsons. It can also work to our detriment. For instance, the American version of The Office would have had a very nice wrap up if they had ended the show with Jim and Pam’s marriage and the subsequent birth of their daughter. Instead, those events are just another in a long line of “things” that have happened on the show. Continuing the show takes away some of the impact of those events. I still watch the show, and it is still funny, sometimes very funny, but it is no longer fresh. It makes me wonder, “what would happen if the writers of this show starting something new and original?” Since the BBC is a public entity, they do not necessarily sacrifice story for profit. They end a lot of their series’ at the height of their appeal (excepting perhaps Doctor Who, a cultural mainstay), leaving a pleasant memory, making us hungry for more. Then they make something fresh, new and different. I like our television here in the States. I’m just saying we could learn some valuable lessons from our friends across the pond.

Here are some links to relevant clips. First, the clip from Extras with Patrick Stewart. Next is a short preview for Sherlock. Finally, here is a nice clip from The Office that highlights the incredible awkwardness that Gervais can achieve. Hope you all enjoyed the blog. Up next is a retrospective on America's favorite family. See if you can guess who it is. Cheers!

How Can I Convince You to Watch This?

Avatar: The Last Airbender

I recently re-watched the entire run of this show through Netflix instant viewing. Avatar: The Last Airbender, also known as Avatar: The Legend of Aang (not to be confused with the misguided attempt at live-action-adaptation The Last Airbender, by M. Night Shyamalan or Avatar, the 3D epic by James Cameron) had its initial run on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. I watched every episode I could then and I loved it.

For my money, it’s the best animated television show. Ever. Bold statement, eh? Well that’s how this show makes me feel; emboldened. The epic adventures of Aang and “Team Avatar” have made me laugh, gasp, and even shed a few tears (not least of which when the show ended).

“So get on here and write about something you love,” they say. Sounds easy enough, but I now find myself hesitant; afraid I will not be able to give it the treatment it deserves. So after thinking about it for a bit, I’ve decided not to try to give this epic masterpiece a full treatment. That would not only take a lot of time and space, but would deprive those few geeks living in a cave who haven’t seen it the pleasure of discovering this amazing work.

Instead I’m going to give some arguments to support my “best cartoon ever” opinion. Earlier I was reading Rob’s entry on Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears and he mentioned a few of the reasons that show resonated with him. It was well animated for it’s time, it occasionally dealt with adult-themed issues, and it had an actual ending to the storyline. Avatar: The Last Airbender has these things in common with it, and they are equally resonant to me.

It is overall a kids show, but at times had some pretty scary moments. In the episode The Siege of the North, Part 2, Aang finds himself in the spirit world, a parallel plane of existence in the world of Avatar that is home to immortal supernatural entities that embody different aspects of life and nature. While seeking vital information, his path leads him to what looks like a giant dead mangled tree with a hole in the trunk, leading to a cavern inhabited by Koh, the Face Stealer. Geez, just writing about it kind of gives me the shivers. This thing was full on creepy. While approaching the cave, Aang encounters a monkey and when it turns around…Ah! No face! Shit! Yeah, Koh steals people faces and monkey faces? Messed up. He apparently can only steal your face if you show him any emotion. I guess the monkey didn’t have the steely resolve that the Avatar did. Aang does get the information he needs without showing any emotion, but just barely. My daughter became genuinely scared during the episode and we had to take a little break. Of course five minutes later, she was begging to turn it back on, but it was still pretty scary stuff for a kids show. So as my daughter says, “it’s okay to keep watching ‘cause Aang got out just fine.”

Meeting Koh the Face Stealer

That was one of the things that made me love the show. I never expected to see a scary scene in a children’s adventure show. The show tried to be more than “just a kid’s show” throughout its run. It often tried to stir emotions in the viewer (in my case successfully). In the episode The Library, Team Avatar find themselves separated from a kidnapped Appa (Aang’s loyal Sky Bison). As Aang searches for Appa in the subsequent episode The Desert, his frustration builds, culminating in a furious rage-induced Avatar-state. Aang destroys some desert-style sailboats and nearly loses control. Before Katara is able to calm him, you get the distinct feeling that he was about to kill anyone who got between him and his bison. Who hasn’t been frustrated to the point of tears before? If you had the Avatar’s powers, could you turn back when you reached that breaking point? When a kid’s show asks important questions like these, it becomes more compelling.

The Avatar enraged

It wasn’t always rainbows and lollipops for Team Avatar. The hardships faced by the characters give credibility to the story and a more adult feel, sometimes very adult. In fact, at the end of season two, the Fire Nation has conquered the last Earth Kingdom stronghold, Ba Sing Se, and Azula nearly kills Aang dead. And I don’t mean like “Oh I went to the strip club and my wife found out” dead. I mean like “struck-by-lightening-heart-has-stopped-oh-shit-he’s-dead-what-do-we-do-oh-yeah-maybe-this-spirit-water-will-help-last-ditch-effort” dead. We the audience are like, “Wha? The bad guys won? That sucks!” Yeah, there is another chapter to the story, but ending a season on such a down note is definitely not done often in kids programming.

Badass Katara saves Aang

The show also showed the awkward and confusing feelings all teenagers experience with love. In the first season, Sokka falls in love with the northern water tribe princess, Yue. He is tasked with protecting her from harm when the fire nation attacks. The repercussions of the events that follow haunt him throughout the series. In the penultimate series episode The Ember Island Players, he is seen sitting with his current girlfriend, thinking of Princess Yue, and weeping. In the episode The Boiling Rock, Part 2 we see Mai’s love of Zuko make her betray Azula. And lets not forget the burgeoning romance between Aang and Katara.

The show often dealt with the concept of death. At the outset of the show, Katara and Sokka’s mother is dead, Iroh’s son is dead, the Avatar is thought to be dead, hell, the fire nation committed genocide against the Air Nomads! Not to give anything away, but not all the deaths in the series occur off-screen. In the series finale, everyone, and I mean everyone is trying to convince Aang to just kill the Firelord to end the war. The Air Nomads are pacifists and raised Aang to not believe in killing. He searches for an alternate solution, but even when the time has come to face the Firelord, no solution has been found. Aang perseveres and although it isn’t the easiest solution, he finds one that doesn’t involve the death of the Firelord. He showed that even though it may not always be easy, there is always a choice. Now if it were me, I would’ve just killed the bastard. But that’s just me.

The final showdown with the Firelord

The show also tried to evolve their characters over time. The villain from the first season eventually becomes one of the Avatar’s greatest allies. In the pilot episode, we see Katara struggling to barely bend a small amount of water. In the final season, she is one of the most powerful benders in the world. The fat, lazy, tea-swilling Uncle Iroh (my all time favorite character by the way) is gradually shown to be one of the wisest, most caring, and most dangerous characters of the series.

On a side note, Uncle Iroh was voiced in season one and two by the Japanese character actor Mako, who died between seasons two and three. There is an episode called The Tales of Ba Sing Se that is a mostly lighthearted episode filled with mini-stories of the various characters. The Tale of Iroh segment is different though. He is shown preparing for a picnic for a “very special occasion.” We find out toward the end that the special occasion is the birthday of his deceased son. Throughout the segment, you can hear Mako pouring his soul into his voice performance. You can tell he genuinely cared about his art. At the end of this very touching segment, Iroh is singing a hauntingly beautiful song about a little soldier boy, and then this placard appears to end the sequence.

In a two-and-a-half-minute segment, I was made to weep.

Love. Death. Hate. Revenge. Forgiveness. Mercy. All these things were explored in the world of Avatar. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all heady melodrama. In fact, the majority of the show was fairly straightforward kid’s adventure fare with some comedy thrown in. But it had that perfect combination of light-hearted adventure and universal life-lessons that made me love it.

How do you make something you love even better? Share it with someone you love. My four-year-old daughter and I watched it together this time and it was an amazingly fulfilling experience. We watched an episode or two every day after she got home from school. The feelings of excitement and joy I got from watching these adventures of Aang and his friends were amplified by my daughter’s excitement and joy. When she heard the familiar opening sequence playing, she would immediately jump up and pantomime the kung fu actions she saw on screen. Hell, I felt like joining her. She has had dreams about being a water-bender and “all the cool magic stuff you could do” if you were one. If you’ve never seen this show, you should. But even if you have seen it, share Avatar: The Last Airbender with a loved one. You’ll enjoy it more the second time around.

Finally, a few links to videos. The first is of a clip of what may be my favorite moment in the entire run of the show where Team Avatar breaks into the Earth Kingdom palace to speak with the Earth King. Watch how badass the team can be, especially Katara. Love it. The second is a video of my daughter Belle watching the Avatar opening show credits. Cheers.

Game Design 101, er 02 maybe 3 part 1

When the opportunity to write this came up I was unsure how to approach the topic. Do I pawn myself off as an expert and hand down my beliefs on stone tablets or do I stammer through hmmming and hawing. Finally I decided to just explain my thought process on a couple of games I have designed. One of the games, Flapjacks and Sasquatches, is produced and on game store shelves where as the other one is about to , hope hope, be produced.
First let me say I came at these games from different directions and in a round about way. I in my unnerving geekness had wanted to design a game for many years. I had tried out a few ideas in college, where I was the Vice President of my games club, I know I know but some how I still attracted my wife. Any way I had a few concepts and themes I explored. They ranged from rpg's centered on a condemned apocalyptic New York to farming on another planet, I know who would play a game about farming, crazy. All these ideas seemed to fall by the wayside. School demanded more time, my girlfriend became my fiancée, and life progressed ever forward. I continued to write short stories and plan out rpg campaigns that no one would ever play, but game design had dropped into the black hole of lost notebooks and dust covered game bins. I had two awesome kids (three now and all girls Yikes) and really started playing games again. I played Candyland and Shutes and Ladders with my kids and more complex games with friends. My friends and I started having a guys game weekend once a year and I made my return to Gencon. Having delved back into the world of my zit faced childhood I ventured back to game design.
I tried to come up with an original game concept. I looked at dice, cards, this new worker placement stuff I had heard about that all the kids were playing but everything I thought up seemed to just be a revamped something else. So I decided to go from the other side of games the all important Ameritrash concept of theme. I hoped to come up with an awesome theme and encapsulate it so well that everyone would rave about how it was really like farming on another planet. In looking for a theme I saw a messing with sasquatch commercial and thought I want to make a game that has a crazy Sasquatch in it, but where could Sasquatch roam free to cause havoc with the world. That is when it hit me. I don’t know if it was years of Monty Python or a childhood spent vacationing in a cabin in Brainard just miles away from Paul Bunyan Land. Yes all you non Minnesotans there is a Paul Bunyan Land where a 20ft tall Paul talks to you by name as you come through the gate. But either way Lumberjacks were the key.
I am a very visual thinker and so images started flowing into my head and being a gamer I needed to turn all the manliness that is lumberjacking into homophobic childish jokes. It started with an apprentice and me thinking hey how can they lure him away. Well flapjacks would be cool, wow there’s my title but it isn’t funny. I know a fat guy in a bikini standing in a pin up pose. From there I rolled with all the Sasquatch cards hoping to encapsulate the “Messing With Sasquatch” humor but in reverse. Notice in my infinite genius I still didn’t have a game mechanic. That is when I split from one deck to two and decided that I wanted dice rolls in the game. The decision to add dice was for one simple reason, this game is humorous, silly and a very spiteful game and I find dice are the ultimate spite shot to the groin. You can do everything right in a game and end up rolling the critical failure. With that I took it a step further. Yeah I need chops, and misses but how about I add salt to that groin kick and have a way to break your axe.
You may think man he must really like spite games and you would be absolutely right. I love teaching this game because it only takes one or two turns to see spouses turn on each other and kids to get mom and dad (mad gleeful cackle). I know there are those of you who think man this guy deserves to get ripped up on his own game well I did not win one game in the first 40-50 games I played, and my partner loves to tell all people playing the first time that if you play Tree Hugger on me in the first turn you will have good gaming luck the rest of the day.
Now I’d like to say I play tested the hell out of this game, and that I had focus groups and surveys to tell me how great it is. I’d like to but I was blissfully stupid on how to go about game design. The game clicked right away. I ripped it apart doubting myself as others said it was great. I changed more myself then anyone else wanted. Luckily it worked. Every game since this one has not just fallen into place. But I'll save those for part 2
So until next time keep geeking.

"I will NOT be defeated by two children and a handful of mythological bears!"

Okay, you asked for it (well, Ryan asked for it, anyway) so here it is: Rob's review of Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears.

Yeah, that's right. Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears. What's that? Something to say? Got some snarky comments to get off your chest? No? Good.

Gummi Bears began life in 1985 as one of three productions that marked the beginning of Walt Disney Animation Television (the other two being The Wuzzles, which debuted immediately before Gummi Bears on September 14, 1985 -- and which only lasted one season -- and The Fluppy Dogs, which never got past the aired pilot movie). It was created by Jymn Magnon and Art Vitello based on an idea by Michael Eisner (Eisner essentially just came up with the title, which occured to him when his son asked for some Gummy Bears candy). It ran on NBC until 1989, when it moved to ABC for it's final season, paired with Disney's The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It was later rerun as part of the Disney Afternoon block of programming throughout the early '90's.

To quote Wikipedia :

The series focuses on the escapades of the eponymous "Gummi Bears," anthropomorphic bears who are the last remnants of a once-great civilization of Gummis that fled the land centuries ago when humans, jealous of the advancements and magical skills of the Gummi Bears, forced the species into exile. Now regarded by most of humankind as fairytales, the show's main cast of Gummi Bears (six in number at the outset of the series, increased to seven during the third season) live in the vast subterranean warren of Gummi Glen in the medieval kingdom of Dunwyn.

The Gummis' modern adventures begin when they are discovered by a human boy named Cavin who happens to have a Gummi Medallion, found by his grandfather many years earlier. After he accidentally enters the colony's underground home of Gummi Glen, they capture and interrogate the boy as to how he gained the medallion. During the questioning, Cavin escapes after Tummi inadvertently gives him Gummiberry Juice to drink, but refuses to cause any harm and attempts to befriend the reclusive bears. Impressed by this civilized behavior, they make him swear to keep their confidence and make him a privileged friend of the colony. The medallion magically unlocks the colony's Great Book of Gummi, an essential reference guide to the forgotten knowledge of the Gummi Bears. Inspired by its writings, the colony resolves to rediscover their heritage and help Dunwyn defend against evil. Later, another human from Dunwyn accidentally learns that the Gummi Bears are real: the young daughter of the king, Princess Calla. She also promises to keep the Gummis' existence a secret. In subsequent seasons the Gummis would befriend or be discovered by other friendly humans.

The main antagonist of both Dunwyn and the Gummis is Duke Sigmund Igthorn, a renegade noble with an army of ogres, from the neighboring province of Drekmore. Unfortunately, in stopping Igthorn's attempt to bombard his enemies with a grand catapult, the Gummi Bears alert him to their presence. Igthorn will stop at nothing to discover and exploit their secrets to become invincible and capture Dunwyn Castle. Chief among his primary goals is gaining a reliable supply of the Gummi Bears' vital strategic substance, Gummiberry Juice, a magic potion that endows Gummi Bears with bouncing abilities, but gifts humans or ogres with momentary super-strength as well as other numerous uses, including serving as fuel for machines.

In addition to combating Igthorn's ambition, the Gummis regularly encounter other evil humans and magical beings ranging from wizards to gods, all the while attempting to hide their existence from the world at large. One of the show's main recurring storylines outside the schemes of Igthorn is the mystery of the ancient Gummis, who are now scattered all across the world, but who have left advanced technology behind them

The first thing that stands out about Gummi Bears is it's look. The character designs are very attractive, rounded and expressive in the classic Disney sense. The animation quality is superb, especially for a tv cartoon in the mid '80's; the characters are sharply defined, the animation clean and fluid, no cel is reused (ala: He-Man or anything from the Filmation assembly-line), and the backgrounds are rich and detailed. Seriously, when watching this series, look at the backgrounds. REALLY look at them. It's remarkable the level of detail put into them.

For all the show's visual appeal, however, it was the mythology of the series that really hit home with me. A lost colony of an ancient, advanced race, scattered and hunted, rediscovering their past and trying to forge a future for themselves. In a kid's cartoon. From the '80's. Think about that for a second. It's a remarkably solid fantasy premise. Every season had a few episodes that touched upon the premise; one, during the very first season, is a gem called Zummi Makes it Hot. In this episode, the water at Gummi Glen has abruptly stopped, and the bears must, of course, fix it. One group elects to check the pipes for leaks, while another, using an ancient map found in their Great Book, goes to check for the source of their water. It's an effecting moment when, upon discovering the vast, sophisticated pumping station high in the mountains, the characters stare about themselves in awe, marvelling that their kind could ever have built such a thing. One character turns to another and says, with genuine heartbreak in her voice, "It's terrible what we've forgotten." Can you think of many other cartoons that would have tried to communicate that notion? That cultural achievements, cultural identity, can be lost, and it's terrible when it happens? Heady stuff, when you're 10. Or when you're 40.

Beyond this, the show's a great deal of fun, written with wit and charm (a whole lot of charm, really, which is sadly missing from a lot of cartoons, then and now) and, I've no doubt, a great deal of love on the part of those involved in it's production. The first three seasons are available on DVD from just about any outlet; the series lasted for, I believe, six seasons, so hopefully Disney will get around to releasing the rest of it, one of these days. Another interesting note: Gummi Bears was actually allowed to have an end. It didn't just abruptly stop when it went off the air, it had a multi-part storyline (King Igthorne, it was called) that resolved the various plot threads from throughout the series. How many times have you seen that happen?

Ultimately, Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears is a darned fine 'toon, never anything less than entertaining. Run out and watch it, right now!

How to Train Your Dragon:  A gushing review.

Meet Hiccup, heir of the Viking chiefdom, but a boy with one very big problem: a hero he is not. "How to Train Your Dragon" is the riotous story of Hiccup's quest to hunt down and kill the fiercest and most mysterious of dragons, The Night Fury.  Instead, he ends up befriending the ornery dragon and names him Toothless! Thus begins the hi jinx of the world's most lovable, unlikely hero and a most unique "pet." Packed with energetic animations and plenty of action, this boisterous tale is just right for fantasy fans or anyone with a spirit of adventure.









Did you know this film was based on a childrens' book by Cressida Cowell.  A series of books, I know find myself compelled, nay, driven to obtain.

Let's get down to Brass tax.   I think this is perhaps one of the best films of the year, and certainly rides as my favorite of 2010.

I'll also say that I'm a rabid Pixar fan…  and as such I find myself repeatedly disappointed with most of the animated fair the other studios produce.

Starting in 2001 with Shrek, i found Dreamworks treatments of story and animation to be oafish, yet not without some small charms…  as they continued to release badly animated films, I wrote them off as knock offs whose stories were swept aside for cheap and crude jokes and merchandisable characters.

In 2008, something changed at Dreamworks…  Kung Fu Panda hit screens and suddenly animation and story had equal billing, but the theme was still centered on 10 year old children.  Now in 2010 with How to Train your Dragon, it is clear that at least some part of Dreamworks has decided that cheap jokes and jarring celebrity voice work just aren't cutting it.

While Pixar provides us with stunning animation and heartfelt tales, they seem bent on making the most implausible story lines work…  and so far with the arguable exception of Ratatouille, they have.   Dreamworks it seems has decided to aim dead center on their demographic…  kids.  Kung Fu, Monsters vs Aliens, and now Dragons are the staple of so many young boys dreams…  Kung Fu Panda and How to Train your Dragon have served these fantasies to their audience on a golden tray, all the while keeping adults entertained and engaged.

Surprisingly, How to Train your Dragon is the first big-budget full fantasy animated movie since 1985's tragically ignored The Black Cauldron.  It's not a musical, thank goodness, and isn't over run with childish gags and humor…  the humor is subtle and sophisticated…  and works to great effect with the voice talents of Jay Baruchel (Hiccup)

How to Train Your Dragon is a solid family values motion picture. It teaches two lessons: the importance of family and the greater importance of tolerance. It also wouldn't be far-fetched to read a conservationist message into this. The basic idea is that we humans often destroy what we fear and do not understand - in this case, dragons. They are initially presented as vicious, dangerous marauders, bent solely on destruction. As the film progresses, we learn that is not the case, and it's up to one boy to tentatively bridge a communication gap that's wider than the Grand Canyon. How to Train Your Dragon is suffused with allegory; kids may see it as a straightforward adventure with creatures both cuddly and frightening, but adults will read between the lines. The movie isn't saying anything original, but it's hard to disagree with its thesis.

This film, and it's overtone of Father and son acceptance gets me everytime…  by now Elias will preempt my "I'm proud of you Son!" with a back handed, "I know Dad…  your proud…."   I can't help it and I relish in the emotions when an animated feature can pull them from me.

How to Train Your Dragon follows the familiar formula of the outcast child saving the day and showing the true path to his former detractors. As commonplace as that structure may be, it can exhilarate and entertain when creatively fleshed out, as it is here.

5 Fiery Stars from me (out of 5)

Halloween: Foxes and Fails.

Halloween has come and gone.  Children have eaten their weight in candy pilfered from their neighbors and their parents have used their limited creativity to dress as sluts or cartoon characters from years past, all on, arguably, one of the worlds most interesting holidays.

With due diligence I have scoured the internet to find the good, the bad and the ugly.

 

FAIL:   If your over 10 and still need a ridiculous amount of padding you'll look as bad as this bunch.   And velvet Batwoman? That's just guaranteeing some nerds gonna try to pet you.  I wont even comment on the spiderman...

 

FAIL:  Here is where the ridiculous amount of padding would actually work... instead this guy decided to go for the kidney failure look...  and what's worse?  He's got his shit kickers on.

 

FAIL:   This guy looks more like a garden slug...  which in his defense is exactly what the digitally added Jabba looked like int he extended release of New Hope.  Could you pick a worse star wars costume? At least Jar Jar could be funny.

FAIL:  Spencer and Heidi...  This just makes me want to throw this jack off a beatin even more, but again...  both of them have too much padding....

FAIL:  with this body type...  spandex is just wrong...  besides...  there are better comic characters that would be perfect for this guy...  Blob, Mojo, maybe even Mr. Incredible.

 WIN:  This is one of the best Alien costumes I've ever scene.

FAIL:  Come on dude...  I can see the tape.

FAIL:  And the winner of the cheapest costume ever goes to....   (note:  Repulsor beams are lite blue dumb ass.)

FAIL:  This is so much creepier than it is nostalgic....  I do like how it looks like each of them has been hot in the mouth with a ninja sword.

FAIL:  Uhm hello...  no such thing as a plaid elephant...  tell your mom and dad to lay off the psych-drugs

FAIL!!!!   Why does Captain America have two dicks and a shield the size of a frisbee?

WIN!  This is actually pretty awesome...  and yesm it makes me want to ruin the roof of my mouth with never-ending bowls of Peanutbutter Captain Crunch.

WIN:  When I first saw this I thought...  dang.  How did that guy pull that off..  then I noticed it's a dog, not a pony.  And the hooves are awesome.

FAIL:  Pokemon + trailer park = vomit in my mouth.

WIN.  Holy SHIT!  This is the creepiest thing I may have ever seen...  Stay puff is bad enough, but the misshapen head and the fact he's obviously shit faced makes this a waking nightmare.

WIN:  Ok.  Shield is the right size...  and I don't mind the padding.  Nevermind there is no such character.

Win:  Hulk and She hulk....   even though this is incestuous I kind of like it, velvet hands and all...  It also makes me wonder how she wore the paint off her hands.

Fail:  Hey cheap ass, that kids batman mask is way too small, and the Robin costume only works if your going for Sheldon as Robin, and that would never happen.  Plus shouldn't the taller one be batman?

Fail:  Turtles were lame in 1992...  18 years later makes it just sad.

 

Fail:  Worst Tennage Mutant Ninja Turltes costume ever.

 Win:  Ok, I admit, that at least the first Venom was a dude, but this one is just more classy...  high heels and no straps...  I like to imigine how this costume would fair in a real fight.

Win:  Ah, my favorite thing about Halloween...  hot girls can wear their underoos and you appreciate how much thought they put into their costume.