Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Not sure I'll be able to get through all the DCU movies I'd planned (Under the Red Hood and New Frontier are high on the list), but I did pick off Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam because I was streaming Netflix and it came up. A little confusing, though, since the product page doesn't list the other shorts, but the video launches into them. The only one I'd already seen was The Spectre so it was good to watch the others. Shazam was OK--I liked seeing the brief origin story, but Superman was superfluous.

Also watched Tales from Earthsea. Very much in the feel of Hayao Miyazaki, and some great visual images. Villain scared the kids, though.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Sorry!
That disc is in my to watch pile, along with the R2 Watership Down, and some more X-Men, looking forward to a day off tomorrow to close in on my 100 episode goal.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Yesterday we visited with a friend of ours and watched How to Train Your Dragon. Predictable, of course, but I confess I found Toothless adorable and really got into the story. Our cats are rescue critters, and one of them came to us after surviving some serious abuse. One of her arms is permanently mangled and the vet said her injuries were consistent with other cats she's seen who were thrown from a moving car. Toothless reminded me quite a lot of her, particularly when he determinedly (and clumsily) scaled the rock wall. It's funny how those kinds of mental associations can trigger an emotional investment in a story.

As we head into the final few days of the challenge, I'm not sure what I'm going to watch. There aren't a whole lot of animated titles in my Netflix streaming queue except some TV shows and I'm trying to finish She-Ra, Princess of Power Season One, Volume Two before I move onto something else. I might just try a marathon of that show.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this one in the theaters. Haven't revisited it yet, not sure if I've bought it yet.
Can't think of examples right now, but I know what you mean and find these connections often. Usually it's something to remind me of my Dad, or a past love.
And here I thought you were a boy. ;)

I'm closing in on 100 and finishing the checklist. What are you all using for R, NC-17, and X ratings?

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

so an item and an entry are two different things - I must admit I haven't been keeping up to date on my official number in terms of entry due to shorts having differing running times, but item wise - I think I'm over 300 - oh ugh ... now I have to cull/add it all up

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

The Matrix Revolution for R. I also have Team America pulled but I started going through the American Dad series. I think the only way I could finish the checklist is if I worked on it over the weekend. I'm doing 10 hour days at work, so that eats up a lot of time.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

As an example, a short or TV episode is an item but there can be many items to make up an entry.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

some of the shorts I've watched would qualify for some of the three ratings, but nothing officially rated as such. My "R" is 'Heavy Metal'

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/20...aw-d37gofl.jpg

I streamed Fritz the Cat for my NC-17. Don't have the others yet. Don't think I'll get to them, either.

Late last night/early this morning I streamed Tangled. I really liked it quite a lot. It was written by Dan Fogelman, who also scripted crazy, stupid, love. which I found resonated very strongly with me on a deeply personal level. If I stand back and look at either of these two films, I can see obvious, predictable storylines. Yet, while watching either of them I was captivated by characters who all had distinctive voices and personalities, and by how really well crafted each scene and exchange between characters is. Fogelman has very quickly earned himself a spot on my very short list of writers to watch.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

http://i55.tinypic.com/a0ykwp.jpg

I used a wild card for the NC-17 item although I think the unrated DVD version of Team America would have been rated NC-17.http://www.currentfilm.com/dvdreview...ricawpdvd.html

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

My sister and I are both fans of the Scooby-Doo franchise and started watching The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo which has not aged as well as I hoped. I didn't remember the camp factor and the blatant silliness of some of the gags (such as a camel falling in love with Scooby and pursuing him for the entire episode). It was one of my favorite of my favorites when I was a preteen, mostly due to the quest angle. I love that there was a definite objective and conflict. I was devastated when there were no new episodes and Scooby and the gang never got finished. At the time, I didn't really understand how television worked and thought the show was "cancelled" - not realizing that it originally aired when I was turning one year-old and I was watching reruns.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

RL kind of kept me from doing too well in this challenge, but I did find it enjoyable. Oh well, there is always next year to do better. On the plus side, I picked up some new animation during this challenge to start with for next year, Vehicle Voltron, the3 complete serie4s, Volume 1 of Dairugger, Saber Rider the complete series, and MASK the complete series.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Only one day left and not enough time to get through anywhere near everything I wanted to. I didn't watch as much as I did last year, even though I had two weeks of vacation. (Part of that time was spent, however, getting a new computer, getting it installed and learning how to use it.) And I never even got to start on the checklist. Tonight, I'm gonna do something that starts with "Z," since I started with "Astro Boy."

I was in Book Off last night for the first time since before this challenge and I found so many anime DVDs that I didn't have from series that I watched episodes from for this challenge that I went a little nuts and bought:
Genshiken Vol. 2
El Hazard: The Alternative World, Vol. 1 (a spinoff of earlier El Hazard series, three of which I watched eps. from for this)
Great Dangaioh, Vol. 1 (this DVD has the first four eps., while the VHS fan-sub I watched only had eps. 1-2)
Dog of Flanders - I watched Vol. 1 of this 1975 TV series on VHS, one of the best things I've seen for this challenge, and kicked myself for not having bought the entire series on VHS from Book Off when I had the chance. Well, Book Off had 2 later volumes on R2 DVD last night so I snatched those up.

On Sunday night, fatigued from storm fever, I decided to watch something undemanding, that didn't require note-taking, so I looked at what was on the tapes I'd pulled out for the "Digimon Data Squad" episodes and noticed random episodes from the 1992 Batman animated series and the 1996 Superman animated series that I'd taped off Toon Disney in 2007. So I watched 2 Batmans and 3 Supermans. I really liked the Superman eps and don't know why I didn't tape more of those. I esp. liked "The Last Son of Krypton, Pt. II," one of the best filmed Superman origin stories I've seen. It was originally a three-parter, so now I have to find and watch the whole thing. (Amazon has it for $6.97 or something.) The scene where Clark flies for the first time is just so beautifully done and captures the joy and wonder of such a moment and does it with such grace, a quality I don't often associate with American animation.

And I loved the "Mxyzptlk" episode of Superman. Part of it was taken directly from the original Superman comic book story that introduced the character in the 1940s. And Gilbert Gottfried did the voice! What an inspired piece of voice casting. Speaking of which, I was struck by the sheer number of solid name actors in the voice casts of both the Batman and Superman series. I mean, Mike Farrell and Shelley Fabares as Pa and Ma Kent?! Wow. Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor and Malcolm McDowell as a random bad guy. And, in Batman, Lloyd Bochner as the mayor and Clive Revill as Alfred. And many others. Just looking at the IMDB cast list astounds me.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

It's presented as three episodes on Superman: The Animated Series, Volume One. If you get the individual release, though, it's cut together as a singular story. That's my preferred way to watch it. Same with The Batman/Superman Movie (its DVD title), which is otherwise presented as "World's Finest" parts I, II & III on the S:TAS Volume Two release.

They've done a remarkable job with voice casting over the years. Two things: 1) Malcolm McDowell wasn't just "a random bad guy." He becomes a recurring--and important--character. 2) I forget Clive Revill ever voiced Alfred! He only did the first four episodes; it was Efram Zimbalist, Jr. who voiced Alfred through the rest of the series and related movies. People can debate their favorite Batman, but for my money, Zimbalist's Alfred is the gold standard.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

I think you mean X. Fritz the Cat was never NC-17. Very few things have been rated that officially.
Looks like South Park and Team America are two of the only mainstream things to vaguely qualify.

Perhaps we can combine X and NC-17 into one checklist item next year, like the Horror Challenge just did. There are so few films that really qualify for either, so combining them would make it a bit easier to complete.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Well, sure, if you want to bring "facts" into this then yeah, that's what I meant. ;) (It's marked as X in my list; I don't know why I screwed that up when responding to you.)

Yeah. In fact, I'm all for the X/NC-17 consolidation in all challenges. Not only is it frequently frustrating to find movies for both ratings, but effectively they're the same thing but for different eras. (Yes, I know the distinctions between them and all that; but for basic purposes, yesteryear's X is today's NC-17.)

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

That's going to happen along with a revamped checklist.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Watched a few Criterion animated shorts to bridge the two current Challenges (for a few more hours at least).

Now I'm finishing up the checklist with another language and Waltz With Bashir, and loving the film so far.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

I had absolutely no idea that Criterion had released any animated content! That is exciting. I will check out your list!

So I ended with a spontaneous, unplanned marathon of American Dad... not the most auspicious way to end a challenge, but oh so enjoyable!

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

My wife had a rough day so we spent much of the night playing Mario Kart Wii instead of watching anything. When we went to bed, I had a hard time falling asleep so I did squeeze in a couple TV episodes on my iPod: The Zeta Project "Shadows" (a Batman Beyond crossover episode) and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends Episode 17. I'd never watched Zeta before, but I had some iTunes credit and figured it was cheaper to buy that one episode for its Batman Beyond content than to look for a DVD release. I liked it alright and would probably watch more of it if I find reruns on TV.

Rocky & Bullwinkle, of course, I had watched before (though I can't say whether or not I watched that specific episode). Always fun. It was free from iTunes in that recent assortment I linked in this thread and I started watching it a couple days ago, but I had an audio sync problem. I contacted Apple and they very promptly responded with a fresh download that played just fine. Gonna go through and see how to best combine my temp list shorts and TV episodes. End-of-challenge reflections coming later.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

I was expecting more from it, plot wise. I didn't care for the animation style but the plot was more important for me.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

I'll need lists finalized by Sunday night. On Monday I'll post results.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

http://i56.tinypic.com/2jca5q9.gif

Do you want a pm to notify you or an update like "List is complete" at the top of our lists?

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

The only thing I really need taken care of is the total watched and if they had enough to complete the checklist(as in everything is checked).

If someone really needs extra time for that stuff, speak now. Otherwise I'll assume everything is finished Monday morning. I'd like to get it done by then, otherwise it'll be an extra week, or so.

Re: 2nd Annual August Animation Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Well, I didn't go crazy this time around, but I'm certainly walking away with a newfound respect for anime. And I'm currently under the impression that the majority of Japanese animators are huge perverts that are overly obsessed with large breasts. That, or I just have an incredible knack for subconsciously picking out that particular brand of anime. Either way it was a blast.

My list is complete, BTW.