davidh777

I finally watched Red vs Blue as I'm a Halo fan. Pretty stupid, though.

That and some Avatar the Last Airbender (all these on Amazon Prime streaming--the selection was pretty thin), and I hit 100!

Travis McClain

I picked up where I left off last year with She-Ra, Princess of Power. I've already knocked out eleven episodes. Every time I've taken a whack at this show, it starts off feeling ridiculous and then after I've acclimated through a couple of episodes, it becomes this mesmerizing, subversive, mind-blowing experience that makes me wonder what subconscious impact it had on me as a child.

Incidentally, it was explained in a bonus feature interview on the Season One, Volume One DVD box set from Eclipse that the reason for the limitations on the animation was that Lou Scheimer, head of Filmation, made the choice to keep production in America. That meant forgoing cheaper overseas animators who could have done more. He felt it was worth it to rotoscope, reuse and recycle and employ American animators. Just something to think about when you sit down with other Filmation productions.

BobO'Link

^IMHO the Filmation product was superior to the HB product *from the same era* both in story telling and animation. My son *loved* He-Man and watched it religiously during its original run while I felt it was only an average product existing solely to sell toys. Of course it worked as he had just about all the action figures, vehicles, and castles. In the years since I've revised that opinion and now like the show enough to occasionally watch a few episodes. Oddly, he didn't care for She-Ra then and still doesn't. I've always felt they were so similar that if you liked one you should like the other. It's one of those I intend to pick up at some time (both shows) and somewhat kick myself for not getting the BCI releases when they dropped to ~$10 each.

One of the guys I worked with when She-Ra originally aired thought she was "hot". Keep in mind he was in his mid 20s at the time and not the typical 8-12 year old target audience. He caught *lots* of grief from the rest of us over that!

Travis McClain

I've got the three volumes of BCI's She-Ra, and I've got Mill Creek's He-Man Season One; I have yet to acquire the second season. I originally was going to wait and do the whole canon in order, beginning with He-Man, but at the time I snagged all three boxes of She-Ra at Half Price Books, it was out of print. I had actually given up making a point of getting He-Man at all by the time Mill Creek announced their licensing of it.

Anyway, as regards She-Ra, I can honestly say that I'm captivated by some of the themes from this show. I know a lot of MOTU viewers from your son's generation (i.e., my generation) who bailed by the time of She-Ra. Part of it was that a few years had already passed, and Transformers, G.I. Joe and later ThunderCats beckoned us. Part of it was the obvious gender bias against a show dominated by female characters. Even Bow, the resident Errol Flynn guy, is wholly different from the raging masculinity of He-Man. Dude's got an entirely slimmer physique and even has a heart emblem on his chest!

I shamelessly enjoyed it, though. Sometimes I took a little flak for it, but there were two things about it that I think resonated with me. For one thing, in He-Man, the protagonists were in power and only had to deal with Skeletor being a nuisance. In She-Ra, however, the protagonists were rebels trying to overthrow the tyranny of the Horde. They weren't trying to enjoy a happy status quo; they were fighting to create one. The first TV show I watched was The Dukes of Hazzard, which I followed from my playpen. It debuted scarcely a month after I was born. Surely, some part of me has been wired from birth to identify with righteous rebellions!

The other thing was that by the time She-Ra came along, my parents had divorced. There's something about being raised by a single mom that teaches a boy a different kind of respect for women, I think. I was raised to view the sexes as equals, and I appreciated that a show existed that demonstrated what that might look like. One thing I've really come to appreciate as I've revisited the series as an adult is that She-Ra isn't just He-Man in a skirt. She's got pronounced feminine traits, and they're presented as strengths of hers rather than weaknesses to exploit.

For instance, in one episode I just watched, Hordak has been poisoned by some berries that will make him vanish unless someone cries for him. She-Ra undertakes to find someone who will spare him and when she comes up empty-handed, it causes her to shed some tears herself for the life that Hordak had wasted. It's a genuinely thoughtful kind of compassion, rather than just a "girls are emotional and cry all the time" kind of thing. I really respect what they did with that show.

Confession: As a child, I had my She-Ra and Teela action figures kiss. That's entirely true. Make of it what you will.

LJG765

Couple of quick questions. For the CGI check, does The Adventures of Tintin count? I know it was computer made, so I'd assume so, but usually I think of CGI just being one or two characters/scenes so just wanted to double check.

Also, for types of format, does DVR count as one?

Ash Ketchum

All together now:

"TIME FOR A STICKY ON THE LIST THREAD!"

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Sure and sure.

LJG765

Thanks!

I had to laugh at myself earlier. I realized that I had watched a TV show that counted for the challenge, but it took awhile to sink in as I always watch it before bed--not just for the challenge. I kind of hit myself in the head and had to add it into the list.

shadokitty

Well, I'm back from the hospital, and don't have any new info on how the appts went except that one dr. wanted to run some tests, but I can have them done at my local hospital. Got back yesterday but was too tired to watch anything for the challenge.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Sounds similar to me. I've had stuff done lately just to see if I'm fine. The only real thing they told me was my blood sugar was a little high and I'm horribly deficient in vitamin D.

I've been working my way through Futurama Vol. 6. On breaks at work, I'm planning on watching my Crank Yankers DVDs. Then at some point soon, I'm going to start watching some Soviet Propaganda cartoons. http://www.amazon.com/Animated-Sovie...aganda+cartoon

LJG765

Another quick question. If something is part animation/part live action does it count? Like I'm watching a short Alice's Wonderland (part of the Disney Rarities collection) and it's at least 1/2 animation with Alice as a live girl going through it. It seems like it should count so I'm counting it at the moment, but wanted to make sure. Is there a rule on this or as long as it contains animation it's fine or does it have to be 100% animation (though I know documentaries count)?

Travis McClain

Bleh. That post-test waiting period is one of the most tedious parts there is to medical issues. Rest up, and I've got my fingers crossed for ya!

I tested at 5.2 ng/mL. My doctor told me he had never seen anyone so deficient in his entire career. It was a dubious achievement.

It's fine. If you look in the rules post, it's explained that mixed content, like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, is perfectly welcome here. That short is also included on the Alice in Wonderland (1957) Blu-ray and I believe most, if not all, of the various DVD releases. I dig that one. You might also enjoy making your way through the Library of Congress's "Origins of American Animation" digital collection, which includes a few of the earliest such mixed animation shorts.

Ash Ketchum

Yeah, they count. I used some of Disney's Alice shorts in the count last year (or was it the year before?).

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

You beat me. I had around 28-30.

I did have cataract surgery a couple years ago and the type I had was something people get when they're old and not in their lower 30s. He'd only one other person like me get it.

Whiskey Warfield

I'm watching Ralph Bakshi's Wizards desperately wishing I wasn't watching Ralph Bakshi's Wizards. Why is this guy famous for his animation? Everything about it is horrible, from the drawings to the dialogue. It's as if he is incapable of drawing anything remotely normal; you get the feeling he sits at his desk saying to himself "Alright, I need a female elf, a female elf...I bet female elves have six elbows! Yeah, and eyes that change size independently of each other for no reason! Ha!"

This has to be one of those things you have to watch high for it to make any sense. Like The Wall. Or Casablanca.

Travis McClain

Ugh. My wife's stepdad gave that to us on DVD, adamant that we would enjoy it. I slogged through it last year and even if science found a way that watching it again would cure me of Crohn's, I don't think I could make myself go through it again.

YOU LEAVE CASABLANCA ALONE!

mrcellophane

I'll second that! One of my all time favorites!

I had a great experience yesterday evening. I got together with a group of friends and watched Animalympics (1980) on VHS. Our host said that the cartoon had been a staple of his adolescence. Everyone really got into it, showcasing our Barbara Walters impersonations (none as good as Gilda Radner's) and rooting for our favorite characters. Every time the romantic subplot showed up, we all gave a collective "awwwwww." Afterward, we watched some DVRed Olympics and had a grand time!

terrycloth

Iv never seen Casablanca

Im watching alot more then i had planned on for the first couple days....alot of stuff has been sitting in my que for way to long.

Claymore i enjoyed but feel it fell apart toward the last 3 or 4 episodes

been working my way thru High School of the Dead and enjoying it as i have a thing for zombies, but the "fan service" (is that the right term i looked it up) is really disturbing

LJG765

It's not quite the same as Vit. D, but I had one of the lowest iron counts my med team had seen. It's supposed to be in the 12/13 range and mine was in the 6/7 range. Transfusions are our friends! It's amazing, though, how being low on vitamins can affect so much of your life style.

D'OH! I swear I look at the rules before I post these things. I blame chemo brain for missing it. Now I remember reading something about Roger Rabbit, but until you mention it, I didn't put the two together. *sigh*

Thanks for the reply!

I'll have to give the LOC shorts a try. I do enjoy some of the older ones, though I do have this Alice one as part of the WD Treasures series, especially b/c it had an Alice in Wonderland skit which is another favorite of mine. I was watching a bunch of those today and really enjoyed the Ferdinand the Bull one.

Travis McClain

I'm in love with that movie.

Fortunately, I don't have to have an infusion; I just take two 50,000 unit supplemental pills each week. Living with Crohn's, though, I certainly appreciate the point about the impact even seemingly simple things can have on us!

No worries!

They're also available in a video podcast from the LOC in iTunes, if you'd find it more convenient to access them that way. Each one only lasts about two or three minutes on average, so they're easy to digest. In 2010, I watched several of them on my iPod at the Laundro-mat one day. It's nice in a challenge to have things that you can squeeze in and that don't require a lot of time or attention.

Travis McClain

Just finished She-Ra, Princess of Power Season One, Volume Two. I'm gonna step away from the series for a bit and try to concentrate on movies some. My present plan is to come to Season Two in January for the TV on DVD* Challenge, and then I'm honestly thinking of writing a scholarly study of this show. In addition to the themes I've already discussed this time through and in previous comments about the first season in last year's challenge, I've picked up on a new recurring theme that I find very interesting - the concept of family structures and what amounts to parental abandonment.

Adora herself was stolen from her parents as an infant and raised without any knowledge of this on an entirely different world. When she was eventually told of the truth, she elected not to reunite with her family but to remain on Etheria as She-Ra. Not abandonment, of course, but He-Man enjoyed the support of their parents in a happy family. She-Ra goes without, except for sporadic crossover episodes that primarily focus on He-Man rather than their parents.

In "Micah of Bright Moon," King Micah is finally able to escape from a Horde prison, where he's been since Glimmer was a young child. At the end of the episode, though, instead of returning to the throne of Bright Moon, he elects to leave and go fight the Horde somewhere else. It makes no sense, and I confess I found it a bit upsetting that he would so arbitrarily walk away from his wife and daughter. I learned in the bonus feature, "The Stories of She-Ra, Part 2," that it was not the idea of the story writer (Robert Lamb) but instead forced into the episode by someone higher up the food chain (I didn't catch the name of who that was). Glimmer still has her mother when all is said and done, but her father is again gone from her life.

Mind you, my own parents had already divorced by the time this series premiered. I hadn't thought about it at the time, but I have to believe a part of me really identified with the show's recurring theme that there were alternatives to the standard nuclear family model. She-Ra and Glimmer both have contact with their families, and of course Glimmer still lives with her mother, but primarily they've forged relationships with non-relatives. That they're healthy relationships is all the more important, because we never see She-Ra, Glimmer or anyone else express dissatisfaction that the people who love them aren't blood relatives. It would be natural, of course, and maybe on some level I would have wanted to see that frustration expressed on screen, but I think it was important - especially for a children's show in the 1980s - to offer stories that allowed characters to function outside the conventional nuclear family.

As for what's next, I'm not sure. I really don't have many animated movies in my library I've never seen, though I have a few Blu-rays I haven't yet watched of movies I've already seen. I may also hit the library to see if they've got things I haven't seen yet (I'm certain they do). I don't really have any personal goals this year, now that I've finished this box set.

shadokitty

I don't remember what the count was, but I am also low on Vit D, and my bone dr. wants to test me for Paget's Disease.

BobO'Link

The "has to be one of those things you have to watch high for it to make any sense" comment is dead-on. Anyone I've know who "likes" his work has only seen it while stoned. I struggled through Fire and Ice for a checklist item for the 2011 Sci-Fi/Fantasy challenge. I've seen a few of Bakshi's films and this was the most palatable but not that good either. Before I settled on Fire and Ice I *tried* to watch Wizards but couldn't make it through the dreck of a film. It was all you described and worse. The rotoscoping utilized felt lazy, the story confused, the animation poor and more. I was thrilled that watching a Bakshi film wasn't a checklist item this year.

I can see your comment about watching The Wall stoned, but Casablance? Were *you* stoned when you listed that title?

Travis McClain

I'll cross my fingers for you.Keep us posted!

I'll readily concede that the letters of transit are ridiculous and the very idea that the Nazis would somehow "allow" Victor Lazslo to run around in Casablanca is ludicrous. They certainly would not have afforded him, or Captain Renault, any latitude. So, yeah, even though I'm entirely in love with Casablanca, I can admit there's a very valid claim to make against it making sense. That said, I'll have words with anyone who disparages it!

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

If you're stumped, there's always the internet
http://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/be...om+jerry+beck/
http://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/shorts/ - These aren't all animated but a good chunk are

Many of those are on youtube and if there's any links, they'll be found in the comments section for each one.

The only thing worse than trying to find current and notable sci-fi and fantasy actors/actresses/directors are people in animation. Sure, they're out there but there isn't as big a pool as horror and action.

Also not a fan of Bakshi.