Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

D'oh! I was thinking they were the originals. I don't have any of those on disc, unfortunately.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

If anyone here has an Xbox One, this might be of interest. There is an app on the store that has a lot of free anime. It’s called Anime Tube. I tried it out a couple months ago, and it worked good. I checked out an episode of Transformers: Super God Masterforce.

Speaking of anime, after I finished The MASS Device , I was ready to start some anime, so I’ve started to watch some of Armored Fleet Dairugger XV . I wish I had bought more of the volumes before they went OOP. But I only have the first volume.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

FYI: Matt Groening's new animated fantasy series Disenchantment drops August 17th on Netflix. Mark your calendars.

Also, for anyone interested, these are the episodes of Community that qualify for the Animation Challenge:

• "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" (season 2)
• "Intro to Felt Surrogacy" (season 4)
• "G.I. Jeff" (season 5)

Some other oddball television episodes that qualify:
Supernatural - "Scoobynatural" (season 13)
Angel - "Smile Time" (season 5)
Farscape - "Revenging Angel" (season 3)
Eureka - "Do You See What I See" (season 4)

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

I watched the first episode of My Hero Academia and it was okay. I wasn’t enthralled by it.

However, thanks by the recommendation of Thunderbolt Fantasy. I really don’t like puppets but love a good Wuxia tale. I’m almost done with it.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

Best post of the thread so far! Thanks for the research. I’m always up for an ‘oddball’ episode of a series.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

Yesterday, I went to Walmart and picked up some animated DVDs. Among those are a Land Before Time movie, a set of Happy Feet 1 and 2, the Dragonlance movie an Ice Age movie, and a DVD of a few episodes of Curious George . I just finished the first episode of that disc. It brought back memories, as those were some of my favorite books when I was little. It is kind of a reunion of Transformers Generation 1 too. Susan Blu is the voice director, and Frank Welker does the voice of George.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

I got a pleasant surprise in my email today. Because I preordered A:IW from VUDU, I got $3 back in the form of a credit on VUDU. Now to decide what I want to rent.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

Thanks for the info!

Challenge members: Would you like me to start a running list in the opening post with this information that I can easily add to?

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

I'm still doing SF/Fantasy - but animated. I'm taking advantage of the challenge to finally watch that BR upgrade of Star Trek: The Animated Series I purchased last year and I have a stack of stuff I've purchased for the grandkids over the past year. I'll either get them to finally watch it or just watch it myself. I also have BR upgrades of the Loony Tunes sets I'm planning to work in at some point.

The Trek animated set really looks good in BR. I don't recall it looking this clean on the DVDs - but I also don't watch this one much. I still wonder why they didn't use the original series theme since it's with the original cast and pretty much S4 of that series. I also didn't give this one much of a chance during the original airings, pretty much writing it off after watching a few episodes. It's actually pretty good and very much in keeping with TOS in tone. Sometimes those half hour episodes feel a bit rushed but overall they get in a good amount of story in spite of the shortened run time.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

I started watching my Looney Tunes Platinum V3 Blu-ray which I haven't watched since I bought it. You can't go wrong with watching some of the old classics!

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

Realized that there's one more episode of Community that would qualify:

Community - "Digital Estate Planning" (season 3)

As well as this episode of The Middleman:

The Middleman - "The Vampiric Puppet Lamentation" (season 1)

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

I love the animated Eureka episode and I watch it every year on Christmas Day.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

While I was browsing Anime Tube yesterday, I came across a series that I had only seen three episodes before, thanks to finding a videotape at an anime convention many years ago. The series is Machine Robo: Revenge Of Cronos. That series, I believe was the inspiration for the GoBot toy line in America, since some of the characters in the series made it to America.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

There's a checklist at icheckmovies.com that I'm trying to finish off, the Top 100 Animated Features of All Time. I was able to request 4 from it from my local library, and 3 came in today. I watched two of them tonight, Bebe's Kids and Gay Purr-ee.

Gay Purr-ee was really cute! I also didn't realize but it is the only animated feature that Judy Garland voiced. The movie's plot isn't too complicated. It takes place in France from the point of view of cats. A girl cat ends up in Paris, her beau follows her with his kitten sidekick. She immediately runs into a suave, sophisticated cat who offers to show her the city and...the rest I won't spoil.

It's written by Chuck Jones, so if you are looking for a cute movie that works for checks in the list, this would work!

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

I think I've participated in this challenge all but 2 years. I watch animation a lot regardless of the month. It helps that I have younger kids, but I'd still watch quite a bit anyways. I just got Netflix a couple months ago for the first time, so it has started me on a few new shows.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

I finally opened and watched my "Looney Tunes Super Stars: Foghorn Leghorn & Friends" disc I picked up several years back. I really enjoyed the Foghorn Leghorn shorts, he's a long-time favorite, but could have mostly done without the "& Friends." Those were mostly late 50s to early 60s shorts and just above average for Looney Tunes. A couple were the 2 Crows, which to me have always felt like a Speedy Gonzolas rip off and pretty repetitive. The last, "Crows' Feat" was the worst as it featured Elmer Fudd as the antagonist - but he never spoke! It could have been anyone!

I watched the FS versions but was curious about the WS ones. Well... to get to them you have to completely restart the disc. That might not be so bad but they put a non-skippable "PC Warning" that runs 45 seconds on the disc. You can't do a very good comparison due to this. I sucked it up and did a sampling of a few. It appears the "FS" versions are simply cropped for WS and not "open matte"/protected for WS versions as Warner has claimed (at least for some shorts on other sets - don't know for sure about this one). Some shots are horribly cropped and/or have very tight head room. I can safely say I'll never watch them in WS again.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

I followed up the Foghorn Leghorn disc with the "Bugs Bunny Superstar" disc. It starts with a few 4:3 shorts and then switches to WS. Cropped WS. It shows in head room and occasional cut off heads or shots that are just too tight. I've seen all of the shorts on that disc in 4:3 growing up - so many times I know them by heart. I absolutely know they've been cropped for WS and not originally drawn for WS, although they may have been presented theatrically that way, most likely due to it being easier to show them cropped rather than change the plates on the projector for a cartoon or just that the theater wanted to show off their new WS projection screen. I wish they, like the Foghorn Leghorn ones, had been offered in both aspect ratios so you could choose yourself. This set has several of my Bugs favorites on it, one of them a Marvin the Martian toon. Overall it was an enjoyable viewing but a bit frustrating due to framing.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

I watch a lot of animation as well and I don't have children! I find animation just easier to watch a lot of times. My time can sometimes be a bit limited so most animation is shorter than a non-animated movie, usually around 90 minutes or less.

Plus, I'm a big fantasy/sci-fi watcher and a good deal of animation falls into one of those two categories.

I just finished a late night viewing of Your Name. I've heard only generalities about this one, just that it was very good and that's about it. It popped up in one of the icheckmovies animation lists, so I borrowed it from my local library. I really enjoyed it. The animation is beautiful. The story is semi-familiar; I was reminded of The Lake House a few times, to be honest, but I thought it was well done.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

The movie (Thunderbolt Fantasy: The Sword of Life and Death) is on Crunchyroll, too, unless you're just saving it.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

This is my next movie to watch for this Challenge.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

Thanks but I haven't seen it pop up. Is that under Anime or Drama? The Lupin III: Woman named Fujiko Mine is supposed to be there too for US and Canada and I can't find it on Crunchyroll.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Like I mentioned, the idea of it isn't original, but it was done well.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

I'm enjoying the heck out of Black Lagoon! I finished the first two seasons in two days and I'm hoping to finish Roberta's Blood Trail by tomorrow.
The level of violence is right up there but it has a really good storylines and the characters are not always what they seemed to be.
Highly recommended!

Thanks, I'll let you know.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

I moved on to Batman: The Animated Series, Volume 4. This is such a good Batman series! Good stories, good voice acting, good animation, just all around excellent. It's a shame they can't somehow channel this for the live action movies. IMHO, none of the live action ones made since Burton's films have been worth watching more than once and the animated series is extremely repeat worthy. I'm really trying to decide if I want to upgrade this one to BR with the upcoming release. The DVDs really look pretty good.

Re: The 9th Annual Animation Challenge Discussion Thread!
 

I added Thunderbolt Fantasy to my queue and the movie was just there one day, but just searching for Thunderbolt Fantasy and Fujiko Mine works. Once you find them you can add them to your queue.