BobO'Link

I think if you're a fan of the Rick & Morty style animation/action/scripting then you'll probably like Lower Decks. I'm not and feel that absolutely was a major factor. Well.. that and that it's supposed to be animated "Adult Comedy" - a style I almost always find to be rather juvenile and not all that funny to boot.

wishbone

The last few years I have been buying classic Disney animated films when the price was agreeable. Unfortunately some of the newer releases do not port all of the features as you mention -- it's a bummer but at least I have the film to enjoy. Some of the classics I have not seen yet, probably because I was not big into musicals, but I certainly know the stories from the Disney books growing up. For this challenge I have watched The Sword in the Stone and Lady and the Tramp and hope to watch a few more classic films this month.

davidh777

Yeah, I’ve never gotten into the Fox/adult swim/Cartoon Network stuff. I’ll have to finish LD at some point for my franchise watch, though.

LJG765

I honestly think it's mostly laziness that they don't port over all the extras. It's already all produced and ready to go, so why wouldn't they just add it to the disc? I know for newer films, they just don't want to spend the money to produce it. I do entertainment surveys frequently and almost always they ask how important featurettes are to me. It seems to me, they're hoping people say they don't want them, so they can keep charging us full price for less material.

Last night I watched Loving Vincent. I enjoyed the content, I enjoyed the artwork but I do NOT like the rotoscope type of animation. It's just too jerky for me. I can appreciate that it helped make the van Gogh backgrounds pop (the artwork was literally hundreds of oil paintings in van Gogh's style that they filmed to make the movie) but I did not really enjoy it. I can't remember the other film I've seen with it (I vaguely remember Keanu Reeves in it) but I wasn't a fan of it then either.

The movie itself I would recommend if you like van Gogh's art. It takes place about a year after his death and explores the end of his life and what actually happened.

BobO'Link

I'd guess it's licensing. One of those things where they paid for a commentary/featurette for a single release but not in perpetuity so would have to pay the fee(s) again to include it in a new release.

coyoteblue

You're thinking of Richard Linklater's, A Scanner Darkly (2006).

LJG765

I guess that would make sense. *shrugs*

That's it! It's quite likely just a me thing, but I just find it to jerky for me to enjoy.

BobO'Link

I don't remember A Scanner Darkly being "jerky" - I mostly like the story (it's based on a Philip K. Dick story after all - one of my favorite writers) but the rotoscope animation doesn't quite work for me.

LJG765

Maybe jerky is the wrong word. The edges of things move around too much for me. Nothing is ever just still.

BobO'Link

I think we're saying the same thing in different ways... my recollection is the edges are kind of "flexible" - move around like you're saying. Has a kind of sloppy look.

LJG765

Agreed! It also reminds me of an old animated Comedy Central show. Dr....something or other. Where he was a psychiatrist? Dr. Katz (had to look it up), I think. If I'm remembering correctly, it was in a very similar style.

wishbone

Squigglevision

LJG765

Yep, that's it! It's probably been at least a decade or more since I've watched it. I enjoyed it at the time, but I don't know if I could sit and watch it again.

Travis McClain

I had the opposite reaction to Loving Vincent. I found it highly engaging and the animation had a lot to do with that. Not only was it unique (it consists of something like 65,000 oil paintings!), but it served the story in a way I've seldom experienced with animation. Even with the exact same script and voice performances, I don't think that movie is half as interesting if it's animated any other style.

I've recently synced up with a friend for some things on Disney+. We both found Lightyear bland, but loved Coco. I was a bit underwhelmed by Coco for the first half, but then came the big plot twist and from that point on I was wholly invested in everything, even if it was predictable. Some of the rules of the movie didn't make much sense to me but the drama eventually superseded that concern. My eyes got a little damp there in the end. I totally get why everyone went gaga over that when it came out.

I've been considering going through the Despicable Me/Minions series. I saw Minions: The Rise of Gru at the drive-in last month. I thought it was alright. It reminded me that other people in my UltraViolet group added them to my digital library back when that ecosystem was a thing and I still haven't logged them. I've seen the first and one of the sequels (I think it was 2), and a few of the shorts but it's been long enough I don't remember much so giving them another look is probably in order. Plus, with there being so many shorts, it'll be an easy way to knock off quite a few from my watchlist.

Travis McClain

Incidentally, I saw someone mentioned the new Apple TV movie Luck. In case you didn't know, there's presently an offer for Target Circle members to get four free months of Apple TV+, Apple Music, and iCloud+, and six free months of Apple Arcade. Joining Target Circle is free, though I understand not everyone is comfortable signing up for things.

LJG765

I can't believe we're already 2 weeks into the challenge! I hope you everyone is enjoying it and getting some good watches in!

If you've been working on the checklist, how's it going? There weren't a ton of changes for this year, but the ones that were made, are people liking them?

Travis, I kind of enjoy the Despicable Me movies, though I haven't seen the most recent. The first is the best, of course, but the sequels are still fun to watch.

shadokitty

Quite often I have been busy this year, so haven't had a lot of watches in. I'm still enjoying the challenge though when I do have time. Among other things, I did so far completely run through Disc 1 of Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors.

BobO'Link

I, too, enjoy the Despicable Me movies but have a soft spot for the second all because of my middle granddaughter (now 11yo). She saw it when she was ~3yo, came in one day and said "I wanna watch bee-doh, pa!" I had no clue what she was talking about so I asked her mom "What's this 'bee-doh' movie she's wanting?" She said "Oh... Despicable Me 2! She calls it 'bee-doh' - you'll understand when you see it." And we watched it together, I laughed several times, got lots of chuckles from watching her watch it, and then comes the scene where the fire breaks out in Groo's home and the minions are running around going "Bee-doh! Bee-doh! Bee-doh!" like a European police/fire alarm! She gets up and runs around the room chanting "Bee-doh! Bee-doh!" I understood... to this day that movie is called "Bee-doh" at my house. She would also dance with the minions at the end and did the "rolling around on the hill" bit with them (though she'd do hers on the floor). She was 5 or 6 when she stopped doing that. Fun times... I've seen that one more than the other 2 combined - I'd guess 20+ times (she *really* liked that movie).

shadokitty

I decided to watch some GI Joe this afternoon and started with the first of the pilot mini series, as there were two before it became a daily cartoon. One interesting thing I noticed in the first part is while on screen they were obviously laser blasts coming from the rifles. However, the sounds were obviously semi automatic rifles.

shadokitty

On a lark tonight, coming from the fact that I got the bullet train combiner team in the mail today, I decided to check to see if Transformers Car Robots was up on YouTube. And I was pleasantly surprised, because not only was it available, but it was also subtitled. I’ve always had a soft spot for this particular series, as this was the one going on one year when I went to Botcon, and actually met Peter Spellos to visit the night before the convention started. He was the voice of the shark, Sky Byte, in the US version, the first Robots In Disguise series.

LJG765

That is definitely a good reason to enjoy the movie!

I have been busy this summer myself, much more than I was anticipating. Still getting watches in, but not as many as I was hoping. Glad you're still enjoying the challenge and getting some views in!

mrcellophane

I finished The Legend of Vox Machina a couple of days ago. As a fan of Critical Role, I thought it would be a must watch, but a lot of the humor relied on gratuitous violence. It took me a few episodes to be acclimate, and I ended up enjoying the series overall - enough to watch the second season when it's released. I'm curious how people who haven't watched a lot of Critical Role responded to the series. Things happen quickly and some character development is necessarily truncated due to the format change, so I felt like my knowledge of the characters helped flesh out some of these aspects of the story.

BobO'Link

Over the past week I've watched most of The New Adventures of Superman (1966). I'm really enjoying this one. It's more in the spirit of, and drawn like, the Superman comics of those years with animation/music/narration/scripting along the lines of the more "serious" cartoon series of those years (think along the lines of Space Ghost). Oddly enough, it's from Filmation but is superior to their later, 1970s, work. It's been more than worth its small cost in entertainment value and, IMHO, vastly superior to The New Adventures of Batman and Robin I watched earlier this month. I didn't watch this one during its original airings - and in watching it now just don't know why as it seems very much like one I'd have greatly enjoyed. I can safely say I'll be watching this series on a somewhat regular basis.

**EDIT**
I checked the Saturday morning TV schedule for those years - It was on CBS and in 1966 our local CBS affiliate ran alternate programming (the "Mid-South Talent Review" - people who were going to compete for "talent" at the fair and then "Quiz Bowl" - live HS quiz team competitions) at the time it was on for most of the year. That means I'd have not been able to watch it even if I wanted to...

That's something that plagued much of my Saturday morning cartoon viewing (In late mornings - around 11am - the ABC and then when it moved, the NBC affiliate dumped cartoons for local, live, wrestling). There were times when the choice was a single network's product or nothing (unless you actually liked those alternate programs - I did not).

In 1967 it was The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure and its first half ran opposite George of the Jungle - a top 10 favorite that I never missed. I remember watching some of the Aquaman stuff and didn't care for it - guess I never saw the Supes ones or didn't give them a chance due to not caring for the Aquaman segments.

BobO'Link

I finished watching The New Adventures of Superman S1 and enjoyed it all the way to the end. Only one episode fell flat - the one with Mr. Mxyzptlk, a character, like Batmite, I've never liked. Come to think of it, he seems to possibly be an inspiration for "Q" in Star Trek. Hmmm... Yeah... I've never liked those type of characters whose motivation seems to be only to cause chaos for the sake of "fun."

I watched the "Bonus" feature on the series that's included - Superman in '66. It was mostly interesting and talked about how Filmation was a new animation studio and used this series as a launching pad for the studio. The series is comparable to the work HB was doing in these years. It's a real shame both cheapened their products in the 70s, especially FIlmation, as this series proves they could do better.

I realized after a few "episodes" that the series was being presented pretty much how it aired with the Superman segments. The middle cartoon in the show, The Adventures of Superboy, was not able to be included due to rights issues over the character at the time this was released. Those rights have since been worked out and it'd be nice if WB would release those segments. I'd even double-dip to get the series presented completely as it originally aired but a stand-alone release with just the Superboy segments would be most welcome. These have the show open, which goes directly into the first Superman story, the second Superman story, and the end credits. Each story has its own entry on the menu which is why it took me a few "episodes" to realize what was going on. The Wikipedia article on the series says they're also in air date order - a nice plus.

Several of the voice actors did the same voices in the radio series from 15 years prior to the airing of this series. The open dialog "Look! Up in the sky!" is identical as is the announcer. It's some of those little things that make the series better than the average Saturday morning cartoon of those years. For Superman fans I can't recommend this one highly enough. It's very good.

shadokitty

I finally will have some more free time, so I plan on enjoying quite a few cartoons on pretty much this last week. Besides what is on tv and DVR, I have quite a few DVDs and cartoons on YouTube on tap.