SHOELACES

Finally got some shoelaces for my boots, and they are epic.

Summer Wars [Possible Spoiler Warning]

Mamoru Hosoda is one of my favourite anime directors, because his style is so unique and so recognizable, and I first encountered it in my all time favourite, Digimon. He hasnt done a whole lot, still as far as I can tell, relativly new on the scene. Anyone who is fans of Digimon will recognise his work in Digimon Adventure and Our War Game, two of the three Japanese films that were spliced together for the English release of Digimon: The Movie.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was also his work, with scenes that had a very similar feel to Our War Game, as well as his same slick artstyle.

Now we have Summer Wars, and I had to see it because I really do love his style. I knew that I was in for a movie with the same visual look and feel, and the same sorts of thematic qualities as Our War Game.... however what I didn't know was that the movie would basically be exactly the same as Our War Game.

For a refresher course: Our War Game features a rouge virus type Digimon taking over the Internet. The DigiDestined kids and their Digimon have to battle this virus, because with the chaos of the Internet the entire world falls into disaray. Its quite the statement on our current dependency on technology, and the results of a super-virus taking over the net are not too far from what would probably actually happen. The virus has also launched a missile from a military base, because it now has access to that, that will kill lots of people and start a war. Fighting the Digimon becomes a race against the clock.

Summer Wars is pretty much exactly the same, except without the Digimon. We have a super AI thats hacking peoples accounts and taking over the entire Internet (cyberspace is called OZ in this futuristic setting). From here everything falls into almost the exact same plotline, even down to the clock ticking because a satellite from space has been set to crash into a nuclear power plant. Sure the background plotline differs, as do the characters, but the entire core premis remains the same. They even beat the bad-guy in the same love-in type manor. Interesting. Im suprised the director felt the need to retell Our War Game, which is what I suspect he is basically doing.

So which one is the better movie?
Well, Our War Game, from my point of view, is just simply more entertaining. It has flashier character designs, more interesting battle sequences, and less emphasis on familey drama and relationships. Sure Digimon has its silly drama, but its all just that: silly. This movie is more serious which in this case translated to more boring.
But that is strictly speaking my own opinion. On Summer Wars side, its all those things I just mentioned: more serious, more realism, more of a sci-fi drama, then a kids monsters-fighting-monsters action movie. The sequences inside the net make a little bit more sence too, because in Our War Game the viewer always seemed to feel a bit odd about its portrayal of The Internet... I would often find myself saying to myself, "But... the internet just dosnt... WORK like that..." but in Summer Wars, since its a future in which they actually have developed a virtual reality internet system, it feels more natural.

In the long run Im not sure sure that one or the other is better then the other really, it just depends on your own preferances. People not into kids cartoons and wanting a sci-fi drama will gravitate towards Summer Wars and those of us more into flashy action and robots/monsters will be more into Our War Game.
Basically its the same story, told in two different ways with two different audiances in mind, and thats fine by me I suppose. Although I do hope that his next film isnt a straight up retelling of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Digimon Xros Wars - up to episode 11 now

Finally been catching up on my Xros Wars and..... I am still having trouble with it. Not to the point where I wont watch it, oh no, it is Digimon and thusly I must consume it.
However there are the things in it that irk me.

First of all I still find it incredibly irritating that none of the children have a Digimon Partner. Taiki is the only actuall "DigiDestined" as he is the one with the Digivice, and Im sure there is an argument to be made for Shoutmon being his "partner", but he can use all of the Digimon, Shoutmon just happens to be his #1 go to guy. So, in essence, that special bond between a human and their digimon really dosnt exist in this instance of the Digital World. Taiki gets to be a General and lead an Entire Digimon Army, and his two human friends get to...well, tag along, I guess?
Iv seen some websites saying the Cutemon is Akaris digimon, but in the show I really see no evidence of that, Cutemon seems more attatched to Dorulumon then anyone else. Besides Akari does not have a Digivice, so she cant have a digimon.

Then there is the fact that there is no digivolving in this Digital World thus far. only crossing digimon with other digimon. There was a bit of this kind of thing seen before in prior seasons, but it was always as an extra to actual digivolving.

Now I know, I know. The Digimon franchise has a history of no two reboots functioning the same. They always want to change it up, and I get that. But the biggest crime to me is in removing the dynamic between a Human and their soul-bonded Digimon Partner. That was the entire essence of the show, what gave it its charm and made it stand out from the other shows like it. Frontier was a huge failure; nobody liked it and do you know why? Because the kids didnt have partners! Actually, in my own opinion, Frontier wasnt as bad in that respect as Xros Wars. Why? Because in actuallity, the children of Frontier did have partners, their partners where just basically spirits/ghosts that lived inside their digivices and needed to borrow the kids bodies in order to come out. There where a few episodes when the children actually talked to their digimon through their divices, which says to me that they actually were seperate entities from the kids, rather then just a cool transformation.
Xros Wars completly elliminates the kids each having their own, just-for-them special Digimon Partner, and I just cant get over that.

For all that though, I am enjoying the show on other levels. Much like with Frontier (and Data Sqaud for some people, although I actually loved that season), once you make a concious decision to ignore the aspects that are jarringly out of place from the Digimon you know and love, its still a pretty rockin show. And lets not forget that it is a mega-franchise designed for the sole purpose of selling toys to children. The character designs of the Digimon that have not been previously seen are really quite cool. I am loving Dorulumon, Persiamon and Baalmon, respectivly. These are really great looking digimon, and Dorulumons character in particular is fascinating to watch. Hes cool, aloof, tough-guy-outside-but-warm-inside, and noble to his core. Judging by his role in the group and his lion-inspired design, one has to wonder if hes going to be this seasons Leomon Death. Sure he isnt a Leomon, but this season is already not holding to tradition, and he does fit the personality and the lion type-cast.

The storyline is working quite well, with very menancing villains ala Lilithmon, Balmon and Tacitmon, as well as two other human children whose allegiances and motivations are shrouded in mystery. Its kind of really cool how this season is set up as an all out war, where previous seasons have always been more kind of guerrilla warfare. This means tactics will have to be different, and I am quite interested to see how it turns out.

All in all heres the thing. This season is certainly not bringing Digimon back to its glory days of the first three seasons, but it is a pretty decent show and worth watching if you are either a Digimon fan, or 10-15 years old.... the rest of you wont care about it, but that is quite alright. Those of us still into Digimon know we are the odd ones out ;)

Secret of Kells

I am a HUGE fan of animation as a medium. I love to soak in all sorts of it and see what innovative artsits are doing.
That said it is INCREDIBLY difficult to find any animation that is not either Japanese or American. Both of which I am an avid pursuer, though perhapes moreso towards the Japanese, since the Japanese animation is much more often aimed at older audiances and with more mature themes, but I digress. I am always delighted to come across anything from somewhere else.

Secret of Kells is an enchanting little tale of magic, but before discussing the storyline I want to focus on the artisty because thats really much more impacting, simply because it is in a style that is rarely seen. The film is an Irish-French-Belgian production which means that the art style is in a distinct European flavour and they went with a rather folkish look. While character designs are simple, backgrounds are lush and intricate. The contrast works very well, as well as how scenes of a violent nature are charicatured in more storybook manor, that still manages to convey the terror the characters are feeling, while feeling more poetic.

As for the storyline, its a mixed bag. Its a fun film, with a relatable and sympathetic main character. The problem lies in the strange paganism meets christianity infusion of religion. Obviously for a non-religious viewer, this isnt really a problem, but from a christian persective, it is a little strange. Incorperating a girl who is apparently from some race of nymphs or magic users who controls the forest, a strange fight sequence with some olde worlde snake god, so that they can use his crystal eye to write a great "holy book"? The whole thing feels like an ambiguous, surreal religion mash up with no real idea what it is, even though it is asserted that it takes place in an abbey, and has christian iconography throughout the backgrounds. Although a Christian viewer may find these elements at odds with each other, it is worth mentioning that this is actually a rather accurate portrayal of of the ecclectic nature of medieval european belifes. So while not really a comfortable view of christianity from a modern perspective, its an interesting picture of how christianity did in fact merge with various other ideas at the time in eurpoean minds.

Once again however the characters are engaging, and you can really feel their emotional journeys. They are played very well, top notch voice acting that really comes accross. I dont really like the religous chaos of the film, but the production is solid and it was an entertaining enough movie, and I do recommend it for those of you who, like me, like to get their hands on more obscure animations.

Owls of Ga'hool: Legend of the Guardians

This is one of the most visuall stunning films I have seen in a while, for the single reason that it is about owls. Owls are not a species that have been explored much in narrative, especially movies. The only thing similar I can think of are the Silverwing books which were adapted into a brief 2D animated series where the characters were anthropomorphasized rather then drawn realisticly.

The owls almost strike that perfect balance between actually looking like real owls and having human enough expression to make them relatable characters. If they err, they err on the realism side; it can be a tad difficult to tell characters apart simply because they do look so real.
Add to that the fact that we have owls in battle armor and this movie looks pretty awsome. Animals in armor is always cool. Remember The Golden Compass? Yeah, it was universally considered a pretty terrible movie, but nobody can deny that that polar bear was kick-ass.
Not to mention the stunning and sweeping backgrounds of this movie, from eerie mist filled forests, amazing Owl cities, and evil fortresses of misery, every setting in this movie looks incredibly. So props to the visuals on this, this is some wonderfull work!

The only area where the movie begins to fall apart is in some of the key plot points which just arent fleshed out or explained well enough. Now this movie is based on a series of books, so I am sure that there is information that was left out from the film, and Im actually quite interested in reading the books now. Although the movie is still complelty enjoyable it does feel a little bit forced when key details remain unexplained. What ARE these evil/magical 'flecks' of metal? How on earth does 'moonblinking' work? If the movie might have slowed down a little bit to explain some of these things it would have felt much more well rounded.

Depsite this, its still a very engaging storyline with sympathetic characters.
The movie also makes some very interesting statements on war and the glory of battle. The concepts of fighting for what is right and yet, not enjoying, or taking glory from it, is a key underlining aspect of the story and its characters.
It leaves room for a sequel, which I suspect is because it is based after all on a series of books, which probably continue a long ways past this movie.

The music is great, including a great theme track from Owl City, a band I fall more in love with the more I hear from.
Also? Owls in Battle Armor!!

JESUS IS LIKE CHEEZEBURGER

JESUS IS LIKE CHEEZEBURGER SHIRT FOR SALE OMG

Travis came up with the slogan/idea one day so I made it and opened a zazzle account.
I AM SELLING SHIRTS NAOW.