X-men Cartoon

I've said before that comic books weren't a part of my world as a kid.  This meant that superheroes would enter my world in the form of cartoons, and X-men was a big one. I usually missed the Saturday morning airings, but I caught them a couple years later when they would be re-run late at night.

The show itself adapted long comic story lines and you'd have to go through 3-4 episodes to get a full plot done. This didn't work out too well for me as the re-runs would be played out of order, leaving me jumping from one plot to another and filling in gaps over time.  This created a weird love-hate relationship with me and the X-men.  The characters were so cool and the story was pretty engaging, but the convoluted nature of the X-men tied in with unfinished plots left a big mess for me to wrap my head around.  Until very recently, I have avoided picking up most X books for fear of the years of baggage and countless retcons.

© Fox Network

As mentioned though, I did fall in love with the characters.  The X-men cartoon followed as closely as it could to Claremont's legendary run, who was a master at juggling different voices and personalities.  This is important, as X-men has always seemed to be much more soapy and character driven than a lot of other comics.  With a huge roster of characters coming on and off of the team, the cartoon ends up hitting classic archetypes like the driven leader, badass rebel, outcasted intellectual, and many more.

It's difficult to sum up the X-men cartoon in one post, as I'm sure the cartoon had difficulty summing up the comics they were based on.  The story ranges from dealing with bigotry, politics, and religion to space adventures, time travel, and a magical dinosaur island in Antarctica.  The show did not hold back to say the least.  Overall the show had a huge impact on the youth of that era, as they've grown up and spawned a new comic book based on the original cartoon over a decade after the show first aired.

© Marvel Comics

A couple of years ago my friend held an X-men marathon at his place, and to my surprised it held up pretty well.  The animation was pretty poor, but that was completely understandable given that the show tried to match the artwork of the comics which was way too detailed to animate properly.  To this day, I would still entertain the idea of another X-men marathon, though I'd rather delve into the newer more stream-lined takes on the X-team that I haven't watched yet.

Adam Phillips - Waterlollies

The emergence of the internet was a very strange time, especially for online media.  The birth of the internet opened a window for anyone and everyone to create anything they wanted, and a huge audience would appear.  Tastes were a lot less discerning back then because the tools to express yourself were relatively primitive.  Flash animation quickly became popular as it wasn't taxing on the old connection speeds, and was easily accessible by everyone.  This was of course great for creators, but led to a slew of sloppy amateur videos that were quite frankly, really bad.  These old videos hold a special place in my heart of course, but would hold no water in the new era of Youtube.  

I would browse these old Newgrounds videos for hours, entertained by immature sex jokes poorly animated with various pokemon cameos.  Then I stumbled onto the Brackenwood series by Adam Phillips.  Watching his videos were like night and day.  It was actually shocking to see someone use Flash to animate something with more movement and attention to detail than most of the cartoons on television.  In a few minutes of video, you can instantly tell that hundreds of hours were lovingly poured into it.

Not only was the animation significantly better than the other flash videos, the tone of the piece was markedly light.  Instead of immature violence and puberty-burgeoning sex gags, Phillips took the time to create a vast and interesting forest world filled with whimsy and wonder.  The traditional Celtic music only strengthened the forest theme, and gives all of the pieces a distinct flavour that I haven't seen anywhere else.

The video I've chosen for the post is 'Waterlollies', which is actually the last of a series of three videos about the character.  The main character of the series, Bitey, is an incredibly fast forest creature resembling the god Pan.  Bitey is shown to be a lovable rascal;  A mean-spirited trickster that will go out of his way to annoy or injure other creatures for his own wanton enjoyment.  Phillips later went on to give this character more backstory, but moved onto bigger things working with Disney, Wizards of the Coast, and Bioware.

Undergrads

This show hit Canada appropriately around my college/university years.  I would watch re-runs of the show while gaming, not realizing that there were only 13 episodes in existence.  Undergrads confirmed that I was missing out on the unique experience of dorm life.  Having never left home for school, my post secondary life was drastically different from those around me.  I would hang out with friends between classes, but most of my downtime involved commuting home and playing video games.  Undergrads introduced the idea of annoying room mates, resident weirdos, and all night parties.

Where the show did connect with me was the weird, angsty, self-absorbed mindset that comes with college.  This is especially true with obsessions with crushes in the late teens.  It's odd thinking back to all of the self imposed stress (real or imagined) there was.  In the end, I still think back to this cartoon as a time stamp for my life at the dawn of the millennium.

Batman: The Animated Series

Hurray! it's time for another featured post, and I've been saving a good one.  I liked this show as a kid, but really fell in love with it after listening to in-depth interviews with Paul Dini and Bruce Timm on Kevin Smith's 'Fatman on Batman'.  Hearing the behind the scenes, reminded me of the quality of Batman: The Animated Series, forcing me to go back and watch the majority of the show.  I was floored with how little I appreciated the subtleties of the storytelling.

For those who don't know, Batman is a timeless cartoon that has reached legendary status, and for good reason. This is one of the few cartoons that I watched as a kid that really stands the test of time. This show could have easily been a forgettable post-movie Batman cartoon, but instead became an important part in building the Batman mythos.

© Warner Brothers Animation

First off, the voice acting for Batman was absolutely stellar.  The voices of Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamil as the Joker have become signature to the characters beyond the cartoon.  This show launched Conroy's voice acting career and created yet another nerd legacy for Hamil.  Also, Harley Quinn was not only voiced by Arleen Sorkin, but inspired by her as well.  Harley Quinn has since moved out of the animated cartoon where she was created, and into the comics, video games, and will even be appearing on the big screen. 

The artwork was all based on the style of Bruce Timm, who's has gone on to build an entire line of DC cartoons and movies.  These cartoons all take place in what is affectionately called the "Timmverse".  When creating the show, Bruce Timm decided to paint colour onto black paper instead of white, giving the Batman cartoon the signature dark feel.  Not only does the show's deco-noir style stand out, the actual animation is the best I've seen from a weekly TV cartoon by far.

Most importantly, the storytelling is surprisingly complex for a kids cartoon. The biggest merit of this show for me, is that it didn't patronize the kids watching it. Certain episodes have such a deep pathos that you forget that you're watching a kids cartoon at all.  Two of the best examples are the "Heart of Ice" and "The Grey Ghost" episodes.  The talent behind the narrative is from the main writer Paul Dini, who took pushed the boundaries on what a cartoon could be.

© Warner Brothers Animation

Also worth mentioning is the soundtrack for the show.  As a Warner Bros. production, the show had an amazing symphonic sound track tailored for each scene making all of them that much more meaningful and powerful. Play Danny Elfman's introduction theme for any kid from the 90s, and you will transport them back into time.

I'm glad that I had this re-introduction to the show in recent years.  With an adult perception of the show, I can really dig into the plot nuances that are lost on children.  Not only that, but the implied darkness and tragedy that lingers just under the surface has a much stronger impact than I would have ever imagined in a kids cartoon.

Top 3 Picks of the Last Year of Posts.

Hurray!

It is officially the first anniversary of my blog!  Today I will be tossing out a few of my favourite posts from the past year.  I've split them into two categories: obscure picks and nostalgic picks.  Although some posts don't fit into either category, I think most of what I write about generally goes into one of the two.

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Top 3: Obscure

#3 - Podgy Panda

© Podgy Panda

Choosing an artist for this category was really tough.  I love all of the art that I've been posting up, so none really outshine the others.  In the end, I decided on Podgy Panda for a few reasons.  First off, he's an amazing artist, and I think more people should be aware of his work.  More specifically, I think that his art best represents the type of art I am naturally drawn to.  Podgy Panda (or Richard Kuoch) has finished products with that are cute with clean lines.  He is a person that unapologetically puts out work that touches on his interests and nostalgia.  His passion for the material shows through.

#2 - Black Science

© Image Comics

Black Science is a book that was released recently by Image comics, and quickly became one of my favourites.  There are three reasons this book deserves a bigger following.  The first is the most obvious, the book is gorgeous. Matteo Scalera is consistently incredible.  Second, the book is full of pulpy craziness in a way that only comics can pull off.  Last is that the book's story is actually pretty good despite the high action and incredible art.  With such focus on creating weird worlds, it's hard to flesh out a deep narrative the ties everything together.  Hickman shows his experience with pulp science fiction by sneaking in surprisingly rich character moments between beautiful splash pages.

#1 - Flume

© Flume

Flume holds the title as the only interest that I've posted twice.  Technically, one was an album, and the other was a single with another artist.  With bizarre sounds, great sampling, and a touch of hip hop beats, Flume found a unique voice in a flooded market.  Also, Flume will always be the inspiration for my comic, which was the real birth of all of this.

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Top 3: Nostalgic

#3 - Turtles in Time

© Konami

When I took a glance at my old posts, I was convinced that it would easily be my #1 pick.  Turtles in Time is is fun.  Really, really, fun.  I have extremely fond memories playing this game with friends in the golden age of SNES and it will always hold a special place in my heart.  I honestly think that the only reason this game ISN'T number one, is because I never technically owned it.  I played it a lot when I rented it or when I was at the houses of friends/family that had it.  

© Cartoon Network

#2 - Dexter's Laboratory

It's very tempting for me to say "they don't make cartoons like THIS anymore", but I realize that every generation has their own golden memories.  What I can say is that Dexter's Laboratory was, and is, great.  The weird and offbeat humor was so drastically different than anything else on TV, and the show's creativity was only surpassed by the quality of the show.  It's no wonder that so many huge names in animation have come from this show.

#1  Zelda: Ocarina of Time

© Nintendo

I really didn't want to put two games on the top 3 list, but it would have been dishonest.  When I was a kid, I did pretty much three things: play at the park, watch cartoons, and play video games.  Ocarina of Time took the top spot for me because I was so fanatically excited for this game.  Looking back now, the game holds up, but the mechanics and RPG elements have been honed over the years.  Remembering back, I remember the sense of wonder and exploration as I went through the different zones and dungeons.  I spent many hours on this game, and enjoyed them thoroughly.

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And that's it!  I hope my picks either get you find new cool things or drum up some happy memories.  Really, that's what I aim to do with my blog for the most part.  I have tons of really great post ideas floating around, and haven't hit some of my favourite interests by far, so keep checking back for more and better posts.  I haven't missed a post yet, but it's bound to happen eventually.  Let's hope I can keep another year-long streak.