R.I.P. Monkey Punch (04/16/2019)

R.I.P. Monkey Punch

Punch's legacy and influence on animation is perhaps a lot bigger than the manga he famously worked on if people considered how much talent was being harvested in the 70s and 80s during the development of the Lupin III franchise.

The series revealed some of the best names in the history of animation. It helped set the stage for anime in the 80s in terms of animation quality, character development, and overall filmmaking. The manga might've done better as an animation series where the characters each had expressions that were more easily read than comic panels cutting between each action.

And, this attention to detail always seemed to remain consistent and loyal throughout it's history, even when the franchise would adopt to new styles between directors and animation houses. I might go as far as to say that with the release of Miyazaki's Castle of Cagliostro, more and more animation filmmakers recognized the more westernized approach of executing a story in character animation since there were more and more anime productions that began introducing an autuerism into it's pipeline. i.e. Oshii, Otomo, Takahata all notorious animators for leading this wave during the Golden Age.

Miyazaki's Post-Retirement Work

The greatest animator of all time may have announced his retirement from feature films but his career as an all around artist still continues. Sources tell us that he is currently working on two projects right now. One is a samurai manga titled "teppo samurai" (translated in english, "Matchlock Samurai") and the other is a 10 minute short animation titled "Boro the Caterpillar" which will be the first of his career that'll be computer generated.

Ghibli fans, like myself, took Miyazaki's 2013 retirement very lightly, since the famed director is known for his unusual number of so-called "retirements". So far Miyazaki has retired a total of 5 times, even though I'm sure it will be 6 in two to three years. What I did absolutely buy from the announcement was the part where he mentioned that the time for hand-drawn animated films is over. Based on box office statistics in Japan, theirs absolutely no way an animation studio like Studio Ghibli can survive financially since CG animation has begun to slowly rise in popularity.

Here is an image for his upcoming manga, "Teppo Samurai"

Image Source: https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/fi3.jpg?w=580&h=339

Suicide Squad Comic-Con Trailer

Been listening to the awesome remix of "I Started a Joke" from the Suicide Squad Trailer. Conventions have an awesome tradition of talented fans coming together and remixing their favorite songs and completely taking the original to a whole new level.

Harley Quinn finally gets her first-ever theatrically released film. Watching Robbie in the Harley Quinn costume makes me feel even more contempt for "The Dark Knight Rises". You can only go so far with brawny male villains with testosterone-laden voices. Introducing a female villain that's a little more psychotic than Catwoman is just what Batman fans are craving for.

A Dame to Kill For is a Film to Kill for

The Sin City Sequel has over 2,000 VFX shots. That means we'll be watching a visual effect about every 4 seconds. Thanks to Prime Focus World, the sequel looks amazing.

More VFX Shots

The Sin City 'sequel' makes a profound leap in technologywith more hyper-stylized imagery to accommodate it's poetic dialogue. With top-of-the-line compositing, the Sin City 'sequel' is sure to bring a unique twist to the canon of film noir.

Sin City Trailer #2

Showtime renews Penny Dreadful for Season 2.

Coming 2015.

How Richard Linklater will go from accomplished film director to cinematic God in just a few small, simple steps this summer

Even if "Boyhood" recieved less than a 20% on Rotten Tomatoes critics would have still been drooling over Linklater's new film. There will come a day where there won't be a first but Linklater's "Boyhood" is certainly the first film to do what it was set out to accomplish: a realistic  drama depicting a young boy's life between the ages of 6 and 18...... Literally.

Sofia Coppola to Direct "The Little Mermaid"

Great news came in a few weeks ago. The most talked about female director in the world  is said to direct the live action film adaption of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid."

Why should we be excited? Coppola is the best choice. She is a very unique auteur with films about women being treated unfairly and, sometimes unlawfully. This will be Coppola's sixth feature-length.film and will rest assuredly be her most ambitious one to date.

Funny or Die's parody trailer has smacks of "Somewhere" (2010) and "The Bling Ring" (2013)