The Old School Otaku Lounge

I feel this is a thread worth starting!

Today I watched the first episode of Disney's Tron: Uprising. This spectacularly animated series features the voice talents of Elijah Wood, Bruce Boxleitner himself as Tron, and Lance Hendriksen. Music isn't by Daft Punk, but it is so faithful to the soundtrack of Tron Legacy that I had to check the credits to see that it wasn't. Apparently this was on Disney XD last year, but a friend of mine sent me the episodes. This first episode is amazing!

I really hope that this will continue past one season, but something tells me that the Kingdom of Darkness will just let this show croak after only one season, like they seem to enjoy doing with everything else that's good and decent.

I LOVED Tron: Uprising! I was really sad when it got cancelled. The soundtrack, cast, and animation were all amazing...but apparently it wasn't getting the ratings Disney was hoping for. Bummer.

Since I'm a giant kid, I watch a lot of animated stuff, for kids and adults. (Gee, guess one of the reasons anime appealed to me so much! lol ) But some of my most recent favorites include Adventure Time, Gravity Falls (a GREAT new Disney series that's kind of like a kid-friendly X-files meets Twin Peaks, with an awesome cast and a high animation budget), Archer (if you were a fan of Sealab 2021 and/or Frisky Dingo, definitely watch this--it was created by part of that animation team, so the humor and style is really similar), and Venture Bros (the new season was so short! I can't believe it's already over ). I also love Futurama (sad that this is apparently it's last season, though I suppose I should be glad it's going off the air before getting really stale like The Simpsons) and Bob's Burgers (some episodes are hit or miss, but when it's a hit they're GREAT--they also did a Totoro parody a while back, which I thought was awesome).

I like a lot of stuff on Adult Swim in general, though lately they have some weirder live-action stuff on there that I'm just not a fan of.

Current:

Beware The Batman
Dragon Riders of Berk
Legend of Korra (announced 2nd season will be on soon)
Phineas and Ferb

I was also watching Green Lantern, Ben 10 and Young Justice until they got cancelled or ended.

Not much else at the moment. I did get all the episodes for Adventure Time but I've never sat and watched it myself. Not very interested in it.

I really liked Korra and I'm excited for the new season!
Is Beware the Batman good? I've been meaning to check it out but I keep forgetting.

I find many kids' cartoons these days too tame. And also, the proliferation of "kid" protagonists in kids' cartoons since the 1990s is not something that I've warmed to. Of course, American cartoons have always been tame, but TV execs didn't have as much control over the content of syndicated cartoons back when. Today, every episode of every cartoon is gone over with a fine toothed comb so that not a single objectionable piece of content slips through. Which is no fun for me.

As for the animated sitcoms, well... there's some okay stuff here and there. To be honest, the last "new" animated sitcom I truly enjoyed was Futurama--and I think I liked the first run better than the return run. I also liked Dilbert and wished it lasted longer. Perhaps the humor was too specific.

Archer is okay but I sort of wished it was a "real" action series instead of a comedy. In fact, Archer's success kind of proves that most people still won't accept a dramatic adult-targeted cartoon series. If it were a straight action series I bet it wouldn't be half as successful. Why? I do not know. But every attempt at making dramatic adult-targeted cartoons in the U.S. has pretty much fallen flat on their faces ratings wise.

I do like a lot of non-Japanese animated films though. I enjoyed A Cat in Paris, which I saw recently. I also saw Wreck-it Ralph last week--very funny stuff, probably deserved to win the Oscar over Brave. I think years from now, Wreck-it Ralph will be more fondly remembered by most people than Brave anyway.

Bob's Burgers is consistently funny. Confident, sometimes brutal, never takes the easy way out, wonderful voice work. I love the freewheeling, improv-style voice direction.

davemerrill wrote:Bob's Burgers is consistently funny. Confident, sometimes brutal, never takes the easy way out, wonderful voice work. I love the freewheeling, improv-style voice direction.

The voice cast is probably one of my favorite things about it. Everyone is just PERFECTLY cast. <3

I have GI Joe and Inspector Gadget on DVD and man, I don't know if I'll ever get to finishing them.

I still think the "There's No Place Like Springfield" two-parter is the absolute high point of the old G.I. Joe animated series and I think people who laugh at G.I. Joe today should at least see these episodes again one more time. For me, it still holds up as the oddest and most intense storyline in the series. Some scenes are still genuinely creepy and disturbing. When I was a kid, I didn't see how Shipwreck would ever get out of his predicament at the cliffhanger of part 1--it was just that damned bleak at times. The ending to this storyline is also quite somber and ambivalent. Actually, it can be argued that Shipwreck was never the same after these episodes. This storyline is also a spin/homage of the old British TV show The Prisoner, which also gets bonus points from me.

Here's a good retrospective look at this pair of episodes:

http://www.nycgraphicnovelists.com/2010 ... -mind.html

I don't really watch a lot of television animation, currently I keep up with Legend of Korra, but that's all. I watched Spongebob Squarepants seasons 1-3 (newer seasons are awful!).

Sometimes I'll watch older 80's cartoons, like Heathcliff's Catillac Cats shorts. Or the occasional Lady Lovely Locks or The Wuzzles.

Wreck-It-Ralph was the last best animated film imo. I did like Tangled a lot before that.

I'd like to watch more French animations. They're just hard to get.