We were told that he was done slaying the elves and the hobbit scum, but we're all lucky to have him back in action.
We've even got some good news, the man from Connecticut has a new album dropping February. Check it out on BANDCAMP.
Now, on with the cartoons!
1. From a very early age, I gravitated towards anime. I never knew Speed Racer was anything other than just another cartoon.
What is the first one you watched that really shaped your tastes for years to come?
The first cartoon I remember being crazy about was Garfield and Friends. I started reading the comic strip when I was very young, so I was naturally a fan of the TV show too.
It definitely played a huge role in shaping my sense of humor.
2. The Simpsons came about when I was turning 12. It was a great moment of transition for Americans to finally have animated shows geared towards adults as well as children. Tell me about your first cartoon that wasn't strictly for kids.
I think the first ones I saw were the Star Wars Robot Chicken specials. The format of the show was perfect to tackle Star Wars in a fresh and hilarious way.
The Palpatine vs Luke “Yo Momma Fight”, Lando and Darth Vader’s deal that “gets worse all the time”, Yarael Poof being made to get pizza for the Jedi council, so many memorable bits.
I want to watch them again now to help scrub the new trilogy from my mind.
3. It would be unfair to ask you to name a favorite. So what do you love about your three favorite shows?
The Batman cartoon from the 90s is as good as it gets when it comes to animated superhero shows. It may have been marketed for kids, but the writing, voice acting, and storytelling were better than many adult-oriented shows.
I still love Spongebob. There’s a reason why it’s still going strong after 20 years and is still hilarious and relevant.
My favorite cartoon of all time, and easily in my top 3 favorite TV shows of all time, is Futurama. I was very late to the party on this one because generally I don’t find “adult” cartoons (comedies) appealing or funny, and the Simpsons never interested me.
A friend recommended I try Futurama though, and I was immediately hooked. I’ve never seen anything like it. The characters, writing, the whole universe it takes place in, I can’t describe the show as anything except relentlessly clever and imaginative.
There were 128 episodes (if you count each of the movies as 1 “episode” rather than 4, which I do), and of all those, I can only think of 4 I didn’t find hilarious with a good story.
I don’t know of many (comedies) with that kind of win/loss record.
4. It was hard for me to really get into REAL anime, but I'd have to say that my entrance was Princess Mononoke. Tell me about your favorite anime and how did you get into it?
I missed the boat on anime, per se, is because when I “outgrew” Saturday morning cartoons, that “void” was filled by doubling down on books and movies, predominantly fantasy genre.
My experience with anime is limited, and “real” anime even less so. I saw a few Studio Ghibli films as a kid. I was also briefly into Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh, but I don’t think those count as anime, and my interest in them came and went after a couple years in elementary/middle school.
I know there are a few anime films I’ve been meaning to see, including Princess Mononoke, but I haven’t gotten around to them yet. I saw Castlevania semi-recently though and that was quite good.
5. The holy trinity of adult shows is The Simpsons, Futurama, and Family Guy. Tell me why your favorite is the best.
A bit of repetition here, but on top of being hilarious, Futurama is very imaginative and clever. That’s what I value when it comes to TV and films, and the other two shows you mentioned don’t have much of either quality.
Their writing staff was ridiculously overeducated and that played a lot into how smart the show was. The writing team held three PhDs, seven masters degrees, and cumulated more than 50 years at Harvard. One of the writers, who held a PhD in applied mathematics, created a real-life mathematical theorem for the show (called “the Futurama theorem”).
I’m honestly glad Futurama was canceled before it started to get “bad”; I will always prefer quality over quantity of any media and, as I said before, Futurama had an incredible track record. I keep seeing “articles” about the cast wanting to do a reunion/reboot of some kind, and I have very mixed feelings about it. Maybe a feature-length one-off special, but again I’d be hesitant to tamper with the legacy of such an amazing show.
It’s still surprising that it was canceled while Family Guy and The Simpsons are still on the air, but as the song goes, only the good die young.
6. Animated shows or features?
Features for sure.
While I haven’t seen too much of Disney and Pixar’s output over the past 10-15 years, I am still very interested in animated features from smaller studios.
I get that I’m not in their target demographic anymore, and it could also be the nostalgia-colored glasses, but Disney/Pixar films lately have just felt very homogenized. In roughly the same span of time, I’ve come across so many delightful features from smaller studios with widely-ranging art and storytelling styles.
I have to give a shout out to my 3 favorites (which all came out in the past 5 years): The Little Prince (Netflix), Klaus (also Netflix, (a must-see as we’re close to Christmas)), and Kubo and the Two Strings. I also watched Song of the Sea a few days ago and it was adorable and beautifully animated.
7. Let's hear about your favorite shows/movies from when you were a kid.
On the flip side of my previous statement, I was definitely a Disney kid. I had seen nearly all of those movies up until the past 10-15 years or so. My favorite Disney film is actually The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and my favorite Pixar film is Wall-E. I can’t remember many non-Disney animated films I watched aside from The Land Before Time and The Secret of NIMH.
Aside from what I mentioned earlier, I remember that I watched Recess, Doug, Duck Tales, Looney Tunes, and there was even a Kirby TV show for a little bit (based on one of my favorite video game series’). Many of the classic Disney films also had spin-off 90s TV shows and I watched most of those )Lion King, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Buzz Lightyear, and Hercules all had one. And of course, who could forget Goof Troop?)
Thank you for giving me an excuse to walk down memory lane and remember a large chunk of my childhood that I forgot; this was a lot of fun.
PS: I’m not sure if you remember, but nearly every major Disney film also had at least one direct-to-video sequel. The only one worth anyone’s time was Return of Jafar. I wish that one got a theatrical release, as it was great and would have benefitted from a bigger budget.
No comments:
Post a Comment