The Round Stable

(?) · by **BartonFink** (?) » Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:25 am

I agree, puppetry has always interested me and Jim Henson was basically the king. Part of the (many) reasons I like the movie Being John Malkovich is that it actually treats puppetry as a serious artform and uses it in the plot.
It also makes me wish I liked Team America: World Police more than I actually did.

On topic: A big part of the appeal of FiM to me is how well the character interactions play out; you can't take a Rarity/Fluttershy scene and replace it with Pinkie/Twilight scene and have it make any sense, even if the joke is ultimately the same (something you can't say for, say, a large amount of Family Guy). I've long maintained that the first 3 seasons of Home Movies did this kind of humor absolutely brilliantly (and Dr. Katz, in the scenes that weren't comic routines, did it pretty well too). So go watch them!

(?) · by **Orange Cream** (?) » Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:46 pm

BartonFink wrote:I agree, puppetry has always interested me and Jim Henson was basically the king. Part of the (many) reasons I like the movie Being John Malkovich is that it actually treats puppetry as a serious artform and uses it in the plot.
It also makes me wish I liked Team America: World Police more than I actually did.

The thing I love about puppetry is that you can use it for anything!

(?) · by **Topshot** (?) » Fri Jun 17, 2011 12:50 am

If you like watching colorful ponies, maybe you'll like tripping balls off of bizarre mixed media/trippy psychedelic animation/singing cats at 4am in the morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8TdHn1vlCY

"Off the Air" is a weird series of shorts Adult Swim plays at 4am for some reason. This episode was actually pretty entrancing in some parts. :starity:

(?) · by **Nissl** (?) » Thu Aug 18, 2011 6:31 am

Bunny Drop (Usagi Drop) is a currently running series of 15-minute anime episodes I heard about via the podcast Bakacast, which has also started reviewing ponies. The show has gotten pretty much perfect scores so far, and its description as "painfully good" in a couple of episodes intrigued me enough to check it out. It didn't completely click for me until partway through the second episode but I'm really liking it. The series plot is simple but very effective.

Daikichi is a 30 year old single salaryman.

Rin is Daikichi's dead grandfather's 6 year old illegitimate child, who he adopts at the start of the series.

The series essentially follows the journey of Daikichi and Rin. It has realistic, likable characters, strong progression, a gentle, wise humor, fairly biting social commentary (albeit some of it not that relevant to US culture), some surprisingly heavy moments, and of course lots and lots of adorable d'aww.

Edit: Here's Episode 1 on Crunchy Roll, which has a licensing deal to broadcast many anime series.

(?) · by **Aramek** (?) » Thu Aug 18, 2011 4:59 pm

So she's his Aunt, if I'm reading that correctly?

(?) · by **Nissl** (?) » Thu Aug 18, 2011 6:10 pm

Yeah, she's his half-aunt. He makes a joke about it in the first episode.

(?) · by **Opposing Farce** (?) » Fri Aug 19, 2011 5:14 pm

I know Batman: The Brave and the Bold was already mentioned earlier, but I just saw the episode where Batman teams up with Scooby-Doo and Weird Al and felt compelled to recommend it again.

(?) · by **Davyinatoga** (?) » Sun Aug 21, 2011 6:42 am

5 months and not a single mention of Spongebob. I'm not sure whether to take that as a sign that nobody particularly enjoys it, or that it's a given that everybody watches it already.

Well, for those who may not already know, the first three seasons of Spongebob feature some of the best animated episodes from the early 2000's. Plenty of sight gags and visual humor, witty quips, silliness, great pacing, phenomenal illustrative stills, fantastic VO, and animations and faces that harken back to the youthful "good ol' cartoons" like Rocko's Modern Life and Ren & Stimpy which in turn are likened to the classic "good ol' days" of Looney Tunes and Disney. Almost any episode from those three seasons is a great starter episode. Here's a few suggestions:
Survival of the Idiots - All around great episode
Band Geeks - very fast-paced-but-not-overly-crammed episode with a ton of good jokes, and an awesome song!
Spongebob B.C. - Live action double-episode with a twist

Seasons five and six have been hit or miss (avoid season 4 unless you're a fan; the loss of Stephen Hillenberg really hurt the show for a while). The movie is also pretty amusing, if you don't mind the touch of drama and morals.

(?) · by **Scuderia Ferrarity** (?) » Tue Aug 23, 2011 5:11 am

Um. The Secret of Kells
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0485601/

Is on netflix instant watch and it's one of the neatest animated anythings I've ever seen.

(?) · by **BartonFink** (?) » Tue Aug 23, 2011 9:20 pm

Old Spongebob is indeed pretty cool (nice movie too) and deserved its popularity, though I kinda stopped following it. I was pretty surprised to see its actually still going and there's new episodes coming out.

Nick really milked the shit out of that one.

(?) · by **Mr. Big** (?) » Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:44 am

BartonFink wrote:Old Spongebob is indeed pretty cool (nice movie too) and deserved its popularity, though I kinda stopped following it. I was pretty surprised to see its actually still going and there's new episodes coming out.

Nick really milked the shit out of that one.

It makes me wonder how long it can go on. Remember when "Rugrats" was Nick's big thing? Now you barely hear about it.

(?) · by **Davyinatoga** (?) » Wed Aug 24, 2011 4:16 am

I admit that I haven't been keeping up with the newer season either. I'm still waiting for the prices on the DVD packs to come down (I still have no idea why a full S1-3 is only $5 more than HALF of S4-6, when they could have put everything on three discs instead of four like the first three sets).

And yeah, they really whored Sponge out, but it's not too surprising considering how popular he became. I think the thing that really bugs me most about Nick's treatment of the property post-movie was how every other episode in S4 had to be a double-length special, with toy tie-ins at Burger King. That became so asinine very quickly. I swear there must have been at least a year and a half between the initial airings of the first and last episodes of that season.

EDIT:
Oh, you know what? I almost forgot about Don Hertzfeldt!! Rejected is probably his most famous animation, but some of his other ones are really good (Ah, L'amour and Billy's Balloon come to mind). They're basically hand-drawn stick figures done on white paper, but there's some real soul in them (considering that EVERYTHING has to be redrawn for each frame, and some of them are are in color!). The jokes are amusing as well, and Rejected has some amazing special effects for being hand-drawn on paper.

(?) · by **Nissl** (?) » Thu Aug 25, 2011 4:25 am

Scudaria Ferrarity wrote:Um. The Secret of Kells
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0485601/

Is on netflix instant watch and it's one of the neatest animated anythings I've ever seen.

Wow, how did I miss this? I think my subconscious decided it was some kind of straight-to-DVD version of the Secret of Nimh or something and auto-ignored previous comments about it. Really, really gorgeous and fairly unique art style. My graphic designer roommate is entranced and sitting in our living room watching it again.

(?) · by **Scuderia Ferrarity** (?) » Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:29 am

I remember seeing an ad for it when "How to Train Your Dragon"* was in theaters.
And then it saw a limited release in the US.

The opening credits kind of suggest that they had a heck of time finding funding. Irish-French-Belgian production.
And THAT's a movie you don't watch on an iPhone screen - 1080p bluray or better yet, in the theaters.

That cat! It's mouth and nose is a circle with an X.
:awesomedash:

<- me everytime that cat was on screen

* Oh yeah - "How to Train Your Dragon" probably the best movie dreamworks ever released. Though it was a big hit and I assume most of you have seen it. Though if you haven't .... :lol:

one more:
Persepolis
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_(film)
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0808417/

(?) · by **diribigal** (?) » Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:25 pm

Davyinatoga wrote:Oh, you know what? I almost forgot about Don Hertzfeldt!! Rejected is probably his most famous animation, but some of his other ones are really good (Ah, L'amour and Billy's Balloon come to mind). They're basically hand-drawn stick figures done on white paper, but there's some real soul in them (considering that EVERYTHING has to be redrawn for each frame, and some of them are are in color!). The jokes are amusing as well, and Rejected has some amazing special effects for being hand-drawn on paper.

I'm not sure I'd really associate anything Don Hertzfeldt has done with ponies, but his new stuff is sort of in a different direction. I still like it, but I get the impression he's been like "thank god I don't have to couch my insanity behind jokes anymore now that people know who I am".

(?) · by **diribigal** (?) » Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:26 pm

Davyinatoga wrote:Oh, you know what? I almost forgot about Don Hertzfeldt!! Rejected is probably his most famous animation, but some of his other ones are really good (Ah, L'amour and Billy's Balloon come to mind). They're basically hand-drawn stick figures done on white paper, but there's some real soul in them (considering that EVERYTHING has to be redrawn for each frame, and some of them are are in color!). The jokes are amusing as well, and Rejected has some amazing special effects for being hand-drawn on paper.

I'm not sure I'd really associate anything Don Hertzfeldt has done with ponies, but his new stuff is sort of in a different direction. I still like it, but I get the impression he's thought "thank god I don't have to couch my insanity behind jokes anymore now that people know who I am".

(?) · by **Mr. Big** (?) » Thu Aug 25, 2011 5:32 pm

I love Hertzfeldt's shorts. They're always great if you're in the mood for black comedy.

Speaking of which, remember that season 1 DVD of "Rocko's Modern Life" that came out? Well, it looks like we'll be getting season 2. Joe Murray, the creator, wrote on his Facebook wall that he made a deal with Shout! Factory to design the cover for the 2nd DVD set (he hated the design for the first season DVD). And they're in the talks with bonus materials right now, too.

(?) · by **Dong Strongly** (?) » Fri Aug 26, 2011 4:20 am

I was first exposed to Don Hertzfeldt when I rented The Animation Show and I think it sparked my obsession with stereoscopy. Here are the shorts he made for the show. I like to imagine that the greatest animators all do this when they're bored.

(?) · by **brightman** (?) » Fri Aug 26, 2011 5:04 am

Dong Strongly wrote:I was first exposed to Don Hertzfeldt when I rented The Animation Show and I think it sparked my obsession with stereoscopy. Here are the shorts he made for the show. I like to imagine that the greatest animators all do this when they're bored.

I love the Intermission bit.

Also I just watched this thing he made more recently: Everything Will Be Ok

I had been looking for his video of "The Meaning of Life" that I had seen a while ago, but the only place I managed to find it currently is on a site that charges you a buck to watch it.

(?) · by **BartonFink** (?) » Fri Aug 26, 2011 5:07 am

Seriously, watch that link; Hertzfeldt's Animation Show opening is absolutely hilarious and is never mentioned, even if it's just two of those puffy things talking and his usual brand of humor. I only saw it when I got the DVD of his stuff a few years back.

I wonder if this has veered from a "pony-related recommendations" thread to a general animation thread. I'd be down for either...

edit: well beaten to the punch a bit on that one

(?) · by **Davyinatoga** (?) » Fri Aug 26, 2011 5:14 am

diribigal wrote:I'm not sure I'd really associate anything Don Hertzfeldt has done with ponies

It's definitely not in the same vein of humor or style as MLP:FiM, but the way that both FiM and Hertzfeldt expanded their respective animation methods and give such love and care into everything is very comparable. Of course, the deviation between FiM and Hertzfeldt is wide enough while still being top-notch that they compliment one another well, especially for the (primarily) adult audience of ponygoons.

Mr. Big wrote:Speaking of which, remember that season 1 DVD of "Rocko's Modern Life" that came out? Well, it looks like we'll be getting season 2. Joe Murray, the creator, wrote on his Facebook wall that he made a deal with Shout! Factory to design the cover for the 2nd DVD set (he hated the design for the first season DVD). And they're in the talks with bonus materials right now, too.

This exists and I didn't know?!? :gonkity:

I need to find this now!

(?) · by **BartonFink** (?) » Fri Aug 26, 2011 5:19 am

I'm actually surprised the first one didn't have any special features, given that Shout! Factory has a track record of being kickass when it comes to that kind of stuff.

(?) · by **Mr. Big** (?) » Fri Aug 26, 2011 5:27 am

BartonFink wrote:I'm actually surprised the first one didn't have any special features, given that Shout! Factory has a track record of being kickass when it comes to that kind of stuff.

From my understanding Nick wouldn't allow Shout! to do it; basically they only had whatever Nick gave them to work with.

Long story short, Joe Murray isn't pleased with that and is fighting for a better DVD release. I guess it's paying off.

(?) · by **diribigal** (?) » Sat Aug 27, 2011 12:40 am

brightman wrote:I love the Intermission bit.

Also I just watched this thing he made more recently: Everything Will Be Ok

I had been looking for his video of "The Meaning of Life" that I had seen a while ago, but the only place I managed to find it currently is on a site that charges you a buck to watch it.

"Everything will be OK" is actually the first part of a trilogy: "I am so proud of you" is the second part, and the third part, "It's such a beautiful day", will be done soon.

Wisdom Teeth is a little short he did either right before or right after "I am so proud of you". Everyone who likes his stuff should support him by buying DVDs/memorabilia (like strips of frames from the Everything will be OK series). For example, on the "bitter films: volume one" DVD you can find "The Meaning of Life", "Rejected", the cartoons from Animation Show (which I was lucky enough to go to the first two years), "Lily and Jim", and more.

In short, Don Hertzfeldt is awesome. :awesomedash:

(?) · by **Isaak** (?) » Wed Aug 31, 2011 10:08 pm

Scuderia Ferrarity wrote:Um. The Secret of Kells
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0485601/

Is on netflix instant watch and it's one of the neatest animated anythings I've ever seen.

YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES All of my YESes.

I'm going to recommend one of my favourite films of all time:

Mind Game is difficult to summarize because it's about everything: the meaning of life, choice, second chances, humanity...
All gorgeously animated. It's one of those films you have to see to understand.

It's trippy, deep, existential stuff which somehow doesn't lose its fun or spirit along the way but simply piles it on scene for scene.

(?) · by **diribigal** (?) » Wed Aug 31, 2011 11:27 pm

Isaak wrote:I'm going to recommend one of my favourite films of all time: Mind Game

Mind game is awesome. :yay:

(?) · by **Prade** (?) » Fri Sep 02, 2011 11:04 pm

No one has recommended the iron Giant yet?!?! :rariwhat:

I believe Lauren Faust was also involved in the animation for that film so that should say something about the quality! Also, we even have fans of the show in the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PttBQO8T4e4

(?) · by **Henry Plainview** (?) » Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:56 am

diribigal wrote:"Everything will be OK" is actually the first part of a trilogy: "I am so proud of you" is the second part, and the third part, "It's such a beautiful day", will be done soon.

Rejected's popularity annoys me (I guess maybe it's just overplayed for me), but JESUS CHRIST that was intense. I guess I should thank you guys since I never would have watched it otherwise, but I think I need to go lie down now...in the road.

(?) · by **Mr. Big** (?) » Thu Sep 08, 2011 5:00 am

Somebody mentioned Dudley Do Right a while back. Just wondering if anyone saw this episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9tNrWYVfzU

Has an interesting history. It only aired once on NBC in 1961. Apparently it pissed off the National Parks Service, resulting in the episode being removed from reruns. It was never seen in public again until somebody dusted it off and included it in the Bullwinkle DVD.

(?) · by **Doctor Wheeze** (?) » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:17 pm

arisu wrote:Huh. I could have sworn this was already posted in this thread, but did a check and apparently it hasn't been.

This is what I've been watching in the ponyless summer to get my animation fill in. I haven't really seen the whole series since it ended years ago, but I'm enjoying it now every bit as much as I did when I watched it for the first time.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

A friend of mine recently got me to finally watch this show, and god damn is it good. I had heard that it was very good, but I had just never got around to watching it. I've been plowing through it for the past few weeks (I'm on season 3 now), and I'm pretty blown away by the whole thing. It's got this amazing, epic ongoing plot, some of best characters I've seen on any show, and this really cool universe. The heroes are complex, the villains are sympathetic (Zuko and Iro are probably my favorite characters), and even the animal companions are awesome. All the mythos is really well thought out - you can really tell that the whole thing is a labor of love. In that way it kind of reminds me of FiM, though they're definitely very different kinds of shows.

If you're a fan of good animation and great characters (as I expect everybody on this board is), you owe it to yourself to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's on Netflix Instant, so go watch it now!

(?) · by **Momar** (?) » Tue Sep 13, 2011 1:12 am

Mr. Big wrote:Somebody mentioned Dudley Do Right a while back. Just wondering if anyone saw this episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9tNrWYVfzU

Has an interesting history. It only aired once on NBC in 1961. Apparently it pissed off the National Parks Service, resulting in the episode being removed from reruns. It was never seen in public again until somebody dusted it off and included it in the Bullwinkle DVD.

Damn I forgot how witty this show was.

(?) · by **Nissl** (?) » Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:36 am

Does Avatar start to mix up the structure later on? The setting has some interesting flourishes, I really like what they did with the villains, and there's some good comedy coming mostly from Sokka and Iroh, but I got tired of the location-of-the-week setup around episode 10. Almost the exact same feeling hit me with Samurai Champloo as well, for what it's worth.

(?) · by **MochaBean** (?) » Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:46 am

Nissl wrote:Does Avatar start to mix up the structure later on? The setting has some interesting flourishes, I really like what they did with the villains, and there's some good comedy coming mostly from Sokka and Iroh, but I got tired of the location-of-the-week setup around episode 10. Almost the exact same feeling hit me with Samurai Champloo as well, for what it's worth.

Oh yeah, big time. The entire second season is basically Avatar's "Empire Strikes Back" season, and takes place mainly in one city. Season two onward was when shit really started going down and the show was at it's best.

(?) · by **Killing Vector** (?) » Tue Sep 13, 2011 6:59 pm

Nissl wrote:Does Avatar start to mix up the structure later on? The setting has some interesting flourishes, I really like what they did with the villains, and there's some good comedy coming mostly from Sokka and Iroh, but I got tired of the location-of-the-week setup around episode 10. Almost the exact same feeling hit me with Samurai Champloo as well, for what it's worth.

Well, except for the last third of season 2 and last half of season 3 the characters are always traveling, so there's still that. But yes, especially after season 1 the show starts shaking up its formula, introducing new characters and revisiting old ones you probably thought were one-shot.

If you haven't already, I really recommend you watch episodes 12 and 13 (The Storm and The Blue Spirit) since they're what got me hooked on the show and see its potential for greatness (potential it lived up to imo). Episode 11 (The Great Divide) is pretty meh but also entirely skippable.

(?) · by **MochaBean** (?) » Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:08 pm

Yeah, "The Great Divide" is almost universally considered the worst episode of the series, so if you watch it, don't let it throw you off.

(?) · by **Doctor Wheeze** (?) » Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:11 pm

That's the one with the canyon and the two tribes, right? That's basically the only episode I haven't liked so far.

(?) · by **kefkafloyd** (?) » Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:08 pm

The Looney Tunes show might be hit or miss, but when it hits, my god, it hits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqDZp5ZCKoI

(?) · by **Opposing Farce** (?) » Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:19 pm

I'm actually pretty fond of The Looney Tunes Show.

The main problem with it (at least from the episodes I've seen) is that it really has no reason to be The Looney Tunes Show, since it revolves around a completely different kind of humor from the classic slapstick that the property is famous for. It's fairly well-written and a lot of the jokes are honestly funny, but in a lot of ways it feels like they just took a standard Odd Couple-style sitcom premise and then stuck Bugs and Daffy in to make it more marketable.

(?) · by **MochaBean** (?) » Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:20 pm

That was funny as hell. I love how they even slowed down the framerate for the "anime" scenes. :lol:

I didn't like the show at first, but it's been getting better as the season progresses. The one where Bugs gets a job at Porky's company and Daffy gets a facelift had me laughing pretty hard.

(?) · by **Mr. Big** (?) » Fri Sep 30, 2011 4:35 am

I think just about everyone here is familiar with "Garfield and Friends".

The show was a hit on CBS Saturday Mornings so in 1991 they decided to duplicate the success with another comic strip, which turned out to be Mike Peters' "Mother Goose and Grimm". It was produced by the same studio that did Garfield, Film Roman, and even got Mark Evanier as a head writer (the same time season 4 of "Garfield" was being made).

And it's great, actually. They got the loose, lively drawing style of Peters to work in animation. I mean, it's not perfect; the Taiwanese animation can get stilted at times, but it still has a nice rubbery feel.

Alas, it didn't last long. Only 13 episodes were made. A while back Mike Peters tried to release the show on DVD but it ran into copyright troubles. Peters owns the rights to the strip itself but the show is owned by MGM/UA.

Here's the opening. A bunch of episodes can be found on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV2jpD0s3BU

And incidentally, I own a bunch of animation cels from the show...

The Round Stable

If you like some freakin' Ponies, you'll love...

Re: If you like some freakin' Ponies, you'll love...

Who is online