The Round Stable

(?) · by **BHHammy** (?) » Thu Oct 27, 2011 7:19 am

An old roommate of mine crowbar'd me into sitting down and watching Danny Phantom a few times. It's actually not a bad series (so long as you don't mind Butch Hartman). The premise is pretty neat, the characters are great, and Danny actually makes for a pretty neat hero. On top of that, the story actually follows a pretty good amount of continuity, and Danny's abilities evolve over time, as well as his enemies.

The theme song still rubs me the wrong way, though. I always fast-foward past it.

(?) · by **Mr. Big** (?) » Fri Nov 04, 2011 3:35 am

Anyone remember "Beavis and Butt-Head"? They're producing new episodes again after 14 years.

The new eps are really good. It's as if the show never left. They even got the crude, scribbly animation style just like how it was during the cel-painted days.

(?) · by **Omnipony** (?) » Fri Nov 04, 2011 3:53 am

I'd been somewhat following the news around its return, but I was afraid it would turn out to be complete trash so I've avoided actually watching it. I guess I'll check it out then.

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Fri Nov 04, 2011 5:05 am

Does it have the music video riffing? That was honestly the best part.

The lack of it (due to copyright issues, like with MST3K) is the biggest reason I find DVDs of B&BH to be an imperfect solution at best.

(?) · by **MochaBean** (?) » Fri Nov 04, 2011 5:24 am

The riffing is a mixture of music videos, and MTV original shows like Jersey Shore and 16 And Pregnant.

There's fewer videos to be had nowadays, plus with the shows, MTV never has to worry about copyright. The shows make for some pretty funny fodder though, you can tell Judge had fun laying into them.

(?) · by **BartonFink** (?) » Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:16 am

Based on two episodes of Beavis & Butthead, it's pretty entirely consistent with the earlier show. Same sense of humor, basically no better or no worse. Butthead spending an entire segment making fun of Beavis for crying is classic B&B stuff.

It's a mix of reality MTV garbage and music videos inbetween, and it's all pretty good stuff.

(?) · by **Mr. Big** (?) » Fri Nov 04, 2011 5:06 pm

It just occurred to me that Mike Judge voices most of the characters in the show: Beavis, Butt-Head, Mr. VanDriessen, Buzzcut, the Principal, Tom Anderson, not to mention a bunch of one-shots..

You know, the dude has a pretty wide range. Oddly enough he only voiced two of the main characters in "King of the Hill", Hank (using his Mr. Anderson voice) and Boomhauer. "Goode Family" (anyone remember that?) only had Judge voicing Gerald Goode, using his VanDriessen voice.

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Fri Nov 04, 2011 5:46 pm

Did you see him on Space Ghost? Guy just started doing voices and couldn't stop. He's a friggin' riot. Plus he wrote/performed the music in B&BH and did the animation himself, at least at first.

"Here's Hank Hill: Boy ah tell you what!"
"Here's Tom Anderson: Boy ah tell you what!"
"Huge difference."

The SGC2C episode is "Jacksonville". Definitely worth a watch.

(?) · by **MochaBean** (?) » Fri Nov 04, 2011 6:43 pm

I especially like how he compared Zorak's voice with Beavis'. :iamapony:

(?) · by **BartonFink** (?) » Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:23 pm

On a tangential sidenote, I don't really watch The League but I always see ads for it during It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and was amazed to find out George Lowe (voice of Space Ghost) is the voice in the commercial.

It's especially weird because that seems to be his only commercial job. :pinkieshrug:

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:31 pm

MochaBean wrote:I especially like how he compared Zorak's voice with Beavis'.

Also it was instructive in honing my own Beavis voice to see how much he uses his tongue in doing it.

:wat:

(?) · by **Pocket** (?) » Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:45 pm

BartonFink wrote:On a tangential sidenote, I don't really watch The League but I always see ads for it during It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and was amazed to find out George Lowe (voice of Space Ghost) is the voice in the commercial.

It's especially weird because that seems to be his only commercial job.

Wasn't George Lowe the guy who played himself trying to promote himself as a poor man's Don LaFontaine in an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force? It's been so long...

(?) · by **BartonFink** (?) » Tue Nov 08, 2011 7:18 am

Haha, yep, that was him. Also Dad from The Brak Show.

George Lowe: awesome

(?) · by **Aramek** (?) » Thu Nov 10, 2011 8:50 pm

I love it when you guys have good taste in voice actors! :awesomedash:

And then one of you will ruin it by talking about Animu. :rainbert:

(?) · by **Opposing Farce** (?) » Thu Nov 10, 2011 8:59 pm

Aramek wrote:And then one of you will ruin it by talking about Animu.

I just think it's hilarious that there are like a dozen people who work on dubs so you hear the same voices over and over again. It was kind of weird discovering that the harsh post-apocalyptic wasteland of New Vegas has a thriving population of Yosukes.

(?) · by **Aramek** (?) » Thu Nov 10, 2011 9:50 pm

It is hard making it as an actor. Even worse as a Voice Actor! There's only a few of them that make their living doing purely voice work, they're always doing other industry jobs, coaching, seminars, etc. Now, far be it for me to claim any expertise on the "biz", but I've a few paid gigs under my belt, and, even though they are all very talented voice over artists, Anime acting is just not my bag.

One of my roomies, through me, has developed a good ear for voice acting. Like he's getting way better at picking out who is talking from show to show. (Hell Tom "Professor Utonium" Kane has been in a LOT of commercials this year) and he's the one that watched a lot of anime. I pointed out that Cartoon (what we consider American cartoons) acting and Anime acting has some differences that, once you pick up on hearing them, really can irk you.

The easiest way to explain it is with Team America: World Police. You know how hammy the acting was? And it was hilarious? I call that "Overdrama" and I love it. A lot of anime acting, even if not that noticeable, is delivered in that Overdrama style. However, most of the time, even with respectable casts/productions, the overdrama creeps in, but juuuust enough to make it sound alien, without the "wink" at the audience that full blown Overdrama provides. This isn't really the actor's faults, because those same actors have been in plenty of non-anime roles and have done just fine. But rather, it has become the standard accepted by the medium itself. Hammy just enough to make you roll your eyes, without enough to let you in on the joke.

Like a B movie that doesn't know it is a B movie.

tl;dr? Anime acting is Tommy Wiseau.

--------------------

On Topic: It is not a show, but Grim Fandango is the best Adventure Game ever made. Over on the LP Archive there are two LPs of it. One is called "The Movie" wherein it is the entire game, no commetary, in video form. If you love amazing voice acting, film noir, and general AdG awesomeness, check it out.

(?) · by **Mr. Big** (?) » Fri Nov 11, 2011 6:34 am

You know, I wonder if anime acting style is the result of having to do the voices while watching the animation footage.

For US cartoons the voices are done before the animation is started. The only words the actors have are what's on the script, with a director guiding the actors.

For anime, the animation is done first. The actors literally watch the animated footage and they have the say the lines while the mouths are flapping. Maybe the fact that they're actually seeing the footage in real time just makes them be overdramatic?

Speaking of anime, anyone familiar with Lupin III? I always enjoyed the show. I'm surprised Adult Swim aired the show a while back. It's hardly new; the show was from the '70s and it showed. But it was still good cartoon fun.

(?) · by **kefkafloyd** (?) » Fri Nov 11, 2011 1:22 pm

Mr. Big wrote:Speaking of anime, anyone familiar with Lupin III? I always enjoyed the show. I'm surprised Adult Swim aired the show a while back. It's hardly new; the show was from the '70s and it showed. But it was still good cartoon fun.

Always a big fan of Lupin here. The Geneon dub got some flack but I thought the casting for it was pretty good. Also, the theme song is extremely rad. :cool:

(?) · by **Hollow** (?) » Sat Nov 12, 2011 2:45 am

Lupin was awesome. None of my friends liked it cause it was "lol old" though. :fluttersmith:

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Sat Nov 12, 2011 5:03 am

There's not much that fills me with the ol' time impotent pointless rage than people dismissing something because it's "old". Back when iTunes first started selling movies, and they were posting up the first few star reviews (like in the first week of the feature's existence), Bambi had one crappy unedited blurb from some preadolescent troglodyte kid who was all like "LOL why would you even watch this movie it's like 20 years old!!!!"

Lupin is an important part of a balanced classic animation self-education. How else are you supposed to get why you should be laughing and :-D

'ing when Jigen shows up in that one episode of Samurai Jack?

(?) · by **BartonFink** (?) » Sat Nov 12, 2011 8:43 am

I was involved in an Adult Swim forum at the time when Lupin came on there and on their official board the "WHAT IS THIS OLD LUPIN SHIT" opinion was annoyingly widespread. I haven't seen a ton of the show but I recall enjoying just about all I saw of it.

In conclusion screw everyone.

(?) · by **Treehouse Censor** (?) » Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:16 am

The ending to the B&B episode "Holy Cornholio" = :awesomedash:

(?) · by **Mr. Big** (?) » Sat Nov 12, 2011 1:31 pm

Yeah, "Old=Lame" thing annoys me, too. Especially since majority of my favorite cartoons are from before 1970s.

(?) · by **Kataponia** (?) » Sun Nov 13, 2011 5:05 am

Lupin was definitely one of my faves they showed on Adult Swim back in the day. I also loved Detective Conan or whatever it was called... Case Closed? (one was the American name I can't remember) It's about this guy (young adult) who gets drugged with some kind of wacky serum that turns him into a kid. But this doesnt mess with his completely genius detectiving skills. Every episode he tags along with this bumbling idiot detective dude and he's got a ton of gadgets like rocket powered shoes he uses to kick round objects (he's also a soccer star) into criminal's faces. But all the while he hides his true identity.

My favorite is this one gadget that shoots a dart into someones neck and knocks them out cold (usually the idiot detective.) He then props them up on a chair with their head facing down and hides behind their chair with a voice modulator and solves the case. The idiot detective guy never realizes what's happening though and just chalks it up to his ego. Nobody ever notices the guy is knocked out cold either cuz of the lighting lol.

It does get rather formulaic though. What I've written here is pretty much every episode in a nutshell. It's still a fun show, I recommend. :v:

(?) · by **Mr. Big** (?) » Sun Nov 13, 2011 2:52 pm

Ah, I love that show! When living in Japan I used to watch it all the time with my sister (who's also a big fan).

The US run was short-lived, although it's been running continuously in Japan since 1996. So far 633 episodes have aired, plus 15 theatrical movies (they release one film per year) and 16 OVAs.

Since we're discussing GOOD anime, here's a really old one: GeGeGe no Kitaro. This has been around since 1959 in various incarnations. Originally a comic by Shigeru Mizuki, it's a comedy-horror cartoon about a humanoid monster boy, his dad (a walking, talking eyeball...it's a long story), and Nezumi-Otoko, aka Ratman. It's really creepy and really weird.

There were six TV series:
1968-69 (65 episodes, black and white)
1971-72 (45 episodes)
1985-88 (108 episodes)
1996-98 (114 episodes)
2007-09 (100 episodes)
2008 (11 episodes)

The best ones are the '60s, '70s, and the 2008 series. The original comic was very well drawn but also creepy. Characters frequently died in gruesome manner and was also just weirder. The anime versions all toned it down for kids, although the '60s and '70s series had some creepiness left in.

However, the 2008 series (called "Graveyard Kitaro", which was being aired the same time the 2007-09 series was) went back to the original comics root. It was so child-unfriendly that they had to air them on midnight.

Here's an episode of the 1968 black and white series. (English subtitles)
http://www.veoh.com/watch/v20722141GTH29MMT

Here's the first episode of "Graveyard Kitaro". Warning that it's creepy (English subtitles)
http://www.veoh.com/watch/v6302034e3cge6Rd

(?) · by **diribigal** (?) » Fri Nov 18, 2011 4:18 am

Mr. Big wrote:Yeah, "Old=Lame" thing annoys me, too. Especially since majority of my favorite cartoons are from before 1970s.

I have to admit, I've been guilty of this. :fluttersmith:

I also have to admit that I hadn't seen any of Akira Kurosawa's movies before.

I just saw Yojimbo and I've learned the error of my ways. :-D

(?) · by **BartonFink** (?) » Fri Nov 18, 2011 4:49 am

Rashomon, High and Low, Ikiru and Ran.

STAT

(?) · by **Tailspin** (?) » Fri Nov 18, 2011 4:59 pm

Rashomon is a classic and a great movie. I've noticed cartoons tend to use that kind of plot a lot.

(?) · by **W.T. Fits** (?) » Wed Nov 30, 2011 10:07 am

Did somebody say murders anime?

Well, if we're recommending anime, there's one I've recently started watching that some people here might enjoy.

Persona 4: The Animation

Based on the Playstation 2 game Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (obviously), it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect it to be - a condensed retelling of the plot of the game, with most of the dungeon-crawling gameplay aspects cut out to save time and a few of the key events rearranged slightly to fit within the 26 episode time frame. Currently airing in Japan, you can watch it subtitled for free online here, courtesy of The Anime Network and Hulu. All the available episodes are currently flagged to be viewable by guests, so there's no need to register or subscribe to the channel or anything.

I'd write up a better synopsis, but I kinda can't at the moment, since I'm terrible at using words to convey how awesome I find things. Also, it's 3 in the morning and I've been up for around 23 hours more or less and thus not really in a good frame of mind for writing.

(?) · by **Mr. Big** (?) » Wed Nov 30, 2011 6:10 pm

Here's another anime from Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS) that I enjoy, "The Gutsy Frog" (1972-74; 103 episodes)

Basically it's about a boy who got a frog pasted on his shirt after he fell down. The frog lived and started talking to him. Very early on only the boy (named Hiroshi) could talk to him, but after two or so episodes they abandoned that and the frog started talking to anyone in the way. Characters include his single mom (his dad died years ago), friend Goro, love interest Kyoko, and bully Gorilla-Imo (literally Gorilla-Potato).

Despite the weird premise and the whole thing being slice-of-life gag series the characters are actually fleshed out. For example, the bully actually has emotional personality, not just a one-dimensional bully character many other shows would typically have. And I love the animation. It's limited but I just love how the characters are drawn. It's very cartoony, but very Japanese at the same time.

Unfortunately the show was never dubbed in English. It's very Japanese, setting wise, so Western audience would not understand it. It was dubbed in Spanish. If you can understand Japanese or Spanish, that'd be good.

A bunch of episodes in Spanish.
This one is my favorite.

One episode in Japanese. This guy has few others if you browse his profile. Note that there's nudity. Not NSFW-worthy (Japan is pretty lenient on showing nudity on television as long as it's for laugh) but it might make some people uncomfortable.

(?) · by **Hollow** (?) » Sat Dec 03, 2011 6:14 am

Monster is the only animu I even care about any more. (I love yet hate that there won't be a sequel)

..well, that and Berserk, even though I haven't caught up with Berserk's manga in a longass time.

Oh, and I catch DBZ Kai sometimes. Gotta love Toriyama.

(?) · by **FightingDreamer** (?) » Sun Dec 04, 2011 1:06 am

So, anyone see The Muppets yet? I saw it last night, and it's easily one of my favorite films of the year. It's optimistic, funny as hell, and the songs are ridiculously catchy.

Hey, sounds like a show we all love! :v:

Seriously though, "Life's A Happy Song" especially would fit this show (particularly Pinkie Pie) to a tee.

(?) · by **Mr. Big** (?) » Sun Dec 04, 2011 1:28 am

I'm planning to see Muppets eventually. I hope I'll enjoy it.

And let me post one more video with Dokonjo Gaeru. It's in Japanese with no subtitles, but the scenario's simple enough that anyone can understand it, in that it's about potty-training. And there's a tug-a-war involving a bathroom door in the end. It's hilarious and a great example of a slice-of-life story.

And just so we're on the same page, this episode aired in 1973.

Click here to view video.

(?) · by **DarkMatter** (?) » Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:21 pm

I saw The Muppets last night I really enjoyed it! My only problems were I had a hard time really caring about the new Muppet, Walter. I felt a little too much time was focused on him. And there was WAY too much time spent on the human couple.

(?) · by **Grim** (?) » Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:55 pm

I don't watch movies in the slightest so it's safe to say no Muppets for me.

DarkMatter wrote:

Finished watching this all the way through yesterday. I remembered it being a fun cartoon with some hilarious gags, but in actuality it's just brilliant. :pinkieshrug:

A Fistful of Ed and An Ed is Born are easy favorites of mine.

Haven't seen this brought up but someone (also afflicted with :ponydrugs:

) has been trying to get me to watch Airbender. I don't know if I'll be on that next but I guess I'll get around to it.

e: Saw the first post about it here and now I'm actually really curious. I was more interested in revisiting stuff I'm already familiar with, but I think that will have to wait.

(?) · by **Doctor Wheeze** (?) » Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:25 pm

Grim wrote:Haven't seen this brought up but someone (also afflicted with ) has been trying to get me to watch Airbender. I don't know if I'll be on that next but I guess I'll get around to it.

e: Saw the first post about it here and now I'm actually really curious. I was more interested in revisiting stuff I'm already familiar with, but I think that will have to wait.

DO IT. It's awesome.

(?) · by **Daionus The 23rd** (?) » Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:55 pm

I suppose it's worth bringing up A Series Of Unfortunate Events, by Daniel Handler Lemony Snicket.

In short, sad things happen to three sad children, told in an amusing fashion by a narrator who is just as much of a character as the ones in the story. Some of these sad things involve a wicked man, massive conspiracies, and idiotic people with poor taste. The series consist of thirteen main books, and two supplementary books that make things (arguably) less confusing, and if not read at the right points in time, can reveal quite a few spoilers. If for some reason you don't feel like reading the main series, there's also the audiobooks, which include a damn good soundtrack and are mostly narrated by Tim Curry, who does an excellent job at it. (Audiobooks 3-5 are narrated by Daniel Handler Lemony Snicket, who does an okay job, but nothing compared to Curry) There's also a movie starring Jim Carrey, but I know very little about this.

(?) · by **Admiral Bonetopick** (?) » Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:39 pm

Seeing all this love for Lupin III but no mention of Castle of Cagliostro is disgusting :rainbert:

Click here to view video.

After Lupin and Jigen accidentally steal a bunch of counterfeit money, they track it to it's source in the remote Duchy of Cagliostro where they happen upon a young women on the run from some armed goons in a car. From there, Lupin becomes entangled in a complex web of mystery involving and ancient line of assassins, the counterfit bills, and a plot by the Count of Cagliostro to try and reclaim his dynasty.

This is probably one of the best animated films I've ever seen, not surprising that Hayao Miyazaki directed it. It's got fantastic animation, a neat involving story and Steven Spielburg reportedly said the opening car chase scene is one of the greatest action scenes in a film

Watch it or you're dumb :v:

(?) · by **FightingDreamer** (?) » Mon Dec 12, 2011 3:45 am

Ah, Cagliostro, probably my favorite Lupin outing ever since I actually care about Lupin in it. Some of his other adventures are a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, but they're incredibly shallow. Cagliostro has some real depth and meaning to it.

Regarding Ed, Edd and Eddy, I kind of can't stand it anymore. The art style hurts my eyes, the voice acting is shrieky and void of nuance (which is sad because I know most of the cast can do much better), and the writing is smug and self-satisfied when it's not being incredibly cliched.

(?) · by **Grim** (?) » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:16 pm

FightingDreamer wrote:and the writing is smug and self-satisfied when it's not being incredibly cliched.

Smug and self-satisfied writing? :rariwhat:

I'll give you that much for Eddy as a character, but that's what makes him entertaining. As for the other stuff, I can only draw parallels to "bad graphics = bad game" people.

Airbender ruled so much that I finished all three seasons within two days. Between each of them I was pretty much going "Another! Another! :ohboy:

" so I didn't really stop for much. Definitely would watch again. Also, by some huge coincidence my brother visited recently and asked me if I'd seen it. This was when I had the first episode open and was just about to start. He also likes FiM so I guess the two have a pretty good fanbase relation, at least in older audiences.

What I find amusing is that with all these themes of war and otherwise deadly stuff, you'd think death would be a difficult subject to avoid, yet it never impacts anyone beyond flashbacks to before Aang's awakening. In a late episode they even poked fun at how the last scene with Jet left it unclear weather or not he died.

I thought the ending was pretty weak in resorting to SURPRISE it's a battle of good versus evil, but I can see how difficult it would be to wrap things up any better than that. I was actually more interested in the less decisive battle because the antagonist there had much more development. I was expecting Katara to get pissed and resort to bloodbending after Zuko went down, making Azula's insanity even worse. What ended up happening was certainly a better fit though.

The person who first wanted me to watch it inevitably asked the Big Question: "Are Zuko and Iroh the best characters? (HINT: Yes, yes they are)" and yeah, I can only agree at least as far as Iroh goes. Zuko has a lot of moments that feel too ridiculous to be taken as serious characterization (like that campfire scene in episode 3-05 :bluh:

), but he's still up there for sure. It's difficult for me to not like any of the major characters, really.

To sum up my sperging, DON'T MISS AIRBENDER! As for me, on to... whatever it is I haven't decided on yet.

The Round Stable

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

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