A new Cartoon Geeks Podcast! Scary stuff, eh, kids?

Yes, it's that time of year. When kids come to beg for candy at the door. When Universal bases their Halloween Horror Nights on some horror icons they didn't create themselves - two child killers and one adult killer. When the only TV icon who truly honors the season is Roseanne (remember Becky's armless flight stewardess?).
And in honor of that season, we present a new Cartoon Geeks podcast. Windows users, right-click on this link and select "Save As..." from the menu. Mac users, option-click and select "Save As..." You Linux users can build a program module to download things, but don't forget, when they change the kernal next week, you'll have to write a new one...nya-ha-ha!

This show features a special guest - Don Burr from OtakuNoPodcast (click on his name for the link) whom we will invite back on future shows. He speaks about the strange development in the world of anime, where the big distributor Geneon suddenly terminated American operations and stopped distributing shows. Why did the company that released such hits as Trigun, Serial Experiments Lain, Akira and others suddenly close up shop?

Our regular member Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman shows up in a taped segment where he speaks about how Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille has changed voice acting.

Some other treats in the bag come from Atlanta's Dragon*Con, including their Filk Guest of Honor Carla Ulbrich, (click on the link to see this beautiful and funny lady) and Tom's question to Master Shake voice artist Dana Snyder.

To send you all screaming into the night, we close with a special song in honor of Halloween from comedy music great Jonathan Coulton. Click on this link to see his music store and buy some songs ($1 each, or $70 for the whole music library). And if you want to see him perform, click on this link for a YouTube video of one of his concerts. This is a live concert and he blows a chord...and he recovers with style!

Persepolis: no, it won't play in Peoria.

What would you say if I told you one of the best animated movies of the year was in another language? Fine, it's probably Japanese, cool. What if I said it was French? OK, The Triplets of Belleville, Renaissance, yes, France is suddenly hot again for animation. But what if I said the movie was about life in Iran during and after the Islamic revolution?

OK, I'll let that sink in.

What if I said that Persepolis is a movie based on a series of graphic novels telling a true story about an Iranian girl's coming of age in both Iran and Austria, and about her eventual going into exile in France, co-directed by the woman who wrote, drew and experienced it? And that one of the heroic characters is unflinchingly depicted as a Communist?

I'll let that sink in too.

Persepolis is beautiful. It's heartbreaking. It's hard to watch in places. However, over the past 30 years, Iran and Iranians have been so demonized in America, to the point where there are actually people in this country who would really, dearly love to see the country a smoking, radioactive ruin. And ever since the rise of Lenin, people in the US have been conditioned, rightly or wrongly, to have a knee-jerk negative response to anything even remotely smacking of Communism. So much so that we are the only industrialized nation to not have a national health care system. So much so that corporations have more rights than citizens do in the US.

It was a really courageous move for Sony Pictures Classics to pick up this movie. They are liable to take a bath on it. The most intelligent thing they could do is perhaps a star-studded dub. However, to make that work in the US, the dubscript would have to change so many elements of the story that it would never make it by the author. It's unfortunate, but true. This movie is doomed right out of the starting gate. Better see it quick, or order the DVD from Powells or Barnes and Noble or wherever, because it will be gone even quicker than Tekkon Kinkreet was from theatres.