More fun from Japan: welcome the Hotaru-san!

The same crazy guys who brought you Vending Machine Red and friends, and later the Limon guy from Sprite and his journey across Japan, are now invading unsuspecting communities in Tokyo with a horde of dancers with yellow lights on their butts. It looks like a silly flash mob but they're FIREFLIES (Hotaru-san) and they are advertising a new service from Japanese Internet Service Provider So-Net. Very cute, very Cirque du Soleil. This is going to go viral worldwide.

Star Trek The Animated Series The Movie Trailer

Take the audio from the official trailer of the JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot. Add cleverly cut segments from Star Trek: The Animated Series. Shake, don't stir. Strain and serve. Enjoy.

Send in the Clones...

Well, it looks like the CGI animated Clone Wars movie is getting pasted in the press. It's at 23% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. And it doesn't look good for reviews from the rest of the folks who are actually honoring the Warner Bros. embargo on reviews.

This reporter saw Clone Wars, and actually didn't think it was as horrible as some of the early reviews suggest. It is no Empire Strikes Back, it is no Revenge of the Sith. And it is CERTAINLY not as enjoyable as Genndy Tartakovsky's original Clone Wars shorts that made me a Star Wars fangirl again.

Ahsoka Tano is annoying. She's basically Kim Possible with a lightsabre: a wish fulfillment "Mary Sue" character geared at getting little girls more interested in the franchise. The animation is ugly, and reminiscent of cutscenes in a Star Wars video game. But Dave Filoni, late of Avatar: The Last Airbender and his crew do a yeoman job telling a tale of Sith duplicity and Hutt revenge. I even got a few lulz from Jabba's very, very FABULOUS uncle Zero...they should have gone all the way to "no closet can hold me" mode and gotten Richard Simmons to do the voice.

Basically look at Clone Wars this way...it's a popcorn movie. It will prolly be best savored at home where the worst parts of it can be shamelessly MST-ed. However, if you are looking for a way to kill an hour and a half under quality air conditioning and check your higher cerebral faculties at the door, I can think of worse ways of doing it.

It's a movie about Penguins...and it's good. Wow.

I love Penguins.

Let me say it again: I love Penguins. They are adorable critters. Flightless birds that nevertheless "fly" underwater. Even though Berkeley Breathed has been pounding poor Opus into the ground, during the original run of Bloom County I thought he was great. And of course, gotta love that Tux. Wheeze, Pudge, Tennesee Tuxedo, penguins have been beloved characters in animation.

However: I did not love Madagascar. I thought the gangsta penguins were trite and tiresome. And I certainly did not love Happy Feet. March Of The Penguins worked only because you were seeing real penguins in their real life and their real environment.

Surf's Up could have been trite and cutesy if they didn't watch out. But it isn't.

Here are six reasons why Surf's Up doesn't suck:

1.) The ensemble cast was allowed to record the track as an ensemble, ala Bullwinkle and Rocky. Modern mics allow for total audio separation of tracks, without "leakage." This afforded the ensemble the means to improv a good portion of the dialogue.

2.) "The Big Lebowski" with feathers. The pivotal character is not the "hero" (Cody Maverick, played by Shia LeBoeuf) but Geek, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. Geek abides, dude. Excellent vocal performance. Great character. Easily the most engaging character since Mr. Incredible.

3.) The character design creates distinctions between what could be monotonous characters ala Happy Feet and allows for real acting. I would have liked a little more looseness and a little more ability for facial squash-and-stretch but there was enough to make it work. The "loosest" and "most cartoony" character of the bunch, Chicken Joe, was able to do the best "acting."

4.) Animation was done by humans rather than mo-cap. This extended not only to the characters but also to the waves, which transcended traditional notions of "effects animation" and entered the realm of being true character animation. The waves were characters in and of themselves. And some of them got the best lines of all.

5.) No musical numbers. This was done as a "mockumentary" so there are no temptations to do showstopper numbers like with Happy Feet. The music is there as seasoning, punctuation. Not as raison d'etre. This worked.

6.) This is a movie like Pixar used to do. It is 100% "story driven" as opposed to set-piece driven. The movie compares favorably with the two Toy Story movies for good story.

Other good points: there are no ham-handed attempts to send pro-social "messages" in this movie. The only "message" here is that surfing is fun, and you get into a sport for the fun of it, not to win. The fun is its own reward. It helps if you have seen surfing documentaries to "get" some of the in-jokes in the movie. There is a riff on a crucial bit of footage in the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys which is nothing short of spectacular. The soundtrack is great, with one song missing: "My Wave" by Soundgarden. Maybe they couldn't get clearance on that particular track. Too bad, there is a character in the movie which could have used it as a "theme song."

This is a worthwhile film, particularly since Summer is almost here. Catch this wave before it gets blown out, dudes.

A different kind of Otaku no Video

Perhaps the most interesting thing I saw at Anime Los Angeles wasn't Anime, nor was it officially on the program. I saw a fansub of the first episode of the Japanese TV series Densha Otoko on someone's laptop, and was blown away.

The weird tale of the guy who called himself the Train Man on a Japanese chat room was first compiled into a book, then was made into a Manga. Then came this TV series, a stage play, and finally a movie. The anime that was referenced in the TV series and the movie, Getsumen To Heike Mina, is now unspooling on Fuji TV, having its premiere on January 17th of this year.

I missed the screening of the movie iteration of this story at San Diego Comic-Con this year. However, it's going to be coming out from Viz Pictures on DVD on February 7th. Perfect timing for giving to the Otaku or Otome Valentine in your life. The Manga is already in the process of release, and the last of three volumes will also be out in time for Valentine's Day.

I would like to also see this TV series given a legitimate release on DVD because the guy who portrays the protagonist in the series, Ito Atsushi, is incredibly good as a comedic actor. He's a little bit Jerry Lewis at his spazzy best, a little bit Jim Carrey before he got all full of himself, and a whole lot of fun. I haven't seen the movie yet, so I can't really judge the cast. But the TV series is worth it for Ito alone. Fuji TV broke my heart by not putting out DVDs of Iron Chef. Don't do it again to me, guys!

UPDATE: the Densha Otoko movie is NOT as good as the TV series, unfortunately. However, the commentary, done by Japanese Pop Culture expert Patrick Macias and two of his closest Japanese friends, is hilarious, and the DVD is worth buying just for that. Also it looks pretty unlikely that a Densha Otoko TV series Region 1 DVD release won't happen because of music clearance issues. So between this and the translated mangas this is what we Amerika-jin get of Densha Otoko-mania. So enjoy it.