It's been months since our last glimpse of this film, and I still can't overstate my excitement about the project. Staying away from CGI for these monsters makes them so tangible, and I trust Jonze to make Maurice Sendak's story into something more than a throwaway adaptation. I'm getting shivers here.
The first annual New York Anime Festival took place in Manhattan this past weekend, and Geekanerd was on the scene. While our allegiances lie more on the Western side of comics and cartoons, I dare say you'd be hard pressed to find a serious geek who hasn't at least dabbled in anime's seductive fandom. And speaking of seductive, how about this Wolverine sketch, hmm? While you can find fanart like this by the pound on DeviantArt, this particular sketch is actual concept art by Anzu for the upcoming Del Ray/Marvel manga series starring the X-Men. They're obviously going for the highly-profitable teen girl market, although I don't know that anyone wants their Wolverine looking that pretty.
So many kids were dressed as Naruto it hardly seemed worth documenting, and we quickly learned other Naruto-related characters could be spotted by their belt buckle head band thingies. At least 45 percent of the people at the festival had to bewearing them, and if they weren't they were wearing a hat with animal ears.
Many impromptu fights could be witnessed in the halls of the Javits Center, but thankfully no one was killed.
Most of the cosplay was obviously anime stuff, but video games were getting some love, too, as evidenced by this shockingly accurate Travis Touchdown (an otaku assassin from the unreleased No More Heroes) and a full on Smash Bros. Brawl:
Also, those damn Star Wars nuts show up everywhere, but this one made a strong effort to be relevant to the Japanamaniacs:
Awesome!
This is one them there sci-fi romantic comedy mangas, with a plotline that concerns a schoolgirl who is also an alien, and her light-hearted junior high adventures. My favorite story mostly involved the main characters chasing after a mouse.
I also enjoyed this disclaimer that came at the end of the book.
Way to stop those continuity hounds in their tracks!
A gang of Citibank vultures camped out in the middle of the sellers floor, presumably to prey on any desperate otaku who needed a quick credit card to buy another giant sword.
You've got to pass an age-check before downloading the trailer, and not the fake, Please-Say-You're-18 kind. Those over 18 or those who know their mom's full name and birth date can check out the trailer here.
So the internet finally got what it so desperately wanted; Naked Angelina Jolie. Is it all we expected it to be? Well, no. The Beowful effects team seems to have made it their objective to de-sexify Jolie as much as modern technology allows, which extends to giving her lower regions the barbie-doll treatment and CGing her face on to another body. At least that what it looks like in the trailer. You can even see it in the screen cap - her head looks out of proportion to her body, like they either used a body double or completely CG'ed her body and stuck her face on top. But I'm sure there are those who aren't as picky about their celebrity wank material, and far be it for me to rain on their parade.
If I wanted to watch a video game cut scene, I'd play Resident Evil. Still, one can't discount the presence of Monster Crispin Glover, so perhaps there's hope for this Neil Gaiman penned blockbuster yet.
They appear to be in a garage, which would link up with this fan video:
This is certainly the most "realistic" version of the Joker I've ever seen. The lack truly green hair shows how they're really trying to avoid going over the top in these movies. Also, only J-Man's face appears to be white, which to me says that either A) Just his head gets dunked or B) The white face is make-up, and maybe his only real physical transformation is the cut up smile. That scarred smile sure doesn't look like the result of an acid bath, perhaps his origin story will be completely different in this movie.
Check out the chair barricaded against the door - hardcore, Bats. I can't believe we have to wait a year for this movie.
Overheard on Digg:
I think I'm going to let this link speak for itself other than to say that my jealousy of these two knows no bounds.
Yesterday I donned my ninja gear and snuck into Cartoon Network and Adult Swim's headquarters with my spy camera in tow to bring you back a gaggle of photos. I had to silence an unfortunate amount of hapless cartoonists to get out alive, but as Grandpa Witwicky always said, "No sacrifice, no pictures of corporate offices." So without further ado, your ninja tour of Cartoon Network:
After exerting a lot of ninja energy on sneaking in, I was greeted at the door by these two charming children, who said they would show me around and introduce me to everyone.
I was having fun, but I was worried I wouldn't be able to sneak anywhere sneak-worthy with these tag-alongs so I shook 'em and struck out on my own to do some snooping.
First stop, Designer's Room, where I was sure I could unearth some unknown treasure...
And sure enough I did! The first look at the cover art for the upcoming Harvey Birdman game!
I poked around in some animator's offices, but nothing scandalous revealed itself to me.
I decided it was time to move on to Adult Swim, and took the elevator to...
...the undergound tunnel which ran alongside the studios where unspeakable things are said to happen.
I came up from the depths and was greeted by a decapitated cartoon serving as an ominous warning to any who would dare enter this sanctuary of the damned. I swallowed my fear and braved onward.
The hallway was littered with the bodies of ill-fated adventurers, some hanging from their necks, others frozen in carbonite:
I could only hope I possessed a cunning they lacked.
I passed a particular office that I recalled from legend: When a hapless minion left for a vacation, his co-workers lined his windows with trash to create the illusion they had filled it completely. Just the sort of prank you'd expect from the Adult Swim villains, the confirmation of which came with an added realization: If this is how they treat one of their own, what will happen to me if I'm caught?
I tiptoed into the conference room, where plans for some sort of ultimate music service [weapon] had been scribbled on the board. I couldn't deduce how a drawing of Earthworm Jim and a list of great video games factored into the equation, but you can click the picture to get a big version you can scrutinize for yourself.
As I entered the playroom, the doorway slammed shut behind me and I was met with silence. A deathly silence. I feared I had stumbled into a trap!
And I was right! Robo-Security fell from the ceiling and surrounded me. A familiar voice came over the P.A.:
"Oh, Albo, you're so predictable! Everything has proceeded exactly as I have foreseen it, and now you're in my trap, from which you will never emerge... Alive! Gahahahahaaaa!" It was my old nemesis Merrill Hagan, writer for Adult Swim dot com as well as some comics including a Wrecking Crew story for the soon-to-be-relaunched Marvel Comics Presents. Also an evil mastermind. Thankfully I had packed my ninja EMP that day, so I used it to disable the Robo-Security from which I harvested two energy cores which I polarized to opposing charges using an electromagnet I ripped from the microwave in the corner and then thrust the cores together at the reinforced key panel keeping the door locked, whereupon they created a small but powerful reaction as they repelled each other with atomic force, compromising the integrity of the panel enough for me to pry the cover off with a ping-pong paddle and reroute the signal wires making any button combination capable of opening the doors, including F-Y-O-U, which I typed before darting out the door, smiling to myself over Hagan's screams.
Well, I can't attest that the site is new, only that I haven't seen it before. It has some goodies including pics of Joker wannabes and a police report detailing some recent disturbance they were involved in. Can't say I know what the heck that's all about, but the site also has a big teaser trailer that doesn't have much to recommend it other than the first taste of Heath Ledger's Joker voice. Sounds aight! In other Dark Knight news, here is Heath himself showing Maggie Gyllenhaal his knife:
Looks aight!
Rachel: Agent of G.N.E.R.D. reporting for debrief! I had a great time at the party Tuesday night and I have lots of pictures to share. It was fun to see people fumbling through the songs for the first time (except for a few experts who sight-read very well) and the enthusiasm for some of the 80's classics really led to a great energy in the room. Of course my favorite part of the evening was the MC, who I could watch dance for hours. We sort of had a connection. More pics of him and some other interesting characters are below.
