Looking back on.. Archives » Page 6 of 18

Dinotopia: Quest for the Ruby Sunstone & Dinosaur Island Cartoon Movies For the Weird

04/29/201802/01/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

It’s not easy finding dinosaur related cartoons or movies but from time to time you come across some and you decide to give it a shot to see if they’re any good. It was to my surprise to see Dinotopia had an animated direct to video movie called Quest for Ruby Sunstones in 2005 and always meant to check it out. I also remember seeing it packaged with another movie called Dinosaur Island (unrelated to the 1994 and 2014 movies) what looked like a horrible cash-in that seemed as generic as it could get. I wasn’t expecting much from either but I was surprised by them.

The first animated film we’ll take a look at is Dinosaur Island 2002 which as mentioned is unrelated to the other two Dinosaur Island films which are also weird on their own so you should check out our look back on those as well. This movie is indeed just a modern re-telling of The Lost World and for the most part done right, I won’t say it’s the greatest interpretation but it definitely had some good ideas here and there

Jungle Girl & the Lost Island of the Dinosaurs: The unknown dino cartoon movie

04/28/201802/01/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

Looking back on..

I’m a big fan of both Dinosaurs and the Jungle Girl trope so when you mix both together we should get something awesome right? I came across this animated movie that does just this and it didn’t seem too promising but such an obscure movie was worth a look so here we are. I wonder what the color stickers it came with where.

The plot is basically about an English girl named Emma Sharp who hates nature and travels with her father but one day becomes shipwrecked on an island along her father, the captain and sailor of the ship. Emma is bratty and her story arc is that she discovers her bravery but she never becomes a great character. The Captain and the Sailor are the antagonists want to get the Golden Monkey which is the treasure of the island but if it’s taken the island will explode because reasons. Emma goes on her journey to stop them as her father sleeps..

The Brave Little Toaster Trilogy is still relevant

04/17/201802/01/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

Looking back on..

When I watched Toy Story 3 I was disappointed since I had already seen this story before and that was in a movie I loved as a kid “The Brave Little Toaster”. I used to love this movie and would watch it every time I had the chance and decided to check it out again to see if it held up only to realize that they made two direct to video sequels in the late 90s. I also found out two of these movies are actually adaptations of novels and only one being an original story. So, let’s have a quick look at the Brave Little Toaster trilogy.

Is The Tick Amazon Prime Spoon enough?

04/01/201801/29/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

Looking back on..

The Tick was a show that took me a while to get but when it finally clicked I realized I had been missing out. The first live action show and animated series were both great in their own way so when Amazon announced a new show for their Prime Video service I was pretty excited and hoped they wouldn’t mess it up. So how is this Tick series revival? A bit of a mixed bag.

It should be noted the pilot episode came out in 2016, the first part of season 1 which has one storyline in 2017 and 2018 saw the release of the second story arc of season 1. I don’t understand the route they decided to take this show on, it’s still a parody I guess.. they have the budget to have fight scenes and whatnot.. it’s still an adult show.. It’s just not funny, the writing is terrible and boring, it doesn’t seem to know that it’s a parody at times acting a bit too serious. IT had the potential of outdoing both series and yet I was really disappointed after the first few episodes.

ReBoot: The Guardian Code – the VR Power Rangers

03/31/201801/29/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

Looking back on..

After many years ReBoot finally got a new show in the form of Reboot: The Guardian Code which mixes live action with CG as they go inside the machines with Virtual Reality like devices. Fans were not very happy but since I am a big fan of shows that deal with people going into digital worlds à la Tron, I didn’t mind at all. After watching it I realized that it’s a show with potential and fans should definitely give it a shot.

For die-hard fans of the original show will find a very different show and I don’t really know why exactly they went with the ReBoot brand if they were planning something so different as most of the time it just doesn’t feels anything like it. We do get Megabyte as a villain and he’s great and just as you remember him, but he’s the only constant link to the old show. However I’d say that his style clashes a bit with the rest of the show so it doesn’t help the new show either. We do get a few references to the old show here and there but they’re small Easter eggs for fans more than anything. There is indeed one episode that deals and feels exactly like the old show we watched and it’s a blast. The good news is I feel like we’ll end up getting more and more of this type of episodes down the line, I doubt they’ve forgotten just remember how much the old show changed.

Reboot The Show is a mainframe classic CG show

03/26/201801/29/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

Looking back on..

Reboot was the first Computer Generated (CG) show we ever got by Mainframe / Rainmaker Entertainment and it had a bit of a weird history. Coming out even before Toy Story, the show dealt with life inside a computer so you get all these great 90s tech lingo in the actual show and how life is inside a computer system. Tech was still rather new for most people so many concepts went over people’s head. The show also changed quite a bit over the course of the series and got a huge fandom behind it. The show is continued with Reboot: The Last Guardian but we begin here with the original show.

The first season is a rather safe animated show from the 90s with the setting of them being in a computer world but there’s not much here, as a kid I wasn’t a huge fan of the show because it just wasn’t that exciting and the character designs looked weird. It really isn’t that bad, but it doesn’t have enough to hook you, one thing that is rather interesting is the concept that the “user” plays games and when they do the characters get to go inside those worlds. This gives them an excuse to change the setting to a bunch of weird different things including parodies of many movies and tv shows.

Computer Warriors the 80s Tron Cartoon

03/25/201801/29/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

Looking back on..

As a kid I had these two figures that were really odd and I could never figure out, they seemed computer inspired but at the same time it was a soccer ball that turned into a space ship. Much later I found out it was a line of toys called Computer Warriors about some super viruses from a top secret government office get out to the real world and computer warriors are created to stop them. While it had no animated series it did have a pilot “movie” called Computer Warriors The Adventure Begins. So let’s take a look back at this forgotten franchise.

The figures themselves were really cool and even though the space ships disguised as every day items is a neat idea, it did clash with the idea that they’re computer themedur heroes and villains. I have to say the playsets and figures were very well designed. The actual characters are hit or miss, most of the villains are rather cool but not the majority of the computer warrior heroes. They’re small so they had plenty of play possibilities and the space ships did camouflage rather well as the everyday items they were meant to be.