Fluffyman's Tor-cha Chamber

A few weeks back Lindsay Ellis a.k.a. The Nostalgia Chick did a video on her Top 10 Guilty Pleasures.  This has inspired me to do a list of my own, covering things that I know can be considered bad but I enjoy anyway.  Not just on films or cartoons but on a wide range of things from different media.  I’m putting it under the “CALLING OUT HATERS” moniker because I feel some don’t deserve as much hate as they have gotten, but I do acknowledge why they have, which separates this from my previous rants somewhat.  So let us begin:

Speed Racer (2008):

This was the now Wachowski Siblings at their most insane, some would say The Matrix sequels where they seemed to go out of their mind (Which are guilty pleasures as well but not as much as this is), this is at their unrestrained best.  Adapting an age-old anime series into what is basically a 2 hour and 15 minute drug trip is just some feat in itself.  Warner Bros. provided them with $120 Million to just go balls out, flashy colors, stylized transitions and layers, effects that echo the anime and a world that pretty much is built upon racing.  The film however seemed too crazy for its own good as it tanked both critically and financially when it came out.

As for how I feel about the film, I did already write a review on it and not much has changed since then.  I feel the plot gets a little too convoluted and takes a little too long to get going before we see the first full race.  Spritle and Chim-Chim are annoying, I know they were important parts of the show, but I would have really done without them.  However I do think once the film does get going, it actually is very interesting with the races and the family dynamic between the Racers isn’t that bad, if albeit simple.  Matthew Fox and John Goodman probably some of the standouts in the film, and pop-star Rain doesn’t do that bad of an American debut.  I would say overall though it is not a great film, but it is one that I think has some good qualities that can label it as one of my guilty pleasures

Scooby-Doo:

Those meddling kids and that damn dog, why do I think you suck and yet enjoyable at the same time?  Make no mistake I still find the old Scooby shows to be a little grating to watch as an adult, especially with the forced laugh tracks, tired formula and the unappealing nature of Hanna-Barbera animation.  Still I do have some fond memories of what it was like being a child watching the shows, I still have some appreciation towards that mindset and it really didn’t get that bad until Scrappy Doo and other Scooby relatives was introduced into the cast.

I think one of the only Scooby things I do have a genuine enjoyment out of was Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, the first Direct-to-Video Doo movie that I think gave the franchise the kick in the pants that it needed.  It was genuinely creepy without losing some of the charm that the original characters had, and introduced a Daphne that wasn’t so shallow.  Not to mention has a catchy song “Terror Time Again” as one of the montages.  I thought Mystery Incorporated for at least the episodes I saw wasn’t a bad idea for a revival but I think got too bogged down on the somewhat hollow love subplots.

Even when I keep on saying that this dog kind of ate, I still find that he is one I can’t put down from time to time.

The Ocean Dub of Dragon Ball Z:

In terms of discussing dubs people usually put themselves in either the Ocean dub or the Funimation dub camp.  I know a lot of people who grew up with the Ocean dub and when the show was brought back through Funimation, it was jarring to say the least.  Why does Krillin sound like he has a frog in his throat?  What is this weird electronic music?  Why does Frieza still sound like a woman?

Over time the Funimation voice cast did grow on me, especially when they became more comfortable in their roles in later seasons and Kai.  However part of me does have a soft spot for Ocean, even if they did butcher the show by removing specific portions or referring to death as being “sent to another dimension.”  The voice actors though weren’t bad; I did like Brian Drummond’s Vegeta, and Scott McNeil’s Piccolo.  I also have a strange enjoyment out of the theme “Rock the dragon”, which was no “Head Cha-La” it still had a rocking guitar riff.

The Ocean Dub may not have been the best but I still have some estranged appreciation for it.  You UNDERSTTTAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNDDDDDD?

The Soundtrack to Batman Forever:

My feelings towards the film remain unchanged; it still sucks in my eyes.  The soundtrack however stands out for me, as there are quite a few genuinely good and catchy songs within.  U2’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” probably being my favorite, and I don’t think songs like “Kiss From A Rose” and “Smash It Up” are too bad either.  Flaming Lips’ “Bad Days” probably fit the movie more than any song if only for its placement in the film.  Nothing more to say than I still don’t like the movie, but I really get a kick out of the soundtrack.  And is it just me or do some of the guitar riffs of “The Boy Falls from the Sky” (Also composed by members of U2) sound suspiciously similar to “Hold Me”?

Flash Gordon (1980):

This film is cheese, pure unadulterated cheese.  I mean how hard is it to take seriously when one action sequence is treated like a game of football.  How about BRIAN BLESSED hamming it up in just about every scene he’s in?  Or how about Max Von Sydow playing an Asian stereotype playing an alien?  Sure the hero is kind of bland.  Sure the visual effects haven’t aged well.  Sure I could see where they kind of lifted off Star Wars, but hey they did it first to the original serials pal.  The film is still a glorious kind of cheese that I would not turn away if presented in front of me.

What is more timeless than the film itself though is, of course, the soundtrack by Queen.  They didn’t just make a few songs for it like they would do with Highlander, they did the whole musical score and the infamous theme song.  This is what makes this movie, almost seeing it as an 111 minute accompaniment to one of the most rocking Queen sounds on the face of the Earth.  Come for the cheese, stay for the Queen is what I say.

Hook:

I may have mentioned this film in a bit of a negative light on my CALLING OUT HATERS on A.I., and well I don’t think this is a great film.  Part of the problem I think is that this film isn’t as strong as it could have been, seeing what happens if Peter Pan moved out of Neverland and had grown up into a boring man with little imagination.  I think though the movie just suffers from a bit of a mixed bag of production values, Spielberg’s sentimental tendencies almost at their worst, and a conclusion that feels a bit too drawn out.

However, I do not hate the film as there are quite a number of things I like to watch from it, Dustin Hoffman playing the titular Captain James T. Hook being one of them.  He seems to revel in this role and how he plays off of Bob Hoskins’ Smee are very enjoyable scenes.  Robin Williams playing an older Pan isn’t too bad either, he might be still playing himself in some ways but he still feels a natural playing the role.  It is also interesting to see Dante Basco someone who would go from lost boy to an American Dragon and a Fire Nation Prince, seeing where he began as Rufio in the minds of some people’s childhoods.

Just as Queen made Flash Gordon, John Williams made Hook.  Just listening to this score alone will probably bring up some memories, whether it was seeing the film or hearing it reused in a film trailer.  I always have the best nostalgia for John Williams scores and this one is no different… although I feel having one of the characters sing “When You’re Alone” in the middle of the film was kind of a misfire, I know the film was originally going to be a musical but I just don’t see the need for this.

This film was a part of my childhood and while I don’t think it’s great, I still think I have some heart for it, guilty as it may be.

Wrestling:

I was once an avid viewer of Wrestling back when the WWE was the WWF, when WCW and ECW was still around, and when championships were actually taken seriously.  My interest kind of dwindled at the turn of the century but I still check it out once in a while, and right now it is not really enjoyable to watch.  Whether it is the boring and inexplicable shenanigans on TNA or the really stupid and dull decisions made by the WWE, there is not a lot that I enjoy from wrestling.  The most exposure I get these days is from Botchamania, so I don’t have to suffer watching whole shows anymore.

Part of me still enjoys wrestling… when it is good not some half-assed soap opera with people brawling occasionally.  Not a lot of it is as real, but a good wrestling match can make you forget that there is likely a script or a plan ahead of time.  The spectacle I always enjoy as well, the sort of maneuvers wrestlers can pull off and sell moves that probably hurt less than they look.  It is always good to see good personalities trash talk as well, I would like to know what the Rock was cooking.

Though I would say the dark side of wrestling does turn me off on the sport a bit, especially what this sort of stuff can do to wrestler’s bodies.  I do however have some part of me want to watch wrestling, in spite of all that and the crap that’s out there.

Power Rangers:

Just like Lindsay got me to thinking about Guilty Pleasures, it was Linkara and his “History of Power Rangers” series that got me thinking back to a time when I didn’t find it strange that some of the morphed sequences looked much older than the rest of the footage.  Like some kids I did grow up with the adaptations of the Japanese Super Sentai and pretty much fell into a phase where I saw it and related stuff, like VR Troopers, Big Bad Beetle Borgs, which were okay at best and but I really scraped the bottom of the barrel with Masked Rider, Super Human Samurai Syber Squad and Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills (Yes that was really a show, see the intro).

Yeah with all that other crap in comparison Power Rangers wasn’t that bad, and in some ways it was better than I previously gave credit for.  The makers had to combine old footage from one show and make it into something new and interesting for American audiences, and as a child I could not tell the differences.  The seams can be noticeable as I have stated, not to mention near the end of the Mighty Morphin run they were combining three shows into one, and the discrepancy of footage can be nowhere near as apparent, especially when they pitted the Thunderzords with the Dragonzord in the second season.  I am still annoyed by Kimberly, being the stereotypical valley girl that she was, and I feel that the trio that replaced Jason, Zack and Trini were not as interesting.  If I can put aside some of that I still find some fun in watching Power Rangers albeit not as much as a kid but I think I have a more clear mind after seeing Linkara talk about it.

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show and the other Mario cartoons:

Hey Pisano’s!  I have no allusions that any of the shows was a well-done show, the animation was cheap, some of the stories made no sense, the endless pasta puns just can get grating and I want to strange Toad, Oogtar and Yoshi every time they open their mouths.  There is a bit of an enjoyable insanity to everything though just how ridiculous they perceive the Mario universe to be.  As well Captain Lou Albano wasn’t that bad of a choice for Mario in both the corny live-action and the first show, I think was a better actor than the guy that would play him later.   Then there is the endless YouTube Poop fodder, “Mama Luigi” especially giving many an entertainment, even I jumped on the bandwagon.  They aren’t the perfect adaptations but they are definitely interesting to watch, and by god leagues better than The Legend of Zelda series.

Long John Baldry as Dr. Ivo Robotnik in The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog:

Where it stands overall The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog is just a show that tries to be Looney Tunes, but it doesn’t try to establish itself so much as its own, in comparison the SatAM Sonic The Hedgehog series decides to take a decidedly darker tone and feels a bit more unique for it.  One thing I can’t come to dislike or feel apathetic about either way though is the Adventures version of Dr. Robotnik as played by late British Blues singer Long John Baldry.  Robotnik is of course portrayed as the typical incompetent villain who whines, and has even more incompetent minions in the form of Scratch and Grounder, but John makes it all the more enjoyable to watch.  Just the way he hams his dialogue, rrrrolls his r’s and has odd epenthesis on syllables (“SnooPING AS usual I see.”) the man is the major highlight of what is otherwise a mediocre show.  Though it is sometimes creepy how the animators have fun with the character, nothing is more eye scarring then see a fat grown man’s ass move while playing the piano like it has a mind of its own.  Jim Cummings might be the ultimate portrayal of Robotnik in some people’s ears but I still think Baldry deserves some kudos.

So that is the start of my list of Guilty Pleasures, if you have any guilty pleasures to share or comment on, I don’t need to tell you where the comment box is.

And AS usual, KEEP COMMENTS CIVIL.

Let me leave this rant now with some of the late Long John Baldry’s music.  The guy was a really good musician too; it’s weird how he got entangled in a cartoon series in which one episode he actually had to suck at singing.

End of Rant

Poster Made by: Dreamworks Pictures and Warner Bros.
Courtesy of: Wikipedia

What can be said about Steven Spielberg that hasn’t already?  The guy has pretty much defined the blockbuster back in 1975 with Jaws.  Since then he’s pretty much been a part of someone’s childhood one form or another.  I mainly grew up with his films on VHS, E.T. and Indiana Jones probably most clearly, while I actually did see Jurassic Park at the Drive-in it was mainly with my back turned (I was very little at the time).  I also grew up in the era he produced such childhood favorites of mine like Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, and television cartoons like Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain and Freakazoid.  Spielberg pretty much defined a lot of my childhood, and I’m pretty sure he has done many others; the man has over 50 years of work behind him.

However there is not always a grand consensus on his films, they are either loved or really disliked, some think he is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time or he’s one of the most overrated.  One of the more polarizing decades in terms of Spielberg’s output had to be the 2000s, while he still did have some questionable output in the decade before (Hook and The Lost World anyone?) this was the era where some people think old Stevie was losing his touch.

The film that marked this decade off was A.I. Artificial Intelligence, a film that would have been Spielberg’s collaboration with another legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, however Kubrick died in 1999 before his Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman sex-odyssey Eyes Wide Shut was released.  There has not been a film more polarizing in his latest filmography, either people really love it or hate it, or in some cases mostly love it but don’t really like the ending.  If anything that Spielberg’s works in the 2000s stand out for me is the “polarizing ending” decade, where a lot of his films released during the time have really polarizing opinions towards how they ended with this, Minority Report, War of the Worlds, and Munich probably standing out the most.

Personally, I do fit in the category of “love most of the movie, didn’t really like the ending.”  Yeah unlike The Return of the King I’m not going to come at the defense of the filmmaker over how they decided to end the movie, but I’ll get to that later.

For the most part I feel A.I. was a very well made Science-Fiction fable.  For the most part I love the structure of the film, David (Hailey Joel Osment) a part of a new line of robots meant to mimic human emotion is introduced to a family who are uncertain to the future of their own child.  We get to see the bonding he makes with the family, especially the mother Monica (Frances O’Connor) who decides to input a code that activates his more humanistic attributes.  Things go sour however when their son Martin (Jake Thomas) comes back and ends up throwing a wrench in the dynamic by both being an absolute ass to David and in turn David feels competitive and almost unintentionally kills him.  Monica decides instead of making him into scrap leaves David to the world at large, but due to his inexperience in the world believes there is a silver lining and that is the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio, that can change him into a real boy.

Part of what makes this work I think is Hailey Joel Osment; The Sixth Sense may have been the performance that everyone talks of him to this day, A.I. I think is overlooked in terms of how good he was at a young age.  The kid acted so much like what an android could be it was scary, never blinking, always keeping a childlike innocence to him and becoming absolutely unsure how to face a world he is unfamiliar with.  The scene in which he discovers where he was born from is probably one of the best acting moments in Osment’s career, especially the subtle acting he gives when he discovers the whole assembly line of himself.

That is not to say the other actors weren’t too bad either, Jude Law’s Gigolo Joe probably was the standout character in many people’s minds and it is no wonder.  Jude exudes just a sort of suave likability and some of the most memorable lines in the film, making him a great tag-along to David during the second act of the film.  Frances O’Connor wasn’t too bad as Monica either, really making the emotional connection she feels with David feel believable, especially when she goes through the drawings David made.  There are good bit parts too with William Hurt, Brendan Gleeson and Robin Williams that really help with the story.

One of the best roles however had to go to Teddy, a completely visual effect creation; it was actually a believable moving robotic Teddy Bear, what I would imagine such a thing would look like if produced for real.  The combination of animatronics, subtle CGI and Jack Angel’s performance brings him to life.  If I were a kid and this were available I would like to have had one, and I normally didn’t care for Teddy bears.  The visual design of the film overall is a strong point, Rouge City, the flesh fare, the flooded New York City, really sets a good atmosphere for the rest of the movie.  This was also probably one of John Williams’ best scores of that decade, much more subdued in ambience than his other works and fits the overall tone of the film immensely.

If there are a few things I felt went wrong is that maybe Spielberg does turn up the sentimentality a few times though that has been a thing with him for most of his career, and some of the things that happen have a bit of a logic problem especially when David eats his Spinach.  As well the fact the film was released before 9/11 and has the World Trade Center intact in a flooded New York City dates it immediately.  However I overlook some of those because I feel the overall experience is strong.   But like others the ending is where I feel the film mostly falls flat.

After David’s said discovery of his origins, he decides to try and sink himself in the bottom of the ocean floor, in I guess a vein effort to kill himself.  Then something a bit weird happens, and… fish guide him along towards Coney Island?  Even forgoing the rest of this film I still don’t know what the hell this is about, even in context of the film it doesn’t make a lot of sense.  But essentially he is led to something that strikes his interest, so after Gigolo Joe is caught by the Police, David decides to pursue this object and it turns out to be the Blue Fairy.  He keeps repeating “please make me into a real boy” and it seems tragic as this Blue Fairy would never respond to him.

Like a lot of people who saw this the first time, I was expecting the film to end here to make a Downer ending, which well would have worked actually.  Unlike Return of the King I would not have had a problem with where this would have ended, it feels a bit of a logical conclusion to his journey, that he’s been on the journey of false hope all along that in the end he is faced with the ultimate reality, a Blue Fairy only exists in just that fairy tales.

However, the film decides to go on, now it’s hundreds of years in the future, NYC is a frozen wasteland all that is left is heavily advanced robots.  This in itself isn’t so bad, as the prospect of robots outliving humans was foreshadowed in the film itself.  However where it goes downhill from there after they uncover David and places him in a replica of Monica’s home, able to resurrect Monica for one day.  This is where things go a little too sweet for my tastes.

I mean while the resurrection of Monica was foreshadowed with Teddy keeping the lock that David cut off from her and the narrations by Ben Kingsley, this kind of forced final day between David and her just does not feel as solid with the rest of the film.  I could buy David and Teddy being preserved for hundreds of years, I could buy robots advancing to a more advanced level (Even if it’s confusing as it’s not made clear, I did too mistake them for aliens), but how can follicles of hair which don’t have any DNA attached to them resurrect someone even if for a day, not to mention frozen?  I know it’s a bit of suspension of disbelief but I feel like it was just a cheap way to provide closure that really was not needed.  Ben Kinglsey’s narration also felt intrusive, explaining scenes that could have easily been said more by actions, and just trying to force the emotional impact of David seeing her mother again rather than let the audience feel it for themselves.  The film would have been fine had they ended it earlier, the closure just feels like a filmmaker’s reluctance to end it on a sad note.

It is hard to really pin the blame solely on Spielberg who penned the film; Kubrick helped develop the story and actually came up with the Pinocchio parallels.  Whether it was Spielberg that came up with the closure or Kubrick though, it still was a weak ending that pretty much didn’t match with the quality and tone the rest of the film had in my opinion.

However I would not say that a weak ending automatically makes it a bad film, nor do I think it is the only thing people have criticized.  I just think that A.I. is not as bad of a film as some would say, that it was not another 1941, it wasn’t even the weakest Spielberg film of that decade for me (It’s between the so-sweet-you’ll-get-cavities The Terminal and the obviously rushed Kingdom of the Crystal Skull).  In terms of weak Spielberg ending to an otherwise well done film I’d say the awful intercutting between sex and tragedy sequence near the end of Munich is probably worse than A.I.

So what are your opinions on A.I.?  Do you think of anymore Spielberg movies that undeservedly get a bad rap?  Drop me a comment and as always…

KEEP COMMENTS CIVIL.

End of Rant

location: In SHILED HQ

mood: annoyed

music: "Spectacular Spider-Man" Theme

Well what if I stopped in the middle of this review to just explain things about myself, talk directly to you my readers about how I have achieved a minor audience for my reviewing and CALLING OUT of HATERS.  Then crack a gag about how getting into this was just rowing blindly into rapids, and then I’d show an image of myself of rowing blindly into rapids.  Then I would go on with my review, and then decide to convey more in depth on a specific thing that just stops the review without any forward momentum, give another visual gag…

Point is, this would get annoying and it is the exact same experience I have felt through the latest animated adaptation of our friendly neighborhood wall-crawler Ultimate Spider-Man.  The first two episodes of this show, was a laborious experience through what has to a very misguided attempt at making a light-hearted and cartoonish attempt at the Spider-Man mythos.

This is not so much Batman: Brave and the Bold as it is a mixed combination of Spider-Man, with the cutaway humor of Family Guy, a trial to replicate the anime inspired mayhem of Teen Titans, and the fourth wall gags in-between Freakazoid, Saved by the Bell and Deadpool.  The show tries to be so many things, but never really comes off as a Spider-Man show.  The thing is about Batman: The Brave and the Bold is that the lighter and softer approach worked right within the narrative; here it struggles to find any sort of tone to stick to.  They do retain a lot of the origin stuff, but they are overshadowed by the constant attempts at comedy and so much fourth-wall breaking, to a point where they just stop the show dead in their tracks.  Spider-Man comics never did Zack Morris style fourth wall jokes and visual gags, something like that was usually Deadpool’s thing, comes off as just something entirely non-Spidey. 

The story is also something that feels wrong, the idea Spider-Man needs “help” to become a better superhero by getting a whole ton of gadgets from SHIELD and becoming a part of a team.  The sort of Spidey becoming a superspy thing just doesn’t work with the character; he usually invented his own stuff and overcame adversity on his own.  These additions take away from the show being just a story of Spider-Man and come off as more of a merchandizing venue.  It also takes more away from the story, as we’re barely focusing on some of the most interesting aspects of Spider-Man’s life: his social life in high school.  We do get introduced to Aunt May, Mary Jane and Harry, but they’re barely an element after Peter gives the backstory, which like the gags stop the momentum of the stories dead in their tracks.

To complement the show, the animation and voice acting is pretty good, I didn’t think Drake Bell (Who previously played a Spider-Man Parody) did a bad job as the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler, and it is great hearing J.K. Simmons return as J. Jonah Jamison.  If there is anything I can fault the animation is that the character models aren’t very interesting, some look cut-and-paste and others just awkwardly designed.  Spectacular had some odd designs as well, but this is a bit far into an opposite, so blandly human characters.

Overall, if the third episode doesn’t give any more compelling elements I am not going to check out the rest of this show.  Spectacular Spider-Man was able to draw me in much better than this, be a good show for a young audience without all the visual flair and constantly annoying fourth wall humor.  Come to think of it, I think I should really get around to finishing that show.  From what I saw was good, and people have said it is excellent, I even own the First Season on DVD, I should probably get to that sooner or later.

Verdict: One more episode.

If I do have any last thoughts I do hope The Amazing Spider-Man is able to do something different without completely alienating me like this did.

End of Rant

location: Bending Pictures of Spider-Man

mood: excited

music: "Legend of Korra" Theme

This has been one of my most anticipated shows of this year. It has been over three years since Avatar: The Last Airbender ended and over year since that thing which I shall never name happened, so quite a bit of time has passed for this property, which thankfully recently decided to strip itself of The Last Airbender name (Such an eyesore that was).  While the premiere isn’t for a few weeks, Korranation.com the official website to the show, thanks to a likes/shares campaign has released the pilot and second episode of the show a bit early.  Having seen all 45 minutes of the episode, what do I think so far?

The show establishes from the onset that this is not going to be the same world as the previous series, 70 years have passed and the core cast of the last series is not going to be around.  Instead of a lost-in-time “only familiar with his natural element” 12-year-old Avatar, the new one is a child prodigy Korra (Janet Varney) who has learned to bend three of the four elements since she was six, however into her teenage years has yet to master the element of air, which is what one of Aang and Katara’s sons Tenzin (J.K. Simmons) must teach her.  Then there is where the series takes place the city that Aang helped build Republic City, moving away from the ancient and steampunk ascetics of the last series, into a 1920s-esque era of automobiles (Or satomobiles as they are called), gangsters and electricity.  The antagonists this time seem not to be a whole nation but a revolutionary movement against bending led by someone named Amon (Spike Spiegel himself Steven Jay Blum), however as of the first two episodes they haven’t been fleshed out just yet.

If there is anything about these elements though, is that they are introduced a bit quickly.  Barely enough time is given to Korra’s backstory, and around the halfway mark of the first episode she is already in Republic City.  In the preceding show, it took until the third episode for the characters to move forward in their journey from the Southern Water Tribe, leaving time to develop and establish the characters as well as the story.  I know that everything doesn’t have to be reintroduced, but since the universe has changed so much in 70 years I’d have taken the pacing down a bit to better establish everything.  I have a feeling this may be due to the original idea of a 12 episode mini-series, I think a less quick pacing could have helped.

Getting past the pacing though, I really like this new world.  I am thankful it is not just Avatar: The Last Airbender 2.0, while the technical progress and the fact most of the cast will no longer be seen has been a controversial element of the series, but I see it as more to establish itself as its own beast rather than take directly from the previous show.  Korra isn’t the same character as Aang, and Republic City isn’t just some random town where she can act Avatar justice willy nilly.  The world is advanced yet keeping some of the old design astehtics from the previous series, especially in regards to language, clothing and building design.  The White Lotus is still around, though this time to look over the Avatar, and Toph’s daughter Lin Bei Fong (Mindy Sterling) has her own metal bending police force.  Bending has become a sport, with its own set of unique rules and play styles to the players bending abilities.  As mentioned before the antagonists aren’t just a whole nation, it is a subgroup probably made up of non-bending people of different nations, with a kind of a V motif going on with their leader.

Now a lot of this probably would be moot if the characters, as well as the actors who portray them, weren’t compelling.  Thankfully the strength of characterization from the previous series has been brought on here.  Korra might have a bit of traits that might put her into Mary Sue territory, thankfully they handle the whole proficiency with three elements thing better than I would have asked for, as well her brash uncontrollable personality makes it feel like she has a lot more to learn.  The highlight of the two episodes though has to be Tenzin and his adorable children, and the old man himself is almost a change for the voice actor J.K. Simmons, he has a more relaxed voice even when being angry, a contrast the roles he’s played in the past like Jonah Jamison or Cave Johnson.  If there is not much I am certain so far is the characters of Mako (David Faustino) and Bolin (P.J. Byrne) who are supposed to make up the new “Team Avatar” but so far I’m not quite sure if they will stand the test of Katara, Sokka and Toph just yet.

I will certainly check this series out again once it formally premieres, and for however long it lasts.  This really renewed some hope in me after The Last Airbender was just such an atrocious adaptation (And I should really get back to that review sometime), glad that this show could wipe my mind clean of that sore spot… even if Movie Yue has yet to show up.

Verdict: Will be staying for the whole season.

End of Rant