It's safe to say video game sprites weren't meant to faithfully represent what the characters would look like in real life, game designers were just doing the best they could with so few pixels while trying to keep their characters visually interesting.
Sprites are better off in 2D, and as illustrator Scott Johnson demonstrates when you try to bring those 8-bit sprites into any sort of three dimensional space you end up with a total horrorshow:
It would have been mighty hard to root for characters that look like they just crawled out of a radioactive swamp, although there's still something cute about little misshapen Link.
When you hear an animated short is entitled The Legend of the Flying Tomato several images probably come to mind- jeering audiences made up of kids armed with rotten fruit, the next evolution in killer tomatoes, or that one Veggie Tales short they cut because it was too “edgy”.
Well, this short does start with rotten tomatoes being thrown, but the Flying Tomato in question is a little girl with big dreams of becoming a larger-than-life pro wrestler:
Attempting to recap George R.R. Martin's entire epic series A Song of Ice and Fire in two minutes is an extremely tall order, but Slacktory host Nick Douglas was so sure he was up to the task that he let the camera roll and went for it.
He failed, of course, but Nick did manage to become so lost in his stream-of-thought ramblings that even people who have read the entire epic series will struggle to make sense of it all, thereby confusing everyone into believing Nick has actually read the entire series.
Nick’s video contains spoilers (kinda), so if you live in fear of Game of Thrones-related spoilers you may not want to tune in. Otherwise, enjoy watching Nick flounder!
On September 5, 1992, Batman: The Animated Series--one of the greatest American cartoons of the 1990s--first aired. It launched a great era of DC superhero cartoons known to fans as the DC Animated Universe. Here are 15 facts you might not know about this show.
1. Animators Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski created this short pilot film in order to pitch their Batman series to network executives. They voiced it themselves, with Timm providing Batman's grunts and Radomski providing everything else.
2. Radomski developed the backgrounds for the series. In order to give it the film noir atmosphere that he and Timm wanted, Radomski started by painting everything black, then adding highlights. The visual effect of this decision is especially effective in the shots of Gotham's skyline.
3.Among the strongest visual influences for the show were the old Dave Fleischer Superman cartoons. These 17 cartoons, such as the one you see above, were made in the 1940s.
4.When casting for the voice of Batman, voice director Andrea Romano searched for a voice that was “inherently sexy.” Batman was “a rule breaker,” and that dangerousness could appeal to women. Kevin Conroy had just the right voice and nailed his audition.
DC Comics is giving Batgirl a new life, a new look, and an awesome new costume. The first issue will be out in October, illustrated by Babs Tarr. The stories will be written by Cameron Stewart and Brendan Fletcher. MTV talked to all three.
Stewart: Batgirl has really been put through the wringer in recent years – after being attacked and paralyzed by the Joker, her brother turning out to be a serial murderer, the trauma of her family breaking apart and the series of gruesome villains she’s had to contend with, we figured she deserved a break from all that. Just prior to the start of our story she’s pushed to the breaking point and decides that she’s had it with misery and darkness and wants a change. She wants the opportunity to have some fun and live the life of a young, single girl in the city, so she packs up and moves to Burnside, the cool, trendy borough of Gotham, to focus on grad school.
The costume is awesome, don't you think? It's supposed to be one that Batgirl made herself. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Want to take your totally 21st century business back to the glory days of the 1990s? Then you gotta keep it old school by replacing your boring rectangular business cards with some fresh round Business Pogs.
They’re a game of some sort, a cool conversation piece and a business card in one, and when you’re done with them you can throw them away-just like the original pogs from the 90s!
Not sure if this is some genius level marketing or a horrible way to advertise yourself, also not sure if this site is a joke or for realsies despite their claims that "This is a real product and real site!", but one thing is certain- nobody will ever forget you if you hand them a pog business card!
The live action hero in a half shell legacy began in 1990 with the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, which many fans believe to be the only worthwhile movie in the franchise’s history.
Even fans of the comic book loved the film when it first came out (which used to be a rare occurrence), and even though it looks campy compared to today's standards there's something inherently charming about characters created with practical effects rather than CGI.
No wonder the TMNT were so charming- their suits were created by Jim Henson's Creature Workshop, and it's said that Jim was rather upset with the amount of violence in the movie.
That on-screen violence was the same reason Playmates Toys decided not to release a toy line featuring characters from the movie, even though they were already releasing the Ninja Turtle toy line based on the animated TV series.
Vacations don’t have to be mundane, or involve flying on a crowded plane, because the galaxy has been opened up to the tourism industry, and we can now pay a visit to the stars!
Marvel would like to invite you to explore the cosmos with Galaxy Getaways, their clever way of introducing audiences to some of the alien planets found in the upcoming movie Guardians of the Galaxy:
Once the travel video has finished implanting a travel bug in your neurochamber make sure you visit The Galaxy Getaways site, where you can learn about all the adventures that await you on the abandoned planet Morag, or the best thing to order when you visit the renowned restaurant Gluborg's on Xandar, "a peaceful paradise in the stars". Bon voyage!
He’s the shy little pig with an extremely pronounced stutter, and even though he was typically cast as a sidekick (and the fact that he doesn’t wear pants) he became one of the most beloved Warner Brothers cartoon characters of all time.
Every WB cartoon fan has tried to do the Porky Pig stutter at one time or another, but Mel Blanc is a difficult voice act to follow unless you know how to p-p-p-prop-p-perly st-stu-stu-stutter like good ol’ Porky himself:
Let voice actor Bob Bergen, who incidentally knew Mel Blanc and may have picked up a few pointers from him, show you how it’s done so you can wow toon fans and s-s-st-stu-...talk funny just like a cartoon superstar!
The Last Starfighter was the story of a guy who escaped trailer park life by becoming really good at an arcade game- his epic high score got the attention of aliens who were in need of a hero, and a generation of kids who grew up loving video games were officially hooked by this dream come true premise.
When The Last Starfighter came out in 1984 arcade obsessed kids just couldn't get enough, but most of us knew very little about the movie except for what we saw on the screen, and the fact that Atari promised us a Last Starfighter arcade game but never delivered.
When it was published in 1938, Action Comics #1 cost 10 cents. It was the first appearance of Superman. As a result, surviving copies can sell for more than a million dollars.
Joe Shuster drew the now famous cover image. It shows Superman heroically lifting a wrecked car. Or we assume that he's being a hero. Have you actually read Action Comics #1? I haven't.
David J. Peterson is a linguist by trade and a conlanger by hobby -until he actually got a job inventing languages. HBO hired him to create the fantasy languages used in the series Game of Thrones: Dokrathi and Valyrian. How does one manage to land a job like that? They contacted a club of conlangers, the Language Creation Society.
The Language Creation Society then put together an application process, which took the form of a contest. You had to sign an NDA in order to see what show it was, so a lot of good conlangers—those of us who create languages for fun—didn’t take it seriously. But there were still about 40 really excellent conlangers who applied, and I was one of them. There were two rounds of judging. First round of judging was by language creators; the second round was by producers. And I’m the one who made it through both rounds.
I had been creating languages for 10 years. But everybody else applying was equally skilled. So I figured the edge that I had was pretty much an endless amount of time—I was unemployed. I just decided: Well, let’s just try to create the whole thing. In those rounds of judging, I created about 90 percent of the grammar—which is ridiculous for two months. Then I created 1,700 words of vocabulary—which is equally ridiculous for two months. Overall, I produced about 300 total pages of material. I figure that was probably what put it over the top.
Since then, Peterson has been pretty busy. In addition to Game of Thrones, he’s the staff linguist for several other TV series now. The A.V. Club talked to Peterson about the challenges of constructing a language, from scratch or from the few words George R.R. Martin used in his books, and what it’s like working for the hit HBO show. -via Metafilter
For those who want to build LEGO sets without committing to the high cost of buying LEGO sets there is now a monthly rental option called Pley.
Pley is an online rental service that allows you, the builder, to rent sets for a monthly fee and return them whenever you’re done building them up and taking them apart again.
You get the joy of building (virtually) every LEGO set you've ever wanted to build without having to take out a loan, and they'll even forgive you for losing up to fifteen pieces, which is more forgiveness than you'd allow yourself after paying full price for a set.
The pieces are disinfected between rentals, their library is ever expanding, so any set you see is sure to show up in stock soon, and it serves as yet another example of how good kids have it nowadays!
H. R. Giger’s dream of making a "unique love story" based on his extremely visual ideas, a movie entitled The Mystery of San Gottardo, sadly wasn’t realized before his untimely death, and fans of Giger's work are left wondering what could have been...
San Gottardo is an "unique love story", a surreal exercise in human form and its deconstruction, and a waking nightmare all wrapped up in a package that looks like it was sent straight from Silent Hill.
In fact, some creatures from Silent Hill were definitely inspired by Giger’s San Gottardo project, does this lovely creature look familiar?:
Giger's Mystery movie was based on an early sketch he drew in 1963, and even though he started working on the storyline in the 70s, and had written the entire screenplay, San Gottardo proved to be far too strange for Hollywood studios to produce:
"It is about a man and his love for a freak of nature, Armbeinda, which is really a sentient limb combining an arm and a leg. It is the further development of a recurring image in my work over the last 30 years."
The concept stems from a 1963 creation called "The Beggar," Giger's very first sketch, featuring a leg and an arm holding a hat. Giger has filled several sketchbooks with the stories of these "reduced" beings.
The story concerns a race of biomechanoids created by a military organization. The premise: your arms and legs are slaves that do your bidding, but what if they have a mind of their own and were set free? Ink drawings depict the disembodied parts attacking their creator (Giger's self-portrait) in the San Gottardo border tunnel which links Switzerland and Italy. To insure that his vision remains intact, Giger hopes to retain creative control as a producer on the film... and not be forced to rely on CGI.
The world has once again gone to the apes thanks to the new film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, so folks are trotting out all kinds of factoids from the original five films, remembering how much they hated the Tim Burton remake, and discussing whether the new film will faithfully add to the original franchise...
That’s great and all, but what if you want to see some ape suited actors letting it all hang out? You need to check out this Variety article entitled 7 Crazy Planet of the Apes Moments You Won’t Believe, because it’s the swingin’ place to be!
There’s a young(ish) Cher hanging out with some simian pals:
Paul Williams in full orangutan makeup singing a soulful tune on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson:
...and many more examples of monkeying around sure to make you screech with laughter!
It might be just the thing to get you in the mood to watch the original five movies again, and the perfect demonstration of why practical effects are sometimes way better than CGI- because animated apes can't make guest appearances on TV shows!
