Archive for the ‘Cartoons and Shit’ Category
Monday, April 27th, 2026
I’ve been dipping into the occasional anime lately, and whenever I do one or more of you seems to recommend REDLINE (2009). I’ve been sold for a while, but every time I’ve thought to rent it it’s been checked out. Then I saw that it was playing in a series of anime screenings at my favorite Seattle theater (SIFF Cinema Downtown, f.k.a. Cinerama). I knew the visuals would be better on the big screen, but it didn’t occur to me the that sound would be the most important part until the bass from (music by James Shimoji, SURVIVE STYLE 5+) started thumping in my chest. It’s a racing movie, so the roaring engines are crucial as well, but that danceable techno beat is the key. I definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed this as much turning the volume down out or respect for the neighbors.
It’s set in the future, when intergalactic travel is old hat. The opening text notes that despite civilization having moved beyond the wheel, there are still “fools” who celebrate it in car races. I like how this frames the subject as old school people outside of the mainstream, passionately dedicated to something they’ve been told is obsolete. Very relatable! But this really doesn’t seem like a niche hobby. When our hero unexpectedly qualifies for the titular elite competition reporters mob him like he found a Golden Ticket. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: anime, car racing, Katsuhito Ishii, Madhouse, Takeshi Koike
Posted in Reviews, Cartoons and Shit | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, April 15th, 2026
As you may have seen I’ve been dabbling in a little anime lately, trying to find interesting ones that speak to me. I can’t remember what tipped me off to A TREE OF PALME (2002), but it’s one I found interesting, first because it has an unusual style and transports us to a distinctly strange fantasy world, then because it has a complex mix of tones and emotions that speak to the experience of being human and what not. Two things I enjoy in cinema.
I went in blind, and the first scene after the credits made me think it was gonna be kinda like DUNE. It’s night time in the desert, a blue-skinned warrior lady is being chased by goggled men driving mechanical spiders through the dust storm. They are transporting something covered in burlap that I’m afraid looks very much like a giant penis. The lady decapitates one of her pursuers in self defense but gets swarmed by some plants like the thing they’re transporting, which turn out not to be penises, but weird moving cactus things called Bolas. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: anime, ondes Martenot, Pinocchio, Takashi Harada, Takashi Nakamura
Posted in Reviews, Cartoons and Shit | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, February 25th, 2026
I don’t identify as an anime fan. Not because I’d be ashamed to, but because I don’t want to steal that valor. Real anime fans contain volumes of cultural knowledge that I lack. I don’t think I’m a tourist, but maybe a vacationer. At most a dabbler, a casual partaker, an occasional appreciator. But I love the artform of animation, so some of that stuff hits the spot.
Recently I made the connection that a bunch of the ones I’d enjoyed were directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri: WICKED CITY, NINJA SCROLL, VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST, THE ANIMATRIX and HIGHLANDER: THE SEARCH FOR VENGEANCE. (I also reviewed AZUMI 2: DEATH OR LOVE, a live action movie he wrote.) I like his outlandish characters, his wildly exaggerated violence, and his general approach of style and energy taking precedence over all else. So I remembered the name when I came across a blu-ray called GOKU MIDNIGHT EYE. It’s directed by Kawajiri and written by/based on a manga by Buichi Terasawa, who created another one I really dug called SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA. I’m glad I paid attention, because this is a really good one. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: anime, Buichi Terasawa, cyberpunk, OVA, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Yuki Katsuragi
Posted in Reviews, Action, Cartoons and Shit | 7 Comments »
Thursday, January 29th, 2026
I swear I almost watched KPOP DEMON HUNTERS before it was a big deal. Some of the guys in the Action For Everyone circle were talking it up when it first hit Netflix last summer. During the time I put it off it became a cult phenomenon, then just a mainstream hugely popular thing that all children know about and that honestly I’m sick of hearing about. I’m very aware of how uncool it is for me to watch and/or review it at this late date, but I’m the type that is so cool that it doesn’t faze me to be uncool. So I will admit that my mother-in-law watched it before I did. That’s how cool I am.
I’m sure most of you know this, but in case you don’t, this was a movie made by Sony Pictures Animation (makers of the SPIDER-VERSE and HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA series), but I guess they got cold feet about releasing it and just sold it to Netflix, where luckily it somehow became the rare streaming movie to actually make a mark. It got so popular by word-of-mouth that two months later they did theatrical screenings of a sing-along version and it was the #1 movie for the week. The soundtrack is certified platinum and nominated for five Grammies, and I think the movie is basically guaranteed to win the best animated feature and best original song Oscars, even with SINNERS competing for the latter.
I don’t really get why it’s that big of a deal, but I liked it. A couple minutes into the prologue I was definitely sold on the premise: the human world has always been at war with the demon world, who steal our souls to empower their king Gwi-Ma (Lee Byung-hun, I SAW THE DEVIL). But every generation there is a trio of warriors “born with voices that could drive back the darkness.” They’re not only trained to fight, but to use the power of singing to create a protective barrier called the Honmoon. Their music “ignites the soul and brings the world together,” generating powerful magic, with the ultimate goal of creating an impenetrable “Golden Honmoon” that would block out demons forever. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Ahn Hyo-seop, Arden Cho, Chris Appelhans, Demi Adejuyigbe, Elsie Fisher, Eva Victor, Grace Kuhlenschmidt, Jack Corbett, Janeane Garofalo, Ji-young Yoo, Lee Byung-hun, Maggie Kang, May Hong, Miya Folick, Yunjin Kim
Posted in Reviews, Cartoons and Shit | 22 Comments »
Tuesday, June 10th, 2025
June 10, 2005
HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE is the ninth film directed by Hayao Miyazaki. He’s only done three more in the twenty years since, so I guess it counts as late Miyazaki. When I saw it back then I went to a subtitled screening, so this time I tried it with English dialogue, and that worked well too.
It’s a story about Sophie (Emily Mortimer, THE 51st STATE), a young woman who makes hats in a shop founded by her late father. When her sister Lettie (Jena Malone, FOR LOVE OF THE GAME), a baker, encourages her to find something she loves rather than staying shackled to the family business she swears she’s content doing this.
Then one night after close this terribly rude rich lady (Lauren Bacall, THE BIG SLEEP) comes into the shop and starts saying the hats are tacky. To quote THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE, “we’re a business with posted hours,” so get the fuck out. But this lady is actually the Witch of the Waste, who has come not to look for headwear, but to curse Sophie by turning her 90 years old. Then she’s out of there in a palanquin carried by her henchmen, oily black blob people with nice coats and masquerade masks. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Billy Crystal, Blythe Danner, Christian Bale, Emily Mortimer, Hayao Miyazaki, Jean Simmons, Jena Malone, Josh Hutcherson, Lauren Bacall, Studio Ghibli
Posted in Reviews, Cartoons and Shit, Fantasy/Swords | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, April 15th, 2025
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL is a stop motion movie, not trying to be edgy but not appropriate for (most) kids, kind of like a pretty dark indie comedy, except done with clay figures. I haven’t seen MARY AND MAX, the previous feature from writer/director Adam Elliot, so I don’t know how similar or dissimilar they are, but from my experience this is a very unique use of the medium, constantly narrated, and full of quirky novelistic detail and digressions.
Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook, PREDESTINATION) is a human, not a snail, but she does wear a snail hat. She’s an odd kid and an outcast, made fun of for her cleft lip, and only her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME) will stand up for her. When their dad, Percy (Dominique Pinon, DELICATESSEN), an alcoholic ex-juggler, dies in his sleep, the twins are given to separate foster families, communicating only through letters. At the start of the film Grace’s only (human) friend has just died, and she’s telling the whole story to her pet snail Sylvia. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Adam Elliot, Australian cinema, Bernie Clifford, Dominique Pinon, Eric Bana, Jacki Weaver, Kodi Smit-Mcphee, Magda Szubanski, Nick Cave, Paul Capsis, Sarah Snook, stop motion animation
Posted in Reviews, Cartoons and Shit | 2 Comments »
Thursday, March 27th, 2025
Today instead of one regular-sized review I have two fun-sized looks at movies I saw in theaters last week. They are not making much money and might not last long, but I support the theatrical experience (please clap).
ASH is a low budget sci-fi movie produced by Shudder and directed by Flying Lotus, who I’m a little familiar with as a musician, but I have to confess I couldn’t make it very far into his previous cinematic effort, KUSO (2017). This doesn’t happen to me often but it was just too gross with its pervy opening segment about pustules and stuff. By comparison this one is normal and tolerable, but it still makes sense coming from the same director.
Eiza González (BLOODSHOT, CUT THROAT CITY, AMBULANCE) stars as Riya, a space traveler of some kind who wakes to find her ship in emergency mode, her entire crew dead (including one with a kitchen knife in his chest), not remembering what the fuck happened, or even who she is at first. She medicates herself to calm down (a patch that lights up when she puts it on her neck – nice future tech), wanders out onto the desolate planet where they’ve landed, looks up at cosmic mandalas in the sky, has little scary blips of flashbacks and begins to slowly remember some of the events leading up to this, including bonding with crew members Clarke (Kate Elliott, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT), Kevin (Beulah Koale, DUAL), Davis (Flying Lotus himself), and the captain, Adhi (oh shit, it’s Iko motherfuckin Uwais, MERANTAU, THE RAID, HEADSHOT, BEYOND SKYLINE, THE NIGHT COMES FOR US, TRIPLE THREAT, SNAKE EYES, FISTFUL OF VENGEANCE). (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Aaron Paul, Beulah Koale, Eiza Gonzalez, Flying Lotus, Iko Uwais, Kate Elliott, Looney Tunes, Shudder
Posted in Reviews, Cartoons and Shit, Horror, Science Fiction and Space Shit | 14 Comments »
Tuesday, March 25th, 2025
After enjoying NINJA SCROLL I thought I should go back and check out the first feature film from writer/director/designer Yoshiaki Kawajiri, WICKED CITY (1987). This one takes place in the then-future of the late ‘90s, but it has kind of a noir feel – the hero wears a tie, smokes often, drives around at night and falls for beautiful, dangerous women (in this case they are literally demons).
I thought from the title it would be a dystopian hellscape type city, but it’s more like idealized ‘80s yuppie Shibuya, with our handsome hero Taki going to a nice little bar where he knows the bartender well and both are surprised that a beautiful regular named Kanako has agreed to leave with him.
(read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: anime, Hideyuki Kikuchi, Madhouse, Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Posted in Reviews, Cartoons and Shit, Horror | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, March 4th, 2025
Lately, with reality increasingly losing its appeal, I’ve had more desire to lose myself in fantastical worlds of animation. Even when those places are horrible in their own right it feels like an escape, because at least they’re made of nice drawings and paintings. NINJA SCROLL transports us to a mystical past of deadly assassins, some with magic powers, others just so skilled that they might as well have ‘em. This is from 1993 and it was legendary in that decade for providing extravagant violence that seemed novel to us Americans when delivered in cartoon form. It still kinda works as that, but more importantly I think it holds up as a pretty entertaining movie.
The writer/director is Yoshiaki Kawajiri, and though I never really made the connection that it was the same guy, I’ve written about several of his works. I talked a little about VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST (2000) in my original BLADE II review, I covered THE ANIMATRIX (2003) when I was revisiting that whole franchise (he did the “Program” segment), I really liked his DTV/OVA HIGHLANDER: THE SEARCH FOR VENGEANCE (2007) when I did my review series Highlanderland. Also he wrote the live action AZUMI 2: DEATH OR LOVE, though unfortunately I was disappointed in that one. I do like his stories on the other stuff, but it’s obviously the drawing and movement that makes them fly (often literally). (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: anime, ninjas, Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Posted in Reviews, Action, Cartoons and Shit, Martial Arts | 14 Comments »
Monday, February 17th, 2025
A Complete Unknown Pre-Game Triple Feature: HEARTS OF FIRE (1987) / OLIVER & COMPANY (1988) / HOT SUMMER NIGHTS (2017)
I want to review Best Picture nominee A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, but to set the scene I thought I’d first take a look at earlier works from some of the people involved. So here’s a movie starring the subject, one written by the director, and one with the same star.
First up chronologically is the rock ’n roll drama HEARTS OF FIRE (1987), which starts out like LIGHT OF DAY but goes a little A STAR IS BORN. It follows 18 year-old singer/guitarist Molly McGuire, played by Fiona, a real singer who at the time had two albums on Atlantic Records and had guest starred on an episode of Miami Vice. Molly fronts a bar band in a small town and one day she’s surprised to see reclusive former rock legend Billy Parker (Bob Dylan, PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID) sitting at the bar. She scares him off with her gushing, but on another night he impishly appears in the crowd shouting a request for “The Unusual,” his song she told him was her favorite. Actually I guess it’s a John Hiatt cover, but he comes up and performs it with the band – a highlight of their small time rocker lives. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Bette Midler, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Carl Weintraub, Disney, Dom DeLuise, Emory Cohen, Fiona, Jack Kesy, James Mangold, Jim Cox, Joel Esterhaz, Joey Lawrence, Julian Glover, Maia Mitchell, Maika Monroe, Mark Rylance, Richard Marquand, Richard Mulligan, Richie Havens, Robert Loggia, Roscoe Lee Brown, Rupert Everett, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Susannah Hoffman, Taurean Blacque, Thomas Jane, Tim Disney, Timmy Cappello, Timothee Chalamet, William Fichtner
Posted in Reviews, Cartoons and Shit, Crime, Drama, Music | 8 Comments »
