Robot Chicken: Star Wars Special
Animated
Directed by Seth Green
Starring Seth Green, Matthew Senreich
Turner Home Entertainment
Release date: July 22, 2008

By far my favorite televisual feast has to be the Emmy-winning Robot Chicken on Adult Swim. Take away any form of guidance whatsoever and let a couple of graduates from “The Eternally Revolving College of Beer Pong” revel in their own distinctive, twisted, sometimes sick humor with absolutely no compromise. Add to the mix the fact that the characters in this entirely stop-motion animated show come from the graveyard of toys and action figures from the last 20 odd years of television and movie marketing and you have the ingredients for some serious side-splitting laughs.

Enter the newly released DVD Robot Chicken: Star Wars Special. The brainchild of Seth Green and Matthew Senreich under the guise of Stoopid Monkey Productions, in conjunction with Alex Bulkley and Corey Campodonico’s ShadowMachine. Just under half an hour of action figures and remodeled toys from various Star Wars movies parading around in a collection of skits from deep within the insanity that is Stoopid Monkey Productions. Seriously, Boba Fett’s private moment with the carbonite-encrusted Han Solo? Admiral Ackbar Cereal? This stuff is mad funny and I think I have now watched the DVD 5 times already. Hey, it’s under half an hour and the work these animators put in really deserves closer inspection.

Speed Racer the Next Generation:
The Beginning
Voice cast: Kurt Csolak, Peter Fernandez, Robbie Sublett
Lionsgate
Release Date: May 6, 2008

Hot on the heels of the recently released movie of the same name, this movie-length primer with the movie-length name Speed Racer the Next Generation: The Beginning cartoon is a breath of fresh air to any Speed Racer fan able to stomach a few upgrades here and there.

I was, of course, utterly skeptical (I even had my skeptical spectacles on!) when I got this DVD for I saw Speed (Jr. I guess – but I will get to that later) puff-chested and CGI-like on the cover and thought to myself “here we go, a sad rip off of the original and classic Speed Racer” (cue the theme music). But, to my surprise, I found the movie quite watcheable and a decent premise to a series that “promises” to be pretty decent.

Two things impressed me about Speed Racer the Next Generation: The Beginning (and for the benefit of all Geeks I am reducing that to Speed Racer TNG TB from now on). Firstly, there is a cunning transition between your usual Saturday morning 2D cartooning and the smooth — and obviously much more labor intensive — CGI-syled computer-generated motion graphics. I would love to explain this further, but I am sure a watch of the movie will explain it much better than I can. Cleverly, the creators of this series have woven in the ability to transport the actual vehicle races onto a “virtual race-track” giving them complete creative license to have Speed and his teammates/adversaries/robots race through anything from a Tron-like, space-age landscape to an ice world and back to a dessert and then back again. This concept I imagine will be the high point of all the following cartoons.

The Life Of Mammals
The BBC Natural History Collection
Documentary
Host: David Attenborough
BBC Video
Release date: January 22, 2008

To me, Sir David Attenborough, OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS, FZS, is without a doubt the most watcheable human encyclopedia there is. His boundless enthusiasm and stiff upper-lip English gentleman-like style make him a very pleasant guest in your living room and an enthralling narrator.

David and I go way back. When I was a child I religiously watched Life on Earth (1979) and then The Living PLanet (1984), two differing series exposing some of the most wonderful and some of the most strangest creatures and plants on the planet.

The Life of Mammals is no exception. I actually had to delay my review because I was glued to every episode with the child-like wonder I remember from back then. The difference being that advances in technology have given David and his team abilities far reaching enough to expose many wonders of the mammalian world hitherto kept from our prying eyes over a three-year filming period.

My Blueberry nights
Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists
Blue Note Records
Release date: April 1, 2008

It is not normally like me to expel some type of uncharactaristic, over-enthusiastic exclamation over the intraweb thing, but… O.M.G.!!!!!!

My Blueberry Nights, the first English speaking film from acclaimed director Wong Kar Wai, whilst managing to harbor some intense criticism in a directorial sense (it’s his first English speaking film, oooooh!), gains some serious respect musically. With his creative eye and these amazing tracks, the film promises to be a great cinematic slice of the good old USA.

If you only slightly “like” blues, buy this Soundtrack. If you love blues, definitely buy My Blueberry Nights – Music from the Motion Picture, it will make a big difference in your life. I have had this on rotation since I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to review it. This compilation stands up all by itself as a fantastic collection of music, one quick glance down the list of artists involved should prove that! I mean, you have Norah Jones for a start, Ry Cooder, Otis Reading, Ruth Brown, and Mavis Staples. Even as a random Blues collection this CD is just simply brimming with talent and fantastic compositions.

Sonic Underground
Volume 1
Starring Jaleel White
Shout Factory
Available Dec. 18, 2007

Sonic Hedgehog is an extracellular protein that transmits signals by binding to a receptor on the surface of a cell causing deformation in the segmentation pattern of fruit fly embryos — essentially creating spiny denticles.

Oh but wait, I’ve got this all wrong…

Sonic The Hedgehog, conceived as part of a contest to come up with a new mascot for Sega way way way back in the early 1990s, is now so famous that some insanely geeky scientist named a freaky wierd-ass gene mutation after him — Sonic Hedgehog.

Sonic was one of my heroes and the game is my most slotted Sega Mega-Drive cartridge. Since then Sonic has transfered to almost every console and video game, and recently was released on the all powerful Nintendo Wii in its first Solo game in AGES.

Sonic and his many iterations kept me and the crew busy on a nightly basis for an embarrassing number of years. We found all the rings, we got all the bonus rounds, we got all the gems, we outwitted that darstardly Robotnik and we released all those annoying little furry creatures, we found the cheat codes so we could choose any level we wanted rather than play through every damn one every time and we all got sore thumbs and a severe lack of exercise — except one of my friends who would insist on standing in front of the TV and contorting her whole body in an effort to make Sonic move faster (oh where was the Wii then!!!)

BUT WAIT!!!! I still have this wrong — Sonic is just such a busy and popular little Hedgehog that I have no idea how to compartmentalize his realm. Games, more games, books, comics, new friends, slot machines, sports sponsorship, more new friends, some more games, all manner of promotional material, and of course… CARTOONS.