Digimon Returns With 'Digimon Adventure Tri'

While Pokémon may have won the animated monster war in the 90's, I've yet to meet a single person who doesn't agree that the Digimon animated series far surpassed the Pokémon animated series. While the monsters were what kept me coming back as a kid, the inclusion of a consistent story line and characters that actually developed through the course of the series was what continued my love to do this day.

It was announced earlier last year that a new Digimon series would be airing this Spring as a brand new followup to the original two seasons. Unfortunately, like every anime I fall in love with before it's release, the series was delayed. It wasn't until yesterday that an official trailer and release date was announced. Pushing the followup until November 21st of this year. 

What's more surprising is seeing the followup series switched to a 6-movie format, something that seems to be somewhat trending (a la Berserk and Ghost in the Shell Arise). I admit to being a bit bummed I'll have to wait until November to see the first entry, but the trailer has me fully hyped.

Seriously though, seeing Omnimon in full animated glory is something to shed a tear at. 

Jurassic World's First Trailer Features Hybrid Dinos, Gyrospheres, and Megalodons. Hell Yeah.

Chris Pratt is on one hell of an upswing these days. Following on the momentum of his starring role in this year's Guardians of the Galaxy, the little sci-fi comedy epic that could, he's now snagged yet another lead in the long awaited follow-up Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Jurassic Park series.

Directed by Colin Trevorrow, known for his off-beat 2012 debut Safety Not Guaranteed, Jurassic World takes place 22 years following John Hammond's disastrous first attempt at a eugenic theme-park in the original. Now brought into the 21st Century, Jurassic World is a booming financial success with the very latest in preemptive security. But no amount of technology can curtail the fatality of eugenic hubris as a a monstrous hybrid is loosed upon the park, sparking a deadly chain of death and destruction that only the chief security officer Owen (Pratt) can hope to prevent.

Somehow, I feel like this is going to be a whole lot less nonsensical when the film comes out.

Jurassic Park is a film and franchise that means a great deal to my generation. As an avid movie-goer, it was my first childhood introduction to Steven Spielberg's seminal oeuvre of cinematic classics. The fact that there's a new installment, featuring an astounding up-and-coming actor, fills me with a deeply impatient anticipation. Andy Dwyer's come a long way. Jurassic World comes out June 12, 2015. I can't wait to see more.

"Fight!" - A Stop Motion Beatdown

Last year Emma de Swaef and Mark James Roels directed an awesome felt stop-motion trailer to introduce the 2013 Festival National du Film d'Animation, based in France.  Two rotund men wrestle to victory, but end up finding some common ground.  It's short, simple, to the point, yet I can only imagine the work put into it, as is the case with all stop-motion work.  The use of felt was a great touch, something not seen often.

"Guardians Of The Galaxy" Gets A Fresh New Trailer, A Little More Exposition

The latest trailer for Guardians Of The Galaxy is filled with as much eye candy as ever, but offers a little more backstory as to the origins of the brash protagonist Peter Quill and the general plot regarding Ronan's attempt to reclaim what was his. We also get to hear Rocket Raccoon speak up for the first time in this trailer, and are offered a few glimpses of Groot, Gamora and Drax in action. For anyone wondering, Blue Swede's Hooked On A Feeling is sadly absent in this trailer. The feature will be dropping August 1st in the US, July 31st for most overseas locations.

Awesome fan poster by Rob Csiki.

An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits—Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand—with the galaxy's fate in the balance

"The Legend Of Korra" - Book 3 Trailer

While The Legend Of Korra - Book 2 was marred with quite a few stumbles, some minor character development issues, a tame villain and a slightly unsatisfying ending, I've still got my hopes up for the next chapter of the franchise. And the trailer is quite promising, and seems intent to address alot of issues present in the second season of the franchise.

No words in this trailer- Just an amazing score by Jeremy Zuckerman as we witness the return of characters like Tenzin leading an entire brigade of Airbenders, Jinora in the spirit realm, Korra on a glider and many new faces overall. The animation seems as awesome and fluid as ever, with plenty of amazing looking action to look forward to with minor plot snippets throughout.

Such a curious show for Nick, as it continues to walk a fine line between a kid and adult's show (More lean towards that). I guess that might be part of the overall appeal of Korra. No announced date yet for the release of this new season, but I get the feeling that Studio Pierrot has listened to their fans for Book 3, codenamed 'Change.' 

"Sabah" - An Upcoming Animated Project By Honkfu

Sabah means 'morning' in Arabic, and that is the name of a fantastic looking new project from Honkfu member Vasili Zorin alongside artist Luca Vitale and Matt Carter. The teaser features a girl running away from a mysterious creature in an oppressive looking city with a definite Vasili Zorin look, especially in the color palettes employed.

While the release date if as of yet unannounced for this short film, we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for any updates regarding the project. Can't wait to see an animated project with that distinct Honkfu visual touch come out soon.

"The Book Of Life" - Life, Death And Guillermo Del Toro's First Foray Into Animated Features

Interesting. It seems like 2014 and 2015 are years dedicated to La Dia De Los Muertos, with both Fox Animation and Disney/Pixar attempting to take a stab at the Mexican holiday celebrating those who have passed. Disney recently hit a negative PR road block by attempting to actually copyright the phrase 'Dia De Los Muertos,' which drew international ire in their direction for their 2015 feature. That aside, from a visual standpoint The Book Of Life is looking beautiful, drawing from the colorful folk art that's prevalent during the festivals.

My only concern comes from the indications that there will be plenty of pop music covers present throughout the movie- but hopefully those won't detract from the absolutely gorgeous visual style that director Jorge Gutierrez and producer Guillermo Del Toro crafted up for the upcoming feature. During protagonist Manolo's adventures, he'll end up visiting a total of three worlds: The land of the dead, the land of the remembered, and the land of the forgotten. Looking forward to getting engrossed in all three worlds come October 17.

The Book of Life is the journey of Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart. Before choosing which path to follow, he embarks on an incredible adventure that spans three fantastical worlds where he must face his greatest fears. Rich with a fresh take on pop music favorites, The Book of Life, encourages us to celebrate the past while looking forward to the future.

Disney's "Big Hero 6" Looks Awesome

Disney has really been stepping their game up with the likes of Wreck it Ralph and Frozen (a movie which I admit I still haven't seen). With the announcement of Big Hero 6 last year, I have been eagerly awaiting to see what the Marvel inspired movie had in store for us. The trailer may be relatively short on any actual action, but it does an awesome job at setting a tone and it has got me hyped.

Big Hero 6's premise is relatively unknown (at least in terms of it following the comics or not), but we do know the story is set in the fictional city of San Fransokyo, revolving around the young Hiro Hamada who's robot, Baymax, joins a team of crime fighters. I can only assume the team consists of the remaining members of the original Big Hero 6 cast.

Despite the direct correlation with the original comic, I actually felt the trailer gave off more of an early Super Robot genre (Astroboy/Tetsujin 28-go) vibe. I'm completely okay with this. The movie may not be a complete retelling of the original Big Hero 6, but it seems to be taking enough inspiration to make fans of the original happy (at least that's what Disney seems to banking on). Until we get more content revolving around the remaining characters I'll happily watch this movie just for Braymax.

"Rigor Mortis" - A Hong Kong Horror Movie To Get Excited About

I think most people would agree that western horror has been failing for decades now, having lost sight of what actually makes a movie scary (With a few exceptions). What is defined as 'horror' these days involves movies that are filled with cheap 'startle' scares and recycled concepts that come out during Halloween to turn a quick buck. As a result I've found myself looking abroad for something fresh, and Hong Kong seems intent on delivering that with Rigor Mortis by fledgling director Juno Mak.

While the trailer is filled with tropes we've been accustomed to, I have to say that the 'cultural horror' aspect of the film might be a draw. Within a two minute trailer we're given a glimpse into Chinese ghost and vampire (Jiangshi) mythology, which are miles away from the ones that we've grown accustomed to in the west. This comes from Mak's wish to resurrect a dormant genre of Hong Kong horror that was prevalent in the 80's and 90's with franchises like Mr Vampire, that were incredibly popular at the time.

Aside from the stellar box office numbers abroad, the movie seemed to get quite a warm reception at the various festivals it was screened at internationally (Tokyo, London, Toronto and others), so we're genuinely excited about catching a screening when the movie premieres in the US on June 6.

"VIRTUS" - Hong Kong Takes A Stab At Scifi

Hong Kong based FX house Fat Face seems intent to throw their hat into the independent scifi project with VIRTUS, a proof of concept film that might become a reality relatively soon. It's a rare treat to see scifi projects emerging from Chinese territories, which seem to be more enamored with exporting historical and fantasy projects abroad more than anything.

With the small taste that the trailer seems to offer, we're given a glimpse of what appears to be a heavy duty factory robot going berserk, at which point a special squad is sent in to take care of the issue. The quality of the visuals in the trailer was cinematic and impressive, and after looking at the robot designs it became pretty clear that they probably came from the mind of one of China's most influential concept artists.

Bang Bang! - The Hunt Is On

Written and directed by Julien Bisaro and Claire Paoletti, Bang Bang! is an upcoming short from the same folks who worked on the critically acclaimed Ernest And Celestine feature that's recently made the jump overseas. Aside from it's beautiful black and white aesthetic, it seems like the short will follow the story of a 25 year old girl called Eda trying to get between her dad and his prey during a prolonged hunt. Looking forward to the premiere of this short on June 20th.

Sunset Overdrive Is Looking Awesome

Following relative radio silence since the game's colorful reveal at E3 2013 last year, Insomniac is finally offering us a larger taste of what this fun little sandbox game is going to have to offer. Sunset Overdrive is going to be a colorful post apocalyptic sandbox adventure with elements reminiscent of Saints Row mixed with Jet Set Radio. The incessant grinding mixed with the ease and fluidity of movement looks fun, mixed with some over the top environments and the Insomniac staple of crazy weapons.

The game definitely doesn't take itself seriously, with a premise centered around an energy drink called Overcharge Delirium spawning an army of  mutants. After looking at some concept art I thought something about the game seemed a little familiar, until I realized that the Russian concept house Honk Fu, along with the likes of Vasili Zorin were behind the distinct look of the game.

While the title is as of now still exclusive to the Xbox One, I'm kind of hoping that the game will find itself onto other platforms soon after launch. Absolutely love the style, the colorful world and the fact that Insomniac seems to have learned a lesson from their botched Fuze game, which relied too heavily on focus groups to drive the vision and style of the game.

"The Unsung Soldier" Miyu Studio Announces Their WWI Animated Feature

French animated collective Miyu studios just announced that they're hard at work on a new docudrama called Le Soldat Meconnu (The Unsung Soldier), which narrates the unfortunate tale of a soldier in the final hours of WWI.

The feature will employ a mix of live and animated sequences to retell the tale of this unsung soldier, who suffered a most unfortunate fate. The black and white sequences have a truly unsettling feel to them, replicating the gritty look of archival footage from that war.

In November 11, 1918 the war came to an end over an armistice signed in the forest of Compiègne between the Allies and German nations. When word hit the 415th regiment on the bank of Meuse, where intense fighting was still ongoing between French and German sides, soldier Augustin Trebuchon was tasked with spreading the word about the cease fire to the various outposts. Trebuchon would ultimately be killed by a bullet to the head a few minutes before the cease-fire, symbolizing the absurdity of war as a whole. A total of ten million soldiers lost their lives in the conflict.

Takashi Murakami's "Jellyfish Eyes" - Coping With Fukushima

Before taking on his first film project, Takashi Murakami built up a reputation with his ultra colorful, stylized paintings featuring a wide array of strange creatures. I ran into Murakami's work countless times over the years in modern art galleries, which familiarized me with his 'superflat' style, which borrows from traditional Japanese art and post-war culture.

In his directorial debut titled Jellyfish Eyes, it seems that the main theme of the scifi film revolves around an anti-nuclear message, and to serve as an indirect reminder for younger audiences about the devastation that Fukushima had on people's lives. The addition of the Pokemon-esque elements definitely makes the message en easier pill to swallow. Despite that the movie looks visually stunning, and I hope to catch a screening during it's limited US tour, which begins on May 1st.

Jellyfish Eyes tells the story of Masashi, a young boy who moves to a sleepy town in the Japanese countryside with his mother in the wake of a natural disaster. After returning home from his new elementary school one day, Masashi discovers a flying jellyfish-like creature whom he befriends and names Kurage-bo. Masashi soon discovers that all his classmates have similarly magical pets, known as F.R.I.E.N.D.s, which are controlled by electronic devices that the children use to battle one another. Despite their playful appearances, however, these F.R.I.E.N.D.s turn out to be part of a sinister plot that will threaten the entire town.

"Alien: Isolation" And The Lo-fi Scifi Aesthetic

At this point I'm convinced that the Aliens franchise has been cursed, as the last half dozen videogame adaptations of the franchise have typically been bad at best to absolutely atrocious. Alien: Isolation seems like another attempt to give the series a little justice, taking the retrofuturistic world of the original 1979 feature and adapting it into something a little more in tune with the vision of the original.

My main hopes is that they don't deliver an experience that is 6-8 hours of straight jump scares, hopefully opting for a more subtle, lasting tension that was present in the original feature. While the graphics look nice, a source told us that the current footage is still 'gameplay target' or prerendered footage that captures the mood they want to accomplish. Once October rolls around we'll hopefully get a better idea of how this game will play, but so far we're cautiously optimistic.

Black Desert Online - A Korean MMO That Has The West's Attention

I've had a chance to play a wide range of MMO's over the years, never fully delving into them but limiting myself to 2-3 week playtests to get a feel for what each game had to offer. And during this time I really got a chance to develop an appreciation for Korean MMO's especially, which time and time again seemed to be a few steps ahead of their western developed counterparts in regards to gameplay ideas and innovations.

One of my most memorable experiences was playing Granado Espada a few years back, which allowed a player to control three characters simultaneously in a baroque styled setting (The awesome character concepts by Limha Lekan drew me in). My only frustration was that there was a generalized stigma against any Korean MMO for being 'too grindy,' a reputation that a few games managed to cast on that entire scene as a whole.

In the last few years it seems like developers have taken note of this reputation and have been trying to address it with newer games, including NC Soft's upcoming Blade and Soul and Black Desert Online. The latter recently caught the interest of the western gaming community for it's efforts to truly evolve online combat with a more dynamic action oriented approach rather than the rather outdated 'roll' based systems featured in games like World of Warcraft.



Black Desert is just one of many next gen MMO's being developed overseas, and hopefully this game will be able to make a transition to Western shores once it's released. I've seen so many games with truly amazing potential absolutely fall flat due to bad marketing, but hopefully this will be one of the exceptions. If you're in the mood to get a feel of how this game might play while we wait for Black Desert to released, I'd recommend giving the free to play Vindictus action MMO a shot (The only Korean MMO developed on Valve's source engine).

Construct - The Dark Side Of Robots

What happens when certain robots defy their most basic directives? That is what Construct hopes to answer when it releases soon. In the meanwhile we can enjoy this absolutely awesome looking teaser, which offers some rather interesting hints as to the narrative. A green robot stumbles onto something absolutely unexpected, and ultimately finds himself the odd man out alongside his robotic colleagues. Things are bound to get interesting.

This teaser was presented as part of a tech demo at Nvidia's GTC conference which was held on March 25, 2014. Construct is a work in progress intended to illustrate recent advancements in graphics hardware and software capabilities and will be available in it's entirety soon. We'll be sure to post it the day it's out.

Laika's "The Box Trolls" Finally Gets A Full Trailer

Following months (More like years) of teasers here and there, it seems like the first trailer for LAIKA's third feature, The Box Trolls is finally out. Offering us a look into the hazy city of Cheesebridge, we're given tastes of the plot, without spoiling or giving away any aspect of the story (Something we've come to appreciate in recent years).

Coraline never quite did it for me, feeling like an ode to Tim Burton's rather played out style as well as feeling like LAIKA struggling to find a footing in the already crowded animated feature market. However, Paranorman was a much more confident feature, knocking it out of the park by offering an interesting narrative that both children and adults could enjoy equally, as well as dealing with issues that most features would shy away from (Like having the first openly gay character in an animated feature).

The Box Trolls seems like it'll be in tune with the typical flavors we've seen from the studio, with hints of the protagonist siding with the trolls that society (And some antagonist) have shunned. The feature is slated to release on September 26, 2014.

Beijing's Studio Vasoon Premieres Their Incredible "God Hunters" Animated Feature Trailer

Well damn, this was an awesome find. Looks like China is stepping up their animated feature game with God Hunters, a new animated movie coming out in 2015 based off of the legendary exploits of Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King. Rather than going whimsical with it, the movie is taking the more epic route, focusing on his rebellion against heaven and his war against various gods.

With an animation style that resembles a mix of Ghibli films and Peter Chung's signature style seen in series like Aeon Flux, this is probably the most impressive animation I've seen come out of China other than Studio Wolfsmoke's efforts. The feature is being directed by Wang Chuan in collaboration with Studio Vasoon, and is set to premiere sometime in 2015. Keep your eyes peeled for this one, as it's looking mighty ambitious.

"Jodorowsky's Dune" Trailer

I've always loved documentaries that go into larger than life projects or directions that never came to be. Among a few that come to mind, Lost In La Mancha, which went into Terry Gilliam's attempts to bring a Don Quixote movie to life with Johnny Depp as a lead, as well as the entire saga of The Thief And The Cobbler, which Disney tried to physically destroy before taking the concept an turning it into Aladdin. Jodorowsky's Dune tells the tale of the larger than life attempt by the visionary director, before financial difficulties stunted the project (The movie would be taken over by David Lynch). Of all the film projects that never came to light, this is one crazy project I would have loved to see completed.

The option was then taken over two years later by director Alejandro Jodorowsky, who proceeded to approach, among others, Peter Gabriel, the prog rock groups Pink Floyd and Magma for some of the music, artists H. R. Giger and Jean Giraud for set and character design, Dan O'Bannon for special effects, and Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson and others for the cast.

Frank Herbert traveled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The project ultimately stalled for financial reasons. The film rights lapsed until 1982, when they were purchased by Italian filmmaker Dino DeLaurentiis, who eventually released the 1984 film Dune, directed by David Lynch.