Ultimately Off-Topic VII: The Miles Frontier

[Plawsky]

I completely agree, but I'd want to find a way to tie Anakin into the third trilogy, even if he only appears in spirit form. I'm kind of a stickler for the "Vader mega-arc".

Yeah, I'd be totally fine with spirit form Anakin coming back. We've already seen him in spirit form at the end of RotJ, so casual viewers should still be able to accept that, while big SW fans will gladly embrace it (though many probably see that as symbolic more than literal). The only problem with that is that they'd likely get Hayden Christiansen to come back for it, and that is just a tragedy.

[Jer]

Yeah, that's exactly what's so great about South Park. They put out their episodes in six days... no other (non-live) show does that. And since they air on Wednesdays, that means their election episodes are done in less than 24 hours. Granted, I'm sure a lot of it would have been the same no matter who won, but they use actual quotes from speeches, and the people standing behind Obama were even accurate to real life. This turnaround allows them to be the only comedy show that can actually stay current with its satire. If another show wants to make a joke about current events, it'll show up in a few months; South Park does it in a week. Sure, Family Guy can do a quick cutaway gag quickly, but they can't do a whole episode... those manatees need time to write!

I actually haven't watched any of this season's South Park yet. I've got a buddy who I watch it with, but we've both been to busy to actually sit down and do it yet.

Having a DVR .... internet all helps but I know what you mean. Most of the stuff now, I just wait for it to come avaiable on DVD and just get it from Netflix and watch all of that in one sitting .... if I think about getting it.

The main reason South Park can do it in a week is because the creators like to use time-stress as a motivator. As they said themselves if they try to make an episode with too much time on their hands they over think the episode. It's worked so far for them, so I'm not mad at them.

But what does make me mad is that we have very good examples of what a good teen-adult cartoon is. Stuff like Archer, The Simpsons, Family Guy. And every now and then we still get stuff like Super Jail, and that new piece of sh*t Brickleberry.

It makes me wonder how much the people in charge are paying attention to what there audience like and dont like about shows.

What scares me most is that those particular shows might just fit there taste. You know if you ever listen to the Venture Brothers Commentaries. The creators of the show said the only reason Venture Brothers was approved in the first place was because Brock peed on a Mummy. Otherwise, the pilot would have never been approved and thus the world would have been absent the venture brothers ... or maybe just on Cartoon Network. Hopefully, FX or Scifi channel would have picked it if Cartoon Network didn't; but it's scary to know that the world would have almost missed out on such a great show.

But perhaps it would have been better if Cartoon Network didn't pick it. I don't think they care about producing the show on a regular schedule. But Aqua Teen Hunger Force seems to be moving right along with new episodes all the time.

I don't know if you remember or if you ever saw it, but Seth McFarlen pitched an early idea of Family Guy to Cartoon Network years ago on the "What a Cartoon Show." Cartoon Network picked up PowerPuff girls and a few other cartoons. I guess at the time Seth was heart broken but if CN had picked it up then the Family Guy we know and love today might not have happened... Check it out I actually think it was pretty good.

[Sinx]

What scares me most is that those particular shows might just fit there taste. You know if you ever listen to the Venture Brothers Commentaries. The creators of the show said the only reason Venture Brothers was approved in the first place was because Brock peed on a Mummy. Otherwise, the pilot would have never been approved and thus the world would have been absent the venture brothers ... or maybe just on Cartoon Network. Hopefully, FX or Scifi channel would have picked it if Cartoon Network didn't; but it's scary to know that the world would have almost missed out on such a great show.

Yea that is definitely scary. The Venture Bros. is my favorite adult cartoon ever. Another show that almost didn't make it was Seinfeld and now that is arguably the greatest sitcom of all time.

[sage6paths]

I got to watch Skyfall today. It was a pretty good movie. Not as good as Casino Royale but still good. The whole story reminded me of the Noc List plot in Mission Impossible. And a combination of the Dark Knight. Was Silva suppose to be a Joker impersonator? I did find it funny how convent that all the traps they had were proportionate with the amount of people attacking the house. And they didn't think to look in the car before going in the house. Lol.

[Jer]

Yea that is definitely scary. The Venture Bros. is my favorite adult cartoon ever. Another show that almost didn't make it was Seinfeld and now that is arguably the greatest sitcom of all time.

I thought that title belonged to "Friends". I've always liked Seinfeld more but I'm not really the go to guy on sitcoms.

If I had my say though, the greatest sitcom of all time is "I love Lucy"

[MarvelMaster616]

I don't know if you remember or if you ever saw it, but Seth McFarlen pitched an early idea of Family Guy to Cartoon Network years ago on the "What a Cartoon Show." Cartoon Network picked up PowerPuff girls and a few other cartoons. I guess at the time Seth was heart broken but if CN had picked it up then the Family Guy we know and love today might not have happened... Check it out I actually think it was pretty good.

I remember this fondly. I remember when Cartoon Network actually had great cartoons and plenty of original stuff to enjoy. The What A Cartoon show was one of my favorites and this definitely stood out. I remember listening to some of the commentary on the Family Guy DVDs where MacFarlane talked about his time at Hanna Barbara. I think one of the reasons he had to leave was because the kind of humor he wanted to do was deemed too mature. This was before the Adult Swim days so he really didn't have much flexibility. But Larry and Steve was sort of a pre-cursor to what he wanted to do. I think there are more snippets around the web of this show that include the pre-cursor to Lois, but I'm not sure. In any case, I miss the What A Cartoon show. But I'm glad it resulted in Family Guy. That's one of the few shows that has remained consistently funny since the late 90s.

[Jer]

I remember this fondly. I remember when Cartoon Network actually had great cartoons and plenty of original stuff to enjoy. The What A Cartoon show was one of my favorites and this definitely stood out. I remember listening to some of the commentary on the Family Guy DVDs where MacFarlane talked about his time at Hanna Barbara. I think one of the reasons he had to leave was because the kind of humor he wanted to do was deemed too mature. This was before the Adult Swim days so he really didn't have much flexibility. But Larry and Steve was sort of a pre-cursor to what he wanted to do. I think there are more snippets around the web of this show that include the pre-cursor to Lois, but I'm not sure. In any case, I miss the What A Cartoon show. But I'm glad it resulted in Family Guy. That's one of the few shows that has remained consistently funny since the late 90s.

Too mature lol

I bet. Seth is a bit of a wild man with trying to break the rules of what you can and can't do on television.

[sage6paths]

Well I got to read All-New X-men. It was good but it wasn't all it was made out to be. I still enjoyed it though. But if it wasn't for Immonen I would have been torn on getting this book. He completely makes the book.

[RockyBanks]

Thoreau said "Simplify, simplify, simplify!"

Granted, I only trust the guy as far as I can throw him, but he has a point. With that in mind, digital.wednesday is now...

It Made My Wednesday.

Every Wednesday, I'll pick up a few digital comics and report back on which book made me smile.



Avengers Academy #7
(FREE at Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited)


The Bottom Line:

Hank Pym's still coping with Janet's death (and not doing a good job of it), but a chance encounter with The Absorbing Man forces him to get his head in the game and reclaim the mantle of Giant Man.


Favorite Panel:




What Works:

- For once, Hank opens up about his issues without whining. It's believable and heartfelt, but also proactive and hopeful. Reminds me of why I care about this character. Props to Christos Gage for the writing here.

- Well-drawn, well-choreographed fight scene with Absorbing Man.

- There's a complete story arc here, and I'm a sucker for that. Done-in-one storylines are rare gems these days.


What Doesn't Work:

Hank's right leg, apparently...

[Robbie_Jee]

Ads don't bother me as badly now thanks to my DVR. I can just fast-forward through them. However, ads really bother me in comic books.

I have something called Sky+ which allows me to pause and rewind TV but I can't fast forward through anything.

Rumour: Darth Vader To Come Back From The Dead For Episode 7
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/11/...for-episode-7/

This is awful. This instantly scraps away over a hundered years of continuity. This is diabolical.

So, okay – if they don’t bring back Vader, what will they do? Surely a new Sith Lord or other Big Evil is just going to make this third trilogy seem a bit… er… tacked on? Um. Yeah. Funny that.

This guy obviously knows nothing about the awesomeness of the events that take place after Return of the Jedi. I get tired of these casual-fan journalists. The Empire isn't defeated. They still have countless fleets scattered throughout the entire galaxy. What about Admiral Thrawn? What about Mara Jade?! The next logical step would be to do a trilogy about that and the New Jedi Order. Star Wars needs a film trilogy about Thrawn, or at least one movie.

I'd be against using Luke as the main protagonist for two reasons -

1) He already had his big arc in the original trilogy

You not keen on Jedi Master Luke Skywalker? Don't you want to see the New Jedi Order and the New Republic? Don't you want to learn how Luke further gains power over the emotional and angry powers of the darkside? Green Force Lightning, Plawsky! Luke is the greatest Jedi Master who ever lived, and the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion is just too brilliant to pass up.

2) Recasting Luke means recasting Leia and Han as well, and those are all bad ideas

Couldn't agree more.

The technology isn't there to only use Hammil's voice. If they're going to use a young Luke, I'd much rather just have a recast than a CGI Luke.

Pardon?

CGI is getting a lot better, sure, but it's still no replacement for an actual actor. It can work for non humans pretty well - aliens, robots, animals, even armored people like Storm Troopers - but it just doesn't work right for replacing people. CGI movies are great, but they're not Star Wars. If they went full CGI for Star Wars VII, it would be a massive change in the feel of the series. For all its faults, the prequel trilogy still used a lot of practical set pieces and costumes, which helped it look like a Star Wars movie. Plus, it would be extremely expensive to do an entire 2-hour movie, let alone an entire trilogy, like that.

Legend of the Guardians is about owls though, not humans. It's a lot easier to realistically animate owls than it is to realistically animate humans. The reason Avatar was so much more expensive is because the Navi were humanoids, not animals. There is a whole lot more to animate when it comes to facial features, expressions, and movement in general. When an owl is sad or happy, they can pretty much just make up what that expression looks like and animate it that way. But we know how humans look, how they move, how they react, so making it realistic is much more challenging and expensive. Legends of the Guardians works because it's about animals; and even then, it doesn't necessarily look real.

That's not to say CGI movies aren't good. I have no problem with them. But there's a HUGE difference between CGI and real actors.

If they want to make Star Wars look real, they have to use real people, there's no other way to do it. As great as the animation is in the Force Unleashed trailer or in other video game cutscenes - Halo 4, for instance - it can't look real, at least not yet.

The technology IS there and we've had it for years. Modern facial rendering is astoundingly good these days. Do you really want another bunch of actors in a Green Room? Look how badly that always turns out.

Full CGI is the future of Star Wars. FACT. Below is a trailer for Final Fantasy The Spirits Within which was released 8 years ago. And yet, even back then, the facial mapping was near damn perfect. Take a look.


That was 8 years ago. And I'm sure you've realised just how quickly technology has adapted in the past five years alone. It's been mad how fast it's developed. Now apply that to a full CGI Star Wars film, with all the lightsabers whirling and everything. Visually, it would look so, so much better than the prequel trilogy ever did. If you're still not convinced, I recommend you watch some of the incredible Star Wars: The Old Republic CGI cut scenes and have a look at what LucasArts produced over 5 years ago. Back then, those cut scenses were expensive, but today they're easilly affordible for the likes of LucasArts. Facial rendering is perfect these days; mix that with the special effects of the traditional Star Wars space dog-fights and you've got a spectical the likes of which casual fans have never seen before.

I also suggest you go on YouTube and see just how good a mere university student and do with rendering a Christopher Reeve Superman. Don't underestermate the power of modern Mo-Cap. It's incredible.

You say modern tech simply cannot compete with real actors. Well.. an eight year old trailer just proved you wrong.

[sage6paths]

You not keen on Jedi Master Luke Skywalker? Don't you want to see the New Jedi Order and the New Republic? Don't you want to learn how Luke further gains power over the emotional and angry powers of the darkside? Green Force Lightning, Plawsky! Luke is the greatest Jedi Master who ever lived, and the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion is just too brilliant to pass up.

The Yuuzhan Vong Invasion is too brilliant to pass up. But I would rather that they make a cartoon tv series like Clone Wars but with the Yuuzhan Vong plot instead. The films would be too short with the Yuuzhan Vong series.

[Plawsky]

The technology IS there and we've had it for years. Modern facial rendering is astoundingly good these days. Do you really want another bunch of actors in a Green Room? Look how badly that always turns out.

Full CGI is the future of Star Wars. FACT. Below is a trailer for Final Fantasy The Spirits Within which was released 8 years ago. And yet, even back then, the facial mapping was near damn perfect. Take a look.


That was 8 years ago. And I'm sure you've realised just how quickly technology has adapted in the past five years alone. It's been mad how fast it's developed. Now apply that to a full CGI Star Wars film, with all the lightsabers whirling and everything. Visually, it would look so, so much better than the prequel trilogy ever did. If you're still not convinced, I recommend you watch some of the incredible Star Wars: The Old Republic CGI cut scenes and have a look at what LucasArts produced over 5 years ago. Back then, those cut scenses were expensive, but today they're easilly affordible for the likes of LucasArts. Facial rendering is perfect these days; mix that with the special effects of the traditional Star Wars space dog-fights and you've got a spectical the likes of which casual fans have never seen before.

I also suggest you go on YouTube and see just how good a mere university student and do with rendering a Christopher Reeve Superman. Don't underestermate the power of modern Mo-Cap. It's incredible.

You say modern tech simply cannot compete with real actors. Well.. an eight year old trailer just proved you wrong.

Nothing proved me wrong at all. I said it can't look real. That CGI is great. And I've already mentioned how much I really like the CGI that's in a lot of video game cutscenes now. But that doesn't change the fact that it's still clearly CGI. At no point during that FF trailer did I think those were real people. As for the Superman video, assuming you're talking about this one, the same thing applies. It looks great, but it doesn't look real.

I never said anything about wanting actors in a green room - but I would prefer that over no actors at all. If your goal is for something to look real, it has to be real people. Not almost real or realistic or close - REAL. I have nothing against CGI movies, but that's not what Star Wars should be.

[thecrimson]

He gave a comic 5 stars? Did I die or something? http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...review&id=5378 Never thought I'd see the day lol.

[sage6paths]

He gave a comic 5 stars? Did I die or something? http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...review&id=5378 Never thought I'd see the day lol.

That's pretty cool. Today's issue of Batman was amazing. I really can't wait till the next issue.

[Sinx]

He gave a comic 5 stars? Did I die or something? http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...review&id=5378 Never thought I'd see the day lol.

Is this his first five star rating? =o I can't wait until I get this issue. I'll probably pick it up tomorrow.

That's pretty cool. Today's issue of Batman was amazing. I really can't wait till the next issue.

I couldn't make it to the LCS today, so I'll have to go tomorrow. I'm so excited to read this issue!