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PBS Kids Sprout nabs HD cartoon Dive Olly Dive
PBS Kids Sprout has announced it's obtained the U.S. broadcast rights for Dive Olly Dive, a CGI-animated kids show produced in high definition. The network's focused on growing its preschool audience via digital cable/satellite, VOD and online offerings over the last few years, although it's not clear where or if we'll ever get to see the underwater escapades pf research subs-in-training Olly and Beth. Hopefully this turns into a situation like the recently launched Disney Channel HD, with a stockpile of ready to go HD content, already delivering a surprising number of HD 'toons each morning -- you're not still letting the kids watch SD, are you? Dive Olly Dive joins the Let's Go Show weekend morning programming block June 7.
Lost. The Monster. Reward: Cuteness.
Do you like cuteness? Do you like monsters? Do you like puzzles?If you said yes to all three, then do we have the multiplayer game for you! As we reported earlier, Mind Candy, the crazy developers behind the super-huge alternate reality game Perplex City, have been working on something for the children. Their result is Moshi Monsters, a cross between a Tamagotchi, Brain Age, and sheer attitude.The picture to the right is Smigglesnuff. Smigglesnuff likes two things: the word "miasma" and choptastic moves. Oh, sure, she enjoys the tickles I give her, but don't mess with her unless you want your face re-arranged. Go visit her if you want to find out for yourself.
'Excuse me for selling my animation cel, Princess!'
When we started to write this, we were going to make jokes about how Link hates Zelda when he's not rescuing her, and how they have a dysfunctional relationship and all that, and then maybe about how Super Smash Bros. Brawl started with a Super Smash Bros. Yelling Match. But then we noticed something: Zelda is clearly in the foreground, because she's drawn slightly bigger than Link, and because Link has turned toward the camera to look at her. And yet his hair is somehow in front of hers. A horribly out-of-context scene plus a technical flub? Good luck outbidding us![Via GameSniped]
Friday Video: Sonic Sez
The real sticking point with the idea of Sonic meeting a dignified end is assuming he had any dignity to start with. Here's evidence to the contrary: a "Sonic Sez" PSA from the cartoon starring Jaleel White. One of these appeared at the end of every episode, usually involving a supporting character doing something dumb and Sonic stepping in to be a jerk to them about it.While some of the other segments focused on important issues like smoking, alcohol, and, uh, sexual harrassment, we're partial to this one, in which Sonic makes his personal stance known on the subject of whether or not it's good to be stupid.
Cartoonish caricature of the console wars warms our cockles [update]
Update: The embeddable player gave us some difficulty, so we cut it from the post. Hit up the "read" link below to check out the video.What better for a Monday than a cartoon talking about the console wars, wouldn't you say? Wait, do you smell that? It's fanboy debate, simmering at a nice temperature and waiting to be turned into a full-on boil. We know you're ready to break the doors of our post down and leave your two cents. So, have at it!Oh, and watch if only for the PS3's role as an ottoman for the Wii. It's pretty funny.
Pet Alien: An Intergalactic Ten-dollar-palooza
Based on the the Cartoon Network show, Pet Alien: An Intergalactic Puzzlepalooza has you controlling five different aliens and managing their unique abilities over 80 levels to save their human friend, Tommy Cadle. The game received mediocre scores when it first hit stores last August, but a couple publications reviewed the Shin'en-developed puzzler favorably (Nintendo Power gave it an 8.0 out of 10). GameStop currently has Pet Alien on sale at its online shop for $9.99, and they'll even ship it for free if you put in "SAVER" as a coupon code. Priced that low, this might be worth trying out. Even if cartoon-licensed games aren't your thing, this seems like a great, cheap gift for a younger sibling/kid/brat. Head past the post break for Pet Alien's trailer.
Make animations on your DS with FlickBook
The latest homebrew to catch our eye is this animation app called FlickBook. The concept is pretty simple, but fun: you draw a series of frames and make them into animated films.The painting tools are very basic, so you won't be able to create detailed pictures like you would with Pocket Painter. The program is still cool, though, and seems less difficult than creating animations on your DS with Pictochat. We also like that we can export the films to our computers as AVI files. Besides, stick figure animations reminds us lovingly of Don Hertzfeld's (slightly NSFW) "Rejected" cartoons, which can only mean good things.
GNU guru Stallman accosted by pro-DRM ninjas
At the end of a debate by the Yale Political Union on the topic of DRM -- the verdict? It should be banned -- well known free software advocate Richard Stallman was confronted by a collective group of ninjas, obviously hired by Microsoft in response to one Chinese student's interruption of Bill Gates' speech in China. Turns out the ninjas were just reenacting a comic from XKCD, which depicts "rms," as he is affectionately known, whipping out a sword to defend himself from anti-GPL pranksters. No sword was thrusted in this example: instead, only a hearty chuckle was heard emanating from the bearded and shoeless father of the free software movement. Read - Yale Political Union's blog of the incidentRead - XKCD's "Open Source"
Geek immortality is bestowed on one of our own
True geek heroes are made, not born. Well, the truth is, they're drawn -- by Nitrozac, in the perennial fan favorite Joy of Tech webcomic. The tech luminaries that have cartoon avatars include Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates... and now, disguised as a young Carrie Fisher, our own iPhone-hacking Rebel Alliance undercover leader Erica Sadun. You have to see the full version to really appreciate it. (Might as well play the theme while you read.)I'm not sure where this ranks on Erica's list of life achievements (after all, she was quoted by the Associated Press this week), but it's a nice tribute to her hard work and dedicated efforts on behalf of iPhone users everywhere. From all of us at TUAW, thank you Erica and way to go, Joy of Tech!Thanks David & everyone who sent this in.
Eidos set to bring more classic cartoons to your DS
We can no longer ignore the signs: classic cartoons are clearly the hottest thing going for DS developers and publishers lately, and Eidos has announced that they are jumping on the bandwagon. And by "jumping on," we mean "attempting to seriously dominate the new market," as they're planning ten -- yes, ten! -- different titles based on classic Hanna-Barbera 'toons like Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, and the Jetsons. Let's just hope that they all end up looking as good as WayForward's Duck Amuck appears to be.
Heavenly Sword animated series: Part V
In this episode of the Heavenly Sword animated series we discover that the return of the Heavenly Warrior is met with disbelief as it turns out the baby has a va-jay-jay. Yup, she's born a -- wait for it -- "worthless girl." Ouch, the clan initially decides to kill her, but they seem to settle on letting her live as an outcast.The series is starting to wrap up in preparation for Heavenly Sword's Sept. 12 launch. We really do hope that the crumb of a demo isn't indicative of the whole experience. At this point, it's sad to think we'd prefer having three-minute animated shorts tell the story of the game each week than actually play the thing. We'll find out in a week.See also: Part I, Part II, Part III & IV
Heavenly Sword animated series: Part III & IV
It's a double feature with parts three and four of the Heavenly Sword animated series. Part three tells the tale of a son's betrayal and his desire to become a god. This animated series has been a great way to get exposition and background out of the way before the game releases Sept 12 -- we're still fence-sitting in angst after the PSN demo if these shorts will end up being cooler than the game.Part four can be found after the break, in it the clan protecting the sword prepares for the rebirth of the Heavenly Warrior ... a boy savior. Then there's a shocking cliffhanger during the birth. Um, not to ruin anything, but most should be able to guess what the revelation was if you've been paying attention to Heavenly Sword at all.See also: Part I, Part II
Ratatouille joins Cars for November 6th Blu-ray release
Those already saving up their $34.99 for Disney's Cars may now be inclined to pinch those pennies a bit harder, as it looks like Ratatouille will be landing on store shelves the very same day. Sure, this seems like a shameless attempt to get early-bird holiday shoppers (and grown-ups with youngsters in tow) to pick up twice the amount of Blu-ray films they were initially planning to come November 6th, but we won't be surprised if the scheme works out quite well. No word just yet on what kinds of rat-infested extras we'll see on the BD release, but we're keepin' our ears, er, nose to the ground.
Pirated Simpsons Movie footage snagged with mobile
A 21-year-old Aussie is looking at up to five years behind bars after being charged with "uploading a pirated copy of The Simpsons Movie on the internet." Interestingly enough, his weapon of choice was not an uber-small camcorder, rather, he chose to record the entire film with his mobile phone on its first day in cinemas. Merely hours after returning home, the footage was already making the rounds on the 'net, but he has since been arrested after having his home raided by Federal Police. Adrianne Pecotic, executive director of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, was quoted as saying that mobile phones had "advanced to the point where users could do a lot of damage" with its built-in video recording abilities, and also noted that pirates were "increasingly ditching handycams for smaller mobile phones."[Thanks, Geoff]
Heavenly Sword animated series: Part II
In the second part of the Heavenly Sword animated series we discover that the sword wielded by the Heavenly Warrior in the first part became a burden on man. Eventually, to save the power obsessed people from themselves it ends up in the hands of a tribe that would protect it. Yup, we're definitely enjoying these little shorts. At least we can respect this type of marketing, and the art behind it, compared to Nintendo's mind-numbing Smash Bros. info drip. Maybe Heavenly Sword will reveal Sonic as a secret character in Part III of the animated series?See also: Part I
Tumbler Batmobile modded to house PC
For those of you still enamored by the Optimus Prime PC case mod, here's yet another transformation to keep you in awe. A self-proclaimed Batman fanatic happened upon an RC iteration of the Tumbler Batmobile, and as any true nerd would do, he wondered if a PC could be stuffed within. Sure enough, with a healthy amount of dedicated modding, the RC Tumbler was finally equipped with an AMD Sempron 2800+ CPU, a 40GB hard drive, and a basic DVD drive, but considering the main purpose is to race around the web and look sexy, we'd say it's potent enough for that. Click on through for a few more shots that even Bruce Wayne would approve of.[Via Digg]
ReBoot gets a reboot
One of the first computer-animated TV programs, ReBoot, is about to get a second chance at life. Sure, even in 1994 the show was a bit campy and featured thin plots and bad voice acting, but look how shiny everything was! Now Rainmaker Animation is getting ready to "relaunch the brand in a new way" by releasing a series of three feature-length episodes. The interesting bit is that we, potential viewers, help sculpt the plot. Five undiscovered writers were recruited by Rainmaker to prepare separate pitches for a new ReBoot storyline. These will be posted on the Zeros 2 Heroes website where visitors can work with each production team to help refine their ideas and later vote to choose their favorite pitch. "When it comes to long-standing genre entertainment properties, the fans are the real experts.", says Zeros 2 Heroes president Matt Toner. Not a bad idea. Fans know what they want to see, and this way Rainmaker will ensure nearly everyone is satisfied. And if the ReBoot reboot tanks, fans can only get angry at themselves.[Via Ain't It Cool News]
Major anime studios split on HD DVD / Blu-ray decision
For the anime lovers out there, there's no question that even cartoons have a very different feel in HD, so we're sure there's quite a few of you out there clamoring for more HD renditions of your favorite shows. Unfortunately, there seems to be quite a bit of discord when it comes to settling on a format of choice. According to a report at IGN, Bandai looks to be squarely in the HD DVD camp (despite conflicting reports), while FUNimation seemed to prefer Blu-ray and Geneon remained undecided. Generally speaking, none of the firms seemed to think that branching out to other high-definition film formats was out of the realm of possibility, but if the major producers do indeed choose opposing sides, the hardcore anime fans may want to check out a hybrid player to prevent future heartaches.
G4's new show Code Monkeys has potential, squanders it
Our expectations for G4 television aren't particularly high, but we admit to having thought for a moment that their new video game-oriented cartoon show Code Monkeys would at least be entertaining. Between having a theme song by geek folkster Jonathan Coulton and cameos from the likes of Steve Wozniak, Nolan Bushnell, and David Jaffe, there was hope that G4 could deliver something actually watchable. It isn't.Edgy video site Break.com is hosting the pilot episode of Code Monkeys, which will premiere on G4's cable network on July 11th. The show, which uses an "8-bit" animation style, focuses on two video game programmers working at a company called Gameavision in the 80s. Peppered with crude drug humor, pop culture references, and bizarre video game-isms, Code Monkeys is oddly reminiscent of the film Grandma's Boy, and that's not meant as a compliment.Those with the time and brain cells to kill can check out the entire 20-minute pilot episode here. Everyone else can take a peak at the NSFW preview after the jump. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Xenosaga anime coming to US
Our memories of playing Xenosaga was that it was one-third video game and two-thirds cinematic movie -- we didn't mind the lengthy cutscenes, but they were quite noticeable compared to other titles. The philosophically-minded RPG was unsurprisingly turned into an anime in 2005, and now ADV Film has announced (via IGN) that it is finally bringing the twelve-episode series to the US later this year.The series will be split into three DVDs, presumably four episodes apiece, with the first one coming out September 11. No special features or other information is available at the time. Xenosaga: The Animation was produced by Toei Animation (Dragon Ball series).
