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NEWS: Batman: Gotham Knight Picks Up Two Annie Nominations


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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
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Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 7:09 pm Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
As for Futurama, it wasn't popular because it sucked. It's Matt Groening's Firefly. And the only reason it's not really "niche", like TDK, is because of the Simpsons connection.


It's funny you should mention Firefly, because both Futurama and Firefly were both done in by the same problem, and its not exactly lack of popularity. It's Fox's marketing practices and time slot changes, due mostly to football and other sports events. It's hard to build a base for a program when your constantly pre-empting it, moving it around, and just plain not advertising for it.

The same reason why anime does poorly on Adult Swim.

Meanwhile, I could argue, that both Firefly and Futurama were probably the best works of their respective creators. The Simpsons had long gone stale by the time Futurama had first aired, while it was hilarious. Firefly is by far Whedon's best work and a fantastic sci-fi series.

Gotham Knight didn't get awarded because, besides the novelty of being Batman anime, and some good bits, it wasn't that great. I'm just astonished anyone even saw Kung Fu Panda.
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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
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Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 7:21 pm Reply with quote
I don't think Batman: Gotham Knight deserved to be awarded. The only segment that sticks out in my mind was the first one, with the kids' conflicting stories. Other than that, it seemed like a fairly pedestrian Batman story animated in annoyingly inconsistent styles. The differing styles in The Animatrix worked much better, since it was an anthology of different stories rather than one story told in bits and pieces. I'd rather watch any random episode of even the maligned The Batman over watching Gotham Knight again.

I was rooting for an upset over critical darling Wall-E too, but for Bolt instead of Kung-Fu Panda. But I loved all three of those films more than any animated films from some weaker years, like 2005, so any of them winning is fine with me.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 7:51 pm Reply with quote
penguin: If those shows were popular, Serenity would be a hit, and Futurama would be on shirts and billboards like Family Guy. And anime only recently did poorly on AS, because people are bootlegging it, and because certain shows just don't click as well with audiences as others. As for creativity, Futurama was better when it was called Red Dwarf, and Firefly was better when it was called Outlaw Star and Bebop. Oh, and box-office-wise, more people saw Kung Fu Panda than Wall-E.

P.S. The old "FOX screwed it over" argument doesn't cut it, when they gave Futurama three seasons, and they funded Whedon's Buffy spin-offs around the same time as Serenity.

Tenchi: The style was meant to be inconsistent, because there were different studios working together to do their stylistic takes on the character. And GK had its own individual stories, too.
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penguintruth



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PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 8:46 pm Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
Futurama was better when it was called Red Dwarf, and Firefly was better when it was called Outlaw Star and Bebop.


Rolling Eyes

It's like you never even watched either show.
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Charred Knight



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:22 pm Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:
GATSU wrote:
Futurama was better when it was called Red Dwarf, and Firefly was better when it was called Outlaw Star and Bebop.


Rolling Eyes

It's like you never even watched either show.


I don't even think his heard a description of Futurama

I mean yes their both sci-fi comedies but that's the only similarities they share. I mean Red Dwarf is a comedy based on a small crew stuck on a ship while Futurama was a comedy based on a delivery business.

Where's the similarities? The problem with Fox isn't that they don't have good shows its that they treat their good shows like shit. I mean Family Guy didn't become popular until Cartoon Network aired it, and Fox sold the rights to air it ro Cartoon Network for peanuts because no one else wanted to air it.
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GATSU



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PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:35 pm Reply with quote
Charred:
Quote:
I mean Red Dwarf is a comedy based on a small crew stuck on a ship while Futurama was a comedy based on a delivery business.


Futurama's about a guy stuck in a futuristic setting.

Quote:
The problem with Fox isn't that they don't have good shows its that they treat their good shows like shit. I mean Family Guy didn't become popular until Cartoon Network aired it, and Fox sold the rights to air it ro Cartoon Network for peanuts because no one else wanted to air it.


I imagine FOX sold FG for cheap, because it had a no-name cast, and because it was viewed as one of many Simpsons clones on the market. And the fact that no one else wanted it just proves that point. FOX once had a whole animation block with Futurama in it, too. How many of those shows are still around nowadays, though? Hell, The Critic was forced to go to the Internets, and no one's saying the show got screwed over in that situation. Sometimes, one series has more niche appeal than other series. For example, how many FG fans are American Dad fans?
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:11 am Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:
I'm just astonished anyone even saw Kung Fu Panda.


Did you see it? It's a really good cartoon. A lot of fun, has great animation and surprisingly good writing.
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GATSU



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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:19 am Reply with quote
Zac: I just wish I could say the same thing about Wall-E. Rolling Eyes
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 2:49 am Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:

Gotham Knight didn't get awarded because, besides the novelty of being Batman anime, and some good bits, it wasn't that great. I'm just astonished anyone even saw Kung Fu Panda.


In glorious IMAX even! Cool

Kung Fu Panda (Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 88% - Fresh) has higher international box office, while WALL-E (Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 96% - Fresh) has higher U.S. box office (although not yet included in the final tally is its great Japanese box office - and oh, did I mention about my prediction reasons? Wink ). And both sold around $150 million worth of DVDs. Obviously a lot people are fond of those movies.

As for Gotham Knight, it sold quite well on DVDs too (230,000 units just its first week), likely mostly from mainstream and comics fans than anime fans, reflected by anime reviewers typically giving it mediocre ratings ( including this site) compared to mainstream or comics reviewers.

As for complaining about the Annies Awards voting, unlike many other awards, anybody can become an ASIFA member (annually $75 within the US, $100 outside the US, $30 for students) and thus submit entries for awards consideration and also vote. Any fan group who wants better representation could take direction into their own hands. (But remember, a film's producer's signature is still necessary to sign away the entry form).


Last edited by enurtsol on Sun Feb 01, 2009 4:03 am; edited 3 times in total
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GATSU



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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 3:48 am Reply with quote
Wall-E has a slightly higher U.S. box office than Kung Fu Panda, but its higher budget cancels that out. So Kung Fu Panda was technically more successful here than Wall-E, since it had a cheaper production cost.

Quote:
(But remember, a film's producer's signature is still necessary to sign away the entry form)


Wanna serve a worthy cause, Justin? Wink
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 7:05 am Reply with quote
I think comparing Futurama to Red Dwarf is in certain ways appropriate. If nothing else, both of them seemed to jump the shark when they tried to introduce more serious elements, at least in my view.

As for the Annies system, even if anime fans paid up so they could nominate and vote, I doubt their numbers would suffice for many anime to receive silverware. I myself would be satisfied with concentrating on Japanese award ceremonies when hoping for such works to receive recognition.
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 4:12 pm Reply with quote
Zin5ki wrote:
I think comparing Futurama to Red Dwarf is in certain ways appropriate. If nothing else, both of them seemed to jump the shark when they tried to introduce more serious elements, at least in my view.

I would personally argue that the more serious elements of Futurama were where the show shone the strongest, and would be precisely why I'd place it above any of the other standouts in the "American generally-adult-targeted animated sitcom" category. Unlike the vast majority of those shows, Futurama was able to move beyond the general comedy tropes of its cast every once in a while and make the audience truly empathize with them. I've yet to meet the person who could get through the episode Jurassic Bark without getting at least a bit misty-eyed, and episodes like Luck of the Fryrish and The Sting had a nice little emotional kick as well. Hell, one of the best parts of the show was watching Fry and Leela dance around their feelings for each other, which culminated rather nicely in the original finale of the show. At the very least, one has to give credit to the fact that it was willing to try something different among its peers.
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Zin5ki



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PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 6:47 am Reply with quote
To each their own I suppose. I just don't like to see drama in my comedy, and to an extent vice versa.

As for Batman, the screenshots and trailer appeared interesting, but I'd be inclined to agree that it's not anything special as piece of entertainment. Then again, I have the preconception that all things superhero-related peaked when Watchmen was published.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:56 am Reply with quote
I'd just like to point out that I hit this nail on the head: Cool
enurtsol wrote:

3. WALL-E is a weak nothing-going-for-him sweet romantic packrat geek;
EVE is a dominant goddess-powered never-propositioned kinda-tsundere.


With this this Newsweek interview of Wall-E director Andrew Stanton:

Eve has gotten some blog buzz as the one of the best-written female characters of the year. Since she goes around blowing things up, what feminizes her?

I'm probably going to offend you, but I was just trying to sort of emotionally and temperamentally capture what I've always seen a male-female relationship to be. At least out of my experience -- and I'm a nerd. I've always been shocked and waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop that a girl would ever talk to me, let alone want to marry me. They always seem to hold the power to me, and from my mother to my wife to my daughter, every time I try to really figure them out, and think I've got them pegged, I pay for it. There's a mercurial nature, but more of a mysterious nature to women that I think is what makes them so attractive. And I think that that's what I love: Guys never seem to know when they've come too close and crossed the line, and then the temper comes.

AKA, then Eve guns something down.

Exactly. That's really what the gun was all about, was Wall-E having no clue where the boundaries were with a woman. Because men don't either. Men just stumble into it and find out through experience. And they either survive it, or they don't. And that's really all it was, was a metaphor for that. The fact that she was high-technology and she had a subcutaneous technology that you couldn't really see, I felt, one, made her just technologically more beautiful and stuff, because wanted her to be pretty in a way that another robot would possibly see another machine being pretty, not pretty in the way that humans see somebody. But [her façade] also just kept her a mystery. There's something about her -- the fact that she floats. That fact that he touches the ground and he's all dirty, and she can stay clean. Some of these are kind of conventional thinking for the gender, but they just worked -- they worked on a primal level.


Kinda like many anime relationships - putting girls on a pedestal. Laughing
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:55 am Reply with quote
Oh, just in case ya guys are wondering what Crispin Freeman was doing at the Annie Awards: Laughing



Lastly, I'm kinda glad Kung Fu Panda won because, with WALL-E and Waltz with Bashir already getting recognitions all over the cities' film circles, this spreads the spotlight around to showcase that there's more to the industry than a couple worthy achievements.
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