[Videos] 107 Facts About Robot Chicken

Okay, I admit that I can't help but reshare all these Channel Frederator videos featuring 107 facts about this or that cartoon. They seem to be a roll in terms of tapping show that I already love whether old or new and thus it becomes easy to want to share these things with you. Such shares are my little opportunities to expose you to elements of pop culture that I've come to appreciate or even love.

Robot Chicken is crazy funny but admittedly it can seem like the sort of show that has writers looking to more exotic substance in order to find inspiration for sketches. But given how the show in itself is a pop culture celebration, there will always be a sketch or two that you can relate to for good measure.



But after watching this video, I have to admit I was a little sad for all the toys that had to be sacrificed in the name of production. I kind of figured that it was happening but it was another story to confirm it to be true.

[Movies] X-Men Apocalypse (2016)

So Fox's continued ownership of the movie rights for the X-Men and all other Marvel mutants is a bit of a sore spot for fans like myself since it means that the X-Men stories will always remain separate from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). And yes, the MCU isn't necessarily perfect in its depiction of various heroes or comic book storylines, but it's still an interesting experiment in shared universe storytelling. Thus keeping the X-Men out of that loop because of legalities is beyond annoying.

X-Men Apocalypse is the latest installment in the Fox movie franchise and it represents the continuation of a new timeline for the series that had began back in 2011 with X-Men First Class. And with Days of Future Past having completely erased the old X-Men movie timeline, we're in brand new territory with all these alternate actors performing  in these now well-known character roles.

To be fair, this continuity seems to be doing a lot better than the first storyline that they had created for the X-Men. And while those older movies have a charm of their own, this new series continues to do its best to better tie the movie to the comics without being overly beholden to that prior movie timeline.

[Comics] Descender Vol. 2: Machine Moon

So I already wrote about how quickly I fell in love with the comic Descender. Apart from beautiful art and an interesting premise for the series, the central character is quite endearing in a way that feels a lot more endearing than the often unnerving sense that David was in A.I.

This second volume of Descender is an interesting expansion of this little take but also an effort to take the comic into somewhat of a new direction in order to expand the narrative further. At first felt like this was more meant to be a rather right mini-series or something. But this second volume of the book helps reinforce that this book is meant to tell a more epic tale.

In many ways, it's easy to compare this title with the likes of Saga as it does feel like another grand space opera tale that is well-grounded in the point of view of a few key characters. And while we don't have a cat that can detect lies or anything like that, but we do have a whole different set of characters with their own unique abilities.

[Videos] 107 Facts About Daria

Daria was one of those quirky pop culture artifacts of my younger years because it felt so groundbreaking for a network to create a cartoon targeted to teens. And yeah, MTV was totally cutting edge since not only did they celebrate the joys of the music world, but they also had creative ventures like this.

What happened to you, MTV? When did the music die?

Channel Frederator has finally set their sights on tackling this unique television series, although I can totally imagine Daria questioning why the heck they chose a number like 107. Was 100 too good for you?


Oh, and the video makes reference to an old CollegeHumor mock trailer for Daria's High School Reunion. It's totally worth (re)watching after going through this video.

[TV] Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Season 2

After the fun of the first season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, you'd think this highly episodic sitcom would now slide into the comfort zone of longer-term narratives or something. But at the same time, it's undeniable that a lot of the strength of the show is how crazy and unpredictable each episode is. But not allowing the story to dominate, they've allowed the individual character stories play a larger role in things. And I think that has helped drive things forward.

The second season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine is an interesting continuation of those strong, character-driven stories but also dropping hints of longer term stories as well. In this sense it sort of reminds me of the narrative structure of Discworld where it helps to read the books in order but each stands alone well. And this is how the various episodes of the show feel like to me as they're all crazy little tales but in the end it all works out.

And I'm glad that they didn't really go for introducing a whole host of additional regular or featured players in character roles. So the show remained focused on the crazy little crew that they had already assembled.

[Videos] About the US Primaries and Caucuses

It seems safe to say that the upcoming US Presidential Elections will be between Donald Trump for the Republican Party and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party. But how we got to this point in time involved the regular circus that is the US Presidential Primaries and related Caucuses.

And since he has already discussed how terrible a candidate Donald Trump is, John Oliver has now decided to tackle the selection process as a whole and manages to explain just how crazy the road to the US Presidential Elections can be. And by explain I mean make fun of in a lengthy 15 minute segment of his show Last Week Tonight.


See for yourself. This won't do anything to change the direction of the US elections, but at least we get to have a little fun.

[Movies] Our Obsession with Live-Action Movie Adaptations of Cartoons

When you think back to the favorite cartoons of your youth, how often do you find yourself wishing that someone would make a live-action movie adaptation of it? I doubt the thought naturally comes up in our minds all that often apart from drunken conversations with friends and while watching movie trailers online. We don't automatically wish all the cartoons that we watched as kids were turned into movies involving actual actors portraying the various characters. But we been trained by Hollywood to respond to trailers of such movies and figure that it can't possibly be all that bad to go see it.

But time and time again, we've seen more cartoon adaptations fail at the box office. We've read scores off critics reviews panning yet another such adaptation for delivering a lousy story with paper thin characters and back story that was never provided or developed.

These days we don't just get straight-up adaptations of classic stories, but instead we get adaptations that are somehow "grittier" or "more mature" in order to draw in older crowds. We continue to participate in Hollywood's efforts to focus on more commercially viable movies with lower perceived risk (since established Intellectual Property  is always better than something new, right?) instead of taking more chances with truly creative venture. I know this part sounds a little too optimistic or just plain idealist, but I'd really like to see new stuff.

To be fair, this is not to say such adaptations are automatically bad. Such stories of our youth  can have pretty big emotional significance and so it only makes sense that some part of us will respond to seeing them again in any form. Such is the human experience.

So will Disney give us a live action adaptation of their Robin Hood cartoon that still involves (CGI) animals or something? Who knows, right?

Movies be crazy that way.

[Videos] Idea Channel on Violence

And while I do enjoy it when PBS Idea Channel explores quirky philosophical questions using pop culture as a lens of some sort, they're somewhat more serious thought pieces are great mental exercises to consider other possibilities.

In this episode, Mike Runetta explores the nature of violence - and how there's more to it than excessive physical force. Do you agree that violence involves the loss or denial of one's choice? Is violence more than just punching someone?

Here's the episode:

[Podcasts] Night Vale Presents Alice Isn't Dead

I'm quite the happy Night Vale fan, so much so that I continue to follow the podcast and I loved their first book. And for those of you who still haven't noticed, the folks behind Welcome to Night Vale have another venture into podcast fiction in Alice Isn't Dead.

Fellow Night Vale followers would have noticed that the first few episodes were cross-posted to the various Night Vale podcast channels as a way to help promote the new show. So consider this my contributing to boosting the signal for this quirky little podcast.



And while it's not precisely the same feel as Night Vale, it's still an interesting little exploration of narrative and one that is definitely worth your time. You can follow the podcast or iTunes or you can download the episodes over on libsyn.

[Videos] On Movie Editing

Still in Singapore. Still have little time to write lengthier blog posts. Enjoy the blog-based link sharing, my dear readers. You may learn something.

Today I'm sharing the latest episode of Every Frame A Painting, which I've featured on the site before. This week's episode talks about the power of the movie editor, which is not always clear to people when they watch an awards program for the movie field. As always Tony Zhou (together with Taylor Ramos) does a great job of articulating the challenge of the movie editor and how much emotion can be conveyed through how a film is cut.

It's more than just the acting folks.

[Videos] 107 Facts About the Venture Bros.

Still busy with work, but in the meantime here's another fun 107 Facts video from Channel Federator. In this case, they feature the crazy Johnny Quest parody known as The Venture Bros.

I'll admit that I'm quite the fan of the show as strange as it is and I think we're pretty blessed, in a way, that the show has managed to stay alive for so long. That said, I wish we had way more than 6 seasons by now given the show's 13 year history thus far, but of course only so much can be done.

So on with the facts!

[Music] RuPaul's The Realness

I'm rather busy a work trip in Singapore, so expect a lot of filler content this week.

For now, I'll leave you with the ever fabulous Top 3 queens of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 8 performing alongside RuPaul in the official music video for "The Realness". I have to admit, it turned out waaay more fabulous than I had expected based on the footage seen in the show.

Great job, girls!



I only have time to enjoy this video for now. Will have to wait until I get back to Manila before I can watch the season finale together with my partner Tobie.

[Pink Scene] The 5 Days of O Bar

Metro Manila's LGBT scene is largely represented by O Bar these days. It's not necessarily a spot that they aimed for - it just sort of happened as a lot of the other bars just closed down in recent years. But given how O Bar is open to everyone and not just the LGBT community, O Bar is always more than just a "gay bar" - if you can even call it that. It's a place where one can celebrate the miracle of drag, which remains to be the main feature of the bar.

So for those of you who are uncertain when to finally visit O Bar with your friends, maybe this little guide will help you. Here's my quick guide to the different days of O Bar.

[TV] Supergirl: Season 1

I've not been too big on superhero-themed shows on TV. It seems the only formula that studios have become comfy with is the teen-oriented drama full for convoluted love triangles and other teen angst cliches. The CW has pretty much defined their programming line-up around genre entertainment tied to teen angst stories.

So when a new Supergirl series was announced, it was easy to assume that CBS was going to follow the same pattern with a different character. But to my surprise, the actual show was a lot more complicated than that while still celebrating the lighter tone and sense of whimsy we expect from older (read pre-Snyder) superhero stories.

This show had a lot going against it such as the perception of it being a silly Superman spin-off that can't actually use Superman or just some weird attempt at a female-oriented series in a weird olive branch to the gender. But thankfully it was much more than all of these things and more and we're all the better for it.

[Cartoons] 10 (Mostly 90's) Cartoons That Should Come Back?

Channel Frederator has some fun video content beyond its 107 Facts videos. And I continue to follow their YouTube channel because of my general love for cartoons.

In this Top 10 video, they tackle the interesting subject of cartoons that had been cancelled too soon. The list features a good number of classic 90's cartoon that I'd agree about having been cut off before reaching their full potential. But I admit that I didn't entirely agree with all entries in the top 5.


Check out the video for yourselves. What do you think? Which cancelled cartoon would you have put in the top spot?

[Comics] Descender Vol. 1: Tin Stars

The annual Eisner Awards are a great venue for discovering new comic books that have managed to get the attention of fans and critics alike. And since I'm not exactly great with independent exploration of titles, especially outside the worlds of Marvel and DC, I do enjoy exploring various Eisner nominees to see how things will go.

Descender was such a surprising book for me but one that I do not regret engaging with. It was among the nominees for Best Painter/Multimedia Artist because of Dustin Nguyen's contributions, so that drew me in. Plus it's a story about a robot made to appear like a boy, and that rather enamored me as well.

But man, I wasn't prepared for an equally beautiful story as well and this book certainly delivered a unique and most worthy experience. Yes the art is beautiful but the story is also exquisite in its own way and I feel all the better for reading it. We can only be thankful that comic book writers are able to use the medium to tell such fascinating stories through this mostly visual language.

[Videos] 107 Facts About Civil War and Winter Soldier

I'm still dealing with the results thus far for the 2016 Philippine Elections, so instead let's distract ourselves with two 107 facts videos by Cinematica

Here's 107 Facts You Need to Know About Captain America: Civil War and Captain American: The Winter Soldier. Funnily, the Civil War video was clearly done before the movie, so a number of the "facts" are really just now-debunked rumors.

[News] Waiting For Election Results

Not in the mood to blog today. Just waiting for the official results of this year's elections.

One can only hope that the Philippines wins in the end.

[Movies] The Intern (2015)

We watched this movie a little while back since it was the sort of movie that had a lot of folks talking about it. We're not talking about the sort of buzz you get around a summer blockbuster, but it was just one of those movies that would repeatedly come up in conversations as a movie that someone had seen and had enjoyed.

I wasn't sure what to think of The Intern before sitting down to watch it. It was the sort of movie that had big name stars attached to it together with a somewhat quirky plot. The movie didn't particularly make waves in local theaters as far as I can recall. But here we are.

This movie falls under the category of those films that will somehow make you feel good with an inspiring nugget of a story and kind of goes from there. They use character archetypes that are familiar but not necessarily relatable and then they mix things all together and see what comes out.

It's a steady formula that works well enough. And I think they managed to hit their little sweet spot with this movie.

[Videos] Everything Wrong with Star Wars: The Force Awakens (via CinemaSins)

I'm a big CinemaSins fan not because I think movies are stupid or prone to mistakes but more because I recognize that even the best movies aren't perfect and we should be able to laugh at ourselves in this manner. But I know they get a lot of flak whenever they tackle popular movies with passionate fan bases, but it just shows that they don't get the humor and that's okay. You can't please everyone after all.

So this episode finally tackles Star Wars: The Force Awakens and is notable not because of the number of sins that they found but more because of how many sins they gave back. Seriously, I feel like this was one of the most generous episodes yet - can anyone remember another movie where they scratched off more sins than in this one?


Let me know what you think in the comments.

[Books] Time Salvager

So The Lives of Tao was one of my earliest review books for Angry Robot Books and one that I enjoyed a lot. It sort of cemented my commitment to the Angry Robot Army and I haven't turned back ever since. And so it was nice to see author Wesley Chu try his hand at writing a new set of stories outside beyond our dear Quasing friend Tao.

Time Salvager is very different from the Tao books and it took me while to easy into this new universe. But that lends a lot of credit to Chu's world building skills, something we didn't necessarily see in the Tao books since it was largely set on contemporary Earth.

As the title implies, this is a book that involves time travel, and that's a branch of science fiction that is never entirely easy for even seasoned writers. Do you just use it like magic and have characters go back and forth through time at will? Do you set up a thousand rules and restrict its usage to the point of being almost useless? It's not always an easy thing to balance, but I think Chu did a great job of finding his sweet spot.

[Cartoons] 107 Facts About The Legend of Korra

And while I'll always have a softer spot in my heart for The Legend of Aang, one cannot deny that the continuing saga of The Legend of Korra was a great story as well with quite the fulfilling arc when you look at all of the show's seasons together.

In this episode of 107 Facts You Should Know, Channel Federator decides to tackle Korra given they had already covered the original Avatar cartoon some time back.



I learned a good number of facts because of this video - what about you?

[Movies] Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Civil War was never one of my favorite Marvel Comics crossover events. It was an oddly convoluted story that centered around the always messy trope of heroes fighting other heroes and all that jazz. It's a small miracle that the Earth-based Marvel heroes survived the fallout of this particular event and now everyone is in a much better place - at least after the complete destruction of the universe. But that's the comic book world.

When the plans were announced that they were going to adapt Civil War as the story of the next Captain America movie, I wasn't sure what to think. Why go back to this dark bit of Marvel history? Why bring in all these heroes to form the Avengers only to have them fight one another in another movie? But hey, what do I know. I didn't write the thing.

Despite my lack of love for the original story this was based on, I was also pretty excited about the actual movie. With each new trailer, there was more and more to talk about including the addition of new characters on one side of the conflict or another. And so what we ended up with was perhaps the best Avengers movie thus far, even though it was dressed as a Captain America movie.

[Comics] Zsazsa Zaturnnah sa Kalakhang Maynila #2 (of 3)

I posted my review of part one of Zsazsa Zaturnnah sa Kalakhang Maynila back in 2012, so it has been a bit of time since we last spent time with our favorite gender-bending heroine. But let's not focus on how long it has been since the last Zsazsa Zaturnnah comic and just focus on the fact that she's back and we're all the better for it.

Given this is still a serial though, I'll admit that I was a little fuzzy at first about how things had ended in the last book and just where we were headed this time around. But hey, it was worth the recap and review in order to get into the fun.

And man, it is so great to be back to reading about her (mis)adventures again! Zsazsa was never a 100% picture perfect sort of superhero, and that's part of her charm. But she's also one with a lot to deal with in her home life, which is just about as Filipino as you can get really. Throw in her being gay and that's one complicated back story which never grows tiring in terms of potential story content and character development.