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For more of Eccleston’s problems with the show, that was a different BW’s Daily Video. Also, here’s my review of the “Day Of The Doctor” we got.
Considering there are animated Superman movies I still haven’t seen that I’m interested in, I only have so much time in my life.
James Gunn, who I’m not a fan of to begin with, has said that he didn’t want to make a Superman movie until he learned about Krypto, which he breed-swapped into his own dog. Between negative and positive reviews as well as official promotion (most of which was about Gunn, earning the title James Gunn’s Superman By James Gunn here) just didn’t sound like it was really that focused on Superman, and didn’t get him quite right when they did. Not Zac Snyder levels of wrong, but enough that, as someone still on the fence about watching Superman Returns and never got into Superman & Lois despite the praise, I’m just not really sure I want to go through. Maybe things will change, but there are still a bunch of animated Superman movies between HBO Max and YouTube that I haven’t seen, so I’d rather go through those first. Remember, this is personal preference. If you liked what Gunn did, more power to you. I don’t care for what I saw and there’s only so much time in my day. My Finally Watched list is big enough as it is.
Speaking of big lists, over at The Clutter Reports this week I was going to do more digital organizing, but I wanted a project that gave me more of a sense of satisfaction. So instead I tackled a drawer in the kitchen with my dad that really needed decluttering. Now if I can only decide what to call it. It also led to a second drawer cleaning. So it’s a two for one project.
This week at the Spotlight we’re doing two chapters for the Chapter By Chapter review of Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image because of length, and getting into the first attempt at creating a Transformers cartoon for CBS, plus whatever else goes on this week worth covering. If anything since real world stuff seems to be burying storytelling discussions. Have a great week, everyone!
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Earlier this week I talked about how making a kids TV show into a horror movie was just wrong, and that was official from Warner Brothers. Then again, we’ve seen how they treat kids TV over there these days. Not surprising, given how little Hollywood cares about kids these days and even less about kids spending quality time with their parents. Just look at Disney these days. Childhood innocence is looked down upon as they try to make kids into little adults. It irks me to no end.
Kids TV is not relegated to a handful of networks while “family” programming looks a lot like grown up shows that kids can safely watch at best. However, back in the 1970s ABC had The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, a collection of shorter films (maybe an hour) that kids and parents could enjoy together. In 1972 we had a better adventure for the Banana Splits with Banana Splits In Hocus Pocus Park. With live-action segments filmed in Kings Island, one of many amusement parks the show would use to have Fleegle, Drooper, Bingo, and Snorky run around and goofing around over the years, most of the show takes place in animation. I’m pretty sure that’s a first as usually the costumed characters would just host the other cartoons, adventure and comedy alike. Sadly this was not our chance to finally meet their rivals, the Sour Grapes Bunch, and no preteen go-go dancing messengers either.
Instead, our crazy quartet journey to a magic forest via billboard. An evil witch wants to kidnap little Suzi and make her a witch. I don’t know why she’s perfect. The story isn’t about Suzy learning to not be a mean kid or anything. It’s just an excuse for the Splits and a pair of wacky wizards to have shenanigans trying to rescue her.
You may notice a couple of times the voices seem off. Howard Morris, who voices Hocus and Pocus, gets swapped out for Don Messick a couple of times for some reason while Morris had to give a few lines to Bingo. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t even born when this came out. There are also some pretty obvious animation errors. This is not going to be a deep story. That’s not what the series was about, although another movie from 2008, where the horror movie got their costumes, had the Splits trying to reclaim their fame…only to fail and have to learn to live with it. According to the Ideas Wiki (don’t know what it’s doing there), fans weren’t happy with that message and I have no reason to look at that anymore than I do the Five Nights At Freddy’s ripoff…which another wiki claims WAS an early Freddy’s movie script. Nope, for all it’s faults, THIS is the only Banana Splits movie that treats the show and the Splits themselves properly. Enjoy.
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No, we’re not getting it…but we almost did. Bounding Into Comics has part of an interview that movie director Chris Columbus did, bringing up that at one point he wanted to make a Fantastic Four movie, and maybe even a Daredevil one. Instead he went on to Harry Potter…so I think he did okay. Still it shows that failing to respect the source material isn’t a new mistake by Hollywood. The pecking order has existed for a very long time.
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Now that things are finally calming down (I hope), I can finally get the latest story bible/pitch review series going.
Recently the fine people at the Sunbow/Marvel Archive, a website dedicated to finding information from the alliance between Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions, recently found and posted a series of pitches and concepts for the Transformers cartoon as they tried to put together for CBS’s Saturday Morning lineup in the 1980s. This was after More Than Meets The Eye, the three episode miniseries, aired in syndication. Hasbro had hoped that this would help boost knowledge of the Japanese toyline hodgepodge they had put together with Marvel Comics and boost sales of the toys.
This production did not happen.
The whys and wherefores were already chronicled by Christ McFeely of Transformers: The Basics. Back when I had more important things to concentrate on, I did post his video on the show that would have been quite different from what we ended up getting. You can see it here if you’re interested. I’ll be going over the highlights as I set up this article series.
Just like I did with Star Trek and Doctor Who, I’m going to go over this material with the goal of seeing if this is something we were better off without in favor of what we got or if we missed out on something good. Spoilers: after McFeely’s video I’m not convinced we aren’t better off with the three season plus three episodes we got. Still, it’s fun to think about what could have been and see what let up to the cartoon we all know and love. Welcome to CBS Transformers, my new article series.
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Someone brought a gun to a swordfight.
Keen Detective Funnies volume 3 #1 (#17)
Centaur Publishing (January, 1940)
There are pages missing from the beginning of the comic. I hope there aren’t any missing from inside the comic. Yes, we are back to the not-funny funnies. So far this has been a good anthology. Let’s hope the trend continues this issue.
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And here is TFR Archive‘s YouTube channel to see more and new info
This game could have been really cool. Shame we never got it. Meanwhile I still need to finish War For Cybertron.
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