Not the usual banner I’ve been using for Saturday Night Showcase, but this was my introduction to a series called Space Adventure Cobra, though anime fan Matthew Sweet actually used the movie for his video of the song “Girlfriend”. He would break out another anime, Those Crazy Aliens (I believe that translates as Urusei Yatsura in the original Japanese, first introduced in the US by the name of the female…yeah, I’m calling Lum the antagonist here–deal with it) for his song “I’ve Been Waiting“. A friend of mine would later show me the manga for the former while my introduction to Lum was the same friend’s manga. (Different manga, of course). And now thanks to TMS’s YouTube channel we get to watch the series adapting the manga.
Created by Buichi Terasawa, Space Adventure Cobra follows our title hero five years after disappearing with a new identity seeking respite from the attacking pirate guild. Cobra was an independent pirate but the guild soon grew so big they decide to force everyone to join. Kind of like a few union groups I could mention that ruin the whole goal, but these are pirates. Their goals usually aren’t nice, except in fiction where the term “pirate” is misused a lot. It makes the Phantom cry. Anyway, Cobra and his android partner Lady Armaroid have been enjoying some peace and quite, except Cobra’s new identity has a rather boring life…until he makes the same mistake Douglas Quaid did and try to have a fake life experience only to learn it was real. Remind me never to do that. I’m happy with my dull life and I’m not in a world-saving mood today.
In the first episode Cobra is awakened just in time to stop one of his old enemies from murdering his new identity. If you haven’t met the man with the Psycho Gun, now’s the time.
Disney Vs. Walt Disney Classic Shorts
I’ve written about this before but simply covering the constant live-action makeovers and reimaginings they’ve been doing of their animated classics. That or focusing on their villains as sympathetic like we saw in Maleficent and nobody will be surprised if the movie based on 101 Dalmatians (speaking of animated works redone in live action) lead villain Cruella De Ville goes along similar lines. However, I thought of something today that makes me further believe modern Disney people don’t care about their long history. And it come from one single question that came to my mind.
When was the last time you saw a classic Disney short on television?
On occasion Freeform or one of the Disney branded channels pops up a movie, probably to promote the live action demake, but the classic shorts? When was that last on TV? I don’t mean clips in some retrospective, I mean the full cartoon, even just from the color years because unless you’re a classic movie channel they won’t touch anything that’s less than two colors unless someone’s being stylistic.
Having trouble remembering, aren’t you? Some of you may have never seen one. Why?
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on April 30, 2021 in Animation Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged commentary, Disney, Donald Duck, Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, The Walt Disney Company.
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