Monday, August 27, 2018

The Aquabats' Super Kickstarter!

ARTICLE UPDATE: Here's a new Kickstarter video by The Aquabats!​ discussing their now newly rebooted campaign.



So... Yeah, this happened as burning testament to why I prefer not to cover current events: The Aquabats have wisely decided to reboot their Kickstarter campaign to more realistic stretch goals and limit their AQUABATS! SUPER SHOW! as an easier to produced web-series based on the success they've been having with the previously shared online mini-series.

On one hand, I'm happy for them to lower their ambitions to something more manageable and easier to attain but, on the other hand, I'm reminded why I shouldn't touch current news and related reviews and leave that work to the in-the-know professionals.

Articles on pre-existing obscure and lesser-known giant monsters coming up in September, you know, the EASY stuff!

The Aquabats! From left-to-right: EagleBones Falconhawk (Ian Fowles), Crash McLarson (Chad Larson), The MC Bat Commander (Christian Jacobs), Jimmy the Robot (James R. Briggs, Jr.), and Ricky Fitness (Richard Falomir)

Living in Los Angeles back in the early 1990's, a local Orange County station would aired a late, late, late night music video show entitled ARE-OH-VEE which played alternate and punk rock music videos too obscure or offbeat for 120 MINUTES. It was on this program that me and my two younger brothers were introduced to the humorous group known as THE AQUABATS through their host segments for Are-Oh-Vee and through their music video SUPER RAD:



Taking their name from some fairly obscure Hanna-Barbera monsters (from MIGHTY MYTOR AND MOBY DICK THE SUPER WHALE), The Aquabats were equally influenced by the campy superhero shows on yesteryear, particularly the 1960's BATMAN and numerous Japanese-based productions like ULTRAMAN and JOHNNY SOKKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT.

You can clearly see the influence in the following videos featuring their 1999 demo pilot for a planned Aquabats television series and a tongue-in-cheek recounting of the band's history with such failed pilots before finally finding success on The Hub cable network:





Even though The Hub eventually went under after a relatively short time in existence, THE AQUABATS SUPER SHOW lasted for an impressive 21 episodes: the following video gives one a taste of the series' bizarre style and hyper-kinetic energy:



If you want to delve even deeper into the Aquabats' rabbit hole, all their second season episodes are (at the time of this writing) accessible for free on their official YouTube channel. Here's four such episodes that also happen to be my personal favorites:

RETURN OF THE AQUABATS: https://youtu.be/KlPqCW24B90

THE ANTIBATS: https://youtu.be/rCMtjswEd6Q

SHARK FIGHTER: https://youtu.be/aLk-hMC3al0

KITTY LITTER: https://youtu.be/3yBbs7zzqmo

By this point in the article, you're either fully on board with this particular flavor of madness or have grabbed your computer with both arms and threw it out the window, cursing both me (Enshohma) and The Aquabats in tandem. If you're among the former then congratulations because I'm about to discuss the band's highly ambitious (some may even say foolish) Kickstarter that is coming to a close this very week.

At the time of this writing (where have a read those words before?) the campaign only has five days left and is just half-way to its end goal so any support at this point would be welcomed.

KICKSTARTER PAGE CAN BE FOUND HERE!

The Aquabats have also uploaded a related mini-series that continues from their series with this first episode explaining the campaign in full... After the parade of celebrity guests of course.


The here's the rest of the mini-series complete with recaps from the band's channel re-posted here for a narrative sake:

After The MC Bat Commander visits The Wizard of Hollywood, he's on a mission to gather a LEGION OF RIGHTEOUS COMRADES to help make MORE MUSIC & MORE TV. But first... The Bat Commander must find his best homies - THE OTHER AQUABATS!



The MC Bat Commander continues his mission to gather a Legion of Righteous Comrades and find all of his fellow Aquabats. This time, he's off to find Jimmy the Robot at his cool job in the arcade... until things don't go exactly as planned.



It's Episode 4 of The Bat Commander's quest to gather The Legion of Righteous Comrades and his fellow Aquabats. Are the Commander's dance moves rad enough to save his friend? Did Jimmy the Robot survive the belly of the mechanical beast?



After a desert scrapper dance off, The MC Bat Commander and Jimmy the Robot go to find Eaglebones Falconhawk. But can they overcome his job security? Will Eaglebones' boss tolerate The MC Bat Commander's inability to use an inside voice?



A lactose-laden terror revealed itself at Eaglebones' place of work, and now it's up to our heroes to deal with the milky madness so that they can continue to find their friends and gather a Legion of Righteous Comrades! Can The Aquabats survive the flaky furor of POWDERED MILK MAN?



After a narrow escape from the dreaded Powdered Milk Man, our heroes continue their quest to find all of The Aquabats. As the guys find Ricky, a beef with some beach bum bullies may end up becoming the least of their worries!



RELATED LINKS OF INTEREST:

The Aquabats' Official Facebook
The Aquabat's Official Web-Site
Billboard's Article on The Aquabats' Kickstarter Campaign
The Aquabats Super Show DVDs For Purchase, Direct From The Bats Themselves

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