Inspired by the real-world phenomenon of Pachimon (unofficial Japanese bromide cards featuring dubious reworkings of pre-existing giant monsters), I've been taking all my past fanart illustrations and portraits to rework them as parody characters, inserted into comical photo-collage backgrounds, coining my process as Pachishohma (Pachimon + Enshohma).
I'm gathering all these gag monsters into an art-book for this coming October. With additional creature contributions by my friend Mark / Hawanja, who is also serving as an editor and co-writer, alongside author Patrick Galvan and comedian Banjo Wilkins as extra proofreaders, I'm presenting a preview of the book thus far below - enjoy!
Thanks to the magic of the mighty Surfing Shark of V.P.N., I was able to view the first episode of GODZILLA: SINGULAR POINT which is being released on Netflix Japan on a weekly basis instead of a full season drop (still no word of an international release date though one is still coming this year).
Similar to the first act of "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe" (1995), the first episode is a slow burn building up the mystery behind a missing scientist and a haunting 1930s love song that's somehow being used to summon and/or resurrect the ancient monsters, with the 'Rodan the First' only appearing in the closing minutes to menace our heroes (as seen in the Toho Animation video clip released recently online).
I'd go more into the plot but, unfortunately, no English subtitles were available to me. However, unlike other untranslated kaiju media heavy on dialog, the human cast instantly made an impression with their appealing character designs alongside quirky personality moments and related visual gags, all of which kept my interest.
In addition to the previously mentioned "Gamera" comparisons, the first episode's atmospheres and the near future world presented within was also reminiscent of "Ultra Q" and early Showa-era science fiction films like "The Mysterians" (1957), "The H-Man" (1958), and "Rodan" (1956): a virtually quiet, normal world on the eve of a monstrous cataclysm or an otherworldly event.
First full trailer for PACIFIC RIM: THE BLACK recently dropped and... It actually looks good for a CGI anime show! That or I'll take anything after Pacific Rim: Uprising but that's a totally different story.
The appearance of tangible human antagonist gives me pause for concern: like most anime series, it will begin with a fantastical otherworldly threat that will disappear several episodes in while a 'normal human' (cheaper to animate) one takes over as the main focus.
However, it would be cool to see equal amounts of human and non-human antagonists which this trailer also hints at with the smaller dog-like kaiju, a rogue hybrid Kaiju Yeager, and a strange mystery child.
The teaser trailer for SHIN ULTRAMAN dropped earlier today: a co-production between Tsuburaya Productions, Toho Company and Khara inc. stated as a movie adaptation of the original Ultraman series as well as an indirect follow-up to Shin Godzilla on Toho, Shinji Higuchi, and Hideaki Anno's parts (Good!, Never make a Shin Godzilla II and fly free like the bearded angels that you are).
While its intriguing, the CGI is a little simple to state it lightly even if, apparently, that's the filmmakers' intent to echo the original Ultraman's unrealistic effects and fantastical fairy tale nature.
SHIN ULTRAMAN also has a way a better chance of widespread exposure here in American than more recent Ultraman content, hopefully with a similar theatrical roll out that Shin Godzilla received back in 2016.
Listen, I'm happy for the success Tsuburaya Productions have found through online streaming and the Mill Creek box sets but it's all still relatively quint by mainstream American standards.
There also the Marvel Comics' ULTRAMAN series but... That series is purely American in many regards and isn't really advertising its Japanese origins very well: the sheer number of major news outlets assuming that Ultraman is an original 2020 Marvel creation proves that. Plus, the Marvel Comics' story is rather lame (seriously? 5 issues to barely battle Bemular? Pointless even by slow burn story logic).
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!
UPDATE: Wow...I never realized the number of typos and absent linkage that this article previously had! I've gone back and re-edited this piece for the better. ******* I just returned fromWondercon 2016and attended the "Voltron: Legendary Defender" panel - a new series coming to Netflix from Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery; two directors and storyboard artists with an impressive resume of recent animation works, though I am most familiar with both through their significant contributions to "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "The Legend of Korra"
Based on the three extensive clips shown during the panel, along with the given information and impressive cast of voice actors, the new series looks extremely promising, with an openly admitted combining of elements from both the original Japanese series "Beast King GoLion" and its American adaptation, brand new concepts, and added with the fun energy, appealing character designs, and high production values that both "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "The Legend of Korra" offered. This series looks to be something special for us Kaiju / Super Robot fans. Some of the new character design and casting choices are surprising (Rhys Darby as the new Coran?), but also brilliant in a 'thinking-out-of-the-box' sort of way (Rhys Darby as the new Coran!). Princess Allura in particular has been re-imagined / rebooted into a dark-skinned (black) elf maiden and simply looks fantastic, like the gorgeous love-child of "The Legend of Zelda" and "Revolutionary Girl Utena". Not much was said of the villains, other than they'll be as vile and almost as horrifying as their Japanese originals (complete with the returned name of The Garla Empire), and RoBeasts will be more significant threats over the one-and-done opponents of older Voltron series. Plus, voice actor Neil Kaplan will be portraying the Garla's supreme leader, King Zarkon, which was a nice surprise for me, since Neil was a very kind and friendly person towards yours truly, during my attendance at the very first Power Morphicon back in 2007. Never been that big of a "Voltron" fan from the past despite my love of gigantic monsters in all shapes and sizes, and watching the series on occasion. But this new version has me hyped, and I can't wait for its streaming premier on June 10th, 2016. Additional Links: Cartoon Brew's Preview Nerdist Interviews with the Producers and Cast Details
Nothing major this time around, with these three 'Kaiju-ish' items to share, along with a little bit of feedback from my side. I Ain't Afraid of No Trailer...? MovieBob perfectly sums up the REAL problems and echos A LOT of my own thoughts towards the recently released trailer for the upcoming "Ghostbusters" reboot / remake, as well as the fog of controversy that also surrounds the production, and the challenge of remakes in general. On the other hand, I still want to post my own take on this future film, and my general feelings on Sony Pictures and its continuing misadventures. Why The Ghostbusters Reboot Should (But Won’t) Be Judged On Its Own Merits Text Linkage: http://screenrant.com/ghostbusters-reboot-trailer-female-characters-response/
My Take of the Upcoming Iron Giant Art Book An "Iron Giant" art book 17 years after its release...GOOD! Meaning the book will be far more extensive and informative then the tie-in crap that the studios will poop out for a film's impending release, and deliberately leave out A LOT of pre-production material just to 'save face', in case the films become flops and people realize how much better the abandoned concepts were compared to the final product. Again, being late is a GOOD thing for our robotic superman from space and for us, his many fans! Brad Bird’s ‘Iron Giant’ Is Getting An Art Book (Preview) Text Linkage: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/books/book-preview-art-iron-giant-137950.html Surprisingly Good News for Voltron I was honestly NOT looking forward to the new "Voltron" series on Netflix for TWO VERY good reasons. ONE - American-made "Voltron" sequels and spin-offs have usually been average at best, and TWO - original animated shows from Netflix have almost always sucked. So I had NO hope what-so-ever for this upcoming series...Until THIS fantastic bit of news was announced (SEE the link)! The New Voltron Cartoon on Netflix Is Being Headed Up by Legend of Korra Alums Text Linkage: http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-new-voltron-cartoon-is-being-headed-up-by-legend-of-1764359651 Seriously, this bit of news is for me at least is the equivalent of discover Guillermo del Toro making his own mecha-vs-kaiju film, Sam Raimi working on a 1960's inspired Spider-Man film, and Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi given a chance to finally create their own spin on Godzilla!
From what I've seen, most Japanese-born video games of late are...Well, not good...Especially within the graphics and mechanics department, which was a huge issue a lot of people had with "Godzilla: the Game" from last year. Though to be perfectly honest, I am barely a gamer to the point of not being one at all, while also knowing these games far better through written and online video reviews than hands-on experience. But a poorly programmed video game, Japanese or otherwise, is still obvious to even worse 'noobs' (idiotic slang term for 'inexperienced neophyte') than I'm often accused of being. I have a slight fear that the same may be true with the upcoming, but no-less intriguing title "City Shrouded In Shadow", which is to be a survival action-adventure where you have to evacuate a city safely while in the midst of a multiple giant monster (Kaiju) attack.
On the bright side, the game is to have many guest stars from previously unconnected Kaiju films and television series, with the extraterrestrial superhero Ultraman being the first confirmed, along with strong rumors and hints of Godzilla himself joining in on the mayhem. So at the very least, this video game will be a significant, serious-minded crossover in Kaiju History, NOT counting obscure soccer games featuring super-cute 'animefied' versions of these same characters. Here's hoping Gamera, lesser known one-shot monsters like Guilala and Gappa, and maybe even some original giant creature creations are included in the finished video game. More information can be found in these following links: Teaser Trailer for the Game Polygon.com's Article Toku Nation's Article And here are some teaser images to wet one's appetite:
Hello everyone! Life has NOT been good towards me of late, so here's an article based on questions and random musings from both my Facebook and DeviantART pages. Enjoy!
Yours truly, in deep, terrified thought.
King Kong 2005? OR Godzilla 2014? Both films are good, and I've come to appreciate both on their own respective merits, upon revisiting. BUT man do they have flaws that almost turn me off from either! "Godzilla" (2014) tries way too damn hard with the 'Hide the Shark' method (inspired by the 1975 classic "Jaws"), that every director or screenwriter in Hollywood is hopelessly in love, these days. Even when it's a terribly ill fit with the source material, like the appalling dumb-ing down of 2011's "Green Lantern" (There's space aliens? What space aliens?). And "King Kong" (2005), while having way better, imaginative monster designs and action sequences...Spends way too much time on THAT GOD DAMN BOAT! It's almost a tie for me here, between these two, but I'd have to pick "Godzilla" for NOT having the hour-long boat ride. Which isn't really saying much for either, I might add.
Although hated by most fans, Gabara from "All Monsters Attack" (1969) is totally alright in my book!
The Lamest Giant Monsters of Them All? Somebody recently asked me Who (or What) is the Lamest Kaiju Ever Made? Well... Almost all Kaiju / Giant Monsters are awesome in my opinion. But the ones I really can't stand, is from an obscure sub-category that you never really see in films or television - Giant monsters created by people who clearly don't take the material seriously, done as a pretty lazy joke, AND is somehow still treated was pure brilliance by said creators. Like when you ask an unimaginative jackass to create a worthy foe for Godzilla. And instead, they come up (without any real thought) something akin to 'Nazi-Dinosaur-Hitler-Rex', or 'Satan Possessed Mega Cow', or 'Giant Super Jesus', or 'Killer Blob Made of Toilet S***' and so-on-and-so-forth. For me, these are the lamest monsters of them all. What sucks is that there's a VERY thin line between this 'normal people' laziness and flippancy towards monster concepts. And the comical or silly monsters that are actually GOOD in their own offbeat right. Such as the more charming and equally creative 'guest villains' from "Power Rangers". Or comical monsters that can still pose a threat and can hold their own in battle - 1970's Gigan comes to mind.
My Thoughts on the Female "Ghostbusters" Reboot?
I'm getting sick of remakes and 'late sequels' as much as the next person...Which isn't saying much, seeing how the two biggest hits this summer was "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Jurassic World". And yet, I have nothing against the upcoming female reboot / remake / re-imagining / re-branding / redo / re-whatever of "Ghostbusters". Me and my two brothers grew up with both the films, and the animated series. And even though I'm not a video game guy, the 2009 entry was a satisfying alternative to third film with the original cast. But I too was wary at yet another film, and one so late in the game. And the unfortunate passing of Harold Ramis, pretty much sealed the deal. If you were to revisit "Ghostbusters", take it to new direction, or give it one Hell of a twist. Even if an original story (OR not doing it at all), would have been preferred. So yeah...I'm more than okay with an all female Ghostbusters team! BUT my true concern is how the ghosts and monsters will be handled in the new film. The two previous films (and 2009 video game) had a great variety of otherworldly creatures, ranging from humanoid specters, to Lovecraftian monstrosities. And although many were played for offbeat giggles, they were all still terrifying and menacing beings. Including The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man himself - that evil 'I'm gonna get you' stare, that he gives our four heroes, is priceless! Sadly, considering modern movie trends, the ghosts will likely be portrayed as too comical, or as way too serious. And with no excellent middle ground in-between, minus a lucky accident or two. But at least the new Ghostbuster suits look classy! I'm less thrilled with the literally homemade Proton Packs. But not bad either!
The new GB suits and Proton Pack.
Your Thoughts on the Film Version of "Rampage"? A live action movie based on the 1986 arcade game "Rampage" has been in Development Hell since 2011. So the recent announcement of the film moving forward with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, is being met with a large block of salt from my end, as it could still get cancelled at the last minute. Especially if the decision to finally make this film is less based on the recent successes of "Jurassic World" and "Godzilla" (2014). And more on the 'insider projections' of the upcoming film "Pixels". Plus, knowing Hollywood trends, and how the monster characters always take a backseat to the more marketable (often bland) human stars, I agree with this particular article that the classic "Rampage" monsters George the Gorilla, Lizzie the Lizard, and Ralph the Werewolf, will be the distant co-stars to The Rock, like the title robots of the "Transformers" films. Or at best, the aforementioned "Godzilla" (2014). On the OTHER hand...The Rock could ultimately become one of the three giant monsters, which is also likely. Personally though, I hope they get someone like Elizabeth Banks in the Lizzie the Lizard role.
Your Biggest Inspirations for Your Original Characters? The colorful, humanoid creatures from most tokusatsu shows, most notably Super Sentai / Power Rangers. And the criminally underrated series "Metalder". Lesser, but related influences come from 1960's fantasy cinema and television (Kaiju Eiga for sure), classic Anime, American cartoons of the past (Tex Avery, Disney, Chuck Jones, etc.), and documentaries focused on biological life, mainly obscure animal based ones.
Your Favorite Color? Blue - It's majestic, calm, and dignified, but also looks great on almost anything you put on it. Though I must admit, that I'm also an Aquarius. So I might be a tad bias in choosing the universal color of deep, massive amounts of water there.
How I love Blue, and it's many shades and variants.
Favorite Underrated Anime? There's a lot of overlooked anime shows and movies, but my top choices include "Robot Carnival" - fantastic film, even when some of the segments fall short. "Dai-Guard" - giant robot anime meets charming office comedy, while doing it with a totally straight faced. And to a slightly controversial extent, "Space Dandy" - a lot of people abandoned that series quite early on, but as a fun and funny love letter to all things space fantasy, it's great! Favorite Underrated Character in Any Media? Gamera, the flying giant fire-breathing super turtle. 2015 was supposed to be his 50th anniversary, and NOTHING is being done for the poor monster. And the outcome of the Godzilla vs. Gamera "Death Battle" hasn't helped his street credit much either. All that aside, Gamera really is an fantastic 'hero monster' who deserves a lot better.
Beautiful promotional image, from 1996's "Gamera 2: Attack of Legion"
Favorite Movie You Like BUT EVERYONE Hates? Wow...Pretty much opened my whole DVD collection right there. But as far as films that have no fans outside myself, that honor goes to "Space Invaders", "Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century", "Coneheads", and possibly "Overdrawn At The Memory Bank". Though granted, that last one I've only seen as it's "Mystery Science Theater 3000" version. Words of Advice for Artist and Writers Out There? That's a REALLY tough one, as often almost any kind of advice given to artists will end up bruising their confidence, based off on my own unfortunate experiences. And in some environments, artists are only there to stroke their individual egos, and often take any advice, let alone basic questions about their works, as a negative attack. Not because it is, but because their individual 'pissing contest' is being endangered by an 'outsider'. Or the opposite side of the same problem, when 'alpha jerk artists and writers' give bad or hurtful advice, as a deliberate attempt to undermine your own talents. Again, based on my own experiences (various creator meetings at the local comic shops). The only stern advice I can give is JUST DO YOUR OWN THING, and see how it's received AFTERWARDS. So many times an artist or a writer will double guess their own works, to such a point that's it's never finished, or in a constant cycle of re-working. And it doesn't help when other artists will tell you your idea sucks, based on the basic plot description alone (again, creator meetings at the local comic shops). It's totally okay to get second opinions on your work-in-progress, and filter out the aforementioned saboteurs from actual constructive criticisms out there (though that can be freaking difficult). But at the end of the day, you got to just finish it, post it, and see the reaction, good or bad. Often times a story that sounds horrible in the pitch meeting, will entrances a large audience when completed as its final whole (SEE "Star Wars"). Somewhat cynical (and long) answer, but I hope you keep this cautious advice for yourselves in the future.
Obscure, overlooked, and underrated, "Biollante" isn't a famous Godzilla movie, but in my humble opinion, is definitely among the best. This is largely due to its ambitious ideas, and surprisingly well-done execution. And hopefully it will find a new appreciation both within and beyond giant monster fan-base.
"Earth Defense Force 3" Live Action Promo
Short film for the third entry into the Japanese video game series, that is heavily inspired by the alien invasion and giant insects films of yesteryear.
The promo is directed by B-movie comedy director Minoru Kawasaki, whose works include the awesome "Calamari Wrestler", and the universally panned "Monster X Strikes Back".
Thankfully, this promo features some awesome destruction at the hands of giant rampaging ants puppets, though Minoru's knack for camp and bad 'Gaijin' (foreigner) acting remains. But it's still worth checking out in the following link.
Related Videos:
"Ultimate Edition Godzilla 1998 Soundtrack"
Don't get too excited, because this is the American Godzilla from 1998 we're talking about. On the bright side, the 3 disc set will nix all the pop songs of the original 1998 CD release (indifferent Puff Daddy included), focusing only on the movie's actual score.
Even more intriguing however, is that the previously unreleased 'Score Album', which will feature self contained, full length tracks of said score, not unlike the Japanese Godzilla movies and their respective soundtracks.
Yes, I know...a lot of American fans hate this show, which is based on the "Daimajin" trilogy from 1966. And as such, barely any reliable information on this television re-imagining has been present online, if not viciously so.
Thankfully (for me at least), the fine folks over at Sci-Fi Japan has uploaded an extensive two-part series guide for "Daimajin Kanon".
Fair warning though, don't except too much giant monster action, as the series was made for the highly under-budgeted late night programing of Japan, no matter if the show itself was actually good or not:
The following comes from the blog io9 and their near-daily Morning Spoilers articles.
"Monsters" director Gareth Edwards discusses his approach to the latest movie about the iconic monster, and he then offers an amusingly disgusting analogy for the state of the project's visual effects:
I've always been interested in Godzilla and the ideas around him. I really wanted to see another Godzilla film and jumped at the opportunity. My main idea was to imagine 'If this really happened, what would it be like?' I want to take a grounded, realistic approach to a Godzilla film...[On the visual effects] I've never worked this hard, this long and been this emotionally involved in something that's lasted only a few seconds since the time I lost my virginity! But the reaction has been amazing and I can't wait for the fans to see our final product.
Also, another writer has been attacked to the project, which you can read about over at Toho Kingdom.
"Space Sheriff Gavan the Movie" (2012)
Based on the character's renewed / rediscovered popularity from the movie "Pirate Sentai Gokaiger vs. Space Sheriff Gavan", the alien police officer in the silver cyber-suit and a robotic dragon ship, is getting his own spin-off movie.
You'd think this would be a feature length documentary about the late, great European science fiction artist and concept designer...but nope, its the classic tale of "Moby Dick", but set in space, and with aliens.
Ironically, this isn't the first time such a thing has happened, as it was the subject for not one, but two animated shows - "Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick", and the "Futurama" episode "Mobius Dick". But now this time it's being done as a (hopefully) major motion picture.
More "Gila" Updates
The poster and the first real trailer for the upcoming remake of "The Giant Gila Monster" can be found here.
I do appreciate that this remake is indeed a period piece, taking place in the 1950's, with a matching soundtrack, and hot, busty actresses dressed in the appealing styles of the day. And although the CGI isn't good, the Gila Monster himself is relatively (again, relatively) decent looking.
Unfortunately, it seems to suffer from the same-old-same-old violence and death count that you'd come expect from your typical Syfy Original.
And of course (simply for the sake of it), the trailer for the original 1959 film.
"The Giant Spider" (2012)
As if to balance out the already retro-mined "Gila!", comes this upcoming film, which is an obvious homage to "Tarantula" ('55) and "Earth vs the Spider" ('58) - complete with an actual, real arachnid being used in the effects footage.
By-the-way, if you haven't seen the original "Tarantula", it's a pretty good monster movie, with some very effective special effects that arguably still holds up to this day. Especially the long shots of the title monster crawling across the desert, with excellent interaction between the super-imposed Tarantula and the real life backgrounds.
"Power Rangers Super Samurai" Returns October 13th
The cable network Nickelodeon is notorious for their mid-season breaks, and forced hiatuses for almost all their programs, which sometimes have been known to go well over a year in length. This practice even extends to their more popular or rating grabbing shows, of which "Power Rangers Super Samurai" was no exception.
Despite the embarrassment of foreign markets already airing the series in its entirety, the final batch of episodes are finally getting aired here in America, which you can read more about here.
Queen + Van Halen + Japanese Puppets AND Giant Robots = Yeeeeeaahhh...?
The original link from io9 doesn't work for the following article, so I'm re-posting it here, because I really need some second opinions on this oddball collaboration - I personally think it's awesome, but my musical tastes are dubious at best.
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When it comes to matters science fictional, the band Queen is best known for their soundtrack to "Flash Gordon".
But back in 1983, Queen guitarist Brian May teamed up with Eddie Van Halen and members of REO Speedwagon and Alice Cooper's and Rod Stewart's bands for "The Star Fleet Project"; an EP whose most famous track was a cover of the theme song from the Japanese-British TV show "Star Fleet".
As Brian May recalled of these unvarnished jam sessions way back when:
There weren't any rehearsals, except that we played around at each other's houses a little bit, acoustically. I'd been to Edward's studio in his home, and I played a little with him — nothing very organized [...] I've been working very hard on making a video for "Star Fleet." The people who made the series, which originally was Japanese, have very kindly given me access to footage that I'm using. We're putting a whole little story together using the original shots of theirs. I'm also telling the story — a sort of figure who appears, a background narrator.
"Star Fleet" was a Japanese television series directly influenced by the Garry Anderson series "Thunderbirds Are Go!" and "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterions" - both of which were big budgeted British shows featuring puppetry, high-end miniature models, and lots of spectacular pyrotechnic explosions.
These British series became very popular in Japan, eventually leading to "Star Fleet" - a marionette space opera with character designs by famous / infamous manga author Go Naiga ( "Devilman", "Mazinger Z", and "Cutey Honey" ). And with some giant robot elements thrown in for good measure, as in the form of the heroes' transforming spaceship mecha Dai X.
In a very nice (if not awesome) reversal, the Japanese homage became popular in the United Kingdom soon after - hence the creation of this music album and its related music video, as seen in the following music video.
