By which I mean Cornelius and Zira totally want to make hot chimpanzee whoopee to time-lost astronaut Bill “Blue-Eyes” Hudson.
there will be others to help him.”
for the humanoid goes…beyond science?”
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there will be others to help him.”
for the humanoid goes…beyond science?”
Probably more “monster” than “bird,” but I’ve remembered it as a bird for 37 years and that’s what I’m sticking with.
So just on a whim (and still riding that ape high after rewatching the excellent Rise of the Planet of the Apes), I decided to rent from the Netflix the first disc of the Return to the Planet of the Apes animated series from the mid-1970s:
Now, because I’m old, I was around to watch this when it originally aired…and I haven’t seen it since. According to this Wikipedia page it had been rerun a number of times since, even relatively recently. But I never saw it again after my initial viewings, and for decades all I retained of what I watched was a brief scene of a giant bird swooping down and grabbing something. …Yeah, I know, but I’m pretty sure Beneath the Planet of the Apes would’ve been improved by a giant bird.
I popped the disc in and watched the first episode…the theme music is evocative of the original movie, and the opening sequence is interesting:
…be sure to stay for the dramatic reading of the name of the series at the very end.
I’ve only seen the first episode so far, and while it seems like things pick up a bit in the later episodes, judging by the plot descriptions on the Wiki page, the initial installment is very casually paced. I think we spend about, oh, ten minutes watching our human cast wander through the desert:
And there’s a lot of “panning over still images” as animation, and reused shots, and other cost-cutting devices common to this sort of thing. However, it’s sort of nice to watch a cartoon that is, as I said, casually paced: holding a shot for more than a second, and not constantly screaming at you. It also seems like it’s relatively intelligently written, giant birds aside, and I look forward to delving a little deeper into this series.
I can’t say I’m exactly reliving childhood memories with this, since, aside from the one barely-remembered scene, I don’t recall any of it. And before you ask…I’m planning on checking out the DVDs for the live-action TV series, too.
I’m also throwing one of these thingies here, since it’s been a while and I can stand to have a little more Amazon action:
It’s shameless, I know.
To offset my selfish grab for pennies, let me recommend a couple of Planet of the Apes-related books by Rich Handley of Roots of the Swamp Thing fame: Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology and Lexicon of the Planet of the Apes: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia, and you can learn about both of ’em (and download free excerpts) right here.
Also, according to the in-show dialogue, Smallville has a comic shop.
So I finally wrapped up my watching of the Superman: The Animated Series DVDs, and in the third season episode “Unity,” Supergirl (in her civilian get-up) is given some comic books by a friend. First up, a probable precursor to Garth Ennis’s Jennifer Blood:
Here’s a slightly larger image of said funnybook:
In a way, I sort of admire the purity of it. Though I kinda hope it’s actually about a woman who turns into a gun. Who also carries a a gun.
Here’s another comic that shows up a bit later:
Again, a better look:
This one is an object of a brief gag in the episode where Supergirl reacts in disgust at the very idea of a spider-based superhero, a direct slam, of course, on Marvel Comics’ Incredible Hulk.*
The hero of this one looks slightly like a pro-wrestler — appropriately enough, given the original Spider-Man’s initial brush with rasslin’ during his origin. But I could see this guy rising up and bellowing “SPIDER POWER!” just before whipping out his finishing move, or whatever it’s called. I’m unfamiliar with the proper parlance. Also, it looks a bit like this character borrowed a helmet and gloves from Japan’s Ultraman.
Anyway, now the Superman series is down…time to move on to Justice League! Bring ’em on, Netflix!
* Yes, I know it’s Spider-Man. I’m goofing on the obviousness of the cartoon’s reference. This footnote only exists to avoid the inevitable “um, actually” corrections in the comments.
I may have twisted my arm while trying to pat myself on the back.
From the Superman: The Animated Series episode “The Late Mr. Kent” (originally aired November 1997) comes this bit of editorial commentary:
…”Fans Nix New Duds,” almost certainly referring to the new costume hoohar which began in the early 1997 Superman comics :
Oh, those Superman Cartoon guys. (For more on that costume, here’s a post on that topic that I did nearly a year ago which I still think isn’t half-bad.)
So long as I’m congratulating myself, I was reminded a few days ago of a particular entry on my site…an entry that, if I were to pick my top ten favorite posts I’ve ever done here, would almost certainly be near the top. So, today’s Progressive Ruin Phunnybook Phlashback: BEHOLD.
Hey. Hey, you. If you’ve got your blog set up that your sidebar links to other blogs include the title and / or the first line or two of said linked blogs, and you were good enough to include me in that sidebar, please do me a favor. Take a look at my link there. If the excerpt from my site reads “REMINDER! Update your Progressive Ruin feed links,” then…well, please update your Progressive Ruin feed links. Here’s the current feed, which is also linked to by the “SYNDICATE” button at the upper right hand corner of my site. Thank you!
Things from my comments sections, both wonderful and terrifying.
So, you, the readers, have been contributing a bit of content in my comments sections recently, which I always appreciate…partially because I always like finding out about new things, but mostly so I can appropriate what you’ve submitted and turn it into site content.
Like, for example, reader Cobalt informing me about the fact that the little rabbit in the old Pete Puma cartoon is saying actual dialogue, just sped up very fast (a fact I may have been somewhat aware of, but never really thought about it until, well, now). And then reader Mike points me in the direction of this YouTube clip, where the little rabbit’s voice is slowed down into comprehensibility. Interestingly, while most of the dialogue is meaningful in context, there is a small bit where the rabbit is talking about an oak tree that doesn’t seem to relate to anything (which someone in the video’s comment section, in a rare instance of a YouTube commenter actually being sane, also notes). It sort of sounds to me like this piece of dialogue was just spliced in to extend this particular bit of the rabbit’s sped-up speech to fit the animation. I haven’t any idea, really, and maybe someone else can clear it up for us.
Another thing dropped into a recent comments section was from reader A.L., who produces the beautifully-illustrated webcomic Rose Madder. He has earned the title “Arch-Nemesis of Progressive Ruin” for daring to drop a link to this piece of Disney merchandise, and baby, if I have to think about Minnie Mouse squeezing her tuckus into a slinky, form-fitting Tron outfit, then so do you:
UNTHINK IT
Just a little something to bring with you into the new year. No need to thank me.
And speaking of the new year…I certainly hope you all have a safe and happy new year’s celebration, and I’ll see you all in 2011! At least, those of you who are still willing to come back to the site after what A.L. and I have done to you.
Happy New Year, everybody!
This dude is more punk rock than you will ever be.
I mean, just look at him back there, in his little hat and sleeveless shirt, makin’ hot dogs and flouting societal conventions. Let your freak flag fly, maaaaan…oh, wait, that’s for hippies, I’m pretty sure. Well, you know what I mean.
For more examples of antiestablishment funnybookin’, may I suggest ComicPunx?
image from Superman: The Animated Series Season Two episode “Double Shot”
Sometimes you just have to link to a page of sound clips from a Pete Puma cartoon.
MORE CHRISTMAS GIFTS:
Given to me by Employee Aaron is this fine example of science journalism:
He’s a card, that former employee Aaron.
And given by me to pal Dorian was a bottle o’hooch with a custom label featuring Dor’s favorite character. You can see the actual bottle at Dor’s site, and right here is a better look at the label itself:
In other news:
- Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull, is just about to wrap up 365 Days of Hank McCoy, but get a load of this new thing: 365 Days with The Guy Freaking Out on the Cover of Action Comics #1. Fantastic.
- It’s time once again for another installment of Nobody Else’s Favorites…gimme a D!
- Here’s the full original art for a very depressing Christmas story, illustrated by Rick Veitch and written by the late Steve Perry.
- For no good reason whatsoever, Employee Aaron and I like doing impressions of the relatively little-used Warner Brothers character Pete Puma (as voiced, back in the ’50s and even ’til today by Stan Freberg). And that’s why I’m posting this page of clips from the Pete Puma cartoon “Rabbit’s Kin.” Enjoy.
- P-Tor over at Sanctum Sanctorum informs me that there is are a series of fundraising auctions for Bill Mantlo, the former comics writer who was seriously injured years ago, and now needs full-time medical care. All the pieces feature Rom, and some of the contributing artists include Zack Soto and Mike Allred. You can also the see the artwork here.
“Let her go, Man-Jaw, or I’ll be forced to kick myself in the head!”
So I was watching the episode “Mxyzpixilated” from season 2 of Superman: The Animated Series, featuring, as you might guess, Mr. Mxyzptlk. At one point during the story, Clark Kent is scanning the Daily Planet funny pages, into which Mxyzptlk has inserted himself as one of the strips:
Thanks to the miracle of DVD technology, and my obsessive need to repeatedly pause and look at details of cartoons that otherwise would just flash by onscreen, only barely noticed by the viewer, I was able to get a better look at the other strips on the page. According to the episode’s commentary track, the other strips are in-jokes and references to members of the production team, in addition to being parodies of popular comics.
Of the production team members referenced, the most recognizable is, of course, Paul Dini, one of the prime movers behind DC’s animation initiative. Here he is in a parody of Calvin & Hobbes:
The next strip is, of course, a parody of Peanuts, where the “punchline” is (again, according the commentary) a direct quote from the person being caricatured:
The next parodies Dick Tracy, and I’d almost rather read this than what’s going on in the real Dick Tracy strip right now:
And here’s the Mxyzptlk strip, credited to Superman’s (and Mxy’s!) creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster:
And the last looks like a parody of, if not the strip Momma, then at least of cartoonist Mell Lazarus’s style, with a pretty brutal last panel (what you can see of it) which they probably only got away with due to it only appearing onscreen for a split second:
Whenever brief gags like this flash by, I wonder if there were kids watching this as it originally aired, or during reruns, who were tantalized by the quick glimpse they were able to grab, who knew there was more there than what they saw, but missed their chance to see what was there. Even if they recorded it on their VCR, getting consistently clean stills when pausing the tape was never a sure thing. And beyond even that, I wonder if the people behind the cartoons ever thought there’d come a time when in-jokes like these would ever become easily accessible to anyone outside of the team that actually produced these shows.
Well, okay, they probably did, fans being obsessive about this sort of thing and all (like, oh, say, screen-capturing the frames in question and straightening them out). But I certainly wanted to show my appreciation for the extra level of detail and humor added into what is already an excellent cartoon.
EDIT: I’m being told in the comments section here that the Modern Masters Volume 3: Bruce Timm
And that’s how Mike found out from Green Arrow fans just how many villains the character really has.
So in the animated DC Comics logo attached to their films, you see…
A close-up of a woman’s eye:
A grimacing face:
And someone totally getting clocked:
Comics!
The animated logo attached to Superman Returns is slightly different, and it seems to me that the flashing images changed according to the movie the logo is attached to, but the few DC DVDs I have either use the first logo above, don’t have any flashing images, or (like in the Watchmen film) display the logo in a fashion more fitting to the film’s design. If there are other variations on the images used, feel free to let me know.
Anyway, this just came to mind as I was watching the Superman/Shazam! – The Return of Captain Marvel DVD
The other short DC Showcase features from previous DC animated releases are included on the disc, which allowed me to finally see that Green Arrow short that wasn’t included on the Netflix version of Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. That was a fun little adventure, too, though it reminds you that Green Arrow has two whole arch-nemeses, and they’re both here. Also, at one point Green Arrow introduces himself as “Green Arrow, Justice League of America,” which amused me for some reason (but fitting, considering the political situation he finds himself in).
Special features are episodes from DC’s various TV series, focusing on characters from the other straight-to-DVD shorts on the disc (like the Captain Marvel episode of Justice League Unlimited). Of particular note is the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode “Chill of the Night,” which should totally put lie to the criticisms that this version of Batman is “just for kiddies.” It’s a damned brutal episode, focusing on Batman’s origin which, there’s no getting around it, involves the shooting murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents:
You see the gun fire, twice, and you see Thomas Wayne collapse, in silhouette:
I don’t think the ’90s Batman: The Animated Series was even this explicit…if I recall correctly, the most you got there was a distant aerial view of the alley and the flash of gunshots. (And then there was also a dream sequence image of the alley rising up and turning into a giant gun, with a river of blood pouring out of the barrel, which was…something else, admittedly. Might have been the same episode, come to think of it. …You know where to correct me.)
Anyway, the Brave and the Bold episode involves the Phantom Stranger and the Spectre:
…and their respective beliefs that Batman is either going to seek justice or vengeance in his quest to uncover the killer of his parents. And even though you know how it’s going to turn out, the journey Batman undergoes through the episode is a fairly intense one.
Nice touches: Adam “Batman” West and Julie “Catwoman” Newmar doing voice work as Bruce Wayne’s parents. And this genuinely touching and fantastic sequence of a mystically time-transported Batman fighting crime side-by-side with his dad:
How awesome is that? “Very” is the correct answer.
Also, a quick Googling shows that this is old news, but I didn’t notice this in the DC Showcase intro sequence until this particular viewing:
Hello there, Bruce Timm, DC animation producer/writer/animator/etc.!
The Iron Eater looks like he escaped from a Rankin/Bass holiday special.
From the New Adventures of Superman DVD, featuring those cartoons from the mid-1960s, here is the first animated appearance of Brainiac:
On one hand, he’s kinda mopey looking, and doesn’t appear to be much of a threat at all. On the other…he doesn’t say a single word throughout the entire episode, which is…kinda creepy, actually. And at one point he turns himself invisible, and he just kinda winks out with no sound effects whatsoever, which is 1) pretty unusual for a cartoon of this period to show such restraint, and 2) is even more creepy.
Another thing about the cartoon is that we get a backstory for Brainiac that has nothing to do with the Brainiac backstory established at that point in the comics (a trend continued with the Krypton-based Brainiac origin from the ’90s Superman: The Animated Series show, and in Smallville). Explained in this episode, The Return of Brainiac (more on that in a second), Brainiac is a robot built by Dr. Hekla from the planet Mega. And when Brainiac is eventually destroyed (and again, more on that in a moment) it is commented that Dr. Hekla will just build another one and send it back to Earth.
Now the episode is called “The Return of Brainiac,” even though this is the first appearance of Brainiac on this DVD…can’t say for sure if this is the proper chronological order of episodes on the disc, but I was a bit amused to have my first encounter with the animated version of this character be in a show titled “The Return of….” And the backstory thrown out in dialogue appears to refer to a previous appearance, so if there is another Brainiac episode in this set (and I haven’t yet watched the second disc), the episodes were either put on these discs out of order, or the episodes were originally produced and aired out of order. Or the producers just assumed viewers already knew the character from the comics, and never bothered with an “introduction,” as such. Or they just plain threw him out there. It doesn’t matter, really…the writing on these were very much at the “well, this’ll do” quality, so explicit episode-to-episode continuity was certainly not a priority (nor should it really have been, of course).
EDIT: Sure enough, I checked the Wikipedia article and episode #33 is called “Superman Meets Brainiac.” The episode list there seems to match the episode order on the DVD, at least for the first disc, so the Brainiac intro episode is way after the “Return of” one. Still no idea if these are in the original broadcast order on the discs.
Anyway, given the very inhuman portrayal of Brainiac in the cartoon, and the continuing emphasis on his…robot-ness, I guess, this frees up Superman to just full on shoot Brainiac in the face with heat vision beams:
Oh, just let Brainiac’s smoking robot corpse sit there for a while…it’ll be fine:
One more about this cartoon…this was the first one on the disc that actually triggered a memory of my watching this show as a child. And it wasn’t Brainiac, but rather, his shrinking gun:
The gun rang a bell, as did that sparkly energy-cloud thingie. Strange things to remember, but those images stuck with me all this time.
A later episode on the disc also sparked an old childhood memory of watching the cartoon…specifically, “The Iron Eater,” featuring a critter that looked a little something…like this:
I’m not kidding. Superman totally fought this dude:
Man, how could anyone forget a mug like that?
