Review: Gravity Falls "The Hand that Rocks the Mabel"

Fun Fact: Gideon’s appearance was technically spoiled before this episode aired by Dipper’s magazine from “The Legend of the Gobblewonker.”

Well played, Hirsch.

Recap: Gravity Falls "The Hand that Rocks the Mabel"

Back to Gravity Falls today with an episode that features surprisingly little Mabel-rocking. In any way, shape, or form, whether it be rocking her to sleep or rocking out. Luckily, Mabel will be rocking out by herself in a few episode's time, if that's what you wanted to see.

But for now, let's see what happens when somebody has a crush on Mabel instead of the other way around.

The hand that rocks the Mabel is the hand that rules the world.

Sketchbook: D&D: The Fire Gem Quest

Allow me to tell you a little tale of my D&D experiences. A tale of bravery... and stupidity.

Review: Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. "Homecoming"

First and foremost, this episode gave me someone to root for. Unfortunately, it was the guys in the jets shooting at the Hulks.

Recap: Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. "Homecoming"

The Hulks may not be lost in space anymore, but this episode marks the true end of the "Lost in Space" arc of Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. A landmark episode like this carries quite a bit of responsibility with it. Not only does it need to be entertaining, but it should ideally conclude the themes of the last few episodes satisfactorily while tying the loose ends together into a cohesive whole.

So prepare yourselves for… well, none of that.

I'm ready to be disappointed.

Review: Avengers Assemble "Crime and Circuses"

You know, if I really wanted to, I could have spent that last Recap making jokes about Snake Man in Mega Man 3 instead of all those double entendres.

But honestly, wouldn't it just boil down to "ha ha, they're both robotic snakes"?

Recap: Avengers Assemble "Crime and Circuses"

What a fitting title.

Not only does this episode feature both crime and circuses (rather, a circus), but the title is supposed to reference "bread and circuses," the ancient Roman tradition of cheap food and cheap entertainment to keep the masses from revolting.

And just like a certain Russell Crowe character from a certain movie that took place in that time period, you're here to ask me one question.

"Are you not entertained!?"

Well, read on, and I'll give you an answer.

I am required to recap, so I recap. That is enough.

Sketchbook: X-O Manowar

Today, I present a sketch from before my blog was even created. Back when I was going to do video reviews, this was going to be part of my intro sequence to Character Study. After going through some old folders, I found one of my pictures that would have been part of the introductory montage.

Review: Gravity Falls "Headhunters"

I just realized that in this episode, somebody took a few whacks at some wax. I can't help but wonder if that was intentional.

Hmmm... There's a "Pines box" pun in there somewhere....

Recap: Gravity Falls "Headhunters"

Today, we return to Gravity Falls because dang it, sometimes I want to recap a show I enjoy watching. And today, we've got us a bit of a whodunit. A tale of thrills! A tale of mystery! A tale of murder!

A tale of two Stans. About a season early.

Recap/Review: Gotham Girls "Miss Un-Congeniality"

Flash is dead.

That is in no way what I meant.

After years of being prone to security leaks and unsupported by Apple products, Adobe Flash has been declared dead as a medium. And with it, the death of an era of the internet. Soon, children shall grow up completely unaware of what it was like in the early 2000’s. People would wait for minutes, hours, or even sometimes days to watch something as simple as dancing badgers.

For past episodes of Gotham Girls, I had felt like I was examining an antique. But today… I’m examining a fossil.

Rest in peace, Flash. May you be reunited with Shockwave in Silicon Heaven.

View Log: Fant4stic

There’s a lot to like about this movie.

Yeah, I bet you weren’t expecting me to say that. This movie does a few things absolutely right. There are little references to things like Prison 42, a Mario Fire Flower ornament in Johnny's car, an interesting family dynamic with the Storms....

But I can’t say that I enjoyed it.

As ever, this View Log is just the thoughts going through my head as I’ve been letting the movie sink in over the past few days.

Spoiler-free Summary
Though there are a couple genuinely enjoyable character moments, the actors rarely put in any emotion. I don’t know if that was the direction they were given or if they were just bored. It takes half the movie for them to get powers, the villain doesn’t appear until 15 minutes from the end, and they aren’t ever called the “Fantastic Four.” Plot threads are started and aborted, and while I’ll admit that that might be because three big scenes got lopped out in post-production, that’s not an excuse, it’s an explanation.

The effects are okay, but the backgrounds look a lot better than Reed’s stretching or Ben’s rocky body. The Human Torch effects are pretty good for the most part, though.

All in all, it’s a movie starring Michael B. Jordan about teenagers with superpowers, one of whom goes insane brought to us by Josh Trank, the man who made Chronicle….which starred Michael B. Jordan about teenagers with superpowers, one of whom goes insane. One-trick pony much?

If you still want to see it, despite the bad press (or perhaps even because of it), be my guest. But I can’t recommend it.

Hmm... Hey, Ant-Man. You had a successful movie this year. What did you think of Fant4stic?

Worse Rotten Tomatoes score than Pixels. Look it up.

As for my full opinion… spoilers ahead.

Review: Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. "A Druff is Enough"

I've got to say, even though this episode really tried to build up the Druffs as a threat, I think Tribbles are more dangerous.

One of them bit Scotty's finger off!

Recap: Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. "A Druff is Enough"

Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. Their continuing mission: To ignore brand new plots. To seek out mediocrity and stagnation. To boldly homage Star Trek episodes that have been homaged many times before!

...Wait, didn't I make that joke at the beginning of this season? Ah, whatever. Star Trek homage.

It's always "Mirror, Mirror" this and "The Trouble with Tribbles" that. Why no love for "The Enterprise Incident"?

Review: Ultimate Spider-Man "Awesome"

This episode was flat-out called “Awesome.” You know, I’m reminded of the old sailor’s superstition that if you give a ship a boastful name like, say, “Titanic,” then you’ve doomed that ship to suffer a terrible fate. I think the same idea might apply to this episode is all I’m saying.

Look at what you've wrought.

Recap: Ultimate Spider-Man "Awesome"

First of all, readers, let me begin by apologizing for how disorganized everything's been lately. Between some extra guest blogging, the rash of thunderstorms playing havoc with my internet, jury duty, and my sister moving to Texas, it's been pretty busy in my neck of the woods.

Still, just in the past three days, I've been working on no fewer than six Recaps/Reviews to some degree in order to get back on track a bit. So rest assured, I'll be giving my full, undivided attention to today's episode of Ultimate Spider-Man. And rest assured, I'll wish I hadn't by the time I'm done.

Ultimate Spider-Man: Because I literally have nothing better to do right now.

Essay: Magic is Science. Period.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Arthur C. Clarke.

There are numerous works of fiction these days that whip this quote out in order to justify how magic works. But I think there’s an important corollary to this point that is usually left unsaid. If magic exists, then by definition, it’s not magic. “Science” is just the word we give to our understanding of how the universe operates. If the universe uses “magic” to operate, then “magic” is simply science.

Recap/Review: Roger Corman's Fantastic Four (With Erik Copper and Unshaved Mouse)

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to say that I've done my first crossover!

I can say with all honesty that they were both wonderful people to work with and I'm quite proud of what we've achieved together. The Unshaved Mouse reviews animated films (including the entire Disney canon; start with Snow White) and has currently started on Marvel films. And I wish him the best of luck with that.

Erik Copper can be found working on many different projects, but he frequently collaborates with the small furry one to create audio versions of his reviews.

The full Recap/Review can be found over on Mouse's blog.

So, without further ado....

Let us begin....

Review: Ultimate Spider-Man "Strange Days"

Sometimes, you can just look at a title and figure out the guest star. Especially when the word “Doom” is involved. So when this episode decided to call itself “Strange Days,” I think most people knew exactly what was going to happen.

Except for those poor fools wanting that crossover with Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

Recap: Ultimate Spider-Man "Strange Days"

And so, this post is late, despite my best efforts. Dang ol' thunderstorm. If you're going to try and do me a favor, Thor, knock out the power so I can't watch Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.

And speaking of gods and magic, that's where today's episode takes us again. Let's see what the Marvel Animation Universe brings us for a guest star who hasn't appeared in the films yet. With no MCU material to ape, they might actually have to be creative while characterizing and designing him.

The horror, right, Man of Action?

Ultimate Spider-Man Tomorrow

So, my internet is pretty terrible at the best of times. And now there's a thunderstorm messing up my connection. I hate to do this, but today's post has just become tomorrow's post because I could lose power at any second and I can barely manages enough of a connection to post this.

Sorry.

August, 2015 Announcements

Whew.

I didn't get around to a couple things I was hoping to get to last month. And there's a reason for that. I've been working on a couple exciting things, one of which will be up pretty soon, and I think you'll all like it. You'll see later this week.

But outside of blog stuff, I've also started writing a couple books. Plus I'm searching for a better job.

So every other week or so, I'll only be able to do one Recap/Review a week instead of my usual two. There are simply not enough hours in the day to get done everything I'd like to do, I'm sorry to say.

But that's life.

Either way, you can expect to see a few Marvel Animation Universe Recaps this month, as well as a few other goodies including tomorrow's post, where I return to Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.

Definitely meant to say Ultimate Spider-Man.

See you then.