Some Thoughts Regarding Toy Story 3....

Toy Story 3 will make one believe that trilogies can make perfection.


And while I'm sure there'll be a few out there willing to make this curmudgeon eat a little crow for that slice of hyperbole, but I can't really find a more subtly accurate description for Lee Unkrich's fitting swan song to PIXAR's signature franchise. But more than that, it was a franchise borne from a most unlikely milestone. 1995's Toy Story was the now-legendary studio's claim to fame, and a more than brilliant means to tap an entire cross-section of generations by way of a most universal premise. To imagine a world populated by sentient toys and their lives unbeknownst to their owners is still by and large a stroke of conceptual genius brought to life by then PIXAR pioneer, John Lasseter. And having seen all of these films in their opening weekends, it is no secret that more than a PIXAR fan, I'm a huge Toy Story lover.

So seeing how TS3 ranks alongside its predecessors prior to seeing it, I must admit to being more than a little suspicious. Since Disney acquired PIXAR after years of relative independence, it was at a point when the studio's output began to waver a little for me. The thought that they had suddenly begun to go back on their promise of not being "in the sequel business" hurt a little of my respect. Wall-E & Up! Notwthstanding, there was something brewing within the ranks that made me concerned that the very announcement of a third Toy Story film was something to be feared. How does one even consider topping two terrific family films that helped break the mold for modern fare & introduced the world to the possibilities of fully digital cinema? After the thematic upgrade of the second film, it only felt natural that the world of Andy(John Morris)'s toys would continue on without another film. And adding ten years of film trend evolution, it almost seemed destined to be little more than one last cash grab before the new PIXAR is to become something a little less cavalier, and closer in tone to ever safe Dreamworks.

Thankfully, none of this has come to pass, and the film is a beautiful summation of not only the film series itself, but a bold allegory for a world changing. From the ashes of the "look at what we've wrought" darkness of Wall-E, Toy Story 3 handles both the sorrows and joys of letting go.

Transition is all over this film. 

From the central plot involving a now 17 year old Andy's transitioning into college, and the reaction of his childhood toys now negected in a sealed toy box, possibly awaiting a lifetime in the attic. (or worse, the landfill) What in many ways seems to be the skeleton of a typical Toy Story film is cleverly twisted into an exciting and at times emotionally punishing mediation on a world divided by the simplest of mistakes.

And that's all it is...a mistake.

The film also considers opening the canvas toward new colors of thought, doing away with even ideas that perhaps even the show's creators hadn't considered before. So that in the end, it feels as if the minds at PIXAR are looking to embrace ideas once foreign to them in hopes of inspiring themselves.

So even more than letting go...The film is embracing new worlds of possibility. 

Whether we are following Woody as he has been chosen to be the only toy to accompany Andy in his dorm, or Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye, The Potatoheads, Rex & Ham, as they have been donated to a deceptively inviting day care center, (With the attraction of children to play with too powerful to resist) the film stretches the original "lost-toys on a mission home" premise to its most logical conclusion.

When home is a person who is leaving, then where is home anyway? The invisible bond between us and those that granted us warmth in quiet times & great freedom of imagination is rekindled with an added dash of the bittersweet that comes with new chapters in life.

And yet it's the bonds that we have grown to have with these characters that help deliver some unexpectedly potent scenes mixed within the already proven action acumen. In Toy Story 3, the action is as great as ever, but it is the drama of the larger dramatic questions that give it it's juice.

Pitch-perfect performances all around from the original cast, including Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, & even great turns by Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton, as well as a returning Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, & Jodi Benson. Also an affecting as hell final score by series regular, Randy Newman takes fulll advantage of the wrap-up proceedings leading to a most impressive of curtain calls.

So many great moments that would be a waste to spoil for anyone. All I can use to best wrap this post up is to posit what it is that most impressed me aside from the already spectacular package brought on by Unkrich, Lassiter &  folks...

 I love that we see the ultimate expression of how division happens, usually at the hands of someone who while under most circumstances seems like a pretty on the level person, creating an environment of fear & neglect in order to stave off the hurt of abandonment. This has been hinted at before, most notably in 2, but never this clearly. What could easily pass for a tale for our current global situation in metamorphosis, the film followed a new PIXAR short titled Day & Night, which also beautifully illustrates the potential change we all have within. Change is never that far away, and if there is anything that can clock those changes best from our collective childhoods..it's the things that we have trouble imagining living without.

Toys included.

Scott Pilgrim's International Trailer Hits All Notes

The more and more I see, the more excited I get.

Edgar Wright has gone ahead and released an International Trailer for his wild adaptation of Bryan Lee O' Malley's cult comic sensation, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. And even if I have yet to make any noise about it here on the Kaijyu, it must be said that I've been following the project fervently since 2008. The new trailer gives us some more great visual gaggery, not to mention something I wnted to see more of from the books, the role of Knives Chau...Scott's ex, and hopeless stalker! There's a lot of what we've seen before in other teasers, but the spirit of the books looks as close to intact as one could hope from a movie version.

But don't take my word for it..

Rekindling The AMV Flame

One would think that with classes at an end for the semester, that things would become far more frequent online. Well yes and no. With all of the activity in the real, it's still been a challenge to keep affairs in perspective here. But as it stands, there has been many a bit of fun to have found in between. One of which has been a rekindling for my love of editing, whether it be in the form of trailers(real and fanmade), experimental shorts, and anime music videos. It still stuns me how much they've advanced as a hobby since the days of VHS, and their showings at not only cons , but local rave shows. And with the access to programs such as After Effects, they have only grown more creative, and celebratory than ever before.(perhaps even to a point of complete, comprehensive reinterpretations of favorite shows and films) It's a wonder what some can do with an idea, some great program chops, and a lot of perseverance.

As for an old favorite:

In terms of the classics mixed with a kicking rock score, this particular take on Otomo's masterpiece is damn impressive.




Flash forward several years now...


Cowboy Bebop fans, you've gotta check this one out.Very appropriate for that series, as well as the film's tone. Almost spot-on perfection.




As a longtime lover of Studio Ghibli's films, this intensely creative piece is a little godsend.



Woow..Thanks Mr.Ebert! There's just something so very right about that one. Pretty much nails many of my RL pals to a tee, it's damn funny.

Now while this one can come off as more than a little one-noted, it's just nice to show off a little more for a show which I think really received a raw deal here and aboard. Seriously. More people should look forward to the US release of Higashi No Eden (Eden Of The East) TV.




In terms of relentless, wan ton eye candy, it's been hard to shake off the trailing after effects of this dizzying piece which I'd like to winkingly dub, Anime Diet THE AMV! (Best If Viewed Loud & In The Dark)




And sometimes there comes a film that inspires someone to truly utilize all the tools accessible, creating not only an exceptional mix of sight & sound, but an almost entirely self contained narrative on its own. This one was beguiling from the first minute and continued to win me over through to the finale. Fantastic work all around celebrating the great, great Mamoru Hosoda film, Toki Wo Kakeru Shoujo (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time).



It's just awesome to be in a time where the appreciation can be seen & multiplied in endlessly new and wondrous ways. Here's hoping the creators of these works move on to create stand out works of their very own. I know I'd be curious to see what they produce.

Timecrimes (Los Cronocrimenes 2007 Review)

Have we seen this before? Sure we have, but never so succinctly. When considering all of the films concerning characters becoming lost within an endless timeloop. A neverending examination, and re-examination of previous events has been a standard of modern narrative ambition since the beginning of the medium. Never letting it past the format's ability to tantalize with hints ever complimenting our memories, as well as playing with them in an only sometimes convincing editorial sleight-of-hand. Particularly since films such as Chris Nolan's brain-racking milestone, MEMENTO (2000) and even Harold Ramis' Groundhog Day(1993) have made playing with order, and expectation a tempting enterprise. And to see spanish newcomer, Nacho Vigalondo take on the perils of time travel in the most up front fashion imaginable with Timecrimes (Los Cronocrimenes), to fun but in places laborious results.

On what appears to be a quiet late afternoon, seemingly mild-mannered husband, Hector (Karra Elejalde) is at rest within the lush, green yard of his & his wife's new home, relaxing on an easy-chair and viewing the scenery with binoculars in hand when he scopes something unsettling. And it isn't merely the almost faceless young woman disrobing in the trees yards away, but also the macabre figure sporting a trenchcoat, some bizarre pink bandages over his face, and a pair of scissors seemingly threatening her. Upon going into the woods to further investigate, he is quickly attacked and injured in the arm via the shears, and is sent running in terror. This peaceful day gone horrific soon becomes a surreal exercise in increasingly entangled fate as our protagonist investigates further, leading him to a seemingly abandoned home nearby containing what seems to be a prototypical time machine operated by a lone scientist (played by Vigalondo himself with intern-esque naivete) and deceptively lured into it as the bandaged fiend closes in on them. Now back one hour before the chase began, the real troubles unfold.

Taking what seems already to be a clever spin on Rear Window(1953), with a little slasher thrown into the mix, one may not figure how the theory of time paradoxes would fit into this tale, and yet somehow the film dives into it gleefully, taking full advantage of the film's location and story consisting of merely several hours in which our protagonist is forced to make startling decisions in order to undo the predicament he has fallen into, without inflicting greater damage to everything he seems to touch.

Divulging any more would be truly unfair to new viewers. And even as the film at times suffers from bogging itself down within it's own logic, and even some iffy pacing from the first-time director, the film never loses grip on the fragility of reality from Hector's perspective. Even as the time travel conceit of the film comes dangerously close to derailing the film, Vigalondo's script and sharp collaboration with Elejalde gives us a creepy, multifaceted hero whom we'd just as soon run from as work with. Also gracing the small film with solid performances are Barbara Goenaga as the mysterious girl in the woods, as well as Candela Fernandez' brief but potent work as Hector's wife. Filmed within what seems to be only a square mile, and brimming with twists, it's a piece of work that begs for multiple viewings.

And even as Hector's troubles begin to pile up via an absurd fluke to end all absurd flukes, it's hard not to see the entire nightmare logic working as a counterpoint to time travel movies of the past. In Vigalondo's world, the great minds behind our worst fortunes remain faceless as ever, while those who'd inflict it be among the most ordinary. It's a scary idea simply because it rings terribly true.

Not Clever Advert Is Not Clever...

Podcast To The People! (Vote, won't you?)

Friends. Readers. Followers All. We're entering a whole new realm for the Kaijyu by diving a little deeper into podcasting, and we need your help! Contrary to what many would vehemently argue as common sense, we have decided to combine the efforts of three often kept separate fandom circles.

a) a lifelong superhero comics fan...

b) the veteran video game lover...

c) the anime/film hand...

We've decided to shoulder the responsibility of placing all three into the fray to see what comes out. Whether it be great or absolutely off-putting is not for us to say at this point. But as old friends, as well as respectively different breeds it only felt right to share these three viewpoints onto a much bigger forum proving (hopefully)once and for all that the three could in fact co-exist, and do so quite well without some kind of figurative bloodbath..

Okay...well, there may be a splat or two...

And this is where you, the readers, come in

We've thrown out some prospective titles for our show, and in the spirit of this all-inclusive concept, we're giving you a chance to vote out a winner! We've whittled a large mass of names into this small selection, and we'd love to see what you think.


The Candidates:

1. Knights Of Mythopia

2. IconoCast


3. Media Brigade


4. Combo Attack!

Be a part of Kaijyu history. Vote in the comments below, or message me at tetsujin@gmail.com !

Days in the Badlands...

Oh wow, we're really going back for this one as my memories of this are still quite vivid. In the time between 1983 & 1985, pre-NES, console gaming had experienced a drought of sorts, and the only way many kids my age could stay out of the desert heat outside of a trip to the movies was to head out to Palm Desert's only mega-mall, the good old' Town Center on Highway 111. And one of the bigger highlights of glimmering temptation for kids was the near overblown cool that was Yellow Brick Road, which was the kind of video game arcade many would consider now to be of the golden age of arcade gaming. This place had everything from Coin-Op standards like Centipede to newer, edgier titles like Gauntlet. Covering what had to be roughly an eighth of the size of the mall itself, they place even had a working carousel dead-center!

But of the games featured there, among the ones I was most hypnotized by was a wacky new spin on the still very experimental Laser Disc animated action games. Among the most popular of these by far was Don Bluth's Dragon's Lair which featured good ol Dirk The Daring as he attempted to rescue hapless Princess Daphne from a flurry of monstrous badness. The point of all this was to help Dirk get past a number of timing based challenges whether it be slashing at beasts, or jumping through treacherous chasms. Our only controls were an Action button, and a pass button for the chickens. And depending on whether you hit the Action button at the right time, the animation would display your fate. Simple on blog screen, but at times quite frustrating as the LD technology wasn't as precise as we'd probably like it to be. Either way, Dragon's Lair, and later Space Ace would typify this short-lived, but curious piece of video game history. And yet it was Konami/Centuri's Badlands that truly captured my imagination.

Dunno. Perhaps it was a bias at childhood. Something about the clearly anime-esque visual tropes, and completely bat-shit insane events laid forth in even the intro that kept me coming back to this machine.

Take a look, and tell me what's wrong here....





Okay. Maybe now I know why I loved this game so much. When you break out not only some seriously grim introductions to the opening animation, but also what looks to be a killer Kappa & dinosaurs(!!!), you know it's a winner with me. This coupled with some classic anime sounds effects, funky music, & some of the most violent death & tonal destruction I had ever seen in a video game at that time, I was such a sucker for it all.

We played as Buck, lone rancher after his wife and family are killed senselessly by a formidably big gang of criminals for seemingly no reason! The mission? Revenge, of course? Hey, it's the mid-80s, revenge was chic! But for a game so grim in its intro, we had no idea just how crazy/goofy the whole thing would be.

The machine was often pretty abandoned in that corner, which was cool by me. I loved being able to go there with pals, and see if they could stop the railroad from being blasted, or the lady from turning she-witch and killing you. And it wasn't always reliable in trying to hit the Pass button on some of the more challenging staged either. Very often I'd just get killed, which was always a big part of the fun...




Unfortunately, games like this didn't last too long, and we eventually entered the Double Dragon era of arcade gaming. But a part of me still has a soft spot for the more experimental days of video games. And that Yellow Brick road certainly is still out there, somewhere.