The Simpsons Movie (2007)

Director:  David Silverman

Writers:  James L. Brooks, Matt Groening and LITERALLY 13 others!!!

Composer:  Hans Zimmer

Starring:  Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Albert Brooks, Karl Wiedergott, Marcia Wallace, Joe Mantegna, Tom Hanks

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  The movie event 18 years in the making.

Plot:  After Homer deliberately pollutes the town's water supply, Springfield is encased in a gigantic dome by the EPA and the family are declared fugitives.

My rating:  7.5/10

Will I watch it again?   Probably not.

The only thing that makes this different than the TV show is it's 90 minutes (the equivalent of four episodes) instead of 22, is that you get to see Bart's dick.  When this came out, that was the big news and the thing that everyone was talking about.  You could say that Bart's weiner was on everyone's lips.  That whole sequence of hiding his dick as he skateboards through the city and then finally revealing it was a hilarious bit.  It feels like most of the jokes are in the first act with each of the next two getting fewer and fewer.  It's not a home run by any means but it is fun for the most part.  I wonder if Disney+ edited out Marge saying "...throw the goddamn bomb!".  Probably. Assholes.

Dirty Duck (1974)

Original title:  Cheap

AKA:  The Down and Dirty Duck

Director:  Charles Swenson

Writers:  Howard Kaylan, Robert Ridgely, Charles Swenson, Mark Voman

Composers:  Howard Kaylan, Mark Volman

Starring:  Howard Kaylan, Mark Volmen, Robert Ridgely, Cynthia Adler, Walker Edmiston, Joelle Le Quement, Laurene Tuttle, Jerry D. Good, Aynsley Dunbar

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  Madder Than Daffy Dumber Than Donald More Existential Than Howard!

Plot:  Mild-mannered insurance-adjuster Willard teams up with a foul-mouthed fowl who takes him on a surreal quest to become less uptight--and possibly get laid.

My rating:  6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Two words:  cartoon boobs. 

Well this was a weird-ass movie.  I'm not sure what writer/director Swenson had to say with this picture but it probably views better when you're wasted.  It's trippy and smacks of mid-70s political/subversion/sexual animation.  The "X" rating was reportedly self-ascribed by the studio which was another way to sex up the picture and make it more of a "must see" for adults looking for 'adult' animation.  It's got some funny moments, some subtle and some broad.  I laughed out loud a couple of times.  The animation is crude and cheap but the style fits the production in a way where you don't get the idea that this could've (or should've) looked much better with a larger budget.  The voice work is good and the songs are fun but the lack of funny drags the picture a bit.  Just being mildly amusing wasn't enough for me to hold my interest.  Now, if I had seen this 35 years ago in a theater, I would've most certainly enjoyed it more.  It's a soft recommend for those who like crudely animated nudity.

Tripping the Rift: The Movie (2008)

Director: Bernie Denk

Writers: Mark Amato, Ken Goin, Lanier Laney, John Minnis, Terry Sweeney

Composer: Mario Sevigny

Starring: Stephen Root, Maurice LaMarche, Jenny McCarthy, John Melendez, Gayle Garfinkle, Rick Jones, Danny Blanco Hall, Daniel Brochu

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Star Wars meets South Park

Plot: What begins for Chode and crew as a routine mission to protect a pissed-off princess will soon become a filth- splattered saga of dismembered royalty, indestructible clown assassins and desperately horny housewives. What vile act has Chode committed to bring down the ultimate wrath of Bobo? Can Gus, Six, T'nuk, Whip and Bob stop a time-traveling killing machine from ruining a booze-soaked birthday party? How much does a lap- dance cost at the Grope-A-Cabana on Omicron 9?

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

It seems like forever ago when I first heard of TRIPPING THE RIFT when I saw the original 2000 short.  I'd heard of a TV series and this movie coming out of it but I never saw anything else until now.  From my fondness of the short to the great voice cast, I thought for sure this would be a whole lot of fun.  It's nicely done from a technical standpoint.  It looks good, the voice acting is great and at no point was I bored.  BUT then again it's not nearly as funny as it should be.  I dug the countless movie references.  Those were fun but it's not enough. You need to have some genuine laughs for this to sustain the short 74 minute run time.  I found it amusing but with talent like this, you want to shoot higher than mildly entertaining.  If more time had been spent on the script they probably would've achieved that.

Clone High (2002) TV series

Creators: Bill Lawrence, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Composers: Jamie Dunlap, Scott Nickoley

Starring: Will Forte, Phil Lord, Michael McDonald, Christa Miller, Christopher Miller, Nicole Sullivan, Donald Faison, Neil Flynn, Andy Dick, Murray Miller

More info: IMDb

Plot: The greatest minds of the world have been cloned, and are now attending high school together.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I caught bits and pieces of this when it originally aired and I always meant to watch the short lived series from star to finish.  Now that I've done it I can move on with my life.  The concept is brilliant but the execution is spotty.  The voice actors are great and I dig many of the characters.  Even though they occasionally bring in a famous historical figure, they don't last long and they're often just there for a quick laugh and move on.  Mining the endless possibilities would have been nice.  Gandhi is my favorite.  He's hilarious.  Lincoln, not so much.  He was the exact opposite of Gandhi.  Where Gandhi was a wild card and fully of zest, Lincoln was the angsty teenager who had one thing on his mind and that's being in love with Cleopatra.  He was very predictable.  Most of the characters were predictable but not Gandhi.  I rarely laughed at anything relating to Principal Scudworth and all of his B-stories.  That was a waste.  The last of the thirteen episodes ends as if it might but won't return.  I'd love to rate this higher but even though there are some incredibly funny bits throughout the thirteen episodes, there's also a lot more that's not funny but rather loud and obnoxious in the attempt at getting a laugh.  It's hit and miss but when it hits, it's hysterical.

Archer (2009) TV series

Creator: Adam Reed

Directors: Adam Reed, Bryan Fordney

Writer: Adam Reed

Composers: J.C. Richardson, Michael Kohler, J.G. Thirlwell

Starring: H. Jon Benjamin, Judy Greer, Amber Nash, Chris Parnell, Aisha Tyler, Jessical Walter, Adam Reed, Lucky Yates

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Espionage never tasted so salty.

Plot: Covert black ops and espionage take a back seat to zany personalities and relationships between secret agents and drones.

My rating: 9/10

Will I watch it again? YES!!!

I was hooked on this show since the first episode aired.  The dialogue is faster than any show I know and it's funny as hell.  The voice talent is incredible.  It's outrageous and crass and that's part of the charm.  Every season was hilarious until season 7 when the gang moved to Los Angeles and that's when something drastic happened that shocked the shit out of me.  It wasn't funny.  I even gave it some time and started season 7 over and I still wasn't laughing.  I could probably count on both hands how many times I laughed for that ten episode run.  What the hell happened?  And season 8, while I appreciate the departure into something different, it was largely unfunny.  The end is near.  I read somewhere they were only doing a total of 9 or 10 seasons and that would end the series.  I hope it picks up.  I love this too much to want the quality to drip.  I don't care what they do or where the plot goes.  I just want the funny back.  Regardless, we'll always have the first six seasons. 

Coonskin (1975)

Director: Ralph Bakshi

Writer: Ralph Bakshi

Composer: Chico Hamilton

Starring: Barry White, Charles Gordone, Scatman Crothers, Philip Michael Thomas, Danny Rees, Buddy Douglas, Jim Moore, Ralph Bakshi, Ben Gage, Al Lewis, Richard Paul

More info: IMDb

Tagline: BARRY WHITE and his men are bustin' out to win! They'll stop the man from calling them "Coonskin"

Plot: Rabbit, a country-born trickster, takes over the organized crime racket in Harlem, facing opposition from the institutionalized racism of the Mafia and corrupt police.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Bakshi pitched this as a sequel of sorts to Disney's SONG OF THE SOUTH (1946) in an effort to get financial backing.  It worked.  The similarities are easily found.  He mixes live action and animation in some neat (and some awful) ways.  I dig Scatman Crothers in this picture.  I get some of the social commentary Bakshi put in about racial injustice and so on.  I'm not black but I'm certain this would resonate a lot more if I were or, to a lesser degree, if I were an adult in 70s.  Regardless, it's still worth checking out.  There's a little animated nudity if it helps.   That man sure knew how to make boobs bounce, I'll say that much.  There are a few laughs but today this feels more like an experimental curiosity.  It's probably the only animated Blaxploitation picture ever made.  If it's not then I needs to see what else there is.  I dig the genre.

Bob's Burgers (2011) TV series

Creators: Loren Bouchard, Jim Dauterive

Composers: Loren Bouchard, John Dylan Keith, Elegant Too, Phil Hernandez, Chris Maxwell

Starring: H. Jon Benjamin, Dan Mintz, Eugene Mirman, John Roberts, Kristen Schaal, Larry Murphy, David Herman, Andy Kindler, Sarah Silverman, Kevin Kline, Tim Meadows, Zach Galifianakis, Aziz Ansari, Billy Eichner, Jordan Peele, Bill Hader, Gary Cole, Keegan-Michael Key, Samantha Bee, Molly Shannon, Will Forte, Jim Gaffigan, Rachel Dratch, Robert Smigel

More info: IMDb

Plot: Bob Belcher, along with his wife and 3 children, try to run their last hope of holding the family together, which is running Bob's dream restaurant.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Great show.  It's funny, creative, raunchy and sometimes outrageous.  The toilet episode (promo'd in the video above) is a riot and it's a good example of how crazy the show can be.  The voice talent is great as is the writing.  There are lots of cute and clever little gags in the background, giving it something more than just funny lines for the actors.  I've seen everything up through season 7 and 8 is underway.  It's been on long enough and it's popular enough (you'll find cosplayers as these characters at any comic con) that it'll probably last for a few more years.

Big Mouth (2017) TV series

Creator: Nick Kroll

Composer: Mark Rivers

Starring: Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas, Jordan Peele, Maya Rudolph, Jenny Slate, Andrew Rannells, Paula Pell, Leah Birch, Kat Dennings, Richard Kind, Kristen Bell, Kristen Wiig

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Coming of age all over the place.

Plot: Teenage friends find their lives upended by the wonders and horrors of puberty.

My rating: 8.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

Hilarious.  I wasn't totally committed to staying with this until the second episode and when the talking vagina showed up in episode five I knew there was no going back.  I'm hooked until the very end of the series.  I love all of the characters for all of their different reasons.  The hormone monsters (male and female) are boner-crushingly hilarious.  This Netflix show is very self aware and has fun with itself, sometimes breaking the fourth wall.  It's filthy, raunchy and fucking fantastic.  The only thing that sucks is I didn't know there were only ten episodes when the last one ended.  I was a broken man.  I sincerely hope it doesn't take a year to get season two and I hope there are more episodes.  This show is a refreshing breath of fresh air.  This is that wonderful kind of outrageous where the jokes are firing on all cylinders and they land hard and fucking funny. 

Stroker and Hoop (2004) TV series

Creators: Chris 'Casper' Kelly, Jeffrey G. Olsen

Directors: Robert Marianetti, David Wachtenheim

Writers: Chris 'Casper' Kelly, Jeffrey G. Olsen

Composer: Michael Kohler

Starring: Jon Glaser, Timothy 'Speed' Levitch, Paul Christie, Mary Birdsong, Curtis Armstrong, Darryl Kurylo, Gary Anthony Williams, Eli Wallach

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Call Stroker & Hoop the best detectvies in town

Plot:  "Stroker and Hoop" is an animated satire of '70s cop shows like "Starsky & Hutch." Though it takes place currently (mid-2000s, when it first aired), the title characters act and dress in 1970s style and are detectives in Los Angeles. Stroker Strockmeyer, a former mattress salesman, likes his PI work because he gets to shoot people. But his partner, Hoop Schwartz, loves the job and never fires a gun intending to hit a target. The two use talking auto CARR, which is 20 years past state of the art. Being mediocre, they take jobs offered by those who can't afford competence.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

The only episode I remember seeing in 2005 was the Santa Claus one and it was hilarious.  That was enough to keep watching it.  I was horrified to discover it was cancelled and the last episode aired later that month.  This show had 13 hilarious episodes and it's just one more example of how many shows that cater to my sense of humor and get the axe far too prematurely.  I really dig the characters (especially Stroker voiced by Glaser) and the 70s vibe.  I had a blast revisiting the series.  I'd forgotten nearly all of it but I had such a great time that I'm not going to wait another twelve years to watch it again.  I don't know why this Adult Swim half hour program didn't make it when other, lesser shows do but I do wish they would offer on demand DVDs of their shows like Warner Bros. does for shows and movies that don't justify the expense of a proper release but are easy moneymakers on a smaller scale.  There is no proper home video release for this so I'll just have to be content with what I recorded way back when.

Assy McGee (2006) TV series

Creators: Matt Harrigan, Carl W. Adams, H. Jon Benjamin

Directors: Carl W. Adams, David SanAngelo

Composers: Andre Lyman, Loren Bouchard

Starring: Larry Murphy, H. Jon Benjamin, Carl W. Adams, Rachel Dratch, Jen Coh

More info: IMDb

Plot: Animated cop drama satire focusing on a grizzled, short tempered cop and his straight man partner, the former of which is simply a lower male torso.

My rating: 10/10

Will I watch it again?  Yup!

I LOVE Adult Swim but I have this tendency to fall head over heels in love with shows that don't last.  This is a prime example.  It's one of the funniest shows I've seen yet it lasted a measly 20 episodes before getting shit-canned.  What's worse is that it's only about ten minutes long per episode.  The show is so absurd that I was shocked from the first episode that it was ever made to begin with and what they do with Assy is brilliantly funny.  The filmmakers must've had a blast playing with the tropes of detective movies and shows and sending them up with Assy.  There's so much funny shit that happens in these episodes that there's too many to begin to count.  Voice artist Larry Murphy does most of the male voices on the show.  Damn this guy's got talent.  This was one of those shows that I love so much that I was genuinely sad when I realized it wasn't coming back.  It was comedy genius and I'm at least thankful to the guys and gals at Adult Swim and The Cartoon Network for at least giving it a chance. By the way, there has never been a DVD release for this show or any other merchandise that I've ever come across and I scour the 'net about once a year in the hopes that there's something somewhere I can throw money at. 

Squidbillies (2005) TV series

Creators: Jim Fortier, Dave Willis, Matt Maiellaro

Starring: Unknown Hinson, Dana Snyder, Daniel McDevitt, Dave Willis, Bobby F. Ellerbee, Todd Hanson, Scott Hilley, Patricia French, Mary Kraft, Pete Smith, Shawn Coleman, Stewart Beihut, Charles Napier, Brendon Small, Dana Swanson, Edward Hastings

More info: IMDb

Plot:  Follows the adventures of the Cuylers, an impoverished and dysfunctional family of anthropomorphic, air-breathing, redneck squids who live in a rural Appalachian community in the state of Georgia.

My rating: 10/10

Will I watch it again?  Constantly.

This has been one of my favorite shows since the beginning.  I'd about say it's my favorite.  I was hooked from the first couple of episodes and it's remarkable that the high quality has continued for ten seasons already.  The show is only about ten minutes long so you're in and out pretty fast but the laughs per minute are high.  So far there are 104 episodes and that makes for more than 17 hours of funny with more to come.  The voice work is exceptional.  All of the main characters are hilarious and if there's one fault, you don't get to spend enough time with the secondary characters like Aunt Lil and Krystal.  I wish all of them could be in every episode.  The music is great and so are the occasional songs.  There's an awful lot of talent working on this show and I couldn't be more thankful.  I've bought all of the DVDs but there's very little else in the way of merchandise and I can't tell you how much that stinks.  I've got a fistful of cash with no one to trade Squidbillies shit for it.  I've seen Unknown Hinson in concert twice (man, does that guy put on an amazing show!) and Dana Snyder (I had him sign my homemade Squidbillies flask) at a Comic Con but that's it.  I'd LOVE to meet the rest of the cast.  I just hope they know how much people like me appreciate the work they do.  It's not a show for most people for for those who like it, they fuckin' love the shit out of it.

Season 11 starts October 15, 2017 bay-beeee!  Woo!

Krvavá pani (1980)

AKA: The Bloody Lady

Director: Viktor Kubal

Writer: Viktor Kubal

Composer: Juraj Lexmann

Starring: Jela Lukesova

More info: IMDb

Plot:  This is the fairy tale / horror account of noblewoman Elizabeth Bathory, a notorious murderer of hundreds of young women in Hungary from 1585 to 1609 to bath in their blood in an effort to retain her youth.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Boy, oh, boy did this sound good.  An animated Czechoslovakian film about the 16th Century murderess Elizabeth Bathory?  Where do I sign up?  Now that I've seen it, I'm much less enthusiastic.  It's not a bad film but perhaps my self-inflated hopes were too high.  The music is often cartoonish to the point that it hinders the film.  When things get grisly the music improves with a more horror-themed score but it doesn't save the film.  Except for the brief narration in the beginning that quickly explains who Bathory was, that's all the dialogue you get.  The animation and storytelling feels more like a fairy tale with a horror element.  The horror is what interested me most about this and that's the best part.  The movie is only 71 minutes long and it takes a good twenty minutes in before you get any sense of the film going to a dark place.  Then it's a while before any blood stuff starts pouring in.  It's an interesting watch with some nice moments of horror but it's not the horror film I was looking for.  And I don't mean that I wanted something completely different filled with blood and horror but I finished the picture imagining a few different ways the film as a whole could've gone that would've satisfied my appetite.

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009) movie poster

Director: Rob Zombie

Writers: Rob Zombie, Mike Bell, Joe Ekers, Tom Klein, Mr. Lawrence, Joe Orrantia, Tom Papa, Carey Yost

Composer: Tyler Bates

Starring: Tom Papa, Ken Foree, Sheri Moon Zombie, Rosario Dawson, Dee Wallace, Joe Alaskey, April Winchell, Tom Kenny, Laraine Newman, Cassandra Peterson, Jess Harnell, Harland Williams, Rob Paulsen, Debra Wilson, Tom Klein, Clint HOward, Brian Posehn, Dee Bradley Baker, Paul Giamatti, Geoffrey Lewis, John DiMaggio, Jeff Bennett, Danny Trejo, Carlos Alazraqui, Tura Satana, Bill Moseley, Rodger Bumpass, Sid Haig

More info: IMDb

Tagline: From the pages of Spookshow International

Plot: A washed-up luchador and a super-spy investigate Nazi zombies, a nefarious scientist, and a stripper with a Satanic birthmark.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

 Man, Rob Zombie is surprising the hell out of me lately.  But then I'm catching up to the flicks he's made that I've missed so far and with this one, I've seen all of the pictures he has directed.  With the exception of the most recent one, 31 (2016), I've liked them all and I'm really in love with THE LORDS OF SALEM (2012) at the moment and I think it's his best work but then it's completely different than the rest of his catalog.  And this picture is different still.  There's so much to like about it, too.  The Ralph Bakshi style of animation was a brilliant choice as the look of it serves the film well.  Then there's the wonderful cast who are well suited for their animated characters.  The score was fun, the jokes were good, there's loads of nudity and the horror references will keep horror fans pointing out as many as they can.  I did.  In fact, that's part of the reason I'd like to watch it again, but most of all it's a fun flick.  I've never understood the Rob Zombie haters.  This guy has a cinematic voice that's unlike any others at the moment.  His first four pictures were straight up horror/slasher films and it's nice to see that he broke away from that for a while and made some very, very different films.  I'm glad to see that he's not content on beating the same drum even though I dig the tune.  I hope he doesn't stop making pictures that interest him because they certainly interest me.  The Blu-ray looks outstanding, by the way.

Android 207 (2006)

Director: Paul Whittington

Writer: Paul Whittington

Starring: Robots

More info: IMDb

Plot: An android is trapped inside of a large maze. The maze is vast and filled with many surprises.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Anything stop motion animated has my attention.  This short film (10 minutes) is creative and fun.  The robot, Android 207, makes its way through a maze facing obstacles and solving puzzles.  The results of some are not as you'd expect.  It's got humor, suspense and it's clever.  Writer/director did a fine job.  Hell, just the design of Android 207 is creepy and badass.  The whole thing has a 1970s vibe.  If this had been presented as being made in the 70s I would've totally fallen for it.  It's on YouTube in full so stop what you're doing for ten minutes and perk up your day with this.  While you're there take a look at what else he has on his channel.  You can also get a DVD of Whittington's short films on Amazon that looks to include a bunch of extras as well.  I might have to pick it up.

Tales from the Far Side II (1997)

Directors: Gary Larson, Marv Newland

Writer: Gary Larson

Composer: Bill Frisell

Starring: Kathleen Barr, Paul Dobson, Julie Faye, John Miller, Maxine Miller, Doug Parker, Drew Reichelt, Dave Ward, Dale Wilson

More info: IMDb

Plot:  An anthology of original animated shorts in the style and theme of Gary Larson's Far Side comics.

My rating:  8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

I laughed my ass off.  Halfway through there's an extended bit where Death is on vacation and all kinds of crazy things happen with people and animals dying left and right.  Then there's the Ken Burns treatment to the war between cats and dogs.  If you love Larson's comic strips you'll certainly dig this 45 minute collection of gags.  There are a few bits that are not much more than animated panels from the strip but those are few.  They're still as good as the one dimension drawings but Larson does so much more with this medium than he could with the strip.  A simple example is panning from side to side to reveal the joke and then another joke and so on.   You can't do that in the strip because your eyes see everything at once even though you're focused on the beginning panel.  You've also got some voice work (often it's mumbled or nonsense) and a great use of music.  All of these things help bring Larson's wonderfully macabre sense of humor to life.  This is the only other special he did besides the first TALES FROM THE FAR SIDE (1994).  That is worth seeing for Larson fans but it's not as solidly funny as volume 2.

The Do-It-Yourself Film Animation Show (1974)

Director: Anna Jackson

Starring: Bob Godfrey, Bruce Lacey, Terry Gilliam

More info: IMDb

Plot: Terry Gilliam demonstrates how to make animated films using cut-outs.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

This is super neat.  Fans of animation or Monty Python should check this out.  It's on YouTube and it's fifteen minutes so there's no excuse.  This is one episode from a short-lived British TV series about the different aspects of animation.  Terry Gilliam is the guest on this episode about table-top and cut-outs.  He takes you through each step, in detail, on how he made those classic animation for MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS (1969).  Fans of Python will recognize a lot of what he shows.  It's super-fun and informative.  I dig hearing Gilliam talk about stuff because he's so passionate, smart and knowledgeable.  Someday I'm going to check out the rest of the episodes.  I hope there as interesting and fun as this one.

Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

Director: Sam Liu

Writers: Alan Moore, Brian Bolland, Brian Azzarello

Composers: Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion, Lolita Ritmanis

Starring: Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Tara Strong, Ray Wise, John DiMaggio, Robin Atkin Downes, Brian George, JP Karliak

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  The madness begins.

Plot:  As Batman hunts for the escaped Joker, the Clown Prince of Crime attacks the Gordon family to prove a diabolical point mirroring his own fall into madness.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

Talk about a disappointment.  While I never read the graphic novel from (I think) the 80s, I'd heard a lot about it.  It sounded like a really dark and gritty tale.  So when I heard months ago that this was being brought to the screen with Conroy and Hamill back in their iconic roles AND that it was going to be rated R, I was properly excited.  Then I saw it.  It's OK.  When it came to delivering the grisly goods they only kind of went there.  For an R-rated picture there's no bad language, the violence is minimal and there's no nudity.  I guess it's only R for the adult themes...and to boost sales by slyly implying that it's going to earn it's adult rating.  Bullshit, I says.  I'd have to read the graphic novel to know where the film makers departed and expanded but the film they made feels like an extended episode for a late-night Batman animated series.  As it is, Batgirl has sex with Batman for the first, and presumably, the only time (which is fine but I'm not savvy on their history leading up to this point so I just have to assume that she's been hot for him for a long time and that he's totally OK nailin' a child or a very, very young woman) and then she spends the rest of the picture (until she's taken out of it) going through teen romance issues.  The Joker is the best part.  Hamill is outstanding in the role (as if he wouldn't be, right?) and he's the best part.  There was some great imagery but the overall film animation isn't nearly as smooth as you would expect for a movie, even though it was a direct-to-DVD film.  It looked like a rushed job you'd get from a TV series.  Maybe that's what they were going for.  I would have like more time spent on this project before making it this far and that's how the film felt, unfinished and needing more time and care to make into something ballsy, worthwhile and iconic.  The ONLY extra on the Warner Bros. DVD is a sneak preview of a new Batman video game!  Really, that's it.

The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)

Director: Arthur Lubin

Writers: Jameson Brewer, John C. Rose, Joe DiMona, Theodore Pratt

Composer: Frank Perkins

Starring: Don Knotts, Carole Cook, Jack Weston, Andrew Duggan, Larry Keating, Oscar Beregi Jr., Charles Meredith, Elizabeth MacRae, Paul Frees

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  GLUB! The Face That Launched A Thousand Torpedoes!

Plot:  Meek and mild mannered bookkeeper Henry Limpet has few passions in life. It's mid-1941 and he would love to join the Navy but has been rated 4F. His friend George Stickle is in the Navy and lays it on pretty thick. If Henry could have one thing it would be to become a fish. While on a visit to Coney Island, Henry falls into the water and miraculously gets his wish. Now a fish, he makes friends, Ladyfish and Crusty the hermit crab and loves his new life. He also uses his abilities to help the US Navy locate and sink Nazi U-Boats, forcing the Germans to create a new weapon to deal with the Allies secret weapon.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

I haven't seen this since the 70s!  Don Knotts is always a hoot.  It's a fun film with a few funny bits but it's mostly cute and amusing.  The performances are good and pretty much everything else in it.  Not much to say, really.  The Warner Bros. DVD presents the film with a gorgeous anamorphic widescreen image.  The extras aren't abundant but what's there is great.  You get a 3 minute introduction from Knotts, a vintage featurette on the film's (and world's first) underwater premiere (10 minutes, and it's a fun little piece), a game of sorts, a fish tank interactive thing with some recollections from the cast and the theatrical trailer (anamorphic widescreen).

I Know That Voice (2013)

Director: Lawrence Shapiro

Writer: Brandon Sonnier

Composer: ???

Starring:  TONS of great talent, John DiMaggio, Kevin Conroy, Jim Cummings, Jason Marsden, Phil LaMarr, Maurice LaMarche, Laraine Newman, Rob Paulsen, Stephen Root, Jim Ward, Billy West, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria, Edward Asner, Clancy Brown, June Foray, Stan Freberg, Seth Green, Matt Groening, Mark Hamill, Gary Owens, Dana Snyder

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A documentary that puts a face to a face to all the voices that we know and love.

Plot: Seldom seen and often heard, the voice actors behind "Futurama," "SpongeBob SquarePants" and many other animated shows discuss their amusing craft

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Sure.

Here's an underrated group of folks who don't get nearly the amount of credit they deserve.  When a big Hollywood animated film gets cast they usually fill it with movie stars regardless of their ability to act ONLY with their voice.  So often you get bland performances from voices you recognize because you've seen them act in live action films.  The REAL talent belongs to those folks whose main gig is voice acting.  They're the ones who put the bomp sha bomp sha bomp behind the animated visuals to the cartoons and films we grew up with.  That list of participants in this film is a fraction of the fine folks we get to see (and hear) in this documentary.  It's a gas to put a face to the voice.  I've been a huge fan of Maurice LaMarche, for example, for more than twenty years and I finally got to see what he looks like.  Granted, there wasn't a Goddamned thing stopping me from looking on the internet in all that time but there he was talking about his craft...and it's just that, a craft. That's one thing you'll glean from this by the time you're watching the end credits.  Like everything, there is an art to voicing animation and it's not just being able to do a funny voice like you do when you're hamming it up with your friends.  If you think it's that easy then you're wrong, or you're in that exclusive minuscule percentile that has a natural talent for it and you should be working in a studio instead of reading this silly blog.  It's currently on Netflix streaming.

Tales from the Far Side (1994)

Director: Marv Newland

Writers: Gary Larson, Marv Newland, J. Falconer, Dieter Mueller

Composer: Bill Frisell

Starring: Kathleen Barr, Doug Parker, Lee Tockar, Dale Wilson

More info: IMDb

Tagline: It's going to be a bumpy night.

Plot: A series of Gary Larsen's "Far Side" gags are turned into short animated gags, such as a Frankenstein cow; an insect airline's in-flight movie; deers, hunters, and UFOs; wolf home-movies; egg horror flicks; and cowboys & aliens.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

I LOVE the comic strip.  For me it's second only to Calvin & Hobbes and a close second at that.  This near-half hour special is simply Larson's single panel comic brought to life.  It's not as fun as the comic strip but it's really dark in tone and Frisell's score sets the mood to a 'T'.  If you imagine one of his comics, widen the field of view and start the camera off to one side and ending on the punchline, you'll have a good idea at how this animation works.  There are also gags that weren't in his strip like the airplane filled with all manner of insects flying to their destination with a bug flight attendant handing out larvae for the on flight meal.  That might have been a comic strip but what follows wouldn't have been (the attendant's head is eaten by a passenger).  If you dig the strip you'll probably dig this to some degree.  It's not a home run but I've seen it twice now and I think I'm done but I'll never grow tired of Larson's comic.