Mar
25
Adventureblog Theater: The Transformers movie that might have been
Filed Under transformers
Wonder what the live action Transformers would’ve looked like if they’d kept the original designs? Pretty cool, actually.
Archive for the ‘transformers’ Category
Oct
16
On a routine expedition…
Filed Under dinosaurs, giant monsters, giant robots, kill all monsters, land of the lost, transformers, war of the worlds
How do I suck? Let me count the ways. Didn’t post again yesterday, obviously.
Because I pick up my son from school on Mondays and Wednesdays, it’s been messing with my schedule and I haven’t quite adapted yet. I’ll figure it out, but in the meantime, I appreciate everyone’s patience on those two days.
Here are the monster/robot links that I should’ve posted yesterday:
Giant Monsters
I haven’t even bought Beasts! Volume 1 yet and they’re already announcing Volume 2. I gotta step up my game.
Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost movie is a go. My initial feeling is disappointment that instead of getting a cool, dinosaur adventure movie, we’re apparently getting a silly comedy. But when Dan Taylor expressed similar concerns, writer Chris Henchy contacted him and let him know that “everything that fans loved about Land of the Lost will be in the movie… everything. Rest assured, we have the blessing of the Kroffts on this one.” So… keeping an open mind.
In a review of Winsor McCay’s The Complete Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, needcoffe.com reveals compiler Ulrich Merkl’s assertion that “McCay introduced the entire ‘giant monster attacks metropolitan city’ genre, predating King Kong and Godzilla.” I’ve loved McCay since I got that huge Little Nemo in Slumberland Sundays collection. Now I love him even more.
It doesn’t get much better than Powerpuff Girls vs. Giant Monsters.
And I thought the Transmorphers movie was sadly hilarious. Little did I know…
Giant Robots
Some Chinese Transformers nerds have built an $8000, 1300 pound Bumblebee statue.
At least this person made one that you can actually get inside.
I’ve never really thought of the War of the Worlds Martian tripods as giant robots, but I guess they are as much as the ones in Kill All Monsters! (which are piloted by humans, at least at first). So, in that light, it seems kind of appropriate that I point you towards this cool gallery of War of the Worlds book covers with all manner of tripod designs on them.
Here’s a review of Super Robot Wars OVA.
Giant Monsters Versus Giant Robots!
Negadon: The Monster from Mars is an apparently very good, short, CGI film. Just added it to my Amazon Wish List.
Oct
1
Up from the depths, thirty stories high…
Filed Under art adams, giant monsters, giant robots, godzilla, transformers
Today’s monster is by Bob MacNeil. (Thanks to the indispensable Giant Monsters Attack! for the link.)
My five-year-old son David is a total Godzilla nerd now. On Wednesdays, I pick him up from school and we immediately head to the comic book store. I also pick him up on Mondays and he always asks me, “Are we going to the comic book store?”
“No, that’s on Wednesday.”
So, on Wednesdays, when I say, “Yep! Today’s the day!,” he’s all, “Yay! Comic book store! Comic book store!”
Only he’s not necessarily looking for comics when he goes. He’s looking for Godzilla stuff.
Godzilla comics are okay (we picked up Art Adams’ Creature Features a couple of weeks ago), but he’d be just as happy with a toy or a movie if I was willing to shell out that much. One of the employees at the store is also a Godzilla fan and he and David talk Fire Rodan, King Ghidorah, and the origins of Black Mothra and White Mothra as I stand by and realize what my friends and I sound like to my wife whenever the topic of Hellboy comes up.
A little while ago we found a couple of DVDs from the Hanna Barbera Godzilla cartoon. I’d forgotten how much I liked that show as a kid. Godzilla has a cool fight with a different giant-monster each week, the human characters are all likable and pretty smart, and it’s amazing that I actually, really like Godzooky. I usually hate the tiny-version-of-the-hero sidekicks, but Godzooky manages to be funny and endearing instead of annoying.
In other giant monster news, Quick Stop Entertainment’s “DVD Late Show” reviews some “B” movie DVDs, including Space Amoeba, which I now really have to see.
Last night, I watched Curse of the Komodo and Komodo vs. Cobra. TiVo had picked them up because of the Jungle Island Filled with Giant Monsters angle, but they had way more in common than just that. Curse was filmed in 2004; KvC was made a year later by the same director, many of the same actors, shot at the same location, and featuring the exact same plot with much of the same dialogue. The only difference in the plot was that Curse had a group of thieves stranded on the island with the scientists and monsters, and KvC turned them into environmental activists. And added a giant cobra. (Which is cool, but then KvC lost points for actually making the komodo look worse than it did in the first one. No small feat.) They’re in no way “good,” but if you have any kind of affection for bad “B” movies, they have their points.
And speaking of bad “B” movies, Dragon War 2 is coming.
So is Transformers 2.
