Saturday, February 07, 2009

Some Photos from ComicCon

Krod Mandoon (Not an Ethnic Meal Break)

Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire is a "workplace" comedy series coming up on Comedy Central, that is a bit like Robin Hood: Men in Tights, but with a stricter story and less parody. Chris Hardwick of G4 did a great job moderating (he really should be on TV more often,) as two of the execs and two of the stars answered questions, including Sean Maguire, who is making up for the horrible "Meet the Spartans" movie. Unfortunately, the wonderful Matt Lucas (Little Britain,) who plays the key baddie in the show, wasn't in attendance, but Maguire does a pretty good imitation (of co-star Kevin Hart and Marty McFly also,) and is really pretty quick on the draw.

The story about how Lucas became a part of the show was especially a crowd pleaser, as he sort of fell in their laps. "We got Matt Lucas to tape an audition." "Wow!...Who's Matt Lucas?" Seriously, this might have been the most entertaining panel all weekend.
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Summit Brings Us Knowing & The Hurt Locker

The participation was light this time, but the movies certainly piqued my curiosity.

Knowing has been a movie I've been interested in since Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) was attached, and in seeing the trailer and two scenes selected by director Alex Proyas (who couldn't make it due to post-production,) it probably is better Kelly didn't make this movie. The story of a dad who finds a note in a time capsule that predicted every catastrophe in the 50 years since it was buried, and a few more to come, was probably too "big" an action film for Kelly at this point in his career. That said, I don't know how well it will do, because the topic (global disasters) and the terrifying way they are presented is probably just too harrowing for most people, especially NY'ers. It's just relentless in how destructive the events are and how detailed the events are depicted.

The Hurt Locker is similarly intense and similarly possibly too raw, as it depicts a bomb squad working in what looks like Iraq. The 12 minutes of footage shown nearly made me crap myself. It definitely doesn't look like a feel-good movie. Per one of the stars who did a Q&A, it's not an Iraq movie, but a movie about guys with an interesting job.
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Dead Like Me: The Movie

Four of the cast, including charasmatic Callum Blue and grown-up Sarah Wynter, and two of the producers appeared at ComicCon to promote the soon to be released DVD movie before a packed room. Among the tidbits during this remembrance of the late, beloved series are the return of Dolores and Crystal from the series, but one gets the feeling that Blue could have appeared and just sat there and much of the crowd would have been happy.
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Wolverine and the X-Men DVD Update

The show's already been picked up for a second season, and the first volume comes out on DVD on April 21st. The word volume isn't promising in any way, but there's your update.
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Super Hero Squad

After watching the first trailer, with a theme song from the lead singer of Nerf Herder, it feels a bit like the Marvel version of Powerpuff Girls, just a bit more anime. It feels like there's a great deal of fan service in the inclusion of many lesser-known characters, but the lighthearted tone might rub the fanboys the wrong way. We didn't get to see any plot, but the tone is obvious: goofy fun.

We also got to see the world premiere of the fourth episode of the upcoming NickToons show Iron Man: Armored Adventures, which features a young Iron Man (like school-age.) Rock band Rooney did an excellent theme song, the animation looks pretty sweet (almost anime like,) and the story is hardly kiddie, mixing action and a sense of humor that's well written (one Star Trek joke is particularly hilarious.)
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Make My Animation Marvel

Why they would schedule Robot Chicken and Marvel Animation panels, two topics with certain crossover in audience, for the same time is certainly questionable. I've chosen the Marvel panel, mainly because I haven't seen most of what their showing (and the Robot Chicken drawing power of Seth Green has resulted in a ridiculous crowd (and some fire-code defying blockages.)

The panel, hosted by executives from Marvel Animation, kicked off with info on the ridiculous success of the new NickToons series Wolverine and the X-Men (over 1000% ratings improvement) and the new Hulk vs. DVD. A glance over the new BET series, Black Panther, based on Reggie Hudlin's story and John Romita Jr's art, is followed by what could be either a huge failure or massive win: Marvel Super Hero Squad, which airs this fall.

Bringing together all the Marvel characters in super-deformed designs (almost Kirby-esque in a way,) it's a comedy action series for the entire family
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