AiCaL revisited - Lots of Big Brain

With the release of every Adventures in Care-a-Lot DVD, I have scanned the list of included episodes, patiently waiting for "Rebooted" to show up.  Mostly so I could make good quality screenshots of Big Brain.  That DVD finally came out at the beginning of the month, though it took Blockbuster until the end of the month to actually get it to me.  And so, to celebrate, here are a few of the screenshots I took:

Dewmocracy

As you probably already know, Mountain Dew recently released three new flavors, one of which will become a full-time flavor, as voted by the people.  They did the same thing a few years ago, with the winner being the blue raspberry-flavored Voltage (which was the one I liked the best, and I still get it from time to time).  When I saw that it was happening again, I was all over it, and I've tried each one at least a couple of times.  However, at the moment I am still undecided.  There are 16 days left to vote, though.

The three contenders are Distortion, White Out, and Typhoon, rather dissimilar flavors and colors, unlike the last time, where the three types seemed to go together well, as they all had a berry kind of flavor (raspberry, strawberry melon, and wildberry) and two blues and a purple.  This time, though, gives us lime, citrus, and punch in green, white, and red respectively.  As I said, I'm still undecided, despite trying each flavor more than once, but I do know for sure that I do not want Distortion to win.  For me, its lime flavor is too strong, giving me the feeling that I'm tasting my fingers after squeezing a lime, which isn't exactly what I want in a drink.  However, neither White Out nor Typhoon has really wowed me, which is kind of a shame.  I really liked all the flavors last time, and while I'm glad that Voltage won out in the end, I would have been happy with any of them.  That's not the case this time.

If I absolutely had to pick, I guess I'd say I'm leaning more toward White Out at the moment, but my husband would prefer I give my vote to Typhoon.  I'm sorry, but Typhoon just tastes too "red," for lack of a better way of putting it.  It tastes okay, but after a few sips it starts to remind me of the generic red drink we had as kids at preschool and VBS.  But White Out hasn't completely won me over, just because, unlike the others, its flavor is too subtle for me.  I drink it and think about how much it tastes like nothing in particular.  In a way, I guess it's like a caffeinated, caloried Fresca, which is a drink that I enjoy from time to time, but with slightly less flavor.  Right now White Out is leading the overall vote, though Typhoon is leading (by an extremely small margin) in my home state, so I sort of feel like voting Red just for that.  But when you get right down to it, I don't want to give my vote to a flavor I only feel halfway about.  In the end, I may not vote at all this time around.  After all, I'll always have Voltage and the original Mountain Dew.

Maryoku Yummy Comes to AGKidZone

Upon learning that AGP finally found a home for its Maryoku Yummy TV series (The Hub, come October), I went to see if the official website, maryokuyummy.com, had been updated yet (the last time I checked, it just had a "coming soon" message).  Not only was it updated, but it had been made into a page on AGKidZone.com, with a fair amount of content (not surprising, as they've been trying to get the TV series off the ground for a while now).  Exploring Nozomu reveals various character profiles, which cleared up a few mysteries, such as the names of Hadagi's friends (Oolong and Baburu, i.e. the romanization of bubble, predictably not pronounced anything like that) and that Tapo Tapo is apparently the leader of the Nozomu, and not just some mystical guru-type guy.  There are also games and coloring pages already, and 9 video clips, only two of which are from episodes already seen on AGPbrands.com.  Speaking of videos, the Strawberry Shortcake page still only has the interview clip representing the 2009 version, despite the fact that there are two DVDs out and the TV series has already started to air in some places.  Come on, AGP, get on the ball!

Coming Soon: The Hub

A few months ago, Hasbro announced that it and Discovery were creating a new TV channel, and recently, more definitive news has begun to leak out.  The channel is called The Hub and is launching on October 10th, but what is most relevant to my post here is that one of the announced shows is the new My Little Pony series, subtitled "Friendship is Magic."  I wasn't really going to post just for that, although I have heard that according to show runner Lauren Faust, the series will have villains and boy ponies, which has caused most of the older fans to rejoice.
The real reason I'm posting, though, is one of my readers sent me an e-mail to let me know about the channel, and included some info that's not in the article I linked, such as the channel's programming starting at 1 PM Pacific time (4 PM Eastern), and other programs including R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour, a new version of Pound Puppies, and the CG Strawberry Shortcake, which I am assuming is Berry Bitty Adventures.  I don't know where the reader got this info, or how much of it is true, but I figured I'd pass it along.
Update: Here's an article that talks about the previously unmentioned shows, and yes, the Strawberry Shortcake series is Berry Bitty Adventures.  Also, Maryoku Yummy finally has a home!

Summer Movies 2010 Edition

And so the Summer Movie season is upon us again, and with it, I once again have started making the usual lists.

Movies I want to see in theaters
Iron Man 2
Toy Story 3
Despicable Me
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Movies I'll wait to see on DVD
Shrek Forever After
Grownups
Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Undead
Inception
Ramona and Beezus
Get Low
The Other Guys

Movies I'd go to if someone else wanted to, too
Robin Hood
Splice
Killers
Eat Pray Love

What I Watch - The Answer Man

You probably don't remember, but last year when I wrote my list of "Summer Movies I Want to See," I mentioned an interest in The Answer Man, based on EW's description of it as "A reclusive writer suffers from lack of sassy lady friends."  It wasn't until today that I around to watching it, and it was actually pretty good, though not the movie I thought it would be.
The movie is centered around the character of Arlen Faber, who wrote a self-help book that became extremely popular 20 years ago (called "God and Me"), and ever since he has avoided the public, since he claimed that he spoke to God (hence the title).  In the course of the film, he touches the lives of (and is in turned touched by) a single-mom chiropractor (Elizabeth) and a recovering alcoholic bookstore owner (Kris).  So yeah, only one lady, and she's not even all that sassy.  Definitely pretty tsundere, though.  I guess Annie, her receptionist/babysitter counts, though she's not at all sassy, so I don't know.
Generally, I liked most of the film, though Arlen is pretty unlikable until he meets Elizabeth, which is nearly a half hour in, and even Elizabeth grated on me with her "overprotective mom" bit (though any other time, she was fine).  But other than that, I liked the characters, though the story they were in was kind of weird (I still don't really get the point of Arlen and the teacher conference, and the fallout of that with Elizabeth the next day).  I guess it was really the ending, which I won't spoil here, that keeps me from really liking the movie and puts it in the "mostly okay" category for me.  That is, I don't think I'd watch it again, but I'm glad I gave it a chance here and now.  

Comics - Classic with a Twist

So this Sunday, My Cage blends The Catcher in the Rye with Calvin and Hobbes, and frankly, I wouldn't mind if this became a recurring theme (that is, the mixing of newspaper strips with literature).  Especially if smatterings of the cartoonist(s)'s life was worked in (i.e. panel four really only works if you know how Bill Watterson felt about comics "selling out").

Comics - Macbeth

(click for full-sized Banquo's ghost)

Once again Hark, a Vagrant! has inspired me to post about the current comic.  The artist has taken to doing a series of comics on a subject, usually a piece of literature, and this time she's tackled Macbeth.  And each one made me laugh out loud for real (as my husband can confirm), even though I've never actually read or seen the play, and everything I know about it is from pop-culture osmosis.

AiCaL - Power Team update

Slowly but surely the latest permutation of the Care Bears is starting to show itself.  While AGPbrands.com has had a short description of the upcoming "Care Power Team" series on the site for at least a year, not much has been seen.  Various notepads and similar items have been seen in Target's dollar section, though that was a few months ago, and Share Bear Shines, originally slated for a Fall 2009 release, came out this past March -- in Australia.  However, Kidtoon Films, ever a friend to AGP and Hasbro, showed the first actual look at the CPT series, Care Bears to the Rescue Movie, this past month (and though a trailer was promised, one never materialized on their website).  Unfortunately for me, the only day it was showing, I had other obligations and couldn't make it (and the only theater that had showings every weekend was actually showing episodes from the 80's series).  I have, however, managed to see Share Bear Shines, and while I'm saving the write-up for when it actually comes out in the states (this Fall, we hope), there are a couple of things I'd like to complain about.  The first is a little (teeny tiny) bit spoilery, so if you want to save yourself completely, skip the next paragraph, please.
Okay, so the plot, as synopsized by AGP themselves, is that Princess Starglo is putting out the stars because no one believes in her anymore.  Now, that makes it sound like she's doing it out of spite, but in the movie, she explicitly states that she and all the stars are powered by belief and wishes made on stars, thus she's turning off the stars (and all of Glitter City) because there simply isn't enough power for all of them.  My problem, though, is with the inconsistency of the writing.  Half the time, Starglo's behavior is still treated as if she's doing this out spite, not, you know, prolonging what little life she and the stars have left, even by the princess herself.  (And frankly, if she's "the mother of all stars," shouldn't she be Queen Starglo?  Just saying.)  I mean, if it was one or the other, I wouldn't mind, but you can't mention "He's fading, just like me," and then just claim the whole thing was a selfish whim, y'know?  If there had at least been a little acknowledgement at the end or something, since a lot of it was just Share Bear apparently not getting it, then maybe I'd feel better about it.  And while I'm still in the spoilery paragraph, it majorly bugged me that Starglo kept telling Share that she was the only one who believed in her and still wished on stars, when, HELLO, Wish Bear still exists in this movie!
Tying into that point is my second, less spoilery, quibble: why does a movie dealing so heavily with stars and wishes NOT star Wish?  I mean, come on!  And it's not like she's just not there, because she is clearly visible in the background.  Maybe if AiCaL hadn't pegged her as an expert on stars and twinklets, this wouldn't rankle me so much, but really, honestly, why, AGP?  Or, if it really was so very, very important that Share be the star, why couldn't Wish have had a bigger part at least?  She and Share could have both gone to Glitter City together, or something.

Well, anyway, I'll go into both of those points in more detail come the Fall (hopefully).  In the meantime, you can check out a couple of clips from the movie on SD Entertainment's page.  The first is a song sung by Share in the movie set to clips from the song and other random movie clips. The song sounds different, though I'm not sure whether that's because the clip has her unpitched voice (does her voice get pitched up?  I wouldn't be surprised) or if it's sung by someone else entirely (probably the same chick who sings the AiCaL theme).  The second is a brief teaser trailer for the movie, still proclaiming its release in 2009.  And now, before we part, two quick images:

Share's mental image of Princess Starglo.

The real deal.