Animation Vault- Flint the Time Detective

It's strange, really. Not the fact that I keep updating this blog that has little to no known readers, but the fact that seems to be very little anime on American television nowadays. Now I know anime is still in a bit of a niche genre, but roughly ten years ago anime was fairly common among children's television circuit. Most well known is the Toonami block, but there was also Kid's WB with Pokemon and Fox Kids with Digimon (yeah the mon genre was REALLY big back in the day). Anyway, Fox Kids basically relied on Digimon to bring in viewers and to compete with Pokemon. While Digimon did have a pretty good following and decent ratings, it still wasn't enough to compete with the powerhouse that was Pokemon. So Fox Kids decided "Hey since Pokemon is from Japan, why don't we get more cartoons form Japan." Thus, they imported anime all the way from Japan to be dubbed by the Saban company and anime was the majority of there programing with shows like Monster Rancher, Escaflowne and Dinozaurs. Judging from those titles, they were mostly of the action variety, but there was one imported anime that had more of a comedic Saturday morning cartoon bent to it. This is Flint the Time Detective.

It seems like the series got lost among the seas of Pokemon, Digimon and later Yu-Gi-Oh at the turn of the millennium. However, if you ever watched any of those shows and really had that thirst for anime as kid, chances are you've seen this show. Produced by Sanrio (yes the same Sanrio that created Hello Kitty), Flint was shonen series about a cave boy named Flint that was fossilized along with his father and revived in a futuristic Japan by a pre-teen brother/sister duo and there scientist uncle. Flint is then recruited to become a Time Detective (don't ask me how, it was only briefly touched upon in the first episode). What follows is Flint, his father who was turned into sledgehammer during the fossilization process and the twins who are there just to be Penny and Brain to Flint's Inspector Gadget. However, Flint isn't completely ineffectual despite his naivety. He basically can foil the bad guys' plans single-handedly as well as win over the Time-Shifters with his Goku level of niceness.

Oh I forgot to mention about the Time-Shifters. Time-Shifters are these Sarino-esq beings that flow in and out of the timeline of history and have various powers such as turning anything into gold, controlling weather and bringing artwork to life. Also, they can transform into two different forms depending on whose controlling them . A Con-form (which is basically an Eldritch nightmare) if they are controlled by evil or a Master form (which is basically humanoid superhero form with some exceptions) if controlled by good. These Time-Shifters are usually found in the hands of historical figures, such as the Wright Brothers, Leonardo da Vinci and even Bruce Lee. This is what made the show stand out from other animes released at the time. Most animes were toy-centric and used for pushing products, Flint had a bit of an educational tone to it mixed with the comedy and action. The show explained a little bit about the setting and the historical figures they meet without deviating from the plot too much. Also, since this was a Japanese anime, at least half of the places they visited was in Feudal or Edo-era Japan or even earlier. So I basically was learning stuff I wasn't event taught in high-school.

But if you ask me what the most memorable aspect of this cartoon is, that would the English theme song. A fast, jungle like pace and cavemen chanting that will be stuck in your head for days along with visual exposition of the plot for new viewers, all those lead to an ear worm of theme song. Just listen:

All in all, Flint was pretty much a standard Saturday morning cartoon. It didn't spawn a huge following like Pokemon and was cheesy in some places, but it still told great stories, had good humour at times and it also helped me get into to anime a bit more as well. Even though it may be lost among the more critically acclaimed or more marketable animes of today and yesterday, Flint did have unique premise for anime. How many anime series do you know that have a Dr. Who-like plot that is aimed at kid's? Maybe there could be more time-travel anime series as well. Until then, all we have is a cave kid with his talking sledge-hammer traversing the timeline and righting all of the wrongs.

Animation Vault- The Secret of Kells

In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day around the corner, what better way to pay tribute to this holiday dedicated to Ireland and alcholism than to talk about an Irish animated feature. Lads an' lasses, I give yee The Secret of Kells.

Now this is an extremely recent film that came out around this time last year and from what I can gather from it, this film was a HUGE critical darling in its home country. However, I consider this film obscure on the grounds I didn't even hear of such film until last weeks Oscars where it was nominated for Best Animated Feature. In fact, it was the only nominated film I didn't see in the theatres. So, I did some research on this film and it is easy to see why this film got nominated.

First off, the animation is STUNNING!!! It reminds me of the game Okami in terms of design. The animation of the film looks as if it is made from paintings or ancient scroll designs. Its almost unlike anything I have ever seen in a film. Possibly because this film was done by the same people who did the cartoon series Skunk Fu! which uses similar animation stylings.

The story of the film basically involves a young monk named Brendan who wants to help the other monks illuminating texts. However, his overprotective uncle forbids him to go outside the abbey due to an impending viking attack and that he should focus on helping fortify the abbey. Brendan then finds a teacher in the visiting Brother Aiden, who allows him to go outside the abbey walls in order to go get ink for the texts. Outside the abbey walls, Brenden discovers a forest filled with wonder and danger as well as Aisling, a cute little fairy who has been guarding the forest for centuries. Basically, the film is about Brendan conquring his fears and achieving his dream of finishing the legendary Book of Kells with the help of Aisling.

So does our stallwort hero achieve his dream? I dunno, I haven't seen the whole movie yet. All I've seen our clips and trailers of the film on Youtube and I don't know where I can get the DVD. However, if reading this blog entry piqued your intrest in this film, go check out the trailer on Youtube.

So in closing, have happy, safe St. Patricks Day all and don't forget to wear green.

Animation Vault- Magical Maestro

Tex Avery is one of the biggest legends in the cartoon world. He pretty defined what cartoons were in the Golden Age of Animation. He perfected cartoon violence, invented many gags that have become synonomous with cartoon and was pretty much responsible for the Golden Age of Animation. I plan on inducting a lot of his work ito the Vault, but I think I will start of with one of my favorites: Magical Maestro.

The plot of this short is pretty simple. A desperate magician gets spurned by an opera singer, so the magician decides to use his magic as a way of revenger. Hilarity Insues.

This cartoon has always made me laugh simply because while the unlucky tenor is having spells cast on him, he desperately tries to keep the show going on like a professional. That combined with all the gags that Avery utilized in this cartoon simply shows off the pure physical comedy of it all.

In fact, this cartoon pretty much reminds me of the Pixar short Presto. It would not surprise me if Magical Maestro was there inspiration for that short. You might think so too when watch this short:


(Sorry for the short article this week. I'm actually quite swampped with other projects, mostly scool related.)

Animation Vault-Macskafogó(Cat City)

Okay before I start on my first entry, this what this segment is going to be called: Animation Vault. This is where I take a look at an animated film, TV show or short that is either obscure, underrated or once popular but now forgotten. I will give my take on the animated film/show as well as point out what made it famous (or infamous).

I decided to start things of with a REALLY obscure animated film. Well, obscure if you don't live in the country of Hungary where the following film is considered one of the country's animated classics. This is Macskafogó or Cat City in English.

I recently stumbled across this cartoon on the web and needless to say it is highly unlike any animated film you would get in the States in the 80s. Non-villians killed off in comedic ways, some uses of "colorful" vocabulary and some female characters drawn in fan-servic-y ways. Then I relized that Cat City sort of harkens back to the Loony Toons and Merrie Melodies cartoon shorts of the 40s and 50s. Back then, animation was seen as for adults as anything thing else. Those cartoons had comedic death and sexual innuendo that snuck around the Hayes code. I could go into why people have the mindset that animation is for kids, but that's a whole another essay.

Well the plot of Cat City takes place on a planet with cats and mice taking the place human beings. The cats are going to war with the mice despite there being centuries of peace between the two species and so far the cats are winning. The mice, having exausted all other options, decide to send there best secret agent to stop the cats who started this war. So this animated film is pretty much an affectionnate parody on James Bond films and quite possibly the 1970s chop-socky flick.

Now here's my take on the whole film. Its pretty good, though here is my complaints of it. The main character comes of as a bit flat, the animation is pretty dated, the fight scenes can be pretty choppy and awkward and the something about the ending really feels rushed to wrap everything up. What's good about this animated film is that it has moments where its edgy without being offensive and it also has some pretty good writing in it. In fact, in the movie's original Hungarian, it manages to insert ALOT of stealth puns and not of the incredebly lame variety.

But what I really like about this movie are these four:


These are The 4 Gangsters: a group of rats hired by the cats to hunt down and capture Grabowsky (the secret agent). According to there resume video, they are a group of professional mice hunters and have different ways of getting their jobs done as well as singing catchy showtunes. In reality though, they appear to be just starting there criminal path just so they don't have to go back to their dancing careers. Anytime they are on screen, they are always bickering, fighting or making stupid mistakes. The only competent member is the female brunnette Pissy (that's not a typo, that is her real name). While the other rats are bickering amongst themselves, she's usually taking care of the job at hand and doesn't even tell the others till they ask about it.

But what really won me over is the above clip of the 4 Gangsters' audition tape. Its so over-the-top, so manic, so colorful, so catchy, so violent that its funny. I'm still watching it and not getting tired of it.

So that's Macskafogó. While its not perfect, its easy to see why this film is such a cult classic. Heck, recently a sequel came out for it quite recently and was a hit at the box office. Just goes to show you the power of the animated cult classic.