Review: ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 Motion Comic’
[[[
Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]] never was a ratings darling but it caught the cultural zeitgeist and was an important factor in pop culture during its seven season run (1997-2003). Thankfully, when the series ended, showrunner Joss Whedon felt the characters weren’t done yet and agreed to continue their story in the pages of the Dark Horse comic. Dubbed Season Eight, the 40 issue run completes its run this month with a ninth season on tap.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment decided to capitalize on the interest by hiring a company to turn the comics into motion comics but stopped after 19 issues. Available through Amazon Video on Demand and iTunes since July, they generated minimal buzz. They have now been collected on disc and is available as a combo pack (Blu-ray and DVD).
The reason there was so little said about them is that they are pretty mediocre, more reminiscent of the Lawrence Gantry Marvel cartoons of the 1960s than the [[[Watchmen]]] motion comics that are technically far superior. First of all, the characters barely move and speak without any attempt to animate their mouths. CGI-added effects don’t mix well with the blow-ups of Georges Jeanty’s excellent art.
The vocal casting is terrible as no attempt is made to come close to the characters as we’ve come to recognize them. I don’t recognize any of the names in the credits and they probably were hired on the cheap, much like the animation. As a result, the superb scripting from Whedon, Jane Espenson, Bran K. Vaughn, and Drew Goddard is spoiled.
Interestingly, the cinematic dissolves and smash cuts between scenes in the comic, which work well in a static medium, feel jarring and disjointed when animated. Again no effort has been made to smooth over transitions but merely imitate the comic without considering how to adapt from one medium to another. Each issue is adapted in about 11 minute installments and all the art and dialogue are present so the story progresses through the first half of the season. We get new threats, old friends, and a nice mix of humor and high drama as we explore a world with all the slayers active.
Buffy remains front and center with Willow and Xander as her lieutenants but poor Dawn has issues of her own that keep her from being anything but a distraction (and comic relief). Of the 1800 slayers now active, some 500 work directly for Buffy, broken into teams of 10 and under Xander’s one watchful eye. At the time, much was made of Buffy’s one-night stand with Satsu, but Jane Espenson expressed surprise since doing the unexpected is one of the hallmarks of the series. Sarah Michelle Gellar also approved of the character development so let’s move on.
The DVD release comes complete with limited edition Jo Chen packaging and a reprint of the issue. There are minimal extras including five minutes shot at this past summer’s comic-con as Jane Espenson, Jo Chen, John Cassady and some fans natter on about the show’s impact and how cool the comic continuation is (which is absolutely accurate). And now you need the comics to find out what happens since the nineteenth and final motion comics leaves many unresolved threads.
Movies and television shows have been created after something has caught the public’s imaginations be it a Twitter feed, a commercial, or a persona. Perhaps the best of the lot, though, is [[[Machete]]], inspired by a fake movie trailer. The film, now out on DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, came about when director Robert Rodríguez fashioned a B-film trailer as part of [[[Grindhouse]]], the homage to trashy films of the past, made with Quentin Tarantino. Machete, with Danny Trejo in the lead, captured imaginations so Rodriguez and his brother Alvaro wrote a film to do the trailer justice.
George Lucas may never finish tinkering with his Star Wars series. At the Consumer Electronics Show today, the anticipated announcement was officially made that the six movies will be collected in a nine-disc box set. The original trilogy will be making their Blu-ray debut — but these are the special editions. Apparently, the original elements from the first releases are fragile and need to be recreated or cleaned to properly reproduce in high definition (yes, meaning another opportunity to sell us product).
When a show deviates too far from the source material, its fate is in the hands of the writing staff who can take the raw elements and run with them or spin their wheels and grind the freshness out of the subject matter. Much as [[[Smallville]]] ran out of steam six seasons back, its spiritual successor, the BBC’s [[[Merlin]]], quickly lost its way in the first season. The second season, out on DVD now from BBC Video, takes great legendary figures and turns them into maudlin soap characters. When the first season came to America, NBC tried it out and the low ratings relegated season two to SyFy where the mediocre can rule.
Back in the 1980s, as the emphasis switched from characters and editors to creators, it was inevitable that agents would arrive to help the new super-stars cut favorable deals. As a result, its a little surprising it took this long for a marketing agency to arrive to service the “geek culture”. The principals involved are certainly industry-tested and both are well liked. We wish them and their new endeavor well.
Personally, I could care less about 3-D movies let along 3-D television, but as this technology rolls out and we’ll be hearing more about 3-D TV during this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, expect more announcement such as the one below.
Aimed at readers 7-9, Missile Mouse is a cute, bright and colorful space adventure series. Jake Parker, who works at Blue Sky Studios, home to the [[[Ice Age]]] movies, certainly knows how to tell a story and create visually interesting worlds.
The French artist Nicolas De Crécy has been working in the field for some two decades and has been slowing gaining a following in the United States. His 2005 series, Salvatore, is finally translated for American readers courtesy of NBM and it is a most welcome volume. The book was released in 2005 as part of Expresso, Dupuis’ new imprint of full-color albums and here we get the first two volumes collected.
The original [[[Wall Street]]] was a reflection of the times, showing how enticing working in the financial sector can be and how the huge sums of money involved can blind people to depths they will sink to chase it. It was a story about seduction and about family. That it came out when the markets were in the headlines gave it additional strength coupled with Michael Dogulas’ winning performance as Gordon Gecko. His “Greed is Good” was the most overused catchphrase in America until “Show me the Money.”
Scooby-Doo Continues his renaissance thanks to the well-received animated series on the Cartoon Network and his home video exploits also continue to perk along as witnessed by this press release:
