Month: November 2004

  • Someone has a new Vespa!


    Coming Soon

    Dec 5th: It’s the final RevPro show ever and guaranteed to be a blast! If you haven’t yet seen Lucha Libre in L.A., this is your chance! Right in Hollywood too!


    McRorie is amazing. (warning: BAD music)

    The Ten Geekiest Hobbies

    Maximo Inc. -  Objects designed by Alexander Girard

  • Happy Thanksgiving!

    I was going to post something about seeing the Incredibles at the El Capitan Theater on Monday night, but I think there are already plenty of glowing reviews out there about how awesome this movie is – the design, the scripting, the technical wizardry, everything – that there’s not much more we can add to the list of praises. As a 3D animated feature, this will be a hard one to top! What’s more, the film even raises questions about child rearing…  

    Anyone else wish they were Elastigirl?

    I think it’s worth mentioning that the El Capitan was an experience in itself. Prior to the movie, there was a very cool Wurlitzer performance, which ended with the organ descending into the stage to make way for the

    “… live Disney stage show, featuring costumed Disney characters, favorite music from Disney films, singing, dancing, and even Santa! Now that’s entertainment!” (link)

    We were totally unprepared for this.

    Hollywood showtunes; singin’ & tap dancin’ Disney costumed characters; multiple set changes; confetti explosions; and the most surreal moment of all… when Goofy & Co. do Yankee Doodle Dandy in costumes of stars and stripes, as a giant American flag unfurls behind them. Pure Disney-Americana. Our jaws dropped.

    The whole medley-thing went on for what seemed like an eternity. (Do people sit through this live show every time they see a movie?) Just when you think this showtune is going to be the last one, another one begins, another set change, oh look – there’s Buzz Lightyear doing the soft-shoe shuffle!


    ¡Mucha Lucha! update

    ML has now been stripped on Cartoon Network! The show is on every night 9.30pm - check out the schedule here.

    Meanwhile, two upcoming Season 3 episodes on Kids WB: A Whole Lotta El Reys & Doomien!



    More Unseen ML
    - Images that never made it to screen -

    These were Museum exhibits for the “Mummy with the Golden Mask” episode (Season 1).


    The Prehistoric Age


    The Middle Ages


    The Baroque Age

    by Eddie Mort & Lili Chin
    © WB Animation


  • New remix of Jim Cherry Got Soul (mp3) by Eddiemuerte!

    Two interesting NY Times articles:
    What is a Foreign Movie now? and What is an American Movie now? (via elatedbliss)

    Maps On Us - It’s like Mapquest without the freeways.

    More later…

  • Retail Therapy in K.L. - Lili

    While Eddie was enjoying PWG in Los Feliz (see previous post), I spent a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) en route from Sydney to L.A. visiting my family. KL, like most fast-developing cosmopolitan Asian cities, is a place where people spend a lot of time shopping, eating, and shopping. If you want to sample the best food in the world, enjoy a permanently warm and tropical climate and geek-out on cheap shopping, this is the place to be.


    It’s Hari Raya (public holiday) so Bukit Bintang Rd 
    seems unusually serene on a Monday morning


    The night I arrived, we had ‘Bak Kut Teh’ for supper on Alor Road.
    BTW, Fried Chilli Frog is NOT your standard M’sian fare.
    I took this pic because I was wondering myself: “Do people really eat this?!”

    The part of K.L. I love wandering through is “The Golden Triangle” – a bustling touristy area with zillions of tall hotels, street stores, Starbucks/Coffee Bean outlets and giant shopping malls (to rival Hong Kong) selling anything and everything: Designer and quirky clothes, bags, shoes, housewares, digital gadgets, eats, bootleg software and … TOYS!!!

    On Monday, my brother and I visited about TEN toy stores, all within walking distance of each other, scattered amongst the mega malls on Bukit Bintang Road.


    Cool Toys is a fave with lots of vinyls
    (top floor – Hobby Center, Sungei Wang Plaza)


    Fantasy Toys (Low Yat Plaza)
    - tons of Star Wars, Spawn, LOTR, Anime figures


    Graffiti Toys (Times Square – a new megamall on Imbi Road)


    … I couldn’t believe how much Incredibles stuff there was. Even bootlegs.
    Still have yet to see this movie!

    And what’s so good about toy shopping in K.L.?

    • Abundance of toy stores!!!
    • Toys are CHEAP here! (Ok, some bootlegs, but they look good to me!)
    • You can buy blind box figures in complete SETS!!!
    • Interestingly, most figures are sold only as a SERIES. The hardcore collectors who run the toy stores will not part with the pieces individually as much as you plead. Which is awesome if you are a collector looking for a bargain. And a pain in the ass if you have limited space in your suitcase! (For example, I was very tempted by this Yamato StoryImage Samurai  series)
    • Seeing cool stuff that I have never seen anywhere online, didn’t know existed and still have no idea who designed them.
    • The stores are open till 10pm. Some even midnight!

    OK, I have to gloat. Some of the swag (which btw are not all for me) -


    Dude with cleaver (Jason Choy design) $10


    Alphabet SHE figures.
    I bought a ’mini figure’ set for approx $5

     
    From Crayon Shin Chan Gashapon series.
    approx. $7 for set of 4!

    Next time, I promise I will stay longer, bring a bigger suitcase and take advance orders.

    Upcoming local toy events:

  •  

    BACK IN LA! by Eddie

    So there I was, my first Saturday night back in LA.  Ah, so many options; a visit to the Tiki-Ti, perhaps?  Maybe a cruise through Los Feliz and Silver Lake to take in the sights and sounds of Los Angeles nightlife?  Hey wait a minute – Indy Wrestling at the local Jewish Community Centre?!? 

    Yep, You guessed it…I’m there!

    PWG (or to give its full title, ‘Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’) is a great showcase of some of SoCal’s – and beyond – most awesome wrestlers.  The matches are stiff, athletic, and inventive in ways that old tart WWE can only dream about.  And it’s fun; Top Gun Talwar’s theme music is ‘Danger Zone’ or ‘Take My Breath Away’.  American Dragon makes his entrance to ‘The Final Countdown’.  Frankie Kazarian enters the ring to the theme from The Karate Kid!

    The great thing about PWG is its variety. Tonight we got Super Dragon capturing the PWG Title from Frankie ‘The Future’ Kazarian.  The Havana Pitbulls Vs Apollo Kahn and Hook Bomberry in a brutally stiff match-up.  American Dragon Vs Scott Lost in another stiff and bruising match, that spilled outside of the ring, and all around the gymnasium. And one of SoCal’s great new masked wrestlers, Puma Vs Tony Stradlin

    Puma is fantastic – he gets quicker and more polished everytime I see him.

    Surprise of the night was ‘El Generico Vs Kevin Steen’ from Canada.

    Okay, we were all set to hate El Generico with his ‘Pentagon‘ rip-off mask and bastardised Gringo monicker.  But the guy had all the attributes and athleticism of a great luchador-in-the-making.  New name, original mask, and some respect for Lucha Libre, and the guy could be huge.  A Canadian doing a Lucha parody in SoCal is just so wrong.  PWG are guilty of this themselves with The Ballard Brothers disguising themselves as ‘Los Rojos Locos’.

     

     

  • ¡Mucha Lucha! is Number ONE!
     
    Some great news from WB Animation/Kids WB this morning!
    On Saturday, November 6, Warner Bros. Animation’s comedy-adventure ¡Mucha Lucha! Gigante, at 8:30 a.m. ET, led Kids’ WB! to victory for the first Saturday of November sweeps with the network delivering impressive week-to-week gains in Kids 2-11 (2.3/10, +15%/+25%), Kids 6-11 (3.0/14, +25%/+40%), Boys 2-11 (3.3/14, +18%/+27%), Boys 6-11 (4.8/21, +37%/+50%), Tweens 9-14 (2.8/15, +12%/+7%) and Male Tweens 9-14 (4.6/24, +7%/20%)….

    ¡Mucha Lucha! Gigante boosted the network by taking the #1 program spot among all competition in Boys 6-11 (5.8/24).  The series posted season highs with strong week-to-week double-digit ratings/shares increases in Kids 2-11 (2.2/10, +38%/+25%), Kids 6-11 (3.3/15, +50%/+36%), Boys 2-11 (3.9/16, +56%/+45%), Boys 6-11 (5.8/24, +76%/+71%), Tweens 9-14 (2.9/17, +26%/+6%) and Male Tweens 9-14 (5.2/26, +27%/18%).  The irreverent comedy ranked #2 among the broadcast and cable competition in Male Tweens 9-14 and as the #1 broadcast series in Boys 2-11, #3 in Kids 6-11 and #4 in Kids 2-11, tying The Batman (2.2/9), and Tweens 9-14.

    Congratulations to the ML team and thank you to all our supporters!

    P.S. As for all the numbers and percentages and what exactly they mean? … Don’t worry. All good


    El Santo episodes!

    There are five episodes of ‘El Santo contra Los Clones’ showing ONLINE! And they look pretty awesome. These animated promos/shorts are produced by Cartoon Network Mexico, and animated by Mexican studio – La Mama de Tarzan.

  • Sydney time: 10.30am Wednesday


    (‘Mangy pets’ from Mucha Lucha)

    When we first arrived in Sydney it was sunny and warm, but the last couple of days have been cold, raining and miserable. Now both of us have caught some sort of flu/cold bug… Uuggh. We would go and see The Incredibles to cheer ourselves up, but it doesn’t launch here until December.

    What we’ve been up to:

    • catching up with all our friends in Sydney
    • ripping music cds
    • saving files from studio computers onto cds to take to L.A.
    • scanning reference images from books, e.g. -


    still from ‘Cowboy Jimmy’ (Zagreb Films)
    We really want to see this. But where???

    On Saturday, Eddie will be flying back to L.A. and Sunday I am off to KL, Malaysia to spend a couple of days with my family. 


    Animation Blogs!

    A year ago, we were the only animation studio we knew of, with a BLOG. (Not that this is a blog strictly about Animation) It’s very exciting to see that nowadays more and more Animation weblogs are popping up everywhere with so much to share.

    Mostly via Cartoon Brew (the Mother of all animation blogs) and Toonhub (Links megasite):-

  • Unseen Mucha Lucha characters!

    From the Fwak! computer archives, some characters we designed back in 1999/2000 that never made it into the show:


    MIRACLE!


    CHAD FROM CHAD!


    MESOPOTAMIA!

    PSICLONE! (pronounced: see-clone-ay)


    MONKEYMAN! (midget wrestler)


    EL MAGNETICO!


    MUCUS!


    TIKI TORNADO!

    More coming…


    Jaime Flores is an artist from Monterrey, Mexico. His paintings caught our attention at the Blue Demon Store on Melrose a couple of weeks ago. We think they’re pretty cool.  (Jaime Flores plans to exhibit more of his works in L.A., and can be contacted via Oscar Carreño)

    Nemomatic makes kinetic ‘robot’ sculptures out of metal. (with videoclips of them in action)

    Tatacon sounds like a very cool toy! (thanks for link, Tony)


    Jeremyville!


    Design-oid by Designlab/IdN

    After several email correspondences, we finally had the pleasure of meeting up in person with Sydney-based Jeremy and Megan (of Designlab | Jeremyville | Mokem) for dinner and drinks. What an inspiring and passionately-creative couple! We chatted about art, animation, toys etc. and had a sneak peek of their new book on vinyl figures, published by IdN. It looks absolutely amazing. The book -“Vinyl Will Kill” will be available via the Jeremyville website (Australia) and at Meltdown Comics (LA) end of November. *update – it will also be at the new Kid Robot store in LA – coming soon!


    description

  • To our US friends:

    Remember… the answer to  extreme conservatism, is a creative, free-spirited and humane, counter-culture. Stay positive and creative.
     


    Early designs/development (2000)

    Back in the day: The Flea family used to be La Cucaracha family…the family legally changed its name when they realised ‘La Cucaracha’ + ‘Donut Shop’ didn’t sit well. Also, Rikochet stole their dog…

    More unseen ¡Mucha Lucha! coming!


    Our first dinner back in Sydney was with Peter at Kobe Jones, King Street Wharf. Harbor views, serene sunset… The Japanese Martinis were very very good. In fact, everything we had was delicious.

  • Sydney time - Wednesday 10.56am

    In the cab from airport into the city, the car in front of us had a ‘Kerry-Edwards’ sticker on the back window….surreal. The whole world is waiting…

    So, courtesy of Joel Kuwahara, some photos from the WB Animation Wrap Party @ Hollywood Billiards on Friday night -


    Eric, Jason, Pam, Joel, Jerry, Jerry’s friend, & Dom


    with Chuy Flores (Producer of ML music)


    with Sandra, Luis(?) and Jorge


    Fwak! news


    Dr Amoeba ©2000 Fwak! Animation

    Soon  Dr Amoeba’s A to F of Seduction will be playing on video-enabled 3G mobile phones!!! The license is with the 3 Mobile Network (Hutchinson Telecommunications, Australia). The 6-minute Dr Amoeba cartoon will be available for download in short instalments, from 6th December, and will also screen in 3 Mobile store promotions on 10th January.  Crazy thing is, our phones are so old skool we won’t even know what this will look/sound like…

    The Fuzz has been accepted as part of the Official Selection at the Anchorage Film Festival in Alaska!!!

    More later!