Fantastic Stuff...

There’s always been a shortcoming when it comes to reviving the Fantastic Four to the smaller screens. A few cartoon attempts often miss the mark in catching the cosmic mainframe of the comic book series while still finding time to portray the family feeling between the four members of the failed experiment.

Being exposed to comic rays altered their bodies. They achieved great powers and also became celebrities in the modern day media. In some ways, they have become the foremost number one family to set a role model.

Most recently Marvel Co. developed in conjunction with Moonscoop to create a slicker, more modern version of the Fantastic Four adventures. This one may very well come closest to the source material despite many departures including their costumes and the appearance of certain characters.

This cartoon is based on the recent two films. Only the cartoons are actually far better. This 26 episode comes to a 4 disc DVD set with extras and featurs.

Much of it captured the family essence of the four members while maintaining the still cosmic grandeur of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby days. The four main characters are Reed Richards, Sue Storm (not yet married to Richards), Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm. They all have their own distinctive personalities.

Some may feel the Japanese influences may mar the design and look to the characters adapted from the long running comic book series. To some extent, I might agree. There are some bits which may be too stylistic for a cartoon such as this and may belong elsewhere. However, none of it loses track of the central force of the storyline: science fiction fun with a superhero family.

It’s great to see Herbie the robot is given a personality in these cartoons. Not the same bumbling babysitter robot from the comic book days, he is given the duty of being the overall master computer, maintenance and laboratory assistance to scientific genuis Richards.

There are a lot of nice touches to the animation. And you can lose yourself in some of the stories placed within the string of 26 episodes. A few decent short minor story arcs involve the Kree and Skrull enemies back for a good background coloring of a greater story.

Bringing more story arcs such as this one gives the series a more cosmic feeling of the original comics. By giving a little glimpse of what is to come, such as the Kree’s prediction in “Trial by Fire” that they will being vengeance to the foursome, helps give us as the audience an idea of something greater is awaiting out there in the abyss of space. Not all is comfortable in space. There are terrible dangers swimming through the eternal blackness of the universe and space exploration becomes a tempting thing. Almost an addiction.

There’s also the Negative Zone which offers another part of the universe never before explored and harbors some devastating creatures such as Annihilus. Again, giving the audience the glimpse that creates a cosmos somewhat bigger than our imagination. This is very good writing on their part as they keep hinting at things to come.

There is nothing seen of the Silver Surfer and the cosmic force known as Galactus who is a balance of power within the universe. Who knows what stories were underway if this series had been given the green light for a second season? Perhaps we would have seen the eventual marriage of Sue and Reed in a wedding? This is unfortunate as the minor story arcs help paint a greater picture of the universe in which the Fantastic Four exists.

Most of us could only imagine what the second season would be like with many more possible story lines to weave into the already established plots.

Speaking of good writing, the handling of dialogue and content makes this series a far superior one to the earlier incarnations of the Fantastic Four. Some of the stuff is often funny. There is still the great tradeoff of brotherly assault between the Human Torch and the Thing. There is a sense of style within the writing that runs smoothly between the characters.

You get a feeling of love of the characters have for each other. Watching them as an audience almost helps you participate in their antics. In a way, you become part of the family too.

If you’re an older reader of the Fantastic Four, you might be able to go down memory lane with the cartoons. The most blessed eras of the Fantastic Four are mainly Stan Lee/Jack Kirby and John Byrne who took over in the early 1980s. There’s an episode where She-Hulk must replace the Thing when he is momentarily displaced in “The Cure.” That episode acknowledges the story arc involving She-Hulk becoming a full-fledged member for a short time. Other stories such as “Atlantis Attacks” harkens back to the old days of the Fantastic Four legacy. Another John Byrne idea has the Baxter Building, the FF headquarters, being tossed into space to be detonated.

The sharp writing of dialogue makes for some good drama in the cartoon form. And no one could resist the tongue-tied twisters of humor unleashed by the massive, loveable rock guy the Thing when he goes to a fundraiser to help out. “Anything for the kids,” he would say.

It’s an enjoyable romp that was cut short due to unpopular ratings and not being faithful enough to the original source. But, being a departure, it makes for good exploration of the family issues and how people can come close together in times of need. And the Fantastic Four does teach this lesson very well. There’s nothing like a sense of closeness whether you’re with friends or family during a moment of crisis.

Of course, there’s always a delightful moment when hearing the familiar catchphrases such as “It’s clobbering time” or “Flame on.” So when is FF super-villain Doctor Doom going to get one of his own?

Go Down Nostalgia Lane the Smart Way...

There's a bit of an awkward moment. The almost mediocre man from nerdsville stands around the corner, playing into the scene with a bit of a clumsiness. His dark hair matches his suit. He sticks out almost like a sore thumb here. Then he leans over for his shoe which he takes off, starts to speak into it like it's a telephone.

This guy isn't James Bond.

But he's someone close to it. And he's trying to get smart.

Get Smart.

This is the brainchild of Mel Brooks ane Buck Henry way back in the 1960s when the spy movie was the craze, reaching at a popular height during this time. This was around the time when President John F. Kennedy, the striking image of Camelot, admitted that the book "From Russia with Love" was one of his favorite books.

The spy stuff got a jumpstart. And it was getting all over the place. You couldn't get away from it and there's a chance of overexposure from the spy movies, games and whatever else that flooded the popular culture. There was no shortage of it during the sixties.

But creators of Get Smart wanted to make a detour from it all. They played it up for laughs. They used gags to make this one of the most entertaining shows of its time. They knew they couldn't have the budget to make a full scaled television show. So comedy became the routine here. And it worked. The whole thing was a satire.

Even better, the show made for a great way to pass the time during the summer months when I was younger, waiting between the school years, and finding some solace in easy laughs and visual gags. And the series like Get Smart knew how to make its audience laugh.

How smart was it? The show won seven emmys and two Golden Globe awards. Not bad for a little show making fun of spy stuff.

Now, after a long way, the series finally reached its immortal place on the DVD. Why the long wait? Some copyright issues? Perhaps it did take some time to find the mastercopies of the episodes and polish them off for better presentation? What matters is that we get to see the silly spy spoof revived again with interest. And not a moment soon with the next Bond flick coming around in November.

Don Adams plays Maxwell Smart who is half spectuclar and the other half a dork. But he's a likeable dork. And his funny delivery is what keeps the viewers coming back for the five years the show was on. Along with the rare TV movie that was made "The Nude Bomb" which featured the entire main cast butt-naked in the final scene.

Adams was also know for doing the cartoon voices for the Inspector Gadget series and also Tennessee Tuxedo. His comic timing is always impeccable. Adams lived for comedy. It's a shame that he passed away some time ago without hearing his comment on the final revival of the Get Smart series for the digital treatment.

Along with him is the lovely agent 99 played by the wondeful Barbara Feldon. She is usually pretty smart girl and always very attractive in each of the episodes. Her comic delievery are always very good as she must hold her own against the very funny Adams.

The first pilot episode is the only black and white they made. And it is jam packed with great stuff that introduces many of the gadgets used by Smart during the latter part of the series. The few action scenes are great towards the end with Smart and Agent 99 fighting the agents from the incorrectly spelled Kaos international organization.

If you look closely, you can see that it is Michael Dunn playing the bad guy in this episode... and the same guy who went on to produce one of television's greatest villains Dr. Loveless from the Wild, Wild West series.

There are a lot of guests starts to be spotted throughout the first season including Johnny Carson in the Orient Express episode. There are always some consistent writing and the comedy is better than average. You don't get many shows where a guy can talk into his shoe or have a few funny skits involving the code of silence.

This is one way of going down on nostalgia lane. The smart way. And you might find yourself recalling many of the episodes of years ago and they come back to you as it's just yesterday.

Why waste your time going to the movie remake of the TV series that doesn't have any of the charm of the original actors? Spend a little time with the old shows. You'll thank me for it later on. And the old series is much, much funnier.

August's Lamented Summer Movies

The summer is running out of steam and there are a few tasty morels left to bite for the big screen. You start to have the feeling, if you haven’t seen a big summer movie yet, that you’re missing something.

You could be. Then again, maybe not.

August feels like the storm is winding down and the audiences are still reeling from the Dark Knight film that is hitting the box office jam like thunder. It seems an unstoppable force. Bringing such an iconic hero down would take some doing.

There hasn’t been anything yet.

There have been two widely anticipated films coming to the post Dark Knight fever which could’ve spoiled the Gotham avenger’s vengeance. Neither of them got anywhere near the forceful hurricane that has taken the summer for the ride of a lifetime.

First one is “X-Files: I want to Believe” which came out in late July with a mild reception.

Not a bad film. Clearly not a great film either.

It’s sort of a luke-warm temperature that leaves you wanting for more. And this is the kind of film that could’ve achieved greatness. But it feels more like another episode of the X-Files series. That’s fairly unfortunate that the film turned out to be this way: just another missed opportunity.

Way it turned out, it could’ve worked better if it was a made-for-TV film. This might’ve created more tension and suspense regarding the smaller screen. Allowing for further exploring of old corridors and flitting shadows that seemed far more cloistered.

Audiences, myself included, expected far more booming experiences filled with explosions that is typical of a summer block-bluster film. These kinds of films should skyrocket into something of greatness as the script would cover a wider subject… feeling far more cosmic in its vision. Even the first X-Files film started off with a big bang that became a real hook for audience goers.

But this film, on the whole, feels like nothing happened. And that might’ve been the greatest problem. The episodic form of the film might’ve worked better in the TV format. And a success could’ve called for more TV films with Mulder and Scully chasing after further cases.

The chemistry between the main actors are still there. Like revisiting old friends again. You can see that David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson pair off so well even in their later years, knowing each other like an open book. They know each other’s switches. But most importantly, there’s still unique trust between them.

There are some very cool sequences especially the chase between Mulder and the suspected refugee who has been dealing with illegal transplants. The entire rushing towards the top of the building makes for tension-weilding camerawork. It’s nice to see that the story revolves mostly around Scully who has doubts about a pedophile priest’s visions… and mocking them without giving him a chance. There’s a great touch of the frankenstien creature’s eyes waking up in the middle of a primitive lab set. It still sends a few chills.

There are some strengths to the story which moves at an intellectual’s pace. Written by Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter, they gave what the fans wanted. Another episode of the X-Files. Not something on the big screen. It only made a world-wide $39,021,373 so far.

The next one fared little better at the box office. The franchise continues with the “Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” which I actually liked far better of the two.

Some bits doesn’t make sense. The dialogue seems like something you could write on toilet paper. And the unbelievability of it makes the entire thing crumble under scrutiny.

Yet I still liked this film. Why is this? Because it is some dumb fun.

I don’t go to the summer movies to have an intellectual pursuit with a story filled with questions and philosophy. I went to my college courses for that. I go read a book if I want to make my brain work. I’ve done that enough times.

No, I go to a movie like the Mummy knowing it’ll be stupid, ridiculous, and yet I find it a lot of fun. Which is more than I can say about the X-Files movie. The people who make the Mummy do not take themselves seriously. And you shouldn’t either.

It starts out with a lover’s spat between the characters created by Jet-Li and Michelle Yeoh who cross each other’s paths, a territorial king and a sorceress. It’s great to see both of them in the film as they are already in a life of retirement… seeing them, in whatever film, is always pleasing. And there is a nice fighting sequence between them during the end of the film.

Jet-Li makes a great villain and showcases his talent of becoming a brutal, insidious creature of disregard for human life… you can see it easily in his eyes. His mummy is a twisted stature of menace that can thwart, change shape to his own will.

Don’t take the story too serious. That’s the only way one can enjoy the film that harkens back to the 1940s with a surprisingly funny chase through the Shanghai streets with the old styled cars. I don’t agree with the casting of Evy and this could’ve been easily done by writing the character away from the story. Even a divorce wasn’t unheard of in those days and might’ve brought the father and son closer together because of this.

The young, pretty Chinese actress Isabella Leong brings a sweetness to the movie screen… and I think she could’ve taken Evy’s place if she had been written out of the script. She’s very energetic in her scenes.

There are some great football playing Yeti in here which brings out some laughs when they make a field-go by kicking some bad guy like he’s a human football.

I like all the Mummy movies for this reason. They’re fun, stupid fun, and it shouldn’t matter because summer is almost over. You might as well enjoy something when you can. There’s a great war piece at the end of the film with a skeleton army led by the General Ming screaming through the desert against the emperor’s evil Terracotta army which brings memory of the Ray Harryhausen stuff.

I liked this movie. Some of you may not care for it and that’s okay. I’m having fun. The Mummy movie has claimed only $99,957,770 so far since its release last week. The many summer releases will still be overshadowed by the Batman’s dark reign.

There’s one lesson here in the film: it doesn’t pay to be immortal.