From a homeless transvestite to a rollerskating bat boy to the woman of our dreams, Satoshi Kon pushed the boundaries of animated film to remind us that really, you can do absolutely anything in animation. I always felt a profound sense of joy and wonder after watching one of his films and while it saddens me greatly to know that I will no longer get that feeling from new works, I can return to the body of work that he left us to recapture that feeling.

My favorite Satoshi Kon film is Paprika. The interplay between dream and reality was beautifully executed. And it had the voice of Amuro Rei doing a fat Amuro Rei! We had the fortune of seeing it subtitled in a theater in Shirlington and I just remember having a gigantic stupid grin on my face the entire movie. It made me excited to see more of his work, but it also inspired me to continue to push my own work further. I really hope that other animators take inspiration from Satoshi Kon and push the bounds of what’s possible in animation, especially American studios who keep churning out the same 3D crapola. There’s more to explore with 3D and I think American studios would do well to take some lessons from Satoshi Kon’s direction.

If you have a fond memory of a Satoshi Kon work, please leave it in the comments. I feel it only fitting to celebrate the wonderful work he left behind.

On the one hand, I absolutely love that Studio Ghibli has never made a direct sequel to its films. They are all special little moments in film wonderful to behold and completely unique. However, if sequels are to be made, let them be made of awesome things. Which is why the rumors sent over from Angry Zen Minion Jeff Posey of Hayao Miyazaki considering a sequel to Porco Rosso are so exciting! The new film would be entitled Porco Ross: The Last Sortie and would feature an older Porco and take place during the Spanish Civil War. We don’t have much more as far as details go, but in an interview with Japanese Cut Magazine, Miyazaki has been working on the background for the story.

Whether or not Miyazaki gets to make his Porco sequel depends largely on the success of Ghibli’s next two films. So, bottom line, if we want to see more Porco (and I’m pretty sure we do), we have to support Ghibli’s next two films (which is difficult here in the U.S., but somewhat doable).

Source: Slash Film

I could be misinterpreting things here, but it appears that Rachel Bloom would like to have sexy time with science fiction author Ray Bradbury. This video for “Fuck Me Ray Bradbury” is technically safe enough to post on YouTube without being flagged as adult content, but you probably should not watch it with your boss in the room. Unless your boss is Ray Bradbury. Then by all means, alert him to the fact that this woman wants to do some Fahrenheit 69 with him.

So remember kiddies, naughty, busty school girls want to have crazy monkey sex with old, curmudgeony sci fi writers. The curmudgeony part is key.

This is a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi that has never been shown ever. It was screened for the first time at this year’s Star Wars Celebration V. And it’s fucking awesome.

Although, I don’t know if I can stand buying yet another version of these goddamn movies! Enough is fucking enough already! Sure, it’s a great scene. And in the context of the entire film, it adds a little more gravitas to Luke’s entire arc. But ultimately, I fear that it would lessen the impact of his entrance in Jedi. Yes, taken on its own it’s a nice little vignette. But some scenes are just meant to be cut.

Fortunately, I don’t have a Blu-Ray player so buying the new Special Chum Fucking Blu-Ray Return of the Jedi Really Specially Special George Lucas Director’s I Just Found A Whole Bunch of Shit That I Cut, Why Don’t I Throw The Shit All Into One Big Fucking Pile Because My Rabid Fans Will Buy Anything Edition is not really an option. And honestly, does all this added shit really enhance the film? Or is it just George wanking all over the fandom? Fucking let it be, man. We get it. Star Wars wins. We don’t have to see every nook and cranny of the thing. I mean shit, what’s next, footage of the editing suite? A documentary about craft services? Fucking day in the life of a PA?!

You may recall that during Old Spice Guy Fest, the internet implied that Isaiah Mustafa looks a lot like Luke Cage. Here’s his response:

Turns out it wasn’t just a funny reply. Isaiah Mustafa really wants to play Luke Cage in a Marvel movie. He was seen around this year’s Comic Con sporting a familiar tank top and chain belt:

And now, we’ve got a photo shoot:

Of course, no proper internet campaign for anything would be complete without a facebook page which is why http://www.facebook.com/OldSpiceGuyAsLukeCage is open for business and ready for your fandom.

Okay, Isaiah. Let me level with you. Clearly you have the acting chops, you’ve got the look, and you’ve certainly got the manly physique. But today’s action stars need more than just the look. Stunt doubles can take care of the crazy, insane, life threatening, jumping off a 100 story building shit, but if you really want to get the attention of Marvel, you’re going to need to show us that you can kick the ass. I’m sorry bro, but if that punch in that promo photo is any indication, you’re going to need some fight training. If you punched anything with that fist you made for that photo, you’d break your thumb. I need to see an action reel before I can completely endorse you. Don’t get me wrong, I will pay good money to see you in pretty much anything (including a shitty Twitard movie if they cast you even as a background extra). But there must be ass kickings for Power Man.

Oh, and please don’t do this for your action reel:

I’m going to say it right here, right now. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World will be seen as the defining romantic comedy of this generation. Much like Fast Times at Ridgemont High and anything by John Hughes defined 80′s romantic comedies, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World will do the same for the 2010′s.

Unfortunately, like all great art, the film’s cultural impact will not properly be reflected by any financial measure. Scott Pilgrim performed horribly at the box office. It was beaten by an oversexed action movie on steroids (yeah, I’ll probably be seeing this in the theater sometime), Eat Pray Julia Roberts, a stupid cop/buddy/comedy that opened last weekend (I actually want to see this eventually, just not in the theater), and a spinning top movie that was released a whole mess of weeks ago.

The thing to keep in mind is that it takes time for pop culture to recognize genius. The Scott Pilgrim comic series wasn’t an instant mega success. It took a while for the comics world to appreciate Bryan Lee O’Malley’s little romantic comedy. Now it stands as a shining example of the level of awesomeness indy comics can achieve. I have little doubt that the movie will be the same. DVD and Blu-Ray sales will absolutely kill. It will be replayed many times over in homes all over the world. And it will go on to inspire some truly insane filmmakers in future generations who will point to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World as their inspiration for breaking filmmaking conventions, going all out, and having fun. Have no fear, fellow geeks, you are indeed witnessing the beginning of a culture shift.

If you put off seeing Scott Pilgrim opening weekend to see The Expendables, Eat Pray Julia Robers, that silly ass cop/buddy/comedy thing, or the spinny top movie, awesome. Those films deserve the support. Especially the spinny top one. But this weekend, please consider Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. You’ve never seen a film like it. And you’ll have a blast.

Today is Scott Pilgrim day. The movie is out now and all reports from people I give a shit about indicate that it completely lives up to the hype. And with Volume 6 already in stores (if you can find it), the series is complete. I figured now is as good a time as ever to give my thoughts about the comic series since I’ve yet to see the movie (hopefully tonight!).

Yuko and Ananth actually introduced me to Scott Pilgrim. Their enthusiasm for the book inspired me to go out and grab Book 1 and I was instantly hooked. It seemed to be this perfect mix of romance sitcom and fighting game and it all just worked so well. Through the volumes, I saw Bryan Lee O’Malley’s storytelling both visually and narratively grow by leaps and bounds. The work just made me fall so much more in love with comics than I had ever thought possible and inspired me to push myself in my own work.

I freaking love Scott Pilgrim. The series has so much energy it just makes me excited to read and re-read. It never gets old for me. As for Scott Pilgrim the character, I’ve actually found myself growing to dislike him a little bit. WHAT?! I know, total sacrilege for a professed Scott Pilgrim fanboy. But it’s true! After finishing Volume 6, I kinda felt that Scott was a big fat jerk face.

There is ample evidence of Scott’s jerk face tendencies. And this is where the discussion will get slightly spoilery so feel free to ignore this until you read the series or see the movie.
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“Space ain’t black enough to hide from him!”

Holy crap, people! They put their ankles into this trailer when they made this mother fucker. I always felt Lando Calrissian should have had his own spinoff. Blackstar Warrior is totally the Black Dynamite of sci fi.

This “documentary” about a Black Star Wars was released earlier this year on April 1. To me, it looks like they’re taking a page out of Black Dynamite‘s marketing campaign and creating all sorts of period looking blaxploitation sci fi awesomeness. And I fucking dig it!

“The lead machine is approaching three times the speed of the others!”

And with that, the Sinanju enters and completely fucks everyone’s shit up in the next episode of Gundam Unicorn. My pants are now three times the crunchy.

The thing that sucks is that we’ll have to wait until November for Unicorn to drop. But I’m excited. I know Unicorn is mostly UC fanservice/fanwank, but I fucking love it. Can’t wait to see Char Clone in action.

Inception is an amazing film. Which makes the parodies of it that much more amazing! There are a whole mess of them floating out there that are quite good. I’ve collected three that make me grin like an idiot.

Here’s Dora the Explorer fucking around in your dreams:

This one points out the similarities between Inception and Satoshi Kan’s Paprika:

And this spoilerific one uses logic to point out all the internal inconsistencies with the film itself:

There are a shit ton more out there. Share your favorite ones in the comments.