Twentieth Century Fox confirms The Simpsons are going to the movies and should hit theatres in 2007. A 25-second trailer for the film has been shown to US audiences at screenings of Ice Age: The Meltdown, promising to introduce the greatest hero in American history
. It then cut to Homer Simpson, wearing only his underwear, who admitted: I forgot what I was supposed to say
The keeper of the biggest collection of indigenous Australian art and cultural history is digitising its catalogue in a project designed to help preserve its ageing archives
Another 26 episodes of Futurama will shortly go into production. This news comes from none other than Billy West (voice of Fry) himself, in a short post to his own message board. No further details are available, except that it’s likely to be on TV, not straight to DVD
The Canadian Record Industry Association’s own research now concludes that P2P downloading constitutes less than one-third of the music on downloaders’ computers, that P2P users frequently try music on P2P services before they buy, that the largest P2P downloader demographic is also the largest music buying demographic, and that reduced purchasing has little to do with the availability of music on P2P services — via Boing Boing
La La, a new online music service aims to offer CDs for $US1 by letting members trade used physical discs, in a new twist on online song swapping
About 50,000 opponents of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are holding a peaceful protest in Bangkok, vowing to stay in the streets until he steps down. Thai television has been notorious for remaining silent when historic events are happening. Instead of covering the protest they aired Backstreet Boys concerts, MTV shows, commercials and chat — via Warren Ellis
French consumers are not entitled to make personal copies of DVDs, even if they do not distribute them, France’s highest court said Wednesday in a victory for film companies like Vivendi Universal
Cityrail may be bad but, as the Amateur Transplants point out, the London Underground is worse.
Amateur Transplants (aka Adam Kay and Suman Biswas) are two qualified doctors, who practice medicine with varying degrees of success
The contents of 800 Australian libraries have gone online, with the launch of a new free service by the National Library in Canberra. Libraries Australia has been used by professional librarians for 25 years. The National Library’s Fran Wilson says from today that will extend to everyone
Never let it be said that cartoons aren’t educational. Allow Pinky & The Brain to enlighten you with Brainstem — via Fluff the Plush Cthulhu
Citing the Prevention of Terrorism
act, British Police have arrested and interrogated three of the stars of the award-winning film The Road to Guantanamo
, together with the three ex-Guantanomo detainees on whose story the film is based — via Feòrag
The cult television series Monkey is being remade in its home country Japan. If you know which TV character was born from an egg on a mountain top
and the lead line of in the world before Monkey, primal chaos reigned
, you probably have the ABC to blame. Parts of the series were shot in New South Wales at Stockton Desert near Port Stephens and the Blue Mountains last year
Amazon is in advanced talks with the four global music companies about a digital-music service that could be launched as soon as this summer. It would feature Amazon-branded portable music players, designed and built for the retailer, and a subscription service that would deeply discount and preload those devices with songs
Last month, Johannas Pope, 61, was found dead, wearing a white gown, and propped up in her chair in front of the television. She had been placed there way back in 2004 by her caretaker. After a long investigation, the coroner announced yesterday that Johannas had died naturally of heart disease. Pope told her caretaker, Kathy Painter, she didn’t want to be buried because she believed she would come back to life — via Boing Boing
Andrew Carol has built a version of the Babbage Difference Engine No 2 out of Lego — via digg
The British Library is concerned about DRM’s effect on its ability to make materials available to the public. Libraries have a legal right to distribute materials under the Fair Use provisions of the copyright law, but DRM systems may block this. Furthermore, they point out that DRM systems don’t automatically switch themselves off when a work goes out of copyright. DRM systems may allow copyright holders to retain control over their material longer than they are legally entitled to. Worse yet, if the software no longer exists to unlock a DRM-protected file, its contents may be lost forever — exactly the thing libraries are intended to prevent
Anime seems to having a renaissance in the west at the moment, with hundreds of titles being translated and cranked out in form of bulky boxed sets. And since these boxed sets are on the pricey side, I’m a bit wary of taking a punt on new anime, as opposed to titles that I can be sure I’ll watch repeatedly, like Haibane Renmei, Irresponsible Captain Tylor etc. A shame, really, as it means that the guilty pleasures of the anime world (consisting mostly of mecha and copious fan service) are neglected.
One such guilty pleasure — worth watching or renting, but not paying retail for — is Kiddy Grade, a somewhat confusing sci-fi series in which cute girls and giant robots beat the crap out of various bad guys, good guys, and departmental colleagues.
Though relatively mild on the fan service, it does have a zany cosplay element, as the protagonist dons three skimpy uniforms, then branches out into receptionist, pizza girl, waitress, pro wrestler and even motorcycle sentai outfits.
Éclair (the variously costumed heroine of the piece) is an agent of the GU (basically the space UN), and is sort of a blend of superhero, commando, secret agent, and office worker. If you’ve seen any of the Burn Up OVAs you’ve got the general idea. Éclair’s partner / sidekick is Lumière, a wealthy heiress with a taste for fine wines and etiquette, who appears to be no older than age 14. Using a nanotech lipstick and bottle of aged burgundy respectively, they battle evil and make friends in a lighthearted manner reminiscent of series like Rurouni Kenshin and Dragonball.
There’s a bit more to it than that, however, and as the series progresses Éclair starts to have doubts about the ethics of her work, subtly encouraged by the enigmatic / bishi Mr Armbrust. Armbrust (variously titled an ambassador, inspector, and auditor, though the latter seems most likely) bears a strong resemblance to the protagonist of Michael Swanwick‘s Stations of the Tide. Like Swanwick’s bureaucrat, he has a nanotech briefcase and a sort of understated cynicism. The kind of guy who has a preferred brand of Dijon mustard, if you take my meaning.
Armbrust would make a good romantic interest for Éclair, but oddly the series doesn’t exploit this. And actually the plot in general is a bit wonky, with many a loose end and deus ex machina (though admittedly these are fairly standard plot problems with anime). There’s plenty of style, and lots of merchandising opportunities, but the substance is a bit patchy in places.
One good thing that really stood out about the series was the quality of both the design and the animation (by Studio Gonzo). The characters are detailed, the buildings are suitably gigantic, and the mecha are done in a streamlined Full Metal Panic style. The spaceships are a real standout: they’re colourful and birdlike, and scooting about on plumes of flickering blue flame in the manner of an side-scrolling arcade shooter.
The only faults I can find with the production lie with the US licencees (Funimation), who give us not only the usual crap English voice acting, but also a script that diverges from the Japanese a fair bit. And it’s
dubtitled, arrgh!
On the whole, then, Kiddy Grade is like its scantily clad protagonist: easy on the eye, but basically airheaded. That’s not a bad thing sometimes, so I give it 7/10, and suggest you rent it if you get the opportunity.
Canada’s biggest record label, publisher and management company is helping out a family sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement. The privately-owned Nettwerk Music Group is intervening because the current actions of the RIAA are not in their artists’ best interests
The complete title of the Beastie Boys‘ forthcoming concert movie is in fact, Awesome! I Fuckin’ Shot That!
. They lent hand-held video cameras to 50 fans, told them to shoot at will and then presented the end result in in all its primitive, kaleidoscopic glory — via Boing Boing
William Shatner sold a kidney stone for $25,000 to GoldenPalace.com. Shatner’s donating the dough to Habitat For Humanity. GoldenPalace.com originally offered $15,000 for the stone but Shatner turned it down, noting that his Star Trek
tunics have commanded more than $100,000 — via Boing Boing
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