Thursday, December 24, 2015

Ed, Edd, n Eddy's Jingle Jingle Jangle Review


Greetings and Merry Christmas Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again! We Christmas is here once again folks. kids are unwrapping the presents, eggnog is being drunk...drunken...drank...whatever. and the family is coming together for this joyous time of the year. But folks, nothing puts you in the Christmas mood like the Christmas T.V. specials that come around during this time of the year. You all know the ones: The Classic Rudolph special, Frosty The Snowman, Grandma Got run over by a Reindeer you name it. Today folks, we're going to look at a special that's...a little different from those I mentioned before: Today, we look at The Ed, Edd, n Eddy Christmas Special: Jingle, Jingle, Jangle.

Monday, December 14, 2015

The RWBY RPRT: "Fall"

My Face after this episode...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with The RWBY RPRT...after a month of not doing it. Sorry guys, a combination of school and lack of motivation to write has kept me mostly inactive on my Blog. I do plan on getting a giant catch up recap of episodes 3-5 done, but for now let's worry about Today's episode.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Jessica Jones: Season 1 Thoughts


Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with some more Superhero Talk! This past weekend saw the release of Marvel's Jessica Jones to Netflix. And after spending the weekend watching, I felt like giving a few brief thoughts on it.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

The RWBY RPRT: "New Challengers"

It's a good thing RWBY took a break last week, or I'd be behind a week for the rest of the duration of the volume...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with what is sure to be a very nitpicky installment of The RWBY RPRT. Let's not waste any time and dive on it.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Scooby-Doo Month: Scooby-Doo and The Cyber Chase


Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again! Well: This is awkward, this review was meant to be up a week ago. Other than being a lazy bum, the last week I let stuff pile up and I had to take care of that. Excuses aside, welcome folks to the final week of Scooby-Doo Month! In the month of October, we've taken a look at, in my opinion, the best movies in the long history of the Great Dane, and today we're going to cap the month off with Scooby-Doo and The Cyber Chase!

Monday, October 26, 2015

Supergirl Pilot Review

Boy, I haven't been this worried about Rustling Jimmies since the RWBY Vol. 2 review...


Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with a new review! Tonight saw a new heroine making her way to the small screen. That heroine is none other than Supergirl. And Tonight, we take a look at the pilot to Supergirl!

Sunday, October 25, 2015

The RWBY RPRT: ''Round One''

I hope to God no one's already taken this title...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back once again. Well folks, after almost a year, the first episode of RWBY Volume 3 has been released on the internet and fans have been very excited. As for myself, I've been cautiously optimistic about it. After all, Volume 2 of RWBY left a lot to be desired. But for this volume, I'm doing something special: I'm going to give my thoughts of each episode as the Volume rolls out. So welcome Ladies and Gents, to The RWBY RPRT!

For those just now hearing about the series, RWBY is a web series created by the late Monty Oum and is about four girls: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long as they attend Beacon Academy; a school dedicated to training students to become Huntsmen and Huntresses: warriors who battle against the Grimm, creatures of destruction that cause havoc in the world of Remnant. The four girls all form a team simply known as Team RWBY led by Ruby; now that you've got the basics, let's finally dive into the actual episode.

Scooby-Doo Month: Scooby-Doo and The Alien Invaders



Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again; and welcome to week 3 of Scooby-Doo Month! For this week, we're getting a little extraterrestrial as we take a look at Scooby-Doo and The Alien Invaders!

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Scooby-Doo Month (2015): Scooby-Doo and The Witch's Ghost


Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again, and welcome to Week two of Scooby-Doo Month. Last week, we covered Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, a movie in which I said was credited as to spark new life back into Scooby as its success spawned more direct to Video films; one of which we'll discuss today. Strap in folks, today we're looking at Scooby-Doo and The Witch's Ghost.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Scooby-Doo Month (2015): Scooby Doo on Zombie Island


Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again. It is October, the scariest month of the year! People are marathoning horror movies, chowing down on candy and getting their Halloween costumes prim and ready. Meanwhile your Shaman has created a new tradition in hour of this month. So welcome peeps to Scooby-Doo Month: where I spend the month of October looking at the MANY movies of The Great Dane. Today we're kicking things off with a bang with Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island!

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Legend of Korra: Book One Review

We're Back where it all began folks...

GREETINGS!! Ladies and Gents, It is I, The Shaman of Animation back once again. Today is a very special day peeps as it marks the one year anniversary of The Shaman of Animation Blog! That's right folks, it doesn't feel like that long ago when I first started doing this, but here we are. I've changed over this last year as well, I've gone from some opinionated schmuck on the internet that thinks he knows enough about cartoons, superheroes, and wrestling to review them to....actually, nothing's really changed, just that I'm a year older now.  

But I've gone on long enough, my first review on this Blog was of The Legend of Korra, and to celebrate the blog turning one, we're gonna revisit Korra's world! So strap on to your Sky Bison peeps, we're taking a look at The Legend of Korra: Book One! Also, be warned: because the series is three years old at this point, I will be spoiling stuff.

Monday, August 24, 2015

NXT Takeover Brooklyn Review


Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with another wrestling review. This past weekend saw NXT in Brooklyn for its newest event: NXT Takeover Brooklyn (Original name I know). So without further ado, let's dive on in.

Friday, July 31, 2015

Where The New 52 Went Wrong With 'Teen Titans'

When There's trouble you know who to call? Not Scott Lobdell...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with another installment of the now abruptly created series: "Where The New 52 Went Wrong With". Last time I talked about The New 52 and its foul ups with heroes, it was about the awesome and extremely unloved as of late Static. Today we'll be talking about arguably the most iconic young superhero team of all time: The Teen Titans! 

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Justice League: Gods and Monsters Review


Oh Bruce Timm art, how I missed thee...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with a brand new review. Today, we will be taking a look at an animated movie I've been looking very forward to in the last few months: Justice League Gods and Monsters, an original story by Bruce Timm: The main man behind The DC Animated Universe (which includes The Batman, Superman, and Justice League animated series from back in the day along with other shows). Let's dive right in!

Monday, July 20, 2015

Why Suicide Squad is the most important movie in The DC Extended Universe


Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with some more Superhero talk! Comic Con came and went folks, and with it came some sweet Comic Book movie trailers. One of which we'll be talking about today and why it has more impact on its universe than some may think. That's right people, today we are discussing the Suicide Squad Movie! As we all know, Suicide Squad will take place August of next year and will be the movie following Batman vs Superman. Here are the three reasons why this movie is so important to the DC Movie Universe.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Blast From The Past: Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! Episode 1

With a title as ridiculous and long as this, you know you're in for something...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with another Blast From the Past. Today, we will be taking a look at the first episode of Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go!

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Sonic The Hedgehog (Satam) Review



Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with another review! The year was 1993 and video game icon Sonic The Hedgehog was seemingly on top of the world: he was still very big competition for Mario, Sega was going strong with their consoles with him being their mascot. And his fanbase couldn't be summed up with this one clip:


Of course back in the day, if you were a successful movie, toy, or game, you were given a cartoon to cash in on said success...which is a practice that still happens today but it was more frequent back then. And the blue blur was no stranger to getting cartoons himself. One of which we'll be looking at right now. Let's jump into Sonic Satam!

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Naruto Gaiden Review


Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with a new review. As I'm sure we all know, late last year Naruto finally came to a conclusion. Shortly after, a miniseries that served as the sequel to Naruto was announced: Naruto Gaiden. After my goodbye letter to Naruto back in November, I wasn't sure if I wanted to come back and read Gaiden. Quite frankly the last few years of the original Naruto series became a train wreck that constantly tested my patience to no end and I just didn't care anymore by the time the series ended...

But while I could probably do at least a five thousand word essay on everything that went wrong with the original Naruto series, that's not why we're here. Today, we're here to take a look at the sequel to Naruto: Naruto Gaiden!

Friday, July 3, 2015

Where The New 52 went wrong with Static Shock

I know it's probably beating on a dead horse by now, but why the hell not?

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with some more Superhero talk! Today's topic will be on a special hero, one that is close to many people, and his last big comic outing: That hero's name is Static.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Shaman's 'Celebrity Deathmatch' Dream list



Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with a new discussion topic. People, I am a fan of the series Celebrity Deathmatch. The idea of celebrities of today and yesterday fighting each other to the death in an over the top claymation show has entertained me so. I won't say I've watched the show since the beginning, but its sixth season in 2006 made me a fan. So when a couple of months ago, the folks at MTV announced they were bringing the show back, I was very excited of the possible match ups for the show now with so much insanity in Hollywood nowadays. So much so that I came up with a list of personal face offs that I would love to see on the show in its newest incarnation.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Dragon Ball Super Update: Synopsis, Prequel, and confirmed characters


I've held off of another DBS discussion long enough and with the new info we've gotten, the wait has paid off!!


Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with another discussion on Dragon Ball Super. As you can see up above a new trailer was released for it along with some new info, so let's sit down and talk about what we know and speculate on what to expect for the show.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Ways The MCU can reinvigorate Spider-Man movies

What can the MCU do to bring this Franchise back to its glory days?

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with some more Superhero talk. After months of speculations and casting rumors, yesterday finally saw the confirmation of not only The new Spider-Man (Tom Holland) but who would direct the web-slinger's newest movie outing in 2017 (Jon Watts). Tom Holland as Spider-Man is confirmed to be making a cameo in Captain America: Civil War before he swings onto his own movie the next year. With this announcement came a bit of backlash: Some of it stupid (Peter Parker is white WAAAH), while the more logical backlash justified.

This will be Spidey's Second movie reboot within five years and frankly, some people are a little fatigued of Spider-Man. Which they honestly have a right to be. As much as I enjoy Spider-Man's movies (Yes even TASM 2), I will admit that they are a little...formulaic (Peter is Spider-Man and is having fun, villain with some type of personal connection to Peter wants to kill him and take over the city, Peter has relationship problems with his girlfriend). People are tired of seeing the same old same old, and with Spidey now in the MCU, things need to be shaken up and I think I have a few ideas to get people interested back in Spider-Man movies.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Shaman Rambles: Does Shipping ruin a series and its Fandom?



Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, the Shaman of Animation back again with a different kind of discussion topic. Today, I'm going to talk about something that I've wanted to talk about for a good while now: Shipping. To those who aren't down with their Internet Lingo, Shipping is taking two characters from a created series and putting them in a romantic relationship, this is usually done in Fan Fictions (Fan Made stories written using already existing Series) and Fan Arts. But what I'm here to address is when Shipping, which when you break it down is really more of a fan thing, bleeds over into the actual stories that the ships are based off of and how it can hurt not just those series, but fans of said series.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Kingdom Hearts 3 Gameplay Breakdown/Discussion


This. This is going to be my new wallpaper on my laptop...at least until, the official photo of KH3 shows up...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with a new discussion. In 2013, the folks at Square Enix shocked the world at E3 when they announced that the long awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 was FINALLY in development. since the announcement though, word on the game has been mostly scarce. Sure we've had a few small mentions in interviews and there was the footage of the gameplay back at D23 Expo Japan, plus a very small snippet at the end of the Kingdom Hearts 2.5 trailer.




But other than that, there hasn't been much info or much other footage in the last two years. BUT today at their admittedly boring conference, the people at Square Enix were kind enough to give fans brand new footage of Kingdom Hearts 3 and the gameplay. So we're here to discuss this new bit of news!

Sunday, June 14, 2015

John Cena vs Kevin Owens (MITB) discussion

This match is so good it deserves it's own blog post

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation and after some time, I am back with some more wrestling talk. Folks I just finished watching John Cena vs Kevin Owens from Money in the Bank. These two men put on a clinic in their match two weeks ago at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.  And with the rematch happening so quickly, I seriously doubted that they would've topped that match. But this match...THIS MATCH...I don't know where to even begin.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Marvel's Daredevil: Season 1 Thoughts

Yeah, I know I'm late to the party, but better late than never right?

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, the Shaman of Animation back with some more superhero talk. Twelve years ago, a movie premiered that would introduce the mainstream world to a new hero. That movie was called Daredevil, and it was critically panned by both movie audiences and long time comic readers of the character. Now twelve years later (And getting some movie right issues resolved) The man without fear gets a second chance on the small screen with a 13 episode Netflix series. So let's talk about Daredevil.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

PowerPuff Girls 2016 series Announcement thoughts

That's right folks, a grown man is on his computer talking about the PowerPuff Girls. How low will this blog stoop is anyone's guess...


Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again. I'm sure a lot of the readers here remember the Powerpuff Girls. The series premiered in 1998 during what many consider was Cartoon Network's Golden Era. The series had a simple enough premise: It was about three little girls who had superpowers and together fought crime and the forces of evil to save their city of Townsville and do it all before bed. The series was very well received by critics and ended up being an Emmy-Winning series.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Batman vs Robin Review

Dawn of...a really bland animated movie...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with a new review. Today we'll be taking a look at Batman vs Robin: The latest DC Animated film. Let's not waste any time and dive on in.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Blast From The Past: The Life & Times of Juniper Lee Episode 1

You can't stop the girl

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with another Blast From The Past. Today, we'll be taking a look at The Life and Times of Juniper Lee: a series I was sure Cartoon Network had all but forgotten until it got a mention in the Steven Universe/Uncle Grandpa crossover.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Shaman's Ten Favorite Episodes of 'The Flash' Season One

Love this pic, but am I the only one that thinks Barry's left hand looks broken here?

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with more Superhero talk. Folks, tonight marked the season finale of CW's 'The Flash'. As I more or less said several months ago The Flash went from a series that I really didn't care about from its first announcement to what is, in my opinion, the best Superhero series on T.V. today. The quality this series brought with just one season has been amazing. And in celebration of the season finale tonight, I decided to give a list of my five favorite episodes from the season. Warning: Spoilers ahead and much like my favorite Dragon Ball moments List, the episodes listed aren't in an order of most to least favorite. Without further ado, let's speed on in.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Polarization



Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with some more superhero talk. If you've been living under a rock the last three or so weeks, the teaser trailer to Batman vs Superman dropped and much like WB/DC's previous movie Man of Steel, it has fans split down the middle: Some absolutely love it and claim that it's the downfall of Marvel movies as we know it, while others, myself included, weren't all that impressed. But, it's this polarizing nature that comes with not just BVS, but Warner Brothers and DC's whole cinematic universe, that's been a topic of discussion...or slander in some cases. With this trailer out, and with the movie less than a year away, I figured now would be the time to discuss my feelings on Batman vs Superman, why I think some fans aren't all for the movie, and the best things that Warner Brothers could do to help this movie, and to a certain extent, the cinematic universe, flourish.

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Dragon Ball Super: Thoughts & Hopes

They're back baby...

Greetings Ladies in Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back once again! Earlier this week, the minds of the entire Dragon Ball fandom was BLOWN when this piece of news dropped: A new Dragon Ball Series, titled Dragon Ball Super, has been slated for July. To those that don't fully know the significance of this (Although it was trending on all social media sites at one point so I'm sure you all know by now), the last Dragon Ball Series was Dragon Ball GT, which finished airing eighteen years ago. So yeah...this is pretty big news. As for what I think, I'm super excited, I love the world of Dragon Ball and I was just happy that we were in getting new movies in recent years after going two decades without them, so hearing that there is a new series coming is...amazing to put it frankly. Of course with a new series, there comes new hopes for fans and things that they would want to see, and here are some of my hopes for Dragon Ball Super

1) Expansion on the 12 Gods of Destruction
This isn't an official picture of the Gods, just REALLY good fan art

Now when DBS was first announced there was a snippet of information of what the series will entail. Fuji T.V. Producer Osamu Nozaki when asked about the series said that there was going to be a villain in the series stronger Buu or Frieza. Some fans were a little concerned on this issue and they had a right to be. After all, Dragon Ball GT has kind of proven that when you try to go bigger and go on a much larger scale than previously done before, you lose quality; some fans were already calling foul in Dragon Ball 'Resurrection F' when Frieza came back and trained himself to be on par with Goku and Vegeta. But I do believe that the series can go larger than Buu and Frieza. I do recall a certain movie two years ago that revealed that the DB world as we know was it only the seventh in twelve different universes. My suggestion is that if Super is a sequel and it is to have a villain stronger than Buu, then we have to see more of the Gods of Destruction and possibly, the different universes they come from. my pitch for it is that maybe the higher tier Gods caught wind of Beerus not going through with destroying the Earth at the end of Battle of Gods and decided to finish the job he couldn't. So now the Z-Fighters have to get together and possibly team up with Beerus (Beerus joining them because he doesn't want anyone else trying to steal his job) to stop these new gods from destroying their planet.

2) More emphasis on the Next Generation
This one's admittedly more wishful thinking on my part

I remember a line Goku said when he fought Kid Buu near the climax of the Buu Saga in DBZ. That he wanted the kids: Gohan, Goten, and Trunks to be ones that would save the planet and that he wouldn't be around forever when things went South (Of course this was from the old Funimation dub which could have been wrong for all I know...). But that line still speaks out to me. So my pitch for the series is that the first villain of Super that's stated to be stronger than Buu will be the final villain that the current generation of Z-Fighters, that being Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo, etc., will take on and beat, and that will serve as sort of a last hurrah for those characters. Then following those events, they will play more background/secondary/mentor roles while you have Goten and Trunks stepping up into the roles that Goku and Vegeta filled. The way I have this pictured in my head is that this takes place shortly after the end of the original manga, where Goku left to train Uub. I think if you do that, you can scale back on the power of the villains and focus more on developing Goten and Trunks into their people and not just clones of their dads. 

3) Delve into the characters' personal lives

Now I know that this is Dragon Ball, a franchise known for its martial arts antics, and I'm also aware that Akira Toriyama is a very simple writer and that he didn't spend too much time on the characters getting together outside of: 'Hey. There's a bad guy, we need to stop him.' But I think Super can do something that DBZ didn't do (I'm talking about the manga, not what the anime added in); and that is to give us more insight on who these characters we know and love are when they AREN'T training or trying to stop 'dangerous threat to the planet Number 626'. One of the reasons why I really enjoyed Gohan in high school and as the great Saiyaman was because for a short amount of time, we got to see Gohan be a normal kid for the most part; it's the same reason I loved Goku and Piccolo learning to drive, because we got to see these powerful people just do everyday stuff, and it was fun. And I really hope we get to see more of that in Super; to play into my number two hope on this list, maybe we can see Goten and Trunks entering school themselves and trying to fit in with all the other kids, or we could see Gohan and his family life with Videl and Pan, or hell, maybe we could see Krillin and him enduring the pain of his daughter going through puberty. Small, personal stuff like this could make the series that match better

And finally 4) NO VISUAL F**K UPS!!!
I can't... take my eyes off of this picture...

Toei Animation, the same company that did the adaptation of the original series all the way back in 1986 are back at the helms of this new series. Why am I making note of this? Because the series was announced to be in the summer of this year, and yeah...Toei has a bad reputation for inconsistent and shoddy art/animation. If by some ungodly miracle that someone at Toei animation is reading this then let me say it: Toei, this is Dragon Ball: a franchise that A LOT of fans hold near and dear to their hearts, myself included. do not, I repeat, DO NOT take shortcuts with Dragon Ball Super like you did with Sailor Moon Crystal.

If I see sh*t like this in DBS, someone's getting a Dragon Fist rammed right down their throat!!!


But that's all I have to say on Dragon Ball Super for now. Will it be good? Will it be bad? Only time will tell. But as for now, expectations are high, and my excitement is through the roof. If there are any things you wish to see from Dragon Ball Super let me know.

Til next time folks, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying: Toei you better not F**K up with Digimon Adventure Tri either.
Yeah, you delaying the series better mean you've learned to not just copy and paste one facial expression on all the characters...

Take care...


Friday, May 1, 2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron thoughts

Big Thanks to my friends that hooked me up with the ticket to watch this movie

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, the Shaman of Animation back again with some more Superhero talk. Last night, I saw Avengers Age of Ultron and needless to say, it was AWESOME!! I had to get my thoughts on the movie out. No worries people, I will keep this as spoiler free as possible.

After a mission to retrieve Loki's scepter from the first Avengers movie, Tony Stark gets a crazy idea and with the help of Bruce Banner uses the scepter in an attempt to create artificial intelligence in an attempt to have in Tony's words: "A suit of armor around the world". The end result of this experimentation is Ultron, who wants the same thing that his creator does, to help the world and keep it in peace. Except Ultron's idea of helping the world is to completely wipe out human life as we know it; and The Avengers ain't having that and now they have to stop this machine.

In the weeks building up to Age of Ultron, I definitely felt there was some pressure on Marvel to deliver. After all, the first Avengers movie is three years old and the novelty of seeing these characters come together has worn off; there needed to be something there to shake things up. Combine that with the fact that this movie introduces three new characters to the MCU (Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and The Vision) and that it also needed to be something that helped foreshadow to Marvel's Phase 3, you'll see that there was a LOT of stuff that could have gone wrong in this movie, but luckily AOU is a movie that fires on all cylinders.

A lot of the stuff that you loved from the first Avengers movie is still here in the sequel: the comedy and witty banter is there and better than ever, the visuals are still great, and the fights just make love to your eyes (Hulk vs Hulkbuster...Yes...). The movie manages to do all that and more as it dives a little deeper into who these characters are. We see more of the team's personal lives, we get to see their fears and we get to see them challenged in a way that they weren't in a way they were in the previous film. To add to this little tidbit, to everyone who thought Hawkeye was lame in the first Avengers movie, AOU does a great job of redeeming him.

The New Kids on The Block

The new heroes in the movie to join the Avengers are Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and The Vision. There was a lot of concern in regards of how Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch would be portrayed in the movie considering they are both X-Men characters...and the rights to the X-Men belong to fox, meaning that these characters histories were changed to fit in the MCU. Despite all this, these two were fun to watch on the screen. Their origins fit in perfectly with what the MCU wants to do with them. Both Scarlet Witch's and Quicksilver's powers looked great on screen and while The Vision didn't have a lot of screen time in the movie, he definitely left a great first impression. I'm very excited to see where all three of these characters go in the future.

And now let's talk about the big bad himself...

From the trailers of the movie, I had the impression that Ultron was this big bad menacing villain, and while he still was, the movie's portrayal of the character was something I wasn't actually expecting. In a lot of instances, the character feels a lot like he's an ordinary person and he believes in his mind that removing the Avengers and humanity itself is what's best for the world in order for it to move forward. In a way he's like the Kingpin from the Daredevil Netflix series, except he's nowhere near as developed as the Kingpin, but he's still one of the best villains we've seen from Marvel.

 It's been confirmed that Joss Whedon was stepping down from Marvel and The Avengers movies while the Russo brothers (The guys behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier) will take care of the two part Infinity War movies. If Age of Ultron was Whedon's final hurrah with the MCU, he definitely went out with a bang. Avengers: Age of Ultron, like the rest of the MCU, to me represents why we all love superheroes and superhero movies: you have a bunch of guys in colorful skin tight suits trying to stop an army of robots from trying to destroy the world. Does it sound silly? Yeah, but it's also a fun experience, one that screams to your inner child and action movie lover and I think the guys behind the movie understand that and they made the best movie possible that celebrates what superhero stories are at their core. It's a must see movie for everyone.

Til Next time folks, I'm The Shaman of Animation, and I'm patiently waiting for when Spider-Man shows up in the Avengers movies.
Everyone reading this get #IronSpiderSuit  Trending on Twitter. I want to see that sh*t in a movie!!

Take Care... 

Monday, April 27, 2015

WWE: Extreme Rules 2015 Review

EXTREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEME!!!!!

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, the Shaman of Animation back again with another wrestling review. Tonight we'll be diving into Extreme Rules. So without further ado, let's dive into the show:

First up, we have Dean Ambrose vs Luke Harper in a Chicago Street Fight

A Battle of the Crazies

This match has everything you'd expect in a street fight: Chairs, Kendo Sticks, and two crazy guys beating the hell out of each other with them. Although the match itself was booked very interestingly, where as half way during the match Dean and Luke took off in a car and drove away from the building only for them to come back after the third match of the show and finish with, get this, Dean Ambrose winning. You heard right folks, Dean Ambrose actually WON a PPV match (I'm shocked too). Overall, it was fun and creatively booked match.

Up next we have Sheamus vs Dolph Ziggler in...a 'Kiss Me Arse' match. 

Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler are two guys that are very capable of putting on a good match, and while the match was a little slow in the beginning, it was alright overall. Dolph presented himself well as the scrappy underdog and Sheamus did a good job as the big strong guy. My problem with this match comes from the stipulation of the match. This isn't 2000 anymore WWE, no one wants to see a match where if a guy has to kiss the winner's ass. I said it on my Twitter (which you can follow me @trentonltbrown wink wink hint hint), That's not something I'd be proud of if you asked me. These are two talented guys and having a match like this is a bit of an insult to them. Especially when the stipulation causes the match to end abruptly (in my opinion) and be dragged out. The match ends with Dolph Ziggler winning but Sheamus giving him a low blow before giving him a brogue kick and rubbing Ziggler's face on his thigh which makes me question: Why didn't they just give Sheamus the win or better yet: Why did they have this stupid stipulation?

Next: Cesaro and Tyson Kidd vs The New Day For The Tag Team Championships

Because Daniel Bryan wasn't medically cleared to compete at Extreme Rules the Tag Team Title match between Cesaro and Tyson Kidd and the New Day was taken off the Preshow and put on the actual Pay-Per-View; and to be honest, I'm glad this match was on the actual show and that these guys got to showcase their abilities on. This was easily the match of the night, both teams just gelled so well with each and there were a ton of back and forths in it. Cesaro of course got to show why he's a BEAST in the ring and the New Day have amazing chemistry with one another. The match ends with Kofi Kingston getting a roll up pin while pulling on Cesaro's Tights, causing The New Day to become tag team champions. Okay Vince, we need to talk. The New Day are the tag team champions now.This is my hope for the new day: They lose the gimmick. I know the WWE is slowly teasing a Heel turn for the new day, but when it eventually happens, they have to have a brand new gimmick; their heel persona CAN NOT be just that they're annoyingly positive like Bo Dallas. That's not just why we hate the New Day Gimmick. We hate the gimmick because it's so painfully stereotypical to have black wrestlers be these church choir boys that are clapping and preaching in these matches. I like The New Day in the ring, but I want to be able to take them seriously; and with them as the tag team champs now, I want them to build to this.

Next: John Cena vs Rusev in a Russian Chain Match for The U.S. Title...if you've seen EVERY rope/strap match the WWE has done, you've seen this match. Moving on...

Nikki Bella vs Naomi for the Divas Title

I am really glad that this match got some time, because it was a good one. I said it before and I said it again Nikki Bella continues to impress me with her in ring ability (Uggghhh it hurts to say so badly to say it) and Naomi is in all honestly the most athletic diva in the main WWE Diva roster and her arsenal shows it (such as a split leg moonsault). One of the biggest complaints I have is that I didn't know just who was a face & who was a heel. Before the match, I assumed Naomi was a tweener (more of an antihero for the non wrestling readers). But her entrance said otherwise; not to mention Nikki was treated as a face that match but then they won the match in a heelish kind of way. If I could make any suggestions, it's that the WWE could make that any clearer in the future. The match ends with Nikki Bella STILL the divas champion. Which makes me wonder where does Naomi go in the future.

Next is Roman Reigns vs The Big Show in a Last Man Standing match

It's Roman Reigns vs The Big Show: A match that's been shown SEVENTY. FRICKEN.TIMES ALREADY (That's not an exaggeration people, someone actually counted), There were some cool spots in the match (The chokeslam through two tables, the spear through the announce table), but the match has been seen already and the result is exactly what you think it was. Word of advice WWE: If you want Roman Reigns to get over with the crowd, how about you have him face people he hasn't already beaten a million times...

The Main Event: Randy Orton vs Seth Rollins for the WWE Title in a Steel Cage

There was a particular rule in this match that Randy's RKO was banned. The match overall was alright, nothing really special. Although I do have a beef with the WWE in this match. So, this match was built around that none of the Authority could interfere in the match since there was a steel cage surrounding the two, but guess what happened? The Authority interfered. First with J&J security and then later with Kane (Who was assigned as the Gatekeeper). But yeah, the concept of the Steel Cage in the WWE is pretty much dead. The match ends with Rollins hitting an RKO (Outta Nowhere) on Orton and walking out of the cage still the champ.

Extreme Rules was...an okay show. Not Great by any stretch but there were some pretty good matches on there, so I'd say it's worth one watch. Til next time folks, I'm The Shaman of Animation signing off: 

Take Care...

  




Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Blast From the Past: Jackie Chan Adventures Episode 1

A guy on the internet talking about old cartoons, a novel concept, I know.

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back once again! Peeps, I recently took a look at my blog and it reminded me of something I realized back a couple of months ago: My blog's lacking in animation talk. Seriously, only like HALF of the stuff on this blog's about animation.

And because this is a blog mainly about animation, I decided to start a little thing I like to call: Blast from the Past, where I take an episode (usually the first episode) from animated series that were coming out when I was growing up, and give them a review; and the lucky show I'm reviewing for this first installment is none other than Jackie Chan Adventures.

Jackie Chan Adventures...boy was it SO much better than it had any right to be. To those unaware, cartoons starring popular celebrities is a practice that dates back even to the 1960s. Tons of celebrities have been given their own animated series: The Beatles, Andre 3000, The Harlem Globetrotters. Hell, Chuck Norris was given two: Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos and...

That show was a cartoon in itself...and that's why it was amazing.

The point to this is that the majority of these celebrity starred cartoons are nothing more than just cheap cash-ins of a celebrity's popularity. But that' when Jackie Chan Adventures came in and broke the mold. The show aired in 2000, back when Jackie Chan was at the Height of his popularity. Jet Li wasn't as big as he was in the West yet, and Chan was still riding off the waves of Rush Hour's success, not to mention Rush Hour 2 was on the way. So it made sense to capitalize on that success. Let's not waste any more time and dive into the first episode.

Jackie Chan Adventures Episode 1 is titled: "The Dark Hand" and it starts off with archaeologist Jackie Chan (yes he's an archaeologist in this series), his archaeologist colleagues, and tourists inspecting a castle in search of artifacts. When they reach their designated area, one of the tourists sets off booby traps. In this scene we get a brief but very well animated scene of Jackie escaping the castle which involves him picking up a shield and blocking arrows and using said shield to escape the castle. After escaping, we're treated to two different groups watching Jackie from afar.

You could probably make a meme with this picture, someone get on that!

The next scene picks up with Jackie in his home/his uncle's shop training. Here we're introduced to two mainstay characters of the series: Jackie's Uncle...Uncle (They just call him that throughout the series), a crotchety yet wise old man who's easily the funniest character in the episode (and throughout the rest of the series) and Jade, Jackie's niece who moves in with him because she was struggling at her old school. 

Because he has no experience with kids, Jackie and Jade's first meeting doesn't go well. But they aren't given much time to bond when three strangers come in the shop in search of the shield Jackie acquired at the castle. Not liking the vibes these three were giving him Jackie lies about the shield and he receives a threat from this mysterious trio.

Get used to these faces people

Suspicious of these tree men, Jackie leaves Jade in the care of Uncle and secretly tails the car they're driving in the only way Jackie Chan can: By running across rooftops. Unfortunately, our hero slips up and lands right on top of the car he was following. This leads into a fast paced fight scene between Jackie and the thugs on the playground. The fight is again animated great and it's very creative, as Jackie is using every bit of the environment around him to fight these guys. After laying the smackdown the thugs leave and Jackie is knocked out by a mysterious person. This person turns out to be...

NICK FURY...

...Okay not really.The man above is Augustus Black (voiced by the great Clancy Brown), an old friend of Jackie's and the Captain of a secret spy organization called Section 13, who were following Jackie in search of the shield so the can keep it away from The Dark Hand, an organization who have had a hand in every crime in existence. Yes. Every crime.

The Dark hand, led by Valmont, are in pursuit of ancient artifacts and the shield is on their list. In the scene where we first meet Valmont, we also get a first look at Shendu, a talking dragon statue with magical abilities. with these said abilities, Shendu summons these ninja spirits known as the Shadow...
Sorry...I had to do it...

The Shadowkhan, along with Valmont's heavy hitter Tohru, work to get the shield, Tohru manages to kidnap Uncle and gives Jackie the ultimatum of giving him the shield for his (Jackie's) Uncle. 

The climax of the episode takes place on a rooftop, Jackie and Tohru are standing off demanding the shield for Jackie's Uncle. Jackie refuses the offer by throwing the shield back at himself. This small distraction allows for Jade (Who had followed Jackie to the location of the meeting) to sneak Uncle away from Tohru's grasp. Knowing the two had gotten to safety, Jackie makes a run for it, but is cut off by the Shadowkhan. 

This leads to the highlight of the episode: Jackie is fighting off all of the ShadowKhan using the shield. The animation for this fight is so fast paced and fluid (To my surprise, it still holds up after nearly fifteen years). As the fight's going on, Jade and Uncle are running downstairs trying to get out of the building while Tohru is following them via elevator. Jackie is soon surrounded by the Shadowkhan but Jade yells at him to throw her the shield. Jackie does this and Jade catches but she's unfortunately caught by Tohru who makes off with the shield, in return, causing the Shadowkhan to disappear.

BUT! There is a twist!

Shortly after Tohru and the Shadowkhan leave, Uncle reveals that it wasn't the shield The Dark Hand was after, but the talisman that was in the center of the shield; and as luck would have it, Jade had sneakingly removed the talisman from the shield, outsmarting Tohru. Now the chase is on, Jackie, Uncle, and Jade aid Section 13 as they hunt for the eleven other talismans before the Dark Hand can get to them.

Jackie Chan Adventures does what every good first episode of a series should: it introduces us to our heroes, our villains, and sets up the plot for the series (Or at least, the first season). The thing that separated this series from a lot of Celebrity cartoons and probably the reason it lasted for five seasons is that, it feels very much like something you would see from a Jackie Chan movie and it captures the "essence" of Jackie Chan so to speak: Crazy stunts, silly comedic moments, great to watch martial arts fights. Combine that with the three main characters (Jackie, Jade, and Uncle) who all have great personalities that play off each other so well, you have a recipe for success. If you haven't seen Jackie Chan Adventures, give the first episode a try, you might like it.

Til next time folks, I'm the Shaman of Animation. Take Care...