MOVIES – Four Reasons to Watch Giant Robo

I’ve been talking a lot about a lot of different animated cartoons. And one of the ones that I haven’t been able to, because it kind of doesn’t fit in the TV show genre or the OVA, I don’t know what to categorize it.

It’s a series called Giant Robo, and today I’m going to give you the four reasons why you ought to watch this show.

You can either watch the video below or read the transcription that follows it:

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Giant Robo is a series but it’s not a television show.

It’s just a series of mini movies, I suppose is the best way to—it’s a serialized show, but it’s not a TV show. So, why  am I recommending this? Let’s begin.

1. The character designs.

Now, the character designs are very, very old school. You can tell that they’re the little barrel chested kid, and these are very classic anime style characters, one step up from the Astro Boy style.

The designs are incredible. I love the simplicity and I love that style.

They use the aesthetics of modern Japanese cartoons, the way they have them now, but they play up the old styles of designs from back in the sixties. It’s incredible the way the characters look. I love the designs.

It’s eye candy, when it comes to what the characters look like, and the show and the feel, itself, of the show.

2. The Story

The second reason you should watch this show is because it’s actually a really, really fun story.

It’s generally about a world where the energy crisis has been fixed and this thing called the Shizuma Drive is now energizing everything. And what happens when an evil organization called Big Fire— it’s over the top, it’s really dramatic.

It’s told in an over the top, dramatic, super melodramatic style, but it’s operatic to the point where even the music is opera. And this organization called Big Fire, full of super powered beings, and I’ll get to that in a moment, basically wipe out the energy source because there’s a fatal flaw in the designs.

It’s all about that fatal flaw in the creator, Shizuma, and what he did that created the fatal flaw. And it’s all about this melodrama that happens around the design of this super energy and how the good guys, the Experts of Justice, that’s what they’re called, they’re trying to find a way to stop this chaos from destroying the earth.

So I mean, it’s over the top. It’s just great, right?

3. The Over the Top Superpowers

Big Fire, the bad guys, and the Experts of Justice, the good guys, they’ve got these ridiculous, over the top powers. Every single one is specialized in some kind of super power. They’re not dressed like super heroes, but they’re practically super hero team against evil super hero team.

Each one, you don’t know what their power is until they finally reveal it in the most dramatic way possible and it’s cool. It’s so cool.

It’s really imaginative use of characters with powers and they’re fighting and you know, you’ve got this little boy here and he’s got Giant Robo. He controls this gigantic, gigantic robot who fights giant other robots.

His name is Daisaku, the little boy’s name, and he basically orders this giant robot around. And there is some kind of sapiens element to the robot so that he actually thinks,  it’s fascinating.

Of course, the boy inherited the robot from his father- all of that genre trope, the giant robot genre. But, he’s surrounded by this Experts of Justice who’ve got all kinds of super powers. It’s so cool.

You got to see it, you got to see it, okay?

4. The Exciting Action

And that gets me to the fourth reason why you should watch this show, and that is the way that the powers and the action is portrayed is so exciting.

It starts off like- oh, okay that’s cool, and eventually as the series moves and you get to see the story evolves, and all the drama starts playing out.

The stakes get higher and then the over the top action just builds and builds, and next thing you know, you’ve got armies of these super beings fighting other armies of super beings and it’s just crazy.

It’s so fun. If you like action adventure, over the top, exciting super powered characters and a giant robot fighting other giant robots, you’ve got to watch it.

Giant Robo is so much fun. I cannot emphasize how much fun this show is.

In Conclusion

It took forever for this show to come out because the father of the director-writer passed away, like, half way through the making of the show. So there was a huge hiatus in between episodes.

But, the quality is incredible. It’s just done so well. If you can find it and get it, watch Giant Robo. You won’t be disappointed. It’s worth your time.

All right, so if you’ve seen it, let me know. If you’re interested in seeing it, let me know.

What do you think of the show? Leave your comment below.

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MOVIES – Why You’re Missing out if You Haven’t Watched Coraline.

My all time favorite of the current batch of feature animated stop-motion movies is Coraline. And today, I’m going to be talking about it.

You can either watch the video below or read the transcription:

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Current Stop Motion movies

Studios have really stepped up and made stop-motion incredible. The last movie that came out – which was ParaNorman– I really, really enjoyed.

I thought it worked really well. The animation was incredible. The designs were fantastic. But, I still don’t think it was as good as Coraline.

It Was a Neil Gaiman Story

One of the reasons was, of course, it’s an adapted version of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline short story. I think he wrote it for his daughter.

The 3D Worked

I actually went to the theaters and I watched it in 3D. It was one of the few movies that I’ve actually gone to the movie theater to watch in 3D that I thought was appropriate to be watched in 3D.

I thought it really worked.

The stop-motion here is, of course, quality stop-motion. The designs of the characters are really quirky and very, very cool.

How It’s Like Miyazaki’s Spirited Away

In a lot of ways, this kind of reminds me of Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.

It’s the same kind of genre where you’ve got a little girl with parent issues, and somehow she and them end up being thrust into this fairyland- this fairy world, this kind of magical world- where the little girl ends up having to step up and take charge, and become something other than what she is in order to triumph over the situation.

This is very similar to that.

This is a little girl who has, again, parental issues. They’re not paying attention to her. And then, she has to move to a new house where there’s this little secret door.

And that door leads to a parallel universe where it’s like the ideal situation, the ideal parents, everything that she ever wanted.

But there’s a catch.

It’s a Dark Fairytale

So, it’s kind of creepy.

It’s one of the things that I liked about it. It doesn’t follow the generic rules of American animation. And I’m very critical about American animation when it comes to this sort of thing.

I’d like the genre in America to expand. This is a really good example of where it can go.

It’s still a family movie, but it kind of pushes the boundaries so that it’s a little bit more of an acquired taste because it has very disturbing horror elements to it, in the exact same way that a movie like Pinocchio had the same kind of horror elements in it, where it’s kind of disturbing.

I think Dumbo may have had similar things like that too.

If you’ve watched The Nightmare Before Christmas , it’s kind of like that, because it’s the same director. And no, Tim Burton did not direct Nightmare Before Christmas. It was Henry Selick.

Henry Selick directed that movie. He directed James and the Giant Peach. He also directed Coraline, and he directed Paranorman.

Henry Selick is actually doing some really fantastic work. I highly recommend, if you have not seen Coraline, you should definitely it.

Whether or not this is good for your kids to watch, that’s a different thing.

See, that’s why I like the movie. It’s not necessarily for everyone. It’s not sugar-coated. It pushes the boundaries a little bit, so that it’s a little creepy, but the story works so well.

I don’t know what it is about this movie, but it’s just great. I like everything about it. I watched it so many times.

Paranorman is on Netflix streaming. Coraline is not. And it so should be.

It should be viewed by more people. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

Coraline, adapted from a story from Neil Gaiman, directed by Henry Selick. Great, great movie.

What Do You think?

If you’ve seen this movie, let me know. What do you think?

If you haven’t seen this movie, why haven’t you? Did it not grab you? Did it not make you want to see it? I’d like to hear your opinion.

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I’ll see you next time. Bye.