Top 5 Weirdest Beach Boys Compilations

The world of compilations is a weird one. With some bands, it's controlled. In the case of The Beatles, EMI was in charge of compilations. With the break-up occurring in 1970, the label sat on their inventory until an illegitimate mail-order quadruple (!) album set called Alpha Omega made the waves, prompting EMI/Apple to not …

Retrospective: ‘Spyro the Dragon’, Part 1

Released in the autumn of 1998 for the PlayStation, Insomniac Games' Spyro the Dragon was one of many games that was a staple of my young'un years. Like any good game from any era, it is one that has held up over the years, and one that I continue to enjoy to this very day. …

LP Look #2: ’20/20′ and ‘Rarities’

Two Beach Boys LPs this time, one a studio album that quite frankly is kind of a compilation, and the other an actual compilation album... Now funny enough, my previous (and first ever) LP LOOK post featured the Beach Boys studio album that preceded the one that's being focused on here. Friends, released in the …

Writing, ‘Arting’, Burn Outs, Re-awakenings

Buckle up, good folks... This will get personal... The other day, I attended TerrifiCon. This annual event occurs at the Mohegan Sun Casino, a small but ultimately flavorful convention that often gets big names. This year, Kevin Smith himself showed up, alongside a host of other faces. I actually get to meet a few of …

2016’s Animated Oscars… Hard to Predict?

The Oscars... The Best Animated Feature category... Who is in the running? I think this year, we don't have too many definite answers. This is a bit premature, because four more major animated features are left, one of which comes from the on-a-roll Walt Disney Animation Studios. The features are Warner Animation Group's high-flying comedy …

Why I’m Looking Forward To ‘Cars 3’, More So Than ‘Toy Story 4’…

Update: In late October, Pixar played musical chairs with Toy Story 4 and The Incredibles 2. Toy Story 4 is now slated to come out in summer 2019, with The Incredibles 2 opening in summer 2018... Pixar's future slate, a line-up peppered with sequels, is a complicated discussion. Another story for another day, but so …

The Animation Box Office Crown

This summer's Finding Dory, interestingly enough, broke the record for highest grossing animated film in the domestic market. For 12 years, the crown was held by DreamWorks' Shrek 2, which was actually one of those rare sequels that outgrossed its predecessor by a wide margin. Finding Dory of course got to that point due to …

Breaking Down Disney’s “Dark Age”: Aftermath and Conclusion

  In the previous part, I looked at The Black Cauldron, the film that is seemingly the poster child of everything wrong with the company before the esteemed Renaissance. It's also often looked at as a low point for theatrical animation, but was it really, truly that bad? In my review I gave the verdict, …

Cake Icing: Custom Logos

Logos... Custom variants of well-known logos... The Walt Disney studio has a long history of doing this. Disney had signed with RKO Radio Pictures in 1937, who would distribute all of their features and shorts for roughly fifteen years. Before each film (with the exception of the first, Snow White), the RKO logo would precede …

‘Suicide Squad’, Criticism, and Optimism

Suicide Squad is the third entry in the budding DC Extended Universe. The DC Extended Universe isn't exactly in good critical standing. Its first entry, the divisive Man of Steel, had its ardent admirers and its very vocal, steaming non-fans. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a rushed attempt to address the criticism leveled …