REVIEW: New Frontier

I must confess I've not seen any of the DC Animated Universe since the demise of Justice League: Unlimited, and I'm glad that New Frontier was my first.

A 75 minute DVD adaptation of Dawyn Cooke's epic graphic novel retelling of DC Comic's Golden Age of Superheroes, New Frontier is an interesting retrospective into that said golden age, and the New Frontier story itself.

To fit into 75 minutes, the original narrative driven tale has had to be resized to fit an animated format. One of the pleasures of watching this film for any comic or film enthusiast is indulging in comparisons; just how the film structures its tale compared to the original comic book - what has been sacrificed and why? For many, it is easy to feel disgruntled by the loss of their favourite original material, but that frustration can be reborn into analysis - why was the opening adventure on reptile island removed from the story? What was the motivation of these professional writers and storymakers. Get a few fellow geeks in a room and an evening can be enjoyed sipping root beer and discussing the merits of these cinematic choices.

And of course, if you can't find the answers you require, there are two commentaries on the single disk edition to help you on your quest.

Of course the problem for New Frontier, is that one audience - the aforementioned one - knows too much, and the other - those unconverted by the graphic novel - are struggling to put names to faces as well as follow the plotting of events. And in 75 minutes there is a lot of condensing.

But it's good stuff. The voice artists are great (about time Lucy Lawless got a chance at Wonder Woman) and the fusion of producer Bruce Timm's animated DC style and Cooke's designs blend flawlessly. The story can sometimes be a little sickly in the patriotic department, so international comic and cartoon buffs beware, but then if you've read New Frontier, you are probably already clued into the themes of internal and external threats to America that surface throughout.

The animation itself isn't anything to write home about, but rest assured I'm sure your mama would love a letter about the flamboyant and exciting opening sequence - maybe even a small postcard about the wonderful outro at the end.

A must for DC fans, a bigger must for New Frontier fans, and a bit of fun for everyone else - but New Frontier fans be warned: go in with REALISTIC expectations, otherwise you might find yourself soaking the pages of your New Frontier graphic novel at the loss of so much material to make that tight budgetary necessity of a 75 minute quota.

Life sucks, but a New Frontier is better than No Frontier, surely?

INTERVIEW: Storyboard Artist Jason Hanks

[Article Originally written for Cartoons Dammit - Feb 08]

Jason Hanks is an animation storyboard artist who has a prolific career working within the art department on such shows as Dr Strange, The Invincible Iron Man and Ultimate Avengers.

JAMES MCLEAN: First of all, for the benefit of the uninitiated, could you explain the roles of a storyboard artist?

JASON HANKS: The main role of the storyboard artist is to effectively convey a script into pictures to tell the story!

Could you tell us a little about your artistic background and by what route you fell into working as a storyboard artist?

I have been drawing since I could hold a pencil! I started to seriously study art at the age of 12 and fell in love with comics.

At the of age 17, my middle school teacher (whom I still keep in touch with) had me meet a friend of hers who loved my portfolio and got me my first job!

I stepped out of the art scene from ages 19 to 22 for one reason or another - but then I met up with my teacher's said friend again and he put me to work on a show called Roswell: Conspiracies for BKN! The rest is - as we say - history! I am very lucky with the work I have had in such a short amount of time. I am very grateful for all of the wonderful people I have met and worked with.

So the motto is to make sure you network as much as you can, right?

Absolutely! Networking is the key in this business! You can be the next Michaelangelo and all but if you don't get your stuff out there for everyone to see and make acquaintances... it just won't go anywhere.

What equipment to you use for storyboarding? Do you always use the same approach?

As far as equipment it's pretty usual stuff. The company gives me the paper, I use a 0.5 Pentel red-lead followed by 0.5 regular lead for the clean-up. Sometimes I will use a thicker lead for close ups (for instance, face-shots) and FG [foreground] elements. I use Prismacolor markers and AD markers for colors and effects. If requested, I'll occasionally use pen and ink. All of this stuff can be found at art supply stores. Oh, and I also use circle and oval ellipses and templates.

You've worked on several animation shows doing storyboard work - how has the work differed between shows, and how does discipline vary from studio to studio?

Every studio has a difference of opinion on how [story]boards need to be done and they most certainly have differences on how tight or loose they want those boards finished! Not to mention how "on model" things need to be. The most recent example of studio differences I have experienced is just how the sheer number of board pages can drastically change your life! Prepare yourself up for a lot of sleepless nights and almost alienating you family [laughs].

Sounds like it can be a little stressful! Could you take us through the process of one of your storyboards assignments?

There was this one time I was working on a show for about 15 episodes and things were working out great, but it was hard work. I was just finishing one storyboard when it hit me - I had just drawn 350 pages in less than a week!! A storyboard artist should understand that a story act of any show will be around 150-200 storyboards.. I wasn't expecting it to be 350 storyboards!

The problem was that if I took any stuff out of the script to cut down the amount of storyboards required I would have been probably booted from the show, so I just sent this monster workload after cleaning up the images the following week. They liked it so much that was I basically told to keep doing large page counts! In short, I had about 10 episodes to go with anywhere from 250 to 400 pages every 2 weeks! Needless to say that drawing was definitely my LIFE on that show! [laughs]

Was your work for the studios more often a lonely experience or a group one?

Oh definitely a group ordeal! We are all in the project together and if one guy slacks the rest of the group feels it! With deadlines to meet, if someone doesn't pull their weight it shows! If quality dips it also puts a lot of strain on the relationship with upper management and then the next thing you know, you don't have a job next season! It can be really scary like that!

Could you give us a quick run down on a day working as a storyboard artist?

First we get the scripts in, then we have a meeting, say, around 10 am to discuss the scripts. Soon it's lunch! After lunch, we finish the meeting on the script. Then we start working on the storyboards. We are pretty much left alone to work after the meeting and the assignments are given out. However that's just the process at the places I have worked. I know other studios can be different.

How do you find work as an animation storyboard artist

Well I work for TAG [The Animation Guild] now which helps me find any work I need, but in the beginning it was WHO I knew that helped me find the jobs. However being lucky with useful contacts can take you only so far because those people won't always be around. The best way is to call around the studio job hotlines and submitting a portfolio. It is a tough job to get into, I won't fool you on that, but if you're good, and you're determined, nothing can stop you doing becoming a storyboard artist!

Does being a storyboard artist mean you have to live near studios?

Well, I am always reminded by one person or another that I should move out to where the work is! A lot of the guys I know have apartments in Los Angeles and fly home on the weekends to be with their families. I did it for a while when I worked for the WB - very grueling at first but, you get use to it. I have been working at home for most of my career and love it. Sure, I would probably get more work If I were closer to the action but I have too much as it is and I am not complaining! Like I said, I am very lucky!

Is it worth it becoming a storyboard artist? Are the hours, graft and stress worth it at the end of the day?

It is!!! I can't think of anything better than telling stories with pencil drawings!

What advice would you give someone interested in storyboarding?

Advice? Hmmmmmm.

• Carry a sketch book - draw everything you see.

• Study your butt off with anatomy and fluidity of movement

• Don't care what others say or think about your work (unless it's your boss!)

• Take the critiques (good AND bad) well. Learn from them. Don't take feedback personally!

Do you need a natural ability to draw fast and accurately or do you think it can be learned?

Drawing fast is only part of it! Making things look like they have form is the important part. I was very slow when I started in storyboard clean-up - 2 pages an hour! [laughs] Now I am up to about 10 pages on average, but I can often draw 12 pages an hour! I'm not bragging, I am just demonstrating that with work, you will improve. It just takes time.

I think anyone can learn to draw. I haven't always shared this opinion, but as I see it now anybody can but it takes certain individuals to LOVE the work and dedicate themselves. Not everyone has that.

I would just like to add that you can do really want to become a storyboard artist - if it is really what you want to do, please, please, PLEASE don't cater to the style of the week disease we see so often in comics and art in general! Please, be yourself! That's not to say you shouldn't learn to adapt elements of what you like about another artist's work. There is a difference between copying and learning. Don't be afraid to try new things and always keep a positive attitude!

If you love to draw - nobody will be able to stop you, no matter what!

James would like to thank Jason for his time.

REVIEW: One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates

[Article for Toon Zone News - 12.02.08]

It has been said there is nothing more fashionable than being late for a party.

But how late is "late"? Fifteen minutes? An hour? Okay, how about 183 hours? Or, to cast the same number in TV/cinematic terms, how about 343 episodes and 7 movies late?

One Piece, the acclaimed Japanese manga series by Eiichiro Oda, has spawned an anime TV series and more than half a dozen stand-alone movies. Like those earlier stories, The Desert Princess and the Pirates follows the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates, led by Monkey D. Luffy whose calling is to become the Pirate King as soon as he finds the fabled One Piece. This movie is a retelling of one of the TV series' earlier story arcs, edited down to ninety minutes.

It is also the first piece of One Piece animation I've ever seen.

Yes, I'm that late. So just how fashionable am I?

Fans of the series won't be swayed much but what I've got to say. But a wider audience might glean something useful from the perceptions of this outsider.

This film's plot concentrates on the Straw Hat Pirate crew's involvement in the Alabasta civil war. Cutting multiple episodes down to an hour and a half has required the amputation of several of the Alabasta arc's sub-plots and the sewing together of the more relevant parts into a seamless tale. In other words, this isn't just a lazy cut and splice of storylines. There are additional alterations to some of the original scenes to benefit story consistency. On top of this, I understand that some of the wide CG panoramics were done specially for this film presentation and so were not present in the original episode run. One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates is a film unto its own, and not just a slap and tickle job from a two-bit editing suite.

How does it fare as a stand-alone film? Despite being created to work on its own merits, if you aren't familiar with One Piece it will prove a bit of a struggle to slip into its world. The film offers no information beyond what is necessary to the storyline itself. However, if you just accept the characters as they appear, you won't get any headaches. For the most part, it's a lot of combat or action situations that aren't hard to follow. The lead archetypes should be familiar to even the most casual filmgoer: you'll find your usual spread of protagonists, comic relief, cool anti-heroes, and sweet heroines.

That said, though neither the story nor character types break any new ground, the film's light, airy ambiance, coupled with its odd mix of visual humor and extreme violence, does offer a unique experience. One Piece seems to work best through its quirky but relatable characters and bullet-paced humor. By diluting the violence found in the gratuitous close combat through the saturated use of silly moves and ridiculous physics, the show keeps the action in line with the series' overall tone. It is very much an odd pastiche of comedy, action and drama, carried along by some rather bizarre designs and creative nuances.

The story moves at a brisk pace and avoids getting trapped in too much clunky dialogue (though Luffy's awkward commentary on friendship and death won a wince from this reviewer). Humor is laid on thick and realism kept firmly in the closet. Watch out for the anime favorite: impossible group hurling a singular character up in the air while "in flight." A similar technique was adopted in Final Fantasy: Advent Children.

The traditional 2D visuals are clean and the CG elements are integrated with a fair degree of fluidity. The three dimensional renders of Alabasta do help visualize the complex city and thereby the narrative drive of the story.

Unsurprisingly, there is a choice of English dub or original Japanese, which left me torn. Personally I found that Crocodile's Japanese VA was far more engaging than the English dub, but that Princess Vivi's English dub was far less abrasive than the Japanese. Both tracks carry their own failures and successes. I actually enjoyed flicking between the two, thereby enjoying the benefits of both!

One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates will disappoint both fans and casual viewers in the DVD treatment, however. It's rare for any reinvention to be given such careful treatment and then slapped onto a DVD with no salute for those who put it together. Fans of the show and curious first timers like myself both really deserve at least a feature explaining the history of this release. Personally I'd have liked to have get a commentary instead of a very lazy pack of trailers.

Overall, this One Piece neophyte found the DVD initially a little bewildering but ultimately an enjoyable action affair. It doesn't feel quite as complete a tale as could be hoped for, but given the complex nature of condensing a whole episodic arc into a coherent story with a beginning, middle and end, the result is entertaining, violent and largely satisfying. For fans it should be an interesting re-visit of past adventures with a few changes, extended measures of violence, and CG additions to make it worthwhile.

REVIEW: Torchwood Season 2: Episode One: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunite to fight a rogue Time Agent. The mysterious Captain John Hart is determined to wreak havoc, and needs to find something hidden on Earth. But with Gwen's life in danger, and cluster bombs scattered across the city, whose side is Jack on?
I can't say I was impressed, nor can I say the premiere was better than any of last year's season.

While James Masters was fun as Captain John and hero Jack Harkness was his enjoyable self, the rest of the characters fell pretty flat. Torchwood's biggest problem is that the main cast suffers from being particularly lacking in charisma levels and terribly unbelievable for any form of serious agency. Especially Gwen, who dripped her way across the screen throughout the episode, now even more indulgent, self centered and as irritating that ever before.

Certainly the episode had a few good gags (Captain John getting randy over a poodle was a fun insert) but the story structure was an absolute mess. It started on an action packed opening that felt more like a terribly poor action packed opening pastiche, and ended on a high speed race against time that failed to convince me that the allotted events occurred in the small time frame. The team had ten minutes before destruction, and in that time they needed to assess the situation, fight over it, be held at gun point, split into two parties; one that races across town to a specific point while the other rushes through a chemistry sequence to create the plot antidote and follow the first party arriving only moments after the first. It felt like the sort of gag you'd see on Family Guy, with this antidote making insert thrust into the middle of this ten minute countdown.

This lack of time structure was particularly awkward and not only present in the final act. The main thrust of the story has Torchwood and Captain John separate out into three teams to find three objects. The outcome of these three teams is shown consecutively in dramatic sequence, yet John manages to pop up at the end of the three scenes, despite being part of team one, with no explanation how he manages such a fast dash around. Just because the drama moves from scene to scene shouldn't mean the characters should. Co-current events should be played as thus, and any ability to appear in all three scenes should rationalised to the viewer, which - as you may have guessed - wasn't in this story.

The shows inability to build coherent drama makes it far more childish than it's older brother, Doctor Who. It's not any personal dislike of the sex or naughty gags that punctuate the programme that makes it seem so babyish, it's the poor story structure and lack of credibility in the show's personality that weakens it. Gwen is a big problem, being both unlikeable and pretty unbelievable. They need to get rid of the Hub as well. It looks like a playset for god's sake, not a base for a government agency in an adult drama.

The old journalistic adage of leaving one's brain behind before engaging in Torchwood is apt. Yes, its fun, yes, it's escapism, but ultimately, it's far less than it should be, and that's the disappointment. It has the potential in terms of ideas, but fails in execution. Until they swap their main character set, I can't see the writing having that much success in creating good drama. If the main characters are unlikable, your changes of engaging the viewer are somewhat less. Bring back Captain John, keep Captain Jack, but the rest of the team, they aren't likable or credible, which when mixed with inconsistent story lines and some silly set pieces, leaves a show which is watchable, but falling far below what it could be.

REVIEW: Mad For "Mushi-Shi

[Article written for Toon Zone News 1.15.08]

It sometimes seems that Japanese animation ranges over a smaller field than you might hope. Fighting. Big breasts. Confused young protagonists. Big breasts. Naive females with big breasts. More fighting. Comical sweat drops, big breasts and some more fighting for the sake of naive women with big breasts.

So if you've had enough of the ka-hooie ka-zookas that litter manga cartoons, come take a gander at FUNimation's Mushi-Shi (or in English, Mushi-Master). I spent the first chapter waiting for the young male protagonist, the silly battles, and the overlarge body bopples to appear. By and large, they didn't, which was a refreshing surprise.

So if it's not about the usual stuff, what is it about? That, it proves, is one of the beauties of Mushi-Shi—you really don't know what you're in for. Even after it starts, the show's enigmatic tone will keep you puzzled but expectant.

Basically, Mushi-Shi is a collection of individual tales centering on the mysterious Mushi-Master, Ginko. The Mushi themselves are a fairly vague entity, but they are, at their simplest, the closest thing there is to life in its purist form: a level of existence that transcends the mortal world and lives somewhere figuratively deep beneath it. Sometimes they are visible, sometimes they are not. How they affect the inhabitants of our world differs from story to story, as they are not one simple strain of life, but a pure form of life that has many facets and faces. They are neither good nor evil, but their existence can be a curse or blessing to those they infect or co-exist with. As a result, each tale in this collection centers on a different dilemma presented by the fusion of man and Mushi, one that often requires the Mushi-Master's intervention to strike a balance between the two. The result is something like a fairy tale, though without the vile enemies or earnest heroes.

Each story has its own special charm. "The Green Seat" (the opening story on volume 1) is a simple yet beautiful tale about a grandmother and grandson. "The Pillow Pathway" is a dark fairy tale with an Aesopian tone. "Tender Horns" and "The Light of the Eyelid" both feature children afflicted by Mushi with sensory damage, but the relationships within the two tales are very different. "The Traveling Swamp," though also the most Ginko-orientated fantasy on the first disc, is about a fantastical lady trapped in the moving Mushi-Swamp.

The third volume is just as consistent as the first at fusing fairy tale, tragedy and beauty in a unique and magical way, with "Inside the Cage," a beautiful yet bizarre tale that binds man, woman, and bamboo into one close knit mystery, possibly being my favourite episode on the two discs. The stories on volume three, meanwhile, begin to unravel some of the mysteries about Ginko, with "One Eyed Fish" pretty much laying bare the foundations of his character. If in retrospect it becomes less enchanting (you'd be Mushi in the head if you can't work out where it is going within the first ten minutes), it remains a poignant drama, and its substitution of tragedy for enigma in Ginko's character is a worthwhile exchange.

The stories don't come with much exposition. I find that adds to the show's magic, but others might be frustrated. Sometimes you just can't keep up: I defy anyone to watch "The Sleeping Mountain" and guess where it is going. And sometimes the questions remain even when the story is over; not everything will be clear the first time round.

The animation is magnificent throughout, with the direction and pace retaining a maturity that is rare in commercial animation. While the art and design is beautiful, you never feel it trying to overshadow the story. Only in "The Light of the Eyelid," when the animation, though still hand-drawn, begins to resemble computer imaging, do the visuals fall out of equilibrium. The music retains a dramatic subtlety, except for the Mushi-shi theme track which, while fairly gentle, lacks the subtlety found in the rest of the show. The Western vocal tracks are also good, with Ginko's VA in particular associating believably with the Japanese character.

Mushi-Shi Volume 1 comes lavishly packaged in a delightfully designed box that can hold the entire season; included also is a postcard and a wonderful booklet that explains in depth some the background and design in the show. Further volumes contain a free postcard and inlay booklet of the same style. The packaging retains the quality of initial starter pack. The interactive DVD mechanics are simple yet effective (as I like it), with two casual interviews (one with the voice actor for Ginko and one with the director), a peek around the production offices, the chance to listen to the opening and closing theme songs without text, and the obligatory trailers. In fact, the only liability is the mandatory single trailer at the beginning of each disk—you'll find no way to circumnavigate it.

I wish I knew more about Yuki Urushibara’s original. Quite how accurate this adaptation is, I don't know. But if the manga have anything near the series' quality (and being the original medium, I'm sure they do), they'd be well worth purchasing.

If you are looking for a gentle exploration of Japanese fantasy, Mushi-Shi is for you: mature in its storytelling yet with a childlike innocence to its content. With a consistent, earthy vision, Mushi-Shi is one of the more unique and enchanting animated series I've seen come out of Japan in a long time.