More Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mech figure is here! Michelangelo joins his brother Leo as a 9″ tall Gundam-like TMNT robot.
I was wondering how they’d handle Mikey’s limited weapons. Instead of several variations of nunchucks, Mikey comes with some Heavy Arms-inspired weaponry. If you were a fan of Gundam Wing, this green and orange bot is a must-have.
The party-loving Turtle comes with loads of missiles, arm-mounted twin Gatling guns, and even more missiles! Of course, I’d expect lots of accessories considering Mikey will cost you $179.99 via the Big Bad Toy Store.
Michelangelo also comes with a mini Mikey figure and parts for the series’s ‘Build the Party Wagon’ gimmick. The mech stands 9″ tall and is made out of plastic and diecast parts.
Months ago, we talked about Heat Boys’ Leonardo mech. That figure has recently hit the market, and people are liking it from the reviews we’ve seen. Check out JobbytheHong’s review of it here.
First run pre-order bonus: Transparent green Driver and turtle car
Expect this Mecha-Turtle to show up around the third quarter of this year.
What do you think of Heat Boys’ reimagining of TMNT? Do you think there should be a hentai-inspired Kraang figure to go along with it? Let us know your thoughts below.
I remember the day I got a SEGA Dreamcast. So many memories. Driving 30 miles to the only store, Sears, that had them in stock. Spending my entire Walden Books paycheck on every launch game. Getting home, plugging it in, and thinking there’s no way gaming could ever get better than the experience Sonic Adventure brought us.
OK. I was way wrong. The Dreamcast faltered, and gaming has made giant leaps (and several stumbles) since 1999. However, Sonic is still chugging along, for better or for worse. While his games may be meh, the Sonic the Hedgehog collectibles are still tits!
As is expected, every time we cover First4Figures collectibles, there’s more than one version of the statue to choose from. With Sonic, surprisingly, the company is only producing two:
The Collector’s version comes with a light-up base, while the Definitive Edition features an additional LED-powered piece. It comes in the form of a blue ring. Odd F4F didn’t opt for a glowing gold ring.
Although the difference between the two isn’t huge, it is enough to warrant vastly different price tags. The Collector’s Edition of Sonic is $119.99, while the Definitive blue hedgehog is $279.99.
A classic arcade series that everyone fondly remembers is Bubble Bobble. The combination of cute characters and lighthearted visuals with challenging gameplay has appealed to many for years. But every now and then a long-running series needs to mix things up and try something new to offer a fresh experience. This is what Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! tries to do with its focus on quick puzzles and a silly story. Anyone with a taste for easy to jump into games will have fun with it, but others might find it a bit too repetitive.
The plot in Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! is simple and cutesy. The Miniroons on Rainbow Island overflow the area with bubbles and cause many problems for everyone who lives there. In order to set things right, the bubble dragon Bub and his friends get together and try to burst all of the bubbles that are overflowing the island, while helping save the Miniroons in the process. It’s a surface-level story that is only really there to round off the gameplay, so you can’t expect anything too deep or complex. Most Japanese mascot characters like the ones in Bubble Bobble have similar plots for the games they’re part of, keeping a focus on the gameplay more than anything else.
But is the gameplay itself any good? If you’ve played any Bubble Bobble game, you’ll feel right at home. All you have to do is match the colors of the bubbles in groups of 3 or more, popping them and clearing space on the board. For Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! you’ll need to accomplish different objectives that come up in each stage. Sometimes you’ll have to rescue the Miniroons trapped inside bubbles, clear the board of all bubbles before time runs out, and even finish the stage with special conditions given. It’s a very simple gameplay loop that becomes fun when you have a grasp on how to shoot bubbles at different angles, leading to big groups of bubbles bursting and fast stage completion rates.
Where the puzzle element comes into play is when you have to clear a stage with different bubble layouts and other obstacles are laid before you. You’ll often find boxes, bombs, and other special bubbles that you can use to your advantage to clear a stage. Things can get pretty challenging when the answer to clearing a group of bubbles isn’t always clear, or when you’ll need to take a few steps beforehand in order to find the right answer to clearing the stage. Often it’ll be more obvious than you realize, especially if you have a good grasp on how to angle your shots and plan ahead. To its credit, the game never gets to a point of feeling impossible to clear a stage, not unless you mess up enough times and need to restart a stage. If you take your time instead of rushing through, you’ll find the puzzles to be very manageable and clever.
But this is something that can get repetitive very quickly. While the story mode has you traveling around Rainbow Island to clear the bubbles lingering around, you’re still playing very similar games the entire time. The puzzles for each stage are different, but there’s little to no variety with what you’re actually doing. At the same time, the cutscenes that break up the gameplay aren’t always enough to make progression for good. You might get a short cutscene with some dialogue and then end up playing multiple stages afterward that feels all too similar to the ones you just got through. For some, this is a game where you can go in and out of quickly, much like other portable experiences, that feels right when you just want to get through a few puzzles. For others, it will feel like the repetition will be too much.
One section on the Rainbow Island map does offer something different when you finally unlock it. The Baron’s Tower lets you play on boards to get high scores and compare them to other players online. The games have bubbles that continuously appear automatically, with more points being obtained when you drop and pop more bubbles. There are multiple difficulties to choose from, but you need to play through each one successively to unlock them all. This can be fun if you like to set high scores, but it’s not as competitive as one might think.
Multiplayer is mostly cooperative in Story Mode, but you can play Vs Mode and compete against each other. What’s great is that you can set CPU players in both modes if you’re playing alone and want to try things out. There is online multiplayer to find others to play with online, which has global matchmaking and private matches with passwords. Online play quality will vary depending on your internet connection, but you might struggle to find other players online unless you plan to play with someone beforehand. AT its best games go very smoothly, but at worse, some games might be completely unplayable.
Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! won’t be for everyone, but it does have some good things that work. The repetitiveness may be hard for most to get over if you aren’t already into the series. The Story Mode is a nice thing to get into playing, but this isn’t a plot you’ll remember after you’re done playing it. You’ll enjoy the co-op or versus multiplayer if you spend time with it, despite the online matches varying in quality. If anything, this is a game you’ll want to play sporadically. Getting in for some puzzles and out after a bit, that way you won’t grow bored of the repetitiveness and won’t get tired of the cute and colorful characters.
Would you check out Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! on the Nintendo Switch? Are you a fan of the Bubble Bobble series? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!
Amazon Studios is expanding its espionage world with the announcement that their series ‘Citadel’ is getting a spin-off titled ‘Citadel: Diana.’ Streaming to Prime Video, the series will star Matilda De Angelis as the titular spy and will arrive sometime in 2024.
“Prime Video announced the title of the next chapter of the Citadel Spyverse, ‘Citadel: Diana,’ and revealed a first look at Matilda De Angelis (The Undoing) as the central character in the forthcoming series,” Amazon said on their website. “‘Citadel: Diana’ is directed by Arnaldo Catinari and developed by Alessandro Fabbri, who is also the head writer, and wrote the series with Ilaria Bernardini, Laura Colella, Gianluca Bernardini, and Giordana Mari. As previously announced, other cast members alongside Matilda De Angelis include Lorenzo Cervasio, Maurizio Lombardi, Julia Piaton, Thekla Reuten, Daniele Paoloni, Bernhard Schütz, and Filippo Nigro.”
They also dropped the “first look” image on Twitter:
Amazon said of the new spin-off that, “The Season One finale of Citadel, starring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, drops today on Prime Video. The first series in the Spyverse global franchise wraps its first season with huge twists and nail-biting reveals, as the agents of Citadel discover the identity of the mole who brought down the agency at the hands of rival syndicate Manticore. Betrayals will be uncovered and questions will be answered, as the consequences of the finale create ripple effects that will be felt throughout the Spyverse. Following the finale episode, a post-credits teaser of Citadel: Diana reveals an exciting look at what’s to come as the Citadel Spyverse expands with the next chapter.”
The debut series has been renewed for a second season, according to Amazon. The series stars Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra, Lesley Manville, and Stanley Tucci. It was created by Josh Appelbaum, Bryan Oh, and David Weil.
When you’re a comic creator, chances are you’re poor. Chances are, you don’t have thousands of extra dollars to plunge into a marketing campaign that will put your comic on the cover of every major media entity and get you talked about in major media. You are therefore forced to start a grassroots movement to sell your comic book, not because it’s fashionable to do so but because it’s the only way to reach people with the resources at your disposal.
Naturally, the smart creator will turn toward social media. Social media is mostly free and fairly effective if you find the right niche. So let’s explore how you’re going to navigate this time-sucking portion of selling your comic without getting caught up on the Internet and missing your deadlines and without shooting yourself in the foot.
Examine What You Have
Right now, you probably have some personal social media: A Facebook account, maybe Twitter, and possibly Reddit— depending on your age and your circle of friends. Take a hard look at these accounts and ask yourself, “How would a total stranger react to them?”
In the volatile sphere of social media (especially these days), you can count on fans drilling down into your past to see what you’re about. This isn’t always a nasty thing to get at you, but it will sometimes be used against you— Especially if you have strong opinions like me.
What you want to think about is your brand. What is it? Is it part political? Religious? Do you revel in bashing famous artists and writers for their mistakes? This can all come back to haunt you and get you caught up in online arguments that are just going to waste your time and energy.
Look at your pictures. You might have some goofy or embarrassing pictures you and your friends took. Maybe that’s fine for you or the person you were, but is it fine for what you’re presenting to the public?
I had a friend’s girlfriend obsessively take pictures of us over a winter week when they stayed at my house. She tagged me in dozens of unflattering photos over the next week where I looked fat and sloppy. (Hey, I was at home!) Eventually, I untagged myself from all of them.
Image from Pixabay
Social Media Purge
The extreme solution is to purge your social media. There are several programs to do this for Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter— Pretty much all of the major platforms. It won’t delete your account, just everything you posted. If you’ve been online since the beginning of the Internet (as I have) it might not be a bad idea to make sure a spicy tweet doesn’t start something.
Image from Pixabay
Facebook
The Good: Most people who use social media use it. It’s a well-known platform that’s easy to use. You can make pages just for your comic book or a fan page for yourself as a creator.
The Bad: The reach isn’t what it used to be. In the old days, you could go viral and get thousands of likes on some random picture or post. These days, FB seems to control the amount of reach you can get on the social media platform, even amongst your own followers.
What was once young and hip is now the place to post pictures of your kids, grandkids, and obituaries. My pages ground to a halt in terms of growth sometime around 2009. You can pay for Facebook ads to get more reach, but I question the value of such a purchase even if you have the money.
Strategy: I think Facebook is fine to repost whatever you’re posting on other platforms, but I wouldn’t put any extra time into it.
Image from Pixabay
Twitter
The Good: It’s still a large social media platform, and thanks to Elon, it seems to be growing again. I’ve heard mixed reviews on pay for the blue check, but with the incoming innovations, it could be the place to post. It’s extremely easy to use, and, like FB, you can post pictures, videos, or just your random thoughts.
The Bad: Twitter still has a hangover from the bad ol’ days of the previous regime, which seemed to persecute anyone that didn’t support Leftist causes. There are blacklists, especially within the comic book sphere, and Leftist creators that used to go on unhinged rants still do so on occasion. (Fortunately, much of that seems to have died down.)
Elon recently hired a new CEO who is an officer in the WEF. Without diving too deep into that rabbit hole, let’s just say I don’t think she’s a fan of the Freedom of Speech that Elon seems to champion.
Strategy: At a minimum, you should announce important updates on Twitter. Whether or not you can build a community of fans depends on how much time you invest in tweeting other things. As for politics (which we’ll talk about broadly later in the column), either be prepared to take a position and defend or constantly put people off by ignoring the politics. If you’ve ever seen my Twitter account, the latter is definitely not my M.O. Tweeting politics these days is not for the faint of heart.
Image from Pixabay
Reddit
The Good: Reddit is a giant message board with “rooms” on a variety of topics, including comics. The comics and webcomics room on Reddit still have a decent following.
The Bad: Reddit is a late-stage message board, meaning that it’s far past the time when it was a small, happy community. The vicious in-fighting on Reddit, especially regarding politics, is legendary. I think this is mostly because Leftist college kids dominate the site with too much free time and too many half-assed opinions.
Worse, Reddit has “mods” or moderators that are supposed to be there to police the site for spam or things that go off-topic. Since they don’t pay mods, you can imagine the kinds of people that sign up for this duty. “Brigading” has been a problem on Reddit (where a mob of people floods into a room or a thread to take it over). Mods with delusions of grandeur have run amok more than once.
I used to get thousands of hits from posting my webcomics on Reddit boards, but now I barely bother. These days, I dip in and out to stay away from getting involved in another online argument. If Crazy were a crayon, Redditors would now be “Dark Crazy”.
Strategy: I say follow my lead. Dip in and out by posting major announcements in r/comics and the like. If you can find a subreddit that hosts a topic related to your book or comic like I do in r/SouthJersey, that’s even better. However, don’t overdo it. It’s best you stay under the radar of the Reddit mods since some of them are batsh*t insane.
Image from Pixabay
Instagram
The Good: It’s picture-based, so this is good for artists. The videos are short, and engagement is still pretty high, despite being owned by Facebook. Still relatively popular amongst younger audiences.
The Bad: It seems to be heading down the same route as Facebook, only much slower. It’s mostly for hot girls to take pictures of themselves, so good luck monetizing your account. Everything is sized for a phone, so you have to shrink and/or break up your panels accordingly if you want people to read them.
Strategy: It’s good for posting artwork and the occasional highlight from your YouTube Channel.
Image from Pixabay
Tik Tok
The Good: It’s still insanely popular with the younger fans.
The Bad: It’s owned by a Chinese company and is said to have an incredible amount of invasive software to collect your data. Since it’s based in China, the rumor I’ve heard is that the subscriber count is wildly inflated to keep users making content. It has also been rumored to be a haven for thousands upon thousands of bot accounts.
Strategy: Don’t use Tik Tok.
Image from Pixabay
YouTube
The Good: Several creators (including Eric July, Ethan Van Sciver, Raz0rfist, etc.) have monetized their audiences and done very well for themselves in publishing. Fans get to see you, which personalizes your project. Despite YouTube’s decline, it’s still a huge platform with a lot of reach if you can make enough content. If you make videos on the regular (like I do) you can even make some money on the side.
The Bad: YouTube seems to game the algorithm for their chosen few. (You probably won’t be one of them.) It requires a big time commitment to make videos on a regular basis if you want to build the audience there and eventually monetize the views. (It took me about a year.) Even when you do, YouTube’s vague and often-changing Terms of Service can get you banned. (I’m currently in YouTube jail until 5/27/23.)
YouTube also pushes shorts and live streams, which is currently the only way my channel grows significantly. Good if you have the time and energy to do them, bad if you don’t.
Strategy: This is not a platform you want to half-ass. Make a commitment to do regular updates, I would say a minimum of three times a week. Ideally, five times or every day. Not every update has to be spectacular. Fans do enjoy videos where they watch creators draw, and if you can talk a little while you’re doing it, so much the better.
For a big mouth like me, it’s worked out well. My channel has over 3000 subscribers, but my big mouth also gets me in trouble sometimes. My experience in broadcast radio and TV helps keep my delivery professional, but that can sometimes be a turn-off to fans who want something more “raw”. Once I bought the camera and the mic and got into the rhythm of doing it every day it became easy. You just have to find a niche in something you can talk about.
Special Note: Protect your investment! If you do decide to start a YouTube Channel, make sure you also post the same videos on sites like Odysee, Bitchute and Rumble. Rumble is poised to be the next YouTube, and if you go to YouTube jail, you will have alternatives. Speaking of which…
Image from Pixabay
The Alternatives
Minds
The Good: Minds is a platform that’s a lot like Facebook without the games or the limiting reach. You can also make a little bit of money from your feed. It’s still a pretty friendly community.
The Bad: It’s growing, but it’s not that big yet.
Strategy: Cut and paste whatever you’re posting in here too. The hope is, at some point, this platform will “hit”. My engagement seems good with my followers.
Gab
The Good: Gab is probably the most pro-free speech platform. So imagine Twitter with no censorship. While the bigger platforms tend to lean left politically, this one leans right, and there are a lot of openly religious users. This can be a boon if your comic book has a religious bent, especially one that’s Christian.
The Bad: Some crazies do dwell here, and due to the open nature of the site, they say some pretty spicy things! It’s not much of a problem since you can just block them.
Strategy: Like Minds, it’s a smaller audience with a higher engagement. Once you have an account, you can always repost it here.
The Good: Another Twitter alternative, but this one is full of Trump Supporters. Tends to lean right politically and is very pro-American. This can be very helpful if you have a comic that appeals to this audience.
The Bad: Smaller audience, higher engagement. Out of these three Twitter alternatives, I think this is the largest.
Strategy: Pro-American posts do very well. Negative Trump posts do not.
The Good: This YouTube alternative is based out of the UK. Engagement is usually very high for me, and it reminds me of the old days of YouTube.
The Bad: Smaller audience, really good engagement. In the past, some platforms refused a Bitchute link. The sorting function is a bit clunkier but improving. You can only put three words for the search engine regarding your video.
Strategy: Repost your videos here. It’s a good backup platform.
The Good: This is platform is poised to be the next YouTube and extremely well-financed. It prides itself on Freedom of Speech and has a few common sense restrictions on content. You can monetize almost immediately. Like YouTube, it has a live stream function and is rapidly growing with the addition of bigger YouTubers arriving.
The Bad: Engagement doesn’t seem as high as Bitchute, and so far, monetization hasn’t paid off for me since the money has been so small for my videos.
Strategy: Repost your videos and when you’re thrown in YouTube jail, make sure your fans know you’ll still be here. As YouTube slowly morphs into a pay-only site, Rumble is likely to be the top choice for the homemade video content maker.
The Good: Another YouTube alternative. The videos tend to load very fast.
The Bad: It’s the smallest of the three YT alternatives. Engagement is still low for me, but I haven’t been on it very long.
Strategy: Use it as a backup for your backups and post here. You never know which platform will hit your videos.
Saidit
The Good: A Reddit alternative that hasn’t descended into Communism and mod drama. I’ve found the people on it to be very nice, much like the early days of Reddit.
The Bad: It’s small, but engagement is positive.
Strategy: It’s worth posting, but I wouldn’t post more than once a day in the same room.
Patreon
The Good: Patreon has a blog of sorts that allows you to post pictures and videos. You can also make exclusive posts to your subscribers. Subscribers can be monetized. I make a few dollars from it a month for my webcomics.
The Bad: Patreon got political a few years ago, and it’s never been quite the same. There are Patreon alternatives, but the platform is still around. I’ve heard SubscribeStar is better, but I’ve never been able to get my account approved.
Strategy: You might be better off with a crowd-funding platform for individual projects; however, if you produce regular content, it can’t hurt to repost here.
And the Rest: LinkedIn, ReTalk, MeWe, Tumblr, etc.
The Good: Some of the smaller platforms are so small just a little engagement can make you one of the top contributors.
The Bad: They either have very small or dying audiences.
Strategy: If you’ve got the time, it never hurts to repost your stuff.
Image from Pixabay
Strategy for Politics
There are two choices when dealing with politics on social media. The first and easiest is to stay out of politics. If a fan or user tries to get you to answer a question or insist you’re taking a side, either ignore that person and then ban or block them if they persist. However, the ideologically possessed are quite numerous these days, even if you keep saying, “I’m not political. This comic isn’t political.”
Fortunately, everything on the Internet eventually runs out of gas. People get bored and leave. Never feed the trolls, and they will get bored and hungry to go bother someone else.
The second choice is to engage very smartly. Depending on your politics and how versed you are in the political climate, this can bring you a lot of attention but also a lot of heat and backlash. You need to be made of stern stuff to weather the slings and arrows of the Internet these days.
Currently, the Lefties tend to be the aggressors. And since the Left can’t meme, meme replies are often a good strategy. The more radical ones are easily triggered, so feel free to make fun of them if you have those comedic skills. Just be prepared for the flack if you wade into the battle. Some Internet trolls are persistent and crazy. And if you’re unfortunate enough to tweak one that’s a hacker, you may find you’re having problems with your website or get your entire account hijacked.
There’s also a flagging system on some sites, so it’s best not to poke the bear too hard. My rule of thumb has been to engage, warn the troll that I don’t tolerate impoliteness, and try to keep the discussion civil. However, some people are just a-holes. It’s better to ban them quickly before the discussion gets far along than to get emotionally invested.
Don’t insult them. Just ban them from your channel/feed/account or whatever. If they consistently return and harass you, report them to the platform and ban them again. Don’t engage.
If you do engage, know your positions and know the basics of your ideology. Don’t get caught flat-footed in a lie or in not knowing what you’re talking about. Unless you’re in a live stream, there’s always time to do some more research. Ultimately, Internet arguments gain you little, so try to keep the discussion light, and if you have to end it, just say something like, “Let’s just agree to disagree. I’m not really interested in discussing it further.”
Haters
Haters, Trolls— They’re all the same. The good news is you’re probably doing something right if you have one. The bad news is some of these people are quite insane. Ban, block, and report them if they get too aggressive; don’t wait, and don’t engage. The less attention they get, the more likely they’ll get bored and go elsewhere.
Cross-posting
Keep your posts consistent. What you do on one platform, repeat on the others where appropriate. Most pictures and videos can be posted on all platforms. What I usually do is make a post that I know I can cut and paste on all the platforms and then do it.
For the smaller platforms, don’t flood them with posts. They may not get enough traffic for you to post more than once a day. I backed off on posting on Saidit for this reason, even though my engagement has been very positive. I didn’t want to flood the message board with my posts.
The object of your posting is to create an information network that your fans on all the platforms can access and find out about you. You may have to post other things that aren’t about your comic in order to keep engagement with your fans. If you do this, feel free to post it on other sites as well. On some large platforms, your post may quickly disappear, but constantly flacking may turn off your most loyal supporters.
Conclusion
Doing your social media can be a time-consuming process that takes you away from making the very comic you’re supposed to promote. However, if you get skilled at making posts, tweets, and short videos, you’ll find the amount of time commitment is minimized and that the return is good. Creators need exposure for little or no money, and there is no better investment currently than social media.
Until next time fanboys, see you at the con!
For more Comic-Con 101 guides, check out our previous article; it’s all about MERCHANDISING!
The live-action Disney classic remakes have been polarizing among fans and movie-goers alike, fueling a debate on whether it was necessary to reimagine the beloved animated classics. Many have pointed to some of these remakes as lacking the soul and visual charm that made Disney’s animated films so appealing to generations of fans. But can they still be done right enough to be fun to watch and respect the legacy of the films they were inspired by? That’s where Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid ends up landing in the wake of the other remakes not being received well. While not perfect or better than the original 1989 animated film, the 2023 reimagining of The Little Mermaid is still very much a charming and beautiful story about young love and acceptance. It does well to compliment the film that inspired it and swim at its own pace.
If you come into watching this version of The Little Mermaid harping on what’s different from the animated film, then you’re going to set yourself up for disappointment. While the story and many of the shots in the movie are taken directly from the animated classic, this version of The Little Mermaid does its best to add things to enhance the story and visual spectacle. These changes make sense and don’t feel out of place, unlike some things done in other Disney live-action remakes. We get to see and learn more about Prince Eric’s background and perspective, we learn more about King Triton and Ariel’s sisters, and we even get to see Ariel and Eric spend more time together and better understand how they fall in love after the meeting.
Other scenes that are added build up more of the relationship between the underwater and surface worlds, as well as more explanation for why certain events happen within the story. It’s the changes like this that keep the integrity of the original story and don’t compromise many important aspects of the classic we know. Both Ariel and Eric play off each other very well and stand on their own in interesting ways, making them feel more on equal footing in this version in both relevance and skillset. It helps the audience see why these two fall in love and why they’re perfect for each other.
But what about the people who play these iconic characters? Halle Bailey is a great Ariel that brings a level of cute charm, fantastic vocals, and a humble yet beautiful style to the title character. Under the seas, Halle’s Ariel is majestic and playful while also being a thorn on her father’s side, and on the surface, she has the quiet charisma to catch our eyes. When she isn’t speaking after losing her voice and interacting with everyone, you see great expressions in her eyes and movements that work very well. Though there are a few spots that have her doing a monologue in her head, or rather singing about what’s going on, it works for the context of what is happening.
Prince Eric, played by Jonah Hauer-King, is given a lot more screen time and backstory for us to dive into. He’s a little rebellious to his parents, much like Ariel, who he has dreams he wants to follow rather than be confined to royal protocol. We see his mother, Queen Selina, and more of his royal subjects interacting with him at various points. Eric even gets his own song, titled “Wild Uncharted Waters”, to tell more of his story shortly after he and Ariel meet for the first time. Unfortunately, his song isn’t as good as many of the classic songs we know and feels a bit out of place, rather than smoothly fitting into the tone of the story. Overall, however, Eric is charming and gets more time to shine and shows us why we want him to end up with Ariel by the end.
The rest of the cast is interesting for the parts they fill, but not everyone is a homerun like Ariel and Eric. The best of the bunch are King Triton, played by Jaiver Bardem, and Eric’s confidant Grimsby, played by Art Malik. Both men deliver great performances and embody their roles in this version of the story, caring about the two love birds in both worlds and helping them out along the way at various times. We see that aren’t perfect, but they care about Ariel and Eric enough to make a difference where it counts, leading to the story’s finale. Each of their interactions with both throughout the film is like the parents that love their children, despite being stern too much.
Other characters are where the film stumbles, but luckily not to a point where everything is ruined. Melissa McCarthy as Ursula seems like a great choice, and yet she never fully owns the role. There are moments where she fully embraces the over-the-top nature of the villainess mer-squid, but in others, it comes off as her in cosplay. Even if the iconic song “Poor Unfortunate Souls” where the character really gets to own the screen, Melissa never fully chews up the scenery as she should. This is the same for the climax of the film where Ursula grows in power and meets her unfortunate end.
Ariel’s underwater friends are what fans will be most divided on. While Daveed Diggs does a great job with the voice of Sebastian the Crab, the realistic visuals of Sebastian will be weird for most. The same goes for Flounder and Scuttle, played by Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina respectively. A lot of the charm and colorful personalities of these characters in the 1989 animated film are lost in translation to live action. It’s the same issue that Disney had with the live-action remake of The Lion King, where the realistic looks of animals are devoid of the expression and charm that their animated counterparts are known for. Even in the iconic songs like “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl” these characters never fully become as beloved as they once were. The songs are great, make no mistake, but these designs look weird. Whether you like or dislike these versions of Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle will be different for everyone.
Speaking of which, another stumble of the film is the lighting and layout of some shots throughout. While the important frames pulled straight from the original animated classic look great in live-action, there are some shots that are either hard to see or look very awkward. Many of the underwater sections with low lighting are difficult to see in full, especially when their animated counterparts are so vibrant with color.
While it’s realistic to have less light in the deep water sections of the story, it also would have been a smarter choice to find a way to illuminate everything in there so the audience can take in the framing of the story. The entire song of “Under the Sea” is visually inferior to the original because of this, as well as the big clash with Ursula towards the end. Luckily other parts of the film are given more light and look great, including “Kiss the Girl” when Ariel and Eric are on their date.
If there’s one major nitpick that fans of The Little Mermaid will have, it’s some of the iconic shots that are missing. The film gets most of the big ones everybody knows, like Ariel singing on the rock or swimming towards Eric’s ship during the fireworks. But the ending of the animated version’s story has a beautiful shot of Eric and Ariel right after the climax which is done very differently in the live-action version. Instead of showing the transformation that Ariel has, it happens off-screen and we see more of what happens afterward. For some, it’ll be great to get more story that involves more characters at the end, which is great, but you also lose one of the most iconic shots from the original movie.
The remake of The Little Mermaid is a fun watch for any Disney fan, whether you loved the animated original or not. Unlike many of the reimagined versions of other classic Disney animated films, this one has a lot more heart and soul built into it, giving long-time fans a reason to watch this story again and others to fall in love with it. While it will never replace the original 1989 animated film of the same name, this version of The Little Mermaid can exist right beside it and stand out in its own way for those that love this story. It’s not a perfect transition from animation to live-action, but it’s a great film that most people will enjoy, regardless of how much of a Disney fan they might be.
What are your thoughts about the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid? Are you a big Disney fan who will be watching this? Share your thoughts in the comment section below and let your voice be heard.
For the Emporer! Gameplay footage of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2looks glorious! Improving on the original from 2011, the sequel looks to deliver more intense up-close combat and Zach Snyder-like slow-mo brutality.
The short clip may only contain 40 seconds of gameplay footage, but it was all I needed to see. Titus gets to kill a lot of Tyranids. Sure, they’re not loudmouth brutes like the Ork boys, but they’re still red on the inside. And the chainsword doesn’t know the difference.
“Mankind is in peril. The Imperium needs you. Embody the superhuman skill and brutality of a Space Marine, the greatest of the Emperor’s warriors, unleashing deadly abilities and devastating weaponry to obliterate the relentless Tyranid hordes.”
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is expected to arrive later this year. Sadly, the actual release date has yet to be confirmed. The game, however, can be wishlisted on Steam.
The Collector’s Edition of the game can be pre-ordered through the Focus Entertainment Store. For $249, you’ll get a statue of Titus delivering some righteous justice to a Tyranid.
The original Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is currently on sale until June 1st over on Steam for $14.99!
Are you looking for more Warhammer action? I’d suggest picking up the newly released Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. This throwback DOOM-like shooter is fast-paced and bloody. Boltgun’s visuals are loaded with graphics that make you feel like you’re back in the ’90s, in a good way.
I’ve played Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun for a few hours now, and it’s a lot of fun. 40K first-person-shooters have been in a lull for years, and this fresh take on the franchise has gone over quite well.
Boltgun is also a very reasonably priced game. It’s under $20 right now on multiple platforms, including XBOX and PC. There’s a lot of value packed into that low price tag.
If there’s one good thing about the upcoming DCEU film, The Flash is that it appears to be leaning heavily on the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman. While they may be a marketing ploy to distract from all of Ezra Miller’s current legal issues, including Batman ’89, we get more collectibles focusing on Tim Burton’s version.
A new Hot Toys 1:6 scale premium collectible action figure is one such collectible. The 12″ tall Batman gives us a detailed look at the new Bat Suit and includes a lot of throwback gear, such as the classic grapnel gun, throwing star, and Batarang.
The Hot Toys figure also includes an alternate Michael Keaton portrait and three interchangeable face pieces. Yes, it also includes smiling Batman.
Keaton’s Batman can be pre-ordered from Sideshow Collectibles for $305. He’s expected to arrive between July and December of next year.
Photo Credit: Hot ToysPhoto Credit: Hot ToysPhoto Credit: Hot ToysPhoto Credit: Hot ToysPhoto Credit: Hot ToysPhoto Credit: Hot ToysPhoto Credit: Hot ToysPhoto Credit: Hot ToysPhoto Credit: Hot ToysPhoto Credit: Hot Toys
Batman comes with the following:
– One (1) newly developed Bruce Wayne head sculpt with separate rolling eyeballs system
– One (1) newly developed cowled head with separate rolling eyeball system and three (3) interchangeable lower faces capturing iconic facial expressions
– Movie-accurate facial expression and skin texture
– Approximately 30 cm tall
– New specialized body with 30 points of articulation
– Six (6) pieces of interchangeable gloved hands including:
– One (1) pair of fists
– One (1) pair of relaxed hands
– One (1) pair of weapon holding hand
– Each piece of head sculpt is specially hand-painted
Costume:
– One (1) Batsuit with Batman logo on chest
– One (1) Batcape
– One (1) interchangeable Batcape (wired structure)
– One (1) black and metallic silver colored belt
– One (1) pair of black boots
Weapons:
– One (1) line launcher
– One (1) rope attached batarang
– Two (2) ninja wheels
Accessories:
– One (1) remote
– One (1) bomb timer
– Specially designed themed figure stand with Batman logo and LED light up function (Yellow light, USB power operated)
Exclusive Accessory for First Edition
– One (1) batman cowl with stand
Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television are bringing back ‘Wheel of Time’ for a second season. Heading to the Prime Video streaming service this fall, the entertainment studio released a series of “first look” images for fans.
“Today, Prime Video released first-look images from the second season of The Wheel of Time. Season Two of the Amazon Original series will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories around the world on September 1. The Wheel of Time is a part of the savings, convenience, and entertainment that Prime members enjoy in a single membership,” Amazon said on their website.
— The Wheel Of Time (@TheWheelOfTime) May 24, 2023
The series stars “Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, I Care a Lot) as Moiraine Damodred, Daniel Henney (Criminal Minds) as Lan Mandragoran, Zoë Robins (Power Rangers Ninja Steel) as Nynaeve al’Meara, Madeleine Madden (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) as Egwene al’Vere, Marcus Rutherford (Obey) as Perrin Aybara, Dónal Finn (Rogue Heroes) as Mat Cauthon, and Ceara Coveney (Young Wallander) as Elayne Trakand.”
Amazon describes the series as follows,
“Based on the best-selling Robert Jordan fantasy series The Wheel of Time, a humble farm boy, Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski, Gran Turismo), learns he is The Dragon Reborn—a dangerous figure from history destined to save the world … or break it. Desperate to protect him from the Dark One, an army of powerful sorceresses must reckon with his burgeoning power and encroaching madness. The Wheel of Time turns, and the Last Battle approaches. Though Rand thought he destroyed the Dark One, evil is not gone from the world. In Season Two, threats new and very old seek out the young friends from the Two Rivers, now scattered over the world. The woman who found and guided them is now powerless to help, and so they must find other sources of strength. In each other, or themselves. In the Light … or the Dark.”
The first novel in the series ‘The Eye of the World’ was released in 1990.
Discotek Media is bringing the fan-favorite anime gentleman thief Lupin III back to audiences in the United States with the announcement they will bring the 2005 TV film ‘Lupin III: Angel Tactics’ to a home video release. Directed by Shigeyuki Miya, the movie was produced by TMS Entertainment and had its debut on the Japanese broadcaster Nippon TV.
The Blu-ray DVD will include its original Japanese audio with English subtitles. The movie has a planned release date of June 27, 2023, but it is currently available for pre-order on the Right Stuf Anime website.
“Lupin’s new goal is the mysterious Original Metal, a seemingly alien artifact kept in Area 51 under strict guard. However there’s another party who wants to obtain the orb: the terroristic organization known as the “Bloody Angels”, composed only of women all of whom are skilled assassins. Soon Lupin and his friends are hunted by Zenigata and his new clumsy assistant Emily O’Brian and at the same time targeted by these deadly ladies aiming for the Original Metal, which has proven too hard to cut even for Goemons’ Zantestuken. The major question is whether this is just a series of professional assassination attempts or if the Angels have an underlying agenda…or a personal grudge.”
‘Lupin III’ sometimes stylized as ‘Lupin the 3rd’ was created by the manga artist Kazuhiko Katō, known professionally as Monkey Punch. It had its debut in 1967 and completed publication in 1969. The first anime adaptation premiered in 1971 and ran for 23 episodes.
