There was a bit of controversy surrounding the casting of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ actor Chris Pratt as Mario in the upcoming video game adaption ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ from Illumination and Universal Studios. However, Pratt himself disclosed that the creator behind the iconic Nintendo video game Shigeru Miyamoto requested the ‘Passengers’ star to take the role of the plumber.
“I got to spend time with Miyamoto,” Pratt told Games Rader in an interview. “I’d met him before backstage of a talk show that we were both doing years ago, and I don’t know if that was part of the reason why he wanted me to be cast as Mario. Then I met him again at the opening of Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios in Hollywood. He’s such a big kid at heart, he’s so energetic and enthusiastic and has this big smile on his face. He was wearing a graphic Mario t-shirt and he was there introducing his world that he created to the West into the world. It’s just wild.”
Pratt celebrated the film’s debut by arriving at the Los Angeles premiere with Luigi co-star Charlie Day in a van resembling one that the Mario Bros. use in the video games.
“Thank you Universal, Illumination, Nintendo and everyone else involved in creating the most powered up red carpet ever,” he wrote on Instagram. “What a ride!!! Wahooo!!”
The movie also stars Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit) as Princess Peach, Jack Black (The School of Rock) as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key (Playing House) as Toad, Seth Rogen (The Interview) as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen (Portlandia) as Cranky Kong, Sebastian Maniscalco (Green Book) as Foreman Spike, and Kevin Michael Richardson (Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge) as Kamek.
The original voice of Mario from the video game, Charles Martinet, also has several voice cameos throughout the film.
Sentai Filmworks has acquired the North American distribution rights to release the upcoming romantic slice-of-life anime ‘Insomniacs After School,’ releasing it on the HiDive streaming service.
“Wondering when you can watch Insomniacs after school (Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia) on HIDIVE? Wonder no more! Mark your calendars, ’cause the anime starts Monday, April 10, 2023,” HiDive said on their website.
Directed by Yūki Ikeda, the anime is being developed by Liden Films with Rintarō Ikeda working on the scripts and character designs handled by Yuki Fukuda. The music is composed by Yuki Hayashi with the theme song “Itsu Aetara” being performed by singer Aiko. The ending song “Lapse” is done by the band Homecomings. They will debut it on TV Tokyo.
It stars Gen Satō (Pretty Boy Detective Club) as Ganta Nakami and Konomi Tamura (The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House) as Isaki Magari. They are joined in the cast by Haruka Tomatsu, Seiichiro Yamashita, Lynn, Natsumi Fujiwara, Sumire Morohoshi, Mamiko Noto, and Shō Karino.
You can watch the trailer below:
The anime is based on the romantic drama manga of the same name written and illustrated by Makoto Ojiro. It is published by the Tokyo-based publisher Shogakukan and serialized in their ‘Weekly Big Comic Spirits’ magazine since 2019. Viz Media acquired the rights to publish the manga in the United States in 2023.
“In the small city of Nanao, insomniac Ganta Nakami tries to catch a nap in his school’s abandoned astronomical observatory. There he stumbles upon a sociable and carefree girl named Isaki Magari who has the same problem. The two form an awkward friendship and reestablish their school’s defunct astronomy club.”
Japanese director Chihiro Ikeda is helming a live-action adaption of the manga produced by United Productions. It is being released by Pony Canyon in the Summer of 2023.
We made it two weeks without talking about Google or Meta gutting staff! But, sadly, our reprieve has come to an end. This time, it’s not the layoffs the two tech giants have to worry about but the toll the cost-cutting measures have on employees and customers.
CNBC reports that the lack of staff at Meta affects businesses and influencers. For those who rely on Facebook and Instagram to advertise businesses or themselves, in the case of Instagram models, the lack of Meta employees means there’s no one around when something goes wrong.
If your account is hacked or spoofed, or if your photos are being used in a rampant romance scam, good luck resolving it quickly. Allegedly, the layoffs we’ve seen over the past year dramatically affected “client support, customer experience, and communities.”
In another story on CNBC, it looks like Google wants to save big money by taking away company-issued laptops, staplers, and other services. It’s bad enough that the tech company already left laid-off employees without promised benefits, but now Google is saddling non-engineering workers with Chromebooks rather than MacBooks.
Cell phones are no longer being paid for. Google’s print stations will be devoid of tape and staplers as “part of a cost-effectiveness initiative,” according to an internal facilities directive. Basic office supplies aren’t the only thing being gutted.
In a document seen by CNBC, yoga and muffins are next on the list to be scaled back, “Now that most of us are in 3 days a week, we’ve noticed our supply/demand ratios are a bit out of sync: We’ve baked too many muffins on a Monday, seen GBuses run with just one passenger, and offered yoga classes on a Friday afternoon when folks are more likely to be working from home.”
I 100% know what it’s like to work for a company desperately trying to save money during a recession. The late 2000s downturn saw a company I worked for cut 75% of the workforce, and we already had less than 100 people employed in total. Before that act, management had stopped paying for our cell phones and outsourced tech support to a company in another country.
Since then, the effects of extreme cost-cutting have been seen elsewhere. Like asking employees to supply their office necessities, such as laptops, desktops, pens, notepads, and even chairs.
Thankfully, these measures lightened up with some companies offering lease programs where employees get a monthly allowance for using their PCs and phones. However, we may be sliding into tight waistband time soon if even the big tech companies try to lean on overhead.
Shedding costs on small items is one thing, but when a company nixes essential staff that deals with customers on a day-to-day basis, we should all genuinely worry. A lean office can be tight but attainable for a prolonged future, but if the lack of assistance turns customers off, Meta is now digging its own grave with a gigantic coal mining blade.
Tetris is one of the most iconic video game franchises of all time. It not only influenced the games industry in a significant way but still remains one of the most played games among all ages. It’s a simple concept of matching pieces together to create lines endlessly, one that isn’t complex or streamlined enough for anyone to understand and play. So how does one make a movie about Tetris that is interesting and respects the legacy of the game itself? You focus on the story behind its creation of it.
Tetris isn’t some crazy sci-fi or over-exaggerated story involving falling blocks from the sky. The AppleTV+ movie, directed by Jon S. Baird, focuses on the man who helped make the deal to bring Tetris from the Soviet Union to the rest of the world, and more specifically the Nintendo Game Boy handheld system. Eventually, both he and Alexey Pajitnov go on to create the Tetris company after the successful release of the game around the world. But while the real story behind Tetris being packed in with the Game Boy is filled with back & fourth business meetings, the movie dramatizes many aspects of the story that went on during a tense time in American history.
The plot is set in 1988 and follows Henk Rogers, who finds Tetris being played during the Consumer Electronics Show. After seeing how great Tetris was to play, he sets off on a journey to obtain the publishing rights of the game for multiple platforms for his company and the well-being of his family living in Japan. But while things seem easy enough at first, Henk eventually finds out that the creation of Tetris and the rights to publish it outside of Soviet Russia are a lot more complicated and dangerous than he realized. It’s a thriller that sees the KGB, Nintendo, and the global video game market collide in unexpected ways.
What starts out as an innocent drama and biographical take on Tetris eventually takes a wild turn into becoming a spy thriller. There is a lot of meetings with top-brass from gaming companies of the time, but once the story goes to Russia everything changes tone. The movie almost takes on a serious tone of commentary on how communism was hurting Russia in the late 1980s, nearly abandoning the game of Tetris at times. However, the game itself acts as the central prize for nearly everyone involved, or more specifically the right to publish Tetris and make a profit off of it. The entire conflict between Henk and many of the individuals he comes across is based on lies about who really owns Tetris and the final say on how it can be used.
Most of the time, we’re following Henk throughout the story, but occasionally things switch over to the other side of the iron curtain. There’s a clear sign of who is bad and who is good, but there are shades of grey for some despite questionable motivations. It adds another layer to the story rather than making things feel shallow and making the Russian characters look stereotypically evil. However, things definitely feel more hostile in the Russia scenes, regardless of what’s happening. There are still enough instances for us to feel something for multiple characters on all sides of the struggle for Tetris.
Speaking of which, many of the important figures in the creation of Tetris are here. You have industry legends Howard Lincoln and Hiroshi Yamauchi appear in the film, who are big parts in the creation of the Game Boy and why Tetris was packed in with the handheld. There are also people relevant to the licensing battle that went on, including Kevin and Robert Maxwell from the UK, as well as the various Russian officials and businessmen at the company ELORG. Much of the story is dramatized for the sake of the story and some things are made up entirely. The liberties taken in some aspects do make for a more interesting film to watch, even if some of it is unbelievable.
A very interesting aspect of the movie is the pixel renditions and scene transitions that are littered throughout the story. They really play up the 8-bit video game theme to a fun effect, but never go overboard with it. You won’t find them during the more serious moments, but during exposition and changes in setting they are a nice touch. The music of the film also implements the Tetris main theme in clever and interesting ways, with multiple remixes and takes on the iconic theme. It shows not only a reverence for the game itself but the legacy it has built in the years since first being released to the world.
Tetris is a solid movie that respects its subject but isn’t afraid to stretch things a little bit for the sake of having an interesting story. It can be a well-made thriller most of the time, even though a lot of what it shows isn’t historically accurate. You might be nostalgic for Tetris or at least be familiar with the game to some degree, but you don’t need any of that to enjoy the better parts of this movie. It’s hard to sell a movie based on a simple game about making lines, but the Tetris movie takes a clever approach that ends up being successful for everyone. It might not make you want to start playing Tetris right away, but you’ll enjoy what the movie offers in one way or another.
Are you a fan of Tetris? Did you grow up playing the game on the Game Boy or another platform? Tell us about your thoughts on Tetris in the comments down below!
I was eating lunch when the e-mail from Warner Bros. Pictures hit my inbox announcing that the newest teaser trailer for Barbie was ready. Aside from the perfect casting of Margot Robbie in the title role, I wasn’t holding out a lot of hope for the movie. However, that all changed after seeing the 1:44 teaser.
This thing looks hilarious, but not in an intentional way. I love the overuse of the color pink. Poking fun at Barbie’s weird world of perfectly sculpted people isn’t exactly new. However, treating it in such a pure manner, as seen in the trailer, leads to unexpected laughs due to the absurdity of the material.
Then there’s the scene where Ryan Gosling threatens to “beach off” another guy. Yep. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie will lean into the old jokes about Ken. I get it. It is funny, but who is this movie geared towards? Kids or cynical adults?
Barbie will open in the U.S. on July 21st and worldwide on July 19th.
Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig wrote Barbie. Baumbach’s previous credits include Marriage Story and The Squid and the Whale. Considering the overtones in Marriage Story, I’m surprised that Noah would have been interested in penning a Barbie film. That makes me worry about what downer themes may be worked into the film’s narrative.
Robbie, I still contend, is perfect for the role of the iconic, multi-talented doll. Gosling as Ken, though, is not really a good fit. I believe that more after seeing the latest teaser. He doesn’t have the upfront, overbearing charisma we got used to with his Toy Story counterpart.
It would be an excellent surprise if the Barbie movie turned into a slasher flick during the second half, with Ken being the villain. I’d pay to see that.
NECA has not given up on the D&D line of collectible action figures. Following up
This time around, NECA is giving us the human paladin Strongheart and the assassin Orc Zarak.
True to his classic appearance, Strongheart spots a manly mustache and a detailed suit of armor. Hallmarks of the character’s design from the early AD&D artwork and the LJN toys are here, too. However, the wings on the side of his helmet have been pinned back.
Strongheart will be in stores around September.
The green-skinned Orc Zarak was someone I didn’t expect to show up. I can’t remember the last time hearing the character’s name mentioned. He stands roughly half as tall as the other figures but makes up for it with some excellent detail and a striking face sculpt.
The LJN version of this figure would usually turn up in thrift store bins often, making him a great army builder alternative. Thankfully, NECA gave the Ultimate figure lots of character, so he stands out if he’s destined for your display case.
“What evil assassin Zarak lacks in conscience, he makes up for in accessories.”
Zarak comes with the following:
Sword
2x Daggers
Potion bottle
grappling hook w/ rope
2x Portraits (hooded and exposed heads)
(7) Interchangeable hands
I hope NECA releases last year’s convention-exclusive retro-styled Dungeons & Dragon figures. The Ultimate versions are cool and all, but I like the displayability of the classic figures.
Did you pick up the classic or Ultimate D&D figures from NECA? Let us know below.
Streaming service Tubi is continuing to aggressively expand its viewing library. Parent company Fox Corp has signed deals with Sunrise, Shout Factory, Lionsgate, and a host of other entertainment production companies to release legacy and original content. Tubi has announced that they have signed a deal with Vice News to produce documentaries and docuseries exclusive for the streaming service.
” Tubi, Fox Corporation’s ad-supported video-on-demand service, today announced it has entered an exclusive content deal with VICE Media Group to debut eight Tubi Original documentaries speaking to the hottest topics of today,” Tubi said on their website. “The first documentary, THE CULT OF ELON, will debut on April 24 and follow the story of Elon Musk and Tesla’s success, examining his path to becoming one of the most influential (and controversial) businessman (sic) by creating an immensely powerful cult of personality. The second original Tubi documentary VIGILANTE, INC. will debut on May 6, investigating the volatile world of online vigilantism, as told through a recent manhunt for an arsonist in Los Angeles – fueled by the crime and neighborhood watch app, Citizen. The remaining documentaries, covering such topics as chatbot technology, mass shootings in the US, and ticket scalping, will debut throughout this year.”
Vice News has produced several documentaries and documentary series that covered a wide range of topics including entertainment, crime, corporate malpractice, various subcultures, and much more.
Tubi added, “Tubi’s latest partnership with VICE Media Group highlights the free streamer’s dedication to expanding its original unscripted offering and serving its viewers more of what they love. Tubi’s unscripted titles range from true crime documentaries to specials that dive deep into pop culture’s biggest moments, with plans to continue to grow this vertical in the year ahead.”
Tubi began releasing live footage coming from local television channels and has provided viewers access to several sports cable channels.
ASUS has decided that it is going to enter the handheld gaming PC market and compete directly with Valve’s Steam Deck. The news broke via Twitter on April Fool’s Day with a video that looked too highly produced to be a joke.
Within a few days, Asus confirmed they weren’t fooling around. The ROG Ally is real and may give the Steam Deck a run for its money if the price is right, of course.
Introducing ROG’s first gaming handheld console!
Taking your PC games out of your gaming room is no longer a fantasy!
Play wherever you are, whenever you want. With the #ROGALLY, you’ll never have to stop gaming again!
Best Buy looks to be the exclusive retail chain for the ROG Ally. Sadly, the only thing the product’s landing page currently has is a place to sign up for updates.
Technical specifications were not readily available, except for what was said during a demo by the YouTuber Dave2D. Therein he states that the ROG Ally engineering sample he was looking at had the following specs:
Remember that Dave2D was looking at a prototype unit, so many, if not all, of the specs and performance, could drastically change when the production model hits retail.
Can ASUS hope to compete with the Steam Deck? Let us know your opinions in the comments section below.
After announcing the English voice cast back on March 21st with an official subbed trailer (which can be viewed by clicking here) with the theater date set for April 14th, just over a week later on March 30th, Crunchyroll premiered the English dub trailer for Suzume no Tojimari, which literally translates to “Suzume’s Door-Locking”. Although the announcement says April 14th is when it comes to theaters, it appears many theaters have showings on April 13th. Check your local theaters for times and tickets for both sub and dub showings.
Here is the English dub trailer:
In November 2022, Japanese anime news site Animate Times shared an interview they did with Suzume director Makoto Shinkai, where he describes his inspirations behind the creation of his latest movie.
The first inspiration was the decline in population growth in Japan. As he explains, more places in Japan are becoming abandoned and essentially turning into ruins. The places the character visits are places of mourning for the decrease in population. The population growth is sadly not projected to improve any time soon.
Translating from Japanese text, Shinkai says:
As a starting point for the work, I wanted to make it “a work that mourns a place.” Japan is becoming depopulated, and the number of areas where the population has decreased is increasing. Ruins and abandoned houses are becoming visible, and I think everyone feels that in their daily lives.
When I go back to my parents’ house, I often think, “It used to be a lively place.” However, I thought that when a person died, a funeral was held, but when the person disappeared and the place fell into disrepair, no one would do anything.
So, the starting point was that I wanted to create a story about a trip to mourn for places where people have disappeared, and from there it inevitably took the form of a road movie about places.
Also, since I was making it during the corona crisis, I think it also contains the desire to “move freely to any place you like.”
The other inspiration was the Tohoku earthquake of 2011, more commonly known as 3.11. The 9.1 magnitude earthquake began at 2:46pm JST on March 11, 2011. Tohoku region is in the north east of Japan and includes Fukushima, Yamagata, Miyagi, Iwate, Akita, and Aomori Prefectures.
You can see what it was like during the earthquake in these compilation videos (10-video playlist):
The undersea megathrust earthquake lasted approximately 6 minutes. Known as the “Great East Japan Earthquake”, it was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since records started to be recorded in 1900. Unfortunately, this massive earthquake triggered a very powerful tsunami that engulfed Iwate and Miyagi Prefecture. Residents of Sendai in Miyagi only had an 8 to 10 minute warning to evacuate the area. And many evacuation sites were washed away. The tsunami waves are estimated to have reached up to 133 feet high while traveling up to 435 mph and up to 6 miles inland.
You can see a 3-video playlist compilation of the destructive power of the 2011 tsunami here:
The wintry weather made rescue efforts more difficult, with temperatures around 32 °F. As of March 11, 2023, the official confirmed dead or listed as missing from the 2011 disaster is estimated to be at least 20,000. Over 6,000 were injured and over 2,000 are still missing to this day. Many thousands were displaced from their homes. Because of how destructive the storm was, it caused the Fukushima nuclear accident to occur on April 1st, 2011, which is considered the second worst nuclear accident in recorded history. The radiation leakage into the air forced people to leave the area. On the 12th anniversary this year, the people of Japan held a moment of silence in remembrance at 2:46pm, the exact time the earthquake began.
A trailer of a 41 minute documentary that came out on September 12, 2011. You can watch this documentary on Apple TV. Click here to watch the full documentary.
In answering his thought process on what led to this particular inspiration to his newest movie, Shinkai explains: I have a lot of thoughts, but the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake is an important element of the motif. I think it was an event that rewrote the world and even myself for the Japanese who were alive at that time and had a sense of purpose. A lot of things have changed because of that, and I think people’s mindsets have also changed.
Even for myself, although I wasn’t directly affected by the disaster, I felt that my life had been rewritten. Until then, I had taken for granted the ground I was standing on, and I had the feeling that the city and buildings would always exist, but after the earthquake, I lost that feeling.
Since then, I think that I have continued to think, consciously or unconsciously, about my own feelings that have changed and the scenery around me that has changed the way I see it for the past 10 years. So, Your Name (2016) and Weathering with You (2019), I was thinking about the same thing when I was making it, so I didn’t really feel like I was drawing something different this time. However, it’s been more than 10 years since I wanted to depict the Great East Japan Earthquake as a direct event.
Aware that the majority of his target audience in Japan are teenagers, he wanted to bring it to their attention as many teenagers today were either too young to remember or not even born at the time.
Personally speaking, I do remember watching the live news as well as seeing video coverage of the storm, and how horrifying it was to see people trying to escape the oncoming path of the tsunami coming up fast behind them, with some on video not making it up the hill in time.
What do you think of the inspiration behind Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume? Does it peak your interest in seeing it in theaters? Do you remember the 2011 earthquake and tsunami?
The Planet of the Apes is getting explored, Captain America heads to a Cold War, the X-Men face off against Mr. Sinister, and Spider-Man meets his long-lost sidekick in the latest pull list from Marvel Comics. These characters are not just getting new releases in print, but also in a digital format as well.
“This week’s comics will also introduce Spider-Man’s long-lost sidekick: Spider-Boy! “The End of the Spider-Verse” is here in Dan Slott and Mark Bagley’s SPIDER-MAN #7. Friends became enemies. Enemies became friends. And now, all of the Spider-Verse ends! Jessica Drew? Gone. Peter Parker? Gone. They are not the only ones erased by the sacred Sting-Knife. How can Silk and the rest of the Spiders win this Spider-War,” Marvel said on their website. “And that’s not the only Spider adventure going down this week! THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2022) opened with a question: what did Peter do?! The centerpiece of the answer is a flat-out fight that will be revealed in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2022) #23 by Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr.”
Marvel revealed their pull list as follows:
New Comics
AVENGERS: WAR ACROSS TIME (2023) #4
CAPTAIN AMERICA: SENTINEL OF LIBERTY (2022) #11
COSMIC GHOST RIDER (2023) #2
GHOST RIDER (2022) #13
I AM IRON MAN (2023) #2
IMMORAL X-MEN (2023) #3
JOE FIXIT (2023) #4
PLANET OF THE APES (2023) #1
ROGUE & GAMBIT (2023) #2
SCARLET WITCH (2023) #4
SPIDER-GWEN: SHADOW CLONES (2023) #2
SPIDER-MAN (2022) #7
STAR WARS (2020) #33
STAR WARS: HIDDEN EMPIRE (2022) #5
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2022) #23
VENOM (2021) #18
WOLVERINE (2020) #32
New Collections
ADAM WARLOCK OMNIBUS HC KANE COVER
MARVEL-VERSE: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY GN-TPB
STAR-LORD: THE SAGA OF PETER QUILL TPB
Marvel Unlimited
ALL-OUT AVENGERS (2022) #4
CAPTAIN AMERICA: SYMBOL OF TRUTH (2022) #8
CARNAGE (2022) #8
DARK WEB: X-MEN (2022) #2
DEADLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN (2022) #3
MIDNIGHT SUNS (2022) #4
DOCTOR STRANGE: FALL SUNRISE (2022) #2
MOON KNIGHT (2021) #18
MURDERWORLD: SPIDER-MAN (2023) #1
NEW MUTANTS (2019) #33
PETER PARKER & MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MEN DOUBLE TROUBLE (2022) #2
THUNDERBOLTS (2022) #5
SHANG-CHI AND THE TEN RINGS (2022) #6
SHE-HULK (2022) #9
STAR WARS: DOCTOR APHRA (2020) #27
STAR WARS: HAN SOLO & CHEWBACCA (2022) #8
STAR WARS: THE HIGH REPUBLIC (2022) #3
STAR WARS: THE HIGH REPUBLIC – THE BLADE (2022) #1
STAR WARS: YODA (2022) #2
STRANGE ACADEMY: FINALS (2022) #3
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2022) #16
TIMELESS (2022) #1
VENOM (2021) #14
X-TERMINATORS (2022) #4
X-TREME X-MEN (2022) #2
These titles will be available on April 5th, 2023, in print or digital.
