I grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons. Back in those days there was no cable, at least not where I was. We didn't even have a proper antenna, just "
rabbit ears". I remember getting up at the crack of dawn and spending most of the morning fiddling with that antenna trying to get a decent picture from some station just south of the border (I grew up just a couple of miles north of the US border so I actually had a decent chance of getting something). It wasn't that there was nothing good on the Canadian stations, because often there was (little did I know much of it was just older stuff from the US) but being a young boy I was more interested in action-y shows than comedy.
As I grew older, animation (can't call them "cartoons" any more as it has the connotation that they're just for kids) was harder to find.
The Simpsons didn't have their own show yet, but I did discover
Robotech. This show seemed to be made for me. The animation quality was amazing, it had a real story, and
characters actually died (none of this robot-plane or ejecting from helicopters crap). Only years later did I find out the true roots of the show, and that got me hooked on anime.
Ever since, I've kept my eyes open for weird little TV shows and movies. Sometimes these shows are domestic, like
Titan A.E., and sometimes not, like
Kaena. They don't even have to be animated -
The Returner is a load of fun. There is so much out there that's not North-American produced-for-the-masses that I can't hope to keep up.
Luckily, that's where Chuck comes in. Chuck runs
On Location, the first video rental place in Winnipeg to rent only DVDs (the store opened when Blockbuster still rented only VHS tapes). Chuck doesn't carry 50 copies of the latest releases - he might have five if he thinks it will really move. What he does have is an awesome collection of older titles, and an even more awesome collection of independent and foreign titles. If I walk in and say "Hey Chuck, I want to watch something weird" he's always got something. Most recently, he put me on to
Nightwatch and
Daywatch - Russian vampire movies. If you have seen
Ultraviolet and liked the bit with motorcycle (you know the bit I mean) you should definitely check out Daywatch - there's a very similar scene with an
RX-8. I don't know who got the idea first, but I'm sure that one inspired the other (at least for that scene). The weird thing is, I can't seem to find a mention of this anywhere on the 'net. Can it really be that no one else has made the connection?
This is all a very roundabout way of getting the my latest find:
Ben 10. I can't believe how cool this show is. Follow that link and read about it. Watch it on
Cartoon Network if you're in the US, or
Teletoon here in Canada. Just watch it. When I saw the ads I was intrigued, but I figured it would likely be a "kid gets super powers and has to hide them from everybody". Nope. Ben has an alien device glom onto him and the first thing he does is run screaming for Grandpa. Maybe he suddenly matures to become the responsible steward of his newly-acquired powers? Heck no, he uses them to play pranks on his geeky cousin. Ben's still a 10-year-old kid, and he acts like one more often than not. I love it. It's a great blend of humour and action. I think this is one of the best animated shows I've seen since
Cybersix.
Labels: movies/TV
