Media Blasters have released the first four episodes of Kanokon: The Girl Who Cried Fox on DVD. How to describe this anime series? We’ll let them do it: “Kouta, a country boy who lives with his grandfather, is now moving to the city to attend high school. Changes come with his new home and new school, but nothing could have prepared the gentle young man for girls, specifically a bombshell fox spirit named Chizuru. As if her aggressive advances weren’t enough, he also catches the attention of a frosty wolf spirit named Nozomu. Kouta is dragged into supernatural events as a result of his contact with the two girls, and his school life only gets more chaotic by the day. But with a girl who gives ‘foxy’ new meaning and another howling after him, things are looking up for his love life.” We love anime for a reason, don’t we? Find out more about it at Anime Castle.
DVD and Video
All the Turtles Together on Blu-Ray
Now available on Blu Ray disc is the special Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition Movie Collection (whew!), featuring all three of the original live action Ninja Turtles movies (the first, Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze, and Turtles III: Turtles in Time) as well as the TMNT CGI movie, all in one box. We’ve seen it quoted at many different prices (from about $30.00 on Amazon.com down to about $15.00 in the Previews magalog) so do your homework and do some shopping around before you buy!
[Besides all of that, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. And our thanks to all of YOU for coming to visit!]
Mickey Mouse is in Control…
We’ll let you readers decide what to make of this…
The Mickey Mouse Remote
Remember folks, furries may not in fact be the weirdest fandom out there. You can find out more about this Japanese gizmo at Cartoon Brew.
Surprise Furry Extras
Folks running out to pick up the new DVD/Blue Ray of Spike Jonze’s live-action Where the Wild Things Are will find an interesting extra included: A brand-new short (24 minute) film based on Higglety Pigglety Pop, another book by Maurice Sendak. Using a combination of live action, puppetry, stop-motion animation and more, the film tells the story of Jennie, a fluffy white terrier dog (voiced by Meryl Streep). When she finds that she is bored and thinks “There must be more to life”, Jennie sets out to become leading lady of the World Mother Goose Theater. Unfortunately, she’s informed that the leading lady has to have experience. And Jennie has no idea what “experience” even is, let alone where to find it! Setting out on a quest for it, Jennie winds up as a nurse-maid for a very strange baby who refuses to eat. And nurse-maids who fail to convince the baby to eat are fed to the ravenous lion living in the basement! Only Maurice Sendak comes up with plots like this, folks… The production company for Higglety Pigglety Pop also created the Oscar-Nominated short film Madame Tutli-Putli. Clips from the former and the latter are up on YouTube.
Fall in Love! Destroy the World! Thank You!
Have you heard about Sands of Destruction? It’s a current video game and anime series that have become very popular in Japan in both formats. The game came first: World Destruction — Guided Wills (the original Japanese title) was developed by Imageepoch for the Nintendo DS and published by Sega. Later the anime series adaptation (World Destruction: The Six People That Will Destroy the World) was created by Production I.G. The plot of both is the same: The world has been taken over by various races of animal-people known collectively as “Ferals”, and humans have been reduced to slave labor. A group known as the World Destruction Committee/World Annihilation Front has decided that the only way to fix the world is to destroy it completely. Kyrie Illunis is a young man with mysterious destructive powers — and a teddy-bear-like feral for a friend and advisor. The former brings him to the attention of Morte Ashera, the young woman in charge of the WDC/WAF. Attentions both professional and romantic, that is. And then various ferals and humans get involved, and things become much more complicated for everyone, of course. Funimation will be releasing the complete 13-episode anime series on DVD this January.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Thank you for following us through our first year on-line. We’ll keep making your Internet interesting! — Rod O’Riley, your ed-otter
Squirrel!
Furry fans all know that the real break-out star of Disney-Pixar’s summer smash film, Up, was Dug the dog. For heaven’s sake, he’s got his own Facebook page! Now Dug and his pack of servant dogs, all fitted with their high-tech talking collars, find themselves starring in Dug’s Special Mission, a new CGI short film that will accompany Up on the new DVD and Blue-Ray release. Directed by Ronnie Del Carmen (who worked in the story department on Up), this new short tells the story of what happened right before Dug met Carl Fredricksen and intrepid explorer Russell… when Dug, on his birthday, is wishing for a new master who would be less cruel and maniacal than the one he had before. Dug himself, of course, is voiced again by Up co-director Bob Peterson. The new DVD/Blue-Ray will be available November 10th.
Dug, dog. He just met you, and already he loves you.
A Portrait of Jeff Smith
The Cartoonist is a new DVD documentary that brings us the life, times, and thoughts of Columbus-based cartoonist and Bone-creator Jeff Smith. The film survey’s Mr. Smith’s career during the run of Bone, and also captures the moment when he shifted focus from completing his popular epic to beginning new projects like Rasl. The film also includes interviews with many of Mr. Smith’s contemporaries in the world of cartooning: People like Harvey Pekar, Terry Moore, Paul Pope, Scott McCloud, and more. The Cartoonist is scheduled for release on DVD this coming January.
More Celebrations for the Turtles’ 25th
More items keep turning up in celebration of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ 25th anniversary. First up, Mirage Studios present a special re-release of the original TMNT first issue by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, now rendered in full color by long-time Mirage Studios colorist Steve Lavigne.
And then, there’s this… Turtles Forever is a new direct-to-DVD animated feature film, directed by Roy Burdine and Lloyd Goldfine and produced by 4Kids Entertainment. It features a novel concept: What if the ‘new’, gritty, 2000’s animated Turtles (from the 2D animated series, not the 3D theatrical feature) met up with the more cartoony, silly 1980’s animated Turtles (from the original 2D animated TV series, not the live action feature films — stay with us here!). That’s what happens here, thanks to a handy dimensional rift. Not only that, but various other characters from both series show up in the tangle. (Two Aprils! Two Caseys! One each Rocksteady and Bebop!) Turtles Forever was originally scheduled to be released in late October, but as of this writing contractual disputes between Mirage and 4Kids have forced the release to be postponed. Keep your eyes on InFurNation to find out when they work things out. Or, you could follow the film’s story and updates here.
