RooniMan

Hello. I haven't been to this site for a long while now, but that I'm gonna change. I'm going to put 30 day Pokemon drawing challenge upon myself to get back into drawing.


Here is the challenge itself:


I'll be doing it all, but I'm making changes to the list to suit my needs. The altered list should look like this:

Day 1: Favorite pokemon of all time
Day 2: Favorite pokemon of each generation (that includes gen 6)
Day 3: Pokemon that is ugliest to you
Day 4: Cutest pokemon
Day 5: Favorite starters - one of each type
Day 6: A pokemon that would terrify you in real life
Day 7: Pokemon you hate battling in-game
Day 8: Favorite (or least favorite) in-game Rival
Day 9: Favorite Legendary Pokemon(s)
Day 10: First Shiny ever caught (Red Gyarados from Gen 2 Doesn't Count)
Day 11: Favorite Eevee Evolution
Day 12: A Normal Type
Day 13: A Fighting Type
Day 14: A Flying Type
Day 15: A Poison Type
Day 16: An Electric Type
Day 17: A Ground type
Day 18: A Psychic Type
Day 19: A Rock Type
Day 20: An Ice Type
Day 21: A Bug Type
Day 22: A Ghost Type
Day 23: A Dark Type
Day 24: A Steel Type
Day 25: A Dragon Type
Day 26: A Fairy Type
Day 27: Non-starter Fire Type
Day 28: Non-starter Water Type
Day 29: Non-Starter Grass Type
Day 30: Draw Pikachu

Wish me luck.

A day late, but that doesn't matter. What does matter, though, is that 2012 has been a very absent year for me on this site. I very rarely posted any new art or logged in to the place.

Well, I'm gonna make things different this year. 2013 will not see me vacant from the thing I love, art.
So I am gonna make a genuine effort to post and do more art this year than last year.

At the moment, I'm under the weather slightly, but I'll try to summit the strength to draw and post. I hope this flu goes away quicker.

I saw Disney's newest movie, Wreck-it Ralph, on opening day and I must say it definately washed away the bad taste Brave left me. Allow me to break it down (Warning: some Brave bashing ahead, as well as spoilers).



Wreck-it Ralph (2012)


Pros:

Good Characters - (the characters were certainly good and likable, they aren't annoying like some other movies)

Great Take on Video Games - (the concept of the video game world in the movie is pretty inspired. When the doors are closed in the arcade, all the characters exit their cabinets and go to the central game station, which in reality is just a power strip, and the character walk about going all over. I love it. Also it delives nicely into the world of gaming, unlike say Brave that glances over Scottish culture.)

Great animation - (I noramlly don't talk about the animation in any CG movie, but the animation in Wreck-it Ralph couldn't be ignored. The animation on some character mimicks the popping animation like you see on old 8-bit games. They really nailed it)

Great voice acting - (The voice acting was nice, the actors did a fine job hre)

Great Design - (the design of both the enviornments and the characters, are great)

Funny Jokes - (FINALLY! A CG Movie with jokes that make me laugh, unlike that OTHER movie. *CoughBraveCough*)



Cons:

Could of used more Game Jumping - (In the movie, Ralph game jumps, basically going into other games he doesn't belong in. Thats a fine idea, but he only jumps into two games, a first-person like shooter game named Hero's Duty and a Mario Kart-like game called Sugar Rush. Would of been nice if he jump into more games besides those two. Oh well, maybe Disney will save that for the inevitable sequel)

Slightly perdictable outcome - (as the middle of the film goes on, the ending becomes somewhat perdictable. But then again, it's not as bad as Planet 51)





So in short, Wreck-it Ralph is a great movie. It's become my new favorite, both this and Hotel Transylvania. It's a helluva lot better than that mediocre Brave.

So I've seen Hotel Transylvania today and I'll say right away it's my favorite among CGI films.
It's funny, when I say the first previews and discovered Genndy Tratakovsky (Dexter's Lab, Samurai Jack) is directing, My first thought was "OH NO! Genndy, what shit have they forced you to do?!" But after much thought and reading a very frank interview of him about the movie, I then thought "This probablywould be so bad, Genndy knows what hes doing, he has experiance and talent (unlike some shithead whos name begins with "S" and ends with "E". *coughsethmcfarlanecoughe*). So I had lots of confidence in his abilities.






Hotel Transylvania (2012)


Pros:

Fantastic Animation (I normally don't talk about the animation in CGI movies since they usually are boring, but here, the animation is spectacular. For the first time, the animation is VERY cartoony and I do mean CARTOONY! It's such a breath of fresh air to see something like this after watching other CG movies that go with a more realistic approach. I hope this a sign of good things to come)

Great Designs (the design are very nice done ,very distinct, and cartoony, unlike some other CG films that go to ridiclous lengths to make their characters look and act like real humans. I'm looking at you, Zemeckis. Plus Genndy's designs transfer phenomenonally well in 3D)

Good Voice Acting (Adam Sandler does Dracula in this, and thankfully isn't hamming it up too much. Sekena Gomez does his daugther, Mavis. While I dispise Gomez, she was okay here. Also Steve Bushemi does the Wolfman, Cee Lo Green as the Mummy, and some others that are okay)


Cons:

Slightly Weak Story (The story isn't terrible, but it's a bit weak. Could of been stronger)

48% Unfunny (I would say less than half the gags were not funny, but the other 52% made up for it)



So in short, Hotel Transylvania might not be the most important movie in the world, but it is a grand step in the right direction. Not prefect, but still a nice movie.

I've seen Pixar's Brave alittle over a month ago. I'll cut to the nitty gritty, it was disappointing. Very.
So what went wrong with this new original story since Up? Lets dive right in.


(SPOLIERS AHEAD!! TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE YET!)


Brave (2012)


Pros:

Beautiful Presentaion (The movie has a very nice beautiful presentaion. Everything looks great.)

Merida (The main prtagonist is a very good. She is independent, but so much to the point of being unlikable, she can kick plenty of ass, which is always nice. I think this movie me love Scotland even more.)

Merida's hair (The Pixar guys have really knocked themselves out with Merida's hair. It's a great technical achivement.)


Cons:

Underwhelming plot (The plot was a huge disappointment. They could of done a better job of coming up with a more epic plot that fits. It went from something that could-of-been, to something that shouldn't-of-been. Basically, the plot is Merida wants to have more freedom than is allowed to princesses, but her mother won't let her. Soon she disobays her and enters the achery tornaument. Her mom gets pissed and scares her off. She soon bumps into a witch [really stupid BTW], and gives Merida a magic cake that has to feed her mom in order to change her. She goes back and tricks her mom into eating the cake, she starts feeling sick, goes upstairs, falls off bed, and turns into a big, black bear. It's right at this moment in the movie it becomes a Brother Bear scenario, and even more so a Toy Story scenario. Also I felt the relation between Merida and her mom was rushed and shoved out the door.)

Plot Holes (Plot hole #1: Merida in some point in the movie states that Mor'du [the evil demon bear that is the shoe-horned villian in the movie that takes her dad's leg] wants to get revenge. Revenge for what? Movie never explains. Is it revenge for not being about to kill Fergus [Merida's dad], is it because he was the one who brought down a far off kingdom becuase wanted more power. If that's it, thats a fucking dumb reason for revenge 'cause it's basically his fault. Plot hole #2: When Merida brings her mom to bed when she gets sick, her Dad [Fergus] does NOT, I repeat, DOES NOT check on Elinor [mother's name] for TWO DAYS!!! Heres the skinny: Merida and Elinor go to the bedroom, Elinor turns into a bear, they narrowly escape, being seen by Fergus and the three Lords. They run to the woods. Now for the two days they are there, Fergus never goes to check to see if the Queen is fine, it's only after Merida comes backs with Bear Elinor, that Fergus finally gets the idea 'OH! I forgot! I have an sick wife! I should go be a responcible King and husband and check on her!' Fucking idiot.)

Useless, Unfunny Slapstick (The movie has plenty of slapstick, but is very unfunny and grating. Just there to waste time)

Useless characters (there quite atlot of useless characters in the movie. There are three Lords [and their sons] who do nothing useful, there Merida's three little brothers who help her, but there could of been more screen for them.)

Shit Songs (Now I don't mean songs like a Disney musical, I mean a shit-made pop-influenced folk-like songs that are so awfully, you may as well replace them with a Selena Gomez song)




To sum it up, Brave is a very pretty, but poorly written movie. It doesn't live up to the hype it was creating, it fell VERY short of being an epic movie. And from what I heard, Brave had suffered some problems in production, resulting one person getting fired, and it kinda shows.

I will say it's not nearly as bad as Cars 2, but it's not saying much. It's a real shame, this movie could of been a hell of a movie, but it isn't and it's sad omen of bad things for Pixar in the future.