Animal Crossing Broke My Spirit Again

Seriously... as soon as I thought I was out, I get pulled back in for one last event. Now I'm a broken shell of a man, shaking down my "friends" for every last 'shroom I can get.

IT WASN’T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!

... yeah, it was totally my fault. I had the best of intentions, I was gonna update this blog at least four times a week, I was gonna be KING O' THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD within two weeks.

Instead, I opted to not update anything for THREE SOLID YEARS. Well, here's hoping I can get myself back on the wagon. I mean, my last post was about Batman v. Superman and we've already moved past Justice League at this point. I'm gonna have to put something up about that, because it was a remarkably enjoyable movie (all things considered). Not as good as Wonder Woman, of course, but still enjoyable.

NO. MORE. EXCUSES.

This Whole Batman v. Superman Thing

So the new trailer dropped last weekend.

... and as much as I've whined and complained about this movie being GRIMDARK, I started feeling a bit better. They showed Robin's costume, for cryin' out loud! There was some (tiny little itty-bitty) scrap of respect being shown for the history! And it looked like they were going to acknowledge the weaknesses in Man of Steel and use them as a springboard for character growth!

I was cautiously optimistic.

But then you hear that bit from Ma Kent and it sorta all goes down the crapper. This editorial over at Topless Robot contains a good deal of profanity, but it explains the serious issues with her statement extremely well. Maybe in the context of the film it makes more sense; who knows. I just know that really want to get excited about DC's cinematic future, but every time I start to I see some other nasty, mean-spirited, let's-appeal-exclusively-to-middle-school-boys nonsense.

... not even gonna get started on the Suicide Squad today.

Fictional Realities

The other day I was reading an (old) article about Roger Ebert's reviews for movies he really hated. Down in the comments, folks began talking about one of the movies in particular and one person made a very interesting comment:

I think an ending that says "the entire movie you just watched never actually happened" is just about one step above "it was all a dream." I don't like walking out of a theater thinking that there's a chance that nothing I just saw mattered and I was tricked.

I am certainly not arguing that this person is wrong, I can completely see where that opinion comes from, but I immediately thought: "why?" Why can we accept so much from our fiction (superheroes, talking alien robots, The Rock) but a simple reminder that our fiction is fiction yanks us out of it?

Back in 2011, when DC launched "The New 52," I remember taking it badly. The universe I had grown to know and love was GONE 4EVR. Never mind the fact that "my" universe had already replaced another that came before it back in 1986. Now, four years later, we might even be moving to yet another new universe with all this Convergence stuff.

... and again: all this headache over stuff that really isn't real in a physical sense. Yet it is real, isn't it?

Batman v Superman: Dawn of DARKNESS

So the new trailer for Batman v. Superman v. Good Feelings dropped this week, and The Internet has been doing what The Internet likes to do. Some love it; some hate it; most everybody has an opinion. My opinion is probably fairly obvious from that link. I don't want to just whine, though; at least not today. Probably later.

... I opted to do a little something to improve that trailer.

Get Ready to Break The BANK Is More Like It

Oh man. Oh man oh man oh man.

It's like, my initial feeling is that this is rad as heck... but then I realize that it's just another Skylanders/Infinity/amiibo thing. Which means it will combine two of the most expensive toy properties mankind has ever created into one monstrous hybrid of cash-guzzling insanity.

Awesome Animation

Not much to write today (hard to focus when your stomach is engaged in glorious combat with last night's leftovers), but I did find this fascinating series of animation tutorials that I thought I'd share:

I had originally only intended to watch one or two and save the rest for later, but they really sucked me in. Helpful information for any kind of artist or cartoonist, I think; I'll have to add these tips to my toolbox.