July 16th
Today I'm starting the week with a meta article, because this week is going to have the first articles from the website's two newest B-Mods, Miz and Nat. I met both of them recently, but they've both been a major help behind the scenes so I made sure to get both on the site before Artfight. I will say these will be the last additions to the sites team for the foreseeable future. 10 is a big but not too big number for a group like I need to keep the site running. I hope everyone enjoys both of their premiere articles!
---------
July 17th
Today is the anniversary of "Pokémon the Movie 2000: The Power of One" first premiering in Japan. This is a movie I know for good playtime aside from Spirited Away and The Digimon Movie at my middle school anime club. The plot details a crazed rich guy named Lawrence who wants to capture the legendary Pokemon Lugia at any cost. So Ash Pokemon and gang have to save the world, the second of like a few dozen times.
Interestingly, early versions of the film didn't even have Ash, and instead starred a new character that ended up named Melody in the English dub. With Ash too popular or something not to put in the movie, Melody ended up delegated to a helpful love interest. This aside from the fact Lugia was originally supposed to be more feminine, it feels like this movie was really robbed of having two female leads. But it's not like Pokemon would have playable girl characters in the games for another year after the film was released in Pokemon Crystal. For what it's worth, Ash has finally retired from the anime and now the series has a girl protagonist named Liko.
----------
July 18th
Today is a grab bag day and today we have the first article from Miz!
Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure is a movie from the 1970s, specifically from 1977. This film musical has Raggedy Ann and her brother Andy go on a huge and perilous adventure to get their friend Babette back from the Captain. The story for the movie was made using the stories of Johnny Gruelle, called “Raggedy Ann Stories” and many others. It has become a cult classic with the merchandise of the original Raggedy Ann stories. A few more facts to start off this adventure of ours is to mention that the directors of the movie are Richard Williams and co-director Ben Washam, another fact is that Raggedy Ann was made from Gruelle’s daughters’ handmade doll. I am sure we all have something dear to us similar to that, so as we continue - let’s keep something like that in our minds!
The basic plot of the movie is that their poor friend, a french doll by the name of Babette, has been captured by a villain called Captain Contagious! What a sickly name for such a villain isn’t it! Him and his whole band of pirates decide to kidnap her and Raggedy Ann and reluctantly Andy decide to go and help their friend in danger, they set on that dangerous journey I was talking about earlier!
As they go on, they meet characters such as: The Camel, The Mechanical Dancing Mouse, and Captain Hookah who all help in ways to get them past their own challenges and who try to understand their own problems. In the end, Captain Hookah helps Raggedy Ann and Andy get Babette back and they live happily forever as we know it.
The animation in this musical is beautiful and I will go through a few of them here! One of the animation styles used is pure traditional hand-drawn animation which can really show its wonder and its age over time but that doesn’t make it any less of a movie by being so old, it's still a wonderful story about trials and tribulations. The second part of the animation is the psychedelic imagery that plays when there is a musical number or during a certain character's dialogue (let’s not forget about you, Camel!) it gives off the scene of its time and I love it, you should definitely check it out!!
In the end, this magical story teaches us all about bravery and sacrifice for friends and those who are close to us. It speaks to us about friendship and what we can do for others when we have the chance. I love this movie so much and I think others should check it out too!
---------
July 19th
Today is the birthday of the first full length online exclusive music album from an established band, They Might Be Giants' Long Tall Weekend. Debuting on Emusic, a pre-y2k digital music retailer, the album apparently sold well enough that TMBG was the most legally downloaded band in 1999. The band followed up this original album with a selection of monthly rarity samplers over a Emusic subscription known as "They Might be Giants Unlimited ". Personally, my favorite song off the Unlimited tracks has to be "Rocket Ship", a unique demo version of "Spiraling Shape".
Interesting enough, the album just recently received its first physical release. While there are some rare promo CDs for the album, it is now publicly available on vinyl. In a fun twist, this new release has new cover art that's pretty much the original cover redrawn in different colors.
-----------
July 20th
Today is the premiere anniversary of the television show "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius". Based on the 2001 film, "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius", the show follows Jimmy's Bizarre CGI adventures of him making inventions that ruin his life for five minutes or fighting aliens or getting his friends "alien pregnant".
Interestingly enough the show's characters predate the series film by a solid few years. Originally "Johnny Quasar", The series first short was 40 seconds long and debuted in 1995 at SIGGRAPH; a prestigious annual computer graphics conference that's still held to this day. Johnny did well at the conference, winning two awards for Best Character Animation and something for its exceptional use of the LightWave 3D engine. The short then became publicly unavailable a bit after the 90's until 2017 when the short was uploaded after a lost media hunt by Johnny's original voice actor.
-------------
July 21st
Today is a grab bag day, and with it, Nat's first article!
Hi everyone, it's Nat here with my first post! And what to choose for this if not one of my favorite and most classic of cryptids leading back to the old days of America: The Jersey Devil! This legend is somewhat unique to cryptids, in that its backstory never sees much change despite it having existed for a very long time.
It's said that in 1735, a Pine Barrens (THE most cursed place in NJ!) woman known as Mrs. Leeds fell pregnant for the thirteenth time. In her exasperation she shouted that she hoped this next child was a devil- which came horribly true 9 months later when the Jersey Devil was born. Its looks are generally agreed to be: huge leathery bat wings, coarse fur, horns, and hooves. Some people say the baby was born normal and quickly changed, while others say that Mrs Leeds gave birth to the monster directly. However it came out, it killed most of those present at the birth before escaping through the chimney out into the dark woods.
So what do New Jersians do with this horror of a beast, with this man-eating monster? We made it the mascot of our ice hockey team, of course! That's right, despite the fact that to this day people report terrifying sightings of this creature we gleefully put it into marketable plushie form as often as possible. Personally, I own a "skeleton" of the thing, so I sure can't judge anyone for it. But it's always funny looking at something that's supposed to be so frightening but has become so intertwined with what New Jersey is.
----------
July 22nd
Today is Dpooner's Say, er, Spooner's Day; the only holiday dedicated to Spoonerisms. A Spoonerism is when you switch the first two letters of words for comic effect; Usually innuendo. personally I know saying stuff like sss aucker is the closest you are going to get to me swearing any time soon. And before anyone thinks I don't swear out of some level of innocence, never mistake my restraint for naïve.