This is what I saw last night.

Yeah, it was a giant concert of just Star Wars music, spanning all 6 episodes, and it was amazing. As great as the music is in the films, there’s nothing quite like hearing it being performed live. Anthony Daniels, sporting a shiny gold jacket, told a condensed version of the story in between songs. He was very clever and funny, and would often embellish C-3PO’s role in the story to make him out to be more of a hero, much to the impatience of the orchestra. It was a really phenomenal show. There was even a choir who did a fantastic job with “Duel of the Fates“.

I didn’t even think of bringing a camera, which I now regret. There were lots of great costumes there. Several Stormtroopers, rebel pilots, Jedi Knights, a Clone Commander, Boba and Jango Fett, and a fully functional working R2D2 with all the sound effects. Most impressive!

The place was packed. I barely saw any empty seats. People of all ages and of all walks of life were there, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It’s going to be a traveling show, and will be in Cincinnati next weekend, so I totally recommend that any Star Wars fans go and check this show out if and when it’s held near you.

An unrelated note for my fellow animation fans in Canada. Last Friday YTV played the incredible season finale of Justice League Unlimited, but somebody totally screwed up and the first few minutes of the show were replaced by an episode of “The Shopping Bags” (a show that doesn’t even air on YTV), and then some terrible clay animated snail show called “Snailympics“. It was a hideous display of ineptitude by YTV, but I am happy to report that, apparently, they plan on replaying this episode again tomorrow. Second chances like this don’t happen very often, so if you are a fan of Batman, whatever you do, do not miss out on this episode. It’s a brilliant piece of art that brings the entire DC Animated Universe around full circle.

Sayonara.

I bought the Samurai Jack Season 1 and 2 DVD sets recently and have been watching some episodes. I’ve already seen them all on TV, but taking the time to watch them now is almost like a brand new experience. I’m noticing things that I’ve never seen before.

I am thoroughly convinced that Samurai Jack is the greatest cartoon ever made.

At the very least, it’s the best cartoon in the past 10 years, or the best non-comedy cartoon. But besides Jack, what else is there? I love Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond, and Justice League, but these shows are based on established material, and part of what makes Jack so great is that, while it is admittedly derivative of several movies and other cartoons, it’s an original concept. I love anime, but things the budget concerns, merchandising, and muddled plots often get in the way of some of the truly great shows. I don’t like Disney and while I can respect the talents of the individual artists that have worked there, I don’t believe they’ve ever made anything as awesome as Jack. The only thing that I can think of that would be a worthy comparison are the Looney Tunes classics, especially the brilliant “What’s Opera, Doc“. But those are comedies and Samurai Jack is not, and I think that animation should be more than just something to make people laugh.

The only fault that Samurai Jack has is that the story doesn’t really go anywhere. There is no real continuity between episodes. Each episode sees Jack face a new challenge on his way to get home, and when it ends he really isn’t any closer to reaching is goal. But even that I have a hard time seeing as a flaw, because it lets any new viewer jump in and watch any episode without missing anything, and it shows the strength and determination of Jack’s character.

At any rate, Samurai Jack is a modern classic. It wasn’t even that long ago, but I don’t think people realize that when Jack first debuted, nobody had ever seen anything like it. Not only was the visual style unique, but so was the pacing, the way the story was told. Now we take that for granted. It’s often a dark, violent, sophisticated show, and yet it’s perfectly suitable for most children. This is what North American animation should strive to be more like. And people can’t see what I’m talking about, well I’m sorry to say it, but…

You don’t know Jack.

Sayonara.

Well I updated, for whatever it’s worth.

I’ve hardly had any time to work on this stuff, but little by little I finished enough to scrape together an update. So there you go. Check it out, and talk about it here.

I saw Revenge of the Sith on opening day, almost a week ago, and it’s still sinking in. I can’t get this movie out of my head. I could describe it by using words like “powerful“, “intense“, and “overwhelming“, but that doesn’t really go far enough. I can’t even really say “I liked this movie” because “like” and “dislike” just don’t even seem to apply here. There were parts that I loved, but there were also parts grabbed me by the throat, shook me around, and dropped me on the floor. No movie before has ever engaged me to that point. It was the most incredible and emotionally resonant film I have ever seen, and I really don’t like the fact that I am not watching it right now as I type this.

There are other movies coming within the next few years that are from franchises that I love as much as I love Star Wars. There’s the live action Transformers, the CGI Ninja Turtles, AstroBoy, and so on. But even if I live to be a hundred years old, I doubt I’ll ever see anything else quite like Revenge of the Sith. I said that I couldn’t wait to see it. Now, I can’t wait to see it again.

But hey, if you’ve seen it and have a different opinion, I’d love to read it. Tell me what you thought about the movie right here.

Sayonara.

Today is the day. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for since I was a kid. Revenge of the Sith is out, and I can’t wait to see it.

Watching the prequels on the big screen has been an interesting ride, and now that the last of them is here it’s going to be kind of strange knowing that there aren’t any more to look forward to. I know that some of the fussier fans have been disappointed in the prequels so far, but I understand why these stories have needed to be told they way they were and I’ve enjoyed them for the most part. Especially Attack of the Clones, which had everything I’d ever want in a Star Wars movie and has been my absolute favorite of the saga since I first saw it.

I can take a look back at where I was in my life and where I thought I was going at the time each of these prequel movies was released. Using these films as some sort of landmark on the grand scope of things, I find myself in very different situations between movies and winding up in places I hadn’t anticipated at the time. Now here we are at Revenge of the Sith and once again I find myself, for better or worse, at a completely different place in life than where I was for the previous movies. But for as much that has changed, and as different of a person as I now may be, there is one consistent factor that has stayed with me all this time. Something that hasn’t changed, and probably never will. I’m not Yoda, and I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know one thing:

The Force is with me.

Sayonara.

Apparently, an earlier post I made about how angry I get when people steal my pictures is offensive to some people! Gasp!

Apparently, this post means that I am complaining so much! Wow!

Apparently, when people are looking for pictures, they don’t care where they get them from, so that should make it OK for people to steal from me! Shock!

Apparently, I’m wrong to feel this way because I’m acting like these are my own personal images that I drew, even though I have seen people take my drawings without asking and put them up on their websites without any sort of credit to me. Heinous!

Apparently, since these are all just screenshots that were uploaded, it should be ok for other people to steal my bandwidth and use them without permission, despite all of the hard work I spent on taking these screenshots and writting the text that goes with them! Scandal!

Apparently, because I have chosen to express my displeasure over being stolen from, I am whining like a little girl. Insult!

Apparently, I should actually be grateful that people steal from me so much! Hooray!

Apparently, I should stop complaining about it. Demanded!

Well, apparently, some people don’t know what the hell they are talking about. Owned!

I’ll stop complaining about people stealing from me when people stop stealing from me. It’s just that simple! But since I’m apparently supposed to be happy about my hard work being disrespected and trounced upon by people who don’t even know the most simple and basic rules of etiquette, I should just sit here with a smile on my face and allow everyone to take advantage of all the effort that I put into making this website as original and entertaining as it is.

This is not a new problem, it’s been going on for years. I could have been complaining all this time, and I’d have been well within my right to do so, but I didn’t. Now this outright theft has gotten completely out of hand and I want it to stop. This is my property we’re talking about and this is my website, so I have every right to use my website to say how much it pisses me off when people abuse my property. If people can’t deal with that, well then, apparently, they need to get real and look at the big picture here.

Stealing is wrong. I don’t care if everyone is stealing from everyone else on the Internet. Don’t steal from Ninjatron. It’s really easy. Just don’t do it.

Sayonara.