Wow, I got so excited over this one over the weekend, I completely forgot to post it here.
The short story is this: Peter Cullen, the voice behind the original Optimus Prime in the 1984-88 Transformers animated series, has been cast as Optimus Prime once again in the forthcoming movie from Dreamworks.
The long story from producer Don Murphy:

the Cullen thing. As you all know when we started this grand experiment two years ago, Cullen and Welker were the ONLY Thing you gave me any consensus on. I’m serious, because I read everything you write, no matter how shitty. And if someone suggested something, half of you would shout it down. And the ONLY thing you overwhelmingly agreed on was that Prime should sound like Prime and Megatron should sound like Megatron. Which makes sense, especially since both actors are alive and well.

So I pushed your agenda. As some of you know, that was not an easy one. My own partner advocated celebrity voices. Then I showed him the results of your guys’ input and he immediately joined the bandwagon. Ian Bryce came to the show well in to the process and saw the results and supported immediately. John Rogers needed no prodding god bless his pointed head. One or two Dreamworks executives also supported from relatively early on. The interesting thing is that the director never gave an opinion any way. He had a lot of us telling him that there was no choice, really, the fans had spoken. But he had Skorponok and a lot of people at Dreamworks and Paramount FIGHTING actively not to do it. The forces of Cullen kept the push going.

Several weeks he came in and auditioned, which was all anyone could ask the director to do. Then he came back for a meeting. And now, Optimus Prime has his voice back. And there is much rejoicing. I now have people that really don’t like me because of this. But as we learned in this week’s sudden purge at Disney, it is the movie that counts. I have never cared if I was liked- all that anyone remembers is the film. And 14 years later I am still making movies… before you negativists start asking wotup with Welker, hey we are all working on it. Fact is I was told he was harder to arrange audition time with and his schedule— hell I don’t know. No one wants Cullen without Welker. I will not say that the director has made the decision because he hasn’t.

But you see this particular director is one of the most amazing I’ve ever seen work. One day he was shooting on a big city street- five cameras going at once. He set every shot up. He set the extras, hell he OPERATED one of the cameras. My gut tells me that Michael Bay weighs every decision QUITE STRONGLY. You have to remember that. HE finally okayed Cullen once HE was convinced. And should Welker happen, as I know everyone hopes, it will happen when he can make the decision. Which, quite frankly, is not an urgent decision to make at this moment. Hang tight….

Encouraging words.

Finally, hear Cullen voice Prime for the first time in many years at ComicCon from a panel with Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura:
“I am Optimus Prime… Transformers, roll out!”

Confession: I like Phil Collins and Genesis. They did some pretty cool shit back in the 80s and 70s before they evolved into adult contemporary band in the 90s and disbanded.

One of their best songs was the politically themed “Land Of Confusion” and this morning I heard the new single by Disturbed, which is a cover of this song.

While I love the Cold War symbolism in the original, its resonates today. The vision for the song is assisted in both cases by the music video, where Genesis and political figures of the day are presented as puppets resembling political cartoons. The Disturbed update is directed by Todd MacFarlane, and bears a stylistic similarity to a previous video he’s done, but its much more confrontational with its message, calling out the war mongering and greed of many nations far more directly.

Presented for your enjoyment, the original Genesis video and Disturbed version, after the jump.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Day 2!

Once again, keep checking back because I am updating this as I find stuff through tomorrow afternoon, when I start Day 3’s coverage. Details for Day 2 after the jump.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

I will be updating this post throughout the day with news and announcements as I find them. I will include coverage of last night’s previews as well.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Transformersthemoviedvd.com has finally revealed the new cover for the re-release of the 1986 Transformers movie, featuring new art by Don Figueroa.
More than just a new box, the movie will feature both widescreen and full frame formats, as well as commentary from Director Nelson Shin, Story consultant Flint Dille, and voice actress Susan Blu.
Sony BMG also claims they’ll include many original commercials and materials for the original 1986 release, as well as a “Matrix Of Knowledge” version of the movie with pop-up facts, in-jokes, and other trivia.
Finally there will be a peek at the new Transformers movie with comments from Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg.

Hey, wheres The Touch?

Full press release after the jump.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Well I only reported on this yesterday, but we’ve already got a trailer online for the movie!
Click here to kick shell in High Definition!

I have to say, this is a really, really encouraging look. Theres definitely a hint of the old turtles in there, but the animation and movements of the 4 of them scream “ninja” way more than “teenage” or “turtle”

The big question is: Can a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie satisfy old fans AND new ones?

The official site for the Animal Crossing movie is online. It’s got wallpapers, character information and all kinds of info that’s confusingly not in English.

Check out the trailer to get a look at what the movie will be like.

The movie centers around a girl named Ai who moves to a town populated by animals. Similar to the story of the popular Nintendo Gamecube and Nintendo DS games of the same name she will befriend the townspeople and get a part time job helping out to make ends meet. Game favourites Tom Nook, Kap’n and Tortimer will be featured along side a sample of the animals from the game. We’ll see Sally, an elephant, Bouquet, a cat, Alberto, an aligator and Saruo, a Monkey.

Set to be released on December 16th 2006 in Japan it’s far too early to tell if this will get a North American release.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will get another crack at the big screen next spring, when Warner Bros pictures releases a new 100% computer animated movie based on the foursome’s orignal comic outings.
Though Imagi Animation Studios is promising a gritty Hong Kong action movie, the film’s already headed for a PG rating and its unlikely 4Kids or WB will dish out the killer Ninja Turtles stories from the first volume of the Mirage comics. I mean if they wanna send the Turtles into space and chop off Shredder’s head, thats cool with me. I just don’t think its gonna happen.
Link: IMAGI INTERNATIONAL, which has no animation to speak of as an example. Kinda weird for an unknown studio, eh?

Oh yeah, Ubisoft has tied up rights for the video game, ending Mirage’s long standing deal with Konami. No details announced yet, but if past Ubisoft games are any indication: expect the game to have online support and find a way to use every single button the controller.