Beware the Batman may be the solution to your Dark Knight woes since the Nolan trilogy has exited the building

Beware the Batman may be the solution to your Dark Knight woes since the Nolan trilogy has exited the building. What woes you say? I'm talking the voices in your head that scream, "Please give us another movie! Please bring back Christian Bale cause he was the best Batman ever!" Yeah, those woes.

But we all know that isn't happening, like ever. So what is a Batman fan supposed to do? Well for starters, I have to say I'm impressed with what I've seen of the new Beware the Batman series that's supposed to air on Cartoon Network starting Saturday morning on July 13th (that's the day after the Pacific Rim premiere in case you were wondering). And yes, I didn't have to look up that date as for some reason...I have Pacific Rim's premiere basically memorized. BTW, Alex Cavanaugh had the BEST comment on my whining Pacific Rim post yesterday when I stated that I'd lose all faith in humanity if Grown Ups 2 ends up beating it at the box office (pre-emptive "shut up" to Grumpy who says it's a matter of "when" and not "if".)

Anyway, Alex said, "If that happens, we can both go out and smack around anyone who gave money to Grown Ups 2."

I totally agree, and it made me giggle.

I've talked about Cartoon Network's other shows (that got canceled) primarily Green Lantern and the Clone Wars. Go here to read my post on Green Lantern. It looks like they are at least making an effort to bring a high quality animated series to life again to replace those that they lost. And that makes me happy. Let's hope that it has a successful run as the Batman is an incredibly popular character. I wonder though if he'll be too dark for the Saturday morning time slot. Batman is the original emo kid I think.

Anyway, if you like computer generated animation, you may want to click on this trailer and take a gander. Let me know what you think in the comments, and whether or not you'll be watching it.

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The Fall of the Old Republic

The Fall of the Old Republic is coming on Cartoon Network, and it looks epic by any standard. I'm stunned that this is a television show. I applaud you LucasFilm!

Next Saturday, the Clone Wars season 5 returns in a new time slot in the morning. I've just recently got caught up on season four of this absolutely amazing series, and the trailer for the show gives me CHILLS I tell you!

From the trailer, it seems that the new season will focus on exactly how the Empire replaces the Old Republic by giving us glimpses of unrest among the public over the Jedis' role in the world. In other words, it answers the question of "How is it that Palpatine had the Jedi eliminated and the galactic populace seems fine with that?"

If you aren't watching the show or you have children and you aren't encouraging them to watch the show, I think you are doing a disservice. I would have LOVED to have cartoons with this kind of production value for my Saturday morning. But instead I had Bugs Bunny, Thundarr the Barbarian, and Land of the Lost. Kids have no idea how good they have it these days.

Please give the trailer a watch unless you are a boring person that doesn't like cool and exciting things.

So what is my single favorite scene in this trailer?

When Palpatine (cackling) says to Darth Maul, "You are no longer my apprentice." That part looks chilling as I've never seen Palpatine taking on another uber powerful Sith.

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Dragons: Riders of Berk

Did you watch the one-hour premiere last night of Dragons: Riders of Berk on the Cartoon Network? If not, here's the teaser for it (from io9).

This weekly animated series follows the continuing adventures of Hiccup and his dragon Toothless on the island of Berk, along with the band of dragon trainers, all of whom now have dragons of their own! Through their training, the kids are finding out the cool things dragons can do. Not only will they learn more about their dragons, they'll also discover new ones and battle against enemies as they explore worlds they never dreamed existed. In addition, the talented cast from the feature film - Jay Baruchel (Hiccup), America Ferrera (Astrid), Christopher Mitz-Plasse (Fishlegs) and T.J. Miller (Tuffnut) - will lend their voices to the series.

Cartoon Network is doing what Fox did with "Touch." That is, they are airing just this one episode, letting it percolate with the viewers for a while, and then launching into more episodes of the series this Fall.

So what did I think? Well how could you go wrong with an episode title like, "How to start your own Dragon Academy?" LOL All the voices are back. Astrid, Hiccup and crew start off with a flying competition and of course, Hiccup and Toothless steal the show. And dragons are still being dragons. Which in this show means they are "adorable" yet "destructive".

But you can't have a story without conflict. One concerned villager shows up with a fat sheep under one arm and complains about the dragons. Hiccup tells his dad, "I'm the best man to take care of the dragons." His dad responds, "You're not a man yet." And that kind of sets things up as a coming of age story. It's time for Hiccup to grow up and become the man he's supposed to be. And he's going to start by helping humans to coincide peacefully with the dragons.

Behold the face of the ORIGINAL dragon trainer!

At first it doesn't work so well, and all the teenagers are in danger of losing their beloved dragons. But one annoying villager lets drop the precious knowledge that a tiger never changes its stripes, and a dragon will never go against its nature. So Hiccup comes up with a plan to use the dragon's nature to aid the village, by terrifying fish into the fishing nets, by scaring wild boars out of the forest and into the slaughter houses of the villagers, and by raining dragon poop onto fields to fertilize them.

Overall, I really enjoyed the episode. The animation wasn't quite as good as in the movie but *almost there. I can't wait to catch more episodes later this year.

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