September 23rd, 2011 by Tommy Day
The Top Hat Sasquatch team reads a lot of blog posts every day, and some slip through the crack or just don’t warrant their own post. That’s where Missing Links comes in. Every few days we collect the best links we’ve come across and pass them on to you.
September 21st, 2011 by Tommy Day
If you’re like us, you’re so upset about George Lucas tampering with his classic films that you don’t even want to buy the new Blu-ray set. As much as I’d love to watch the new bonus features, the thought of shelling out $80 and not even getting the versions of the films that I love drives me crazy.
Luckily for my fellow disgruntled Star Wars fans, there are a lot of amazing Blu-rays available to fill that void, some already available and some coming very soon. Here are a few.
Whether or not you agree with the masses that Citizen Kane is the best movie ever made or not, you can’t ignore it’s cultural and historical significance (Hey, just like Star Wars!). Admittedly, I’ve only watched it all the way through once, and it was years ago. I’ve had it sitting on my media center for over a year in not-so-glorious SD resolution, and now that I own this impressive Blu-ray set I’m glad I’ve waited to watch it again. The box itself is gorgeous and holds a lot of goodies, and the movie has been upgraded with a 4K scan. There are tons of bonus features, but the best part is the price.
$40 on Amazon
Read More
September 19th, 2011 by Tommy Day
Lets face it; fan films usually suck. With a few exceptions, most fan films are a mediocre mix of bad acting, bad writing, and decent costumes/effects. If you listened to Bubble Pipe Theater: Episode 3, you heard us mention a promising-looking Casey Jones fan film. Well, what once was but a trailer is now a full-fledged short film, and it’s available to stream online.
Oh, and it’s surprisingly decent. The acting, cinematography, and fight choreography are on par with some television level stuff that gets released these days. It’s got an original score by Zain Effendi, which is better than I would have guessed a TMNT fan film would have.
Casey is played by Hilarion Banks, and is a bit more violent than he was in the original TMNT movie. The choreography never crosses over into the kids-playing-in-the-back-yard style that most fan films I’ve seen have, and if you’ve seen the trailer you know that the film doesn’t just feature the masked vigilante.
Rather than put Casey against Raphael like most other incarnations of the story, the filmmakers decided to introduce him to Michelangelo first. This is probably because they were fortunate enough to land Robbie Rist to lend his voice. Robbie played Mikey in all three original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle films, and is the definitive version of the character, to me at least.
The turtle costume suffices in the dark alley setting they filmed in, and definitely looks better than the costumes in Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation.
Overall, the film plays like a nostalgic cross between the orignal film and the ’80s cartoon series. April is there, wearing her signature yellow jumpsuit, but the tone is much darker and more violent. The banter between Casey and Mikey is convincing, as is the whole film, which may be the best compliment a fan film can receive.
Just in case, I’ve got another one. I don’t see how a live-action TMNT movie that involves Michael Bay in any form could ever be better than this Casey Jones fan film.
Check out their website, which is a little annoying and 100% Flash, but maybe someday we’ll get a HD download option. Great work guys!
Via Ninja Pizza
September 16th, 2011 by Tommy Day
If you listened to this week’s episode of Bubble Pipe Theater, you’ll hear me mention a mystery arcade game that my Dad use to have in the Noble Roman’s pizza shop he ran when I was a kid. For years I’ve been trying to remember what this game was called, and hadn’t been able to find anything online about it. All I could remember is that it starred the three little pigs, and that you fought the Big Bad Wolf by throwing junk at him.
After the podcast, I dug around a bit more, and I finally tracked it down (thanks to a thread on Giant Bomb), and it’s called Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine!.
Now, I still consider this a nostalgic victory, but file this under things-I-remember-being-awesome-that-turn-out-to-actually-be-pretty-lame. The gameplay looks horrible, and with those damn pigs constantly yelling “Mine!” it’s hard telling how I ever forgot this game in the first place.
September 16th, 2011 by Tommy Day
This time around on Bubble Pipe Theater, Rob, Tim, and Tommy discuss the NikeMag Back For the Future benefit auctions (read: pricey sneakers), the Star Wars Blu-rays (again), fictional technology we’d like to see in real life, the Walt Disney Family Museum, arcade nostalgia, Wii hacking, our current obsessions, and more.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:10:22 — 80.5MB)
That You Can’t Afford 
Yikes, those are some expensive Muppet shirts!