Missing Links: Iron Giant, Space Jam, SNES, Spider-Man

Posted 6 years ago by Missing Links

Missing Links

If Lego Doesn’t Make This Iron Giant Set, It’s Going to Be Sadder Than the Movie
I never knew I needed a LEGO Iron Giant until now.

The Oral History of ‘Space Jam’: Part 1 – Launching the Movie
Cartoon Brew has a whole series on the Oral History of Space Jam, and if you grew up with the movie like I did, it’s a great read.

These Are the 30 Games Nintendo Should Include on a Tiny Super Nintendo
This is a solid list of SNES games that should be included on the eventual SNES Classic Mini. I would add E.V.O. The Search for Eden and Super Mario All-Stars, but that’s just my opinion.

Rejoice: Michael Giacchino Will Score SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING
This is great news. His score for Dr. Strange was great, and I hope Marvel lets him cut loose for Spider-Man and really write a great theme for the webslinger.

Missing Links: Nintendo Switch, NES Classic, Rogue One, Sega Genesis

Posted 6 years ago by Missing Links

Missing Links

The NES Classic Edition is dead simple — and that’s why it’s great – The Verge
I have no need for this since I’m a big fan of building Raspberry Pi systems running RetroPie to play old-school video games, but this thing is just so awesome and cute I know I'll probably end up buying one or two.

Rogue One Will Have A Different Opening Without the Traditional Star Wars Crawl!
I think this is a great idea for the Star Wars spinoffs. I want them to feel different from the main saga movies as much as possible.

Portable Animation Tool Inchworm Just Got Updated for the Nintendo 3DS
I just recently got a Nintendo 3DS and this little animation program looks really fun.

Owlboy review • Eurogamer.net
I’ve been hearing about this game for a few years, and it looks really polished. I can’t wait to try it out sometime soon.

Nintendo President Hints of Bigger Hardware Plans for Switch – Bloomberg
Sounds like Nintendo has a few hardware tricks up their sleeves that have yet to be announced for the Switch. How about different sets of Joy-Cons in the style of Gamecube, NES, etc? I have enjoyed the Wii U but I’m ready for Nintendo to have a blockbuster console on their hands again.

TecToy unveils its new limited edition SEGA Genesis
This sounds like an interesting competing product to the upcoming NES Mini. It has pre-installed Sega games but also reads games from SD cards.

Nintendo Is Revealing “Major Details” About The Switch In January 
The announcements of the Nintendo Switch was one of last week's highlights, but don't expect any more info in 2016. Nintendo doesn't want to hurt their sales (or their 3rd party developers) for the holidays. It'll be a long wait, but I'm eager to learn more about the Switch.

‘Muppet Babies’ Reboot Happening in 2018 and This is Why I’m Excited

Posted 6 years ago by Television

Muppet Babies Reboot

The internet took a break from talking about Donald Trump briefly this week when Variety confirmed the upcoming Muppet Babies reboot that was previously scooped by ToughPigs. If you haven’t read the ToughPigs scoop, I highly recommend it. It has character descriptions and even some sample dialogue.

Muppet Babies was a very influential part of my early childhood, and this reboot comes at the perfect time. The wife and I are about to have our first kid, and it makes me so happy to know she will be able to watch reboots of Muppet Babies, especially since episodes of the original are so hard to track down.

The new show will be catered to the very young crowd (see Disney Junior) and probably not very watchable for adults. This is coming from someone who would rather watch cartoons over any live-action television, but I doubt it will be a show for us. However, I’m sure it’ll be a fine show to watch with your kids. Why am I so excited about it then?

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Star Wars Battlefront First Impressions

Posted 7 years ago by Games

Battlefront

Star Wars Battlefront I and II are both probably in my top five video games of all time. My love of Star Wars in addition to the addictive gameplay and awesome multiplayer of those games make them about perfect for me. Needless to say, I had a feeling that a new Battlefront game was going to drag me into the current generation of gaming, and I was right.

I told myself I was never going to get an Xbox One or a PS4. I have plans to (someday) build a kick-ass gaming PC and I didn’t see the point in a console other than the Wii U, but I changed my tune when I started reading some good things about the Xbox One, its upcoming backwards compatibility, and when an Amazon gift card for the exact amount of the console landed in my inbox.

My mysterious benefactor

Obviously I haven’t been updating this site much in the last couple years, but I still get a decent amount of search engine traffic thanks to my years worth of posts. Occasionally, I get a tiny amount of money from Amazon affiliate links, but it’s usually only a few dollars a month. A couple months ago, however, someone actually paid over $6,000 for an out-of-print LEGO Star Wars set (from this article) through one of my links, and I ended up with an Amazon gift card for about $350. Crazy.

Rather than use that on something I really needed, I decided that it was the universe telling me I needed to get a new gaming console so I could play Battlefront. Someone spent six grand on a Star Wars toy so I could play this game. Thanks, rich stranger.
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Missing Links: Will Vinton, Usagi Yojimbo, Ghostbusters, Guardians

Posted 9 years ago by Missing Links

Missing Links

How the Father of Claymation Lost His Company
I’ve been a huge fan of stop-motion/claymation since I was a very little kid, and Will Vinton has always been one of my favorites. I was vagely aware of what happened when his studio was taken over by Phil Knight of Nike fame, but I didn’t know the whole story. It’s pretty incredible what happened to him, but it has to be said, would films like Coraline and ParaNorman have been made if the change didn’t happen? I think Laika has a bright future but it sucks that Vinton got booted from his own company.

Watch Stop-Motion ‘Usagi Yojimbo’ Short Film
This short is rough, but it was just used as a proof-of-concept for the filmmakers to get the rights to Usagi Yojimbo to make a stop-motion animated feature. I love stop-motion and I love Usagi Yojimbo (through his TMNT connection of course) so this is pretty awesome.

How Laika Pushed 3D Printing to New Heights with ‘The Boxtrolls’
I love that 3D printing is helping keep stop-motion animation alive. Laika’s movies are great and I can’t wait to see the Boxtrolls.

See the Ghostbusters Ride That Was Never Built
This would have been a really fun ride.

Inside the Wild UI Design of Guardians of the Galaxy
I love when a sci-fi movie has a great UI design, and Guardians certainly did. Beyond the screens and holograms that we’re used to seeing, it had some amazingly weird “UI” in Ronan’s ships. Just another thing that this movie did right.