Do you remember? I remember don’t worry, worry.

Of course I remember, when American cartoons were actually written for the correct demographic. When shows tailored to teach children about something. I woke up this morning to my daughter watching The Wild Thornberrys. Not only was this show highly entertaining, it was also highly intellectual. Designed for the demographic of about 10-15 years old. If you don’t recall what the show was about here is an episode of the show on Nick.com, click here for episode.

Another well suited show was a personal favorite. Hey Arnold!, was pretty much (or at-least became) a soap opera about growing up in the city. I mean of course there were mostly child themed episodes dealing with bullies or finding the Pigeon Man. It explored the reality of childhood, rather than the fantasy of child-like situations. Not every day was awesome for the football headed protagonist, but life could not be sweeter on his block.

Confusing? CHECK! Awesome theme song? CHECK!

Let me just begin by saying that I did enjoy this Action/Romance based anime. I have no hard feelings towards the over the top action scenes, nor, the catchy theme song of season one from Abingdon Boys School, a Japanese rock band. My “beef” stands with only one, tiny, small, probably insignificant detail… How the hell things became as they were.

Let’s begin with the contracts. Each person who was gifted powers had to perform a task in order to fulfill said contract. Such tasks included smoking cigarettes, folding the upper right hand corner of pages, acting like a child, and many other pain staking activities. Previously, before the contracts were mailed out, all the stars fell from the sky and slowly were replaced with new stars. Apparently, each of the new stars were directly linked to every person who received a contract.

Sounds dreadfully nice, I know. And that theme song keeps pulling you in. Only promising awesomeness and chocolates. Sadly, the buffet they set up specifically for chocolates was closed down two hours before you came through the door. It never explains if any of these people signed these contracts willingly. I keep asking myself if they just woke up one morning and said ” Wow, I think I’ll fly to work today and once I get there I think I’ll break one of my fingers to pay for the flight.” Literally, first episode. Once the final episodes began, I thought the answers would become all to clear. They only answered where his lost sister was. She was, of course, inside of him all along.

Just so you know how awesome that theme song was, here is the opening theme song to Darker than Black.

Literary Cartoon?

Well, of course, you can’t have a literary cartoon because pages of a book can’t move themselves. Graphic novels are technically just story boards with word bubbles. So that is my excuse to write on this topic.

Mother, Come Home is not a casual read. If you would like to know the feeling of losing a loved one, I suggest reading this book. I will also say if you have lost someone, as I have, I also suggest reading this book. Either, as you can see, reading this book is necessary.

In this novel a boy and his father are dealing with the death of mother/wife. A tale no one truly cares to talk about. The raw emotion felt from the two individuals can not be shaken easily. This is the feeling of truly losing something so important that you realize how mundane your life actually is. Through the use of child-like imagery, you get both sides of the story. A boy losing his mother, and a man losing his wife.

This tale is bitter-sweet, but a logical emotional look into the life of true despair. I hope most can not fully understand the emotional applications of the book, but if you can it may bring some light to your situation.

Just for everyone’s information… I will never go fully into a story, unless it is terrible and I don’t feel as if spoiling things would be terrible.

Brak came up at dinner

Yes the cat man. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy The Brak Show, but Brak from the original Space Ghost (1966) is what popped up in conversation. You just can’t replace the classics. Birdman, Space Ghost, Johnny Quest, The Herculoids, etc. So I guess pretty much anything Hanna- Barbera. There was something so great about those shows. Probably because of the simplicity of their cartoons. Take this time to reminisce with me about all those great memories.

I know some of you all out there have seen Jabba Jaw. The aquatic version of Scooby-Doo. Which brings up Speed Buggy. That was like a memory overload for me. I’ve decided not to bring up Josie And The Pussycats. I mean mysteries were cool in the 60s. So was pot, however… Probably made the mysteries more mysterious. Watching those shows were amazing regardless. Each time I watched them I never felt like I was watching the same show. It was always something new, some different themed villain.

So can we give it up to Captain Caveman. I mean he is the greatest superhero ever. He’s all hair. It’s like if Cousin It had arms, legs and bulging eye balls.

You know what… I have other things to do. We can continue with another time.

God rest Hanna & Barbera

The header is most definitely a cartoon!

This movie has to be one of the most brilliantly animated movies I have seen in a long time. The look and feel is like cut out pictures of body parts pieced together oddly. Metropia is one for the books, I mean who doesn’t love a mystery about mind control. As I type, I’m re-watching the first hour of the movie again in order to describe it correctly.

Either way, this movie’s animation alone sells it. The design is so different from most styles I’ve seen. And the concept matches the design so elegantly. Creating a dark mysterious world where seasons no  longer exist and there is actually a man behind a desk talking in your thoughts. A sad, sad world indeed.

Suggestion can be a power tool. Especially when you play along, as if, you have always been there. This is a Big Brother film, but I can’t get enough of them. Suggestion happens because we have senses, I mean, that’s simply it. But for someone to cognitively be aware of this and act to suggest their own will on a subject, is just plan terrifying. A place of dilapidated highrises and stuffed subway cars. No one bikes, in fact, it’s unlawful to do so in this world. Truly a sad, sad world.

I won’t go into the story because this is one I recommend you just stop reading and watch. It’s on Netflix if you got it.

Happy watching!!!

Robots and Wars are Cool

Lately, I’ve been watching an old anime classic from my childhood. Gundam Wing. As a child, I couldn’t see past the awesome robot battles and lasers. Let allow remember anything past the robots themselves. Upon watching it again, however, I found that is has a very strong message about the loss of innocence.

Normally, when people talk about loss of innocence it pertains to only one individual or a child coming of age. This has smashed in the entire spectrum. A world ransacked by war, where no country knows peace. War here is not fought simply through gun sights, but through the screen of a large mobile battle suits.  A few inhabitants of Earth decide to start colonies in space to try and govern peacefully/ find freedom. Although, the peace did not last long. Earth which is now controlled by Alliance has full domain of earth through military prowess.

In a last effort for peace, five colonies develop robots and send them to Earth to eradicate the organization of Alliance. Of course, Alliance finds out about this plan and attempts to foil said plans for the colonies. Little did they know, these pilots are not average pilots. Also, they are not men, but children.

Into this is where I begin this post. How far would we as humans go for peace? Where one of the advantages of your militaristic motive is the fact that one can hide children better than an adult soldier. And what would one have to do in order to train a child in to a calculating killing machine, also piloting a calculating killing machine. This loss of innocence was the first came to light. What of the idea of war? If a child believes in peace strongly enough, what makes a child different than a soldier? If one did not have innocence to begin with, what makes them not a soldier? The idea troubles me a little; also I have a 17 month old daughter, so that mainly affects my judgment against. Regardless, war destroys innocence for all parties. Families, soldiers, and even children everyone is in range. Is peace really worth all of this?

Apparently, this belief holds true to some. Some who believe that death is death, and peace is peace. Simplicity is logical when one is scared enough.

The first time is always awkward…

Hey, what’s up? This is Thomas Allen reporting from the smoking district of the SCAD Atlanta parking deck. For my first post I gonna take it down a notch and tell you a little about me and why I decided to create Looney Logic (LL). This blog is DEDICATED to all things animated. I myself happen to revolve my entire life around animation. Literally. As of now I have written a couple of scripts for Baby D (local Atlanta rapper) and Matt, a producer for NBC Universal.

The idea of creating vast universes and playing God, in a sense, excites and thrills me to no end. Animation is not an art form for me, but the very essence and emotions that drive mankind. In order to understand human culture and ideas that each individual is capable of creating, you must look into each individual. Each character has meaning just as each individual has life.

Only exception in animation is that individual can be ANYTHING. It could be a young girl who had to live through the end of the world, just to wake up in a world filled with trees that fight back to protect the forest. Or even as simple as just cyborg ninjas, flipping about in a way that no human could perform. All in all, this is what animation means to me. And with that said….

Welcome to Looney Logic.