and different than a lot of modern cartoons -- but there was a good story line
934472
Don't know why, but my 2 year grandchild kept watching this.  Colors and illustration are a little darker, and different than a lot of modern cartoons -- but there was a good story line.
2396910
I got it since it was something Hayao Miyazaki had part of (before Studio Ghibli was even formed). It was entertaining and has cool, hand-drawn animation. One thing to note is that it has more adult language than the newer stuff that Miyazaki has done. Some swearing and maybe a bit more violence than you'd want kids watching.
1208454
It was an interesting story based on the classic characters with a modern feel. However, the quality of animation left me feeling like I was back n the early 90s. I likely would have turned it off after the first 5 min if my 5 year old son wasn't interested.
3829233
I enjoyed The Adventures of Jo Schmo: Dinos Are Forever, and I was pleasantly surprised to get the sequel: The Adventures of Jo Schmo: Wyatt Burp Rides Again as part of a double.  I think this is sort of a fun fantasy for kids.  Btw, I thought Wyatt Burp was funnier, but I loved the humor in both.  There was some repetition in both books, but they were still funny.  And I don't mean the deliberate repeating of phrases; they worked.  However, I didn't care for the art.  I understand that cartoons are a good idea for funny stories like these, but I guess I wanted something slicker.  Probably kids will like them more than I did.  And the dog's face reminded me of Barney Rubble from The Flintstones.  I think kids will like both of the books because of the characters, including the mean girls and the villains--and the humor.
1863391
The Van Beuren studio made some very interesting cartoons during 1929-1936.
This collection includes several black-and-white Aesop's Fables cartoons, which, although unsuccessful at the time, they are real gems. The B/W cartoons are a combination of bizarre, surreal gags with basic animation. Some good cartoons in this category includes "In a Cartoon Studio", a spoof on the making of a cartoon, and "Candy Town", where two cats eats all the candy contained inside the moon, only to be chased by a bottle of castor oil and a spoon! Strange, but brilliant!
Also, the DVD includes the original Tom & Jerry (no, not the cat & mouse, but a tall, thin man and a short, fat guy). Although the characters themselves are bland, the cartoon themselves still shows off the odd sense of humour that is typical of the studio. One example is in the cartoon "Piano Tooners", where Tom plays a bad note on the piano, only for Jerry to "catch" the note, and then flushes it down an off-screen toilet! Another Tom & Jerry cartoon is "Wot a Night" (their first cartoon), which is a spooky but very weird cartoon.
However, the B/W cartoons were not successful, and so Van Beuren assigned Burt Gillett (who directed Walt Disney's "Three Little Pigs") to create a new colour cartoon series called "Rainbow Parade". Gillett tried to make these cartoons as good as his previous boss, but that's why these cartoons are generally not as good as they should be (although they are not terrible), because he tried to imitate Disney rather than innovate. Characters like Molly Moo Cow and Toonerville Trolley were not good choices, and neither was the return of Felix the Cat, as he was turned into a goody two-shoes kind of a character. Oddly enough, the Felix cartoons were some of the best efforts of the series. Perhaps the best cartoon was "The Sunshine Makers", where the happy elves tries to bring happiness to a bunch of gloomy elves by bombarding them with sunshine milk. The series ended in 1936 when the Van Beuren studios closed down, due to its distributors RKO switching to Walt Disney for their cartoons!
There are 21 cartoons in total, and all are of good picture and sound quality considering they are public domain cartoons. Most of the Rainbow Parade cartoons have their original titles restored, with only a few B/W cartoons retaining their original titles.
Overall, this is good collection of rare cartoons, and is still an essential purchase for classic animation lovers. Personally, they should have included a few more B/W cartoons, but I'm more than happy with this DVD!
2981396
Studio Ghibli went in a different direction than their usual work with this collection of vignettes based on a Japanese newspaper comic strip. The style is more like a comic strip and not the brilliant colors and art of some of the other Studio Ghibli releases. The choice of voice talent, Jim Belushi as the father in particular, is excellent and I think the humorous situations and problems faced by the family transend cultures. While the story and characters are quite humorous, there is additional appeal for people with a knowledge of Japanese culture. What appealed to me in that respect was the clever and subtile use of classic Japanese images, particularly those taken from Hanafuda cards. (I must admit that my wife, who is Japanese, noticed these before I.) Also incorporated are Japanese folk tales to explain where their children originated as well as other litte bits of Japanese culture, some of which I caught while others were first noticed by my wife. The haiku between scenes were well chosen to complement the vignettes. Best scene in my opinion, trying to change channels with the TV remote.
806070
Different - a little more bizarre and 'adult' than I'm use to but it was refreshing to read something a bit different.  The characters were very well formed and, as it should be, a bit hard to see what's next.
4143811
Unfortunately, I didn't realize this was basically a cartoon and most cartoons I really don't care to watch unless their the cartoon I grew up watching back in the 1960's and 70's! So this movie wasn't for me and I stopped watching it fairly soon after starting it, Maybe others may like to watch it though, please decide for yourself!
493592
This story started off well, a man snatched from our world into a medieval counterpart where magic works, knights are just a little thick, and not only do dragons exist, but he wants to be entertained. It was certainly different from my usual choices and quite funny in parts.
However, I feel, as I got into the second half that the pov started to waver. It wasn't the switches that came with a scene change, but the dips from one to another -within- a scene during the last third of the book do start to grate. In some sections I had to re-read to figure out what just happened.

But the dragon was a hoot and spoke a little like yoda. The story may be from Paul's pov, but it's worth reading for the dragon scenes alone.
3464792
James Tynion's comic is marked as a Stephen King-esque teenage horror and while there is some violence here, it is far more angsty and weird than scary.  The dynamics are high school dynamics in a perilous and surreal forest situation--A Wisconsin High School is transported without a clear reason to a planet in the woods--and the writing sticks to tropes that one will probably recognize clearly.  At points, it reads like a blender of surreal pop culture premises with a bit more violence than one expects at first since it involves teens. The problem is that author seems to be writing a book aimed at Young Adults explicitly while playing with themes that would be better served by a mature set of characters and characters that were more than teen movie/fiction tropes. The art is enjoyable, particularly the color work, and there is room for the series to improve, so I would give it a chance.
4088581
This was ordered in November and after months of printing delays it finally arrived! I'm not really a reader of graphic novelsbought this for my 10 year oldbut we both love the show. I think the art is nice and the story is cute, but I found some of the frames strange as in the characters seem to be reacting to something and it's hard to tell what that is. The action was sometimes hard to follow. The story is also odd in that it ends with certain people upset with Steven and Connie (I don't want to spoil anything) and then later those same people are honoring them for the same incident. ???

The last short story with Onion was cute. Overall I think it's fine and my son will like it, but it feels a little like it needs some finessing.
3162897
My 8-year-old son loves the old Scooby-Doo cartoons, so this movie (with the real actors, not the cartoon characters) was a bit of an adjustment for him. The real-looking special effects scared him a little, but the humorous elements from the original series are all the same, so in the end he liked it. I would rate a movie with the original cartoon characters higher than this one.
4235976
While the art style is not necessarily the greatest it is certainly unique compared to many other cartoons I have seen over the years. It is flat in its design and reminds me of cut out figures I used to make and play with as a child. The story line was a bit more serious than I was expecting from the designs but still dynamic enough to enjoy for all ages with an open mind. Over all I enjoyed this movie as it had realistic interactions between characters (such as the child's shock from her fathers death and depression at her mother's inability to realize the neglect she has been in caring for her child despite the great love that is displayed). The focus on the cat was just an added benefit in watching this movie as far as I'm concerned since he acted much like my friends cat, all snobbish and aloof but lovable and caring of his can opener pets (i.e. his owners :3).  Since I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone I'll leave my character analysis at that. I do believe I will be letting my nieces and nephews watch this movie later as I don't have to worry about the extreme violence usually found in cartoons now. While there is some violence and death, I do not believe it is any worse than the violence and death than what I grew up watching Disney movies. In the end I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who wishes for a happy ending for their movie night. If you want to understand my title I would recommend watching until the end, it's predictable but very sweet.
2128445
The plot was cool and separating it into vignettes was as well. Wasn't quite the mindless action animation I might have been looking for but it was good.
756610
3.0 of 5 stars 
This was an interesting story capturing a few different themes: the graphic novel industry, the Jewish culture, two boys/men (cousins), one gay, as they grow up and age. So I saw potential in this and wanted to like it more, especially since this was recommended to me by a close friend who ranks it as one of his favorites. Alas, it was not to be for me.

This had a lot of potential for me, partly because I like historicals and graphic novels, so I got into that part of the storyline. I also like stories that include a gay MC, and like this one it doesnt have to be just or the main focus. But in this one I thought the gay part was superficial, the struggles of the MC not fully, emotionally understood and depicted, told from, if you will, how a straight person might see it (although I have to say from my reading experience that has not limited other such authors). And while I was sympathetic and found it initially interesting, I just could not identify with the Jewish culture; so that part was not as meaningful to me as it might be to others, and thus the long story lost some of its luster as I read on.

I can see why it won the Pulitzer  which is not necessarily a compliment. It is, if you like what I call high lit. Michael Chabons style and language was prosaic, but sometimes it didn't seem to fit (maybe trying too hard?). It was not an easy, but a heavy, read  laden with intelligent yet complex language, methodical pace, much detail even minutia, to the point where I could only take it in small chunks at a time. I got the symbolisms and themes (ok, maybe not all), and that did sustain my interest to some extent. And I liked how the characterization changed with the characters, such as capturing the suave sophisticated banter of Hollywood types as well as the dialogue and lives of the working class.

I thought the first half was much better, because of the depiction of the Jewish struggle during WWII and of the early, golden years of comic books (both the business side and how they creatively evolved at the time). There were specific scenes I found engaging, such as the creation of the Escapist, the depiction of the young mens passion for comic books, and later, even the scene out on Fire Island. But when it started to focus on just the aging of two Jewish cousins, I lost some of my interest. That along with all the extra details and heaviness started bogging it down for me, making it just an okay read with some interesting parts.
3148976
Dark Horse publish a wide variety of Star Wars licensed comics aimed at different audiences. This 80 page graphic novel is done in the style of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series on Cartoon Network.

And when I say in the style of, I mean both the art and the story. While not identical (The Clone Wars is 3D animation) the artwork here clearly apes the designs and mannerisms of the show. It's very cartoony, very expressive and full of movement.

And this story absolutely feels like a one and done cartoon episode, starting with Anakin and Obi-wan relaxing on a tourist world, only for Obi-wan to head off on his own trying to track down a wanted fugitive from his past.

There's not much in the way of deep characterization here. The violence is kept very PG and most of the story is played more for laughs than anything else. Plus, like so many cartoons there's a message to the story. It's all about learning to trust your friends and learn from your mistakes.

Obi-wan does come out of it looking like a bit of an ass, but that seems to be pretty common when it comes to modern Star Wars material.

It's all very amiable stuff if not particularly challenging and it's certainly very suitable for younger readers who enjoy some Star Wars adventures. Just don't expect anything too deep from it.
3852334
Flapjack and the characters are goofy and odd, but they all have a humanity about them, that gives the story lines depth for a cartoon.  Fun to watch with the kids.