Shelltoon TV

The Big Problem With Vevo

(Just try and watch this video without ad blockers to understand the issue)

Just saying the name Vevo disgusts a lot of people, but why? When you go on YouTube and you look for that one music video, be it something recent, or nostalgic, you can be guaranteed that Vevo's name will be on it. In my experience Vevo's stuff is of a respectable quality by YouTube standards, but the issue is if you want to watch these videos, you're forced to sit through ads before you can watch them. There have also been reports of said ads interrupting the videos themselves. Normally I'd tell people to get Firefox and use adblock plus, but in this case, I can sympathize with them. It used to be I could go on YouTube and just sit there and watch a music video ad free, but now if I don't have AdBlock Plus enabled, I'm forced to sit through a 20 second ad either before the video, or somewhere in the middle of it.

Time to Wrap up Winter

I don't know about you, but I am ready to wrap up winter, just like these ponies.

Are Subtitles Bad for Movies?

(And this will be my defense)

There's that big question out there, are subtitles bad for theatrical releases? Does it bring down the reviews from critics? Does it mean I am an idiot if I don't like my movie to have subtitles? The answers are basically no, no, and NOOOO. I watch a lot of subtitled movies, and some of my all-time favorites are subtitled since they're in a foreign language. I bring this up because of some discussion in regards to a third of Hereafter being entirely subtitled.

If I were to hate that third for being subtitled, I might as well say I hated the Seven Samurai since that was nearly four hours long, and I enjoyed every minute of it, even if it was subtitled. The real problem with Hereafter was it was simply boring in every aspect. There was nothing exciting going on, and the dialogue in that sequence simply wasn't interesting. It has nothing to do with the fact it was subtitled.

So to answer the question, I do not have a problem with subtitles. I don't think they make or break a movie. It's what's contained in the movie as a whole. If the dialogue isn't interesting in the rest of the movie, subtitles are not going to save it. You cannot use this arguement with me. After all, some of my favorite movies happen to be subtitled.

Updates [MISC]

Just thought I'd post a few updates to the few that read this thing. I am considering upgrading to wordpress and getting my own domain. This is mostly to help increase my readers and maybe get noticed by somebody. The other reason is while Type Pad has been good to me, I can't do much to the layouts to make it seem like my own site.

I was also given a chance to see an advanced screening of Sony's Despicable Me, and while I can already say it won't compete with Toy Story 3 in the Oscar race, it certainly looks better than Dreamworks' Mega Mind. Despicable Me is a movie about a villainous father, which certainly sounds better than Mega Mind's long time rivals storyline.

I've been playing through Transformers: War for Cybertron, and I'm having a blast with it. I'll be sure to get a review of that up when I get the chance. I've never had this much fun with a Transformers game, single player AND multi player. It will help tide me over until Sniper: Ghost Warrior gets released.

So yeah, another uneventful moment in the life of Shelltoon.

Giving Credit Where it's Due [VIDEO GAMES][RANT]

Congratulations Activision, you have become the new EA. You don't seem to care about the quality of your products and are more concerned with marketing your products so that they sell. Only problem is, a few of us can see that they just want our money and would do anything to get it... including releasing three travesties in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, DJ Hero, and the most recent Tony Hawk Ride. Yes, all three games have a series of problems, and the one all three have in common is that every one of them is overpriced in some way. Modern Warfare 2 costs $60 on PC, you get a four hour campaign, you will have to buy map packs, and are stripped of basic PC features such as dedicated servers and a developer's console. Now for comparison's sake, look at Valve's Team Fortress 2 which costs $20 if you don't get it in the Orange Box. Strictly multiplayer, the ability to host dedicated servers, a full developer's console allowing you to further tweak the experience, and maps are free and always coming out thanks to players who use the tools to make maps. In all honesty, I'd rather buy Modern Warfare 1 than Modern Warfare 2 if I was new to CoD. At least with Modern Warfare 1 you had all the PC features and it wasn't horribly expensive.

I already mentioned the problems with the DJ Hero controller, but I need to add to the growing list of problems. At no point in DJ Hero do you feel like a DJ, much like how Beatmania is an overglorified keyboard simulator with a turntable. The problem here is the controller and the price tag. The controller itself is rather small, and compact compared to a real turntable. The issues with the controller are the turntable and the crossfader. The turntable itself is way too sensitive. There were times where I'd hit my beats and the game would be under the belief I was spinning the turntable, or sometimes it'd think I was spinning it too much. The crossfader I've already gone over, but after a while I've gotten used to it. Still, would I pay $120 for this? No, because given the controller's size, it should only be $80-$100.

Tony Hawk Ride has been out, and the scores have averaged out to 50/100. Why? For one thing, it's another $120 game, so that becomes a problem. The real problem is neither the game nor the controller work as intended. The game is filled with more glitches than EA's Skate, but Skate's glitches were more physics related, and there wasn't clipping all over the place. Ride's real problem is the board itself doesn't work that well. The board has four sensors, and it seems that all four have trouble working together, causing the slightest tilt to make you do 360s like there was no tomorrow. Another issue happens to be that sometimes you'll do a trick you didn't intend to do, and sticking your landing is difficult to pull off. For $120, I would expect a product that works, not something that breaks.

After all this Activision nonsense, I'm starting to develop a new appreciation towards my recent frustrations because they weren't anywhere NEAR the price of any of these games. I would rather buy two more PS3s, another 360, or several copies of Ni hao Kai-lan New Year's Celebration than give my money to Activision. If I'm saying that, then there's a serious problem.

A Gross Error [CORRECTIONS][GRAMMAR]

I seem to have made a very gross error in one of my reviews. When I reviewed all those Kai-Lan toys, I closed it off by saying good night in Chinese.

Well, good night! Wa An!

I appear to have made several errors. First off, my grammar on the Chinese was incorrect. I made the mistake of capitalizing each word, when I should have just capitalized the W. The gross error I made here is I got my Chinese wrong. I recently picked up a guide to Mandarin Chinese to further my knowledge of the language and get a basic understanding of the Chinese in Ni hao Kai-Lan that isn't translated. I thought I had it right, but when I looked in the book, I saw good night is actually "wan an" and not wa an. So yeah, epic fail on my part, eh?

Dir en grey too American? [MUSIC][RANT]

Dir en grey is one of my favorite Japanese bands. I'm not going to say they're a J-Rock band, because it's a term I refuse to refer to any Japanese band. Well, it seems that some fans went off their rocker and are claiming that Dir en grey had become too Americanized in their music, and many fans lost faith in the band ever sounding any good again. I say Dir en grey sounds so much better now than they did before. Now I had gotten into them during the Kisou era, so I was into them JUST BEFORE the "drastic changes" I keep hearing about. What's wrong with a Japanese band putting music before visuals? I don't get it...

When Vulgar had come out and I gave it a listen, I fell in love with the album. I thought Dir en grey had peaked at that point, feeling it would be a difficult album to top. Their sound was more raw compared to the poppy tunes they had been putting out, and Kyo's voice was less run through a filter. Another change being made was that at this point, the band had started ditching it's visual rock roots, possibly because the band realized in the music industry, music comes before visuals. While they toned down the visuals with Kyo having less make-up, Die cutting his hair short, Kaoru getting a goatee, Toshiya just being Toshiya, and Shinya still being picked on, it didn't stop their videos from giving off any shock value. The Obscure video in its uncensored glory is one of the sickest things I've seen, and if you ever see an english translation, your mind will spiral out of control. Their sound was basically more fitting to their lyrics compared to older albums.

However, when Vulgar was coming out, many people starting to show distaste for Dir en grey by saying they were straying too far from their roots. For those of you that don't know, when Dir en grey first started, they were heavy on a visual rock look, known over there as "Visual Kei" where the band members do crazy crap with their hair, put on pounds of makeup and wear ridiculous outfits. This is one of the things that caused people to fall in love with the band the first time around. Their music had a more poppy tone to it as well, with Kyo not screaming, his voice sounding like it went through a filter. The same goes with the music, to a lot of people it seemed more energetic and more fun, despite the lyrics having a very serious tone. To a lot of people, this is what Dir en grey was, and should have been, another indie visual kei band. However, because the band got successful and was aware of people in the US interested in the band, they started changing so that more people would take them a bit more seriously. As a result, this caused fan backlash with the usual sold out comments, but what struck my nerve was a lot of these fans were not willing to give Dir en grey's new music a chance. The one comment I saw that caused me to rage like no tomorrow was "Dir en grey has become too Americanized." Is there a difference in sound between Japanese rock and rock in the US that requires Dir en grey and other Japanese bands be classified as "J-Rock?" 

I've listened to all their albums, and I don't understand why people put Gauze so high on the list. It's not a good album from a music stand point, it doesn't define what Dir en grey is for me. The songs are too poppy in the instrumentals, there's too much filtering in the music, and Kyo's voice isn't there. Do you expect upbeat, energetic pop backing lyrics about child abuse? The only song that comes out right on that album is Mazohyst of Decadence, a song about abortion from the perspective of the fetus being aborted. It's disturbing, uncomfortable, and many other things that I could list. Aside from that song, nothing felt fitting on Gauze, it seemed like their look was more important to the fanbase than Dir en grey's music. When Vulgar had come out, nobody saw the changes to the band coming. They wore a hell of a lot less make up, their look was starting to get less flashy, hair was cut, Kaoru's goatee was starting to come in, and the music was about to go through drastic changes. We probably should have seen the changes coming after Kisou's music started to fit to the lyrics. It was hard, distrubingly beautiful, and started to sound more raw. I think rather than sit through all this, I'll just list the albums in order of release and leave a short comment about each one. I'm not counting Six Ugly, Missa, or Ain't Afraid to Die because Six Ugly and Missa are mini-albums and Ain't Afraid to Die is just a single.

• Gauze - Generic indie Japanese pop rock with many filters
• Macabre - A work of art that comes off as a great concept album
• Kisou - Less generic indie pop, more hard rock
• Vulgar - Pure, raw, obscene, violent, brilliant
• Withering to Death - Their most diverse works
• Marrow of a Bone - Generic hard rock
• Uroboros - Macabre mixed with Withering to Death

This was in the order of their release, if you want to know how I list them, ask me. Anyway, I think to say the band has become too Americanized because it doesn't sound and look the way it used to is kind of judgmental and unfair. I personally think the band sounds better than when it started, and I look forward to their new stuff, provided Kyo still has a voice. Seriously Kyo, we like your music and appreciate that you guys are putting music first, but for god's sake, stop nearly killing yourself on stage!

Random Questions [Q&A][RANDOM]

Sorry for being slow with reviews, but I'm generally busy with many things. My next reviews will be here hopefully by the end of the week. So I decided, why not answer some random questions that some people have asked me on the internet and in the real world. The following post contains TRUE AND HONEST CONTENT

What will your next review be?

Originally, I was going to review the G.I. Joe movie, but I still have yet to see it. Unlike a lot of the movies I had reviewed, this was a movie that I didn't feel like rushing to see. I will see it eventually, but until then, I'll be reviewing some Ni Hao, Kai-Lan toys.

What game are you playing right now?

I am playing Team Fortress 2 on my PC quite a lot. Sometimes I'll play Trackmania, but I'm generally on my PC more than any of my consoles now. Maybe it's because the consoles have been putting out a lot of uninteresting games during the summer.

Aside from Team Fortress 2, what else are you doing with yourself?

Trying to sleep, working my meager job, getting laughs out of Christian Weston Chandler, Gundam model kits, writing on this blog.

Why are you watching Ni Hao, Kai-Lan anyway? Aren't you a bit out of the age group?

Consider it a guilty pleasure. People my age and older watch Yo Gabba Gabba and Wow Wow Wubbzy, some of them not having kids.

When was the last time you hurt yourself?

Just yesterday, while I was building one of my Gundam model kits, a bit of excess gate I clipped off went flying and hit me in the eye. Thankfully it wasn't a huge piece of gate, so I got it out over the course I was still building it, but damn it stung for a while.

Coke or Pepsi?

Depends. If it's Pepsi Throwback, then Pepsi. Otherwise... NEITHER!

Did you know there were others using the name Shelltoon?

Back when I first came up with the name, I didn't know there were people using that name. I only found out not too long ago!

How long did it take for you to make the TV guy?

Well, it randomly popped into my head, and I didn't have any early designs at the time. It took about 10-15 minutes in Paintshop Pro to make it happen. I can safely say it's more original than a Sonic recolor.

What are your thoughts on Cartoon Network's current state?

I'm going to have to save that for a future rant, but I will say they are out of touch with reality.

Should Nickelodeon let Spongebob go?

As successful as it is, they do need to let it go. It's starting to get stale at this point. Find something new to milk for 10 years!

Well, that's all for now. Maybe when I run out of stuff to talk about, I'll post more random questions!