Anyway, I thought it'd be neat to do TMNT and Astro Boy back-to-back because they were both made by an animation studio called Imagi Studios. Imagi went under shortly after Astro Boy came out. It was neat. When it comes to superhero adaptations, they did one so right and one so wrong...I had fun writing those two entries.
Before they went under, Imagi Studios was looking to do a movie version of Gatchaman for their third animated film. Gatchaman is the classic anime/manga franchise that was dubbed for North America under the name Battle of the Planets. I'm not as madly nostalgic for this property as Ninja Turtles or Astro Boy. My earliest conscious memories of Saturday morning cartoons involve Battle of the Planets, but my memories of the show are fuzzy at best.
Imagi's Gatchaman movie did have a good pedigree going into it. Kevin Monroe, who directed TMNT, was slated to direct. Legendary comic book and animation writer Paul Dini was hired to script. But, when Imagi went belly-up, the project died.
But, before they went under, Imagi did produce a couple of trailers/animation tests. And I finally found them on YouTube.
Trailer #1:
Trailer #2:
Ah, what might have been.
So here's what the geeks were geeking out about last week.
The one TV show that is not on DVD yet that the majority of geeks are demanding is the 1960s Batman starring Adam West. As much as people want it on DVD, it's not available yet. The most widely-accepted reason as to why it's not on DVD is because the series used so much pop music from the era, and with all the celebrity villains, and all the celebrities who poked their heads out the windows, and much more stuff like that, there's literally thousands of royalty deals that need to be worked out.
Another popular theory is that 20th Century Fox, who made and own the show, and Warner Brothers, who currently own every aspect of the franchise, are just locked in some kind of epic pissing match.
Anyway, if you haven't clicked on the link above, it was announced last week that 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers finally made a deal that will allow Warner Brothers to start merchandising the heck out of the old Batman show.
Many are hoping this is a positive first step in finally getting Batman on DVD. But for the time being, we`ll have to settle for Adam-West-as-Batman action figures.
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