The Aquabats! Supershow! Season 1 (2012) Review:

The Aquabats! Supershow! Season 1 (2012) Review:

“Commander, The Aquabats have a moral obligation to help those in need. Even if they are clownbags!”

- Jimmy The Robot to M.C. Bat Commander (The Floating Eye of Death) 

The Aquabats! Supershow! is a comedy superhero show with a cartoon in it! It’s super goofy, and sort of like The Avengers if influenced by Devo. I don’t normally review music, but their music is pretty good too. In the show, they think of themselves as a band first and superheroes second. Which they are. But they have superpowers! Which they seem to be only dimly aware of! Mix the superpowers, goofy plots, and fake infomercials/cartoon interludes, and you’ve got a super fun series to watch! 

As for superpowers, M.C. Bat Commander, their leader, is super determined, sometimes to a funny degree; like when he refuses to say ManAnt’s name correctly. (He calls him MAHNAHNT.) Eaglebones Falconhawk has an invisible Falcon called The Dude, and a guitar that shoots lasers. But, my favorite is Jimmy The Robot, who solves problems through science, and has a variety of robot powers, like laser fingers. True to his robot nature, he likes science, and struggles to understand humanity sometimes. Crash is like Hulk except not a monster. He gets giant-sized when he gets emotional. Ricky Fitness has superspeed, superstrength, and…is fit. 

All this hokey superhero wackiness is interspersed with fake infomercials, (Ren & Stimpy-style!) crazy villains, and weird guest appearances! (Weird Al, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, Strong Bad from Homestarrunner.com.) And the Aquabats always learn some cheesy life lesson (“Learning and Growing” segments.), such as eat when you’re hungry, (ManAnt) keep clean (Laundry Day!), or help those in need. (The Floating Eye of Death.) Also, since they’re a band, you also get treated to small goofy musical interludes such as “Burger Rain” and “Doing Science”.

As I said before, it’s a wacky kids show, and it’s got a cartoon in it (which has wonderful animation! I think it‘s anime.) But, there’s also enough jokes to keep adults interested. And the action is just hokey enough to invoke shades of The Power Rangers, or maybe like The Tick. So, it’s very 90s nostalgic. Plus, they are a real Devo-influenced band, so if you have some time, give them a listen! I don’t usually promote music on here, but I like Devo, and superheroes, so I liked it almost instantly. It’s pretty funny!

Overall, The Aquabats! Supershow! is just darn fun. It takes funny and nostalgic concepts and blends them together to make a weird superhero comedy, where the heroes seem only vaguely aware that they are heroes.  They spend entire episodes just trying to make money or have fun before they realize they need to fight a villain. Often in strange ways. For example, to defeat a giant potato bug, (in the episode Pilgrim Boy!) they have a shape shifter turn into a pop star and sing it a sad song until it explodes. Another day for The Aquabats! Season 1 is on Netflix and DVD, (and it’s still running on The Hub!) so check it out if you like good humor, cartoons, superheroes, robots, or any of that! I love it all. 5/5 stars!       

Pacific Rim (2013)

Yesterday, I saw Pacific Rim to stay up on my sci-fi! If you wanna see weird giant robots fight weird giant monsters, you really have to wait until an hour or so into the movie. And that’s why we all went to see it right? Giant robots vs. giant monsters. It delivers on some pretty good monster designs. One monster reminds me of the Spitter from Jurassic Park, another is like a giant crab, and yet another looks like a Godzilla-thing. They devastate entire cities, and it’s up to the pilots of giant robots to stop them. But, I assume you knew that from the trailer. 

    Anyway, these giant robots basically are hooked up to the bodies of the pilots. A pilot and co-pilot control the right and left side. For a short while, it appears the movie will be nothing but this, but unfortunately it suffers from the same fate as The Wolverine. Notably, a slow romance subplot with the pilot’s commander acting as a guardian/father figure. Japanese derivatives like Power Rangers, Ultra Man, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and even Godzilla could get away with this because they were series, and the main characters often had other jobs to keep some action going on. It’s funny here to see Charlie from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as a plucky scientist alongside Ron Perlman, also a scientist studying the monsters.

Besides the training montages and melodrama of the characters losses and relationships, when the robots fight the monsters it looks  impressive because the pilots ARE THE MACHINES. And I’m a sucker for man-machine themes because of how I live with a wheelchair. Just for kicks though: Why even connect the two pilots? Yes, I know it causes neural overload. But, couldn’t they just compensate for that with some sort of inhibitor? I know, it just looks cool, and it bonds the humans to the machines. Thus making for giant robot monster punching.

   They lose some Russians to the Spitter and then hatch the grand plan before the monsters flood the Earth. No spoilers here, but there’s one hold-up that Beckett’s commander (as the father figure.) wouldn’t risk the Japanese pilot, but they go anyway. I can’t say much else without giving spoilers, suffice it to say, they end up right in the monsters lair. In the Pacific Rim. Cities get destroyed!

  

 Overall, a good giant robot movie, but where other giant robot movies have something else going on that builds to the plot, (and it undoubtedly did…with Charlie.) The rapport between  the pilots is a little melodramatic and takes you out of the monster-fighting action. The Wolverine had the same problem, although this wasn’t as bad. At least they’re SUPPOSED to be training and montaging, and not having tea! I say give it a watch! If you like giant robots…well, there are better films (Robot Jox is always good!) but this is pretty good for what it is! Certainly not as bad as The Wolverine. B+! Go see it!