Putting the ‘Bebop’ in ‘Cowboy Bebop’ with Steve Aoki and John Cho

November 19, 2021November 19, 2021 Mike Manalo

It’s time to jam Bebop fans! Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop debuts today! And while it isn’t perfect, it’s still pretty fun in a pretty campy way. However, the one thing the show gets right is the music! And heavily inspired by the terrific music of the original anime, the music in the new adaptation pays homage, while managing to carve out its own identity for itself (much like the show as a whole). And someone who knows all about that is iconic DJ Steve Aoki!

Interview, Streaming, Television

‘Timewasters’ Creator Daniel Lawrence Taylor on His New Series and Time-Traveling While Black

June 11, 2021June 11, 2021 Laura Sirikul

When you think of time-traveling films or television series, the first ones you think of mainly consist of white casts. If someone asked you to name a predominantly black, indigenous or people of color (BIPOC) led time-traveling series, it may take a little bit to come up with one, if any. Thankfully, that’s where IMDbTV’s Timewasters comes in to change the game

Animation, Movies, Streaming1 Comment

Disney’s Latest Film Shows the ‘Soul’ of New York

December 1, 2020May 15, 2021 Constance Gibbs

For an animated slice-of-Black-New-York-life, Disney’s new Pixar film Soul joins Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse in showing new parts of New York not typically glamorized by Hollywood. Despite being one of the most famous cities in the world, there are dozens of neighborhoods and experiences viewers never see on the silver screen. New York City isn’t just the glitz and glamor of midtown, the brunch bunch of Brooklyn, or the gentrified hives in Harlem.

The new movie takes us to an ordinary Queens middle school, where Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) is a down-on-his-luck band teacher. On his way to a gig in the Village that could finally make his music career, he falls down a manhole and dies. After he escapes the Great Beyond, he hides out in the Great Before, where pre-souls find their “spark” before being sent to Earth to be born. His mission? Help the dispassionate, uninterested-in-humanity pre-soul Number 22 find her spark, then use it to get back to Earth in time for his gig.

Animation, Movies, Reviews, Streaming

NOC Review: ‘Soul’ is Pixar’s Jazzy Spark of Imagination, Inspiration, and Beauty

November 13, 2020May 15, 2021 Mike Manalo

How does one define living or existence? Where do these meaningful drives that we get, or the desires we have – those moments of inspiration and wonder where we try to reach out and define the purposes we make for ourselves in our own lives — where do they all come from, and why do we have them? We can’t possibly quantify such things, or even explain what and why they are, but we still know inside they’re there; an indelible and innate part of us that, if nothing else, creates the full mosaic we know to be the individual human experience. For any film or studio to depict visually, conceptually what these ideas and notions that possess us are, let alone what they mean, would be seemingly impossible.

Then there’s Pixar, who comes along and says, “Hold my beer!” Thus, we now have Soul.

Movies, Sci Fi4 Comments

When’s Someone Going to Let Me Make a Transformers Movie?

March 6, 2014March 30, 2020 Keith Chow

So if you haven’t heard, there’s a new Transformers flick coming out this summer. The fourth in the franchise, this will be the first without Shia LeBeouf (since he’s “no longer famous,” Mark Wahlberg’s the new male lead), but Michael Bay is still behind the camera.

Back in February, Paramount teased the flick with a big Super Bowl spot. Your Facebook feed was probably full of images of Optimus Prime riding on Grimlock. The other day, the studio unveiled its first full trailer for the movie that’ll likely rule the summer box office:

Continue reading “When’s Someone Going to Let Me Make a Transformers Movie?”