Adventure Time Creator Dishes on the Season One DVD and More

Mathematical! Fans have been asking, and Warner Home Video and Cartoon Network have finally answered. Adventure Time: The Complete First Season will come to DVD this week (look for our review tomorrow).

In honor of this exciting release, we sat down with Adventure Time creator Pendleton (Pen) Ward to discuss what it takes for young prospective artists to break into the industry, the direction of the show, as well as Ward's amusing contribution to the DVD bonus features.

Before Ward was famous, he visited Simpsons creator Matt Groening to discuss what it took to make it in the animation industry. While Ward could not recall what transpired during that chat, he did offer some inspiration for young artists.

“My advice comes off as generic, but I think it's important advice – and that's to keep drawing.” Ward suggests. “I think if you persist, you keep drawing, you're already one step ahead of anybody who's quit. And that's probably the biggest challenge when you're learning, whether you're drawing, or really anything at all – is to keep doing it.”

Even in the show's early days, Pen Ward was always working hard at the series, attempting to craft a show that was not only fun and funny, but also refreshing and original.

“Every day I'm just focused on trying to keep the ideas fresh and interesting.” Ward states. “For example, I wanted to put a monkey in an episode, and one of the writers, Jesse Moynihan, told me not to. He thought it was jumping the shark, that is was just cheap humor. I told him, you're right, you're right. So we took it out.”

It's this sense of originality that's turned Adventure Time from a cult series into something of a phenomenon. But Ward isn't really phased by the show's new found mainstream stardom. “I don't have a real concept of it, honestly,” Ward said. “We just work on the show every day and keep doing it. But I see how much people really like it at Comic-Con, which is a lot of fun.”

Instead, Ward spends his time focused on the story. “We're always trying to top ourselves and make each episode better than the last,” Ward said. “We don't want to become stale.”

Ward is currently putting the finishing touches on season four, while also drafting episodes for the show's upcoming fifth season. While he remained mum on all the juicy details, he did offer hints as to what fans can expect. “In future episodes you'll get to see more of the history of Ooo.” Ward offers. “There's also a few more origin stories for some of the characters. There's going to be another Fiona Cake episode coming up, which features Marshall Lee more.”

In the meantime, fans can explore the various bonus features found on the season one DVD. One special feature was actually shot on Ward's own iPhone, using a handy $150 Steadicam unit. “I wanted to put something cool on the disc,” Ward explains. “I wanted to interview everybody and put it all in one shot. Then we decided to put animation on it.” The end results are nothing short of bizarrely humorous, with the featurette almost playing like a bonus episode of the show.

But the featurette isn't the only goodie Ward was excited about. Playing as sort of a complement to the “Mom-entary” from the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg film, The Other Guys, Ward sought out another helper to add some flavor to the supplemental material. “There's a commentary from my mother with Polly Lou Livingston, who voices Tree Trunks,” Ward admits with a laugh. “It's pretty funny.”

Obviously, because this first season took quite a while to make its way to DVD, fans might be worried it'll be a few more years down the line before future seasons arrive, but Ward attempts to put those worries to rest. “I'm positive they'll be coming,” Ward assures. “I'll have to stay up and do some more special features, too.”

With the release of Seth MacFarlane's Ted in theaters, naturally the thought of doing something live action came up. Ward was fascinated by the idea of doing a feature-length movie. “I think it would be great.” Ward said. “I want to do a live-action movie with the Adventure Time characters, actually. That would be interesting.”

We certainly hope he gets the chance to do that in the near future. But, in the meantime, you can check out Adventure Time on Cartoon Network, or pick up the show on DVD or digital download.

"A long time ago, when I was a baby, I went boom boom on a leaf. Then I fell backwards and sat in my own boom boom and cried for a day, but no one came to help me. That day I vowed to help anyone in need, no matter how small their problem! And that's why I need to go." Follow R.L. Shaffer on Twitter, Facebook andMyIGN for quotes, rants, reviews, news and more!

Source : ign[dot]com

Comic-Con: The Walking Dead Season 3 Poster Revealed

First debuted at EW, the Comic-Con poster for The Walking Dead: Season 3 has been revealed, showing a new image of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), along with two major new characters being introduced this year: Michonne (Danai Gurira) and The Governor (David Morrissey). And, while we’re analyzing the poster, hmm, interesting they made sure to include that helicopter, no?

The Walking Dead panel will be held Friday, July 13th at Comic-Con in Hall H. Lincoln, Gurira and Morrisey will be in attendance, joined by Sarah Wayne Callies, Laurie Holden, Norman Reedus, Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan, Executive Producer and Showrunner Glen Mazzara, Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd, Executive Producer Robert Kirkman and Co-Executive Producer and Special Effects Make-up Supervisor Greg Nicotero.

Check out our full list of all the TV series coming to San Diego Comic-Con.

Source : ign[dot]com

Louie: "Telling Jokes/Set Up" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

First off, I was very happy to see Lilly and Jane back this week. This show gets a tremendous amount of wonderful material out of the scenes between Louie and his two daughters, with none of the cloying, saccharine crap regular sitcoms use when it comes to cute little kids. Young Ursula Parker is especially funny and natural, and had me cracking up as Jane exclaimed, “I don’t get it! I just don’t get it!” at a knock knock joke that went over her head.

The way we first heard Louie talk about her “Who didn’t let the gorilla in the ballet?” joke early in the episode in his standup routine and then actually saw her say it at the end was a really nice touch. The standup bit was hysterical, as he analyzed her thought process when she said this joke, while the payoff was just a sweet scene between father and daughter.

Of course, the main story here was Louie’s friends trying to set him up with a woman named Laurie (perfectly played by The Fighter’s Oscar-winning Melissa Leo), without bothering to tell either of them about it. What followed was an expertly-done Louie scenario – and a much more typically strong episode for the show than the season premiere. The way Louie and Laurie were both pissed off, but then had a sense of shared bemusement about the situation seemed to be heading towards a, “Hey, maybe there will be some sparks here after all…” situation.

Her then matter of factly giving him a blow job inside her truck was a surprise (to Louie as well), but it’s what followed that brought this to that special hysterical and yet pretty messed up place Louie can go.

Her proclamation, “I just sucked your d**k. You’re gonna eat my p**sy” was just one small segment of their very funny, very on point back and forth, as she demanded satisfaction, and Louie made things worse by saying stuff like, “If I had done what you did, I would feel like a whore,” while saying that going down on her would be too intimate. This was a classic male double standard of course (he had no objections to him doing something so “intimate” to him), but made all the more direct and graphic (and amusing) by the specific acts they were so openly discussing.

But it got really messed up when she went from calling him gay (seemingly to goad him into going down on her to prove his sexuality) to simply smashing his head into the window and forcing his face into her crotch. It’s one of those fascinating things… I have no doubt if the situation were reversed with a male character doing those exact actions to a female character (the initial sex act included), it would play as a ghastly, brutal sexual assault. But when Melissa Leo does that to Louis C.K., it’s a very funny moment… even though it still is, you know, a ghastly, brutal sexual assault. In fact, it’s funny almost because it’s so f**ked up. Damn if Louis C.K. doesn’t know how to tap into that weird place others wouldn’t think of going for humor. “Lick it! Lick it!”, indeed. This is a show not afraid to go to very uncomfortable and even twisted places, and I continue to admire it for that.

Despite Louie saying he’d be up for “going out” with Laurie again, I’m guessing that he won’t be seeing her again… But this is Louie, so you never know.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Star Trek: TNG Second Season BD Includes Extended “Measure of a Man” Episode

With the Blu-ray of Star Trek: The Next Generation - The First Season on its way in July, fans are already chomping at the bit, eagerly awaiting future seasons of the hit show. TrekMovie.com managed to dig up an interesting tidbit about the forthcoming second season of TNG on Blu-ray, which is expected to hit shelves this winter.

Writer Melinda M. Sodgrass has confirmed, via her Twitter account, that she's currently prepping an extended cut of the episode "Measure of a Man" which will run 20 minutes longer than the current broadcast version. Fans will get a sneak peek at this episode during the one night Fathom Event, where episodes of the first season Blu-ray will screen at select cinemas.

It's not known just yet if "Measure of a Man" is the only episode getting an extended cut. Even if it's the only episode to be extended for these Blu-rays, it's a welcome addition. "Measure of a Man" is a fan-favorite that illustrates just how smart, intelligent and awesome The Next Generation series really was.

Be on the lookout for a review of Star Trek: The Next Generation - The First Season on Blu-ray in the coming days. If you haven't already, you can pre-order the Blu-ray on Amazon. Also, check out our review of Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Next Level, the first TNG Blu-ray -- a sampling of great things to come.

R.L. Shaffer wants you to "make sure that history never forgets the name...Enterprise." Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and MyIGN for quotes, rants, reviews, news and more!

Source : ign[dot]com

Magic: the Gathering - Duels of the Planewalkers 2013 Review

First released way back in 1993, Magic: The Gathering is a rare bastion of stability in our mercurial times. That was the year of games like Doom and Mortal Kombat II; of memorable films like Jurassic Park and that abominable Super Mario Bros. movie, and the year that Rick Astley finally deserted us for retirement. In other words, the stuff of nostalgia and bargain bins--maybe, on occasion, antique stores. Yet somehow Magic continues to get better and stronger despite the passage of years. That’s especially apparent in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, which presents a welcome improvement over the previous releases.

If you’ve never played Magic before, the basic concept isn’t really too complex. In most cases, two players (or “planeswalkers,” if you prefer the lore term) sit opposite each other with a customized deck of cards, using it to build up mana and unleash powerful creatures and abilities on their opponents. Each player has 20 health points, and they do their best to whittle the other guy’s points down to zero. Occasionally, as in Duels 2013, you’ll have the chance to play against multiple players, but the one-on-one duel to the death has stood at the heart of the Magic experience since the very beginning.

As with chess, though, such simplicity masks a rich and rewarding tangle of strategies that someone could devote their lives to untangling. After nearly 20 years of expansions and rule tweaks, Magic has built up a dizzying arsenal of cards that's become so complex that even the series' most fanatical adherents have trouble keeping up with them all. The ideas behind the five basic deck colors haven’t changed over the years (red is for brutal in-your-face-tactics, for instance; blue is more about control) but the abilities on the cards allow everything from simply removing an opponent's cards to intricate actions that damage both the opposing player and their cards in play. The result is a game that’s about 20% luck and 80% skill, and it’s frankly intimidating if you’re approaching it for the first time without a friend.

That’s why you won’t find a better introduction to the franchise than Duels 2013. Indeed, it’s not much of a stretch to think of the Duels series as an entertaining and adequate tutorial for playing the physical game. You may never have the chance to fully master things such as the sideboard with Duels alone, but you also don’t have to worry about exasperated sighs from veteran planeswalkers when you try to use an Enchantment at the wrong time or play a Creature card before you have the required mana. In Duels, the computer helps you master all that with hints in the “mage” mode, which prepares you for the online free-for-all mode that will likely pit you against someone who’s been tinkering with Wizards of the Coast’s famed decks for longer than some of us have been alive.

Duels 2013 doesn’t stray too far from its two predecessors, but there are still enough changes here to warrant a look. For one, Duels 2013 features manual mana tapping (or the ability to choose which “land” card you put into play), which is a must when using a deck composed of more than one color. In the past, Duels usually chose the card for you, and it created needlessly complicated adjustments when it chose the wrong one and the occasional loss that should have been a win. It’s also filled with other tweaks that enhance the whole experience, ranging from trackable stats that help you size up your opponents in the multiplayer to a rating system that lets you see how one deck fares against another. It’s all still a little slow owing to the lack of a button that allows you to skip through all of the steps if you don’t have much to play on a particular round, but the rest of the gameplay is so refined that it seems like a minor concern.

The decently sized single-player campaign also does an excellent job of demonstrating the abilities and general strategies associated with the decks in play (10 of which are new), which more than makes up for the absence of any real storyline aside from some brief cinematics with the evil dragon Nicol Bolas. After you've defeated all the bosses, you can undertake the same campaign in “Revenge” mode with tougher AI that more closely resembles the decisions real players make.  That's important if you plan to play in any of the multilayer versions, and I found I learned more from the specialized secondary scenarios that teach you how to deal with tougher tactics instead of the bosses themselves. In my case, I had the hardest time fighting a blue deck that consisted of little more than mana cards and blocks, and I learned enough from the encounter that I’ll probably know what to do if someone ever tries that cheap but challenging strategy in a multiplayer game.

But nothing sets apart Duels 2013 quite like the tradeoff of 2012's Archenemy mode for the multiplayer “Planechaser” mode, a free-for-all affair for four players featuring a six-sided die and the chance to uncover planar cards that can force the removal of all cards in play. It's fun when it works, and dodging the threats from three other players at once adds a welcome dose of urgency that was missing in the more objective-based gameplay of Archenemy. When it doesn't work, it's a snoozefest. Other players either take too long to play their hands or constantly use the die to reveal new planes, which means you usually end up tossing your cards just as a good strategy was forming. Duels 2013 also allows for Planechaser campaigns against the AI if playing well with others doesn't come easily, but the tradeoff of quicker gameplay comes at the cost of questionable decisions on the part of the computer. No human player, for instance, would ever ignore an enemy player with one point of health left for the chance to attacking another with 19 points, but my AI opponents tried that twice.

As a person who’s always wanted a workable version of Magic for my mobile phone, I’m pleased to say I had just as much fun with the new iPad version as I did with the PC and console versions--perhaps even more so. It’s essentially the same game from the PC or consoles (down to one-on-one multiplayer, which connects through Apple’s Game Center), but with the difference that you can play through most of the content for free. The controls are intuitive for the most part, and using your finger to select lands or drag creature cards into play capture some of the feeling of the physical game. As the recent explosion of imitation collectible card games on the iPhone, Android, and iPad suggests, mobile devices are uniquely suited to Magic’s 15-25 minute matches, and it shouldn’t take long for Duels 2013 to claim its rightful place over its competitors.

Even so, it feels regrettable that we still can’t design our own decks in an advanced mode of some sort, particularly since I love playing with a green, blue, and white deck that’s impossible to recreate with Duels’ predesigned decks and limited customization options. Players have begged for this option ever since Duels came out, but it's unlikely that we'll ever see it because it would put Duels in direct competition the existing Magic Online, which allows the ability to buy and sell individual cards much as if you were playing the physical game. The income reduction would probably be devastating. But even if Wizards of the Coast can’t or won’t allow us that degree of customization, it would be nice if we weren’t required to have 24 land cards when we’re trying to cram as much power as possible into a compact but efficient deck.



Source : ign[dot]com