Animation and In the News
Hey Funseekers!
It's been a bit since my last post, and much has happened. I have recently been in both the South China Morning Post and The Standard newspapers. You can learn more about all that in my recent newsletter through Facebook by clicking here.
I have been busy with many projects lately including work with new corporate clients who I am creating bespoke magic experiences for. I love working with the companies, focusing on the companies message, and creating a experience or show that delivers that message. I am also very busy with a new lecture I am calling "Human Hacking" which focuses on the knowledge one gains about humanity through working as a magician and how this knowledge can help you be a better promoter and improve sales. Its funny, I start one of these blog posts with one topic I wanted to talk about and then I end up having so many other things to say. I need to learn to limit myself better! What I was going to talk about is...
Cartoons...I have been involved lately dubbing for Japanese and Chinese animation. I have loved cartoons and animation since I was a child, (as most children have, I just never stopped watching them). I have been greatly interested in voice acting for a long time, it was one of things I always wanted to do, and thought I might be good at, but didn't know how to even begin to pursue. Thanks to a lot of support and help from friends and my lovely Christine, I have been doing side work in voice acting for the past six months or so. I'm currently working as many characters on a Japanese series called Inazuma 11 Go! In the photo from the show (above) I dub the big guy with the goggles on his chin and the dark haired guy with the bandage accross his nose on the upper right side.
In the process of studying good voice acting I have been watching new animated programs. I have two new favorites from the US I highly recommend.
The first is Avatar, the Legend of Korra. This is the second story in the Avatar series (the first being the last air bender, which was a great cartoon, but might have become the worst movie I have ever seen!) In terms of the look and feel of most of the new animation comming out fo the US, the American companies have sure gained a lot by studying the Japanese. I love Japanese animation (or anime...although, showing my age, I still think of it as Japanimation in my head) One of my favorite movies is Ghost in the Shell (It has this great rain sequence!) which was also made into a fantastic series. In The Legend of Korra the scenes, the characters, and the animation are all beautiful. And the voice acting is extremely good. I'm a big fan of the world they have crated in this story arc. The time period is later than the first series and it has a bit of a stream punk look to it. If you like good fantasy stories, an Asian landscape and feel and steam punk, this is not to be missed.
The second animated series I have been enjoying is Tron: Uprising. I loved the movie Tron as a child, and the new film was enjoyable, but just didn't do enough for me. The new animated series does all the things that the movie was lacking. It's simple and direct and tells a revolution story in the Tron grid universe. The look and feel of the characters as well as the way they move reminds me of Aeon Flux, which I loved in the 90s! The voice acting is top notch and includes many famous voices including: Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, and Paul Rubens (Pee Wee Herman, but he's playing a bad guy in Tron). If you like animation, and Tron, you know what to do.
More to come, have a great week...
SP