Angel's Anime Rating Guide

At some time in the 1950's, Mom happened to see Rapunzel on TV. After some searching, I came across an animated feature by Ray Harryhausen that seemed to fit the parameters of Mom's vague recollection... According to Wikipedia .... A childless couple that wanted a child lived next to a walled garden which belonged to an enchantress. The wife, as a result of her long-awaited pregnancy, noticed a Rapunzel plant (or, in some versions of the story, rampion radishes or lamb's lettuce), planted in the garden and longed for it to the point of death. For two nights, the husband went out and broke into the garden to gather some for her; on the third night, as he was scaling the wall to return home, the enchantress, whose name is said to be "Dame Gothel", caught him and accused him of theft. He begged for mercy, and the old woman agreed to be lenient, on condition that the then-unborn child be surrendered to her at birth. Desperate, the man agreed. When the girl was...

During this year's Oscar ceremony, I happened to notice an nominee for an animated short called The Lady and the Reaper ... The Lady and the Reaper (La dama y la muerte) is a 3D imaging animated short film created by Javier Recio Gracia and produced by Kandoor Moon. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and won the Goya Award for Best Animated Short of 2009.

Late in December of last year, I happened to wander into one of my favorite anime hangouts and came across a post for Alma , by award-winning animation director, Rodrigo Blaas ... According to Wikipedia ... Alma is Rodrigo Blaas' first short film as a director. Originally from Spain, Rodrigo Blaas has worked in animation for more than ten years, in Spain and in the United States.

In 1996, I saw the infamous Nissan "Dream Garage" commercial and immediately afterwards, I made an effort to add it to the archive. But, eleven years later, in the aftermath of the Ultimate Otaku Fall Cleanup , try as I might, I couldn't remember which one of the 2000+ VHS tapes had the commercial on it. So, sadly, the commercial went away.

I just picked up the revised relaunch of  Neon Genesis Evangelion ... Tokyo-3 still stands after most of civilization was decimated in the Second Impact. Now the city endures the ceaseless onslaught of the deadly Angels, bizarre creatures bent on eradicating the human race. To combat this strange and ruthless enemy, the government agency NERV constructs a fleet of towering humanoid machines - the Evas - and Shinji Ikari is called into action, reluctantly taking his place at the controls of Eva Unit 01.

Some time ago, I happened to see a music video on Cartoon Network featuring Betty Boop and music by Soul Coughing called " Rolling " from their " El Oso " album. I had meant to add this item to the archive, but, I waited too long and it disappeared from Cartoon Network before I could catch it. Once again YouTube  came to the rescue...

During this year's Oscar ceremony, I happened to notice a nominee for an animated short called Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty ... According to Wikipedia ... Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty is a six-minute-long CG/flash animated socially satirical black comedy short film, directed by Nicky Phelan and produced by Darragh O'Connell of Brown Bag Films in 2008. It was written by Kathleen O'Rourke. The plot centres on Granny O'Grimm, a seemingly sweet old lady, who loses the plotline as she tells her own version of Sleeping Beauty to her terrified granddaughter.

After recent trips to YouTube  yielded a Cosmic Christmas and other animated gems from the past, I developed an interest in some other animation from the early days of Nelvana. Intergalactic Thanksgiving aka Please Don't Eat the Planet seemed like an interesting story, so, I gave it a try.

Several years ago, Cartoon Network aired a series called Megas XLR . I saw some of the series, but, it was gone before I had the opportunity to preserve any episodes for the archive. In the distant future of 3037, humanity is fighting a doomed war against an alien race known as the Glorft. In order to save the Earth and their species from total annihilation, the human resistance steals a prototype giant robot from the Glorft and modifies it, renaming it "Megas" (Mechanized Earth Guard Attack System). The plan was to send Megas back in time to the Battle of the Last Stand in 3035, which was the last major offensive fought by humanity against the Glorft. Humanity lost that battle, and the war moved more and more in the Glorfts' favor ever since, but the members of the resistance believe that Megas can tip the scales and hand the Glorft a decisive defeat.