Saturday Supercast

Subscribe to the show Audio Hosting provided by Ka-Blam

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It's an experimental episode this time. In the first half of the show I'm joined by Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier, and Anne Drozd for a walkthrough of the 1986 film, The Adventures of the American Rabbit. We then ran into a hard drive hiccup and lost the second half of the recording. But would Rob Rabbit let that stop him? Heck, no! So Dave and I return in the second half to finish our discussion about vultures, rabbits, jackals, and chocolate mooses. Audio hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing.

Audio Hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

Audio Hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

Saturday Supercast 37 - Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue! So what if I told you there's a cartoon where Alf, Garfield, the Smurfs, Bugs Bunny, the Muppet Babies, Michaelangelo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and more all teamed up to save the day? Yup, I'm talking about the 1990 anti-drug special, Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue! And I'm joined by a roundtable of all-stars to help me pick this one apart. Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier, Matt Hawkins, and Shawn Robare all join forces to celebrate this crazy mix of fan service and propaganda. Audio hosting provided by Ka-Blam Subscribe to the show here.

This episode might be considered a thesis statement for the Supercast itself, as I'm joined by cartoonists Gene Yang (of the Avatar: The Last Airbender comics), Jacob Chabot (of the Voltron Force comics), Dave Roman (of Spongebob Comics), and John Green (of the Phineas and Ferb comics) for a discussion on how the cartoons of their youth inform their work today. This was recorded during a panel discussion at the 2013 American Library Association Annual Conference. The audio isn't fantastic, but the panelists' contributions more than make up for it.

I'm joined once again by Shawn Robare, Matt Hawkins, and Dave Roman for the conclusion to our epic discussion on the 1986 film, Transformers: The Movie. Together we discuss the haunting scene where Optimus Prime dies, the problematic leadership of Ultra Magnus, the titanic visuals of Unicron's attack on Cybertron, and the missed opportunities in the character of Rodimus Prime.

This is the big one! An episode so titanic it had to be cut into a two-part epic. I'm joined by Dave Roman, Matt Hawkins, and Shawn Robare for a discussion/debate on my favorite movie of all time--the 1986 film Transformers: The Movie. In this first part we put the film in the context of its time, debate whether the music is dated, and do some of our patented fanfic apologies for why the Decepticons mop the floor with the Autobots in the first 20 minutes of the story.

I'm going to throw a premise at you: An alien crashes in your garage, breaks all of your furniture, and threatens to eat your cats. Does this sound like a show you would watch? I'm joined by Dave Roman, Matt Hawkins, and Anne Drozd, who team up to convince me that I missed out on a crucial piece of childhood in the 80s by not paying attention to the Alf sitcom and follow-up animated series Alf: The Animated Series and Alf Tales.

My Little Pony! Strawberry Shortcake! Jem! Truly Outrageous! I'm joined by Dave Roman and Shawn Robare for a discussion on 80s cartoons designed for an audience of girls (though that didn't stop us boys from loving them!). We kick off with talk about the surprisingly intense My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle, then move on to The World of Strawberry Shortcake, and close with a chat about outrageous rocker gals on guitar-shaped motorcycles, Jem!

My wife Anne and I recently visited the home of Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier for an all-day viewing of Christmas cartoons and specials. We then turned on the microphone to have a discussion on the shows we watched. While it's not the usual in-depth discussions and walkthroughs you've come to expect from the Supercast, it is a bit of a Christmas Cartoon Party, full of observations, recollections, and analysis over a wide range of shows.

I'm joined once again by Dave Roman for the second part of our 2012 Halloween cartoon discussions. This time we return to talking about prime-time specials-the shows that were specifically made for a once-a-year viewing. And instead of digging deep for esoteric and lost gems, we take on the widely-known classics, Garfield's Halloween Adventure and It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

It's another round of holiday-themed cartoon discussions, this time focusing on Halloween. But instead of halloween specials, Dave Roman joins me to discuss three halloween-ish episodes of some episodic cartoon series. Who passes the Halloween test? Kim Possible, Transformers Animated, or My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic? The answer may surprise you! I know it did us!

I'm joined by Dave Roman for one more holiday special walkthrough for 2011, and we're pointing our lasers at one that often gets overlooked by fans of the Rankin/Bass specials. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, originally a book by L. Frank Baum, was the last of the Rankin/Bass "animagic" stop-motion features released in 1985 and featured what some might consider a bizarre combination of high fantasy with the sweet song-and-dance numbers one expects from the studio's specials. But Dave and I both love this special and I think it shows as we proceed through an exhaustive walkthrough complete with audio clips.

After a very long hiatus, the Saturday Supercast returns! I'm joined this time by Dave Roman (yaytime.com), who walks with me through the Rankin/Bass epic holiday special Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July. Throughout our walkthrough we discuss the strange issues that arise out of referring to one's own "continuity" while disregarding or altering parts of it. Who knew that these holiday specials were so much like the American Comic Book Industry!

It's been a little while, but the Saturday Supercast is back with a very special episode. Jerzy recently got a chance to talk to one of our musical heroes, the ever awesome Stan Bush. Listeners to the Saturday Supercast will probably recognize his two main contributions to the 1987 Transformers the Movie Soundtrack, The Touch and Dare, but Stan has been rocking our socks with earnest guitar anthems since the late 70s, not to mention also proving the theme song to Sailor Moon, She's Got the Power. In addition to his ties to the Transformers franchise, Jerzy and Stan chat about growing up in Florida, breaking into the industry, balancing personal and commercial work (including Bush's contributions to memorable ad campaigns like Coors' Tap the Rockies and Toyota's I Love What You Do For Me), the art of writing unpretentious rock anthems that are emboldened by a sense of earnest optimism and the potential to succeed, as well as a nice thank you at the end of the recent War for Cybertron video game. The two also talk about Stan's new album, Dream the Dream, which hits store shelves on September 15th, and features a reworking of the Touch called Sam's Theme.