Simpsons get stamped, May 7, 2009

After 20 years on television and still going, Fox’s The Simpsons is now the first and only show to be featured on a stampset while still in primetime production.
On May 7, 2009, the United States Postal Service will release 5 stamps featuring Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson nationwide. Matt Groening created the original artwork for the stamps and will present them at a First-Day-of-Issue ceremony in Los Angeles on that day. Stamp collectors and fans can pre-order the stamps right now from the USPS website for home delivery.

• via USPS press release

Toys at The Korea Society, CG test footage of 'Robot Taekwon V'

Just as The Korea Society opens a new exhibit on 70′s and 80′s toys from Korea with the Taekwondo-style butt-kicking giant robot Taekwon V as its centerpiece today, there’s news that the animated feature film will be made into a live-action/CG film to be released in August, 2009 (Test CG footage looks awesome! read on).

First, straight from The Korea Society’s website:

“Toys – always more meaningful than the simple playthings they appear to be – can embody the fantasies, values, obsessions and anxieties of a generation. Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood includes a veritable toy box of over 90 flamboyantly colored action figures, robots, miniature tanks and paper dolls from 1970′s and 1980′s Korea.”

So the exhibit will have more than just action figures and robots for boys, but also girls’ toys and dolls too. Being that Korea’s growing industrialization made new things possible in the country for the first time during that period, it would be interesting to see just what got kids excited back when there was no Guitar Hero or PlayStation. Here’s some key proceedings tied to the show:

• The opening reception for the exhibit is today at 5:30 PM
• Exhibit runs through April 18
• “Gallery Talk” (lecture): “Our Toys Our Selves: Robot Taekwon V and South Korean Identity” on February 7
• Film screening of animated feature Robot Taekwon V (2007, Digitally restored from original 1976 prints) on March 18

The film was the first Korean animated feature – ever. While original prints were long thought to have been destroyed by fire, a print was later found in one of KOFIC’s (Korean Film Council) off-site storage warehouses, was digitally restored in a 3-year-long process and re-released in 2007 to theaters across the nation in a very successful run.

Second, the live-action/CG adaptation. With Shin Cine(씬씨네) pouring 20 billion Korean Won (more than $20 million US) into the production, and CG/visuals done by (count ‘em!) 5 Korean VFX companies they’re going all-out on this one. Twitch does remind us that releasing in 2009 means it will “go head-to-head with The Transformers 2 in the Korean market.” YTN (Korea’s CNN) cites the movie will be based on the webcomic series “V” but will be a completely separate(different) work, and that the screenplay is in its final drafts. Won Shin-yeon of A Bloody Aria and Seven Days will direct, and in the YTN newscast, Won says

“Though it’s hard to be moved to awe or tears with technology, robots, I want to try doing that with Taekwon V, and I’m confident it will be possible with this.”

V webcomic. The top text reads, "I haven't lost yet."

In the webcomic, Hoon, who at the time of the original animation in 1976 was a young man, is now a 50-something years-old powerless paper-pusher that joins forces with Robot Taekwon V when it (he?) resurrects to fight off an impending evil. The series was produced by comic artist Jaepigaru and Robot Taekwon V, Inc. (yes, amazingly there’s a whole company just for one animated character).

You can watch test CG-render footage in the video below (or click here if it doesn’t work). Let’s hope its historical significance and national-fanbase backing culminates in something much less cringe-inducing than the cg-craptastic flop that was D-War.

• Toy Stories Exhibit, Korea Society
• YTN news video
• Joynews24 article with test footage
• webcomic series “V”
• Twitch

Update: Trailer is out, added below!

Emile Hirsch in full ‘Speed’ gear, Rain (South Korean pop sensation Bi) about to knock Speed out, the Mach 5 car on a crazy psychedelic racetrack, Christina Ricci and everyone else in funny haircuts — it can only mean one thing: Speed Racer pictures from the upcoming Wachowski Brother’s(The Matrix Trilogy, V for Vendetta) anime to live-action movie adaptation. Trying out what they’re calling car-fu - ‘kung-fu with cars’ – it seems they got the pop-visual look of the 60′s cartoon down pat. The movie will be Rain’s English-langauge debut, and also stars Susan Sarandon and John Goodman as Speed’s parents, Mom & Pops Racer. Gotta love the straightforward naming scheme.

Pictures of Rain, Ricci and more (plus the trailer) after the jump.

• USAToday has the full story and gallery with more pictures.

• via Cinematical

and now the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQyYPP9zR7M

'Mad Monkey' from Studio Flying

Studio Flying, makers of the love-it-or-hate-it potty humor feature animation AAchi & SSipak, have put up still images from their latest project, Mad Monkey.

Twitch surmises it’s a direct-to-DVD and according to the company website’s news section, it is indeed listed as an “HD project for DVD.” The images seem to keep the raw, un-clean outline look of A&S, which would probably fit the context well of what will likely be lots of action and fighting. The stills also seem to suggest a more serious tone, plotwise. Here’s to hoping it’s anywhere between the swift stylization of Samurai Jack and the recently-reimagined Samurai 7 in tone.

Here’s their short synopsis from their website, translated by yours truly.

The Six Warriors’ Saga

X-Men, Batman, Hell Boy.. What if the likes of these superheroes existed in ancient Eastern history?
In a time that we never learned about nor have any record of, in a strange, unknown past…

Rather than be taken as history, an age that feels more like
a legend or fairy tale. Six warriors ventured to the end of the world
and knocked on the “Gate of Hell.” Because of their fearless daring,
people call them ____ [translator's note: the original Korean text leaves out words, what I assume should be "Mad Monkey"].

A tale about a band of six men, Six Warriors, that lived on while posessing both the anguish of humans and the power of supernaturals.

X맨, 배트맨, 헬보이… 동양고대사에 이런 슈퍼히어로가 존재했다면 어떨까?!  우리가 배운 적 없고 어디에도 기록되어 있지 않은 미지의 과거 어느때…
역사로서 인식되기보다 전설이나 설화로 느껴지는 고대 대륙의 시대. 세상의 끝까지 나아가 ‘지옥의 문’을 두드린 여섯명의 무사.  그들의 흉폭함으로 인해 사람들을 그들을라 부른다.
인간의 고뇌와 초인의 파워를 동시에 지닌채 살아갔던 여섯명의 무사, 육부대, 의 이야기.

• Studio Flying website
• Catsuka, via Twitch