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× Talk abut Movies & TV here. Just tell us what you have been watching. Have hyper-academic discussions on visual semiotics. Whatever, it's all good.

The Return of Samurai Jack

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19 Mar 2017 21:52 - 19 Mar 2017 21:57 #245378 by repoman
Foolish Samurai! Aku is the master of masters and he will end you!





The master animator of our age is Genndy Tartakovsky. He is the creator of Dexter's Lab, Power Puff Girls, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, the original animated Clone Wars, Symbionic Titan and perhaps most importantly Samurai Jack.

Samurai Jack is the story of, you guessed it, a Samurai who's land is threatened by an evil demon/wizard, Aku. Only Jack, heir to a magic sword, can defeat Aku but before he can deliver the killing blow Aku "rips a portal in time and sends him into the future that is Aku!". This premise allows for Genndy to play off all the tropes of heroic western and Samurai fiction along side of science fiction or really any genre he wishes because in the future that is Aku pirates exist along side talking dogs and killer robots. The thing is, the stories are familiar but they are always viewed and portrayed through the lens of Genndy's incredible imagination and whimsical sense of humor. For example, in one episode of the first season, Jack travels to an undersea city where he hopes to find a machine that can send him back to his own time. There he finds an amphibian race drawn to look like the depictions of sea monkeys in the back of every comic book from the 70's and when they go to activate their time machine for Jack, the control panels are the same as the ones used by the Slestacks in The Land of the Lost.

Even though the above would make for a great cartoon, there is more to Samurai Jack. The color pallet, the stylized look and poses of the characters and the free use of triptych images are all heavily influenced by Japanese art. It looks like no other cartoon. Also the depth of character in Jack is something I have seen in few animated series perhaps only rivaled by such things as Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Beebop.

The series lasted for four years before it was cancelled.

Now we too travel through a portal in time to the present day where a 5th and final season of Samurai Jack has returned to TV.

The original series aired on Cartoon Network and because it's target audience is children, the show which is filled with violence had to make some compromises. Most notably, when Jack killed an antagonist it was invariably a robot/android/machine of some kind and not of flesh and blood. In fact, the foes which were clearly living creatures were always seen to flee rather than be killed. The new season, however, is airing on Adult Swim, Cartoon Networks late night alter ego for teens and adults, so it has the freedom to go darker and deeper than the original run.

Only two episodes have been aired as of today but believe me when I tell you that these two episodes are perhaps the best animated work I have ever seen. The vision and style remain intact but the tone is not for children. From an image of Jack's father shackled in a sea of flame to a river of human skulls there are some disturbing visuals. And the restriction against killing is definitely off.

Listen when I say this is singularly awesome. If you've never seen it at all you should watch at least the first season of the original series so you have some context. (It's available on kisscartoon.se ) If you have seen the show before, wait not another minute to watch these new episodes. They will blow your mind.
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Last edit: 19 Mar 2017 21:57 by repoman.
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19 Mar 2017 22:32 #245379 by Michael Barnes
The original show was really quite groundbreaking for its time, and it is one of the seminal animated series of the late 90s/early 2000s. I watched them all when they first aired and loved it. I haven't seen the new ones yet but now I want to go back and watch them all.

My wife does a lot of work at Cartoon Network but she hasn't done anything for this... if she did, we would probably have a bunch of cool swag like this awesome Powerpuff Girls backpack we got when she did a promo with them. I should see if she can grab something, their promo junk is REALLY nice.

As for Tartakovsky...he has done some really awesome stuff...he was supposed to be on a new Dark Crystal thing but I don't think it ever went anywhere. His big work now is the Hotel Transylvania films which are...definitely a step down from his more interesting work. Maybe the new SJ will get him back on the right track!
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19 Mar 2017 23:11 #245381 by Vlad
Replied by Vlad on topic The Return of Samurai Jack
Curiously enough, I just started watching the original SJ with my son. I watched a lot of it back in the day, but never consistently. I liked it a lot, in particular because the storytelling techniques reminded me a lot of one of the first computer games I played (and the only one I still remember fondly), Another World. But I didn't get hooked on SJ, because it was too kid-friendly for my taste and the story was obviously (and by design) going nowhere.
So, since my son was really-really into it, I watched the first chapter of season 5 by myself.
Like Repoman says, this might be too much for kids. It is dark, promises to get even darker and feels different from the original. But not in any gratuitous way, though, it is dark, but still beautiful and simple. Like anything done by Tartakovsky, it is very hard to point your finger at a particular aspect or scene and say - "hey, this is what it's all about!" Personally, I feel that the old Jack was about stoicism and optimism. The new one hints at hubris and weariness. And I don't think that the story will be disjointed this time, seems like season 5 will have a strong main arc.
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