THIS WEEK IN SCI-FI
#7: 19 SEPTEMBER-2 OCTOBER

This week on Girls Kick Ass:

Keira nominated for celeb awards, Majandra Delfino: Don't Come Knockin', Alyssa Milano in US FHM, Angelina: No more Mr. Rights, Katherine Heigl: role call for up-and-comers, Garner eager for more Alias, Doherty ups North Shore commitment, Angelina reveals early retirement plans

Animated Buffy on DVD?

From the Calgary Sun:

Creator Joss Whedon - who wrote a spinoff comic book a couple of years ago - has been trying to get a Buffy The Animated Series off the ground for the past few years.

Originally produced for Fox and overseen by Jeph Loeb, a comics writer who is now a producer on Smallville, the cartoon was intended to pick up where the live-action show starring Sarah Michelle Gellar left off.

But Fox bailed on the project in mid-stream, leaving it somewhere between life and death - much like the demons its spunky blonde heroine battles.

Now comes word, courtesy the Associated Press, that the Buffy animated series may now find a berth on DVD - the new haven for cartoon shorts spun off of current and past TV series and movies.

On the third season DVD of the spy serial Alias, there's a seven-minute animated short featuring Jennifer Garner's Sydney Bristow.

And this past summer's Van Helsing and The Chronicles of Riddick both launched animated shorts on DVD as part of their promotional campaigns. Next up - Wesley Snipes' vampire hunter Blade, who gets his own three-minute cartoon available on the soundtrack of December's sequel, Blade: Trinity.

The idea of crossing the line between animation and live-action itself isn't new - even the original Star Trek gave birth to an animated spinoff in the '70s featuring the voices of the original actors (who needed the work, anyway).

What is new is the respect - from creators and the public - that the medium of animation has garnered in the past two decades, thanks to the popularity of Japanimation and the Disney renaissance that began in the 1980s with such 2-D films as Beauty and the Beast and grew to include such Pixar-produced hits as Toy Story and Monsters Inc.

The latter led to the explosion of CGI films such as Shrek, while the former influenced filmmakers including the Wachowski Brothers, who demonstrated their affection for the genre with 2003's The Animatrix. That film - actually a series of animated shorts which expanded the universe of The Matrix - proved that there was a broad audience ready to embrace the medium.

George Lucas, no stranger to the zeitgeist, decided to dramatise the Clone Wars - the events between Episodes 2 and 3 of his Star Wars prequel trilogy - on the small screen in a series of 20 shorts for the Cartoon Network.

This new wave of animation appreciation heralds a geneational shift of sorts - kids who grew up in the 1970s and '80s adoring comics and Saturday morning cartoons are now the directors and dealmakers in charge of Hollywood's pipeline.

(That's one reason, aside from the obvious marketing and merchandising potential, why comic books and video games are popular source material for films and TV - because the guys making them grew up as fans; the same was true in the '70s when Lucas and Steven Spielberg, geeks weaned on the serials of the 1930s and '40s, used their clout to make similarly-themed adventures such as Raiders of the Lost Ark.)

There is also that for producers, the Animatrix route allows them to expand their universe, adding detail and exposition that would never make the final cut otherwise - much like novels and comics based on existing franchises.

And if you're a TV producer, going the 'toon route allows you to continue to tell your story without dealing with the egos of your stars. Gellar has expressed no interest in reprising Buffy's voice so the producers turned to a replacement. It may not be ideal, but it's a lot easier than recasting a live-action role.

Cost, too, is a factor. While animation is expensive, it's still cheaper - and more effective - to have Buffy's cartoon counterpart battle armies of monsters than it ever was on the TV series.

Charisma on Charmed: Trailer now online

The WB's website now has a trailer for Sunday's episode of Charmed, entitled Cheaper by the Coven, which sees Charisma Carpenter's first guest appearance on the show.

The network describes the episode thus:

Against Piper's wishes, Paige and Phoebe summon Grams (guest star Jennifer Rhodes) for Chris' wiccaning. To put an end to the brothers' sibling rivalry, Grams puts a spell on them, but in the process turns the sisters back to bickering teenagers. Meanwhile, Leo consults a demonic seer (guest star Charisma Carpenter) to find out who attacked Wyatt and learns that he has a connection to Wyatt's attacker, and Phoebe attends an award ceremony with Les (guest star Nick Lachey), only to end up acting live a love-struck teenager.

Derek Johansen directed the episode written by Mark Wilding.

Tru Calling postponed

Fox has moved the second season of Tru Calling from its 4 November start date and will now use it as a midseason replacement. The Hollywood Reporter also claims that the network has only ordered six new episodes rather than the previously announced thirteen. The continuation of the series past that must now be in serious doubt. back to the top