Around the turn of the mellenia where so far at least one superhero film is being released a year (starting with X-Men), one Gregg Taylor from Toronto, Canada got professional assistance to create the superhero radioshows he always wanted.
Except no channels wanted to put it on air, & I can't blame them. These (I'll call them "pilots") were totally cheesy & nothing special. They sat around on Taylor's harddrive for him to publish as a footnote.
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in reply to alcinnz • • •It's 2005 when the superhero boom has really hit its stride with the success of Singer's X-Men, Raimi's Spider-man, & soon Nolan's Dark Night trilogies. Amongst others. And technology has advanced enough that Taylor could gather most of his old cast to create & publish The Red Panda Adventures themselves. Now with a new tone which I treasure!
It effortlessly balances the disperate tones of superhero stories centred on a hero he believes in the good his silly hobby more than his day job.
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in reply to alcinnz • • •(Yes, amongst the disperate tones Taylor balances is unapologetic cheesiness! Also "Decoder Ring Theatre" [DRT] created a detective noir, & others' scripts)
Also giving The Red Panda a compelling sidekick in Clarissa Dernederlandon's Kit Baxter aka The Flying Squirrel helps a lot in a medium where, roughly, nothing exists unless it's mentioned in conversation.
Podcasting gave DRT enough of audience they were free to continue telling this story for an entire decade until it's natural end!
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in reply to alcinnz • • •The Red Panda Adventures follows a billionaire-by-inheritance who finds that being a superhero (The Red Panda) does more good for Great Depression-era Toronto. He's supernaturally skilled at hypnosis!
Together with The Flying Squirrel the Terrific Twosome of Toronto fights mobsters, mad scientists, thematic supervillains, capitalists, magical beings, & nazis.
It's solidly grounded in history.
P.S. Hypnosis is why noone figures out The Red Panda's secret identity.
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in reply to alcinnz • • •I like the way Taylor handles WWII. With the s2 finale where one Baboon McSmoothie Man of a Thousand Faces travels back & sideways in time from the pilots universe. Which is fun hearing Taylor mock his own previous writing! In which The Red Panda doesn't know whether to believe WWII is coming or that nazis were anything other than foreign politics, Baboon's universe sounds like quite the silly place.
Hindsight gives us the audience a different perspective!
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in reply to alcinnz • • •In season 7 Taylor shows a mastery over tropes, to weaponize our familiarity with them to depict the experience of loosing loved ones in battle. Season 6 ended with a very unconvincing death scene for The Red Panda. Like most superhero audiences Kit refuses to accept that he's actually dead, even though its more proof than the army often gets.
But the show committed to it across 2 breaks & half a season.
Then there's the contrast with everyone off to war...
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in reply to alcinnz • • •From there it's a fun amnesia plot with August Fenwick (The Red Panda's secret identity) refusing to believe that he was ever anything so derivative as a masked crime fighter. Despite seeing autonomous drones, mutant plants, telepathic cyborg-dinosaur nazi squadrons, zombies, magicians, etc.
S7 is essentially the climax & the show at it's most tropey, the plot slowly wraps in seasons 8-10 ending a place that's derivative enough with The Black Eagle you don't mind it.
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in reply to alcinnz • • •The Red Panda Adventures has lots of memorable characters, & I'll end by giving a shout out to a few.
10-year-old Red Panda Agent 391 Harry "Eagle-eyes" Kelley aka The Black Cap is contagiously enthusiastic, like many 10 year-olds!
Mad (mystical) scientist Dr Chronopolis enjoys his work a lot, & has many fun lines.
I like The Mad Monkey's backstory that he's sour over loosing his fame to Mowgli & Tarzan, & the show needed a one-true nemisis. Good laugh!
Then there's The Genie's ego...
8/8!
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alcinnz
in reply to alcinnz • • •Of the more mainstream movies, what's my taste in superhero films?
I've already mentioned Raimi's Spider-man the other day. There's so much which works in those movies (e.g. you can feel the momentum in the CG action), but to highlight 1 department: the extras! It feels like while these are stories about a young broke white man, everyone Parker comes in the briefest contact with has their own stories.
They do demand emotional/cinema literacy. Spider-man 3 is weaker, but still great.
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in reply to alcinnz • • •I also really like Del Toro's Hellboy. It's got a very tight script (clear setups/payoffs, strong character development, & hard to see anything that could be cut) with a neat aesthetic! And I don't see the wise-cracking superhero pulled off in live-action often.
Spiderverse shares most of the same strengths as both of those!
Regarding MCU, I think beyond it's sheer breadth anything it does well has been done much better before in film. Guardians vol 2 has strong themes though!
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silverwizard
in reply to alcinnz • •alcinnz reshared this.