Who's seen Storm Hawks?

[CudleyCowlick]

It's on Cartoon Network, Monday night @ 7:00, and I think it's the best new cartoon out there. Created by Ace Fipke of Nerd Corp, the 3-D animation has some anime influences, but remains distinctly its own while the writing is fun and witty, even dark at times.

It just premiered in May, but there are already 52 episodes in production, 8, (or maybe 9?) of which have aired already.

I'll admit that I am a known cartoon junkie and I will watch just about anything you put in front of me, but this is actually REALLY REALLY great and also the most original cartoon I've seen in years. My girlfriend likes it too and she's a pretty harsh critic. If you haven't seen it yet, we both highly reccomend it.

Spin Master has plans to release the first wave of action figures in Fall 07, and there are plans to ramp up the merchandising in 08 with games, RC vehicles and anything else you can imagine. Now, if you've ever seen Spin Master's Air Hog RC vehicles, you know that they are capable of making great toys. They also make Power Rangers and Sonic X, two properties that don't much excite me, but it looks like they did a good job with the toys.

If you want to know more, there's a great wikipedia entry with info on the Storm Hawks, the supporting cast, their planet, their vehicles, and anything else you need to know, and go watch it, DAG NABIT!

[DrSpengler]

I've caught a couple of episodes.

It's no Avatar, but it's not bad. The Ocean Group don't seem to be getting as much voice over work as they used to, so it's good to hear the familiar cast again.

The writing, at least in one episode I saw, was pretty fun. The one where they have to go to one of Cyclonia's prisons to free a group of rebels. The leader narrates their plan as they do it and they keep stepping outside the fourth wall as they go along.

The CG animation is surprisingly good and the characters emote really well. The action scenes come out the best, though, from what I've seen.

I haven't watched enough of it to decide whether I love it or not, but CN is gonna do a marathon this upcoming monday or there abouts so maybe I'll catch up then.

I've seen maybe 3 episodes and I already like it better than Code Lyoko and Skyland, at any rate.

[CudleyCowlick]

Ugh, Code Lyoko... UGH... what a piece of trash.

I thought Skyland was OK, only caught one episode but it looked like a lot of style and little substance.

I've seen a couple episodes of Avatar, I can certainly see its merits, but it really hasn't drawn me in yet.

I hadn't heard about the SH marathon, I guess I can see the couple I've missed so far. YEEHAW!

[Anarky]

You know what bugs me about series like these? You have the cool character, master pilot, his sidekick who's a sharpshooter, a creature who's heavily armed, a hypochondriac emohead who's piloting the carrier and then you have the girl. Well, the girl is virtually useless if she's not behind a desk, from the sounds of it... Who needs "Navigation and Tactics" if you're about to be shot down?

And it's not just in this series, there are many, many cartoons out there that have the girl in a passive role. It's not that it's sexist or anything, it's just boring. Why can't a girl kick ass for a change? And if you excuse me, I'm going to watch some Oban Star Racers now, where a girl does indeed kick ass.

[DrSpengler]

It's one of those things leftover from Star Trek, I think. Girls have to take on the "Ohura" role, where they read what's on the computer and don't really get into the action.

Transformers Headmasters, the vry first Japanese-written Transformers cartoon, did the same thing to Arcee. You remember Arcee from the American series, she was the aggressive female Autobot who always got in the thick of battle and never needed anyone to bail her out of jams. The Japanese thought that would send a bad example to young female viewers and might inspire them not to become subserviant housewives, so for Headmasters they turned her into Fortress Maximus' secretary. And that's not an exaggeration. She was literally a secretary.


But still, while the chick on the good guys' team is a bit of an "Ohura", there are otherstrong female characters in the show. The lead villain is a girl and one of the bad guys is some chick with a bow and arrow (you can tell she's a chick because she has pink hair!). And there are female guest characters who take a more agressive role on the good guys' side, like that French chick they had to rescue from the prison in that episode I mentioned earlier.

So I wouldn't say Storm Hawks is entirely too stereotypical when it comes to female roles.

[Cure]

You know what bugs me about series like these? You have the cool character, master pilot, his sidekick who's a sharpshooter, a creature who's heavily armed, a hypochondriac emohead who's piloting the carrier and then you have the girl. Well, the girl is virtually useless if she's not behind a desk, from the sounds of it... Who needs "Navigation and Tactics" if you're about to be shot down?

And it's not just in this series, there are many, many cartoons out there that have the girl in a passive role. It's not that it's sexist or anything, it's just boring. Why can't a girl kick ass for a change? And if you excuse me, I'm going to watch some Oban Star Racers now, where a girl does indeed kick ass.

Dude, watch Avatar. Plenty of ass kicking chicks up the wazoo.

[Anarky]

I can name some series with asskicking girls, too. Everyone can. That still doesn't change the fact that girls usually are the ones doing "Navigation and Tactics" or "Medic" crap..

[CudleyCowlick]

You know what bugs me about series like these? You have the cool character, master pilot, his sidekick who's a sharpshooter, a creature who's heavily armed, a hypochondriac emohead who's piloting the carrier and then you have the girl. Well, the girl is virtually useless if she's not behind a desk, from the sounds of it... Who needs "Navigation and Tactics" if you're about to be shot down?

And it's not just in this series, there are many, many cartoons out there that have the girl in a passive role. It's not that it's sexist or anything, it's just boring. Why can't a girl kick ass for a change? And if you excuse me, I'm going to watch some Oban Star Racers now, where a girl does indeed kick ass.

Um... actually Piper is a martial arts expert. She practices "Sky Fu", a thinly veiled version of Kung-Fu and in a couple episodes so far she has really opened up with it. She's definetely a strong female character that kicks butt and takes names.

[Anarky]

Sky Fu this, Quack Foo that, her job still is the monumentally boring and awesomely non-screen-timey "Navigations and Tactics." In the history of the show, have you ever seen her plot a course? Or tell the others how to attack the enemy? No, you haven't. You just assume that happening in the background, somewhere. And then she gets to kick two or three baddies in the face and voila, she's a "good female character." Even the mutant with half a working braincell has a better job than her. At least he gets to drive around in a big carrier, whereas she gets a map to play with. Hooray!

[Dr. Doom]

The show's kinda cool. I caught part of a coupel episodes and was moderately pleased. I actually think they did a pretty good job of making it look halfway between 2D and 3D.