Show #10: Alienators: Evolution Continues VS Evolution (2001)
Drawn Or Alive
Maudlin, ill-advised attempts to recapture the spirit of Ghostbusters may seem a recent phenomenon, however examination of the pop culture fossil record shows evidence of this practice dating back to at least the turn of the millennium! An extraterrestrial spin on the premise was the next logical step, even corralling attractive weirdos such as David Duchovny and Julianne Moore, and such was their confidence that a marketing blitz incorporating shampoo promotion and of course an animated spin-off followed close behind. Could this relative throwback adapt to the harsh environments of the...
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Show #9: Patlabor: The Mobile Police VS The Next Generation: Patlabor
Drawn Or Alive
The long-awaited mobilisation of Patlabor EZY earlier this summer got us to thinking about the origins of this perennial favourite mecha police procedural, not to mention the last time it was revived with an all new cast. The anime already felt somewhat grounded in reality, so a live-action spin-off series would seem the next natural step for the franchise. Not if philosopher and part-time anime director Mamoru Oshii has his way! Beyond the safe confines of creative collective Headgear he went full maverick cop with a J-drama revamp both regretful and reverent of its legacy, shot through with...
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Show #8: Guyver: Out Of Control VS The Guyver (1991)
Drawn Or Alive
Our mission statement becomes all too literal this time with a surfeit of shapeshifting monsters in animation and live action! Yoshiki Takaya's tokusatsu-inspired sci-fi horror manga was a hot ticket from the mid 80s into the early 90s, with a concerted effort from opposite sides of the globe to inform the public of the villainous dealings of the Chronos corporation and one alien-armoured boy's crusade to thwart their plans. A rapidly-paced OVA eventually morphed into a Western feature film directed by squelchy special effects master Screaming Mad George, and even involved a very game Mark...
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Show #7: The Super Mario Bros. Movie VS Super Mario Bros: The Movie
Drawn Or Alive
Your plucky podcasters speedrun a show together just in time for the arrival of a new animated entry in the Mario media multiverse, and how those times have changed! Illumination's 2023 effort seemed to deliver on all fervent fan desires, leaving 1993's somewhat maligned live-action flop flushed down the toilet of history, right? Three decades is a relative eternity in pop culture, in which attitudes can evolve and tastes can mature, beset all the while by the forces of nostalgia and franchise fatigue. Pratt & Day may be the new young hotshots in town but Hoskins & Leguizamo may yet...
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Show #6: Dennis & Gnasher (1996) VS The Show (2020)
Drawn Or Alive
Podcast pal Brian Smith, a Drawn Or Alive OG contributor, offers his expertise on British geography and comics as two funnybook legends of wildly different calibers find unlikely common ground. For 75 years Dennis The Menace has tormented twerps and pestered parents from the pages of The Beano. Almost as old but just as mischievous stands chaos wizard and part-time comics writer Alan Moore, paying subtle tribute to the tousle-haired terror in his northern noir feature The Show. Dennis has assumed many forms and guises across the decade, though how will his quintessential first TV...
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Show #5: Hellboy - Sword Of Storms VS Hellboy (2004)
Drawn Or Alive
After a brief bout of eternal damnation superhero films were being summoned back from the abyss at the turn of the millennium, still subject to the whims of cinema's dark masters before succumbing to franchise-building orthodoxy later that decade. From these fires arose Hellboy, Mike Mignola's demonic detective brought to life by Guillermo Del Toro's macabre imagination and a towering performance from Ron Perlman. But would their charms extend to the realm of animation? A brace of cartoon tie-ins accompanied the big screen efforts, exploring the layers of Hellboy's comic origins, and...
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Show #4: Battle Angel Alita VS Alita: Battle Angel
Drawn Or Alive
A new year but the same old tricks, going two-in-a-row on profligate projects from cinema luminaries that took years to emerge. This also has us breaking the seal on the imposing vault of live-action adaptations of Japanese anime with one of its most storied sagas. Two decades sitting on the film rights to Yukito Kishiro’s cyborg epic was enough time for mariner and part-time director James Cameron to grow weary of the prospect, enlisting Robert Rodriguez to assemble the spare parts into functional form. Amongst the dreary scrapheap of Western anime remakes how does this one compare with the...
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Show #3: The Dick Tracy Animated Canon VS Dick Tracy (1990)
Drawn Or Alive
Veteran of the force Joseph Wade responds to our call for backup in taking down the notorious criminal enterprise comprised of the many screen incarnations of yellow-coated copper Dick Tracy! For a newspaper comic strip Ol' Dick has quite the heinous rap sheet on the animated side outside of a Daffy Duck short. The live-action cohort exists in the shadow of Warren Beatty's hubristic effort, celebrating its 25th anniversary of biting on the style of Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film. Is there a place in this world anymore for an old-fashioned two-fisted dick and his gallery of gruesome goons? Our...
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Show #2: Predator - Killer Of Killers VS Predator
Drawn Or Alive
The terms "versus" and "Predator" have historically been a volatile combination, comparable in potency to when a popular franchise tosses off a haphazard animated tie-in to gin up interest in its next instalment. However director Dan Trachtenberg, not content with only getting the Predator universe back to fighting form in the celebrated Prey, seeks to do equal justice to the cartoon counterpart with a fatal four-way anthology piece. Besides expanding the scope of the new films' story to the stars above, Killer Of Killers gets Predator back doing what he does best: pitting the...
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Show #1: Our Past VS Our Future (featuring Community!)
Drawn Or Alive
At long last our animation investigations have resumed, and a reintroduction is in order! Niall and Dwayne lay out their bona fides for the task ahead of them before unveiling the patented DOA system for colliding pop culture particles into each other. To calibrate this baby the late 00s self-aware sitcom Community fits the bill, focusing on one of its later form experiments in GI Joe parody and how it fits against the show's regular dalliances with other genres & mediums. Many memories are unearthed, regrets are shared and much excitement builds for what's to come. It can be scary coming...
info_outlineA new year but the same old tricks, going two-in-a-row on profligate projects from cinema luminaries that took years to emerge. This also has us breaking the seal on the imposing vault of live-action adaptations of Japanese anime with one of its most storied sagas. Two decades sitting on the film rights to Yukito Kishiro’s cyborg epic was enough time for mariner and part-time director James Cameron to grow weary of the prospect, enlisting Robert Rodriguez to assemble the spare parts into functional form. Amongst the dreary scrapheap of Western anime remakes how does this one compare with the perfectly enjoyable 1993 OVA from which it so liberally borrows? We steel ourselves for the task, with Niall on hand to expound on the fantastic tableaus from the manga which may grace the big screen any century now!