Come to life and join Ben, Zane, and Dan for the adventure of a lifetime, or at least until our warranty is up. The Brave Little Toaster is a classic film made by proto-Pixar-people that gets a bad reputation for its honest take on serious themes (with a few...gratuities). Great for children, adults, and anyone willing to confront their own mortality. Plus toast!
Ben and Zane were doing their part by making sure no totalitarians were hiding in the closet, when opening the door created a gateway to another universe. The inhabitants were strange: humanoid animals with bizarre features who only spoke in rap lyrics. They met with a funky fresh resistance leader and his ragtag band of hype men who tried to enlist them, but honestly, the whole trip took a lot out of them, and they just wanted to kick back and enjoy some quality TV.
Ben and Zane were crawling around eating dirt on a dare, when Gary Lane, notable groovy guy, stepped up to them to tell them the good word of the Great Worm Spirit. Instantly hooked, they all trotted toward the nearest Church of the GWS, but were unfortunately crushed by a falling cow on the way there. Truly, the Great Worm Spirit gives with one end, and... ehh... does something gross with the other end.
Ben and Zane went to the new club in town, the House of Mouse, hoping for a pleasant evening of Fivel movies and Sherlock Holmes references. But what they found terrified them. The whole estate had been left untended for ages. Long-rotten bodies had been exhumed and made to dance in a macabre performance, and everyone from the greeter to the waiter was but a shadow of their former selves. They begged to be freed from their eternal show, but even the Cartoncasters' strongest venom could not stop the power of the magic kingdom.
Andrew Spohn of the Amusement Sparks podcast arrived yesterday afternoon, by way of hydrofoil. Ben and Zane greeted him with open arms, but quickly grew apprehensive as Andrew explained Dr. Zin's evil plan to replace all maternal figures worldwide with suspiciously handsome secret agents. Will Andrew catch wise to the secret Race Bannon cloning facility in the Cartoncast basement? Or will Ben and Zane put an end to his curiosity, once and for all? Stay tuned to find out!
Join the Cartoncasters for this special Bootlegg'd segment, where we look at an anime film for the first time. Lupin III is a very successful, long running franchise, which showcases a Japanese twist on the much beloved spy genre. Its long history produced many incarnations of Lupin III with wildly varying quality, similar to the history of James Bond. The Mystery of Mamo is one of the more beloved examples, with all that quick-witted Lupin goodness, mildly soured by an emergency injection of Heinlein right at the finish.
Ben and Zane were touring the 1930's with the help of their Time Lord friend Phil. They took in the old-timey horse races and...sock hops? Anyway, as they passed the docks, they were shoved out of the way by a gigantic, meaty man. A sailor saw this and jumped out of his boat, using his clearly-diseased arms to take down the bully, punching him into several steaks. As the Cartoncasters went to leave, the sailor started muttering something that they couldn't understand, something about olive oil and "just needing a bit more of the green stuff."
It's been a while since Ben and Zane checked in with Buster Bunny. Time had not treated him well. The disillusionment of adolescence left him ripe for distraction and the glory of mob mentality. He fell in with the wrong crowd, started disrespecting his momma, and filled his dissatisfaction of the underclass with lewd distractions and senseless violence. If only he would listen to us say that in a race war, there is no victor.
Greetings, mystery eggberts! Because Ben shows no signs of watching this great show, Zane is using the nuclear option and just recording an episode without him. Helping him investigate the strangeness of the situation is Ethan, certified twin and conspiracianado. Listen as Ethan and Zane drop hints about the secret history of the U.S. government, dire visions of the future, and the lifelong question of what happens to the little light in the fridge when you close it.Ethan is full of spiders. Don't go peeking. born lie bit you florid mess.
While talking about the latest episode of Sick Sad World (are people illegally cutting baseball diamonds in half? Three sides and you're out, next on Sick Sad World!), Ben and Zane saw the new girl in school walk by. But then they got distracted by the weird kid's gambling ring, and the teacher's rampage, and the spat between the Canadian couple, and by the time they got back around to looking at the new girl they just kind of stopped caring. La la la la la.
Ben and Zane were visiting Eternia - sorry, Third Earth - and found a fascinating war unfolding around them. Apparently, some renegade members of a barbaric race were subjecting the natives to a dogmatic psuedo-mysitcal religious mandate. The leader of this band, He-man - excuse me, Lion-O - called himself 'The Lord of the Thundercats', and ruled by divine right. His mission, he said, was to lead a crusade against the so-called great evil of Skeletor - oh forget it.
In the second part of our in-depth summary of Kid Radd, we follow Radd from his quest to find powerful allies to fight the Moderators up through the dramatic conclusion and epilogue. As the party goes in and out of video game parodies, the author moves between drama and comedy to convey the central themes which are restated, just, so many times.
It's a Scrambl'd, it's a Bootlegg'd, it's a 2-parter! We're breaking the rules with an animated webcomic that does the same. A personal favorite that found inventive solutions to the problems of the medium and still holds up, in format and in story. Join us as we follow Radd, a video game protagonist taken from his game and put into a world where he has to fight corrupt politicians, violent sprites, and his own programming.In part 1 we go over the major themes of the story, as well as the plot up through Radd's visit to the Seer.
The comic can be found here.
Ben and Zane hadn't had a vacation in a while, so when they were invited to spend time relaxing in house in the forests of Japan, they jumped at the chance! It was hard to unwind though, what with various new people coming in at all hours, screaming at eachother, and then polymorphing into animals. Luckily they were able to slip quietly away during one of many introspective monologues.
Ben and Zane ditched the regular gang and grabbed a young con artist named nic on their way to investigate a spooky mansion for some reason. They searched high and low for a food pantry, but all they found was this weird box with a skull on it that radiated evil energy. They didn't open it, because they weren't stupid. Instead, they discovered an insurance fraud scheme perpetuated by old man Price. Jinkies!Check out nic's podcast, "What's With You? Scooby-Doo!" at http://www.whatswithyouscoobydoo.com/
The Cartoncast has gone through some weird stuff in the past, but time travel was a first! Ben and Zane were greeted by themselves in the future, whom warned of a terrible fate that would befall one boy genius. They claimed that little Dexter would go from beloved sociopathic engine of science-comedy to uninteresting standard network-filler. Ben and Zane declined, hoping that a well-intentioned monkey with superpowers would do what needed to be done.
Ben and Zane got together with Dan Caves at the local philosopher's club to discuss the nature of isolation and man's existence as a social animal, his noble goals for truth and excellence conflicting with his need to belong to a group of people whom he must despise to maintain his sense of importance in a hostile world. How can a man, or any creature, gain approval by pushing away those he needs most? Also there's a cute pupper and he's such a good boy, who's a good boy?Who is a good boy?
It's that time again, my dear Dawson! Time for Ben and Zane to talk about Sherlock Holmes yet again in this Bootlegg'd segment! The Great Mouse Detective is perhaps the most kid-friendly Sherlock that Disney's audience has ever seen, but could the added accessibility to a younger demographic come at too high a price? The game is afoot!
On a recent layover in Atlanta, Ben and Zane and their cultural advisor Charlie left the airport to take in the sights and sounds of the city. There must have been something funny in the air, and the Cartoncasters started to hallucinate. Jazz and rap turned into shapes and colors as they walked downtown. They managed to avoid crashing into a bunch of children playing their instruments, but no one can miss the great taste of Sunny D.
I tell ya, podcasting can really give you such a crick in the neck! But as Ben and Zane learned at the nearby massage school, there's more than one way to skin a cat, or pop a joint back into place. This kid Ken gave them a good look at the academy, full of what appeared to be former members of Knights In Satan's Service. They were even offered free high-velocity acupressure, as a free parting gift. Needless to say, by the time they recorded their findings, they were already dead.
