Malpractice

Well i saw The Simpsons Movie last night at the midnight showing and loved it. my friend who is just like you Mike who dosen't even believe that the Simpsons exists after season 10 absolutley loved the movie. I live and die by Seasons 1-10 and was not dissapointed at all. The movie was hillarious and yes there was some of the slapsticky stuff from the later seasons but overall it was just well written, well plotted jokes and it was so refreshing to see that because it has been so absent from the later seasons of the show. The movie also has a lot of heart and contains one of the saddest sequences i have ever seen in a Simpsons episode rivaling even the end of 'Mother Simpson'. David Silverman bought his A-Game to this movie and further proves why he is one of the best directors in animation and does things with 2-D that you wouldn't think were possible. i swear some of these shots are mindblowing and i am sure film roman and rough draft were working on this movie up until the last minute. Al Brooks was fantastic in the movie as he always is. great performances from all the usual gang of voice actors (especially Julie Kavner and Dan Castelenetta). the writers served up a plot which actually deserved a movie treatment and it never felt like a 90 minute episode of the TV show. I should note though there was no TDK teaser before the movie but i am not sure if this is true for every theater. I am seeing The Simpsons Movie again today and tomorrow at 2 different theatres so i will see if one is attached to the film there. There's a possibility that they might of pulled it at the last minute.

Say what you want about this episode but it definetly has one of the best endings of the entire series and I was suprised that part wasn't mentioned. 'Cat Scratch Fever' i never liked but it's not for the reasons listed by everyone else but just for the simple fact that the whole thing with the animals made me uncomfortable when i was a kid so i have always just disliked that episode for that reason. And although I haven't read Justice (i will eventually though), I have to say that Riddler origin sounded pretty lame. It sounds like any other cliche 'villian origin' that's been constantly used in comics (and other media) over the last 10 years in a feeble attempt to make their characters appear more "dark and disturbing" or more "realistic" when in actuality it just comes off as needlessly over-expalining which in turn destroys the aura of mystery that make many of these characters intresting in the first place. Why can't a dude just be crazy anymore ? It's comes from the same school of thought that if a character is raped in a comic it suddenly turns an otherwise normal comic into a serious piece of literature.

hey i agree that after season 10 the show went downhill and there was a period of a couple of years where i stopped watching altogether (i blame Mike Scully) but i think over the last couple of years with Al Jean running the show again there have been some really excellent episodes like "Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife", "Thank God It's Doomsday", and most recently "The Haw-Hawed Couple" and i have seen the quality of the show progressivley improving over the last few years. But regardless of your feelings on how the show itself is currently being run, The Movie is a completly different entity. It's being directed by David Silverman who is probably one of the best directors working in animation today and directed quite a few standout episodes throughout the series including the very first episode, they have assembled one of the best writing staffs i have ever seen including the best writers from the history of the show, Groeining has been heavily involved in this project since the beginning while he hasn't been involved with the show much at all over the last 10 years, Al Brooks who is probably one of the best guest stars ever has a huge role in the movie, and Hans Zimmer is doing the score. There is a chance it might suck and i am not denying that it might but you should atleast give them the benefit of the doubt.

The Simpsons is the greatest tv show of all time in my opinion so what was said about 1:15-1:30 has already put me in a bad mood. Seriously though Mike you watched all of Spider-Man 3 but you'll walk out on The Simpsons Movie. not cool

don't listen to them, it was a really fun movie.

Transformers was excellent. Y'all be trippin.

Don't get me wrong i love Superman: Red Son and i thought it was excellent and easily one of the best comics written in the last ten years and everyone who is into comics should own it but it's NOT the best Superman story ever told, and especially not now with Grant Morrison's All Star Superman.

awesome! I got mentioned on this episode. glad to hear some Mirage products getting a mention on a podcast because they seriously don't get enough of them. The TMNT books are consistently great and i wish more people were buying them, and if the recent interview with managing editor Stephen Murphy is any indication he wishes more people were too lol. on a different note though, i would be intrested in buying those Ed Brubaker Captain America trades if you are getting rid of them.

Tim Drake's first appearance was in Batman: Year Three which was published post-crisis but half of that story takes place in the third year of Batman's career so i guess that might be kind of a loophole. I have to agree with you Mike that if they kill Tim Drake i will be done with DC. Tim Drake is my favorite character and the current Robin monthly is one of the best books on the shelf and i will be beyond pissed if they decide to kill him.

"and even the worst Joker episodes, and this was one of them" WHAT THE HELL??? how is The Laughing Fish one of the worst Joker episodes if anything it's one of the best and one of the best episodes of the series in general. This episode is pulled right out of what is probably the best run on a Batman comic ever in "Strange Apparations" by Steve Engelhart and Marshall Rodgers which includes "The Laughing Fish and it's considered by many to be one of if not the best Joker stories ever written, and it's adapted beautifully for this episode.

"Robin's Reckoning" is such a great episode, it's probably my second favorite episode right behind "Joker's Favor". I am suprised neither of you mentioned how much of this 2 parter was taken from "Batman: Year 3" by Marv Wolfman.

I have to say i was never all that fond of Joe Quesada or Marvel in general but i really dug this interview. He actually seems like a pretty cool guy when he's not hocking his various wares. He also seems like more of a "DC Guy" than a Marvel guy which is pretty ironic.

hopefully that recommendation of Under The Hood was a joke because that storyline was terrible but then again anything with Jason Todd in it is terrible. His resurecttion should of never happened.

I loved the Gordie Howe mention, it made me think of one of my fav simpsons episodes

I don't know if i would say it is better than The Killing Joke but it's definetly the best issue featuring The Joker since The Killing Joke.

yes it was and the recent issue with Zatanna was amazing as well

Mike how are you not getting Paul Dini's Detective Comics ? You blasted DC for not putting Paul Dini on a regular bat book until now on the World's Finest podcast but you aren't getting the book ???? well atleast you are getting Robin.

that's a fine interview with Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle and i was suprised at how candid they were about the industry. the Grant/Breyfogle run on Detective is probably one of my favorite runs on any comic. back to the episodes though, i believe i was the one who mentioned that "Nothing To Fear" was an inspiration for Batman Begins but i probably should of clairified that "Dreams In Darkness", and "Never Fear" from TNBA were also influences. I believe David Goyer stated that when he was writing his first solo draft of the script he was watching a lot of B:TAS and decided to combine elements from these 3 episodes as well as the story by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale called "Fears" from the Haunted Knight TPB.

i remember that movie with the car crash fetishists ? david croenberg directed it if i am not mistaken. even as fucked up as it was it was still better than the oscar winning one. 'Exotica' was also quite good.

Isn't there a crack over the C, meaning it could be a G? It's one of those "it could go either way" type of things. That may be so, but you can't deny that it's also the scepter from Turtles in Time. fair enough Also i don't mean to burst your bubble but nothing from the 87 cartoon is ever going to creep into the current movie continuity or the new animated cartoon continuity. Peter Laird would never allow that so that's never going to happen and i say thank god for that. Krang will never be seen in any other TMNT media but i wouldn't be suprised if the Utroms that he is based on make their way into a movie because they made it into the current cartoon (they even made a krang joke in that episode). On the topic of the current TMNT movie i thought it was excellent but the only problem i had with it was Chris Evans as Casey Jones who i thought did a terrible job. They should of got Elias Koteas to do the voice but that's just my opinion but other than that i was really happy with it although i still prefer the first movie just by a little bit. The 1990 movie, TMNT, and the 2003 cartoon are all extremly true to Eastman and Laird's original vision of the characters while still being able to do their own thing, and i have a massive respect for all the people involved in producing these excellent adaptations.

TMNT actually acknowledges Ooze and Time. that's what i thought originally but if you look at the ooze canister on that shelf it says "TCRI" which was from the comics not TGRI from the second movie, and the septor thing is also from a comic storyline. if you look at most of the other stuff in that scene pretty much all the items refrence certain comic storylines. Kevin Munroe even stated in his inital interviews when the movie was announced that TMNT was a quasi-sequel ala Superman Returns which would take place about 3 years after the first film from 1990. I guess you could make a case that it takes place after the first 3 films if you wanted to but personally i prefer the new timeline. btw Mike i don't know if you read it but there were prequel comics that tied into this movie that really fleshed the story out even more and i believe they are collecting them in a TPB that is being released on July 7th. i highly recommend it.

I have to give you guys credit because if this was my review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 & 3 it would of lasted all of 5 minutes in total but it's cool that you guys stuck it out and went through the whole movie for both of them. i salute you because that's not an easy task. I have to agree with Mike that Turtles 3 is better than Turtles 2 although that's not saying much. Turtles 3 had Elias Koteas and a couple of good fights which is more than Turtles 2 had with it's 0% redeeming qualities. It's still a horrible film nonetheless. It's good to know that both 2, 3 and The Next Mutation are no longer considered part of the TMNT film canon. The timeline is now the 1990 film, certain events from the comics and then TMNT.

well i think that's it for me tonight. i still got 3 hours to go on this podcast that i will save for tomorrow. i can't wait to hear you guys tear Turtles 3 a new asshole lol

hey man i agree with you about continuing the darker take but i think that had more to do with the fact that parents complained about the darker take on things and the violence and the kids responded more positvely to the goofier lighthearted elements of the first movie so they figured it would be easier to just cut all that serious stuff out. Also the producers i believe were not keen on the darker take to begin with but were willing to let Barron run with it. And as i said if it wasn't for Eastman and Laird objecting and making sure that they weren't used, Bebop and Rocksteady would of been in the movie since those were the characters they intended to use but they had no other choice.

To answer your question about why Secret Of The Ooze dosen't have Bebop and Rocksteady in it is because Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman didn't want them in there and fought tooth and nail to make sure they weren't used. It's of my opinion though that Tokka, and Rahzar and Bebop and Rocksteady are all completly stupid and useless characters but that's just my 2 cents. But back to the topic at hand, Why exactly they didn't want to use them i don't know but i would say that it's because Eastman and Laird wanted to seperate the movies from the cartoon but unfourtanetly they weren't really involved in the movie past some early pre production meetings. Just thinking about Secret Of The Ooze hurts my head but to be fair it makes sense that the franchise took this direction especially so quick. The first film was extremly successful and you had a group of young producers who were all pretty new to hollywood and were all coming off their first successful film so it made sense that they saw dollar signs in their eyes and just ran with it and not to mention that this was at the height of the turtles popularity. Also new director Michael Pressman while not exactly a bad director was not familar with the comics and i think only knew the property as a cartoon and video game and basically just did what he was told which was to "keep it cartoony" as opposed to Steve Barron who was a huge fan of the comics and made a conscious decision to not make it like the cartoon and also had the creators input all along the way. Not saying that this is an excuse but if you really think about it, it makes perfect sense.