The first of the videos mentioned in my “Awesome SDCC Videos You Can’t See” list to become available is this six minute preview of the CG Green Lantern cartoon. It’s… it’s not quite as awesome as I initially envisioned. I’m trying to give it the benefit of the doubt — the voice acting and dialog seem good, and I’m genuinely excited to see the Skittles Lanterns make it to animation — but when I see those textureless backgrounds and five of the exact same tree in a single shot, well, I have a hard time paying attention to the story because I’m agog at how shitty the rest of it looks. And I’ve said it before, but Bruce Timm’s wonderful character designs do not translate in CG; Hal and everyone else look like half-inflated Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloons.Thanks to Gene H. for the tip.
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.