Much like the new Underdog movie, the Wachowski brothers' bigscreen adaptation of the popular Speed Racer cartoon will not be animated, but considering the Wachowskis were behind the Matrix trilogy, one assumes the new film will be both visually stunning and not especially "heavy" storywise. Of course, it's not as if the original cartoon was all that deep, either, so in many ways this is a good match. If they do it right, it could be the perfect no-brainer, popcorn matinee.

First of all, I have to give a big ol' Minnesota-style "thank ya" to those of you who recommend some great anime for me to check out. A Minnesota-style "thank ya" is like a regular "thank ya" except you say it while keeping a herd of rabid moose away from your snow fort with a hockey stick.

SpongeBob SquarePants is hugely popular in the United States with little children and immature adults like myself, but nobody thought he would make much of a splash in Japan.

It turns out those people were wrong, because SpongeBob is watched by 1.9 million households every day in Japan, which is even more impressive when you take into consideration that the series is only shown occasionally on network TV and that many households don't have cable or satellite, where SpongeBob SquarePants is shown on a more regular basis.

Also, it's not little kids who love SpongeBob the most, it's young women. This wasn't an accident, though: SpongeBob was introduced to Japan as a trendy, hip, underground kinda thing, something to be found on clothes and handbags and spread around by word of mouth. Apparently, it's been working.

[via The Beat]

I love animation, but I have to admit my knowledge of anime is rather limited. There's a lot of anime I enjoy and admire, but what I've seen doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of this popular animation style.

If you love anime, or you just want to start at the very beginning of this art form, Digital Meme is releasing a DVD titled "Classic Japanese Anime." Don't expect stuff like AstroBoy, Speed Racer or Gigantor in this set. Instead, think silent animation from the '20s and '30s. Some of the works contained in this DVD set were originally shown in theaters with a separate audio track played on a gramophone record. If your interest in anime goes far beyond casual admiration, this is something worth spending $110.00 on. Also, every one of the fifty-five cartoons is subtitled, so there's none of that gaudy American dubbing to ruin it.

The set releases on April 30.

[via Cartoon Brew]

In an interview with Empire Online, producer Joel Silver said very little about the upcoming live-action Speed Racer movie from the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix), other than it's going to look really cool. Of course, he's producing the movie, so what else is he going to say, that it'll be a lot of flash and no substance? Silver also said they might not even use cars, which I would assume means they won't use any real cars, and do some kind of fancy CGI effects instead, which I think actually makes sense for this kind of movie.

Silver also had this to say in the interview, regarding the Wachowskis: "They said they'd never work again the Matrix sequels." If you can figure out what the hell that sentence is supposed to mean, you're a better person than I am. I'm trying to figure out why Joel Silver speaks like Yoda.

[via TV Filter]

Speed Racer only lasted one year? That's what IMDb seems to indicate. The Japanese import is so much a part of popular culture I assumed it had lasted longer than that. Regardless, the popular cartoon was around before my time, so I know very little about it, save for little bits of information I've picked up here and there. If you're older than myself, however, or you fell in love with the show while watching it in reruns, you may have already heard that a live-action film versions of the cartoon is in the works. Larry and Andy Wachowski, the brothers behind the Matrix movies, will write and direct the project, which is slated for a 2008 release. The brothers apparently have big plans for the racing sequences, and given the ever-duplicated special effects of the Matrix trilogy, I'm more than a little curious to see what they have up their sleeves. I'm a little bummed out that it's live-action rather than animation, but The Matrix was essentially a live-action cartoon in many ways, so maybe this could work.

[via Toon Zone]

You're sitting there in your recliner, ice cold soda in one hand, and the remote for your brand new 55-inch plasma flat screen HDTV (with built-in surround sound) in the other. As you flip through all the channels of sports programming you purchased from DirectTV, and watch in fascination as the sweat just drips off of Randy Johnson's huge face, you say to yourself 'Gosh, I must have the biggest HDTV ever made!'.

Wrong. With the fast pace of technology today (however, not fast enough to produce flying cars) your 55-inch HDTV is, what they would call in the automotive world, mid-size. You want to see a big HDTV, you go to Japan's Tokyo Racetrack to watch the 218 by 37 feet flat screen, which can show three races at the same time. Now the largest HDTV in the world it will display everything in the standard 1080 high-def resolution.

Interested in dumping you 'so yesterday' 55-inch HDTV for the mother of all HDTV's? Well, if you can shell out $28 million it's all yours. So, start saving now.

[Story courtesy of our sister site Luxist]