Next Club Meeting:October 19, 2024,at the Fountaindale Public Library in Bolingbrook from 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
The Animatrix Network is an anime & manga fan club located in the Southwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. We usually meet on the third Saturday of each month (except when holidays or conventions coincide). The meetings are free and open to the public. Join us for a day filled with anime.
This site provides news, reviews, commentaries, and previews of the world of anime and everything it inspires, such as live-action films, comics, music, art, and other weird things to enjoy and contemplate.
The terror of Alien is brought to life in Alien: Blackout. Try to stay alive while trapped aboard a crippled Weyland-Yutani space station carrying a deadly Xenomorph as it tirelessly hunts you and the crew. Outsmart the perfect hunter by making perilous choices. Players must rely on the damaged controls of the space station or risk sacrificing crew members to avoid deadly contact, permanently altering the outcome of the game.
Set in Korea’s medieval Joseon period, it tells the story of a prince, who becomes embroiled in a coupe/political conspiracy and is forced to embark upon a dangerous mission to investigate a mysterious plague spreading across his country which is suffering from poverty and famine. The truth threatens the kingdom when he discovers that it is an atrocious epidemic in the form of undead who seemingly rise at sunset and become inactive during the day. The crown prince, framed for treason and desperate to save his people, sets out on a dangerous journey to unveil what evil lurks in the dark. Kingdom is now available on Netflix.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, set to open in late 2019, will debut with a retrospective devoted to Hayao Miyazaki.
Presented in collaboration with Studio Ghibli, the Academy is calling the Miyazaki show “unprecedented” and “the first major exhibition of his work presented in the United States.” It is curated by Jessica Niebel.
More details:
The exhibition will take visitors on a thematic journey through his cinematic worlds using original production materials from Studio Ghibli’s archives, and features such films as My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and Spirited Away (2001). The exhibition will present more than 200 concept sketches, character designs, storyboards, layouts, cels, backgrounds, film clips, and immersive environments. A catalogue, film series, and public events will accompany the presentation, and unique Studio Ghibli merchandise will be sold at the museum’s shop.
In addition to the temporary Miyazaki exhibition, the museum will launch with the permanent exhibit “Where Dreams Are Made: A Journey Inside the Movies” (working title), a 30,000-square-foot, two-floor survey of the art and science of motion pictures. Some concept paintings of the permanent exhibit are shown below:
Concept painting by Erik Tiemens of the “Where Dreams Are Made” exhibit.
Concept painting by Erik Tiemens of the “Where Dreams Are Made” exhibit.
Concept painting by Erik Tiemens of the “Where Dreams Are Made” exhibit.
Dragons return to Tamriel in The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr, part of the Season of the Dragon year-long adventure! Explore sun-blessed savannahs and canyons, defend the Khajiiti homeland, and command the merciless undead with the Necromancer class in this all-new Chapter of the award-winning Elder Scrolls Online saga!
The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr will be available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on June 4, 2019, with PC/Mac early access starting May 20.
From visionary filmmakers James Cameron (AVATAR) and Robert Rodriguez (SIN CITY), comes ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL, an epic adventure of hope and empowerment. When Alita (Rosa Salazar) awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognize, she is taken in by Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate doctor who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg shell is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past. As Alita learns to navigate her new life and the treacherous streets of Iron City, Ido tries to shield her from her mysterious history while her street-smart new friend Hugo (Keean Johnson) offers instead to help trigger her memories. But it is only when the deadly and corrupt forces that run the city come after Alita that she discovers a clue to her past – she has unique fighting abilities that those in power will stop at nothing to control. If she can stay out of their grasp, she could be the key to saving her friends, her family and the world she’s grown to love.
In this third installment of the adrenaline-fueled action franchise, super-assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves) returns with a $14 million price tag on his head and an army of bounty-hunting killers on his trail. After killing a member of the shadowy international assassin’s guild, the High Table, John Wick is excommunicado, but the world’s most ruthless hit men and women await his every turn.
Incredibles 2 (Brad Bird, John Walker and Nicole Paradis Grindle) Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson) Mirai (Mamoru Hosoda and Yuichiro Saito) Ralph Breaks the Internet (Rich Moore, Phil Johnston and Clark Spencer) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)
Nominations for Best Animated Short Film:
Animal Behaviour(Alison Snowden and David Fine) Bao (Domee Shi and Becky Neiman-Cobb) Late Afternoon (Louise Bagnall and Nuria González Blanco) One Small Step (Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas) Weekends(Trevor Jimenez)
Michael B. Jordan, Dakota Fanning, Maisie Williams, and David Tennant star in the new show from the producers of RWBY. Fifty years in the future, an oppressive authoritarian force threatens to conquer the world. A daring team is recruited to pilot a new form of weaponized neuroscience that powers devastating mecha, but they must be willing to sacrifice everything to save the world.
The world’s top assassin, Duncan Vizla, aka The Black Kaiser (Mads Mikkelsen), is settling into retirement when his former employer marks him as a liability to the firm. Against his will, he finds himself back in the game going head to head with an army of younger, faster, ruthless killers who will stop at nothing to have him silenced.
Japan is a fascinating country with an amazing culture, however, sometimes that culture can get a little weird. Who am I kidding? It can get A LOT WEIRD. In this video, I countdown the 10 weirdest, strangest, bizarre, WTF, Japanese Movies (worth watching). The caveat of "worth watching" is because reviewing really bad weird movies is no fun. While all these films are very weird, they are also very watchable, and a few are among my favorite movies period.
Peter Parker returns in Spider-Man: Far From Home, the next chapter of the Spider-Man: Homecoming series! Our friendly neighborhood Super Hero decides to join his best friends Ned, MJ, and the rest of the gang on a European vacation. However, Peter's plan to leave super heroics behind for a few weeks are quickly scrapped when he begrudgingly agrees to help Nick Fury uncover the mystery of several elemental creature attacks, creating havoc across the continent!
Our next club meeting will be at the Wood Dale Public Library, Main Meeting Room (on your far right as you enter the front doors), from 10:15 AM to 5:00 PM (until the library closes).
There is public transportation available. A Metra train-stop is located within walking distance.
Please note: If you are driving, please park your car on the south side of the building (not the front) in order to make room for other library patrons.
Cartoons are a wonderful thing and this is a STACKED year for animation! From Infinity Train to The Owl House, here are the 15 NEW Cartoons we're excited to see in 2019!
Some people think Japan is a strange and different land, that they'll never understand. Why do the Japanese do what they do? Well, Japan and its people are not so hard to comprehend, once you realize that it's all about the rules.
A frustrated Archer Queen donates away her best (but most difficult) Archer. When the Archer is kidnapped mid-donation, only the Archer Queen can bring her back.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse The BEST Animated Film of 2018!
What Spider-man Easter Eggs and references did you miss in the animated Into the Spider-verse movie, with Miles Morales, Peter Parker, and a team of diverse Spider-people? What secrets did the filmmakers hide in the animation? Erik Voss analyzes the latest Spider-man animated film scene by scene for all the subtle details and deeper layers of meaning in the story. What is the "Spider-Verse," exactly, and why are there so many different Spider-things? How does Into the Spider-verse pay homage to the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, the animated series, the Marvel comics, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe? What design secrets foreshadow Spider-Verse's surprise villain reveal? And how did the movie's animators reconstruct animation technology to make this Spider-man movie look so distinct?
Everybody asks "WHERE is Carmen Sandiego?", but nobody asks "WHO is Carmen Sandiego?" The iconic woman in red returns for new international capers and a peek into her past. Featuring Gina Rodriguez as Carmen and Finn Wolfhard as Player, Carmen Sandiego infiltrates Netflix on January 18!
Check out the first official clip from Modest Heroes
featuring Kanini & Kanino from Academy Award®-nominee
Hiromasa Yonebayashi (When Marnie Was There).
Modest Heroes:
Ponoc Short Films Theatre, Volume 1
A film by Yoshiyuki Momose, Akihiko Yamashita & Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Studio Ponoc, the new animation studio founded by two-time Academy Award®-nominee Yoshiaki Nishimura (The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There) and featuring many artists from the venerable Studio Ghibli, made an immediate splash with their acclaimed debut film Mary and The Witch’s Flower last year. The studio returns this year with Modest Heroes, an ambitious anthology of three thrilling tales created by some of the greatest talents working in Japanese animation today. Together, the stories (Kanini & Kanino, Life Ain’t Gonna Lose, Invisible) explore ideas of heroism in everyday life, and the infinite potential of the short film format allows the directors and Studio Ponoc to experiment with breathtaking, action-packed visuals, concise human drama, and gorgeous fantasy worlds in this unforgettable showcase that is further demonstration of the studio’s exciting future.
What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister? With Brightburn, the visionary filmmaker of Guardians of the Galaxy and Slither presents a startling, subversive take on a radical new genre: superhero horror.
Based on the graphic novels by Mike Mignola, Hellboy, caught between the worlds of the supernatural and human, battles an ancient sorceress bent on revenge. Starring David Harbour, Milla Jovovich and Ian McShane.
In DARK PHOENIX, the X-MEN face their most formidable and powerful foe: one of their own, Jean Grey. During a rescue mission in space, Jean is nearly killed when she is hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful, but far more unstable. Wrestling with this entity inside her, Jean unleashes her powers in ways she can neither comprehend nor contain. With Jean spiraling out of control, and hurting the ones she loves most, she begins to unravel the very fabric that holds the X-Men together. Now, with this family falling apart, they must find a way to unite -- not only to save Jean's soul, but to save our very planet from aliens who wish to weaponize this force and rule the galaxy.
[Source: Syfy] Looking for a delightful streaming show to chase those post-holiday blues away? Netflix has you covered, and no, it isn't a sequel/mashup called Bird Box Bandersnatch 2: The College Years. Guillermo del Toro's next installment in the animated Tales of Arcadia saga is here— what he and his companions began in Trollhunters (one of the most underrated shows around), he continues in 3Below: Tales of Arcadia.
The show takes us across the stars to the planet Arkaridion-5, where Princess Aja (Tatiana Maslany) and Prince Krel (Diego Luna) are forced to flee after an intergalactic dictator stages a coup. They escape aboard a sentient mothership (voiced by Glenn Close) along with their guardian, Varvatos Vex (Nick Offerman) and their alien dog, Luug. They have to hide, so the mothership (or "Mother") chooses a planet that is so out of the way (and awful) that they will never be found. Lo and behold, Mother chooses a "mudball" called Earth, a place literally "named after dirt."
So to Earth they go, and in order to to blend in when going outside (and not appear like the shimmery, four-armed aliens they really are), Mother disguises them as three earth beings that no one will notice — Aja as a girl, Krel as a Latino boy, and Vex as a senior citizen.
Of course they land in the town of Arcadia, and as we know from Trollhunters, the place already sees its fair share of crazy stuff. The show has everything you'd expect from a del Toro project: humor, heart, great action, subversion, and a huge amount of fun. One moment, it's stating a double message about our heroes being illegal aliens, and the next moment Luug is farting laser beams. With a lesser team in place, such tonal shifts might give you some serious whiplash, but with del Toro, Rodrigo Blaas, Marc Guggenheim, and Chad Hammes at the helm, the ship always flies like a dream.
There's a lot (seriously, a lot) of new programming that is being offered right now, and 3Below: Tales of Arcadia deserves to be at the top of your queue... just in case the alien dog farting laser beams didn't get it there already.
