Next Club Meeting:October 17, 2026,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 in today's pop culture, such as live-action films, comics, music, art, and other weird things to enjoy and contemplate.
Tween optimist Molly McGee and a grumpy ghost named Scratch become bound to each other when one of Scratch's spells backfires. Molly lives to make the world a better place, fix what has gone wrong, and spread joy, whereas Scratch wants to make the world a worse place, break what has gone right, and spread misery. Despite their differences, the two form an unlikely friendship and find themselves helping each other through the ups and downs of their respective worlds. The series incorporates elements of musical-comedy, horror and the supernatural, yet nothing too scary. After all, this is produced by Disney!
In the first episode, the McGee Family moves into a now decrepit house in their new town of Brighton that just so happens to inhabit, Scratch, one of the worst ghosts in the Ghost Realm. Molly, the daughter, immediately "befriends" him and in his anger accidentally curses her so that he is forever tied to her. He tries to scare the family out of the house so that the curse can be broken, but Molly convinces the family to stay. With the advice of her Grandma Nin, she makes a Sal Phra Phum for Scratch who graciously accepts it under the condition he be fed. In the Ghost Realm, the chairman sees that Brighton is less miserable.
Molly is nervous about her first day at school which Scratch tries to take advantage of, but she throws caution to the wind. She attempts to make a good first impression, but ends up upsetting influencer Andrea Davenport after mispronouncing her name and becomes a pariah alongside similar student Libby. When Molly refuses to back down, Scratch accidentally causes Andrea to faint. Everyone begins to insult Molly, but in an empathic moment, Scratch possesses Andrea's body and tells everyone that Molly and Libby are cool. Molly accuses Scratch of caring about her, much to his chagrin.
Oklahoma studio Reckless Abandonment Pictures is back at it again with a "Bat-Tastic" stop motion to make a wish come true for a 12-year-old kid facing a rare disease by helping him create a Batman stop-motion animation. Happy Batman month, y'all!
Reckless Abandonment creative director Kyle Roberts is known for his stop-motions, animating commercial work for LEGO, DreamWorks, Disney, Hasbro, Mattel, etc.
“Make-A-Wish contacted me and told me that they have a 12-year-old kid that loves animation and our stop motions,” Roberts said.
Booker, who has a rare disease called Shwachman-Diamond, has a passion for stop-motion animation and wanted to check out the Reckless Abandonment studio for his wish.
“I felt honored they even thought of us, but wanted to level up Booker's wish by actually producing a STOP MOTION ANIMATION with him! So the wish was set, for Booker to produce a stop motion with our team,” Roberts said.
“Starting pre-production, we asked Booker who his favorite superheroes are. First up, Batman, then Superman, Joker, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman and Robin. Our team crafted a short story with Booker and once we got the story locked in, began storyboarding and animating the stop motion,” Roberts said. Booker's take on why he loves Batman; "Three main reasons. Because he is good with tech (Batarangs). He is trained as a Ninja. His costume and personality are scary but he is good." All fair points!
Booker came to the studio for one of the animating days and also made a live action cameo with his dad! After 1,200 individual photos and 3 weeks of work, the stop motion animation part of the production was wrapped. Booker also came to the studio for a day during post production where the team walked through tricks and tips in compositing and rotoscoping. "I liked getting to hang out with people who like stop motion as much as I do. I'm thankful for the Reckless team for explaining how it works. It was a dream come true to make this stop motion with them," Booker said.
"I am very thankful that the Reckless and Make-A-Wish looks out for kids like me who have an illness," Booker said.
“Booker is such a radical dude,” Roberts said. “I was amazed how quickly he picked up animating with the toys. Booker is also a pretty incredible artist. Our team took one of his drawings and 3D Printed/Painted it! Meet Papalo, a teenage mutant plant dude! Booker had a whole back story on Papalo. I asked him if he was a Hero or Villain... and Booker said ‘He's a little of both.’”
Arcane is an upcoming animated streaming television "event series" set in the League of Legends universe. The series was announced at the League of Legends 10th Anniversary celebrations. It will be developed and produced by Riot Games, with animation services by Fortiche Productions. Originally set for a 2020 release, the show is rescheduled for a release in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is scheduled for a simultaneous November 6, 2021 release on Netflix and China's Tencent Video website, with the series broken into 3 episode "acts" released over 3 weeks. Set in the past, it retells the origin stories of several characters from Piltover and Zaun.
The upcoming fourth season of the American science fiction horror drama television series Stranger Things, titled Stranger Things 4, is scheduled to be released worldwide exclusively via Netflix’s streaming service in 2022. The fourth season has continued to be produced by the show's creators the Duffer Brothers, along with Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, and Iain Paterson. The show's main cast will continue to consist of Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, and Cara Buono, with Brett Gelman promoted to series regular. Jamie Campbell Bower, Eduardo Franco, and Joseph Quinn were newly added to the main cast for this season.
2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the animated series, and thus Lupin is at it again! The new LUPIN THE 3rd PART 6 series is set to unfold with the theme of “mystery” with Lupin and the gang thrown into the modern age. What could be their next target?
COWBOY BEBOP is an action-packed space Western about three bounty hunters, aka “cowboys,” all trying to outrun the past. As different as they are deadly, Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) form a scrappy, snarky crew ready to hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals — for the right price. But they can only kick and quip their way out of so many scuffles before their pasts finally catch up with them.
Based on the beloved anime series, COWBOY BEBOP is executive produced by André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg of Midnight Radio, Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios, Makoto Asanuma, Shin Sasaki and Masayuki Ozaki of Sunrise Inc., Tim Coddington, Tetsu Fujimura, Michael Katleman, Matthew Weinberg, and Christopher Yost. Nemec serves as showrunner. Original anime series director Shinichirō Watanabe is a consultant on the series, and original composer Yoko Kanno returns for the live-action adaptation. The series also stars Alex Hassell and Elena Satine. Watch Cowboy Bebop, a live-action series, only on Netflix:
It’s time to blow this scene. Who’s in? Cowboy Bebop arrives Nov. 19.
An Interpol-issued Red Notice is a global alert to hunt and capture the world’s most wanted. But when a daring heist brings together the FBI’s top profiler (Johnson) and two rival criminals (Gadot, Reynolds), there’s no telling what will happen.
The Lord of Dreams has been summoned, and captured, by mortal men. Once free from his captivity, this eternal ruler of Dreams will realize that his troubles are only just beginning. The Sandman is a Netflix series based on the groundbreaking comic book series created for DC by Neil Gaiman. The series is Executive Produced by Neil Gaiman, Allan Heinberg, & David S. Goyer.
[Source: Variety] Thirty-two years after DC Comics published the first issue of “The Sandman,” Neil Gaiman’s
phantasmagoric dive into the world of dreams, Netflix unveiled the
first look at its highly anticipated live-action adaptation on Saturday.
Stars Tom Sturridge — who plays Morpheus, a.k.a. Dream, the titular ruler of Dreaming — and Kirby Howell-Baptiste — who plays Death, Dream’s chic and easygoing sister — revealed the first look during Tudum, Netflix’s global virtual fan event.
Executive produced by Gaiman, David S. Goyer, and showrunner Allan Heinberg (“The Catch,” “Scandal”), “The Sandman” is updating Gaiman’s graphic novel by setting it in the present day, rather than in the late 1980s (as Audible’s ongoing audiobook adaptation of “The Sandman” is doing). The story follows Morpheus after he’s escaped 105 years of imprisonment on Earth by occultist Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance) who, when attempting to capture Death in 1912, captured Dream instead. Upon his escape, Dream must reclaim the three totems of his power — his pouch of sand, his helm (which looks like an elaborate gas mask), and a ruby — before he can reconstitute and rebuild the dilapidated Dreaming world.
Given the vast, intricate
narrative and visual complexities of “The Sandman,” the title has vexed
would be filmmakers from adapting it as feature film. Most recently,
Joseph Gordon-Levitt was attached to star and direct, but left over
creative differences. Ultimately, Netflix picked up “The Sandman” as a
TV series, which Warner Bros. Television and DC Entertainment are
producing.
When introducing the first look at the series, Gaiman
said the “decades-long gestation” for the series was “a bit of a
blessing,” allowing him to ensure the series was “true to the comics.”
“What
astounded me through this process was how often it felt like I was
walking around inside the comics,” Gaiman said. “Everything from the
sense to the costumes to the effects felt it had been plucked from my
imagination.”
Gaiman then turned things over to Sturridge, who
introduced himself as “beyond anything else as a supreme fun of
Sandman.” The actor then debuted a first look at one of the opening
sequences from the show, when Burgess captures Dream. You can watch it
below.
Along with the first look video, Howell-Baptiste pointed fans to character posters for Dream, Death and their third sibling, Desire (Mason Alexander Park). You can see them below.
Other characters on “Sandman” will include:
Lucifer (Gwendoline
Christie), the androgynous ruler of Hell, who attempts to keep Dream
from reclaiming one of his totems. A version of the same character
headlined the popular series “Lucifer,” starring Tom Ellis, which just
premiered its final season on Netflix.
John Dee, a.k.a. Doctor Destiny (David Thewlis), an Arkham Asylum inmate who comes into possession of Dream’s ruby.
The
Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), one of Dream’s nightmares who has two small
mouths where his eyes should be, usually covered with sunglasses.
Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong), the librarian of the world of Dreaming (and has been gender swapped from Lucien in the comics).
Cain
(Sanjeev Bhaskar) and Abel (Asim Chaudhry), the sons of Adam and Eve
and, respectively, the first murderer and the first murder victim, who
now live in Dreaming and are locked into an unending loop recreating
Cain’s murder of Abel.
After she’s poisoned, a ruthless criminal operative has less than 24 hours to exact revenge on her enemies and in the process forms an unexpected bond with the daughter of one of her past victims.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is an upcoming open-world, first-person, action adventure video game based on James Cameron's Avatar film series. The game is being developed by Massive Entertainment and will be published by Ubisoft on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Amazon Luna and Google Stadia in 2022.
Players take control of the Na’vi
and embark on a journey across the Western Frontier, a never before
seen region of Pandora, and must push back the forces of the RDA, who
seek to threaten it.
Welcome to The Arena, where the stakes are high, and the excitement is even higher. Watch as Hunters go head-to-head in an all-out, adrenaline-fueled battle. Which team will emerge victorious? Join the greatest Hunters from the Star Wars galaxy in grand arenas inspired by iconic Star Wars locales. Use skill and tactics, mix and match teams to find winning strategies, customize your Hunters, and engage in thrilling third-person cross-play battles.
