Retro Sci-fiction Mania

Yesterday I was on a panel to judge and critique pitches for 3rd Year animation students from Freelance Animation School. We assesed group projects and gave feedback on areas that could be improved. My biggest surprise was the amount of retro-science fiction themes! Does this mean we're also going to see a rash of feature films like this over the next few year? I knew of John Carter of Mars under development by Pixar due in 2012 but according to Variety there's now a Buck Rogers film due in 2011. It's a very difficult genre to get 'right' and can only think of about half a dozen examples that didn't just mimic, parody or piss on the form (unintentionally or not). Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was just awful...

Technically speaking...

Panel 4 - Robot Julius explains to Connie she's not immune to death as she stated in the previous panel, she could still be killed by acts of god and is safe only from growing old, which isn't bad if one takes care of oneself and plays it safe. Connie seems indifferent to her Robot's comments, of course what he's saying isn't news to her, Julius is simply wasting his breath. More to come...

The Infinity Serum

Panel 3 - Connie, with one hand holding the Infinity Serum and the other a glass of delicious French champagne, says a few words to celebrate the completion of her DIFFICULT and IMPORTANT work: a secret liquid formula to conquer DEATH! A scientific breakthrough so PROFOUND it must come with all sorts of DANGEROUS and EXCITING consequences. And what's her robot assistant saying? Ha ha, Correct! It's the proverbial Hebrew "L'chiam!" or "To life!"

Better come back soon and see what those consequences are...

Somewhere Near the North Pole...

Panel 2 and the story begins. Here we see Connie Radars top secret observatory/laboratory in the middle of the coldest place on earth. No visitors to distract her from her difficult and important work which, as she states, has just been completed. What has she been working on, you ask? Find out in the next post...