Today on Rollercoaster there was this anime type show called Skyland. I did some reasearch and found it has a great many simularities to DB. But first, *MINOR SPOILERS*

It's set in the year 2251, where the Earth has inexplicably shattered into zillions of pieces that all orbit the core (called Skyland, ooh). There's this company type thing called the Sphere that controls water supplies. And in come two kids (a brother and sister). And the brother can fly a ship really well. And their mum is a sang-something (means they have psychic-type powers like hurling energy).

Simularities to Dragon Booster:
1. They're both CGI-animated.
2. They're both produced by a Canadian company (in Skyland's case, only partly)
3. They both feature a company whose head wants to take over the world (DB has Word, SL has some psyker person called Oslo with an underling who I forgot the name of, and his underling is FEMALE :D Yay for equality. And she's a psyker, too.)
4. The heroes are both siblings.
5. The hero has lost BOTH their parents (DB: He vanishes. SL: She's taken away by the Sphere).
6. THEY'VE BOTH GOT PROPHECIES!!!! *headdesk* And both concern uniting something; in SL, it's the Earth.

I thought the CGI was very slick and realistic looking (you should have seen some of the landscapes, very nicely done), but I came in late and thus had to work out the plot myself. Overall, I prefer DB. The fight sequence (which consisted of getting the enemy ships to run into floating pieces of rock) was admittedly rather lame, the CGI doing nothing for atmosphere. And the plot is very ludicrous. Why the heck would the world shatter? It is also a snails pace of a show.

And PROPHECIES. *headdesk* As I've learnt, a prophecy can be a good thing, but as soon as they mentioned it, the plot can twist. So far, the heroes know nothing of it, but when they do...

AAAH!!!! Possible Sue?

But one thing I must praise it for is the fact that it is a darker show than most, without the usual ban on nasty things happening.

So, if you've seen this, feel free to comment on it.

Oh, I thought it was awful! The scenery was pretty, but as an introductory episode it failed in everything else, IMO.

The characters were cliche, boring, and unconvincing, the plot was predictable and run of the mill, and the villain was bitterly dissappointing (his underling uttered both the lines "Leave her, she's mine!" and "I'll get those kids if it's the last thing I do!" Clearly she needs a copy of the EO List.) I was holding on in the hopes of a good villain, but no. He was short, bald with black bags under his eyes, and obsessed with the children's oh-so-perfect mother. He didn't seem all that intelligent, either. His aforementioned underling was bald, sneering, incompetent, and otherwise unremarkable.

And the kid's boomerang?! What the HELL is up with that?

Here's the Official Site.

Now then, some of the pirate characters look interesting, and they seem to be shaping up for an older woman/younger man type relationship for . . whatshisface the brother, which isn't something I've seen in children's 'toons before (even if it is only three years' difference, and even if I prefer a different guy. :P ) So hopefully the show will have redeeming qualities. It is, afterall, a step towards regular anime at decent times on non-obscure TV channels. :P

Strangely, the recent movie Appleseed was animated in much the same way, and that was also spectacularly dissappointing in plot and characters. I hope it's not a reflection on the style of animation.

You're not the only one. I asked my anime-freak friend Karl about it, and he rated it 'meh'. Another friend hated it.

My opinion: Even though Dragon Booster has a Canon Sue with no real redeeming qualities, several cliches and Sidekick Overload, it is stil a very intresting show. Skyland, on the other hand, is not.

And at least the animation in DB is clear enough to deem the show WATCHABLE. Elliot hypes this show up to it's premiere, and it lets us down! Elliot must be some kind of praise robot.

[/bashing]

Meh, Elliot's just doing his job. I seriously doubt that "There's this new show coming, but it's pretty crap." isn't going to get him a bonus. :P

If I was in Elliot's position, I'd definatly say that. >:D

Either they only got two episodes, or they were swamped with negative critcism. They've replaced it with Fairly OddParents. *throws confetti*

It was a preview. :P We get the rest in May . . .

Oh well. 'Least we get Fairly OddParents for about a month.^_^

Yay! :P

Oh, and the Teen Love Fiasco? Airplane suddenly shifting, guy falling all over girl, twice? Been there, seen that, many, many times.

I think I might have seen a commercail for it once...it sounds kinda familar, but I haven't seen it listed on any of the channels. :P

It's on ABC here on Thursday! I just watched an episode of it and it looks good so far.

Still don't like most of the characters except for some of the pirates, but the animation on the scenery and ships and stuff truly is amazing. Made a music video of what I could find of it here, if anyone's interested.

Update of the 'Teen Love Fiasco'; it was the girl's turn to fall on the guy in ep four. :P (Apart from that, and Mahad's very existence, it was actually an okay episode. Had a psycho machine that wanted to drill the water out of humans. ^^ Pity it failed.)

Well, it's been improving. :dance: Today's was bearable. No dialogue rip-offs or anything. :D

Yeah, it was good! I taped it onto DVD.

Well... Skyland appears to be getting a pretty bad rap here ( :P ), so I'm going to say a few things about it.

1. First two pilot eps? GAK! Way bad example! If you watch those ones, lookie at the backgrounds. They'll keep you amused for a bit. Also, has some pretty good looking explosions (they nearly look as good as ones you see in action movies). Aside from that, make sure you've got a pillow.
2. Try picking up from the sixth episode "Eye of the Storm". This episode seriously rocks, even in the storyline department, which up until then is a little... myeh.
3. It uses Motion Capture Technology. This means that human body language is seriously spot on. IMO, this seems to cut out a lot of those jerky CGI character movements. They move like people should. Downside of this, is that some characters look like they can't act. (ie: overactive hand talking). Luckly, the guy that does this the most is improving, and by about sixth or seventh episode it's not really noticeable and just seems IC. (The guy is seriously a klutz, falls over and runs into everything! ^^)
4. Guy mentioned above, Mahad. First ep you look at him and go 'gee, great, psycho jerk of a hero kid who can do everything'. He's not. He can fly like heck... that's it. He's unfit, falls behind, cannot flirt and trips over everything. And best of all, he's not made to look good when he's being a jerk. Artha, seriously, take a page from this guy's book.
5. Prophecy stuff. The evil guy is stuck on prophecy. He wants to rule Skyland, and because prophecy says he needs this chick. He has got to have her. (Not going to mention what my brain thinks of him wanting to rule with a twelve year old girl at his side...). There's some other guy that goes on about it. No one else seems to give a damn, and one guy is totally against the stuff. He's not made to look bad because he is, however.
6. The Sphere. This is the evil dictorship. It's not beyond them to kill people. And whilst not graphically shown, it's hardly ignored. They come out and say it.

And... me probably going overboard, but if you look at any episode after ep 6, it's really quite good. Even if you don't quite like the storyline, it's definately worth it for the animation. (Only thing they fall short with is facial animation. Is a bit cold. Apparently, this improves in the thirteenth ep).

There's a message board for it here, just in case anyone is interested.

Heh... couldn't stand to see it get bad-mouthed, it really does pick up. :poof:

I agree. :P Skyland officially has me hooked. My opinion of the first two eps still stands, however, and third is worse, but four ain't bad, and six starts a roll.

Mahad is what Artha should be like. Definitely. :P

And the girl he keeps falling over/hitting on? Never, ever flirts back/giggles/encourages him. It's so nice to see. :rolleyes:

And Cortes is love. Mortis can't compare. ^_^

i actually like Skyland
haven't seen all of the episodes
bit and pieces of some or all of a couple
it's still pretty good
and their dad is still alive yay! (if you've seen episode 11 i think you know what i mean, but that's sad that they don't get to meet him or see him, or even talk to him in that episode :( )



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*lalallala* Didn't hear that, haven't seen the episode yet! *blocks ears* :rolleyes:

Nah, kind of figured the guy's still around. :P

Please, no spoilers. We're only onto episode 10 in Australia.

I love it as well. And Cortes is awesome!

Skyland sounds great! I have even watched the trailers and it looks interesting, sadly... it's not in Mexico/Latinoamerica. Like DB and many other shows.... it will take at least 6 months to reach the tv down here. :(

Yes, it does look like a good show. And the motion capture CG animation is cool.

If it's any consolation, dRagOniDe, Skyland isn't showing in the US or Canada at the moment either, so we can all commiserate with each other. :) The official web site for the show displays the Nick Toons logo, so maybe Nickelodeon will start airing it here at some point. I've got my Tivo programmed to automatically record it should it start airing.

Looking forward to seeing it myself (that and Storm Hawks from Nerd Corps).

It has aired/is airing in Canada and the US. But the channel it airs on in the US doesn't seem to have any scheduled times for it. One of the writers was complaining about that in his blog.

It's supposed to be on at 7:30pm weekends in Canada, on Teletoon. The first 13 eps recently finished airing in France, so it's possible it's finished in other countries as well. We just get everything later here in Aus. :P

sorry for the spoilers
for me it airs at 6:30pm and 9:30pm on saturdays and sundays here in canada
the reason for the two different times, is because with my cable i get teletoon east and west, so miss it a 6:30, try to catch it again at 9:30
this show's still awsome
on sunday they're going to be showing a new episode most likely :D



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I guess I missed it then. I get Nick Toons, but I've never seen it listed in the program guide. That's a bummer. I'll have to hope they re-run it soon.

Thanks for the info on the airings in North America! :cookie: