Permutation City Blog

The Animatrix was an interesting attempt to expand on the original film but for me most of the animations didn't add much. However one animation stood out from the crowd and, as a software engineer, seemed perfect. In Beyond we visit a haunted house called by a flaw in the matrixes programming. Here the rules break down and those exploring the house are amazed and disturbed by what they find. This animation ignores mysticism so prevalent in the other films and shows, with an nice tale, what a detailed simulation like the matrix might be like on the inside.

While The Simpsons was funny Futurama is funny and geeky. It follows the lives of a bunch of misfits in the year 3000. Any science-fiction cliche you care to mention can be seen and is probably made fun of. Take your pick of favourite characters; they all have great moments. There are so many good episodes the only quick recommendation is to watch them all. The very last episode is one of my favourites; a lovely way to bow out.

This has Godfrey's familiar wobbly animation and is good fun is small doses. Henry's Cat gets up to all sorts of different adventures. Plots often involve copying things off the telly or having strange dreams. Don't worry it'll all be alright in the end with jellybean sandwich for tea. If only I could find the episode with The Fabulous Flying Carrot'.

The first series parodies old schools and colleges shows. All the science is presented in a serious manner but even if it starts sensibly it soon goes off the rails and into the world of the bizarre. It can be slow at times but it's funny, in a strange way, and each episode is very short. The second series parodies Tomorrow's World. This was a great disappointment to me after the first show. It's just not as good... well not even good. The half hour format was too long and the presenters were annoying. While the first series was bizarrely good this just seemed stupid.

Watching the DVD I was disappointed to find that the special subtitles were missing. (A check online later showed me that only the two-disc edition has these.) A dark and gritty film that is worth watching. The uneasy truce that exists between the light and dark forces in the world makes it more than a story between good and evil. For the me the end was more a comma than a full stop which is frustrating when you have to wait for the next film to come out.

Science is often given sparse treatment in popular media with few articles or little detail. New Scientist is all about science and comes out every week which is just right for me. It covers a broad range of topics; if you are interested in science there will always be something to read. Many of these articles are dealing with complex issues but it remains a magazine for an interested amateur.

Invader Zim was a nice surprise from recent years. It's all over the top and filled with cliched science-fiction devices that just aren't quite right. I don't know how far Zim ever gets in taking over the Earth as most of his time seems to be spent battling the kid, Dib.

They have yellow pants. Put your nose bell on. Koo. Koo. A society with the colour differentiation of pants is a society without purpose. It has a slow pace and it takes a while to get use to the strange, very strange, customs. In the end I quite enjoyed it. It's a very different film and that's worth a lot.

This is a magnificent film, one of the best by Gilliam's best, and one of my favourites. It deals with the fantastic life and tales of Baron Munchausen and the siege of an unnamed European city. In a rational world the Baron is not happy and not welcome. We have great performances and wonderfully rich sets. Fact and fiction blend together until nobody knows what is going on. I love the Baron's servants, with their incredible abilities, and the Baron, with his impossible ones.