2009 saw a lot of good and entertaining, as well as some really stupid moments in professional wrestling. I decided to do my own wrestling awards dedicated to the best…and worst moments of the 2009 wrestling year. I’ll list the winners as well as a few runners-up for each award.

So without further ranting, the Wrestle Man Awards!

That’s right, March 10th is Mario day (Mar.10, Mario, get it?)!

Why not celebrate by playing your favorite Mario games? Or you can try stomping on some Goombas, throwing some Koopa shells at your friends, riding a dinosaur, flying above the clouds, laying some siege on some airships, traversing space, cleaning goo riddled islands, and encasing your skin in some type of indestructible metal!

… Okay… So maybe playing the games is the more reasonable choice…

Happy Mario Day!

It was such a great year for animation in fact, that for only the second time in history, the Best Animated Feature Oscar contains five nominees (as apposed to the usual three).

And yet, with five nominees for Best Animated Feature in one of the best years of animated features, there is one film that is tragically and shamefully absent from the Oscar race: Ponyo.

And the most simple of questions must be asked: Why?

Why wasn’t Ponyo nominated for Best Animated Feature? For all intents and purposes, it should have.

Ponyo was one of the best reviewed films of 2009 (animated or live-action), along with the likes of Up and The Hurt Locker (it can claim to be better reviewed than at least four of the Animated Feature nominees). Does highly positive critical reception account for nothing?

Or how about legacy? Ponyo is the newest film by Hayao Miyazaki, who is considered the “Japanese Walt Disney” and is probably the only animator who’s name is referred to in the same light as Orsen Welles, Alfred Hitchcock or Akira Kurosawa. Hayao Miyazaki’s influence in filmmaking stretches even beyond the world of animation. Along with the likes of John Lasseter and Pete Doctor, many live-action directors praise Miyazaki’s films as works of art, such as James Cameron and Steven Spielberg (and the aforementioned Akira Kurosawa during his lifetime).

And Ponyo is a more than worthy entry in the director’s unblemished resume.  It combines artistry with a sense of childlike wonderment in a way that it truly is one of so few moving and entertaining film for all ages.

But do the legacy and respect of the film and its director mean nothing to the academy? Surely it should contribute something. The likes of Jimmy Neutron, Monster House and Surfs-Up have been nominated in the Best Animated Feature category in the past, and the vastly overrated Happy Feet even stole the award one year. Are any of these films more deserving of the nomination than an wonderful animated film created by one of the most respected of filmmakers?

What about creativity? Shouldn’t that account for something? Especially when talking about an animated film.

The academy seems to be going nuts over Avatar’s creativity, why is it a different case with Ponyo?  Is it because Avatar has fancy computer graphics at its disposal whilst Ponyo instead opts for the older (prettier) hand-drawn visuals? And with all due respects for James Cameron’s film, Ponyo is a much more meaningful movie than Avatar. And personally, Ponyo captured my imagination in a way Avatar never could.

So why can one creative, visual feast be nominated for Best Picture while another creative wonderland not get a mention as Best Animated Feature? I suppose it would just be more of the academy’s “select seeing.”

And I mentioned the words “traditional” and “hand-drawn.” And I must ask myself, did Ponyo get snubbed because of its more traditional look? Yes, The Princess and the Frog (one of the nominees) is hand-drawn, but it has the Disney name attached to it very strongly. Yes, Disney also distributed Ponyo, but I get an impression that the academy chose Princess and the Frog (wonderful movie by the way) because it fits in with the primary Disney canon, and decided that one traditionally animated film was enough.

It should also be noted that Princess and the Frog did use some CGI, whereas Ponyo is the first 100% hand-drawn film in…well…a very, very long time. That in itself is a statement and an innovation that shouldn’t be so overlooked. In this day and age, where CGI dominates the animation scene (and is over abundant in live-action movies), Ponyo’s mostly forgotten visual style is made all the more beautiful.

Or is it that Disney didn’t campaign hard enough for it? Is it now expected that a film with such a big name as Disney attached to it should have a certain amount of hype and make a certain amount of money in order to be nominated? I would hate to think that’s the reason, but knowing that there’s not a more petty lot of people than the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.

That certainly wasn’t the case back in 2003, when Miyazaki’s Spirited Away won the award (in case you were wondering, that was the other time there were five nominees). A few years later, Howl’s Moving Castle was nominated, but it didn’t win the award (but hey, it was nominated!). But now Miyazaki doesn’t even get a mention? None whatsoever?

Has the academy decided the one Oscar was a good enough token for a Japanese animator? Or have they decided one was good enough because they have Pixar to be the new golden goose of animation (I mean no offense to Pixar whatsoever, they have produced a good number of my all time favorite films, but to hold them in place of Miyazaki instead of alongside him would be tragic).

Ash and Kristofferson search for answers to Ponyo's snubberry.

What ever the reason was, it’s not a good reason. There is never a good reason to take any praise, even a nomination, away from something that truly deserves it (I could write another blog about how Ponyo was robbed of a Best Original Score nomination).

I have seen four of the five films nominated, Up, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Princess and the Frog and Coraline (the fifth, Secret of Kells, has yet to have a more proper release, take that for what it is worth). All of the films nominated are wonderful, Princess and the Frog and Fantastic Mr. Fox are amongst my favorite films of the year. But of the lot, Up is the only one I feel as strongly about as Ponyo, and since both films were released I thought for sure the Best Animated Feature category was going to boil down to those two.

But it was not to be. The academy, always ready for a lackluster performance and always willing to disappoint, has insured that they can even put a damper on the world of animation (which is usually distant from their usual politics and agendas) by snubbing out one of its finest films.

In a year that was so kind to the world of animation, Ponyo was one of the biggest highlights. It’s a shame the academy doesn’t want you to know that.

It’s the 200th post on Slogan Yams!!

That’s right, this is the 200th post on this website blog thingy known as Slogan Yams. Five more posts and I’ll have caught up with Strong Bad and his emails.

This is indeed a cause for celebratory festivities!

So, as a special gift to you fine dozen people who visit this website, I have finally stopped procrastinating and have finally started writing a proper About Page!

For too long the About Page has just read as follows:

“I’m not really sure how we got started with the name slogan yams, but I’ll have the creator of the name fill this information out.”

That vague little excerpt was written by my brother and has remained on the site for the better part of nearly two years.

But I have finally decided to write a proper About Page that is a little more explanatory (though keep in mind, I will add more to it soon, and it is currently something of a prototype version and is kind of short).

So enjoy the About Page!

I also figured I would let you know a few of the things I have in store for the very near future.

I plan on having my Yammie Awards completed soon. But this year I am separating it into different groups. They will probably read like this:

Yammie Awards: Movies

Yammie Awards: Video Games

Yammie Awards: Dubious Movie Awards (for the very worst of 2009)

And I think I will separate the big “best film” award of mine into a top ten countdown. I would like to do a top ten countdown for video games as well, but admittedly, there were a few games I missed out on in 2009, so I may just do a more traditional “Winner and Runners-Up” kind of thing.

I also plan on having those previously mentioned Pro-wrestling awards done very soon as well. I will call them the Wrestle Man Awards.

And for upcoming reviews, expect to see reviews for Shutter Island, Zombieland and Alice in Wonderland (once I see it) really soon as well as game reviews for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (which I have also procrastinated with), Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing, and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Also, I should have a review for MegaMan 10 just as soon as my Wii’s internet connection starts working again and I can download it…

I will also try to do more Smackdown Vs. RAW created story reviews, and I’ll have a rundown/review for Wrestlemania 26 once I see it.

I also have more best/worst lists planned. Among them will be some Disney themed lists like a Top 10 Disney Villains list and a Countdown of the Disney Renaissance films.

And hopefully in not too long, I will have some Best of the Decade lists as well. Most people have already done such things by now, but I figured I would wait until I can confidently decide on my choices. If all goes as planned, I should have Best of the Decade lists for video games, live-action films and animated films (I do not separate the two because I think any less of one of them, but rather just so more films can be acknowledged.

So to anyone out there who actually visits this website, thank you!

That’s 200 posts and counting!

The cake is a lie!

Yep, Scarecrows are still awesome!

With this release, Ponyo becomes the first Miyazaki film ever released on Blu-ray! Disney has recently announced that other Miyazaki films will soon be joining it with future Blu-ray releases.

The Ponyo DVD and Blu-ray have also been released alongside re-releases of three other Miyazaki features: Kiki’s Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro! Every film is in a new special edition that comes with new bonus features and updated picture and sound.

I may even have to write a post about these new bonus features and whatnot. DVD/Blu-ray reviews seem like they could be fun!

Ponyo, Totoro and Kiki are all rated G, while Castle in the Sky is PG (for Indiana Jones-esque action).

Be sure to pick up a copy of these animated classics from Hayao Miyazaki!

Mega Man 10 was released on WiiWare today! And it will be released on Playstaion Network and Xbox Live Arcade later in the month. But truthfully, Mega Man feels most appropriate played on the Wii, given the Blue Bomber’s history on Nintendo consoles, and the fact that holding the Wii remote in the style of an NES controller just gives the game even more of an old school feel. Well, and with Playstation Network you apparently now have the risk of losing everything….

Anyway, just download Mega Man 10!

Hayao Miyazaki’s newest film, Ponyo (which was released in US theaters last August) will be released on special edition DVD, and will be the first Miyazaki film to be released on Blu-ray. And it all comes with an adorable Ponyo plush toy!

And along with Ponyo, three other Miyazaki films will be rereleased on special edition DVD: My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky.

All three of these films have seen previous DVD releases, but the new editions will include better picture and sound, and more bonus features.

All four films will be released Tuesday, March 2nd.

I have seen several commercials for Ponyo on Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network, and I imagine you can catch them on other networks as well.

You can see a few video clips and trailers of the DVDs/Blu-ray on Disney’s movie page and Disney’s video page ( the Kiki’s Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky trailers are the same one’s from their 2003 DVD releases, but I still like them). Disney has also created an entire Studio Ghibli section to their video page (which has been around for a few months, but has been refurbished).

And on top of all the good news, Disney recently announced that they have plans to release all of Miyazaki’s films on Blu-ray in the future!

So whether you are already a fan of Miyazaki’s films or are looking to discover them (or if you just want to see some great animated films), be sure to get them once they are released on this Tuesday, March 2nd!

Ponyo plush!

The real Animal House.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a 2009 stop-motion animated film directed by Wes Anderson, who is known for directing such live-action films as The Royal Tenenbaums. Fantastic Mr. Fox is Wes Anderson’s first forray into animated cinema, but how well does Wes Anderson transition into the medium?

Fantastic Mr. Fox is based on the book by Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, ect.). The story (as you might have guessed) follows Mr. Fox, a former fowl thief starting a new life with his family.

Mr. Fox was once quite the thief, stealing chickens, turkeys, geese, squabs and all other manners of birds. Obviously, being a thief is lowly and dangerous work. And once his wife reveals she is pregnant, he decides to start a new, more respectable life.

A few short years (but a few more fox years) later, and Mr. Fox has become a newspaper columnist, living in a hole (as most foxes do) with his wife and his son Ash. But Mr. Fox wants better for his family, so he decides to move into a tree, despite the warnings of his lawyer (a badger, not a snake as you might imagine) that the tree is located uncomfortably close to the farming facilities of Walter Boggis, Nathan Bunce and Franklin Bean, three of the nastiest farmers around.

Boggis owns a chicken farm, while Bunce farms ducks and geese, and with Bean it’s turkeys and apples (and in tern, cider). Of course, Mr. Fox is lured by all of the wonderful things being housed in the farms around him, and he can’t help but be tempted to revert back to his old days of thievery (with some help from his opossum friend/superintendent Kylie). Though Mr. Fox soon finds that he has bitten off more than he can chew, and the more he gives into his vice, the worse things become for him and everyone he knows.

And along with the already great main plot, there is also a subplot that begins once Mr. Fox’s nephew Kristofferson moves into the Fox famiy’s new tree after his father grows ill. Kristofferson is mild mannered and soft-spoken, but seemingly perfect at everything he does. And everyone, especially Mr. Fox, is wowed by Kristofferson’s natural talents.

That is, everyone except for Ash, who begins to feel neglected by his father and inferior to Kristofferson (though Kristofferson would never intentionally try to hurt Ash). Ash is kind of an awkward kid, he prides himself an athlete but isn’t really good at sports, he doesn’t quite fit in with most people and he has a tendency to don a cape (why those ever went out of style I’ll never know). Suffice to say he thinks of himself as a weird kid, and Kristofferson outshines him in seemingly everything.

Both the main plot and Ash’s sub-story are extremely wonderful and enjoyable, and even a bit poetic. The movie flows nicely and has an interesting structure, in which the film goes by in “chapters” to give it more of a storybook feel.

But I think a huge highlight of the film is its unique sense of humor, which is a lovely combination of dry wit and that ever wonderful wacky British humor (of both I am a fan). Some people might not get the humor of the film, but I found it funny and very refreshing compared to all the pop-culture jokes found in most of today’s animated films, and certainly funnier than the juvenile raunchy humor that floods live-action films.

In fact, a lot of the humor of Fantastic Mr. Fox can be found in the body language of the characters, with all their little quirks and mannerisms, the simple movements of the characters can bring out humorous personalities in the characters.

And the dialog is filled with bountiful amounts of that wonderful dry wit. Humorous little sentences and remarks are thrown around so casually, but with charming execution and genuine wit. It is the simple wit and delivery that makes the film so funny and unique.

Another funny aspect of the characters occurs when their animal traits suddenly start kicking in (for example, Mr. Fox gets in an argument with his lawyer, and they start growling and snarling at each other). The way they suddenly go from more human to more animal was entertaining.

Though I’m not sure if some younger audience will appreciate its sense of humor, of course some will, and some will simply enjoy it for the charming characters and the whimsical look of the film. But for the most part, Fantastic Mr. Fox isn’t particularly geared towards children, that isn’t to say it is inappropriate in any way (all possible swear words are substituted with the word cuss. For example, “what the cuss is going on?!” I also found this funny and refreshing.). But the film  seems to be more aimed at older audiences, though again, I could imagine children still enjoying it.

The film has a star studded voice cast, which includes the likes of George Clooney as Mr. Fox, Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox, and Bill Murray as Badger, among others. But I have to say, a delightful thing about the movie is you forget about the big name actors and just start paying attention and listening to the characters. I forgot all about George Clooney and just enjoyed listening to Mr. Fox.

But I’m afraid I sadly have to admit, the aspect of Fantastic Mr. Fox that was a little bit of a mixed bag for me was the animation. Now don’t get me wrong, it isn’t that the animation is bad, but it just didn’t completely win me over.

The character designs for the animals are wonderful, and as I said before, they animation allows for some humorous body language from the characters, and their fur is just plain fun to look at. But I’m afraid I didn’t care much for the human character designs. Sure, Boggis and Bunce and Bean are supposed to look creepy, but I think the other humans seen in the film look too creepy.

And as much as I love the look of the animals and their movements, I’m afraid their facial expressions don’t always come through. At times they can be really expressive, but other times the animation can look a little choppy, especially when we see close ups of the characters’ faces.

But even still, for the most part I do like the look of the film. I love all the furry animals and the bright, sunny look of the film. And the good overshadows the bad.

All in all, Fantastic Mr. Fox is not only one of the funniest films of 2009, but also one of the all around best. Fantastic Mr. Fox is filled with genuine humor and secretly hides more poetry than you might imagine at first glance. Fantastic Mr. Fox proves to be a great first outing into animation for Wes Anderson.

Fantastic Mr. Fox may very well be…dare I say it….. Fantastic!

*Whistle whistle! Click click!*

No Mike Tyson this time around.

The Wii iteration of Punch-Out is a 2009 video game by Next Level games, and serves as a retro revival for the classic Punch-Out!! series, which was a massive classic on the NES, and even had a big impact on the SNES. But does this revival live up to its predecessors?

Punch-Out!! follows the traditions of the series with young, lightweight boxer Little Mac fighting his way to the top of the boxing scene under the guidance of trainer Doc Louis.

And yes, many of Little Mac’s old rivals return, including the likes of Von Kaiser, Glass Joe, Soda Popinski, Piston Hondo and, of course, King Hippo. And they are joined by some new faces like the Disco Kid.

Each of Little Mac’s opponents have fun and quirky (if not stereotypical) personalities that gives the game a very fun personality of its own.

The gameplay plays very similar to the previous games, and places Little Mac against one of his opponents, and you only use simple controls to throw punches, block and avoid attacks, and use Little Mac’s secret weapon, the star punch!

You can play the game using a Wii remote and nunchuck combo, the Wii balance board or a Wii remote on its side. All of the control methods are fun to use, but I recommend to use the simple Wii remote for a more classic NES feel to the game (which is what the game was shooting for).

All of the controls work solidly and require very little learning curve. Though each opponent has new attacks and attack patterns at their disposal, which start off easy and gradually get more difficult. But figuring out your opponents strengths and weaknesses is fun in itself.

The graphics of the game are bright and fun, and use cel-shading to give the characters a more animated look, which lets the characters’ aforementioned personalities shine even more. I always liked the look of cel-shaded video games, like The Wind Waker and Viewtiful Joe, and I’m always happy to see more games utilize it.

The music of the game is delightful and energetic. It mostly consists of remixed music from the older games, but that’s not exactly a bad thing. It is awesome hearing the old Punch-Out!! themes made anew.

The game also includes voice acting! While I’m not about to say it’s terrific voice acting, I’ll be the first to say it is incredibly fun voice acting! Each character speaks their respective language (Von Kaiser speaks German, for example), and all of them bring out the characters. Yeah, the voices are pretty cheesy and overblown, but it fits the game. I especially like Doc Louis’ words of advise and his constant rantings about chocolate bars.

The game includes a Career Mode, in which you play as Little Mac and rise the ranks until you win all the available championships. This is the “story mode” of the game. After you complete Career Mode, you will unlock Title Defense Mode, a kind of extra hard version of Career Mode where all of the boxers are much tougher. There are even more secret modes for completing Title Defense Mode.

The game also includes Exhibition mode, where you can face any of the opponents you have defeated in Career Mode at any time. Exhibition Mode also includes three different “achievements” with each different Boxer, which gives you something else to shoot for.

And of course you can go head-to head in multiplayer in Head-to-head Mode.

All of the different gameplay modes are fun, but I still think there could have been more, as they all play pretty similarly to their NES and SNES counterparts. I know that the game was going for that retro feel, and it succeeds at it swimmingly, but I just wish there were a bit more to them. For example, I think they could have found more things to do with multiplayer, and I can’t help but feel there could have been a few side games or minigames or the like.

Again, all of the modes are fun, but sometimes it may feel they play it a little safe. Though maybe since this Punch-Out!! was going for a retro revival, a potential sequel can look to further the franchise a little more. I would love to see what they could do by adding a bit more variety of gameplay modes. The gameplay, while obviously based around boxing, could probably find lots of fun things to do with multiplayer and minigames. Think of the different things Wii Sports does with its contained sports for example.

But with that said, Punch-Out!! on the Wii is a very fun game that is swimming in personality and charm. It is a more than welcome, and long overdue revival of a classic gaming series that lives up to the previous entries. I hope we do see a sequel in the near future, and I hope it taps more into the potential of a current generation Punch-Out!! title, but this entry in the series takes you back in time to those good old days of gaming (you know, back when likability was involved).

It may not quite be the “future” of the Punch-Out!! series, but it nonetheless makes the series new again. And who doesn’t like the team of Little Mac and Doc Louis? Who doesn’t want to take the fight to King Hippo? Who wouldn’t want to be the World Video Boxing Association Champion? I mean come on, Glass Joe is just asking to be star punched!

Now let’s go get a chocolate bar!

Super Mario Galaxy 2, the sequel to the much beloved, highly acclaimed 2007 Super Mario Galaxy, will be released on May 23rd in North America, and is currently labelled for a “Summer 2010″ release in other territories.

Metroid: Other M will be released soon afterwards on June 27th in North America, and is also labelled as “Summer 2010″ for other countries of the world.

One has to wonder that with two of Nintendo’s biggest releases coming out so relatively soon, what do they have in store for the usually busy fourth quarter of the year? Could that Zelda Wii title actually meet that promised 2010 release? That would be so cool! And it would be the first time in history a Mario, Metroid and Zelda game have all been released in the same year if that happens. In fact, it would be the first time a primary Mario and Zelda were released the same calender year.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is being developed by Nintendo’s new golden boys, Nintendo EAD Tokyo (who were also responsible for the first Galaxy as well as the underpreciated Donkey Kong: Jumgle Beat and the acclaimed DSiWare gadget FlipNote Studio) with legendary Shigeru Miyamoto at the helm.

Metroid: Other M is the product of the combined forces of Nintendo and Team Ninja.

Again, Galaxy 2 will be released May 27th, and Other M will be released June 27th.

Now I have to wonder when we’ll be hearing anything on that ever elusive Pikmin 3.