Interview: Brian Oliver (Director of Animation-Kids' WB)

I recently had an opportunity to interview Brian Oliver, who was the director of animation at Kids' WB back in the late 90's and early 2000's. Brian fills us in on many of the details of how the bumpers and promos were made for the network, as well as many of the people he had the opportunity to work with. We also cover "Master Pokemon", a music video that involved a large amount of production work on Brian's part:

What prompted John Cerabino to cosplay as Gary Oak?

At this year's Anime Milwaukee, I had a chance to talk to John Cerabino, also known as "Moderately Okay Cosplay". As turns out, one of his many cosplay outfits was Gary Oak. I asked him why he chose that character, and what went into the costume:

On a side note, we're also looking for comments on the music of the twentieth Pokemon Movie, "I Choose You!". Here's some info on that:

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 15-The Music of "The Rise of Darkrai"/Ultra Prism Prerelease

In the first part of this episode (0:55-1:02:19), Anne from Pikapi Podcast and I share our thoughts on the music of the tenth Pokémon movie, The Rise of Darkrai. In an unusual twist, this film features English songs in both the US and Japanese versions. Listen to our discussion to find out whether Sarah Brightman’s “I Will Be With You” or Kirsten Price’s “I’ll Always Remember You” comes out on top.

The second segment (1:02:28-1:05:13) is a player interview from a recent Pokémon TCG League Challenge and Prerelease. We talk about what deck the player used, and some of the cards from the recently released Ultra Prism set.



Links:

Segment 1:
Pikapi Podcast

Discussion: "The Rise of Darkrai" Ending Themes (Part 1)

The Japanese and English ending themes of the tenth Pokemon movie, "The Rise of Darkrai" go head-to-head in this comparison, featuring Anne from Pikapi Podcast. Sarah Brightman's "I Will Be With You (Where The Lost Ones Go)" and Kirsten Price's "I'll Always Remember You" took rather different routes to become associated with this film, but Anne and I do our best to compare them: